[Translation] Defective by Priest

Chapter 7

Silver Fortress, Galaxy One.

The floating doors parted, and Marshal Wolfe and General Secretary Gordon of the Intergalactical Union disembarked one after the other. Gordon courteously held the door for the marshal to exit first. He then bent down and held out his hand to help his wife, Lin Jingshu, disembark.

"Are you still feeling sick?" He asked her gently.

Lin Jingshu nodded, looking pale. To get from the capital planet to the silver fortress, one either had to travel for thirteen days, or travel via hyperspace jump. Since the ancient times, some folks got seasick, some folks got carsick. Ms. Lin's hyperspace-jump-sickness was not a unique problem.

Gordon said, "Why don't you authorize Eden to adjust your balancer."

Lin Jingshu didn't say a word, and silently shook her head.

Ever since the passing of her brother Admiral Lin, Lin Jingshu chose to disable the majority of Eden's features, as he had.

The Eden Network was not built in a day. Initially, its capabilities were limited, allowing people only to control household electronics or to enjoy an immersive virtual reality game.

Over a hundred years, the gradually maturing technology incrementally afforded people more conveniences to help with their daily lives. Accordingly, people gave the software increasing access to their lives, just like the humans on Ancient Earth did while installing phone apps.

The "Neural Network Protection Law" stipulated that every single application in Eden had to completely disclose the risks of privacy leakage to citizens and get explicit consent from its users prior to connection. However, these privacy notices were so detailed that they were often hundreds of thousands of words long, and nobody ever bothered to read them. In any case, the legislation and regulation had been extremely comprehensive since the establishment of Eden, and no scandal of user privacy leaks had ever been heard of.

In today's society, openness, tolerance, candour, and freedom of expression was unquestionably politically correct. With the exception of very few religions who practiced asceticism, Lin Jingheng and his Silver Fleet where the only people who disabled Eden—prior to his death, this was actually one of Admiral Lin's "crimes". Those who attacked him said his furtiveness was an indication that he harbored traitorous intentions. After his death, this became a "contribution". The IU Government especially highlighted in an essay that "to forge an iron army, he led by example in embracing hardship".

For Lin Jingshu to memorialize her brother in this way was akin to going vegetarian. Gordon had no objections, and thoughtfully offered her a shoulder to lean on while she rested. His affections were partially for show at the Silver Fortress, but had a few elements of true feeling in it—no matter what the Secretary General's issues with Admiral Lin, he did have genuine feelings towards Lin Jingshu.

After all, she was truly so beautiful, one could fall in love with a statue in her image.

The Silver Fortress' new general, Admiral Lee, had been respectfully awaiting the Marshall and the Secretary General's family by the road. Two columns of guards stood neatly behind him, young, handsome, with slender waists and long legs. But if one looked closely, it was strangely uncanny. These guards were too uniformly handsome. Aside from the different identification numbers on their uniforms, they looked like they had all hatched from the same egg.

The marshal had a well-trained eye. One look at this procession and his brow furrowed. Admiral Lee explained quietly, "The Silver Fleet is all gone, the others... all of those are from powerful families, stubborn and unruly, and very difficult to discipline. For the safety of Galaxy One, I've transferred over a batch of artificially created humans, you see in this mode..."

The old marshal interrupted him expressionlessly. "Well that's an idea. I'll write to the IU Congress when we're done here and tell them to send an artificial intelligence to preside over the Silver Fortress. We'll have robots directing robots, civilized, painless, and no political infighting too."

Admiral Lin had especially selected a platoon of robot models for the welcoming procession to showcase his creativity. Sadly this made him a target of the marshal's public satire. Blushing red, he scurried forward to lead the way and held his tongue for the rest of the journey.

The group entered the Silver Fortress and directly went underground to the deepest floor. The Marshal opened seven locked gates with his highest degree of military authorization. As the last heavy metal door lifted slowly, a gigantic mech appeared in front of everyone's eyes. It was almost perfect, almost resplendent. It's ice cold mechanical body gleamed, like a sleeping dragon.

General Gordon looked up and sighed in admiration, "So this is 'Zhan Lv'".

"Yes," Admiral Lee subconsciously lowered his voice, as if afraid to wake something up, "After Jingheng... nobody was able to wake up Zhan Lv. It refuses all neural connection, including that of Eden. Zhan Lv is a treasure of humanity and a flagship of the Silver Fortress. We didn't want to destroy it by forcing a connection. But all these years, the Interstellar Pirates have been getting increasingly out of control. The Union needs it, and we have no other resort but to ask Madame Gordon for help."

As Admiral Lee spoke, he bowed towards Ms. Lin: "You are Jingheng's only blood relative, and shares his elite genes. Perhaps you can move Zhan Lv from his slumber."