CLANG-SCREEEEECH!
Sparks fifty feet long sprayed out from under the heavy star-iron wheels of the lead Spirit-Furnace Star-Train as it slammed on its emergency brakes right in the middle of deep space.
Inside the command car, a clay pot of freshly brewed jasmine tea slid all the way across the polished oak table. Pei Xuan reached out two fingers without even looking down, caught the teapot half an inch before it went over the edge, and poured himself a warm cup without spilling a single drop.
“Who left a pile of scrap iron on my highway?” Pei Xuan asked, taking a slow sip of tea and frowning slightly.
At the front window of the locomotive, Ye Guhan—the proud Rank 8 Early Sword Sovereign who still wore a blue Dry-Well railway conductor cap squarely on his head—lowered his heavy black iron broadsword and pointed through the reinforced crystal windshield.
“Lord Pei, it is not just one pile,” Ye Guhan said, his sharp eyebrows twitching. “It is the entire star sector. Look ahead.”
Pei Xuan set his teacup down, stood up from his armchair, and walked to the wide front window of the locomotive.
Behind them, the ten solar systems of the Frost-Rim Sector were glowing like ten warm golden lanterns in the dark cosmos. Over the past two weeks, every single sun in Systems 1 through 10 had been wrapped in a brass Solar Jacket & Thermostat Array, piping cozy seventy-two-degree heat and rich mutton-soup steam to eighty thriving planets. With…
