At the outer edge of System #100, a giant brass train station floated in the middle of dark space. Behind the station, one hundred golden suns glowed like warm lanterns inside their giant brass Thermostat Jackets, pumping hot water and central heating to two trillion happy citizens.
In front of the station, however, there was no warm sunlight at all.
A vast, roaring river of silver wind stretched across the dark void for thousands of light-years. Beyond that silver river hung the dazzling star clusters of the Orion-Jade Spiral Arm—the inner ring of the Milky Way Galaxy. Millions of bright stars spun slowly in the distance like a sea of crushed diamonds, but between System #100 and the nearest star cluster, the silver space-wind howled like a pack of hungry wolves.
CLANG! CRACK!
A five-hundred-foot iron probe ship that General Tie Zhan had just tossed into the silver wind spun around three times and snapped in half like a dry twig. Within two seconds, the sharp silver gusts scraped the paint off the hull, froze the engine core into an ice cube, and blew the broken iron pieces ten thousand miles sideways.
“Good grief!” General Tie Zhan took a big bite out of a steaming pork bun, wiping grease from his chin as he stared out the station railing. “My Lord, that silver wind out there is sharper than Rank 7 flying swords! It is three whole light-years from our border to the Wind-Howl Star Cluster. Even if we send…
