BATTLE FOR STARS

Belina wasn’t particularly tall—by Earth standards, about 1.65 meters.

She had a pair of large, expressive eyes that seemed almost alive, long and slender eyebrows, a slightly rounded oval face, a small yet delicately defined nose, and shoulder-length hair. Altogether, she radiated both beauty and vitality. During her time at a university on Earth, she had been known as the “campus beauty.”

Earth—designated by them as Planet 1573—had only been a graduation trip for her. Of course, there were also reasons for this journey that Belina preferred not to let others know.

At this moment, she was sitting in the lounge area with two friends she had made on Earth, Ding Yufei and Liang Jinsong, watching their fleet approach Boman Planet. Beside her sat a girl in military uniform—her cousin Claudia, who had once been Liang Jinsong’s first love, Yang Xi. Both girls, in one way or another, had connections to Earth.

(For the story of Ding Yufei and Belina, see the prequel Days Growing Up on Earth,. A brief note: reading it is not necessary to understand this novel.

As a “private garden” directly under the royal family of the Kramic Kingdom, Earth occasionally received special visitors. Belina had secretly visited Earth as a child. During a traffic accident, Ding Yufei had “saved” her, but he was gravely injured in the process. To save him, the six- or seven-year-old Belina implanted a “seed” into his brain.

Years later, Belina returned to Earth under the alias Zhou Weiyang and spent several happy years with Ding Yufei. Upon graduation, she invited Ding Yufei and his friend Liang Jinsong to visit outer space, and both readily agreed.)

“It’s fine. I never expected this matter to go smoothly anyway,” Belina said.

“Wow, why are there so many little domes on this planet?” Ding Yufei stood up as Boman Planet drew closer.

“Those are protective shields. The planet is too close to its star, so they were installed to reduce radiation. Originally, each shield marked the territory of a slave owner. Of course, over the years, their territories have become mixed together,” Claudia explained. “They may look small, but even the smallest one has a diameter of several hundred kilometers.”

“If civilization is this advanced, with interstellar travel and all, why do slaves still exist?” Ding Yufei asked. In his textbooks, slave societies were long obsolete.

“Because there’s demand,” Princess Belina replied. “Just like on Earth—when there’s not enough pork, you raise more pigs; when there’s not enough fish, you farm more fish. Here, when there aren’t enough people, you ‘produce’ more people.”

“People can be produced?”

“Yes. Large-scale reproduction is done in artificial incubation chambers. Back when expanding into uncharted star regions, many planets needed manpower. When their own populations weren’t enough, they bought people from elsewhere. That’s how this industry emerged.”

“Treating people as goods to be bought and sold… that’s just inhumane.”

“The Resk Empire invested enormous resources to raise batch after batch of slaves. Do you think they would just give them away for free? Or care about humanitarian concerns?” Claudia countered.

Ding Yufei sighed.

“If you already have advanced AI and all kinds of robots, why still… produce humans? After all, raising a person must be expensive.”

Claudia chuckled. “Because of the complexities of interstellar expansion. No matter how advanced robots are, they still require human command and supervision. Many tasks need human involvement. And there’s something else you might not realize—sometimes, humans are cheaper than machines.”

“What?!” Liang Jinsong was stunned. He had never considered that possibility.

“However, in our Kramic Kingdom, slave trading is prohibited,” Princess Belina added. “Though many of our citizens still buy slaves in Resk and bring them back.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” Ding Yufei asked.

“Not really. The transaction doesn’t happen within our territory. Once purchased in the Resk Empire, those slaves become private property.”

“This…”

“In fact, not just our kingdom—almost every planet has slaves, just in varying numbers. Laws in most countries don’t allow people to freely harm or control others, but slaves are different. And besides, Resk is our ally. We can’t simply deny the existence of slavery,” Claudia explained.

Ding Yufei and Liang Jinsong exchanged glances but said nothing. It was their first encounter with extraterrestrial civilization, and they were still processing everything.

As they spoke, a massive ring-shaped aerial fortress appeared ahead of the fleet. A moment later, the image of an officer appeared on the wall beside them.

“Report, Your Highness. We are approaching the spaceport. The other side has arranged docking positions. They are asking whether we will land immediately,” the officer reported.

“Where is Lieutenant General Frederick?” Belina asked.

“Just received a message from him. He’s been delayed by something and will arrive in a few days. He requests that Your Highness rest here in the meantime. All expenses will be covered by the Resk Empire.”

“Haha…” Belina let out a dry laugh. She hadn’t expected the general to break his appointment. Faced with such “hospitality,” she didn’t quite know how to refuse.

She quickly adjusted her mood. Since the general wouldn’t meet them, they might as well stay a few days. She was curious to see just how long he intended to stall. With a smile, she issued new orders.

“Then proceed with landing. Inform all personnel—those not on duty are free to go down and have some fun. Since we’re on an entertainment planet and the general is hosting, everyone should relax a bit. But remind them to take it easy—many activities here are self-paid. The general certainly won’t be covering those.”

“Yes, ma’am!” The officer saluted and ended the transmission.

After giving her orders, Belina turned to Claudia. “Cousin, I’ve never been here before. You have to show me around properly.”

Claudia looked at her cousin helplessly. She really didn’t act like a military leader at all. Even if this was her private fleet, she could at least maintain some authority in front of her subordinates. It seemed the princess had truly let loose during her years on Earth.

“Alright,” Claudia replied, though she didn’t object to Belina’s orders.

After all, the fleet carried far more personnel than usual. They had brought so many people in anticipation of retrieving those two thousand starships.

Now, it seemed that task wouldn’t be completed anytime soon. Letting everyone disembark for some leisure was far better than having them cooped up on the ships.