A year flew by.
Nothing major happened in the Interstellar Human Military Junta that year, and Xi Yan turned twenty-three with little to occupy him.
He had never celebrated a birthday since arriving here. His only companions were the unfailingly loyal Beta, the empire's machinery that never stopped turning, and endless work.
Honestly, he had grown used to it all. His busy life brought an extraordinary calm, and Xi Yan felt as though his human emotions were steadily disappearing, replaced by the cool rationality of a machine intelligence.
Oh, right. The Academy of Sciences still hadn't developed Robot Workers Technology. A bunch of useless idiots.
Ever since Mardun had thumped his chest a few years ago and promised they would have it ready soon, Xi Yan had made snide remarks at their expense every time he visited the Academy of Sciences.
Of course, he hadn't cut any of their benefits or bonuses, because the scientists had at least developed some fairly useful civilian technologies.
Meanwhile, the M'tok Union across the border hadn't made any major moves either, though his agents had sent back an intelligence report partway through the year.
Xi Yan immediately dropped his work and began reading.
The report was extremely detailed, running to hundreds of thousands of words.
Clark Lee truly deserved his reputation as the ace agent of [Ashes]. In a short time, he had infiltrated the M'tok Union's local power structure.
The process had been somewhat humiliating, but at least he had gotten in. Using the funds Xi Yan had provided, he had become a minor leader in a local security fleet.
He generally wrote a diary entry every few days, recording everything he saw and heard there in full detail, along with some insights of his own.
This was no diary. It was plainly