The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5707 The New Guests

Solus Gas merited a lot of investigation, but it took time to organize a decent expedition to the Reticula Corein System where it had been discovered.

After Ves passed on his instructions, he let this matter be and directed his attention towards other affairs.

There was not much point in formulating his mech concept and coming up with a draft design when he was not sure what sort of support mech he could make. Everything depended on the properties of Solus Gas that routinely spurted out of the surface of Reticula Corein V before sinking back down in the ground again.

The only instance that gave him pause was the strong urge to investigate the planet. He even felt tempted to take a trip to the Torald Middle Zone himself in order to conduct a first-hand investigation!

That was crazy of course. Ves had become a high-value target to any cosmopolitan or other assassin who wanted to get into the good books of the Red Cabal.

His latest bestsellers had also disrupted the market for both second-class drone mechs and second-class heavy artillery mechs. The competitors who used to be able to earn a lot of profits by selling their own equivalent products definitely had reasons to resent the latest upstart!

With more and more rumors circulating throughout the mech community of his intentions to 'disrupt' the market for other mech categories, a lot of established mech designers did not look forward to the works that Ves sought to bring to market in the following years!

As much as he wanted to examine the circumstances of the planet in person, it was best not to do anything foolish and leave this matter to the professionals.

"I really want to take a look in person, though."

It was not enough for him to witness events unfolding by watching a live feed. Not only was the connection unable to give him a full impression of the mysterious environment that produced the exotic green gas, but it was also a highly insecure means of remote communication and observation.

Ves had other options, but he needed to think about it. The best alternative would be to send out one of his incarnations and have him take a look on his behalf.

Perhaps Vulcan could fulfill this role. He just needed to extend his presence on site with a suitably powerful totem.

In any case, work on his mech designs continued. He invested special care and attention on making the new Journeymen in the Design Department become more involved and invested in his design projects.

Though Gloriana already did a good job in actively managing and supervising all of the 25 Journeymen that had joined up in Bortele, they ultimately answered to Ves.

At least that was supposed to be the case.

Ves also had to allocate a bit of time on accommodating the Vulcanite Novice Mech Designers that the dwarves had carefully selected and sent to the New Constantinople System.

Back when they arrived a few months ago, they instantly changed the intimate atmosphere of the Design Department.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Gloriana pulled her husband aside and hissed in his ear. "You told me earlier that you have made some sort of agreement with the Eternal Vulcan Empire to teach their Novices how to design a living mech, but must you insist on bringing them to our work place?"

"What's wrong with that? They need to get a real feel on how we design living mechs. We can't do that if we stuff them in a dark and isolated hole. Don't worry, honey. I have already prepared an adjacent design lab where they can do most of their work. Aside from that, I have granted them access to the common rooms, but they won't be able to enter into any of the chambers where we design our more sensitive and classified mechs such as the Dark Zephyr Mark III."

"That hardly makes this any better! There are still many security risks just by having them able to talk to our Larkinson mech designers in the common areas!"

Ves placed his hand on her shoulder. "Just bear it, Gloriana. It is for a good cause. You don't even need to pay attention to them yourself. I will be in charge of them while they remain guests at our Premier Branch. As long as we can tolerate their presence for 3 or so years, the Eternal Vulcan Empire will reward us by transferring one of their fairly modern first-class fleet carriers to us. This is an insanely profitable deal for our clan, so I would appreciate it if you don't do anything that will spoil this arrangement."

Though Gloriana looked anything but pleased at having these odd dwarves work in the same facility as herself, she understood how important it was for the Larkinson Clan to build up a fleet of first-class warships.

"Fine. You can do what you want with the dwarves, but you will be responsible for their conduct. Do not allow their anti-human cultural sensitivities affect the morale and productivity of our lead and assistant mech designers."

"I don't think you need to be worried about that. The Vulcanites aren't stupid enough to send rabid tall folk haters to us. If I am wrong, then I will make sure to set any dwarf straight. They are under my control now that they have arrived in Diandi Base."

A few minutes later, Ves left Gloriana's side and approached the batch of young but remarkably composed dwarves standing in a neat row.

The dwarves most definitely received a lot of training on how to comport themselves outside of Vulcan space. They may have originally grown up in an environment where tall folk were clearly dominant, which meant that these foreign exchange workers were not the same as their more isolated and segregated brothers.

That was good news.

"Good day, ladies and gentlemen. I hope the journey to this star system has been comfortable to you. Each of you knows who I am and what I do, so I will skip the redundant introduction. Let me ask you a question. Do you know why you are here? What is your mission?"

The row of dwarves who were clearly at least a full head shorter than Ves answered in unison!

"To master the art of living mech design and learn from your example!"

Ves twitched his lips.

"I admire your enthusiasm, but don't be so stiff. This is not a military camp. If you truly want to learn how to design living mechs, then you will need to loosen up and embrace the facets of life. You must freely channel your emotions and earnestly aspire to turn a lifeless object into an intrinsically alive machine. The greater your love, empathy and passion, the faster you will succeed. I have a direct disciple in my ranks who is on the verge of breaking through as a Journeyman with a design philosophy that is nearly identical to mine. You can approach her and ask for tips from a student's perspective in order to smoothen your journey."

One of the male dwarves with a short black beard raised his arm. "Professor Larkinson, how many students have received lessons in living mech design?"

"Hundreds. Many of them are Terran mech design students who have enrolled in the Eden Institute of Business & Technology. While I have increased the class size by a lot, I have still put a limit on how many students I am willing to teach in a single semester. I like to believe that the school administration has done its best to select the most qualified and eager students to learn from my craft."

"How many of those students have gone on to design a living mech?"

"I don't know the exact figures. I can only confirm that one of them has successfully proven the capability to design a living mech, and she happens to be my teaching assistant and direct disciple." Ves honestly replied. "I have lost track of most Terran students who have passed my introductory course. They still have to complete many other courses before they can finally graduate. Even then, they may not have the opportunity to independently design a true living mech when they enter the workplace for the first time. It is possible that a few of my former students have entered a secret research institution where they have already designed a rudimentary living mech, but I won't know about it unless the responsible party is willing to unveil it to the public."

Ves was not too concerned about this. He already expected that most of his students would experience a lot of difficulties unless they truly threw their heart in soul into living mech design.

Not every had the special background and motivation that drove Alexa Streon to pursue living mech design at all cost.

Most of the Terran students had already committed to a clan or a mech company. Much of their study and work careers had already been mapped in advance by their parents or superiors. Learning a single unusual subject was not a reason to throw all of that planning overboard.

"I won't lie to you." Ves told the 10 dwarves. "Learning how to design living mechs is difficult, but not in an academic way. It is a Class IX Design Philosophy that requires you to undergo a large shift in attitude towards mechs. You absolutely cannot regard them as lifeless commodities. You need to treat each of them as alive or with the potential to come alive. I actually think that a third-class mech designer has a better chance of learning my craft. Do you know why? They don't know as much about science and technology as you guys, so they are much more open-minded and free from existing constraints."

"Does that mean that there is no guarantee we will be able to learn your craft, professor?"

"Who knows?" Ves shrugged. "There are certain tricks and shortcuts that I can employ in order to forcibly boost your comprehension of living mechs, but it is questionable whether you can go much further in this field if you make use of them. I would much rather have you work earnestly towards understanding my design philosophy. Only by organically changing your mindset and appreciating the wonder of living mechs will you have the possibility of advancing to Journeyman, Master and maybe even further."

He carefully observed the dwarves as he detailed how difficult it was to meet their goal. He wanted to take their measure and determine how they reacted to adversity.

Fortunately, the Vulcanites had indeed done a good job at selecting their candidates. Most of the gathered Novice Mech Designers looked eager to tackle this challenge and work hard to overcome it. None of them showed signs of giving up, though Ves was not sure whether they would be able to maintain their persistence a year or two later.

Ves would just have to deal with that problem if it became serious enough.

For now, he wanted the Novices to be helpful and compliant.

"This is going to be a marathon instead of a sprint. You should start working here with the mindset of investing in your own future. You won't be able to earn a payoff immediately, but as long as you work hard enough, I will do my best to lead you across the finish line. For now, I want to assess each of you on an individual basis so I know what you are capable of. Do note that most of our projects are currently based on second-class mechs. We will not be designing any first-class mechs until much later, so make sure you adjust your methods and make sure you are up to date on the standards of second-

class mechs."

Ves probably needed to spend a bit more time on instructing the new batch of dwarven recruits to make sure they could do their jobs properly.

This was not an appealing chore, but it would be worth it in the end. These Novices were the best of what the Eternal Vulcan Empire was able to offer.

As genuine first-class mech designers, their productivity should be almost as high as that Alexa Streon at the start. This meant that once they settled into the Design Department, every commercial mech design project would probably speed up their progress by leaps and bounds!