The Mech Touch

While the states engulfed by the Sand War seethed with excitement and astonishment due to the miraculous performance of the Deliverers, the man responsible for their design remained ignorant.

He only learned about the impact of his latest product when Aisling brought up the topic during dinner one day.

"Your Deliverer design is making quite an impression in the region." She remarked when a couple of floating bots brought away their empty dishes. "Everyone except the Ylvainans are perplexed how they are able to identify the sandman admirals within the huge sandman swarms."

Ves looked up with her and grinned. "It sounds like my Deliverer is delivering on its promises."

"The other states have failed to adopt your new mech. They're forced to knock on the Ylvaine Protectorate's doors in order to borrow the strength of the Eye of Ylvaine!"

"Eye of Ylvaine?"

"That's what the believers call their new branch dedicated to fielding Deliverer mechs. While other Ylvainan forces have begun to field the Deliverer mechs as well, only elite Kronon mech pilots are able to achieve the best results! Those who aren't skilled or devout enough won't be able to arouse or make use of the mystery of your machines."

None of this surprised Ves. He already anticipated this outcome. "I designed the Deliverer to cater exclusively to the Ylvainan people. Other people can forget about gaining the Deliverer's approval. No matter if they are Brighters, Fridaymen or Hexers, so long as the mech pilots don't have any sincerity towards the Ylvainan Faith, my mechs will never embrace them! Their attempts to take advantage of my latest product are doomed from the start!"

"You sound very confident." Aisling replied.

She was surprised by his confidence!

"I know my design the best!" Ves proudly stated.

"Why can't foreigners make full use of the Deliverers? Why are only genuine believers able to make use of their exceptional abilities?"

"Those are trade secrets."

"Miss Gloriana knows, right?"

Ves shrugged. "Maybe."

"Then why aren't you sharing this to me? I'm just as good as Gloriana, if not better!"

"You won't be able to accept my explanation."

"Says who?"

"Says me. Do you believe in anything? You shouldn't. You're a Fridayman. You're the same as a Brighter in this regard!"

"I don't see how that matters. From what I can tell, you don't believe in the Ylvainan Faith. You're not a follower of hexim either! You're just as secular as me, Ves. Clearly faith doesn't have anything to do with the power of the Deliverer design!"

Ves had to admit that Aisling made a reasonable deduction. She was truly right! While anything related to spirituality involved a lot of strange phenomena, none of them depended on any faith!

In his perspective, spirituality was just another part of reality, one which most of humanity had yet to explore.

Though Aisling was obsessed with Ves, she was different from Gloriana. The Fridayman mech designer respected his boundaries and remained fully in control.

Comparing Aisling to Gloriana was like comparing an angel to a hellcat! The two were quite different!

In ordinary cases, Ves much preferred to be in the company of the former. The more he interacted with Aisling, the more he appreciated her soberness and rationality.

The only problem he had with her was that she was too clever in other ways as well. All of her actions and decisions served to achieve a specific result. Ves had the sense that she was used to weaving elaborate webs.

In addition, her confidence bordered on the extreme sometimes. She was so assured that Ves was in the palm of her hand that she practically took his eventual defection for granted! There was no possible way that he could ever resist her charm!

"You'll tell me your secrets one way or another." She modestly grinned at him. "Once you forget about Gloriana, you'll find out that partnering up with me is a great decision! We are made for each other!"

Ves frowned. "I already told you that I'm not attracted to you. I am still committed to Gloriana!"

He spoke from his heart despite how unwise it was to pop Aisling's bubble!

Fortunately, she was way too confident in her plan to take his rejection seriously.

"Poor man." She shook her head in pity. "The Hexers have thoroughly succeeded in mesmerizing you. If you stayed with Gloriana any longer, you would have turned into her puppy!"

"I never asked to be 'rescued', Aisling."

She didn't take him seriously. In her opinion, spending so much time with Gloriana impaired his judgement! He couldn't be trusted to take care of himself! He needed someone sensible and wise to turn him back to normal!

Naturally, Aisling just happened to be the woman willing to rehabilitate him into a normal man!

"Did you have a good time perusing my library?" She asked, changing the subject.

"I have to admit that the textbooks are great. I've learned a lot while reading them, though I don't exactly enjoy handling actual paper books."

He was too used to scrolling seamlessly through text that he couldn't get used to discrete pages.

This was just a minor gripe, though.

"I think it's nice to have something solid in my hands. Projections and virtual reality are too fake for my tastes."

"My biggest complaint about the library is that it's obviously complete. There's a lot of subjects that I'm interested about that are missing."

Aisling shook her head at Ves. "I've already broken some rules by making those books available to you. If not for my Master, I wouldn't have the guts to expose you to core Clarion textbooks. Even then, I only granted you access to the literature accessible to any student at my university. The specialist knowledge that delves deeper in a subject are restricted to those who contribute to the school."

Though she didn't mention it, Ves figured that she was referring to a club similar to the Clifford Society.

Ves still regretted that he no longer had access to the Society or any other club that was comparable in nature. He missed the ability to exchange merits with exclusive goods, services and knowledge.

Fortunately, he still had the System, which offered similar benefits.

"Can I request some extra books?" He tentatively asked. "I'm getting bored with the existing selection."

"Why? I don't believe you've mastered the contents of my books! There is too much material for any Journeyman to comprehend at our age!"

"It's not that. I always learn at least something new whenever I crack open a book. It's just that I'm not very interested in their topics."

"What do you want to study, then?"

"FTL drives."

"Pardon?"

"You heard me. I want to learn more about FTL drives. I'm too bored to study anything else."

With his high Intelligence and prior knowledge, he easily supplemented some of the knowledge he needed to hijack the Scarlet Rose.

Unfortunately, all of the books pertained to either mechs or fundamental science.

"I don't see why you would possibly want to study the workings of a ship component." Aisling frowned. "As a mech designer, I thought you knew better. Studying FTL technology is notoriously difficult! Even to us, it probably takes decades to comprehend the theory as well as a chief engineer! It's not worth it to waste your time on this subject!"

"Ordinarily, you're right, but haven't you paid attention to the recent announcement by the MTA? Phasewater changes everything! With the Red Ocean supplying an abundant amount of exotics, FTL-capable mechs will become a staple in the future! It might take a century or two for this new mode of mechs to become viable in the galactic rim, but we should be ready to exploit it once that happens!"

Essentially, he stated that it wasn't a waste to start studying FTL technology early!

Aisling looked thoughtful at that. While it was far too soon to learn how FTL drives worked, perhaps every ambitious mech designer in the future had to master how they worked!

Otherwise, how could they have the confidence to add a minidrive to their mech designs?

"I'll think about it." She eventually replied. "I still don't think it's a good idea considering that our star sector will be one of the last ones to adopt the minidrive. We can focus on designing plenty of other mechs."

"It will be too late by then. At my age, I'm still mentally flexible enough to handle something that is radically new. I'm afraid I won't be able to switch gears after a few decades. I don't want to start studying FTL theory when I'm already set in my ways."

He didn't make up this phenomenon. It only happened to some mech designers, though. Most of them tended to be older and isolated. Their views hadn't been challenged for a very long time, causing them to solidify their mindsets!

Most mech designers knew that they had to exercise their minds and challenge their assumptions to prevent this outcome. As long as they were receptive to something new, they were capable of adapting to something different!

Eventually, Aisling nodded her head. "If you insist on it so much, I'll find some engineering textbooks and print them out for you. I won't allow you to get muddled by theory that is way too advanced for mech designers like us. I'll select some basic ones at first that are suitable for engineering students."

"That's okay. I've only touched the surface of how an FTL drive works. I'm mostly concerned with building up a good foundation."

He really didn't need anything more, as his goal wasn't to produce an FTL drive from scratch.

He just wanted to understand enough about FTL drives to identify which parts he should pull out to safely shut it off. A basic first-year textbook already sufficed in this role.

Whatever else he managed to learn was extra. He'd be glad if he gained a shallow but undeniable understanding of FTL drives over the next few days, but that was a bit unrealistic.

Once Ves secured this concession, he relaxed a bit as he got what he wanted.

For her part, Aisling became pleased as well for meeting one of his requests. She estimated that Ves would approach her again. Once it became a habit, Ves would slowly form a favorable impression of her. It would only be a matter of time before their relationship grew intimate!

Though Ves was aware of her intentions, he hoped she would never be able to succeed!

If Ves got his way, he could use the knowledge he learned to hijack the Scarlet Rose. Once he gained control over the ship, Aisling would cease to pose a threat to him! He could get rid of her any time he liked! Just the thought of killing her amused him to no end!

Aisling misinterpreted his happy smile. She approached him and lay a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't be afraid to ask if you need anything. While I can't promise anything, I'll do my best to make you comfortable."

Ves brushed off her hand and stood up from his chair. "Dinner is over. I should get back."

Once Aisling left, Patricia escorted him back to his stateroom.

"Lady Curver is very nice."

"So?"

"I don't understand why you keep rejecting her advances."

"I'm a cat person." He said. "Aisling is like a mutt. There's nothing wrong with dogs. I just don't like them. Does that answer your question?"

Patricia grew confused. "Brighters have much more in common with Fridaymen than Hexers. By all rights you should be a dog person."

"I'm not."

"That's because a cat got to you first and turned you into something you are not. You think you are a cat person, but you're really a dog person. You just forgot how dogs are better, that's all."

"Well, I've already spent a considerable amount of time in this doghouse, but I haven't come close to appreciating Aisling's species! Maybe it's time for you Fridaymen to admit that I'm not cut out to be a dog person!"