The Mech Touch

Ves practically collapsed onto a seat once he finally completed William's corrective surgery.

The process had been anything but uneventful!

Though plenty of steps proceeded exactly according to his expectations, the sudden intrusion of Cassandra Breyer and the discovery that he could form a force of will for his test subject in advance came as two massive surprises.

He reflected on his actions and experiences. He grabbed hold of the Larkinson Mandate and used its reassuring spiritual warmth as a source of comfort.

Nyaaa.

The Golden Cat brushed against his hand as if she wanted to make him happy. Though weary, Ves nonetheless channeled a small amount of his Spirituality in his hand in order to scratch the young ancestral spirit's head.

"Hehe. You're too cute."

While Ves came to his senses, Gloriana sat down next him and looked at him in concern.

"I'm not entirely sure what went on just now, but it seems to me that William's treatment didn't go according to plan."

He huffed. "That's putting it lightly."

"You yelled something about 'Cassandra'." His girlfriend studied him carefully. "Do you mind telling me who she is and how she interfered?"

Uh oh.

Did he mention her name out loud? He and his stupidly loose tongue. He did not wish to reveal the existence of the mysterious escape pod and its mummified occupant to his girlfriend!

Though he trusted her to some extent, he did not wish for her to get overly snoopy and investigate the Scarlet Rose in person, thereby drawing the attention of the rest of the Hexers!

Once the Hexers found out that the former Fridayman ship possessed the ability to churn out a continuous amount of Breyer alloy, they would definitely take her away!

"He decided to go for a mix of truth and falsehood.

"Cassandra isn't who you think she is." He said as plainly as possible while he was still recovering from his mental exertion. "She's a powerful but homeless spirituality energy I bumped into when I was still running from the Coalition Reserve Corps. Her real body is a dried, mummified corpse that has been drifting through interstellar space for at least a century. I never wanted anything to do with this ugly witch!"

His disparaging description of Cassandra managed to melt Gloriana's jealousy. She could sense that he was being honest with his disgust towards the spiritual sorceress.

"So if I get this right, a wandering wraith or god has been haunting you since you escape captivity?"

Ves nodded. "That's right. I keep beating this strange witch back, but she keeps harassing me! It's annoying because I don't know a thing about her or why she sought me out in the first place. Whatever her motivations, I'm certain it's bad news!"

"It sounds like Cassandra is a very clear threat to you." She frowned. "Unfortunately, I don't know any methods to repel these kinds of wraiths. How do you plan to deal with this threat?"

"I already have a countermeasure in mind. It will take a lot of time to develop it though. Right now, I'm too busy with other priorities to build up my spiritual defenses."

He tried to be as vague as possible and quickly changed the subject before she inquired any further.

"It's not all that bad. Despite the bumps along the way, I think William has turned out right. Mostly."

"Did you succeed?"

"We'll have to wake him up and determine his new personality to be sure, but from a spiritual perspective, he's better than ever!"

"Oh? Did you manage to resolve the contradiction between the two sides?"

Ves nodded. "That and more. Actually, I found out that I could do even more during the procedure. If I did everything right and my theory pans out, then it's possible that I managed to turn him to expert candidate while I was reconstructing his spirituality!"

It took a brief moment for Gloriana to process his words. She started to look increasingly shocked at him! As far as she knew, a reliable method of producing expert candidates, the precursor to expert pilot, didn't exist!

Not even the Terrans and Rubarthans cracked the code! They poured an endless amount of money and resources to figure out a reliable and practical way to produce expert candidates, but the best answer they came up with was to subject their mech pilots to brutally harsh training programs designed to stimulate as much potential out of them as possible!

Even then, the success rate of those crazy training programs was miniscule!

Naturally, there were rumors that the MTA and certain organizations from the first-rate states managed to discover a method as well, but hardly anyone believed in these conspiracy theories.

In any case, if Ves truly discovered a reliable, practical and repeatable method to transform regular mech pilots into expert candidates, then he would definitely become one of the hottest people in the galaxy!

A brilliant smile bloomed on her face. The more her boyfriend dazzled her, the happier she became! The power he developed was definitely enough to benefit them in many ways as long as they used it wisely!

Ves watched her changing impression with concern. "Don't misunderstand, Gloriana. While it's technically possible for me to turn a normal mech pilot into an expert candidate, for now the price is too much to bear."

"Oh? Do tell."

He gestured towards William's resting body in the testing chamber. "Just like how I create my other spiritual products, I need to kill the mech pilot's spirit before using the pieces to create a new one. Would you ever want that to happen to your brother Brutus or someone else you care about?"

She realized the downsides of this procedure. "Oh. You're right. I would rather keep my friends and family mortal than to kill their nascent divinities in order to birth a new but unfamiliar god!"

"It's not a given that the new William is completely unrelated to the old one." He speculated. "Different from spiritual products that start from scratch, a reconstructed spirit like the one I made for William will merge with his mind and body. The memories, instincts and other impulses stored in his brain will certainly affect William's spirit just as it exerts influence in turn."

"So the old and new will merge together and result in a personality that sits in between, is that right?"

"That's my prevailing theory right now. We'll have to wake up William and see what he is like to be sure."

They waited a couple of hours for William to wake up on his own accord. Ves refused Gloriana's suggestion to wake him up right away because he could sense that the newly-constructed spirit needed some time to sink into William's body.

It was like watching a parasite latch onto William's mind and body. There was something vague foreign and out of sync about William's new spirit.

Due to this incompatibility, the spirit had to slowly ease back into place in order to buy time for both sides to reconcile with each other.

The spirit affected the mind and the mind affected the spirit.

Both of them altered each other as Ves had predicted. However, the spirit of an expert candidate was vastly stronger than William's unevolved mind. This caused William to interpret and process his memories, emotions and motivations in a significantly different light!

Ves observed this transformation taking place in real time. While he wasn't good enough to understand the particulars, he was still able to ascertain that the fit between the different elements increased due to the spirit imposing itself onto the weaker spirit and body!

"Brain activity is increasing. There's a lot going on inside William's head." Gloriana reported as she kept her eye on the active lab console. "I'd say the level of activity is very concerning for someone who is supposed to be unconscious."

"This process shouldn't take much longer. The mating process has almost finished." He said.

Once the differences between the different elements had been narrowed, the changes petered off. Ves saw that William's mind, body and spirit all managed to form a tight, mutually-reinforcing bond!

The main adaptation process should have finished!

While Ves noticed that smaller transformations still took place, he no longer wanted wait.

He needed to wake his test subject so he could ascertain the results himself!

"Wake him up, please."

Gloriana manipulated the console and commanded the testing chamber to inject some chemicals in William's body.

Several indicators signalled that William was rapidly gaining lucidity. He soon opened his eyes and stared blankly at the empty ceiling of the testing chamber.

Five whole minutes passed by in complete silence. Ves and Gloriana waited with baited breath for William to do something.

Though the lab console continued to transmit all kinds of activity, William himself did not move or speak up at all!

"..Is he defective?" Gloriana asked, her puzzlement evident on her pretty face.

"I don't believe so. His new personality ought to be very taciturn. Staying silent is his natural state."

Though William's new personality seemed problematic, so far Ves was not concerned with how much humanity his test subject retained.

Instead, Ves directed an increasing amount of attention on William's nascent force of will!

Initially, it seemed a bit listless and dormant, as if it didn't belong to William.

Only after William's spirit managed to settle in did the force of will become more active. It was as if the unity between mind, body and spirit provided fertile ground for his force of will!

Even then, Ves observed several problematic instances. A force of will was one of the most important expressions of a mech pilot, and it was vitally important that it completely embodied the mech pilot's values and ambitions!

The fact that the force of will that Ves constructed for William failed to integrate completely was a very serious problem.

Fortunately, just like everything else, William's spirit already started to correct for this incompatibility. This time, the process was much slower as the force of will was very difficult to change.

In the end, Ves wasn't sure whether William actually possessed the strength of an expert candidate.

The only way to find out was to stuff William inside a mech!

"Let's enter the chamber and talk to Mr. Urbesh." He suggested. "His mental and spiritual changes have subsided."

Ves and Gloriana entered the testing chamber with their cats in tow. Both of them regarded the restrained mech pilot with wariness. They witnessed the experiment from the side and knew that something was very different about William!

"Miaow?"

"Meow meow."

With Lucky clinging cautiously behind his shoulder, Ves stepped forward until he loomed over his test subject.

"William Urbesh. Do you know who you are?"

The mech pilot directed his steely eyes at Ves. No words escaped from his mouth.

Ves wanted to palm his face. He purposefully aimed to make sure that William remained averse to communication! This also happened to apply to him, so Ves wouldn't necessarily be able to gain anything from William's mouth!

"It's clear he's still Silent William." Gloriana remarked as she hugged Clixie like a baby. "What now?"

"Let's throw him to Dr. Ranya and Dr. Lupo so that they can examine his physical and mental condition. I want to make sure there is nothing wrong with his body and mind. Once we know that Silent William isn't breaking down for whatever reason, I guess we'll stick him into a similar pod next."

If Silent William became a true expert candidate, then he should be able to pilot a virtual mech with ease!

"Sounds good."

They proceeded to emerge from the lab chamber and order some subordinates to bring William Urbesh away. For now, the pair had been busy long enough and weren't in the mood to do anything more. It would take some time for the doctors to complete William's examination.

Whether Ves satisfied the demands of the Rim Guardians remained to be seen. He had a good feeling, though. As long as everyone conveniently ignored William's drastic personality changes, he truly had the grounds to revive the Urbesh Clan now that he 'advanced' to expert candidate!

To Ves, this was a job well done!