The Mech Touch

Gloriana's workspace usually looked impeccable. She abhorred disorganization and always aimed to keep her desk, storage cabinets and other furniture neat and free of clutter.

This description did not match the current appearance of her current environment.

A stack of secure data pads were spread haphazardly over a table.

A few scale models of certain sections of the Disruptor Project were strewn on another table. A few parts had been pulled out of them and left on the side so that Gloriana could modify them and see how the changes affected the design on a physical level.

Gloriana had placed many other tools, knickknacks and messy projections around her. Her need to solve the remaining difficult problems was so great that she didn't even think it was worth it to clean up her items and make everything neat again.

This was the clearest indicator to Ves that his wife had gone too deep into the rabbit hole.

When she didn't react to his initial inquiry, he slowly approached and embraced her from behind.

Gloriana could not possibly ignore such a movement. She drew her mind out of her virtualized mental processing state and flicked her head at her husband.

"Ves. You're in the way."

"I'm trying to stop you from going off a cliff."

"I'm not done yet! The expert mech we've designed up until now might be fine for you, but it is still not as perfect as I wish! Leave me be and let me solve these remaining issues. There has to be a better way to handle them. I don't want to settle for a passing grade. Not with a project that is his important. I know I can obtain a better outcome. I just need to learn the right knowledge or develop a new method!"

Ves breathed deeply, taking in her fading perfume. She had been working for so long today that her flowery scent no longer intoxicated him that much.

That was a shame, because he always enjoyed being around her when she delighted all of his senses.

"Gloriana, you're the project leader now. You can't just ignore everything including your own tight work schedule in order to indulge in your current obsession. Your responsibility is to deliver a powerful new product to the Larkinson Clan in a reasonable timeframe. At the start of this round of mech design projects, we aimed to complete the Disruptor Project quickly. Why are you deviating from your overall strategy?"

"We can't stop at this moment. I can't stop. There is still much that we can improve. The theoretical performance of the Disruptor Project hasn't reached its limit yet. We can still do more." She whispered.

This was the troublesome part about working with perfectionists. Mech designers like Gloriana paid too little attention to the good points of a mech design far more attention to its flaws and shortcomings.

What he needed to do was to correct and ground her perspective.

"Honey, take a step back and look at our mech design from a holistic perspective. If you no longer zoom into the details, perhaps you'll realize our expert mech design is already a great feat of mech engineering."

Ves manipulated the main projection so that it no longer offered a detailed look at the waist section where his wife sought to tinker with a mechanical transmission system. Once he zoomed the view to show the appearance of the mech as a whole, he gazed at it with a smile.

"Do you see how powerful it looks? How elusive it feels? How difficult would it be for enemy mechs to target it in battle? All of this is a result of pouring several months worth of love, passion and urgency into its design. Perhaps the design doesn't come close to its absolute optimal state, but the only individuals who can attain this theoretical state are Star Designers. No matter how good you think you are, you are far from reaching that level."

A sense of unwillingness radiated from Gloriana. Her fists clenched as her strong confidence in her own design ability began to strain.

"Be realistic. You're just a Journeyman now. We aren't even qualified to design expert mechs independently. Master Willix did all of the heavy lifting on integrating the resonating exotics into the mech design, installing a specialized neural interface that is customized for Venerable Tusa, expanding the programming in order to enable the activation of resonating abilities and more. If she wanted to, she could have fixed or optimized all of the areas which could be improved in her eyes, but she didn't. Do you know why?"

Gloriana frowned. "Why?"

"Because we are still on a learning journey. We are nowhere close to reaching our ambitions. Our best work is still ahead of us, so don't be impatient and try to reach for the sky when you can only jump a meter off the ground. What we can do is work hard to improve ourselves so that we can jump a little higher. No matter how much progress we make, as long as we keep breaking our personal record, we will be one step closer to attaining our goal."

His wife leaned back against his chest. Her hair nestled against his neck and clean-shaven cheek.

She let out a tired sigh.

"I'm not satisfied with my gradual progress. I have improved a lot in recent years as I became exposed to more wonders. I've been breaking my limits so often that I am not satisfied with accepting my current ones. I know I can break them. I just have to find the right approach."

Ves frowned for a moment. "You can do that, but you don't necessarily have to do so now. No matter what kind of meaning you ascribe to the Disruptor Project, in the end it is just a product. The Larkinson Clan needs to get its hands on an expert mech quickly. It is one of our greatest shortcomings and the lack of any strong machine that we can pair with our impatient expert pilots has long been one of our sore points."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Remember our creed. We exist to serve mech pilots. The moment we step out of the confines of this principle, we no longer practice the true meaning of mech design. Our job is not only to design the most appropriate mech within our ability, but to deliver our work to our client in a reasonable timeframe. There is always an expectation on the delivery time of a mech. We are service providers, Gloriana. Our place in society is to meet the needs of others, not ourselves. What you are currently doing is pure self-indulgence. Have you asked the clan and Venerable Tusa whether they even care about the work you are doing at the moment?"

"..."

"Though so." Ves stopped embracing his wife from behind and straightened his back. He moved over to the desk and leaned against it in order to face Gloriana properly. "I don't want to be the adult in the room, but you really need to set your priorities straight. To you, the perfect expert mech is one without flaws, but you are not the one who sets the requirements. The client does. Right now, our clan would rather have a functional expert mech now than a minutely better expert mech months later. We can't wait that long. We are about to enter a port system where we have to conduct a lot of transactions. If our clan can show off a powerful expert mech, then that will add to our prestige and allow us to conduct more favorable transactions."

The value of an expert mech did not merely lie on the battlefield. They were impressive machines regardless of their combat applications and any private organization that was able to field one would doubtlessly become a lot more notable.

In fact, this was the main reason why the Cross Clan remained strong after its drastic flight. The symbolic and inspirational value of Patriarch Reginald Cross and his Bolvar Rage was so great that it single-handedly propped up the clan in its darkest days.

Gloriana's eyes grew turbulent. Her thoughts became frazzled as competing demands warred within her mind.

She fully understood his arguments and agreed with them. However, that did not solve the contradiction between the purpose as a mech designer and her personal desires and ambitions.

In her mind, designing the perfect mech was a far better way to serve her clients than delivering a lower-quality product. This was the area she excelled in and the advantage which she wanted to become known for. Anyone looking to obtain the best and most flawless mech designs should think of her before other mech designers!

How could she do that if she kept settling for compromised designs?

When Ves saw that Gloriana still wasn't willing to let go, he became quite frustrated. He always had a hard time convincing his wife to bring a project to completion, but this time was worse because an expert mech design project that she was personally leading.

The amount of emotional investment she put into this project was far more than their prior projects! It would be a surprise if she hadn't become so attached to the expert mech design that she essentially treated as her own child.

Yet all good things must come to an end.

"Gloriana?"

"Yes, Ves?"

"I don't think the perfect vessel for Tusa has to be a machine that is devoid of flaws. As long as it is able to serve him well at his current state, our work already does the job it is supposed to do. That matters the most. A mech that takes too long to complete might be a bit more sound from a technical perspective, but the opportunities that Tusa and our clan has missed because of its late delivery means that the outcome is anything but perfect."

She widened her eyes. She hadn't really viewed the circumstances in this light. His goal-oriented perspective gave her a fresh look at her current preoccupation.

Ves knew that he was finally making progress.

"Will Tusa care whether our mech design is 0.1 percent less efficient or that its heat sinks heat up 0.5 percent faster than they ought to? I don't think so. Even if we deliver an expert mech with clear flaws, as long as they don't lower Tusa's performance, it can still be a perfect vessel for him. Every mech comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. Just because our work retains the latter doesn't mean we are doing anything wrong. Mechs and mech pilots are two halves of a single whole. When the two are put together, the resulting combination will absolutely exceed any trivial problem that we have ascertained!"

This was when the true magic happened. An expert mech might be impressive on its own, but it was nothing until it was put to use by its intended expert pilot.

Gloriana eventually slumped in her chair. "You're right. I've been tunnel-visioning on perfecting our work so much that I lost sight of our main objectives. I've always been a mech designer who prides myself on giving my clients what they want. I've been doing Venerable Tusa a disservice by disregarding his own needs."

"I'm glad you've realized it now." Ves smiled. "Besides, the development of an expert mech never ends once we fabricate the mech according to the current iteration of the design. We can continually tweak and update the expert mech over time as the situation continues to develop. In my eyes, the 'perfect' mech for Venerable Tusa is one that can grow with him over time. Neither of them have reached their strongest point. They still have an entire journey ahead of them. Do you understand?"

Gloriana became more thoughtful as she contemplated his alternative perspectives. A couple of vague insights settled in her mind as her stance on certain matters had shifted.

"Fine." She slowly said. "I will finalize the Disruptor Project. As soon as we complete our final checks, we… can move on to fabricating the actual expert mech."

She had finally made the right choice.