The Mech Touch

　　Ves originally wanted to make this announcement, but he was currently persona non grata on Davute VII. He had no choice but to attend by remote.

　　His physical projection currently sat in the front seat. At least Minister Shederin and Chief Minister Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson had no problems showing up in person. They would do a fine job hobnobbing with the dignitaries sent by the Larkinson Clan's new trade buddies.

　　"Chairwoman Calsie Doornbos is performing adequately at the moment." Minister Shederin quietly commented to Ves. "What made you choose her over the candidates that I have recommended?"

　　"Calsie and I go back a long way, which you probably already know." Ves whispered back. "I am aware that she might not be the most competent person to wrangle all of these consortium members, but I can always count on her to remain loyal to me. So long as she doesn't screw up, she will always hold my confidence."

　　Chief Minister Raymond had less qualms about Calsie. "I've worked with her in the past when she managed the LMC on the patriarch's behalf. She's a steady if conservative leader. She knows her limits and abides by them. She may not be as effective in dynamic situations, she will not allow our new trade consortium to decline under her watch."

　　"We shall see whether she has what it takes to keep its members happy." Shederin remarked.

　　Meanwhile, Calsie continued her speech.

　　"The Open Consortium of Krakatoa is the first collective of its kind. Its name includes the word 'open' because that is what characterizes this new initiative the most. Our consortium is open, and we mean it. As long as we have space for members, other pioneering organizations may easily enter as long as they agree to our rules and pass our extensive vetting procedures."

　　This sounded as if any random pioneering organization could join the Open Consortium, which wasn't entirely true. Everyone was aware that a brand-new consortium needed to set everything up and get its bearings straight.

　　Once the consortium established a decent foundation, it would be ready to expand, but that might take months or years.

　　Calsie smiled. "Leaving the consortium is also easy. Unlike other groups, we do not insist on keeping members who are unwilling to work together anymore. You do not need to provide any reason to apply to withdraw from the Open Consortium. We shall always stay true to our name and make your departure as frictionless as possible. The only reason that the exit procedure can take months is because a significant amount of time is needed to smoothly wrap up any agreements, transactions, contracts and other entanglements. As soon as we have completed the final bureaucratic procedure, you may leave with our blessing."

　　This was by far the greatest attraction of the Open Consortium of Krakatoa. No one wanted to be bound by contracts that spanned for decades if they could help it. Many pioneers who arrived in the Red Ocean were arrogant people. Each of them harbored great ambitions about rising to the top in their respective fields.

　　The chances that they could succeed were drastically lower if they had to give up their independence and become a vassal to a more powerful influence.

　　No matter what kind of arrangement they made with their patrons, the nature of a relationship between a superior and a vassal meant that the weaker party always ended up surrendering more than initially agreed upon.

　　It was far too easy for the side that held all of the power to make increasingly more excessive demands.

　　Of course, not every alliance exhibited this phenomenon. Yet abuses were frequent enough in the Red Ocean that there was a justifiable fear towards getting taken advantage of. Why settle for 50 percent when you could easily take 100 percent? That was the thought process behind many 'voluntary' mergers and acquisitions.

　　The Open Consortium of Krakatoa offered those who were most worried about this issue a way out of this trap. They finally saw an opportunity to solve their supply problems without exposing themselves to getting exploited.

　　There was just one little complication, though.

　　Once Calsie neared the end of her speech, she unveiled a large, silver tome that was clearly modeled after the Larkinson Mandate.

　　Though it wasn't very original, Ves nonetheless felt it was the right tool for the job. It didn't take much effort from him to craft it with high-quality exotics that his clan extracted from the Titania.

　　He had also infused its pages with ground P-stone particles to strengthen its performance as a totem.

　　"In order to finalize our agreement and prove our commitment to cooperate in good faith with our fellow members, I invite each of you to sign your names in the Open Book. Our patriarch has already made the first move."

　　She opened the large tome to display the page where Ves had used an autopen to sign his name.

　　Everyone stood up and formed a line in order to sign their own names in turn.

　　Chairwoman Calsie, Minister Shederin and Chief Minister Raymond both added their names to the Open Book.

　　After that, the Murphies got their turn since their shipbuilding company permanently possessed 15 percent of the voting rights of the Open Consortium.

　　CEO Gelly Murphy did not look particularly enthused about signing her name at the tome. Even though the contracts had already been signed, taking part in this symbolic ritual just made her surrender all the more painful.

　　When she came close enough to feel the glow emanating from the Open Book, she became even more hesitant about this move.

　　Was she truly doing what was best for her family?

　　"Ahem." Ves' projection softly coughed. "There are many people waiting for their turn."

　　The old woman glared in his direction before she held the autopen and allowed it to flourish a name on a page. "Well played, Larkinsons."

　　"The game we played just happened to be more popular than yours, madame." Ves smiled back.

　　Once Gelly Murphy got out of the way, her two daughters approached the Open Book with considerably greater enthusiasm than their mother. Even its glow didn't deter them from completing their part in this ceremony.

　　Karina Murphy turned to Ves. "I have lived over 6 decades and I am already a mother. I thought my more adventurous days were already over, but you made me feel young again. I was quite taken with your speech the other day. I rediscovered the fire in my heart. I know how precious it is now. Without your reminder, my flames would have gone out. Thank you for helping me keep my dreams alive."

　　Ves responded with a genuine smile this time. "It is my pleasure. As one engineer to another, I understand your plight. I felt it was my duty to unshackle you. Our clan employs a ship designer as well and she has come up with a large amount of unorthodox designs over the years. Admittedly, most of them don't work out, but there are still a few that are actually interesting."

　　"We have already corresponded with each other." Karina revealed. "I would be glad to cooperate with Miss Tsai in realizing her inventive ship designs. I see my younger self in her. Though her qualifications and experience are lacking, her exuberant imagination and her fearlessness is exactly what I need to revive my own passion."

　　This sounded promising! The more the Murphies cooperated with the Larkinsons, the greater the likelihood that Murphy & Sons would stick with the Open Consortium for the long haul!

　　"I fully support your cooperative ventures. We may belong to two separate organizations, but we still share a number of goals. Our new Open Consortium partially exists to encourage internal cooperation. We all need more friends in this difficult region."

　　After Ves finished exchanging with Karina Murphy, her sister Melaia approached him with a question.

　　"Do you believe that starships can be turned into masterworks?"

　　His projection blinked. "That's a bit of an abrupt question. It's possible. There are Star Designers who have successfully managed the feat."

　　"They're mech designers. None of them have ever started working with space-faring vessels. Their heart is probably not truly in it." Melaia contemptuously answered. "Besides, none of their masterwork starships are over a kilometer long."

　　"…Your ambition is to be the first shipbuilder to construct a masterwork capital ship?"

　　"Hehe." The middle-aged woman chuckled. "You don't need to tell me how difficult it is to attain this dream. To be honest, I only kept this goal in mind when I just started out my career. Once I became more familiar with the crushing reality of building good ships, I quickly tempered my ambitions."

　　"What about now?" Ves asked.

　　"You have motivated me to chase after it again. I'm old enough to realize that the odds are far too great that I will never be able to fulfill this goal in my lifetime, but… at least I tried."

　　"Even if you fall short of your goal, you would have moved much further from your starting point than if you stuck to your path as an ordinary ship builder."

　　Melaia firmly nodded. "I agree. I am curious to see how far this new journey will take me. If I ever falter, I hope that the next generations of Murphies can pick up where I left off. As long as we keep working towards the same goal, we'll succeed sooner or later."

　　"I truly hope that you or your descendants will succeed. It will be a marathon, though."

　　"My engine will keep me on the move as long as its fire still keeps burning."

　　Other dignitaries came up to sign their names in the Open Book. They did so with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

　　Much of the hesitation came from their reactions to the Open Book. The special nature of this totem made this symbolic act a lot more meaningful than they expected.

　　This was because Ves graced it with the presence of the Solemn Guardian.

　　Out of all of his design spirits, the Solemn Guardian was the most fitting entity for this particular role.

　　Ves had designed the Open Book in a way that caused everyone who sign their names in it to form a new spiritual connection to the Solemn Guardian.

　　The bond didn't do all that much. The Solemn Guardian exerted a faint influence over it that would hopefully make the signee more honest about working with the Open Consortium.

　　The connection also allowed the Solemn Guardian to exert mental restraint whenever the signee thought about betraying or clearly acting against the interests of the Open Consortium and its members.

　　Though anyone with sufficient will and determination was able to brush past this modest restraint, the Solemn Guardian would at least know that something was amiss as it happened.

　　This would give the Larkinsons and the other members of the Open Consortium advanced warning about any potential problems.

　　This bond was not permanent. Those who left the Open Consortium by following the proper procedures would find that they would no longer be tied to the Solemn Guardian in any way.

　　As for those who did not play by the rules, the Open Consortium actually included a fair amount of punishment clauses in its articles…