The Mech Touch

When Ves decided to take up Professor Benedict's invitation to study phasewater, he invited Gloriana and the other mech designers to go along, but they all refused.

"You're wasting your time that could be better spent on completing our mech design projects. Phasewater is a notoriously difficult substance to harness." His wife told him as she hugged and rocked their daughter. "It is dangerous in most states and difficult to harness. Most applications of phasewater involve building entire machines around it. At our current point of development, we are far from ready to build minidrive-equipped mechs, let alone ship-grade warp drives! The only way for us to make practical use of phasewater is if we buy out a research institution or naval development company that already possess the necessary knowhow. Otherwise, it would take at least 20 years and a great sum of money for us to develop this specialty to a competitive level from scratch!"

"...Mama." Aurelia echoed her mother.

Naturally, that made Gloriana inordinately happy! She kissed Aurelia's cute head for the umpteenth time. "Good girl!"

Ves crossed his arms. "You are not thinking broad enough. Phasewater is the future. The Red Ocean revolves around it. Why shouldn't we familiarize ourselves with it early? Besides, just because the known applications of phasewater are too unwieldy and out of reach for us doesn't mean that will stay true for long. Not only are our capabilities improving every day, we may also find our own applications of this substance. If nothing else, it should be easy enough for us to configure a bomb that takes advantage of its volatility."

"Phasebombs are classified as weapons of mass destruction and are highly illegal, Ves. I thought you would know that since you've been trying to cozy up with the MTA as of late."

"Erm. Well… it would be handy to have this option in our pocket. Just in case."

Though Ves made good points, his wife was concerned that he would get sucked into another rabbit hole again. She knew his habits well and understood that Ves easily tended to get obsessed with odd new side projects that completely displaced his original priorities.

His high concentration was a boon whenever he was on the right track, but it could utterly consume him for weeks or months if he directed it towards other research projects!

Ves eventually brushed aside her concerns and left regardless of her complaints.

He and his bodyguards boarded a shuttle and transited over to the Cross Clan's new factory ship.

Ves had observed the Cyclical Engine often enough from a distance. She was hard to miss as she was the only other factory ship in the expeditionary fleet aside from the Spirit of Bentheim.

Compared to his Hexer-built vessel, the Cyclical Engine was noticeably inferior in numerous aspects.

She was a pure civilian vessel that was both slow and lightly-armored. This turned her into a burden that was not quite suited for frontier exploration.

The Cross Clan wouldn't have been able to acquire her on the second-hand market if her value was higher, though. At that point in time, the Crossers managed to secure quite the bargain.

A greater proportion of her budget went into her production facilities, which were quite numerous due to the greater length of her hull. The added space and capacity enabled her production output to surpass that of the Spirit of Bentheim if everything else was equal!

As the Larkinson Clan's shuttle slipped into the hangar bay of the 2.9-kilometer long factory ship, Ves took in the atmosphere among the crew.

The Crossers did not look upset or discontented from the recent battle. Though the material damage was considerable, not a lot of casualties occurred this time.

The only annoying part was that the material damage to the starships was considerable. This was also why the Cyclical Engine had become more active than usual. Her production lines were tasked with repairing or replacing a lot of broken hull plating.

The Hemmington Cross particularly required a lot of attention! The massive fleet carrier was one of the capital ships that bore the brunt of the alien warship fire. If not for her greater size and surface area, she would have incurred more serious damage to her forward compartments and systems.

"Patriarch Larkinson? This way, sir."

Ves and his group followed an attendant as they made their way into the interior of the Cyclical Engine.

Though the ship started off as a second-hand civilian vessel, the Crossers had tried their best to convert her to a more robust vessel.

Much of the interior had been upgraded with stronger alloys and thicker layers. The Crosser engineers had tried their best to reinforce her structural integrity whenever possible without necessitating a turn in a drydock.

Although the constraints of trying to upgrade a capital ship when she was in active service were considerable, the effort might make a difference one day.

Ves still considered his Spirit of Bentheim to be far more superior, though. His own factory ship had been designed and built with added defense and longevity in mind. Her defenses could also be upgraded rather easily due to her semi-modular layout.

The attendant led Ves through a scenic route this time. They passed through a number of interesting areas including a production hall where Ves could take a good look at the production equipment used by the Crossers.

Ves noted that the brand-new machines were considerably more powerful and modern than the ones on his own factory ship.

The Cross Clan had definitely made a substantial investment after entering the Red Ocean! Even though the new equipment were not superfabs, they were still heartland-level models that were considerably faster and more capable than what they used before!

"Impressive."

"Just wait until you see our lab and workshop, sir."

Once they came close to the center of the Cyclical Engine, they passed through a strict security checkpoint before Ves and no one else was able to pass through.

He entered a combination between a lab and workshop that was filled with high-quality machines.

Ves immediately took in the powerful scanners, the advanced experimental tools and the high-quality production line that easily exceeded the specifications of his aging ELKINE production line!

He grew slightly jealous at Professor Benedict's high-class equipment. It was even more expensive than the cheaper superfabs!

Still, once his clan completed the next design round, he might not necessarily be poorer than Professor Benedict. He would buy a big fat superfab once he decided the time was right for him to upgrade his workshop.

Once he finished admiring the equipment, he proceeded forward and found Professor Benedict to be standing behind a lab machine that was examining a quantity of phasewater for impurities.

"Ves." Professor Benedict said in a familiar tone. "You have arrived. Did you bring the phasewater?"

"I did." Ves replied as he raised the egg container that he had recently disarmed. "All 2375 grams of it. How much did we manage to retrieve from the pakklaton evacuation ship's warp drive?"

"Our specialists have managed to recover 1804 grams of pure phasewater from it, but there were clear signs that it used to carry more. The pakklatons have irreversibly expended hundreds of grams in an attempt to supercharge their warp drive."

Ves winced. Those hundreds of grams of phasewater were quite valuable!

"That much?"

"Yes. Just because your Amaranto managed to shut down the warp drive before it could activate does not mean that it could restore what it has used. From what I have observed from the alien warp drive, the emergency shutdown procedure dealt considerable damage to it and prevented it from performing any recovery activities."

This was the price for stalling a warp drive that had been supercharged.

If the pakklatons hadn't stuffed the device with so much extra phasewater, the loss wouldn't have been so exaggerated.

Ves made a quick calculation in his mind. "We've managed to gather 4179 grams of phasewater in total. That means that I am entitled to 1880 grams of it while you get 1463 grams."

"That is so." Professor Benedict nodded in acknowledgement. "These are substantial amounts of phasewater, enough to allow us to perform more daring experiments that may use up any phasewater we employ."

The Golden Skull Alliance had made an agreement about how to divide any profit and plunder from situations like this. The Larkinson Clan was entitled to 45 percent while the Cross Clan made do with 35 percent.

Since the Glory Seekers were smaller and weaker, they could only settle for 20 percent of the gains.

These proportions were based on the contributions that the alliance partners could make. If the Larkinsons underperformed in a battle, then they could only surrender a portion of their benefits to others.

Of course, it went without saying that if the Cross Clan ever gained an ace pilot, it would definitely demand a greater share of plunder!

"What do you plan to do now that I am here?" Ves asked.

"First, we examine all of the phasewater we have obtained and see whether they are tainted. Pass me your container."

Ves carefully handed over the alien egg container to the Senior Mech Designer.

Professor Benedict raised a curious eyebrow while he took a closer look at the alien device.

"This is an impressive container. I wonder what materials the pakklatons have used to be able to isolate the dimensional fluctuations generated by phasewater to such an extent."

"I wonder about that as well." Ves said. "The existence of this container reminds us that the local aliens have been working with phasewater from the beginning. We can learn much from them on how to handle and make use of the exotic."

"That is true, but we should do more than copy other people's homework. If we wish to develop our own uses of phasewater, we must get accustomed to performing our own research. Let us begin with the first step."

The process of examining phasewater was a lot harder than it sounded. The biggest difficulty was that pure phasewater in its rest state naturally produced dimensional fluctuations that could get pretty violent when gathered in greater quantities.

Even when Professor Benedict only took out a single drop, the phasewater already began to distort the surrounding dimensions. These disturbances made it extra difficult to examine the properties of any phasewater samples because all of the readings became distorted.

Fortunately, Professor Benedict had already made the right preparations. The large and modern lab equipment on the Cyclical Engine were all rated to work with phasewater, though only with a small amount at a time.

Ves had to help out and operate another lab machine in order to make better use of their time.

"Why don't you bring any lab assistants over?" He asked. "I have been curious about meeting the Journeymen you have hired."

"You shall meet them later, Ves. As a rule, I generally prefer to conduct my work in private in this space. The Journeymen I have hired are already preoccupied with other tasks and they are not suited to assist with my more personal research projects."

Considering what Professor Benedict had been up to in the past, Ves did not blame him. It also spoke much about the Senior's intentions when he insisted on working alone.

Once they completed their examination of the phasewater they had taken from the pakklaton refugee fleet, they confirmed that they were almost entirely devoid of impurities.

While they both found trace amounts of pollutants inside, the concentration was not significant enough to affect the efficacy of the phasewater in its current state.

"It's quite beautiful." Ves said as he studied one of the containers that Professor Benedict had prepared. "They can bend and knead space just by sitting there. I wonder where they get all of that energy from. Maybe we can turn it into an inexhaustible power source."

"That is hardly the best use of phasewater, Ves. There are far better applications that I can think of. Phasewater is the gate that can make distance irrelevant. We only need to develop the right technology to harness it to its full potential."