The Mech Touch

When Ves announced his intention to lead the first contact team and spearhead the talks with the powerful king fish, everyone around him thought he had gone mad!

The reaction against his proposed role was almost uniformly negative!

To them, it made no sense why a powerful and dignified clan leader had to put himself in extreme danger by venturing inside a dangerous pocket space and initiate contact in person with an intelligent alien creature that possessed the size and firepower of a warship!

Perhaps letting him step forward was excusable in the early days of his career and the Larkinson Clan, but that period in his life had passed a long time ago. He no longer needed to put himself in a highly vulnerable position to get things done.

Ves had his own considerations, though. He did not change his mind despite the immense pushback he received from the likes of Calabast, General Verle, Commander Casella and even Venerable Jannzi!

Only a few individuals did not try to dissuade him from going ahead with this hare-brained scheme.

"I haven't heard you say anything about my intention to talk with the king fish. Do you disapprove as well, Nitaa?"

His tall and stoic bodyguard remained impassive and unreadable in her massive custom combat armor.

"It is not my place to dictate your actions, sir." Her filtered voice said behind her closed helmet. "While I do have an obligation to protect your life and will not hesitate to escort you away from high-risk zones, there must always be a balance between opposing obligations. You may not always make the safest decisions, but you always act with purpose while being aware of the risks you incur. You must bear the ultimate responsibility for your decisions."

She sounded as if she had long accepted the antics that Ves got up to. Her basic response was to throw up her hands and do her best to bail him out if he ended up in a predicament.

Ves smirked.

If Lucky was here, he would probably respond in a blasé manner as well. It was too bad that the gem cat was currently exploring the Gate Continent for valuable minerals and other hidden goodies.

Once he made his decision, he needed to prepare for his upcoming assignment. Speaking to a big alien fish that had never encountered a human before or ventured into a greater galactic society was anything but a straightforward process!

He spent the next few hours consulting with Calabast and Minister Shederin Purnesse on how to develop an accord with such a powerful and bizarre creature.

While they believed that the king fish and the rest of its race were too sheltered and underdeveloped to catch on to many diplomatic traps, Ves did not set out to screw over the Evolvers.

He vastly preferred to establish mutually-beneficial agreements with other parties. Whether they were human or alien, benefits were universal and it was hard for entities to break a deal if they clearly put themselves in a worse position than before!

Of course, not everyone acted in a manner that was beneficial to their interests all the time. Emotions was a major wildcard and Ves could never be certain whether the king fish was rational enough to make sober decisions.

The only way that Ves could know for certain was to head over to the Lab Continent and get in touch with the king fish.

Having interacted with many different entities, Ves had honed his ability to read and understand different life forms. Whether they were exobeasts, design spirits or even weirder existences, he only needed to observe their spiritual state for an instant to get a good glimpse of their personality and emotions.

Only a few entities were capable of hiding their true thoughts and emotions from him. Calabast was highly observant and had long figured out what Ves was capable of. Even without this awareness, her DIVA training had instilled her with drills and mantras that forcibly obfuscated her mental activity.

There was no way an indigenous alien fish-whale would go this far to deceive someone like Ves. Diplomacy in an isolated backwater like Purgatory probably amounted to nothing more than taking breaks between attacks or something!

As Ves was in the process of constructing different spiritual masks that he could don in order to project different personas towards the biggest fish of the Evolution Kingdom, his comm chirped as he received a high-priority call.

"Ves!" Gloriana's projection appeared in front of him. "What do you think you are doing?!"

"Uhmm… preparing to go on an excursion?"

His dearest wife looked as if she was about to explode!

"PREPARING TO DIVE INTO THE JAWS OF A FISH MONSTER, MORE LIKE! Have you put any thought about how tremendously stupid and idiotic you are for even considering this monumental reckless course of action?! You are the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan! Over 200,000 clansmen are looking up to you! What do you think will happen to them if you perish?"

Ves shrugged. "They'll be fine. The clan may rely heavily on me, but there are plenty of talents among us that can take over where I left off. The chief ministers are already presiding over most of the affairs of our clan to begin with. They just need to do their jobs as usual."

"If the fate of your clan doesn't worry you, then what about your family? What about me? I need you, Ves.  We are partners! We promised to support each other's work and reach the rank of Master Mech Designer together. I do not want you to ruin this golden opportunity because you made the wrong gamble at the wrong time!"

"I told you over and over, Gloriana. I don't gamble! I take calculated risks. There's a difference!"

"Your math when it comes to risks is so bad that you probably think it is safe to jump into a black hole!"

"Hey, I'm not that stupid!"

The look she gave him was almost identical to that of Calabast a few hours ago. How come people had so little faith in his risk assessment capabilities?

Gloriana turned around for a moment so that she could lift their cute little daughter in her arms.

"Think about our daughter, Ves." She said in a softer and more pleading tone as she stroked her baby's head. "Think about our unborn child that has just begun to grow in my womb. Do you want to see them grow up with only a single parent like yourself? Tell him what you think, Aurelia. Do you want to see daddy go away forever?"

Their daughter teared up. "Daddy no! Stay!"

Ouch! Gloriana dealt a double whammy towards Ves this time!

Not only did she cynically exploit their baby daughter, she also referenced the void that accompanied his life when his mother died early in his childhood.

Though Ves didn't feel comfortable due to her latest line of attack, he recalled all of the reasons why he wanted to go on this excursion and firmed up his resolve.

He took a deep breath in order to calm his mood. Neither his wife nor his tearful daughter should be allowed to sway his mind.

"Gloriana. Please trust me and let me go through with this. I might not look like it, but I know what I am doing. There are multiple good reasons why I need to head into Purgatory."

"Oh? And what are your reasons?"

"The most obvious one is that I am probably the most suitable to communicate with an unknown alien life form. I can not only overcome the language barrier, but also adjust my behavior and speech to increase the chance of forming a friendship according to my unique observation abilities. No one else can match me in this. I am already familiar with befriending all kinds of weird creatures. This should be no different."

"Venerable Joshua⁠—"

"⁠—is too earnest and honorable to conduct diplomacy." Ves interrupted his wife. "No offense, but Joshua would be a poor negotiator. He won't be able to act according to the best interests of our clan in every situation."

Gloriana did not accept this argument. "Why can't you just let Venerable Joshua approach the king fish by himself but instruct him to follow the instructions of a team of professional diplomats? You can just whisper what you want to say to the king fish while staying behind in Fort Fishblood."

"There are at least two flaws to your argument." Ves shook his head. "First, creating additional chains in communication will make our talks with the king fish a lot more clunky. We would lose the fluency of developing a natural accord between each other. Second, if I tell Venerable Joshua to tell a clear lie or say anything that will damage the Evolvers, will he be able to follow his instructions?"

"He holds a lot of trust in you, Ves."

"That is true, but expert pilots are highly principled soldiers."

Gloriana looked deeply at him. It slowly dawned upon her that there must be more behind his latest decision.

"You're up to something, aren't you? What are you planning, Ves?"

He sighed. "You're right. Aside from helming the talks with the leader of the Evolution Kingdom, I am also aiming to accomplish an additional objective. In our earlier planning session, most people consider gaining access to those giant alien biolabs to be a secondary or optional objective."

"Isn't that the case?"

"Not to me!" Ves heatedly replied. "Do you know how fascinated I became when I watched the footage of the battle between the Swarmers and the Evolvers? You might view it as nothing but a mindless scrap between two groups of aliens, but I am different. To me, this fight can serve as a possible model of how a group of matured growth mechs can defeat a numerically-superior standardized mech force!"

"What?!"

Not just Gloriana, but even their daughter looked befuddled at his answer.

Ves didn't care, though. He became enthralled by the passion he evoked when he saw the battle footage for the first time!

"Don't you see the parallels between the Evolver fish and my living mechs? Those Evolvers stand out from their Swarmer counterparts for possessing sentience and being able to think for themselves! Each of them are clearly valued individuals in their society and earn a lot more respect than what the Swarmers show towards each other. The latter care so little about individuals that they don't hesitate to pounce upon their injured brethren in order to sate their primal urges. That is just like repairing a broken mech by cannibalizing the parts of another mech!"

Gloriana looked completely lost by now. Despite her superior cognitive capabilities, she was unable to wrap her mind around Ves' convoluted logic!

"The king fish or whoever is responsible for augmenting and mutating all of the Evolver fish is a visionary, forward-thinking leader." Ves spoke with genuine admiration. "It takes a lot of guts and imagination to experiment on the same kind. I can feel it, Gloriana. The king fish and I may be kindred spirits. We are both experimenters and innovators looking to create better and stronger products. We are creators who enjoy using the means at our disposal to overcome a challenge by inventing the right solutions!"

"..."

"This is why I need to approach the king fish in person and gain access to those biolabs. My design philosophy is stirring, you know. I am sensing a golden opportunity to progress my cognition of mech design and gain extremely precious inspiration that I can never encounter in normal places. My life is important, but I do not want to spend my entire life cooped up in a safe and secure ship or design lab. I am at my best when I explore new curiosities and this is probably one of the greatest chances for me to evolve my work to a higher level! So no, I will not stay behind and let my clansmen do all of the work. I will go up there and talk face-to-face with the king fish so that we can discuss our respective passions like kindred spirits!"

To say that Gloriana was apoplectic was an understatement. Her body shook with repressed anger and frustration as she tried to figure out the best way to respond to Ves' extreme motivations!

"You do know that you are making way too many assumptions about the king fish, right? How sure are you that this juggernaut in the form of fish will sit down and enthusiastically exchange insights with you? Can you guarantee that this creature will not just open its gigantic maw so that it can swallow you whole?!"

"I'll just see how it goes…"