The Mech Touch

It took Ves quite a bit of time to pull himself away from his latest brainchild.

Unlike many of his radical new ideas, this one was actually viable enough for him to implement in at least one of his upcoming mech design projects!

He even had an urge to put down everything he planned to do in Purgatory so that he could direct his full attention on this new idea.

It took a lot of effort to control his impulses and suppress his desire to tinker with an innovative new design solution. He so badly wanted to return to his design lab at this time, but the promise of making much more lucrative gains deeper inside Purgatory straightened up his thoughts.

"I am getting too caught up on different tangents. I need to keep my enthusiasm under control."

This was not the time and place to research and develop his ideas in-depth. He could do that at any time.

In comparison, it was a lot harder for him to gather inspiration during ordinary times. The fleet had pretty much become home to him and it was difficult for him to get inspired by any novelties that emerged within his clan.

Only a completely different location provided enough of a difference to shock him out of his comfort zone. By immersing himself in a foreign environment, his curiosity became aroused and it became easier for him to develop wild and unconventional ideas.

He resumed his tour of Fort Fishblood in the hopes of gathering additional sources of inspiration.

One of the most notable features of this site was the gate that was originally responsible for exposing the Golden Skull Alliance to the fish-whale race and a brand-new pocket space.

He descended to the ground of the Gate Continent and noted its low gravity.

In truth, the gravity of the asteroid was heavier than expected. Either something funny was going on or a dense metal core was buried in the center of the landmass.

Ves approached the team of scientists studying the various elements of the large space gate.

"Welcome to Fort Fishblood, patriarch. Have you come to take a look at the gate?"

"Yes." Ves said as he stared at the large ring-like construction that was made out of a bone material. "How much progress have you made in deciphering this alien device?"

The figure wearing a hazard suit slumped a bit. "We have not been able to touch its essence, let alone derive any useful gains from our studies. We have spent much of the past few days on exchanging knowledge and bringing each other up to speed on our respective fields of expertise. Even so, our tools and our familiarity with phase whale technology are so inadequate that we do not anticipate making any substantial progress in our studies. The more we examine this alien construct, the more we recognize how out of depth we are. It is both awe-inspiring and discouraging to recognize that the phase whale race has reached this level of biotechnology while the ancestors of humanity were still flinging poo at each other."

That was a rather discouraging realization. When Ves glanced at the other scientists, he recognized that their moods were a little low. This was despite gaining the opportunity to study an amazing alien space gate!

"We will get better." Ves reassured the team leader. "Our clan has grown a lot in the past few years. If we keep up our growth trajectory, we will transition into first-raters eventually. Once we reach this point, we can master all kinds of profound sciences and gain access to much more amazing high technology. Cracking the secrets of this space gate shouldn't be impossible by that time."

The scientist slowly nodded. "I understand, sir. We will readjust ourselves as much as we can. We still want to come away from this with at least a basic understanding of how this space gate works, though."

Ves turned and studied the gate in greater detail. It was constantly active and the shimmering spatial portal still allowed mechs and vehicles to move to vastly different spaces in the blink of an eye.

"How is it powered?"

"We are unable to determine this, sir. We have yet to detect an internal power source. In fact, even if it comes with one, the chances are great that the passage of time has eroded its functioning. As far as we can guess, for this space gate to expend so much energy to keep the current spatial portal active all of the time, it has to receive power from an external source."

"You mean the blue supergiant star?"

"Right, sir. Logically speaking, the phase whale that has created this pocket space must have chosen to anchor it in the Garimel System for a reason. The phase whale's decision to anchor it so close to the massive star is probably due to several reasons."

"Oh? What have you guessed?"

"The most obvious reason to base the pocket space so closely to the star is to set it up to siphon the vast amount of radiation passing through its location. Not only that, the star also released remarkable materials including heavy metal exotics that are rare or unheard of elsewhere. One of the theories that we have developed is that the pocket space's primary purpose is to act as a 'net' that captures a portion of the rare exotics that the blue supergiant star ejects in the form of solar wind on a regular basis."

The team leader wasn't able to provide any hard proof to back up his assertions. Despite this flaw, Ves was quite taken by the logic of these arguments.

Plenty of people wondered why a phase whale or a cannibalistic version of one would bother to invest a huge amount of time and resources to form a pocket space in such a hot and difficult star system.

Given how other observations revealed that the pocket space seemed to have generated a lot of phasewater and other valuable resources over the years might explain why it was located in the Garimel System.

Nothing came for free. Phasewater was an extremely precious resource and was virtually absent in the Milky Way.

If the phase whale race managed to create or capture a renewable source of phasewater, then feeding it with energy and materials was probably a crucial step to generating additional quantities of this valuable substance!

Ves slowly nodded. "Your theories make sense. They're likely true. I think there may be an additional reason why the alien creator chose this site to create a pocket space. The observations that we have made have shown that the pocket space is anchored in a close orbit to the powerful star. Despite this close proximity, the alien creator has applied a filter that blocks out the vast majority of heat, light and other energy rays from cooking the interior of the pocket space. Don't you think that this is contradictory? The phase whale had to invest a lot of time and resources to keep Purgatory cool enough to generate liquid phasewater and allow for life forms such as the fish-whales to survive without excessive adaptations."

The scientists employed by the Larkinson Clan weren't stupid by any means. The man in front of Ves only viewed Purgatory from a specific perspective.

Ves developed a different view of the phase whale enclave. His paranoia and his sense of caution had led him to develop another theory.

"Are you suggesting that the creator of this pocket space was trying to hide it, sir?"

"Yup. At this range from the star, the immense amount of energy radiating from the blue supergiant will practically blind any sensor or scanner pointed in this direction. It is actually a simple but incredibly effective way of hiding a pocket space. Only close examinations might reveal something unusual, but that requires an extreme amount of effort, persistence and technology. It's basically impossible for others to find the coordinates of the pocket space. Combined with the other benefits that you have mentioned, the creator succeeded in killing multiple birds with a single stone!"

This story didn't entirely add up, though. Ves did not mention the strange circumstance on one of the moons orbiting Garimel II.

Why go through such enormous lengths to hide Purgatory from intensive search efforts only to plant an easy backdoor in a more accessible location?

Ves found it difficult to figure out how this circumstance came about!

Had the creator of the pocket space gone crazy?

Had another phase whale come along and set up a prank?

Had a brilliant fish-whale succeeded in escaping from Purgatory by activating an unknown function of the space gate?

The strange circumstances surrounding the resonating exotics and the existence of the Royal Tomb signified that the Larkinsons still possessed an incomplete understanding of this situation.

Ves and the scientist talked a bit more about the space gate. One of the more interesting topics they discussed was the organic nature of the construct.

"We are unable to scan and examine the structure of the space gate as a whole, but what we did manage to study conforms to what humanity has learned about phase whale technology. The structural elements that we have taken a look at are made out of organic materials. More specifically, they are made out of a mixture of purpose-grown organic components combined with bones and other biomatter that are evidently harvested from naturally grown creatures."

The former sounded fairly normal but the latter was a little bit weird. Phase whales possessed such an extensive mastery of biotechnology that they could grow the biomaterials they required at high degrees of consistency.

Resorting to bone and flesh from other creatures was inherently flawed because they were so varied and inconsistent that they made for flawed construction material!

"Do you have an example of a naturally-grown component?" Ves asked.

The scientist gestured at the bony ring that gave the space gate its defining shape. "The most obvious example is the ring structure. After an extensive analysis, we have determined that the exterior and much of its interior consists of natural bones grown from an actual phase whale."

That caused Ves to perk up. "Really? I thought the builder of this device would have resorted to using another source. This is interesting. How solid is the gate? How much damage can it withstand?"

"The gate is nearly indestructible." The man answered. "At the very least, anything we throw at it is unlikely to work. Not only are the materials of this ring structure reinforced to a degree of hardness that is far in excess of their normal states, but if we push too hard, an energy field appears that adds an extra layer of protection."

"Is it the same sort of energy field that is protecting and preserving the giant phase whale skeleton in the Royal Tomb?"

"Correct."

That was an interesting fact. This commonality proved that there was a definite relationship between Purgatory and the Royal Tomb!

After a bit of discussion, Ves learned that it was hopeless to damage, dismantle or displace the gate. Whoever built it implemented so many safety features and precautions that pretty much every manner of tampering had been taken into account!

"At least we don't have to worry about the fish-whales destroying our only exit route that can lead us back to our main reality." Ves quipped.

Before he left the ancient space gate, he tried to examine it with his spiritual senses. This was actually one of the other main reasons why he wanted to enter Purgatory.

With his life domain and his affinity towards organic products, he hoped that he could sense the touch of its creator or stumble upon a spiritual remnant of the source of the bone material.

"Damn."

Unfortunately, Ves did not detect any significant traces of life in the space gate. Whether it was because it was made in a different way or because it had remained dormant for too many years, the powerful and highly-advanced biotechnological construct came across as a dried and empty fossil to his senses!

"Oh well."