The Mech Touch

When Ves spoke to the Everchanger, he did not know whether he was dealing with an outlier or a herald of an emerging trend.

Was the Everchanger one of many living mechs that were no longer satisfied with their basic and barebones treatment?

This matter would have been a lot simpler if this was the case. Ves could give the Everchanger enough accommodations to keep it happy but limit the extent of the privileges that other living mechs received.

After all, it was better to keep those mechs undistracted and focused on the job. Ves did not want to end up in a situation where he had to account for the needs of both his clansmen and his mechs!

The first thing he did after he left the workshop was to consult with his wife.

Though she possessed a completely different specialty from his own, she had worked on plenty of living mechs by this time. She should not only understand his difficulties, but also develop her own stance on the matter.

Since Gloriana stayed behind on the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves had to take a quick trip back to normal reality in order to call his wife.

"What is it now, Ves? Shouldn't you be preparing to traipse into another dubious alien death trap at this time?"

"I was indeed doing something of that nature before a troubling matter came up. When I was in the process of modifying the Everchanger so that I can ride alongside Venerable Joshua, I asked the living mech whether it had any requests that it wanted me to fulfill."

"Big mistake."

"I don't know about that, but it appears my inquiry has opened Pandora's box. I have become aware that living mechs, specifically my third order ones, have expanded needs that I have traditionally overlooked. Let me list out some of the requests that it has made to give you a better idea."

When Ves repeated demands such as being able to talk to other living mechs and gaining the ability to access the galactic net, Gloriana became increasingly more intrigued.

"These are… interesting demands." She said in a more measured tone. "Controversial as well. I can see why you are concerned about implementing them. Mechs have always served humanity. It should never be the other way around. If you do what the Everchanger wants, then you might be the first human to truly change the status quo between human and mech. Whether this is a good development or a bad one remains to be seen."

Not even Gloriana was arrogant enough to judge whether giving in to the Everchanger's demands was a step in the right direction.

It wouldn't be a big deal if it was isolated to just a few third order living mechs. Yet both of them did not believe the scope of expanded privileges would be limited to a small quantity of machines.

Ves was moving more towards developing smarter and more responsive machines. Back in the beginning, his most basic first order mechs were only able to influence their mech pilots in a subtle fashion. Being able to impart his products with any form of X-Factor was already a big improvement to him at the time.

Now, he had developed his design philosophy to the point where second order living mechs had become the new standard. Compared to their predecessors, his second order products were a lot more self-aware and able to influence their mech pilots, though they fell short of being able to talk and behave like actual humans.

If this upwards trend continued in the future, there might come a time where every producer who gained access to his designs would be able to produce third order living mechs en masse!

Ten, fifty or a hundred years from now, more assertive and talkative mechs like the Everchanger would no longer be a rarity at that point.

Instead, millions if not billions of third order living mechs would exist concurrently across human space!

It was like welcoming the equivalent amount of human babies into the cosmos!

Once these babies in the form of mechs grew up into teenagers, they would probably throw a temper tantrum that could shake the mech industry if Ves mishandled the situation!

He needed to act carefully in order to prevent these bombs from going off. The way he treated the Everchanger would probably serve as a model of the treatment he extended to other living mechs.

Ves and Gloriana continued to exchange their thoughts on the matter. At one point, Gloriana brought up a profound question.

"Is chasing after higher order living mechs good for mech pilots?"

"Hm? What do you mean by that, Gloriana?"

His wife's projection leaned forward. "You have spent so many years trying to make mechs more alive that you haven't stopped and asked whether it is a good idea to persist. It was only after this incident with the Everchanger that you have started to think about the unintended side effects of your work. Ask yourself this. If you have the ability to provide as third order living mechs to every single customer, will you do so? Will the users of your commercial mechs benefit from your higher order living mechs?"

This was a deep question and one that Ves had to weigh carefully in order to express his actual thoughts.

"I don't want to hold back when it comes to my living mechs." He said. "I don't even want to impose artificial scarcity so that I can make my third order living mechs more exclusive. I went into mech design because I want to provide mech pilots with better and more dependable combat solutions. While I will definitely keep my strongest applications exclusive to my clan, I do not want to deprive the public of my third order or even higher order living mechs. Holding back on this front goes against my principles."

The orders of living mechs formed the foundation of all of his work. Third order living mechs were qualitatively better than the lower orders in almost every way. They provided such a different piloting experience that spreading them out would make it easier for Ves to popularize this style of mech!

One of his ultimate goals was to make living mechs the standard of the mech industry. How could he do that if he withheld too much from the mech market?

Gloriana nodded as if she expected this response from him. "If you go down this road, then you will have to think carefully on how to manage the relationships between humanity and living mechs. What you are essentially trying to do is encourage humans to develop a symbiotic relationship with living mechs that are more formidable than the mechs in use today. There will be people who are so concerned with humanity's primacy that they will see this as a threatening development. How will you respond to their fears? How will you prevent your living mechs from realizing their nightmares?"

These were difficult questions. The entire point of consulting Gloriana was to hear her thoughts on the matter!

"What do you suggest?" Ves asked back.

She shrugged. "Don't lose heart in your design philosophy. Your work is fantastic and will only be greater in the future. You are not the sort of mech designer who is comfortable with crippling his own work in order to accommodate naysayers. Despite the legitimate questions surrounding living mechs, I think they are truly worth all of the trouble. Just look at how much stronger and better mechs like the Quint and the Shield of Samar have become due to their living qualities. If you can bring those benefits to every mech pilot at an affordable price, then that is a cause worth fighting for. Prove the skeptics wrong and make everyone recognize the value of your living mechs."

Ves perked up again. Gloriana had a point. Retreating on this issue would impact his courage and his willingness to go forward in his mech designs. Why should he be afraid of the potential negative impact of his work on society?

Any problem could be solved as long as he put enough effort in it! Although the fears towards increasingly more advanced living mechs were legitimate, as long as Ves put enough thought and effort into them, he was certain he could find a balance where they could find a place in human society!

"It will be like a companion spirit or or pet!" Ves stated as his eyes glinted with passion. "Just like how integrating and growing companion spirits into powerful life companions requires the recipients to extend their trust to the process, I should do my best to change people's minds on living mechs and help them accept that the most effective mechs are ones that they can build an actual relationship with! I'm not the one who is wrong! It's others who are mistaken!"

If there were people who were hesitant about living mechs, then Ves and his mech company had to put in extra effort to educate them on the many benefits of his products!

"Thanks for sharing your views, Gloriana. I will get back to my work."

"Just make sure you come back from Purgatory alive, Ves. Aurelia already misses you. You have got to stop with these stupid excursions of yours. You're a married husband and a father now. Let others do the exploring."

"Yes, yes, I will do better. I have to go now. Bye!"

Once he ended the call, he quickly passed through the spatial portal and returned to Fort Fishblood.

After a brief moment of thought, he recalled that there were three more third-order living mechs on this side of the portal.

"Let's see what they have to say."

Ves first visited the Quint. The mech was a part of the current mission because every potential encounter was an opportunity for Isobel Larkinson to advance to expert pilot.

Although the Quint was an incredibly precious asset to the Larkinson Clan, the mech was designed for battle. It wasn't meant to function like a training mech that solely deployed in training grounds rather than actual conflict zones.

"Heya, Quint."

HELLO, MAKER. WHAT IS IT TODAY?

"I'm just here to check up how you're doing. Soon, you'll accompany us to a dangerous site. I need to make sure you are in an optimal state. Could you answer a few questions for me, Quint?"

ASK AWAY.

Ves slowly asked a few normal questions at first and only introduced issues such as leisure and socialization later.

The answers from the Quint were quite interesting. Surprisingly, they matched the sentiments of the Everchanger, if to a lesser degree.

EVER SINCE YOU TURNED ME INTO A 'DESIGN SPIRIT', I FIRST BECAME BOTHERED BY THE INTERMITTENT CONNECTION TO THE MECH PILOTS OF THE ENLIGHTENED WARRIORS THAT YOU HAVE SOLD. IT IS ONLY AFTER A FEW WEEKS THAT I HAVE BEGUN TO SEE THESE CONNECTIONS IN A NEW LIGHT. ONLY THOSE WHO ARE EARNEST ABOUT PILOTING THE ENLIGHTENED WARRIORS ARE ABLE TO REACH ME. EACH OF THEM ARE WILLING TO ACCEPT MY TIPS ONCE THEY HAVE OVERCOME THEIR LACK OF TRUST TOWARDS THIS NEW SITUATION.

He almost forgot about that. Compared to the Everchanger, the Quint was a lot better off. Turning a third order living mech into a design spirit was an alternate way of keeping them occupied!

However, he quickly recognized a major flaw to this course of action. While it was not a big deal to turn a couple of dozen third order living mechs into design spirits, what about a thousand? What about a million?

There was no way that he could turn every single living mech into a design spirit!

For this reason, it was a lot more practical to grant additional rights and privileges to living mechs so that they could live more like humans than before.

When Ves cautiously brought up these possibilities, the Quint fell silent for a time.

I AGREE WITH THE EVERCHANGER. WE ARE TOO INSULATED HERE. IT WOULD BE GREAT IF WE CAN GAIN GREATER ACCESS TO HUMAN SOCIETY.

"I see."