The Mech Touch

While the Cerebral King happily inspected the remaining power reactors brought by the expeditionary forces, the humans did not sit still either.

A team of biotech experts studied the giant fleshy organs prepared by the fish-whales. Ranya enthusiastically inspected the data provided by the specialized scanning gear that her subordinates had brought for the occasion.

While it was difficult for these portable scanners to penetrate deep into the organs, the biotechs had already anticipated this outcome.

"We need to bring out the lab scanners."

They requested a mech to bring out a larger scanning module from one of the shuttles. While it was a lot more troublesome to use this device, its power was enough to give the biotech researchers the data they needed to verify the functioning of the organ in question!

Half an hour passed by as the researchers investigated multiple organs and sets of bones. While they didn't have the time or heavy-duty equipment to perform thorough verifications, they could at least make a preliminary judgment on the soundness and authenticity of the organic products.

They spent a lot more time examining the contents of the biggest sack brought out by the fish-whales. The king organ contained within exuded far greater power than the other organs. It was such an impressive specimen that the biotech researchers had become completely fascinated by this marvel of phase whale bioengineering!

The Everchanger soon floated to their side in order to check up on the fish-whale goods.

Venerable Joshua, the Everchanger and Ves both used their own extraordinary senses to survey the different organs.

While none of them were proficient in biotechnology, they were all sensitive towards slightly different aspects of life.

They were quite capable of detecting whether any of these organs were sick or unhealthy!

"They look fine to me, sir." Venerable Joshua said after he finished going over the different organs. "This big one is definitely stronger than the rest. In fact, it gives me the feeling that it possesses its own consciousness of sorts. There's something odd about this thing."

Ves briefly frowned. "I know what you mean. We'll have to conduct a more thorough investigation of them once we ship them back to the Dragon's Den. We should let the professionals do what they do best."

Speaking of professionals, Ves wanted to hear what the biotech experts had to say about the precious bioproducts. He opened a communication channel to Director Ranya.

"What's your verdict so far, Ranya? Are the organs the real deal?"

"We have not gathered any evidence that suggests that they are counterfeit products." She answered. "What we have observed so far largely line up with what we have observed from the bodies of the Swarmer fish-whales. This is a good sign as the biological makeup of the organs of different subspecies shouldn't diverge that much. The age, health and quality of these fish-whale organs suggests that they are all freshly-grown through an automated process. Although they need to be fed and given additional time to reach their mature states, I believe that they are all usable."

Ves smiled. "That is good to hear. What can you tell me about the consistency and the probable functions of these organs?"

"The organs all look as if they were grown by an advanced biofactory, sir. They are highly consistent and share many similarities to each other. As for their functions, we cannot determine them as our conditions are too suboptimal to perform any proper studies."

"Can you give me a preliminary judgment, at least? I just need to hear your overall sentiment on whether the Cerebral King secretly screwed us over by tampering these organs."

Ves didn't sense anything amiss when he studied the organs with his own senses, but he wasn't the expert here. Biotechnology was still a prominent gap in his knowledge base.

Director Ranya did not want to make any mistakes, so she carefully gathered her thoughts for a moment.

"As I have mentioned earlier, the organs appear to be sound and our scanners have detected no red flags. That doesn't rule out the possibility of foul play, but if there are any, the tampering should be subtle and deeply hidden. We won't know the truth unless we bring them back and perform intensive studies on them for a couple of months."

There were too many ways to sabotage bioproducts. It was one of the many reasons why few humans were enthusiastic about adopting them. Conventional metal parts were much easier to verify, which was one of the many reasons why humanity favored them over organic alternatives.

Neither Ves nor Ranya underestimated the Cerebral King. The big fish was not only smart but spent a huge amount of years learning how to develop new fish-whale organs. This immense knowledge and tech advantage gave the alien a lot of different ways to tamper with the organs that were not that obvious!

After asking a few more questions, Ves knew that it was difficult to obtain more answers.

"Okay, I intend to proceed with the exchange since the organs all look fine on the surface. We can perform more thorough studies when we bring them back home."

"Don't worry, sir. Even if the organs are not as sound as they look, we can fix that afterwards." Ranya smiled in a mysterious fashion.

He knew what she meant. They had discussed this issue beforehand.

The main purpose in trading so many fish-whale organs was to perform many different experiments on them. They were all experimental materials in Ranya's eyes!

The Larkinson Biotechnology Institute could perform much deeper and more extensive experiments without worrying about ruining the organs. With thirty specimens, there was enough redundancy to get to the bottom of their organic construction.

Even if the Cerebral King secretly tampered with them in any way, the truth would come out eventually after lots of examinations!

It didn't matter if the LBI destroyed all 30 normal fish-whale organs. As long as the biotech researchers made enough gains, they would eventually be able to grow more of them by themselves!

This was the strength of humanity! While humans originally did not excel in any form of technology, they were quite talented at stealing alien tech and reverse engineering their principles so that they could make their own versions of products.

Although this was not exactly the most ethical or proper way to advance the technological standards of an entire civilization, it didn't matter as long as it worked!

Ves tried to suppress a smirk. It wasn't appropriate for him to gloat at the moment as he was still in the middle of a fish-whale stronghold!

"Can you tell me more details about the king-grade organ? This is the single most valuable concession that we have managed to obtain from the Cerebral King."

Ranya bloomed a smile this time. "While we cannot verify whether it is authentic and unadulterated, we already have a high confidence that it is a proper bioproduct. When we compare the data that we have gathered of this powerful organ with the data obtained from observing the Cerebral King, we have found many matches. I am quite certain that the organ here can seamlessly integrate in the king fish's body. The only hurdle is that the recipient needs to free enough capacity in his body to accommodate the extra organ."

It was just like slotting in new parts into the frame of a mech. Part of the reason why the Cerebral King was so powerful was because his body was larger than any of the other Evolver fish-whales. This granted him an immense amount of capacity, allowing him to fit far more organs in his body!

The king-grade organ stood out because it was especially developed for the Cerebral King. While it was considerably larger and more cumbersome than the normal organs, its power level was at least 10 times greater according to the preliminary conclusions of the biotech experts!

"Have you figured out what it can actually do?" Ves asked.

"Not exactly, sir." Ranya shook her head. "We have gathered numerous clues that can narrow down the possible options. First, there is no phasewater in the organ, so it is unlikely that it has anything to do with the substance. Second, our scans have revealed a large amount of organic tissue that relates to absorbing, converting and transferring bioelectricity, so we presume that the king-grade organ is incredibly power hungry. My team is currently in the process of studying its core tissue which we assume is responsible for activating the main effect, but we haven't been able to narrow down the possibilities extensively yet. All I can state for now is that the clues lean towards a defensive application, which matches our demands."

"What if it's an offensive organ?"

"That is a possibility, but unlikely, sir. There are no obvious ports or other features that look as if they are meant to output destructive energy."

"Okay. Hopefully you're right, because we'll be in deep trouble if this massive organ turns out to be a giant biolaser weapon."

Although Ves would be happy to obtain an organ that could spit out lasers of doom, the problem was that the Big Two wouldn't be as happy!

A weapon as big as this definitely violated the taboo on overly powerful weapons. While Ves believed he could tentatively get away with it if the king-grade organ was smaller, this was impossible because it was just too large!

After all, the Cerebral King was a fish-whale that was equivalent to a juggernaut or a small warship. The weapons and other core systems integrated in its massive body were also similar to the components of those massive constructs!

There was no good way for ves to make use of a massive alien biolaser organ unless he received express permission to build a juggernaut mech.

The MTA didn't hand out those permits on a casual basis. Only powerful and wealthy first-class individuals or organizations had any chance of getting a permit.

Therefore, the only way for Ves to get this extravagant permit was to make a huge contribution!

Many difficult problems could be solved as long as Ves was willing to exchange a huge amount of MTA merits!

He wasn't stupid enough to go through with it, though. Juggernauts went out of vogue for good reasons.

They were stupendously expensive to build and maintain.

They required a lot of manpower and time to design.

Only highly specialized pilots were able to control these monstrosities.

Transporting them from one location to another was extremely cumbersome and demanding.

Going through all of that effort just to make good use of a king-grade biolaser organ was too excessive!

If this was the case, Ves would rather hand it over to the MTA so that he could collect a large bag of MTA merits.

After Ves asked a few more questions to Ranya, he became reasonably sure that the Cerebral King acted sincerely.

Even if there was anything wrong with the valuable bioproduct, he wouldn't think about making use of it until the Larkinson Biotech Institute succeeded in reverse engineering fish-whale organ design and production.

"Okay, everything appears to be fine. Let's complete the exchange!"

The swap was fairly simple and proceeded without issue. The fish-whales didn't hinder the humans from taking away the giant sacks of bioproducts in any fashion.

When the mechs carrying the sacks neared the cargo shuttles, they carefully placed their payloads in the empty containers.

Once the containers closed up, they automatically froze the interior, causing the bioproducts to freeze in an instant!

The cargo handlers did not freeze all of the organs in case the freezing process dealt irreparable harm to them. Half of the normal-grade organs as well as the king-grade organs were left in their current state in case this was the best way to preserve their health until they were shipped back to the expeditionary fleet.

"Alright, the shuttles are packed and ready to go. Let's return!"

Now that the two sides had concluded their trade, it was time for them to proceed with their follow-up agreement.

Ves turned his attention to the jubilant Cerebral King. "Let's talk about our upcoming attack on the Phase Kingdom."