The Mech Touch

The entry of Cormaunt Hempkamp into the Design Department generated plenty of controversy at first.

"Ves, are you sure you know what you're doing?" Ketis confronted him a few days later. "While I respect your desire to hire a neural interface specialist, can't you look for a more reliable one instead of the new guy?"

He reacted with mild surprise at her response. "I thought that you of all people would look favorably upon his entry. He is a strong and passionate innovator who doesn't listen to anyone and sticks to his guns no matter the circumstances. There are obvious parallels between your respective approaches."

The fiery swordsman mech specialist took affront at this comparison!

"We are not alike, Ves! While our approaches may look similar on the surface, our driving motivations are different! From the beginning of my career, I only ever wanted to design better and stronger swordsman mechs for the Swordmaidens. Later on, I extended my sights to every swordsman mech pilot I could reach. I might not have received classical education like the rest of the mech designers in the Design Department, but my heart has always been in the right place. As for that guy Hempkamp… my intuition tells me that he always puts his own ego first, and you know how sharp my intuition has become."

As if to emphasize her remark, a miniature version of Ketis emerged out of her head and waved around a miniature sword!

"Sharp! Sharp! Sharp!"

Though Ketis was not a smooth operator, she was quite good at judging other people due to her extraordinary willpower and enhanced intuition.

It said a lot when she sensed an unsettling vibe from Mr. Hempkamp. Ves never fully believed in all of the man's promises of good behavior. Innovators tended to be rulebreakers more often than not because there were always obstacles in the way that prevented them from pursuing their novel ideas to the fullest.

As an innovator himself, Ves could speak from personal experience.

However, as much as Ves was able to see himself in Hempkamp's shoes, they differed in one important fashion.

If Ves screwed up, he would suffer all of the blame.

If Mr. Hempkamp screwed up, his boss or employer were ultimately responsible!

It was because Hempkamp never fully worked in a situation where the buck stopped with him that he had grown so unbridled and unrestrained in his work.

This was why Ves had imposed a special regime on the newly-hired Journeyman.

As Ves explained his overall strategy and approach towards the potential time bomb, Ketis' expression softened to an extent.

"Your theories sound decent enough. I can't say whether Mr. Hempkamp will be fine with playing by the rules you have set, but I will keep an eye on him whenever I am in the vicinity."

Ves smiled and patted her shoulder. "You are more than welcome to do so. I have already instituted additional monitoring to keep a closer eye on his work and activities, but none of them are able to judge him on an instinctual level such as you. If you ever pick up a vibe from him that obviously feels wrong, don't hesitate to bring your suspicions up to me or Gloriana. No matter how uncertain you feel about Mr. Hempkamp, it is better to be safe than sorry."

"The safest option that you could have taken was to never hire him in the first place." Ketis stated as she crossed her arms. "Why did you go for him, really? Is it just because his design philosophy and research just happens to match well with your own, or is there more to the story?"

The Swordmaiden mech designer had grown in many different ways compared to a few years ago. She had advanced to Journeyman. She developed her first true solo mech designs with great commercial potential. She also became a mother to a healthy designer baby boy.

What was even more important was that she had worked in the Design Department by herself and alongside many other mech designers long enough to become a lot more professional in her work.

She had gradually shed her sloppy and unreliable image over time and became one of the senior stalwarts. The more junior lead designers who joined the clan only recently all looked up at her with admiration.

In fact, it was not wrong to state that Ketis was the third-ranked Journeyman of the Design Department. Her outsized sway among the Swordmaidens and the Heavensworders in the clan definitely helped with amplifying her voice!

Therefore, even though Ves was tired of explaining his decisions to different people, he had to give due consideration to his former student.

"Let's look at the Design Department as a whole." He began. "How many lead designers do we have at the moment?"

"There is you, your wife, me, Juliet Stameros, Sara Voiken, Dulo Voiken, Janassa Pellier, Tifi Coslone, Miles Tovar, Merrill O'Brian and finally Cormaunt Hempkamp. That is 11 in total."

A few years ago, Ves could never imagine working alongside so many Journeymen!

Back when Ves and Gloriana were in charge of everything, they could only work on a handful of major design projects per design round.

Now that both internal promotion and external recruitment had beefed up the upper end of the Design Department, the Larkinson Clan was no longer as limited in the amount of mechs it could design per year.

In fact, Ves even had the feeling that his clan had more lead designers than worthwhile projects to pursue!

While every lead designer had no trouble coming up with new design concepts and mech ideas that they wanted to realize, not all of them were particularly brilliant or innovative.

Still, he would rather be in a position where there was too much design capacity than too little!

At least now Ves no longer had to worry about delaying essential design projects by years because he and his fellow Larkinson mech designers were too backed up by high priority projects!

In any case, the addition of so many mech designers most definitely changed the dynamic within the Design Department.

"Of the eleven individuals that you have just mentioned, which one strikes you as more orthodox and normal mech designers?" Ves asked. "By that, I mean mech designers who you can rely upon to deliver solid design work that might not be interesting but will always do the job without fail."

The swordmaster thought for a moment. "Hmmm… Gloriana probably fits in this category, though you have clearly influenced her with your drive. Juliet, Sara, Dulo, Janassa, Tifi, Miles and Merrill are also stable in their approach, though I still haven't seen enough of the latter two to be absolutely certain."

"How many mech designers did you just mention?"

"Eight…"

"Exactly." Ves said. "Eight out of eleven of our mech designers are stable performers who can be relied upon to produce solid and reliable output. Now think for a moment. If these eight mech designers were the only ones working in the Design Department, would the LMC ever be able to rise up in the current market environment?"

Ketis immediately shook her head. "No. Gloriana might be able to do good business as a bespoke mech designer, but the rest… well, they are just Journeymen. Many of them have advanced only recently while the others offer decent value, but not enough to gain an edge over the competition."

Ves waved at her and then at himself. "Now look at the two of us. You did not include our names in your previous list. There are good reasons for that, but let us focus on one of them in particular. How does the commercial potential of our products compare to that of the other mech designers?"

"We are better." The swordmaster stated with strong conviction. "I might not fully do justice to their work, but when it comes to filling a new niche and achieving higher sales volumes, our work stands head over heels over whatever else they are able to design. Their design philosophies, while interesting and useful in their own right, simply aren't as unique and revolutionary as ours."

The recent commercial mech models that they released such as the Pacifier and the War Squire designed by Ves as well the Monster Slayer and the Needle Dancer designed by Ketis fully illustrated this disparity!

Ves and Ketis were so strong on this front that they were even capable of outselling the works designed by Master Mech Designers!

"Do you see?" Ves said. "While we certainly have our flaws, our more radical and unorthodox design philosophies are the key to our mech company's commercial success. We are the heart and the guiding beacon upon which the Living Mech Corporation can distinguish itself from the pack and earn a commanding market lead. The reason for that is because we dared to reach further and worked harder than anyone else to innovate and invent brilliant new solutions. That is a strength that only a few mech designers that I have seen in few mech designers."

"I see what you mean… wait, do you actually consider Mr. Hempkamp to be the same sort of mech designer as us?!" Ketis asked as she realized what Ves was trying to convey!

For his part, Ves shrugged in uncertainty. "I truly cannot say. There are more mech designers than the two types that I have just described. There are stable and reliable mech designers like my wife. There are adventurous and unorthodox mech designers such as you and I. There are also other colleagues who possess no moral bottom line and only care about their accomplishments as opposed to how much they can contribute to the greater community. I've encountered a few types like that, but I can't say whether Mr. Hempkamp belongs to the second or third type."

"So you just decided to accept him in the hopes that he is the second type?"

"Yes. Journeymen who are well-versed in neural interfaces are rare, Ketis. Who knows whether there are other employers who see the same promise in this mech designer. Controversial as he may be, he knows his craft. I don't want to wait years in order to stumble upon another eligible neural interface specialist."

"Okay. I understand now." Ketis nodded as she figured out his full approach. "You are essentially putting him on trial right now. By giving him an independent lab straight away, you can keep an eye on him and observe whether he will turn into an uncontrollable factor. What will you do if he breaks the rules that you have set, Ves?"

Ves shrugged. "It depends. In general, I think I will still let him go, though. I have granted him much more generous treatment that he deserves. If he cannot appreciate the favors I have given him and the leeway that he has received from the start, then it is obvious that he will never respect our authority. We also won't be able to trust whether he is willing to put the interests of the clan ahead of his own. If that is the case, then I will make a rare exception to our established rules and boot him out of our clan before he does more damage."

"Do you think it will come to that, Ves?"

"If he has retained enough rationality to figure out his best options, then he should clearly keep a lid on his more extreme impulses. I think he knows quite well that we are the best possible employer he can work with at this stage. Once he has ruined his chances with us, he will never receive the leeway that we have extended to him in his life."

Despite his certain tone, Ves was anything but assured that Cormaunt Hempkamp would make the best choices.

Logic was one thing, but Ves had seen many cases where irrational emotions and desires trumped sound decision-making.

This was why the coming year was extremely crucial. Would Hempkamp truly be able to exhibit enough self-control to become a productive member of the Larkinson Clan or would he prove to be the same liability as in his previous jobs?