The Mech Touch

Ves eventually declined to follow up on Gloriana's suggestion.

While he believed that the Hexers would definitely be willing to offer him a glimpse of their current expert mech designs, he was not sure whether it was worth the price.

It went far beyond owing a favor to the Hexers. What Ves was truly afraid of was that he would copy and take over too many of the design solutions developed by Hexers and adapted to different circumstances.

If Ves wanted to do right by the Ghost Project, then he needed to design it so that it could optimally serve its purpose in the Larkinson Clan rather than under the umbrella of an intelligence agency of the Hex Federation.

He thought it might be better if he worked on the Ghost Project from a fresh perspective that was relatively free from any existing biases or preconceived notions.

In any case, his understanding on the mechanisms of outdated expert stealth mechs already made him feel a lot more confident about designing the Ghost Project.

He just needed to figure out a way to apply the latest tech to his complicated design. In particular, he wanted to make the outer layer transphasic so that the Ghost Project could actually take a few hits and come out unscathed.

"You're making a mistake, Ves." Gloriana told him in a disappointed tone. "You always insist on trying to reinvent the wheel in your own style. While I can respect your determination to develop an application from the ground up, you will just end up with a wheel that is inferior to the latest generation of wheels. Instead of wasting far more time than necessary in designing an expert stealth mech that is quirky at best, it is much more efficient to start from studying the best of what the Hex Federation has to offer so that you will begin at a higher starting point."

Ves sighed. "I can understand your logic, but you are leaving out a lot of variables that I find important. I won't explain it to you all, but according to my own logic, it is not a bad idea for me to forgo your offer."

"...You'll regret it, Ves."

"Let us see. I might surprise you, honey."

"Don't call me honey!"

Ves did what he said and proceeded to go his own way. As the expeditionary fleet continued to hop from star system to star system, often times staying for a time in order to explore and survey different planets and asteroids, the Larkinson Journeymen continued to become engrossed in their design work.

Both the older and the newer cohorts of Journeymen were hitting their stride.

While it became increasingly more obvious to everyone that Miles Tovar, Merrill O'Brian and Cormaunt Hempkamp weren't as productive as the ones that had been designing mechs in the Larkinson Clan for many more years, the gap wasn't insurmountably big.

Ves and the rest had already taken the differences into account and made sure to assign lighter and more manageable responsibilities to them. This quickly allowed them to find a comfortable place within the Design Department.

In fact, as Journeymen, the three were anything but fragile children who needed the help of a babysitter to do anything complicated. They were true mech designers who had already moved beyond the mortal limitations of ordinary professionals.

Miles and Merrill had both joined the Larkinson Clan when it was still a third-class organization, which meant they were already at home in the Design Department.

They only had trouble with transitioning from a subordinate assisting role to a leading contributing role. The increase in responsibilities was massive, but by working alongside more experienced mech designers such as Ketis and Gloriana, they were never left to fend for themselves.

What surprised Ves quite a bit was that Cormaunt Hempkamp adapted to his responsibilities faster by virtue of his prior work experiences.

Mr. Hempkamp not only proved to be a competent project leader, but he was also able to quickly bind the newly recruited neural interface specialists into a coordinated design team.

The newcomers were sorely needed to replace the standard neural interface models of the Larkinson Clan's existing mech models with customized versions.

Though the difficulty of most of these jobs was not that much as long as Mr. Hempkamp designed a neural interface for a base model, the amount of work that needed to be done was massive!

Ves expected the design team to start off shaky considering that each of them had only joined the Larkinson Clan only recently, but when Ves paid a visit to their design lab, he was greeted by the sight of a smooth operation.

Every assistant mech designer was diligently working on planned assignments without any fuss or confusion. Nobody looked lost and it was rare for any of the neural interface specialists to be doing any redundant work.

This was not the picture that Ves expected to see from a design team led by a Journeyman who had a history of insubordination and reckless experimentation.

"I am not incapable of learning from my mistakes." The dark-skinned mech designer told a skeptical-looking Ves. "I am cognizant of all of the chances that I have blown when I worked for previous employers. After joining your clan, I became truly taken in by the warmth and trust that I have received from you and your fellow Larkinsons. I have made the determination not to ruin my opportunity to work in the best possible place I can work with. I have even cut short my breaks and off-days in order to meet your expectations."

That caused Ves to look concerned. "Don't work too hard on my account. I know people like us can easily get pulled into our work to the point where we neglect everything else around us, but I don't want you to maintain an unsustainable schedule. You are still human, Mr. Hempkamp."

The other mech designer dismissively shook his head.

"I understand my own limits well enough, sir. I am determined to show what I can do for the clan. It helps enormously that I get to run my schedule and manage my design team exactly the way I like. The main reason I fell out with my previous employers is because they constantly hindered or interfered with my work. I have not experienced any of these grievances from you and your wife up until this point. I want to thank you for the trust you have put into me by not only meeting your expectations, but exceeding them. A part of me also wants to prove my former employers wrong for dismissing me from their companies."

Ves blinked. Was he such a great leader after all? From what it sounded like, Mr. Hempkamp sounded as if he was eager to put 120 percent of himself in his work!

After asking a few more questions, Ves became reassured by the neural interface specialist's motivation and attitude.

Of course, it was not a trivial matter to design new neural interfaces. Each new creation had to be tested out in reality, and that meant subjecting actual human mech pilots to an untested and potentially dangerous product.

Though Mr. Hempkamp promised to be careful and try his best to minimize accidents, Ves wanted to make sure that the man did not go rogue like he did in the past.

"I don't want you to stifle your creativity. I know what it is like for imaginative mech designers such as myself to be compelled to rein in our work because of the need to abide by artificial limits. You can do anything you want as long as you abide by the ground rules that we have originally set. Actions have consequences and you will only have yourself to blame if you walk too close to the river, do you understand?"

Mr. Hempkamp nodded in understanding. "I am clear about that, sir, but…"

Ves frowned. "What is the matter, Cormaunt?"

"I have become enormously inspired by your living mechs. Ever since I joined your clan, I have been introduced to mechs that are able to think and maybe even act by themselves on an entirely different level. I can't help but develop new ideas to take advantage of these new conditions. I have been working on developing a new kind of neural interface that might make it easier for mech pilots to cooperate with living mechs."

"Can you give me any details?"

"I can, but you won't be able to understand my detailed theories without a deep foundation in neurology and man-machine interfacing technology. I can only tell you that I am doing my best to find a way to make a neural interface forge a more profound connection with the living quality of a living mech. I've become incredibly inspired by the 'design networks' that you and your wife have created, and I think it may be possible to reproduce their advantages in conventional neural interfaces."

That… indeed sounded complicated.

"Okay, then let me change my question. How much of a risk does it pose to mech pilots?"

"Well… I cannot give you an accurate estimate of that, but it should not be low." Hempkamp admitted.

Ves figured as much. He might not understand neural interface technology as well as a genuine specialist, but he still received an introduction into the field.

Every lesson and every textbook he came in touch with repeatedly emphasized that developing new neural interfaces was no different from playing with the lives of mech pilots!

A good result might give customers a slight edge in combat, but a single mistake could take away their dreams and hopes!

A neural interface developer must constantly question his work every step of the way.

Seeing that Hempkamp was ready to dive head-first into the unknown, Ves felt as if he was dealing with a potential timebomb.

There was no way a mech designer with so much passion would abandon such an interesting research project. Hempkamp would definitely work on trying to deepen the relation between living mechs and neural interfaces no matter the risk.

All Ves could do was to increase supervision and hope that Hempkamp knew how to control himself.

"When you joined our clan, you pledged an oath. The most fundamental principle that you must abide by as a member of the clan is to never do harm to your fellow brothers and sisters."

"I remember, sir. It is not my intention to put my fellow clansmen in danger. The purpose of my work is to facilitate their jobs and help them utilize their mechs to a better degree. I am trying to save their lives."

Ves observed the other man closely and came away satisfied.

As long as Hempkamp's heart was in the right place, the neural interface specialist should be able to exert enough control over himself.

"Alright. I will hold you to that." Ves replied with a smile. "I am quite interested in this potential new solution that you have mentioned. How do you expect this interaction to add anything to the piloting experience? After all, a standard neural interface can already establish a man-machine connection that runs quite deep. The mech and mech pilot are literally connected to each other."

"That is true, sir, but a normal man-machine connection is not as deep as most people think. We have enough technology to allow the integration between man and machine to go deeper, but we do not have the means to lower the risks to an acceptable degree. I believe the unique properties of living mechs can give us an alternative that enables deeper connections while also forgoing most of the dangers."

Ves looked surprised. He knew just enough about neural interfaces to know how ludicrous this statement sounded.

"How would you do that? Won't a deeper connection inevitably increase the danger to the mech pilot? How can you avoid this from happening?"

"This is where my theories get complicated. You see, if the living mech can serve as a partial stand-in for the pilot…"