The Mech Touch

"Meow~"

"Oh hey, Lucky! Is your tummy still full? I brought a snack for you if you are up for it again."

"Meow meow."

"Oh, okay. I will set it down on the table so you can munch on it later."

Ves interrupted his design session and pulled his split attention away from the projects he was working on at this time.

His eyes blinked as he inspected the progress he had made in the past few hours. He had taken full advantage of his expanded cognitive capabilities to work on multiple design projects at the same time.

He had made amazing progress in upgrading the standards of his initial Blood Knight design, implementing an organic circulatory system in the Dullahan Project and studying highly advanced theories that taught him how to develop better transphasic gauss weapons.

If he wanted to, he could split his attention into even more threads, but he found that the quality of each individual task started to drop. He needed to exercise this ability more and wait until he grew stronger before he could split his attention further and get more work done.

He was already happy with what he was able to do at the moment. His productivity had skyrocketed ever since he got back in the saddle.

"Joshua." He said as he felt the expert pilot's vigorous force of will approach his position. "It is not every day that you have decided to pay a visit to me. Is there anything urgent you wish to talk about?"

The fellow Brighter shook his head. "Not per se. I wanted to talk to you about an issue that is important to a group within the clan."

Ves grew confused and a bit suspicious. "Did someone put you up to this, Joshua?"

"Uhh… I guess. Just hear me out. The Everchanger wanted me to convey a request on behalf of all of the living mechs in our clan…"

Five minutes passed as Joshua frankly explained the issue of expanding the rights of the Larkinson mechs.

A lot of progress had been made since precocious machines like the Quint and the Shield of Samar initially spoke up, but status of living mechs still had a long way to go before they became happy.

"...With the Shield of Samar reduced to a head and Venerable Jannzi needing time to get past her defeat, someone had to carry over the torch. The living mechs have all agreed to let me speak on their behalf since they like me so much."

Ves looked curiously at Joshua. "Well, they chose correctly. Dealing with you is much less stressful than dealing with Jannzi or her former expert mech. Still, you haven't told me what kind of concrete actions you expect me to make."

"Well, the living mechs have a number of demands that they would really like to see fulfilled. For one, they want our clan to proceed with setting up a Living Mech Affairs Ministry where one of their own kind is put in charge."

"No." Ves immediately frowned. "Not possible."

"The Everchanger and company have asked for this several years now. Why can't you meet their demand?" Joshua pleaded to the clan patriarch. "They deserve more representation for everything they have done for us. Our machines have always supported us in battle without flinching, and they will continue to serve their purpose, but that doesn't mean they are happy with their current status. They want more love from the clan, sir. Is it too much to ask for us to make them happy?"

Ves sighed and lowered his eyes. "I don't like it either, but our hands are tied on this matter. In an ideal reality, I would have agreed to form this new living mech-oriented ministry a long time ago. I don't even have any objections towards the idea of allowing qualified living mechs to hold actual leadership positions. Just like you, I have a lot of hopes and expectations for living mechs as a whole. The best of them are growing smarter, wiser and more compassionate by the day."

"Then why not oblige them, sir?"

"You should know why, Joshua. The Big Two and more specifically the MTA has a well-deserved phobia against AIs or bots that become too powerful. AIs should always have an assisting function to the humans that make use of their services. In no way should AIs ever dictate, control or govern any group of people. That is a foundational principle of modern humanity ever since a lot of high-profile screwups during the Age of Stars and the Age of Conquest has shown us what can go wrong with unrestricted automation."

"Our living mechs aren't AIs!" Joshua passionately argued as he put his emotions behind this issue. "They are truly alive like you and me. We can both tell the difference. Many of the fears that our race developed about AIs don't apply to living mechs."

Ves shrugged at the expert pilot. "That may be true, but the rest of human society won't see it this way. All they will see is that we have stuffed a highly sophisticated AI into our mechs and foolishly granted them the power to turn against their human overlords."

"If the masses are the problem, then let's educate them all! We can do that, right?"

"We can, but a marketing campaign alone won't be able to reverse millenia of AI phobia. It takes much more than that to initiate a broad cultural change across a large section of the population. The only thing we can do on our end is to build up acceptance for living mechs within our own clan."

"Then why aren't we doing that, then?" Joshua asked. "Appointing a living mech to a ministerial position won't bother anyone else. It is not as if we are trying to replace the Star Emperor with the Quint or something."

Ves made a cutting motion with his arm. "QUIET! Don't joke around with that sort of talk! Lucky and I have done our best to make this design lab as bug-free as possible, but that doesn't mean that nobody can eavesdrop on us. It is best not to say anything that would give people the impression that we are trying to topple the head of the New Rubarth Empire!"

"Oh. I'm sorry. I should have been more careful with my words." Venerable Joshua apologized. "My point stands, though. Why should we bother with public opinion when the way we run our clan doesn't have anything to do with them? You have been pushing the limits many times. What makes this different?"

Ves crossed his arms as he leaned back on his chair. "Who told you that?"

"The living mechs. They keep in touch with each other. They witness quite a lot of stuff actually, either directly or indirectly through their mech pilots."

That had disturbing implications. Ves furrowed his brows as he realized that his living mechs might be rather liberal in sharing confidential secrets with each other.

"Those mechs need to learn how to handle sensitive information."

"That's one of the duties that the new ministry can undertake." Joshua deftly argued. "No clear authority aside from their own pilots is telling them what they can or cannot do. I know them well enough that they won't listen to any human figurehead. Either you or one of their own kind will be able to boss them around."

Ves doubted that, but letting an old and authoritative living mech like the Quint become their supervisor would definitely help with keeping the other living mechs under control.

"We can't, Joshua. I agree with your arguments, but no amount of good points are good enough in the face of extinction."

"What do you mean by that? Isn't that an exaggeration?"

"It's not." Ves grimly replied. "Do you think our clan has been rebuffing the requests of our living mechs for several years for no reason? Minister Shederin Purnesse and Director Calabast have both explained how much of a target we will paint on our backs if we dare put a living mech in charge of anything important. As soon as the news begins to spread, a coalition of disparate parties will band together to crush us whole."

Venerable Joshua found it difficult to imagine such a nightmare scenario.

"Why must it be this way? Is there nothing we can do to keep all of those forces at bay?"

"I seriously doubt it." Ves replied. "Let me put it this way. When the Gemini Family began to grow larger and more prominent, it attracted a lot of outside enemies, right? Why would all of those external parties regard the Gemini Family as their enemy to the point of actually organizing entire attack fleets to destroy a bunch of eccentric people who have never taken the initiative to harm others?"

Joshua needed a bit of time to think about the answer to these questions.

"It's because… they have moral objections to the Gemini Family. Maybe practical ones as well. They fear that the habits of the Geminis will spill over to their own societies, thereby popularizing a way of life that is objectionable in many aspects."

Ves nodded in satisfaction. "That is roughly the case. Now look back to our situation. Don't you think our clan is in a similar position? As long as we formally put a living mech in charge of an entire ministry, a lot of paranoid, bigoted and scared leaders will take offense at our clan and seek to crush us no matter the cost. It doesn't matter whether the attackers are second-raters or first-raters. They are all motivated by the fear of seeing humans getting replaced by artificial constructs. We can't fend off so many enemies, particularly if they come from first-rate states."

This was a disappointing answer to the expert pilot. He had always thought that the clan could make much more changes, but it turned out that they were still fearful of public opinion.

"So we're stuck? Our living mechs won't be happy, sir."

Ves frowned again.  He did not want to create a schism between his mech pilots and their living mechs.

"Joshua. I can't give a living mech its own ministry, but that doesn't mean I am helpless. I can still give the Everchanger or another living mech additional rights and responsibilities. It just has to be off the books. I don't want a single record to mention this appointment. I will drop by later and introduce a more formal structure and hierarchy so that they won't behave like a friendship club."

"Really? Well, it's not as much as our living mechs want, but it is better than nothing."

Ves smiled. "Negotiations tend to go this way. Congratulations, Joshua. You can tell your living mech buddies the good news. Discreetly, of course."

"Oh, uhm, yes. I will."

"What's wrong?"

"I didn't expect it to be so… easy."

Ves chuckled. "That's the advantage of being in charge of my own clan. I can set any rules I want, though I still have to pay attention to the reactions of different stakeholders. I am not ready to form this living mech ministry because of the high possibility of turning all of human space against us, but a smaller department that takes on many of the responsibilities of a ministry but without any of the official baggage is a good compromise. Your living mechs still won't be able to receive the recognition they seek, but it is a start."

Joshua looked happy. "That is great. Can I also talk about their other requests? They have been thinking and talking about what they want from us for a long time. They have always wanted to present their list of demands to you. It has grown quite a bit over the past couple of years."

"Very well. Let's hear it, then."

The expert pilot pulled up an electronic document and recited the first request.

"Our living mechs are tired of spending all of their time in the hangar bays and the mech stables whenever their services aren't needed." Joshua mentioned. "More and more of them are feeling left out from the real clan as most of their pilots and other humans spend their time in much more interesting places aboard our ships."

"That is what the MSTS is for, Joshua. I expanded their access to it so that they can hang around in their own virtual world."

"It's not real enough, sir. You and I both know that there is a big difference between spending time in reality and spending time in a false virtual environment. Mechs have the same need for real human interaction and human activities. They want to stroll through our parks. They want to play with our cats. They want to attend theater shows. They want to cheer on their favorite mech athletes in a busy mech arena. In short, they want to enjoy a more authentic living experience."

Ves became speechless for a moment.

"Uhm, Joshua?"

"Yes, sir?"

"You do know that mechs are tall and heavy mechanical constructs, right? Leaving aside their immense mass, their sizes are way too high for them to be able to do all of those activities you have mentioned!"

"That is why the living mechs want you to hook them up with human-sized avatar machines." Joshua shockingly revealed. "They want to become a part of the family, sir!"

"..."