The Mech Touch

Ves had almost forgotten about Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik.

He couldn't be blamed for it. Time moved quickly for him as he had invested much of his attention on progressing the Ghost Project.

He had already moved on from the Second Battle of Ramage Repulsor. The fight against the Fractured House of the Collapsing Star and her formidable nunser phase lord seemed like ancient history in his memories.

As Ves continued to go down his list of contacts, he had yet to receive a positive result.

It couldn't be helped. Most of his friends, business partners, acquaintances and etc. were second-raters like himself. How the hell could they possibly have any involvement with a highly advanced first-class or quasi-first-class active stealth system, one that was suitable for high-ranking mechs no less?

After ringing more than a dozen different parties, Ves eventually realized his mistake and started to direct his attention to more powerful names.

The obvious candidates he could ask for help was the MTA. He was on speaking terms with Jovy Armalon as well as several of its renowned Masters. There was no way they could fail to provide him with what he needed, either directly or indirectly.

"There's no way I am going to ask the mechers for help."

They would definitely be willing to help, but their services never came for free. He and his clan already formulated a spending plan that had ballooned to hundreds of millions of MTA merits.

Though it felt incredibly tempting for Ves to take the easy way out and license a first-class active stealth system from the MTA's extensive library, he stayed true to his original intentions.

If he could resist the urge to give his wife 120 million MTA merits, then he should easily be able to stop himself from spending a smaller fortune on equipping his Ghost Project with a highly effective stealth system!

Fortunately for Ves, the mechers weren't the only first-raters on his contact list.

One of the reasons why he took so many risks and spent so much effort to rescue Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik was to open up another channel for first-class goods and services!

Ves didn't want to develop an overreliance on the MTA for anything fancy, and it had been well worth the trouble to establish a favorable relationship with Pearian and his first-class clan.

"Is it too soon for me to contact Pearian again?" He wondered.

"Meow..." Lucky wearily responded as he laid on the desk.

Ves glowered at his cat. "Hey, if you don't want to suffer from such a persistent stomach ache, then you should exert better control over your portion sizes. It's your own fault that you are taking such an awfully long time to digest all of those hard and tough first-class metals!"

The cat rolled over and laid on the side. "Meow meow..."

"I'm willing to give you more time to digest your latest meal, but don't take too long. I still have a chunk of B-stone on hand in case you need to unclog your pipes, so you better get to work, buddy."

"Meeeeeeooow!..."

After giving his cat his regular reminder to be productive, Ves had made up his mind.

What was the use of becoming the savior of a wealthy scion if he wasn't willing to take advantage of the man's extensive gratitude?

Ves had already exchanged contact information with the rescued first-rater, so he soon initiated a request for contact.

It took a few minutes before the other side accepted the request. The physical projectors in the office came to life in order to depict the current state of the man that was still in the process of recovering from his months-long captivity at the hands of cruel aliens.

Lord Pearian looked a lot better than last time. He wore a looser green and yellow outfit that still allowed him to maintain a refined appearance.

"Are you on vacation at the moment?"

"You can say that, Mr. Larkinson." Pearian responded with a genuine smile. "My clan insists on putting me on a paradise planet and keeping me here for at least a year before I can do anything else. My relatives say that I should not think about returning to any duties or responsibilities until I have gained enough separation from recent events."

Ves managed to pick up a lot of clues from this treatment. It appeared that the Yorul-Tavik Clan genuinely cared about Pearian's well-being.

Of course, his relatives may have wanted to dump this failure on a harmless planet so that he would stay out of the way as long as possible.

"You're still young." Ves encouragingly commented. "You will easily be able to live for two or three centuries even if you don't receive any further life-prolonging treatments. With that much time on your hands, there is no hurry for you to go back to work."

"As if my clan is willing to let me become responsible for anything." Pearian snorted. "I have already been told that I will have to go through an extensive learning track in order to learn the skills I need to become useful. Granted, I would have taken these classes regardless of anything else, but it rankles me that I have so little control over my life. I feel as if I am reliving my teenage years."

As Pearian shared his frustrations about his current treatment, Ves smiled and spoke a few supporting words.

The man's willingness to talk to Ves in an open and unrestrained manner was a good sign. It showed that Pearian not only trusted his rescuer, but also considered Ves to be a friend.

In any case, Ves had seen the first-rater when he was at his weakest and most pathetic. The former pioneer had exposed so much to the Larkinsons that it was not as if he could feel any further shame.

What Pearian said only further confirmed Ves' suspicions that the Yorul-Tavik Clan still had plans for their descendant.

What that may be, Ves had no clue, but it was enough to know that developing a closer relationship with Pearian was a worthwhile endeavor.

"I believe you did not call me to allow me to air my frustrations." Lord Pearian eventually spoke after he felt a lot more unburdened. "What is the reason that drove you to contact me at this time?"

Ves made a brief judgment call and decided to address the matter of his children's education first.

"I have several requests for your clan. One of them is a matter concerning my children. You see, each of them are designer babies who have proven to be highly intelligent and highly developed for their age..."

He quickly explained the circumstances of his three children and expressed his hope that Pearian's clan would help them get accepted by good first-class schools."

Of all of the possible requests he expected to hear, Pearian did not anticipate that the first one would be about sending kids to school.

He fell silent for a short moment after Ves was finished because he needed to compose his thoughts.

No one in his social circle ever asked for this sort of help because they were usually wealthy and powerful enough to send their offspring to the desired schools on their own power.

Besides, Pearian would be the last person they would want to approach with this kind of matter.

"It's been years since I last attended a school or had anything to do with them." The first-rater admitted. "I can't tell you much or do any of this myself, but I know someone in my clan who can fulfill your requirements with great attention and care. Don't worry. You're my benefactor. I will make sure my clansmen will do a proper job in allocating your children to a couple of good schools. By my knowledge, our clan has close ties to dozens of good and reputable schools, both in and outside the Omter Republic. We send many of our own kids to them and even donate grants to them every once in a while. It should be easy enough for us to open a backdoor."

A matter that seemed insurmountably difficult and expensive to Ves and Gloriana turned out to be a trivial problem to Pearian. The way he casually dismissed the many hurdles showed how wide the gap was between the two men!

Still, Ves was grateful that Lord Pearian granted the request without any fuss.

"Thank you, Pearian." Ves sincerely bowed in front of the projection. "My children mean everything to me. I want them to receive the best possible learning opportunities so that they can get a better head-start in their lives. Allowing them to study alongside other first-raters will definitely set them up for life."

Pearian looked taken aback at the emotion displayed by Ves. The first-rater was not a father so he did not entirely understand the feelings of a parent.

"I hope they will do better than me." The Yorul-Tavik scion softly said. "If these kids of yours are as intelligent and adaptable as you claim, then it won't take much effort for my clan to get them into excellent first-class schools. I have never bothered to understand the academic sector, but from what I have learned, every good school needs a mixture of rich kids and geniuses in order to flourish. It usually doesn't matter too much where the latter comes from. The fact that they are second-raters won't mean a damn as long as they can outscore all of their classmates in a test. I certainly felt that way when I was sitting in the benches myself."

That was fascinating to hear. Ves felt more reassured, though he still reined in his excitement as nothing was confirmed as of yet. A single verbal promise from a disgraced and recovering clansman did not carry that much weight.

"Alright, then. Thank you again for doing this favor for me. I will transmit the relevant files to your comm so that you or your relatives can help my children get into the best possible schools that are willing to accept them. If there are any doubts about the standardized test results that my kids have obtained, they are always available to complete whatever additional tests may be needed to make a convincing case."

With that handled, Ves moved on to his main request.

"After the battle that has allowed us to defeat that alien battleship and free you from her bowels, we were left with a lot of valuable loot and plunder. I happen to be working on a special expert mech design that was originally supposed to be a second-class machine, but is now slated to become a quasi-first-class mech. That has introduced many new problems, one of which is the need to find a more powerful first-class active stealth system that can provide my upcoming expert mech with high protection as well as remaining undetectable at the same time."

As Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik did not have a technical background, Ves skipped all of the complicated science and engineering stuff and explained his requirements for an active stealth system as simply as possible.

The first-rater on vacation did not immediately respond. He picked up a glass that was previously out of view and took a few sips of his cocktail.

"This is a more serious favor that you are asking from me." He told Ves. "I can give you a choice. If you want an active stealth system that can fool most first-class passive sensor systems, I can press my clan to share advanced tech with you. It won't be of a standard that we use ourselves, but it should be more than enough for your needs. If you don't want to cash in that heavy of a favor, I can ask one of my relatives to supply you with a purely commercial stealth system. It might not be commonly available, but it should definitely be widely used among a certain clientele. Its performance will not be as good, but it should still outfox almost all second-class sensor systems, even the active ones unless the range is too small."

This was a difficult choice to make for Ves. There were pros and cons to both options and he found it hard to decide whether it was worthwhile to get the good stuff!