The Mech Touch

"So how does one repair an ancient alien crystal control interface?" Helena asked as she plucked her and her death lotus and casually turned it into its Pistol Mode and back again. "Because from my eyes, you are faced with drastically different technology than the circuitry and other conventional technology that you are accustomed to working with. This isn't one of your mechs, Ves. This is true Red Ocean alien technology that has never intersected with the tech that humanity has developed."

Ves did not immediately respond. Instead, he already entered into his work mode and focused on collecting lots of data. He utilized all of the sensors built into his Unending Regalia to thoroughly scan and map out the broken crystalline interface.

In addition to that, he held his Vulcaneye multiscanner and proceeded to examine the different crystals one by one in order to figure out whether he could mend the broken crystals.

"Hello, Ves? Don't ignore your sister! It's rude!"

"Oh, sorry, Helena. I often get distracted whenever I am engaged in my work. I operate best when I can devote my full concentration to a task. Anyway, I did not miss your last question. The short answer is that while you are right that I am most proficient in working with conventional human technology, don't count me out right away. I have worked with my fair share of alien technology, most prominently luminar crystal technology. The Gray Lotus that is tied to your flower is one of them, remember?"

"Not all crystals are the same, Ves. As far as I am aware of, the luminar race whose technology you have scavenged from are native to the Milky Way. They developed their tech under vastly different circumstances."

"That is true… up to a point." Ves said with a smile.

"What do you mean by that?"

Ves reached down and picked up a broken purple crystal. "Look closely at this. Do you see the squiggles and patterns that are etched inside? These bear a remarkable resemblance to the circuitry of luminar crystals. In fact, even if the crystal circuitry patterns are different, I can clearly see that they share at least some of the same paradigms and frameworks!

Helena slowly widened her eyes. "Are you suggesting that this native Red Ocean crystal tech has a family relation with luminar crystal technology?"

"I am not suggesting it. I am merely stating the truth. Look at this, dearest sister."

He projected one of his luminar crystal designs from his combat armor. The projected crystal was situated right next to the ancient purple crystal.

The similarities became more obvious at this point. As Helena leaned closer, she could vaguely recognize a few patterns that looked awfully similar.

In fact, the likelihood that two completely different civilizations located in two completely different galaxies would develop their crystal circuity tech in such a similar fashion was quite low!

"Wait, isn't a lot of technology similar due to universal laws?" The design spirit questioned as she adopted a skeptical tone. "After all, for many civilizations, their uses of electricity, circuitry, starship thrusters and so on are all highly related to each other because there aren't many other ways to perform the same actions in a more effective way."

"I know what you are talking about, but this is different. Crystals like these can be empowered and configured in many different ways. It is like building a city. We like to build lots of fixed structures on the ground and if possible build a host of floating structures in the air and pair that up with a highly defensive underground tunnel complex in case of war. The nunsers on the other hand stick to building large metal towers that also function as starships. This allows these aliens to adopt a more nomadic lifestyle where their homes and warships are always with them and can always move wherever they like. Do you see how much they diverge?"

Personally, Ves thought that the nunsers adopted an excellent model for their fleets. By turning their homes into massive starships, they could get the best of both worlds!

"I know that many aliens in this dwarf galaxy have odd notions on how they should build their cities."

"Now consider the puelmers." Ves continued. "These funny-looking aliens are so adept with technology that they can build any kind of city. Do you know how their society has evolved in this matter? They decided to build smaller oval-shaped warships that can all land on the surface of a planet and act as their homes while they are on the ground. Does that sound familiar?"

"Both the nunsers and the puelmers are natives of the Red Ocean. It makes sense for them to adopt similar attitudes towards homes and star-faring vessels. It also makes sense that humans and many other aliens that are rooted in the Milky Way maintain a stricter separation between starships and land-based structures."

Ves smirked and waved the purple crystal in his armored hand. "Now imagine a circumstance where you have stumbled upon traces of an alien race in the Milky Way that just happens to adopt Red Ocean-style homeships. Would you say it is a coincidence or do you think it is likelier that the alien race has ties to a different galaxy?"

This caused the Daughter of Death to frown. Even if she was a self-proclaimed goddess, this scenario was truly stretching her thinking ability!

"Your conclusion is reaching towards the improbable. If you apply Occam's razor, you will find that the simplest answer is that the luminar race coincidentally developed its crystals in the same rough direction as the creators of this ruined crystal interface."

Ves shook his head. "That is the most straightforward answer, but that is only in a circumstance when you don't have any corroborating evidence. I happen to have additional information. A long time ago, Lucky and I visited an ancient ruin of a race that I called the crystal builders at the time. Aside from stumbling upon interesting crystals that seemed to make inventive use of crystals to produce light beams that possess highly interesting and destructive properties, the luminars also showed they had become proficient in developing long-ranged teleportation portals and causing objects to phase through other solid matter. In fact, Lucky inherited his phasing ability from messing around in an ancient luminar base!"

That was a long time ago. Ves could still remember the adventure somewhat vividly. He also created his first forbidden product in the form of a gamma laser weapon during the same period. Creating it had caused him to become a lot less restrained towards existing rules and conventions.

In hindsight, Ves could clearly see how the System shaped his personality to a degree. It ushered him in a direction that ultimately caused him to become reluctant to develop a close and intimate relationship with the Mech Trade Association.

It was for his own good. The mechers would literally kill to obtain the Mech Designer System. If it hadn't conveniently gone dormant and entered a lengthy upgrade cycle, Ves would have probably been found out by the Polymath herself!

Anyway, the System had played a rather heavy role in manipulating his younger and much more ignorant self, because how could he not grasp all of the powerful rewards it tossed in his direction?

He wondered whether the System also played a hand in steering him into discovering luminar crystal technology.

How could it be so coincidental that Ves just happened to hole up in a specific star system at a specific asteroid belt and just happened to have parked close to an entrance to a ruined luminar crystal settlement?

In fact, the most ridiculous part about it all was that the reason why he was able to encounter it was because Lucky became bored and started to mess around in the surrounding asteroids!

This was not the first time that Ves suspected that Lucky acted as an agent of the System.

Still, the gem cat was such a lazy idiot that Ves immediately dismissed the possibility. Lucky was probably the worst agent imaginable!

"Okay then, Ves." Helena placed her hands on her hips. "So you think the luminar race that lived in the Milky Way has a technological relation with the Red Ocean. I can even buy the theory that the ancestors of the luminars may have originated from our current galaxy. How does that help you repair these crystals? I am not an engineer, but I can still observe that the circuitry and other technical elements of the two crystals are still different from each other. They may share the same root, but that doesn't necessarily make them compatible."

"You are correct… technically."

"Technically?" His intangible sister raised her eyebrow.

"Luminar crystal tech and whatever crystal tech this alien control interface is based upon are most definitely of two different alien civilizations, but… they share enough of a relation to each other that I think I can exploit it to my advantage. The only question now is whether I should repair the original prison control interface to its closest original form, or try to use the resources and tools available to me to kludge my own interface together."

His sister couldn't help him in this matter, but he happened to know a design spirit who knew a thing or two about crystals!

"Illustrious One, it's time to shine!"

As Ves called upon the alien design spirit, he spontaneously came up with an interesting new idea.

Instead of trying to 'load' the Illustrious One inside his own mind, he shifted the design spirit to David's primordial skull instead!

Strangely enough, the attempt succeeded!

Even though the Illustrious One had clearly been caught off guard, the design spirit based on the luminar race adapted quickly and somehow managed to settle inside the skull with virtually no problems!

"That isn't supposed to happen!" Helena gasped!

"Well, it is happening anyway regardless of what you think."

Even Ves looked surprised that his latest solution actually worked. Although Ves still needed to concentrate his mind and endure a bit of strain to maintain the Illustrious One's presence, the difference in effort was significant!

If Ves previously served as a small and rather inadequate container to the various design spirits, he now functioned as a pipeline that directed the spirits in question to their new and much more adequate skull-shaped container!

"How did you come up with this idea, Ves?"

"Well, you gushed earlier about how the skull has been cleansed due to everything else dying out over time, and how our mother would perfectly be able to inhabit it again. If this applies to her, it can theoretically apply to other entities. Besides, this skull clearly used to hold a powerful primordial human in the past. It may have hollowed out since then, but its capacity remains unchanged."

David's skull previously shone in different colors due to all of the mixed energies he stuffed inside of it. Right now, the Illustrious One's descent had caused the lightshow to become practically radiant!

Not only was it shining a lot brighter than before, but it also radiated all of the colors of the rainbow in a mysteriously hypnotizing pattern!

The Illustrious One had descended, and the alien entity's spiritual energy that Ves previously deposited in the skull now served as an adequate anchor for his presence!

"Alright, you can explore the limits of this skull later. We still have a job to do. Let's get to work and decipher these alien crystals."

As Ves held the rainbow skull in one armored hand and a purple broken crystal in the other hand, he looked as if he was performing an occult ritual rather than engaging in a systematic scientific examination!

It took a lot shorter than Helena thought for Ves and his latest spiritual partner to draw a conclusion.

"Okay." He said as he stopped examining the crystal. "I think I have a good idea on what is broken and what I need to do to access at least a part of the controls. I don't have the time to properly recreate this broken crystal interface, so I need to rush it and try to patch as much stuff together as I can. I will probably need to create at least one authentic luminar crystal, however. This will be my key control crystal which I will use to access all of the other control systems that I have hopefully restored with my repair effort."

Although the plan was anything but perfect, Ves was confident that he could complete this job in the least amount of time!

He did not wait for Helena's input and immediately went to work. The minifab backpack module could finally play a useful role this time!