The Mech Touch

Ves established a good working relationship with Miss Alexa Striker.

Though he only met a few months ago and only ever spoke to her by remote, the teaching assistant assigned by the Eden Institute of Business & Technology never proved to be a hindrance.

In fact, it was the opposite. He could hardly think of a more perfect assistant!

Not only did Alexa prove to be diligent and knowledgeable in her work, she also supported Ves in a sincere and unprejudiced manner.

Ves expected that he would have to work hard to earn the approval of the Terrans and overcome their ingrained bias against a mere second-rater like himself.

After all, they were part of one of the great powers of the human race, and possessed a long heritage that stretched all the way back to the Age of Stars!

Perhaps it was par t of her training or perhaps she genuinely respected his accomplishments.

Whatever the case, Ves found Alexa to be an excellent confidante as he prepared to teach a bunch of formal classes at a legitimate university for the first time.

While Ves had no illusions that other Terrans would prove as tolerant and easy-going as Alexa, he at least became a lot more confident about his ability to teach his upcoming classes with the help of a supportive insider.

He would never be able to navigate all of the rules and handle all of the paperwork correctly without an attentive assistant taking care of the bureaucracy on her end!

He also doubted that he would have been able to become aware of all of the invisible cultural rules that Terrans cared about the most without the guidance from his teaching assistant.

Nonetheless, Ves clearly understood that Alexa could only help him in peripheral matters. He still needed to do the heavy lifting of imparting useful theories to his students and helping them acquire new proficiencies.

If his teaching content and teaching methods turned out to be inadequate, then the Eden Institute would never be able to justify his continued employment!

Ves would lose what might possibly be his only early opportunity to get in touch with a lot of first-raters at this stage in his career!

It became crucially important that he not only made his students smarter and more competent by the end of the semester, but also gained their approval in the process!

"The Eden Institute especially marketed your new Frontier Wisdom elective course to all of our students." Alexa explained. "Given the content of your subjects, it offers more appeal to our business students than our mech design students as the former are more likely to attain leadership positions where they have enough agency to make use of the knowledge that you have taught."

Ves nodded in acknowledgement. "I already expected as much. The syllabus for this course is not particularly heavy on technical matters. How appealing is Frontier Wisdom to the students of the Eden Institute?"

"This course has proven to be particularly popular, but not always for the right reasons. There are students who clearly signed not because they take your wisdom seriously, but because they wanted to coast through an easy class where they hardly need to employ complicated science or academic theories to earn a passing grade."

That sounded a bit insulting to Ves. He tried his best to turn Frontier Wisdom into a legitimate and useful package of lessons!

"While it is true that Frontier Wisdom is not academic, I don't intend to make it easy for people to pass." He stated in a severe tone. "Are professors allowed to issue graded assignments where students have to navigate challenging situations in highly realistic simulated environments?"

Alexa nodded. "Yes. This is a common teaching and grading method in any first-class school, particularly universities such as ours. Each of our graduates must be well-prepared to utilize what they have learned to solve real problems in professional settings. If you intend to do more than hold exams for this course, then you will need to prepare simulation scenarios in advance."

"Don't worry. I think I will be able to whip up a few exciting scenarios that will test the courage and the decision-making abilities of my cute little students." Ves deviously grinned. "By the way, how many students have signed up to learn what I have to teach about Frontier Wisdom?"

"The dean has set the limit at 250 students." Alexa replied. "Around two-thirds of them are business majors while the remaining third consist of mech design and other majors. They are not restricted by years so you will have to lecture first-year students as well as five-year students." That sounded a bit messy, but Ves could deal with it. He only thought that it would be a bit of a burden to grade the assignments and exam papers of so many individual students.

Ves and Alexa continued to discuss the logistics of his upcoming classes. The new semester was scheduled to start fairly soon, which meant that Ves had to reserve numerous time slots in his weekly schedule to fulfill his teaching obligations.

All of this work significantly decreased the amount of time he would be able to spend on his core job of mech design!

It would be difficult for him to complete all of his new design projects in a tight time frame.

Still, Ves did not regret applying to teach at the Eden Institute and agreeing to teach three different courses.

As long as he survived the first semester, he would gain a solid foothold in a first-class community!

It would become easier than ever for him to learn the comprehensive aspects of first-class mech design by taking advantage of his employment relationship with an authentic Terran university!

The greatest challenge at the moment was to find a comfortable balance between his two major obligations.

Doing well in his teaching job facilitated his long-term of becoming a first-rater.

Doing well in completing his current batch of design projects directly increased the performance of his troops and increased his probability of surviving future crises in the short and medium term!

If Ves truly had to make a choice, then he would pick the latter over the former without any hesitation, but he was confident that it wouldn't come to this point.

He just had to make sure that he was productive enough to complete his enormous workload in time!

Once Ves and his assistant completed their discussion on more mundane but necessary topics, they began to speak about other matters.

"I have received information that the fleet you are traveling on has just defeated a fleet of alien warships." Alexa spoke with a hint of concern in her voice.

Although the Golden Skull Alliance did not take the initiative to broadcast any information about this battle, it was not particularly hidden. The Red Two maintained a database that tracked many important events in the war between red humanity and the indigenous aliens.

Ves nodded. "That is correct. We earned 300 million MTA merits from this battle. This is probably a small sum to a Terran like you, but it is still a respectable reward for second-raters like myself. It's a shame that our clan had to split the reward with four other pioneering groups."

"Pardon me for asking this, but do you ever feel nervous about the possibility of losing or dying? A Senior Mech Designer of your status and attainments is not required to accompany troops as they enter into dangerous territories. Why do you insist on risking your own life when you can easily do your work in the rear? There is always a possibility that an alien warship will launch a superweapon that can instantly destroy your ship!"

The two mech designers made for a stark contrast. Ves appeared completely relaxed as he did not think his situation was anything special. Meanwhile, Alexa looked as frightened as if she was the one who risked her life in an expedition!

"My answer to this question is a bit complicated." Ves calmly replied as he motioned for his assistant to relax. "1 will explain my perspective during my Frontier Wisdom classes. I think you will be able to get a fairly complete answer by that time."

"Is there no other choice? The Eden Institute of Business & Technology has never hired a remote professor that actively insists on participating directly in the war against the natives. Our department did not hire you with the expectation that you would actively expose yourselves to combat. At the very least, our department is concerned that an incident might occur that will prevent you from holding your classes in time."

Incidents such as dying as a phase whale ripped apart the entire expeditionary fleet for example!

Ves crossed his arms. "I am aware that this is a highly unusual situation for your school, but I will not compromise on this matter. The Eden Institute knew what it was getting when it chose to hire me. The risks are real, but I think that a mech designer like myself who is proactively working to secure red humanity's space against hostile aliens can teach a lot more about Frontier Wisdom than a stuffy academic whose only notable combat experience is winning a debate against a rival scientist."

That was certainly true. Ves may be a second-rater, but he was also an adventurer and a self-made man. The school administration was clever enough to recognize that people like him thrived in times of turmoil!

Alexa sighed. "We are all concerned about the escalating war. Our Terran Alliance is still holding strong, but we are noticing that the Red MTA and Red CFA are not always diligent in protecting our borders."

"Oh?" Ves straightened his back a bit. "What do you mean by that, Alexa?"

"Human space in the Red Ocean is divided into three broad regions. There is the Terran Alliance where the Eden Institute resides. There is the Red Ocean Union where you are currently operating from. And then there is the Rubarthan Pact where those imperialistic rebels have sought to establish a new empire."

Her tone clearly turned sour when she brought up the Rubarthans.

"I know that." Ves responded. "Are you saying that the Red Two are pulling their forces away from the borders of the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact?"

"The mechers and the fleeters are not being so blatant about it, but our analysts have noticed an increase in the amount of alien raiding fleets that are getting past the defenses organized by the Red Two. We are being forced to dispatch more and more defenders to the frontlines to protect our colonies from raids. The cosmopolitans have given the indigenous aliens a good understanding of our societal divisions, so our Terran mech forces must resist much stronger alien raiders than the ones that you are likely to face."

That sounded interesting to Ves. He did not really pay attention to the differences between the Red Ocean Union and the other two broad alliances.

"I don't think it is likely for the Red Two to neglect their duty to defend your space." He told her. "If the mechers and fleeters become too negligent, then that will give you Terrans a justification to secede from the current order and form an independent star nation of their own. Our current overlords wouldn't so stupid to give you people this chance."

This was a highly charged political subject, so Alexa did not say much more about this matter.

Ves still found it interesting to learn about the concerns and developments inside the Terran Alliance.

The transition to the Age of Dawn caused a lot of change among the Terrans who ended up stuck inside the Red Ocean that had teleported over to M87's orbit.

The separation from their powerful first-rate superstate severely damaged their confidence.

The enormous distance between their current locations and Old Earth also affected their psyche.

The Terrans had always based their identity around their more direct connection to humanity's ancestral planet.

Now that they become isolated from the Milky Way, how would they be able to maintain their current identities?

The more time passed by, the less the Terrans would have any connections to the planet that inspired their name!