The Mech Touch

Ves became very intrigued by the P.P. that Master Willix gifted him. The tall obelisk-like device exuded a sense of mystery.

Aside from his mechs, the P.P. was the first example of a device that interacted directly with spirituality that Ves had ever seen.

Since the Mech Trade Association depended so heavily on specific applications of psionic power, it was a given that they would research how to leverage it outside of the minds of mech designers.

However, the difficulty in observing and manipulating it severely hampered any research in this nebulous field.

Yet that did not stop the best researchers of the galaxy. The MTA was one of the two apex organizations of humanity. If their scientists and mech designers failed to grasp psionic power directly, then there were many ways to manipulate it indirectly.

The P.P. was probably one of the results of their painstaking research.

Unlike the Darkbreak module, which was another exclusive MTA product, the P.P. was coated in white.

As Ves tuned his senses towards the P.P., he made a number of remarkable discoveries.

First, much of the structure of the P.P. was purely technological. The only portion of the obelisk-like machine that directly harnessed psionic power was a small lump buried deep in the center of the pylon.

What was the purpose of all of this tech? Ves refused to believe they were useless. The MTA was not the kind of organization that encouraged waste. The expensive, unknown parts each thrummed with power generated from an internal reactor.

Yet as Ves peered deeper, it wasn't the technological components that stood out.

The P.P. already radiated the presence of spirituality despite not being keyed into his design philosophy yet. Someone or something already filled it up with spiritual energy.

As Ves studied the properties of what he felt, he discovered to his surprise that it was very neutral!

Yes, neutral!

He had never encountered spiritual energy with this property before. Every variety of spiritual energy he encountered came with defined attributes. This was because spiritual energy came from life, more specifically sentient life. The thoughts and emotions of intelligent creatures formed the basis of spirituality.

How could any life who possessed emotions generate spiritual energy that was essentially devoid of flavor?

Ves previously thought it was impossible!

Generating neutral spiritual energy was not as simple as stripping spiritual energy of its attributes. This wasn't possible, as spirituality came in defined 'shapes' for a lack of a better description. Each shape was slanted towards a specific attribute.

For something to have no attribute, they shouldn't have a shape. Yet this was a logical trap as something that didn't have a shape was non-existent!

This was what he always thought, but now it turned out that his theories were wrong.

As Ves partially tuned out Master Willix's explanation, he continued to look deeper into the special spiritual energy contained within the P.P.

He eventually found out that neutral spiritual energy actually possessed a 'shape' as well. It just came in a form that he did not expect!

It was difficult to describe what he sensed. Neutrality did not signify the absence of flavor. Instead, it was an attribute in itself! All he knew was that the MTA somehow developed a way to produce a unique variety of neutral spiritual energy.

What was the purpose of its existence? Why would the MTA put this highly-specific kind of spiritual energy into P.P.'s? Its unnatural properties suggested to Ves that it was a lot harder to generate than normal attributes. Ves was pretty sure that no natural process could generate something that felt so artificial!

The quality and purity of the spiritual energy locked inside the P.P. was also very high. Despite its small quantity, the neutral spiritual energy gave him the impression that it transcended the regular barriers of distance.

That reminded him of something. His eyes shifted to Master Willix.

Was she.. the source of this neutral spiritual energy?

He did not dare to peer directly at her blindingly strong spirituality. Yet when he compared her strong presence to that of the P.P., he believed he might be on the right track!

The P.P. made a lot more sense if the two shared a relation! Either Master Willix or some other powerful mech designer supplied precious neutral spiritual energy to the device in order to activate its functionality.

Through these clues, Ves quickly deduced how the P.P. was able to extend a mech designer's influence.

According to his theory, the P.P. likely demanded a spiritual fragment from him. Yet holding his spiritual fragment wasn't enough to make his mechs retain their special qualities imparted by his design philosophy.

The neutral spiritual energy probably served as a carrier or amplifier. Due to its completely inoffensive properties, it could easily blend in with his spiritual fragment. Once the two combined, his fragment probably received a lot of strengthening. 

The advantages of fusing these two elements were probably two-fold.

First, it increased his spiritual fragment's influencing range to the point it could act as a substitute for his design seed.

Second, it added a sense of permanency and stability to his fragment. This prevented it from decaying or aging over time.

Ves became increasingly more certain that neutral spiritual energy actually originated from Master Mech Designers, and not just any of them. The only method of generating neutral spiritual energy that he could think of was trying to generate them from sentient but unfeeling minds!

This theory made a lot of sense! It added another reason why rational mech designers existed and why the MTA valued them so much. Their ability to strip their minds of their emotions and rely on pure logic was probably the key to adding a neutral attribute to their domains!

Master Willix had no idea that Ves might have figured out the essence of P.P.'s! While all of the technological components signified that there was still more to them than he currently understood, they probably played auxiliary roles at best.

The spiritual core of a P.P. was what truly mattered!

"...Our Association developed psionic pylon technology with great effort to solve the range problem of younger and developing mech designers. Before the existence of P.P.'s, Seniors and lower were largely confined to a specific region. As soon as they moved far enough away, their existing products in the hands of local users largely lost the qualities that gave them an edge. This is undesirable for both the mech designer and his customers. Can you explain why, Mr. Larkinson?"

Ves quickly turned back to the conversation. "Ah, for one, the professional reputation of the mech designer who went away will be ruined. No one likes to buy a product for its strong defense or something, only for it to lose that advantage a few years later. Such incidents will stain the track records of the mech designers in question, thereby hampering their future endeavors."

"Correct, but there's more."

"If incidents like this take place too often, then the overall market for mechs will become a lot less attractive. Consumer confidence will dip as no one will know for sure whether a mech designer will commit to a specific star sector or star cluster."

Master Willix nodded. "In general, we encourage mech designers to remain confined in a single region. Journeymen should stay in their native star sectors while Seniors should not travel beyond their star clusters."

Ves frowned. "Then why do people recommend that Journeymen should travel around to widen their horizons?"

"Traveling is okay as long as it stays within an acceptable range. Did you not go on such a tour yourself a few years ago? You have gained much from your travels, I am sure. This is usually sufficient to enrich most Journeymen."

Ves grew a bit suspicious about these circumstances.

"Are there any underlying reasons why it's better for mech designers to remain in their local haunts?"

She gave him an approving nod. "Since you are observant enough to recognize it, I will not deny it. We have ulterior motives to keep mech designers in their respective regions. It is for their own good. If the mech market is truly borderless, then what do you think will happen from a competitive perspective?"

It didn't take much for Ves to imagine the consequences.

"Stronger competitors from the galactic center will probably be able to squeeze out the weaker ones from the less-developed regions. The standard of mech design in the Komodo Star Sector is quite low. While the local mech designers are quite good at minimizing costs and making efficient use of local materials, we are much worse off in terms of maximizing performance or adding more sophisticated functionality to our mech designs."

"The Association thinks so as well. Novices, Apprentices, Journeymen and Seniors should be able to earn a comfortable living as long as they are able to design and sell decent mechs. Too many careers will be strangled if they are subject to a huge amount of unrestricted competition. The market for mechs designed by Seniors and lower must be inherently divided in order to provide development opportunities to as many mech designers as possible."

More successful mech designers translated to more realized design philosophies. The MTA did not want a small group of mech designers capturing the bulk of the galactic mech market. That went counter to their goal of improving the overall standard of mechs until they were able to supplant warships!

"What about Masters?" Ves asked. "Are they confined from conducting business as well?"

"No." She shook her head. "Masters do not require protection anymore. We are proficient enough to compete in any market in any possible region. In actuality, few Masters actually take the opportunity to expand their business to every corner of human space. Different markets have different preferences, and the availability of specific exotics can fluctuate very drastically from region to region. Therefore, in practice, Masters will still focus primarily on marketing their products closer to home."

"What about the trans-galactic mech companies?"

"They are immensely wealthy and immensely powerful. These publicly traded megacorporations have invested an immense amount of sums in building up branches and subsidiaries in almost every star sector or star cluster. A sufficient local presence allows these huge mech companies to push their mainstream mech models to a wide variety of local mech markets by relying on the branch headquarters to translate standardized mech designs into localized variants."

This was an enormous subject matter and not something that Ves was qualified to be involved with at his current stage.

Due to the sheer amount of stakeholders, mech designers and money involved, these megacorporations were almost always public rather than private. They were too big to be owned or controlled by a single entity.

They turned back to the original topic.

"Does this P.P. only work for a single mech designer?" Ves asked.

"Yes."

"Then what about my wife?"

"I have already gifted Miss Wodin with her own P.P." Master Willix replied. She waved her hand, causing a projection of another P.P. to appear. "Her model is a little more advanced than yours. Normally, you would have to exchange 1.2 million MTA merits to obtain this device."

The projection of Gloriana's P.P. was noticeably bigger than his own!

"What? Why is her P.P. longer than mine? This is unfair!"

The Master Mech Designer crossed her arms.

"Bigger isn't necessarily better, Mr. Larkinson. In truth, the effective range of P.P.'s is partially dependent on the mech designer in question. Your design philosophy harnesses psionic power much more directly than that of your spouse. This means you need less of a boost than hers. Your partner's design philosophy is considerably more nuanced than yours, so she deserves a larger P.P. Don't feel too bad about yourself. Size doesn't matter. It's how you use it. I have faith that you can make the most of your compact P.P."

Even if Ves accepted her rationale, why did he still feel inadequate?