The Mech Touch

Ves woke up one day and readied himself for another productive design session at the design lab. The Sentry Project was almost feature complete and only needed a bit of work in order to move on to the next phase.

It helped that Master Willix had already performed her end of the job and seamlessly integrated all of the resonating materials in the near-complete version of the design.

Of particular interest to him was the changes made to the luminar crystal rifle. The material known as Opticonium merged in the luminar crystal rifle in an odd fashion that caused him to question how resonating materials actually worked.

He knew that there had to be some sort of profound mystery behind it all, but Ves lacked too much information to figure out the mechanisms.

Still, even if he wasn't able to understand this aspect, this did not stop him from developing great expectations for his second expert mech.

Once he completed his morning routine and headed out, his wife stopped him and pulled him in another direction.

"Uhm, where are you taking me, honey?"

"The doctors over at the Dragon's Den have just sent back word that they have completed their preparations to conceive our first child. With all of the goods and services that we have provided to them, they have finally completed the design for our first baby! Isn't this great?!"

Ves looked flummoxed. "We're starting today?!"

"Of course! I can't wait any longer. I want to raise our first designer baby as fast as possible. Let's go!"

The pair along with Clixie quickly moved to the hangar bay where they took a shuttle straight to the only half-organic capital ship of the Larkinson fleet.

Once they arrived at the bioresearch vessels, they moved directly to the research labs where they entered a recently-renovated biolab that contained a whole suite of high-tech equipment.

Some of these machines even looked similar to the ones that used to occupy the Supreme Sage's pinnacle lab!

The couple first approach Dr. Ranya, who was supervising a team of experienced Lifer geneticists and doctors performing a very precise operation.

Gloriana looked through the windows and studied the lab-coated experts operating their respective lab equipment.

"Are they…"

Ranya nodded. "They have already formed the embryo and are currently in the process of verifying its health and genes."

Prior to this, the biotech experts had already cultivated a specially-prepared sperm and egg cell based on the original genes of Ves and Gloriana.

It would be too boring to allow them to come together without any further changes. In order to form a true designer baby with improved and optimized genes that imparted greater benefits, the genes had to undergo many targeted changes.

There was a whole industry around determining which genes offered the greatest help to a designer baby. These gene sequences were immensely valuable, but could not be easily copied.

This was because every human was different. General gene templates had to be adjusted to the specific individual in order to provide the greatest possible enhancement.

When Ves thought about how much it cost to improve the genes of this little embryo, his heart was already bleeding.

"Don't be concerned, Gloriana. Witshaw & Yeneca do good work. The genetics company wouldn't have been able to offer its services through the MTA if the quality of its products was not on par." Dr. Ranya attempted to calm her nervous cousin.

Gloriana couldn't get rid of all of her worries. "Formula S-635006-CIN was not the best gene package on offer. We could have gone for a newer and higher-quality offering."

"4000 MTA credits is more than enough to ensure a healthy child." Ves insisted. "Just like every other sector, the designer baby industry is subject to diminishing returns. We have to spend exponentially more money in order to obtain increasingly marginal improvements. From what I've learned, we could have obtained 80 percent of the effects of this gene package if we spent only 200 to 300 MTA credits."

400 MTA credits roughly equated to 800 billion hex credits. This sum was so amazingly high because the starting point of a designer baby was the most crucial step to raising an augmented child!

It would be too late to implement many difficult improvements after the embryo or baby had already grown to an extent. It was even more difficult to change someone's genes when they were already grown up! The younger, the better, so the best time to apply augments was right at the beginning!

"That 20 percent matters, Ves!" Gloriana placed her hands on her hips. "Don't act as if 4000 MTA credits is a big deal. You have already spent more on our capital ships, and they are much less precious than our own child. In my opinion, you should have found a way to borrow more money so that we could have bought the next best package."

Formula S-635006-CIN was actually a midrange offering from Witshaw & Yeneca. The company developed a whole line of leader-oriented gene packages that provided a suitable option for many different budgets.

The problem with Gloriana's demand was that the next best product from the genetics company was at least forty times more expensive!

This was obviously a price that wasn't even targeted towards second-raters. Only first-raters, and wealthy ones at that, were willing and able to fork over so much money to obtain a designer baby that was only ten percent or so 'better'.

"Are you sure the genes are sequences in a way that will give me a daughter to raise as a leader?" Gloriana asked in a nervous tone.

"We carefully worked with the specialists of Witshaw & Seneca to combine their gene package with the genetic material that we have prepared. We paid a lot of money in order to receive a lot of follow-up services."

The augmentation and modification process did not end once the embryo was put inside Gloriana's belly. In order to ensure that designer babies did not grow too much in the wrong direction, geneticists constantly had to supervise the growth process and manually alter any problematic genes or gene expressions that could lead to undesirable consequences.

This was actually how Gloriana was raised. She regularly received gene tune-ups throughout her life. It wasn't until she reached adulthood that she no longer needed any further gene corrections, though she was free to receive a different gene treatment.

Twenty minutes went by before all of the relevant experts verified the embryo's health and nucleic acid sequence.

Though rare, even the best-controlled processes made mistakes every now and then. This was the process of mutation and was essential to making evolution possible.

The problem was that mutation and evolution were uncontrollable factors. The whole point of obtaining a designer baby was to control their genes to the greatest extent!

"What would happen if you discovered a mutation?" Ves curiously asked.

"We dispose of the flawed product and try again." Dr. Ranya factually answered. "That hasn't happened, fortunately. The new lab equipment that we have bought from the MTA is highly capable. By the way, you should prepare for the implantation procedure, Gloriana. Now that we have confirmed the embryo is fine, we can move on to the most crucial step."

"Finally!" Gloriana grinned.

A doctor arrived to guide Gloriana to another facility.

Ves and Dr. Ranya moved over to an advanced operating theater that currently held a transparent coffin-like chamber.

"The implantation procedure will take place here. The entire process will be automated in order to guarantee the highest degree of precision. Before you ask, we have already checked all of the relevant machines multiple times. They're completely isolated from any other networks so they are not susceptible to outside signals. I even invited Calabast to inspect and improve our security measures."

Even now, quite a lot of Black Cats and other guards were stationed around the operating room. The importance of this moment couldn't be overstated as the embryo that was about to be put inside his wife would probably become his first-born child.

When Ves looked at the high-tech chamber and recalled the rather impersonal nature of preparing the genetic materials and bringing them together, began to develop more and more misgivings about this entire routine.

It all seemed so.. detached to him. Compared to the wonder of natural conception, Ves felt a distinct lack of emotions towards the process, the embryo and what he had in store for the future.

Would his first-born daughter truly end up as well as she could be if he allowed these arrangements to go through?

He couldn't say for sure. As much as many people hyped the success of designer babies, the truth was that humans were products of both nature and nurture.

Better genes certainly gave children an advantage over the competition, but the truth was that even baseline humans were capable of reaching greatness. The way they were raised and what kind of life decisions they made were just as important if not more to how much success they accomplished in their lives.

In fact, the best example of this was Star Designers. From what the general public knew about them, only 7 percent of the best mech designers of humanity were designer babies!

This was the strongest example that success could not be bought. In the end, improved genes was just one of the many possible tools to raise an accomplished descendant.

This attitude caused Ves to care a lot less about the quality of the genes of his child. He cared much more about his emotional connection to his upcoming daughter.

"I can't go on like this." He muttered.

"Pardon, sir?"

"Uhm, nothing."

Roughly half an hour passed by before the big moment had arrived. Gloriana wore a special suit as she entered the operating room and slowly entered the chamber. Once she lied down, she was quietly put to sleep.

The chamber automatically injected several parts of her body with several substances. Ves had no idea what they did, but according to Ranya they were all necessary to ensure that his wife would receive the embryo without any problems.

Soon, a thick mechanical arm extended from the ceiling. Ves immediately drew his eyes towards the tip of the robot arm. He could intuitively sense that it held something of great importance to him. He had no doubt that it held the embryo.

"It's starting."

Complete silence followed as the arm smoothly lowered and pressed against the top of the transparent chamber. A small opening emerged, allowing a smaller and thinner arm to reach down to Gloriana's stomach area.

Ves' body froze as he concentrated all of his focus. As the delicate operation approached the crucial step, his senses had become incredibly attuned.

The moment when the embryo reached its new home, Ves secretly made his move!

Mrow!

Blinky had especially prepared a tiny spiritual mote. The cat had expertly stripped every spiritual attribute except for the one revolving around life.

Ves took this purified mote and carefully wrapped it around a spiritual projection before moving it out of his mind.

Just as the embryo was beginning to settle in its warm and comfortable location, Ves silently deposited the spiritual mote inside the embryo.

Much to his surprise, he did not encounter any rejection or barrier. Despite the possible risks, the embryo hadn't suddenly blown up or displayed any adverse reactions.

To Dr. Ranya and the doctors supervising the operation, the implantation procedure had gone perfectly.

"The embryo is in excellent condition, just as we intended." Ranya smiled at Ves. "Congratulations, sir. You're about to become a father to a fantastic daughter. Even though she doesn't carry a large portion of your current genes, she bears much of the DNA you were born with. That still makes her your child. Mostly."

Ves didn't quibble over these details. All he knew was that the growing embryo inside his wife was his child in both flesh and spirit.

"I trust in you and your team's abilities. Make sure to perform frequent checks on Gloriana and her growing baby."

"That goes without saying."