The Mech Touch

While Venerable Jannzi explored the capabilities of her reinvented Shield of Samar for the first time, two happy parents were enjoying their parental leave in their grand stateroom.

"She's so cute." Gloriana impishly smiled at the baby sleeping against her ċhėst.

"Miaow~"

Clixie wondrously looked up at the baby. Even though she wasn't a human, the cat felt the strong urge to watch over the newborn.

Rubarthan Sentinel Cats were originally developed to protect and accompany rich little girls. While bots could perform the same job as well, the difference was that cats were capable of displaying genuine love and affection.

At this moment, her genetic programming already came into force. As long as her presence wasn't unwelcome, Clixie would always be there to banish the girl's loneliness!

The only problem was that the new baby didn't appear to be alone.

Maow.

Alexandria, who rested on Gloriana's shoulder, issued a special cry.

A moment later, a smaller and softer cry emerged from the baby.

..Miew…

A small white Persian spiritual kitten emerged from the baby's head. The little intangible puffball wobbled in the air as she tried and failed to reach the older red cat.

Maow maow~

Gloriana's companion spirit shook her head and flew forth to clutch the white kitten in her paws. Alexandria then proceeded to give the kitten she considered to be her own child a bath!

…Miew miew!...

Clixie's tail drooped at the sight. She couldn't do what Alexandria could do. She was the only cat that was 'normal' in the family, and that came with more downsides than upsides.

"It's okay, Clixie." Ves picked the furry cat up and rubbed her head. "You'll be allowed to cuddle with our baby soon enough. Her immune system is already strong since she's a designer baby, but it's best to wait for another week until her resistance to germs kicks into gear."

"Miaow."

As a designer baby, Ves and Gloriana's daughter was doomed to live an abnormal life. The extensive gene modification regime commissioned from Witshaw & Yeneca did not end at the moment of birth.

The new member of the family would continue to receive highly-targeted injections, medication and genetic treatments throughout her entire youth and adolescence.

Each of them had a purpose. Whether it was activating latent genes or suppressing problematic ones, even the growth of a designer baby had to be controlled.

If designer children did not receive targeted adjustments for an extended amount of time, then the odds were great that they would develop serious or even fatal defects. Due to their highly altered genetic profile, they were never supposed to grow up like normal children!

However, all of this effort was worth it in the end. Once the designer children grew up, they became smarter, healthier, more observant and maybe even more long-lived than their average counterparts.

This was one of the main ways families and dynasties remained successful and in power from generation to generation. They invested a disproportionate amount of money and resources into raising talented and excellent offspring.

It didn't matter whether all of their talent and ability were manufactured. As long as it was possible to make a son or daughter more impressive by spending lots of money, there were plenty of parents who would go into debt just to give their descendants a better future!

As Ves and Gloriana sat next to each other in order to gaze lovingly at their new baby, neither of them thought about the price they paid to Witshaw & Yeneca. As far as they were concerned, they would have spent ten times the money just to give their baby a marginally higher starting point!

"Look. Aurelia has your nose." Gloriana softly cooed as she rocked her sleeping baby.

"I can already tell that she will grow up to be a bright young woman one day." Ves said as he embraced his wife.

Aurelia Wodin-Larkinson. That was their baby girl's name.

A lot of heated and contentious discussion preceded the official naming of their child. Ves and Gloriana both held different ideas on how their first daughter should be called.

For some reason, Gloriana strongly favored names that followed the same pattern as her own name. Whether it was Viviana or Mariana, her baby had to carry a name that ended with -ana in order to make her perfect!

Ves heavily disagreed with this naming scheme. He didn't want Gloriana to treat their daughter like a miniature version of herself!

"Your mother Constance didn't bestow you with a name that ends with -ance." He pointed out at the time. "So don't tell me this is a sacred tradition or something. Our baby deserves to have a name that befits her unique identity. She is my daughter as well as yours, you know."

His suggestions skewed away from anything that resembled the name of his wife. He came up with suggestions like Celeste and Katerina that were supposed to be both classy and distinct.

It took a lot of effort, but Ves had succeeded in winning this argument. The final list of names they eventually settled upon did not contain any names that ended with -ana.

This was how their daughter became Aurelia.

As a concession to Ves getting his way, Gloriana insisted that their daughter's last name be known as Wodin-Larkinson.

"She doesn't need a compound name, honey. She's a Larkinson and nothing else!"

"She's my child as well, Ves, and I do not want her to forget where the other half of her bloodline comes from! I don't want her to grow up thinking that she doesn't have any other family besides other Larkinsons. Our baby has two grandmothers!"

Ves eventually acquiesced to this demand. In practice, it didn't matter as long as their daughter was solely raised in the clan. With the strong institutions and culture of the Larkinsons, he had no worries that his wife would succeed in turning their daughter into a Hexer.

Aurelia was an elegant and sophisticated name for a girl. To Ves, it fit well for a woman that was being groomed to become a leader. The name managed to hit the right balance where it sounded classy enough without becoming too pretentious.

"Oh, her little snowball is cute as well! Alexandria will take excellent care of Mana, hihihi!"

It turned out that Gloriana did get her way, eventually.

She might have missed the opportunity to bestow her baby with a name that ended with -ana, but she didn't let go of the chance to name the infant companion spirit that was born from Aurelia's spirituality!

Thankfully, unlike with her own companion spirit, Gloriana kept the name of Aurelia's life-long spiritual cat short and succinct.

She didn't even ask Ves where Mana came from. Perhaps she already suspected the truth or perhaps she thought that Alexandria's creation automatically meant her baby gained a cat as well.

Whatever the case, the new mother had become far too obsessed about her child to waste her time on other distractions.

Soon enough, Mana flew back into Aurelia's tiny head to rest as well.

In fact, whether it was the baby or her companion spirit, both of them slept for the majority of time since their birth!

Little Aurelia only woke up long enough to cry and feed before she slept again. This pattern repeated frequently, and Gloriana personally attended to the baby's needs each and every time.

This was both an exhausting and fulfilling process. Gloriana enjoyed feeding Aurelia the natural way. Ves could clearly see their bonds of love deepening with each session.

Sometimes, Aurelia had to be fed with an artificial, custom-made solution formulated by Witshaw & Yeneca.

Gloriana's body wasn't able to provide the special nutrients and other organic substances a designer baby needed to grow in a special way.

For some reason, their little daughter always noticed the difference. They already tried to have a nanny bot feed Aurelia, but she continued to cry until an actual human held her and soothed her to sleep.

"What a fussy girl." Ves exasperatingly said.

Changing diapers was never a problem, much to his relief. Aurelia wore outfits that incorporated a handy waste management system that pushed all of the output into a small canister that bots could automatically replace when filled.

There was little the parents could do about the crying, though. Even though their girl slept most of the time, she had to be served whenever she woke up! It started to drive Ves crazy and they only had their daughter for a few days!

After Gloriana had her fill of holding her new baby, she moved over to a new chamber in their grand stateroom. She personally overhauled the interior until it turned into a miniature paradise for young ladies.

The new room featured pink walls, pastel decorations, a ceiling with twinkling stars, a soft, high-tech crib and hundreds of toys suitable for children of various ages.

Ves was particularly impressed by the stuffed animal bots and immense dollhouse.

The former were toy bots with a soft and fluffy exterior. They could act cute, move on their own and hold conversations depending on their model. Ves made sure that their programming and construction didn't contain any risk factors.

As for the dollhouse… that was Gloriana's handiwork.

He didn't know how she managed to squeeze the time to design and fabricate something so disturbingly intricate and life-like!

The dollhouse was modeled after an imperial palace. It featured an imperial throne room where the tiny empress was meant to hold court in front of dozens of ministers and high officials.

What was even more absurd was that the empress had 6 consorts and 36 children!

Ves knew them quite well, because his wife demanded that he make each and every AI-driven doll by hand.

Of course, it would take some years before his baby was even ready to play with the dollhouse.

"I should make my own toys for our girl." He grumbled.

Once Gloriana finished with laying Aurelia in her crib, she and Ves quietly left their daughter's room.

Neither of them worried too much about their baby. She was the most guarded child in the fleet. Not only did her room contain a whole suite of security and detection measures, a team of loyal Kinner honor guards constantly kept watch.

Clixie had opted to stay in the room as well. Ves had already issued an alarm device to her. The cat took her duty seriously and would rather die before letting anyone harm the baby!

The couple tiredly sat down again.

"I wish my mother was here." Gloriana said. "So far, she was only able to greet her grandchild by projection."

Ves frowned. "At least your mother Constance can talk and look at Aurelia whenever she wants. My mother on the other hand…"

That was a bit of a weird topic. Technically, the Superior Mother was around all the time, but she was a distinct and autonomous existence most of the time. Cynthia remained inaccessible most of the time.

Ves had attempted to let his mother know about her new granddaughter if the Superior Mother couldn't pass on the good news. He had made use of the Xona Communication Crystal that his clan had once picked up in the Nyxian Gap and used the brief interval of time to transmit a message.

He hadn't received any answer, but it took a few days for these ċumbersome alien crystals to get ready to receive or transmit signals again.

Ves wasn't even sure whether the transmission reached its destination. Distance likely wasn't a factor but the extreme space distortion of the anomalous region probably warped every signal!

He truly hoped his mother learned that her son had become a father.