The Mech Touch

Ves became dazed as he thought about the outcome of his little experiment.

All of the hype and claims surrounding phasewater caused him to develop certain expectations about this wondrous exotic.

A material that could make ships travel ten times faster through the stars than before should not be average. Ves would not be surprised at all if phasewater interacted with spirituality in one manner or another.

He even speculated that its power might be derived from spiritual energy!

That would turn it into a similar substance to high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum. The implication of this was that phasewater might have a biological origin and that it was possible for alien organisms to produce it with their bodies.

One of the weirder ideas he came up with was that phasewater might actually be phase whale urine!

This was a rather ridiculous notion. What if the basis behind the functioning of the beyonder gates and the new superdrives that the Big Two and the first-rate superstates started to leverage to their advantage only worked because they were fueled by the equivalent of Lucky's gems!

"Maybe I was thinking too much." He whispered.

The ultimate result turned out to be a letdown to him.

Phasewater was powerful, special, remarkable and precious.

Phasewater wasn't a spiritually-reactive exotic, though.

The suspended sample severely affected the integrity of his spiritual probe just by generating an invisible dimensional storm around it, but it did not inherently behave any differently when coming into contact with spiritual energy.

What about Blinky, then?

Mrow.

His companion spirit was quite afraid of getting close to the phasewater sample. The way it tore up the dimensions could also inflict substantial damage to the spiritual cat's intangible body!

Not even the Worclaw crystal embedded in Blinky's forehead exhibited any abnormal reactions, though this might be because of the distance.

The only way for Ves to gather more pertinent data was to get closer, either physically or spiritually.

Ves ultimately decided not to risk it. Further probes did not yield any reactions. Ves soon retracted his spiritual probe because he saw little point in continuing this burdensome experiment.

Though this little experiment was anything but conclusive, for now it was safe for him to assume that phasewater probably didn't have any special relations to spiritual phenomena.

All of this meant that he would have to rely on technological means in order to make use of its properties. That made him no different from every other human that sought to integrate it into their mechs and starships.

Ves ultimately relaxed now that he made this discovery. He no longer became burdened by the need to obtain and experiment with phasewater in order to see whether it had any special effect on his spiritual abilities and applications.

His mentality shifted into that of a regular tourist who wanted to see what the fuss was all about. Just staying in its vicinity and subjecting his body to the faint dimensional fluctuations was an experience in itself.

"Is phasewater truly so dangerous?" Casella asked as she looked at the tiny sample with concern. "What if we get exposed to a larger quantity of phasewater?"

"What you're seeing right now is purified phasewater." A female pioneer took the initiative to explain to the woman who was obviously an expert pilot. "Just like ordinary water, phasewater is almost always tainted by other substances when it is found in nature. Phasewater doesn't blend with water and many other materials, but there are certain forms of matter that it gets along with. Once phasewater is blended, its violent and dangerous effects often become more temperate."

"So they're not as dangerous when they are impure?"

"Phasewater is always dangerous." The pioneer warned. "Its potency decreases when it comes in a blended form. We have already encountered many different blends, each of which weaken and alter the effects of phasewater in different ways. Some are able to neutralize the passive dimensional warping effects entirely, thereby making phasewater safe for transportation. There are other blends that can transform phasewater into an extremely dangerous bomb that can literally tear a hole through the material dimensions."

"What?!" Ves almost jumped when he heard this claim! "I never heard any mention of this!"

The middle-aged woman smirked. "That's because such a weapon is too destructive to the environment. The Big Two has already classified it as a weapon of mass destruction and heavily limits the spread of any technical details about these purported phase bombs. This shouldn't be a surprise because they can be just as deadly as anti-matter bombs."

That was quite a powerful threat! The anti-matter bomb was one of humanity's best way to inflict massive destruction. The thought that people like Ves could gain access to the same level of power by grabbing a bunch of phasewater and treating it in a special way was horrifying!

It shouldn't be a surprise that the Big Two strictly restricted all forms of research related to this dangerous application.

While it wouldn't stop secret research groups from developing this forbidden tech in the darker corners of human civilization, it should at least minimize the prevalence of this powerful bomb in human hands.

"I bet the Big Two have already begun to stockpile a lot of phase bombs." Ves guessed.

The other pioneer nodded. "Most certainly. What is even more frightening is that we are not the only race to have mastered this dangerous application. The indigenous alien species have lived alongside phasewater for many ages. How could they not have discovered that phasewater can punch holes through dimensions when blended in a special way? If I were you, I would maintain maximum caution should you encounter any alien fleet during your travels."

Damn, that made exploring the Red Ocean even more dangerous for the Larkinson Clan!

For all of its mech legions, expert mechs, and capital ships, Ves knew quite well that the expeditionary fleet could not withstand the power of an anti-matter bomb!

It should be just as vulnerable to a powerful phase bomb if that was the case!

Ves wasn't too afraid of getting into a tussle with an ordinary pioneering fleet. He could take comfort in the fact that his opponents were largely restricted to utilizing mechs and mech-grade armaments in order to fight.

The aliens didn't play humanity's rules, though!

There was no large interspecies governing body that artificially imposed treaties onto different alien civilizations!

"Phase bombs shouldn't be too prevalent… right?" Ves quietly asked.

"I think it is safe to assume that they are only present in larger and more organized alien fleets. This is dangerous and difficult tech even for the nunsers and puelmers. Just the amount of phasewater required to make a viable bomb is also cumbersome. If you study all of the incidents where human pioneers have made contact with alien groups, there are hardly any indications that our side has been met by ruinous bombs. It is much more probable to encounter an anti-matter bomb than a phase bomb in my opinion."

The pioneer had a point. Anti-matter explosives were difficult to make and store, but the science behind them wasn't as complex.

Ves realized an important detail. "If phasewater can be turned into bombs, it should be possible to leverage it in another way!"

"Phasewater blending has become a popular research field in the Red Ocean. You can generate entirely new effects if you are able to blend it with a new compatible substance, just as with ordinary water."

It was like putting sugar or salt in a glass of water in order to see what happened. The only differences were that the content of the glass was a lot more volatile and that the supplements were a lot more precious!

As Ves thought about what phasewater could do when blended with different materials, he suddenly arrived at an interesting notion.

What would happen if he blended phasewater with spiritually-reactive materials?

What if he dropped a pinch of grounded P-stone, B-stone or Unending alloy in a glass of phasewater?

Would the materials blend or would phasewater repel these materials?

If they succeeded in blending together, would the resulting mixture become spiritually reactive?

His eyes widened.

Perhaps phasewater might not be as limited as he thought!

Of course, it was way too soon to even think about mixing P-stones with phasewater. Getting his hands on the latter was too difficult at the moment!

"Can we buy phasewater here?"

"Hahahaha!"

The surrounding pioneers immediately laughed when they heard Ves voice this question.

"Are you kidding?! No one in their right mind would casually give away their phasewater!"

"The market price of phasewater is not only volatile, it is through the roof! You should forget about buying any if you're not backed by a huge organization. Much of the phasewater that that pioneers are gathering is directly sold to the MTA. Whatever is left will instantly be snapped up by Terrans clans and Rubarthan princes. It's not the time for second-raters like us to make use of phasewater on a wider scale."

That was a depressing answer, but not too far out of expectation. The supply of phasewater in human society needed to reach a much larger scale before it became more accessible to the rest of the galaxy. This could take decades if not centuries!

After learning as much about phasewater as the pioneers were willing to spare, Ves concluded his visit to the marketplace.

He proceeded to bring Commander Casella to a couple of other places before they were able to find two suitable resonating exotics.

The two materials not only reacted to the expert pilot, but also stimulated her domains!

That meant that they could be utilized as the key resonating exotics for Commander Casella's future expert command mech!

Though purchasing enough quantities of them to build a complete expert mech was expensive, the expense was still within a tolerable range.

Ves did not dare to skimp too much when it came to the development of a new Larkinson expert mech. He would much rather throw away more money than the lives of his clansmen!

"Are you happy with the materials that we've selected?" He asked as he and Casella left the final marketplace.

The expert pilot shrugged. "I'm not sure. While I feel good around them, I can't quite figure out why. Their effects might not be as useful as we think."

"I trust in your instincts. These resonating materials shouldn't be useless if you feel drawn to them. This is one of the lessons that I have learned after working on several expert mech design projects."

The two resonating materials that Ves had picked up today were both interesting. The way they resonated with Casella already provided them with a few hints on how they could be used.

One of them was called Talasmir. The oddly-named material was a naturally-occuring exotic that was faintly able to expand the reach of Casella's domain.

Another resonating exotic was called Pecker Carbon. It was a natural, non-metallic exotic that faintly concentrated Casella's force of will.

Both materials had a lot of promise to Ves. If he or another participating mech designer was able to figure out how to amplify their effects, then Casella's future expert mech would surely be able to augment every Larkinson mech on the battlefield!

Once Ves returned from this fruitful trip, he crossed out yet another objective on his to-do list.

There was only one more major chore left that he had to address in person before his fleet left the Vulit Central Star Node.

"It's time to recruit a couple of Journeymen Mech Designers."

This was a major undertaking that could radically change the course of the Larkinson Clan!

The Larkinsons had become so dependent on the mechs designed in-house that the addition of Journeymen with useful specializations would definitely change the way they fought!

Ves already heard that Professor Benedict had managed to recruit a batch of Journeymen to assist in his own design work.

"That's quite impressive."

It was easier for a Senior to attract the services of Journeymen than someone like Ves. As a relatively young mech designer who was still in the early stage of his career, there were many Journeymen who found it unacceptable to work for someone younger and not necessarily that much stronger!

"This is going to be quite a challenge…" Ves muttered.