The Mech Touch

The gist of Calabast's presentation was actually fairly simple.

There were enough signs of valuable resource deposits on the moons of Lemogo Distat.

There were also signs of past alien activity at Auralis.

Ves was fairly happy with the first piece of news.

He felt a lot more ambivalent about the second piece of news.

The first proper planet from the blue supergiant star was not situated close enough that nearby starships would melt from all of the heat.

It was still awfully close to the giant heat source, though. Any starship would not find it pleasant to linger in orbit of Auralis for extended periods of time!

While brief visits were fairly harmless, it became increasingly more difficult to keep the starship's vital systems in healthy condition after weeks of constant exposure!

Even if the starships of the Larkinson Clan could handle the environmental conditions, Ves would still be reluctant to send a ship to the planet at all. Just the thought of moving any closer to that humongously big, bright and powerful star was scary!

It was like standing on the edge of a cliff. It did not matter if your footing was solid. The idea that only a single accident could cause you to fall made it extremely unpalatable to stand so close to certain death!

Fortunately for Ves, it wouldn't be him that would be approaching the edge of the cliff. He was a patriarch nowadays. That meant he had lots of minions that could brave this risk on his behalf!

After they completed their discussion on how they should explore Auralis, Calabast spoke a few more words about her thoughts on the Garimel System.

"We have not found any definite signs of recent alien arrivals in this star system. That does not mean that it will stay this way. Garimel is not too far away from the former alien star nations that were recently swept by the Big Two. Only a few years have passed, and while pioneers such as ourselves have taken down a lot of remnants, there is still a chance that another remnant fleet like that of the pakklatons may stumble here for whatever reason."

"We face this risk in any star system we visit. This should be nothing new to us, Calabast." Ves retorted. "Besides, Garimel shouldn't be a worthwhile location for refugees to visit. It's too dangerous and troublesome to mine valuable materials."

"Who knows if the aliens get desperate."

"If they are truly desperate, then they shouldn't be stupid enough to travel so deep into human-occupied territory." Ves contemptuously said. "Most of them have fled towards the regions of the Red Ocean that are far away from the space that humanity has conquered. I'm sure there are stupid or irrational aliens that have gone in the other direction, but these are outliers."

"Have you forgotten about the destination the pakklaton refugee fleet was trying to reach?"

Ves nodded after he recalled this detail. "I am aware of this supposed Ancient Refuge that is supposed to harbor a paradise that keeps aliens outside of the reach of humanity. Have you and your people actually discovered where this place is located?"

Calabast shook her head in disappointment. "I am afraid not. Only a select group of high-ranking pakklaton officers memorized the star coordinates of their fleet's ultimate destination. Of all of the bird aliens stationed on the ships that we have managed to capture during the last battle, every single officer that knew this information has died without exception. They either committed suicide or threw themselves onto the voribugs. They made sure not to leave bodies that were intact enough for us to extract the information from their brains."

"Did none of the aliens store the star coordinates in any of their electronic systems?"

"Just because they're aliens doesn't mean they're stupid. Their information security is good. From the beginning of their flight from their collapsing star nation, the leaders of the alien fleet decided not to record any information about the Ancient Refuge on their storage devices. The reason why they took so many precautions is because they want to make certain that not a single human is able to reach the star system. Pioneers like us may not necessarily be able to get into the Ancient Refuge, but we can blockade the entrance and prevent any other refugee fleet from reaching their promised land."

"Damn. I guess we've come to a dead end in the investigation." Ves sighed.

While he was aware that there were over 40,000 pakklatons aboard the Dragon's Den, the aliens probably wouldn't have been sloppy enough to leak the coordinates to the survivors.

From what he heard, many of the aliens in captivity consisted of civilians, juveniles and low-ranking crew members. An ordinary grunt or sensor operator wouldn't know any high-level secrets.

"Forget about the Ancient Refuge." She told her. "Even if we find it, I don't think we have the strength and capabilities to touch this place. It should already be enough for us to explore this star system."

"You're right I guess."

Calabast stood up from her chair and began to explore Ves' office. She studied the trinkets that he had collected over the years such as his blooming Prosperity Tree and the masterwork figure based on the Valkyrie Redeemer model.

"How have you been as of late?" She asked.

Seeing that the spymaster turned this meeting into a more personal direction, Ves shrugged as best he could.

"I'm happy. While we are not yet in a comfortable place, many of the endeavors that I have started are already experiencing sufficient growth. They won't yield any harvest in the short term, but we will be in a much better position a few years from now. By then, we'll become a lot more established in the Red Ocean. Our armed forces will have grown stronger while our business operations allow us to spend a lot more lavishly than before."

As Ves shared his optimism, Calabast stopped in front of a projection that he had put up as of late. It showed a simple snapshot of Ves, his wife and their daughter.

"Your life is picking up." She observed. "I heard that you also experienced a breakthrough in your work."

"Yes. I realized that I should be focusing on realizing the concept of growth mechs in my work. It's an advantage that only I can pursue to the fullest. You should already be able to judge its value should I succeed."

"I can understand the implications, yes. You do realize that you'll become an extremely hot commodity if you succeed, right? You will need to pay a lot more attention to your movements if that is the case."

Ves grimaced when he heard that. He fully understood the implications of her words.

"That should only happen once I become a Senior, I think. Journeymen like myself are not taken seriously enough in the mech community. This is especially the case in the Red Ocean where a disproportionate amount of highly-renowned Seniors and Masters have moved over. Compared to mech designers that have already proven their worth to varying degrees, I still need to make my ideas work. I anticipate that it will probably take years if not decades for me to achieve a critical breakthrough in my research. Once that happens, my mechs should be advanced enough to produce dramatic results. By that time, my wanderlust should have lessened, I think."

Part about being a Journeyman and a fairly young one at that was the need to explore and find new sources of inspiration.

Once Ves gained enough inspiration and became more certain about his future trajectory, he wouldn't be as desperate to find new stimuli anymore.

While he would never wish to settle down on a planet, he might instruct his fleet to linger in the safer parts of the Red Ocean. He could leave the exploration to the younger generation of the Larkinson Clan.

As Calabast observed his expressions, she understood what he was thinking about. She smiled.

"It is good if you think about our future. We are a young clan that needs to take bold action in order to carve out a place in the Red Ocean. Once the growth that you have envisioned has come to fruition, we will need to reevaluate our strategies. It doesn't hurt to slow down and consolidate all of the gains we have made up to that point. If you want the Larkinson Clan to turn from a flash in the pan to an enduring star, you need to introduce a lot more stability. We shouldn't bring our core fleet to unexplored star systems where a single unfortunate incident can wipe out our entire clan."

She was right. Though Ves would not have agreed with her sentiment if he was younger, now that he had become a parent, he began to worry about how his decisions affected his daughter.

He had changed.

"I guess this is part of the growth process as well, huh?" Ves idly chuckled. "I still have a lot to go before I am ready to stop my explorations. I'm still a Journeyman and I can still obtain a lot of new ideas if I encounter anything new. A part of me actually wants to travel to Auralis in person. There has to be something funny going on over there if it attracted an alien fleet in the past."

Calabast glowered at him. "I hope you have wisely set aside this foolish idea."

"Relax. I have no desire to get any closer to the giant blue ball. Enough about me. What about you? I haven't checked up on you for a while. How is your dating life?"

"It's been slow going." She admitted. "We have too many responsibilities to spare any time for social engagements. I can keep track of Chief Minister Novilon Purnesse by remote, so I have no pressing need to meet with him. We are stationed on different ships most of the time so it is inconvenient to transit to each other."

"Are you still serious about pursuing this relationship?"

Calabast smirked at Ves. "Who can tell? We'll just have to see where we go. I am not in a hurry and neither is Novilon."

"How are your Black Cats doing as of late?"

"They're doing good. I have invested a lot into training my people. Their spycraft is improving with each passing day. Other than that, I have spent a considerable portion of our budget in expanding our intelligence network in the Krakatoa Middle Zone. You shouldn't expect too much from the shallow contacts that I have cultivated, but once we are ready to dispatch the agents that I am training, we can do a lot more in this region."

He thought about what all of those operatives of hers would be doing in Davute and other star systems.

"I'm not quite comfortable with sending out clansmen to all of these locations. They will be away from our family most of the time."

"That is what it means to be a Black Cat, Ves. We do jobs that other people cannot do. We do them because it will better the rest of our clan. I have made sure to prepare them for their long-term assignments as much as possible. Besides, these job assignments are hardly permanent. Once they have spent enough time in the field, we will pull them back and assign them to different departments."

"What are you training them for, exactly?" Ves asked. "I only have a vague idea of what you have in mind."

"It's just the usual. Spying, catching spies, spreading misinformation, committing sabotage, conducting assassinations, laying the blame on others and inducing gullible parties into performing the aforementioned activities are the skills I expect my agents to master."

"...That sounds like you are readying our clan for war."

"It's better to be prepared, Ves." She spoke in a serious tone. "You may be right in thinking that all of these preparations are overblown, but if we find ourselves in a precarious situation once again, I will make sure we have enough intelligence support this time."

She had been burned by his decisions far too many times! Now that she had the time to prepare, she wanted to make sure that her Black Cats would never fall short again!