The Mech Touch

The first observation he made after Ves regained his bearings after getting teleported was that he had ended up in yet another hangar bay.

Many of the impressive first-class multipurpose mechs that he had seen in action through the live feed were right in sight!

Ves held a breath as he looked up to a nearby MTA mech. He recalled that this specific auxiliary model was the one responsible for receiving the shield link beam transmitted by the Paracelsus Optimus, thereby providing strong protection to over a hundred nearby mechs!

"Impressive, is it not? This model is part of a new wave that seeks to further expand the strength and utility of mechs on the battlefield."

He turned around to face a figure that was quietly floating towards his position.

The man that appeared in front of him did not wear the lab coats that mech designers typically wore. Instead, he wore a hypermodern utility suit that provided excellent protection and functionality in a package that was not that much bulkier than a vacsuit.

It also happened to come in a bright orange shade with even brighter lines.

Whatever Ves expected from the Transhumanist, it wasn't this! The man wore his garishly loud orange suit with no apparent discomfort over his appearance. It was as if such concerns were beyond his considerations!

When he studied the man's face, he saw that it was unnaturally smooth, making the fellow appear as if he was of the same age as Ves.

This was impossible.

The posture and demeanor of the new arrival already told Ves that he was dealing with an old geezer!

Having met plenty of older and distinguished men, Ves had developed a keen ability to recognize them based on various clues.

Besides, he developed an even more reliable measure of someone's age and importance.

The man's spirituality was like a blazing sun! Only Master Mech Designers possessed such powerful strength!

"Hello, Master…"

"Ah, let me introduce myself." The grey-haired man smiled and made a shallow bow. "I am Master Termaneo Dervidian, currently stationed on the Paracelsus Optimus. I do not expect you to recognize my appearance, but if you have been keeping up with the latest developments in the mech industry, I believe you should recognize my name if nothing else."

To be honest, the MTA Master's name did not ring a bell at all. Ves quickly had to use his cranial implant's search function to dig up any memories where he had encountered this odd name in the past.

His eyes quickly widened. "You… you are one of the lead developers of the minidrive!"

Ves was shocked that he was meeting with someone who had successfully affected the course of human history and development in a major fashion!

While Master Dervidian's invention was not as grand as the beyonder gate, the work he had done on miniaturizing warp drives and FTL drives was crucial in granting mechs the ability to move a lot further without needing any help from starships!

Though minidrives were still too expensive to allow for widespread adoption, just the fact that the tech became available meant that it could always be improved in the future!

The starting point was the hardest. Ves couldn't imagine how much work and effort Master Dervidian poured into leveraging phasewater to make drives work at a much reduced size.

"Hehe." Dervidian chuckled in a good-natured manner. "I fear you are overestimating my individual contribution to the minidrive projects. I am one of hundreds who have contributed to their development. I became much more involved in the early stages of the combat drive project. The indigenous alien races of the Red Ocean already developed many fine applications of warp drives. Reverse engineering them was the first step to understanding and improving their tech. Much more brilliant developers than myself deserve most of the credit for making several breakthroughs and allow us to miniaturize the drives to the point where they can be mounted onto mechs."

The MTA Master probably referred to Star Designers such as the Polymath, though he did not mention them by name.

Just the fact that he was able to work in major research initiatives where the best mech designers of humanity intimately became involved was still a major honor!

All of this meant that Jovy was right. Master Dervidian was most definitely an influential bigshot within the MTA!

"I see." Ves replied as he controlled his tone. "I take it your specialty is related to mobility, correct?"

The other man nodded. "I specialize in superluminar travel systems. I may not enjoy sole credit for the invention of the minidrives, but I was one of the few who helped to get them off the ground by building up a theoretical basis for them and convincing the relevant parties that the concepts are viable. It gladdens me to no end to see them appear on more and more mechs."

The pair began to take a short tour through the hangar bay. This allowed Ves to see and admire the various MTA mechs from a much more intimate distance.

While the machines were all devoid of life as he expected, they were still impressive and brilliant in other ways. Master Dervidian hardly needed to give Ves an explanation for him to understand and appreciate the charm of these first-class multipurpose mechs.

As the two continued to talk, Ves slowly grew more comfortable in the presence of the Master. The fellow did not act pompously or maintained a clear separation of status.

Instead, Master Derividian approached Ves without too many airs and with plenty of goodwill.

This meant that the man saw value in building a relationship with Ves, just like what Master Willix had done.

"I don't quite understand what your specialty has to do with your faction." Ves said. "Your work is great for making mechs more mobile and versatile, but I don't see how that helps humans get better."

Dervidian folded his hands behind his back as he continued to float forward. "Your perspective is too limited, Mr. Larkinson. While it is true that much of the focus of our faction is aimed at promoting the development of high-ranking mech pilots and mech designers, we are also looking for other alternatives that can help our race become comprehensively stronger. What do you think about the role of FTL drives in our society?"

Ves didn't know why the man brought up this question, but he could easily answer this question since he discussed a similar topic in the past with Minister Shederin.

"The FTL drive is the most crucial tool that enabled the rise of humanity. We wouldn't have been able to spread across the stars and reach the end of the Milky Way if we did not have a crucial piece of tech in our hands that allows us to travel from star system to star system without spending thousands of years in transit."

Master Dervidian nodded. "That is a clear answer. However, have you ever thought how much our race has grown dependent on technology? What if every FTL drive ceases to work one day?"

"Half of our society would collapse overnight." Ves winced. "Our civilization is so interconnected that if we lose our ability to use a cheap and affordable means of space travel, we will not be able to facilitate galactic-wide trade and keep our interconnected economies alive."

"This is a frightening scenario, is it not? This is a function of our reliance or overreliance on technology. Any external object or tool can fail us one day. Our ships, our mechs and our FTL drives are ultimately external objects that we can never fully master and control. As long as it is tech, it can always be subverted and corrupted by hostile alien races."

Ves partially agreed with the sentiment, but he did not take it this far.

"Humans are tool users." He pointed out. "Compared to many other alien races, we depend more on technology to overcome our intrinsic biological shortcomings. Our drive to improve and cast off our many weaknesses is so strong that it has allowed our race to achieve amazing success in our home galaxy."

"I do not disagree with you, but who says that we humans have to stick to our original biological imperatives? Since when are we slaves to our own ancestral genes and configuration?"

The MTA Master's words briefly caused Ves to pause. He recalled his original question and thought about why Dervidian broached this general topic all of a sudden.

He finally connected all of the dots.

"Wait… are you telling me that you want to make humanity travel through the stars without relying on starships, shuttles or mechs?!"

Master Dervidian responded with a brilliant smile!

"Correct! It is true that we Transhumanist do not see mechs as the beginning and the end of our technological journey. Whereas the Mech Supremacists are already satisfied with our ability to miniaturize FTL drives for their favored platform, we only consider our job to be half-done. It is only when I can accomplish a practical and reliable means of superluminal travel for individual humans that I consider my work to be complete!"

"This!"

Ves was shocked at the audacity of this ambition!

Although he questioned whether it was appropriate for a mech designer to work on such a research project at all, the potential benefits of realizing this ultra-miniaturized form of warp or FTL travel was immensely valuable!

If people like Ves or Gloriana could travel from Davute to Chance Bay with their own bodies rather than rely on large and cumbersome starships, then the mobility of humanity would reach an entirely new level!

While it was true that there were numerous alien races that had developed the capacity to travel across the stars by relying on their own individual capabilities, the aliens tended to be as large as mechs or small starships.

The phase whale race was a good example of this. There was no way that a puny human could imitate a phase whale by integrating a miniature version of one of their phasewater organs.

The tech was way more complicated than that! Scaling down any form of superluminal travel introduced a huge number of problems.

From what it sounded like, even a renowned authority in the field such as Master Dervidian was still far from realizing his ultimate ambition!

"I truly admire your dream." Ves sighed in appreciation. "It truly sounds nice to be able to hop from planet to planet without needing to board a shuttle or starship first. A lot of people would have been able to evacuate from their doomed planets in a hurry if they did not have to compete for access on one of the few starships that can take them out in the limited time available."

He had witnessed far too many tragedies like that for him to remain indifferent to these shortcomings.

It was also one of his primary motivations to keep the core of his clan in a mobile fleet!

"I think you understand now why I have become a part of the Transhumanist Faction." Dervidian smiled. "The ability to move is one of the primary drivers of societal progression. Being able to jump out of our ancestral star system and expand across the Milky Way has led to an explosive degree of growth and prosperity. Being able to cross hundreds of thousands of light-years so that we can continue our expansion to dwarf galaxies such as the Red Ocean will lead to another wave of growth and advancement. If… we can grant each individual human the ability to travel from star system to star system by themselves, then I predict that humanity will truly enter a new age at that point, the Age of Transhumans!"

What big words! Although Ves didn't believe that Master Dervidian and his like-minded buddies could ever realize such a stupendously unrealistic ambition, he fully approved of their attempt to pursue their dreams.

Perhaps it was not realistic for them to be able to enable FTL travel for every Tom, Dick and Harry, but they might make it accessible to the rich and powerful!

Considering that Ves humbly counted himself among this small and exclusive club, he fully hoped that Master Dervidian would be able to succeed one day!