The Mech Touch

"So… can you help me get my hands on more P-stones?"

"I will see what I can do, Ves." Jovy said as he used his implant to scan through the documents and data that Ves had sent via his comm. "It will be difficult to meet your request if your hypothesis about the Nyxian Gap being the sole source of P-stones turns out to be true. I don't know how much you pay attention to the star sector that you have left, but the entire region is embroiled by war."

Ves nodded. He bet that his understanding of the Nyxian War was much greater than that of Jovy. After all, not everyone was privileged to receive a first-hand account of the battles that took place over there from one of the principal combatants of the Oblivion Empire!

"Even if our organization can get our hands on a P-stone, shipping them all the way over to Davute is not a cheap process. We may control all of the beyonder gates, but that doesn't mean we can ignore the cost of using all of them in succession."

"The typical P-stone is only as large as a human head at most. Surely it doesn't take that much money to put a few boxes worth of these rocks on one of your enormous ships?"

"It's not that simple, Ves. There is always way more demand on transportation than what our gate networks can handle at this time. Do you think the prices we charge for transportation are cheap?"

"Uhh… they're pretty high, to say the least. What I don't understand is why the fees are higher for second-raters and first-raters. Isn't a portal just a portal?"

Jovy responded with a smirk. "As a mech designer and an entrepreneur, haven't you ever heard of price discrimination strategies? A Terran fleet owner is willing to pay much more MTA credits for the same service than a third-class fleet owner. Building and operating the beyonder gates is truly expensive, you know. The early generation gates that we have put into use are still so costly and inefficient that we are forced to subsidize some forms of gate travel."

"What?" Ves looked surprised at him. "The Association is actually losing money by allowing for gate travel?"

That sounded highly uncharacteristic for the MTA. The mechers never lost money in any transaction! That was practically their most important rule. Breaking it was probably a serious taboo in their eyes!

"It's not as bad as you think." Jovy said. "The reason why we charge different prices depending on the class of the fleet is because the cost required to enable gate transit is different depending on several key variables. The greater the volume, mass and quality of materials of the ships and cargo passing through, the more it costs to maintain the portals and enable the passage."

In other words, third-class fleets that were typically smaller and did not contain any high-quality exotics were easier to transport over the gate networks!

This was an interesting detail that Ves did not know beforehand.

"I see. A P-stone shouldn't be anything special compared to more special materials. If you ever find a few asteroids worth of rock with the properties I've mentioned, then please try and ship everything you can to Davute. I will cover the cost as long as I can pay with MTA credits."

"I will see what I can do, but the premise is that we can actually find these odd rocks of yours." Jovy tentatively promised. "Master Moira Willix has remained in the Komodo Star Sector, and her research project is related to the Nyxian Gap, so she should be able to work on this favor of yours."

"That's a name I haven't heard in a while." Ves said with a slightly fond expression. She was probably the first high-ranked mecher that he befriended. "How is she doing these days?"

"Her situation hasn't changed. No. That is not quite true. She received a lot of appreciation from our faction for successfully pulling you in and facilitating a fruitful cooperation. However, she doesn't care too much for recognition, MTA merits or other rewards. The only goal that Masters are truly striving for is making the next step. To do that, they must qualitatively transform their realized design philosophies to a degree that completely surpasses their efforts back when they were a Senior and lower. We won't hear from her in several decades at the very least."

Though Ves had little idea on what Masters needed to do in order to get any hope at advancing to Star Designer, he understood from Jovy's explanation that those who strove for more had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to reach the top.

This was a difficult choice to make as Masters could achieve so much else if they did not have to spend an inordinate amount of time on researching ways to turn the impossible into the possible.

Ves respected those that made the necessary sacrifices and dedicated much of their years on achieving a goal that they might never attain.

Given the abysmally low proportions of Star Designers relative to the population of Master mech Designers, more than 99 percent of ambitious Masters were destined to fail and squander much of their productive years!

Both Ves and Jovy fell silent for a time after this. Both of them had no doubt that they would make the same heavy choice as Master Willix if they ever realized their design philosophies.

Any decent Master would have made the same choice, actually. No one who was able to overcome the difficult hurdles that prevented Seniors from going any further were average in terms of willpower, determination and research ability!

Perhaps this was part of the reason why a lot of Masters never invested all of their energies in the mech market. Despite their superior design solutions and impressive earning abilities, Ves felt that mech designers such as Master Olson and Master Toqueman Huron only half-heartedly published their works on the mech market.

Compared to designing commercial mechs that needed to be relatively affordable and easy to produce, they would much rather work on specific commissions or experimental projects that pushed the boundaries of what they were capable of as Masters!

"We're here." Jovy suddenly announced.

After passing through a major entrance, they entered what appeared to be a medical department. Though there weren't many obvious signs of medical personnel or equipment, the hall they entered conveyed the distinctive vibe of a place where people needed psychological reassurance in order to undergo life-changing medical treatments or augmentation procedures.

One of the smooth metal walls automatically parted in order to form an opening. Jovy and Ves passed through and ended up in an observation room that looked over an extremely advanced operating theater.

Numerous doctors and other medical experts were already standing by. They stopped their conversation and greeted Jovy with respect before casting a dubious look at Ves.

"How much do they know?" Ves asked.

"Not much, I am afraid. You don't need to hide anything from them. We have already briefed them of what to expect."

"Understood."

Ves ended up saying almost nothing to the gathered doctors. He already swept them with his spiritual senses beforehand and saw that none of their spiritualities were activated. That made the probability that they could help with his upcoming operation extremely low.

"What I am about to do will solely act on an invisible and intangible part of the patient." Ves stated. "Only I can perform this operation. The only concern I have is that my work may produce feedback that directly affects the patient's body. I don't know anything about biology and the human body so just do what you can to keep his physical condition stable and alive."

"Is the procedure that dangerous?" Jovy frowned.

"Didn't I tell you that anything that is related to messing with people is inherently dangerous? While I am confident in my own abilities, I cannot account for every possibility. I have emphasized the risks of this operation several times. Ultimately, it is up to you to choose whether to trust my skills and go through with it. If you want, you can postpone this operation and wait until I have accumulated more experience."

Jovy stared at Ves for a moment before shaking his head. "No. Delaying any further will result in a lot of missed opportunities. I have already thought about this decision many times in the last few months. I don't want to fall behind any further. If your solution is good enough for you to apply it to yourself, then it is good enough for me. The sooner I go through with this, the sooner I can leverage my strengthened capabilities to progress towards Senior and Master."

"I understand. I would have made the same choice if I was in your shoes. Don't worry. I have prepared extensively for you. The companion spirit that you will receive will never be shabby."

Ves didn't need Jovy to do anything special except to lie down on an operating table, but the medical specialists obviously weren't satisfied with beginning in such a haphazard way.

The good news was that the specialists had already completed their pre-operation checks and examinations of Jovy's physical and mental state.

In order to make sure that they could respond quickly to any medical emergency that might ensue, they instructed Jovy to switch to a specialized garment before putting him into a half-open medical pod.

Though the MTA had better machines at its disposal, many of them isolated the patient completely.

Once the doctors were satisfied with their arrangements, Ves rolled his eyes and called out Blinky.

Noone showed any surprise at his companion spirit's appearance, but Ves could tell that everyone was definitely paying a lot of attention to this exotic presence!

Mrow mrow mrow~

"It's off to work again today, Blinky. Be extra careful this time as we cannot afford to fail this time. I would rather go slow and lose a bit of potential than to rush the job and make an unforgivable mistake. Is that clear?"

Mrow!

Jovy looked perplexed at the interaction.

"I thought that companion spirits are supposed to be yourself but in a different light. From the way you have been talking to each other, it's as if there is more of a separation between the two of you than you have claimed. How much of Blinky do you control, exactly?"

"Everything. Blinky is completely under my control, Jovy. I'm just talking to 'myself' out of habit. Think nothing of it. It is not as if your companion spirit will spontaneously mutate and develop an independent personality that is split from your consciousness and can even take over your body without your consent."

"...You know, that is exactly one of the nightmare scenarios that my superiors have discussed before this point."

Ves raised his eyebrow. "And they still chose to let you go through with this operation?"

"You could say that I am pioneering this new form of augmentation. I will be under strict observation for many years in order to study the full effects of obtaining a companion spirit. If everything goes well, we may ask you to augment additional mechers."

That was to be expected. Ves would be glad to see this happen. The more the MTA desired his unique services, the more they developed a vested interest in maintaining good relations with him. This was the key to survive while living under the auspices of a powerful organization!

"I'm ready, Jovy. It looks like you are ready as well. Let's begin."

However, before Ves could make his move, a strong field suddenly engulfed the operating theater!

Ves froze as he felt a strong will and presence examining him and the P-stones he brought. It was as if he could hide nothing from this oppressive influence.

"Jovy… you did not say anything about an ace pilot expanding his Saint Kingdom in the vicinity."

"Consider it a form of extra insurance. An alert ace pilot is highly observant and can easily ascertain your motives. While I do not think this precaution is needed, my superiors think otherwise."

Ace pilots possessed a terrible degree of intuition.

Though Ves did not plan to do so, if he ever wanted to affect Jovy's judgment and indoctrinate him through his new companion spirit, he would never be able to pull it off because the nearby ace pilot would definitely notice if he harbored any ill will!

Fortunately, Ves only came with pure intentions in mind this time, so he was not afraid of getting into trouble. He just grew concerned about the domain field's effect on his spiritual augmentation process.

The damned ace pilot was so strong that even the spiritual fragments stored inside his P-stones were showing signs of strain!

Ves softly cleared his throat. "I've never performed this procedure while being affected by the formidable strength of a Saint. Some of my work might get adversely affected by the pressure he exerts on our minds and my…ingredients. Can you tell this guy to take it easy? It would drastically lower the chance of anything going wrong."

Once the Saint Kingdom lost much of its bite, Ves was able to breathe a little easier. Though it was not as light as he wished, it was tolerable enough for him to proceed.

"I will start now. Get ready, because this will hurt!