The Mech Touch

Though Ves held a lot of concerns about attracting the attention of the mighty Rubarthans, there wasn't much he could do about this situation.

Once he entered their radar, it was difficult to fool these incredibly powerful and clever first-raters.

It would be even worse if the Terrans took note of him as well.

He sighed. From the moment he came up with a variation of Lufa's glow that could help people overcome their bottlenecks, he already thought that something like this would happen.

His miscalculation was that he thought he would only be confronted with this situation a century or later in the future.

This was because he originally intended to keep this massive invention under wraps until he gained sufficient strength.

He thought that he would have to deal with this kind of issue when he became a Master Mech Designer or Star Designer.

There was no way he would be able to negotiate with the Terrans or the Rubarthans on a fair basis when he was still a Journeyman Mech Designer!

"I need to close the gap as much as possible." Ves concluded.

His urgency to become a Senior Mech Designer had never been greater!

Becoming a Senior certainly wouldn't solve his problem, but it would help a lot with encouraging others to take him more seriously.

Mech designers that had advanced to this rank already produced enough results. Each Senior was a visionary that was competent enough to lead design teams and handle expert mech design projects.

Naturally, Seniors weren't as impressive as Masters, but there were a lot more of the former!

There was a huge reserve of Seniors who had been in the business for over a century and built up a lot of accomplishments during that time.

These were the mech designers that forcibly raised the reputation of Seniors and ensured that most people treated them as adults.

This was why Ves badly wanted to advance to Senior himself!

His work and accomplishments already exceeded that of a typical Journeyman to a massive extent, but the fact that his design seed had yet to evolve still allowed many people to talk down on him. They all treated him as if he had enormous potential but did not come close to realizing his true value.

Even if his wife treated him like a kid sometimes!

"I need to finish this project as soon as possible so I can get back to working on the Dullahan Project."

Ves sped up his design work and finalized the weapon design project.

Once he had reached the point where he did not see the point of iterating any further on the design, he moved to begin the fabrication run as soon as possible.

His wife had already arrived at the private workshop by the time that he arrived. She had opted to leave Aurelia and Andraste in the care of Shannon Maris and only brought Marvaine this time.

The little boy looked both curious and eager to see his parents at work. He ran around the workshop like an imp that had gotten loose and poked every large production machine that caught his interest.

While Ves allowed his son to touch the surface of the AP-VEX Superfab and other devices, he made sure to lock them down so that they wouldn't activate out of the blue.

"Mama! Papa! It's so big!"

"What does this button do?"

"Can I make a mech with this thing?"

Both Ves and Gloriana indulged in their son for a while even though it ate into their schedule.

They only went back to business once Marvaine had exhausted most of his energy. The child laid on a couch where he could play and fiddle with all of the new toys that his parents had bought for him back in Pentahull Station.

Gloriana studied the projection of the completed design schematic. She took note of the expensive materials needed to realize this powerful mech cannon.

"It will be difficult to integrate 650 grams of phasewater in this weapon." She said. "The volume of the cannon is generous enough, but much of the phasewater is intended for the crucial attack phase crystals. Even if you spread out of the phasewater over three of these crystals, it will still be dangerous to synthesize them with the hardware that we have available."

Ves did not look too concerned. "I know, but I have worked with phasewater enough times to know what I am doing. Even if I screw up, I can throw away the junk and start anew. We have enough surplus materials on hand."

The two proceeded to go over other production processes that might pose a challenge to them. Since the luminar crystal cannon pushed the limits of what was possible with the technology that they had mastered, they needed work extra carefully at certain points.

This was also why Ves and Gloriana decided to take their time and avoid rushing the fabrication run.

Fortunately, it wouldn't take days for them to finish their work. They were only fabricating a single mech cannon as opposed to an entire mech. Luminar crystal technology was also known for requiring fewer components than usual because many of its existing ones were usually capable of serving multiple purposes.

The only problem was that the weapon design made so much use of luminar crystals that Ves would have to do most of the work himself.

Though Gloriana had learned enough about luminar crystal technology that she was able to synthesize the crystals themselves, her affinity and familiarity with them was not as good as that of her husband.

Ves also insisted on synthesizing the crystals himself because he believed that there was an important spiritual component to the crystals.

This left Gloriana with a lighter workload, but this also granted her with much more time to inspect the components and start the assembly process in advance.

One of her more interesting responsibilities was the need to process the resonating materials for the luminar crystal cannon. She needed to pay close attention to them in order to avoid wasting these rare and valuable substances.

Before they started the fabrication run, Gloriana first went through her little ritual.

"Not this again." Ves muttered and rolled his eyes.

He was too used to the antics of his wife to argue any further with her. He quickly turned around and approached the AP-VEX Superfab in order to check its settings for the umpteenth time.

Marvaine interrupted his playtime with his toys when he saw that his mother was kneeling in front of a strange, six-sided altar.

He hopped out of the couch and curiously came closer.

"What are you doing, mama?"

Gloriana did not display any annoyance for the interruption. She effortlessly paused her ongoing prayer and embraced her little boy.

"I am praying to the Superior Mother for her blessing in my endeavor. Do you remember what I told you about her, Marvaine?"

"I do! The Superior Mother is my granny!"

"She is! She is the mother of your father, which means she is undeniably family to you. Know that the Superior Mother always watches over her children and grandchildren. If you are ever in trouble or in need of help, you can pray to her for protection. Let me show you how to do that. Just follow my instructions."

The obedient little boy did what his mother asked and collapsed his hands together before he began to say a prayer to the altar of the Superior Mother.

Power soon began to exude from the object. Gloriana opened her eyes with delight as an enormous hand that was larger than her body materialized in the air!

"Look, Marvaine! Your grandmother has answered your prayers!"

"Wooooow." The boy forgot about anything else and jumped to his feet.

His eyes grew wide as he stared at the giant feminine hand that was hovering above his head. Marvaine subsequently jumped and attempted to reach out to the spiritual limb with his arm.

Though he did not come close to touching his grandmother, the giant hand reached down and extended a finger so that Marvaine could finally make contact with his 'relative'!

"Hihihi! You're so powerful, Granny!"

The Superior Mother gently touched her 'grandson' and 'daughter-in-law' a few more times before her giant hand faded away.

Gloriana led her son back to the couch before she was finally ready to begin the fabrication run.

She brought out Alexandria which deftly extended a spiritual bond to Ves.

"Let us begin."

"Alright."

Husband and wife connected their minds together in a design network. Both of them had done this so many times that they immediately got used to thinking alongside someone else in their minds.

They soon split up and began to perform their respective tasks.

Both of them possessed an abundant amount of workshop experience, so even if they hadn't practiced the full run in a simulated workshop in advance, they still knew how to handle themselves.

Marvaine occasionally paid attention to his parents and looked admiringly at them. Both Ves and Gloriana looked like they were completely in their element as they focused on their main tasks.

The boy practically had stars in his eyes as his father and mother looked more impressive than they had ever appeared in his life!

"I want to make a mech too…"

It was too bad that he was far too young to follow in the footsteps of his parents. He hadn't even formally started school as of yet, so how could he possibly contribute to a design project?

The only way he could do anything comparable to this work was by playing with the toy sets that his father and mother had prepared for him. He had an entire collection in his bedroom!

Though simplified, younger children could already experience what it was like to be a mech designer by fitting together different toy mech parts in different combinations.

It wasn't real, though. The small and childproof toys were nowhere near as cool as the huge mechs and mech components that his parents handled on a frequent basis!

As Ves and Gloriana continued to fabricate one part after another, it was as if their son was completely left out of the party.

Marvaine was anything but bored, though. A large part of him felt as if he had entered paradise as his parents made more and more progress in their project.

The increasing amount of large and shiny crystals along with the cool metal parts stimulated his imagination and caused his little mind to conjure up all kinds of fantastical mechs.

It didn't matter that he knew little to nothing about the science and mechanics of mechs. The machines generated by the limitless imagination of a child were all as viable as the products of the LMC to the little boy!

As his parents continued to impress him, Marvaine underwent a subtle change.

Denny, his companion spirit, eventually emerged from his head.

Meuw! Meuw!

The blond Maine Coon glowed with excitement due to Marvaine's excitement.

Though the majority of the glow initially came from Denny's heart, the total and utter adoration from Marvaine caused the spiritual cat to activate another part of his body!

For a brief moment of time, a giant finger materialized above Marvaine's body again and briefly poked Denny's energetic body.

MEUW!

A burst of energy concentrated into his front paws, causing the companion spirit to deepen its concentration of life energy!

Marvaine let out a strong gasp before he slumped back onto the couch.

Denny also returned to where he belonged.

The boy fell into slumber as his spirituality continued to evolve at a relatively impressive rate.

The residual energies radiated by his father and mother as they put their total focus onto their work also affected their son in various ways.

In the end, Marvaine smoothly completed a transition that he wasn't even aware of. He became completely engrossed in a dream where he was surrounded by mechs of every kind.

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