The Mech Touch

It took a few more days until Ves and Gloriana finally pulled themselves out of their baby craze.

Aurelia underwent frequent checkups to make sure that her physical health remained within optimal parameters for a design baby of her series.

So far, Witshaw & Yeneca's service remained impeccable. Their fixed team of geneticists and medical specialists memorized everything they needed to know about Aurelia and were highly responsive to any warning sounds or concerning deviations.

At this point, it was unlikely for Aurelia to encounter any serious risks to her health. The baby had also adjusted well enough for her age and already grew quite remarkably since her birth.

Now that neither of them constantly felt the need to think about their baby every waking moment, they slowly got back into the rhythm of their own duties.

Besides, they didn't have to leave Aurelia at home. Gloriana had already built a floating baby carriage that followed her around wherever she went.

The contraption was probably the most expensive of its kind in the fleet. Not only was its core structure made with dense alloys that could resist firearms, it also integrated a shield generator, a life support system, a hardened communication system, a gravitic module and other gadgets.

None of this was visible from the outside. The soft and white blankets and cushioning made sure that Aurelia would never feel uncomfortable. Gloriana even installed a light and sound screen that filtered out excessive noise and light stimulation.

It was only after the baby carriage gained all of these features that Gloriana felt ȧssured to bring out her baby to work.

Normally, the clan didn't allow for parents to bring their children to work, but who could stop the patriarch's wife? To the regular clansmen, the normal rules simply didn't apply to anything related to Ves and Gloriana. It was only natural for them to receive extra privileges!

While Gloriana dealt with testing the new capabilities of the upgraded Shield of Samar and supervising the completion of the Chimera Project, Ves caught up to the latest developments of the clan.

He scheduled a meeting with the chief ministers. Each of them entered his office via projection.

"Congratulations for your baby."

"Thanks."

After Ves received the well wishes from the chief ministers, he soon called for an overall report.

"Well, I think you will be happy to hear that we will soon be taking possession of our latest two capital ships." Magdalena Larkinson said with a smile. "Both the Gorgoneion and the Diligent Ovenbird have already completed their initial trials. As long as we can crew them right away, we can integrate the brand new capital ships in our fleet immediately. The only work we need to do to prep them for the Red Ocean is to load their holds with mechs or materials."

"Do we have sufficient crew?"

The female chief minister nodded. "Crewing the vessels turns out to be less of a challenge than we expected. Back when we were in the Yeina, Bardo and Fermi Star Cluster, the hiring markets were relatively cramped. There is an abundance of less qualified and lower-ranking personnel, but the local powers and major organizations have monopolized all of the high-level talent for the most part."

"And that's not the case now?" Ves guessed.

"No, sir. Now that we have entered the Antilla Star Cluster, we are awfully close to the gate system. Millions if not billions of hopeful job seekers are converging in this star cluster in the hopes of obtaining passage to the Red Ocean. Many of them are more willing to enter into a long-term employment relationship with a powerful pioneer if that is what it takes to start a new life."

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin before he abruptly paused in his motion.

A strange thought entered his mind. Now that he had become a father, wasn't it about time he looked the part? Perhaps he should stop letting his shaving bot do its job and start growing out a real beard.

The Vulcan version of himself looked a lot more masculine than he initially expected. Since he looked quite manly in this guise, he should look just as mȧturė and formidable if he started to wear a beard in his current form!

He shelved this idea for later.

"So what does this mean for our clan?"

"The closer we get to the Opalis Star System, the more people will solicit us for passage or employment." Magdalena explained. "There are many people of means that are just interested in entering the Red Ocean. They are willing to pay handsomely to anyone who is willing to give them passage. As for others, they want to join a powerful organization that can help them become greater than what they can accomplish in their home states. These are the people we are interested in hiring."

"What progress have you made?"

"We have managed to recruit a small number of senior executives, managers, professionals and so on. It's not quite enough to fill up all of the vacancies in the top of the hierarchy, but we have made more progress this week than the prior month. It's the mid ranks where we are truly making enormous progress. An increasing number of experienced mech pilots, naval engineers, professors, fabricators, lawyers and so on are knocking on our doors every day. Most notably, we can fill up almost every vacancy on our capital ships. I expect we will be entering the Red Ocean with a surplus of mid to low rank personnel at this rate."

"What is the quality of the personnel that we are hiring?"

"It's average." Magdalena admitted. "The truly good ones have already been picked up by savvy pioneering organizations. The remainder are mostly reserve grade, so don't expect us to hire a large amount of elite personnel."

Ves dismissively waved his hands. "That's okay. Our clan isn't the most powerful pioneering organization that is heading to the Red Ocean. I'm already happy with normal and earnest newcomers. As long as they can do their jobs, they will always have a place in our ranks."

This was encouraging news. He always wanted to load up his fleet with a large number of personnel so that he would not have to worry about this issue for a long time. Even if his capital ships would become stuffed with lots of crew for a couple of years, the pressure would slowly alleviate once the Larkinson Clan steadily acquired more sub-capital ships.

After Ves got the news he wanted, he turned to another topic.

"Raymond. I recall something about starting up our own bank and minting our own currency. What progress have you made with regards to this plan?"

"We have made steady progress." Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson slowly answered. "If there is a great need for it, we can implement our own internal currency within a week, but that will lead to a lot of economic disruption. For the best results, I recommend we wait until we have reached the Red Ocean and settled down for a bit before we gradually phase in the changes. We do not have to replace hex credits with our own Larkinson currency all at once."

"I see. Have you made any decisions with regards to how much it will be worth?"

"That is one of the points of discussions that we are still undecided upon. The most conservative solution is to peg our new currency to the mech credit. It is a stable, widely-used means of payment that is universally accepted in human space. There are downsides, though. We will not be able to use many of the monetary solutions that other states use to regulate their economies. This might not be a great concern at our current scale, but the closer we grow to a complete state, the more controlling our own coin matters."

"Well, you guys can decide that on your own. Just check in with me when you are working on the naming and meaning of our currency. I don't want to wake up one day and find out that people have started using cat coins to buy stuff."

Ves didn't really care about the technicalities of this topic. He just wanted to get rid of the habit of using the damned hex credit for every transaction. After asking a few perfunctory questions, he addressed another matter.

He turned to the final chief minister of the clan. "Novilon, do you have anything to report?"

The Purnesser held plenty of opinions, but he did not think it was wise or appropriate to voice them to the patriarch at the moment.

"I would like to bring up both a public and a more personal issue to you today. First, we need to consider what our clan will be doing once we have entered the Red Ocean. So far, we are still lacking in direction. Will we be staying in a central star node? That will hit our finances increasingly harder as the Big Two's fees rise exponentially the longer we stay in the protected star systems."

Ves knew what Novilon was talking about. The Red Ocean was still quite new and wild so many star systems weren't safe.

The locations where the Big Two built their strongholds were the only star systems that could offer safety against the predation of alien survivors and human belligerents. Yet the pioneers weren't supposed to hang out in the central star nodes all the time.

This was why any ship, fleet, group or individual had to pay a lot more money the longer they remained in safe harbor. Unless they were loaded with old galaxy money, they had to move out at some point, and that was always risky.

The uncertainty surrounding how soon the Larkinsons would be moving out of the central star nodes produced a lot of anxiety in the clan.

"I can't give you an answer to this." Ves replied with a frown. "We don't know what our circumstances will be once we reach the other side. Also, there are ways for us to increase the amount of revenue that the LMC is making. If the need for money becomes urgent enough, I can publish more mech models on the market to secure extra cash infusions."

"That is reassuring, but what is your overall strategy, sir? What do you wish to accomplish in the first month of entering the Red Ocean?"

That was a big question, and one that could not be answered in a short amount of time.

Ves pursed his lips. "We need to address a couple of immediate priorities. First, I want us to integrate in the local community. Joining the Red Ocean Union should allow us to get into contact with suitable friends and trading partners."

"That is indeed a necessity. We cannot accomplish the bulk of our goals if we remain isolated."

"Second, we urgently need to get our hands on carrier vessels. Right now, we are in the process of deconstructing thousands of excess mechs because we are also close to getting rid of our sub-capital ships. That leaves our valuable fleet with far too little protection. If we don't get a batch of combat carriers quickly, we can't truly begin to roam the Red Ocean."

All three chief ministers looked troubled at this challenge. Almost every pioneer who reached the Red Ocean was asking for combat carriers as well. Although plenty of enterprising tycoons were setting up brand-new shipyards every day, the supply was still too inadequate!

Novilon released a sigh. "The only realistic method for us to obtain combat carriers is to enter a backdoor. We will have to build relations with organizations that are willing to supply combat carriers to their friends."

This was the way it worked in the Red Ocean. Anyone who was able to offer anything valuable either demanded a huge amount of money or were only willing to meet the needs of their buddies.

Ves did not think that his financial strength could match against the pioneers from the galactic heartland or the galactic center.

Therefore, the only other way to solve this problem was to build new relations!