The Mech Touch

Given everything that happened as of late, the archeship had largely slipped Ves' mind.

It couldn't be helped. A whole host of revelations and life-changing decisions overtook his life like a raging tornado. Ves could do little aside from letting himself get spun around while doing everything possible to avoid falling to his death.

It was only now that much of the storm had calmed down that Ves could catch his breath and take care of less pressing matters.

The archeship captured during the Battle of Corellix needed to he dealt with one way or another. The alien vessel remained incomprehensible to the Larkinsons even after they sent hundreds of engineers and other experts to examine her systems.

If technology could be equated to language, then the archeship was a completely different language.

At least the 'languages' used by other alien races made use of more relatable linguistic elements such as sound, intonation and written litters.

The turtle-like aliens on the other hand completely eschewed most of these tools and decided to use completely different elements such as the taste of their mucus slime as their method of communication!

Suffice to say, any normal human would get completely lost if he attempted to figure out an entire language from all of these weird and completely unreliable components!

Still, different from most groups, the Larkinsons could at least count on one advantage.

They had a cat who 'accidentally' learned a bit of the language!

"Meow." Lucky arrogantly settled his recently transformed body against the shell-shaped cavity that was originally designed to act as an interface for a member of the arche race.

Right now, the minor contact between Lucky's metallic body and the archemetal that comprised the alien ship's entire structure granted the cat a small amount of control over the vessel!

This singular circumstance gave Chief Shipwright Vivian Tsai and many other interested experts a small glimpse of how the alien vessel worked.

Even if much of the information was of no practical use to them, they still became inspired by the completely alien approach to shipbuilding.

As Ves calmly stepped into the compartment that equated to the bridge of the archeship, he remained quiet as Lucky lazed about while chewing on a nugget of archemetal debris.

"Meow meow meow. Meow meow."

"Uh huh. Thank you for your input." A Larkinson engineer said as she filled out a database.

Less than a minute later, Vivian Tsai approached from the side and greeted her patriarch.

"Welcome back to the A33.1 suppose you have come to announce your final decision."

"I have." Ves nodded. "lam not necessarily opposed to letting our clan play around with rhe archeship for a longer period of time, but... it's a waste of rime and resources in my opinion. We can either keep the archeship permanently inside the Small Oven, but that will prevent our only capital fleet repair ship from servicing a lot of starships. We can also opt lo transfer her to tine Davute Branch, bill the scientists and engineers over there are even less capable of studying archetech. The most effective way we can profit from this vessel is if we pass her off 10 a first-rate power."

Though Vivian understood that this was the most logical decision, she still felt disappointed. The archeship inspired her like nothing else. She often found it stimulating to roam her alien interior to imagine how the arche crewed this small but technologically advanced vessel.

"I understand. Have you decided which state or organization to send our archeship?"

Ves paused for a moment as he swept his gaze across the bridge.

"I have decided to accept the offer made by the Terrans." He eventually said. "The mechers understand archetech much more than the first-rate colonial superstates, but that means that A33 won't hold as much value to them. I am sure that they have already managed to capture dozens of intact archeships. We will have to make more concessions in exchange for lesser benefits if we want to rely on their services."

"The mechers already understand archetech to a great degree, so they can process A33 at a much faster rate." Vivian retorted. "They should also be capable of repairing and refitting our archeship to rhe best possible extent."

"I know, but that means giving them complete control over what may bo our first proper warship. I have already granted them the opportunity to do the same to the Spirit of Bentheim, and that is already enough in ray book. It's better to turn to the Terrans and the Rubarthans since we can send our own shipbuilders to supervise all of the work.. The problem with the latter is that my relationship with them is a bit... shallow and ambiguous. That might change in the near future, but even if we end up concluding a far-reaching agreement tomorrow, I still won't let them touch my archeship because the Rubarthans will be looking to gain as much leverage over me as possible."

His entire relationship witli the Rubarthans had turned into a mess. He used his strange relationship with the Destroyer of Worlds as a means to bluff the other Rubarthans Into thinking that he could bo trusted to do business with. The fact that he attempted to take advantage of this dynamic by pushing Clixic into becoming their ancestral spirit most likely caused a lot of distress!

"Is this why you have decided to go with the Terrans?"

Ves nodded. "Unlike the Rubarthans, the Terrans are much more accustomed to compromise and cooperation. I am also on good terms with the Streon Ancient Clan, which is pretty decent in itself. I am sure the Terrans may have captured an archeship or two, but A33 should still provide them with a wealth of new findings, especially if Lucky is around to interpret the alien control systems on their behalf. We can figure out how an archeship works together, thereby allowing both of us to profit equally from this cooperation."

Perhaps choosing the Terrans might not be the absolute best choice, but it was the most decent one at hand. Ves might be able to find a better partner if he expanded his search and approached other organizations, but he didn't want to delay this matter any further.

"I shall make sure to prepare a team of Inspectors to babysit our archeship while she is placed under the care of the Terrans. Will you send A33 to the New Constantinople System?"

Ves nodded. "Yep. The Eden Institute of Business & Technology will take responsibility for our ship. It is convenient to let its researchers study our archeship first as I intend to stay there for at least a couple of months. Lucky will be available to help as long as I remain in the star system."

"It would be convenient if you extend your stay by a few years." Vivian frowned. "Despite her relatively low tonnage, her technological complexity is enormous. Every piece of hull plating and structural component also functions as processors and more. The density of working systems of this little vessel is frankly insane. It is amazing how much the arche have compressed so many useful systems in their scouting vessel. If we can master archetech ourselves, we can construct sub-capital ships that effectively possess the power of capital ships!"

This was the main reason why Ves did not want to get rid of the archeship. He even forced his clan to give up on a lot of other spoils such as ownership of much of the puelmer heavy cruiser in order to claim this powerful alien stealth vessel in her entirety.

Together with the RF Frigate Token that Ves obtained from Master Henry Urbeck, the archeship had the potential to become an extremely useful warship in any upcoming deep strike operation!

"Whatever happens in the future, I need our clan to fully gain control over Ail in 5 years," Ves spoke in a serious tone. "If it looks as if we won't be able to make use of her anytime soon, we'll have to scramble to obtain another warship. We can't let our token go to waste."

"Understood. I am already registered for an EdNet tour. I will try to learn as much subjects related to archetech as possible. Hopefully, the inechers will offer subjects that go deeper into its principles."

Ves was satisfied with that answer. "I will try to learn the basics of archetech in my own time, but I am told that it is not easy to master it quickly. Our greatest shortcoming is that we are unable to interface with it directly."

Both of them shifted their glances towards a cat that was pretending to be the captain of a warship. The only element that was missing from this cartoonish Image was a cat-sized pirate hat.

"Lucky will give us a hand. He's practically made out of archemetal now. It is quite amazing how extensively his body assimilated this tech."

"Meow?"

The gem cat finally deigned to pay attention lo Ves.

Lucky's resentment obviously hadn't faded all that much. This was one of the reasons why the cat hadn't been hanging around him as of late.

"Don't be like that, Lucky. We need to move on from rhe past. You've already grown a lot stronger than before. I am sure you will be able to prevent yourself from getting caught in the future with the help of your archemetal body."

"Meow meow meow!"

"Hey, I have not forgotten about you! As soon as we enter into Terran space, I will make sure to supply you with a diet of first-class exotics. 1 promise! In fact, our clan will soon be able to supply you with hyper materials as well. I am talking about a completely new category of empowered metals. I am sure that they come with exotic tastes."

"Meow..."

The stomach was Lucky's key to happiness. The more he thought about the yummy food that he could ear in the days to come, the less he paid attention to the suffering of the past.

Ves did not try to push his luck any further. He spoke a bit more to his gem cat before saying goodbye.

Now that he had checked up on the archeship and informed his chief shipwright on his decision, he was ready to go on a trip to rhe Tarrasque.

An hour later, Ves and a bunch of expert pilots teleported over to the flagship of the Bluejay Fleet.

"Welcome, everyone." Jovy Armalon greeted the new arrivals. "I assume that each of you are well-rested and in good condition. We will conduct a short examination on all of you before we commence your first use of the A7-KE1 General Purpose Pilot Cultivation Elixir. You should be aware by now that we are not being excessive in our precautions. The... effects of this elixir have already proven to induce a great amount of stress on your mind and body. Il is possible tor yon lo come under so much strain that it will lake weeks tor you to return to a condition that allows you to interface with a mech again. I hope this serves as a warning that none of you should take this lightly."

The mood among the gathered expert pilots became grave. Even though none of them had a solid idea of what was in store, their intuition already gave them enough of a foreboding that they would not come away unscathed.

Ves grew more and more interested at what the A7-KE1 formula actually did to people. He had come up with many different theories on how it could stimulate the willpower cultivation of expert pilots, but none of them sounded logical.

He even used Veronica to obtain an answer from his mother, but she just told him that he should just be patient and find out the answer himself. She clearly did not like being used as a database all of the time.

Whatever the case, the time had finally come. It would only take a bit more time before one of his pilots would ingest the first vial under heavy supervision.