The Mech Touch

One outcome that Ves had predicted despite his hopes was that the stealth detector didn’t work at all on his uninvited guests. He started testing the stealth detector well outside its effective range, but slowly moved within its area of effect, ostensibly to confirm that it posed no threat to human bodies, but what he really wanted to do was to drag in his persisted stalker.

No dice.

The invisible and perhaps intangible form of Acolyte Villis proved that his stealth detector didn’t do squat against the Church of Haatumak’s form of stealth.

Interestingly enough, when Ves activated his spiritual vision, he observed nothing visible emanating from his device. It didn’t possess the capacity to affect anything on a spiritual level.

He needed to correct this deficiency in the future, though he had no clue where he could obtain the relevant knowledge to achieve such an exotic effect.

Testing out his signal jammer proved the same. It interfered with the working of every kind of sensor or transmission device in range, exactly like the device that Calabast once used on Harkensen I.

Ves predicted that this newly created gadget might even save his life if the current mission went awry! There was no better way to escape a hunt than to block every form of electronic observation in his vicinity. People tended to trust in their machines more than their own eyes when hunting for distant targets. This meant that as long as Ves ran far enough away, he’d be safe from pursuit.

"Hm, in fact, these effects are remarkably similar to something that I used to own and make use of quite frequently."

He recalled the times when he activated his System-bought Privacy Shield and Stealth Augment. It cost him a significant amount of DP to obtain the most preliminary versions of these functions, but they worked like a charm.

While the System-bought upgrades to his personal comm worked best, Ves enjoyed crafting his own versions that copied some of their functions.

Ves realized that this might be a better strategy going forward. Instead of purchasing expensive but powerful functions at rip-off prices from the System, he could instead spend his DP on purchasing the requisite Skills that were necessary to design and reproduce the functions on his own!

"Tch! I’d be ideal if I can make that work, but my mind is not an endless repository for knowledge."

Ves couldn’t endlessly accumulate knowledge without end. Spreading himself too broadly into too many unrelated fields would strain his design philosophy and generally muddle up his cognitive functioning.

Besides the Polymath and her proteges who somehow made it work, no other mech designer dared to accumulate an endless amount of knowledge!

In any case, he now that he finished upgrading some of his gear, he felt a lot more secure against any surprises that might pop up one day.

As he strapped his deceptively simple-looking gadgets to his toolbelt, he glanced at the Mark I versions of his toys. He may not have a use for them anymore, but he might as well cheer up someone else. He shoved them towards Ketis.

"You can have these."

"Really?!"

"Yep. Just don’t break them or throw them around. They’re more fragile than you think."

Ketis had been watched with jealous eyes as Ves increased his personal capabilities. As a Swordmaiden, she cared a lot about increasing her personal prowess.

Ves must have been infected by her compulsion because he took over her habit wholesale.

The Swordmaiden eagerly gasped the two gadgets and toyed with them as if she was a kitten. She quickly passed over the stealth detector, figuring that her chances of encountering something under stealth was low, and directed most of her attention to the signal jammer. Despite its short range, it proved to be effective at blocking many kinds of signals and sensors.

Any woman yearned for moments of privacy in their lives.

"I finally get to block out all those nasty monitoring devices." She muttered with a grin.

"Alright, we’re finished here. Let’s go back to the office. I’ve got another lesson in store for you."

"Noooo!"

Now that he completed his first important side project, he directed his spare attention to his second side project, and arguably his most important. In his obsessive rush to design and fabricate his ultracompact batteries, he left his original goal of figuring out stealth tech in the corner like a neglected child.

Ves felt a little guilty for being unable to treat this important project with the respect it deserved, but now should be different!

Of course, he still needed to work away at the backlog of work that slowly piled up while he chased after his latest toys. Fortunately, he hadn’t been too neglectful, so it didn’t take too long for him to address the most pertinent issues.

He also needed to spend some necessary time to shape his student’s perspective. Under his direction in the last month, Ketis not only gained a new respect for hands-on work, she also became accustomed to a more productive work ethic, though the latter was mostly due to his hounding and threats of handing her over to Chief Haine more than anything else.

After she familiarized herself with the principles of an orthodox mech designer, Ves considered his work to be half-done. He instilled her with the bare essentials of everything she needed to know as a mech designer besides actual science and engineering knowledge.

She could always increase her knowledge in her own time, but immersing her with some of the institutional customs of a classically educated mech designer was impossible by herself. Ves did her a huge favor that increased her overall qualities as a mech designer by a huge leap compared to other pirate designers native to the frontier!

However, subjecting her to an abundance of dry information left some gaps in her imagination. Ves tried his best to shore up her shortcomings that she missed due to being homeschooled, but she experienced a lot of difficulty in understanding the context of what she gained.

"Why does all of this matter?" She burst out one day. "All of this dry reading makes me want to pull out my horns! Why does all of this stupid stuff matter when I’m never going to settle down in civilized space?! Who cares about what the MTA wants! And what does it mean when I have to find my own way? This is too confusing!"

Ves turned to Ketis while crossing his arms. "Some of the reading material I gave you is a bit boring, but they are laying the foundation for you to formulate your own design philosophy and thereby define a goal for yourself to pursue for the rest of your life."

"You bandy about that phrase a lot. Design philosophy. Design philosophy! DESIGN PHILOSOPHY! What does that even mean?! Why are you so obsessed with it?! Mayra only mentioned it once or twice while I studied under her, but she never hit me over the head with those words!"

"What do you think the word means? Don’t worry about trying to sound sophisticated. Just say what your heart is telling you."

That caused Ketis to pause. Her irritation melted away as she put serious thought on his question. Answering it wasn’t easy because it encompassed many aspects. To a mech designer who hadn’t even reached the threshold of formulating a design philosophy, they treated it as something alien.

Eventually, she ventured out a guess. "A design philosophy is.. a dream, I guess? The way Mayra and you talk about it is as if it’s an ideal that you can never reach.. but chase after it anyway. Is that about right?"

"It’s more than an unattainable dream." Ves answered seriously. "A design philosophy is a dream we’d like to come true, but the difference is that some mech designers have achieved that goal. Why do you think Master Mech Designers are so respected? They’ve been chasing after a dream that everyone else thinks is impossible to achieve, but they somehow made it possible through a combination of innovative research and a lot of hard work!"

"What’s the point of holding such a dream when a nobody like me doesn’t have a chance of reaching that height?"

"Never think like that!" Ves barked sharply. "I’ve seen so many mech designers who thought that way and simply gave up. Don’t ever fall into the negative feedback loop where you lose confidence because your designs are disappointing which makes you lose more confidence which only further drags down your design work. Every mech designer has an opportunity to climb to fortune! You just have to keep working hard despite the obstacles in your way. I see a lot of potential in you, you know."

"Really? You’re not just yanking my chain, are you?"

"I’m not the kind of person who’s in the habit of lying." That was a big fat lie, but Ketis didn’t need to know that. Ves continued without blinking his eyes. "Your learning ability is a lot better than half of my subordinates within the Vandal fleet. If you weren’t splitting your attention all the time, you would have gone a lot farther, perhaps even matching my own prowess."

Ketis had the grounds to be somewhat proud to herself. She succeeded under Mayra’s tutelage where many lesser sisters failed.

Still, perhaps due to how easy she became a Novice, she didn’t quite appreciate the depth of her accomplishments. She took too many aspects about mech design for granted.

"Look, I’m glad you’re telling me I’m awesome, but even my awesome self can’t quite figure out the fuss about design philosophy. Then again, I never saw someone else’s design philosophy except Mayra’s. What’s your design philosophy anyway?"

Ves guessed that she needed to hear an example, so he generously obliged. He made sure to keep the secret parts to himself, not just to protect against Ketis, but also against the uninvited guest that must be eavesdropping on them right behind his shoulder.

"My design philosophy is a little unusual, and it came about in unusual circumstances. You see, I’m pursuing a particular dream of mine, something that I’m fairly confident that no other mech designer shares in the entire galaxy!"

"Even I know there’s a lot of mech designers in the galaxy. Do you really think you’re special?"

"I know I am, because you want to know what I want to achieve? I want to bring mechs to life!"

The look Ketis threw at Ves showed that her entire mind had crashed. For a second, she just couldn’t process the absurdity she just heard from someone she looked up to. Did she just hear something stupid?!

Ves chuckled. "I expected a reaction like that. It sounds crazy, but I’m not grasping at straws here. It’s a design philosophy that’s dear to my heart because it’s rooted in my still-formulating beliefs on how reality works. This is why despite sounding so outlandish, I’m confident that I can achieve my dream some day."

"No wonder you have to become a Master to fulfill your design philosophy." She muttered. "You guys are absolutely bonkers!"

"I don’t deny that. Call us crazy if you want. The more important fact is that we’re ambitious! Chasing after an impossibility centers us to a goal and guides our design ability in a direction that may ultimately lead to some of the most innovative mechs in mech history! Even if we fall short to our eventual goal, for most of us the journey is more important than the destination. It’s not too bad if we fall short halfway because you’ll at least be a Journeyman or Senior by the time you’ve reached the end of your career."

She understood the underlying sentiment of what he tried to convey. "I see! So the design philosophy keeps you preoccupied with improving yourself. Even if you’ve reached a dead end, you’re a lot better off than if you don’t have a goal in mind at all."

"A design philosophy is more than a goal. That is merely one of its functions. It also has a measurable influence on the mechs that you design. At the higher end of the mech industry, your design philosophy distinguishes your work from your rivals. Now that you’ve heard me describe my own design philosophy, if a bit briefly, you should be capable of formulating your own one. Why don’t you make an attempt right now?"

"Now?!"