The Mech Touch

The much-anticipated meeting between the representatives of different faiths unfolded with a lot less drama than Ves feared.

This was because he started it with a much more sound and thorough plan in mind.

Of course, that did not mean that none of the representatives tried to raise a stink.

One of the church officials looked outraged when he saw that Ves actually chose to host the virtual meeting in a very cold and sterile cube-shaped ship compartment!

The bare metal surroundings, the flat and uncomfortable metal furniture and the complete lack of good aesthetics made it seem as if they had entered a prison instead of a stately and opulent meeting chamber!

"This is an insult against our church and our gods! How dare you disrespect our respected religion by refusing to accommodate a single demand on the list that we have conveyed to your office. There are no open windows or even facsimiles of one, and the lack of organic materials is an affront to our dedication to the cycle of nature. The seating arrangements are completely abominable as you seek to place us at a round table where we must sit on equal grounds with idolatrous organizations! If you think you can place me next to a heretic who believes in a single god—"

The projection of the shouted robed figure abruptly disappeared.

The other attendees instantly figured out that the church representative did not close the connection on a voluntary basis.

"Well, that's that." Ves said in a deliberately casual tone as he took his seat at the round metal table. "Please remember that you are here by my invitation. If you attempt to disrupt this virtual meeting or become a nuisance that adversely affects my stated goal, then I have the right to boot you out of this venue. Please act like the adults that I know you are and maintain your propriety."

The other representatives did not kick up a fuss. Ves had made a strong showing from the start and proved that he was not above rejecting one of the top 50 faiths due to disrespect!

Perhaps there were other representatives that thought about arguing with Ves over one thing or another, but they swallowed their objections when they clearly understood they would accomplish nothing in return.

"Now that everyone is seated, let us skip the introductions. You guys probably know each other already, and there is no need for me to know your names unless you give me a reason to. Now, the sole topic on the agenda is the formation of a coalition of faiths. I have already shared my plan for that with your respective organizations, so there is no need to waste everyone's time by rehashing the obvious. Before I ask whether you are willing to throw your support behind our coalition, I will give you the opportunity to ask relevant questions that may affect your decision. Please go ahead."

Ves inwardly smirked. So far, so good. Establishing his authority so early on would definitely be helpful in maintaining his lead.

"Now that everyone is seated, let us skip the introductions. You guys probably know each other already, and there is no need for me to know your names unless you give me a reason to. Now, the sole topic on the agenda is the formation of a coalition of faiths. I have already shared my plan for that with your respective organizations, so there is no need to waste everyone's time by rehashing the obvious. Before I ask whether you are willing to throw your support behind our coalition, I will give you the opportunity to ask relevant questions that may affect your decision. Please go ahead."

It did not take long before one of the representatives of the old faith raised their hand.

A virtual label helpfully informed Ves that the elder man wearing a black and red outfit hailed from the Diocese of New Rome.

"Go ahead."

The man with a bright red cap on head rose to his feet and began his speech.

"Esteemed professor, I shall leap past my introduction since you are not receptive to it. Our church has thoroughly studied and analyzed your proposal, but we are unable to form a judgment due to numerous holes in your plan. We request clarification on a number of subjects. One of them is the distribution of voting rights. As your coalition begins to encapsulate more and more churches, disputes and disagreements will arise. How much power will each individual church or group be able to exercise within your coalition?"

"Is it not obvious, cardinal?" Another representative of a newer and smaller faith spoke up. "Each of us deserves to have one vote each. We represent much of the diversity of beliefs of humans in the new frontier."

"That is completely inequitable! Our membership is hundreds of times larger than the flock of your small, regional church. We will not accept any outcome where your vote is worth just as much as ours!"

"I see no reason to participate in this coalition if the largest faiths have all of the say. Not all of us are so insistent on spreading our beliefs far and wide. Our faith is mostly confined to individuals of the right ancestry, and we have no intention of changing in a ploy to strengthen our voice in this coalition."

"Good riddance, I say! We don't welcome you anyway! Your faith is so small that there is absolutely nothing you can do to promote our common cause."

"That is not true! Our membership is small, but we predominantly comprise first-class citizens. Our wealth alone surpasses the sum total of many of your churches!"

"Population is important, but wealth is also a relevant criterion to determine our voting rights." A representative from the Gaia Coven stated. "There are churches among us who can boast of having trillions of worshipers, but most of them compromise third-raters that do not matter on the galactic scale. It is not wise to allow them to have the same voice as an equivalent number of first-raters. I propose we determine the voting rights by counting populations adjusted for class and total assets."

"That is an inherently unfair counting approach. We are all humans. Our third-class brethren are no less worth their second-class and first-class cousins. We will only be repeating the mistakes of the past if we only orient ourselves to first-raters. One of the mandates of the Red Collective is to give a voice to the underserved and underprivileged. Our church fully supports this mandate and will fight against any force that seeks to deny a proper voice to the marginalized population of red humanity."

A completely legitimate argument broke out about power distribution.

It figured that all of these greedy faiths first wanted to increase their voice within the proposed coalition as much as possible.

The troublesome part about all of this was that there was no clear solution on how to divide power between the members of the coalition.

Population sounded like the obvious answer, but there were old faiths like the Seekers of the Promised Land who drew their support from very old bloodlines in the first-rate states. The SPL therefore never managed to make up a large part of the population, but possessed a disproportionately high amount of wealth and power.

The SPL also happened to be highly militant. No matter the age, they always sought to invest heavily in their military forces. This not only allowed them to secure their survival throughout the ages despite making a lot of enemies, but also survive large and violent transitions. Its members had learned their lesson long ago that only absolute force could guarantee their continued survival, and they appeared to be correct.

For this reason, the SPL and other similar faiths fought tooth and nail against the churches that boasted huge memberships throughout every layer of society. The Diocese of New Rome, the Brothers and Sisters of the Cross and the Pantheon of Modern Gods clearly stood to gain a huge voice based on membership numbers alone!

"Professor Larkinson!" The representative of the SPL finally turned to the organizer of this virtual meeting. "Please dispel the delusions of these churches and tell them that quantity alone is not enough to obtain greater voting rights."

Multiple representatives turned their heads towards Ves, as if they only recalled his existence at this point.

As the organizer of this meeting, it was his job to guide the discussion towards an acceptable compromise.

It was too bad Ves was not interested in balancing everyone's requirements and trying to make everything as fair as possible. He was driven by a substantially different agenda.

Ves slowly rose up from his seat, signifying that he was about to hold an important speech.

Everyone automatically fell silent. He had successfully commanded their respect, if only for the moment.

"Who says that you get voting rights?"

The representatives all looked nonplussed.

"It is funny to me that you are fighting so hard to gain as much control over the coalition when I never intended to give a voice to any of you. We live in a time of crisis. This is no time for debate and equitable power sharing. It is a time for bold leadership and action. Perhaps later on, we can bring the coalition to a more regular order and extend limited voices to you all, but for the time being only one voice is valid. Mine."

That surprised a lot of groups. They did not expect that Ves would be so brazen about taking charge of everything!

"You are just one man." A representative uttered. "You are a great man, but you cannot possibly represent enough of the faithful to become the sole leader and decision maker of our collective faiths. Such a ploy contradicts the very meaning of a coalition!"

Ves smirked. "That is where you are wrong. You mistakenly claim that I am alone, but the truth is much different. Let me show you how many faiths are already in support of my plan."

More people started to stand up. They were all representatives of the groups that were willing to back him up on this matter.

The representatives of relatively small or overly regional groups like the Flamekeeper Church, the Ylvainan Faith, the Creation Association and even the Temple of Hexisms did not receive much acknowledgement. Some of their groups didn't even belong in the top 50!

However, the gathering of people soon began to take this show of support more seriously when the representatives of the larger churches started to stand up as well.

The Gaia Coven, Humanity First, the Eternal Vulcan Church and most prominently the Pantheon of Modern Gods all stood behind Ves!

These middle faiths not only possessed more serious foundations and heritages, but they possessed the backing of a lot of people, many of whom were powerful and wealthy first-raters!

"Temple-Commander Jackarie, is it true that a god pilot personally vouched for Professor Larkinson?"

The representative of the Pantheon of Modern God unequivocally nodded. "The Destroyer of Worlds trusts him to do what is best for red humanity… and our Pantheon."

That was a very strong statement of support!

Even if the infamous temple-commander exaggerated the degree of support, the other representatives could not ignore the fact that one of the 'real' and visible gods of red humanity effectively backed Ves!

At this point, Ves already accumulated a fair amount of momentum. It was impossible for the other fractious faiths to present a widely supported rival candidate that could obtain nearly as much support.

That certainly helped Ves' case, but the most stubborn old faiths still appeared reluctant to agree to surrender much of their power and subject themselves to the whims of a single mech designer.

Ves needed more support, and he knew where he could get it. He first turned to the representative of the Hunting Association.

"Will you support my endeavors to give religious and quasi-religious organizations such as yours a proper voice in the galactic arena?"

"We already have a seat at the highest table." The representative of the Hunting Association said. "With the Huntsman as our patron and the essential services we provide to our society, we do not require your coalition to represent our interests. I have accepted your invitation in order to keep up with this discussion. I am not obliged to offer my support for your appointment as our leader."

The answer disappointed Ves. He was hopeful that the Huntsman Association would seek greater cooperation, but the representative was correct that it truly did not need any greater help than the support of a god pilot.

Ves turned to the representative of the Star Emperor Cult next.

"What is your opinion?"

The representative remained still for a few seconds until she finally rose from her seat. "The Star Emperor Cult is willing to extend temporary decision-making authority to Professor Larkinson. Our support is conditional and contingent on future reforms where a more sensible power-sharing arrangement comes into force."

Ves smiled. The SEC already promised to back him up after he contacted a few important Rubarthans, but it was nice to hear confirmation in front of others!

Unfortunately, the additional vote of support was not quite enough to persuade any of the old faiths. They still remained extremely reluctant to follow suit as they stood to lose a huge amount of power, if only for a limited amount of time.

Ves had another way of obtaining their support. He turned towards their undecided representatives.

"I can promise you that once the initial emergency has passed, I will take action to share power with all of your organizations. This is the point where you can exercise your voice within our coalition. However, not every organization deserves to have the same amount of voting rights. I have already considered what we should base it upon. In my opinion, voting rights should be solely based on membership size, not wealth or the class of a human. The more worshipers you have, the greater your right to encourage the coalition to act according to your intentions."

"THIS IS MADNESS!" The representative from the Seekers of the Promised Land burst out! "Please forgive my language, but you cannot possibly give space peasants the same rights as first-raters! This is a complete contradiction of the reality of our society! Capital is just as important as manpower! If population alone determines our share of power, then our coalition will turn into a tyranny of weak and ignorant space peasants!"

Though the representatives of other smaller but higher-quality churches did not employ such a strong tone, they all expressed similar contempt towards the citizens of third-rate states!

They could not understand why Ves wanted to give them so much undeserved power!

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