The Mech Touch

Ves took a well-deserved break after coming back from the third session of the Interim Leadership Council.

Everything that happened during the eventful session along with the insights he gained from Master Goldstein put him in an introspective mood.

He did not entirely neglect his family and his routine duties, but he was admittedly not fully present in the hours after he returned.

Eventually, he let out a big sigh.

"A lot of plans have gone into motion, but I am not responsible for all of them. I should stop wasting my time on stuff out of my control and focus on the limited stuff where I can make a meaningful difference."

That realization was enough for him to put a huge mental load off his chest and regain his mental composure.

Once his mood lightened up, he was able to engage properly with the people around him again.

During an evening reserved for family bonding, Ves, his immediate family and the cats all piled up on the couches and watched a cartoonish Terran action drama.

"Meow~"

It seemed only Lucky and Clixie enjoyed the cartoon. They lounged on the laps of Andraste and Marvaine while allowing themselves to get petted by the children.

The rest of the family listened carefully as Ves narrated how the third major session of the Interim Leadership Council unfolded.

Suffice to say, they all became impressed by how Ves managed to secure a foothold as a boss of his own right.

"Does this mean you will be put in charge of the Red Collective?!" Gloriana enthusiastically asked. "If that is the case, then make sure to reserve a senior position for myself. Do not put me in an office that requires me to contribute a large amount of work. As you know, I cannot spare too much time on other responsibilities, but I can still clear a small part of my schedule as long as my new position is prestigious enough."

Like mother, like daughter.

It was not enough for High Hex Priestess Constance Wodin to beg Ves for an easy way into the executive ranks of the Red Collective. At least she was an experienced administrator and was working full-time on improving her qualifications.

His wife did not nearly possess the same strengths!

"I can arrange a minor duty for you easily enough, Gloriana, but anything more important requires proper resumes, interviews, exams and so on. You will not be able to pass those tests on account of your lack of experience in administering large offices and so on. You will not be able to rely on your extensive knowledge on mech designs to gain easy entry into the Red Collective. If you haven't forgotten already, the RC is the central organization on all things related to cultivation in human civilization. You are currently a lightweight in this area, so you can't occupy any important positions. You have to start from the bottom and work your way up over several decades."

Gloriana scowled. "I will not allow the RC to treat me as a common recruit! I am more than that! I am the wife of the deputy lead councilor! I have many masterwork certificates in my name! There ought to be a position that is well suited for my talents."

"Maybe there is, but… you are not the only person angling for a cushy job within the RC. There are Master Mech Designers and centuries-old specialists who are working hard to get selected in the initial batch of workers who get to shape the initial culture and attitudes of the Red Collective. If you want to outcompete them, then you need to prove you can make more contributions than your competitors. For example, is it possible for you to generalize your god body method and decouple it from mechs? Can you make it so that other handmade artifacts can transform into masterworks over time?"

That was a difficult question to answer. Gloriana had to fall silent for a minute in order to think about the viability of this suggestion. She continued to hug Aurelia who was sitting by her side.

"It is not realistic to generalize my god body method." She eventually said. "It is too tied into my design philosophy of creating the perfect vessel for mech pilots. In theory, the perfect vessel does not necessarily have to be a mech. It can very well be a sword, a ruler, a wrench or any other object. In practice, I will likely have to advance to the rank of Master Mech Designer or even Star Designer in order to broaden the scope of my god body method, and even then it will take many years of research to do so due to lack of broader knowledge and expertise."

"Will it help if I collaborate with you on this research?"

"It… will help, but it cannot remove the need for painstaking research entirely." Gloriana admitted. "Forget it. Participation in the Red Collective matters much less for me than you. Leading the RC is practically your birthright given the identity of your mother. It should also be the birthright of Aurelia, hopefully."

Gloriana leaned over and planted another kiss onto Aurelia's cheek, causing the girl to smile.

"Our eldest daughter is not close to ready to get herself involved in galactic affairs." Ves retorted. "She should grow up and take over the Larkinson Clan first. That will keep her busy for a long time. The plots and schemes that occur in the Red Collective are a lot more devious, ambitious and dangerous. This is not a place for an inexperienced player."

A moment of silence ensued as the other Larkinsons processed those words.

"Is the Red Collective that dangerous, papa?"

"Yes, Aurelia. It is a burgeoning center of power. The greater the power, the stronger the people who are trying to compete over it. A single misstep can cause me to lose all my power and provoke tons of enemies into action. The stakes are too high, and there are a lot of people who are willing to do anything to gain an advantage."

Ves continued to relay his broad impressions of what it was like to engage in politics and scheming at this high level. He wanted to caution his daughter about entering this arena too soon.

He was not sure whether his attempts to deter her from yearning to engage in politics at this level succeeded. The more he talked, the more her excitement grew.

Oh sure, her expression remained prim and proper, but her spirituality trilled with eagerness!

He leaned over and patted his oldest daughter on the head. "Don't entertain any unrealistic fantasies. It takes a huge amount of effort to become a senator in the Upper Council. You need to be a major contributor and earn a lot of people's recognition in order to become eligible. In more practical terms, you have to be a high-tier galactic citizen at the very least. The councilors don't want to waste their time on people who have very little accomplishments to their name and have not made enough earnest contributions to our civilization."

That was generally true, but Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson managed to get onto the Interim Leadership Council by acting as her ancestor's substitute.

The young fleeter may be brilliant compared to her peers, but there was no way she had made as many contributions as Ves back when he was her age!

"What is the most expedient method for me to become a senator of the Red Collective?" Aurelia asked as she clearly hadn't given up a chance to drive politics at the galactic level.

Ves hesitated whether he should give her an answer at all, but then figured that she would probably conduct her own research.

"You can take two completely different directions. Once you graduate from a university, you can either go back to the Larkinson Clan and learn the ropes of leading it by rotating between different departments. You can slowly familiarize yourself with every facet of the clan over a decade or two, before finally taking over from me as the matriarch of the Larkinson Clan. Once you gain leadership over the Larkinsons, you need to make use of our clan to get stuff done and contribute to red humanity as a whole. Once you have made enough accomplishments, you may become eligible to become a senator on behalf of the Larkinson Clan."

"Boring." Andraste commented. "This is what Aurelia plans to do anyway."

"The other route is to join the Red Collective right away." Ves said as he ignored his second daughter's remark. "The suggestion I gave to Gloriana is still valid. You can join the RC as a fresh recruit, and work your way up the ranks by proving your competence, showcasing your excellent learning ability and defeating any office politics that might impede your promotion. This will be a long and grueling journey, but you will get exposed to many different people whose cultures and customers are completely different from that of humans."

Aurelia's eyes already started to shine. She was seriously putting thought in this alternate career trajectory.

Instead of spending her time among the Larkinsons she grew alongside with for her entire life, it sounded much more exciting for her to enter in a completely different setting and try to build a career among so many strangers!

Aurelia appeared to take after her parents quite well. She probably inherited a touch of Ves and Gloriana's obsessive tendencies.

"How long will it take for Aurelia to rise to the executive level?" Gloriana asked.

"A long time. Half a century maybe. It depends on her accomplishments. She needs to become more than just a good politician and administrator. She needs to be able to make significant contributions to the Red Collective as a cultivator. That can range from developing new cultivation methods, figuring out a brilliant new way to manipulate E energy or discovering how to tap into the full potential of a strange hyper material."

"So Aurelia will need to resemble her paternal grandmother, is that what you are saying?" Gloriana seriously asked. "After all, your infamous mother managed to attain a high position at a past organization that possesses a number of commonalities with the Five Scrolls Compact. In fact, we should enlist the Superior Mother as Aurelia's tutor! I can think of no better teacher to turn our eldest daughter into a cunning and ruthless cultivator!"

"NO! Absolutely not! I will not have Aurelia follow a trajectory that is anywhere close to that of my mother!"

The mere suggestion of turning Aurelia into a mirror of Cynthia Larkinson was deeply abhorrent to Ves!

There was no way that Ves wanted to twist Aurelia into a cruel and heartless cultivator who was willing to violate nearly every rule in order to secure her way to the top!

"Forget what I said." Ves spoke. "You belong to the Larkinson Clan, Aurelia. You were born to take over as its matriarch. While I will not insist that you follow the goals and aspirations that we have set for you, our clan is truly the best possible home for you. The Larkinsons yearn for strong leadership, but I trust very few to take over as leader and not screw up as a consequence."

Though Aurelia had not voiced a clear preference for sticking to the clan or joining the Red Collective right away, Ves hoped that she would see sense in time. She was still too young and playful to understand the significance of all of those dangerous bounties.

"I love you, papa." His oldest girl affectionately called. "No matter where I go, I don't want to work in a place where you aren't there. Once I grow up, I can relieve a lot of work for you. I don't want to work anywhere else."

That earned her a kiss and a warm hug from Ves.

"Hehe, let's wait until you have grown up a lot more before you decide what you want to do with your life. That reminds me. Your tenth birthday is coming up in the near future. Let's see how your genetic aptitude will end up at. You can decline to attend a mech academy if you turn out to possess sufficient genetic aptitude, but it is still useful to know if you can interface with mechs in the traditional way."

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