The Mech Touch

Ves continued to report on the state of the captured human prisoner.

"When our troopers initially found the suspected cosmopolitan on the alien bridge, his mental state was poor. He did not resist capture and continued to mumble to himself as we transferred him over to one of my ships."

"That is odd." Master Goldstein frowned. "Cosmopolitans generally do not allow themselves to be captured alive. As true believers of a forbidden cause, they would rather deny us of any benefits than bargain for their lives. The pilot of the first-class multipurpose mech is an example of that. For this suspected diplomat to allow himself to get caught by your men is highly… unusual, though not unprecedented. What is his current state?"

"We currently have an entire team of doctors and security officers keeping watch over him." Ves replied. "We have tried to interrogate him, but we did not apply any heavy interrogation techniques for fear of triggering a failsafe. We also decided not to tamper with his implants or force him to undergo an artificial sleep cycle."

Master Goldstein nodded in approval. "Your precautions are adequate and wise. Every cosmopolitan is known to carry multiple failsafes. The higher their rank and the more vital their responsibilities, the greater their precautions. You should connect your team that is watching over him with one of our counterintelligence agents right away. If too much time has passed without the cosmopolitan making small actions, his cranial implant may decide that he is compromised and will detonate an explosive. This is only one of several possibilities that I have deduced based on the scans that you have transmitted."

Prominent and important first-raters had to carry these kinds of failsafes by necessity. Not doing so would make it far too attractive to kidnap them and force them to cough up lots of sensitive information.

However, few went as far as planting a small explosive inside their own heads!

If any glitch occurred or if anyone hacked the self-destruct function, the unlucky victim had no way of salvaging his life!

Ves would never allow himself to make himself vulnerable to this nightmare scenario!

"Okay, please send me the details."

It took a bit of time to make the arrangements. Once Master Goldstein became assured that the Golden Skullers received proper guidance on how to preserve their gains as much as possible, the man made an announcement.

"I originally planned to divert one of our nearby ships to your current star systems, but the importance of your findings merit a more significant response. I will personally make my way to SDDD-4343X-AER-232666410 so that I can inspect your gains and determine your compensation by myself."

That was a surprise to Ves. He knew that the capture of such a significant alien battleship would have attracted the mechers to him, but for one of the confidantes of the Polymath to make his way over in person was a clear signal that this was a big deal!

"We will await your arrival." Ves promised even as he planned to accelerate any private looting activities before the MTA came and took away the rest. "When do you expect to arrive at this star system?"

"I will be slightly delayed as I must pass through several destinations. I must also arrange the personnel and ships to establish extensive control over the site. I estimate it will take no later than 36 standard hours to arrive at your location."

"I see."

"Fret not, young mech designer." Master Goldstein smiled. "We have not disregarded your recent contributions. Your actions, though fueled by selfish motives, nonetheless align with our goals. That makes you far better than the rats who can only scurry in the dark due to their continual failings. The Mech Trade Association is always fair and you and your allies shall receive the compensation you deserve. This is also a convenient opportunity to settle the rewards of defeating an alien pirate base and neutralizing an aberrant member of the phase whale species."

The Golden Skull Alliance had been waiting for that. Ves figured that he would only get to settle all of that when his fleet left the turbulent border region, but now that Master Goldstein was coming, he could easily handle this matter himself given the authority that he possessed.

That was good. The chance that Ves would receive a better reward was much higher now that he had made successive contributions.

As much as a part of Ves felt annoyed that he was being trained to become a dog of the Association, he didn't mind it too much as long as he received sufficient compensation.

Both sides took what they needed from each other. Ves couldn't ask for more since his bargaining power was still poor compared to the vast MTA.

After concluding the call, Ves returned to the command center and immediately issued a series of orders. He wanted his men to speed up the search and salvaging process.

The main expeditionary fleet was already on its way back to the Ramage Repulsor System as well. Once Spirit of Bentheim along with hundreds of other ships arrived, Ves would not lack for manpower to investigate and extract as much value as he could reasonably get away with in a span of 36 hours.

"This is going to be tough." He frowned.

If his salvage teams disregarded everything, they could break the ship apart from the inside and steal everything of great strategic and practical value.

For example, his men could cut away entire power generators, shield generators, intact warship gun batteries and many more powerful technological products.

The alien battleship was freshly built and was in peak condition only a few months ago. Though the successive battles she had been a part of had taken a toll on her systems, many of her intact tech were still good enough that the Larkinsons could install on their own ships!

When Ves thought about mounting a set of orven segmented shield generators on his flagship, he already began to salivate at the thought.

"No!"

He vigorously shook his head.

The chances that he could get away with this was low. Master Goldstein already made it clear that the MTA wanted the ship to be as whole as possible to maximize the amount of intelligence that could be derived from her hull.

Besides, using stolen alien products was an excellent way to introduce vulnerabilities on his own ships. Without reverse-engineering all of the tech, the chances that they could be disabled through a hidden backdoor was too great!

As such, Ves had to resist the urge to order his men to treat the captured alien battleship as a free and unrestricted junkyard.

"It should still be okay if we skim off a bit of phasewater and other spare materials. There is also a lot of debris floating in space that the MTA won't care too much about."

The salvage teams needed to be clever in deciding what to salvage. They had to gather loot that was worthwhile enough to take but not important enough to make the mechers jealous.

It was difficult. The decision to leave most of the phasewater reserves found inside the Tower of Babel was especially painful to Ves, but what could he do? He was at least confident that the MTA would award him with more MTA merits for giving up such a substantial phasewater bounty.

Once he handled all of the necessary affairs, Ves was free to tour his latest acquisitions.

There was much that he wanted to examine in person before the MTA arrived to lay claim to most of the loot, so Ves became eager to make the most of his time.

He already gave Lucky permission to move to the alien battleship so that he could fill up his belly with valuable and yummy first-class exotics.

Ves wanted to step aboard the ship himself so that he could get a better feel and understanding of this odd, multi-racial battleship, but he first needed to check up on a couple of guests.

He took a trip down to the infirmary of the Antonio Cross. A single patient laid quietly on a bed while a bunch of advanced machines worked on his body.

A group of doctors monitored the proceedings and issued various commands to the machines.

"How is our latest guest doing?"

"He is alive and in decent condition." The head doctor replied. "The aliens did not deliberately mistreat Lord Pearian while he was in captivity. He was fed with first-class nutrient packs every day and that has provided him with all of the nutrition he needed to maintain his health and much of his fitness. His implants are disabled and we do not dare to reactivate them for fear of creating health complications. The Yorul-Tavik Clan can deal with this problem once we hand him over. His condition will not worsen while those implants remain dormant."

Ves smiled and lightened up. "That is a relief. We don't want this fellow to die while he is in our custody. That is a worse outcome than not rescuing him at all. Can I have a chat with a fellow?"

"Our guest is currently resting but not asleep. Please allow us to complete this round of examinations first. You can talk to him afterwards, though we recommend that you keep your discussion short. The aliens have neglected to feed him for the past few days and that has made him more lethargic than normal. He has also experienced a succession of mental shocks, so he is not entirely in his right mind."

"I understand. I will be gentle."

It took a few more minutes for the machines to complete their work. The doctors gently transferred Lord Pearian's body to a recovery room where laid on a bed.

When Ves entered the room, he stepped closer and looked down on a man who matched appearance of Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik to a near-perfect degree.

It seemed that captivity had hardly left a mark on the first-class scion. The only noticeable difference was that Pearian looked a lot more weary and jaded.

His shoulder-length dark hair was naturally smooth and self-combing and he apparently had all of his facial hair follicles removed, so he didn't look scruffy in the slightest.

Even so, the radical differences to his mental state caused his handsome face to look a lot older than before!

No one survived the ordeal that he had been through without going through a lot of growth and maturation.

Ves even had the illusion that he was looking at a younger mirror image of himself. He too experienced similar crises that opened him up to adapt to a crueler and messier galaxy.

"Hey." Ves spoke in a casual and disarming tone.

The man laying on the bed cracked open his eyes. "Are you… the young patriarch that everyone is talking about?"

"I am Ves Larkinson, a Journeyman Mech Designer and the founder and leader of the Larkinson Clan, which is part of the Golden Skull Alliance. A lot of pioneers have been scouring this border region to find you and rescue you from the clutches of the aliens. We happen to be the ones to succeed. It was quite difficult to track down your location seeing as the alien vessel you were on had been hiding inside the atmosphere of a brown dwarf star all this time."

Lord Pearian looked impressed. Though Ves had condensed a lot of information in his words, a first-rater was more than competent enough to digest it all. The rescued man may be tired, but that did not make him stupid.

"How… did you manage to track and rescue me where all others have failed?" He asked in an uncomprehending tone. "From what I have heard and witnessed so far, you people are second-raters. You shouldn't have the strength or technology to discover my whereabouts, track down the ship that was doing a good job of hiding herself and defeating her in battle."

"That… is a long story." Ves smirked. "Would you like to hear how much effort and ingenuity we put into engineering your retrieval?"

"I believe… I have all of the time in this galaxy now that I am freed of that accursed alien ship."