The Mech Touch

The week-long interruption of classes initially disappointed the students.

Much had changed since then. The significance of being a student of one of Professor Ves Parkinson's had skyrocketed all of a sudden!

A lot of news and rumors started to emerge surrounding the mysterious conference that Professor Parkinson had apparently been invited to attend.

None of the Terran expected that some of the most explosive stories about what happened during the event organized by the Survivalist Faction centered around their professor of all people!

Ordinary students who didn't have any special connections such as Klaus Robar-Fulton initially doubted the veracity of these crazy tales. He did not know his professor well, but he found it difficult to accept that a second-class Senior Mech Designer could confront the likes of the Star Designer or sway the opinions of the majority of the mechers in attendance!

Many other classmates assumed this stance as well, but they found it increasingly harder to maintain their original attitudes when the people around them drastically changed their own behavior.

The more well-connected students such as Ryan Shuku of the Shuku Ancient Clan and Gabriel Sekkar of the rising Sekkar Clan started to talk about Professor Parkinson in a much more reverent and respectful tone whenever he came up in a conversation.

The Eden Institute suddenly received a lot of different grants from various different Terrans clans that previously had nothing to do with the school.

The Devos Ancient Clan quadrupled the security forces overnight. Whereas the campus was previously guarded by a relatively ordinary second echelon guard mech unit, several elite mech units that were ordinarily reserved for special operations hastily transferred to New Constantinople VIII.

Their assistance turned out to be helpful. The more menacing first-class multipurpose mechs quickly commenced their aggressive patrols in order to deter and drive back the growing crowd of onlookers with their fierce-looking armaments.

The most annoying change of circumstance for the students was the messages and personal solicitations that started to overtake them all of a sudden.

Klaus found it different to reject the requests to bring up specific proposals to Professor Parkinson and such. The identities of many of the people and organizations that wanted to use his access to the recently promoted tier 3 galactic citizen's classes were so great that it was never a good idea to offend them in any fashion!

Fortunately, the Eden Institute recognized the dangers fairly soon and quickly stepped in to stop any inappropriate behavior and solicitations. Master Eaila Rebecca Devos personally summoned every student to the auditorium in order to present a new set of rules that were solely designed not to bother Professor Parkinson and the students who enrolled for his classes.

Each student that approached people like Klaus for the purpose of passing on a message to Professor Parkinson automatically got flagged by the university's monitoring system.

As long as the transgression was great enough, the offender might get booted out of the campus outright!

The less well-off students who were not equipped to communicate with powerful parties like Klaus could apply for a communications block. This would let the Eden Institute take complete control over their external communications, thereby allowing it to filter out any undesirable requests and solicitations before they ever arrived at their comm modules.

If that was not enough to sink in the fact that Professor Parkinson had suddenly turned into a bigshot overnight, the Eden Institute utilized a good proportion of the recent windfalls to rapidly renovate and upgrade all of the classrooms and workshops where he would teach his classes!

As the date of the first class since the professor's brief hiatus finally arrived, Klaus dressed himself up with a set of hand-made tailored smart clothing that had been provided by the school free of charge.

He had to admit that he looked a lot more refined than before. He might even be able to pass off as a member of one of the powerful clans!

It all seemed surreal to him. Even though he had nothing to do with all of the frenetic activity aside from signing up to all three courses taught by Professor Parkinson, he nonetheless found himself close to the center of the vortex!

His stress levels were rising as he grew a lot more worried about screwing up in front of a mech designer who had apparently stood up to the Polymath herself and managed to come away victorious!

"Relax, Klaus." Polina said as she tried to reassure her friend. "We have already seen what the professor is made of. He is unlikely to change into a different beast in the week that he was gone. Once he shows up in front of us again, I think he will fall into the same habits again."

"I don't know if you are right."

Too much had changed around them. The lecture hall superficially looked the same, but it had received a lot of refinements in the form of better security, more sophisticated looking furniture, higher quality projection systems and many other touches.

Polina came in wearing a designer suit that complimented her appearance nicely while also making her look more professional. She was hardly the only one to dress herself up as hundreds of other students had all made a conscious effort to present themself in the best possible light.

A few minutes before the lecture was about to begin, his teaching assistant entered from a side entrance. The lady who was not that much older than the students strode to the center on heels that clacked against the floor and swept everyone with a gaze that managed to scorch everyone regardless of their identities!

This immediately put a lot of different individuals on high alert.

"Before we begin, let me reiterate the rules that you must abide by. You have enrolled to receive lessons and instruction from Professor Parkinson. That has not changed. You are not here to solicit his opinions about the decisions he has made or beg him to reveal any of the secrets he has learned during the conference. You will not speak unless it is relevant to the current subject matter or if the professor specifically asks for your input. Do not think that you can get away with unacceptable behavior because you are being backed by an ancient clan or an influential Master Mech Designer. There are soldiers standing guard outside that will not hesitate to escort you away from the premises if you cross the line. This is your only warning."

It was clear that the Eden Institute was highly invested in providing a welcome and controlled environment for their latest star professor.

Once Miss Striker was done with her brief reminder, the advanced physical projection systems came to life.

The infamous second-class mech designer that had apparently played a massive role during the conference had finally returned to resume his teaching duties!

At first glance, the professor did not look all that much different from last week.

This took a lot of students by surprise, though they managed to do a good job at hiding actual reactions.

Klaus found it profoundly strange and ironic that the Eden Institute had gone through so much effort to implement so many changes and improvements, only for the target to return to work exactly the same as before!

"Good morning, Terrans."

"Good morning, professor." The students politely reciprocated the greeting.

The second-class Senior smirked before he began to explain his new lesson plan.

"I originally had a different lecture plan in mind, but with everything that has happened as of late, I think it is better if I frame this session around recent events. Frontier Wisdom is not a course that is mainly centered around stale theories and tedious memorization. It is about applying an approach towards your life and career that should hopefully put you in a much better place than before. Given that the Red Association along with various other sources has released bits of information of what transpired during the conference, I think it might be fun to make use of this event as a case study on how to apply the lesson that I have previously taught. Can anyone summarize the three rules that I have presented in my inaugural lecture?"

A lot of hands raised in the air. The professor selected one at random.

The eager student rose up and answered as succinctly as possible.

"Sir, the first rule that you have taught is that you should never let your fate be decided by others. You should always try to be the one to save yourself! The second rule is that trust is rare and precious. You must value it when you can establish genuine trust with another party. The third rule is that everyone around you is mainly interested in advancing their own interests. They will not go out of their way to sacrifice their own gains in order to benefit you. The only way to maximize your own interests is to fight for it yourself! In general, your lesson emphasizes the importance of self-reliance and reducing your vulnerability to any allies that might turn on you because of profit."

That was an impressive answer. The student not only recited the rules in his own words, but also added enough comments to show he truly figured out the underlying basis and intent.

The professor grinned to show his appreciation for this answer. "That is an excellent reply. Understanding this should explain much of what transpired during the final day of the conference and why I have made certain decisions. We will only frame this discussion to the information that is publicly known. I am sure that quite a few of you have far better channels than your other peers, but let us keep anything confidential out of the picture, shall we? I do not want you to get in trouble because you revealed information that you shouldn't."

That was a severe restriction that prevented the students from understanding the complete picture, but it couldn't be helped. The Polymath was still a hero and an object of admiration for red humanity, and that was how it was supposed to be in order to keep up morale.

Professor Larkinson soon projected three different documents that outlined the basic and simplified summaries of all three plans that were supposedly under consideration.

"I am sure that you have already heard much about the three proposals put forward by the Xenotechnician, the Fist of Defiance and the Polymaths became available to the public. Each of them are designed to shift red humanity into action and defeat the native aliens that are trying to wipe us out. There are strong differences between every plan. They not only differ by methods, but also represent three very different ideologies. Let's leave all of that complicated stuff aside and think about how it affects you on a personal level. Of the three plans, which one intrudes on your life and freedom the most?"

"The Unity Plan, professor!"

"Correct. It is undeniable that this is the most intrusive and far-reaching plan out of the three. The entire premise rests on a set of assumptions that do not sit well to anyone who abides by the rules that I have taught. The most egregious aspect about this arrogant proposal is that it deprives everyone of a lot of autonomy. The Polymath might be smart enough to assign the most optimal set of rights and responsibilities to every group and individual, but what if she is wrong? Everyone is fallible. Even Star Designers are still beset by the human flaws that they have sought to eliminate. This means that the Unity Plan pretty much flies in the face of all of my three rules! No one with any decent sense should have voted in favor of this expansive set of reforms."

Selene Di Ventura raised her colorfully manicured hand. "If that is the case, why did it gain momentum in the early phases of the voting session?"

A look of contempt appeared on Ves' face. "That is because there were enough dummies among the delegates with voting rights who don't possess an inkling of frontier wisdom. They have grown up in an entirely different environment. They have grown up becoming dependent on others for their entire lives. They have always looked up to one superior after another so that they automatically favor any proposal that ostensibly puts the best qualified candidate in charge. Let's discuss how mistaken they are and what they did wrong..."