The Mech Touch

Matriarch Erexi Aduc and her three children looked so shocked and confused that they looked as if their cranial implants had crashed.

The Old Lady was the greatest treasure and heirloom of the Aduc Family. From the beginning, The Aducs took extremely good care of her. As proficient terraformers, they also excelled in botany and other related fields. They consistently made sure that the oak tree was able to grow under the most healthy conditions possible without resorting to artificial means that could taint her growth.

There was never a time when the Aducs had deliberately neglected or mistreated the Old Lady in any way. They had installed many safety measures such as energy shields and air filtration systems around the tree to make sure that no possible accident or attack could disturb her growth and existence.

For centuries, the Aducs had been rewarded for their efforts. The tree they cared for and revered with all of their hearts grew into a majestic organism. Her bark grew thick and strong while her canopy became more green and lush.

Every Aduc celebrated the gradual but unstoppable growth of the Old Lady. She was a genuine extension of Old Earth, the home planet of the human race and the start of their great civilization!

It was only after a few centuries that the Old Lady started showing signs of decline. For inexplicable reasons, the tree stopped growing as steadily as before. She even began to deteriorate as her branches began to droop while some of her leaves lost their green.

These changes completely distressed the Aducs. Their best botanists and biotechs studied her from top to bottom to determine the source of her affliction. When that didn't work, they acquired the services of other experts. They even paid millions of MTA merits in order to borrow the expertise of one of the Association top scientists, to no avail!

The Aducs had gone from alarm to escalating concern.

The good news was that the Old Lady's nature as a tree granted her a lot of time before her condition deteriorated too much.

The bad news was that none of them were able to find a solution to this problem! Were the Aducs destined to witness the slow and unstoppable death of this unique and magnificent gift from Old Earth?

Even though it was not impossible to procure a new sapling from Old Earth by paying a high price, it simply wouldn't be the same.

Matriarch Erexi and all of the predecessors and descendents of the Aduc Family had revered the Old Lady from the beginning of their lives!

It had been a tradition for them to worship the revered oak tree from the moment they gained enough awareness to do so. Visiting the Old Lady was like attending church to them. The Aducs became so attached to her that they equated her resilience as a representation of their family's luck.

Ever since the Old Lady's health had stalled and deteriorated, the Aducs became a lot more distressed about their future. Had they committed a grave sin? Were they not sincere enough in caring for their precious tree? Was the decline of their family already set in stone?

Many Aducs feared that their family would no longer have the capital to survive if the worst scenario took place!

The Aduc Family without the Old Lady would no longer have a heart. There was no tree or other growth that could replace the role of this priceless heirloom.

This was also why the Aducs found it extremely difficult to accept the explanation given by their guests.

Matriarch Erexi's expression grew incredibly grave. Though she wanted to deny the claims made by the Larkinson expert pilot, she possessed enough rationality to consider the matter seriously.

At the very least, this was the first time they heard an explanation that could adequately explain why the Old Lady had grown sick!

Many other experts who were much smarter and more knowledgeable than anyone else had tried and failed to form a satisfactory diagnosis!

Now that the Aducs finally obtained one, they should not reflexively deny it out of hand just because they didn't like what they heard!

As a matriarch, Erexi Aduc still knew what to prioritize. The pride and reputation of their family was not as important as reversing the Old Lady's decline!

"Please… explain it to us." She spoke with a heavy voice. "How could she not feel at home? Our family has taken exquisite care of her since we obtained her. Though our family has relocated to several planets after our exile from the Terran Confederation, we have always located and settled on the most ideal Earth-like planets that we can reach. Even this artificial biome we are in right now simulates a temperate climate of Old Earth to an accuracy of 98.763 percent. There are hardly any other technologies available that can increase this rate any further."

The two spiritually sensitive Larkinsons both exchanged glances with each other. Neither of them looked particularly optimistic about the Old Lady's spiritual condition.

Ves was actually surprised that Joshua sensed the Old Lady's ailment before himself, but after a bit more thought, he supposed it made sense.

Ves was a creator by nature and tended to look at spiritual existences as potential sources of ingredients.

In contrast, Venerable Joshua genuinely respected the life and personalities of different life forms. He saw every human, creature or spiritual entity as a potential friend. As long as he tried hard enough and as long as his counterpart wasn't hostile, he was confident he could befriend anything that was alive!

While the Old Lady was definitely alive, she wasn't as sophisticated as the mechs and design spirits that Joshua interacted with on a daily basis.

Nonetheless, the Old Lady still developed a measure of spiritual life, akin to a second order living mech.

Instead of answering Matriarch Erexi's question, Venerable Joshua made a presumptuous request.

"Can I get close enough to touch her trunk, ma'am? At this distance, I can only sense what the Old Lady is feeling on the surface. I need to get into contact with her in order to get a better feel. I might even be able to talk to her, though I'm not sure trees can even do that. I won't hurt the tree. I promise."

"I'd like to get close as well." Ves quickly said. "My abilities are a bit different, but I should be able to confirm Joshua's diagnosis and offer a different perspective."

"You may… approach. Please be mindful of your behavior. An energy shield will immediately appear if you make any improper movements."

"Mother!" Tierna Aduc looked shocked! "We have never allowed a foreigner to touch the Old Lady! Even the mechers that we have invited to diagnose her condition utilized remote scanning equipment to study her physical state."

"Those rules exist to protect the Old Lady. Now that she is ill, we must not let our dogma hinder us from finding a cure for her problem. If the very same rules no longer safeguards the Old Lady but instead contributes to her continued decline, then we should not hold on to them any longer. Otherwise, our family would never have been able to survive up to this point!"

That was a good approach. Ves respected the matriarch a bit more for that. A family led by a good leader was a much better ally and partner than one led by an impulsive idiot.

With the matriarch's blessing, Ves and Joshua slowly approached the base of the Old Lady's trunk, though Lucky and Minister Shederin had to stay behind.

Fortunately, Lucky found it more interesting to explore the surrounding forest while Minister Shederin passed the time by chatting with the Aduc scions.

"This is truly a special tree." Venerable Joshua remarked as he became more affected by the spiritually strong tree strength and accumulation. "I can feel the age and life force of the Old Lady. It's truly a pity that she is in pain."

The pain that Joshua referred to wasn't the pain that came from stabbing a knife into a person's thigh.

The Old Lady suffered from a different kind of pain, one that behaved like a chronic affliction that slowly and steadily wore away at her spirituality.

It was an erosion that came from within.

As both Ves and Joshua pressed their palms onto the oak tree's bark, they used their own senses and abilities to learn whatever they could and figure out if they could correct whatever was ailing the Old Lady.

Several minutes went by. Neither of the two dared to move too quickly and disturb the equilibrium of the Old Lady's spirituality.

Ves became more impressed and fascinated by the existence of her spirituality. The Old Lady was a natural totem that had been formed under rare conditions.

While there were many different human groups that had worshiped different relics and icons, it was nearly impossible for their persistent efforts to create a totem.

This was because most of the spiritual feedback from the worshippers were too mixed and heterogeneous. Ves had learned that a high standard of purity had to be met in order for spiritual accumulation to achieve any significant results.

The Ylvainans and the Hexers had reluctantly succeeded in doing so, but even then the totems weren't powerful enough to do anything until Ves had come along.

The Old Lady was different from Ylvaine's nutrient pack wrapper or a piece of the original statue of the Superior Mother.

This tree was not only alive in an organic sense, but consistently gathered much higher qualities of spiritual feedback than normal!

Ves turned his head towards the four Aducs standing further back. Each of their spiritualities were strong and activated. Their attributes were also the same, which was highly unusual.

What was even more remarkable was that they were hardly the only Aducs aboard the Green Dream that possessed life and earth domains!

Over a quarter of the crew members that Ves had encountered during the hours-long tour through the capital terraforming ship possessed the same characteristics!

Their age was the main factor to their strength. The older and more higher-ranking Aducs possessed spiritualities that could rival that of Matriarch Erexi Aduc!

Ves initially thought that the Aducs developed these highly uniform traits due to their diligent worship of the Old Lady, but he rejected this hypothesis after a bit of thought.

He failed to detect any component within the Old Lady's spirituality that could actively pass on a part of its strength to others.

Furthermore, the Old Lady's spiritual attributes were slanted towards wood, earth and life.

Ves hadn't met any Aducs that developed a domain related to wood!

He concluded that whatever secret method the Aducs utilized to develop their spiritualities, it wasn't related to the Old Lady!

Nonetheless, the Aduc Family's unique strength gave it the ability to influence the Old Lady's spiritual development.

If the Aducs had been more cognizant of how their worshipful thoughts shaped the Old Lady's personality, they would have been more careful about what they passed on! It was unfortunate that they did not restrain their obsession towards Old Earth whenever they honored the oak tree.

In fact, these detrimental thoughts had peaked because of the Old Lady's direct connection to humanity's home planet!

"It's… bad." Ves slowly said as he completed his examination. "The Old Lady is like a woman who has been raised to believe she is a man. Perhaps she never saw any problem with this when she was younger and more ignorant. It was only when she developed a slightly greater ability to think and understand that she realized that her current state is wrong. She recognizes that she is a woman, but her own body and everyone else around her keeps insisting that she is a man. This naturally puts her into a state of inner conflict. You could have resolved this earlier if you did not insist on reinforcing the wrong ideas, but now it is too late. She cannot be persuaded anymore."

The Aducs looked aghast. They wanted so badly for the Larkinsons to be wrong, but Ves spoke with so much certainty that his diagnosis sounded credible!