The Mech Touch

"Yes, the Aduc Family sure loves their green motifs."

Despite spending so much time in the Larkinson fleet, Ves and Gloriana rarely brought their daughter to other ships.

Aside from bringing her to a pleasant ship like the Vivacious Wal for a rare weekend break, they mostly kept Aurelia close at hand, especially when she was still too young to appreciate the new sights.

However, before they knew it, their baby who used to spend most of her time asleep had grown up into a curious and energetic toddler.

Introducing her to a planet like Davute VII was the greatest eye-opening experience for the young lady so far, but bringing her to the Green Dream was not that far behind.

The Aducs actually didn\'t like living and working on starships. They only did so by necessity and because their jobs often compelled them to serve aboard them for long stretches of time.

In order to make themselves feel less alienated in space, the Aducs invested great effort into vivifying the interior of their vessels. There were small parks and trees in practically every corridor and compartment. Plants sometimes grew out of the bulkheads and the smell of nature was so strong that those who closed their eyes would think that they were standing on a planet instead of a starship!

As a group that always believed in the supremacy of Old Earth, the flora all consisted of authentic Earth-based trees and plants.

Of all of the plants that the Aducs used to bring life to their ship, Aurelia adored the flowers the most.

"Look, papa! Big flower! So big!"

"That\'s a sunflower, honey. Out of all of the natural flowers from Earth, it is among the bigger ones. There are even genetically-modified variants that make them as big as your body or even greater!"

Aurelia\'s eyes turned wide as she imagined such a huge sight.

As the group of Larkinsons continued to make their way to the Green Sanctum, the bundle of joy soon became attracted by other classic flowers, even if Aurelia already encountered them in one of the parks within the Spirit of Bentheim.

From roses to peonies, every flower captivated her youthful imagination and desires.

There was something different about the way the Larkinsons and the Aducs arranged the greenery inside their ships.

Ves hadn\'t paid attention to this difference in his previous visits, but Aurelia\'s enthusiastic reaction to the interior of the Green Dream prompted him to pay more attention to this detail.

Despite their diverging biological makeup, there shouldn\'t be any obvious differences between the plants. However, the fact that the Aducs stick with authentic original Earth plants whose genomes weren\'t tampered with somehow made their own greenery feel closer in tune with nature.

The arrangements of the plants, the subtle patterns of their positioning and the emphasis on smell were just a couple of areas where the Aducs proved to be superior!

Ves felt tempted to commission the Aducs to decorate the interior of his ships as well, but he quickly rejected this notion.

Even if it made the ships more livable, they wouldn\'t be Larkinson vessels anymore. He should leave this job for his subordinates so that he could make sure that the ships still reflected the values and culture of his clan.

"This one smells better! Papa, what is this flower?"

Ves stopped in front of her daughter and bent down to take a whiff of the small but numerous flowers. Fond memories passed through his mind as he partook in the delicious scent.

"This is chamomile. Did you know that it is my mother\'s favorite flower? That\'s right, your grandmother used to drink fresh chamomile as tea?"

"You can drink flowers?"

"Not directly. You take these flowers and put them in hot water so that they infuse it with their delicious flavors. This will produce light and delicious tea. Your grandmother loved it so much that she even grew her own chamomile in the garden of the house we used to live in. It was a pity that we never continued that habit after she… disappeared for a time."

Aurelia grinned at her father. "Grandma is back now! Drink tea together!"

Ves knew that the Superior Mother had already introduced herself and kept Aurelia company a few times.

However, Aurelia almost certainly did not comprehend the true state of her \'grandmothers\'!

"Your grandma can\'t drink tea. She isn\'t in the right state to do so anymore." He gently said as he pulled her away from the chamomile flowers. "We can do plenty of things with her, but drinking tea is not one of the activities we can do together."

"Why not?"

"Because she… isn\'t here. She stayed behind in the Milky Way, the home we left behind."

Aurelia looked confused. "Grandma is here!"

"Er… not exactly."

Ves tried and failed to explain that their mothers were not actually physically present in the Red Ocean, but there were limits to Aurelia\'s accelerated cognitive development, so he quickly ceased the attempt.

When their group eventually arrived at the Green Sanctum, Ves had to leave most of his guards behind, though his insistence was enough to allow Aurelia, Clixie and Shannon Maris to proceed past the security gates.

Ves did not particularly care about leaving behind his guards because he already had access to a stronger one inside the Green Sanctum.

As soon as he and his diminished group reached the low hill at the center of the reinforced biome, a resplendent green-coated expert mech stood before a pair of Aduc mechs!

The mechs utilized by the Aduc family never impressed Ves. The pair before him were getting on in years and weren\'t particularly impressive when they were in their prime.

Whether it was the knight mech or the swordsman mech, neither of them possessed any notable strengths other than their economy, their low and easy maintenance requirements and their ease of use. The only reason why their hard performance metrics did not fall behind the Bright Warrior too much was because they were heartland-level products.

Compared to these relatively ordinary mechs, the Everchanger completely stole the show!

Just as he expected, the Aducs who had gathered in the Green Sanctum became completely fascinated by this exceptional living mech.

Ves doubted that the Aducs had many people who could appreciate the exquisite craftsmanship of a masterwork mech, but its inherent spiritual foundation was probably a great drug to a group that never experienced the charm of living mechs before.

In order to achieve the greatest possible impact to the Aducs, he had instructed Venerable Joshua to turn off every glow and resonate with his expert mech to a modest degree, causing it to radiate its naked presence without any additional factors.

The small crowd that had gathered at a respectable distance from the expert mech showed that it indeed made a potent impression!

"Patriarch Ves, welcome back to the Green Dream." Kievenar Aduc greeted him before he glanced at the little girl that was already enjoying the scenery. "I see you have brought your daughter with you as well."

Ves smiled. "I felt it would be nice to bring my kid to work today. Don\'t worry. She\'s young and curious, but she won\'t get in the way."

Though the Aducs thought it wasn\'t wise to bring such a young girl to an occasion like this, they just chalked it up to another eccentricity of the Larkinsons.

They only exchanged pleasantries for a little bit until Matriarch Erexi Aduc arrived before him with an expectant expression.

"Let us not delay this matter any further, patriarch. We have been waiting for this moment for days. We cannot bear the sight of our Old Lady slowly dying before our eyes any longer. Relieve her of her suffering and bring forth the rebirth that you have promised."

Ves turned serious and nodded. "Understood. I am eager to get on with this as well. Please tell your men to back off and maintain a healthy distance from the Old Lady. Though I don\'t anticipate any danger, I am afraid they might disturb the process if they interfere with my work at an inopportune moment."

"We will make sure that you will have enough room to perform your procedure."

The Aducs moved quickly and without any fuss. They were all curious and eager to witness the revival of the Old Lady up close, but they could not disobey instructions from above.

Even the pair of Aduc mechs stepped backwards in order to give Ves more space.

Ves also made sure that his daughter kept her distance as well. Shannon held the little girl in her arms to make sure that Aurelia stayed in place.

"You be a good girl and keep your nanny company, okay?"

"Um!"

Naturally, the Everchanger remained rooted in place. Its strong vitality made for a convincing case that its presence was vital to the process.

"Joshua, please send over the packages."

"Will do, sir."

A small storage bay slid open before a couple of small crates floated out. The metal lockboxes quickly flew towards Ves before stopping in front of his body.

He inputted different codes that unlocked the crates. Several different P-stones became exposed, each of which exuded different glows that nonetheless felt as if they shared the same origins.

The truth was that Ves collected every source of life spiritual energy that he had access to! He had already harvested small spiritual fragments from Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger.

He also borrowed a spiritual fragment from the Superior Mother on top of that. Life only accounted for a sixth of her total domain, but it was still the real deal as long as this part of her spiritual makeup was isolated from the rest.

Naturally, he also prepared a large spiritual fragment produced by Blinky in order to account for his own share.

As an added bonus, he also prepared a full vial\'s worth of universal life-attributed spiritual energy.

His expression became extremely grave when he beheld the untouched vial of high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum.

He did not dare to draw out the rich and potent universal life energy in advance because he did not have a container in his possession that could possibly store that much rich and potent high-grade spiritual energy!

"Have I gone crazy?"

Originally, Ves didn\'t intend to squander any amount of universal life energy, much less an entire vial\'s worth!

He typically utilized just 5 to 10 percent of the energy of a vial when he created a number of his previous design spirits. This was more than enough to accelerate their growth, raise their potential and give them a head-start in life.

Wasting an entire vial of life-prolonging treatment serum to supercharge the birth of just a single spiritual product sounded extremely crazy! This was a clear loss-making transaction as the benefits of accelerating the growth of a new design spirit always had a limit!

.

However, Ves had a hunch that it might be different this time.

Though the Old Lady looked awful at the moment, Ves felt as if it was just begging to get watered by a huge dose of life.

"Trees are the origin of life. If there is anything that can produce the gentlest and most compatible form of life, it has to be a plant organism!"

Though Ves would have preferred to perform this experiment on a fruit-bearing tree, an old and remarkable oak tree that originated from Old Earth was also an acceptable choice.

A grin slowly appeared on his face as he tried to imagine what would happen if he used up so much universal life energy.

"If this works out the way I envisioned…"

There were only a few possible instances where wasting one of the precious vials of serums that he originally looted from the Life Research Association would turn into a profitable transaction.

The goal he was aiming for was turning his new design spirit into a powerful producer of universal life energy!

If he could make a new spiritual product that inherently produced universal life energy, then Ves would no longer be dependent on buying or plundering serums from others in order to replenish his supply!

"This would be a complete revolution!"