The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5818 The Real Functions

Offers rarely seem what they appeared on the surface.

Everyone who attended the grand auction was clever enough to estimate the value of their own bids.

Ves seriously doubted that the mecher who rose up from his seat and presented the Zeta-65 Warp Interdictor was stupid to misjudge its value.

This was especially the case given that he was not making this offer on behalf of himself, but rather two very powerful figures.

Ves did not have a problem with the Spacelock. The aristocratic god pilot was not exactly the most approachable sort, but he could always be counted upon to remain professional in his interactions with others.

One point in the Spacelock's favor was that he had joined most of the other god pilots in supporting the establishment of the Red Collective. Perhaps what happened a few days ago may have given him a reason to favor greater cooperation.

"If I agree to obtain the right to buy and utilize the new Zeta-65 Warp Interdictors, who will receive my company shares?" Ves asked.

"The Polymath and the Spacelock have already agreed to a profit sharing arrangement. Her Excellency is entitled 4.5 percent. His Holiness shall receive the remaining 0.5 percent." The man readily answered.

Interesting.

And concerning.

Of all of the possible shareholders that Ves sought, he did not look forward to having the Polymath looking over his shoulder.

Gaining 4.5 percent ownership in the LMC did not give her any real control, but it did give her the right to poke into the books, express her demands to the board of directors and meddle into his affairs.

How did this even work? Hadn't the Survivalists told him that the Polymath relinquished most of her power and authority in order to pay the price of her transgressions?

She shouldn't even be capable of sending an envoy to participate in this grand auction on her behalf!

It seemed the Red Association needed her so much that the Polymath had already started to loosen the restrictions imposed by her peers.

Not that it would have been all that difficult for her to do so. She was incredibly smart and understood the mentality of her fellow mechers far too well.

She may have fumbled during her failed coup, but once she operated in an environment where she was able to account for all of the variables, she truly possessed the capacity to shine.

If Ves had to make a choice, he would rather develop a closer relationship with the Spacelock.

He was much more comfortable dealing with god pilots. They all possessed a willful and maybe even tyrannical streak, but they were also honest and straightforward.

So long as he understood them well enough, he could predict their responses and behavior, thereby making it easier to stay in their good graces.

There was no way for him to do the same for Star Designers like the Polymath. They were far too smart for their own good, and they were clearly not above resorting to duplicity.

Whatever the Polymath had in store for Ves was a mystery.

Ves at least acknowledged that she wasn't an enemy, but she certainly wasn't his friend either. The blasted woman had her own agenda, and trying to guess the master plan of a Star Designer was an exercise in futility.

He inwardly shook his head. There was no point in wasting so much processing power on trying to discern the Polymath's motives.

All that mattered was that she remained cordial enough towards Ves to make greater cooperation viable.

It was better to have the Polymath on his side than not. If he had to give her 4.5 percent of his shares to make sure she retained a vested interest in his future, then so be it. At least she wouldn't be wasting too much effort on plotting his downfall.

Still, if the Polymath wanted a piece of him so badly, she needed to work for it. He was not that cheap.

"I find it strange that you or your principals are under the assumption that the Zeta-65 Warp Interdictors are worth 5 percent of my mech company's shares." Ves spoke. "I have the feeling that you have yet to explain the full value of these upgraded warp interdictors. Sure, they are a lot more powerful and far-reaching than anything I have heard in the past, but they require an astronomical amount of phasewater to function so well. What else have the Polymath and the Spacelock done to make them so valuable?"

The mecher smiled at Ves. "Her Excellency expected you to ask that question. She would have been disappointed in you if you failed to inquire further. My apologies for withholding relevant information from you. I am operating under strict instructions."

That elicited a scowl from Ves.

He knew it. The Polymath was playing games with him again. She just couldn't resist the temptation to mess with him yet again.

"Get on with it, please." He said as he ceased all pretense of politeness.

The mecher was really good, but he remained completely unfazed.

"The Zeta-65 Warp Interdictors possess two applications that lesser versions of warp interdiction modules are unable to perform. The Polymath's primary objective in developing the Zeta-65 is to increase our civilization's ability to attack and raid alien space once the Deep Strike Plan has reached the next phase. The new warp interdictors can function well in a defensive capacity, but they are actually meant to be utilized in an offensive capacity."

"By helping human forces pin down alien warships and phase leaders?"

"Partially, but that is not what justifies the development of the Zeta-65. The reason why she solicited the aid of the Spacelock is because he possesses the greatest understanding of the fundamental principles of pocket spaces. With his assistance, Her Excellency succeeded in tuning her Zeta-65 for a specialized task."

Ves quickly connected the dots. "Are you saying that the Zeta-65 Warp Interdictors can destabilize phase whale enclaves?"

"They can do more than that, professor. To be more precise, most if not all variations of the Zeta-65 Warp Interdictor are able to detect hidden phase whale enclaves within their effective radius. If the the field projected by them encompasses the coordinates where a pocket space is 'anchored', the latter will exhibit slight signs of instability. These spatial fluctuations can easily be detected by any sensor that is sensitive to spatial activity."

He finally understood why these Zeta-65's were a big deal!

Phase whales occupied the Red Ocean for so long that they had littered phase whale enclaves in many different places.

No one knew how many of them were out there, but it had to be a large figure.

The incident that took place in Davute a few years ago clearly taught red humanity that there were a lot of hidden pocket spaces in human-occupied space.

Many of them were probably empty and abandoned, but that was not always the case.

Who knew whether these phase whale enclaves were filled with weapons of mass destruction, toxic substances, hibernating phase whales or entire armies of killer robots!

The Red Two along with many other powers invested a large amount of effort into sniffing them out and eliminating them, but they were far too difficult to find.

Not even ace pilots with their Saint Kingdoms could detect a phase whale enclave if there was no activity!

At most, a sharp ace pilot might have a slight hunch that something was off, but what then? The effort required to precisely locate a phase whale enclave and break it open was not small!

It was still possible to pin down pocket spaces on the surface of human-occupied planets and other places frequented by people.

Yet what about asteroid fields? What about obscure moons that were devoid of any resources?

The phase whales loved to play hide and seek. They had an annoying habit of creating phase whale enclaves in the strangest of places, up to anchoring them right next to a blazing star!

While the major powers most definitely possessed the means to detect and breach these pocket spaces, the biggest problem was that there were too many of them. This was a numbers game, so it was impractical to rely on god pilots and other exotic measures to solve this problem.

From what he could gather, the Zeta-65 Warp Interdictor neatly solved this problem because it was reliable tech that could be mass produced.

Sure, the amount of phasewater required to build them was a bit prohibitive, but that would not stop the likes of the mechers and the Rubarthans from mass producing these fancy new modules and making full use of their main function!

"What else can these Zeta-65 Warp Interdictors do?" Ves pressed on with another question. "Can they actually destroy a pocket space?"

"Not unless the pocket space in question has already deteriorated to a point where it is only a handful steps away from collapsing." The mecher shook his head. "The phase whales are known to be thorough in their work. Their pocket spaces are highly robust. We suspect they put in great effort into making their spaces enduring because they want to rely on their work for thousands if not millions of years without any concerns about stability. The fact that the phase whales often reside in their own pocket spaces gives them a strong incentive to strengthen their stability."

That made sense.

"So there is no way for the Zeta-65 Warp Interdictors to break a pocket space no matter how many of them are active?"

"That is not an absolute, professor. If you can truly bring an excessive number of Zeta-65's to bear on a single pocket space at closer ranges, then it is theoretically possible to destabilize a pocket space to the point where it 'unfolds' back into realspace, thereby violently disorging everything that used to be hidden out of sight. However, it is not necessary to go this far unless you wish to eliminate a potential security risk."

"What do you mean by that?" Ves raised his eyebrow.

"As long as the Zeta-65's effect is strong enough, it can forcibly induce a phase whale enclave to open a passage. This will allow anyone outside to send in their forces. It will also allow anyone hidden inside to exit the pocket space. This is the second main function of the new warp interdictors. We expect that many important star systems held by the aliens may have hidden their most important facilities inside pocket spaces created by phase whales many years ago. We cannot effectively raid alien planets and plunder much of their phasewater reserves if we do not have an effective means of detecting and breaching these dimensional bunkers."

It was only now that Ves understood the true significance of the Zeta-65 Warp Interdictors!

He no longer believed it was a bad decision to accept this bid, but that was contingent on one more factor.

"How do the Polymath and the Spacelock plan to distribute their Zeta-65 Warp Interdictors?"

"They shall remain exclusive to the Red Association and the Rubarthan Pact for a duration of at least 10 years. Their availability will remain limited and only a select group of subjects that have been handpicked by the Polymath and the Spacelock will have access to them. If you accept this transaction, you will become one of the few who have earned this privilege. After a decade has passed, the initial versions of the Zeta-65 Warp Interdictors will become more widely available, but it will cost third parties at least double the amount of phasewater needed to construct them to obtain their own copies. You and the other early adopters will not only have access to updated models, but can continue to purchase them from us without needing to pay any premium on phasewater."

That actually sounded pretty reasonable so long as the Polymath and the Spacelock maintained their monopoly on pocket space busting.

While Ves was not sure whether that would remain the case in the long-term, he was inclined to believe in this ploy.