The Mech Touch

"I'm so jealous of you, do you know that?"

"I do. There is nothing I can do about it, though." Ves shrugged.

"Can't you share any details about the ace mech weapons that you have touched and worked upon in the past few days? I doubt the pioneering groups will mind it if you only tell one other person."

"I promised the Geminis, the Adelaides and so on not to divulge anything sensitive about those powerful mech equipment. That includes both direct technical specifications and more subjective impressions. I am always serious when it comes to abiding by the terms of a trade agreement, so I can't oblige you. The best I can do is talk about the more general insights that I have derived from my recent work. Will that make you happy?"

Gloriana glowered. "It will have to do. I am so frustrated by this situation! I should be the one to handle all of that powerful and fantastic equipment! I bet that you don't even know how lucky you are to gain the right to examine and alter all of this peak mech equipment. The quantity and variety of gear is so much that I would have been able to get a lot closer to completing my next design applications!"

"Let's not talk too much about work." Ves spoke. "We reserved this afternoon for family time, remember?"

"I am aware of that, but I cannot take my mind off this issue."

Both Ves and Gloriana sat in their living room while they watched a fantasy drama. The show revolved around a rather childish and whimsical premise of a universe that was set in an endless flat plane of ground.

Ves did not have the faintest clue how that could even work in reality, but that was the charm of fantasy. The creators could selectively throw the rules out of the window. It worked as long as everything else was internally consistent enough to make the audience forget about the rule breaking in the first place.

"That pink elephant is so cute!" Andraste giggled as she sat on Gloriana's lap. "I want a pink elephant. Can I have one, mama?"

Her mother embraced her second tighter into her embrace. "We already have enough pets as it is. We don't have enough room for additional pets. Besides, elephants are too large, honey. They won't even fit through our hatches. We would have to keep it in a zoo or an enclosed area in one of our artificial parks to keep it in a pleasant environment."

"Awww…"

"We already have our cats. They can provide us with all of the companionship we need." Ves added.

"I want more!"

"You won't get one just because you ask."

"Meow."

"Miaow!"

Lucky and Clixie interrupted their cuddling and jumped up to Andraste so that they could press against the greedy girl and overwhelm her with their cuteness.

"Hihihihi! Stop that! I love you too, okay?! Alright, I get it. I won't replace you with a pink elephant."

The family continued to watch the silly fantasy drama. Marvaine became completely engrossed while Aurelia who sat in between her parents started to look at it from a more critical perspective.

It was rather odd for the eldest daughter to look at the drama as if she was at least two decades older, but that was part of the training that her mother instilled in her mind.

Her rapid maturation was a reminder of her designer baby origins and her intense education program.

Gloriana arranged most of the schooling for their children. She constantly tested their cognitive development and increased the density of schoolwork in response to their improved capabilities.

Each of their three children had already become considerably smarter than other designer babies at their level.

They were so abnormal in this regard that the geneticists and specialists over at the Witshaw & Yeneca became increasingly more nosy about the differences.

It was clear that the Larkinson Clan did not strictly follow their highly precise development programs to the letter. Somehow, the Larkinsons changed the variables of the organic products in a way that resulted in substantial physical and mental performance boosts, and they did it not once but thrice in a row!

The incongruities were driving the scientists of the famed genetics company crazy. Ves and Gloriana already had to reject their more insistent requests to collect tissue samples and perform invasive scanning on their precious babies!

This increasing abnormalities concerning their children was one of the reasons why Ves was eager to drop his reliance on Witshaw & Seneca and start developing his own designer babies in-house.

He looked down at his smallest and most precious child. Cute little Marvaine was the most expensive designer baby out of the series. His spirituality was so strong despite his young and tender age. The early development of his spirit seemed to have done wonders to his cognitive development, allowing him to devour science textbooks that only older kids could understand.

Ves was both proud and concerned at Marvain's performance.

As a father, he wanted his son and the rest of his kids to enjoy a blissful childhood that was free of concerns. Ves had enjoyed a rather happy upbringing aside from the early death of his mother. He did not want to deprive his kids of that same opportunity and have them grow up in a high pressure environment.

As a product of his environment, he wanted his children to quickly develop their competences and excel at their chosen fields. There was no way for people to live a comfortable life without the power to ensure their survival and carve their own place in society. The cosmos was a cruel and unfair environment where the only laws that applied were the rules of the jungle.

The tension between these two desires became an increasing point of contention to Ves and Gloriana.

While Ves wanted to give his children more time to enjoy what life had to offer, Gloriana felt it was more urgent than ever to make them as capable as possible once they became adults.

It was inevitable for their conversation to drift to the future schooling of their children.

"Aurelia is already on the right track, more or less." Gloriana remarked. "I would have preferred it if she was able to attend the exclusive school in Davute, but the advantage of putting her into our own education institutions is that we can exert much more control over her lesson plans. She is already several years ahead of the former friends and classmates she left behind."

She reached out to stroke her oldest daughter's lovely head.

In response, the girl looked up at her mother with pure and unrestricted love.

Ves also felt proud at his oldest daughter's academic performance. Her capabilities already marked her as a high-quality human resource. She possessed a lot of value even if she didn't have a connection to the Larkinson Clan!

That said, he didn't want his first child to get crushed under Gloriana's exceedingly high expectations.

"I'm fine with any study program as long as she isn't forced to take more classes than the other kids at our schools." He said.

Gloriana scowled. "That's not good enough anymore. Aurelia is a genius. Treating her more as a normal child will only hold back her potential."

"She has all of the time in the galaxy! Who cares whether she graduates from university a decade earlier than her peers. She only has one chance of enjoying a normal childhood and I am not about to let you ruin that. I also don't want you to put her under consistently high stress. Don't think you can get away with anything excessive. There are Black Cats within our ranks that spend all of their working hours on monitoring our kids. The agents will warn me the moment you try to cross the line."

His wife became outraged!

"Ves! There is no reason to resort to spies to manage the way we raise our children. Don't you trust me to do what is best for them? They are my flesh and blood as well."

The look he gave her was enough of an answer.

Gloriana petulantly threw up her hands before she went back to cuddling Andraste.

"What about me, mama?" Their red-headed daughter looked up at her parents again. "I don't want to sit around and read through books all day."

"Learning is important, dear. You need to learn your numbers and understand the meaning of grown-up words before you do anything else. Words and numbers matter more than ever in this day and age."

"It's boring!"

"I think that is her genetic configuration at work." Ves surmised. "That, or she is just a regular little girl."

Gloriana looked thoughtful. "I am inclined to believe in the former. Aurelia was considerably less naughty and more controlled a few years ago. Andraste was born to become a soldier. In order to ensure that designer babies formulated for war do not reject their purpose and waste everyone's time, money and resources, they are genetically predisposed to more active pursuits such as combat training, sports and any sort of competitive activity. Normally, these urges shouldn't be too obvious for a designer baby at Andraste's stage, but maybe your work on them has activated these traits in advance."

That didn't sound quite right to Ves, but then again his limited understanding of biotechnology and genetics was far from enough to understand the mechanisms of his children.

"If that is the case, then we should encourage her to take up a sport." Ves said.

"Those are my thoughts as well. There are not that many sports that Andraste can participate in due to her age. We need to make a careful selection. What do you think about tennis?"

Ves frowned. "I don't like it. Let's hold off until two more years have passed."

"Normally, I would agree with you, but Andraste's body is much stronger than the typical children who start to play tennis."

As Ves and Gloriana went over several sports, Andraste made her own suggestion.

"I don't want to play tennis or football! I want to train with the Swordmaidens! Did you know that they have kids who are already starting to practice their sword swings? It looks so much fun, and it will help me get good at fighting really fast!"

"What?!" Gloriana jerked so much that Andraste bounced in her lap. "Absolutely not, young lady! The Swordmaidens are vicious brutes who chop off each other's limbs as a hobby. They are one of the worst mech legions to train with for a future champion of your caliber."

"I don't want to play around with stupid balls!" Andraste loudly whined. "I want real combat training. If I train with the Swordmaidens, I can be strong with or without a mech."

Ves looked at her with concern. "You're too young to worry about your genetic aptitude. It is better for you to think about this when you are 10 years old."

Andraste petulantly crossed her arms. "I can't wait that long, papa. I have already made up my mind. I want to learn a good sword style. This way, I can either become the next Ketis or the next Venerable Dise."

Gloriana almost had a heart attack! "Neither of those uncouth brutes are acceptable role models for you. There are much more elegant women to model yourself after! Commander Casella Ingvar is much more clever, noble and refined than our other expert pilots. There is also your own mama that you can look up to, sweetie. Don't you want to become as beautiful and perfect as your own mother one day, Andraste?"

The baby girl looked flatly at Gloriana. "You're too skinny and weak in a fight. I need to  be as big and strong as Ketis if I want to beat naughty boys in a fight!"

"ANDRASTE!"

If Andraste was not her own daughter, Gloriana would have wanted to choke the willful girl at this moment!