The Mech Touch

After spending more time with Gloriana in a day than ever before, Ves retired to a guest room set aside for him on the Stellar Chaser. When Ves entered the compartment with Nitaa and Lucky, he immediately noticed that Gloriana added a few touches.

The luxurious room exuded a grand and palatial atmosphere with its white interior and its large, traditional bed. It made Ves feel as if he entered a luxury hotel suite. The only weirdness about the room was that it featured numerous images and projections related to Gloriana!

Gloriana designing a mech. Gloriana performing research on an exotic. Gloriana graduating from university. Gloriana playing happily with Clixie on Scimitar II. No matter where Ves directed his gaze, Gloriana was everywhere!

Acting upon a hunch, Ves looked upward, only to see a huge portrait of Gloriana staring straight down on him! Though the portrait looked incredibly artful and aesthetically-pleasing, Ves did not relish going to sleep with Glorianaʼs giant face staring down at him all the time!

Ves grimaced even deeper when he recalled that this was her ship. If she was obsessive enough to sprinkle the guest room with her images, then she definitely bugged every surface!

Maybe travelling aboard her ship hadnʼt been such a great idea after all.

”Alright, Nitaa. Letʼs sweep the room. Sorry Gloriana, but I still like my privacy. Donʼt blame me if I have to wreck your guest room.”

Though Gloriana wasnʼt present in the room, he knew for certain that she was listening in. He didnʼt need to rely on his intuition to determine that he was being observed.

He activated his jammer while sending Nitaa and Lucky to sweep the guest room. While his bodyguard failed to detect anything with her armorʼs inbuilt sweeper, Lucky continually managed to detect and neutralize the tiny bugs buried under practically every surface!

Gloriana probably expected that he only had access to third or second-class anti-surveillance tech. Unfortunately for her, Lucky assimilated tons of CFA tech, and while a bit outdated, was still more than capable enough to defeat her best spying tools!

Lucky didnʼt even need to break too much in order to disable the bugs. His body turned intangible and only briefly solidified a claw to destroy the tiny bugs without affecting any other systems.

”Thatʼs new.” Ves observed with surprise.

”Meow!” Lucky proudly swished his tail.

Evidently, eating the P-stone had refined his spiritual abilities and improved his spirituality. Not only could Lucky maintain his intangible state for a longer period of time, he also gained more control over his power!

Ves frowned at Lucky while his cat continued to hunt down bugs as if he was chasing after mice.

”Should I eat a P-stone?”

He shook his head and rid himself of this ridiculous notion. Even if his digestive system had been modified by a crazy exiled exobiologist, he couldnʼt digest minerals like a gem cat.

He still glowered enviously at Lucky. The only way for him to grow his Spirituality at this time was by developing his design philosophy.

As for Lucky, it appeared that all he needed to do was to eat lots of spiritually-reactive exotics!

How unfair!

Of course, Ves didnʼt seriously believe that he was disadvantaged compared to his own cat. They just grew my different means. Whereas Luckyʼs growth depended on an ever-increasing amount of rare and expensive exotics, Ves could basically continue to advance all the way to Master while designing the cheapest mechs.

He decided to busy himself by deactivating all of the projectors and screens depicting Gloriana. The jamming device already disabled the bulk of them, but they would quickly return to normal once the interference ended. It was better for him to disable them before he turned crazy!

Some time passed until Lucky finally deactivated all of the bugs. Ves was worried if Gloriana or a crew member of the Stellar Chaser would knock on his door, but evidently it was no big deal to sabotage the monitoring system in his own room.

Ves sat on the surface of the bed and let down some of his guard. He still kept the jammer active, though.

”Alright, I think we can speak freely now. What are your thoughts, Nitaa?”

His bodyguard took a few seconds to compose her answer.

”Iʼve kept my nose active ever since we stepped aboard this ship. No one carries a suspicious scent. As for my observations, I have not detected anything amiss. While Iʼm not confident enough to clear Gloriana, her assistant and her guards of suspicion, I see no cause for alarm.”

”Thatʼs good to hear.”

While Ves would have liked to trust Gloriana, he was still a paranoid person by nature. Until he ruled out that Gloriana was a spy for the Compact or one of the Big Two, he would refrain from sharing anything sensitive to her. The stakes were simply too high!

”Gloriana definitely has some ties to the MTA.” He spoke. ”Itʼs fine if the relationship is shallow. If it turns out that she is spying on their behalf, then… we wonʼt be an item anymore.”

”It will be difficult to prove or disprove this possibility. Even if sheʼs a spy, she wonʼt leave any incriminating evidence within reach.”

He smirked. ”Within reach of normal people, perhaps. I doubt she knows what Lucky is capable of. Isnʼt that right, buddy?”

”Meow!”

”You know what to do.”

Lucky pressed a paw against his collar, causing him to turn invisible. His disappearing form also phased through the deck as he became intangible.

With his phasing power and his Miniaturized Stealth Generator, he gained complete and undetected access to the Stellar Chaser for five minutes at a time!

While five minutes didnʼt sound like much, the Stellar Chaser wasnʼt a very large ship. As long as Lucky knew where to go, he could easily infiltrate any compartment and utilize his CFA hacking capabilities to steal lots of data!

The entire reason why Ves agreed to accept his girlfriendʼs invitation to stay aboard her ship was to access her systems! Before he was willing to progress their relationship any further, he needed to allay his suspicions!

Was he a bad boyfriend for going behind her back this way? Perhaps. He didnʼt care, though. After finding out about Gavinʼs double loyalties, he no longer took anyoneʼs loyalty and sincerity for granted.

A bit more than five minutes later, Lucky phased through the bulkhead and reappeared in the guest room.

”Meow meow.”

”Come here and let me take your data.”

Lucky fell onto his lap while Ves drew out a high-capacity comm from his pocket. He connected it to Lucky and downloaded all of the raw data that his pet collected.

If the cat followed his instructions, then Ves obtained some of the contents of the Stellar Chaserʼs databanks as well as Glorianaʼs personal comm.

”Did you find anything special or incriminating in your brief search?”

”Meow.”

”Nothing at all?”

”Meow meow.”

Though Lucky only caught a brief glimpse of her stateroom and her possessions, she didnʼt hide anything too weird. Ves felt a bit relieved, but still resolved to send out Lucky multiple more times as soon as he was ready to go on another infiltration run.

Once his high capacity comm downloaded all of the data, he began to spend the entire night to browse its contents. Skipping a night of sleep wasnʼt a big deal to him, and he needed lots of time to skim over the mountains of data that Lucky managed to retrieve.

He first inspected the contents of her comm. Though she made sure to encrypt all of the data inside, Lucky already defeated it beforehand.

Lucky retrieved a lot of communication logs and mech design files.

He decided to skim over her communications first. She talked a lot to her mother, her father and some of her other relatives. Aside from that, she occasionally talked to someone in the MTA, her mentor and some of her industry contacts in the Hegemony.

Ves didnʼt dig in too deeply in her discussions. He only kept his eye out for anything that signalled that she had ulterior motives in trying to pursue a relationship with him. If she was truly a spy, then he needed to find out now before it was too late.

He failed to find anything incriminating. Instead, her communications mostly concerned mundane business and design activities. Her talks with her mother were very illuminating. He played out one clip.

”...but mother, I really do love him! Itʼs not a passing fancy!...”

”...Mr. Larkinson is a fine young man, but he is beneath your notice. There are much more qualified boys waiting for you at home…”

”...I donʼt care about their backgrounds, their positions or their wealth! None of them understand mechs the way that Ves and I do! The two of us are destined to be together!...”

”...Be mindful of Operation K, Gloriana. The schedule is…”

Operation K?

Ves searched for this term among all of the data he collected. His comm returned with a few more scattered mentions.

He was worried that this so-called ʼOperation Kʼ referred to a deliberate spying or seduction attempt on him. Fortunately, after reading the context behind all of the mentions, he realized it had nothing to do with him. It instead referred to a major move within the Hegemony. The entire Wodin Dynasty was involved.

Though Ves tried his best to figure out more, Gloriana and her mother Constance had always been careful when mentioning it over their calls.

”Well, at least it doesnʼt have anything to do with me.” He shrugged.

Ves noted that she occasionally talked with some old friends in the Hegemony. Their discussions yielded nothing useful as they only discussed shallow matters or exchanged gossip that only pertained to Hexer high society.

”Useless prattle.”

Finding nothing incriminating in the communication logs, he diverted his attention to the documents and other files she stored on her comm. He glanced through her design schematics, finding each and everyone of them to be remarkable.

”I shouldnʼt peek too much at her work. Itʼs better if she explains them to me in person.”

Ves did not wish to spoil such moments, so he quickly dismissed them after he checked that her files did not carry any secret messages.

Aside from some irrelevant junk, Ves also stumbled across a large stash of footage and recordings… of him. His face immediately became grave as he counted an uncomfortably large amount of files.

”This crazy woman!”

He did not feel any desire to inspect this data any further!

He dismissed the contents of her comm and decided to dive in the Stellar Chaserʼs databanks. He checked the navigation logs and noted that the ship hadnʼt been traveling anywhere weird. He also dug into some other files and logs.

Ships stored and processed a lot of data. So much so that his high-capacity comm wouldnʼt be able to store all of it. Even if it did, Ves wouldnʼt be able to make sense of much of the data anyway.

Nonetheless, the sample that Lucky retrieved did not reveal anything interesting at all. Lucky copied all of the files that Ves instructed his cat to retrieve beforehand. He had an easier time studying the Stellar Chaserʼs communication logs, cargo manifests, passenger movement and other understandable documents.

None of them revealed anything incriminating.

Several hours passed before Ves finished skimming over all of the data. He breathed a little bit easier as he hadnʼt found a smoking gun that signified that Gloriana intended anything nefarious to him. All the files he accessed so far proved that she was really who she said she was, a prominent Hexer and a capable Journeyman Mech Designer.

Ves glanced at the time and knew that the local night was well underway.

”Itʼs time.”

Ves first wiped all of the files stored in the high-capacity comm before putting it away. He then changed his clothes before laying down on his bed.

Instead of falling to sleep, he concentrated his mind. A spiritual projection invisible to anyone but him started to emerge from his mind.

Accessing his girlfriendʼs files and communication logs didnʼt satisfy him. If he truly wanted to discover her true nature, then there was no better way than to access her mind directly!