The Mech Touch

Ever since Alexa Streon came around, Ves gained an excellent sounding board for his ideas.

Alexa had acquired a certain foundation into living mechs. She was also a competent first-class mech designer raised and educated in the finest traditions of the Terran superstate.

This granted her a strong theoretical foundation in mech design. She not only learned a lot of high-end knowledge, but was also good at utilizing what she knew.

All of these factors made it so that Alexa was not only able to understand most of what Ves tried to accomplish with his work, but could also provide feedback from angles that he had not even considered.

In short, Ves could always expect to receive useful feedback after discussing his ideas with her. She was not afraid to share honest criticism, but also possessed enough tact to let him stick to his stubborn ideas whenever he was set on his course.

She was much more pleasant to talk to than Gloriana, that was for certain.

"Normally, an experiment that comes with such enormous risk factors should never be rushed." Alexa continued to share her opinion about the latest proposal to the Arboreal Project. "We know too little about the mental influence of phase lord cultivation. We do not know whether a wooden mech is more or less resistant to it, or whether a Woodsap mech pilot can still effectively control a machine that has undergone such a transformation. All of this should ordinarily be investigated as part of an expansive multi-year or decade-long research project."

Ves crossed his arms as he leaned back on his chair.

The young Journeyman clearly thought that Ves was being way too reckless and tried to persuade him to slow down.

Failing that, Alexa at least wanted Ves to implement additional precautions.

Her emphasis on prudence and redundancies were sound, but Ves could not afford to let them weigh down his project too much.

"I don't have time for all of this crap, and I don't think the Terrans who I am collaborating with have much patience either." He said with a sigh. "It is impossible to follow standard scientific procedure. We need to complete our work on the move. This means that we have to compress all of that work that normally takes more than a decade into less than a year."

Alexa sighed. "I understand. I do not necessarily agree, but I understand the importance of delivering a working product in time. Your latest proposal does not make that easier. You are attempting to increase the complexity of the Arboreal Project when it is of vital importance that it releases as soon as possible. How do you intend to deal with this contradiction?"

"I don't know if I am being honest." Ves shrugged. "I will just proceed with my new plan and hope that it will progress faster than I anticipated. I am not ignorant of how my additional requirements increase the burden to the project, but I am more motivated than ever to complete it. Hopefully, the same goes for my Terran collaborators. In the best case scenario, we may end up completing our project ahead of schedule."

"That is wishful thinking, sir."

"I know, but a mech designer can dream, right?"

Alexa didn't know whether she should further admonish her mentor. "Assuming that the Devos Ancient Clan agrees with your insane but promising proposal, I suggest you implement additional precautions to limit the potential damage if anything goes awry. One of the most obvious ones is to implement a kill switch."

That immediately caused Ves to drop his smile. "You should be well aware of the controversial nature of what you just said."

He previously thought that Alexa was kind of cute. Her concerns made her more endearing. This made it easier for him to disagree with her without generating any animosity.

However, Ves feared that this may no longer be the case.

He was no stranger to kill switches. He implemented plenty of them in his prototype mechs.

Mech designers could justify the use of kill switches in those instances. Who knew whether a prototype would suddenly glitch out and crash into a wall or overheat to the point of melting.

In case the mech pilot could not resolve these problems from the cockpit, outside intervention became necessary.

Nobody understood a prototype mech better than the mech designer, so it made sense for him to be able to command a mech to forcibly shut itself down at any time.

Implementing a kill switch into a finished product was a different story. Even if he insisted on calling the Arboreal Project mechs experimental, that did not change the reality that he was willing to let thousands if not tens of thousands of people make use of his new works.

Alexa did not change her stance, though.

"I know, sir, but this is not a normal case. You should not blindly apply old rules to a new and deviating circumstance. Think about it. The mechs that people use today can always be depended upon. Even your living mechs which can think for themselves have proven to be unflinchingly loyal and sympathetic towards their mech pilots. A kill switch is unwarranted in most cases as the problem never lies with the mech, but rather the person that is piloting it. The MTA and the RA's stance towards this has always been clear. If you do not trust a mech pilot with the power of a mech, then you should not allow the former to control the latter."

This was part of the age-old 'mechs don't kill people, people kill people' debate.

Many minds held different opinions on what was supposed to be the case, but the mechers had always maintained the unified stance that mechs were always innocent.

If a mech ever became a hazard to innocents and the people it was supposed to protect, then either it was too flawed to be allowed to put into the field, or it was not piloted by the right individual.

It was the job of the owner of the mech to make sure its design was sound and that it was being controlled by an honest and competent mech pilot.

The mechers deliberately pushed this viewpoint in order to reduce the public's tendency to blame mechs themselves for any problems.

It should also depress the demand for kill switches to the lowest possible extent.

Yet now that Ves thought about what he tried to propose for the Arboreal Project, he had to admit that the old concord no longer applied.

This was one of the rare legitimate cases where the biomech itself had become a possible threat in its own right.

So long as it became a phase lord in biomech terms, it could always spawn an adversarial consciousness and defect from the Terrans.

This was an unacceptable outcome!

Ves actually realized that it was much more acceptable to deal with the stigma of implementing a kill switch than to give the biomachine any chance of siding with the native aliens!

He looked at Alexa with a different expression. "I was wrong. This is an excellent suggestion. I am not sure whether a measure as extreme as this is necessary, but… I can see how we will eventually install kill switches into any Arboreal Project mech that has the potential to turn into a phase biomech. Harnessing a powerful organic machine that can always be shut down after receiving an external signal is the price that the mech pilot has to pay to wield transcendent power."

"The basic variant can be spared of this measure." Alexa added. "Since it has no chance of transforming into a phase biomech, there is no grounds for implementing a kill switch. This should satisfy most Carmine mech pilots who do not have any extravagant demands for their Woodsap mechs."

The basic version and the advanced version would therefore diverge even more from each other.

If this continued, then they would eventually become two substantially different mech designs.

"I think that the kill switch is a good idea for more than one reason." Ves said as he thought about it further. "In my case, Sev knows that if he ever gains control over my true body and acts out, the First Sword Mark III will come down on him like a hammer and force him to behave. In the case of the Arboreal Project, a kill switch can be used as a means of coercion. If a phase biomech has ever gone rogue, you don't need to flick the switch right away. You can threaten to do so in order to force the out-of-control organic machine to comply."

Alexa thought about this scenario. "That sounds plausible, but only if the kill switch remains reliable. This cannot be guaranteed when the whole biomech undergoes a profound and mysterious multidimensional transformation. The kill switch must be integrated into the core of the biomech to the point it cannot be removed without setting it off. In addition to that, it must be programmed to automatically explode when it has not received a routine signal in several days. This will require a great deal of clever and robust bioengineering."

"Good suggestions. The Terrans are proud of their biotechnology, so I think they will be able to manage. I think that this may be a good way for the Terrans to ensure they remain in control over their phase biomechs. So long as their growth and evolution has not advanced too far, the operation of the kill switch can be guaranteed. This way, even if they gain a rebellious mindset, their power can still be harnessed against our enemies."

What Ves left unspoken was that the kill switch may not be so reliable anymore after the phase biomech had grown too much.

The true body of a phase lord became increasingly tougher, harder and more multidimensional as it grew.

While Ves was not too well versed in the science of phase lords, he understood through his own body that his vulnerability to many threats had dropped to a minimum after he grew so much.

For example, if infantry weapons used to pose a legitimate threat to him in the past, then he was now immune to their firepower!

Even mechs could no longer squash him with a single attack anymore!

What about kill switches? Even if the Terrans were clever enough to implement a solution that grew in scale and remained proportional to the size of the phase biomech, the complex growth process of a phase lord may still be able to negate this threat one way or another.

Therefore, it was best if the phase biomechs were restricted from growing further.

"You have been extremely helpful so far, Alexa. Do you have any more helpful suggestions?"

The woman thought for a moment. "Not any that you are willing to accept. Your proposals show great promise, but I fear that this may be a case where you will end up paying for your overconfidence. It is your prerogative to decide whether you want to commit to your reckless plan. One more recommendation I have for you is to try and find a way to strengthen the design spirit's control over the Arboreal Project mechs.

Ves' eyes lit up after hearing this suggestion. "That is another great idea! If the phase biomechs ever go rogue and manage to escape the fate of becoming disabled due to the activation of a kill switch, then we will still need a means to track it down. Gaia can help us with this. So long as the bond remains as unbreakable as a Blood Pact, the rogue biomachine can never escape pursuit!"

This should serve as an additional reason why it was a bad idea for a rebelling biomech to obediently remain subservient to their Terran masters.

Ves suddenly winced.

Talk like this had a way of backfiring.

If he truly believed that living mechs deserved to be treated with the same respect as humans, then implementing these coercive measures may go against his principles as a mech designer.

It also did not escape his awareness of how a kill switch and other safety measures could also be applied to human phase lords such as himself!