The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4544

"Meow~"

"Oh hey, Lucky! Is your tummy still full? I brought a snack for you if you are up for it again."

"Meow meow."

"Oh, okay. I will set it down on the table so you can munch on it later."

Ves interrupted his design session and pulled his split attention away from the projects he was working on at this time.

His eyes blinked as he inspected the progress he had made in the past few hours. He had taken full advantage of his expanded cognitive capabilities to work on multiple design projects at the same time.

He had made amazing progress in upgrading the standards of his initial Blood Knight design, implementing an organic circulatory system in the Dullahan Project and studying highly advanced theories that taught him how to develop better transphasic gauss weapons.

If he wanted to, he could split his attention into even more threads, but he found that the quality of each individual task started to drop. He needed to exercise this ability more and wait until he grew stronger before he could split his attention further and get more work done.

He was already happy with what he was able to do at the moment. His productivity had skyrocketed ever since he got back in the saddle.

"Joshua." He said as he felt the expert pilot's vigorous force of will approach his position. "It is not every day that you have decided to pay a visit to me. Is there anything urgent you wish to talk about?"

The fellow Brighter shook his head. "Not per se. I wanted to talk to you about an issue that is important to a group within the clan."

Ves grew confused and a bit suspicious. "Did someone put you up to this, Joshua?"

"Uhh… I guess. Just hear me out. The Everchanger wanted me to convey a request on behalf of all of the living mechs in our clan…"

Five minutes passed as Joshua frankly explained the issue of expanding the rights of the Larkinson mechs.

A lot of progress had been made since precocious machines like the Quint and the Shield of Samar initially spoke up, but status of living mechs still had a long way to go before they became happy.

"...With the Shield of Samar reduced to a head and Venerable Jannzi needing time to get past her defeat, someone had to carry over the torch. The living mechs have all agreed to let me speak on their behalf since they like me so much."

Ves looked curiously at Joshua. "Well, they chose correctly. Dealing with you is much less stressful than dealing with Jannzi or her former expert mech. Still, you haven't told me what kind of concrete actions you expect me to make."

"Well, the living mechs have a number of demands that they would really like to see fulfilled. For one, they want our clan to proceed with setting up a Living Mech Affairs Ministry where one of their own kind is put in charge."

"No." Ves immediately frowned. "Not possible."

"The Everchanger and company have asked for this several years now. Why can't you meet their demand?" Joshua pleaded to the clan patriarch. "They deserve more representation for everything they have done for us. Our machines have always supported us in battle without flinching, and they will continue to serve their purpose, but that doesn't mean they are happy with their current status. They want more love from the clan, sir. Is it too much to ask for us to make them happy?"

Ves sighed and lowered his eyes. "I don't like it either, but our hands are tied on this matter. In an ideal reality, I would have agreed to form this new living mech-oriented ministry a long time ago. I don't even have any objections towards the idea of allowing qualified living mechs to hold actual leadership positions. Just like you, I have a lot of hopes and expectations for living mechs as a whole. The best of them are growing smarter, wiser and more compassionate by the day."

"Then why not oblige them, sir?"

"You should know why, Joshua. The Big Two and more specifically the MTA has a well-deserved phobia against AIs or bots that become too powerful. AIs should always have an assisting function to the humans that make use of their services. In no way should AIs ever dictate, control or govern any group of people. That is a foundational principle of modern humanity ever since a lot of high-profile screwups during the Age of Stars and the Age of Conquest has shown us what can go wrong with unrestricted automation."

"Our living mechs aren't AIs!" Joshua passionately argued as he put his emotions behind this issue. "They are truly alive like you and me. We can both tell the difference. Many of the fears that our race developed about AIs don't apply to living mechs."

Ves shrugged at the expert pilot. "That may be true, but the rest of human society won't see it this way. All they will see is that we have stuffed a highly sophisticated AI into our mechs and foolishly granted them the power to turn against their human overlords."

"If the masses are the problem, then let's educate them all! We can do that, right?"

"We can, but a marketing campaign alone won't be able to reverse millenia of AI phobia. It takes much more than that to initiate a broad cultural change across a large section of the population. The only thing we can do on our end is to build up acceptance for living mechs within our own clan."

"Then why aren't we doing that, then?" Joshua asked. "Appointing a living mech to a ministerial position won't bother anyone else. It is not as if we are trying to replace the Star Emperor with the Quint or something."

Ves made a cutting motion with his arm. "QUIET! Don't joke around with that sort of talk! Lucky and I have done our best to make this design lab as bug-free as possible, but that doesn't mean that nobody can eavesdrop on us. It is best not to say anything that would give people the impression that we are trying to topple the head of the New Rubarth Empire!"

"Oh. I'm sorry. I should have been more careful with my words." Venerable Joshua apologized. "My point stands, though. Why should we bother with public opinion when the way we run our clan doesn't have anything to do with them? You have been pushing the limits many times. What makes this different?"

Ves crossed his arms as he leaned back on his chair. "Who told you that?"

"The living mechs. They keep in touch with each other. They witness quite a lot of stuff actually, either directly or indirectly through their mech pilots."

That had disturbing implications. Ves furrowed his brows as he realized that his living mechs might be rather liberal in sharing confidential secrets with each other.

This was a disappointing answer to the expert pilot. He had always thought that the clan could make much more changes, but it turned out that they were still fearful of public opinion. _{freewebnσvel.cøm}

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