The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5011

5011 Cat out of the Bag

The Lord of Thermodynamics and Fleet Admiral Stanley Argile made for a notable contrast during the public address.

His Excellency Hendrick Polt did not show off the majesty of a Star Designer like the Polymath once did in front of Ves.

Instead, he came across as an amiable university professor who had come to a popular educational broadcast in order to give a popular science lesson to an audience of laymen.

Even his outfit looked fairly subdued for a man of his status. His refined suit and lab coat made him look more at home in a fancy laboratory than the highest halls of power.

Ves understood enough about public relations that this was a deliberate show on the Star Designer's part.

This was a time of great change and uncertainty. The people needed to trust in the institutions they looked up to for protection and guidance.

The Mech Trade Association had always maintained a dual image of projecting strength while also portraying itself as a benign organization.

Right now, the MTA clearly wanted to emphasize its 'nice guy' aspect, so the great Lord of Thermodynamics put on a more subdued show in front of the scared and nervous humans of the Red Ocean.

The old man's soothing voice and strong confidence in his own facts made people feel as if he could be relied upon to provide all of the answers to their questions.

Messier 87 may have introduced a lot of weird and new variables into everyone's lives, but as long as the excellent scientists and researchers of the Mech Trade Association were around, humanity was bound to decipher every new secret!

In contrast, Fleet Admiral Stanley Argile adopted a more martial posture. His dress uniform was bedecked with real and projected medals. His rich blue cape amplified his stature. A conspicuous masterwork laser pistol hung onto the side of his waist.

His tone and words also contained less optimism. The powerful CFA admiral was not one to mince words.

"He's so scary." Marvaine remarked as Stanley Argile spoke.

"He's always been that way." Ves told his children. "He is one of the leaders of the Argile Spaceborn Clan. This is a group that has always supported more aggressive and expansionist policies. It is for good reason that the Second Main Fleet of the CFA has taken the lead in the invasion of the Red Ocean. If he has won the right to speak to the people trapped in this new and foreign region of space, then that means that the Big Two will most likely insist on maintaining a hostile posture towards the indigenous alien races of the Red Ocean and Messier 87."

Aurelia's eyes grew sharper when she heard that. Her political acumen was impressive for her age.

"Does that mean that we won't try to reconcile with the aliens?"

Ves shook his head. "Old habits die hard. No matter what, each of us have inherited the pride and steel of the victorious heroes of the Age of Conquest. Too many people will not be able to transition to a new reality where they need to lower their posture and treat fellow aliens as equals. I think that the Big Two are least able to stomach this transition. Their hegemony over humanity will come under threat when people look elsewhere for power and protection."

What he did not tell to his children was that he suspected that the cosmopolitans played a huge role in enabling the Red Cabal to pull off the Great Severing.

After all, if not for all of the tech, materials and intelligence provided by these human traitors, the indigenous aliens of the Red Ocean would never have been able and willing to implement their doomsday plan so early in the invasion of their dwarf galaxy!

Whether the ancient phase whales and their lackeys succeeded in their attempt to save their native civilizations from extinction was still in doubt. They escaped the reach of the Milky Way, but Messier 87 may end up being worse!

After the two powerful individuals completed their brief science lesson about Messier 87's basic astronomical properties, the Lord of Thermodynamics finally brought up a matter of great importance.

"Messier 87 is an extraordinarily active conglomeration of energy and matter due to its multiple fusions with other galaxies. Its galactic center is filled with dense and hot interstellar medium. These are the building blocks of stars, but due to the immense mass of the Dark Source as well as the active disruption and turbulence produced by its jets of matter, much of this interstellar medium is unable to form into stars. They either end up feeding the supermassive black hole or get ejected outward due to the intense forces of gravity and forces within the violent core of this supergiant galaxy. As a result, this enriched interstellar medium is not only able to permeate through M87 in notable concentrations, but also affects our new position at a reduced level."

The dour-faced fleet admiral began to explain the initial results of the Big Two's investigation into the effects of exposure to M87.

"Combined with the dispersed products of the closest jet of matter, the Red Ocean is exposed to a multitude of exotic energies and particles that are far in excess to the background radiation generated by our familiar Milky Way. With the help of our best scientists and detection equipment, we have been able to identify and analyze a number of them. What I am about to tell you may alarm you, but remember that every problem has a solution."

A new projection appeared which showed a diagram that displayed all of the identified components of M87's background radiation.

Many of them already looked familiar to many people. M87 generated strong radio waves that could produce quite a lot of interference but was otherwise not a big deal.

What was more alarming was that it also generated a lot of X-Rays as well, especially in its hot and dangerous galactic center.

Still, as long as starships and settlements built up enough radiation shielding, it was not impossible for people to survive and thrive in those areas.

The problem was that M87 produced way more than ordinary electromagnetic radiation!

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