"Not at all, Master Willix!" Ves quickly refuted her accusation. "I am merely offering an arrangement that should provide mutual benefits for everyone involved."

He raised a finger. "First, my concerns about my trade secrets spreading to the entire mech community will be assuaged if you are the one from the MTA that manages this case. As my friend, I trust you not to betray my trust and put me at a disadvantage without at least discussing the matter with me. I am sure that any deal you want to make with me over the course of our partnership will be equitable to both myself and the MTA."

The physical projection of Master Willix looked quite impressed at what he said. It was too bad that she did not see how this could work.

"As professionals, it is important for us to separate our personal lives from our professional lives. While it is good to maintain friendships, it is not proper to allow personal bonds to interfere with your professional obligations. You may not fully realize it, but the responsibility that I bear as a Master Mech Mech Designer in the employ of the Mech Trade Association is immense. I oversee quite a number of matters of great importance to the MTA and the people it watches over. I cannot allow my personal biases to affect my judgement when I exercise my duties."

That sounded like a very officious answer. It was the kind of spiel that politicians said when their constituents questioned their integrity.

While Ves guessed that Master Willix was indeed someone who acted with integrity, he still believed he had a way of changing her mind.

No one was perfectly honest!

No one was completely selfless!

No one could deny every temptation!

In his opinion, humanity was flawed by nature. They possessed both virtues and vices. It was what made people complex and diverse. From the lowest administrator of a backwater village to the greatest Galactic Mech Councilor that ruled the MTA as a whole, Ves believed that all of them were equally susceptible to temptation!

He just had to offer the right incentives. Master Willix should still be a human with goals and ambitions. Otherwise, she wouldn't have worked so hard to attain her current accomplishments.

He continued listing out his reasoning despite her refutations. He raised a second finger.

"Second, what I am offering is experimental, dangerous and radical knowledge that could easily lead to disaster if something goes wrong. I care for the wellbeing of my fellow colleagues. I cannot subject them to dangerous fruit that they cannot resist taking a bite of. Don't believe me? Let me show you the outcome of some of the perfectly legal experiments that I recently conducted during my excursion into the Nyxian Gap."

He dug into his implant and began to dig out and decrypt some of the sensitive research data he accumulated.

He rapidly selected a few noteworthy excerpts and transmitted them to Master Willix through the Darkbreak module.

She frowned and lifted a finger.

The projector began to display a recording of one of his more dramatic experimental results.

[There is no reason to worry.] Ves transmitted to the cockpit. [Calm down and don't resist. Just interface the mech and everything will be over soon.]

[MMHMMHPHMM!]

[Wait a minute. This is heading into dangerous territory!]

["MMMFFWMEFWMEWOWW—]

Bang!

[GODDAMMIT! NOT AGAIN!]

The short recording ended at that point. Master Willix paused for a few seconds before directing a cold glance towards Ves. "Have you been engaging in human experiments?"

"I was engaging in legitimate science!" He defended himself! "As the extensive and complete documentation that I have sent to you will show, I did not cross any boundaries that merit sanction. It is your Association that has ruled that individuals who are proven to be pirates are stripped of their human rights. Am I wrong?"

This was literally one of the MTA's rules! It was meant to serve as a chilling deterrent to any malcontent who was thinking about going pirate. Perhaps most people might treat the rule as a symbolic signal, but as long as it was in the books, there was no problem for Ves to take advantage of it! Plenty of researchers who needed to perform experiments on humans already did so as well!

"No, but I cannot fathom why a mech designer who does not specialize in neural interfaces or any other apparently dangerous specialty has a need to conduct experiments that may result in.. fatal consequences. Did you leave something out when you initially explained your design philosophy?"

Ves began to sense actual anger from Master Willix! He was entering really dangerous territory this time!

"My design philosophy is based on the symbiosis between man and machine!" He quickly stated. "As various disasters involving improperly-designed and configured neural interfaces have shown, trying to do anything that puts the two together is inherently risky! While I have not messed with the neural interfaces, my specialty does entail some aspects that affect the man-machine connection on a different level. This is the reason why those experiments sometimes produced undesirable results."

"Did you perform any of these experiments on non-pirates, Mr. Larkinson?"

"No! Absolutely not! Never!" Ves lied.

Master Willix looked incredulous.

"Well.. I didn't do it before I entered the Nyxian Gap." He offered her a less outrageous falsehood. "You see, after we learned that the Allidus Alliance is targeting us, I became a little.. desperate. On paper, my forces were wholly incapable of overcoming the might of the Gravada Knarlax and her escorts. If I didn't do anything, the pirates would have surely crushed my fleet!"

"And that led you to perform dangerous human experiments?"

"I had to pursue unconventional solutions in order to narrow the gap, and some of them involved new and creative applications of my design philosophy. I tested my ideas on the pirates first. After understanding what I shouldn't do, I conducted more refined experiments on my own men. Each of them has volunteered to take part in them. I did not supply any of my newly-developed solutions to mech pilots who did not offer their consent."

To be more precise, there weren't any mech pilots who refused the offer to allow the clan patriarch to upgrade their assigned mech. Ves built up a towering reputation for his ability in mech design. His mech pilots would have to be stupid to refuse this opportunity!

"And have those experiments succeeded?"

"Yes." Ves nodded. "While I do not dare to transmit any data on them because of how much they reveal, it is safe to say that I have found a measure to improve the effective performance of my mech pilots by as much as twenty percent! And this is without changing any component or setting of my mechs!"

The Master looked a little shocked this time! If Ves was truly telling the truth, then his solution might have very large implications for the future of mech design in the galaxy!

Ves knew he was taking a huge gamble, but he believed that it was very difficult for others to believe such a ludicrous statement. He was just a Journeyman. What could he do when he was still in the early stages of his development?

Nonetheless, Master Willix knew him better than most people. Perhaps she was used to hearing nonsense from him, but in the few times he made any concrete claims, he was usually honest!

"I have solid, empirical proof." Ves spoke the magic word for mech designers. "I have tracked the performance of every mech pilot who utilized the mechs that I have altered. There is always an immediate boost depending on how much I invested in them. After that, there is a gradual but very accelerated trend of improvement as the symbiosis between the mech and mech pilot continues to deepen. It's also fairly safe as long as I don't go too far. This is perhaps one the greatest reasons why our clan has managed to overcome the odds."

"Can you send me the data?" Master Willix leaned in. Her eyes expressed an increasing amount of interest in his claims! "I would like to verify whether you are representing your research properly."

Ves immediately shook his head. "The data is proprietary. Anything that can elevate the performance of the mech pilots of my mechs to such a degree is incomparably precious. No offense, but I do not want to share the fruits of my hard work and labor. Even if I agree to show them to you, I am not going to transmit it over any network. You'll have to come and study my research data in person. You are the only mech designer from the MTA who I trust to keep my work confidential."

"Improvements as drastic as these are usually subject to stringent conditions."

"There are limits.. but they are not as severe as you think. At the very least, it is not based on an expensive component or unique material.  While it is not entirely feasible to apply this solution on a wider scale, it can theoretically be applied to every mech design that I have contributed to. I empowered hundreds of mechs with this specific solution before the battle. The result? A victory, and several new expert pilots to boot."

"Those are bold claims."

"I know. This is why I don't want to share it with anyone except you. The implications of my research is great, but so is the danger and risk of abuse. As far as I see it, the most responsible course of action you can do is to vet my research and work alongside me on a couple of private projects. To prevent many mech designers from engaging in experiments that causes millions of mech pilots to lose their heads, you should keep what you have learned to yourself until my research has matured to the point where it is safe!"

Another pause ensued as Master Willix fell silent. She was probably contemplating what he said while also deliberating with her fellow colleagues.

Meanwhile, Ves was sweating inside. When he saw that regular arguments didn't work, Ves had to resort to exposing sensitive and dangerous information in order to generate interest in her. As a powerful Master who had traveled the galaxy, she must have witnessed a lot of great solutions from many different mech designers.

In order to generate a sufficient amount of interest in Master Willix, Ves had no choice but to appeal to her inner mech designer.

Everyone who designed mechs for a living wanted to attain better results. He believed that rational mech designers who stole other people's design philosophies as a habit should not be immune to this temptation! Their desire to improve their own work should be just as great as their passionate counterparts!

Eventually, Master Willix broke the silence.

"We should continue this discussion on a more private channel. Please stand by for a moment while I switch us to a more secure setting where you may speak to me in greater confidence."

"Wait a minute, Moira!" A white-bearded figure dressed in a resplendent suit appeared. "Mr. Larkinson is a native of the Komodo Star Sector. Any work he produces falls under the purview of Halcyon Citadel. You cannot just shove us aside while Mr. Larkinson has the potential to propel our branch to greater heights!"

Ves recognized the second figure. According to his research, Master Colin Drexel was a 200-year old Master Mech Designer who originally came from the Winged Serenade Star Sector. He didn't know much else about him other than that he specialized in quantum teleportation systems, whatever that meant.

Moira calmly faced the newcomer's projection and raised her finger. "You are not invited to this conversation."

A small zap shot out from her finger. After striking Master Drexel's projection, it quickly began to break apart!

"MOIRAAAAA!"

Once the projection disappeared, Master Willix paused for a while before she calmly turned back to Ves. "Now, let us proceed with our discussion. You were saying?"

"Uhmm…"