The Mech Touch

"Interesting."

The fact the king fish communicated this particular meaning spoke much about what it knew and how it regarded the human visitors.

Ves and the others had constructed numerous different mental models of the king fish's personality and cognition.

Most of them assumed that the king fish and the fish-whale race as a whole were completely insular and unaware of the outside cosmos. Purgatory was their entire universe and the concept that races other than the fish-whales could exist should be nonexistent.

An individual's knowledge and views shaped their vocabulary. The king fish shouldn't be able to communicate word 'outsiders' unless it had a clear idea that there was life outside of this phase whale enclave!

Ves rapidly made a few conclusions based on these thoughts and adjusted his strategy.

Now that he decided to initiate actual contact, he did not leave the king fish hanging this time. He consciously reached out to the powerful alien presence and formulated his response.

"Greetings. New arrival. No fight. Curiosity. Outsider."

He didn't know anything about the richness of the fish-whale language, so he did not try to overly complicate his speech. He was afraid the king fish might misinterpret his words and take offense.

It was enough to convey the meaning of a couple of words at a time.

Ves was able to make himself understood by many different life forms as long as they possessed spirituality, so he did not think the king fish heard a bunch of gibberish in return.

From the small spike in the massive presence enveloping the Everchanger, Ves knew that this step was a success!

Not only did the king fish respond more actively than when it talked to Venerable Tusa, the underlying emotions of the creature had also changed!

Ves carefully studied the king fish's spiritual presence and sensed an increase in excitement and curiosity but also vigilance and wariness.

Whether these emotions were truly reflective of the king fish or merely a smokescreen to hide its actual attitude, Ves couldn't tell.

For now, the king fish presented itself in a fairly friendly manner even though it was the first native life form to communicate with humans!

Perhaps this was because the king fish was confident in its own strength. As a powerful fish-whale whose strength had reached the top of the primitive hierarchy of this pocket space, it had spent much of its life dominating others.

It shouldn't be easy for it to put down its airs in the presence of other individuals.

If Task Force Fisherman didn't bring so many mechs and if the Everchanger didn't exude enough power, perhaps the king fish would have shown less scruples towards the outsiders!

Having received a clear reply after an extended period of fruitless exchanges, the other party soon conveyed another set of meanings.

IDENTITY. ORIGIN. INTENTION.

Ves smiled wider. "Human. Outside. Learning."

LEARNING?

"Exploration. Discovery. Learning. Science. Research. Development. Production."

CLARIFICATION.

"Willing. Exchange. Closer. Friendly. Not dangerous. Reassurance."

The two kept swapping meanings like this for a few minutes. Their communication was so stilted and unnatural that Ves found it stressful to pick the right words to convey without sparking any conflict. Still, the effect was pretty good as the emotions projected by the king fish became more and more positive!

In order to increase the richness and specificity of his own speech, Ves made the bold decision to upgrade the complexity of his responses by formulating them in simple sentences.

His armed hand pressed against his chestplate. "Entered by accident. Fought against different fish-whales. Too many of them. Want to find friendly fish-whales. Not hostile to you. Want to exchange knowledge."

KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE. WHAT KNOWLEDGE?

"I propose a simple exchange. You tell me about yourself and your race. I tell about myself and my race."

NOT ENOUGH. MORE KNOWLEDGE. NEED MORE.

Ves raised his palm. "Slow down. Not fast. Learn about ourselves first. More exchange of knowledge later. Must be careful first. Agreed?"

…AGREED. KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE. NOW.

"Careful. Move closer. Maintain a safe distance. Away from soldiers. Suggest location."

SAFE DISTANCE. FOLLOW. LOCATION HERE.

So far, it appeared the king fish did not have much trouble interpreting what Ves was trying to communicate. It fully showed it understood what Ves had just conveyed as it distinctly moved away from its fellow Evolvers and approached a nearby hill that was not as busy.

The king fish looked at the surrounding Evolvers and did something to disperse them a bit. The fish-whales moved further and further away and were no longer as tense as before.

It seemed that the king fish's prestige was impressively high among its own kind! There were no dissenters among its crew. Every single fish-whale retracted their aggressive tendencies though it was obvious that many of them were still on guard.

However, even if the Everchanger was slowly moving towards the site that the king fish had designated, the Evolvers did not show any fear that the mech would harm their leader.

Each of them had witnessed the king fish defeat so many enemy fish-whales with ease that it was hard to imagine that this smaller metal object could pose any threat.

It helped that the Everchanger did not look particularly dangerous at the moment. It had holstered both of its primary weapons on its back and kept its hands empty.

Its uplifting green color scheme and its overall theme as an inspiring machine reinforced the Everchanger's friendliness.

This was a contradictory phenomenon to Ves. Mechs were first and foremost war machines. They were engines of destruction that had been responsible for the deaths of an uncountable amount of humans, many of which were merely innocent civilians who were caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.

A part of Ves felt as if the Everchanger turned into a deceitful scammer!

Its current facade was not a complete falsehood but definitely a distortion of the truth. Ves may have designed the Everchanger with the intention of turning the expert mech and its pilot into inspirational heroes, but they were both killers at their core!

Still, the current facade worked well in lowering the king fish's vigilance.

One of the observations that Ves and many others had made was that the more powerful fish-whales tended to possess bigger bodies as well.

Bigger bodies and greater mass offered more carrying capacity for powerful organs. It was probably hard-wired in their mentalities that smaller individuals were also weaker.

With that in mind, the Everchanger flew closer to the Lab Continent until it gently touched down on the rocky surface.

The modest gravity of the artificial landmass forced the expert mech to expend energy at a constant rate in order to keep levitating. Ves felt this was wasteful and silently instructed Joshua to set foot on the Lab Continent even if the other fish-whales rarely did so themselves.

The move not only explained why the humans possessed legs, but also emphasized the differences between the two groups.

When Ves briefly directed his attention to the other fish-whales, he noted that they had begun to show a lot more curiosity towards the unknown visitors.

They didn't look as wise and astute as the king fish, though. Ves couldn't really explain it, but he noticed a clear difference in intelligence and awareness between the leader fish and its subjects.

"The Evolvers are all sentient, but the king fish is definitely smart on another level!"

Together with the way the conversation had proceeded so far, Ves raised his estimation of the king fish's intelligence.

As the Everchanger and the big creature stopped at a distance of roughly 120 meters from each other, both of them paid careful attention to their counterparts.

With the king fish's powerful and polished spiritual intelligence, it had already detected that the Everchanger actually contained multiple life forms.

The huge fish should have been able to differentiate between Ves, Joshua, Lucky, the Everchanger and the Golden Cat.

All of them were stuffed inside a fairly small metal machine from the perspective of the king fish.

Who knew how the king fish interpreted this odd and unheard of combination to the fish whales. The native alien races had not shown any instance of using vehicles or combining themselves on a deeper level.

After the staring game had gone for several minutes, the king fish finally broke the silence.

HUMAN. EXPLAIN.

The important part had come. Ves had thought long and hard how to explain the existence of humans and the context around his race.

On one hand, he had to hide as much about humans as possible. Information asymmetry is a valuable advantage. Even if the king fish was aware of the concept of outsiders, it clearly didn't know anything about humans or the threat they posed!

Ves did not want to spill the beans and reveal so much that the king fish could gain more parity in the conversation.

On the other hand, the king fish clearly did not want to reveal anything about itself and its race unless the human visitors were willing to reciprocate.

Fairness and equal trade was one of the many commonalities of sentient races. While not all of them respected these concepts as much as everyone wished, they should at least be able to understand them to a degree.

The way this massive creature stared down at the Everchanger betrayed its expectation of receiving information. It would probably stop the expert mech from leaving if Ves did not satisfy the giant fish's curiosity!

"Humans are life. Different from fish-whales. We come from outside. Bigger space outside. We are visitors. I am leading the visitors. My goal is to explore and learn. Do you understand?"

His answer probably wasn't sufficient to the king fish because he sensed a spike of impatience from the creature.

HUMANS. FIGHT. THREAT. DANGEROUS.

"I do not deny that we are able to fight. We had to defeat many different fish-whales earlier. We do not want to fight. We are no threat to your group. We only want to exchange."

Ves wasn't sure whether the fish-whale race understood concepts such as deception, lying, betrayal and other nasty words. If this was the case, then earning the king fish's trust would be a lot harder than he wished!

However, as Ves continued to don a mask that completely signaled his desire to study new phenomena in order to advance his design philosophy, he presented a completely innocent image that shouldn't put the big whale on guard.

WHAT IS OUTSIDE.

"Outside is… immense. Lots of space. Many planets. Many lives. Many fights."

EXPLAIN MORE.

"There is too much to tell you. Outside is too big and too diverse."

"Explain."

"I will, but I want to learn from you as well. Trade information for information. Both of us will benefit. Is that acceptable?"

The king fish remained silent for half-a-dozen seconds before it lightly flicked its tail.

ACCEPTABLE. WANT TO LEARN. MUST LEARN OUTSIDE.

Apparently, the king fish's attention was mostly centered around what lay beyond Purgatory!

Ves understood the massive creature's sentiment. If it possessed any awareness that this pocket space was only a tiny isolated slice out of a greater whole, then he would also develop a lot of curiosity towards what lay beyond the familiar!

He smiled wider. He was happy to tell the king fish about the Red Ocean, especially when he could trade for valuable information about the fish-whales in return.

In any case, he could pick and choose what sort of information he wanted to supply to the king fish. He could say anything as long as he made sure he did not reveal any hint of humanity's domineering invasion of the Red Ocean and his society's intense animosity towards other alien races!

"Ah. Before we speak, let me learn who you are. What is your name?" Ves carefully asked.

NAME?

"Identity. Title. Status."

KURRRGUURANEEN.

"That's… a nice name. Can I call you the Cerebral King instead? As a powerful leader, it is only right to refer to you by your majestic title."