The Mech Touch

With Venerable Ark Larkinson unexpectedly becoming engrossed in befriending Goldie and browsing through the pages of the Larkinson Mandate, it fell onto Melinda Larkinson to represent the interests of the Larkinson Family.

"Your family must have gone through a lot of trouble to get here, am I correct?"

Melinda let out a tired breath. "Don't remind me, Ves. We had to give up so much to pay for passage through that giant gate that we would have become bankrupt if it wasn't for plentiful dividends issued by your mech company. Maryun Ultima and the Vulit Star Node are filled with grifters and overpriced services. In the short time we have lived in this dwarf galaxy, we have learned that being poor in this heartless place is the greatest sin that you can commit."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Ves lightly responded. "Literally betraying humanity by selling us out to the aliens is an even crime in these parts. I know that you haven't gone deep enough to encounter actual aliens, but the dynamic in the new frontier is vastly more complicated due to their proximity to us. It isn't just other humans that we need to be wary about anymore."

That caused Melinda to look amazed at him. "You can speak from personal experience about that, I suppose. It is still hard for us to believe all of the adventures you have been on and all of the battles you have fought during your time here. Whereas most pioneers crashed and burned within the first few years, your clan under your leadership thrived beyond our wildest expectations. How many alien species have you fought against up to this point?"

"Well, it depends on how you count and define them, but it should easily be more than 50 or so." He told her. "Some of the alien warships and organizations we fought against gathered aliens from many different species together. The main alien species that we have exchanged blows with are the phase whales, the orvens, the nunsers, the puelmers and the voribugs. Each of them are powerful in different ways, and you should be grateful that you never encountered them or their formidable warships in the field."

The actions that Ves described to her were so unimaginably far away from the Larkinson Family that Melinda had difficulty accepting that all of this happened to the Larkinson Clan.

However, she knew that Ves did not massage the truth. Many of the famed battles of the Larkinson Clan were a matter of public record. Even the less publicized battles such as the most recent one that took place in the Ramage Repulsor System had become known to the Larkinson Family due to the regular correspondence between the clan and the old family.

While the clan had gone off to fight against humanity's enemies in the more exciting parts of human space, the Larkinson Family had remained stuck in the Vicious Mountain Star Sector for an awfully long time!

The enormous disparity between the two groups of Larkinsons made Melinda depressed. It was inevitable for her and the rest of the family to develop an inferiority complex.

"I truly admire you, Ves." Melinda frankly said. "Don't get me wrong. I still don't agree with your reckless decisions and your habit of dragging your entire clan head-long into danger. However, it would be dishonest for me to ignore all of the ways that you have managed to make incredible gains with your risky development strategy."

Ves nodded in gratitude. "Thank you for the compliment. It must be hard for you to admit this truth. To be fair, we had plenty of close shaves. If not for all of the tricks we pulled off in battle, it would have been a lot harder to keep our casualties at a controlled level. My clan and I are constantly investing more in our preparations and combat assets in order to prevent us from ever suffering massive casualties like we did in the early days of our clan. While we are still relatively new at this, we are not weighed down by any baggage and we are also nimble enough to learn rapidly from our mistakes."

The two talked a bit more about the complexities and realities of leading organizations.

Though Melinda was not in charge of the Larkinson Family, she had risen so much in the hierarchy that she regularly exchanged opinions with Ark about governing issues.

"I have only met and observed your clan for a short time, but that is enough for me to understand what our family is lacking compared to your clan." She said in an even tone. "It is a quality that we have always lacked, much to our detriment. I never realized how much it mattered until I saw the difference it could make with my own eyes."

He grew more intrigued. "Oh? What is the deficiency that you are referring to? Is it an entrepreneur who can actually earn enough money to pay for all of your bills?"

"Well, that too, but that was not the missing ingredient that I was referring to." She responded and leaned forward. "I think our family lacked cohesion and drifted without aim because we have all lost our purpose. When we were forced to emigrate to the Garlen Empire, we fought and suffered on behalf of several bloodthirsty clans in order to support their callous ambitions, we never made any positive progress in terms of our mentality. We were becoming more broken and unhappy by the year, which was one of the reasons why we had to leave that awful state before we reached the tipping point."

The Larkinson Family had long centered its existence around serving the Bright Republic and protecting the citizens of the state.

After getting driven away by the very people they loved, the members of the old family suffered a betrayal that traumatized them in a deep and serious fashion.

As far as Ves was concerned, the Larkinsons of the old family had already become broken from the moment the Bright Republic no longer wanted them anymore.

When Ves looked at Melinda, he saw a tired woman who shouldered far too many responsibilities than she should. No matter how hard she tried to further the interests of the Larkinson Family, the harsh and cruel reality around her negated all of her efforts.

He pitied her and the other members of the old family. Even Venerable Ark Larkinson whose command prowess and personal combat ability was renowned among high-tier expert pilots had not been able to reverse the malaise among his people!

"I don't think you are being fully accurate in your description." He told her. "Your family certainly lacked a strong purpose, but what is also missing is spirit."

"...Spirit?"

He gave her a rueful smile. "It's difficult to describe in words, but you have lived at this branch for a while now, right? Have you seen how happy our Larkinson side branch members are? Did you notice how much they love, respect and more importantly trust each other? Although the reason for them to become so friendly with each other is related to a certain cat that has a habit of exuding a golden glow, these people who were overwhelmingly strangers in the past would not have assimilated so easily without a strong and sincere belief in our clan."

"Hmmm..." Melinda frowned and rubbed her chin in an oddly familiar manner. "I think I understand what you are referring to. What you are describing is close to an esprit de corps. I have noticed that your clan is good at fostering a common spirit between its members. From the moment an outsider gets inducted into the clan, he or she becomes immersed in an entirely new world where it is a habit and an expectation for every Larkinson to freely offer aid to each other. The unity and eagerness to serve the clan in any capacity is remarkably high."

That was certainly true, but a large part why this was the case was because the Larkinson Clan had the luxury of picking the vast majority of its members.

The trueblood Larkinsons that chose to follow Ves had always been among his younger and more proactive relatives.

The Larkinson Family on the other hand remained stuck with all of the stubborn and inflexible codgers who dealt poorly with change.

Meanwhile, the Larkinson Clan started to recruit thousands, tens of thousands and ultimately hundreds of thousands of unrelated people across the galaxies.

Despite the huge number of people that entered the clan year after year, the adopted Larkinsons quickly became assimilated in a culture and environment that encouraged trust, openness, friendliness and mutual respect.

Though the Larkinson Family remained largely homogeneous due to its much greater hesitance and difficulty in expanding its ranks, the personality faults of most of its members had caused the mood to grow more pessimistic and divisive.

Goldie played a major role in this, and setting a strongly defined culture that encouraged all of the desirable traits that Ves wanted from his people helped a lot.

However, Ves did not discount the immense value of being able to pick his own members. The majority of the clansmen were young, open-minded, flexible and tolerant to different ideas and lifestyles.

That may probably change once the early members of the clan grew older and less willing to take risks, but that was a matter for the future.

The inferior conditions of the Larkinson Family was a reason why Ves didn't exactly feel enthused at the idea of reabsorbing all of the Larkinsons who once decried and rejected his vision.

His favorite cousin eventually broached this topic.

"Now that we are all here, it is time to discuss our future moves." Melinda spoke as she stared into his eyes. "While it looks as if our family has come to Davute in order to beg you to take us in, that is definitely not the case. We regularly poll the opinions of our family members and many of them are still unwilling or reluctant to join your clan and start singing your praises."

"Uhm, I understand your concerns. You don't have to make a decision right away. You can take all of the time you need in order to make up your mind. The Davute Branch will continue to host your family members for as long as they need."

His cousin abruptly sneered. "Don't fool around with me, Ves. I can tell what you really want. You would love nothing more but to turn Uncle Ark into your obedient soldier than you can throw at any powerful enemy that stands in your way."

How did she know?

Melinda continued to press her point. "Much may have changed in a decade, but the reasons why my people and I chose to reject your invitation still remain as valid as before. Uncle Ark and I will not allow you to pressgang us in order to throw more bodies in your relentless attempts to satisfy your greed. We are willing to fight to protect our family, but we are not willing to fight for a selfish cause."

Whatever Melinda knew about Ves, he understood her better.

The weird illusionary test he experienced back when he created his living divine artifact caused him to talk to a weird version of Melinda, among other familiar people.

His talk with her ended badly at the time. Ves had learned the hard way that Melinda hadn't really changed her opinions after all of these years. She opposed risk-taking so much that she would rather ruin their relationship than agree with his stance.

This presented a rather interesting situation to Ves. A state of information asymmetry existed as Ves had already modeled a conversation with Melinda about this topic in the past.

He quickly noticed that she possessed no awareness that an alternate version of herself had argued with him. Nothing about the conversation appeared to have passed on to the real Melinda.

Ves inwardly grinned. He possessed a massive advantage in this negotiation!