The Mech Touch

Though Ves did not plan to chat so much with his teaching assistant when his workload had become a lot more burdensome than before, he did not want to pass up this opportunity to learn useful information!

While Alexa Striker was not particularly wealthy, powerful or well-connected Terran, she still possessed enough connections to gain a bit of information about major developments related to the Terran Alliance.

"There is a lot of division within the Red Two, but they have already made it clear that they are trying to promote a cultural change within our society." The young and well-dressed woman said. "Calling ourselves 'red humanity' is but the first step in their master plan to separate us from our original human roots and turn us into an entirely new race of their own making. They may even seek to influence our collective genetic evolution by propagating standardized 'treatments' and 'gene therapies' to various exotic radiation-induced mutations."

That... sounded like a conspiracy theory, but one that happened to sound plausible!

Ves was not fooled by the noble image of the Red Two. He had personal experiences in how the MTA and the CFA were more than willing to break ethical boundaries in order to advance their own interests!

The only question was how extensively the mechers and the fleeters supported this kind of initiative and how extensively they would force red humanity to adopt the genes of their choosing.

"Exotic radiation poses a serious threat to any organism that has never adapted to its effects in the past." Ves spoke in a less judgemental tone. "Almost the entire population of red humanity will require treatment in order to reduce their chances of growing ill. They will also need further adaptation to take better advantage of the new conditions and draw strength from E energy radiation. It makes sense to pool all of the solutions together and form a range of common responses that are proven to be safe, reliable and effective."

Alexa immediately shook her head. "That will never, Professor Larkinson. The Red Two will have to go to war against the Terran Alliance if they attempt to dictate our gene development. Besides, the Red Association and the Red Fleet are too opposed to each other to agree on a single racial evolution strategy."

His curiosity grew. He hadn't come in touch with this before, but now that he learned about it, he could not leave it alone.

"Oh? How do they differ from each other?"

"The Red Association is more open to the idea of making red humanity more receptive to exotic radiation. This means that the mechers want to make red humans more sensitive to the changes induced by E energy radiation. This has great potential as it gives every person the potential to become exceedingly powerful by absorbing energy from the environment."

That sounded exactly like what the Transhumanist Faction would do! Perhaps the other factions might not be as enthused about this direction, but even they should be willing to take certain risks to enable the rise of exponentially more high-ranking mech pilots and mech designers!

The Red Fleet on the other hand is more cautious towards extreme changes. The fleeters historically came about as a counterforce to the madness sweeping human civilization at the end of the Age of Conquest. Many fleeters think that letting humans evolve and modify their genes without as many restrictions as before will birth a great number of extreme personalities who can do untold damage to our civilization."

That sounded logical, but it sounded short-sighted as well. Exotic radiation possessed too much potential. If the fleeters did not want to take advantage of it, their rivals might easily overtake them in time!

"Are the fleeters really resistant towards adapting red humanity to M87?" Ves questioned.

"Not completely." Alexa shook her head. "The Red Fleet is not monolithic. Each fleet admiral has a different viewpoint. My prediction is that the fleeters will form a consensus around restraint. They will not discount the benefits that exotic radiation can provide to their own race, but they will err on the side of caution. The fleeters much prefer that red humanity develops a high degree of immunity towards the negative effects exotic radiation."

That sounded rather safe, but Ves knew enough about biotechnology and spiritual engineering that it was impossible for the fleeters to have it both ways.

Making people more immune to effects of E energy radiation effectively translated to sabotaging their spiritualities.

People wouldn't be able to break through and breach the extraordinary threshold as often, all so that they are less likely to go insane due to any wild increases in power!

It still made a certain amount of sense to the fleeters as they were the strongest proponents of conventional human technology. They essentially wanted to bet all of their chips on the assumption that their superior technology would become strong enough to defeat any pretender gods and alien cosmic horrors that were sure to emerge from Messier 87!

Although it sounded no different from burying heads in the sand, Ves did not think the Red CFA was run by stupid people. If the fleeters had enough confidence in their technological prowess, then maybe they were on the cusp of developing powerful new technologies that safely leveraged the power of exotic radiation without causing people to sacrifice their humanity!

Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. This subject sounded more and more profound and impactful to his life than he initially thought.

"What about the Terran Alliance? What does your polity think?"

"Our opinions are just as divided as everyone else's, but one of the points that has reached wide consensus in our community is that we must retain as many ties to our human identity as possible." The teaching assistant solemnly spoke. "There are already suggestions floating around that advocate 'uplifting' our original race to a superior one. The extreme pursuit of power and longevity may cause our genes and phenotypes to distort to such an extent where we begin to call ourselves elves or another inhuman name. Don't you think that this is a monstrous development?"

Ves shrugged. "Haven't the dwarves already done that? They are doing pretty well as of late."

"Heavy gravity variant humans are still humans!" The young lady heatedly insisted as she placed her hands on her hips. "Developing this genetic variant was a mistake born out of greed. Humans should have never tampered with their genetic code to this extent. We are all children of Old Earth. It was baseline humans who originally arose from our home planet during the Age of Stars. It was their natural descendants who relied on a combination of cunning, strategy and scientific brilliance to expand our holdings over much of the Milky Way during the Age of Conquest. The proliferation of extreme genetic modification only came later, and it has made our race worse in every fashion since."

That sounded quite logical, but Ves knew that the full story was a lot more complex than what was written in the public history books.

"So what do the Terrans actually support? Are they in favor of any form of genetic modification or not? Aren't you people all supposed to be designer babies or something?" He asked in a confused tone.

"Our designer babies and genetic modification treatments are much more centered around optimizing and improving our inherent human genes." She replied. "I have heard that there is a great amount of potential in the baseline human genome. Tapping specific genes and eating a rich diet of exotic-fortified substances is enough to comprehensively attain superior performance without sacrificing your humanity. Anything that our human genes cannot do, our implants can do. If we have to distinguish our variety of humanity from others, then I would prefer to call ourselves high humans. This has been our preferred stance during the Age of mechs and I expect that to persist in the Age of Dawn."

This consensus fit with the fairly conservative mindset of the Terrans. They probably relied a lot more on their implants than any other group of first-raters in order to stay competitive with their rivals.

"The Rubarthans are a lot less restrained towards genetic modification, 1 take it?" Ves guessed.

"That is partially the case, professor. The Rubarthans have not formed a common policy towards human augmentation. There are people who hold similar opinions as us, but the majority of Rubarthans are too consumed in their pursuit of power to hold back. They will do anything to increase their competitiveness and attain higher promotions. More radical mutations based on incorporating alien genes in one's DNA introduces much more negative side effects, but their positive effects are stronger as well. The Rubarthans broadly regard themselves as posthumans, although they do not often use this specific term."

Interesting. What was better, high humans or posthumans?

"It sounds like the ideological differences between the Terrans and the Rubarthans mirror that of the fleeters and the mechers."

Alexa frowned in disapproval. "Not many of us would agree to that assertion. None of our ideologies match with each other. At most, our stances may lead us to take positions that are closer. While these differences have never produced too many divergences in the previous era, I predict that they will become much more severe in the Age of Dawn because E energy radiation exacerbates every difference and mutation."

"You're not kidding in this regard. According to my own research, E energy radiation will leave no human unchanged."

All of this sounded like a giant headache to Ves. It was times like these that he was glad that he was not a bigshot! He would hate to determine the entire future of his race by making a highly impactful decision on behalf of trillions of humans!

"What is your opinion, professor?" The teaching assistant suddenly asked. "What do you support?"

"I... don't know. I can't make a decision for everyone, and my own personal genetic evolution is really messy. I am sorry to disappoint you, but I guess that I am more aligned with the Red Association. I may not agree with every stance of the Transhumanist Faction, but I am their unofficial associate for good reasons. While I agree with you that maintaining a firm connection to our human identity is still essential, I don't think we can survive unless we are willing to take risks and pursue transhumanism. There are ways to attain greater strength without detaching ourselves from what ultimately makes us all humans."

His children were shaping up to become powerful primordial humans from what Ves could tell.

Their physiques and their spiritualities might not be as evolved as that of his mother, but continued exposure to exotic radiation may ultimately correct this shortcoming in the future!

"I... sincerely hope that you will change your mind on this issue." Alexa said as she couldn't hide her disapproval. "In a time such as this, it has become more important than ever to remind ourselves of our original humanity and our ties to Old Earth. Red humanity will effectively become extinct from the moment we drop the word 'humanity' and merely call ourselves 'reds' or another silly label."

That was easy to say for a citizen of a first-rate superstate who probably had access to implants that would make Gloriana green with envy!

As a mech designer who climbed his way up from a third-rate state, Ves did not have much tolerance for stuffy old ideas that held him back from improving his own station.

Ves stood up from his seat and prepared to say goodbye to his projected companion.

"All of this sounds interesting, Miss Alexa, but let's wrap up this meeting. 1 already know what to do in order to prepare for my first lectures at the start of the upcoming semester. I think I should go back and make additional preparations to ensure that my first Frontier Wisdom class will make a profound and unforgettable impression to the 250 Terrans that want to learn how to survive in a troubling new age."