The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7613

Chapter 7613: Setting Expectations

As Ves, his daughter and Lucky boarded the shuttle that would take them back to the Tarrasque, they had all fallen into silence.

The gem cat yawned and began to take a short nap while lounging on the little girl’s nap.

Meanwhile, Ves and Andraste still remained preoccupied by what they had witnessed during their tour on the Moloch.

Ves gently reached out and grasped his daughter’s small but firm hand.

’Pumpkin.’

’Papa?’

Both of them communicated with each other through spiritual means. This was a trick that everyone with a companion spirit or attainments in qi cultivation could accomplish. It was a much more secure means of relaying messages with each other, especially if they took measures to minimize their emissions by relying on proximity.

Naturally, if Ves the need to resort to this method, then he definitely did not want others to listen in on his conversation.

’When you looked at the Large Mother Crystal Fragment, what did you truly feel? I do not think that you merely sensed a lot of ’noise’ from the artifact.’

Andraste kept her mouth shut while playfully swinging her legs back and forth. She maintained a perfect facade of innocence while radiating smugness towards her father.

’Heh, I can be subtle when I have to. You didn’t want others to know too much about it, right? What I said back then was true. I genuinely felt like this crystal was some kind of mistuned communicator. However, Yaika was able to pick up something underneath it all. It was difficult for me to notice it at all. I only managed to find out several minutes after we entered the last lab. All of that noise and stuff is doing far too good a job of hiding it all. I bet there is no one else in the fleet that can do the same."

Ves tried to repress an urge. Even he and Blinky had failed to detect this undercurrent!

’Good girl. I am so proud of you, not because you are talented, but because you have learned how to keep secrets.’

’Papa is a good teacher.’ Andraste mentally preened. ’Anyway, what exactly I have managed to detect is... weird. I don’t know how to describe it to you. I felt as if my tongue had brushed against an entirely new flavor of death.’

’What do you mean by flavors of death?’

His girl struggled to explain her understanding. ’Death is... death. In my younger years, I have always known what it represents. At least I thought so. When I trample the bugs underneath my feet, I can feel their tiny lives slipping away. They just... go. That was all I ever knew. Then I started to talk to Helena and learned that death can have other forms. It’s like... you know, how different religions have different afterlives. They all try to explain what happens after you die.’

’The starting point is the same, but the outcomes are different.’ Ves mentally remarked.

’Like that! Well, I learned from Auntie Helena that death is not the same everywhere. It takes one form in the old galaxy, and a slightly different form in the new frontier. The two aren’t all that different to be honest. I think that was because the Red Ocean orbited the Milky Way for a very long time. They’re related to each other.’

Ves understood what she was trying to convey. ’I see. Messier 87 must probably come across as a stranger in comparison.’

’Exactly! That big green crystal has put up an invisible field or whatever that is rooted in this foreign version of death. I bet that it is really important to the deathborn. Right now, I don’t understand anything about it. There is plenty of stuff that feels familiar to me, but it is all wrapped up in completely new and alien rules.’

’Can you... connect to this underlying interface?’

’I can try, but... I don’t think it will end well for me.’ Andraste firmly responded. ’Just because I know a thing or two about death does not mean that I am a deathborn. I don’t know a thing about their language and other stuff.’

Ves looked thoughtful. ’That does not rule out the possibility. You enjoy a rare advantage. I am sure that if you are able to address these shortcomings, you may be able to succeed and access the true administrative layer of that Large Mother Crystal Fragment.’

’...’

His daughter did not feel all that confident about this. She actually felt scared due to his growing expectations.

He quickly grew alarmed and bent over to hug his little girl.

’I won’t force you to connect to that big crystal. I know it is dangerous. When it comes down to it, this is still a fragment of an insanely powerful and complex alien construction. Who knows how many traps and other safeguards those deathborn have left behind? There are too many risks involved with trying to harness it while blind to all of these hidden traps.’

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify