The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1660

Chapter 1660 Deviant Behavior

Ves was no spacer. He only possessed a shallow understanding of the spaceborn life. His time with the Flagrant Vandals and his brief experiences on the Starlight Megalodon only gave him a taste of the difficulty of living years in space.

Considering that it would take a couple of days or so to meet the sandmen in combat, Ves decided he might as well learn more about spacers from the captain of the Barracuda.

"Humans aren't inherently beings who are adapted to space." Silvestra instructed when they moved to the ship's lounge to avoid disturbing the crew working on the bridge. "Unless you are born and raised in a starship environment, it's very hard for you landbound to adjust to living in a cramped living environment which you are bound to share with dozens, hundreds or thousands of people."

Ves calmly petted Lucky's back as his pet dozed in his lap. "What is the main challenge of spaceborn life?"

"There are many challenges." She sighed. "We could go on for days if I have to mention them all. The bigger issue is that many people are different. A problem that can drive one person crazy is just a trivial annoyance to another. This massively complicates the matter because you can't implement a single solution to address all of the problems related to adapting to spacer life."

All of that sounded rather overwhelming.

"Do you have some more general advice that I can put to use right away?"

"Don't wait until the start of your expedition to put all of your people on your vessels. At the moment your fleet heads for the Red Ocean, it should already be in a mature state. Your crews and other personnel should already have adapted to life aboard starships. If you don't test them beforehand, then I can guarantee you that up to thirty percent of your hires will become problem cases!"

"That much!?" Ves gasped.

If thirty percent of his subordinates went stir-crazy from living on a ship for years without touching solid ground, then his expeditionary fleet would definitely enter a dire state!

"Those who can't adapt to spaceborn life pose a threat to themselves, their colleagues and the fleet! Don't underestimate the damage a human can do when they are in charge of a critical section of a ship."

Ves could imagine the possible problems. Perhaps one crazed subordinate might sabotage the FTL drive of a ship in transit to another star system, thereby stranding the ship in the middle of nowhere forever!

Although ships were usually built with a lot of redundancies, those determined enough to ruin everyone's lives might be able to find some way to plunge everyone into the abyss!

For this reason, he took the captain's advice very seriously. If he could test the ability of the subordinates he planned to take along and filter out the ones who wouldn't do well in space, he could save himself a lot of trouble.

"Thank you, Silvestra. This is a very valuable reminder."

"That's what I'm here for, Mr. Larkinson. My girls and I used to be a landbound just like you, so we know what it's like to transition to shipboard life. While it's simple for you to come up with the idea of forming an expeditionary fleet, you are not a spacer. I highly suggest you search for a suitable fleet commander who thoroughly understands the challenges I'm talking about and also understands the ships you intend to add to your fleet."

"Don't we already have a fleet commander?"

Silvestra sighed. "Fleet Commander Rofane is old and unsuitable to lead a fleet of this scope. He will definitely be the first one to reject your offer. You need to find someone who is much more capable than him to take charge of your fleet and bring up the problems that you have never thought about."

"That.. sounds like a challenge. Competent fleet commanders ought to be just as hard if not harder to hire than chief engineers, right?"

"Ordinary, yes, but I don't think you will suffer from this problem." She smirked.

"Oh? Why so?"

"Because you intend to head for the Red Ocean! Think about what that means! As long as you are able to earn enough merits to redeem a beyonder ticket, you've already demonstrated that you are an extremely capable person. Many people would definitely be clamoring to work for you! Not only that, but there are plenty of people in the Milky Way who are tired of the existing order and want to change their lives by taking advantage of the opportunities lying in wait at the dwarf galaxy!"

That eased some of his worries. "I see. I'll be sure to keep that in mind. I don't think that I'll be able to attract a lot of people at this stage, though. Right now, almost no one believes that I can earn enough merits."

It wasn't simple to satisfy the MTA's demands. As one of the most powerful organizations in human space, it was already capable of meeting most of its own needs! _{freeωebnovēl.c૦m}

Even if they provided others the opportunity to earn merits, they still had to abide by the same high standards the MTA applied to its internal members!

The only consolation was that the MTA offered much more opportunities for mech designers and mech pilots to earn merits.

As Ves continued to discuss how he should prepare his expeditionary fleet, time slowly passed by. The defense force continued to close in on the sandman swarm, which for some reason hadn't traveled straight to the only settled planet in the system.

Instead, the sandmen traveled straight towards the nearest asteroid belt, which was something that no one had ever seen before!

The deviating behavior of the sandman fleet was so odd that it immediately attracted a lot of attention!

Commander Magdalena called him on his comm.

"There is a huge issue with this sandman fleet, sir. Not only has it ignored the energy-rich Bentheim System, it isn't even flying close to the inner system where the local sun can provide them with a large amount of energy."

"What does Captain Monlin have to say?"

"She wants us to continue our pursuit. In fact, we're about to accelerate as stopping this sandman fleet has become a lot more urgent! We have to intercept this sandman fleet before it reaches the asteroid belt!"

Ves quickly realized the implications of this development. His eyes widened.