The Mech Touch

ealth, power and influence, they had no need to resort to force or trickery to get what they wanted.

Ves did not have this luxury.
His secrets were immensely greater than that of anyone else.
While they granted him immense advantages in his career, they also weighed him down.

He needed to be a lot more careful about who he trusted from now on.
At the very least, Ves became more determined than ever to diversify the LMC.
Since most of its employees consisted of Brighters, organizations like Flashlight were spoiled for choice on who they wanted to turn into their informers!

He felt as if he lost a part of his innocence today.
His distrust towards his own company and his own workers had increased.

Even if the ones responsible turned out to be a government-sanctioned intelligence agency, what if he wasn ’t so fortunate next time?

What if the Vesians managed to infiltrate his ranks?

What if the Five Scrolls Compact managed to turn his trusted men?

”Knowing is better than not knowing. ” Ves whispered to himself.

”Have you decided how to go forward, sir? ”

Ves closed his eyes.
”Yes.
I ’ll stick to my earlier decision and act like there is nothing wrong.
There ’s no benefit in kicking up a fuss.
If I was in his place, I wouldn ’t have refused the request either.
Gavin isn ’t the culprit here.
The real problem is Flashlight. ”

Frankly, Ves didn ’t know how he should handle Flashlight.
Despite earning their trust, they remained very suspicious about anyone due to their very nature.

He knew that they must have heard about his sudden decision to go on a grand expedition.
Even if Gavin didn ’t pass on a message, Calsie or any of the other executives at the headquarters of the LMC would have been able to leak the details to the spooks.

Perhaps Flashlight even learned of it as soon as Ves mentioned it over a comm call.

What Ves needed to do was sound out Flashlight ’s thoughts on his grand expedition.
After all, for one of the Bright Republic ’s promising mech designers to go on a random, multi decade tour to an entirely different star cluster was very concerning!

Who knew if Ves remained committed to his home state?

What would happen if he decided to neglect the LMC in favor of another mech company?

Would Ves even want to return to the Bright Republic after he ended his grand expedition?

While Ves was technically free to do what he wanted as long as he didn ’t violate the Bright Republic ’s laws, Flashlight never really paid attention to the rules in the first place.

No, if Ves wanted to avoid any problems on their end, he needed to resolve the gulf between them in a different way.

He discussed his thoughts with Nitaa, who suggested a logical-sounding suggestion.

”You need to hitch them onto your wagon, sir.
So far, this grand expedition is mostly centered around your interests.
I can understand why Flashlight feels left out.
What if you remedy this situation by obtaining their buy-in? ”

”How would I be able to do that? ”

”Ownership of an expeditionary fleet can be divided in shares. ” Nitaa said.
”Rather than owning shares in the expeditionary fleet in your personal capacity, instead you should put it in the name of the LMC.
Since Flashlight is a major shareholder of the LMC, that will in effect give them a small but substantial stake in the success of your grand expedition. ”

Ves grimaced upon hearing this suggestion.
He originally planned to keep the LMC out of it and purely contribute to the expeditionary fleet with his own fortune.
Involving the LMC meant that he would give a greater voice of how the expeditionary fleet was run to the other shareholders of the company.

That included not only Flashlight, but also the Larkinson Estate!

However, what mollified Ves a bit was that Flashlight and the Larkinson Estate would never be able to overrule Ves no matter what kind of votes they made.

This was because the LMC would never be able to become the majority shareholder of the upcoming expeditionary fleet.

”Gloriana will call the shots of the expeditionary fleet! ” Ves revealed.
”Ownership of an expeditionary fleet is decided by how much money and assets people commit to the expedition.
No matter how much ships, wealth and other assets I can contribute, I can never match Gloriana ’s financial might! Just the factory ship she promised is enough to buy out the LMC at least a hundred times! ”

Of course, Ves hadn ’t actually fixed the ownership structure of the expeditionary fleet with Gloriana as of yet.

As long as it wasn ’t set in stone, he could always use his Devil Tongue to good use in order to convince Gloriana to adopt a fifty-fifty ownership structure between the both of them.
That meant that Ves owned half of the expeditionary fleet despite not contributing as much to its formation!

Of course, even if Gloriana was gullible enough to fall for his manipulation, the Wodin Dynasty and the people backing her probably wouldn ’t agree.
A factory ship built according to the standards of the Hexadric Hegemony was immensely expensive.
So much so that Gloriana already told him that it was impossible for her to finance the procurement of such a mighty vessel out of her own pocket!

This essentially meant that neither Ves nor Gloriana would be the ultimate owners of their expeditionary fleet.
Instead, that honor was reserved to the investors that Gloriana managed to beg for money.

While this sounded as if Ves and Gloriana would both be at the mercy of the whims to faceless bankers, in truth it probably wouldn ’t come to that.
If Gloriana managed to convince her Wodin Dynasty to invest in the expeditionary fleet, then she wouldn ’t have to answer to a stranger.

It all depended on how well Gloriana sucked up to the moneybags in their state.
Ves was about to meet her in a month, so he would find out soon how much progress she made.

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