The 'first' meeting with Ves and General Axelar Streon ended up being incredibly productive to both sides! Both Ves and Axelar exited the central chamber with obvious satisfaction. After bidding the Streons goodbye, Ves, Lucky, Gavin and the rest of their small entourage soon departed from the rented space station. Axelar, the Ouroboros and the Senechai all watched the Larkinsons teleport away. "Your thoughts?" Benny had heard virtually all of the words that Ves and Axelar had said to each other. He most definitely formed his own opinion about the secret agreement that the two had made. "Professor Larkinson has already done us a great service by 'upgrading' the Ouroboros. While it is best to discreetly invite one of our Master Mech Designers to inspect your ace mech for any surprises, his sincerity is obvious, though I suspect most of it is due to your mech rather than your charming personality." Axelar smirked. "That is not an issue. Sooner or later, the Ouroboros and I will become one and the same." "I advise you not to count your chickens before they hatch, Master Axelar. An operation that consists of invading the heart of a serious alien civilization and displacing its home planet is an enormous undertaking. Its scope is too great for any ancient clan. If we want to organize enough forces to assault a highly fortified location, we must gain the cooperation of many other clans. It is best to involve the Terran Alliance as a whole. I can foresee many leaders agreeing to this plan. It is not that difficult to convince them to cooperate. We can allow them to share the credit for success and let them shirk responsibility in case of failure." "That is a start, Benny, but it will take more than that to convince our more serious rivals to lend their strength to us." General Axelar spoke. "We should begin to form a comprehensive plan to build a Terran-wide coalition. The more forces we can rally under my banner, the greater the chance that I will return victorious." "You can increase your success rate further if you permit foreign groups to participate in your operation, Master Axelar." "No." Axelar immediately replied. "This must be a Terran endeavor. The Polymath is not the only leader who regards states such as ours as vestiges of the past. We must fight to protect our identity and strengthen our collective pride. If we want the Terran Alliance to persist in this changing age, we must undertake a unifying action that will show the rest of red humanity that we will not disappear!" Axelar believed that his planned operation would become so bold and shocking that no other leader could equal his feat! Aside from that, the greater reward of a successful operation might not be the rise of another Terran god pilot, but the emergence of a new home planet for red humanity! The general could think of no better way to reinvigorate the Terran people than to give them a home planet! The fact that they originally stole it from another alien race was not a demerit. It was much more likely for this to become a point of pride! As Axelar and Benny continued to discuss their plans and schemes, Ves and his entourage eventually returned to their borrowed villa. Ves dismissed everyone aside from Lucky and Benny, "Lucky, go hunt for snooping bugs." "Meow." While the gem cat performed his familiar routine, Ves and Gavin began to stare at each other. Gavin had endured far more shocks than Ves during the meeting! He had been privy to all of the talks, so he had abruptly become exposed to far more secrets and happenings than he could ever imagine! Given that they were currently in a location that was probably not secure, neither of the two addressed the issue directly. Ves did not even dare to use the Larkinson Network or other weird means to communicate with his personal assistant. Who knew whether there was a qi cultivator in the vicinity that could intercept spiritual signals? This was why he decided to keep his explanation vague for the time being. "I have extended a lot of trust to you today." He said. "I hope that Benny has set an excellent example for you. I don't ask you to become his younger clone, but what I do expect from you is that you will become as loyal as him. Do you understand?" Gavin firmly nodded. His eyes had gained a bit more steel and determination. His greatest gain aside from earning his superior's trust was to receive the Senechal's advice! "I will do my utmost to live up to your expectations. I will not speak about what I have learned, nor ask you any questions unless you invite me to do so. However..." "What is it, B-, Gavin?" "The Senechai has told me that my augmentations can't keep up with my growing responsibilities. I fear that I am unable to protect all of the confidential information that is stored in my brain. There are still ways for intelligence agencies to capture me and either interrogate me or extract my memories directly from my head." That was an important concern. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦 The good news was that most first-class cranial implants and other augmentations offered a lot of protection against this sort of threat by default. The bad news was that they were never foolproof. The best that anyone could do was to receive a cranial implant that was especially geared towards information security. Ves could already tell that this was what Gavin was trying to suggest. "I have developed a friendship with Senechai Benny Smit." Gavin said. "He has offered to upgrade my augmentations to a suite that is comparable to his at no charge. We can consider it repayment of one of the favors that you have given to the general. You can either entrust this job to the Streons or a neutral third party recommended by them. Either way, Benny strongly recommends that we do not solicit the services of either the mechers or the Rubarthans." That amused Ves. How much of that advice was driven by instinctive Terran disgust towards their rivals, and how much of it was genuine concern that the mechers or the Rubarthans would genuinely tamper with the augmentations? "Wait." He froze. "Did the Senechai truly offer to give you the same augmentations as his own? As far as I recall, his mind is much more heavily digitized than ordinary people." "Not exactly, boss. The man was careful and precise in his wording. He offered to give us a similar suite that should perform roughly the same, but we can also make other requests as long as they are reasonable. As far as greater digitization is concerned... I am not opposed to this prospect. It will do me far more good than harm in my position. Forgive me for sounding presumptuous, but you need a more logical sounding board by your side. The Senechai often acts as the voice of reason and common sense towards his own boss. I think it is useful to copy his approach." Ves was inclined to agree with this assessment. He knew quite well what kind of person he was. It was doubtful that he could have gotten this far without receiving Gavin's input. There were many times where his personal assistant made good suggestions and pointed out details that he had overlooked. Even if Gavin knew nothing about mech design and didn't master any other field, he was still able to think on his own and voice what needed to be said. It would be an enormous pity for Ves to replace Gavin for a first-class assistant. Ves made a decision. "You can respond to this offer. Try to gather more details and carefully weigh your choices. I will leave this up to you. The only condition that I would like to make is that when the augmentation specialists begin to upgrade your body, I want General Axelar and the Ouroboros to inspect all of the implants and supervise the operation in person. We can never be too careful about this. I trust Axelar and his living mech enough that they will make sure that everything will remain honest." That elicited a gleeful reaction from his assistant! "Thank you, boss! I shall make certain that everything is done properly! It will likely take a few months to examine my body, formulate an augmentation suite and develop the customized improvements. Only then will I be able to undertake the operations." "I am familiar with all of the cumbersome steps that need to be made to develop excellent augmentations. We can be patient. It is not as if you urgently need all of the extra internal processing power right away." Ves wondered how much more helpful Gavin would become once he had received this massive upgrade. It didn't seem as if a personal assistant had to do more than to schedule meetings and share a few shallow opinions, but Gavin could become so much more. Just like the famed Senechai, Gavin could expand his responsibilities and make important decisions without needing any additional input from his superior! As Ves continued to move up in society, he had become increasingly more invested in grander affairs. He lost interest in undertaking more mundane responsibilities such as managing his clan or running a business. It was better to offload this kind of work to a trusted assistant who knew exactly how he would respond to different matters. They eventually began to talk about various other topics. None of them were directly related to any of the secrets that Gavin had learned, but they were still important nonetheless. "If the Rubarthans know that you have concluded a far-reaching cooperation agreement with their archrivals, they will not be pleased to say the least. How do you intend to deal with this consequence?" Ves shrugged. "I am open to cooperation to anyone who is sincere enough. It is not my fault that the Terrans have taken decisive action. Has the Inferno Spear Prince contacted us as of late?" "Not that I know of. We believe that the Rubarthans are still quarreling among themselves. The Smokestack Prince and the Inferno Spear Prince both have different preferences for the design spirit of the proposed new kinship network. It is highly likely that the Rubarthans will only be able to make up their mind once their god pilots return." "Those are my thoughts as well." This meant that there was no need for Ves to concern himself about the Rubarthans for the time being. Ves found it rather ironic that the Terrans had concluded a serious deal with him a lot faster. Then again, General Axelar was hardly an ordinary Terran. Gavin eventually left the office in order to take care of business that had piled up in the last few hours. Ves meanwhile looked forward to spending the rest of the afternoon on advancing one of his ongoing design projects. Yet just as he was about to do so, Veronica just received an important notification from Cynthia Larkinson. After several weeks of data gathering and puzzling, the True God had finally completed the development of an innovative new Crown-oriented cultivation method! Though Ves calmly opened a design program and began to adjust the incomplete design of the Supremo Project, his main attention had shifted back to the Milky Way. He had been waiting for this! Vulcan yearned to obtain a proper cultivation method, especially one that incorporated elements and techniques related to Divine Blacksmiths! "Myaow-" Veronica rubbed her silver paws in glee as she looked forward to receiving the fruits of her mother's work. It was so nice to be able to depend on a parent again! Veronica did not mind that she had to rely on the work of her mother for the umpteenth time. She did not want to mess around and bank on his amateurish grasp of cultivation science to transform Vulcan's future. It was better to rely on a professional given the importance of this matter!