There were many acceptable virtual schools available to Ves and Gloriana. Even though they might not have the sheer amount of cash on hand to pay the exorbitant tuition fees for most of them, it was not as if the Larkinson Clan was financially strapped. The clan's finances were hardly leveraged as the LMC already generated a lot of revenue. There was not much point in borrowing lots of money to accelerate the expansion of the LMC when there were many hard limitations to growth. The limited access to scarce raw materials, the shortage of reliable and trustworthy trading partners, the entrenchment of competing mech designers at many locations and the increasingly more congested transportation channels all made it useless for the LMC to expand its production capacity and build more branches in different regions. As such, the LMC and by extension the clan still had lots of room to borrow money if necessary. Ves was sure he could squeeze at least 1 million MTA credits from the Yem-Tar Trade and Commerce Bank, especially considering that he maintained good relations with the mechers. "Tuition fees won't be an obstacle as long as they aren't too excessive." He told his wife. "The more expensive virtual schools might not always be better, but by putting higher barriers of entry, the quality and status of its student body will most certainly be higher." This granted Marvaine greater opportunities to befriend classmates who would likely become bigshots in the future. Of course, the intimacy between friends who had never met each other in reality was limited, so Ves did not put too much stock in this dynamic. "We still have time to send an application for Marvaine." Gloriana said as she ceased her search. "It is better for us to wait for the outcome of your search for the missing Yorul-Tavik scion before we commit to a choice. The Black Cats can also use this time to dig into the backgrounds of all of these school chains. There should be much more information and secrets around them that can't be found through a quick search on the galactic net. Having attended similar schools in the past, each one that caters to the upper echelon of a society are heavily entangled into existing alliances, factions, ideologies and so on. A single choice can literally determine Marvaine's future." That sounded even more serious than Ves thought. His wife was right. As far as the rich and powerful were concerned, people were never too young to pursue their ambitions. A lot of children had already been taught to network, scheme and plot their way to success by their parents! Ves should know, as Gloriana had taken a similar approach to Aurelia! Though Marvaine was not as genetically predisposed to excel at social manipulation, Witshaw & Seneca still made sure to brush up his general competences as part of an all-round boost in performance. Besides, it shouldn't really matter if Marvaine couldn't keep up with all of the scheming. Being good at making friends certainly helped a mech designer out, but at the end of the day their value was solely measured by their ability to design mechs. So long as Marvaine was able to stand out in his capacity to learn complicated scientific subjects as well as his ability to design excellent Mekanos, he would definitely become a popular fellow while attending school! Just as how Ves attracted a succession of allies who valued him for his work, Marvaine should also be able to build a network around himself. The premise was that Marvaine could not only keep up with his demanding study load, but become one of the top students of his class! No matter how talented and intelligent Marvaine might be, his peers would definitely give him a run for his money. Their rich parents might be just as crazy if not crazier than Ves when it came to boosting the performance of their heirs! Gloriana had full confidence in her son. "Marvaine will rank at the top of his class. Do you know why? He has inherited your spark of divinity. He is already leagues ahead in this aspect. The power of a god is expressed in miracles and turning impossibilities into reality. Whereas other children will have to surrender to the constraints of their designer genes, our son can break them and grow past his limits over and over again. We just have to push him forward when he is being challenged." That did not entirely sit well with Ves. While Gloriana's argument sounded nice, this fit exactly with the high-pressure childrearing methodology that was typical of the Hexer people! He recalled Calabast's story and learned that while it was an excellent way to produce high performers, the chances that children would break from all of the pressure and expectations was not light! "I understand you want our child to excel, but don't go too far. He should still have enough free time to play with his friends and siblings. He only has one childhood, and I will not deprive him of this fantastic experience just because of our desire to enter the first-class mech industry sooner." His wife didn't entirely agree with him, but they could settle this in the future. Life went on for the Larkinsons. Though Ves and Gloriana spent a bit more time tutoring and instructing their son, they largely went back to designing their mechs again. In the meantime, the expeditionary fleet was slowly navigating through numerous star systems, some of which had seen battle in the past. It was not strange for the Golden Skull Alliance to enter a star system that contained a sprawling debris field. There was usually one or more pioneering fleets in the vicinity that eagerly salvaged as much valuable remnants as possible in order to earn easy profits. The expeditionary fleet decided to stay far away from this activity. Many of the cargo hulls of the Golden Skull Alliance were already full with the alien plunder they had accrued after the conclusion of the Battle of the Boryan Belt. There was no reason to be greedy and compete against threatening pioneering groups for redundant loot. What concerned Ves increasingly more was the movement and positioning of rival forces near the probable coordinates of where Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik might be hunkering at this time. Enough time had passed for the Larkinsons to develop a more precise idea where the failed pioneer could be found. Director Calabast took in all of the available clues and information and came to Ves to present her findings. "...We have persistently requested Ylvaine to give us a direction to our mission objective aftering a new star system. Since we are not traveling forward in a straight line, this means that we can create a bunch of different cones that vaguely point in the same direction. Since Ylvaine's predictions become more precise as we are getting closer to our goal, the newer cones should be narrower, which helps with cutting down the possible destinations." She waved her hand, causing a familiar star map of the border region to be projected above their heads. Several different cones and arrows appeared on the map. Each of them originated from a different star system and all pointed forward. Ves didn't need to employ any math to see that all of the arrows and cones increasingly homed in on a specific star system. He narrowed his eyes. The light dot that represented this particular site was so small and dim that it was easy to overlook it entirely. "Is that… a brown dwarf system?" "It is." Calabast nodded. "There are few better places to hide from enemy pursuit. Brown dwarf systems are fairly common but are almost universally regarded as useless. Their failed stars do not generate enough energy to sustain life and they are too small and weak to form planets, let alone concentrate enough valuable exotic materials. The star systems themselves are relatively cold, dark and depressing places. Standard FTL drives also have a lot of difficulty navigating to them unless they are already in an adjacent star system, though I should remind you that native warp drives do not have the same problem." "Hmmm…" Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "It doesn't make much sense. The original alien warships that destroyed his pioneering fleet shouldn't have that much trouble with navigating to this brown dwarf system. How did Lord Pearian shake off his alien pursuers?" "We do not have enough information to give you an answer." Calabast replied. "Figures. There is also another problematic issue. A brown dwarf system is a good hiding place if you want to prevent other humans from tracking you down, but why would Lord Pearian try to avoid getting rescued by a friendly human force?" The director of the Black Cats had a more plausible explanation ready. "There can be many reasons for that. A third party rescue force won't have his best interests at heart. Maybe he is afraid that a pioneering fleet will pick him up, and instead of delivering him back to friendly hands, the rescuers might decide to pass him onto an adversary of the Yorul-Tavik Clan. I can think of many ways that a competitor might be able to exploit Lord Pearian as a hostage." Ves looked thoughtful at that. "Have the competitors of the Yorul-Tavik Clan issued their own bounties?" "They did." Calabast nodded. "You can't find them on any open channels. They won't be that blatant about it, but everyone who is a part of the scene knows what is truly going on. Situations like these can't be avoided. It is one of the reasons why the Yorul-Tavik Clan is truly sincere about showering the rescuers of their missing scion with generous rewards. Being too perfunctory about it will just drive pioneers to take their business elsewhere." The immediate benefits promised by these competitors turned out to be even greater and more concrete than any promises made by the Yorul-Taviks. The boosted rewards ranged from more MTA credits to a greater batch of first-class exotics. One secretive group even promised to gift an entire first-class multipurpose mech, and not a shabby one either! Ves wasn't tempted. "It's always dangerous to do business with snakes that are all too ready to play dirty." He said as he crossed his arms. "Besides, our clan has built a reputation centered around honor and integrity. It will be difficult for our clansmen and any outsiders to accept the fact that we are facilitating an evil kidnapping scheme." To be honest, Ves really wanted to get his hands on a working first-class multipurpose mech! The high technologies stuffed inside such a machine had an incredible amount of reference value to him. He could also gather first-hand information on the design paradigms of first-class mech designs. However, using it was a lot more problematic. From the moment the Larkinsons started to field a single first-class multipurpose mech, the clan would immediately be reclassified as a first-class pioneering group, which came with a host of problems! According to the rules set by the Big Two, first-class pioneering groups should stop mucking around in middle zones and stay inside upper zones as much as possible! This was exceedingly dangerous to the current Larkinson Clan as there was no real way for all of its second-class mechs to compete against their first-class counterparts. "Meeting the demands of the Yorul-Tavik Clan is for the best." Calabast approved of Ves' decision. "Pleasing the Yorul-Taviks will most definitely irk their enemies, but not too much. On the other hand, if we gave Lord Pearian to a known adversary, then we will incur a lot of hatred from the Yorul-Tavik Clan. We will have to watch our back wherever we go for a long time." That sounded distinctly unattractive to Ves as well. He reminded himself of his real goal for this rescue operation. "I don't really care about gaining the favor of the Yorul-Tavik Clan. It is only a means to an end for me. What I really want is to open up a channel to interact and do business with the Omter Republic and its colonial holdings in the Red Ocean. We cannot afford to miss out on this chance!"