Chapter 7095: Direct Connection After Ves and Lucky returned to the central chamber, the talks resumed. While the gem cat settled on top of the floating container holding the artificial fire heart, Ves presented both of the Larkinson Clan’s proposals. A part of him felt he was wasting time reiterating information that the Cybers already knew, but the necessary steps needed to be taken anyway. I have been in contact with the heads of the Living Machine Tower." Hugo said. "What you have demanded goes far beyond what we are authorized to give. You are asking us to share more than a fair share of advanced technologies. We have the tech and the means to design mechs that are much more powerful and better equipped to defeat the native aliens of the Red Ocean, but we do not run a charity." "The rest of red humanity is suffering, particularly those stationed at the border regions." Ves calmly responded. "I have been a part of a few of those battles myself. Soldiers are fighting and dying with every passing day. Your home, Bridgehead One, is located far away from the frontlines. You have only sent out a fraction of your armed forces to help withstand the pressure of alien aggression. Not everyone is happy with the fact that you are freeloading off the suffering and sacrifice of all of the mech pilots and other soldiers, many of whom belong to the Terran Alliance or other states. Don’t you owe it to them to contribute to the war effort in your own way? If you do not want to send out more soldiers, then you can still help by sharing your tech or producing mechs and warships and selling them to those who are brave enough to do their duty." The batch human almost scowled. Ves’ words of criticism hit a sore spot. "We are limited in what we can do. We cannot single-handedly upend our diplomacy. The only person that holds this power is the Cybernetic Empress, but she has her own burdens to bear. It may seem to you that Bridgehead One has been able to remain self-sufficient for half a century without a problem, but that cannot be further from the truth. We have more energy than we know what we can do with it, but we are horrendously short on materials, both low-grade commodities and high-grade materials. These constraints have led us to make many sacrifices. Now that we have broken from our isolation, we can finally enact one of our plans, which is to exchange the tech that we have worked hard to develop to their present forms with abundant material concessions." Ves merely leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. "That is not my problem. Look, Hugo, I can see the merits of cooperating with you guys on the development of Bloodfire mechs. Yet from the way I see it, you want to take advantage of my exclusive tech, which I am willing to give you access to, but you Cybers are not willing to reciprocate by giving us access to your exclusive tech. Perhaps it can be argued that my Bloodfire mech concept is not as valuable as your proven tech, but we do not have to cooperate with you guys. Your need for my advanced Carmine mech is greater than our need for your tech." This was not part of the plan, but Ves felt he would not do his bargaining position justice if he did not try to push for more. Ves had already gained the suspicion that the Cybers were actually a lot more eager and maybe even desperate to secure their own Bloodfire mechs. There had to be a good reason why they fixated so much on one of his future products. Perhaps they sought to tap into the powers of Furia or maybe even the First Flame. Whatever the case, Ves believed that he held quite a bit of leverage in this negotiation. Enough to pry more juicy CE tech from the stingy Cybers. "Living in an isolated space for 53 years is not easy, but at least you managed to live an entire childhood free from the fear of total extinction." Ves retorted. "The Red War is much more acute for the rest of us red humans. We have been feeding lives and hardware to the frontlines, yet only managed to keep up the 5 defensive bands for so long. Once they collapsed, entire zones have fallen, with much of the population that was unable to secure evacuation routes perishing in the process. The survivors are not necessarily better off as they have lost everything and have to start over again, likely while in debt and stuck in overcrowded refugee settlements." Hugo’s expression turned impassive. His attitude towards Ves had changed. The Cyber previously saw the legendary Father of Carmine Mechs as a hero that was larger than life. It was only now that he realized that his idol or whatever was not necessarily on his side. The stakes were huge. Any piece of CE tech traded away would effectively propagate to the rest of red humanity. What was worse was that the native aliens would eventually find a way to obtain it as well, thereby invalidating yet another technological advantage. The Cybernetic Empire may have developed so many advanced technologies that it could continue to maintain its technological lead under those circumstances, but there was a finite amount of times they could do this before they lost their edge. Just as Hugo was about to respond to Ves, he suddenly paused. Ves immediately suspected that one of his superiors had finally deigned to intervene in person. "Meow!" Lucky went from dozing off while resting on the floating container to becoming fully alert. "What is it, Lucky?" "Meow meow meow!" "What?" The gem cat suddenly detected an uncommonly powerful communication signal forming a direct connection to Hugo! This communication signal was so strong and obvious that there was no way of hiding it from Lucky’s senses. Ves tried his best to sense it as well. He failed to detect anything unusual until he experimentally roused his lesser Arcis organ. Though it was normally responsible for generating electricity, it also came with fairly basic senses that somehow enabled Ves to perceive a measure of the powerful signal being transmitted to this chamber. "Ah. I can feel it now." "Meow." The signal was powerful, but also contained a huge amount of data. The density of information was so high that Ves could not even begin to decrypt it. Perhaps this was how the Polymath coped with the awareness of the Web Mistress’ capabilities. So what if the latter Star Designer could tap into every possible communication network? So long as the Polymath transmitted an astronomical amount of data under her best possible encryption, it would take far too much time for the Web Mistress to decode the actual message! Ves admired the solution. While it was still fallible, trying to decipher it by relying on brute force was more trouble than it was worth. A change occurred in the chamber. The atmosphere became so heavy that Ves immediately shot up from his seat. Hugo had changed! Ves went through a number of possibilities, but quickly ended up with one horrifying explanation. Hugo’s artificial eyes no longer glowed blue anymore. They shone like piercing bright purple stars. "Hello... Polymath." "We meet again, Ves Larkinson." The Journeyman Mech Designer no longer spoke with his own voice, but rather that of a certain female Star Designer. As soon as her voice rang throughout the chamber, it was as if everything else had stopped. Even Lucky froze in place, not daring to make a move in the presence of a Star Designer. Hugo was able to pull off a good expressionless face, but from the moment he underwent this shift, it became completely cold. This was reflective of the True God that was currently possessing Hugo’s artificial body. Of all of the Star Designers that Ves knew of, he preferred to meet with the Polymath the least. Though Ves did not get the sense that they were outright enemies, their goals did not necessarily align with each other. So long as that was the case, there was always the possibility that the Polymath would hinder his plans. He refused to accept a future where all of red humanity answered to only a single sovereign! "Nice trick. How many Cybers can you take over like this?" Ves asked. "All but the children." The Polymath did not bother to hide this capability. "You do not understand what makes my subjects different from other red humans. These cybernetics are not for show. They allow for an unprecedented level of interconnectivity and data sharing. Once the growth spurt of a teenager has run its course, he or she is ready to undergo the final phase of brain upgrades and conversion. That is when a true Cyber is born. The subject will always belong to the Cybernetic Empire, and by extension myself." Ves looked horrified! This was a level of control and usurpation of human rights that broke one of the most fundamentals taboos of human civilization! This was not one of the more casual violations such as fielding gamma laser weapons. The taboos relating to those prohibitions originated from the Big Two. The act of implanting a permanent means to usurp control of a human body by remote violated a much older and more profound taboo. It was the taboo that prohibited aliens — and humans for that matter — from enslaving human individuals. The Polymath clearly knew what Ves was thinking, and did not care for his opinion. She gave him an explanation anyway. "Every Cyber has voluntarily accepted this transformation. The cybernetic brain that I have designed is one of my more exquisite works. Each recipient will become much more intelligent and capable of absorbing and processing large amounts of data and more complex information. The systems responsible for accommodating my descent are unique and only accessible to myself. They are fundamentally tied to my identity and the soul of my subjects. This is not the manifestation of slavery. It is the manifestation of a permanent blessing. Every Cyber is connected to me, and I am available to every citizen. You can think of it as a multi-dimensional and multi-phase version of your kinship network." Whatever the Polymath had done went way further than a kinship network! At least the Larkinsons still remained fully in control over themselves. The Golden Cat could never arbitrarily take them over! At worst, he could always cut off his connection to the Larkinson Network if he feared for his freedom and autonomy. A Cyber on the other hand could not escape the Polymath! This brain transformation stuff sounded incredibly invasive and was probably an irreversible operation. Once their cybernetic brains had reached their final forms, it became virtually impossible for them to escape the Cybernetic Empress’ reach! "You... monster." Ves couldn’t help but lose control. "Have you lost all your humanity? This is insane!" Hugo’s eyes flickered back to their normal blue cast. His expression gained a touch of warmth that had disappeared earlier. The Polymath’s heavy presence faded for a moment. "Ves, Her Imperial Majesty does not want you to understand our situation, so she has seen fit to task me with giving you an explanation." The batch human said as he maintained a stiff and straight-backed posture. "When she described our permanent connections as a blessing, she spoke the truth and nothing less than that. We all consider it to be a blessing to serve as a vehicle of her vast attention. It is uncommon but not entirely unheard of for her to descend upon one of us in order to facilitate our research or clear our doubts. Unlike the Rubarthan Star Emperor, The Cybernetic Empress is much more accessible to the common citizens. Do you not want your rulers to remain in contact with both ends of the hierarchy?" "Normally, that is the case, but not like this!" Ves almost threw his hands up due to how Hugo was unable to acknowledge that this disturbing arrangement should never happen! "Our methods may seem strange and repellant to you, but we have evolved beyond such fears." Hugo said with a smile. "Besides, one of the other reasons why we are happy to open up our cybernetic brains to our empress is because even a fraction of her divine intellect can expand us in ways that we cannot describe. Now that I am blessed by Her Imperial Majesty, my cybernetic brain will perform faster, better and more intelligently than before. For a mech designer to be blessed by our sovereign is to inherit a spark of the divine. We become closer to her in this fashion, and that is more than we can ask for. Many of my fellow Cybers will envy my blessing until the end of days."