Chapter 7099: Junior Partner Suffice to say, the rest of the Larkinsons had mixed feelings about the outcome of the negotiations. Ves got pulled into another virtual meeting to discuss the implications of what happened. "Bringing in the Oblivion Gate Consortium has turned our clan into a junior partner." The Saint Commander said with an air of complaint. "I know why you had to do it, Ves, but involving your mother and the Evolution Witch has made us lose a measure of control over our relationship with the Cybernetic Empire." "We have also gained their protection." Ves argued back. "Our previous deals were guaranteed by our own soft and hard power, which are limited and not a real deterrent to a major power. Now that my mother has directly negotiated terms with the Cybernetic Empress, the former implicitly extends her protection to us. The Polymath has even less reasons to stab us in the back, because doing so will not only offend my mother, but also lose access to the Oblivion Gates." "What if she no longer needs the Oblivion Gates to conduct her intergalactic trades?" Calabast voiced. "Have you ever considered the idea that a Star Designer who has already transformed a greater beyonder gate into the Translocation Gate has the capacity to construct her own competing intergalactic transportation channel?" Ves frowned for a moment as he mulled over the spymaster’s words. "What you just said sounds... plausible. The Oblivion Gates are incredible feats of cutting-edge science and engineering. Scientists and researchers from both galaxies have come together to figure it all out and construct a pair of devices that can connect two very distant galaxies together. However, we shouldn’t forget that the Big Two originally developed the greater and lesser beyonder gates in the first place. Even if the Polymath was not personally involved in their development, she possesses the intellect to study the gates and deduce how they work. So long as she can solve the distance problem and finds a cooperative partner in the old galaxy, it is possible that she can build a pair of ’ultra-long-distance greater beyonder gates’ or whatever, thereby turning her from a client into a direct competitor of the Oblivion Gate Consortium." "..." "I have no doubt that your mother and the Evolution Witch is aware of the Polymath’s frightening ability to innovate." Calabast slowly said. "What we can think, they can do so as well. If both of them agree to go forward with an agreement, then they assume that they will still gain more than they lose out of this arrangement. You can trust them to demand a heavy price from the Star Designer. My personal guess is that they will ask her to hand over a large amount of advanced technologies to the Oblivion Empire and the Transhumanist Faction. They may also demand technical support in the effort to improve the design of the Oblivion Gates." "Giving up the monopoly on intergalactic trade between the Milky Way and the Red Ocean comes with its own advantages." General Verle couldn’t help but voice. "The value of this trade network is immense, but that has also made many powerful groups envious. The Oblivion Gate Consortium cannot afford to attract so much heat. It is actually more beneficial for the Polymath to start her own gate consortium so that she can divert this heat and lower the overall value of owning a gate network." Ves frowned. His argument was sound, which meant that so long the Oblivion Gate Network remained the only one that could facilitate physical trade between the galaxies, his mother and Veronica would always remain in great danger! There were good reasons why the Oblivion Empress was so eager to return to the Five Scrolls Compact and take shelter in their Ruined Temple. "The cooperation with the Polymath can drastically increase the quantity of goods being exchanged between the two galaxies." Ves described. "This is good for red humanity as a whole as the old galaxy still has plenty of good stuff such as Destroyer particles and a large variety of super-class exotics. We can also acquire the services of many possible Star Designers so long as we pay them in Red Ocean-exclusive goods such as phasewater and superdimensional matter. This is what we need in order to strengthen our civilization and repel the invasions of the native aliens and the voribugs." The Saint Commander remained silent for a time, but she was definitely weighing all of the arguments. "Let me be honest." The ace commander said. "Everything I have learned about the Cybernetic Empire and its leader so far does not instill me with a great amount of trust. The Polymath is an excellent Star Designer, but her lack of principles and her philosophy towards leadership is highly problematic to say the least. My greatest concern is that she is only concerned with protecting her interests and the interests of her subjects whenever it is convenient. She has openly forsaken her responsibility towards our greater race and civilization. That is a dangerous admission. It leaves open the possibility of a face turn whenever it becomes ’logical’ for her to take this course of action." It would take a lot for the Polymath to abandon all of the benefits she secured while cooperating with multiple parties, but if there was one leader that would do so without suffering a long moral quandary, it was the most heartless Star Designer in existence! Ves frowned and scratched his head. "This is too big for us. I suggest we let my mother and the Evolution Witch worry about all of these greater concerns. Our clan is not strong enough to become a full participant of this high-level game of theirs. We should focus on doing what little we can control while preparing for contingencies in case the worst happens." That was general good advice, but it also meant surrendering a lot of initiative. "Let us do so, then." Casella Ingvar decided. "Ves, please contact your mother and learn what she expects from our cooperation with the Cybernetic Empire. The more information you can obtain, the better. We do not inadvertently want to cause any unnecessary friction or contradictions." Ves grimaced in response. "Don’t expect her to be forthcoming. There is a large chance that she will say nothing and leave us to figure it out for ourselves. That is her usual response to my inquiries. She hates it when we turn to her for answers. I think in this case she expects us to use our heads. Still, it doesn’t hurt to try. Perhaps she has specific instructions." They talked a bit more, but there was only so much they could talk over a relatively unsecure communication channel. "My stay in Yernstall is coming to an end." Ves eventually told the others. "Aurelia’s birthday is coming up, and I really need to spend my remaining time on preparing her birthday present. I have already gathered a good selection of interesting trinkets and materials with the help of the local trade brokers. The expenses are not light, but they are definitely worth it. Ketis, when will you open up another entrance to the Blue Dimension?" "It will not be much longer." She says. "I cannot give you an exact date, but there is a sense of momentum building up. It should be within two months according to my own judgment. This time will be bigger than the previous two times. We have already expanded our mining fleet in anticipation of the greater window of opportunity." "Do the other mining partners know?" "Yes, but my credibility will suffer if it turns out that I am mistaken." Neither Ves nor Ketis considered this to be a problem because they were in control. The Larkinson Clan had a great need for an influx of superdimensional matter. The Larkinsons not only had to replenish their spent reserves, but also stockpile more high-grade superdimensional matter to cover the material needs of the conversion of more high-ranking mechs. The virtual meeting eventually came to an end. Ves leaned back in his chair and cast his glance towards Lucky, who had been keeping watch on the two containers. Of course, Ves was not stupid enough to retain the original containers used by the Cybers. He had transferred the artificial fire heart and the bizarre wood ’elf’ into much more robust containers he made by hand in his temporary workshop. Ves was not entirely certain whether the Cybers had sneaked any secret listening bugs or monitoring software into the artificial fire heart, so he took the time to surround it with a layer of Solus Gas-impregnated alloy as well as a layer of mid-grade superdimensional alloy. No signals should be able to go in and out of this container. If Furia maintained a secret connection to the fire seed buried inside the contraption, then the container should be able to interfere with it to a good extent. "So what do you think, Lucky?" "Meow meow." "Yes, I agree that if I want to make use of the artificial fire heart, it is best to create my own version to contain the fire seed. I am afraid it is beyond my capabilities to replicate it, let alone deduce its working mechanisms. I have only taken a brief look at it, but I have already detected dozens of design nuances that exceed my understanding." The only other choice he had was to make use of the artificial fire heart in its current form, or forcibly create an inferior bootleg version of this construct. Neither option sounded ideal to Ves. If he had to make a choice, he was inclined to choose the former. No matter how compromised the artificial fire heart may be, once it became an integral component of the Promethea Mark II, the third order living mech should be able to override its secret functions. If the ace mech was not powerful enough to force the artificial fire heart into compliance, then Saint Isobel Kotin’s willpower should definitely be able to get the job done! This was why Ves did not harbor too much concern about the reliability of the first gift. The second gift occupied his thoughts a lot more, though. He had never heard about the existence of these mysterious ’elves’. Personally, he felt that the term ’fae’ may be more appropriate to describe these strange life forms that were more spiritual than material in nature. Whatever the case, he was pretty sure that all of the scriptures he read about the ancient past never described their appearance. Could it be that these small elves were unique manifestations of Messier 87? When Ves moved over and briefly opened the frozen container, he studied the small life form. The wooden life form possessed a pair of wings, but otherwise looked remarkably humanoid. Why this shape? Why did it not come in the form of a nunser or a jureg? Had this elf been spawned from an environment that was strongly influenced by human beliefs? There are far too many questions and far too few answers. The value of this specimen was inestimable. It may actually exceed the value of the artificial fire heart because it could only be found, not produced! The research value of this wood elf was enormous, yet Ves did not possess the patience or the motivation to turn it over to the Larkinson Biotech Institute and tell the researchers over there to examine and experiment the hell out of this little fellow. It would take far too much time to get anything useful if he chose this course of action. He instinctively felt that he could gain a much more immediate result if he somehow used this captive wood elf to upgrade the Flower Parasol! An idea came to mind. Perhaps Ves did not know anything about this mysterious elf, but what about a high-level artifact? He summoned the Flower Parasol from the Vault of Eternity. As soon as it appeared, it immediately detected a special presence and instantly flew closer until it hovered right above the frozen wood elf! From the way the flower-patterned umbrella eagerly shook up and down, it was safe for Ves to conclude that much could be gained by combining them with each other!