Part of the steps that the expeditionary fleet needed to take before entering the Red Ocean was to clean up all of the skeletons in its closet.
The Larkinsons weren’t too worried. They belonged to an honorable clan and always acted in good conscience. They hadn’t engaged in piracy or launched any unprovoked attacks.
There was one exception, though.
Although no one pinned any solid crimes onto their patriarch’s feet, Ves was definitely feeling the heat as his fleet got closer to the sector headquarters of the MTA.
Unlike the rest of his clan, he was anything but clean! Although he usually put in a lot of effort to hide his misdeeds or exploit the rules to excuse his reprehensible acts, who knew what the MTA might dig up once his fleet entered the Opalis System.
Ves had already read up on the procedures that his fleet needed to go through in order to pass through the beyonder gate.
Due to the threat of the Crown Uprising as well as the well-founded concerns about smuggling dangerous contraband into the Red Ocean, the MTA imposed a huge amount of restrictions.
Alongside locking down every mech and many different starship systems, the MTA also conducted deep inspections in order to sniff out any potential risk factor.
Ves had already heard stories about how aspiring pioneers suddenly had to abort their dreams because the MTA discovered incriminating evidence that seriously offended the Association’s sensibilities!
Of course, regular crimes such as stealing candy from a shop or neglecting to pay the bill after filling up the fuel tank of a starship did not warrant the Big Two’s attention.
What did set off alarms at the highest authorities were major violations such as owning slaves, cultivating lethal viruses and weaponizing starships.
Although most pioneers were smart enough to leave all of their dirty laundry at home, the sheer amount of people looking to colonize the new dwarf galaxy inevitably meant that at least a fraction of them would drop the ball!
Hence the extremely strict security procedures that started even before incoming fleets reached the crucial Opalis System.
As every other Larkinson in the fleet spent their time on other preparations, Ves took Lucky along an extensive tour through several starships in order to clean up even the tiniest amount of trace evidence of his more ignoble deeds.
For example, he spent a few days aboard the Blinding Banshee to check how well Calabast had been able to sanitize any evidence about performing fatal experiments on dwarven captives.
The spymaster looked disgruntled as Ves checked the internal ship network. “Do I look like an amateur to you? I’ve already removed all of the data storage units and made sure to physically melt them all down to slag. Our budget has taken a significant hit with all of the money I had to spend on replacing potentially incriminating evidence. My crew and I have completely renewed the holding cells and many other compartments down to the decks, the bulkheads and the electronics.”
Her confidence was not misplaced. Ves hadn’t been able to find anything that looked wrong to him. Though he should have taken Calabast at his word, he still thought that it was best to be thorough.
“Thank you for your efforts. You indeed do a thorough job.” He eventually said after a long day of monotonous searching.
“No, you’re right to feel concerned. You’re not exactly the most subtle mech designer and patriarch in human space. Anyone who takes a single look at your record will immediately find out that you’re a trouble magnet. The MTA will definitely perform a more thorough search on our fleet. Fortunately for you, I’ve already anticipated that and made preparations in advance. We’ve not only cleaned up the Blinding Banshee, but also our other starships such as the Spirit of the Bentheim and the Dragon’s Den.”
The two continued to talk about security issues. Though Calabast had thought of almost every possible scenario, Ves did not feel completely relieved. There were also sensitive matters that she probably didn’t know about such as his vials of high-grade life-prolonging serum.
Getting that past the MTA inspections would be a serious challenge. Perhaps a part of the MTA already knew he left the Life Research Association with a mountain of controversial research data as well as the aforementioned vials, but it would be incredibly inconvenient to be caught with them while he was undergoing some of the strictest inspections in his life.
All of this needed to be handled carefully. Though Calabast had numerous ways to hide sensitive information and data from the MTA, she couldn’t solve his contraband problem.
“Don’t underestimate the MTA’s deep scanning methods.” She told him. “No matter what corner you hide your secret stash, the inspectors will sniff it out sooner or later. Even if you make use of a way to block their scans, their advanced systems will immediately register an anomaly, which will prompt the mechers to take a look in person.”
The MTA rarely brought its full resources to bear to perform a given task, but inspecting the pioneering fleets that were about to enter the Red Ocean was one of the few occasions where the organization pulled out all of the stops!
Ves felt rather frustrated after learning about this. He had witnessed many instances where the MTA only did the bare minimum or didn’t even live up to its promises at all. He had become so accustomed to dealing with an inattentive Association that he had been slacking in his own precautions.
This was different.
The mechers assigned to guard the Opalis System were incredibly attentive and did not accept any excuses. Ves could forget about smuggling his shady possessions past their sights!
Although Ves was willing to offload a lot of problematic goods, he could not accept giving up his remaining vials of high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum.
Whether they were made from ingredients extracted from the brains of expert pilots or not, their worth and value to Ves was inestimable! He did not want to lose his remaining serum when he still had so much use for all of that universal life energy.
When Ves obliquely mentioned this problem to Calabast, she couldn’t give him a good answer.
“I’m sorry, Ves, but I can’t help you there. The only way you can solve this issue is if you make a deal with the mechers. They hold all of the power, so you can only choose to compromise with them. Aren’t you friendly with Master Willix? Perhaps you should call her and request a favor.”
Ves did not look happy. Although this was a workable solution, it entailed entangling himself even further with the organization that he had been trying to maintain his distance.
Yet… how the hell was he supposed to smuggle his bounty from the Life Research Association, his gem cat, his P-stones, his Xona Communication Crystal and his Four Aspects of Lufa past the inspections?
Not only did he have to bring those suspicious and problematic items through the beyonder gate, he also had to do something about the source of all of the Breyer alloy in the fleet.
“Oh, damn.”
“What is it, Ves?”
“I almost forgot about one of the old skeletons in my closet. I would have been in deep trouble if I brought that particular skeleton into the Opalis System!”
Ves was no longer in the mood to talk with Calabast. He quickly ended his conversation with her and immediately returned to his armored shuttle.
“Head over to the Scarlet Rose!” He instructed.
Only Lucky and his loyal bodyguard Nitaa had an idea of the issue he wanted to address.
They spent a quiet trip to the vessel that used to serve as his flagship. Ves never really paid attention to her anymore ever since he got his hands on the Spirit of Bentheim, but that did not mean he discarded the ship at will.
The mobile supply frigate that Ves had managed to hijack from Lady Aisling Curver several years ago managed to remain relevant for mostly one reason.
She was the home to a certain woman that Ves had taken to calling Casssandra Breyer.
This was most definitely not her real name. Yet that did not change the fact that she was arguably one of the top contributors to the Larkinson Clan. Her endless generosity allowed the Larkinson Clan to obtain a continuous supply of Breyer alloy.
The material that was responsible for helping the clan accelerate its transition from a third-class organization to a second-class organization. The Larkinson Clan would have lost a lot more clansmen if not for its relatively abundant supply.
“I should take to calling her Cassandra Breyer-Larkinson for everything she has done so far.” Ves muttered as he entered compartment G-13 inside the Scarlet Rose.
He rarely visited this secret compartment after moving to the Spirit of Bentheim. He only went back a few times a year to see whether Cassandra Breyer hadn’t gone out of control. It would be extremely bad if the ever-regenerating body and escape pod reappeared in a more public space.
Ves didn’t know why Cassandra Breyer initially sought him out and why it stuck to him, but ever since he put her in this endless production loop where her escape pod was being melted down into molten metal, she never reappeared anywhere else.
This was quite fortunate as Ves didn’t want to get jumped by a creepy escape pod while he was in the middle of a conversation with Master Willix!
“This can’t go on, though.”
Ves didn’t want to answer any uncomfortable questions if the MTA’s inspectors happen to stumble on this obvious red flag. There was no way that Ves could provide a reasonable excuse why he was not only haunted by a constantly rematerializing corpse and escape pod, but saw fit to exploit this condition in order to produce a lot of Breyer alloy!
“Back when I first got you, I had no idea what I was dealing with.” He said to the escape pod that had just reappeared once again and was being automatically moved to the red-hot forging machine. “I tried several ways to break or decipher your strong spiritual defenses, but never managed to make any progress.”
He had a feeling it was different this time. Though much of Cassandra’s mysterious spiritual barrier was out of his league, all of the progress he had made in spiritual engineering had made a huge difference.
When he extended his senses towards her, he perceived a few elements that looked familiar to him. He obtained even more results when he let Blinky loose.
Mrow.
For example, he had a potential explanation of where Cassandra kept drawing all of the energy needed to replenish her material form over and over again.
“What a wondrous display of spiritual engineering, or should I say spiritual sorcery?”
While Ves wasn’t able to sense it, Blinky’s incredible sensitivity towards energy allowed the companion spirit to catch the hidden flows that constantly poured into Cassandra Breyer.
Even when her material form was being burnt into ash, her spiritual existence remained strong. With the energy she drew with her own ability or with the help of a mechanism similar to the Grand Dynamo, she was able to reestablish her physical presence in the material realm on a continuous basis.
This crucial interaction caused Ves to come up with a possible solution that could permanently free him from this ghost.
“I just need to block the influx of energy.”
It would be trivially easy for him to do so. He just had to put Blinky to intercept all of the energy flow. As long as Cassandra Breyer kept burning over and over again, her total energy reserves would slowly dwindle as she could no longer compensate for the losses she suffered.
Once her energy reserves nearly dried up, she would no longer be able to materialize her physical anchor anymore. She would be dead and gone for good.
The only question was whether he should even kill her at all. He felt rather bad about ending her existence when he didn’t even know her true identity.
What if she was more important to his life than he realized?
What if there was a greater purpose to her appearance in his life?
If he starved to death right away, then he would never be able to answer these questions.
“What should I do…?”
