The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1145

While Ves mulled over the implications of accepting a commission to design a hero mech for Madame Cecily Curin, he decided to address some other matters.

"Where is Lucky and Ketis?" He frowned.

The moment the Barracuda touched down at the Mech Nursery, Ketis grabbed Lucky and quickly absconded to parts unknown.

Normally, Ves didn’t pay too much attention to the comings and going of Ketis, but he was starting to miss having Lucky by his side.

Lucky was his cat! What right did Ketis have to monopolize his pet?!

After making use of the monitoring system, he finally tracked the errant pair down at his private laboratory floor.

Finding out that Ketis and Lucky barged into his private workshop and laboratory immediately alarmed Ves! That was his private sanctum! He never gave anyone permission to enter his lab because he required completely concentration when he designed his mechs!

Only one other entity besides Ves received permission to enter his lab, and that was Lucky!

"What are they doing there?!"

The monitoring system only tracked their progress up to the entrance of the lab. Paranoid as he was about being observed, the entire lab and workshop floor did not contain any sensors and recorders that could give Ves a remote view of what the pair was doing at the moment.

Ves rode the elevator deep underground and stormed right through the entrance. Hearing sounds of active machinery at work, he immediately barged into the workshop section to see Ketis operating a small 3D printer by herself!

As for Lucky, the lazy cat was munching on a pile of valuable minerals that he got from who knew where!

"What is the meaning of this?" Ves announced.

His abrupt arrival and interruption caused Ketis to jump! She almost ruined her ongoing work!

"This isn’t what it looks like, Ves!" She awkwardly laughed.

Ves continued to glower at Ketis. "This lab is my personal workspace. While I would have opened it up for you in time, it’s very rude of you to use Lucky to squirm your way inside. Do you think I wouldn’t have found out about your intrusion?!"

"Oh, come on, Ves. You trust me, right? I never intended to do anything bad to you. Can’t you forget about it?" She pleaded while employing her puppy eyes.

The effect fell flat. Ves remained completely unmoved. "Tell me what you’re up to. What are you working on that’s so important that you need access to my lab facilities?"

"Well, I didn’t originally want to use your lab, you know. When I went to the manufacturing floor and asked the chief technicians there to reserve a 3D printer for me, they all said no! They said that all the production lines are working in full capacity and that their use is carefully managed!"

Ves did not suffer from the same problem, obviously. He could borrow whatever production equipment he wanted with no questions asked. Whatever scheduling arrangements the chief technicians had made, they were forced to readjust their planning whenever Ves wanted to hog a production line to himself, as was the case when he fabricated five gold label Aurora Titans sometime earlier.

This was his privilege as the boss of the company!

As for Ketis, her position within the company was largely toothless. Despite bringing her in as one of the first members of his design team, Ves mostly handed a lot of homework for her to sink her teeth into. He still considered her a bit too raw and fresh to embark on actual mech design work.

Perhaps he had been belittling her too much, though. With all the textbooks she devoured during her months of study, she had become a lot more knowledgeable than Ves had been when he initially started with designing his first variants!

"I apologise. I’ve neglected your development lately." Ves sighed. "It’s always my intention to make you feel at home at the LMC. Considering your current level of competence, I’ll order Gavin to give you permission to make limited use of the LMC’s production equipment. In the meantime, you haven’t answered my question yet. What are you fabricating?"

Ketis still stammered in her response, so Ves simply decided to step up and inspect the interface of the 3D printer with his own eyes.

The object that Ketis tried to make turned out to be a scale model of a swordsman mech that shared a strong resemble to the Blackbeak!

Ves remembered that he taught Ketis how to work with precision tools by having her play with mech miniatures. From what he could observe, her proficiency with working on small details progressed so much that she had no issues with controlling a 3D printer to fabricate a fairly intricate mech miniature!

"Is the design of this miniature your own work?"

Ketis reluctantly nodded. "It’s my first work. I’m much further ahead than you think. Enough that I feel confident about my first variant. I know it’s not up to your standards, but I did the best I can to apply the lessons I’ve learned into its design. I figured I’d surprise you with a miniature instead of some boring design schematics!"

While Ves could already glean a lot of details from the data on the 3D printer’s interface, he was willing to entertain Ketis this time. Despite her shifty behavior, Ves felt very pleased that she showed some initiative when it came to expressing her urge to design a mech.

She was making her first formal steps into the mech industry!

Everyone could study all day and night. That did not make a mech designers any better necessarily. Too many mech designers spent way too much time in the library and not enough time in their design studios or workshops.