The Mech Touch novel Chapter 663

In the next couple of minutes, the Skull Architect acted decisively once the deal had been reached. He poked at his comm for a minute before he looked up again.

"The documentation on what you came for is being sent through the Tzianti connection right at this moment. I’ve included only the bare minimum of files on both pieces of technology and cut back on both the duplicates and extremely profound theories that you have no business dealing with at your stage. What I’m already sending should be more than enough to get you by, so don’t be greedy!"

"I understand, sir!"

Ves trusted the professional integrity of the Skull Architect to send what he promised. Certainly, if Ves didn’t bargain so hard, the Senior may have kept in some freebies, but he got what he paid for. For the price of just fifteen collaborations, he obtained condensed knowledge on two key technologies that formed the essential cornerstones of his future plans.

Due to the low bandwidth of the connection, it took some time for the files to completely transfer. While they could have performed this transfer a billion times faster through the galactic net, that would basically be broadcasting their dirty deeds to the Comm Consortium. Both of them would rather put up with the slow connection.

The Skull Architect seemed less likely to chop Ves up and use his skull as a decorative piece for his next mech now that they closed a deal.

"I am sure I do not need to remind you of the consequences of reneging on your part of the deal. Even your vaunted Master Olson won’t be able to protect you from my wrath if you are stupid enough to do so. From what I know of Carmin, she will even take my side! A contract between mech designers requires no guarantee from the MTA to hold force."

"Yes, sir. I have always upheld my contracts. I am not about to break this track record."

"Let us discuss the practicalities of my demands. I won’t go easy on you, especially since I only have fifteen opportunities to obtain variants of my designs from your hand.

They got down to the nitty gritty details. As if to compensate for his less-than-stellar deal, the Skull Architect imposed numerous harsh demands and conditions on the work that Ves had to perform on his behalf.

First, the deal needed to be kept a secret from both sides. It didn’t benefit Ves at all to be connected to designing pirate mechs. Getting booted out of the rolls of the MTA and being ostracized by the entire mech industry was virtually guaranteed in that event.

Though the repercussions were less severe to the Skull Architect, his deal with Ves may be construed as weakness since he was chasing after the abilities of an Apprentice Mech Designer of all things. For a pirate designer that constantly needed to project strength, it was in his best interests to keep quiet.

Still, out of the two of them, Ves was in the worse position. In some way, Ves had entered a situation where the Skull Architect could possibly blackmail him by airing their dirty dealings to the public.

The risk was only tempered by the fact that evidence was easily fabricated, therefore Ves could still fight back by doubting the evidence or flooding the galactic net with similar stories. In recent days, he learned the best way to fight an accusation was to flood the media space with as much nonsense as possible.

In the flood of data, hardly any useful information could be found!

Besides, if the Skull Architect had any integrity as a mech designer in his bone, then he wouldn’t resort to such an unprincipled method. The man’s own warning earlier reminded Ves that Master Olson would likely intervene in person if necessary.

He still enjoyed backing of his own, though it was easy to forget that crucial fact.

In a situation where both sides stood to suffer severe losses if they breached the contract, the best option was to play within the rules.

Ves briefly wondered what relationship Reno Jimenez used to have with Master Olson. A few decades ago, they were both Seniors, and from his own words they collaborated on some unregistered designs, likely for the Vermeer Group.

Perhaps they regarded each other as peers back then, but now their statuses couldn’t be more different. One was a fugitive pirate designer, while the other advanced to the ranks of an exalted Master.

There was a lesson in their divergent career paths.

The Skull Architect quickly moved on to enumerating his other demands and conditions, with Ves occasionally putting in his own requests.

Time became the second-most important factor. The Skull Architect really didn’t wish for Ves to take his sweet time in formulating his variants. Each time Ves received a design, he needed to complete it and send it back within three months.

The entire duration of the contract only held for fifteen years. Within this period of time, Ves needed to complete the handover of fifteen variants of the Skull Architect’s designs, or else be regarded as a contract breaker!

Ves was expected to complete his work if given a design, but only one at a time. This obligation would be paused if Ves became indisposed due to his obligations. For example, Ves was still expected to travel with the Vandal fleet for a couple of months, and they would certainly be shutting down their quantum entanglement node and maintain a total communications blackout.

In such a harsh environment, Ves gained some leeway.

Besides time, quality was another major factor. This criteria was harder to determine, but overall the Skull Architect needed to be satisfied with the end product. The performance hit shouldn’t be too large.