Since Ves wanted to fully dedicate himself to creating his own companion spirit, he made a difficult request to Gloriana.
"Why do you want to delay the start of our new expert ch design projects?" Gloriana frowned as she sat elegantly behind her terminal in the design lab. "Do you know how long I've waited to begin our work on them? I have already tried to be patient when you were stuck on Prosperous Hill VI for a month. Now you want us to delay the next round of design projects by three more weeks? ARE YOU CRAZY!?"
Ves innocently raised his hands. "Honey, please don't be mad! Look, there are way too many issues that require my attention at the mont. I won't be able to concentrate on my ch design work as long as I keep getting distracted by all of the fires I have to put out. Our clan has changed considerably and our mber roster has more than doubled in a very short amount of ti. Do you think we can just absorb all of the clansn without any worries? If I don't nip all of the potential problems in the bud, we might get into a lot of trouble in the future!"
All of these worries were legitimate, but he was not quite honest about how much ti it would take to address them. He just had to et with a handful of key leaders and make sure they pursued the right policies to assuage his concerns.
Unfortunately, Gloriana wasn't that easy to fool.
"Haven't you delegated all these tedious matters to General Verle and so on? There is no need for you to take action in person!"
"You don't understand, Gloriana. None of the Larkinsons understand the forr Lifers that have just joined our clan. They're weirdos to the rest of us. General Verle is a wise and thoughtful leader, but he hasn't spent weeks living among these people like I did. I have to take charge of their integration into the rest of the clan. It is pivotal that the tens of thousands of Lifers we've absorbed beco more than Larkinsons-in-na like they are now. It is too easy for them to retain their stubborn old identities if they keep isolating themselves in their bioships."
His wife softened her expression a bit. This was indeed a thorny and delicate issue that could easily plunge the Larkinson Clan into a major crisis if handled poorly. Ves already intended to pay a visit to the Dragon's Den in order to tour the bioresearch vessel and make sure Commander Rivington and his new staff were on the right track.
"Okay, I can grant you that, but do you really need to spend weeks holding their hands?"
Ves let out a tired breath and pretended to be swamped with work. "There are many other issues I need to deal with. Integrating the forr Heavensworders that Ketis has brought back is another major challenge. Then there are nurous other priorities such as accelerating the production of LMC chs, commissioning our next batch of capital ships at a distant shipyard along our route, keeping my eye out on any promising diplomats, trying to find an opportunity to earn more MTA rits, the list goes on and on. I promise I won't suggest any further delays after this. Three weeks is enough to solve or address all of the issues that have piled up while I was absent from the fleet."
All of this sounded reasonable, though that did not diminish Gloriana's annoyance at having to wait for him yet another ti.
She briefly recalled sothing. "Didn't you make a deal with a local LRA Master ch Designer about obtaining 5 million MTA rits?"
He glowered at this ntion. "I did. While I upheld my end of the deal, Master Leehay Brixton never managed to send his disciple who possesses all of those rits to us. I guess the civil war along with everything that followed such as the biojuggernaut's destructive rampage has completely put it out of his mind."
"Master ch Designers aren't known to be forgetful. You got scamd by Master Brixon, am I right?"
"Erm, I wouldn't call it that…"
Gloriana snarled. "YOU DUMMY! Next ti, don't make deals with shifty Masters who have ulterior motives in mind. At least make sure they are won! Master Willix and even Master Olson possess a lot more integrity than soone who directly pulled you into a civil war."
"What does their gender have to do with this?!" He spluttered. "Whether they are n or won is completely irrelevant!"
"Hmph!"
Though this argunt sounded ridiculous to Ves, Gloriana no longer questioned his need to spend ti on other matters. She resigned herself to continuing her preparations on her own. This wasn't as bad as it sounded as she could already do a lot of work such as researching and gathering suitable exotics without formally starting the expert ch design projects.
Doing all of this prep work beforehand would save valuable ti and effort later on, though there was always a risk that Gloriana might prepare for sothing that wouldn't be used.
Once Ves secured his wife's permission, he did indeed perform the duties he described, if only at first.
He t with a range of people including General Verle and Calabast to talk about important matters.
When Ves t his spymaster for the first ti since he last saw her on the surface of Prosperous Hill VI, he encountered an unexpected sight.
"Is that Arnold?" He bluntly asked after he entered her office aboard the Spirit of Bentheim.
"Squeak!"
The roughly cat-sized exobeast beca alard at his presence and quickly waddled its eight limbs towards the black-clad uniford woman who was working calmly behind her desk.
Calabast smiled indulgently at the arganid clisenta as she picked the alien creature up and treated him like a baby.
"Oh, poor Arnold. Are you afraid? Don't worry. Momma Calabast will protect you. Ves won't be able to touch you or perform dangerous experints on you as long as I am around."
"Squeak squeak squeak!"
Ves did not look amused. He crossed his arms and glowered at the display.
"Arnold shouldn't be in your possession. He is a valuable biological research asset who serves a greater purpose to . Why is he not with Dr. Ranya aboard the Dragon's Den? And why is he able to tolerate standard human environntal conditions?"
Calabast petted the grey-furred exobeast like a cat. "Adopting pets has beco a very popular Larkinson custom. I have been looking to pick one up for so ti, but I'm not satisfied with average cats and dogs. When I visited Dr. Ranya's lab on business so ti ago, I happened to catch sight of this cute and chubby fellow. I imdiately knew I had to have him. After a bit of persuasion, Dr. Ranya agreed to my requests. She rounded up so Lifer specialists to modify his genes so that he can live aboard the Spirit of Bentheim without issue before handing him over to my care. I'm quite content with my decision so far. I can't fully explain why I like having him around, but he makes all of my days a little brighter."
"I see."
This situation was not ideal for him. Ves intended to perform so experints on Arnold in order to further his understanding of spirituality and design spirits. Now that Calabast claid him as her pet, he probably wouldn't be able to go through with his original plans.
Mutated beasts who developed spiritual potential like Arnold were quite rare! Now that Ves and his fleet had left the Life Research Association in a hurry, he didn't have access to a huge and highly-developed market for exobeasts and designer beasts anymore.
While he could still pick up all kinds of beasts in other states, there was no way he'd be able to enjoy the sa conveniences as he once did in the LRA.
Oh well. Calabast seems happy and Arnold was not an indispensable asset. Ves was confident he could get his hands on more mutated beasts in the future.
Besides, it wasn't as if Arnold beca useless now that he had beco her pet. He was rather surprised that he was ta and harmless enough for Calabast to let him crawl around. He was anything but a dostic animal, but as a sentient exobeast he possessed enough intelligence to know what he needed to do to survive.
He no longer paid any attention to Arnold. Instead, he proceeded to discuss the matters he originally wished to talk about.
"What do you think about the tens of thousands of Lifers and Heavensworders we've absorbed?"
"They're quite the handful, as I'm sure you are aware of." Calabast said as she switched back to work mode. She put Arnold down on the ground and allowed him to sniff her boots while she continued to explain her views. "Both of them have the potential to change the Larkinson Clan in ways that we couldn't have imagined. Even if we do our best to minimize the impact they have on the rest of our clan, I still foresee a great increase in swordsmanship and biotechnology."
"Those are my thoughts as well. I don't reject all of the changes, though. It is good for the Larkinson Clan to develop an excellence in swordsman chs. In addition, as long as the Lifers settle down and set up an advanced biotech industry in our fleet, we don't have to rely on external doctors or implant surgeons or other related specialists anymore."
"I welco those changes as well, but we should keep up our guard as well."
"That is a given. Do you have any more specific concerns?"
"Hmmm. Maybe." She said. "Let show you two different people?"
She manipulated her terminal and projected an image of a trio of familiar-looking clansn.
One of them was Taon lin, the current representative of the Ylvainans. The other one was Samandra Avikon, the forr priestess of Spiritus Sancti. The final one was Commander Valerie Chancy of the Penitent Sisters.
Three different Larkinsons happened to et together. This didn't sound abnormal at first, but the Larkinsons in question all happened to hold very different beliefs!
Ves narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "The three of them shouldn't be eting together. As far as I am aware of, their beliefs shouldn't have anything in common. They even contradict each other on various doctrines."
"You are right that it is customary for different faiths to clash over conflicting beliefs. A lot of wars in human space are being waged because of this. That doesn't an they can't get along, though. The Ylvainans and the followers of hexism have already learned how to coexist with each other. Now, they have taken the initiative to foster the sa degree of tolerance and coexistence with the Lifers who believe in another faith."
"Why?"
Calabast smiled. "Though their respective beliefs do not match, that has never been much of an impedint in our clan. The faiths share enough common ground to cooperate with each other and form a united front. Each of them are rather marginal existences by themselves. They all know that they can gain greater voice in the clan by pooling their strengths. By forming a single religious interest group to unite all of their adherents, they can make sure that their voices will be heard and their approval ans sothing among the upper leadership."
He had to admit that made a lot of sense. The Ylvainans, Penitent Sisters and religious Lifers were each too small for Ves to bother with most of the ti, but it would be a different story if they banded together.
"Did they discuss anything specific that I should know about or did they just agree to work together?"
"The latter is the case at the mont, but that doesn't rule out the possibility for more changes. For now, my n are monitoring their movents and communications. It helps that the religious clansn aren't trying very hard to hide what they are doing. In their perspective, they aren't committing any cris. Their overall goals are quite obvious. They want to convert more Larkinsons to their respective causes."
Ves sighed. He wasn't ignorant of their priorities. He already accounted for this at so level. "I'm willing to tolerate them as long as they don't go too far. The Ylvainans and Penitent Sisters both offer sothing unique to the Larkinson Clan. I hope that these religious Lifers can provide sothing useful to us as well. If they do nothing but lead Larkinsons astray, then they don't deserve to exist. Each of these faiths need to understand this truth if they wish to maintain their existence. The interests of the clan always co first."
"That's a good lesson to teach to them." Calabast smiled as she tapped the tip of her foot onto Arnold's plushy body. "I'll be sure to quietly remind them of this priority."
"Squeak." Arnold happily licked his new owner's boot.
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