Ever since he and his mother began to infuse his unborn daughter's body with spiritual energy, he began to develop an interest in how it interacted with biological tissue.
Clearly, there was a stronger relationship between the two than he initially thought. It made sense in a way as the spiritualities of the vast majority of sentient beings were anchored to their bodies and more specifically their brains.
For a long ti, he thought that the bond between the two was loose. As long as the brain was sufficiently complex enough to produce a aningful degree of sentience, the intelligent creature in question was able to gain and activate their spiritual potential.
In all of his theoretical fraworks, Ves based all of his subsequent theories around this simple assumption.
So when Ves encountered a case where his daughter's brain was incredibly underdeveloped yet still managed to reach a point where she gained spiritual potential, sothing had to give.
What did it an for soone's entire body to generate spirituality instead of just the brain?
Would his daughter beco even more talented and powerful in this area than himself?
Just thinking about it caused him to shudder. Would she beco a monster? Would she beco… a god?
No!
Not if he could do anything about it! As long as he was there to guide his daughter into controlling her potent spirituality, nothing should go wrong. The companion spirit seed he intended to plant in her would also help a lot in regulating her excess power.
As long as everything went well and his daughter managed to grow up alongside her companion spirit, she would start off her adult life at a much higher starting point than himself.
On one hand, he felt imnsely pleased at the prospect of being able to raise a daughter who was much more powerful than him, at least when she graduated from her studies and started her first job.
One the other hand, he wasn't sure whether he would be able to control such a powerful offspring. Who knew what she wanted to do and how much she was willing to defy her 'dearest daddy' with a heap of power at her disposal!
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was a realistic risk. Even though his daughter still had several more months to go before she was finally born, already the potential of the growing fetus inside Gloriana's belly was frighteningly powerful at this very early stage.
God or monster?
The forr did not exist and he would definitely make sure to prevent his daughter from ever becoming the latter!
In order to help him understand this strange new phenonon, Ves needed more data. That ant that he needed Ranya to conduct focused studies on this topic.
Naturally, he would never allow her to treat his daughter as her test subject. Just the thought of taking a few cells from his baby girl just to implant them into a mouse or sothing sounded abhorrent!
This was why Ves bravely decided to volunteer himself. If anything detrintal happened to him, then he would at least be able to spare his upcoming daughter from the suffering.
His eyes fird up as he took one last look at the dead white mouse that Ranya had experinted upon. Dr. Ranya's initial attempt failed abjectly, but the clues that he was able to derive from it were quite novel and refreshing.
"How many mice do you have?"
"Do you really have to ask that?" Ranya responded with a mirthful look. She waved her hand across her expansive laboratory. "The Dragon's Den is not just a lab ship, but also a bioproduction plant akin to a miniature version of the Spirit of Bentheim. The mass cultivation of lab mice is an essential function to any site that conducts bioresearch. We can literally grow millions of mice at once from any known genetic strain we can think of. We can even cultivate other animals and exobeasts for experintal purposes on a large scale. If any of our research has reached an advanced scale, we can even switch over to mass producing clones."
Ves jolted a bit after he heard that last part. He stared directly in her eyes.
"Are you talking about sentient clones that are capable of living like actual humans?"
She shook her head. "We do have the capability, though only a handful of senior Lifer researchers are capable of conducting advanced human cloning. For experintal purposes, generating low-order human clones is more efficient. They aren't humans per se. They are rely sacks of at that look like humans but don't have any consciousness."
"I see. So are you able to produce these low-order clones en masse?"
"We are, but for most experints, we usually start off with humble lab mice. They're smaller, cheaper and easier to grow and maintain. They leave smaller sses behind and they can be disposed of with much less hassle. If we move on to conducting experints on full-sized human clones, we would have to occupy a special lab that is configured for handling human bodies and there are only so many of them aboard this ship. Right now, most of them are already occupied by research teams developing new genetic augntations, minor longevity treatnts and specialized implants for ch pilots."
The Larkinson Clan could easily purchase off-the-shelf versions of these products off the market, but Ves and several people within the clan thought it was prudent for the clan to master these industries. This way, they not only reduced their dependence on external services, but could also turn biotechnology into the second revenue source of the Larkinson Clan.
Not every pioneer who ventured into the Red Ocean was able to grab thousands of talented biotech researchers from a state that possessed a strong heritage of raising them. It would be an enormous waste if Ves allowed the Lifer scientists and the Dragon's Den to beco underutilized.
Ves felt very pleased that he had access to his own bioresearch division. Not only was he able to commission studies on any topic he deed interesting, but he was also able to do so without bothering with any of the annoying ethical and moral challenges that he would get if he contacted an outside company.
The benefit of effectively controlling the Larkinson Biotech Institute was that it had beco his playground for any fascination related to biotechnology. Initially, he wanted to use it to provide augntations for his clansn and cultivate new mutated beasts that had the potential to expand his collection of design spirits?
As for now? Ves began to figure out that Dr. Ranya and her teams of researchers might also be able to help him discover more about the nature of spirituality and how it empowered humans. Considering that he had haphazardly treated his own unborn daughter as an experint, it beca more critical than ever for him to expand his studies in this direction!
"I'd like you to do sothing for , Ranya."
"What is it you require, patriarch?" She asked, becoming more attentive as she noticed his deanor had grown more serious.
"I need you to set up a… secret research departnt. I trust you to handle my more sensitive requests with discretion, but you are not enough for what I have in mind. I need you to gather a team of trusted researchers who can keep their mouths shut to perform broad research on the properties of spirituality and figure out ways to harness it in humans."
This was not a casual request. Dr. Ranya weighed the possibilities.
"I can set up a new research departnt and keep it confidential easily enough. I imagine that my own asures probably won't be thorough enough, so I will need a lot of help from Calabast and the Black Cats to make it foolproof."
"You will have the help you need, and the funding." Ves said.
The forr mber of the Wodin Dynasty thought a bit more about the steps she needed to take. "It shouldn't be a problem for to obfuscate the administration and set up a secret lab aboard this ship. The real challenge is finding the right personnel. I can imagine that you already know what the Lifer researchers are like. They are very professional when it cos to maintaining their confidentiality. Their loyalty also shouldn't be in doubt considering that they have taken well to joining a clan that is willing to provide excellent facilities and abundant funding for their project."
"Then what's the problem?" Ves frowned.
"These Lifer researchers co from a state that has always emphasized the importance of innovation and developing new products in order to expand and diversify the biotech industry. As a result, they can be… a bit overenthusiastic about their research. What I an by that is that they sotis lose sight of their limits and go too far with their experints. Much of what I am trying to improve at the mont is to implent more oversight among our research teams. This will be more difficult to implent in a secret research departnt because it can't involve too many people."
He could see why this would be an issue, but he did not let that stop him from going through with this essential plan. "We can't remain as ignorant as we are now with how spirituality and spiritual energy interacts with humans. I an, I don't even know what's going on with my daughter anymore due to all of the spiritual energy that she has sucked up! I'm not afraid of any experints going too far. What I need are results and confidentiality. Give answers and try to keep what this new departnt is doing as secret as possible. Can you do that, doctor?"
The director of the Larkinson Biotech Institute nodded solemnly. "I will make sure that you will have your results. I will personally see to everything. I have a high interest in these studies as well. I haven't heard anything like it in other biotech researchers. From what I have seen and inferred so far, spirituality may be the key property that will truly lead humanity to a new stage of evolution. Spirituality is responsible for making ch pilots, ch designers and swordmasters special. Imagine what it could do to our race if every person and every profession becos extraordinary!"
Such a radical change would completely upend human civilization, and Ves wasn't sure whether it was for the better. Even if this scenario was the utopia that the MTA was striving towards, handing lots of power to an endless amount of people was extrely dangerous. After all, there were many individuals who weren't able to use their powers as responsibly as himself!
"Don't take spirituality lightly, Ranya." He warned her. "I know first-hand that ssing with people's spirits in any way can easily turn fatal. Start your studies on small, disposable animals and work your way up to clones of the low-quality kind. My main interest right now is to find out how we can infuse human flesh with spiritual energy and what that does to an organism. I have a few hunches but I don't dare to voice them yet. I just want to understand what it does to a human."
To be honest, he had also beco a bit jealous of his daughter's fortune. Unlike her, his own body tissue was not infused with spirituality. He felt as if he was a defective human compared to his future offspring.
Was he happy that she had the potential to beco stronger than him? Certainly.
Was he happy about the prospect of being left in the dust? No.
As a responsible parent, Ves felt the need to overtake her and make sure he remained in the lead so that he could guide his daughter's developnt. The last thing he wanted to see was for her to make a mistake and steer her spiritual developnt in the wrong direction!
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