The remuneration issue kept bothering Ves as he tried to get back to designing mechs.
The inquiry from Miles signalled that Ves couldn't keep avoiding this issue. The more he tried to push it away, the more his integrity as a mech designer rose up and made him feel like a scumbag.
Normally, this shouldn't be a big deal. Ves was used to defying his principles when they became inconvenient. He should have been able to brush aside the stock sharing issue, but to his consternation, it kept nagging him while he worked.
His guilty conscience prevented him from working in peace. It seemed that without clarifying this issue to his mech designers, he wouldn't be able to maintain his best state.
He interrupted his work and began to develop a plan. He consulted several people in order to figure out a solution that would placate the demands of his fellow mech designers without giving too much away.
