In a few weeks Alto quickly undertaken what the professor had meant by how impossible it was for him to become a mech designer. Back at the orphanage he excelled quite well at the theories on the workings of a mech but it happened to be that that was merely limited knowledge and it carried no substance in the real world.
Alto now had to read real books on on various subjects which he rarely had time for since he always had to work in the workshop with the professor's two other students, who unlike the professor were not very nice. One was an old man looking to be in his late thirties, he was the most abrasive of all and clearly the senior disciple, or so he called himself. He always stood by the professor and was more capable in working on Mechs to some extent.
The second was a younger man looking barely twenty, he was less hostile but also more weirder than the first. Alto had learned that his name was Eleven, as strange as his name was his attitude was even stranger. He was always used to staying alone and tinkering with mech parts, he was the only one the professional did not boss around since he had "strange" tendencies.
Alto was know as the novice, no one really gave him any interest not even the professor herself. His work was usually to carry around scraps of metals, and reading. One of his first books was a five hundred page book titled: "The basics of mechanics of college idiots volume one by Delcarpo Hernandez". It took him a long time to read and understand it to some extent but when taking a few quizzes from the professor his marks were barely a pass.
Knowing how mediocre he was Alto barely slept and spent more time digesting the works, learning their formulas and working. He realised he had a bit of tolerance for metallurgy, learning the various metals that could be used in designing the mech plates and weapon parts. When it came to mathematics he really loved it's simplicity that is till he got to the core subjects that had to do with mechs, and physics was a really horror to him. There were times he thought of what Amy was going through, he doubted that mech pilots had to study anything that felt like torture but he had no choice.
Despite them claiming the take of mech designers the rest of the mech union division barely knew them for their work. They were barely even recognised for anything. Instead the mech repair men saw them as glorified mech engineers who just cut down on a big budget for no reason. And this was true in Alto's eyes too.
As die from the professor none of them were even halfway close to being called actual mech designers. The only difference between them and the mech repair crew was that they fabricated mech pieces with unique specialisations other than they they could be said to be engineers with big fat egos. Professor Einstein on the other hand was only given respect because of her title but Alto could see they never respected her truly and she did not seem to care about it.
Many guesses that the so called genius of their planet cheated her way to the top somehow. Some even suspected that she used her body to attain her status, other doubted she was a mech designer and even if she was she would be the lowest ranked possible mech designer.
Alto found it extremely hard to argue with this fact since he rarely saw her building a mech or attempting to, any time he would ask she would always give the same reply in different variations.
"Now why would I build a mech for such a nameless planet in the star sector."
"Do you really think this upbeat planet needs a mech?"
"No one really goes to war here, I would rather sleep it off?"
Alto found her to be strange but not as strange as Eleven.
Alto was reading on day in the workshop while the others did as they always did. The professor working on a small sphere she always seemed to carry around with her. The older disciple who went by Charles Vans fabricating a mech chest piece in the 3D printer and Eleven playing with some random parts while chewing on a hamburger.
Alto was had read so much on thermodynamics that he collapsed on the table and dozed off. Being a mech designer it seems was much much harder than being a pilot and to think he would need to carry on for at least a few more years before he would be able to call himself a real beginner in the field of mech designing. Alto hoped that when next he would meet Amy he would be able to stand next to her with pride.
If she excelled as an excellent pilot then he would have to be on par with her talent, not as an engineer but as a mech designer.