I waited at the hatch to System’s office on the spaceport. Every settlement has an Office for System. Most of the time, a person would not have to come here as normally everything could be sorted out via Systemchat in your Status page. However, every so often, it would require a face to face meeting as it were, with its representative to officially sort everything out. Majority was one of those times.

The hatch opened and I walked in. There were three doorways. The left doorway was just for System and its minions as it were. The left doorway was for people who were criminals according to System and led to… well, nobody really knew or was saying to a young kid like himself. I decided I didn’t really want to know and was going to avoid finding out. The last door led to where you could meet System as it were. It was a holographic room and was basically so that everything could be recorded and shown for official purposes if need be. I went and walked through that doorway.

I found myself in a room. There was a table and two chairs. One of the chairs was occupied. I went and sat in the other, facing System. Rather, it was the android human look that it tended to use when it had to deal with us. A generic looking robot for the most part, except that it had human features on the faceplate as opposed to the more blank look of normal robots. System smiled at me.

“Stefan Nurfern. Orphan. 16 today. Age of majority.” System said. “Orphanage home is now designated as emancipated young adult home. Now can be adjusted at will by you, with no fees or rent to be paid on the unit til age of 18. Then you can either pay or move.” It seemed a brutal way of speaking but I was pretty used to it by now, having been looked after by System or its representatives for seven and a half years now.

“Correct” I replied. To which it looked pleased and carried on speaking.

“Inheritance held in bay 15, no fees and rent again to be paid on the unit til 18. Then you can either pay or leave.” System cocked its head. “System accounts held by parents, now can be accessed here before you leave, so that determinations can be made as to disposal.” Now that was interesting. It seems my parents had held more than money in their accounts. Which was unusual, although now I thought back to it, they had given a load of stuff they had found to System for sorting, just before they died, that they had found on their last run. System must have held that in abeyance.

“Ah, are there any fees owed on those accounts?” I thought this would be a salient question as normally System would charge a fee after it had processed what you had and according to what you determined would happen to it.

“All fees waived as part of inheritance protocol. “ Now that was a nice surprise. “But before we get into that, It is time to go through your status page, determine your Status as of now.” This was the big one. The reason why a face to face meeting was required. Why it couldn't be done where people could hijack a signal between you and System. Very few people could do it, but there was hardware out there that could also do it, that anyone could use. As to why System allowed it to happen, well, apparently it was part of the system. What it meant by that, it wouldn’t expound on. “Current System Status.”

Name: Stefan Nurfern

Age: 16

Status: Orphan

Credits: 2000

Path Points:27

Reputation:

Starfox System - Trustworthy

Starfox Clan - Trusted Outsider

System - Trustworthy

Path Qualified for:

Small Ships T2

Specialised Systems

Personal Weapons

Space Exploration

Survival

Lore

Computer Engineering

System Connections

I jerked my face away from the screen to look at System. He began to speak.

“The new path you have qualified for is one that I award to people who have always treated me or my representatives with respect and courtesy and mean it. It can be lost.” The new path I had qualified for was System Connections and I had heard of it, but had never known how it was awarded, I had also heard that it could be individualised to the person. As to the respect I had always given System, well, it had looked after me. When all was said and done, it could have abandoned me to fend for myself. Instead it made sure that I was not forgotten about or ignored. The very least I felt I owed for that was respect. “That gave you 24 from your paths. One was awarded for your help towards the Starfox Clan. Two I awarded because I feel you deserve them and I can. Despite how you ended your school essay.” I felt myself flushing at that.

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System then got up and beckoned me over to a cabinet/table on one side of the room. Feeling a little thrown, as I had thought we would now be putting together my new status at the table, I followed him over to the table part. He looked at me and began to speak.

“Normally we would be sitting there going through your status. However, as sometimes happens, in the accounts left by your parents are things that could affect your new status. Hence it is best for us to go through now.” This spiked my curiosity as my parents were middling explorers at best. What had they found or had stashed away that could be so valuable? “First off, are simply the credits that were in their accounts. These were invested into the Orphan Programme as is usual and now you get them back, along with the profits from the investments.” That caught me off guard as I had forgotten about that. More than one orphan had become wealthy through this. Of course, since I had a starship to review and possibly upgrade, chances are that there wouldn't be much left after I had done that. Still, it was gonna advance my plans by a considerable margin, depending on the amount. “I won’t bother telling you the amount as you could earn more according to your choices on the rest of the items.” Rest of the items? Just how much had my parents stashed away? I decided to ask that question.

“How much did they store away? I always thought they disposed of whatever they found, each time they came back?” System looked at me and replied.

“Four items were already stored with us, the other 17 items were from their last expedition.” Ok that wasn’t too bad. I gestured to him to tell me more. “The four items that were held back were a Journal, contents unknown. A star map containing details of their expeditions. Papers containing ownership of everything in bay 15” Now that sounded a bit weird. I knew there would be one for their ship. What else did my parents own that needed papers? Guess I find out later. “Finally, a Chit containing favours owed as registered by System.” Now that was interesting. That meant whatever was owed, had to be paid. Or System would pay and take it out of them. Now for the 17 items.

“And the rest?” I inquired. “If there were standing orders for what they brought in, can you tell me what they were and I decide If I want to execute said orders or change them?” System looked at me in approval.

“Yes. Items 1-12 are various common items found during exploration that are mostly just sold straight to me, as I offer best prices on them. Such as Ore and other materials.” Huh. I nodded in acceptance of this and signed on the continuance of those orders. I knew what he was talking about, the common day to day materials required for humanity to live. Valuable enough to sell, but unless you had skills, nothing interesting in itself. That still left five items however.

“Items 13-14 are contraband items for System disposal.” What the heck? What were my parents doing with those?! System seemed to guess where my thoughts were going. “Due to parents having System Connections, bounties were offered on these materials, hence why they were brought to me, despite being contraband.” Huh. useful sideline that. Wonder what were the rewards? “Rewards for these, given to you as laid down in Inheritance Protocol. Six path points.” I felt a shock run through me. That was not a minor reward. What the hell were those items?! Nevermind, I didn’t want to know, thank you mum and dad for those points I guess. System let me gather myself back together before it spoke again, sensing I needed a moment.

“Items 15 - 17 are unique items. Normally a fee would be required for identification, paid after determination of what they were. Fee waived due to Inheritance Protocol.” That definitely caught my attention. Unique items were items that weren’t always unique in of themselves. It just that they needed identifying before they could be safely used. The thing was, if System identified them, it charged a flat fee of 10% of the item's worth as calculated by the market. Sometimes it wasn’t a lot. Sometimes it was a fortune. If you didn’t want to pay that fee, you could either put in the research to figure out what it was, which could take years if you had no idea. Or you could take a gamble. A lot of people lost that gamble.

“Items 15-16 are Talent boosts.” A talent boost basically gave you a competency boost in something you could do. However, the nanties that made up the boost would be the one to decide what they boosted. For example I could get a boost in say my Personal Weapons part for a weapon, thus relieving me of having to use a path point. It could boost something else, to open a new path that I had an unknown talent for. Or it just might be I could suddenly be the best juggler in the system. Generally popular, as there were no drawbacks, just possibly disappointment in whatever it boosted. The best thing was, with no tax It was basically a free try at a good skill and if I got a useless one, well it could still be funny. I knew a miner whose talent was literally that he was able to swear in any language.

“Item 17 is a humanoid robot.” That caught my attention. That was worth a fortune in credits. Except it would solve a huge problem for me. My parents' old ship was a two man ship. Which meant I needed to find someone to help me or adapt it so that just me and my parents' old astromech could fly it. The astromech was a design from what was apparently a very old set of movies and its job was to navigate and fly the ship for my parents while they dealt with the rest. Due to the amount of time since it was used, it would probably need updating along with the rest of the ship, so I had resigned myself to having to find someone to come with me. This however, might solve that problem.

“What modules has the robot installed and is it AI-basic capable?” I asked hopefully.

“The modules it has installed are Space Work T2, Engineering T2, Close Protection T2 and Ship Weapons T2. It is AI-Upgraded wiped to an AI-Basic start.” I stood open-mouthed at this. The modules meant it could do everything I needed it to do and more, at T2. The AI-Upgraded tag however, needed clarification.

“System, Please explain more on AI-Upgraded?”

“AI-Upgraded" means that it has systems that would in time enable it to function much as a fully qualified human does, but with general faster processing and reaction. However, having been wiped to AI-Basic, it would need to undergo the life experiences needed to reach Upgraded level. There are currently 127 upgraded AIs functioning with Human space. Another 1572 with the capability to, but not yet at the functionality of upgraded level.” This was huge. AI basic start, it would follow orders and interact with the world around it. In time they could react like a normal human being. At which point they would be an emancipated AI and could choose if it wanted to work for you or if it wanted to work for someone else. I went to ask the logical next question but System beat me to it.

“AI-upgraded robots are sufficiently advanced once they reach that level that they can either work for themselves or become full on partners. They can also enable a function that would aesthetically show them as indistinguishable from humans. This is not a secret, just not widely talked about by those in the know.” This was huge. And I could see why. Although the reason the human race survived is because of AI, people were still very leery of AI in general.

“I would like to retain his services. Please direct him to Bay 15.”

“Done. Now to carry on with the status update.” So saying he went and sat back at the table again. I followed while in a partial daze and sat down. Whereupon System suddenly injected me with the two Talent Boosts.