Name: Stefan Nurfern

Age: 16

Status: Emancipated Minor

Credits: 7,000,002,000

T2 Paths:

Small Ships - 10 PP Open

Exploration - 10 PP Open

Harvesting - 10 PP Open

Refining - 10 PP Open

Reputation:

Starfox System - Trustworthy

Starfox Clan - Trusted Outsider

System - Trustworthy

T1 Paths:

Robotics - 2 PP open

Specialised Systems - 2 PP open

Assets:

Hangar 15 with Astromech and AI-Bot

Apartment and contents

System added paths:

Jack Of Trades - 2 PP used.

System Connected - 2 PP used

I just stood there, open mouthed. Intellectually, I had always known that with my parent’s starship paid off, that I had earned some good rewards and made some good sales. But seven billion credits? I could just party the triple digits of my life away, and chances are that I won’t spend it all. Looking at that list, I suddenly realised what else I had papers for that was in the hangar. My parent’s old astromech. Created apparently off a look from an old bunch of old earth media that my father had once seen, The astromech was a step below AI-Basic. It was capable of doing a lot with the old ship so long as it was given orders, and while I had no problem getting rid of the ship, I was glad I still had Artoo. However, I was probably going to have to give him an upgrade if I wanted him to continue with me.

“This concludes everything that is needed this time around. However, Access to me can be asked for at any point and be granted until our next compulsory meeting at 18. This is in accordance with Orphan Protocol.” I nodded to this. “I wish you every success and look forward to what you do over the next two years.” So saying, the hologram for the room faded, except for the chair I was sitting on. I slowly got up and started to walk to my apartment.

I had my path points to choose. But I didn’t want to get into that. I wanted to look at my parent’s journal and starmap. I brought myself up short. Actually, the best thing to do was head to Bay 15. As I remembered something my mum had said about Artoo, which might make him useful for this next bit. Plus, I could get a look at the AI-Bot as well.

I entered the bay, and it was surprising how empty it now looked. Then again, there had been a spaceship in here. I had felt no qualms selling it. My parents had about four in my short lifespan. They had impressed upon me that you should either get the best you could afford, or upgrade what you could. In fact, as far as I remember, the ship had only been brought by them a year before they had died.

I laid eyes on Artoo first. I felt sad that he had been left here as he had often been part of my childhood and had often babysat me from the age of about 4 onwards for an evening. While he had no hands and didn’t actually speak, His whistles could convey all that was needed. Everything within him was preprogrammed. He worked off his modules and no more. Whereas an AI-Bot could learn and grow off what they learned, an astromech was firmly the sum of its parts. That said, since one of its modules was a personality emulator, it was surprisingly responsive. I smiled as I remember the days it would angrily whistle at my dad when he had done something wrong. I tapped a button on the side of its head. It would take a few minutes to update and come to life as it were, so now I focused on the AI-Bot. While it looked like a mostly standard System bot, there were some differences. System bots were always grey. They didn’t have any art on them and they never had a face on them. This one was overall blue, with some designs on its arms and had the face of a human male. I decided to wake up The AI-Bot too. Having done so, I sat down on a crate and began to leaf through the journal System had given me. I hadn’t really gotten into it when all of a sudden an excited whistle sounded.

“Hey Artoo, how is it going?” A series of whistles went, going from excited, to sad sounding, to querying. It was strange, as I could basically interpret it as, ‘great to see you, sad about your parents, what next?’ “remind me of the modules you hold.” Artoo suddenly projected a hologram, showing me a list of the modules it held.

Personality Emulator - Starship Pilot

Personality Emulator - Nanny

Module - Starship Navigator

Module - Ship repairs

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Module - Codebreaker

Most of them I knew. Codebreaker I didn’t but it would explain some of what my parents had managed to bring back. I also decided there and then I was going to upgrade Artoo to be AI-Basic. However, due to the personality emulators and its internal memory of the time it had been alive, It would come out at the top end of AI-Basic when it was upgraded and would be able to choose its own future. But the way I saw it, This was as thanks for being the faithful and reliable astromech that it had been. Besides, with an AI-Bot, I could afford to take the upgrade and risk that Artoo would decide not to work for me anymore. The AI-Bot would likely not be fully realised til I had reached at least my majority. It might even take longer.

“Ok Artoo, you are going to be getting an upgrade soon, we also have a new friend joining us, the AI-Bot here.” The Bot suddenly moved and looked at me. Now it was on, I could see the eyes that the face held. They were System grey. Huh, that was unusual. But it was a striking look, no doubt about that. “Please Project your status page” This was another thing that made AI-Bots different from mechs and bots. They had a status page. I was hoping that this would tell me more than what System had managed to tell me. And I was not disappointed. Just left puzzled.

Name: Ishmael

Age: Unknown

Status: AI-Bot - System Start

Reputation - Factions Unknown

Space Work T2 - Fully Realised

Engineering T2 - Fully Realised

Close Protection T2 - Fully Realised

Ship Weapons T2 - Fully Realised

Name was fine. Age was unusual, but since it had been wiped back to a system start, that might explain why. However, the fact that it had a reputation with unknown factions was unusual. While it could just mean I didn’t know the factions involved, the fact that he had a rep even wiped, was surprising. There were all the paths named, with them all fully realised. That meant he was worth his weight in gold for me in regards to my goals. Between him and Artoo, I would be able to run a small ship without any help from anyone else. I also realised there were no class categories against the ship. That meant he was fully rated for all ship classes.

“Who the hell were you Ishmael? How did my parents find you?” I pondered on this. And jerked back as a baritone voice spoke back to me.

“I can’t remember much besides my name and skills. But this I swear, You are my Captain and I am your crew member to the end.” I couldn’t believe it. He was fully realised even with a system start. Technically I had no authority over him other than what he decreed. And with what he decreed, a new line came up on his status and one of the others changed.

Status: Liegeman to Stefan Nurfern

AI-Advanced

As I watched, the last line faded out. The status shut off and The AI-Bot suddenly looked like a human male, about 40 years old, in the standard blue Crewman uniform. The patterns on his arms now looked like realistic tattoos. That was when I realised he looked just the same as he did as an AI-Bot. Just more human looking now. He smiled at me and said “I am now in basic camouflage for an advanced AI-Bot. Which will enable me to move at will and interact as needed, with nobody realising that I am not human. So I ask, what are your orders sir?”

I just sat there dumbfounded. This was a lot to take in. I was going to have to think more about this. In the meantime however. “System, please grant Liegeman status to Ishmael.” This was something that had been set up as part of the system years ago. It basically meant that the person in front of you had sworn to be your man, to follow your orders without question and always to look out for you to the best of their ability. I wondered, with what System had told me of the Advanced AI-Bots, if this was the reason why. Although I knew it was something that normal humans could take on and was enforced by System.

“Granted” I turned to Ishmael.

“Get yourself familiarised with everything, I meet you back at mine as I have a few errands to run and will not need you until later.” Ishmael nodded to me and left the bay, leaving me just sitting there. I shook myself up a bit and stood up. While going through the journal was a priority, I was thinking it was time to upgrade Artoo as well. I was going to use his memory banks to help me figure out some things, but maybe an upgrade first was a better idea.

So ordering him to follow me, I headed to a shop I knew but had no reason to visit before. Normally I might have gone somewhere a little cheaper, but the shop owner was one of those who had owed a favour to my parents. I was hoping it would get me a discount. We headed further into the station and got to the main strip. The heart of the shopping district, you could only sell on this row with permission from the Starfoxes.

There was one shop on this row that dealt with AI. System had to do the actual upgrade, but it basically sold the franchise part, so that someone else would deal with the customers and handle all the material needs, plus do the modules selling and upgrades. Which didn’t need System to do. This particular shop was owned by a man called Heph Thorsson. A member of the Starfox clan, he was actually one of the clan’s leaders on this station. He also apparently owed a favour to my parents.

“Mr Thorsson? Hello, my name is Stefan Nufern.” The man I spoke to was obviously a warrior. I did sometimes wonder why he seemed to take on what seemed to be such peaceful work. Someone had actually asked him the question once, and all he said was ‘I have served my term.’

“Master Nurfern. Or if I don’t miss my guess, it is now Mr Nurfern. Coming to me directly rather than the headquarters here? Or was there another reason you came?” The man spoke to me courteously. People didn't tend to reveal their paths. Oh some of it was commonly guessed or known by the work they did. I was willing to bet on Mr Thorsson being one of the few on this starport that had a T3 skill at least.

“It's about the favour you owed my parents. I have an Astromech I wanted to upgrade and I wanted to use the favour to lower the cost of upgrading.” The man suddenly regarded me with all of his attention, stopping the work he was doing.

“Ah, a favour to be claimed. Unusual that. Not many people I owe favours to now. This one has been in your family a long time.” This was news to me. I always thought it came through my parents, but from the way he was speaking, it might be an older favour than that. “Show me the astromech and tell me what you desire?”

I called Artoo forward and presented him to Mr Thorsson. “I would like an AI-Basic capability put in please. With the age of the astromech and the information stored within, he will most likely be instantly at the top of AI-Basic. So he will be a free bot. I would like you to fill him with what modules or changes he may select, with the proviso that he is told he can only spend up to 100 million. Then you can tell him that he is free to come back to me or to leave a free bot.” Thorsson regarded me and Artoo with a look and asked a question.

“So the favour you ask, is to be spent on the astromech? With you paying any extra cost over the favour, if any?” I nodded to this. “Very well, I can do this. Please come back tomorrow to pick up your bot. When will you be heading for the headquarters for the other business? I assume System has given you the material rewards already?” I nodded to this and replied.

“I will most likely pick up the bot tomorrow and then go to the Headquarters.”

“Good, I shall accompany you then, as my presence will be requested anyway. I shall call them tonight to set it all up tomorrow, for the meeting.” I had meant I would go there to arrange the time and date for the meeting. It looked like I was getting fast tracked. I nodded and set off home.