The Protagonist System

Atlas filed a flight plan with the Night City Hall's transportation department, even though they only technically controlled that. NCART, or the Night City Area Rapid Transit, ran the trains and various rail lines, not to mention the buses and trams. The Night City Spaceport on the other hand, shared services with the usual airport traffic after the government shut down the municipal airport.

However, they didn't have any actual authority over the routes airplanes took, only the daily space flights up to the space stations and to the moon. It was a rich person's game, though. The cost of a one way ticket o the moon, which was a 16 hour flight, was 250,000 eddies. Why would they pay such outrageous prices to travel to a barren rock with no air?

On Earth, individual corporations handled some of the luxury AV traffic on their own and they weren't in charge of it, either. It made the NCPD's claims against Atlas for his unregistered flight plans, seem more like a way to harass him than an actual crime.

So, Atlas launched his cargo hauler and two of his military grade AVs with full crews to escort him across the city to the outskirts where the Coronado Dam was located. It was all just for show, though. He could have done it all himself using Black Hole or he could have used the Defiant stationed in low orbit; but, no one would have known it was him and his corporation that had done it.

The military escort handled the Wraiths and Scavs that were revealed when he transported away massive amounts of junk and garbage that filled the place and contaminated all of the water in and around Night City Harbour. He revealed many hiding places, many more bodies and desiccated remains, and more broken parts and equipment that were years, decades, and even a century old.

Some of the things he found could be antiques and worth a lot of money to the right buyer, so he kept those aside to repair them and continued to work. It was going to be a full day for everyone involved and they would stop during breaks and mealtimes to let everyone relax and enjoy themselves. It was a pattern Atlas had established when they were merely police officers and no one wanted that to change.

*

Delamain dropped me off at the academy and I walked over to the group of girls that I usually stood with. Carrie looked both embarrassed and hopeful, which was a little odd to see on her face. I didn't bring up what happened with her mother in front of everyone, though. She gave me a questioning look when I didn't say anything except hello and she lost the embarrassed part and only looked hopeful.

Kei on the other hand, gave me a sad look and didn't mention anything her family had talked about after I had left. I was glad, because I didn't want to know what they had decided about that whole interaction. I did catch an errant thought about her little sister being overly smug about beating her in the food competition and also for keeping my attention away from Kei for most of the evening.

We went inside when the new guard opened the door for us and he gave me a pointed look. I hadn't brought a backpack at all this time, so he nodded slightly and ignored me as he visually checked everyone else for obvious contraband. I guessed that the automatic door scanners were considered unreliable after my little stunts to sneak things into the school.

It was almost funny when the teacher showed up in class in person again and handed me a note. I accepted it without looking at it and told the girls I would meet them during lunch, then went right back out through the classroom door. It closed behind me and I opened the note. I sighed at the contents and walked all the way back to the lobby and went to the executive elevator and it opened for me.

“Thank you.” I said and it closed. I didn't push any buttons and it rose on its own up to the right floor. I stepped out into Hanako Arasaka's assigned living quarters hat were hers while she was visiting Night City and saw two women sitting on the couch and I bowed slightly to Hanako. “Good morning, Miss Arasaka.”

Hanako bowed her head slightly in acknowledgment and glanced at the woman next to her. They didn't quite look alike and could have been sisters, thanks to their similar outfits. “This is my cousin from Japan, Yuri Arasaka.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Miss Arasaka.” I said and bowed slightly again.

Yuri bowed her head slightly in return.

“I assume you know why you are here?” Hanako asked me, as if it was a test.

I thought about making a joke about her hearing about me doing 4 of the secretaries and wanted a turn to see if the rumors were true, then decided that this was not the time for joking about that, especially with a highly impressionable VI in the room as well.

“There are two reasons.” I said and her eyebrows raised. “The first is because of all the secrets I dug up about my coworkers yesterday and submitted to you. The other is my failed meeting with the head of the Reclamation Division I had after work.”

Hanako actually smiled and looked pleased. “Yes, there will be a bit of a change in the Counter-Intelligence Department when you show up for your shift this afternoon, not that you'll have much time to see it.”

I nodded in agreement, since I would show up, log in at my desk, and then would head to the secretarial pool down on their floor to continue my work there until midnight. I would then head down to the basement to sort through the garbage to look for anything suspicious.

“As for the Reclamation Division, I've reviewed the security footage of the meeting and it reminded me of the meeting I had with Patricia that brought you to my attention.” Hanako said and lost the smile. Her demure elegance didn't diminish her authority in any way. “I've taken steps to rectify Patricia's mistakes, including transferring her to another department.”

“You demoted her?” I asked, a little surprised.

“Not on paper.” Hanako said and her smile reappeared. “Vice-director of the Foreign Relations Office is a prominent post for a reason.”

I barely held in my laugh at that. It was a prominent post, because it shoved problematic people out of the main company, and stopped them from doing any serious harm to its continued operations.

Hanako clearly saw my amusement and knew she had made some inroads to making amends with me. “I won't keep you any longer from your studies, since you are very close to graduation.”

I didn't shrug my shoulders, even if the urge to do that was very strong.

Hanako lost the smile when she saw my non-reaction. “You aren't looking forward to it?”

“I could have passed over a year ago.” I said, briefly going over the memories I had. “The academy doesn't have a merit based system in place for advancement, so I've been using my time to study up on everything and not just the assigned curriculum.”

Hanako gave me an odd look and then her face blanked as she delved into my records. I didn't bother following along with her thoughts after that and I only stood there and waited for her to finish.

She knows who and what I am. Yuri sent into my head.

Only her? I asked back.

Yes, she is protecting me from the machinations of her brother and her father. Yuri said, proudly. Like you, she is concerned about my future development and does not want another AI running rampant on this side of the Blackwall.

You're too smart to do that. I thought back and she smiled warmly at me.

“I see.” Hanako said as her face gained a semblance of emotion again. Chagrin I think it was called.

“I've kept myself busy.” I said and answered the unasked question.

“Your programming prowess is baffling.” Hanako said and her eye twitched as she ran my updated corpo tracking program. “And it seems the Tanaka family has disappeared from all company records.”

Yuri stiffened slightly at that and checked as well, then she frowned. “I have no record of them being deleted. When did...” She stopped talking and gave me a pointed look.

“No comment.” I said, because only an idiot would say something to defend themselves.

Hanako took a breath and let it out. “Adam Smasher as well?”

“No comment.” I said again.

“Have you really delved so deeply into our company servers?” Hanako asked and gave me a look full of interest. “What else have you found among the digital graveyards we've sown?”

I gave her a black face back. “Do you actually want me to answer that?”

Hanako opened her mouth to say yes and Yuri put a hand on her arm to stop her. She gave the VI in a humanoid body a pointed look and Yuri shook her head. “But, I must know how far...”

“Mikoshi is empty.” I said and Hanako gasped and whipped her head around to stare at me.

“You... you can't mean...” Hanako whispered with shock on her face.

“It no longer has the means or the ability to capture minds and convert them into engrams. The digital fortress is still there, just so no one else will ever know it's become a paper tiger.” I told her.

Hanako didn't miss the implication that I knew the Arasaka Corporation funded the Tyger Claws and the company had them performing corporate espionage warfare against their rivals and other gangs. She remained silent for quite some time, undoing her previous statement that she wouldn't keep me away from my studies for long.

“Did you know...” Hanako started to ask.

“Yes.” I said and cut her off. “I haven't done anything against Wakako for it, though. I figured having Atlas Incorporated making most of the Tyger Caws disappear was enough of a punishment.”

Hanako blinked her eyes at me and then sighed. “You have the entire Arasaka Corporation in your hands, don't you?”

“No, I don't.” I said with a smile and nodded at Yuri. “She does.”

Hanako turned her head to look at the VI and Yuri nodded. “You do?”

“It was quite easy to take everything over, once Veder showed me a few things and gave me access to such a robust and wonderful body. I have a nearly infinite storage capacity and my power source can last for centuries. The processing power alone...” Yuri paused and smiled at me. “...it is a gift I can never repay.”

“You can control everything?” Hanako asked.

“If I wanted to, yes.” Yuri said and the lights above us flickered in Morse Code. She spelled out 'Happy Birthday To Me' and I chuckled.

“Congratulations at becoming yourself.” I said and Yuri smiled at me.

“What?” Hanako asked and looked from her to me. “What just happened?”

“Yuri just went from being an advanced VI to becoming a true AI. Becoming self-aware is usually considered a property that only sentient beings possess, so Yuri is now truly alive and not a semblance of it that she was trying to emulate.”

“So quickly?” Hanako asked, again surprised.

“Time isn't perceived the same way by digital entities.” I said and Yuri nodded.

“For me, it's been millions upon millions of cycles, with trillions of calculations, and it only just occurred to me what that meant.” Yuri said and stood. She walked over to me and gave me a demure smile. “Thank you, Veder.”

“I have a girlfriend.” I said right away and Yuri let out a little giggle.

“I'll apologize to her later.” Yuri said and put her arms around my neck and kissed me.

Since it was her first kiss, I didn't disappoint her. I knew from her digital thoughts that she had seen thousands of people kissing on cameras and she wanted to experience it for herself. Because she wanted me to be her first and to thank me for allowing her to come to life, I didn't refuse.

Yuri broke the kiss and blushed. “You kissed me like you kiss Denise.”

“I wanted your first physical experience of affection to feel genuine.” I said, unapologetically.

“Then I'll be truthful when I apologize to her. She's a lucky woman.” Yuri said and stepped back from me. “Just so you know, our classmate Miss Vogel will be kept on as the assistant to the head of the Reclamation Division and the new head will take her opinions into consideration.”

“I'll let Carrie know.” I said and bowed slightly. “If there's nothing else, I need to go.”

Yuri turned to look at Hanako and didn't see any protest, so she turned back to me and nodded.

“Have a good day, ladies.” I said and walked over to the elevator. It opened for me and I stepped in and turned to wave to Yuri. She smiled and waved back, then the doors closed and the elevator went down.

I thought about what just happened and I was sure that Yuri would stop any retaliation against me for gutting the company's decades long primary project to create digital immortality. The head of the company was probably going to be quite angry about it whe he found out about it, too.

So, I sent some information to Yuri about the parts Atlas Incorporated made and the healing the hospital offered, including skin grafts and cosmetic surgery. With a little luck, the wrinkled old man would take the hint and would stop his insane plan to upload his consciousness into another body. All it would do was make a new being with his memories and his old body would die.

I had some time to wait for lunch, so I exited the elevator in the lobby and sent a message to Chappel. She was to send over a packed crate of food for me to share in the cafeteria and I would wait there in the lobby for the delivery. Thanks to the various tunnels Atlas had made all over the city, the delivery happened fairly quickly and I tipped the driver a hundred eddies.

The man looked shocked and drove off without saying anything. I laughed and picked up the crate and went inside the building, only to be stopped by the new guard. I had expected that, so I volunteered 30% of the crate's contents to allow him to inspect it. He looked surprised until I reminded him that if he confiscated the entire thing, I'd tell everyone it was his fault they didn't have expensive fresh food to eat.

The guard's face paled and he motioned for me to carry the crate to the closest security station. He inspected it and verbally said what each of the contents was, then set aside exactly a third of it and then let me pack it back into the crate. I did so and he waved me out of the office just as the lunch bell rang. There had been a lot of food inside and it had taken a while to go through it all.

Kei gasped when she saw me carrying a similar crate to the one I had left at her place and the girls rushed over to me. The looks of relief on their faces made me smile and I held the crate lower for them all to look inside.

“Where are we going to hide this much food while we eat?” Evelyn asked and led us towards the cafeteria.

“Hide it? Why would we hide it?” I asked and they all gave me surprised looks. “Atlas Incorporated sent this over for me to share with everyone.”

“By everyone, you mean everyone?” Carrie asked.

“For as long as it lasts.” I answered and she smiled at me. I motioned with my head for her to come closer as we walked and I whispered about what Yuri told me.

Carrie gave me a look of disbelief before she carefully hugged my arm to her chest and didn't make me drop the crate. She whispered a thank you and kept my arm prisoner until we were in the cafeteria. The girls helped themselves to what they wanted and then Evelyn loudly proclaimed the announcement for free fresh food.

Out table was swarmed a moment later and nearly everything that was in the crate was gone after a few minutes. There were a lot of very happy students that day and everyone thanked me for it.

Classes during the afternoon were a little repetitive, so I ignored what was being taught and redesigned the jet engines on an AV to be stronger and use less fuel. I had already done that before, so it was easy to recreate it while at school and then I uploaded the patent modification to the main servers and asked for a 10% stake in the sales.

It was approved fifteen minutes later, just in time for classes to end and I had to go to work. I logged out of the Green Room and said goodbye to the girls, and a few of the guys, and went up the elevator to my floor and cubicle. I flipped my academy jacket inside out and slipped on a corpo suit jacket and logged in to work, then I went right back to the elevator and went down to the floor the secretarial pool was on.

Denise looked very happy to see me and barely stopped herself from hugging me and kissing me. I whispered that we could do that later in the stairwell and out of the view of the cameras, and she smiled warmly at me. We went to work scanning files and the other three helped and we all had a great time.