February 1, 1 AE

The lockdown had officially ended after the empire had completed the majority of the transitional work. Currencies had been exchanged, workers had been retrained, agencies had been built and fully staffed, and all seven billion citizens had registered for their IDs. The only ongoing work was the initial medical treatment in the imperial hospitals inside each of the cubes scattered across the world and the retrial of prisoners who had requested one. No matter how efficient the empire wasand it was VERY efficientthey simply didnt have enough medical pods or legal staff to handle that many jobs in a short period of time.

That said, imperial clinics had been built outside of the cubes, filled with row after row of shiny, brand new medical pods, and subordinate AIs had quietly taken on quite a few of the cases in the justice system. The two tasks would be completed over the next few months and had been downgraded to low priority jobs in the background.

Currently, the only thing the empire lacked was capable individuals to helm the imperial agencies and the three ministries.

But lacking the warm asses to fill those particular seats wouldnt prevent the agencies from operating, as the AIs responsible for general oversight of each agency could still issue orders even without official heads of the agencies. Filling those spots would also take time, as potential candidates were identified, recruited, and tested to see if they were the best person for the job. Sure, the Akashic Library had their constantly updated brain data, but that didnt give the whole picture of what a person was or how they would actually act when the metal hit the meat.

Free will was a bitch, and the brownian motion of sentient life was something that no amount of processing power would ever be able to account for.

Among the first agency to finish their transitional tasks was the imperial scholastica. They had one of the easiest tasks: unifying school curriculums. Though each country had had their own curriculum in the past, they all taught mostly the same things. STEM subjects were naturally combined, as math was math and science was science no matter what country was teaching it, while the more liberal artsoriented subjects were either combined or eliminated entirely. Early childhood, late childhood, and adult education were strictly delineated, and with twice the length of time to teach, STEM and liberal arts would be given equal treatment under the new curriculums. At least in early childhood education, anyway, where children would be given a broad foundation before being sorted into a single path once their personalities had developed and their interests discovered and verified.

Along with the promise of free education and the chains of student debt being entirely eliminated through an imperial debt forgiveness program, the imperial scholasticas other task was similarly easy. They simply had to tally up what current students had already paid for their education and issue refunds. The refunds were strictly limited to current students, though, as refunding everyone who had ever paid for a private school or university-level education throughout all of modern history would be a bit much.

That said, however, though former students hadnt been refunded the cost of their educations, they were still issued subsidies and credits to purchase goods and services offered at a premium by the government, like extra housing space or luxury decorations for their housing in the promised fortress cities, or through any of Arons companies, like computer equipment, civilian-grade bionics and cybernetics, and so on.

......

Yes! Henry exclaimed. I can finally go outside after nearly a whole month!

He had long grown bored with wandering around the areas of the Cube hed been granted access to, and even a few of those he hadnt been. The AIs had a certain tolerance for his antics and had accidentally allowed him to access a few of the areas hed been told he was restricted from, a measure meant to delay his inevitable boredom from lack of stimulation. Nothing was more stimulating to a child than figuring out ways to sneak into places they didnt think they were allowed to be in; their curiosity would allow no less.

It wasnt just Henry who was thrilled that the lockdown had ended, either. Aron hadnt allowed even the adults in his and Rinas families to leave the Cube for the duration of the lockdown. Sure, if a major emergency happened, they would be ushered out under the protection of their Aegis teams, but there was nothing on Earth that could threaten the Cube on Avalon Island so an emergency of that scale was... unlikely, to say the least.

No, you need to study, Rose said.

Everyone, from the youngest preschooler to the oldest university post-graduate student, would be in the first batch to take the scholastica exams, which would place them in their initial tracks. For those in late childhood education, which began in the ninth year of classes, it would determine where they would be placed in their individual development path so their talent could be polished to a mirror shine.

But mooooom... Henry whined. Thats two whole weeks away! Cant I just study next week and go outside this week? His small face wore an exaggerated expression of aggrieved misery.

Why dont you just play in the simulation? Youll even have more time there, Rose suggested.

But thats not real! And since it isnt real, I dont have fun there, Henry complained. He was one of the minority of people who didnt enjoy the simulation, since they couldnt bring themselves to forget that it wasnt real.

Rose sighed. Okay. But you have to promise youll study really hard next week, and no more excuses, okay mister?

Yay! Will Aron come with us? Henry cheered, then grew sober when he remembered that his big brother only went out when it was required by his new duties.

Saddened by the disappointment evident in Henrys expression, Rose said, Why dont you go ask him if hell have time to come out and play with us? She felt that perhaps Henry would have a better chance of dragging her older son away from his heavy responsibilities, even for a few hours, than she would if she were to ask him.

Okay! Henry exclaimed, then leapt off of the sofa and sprinted at full child speed to the elevator, on his way to the secure pod vault determined to drag his big brother out by hook or by crook.