Talia awoke to the sound of her alarm, a gentle chime echoing through her apartment. She grunted and rolled over, the silky sheets of her over-sized bed shifting with her. The light level slowly crept its way up, and she instinctively covered her eyes with the back of her hand. The ethereal glow of white and gold joined the vibrant blues and whites of the sky just outside her wall height smart window.

It was almost possible to fall back asleep, and then the chime ended.

The entire room suddenly erupted with the hard strum of a guitar and the voice of her favorite cover singer. At maximum volume. Talia shot up out of bed and tried to yell for it to cut off, but she’d programmed the stupid alarm to only accept a physical deactivation.

On the other side of the room.

The cold white tiles greeted her feet except where discarded t-shirts and pants layered the ground. Room service had been disabled in the name of privacy, and while she didn’t like a dirty apartment and kept it mostly clean herself, loosely strewn about clothing was not an issue to her.

It was probably one of the few personalized touches that made the expansive space that was her apartment feel like hers. Her government mandated neural implant FASS, or Fremont Artificial Synaptic System, chimed in compounding on her abrupt awakening and cementing the death of any idea of going back to sleep.

[Notification: Your digital diploma and test scores have been received and are ready for review. Congratulations Ms. Fremont on completing your state mandated academic program. Final orientation and class will be shortened to approximately a half-day of in person instruction before higher-education and advanced placement selection options are available.]

Talia groaned inwardly, remembering that today was the last official day of school. She’d pushed that aside to binge the release of the newest edition of her favorite RTS with her group of internet gamer friends. It just had the misfortune of having its release date a day too early.

Fifty stories below, aircar traffic had already turned into a traffic jam. Too many vehicles for too few allowed lanes, slowing everything down. The blue sky dominated the horizon, the hundreds of other sky towers only coming up halfway to Fremont Enterprises Tower. For the thousandth time, she told herself the view was worth having to be a little bit closer to him.

She took a deep breath and tried to cast away her lethargy from her entire… two hours of sleep. “No, I’m not skipping today,” she mumbled to herself. She discarded her clothes, letting them join her other outfits on her bedroom floor.

The bathroom was a blend of clean décor and technology, interactive mirrors, and customizable shower settings. FASS already knew her preferences and hot water settings, and the hot shower worked wonders on her sleepiness, rejuvenating her and making the morning feel less daunting. When she was finally ready to step out, a laser dryer instantly evaporated all the remaining moisture clinging to her body. The environmental controls dealt with the increased humidity.

Returning to her bedroom, the ambient lighting lit up her wardrobe room. A digital display presented her with various outfit options for the day. She hummed over her choices before settling on jet black trousers, a brown leather belt with a clip for her datapad, a blue camisole, and an open grey-blue jacket.

Confirming her selection, a laser arm reached down and printed the outfit directly onto her body, starting at her neck and working its way down to her feet, one layer at a time. Once clothed, she slipped her feet into a pair of form fitting boots that automatically laced themselves. A small pack that contained her school supplies which doubled as her purse was already sitting in the corner and she snatched it up on the way out.

“FASS, can we have some toast and juice for breakfast?” Talia asked. A confirming beep replied, and by the time she walked the short distance from her bedroom to the kitchen area of her living room, it was already sitting on the counter waiting for her. The ceiling length windows continued into this room as well, and several sets of comfy smart fabric furniture awaited any guests.

They were never used; she usually ate at the kitchen counter or preferred her gaming desk for eating. Reading was almost exclusively the domain of her comfy bed, and she could count the times she’d visited the guest bedroom up the narrow spiraling staircase on one hand.

It was all way too much space for her, but the view couldn’t be beaten. She took a minute to admire it while chomping on her toast and reviewing her messages that had arrived since she’d gone offline the night before. A frown crept onto her face when she saw that two of those were from her father.

Swiping off the floating hologram displaying her mail, she decided it was time to go.

The exit to her terrace had two sets of sliding doors which hissed open. An aircar was already parked, landed on her personal pad, and the automated vehicle’s doors slid open welcomingly. A powerful gust of wind tousled her hair, but it was nothing she wasn’t used to.

“FASS, School,” she ordered without a thought, before pulling out her datapad. The vehicle whirred to life and dropped casually a dozen floors into the high priority traffic line. Almost immediately, a police vehicle came out of nowhere to shadow her. A chime alerted her to a security scan, but she sighed and tried to ignore it.

The officer had probably thought she was someone taking advantage of the low density, high-priority traffic line without a permit since it was almost only used by public transport, emergency vehicles, and VIPs.

His emergency lights lit up and his vehicle slid in behind hers, as the system hi-jacked his plans and set him to escort duty. She caught sight of the man’s face, surprise and then exasperation that his vehicle had suddenly departed from his control. She mouthed a silent apology, even if he probably couldn’t see it through the dark tinted windows.

It wasn’t the first time the system had hijacked a police escort for her on a routine trip. That addition had been a response to her mother’s aircar accident a decade earlier. Her father had torn the entire city’s transit system to pieces and replaced it with a new ‘safer’ system. It was the same sort of compensation she was used to him making, but she didn’t really blame him. Her mom had been the best and losing her had torn them both to pieces.

Pieces that had never really been put back together. The new transit system was indeed 100% safer, and accidents and fatalities had dropped to a few thousand a year in a system that saw billions of trips per day.

But as safe and efficient as it was, the of Corporate Nepotism didn’t fail to jab its bony fingers into the heart of the new system. It was more safe for some than others.

[Notice: Escort services have provided an expedited route. Deviating from standard traffic pattern.]

Talia turned her attention away from the sight and popped open her datapad. There was enough time to check out her schedule and plans for the day. An annoying pop-up flashed as soon as she accessed her school’s system.

[Information: Your father has selected several prestigious academies on the planet for you to choose from based on your academic performance.]

She raised an eyebrow and took a look at the options. The list of academies was impressive, including the highest-ranking universities on the planet and even an off-world choice on Argos’ premier orbital station.

“How could I be accepted at any of these with my scores, FASS? I wasn’t exactly a stellar student,” she questioned, genuinely puzzled.

[Explanation: A normalized chart was utilized for your class scoring, which has recalculated your scores. Your new GPA is 4.0 across all classes.]

She scoffed, annoyed that her father had somehow manipulated the system again. She flipped through the choices for anything that genuinely was interested in, only to find more business and professional career oriented choices. There wasn’t a single engineering or scientific-oriented option despite her making sure he knew what she had wanted.

Not that she was very good with math, but starship and civil engineering were two things that she actually enjoyed learning about, and why not make a career of them?

They didn’t fit in the picture of the perfect Fremont Heiress destined to lead the mega-corp was why.

He was still trying to control her life.

Talia sighed, frustration carried through the sound. She closed the list of universities and academies and focused on the plans for the rest of the day instead. She scanned the class schedule for the day. It was filled with her various classes and meetings, mostly meant for saying goodbye to friends and teachers.

Not that she had any. Her last name would have been a perfect accessory to make her one of the ‘popular’ girls, but she’d utilized it as a wall to keep everyone else at bay.

One item stood out: a mandatory meeting with her academic advisor to discuss her post-graduation plans.

“Great,” she muttered sarcastically. “Another chance for someone to tell me what I should be doing with my life.”

If someone had wanted to make a bet on whether or not her father had already influenced that meeting, she’d have laughed and took their money. Of course he had.

She glanced out the window and watched the cityscape below pass by, the towering buildings and bustling traffic far below a constant reminder of the world she was part of.

The only people she really had connected with were her friends from the gaming community. None of them knew who she really was, and over the years they had all shared their future aspirations and dreams, ranging from becoming professional gamers to working in cutting-edge technology fields. It was a stark contrast to the future that her father was so desperately adamant about laying out for her.

She wished they could have all hung out and met in person at least one time, instead of going to the last day of school.

The aircar began its descent, coming to a smooth stop on one of the landing pads outside her school’s entrance on the roof. She grabbed her bag and stepped out onto the sidewalk, greeted by the familiar sight of students milling about and chatting about… whatever they chatted about.

A chime and message elicited a scowl from her.

[Message.]

Talia,

Fremont is unveiling a new line of starships at a press conference later today. Your presence is expected.

Your Father

It looked like her plans for the rest of the day weren’t hers to decide, either.