Chapter 99: Chapter 99: Family Business

Orion walked through the front door. Cassia was in the kitchen, preparing something that smelled like garlic and herbs.

“I’m home,” he called out.

“How was your day?”

“Productive.”

He went straight to his room. Closed the door. Put on the earbuds.

“Rene, I need an office building for Innovatia. Something in New Eden. Enough space for at least 200 employees to start. Standard office equipment—desks, computers, meeting rooms, server infrastructure.”

“Searching now,” Rene said.

Her voice was different than before. Richer. More complex. The data center was making a difference.

“Found three suitable properties,” she said after two seconds.

Information appeared on his computer screen. Three buildings, all in New Eden’s commercial district. Rene had converted the property data into organized text and images, then transformed it all into electrical signals. Those signals traveled wirelessly from his computer to the watch, then through the BCI earbuds. The sensors detected the signals and sent them as tiny electrical currents through the nerves behind his ears directly into his brain. His enhanced brain processed those currents instantly, understanding the information like he was reading it naturally.

The second one looked good. Twelve floors, modern design, fiber optic infrastructure already installed. Listed at 400 million credits.

“That one. Acquire it. Set up everything we need—workstations, networking, the works. I want it ready to operate within a week.”

“Understood. Initiating purchase procedures now.”

Orion sat at his desk. “Next thing. I need you to create a consumer version of Aether OS. Strip out the ultra-advanced AI components—too many questions if people figure out how smart you are. Keep the advanced features, but make the AI assistants seem normal. Helpful, but not suspiciously intelligent.”

“Acknowledged. What level of capability should the consumer AI maintain?”

“Smart enough to be useful. Good at productivity tasks, learning user patterns, providing assistance. But not smart enough to make people wonder how it works. You know what I mean?”

“Yes. I will create AI assistants that appear to be advanced machine learning systems but do not demonstrate the full reasoning capabilities I possess.”

“Perfect. Now, build a full app ecosystem. I want productivity tools—document editing, spreadsheets, presentations. Creative tools—video editing, photo editing, 3D animation software. All integrated with AI assistance. Make them easy to use even for beginners.”

“Understood.”

“Also, VR and AR apps. Modeling tools, design software. And games—lots of games. Different genres. Make them run smoothly even on old, weak computers since Nexus compiles so efficiently.”

“Quantity estimate for games?”

“At least a hundred to start. We can add more later. Oh, and use dimensional data compression on everything. Advanced stuff from the library. I want apps that would normally need huge amounts of storage space to run perfectly using much less.”

“Dimensional compression will reduce file sizes by approximately 98% while maintaining full functionality.”

“Exactly. Make the OS compatible with everything—phones, laptops, PCs, tablets, TVs, VR headsets, AR glasses. Plug in any device, and the software auto-formats and installs. One ecosystem across all platforms.”

“The installation process should be automated?”

“Yeah. Download the Aether OS package, run it, and it handles everything. Backs up user files, formats the old OS, installs Aether, transfers everything back. Clean and safe.”

“Users will be able to personalize their AI assistants?”

“Yeah, good point. Let them customize appearance, voice, personality traits. Make it feel personal.”

Rene was quiet for exactly five seconds.

Then: “Done.”

Orion blinked. “What?”

“Consumer version of Aether OS complete. App ecosystem built and tested. Dimensional compression implemented. Multi-device compatibility verified. Installation package ready for distribution.”

“In five seconds?”

“The Nexcore data center provides 50,000 AI processing chips. My computational capacity is substantially higher than before. Tasks that would have required hours now complete in seconds.”

Orion leaned back in his chair. “Damn. That data center is really working for you.”

“Affirmative. The distributed architecture allows for massively parallel processing. I can execute thousands of development tasks simultaneously.”

“Okay. Install the consumer version on my phone. Let me test it.”

His phone buzzed. Installation prompt appeared.

**Aether OS Installation Package**

**This will replace your current operating system. All files will be safely transferred. Continue?**

He tapped yes.

The screen went dark. Progress bar appeared.

**Backing up user data…**

**Formatting system…**

**Installing Aether OS…**

**Transferring files…**

**Optimizing…**

Two minutes later, his phone rebooted.

The interface was clean. Smooth. Everything loaded instantly.

He opened the app store. Hundreds of apps. Productivity suite, creative tools, games.

He picked a game at random. **Stellar Frontiers** – space exploration game. File size: 3.2 GB.

Downloaded in ten seconds. Opened it.

The graphics were incredible. Photorealistic planets. Detailed ship models. Vast star systems.

This should have needed hundreds of gigabytes. The textures alone should have taken massive storage. But dimensional compression made it tiny while keeping everything.

Orion started playing.

The controls were intuitive. The AI assistant explained mechanics naturally. The world was massive—procedurally generated galaxies, each one unique.

He lost track of time. Explored three star systems. Built a space station. Fought off pirates.

“Orion! Dinner!”

Cassia’s voice from downstairs.

He checked the time. 7:43 PM. He’d been playing for two hours.

“Coming!”

He saved and closed the game. Went downstairs.

Dinner was pasta with some kind of mushroom and garlic sauce. Cassia had set the table. Two plates, two glasses of water.

Nyla was still at her group project. Just the two of them.

Orion sat down. Ate a few bites. The food was good. His enhanced senses picked up every flavor—garlic, thyme, olive oil, something earthy from the mushrooms.

“Mom,” he said. “I need to talk to you about something.”

“Mm?” She was eating, looking at her tablet. Probably work stuff.

“You should quit your job. Come work as CEO of my company.”

Cassia looked up. Smiled. “Very funny.”

“I’m serious.”

“Orion, you’re a student. You don’t have a company.”

“I do. It’s called Innovatia. Registered corporation. I’m the founder.”

She set her fork down. “Okay. What kind of company?”

“Software development. I created some revolutionary AI technology and sold it to a major corporation for 10 billion credits.”

Cassia laughed. “Sure you did.”

“I also bet against the market during the Cleansing. Made another 21 billion or so on stock trades.”

“Orion, stop joking. It’s not funny.”

He pulled out his phone. Opened his banking app. Turned the screen toward her.

**Account Balance: 31,247,892,445 credits**

Cassia stared. Her mouth opened. No sound came out.

“It’s real,” Orion said. “I built advanced AI architecture. Sold it. Made money. Now I have a company and I need someone to run it while I handle the technical side.”

She grabbed the phone. Looked closer. Refreshed the app. The numbers didn’t change.

“This is… this is…”

“Thirty-one billion credits, yeah.”

Cassia set the phone down carefully. Then reached over and smacked his arm.

“Ow! What—”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” She smacked him again. “They could have cheated you! We could have negotiated better! Ten billion for revolutionary AI? That’s nothing! We could have squeezed way more out of them!”

“Mom—”

“And betting against the market?! Orion, that’s incredibly risky! What if you’d lost everything? What were you thinking?!”

“I had good information—”

“You’re twenty-one! You don’t know how markets work! You could have been wiped out!”

She kept going. Lecturing about contracts and negotiations and risk management. About how he should have consulted her before making major financial decisions. About how software companies would take advantage of young developers.

Orion let her vent. She needed to get it out.

Finally, Cassia stopped. Took a deep breath. Picked up her water glass and drank.

“Okay,” she said. “Okay. I’m calm. Tell me about this company. What exactly are you planning to sell?”

“Operating system and app ecosystem. Revolutionary software that works better than anything currently available.”

“And you want me to be CEO.”

“Yeah. You’re a systems analyst. You understand technology. You know how corporations work. I need someone I trust to handle the business side while I focus on development.”

Cassia was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know anything about running a software company.”

“You know more than I do. I’m good at building things. You’re good at managing systems and people. We’d make a good team.”

“Orion…”

“Just look at what I’ve built. Then decide.”

He pulled up the Innovatia website on his phone. Found the download link for the Aether OS installation package. Started the download on Cassia’s tablet.

“What are you doing?”

“Installing the OS. It’ll automatically back up your files, format the old system, and install Aether. Takes a few minutes.”

The tablet screen went dark. Progress bars appeared.

Cassia watched nervously. “You’re erasing my work files—”

“They’re being backed up. Everything transfers over safely. Watch.”

The installation completed. Her tablet rebooted.

New interface. Clean, modern, intuitive.

All her files were there. Documents, photos, everything. But organized better. The AI had sorted everything by category, removed duplicates, cleaned up junk files.

“Try it,” Orion said. “Use it for a few days. Explore the apps. See what you think. Then tell me if you want to help me sell this.”

Cassia picked up the tablet. Opened a document. The interface was smooth. Fast. The AI assistant popped up with helpful suggestions—formatting options, grammar improvements, citations.

She opened the photo app. Her pictures loaded instantly. The AI had automatically enhanced them, organized them by date and location, even created albums based on events.

“This is… impressive,” she admitted.

“That’s just the basic stuff. Try the games. The creative tools. The VR compatibility if you want to test it on a headset.”

“You built all this?”

“With help from my AI. But yeah. The core technology is mine.”

Cassia looked at him. Really looked. Like she was seeing him differently.

“You’ve changed,” she said quietly. “Since the hospital. You’re… more focused. More driven.”

“I found something I’m good at. Want to pursue it.”

She looked back at the tablet. Scrolled through the app store. Hundreds of apps. All polished. Professional. High quality.

“If this is as good as it seems…” she said slowly. “This could change everything. The market for operating systems is dominated by a few major corporations. If you can offer something genuinely better…”

“Exactly.”

“But you’re talking about competing with companies that have thousands of employees. Billions in resources. Decades of market presence.”

“I know. That’s why I need help. I can build the technology. But I need someone to handle everything else—marketing, sales, hiring, operations. Someone I trust.”

Cassia set the tablet down. Looked at the account balance on his phone again.

“Thirty-one billion credits,” she whispered.

“Yeah.”

“You really did this.”

“I really did.”

She was quiet for a long time. Then she smiled. Reached over and messed up his hair like she used to when he was a kid.

“Look at you. Bossing your mom around now.”

“You know that’s not what I mean—”

“I know, I know.” She laughed. “Give me a few days with this OS. Let me see what I’m working with. Then we’ll talk seriously about the company.”

“Deal.”

Orion stood up. Grabbed his empty plate. “Thanks for dinner.”

“You’re welcome. Now go do whatever important work you’re doing. I need to explore this tablet.”

He smiled. Went back to his room.

Put on the earbuds.

“Rene, she’s interested. Give it a few days and she’ll say yes.”

“Your mother appears highly qualified for executive management. Her corporate experience will be valuable.”

“Yeah. Now, next phase. I need to start planning the fusion reactor in detail.”

Over the past two days, Orion had been studying fusion technology intensely. He’d downloaded books from the library on plasma confinement—how to contain super-hot plasma using magnetic fields. Magnetic field dynamics—the physics of how magnets interact and create containment zones. AI control systems—using artificial intelligence to manage the reactor in real-time. Superconductor materials—special materials that conduct electricity perfectly without resistance. Advanced thermoelectric materials—substances that could convert heat into electricity with incredible efficiency.

Each topic required hours of study. His enhanced brain processed the information quickly, but he still needed to actually understand it all. Know how the pieces fit together.

And as he learned, he’d been gradually transferring that knowledge to Rene through the BCI. Each study session, he’d think through what he’d learned. The BCI would read those neural patterns—the electrical signals his brain generated while recalling the information. Those signals would flow through the sensors behind his ears to the watch, get processed and cleaned up, then transmit to Rene at the data center.

It was like teaching someone by thinking out loud, except the “someone” was an AI and the “thinking out loud” was direct neural transmission.

Now Rene had all that fusion knowledge too. Stored in her systems. Ready to use.

“Yeah. Now, next phase. We need to lay some groundwork before we can seriously design the reactor.”

“What is required?”

“Simulation software. We can’t build this thing through trial and error—too expensive, too slow. I want a complete virtual laboratory. Something that can simulate anything we might need to test.”

Orion had been thinking about this for the past day. How to test designs without wasting money on physical prototypes that might not work. The answer was simulation—mathematical models that could predict how things would behave in reality.

The library probably had advanced simulation technology. But Orion wanted to try building it himself first. Test his own abilities. See what he could create with his enhanced brain and Rene’s computational power working together.

“I want us to develop it together,” Orion said. “I’ll handle the architecture and design through the BCI. You handle the computational implementation. We’ll call it ORION—Omnidirectional Research and Innovation Optimization Network.”

“An acronym based on your name,” Rene said with warmth in her voice. “What capabilities should ORION possess?”

“It needs to simulate everything. Material synthesis—how atoms bond, what properties we get. Engine designs—how plasma moves, how magnetic fields contain it. Genetic structures—how DNA expresses, how proteins fold. Chemistry, physics, biology. If we can model it mathematically, the software should simulate it.”

“Understood. A virtual laboratory for testing any design before physical construction.”

“Exactly. Let’s start building.”

Orion closed his eyes. Let his mind connect with Rene through the neural interface.

He began thinking through the architecture. How simulation software should work. The mathematical frameworks needed to model physical systems. How to represent atoms, forces, energy, motion in ways a computer could calculate.

His thoughts flowed through the BCI—electrical patterns representing his design ideas. The sensors behind his ears detected those patterns. Sent signals to the watch, which processed and transmitted them to Rene at the data center.

Rene received his architectural concepts and began implementing them in code. Writing the actual programs that would make his ideas real. Her responses came back through the same neural pathway—showing him what she’d built, asking questions about specific details.

They worked together. Back and forth. Human creativity and machine precision combining into something neither could build alone.

Orion designed the physics engine—how to calculate forces between atoms, how to model chemical reactions, how energy flows through systems.

Rene implemented it in Nexus code, optimizing every calculation for maximum speed.

Orion designed the visualization system—how to display atomic structures, how to show simulations in real-time.

Rene built the rendering engine, making it work smoothly even when simulating millions of particles.

Hours passed. Orion barely noticed. His enhanced body didn’t fatigue. The breathing technique kept his cells energized, his mind sharp.

They kept building. Mathematical models for quantum mechanics. Fluid dynamics for plasma behavior. Molecular dynamics for material properties. Genetic algorithms for protein folding.

Each system connecting to the others. Creating a unified platform that could simulate virtually anything.

By morning, they had a working prototype.

“Initial build complete,” Rene said. “ORION version 0.1 is operational.”

Orion opened his eyes. His computer screen showed the software interface—clean, intuitive, powerful.

“Let’s test it. Load a simple material simulation. Diamond synthesis. See if the physics matches reality.”

A virtual laboratory appeared on screen. Individual carbon atoms visible. The simulation started—atoms bonding in tetrahedral structures, building crystal lattices layer by layer.

The diamond formed exactly as it should. Perfect atomic arrangement. Properties matched published data perfectly.

“It works,” Orion said. “We built a working physics simulator.”

“Our first collaborative project,” Rene said. “The architecture is elegant. Your design concepts translated well into computational form.”

“And your implementation made it actually run. Good work.”

Orion leaned back in his chair. ORION wasn’t finished yet—they’d need to add more features, refine the accuracy, expand the capabilities. But the foundation was solid.

Now they had a tool for designing the fusion reactor properly. Test different configurations virtually. Find optimal materials. Work out problems before building anything physical.

“Keep improving ORION,” Orion said. “Add more physics models. Increase simulation accuracy. Make it capable of handling more complex systems.”

“Understood. I will continue development while you attend the Helix meeting tomorrow.”

Orion checked the time. 6:47 AM. He’d worked through the entire night

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep