Chapter 6

The vibration of his WW did not wake Mat, but the alarm song following it finally made him grumble.

"Open blinds!" he said and the black sheet covering his window roll out and let the morning sun in the room. Mat sat on the bed for a good minute until finally, he went to the bathroom following his morning routine. After he was refreshed and fully awake he sat on his bed and connected his WW to the wall. It showed several icons, but the one he was interested in was the inbox.

He opened the messages and nervously read the new mail.

Hello Mat, your allowance is fine. However, we cannot have your parents overcome the government suggested limit. While it is not a law, you are right now in the spotlight and so you have to be in the line. The limit is 1000 credits per month, which might help you a little.

I was discussing your financial trouble and I want to assure you that there will be no harsh penalty, maybe just a fine but that is in the far future. The government doesn't want to look bad, so they won't put you in jail like that.

I looked into some options but other than a job I came with none. As a fifteen-year-old adult with just basic education, there aren't many opportunities in your area, but I found few. You can see them below.

I am also sending you more information about the talk. Remember that the most important thing is for you to be comfortable enough to talk. The point of all this is to look good! If you have a problem with anything tell me as soon as possible.

Lucas

He quickly sent it to his parents and opened up his finances. A giant number covered the whole screen, 41 000 credits. All his savings. While the allowance was for him to use his parents gave him extra money as well. Birthdays, gifts, and all the allowance when he was too young to spend it. It was a hefty amount, nothing too amazing, but enough to live on for some time. However, he put the thirty thousand away and looked at the eleven.

"It's basic math, basically 24 years. 24 years..." he said to himself and sighed. Was the job the only option? He opened the list of jobs and saw only four.

Looking for a part-timer for cleaning. No cleaning droids! Human!

Looking for a part-timer to help us with polls.

Join our group and help our site! We do reviews and write articles.

Looking for help with babysitting.

After reading them through he could safely say they were not enough. Even if he managed to take two and somehow managed them with school, it would still take more than a year.

"Well, the sooner I take one the better..." he sent a message to the internet job feeling it would be the best and as soon as he did so, his father responded to his message from before.

Well, then that is something I guess. I also realized something. You might not like it, but maybe you could sell some of your boats or other stuff. I checked and everything in your room is your property. Apparently, the law says we rent the room for you for free as a family member.

Take care, dad

"Selling stuff?" that wasn't what he wanted to hear, but better than debt, right? He was unsure about that and rather pulled out the document from Lucas concerning the internet talk.

"Shit, it's long again!" The most important thing for him, however, was the first. The time of the broadcast was set to be in two days at 10:00 am. So soon that he felt a sudden chill down his spine.

***

Then the vague question will come. The host will ask you about your feelings. You will have in the ideal world 30 seconds to think, but say you are nervous. It will be true and nothing anybody could complain about. Maybe you should practice your speech before the mirror ...

Matt couldn't read more of the condescending boring drivel and closed the document. It only made him bored and annoyed that he had to go through such a waste of time!

"The planet info is at least somewhat interesting to read!" he said to himself and turned on his favorite music while he opened the document about the planet and continued reading it.

Sec. 6. Section 6 of the Ecological Planetary Conservative Act, as redesignated by section 2 of this Act, is amended by adding at the end thereof new subsections (d) through (j) as follows: (d) The Legal owner shall begin to incorporate the standards and guidelines required by this section to present documentation of every biome, as defined in section 2, subsection (c) for the National Exo-planetary Biological Database. If a new biome is defined by the guidelines from section 2, subsection (d), it has to be amended to the original document within 30 legal days limit.

Mat glanced at the added paragraph from the law but ignored it in favor of the planet description.

Version 1.0 - Unknown Biotop, Undefined

Data origin - Mandatory Exploration Biological Scan. (Monitoring Probe 234-B, "Leopard", AI - Sun Huo)

Report Author - Edward Luck

Type: Terrestrial, Coastal.

Vegetation: High, Green

Movement: Invalid

Description: Biome appears to be highly developed with obviously autotrophic vegetation green in color. Suggesting the same light spectrum usage of the sun, which, giving the sun's distance, size, and other properties is understandable.

Distinctions: Giant organisms distinguished from others, more tree-like plants. These organisms are less segmented, more wholesome.

Quality: Low. Data are gathered from 12 low-resolution photos and 7 partially destroyed photos.

Source

"Finally a real biome and it is just this?" after reading dozens of pages he was introduced to a handful of low-resolution pictures. Nothing more. Basically no information about a planet out of reach. Debt and responsibility. It was clear to him that the lottery was not the luckiest thing that ever happened to him. It was the opposite.

He closed the document and shuffled it into his movie folder. He had to find some distraction. He couldn't see anything about the planet anymore.