Another day, another cargo delivery, on time of course. Though this time was a little different from usual in one small way;
a priority transmission from Corinth Research Station, not unlike the one that had come in several years ago regarding a mysterious find on Pygar.
“Hail captain! It's been quite a while since you dropped by with that Whalium ore!”
A small groan escaped the captains lips, the reminder of what was supposed to have been the find of the century was a sour one indeed, but she had been nice enough to help him back then.
“Captain? Are you receiving this transmission?”

With a small sigh he initiated launching procedures. “Yea yea, this the Cap'n, what can I do for ye egghead?”
“Well aren't you just your regular ray of sunshine 'cap'n'! But worry not, I've got something that'll turn that frown upside down, assuming you still have those connections to the higher ups of your organization. You didn't burn those connections after the little whalium incident did you?”
That little vixen, for a brainiac she sure enjoyed yanking peoples chain.
“Very funny, how do I know ye got somethin' that's worth the boards attention?”
Several buttons lightened up as a data pack was transmitted to the ship.
“A small preview, let me know what you think cap'n, but I'm pretty sure I'll see you by my lab later.”

Open space, Omicron Kappa 17:25 SMT

---

As much as he hated to admit it, the little preview the egghead had sent was every bit as interesting as she had promised.
The Zoner Freeports throughout Sirius often struggle with finding enough man power to keep the stations operating at maximum efficiency; biodomes, maintenance, vendors, it all required talent that was willing to live on the edges of known space, and in most cases not in the presence of the most appealing company.
Of course there was some rudimentary AI that could handle simple tasks as an emergency solution, but it was far from ideal.
Now it seemed this egghead had come up with something that has a genuine shot of significantly improving performance.

“Well well, look who decided to drop by!”
With a roll of his eyes the captain reached for the communication system.
“Fair is fair lass, yer little sneak preview seemed interesting enough. Clear me fer dockin' on Corinth Research Station already would ya?”
A small chuckle filled the comm line “One of these days you're going to have to start living in the present old timer, we're called the Corinth Research Annex nowadays and you know it.”
“Bleh, potáto potàto. You know what I mean. And I'm not old!”
The captains trusted Whale class transport moved in closer to the station and, after being kept waiting long enough for his contact to get a laugh, was finally cleared to dock.

Corinth Research Station Annex, Omicron Kappa 22:55 SMT

---

Several hours of security checks later the captain was finally able to enter the lab proper.
“Welcome back, and invited this time no less!” the ever chipper scientist looked more or less the same like she had last time he had seen her a few years ago, minus a few wrinkles here and there. Then again, when it came to that front he didn't exactly have much of a leg to stand on.
“Save me the poking and prodding would ya? Though I must confess I'm curious why you're reaching out to me instead of contacting the board yourself.” he chuckled, grabbing his hipflask and taking a sip. The scientist raised an eyebrow as he started drinking. “Well first of all you shouldn't be drinking in here, so way to make me have second thoughts, but to answer your question...You pretty much gave it your all when that refugee thought he was on to something, so I'm pretty confident you'll do the same this time as well.”
The captain couldn't help but smirk ever so slightly, who knew his willingness to give a poor sod down on his luck a go would actually work in his favor down the road after all?

“Well, if your idea is as fleshed out and effective as that little teaser you sent me seems to indicate, I'm more than willing to do what I can to bring it to the attention of the higher ups.” With a smug grin on her face she walked up to her work station and opened up a file. “Well in that case, allow me to introduce, in its full glory, the AAIP! Or, you know, Advanced AI Programming, for those not in the know.” A series of windows full of code mumbo jumbo shot by, all very impressive surely but it meant very little to a simple cargo hauler who couldn't make heads or tails of it. That is, until the windows made way for a recording of one of the first test runs.

The video showed a spartan room, the only contents a singular robot, some tools on a table and the engine belonging to a Starflier. Any pilot worth their salt would be able to recognize one of those; the humble origins of many a career and knowing how to repair one was a solid knowledge foundation for repairing other engines as well.
“Initiate AAIP repair test 1.” A fairly cold voice sounded from a speaker in the recording, perhaps a sign of disinterest?
Immediately after the voice had spoken the robot started grabbing tools and getting to work on the engine, repairing it seemingly autonomously with the parts and tools presented.
The captains stood there, slack jawed as the robot finished in record time, even giving the engine a start run to verify it was operating within acceptable parameters even though that had not been specifically communicated.

“Well I'll be, I've never seen anythin' like it. This uh, AAIP thing doesn't make em sentient, does it?” he couldn't help but wonder.
She simply shook her head and said: “Nothing quite -that- advanced, while the AAIP is significantly more complex than the basic programming widely used throughout Sirius today, it's definitely not sentient. It does however, possess the ability to learn and produce new results to a degree. Due to this it promises to be very versatile. From crew drones to combat flight assistance to name but some examples, though I doubt we'll need the latter.”
The captain rubbed his chin in consideration before nodding. This product definitely had potential and while he didn't understand the finer details of how it worked or what safeguards, if any, were in place, he was confident enough that if he included them in the presentation, the members of the board would do their due diligence before approving a product for market.
“Alright lady, you got yerself a deal. I'll bring it to the attention of the board, even give em a nice sales pitch. You're gonna stay up and help me with all the sciency details though.”

With that the two got to work, the board of directors of Omicron Supply Industries was not exactly easy to please after all.