Forum: Story Ideas

I have seen a couple of stories where a CAP score has increased without a retest, but never one where it has dropped that way.

I don't think that a decrease in score would be official - especially if it goes below 6.5 without a retest. I do recall times when the AI has given an estimate of a new CAP score that was below their current one, but it was not official.

In 'Thirty minutes or less' a two sponsor household was put under certain restrictions after one of the sponsors had a breakdown.

An increase of an existing score happened in Allan Joyal's stories, possibly in "Building a CAP Based Future" and definitely at the start of "Living a CAP Based Present". The MC was permitted (or ordered) to take more concubines than he had previously catered for, so the increase was definitely "official".

Chrissie in "Thirty Minutes or Less" was what I was thinking of with the "traumatic experience", an AI warned that she should not retest under the current circumstances. The MC goes half catatonic at one point in Kenn Ghannon's "Fairly CAPable", I think he also gets warned about retesting until he recovers. There may have been something similar in starfiend's Woolly Wilds 2.

I agree with the statement that no-one gets to be a sponsor without having been tested. No-one even gets to go along as a concubine without a test under normal circumstances, exceptions had been made where testing was impossible.

while I've read about scores being lowered after retesting, I've never read abut someone being given a score that has never tested.

They will test minors who reach their 14th birthday between pickup and reaching the colony on the transport ship.

They will test minors who reach their 14th birthday between pickup and reaching the colony on the transport ship.

Correct, they will TEST them and they get a score. I've never read a story where anyone was given a score WITHOUT testing.

I read the OP as the son wasn't tested before pickup, Not that he would be made a sponsor without being tested after pickup.

ah ok I understand...

I thought that anyone over 14, regardless of sponsor or concubine, had to have a valid CAP score/card prior to pickup. No card = no pickup option unless you're a dependent under 14 and weren't yet eligible for testing.

Maybe a more realistic (for that universe, at least) scenario would be that the father had a 6.5/6.6 score, right on the cusp and had his pre-pack of two planned out. He was hoping to retest for a higher score so he could take more. At the same time, his son was at a 6.3/6.4 score and was hoping to re-test so he could be a sponsor instead of concubine. They both go in and, due to the father's unstable personality or whatever, he dropped low enough to become a concubine. The son, meanwhile, did well and pulled a sponsor-level score this time around. He then takes his dad's pre-pack, leaving him home and alone.

I thought that anyone over 14, regardless of sponsor or concubine, had to have a valid CAP score/card prior to pickup. No card = no pickup option unless you're a dependent under 14 and weren't yet eligible for testing.

There have been exceptions made for really big mass pickups. But the most common thing is a child just days shy of their 14th birthday at pickup.

They run the colony ships to give the pickup group a couple of weeks to adjust in flight regardless of the actual distance to the colony.

I thought that anyone over 14, regardless of sponsor or concubine, had to have a valid CAP score/card prior to pickup. No card = no pickup option unless you're a dependent under 14 and weren't yet eligible for testing.

Not entirely true. Certain areas (the UK under Thorn, for example) prohibited CAP testing so the Confederacy was a bit flexible under those circumstances. I think I saw that in at least one of Zipper D Dude's stories.
His "Three Days in the Moon" has people being extracted to the Moon and being tested there, at that point they can still return to Earth if they so wish.

There are also the mass extractions after the introduction of the cube ships capable of extracting 250K sponsors at a time.

The first cube ship extraction story is The Academy ( https://storiesonline.net/s/62434/the-academy ) Where an entire school is extracted to prime the education system of an existing colony. A test case for the mass extractions to come where they extract almost everyone and sort people out in orbit.

Then https://storiesonline.net/s/72527/prodigious-collection by Tomken shows escalated pickups to feed the cube ships where entire high-rise office buildings are extracted to a moon base where they are sorted out and prepped for a slot on a cube ship.

People with sponsor grade scores that don't want to volunteer and men who don't make the cut and don't think they can handle being concubines can be returned to earth.

I've never read a story where anyone was given a score WITHOUT testing.

In Chosen Frozen, the colony AI gives (conservative) estimates of what it thinks kids under 14 might score when they test based on it's observation of their actions. That is just a temporary guestimate though, and the kids would have to test to get a permanent score.

Yes I have also read stories where the AI gives a "guesstimation" of a score, but not a real, valid score

There are some stories where some characters get retested.
https://storiesonline.net/s/20565/victoria-per-scientiam
IIRC, that was one of them.

Test scores can go up and down with age AND life events.

Generally your card is your score at pickup and that is it from then until you retest, either to voluntarily try and improve it, or if ordered to by the authorities.
Anyone 14 or older needs a card to be collected. However a younger kid that has been collected can get tested on their birthday.
Yes, commanders on the scene can make arbitrary judgment calls.

The key thing in the posited scenario is that no one would KNOW that his score was no longer valid, unless, he started something and got court-martialed

The key thing in the posited scenario is that no one would KNOW that his score was no longer valid, unless, he started something and got court-martialed

Once aboard ship after pickup, the AIs would likely quickly pick up on behavior inconsistent with the recorded cap score.

Which is not to say that the AIs would feel compelled to do something about it or even share the observation with anyone in the ship's crew.