Data and Ice Cream part 2

A few years ago.

“Princess Iria! Princess Iria, please come immediately your parents wish to speak with you.”

“What do they want now Terue?”

“I’m not sure but a transport just arrived from Ataraxia!”

“Ataraxia? Kingdom of Ataraxia?”

“Yes! Please, we must go now to the throne room.”

Princess Iria and her personal guard Terue arrive at the throne room where the king and queen of Ataraxia are conversing with Iria’s parents. Shortly after the princess of Ataraxia arrives.

“Greetings Princess Iria, do you remember me? We used to play a while back when we were kids.”

“Hmm. Oh! Avis! Princess Avis, how are you?”

“I am doing well thank you!”

“Avis. Come let’s go.” King Ataraxia motions her to the other follow him. “You too Princess Iria.”

Everyone is lead to another room secluded for their private discussion. King Ataraxia presents the topic of project Juniper and the construction of the Arck. Through his intelligence division, they have discovered initial plans for the data collection by Atlas. King Ataraxia shows documents for the soon to be released IRL system to be utilized for the Rite. Documents show the schematics for devices in development called Iris+1, Radial, and Linkxs. Both kings review the data and Avis and Iria follow suit.

“King Ataraxia, what are your thoughts?”

“Come one Hunter, you can drop the formalities, it’s just us.” Says King Ataraxia.

“You’re right. Sorry Reigns. But what are your thoughts, do you really think Atlas would go through with it? They’re already under the scope.”

“My intel suggests that these devices will be distributed when the candidates arrive for the Rite. As far as what they do with the biometrics data that’s the concern. Atlas has already monopolized the medical field and there are rumors that they have been experimenting on the human DNA coding. To possibly alter and enhance the blood as part of our evolution. It doesn’t sit well with me. Something’s off.”

“I get it, but we’re talking about the Rite. It’s not supposed to be done until two years from now. Right?”

“I have sources saying this year will be the first year. They want to roll it out and test the system.”

“What do you propose Reigns?”

“We send candidates to go participate and snoop around. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong and it’s nothing to worry about. But if I’m right and Atlas is trying to monopolize the Rite, we must slow them down now. They are already more powerful than kingdoms and governments Hunter. We need to investigate it.”

“Okay, and who do we send in for this? We need to find people we trust.”

“Well, our daughters are of age. Why not send them, they’ll just be participants like everyone else and if they find anything then they can gather what we need and be out before anyone knows. We leak the information later, so Atlas doesn’t suspect anything.”

“It can’t be just our daughters, I’m not okay with it. We send others with them. Does Avis have a personal guard?”

“She does. I can arrange for them to be brought here to rendezvous with everyone.”

Terue approaches the kings, “Your majesty I will gladly escort Princess Iria on this matter and can provide for you a list of other candidates to participate as well. You and king Ataraxia can vet the personnel beforehand.”

King Reigns Ataraxia is in awe, “I see your just as vigilant as always Hunter. I accept this girls’ proposal if you do. It will save me on resources.”

“Okay.” King Hunter Aurora nods, “Terue bring me the list of names later today. Iria, Avis do you both accept this task? We’ll have the royal guards on standby.”

Avis and Iria both agree to participate in the Rite to investigate the data collection by Atlas. In the coming weeks, King Aurora and King Ataraxia discuss their plan with their wives, the queens. Once detailing their plan and the use of a team to assist Avis and Iria, the team begins their training to prepare for the Rite. King Ataraxia uses his resources to gather intel on the layout of Juniper and the Arck arena where the servers for the database will be stored. In the coming weeks the IRL system is released and distributed to all candidates for the first Rite on Juniper.

“Iria were you able to put the, the Iris device on? It’s kind of weird.” Avis struggles to place the Iris device under her eyes.

“Here let me help you.” Iria takes the Iris device from Avis and begins to place it, “Okay, this is going to bite a little.”

The Iris device sinks its teeth into the skin of Avis and begins to emit the peripheral elements into her eyesight.

“Aw! That did bite. Whoa, this is cool. I can see my name and my age on the bottom left of my vision. Oh! Oh, Iria can you see, it also lists your Gift that’s crazy.”

As Avis scans the room, the Iris lists the same information under everyone, fading in and out depending on her focus of sight. Iria listens to the commotion coming from Avis but is focused on placing the Linkxs along the tempo area by her eyes. In an instant it bites into her skin and Iria can feel her brain activity surge leaving her nauseated.

“Oh wow. That one is worse.”

Iria sits down and takes a sip of some water as she observes everyone else attach the Iris and Linkxs. Some experience the nausea for a moment; others don’t experience any side effects. Terue soon joins Iria and taps Avis on the shoulder.

“Princess Avis, a transport from your kingdom arrived, your personal guard is on their way here.”

Avis stops rubbing her head and takes a sip of water.

“Iria, Terue, you get to meet my personal guard Rumika. She’s a techy and perfect to come along for this. She’s also pretty good in combat. Her name is Mara.”

Just as Avis mentions Mara’s name she walks in, “Greetings Princess Iria, Personal Guard Terue, I am Princess Avis’s Personal Guard Mara.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Terue greets Mara.

“Thank you for joining us on this recon Mara.” Iria greets Mara.

Upon Mara’s arrival they fill her in on the details and assist her with getting situated with the IRL system. Terue receives confirmation that they have vetted more for their team and will be assigned to them shortly. She reads off the names of the personnel to the rest of the team. They begin to go through the different tests that will be conducted at the Arck. They plan to avoid the physical assessments especially the team battle segments. They focus on individual tests as the rest of the team splits up to find the Arck database.

The initial search team from Aurora and Ataraxia consist of ten recruit candidates from the kingdom of Aurora to assist with locating the Arck database. Then there is the command team that consists of Iria, Terue, Avis, Mara, Brock, Nina, and Shen. Shen serves in the military for Aurora and was handpicked by the queen due to their childhood relationship. The queen wanted people she could trust to assist with Iria’s infiltration and Shen’s expertise is reconnaissance and stealth.

As preparations are complete Iria’s team soon departs for Juniper. The team decided to not use aliases for the registration to the Rite afraid that it may draw unnecessary suspicion from Atlas. Aurora and Ataraxia were officially invited to participate in the Rite, and both kingdoms agreed but in a limited capacity. Once there the search team spread out participating in the Rite and tests as they attempt to find access leading to the database.

Mara finds herself in a study hall where candidates can access study modules for the variety of exams measured for cognition tests. Mara sits at one of the stations and begins to hack it attempting to get into the database and surveillance. She makes short work of breaching the firewalls unnoticed and begins to search for the access points to the database servers.

Brock and Nina split up following Mara’s instructions. Nina locates one of the access points to the database servers and goes in. Meanwhile, Brock encounters security patrolling the nearby access points and decides to pull back to the exams area. To avoid suspicion Brock, enters himself into one of the physical exams.

Everyone’s Radial begins to flash. Iria picks unlocks her Radial and begins to read the message. Brock and Mara updates everyone that Nina made it to the access points, but security has increased. Iria responds telling everyone to participate in the Rite to not draw attention as Nina investigates the database servers.

Nina responds that she has hacked into the database and has not been detected. She’ll monitor the information and extract the data, but it will take some time.

*ENCRYPTED CALL INCOMING*

“Nina. Nina!?” Mara calls using IRL, Avis, Iria and Terue also joins.

“Shh! Yes Mara, I was able to use your coding and adjusted it. I’m undetected.”

“Good. How long do you think it will take to gather the information?”

“The information keeps coming in as candidates enter the examinations. So, there is quite a lot. But the IRL once activated to the user, secures all biometrics to the user profile. The moment it attached to us, it marks our DNA, vitals, our whole-body chemistry is there, and it pulls up all medical records linking all the data.”

Iria chimes in, “Good work Nina, please continue to gather the data. We’ll participate in the examinations, please let us know when you think you have enough data collected.”

“Okay princess.”

“Nina, this is Terue, are you able to get out of the server room without being detected?”

Nina looks around, “I’m relocating now Terue. I’m getting into the ventilation shaft that Shen marked in her plans.”

“?! Ventilation shaft?! Nina, will you be okay in there?” Mara tries to recall, “How will you fit?”

Just then the faceless call screen reveals a face of a tiny girl, with a distinct orange streak in her bangs. Her information id displayed by the Iris device.

<Name: Nina Age: 7>

GIFT: Cipher

“?!! EEEEEEEEHHHHH?!!” Iria, and Mara are caught off guard, while Terue remains calm.

“Nina, did you bring everything you need?” Terue gives a reassuring giggle.

“Yes. I have my snacks and mask. I will be fine. Once I’m able to extract the data we need, I’ll make my way to Shen at the end of the ventilation system.”

“Very good! We’ll see you soon, please let us know then.”

“Haaai.” Nina blinks out of the conversation.

“Terue, do you know Nina?” Iria asks.

“Yes. I used to babysit her. She’s a prodigy hacker and I asked Shen and Brock to assist her. She’ll probably pull everything we need; we just need to give her time.”

“I’m impressed that you guys have someone that young and talented.” Mara adds. “The information she came across is usually private information, perhaps that is what the king was worried about.”

Avis takes in everything she’s heard, “Perhaps. Mara what is your location?”

“I’m just in front of the team battle registry.”

“Let’s all meet there.”

*ENCRYPTED CALL ENDED*

Shortly, all four of the command team meet in front of the team battle registry. They begin to review the information Nina discovered. Mara and Terue stand in front of Iria and Avis as the Arck is now overwhelmed with candidates.

“What do you think Iria?”

“I think that the problem with the data collection is that user may not be aware that it collects all of our vitals and biometrics. Once we upload the information through the IRL system, Atlas has the information on hand in real time. They are more adequately prepared to recruit their candidates, because they may already know what to offer them as compensation to joining Atlas.”

“Correct. I think if everyone had this information, they would be able to properly recruit the candidates just as competitively as Atlas.”

“I don’t agree with the users not being aware of the information being gathered. But why would Atlas need all the information including your DNA?”

“Guess my father’s source was correct about Atlas monopolizing the information.”

Just then, Iria’s Radial begins to flash.

*ENCRYPTED CALL INCOMING*

Iria answers the call and decides to share the call with Avis, this time keeping the visual display connection to the Iris device. In a blink, Nina is on screen sliding her way through the ventilation shaft wearing a mask covering her nose and mouth.

Iria decides to respond first, “Go ahead Nina.”

“Princess, I think I got enough data from the servers that we need. I’m making my way through the ventilation shaft. I installed a transmitter on one of the servers and should be able to pull more data as needed. I’m making my way to Shen now.”

Mara nods, “This is great news. Will the transmitter still be functional if we go back to Aurora?”

“I wouldn’t do that. I’m going to shut if off once this is completed. I wouldn’t want any signal leading back to Aurora or Ataraxia. At least if we need to extract more data in the future, all we need to do is come to the Arck.”

Curious Iria asks, “Where exactly did you install the transmitter?”

“There was an open server, so I was able to install one and locked it up. I think someone did maintenance on it and forgot to close it. I see Shen, we’ll meet you in front at the ice cream stand.”

“Ice cream stand?” Avis whispers.

“Yup, Shen is buying me ice cream.”

Iria laughs realizing that the tension, pressure, and the weight of the situation is more because of what they value and perceive as right and wrong in the world. Here a young prodigy completed the most difficult task out of everyone sent into the Arck, and she completes it with no obstacles. In the end all there remains is ice cream to be eaten on this beautiful day.

“We’ll join you soon enough, thank you Nina.”

Iria arrests her laughter catching her breath. She ends the call and the screen blinks out.

*ENCRYPTED CALL ENDED*

Iria gathers herself to see Avis dumbfounded with her eyes glaring at Iris.

“Did I miss something?”

“No, I’ll explain. But first let’s go get some ice cream.”

Iria sends a message on the Radial to everyone involved in the operation.

[ MEET AT THE ICE CREAM TRUCK IN THE FRONT. TIME FOR ICE CREAM ]