The Data Crystal Mystery
Part One
(1) There's no messenger waiting for Kaori to answer the rap at the door. When she opens it, she simply finds a note tucked into the narrow space between the door and the floor beneath.
Acolyte Kaori,
A. come to the XMC office building in Shylzan City right away
B. You may bring one other if they will be going on the Expedition with you.
C. Take elevator go to floor 6
D. Do not speak a word until Dr Lee greets you.
E. Look for the privacy screen go behind the screen,
F. Remove all clothing and put on one of the sets of clothing from the box.
G. Give the clothes you had on to the guard. You will not be getting them back.
H. After completely changed let the Guard know you are ready to be scanned.
I. After being declared clean of listening devices the Guard will let Dr Lee know.
J. Wait outside the Privacy screen until Dr Lee invites you into her office.
This time, instead of changing from leggings and shirt to kimono, she changes from kimono to her least-favourite leggings and shirt. For shoes she chooses plain cotton flats, easily replaced.
The attractively-styled humaniform bot in the XMC lobby says, " Welcome visitors. Xenogenic Medical Corporation is the largest Corporation in the Empire, specializes in Cybernetic enhancements and Genetic Modifications."
Kaori steps around it looks for the elevator, which faces the reception desk. She gets in and hits "6". A moment later, the doors open on a space that's blandly white and grey, except for the privacy screen and the visors of the synth guards. The screen is pretty, the armoured guards not so much.
A person sits in the far corner. Kaori doesn't look, but she identifies the mental trace from the scant couple of times she's been in the same room as Irissa Lee.
She steps behind the screen and opens the expected box. In the box she finds a set of medical scrubs - several colours, all in her own size. Stripping off her T-shirt, leggings, and shoes, she puts on the white scrubs and wraps the leggings and T-shirt around the cotton shoes. She hands them to the nearest guard, as the note's instructed.
>>Security Bot >> will scan when ready <<
Her feet bare on the smooth cool floor, Kaori steps in front of the guard-bot. "Ready," she says.
The Bot Guard quickly puts the clothes in a burner, then turns to scan Kaori for tracking and listening devices. Kaori winces as she smells the burning cotton - waste is anathema to a settlement farmer.
At her desk in the corner, Dr Irissa Lee listens to the Bot scans while watching the results on her data display.
>> Security Bot << "Nothing found Dr Lee, the female is clean"
Kaori folds her hands and waits.
(2) Dr Lee notes results on her scanner. Satisfied - or as satisfied as someone so obsessed with security needs can be - she rises and walks to greet her guest. She bows. “Myeong Mai be with you” _/|\_
Kaori is feeling a little rattled. As she returns the bow, she says, "May you find Unity in the Chaos" and then rapidly corrects to what she should have said, "Myeong Mai be with you."
Dr Lee's emotional imprint barely ripples in response to Kaori's mis-speak or nervous correction. She motions for the acolyte to follow her. Arriving at the desk, she faces Kaori and smiles. "Please have a seat and we can start."
Kaori sits. There's a view of high rise towers in the background, but they're not close. Dr. Lee's back is to them; Kaori reflects that this likely makes it hard for people with binoculars to read her lips, but then she realizes that even at night, nothing of this floor is visible from outside except for a neutral glow.
Dr Irissa Lee speaks with careful emphasis. "This is no time for questions. I will give you instructions you must follow carefully."
Kaori nods. "Yes, Doctor. May I take notes, or is this for memory only?"
Dr Lee pulls out a note and to give it to Kaori to read. "Read each statement one at a time to yourself then say 1 is understood then read the next and say 2 is understood and so on."
Kaori's eyebrow quirks, but she nods, accepts the note, and begins reading.
1. The provided code can only be entered one time in one library Kiosk without requiring a reset, so be very careful.
"1 is understood," Kaori says, though she badly wants to ask when the code named in it will be provided.
2. If you enter the code wrong you will need security personnel to reset the Kiosk. They may or may not do this because the terminal you will be using is a restricted access terminal. So you will need to be very careful getting it reset. If you can try to request help from someone that maybe sympathetic to your cause. ((Maybe the Regent)
The second item takes a little more absorption time. "2 is understood," she says after a minute. "Though -" She cuts herself off. What she wants to say is that she doesn't really have a cause, just a mission, but silence is perhaps a better choice.
3. Keep the information within your expedition group and do not share outside until this mission is over.
She grins as she reads 3. "3 is understood - taken for granted, really."
4. Do not reveal your source for the information, ever.
"4 is understood." 4 makes perfect sense to Kaori, especially in the context of what she understands of 3.
5. Ziera spies are believed to be everywhere.
"5 is understood." Again, there's a question she wants to ask, but Jenai's training in refraining from asking too many has been helpful.
Quietly, Dr Lee says, "Many things are not as they may seem. The expedition will be very challenging,. The data crystal will have all the information you need to search the library to learn about NARI, and about the colonization of Cyhnon and some splinter groups that went to other planets. Yes, that includes the planet Naeya."
There's nothing Kaori feels the need to note down so far, so she simply nods and the doctor continues.
"All the answers you will get will be on the data crystal you will get from the Library. You must enter this code correctly the first time to get the data crystal. "
"All right."
"Please note the Code 9,1,9,2,9,3,9,7,9 if you think it was entered wrong leave the panel for sit for a few minutes."
Kaori looks around. The only paper is the note, and she doesn't see a pen. "May I write that down?" she asks. "Even if I have to memorize it before I leave, I'll remember better if I've written it."
"You can write on the note that is given you but will need to destroy it after you get the info from the library."
"Then if I may borrow a pen -"
Lee nods and sets a pen on the desk. Kaori takes it and writes.
"One final warning," Dr. Lee says as Kaori finishes writing. "Safeguard the data crystal and do not share it until you return from the Expedition, or all your lives maybe in jeopardy. That is all. You may go now. Kaori, be very careful."
They both stand. Dr. Lee bows. “May you find Unity in the Chaos.”
"There is one necessary question, though," Kaori says before responding. "Do I take the data crystal with me to Naeya, or leave it under guard at the palace while we're gone?"
"You will keep the data crystal with you to safeguard it."
Kaori bows. "May you find Unity in the Chaos."
“May you find Unity in the Chaos.”
Kaori returns to the elevator, silently thankful that she's left a spare pair of cotton shoes tucked in the grass by the building's outer stairs and hoping they're still there. They are. As she slips them on, she finds herself tempted to go to the library immediately, but has the sense to realize that if anyone is watching, they might consider the visit significant; bad enough that she's come out dressed differently than when she went in - and uncharacteristically, too.
(2)
