Antarctica

Crynn POV

Black Box? Wonder why it's called that... Ah, I know why. As soon as I saw the elevator door opened in Morgan Blackhand's point of view, I had sort of an idea or two why its called as such. One, the databank is as the same suggests, black colored. The only thing left 'unblacked' are the lights and some other tiny details here and there.

Secondly, the room's shaped like a cube, hence one might think that it's similar to a box. "Let's get this over with," Blackhand said as he moved onwards, one hand into a pocket and out with a USB drive. It appears like this Black Box is only an access method to the databank and not the databank itself.

Because I don't see any servers around or any sort of storage device anywhere, plus, the room's not very big. There's only a chair, a desk, a screen, keyboard and mouse... that's about it. Blackhand sat himself down as he cracked his knuckles, looking at the screen in front of him. It needs a passcode and Blackhand obviously has one as he typed it in.

It is a very long passcode, more than 20 words but this is a computer screen that continues all the information one could imagine in the world so security is a must. Blackhand tapped the 'enter' button loudly as a loading bar took over the interface as he waited with his arms crossed for the green to fill.

"How often does anyone visit here, with the sheer number of corporations being a part of this union, you must get a lot?" Blackhand decided that its time for more QnA, the man's clearly bored. "Must be once a day, sometimes twice a day. A few of our visitors can be quite... insufferable," one of the guards chuckled as Blackhand peers back into the screen, "I can imagine."

The loading bar is finally completed and a black background covered the screen. So, the are only a few steps after this. The compressed file containing everything Blackhand needs is already simplified and so, Blackhand moved the cursor to transfer the file into his USB drive. "I'm done here," he said as he unplugged and promptly dropping it into his pocket.

"And... That's all we need," Jill spoke as she closed the screen and pulled Calian out of virtual reality. "So, is that it?" V questioned as she professionally played with her combat knife, swirling it around her hand, completely fearless of the chanced prospect of it cutting her fingers if her movement were just one bit late.

"Yes, I have everything I require t craft a feasible plan and direction of our mission. I'll scry about the blueprints for the secret secondary elevators while everyone can take their time off, have a holiday under the sea. After all, I suspect that I and my team's aim for all of this is getting into a close," Jill explained as she took away the BD device from Calian's temple.

"So what do we do now?" Aria whispered next to me, I'm clueless as well, I mean, what do you expect me to do in a military submarine. "Have fun, I presume," Calian shook his head while rubbing his temple, he looks quite dizzy. Well, with nothing to do for us for the upcoming times, I guess I can just sit back and do what I partially do best, relax.

***

"So, are we there yet? How much longer is it?" I heard V whine from somewhere opposite to my direction. Everyone is on the bridge, waiting for this submarine to at long last, arrive in our most desired designation, Antarctica. Though it's proving to be less than productive nor interesting, not at all.

First time in a submarine, looking at all the different rooms, all the different functionalities, all the different facilities, all the different controls, all the different systems, well that didn't last. It was only fascinating until a day later that I realized that I don't know a single shit about anything that goes on within this very hull.

"We're about to approach Antarctica, you must remember, patience is virtue," Jill spoke as she assume captain's position, staring into a screen split into various camera angles outside the submarine. It's a wow that cameras aren't crushed the pressure down here but that's to be expected by such an advanced world.

"Look, we can see ice," Calian pointed to the screen as yes, I can see that frozen water just fine. Several icebergs stood tall and mighty over the ocean, it's height going very deep into the sea. "Our submarine won't crash itself into any of those, am I right or am I not right?" Aria told her fears the vehicle made a turn right.

"No it won't, it has a designated GPS path that will update regularly and invent new routes if anything is obstructing ahead," fancy as well as useful, wouldn't want to run and crush a bunch of penguins, wait a minute, are there penguins in Antarctica or are penguins only in the Arctic. Hmm... Good question, that's for me to find out at a later date.

"Well we have arrived," Jill spread her arms open as she grabbed a bottle of wine, uncorking it open to pour each of us a cup. "How is this submarine getting into Antarctica?" I asked as I slowly stir my share of wine, smelling the aroma in every turn. "There should be an access tunnel. The submarine can find it on it's own as well as the docking area."

"This is good wine," Calian said, though I don't really understand the meaning of good wine. I do know, I think I know, that the older the wine, the better and more expensive it is. But some of my friends and partners disagree with it. I have never drunk wine, I don't drink alcohol but for this, I guess I could try.

"Doesn't taste like grape, does it," hence my first experience of drinking wine.