[color=gold][center][h1][i][b]Tuesday after the Jordan Race[/b][/i][/h1][/center][/color] Alexander had spent the previous day answering questions and providing information to the Board of Directors and their sponsors. He spent the day putting out political fires. He had called his daughter and warned her that she may face heightened press interest. He also told her to contact him if any government regulatory bodies approached her about her body modifications and neural interface that were the result of her accident. Alexander was not particularly worried. While her neural interface and enhancements had been experimental, they had been sanctioned for testing on human subjects and had met all government and regulatory body compliance and control checks. He was more worried about the press and the public reaction. There was always that one guy who saw conspiracies in the shadows. Alexander was angry with Johanna. Her insinuation that he had not warned her before this leaked made him feel that she was setting him up as some kind of fall guy for this situation. He had sent Wulfric to give her the sensitive information and warning in person while he was on his way to report it to FIAR. Alexander understood that he had made a choice at the moment in time. Johanna worked for a government regulatory body that had more checks and more laws governing her work than FIAR did. His choice to go to FIAR was an attempt to keep this issue within the sport and contained so it didn’t spill over into the public and affect body augmentations that people needed to live an independent life like his daughter. Logically Alexander understood that the government could have kept it quieter but in his eyes FIAR needed to know what was happening. Formula AG was why this hacking occurred in the first place. The government would still have access to the records and what happened. Sadly Silver Apex had exploited the scariest part of having a neural interface. It was a part that everyone had forgotten about since it was something so basic and had become standard practice for so long. People didn’t really talk about it anymore. The safety of neural interfaces and body augmentations that were hard wired into the brain had been hotly debated in the beginning. As government regulations and policies made them safer and harder to hack and mess with, people accepted them as safe. The debate faded outside of academic and medical circles. It was still a subject talked about within ethical arenas of course. But they had become so commonplace that the general public had long accepted them as safe and unhackable. This scandal would remind the public of the scary parts of body augmentation. Leopold was the one who had been blind sided by the ruling and what happened. Alexander had a long talk with him. Leopold had been justifiably angry to be kept in the dark. Once Alexander explained everything from his position and experience within the team, Leopold accepted his decision. He also recognized that if there were to be consequences for the team for reporting the information, it would give the Board of Directors plausible deniability. That didn’t mean that Leopold was happy about it though. The Board of Directors had only been told what FIAR had found and their decision. Alexander had ended up telling Leopold the whole tale because he trusted the man. If something came about from this now, he felt someone else in power at the Team needed to know what really happened. Paul and Dorian were both unhappy about the extra scrutiny. They seemed to understand that it was not Alexander’s fault but they were not ready to talk about it yet. Alexander could already see that the extra testing and scrutiny had been hard on them both. He could see that it had impacted Paul more than Dorian. Paul had gone home instead of coming back to his apartment at headquarters. He had requested a few days off. Alexander had granted them without questions. Alexander had spent some time with the Engineering and Medical team. He wanted to get a better idea of how to handle this new scrutiny to make it easier on the pilots and still keep them ready to race. The testing had been particularly hard on Paul. If they implemented this kind of scrutiny before every race, it would be difficult for him. It would depend on how much recovery time FIAR would allow pilots before the race. He was waiting on more guidance from FIAR on how they planned to do these checks. Alexander believed the scrutiny after the Jordan race was to discover if any of the other pilots had suffered from this type of tampering. He hoped they would scale it back to after races if they suspected cheating from a pilot. FIAR didn’t say how often they would have to undergo the additional scrutiny or if it would become commonplace before or after every race. Alexander wasn’t sure if FIAR had worked out the details of this new regulation yet. He could only wait for more information. The Medical Team was worried about the psychological impact of such testing and the potential for damage to their pilot’s neurological systems from such invasive testing. While the testing wouldn’t damage the technological components there was ongoing debate about the impact to neurological organic tissue that the technology was paired with. The Engineering Team wanted to work on making their work with the pilots more transparent to reassure them they would never do something like that to them. They worked as a team to build some new transparent guidelines and procedures to reassure their pilots of their safety. There would now be a member of the medical team that would double check all work that interfaced with the pilot. They added additional technology checks to look for hacking and attempts to install backdoors into their equipment. They had just overhauled and tightened their security and computer system. Now they tightened up their procedures and policies so that more than one set of eyes was on every step. This would make it harder for anyone to try anything like that here at the team. Alexander was proud of the hard work of the support team. He was hoping this would reassure his pilots of their safety. [hr] [color=gold][center][h1][i][b]Team Valkyrie AGR Sport Official Press Release[/b][/i][/h1][/center][/color] Alexander had tasked Katherine with drafting a press release with their legal team. Katherine had the draft and then told Alexander that he needed to be the one to give it. Alexander sighed but accepted the responsibility. He found himself on the receiving end of a make up team. His hair had been pulled back and braided away from his face. He sighed and accepted the inevitable. He found himself in one of the charcoal gray suits from Enigma Lux. He was plopped down in the media center desk with the Team Valkyrie logo front and center. Everyone cleared out of the camera range. Alexander watched the teleprompter for his cue. With a solemn face, Alexander began the statement prepared by Katherine and her team. [color=00aeef]“My name is Alexander Knight and I am the Crew Chief and Team Principal for Team Valkyrie AGR Sport. The team has been bombarded with requests for an official statement regarding the new regulations from FIAR and their findings regarding the Silver Apex Racing Team.” [/color] Alexander paused and took a deep breath. He looked serious and sad as he continued. [color=00aeef]“Our pilots put their trust in us to keep them as safe as we can in a very deadly sport. Accidents can and do happen. We do our best to ensure they can walk away from them. To violate that trust in such a heinous way for pride, ego, and money is an evil act. I have made my stance on pilot safety clear from day one. Safety comes first always!”[/color] He paused for emphasis before repeating it with intensity. [color=00aeef]“ALWAYS” [/color] Alexander visibly collected himself before continuing. [color=00aeef]“Team Valkyrie AGR Sport will comply with any regulations or inquiries made by FIAR. We will cooperate with their investigation and comply with any new regulations that come out of this scandal. We agree that pilots that had been unknowingly impacted by their team’s decisions should not be penalized. The teams who made these unethical decisions to cheat in such a vile way deserve the sanctions against them. This form of cheating is the most vile and impacts the integrity of the sport itself. I stand behind the sanctions and decisions of FIAR on this matter. I understand the need for additional scrutiny. I would point out to FIAR that this level of testing and scrutiny is hard on the pilots. Team Valkyrie has nothing to hide but I think when to implement scrutiny should be given more consideration. The impact to pilots is significant. This kind of testing requires some downtime to recover from. As a Team that has been rocked by our own scandals this year, Team Valkyrie has moved to make all our dealings within the team more transparent with the public and our sponsors. Our goal is honesty and transparency backed by integrity while managing to keep any technological breakthroughs a secret from our competitors.”[/color] Alexander tilted his head and gave a cocky grin. [color=00aeef]“When we take the championship next year, we want our win to be free from scandal and rumors. We want to win but we want to do it honorably. When we win, we want to know we did it based on our skills and technology, not by breaking the rules to stack the deck in our favor. We would hope all our competitors feel the same way. You can only be the best if you test yourself by the best.” [/color] Alexander smiled into the camera and resumed a serious expression once more. [color=00aeef]“At Team Valkyrie AGR Sport team safety comes first. We strive to win with integrity. Any requests from the media should be directed to the Team’s Media department. Dorian and Paul are currently recovering from the testing. The Team will be in Istanbul and we will be ready. We ask that any requests for interviews of the pilots be sent to the Team’s Media Department for now. The requests will be passed on but we are trying to help them have some peaceful time for recovery. They will respond as they deem fit.” [/color] [hr] [color=gold][center][h1][i][b]Outside Belgium at his Family’s Estate [/b][/i][/h1][/center][/color] Paul had chosen to go home instead of back to his apartment at headquarters. His nerves still felt tingled and he had occasional waves of burning pain. He had taken a private flight from Jordan directly to Belgium. He needed the space and serenity of his home. His mother had been happy to see him. He had spent some time with her before retiring to his suite. He had taken some painkillers and fallen into a blissful sleep. The next morning he had woken up feeling refreshed. He was not ready for the jarring fast pace of headquarters still. He put on some shorts, a tanktop, and running shoes. He took off for a relaxing run around the estate. He just absorbed the peace and quiet of nature and greenery all around him. He pushed the real world beyond the walls from his mind and focused on staying in the moment. He moved to a shaded patch of thick grass and stretched and did some yoga as he cooled down from his run. He took a seat and crossed his legs and closed his eyes. He began to meditate. He needed to recenter himself after everything that happened yesterday. Paul didn’t worry about time and just allowed himself to be. After some time, he opened his eyes and headed back to his room for a shower. He dressed in comfort clothes and grabbed his cell phone. He avoided the pilot’s chat. It was full of angst and emotional baggage he wanted to avoid for now. He wanted to reach out to Trixie. He was concerned after what he had heard about her accident and what Astrid had to say about the testing. [hr] [b][h2][centre][color=fff200]Direct Message. Sun 19/10/2094[/color][/centre][/h2] [/b] [b][color=fff200]Direct message. To Bellatrix Olympus From Paul Mulder [/color] [/b] [color=fff200]Paul:[/color] Hello Princess, I heard about the engine fire and that you had minor injuries. How are you doing? [hider= Team Valkyrie Characters] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zrLx5XUgYiVm6KjTpFTWZtJvXc0MX77enkLzINHujKw/edit?gid=0#gid=0 [/hider]