It dawned! I got up in a good mood. I did my hygiene and got ready to go. I had to be at the Agency very early. I left the room.

"You look great. Come on!" said Dornnih, inviting me to sit at the table that had a beautiful morning meal prepared.

"All of it looks delicious!" I said, surprised.

He smiled and started his meal. I accompanied him. After a short time, we finished and immediately took a transport drone that took us to the Space Agency.

Arriving, he took me to the (Captain Colonel) Trirtonne.

"So it was you who hacked a sensitive information system, captured an emergency message, which emitted a low-intensity signal, thus helping to save lives, who has been researching communication through quantum entanglement and obtaining significant results, and all this with just graduation," said the (Captain Colonel) Trirtonne, looking serious.

"Yes, sir," I said cautiously.

"Very well! Congratulations on your achievements, but that is not completely freeing you from punishment, however, we can still reduce what you will have to do to redeem your mistakes. Show me that you have all that potential. Analyzing your research on communication through quantum entanglement, I saw that you are close to making this means of communication viable, but something is missing that even our most experienced researchers do not have the answer to. I return your research so that you can find a solution and thus allow instant communication with the colony. We need to send the answer as soon as possible on how to contain the virus they are having problems with. Are you able to accomplish this feat without delay?"

It would be a challenge. I looked at Dornnih and he nodded at me. I took a deep breath.

"Yes, I'll do my best!" I said, trying to look confident.

With my research on quantum entanglement back, I proceeded to my laboratory to proceed with this mission. Dornnih went with me, as he still had to accompany me. I was given one more chance, but I had not been free of all punishments.

Arriving at my laboratory, I immediately started the tests to make communication via quantum entanglement feasible. I had already managed to understand, in theory, how this quantum phenomenon occurred, but I was not able to find a way to…

The star of the Plibistarh system was already seen by us, and this created a photon bridge that was traveling for almost 5 light-years. In theory, it was easy to intertwine the photons that were arriving here with the photons that are still leaving there. The problem is that the colonizers would not know how to interpret the interlaced signal of the photons and interpret the message.

One solution would be to use this photon-interlaced bridge to transmit radio waves, but the problem was that the quantum phenomenon of instantaneity occurred through dimensional leaps, something that was not yet been achieved in practice. I was not able to reproduce the dimensional jumps, and so, use this to transmit a non-interlaced signal (radio waves) through an already interlaced (photon bridge) medium.

If I achieved this feat, we would be able to transmit the radio waves instantly and thus the Crommirris colony would obtain a communication that would be almost instantaneous with us. With that, they would get the solution to the virus they were having problems with, if they were still alive because, by the time they had sent the emergency, they could have been exterminated by this invisible threat.

This made me worried about my parents, who were going there and could find a planet full of death, but there was time for the spaceship where they were, to turn around since they had not yet reached the middle of the route.

"Dornnih, stop staring at me."

"Forgive me," said Dornnih, looking away.

"You can look at me, but hide it," I said, laughing.

"Did you get any positive results?"

"Nothing yet. But I'm so close," I said.

"I believe in your potential," said Dornnih, smiling.

I smiled at his comment and went back to research.

☼☼☼

"I am starving!" said Dornnih.

"Time passed so fast I didn't even feel it!" I said, surprised.

We stopped to eat. Dornnih asked to be brought food. It didn't take long before a meal arrived that seemed to be tasty. We went to the next room, reserved, and sat down to eat.

"Dornnih, you are amazing! I'll be honest with you. I never realized how much you cared about me. Although we have known each other for a while, I never thought I would feel anything deeper for you," I said, embarrassed.

"Is that a statement?" asked Dornnih, smiling.

I had expressed myself in a wrong way. My divided feeling ended up making me say something I didn't mean to. At least not now.

"No! No! N..."

"I understand. I'm not trying to force you into anything. Even more than you and Dri..."

"The truth is... I don't know if I want to get involved with anyone anymore. Everything seems so difficult for me. I don't want to interfere with anyone's career anymore," I said, thinking of Drinihian.

Dornnih was thoughtful and made an expression of concern.

"What?" I asked.

He was slow to answer, but...

"I wish things had happened differently. I need to be honest with you and I hope that what I'm going to say doesn't change anything about our friendship."

I already knew what he was going to say, but I waited for him to speak. He looked at me embarrassed.

"I love you! I started loving you from the first day I saw you. I always hid it, because you and Drinihian were already together by the time we met. I don't want it to affect our friendship," said Dornnih, looking away.

My heart was divided. I had been tense with what he had just said to me. My heart sped up the same way when I heard Drinihian say he loved me. I didn't want to hurt him. I had to think more clearly about what I was going to do with my love life, but my heart told me to be honest with him.

"Dornnih…" I said, looking away.

I looked at him again.

"Thank you for everything you've done for me this whole time."

He looked at me and smiled.

"I already said you don't need to thank me. Now you know why I’ve always been dedicated to doing the best for you."

My heart accelerated in a very different way. This had never happened to Drinihian. I wanted to kiss him. I got up and approached him. He stood up and I kissed him on the cheek.

"I need to go back to work. The meal was great," I said, smiling.

I came back with the research. Dornnih was thoughtful and, from time to time, looked at me covertly. It distracted me, but I didn't care. I continued on my mission.

☼☼☼

"Dornnih! Dornnih! Wake up! It's late. Let's go."

He looked at me in a way as if I were his girlfriend.

"Let's go! This afternoon! I would take a stimulant, but you need to rest," he said, laughing.

He had slept on the table.

"No stimulants. Let's go!" said Dornnih, rising sleepily.

We went out and took a transport drone. We went to his residence. Dornnih was almost asleep again. It looked like he hadn't slept in days, but yesterday he had gone to sleep.

"He's really tired. It doesn't look like you slept yesterday," I said, wondering.

"Really?" he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"I didn't sleep. I had a job I needed to complete and I came over the night."

When I was going to question him, he slept on my shoulder. Arriving at his residence, I woke him up and helped him in. I took him to the bedroom and he, without knowing what he was doing, went to take a shower. I left his room and went to do my hygiene too.

I went back to his room to see how he was doing and to my surprise he was lying in bed sleeping, naked. Embarrassed, I left in fear that he would wake up.

Also tired, I threw myself on the bed thinking about research and trying to mentally find a solution for quantum communication. Suddenly, amid so many mathematical thoughts, Drinihian appeared in my reasoning. I tried not to think about him, but I couldn't. I was stuck with it in my mind for almost an hour and, when I least expected it, I slept.