Aqua walked beside Pascal, then put a hand on his shoulder.

“Well, I guess now we know why you didn’t make it into the police if you think like that,” judged Aqua.

The sound of Pascal slamming Aqua against the wall was heard, while Lucas tried to talk some sense into his friend.

“Are you trying to piss me off, idiot?” accused Pascal.

Aqua showed no fear; instead, he just gave a smile while raising both hands, signaling he wasn’t going to fight back.

“Of course we can keep looking for her, even from here,” said Aqua.

“I’m going to break your mouth so you stop getting into conversations that aren’t your business,” threatened Pascal.

Lucas pushed Pascal to make him let go of Aqua.

“I think you need a break too, Pascal,” said Lucas.

“Me? Come on! Are you really going to defend the weirdo?” scolded Pascal.

“And you’re really going to get this angry over a provocation? How old are you?”

Lucas showed his anger but also tried to calm things down.

“We’re all really shaken after what happened, but that doesn’t mean we should lose our heads. If Tori is worried about Aria, it’s her issue and we should support her. Everyone has their way of showing concern. But Pascal, don’t act like you wouldn’t be the same the day one of us disappears.”

Lucas’s words didn’t calm Pascal; in fact, they seemed to irritate him more. Meanwhile, Aqua stood next to his friend Orion Nesheim. At that moment, Tori came out of the office looking sad, while Irene exclaimed:

“Lucas Marilef!” the woman called.

Lucas jogged over to her and patted Tori on the back.

“Cheer up, Tori! I know you’re not overreacting,” Lucas said with a smile.

Even though Lucas wanted to be kind, he ended up being too rough and startled Tori with the pat.

When he entered the room, he saw the computer was actually a bit of a dinosaur, struggling to load the page, plus it had an outdated operating system: HorizonOS 3.

He quickly entered and stood next to Calisto at a respectful distance, though he could still smell his delightful scent. He felt very happy to be that close to the young man, and to glance at him discreetly he just stared at his hands, which were holding an object that looked like a supermarket scanner.

“Ugh, the page crashed again,” complained Fenrir from the desk, restarting the computer.

Apparently, it was taking longer to enter the data than to create them.

“We’ve got plenty of time, Fenrir, don’t worry. By the time the boss is free we might even have time for a nap,” yawned Calisto.

“You didn’t sleep at all?” asked Lucas with concern.

Lucas knew that Irene and Calisto hadn’t slept at all because they had been at the central base illegally and without planning, so he wanted to know why they were there.

Irene and Calisto looked at Lucas with a complex expression, as if they had forgotten that the others present weren’t aware of their situation.

“We slept the normal amount,” said Calisto. “The amount doctors recommend.”

Another lie Lucas knew wasn’t true, but the fact that they looked fresh and rested even after possibly more than a day without sleep backed them up.

“Yeah, that,” added Irene.

Calisto and Irene sighed, showing their exhaustion, and looked around. Lucas observed every movement in their hands attentively. As soon as Calisto noticed Lucas was analyzing the poor machine struggling to perform tasks, he decided to get to work. He touched Lucas’s cheek while preparing the handheld scanner.

“Look at the light you see on the machine,” said Calisto.

Lucas obediently kept his eyes open while Calisto scanned his retina. The machine emitted a dim light in the center to help focus, and Calisto held it steadily in front of him. Then he lowered the scanner.

“Blink,” ordered Calisto.

Even though the machine barely had any light, Lucas felt it stung more than normal. When he blinked, his eye felt a bit of relief.

“Ready for the other eye?” Calisto asked.

Lucas nodded, and as soon as Calisto placed the scanner, Lucas instinctively closed his eye, so Calisto opened it by force.

“Don’t move,” said Calisto.

His eye burned a lot; he didn’t even know why. He felt relieved once Calisto stepped away and gave him a minute to rest. Lucas tightly shut his eyes and massaged them with his hands. When he opened them, he saw Irene holding a camera, ready to take pictures.

“Keep a serious face,” she requested while checking the camera.

Lucas stood upright and opened his eyes, then relaxed. They took his picture and went over to a card printer connected to a PC that Lucas hadn’t noticed before. They carefully printed a chip-enabled ID card with a lanyard badge holder, which Calisto handed him.

“This is your ACE agent ID. It’s valid everywhere and works as an emergency access key, but you’ll mainly use it in the old ACE facilities. It’s your duty to carry it at all times, even off duty,” said Calisto firmly.

Fenrir let out a soft laugh while Irene coughed to get him to stop. Lucas knew the laugh was because Irene and Calisto had gone to the central base without their credentials. Calisto had told him carrying it was mandatory, yet in front of Vice Director Goryashko, he had acted like it wasn’t a big deal.

“You can go rest in a temporary room in wing D. Each room has a name. We’ll arrive at Puerto Coronel at 17:00,” suggested Fenrir. “You’ve had a long day. We’ve left a box with your uniforms and things you’ll need.”

“Alright. Wing D is...?”

“Go straight ahead, right-hand side, and you’ll see a hatch that says ‘Wing D’. You can’t miss it,” said Calisto.

“Got it. I’ll let the others know,” said Lucas.

Calisto approached him and said:

“Give me your phone number. You’ll be my contact point for the others while we handle the paperwork,” Calisto requested.

Lucas was surprised by the request but quickly tried to regain composure. He pulled out his phone, hands completely sweaty. Knowing that, as one of his superiors, it was important they communicate, he placed his phone over Calisto’s, which had its screen on.

Calisto looked at him confused by the gesture. On Calisto’s screen, a pop-up appeared: “Lucas Marilef, +XXXXXXXX Add to contacts?” with options “Add” and “Dismiss”.

“You have to press ‘add’...” Lucas said shyly.

Calisto obediently pressed the button, which was odd. It was like he’d never used a phone before, judging by the way he looked at it. Maybe Orion was right about him coming from prison—it wasn’t normal for someone so young to be this unfamiliar with a phone.

“Oh, there it is,” said Calisto, surprised. “Go rest, but stay alert on your phone.”

“Alright, rest well,” said Lucas.

He left the room while Fenrir called in his friend Pascal, who entered the room without even looking at Lucas.

“They told us we can go rest in Wing D,” Lucas kindly said to Tori, Orion, and Aqua.

Orion, unlike Tori, didn’t look too nervous. Meanwhile, Aqua kept his eyes glued to his phone. The young people said goodbye to their teammates and walked in the direction they’d been given, finding a hatch labeled in red letters “SECTOR D”. Even if the ship was old, the rooms looked far more advanced than the equipment they had just used for enrollment.

It was enough for them to approach for the hatch to open smoothly, allowing them into a hallway full of rooms with screens displaying each person’s name above the doors. The young people said their goodbyes and entered their rooms.

Lucas saw his temporary room, which included a small bathroom, a single bunk bed, and underneath it, a desk for work. Near the desk was a notably large box taking up space, along with a miniature refrigerator, so the first thing Lucas did was open the box.

Inside, he found three uniforms wrapped in a plastic zipper bag, a jacket, a new phone, a badge, a laptop at the bottom, a tablet, a book titled “ACE Protocol Manual, Year 2070,” a new phone chip, a smartwatch, headphones, a personal first aid kit, and a neon yellow note.