Rune followed Narissa as she led him away from the market, back through the section he’d come through to get to the hotel from the UIS ACI. He jogged a quick step forwards to tap her on the shoulder, a slight frown on his face.

“Hey, where are we going?” Rune asked her the question for the fourth time, this time more forcefully, determined to get an answer.

Narissa turned to him with a smile. “Where do you think we’re going? To check out your new digs, of course!” She turned away and flounced down the corridor, a silly grin stretched across her face.

Rune stared at her back, shook his head, and snorted. It didn’t really matter. He’d figure out soon enough, and it wasn’t as if there was an exit to the station over there. And besides, she certainly wasn’t acting like she had any malicious plans for him. He’d already signed the form and given it to her. He’d just have to trust her.

Another thirty or so minutes of walking unimpeded down long corridors and the duo finally reached their destination. A massive, serious, black and chrome silver sign on the wall announced, ‘Terrassis Educational Facility: Aiming for the stars isn’t so hard when you’re already among them’ Rune quirked a slight smile after reading the sign. Cheesy, but it was his sort of cheesy. He liked it.

Narissa turned to him, a big smile on her face. “Here we are! You ready for the grand tour, man? You’re gonna love it! The TEF has the coolest shit.”

With that, she turned and walked up to a set of sliding steel doors which slid open for her. She passed through, with Rune quick to follow.

The inside was not as he had been expecting. The room he stepped into was a massive steel spire, a dual set of winding ramps spiraling up from the back of the room and going up to near the top of the building. Loitering in the room were three armored security guards and floating about in the air were a quad of rotund drones of some sort. Littering the walls and arranged around the edges of the room were a series of plants on top of colored triangular holders made of glass or plastic sheets. From out of the semi-translucent sheets beamed a whole rainbow of colors, reflecting off the steel of the room to produce a gorgeous effect. Rune was looking at one of the plants when he noticed something flitting by. It was a bird—a bird in space! Rune gawked as he looked around, noticing a couple more birds and other strange animals he could identify.

Rune was so caught up in taking in the sight of the stunning room that he didn’t notice one of the security guards walking up to them, his mask unfurling to reveal a handsome face with a splash of blonde hair on top.

“Narissa,” the man boomed, enthusiastic, “Great to see you!”

Narissa smiled demurely at him. “Good to see you too. We still good for Friday?”

The man nodded several times, far too enthusiastically. “Yeah, yeah, of course.” The man shot a sideways glance at Rune, who was still turning in circles, looking around the room in amazement. “This kid a new arrival?”

Narissa smiled and nodded. “Yeah.” She gestured at one of the side corridors. “I was just planning to take him on a quick tour, show him around the TEF, let him learn a little about what he’s gotten himself into.” She smiled at the man. “Wanna come with us, Devin?”

The man’s helmet closed up for a brief second as he glanced back towards one of the other security guards in the room, who nodded towards him. Devin’s mask unfurled, revealing a big smile on his face.

“Yeah, the boss man said that it was all good.” Devin looked towards Rune, a bemused smile on his face as he let out a chuckle. “That one’s just like you. All full of wonder walking on in here. You trynna recruit him?”

Narissa shrugged, a half smile stretched across her face. “Maybe. Maybe not. I wanna see how he does first, what he decides to spec into. Who knows? He might choose to be a merchant or something.”

It was about then that Rune realized that he had totally lost track of where he was and was standing some twenty or so feet away from Narissa, who was still standing back towards the door with Devin.

He ran back toward them, and when he reached them he turned about and gestured up and around at the room before speaking, his voice full of wonder. “You didn’t tell me there would be birds here! It’s…It’s amazing!”

Narissa smiled and patted Rune on the shoulder. “Yeah, the Atrium is really something. There’s not a lot of animals on Terrassis, and what few we have are mostly here.”

While Narissa was speaking, Devin had walked up to Rune and held his hand out in greeting. “Hey man, I’m Devin. You’re new here right?”

Rune turned to him, and with an unsure but friendly expression on his face, shook his hand. “I’m Rune. Yeah, I’m new.” Rune glanced down at the man’s equipment, then up at his face. “Are you some sort of… security guard for the school?”

Devin looked off and then shrugged. “Kinda. Not really. I’m a Law and Regulations Enforcement Officer or LREO.” He smirked. “We run security around here. You have a problem,” Devin tapped his chest, “you come to us. The school is run by the station, so the station staffs its security, and I pulled the shift for this week, so…” Devin shrugged, an easy smile on his face. “It’s the least dangerous, most simple job on the station, so who am I the complain?”

Rune laughed. “Least dangerous and most simple?” He leaned forward a little. “Sounds like my kinda gig.” Turning back to Narissa, Rune spoke. “So you are you gonna show me around?”

Narissa nodded, before gesturing up at the room around them. “Well, since we’re in the Atrium, we might as well start here. The Atrium is one of the three key waypoints within the TES, the other two being the cafeteria and the third the Enclave. That’s getting a little ahead though. Let’s just start with the Atrium.” Narissa looked upwards, pointing as she spoke. “The spiral ramp starts at the back of this room and goes all the way up into the ceiling. There are five separate levels, each one pertaining to a separate educational field.” She walked by him and beckoned him forwards as she moved towards the rightmost of the two exits on the side of the room. Devin hurried up behind her and took her hand. Rune eyed them, then followed, letting out a sigh. Suddenly her previous exuberance made a lot more sense.

When they reached the first corridor, Narissa spoke up. “The first level is pretty much devoted to infantry combatants. It’s the shortest commute from the entrance for that reason.” Narrisa frowned. “Not as if you’d actually have to defend the school from anything as a trainee. If an enemy could bust in this far…well…” Narissa shrugged. “Not anything you’ll ever have to worry about, even if you chose to train to be a trooper.”

Narissa stopped talking as she sidled up to one of the doors the right. It slid open for her, and Narissa poked her head in and peeked around before stepping in and turning back to face the pair. “It doesn’t look like there’s a class in here. Lucky for us.” Rune stepped into the room after her, Devin right behind, taking in the massive view. She turned and gestured out at the room in front of them. The very room they were standing in wasn’t actually that large, but one side of the room was a massive glass wall, on the other side of which was a set of steel walls which seemed to form a sort of labyrinth. On both walls of the room perpendicular to the one with the door stood a pair of large archways through the closest of which Rune thought he could see a sort of study room.

Narissa walked up to one of the large glass panes that made up the wall before turning back to look at Rune. “This is just one of the several training rooms that dot the facility. There are a ton more, mostly just for land operations. This is the cityscape training room. There’s also a jungle training room, aqueous training room, desert training room, and mountainous training room.”

The brief speech done, Narissa then turned and walked up to one of the archways, peeking inside and peering around. “Through here is a locker room. You can change, bathe, arm yourself, brief missions, study, do a whole bunch of stuff in here.” Rune tried to peek over her shoulder without pushing her out of the way and had to jump back when she stepped back to let him. She gave him a patronizing smile and then waved her hand through the archway. “You can go in and check it out if you want.”

Accordingly, Rune did. It broke each and every preconception of a locker room that Rune had. The traditional steel storage cabinets used as lockers were completely absent from the room. In fact, the room was devoid of anything aside from a set of semicircular tables arranged in front of a screen.

Rune turned to Narissa, a confused look on his face. “This is a locker room?”

She nodded, a smirk on her face almost as if she’d been expecting the question. “Yeah. all the stuff is hiding in the walls, waiting to come out of someone needs it.” Rune thought back to the bathroom in his hotel room. Suddenly it made a lot more sense.

“Oh, so when people need their gear it just comes out of the wall.” He shrugged and nodded with begrudging approval. “Yeah, makes sense. A little weird, but I guess space is precious.” He paused for a second. “Or, at least, the space you can breathe in and build on.”

Narissa and Devin smirked as Devin spoke up. “Yeah, kid, not a lot of that sort of space to go around in space if you know what I mean.”

Narissa giggled, and Rune chuckled. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure he knows what you mean, Devin,” Narissa said, before giving Rune a look. “You ready to move on?”

Rune gave the rooms a cursory glance, not really finding anything, before nodding to Narissa. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Together, the trio flowed out of the room through the entrance they’d come in, moving down the corridor. As they walked, Narissa pointed and talked. “On the right side of the corridor is where all the training rooms are.” She glanced back at Rune. “You remember how there were four exit corridors to the Atrium, two in the back, two on the sides?”

Rune nodded at her. “Yeah, I do.”

She turned back to face front. “Well, this hallway curves around to come out on the other side of the Atrium, through that other exit.” She pointed at the wall. “That’s why all the training rooms are on the right. They need more room, and they can just expand out into the rock so they get it.” She then pointed at the wall on her left side. “To the left, you’re gonna have all the classrooms for combat training. Some are simulation rooms, there are a few lecture halls, a study area, a guidance office, a small food store,” Narissa cut off as the walked by a pair of sweat-soaked trainees wearing skin-tight suits with strange steel nodules engaged in an intense conversation. Rune caught a snippet of their conversation as they walked by.

“—want to avoid the blast from the Ion Cannon, even if it doesn’t injure you it could fry—” The girl was lecturing the guy, who had a depressed look on his face.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Narissa continued speaking, a slightly abashed look on her face. “Yeah, AJs can get like that sometimes. Super wrapped up in what they’re doing, the tactics and all that stuff.” She let out an awkward laugh. “I would know, I was one of them.”

Rune frowned. “An AJ? What’s an AJ?”

Narissa smirked at him and batted aside a stray lock of hair. “Adrenaline Junky.” She let out a sigh. “Couldn’t call us Battle Junkies cause the acronym doesn’t quite work, or something like Fight Junkies cause it sounds so lame, so AJs it was.” Narissa frowned. “Or at least, that’s what I’ve been told. The term’s been around a lot longer than me.” She smiled at Rune. “Just kinda rolled with it.”

Rune shrugged. “Yeah, guess it makes sense.”

Narissa smiled appreciatively at him and continued. “Yeah, so anyways, you can tell that those two are AJs from how they look. Bags under their eyes the size of Jupiter. Both wearing haptic suits while walking through the halls. Not leaving the sim-room till like,” paused for a moment, presumably conferring with her PAAI, “8:17, four hours after the last class.” She smirked. “AJs for sure. I’d know; that was me two years back.”

Devin squinted at her back. “I remember that. They used to call you the Hellion. A right terror on the battlefield, a master of deflection and ambush. The highest rating in your entire grade, if I remember correctly.”

Narissa flushed. “There wasn’t a lot of competition. There have been plenty who’ve graduated from the TEF with higher ratings, anyways.”

Devin rolled his eyes. “Please, spare me the modesty. You’re one of the ten highest ranking Troopers to graduate in the past decade. Your name’s even on a plaque in the Atrium.”

Her mouth open, Narissa spun to look at Devin. “They put that goddamn thing up?”

Devin smirked at her. “What the hell did you think they were gonna do with it. Burn it? Let it gather dust in a closet never to see the light of day again?” Devin shook his head. “You might not have wanted to be reminded, but everyone remembers what you did. They’re proud for you, even if you don’t think they should be.”

Narissa clenched her fist, somehow managing to look angry and contemplative at the same time. She let out a long sigh, before relaxing as her face settled into a slight frown. “Whatever. They shouldn’t have put it up though. I told them not to.”

Rune spoke up, his curiosity finally getting the better of him. “What’re you guys talking about?”

Narissa just shrugged and sped, briskly walking the last few steps to the end of the corridor that led into the Atrium. “Nothing I want to tell you about.”

Rune looked at Devin, who shrugged helplessly. “Hey man, if she doesn’t wanna tell you, she doesn’t wanna tell you.” He smiled with understanding, nudging Rune on the shoulder. “Don’t worry too much though, someone will tell you eventually if you do decide to train here.” Devin then walked on by, following after Narissa who was standing underneath the aforementioned plaque with an aggrieved expression on her face.

Rune ran up behind the duo to look up at the plaque which merely read: “To the brave souls of the Lancer for uncovering malicious plot to undermine the sovereignty of the citizens of Terrassis.”

Rune frowned up at the plaque. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” He looked at Narissa with confusion and annoyance evident on his face as he stared at her.

Narissa just shook her head, and walked off, waving for him to follow. “C’mon, we still haven’t even made it to a fraction of the facility. Let’s get on with it.”

The rest of the tour of the Atrium was passed in relative silence compared to the first floor. They moved sequentially up the Atrium, touring each and every one of the facilities. The second level trained people to operate a variety of machinery and vehicles, mostly spacefaring craft with a few different types of advanced machines or weapons in the mix. One small section of this branch was devoted to the operation of drones, which, according to Narissa, had replaced fighter pilots. Rune eyed these particular facilities with extreme interest. He figured that out of all his options this was the school he was most likely to spend his time in.

The next floor was devoted to technology and scientific research. Rune zoned out as Narissa blabbed on about some class she’d thought was cool that outlined the process of building a sustainable space colony, but focussed when they actually entered a classroom. There were two groups of people when they entered, three crowded around a set of metal, bulky shoes, and two others currently in the midst of modifying some sort of gauntlet.

When they walked closer, however, Rune could see that what he’d thought was a gauntlet was actually a robotic arm! Or maybe it was a synthetic arm; Rune wasn’t quite sure. What he did know, however, that it was cool as all fuck! Rune was about to run over and start peppering the duo with questions, but Narissa caught his shoulder and warned him off with an amused shake of her head.

“Don’t bother the techies when they’re in the midst of fixing shit,” she cautioned. “One wrong calibration and the arm won’t work right for whoever needs it.”

Rune looked back and shrugged, committing the duo’s faces to memory. Despite what Narissa had told him about a bionic arm being a bad idea, he still wanted one. Maybe these guys could set him up, or at least point him in the right direction.

While they didn’t stop to chat with the duo working on the bionic arm, they did go over to the trio working on the boots. Apparently, they were a customized model that was both magnetic and equipped with small thrusters that could allow for propulsion in space without breaking the ankles of the user. Rune pretty much zoned out as they blabbed on out how cool a gadget it was, and how difficult it was to get it working. Rune figured that after he’d been in zero-g he might have a greater respect for the device, but as of now, he wasn’t overly thrilled. Shoes had never really been his thing.

After a solid ten minutes of listening to the tech students nerd about their gadget, the trio decided to move on. They finished the floor, passing by another few experimentation rooms and classrooms, before finally coming to the exit and proceeding to the fourth floor.

The fourth floor seemed to be devoted to what passed for in this day and age as computer programming, or as it was called nowadays, Attunement. As they walked, Narissa tried her best to explain it to him.

“So once upon a time, you’d have programmers write hundreds upon hundreds of lines of code to make devices or programs run, but not so much anymore.” Narissa frowned and thought for a second. “Nowadays, AI are complex enough to do it themselves.”

Rune frowned and gave a slight shake of his head. “Wait, so then if the AI write all the code to get things working, who writes the code for the AI?”

Narissa waved her hand in a dismissive manner. “Well, that’s not really the problem, AI just writes codes for one another, the problem is that AI can’t tell exactly what we need programs for.” She nodded as if the memories were all coming back to her. “So what interfacers—that’s just what people call them now—what interfacers do is not so much as to write the code, but write complex instructions that direct their builder AI to write the code needed. But I’m making something that’s super hard sound a lot easier than it actually is. I mean, of course, for simple things like getting basic machinery to work, it’s pretty easy. But when you’re talking about a super complicated interfacing between a human brain and an AI like your PAAI and you? Now it’s getting harder. Now imagine interfacing between an AI, human and ship systems. Insanely hard. These guys put in a lot of work, and make bank for it.”

Rune looked around with a frown on his face. They walked through a classroom, but the two people they passed were both working on holographic computers. Rune supposed that it could be really hard, but from what he could see he couldn’t tell. He shrugged. Who knew?

Soon enough, they passed from the exit of the fourth floor and went up to the fifth. The fifth floor was apparently the general education floor, where all the kids under the age of fourteen who applied for it got gen ed. They were all gone, having long since been sent back to their rooms or their families if they lived near the TEF. There wasn’t much to see, so the trio just passed through while Narissa pointed out curiosities for him that she recognized from her time in the TEF. Rune smiled and nodded along as they went.

After the trio exited the gen ed area, they went up one more level, into the roof of the Atrium. Devin turned to Rune and asked, “you like what you see, kid?”

Rune smirked at him. “How could I not. Getting to use battle simulators every day and getting recommended for a job for it afterward? It’s like a second chance to play with the laser-tasers all the young rich kids had that I never got to use.”

The group lapsed into a melancholy silence for a few seconds, before Narissa spoke up with regret in her voice. “Rune… As much as I’d like to tell you how much fun it’s gonna be, the TEF is hard. They’re gonna push you, to be better, fight harder, think more, uh, creatively. It’s just one huge competition to see who can rate the highest. And it’s gonna be a lot of hard work if you wanna come out at the top.”

Rune shrugged. “I can work hard,” he said the words with traces of arrogance bleeding into his voice. “I figure I’ll just sign up for the piloting school, I hit Ace rank in Whirl of Warplanes, I know my way around a fighter jet.”

Narissa frowned and shrugged, while Devin clapped him on the shoulder, laughing. “I’m sure you’ll do fine, kid, kick ass and take names. Right Narissa?”

She shrugged, the frown still on her face. “Yeah, I guess. Don’t underestimate the TEF though, they will push you till you break.”

Rune glanced at Devin, before snorting and casually shrugging. “School can’t break me.”

Devin laughed. “That’s the spirit, kid!” Narissa shot an ice cold glare at him. Devin cut his laugh off awkwardly, and the trio walked in silence along the corridor for a short way along the corridor until they reached the exit.

The final room was reminiscent of a lobby of some sort, except designed in a far more friendly and accommodating manner. Plush couches and chairs littered the carpeted room which boasted an array of colors that could match a rainbow. Wooden desks a color and grain reminiscent of mahogany were arranged in small clusters in what could pass for small study areas. A few tidy bookshelves, out of place for what Rune would’ve expected for the 27th century, dotted the room infrequently.

Striding out into the room, Narissa waved her hand in a sweeping manner and looked back at Rune. “This is the Enclave, where people come when they’re hanging out or studying.”

Rune spotted a couple students lounging about within the room, thinking that maybe they would go over and talk to them, but Narissa instead turned and walked along a wall until she reached one of the four exits to the room. Rune followed, and after turning into the hallway and then making another turn through a sliding steel door, Rune found himself in some sort of office. There was a slightly plump man sitting behind a desk, who looked up and smiled at them as they entered.

“Narissa,” the man said her name with warmth, “how incredibly good to see you! How have you been? Is your company doing well?”

Narissa smiled back at the man. “We’re doing great, Ajax. We’ve run four ops so far. The one in the reaches, a couple over in Helimgrad, and one long escort run from Psi Draconis to Densorice.” She spread her arms wide, showing empty palms. “They all went off without a hitch. That’s it. Now we’re back for a bit.”

Ajax smiled proudly at her. “I heard about your strike over in Helimgrad. You and your team dropped into the middle of the Blackwater den and shut down the reactor so the UIS cruiser could bombard the place. Well done. The world is a better place with scum like that behind bars.”

Narissa sighed and looked down. “I dunno. They had kids, you know? I—shit.” Narissa bit her lip. “It’s not like the holovids, you know. Just, you go out there, and you expect it to be all simple. It’s just not.”

Ajax opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it, giving Narissa a compassionate smile. “I know what you mean.” He peered over the desk at Rune and Devin, as if noticing them for the first time. “Hi, officer Charin.” Devin nodded back at him as a way of greeting, giving him a tight smile. Ajax turned his head to regard Rune. “Are you the transfer student I was told that would be arriving today?” He glanced between Rune and Narissa once, before his eyes widened in comprehension. “Oh! I see. He’s a new arrival!” He held his hand out for Rune to take, who quickly walked up and took it, giving it a firm shake.

Narissa spoke. “Yes, to both, he’s the new transfer student, and he’s also a new arrival. He wandered into the Dwelling last night looking lost as a Purist on Wet Street, so I thought I’d give him a hand.” Devin cracked a smile at the comment, while Ajax outright laughed.

“Well,” he spoke warmly,”always nice to meet a new fellow synth. Anyways, you’ll be staying in Room 778, which is in the Marban wing. That’s your room now, to do with as you please. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your courses, the school, other students, any problems, really, you can always come to me.”

Rune smiled warmly at the guy. He decided that he liked the rotund and overly friendly man. “Thanks, man.” He then cleared his throat. “But uh, didn’t I only submit the forms earlier today? Shouldn’t it take at least a day to process.”

Devin spoke up. “We’ve come a long way since the 22nd-century man. When a bureaucracy is primarily run by an AI, things tend to get done pretty fast.” Ajax nodded. Rune shrugged. It made sense.

Narissa spoke up then. “So, then, how about I show you to your rooms? You can move in today if you want, or tomorrow if you have stuff you wanna get.”

Rune shook his head. “No, I don’t have anything. Let’s just go to my rooms.”

The trio was about to leave the room when Ajax called out to them. “Remember, your orientation will be at 10:00 AM tomorrow, in the Atrium.”

Rune frowned. “Orientation? Is this just for me?”

Ajax shook his head, a smile on his face. “No, you appear to have come at just the right time. There is an orientation every semester, or six months, for new students. This semester’s orientation is tomorrow.”

Rune smiled. “That’s super convenient. Guess I just got super lucky.”

Ajax smiled at him. “That you did. Anyway, remember 10:00 AM, tomorrow, the Atrium. Some of your instructors value punctuality. Don’t be late.”

Rune nodded at Ajax and said, “I won’t be, thanks.” before the trio turned to leave the room. Together, they exited out into the hallway before exiting into the main room.

Narissa pointed out across the room, at one of the six total exits to the room. That hallway leads to the Marban wing. In total, there are four residential wings, the Marban wing, the Joseph wing, the Cooley wing, and the Anasa wing. She pointed at the exits, moving from left to right as she listed them off. Peering closer, Rune realized he could actually see the names of the wings on small plaques above the entrances.

Narissa set off across the room, weaving around desks and chairs, as she approached the Marban wing. “I can remember this place,” she said, looking around with a fond smile on her face. “Late nights spent studying, chatting with my friends…” Narissa trailed off, and what Rune thought was a look of sadness passed over her face, but was gone before he could quite tell properly.

A smile soon back on her face, Narissa kept talking. “I stayed in the Joseph wing while I trained here. I’ve been through the other wings a couple times. Joseph has the best dinner by five miles, but Cooley rooms have the biggest rooms by far.”

Devin snorted. “They’re pretty much all the same, kid.”

Narissa smirked. “Nah, Joseph’s way better than all the rest.”

It didn’t take long for them to pass through the Enclave and enter the Marban wing. They followed the signs that led to the seventh corridor of the complex and followed the hall towards the 78th room, near the back of the hallways. They walked up to the door, and just as Rune was about to ask how to open it the door slid open of its own accord. He frowned.

“Hey,” Rune said, confused, “It’s not just going to open like that for anyone, right?”

Narissa smiled and shook her head. “No, it’s keyed to your biomarkers. It scans your system remotely down to your DNA. Unless someone had a clone of you in front of the door, they couldn’t get in.”

Rune smiled and nodded, accepting the explanation. He wasn’t really sure about the science of it, but he figured the school was probably secure enough anyways. Turning around, he walked into the room, checking out his new place. It was very similar to the hotel room.

“Yeah,” Rune said, “It looks like my hotel last night. Not bad at all, for student rooms.”

Narissa shrugged. “Well, schooling nowadays is more expensive. When rich parents pay for kids to go to expensive schools, the thought is that the kids should have at least acceptable accommodations. I know that this probably seems nice to you, but your hotel room from last night should’ve only been like 150 GC. Now while in digicoins 150 might’ve been a lot, in GC that’s like nothing. It’s like the equivalent of 2 or 3 digicoins. That’s nothing. The costs of living are lower than ever before, and paying for something like this isn’t too big a burden on the TEF.”

Rune cocked his head, thinking as she spoke, then nodded when she finished. It made sense. “Yeah, guess that makes sense.” He trailed off, and silence filled the room for a few seconds before Narissa finally spoke up.

“So anyways, want to go check out the cafeteria, or do you want to stay here and just relax, surf the G-Web.”

Rune shrugged. “I dunno. I got a lot to think about. I think I might just stay here, figure out whatever website it is that replaced Newtube.”

Narissa smiled at him, a slight blush coming to her face. “Yeah, I’m sorry about the tour. It was a little weird. I just… didn’t think they’d put up that plaque and… Yeah.” She looked him in the eyes, sincerity written on her face. “Remember you have my G-Web address, if you ever need anything, please message me. And if you’re looking for a job after you graduate, well,” Narissa paused, and a sheet of paper popped out of her suit and into her hand before she held it out to Rune. “Here’s our business card.”

Rune took it, smiling at her. “Thanks a ton. And thanks for the tour too. I really appreciated it. I wasn’t expecting somebody to be nice enough to show me around the place, or even get me training. Thanks a million. I’ll definitely look you guys up once I’m out of here.”

Narissa smiled, and wave at him as she and Devin walked back towards the door. “Awesome, well, hope to see you after you graduate. Good luck, kid!”

Rune smiled and waved as the two left, the door sliding closed behind them. After they walked out of the room, Rune let the smile on his face slip off. For a stranger, Narissa had been exceptionally nice to him through these last couple days. Helping him with the BFS, giving him a tour of the TEF, these were the actions of family, not random strangers. While Rune would love to take the kindness of her actions at face value, Rune knew the truth of the world. When people were randomly nice to him, they wanted something from him.

Rune walked over to the desk and issued a mental command. Paine, pull me up my holocomputer.

Sure thing. The response was near instantaneous, and a holographic computer sprang to life on the sole desk within Rune’s room. It was time to do some research.