"My husband comes here nearly every morning for coffee," she admits with a small smile. "We don't have any on Atlantis, although that will hopefully change soon." Those coffee trees should be maturing this spring, if all goes well.

Adia scans the horizon once more, and points excitedly when she spots the nice cream vendor's familiar red and yellow umbrella. "Oh! I see him! Right over there."

Olivia's words certainly ring true for Adia, who had her mettle tested more than once during those hard, dark years. "We're okay," she says reassuringly. "The war ended nearly three years ago. It's, um... it's a very long story, but we found a new home for ourselves on Earth, on an island that we named Atlantis. And we were very fortunate to keep much of our medical technology, so our quality of life is very good."

Ah, so Olivia does not handle any of the customer side of funeral services. That kind of makes sense based on her stoic expression and her self-described low empathy. "I guess we all try to choose work that plays to our strengths," she says thoughtfully. "I really like microbiology. I study infectious diseases, specifically, and that sometimes weirds people out, like, why would I work with such potentially dangerous diseases? But I find it fascinating, and in the end, it helps save lives."