Chapter 2
Saturn's office was eerily quiet. There was no clock on the wall to tick, no Newton's Cradle on the metallic desk to click back and forth rhythmically, no window to let a whooshing breeze in… It felt to Lucas as though he had stepped out of a spaceship and onto the surface of an undisturbed, unknown alien word - which, quite honestly, was very fitting for an organisation called Team Galactic, but any sort of humour to be found in that knowledge was lost as the boy walked quietly across the room with a very forced calm, extremely conscious of how his footsteps seemed to echo deafeningly in contrast to the silence. He could see a large swivel chair behind the desk, facing away from him. Was the Commander even present? Lucas wasn't sure, and this just made him even more nervous. He hoped to Arceus that he had remembered to put on deodorant this morning, not least because he could already feel beads of sweat starting to form on his forehead. He cleared his throat politely.
"Commander Saturn, sir," the boy said in an attempted professional tone as he placed the envelope on the large desk, "Your documents, as requested."
For a brief moment, Lucas' words were met with silence, and he feared that he might be talking to an empty chair, if not an empty room, but then the chair suddenly started to move, slowly rotating so that its occupant soon faced Lucas.
Saturn hadn't changed much appearance-wise since Lucas had first battled him and his fearsome Toxicroak all those years ago. His meticulously styled dark blue hair still gave the impression that the man had horns. Granted, there were very faint streaks of grey in that hair, with the most subtle of age lines on the Commander's cheekbones to reveal that, for as tireless as he seemed, Saturn was now entering his mid thirties, and it was starting to show, albeit just barely. When he spoke, however, it was with that same smooth voice he had used when Lucas, as a youth, had first encountered him. That silky smooth, softly spoken voice that both then and now gave Lucas chills for more reasons than one. It was somehow both unsettling and relaxing at the same time. Even as a kid, hearing words coming out of Saturn's mouth, words that were typically cryptic and perhaps carefully chosen to be so, had set Lucas' teeth on edge, making him cringe with unease. It was like an ASMR effect, with the resulting tingles proving unnerving rather than pleasuring.
"Papers in a sealed envelope. Curious how something so simple, almost mundane, can change the fate of this entire organisation," Saturn mused in that eerily calm tone he was known for as he placed one finger on the envelope and dragged it across the desk toward himself. "Handled poorly or with care, they will shape our tomorrow because you… a simple courier… have brought them before me today."
Courier. That was the proper name for Lucas' job. He'd have to remember that. Still, he again found himself feeling that sense of discomfort that came from listening to Saturn's monologuing.
"So many employers tend to forget how much of an impact each and every worker, from the highest ranking executive right down to the janitor, can have in a company's bigger picture. They are like a house of cards - take one away and everything can and most likely will fall apart. Your job may seem simple, perhaps even bland, but I implore you to never take it lightly, Lucius."
"Lucas, and I'll keep that in mind, sir. Thank you," Lucas said, turning to leave.
"So eager to leave my sight, I see," Saturn said, a hint of knowing amusement in his voice, his words causing Lucas to halt. "Look at me, Lucas. Turn to face me."
Uncertainly, Lucas obliged, not sure what his boss might be thinking. Then again, no one really knew what Saturn was thinking most of the time. He had always been kind of mysterious.
"My eyes are up here, not down there on the floor."
Admittedly, Lucas felt a little guilty that his first instinct had been to avert his eyes. Somewhat reluctantly, he brought his grey eyes up to meet Saturn's piercing blue ones.
"Tell me, Lucas, does my appearance… intimidate you, like a Pokemon's ability cutting through its opponent's attack stat? Does my carefully tailored uniform make you feel… inadequately dressed by comparison? Does my hair make me seem like a Pinsir about to grab you in a Vice Grip? Do my eyes burn into you like a Fire Blast?"
"…No, sir."
Saturn closed his eyes briefly, letting out a soft chuckle. "You are a terrible liar, Lucas. Know why? Your body language betrays you. One can tell a lot about a man by the way he stands, the way he moves, the way he acts. Without even opening your mouth, you tell me a story, Lucas. A story about you. A story that is you, and like any written narrative, your story has twists and turns, elements that are both surprising… and not surprising at all. That uniform you wear… You do not wear it with pride. You wear it with doubt, perhaps even regret. You regret what might have been, what could have been had you chosen a different path. The look in your eyes… It is a look of longing. Longing for a forgotten dream to return in the form of reality."
Lucas said nothing. His nervousness was rapidly becoming overshadowed by a deep sadness. In truth, this sadness was nothing new to him, but he had tried to bury it under a forced smile and a reassuring quip when around those he cared about. A wasted effort, for his mother could see it, his Pokémon could see it, and now his boss, a man that he was by no means close to, could apparently see it as plain as day at a mere glance…
"You took this job because you feared you could do no better, given your past endeavours," Saturn summarised, pressing a button under his desk, causing a panel on the floor to slide open, a small chair rising up from the depths. "Sit. I'm going to tell you something important."
Lucas sat, still not sure where Saturn was going with this. The Commander leaned forward slightly, his eyes firmly locked on Lucas' troubled ones. Despite having found it difficult to meet Saturn's gaze before, the boy was now afraid to look away.
"Team Galactic is no stranger to making mistakes, Lucas. You of all people should know that. It is a part of human nature, and one that Cyrus sought to change with his extreme methods. What he failed to realise, however, is that the very point of making mistakes is to learn from them. You cannot bury your mistakes, Lucas, but you can build upon them, use them as the stairway leading onward and upward to a future. Your future, and if studying the flow of time and the expanse of space has taught me anything, it's that there is no future without a past to plan it upon… and a present to construct it upon."
Saturn pressed another button on his desk and a compartment opened up on the top left of it. The Commander reached in and pulled out two small glasses and a bottle of amber liquid. Lucas recognised it as bourbon. He watched as his boss poured a small amount into each glass before handing one to him.
"Let us drink to the future, Lucas. Your future… and the future of humans and Pokémon the world over."
Lucas was honestly dumbfounded. His boss, Commander Saturn, was sharing an alcoholic beverage with him out of pity? To try and motivate him? It seemed so strange, but again, Saturn's mind was an enigma that was probably best left unquestioned, and thus, Lucas drank from his glass cautiously, part of him wondering if he ought to be drinking on the job regardless of the circumstances, another part of him wondering if Saturn was more in touch with - and caring towards - his employees than he typically let on.
"I should probably be getting back to work, sir," the boy said as he set his glass down on the desk, half of its contents remaining. "Still, thank you for the, um, pep talk. And pep drink." With that, he got to his feet and started for the doorway.
"Lucas?"
Lucas froze, perhaps a little too suddenly, for he heard Saturn chuckle softly again in knowing. The boy slowly turned his head to glance back at his employer with what he hoped was a politely enquiring look and not one of misplaced rigid terror.
"Know that I prefer my employees to feel free to speak their minds rather than stay silent out of fear of antagonising me," Saturn told him, glass of bourbon still in hand. "If you have something that you know you ought to voice, then you would do well to voice it. Keep that in mind, and keep up the vigilant work while you're at it. Remember that your role is more important than you might believe, Lucas."
Lucas nodded rather offhandedly, just eager to get out of Saturn's office. "I'll try my best, Commander, and thanks again."
Once he was alone in his office, Saturn topped up his glass and took another sip, wisely knowing to make it his last serveing of alcohol for the day. "That boy..." he mused quietly to himself, a number of enigmatic thoughts going through his head underneath that decidedly imposing hairstyle.
