In a dim­ly lit cafe­te­ria, the pro­tag­o­nist, Mick­ey, shares a meal with his friend Berto, who play­ful­ly encour­ages him to indulge in the food avail­able. Despite the atmos­phere being slight­ly tense due to the pres­ence of Secu­ri­ty per­son­nel, Berto, try­ing to ease the mood, orders rab­bit meat, which shocks Mick­ey, but Berto insists that he’s not will­ing to starve him­self. Mick­ey feels out of place as the group’s sub­ject of ridicule. As they order food, Mick­ey can only keep his choic­es under a thou­sand kcal, hence set­tling for pota­toes, fried crick­ets, and a small sal­ad.

Berto rem­i­nisces about a dar­ing aer­i­al maneu­ver he per­formed in a flit­ter weeks ear­li­er, claim­ing he gath­ered bets on his abil­i­ty to fly through a nar­row rock for­ma­tion. Mick­ey, ini­tial­ly impressed, becomes furi­ous upon real­iz­ing the gam­ble involved risk­ing his own life for mere calo­ries. Berto brush­es it off as no big deal, but Mick­ey’s frus­tra­tions boil over as he real­izes that their friend­ship has been tar­nished by this reck­less behav­ior.

Their ten­sion esca­lates when Dar­ren, a mem­ber of the Secu­ri­ty team, con­fronts them at the table. Ini­tial­ly try­ing to dis­miss it, the sit­u­a­tion esca­lates as Dar­ren pokes Berto, press­ing him. Berto retal­i­ates, lead­ing to a phys­i­cal con­fronta­tion that quick­ly spi­rals into chaos with Secu­ri­ty per­son­nel join­ing in. Mick­ey finds him­self tack­led to the ground as he tries to help but is over­pow­ered.

The after­math unfolds in Mar­shal­l’s office, where the two friends con­tend with the con­se­quences of their actions. Mar­shall, the author­i­ty fig­ure, probes them about the fight. Berto cap­tures the mood of the inci­dent as a mis­un­der­stand­ing, deflect­ing blame towards Dar­ren. Adjust­ing the nar­ra­tive and lever­ag­ing sur­veil­lance footage show­ing Berto’s reck­less stunt, Mar­shall cri­tiques Security’s judg­ment while resolv­ing that Berto must face increased scruti­ny, reduced rations, and addi­tion­al work duties. Berto’s pre­vi­ous antics and dis­re­gard for rules weigh heav­i­ly as Mick­ey shares in the con­se­quences, receiv­ing a ration reduc­tion for mere­ly being asso­ci­at­ed with Berto. In a tense atmos­phere, both walk away real­iz­ing their pre­car­i­ous posi­tions with­in the colony.