Insurrection on New Planet Page 9

  “Oh.” Well he wasn’t surprised. “So what are you doing about it?”

  “I’m really tired of people bugging me about a person I don’t know. I’m also tired of being asked to come back as Commander when I’m sure everyone thought I was incompetent.” I explained bitterly.

  I don’t want people complaining to me. I don’t want to hear their problems. It does not involve me. It doesn’t have anything to do with me. The fact that the new Commander gives a sketchy vibe is not my problem. The fact that he does things differently is not my problem. The fact that he makes people uncomfortable is not my problem.

  Sirus let go of me, giving me a chance to fix my clothes. I wasn’t sure how I should clean up the mess, although I didn’t have much on me. I pulled my pants up and tucked my shirt in before buttoning. I had to shrug Sirus off me just so I could fix my collar.

  I moved down on the floor to search for my headband but I couldn’t feel where he dropped it.

  “I’m just gonna put this out there.” Sirus said behind me. “Not one person has ever called you incompetent. No one ever really disliked you. If anything, you had shit handled. So I’m just trying to figure out why you pity yourself so much.”

  I never explained any of this to Sirus so of course he didn’t understand how I was feeling. Then again, I have my moments of pitying myself. I’ve done things that weren’t right, I’ve made terrible decisions, I started a war, how could anyone want to go through that again? I couldn’t say anything to Sirus, as much as I wanted to talk about it, I couldn’t find my voice.

  “So what now? You’re still gonna feel sorry for yourself?” He asked as I got off the floor.

  I sighed. “No, Sirus, I’m not-”

  “Then act like you won’t.” He said as he moved his hands in my hair.

  He put something on me to keep my bangs back. It took me a second to realize he had my headband the entire time while I was searching on the floor.

  I was more concerned with what he just said. I just really wanted to explain myself to him but I didn’t know how.

  I turned around quickly when I thought he was about to leave. On impulse, I just took his wrist so he wouldn’t go, and I didn’t actually mean to. But...I wanted to tell him something and I hoped that he would listen.

  “I...” I didn’t know how to...say it. “If I come to the decision that...it’s okay for me to come back, I want to do it on my own terms. Being begged and threatened to come back doesn’t make me feel right.” I admitted.

  I just...I want to believe that I’m not a rebound option, like they can’t find anyone better than Janus so they have no choice but to pick me again. Based on what Sirus said, I know that’s not the case, but it’s hard to change how I’ve been looking at things for a few days. I know it’s a cry for help from them, but I can’t fight for the position like they want me to do. The stress would eat me alive.

  Sirus stared at me for a moment, not because he was stunned but because he thought I needed the second to find myself. I wasn’t embarrassed that I admitted how I felt, it was just...weird. It’s harder to put what I’m thinking into words. And I’m still in that mindset where I think Sirus won’t understand. That’s my fault though because I never really tell him anything.

  “Okay.” he finally said.

  There was a wave of relief I felt that finally calmed me down. Now I felt a little better than before. My hand let go of his wrist so he could leave.

  “Is Ecilia really here?” he asked after another moment.

  “No, you cannot go off to Spain.” I already knew where he was going with that. I know Ecilia and what she plans to do fits right in with what Sirus enjoys and that’s a terrible combination.

  Knowing Sirus, he would say something along the lines of how I can’t control him anymore but he won’t go just because I said so. He’ll complain about it, but he won’t go.

  I walked ahead of him as he continued to pester me about it and after a while, I stopped responding to him. He just tagged along behind me, listing all the good reasons why he should go away for a week or so, but the big excuse is to not do work. I know him. All he cares about is doing the absolute minimum he can get by with.

  “Unless you have anything better to do, which does not include having sex with me, I think it would be best if you leave.” I said as politely as I could but I’m dealing with Sirus so I wasn’t that polite. My fingers were clenching around my tablet tightly as he wasted more of my time.

  “The original plan was to come for the assignments for the-”

  “Your sector isn’t schedule for that today.” I said over him.

  He waited anyway, still wasting my time. Why is he like this? What did I do wrong to get this? Sirus can be so annoying sometimes and it drives me insane. Everyone is just so excited for the new motorcycles, and I would feel better if Janus actually went to the Department of Transportation for this, but no, apparently NASA has nothing better to do.

  “Your number is two-thirty-six.”

  “That’s cute.” he said plainly. “Were you waiting to tell me that?”

  “Well it would be easier to remember instead of losing the most valuable bike in a group of thousands and having to start them all to figure out which one didn’t glow blue.” I said and added, “Please don’t tell anyone that I’m giving you special privileges, I would hate to lose this job, too-”

  I stopped talking when Ecilia stood by me. We both stared at her because she quietly came over and I didn’t notice till she was standing right beside me. I thought she left already since her only purpose was to make me scared, though she failed at that miserably. She held her sunhat in her hands, her brunette hair over her shoulders.

  It wasn’t my business to stay here.

  The two of them together is a bad combination, so I was going to walk away like I don’t know what’s about to happen. I have work to do anyway, it would be better if I went and did it instead of pretending like there was nothing going on.

  Taurus was waiting for me in the room we were hiding in before. From where she was, I’m sure she could see how I left Sirus and Ecilia to talk among themselves. I walked into the room quietly and shut the door before swiftly taking a seat next to her. There was a lot to tell her.

  “I’m never going to get over you being able to fit in my pants.” Was the first thing she had to say. And I was hoping she wouldn’t.

  “You wear a lot of high waisted stuff.”

  “Because I look good. I didn’t expect you to look better.” She complained.

  “Before we talk about that, let me tell you what happened.” I looked out the glass again, staring at Ecilia and Sirus having the time of their lives.

  “When you walked off with Sirus?” Taurus asked.

  I turned to her slowly. “No.” I answered. “Apparently, Spain -scratch that- Europe is threatening me to become Commander again.”

  “Like full on threatening?”

  “Like war threatening.”

  She had a confused look on her face but that is literally the look I had before. She gets it. Why would they cause a war just because I’m not in power? I know that Janus is the problem, everyone else is just assuming he’s the problem. Honestly, I’m not going to cave.

  “So, do you want to go back?” Taurus asked.

  “Not really.” I answered but I sounded unsure of myself. “I think I don’t. I’m not interested anymore.” I explained myself but even that wasn’t reassuring enough.

  Before Taurus could respond, she looked up as someone came in the room we were in. I turned halfway as Serberous took a seat right beside me. Did he really come all the way here just to see me?

  “Hey, Serberous, it’s been a while.” Taurus said.

  “I know. I heard you’ve been climbing the ranks.” He said as he slid a box to me.

  I didn’t think he would finish so soon.

  “I tell Hariette to slow down with all the promotions but she says I’m the only person she’d allow to take her place whe
n she resigns.” Taurus explained.

  “I’d take her place.” I said quickly. This is the first I’ve heard of Hariette planning to resign. I’ll take her position.

  “She doesn’t want you to.” She laughed and covered her mouth. I figured that. Hariette still doesn’t like me enough. “What’s that?” Taurus pointed to the box.

  “Just a thing.” I said casually.

  “There’s seven pairs in there. I still have the rest of the contacts but I’d rather use those to improve the defects.” Serberous said.

  “What’s it for?” Taurus brought her chair to the other side of me because we were ignoring her.

  “Just some rebellion stuff.” Serberous answered for me.

  Taurus has known me way too long so now she doesn’t get shocked when she hears something about me. She’ll mostly pretend but she expects something to happen.

  “These contacts can only be used for three hours. After that, they will start to fuse with the eye and that’s not good.” Serberous said.

  That sounds like a terrible defect. But three hours is more than enough time. I’m just happy he finished so quickly.

  “I couldn’t find a way to shut off the lighting on them though.”

  “It’s still blue?”

  “The more I tampered with it, the brighter it got, so I stopped touching them.” He said.

  I was about to go on about something else but I had this weird feeling Taurus was staring at me, and I was right. I looked back at her wondering what she wanted but she was looking at the both of us. I didn’t get what she wanted but by the expression on her face, she was misunderstanding something.

  “It really has been a while.” She smiled. “Gonna give me a pair, Aurora?” She asked, hinting she would tell on me if I didn’t.

  “I would prefer if...” I stopped talking when she began to pout. Serberous was laughing beside me, not because it was funny, but because he knew I would cave.

  I opened the box and picked up one small container so I could give it to her.

  “You can brief me on the situation later.” She said and got up before I could take the contacts back.

  I sighed and put my head down on the table. This is not going well.

  “Taurus will obviously be good to help.” Serberous said.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Well, I just wanted to give you the finished prototypes. They’re good to use until I figure out a way to make them more efficient.” He said and got up. I lifted my head up slowly to look at him.

  “Thank you for helping me.” I said kindly.

  “I actually owe you a lot of favors. This was just one of them.” He said. “Call me if you need me.” He said as he left the room.

  I have six pairs left.

  For now, that’s a lot. I knew who was going to get them to help. Hopefully, this will speed things along so we can find more people and fix their devices. I don’t expect it to be a large population of people so this won’t last long.

  At the end of the day, I had to work up the nerves to actually want to give Sirus a pair of contacts. He will only consider this a toy and it pisses me off because he does that with everything. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to change the settings on his tablet to include the contacts.

  But here I was, trying to make this easier on him because I needed his help.

  If he didn’t have the most exposure to different areas to help him find more people with deactivated devices I wouldn’t have given him anything.

  However, I do need his help and I have to admit that he would be able to get a lot done on his own.

  I sat on the couch next to Sirus, trying to get him to focus but he really had other things planned instead of listening to what I have to say. He insisted on spending our free time on doing something dirty, which I have been telling him no for the past thirty minutes. We’ve had our fun earlier this afternoon, so I would appreciate it if he would focus because I had things to show him.

  He was the one that told me he didn’t mind helping with the rebellion, but I wish he would act like he did care.

  I curled up on the couch and pushed the sleeves to my sweater up to my arms. This technically isn’t my sweater, which is why it’s big but I don’t have a lot of clothes to wear when I’m staying with Sirus so I end up wearing his clothes. He kept tugging at the shorts I wore, wondering if I would take them off but I was incredibly adamant about getting him to stay focus on me.

  “Sirus, please focus.” I said as I moved the white box on my knees. “I’m pretty sure you want to hear this or you’ll hate me later.” I warned him.

  “Fine.”

  “These contacts should help with finding who has a deactivated device.” I held the white box with the contacts Serberous gave to me.

  I synced the contacts’ program with my tablet so it would be able to recognize anything unusual. Anything the contacts find, I will be able to know about it.

  I opened the small box and took a clear contact on the pad of my finger.

  “Once you turn these on, you have only three hours to keep them on, okay.” I told him seriously; it’s very important that he listens to me about this. “If you keep them on longer than three hours, they could end up frying your cornea and I’m really sure you don’t want that.” I said as I put one of the contacts in for him.

  “This isn’t safe then.” He said.

  “It’s safe...for three hours.” I said and put the other contact on for him.

  He blinked so they could set in properly. When they aren’t on, they’re clear so no one would tell that he would have contacts in.

  “Here’s another thing. When you turn them on, they glow bright blue, so everyone will know you are wearing contacts.” I told him. They do not turn blue, they glow blue. Sirus better have this under control. “Do not show off cause I only have a few more pairs and they’re not just for anyone.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  It wasn’t a suggestion!

  I took his tablet that I put behind me on the couch and looked through the changed settings I put in. I turned on the pair of contacts he had in his eyes and they shined bright blue.

  “Is it hard to see?” I asked when he squinted.

  “Sorta.”

  He blinked and looked around. The only information he should be able to see is mine. My tablet was on the coffee table so a bit of my data should come up. I haven’t tested the contacts myself. Serberous was there to do that for me. Apparently, it is a little difficult to see with them on, but they are just prototypes, it’s not like I had a perfected plan for them.

  I turned off the contacts and the blue color began to fade.

  “Only use this when you think you need them.” I said but apparently he wasn’t paying attention to me. I took his face between my hands so he would look at me. “Only use this when you think you need them.” I repeated myself again.

  “Alright.” he groaned.

  “They are not toys, I do not have replacements.”

  “I get it.” he snapped.

  “You always say you understand but something ends up happening anyway.” I sighed and got up off the couch, pushing the sleeves down to my hands so they would cover my fingers. “I don’t have replacements so don’t break those.”

  “I don’t break things...on purpose...”

  “Well don’t break it on accident either!” I turned back to yell at him.

  He has no idea how much effort and trouble I went through just to program those small microchips to sync with my tablet. I wanted to yell at him to take this seriously but I didn’t have anymore strength for the day. I was tired and wanted to go to bed instead.

  It’s been a long day. I think I deserve a little time off to rest and try to ease the tension that returned again.

  Chapter 7

  “Don’t you have to get going?” I asked as Sirus held me tighter in bed.

  He was already dressed to leave but he was reluctant because I had a panic attack last night. He’s pre
tending that he’s horny, but I know the signs when he’s horny. This morning, he’s just worried about me. He won’t physically tell me but I get it.

  “I don’t really have to, and it’s not like I want to.” he said and pressed his face into my neck.

  “Isn’t Janus strict about being on time?” I asked.

  “Hell yeah. That’s why I don’t care.” Sirus said, completely ignoring the fact that I was trying to push him away from me.

  He does this entire thing all wrong. Sirus isn’t much for being pressured into doing things he doesn’t want to do. It’s either he wants to or he doesn’t. It only depends on the person giving the orders. And he doesn’t like Janus. For any reason. I wish Sirus wouldn’t have such terrible behavior though. Now that he’s actually helping me with the rebellion, the first person they’re going to go ask questions to is him. With his nasty attitude, they’ll be able to learn a lot.

  “Well, I need you to do something for me.” I said.

  “Anything, baby.”

  I tried shoving against him again just because of that but his arms tightened even more so the force wouldn’t push us away from each other.

  “I need you to get me a list of coordinates of where there’s rebellion outbreak.”

  “Like an entire list in all three regions or just our area?”

  “What’s easier for you?”

  “Let’s start small. That’s less work.” he sighed and snuggled up closer to me. I should’ve known he would’ve said that. “I didn’t think you’d want to get involved this much, considering how you gave me a speech about this not being your problem.” he said.

  That’s what I thought, too.

  That’s exactly what I thought.

  I didn’t have a response for him. It shouldn’t be my problem because it doesn’t involve me, but these people are losing their lives just because they want to put awareness out there for a flawed system. It may be a minor flaw but it’s still a flaw. And there’s nothing that says they can’t say anything. What I want to do is protect them, to find a way to help them keep their lives and say what they want to say. This rebellion isn’t hurting anyone. This isn’t what we were dealing with before.