Rebellion

Outside is always filled with people walking around. Even in the smaller towns, everyone is outside during the day. Living in the city though, it just means hundreds and thousands people are out at once, doing what they need to for the day. With the area so heavily populated, I had to guess that there are some people who have been targeted after rebelling, and I want to see how many there are.

If there’s too many then I won’t be able to help. It would only mean I would have to get more people involved and I don’t want to do that. If there aren’t that much or if it’s manageable with what I have and who I have now, then I can do something.

“Damn, I’m so bored.” Sirus groaned as he slouched in his seat, leaning his head back.

I wasn’t going to pay attention to him when he complains. And that was a lot. Apparently, telling him we can’t do anything today took the fun out of what I needed him to do.

It’s not like scoping the area is supposed to be fun anyway.

He wore the programmed contacts, and had black sunglasses on right over them. The tint made it a little difficult to see the blue glow but that wasn’t the issue. The sunglasses made it hard to see who was linked and who needed help. With the effort Sirus had to put in, he was starting to think this was work.

“You have an hour left.” I told him. I would hope that he was paying attention so his eyes aren’t damaged by the contacts.

However, an hour seemed too long.

He groaned again. If he doesn’t stop, he will attract unnecessary attention and that’s not what we need. He didn’t say anything else to me, all he did was push his plate of food towards me.

“You need to stop that.” I said quickly.

“What?”

“Stop feeding me, okay. I don’t want your food.” I said, yet I was pulling his plate towards me. This is the last time.

It’s been like this all morning. And for some odd reason, we ended up at a restaurant as if I hadn’t had enough to eat already. I was hungry anyway and apparently Sirus wasn’t.

“Considering how you don’t eat when you’re extremely focused, I’d say you do.” Sirus mentioned and looked around. “If I’m not there to make it for you, you’ll forget.” He said.

“I have no idea why but I’m always hungry.” I sighed.

Sirus looked my way slowly. It took only a second for me to get what he was thinking. If those sunglasses weren’t hiding his eyes, I would get that glance even quicker. He started to smile to and that was a dead give away to what he was thinking.

“Stop.” I told him before he could say anything vulgar.

He just bit his lip, moving his hand under the table. And I know exactly where his hand went.

“Sirus, stop.” I warned him.

“Relax, I’m just messing around.” He smiled.

No he’s not.

“And besides, we have plenty of time later for me to feed you.”

I dropped my fork and gave up. He just had to go and say it. Why am I not surprised? He laughed when he saw that I really didn’t want to tolerate his behavior today.

“I’m kidding.”

“No, you’re not.”

“You’re right, I’m not. But you still need to relax. That’s why you’re so stressed all the fucking time.”

And he doesn’t help with that.

All my stress right now is coming from one situation. I need to get my life under control so I can solve this problem but for some reason I get worse when the problem does. I need to find a different way to manage my stress because all this isn’t working.

Maybe I’ll worry about it after I finish eating.

“There’s ten more.” Sirus said as he looked at a group of people walking by across the street.

“Ten?”

In one group? That’s too much. They must all be friends or related and they all must support the rebellion too.

“A few behind them have already been reset.” Sirus said.

So that just means this group of ten is looking for someone to help. Fortunately for us, Orion and Lunar decided to use their day off to help out.

“I just hope they don’t attract attention.” I said quietly as I pressed my fork down into the barely touched rigatoni.

“What’s really attracting attention is wearing a turtleneck in March.” Sirus commented.

I looked down and stared at myself. I actually like my turtleneck. It’s not even hot either so a turtleneck is perfect. And considering how I’m always cold, I can wear whatever I want to keep myself warm. What’s his problem?

“You know, wearing your uniform isn’t that smart.” I pointed out to him. Wearing all black doesn’t help either, plus the sun is out and he’s just going to get hot.

“I don’t have any weapons on me-”

“That’s not the point.” I cut him off. “That gold badge just says that there might be an investigation going on, and you’re obviously spying on people in the open.”

“You know what, I’m still on the clock so I’m not doing anything.” Sirus looked around again, planning to ignore me. But I was stuck on the fact that he was actually supposed to work today.

“Are you kidding me?” I kicked his leg under the table so he would look at me. “You have tracking devices all over you but you decided it was okay to spend time with me out in the open looking for people who are part of the rebellion.” I hissed.

“Janus doesn’t watch me,”

“He’ll start once he knows you’re with me.”

“I have this entire area surrounded so I’d know if Janus decided to come check on me.” Sirus said.

That’s even worse.

“That’s an abuse of power.”

“Protecting your ass is an abuse of power?” He didn’t seem to believe that it was.

“I don’t need you to-”

“I wasn’t asking you how you felt about it, Aurora.” He stopped me. “I already had an issue with getting involved with this mess but I didn’t stop you hard enough.” He said. “I’ll be damned if something happens to you and no one is around to take the lead.”

“It’s not a hard problem to fix.”

“Did you fix it yet?”

“Well I’m getting there-”

“That’s what I thought.” Sirus really loves doing this to me doesn’t he? Just silencing me so I can’t say anything about what I think.

I get where he’s coming from but I don’t need him to protect me. If Janus has someone hurt me, then it happens, whatever. But Sirus doesn’t need to use his title and the fact that he has a small army behind him to have me protected. That’s wasting resources and I don’t want him to get in trouble for it.

“You know, all you have to do is say you care about me and I’ll understand.” I said, hoping to poke the obvious nerve.

I’d guess that Sirus just rolled his eyes.

“Why do I have to say everything for you to understand?” He asked.

“Because you’ll come off as controlling and obsessive if you don’t.”

He scoffed and shook his head, ignoring me again. Sirus swears he isn’t controlling but that’s all he is. And it’s just as bad as me. We both want to have the power and that’s what makes it so hard to agree sometimes. I remember our first year together, it was just constant fighting about how things were going to go. He can deny it all he wants but we both know it’s true.

“If I can say all that gross stuff for you, I think you can mention how you feel about me once in a while.” I said casually, looking down at the plate.

“I do care about you, but it’s to the point where I catch you doing stupid shit and I want to cuff you to the fucking door so you can’t go off and do more stupid shit.” He had no problem getting that off his chest.

“Sorry I like helping people.” I was sarcastic.

“Now you’re making me look like an asshole.”

“You do that yourself.” I covered my mouth to keep from laughing too loud. He looked my way again, and I bet he had enough to deal with.

I make Sirus angry all the time. Nothing’s changed. He gets so frustrated by me that he has to find a place to take out his anger on. I have to admit that I have done a lot of stupid stuff lately, to the point where I am a criminal. Still, nothing has changed. I’ve been hacking and destroying things from the inside for a good portion of my life. Not that I went looking for the problem but I always look for a decent challenge.

“Okay, I’m sorry.” I couldn’t hide my smile. “I know you’re just as stressed as I am so I won’t say anything.” I was being sincere this time.

Sirus only looked away without responding. He probably won’t talk to me for five minutes or so which is enough time for him to gather data for me.

I didn’t mean to piss him off so early on in the day. Honestly, I was messing around with him too but he got mad. That happens for him so easily. I can’t say it’s cute to his face but his slight temper for small situations is funny. When it’s the bigger stuff, it’s no longer funny.

“There’s eight more.” Sirus said.

“Why are they in groups?” I murmured to myself quietly. If their deactivation is happening in clumps then it makes sense. I’d think Janus would be more careful but he has the power to do what he wants.

And no one else knows why this is happening to them. No one knows why they can’t go to someone to get it officially fixed. Instead they have to keep quiet about getting it fixed illegally.

“What are we going to do if this doesn’t get solved?”

“We?”

“Yes, Aurora, we. As in everyone helping you.” He snapped. “I’m trying to understand why you think you go through everything alone.” He got more aggravated.

I know I don’t. Do I come off like that?

I stopped eating for a moment to think. If this problem doesn’t get solved, then it doesn’t get solved. And there’s nothing I can do about it.

“We’ll fix it.” I said after thinking for a little bit.

The part that worries Sirus is that it won’t be easy to fix the situation. I already figured that it won’t be easy two weeks into the situation. I’m still trying to find an answer to all this but I can’t yet.

“You know, you can tell me if you’re worried about me.” I said, wondering what he would do about that. He looked towards me but didn’t say anything; I couldn’t hide the smile on my face as I ate.

“Why do I have to tell you everything?” He finally asked again, more irritated than the first time.

“Don’t you want me to know?”

“I don’t get worried.”

I continued to smile, picking up my fork and putting more food in my mouth slowly as I watched him. I already know I bother him. It’s fun to do it. He straightened in his seat and lifted his glasses up so I could see the bright blue glow in his eyes.

“You know, I can see absolutely everything about you.” He said.

“You’re not supposed to.”

“Your password isn’t hard to figure out.” He said. My smile faded. “I think you need to calm down and get it together.”

“You care?”

He narrowed his eyes. “This again? It hasn’t even been ten minutes, Aurora.”

“Tell me.” I smiled again as I ate.

“You’d throw it in my face.” He said and sat back in his seat. “So no, I have nothing to say.” He crossed his arms. “By the way, I never bitch this much about you saying anything to me.” he wanted to point that out to see if that would make me back off.

It didn’t.

“Sirus, whenever I say something meaningful, you have a habit of rolling your eyes and walking off like it’s no big deal.” I said.

He had that look like I should try him. It’s going to be a waste of an attempt. Sirus might have gotten over a lot of his issues with telling me things, but he retains his habits. He doesn’t like talking about himself. He doesn’t like hearing me talk about him even in a positive manner. Anything that might make him feel some type of way is not good to him. So he might’ve given me the look like he could probably hold in whatever he was going to do that let’s me know that he doesn’t want to hear what I have to say but he will do it.

“I don’t bother you with anything because unlike you, I don’t have to worry. You know how to handle yourself, no matter how violent it turns out to be.” I shrugged. “Plus you know I care. I trust you, don’t I?”

He put the glasses on so I couldn’t see him roll his eyes.

“I knew it!” I knew he couldn’t handle it.

“The sun is bothering me.” He looked away and began to fight whatever outburst that was about to come out of his mouth.

Sirus needs a little shove in the right direction, but I wasn’t going to push him yet. I’ve gotten enough from him. He’s trying and I guess that’s all I needed. We’re both trying. We might not be successful all the time but at least we’re doing something about it.

“Well I’m going to go. Clearly I maxed out on the attention I can get from you.” I said and got up from my seat.

Sirus was going to ignore me no matter what. He doesn’t like when I take things too far. If I ask him another question, he’s only going to curse me out.

As I walked by, his hand latched on to my arm to stop me. He didn’t move from his seat, he wasn’t even looking up at me. His glasses hid his glance, whatever glance he would have. I wasn’t sure what he wanted or if he wanted something. I would feel bad leaving without consoling him.

My arm lifted so I could move my hand into his. For a second, he didn’t move. My fingers intertwined with his, feeling the warmth of his skin.

It’s not everyday this happens.

But I like it.

After a few seconds he turned and looked at our hands. Then he looked up towards me, his brows furrowed.

“The fuck are you doing?” He asked.

“Goodbye, Sirus.” I snatched my hand away. “I hope we never see each other again.” I turned and left so I could go to work.

I had things to do. I might as well not pursue whatever subject this was about to turn to.

I needed to get to work.

There are more important things to worry about.

I was busy working on a project that I had to have finished in two weeks. It’s more of an independent thing, but because I’ve been rebellious for a while, I was using NASA’s resources. I do work here after all, so there can’t be any harm done.

Today, it’s taken me hours to get this working.

I think I was on my sixth hour.

Altair was sitting in the only chair in the room. Since I’ve been standing for six hours, I was hoping to sit down but he hasn’t gotten up ever since he got here.

I tried to focus on the project instead of the pain in my legs.

“What the hell are you doing?” He asked me finally because he was dying to know.

“It’s a gift for someone.” I said as I did some fine tuning on the program.

“Looks intense.” He didn’t care.

Altair was always the nonchalant one, the one that always looks like he doesn’t care. Most of the time he doesn’t, but deep down he does on occasion. For him to care, it has to be truly amazing.

He is the absolute epitome when it comes to the phrase “mind my own business”. That’s all he does. When people say it, they mean it for a second before going to find out dirt on someone. I’m not even as committed as Altair is. When I say I’m minding my own business, I’m already involved in whatever I wasn’t supposed to care about.

“You’re a little early for your assignment scheduling.”

A little was an understatement.

“I have intel.” He said.

Of course. They all do.

“Canada and Latin America aren’t affected as bad, however Libra and Haroldo still are trying to deal with the problem.” He told me. “Other Defense Heads from different countries are trying to talk with Janus about the situation but all he says is that he has no idea what’s happening.”

“I’m not surprised.” I said bleakly.

“They’re calling him incompetent.” He added.

“Considering he’s the cause of the problem, of course he wouldn’t want to fix it.” I said and put on black gloves.

I was still focused on this program. On the white table was two black bands. It looks like nothing more than plain pieces of material that someone would put around their wrist and arm. However, there was more to it than just that.

What I have to work on now was getting the program to run like I’ve been trying to do for three hours.

I turned on the gloves and lifted my hands so a hologram of the entire hard drive would come up.

“You’re a real nerd, Aurora.” Altair said.

“This is what I’m good at.”

For a good portion of my life, I’ve been engineering all kinds of things. To learn all about this was hell, being forced to understand concepts as complex as these holograms itself in a year or less was probably the worst time of my life, but it was definitely worth it considering how I know how to do a lot of things.

Hacking the Computer, and the finely tuned system for society wasn’t taught to Coordinators. I somehow figured it out myself. All my knowledge doesn’t come from one source.

“Is there a reason why you took apart a name brand device?” He asked, referring to the mess of debris on the floor.

“I reverse engineered the latest product that ended up completely being useless to the Department of Defense.” I rolled my eyes.

“And how could you possibly do that?”

“My mom is one of the engineers for the new stuff with the brand. So let’s just say I have access to everything if I want it.” I shrugged.

My family is all about science, and it doesn’t matter what field it’s in. We’re the type to believe we could use it anywhere.

So to have a mechanical and aerospace engineer for a mother and an environmental chemist for a father really gave me a head start. It has its perks as well, considering I get to hear about all the new things that’s supposed to happen.

The new product isn’t meant for the general public. In fact, this brand that’s mostly common among normal civilians has been asked to help the Department of Defense. The new product is for sector leaders, more for tracking and communication, stuff like that and things no one cares about because everything they have now works fine. So that’s where I come in.

I only planned to work on one, but then I thought why not start from scratch? So I did. It’s not like I’m going to market these anyway. Society won’t gain much from it. The one I’m working on would have access to a lot more than just the basics. And if I do this right, I can probably configure identity settings on there as well as different modes for the contacts that I’m also working on to reprogram.

It sounds like a lot.

It’s been three days and I’ve failed multiple times so I start over from where the problem starts. I still have fourteen days.

“Is there something bothering you, Altair?” I asked because he was still here after watching me do something that really doesn’t interest in. “You aren’t one to stick around when bored.”

I actually was a little concerned.

He’s not the only one to stay around with me recently.

“It’s weird being on both sides now.” He said. “I don’t know, I guess I didn’t think of myself as one to be persuaded easily.” He was confused.

“I’m sorry if what I’m doing puts you in a position that makes you uncomfortable.” I was serious when I apologized. “If you were to stop everything now, I wouldn’t try to hold you back.”

“You’re misunderstanding.” He said.

I turned around to look at him because now I was confused. Like usual, he had that nonchalant look on his face.

“I would choose your side in a heart beat even if you were set on world domination.” He admitted.

“That’s problematic.”

“You know what you’re doing.”

“Which is illegal.”

He only shrugged like it didn’t matter when it did.

I’m starting to believe this blind loyalty may be what will get me in serious trouble later on. I know it’s good to have people on my side but I would never want to drag anyone into doing crimes for me. I know I’m trying to help, and everyone wants to help me, but there are laws about what’s happening. And what we’re doing is against those laws.

“It’s great that you’re concerned for us, Aurora, but we’re old enough to make our own decisions.” Altair said, snapping me out of my thought process.

If I go down, everyone goes down with me. I don’t like that.

I waved my hand so the hologram would turn off, the green light fading in the room.

“The thing that people don’t get is that I am responsible for all of you once you get involved. Not only do I have to think of ways to protect myself, but I have to find ways that ensure you don’t get caught as well.” I explained to him. “And I know you’re well capable of watching over yourselves but I physically can’t just not worry about any of you.”

No one seems to understand that. What kind of person would I look like if I only tried to make sure I didn’t get caught and not anyone else? It’s not kind on my part. It would be a waste of time if I lost everyone that was supposed to be helping so I’m going to do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“Understood.” Altair said.

Now we’re on the same page.

I turned around and waved my hands again for the hologram to lift in the air.

“Is there a reason why you won’t come back?-”

That question was definitely bound to happen and already I wanted to put an end to it while I still had the chance.

“Alya didn’t tell you?” I asked.

“She did but I would prefer to hear it from you.” He said.

“Its not a lie, if that’s what you’re thinking.” I said plainly. “It started happening after a year of being here.” I said.

Talking about it seems to help a little, but not enough to make a significant difference. My stats are alarmingly high, higher than its ever been. No one has ever broken the psych test, but my mental state will do it.

“After trying to deal with it for another year, I realized I had to resign or I wouldn’t get better.” I explained.

“So how about now?”

“It’s so much worse than when I was Commander.” I said and put my hands down. “It feels like I’m drowning every day.” I admitted.

It’s a nightmare I’m having trouble getting away from.

“I know it won’t make you feel better, but the first night we got to this planet, I didn’t want to leave.” He said.

Most of the Flyers didn’t want to leave. In fact, a good portion of the Coordinators and regular civilians didn’t want to leave and come down to Earth.

“I told myself that it wasn’t going to be a big deal, you know, like I step on grass and I won’t explode or nothing.” He continued. “But I get here, and I see everything we were told about and I’ve never felt so overwhelmed in my entire life. I was fucking gone, I couldn’t stay cause it just wasn’t something I was used to. But after a while, I knew that I might as well get down here because this was where the world was.” He said. “It took a while, but I got used to it, you know, I dealt with it and any of that weird fears I had since I really had some weird fears.”

“Please tell me you didn’t believe that rumor about the sun burning people to death.” I sighed.

“That was the rumor that made me stay inside for the week everything was being built.” He laughed. “But my point is that, it takes time.”

“Gosh, Altair, I would have never thought you were the type to give advice.” I turned to look at him, amazed with his skills to empathize with others.

“Considering how you ain’t special, I knew what to say. We all have problems, Aurora.” He said.

Of course we do.

“Plus, I would prefer if you got your act together so you could be Commander again, cause this shit bites.” He looked away and moved his hand in his hair, pulling at the thick black curls.

He’s gone back to nonchalant again.

“I never planned on coming back even if I got better.”

“Yeah, you thought.” He said dryly as he continued to pull curls in his hair.

None of them will respect my decision but I sort of figured that. I guess it’s nice to have people devoted to wanting me as their leader even though I am incredibly unfit to do so.

Altair finally got out of my seat.

“I’m still waiting for my assignments.” He said as he began to walk out.

“Yours is nine-twelve. I’ll be down in half an hour to give you the rest.” I said.

I really did need to finish this device. Fourteen days really isn’t a lot of time. I thought I would be okay but the hologram shattered which meant the system fried. Again. I sighed quietly to myself and picked up the small band on the table. I just have to start over from where the problem begins.

I had enough time to reboot the program and go down to give Altair his assignments before Hariette wanted to speak to me. For some reason, I haven’t seen her for a few days now, and its gotten me slightly worried since the last time I saw her, I got her pissed off at me.

Plus she gave me awkward advice so I think a little distance may have been good. She stared at me for a long moment, and in my mind I thought that she thought something was off about me. I stared right back at her because I had no idea why she needed to talk to me. There was a smile that crept on her face but she turned away before getting to the point of it all.

“So I had an idea.” She started as she walked around. “I heard more about your issue from one of your friends, it’s not hard to get them to talk.” she said.

I put my hand to my forehead and sighed. This is not fair.

“But...I thought that using a signal instead of having to configure every tablet you see would be better.” she explained.

I didn’t understand. What signal? How would this signal work? Is it traceable? We could get in trouble if we aren’t careful.

“It would operate sort of like the drones’ signal, but it would be across a larger radius.” she said.

That was a good idea, I had to give her credit for that. But there are drawbacks to that considering the situation. “That would work better if this was nation wide, or state wide, and what we’re dealing with isn’t that big...yet.”

The rebellion is happening in certain locations, just random cities in different places. The idea would be hard to work around.

“Well.” she shrugged.

Unfortunately, I like to take on a good challenge.

“If you don’t mind, though...” I switched to suck up mode. “I would actually like to go ahead and implement the idea.” I said.

That could come in handy as a back up, or even as a threat. If I could have a signal strong enough to ruin the system’s core, everything would crash and I would have made my point to Janus. He’d have to come forward about what he’s doing, and chances are I would be arrested but at least that would help with the rebellion.

I really do need to weigh out the options of doing this but I didn’t mind getting started. Who knows if I’ll actually get it to work but I would love to give it a shot.

I wanted to try to be appealing to Hariette but I’m not much for the ass kissing, or so she would call it. I’m still practicing that skill and Hariette is tough to please.

“As long as I don’t know about it, that’s fine.” she waved me away.

I don’t want her to lose what she has either. Anyone that even talks to me could get in trouble because of what I’ve doing. Today I’ve come to terms with how what I’m doing could potentially ruin my life and I haven’t had a panic attack since. Tomorrow might be a different story, but I was going to take whatever comes towards me.