Insurrection on New Planet

by Elsie Charlotte

  It was still dark and Sirus was still asleep. I only took off my shoes before getting into bed next to him. My mind was still wrapped around the issue I encountered. Maybe Sirus might know something about it. It’s easier to talk to him about all the bad things I do anyway, it’s not like I have a reason to lie to him.

  I pushed on his shoulder to wake him up.

  “Sirus...”

  “What.” He hissed angrily and turned over.

  “Remember all those years ago when we found the glitch in the Computer while on the mother ship?” I asked.

  “Hm.”

  “I found something that’s sort of like that.” I said.

  He didn’t respond for a moment. Then he turned over again, and I felt his arm moving over my waist to bring me closer.

  “What did you do?” he asked, accusing me of doing something, like it was my fault. And people ask the question like that a lot.

  And it’s never my fault!

  “Some woman’s phone had a glitch, it said she didn’t exist.” I told him. “So I fixed it but a glitch like that shouldn’t happen and I’m worried-”

  “It’s probably not a big deal.” Sirus murmured.

  “You do know a person’s identity is on that, right?”

  “Its one out of millions.”

  We don’t know that. We don’t know if its just one. We have no idea if there’s more out there. And honestly, I think there is.

  I caught myself beginning to panic so I told myself to breathe. For me to not have an anxiety attack, I have to breathe. The one thing is that I can’t say it’s not my problem. I just have to find a non stressful way to handle it.

  Sirus already fell asleep after a minute of silence. Of course he would be no help at three in the morning, I don’t know why I tried. I should’ve brought it up later but I couldn’t help it.

  This is the only thing I’ll think about for the rest of my life.

  I spent the rest of the early morning looking around in the dark and proposing theories about why this woman would have something terrible done to her like that. Honestly, our devices don’t malfunction. It’s the one thing that shouldn’t. I wouldn’t be saying this if it was a drone or robot or some computerized system that’s supposed to handle something minor. But when its something that has everything about who we are, then it really shouldn’t malfunction for any reason.

  Even when the sun rose, I was thinking about this. I was so tired but I couldn’t sleep.

  It was the anxiety keeping me up.

  I wanted to wake Sirus up again because this problem is so bad. I had to keep reminding myself to take deeper breaths because I felt the uncomfortable pain in my chest. Luckily I didn’t freak out so much that I would’ve panicked. I stared at Sirus when I could finally see him from the sunlight. He hadn’t moved all night, and honestly, it was a reasonable hour so he should be able to talk to me about this situation.

  My mind stopped reeling after five minutes.

  I looked at Sirus’ face, and realized how after all these years I never get tired of looking at him. Usually I say that not a lot of things changed, but that’s not true, a lot of things changed. We’ve changed. And that’s what happens as people get older. I guess I can tell that he’s older now, even after I’ve spent so much time with him.

  There’s not much I can say to that.

  “Hey...Sirus...” I nudged his shoulder under the blanket. “You’ll be late if you don’t get up.” I said quietly.

  Nowadays, he stopped caring. He talks about how difficult things become, and usually I know he loves a good challenge, but he says this is different. He doesn’t enjoy any of it anymore.

  He probably doesn’t want to go in today.

  My hand moved to his neck, my fingers trailing his skin and making their way up to his face. His hair is getting bigger, curlier, and thicker, and he refuses to do anything about it. He just leaves the mane alone. My fingers pushed his hair back and my palm pressed against his cheek. I got the sudden urge to keep my fingers moving, to touch around his face, to feel his skin, as if the previous night wasn’t enough for me.

  But I let my hand drop to the bed instead, and I shuffled closer to get warm.

  “And you wonder why I won’t get up.” Sirus mumbled.

  I mashed my lips together, and hoped on my life that my face wouldn’t turn red.

  “It’s too early for you to talk.” He murmured.

  “I barely said any-”

  He shushed me.

  I didn’t feel compelled to keep quiet but I did anyway. I had a lot to say this morning. If I wait a minute or two, maybe then I can say what I want to say.

  That minute only turned out to be a few seconds.

  “Sirus, you can’t just not show up.” I told him, and I’ve told him this multiple times.

  He groaned and turned over to ignore me. After years of this, I’d think that he’d come up with a better mechanism for that but I can honestly just get under his skin without trying too hard.

  “Life is about dealing with people you don’t like.” I said.

  “Tell me about it.” he mumbled.

  “I’ve done it for years-”

  “I don’t count.” he said.

  I remained quiet. I don’t hate Sirus. In fact, he makes everything fun now and then. Maybe more so than not. I find it easier to talk to him but we’ve been together for years so of course I would be use to him by now. His violent mannerisms aren’t so violent anymore, he has a tendency to not care, and he lets everything go for the most part. I’m not sure if this is what it’s like for him to grow up.

  “You don’t count.” I said quietly.

  He sighed and got out of bed finally, moving his arms up as he stretched. It was like all he needed was to hear me say that. “I can’t wait to do something else-”

  “Like what?”

  “I’ll figure it out when I get there.” he walked off to the bathroom.

  That’s one thing that hasn’t changed. I wonder if Sirus gets stressed like I do, or maybe he gets bothered by the things around him. It’s always hard to tell if he’s okay or not. It was even harder years ago. Usually when he’s angry, and I mean about to kill someone type angry, he just disappears and I wouldn’t get to see him for hours. I wonder what he does now.

  I laid in bed and stared up at the ceiling. The only thing I wanted to do was listen to the shower water running, but my mind quickly had other things to pay attention to.

  I wanted to know if Magnolia was fine, if the glitch didn’t come up again. Maybe I’m just overreacting, then again, things like this shouldn’t happen. I know I still have this unwavering trust for the system, but I know the system, and it doesn’t glitch. At least it shouldn’t. I couldn’t seem to get my mind off that exact thought. One day, the curiosity will eat me alive.

  I pulled the blanket over my head and tried to focus on something else, on anything else, but I guess I still have a habit of being preoccupied with other people’s problems.

  There isn’t a reason for me to worry.

  I can tell myself this all I want, but it just seems like it won’t be long before I drown in anxiety.

  “Hey,” I heard Sirus’ voice above me. That was the only sound that snapped me out of it. I didn’t know how long I was being paranoid for. “What were you going on about earlier?”

  “Oh.” I curled up more under the blanket and thought for a second before asking, “Malfunctions don’t happen a lot, do they?”

  “As far as I’ve seen, no.” he answered.

  “Well I met a woman last night while testing the new bikes-”

  “How’s it ride?”

  “Like air-don’t interrupt me.” I moved out from under the blanket. He tossed his jacket at me, it hitting my face. I barely even moved when his jacket fell on to my lap. As long as I show he doesn’t bother me, everything will be fine. “Anyway, her phone wasn’t working, it said she didn’t exist.”

  “Not dead?”

  “Nope. N
on-existent.”

  “It probably doesn’t mean anything, and if it does, I want no part in it.” he said and pulled his shirt over his head.

  “I’m sure-”

  “No you’re not.” He turned around. “Don’t fuck this up, Aurora, okay. I know how you love finding shit out and doing shit to get yourself in trouble and I just want you to stop it.” he almost started shouting.

  He makes it seem like all he wants me to do is sit down and do nothing.

  “You always tag along...” my voice got quieter when he began glaring at me.

  Sirus hates the test of loyalty. He will always tag along even when it makes him uncomfortable. And I have to admit that I feel a little bad that I do that to him, well now that I look back on it. I guess I can’t go looking into this situation.

  In fact, I should be dealing with my stress first.

  I laid back down in bed and sighed loudly, showing my irritation. But I was going to give up anyway. “Fine.” I won’t do anything.

  I bet that puts Sirus at ease.

  He continued to put his uniform on without saying anything else. I had more questions but he’ll hate me if I say any more. If I could get my mind off this situation, that would be great. I would love to think about something else.

  Before I knew it, I felt the bed dip near my legs and no second later did I see Sirus above me. I had absolutely no expression on my face because I know what he’s thinking. I wasn’t going to give in so early in the morning, if that’s what he’s thinking.

  “Don’t go trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.” he said.

  If I tell him there is a problem that might exist, he’d get annoyed enough to yell at me. But I wasn’t going to start another massive scene just because I think there’s something going on.

  “Mhm.”

  So I give in, not that Sirus would believe me upon the first gesture because I tend to go out of my way to figure stuff out anyway.

  “I’m not kidding.” he insisted.

  “I know.” I said. I know how much he hates it, so I won’t do anything I’m not supposed to. “I’ll be good, I promise.”

  He smiled. “Now that wasn’t too hard, was it?”

  If I can save myself the stress then so be it. But I guess I didn’t want Sirus to stress out either. Maybe I’m making this a big deal. There’s nothing wrong with saying I won’t do anything when I really won’t.

  Sirus moved closer to me but I wasn’t caught off guard when he kissed me. Knowing him, he was going to use this as a distraction so I can’t tell him that he has somewhere to be. For now I wasn’t going to tell him to stop. This is the least stressful thing that has happened to me in the past twenty-four hours.

  It wasn’t till I felt his hand between my legs that I realized this was a mistake. I didn’t try hard enough to resist but Sirus will reach that point where I will have no choice. I wasn’t in the mood to give myself up today.

  His hand pressed harder on me, making me move my legs up. I didn’t have the urge to say anything until he let his hand slip in my pants. Kissing me isn’t a distraction, and after so long he still doesn’t understand that.

  “...no.” I said against his lips.

  “Fuck.” He groaned and got off me. “I swear.” He snatched his jacket off me and got up to leave.

  “Have fun.” I said and added, “Be nice today.”

  He didn’t have anything else to say, at least out loud. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was cursing me out as loud as he could because that’s what he’s good at. I had to admit that it was funny to see him irritated.

  I had other things to look forward to today. There aren’t any surprises, anything out of the ordinary.

  Everything just seems so perfect now.

  Yet, I can look at my health and see it slowly climbing. It wasn’t alarming, at least to me, but there was something that told me I should get myself under control before it actually does become alarming.

  The last thing I need is for the Department of Human Resources to get a hold of me.

  Again.

  I’ve been doing good for months now. I don’t need anything to happen to me. I don’t want the stress. I don’t want the anxiety. I’ve been doing fine.

  I went into work quietly, reminding myself to mind my own business, only to find someone waiting for me.

  I recognized her long braid that was over her shoulder and her neatly cut bangs. Compared to last night, now I could clearly see her face.

  “Magnolia.” I smiled at her.

  She came by with someone else today. He was an older man, his badge saying he worked as a teacher.

  “She said you helped her with her phone.” He shook my hand. “I’m having the same issue with my tablet, I couldn’t even get in to work this morning.” He said.

  He gave it to me to see. When I touched the screen, I saw his name and picture but no other forms of identification.

  This is the second time this has happened.

  I wasn’t that secretive as I held my tablet up. Hopefully no one really says anything. It’s not like the drones would recognize if something this out of the ordinary was happening. For now, I wasn’t worried.

  I placed his tablet over mine, face down, and a hologram showed up, his tablet resetting with all of his information.

  “Please don’t tell anyone I’ve been doing this.” I told them as a precaution. “I’m not even supposed to know how to fix the issue.”

  No one is.

  This is what I get for experiments.

  “That’s fine. It’s just that I know a few more people with this happening to them.” He said and looked at Magnolia.

  There’s more than two.

  This is the type of problem that makes me worry. I wanted to ask who else but I can’t just go and save everyone as much as I want. I can’t just stop working to go out in the streets to find these people. I wanted to, but I have to come first. I can’t be everyone’s savior.

  But this is the kind of problem awareness should be brought up for.

  Maybe I could get a little bit of help. Though it took me months to modify my own tablet, it should take days to modify someone else’s to do the same thing that mine can.

  “We don’t know why this is happening to us.” He said.

  “I would like to help, but since I’m the only one that can do this it’s going to take a while.” I told him and handed my back his tablet after making sure it was functioning right. “If you can give me a couple days, I might be able to get someone else to help.” I said.

  It shouldn’t be any of my business.

  But I don’t want to leave people stranded.

  “Thank you, you’ve been a big help.” He told me and Magnolia nodded, happy that I could assist.

  I wonder who else is out there with this problem.

  Chapter 3

  There’s two reasons why Sirus might bother me at work. One, it’s an emergency. It’s almost never an emergency. Two, he’s bored and horny. It is always the second one.

  There are some days where I can handle it and other days I just can’t.

  I’ve been stressed out too so I can’t pretend this isn’t helping me. Sirus is actually good at getting my mind off things that really shouldn’t matter.

  So when I have the chance to sneak off and do something different for maybe half an hour, then of course I’m gonna take that chance.

  We hid off in a room that was empty. The lights stayed off and the doors were locked. My hands stayed clenched against the wall; Sirus had his arms tight around me and his hand over my mouth to keep me quiet. Apparently I was having a bit of an issue. It was rough enough already and he expects me to just be silent.

  He messed up my hair and my clothes. He’s holding me so tight that I’m going to get bruises.

  It was hard to keep focus.

  My fingers were beginning to scratch the wall. My eyes shut tight and I breathed deeply through my nose. By accident, I bit Sirus’ finger but I kept bitin
g on purpose. If he won’t let go then neither will I.

  He breathed in my ear and I heard his low grunts and moans as he moved roughly against me.

  It just felt too hot, like I would drown in heat. If I had taken my shirt off, then I wouldn’t be suffering. The heat on my face wasn’t making me feel any better; I knew for a fact that I was bright red but that’s not the only thing I’m thinking about. My legs were weak, my fingers hurt, I feel like I’m going to melt. This is all while Sirus is having his fun with me.

  And he tried so hard to keep me quiet because he definitely knew how much I had to do something. He doesn’t get to push me against the wall and do this to me and expect me to keep quiet the entire time does he? His hand didn’t move from over my mouth, and my teeth continued to bite his skin, just a little distraction to keep me from screaming out.

  Today was the only day I could tolerate it.

  I was just waiting for that one moment when I’d be able to cum and go back to work. I know Sirus loves taking his time with me, which isn’t out of the ordinary. I don’t like playing around but he does. I wanted him to stop messing with me but my mouth was covered; my hands hit the wall to show my irritation and I know he knew that I was losing my patience just by the way he laughed in my ear.

  It’s so easy for him to get away with whatever he wants.

  His fingers slipped in my mouth, pressing down on my tongue to get me to open up wider. My lips wrapped around his skin before feeling his fingers move around in my mouth. He didn’t keep his fingers in my mouth for long; when he pulled them out, he just touched me lower, his fingers wrapping around my cock and stroking me just as roughly.

  My hands stayed pressed against the wall as I tried to hold myself up. Sirus leaned more of his weight on me, making it harder to keep my knees from buckling and giving out. I closed my eyes tight when I was close; Sirus covered my mouth again before I could do it myself. My hand was on his anyway, just hoping that I could keep my voice down.

  For a second, all I could think about was how hot it was, how easy it was for me to succumb. I did my best to keep quiet as I came; Sirus’ hand only pressed harder when my moans got a little louder.