Celeste
⌛Chapter Three⌛

"Hariette stresses me the fuck out." Celeste laid back in bed, aggravated by her situation. "I've called her five days in a row, and she doesn't want to talk to me." she complained miserably. "Don't fucking give me a project and then not say shit about it. What is she expecting from me?" she tossed her tablet to the side of her bed.

"I mean, she did just give it to you without saying anything else. What did you think you were going to get out of her?" Zinnia asked her.

"I don't know, but not this." she said angrily.

Celeste was expecting more.

Zinnia lifted herself up above Celeste. "You know, I feel like this whole intelligence thing is a curse." she said. "You're the hottest engineer I know, but the anxiety isn't cute." she said truthfully.

Celeste stared up at her blankly. "I am hot," that was the only part she listened to.

"You are hot." Zinnia agreed with her and smiled as she lifted Celeste's shirt up. "Stop working yourself up." She looked in Celeste's eyes. "That's how you'll get stressed."

"Well, it's easier said than done." Celeste sighed as she looked up towards the ceiling. "I don't like when secrets are kept from me."

"You think people won't keep secrets?" Zinnia was curious. She rested her head on Celeste's chest, her hand still in Celeste's shirt.

"It's not that, it's..." Celeste took a breath. "If you knew something was bad, would you still do it?" She asked.

"What's the outcome?"

The implant is supposed to be a good thing. It's supposed to help. It's supposed to do good. The only reason the project was done was in hopes to implement it for society.

"If you don't want to do it, you don't have to." Zinnia moved up again. "No one is threatening to kill you."

"Yeah, but I'd feel bad disappointing Hariette." Celeste sighed to herself. She physically felt like she had to finish it.

"You shouldn't be doing things for other people." Zinnia warned her. "That's how you get hurt."

"You're so guarded-"

"You can't trust anyone." Zinnia whispered to her and smiled. "I mean, if we were outlaws or spies, that would apply. It's not like Hariette is doing this to hurt you. But if she's keeping secrets, it's her secrets." Zinnia explained. "Not everyone will tell you the truth."

"Do you tell me the truth?" Celeste asked.

Zinnia smiled down at her. "When I said we're keeping this casual, I meant it, Celeste." She continued to smile.

"It's been casual for two years."

"And I like it like that." Zinnia could feel Celeste's unrest.

It wasn't a no strings attached kind of relationship. But Zinnia didn't want to commit too much, not because she didn't like Celeste. Relationships were serious to her, and she knew what Celeste would do for her. It was a lot, and sometimes could be overwhelming.

Zinnia wasn't there yet.

She couldn't stand when Celeste had such a sad expression on her face. And it's not her fault. Her girlfriend was telling her to keep their relationship casual, how was she supposed to look? Zinnia moved her red hair out of her face and smiled again, softer now because she wanted Celeste to feel better. "I have a while before I have to go to work." she hinted that they could do something.

Celeste would always agree.

In fact, she moved Zinnia down on the bed at the slightest hint that they could spend the morning together. Today Celeste was off, and she was going to try and take that chance to harass Hariette once she got a hold of her.

However, until then she was going to take care of her girlfriend.

Celeste pulled down Zinnia's underwear slowly as she kissed her neck. Her fingers traced her skin slowly, making her tense slightly as she moved them. She took her time to let her fingers move inside Zinnia, but she didn't keep them there.

She was a tease.

Zinnia knew what she was getting herself into. There was a chill going up her spine when she felt Celeste kiss her chest, right between her breasts. Celeste's fingers were moving slowly, feeling around her first. Her lips trailed down further, pressing on her stomach. She felt Zinnia quiver beneath her as she got closer and closer to where her fingers were.

Zinnia definitely loved seeing Celeste between her legs. There was nothing that could turn her on more.

Celeste's fingers spread Zinnia's skin even more, and she was already dripping. Celeste could only wonder what she was thinking about all morning. Celeste put her mouth on her gently, her tongue lapping over her skin.

Her hands spread Zinnia's legs apart more. She pressed her tongue down flat to taste all of her before closing her lips. She could hear Zinnia's quiet moans and whimpers.

Celeste knew what she liked, what made her cum quick.

She thought about taking all morning, that it should be fun to make her cum more than once.

"Celeste..." Zinnia breathed out hard.

She could feel Celeste's tongue licking inside her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to control herself, but her heart raced while Celeste kissed her skin.

Zinnia lifted her hands in Celeste's hair, pushing it out of her face so she could see her maroon eyes. Celeste looked up towards her, putting her fingers in her mouth before she let them inside Zinnia slowly.

She always put her heart into everything.

Zinnia moaned and let her head rest on the pillow again, her fingers tugging on Celeste's silver hair.

This was how they sometimes spent their mornings.

Their afternoons.

Their evenings.

Zinnia was moving her hips, trying to ride the heat. "Yes..." She breathed out heavily as she got close. "Yes, yes, yes!" She felt Celeste's fingers inside her, too, twisting and curling, her thumb rubbing over her clit as she kissed there, too.

Celeste could feel her thighs press together. Her other hand spread her. Zinnia's thighs were quivering. Celeste was rubbing inside her faster, keeping her at the edge longer.

Celeste wanted to watch her. She lifted herself up over Zinnia's twitching body, her fingers still in her, Zinnia's thighs begging to press together but couldn't. Celeste watched as Zinnia moaned loudly, getting closer to her climax. Celeste's fingers were curling inside her, being squeezed by Zinnia's warmth.

Her eyes shut tight when she reached her climax. Celeste smiled as she kept her fingers deep inside Zinnia to feel her shake. It was always rewarding getting to watch Zinnia cum, especially when she makes a sweet face like that. Celeste had some comments to make, but she waited, mostly because it looked like Zinnia was in a daze.

Zinnia's dark eyes were hazy as she looked up at Celeste. She definitely wasn't done yet. With the way Celeste looks at her, it was hard to resist.

"Take your clothes off." Zinnia said, breathless as she tugged on Celeste's shirt.

At this rate, she's going to be late for work.

Celeste didn't mind.

She was off today and had a few errands to take care of.

Well, since Hariette wasn't responding to her, she had to find a way to get the answers she was looking for. If Hariette wasn't going to give it to her, there had to be someone else.

She remembered that woman she saw in the video but she hadn't met her before. However, she does know her son.

A few things were starting to come together. Celeste was going to get answers today.

Celeste walked into the main hospital of the city.

She knew someone that worked here, but she wasn't here for them. She saw the young man with white hair and glasses. He wore a white coat and a badge on his sweater. She recognized him, after all they went to school together for a few years.

Now and again they would see each other.

Celeste didn't feel bad about going over to him with her plan to distract him. She did that with a lot of people.

"Hey, Clover." Celeste smiled as she leaned against one of the tables. She gave a flirtatious glance to the surgeon that was trying to review a few images.

He stopped everything, holding his device close to his chest and blushing as he looked up at her. He had white hair that curled around his face, and his eyes were pale. He was a shy man, though he was really good at his job.

He looked up at Celeste who was slightly taller than he was. There was a redness to his cheeks as he looked at her. His heart raced, too. It's been a while since he's seen her, yet an old crush had flared up inside him.

He already knew she was taken, but he couldn't help but dream.

"W-what can I do for you, Celeste?" He looked away to the images again but he had his attention on her.

"How are you a trauma surgeon, but you can't even look me in the eye." she got closer to him, hoping he would look up again to meet her gaze.

There was something about pressing up against him that made him sputter. She knew that about him. She teased him more often than not to see him blush. He was terrified yet so turned on at the same time.

It seemed that Celeste would use her charm on anyone.

"I'm just..." Clover didn't know what to say.

"Shy?" Celeste stopped teasing him. She took a step back to give him some space. "Come on, you really need to get out of that box of yours." she urged, and she's been doing that for years. "You have no idea how many people would be all over you if you just let yourself get out there."

"I like the hospital." he said.

"Find yourself a cute physicians' assistant." she was interested in finding someone for him, someone that would be just as shy, but talkative enough to get him to talk, too.

"Lets talk about something else, Celeste." he wanted to change the subject.

"Well, I'm actually here for your mom. Do you know where she is?" she asked him, curious.

"She might be in her office. Her schedule was clear today."

"Thanks." Celeste said to him, and before turning away, she said, "we're going to work on finding you someone." she was sure of it.

He wanted to tell her to let it go but he didn't get the chance. She had already walked away.

There was a reason she needed to see Clover's mother.

Celeste hasn't talked to the Head of Health and Medicine before. She's heard of the woman. And she saw images of her. She knew that Clover was her son, but Celeste didn't realize how important the department head was. She was part of the project that Hariette had.

She wasn't very tall. She didn't give off the same energy as the other people she was surrounded with. Celeste could tell she was different. The woman had her white hair tied up high on her head. She didn't have this worn out expression on her face. Celeste had seen this in many other people.

"Doctor." Celeste had walked in the room without so much of a knock on her door.

The woman looked up from her work. She was confused, she wasn't supposed to have appointments today. "Can I...help you?" She wasn't sure why someone was here today.

"I'm Celeste." She introduced herself.

Everything stopped immediately.

The doctor's eyes widened as she stared at the young woman standing in the middle of her room. For a second she thought her eyes deceived her. Then she cursed that she couldn't recognize Celeste the second she came in. She was up out of her seat and she ran over to the door to close it because this shouldn't be an open conversation.

Celeste was surprised to see the small woman move so fast like she was hiding something. It almost made Celeste feel like she could get her answers today. Clearly the department head knew that this was going to be a private conversation. "Did Hariette warn you?" Celeste asked.

"N-no." The woman said, a little unnerved. "I just have a feeling there's only one reason you want to speak with me."

The project was a secret. No one else should know. The blood had drained from the woman's face as she faced Celeste.

"What do you know?" She figured Celeste knew enough.

"I have the entire blue print, Harlow. I just want to know what happened."

She didn't think one of them would give Celeste access to the back bone of the experiment. Having the blueprints was like having the implant itself.

"Did Aurora do this?"

"He doesn't know." Celeste admitted.

There was this pained expression on her face. Harlow was almost sad. It was like she was harboring some terrible secret. It made sense for Aurora to not know. She wasn't surprised to hear this, but after everything that's happened, she had hoped Hariette hadn't thought about the project again.

Harlow picked up a small glove and put it over her right hand. She wasn't exactly thrilled but she couldn't keep it to herself. Celeste already had the blue print, she might as well give her everything she had.

"I only have all the medical information." Harlow turned on her glove and snapped her fingers to show a projected screen.

Just like Hariette, she had information buried deep about the project. There were a bunch of images, data about their bodies, and their health. Now she was letting Celeste have a glance.

"The project was a failure, Celeste." Harlow said as she showed it to her. "Hariette sustained physical damage, and Aurora had major psychological damage." She put their health statuses up.

Aurora had red numbers for his mental health. That's what Celeste saw first. The statistics were borderline. Someone with those numbers were either in therapy or taking medications to help.

"Is that after?" Celeste pointed to it.

"No, that was Aurora's baseline." Harlow said to her.

Celeste was surprised. It's not like it meant Aurora was unstable, but he did have anxiety. "I would've never put the implant in him if I saw this." She said. Based on how she knew the implant was supposed to run and the baseline numbers that were being used, she knew that anyone with a mental disorder wouldn't be able to handle it.

"Exactly." Harlow agreed. "I wasn't lucky enough to find out until Aurora told me something was wrong." She explained. "He said he felt his memories. When I explained how neurons worked, he said he couldn't figure out what was real and what wasn't. That's not what the program is supposed to do."

Celeste couldn't imagine what Aurora went through, to actually feel everything happening and not knowing what was real or not.

"The implant can't take previous memories. When Aurora told me what was happening, I figured it messed with his nightmares." Harlow looked at Celeste. "There were a number of Flyers and Coordinators who had PTSD, Aurora being one of them." She explained. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Celeste barely knew anything about the previous generation. She knew they weren't from this planet. She knew that they lived their lives in a massive Mother Ship just to get to this second earth. She knew that her parents were part of the army, but she didn't know what it was like, what happened, and what either of them went through. She didn't know what to ask, but Harlow continued.

"This was when I thought it was happening." She showed another snap shot of Aurora's statistics. "This was when I said I was taking out the implant." She skipped forward to another one.

Aurora's numbers were reaching dangerous marks. Celeste was shocked. She didn't know Aurora was struggling that much. The images the implant showed him must have been horrific. Harlow had decided that it was time to take the implant out, but more had happened and she didn't get the chance.

"This was when I actually did it." Harlow said, gesturing to the last image.

The numbers were grey. Aurora was no longer fit to contribute to society.

Celeste didn't believe it. "Was he in a mental hospital?" She asked quickly.

"I kept him asleep after the surgery for two months. After that I had to compromise with Human Resources. He had to go to therapy everyday, and had a strict medication regime, but because of the depression, he stopped." She said. "After a few months, he and Sirus left for the remainder of his medical leave."

There was a gap where she didn't have information entered. Then all of a sudden, Aurora's numbers were acceptable in September.

"At that point, Aurora changed the settings again so no one would know." Harlow pointed to the acceptable statistics. "And he came back in November. He said he was afraid of Human Resources taking away his little girl so he wouldn't let me monitor him anymore." She looked at Celeste and smiled dearly.

"Was he...?"

Was he better? Celeste wanted to know.

"Whatever happened when he was gone significantly improved his status." Harlow said. "But I don't know anything after that."

"And what about Hariette?"

"The implant messed with her physically." Harlow flipped through images of the spine. "There was electrical damage to her nerves on her right side. It wasn't enough to paralyze her yet, but enough to numb her." She said.

There was red pulsing where the damage was.

"I could only help the two of them so much. Hariette recovered up to ninety-five percent. Aurora's mental baseline after the surgery was eighty percent."

Celeste thought to herself.

She had already made changes to the blue print but she realized the mistake. Having a baseline at all was what caused the problem. Seeing Aurora's baseline, she knew it wasn't compatible with the implant because it wasn't one hundred percent. The baseline needs to be removed, that's the biggest change she needs to make. But there was more she had to improve on.

"Sirus had an implant." Celeste said.

"He still has it." Harlow turned to her. "He's just not allowed to use it."

Celeste didn't know what to think. Was she glad that Sirus had his, or afraid of something happening?

"I asked Sirus multiple times if he wanted his, and after a while, he stopped answering me." Harlow looked down. "I felt like I caused him so much trouble." she felt terrible about it.

Celeste wanted to say that that's how Sirus is, that he doesn't like being bothered. If the implant didn't cause him problems, then he wasn't going to go through the trouble of surgery again. He was fine, he was lucky to be fine.

Celeste didn't want Harlow to feel sorry about any of it.

They hadn't known it was going to happen.

What she wanted to know was why Sirus' implant worked the best out of all three. If he still had it, that meant nothing went wrong.

"Do you know what made his work better?" She asked.

"Sirus' implant allows him to show others what he's seen, but Aurora was afraid that adding the adaptability component would over load the system so he left that off."

Aurora had the right idea the second time.

Celeste thought it through. Removing the adaptability component changes things about the implant. It would just be a foreign item in the body at that point. Aurora had to have added something in there to make sure it didn't malfunction.

She had stared at the blue prints so many times but she still felt like she had to look at them again. There was something missing, something that she wasn't seeing.

"Thanks, doc." Celeste turned away abruptly so she could leave the room. She had a lot of changes to make.

"Celeste?" She turned back when Harlow said her name. "I wouldn't continue the project." She warned her.

All Celeste saw was how bad it was, how much damage it caused. But it wasn't done. Celeste found the flaws and knew how to fix them. She felt obligated to finish now.

She nodded towards Harlow but she wasn't going to listen.

She needed to find her surgeon that would help with the next phase of her research, and she knew one already. She went back down to the emergency unit and looked for the young doctor she spoke with before.

"Clover." She tugged him a different way. He followed after her. "We need to talk." She said to him.

His face flushed red. He had no idea what she wanted to talk about but she was coming to him for it. It must be serious. What did his mom tell her?

"I need your help." Celeste said when they were far enough away from people. "I need you to do a surgery for me."

"That's fine-" he was going to agree without question but Celeste had to tell him what was going to happen.

"It's not legal." Celeste didn't want him to get too ahead of himself.

"Is this how I find someone?" He asked her.

Celeste smiled at him. "I like your attitude." She said. "But, I'm being serious. I'm asking you to get involved in something that could get us in jail." She warned him.

Clover was a quiet man. He didn't talk much, he didn't do a lot, he was just one of the trauma surgeons.

The woman he likes was asking for help. He wasn't doing it because he liked her, well that wasn't all of it. He figured he should do something. Celeste doesn't always ask for help or favors, so it must be important.

"Well, you have to tell me about it first, and I'll tell you if it can be done." He told her.

"Great." Celeste said. "I'll get in touch with you, Clover." She said.

Now she was getting started. She had changes to make before offering up the final product for her first trial. And she knew who she was going to give the implant to.

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