Celeste

Celeste was walking inside NASA's main building. She passed by all the drones and robots, she didn't say anything to the engineers that walked by her. She didn't check herself in with the secretary. She didn't want anyone to know she was here because she had a strong feeling someone or something would alert Hariette that Celeste was on her way to see her without notice.

Celeste does not like being avoided. Now that she knew more of the truth about the experiment, she planned to confront Hariette for the whole truth.

"Celeste?" An older woman with white hair approached her. When Celeste turned to her, she smiled dearly, her maroon eyes brightening.

She was an older woman, but when she smiled, it seemed she gave off such a young energy. She was friendly and kind, extending warmth to everyone she knew.

"Hey, Taurus, how are you?" Celeste hugged her, surprised to see Taurus here.

She was a family friend, someone that took care of her as well. Celeste was rather close with her but ever since she left home on her own, Celeste hasn't seen Taurus as much.

It was always nice to see her.

But to see her working was different. "None of you want to retire. You guys need to start living your lives."

"My generation is full of workaholics." Taurus laughed quietly.

Celeste didn't need to be told that. Her parents won't retire soon. Well, one might but it was taking too long.

She was curious, would Taurus tell her stories?

"Are you here to see..."

"Hariette has been avoiding me. I need to see her." Celeste forgot she had to be somewhere. "Can you not warn her I'm here? I'm tired of her ditching." She said.

"What's it about?" Taurus asked, genuinely curious but Celeste couldn't answer her question. She had an apologetic look on her face and Taurus knew. "You're just like Aurora. He always snuck around doing something he wasn't supposed to." She shook her head.

"Like father like daughter." That statement lingered in Celeste's mind. Apparently, Aurora used to do things that he shouldn't have but no one would tell her about it.

She needed to find Hariette, she could ask Taurus questions later.

"I'll see you around, Taurus." She waved back at her before continuing to one of the smaller hallways.

Hariette had to be here, this was the main building and Hariette works a lot. Celeste wanted answers and she's been trying to get a hold of Hariette for a week.

It was no surprise when she found her. Celeste barged into her room and made herself known. She wasn't quiet. No, Celeste was always a loud child and when she wants something, she's going to get it.

Now she was owed answers.

"I found out, Hariette." She said abruptly and loudly.

Did Hariette think she could keep everything a secret?

Celeste knows more about the project now. Hariette knew that Celeste had more knowledge considering the very forward and aggressive messages Celeste has been leaving. Hariette knew she was coming, she just didn't know when. It took seven days.

It was seven days of Celeste getting answers and completing the implant.

Celeste needed to know everything, that was the only way she would even think of giving Hariette what she had.

"Gonna quit avoiding me?" She asked Hariette.

Hariette looked at the young woman that was standing in the center of her room. Celeste was upset, Hariette could see that.

But somewhere deep down, Hariette had a bit of regret. She shouldn't have given Celeste the blue prints, there was a nagging voice in her head that told her not to. She looked at Celeste and saw everything that happened with Aurora instead.

Why would she want that to happen again?

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to panic." Hariette finally told the truth. "You're not exactly stable." She said.

Celeste narrowed her eyes at the comment and shifted uncomfortably. "I'm fine."

She was a little anxious. Hariette knew.

"Your numbers might not be red but you probably found out why they're elevated." Hariette tilted her head to the side and watched as Celeste shifted her weight again, drawing back further.

Anxiety was hereditary.

Celeste never thought she had that issue. And she can't say she hasn't been anxious because of the situation she's been dealing with. She found out the truth. Of course she would be anxious.

She didn't know what to say.

"The implant could've been fixed, but we weren't in shape to repair it." Hariette got up slowly from her chair, taking hold of her cane and walked around her desk to meet Celeste. "I didn't have the physical strength, and Aurora was..." She trailed off as she looked away. "He disappeared after a few months, and came back completely changed."

That's what Harlow said.

"He was happy again." Hariette remembered. "Actually, he was happier. I've never seen him in such a good mood for a while." She laughed to herself.

Celeste knew why. "I was..."

That's when she came into the picture.

"I don't know what happened while he was gone, but when he came back with you, there was absolutely nothing that could get him upset." Hariette turned the spinning globe off before putting up another hologram. "I couldn't ruin his happiness after that." Hariette admitted.

So she put everything on hold.

"The four of us stopped talking about the experiment." She said. "It's like it never happened, and we knew it was a good idea to keep it that way."

It was bad for a few months when everything went haywire. Why try again if that was going to happen?

"As much as I felt bad for myself, I recovered." She said and tapped her cane on the floor. "I mean, besides the fact that I'm a little weak on my right." She did her best to stand up straight but she couldn't hold her strength on her right leg for long so she put her cane down again.

"And Aurora?"

Hariette took a deep breath as she looked at the ground, a troubled expression on his face. "If you were to ask him questions about the past, he'd give you two answers. What actually happened, and what the implant showed him. He says it's a blur now."

"Harlow said the implant distorted his memories."

Hariette didn't know Celeste went to see Harlow. She laughed quietly to herself. Celeste wanted answers and she was going to get them. "That's exactly what it did." Hariette said. "He felt everything. Imagine living your worst nightmares over and over again and not being able to stop it." She turned back to look at Celeste, holding her weight with her cane.

"Then why me?"

"You're just as smart as he is. He might not be able to continue, but I know you can." Hariette believed in her. "I've never been more excited to complete something before, this would've changed the system." Hariette was still proud of the idea.

Her close friends knew what kind of person Hariette was. She was a strong fighter, and she was smart. But she never did things on her own. She was great at leading. If others had great ideas, she would get others together to make it happen.

That's exactly what she did when she thought of her implant. She got the right people together and made it happen.

She was proud of that part of it.

"Aurora's background was in mechanical and aerospace engineering but he was good at other things, too. He knew what he was doing when he designed the implant, but I needed Harlow because it wasn't just that, we didn't have someone who knew about bioengineering."

"Harlow wasn't an engineer. Aurora couldn't have possibly picked up another background over night." Celeste said. "Bioengineering isn't one of the easy ones either, that takes extra years just to enter the field." She definitely wasn't going near that science.

"It took months to get the implant running. All three of us did our best with everything we knew but it took time." Hariette put up all the diagrams and files. "When Aurora got the implant running at eighty-seven percent, he called it. He said he couldn't make the original work better than that."

Celeste looked at the original blue print but that wasn't the one she used.

She went up to the hologram and touched it with her thumb and first finger, bracketing a specific section of code.

"This was the portion that gave the chip power it wasn't supposed to have." She said to Hariette. "The adaptability was supposed to work with the chemicals in the brain and body, and since the body changes the implant should've adapted. Theoretically, the system says it works." Celeste said and she knew that a computer system couldn't be a real person. "On a model, of course it would function higher than it truly does. That component shouldn't be part of an observant." She explained.

At first she couldn't figure out why it was there, but it was to make up for the lack of biomechanics. It might have been enough for the body to not reject it, but it wasn't enough for it to match with how the brain works. That's why Aurora added that component in there, as compensation for what he didn't know even with Harlow by his side. They did their best, but even then it wasn't enough.

Celeste knew this, and she had to figure out a way to delete the component without hurting the integrity of the implant.

Celeste started talking to herself as she pulled something out and placed it on Hariette's desk. She mentioned to herself the changes she made and why she made it, what it could do, and why it would be better. She had thought everything through, just like Aurora did.

She had been working on it throughout the night.

Her own blue print flashed up for Hariette to see.

And the system said it could run at ninety-seven percent which was incredible considering the amount of changes she had to make just to get there.

Hariette recognized the main structure. "This is the one that..."

"Sirus has this one." Celeste said. "But I removed the baseline and added a small adaptability margin so it's not a component on it's own. We don't want it to change on its own, we want it to age with the body." She said. "And we're still allowed to show what we see."

She spent a while to get it right, but the system says it works.

When she made the implant based off the blue print, it was fully functional up to ninety-seven percent. She was going to stop there because there were no more changes to add.

"Celeste, you did it!" Hariette was surprised.

Celeste was cautious, however. Three percent from perfect still wasn't good enough. "I haven't tested it yet, Hariette. It could be worse than what you've endured. And I'm actually a little scared knowing what it did to you and Aurora."

Hariette walks with a cane because of what happened more than twenty five years ago. She could only do so much now. But she was happy, and Celeste didn't want to break her heart.

She couldn't tell Aurora.

Would he be proud she finished what he started, or upset that she's working on something that almost killed him?

Hariette didn't say anything as she stared at the blue print. There was this glint in her eyes that Celeste never saw before. Hariette was always a strong person, she was guarded, she didn't like people knowing her. She was tough and she was like that for a reason. But Celeste was looking at her now and saw someone who had this passion to make a change. She never saw that in Hariette before.

She wanted to know why Hariette clutched on to this project so hard.

"I wasn't one of the engineers on the Mother Ship." Hariette said and looked at Celeste. "But I learned fast. I may not be as smart as Aurora, but I could definitely get there if you give me time." She laughed to herself.

Celeste wanted to know more. After all, Hariette's signature was on the blue print, that meant she did something.

"Sirus is the same way. He always pretended he didn't know what he was looking at but did most of his maintenance himself." She remembered.

Celeste stared at Hariette, almost wanting to beg Hariette to tell her more. Her eyes were beginning to sparkle with an intense curiosity as she got closer to Hariette to find out more. "No one wants to tell me..."

No one told Celeste what it was like on the Mother Ship. Her extended family didn't talk about it either. The previous generation knew but won't talk.

"It should come from them." Hariette smiled as she turned away, walking slowly back to her chair so she could sit down. "We thought we were amazing. Nothing could touch us then." She sighed. "It wasn't till we got down here that we realized how messed up we were."

"Why?"

"Well, when you spend most of your life away from civilian culture it's hard to come back." She hard her own hardships but she's seen worse in people.

It was a hard time to forget, especially with everything she's done when she was younger.

"We weren't allowed to see our families on the Civilian deck. We knew things that didn't get talked about with the population. Imagine trying to live a cushy life holding on to secrets that could change everything." She said.

Celeste sat down in the other chair. This was the most anyone has said to her about this. She didn't want Hariette to stop.

"What was Aurora like?" she asked, the excitement still lingering in her eyes.

Hariette laughed. She noticed that intrigued look in Celeste's eyes. She was definitely Aurora's daughter with the way she was so curious about everything."Aurora was the most brainwashed." She said, a wide smile on his face. "No one trusted the system more. It wasn't till our last year that Aurora got his head out of his ass."

"I mean, the system has it's flaws."

"That's true." Hariette agreed. "And they taught us loyalty and all that. But once they really push you, it's starts to make you crack. Aurora wanted to be Commander so bad that he wouldn't let anyone stop him." She explained. "It was very difficult for me to get this job because everyone was waiting on what he wanted."

"I would've never thought he'd want to control an army so bad." Celeste said.

"Well, things changed. We had a small war after two years of being on the planet, Aurora lost his mind and trapped an entire continent in a beam of energy-"

"What?" Celeste didn't believe that.

"Aurora resigned after that." Hariette continued, she didn't want to stop to give details. "He was forced to come back, and has been where he is ever since."

Celeste got the idea that she wasn't going to get details from Hariette. She wanted stories, not summaries.

"Fine, what about Sirus? He always tells me to mind my own business when I ask him things."

"Sirus is still that guy you try to stay away from." Hariette laughed louder. "He's terrible."

"My dad's great." Celeste frowned.

"He was always angry, always fighting, always yelling. But no one left him alone so of course he was going to be mad." Hariette thought it was amusing. "When he shifted the ranks, everyone tried to fight for his spot. He kicked me out of my placement." She wasn't bitter now, but she remembered the temper tantrum she had when she found out.

"Was he good?"

"I think you should ask him." Hariette said to her and smiled. "When Sirus got paired with Aurora, everyone placed bets to see how long they would last."

"Seriously?"

Hariette nodded. "They both had qualities that they hated in people." She said. "I said a year. Now it's been like thirty-two or something like that."

"I can ask all the questions I want but they won't say anything." Celeste was upset. She wasn't getting much from Hariette either.

"Tell you what." She was going to be generous. "I have to go up to space in a few weeks to get a few resources. Come with me."

Celeste's eyes widened. She hasn't thought about going into space. She had friends that did just to see the Mother Ship, but she never let herself get involved. Now she was being given the chance and she knew she was going to have a lot of clearance to go up there.

She had to say yes.

"I'm going!" She said excitedly. "I'm definitely coming with you!" She couldn't hide how happy she was.

She wanted to see what it was like for the generation before her. She had to know. Hariette offered her a great gift. She did think it was time that Celeste find out about everything she was asking about. She was old enough, no one had to keep secrets from her.

And Hariette was in a good mood. So of course she would help Celeste out.

"I'm going to space!" Celeste said loudly as she put her tablet down on the bed. "Hariette is letting me come with her."

Dri was on the image on her tablet. He figured there was something serious going on since she called three times. He had to take time away just to speak with her, but he was glad he did.

Celeste has never looked happier.

Dri was laughing. "You're finally going to poke around?"

"Hell yeah!" She was excited. "I can get the answers I'm looking for."

She was so excited to go up to space and see what her parents saw. There was so much she wanted to find out, and what better way to learn than by going to where everything happened.

"Come with me, Dri." She said.

"Uh," he didn't have the same excitement she did. "I don't know if I can take days off for that." he mostly didn't want to be up in space.

He wasn't one to get curious about what was up there. He was only excited because Celeste was. It wasn't going to be more than that.

"You don't want to be near the stars?" She was more than happy. She would be so close to things she's only heard about.

"You mean the balls of fire? I'm not particularly fond of the idea." Dri admitted. "I'm happy for you, and you should go, but I'm not exactly that kind of person."

"For me?" she leaned her head to the side and batted her eye lashes.

He pursed his lips tightly and told himself not to give in to her. But the way she looked at him, it was hard to stay strong against her. His heart ached slightly because he wanted to give her everything.

"Let's see what happens." he sighed, disappointed in himself because he liked her too much to say no.

He should've known better.

Celeste always rambled about what it would be like in space. If people were with her at night, she'd point out the stars and projections. She talked about the lights in the sky, what seasons they could be seen and what colors they would be.

But that wasn't all she was happy about.

She would see the place that the previous generation called home, the massive space ship that brought millions of people here. And there wasn't just one, there were multiple for each nation's voyage.

She was lucky to see one of them.

Dri was curious about other things. Clearly Celeste was going to go on about it until they could actually be up there. Dri thought there were other things Celeste wanted to talk about. She had so much happiness in her, and her being able to go up to space wasn't all of it.

"What did Hariette say about your finished blue print?" Dri asked her.

"She was so happy. I've never seen her smile like that, Dri. It's like I made her whole world." She laid down in bed and sighed. "I have to thank Clover. He's the one who explained all that medical science to me."

"So when's this happening? I want one of those cool things." Dri was happy for her, and he did say he would be Celeste's test subject.

"Clover said he needs a couple days to put a few things together under the system and then he'll be good."

"Soon I get to keep all of my memories of you." Dri said to her, smiling.

"We could start now." she had a few suggestions in mind if he wanted to make a comment like that.

"We could." he agreed. "But I have to go back to work." He was busy, he always was, but he somehow found time for her.

"When do you come back from France?" she asked.

"Tonight."

"Will you come see me tonight?"

He smiled at her again, a shine to his dark eyes. "Yes, I'll come see you." he said to her.