Nein Sneaky Sneaky

The humid night air did not deter Dorian as he strode across the street with purpose. He knew that now was the time to clear his name. He had made all the preparations that he thought he needed to. He even knew how to handle security if it came to it. He just hoped that everything would go well.

The Station seemed unguarded. Dorian knew that this would only be the case on the outer edges of the building. He hoped that by the time he had dealt with the security, Avery would be there to help with the technical stuff.

A wave of unease ebbed and flowed inside Dorian’s stomach. In his view, they had already left it a little too late. The meeting had been going on for over two hours at this point. If they didn't get this done soon, then they would be found out, and that would truly be a problem.

Luckily for him, he did not have neighbours. His house was perched on a mound of grass at the back of his neighbourhood. When he was younger, It made him feel like a little King. He always took pride in how much higher he was than everyone else, in height, not necessarily in stature.

He quickly jogged across the street barefoot so none of his neighbours would be alerted. It was late in the evening, most of the community would be in bed by now. Those that were not were using their nighttime hours to conduct whatever business they needed to, away from the ever vigilant eyes of the hamlet.

Dorian saluted them.

He easily made it to the wall separating the Station from the hamlet. He took his torch from his pocket and used it to find the place where the wall had collapsed slightly under the strain of disrepair. He had attempted this once before and almost got caught. If it wasn't for the miraculous discovery of this special piece of wall, a piece that had grown weak and bent back in on itself, allowing him to climb up.

All the lights were off inside the Geothermal Station, Dorian could see the tiny yet numerous lights of the Swarm. A rather overblown name for the security system of the plant, another leftover from the Union departure. Dorian was incredibly grateful that he had a hand in removing the more… Deadly methods of dealing with intruders these bugs contained.

“You lazy sods,” Graham had said offhandedly to Avery and Dorian one afternoon. “You are quite good at handling this Union filth. Get these things in working order for me and I’ll put you up to adult wages.”

They didn't expect him to. They just fixed up the robots for fun. Admittedly, Avery did most of the work, but he was the one who kept all the Union instruction manuals, so some of the work was his.

Formally known as scarabs, if they detected an intruder, they would borrow deep inside their body and eat them from the inside. A mechanical plague of locusts.

They never got that pay rise.

He stepped into the perimeter of the plant and noticed that they were preoccupied with something inside the building. Was Avery already here? Was he okay? He needed to get in, regardless. He figured a conversation with robot bugs wouldn't be too big of a problem. He loudly cleared his throat.

“Hey guys.”

The lights suddenly changed from a slightly menacing orange to a bright silver blue. The swarm appeared in front of Dorian and the nanobots formed the shape of a smiley face.

“Hallo Dorian! It is so gut to see you, ja!” They buzzed. It was really stupid now they were older, but at the time of fixing these insects, they giggled and laughed at how much of a Demeter Station accent the buzz had. They had taken to calling each other a dummkopf for a few weeks after they had finished with the repairs.

“Dorian Pepper. Lugus Employee 42169. Reason for after hours entry: Mid-level urgency repair."

There was a pause as the bugs flashed red. It was mandatory to do systemwide checks after an after hours request. Dorian panicked Graham had finally figured out how to work the system and, therefore, delete his name from the records.

If that happened, boy was he going to get a polite talking to.

The lights turned from red to blue. “Oh, don’t be silly mein kinder! vee know who you are! Come in, bitte! Oh, but you obviously unterstand that all security protocols are in effect. So nein sneaky sneaky, ja?"

“Understood.”

They formed a thumbs up and let him past. “Oh, by the way, who were you staring at lovingly through the window? Did you have a date with a fuel tank?”

“You ist very silly Dorian! Nein, but zee motion sensors picked something up in there. Vee cannot see vot it is! Oh! vee are such failures, ja. votever it is must have a clearance of some kind, otherwise we go beep, beep! Und yet, no beeping, ja.”

“No, you aren’t failures. I’ll check it out, don’t worry.”

“Danke!”

Dorian stepped past the security system, incredibly thankful for Graham’s continued laziness.

He had the freedom of the station now. Nerves still crept within him. If it had been Avery that had arrived before him, the security system would have let him know. If it wasn’t his friend, then it was bad news.

He made his way into the area the bugs were pointing toward when he arrived. Thankfully, it was the place he needed to be. Despite the lack of light, Dorian could hear the bubbling and churning of the pump room.

A pump room that had its lights on.

Somebody was definitely here. Dorian removed his shoes to avoid making a noise against the plant’s hardwood floor. He couldn't take any chances. He knew that given the differences in levels of repair between items in the plant, there could be engineers on site.

This was taking too long. All of this waiting around was eating into the meeting time. Dorian wasn’t sure why Avery wasn’t here or what that meant for the task. All he knew was that now was the time to throw caution to the wind.

He crept silently towards the door.

“So, like they’ll probably get rid of him today, finally.”

“Yeah yeah! Get rid of him, yeah! Get rid of who?”

“Pepper! You idiot. Why don’t you try keeping up once in your life?"

“Sorry Sis, I was listening, really. Yeah yeah, I’m glad Dorian’s gonna leave, never shuts up about political stuff. I don’t get it, makes my head hurt. Yeah Yeah!"

“Doing basic math makes your head hurt, stupid. You’re right though, I guess. The more Pepper goes on and on about the Union and whatever else, the more people might listen.”

“I mean, would that be so bad? We’d get more stuff from the Union if we were like, you know, there. We’d have better tech too. Wouldn’t have to drive tractors and stuff.”

“If I didn't know any better, then I would say you were starting to sound like Pepper and his friend. Not that I care either way, I don't really have time for this politics stuff. As long as Dad keeps buying us expensive things, I don't mind. It's fun to have these country folk look up to you. If the people here were not so easily lead, I'd want to go back to the Union too.”

“Yeah Yeah! Been awhile, hasn't it? I wouldn't mind going back there, too. I really need a copy of Fleet Commander 5.”

“Just ask Dad to get it for you the next time he goes to Hera Station. You know, brother of mine, if you had a brain, you'd be dangerous."

Ben smiled cluelessly while trying to haphazardly remove something from his pocket. “Thank you.”

Dorian took this information in with surprise. Back to? What did she mean? It was nice for him to get confirmation of what he had always known, at least. The family was smuggling goods from the Union. It wasn't much of a secret, though. Every kid under the age of sixteen knew the twins had all of this stuff.

 He hated the fact they could get away with shit like this. They probably sweet-talked their way up the Station hierarchy. Always buttering up Graham and doing odd jobs after work hours. They were probably using their after hours security clearance to do whatever they were doing in the pump room.

Dorian watched in horror as Ben opened his packet of cigarettes and lit a match. Bella’s eyes went wide. “You idiot! You can't light a match in here! This is a fuel room! Where did you even get those?" Ben looked at her cluelessly and shrugged.

“Ta da! You said we could get away with stuff, didn’t you? If something goes wrong, we can just blame someone else. That's what you say all the time.”

“Yes, you baboon! But somehow I don't think the fact that our Dad is the Mayor could help us cheat death! What are you doing!?”

“I’m doing what you tell me to do. I'm living a little. I swiped them from Brooke's office. You're the one whose always saying, what was it? "Taking things from our lessers is fine as long as you don't get caught? I'm just living a little." His face dropped. "I thought you'd be impressed."

“You won't be living at all if you don't put that box away, stupid!”

Dorian didn't think. He opened the door to the pump room and ran straight for Ben, tackling him to the floor. An entire packet of tobacco landed on his head, sprinkling over him like he was an ash fairy. He didn't care. Ben’s stupidity had almost lost Lugus about a tenth of its habitable mass. A slight bruise should be the least of his problems.

“Erika!”

The loud buzz made its way to the pump room. “Oh Dorian! vee do so love it when you use our name, ja.” Upon realising the situation, Erika changed shape to a shocked face. “Mein Gott! vot is this!”

“I need you to get the Council, now!” Ben was still wiggling beneath Dorian. He needed to thank Avery for teaching him the few moves he had learned from his father.

At least he would be able to if he were here.

He waited until Erika had left to get off of Ben. When he finally did, Ben stood up slowly, clearly crying.

“You hit me!” His voice broke more than he would've liked and his protests were quickly cut short by embarrassment.

“Yeah, and if I hadn’t, we would all be dead.”

“I wasn’t actually going to do it!”

"Oh, for the love of-” He turned his attention to Bella. “Can you not control him for five minutes without something going wrong? What is wrong with you two!?”

Bella spoke quietly, looking at the floor. “What are you talking about? You're the one who's always telling us that people are individuals or whatever.”

“Really!? You're choosing now to talk philosophy? After your brother nearly caused an industrial explosion?”

Bella shrugged. “Not my fault. He's slow.”

“What’s that? I can't hear you when you’re guilt mumbling.”

“I said, it’s not my fault he’s a clueless brain dead gullible loser!”

Even Dorian could tell that one hurt. He slowly watched as Ben’s emotional dam broke for a second time. When the three of them first heard the mumbling and footsteps of the council approaching the building, Ben ran off, his crying following behind him.

“Hey wai- Shit!" Dorian followed Ben out. He knew that this was going to be difficult. A crying, emotionally unstable, bruised Son of the Mayor versus the town misfit? Not a good matchup, but at least everybody wasn't dead.

He hoped Avery was okay.

“I expect your help with this,” Dorian said, looking back at Bella as he left the room. She was still gazing at the floor.”

“Whatever Pepper. I don't even care anymore.”