Following The Leader

Stage 1

It's been exactly 6 months since the Federation issued the new laws of the primary planets. Two months of being Forced to act like a "leader" for a planet I had never actually been to. Saturn was a sparse planet, with cold ice fields and steep rocky mountains. No one actually lived there, which was why I was annoyed that I had to become it's human representative. The Federation wanted the eight primary planets to have representatives so that they could control them more easily. It was much harder for them to maintain "order" over a whole planet, and so singling out one person to embody the planet was what they decided to do. When we were all chosen, we went through a grueling few weeks of training to actually embody the planet's aura. It meant that whatever happened to the planet happened to the human, and vice versa. If the human dies so does the planet. That's how they began to have full control over the solar system.

The eight of us lived on one of the Federation's largest ships, each in our own wing. And depending on the rank of your planet, your living quarters varied in size and splendor. Being the sixth planet away from the sun, my wing was comfortable, but not as accommodating as others. Oh yeah, and because I technically "am" Saturn now, I could only be comfortable in below freezing temperatures. Yay.

 When the Federation took me away from my family I was told that I would never see them again. And I would outlive them. Our training sessions included doses of stimulants that stunted the regeneration of our individual cells in the body, which in turn stunted the growing process. As far as I knew, I was stuck being 20 for a very long time. I was kinda hoping my breasts would grow out when I got older, but I guess that won't happen now.

The first month was horrible. I had no friends here, and no sympathy. The only human faces I saw were that of the medical assistants in the training rooms. The Forcers (which were the armed guards) may as well have been robots. The process was painful, physically and mentally. I had to get used to feeling larger than a normal human, not in physical size but my mind stretched out to the aura of a planet as well as the atmosphere around it. If even a rock fell out of place on a cliff, I was aware of it. And being responsible for the wellbeing of a planet meant that I was only allowed to focus on that singular task. No playing, no dawdling, no naps. Only when my rotation around the sun was complete was I allowed to sleep. It was draining, and boring.

Once a month we held a meeting with the other planets. And of course, because the Sun was my superior, I had to do as he said. I didn't speak in these meetings, I just listened. Poor Neptune wasn't even allowed to look at him. The "Sun", was pompous and stupid, in my opinion. He was treated like a king here, and that boosted his ego higher than the heavens. We were all around the same age, although he was six years older than me. His second in command was Mercury, a thin and beautiful girl with the best poker face I had ever seen. I didn't like her. Next was Venus, who was usually too out of it to care. Earth came after him, and she was timid and quiet. Even though she was important in the system, she didn't feel like she belonged with us. Mars was just an asshole. Jupiter was kinder than the rest, and he had become my comrade in training. He looked at me like an older brother would look at his younger sister, which I came to appreciate. Saturn was after me, and she rarely looked up from her lap during meetings. Uranus was the center of all the bad jokes the first three could think of. They weren't very good, poor guy. Neptune was small and usually looked like she was about to cry. I felt bad for her.

On my days off from training I usually just stared out my window, memorizing each star and planet I could see from the ship. The Federation had been clever in where we were placed in space. We were out of range for most ships to detect, making us virtually invisible. We didn't exist. Except when The Federation needed us.

The first time I was called to base, they needed to use me as collateral in an altercation with the Natal Republic. The Republic had planned to inhabit Saturn for a secret arms base, but soon they were shown that they really couldn't. When I was brought up to the command center, the General promptly took a small knife and stuck it in my abdomen, creating a deep crevice on the planet's surface. The Natal Republic was shocked to learn of the connections these planets had to us on the ship, and being the thoughtful leader Leia was, she ordered her troops to call off the attack. I was dragged back to my quarters and left alone to regenerate the blood I had lost. It hurt so much.