Michelle, my former Commander, briefed me further about the situation that we faced on Eros, after awakening from our thousand year sleep. Sitting comfortably in the Common Room, outside of my quarters, I found Michelle's beautiful, younger body to be quite a distraction. Her D-cup breasts, along with the rest of her curvaceous 38-24-36 figure, were being shown off quite well by her very low-cut, shinny black, skin-tight jumpsuit. I did my best, however, to concentrate on what Michelle was telling me.
Michelle said, "These quarters are located in, or rather under, the Exile Sector of the asteroid. The Exile Sector is what we called the Delta Sector, when we originally terraformed Eros." She continued, "You and I are now hiding out down here in the catacombs."
As I had worked on the terrafroming project, I already knew that each of the asteroid's five (5) sectors had an internal diameter of 6 miles, and a length of 5 miles. Rotation of the asteroid, along its cylindrical axis, simulated Earth-like gravity for the people living on the inside of the big, hollowed-out space rock.
Michelle continued, "The men of Eros all live in the Alpha Sector, and most of the women live in the Beta Sector. The Gamma Sector is used mostly for farming, and all of the exiled women are sent here to the Delta Sector."
"What about the Epsilon Sector?" I asked.
"That sector has never been occupied," Michelle answered, "The population of this asteroid has never grown large enough to need the space."
I asked, "Why is the simulated gravity so low?" I continued, "When Eros was terraformed, the gravity was supposed to be Earth-standard on the inner ring."
"I think that the men slowed the rotation of Eros, mostly, out of laziness," answered Michelle, "They had no intentions of ever returning to Earth, but they didn't want their bodies to weaken too much, like the permanent Lunar and Martian colonists." She laughed and continued, "They may have lowered the simulated gravity for no better reason than to make it easier for us women to walk around in these slutty 4" high-heeled shoes." She finished, "And, so that our boobs don't sag as much."
I smiled and thought to myself, "The men of Eros certainly do have their priorities." I laughed and then turned serious again.
I asked, "How many women have been exiled to the Delta Sector, Michelle?"
"Nearly six hundred women live here in exile right now. That's over 3% of all of the women here on Eros," Michelle answered.
"And what, exactly, did all of these women do to get themselves exiled?" I asked.
She answered, "Women can be sent here simply for being judged undesirable, in some way, by the men." Michelle continued, "If a woman objects to any of the men's laws, customs, or behavior, or is thought to be too independent, or too rebellious, she can be sent here into exile." She finished, "For instance, Doctor Miriam was exiled here because the men discovered that she was secretly trying to find a way to increase the male birth rate."
"Doctor Miriam," I said with a sigh, "Now that was a really strange medical examination." I was thinking, in particular, about how she had "examined" my sexual organs.
Michelle laughed with false innocence and said, "Why whatever do you mean, Yuri?"
I answered, "Well, please excuse my language, Michelle, but Doctor Miriam told me that she was going to fuck me in the same tone of voice that she would have used to say that she was going to examine my ears. Then, she turned around and used clinical terms to describe our body parts while she 'examined' me."
Michelle said seriously, "You'll find that the language of sex on Eros is very coarse by our standards." She continued, "That is, however, the way that they conduct such an examination her on Eros. I'm sure that Doctor Miriam was trying to be as professional as possible."
"So, all of the women that I've met, so far, on Eros are Exiles?" I asked, getting back to the original subject.
"No, not all of the women," answered Michelle, "Veila and Yeea are not Exiles." She continued, "They're very important rebel leaders that have, so far, managed to avoid being discovered by the men."
"So, how many rebel women are there altogether?" I asked.
Michelle answered, "There are less than a thousand organized rebel women, total." She continued, "But, there's a tremendous amount of discontent among all of the women here on Eros. The rebels must be very secretive, however, as most of the women of Eros would betray the rebels in a heartbeat, if they thought that it would bring them some small advantage with the men." She finished, "Even here in the Exile Sector, only a handful of the rebel women know that you and I even exist. Tonga, the tall, flaming-red-haired Exotic, is, actually, as much of a guard, as she is a guide."
I said in surprise, "A guard?"
"Yes," answered Michelle, "a guard. Neither one of us is supposed to leave this area without being accompanied by one of the rebel women. It's in everyone's best interests that we follow this rule."
I didn't much like the idea of being restricted in my movements and under-guard, but it did make sense. After all, these rebel women had to be extremely cautious.
I said uneasily, "I see." I continued, "So, what's Tonga's story? Why was she exiled here? I would have thought that a beautiful Exotic like her would be very popular with the men of Eros."
"Tonga was treated very crudely by the men, even by the standards of Eros," answered Michelle, "When she protested, she was sent here into exile."
I said, "Treated crudely? Just because of her flaming-red-hair?"
"There's a little more to Tonga's exoticness than just her hair color," answered Michelle, "I'm sure that you'll find that out though, soon enough."
"Relax, Yuri," Michelle continued with a smile, "If everything goes as planned, the revolution will be over within six months. Then, we won't have to hide down here in the catacombs anymore." She finished, "Let's have something to eat and then get you some rest. Your body will need some time to adjust to being on your feet again, after a thousand years. I'll tell you more about Eros the first thing in the morning, before we meet with High Priestess Isis again."
"That reminds me," I said, "Do you have a nanomachine interface somewhere around here? I really should check on the condition of my thousand-year-old hardware before I go to bed." I continued, "The Doctor didn't include that as part of her examination."
Michelle's face fell and she answered, "No, I don't have one. I've been gathering hardware together in the hopes of building a new nanomachine interface from scratch." She continued, "Between the two of us, we should be able to cobble together a workable unit."
I smiled and said, "We're in luck, Michelle. I brought a spare nanomachine interface along with me on this trip. It's back in the personal storage compartment of my hibernation chamber."
Michelle squealed with delight and jumped up and hugged me. She said, "Oh, thank god! That's wonderful news! I'll make arrangements, right away, to send you back there to get it!" She continued, "I've been very worried about what those nanomachines have been doing to us all of this time, but I had no way of monitoring them, until now!"
Michelle asked Tonga to come into the Common Room. "Tonga," said Michelle, "will you contact Yeea and make plans to take Yuri back to his hibernation chamber? We need to retrieve some of his equipment as soon as possible."
"Yes, Earthborn," Tonga answered with a nod, "We may be able to go back there in three days time."