"What secrets are you talking about?" Luke asked, truly curious, since he didn't have any impression of Professor Patrick having any secrets.
"Remember that class where Professor Lana talked about those terrifying effects of radies and someone sent the clips with the man whose limbs were falling off?" Mikel looked at Luke.
"Yes" Luke nodded but his face still doubtful.
"There was a guy who couldn't hold back and threw up"
"Nolan" Luke cut Mikel off in the middle as he remembered that guy.
"Yes, that's the guy and Professor told him to go wash himself less he would disturbed the whole class with the smell"
"And?" Luke asked still did not know where this would lead to.
"Professor Lana went out of the class along with Nolan when you were flirting with Alex and the rumors started the day after" Mikel looked at Luke teasingly.
"Flirt my a**, he was just strange.
Enough of that, what's the rumors you were speaking?" Luke looked at Mikel impatiently.
"So after Nolan took care of himself and walked back to the class, he heard a familiar voice coming from the one of the classroom at the end of the hallway.
He stopped in his track and moved closely to the classroom when he recognized that it was Professor Lana's.
He almost pissed his pants while he hurriedly turned around and decided to head back to the class straightaway when he heard Professor Lana said 'Come to the same place tonight, I already prepared everything'
The moment he heard that sentence, Nolan knew that he just heard the biggest secret in the school.
He ran to the class with almost a speed of light and told his bestfriend Alan, then Alan couldn't keep it to himself and told Amy, Amy then told Frosk and with how good friend I was with Frosk, he ended up telling me the story to which I went to Nolan to validate the news and It's true!" Mikel looked at Luke excitedly.
"I don't really understand it, what does Professor Lana and Professor Patrick's personal life have anything to do with the hub?" Luke still doubtful.
"You idiot, everybody knows how Professor Lana is.
She treated everyone like they are not a person but a machine and if you didn't perform by your role or meet some kind of a standard threshold, you'd be in trouble without any leeway.
Can you imagine the life with someone like that? So serious all the time.
If Professor Patrick is what I think he is, he wouldn't risk having this secrets exposed or else the whole school would explode with this type of rumors and the extent of exaggeration is unimaginable.
The student who confided with him would lose confident in him, afraid that he would tell their secrets to his beloved.
He would be shunned by the students forever" Mikel looked at Luke seriously
"Is it that serious?" Luke asked curiously.
"If there is a chance of Professor Lana's learning about what you are building, would you risk it?"
"Hell no!" Luke jumped at the thought of Professor Lana learning what he was doing.
"Absolutely" Mikel smiled at Luke's sudden enlightenment.
"So we can use this to force his hands in helping us?" Luke asked
"Yes"
"I feel a little guilty by doing that, to be honest.
It felt like we are blackmailing some good people with their personal life.
I feel that it's kinda wrong" Luke hesitated
"It's this or the hub and also he wouldn't know who blackmailed him anyway" Mikel looked at Luke persuasively
"Is there no other way?" Luke looked at Mikel
"Don't be naïve, Luke. It's this way or your hub.
You choose"
Hearing that, Luke thought long and hard for a while before Mikel sighed helplessly.
"Let's do this. We sent the message but if he didn't comply in the end, we won't spread the rumors anyway.
Just scare him with a paper tiger.
If he really are going to destroy the hub, we could just go in and apologize.
What do you think?" Mikel looked at Luke helplessly.
"Why don't we just charge in now and find some random reasons to take the hub back?" Luke asked Mikel
"We planned to use the hub in our future plan and even with how understanding he was as a teacher, he would still not agree to it. I can assure you because it really crossed the boundary.
I have already told you that this plan would involved many people and you already agreed to it.
Do you still want to build that thing, Luke?
I need to see your determination because if we get caught by your so-called heroism later then we would be sent to the radies, and I would rather tell Gram right now and let you hate me for a while than go to the radies with those scums" Mikel looked at Luke his face incredibly serious.
Luke just looked at Mikel blankly before a fire was lit in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, buddy. You risked your life helping me while I was too naïved thinking that the world would bend to my will if I was a good guy" Luke sighed with heavy hearts.
"Let's do this" Luke continued, full of determination.
"Good!, now let's plan what would appear in the hub before we sent it?" Mikel patted Luke and walked to the nearest empty classroom to discuss with Luke.
"What about 'I know you two are seeing each other'?" Luke asked with a mischievous glint apparent in his eyes.
"Are you crazy? That's too direct.
Try another" Mikel opposed.
"Then let's sent him 'Stop seeing Professor Lana or consequences'" Luke seemed to enjoy thinking of some ridiculous sentence to sent to Professor Patrick
"Are you Professor Lana's boyfriend? Why does the sentence full of jealousy?"
....
*Beep
Hearing the sound, Professor Patrick reached out his hand to grab an item that one of his student just gave him.
He examined it and looked at it curiously.
When he flipped it around a few times and notice the components, he smiled and played with it with interest.
"Just a bunch of signals receptors, a tiny computing capacity and an encoding mechanisms" Professor Patrick mumbled to himself
"The design is common but what's interesting is the pattern of this encoding, I think I've seen it somewhere before but where? Is it the Empire or the Federation? " Professor Patrick gave a deep look at the hub and fell into deep thought.
*Beep
Another sound rang which startled Professor Patrick a bit, there was a message on the display screen that made him scoffed loudly.
' Place this thing on any canteen's table or your secrets will be exposed '
"Nobody had threatened me like this for a long time. Haha. Let's see if it's a professor or a student" Professor Patrick laughed lightly before he tried to disassemble the hub right there when he heard another beep.
'If this thing is damaged, your secrets would be exposed'
This time he found it amusingly cute but he still paid no attention to the warning.
*Beep
This time when Professor Patrick saw the message, his eyes turned terrifyingly cold.
He slowly placed the hub on the table while looking at the screen to see if there would be any other message but there was none.
He stood up slowly, with a face full of indifferent and coldness that no students had ever seen and left his office toward the direction of the school's canteen with the hub in his hand.
On the screen, it showed.
'Conversation with Lana in 11th classroom...'