Science and Sorcery Box Set

by Ryan Tang

  Falo chuckled. They were ignorant of Ignorance.

  When he finished inputting his machine, Falo explored the workings of the pod. There were no secrets from a Truthspeaker, and soon all the secrets were open to him.

  There was a black panel of hidden cheats and additional capabilities designed to imitate the Lost Lord's power, but the game designers had fallen far short.

  The boy king wondered how many players had been able to find it. It'd been well-hidden, as far as Ignorants went.

  Falo closed the hidden menu and stared wistfully at the simulated hangar.

  He wished he could share the pod with his friends.

  How many hours had they spent playing at Paragons?

  His fingers danced across the screen, adding their designs to the hangar alongside his own.

  Elaine wanted to be a sniper. Jon and Falo always fought together in the front. Tall Paul changed his mind every time, so Falo designed his Paragon to be as flexible as possible.

  Simon always imagined supporting them in the ship, but Falo thought he might want a Paragon just in case he needed to escape. He built a speedy little scout for his friend, gray and blue, with four delicate wings protruding from the back.

  One day they'd all fly into battle together.

  The golden boy shook his head and laughed at himself. It wiggled strangely and bounced against his knees.

  He could not stop thinking about them. He thought he might miss them eventually, but it'd come much faster than he thought.

  He knew they were friends now, not just companions. He didn't need to force them to obey him. He'd tried so hard to forget them, but how could he, when every single thing he saw reminded him of them?

  Falo gripped the controls tightly. A simulated cityscape flickered into being all as the purple and gold Paragon soared into the sky.

  One day.

  One day, the walls around The Wastes will fall.

  One day, Falo would give back what he made them Forget.

  One day, his friends would understand the decisions he made.

  And then he'd give them a thousand good memories to make up for the one he hid away.

  CHAPTER 15: THE BRILLIANT DEALMAKER

  "Sir? Sir?"

  A tall and beautiful woman with silver hair was floating high above him.

  The Governor blinked.

  Was he in heaven?

  The Governor knew a little bit about heaven.

  It was a sort of paradise for people who'd done an outstanding job in life. Governor Waters had devoted every ounce of his strength to the most fantastic company in human history only to get murdered inside his own home by a vindictive mob of Paragon thieves.

  If anyone deserved a beautiful post-life reward, it was him.

  His vision slowly focused.

  She was so beautiful.

  "Sir. Are you alright?"

  Her voice sounded vaguely familiar.

  Governor Waters squinted. He slowly realized the beautiful woman was Sarah.

  Yet that didn't necessarily mean he wasn't in heaven. They might have killed her too. She was inside his mansion when the mob smashed the gates.

  He'd always dreamt of Sarah.

  She'd be a fine reward for years of diligent service to Southern Robotics, years of tolerating her oafish husband.

  He tried to speak, but his lips only burbled. The back of his head was in tremendous pain.

  His mouth was very numb. It hurt to talk.

  But he had to know. He had to know if he was in heaven.

  He couldn't make it through a sentence. In the end, he settled on a single word.

  "Husband? Husband?"

  She shot him a confused glance and held up a finger.

  "Hang on, sorry."

  The voice on the other end of the phone radiated power and confidence. Governor Waters instinctively tried to obey its call.

  His neck screeched with pain, a pain so thick and sharp it felt like someone was sawing it to the bone.

  The Governor collapsed back to the bed, gasping desperately for air.

  Sarah's voice was tender and soothing.

  The Governor turned hopefully towards her. Perhaps she was trying to comfort him. But alas, she was still concentrated entirely on her tablet.

  The voice on the other end was so stern and mighty that Governor Waters knew it was the voice of God.

  God was the Governor of heaven.

  "Sir! Your instincts were right. No matter how annoying he is, we can't just kill him. That will make him a martyr! That will arouse suspicion! Just keep using the pet writers. Make sure everyone knows that his greatness is far beneath yours. Once you ascend, none of this will matter! The boy will be your plaything!"

  She put the tablet away and turned back towards Governor Waters.

  "I'm sorry sir, what was that again?"

  He forced the word out of his dry and battered throat.

  "Husband...."

  It took her a moment to understand. Governor Waters could almost see the gears spinning in her head. Sarah was very lovely, but she wasn't much for brains.

  Then she laughed airily, and his heart sank.

  "Yes. I'm still with my husband."

  So he wasn't in heaven.

  The Governor felt a sharp stab of disappointment, but the feeling soon dissipated.

  Being alive had its charms. There were many other beautiful women, like Mrs. Carter and her daughter. And he had to punish those Paragons thieves. He had to punish them very harshly. For every dent and scratch they made, he'd pay them back a thousand-fold.

  He could enjoy heaven once he finished his work on Plenty.

  He tried to speak but again found it very difficult.

  It'd be best to focus on single words for now.

  "Happened? Safe? Thieves! Thieves!"

  Governor Waters suddenly realized that it was the thieves' fault he'd ended up like this. It was the thieves' fault he looked so weak in front of Sarah. If they hadn't rushed him, he wouldn't have crashed his Paragon. He had to punish them even more harshly.

  The tall woman smiled comfortingly.

  "They've been dealt with. After I saw what happened to Scott, I immediately called in help from Southern Robotics. They brought in a whole battalion of private Security officers. Every looter who stayed and fought is dead. All of your Paragons have been recovered. We found you in the garage and brought you to the mansion infirmary."

  He breathed out a sigh of relief. The thought of his prized Paragons in the hands of murderers was just too much to bear.

  Sarah gently touched his chest. His heart started beating very fast. Maybe he could have heaven on Plenty.

  "Director Stock and I are very sorry about everything that happened. If we'd been on the same page before the break-in happened, everything would have been dealt with immediately. You were so brave! You were going to take your Paragon into battle!"

  Yes. That's what he would have done. He wasn't trying to run. If only the murderers hadn't rushed him. He would have killed them all.

  "And we certainly don't want to take a recovering man out of the only home he's known for the last thirty years."

  She pulled out a new document from her bag.

  "Perhaps this will be more to your liking. In hindsight, full jurisdiction was too much to ask for."

  He nodded frantically. It hurt to force the words out of his lips, but she had to know just how unfair she'd been. They were supposed to be a team.

  "Unfair. Unfair."

  "Yes, yes, we were very unfair."

  She was speaking very softly and slowly so he could understand her. She must have known how hard his head was throbbing. Governor Waters and Sarah always had a very special bond.

  She held the paper in front of his eyes, but the words were impossible to read. They were all squiggly and melded together. He'd just hit his head on a dashboard. She couldn't expect him to read so quickly.

  "Unfair!" Unfair!"

  Sarah shot him a concerned look. Gove
rnor Waters chuckled to himself. The foolish woman must have thought he'd said the contract was unfair.

  But he only meant expecting him to read it was unfair.

  "Can't. Read. Can't read. Explain. Explain."

  She pointed at the paper, steadily going through every single line step by step. She was speaking even slower than before, which was for the best.

  There were a lot of words on that paper.

  "This line transfers management of the Security Force entirely over to Southern Robotics. The officers will report to the Director rather than to you. Personally, I think Scott was justified in what he did. I shudder to think what would have happened if the looters entered your home even a little earlier. But not everyone will see it that way. I think outsourcing the security force to Southern Robotics is just the move you need."

  "Yes. Yes. Scott. Bad."

  Sarah smiled and nodded.

  "This also includes passing over the management of the prisoners from last night over to Southern Robotics!"

  The Governor made a straining noise. This time, Sarah completely understood what he was saying.

  "They will be treated very harshly."

  She chuckled menacingly.

  "Southern Robotics isn't bound by political concerns."

  Perfect.

  The Governor would have smiled from ear to ear if his mouth still worked. There'd always been a special understanding between him and Sarah.

  "This next line transfers management of the Spire over to Southern Robotics. The company will manage the library in place of the government's team. Our plans to tear the tower down failed, but this time we simply want to change how the tower is used. The Spire is one of Plenty's greatest treasures, but we've been leaving dozens of floors completely abandoned!"

  Yes. Yes. That would be fine. Governor Waters couldn't even remember who managed the Spire. He was concerned with the big picture, not tiny insignificant details.

  "The second-to-last line transfers all sanitation efforts over to Southern Robotics. There are just too many bodies on the streets – dead and alive. I've finished putting a corpse disposal unit together, and we also want to investigate the colony's homelessness problem. There are some very compelling theories floating around that overpopulation is causing the quakes. If that's the case, we need to deal with it immediately."

  That sounded great!

  Then the Governor remembered a hitch.

  "Clean. Clean home too."

  "Yes. We would clean your home too. The Governor's mansion is still considered public property."

  Perfect.

  This was hardly a difficult agreement at all.

  Truth be told, Governor Waters thought he'd already signed over sanitation management to Southern Robotics.

  "This last line guarantees you'll stay in the Governor's Mansion. We don't intend for you to lose an election ever again. But it promises that if you ever do lose an election, we'll buy the house for you and build a new one for the incoming Governor."

  She gave him a winking little smile that almost sent his heart into palpitations before moving on to the bottom line of the contract.

  "It's the least we could do for making you go through all this."

  Yes.

  Perfect.

  That was very fair.

  It was long past time Southern Robotics started acknowledging their faults. Every deal had to be a win-win. Both parties had to compromise, not just one.

  He tried to nod but felt a tremendous stab of pain right in his neck instead.

  He coughed and wheezed.

  It took him a while to recover.

  He swore furiously in his mind.

  He swore so vehemently Sarah would be terrified to know the words he was thinking about.

  The Governor hated looking weak, especially in front of beautiful women.

  He croaked out the words, putting every last fiber of his strength into his arid vocal cords. His throat blazed with pain as he spoke.

  "Fair. Fa –."

  The second word turned into an abrupt cough, but Sarah understood, because they were meant to be with each other.

  She held the paper close, and he signed.

  It was such a shame about the husband. He wished Sarah was a little more like Mrs. Carter. It was good for gorgeous women to be a little flexible.

  But at least he was safe now.

  The quake incident had been the most challenging incident of his career.

  It was best to let Southern Robotics handle it. The company was happy to. They'd even rewarded him with a retirement plan!

  There was no doubt about it. Governor Waters had just signed the greatest contract of his legendary gubernatorial career.

  CHAPTER 16: THE HANDS PARAGON

  The crowd cheered and smiled as they supported their injured family and friends so they too could see the strange hunchbacked Paragon and the pilot who promised to rebuild all their homes.

  "It's the Hands Paragon!"

  "He's back! He's back!"

  Some of them stuck both palms outstretched into the air and shook them up and down, a new cheer someone had made for him.

  "Hands! Hands! Hands!"

  Jared couldn't quite share their joy. The Block had gotten a little better, but it wasn't enough.

  When he finally made it to Block 7 the night of the quakes, every single home had been reduced to rubble. There was nothing left at all, nothing but the black tower looming above fire, ruin, and death.

  He'd repaired less than a quarter of the homes, and even after he finished here, there were still all the other Blocks. 6 and 8 were nearly as bad as 7.

  There was just too much damage, and even with the Peacetime model - which everyone else had taken to calling the Hands Paragon - he was only one person.

  Nobody else was any help at all.

  None of his friends from work had spoken to him since the night of the quakes.

  Dean, Johnny, Trish, Mike, even Duncan.

  They all ignored him no matter how many times he asked for help. All the other engineers his age had been low level, so they hadn't been fired along with the Inner Council. By default, more important projects would be passed onto them. He'd seen news reports about Waters ceding all investigative responsibilities to Southern Robotics.

  Undoubtedly, his friends were hard at work ensuring another quake wouldn't happen again. But shouldn't fixing the damage be part of Southern Robotics's responsibilities?

  Jared had toyed around with asking Alex for help, but he thought it was best to leave her alone. She lived on Block 7, and her home must have been destroyed. When he returned home the morning after the quakes, Jared had offered her a place to stay, but she shook her head and asked to be dropped off at the Spire. She hadn't said a word to him since.

  Besides, what could she do? She didn't have the money to build a Peacetime model.

  He stared outside and tried not to cry.

  It was just rubble, rubble, and more rubble.

  Jared opened the hatch of his cockpit.

  He took a deep breath and let it back out again.

  He forced his voice to sound more confident. He even made it deeper. It felt so foolish, but he'd learned how much it helped during the night of the quakes. Everyone was scared. He had to comfort them in every little way he could, even if it was putting on a fake voice.

  He made himself grin.

  "You guys already know what I'm here for."

  The crowd roared.

  He pointed at the first unbuilt house, the next one down after the work he'd finished yesterday. Almost all of them were the same. Just a tiny square-shaped plot of land covered in ruins, strewn with broken and burned possessions.

  "Who lives in this home?"

  He held his breath.

  The brief moment of silence after that question was always the worst.

  Sometimes nobody said anything. Sometimes the inhabitant had died.

  But then a little girl sprinted up into his machine, hoisting herself u
p the rungs two at a time.

  "Me! Me!"

  She jittered so excitedly that the ladder swung wildly back and forth. Jared tensed his hand around the trigger just in case he had to catch her.

  The girl was very small, even for her age. Her black hair was tied in a long braid that went down halfway past her torso. She looked very familiar, but Jared couldn't place her until she finished climbing into the cockpit.

  She laughed and pointed at him.

  "You're that guy who works at Southern Robotics!"

  She was one of Alex's students.

  "Used to work there. They fired me a couple of weeks ago."

  She made a face.

  "What the fuck? Really?"

  Jared laughed.

  The girl couldn't have been more than ten, and she was already saying things like "what the fuck."

  It was undoubtedly Alex's fault.

  His friend swore like a madwoman when fighting in the simulator, and it often extended to her teaching.

  "Why?"

  Jared paused.

  Telling her the truth would make the company look bad.

  Even though Jared felt a spark of pride whenever someone asked why Southern Robotics hadn't built more useful machines like his instead of their usual low flying garbage, Jared couldn't bring himself to criticize his former company. He'd trained his whole life to be political, and he knew there was a chance he might one day return to Southern Robotics.

  They might even bring him back after seeing the Peacetime model in action.

  He shouldn't burn any bridges.

  He shrugged and tried to change the subject.

  "Are your parents here?"

  The girl shook her head and pouted.

  "No. They're stuck at fucking work!"

  Jared laughed again, and she shot him an annoyed look.

  "Sorry."

  Not even Alex swore that much. The "f-bomb" was like a new toy for this girl.

  "They went into work the day after the quakes. My dad wasn't so sure about it, but mom made him. She said that the most important thing is to make money so we can build our house up again. Our house is a tiny piece of shit, but my mom says it costs a lot of money to build a new one."

  She looked like she was going to cry.

  "It's been like that for everyone. They all went into work and haven't come back. They send me texts sometimes to say they're busy, but that's it."