by Ryan Tang
It was like a blue and white sun had risen in the library courtyard.
Passersby pointed.
"Wow! Look at that!"
"Look at that!"
A few of them started up a cheer.
Jared beamed.
"Pretty cool, huh? I call it the Eternium Vein. Try tapping the floor. The Vein can reach to the core and through that to the Spire."
It was brilliant.
Alex gently placed a hand onto the ground, and the Spire shrank before her eyes. Her mind faltered momentarily when it bumped against the colony's sabotaged core, but she brushed her fears aside and concentrated.
Infinitesimal tendrils poked through the colony floor, breaking past the outer layer. If it weren't for the glowing Eternium, Alex never would have noticed the microscopic holes. She thought of her mosaic blue machine, and the tower did the work for her. She couldn't hope to create something as powerful and complex as a Paragon all by herself.
But the Spire could do it.
The Spire remembered.
The head emerged first.
The right eye was as bright as a clear sky; the left was as dark as the bottom of the sea. A long row of shark's teeth smirked menacingly at the courtyard. The upper torso burst from the tower, pulling the crescent arc behind it.
Jared squinted for a moment, then asked to take back the controls.
"Don't want to eyeball this."
He pressed a hidden button and measuring tape burst from his machine's wrists. The Hands Paragons were built with utility in mind. Jared had hidden countless useful items inside the enormous hands – measuring tape, solder, a torch, a projector, life rafts, medical kits, and many more besides.
His Paragon's hands darted through the gap in the Spire. Jared's frown deepened as he continued measuring. When he finished, Alex returned her Paragon to its rightful home.
He sighed.
"It's fourteen. We're missing enough Eternium for fourteen Paragons."
There was a long silence as tension strangled their throats.
Jon spoke first.
His voice was high and hesitant, and Alex was violently reminded of that night long ago inside the book-corridor towers. The goddess of Ignorance wanted to kill her, but Fred had refused. Instead, he'd wiped Alex's memories and dumped her off outside. Back then, Fred had been trying to hide his fear too.
They were both just boys.
"Who are we going to tell? What are we going to do about this?"
They took a deep breath and stared at each other.
Who to tell?
Stock had sacrificed every member of the colony's Security Force. They were all true believers. He'd given them equipment and weapons they never could have dreamed of. When she first arrived on Plenty from Diligence, Alex had been completely baffled. Plenty's police officers had been armed with tanks and fighter jets.
The Waters administration was gone. Not a single one of the Governor's inner circle could be found. Like Waters himself, they were probably dead.
The de-facto ruler of Block 12, a thin and wiry man named Mr. Chen, had died during the fighting. Alex had never met him. She'd only seen the statue his people had created to honor him.
They were on their own.
Alex frowned.
"Why don't we just tell everyone?"
That's what they'd decided to do with the stories.
Why wouldn't they do this about the ghosts and the missing Eternium?
Alex didn't want to cause a panic, but after the Southern Robotics crisis, she thought keeping news away from anyone would be very unfair.
She could hear the same hesitation in Jared's voice. He was just making things up as they went along.
"Yeah, I guess we gotta, I just don't want to scare people for no reason. Like I said. They are probably just in some depot or hangar."
He paused for a moment to fiddle with the dashboard. He chewed at his thumb as he turned back around.
"Alright. Here's what we'll do. Let's search the early Blocks and see if we find anything. Tonight, I'll stay up and keep an eye out for these ghosts. We'll call a meeting tomorrow morning once we have a better idea of what's going on. There's no need to panic anyone with hasty information."
That sounded like a good idea.
She wasn't a hundred percent certain it was, but how could she be?
Nobody was in charge.
Their previous rulers were dead or imprisoned. When they were alive, they'd ruthlessly exploited everyone else on Plenty. Alex had no idea what honest rule looked like.
Perhaps this was another responsibility for an ace pilot.
Her students chattered from the back.
"Take us with you!"
"How are you going to get started?"
Jared hesitated.
"Well, we'll have to look through the homes on Block 1."
That would take a very long time. The homes on Block 1 were huge.
Alex leaned back and sighed.
"There's another way."
She knew who could give them a valuable lead, but it was the last person in the universe she wanted to see.
____
Just like around the core, there was an informal patrol outside Stock's mansion. A handful of Peacetime models were parked around the block, and keen-eyed citizens paced in front of the sprawling home.
A handsome couple stood outside the door with their arms crossed. Both of them were tall and strong; they were the colony's chosen security guards. Stock had the unlined and carefree face of a man who'd never worked a day in his life, but he was still pushing past sixty. There was little chance he could escape. The official guards were there for the defeated tycoon's protection, not the other way around.
After making them sign Contracts, Stock had thrown his victims into tiny cells. He'd treated people like equipment and stacked them on top of each other like logs.
Executing Stock was proposed at every meeting. The motion had barely failed to pass last week, when Leanne had led a coalition of thousands in calling for the former tyrant's head. She and her supporters were terrified he'd rise again, and they were still angry for everyone they'd lost.
Alex stared at the enormous home and felt another twinge of hate. Perhaps they should have let him rot in a cell. Instead, they'd let him keep one of his houses on Block 1, an expansive four-story mansion that stretched across half a street.
Before Alex stepped out of the machine, Jared handed her two shards of Eternium.
"Just in case."
She slipped the frigid metal into her pocket.
"Yeah."
If Stock attacked her, the legendary metal would protect him. When he'd tried shooting her in the Spire, the library itself had risen to her defense. It'd been only a few weeks ago, but it seemed like an eternity. They'd been working so hard to rebuild the colony.
Alex sighed as she descended the Paragon's rope ladder.
She thought again of Amy carrying the block.
Was this some scheme?
She climbed another rung and shuddered.
Did the Contract still bind her soul?
Another rung.
Shouldn't they just execute Stock to be safe?
But that thought made Alex wince too. They'd seen a lot of people die already. Alex didn't have the right to say whether someone should live or die, yet she figured that if anyone did deserve to die, Stock was at the top of the list.
But they'd seen a lot of people die already.
"Alex! Alex!"
Alex turned at the familiar iron voice, and Leanne smiled back at her. Today the hawk-eyed woman was dressed in a sleeveless white dress that cut off at her knees. The muscles in her powerful arms rippled as she waved.
"I heard you were going to visit Stock?"
"Yeah."
Almost nobody was allowed inside, but the colony trusted Alex not to kill him. After all, she would have done so in the courtyard if she'd wanted to.
Alex shuddered.
Was Leanne going to ask her to kill St
ock?
There was a hard look in the fierce woman's smile that Alex didn't like.
It wasn't Alex's place to do that. She was an ace, not an executioner.
But as the beautiful woman drew nearer, the librarian's trepidation was replaced with concern.
Leanne still walked with the same effortless grace that'd captivated Alex ever since she'd first seen the older woman in the Spire. It reminded Alex of the boy Falo and the strange ghosts in the courtyard. But not even Leanne could hide how tired she was.
The lid of her left eye flickered up and down. Her lip drooped to the side.
There was an awkward silence as Alex tried to figure out what to say. When Leanne opened her mouth to speak, Alex panicked and blurted out the words.
"I'm not going to kill Stock."
Surprise flickered across Leanne's face.
"No, I didn't think you would. Especially not you!"
"What do you mean? Why especially not me?"
"You could have killed him already if you wanted to. And your friend argued so passionately against it last week."
Leanne smirked.
"Besides, if I wanted him dead, I'd just kill him myself."
Even though he'd lost everything to him, Jared had been the most prominent advocate of keeping Stock alive.
"We have to show everyone on the other colonies we're better! We can't just kill him! Why are we talking about this when we should be building!"
Alex still wasn't sure how she felt. But Jared had been right about one thing - all their time right now should be dedicated to rebuilding.
Alex nodded then quickly turned towards the mansion. Leanne always unnerved the librarian. The fierce-eyed woman just seemed too put together, a little too determined.
Leanne's eye drooped a little further. Someone should tell her to rest, but it wouldn't be Alex.
"Is Nico alright? I haven't seen him in a long time."
"Yeah, he's fine."
Nico was a few feet away in the cockpit of the Hands Paragon, but Leanne didn't know it. It'd been the same in the Spire too. They'd been sleeping in the same building without realizing it.
The librarian blinked.
Leanne sounded so sad and tired.
Alex felt guilty. She didn't really have a reason to be scared of Leanne. The librarian had allowed their first meeting to influence her a little too much. The elegant lady was just like every other survivor of Plenty.
Leanne abruptly started speaking very quickly. A swift and lonely torrent of words poured from her mouth. Alex suddenly realized that most, if not all, of Leanne's friends on Block 1 had likely been sacrificed. The fierce-eyed woman didn't have many friends or confidants.
"I wish I could see him more – Nico, I mean – I mean, with Amy dead, I'm all he has, right? And Amy, I mean, he was always a little closer with Amy, at least, that's what it seemed like to me. He called us both mom, but she was his..."
Leanne trailed off. Alex turned quite red.
She hadn't realized. She'd thought Leanne and Amy were only friends.
"I mean, Amy was the one who gave birth to him, you know? So I'm worried that would make a difference. And I hear him crying, I mean I'm crying too. I wish I could be there for him. But this world..."
Leanne stumbled again. She squeezed her eyes tight and then opened again. She was struggling just to stay awake.
"We have a chance here to do something really great. Something really amazing. Build a really great world for Nico and all the other kids to grow up in. Something way better than what existed before. Something that will show everyone how good things can be. And it's on me. I thought Southern Robotics was the best way to make things better. Plenty seemed so much better than home..."
Alex had grown up on Diligence, which was famous for asteroid mining and producing raw materials. The librarian hadn't thought about it before, but she figured the quality of life on both colonies was about the same. Both Diligence and Plenty had suffered from arduous work schedules.
"Where did you grow up?"
"Oh, Generosity. Generosity. I moved away from there to be with Amy. My parents were so mad. Nobody leaves the Ten and Ten Families. We met online actually, if you'd believe it..."
Generosity was known as a center of games and pleasure, a place far too expensive for someone like her to ever visit. They were ruled by the Ten and Ten, a consortium of twenty wealthy families. As a member of one of the Families, Leanne was practically a princess. But other than the basics, Alex knew nothing. The colony had a very mysterious reputation.
"I can't stop thinking about her, you know. Amy and all the people I left behind at home. Generosity was a stupid place, and the Families were the stupidest of all, but they were still my family members. Did you know? We had to swear blood oaths as children. To stay loyal to the colony. You wouldn’t believe how angry they were when I wouldn’t bring Nico back for one."
She shook her head.
"What a bunch of weirdos. But still, I can't believe I let Stock trick us like that. I need to make it up now, you know? I need to make it up for being such a fool. It's what Amy would have wanted. A better world for our son. I'm all he has now, you know? And we have a chance to do something here. Something really good. Something really really good. Something that will show Generosity and the Families and Stock and everyone else."
Leanne stumbled forward again, and Alex caught her. The librarian fell back a couple of steps. Leanne was a good deal taller and heavier than she was.
"You're such an inspiration for him, by the way. Nico. You do so much for him. Thank you, thank you."
Alex turned bright red as a rush of emotions flooded her brain. She gulped.
"You need to take a break. We do have a chance to build a better world, but you need to rest if you want any part in it."
The librarian smiled when she remembered how insistent Matthew had been that she get some sleep. The gruff and wiry man had been right. Alex abruptly yawned again.
"Truth be told, she needed to get some more sleep now."
They laughed together, but before Leanne could respond, Nico's footsteps pattered down the street.
"Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!"
Leanne jerked up, and her tiredness suddenly faded away as she let out a squeal of happiness.
"Oh!"
A smile blossomed across her face, a smile with so much love Alex's heart almost burst. The smile was mirrored on her bespectacled son.
"Where have you been? Why are you always working?"
"I've got a lot to do!"
Nico perceptively looked his mom in the eye.
"You look tired! Let's go home and rest!"
"I can't! I gotta work!"
The two guards stepped out from underneath the door, shaking their heads. Both of them had the same bemused expression on their face.
"No, you need to go home and rest."
"You've been the MVP here. You're standing outside every single day. You can leave this to us!"
Alex laughed.
"She's like this in the library too."
She turned to Leanne.
"Go home. Have fun with Nico, and sleep up! You'll feel better after. You'll get more done."
Alex smiled.
"I'll work extra hard in your honor."
That was part of being an ace, and it was part of being a friend too.
____
The guards nodded and stepped aside as Alex approached the door. The librarian knocked.
"May I come in?"
The librarian took a deep and calming breath as she gripped the shards in her pocket. She was safe.
To her surprise, the voice on the other end was pitifully eager.
"Yes! Yes! Come in! End this torture! End this torture now! This! This is illegal! I have rights! I have rights, you know! I'm only human! You can't do this to me! Torture! Torture!"
Alex frowned.
What was he talking about?
She stepped inside and gaped. The house was in shambles. Stock l
ived in utter squalor.
He'd splattered spaghetti all over the walls. Shredded pieces of white meat that looked like poultry littered the floor. There were greasy smears all over the window. He'd poured juice directly into the carpet. The orange and purple stains were everywhere.
It looked like a child's food fight, and the rest of the room wasn't any better.
A bookshelf had crumpled to the floor, spilling out copy after copy of Stock's autobiography. The pitch-black covers had once filled every floor of the Library Spire. They survivors had burned most of them and tossed the remainder inside Stock's home.
A ceiling fan had fallen and shattered to bits over an elegant dining table, destroying both of them.
Loose papers filled with maniacal drawings were scattered along the floor, papering over a thick layer of grunge and grime. Alex tilted her head to the left so she could get a better look.
SUCIDE BOMB PLAN. GET REVENG.
A big black circle with a scribbled fuse sat on top of what looked like a helmet. According to the label, the bomb was supposed to go off without destroying Stock's head.
PARAGON POWERD BY SLOP
A stick-figure Paragon launched itself into the sky, spewing spaghetti behind it. The cockpit was built out of a collapsed shelf, and the arms were carved from the stairwell banister.
Alex blinked.
Was this some sort of joke?
Stock screamed when he saw her.
"You! You! How dare you! You! You stole my godhood! How dare they –"
He cut off and looked suspiciously at the walls.
"It's just as I thought. Filmed! Filmed! I'm being filmed! I will not have it! I will not suffer your mockery!"
Drool dribbled from his mouth.
The self-proclaimed genius was in terrible condition.
He was covered in food stains, and his hair was ragged and torn. Stock had once been infamous for his distinctive haircut, which framed his face in a square. Only Alex had recognized it for what it was - a homage to the Mad Nobles, the lost rulers of Old Earth that Stock desperately wanted to emulate. She'd seen the picture of Zann the Hangman in Paragons and Pilots.
Without his barber, Stock had taken it upon himself to tear his hair into his desired shape.
He beat his chest and wailed.
"You! You! Does a great man's fall amuse you so much! Will you continue to deny me my servants! Will you continue forcing me to live in such a dirty prison?"