by Ryan Tang
He scowled at the crowd behind him.
"At some point, you need to start taking some personal responsibility!"
As they walked through the palace, Alex noticed a strange similarity between the building and Southern Robotics headquarters.
At Southern Robotics, the walls had been sleek white, and the doors had been circular holes in the walls. Old Earth artifacts hung from every wall. The décor could not be more different, but the design of every room was identical to the one before. The floors and walls were all built of wood. Each room contained two paintings in gold frames that depicted scenes of Plenty's greenhouses and factories. The workers following them continued to grow. The crowd giggled. People fought to hold back their laughter.
Alex frowned, but Macob paid them no mind.
"It's good to have an audience!"
Eventually, they arrived at a massive ornate door. It was an enormous circle that took up almost half the wall. Two flaring red handles emerged from the robust plates.
Macob knocked on the door and boomed in a theatrical voice.
"The guests are here to see you!"
Alex and Emile walked up to the door and recoiled in surprise.
They gaped at each other. Alex blushed. There were people noisily having sex inside the room. Macob recoiled, but it was too late. Steel screamed from the other side, his typically uplifting voice twisted in anger.
"Idiot! Look at your tablet! Idiot!"
The crowd of workers erupted with laughter. They pointed and jeered. Macob fumbled at his tablet until he saw the message. His face flushed scarlet.
"Ah. The meeting has been rescheduled."
Someone snickered loudly.
"From shit governor to an even shittier secretary. Incredible."
Macob glowered, but didn't respond.
"Ah, please leave for now. Come back later this evening at 7."
Alex stared at the ornate door. The librarian was completely bewildered.
"Is that the office?"
Macob nodded anxiously.
"Ah, yes. But as you might have heard, it's, ah, occupied right now."
He turned to the throng of workers and screamed angrily.
"Thanks a lot for warning me! You'll be sorry once I become Governor again! You'll all pay for your insolence!"
The former governor whirled back toward the two librarians.
"I'm more than just a pilot, you know. I'm more than just a butler. Governor Steel trusted me to bring you two to him for a reason. It's because I have the experience! Those workers don't know what they are talking about! They were just manual laborers before the transition. Once the transition is reverted, once we get to the new-new Diligence, I assure you they will still be manual laborers. Only this time, I'm making sure they know their place!"
The ex-Governor angrily stomped away without another word, leaving Alex and Emile alone in the middle of the jeering workers.
Emile chuckled.
"Man. It's not a surprise they got rid of him."
Alex just shook her head.
"Yeah. You can say that again."
She remembered Matthew telling him how delusional Waters was. He used to keep a gun under the chair of every one of his Paragons in case he was attacked. The night of the quakes, he refused to let Matthew borrow a Paragon to visit his son. The former Governor had worshipped Stock. He let Southern Robotics do anything they wanted. But Macob, with his inflated sense of importance and obscene arrogance in the face of reality, seemed just as delusional.
As Alex and Emile turned back toward the hangar, a shocked voiced suddenly called out from behind.
"Hey! You! What's your name. You!"
Alex turned and wished she hadn't.
She groaned and blushed. The man in the red uniform looked just familiar enough that Alex knew she'd known him once, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember his name. Perhaps she'd only known him by sight. For a moment, she considered lying and walking on, but that seemed far too impolite.
The librarian smiled apologetically.
"I'm so sorry. I can't remember your name."
She reached out a hand.
"I'm Alex."
To her surprise, he reacted with immediate hostility. He angrily batted her hand away.
"I know who you are."
He hadn't known who she was. He'd just referred to her as "what's your name."
He scowled.
"What happened? Married some rich dude and can't remember anyone from Diligence?"
Alex was too taken aback to respond. She just stammered as his scowl turned into a bitter sneer.
"Are you too good for us now?"
"No! No! No!"
She felt like an idiot just repeating herself, but those were the only words that sprang to her mouth.
Of course, she wasn't too good for anybody. She had forgotten a lot of people from Diligence, though. But it wasn't because she thought they weren't worthy of her. It was just hard to remember!
It was a long time ago, and she hadn't been happy on the colony. She'd met hundreds of people from Plenty, and she hadn't been back on Diligence in nearly seven years. He stormed off, shaking his head and muttering angrily under his breath.
"What a bitch. Thinks she's hot shit just because she got off the colony."
Instead of turning to the hangar, he took a left. Before the door swung shut, Alex caught glimpses of a glass conference room filled with row after row of simulator pods. She heard the players inside shouting and hooting loudly. Their game was projected against the wall.
Alex only caught a brief glimpse at the screen, but it was enough to notice something very unusual. The pilots weren't just playing a game. They were training.
All of the Paragons had been built identically. The machines wielded armaments that'd been built directly into their hands and torsos. A pair of missile launchers poked over the shoulder. The fingers on their right hand ended in claws, and the ones on the left splayed out awkwardly with gun barrels at every tip. Alex heard the rat-a-tat of machinegun fire through the closed door.
She pressed her ear against the door, and she thought she heard a supervisor correcting the pilots on their technique and formations.
She turned to Emile and explained what she'd seen. Her friend's eyes widened.
"Is that what they're ordering the Paragons for?"
Alex frowned and shook her head.
"I just don't see it happening. Southern Robotics's usual designs were fake. And like Jared said, I doubt Stock would have sold the Eternium gilded ones. 50 Paragons is an incredible fighting force."
Something was missing here, something just on the edge of their perception. Emile pointed.
"We need to find out more. Just go through the door and take another look. Tell the guy who got mad at you that you want to apologize."
Alex groaned. She did want to apologize, but she was wary of how angry he'd gotten.
Did everyone on the colony think that way now?
Her throat tightened, and her head started pounding, but she had to do it for Plenty. She had to be the colony's ace.
"Ugh. Fine."
Alex pushed open the door, and Emile followed her.
____
"Fire! Fire! Fire!"
The supervisor was a handsome man with an easy smile and tangled hair that trailed elegantly down to his shoulders. He marched back and forth across the pods, shouting out orders. Every so often, he'd knock on the door to give the pilot individual criticism of their technique. His red uniform was covered with medals and ornaments that glistened prettily with every step he took. A long decorative sword hung at his waist. His outfit resembled the pictures Alex had seen of rebel generals. Captain Ray had dressed like that before every battle, although he'd worn red instead of white.
Rows and rows of machines lined up shoulder to shoulder, but there was no opponent. Instead, they simply fired into a cliff face, spreading their fire to destroy it as soon as possible. Brightly colored numbers flickere
d across the screen as they blasted chunks of rock to bits. A bar at the base of the screen counted out the points each pilot had accumulated. Alex knew at a glance that this was a private modification. She'd played all the game modes before but had never seen this one.
The pilots were training to act as a single coordinated unit. There were no attempts at individual heroism. If Alex were playing, she'd try to shoot the rocks as they flew through the air to hone her aim under difficult situations. These pilots had no time for trick shots.
Alex imagined the hail of bullets screeching toward her in a battle.
Suppression fire.
They were training to execute perfect team suppression fire.
She frowned. There was no point practicing something like this unless you thought you were going to get Paragons.
The handsome supervisor clapped his hands excitedly when the exercise finished.
"Great work, men! Great work!"
His perfectly straight teeth shone incandescently as he smiled.
"That was our best performance yet!"
By then, the troops had all climbed out of their pods. Alex recognized some of them. They were more familiar than the man from before, and not for a good reason. They'd been bullies like Heidi. Their families had owned refineries, factories, and greenhouses, and they'd all loved flaunting their positions.
The big man on the far right of the room was Hank Furman. He'd asked Alex on a date near the end of high school. When she turned him down, he'd thrown a fit and promised that neither she nor her family would ever get to work at his family's greenhouses. It was a promise he'd kept, not that it made much of a difference. Alex had left the colony shortly after.
The woman next to him was his best friend Claudia, who'd only moved back to Diligence for their last two years of high school. Alex's heart pounded in her chest. Claudia used to chase people around, threatening to beat the hell out of them. When someone finally got sick of it and clocked her in the face, she'd gotten them arrested and got their whole family fired from work.
Even Macob's nephew was there. Ben was very short where Macob was tall, but they had the same face. Ben was a far cruder version of his famous uncle, openly scheming and lecherous. He often talked about how he couldn't wait for Macob to die. The former Governor had no children, and Ben made sure everyone knew he was the sole heir.
Alex frowned. All of Diligence's most powerful families were represented in the room. She saw others who were a good deal younger or older than she was, but their similar faces marked them as relatives to the ones she'd known.
Why were they all supporting Steel? Steel claimed to hate exploitative people who left Diligence as soon as possible. That was this group to a tee. It just didn't make any sense.
The commander thumped his chest. Then he saluted.
"First the Strangegods, then the foreigners!"
The soldiers echoed his cry and copied his salute.
"First the Strangegods, then the foreigners!"
First the Strangegods, then the foreigners.
Alex shuddered.
It was a terrifying chant, especially so soon after military training. When they finished, the handsome commander giggled.
"Well, to be fair, it's only a certain kind of Strangegod. We know some that are good."
The few Strangegods in the room raised their Eternium relics in response.
Alex's mind whirled. The librarian had already been surprised to see them at Macob's debate, but their presence in the room was something else entirely.
The Strangegods were a sect from the days of Old Earth. They were exceptionally rare on the other colonies, but quite common on Diligence. The Mad Nobles' servants worshipped a great and ancient god that they claimed was far more noble and powerful than their master's sinful Familiars. According to her childhood friend Hector, the sect had once consisted of countless warring factions that'd united in the face of the Mad Nobles’ oppression. No matter how desperately they tried, the tyrants could never quash their own servant's beliefs.
Perhaps their god really was far more powerful than the Nobles'. Their sigils, preserved in carved Eternium statues and pendants, had all survived to the present day. The sinful gods were utterly forgotten.
The Strangegods mostly kept to their independent communities. They never participated in politics. Sometimes it even seemed like they had no interest in following the laws of Diligence. But now they were here training as soldiers. It just didn't make sense.
The troops saw her as they prepared to leave the room.
"What the hell are these people doing here?"
The man who'd yelled at her earlier seethed angrily.
"I told you to get out of here!"
Alex's heart pounded against her chest. For a moment, it was like she was a girl again, not a Paragon pilot who'd conquered a dark god. The fear spread like grasping roots, going first from her stomach then to her heart and then to her brain. She felt herself instinctively preparing to run.
Her feet turned, and her legs tensed. She didn't want to be here, not near so many angry people from her days on Diligence. And she definitely didn't want to see people like Hank or Claudia again.
But then she turned, saw Emile, and stopped. Her friend smiled encouragingly. The fear immediately withered into a nub.
"Sorry. I just wanted to apologize. It's been a long time. I didn't mean to forget your name –"
Claudia cut her off and jeered.
"It's you! The girl who moved to be a librarian."
Claudia laughed.
"They pay you that much to be a librarian? Or did you just give up and marry rich?"
Hank scowled.
"Loser. She's a loser that gave up on us."
Despite her anxiety, Alex had to keep herself from scoffing.
Hank moved off the colony as soon as school ended. Come to think of it, most of the people here did. Even Ben left. He boasted he'd return once Macob died so he could become governor.
It just didn't make sense. Alex couldn’t remember much about the man who'd cursed her out, but the wealthy bullies had been openly disdainful of Diligence and her people. Why had all of them come back?
Hank jeered again.
"I'd like to see her try and come back to Diligence after we're done training."
The handsome blond commander lazily tried reestablishing order. After clapping his hands together a few times, he shrugged and gave up. He just watched as his soldiers jeered at Alex and Emile, a lazy smile curled on his lips.
"Imagine coming back wearing these rich bitch clothes."
Alex had to stop herself from sneering. There was no point in being rude in return. Her former classmates now dressed casually in the same flannel shirts and jeans Steel had worn on stage, but that had never been the case growing up.
"Imagine coming back with such a rich bitch attitude! Just barging in like that?"
These people had the worst attitude of anyone she'd known.
Alex took a deep breath and shook her head as she stared at the simulator pods. She imagined herself inside one, lining up the perfect shot. In her mind's eye, the mosaic blue hand of her Paragon raised its rifle. Her breaths grew even, and her head stopped pounding.
Her heartbeat returned to normal.
She didn't feel scared anymore. She felt disdainful. The person whose name she'd forgotten might have had a right to be angry, but the others jeering at her were just as cruel as they'd been before. That was valuable information. They were openly boasting of attacking innocent people, and Steel didn't consider their behavior a problem. She might learn even more by talking to them.
Alex spoke calmly, without stammering. She remembered Jared telling her about how important it was to stay political when working at Southern Robotics. It was the same here. Back in high school, Claudia had been nearly as bad as Stock. A misplaced comment would immediately trigger her anger.
She made herself smile.
"Hey. I'm sorry for barging in. I just wanted to apolo
gize. Best of luck with everything."
Nothing these people said mattered. She didn't live on Diligence anymore. She had an amazing home on Plenty. Her fake smile turned into a real one when she remembered her shining blue apartment, deep blue with stars of every shade. Her friends had built it for her. Her time on Diligence being bullied by people like Hank and Claudia and Ben was like a completely different life. After she and Emile found the schematics, she'd take her parents back home with her.
She was a librarian and a pilot now, and not a little girl to be bullied.
She turned to leave, but then Claudia called her back.
"Hey! Weren't you that loser who spent all her time hiding out in the arcade? How about a little practice battle?"
Alex stopped. She probably should've just kept walking, but the challenge rankled her pride.
Hiding out in the arcade?
Before Alex could even respond, Emile whirled around and accepted with shocking eagerness and enthusiasm.
"Let's play! We'll show you who the real loser is!"
Emile cackled in a deliberately obnoxious fashion as Alex jumped in surprise. She'd quite forgotten her friend was there. Emile had been unusually silent the whole time.
The handsome general clapped his hands together.
"A practice match! What a marvelous idea!"
A few of the pilots murmured, and Alex heard snatches of the conversation.
"She's Every Blue."
"Wait, what?"
"She was the highest-ranked pilot when we were in high school."
"Shit!"
Her heart skipped another beat, this time because of excitement. Cold fire surged through her stomach. Her reputation preceded her.
But Claudia just sneered.
"Look. She was just a loser with nothing else to do. Of course, she'd have a high rank. That doesn't mean shit now."
Alex sighed. She didn't know why Claudia was so pointlessly mean. The librarian gathered her thoughts. Her opinion on Steel had swung back and forth like a pendulum.
When she first heard him speak, she thought he might be an ally.
Then Leanne said she knew him, and Alex's suspicion flared.
Seeing how disdainfully Macob treated the workers made her think Steel had to be much better in comparison.