Science and Sorcery Box Set

by Ryan Tang

  "War Paragons. He's bringing in Paragons from a different colony."

  "He's from another colony. This is all to help his family."

  "It's all a scam. He just wants us to work more."

  "The floating city is filled with riches! He's keeping them all to himself! He thinks we're marks!"

  Alex's feelings of solidarity grew with every word and every step, but this was different than their triumph over Stock and his goddess. The Paragons had the strength of a thousand people. Against a Paragon, the truth was nothing more than pleasant words. If her friends failed, their march would end in a slaughter.

  The librarian brushed her fears aside when she reached the floating city. She reminded herself for the millionth time that she knew her friends and neighbors. She was Plenty's ace.

  There was a group just as passionate as hers beneath the floating stage. They screamed and shouted with joy at the sight of Steel and Sooner. The colony's rulers stood twelve feet above everyone else. Emile and Macob were bound beneath their feet.

  The Paragons were there too. One hundred of them, just as he promised. Somehow, Alex's friends had managed to double the order. The librarian gulped.

  The Paragons towered fifty feet into the air, higher than even the floating city.

  The Hands Paragon had always been an ugly machine, but the big hands and Jared's familiar coat of yellow, red, and blue paint made them look friendly and endearing.

  These machines were scary.

  Alex stuck her hand in her pocket and clenched her hand tightly into a fist. For a moment, she almost summoned her machine. Then she let go of the Eternium.

  She had to trust her friends from Plenty. Macob's eyes were wide as saucers, but Emile was strangely serene. Emile trusted Plenty too.

  Steel grinned handsomely as he shouted down with a megaphone.

  "A spy! Southern Robotics sent a spy because they were afraid of our growth. But I've earned our award for catching her. Today is a very special event. It's the first stage to Diligence becoming the most respected colony of all."

  Emile just stared forward.

  Her mouth was bound tight.

  Macob screamed and wailed.

  "Innocent! I'm innocent! You know me! Good old Governor Macob! You can't let this happen to me!"

  Steel laughed.

  "And it turns out we had a disloyal Governor all along! He was selling us out! He was going to sell off the colony! Guess who we found with the spies?"

  "No! No! I caught the spies! No!"

  The crowd's cheers drowned out his wails. His supporters were rousing themselves into a frenzy.

  "Steel! Steel! Steel! Steel!"

  Alex wanted to shout something, but her words died in her mouth.

  What could she say?

  What could she do?

  When Steel saw the approaching protestors, his eyes glinted malevolently.

  He was happy to see them. He'd already beaten the foreigners, and now his other enemy had come to his door.

  He chuckled.

  "And look at this! Even in the moment of our greatest triumph! Here come the Strangegods to bitch and moan until it goes away! Here they come to hold us back! They are traitors! Traitors to their word and the contracts they signed. Traitors to the new and better Diligence we are striving to build together!"

  Hector and his friends shouted back, but it was no use. Steel's words were amplified a thousand times through the speakers of the Paragons. His microphone must have been linked to one of the machines.

  The beautiful Governor smirked.

  "Look at what they think of you! Look! They sat in prosperity in their churches and watched while we starved. Imagine what their Eternium could have bought for us all. People could have stayed on Diligence! Imagine the opportunities they've squandered!"

  The Steel supporters beneath the building surged forward, and for a moment, it seemed like a fight would break out.

  Hector – nearly half a foot taller than anyone else – shouted back.

  Alex stared in awe as the black crescent in his hand danced with green sparks.

  His voice reverberated against the Eternium, and the relic amplified his voice until it was even with the speakers of Steel's Paragons.

  "You are a fraud! A fraud! And we can prove it!"

  Sooner jeered back at him, his own Paragon-linked megaphone in his hand. His eyes were narrowed with hate and disdain oozed from his mouth.

  "Hah! A fraud! You dare call him a fraud? You're just a hideous man. A hideous man of an inferior race. Get back down to the dirt where you belong."

  There was a sudden, shocked silence.

  "What did he say?"

  "What just happened?"

  For a moment, Steel's supporters faltered, but the Governor was able to take back their attention. He pushed the overzealous Sooner aside.

  "Look past the useless Strangegods! Look at the Paragons! Look what my leadership has brought to us. Respect. Trust. Prosperity. No longer will foreigners waltz in like we are a weak and worthless colony. Before you shout out for no reason, look at what we've earned! A hundred beautiful Paragons! Look at that before you call me a fraud!"

  Hank and Claudia cackled from the machines.

  They raised their weapons.

  "Careful what you say!"

  "Show our Governor respect!"

  Alex couldn't think of anyone less worthy to command a Paragon. The two of them waved the machinegun fingers carelessly back and forth. The Paragons had the strength of a thousand people, and their pilot's mistakes were also amplified by a thousand times. They should never be used for such pointless bluffs.

  Alex was about to push herself to the front. If she needed to, she could summon her machine in time. She had to prevent a slaughter.

  Hector caught her by the shoulder and gently shook his head.

  "This is my home. I will lead the battle."

  He tucked the crescent beneath his arm and placed the star in his pocket. The Eternium relics were still pulsating with vivid green.

  Should she have told him about the Eternium Vein?

  Would he even be able to use it?

  He turned back and smiled.

  "You're sure the machines won't work, right?"

  "Yeah."

  He turned back to his wife and son and smiled with ferocious love.

  "Watch this."

  Hector jumped high into the air and caught onto the edge of the floating city with both hands. Everyone gasped. The city was floating twelve feet high in the air, but he'd leaped up like it was nothing.

  With one mighty swing, he pulled himself over the top.

  He raised the crescent again. He gave it a perplexed look, as if he was unsure why it amplified his voice, then shouted into it.

  "I'm not scared of those machines. You're a fraud."

  Steel glared at him.

  "What are you saying? Can't you see what I've done?"

  He waved dismissively.

  "I didn't invite you here. Get back down. Can't you see the Paragons? Can't you see my supporters? Can't you see what I'm doing here?"

  Hector did not get down. He pointed a single accusing finger.

  In the face of an angry mob. In the face of the Governor. In the face of the newly built floating city. In the face of a hundred War Paragons, Hector sneered and repeated the accusations Alex told him two nights ago.

  "I know who you are. Just a rich kid from another colony here to play Governor. Just another scam artist trying to beat Diligence down. You just want to make War Paragons for your dad. I'm not surprised how many of us fell for it. I almost fell for it myself. But we know now. And we call you a fraud."

  Steel briefly flinched.

  Hector continued shouting, addressing the crowd instead of the man in front of him.

  "He's not here to protect us. He wants to use these machines on us! He wants to use these machines on us and force us to build more!"

  Steel caught himself.

  "Lies! Lies! More lies!
"

  The false Governor shook his head with disgust.

  "Look at that jump! He should have made that jump work for Diligence instead of wasting it on lies and accusations. But I shouldn't have been surprised. Just look at the Strangegods! The good ones have already come over. The ones remaining are the ones who want to be lazy. They're the ones who want to break the law! They're the ones holding Diligence back!"

  Hector's voice turned cold as ice.

  "Take that back and apologize."

  Even Steel was briefly surprised. Defeating Macob in the debates had been easy, but Hector was far more confrontational. Hector had called him a liar to his face.

  "What?"

  "Take that back. Take it all back. And apologize for it. Surely you don't mean what you're saying? Surely you don't think we're the problem. You must have misspoken. Take it all back and apologize."

  Sooner shoved his way forward. He stuck his face right in front of Hector's.

  "I care about the facts man. Just the facts. The Strangegods are dumber than everyone else. And you..."

  Sooner sneered and pointed down at Hector's family.

  "You might be the dumbest of all the Strangegods. What did your kind accomplish on Earth? Nothing! Nothing at all! And what have you accomplished here? Nothing! A shit dad bringing a shit mom who's teaching your son to be a bum."

  Hector's fist smashed into Sooner's face. The crescent in his hand amplified the crunch by a thousandfold until it sounded like a crack of lightning. There was a shocked silence as the Governor's aide crashed to the floor.

  Sooner let out a high-pitched shriek.

  "Thug! Thug! I knew it! He's a thug!"

  He squealed and sprinted away.

  "He's a thug! They are all just thugs! Save me! Someone save me!"

  Hector turned to Steel, then shook his head. He addressed the crowd instead.

  "Wouldn't anyone get mad? He just stood there, insulting my wife and kid. I'm sick of it! They just sit here making up lies. Preparing someone to blame for when their scam begins."

  He turned back to Steel.

  "Apologize. Apologize now!"

  The Governor's face was still for just one second longer. Then he sneered. He turned back to the Paragons and gave the command without a moment's hesitation.

  "Shoot him. Shoot him now. We need to show them what happens when you defy the new Diligence."

  The crowd was aghast.

  Most of the machines were too shocked to respond.

  A few brave pilots refused to fire.

  "Look, man. I didn't sign up for this. I thought we were defending this place from enemies?"

  "And the girl. You already captured her. That's how we got these machines. We don't need to shoot anybody!"

  Steel snarled.

  "Shoot them too! Shoot the pilots who don't obey me! We have everything we need to rule the colony!"

  About half of the machines raised their guns.

  The crowd screamed and sprinted away to escape the blast radius.

  Alex froze.

  But her friends had done their job well.

  Every machine that tried to shoot immediately shut down. Their arms fell off with a loud clang. The weapons shattered when they hit the floor. A chest cannon flipped open, only to crumble to pieces.

  Their pilots cried out in shock.

  Steel snarled, oblivious to what was happening.

  "Can't you hear me? Shoot him! Shoot him! Why did I give you these machines? We have everything we want now. Shoot him!"

  More crashes.

  More fallen machines.

  Alex happily noticed that a good half of them had refused to fire. She didn't have many expectations for people like Claudia, Hank, and Ben, but most people were good at the end.

  Steel turned red with rage.

  "Can't you hear me? What have you been training for? Shoot him! Shoot him!"

  The machines continued crumbling. Alex heard her former tormentors wailing in disbelief. A murmur passed through the crowd.

  "What's happening?"

  "Look! The machines are falling apart!"

  And then the gates to the palace in the sky opened.

  The workers stepped out, shaking their heads.

  "This guy's a fraud. It's not worth hiding it."

  "All the money's gone to him."

  "He's not from here. He has people from other colony's coming over all the time, trying to plan some kind of sale."

  "He's trying to cheat us."

  And so the façade crumbled.

  ____

  "Are you sure you don't want to come with us?"

  Alex couldn't believe it. Steel and Sooner had fled back to Generosity, and it was time for Alex and Emile to return to Plenty.

  But her parents were staying.

  "I think we're needed here. I think we're all needed here to rebuild. But once we're finished..."

  Nobody knew what would happen on Diligence. It was a clean slate. After Steel left, Macob tried to become Governor again, but he was quickly shouted down. The position was offered to Hector, who gently pushed it aside.

  "We want to stay. We want to help rebuild."

  Then her parents smiled.

  "But when we're done. We'll move to Plenty. And we'll be together again."

  Alex smiled back and hugged them.

  "Yeah."

  She hugged them even tighter, as tight as she could.

  "I love you guys."

  And so Alex and Emile returned to their private shuttle.

  The two friends smiled at each other as the jet launched back into space.

  "Man. People are really strong, aren't they?"

  BOOK 3: THE TWO PRINCESSES

  "Left! Left!"

  "No! Wait! Right! It's a right!"

  "Shit!"

  Alex cursed as she spun her machine back around again.

  Time slowed down, but to no avail.

  She saw every millisecond of their defeat.

  Jared's foot was spread just a little too wide. The Hands Paragon's feet were just as large as its signature hands. They were designed for balance, and the hunchbacked machine's advanced programming typically kept the Paragon from tripping. But the enormous foot was planted almost vertically. Matthew had forced Jared to change directions too quickly for even the Hands Paragon to manage.

  There was an enormous screech.

  The leg gave, and Jared's machine crashed onto the ground.

  Alex's hands smoothly guided the trigger, turning her stumble into a staggering step forward. Her machine stayed on both feet, but she'd lost just a bit too much time.

  Matthew was already past them.

  Capture the flag was a game played for centuries on Old Earth, first by children, then by Paragons. Two rival teams battled to steal the other team's treasure. The Mad Nobles, the vanquished war-worshiping dictators of Old Earth, had adapted it to train Paragon pilots. The game was almost identical to the one played by schoolchildren, only it was played by pilots commanding great machines that stood fifty feet tall.

  To the pilots of Plenty, capture the flag was more than just a training exercise. They hoped to play an exhibition game the day they opened their doors to demonstrate the might, wonder, and joy of their new creations.

  The Mad Nobles considered it a close analog to combat, and after just a few games, Alex saw why. Just like in a real battle, a single mistake was fatal. If she didn't stop him now, Matthew's slight lead would snowball into an insurmountable advantage.

  Mighty pistons screamed as Matthew bent his legs deep for a full jump.

  Alex had no time for such preparation.

  Her best chance was a hasty lunge forward. She had to try and knock him off course before he made it into the air.

  Alex instantly timed her jump to meet him mid-air, then pounced.

  Matthew's machine stayed on the ground. It'd only been a fake.

  Her Paragon soared helplessly past him. Alex cursed and pushed her hands forward to brace for impac
t. The cockpit rocked, and she slammed into the front of her machine. She let out a yelp of pain and swore loudly.

  Her elbows hurt.

  They'd cushioned their machines up with thick rubber pads to prevent the worst of contact, but the hard falls were still painful.

  As she lay on the floor, Matthew jumped cleanly over her.

  "Got her! Got her! Oh my god, dad, you got her!"

  Matthew's son Luke cackled with joy.

  The thin boy turned back to his friends and flexed his arm.

  "My dad's the strongest!"

  "No! My mom is!"

  Nico, a thin bespectacled boy of ten, was there to cheer on his mom Leanne.

  "They're on the same team!"

  "Well, if they fought my mom would win!"

  Most of the other kids just jeered at their defeated teacher.

  "Come on Ms. Alex, you suck!"

  "Hey, Ms. Alex! You guys are losing 7-2!"

  That comment got her blood boiling. She shook her head and brought her machine back to its feet.

  The score was 6-2. They were acting like Matthew had already scored this point.

  Jared pounded his dashboard in frustration. He thought the match was over too. After hours of practice, they were intimately familiar with the capabilities of the Hands Paragons. The gangly machines couldn't take too many hits, but they rivaled the legendary Paragons in terms of speed. There was no way they could get to Matthew before he captured their flag.

  But their team hadn't lost yet.

  Matthew still had to bring the captured flag back.

  Alex turned and sprinted back to the other side of the court.

  Emile was their team's only remaining defender. Matthew smoothly slid to the left and then back to the right. His machine moved like water. His every move was perfectly adaptable. He could shift from one motion to its opposite without any hesitation at all. Alex had spent countless hours on the Paragon simulators; she'd even fought to the top of the rankings on two colonies. Matthew was the best pilot she'd ever seen, and it wasn't particularly close.

  He'd served as Governor Waters's Paragon pilot for over twenty years. The corrupt and idiotic Governor was always crashing his machines and asking Matthew to retrieve them. Matthew's extensive experience piloting damaged units meant he knew how to control every minute aspect of his Paragon's movements. He was the only person who'd ever beaten Alex in a Paragon simulator duel before, and he was dominating her at capture the flag too.