by Ryan Tang
"Maybe if I grabbed her better, maybe if I didn't jump."
She imitated Arthur's deep growl.
"Maybe I should have thrown her faster."
She shook her head.
"Just an accident, and everything is fine."
The fierce-eyed woman winced and held up a hand to the side of her head.
"That being said, we're lucky it was only a mild hit. The padding isn't safe enough. We need a safer way to train. And don't forget about the demonstration either. It's a good thing this didn't happen then."
The announcement was in two days, and the Gate would open two weeks after that. Plenty would tell all the other colonies how they'd defeated Stock, Waters, and the corrupt Southern Robotics.
They'd explain that things were much better on the colony now. Stock had hoarded everything for himself and spread conspiracy theories about overpopulation to justify the colony's struggles, many of which he'd inflicted himself. He'd tried to sacrifice Plenty and all its people to become a god. After defeating him, the colonists had discovered countless riches and resources inside his home. There was more than enough for everybody, and Plenty meant to share it with everybody in just over two weeks.
As part of the celebration, Alex and the others wanted to demonstrate the power of their Paragons. Playing the capture-the-flag sounded like a good idea at first. But if an accident like the one before happened, it would be embarrassing at best and fatal at worse.
The doctor walked into the room, a clipboard in her hand. Courtney was one of the few doctors who'd survived Stock's sacrifice. Leanne turned and spoke as soon as she entered.
"Can I be a part of the announcement?"
Before Courtney could even respond, Leanne plowed forward.
"I need to be part of the announcement."
The fierce woman snickered.
"I'm not going to let my Family off without showing them how we built things here. There's nothing they can do to control me now, not on Plenty. I'll show them just how great we've become."
Leanne was the youngest daughter of one of the wealthiest families on all the colonies.
Alex had only recently found out about the twenty Major and Minor Families, fantastically wealthy groups who ran the gambling halls and entertainments of the space colony Generosity. A few weeks ago, Alex had clashed with the heir to a Major Family and barely lived to tell the tale.
Steel had left Generosity to rule as the Governor of Diligence. The clever and charismatic man had highlighted many of the problems facing Alex's home colony, and for a moment, she and her friends thought he could be an ally. But it'd been a sham. He'd hoped to use Diligence to create War Paragons and ensure his Family's dominance in Generosity's internal disputes. With the help of her childhood friend Hector, Alex had exposed his lies and crimes for the whole colony to see.
Alex let out a long sigh.
Thinking about Generosity still worried her. Steel and his companion Sooner had fled as soon as they were discovered, but part of her feared they could return at any moment. She'd removed them from Diligence, but he still had his wealth and resources.
Leanne snickered.
"Can't wait to see their faces when they realize all their bets on Southern Robotics have fallen flat this month!"
The librarian shook her head. She still didn't understand the ways and traditions of Generosity, which included gambling on events that happened on other colonies. But she keenly felt Leanne's anger. Steel had deceived her parents, and he would have happily worked them to death.
Courtney was quick to agree with Leanne's determined demand.
"Yes! Yes! Of course, you'll make the announcement. I was just saying it'd be best if you stayed here and slept in tonight. I want to monitor you to make sure your head is alright."
Leanne nodded regally.
"Yes. That would be fine."
Courtney left the room, a bemused and slightly frightened smile on her face. Leanne had that effect on people. The false Governor, who'd called himself Joshua Steel, had been the same way.
"Do you think the announcement will encourage your family to change Generosity?"
Leanne laughed so hard her head almost hit the back of the bed. It was a sudden and shocking gale of laughter, one that was partly for show. Nico urgently grabbed her.
"Mom! Mom! Be careful!"
"No. You don't know my parents. They want us to be in the top ten! They thought it was my responsibility to help them too."
According to Leanne, the dream of all Minor Families was to ascend and become a Major Family - one of the ten wealthiest on the colony. The Minor Families ran entertainments, but the Major Families ran the colony's grand gambling halls. The Minor Families had all sworn oaths of loyalty to their Major counterparts, but based on Leanne's stories, it seemed like they didn't take them very seriously.
"They won't change Generosity, but there's nothing they can do if people choose to leave. That's what I care the most about. I just want to make sure other people can escape Generosity. The people who do the actual work there, not the Families. After coming here and seeing Southern Robotics, I didn't think it was possible. But now I do."
Leanne's smile was beautiful.
"Yes. Now I do."
When they went back outside again, the music from the piano sounded even more beautiful than it did before.
Alex felt cheerful again. Leanne was safe, and she could still participate in the colony's announcement. They just needed to find something to do for it.
Alex started popping her head in tune to the woman's music. A spring appeared in her step.
Then she smiled.
Everyone knew the sound of Eternium clashing together was more beautiful than anything else in the world.
Why not make music with it?
____
Alex pinched away the tiniest amount of Eternium from the shards in her pocket. The metal turned to liquid as soon as she closed her eyes. She created a mental-spear of happiness, focusing entirely on the image of a Paragon symphony with all the machines playing together.
Nothing could be more beautiful. Nothing could better communicate Plenty's message of peace.
She turned her tattered book of animals to the section on insects. The research claimed that certain insects on Old Earth could make music by rubbing their legs against their body.
Next to it was a page sheet music she'd borrowed from the hospital.
She rubbed her fingers together, and the Eternium sang. Even though she could read sheet music, she had no idea how to play on notes on Eternium. The page showed an A going to a B and then going to a G.
She rubbed her fingers together again and carefully concentrated.
After hours of practice, she was now confident in raising and lowering the pitch. It was a matter of shifting her fingers and striking the metal pieces against each other at different angles.
Lowest.
Then a little higher.
Then higher still.
She didn't know what note she was hitting, but the sound was still stunningly lovely. Her smile grew wider and wider as she played and played.
She couldn't quite get the notes right, though. That part was harder.
Alex frowned in concentration as she brought her fingers back to try again. The sound of Eternium was rich with unearthly beauty. It was gorgeous beyond compare. Alex was just an amateur musician; her only experience was playing a battered old cello for her high school orchestra. How would she even know if she hit the right note?
As she continued experimenting, the librarian started planning the colony's eventual performance.
The people of Plenty had already succeeded in creating the Broken Hands model, a version of the Peacetime model with weaponized fingers. A Musical Hands model with nubs of Eternium wouldn't be a problem.
They'd have to find the spare Eternium, though. The nubs would only require a small amount of metal, but it'd have to be salvaged and then reshaped by hand.
Alex couldn't command E
ternium for someone else. If she gave her Eternium forged creations to somebody else, the holy metal would ignore her until the recipient returned her gift.
Alex sighed.
The Hands Paragons were amazing enough, but the Paragons of Old Earth, the will forged machines summoned through Eternium, were something else entirely. Alex's attempts to create Paragons for her allies were going nowhere, and nobody else on Plenty had succeeded in calling the metal. Leanne was the closest. Before Alex had left for Diligence, her friend had succeeded in creating a hand. Now she could create a whole arm, but it still wasn't quite enough.
If only Matthew had a machine. Or even another strong pilot like Jared or Leanne. Plenty would be so much safer.
The squeal of the suddenly missed notes was jarring despite the Eternium-imbued beauty.
She brought her fingers together again and concentrated.
It was luck, but she hit the perfect note.
It echoed in her ears.
It filled the room with grandeur.
Oh.
She thought her untrained ear wouldn't be able to tell, but she'd clearly been mistaken.
The sound was so perfect.
She brought her fingers together again, hitting the note precisely the same way she did before.
Alex let out an involuntary cry of joy.
She repeated the note for a third time, then jumped to the next one and the one after that.
Wow.
She played through the song five times, smiling all the way. She couldn't bring out the full potential of the music. She couldn't immerse herself in it the way the pianist in the hospital could. But even her rudimentary skills led to untold beauty.
It was three hours later before she finally caught herself and stopped.
Yes.
This was perfect. This was what they'd do for the event.
Now that she figured out how to play the notes, all that was left was talking to Jared about melting down some Eternium trinkets to create similar pads on the Hands Paragon's fingertips. If they couldn't track down the pieces from Stock's vaults, perhaps Leanne would be willing to volunteer some of her own. She and her wife had been Southern Robotics executives, and their home must have once been filled with Old Earth artifacts in glass cases.
Alex stood up and stretched.
She pulled the Eternium bits from her fingers and stashed them into her pocket, where they joined back with the shards she kept there.
The librarian pressed her hand against the wall, and the wall opened, revealing the book-corridors inside. The Spire's interior was lined with an incredibly complex set of tunnels built out of books. They twisted and turned through the black tower. There were even secret passages that led outside. Unfortunately, the damage from Stock's plot remained even after he and his goddess of Ignorance had been vanquished. The goddess had been weak to the power of truth, so she'd diligently worked to erase and destroy as much material as possible.
But the goddess didn't have the time to destroy everything.
There was little information about the fall of Old Earth, but to their delight, the survivors of Plenty discovered a rich store of knowledge from Old Earth's culture.
Margaret found a list of delicious recipes for her restaurant.
When reconstructing their apartments, the people of Plenty had an endless variety of inspiring designs to choose from.
There were even books on library science, the art of categorizing and organizing books so you could find them more easily. Alex had a stack of texts in her office she planned on studying after they opened the Gate. The only problem was that it sounded like the libraries of Old Earth had been constructed to contain thousands of books, not millions and millions.
There was an endless trove of music and artwork. The librarian had found a few paintings, one of two of mermaids swimming through the ocean and another of a smoking volcanic island, which she'd duplicated for her new home. She'd stumbled across some thin music books inside as well, and she knew there had to be more.
She wanted her fellow pilots to have a wide variety of songs to choose from.
Alex smiled again.
Paragons playing music.
The thought was so peaceful and majestic. It was perfect for Plenty. As far as she'd heard, not even the legendary Paragon pilots had done such a thing.
As soon as she stepped into the corridors, Alex leaped and grabbed onto the nearest shelf. Her powerful arms yanked her up and onto the wall.
Inside the book-corridors, climbing on the shelves was much better than walking.
The books stretched from floor to ceiling, so you'd never see all the titles from the ground. And it made it easier for her to reach the next floor. She just had to climb up to the roof and ask the Eternium to let her through.
Alex spotted some of the thin music books on the far side of the wall and started shunting herself over, moving laterally almost like a crab. She felt bad scooching past the others. Due to the colony's rebuilding process and the events on Diligence, she hadn't had nearly as much time to read as she would've liked.
A loud echoing footstep rang through the book-corridors.
The librarian froze.
The step was strangely front-loaded. The person was carrying something very cumbersome and overcompensating awkwardly by leaning forward.
There was another step; the same front-loaded noise.
Alex blinked. It sounded far too light to be an adult. It was unmistakably a child.
Her heart started pounding in her chest.
It could have been one of her students. But she didn't think so.
The few general entrances, the ones where the Eternium was soft enough for anyone to command, were well-known, but she'd warned her students against entering the twisting corridors alone.
If you couldn't walk through the walls, it was very easy to get lost. Before Alex discovered how to bend Eternium, she and Emile used to trail a long rope behind them that they'd tied to the entrance.
Alex clung onto the wall with one hand.
With her other, she wrapped her fingers around one of the Eternium shards. If needed, she could turn it into a knife to defend herself.
It'd been a child last time too, a boy from long locked away Block 12 who called himself Falo. Alex suspected he'd been a descendant of the Mad Nobles. He'd unleashed the goddess of Ignorance, and then left the librarian lying on the floor with her memory wiped.
But it couldn't be him.
He'd died right in front of her.
Thinking about the boy frightened Alex even more.
The strange step echoed again, and then the figure turned the corner.
It was a little girl.
She had long and messy hair that dragged down past her knees. She was nearly as thin as the lost citizens of Block 12. Her face had a pinched and hungry look. She hunched awkwardly over and stared at the floor beneath her feet as she shuffled forward.
The girl turned to the shelves. She slowly turned her head upward, and their eyes met.
Alex flinched. The girl wailed in terror.
The noise echoed across the Eternium walls, growing more and more haunting with each reverberation.
The girl turned to run, then stumbled and hit the ground hard.
She was carrying what looked like a thick laptop in one hand. The other image was too much of a blur for Alex to see. She only made out a strange shape consisting of four circles in a loose grid formation.
The girl crashed to the ground, and Eternium sang.
There was a brilliant flash of pink and gray, and then the girl dove clean through the floor. The Eternium splashed behind her before turning solid again.
There was a sudden silence.
Then Alex could hear the footsteps thundering through the book-corridors, getting lighter and lighter as the girl descended.
Alex thought about chasing, but then she shook her head. She knew what it felt like to hide inside the book-corridors. She knew what it felt like to dread being seen
.
The footsteps continued growing lighter and lighter.
Alex was intimately familiar with the Spire's secret passageways. She could tell exactly where the girl was running by the sound of her footsteps.
The girl was on the second floor now.
Then the first.
There was a sudden pause.
Alex closed her eyes and concentrated.
At first, there was silence.
Then she heard it.
Just the slightest mechanical whirring.
There was an elevator inside the book-corridors that led straight from the first floor to the fiftieth. And from the fiftieth...
There it was again, just the faintest echoing thunk.
The little girl had entered the book-corridors through the sewer tunnels. There was an eccentric double elevator deep on the fiftieth floor. The first elevator went down to the first floor, and the second went down to the sewers.
Alex walked back to where the girl had dove through the floor. The librarian recognized the book lying there at once. Pilots and Paragons. It was a thick compendium of the legendary pilots who'd battled for control Old Earth. The mightiest pilots of both sides were recognized - Mad Nobles and the rebels alike.
The girl's copy had been badly stained with ink. You couldn't see most of the pictures – and the pictures were the best part.
Alex stared at the book and sighed. She'd probably interrupted the girl in the middle of reading. The pages had been turned to a Noble known as the Bloodmeister. The handsome man had deliberately pursued a vampire-like affect, and his Paragon was modeled after an enormous leech.
Alex's lip curled. Steel and Sooner had been obsessed with blood. According to Leanne, children on Generosity had to swear blood oaths that they'd remain loyal to the colony. It was just like Stock and his fixation with Lord Zann's haircut. All the would-be tyrants emulated humanity's former dictators. They could at least try getting creative.
She knelt and noticed something strange. The pages were badly damaged, but not by the goddess's telltale signs. The monster from the basement had destroyed books by drenching them in ink or snapping them with their teeth. She could absorb words from the pages as well, leaving them utterly blank as if they'd never been written on.