by Ryan Tang
A sharp corner had badly dented these pages. For some reason, the girl had pressed down on them with her laptop instead of setting it aside.
Alex closed her eyes and remembered, rewinding her memory to the precise moment the girl stepped in.
After hearing the footsteps, she'd briefly fallen into her battle-mind, the strange heightened sense she got when she stepped into the cockpit of a Paragon. She'd immediately assessed the objects in the girl's hands and dismissed them as harmless.
In her left hand, there'd been a thick laptop that'd hummed and whirled. She was carrying it awkwardly, using the flat of her hand instead of gripping it. The computer had been heavy enough to cause her awkward gait.
Alex dove deeper and then remembered.
Shiny lights had danced across the keys. And it'd been open in the girl's hand, displaying a very familiar sight. The log-in screen of the Paragon simulator.
The librarian sneered involuntarily. True simulator pilots always disdained people who played on laptops. A significant part of the simulator's difficulty was using the complex Paragon controls. Another was fighting through the pod's constant rocking. Controlling a Paragon with a mouse and keyboard was a comically easier task. Alex remembered how scandalized she'd felt when it turned out a high-ranking pilot from Diligence had simply been playing on his computer at home.
Alex recalled the object in the girl's other hand too. A group of circles closely pressed together usually reminded her of a missile launcher, but she'd seen the small circular indentations. It'd been nothing more than a cup holder.
Alex scrapped the bottom of her memory, pushing as hard as she could just to be certain. Alex had full faith in her battle-mind. In her ordinary life, Alex could sometimes be careless and forgetful, but she remembered every single fight she'd ever been a part of.
Yes.
The girl had been holding a gaming laptop and an empty cup holder.
When the librarian opened her eyes again, she felt even more confused than before.
It was so strange.
The girl had walked into the book-corridors holding a laptop in one hand and a cup holder in the other. As soon as Alex saw her, she'd fled back into the sewers, discarding the book she'd been reading. The pages were full of dents and imprints. Even when the girl was deep in thought, she hadn't set her possessions aside.
And there were other questions too, questions that went beyond the girl's strange behavior.
Who was she?
Did she live in the sewers?
Alex sighed as she relived her time hiding inside the book-corridors. It was right after the quakes. She'd been so overwhelmed at the questions everyone was asking her. She'd been so overwhelmed at what was happening to everyone she loved.
When she ran into Mrs. T inside the book-corridors, Alex had been so scared she'd dissolved an Eternium wall without even thinking. It was the first time she commanded the Spire, and her mind had been filled with fear.
Now, the same thing had happened again. The girl had dove through the Eternium floor without thinking, but Alex was certain that she couldn't consciously control the metal. Otherwise, she wouldn't have needed to take the elevator. She could have simply forged a path for herself.
The librarian stood and stretched. It'd taken the support of all Alex's friends before she could climb out. It'd been a long and challenging process. She didn't know what was bothering the girl, and she knew to respect her privacy.
But there was something she could do.
Alex smiled.
She was hungry, anyways. A stop by Margaret's kitchen was exactly what she needed.
____
Back when she was living inside the book-corridors, Alex had thought that nobody knew she was there. In truth, her co-workers had only pretended not to notice. Alex remembered how Margaret used to leave her favorite food in places where she could easily steal bites.
The librarian laughed.
She could do the same for the girl. She didn't look as thin as the people from Block 12, but it was a very close thing.
Alex was halfway to Margaret's restaurant when she stopped and doubled back to a store she'd just passed. The girl had left Paragons and Pilots on the floor. She should bring more than just food.
The heavyset man behind the counter grinned when he saw her.
"Alex! How's it going?"
The left wall was filled with box after box of model Paragons. Some had to be assembled. Others were already pre-made. There was also a glass case of custom creations. Alex didn't have the patience for it, but back home on Diligence, there'd been a man who was a master at bashing different kits together.
Judging from the models in the display case, Andrew was also an expert at creatively modeling Paragons.
Alex gaped.
"Wow."
Andrew laughed.
"Thought we should make a few after Plenty's greatest heroes. We've got an Alex model and a Jared model. We even got one based on Matthew's machine from the simulator. He told me to buzz off until his son begged for it."
Alex laughed.
The top of the case showcased three very familiar machines.
The first was painted in blues of every shade in patterns ranging from crashing waves to speckled stars. Her machine had no legs. Instead, the torso emerged from her crescent-shaped high mobility pack. In the right hand was her new composite rifle. The sight was the notched fin of a shark. The bayonet attached to the barrel resembled a shellfish. Fierce tentacles gripped the blade in place.
The second machine was Jared's mass-produced version of the Hands Paragon, which he'd painted yellow to honor his deceased father. The skinny Hands Paragon looked more like an ape or a troll than a man. The first time most people saw it, they thought it looked hideous. But by now, Alex had an endless appreciation for Jared's design. It was the machine that had rebuilt Plenty and saved her life during her final battle with Stock. Whenever she saw the gangly form, peace and happiness swept over her. The strange shape now reminded her of victory.
The last machine was plain and black. Matthew's Paragon had a round head and no face. The commander's antenna was its only distinguishing feature. Ports at the arms, legs, chest, and back allowed modelers to customize the design however they pleased.
The colors were not quite as bright as Eternium – the holy metal had an internal sheen that no ordinary material could match – but they came close.
"How did you get the colors to look like that?"
Andrew beamed.
"It's a complicated process. It's about mixing the paint – I blended some of it with silver to help add to the shine and then –"
He chuckled.
"It's kind of funny. I just put glitter underneath the paint combined with some lights I wired inside the frame. I was thinking that Eternium has an internal glow, so why not put a literal internal glow behind it? It's kind of a tricky process since it looks bumpy otherwise."
He pulled out a plastic arm from under his desk.
"See right here?"
The arm was lined with bumps and ridges from the glitter.
"It can be hard to fill the lights inside too. Look at this."
He slid over a thin black plastic arm.
"See? If you try to use the armorless configuration on Matthew's Paragon, it's almost impossible to fit the lights inside."
Andrew spoke faster and faster, his excitement building with every word.
"So it's not just about the shine. I need a thick coat of paint too. So you need a thick layer of paint to smooth over the bumps, but that doesn't smother the shine. Basically, I'm trying to make the paint thicker but translucent at the same time."
He shook his head.
"It's tough, but a lot of fun."
He grinned at her.
"The Alex models were flying off the shelves, by the way. All your kids wanted one! I had to ask them to give me some time after I got bored with making them."
He laughed.
"No offense, of course. You
r design is beautiful. I just wanted to focus on the paint. I've actually asked some of your students to start working on Alex models for me. Nico's been doing a particularly good job."
It was no surprise that Nico was good at modeling. He was very diligent and had a great eye for detail.
It was great to see Andrew so excited. He'd always seemed beaten down whenever Alex visited him to buy more models for her reading room. Before, he'd only built models for Southern Robotics to serve as advertising for the beautiful but false machines Stock created. Now he could produce what he liked. He kept his favorites and gave the rest away.
He was even starting to train students now. A couple of her kids visited Andrew after every class. From what she'd heard, he was a great teacher.
"So, what can I help you with?"
"Was just looking to pick up some models. I was wondering if you had any recommendations."
He reached under the table.
"Well, you should definitely get an Alex model."
"I was thinking more –"
She stopped, and then smiled.
Actually, that would be cool.
"Yeah. Definitely an Alex model. And a Peacetime model too. And I was thinking maybe some of the classics? In pink and gray if you don't mind."
"We've got a couple in those colors. Do you want me to paint some for you?"
"No, no, that's fine. Could I get everything prebuilt?"
"Yes, of course! I still got a bunch of the Stock models lying around. Is that alright?"
"Yeah, that's fine."
There shouldn't be much of a difference. After all, Stock's false Paragons had been designed after the machines used by Old Earth aces.
"By the way, let me know if you make any more changes to your machine! The composite rifle was so fun to build!"
She walked out of the store with a copy of her machine, a pink and gray painted Hands Paragon, two Stock models, and a special Paragon straight from Andrew's personal collection.
It was a custom model based on Captain Ray's heroic machine, which had led humanity away from Old Earth and back to the stars. The model was pure pink instead of Ray's pure white, but the massive sword and distinctive three eyes marked it as the machine on the cover of Paragons and Pilots.
Alex took another look at her blue Paragon and giggled.
It seemed a little surreal.
People were making Paragons based on her custom design and now she was giving one away.
She'd defeated Stock and his dark goddess in the Spire courtyard. She'd battled to the top rank on two separate colonies. But now she knew for sure that she'd made it as an ace pilot.
____
Margaret's restaurant was filled with happily chattering people. They were still laughing about how they'd built a hundred Paragons in a single night to fool Governor Steel.
Alex smiled.
Her friends and neighbors hadn't just built a hundred machines in a single night. They'd rigged them so they could never be used to hurt people. As soon as the pilots tried to shoot Diligence's citizens, their machines had crumbled to pieces. The situation on Diligence had been utterly horrifying, very frightening, but thanks to her friends, it'd been promptly defused. She still remembered Claudia's angry and bewildered screaming when she realized she couldn't shoot.
Alex quickly made her way to the kitchens in the back, but to her surprise, Margaret had been replaced by a thin man with a drooping mustache.
He smiled and introduced himself as Stephen.
"Margaret's off today. She's at Mrs. T's apartment, said she wanted to get revenge for her last loss in Eternium. What can I help you with?"
Alex wasn't sure what the girl would like, so she ordered as many different kinds of food as possible. Stephen gave her a bit of everything inside a basket, and soon she was back on her way to the Spire.
After climbing up the Spire-infused concrete steps, Alex entered the reference area on the first floor and knelt under the desk to check the recent returns. The complete copies of Paragons and Pilots were some of the most popular books. They only had a total of seven undamaged copies. To her relief, she found two in the recent returns. She took one and put it on top of the basket.
Then she pulled out a paper and a blue pen.
"Hey, I'm the woman you ran into inside the book-corridors today. I don't want to bother you if you want to be left alone, but here's a complete copy of the book you were reading and some food."
Alex frowned.
Why was the girl in hiding?
She didn't look like one of the lost citizens of Block 12. They had pale skin like ghosts.
Perhaps she was someone whose home was destroyed during the quakes?
Maybe she'd witnessed Stock making people sign Contracts.
Maybe her parents had been killed the night of the final confrontation, and she didn't know where to go.
Whatever it was, Alex wanted to let her know things were better now.
"Things are better now. Take your time – I'll keep bringing you food and books – but when you are ready, come outside. Let's enjoy the new Plenty together."
She drew a big smiley face and signed it with her name.
Then she climbed up to the fiftieth floor and entered the tunnel. To her relief, the girl wasn't there. Alex didn't want to startle her again.
Alex took a look at the recent tracks.
From the looks of it, she was inside the book-corridors right now.
She smiled wistfully.
She understood that feeling. Even at the risk of being seen, the girl couldn't help but read.
Alex put everything inside the elevator and sent it down. She left a notebook and some pens too, just in case the girl wanted to write a message back.
Then she wrote one last message.
"Come especially if you like stories. We've got some really good ones."
____
When she returned to her office, Alex reached into her drawer and removed a battered pamphlet. A faded drawing of a shellfish stared back at her. The handwritten book was a priceless treasure, a gift Alex's parents made for her the first time she left Diligence. Some scholars believed The Familiars had been written about the Mad Nobles, but Alex didn't think so. The lessons of the story didn't contain a hint of the Nobles' callous values. If anything, the ending of the story evoked Plenty's defeat of Stock.
Alex flipped to the last page of the book, reread the ending, and smiled. The sight of her dad's neat handwriting and her mom's cheerful drawings always made her so happy. She should give the girl a copy of The Familiars the next time she brought food. The story was one that any Paragon fan would love, and there was some magical secret behind it.
The goddess's power had destroyed most of the texts left inside the book-corridors, but not The Familiars. The book had some sort of talismanic power. It'd saved Alex's life in the book-corridors. The pages had sliced through the monster's impenetrable shell like a knife through butter, and during the final battle against Stock, the light from her parent's digital copy had sizzled through him and his monster like a beam rifle from the legends.
The goddess couldn't be more different than the friendly creatures described in the story, but there had to be some truth there. Alex just didn't know what it was, and nothing she'd found inside the tunnels brought her any closer to figuring things out.
After their announcement and the opening of the Gate, Alex promised herself she'd return to researching. She'd always thought that if the Spire got the funding it needed, she'd be able to solve all the mysteries of Old Earth. They had access to Stock's vaults now, and she was technically free to explore the Spire as much as she wanted.
But there was always something new they had to do.
Build the Paragon cart rails.
Uncover the mystery of the Paragon ghosts.
Stop a conspiracy on her home colony.
Plan out everyone's apartment.
Learn how to play Eternium music.
Train the colony's defense f
orce.
And now she might have to take care of the girl in the corridors.
It was enough to make anyone get a headache. Alex missed her books. She still couldn't purify the books the goddess had already poisoned, but there was so much to read and re-read.
The librarian checked the time and smiled to herself. It was time for her weekly call with her parents. She wouldn't be surprised if her mom was also complaining about not having the time to read. Diligence was also going through a similar rebuild.
She flipped open her video camera and dialed their number. She wished they'd come back with her to Plenty, but she understood their decision. They'd finish with the rebuild soon. And if all went well, Diligence would become an invaluable ally.
As her tablet continued ringing, Alex shuddered as she remembered the terror of seeing the Broken Hands raise their weapons against her. They'd crumbled and fallen, but Diligence's salvation had been a very narrow thing.
If it hadn't been for the bravery and ingenuity of her friends, it was hard to say what would have happened.
But they'd won the day, and Steel fled back to Generosity, leaving a leaderless Diligence in his wake. Their victory had come so swiftly and suddenly that Alex still wondered if Diligence had been the end of it. But thus far, she hadn't heard anything from Joshua Steel.
Her parents appeared on the screen. Before, they'd crammed together to fit into their tiny tablet, which had been small enough to fit in someone's pocket. A new tablet was one of the first things she'd bought for them. This one was large enough to cover the entire wall. Her parents relaxed on their familiar big yellow sofa with tired smiles on their faces and their arms wrapped around each other.
Alex grinned.
She couldn't wait for them to finally move to Plenty. It'd been so long, and she loved them so much.
"How's everything going?"
Her dad just shook his head exhaustedly. He looked tired, but it was a good tired. A hopeful tired. He knew what he was working for. She'd only ever seen him like that once before, on the day her parents finally raised enough money to send her off the colony.
"Good, good."
Her mom laughed.
"They put him in charge of our street! He's got way too much to do right now."