by Ryan Tang
Jon and Alice and Nico were just kids. They shouldn't have to worry about quakes and big men in orange pods. They shouldn't have to grieve for their dead families. They shouldn't have to see ghosts.
How was she supposed to fix this?
It was the duty of an ace. It was the duty that had fallen to her. But she didn't know if she could do it.
"The core is under guard. And besides, everyone saw the orange pod drop off Stock. Everyone knows it's an enemy. They'll let me know if they see it again."
Alex smiled and pressed her hand against the void black metal of the Spire, which flared azure beneath her grip. She tried her best to sound confident.
"And I'll make sure they don't escape."
The metal's sudden heat filled her with real courage.
"You know what? Let's take a look at the core ourselves. How about that? We'll go back with Jared and see what's going on."
Jared wouldn't mind taking them.
Nico nodded excitedly.
Alice punched Jon enthusiastically on the shoulder. The pale boy smiled a little.
Alex was worried about Jon the most.
He was just a boy. He should be happily enjoying his childhood.
But considering how he'd pulled the shield out of the ground, he probably wasn't thinking of anything other his dead brother.
____
As they walked back towards the Hands Paragon, Alex found herself smiling giddily at the familiar sight of the strange yellow machine.
The librarian was used to the Paragons from the legends - heroic humanoid machines that were forged from Eternium and shone like stars. The thin and gangly Hands Paragon was hunched over like an ape. The enormous gel-coated hands and feet looked like they weighed more than the rest of the Paragon combined.
But it didn't matter.
The Hands Paragon had saved her life. Jared had used his machine to catch her after she pierced the false sky.
When they got to the base of the feet, the ground shuddered again, jerking enough to throw Jon and Alice to the ground. Despite its fragile appearance, the thin machine didn't wobble an inch. The Hands Paragon excelled at balance, a combination of Jared's reliable design and his father's ingenious programming.
The machine squatted, and a rope ladder descended.
"Come inside. It'll be safer."
Her three students clambered up with sure-footed ease. By now, all the citizens of Plenty knew how to get inside a Hands Paragon. The spacious cockpits could comfortably seat a dozen people, and Jared insisted that everyone would take part in the colony's restoration. Even if they weren't comfortable piloting, they could watch and advise.
Jared turned and smiled at their group.
"So, why do you guys want to look at the core?"
Somehow, Jared was full of smiles. He'd lost both his parents during the Southern Robotics crisis. Alex knew how much it weighed on him. But he always found a way to reassure everyone else. He had an effortless way of cheering people up, and he was an easy leader to follow. During the Southern Robotics crisis, he'd rallied a massive force to march on the Library Spire and protest Stock's false simulator tournament.
Alex wished she could be like that.
Reassuring and leading people were vital to being an ace.
But Alex had always been shy, just as Jared and Emile had always been brash and bold.
Her students quickly spilled their concerns.
"The ghosts!"
"There are ghosts in the courtyard!"
"Ms. Alex saw a ghost try to steal Eternium! We wanted to check out the core."
Jared was just as bewildered as Alex had been.
"What do you mean?"
By then, the librarian had found her words. With a few interruptions from her students, she explained to Jared what'd happened.
"You think ghosts are stealing Eternium."
Her friend spoke the fantastic sentence without a single trace of doubt. After what Stock had done, nobody on Plenty was foolish enough to doubt the supernatural.
"She saw it! She saw my mom holding a block!"
"Did you guys see it too?"
"No. The only ghosts we saw disappeared when we went close, and they weren't holding anything."
"Amy disappeared along with the block she was holding. It all vanished when the sun came up."
"Hm."
Jared continued marching his machine back to the tunnels, a thoughtful look on his face.
"How did the Eternium disappear too?"
He bit at his fingernails. He always did that when he was thinking.
"Did you hear it hit the floor?"
"No. It just vanished alongside her."
"Well, here's the thing. If someone is stealing Eternium, it won't be from the core."
Nico was confused.
"But the ghosts can vanish! They could just appear inside the core, take an inner piece, then disappear without you realizing!"
Jared shook his head.
"We're all worried about Eternium thieves. We weigh the core every night to check. And there's an army of people keeping watch over it 24 hours a day. They'd see the thieves even if they were ghosts. Let me show you."
Jon bit his lip. The thin boy was still concerned.
Jared quickly moved to reassure him further.
"Keeping the core safe is everyone's top priority."
The machine entered the enormous tunnel. The colony's public transit had been yet another instance where Governor Waters had stupidly sold out Plenty to Stock. He'd signed away service after service to Southern Robotics, even allowing the firm to charge citizens for the alleged privilege of living under the false sun.
Southern Robotics's train tunnels were shoddy, badly damaged, and rarely worked. Stock had only kept them going to milk out as much money as possible. Much of the cost was charged to his own workers. When Stock decided to mine the core, he'd simply closed off the underground tunnels and started digging.
The ground tremored more with every step they took toward the colony's core. It was an ominous reminder of what Stock had done to their home.
It was a reminder of what might still be happening.
Their Paragon swiftly stepped forward, moving first into the outer core, where pitch black strands coiled through the walls. It was like space itself was peering through the cracks. In the outer core, the Eternium smoothly merged into the concrete and lesser metals stacked above it.
Stock had mined Eternium from the colony's inner core, where the Eternium was completely pure. Jared led the repair operations, which mostly involved tracking down the lost Eternium hidden in Southern Robotics's supply depots. They melted down Paragon parts and deadly weapons along with Eternium busts of Stock's face and other inane decorations.
When she saw the first cracks, Alex winced.
Her students gasped and pointed, but Jared's voice remained calm and comforting.
"It's because of the strain. With part of the core missing, the rest of it overcompensates, which slowly destabilizes the colony. But we've still got a lot of time before a quake as bad as the one Stock caused happens. And we're adding in more metal every day."
Jared smiled again.
"And don't forget. We have the resources we need now, like hospitals and Paragons, to make sure that people survive just in case a more dangerous accident happens again."
Soon the walls were completely black. It looked like they'd fallen clean out of the colony and into the void of space. Only Eternium was even darker than outer space. Space had stars.
A long row of Paragons perched around the core. The Peacetime models were folded into rectangles. They rested on their hands and feet like big cats as their pilots relaxed in the compact camp-out mode.
Jared pointed.
"See? Everyone is worried about someone attacking the core. So we're all working together to guard it. We don't even need an official watch. People come by themselves and taking turns sleeping."
The sight reassured Alex, but it also mad
e her a little sad.
The pilots must be very tired and very worried.
It was the same with her students.
She didn't want anyone to have to worry about these things!
Alex yawned again.
She wished she was less tired and less worried too.
Jon nodded along to Jared's reassuring words.
"Yeah. We had something like that in The Wastes too. We wanted to make sure nobody opened the Gate. We had an official guard, but people would sort of hang around too."
The lost citizens of Block 12 had known that Southern Robotics would immediately kill them if they ever tried to leave and expose the secret of their imprisonment. They'd only escaped after Stock had recalled all his loyal workers so he could sacrifice them.
Jared knelt and carefully placed two chunks of Eternium deep into the core. Alex smiled as the holy metal dissolved into water, immediately rejoining its rightful home. The metal remembered how it'd been set, and it loved nothing more than to revert to its intended shape. That was how the Spire still stood tall and proud despite its bizarre and erratic form. It was why Eternium was perfect for construction.
Unfortunately, it was the same reason why filling in the core was such a difficult task. There were Eternium relics everywhere on the colony, small remnants of the days of Old Earth when Eternium had been mass-produced and extremely common. There were Eternium keychains, Eternium marbles, even Eternium toothbrushes. But it was no use melting those objects down. They could be turned into other trinkets, but the core was very old and very stubborn. It was determined to unite with its missing pieces.
After the first miniature quake, Alex had tried temporarily merging her Paragon with the core to try and stop the shaking, but the metal had simply fled and returned to its rightful place. The Spire was also very old and very stubborn.
The ground suddenly trembled again, and Alex saw the core jerk back and forth.
The rod that led to the Spire trembled violently from side to side.
Alex cursed. Judging from how fast the rod was shaking, she'd have a lot of cleaning to do when she returned to the library.
But Jared's machine stood perfectly still, and so did the Paragons camped around the core.
Jared boasted with a sad smile.
"My dad's programming really was the best."
When the shaking stopped, he called out to the people resting outside.
"Hey, guys. I know this sounds like a weird question. But you haven't seen any ghosts, have you?"
He asked the question straightforwardly, without any self-deprecating laughs or awkward pauses.
Only a handful responded, and they all murmured in confusion.
"What?"
"Ghosts?"
"What do you mean?"
"No...I haven't seen any ghosts."
The other Paragons were silent. It seemed most of their pilots had slept soundly through the quake.
Jared turned to her.
"It's the sort of thing you'd know if you saw it right?"
Alex thought of the pale gray wraiths flickering back and forth in the courtyard and nodded.
"Yeah. It definitely is."
"Alright, well, keep an eye out then. The kids in here say they've seen some."
Nobody laughed.
"Look boss - "
Jared cut him off.
He hated people calling him boss.
The woman laughed gently, already knowing what he'd say.
"Look Jared. There's something else we wanted to talk to you about. We've put back all the Eternium that's been found so far."
Jared frowned.
"What do you mean we put it all back? There's still a huge chunk missing. And Emile took some with her this morning."
"The short woman? No, she dropped it off before you came! This is it. This is all the Eternium we had. The rest of it is still missing."
Alex stared at the gaping hole in the core.
There wasn't just a small amount missing. It was a huge chunk, enough to forge multiple Paragons.
"You guys guarded and weighed the amount we melted down too, right?"
"Yeah, of course."
Jared held in his face in his hands and sighed.
Alex grimaced.
"He must have had another store hidden."
She and Jared glanced at each other.
They were thinking about the same thing.
They had no idea where the Eternium was, but they could guess what it'd been turned into. The glamorous white Paragon they'd defeated in the library courtyard probably wasn't Stock's only machine. Southern Robotics must have built backups.
Her students shouted in the back.
"What? What happened?"
"Is it just gone?"
"The ghosts took it! They must have stolen it!"
Jared shook his head.
"They couldn't have taken it from us. We weighed everything. It's probably lying in a random depot or hangar somewhere. We must have missed it during our initial search. It shouldn't be too hard to find it."
"It's Paragons! It must be!"
"He's stealing Eternium to make Paragons!"
Jared shook his head.
"We don't know anything yet. We need to stay calm. First, we need to go to the Spire and try to measure out how many Paragons are missing."
He turned to Alex.
"We can just summon your machine, and then we'll make a rough estimate."
He turned back to the workers. He insisted he wasn't their boss, but during scary times, Jared had no problem taking command. He'd done the same the night of the quakes and again during the final battle against Stock.
"Measure the missing Eternium here and send me the results. We'll figure out how much that translates to in terms of Paragons."
He caught himself.
"Not that we know for sure it's been turned into Paragons. I just want to be prepared."
"Yes, sir!"
Jon and Alice whimpered in their seats.
"Paragons! Paragons! Are they going to attack us again?"
"It's the orange pod! He's back!"
Nico just stared outside the window, murmuring to himself.
"Ghosts...ghosts...ghosts..."
Alex took a deep breath as they flew back to the Spire. She told herself that the machines were probably just hiding in a depot somewhere. Stock was notoriously careless. It would be just like him to forget a Paragon.
When they arrived, Jared stopped her before she could step out and summon her Paragon.
"I want to try something first."
He turned to her students in the back and grinned.
"Watch this."
Her students chattered with excitement. No matter how worried they were, the capabilities of Paragons were always a wonder.
"It's impossible for you to permanently bring a huge chunk of the tower with you, but we're all safer if you can summon your machine on demand."
He proudly flipped one of the triggers open.
"Here's my solution."
A tiny nub of Eternium gleamed back at her. If it wasn't for the holy metal's eternally dark color, she might have missed it alongside all the other buttons.
Alex stared, not understanding.
It was just an Eternium button.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Jared laughed.
"Man. This would be cooler if I could just demonstrate it to you."
He stared intently and pressed his finger down, but nothing happened.
Not even a spark appeared.
Alex didn't understand it. Jared was one of the strongest-minded people she knew. None of the books they'd found so far could explain why some people could command Eternium, but others couldn't. As far as she could tell, the ability had been near-universal once upon a time.
Jared sighed.
"Man. It just hasn't worked for me. I keep trying to concentrate hard enough, but nothing happens. And even if I could get some sparks to fly..."
He shook his head.
"It sounds like everyone is struggling with the diffuse step too."
Jon peeked up from his chair.
"I didn't even do the diffuse stuff. I heard Fred call out to me, so I pulled until his shield appeared."
Jared whirled back, completely surprised.
"You commanded Eternium?"
Nico excitedly boasted about his friend's success.
"Yeah! He did it during class today. Was the only one!"
Jared frowned in concentration and pressed the button again. The machine's enormous hand reached out and touched the Spire. The sound of the armored rubber brushing against the tower hung in the air, but once again, nothing happened.
The engineer laughed.
"Well Jon, you're a lot smarter than I am."
He got up and stepped to the back, giving Alex the pilot's chair.
"Okay, you take a turn. Just press the button, do what you usually do, and press your hand against the Spire. Then watch the magic happen."
Alex flipped the trigger open and mused.
She still didn't get what was happening.
She pressed the button and moved the hand. Power surged through her mind, burning hotter and hotter as the Paragon's hand approached the Spire.
Then she understood.
"Holy shit."
That was so smart.
"Holy shit!"
Jon stared at her, completely oblivious.
"What's happening? Also, Mrs. T says you use too many bad words."
"Holy shit! This is genius!"
She pressed the button.
Aquamarine light surged through the cockpit.
The librarian closed her eyes. Her thought-spear diffused through the button and into the thin wires Jared had carefully threaded through his machine. There were ports at the tip of every enormous finger and toe.
Before long, the whole Paragon glowed with internal blue fire.
It was just the thinnest amount of Eternium. Altogether, the delicate wires would have come out to little more than a tiny lump.
But it was all she needed.
Alex gripped the edge of the Spire and pulled. The books shifted in their shelves, and the windows twisted inward. Her beloved cutlass emerged.
The handle was a carved shellfish with its tentacles tightly wrapped around the sea-colored blade. A thick pair of tendrils coiled back to act as the handguard, and the shell served as the hilt.
