Chapter 12 – We Can Fix It

A heavy thud echoed as a Glider dropped onto a platform. It was a delivery that lacked the normal grace, but hardly anyone could blame him as many packages clung to his body. The encumberment to his thin frame had enough bulk to unsteady simple flying.

His legs wobbled a bit from the impact, cursing himself lightly that he hadn’t put on the brakes soon enough. He had taken it into consideration but had overestimated his capability.

“A-Arwain Riot from Silver Stream. Please sign here.”

He detached a package and brought it forward while a man in construction gear signed off. A tear was heard as the wrappings came off, and in an instant, a mass of microfibers expanded from the tight confines and spilled onto the floor. It was a marvel that so much could be compacted and crammed into a single package for transport. With the tip of his hardhat, he thanked Arwain for the supplies he needed.

“Keep bringing it in. The city’s got every construction crew to make this their top priority. Not sure if a literal safety harness under the city’s belly is gonna make them sleep better at night, but we do as we’re told.”

Arwain stared at the work going on below, where teams of construction flyers wove networks of fibers between the building spaces and along the sides of structures. Above them, the roar of traffic continued as normal.

He reached down to grab one end of the microfiber, giving it a strong tug. It stretched as far as he could pull yet showed no signs of tearing. Neither did it put any strain on his hand when he coiled it around his palm. It was a soft, durable material that people in freefall could bounce off and entangle themselves into. It would have prevented the loss of life days ago.

“This fancy science is above my head. I just deliver the goods.”

“And we just move it into place. Simple as IGEA furniture. The blueprints are even downloaded into our HUD that gives a nasty buzz if we try to attach it in the wrong place.”

“Just need able hands to do the actual work simulation can’t.” Arwain saluted the man for his hard work, taking to the skies once again. He took a deep breath to keep his speed in check, making sure that he wouldn’t wipe out at the very least.

His comms lit up with an incoming message.

“Yo! How’s the ace handling, being out of his comfort zone? Last time I passed by you, it was like Dingleberry asked you to help milk the cows. Got that sense of cautious tenseness and impatient carelessness vibe.”

“Are you one to talk, Queen? I saw you grab just as many to earn the city’s favor. We all are trying to do as much as we can to prepare for the next incident.”

“The difference is experience, Arwain. I’ve been in the business for over a decade now. While people don’t really like me, they don’t mind all the jobs I have under my belt. Plus, I have the hips to brace stuff on. You’re using those power legs to vault all around, and when you have things attached there, it’s throwing you off.”

Arwain sighed as he knew exactly what Queen was talking about. Packages were stuck to his thighs and shins, making it hard for him to maneuver like he normally did. Forgetting that, he couldn’t make a proper leap off the side of a wall, tripping and crashing into it face-first.

“I’ll manage somehow. When the city suddenly puts in a request for a massive number of supplies, all we can do is get as much of the pie as we can.”

The day after the sudden holiday, Mayor DeWine launched an initiative to secure the safety of all flyers. Starting with the targeted busy areas, networks of safety nets were covering the lower areas, just above the clouds. No one knew when Daedalus would strike next, so it had already been several days of boots in the air, covering as much area as possible.

Exhausted as the Silver Stream crew was, the sight of those that couldn’t be saved served as extra motivation to get the job done. At least, they were being well compensated for their deliveries. Working on a government contract definitely had its perks.

“Still, it doesn’t help the fears growing within people. There is nothing more difficult than a paradise lost,” Queen added, lacking her normally jovial tone.

Her moments of sincerity were a deep mark created from years of struggle. She had moved to Stratos from a different city, one filled with imperfections that had been stamped out here.

The rest of society was still figuring things out, decades behind chasing after the model of Stratos that started it all. Queen could recall the stark difference as soon as she arrived in this ever-growing megacity. She was just one more migrant seeking better times.

The cool, crispness of clean air, kilometers above sea level, was maintained by the lack of fossil fuel vehicles. Wings upon humans and lower gravity offered comparable mobility, a boom of self-propulsion that made combustibles obsolete in most cases.

The housing crisis known to urban dwellers for ages had been resolved by building continuously upward instead of outwards. With less land needed for an influx of population, much more became vacant at surface level for agriculture and manufacturing.

The economic prosperity of the Stratos model trickled down to its residents, who were eventually granted a guaranteed standard of living that wiped out most reasons for crime.

For someone like Arwain who had been born and raised in Stratos, the reality of a livelihood without these benefits was a blissful ignorance.

“Come on, the city will figure out how to deal with that Daedalus guy in time. And then, everything will be back to normal. I just have to push through until then. Everyone’s counting on us, no matter how small of a contribution,” Arwain replied, deciding to look forward to keep his own fears in check.

“You do that, Arwain. In the meantime, I’ll keep a close eye on your tight booty,” Queen shot back with a chuckle, returning to her normal self.

“As if you don’t already do that for every guy that flashes you so much as a flex!”

“What can I say? I am cultured.”

Queen signed off from the comms, dropping the smile on her face. In moments like these, a sense of seniority was needed when it came to the business. Their different viewpoints on the tragedy made for a more versatile team.

Her appreciation of guarantees and Arwain’s desperation to prevent loss could walk hand-in-hand with helping the city. If that meant keeping one foot on the ground so that Arwain could soar as high as possible, then she would be the older sister giving him a vault upwards.

However, there was one moment that gave Queen pause amidst this progress.

The scene of Flyers looking down at No-Flyers, destruction and death right in their faces – Queen could feel the chill of hatred spark from it. Every place had it – the stench of envy for what one didn’t have. The more others showed it off, the more bitter the have-nots would become.

And it didn’t help when the mayor came forward, publicly denouncing the ideology of Daedalus.

“How dare he stop the progress of mankind over unfound fears and paranoia? How dare he murder innocents to get his point across. No-Flyer ideology is taking over this beautiful city. It will take away our wings. It will take away our future. And we will fight back against it.”

Even in a paradise such as Stratos, Queen would never forget. Discrimination was ever present in the world. Humankind would always find someone to blame its troubles on.

But it was the highest seat of power that determined whether that trouble would stagnate or propagate over an area. For now, all Queen could do was wait and see how Mayor DeWine’s actions would ripple through his beloved city.