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On the dark side of Earth's Moon in the northern hemisphere. Nestled amid the cratered lunar surface, standing majestically is the circular building known as the Moon Public Library, one of the many IOL Libraries that dot this sector of space. After a few weeks closed the Library is back & open for use by it's patrons.
Which is a relief for the patrons since it's finals time at a number of the different galactic universities in the area. Some are from other areas. The most popular books during these times are the abridged versions of books & were always checked out. In the recesses of the Library, one such patron is doing research for her final paper in the Archives. Why is she doing this when she could have gotten electronic versions of the text? She preferred a hard copy. For a place so technologically advanced, The MPL doesn't have a whole lot of lights down in the Archive. The lights are scattered among the stacks, at least one every three stacks. The female held in her hand a piece of paper with the reference number she needed. After an hour of looking, she found it. She took the book to a dimly lit table & as she started to commit the info to memory, she thinks she hears a noise in the background. It was a rustling noise, much like something moving.
She shrugs it off & goes back to her book. The noise returns a few minutes later & it was louder this time. Again she shrugs it off. A few minutes later, same noise & louder still. This time, no shrugging it off: something was down there with her! She gets up from the table & starts to look around, finding nothing until she got the section of Ectosuessacallogy. There it was in the dim light of the archive, a massive worm like creature eating books. It was swallowing whole shelves in one mouth full. Then, it smelled her & started to come towards her.
Petrified with fear, she couldn't move. As the Worm got closer, she felt like screaming but her voice wasn't responding. The worm was a stack or two from her when flipping over the back of her, there came a man dressed in a trench coat.
"All right, wormy. From what I've been told there will be no eating of the Library patrons!" he said after he landed in front of her. The worm continued to charge.
"Plus, Your not even supposed to be here! This is a floor or two above where you live. I've been told this place was off limits to your kind. Now, stop!"
The worm said nothing & did nothing, except continued to charge in their direction.
"All right. Since your not going to listen to me. I think it's check out time, ok?" The man said with a slight laugh.
The man turned slightly towards the woman behind him & said. "You might want to get down. I might get a bit messy."
He gave her a smile, she didn't return one & then he turned back to the worm.
"One copy of the Quick & the Dead for Mr. Worm!" The man said as he flipped back the sides of his coat to reveal a gun holster around his waist. In the holsters, were 2 Colt .45's. As the Worm was almost there, the man said. "I'm quick..." He quickly pulled out his guns & fired. Two bullets went directly in the forehead of the on coming worm. ".. and your dead."
The dead body of the worm now lay at his feet. Then, he noticed that some of the worm's blood got on his coat. The blood was neon green. "Ah crap! And I just washed this!" he said & then turn back around to the trembling woman behind him.
"You ok?" he asked.
She nodded, still in shock.
"cool! You need anything else?"
She shook her head no, still in shock. As he started to walk away, she then started to ask "Whaa... Wha... What... was that.. thing?"
"Oh! That was & I guess still is a Bookworm."
"A Bookworm?" she said with more confidence.
"Yeah. The IOL imports these worms to all of their Libraries so they can take care some of the wastes that the Library makes."
"oh."
"Don't worry. It's dead & I doubt there will be anymore on this floor today."
She shook her head ok & he walked away from her. A minutes or two later, she called out to him "Wait!"
He stopped & turned around. "Yes?" he said as she ran over to him.
"Are you the Librarian?"
He hesitated for a moment & then said: "No. I'm just filling in for him. He's... " The man said & then paused. "He's on a business trip." He paused again & then said. "Yeah, that's it. He's on a prolonged business trip."
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A short while later, the College Student & her Savior were riding up in one of the Elevators to the Library's main floor. As they did that, he said. "Deed's?"
"Yes, David?" came a voice. It was a pleasant female voice.
"Down in the Archives, there is a Bookworm carcass & I was wondering if you could send some of your helper droids down there to pick it up."
"Sure. What should I do with it?"
"Give to the other Worms. They'll eat it, right? I think I heard that they'll eat almost anything!" David said with a smile as he looks over to the woman standing next to him.
She gave a weak smile back at him. D.D., the Library's A.I. gave her reply to David & then sent off some droids. A few minutes later, the elevator got to the main Library floor & the two exited. The main foyer was busy with action.
"Are you sure your all right, miss?" David asked one last time.
"Yes." the woman said & then ran off to tell her friends about the hot, yet slightly unnerving, guy that saved her from a giant worm down in the Archives.
As David surveyed the hustle & bustle of the Library, a familiar companion came over to him.
"Did you solve the Littarari Wormza problem down in the Archives, young master Bookman?" A.L.F.RED asked in he usually stuffy british tone.
"Yup!"
A.L.F.RED then noticed the blood on David's jacket, sighs & then asked. "You didn't shoot it, did you?"
David gave a sheepish look to the Robotic Butler: "Yes." was his reply.
A.L.F.RED sighed again. "You know that your father would have never resorted to using a weapon on one of those things?"
"Well… Well… Are you telling me my dad never resorted to hurting a Bookworm?"
"Well, no. Once during their matting season, Littarai Wormza was trying to mate with my leg."
"What did he do?"
"He shot it."
"So, What's the big deal?"
"His shot grazed it, but that's not the point! We needed that Littarai Wormza." A.L.F.RED said with a slightly higher octave them he normally does.
"You can get more, can't you?"
"No. Yes but, it just a hassle to have to get them & get them at the size we need them to be at." A.L.F.RED said at his normal octave. Then, he sighed. "The IOL normally breeds them & since we aren't part of them anymore we can't get a new one from them."
"What about the Black Market?"
"Sure. We can get a baby Littarai Wormza there but where do raise it? All of the ones we have are at least a few centuries old & I don't have the time to wait. Well, yes I do but I don't want to. Also very few place will sell you, even on the black market, a full adult Littarai Wormza. Plus, how to transport it becomes an issue."
There was a few moments of silence between the two of them. Then A.L.F.RED asked. "Other then that how did it go?"
"Ok. I guess. I'm not sure my banter was as good as I thought it should be."
"Banter? You do know that the Littarai Wormza don't have any formal language. It's mostly a series of grunts & other nosies that over the centuries people have fashioned into a language."
"Well, I didn't know that."
"It was in the packet of info I gave you."
David rolled his eyes.
A.L.F.RED saw that. "What?"
"I'm not a big reader."
A.L.F.RED just stood there. David wasn't sure if his one comment had broken him.
"A.L.F.RED?"
No response.
"Oh. Crap."
David just stood there with A.L.F.RED not sure what to do & then A.L.F.RED said. "I'm sorry about that. Your comment just didn't seem to compute. It took longer then normal to process."
"Yeah. Not a big reader. Long books tend to bore me. I know that was like my Dad whole schtick: books, knowledge, words, facts, figures & all that junk. But that's not who I am. It's not how I was raised."
"I would have been if the IOL hadn't gotten in the way."
"yeah. But they did & this is how things are."
"This was half expected. But we partly thought that since being a Bookman you would be naturally well read."
"I'm not. I've partly thought that my father's love of books might have be more of one of his IOL powers then something he naturally had."
"This could be. Very few people alive knew how your father was before his induction into the IOL."
"How long had my father been part of the IOL?" David asked.
There was a few moments of silence. So, David asked again.
"we're not sure." A.L.F.RED answered. "This fact is not in out databases & Lee never revealed this fact to me or D.D."
"Speaking of the IOL…" D.D. said as the holographic projection of the D.D. "They are within our air space & are requesting where they should dock."
"I'd suggest in a Black Hole." A.L.F.RED replied.
D.D. gave him a look.
"The Twain concourse should do nicely."
"Isn't that the farthest concourse from the here." David asked.
"And your point being?"
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TO BE CONTINUED…..
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