Previous Post > --------------- > > A young woman was turning one of the many corners in Parrodpolis, going from Fawcett Avenue & walking on to Kirby Drive. She was dressed in, starting from the ground up, a pair of navy-blue Chuck Taylor All-Star high-tops, on her feet were a pair of argyle socks. Her pants were a well-worn, and ripped in places, pair of blue jeans. She wore an unzipped graying black hoodie, and under that was a black T-shirt. Slung over the girl's right shoulder was a drab olive-colored messenger bag. On her wrists were a few too many bracelets and a couple of wrist bands. A few of her fingers had some rings on them. The girl's black nail polish was cracked and chipped in places. She had short, sandy blond hair which was pulled back and into two small ponytails, one on each side of the back of her head. She had somewhat pale skin was wearing a pair of black plastic glasses. > > It was Catherine Gillespie & she had just left her local Comic Book Distributor (Forbidden Comics) & was reading some of the goodness she had purchased. She held one book in hand & the rest she had shoved into her messenger bag. Catherine would read a page or so, then look up, she what happening around her then return to the book. She would read, look up, go back to reading, so on & so forth. Catherine didn't really have much to worry about, the street wasn't all that crowded. > > During one of her looks up, she thinks she might of seen a man she knows. It was a a tall, slender gentleman with brown hair was cut short & he was slightly balding up top. He had a neatly trimmed, well groomed Goatee. He was dressed like he was most of the time is: a seemingly plain looking three piece grey suit with a plain looking grey button down shirt with it was a plain looking grey tie. His shoes were pitch black & buffed to a shine. In his right hand, he carried a grey Umbrella like it was a cane. Catherine had come to thing of it as a cane since She's never seen him use in any other fashion. > > The man she had come to know as "Mr. Spooky" was standing across the street in an alleyway. There was someone else there, Catherine couldn't quite make out who it was. Catherine stopped for a moment to watch him. From where she stood, he was acting quite suspiciously but then it was Mr. Spooky & suspiciously behavior was like his M.O. Just then something weird happened, Spooky went further into the alleyway with the man, away from Catherine's view & then the Alleyway lit up with a bright green flash. Catherine waited for a few moments for Spooky & the other man to walk out but they didn't. Catherine put her comic into her bag then carefully got across the street in a somewhat Frogger manner. But she got across the street & went to look down the alleyway: They were gone. They couldn't have gone out the other way since there was no other way: the alleyway dead ended at a brick wall. Catherine looked around for any sign that they had been there but it was only her, a dumpster & some trash cans' in the alleyway. There was something that smelled funny but that might have just been the garbage. > > Catherine left that alleyway not sure what had happened but find no explanation there, she left & headed on home. > > --------------- > > Once there, she had taken off her bag & was about to settle in for some quality comic reading time when she noticed that she had the number for Lee Bookman written on a dry erase board she had hung up near her phone. A thought popped into her head, when over to the phone & dialed. It rang a few times & then was picked up. > > "Thank you for calling the Moon Public Library, the local branch of the Intergalactic Order of Librarians, located in the western quadrant of the northern hemisphere on the dark side of The Moon revolving around Planet Alpha Zero Zero Five Two Four Dickens Seuss Adams, otherwise known as Earth." The voice on the other end said in a sing song manner. It was the same manner Catherine got when she last dealt with this automated phone service. > > "Your call is important to us & may be monitored for training purposes. Also, please note that communications are being recorded to be stored for further reference so please speech clearly & enunciate your words." > > There was a few moments of silence, Catherine wasn't really sure what was going on: was she being transfered to some? Being lost in the phone system? She was hung up on? She was proved wrong on the last one when an almost exact voice said "Hello." > > Catherine wasn't sure if she was to reply or not. But she did once the voice repeated their greeting. > > "Uh.. Hi." > > "How may I service you today?" The voice said. > > Catherine was attempting to not laugh at her phrasing as she started to attempt to describe Mr. Spooky to the Voice a million or so miles away from her or maybe this service has been outsourced & the voice is actually further away then that. > > "Response not understood." The voice said rather flatly. > > Catherine attempted once more & got the same reply. > > Catherine sighed & then said. "I'm not sure I can fully explain this over the phone, to bad I'm not there in person." > > Now this was just an offhanded comment, but apparently to the voice there are no such things & replied. "Response understood. Transfer signal locking on to signal. Transition will commence in 5 Planet Alpha Zero Zero Five Two Four Dickens Seuss Adams, otherwise known as Earth, seconds. Have a pleasant day & thank you calling the Moon Public Library." > > Before Catherine could even respond of even hang up the phone, She was gone. > > --------------- > > "Uh!" Catherine said as she hit the floor. As she opened her eyes, she noticed that it wasn't laying on her floor in her apartment's floor but on a floor that opaque & white in color. There was a light underneath it making the opaque floor glow. Before Catherine could look around anymore, she promptly throw up on to the opaque white floor. > > "That didn't feel good." She said out loud to no one but herself. > > As she stood up, she looked around & the only light anywhere around her was coming up from the floor. Any place where the light wasn't shining was completely black. She had about a 10 by 10 foot square of light with a few inches past that. As Catherine stood there, from the darkness came a small dustpan sized & shaped robot. It moved across the floor via tank treads. It stopped at her expulsion. It then shot a beam of some type of energy at it, freezing it on contact. Then an arm with a broom at the end appeared out of the robot, it swept up the barf then scooted off into the darkness. > > Catherine stood there for a few seconds more then thought. > > "Well.. Time to take a leap of faith." > > And Catherine stepped out into the darkness, once there low lights turned on to reveal very dimly that Catherine was in some sort of room that she seen many a time on Star Trek: She was in a Transporter Room. Sure, the design was all different but all the basics were there. > > Then, it hit her she didn't know where to go now, so she did the first thing that came to mind. > > "Hello?" > > Just then, not more then a few feet in front of her did a man appear. He was floating in mid air but he didn't look like it. He looked like he was stand on the ground but he was clearly not. He was a tall, slender man, looking younger then probably was. He wore a pair of rimless glasses. His hair was a dark brown in color, sensibly cut but went down to about the mid part of his neck & was slightly messy looking. He was clean shaven. The man wore a long beige trench coat that had seen better day, the ends of the coat were frayed, dirty & a bit burnt. Under his coat, he had on a blue jumpsuit with black leather belt. He had stylized yellow "L" on his silver belt buckle. On his hands is a pair of dark brown, well worn, gloves; the fingertips of the gloves are cut off exposing his fingertips. He also wore a pair of gunmetal black leather boots, that matched his belt, with dark brown leather straps. It took Catherine a moment to recognize him: It was Lee Bookman. All thought Catherine had never seen him without some sort of 5 o'clock shadow to him but maybe he had shaved before coming to see her. > > When Bookman's blue eyes didn't meet her green eyes, she knew something was up. Plus, in all the times Catherine had seen him he had never smiled that big or that much. Or said this little. So, there a handful of things wrong. Lee Bookman is: > 1. He's Floating. > 2. He's staring off into, for a lack of a better word, space. > 3. He's smiling way to big. > 4. He wasn't Talking. > And... > 5. He's glowing. > > Not like he's radioactive or anything, more light the glow your TV gives off. Catherine reaches out her hand to grab a hold of the edge of his coat but her hand passes right through it. She waves it back & forth a few times just make sure. > > "He's a Hologram." Catherine said. "Cool." > > Then, the Hologram started to speak. > > "Language recognized: English." he said happily, way too chipper. "Hello! And welcome to..." Holo-Lee said, then paused for a moment. > > "Moviephone?" Catherine asked. > > "... The Moon Public Library." > > "Darn." > > "I'm Lee Bookman, the Head Librarian here. I'm fact I'm the only Librarian here." The Holo-Lee said with a hearty laugh. > > The Hologram's smiling & not making eye contact with her creeped her out but the laughing was even worse. It was done in a strange staccato fashion that Catherine didn't think anyone beyond Max Headroom did. Once the laugher stopped, all expression on his face left. Then when he started to speak again, the life returned to his face. > > "I, on behalf of the entire crew here, welcome you. Just a word of warning, during your transition the contents of your stomach and/or stomachs may have shifted, so look out!" Holo-Lee said before starting in on another creepy set of laughs. Once it done, the dead face returned. > > Catherine then thought "What is it with all the copies of Bookman being nuts?" > > Then Holo-Lee began to speak. "Also, if you have turned into a mindless rampaging mass of ectoplasmic mucus: If it's not too much of a hassle for your current state could you please alert Security so that we may deal with your problem in a timely manner." While he said all this he looked concerned, once he was finished speaking once more with the dead face which was only slightly different from the dead face. > > "Uh.. Ok. Well since I'm not a ball of goo: I'll for go that." > > "Lastly, Welcome to the Library." > > "You already said that." Catherine said a slight, normal laugh. > > "Please follow the the yellow chevrons up to main floor." Holo-Lee said happily but that changed when he went on to his next sentence, he looked serious. "Do Not, I repeat Do Not stray from the yellow chevrons. They are there to guide you safely to our main floor. Any & all deviation from this course of action may cause the offender to serve time in the Library's brig where you may serve up to & beyond the rest of your current life cycle." > > Catherine thought was a bit harsh but it was his library so he made the rules. > > "But, I'm sure you won't do that." Holo-Lee said happily with a wink & a thumbs up. > > Shivers ran up & down Catherine's back. As they did that, the hologram disappeared, the lights went up showing Catherine everything. She then noticed on the floor, glowing yellow chevrons began to appear. > > Catherine began to walk in the way they were pointing & as she did, she noticed they started to disappear behind her as she walked. Also, that the lights in the hallways would turn off behind her. She then stopped: the chevrons stopped disappearing, the light over her & in front of her remained on. When she would back up: chevrons would appear before her & the hallways' lights would come on. She did this a few times until the joy from it was waning. She followed the chevrons through a maze of different hallways, which did have other darkened hallways branching off them. Sure, She wondered what was down them but didn't feel like spending the rest of life in a Library prison. > > The chevrons stopped at a wall, or what at least looked like a wall to Catherine. But doors retracted out of the wall revealing a small, bright white, room. With in it was a yellow circle on the floor. Catherine stepped in the room & on to the circle. Once she had done that, the door closed up & she was stuck. That was until the she noticed the room was moving in an up word direction. It was an elevator. > > After a few minutes it stopped, the wall in front of Catherine opened up, she walked out into a larger domed, circular room. It was a buzz with activity with every size, shape & type of creature you could image, along with some you couldn't. > > "Whoa." Catherine said. > > --------------- > > TO BE CONTINUED... > > --------------- > > FOOTNOTES! > > - The Title of the story references the 1902 French silent movie: Le Voyage dans la Lune (or in English: A Trip to the Moon). This film is also the 1st Sci-Fi film ever. > > - Catherine has had 2 pervious experiences with The Librarian. Her first was with when one of Lee's robotic doubles had become obsessed Chad & Ronnie (due to faulty programing) & while Chad, Ronnie, Jane & Catherine slept, he kidnapped them. He took them to the Library so that he could get Ronnie to confess to being Evil. This where they were saved by the real Lee Bookman. Catherine's second experience with Lee was when he called her (that's how she got his number), Dancer wanted Lee to check in on her. The reason why Dancer want Catherine checked in on is currently unknown, since neither of the two have any known relationship connecting each other. > > - The Moon Public Library having a Jail has been mentioned before in an early Librarian story.