“So this book is that powerful?”
“Yes, but of course it is not just the book itself. Its true value lies in the fact that I am giving it to you; that I have selected it. Suppose that we were to make a billion copies of this volume? And subtly corrupt all of them, in ways that were hard to distinguish. Then we hid this true book amongst them. It would then be worthless – you might as well start over from scratch. We Librarians have a saying, the data is sacred, but the catalog is divine.
“You know,” said Blucher, “the scary thing is that you are starting to make sense. I’ve never read a book like this, that didn’t have color animations or audio references. It seems so simple and dull!”
Mahalanobis nodded. “People from the secular world often have trouble calming their minds enough to accept something so pure and unembellished. I suggest that a glass or two of red wine might help.”
“And do you still require wine to focus on something like this?”
“No my dear Miss Blucher I do not, but red wine shared with good friends still helps with many things. Would you care to join me?”
15. Notes Found on Some Napkins
Google can bring you back 100,000 answers; a librarian can bring you back the right one.
– Neil Gaiman, Author, 20th-21st centuries.
To: Brother Mahalanobis
Senior Archivist, Librarians Temporal
Branch No. 52
Dear Brother Mahalanobis;
I was greatly pleased to hear of your surviving the attack by the federal police the other month. I regret the passing of Brother Hertz and Brother Stevens, but of course you still got off lightly. As you are no doubt aware, not every branch has been so fortunate. The central authorities are increasing their assaults on anything that might challenge them, and we may expect the level of violence to increase still further as we run up to the final collapse of the environment. We can only hope that, after the collapse, those of us that survive may avoid their scrutiny in our underground redoubts beneath the rubble.
As to weapons policy, I agree that the time for restraint has long since passed. It is usually a bad idea to hold back in a fight, but the overwhelming power of the Neoliberal ruling elite has meant that using modern weapons would bring us tactical victories and strategic defeat. However, now it is time to, as they say, put the boots on. Railguns, drones, schizomats, whatever you have, use it. An advantage of the increasing chaos is that displays of armed force that would previously attract attention might fade into the general chaos.
I am also pleased at the speed at which you have managed to move your facilities underground. These Cthulhu cultists you encountered, they sound like a useful workforce now, but take care that their education is not neglected. They might not be Librarian material, but we don’t want to go down the road of the Neoliberals and have a permanent underclass in our thrall. And on that note, my personal congratulations on your having faced down a basilisk all by yourself. It truly strengthens one’s faith that such things are possible.
As to these so-called ‘ribhus’, well, your branch of the library has been very busy in acquiring useful talents. Our intelligence confirms that these were designed as biologically-engineered warriors, and they rebelled during a training exercise and escaped after killing a high-ranking general, the Undersecretary of Defense, and the scientist responsible for their design, among others. Statistical analysis suggests that the scientific staff was complicit in their rebellion – possibly even the senior scientist herself – though the confidence limits are large.
Regardless, beings of such ability have the potential to be either great allies or terrible enemies. I agree with the consensus of the other senior archivists, that for now we must embrace the potential of alliance. Obviously you should also discuss and confirm this with the rest of your brethren at your branch.
And yes, we so far agree that these ribhus should be allowed access to our archives. Granted that this would give them an edge over us in any possible conflict, but it could also bind them to us. I note also that we Librarians Temporal are honor-bound to offer free access to the archives to all human beings who come in peace, and despite their differences from us we provisionally have judged them to be a branch of the human tree. I also agree that if they were to provide us with reference materials on their language and physiology, that this would be a sign of good faith. If not, then we should reconsider our relationship.
Of course, our ban on sharing archives with true aliens stands. Our scholars in exopsychology feel that this would give the aliens an unstoppable advantage over us. We must remember that we Librarians worship the human soul, not data exchange for its own sake.
Other than this, I remain hale and hearty, though condemned to suffer another planning meeting shortly. Take care, and Zenobius guide your heart.
Brother Helmholtz
Senior Archivist, Librarians Temporal
Branch No. 12
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To: Brother Helmholtz
Senior Archivist, Librarians Temporal
Branch No.12
Dear Brother Helmholtz;
As always I am cheered by news of your continued good health, and the survival of your section of our great library. While we are all glad of the success of the majority of our branches, the destruction of so many is deeply painful. We can only hope that the rate of loss may slacken in the time to come or there will be precious few of us left.
For now things are looking up for our branch. The cultists are indeed a rough lot, and I suspect that it will be at least two generations before any of them are fit to join our order. With proper supervision they are good workers, and are adapting well to our Great Underground Empire, as one has termed our working relationship. We are also fortunate that the cultists have few relatives outside on the surface, thus sparing us the difficulty of turning away countless pleading refugees when the environment finally collapses.
The same goes for the ribhus – they also have no extended desperate families all clawing to join our redoubt, and they are peerless technicians and engineers. Between our own abilities, and those of the cultists and the ribhus, we are making progress apace and should be completely independent of the surface in less than three months. We have room and resources for 85 additional people, no more. If there are Brothers from other branches in need of refuge they will be welcome here, but I do plead that you not direct more than that number towards us. The heart may be large, but physics keeps an unforgiving ledger.
As far as communications goes, I fear that standard surface delivery is becoming unreliable, and suggest that we start to communicate directly. Of course we don’t dare touch the global datanets, and anything broadcast over standard radio would be far too easy for the central administration to detect: bastards though they are, their mastery of conventional signal transmission is effectively absolute. I suggest that we might begin to communicate via seismic signals, or perhaps via infrared lasers shining on the moon. We must make alternative arrangements now while we may still use our standard methods to coordinate.
As far as my defeating of the basilisk, well, I do confess to an immodest pride in that accomplishment, but logic forces me to admit that the main work was done by all those scholars that went before. I only followed their instructions.
That is all that I have to relate for now. Wishing always for your continued success,
Brother Mahalanobis
Senior Archivist, Librarians Temporal
Branch No. 52
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To: Brother Mahalanobis
Senior Archivist, Librarians Temporal
Branch No. 52
Your letters are always a welcome respite for me. I wish that someday circumstances would permit us to meet in person, but for now we must make do with a long-distance relationship. I continue to read the reports of your libraries’ progress with envy and admiration – you and your Brothers are to be commended for what you have accomplished in so little time.
<
br /> Sadly, since we last corresponded we have lost two more branches. Will such mindless waste ever cease? But on that note, branch 100 was quite close to yours, and 24 Brothers and Sisters managed to survive the onslaught. As per your previous letter, I gather that you still have room, and I have directed them to make towards your branch. I hope that they may survive to reach you – I have appended details of their disposition, recognition signals, and likely approach routes to a grocery receipt in this package. If you could spare the manpower, sending out a scouting party to aid them would be much appreciated, although I know how hazardous, such a mission would be and I would well understand should you decline.
On a lighter note, the Neoliberal oligarch William Randolph Zuckerberg was killed at his primary residence along with all of his family and servants that were present at the time. There is no honor among thieves, truly, and we are all justified in feeling more than a little schadenfreude at this unholy pharisee’s demise. I hope that it was painful and undignified.
Nevertheless, intelligence suggests that the attack on Zuckerberg did not conform to standard government practice. The assault appears to have been performed with significantly greater efficiency than usual. Our analysts are hamstrung by their lack of access to direct data, but the statistics suggest that the Neoliberal ruling clique has acquired some new command structure – possibly a better trained set of human generals, or even an A.I. If it as an A.I. Let us hope that they are not making the same mistake that they made with Globus Pallidus XIV – though there is little folly that I would put past them. Regardless, be on your guard, we may be challenged by forces superior to those that we expect.
As for commencing more direct communications, yes, we must begin preparations now, and details are attached. Still, we dare not activate any such mechanisms until our standard methods have totally broken down. We have taken enough damage as it is – let us never forget that the Neoliberals, for all that they are contemptible beyond insult, remain supremely powerful. If they get one whiff of the idea that we constitute a coordinated globe-spanning organization they will drop fusion bombs on each of our surviving branches and that will be that.
On a lighter note, I am pleased to hear that Brother Adenour is doing well. His doctoral thesis continues to inspire our brethren interested in sociology and economics. Simplistic by our standards, but then he has not had our training, and to have such original insights! If only we had more time to devote to such matters. Perhaps in happier days we will. Meanwhile we must not forget that, even under such conditions as these, it is the quality of our brethren that is the main strength of the Library, and we must never cease our efforts to find and recruit and mentor the best minds that we can. I have attached a list of 13 candidates for the consideration of yourself and your brothers in branch 52, and I trust that you will give it your full attention.
All for now, best wishes and best luck.
Brother Helmholtz
Senior Archivist, Librarians Temporal
Branch No.12
--------------------
To: Brother Helmholtz
Senior Archivist, Librarians Temporal
Branch No.12
I trust you continue to be in health, and that your branch of our great library still prospers. My brethren agreed to try and connect with the survivors of branch 100, and you will be pleased to hear that 19 of the survivors have made it to the safety of our Great Underground Empire (I believe that the name is catching on).
You will also be glad to hear that the ribhus have given us a gift of a basic dictionary and grammar for their new language. Cross-referencing with recordings of their speech indicates that it is accurate and not a subtle attempt at deception. I have included a copy of this for your own branch’s archives. Granted that their language is still developing, it is a remarkable document. Their willingness to share knowledge about themselves suggests honest intent, and with the consent of the rest of my peers I will continue to allow them access to our archives.
A question has been raised as to whether individual ribhus themselves might join our ranks. Of course we should have a full discussion of this, but for now I think that our respective needs would be best served if we maintained some distance. As much as I do admire and respect them, they are another species. In the long run I think that we should continue to collaborate and exchange information, but mostly live in separate underground bases.
Speaking of the future, when the environment completely collapses it is hoped that this will cause the Neoliberals in their secured bunkers to lose interest in the outside world, and our persecution may stop. With luck the bastards will continue to so foul their own nests that they will wipe themselves out. Nevertheless, the propensity of Neoliberals to corrupt and destroy anything that catches their attention must never be underestimated.
To that end, we should consider making plans to acquire a nuclear deterrent. Granted that right now we cannot spare the resources for such a task, but in the future such may become a necessity, and we should begin thinking about that now. It is strange how, even as for most technologically advanced systems it becomes easier and easier to manufacture them on ever smaller scales, creating nuclear weapons still requires massive industrial enterprises of the kind that are hard to create with a small workforce, no matter how talented. Perhaps we could scavenge fissile material from abandoned Neoliberal facilities after the environment collapses. Or we could put more effort into supporting Brother Spumoni’s researches into exploring how to initiate a fusion reaction without an initial fission trigger.
We should also consider the sociological consequences of possessing nuclear weapons: such things cannot be left unguarded, and coded locks are a necessity, but secrets are anathema to our order. It may be that resolving the social and political aspect will ultimately prove to be more vexing than the technical challenges.
To: Brother Mahalanobis
Senior Archivist, Librarians Temporal
Branch No. 52
16. Buddy System
“They say that nature makes no bad art, and perhaps this is true. But it would be well to remember that some of the greatest art is surpassingly ugly.”
– Cedric the Mad, Sculptor, 25th century Earth.
Brother Adenour was working on a communications repeater with the ribhus known as Calibri. Adenour was on the main level of the subway station checking the readouts on a hand-held logic analyzer. He had his ankles locked around a ceiling girder, and was hanging upside down with his head in front of the repeater. With five fingers and two thumbs on each hand, he simultaneously manipulated a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, a wire stripper, and a voltage probe.
“Try it now,” said Calibri.
Adenour fiddled with his analyzer. “No, still not there. I tell you, it’s the auxiliary buffers. Try bypassing them.”
The tools danced in the ribhus’ long skinny fingers. “How about now?”
“Yes… yes… that’s it. I think we are good for now. We can let the secondaries wait for another day, let’s close it up and move on.”
The ribhus replaced the cover, and dropped and spun to the floor like an Olympic gymnast executing a perfect dismount. “Five down, 27 to go.”
A series of chimes sounded, the brief melody rising and falling.
Adenour stopped and listened. “I believe that is trouble.”
“Agreed,” said Calibri. “If I have it right, it’s a general alert: all Librarians to their assigned battle stations and prepare for possible assault.”
“Correct.”
“Then you had best be getting ready. I am going to go back and check on my own people. Hopefully this will amount to nothing, and I will see you soon at repeater number six.”
“Until number six then.”
Calibri turned and left for the tunnel that connected to the ribhus zone. Adenour walked towards the local armory. He passed a couple of cultists that were struggling to pull a set of hydroponics trays balanced on a utility cart.
“Hey, Miste
r Adenour. Is that an alarm?”
“Why yes, it is.”
“Then how about we take shelter? I meaning, the feds break in here and we be carrying this load we be easy targets for sure.”
“If the feds get this far we’ll be dead no matter what we’re doing. If we don’t get the hydroponics running soon, then we’ll be dead no matter what the feds do. Keep working. We’re not paying you to hide.”
The cultists grumbled, but continued to haul the heavy trays.
Adenour made it to a local armory. Brother Sincich was already there. He had finished changing into his camouflage suit and was checking his weapons.
“Any idea what this is all about?” asked Adenour.
“Not in full,” said Sincich. “Apparently there are a lot of attacks in the area. They might or might not be aimed at us, but there have been some near-breaches of our little haven. I have also heard that some of us have been cut off in the east tunnel. Subotai wants us on alert until it either blows over, or we get invaded and have to fight. In the meantime, we’re to guard this section here.”
Adenour hung his robe on a metal hook stuck to the wall. Next he began putting on his composite body armor. “Cut off? Any idea who?”
“Reports are sketchy. I think a couple of the brethren, and some cultists. We should know after we’ve all gotten kitted out and done a proper head count.”
Sincich finished with his gear, and left for his assigned position. Adenour took his time with his own weapons, and hung them on his webbing belts. He activated his micropower radio, and signed in to the command network. The terse coded reply was to join Sincich and await further instructions.
Splendid Apocalypse: The Fall of Old Earth (An Old Guy/Cybertank Adventure Book 5) Page 18
