Rumble in the Library!

by Vincent Cleaver

  ***

  Once there was a mighty people, laid low by a failed invasion and the aftershock wars resulting from that invasion. The Second Haroo Empire had been a pretty nice place in which to be alive by all the accounts I've seen and read, and when it came to an end over a thousand years ago, several hundred Turtle worlds fell into darkness and savagery.

  Let me tell you, humans and dragons do savagery better, but the Turtles made a decent job of it. Half of those worlds now lie fallow, and only one or two, like Levagwo with the city of Golden Harbor and its legendary Library, have climbed back into the light. The Library (always capital L, boys and girls!) is the result of a quasi-religious order, served and protected by militant librarian monks, mostly Haroo, but they have been known to accept other species. It is the very thing for a living relic and a warrior poet like my good friend Arnie.

  Alright, I have this very bad habit of nick-naming folks at the drop of a hat. Arnie is the last remnant of the second empire, the last soldier from before the fall, and he's a cyborg killing machine with lots of clang. A terminator turtle; I don't know why he didn't kill me once he understood the name I'd nicked him with, but Arnie is just a big cuddly teddy bear, once you get to know him.

  "David, why did you start a fight in my library?"

  Did I mention he's thirteen hundred years old, and he's spent most of that time at the Library? He's head of security, the sheriff of Library-town.

  "But I didn't start anything! It's not my fault!"

  Arnie blinked rapidly and rolled his head around on his neck, surveying the damage. I winced, and yeah, felt a little shame and anger. These two idiots had gotten a few dozen irreplaceable books burned or partially destroyed. If that damn starfish wasn't already dead, I'd kill him again.

  "What do you know, then?"

  That was such an opening, but I controlled myself. "The starfish I've seen before, been around for the last few local months. But the big ugly with halitosis? Not so much."

  Arnie nodded. “The dead alien had a library membership. We have an address. Walk with me.”

  So I did. I was curious and wanted a little payback of my own. The Library is practically my home, even if the Corp of Librarians doesn't always appreciate me. That and if I ran into Jawsome while hanging out with Arnie, I liked my chances of survival a lot better.

  Arnie, as usual, started into a long and involved story about his old unit. I wasn't listening too closely because it got me thinking about DI Koudelka and the petty officers who'd made my service a living hell, and the NI's and able spacers who I'd hung with. The Liberation War has had a long tail, and we'd seen action in the Tiamat campaign, a full fifteen years after the Covenant of Stars was signed. I realized that the Terminator Turtle was looking at me expectantly, so I said the first thing that came to mind. "You keep repeating 'Second Empire' this and 'Second Empire' that as if you expected there to be more..."

  I trailed off, ashamed of myself. You don't kick a turtle when he's down. But Arnie just got a funny look in his eye and said, "Human, I will take what comes! I will take... whatever comes."