and/or mispronunciations. Full instructions and limitations printed on ritual manuals. Do you agree with this license?”
“I do,” the man said. “And I also agree to all other screens.” He had surely dealt with these details before.
A last pop-up screen remained and Thomas read it aloud: “Ritual license expires on the second waning gibbous moon after being issued. Do you understand?”
“I do,” the man said and Thomas scanned his badge again. The drawer unlocked and Thomas handed out the books — they were still warm, as if just coming out from a copy machine. The front cover of the book depicted a man, probably William Shakespeare himself, sitting on a rock by a river. He was reading to a group of beautiful girls that were in rapt contemplation from the water.
The man couldn’t suppress a grin as he grabbed the book and walked out from the station at a brisk pace.
“Good luck,” Thomas said as the man left. He typed in the name of the book on the external Web browser.
Thomas had figured out that many of the books he’d given out during his two weeks of working there didn’t seem to exist outside of the library.
The first book he’d noticed was The Return of the Nautilus , by Jules Verne. He’d read both 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Mysterious Island , and Captain Nemo was one of his favorite characters. He’d tried to find a sequel in bookstores and on the Web, but according to all browsers, the book had never been written.
After he discovered this, he’d requested a copy for himself, but his clearance didn’t allow it and he wasn’t about to ask Mrs. Pianova for permission.
His badge was black with a green stripe.
The badge system was really weird. According to the company policies he’d read, black badges were not common and were reserved to the most important members of Guardians Inc. and satellite companies. The stripes meant the actual access the person had to the company’s assets and information.
Grandpa’s badge was red with a purple stripe, so in a way, Thomas’s job was more important than grandpa’s, but he had less access.
He thought about asking grandpa to get the book for him, but he already knew that he would refuse. He’d even played the conversation in his head. Grandpa would ask him why he couldn’t get it himself, he would tell him why, and grandpa would say that using his badge was cheating.
Cheating was a no-no for Gramps.
The love to read was the one thing both his parents had instilled in him since he was a little boy. His mother always told him stories of nature and fantasy heroes. Kings, queens and dragons, thieves, wizards and pirates. The Princess Bride was a favorite of hers, and it became a favorite for him too.
His dad was more of a sci-fi vein – space operas and far away planets. The moon was old news; it was conflict on a galactic scale that drew him, Ender’s Game and Dune . Alien cultures and spaceships, the future that could be or that should be avoided, like in Orwell’s 1984 .
How much would dad have loved to read 1987 or 1999 ?
He suddenly felt infuriated. His badge allowed him to see almost all the titles of the works stored in the library, but only the titles. He couldn’t order any of them to take home.
One night, while he couldn’t sleep, he’d snuck downstairs -careful not to wake grandpa -and browsed the Internet for famous books that have been lost over time. The next day, he’d punched all the titles into the library’s database and found them all. Not only that, there were thousands of titles not named on the list that Guardians Inc. had in storage. Books lost to vandalism, to war, accidents, or even because the authors wanted them destroyed after their death – the library had copies, safe and sound. Thomas couldn’t get a copy of The Return of the Nautilus , but his clearance allowed him to discover that Verne had been a member of Guardians Inc. for most of his life, and that he had written other books, including
“I do,” the man said. “And I also agree to all other screens.” He had surely dealt with these details before.
A last pop-up screen remained and Thomas read it aloud: “Ritual license expires on the second waning gibbous moon after being issued. Do you understand?”
“I do,” the man said and Thomas scanned his badge again. The drawer unlocked and Thomas handed out the books — they were still warm, as if just coming out from a copy machine. The front cover of the book depicted a man, probably William Shakespeare himself, sitting on a rock by a river. He was reading to a group of beautiful girls that were in rapt contemplation from the water.
The man couldn’t suppress a grin as he grabbed the book and walked out from the station at a brisk pace.
“Good luck,” Thomas said as the man left. He typed in the name of the book on the external Web browser.
Thomas had figured out that many of the books he’d given out during his two weeks of working there didn’t seem to exist outside of the library.
The first book he’d noticed was The Return of the Nautilus , by Jules Verne. He’d read both 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Mysterious Island , and Captain Nemo was one of his favorite characters. He’d tried to find a sequel in bookstores and on the Web, but according to all browsers, the book had never been written.
After he discovered this, he’d requested a copy for himself, but his clearance didn’t allow it and he wasn’t about to ask Mrs. Pianova for permission.
His badge was black with a green stripe.
The badge system was really weird. According to the company policies he’d read, black badges were not common and were reserved to the most important members of Guardians Inc. and satellite companies. The stripes meant the actual access the person had to the company’s assets and information.
Grandpa’s badge was red with a purple stripe, so in a way, Thomas’s job was more important than grandpa’s, but he had less access.
He thought about asking grandpa to get the book for him, but he already knew that he would refuse. He’d even played the conversation in his head. Grandpa would ask him why he couldn’t get it himself, he would tell him why, and grandpa would say that using his badge was cheating.
Cheating was a no-no for Gramps.
The love to read was the one thing both his parents had instilled in him since he was a little boy. His mother always told him stories of nature and fantasy heroes. Kings, queens and dragons, thieves, wizards and pirates. The Princess Bride was a favorite of hers, and it became a favorite for him too.
His dad was more of a sci-fi vein – space operas and far away planets. The moon was old news; it was conflict on a galactic scale that drew him, Ender’s Game and Dune . Alien cultures and spaceships, the future that could be or that should be avoided, like in Orwell’s 1984 .
How much would dad have loved to read 1987 or 1999 ?
He suddenly felt infuriated. His badge allowed him to see almost all the titles of the works stored in the library, but only the titles. He couldn’t order any of them to take home.
One night, while he couldn’t sleep, he’d snuck downstairs -careful not to wake grandpa -and browsed the Internet for famous books that have been lost over time. The next day, he’d punched all the titles into the library’s database and found them all. Not only that, there were thousands of titles not named on the list that Guardians Inc. had in storage. Books lost to vandalism, to war, accidents, or even because the authors wanted them destroyed after their death – the library had copies, safe and sound. Thomas couldn’t get a copy of The Return of the Nautilus , but his clearance allowed him to discover that Verne had been a member of Guardians Inc. for most of his life, and that he had written other books, including
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