Research

The Orb is buried underneath the old tree, in the shadow of Charlotte’s Moon. That was the only clue Mr. Stamper had to the location of the Orb of the Whangdoodle, given him by a maddeningly non-specific gas cloud. It wasn’t much. The galaxy these days was thick with inhabited moons. So he did what anyone would do if they wanted to find the location of a small moon: he went to the library.

The Library of Verin Prime was the most brightly lit building on the entire planet. The designers had given due consideration to concerns like books, reading desks, and computer terminals, but their main idea had been to light the thing up like a Christmas tree. Everyone had heard stories about invisible monsters that lived in the shadows of libraries like air piranhas, and the librarians of Verin Prime were having none of that. There was not a single dark corner in the building. There were lamp-posts, glow-bulbs, skylights, roaring fireplaces: anything and everything that could possibly produce illumination had been provided. Sometimes you had difficulty doing any actual reading, with lights blazing everywhere, but at least you knew you wouldn’t be eaten by monsters hiding in the dark.

Blinking against the glare, Mr. Stamper approached the circulation desk. An alien that looked like a green elephant trumpeted a noise like “fithp” at him. “Charlotte’s Moon,” Mr. Stamper said.

“Fithp?”

“I need to know its location. I don’t have coordinates. Could you look it up, please? It’s quite important.”

“Fithp,” grumbled the alien elephant librarian as it fumbled at its computer terminal. It fired off a second syllable at him.

“I apologize, I don’t know the name of the primary planet. All I have is the name “Charlotte’s Moon.”

“Fithpifith!” exclaimed the librarian. It left its terminal and trundled off unhappily into the stacks. Some time passed, while Mr. Stamper waited at the circulation desk. He might have gone to look for it himself, but he didn’t think that was proper, now that the librarian was engaged in the search. Presently it returned with a plastic data chip. “Fithp,” it said, with pardonable satisfaction.

“Thanks,” said Mr. Stamper, and he left the library.

Moments later, a shadow fell across the circulation desk. “Fithp?” inquired the librarian, without looking up. When no response came, it did look up. “Fiithp!” it squeaked in terror.

“Charlotte’s Moon,” said a grim voice. “Now.”

The librarian scurried back to the stacks, resolving on the way that this job was really getting much too stressful. It returned with a second data chip, which it had copied. As it started to hand the chip over to the patron, a flash, brighter even than the shining library itself, lit the sky outside. The moon of Verin Prime had just exploded. The librarian dived for cover under its desk. When it emerged, the mysterious patron had gone. So had the chip. The librarian decided that it was definitely time to retire.

For previous stories in this arc, go here.