The dark side of the Moon
The Moon Public Library
Noontime
It's been slow at the library lately. The employee’s seem to be in a rut. Len Bookmaker, the Librarian, shelves books, catalogs new books, helps to occasional customer. Martin, his Cyborg butler, dusts, cleans & does the typical Butler duties. The library's A.I. tracks books that are overdue, missing or other. The A.I. keeps the libraries basic functions running.
Boring.
On an average day, about four people come in compared to about 30 people, last year at the same time.
This is how it's been for the last three weeks, but today is different. Unknown to the Moon Public Library or the rest of the universe an invisible chronial wave of energy sweeps over the universe. For the most part, it does nothing, changing nothing.
Then, it comes to the Earth's moon. For some reason, it does something & changes everything.
Due to budget cuts at the IIOL*, the organization that runs the libraries like the MPL, the libraries had to choose between a security system that would warn against invisible chronial waves of energy or a new vending machine in the staff lounge.
*WRITER'S NOTE: Interdimensional Intergalactic Organization of Librarians.
The MPL decided on a vending machine because in the whole history of the MPL, there has never been any invisible chronial waves of energy to ever come near the library. The vending machine broke the day they got it.
The wave slowly makes it way across the moon; people caught in the wave disappear.
It hits the Library.
The Library is changed.
At the same the chronial wave hits the MPL, A chronial wave hits a bookstore in Parodipolis. The Bookstore is Bookman Books, the store owned by former Librarian, Lee Bookman. The bookstore, Lee & any memory of them disappears. The store is replaced by an alleyway.
The chronial wave of energy continues it's way across the universe.
The dark side of the Moon.
Noontime.
The building stands in the darkness of the moon. It looks like a Library.
On another planet, in another dimension, Triascaria. It is an earth like Planet. Lee Bookman every so often, dreams of working at a giant bookstore on a distant planet & one the customers, a man in a colorful costume. Every time he has that dream, he quickly forgets it after he wakes up. Lee goes about his Life; he owns a bookstore on the northern continent. He has a wife & four kids, Amy, Alfred, Janeen & Scott. There is not much to tell of his life. He has never left the planet; he applied to become a Librarian, but was turned down.
Back on the Moon of Earth, not many people & no one on the earth, knows about the Library. It is part of a massive intergalactic organization of Libraries,it is called the IOL*.
*WRITER'S NOTE: The Intergalactic Organization of Libraries.
In the Libraries work, of course, Librarians. They spend 95 % of they're working lives in they're libraries. Alone, cut off from the universe. The Librarian's spend most of they're days watching a planet close to they're Library.
They watch, record & catalog all the information of that planet. The Librarian's are to never interfere with the planet. Some Librarian's have interfered, they have been killed for they're interference.
The Librarian's are governed by a group of short blue men; they are the leaders of the IOL. They are called, The Governors.
They're job is to make sure that the Librarian's do they're job, if not they will take measures to rectify the situation.
On the Moon of Earth, stands the local IOL library, it is circular in shape. On the inside, there are four floors. The walls are lined with shelves of books. The Middle of the library is a reading/sitting area. The ceilings of the library are glass; it lets in a lot of good reading light. The look of the library seems to be from late 19th century-early 20th century of Earth, given that the current incarnation of the library has stood there since about the 4th century B.C. in Earth time.
On the second floor in the middle, there is a large window. The window starts on the second floor and goes up to the ceiling. There is a large work area by this window; this is the Librarian's observation station. He uses vast instruments to record the Earth's history. He has devised a system of cataloging the information. All information is cataloged by country, time & place, event. Some information is cataloged by person, city, group & other indentifiers.
The Librarian looks at the telescopic screen that is the window. The image is projected on the window's surface, but the screen cannot be seen from the outside of the building.
He sighs as he sees a massive disaster hit the South American continent, knowing that he could stop it but dares not to.
He sees in the city of Parodipolis, he finds that city one the more interesting one's on the planet. If he dared to disobey the Governors, he would go there to met the heroes he has only seen from a far.
The Librarian walks down the rod iron steps to the first floor. One of the robots that work at the library is re-stocking some books. Of the entire robots none of them has a personality or has the ability to talk, it just does its job. At least once a day the Librarian wishes that he had someone to talk to. As the Librarian walks around his own personal jail also known as the library, he thinks of different things. How his life might have been different if he hadn't had a father who admired the IOL so much that he wanted his son become one? What his life would have been if he hadn't failed the test to become an intergalactic peacekeeper? People he would like to meet & other things. On the Librarian's trip around the library, he passes by the statues of past Librarians to have served at the library.
The first Librarian was known by one name, Todd. He served the longest. Then, came Delbert Wordsmith, after him Steven Books, he was a Librarian during a time of great change in the IOL. After the current Librarian has served his time, he will get a statue of himself.
After Steven, The Governors wanted to take the IOL back to its beginnings. Each Librarian was issued a uniform, which they must wear at all time. The Earth's Librarian wears something over his uniform. He is swathed in a green cape, which covers him head to toe. He wears the cape much like a robe. The cape's hood is pulled over the top half of his face. He never takes off the cape or hood. The only parts of his IOL uniform that show are the black leather boots & the gloves; the rest is hidden under his cape. His cape was approved by the Governors.
The Librarian went back to his observing station on the second floor. He sat down on an Earth artifact, a seat from a NASA lunar lander that was left on the moon after the NASA's trip to the moon. The Librarian gathered up most the artifacts & has most of them on display in the sitting area of the Library.
The Librarian sits in his lunar lander chair. He watches history unfold on the Earth.
He sits in his chair watching, never interfering for he is the Librarian.
