Chap. 49 The bookstore and the shock

Chap. 49  The bookstore and the shock

Elene, the head librarian, had taught K'ndar the basics of accessing a computer. He was glacially slow, typing out each word letter by letter. The computer proved more stupid than Elene had said, forcing him to constantly re-spell or 'backspace'.

"You'll pick it up with practice," she comforted him when he grew exasperated, "You've done quite well, honestly, seeing that you've never done this before."

He realized he'd been at it for longer than he expected. He'd not even been in the rest of the library.

He got up from the chair. "I need to walk around and see the rest!"

"I can show you some more, but I will have to get back to my work in a little while," she said. 

She led him into the few stacks of books.

There were…to him…so many. The spines were unadorned save for a title, and all the book covers were plain, unbleached white in color. The printers had neither the time nor the necessity of differentiating the covers with colors or drawings. That would come. 

"How do you find what you'd like to read?"

"Not today, but the next time you are here, I'll show you how to navigate the stacks. But for the moment, tell me what subject you'd like to read, and I'll steer you to the spot where it's shelved."

He thought, trying to select one topic out of the many that he wanted.

"Um, um, I would like to read a book about the animals, the plants, the fish, the dolphins, the trees, the wild creatures that the colonists brought, that sort of thing here on Pern."

"That would be natural history, a subtopic of biology. Follow me." He followed her, memorizing her path. She stopped in front of a shelf, tilted her head to the right, and after scanning the titles, pulled out a book.

On the cover was the title, "The Natural History of Pern, 2^nd edition" by RD Plank, PhD Starfleet Academy

She handed it to K'ndar. He opened it. She sniffed. "Ah, it's been newly printed. I can still smell the ink." 

He riffled through the pages. There were drawings, beautifully rendered, of the life on Pern. Here was a fellis tree. Here were drawings of the original cattle and horses. The horses had not changed but todays cattle had changed quite a bit.  Several pages over were several drawing of trundlebugs. He read the caption. "Trundlebug Volvo anulus  Commonly found on both North and South continents."

The page opposite it had a description of its habitat, feeding habits and the author made a specific mention of the stink it made when attacked.

"Who…who wrote this book?"

She turned it to the frontispiece, the inside front page. 

"See, this page tells you when the book was FIRST published. In this case, it was about twenty years after the colonists landed here at Landing."

The immensity of time hit him. So old, so long ago, the information was a treasure. The Ancients had been so much wiser.

"And the author, the writer, was RD Plank. He was a biologist and an engineer who came here on the Yokohama. I am not sure, but I believe he went all over Pern, cataloging and naming plants and animals. He may even have worked with Kitty Ping, but I don't know that at all."

"Yes, yes, this is precisely what I would like. May I borrow this?"

"Actually, no," she said, "because, if I recall correctly, there were two more copies printed than ordered, so we have two for sale. Would you like to buy one?" she asked, secretly wondering if the dragonman had any money. Most did not. While the library and the printing costs were true costs, still…she wanted him to have the book, but was required to ask for money. However, it was HER library. No matter who was nominally in charge. 

"I have the money! But…." he despaired, "Not with me. I didn't think to bring it with me. And I don't know how much a book costs."

She took the book from him, turning it over. "See, on the back cover, you have this code. The code is scanned into the computer and the computer automatically knows how many copies we have, when it was printed, the subject, and how much it costs. See here? It says 1. That means, 1 mark."

"Are all books that expensive?"

"It depends on the book. This one is probably this much because of the drawings in it are very good, there are a lot of them, and it's a large book that was fairly costly to print. I am sure some of the thinner books, or the less scientific, may be less expensive. Let me see if I can find an example."

She pulled him over to a different section and, after scanning the titles, pulled a thin volume out. 

She handed it to K'ndar.

It was titled "Children's Teaching Poems and Songs." 

He looked at the code and saw 1/64th at the end of the code.

"1/64th of a mark?"

"Precisely!"

He held Natural History of Pern in his hands. He did not want to give it back to her. But he did. 

"I don't have the money with me right now," he said, despairing. What if someone else came in and bought two copies? Then he'd be without it. He wanted to sit in his weyr and absorb it.

She looked him over. She was an excellent judge of character and knew K'ndar was honest and reliable. She could see the hunger in his eyes. This was a man who wanted to inhale every book they had.

"K'ndar, I can see what you are, and what you want out of life." She turned and beckoned him to follow her. He did, to where she had a desk. It was overflowing with books, papers, and flowering plants.

She sat down and pulled out a notebook and a pen. She wrote, "I, K'ndar, promise to pay the Landing Library 1 Mark for the book titled "The Natural History of Pern" within ten days." She wrote down the date, admired her handiwork for a moment…it was the first time she'd ever done this…and turned the notebook for him to read.

She handed the notebook to him. He read it and smiled. "Of course! I can get the money to you within a day or so. I promise." He was about to sign when he saw what he was about to sign.

"WHAT is this?" he asked.

Surprised at his reaction, she said, "It's a promise note. It's your promise to pay me for the book. Is something wrong?"

"No, no, not the note, of course I promise. It want to..I want this…this empty book. Just like this one but without writing in it. This 'pen'?" What is this?"

"Oh, you mean the NOTEBOOK. It's a notebook. You can write anything in it that you want. With the pen, like this one, that has ink in it, or a pencil.  Do you know what a pencil is?"

"I do, Rendel made me use a pencil to sign for the books Rahman lent me for our library at the Weyr.  But I've never seen a pen and I've never seen a notebook and….and…I would like a notebook, please. I want to start writing down things that I see on sweep, I want to make maps, I want to..I've wanted something just like this 'notebook' for a long time and didn't know they existed."

She laughed. So hungry, young man, such a promising young mind. 

"Well, at the moment, you are in luck, because I do happen to have a few blank, not 'empty' notebooks. When the printers print books, they have excess paper left over and rather than waste it, they cut into small, even pages and bind it, and pretty much give them away. I can give you one. The pens are expensive, and they run out of ink quickly, so I think you'd be better off with a pencil." With that, she opened up her magic desk, seemingly filled with wonders, and drew out a notebook and three pencils. "You 'sharpen' the pencils when they get worn down. I am sure you have a knife?"

"I do," he said, only half listening. He turned the notebook over in his hands. So precious, maybe more than the book.

"Something you said a few moments ago…did you say your weyr has a library?"

He looked up at her, tearing his attention from the hundred plans he had for the notebook.

"Yes, ma'am. Rendel is one of our Harpers and he is trying to build a library for the weyr. So far he has the four books Rahman lent to me, two more that I don't know the subject of,  and he has Thread charts, along with what he called 'page music' that harpers use to teach children. He wants to build the library up."

"Rendel is a smart man. Let's make a deal, K'ndar." She lined out the promise note and rewrote it, then turned it around for K'ndar to read.

It said, "I, K'ndar of Kahrain Steppe Weyr do hereby promise to donate "The Natural History of Pern" by DR Plank to the aforesaid weyr library for all to read."

He read it and signed it with the pen. It felt odd in his hand, moving smoothly. How did it work?

He held the book and the notebook close to his chest.

"I promise, I'll have the money to you within ten days."

"No, K'ndar, READ what you signed. I am lending the book to you. Remember, I said we had two extra copies.  When you are finished, you will give it to Rendel for inclusion into your Weyr's library. This is how one builds a library, book by book.  And the notebook and pencils are gifts. From THIS library."

He was much too old for it, but still, tears sprung into his eyes. He wanted to hug her, how in the world could he thank the kindly woman for her generosity?

"Thank you, thank you so much," was all he could say.

"You're welcome, and.." she stopped as she saw his expression change.

K'ndar. Come quick. Corvuth is calling. We need to return to the Weyr RIGHT NOW. I have Siskin with me. Get the harness. Come quick  Raventh was shouting.

What's wrong???? he said, in sudden fear. 

"Is something wrong? Is it something I said?" Elene said.

"No, no…."

It is Elanath. It is Danelle. They are…gone. They are dead

The blood drained from his face.

"I'm sorry. I have to leave right now. My Weyrwoman just died."