Chapter The Central Library

Toby had given up trying to get any sleep, even thoughhe was utterly exhausted. Every time he closed his eyes he would find himselfstanding in one of the crumbling courtyards or long boulevards of Vienopolis.Once he had appeared in a spectacularly ornate fountain. Being sprayed withfreezing cold water was not the best way of getting to sleep.

He was still wary of the gangling puppet folk; hestill remembered their savagery when they’d captured him and he couldn’twholeheartedly believe that they could have changed so completely. So now hewas creeping around the city trying to make sense of this ancient, bizarre Vrealm.

To begin with he had found old musty rooms, andwandered through spectacular art galleries and opera houses, which made sensein a city like this. But then he had stumbled into a room somehow containing alimitless desert. He had stepped, alarmed, back through the doorway and foundhimself back outside the room, once again in Vienopolis. He had closed thatdoor very carefully.

Since finding that first strange gateway to somewhereelse he had found many more oddities. He supposed that the original players ofthe game had created them and he began to take an interest in what they were,although he never strayed very far from the entrance. He realised after thefifth or sixth strange child-world that he peeked into that he had started tothink of Vienopolis as his home. He flicked his eyes open quickly, suddenlysure that he would no longer be back in his bedroom.

He was relieved to find himself staring at theuninteresting ceiling in the spare bedroom. He sighed and closed his eyes againand this time he found himself in a grand octagonal bedchamber, fit for a king.Eight windows let the dusky light of evening into the room and through them hecould see that he was high up in one of the tallest towers in the city. Thebuildings stretched away forever, a thousand, thousand shapes and sizesdisappearing over every horizon. The enormity of the city was disorientatingand Toby felt dizzy and very small. He staggered away from the window and fellonto the huge silk covered bed.

The sheets were smooth and cool and he crawled up tothe top of the bed and nestled his head into the soft pillows. He closed hiseyes for a second and let the darkness wash over him. He expected to appearsomewhere else in the city, but when he reopened his eyes he was still in theregal bedroom.

The idea of sleeping here was both frightening andappealing at the same time. He could feel his tiredness gnawing at every boneof his body and the bed was so comfortable.

He sank his head into the mound of pillows andsnuggled into them, pulling his knees up so he was lying in a tight ball.

A moment, a minute or hours later, Toby awokebreathless and felt his heart hammering inside him as if it was trying to getout. He listened for the sound again; perhaps he just imagined it. He didn’tremember dreaming anything, though. Then, just as his heart was slowing down,the scratching came again.

He remembered the sound. His chest hurt as hestruggled for breath and the room started to swim as panic swamped his mind.The last time he had heard the scratching he was locked in the darkness of theDoge’s steely prison. The fear and hopelessness came flooding back.

The noise grew more persistent. Whatever was out therewas determined to get in and Toby heard himself whimper.

He could see the ornate door handle shaking now and itsuddenly occurred to him that he had not even checked to see if the door waslocked before he went to sleep.

Then with a click that almost stopped his heart thedoor creaked open and muttering replaced the scratching. Toby slithered off thebed and hid on the far side away from the door, peering over to see what wasgoing to come through.

Nothing happened.

There was no other way out of the room and it wasempty apart from the bed. Toby realised the only way he was going to escape wasthrough the door.

“Come on Toby.” He whispered to himself. “Josh woulddo it.”

The door was now fully open and Toby could not seeanything moving beyond. With teeth and fists clenched he launched himself overthe bed and through the doorway.

He raced down a flight of stairs which curved aroundthe outside of the tower. He could not see very far ahead of himself and as hehad not passed anything, he soon realised that whatever had opened the doormust still be ahead of him. His reckless, sudden bravery seeped out of him andhe slowed his breakneck dash down the stairs. His arms and legs felt heavy andweak, and he slumped onto one of the stone steps.

He felt himself sobbing before he realised he wascrying. It was hopeless. Whenever he closed his real eyes he was whisked awayto this insane nightmare of a world, but he needed to sleep.

The scratching noise returned abruptly and Toby slidforward off his step and scraped his back. He scrambled to his feet and wasjust about to race back up the stairs when he realised the sound was comingfrom above.

Had he passed whatever it was? The thought gave himsome encouragement. If he had left it behind on the stairs, perhaps he couldoutrun it. He began to back down the stairs, still looking up and around to seeif anything would appear.

“Toby.” The sound was a ghost of a whisper, but Tobywas sure it was more than just the wind. He froze.

The scratching returned and around the corner analmost transparent apparition appeared; the faint outline of a woman.

“Rose?”

A surge of hope and relief had shed Toby of his fear.He stepped up a few steps to get nearer to the ghostly figure.

“I don’t mean to be rude, Toby, but you look reallytired.”

“Oh, I am. I can’t sleep in the real world. Every timeI close my eyes I end up here. I think I managed to get to sleep before, butthen you started scratching outside my room and scared the living daylights outof me.”

“I’m sorry Toby. I was just trying to help. Come on.If you go back up to the bedroom, I’ll make sure nothing disturbs you thistime.”

An enormous feeling of gratitude welled up inside himand a smile trembled on his lips. “Thank you Rose.”

But when he got back into the silky bed again he foundthat excitement was just as effective as fear for keeping him awake, and even thoughhe could feel the tiredness in his bones he could not get to sleep.

He opened his eyes and saw the room was dark. Notpitch black but he couldn’t make out where he was. He listened for a moment ortwo, and suddenly a lorry rumbled past outside his bedroom window. He was inthe real world.

He reached over to the table lamp and switched it on.The room looked so ordinary, and he suddenly realised that he was missing theextraordinary world of Vienopolis.

“You’re never happy are you?” He said to himself andwondered if he really did want to go back, but he definitely wanted to see Roseagain so he lay back down and closed his eyes.

Darkness surrounded him but the musty smell told himhe was lying down in the tower room.

“Rose?” He whispered.

“I’m here. Can you come and go so easily to the realworld?”

“I… I woke up at home, but when I closed my eyes againI came back here. How is it possible?”

“You’re connected Toby. Just like me, but you can getout. Perhaps my body is dead, and that’s why I’m stuck here. Do you think youcould try and find out for me whether that’s right? You’ll be able to find outsomehow I’m sure.”

Toby nodded in the dark. “I’ll try, but it’s not arequest I get a lot.”

Rose laughed. “Yes, I suppose most people know whenthey’ve died don’t they? But then maybe they don’t. Who knows?”

“True.” Toby’s eyes had grown more accustomed to thedimness. He got off the bed and looked out of one of the windows overlookingthe old city. The sky was beginning to turn red, but he thought it looked a longtime till dawn. “Can you show me around this place? I suppose I’d better get toknow it a bit better, seeing as I’m going to be spending so much time here.”

Rose was delighted. “Of course. Come on there’s somuch to see.”

Rose’s ghost seemed more tangible now. Toby couldhardly see through her at all, as if her enthusiasm for this world had givenher more solidity.

“It was a grand project,” she told Toby as theywandered down the middle of one of the grandest boulevards, “and it excitedevery hardcore coder and hacker from all over the world. They all wanted towork on it, or break into it and the rumours were intense.”

“Was this the Accademia project?”

Rose nodded.

“I tried everything to find out more about that. Ididn’t know you were involved with it though.”

She sighed. “We all were. Some of us got too carriedaway with it, but no one saw anything strange in that. The people around mewere used to me working for days at a time without sleep. When I was writingthe graphics engine for Shiver, I didn’t sleep for ten days. I guess I shouldhave listened to my mother when she told me that it just wasn’t natural for agirl to be so interested in computers.”

“My mum’s the same. She thinks my interest incomputers is unhealthy, and she loves it when she sees me with other kids.” Hesmiled grimly. “I suppose she was right as well. I mean if it hadn’t been formy stupid computers I wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“I couldn’t agree more, Toby, but if you hadn’t comeyou wouldn’t have had access to this…”

They had reached a broad crossroads and Rose waspointing a shimmering hand down to the left. Rising majestically at the end ofthe short street was a columned, white marble building that dwarfed itsneighbours. Toby remembered seeing it from the top of the tower. He hadwondered what it was then, but now the elegant gold lettering above the centraldoor told him that it was a library.

“So? What can I do in a library? It’s not real.” Tobyfelt a little disappointed.

“Oh this is real Toby. Knowledge is real wherever yougo. This is one of the main reasons we built this Vrealm. Since the Doge wasbanished we’ve been able to get it running again. Come on. Let me show you.”

They climbed up the immaculately polished stepstowards the entrance and Rose enthusiastically told him its history.

“This building was here long before the world aroundit. The Internet is full of unformatted data, if you know where to look you canfind anything and everything, but sometimes the search is too hard. There isjust too much information in the world for a human mind to comprehend, and sosometimes it’s impossible to find what you’re looking for, even when you knowit’s there.

“There have been programs around for years that trawlthrough the data trying to index the random bits and bytes, but none withenough power to do it properly.

“This library uses the latent power of every connectedcomputer to perform this task. It can access every secure database in theworld, it knows everything that can be known, and more importantly it can crossreference it all. It can make a judgement based on assumption and hearsay, andwe think that it understands its own decisions.”

“Is it alive?” Toby interrupted catching a part ofRose’s enthusiasm. They entered through the glass revolving door and found themselvesin a suitably grand entrance hall.

“Perhaps. We have tested it with questions thatrequire a human to make a leap of faith, and it has always been successful, butit has much more indexed information than us so it’s hard to know whether it’struly intelligent or merely vastly knowledgeable. I suppose it would depend howyou defined life. It is almost certainly sentient to some level and as such itmay well be the single most intelligent entity on the planet.

“Try it. Ask a question.”

“How?”

“Just ask. Speak.”

“Umm.”

“Anything. Literally anything.”

“What is the capital of France?”

“Paris.” A deepvoiced echoed from seemingly the depths of the Earth.

Rose frowned at Toby. “Make it harder than that. It’sreally good.”

“Sorry. I can’t think of anything. No, hang on.” Hecleared his throat, wanting to make sure that what he said was easily heard.“Who exactly is Geigerzalion?”

“Tricky…” The echo came again.

Toby rolled his eyes. “Do you even know what I’mtalking about?”

“Yes I do.”

There was a significant pause.

“Well…” Toby urged.

“I’ll have to think about it.”

Rose smiled widely. “I think the Library may havemodelled itself on Deep Thought.”

“What?”

“’The second greatest computer in the Universe ofSpace and Time.’ You must know it.” Rose laughed gleefully. “The Library doeshave access to every literary work ever written. I suppose it’s only naturalfor it to have a hero.”

“Will it answer my question?”

“Oh, yes. If there is an answer you will get it.” Shewinked at him. “Probably in less than seven and a half million years.”

“I have an answer for you.” The deep voice boomed fromthe depths of the Library a few moments later.

Toby nearly jumped out of his skin. He had beenpeering at a curious mosaic that covered both of the side walls. It depictedtwo rivers flowing into an enormous sea and Toby was convinced that the tinytiles of the picture were moving.

Rose had seated herself on one of the polished marblebenches that surrounded a small empty fountain in the middle of the chamber.She looked up expectantly at Toby.

“Er…well let’s hear it then.”

“Geigerzalion is an alien.”

“An alien?”

“Yes, I have collated all references and dataconcerning him and I can prove with a certitude of ninety nine point sevenpercent that he does not come from this planet.”

“Where does he come from?”

“There are too many unknowns to formulate asignificantly informed answer to that question.”

To say Toby was intrigued would have been theunderstatement of all time. His whole life had been spent watching sciencefiction movies and playing with computers and now the largest, most advancedcomputer mankind had ever devised was telling him that he had made contact witha real alien.

“What does he want?” Rose asked.

“There are too many unknowns to formulate asignificantly informed answer to that question.” Then after a short pause.“Sorry.”

“He said he was a prisoner here. Who are his captors?”Toby was pacing around the benches.

“He is not a prisoner on Earth. Here he only exists incyberspace. He connects to the Plexus via a connection from somewhere in theKuiper Belt. He may be a captive there.”

“What’s the Kuiper Belt?”

“It is an area of space on the fringes of the solarsystem that contains a vast population of small bodies. These trans-Neptunianobjects often have diameters larger than a hundred kilometres. Observationsshow that these planetoids are mostly confined within a thick band around theecliptic.”

“How can he live there?”

“There are too many possible answers to that questionto begin to search for the correct one. I can, however, postulate with anaccuracy of seventy nine percent that he has been there for billions of years.If we extrapolate information from this then the probability that he hasvisited Earth before tends towards hundred percent.”

“But there was no cyberspace before thirty years ago.”

There was no answer to this and the room felt suddenlyvery large and empty without the deep voice to fill it. Toby glanced at Roseand she shrugged.

“There has always been a cyberspace of sorts.” Thevoice returned but it sounded different, less sure of itself.

“What does that mean?”

“There is a connection between each living organism onthe planet just like the connections between the computers which make up theInternet. Your natural network however is far more powerful than anything manmade, and this Geigerzalion has entered that system before. He was defeatedthen, driven away because his software was not truly compatible with thisorganic hardware.”

“Defeated? He’s not dangerous; he needs our help.”

“No. I have run simulations while we have beenspeaking if he is allowed to remain in cyberspace, either natural orelectronic, the only outcome is the annihilation of life on this planet. He hasreleased his servant from this Vrealm and allowed him to enter into the realworld.”

“Who is his servant?”

“The Doge.”

“No, that’s wrong. Josh destroyed him. I saw himdisappear.”

“Your friend did not destroy him, he merely deliveredthe means for the Doge to escape.”

“He didn’t know what he was doing.” Toby said quietly.Things began to fall into place, and he started to feel tremendously sick.“Please tell us everything you know.” He said and Rose span around and lookedat him in horror.

“What’s happening? What have I done?” Toby stared backat Rose. There was a rumbling coming from the innards of the Library which wasonly just audible, but vibrated the very foundations of the building.

“The interface is not perfect. When we designed him,we were only really interested in the data sorting applications of artificialintelligence. We never got round to completing a proper front end for theapplication. There’s not a lot of error checking.”

“So?” Toby had to raise his voice now, as the rumblingwas getting louder.

“So we didn’t put proper checks into the queryingroutines. In other words: You get what you ask for…” Rose flourished a handtowards the depths of the library, just as a cacophony of voices erupted fromwithin.

“Once the brain has segregated the left…”

“The brown-shirted Storm Troops were the…”

“Apple pie is made from…”

“Some deny that Prometheus created men…”

And a thousand other unrelated facts and storiesthundered out of the darkness.

“Stop telling me everything!” Toby shouted as loud ashe could, but his single voice was drowned out by so many others.

“It’s no use Toby. It’ll go on for ages.” She pulledhim out from the noisy foyer. “This is why we could never ask the Library aboutthe Doge. It could have told us who he was or at least where he came from orsomething, but the first thing he did when he arrived was to disable it just asyou have. We thought it was an honest mistake at first and tried ways ofresetting it, but he always found a way of stopping us. We’ll take a look at ittomorrow. After the Doge disappeared and we managed to get it back online, weput in some rudimentary fail safe routines.”

“I’m really sorry. I should have known. I was justupset when it said that the Doge was still alive. I thought we’d got rid ofhim.”

Rose sat herself down on one of the steps. “You’re notthe only one of course, but I did think it was a bit too good to be true. Don’tworry about the Library.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to fix it tomorrow?”

“Yes, I should think so. You’ll be able to ask it morequestions then.” Rose smiled. “Come on, there’s lots more to see.”

When Spokes woke up the next day her brother had leftthe camp. They had spent the entire night talking and laughing and Spokes hadnever felt so floatingly happy. She had carried the guilt of his death fornearly ten years, and every day she had wondered how she could have stopped theaccident. Now, over the course of a single night talking to her dead brother,Spokes had laid to rest the spectre of her guilt.

The fact that he wasn’t there when she awoke made herworry that it had all been a dream, but she laughed at herself a moment laterwhen she realised that everything she was experiencing was a dream. Belief wasthe only difference between reality and imagination. The old man, hearing herlaughing, looked over at her and smiled. Spokes could do nothing but smileback.

“Did you say all you needed to say?” He asked.

Spokes nodded. “Yes. And Tom told me more than Ineeded to hear.”

“Good. We have far to go today. The battle yesterdaywas only the beginning and the children we fought, although significantlypowerful, were but a small portion of the enemy’s force.”

“How can these people revolt against you? Surely theyare attacking themselves.”

The old man nodded sadly. “They are indeed, but theydo not realise it. The chaos and corruption runs too deep now for these mindsto see.”

“Where are we going?”

“To Vigrid Plane at the summit of the Himinbjorg.”

“We’ve got to climb those?” Spokes pointed in utterhorror at the jagged mountains that rose in the distance. “It looksimpossible.”

“You will find it easier than you think. Many beingswill have to make the journey before this tale can be remembered.”

The climb did feel easier than it looked. It wasfrightening in places, and long, but Spokes felt something pulling her upwards,drawing her to the summit of the awesome central mountain of the range, whichrose twice as high as its ice-capped neighbours.

They climbed on into the clouds and Spokes felt herhair become brittle with flecks of ice. Her hands had long since frozen intoclaws, clenching around the unicorn’s silky mane.

The clouds parted unexpectedly and the band emergedonto a seemingly infinite prairie. A wide, rapid river split the grassland intwo. The coldness vanished along the path they had been following and a noonsun burned in a clear blue sky.

“This is Vigrid Plane.” The old man said. “This iswhere the coming battle will be fought. Where it is always fought.”

“This has happened before?” Michael asked.

The old man smiled serenely. “There have been manytimes when life has been on the verge of extinction. Here the strongest surviveand the weak are left to die…”

A rumble of distant thunder interrupted him. He turnedaway and Spokes thought she could see fear in the old man’s face, but when heturned back his face was a rigidly calm.

“The first pillar has fallen.” He intoned. “N’rindeBashala has passed. Let us remember him.” He bowed his head and Spokes followedsuit.

There was no sound for a while; even the gentle breezehad stopped whispering with the grass.

Michael broke the silence gravely. “He was a legendamongst my brethren and I think he saved many from our fate. N’rinde Bashala.”He savoured the name. “N’rinde Bashala will set you free.” I thought he was nomore than a fable, a dream we told the younger ones to keep them from despair.”He looked puzzled for a moment and then continued uncertainly. “I rememberanother legend. The Gazetteer. An old man who tends to all living things as hisflock. I think…”

A distant howling drew everyone’s attention to the farhorizon. A wall of dark armoured figures were tramping into view from thedistance. They held a black, ragged standard displaying a twisted whiteinsignia. They stamped their heavy march over the grassland and came to aregimented halt on the far bank of the river.

Spokes watched them setting up their camp and saw thatthese were not men, but monsters. Tusks and horns and spines erupted from theirheads and bodies, and now they were closer she could more accurately gaugetheir enormous size. These were beasts that traded in fear and cruelty andSpokes felt an icy sharpness run down her spine.

A biting wind had risen to accompany the arrival ofthe diabolical horde and grey clouds had chased in front of the sun, remindingSpokes how cold the climb up the Himinbjorg had been. But it was thebloodthirsty growls and barks that made her shiver.

She thought that she had experienced virtuallyeverything but this sudden change in Vigrid Plane proved her wrong. Somehow shecould sense the violence that had been committed here like a weight pushingdown on her neck.

“What is this place?” She gasped.

“This is nature’s final melting pot. Where evolutiondelivers its fatal judgement to each dying species. It is a brutal place, butnecessary for the continuation of life.”

“You mean things become extinct here?”

“Yes,” the Gazetteer said quietly. “But for everyspecies that dies, lessons are learned and the circle of life grows stronger.”

“But it’s so cruel.”

“No. There is no suffering beyond the final battle.Perhaps it seems so from a human’s perspective, although it is not beyond yourcomprehension I think.”

“Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw…”

“Indeed, Michael. Alfred has often read that poem tome. He was one of the few souls of his day to visit Trinity Vale before hedied.” The old man chuckled and then, without warning staggered. Spokes thoughthis ancient face looked even more withered than before. Michael stepped upbeside the old man and smoothly supported him. Spokes moved to his other side,but he’d already regained his iron composure and he gently pushed theirassistance aside.

“Defenders of the Vale!” He cried above the risingwind to the small tired band around him. “We must be strong. We must trust thatthe goodness in the World outweighs the bad, that corruption has not graspedtoo tight a hold on the hearts and minds of the creatures that live there.

“We must wait here for our allies. They will befrightened, but they must be made ready for the ordeal.”

He raised his arms high above his head, with his fistsclasped together and drew them down before him as if plunging an invisibledagger into his stomach. A pearl of light dropped from his hands and burrowedinto the ground leaving a tiny hole. As Spokes watched, a shoot and then a leafand then a stem grew swiftly up. Bigger and bigger, higher and higher theseedling became a tree and still it grew.

“Behold! The Tree of Life.”

Huge boughs writhed about themselves and knobbly barkhardened as a thousand years of nature flew past in seconds. Green budsblossomed into rich green leaves.

The Gazetteer fell to his knees as the tree finishedgrowing.

“While a single leaf remains on this tree the Worldhas hope.” Though his voice was hoarse with effort, Spokes clearly heard hissurety and that gave her remembered strength that she thought she had lost.

She peered up at the tree towering above them, and sawthe sun breaking through the dirty clouds. The bestial sounds of their enemiesseemed muted and a seed of hope glimmered in her heart.

But that seed seemed unlikely to flower. Although theblack host seemed satisfied to remain where it was, the stench of smelting ironand the noise of heavy hammering drifting across the empty grassland made theirpreparations impossible to ignore and the confused people and animals whoarrived to bolster the Gazetteer’s timid army were no match for the hardenedwarriors over the river.

The Gazetteer himself spent all of his time proppedbetween the huge roots of the majestic Tree. He was looking pale and weak, asif his weatherworn muscles had been washed away. Spokes skirted around himtrying to offer support, but really she wanted to ask him a question that hadbeen gnawing at her for hours.

Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her andshe sat down next to the old man.

“What are those things that we’re facing? Where havethey come from?”

The old, old man’s rheumy eyes held her gaze quitesteadily and she looked away, sure that he was not going to answer.

“I’m sorry. You’re exhausted. I don’t mean to burdenyou.”

He smiled. “I’m stronger than I look Francine. Most ofmy power is elsewhere at the moment marshalling help from wherever I can findit. When the battle comes, I will be ready.”

The Gazetteer’s strange strength once more flowed intoSpokes and she wondered how she had ever doubted him.

“They are the corrupted minds of the Weave. It’s avirus. There have been similar battles fought here before. The infection canstart with a hateful idea or a random primeval urge that has festered. Humanhistory has sparked off some minor skirmishes from the fear those mighty warscreated. But we have always defeated the corruption before because we haveunderstood it. It has always come from within the Weave.”

“And now?”

“Now I don’t know. This seems to be a deliberateattack on Trinity Vale.”

“Where from?”

“Somehow it’s come through the pitiful Delphixians.We’ve staunched the chance of a new infection with their defeat, but where itcame from originally I cannot know.”

“There doesn’t seem to be many of us. And their armyis growing all the time.”

“I know. It is hard to find suitable minds to help usfight and yet the virus grows stronger with every moment.”

“Can we win?”

“We must.”