Chapter 16 #2
“Not where I’m from,” I say. “We can put together a cover story once we know more about this planet.”
This part of town definitely reminds me of something you would see in an old movie. There are Mom and Pop type gas stations, street vendors peddling various things, and a movie theater playing a film called Rebel with Many Causes. Cosmic Influence, I guess.
We locate the library and head in that direction. It’s a large brick building with a sign that says New Egypt Library. Is that the name of the city? It doesn’t look anything like Egypt where I’m from, no matter what year it is.
“When we get inside, if there’s a librarian, you should tip your hat to her and say something like hello, ma’am,” I whisper. “People in this era, if it’s anything like Earth, were extremely polite. If we’re not polite, they might get suspicious.”
“What if the librarian is a man?” Ivar asks.
“Hello, sir,” I say. “But if it’s anything like Earth, it’ll probably be a woman.”
We step into the library and look around.
The air smells like old paper, leather bindings, and floor polish. It’s quiet, and it looks like we’re the only people here, other than the librarian, who is a woman, just as I suspected. She stands up as we approach.
“Hello, can I help you?” she asks with a smile on her face.
“Hello, ma’am,” the three of them say, almost in unison as they tip their hats.
I look down and roll my eyes. I should have specified they didn’t have to all do it, because now the librarian just looks confused.
“We shouldn’t need any help. I believe we can find everything,” Erik says, continuing ahead.
I smile and nod to the librarian as I walk past her, hoping we haven’t drawn any unnecessary attention to ourselves.
The library has high ceilings with ornate molding. Tall windows let in streams of dusty sunlight that illuminate the space. There are dark wooden shelves that line the walls, stretching from floor to ceiling, packed with books.
“Newspapers.” Erik gestures toward the back of the library. “That should allow us to catch up on everything happening on this world.”
“I’ll help,” I offer.
We spread out several newspapers that appear to be fairly recent. It doesn’t take me long to figure out that Mallow is similar to Earth, but also quite different.
“Whoa, so these people like, worship those demon aliens,” I say as I browse through some articles. “Or one in particular called Morlock. They consider him a god and believe he created this world for them.”
“Similar to other creation myths,” Erik says. “But it’s unusual for Gali’gorath’krians to be worshipped. Usually, they’re the bad guys in those myths. They hate that.”
“Not here, it seems.” I continue to scan through news articles. “Everything good that happens is because Morlock is happy. Everything bad is because Morlock is angry.”
“Quite primitive,” Erik mutters. “But their religion won’t help us fix our ship.”
“No, but if someone starts screaming about Morlock, we damn sure better praise his name if we want to stay alive,” I say. “According to this, a Morlock-denier was executed last week. Big news story. Apparently denying Morlock is quite rare.”
“Even more primitive than I thought,” Erik sighs. “Doesn’t matter. We won’t go around denying their god exists. That won’t get you far on any world, even ours.”
I’m not sure what Erik is looking for, exactly.
I pass him everything that mentions science or technology.
I’m more curious about the culture and their customs. We don’t need to step on any toes or piss off the people on this planet if we can avoid it.
I’m sure they have weapons, even if they’re peaceful.
“They haven’t even sent a ship into space. At all.” Erik shakes his head.
“I think you’re wrong,” Ivar says. “I’m looking at some older papers over here, and there’s mention of sending a craft into orbit. Oh, never mind. It’s a theory that it would be possible.”
“If they have planes, surely they get into orbit,” Sigurd muses, flipping through a few pages. “Didn’t take that much for us figure it out from there.”
“It still took time. A lot of what we later used for it were originally weapons. Since the people on Mallow are peaceful, they likely haven’t needed weapons like that,” Erik surmises.
“Peaceful demon worshippers,” I say, shaking my head. “I’d say I’ve seen everything now, but I’m sure this far from the strangest thing in the universe.”
“You’re right about that,” Erik agrees. “At least the people here look like us. Plenty of planets where they don’t.”
“Do you think the people here could be viable mates?” I ask. “I’m not saying we should kidnap anyone, but maybe the people from your planet could find their mates here.”
“No, they don’t have the right genetic marker,” Erik says. “Not like you have.”
“Weird. They look exactly like the people from Earth. They look… human.” I shrug, glancing back at the librarian. “Then again, you guys don’t look like wolves.”
“Not currently,” Sigurd growls, dragging his hand across his face. “Don’t even look like myself.”
We keep looking through the newspapers, and I learn more about the culture.
Women don’t have many freedoms. The teachings that are supposedly directly from Morlock forbid it.
Women are supposed to be happy homemakers and baby factories while the men handle everything that matters.
Maybe a few of them wouldn’t mind being kidnapped.
But I can’t change the entire universe. I don’t even know what kind of freedom I’ll have when we get back to Midgard.
I’ll be the only woman there until the other royal families have mates.
Or I have a daughter. I certainly won’t let anyone push her around or deny her basic human rights. Hopefully, my mates will agree.
“Alright, we’re not going to find anything useful here.” Erik gathers up the newspapers he’s looking through. “Our ship has renewable energy, so we don’t need fuel. The technology we need to make the repairs simply doesn’t exist here.”
“So, what do we do?” I ask, some concern in my voice.
“Only thing we can do,” Erik says. “Since the technology doesn’t exist, we’ll have to invent it.”
“Invent it?” My eyes widen. “How long will that take?”
“Longer than any of us wants,” Sigurd replies. “But we don’t have a choice unless we want to live here permanently. I don’t want to worship a demon. How about everyone else?”
“No, not really.” Ivar shakes his head. “It would betray our beliefs. The very foundation of who we are. We’ll do what we have to in order to blend in. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“We’ll need space. Somewhere to store the ship,” Erik says. “Pillaging and plundering may not be enough, but we’ll start there. We’ll need resources.”
“What do these people use for money?” I ask. “The catalogs we looked through just had numbers.”
“Gold coins,” Ivar replies. “We have some, but they won’t have the right mark, so we’ll have to obtain some from this world.”
“Easy enough,” Erik smirks. “I’m sure we can manage.”
“With pillaging and plundering?” I ask, raising a brow.
“Something like that,” Erik chuckles. “Best place to get gold coins on this world is a bank. So, we’ll rob one.”
“We’re going to rob a bank?” I say louder than I mean to, then lower my voice. “Seriously? What if we get caught?”
“We won’t get caught,” Ivar insists. “They have weapons, but they’re very primitive. Very little surveillance. We’ll easily get the gold we need.”
I’ve been saved from a meteor. Promised a future, then had it snatched away from me by three hungry wolves because I’m their mate. Now, apparently, I’m going to rob a bank.
I hope it’s as easy as they think.