The Library Rescue – By Claire Davon #2
“We are further back than I meant to go. Someone is trying to stop us.”
Ryrise did something, and a light vanished from their face. They couldn’t leave me here. I’d never find him stuck in whenever this was.
A memory of Braedon danced across my vision. We’d been on the 405 heading for the beach, the dense crawl giving us time to enjoy each other’s company. When the traffic broke, he sped up until I was clinging to the strap.
“Braedon, please slow down,” I had pleaded.
To my relief, he did so, easing off the gas so I could inhale.
“I love you even when you drive like a maniac,” I joked as I caught my breath.
His grin could have warmed the sun and held more than a touch of mischief. “I like when you tell me I’m being reckless.”
The Santa Ana winds had visited the day before, and debris from the palm trees and native plants dotted the area around the roads. I studied his beloved face, from his too-big teeth to the heavy brows that furrowed when he was deep in thought.
Everything about him, from his rangy frame to his shaggy hair, made my heart skip a beat.
We’d been together for three years, and each one of those was better than the year prior.
That’s why I couldn’t believe he would leave me.
We wanted marriage and babies, the future kind of commitment, and he wasn’t the type of guy to bail.
Unless he was dead or lost in time. The notion was just too weird to contemplate.
The library and its contents were hazy, like they weren’t quite there. I started to step forward, but Ryrise held me back.
“We are not welcome here. Check for any trace of Braedon, and then we must go.”
I scanned our nearby surroundings, alert for any sight of his shaggy head of hair.
I would not give up until I found him, even if we had to search every year of history from the ancient times to the far-flung future.
Maybe the quest would take years, but that didn’t matter.
Those years without him would be intolerable.
Better to be doing something than to be sitting at home dealing with red tape and failing each time.
“There’s nothing useful here,”
Ryrise gestured to the door and kept hold of my hand. “Then we will go back to the beginning. Stay with me.”
Fat chance I would do anything else.
When we came back to our original location, two men were waiting in the office. Before they could spot us, Ryrise pulled back, keeping us out of sight. Through the slim window, the rest of the library flickered and buzzed, as though not quite real.
“We must depart at once. They are here to stop you,” the cyborg whispered.
“But—” I started to protest, but the walls vanished before I could complete my sentence.
I felt that shift as we transported into whatever timeframe we were going to next. When we landed, I had tears streaming down my face. I didn’t understand why the government would care about one man, but the fact that they’d gone to the trouble of locating me was terrifying.
I blinked, unsure of where we were. All around us were gleaming towers, tall metal spires that shone in the sun… but the sun wasn’t the same color I was used to.
“Where are we? This can’t be Earth, is it?”
“This is a possible Earth,” Ryrise said. “This is an Earth if future Terrans harness the power of the star you orbit and create a Dyson sphere. This is what your planet would be if such a thing is done.”
This odd alternate place pricked at me with a sense of wrongness. The sun had a checkered quality, and the wrongness tugged at me.
“I don’t want to be here.”
Ryrise moved forward while I stayed behind. I should be frightened, but if the cyborg could help me find my man, that was all I cared about.
“We will not linger. Though the likelihood of your partner being here was remote, we had to come for other reasons.”
Fear crawled over my skin. “You mean you brought us here to evade the government.”
A shiver went through me when Ryrise nodded.
“They are following my announcements and are attempting to track us through time. Nowhere is safe.”
If I needed any proof that the cyborg could do great things, all I had to do was study the luminous city.
Then we were spiraling into time again, the sick sensation that went along with the shift engulfing me.
When we landed, I recognized the building.
This was the place we’d left, but also not.
It had that air of something abandoned. The stacks of information were still there, but the books were gone.
Nothing existed but the hollow sound of a deserted building.
“Where are we? Is this another alternate timeline that you’ve taken us to?”
Ryrise shook their head and showed me the closed and barred front door. “No, this is the library that you are familiar with, but twenty years in the future.”
“Are there no more libraries, then?”
Ryrise’s gaze took in the totality of the empty space.
“Our funding was removed after this incident. The unfortunate thing is that the patrons who live in your community are the ones who suffered. Those who needed our personal service, for whom the online data available was not sufficient. We have many alternatives we can access. Still, that was the cost, and we paid it.”
I grimaced as the implications of those words sank in.
“They closed the library because of us. I’m sorry. I had no idea.” I considered offering to stop the pursuit, but every fiber of me rejected that notion. Ryrise was my one chance of finding Braedon, and he was worth everything.
The day we met was as seared in my memory as the day he vanished.
I had to go into the office, as did he. Later he would say that the meeting was fate.
He had tried to get me to let him into the building, but I refused, letting the door close behind me as instructed by our training videos.
When he came by with the head of their department, he gave me a wink as my boss introduced them.
“You’ve got a good one here,” he said when Delia was finished. “She could have waved me through, but she held her ground and refused since I didn’t have an employee badge.”
I flushed and fought not to stammer. “That’s what they tell us to do.”
I expected Delia to be mad, but a few days later I received a commendation and a gift certificate, along with a forwarded message from Braedon asking if he could contact me. His pitch hadn’t succeeded with the company, but I was a different story.
My mind returned to the present where Ryrise was talking. “We would not ask you to give up your search. We put a high value on all human life. Your Braedon is important, though we would help you even if he were not. The fact that he is makes this all the more urgent.”
“Then why are you showing me this empty library?”
Ryrise shook their head. “This was a safe place for us to come. Braedon’s findings will change the world. We cannot allow close-minded individuals to stop it. They are waiting for you at home. We must continue, but if you need to refuel or rest, we can do so here. Do you understand?”
My heart quailed, and fear gripped me. But I forced my expression to remain neutral. “I… yes, I am hungry, and thirsty. What makes him so vital?”
Ryrise shook their head. “That must not be revealed, as it could change things. We will rest here.”
“Couldn’t you get into trouble?”
If a cyborg could be said to smile without doing so, Ryrise’s face accomplished that.
“You asked for information. I am a librarian. This is what I do.”
I considered pressing my questions further, but I doubted I would get any answers.
“Thank you.”
“Come. Let’s find a suitable place for you to rest. I have business to attend to.”
“Sarina, wake up.”
I woke from my uneasy slumber, surprised I hadn’t heard the cyborg come in.
“What’s wrong?” I said groggily, rubbing my eyes.
“We are not taking any chances. We must go.”
I grabbed my shoes and put them on as Ryrise took up a position by the door. Now I could hear the rustling in the trees beyond that might have been mistaken for wind, and the snap of what sounded like a gunstock being pushed into place.
My heartrate picked up its pace. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Ryrise took my arm as the noises grow louder as if those outside had abandoned all pretense. A muffled shout came from just beyond the walls, and then some sort of boom echoed from far too close.
“Ryrise?”
The cyborg quivered and then they were spinning into the void again, faster than I had experienced. Until now, the dislocation of time travel took no more than two breaths before we found ourselves in our new location.
One breath, then two—if I were breathing, of course. I couldn’t feel my body to know. Three… then four. I longed to shout, but that would do no good. I might be squirming in Ryrise’s grip, but I wasn’t sure of anything.
Five breaths, then six. Was there air here? I must have been crazy to do this.
Seven… eight and now I was positive I was indeed screaming. Ryrise no doubt didn’t need to breathe, or eat, or drink. The cyborg would be fine. But I was a human, and this was no place for me.
Nine… ten… and then we were in some sort of odd field that glowed with a blue light so vivid it hurt. I fell on my back, and the wind went out of me. My surprised “oof” took what little breath I had and expelled it outward as I sprawled in a tangle of limbs.
My trajectory took my gaze upward, into a sky unlike any on earth, with a blue sun—no, two—hovering overhead.
The air was heavy and tasted weird, like it had been laced with metals.
I gazed around but didn’t find any evidence of a city or settlement, just scrub and low trees, and a horizon full of nothing.
This had to be some sort of binary star system, with the second sun smaller than the first. Braedon had talked about how these systems were the norm in the universe, and our yellow sun the anomaly, but I hadn’t paid much attention.
“No. This is not where we are supposed to be. It’s not safe for humans. We must go.”