by Gabe Sluis
Kyle Voont tapped his little feet up the marble steps of the library's main hall, heading for the upper stacks. The enormous building was silent, apart from the non-vocal noises created by the stirrings of the scant occupants. Kyle ran his hand along the dark wood railing as he wound around the sweeping staircase- a rule his grandfather insisted upon whenever he took the stairs.
At the top landing, behind a reference desk, sat a tall, skinny assistant librarian. This was Joanie. Kyle attempted to slip past the woman, who was twelve years older than him, and bothered Kyle every time he came for his weekly lessons.
She looked up from her desk just in time to catch the schoolboy slipping past.
"Hey, there Kyle! How are you, handsome guy?"
"I'm fine, Miss Joanie."
"Going to see your granddad, are you?"
"Yep... Just like every Frierday..."
"Well, I last saw him up in the special collection loft. I don't think he is in his office," Joanie said, turning to her NSI to locate the head librarian.
"Don't worry about it. I know where he is waiting for me."
Kyle scurried away from the overly involved woman before she could give him any further useless advice. He wound his way through the dark hardwood shelves of books, towering high over his head. The smell was comforting and familiar; one he would always associate with the time he spent with his grandfather. He couldn't help shuffling his feet on the short red carpet that marked the path into the depths of the forest of knowledge. He reached another staircase, this one much smaller, made of wood and rising steeply up to the special collection loft.
Reaching the top step, the young boy found exactly what he was expecting. His grandfather, short and white bearded, stood at the table in the middle of the loft, looking out the great window that filled the far wall. The other two walls held shelves upon shelves of books that reached to the top of the high ceiling. These books were his grandfathers favorite and most prized, rather than strictly the libraries rare book collection. Most were from Earth, some from Cyn, all having traveled many thousand light years from their point of origin.
Kyle plodded over to the study table in the middle of the loft, dropped his book bag without care, and plopped down into a wooden straight backed chair. He limply placed his arms extended out in front of himself and awaited his grandfathers response.
"What have you been learning in school this week?" the librarian asked, remaining in place by the window.
His grandfather often started out their lessons in this fashion. It became apparent to Kyle that his response usually guided the path of their conversation, mainly when his grandfather did not have a specific lesson in store. Kyle thought about all the things he had been learning in the last week and brought up his favorite subject.
"We have been talking about the stellar geography of the Five Worlds, Grandfather."
"Yes. Yes. A great starting place for your upcoming studies of the history of our worlds," he said to himself. "Tell me all about the Five Worlds and what you know of them."
"Well," Kyle began, swinging his legs under the heavy wooden desk. "First we learned about Cyn."
"And what about Cyn did you learn?"
"Cyn was the first garden planet humans migrated to, from, uhh..." Kyle recited, searching his memory for a name.
"Earth. Humans first came from a planet similar to Cyn called Earth."
"Yeah, that's the one!" the boy agreed. "Cyn has eight continents and four sub-continental islands. It has two moons and is the most populated planet in the five worlds."
"Alright, good, Kyle. Cyn is the only world in its system, so where is next?"
"Next to be colonized was the Achilleus system."
"That is right," the librarian confirmed as he paced back and forth in front of the window. "The Achilleus system is an absolutely remarkable place. Not only is it quite close in proximity to Cyn, but were you told why the system defies standard explanations?"
"Well, is it because both the planets orbit the star the same as each other?"
"Yes! The worlds share an identical orbit, situated exactly at each other's L3 points! What are the names of the twin worlds?"
"Balius and Xanthus!" Kyle said proudly.
"And do you understand what makes them so improbable?"
"Just that nobody thought they could have two habitable planets in one system?" Kyle asked.
"Not quite. You see, by the way we understand the formations of star systems, the configuration of having two planets, with identical composition, mass, and opposing rotation, occupying the exact same orbital distance from the star, but one hundred eighty degrees apart, should never have come into reality. The way that planets form from stellar matter and clear their orbital path... This configuration is nearly impossible. Balius and Xanthus even have continental plates, biological patterns and elemental diversity that are nearly identical as well. It as if the planets were placed there, in perfect harmony, making us unimaginative humans collectively scratch our heads..."
A brief silence settled over the room as the older man paused in thought.
"Oh! But I thought you were telling me! What's next? This should be easy for you..."
"Where we live! The Korin system!" Kyle answered.
"There it is. Tell me about our system, the last to be inhabited."
"Well, first there is Yomi. We are smaller than Cyn and the others," he recited. "We are tidally locked on the sun. All the cities are in the Akesch band, so we don't freeze like at the far pole or burn up like at the close one."
Kyle looked to his grandfather for approval and continued.
"Then there is Inaba Major. It is the super gas giant we can see faintly on the horizon. Inaba Minor is its second largest moon and is a water world."
"How is Inaba Minor able to sustain life being so far from the star? How are people able to live there so that we call it a human world?"
"Inaba is so hot that it keeps the ocean from freezing since it doesn't always get sunlight."
"That's right," the librarian said to his grandson. "Is that all they taught you about our system?"
"Yeah. We have to read some really old stories about the first people on Cyn. They were pretty neat."
"Well, our system is a bit larger than just us and Inaba Minor," the liberian said, getting Kyle back on track. "Inaba Major has a few clusters of asteroids at its stable Lagrange points. The asteroids are mined for resources and shipped out all over the five worlds. Our system is the most diverse since we have no garden worlds, but so many places we have forced our way into and thrived. The heartiest of the star people often come from Korin. It was as if the pioneering spirit of the first people to reach Cyn remained on the frontier and is now on the edge here with us.
"Have you yet learned about Kreios and the Star Crusades?"
Kyle sat still and shook his head.
The older man turned from the red light of he window and placed his hands on the solid table. Just as he was about to speak, a white haired young man ascended the steps to the special collection loft with a stack of books in his arms. He paused on he top landing, begged pardon for interrupting and turned to go.
"Angus! No, please. I am just tutoring my grandson on things his school fails to mention. Return those books to their place. It is no interruption."
"Thank you, Sir."
"Angus, here," the old librarian said, speaking to Kyle. "Is a new assistant to the library. You are a student of history at the university, yes?"
"I am, Sir," Angus replied. His pure white medium length hair was combed backwards, tight to his skull. He wore simple black clothes that smartly fit, but had cuffs at the openings to attach into the type of thermal regulatory suits worn by residents at the extreme ends of the Akesch band.
"I am about to tell Kyle here about Kreios and his reformation of the Five Worlds. I know you have read several of the books here in the library on that subject. You should stay and fill in the details I miss!"
"As you wish. I will listen as I
put these books back in their place."
"Angus, here, has something in common with the mighty Kreios," the librarian began, sitting down at the table. "Kreios had purple eyes, which are very rare. Then again, Kreios was not his real name, I believe. What it was, I cannot remember..."
"It was rumored to be Izan, Librarian," Angus said from a ladder, placing a book back on a shelf.
"Thank you, thank you. See, a recently read student is always brilliant to have on hand. Well, Kreios was born a slave here on Yomi about two hundred years ago. Not much is know about his young life until, suddenly, he nearly conquered the system.
"You see, the Five Worlds were in a much different shape than they are today. Good or bad, Kreios rose out of slavery and changed the entire political and economic situation everywhere men walk. There had never been a central governing authority as the star people spread across the Five Worlds. Rich men and corporations claimed lands, space routes, and raised armies to enforce their values. That lead places like the Korin System to be seen as a lawless frontier to be exploited by the affluent people of Cyn. Kreios threw off his bonds of slavery and rebelled against this lack of regulation."
"He wrote the Five Rules for Five Worlds?" Kyle asked.
"Yes! Yes! That was the end result of the the crusades of the Knights of Kreios. It is not known if it was actually written by Kreios himself, or by one of his generals based upon his philosophies, but nonetheless it is a result of Kreios's will.
"But the best part of the story is not how a single man completely changed the face of the Five Worlds and the billions living amongst them. It is how a single common slave boy rose to such power."
"How did he do it, Grandfather?" Kyle asked, rapt by the mention of such a legendary hero.
"He was an unbeatable fighter. Small by most standards of soldiers. He was not thick or bulky, but he possessed a strength like no other man. What was it Angus? How did he take his first ship? He was being sold to Inaba Minor?"
"That is the story as I read it," Angus replied as he finished putting away the last book. He leaned back against the bookcase with arms crossed and listened to the rest of the story.
"Yes, the story goes he was a good slave for his masters, but as soon as he got aboard a starship, he exploded like a bomb of rage, throwing the entire crew, minus the pilot, out of the airlock. The legend goes that his hands, feet and eyes burned with a black light when he fought. They say no man could stop his rampage. He took the ship and fled to Inaba Minor anyway.
"For the next three years, he terrorized the system like a pirate, taking any ship he could and building a fleet. This went on and on until affected corporations sent warships to destroy the band of rogue slaves and mercenaries that were loyal to Kreios. But every time, Kreios's forces were triumphant and grew in size. Then one day, the entire attitude of his army changed.
"Kreios specifically made himself known as the leader of this growing horde. He created the Knights of Kreios and declared a Holy Crusade against the injustice and disorder of the Five Worlds. It was said that Kreios himself would drift around his fleet, outside his armor, enforcing his rule and reputation. He would lead ground assaults and challeng any who opposed him to single combat.
"Famously, on Xanthus, he challenged a regional governor to produce his best fighter, that the victor of their personal combat would decide the fate of Kreios's campaign there. Thinking that the stories were over inflated, the Governor, a formerly talented gunslinger, agreed to fight the young man himself. Although an epic poem describing the duel was written, praising the valor of both combatants, revisionist accounts state the fight was brutal and over and the blink of an eye.
"Fifteen years later, with a solid corps of Knights at his back, Kreios took Trounce City on Cyn and declared the Crusade a success. He soon departed the system, leaving the Knights to impose his will. He returned here to Yomi, designing and supervising the building of his tomb, in the hot zone of the close pole.
"And just as sudden as his rise had come, Kreios the mighty, reshaper of the Five Worlds, disappeared into his palace tomb, never to be seen again. Like I said, that was nearly two hundred years ago. But his legacy continues in the background of the way we live. There is still no central governance over the Star People. The Knights remain as an independent order of judges, enforcing the Five Rules for Five Worlds. Slavery no longer exists. There is accountability when people try to oppress others. Children grow up with mandatory knowledge to keep them from ignorance. The Worlds are a better place thanks to the cleansing storm that Kreios brought in his wake."
"No one has ever gone to his tomb to see what happened to him?" Kyle asked, wide eyed.
"He is surely dead," the librarian said. "He would be past two hundred twenty five. I doubt he would have lived that long. Humans, despite all our attempts at genetic manipulation, just don't live that long. And what is more, no one dares to enter the tomb. Kreios was so terrible, the stories of his rage and prowess keeps all away to this day."
"I want to go there! I want to see the tomb of Kreios!"
"There are pictures you can look at in this book here," the librarian said, rising from his seat and drawing a book off the shelf.
"No! I want to go into the hot zone and see it for myself one day! What good is reading about something in a book when I could visit the real thing in person!?"
"The boy has a point, Librarian," Angus said, with a sly grin. "Books can only take you so far. There is rarely a better substitute for making use of your feet. Life is movement."
Kyle grinned at the affirmation.
The librarian threw his hands up in exaggerated exacerbation."Well, then that ends the history lesson! So much for me thinking these Frierday lessons will instill in you a love of books! I guess I will have to start grooming someone else as my replacement," he said with a wink. "Now run along home, and tell your parents hello for me."
The old librarian ushered the boy out of his seat and down the stairs, shaking a finger at Angus. "There is no place better than this library, my boy! Listen not to this purple-eyed devil!"
Fake Your Own