The question caused Tobal to shrug slightly. He continued to collect datacards, placing them in his bag. He didn’t need the shuttle, he didn’t even know how to fly it. His arrival in it had been a fluke, a mistake. “Vyktor”, he said, “I cannot fly that thing.” That was true. How he had managed to operate the alien machine was a question that had bothered him for the last few days. “I do not care for it. The people who looked it over said it was so old they were surprised it had started for me at all. Did I tell you how I found it? My mother hid me in an old building that had been built by some outworlders years ago. While hidden in there, I found the machine. In the front I accidentally hit a button, and it took off, flying straight up into the sky, with me inside.” Tobal’s hands moved up, as an illustration to his point. The bag of datacards lay on the floor, and he had two in each hand. “Leave it here, perhaps whoever takes this metal world will use it.”
Tobal bent, and placed the four cards in the bag, then, turned and continued his gathering.
It took Tobal a little over twenty minutes to gather all of the datacards. By this time Vyktor had left, and returned, riding on a large power cart that he left outside the library door. Together the two began to gather the books off of the wall, and to carefully transport them to the powered cart. Tobal moved the books in a reverent way, being a little too careful with them. To see a book on his planet was a rarity. Though most people could not read, all wished they could. The ones that did learn to read under the occasional teacher usually left their small village, and went on to the large villages. Few returned, but the small amount that did told of the great things the world held, and of the remarkable things you could do when you could read.
One book Tobal transported had an image of what looked like a long staff on the front. The image portrayed a tall, smooth staff, wrapped in two places with what appeared to be leather. Out of curiosity Tobal opened the book. Unlike the other books, this one had pictures, and the words were few. Paging through the book, Tobal soon discovered that it was a manual for combat, using a quarterstaff. Diagrams of different poses, shots of people moving through the moves, showing every detail. Words, though Tobal could not read them, appeared under each picture. He guessed they described how to properly use the moves.
This one I shall study. I shall learn to read, so to better understand this…. Experienced with a quarterstaff himself, Tobal recognized some of the forms. Most, however, were new, and a good many appeared to be fast moves. Very fast, so fast some of the pictures were blurred at the end of the person’s staff, as well as his arms.
Setting the book aside, next to the now full bag of data cards, Tobal continued to assist Vyktor in moving the other books. Tobal noticed that Vyktor stopped every now and then as well, to page through a few books. He too had also set aside several large volumes. By the time the cart was full, two of the nine wraparound shelves had been emptied almost completely.
We are taking too long…
