Doctor Who: Virgin Decalog [005] - Wonders by Jim Mortimore & Paul Leonard

Author:Jim Mortimore & Paul Leonard
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
Publisher: Virgin
Published: 1997-08-31T23:00:00+00:00

Bibliophage

being a tale from the Library of (almost) Everything

By Stephen Marley

It is written…

… that in the first millisecond of the creation of the universe, when time was a raw, capricious toddler and every moment contained a multiplicity of eons, the Entelechy sprang into instantaneous being from the necessity of their impossibility.

Some later races gave the Entelechy the title of the First Angels; others said they were the First Demons. But then some people will say anything. Suffice it that these primal beings reigned supreme in the uncounted ages enfolded in the initial second of the cosmos. When that long, long second was up, and the Entelechy had solved all the mysteries of existence, they performed one last act before departing the universe for poly dimensional pastures new. They extruded an ontogenetic residuum of their omnimorphic psyche (so ’tis said) to form the Omnilibrarium – the Library of Everything.

Their creation, the unlimited-but-finite Library, has as many aspects as there are points of view. According to one perception it’s a multifoliate universe of conscious molecules; to another it’s an organic computer of extra-cosmic proportions. To human perceptions, the Library is a limitless repository packed with weighty volumes, continuously expanding as each new happening in the universe is automatically recorded. Within these numberless tomes is a full account of everything in the universe, down to the most recent behaviour of a single photon and the latest sneeze of a gerbil…

‘Oh, turn that bloody thing off, Mr Forthman!’

Reginald Forthman tightened his grip on the ship’s wheel and puffed at his pipe, resolutely ignoring Sister Pik Lim’s irate request. He kept his eye on the ballooning chaos of the Horsehead Nebula through the flight deck window and his ear fully tuned to the audio log:

… Residing one step to the left of reality, the Library can be approached only via the Portal, which has been located these last five million years near the centre of the Horsehead Nebula. But, for scholars who seek knowledge in the Library, be warned… Since the mysterious disappearance of that omnivorous reader, Obald the Omnivorous, in the Library’s silent mazes a million or so years ago, many other scholars have likewise… disappeared. Now the Library of Everything is an empty, haunted place where only the most adventurous scholars dare intrude. Few return…

The audio log concluded with a terminal click, followed by a loud raspberry.

Forthman, lips pressed tight, turned slowly to his companion, subjecting her to a disapproving stare. ‘I was listening to that. Switch it back on, there’s a good girl.’

Stepping back from the brass horn of the audio unit, Sister Lim raised an elegant eyebrow in her exquisite Chinese face, settled her curvy, minirobed body into a chair and showed a seductive length of thigh as she ran sinuous fingers through her long, blonde hair. ‘Bollocks.’

Forthman nearly bit through his pipe stem. He was used to her contrary moods but, in his present predicament, a little consideration would have been appreciated. After all, she was a Buddhist nun, notwithstanding her parallel career of robbery, conspiracy and receiving stolen nanotech jewellery.

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