Haruto and Lucy turned and ran as Lenora stood her ground and studied the creature emerging from the hole. She had, after all, seen much worse than this, this being something that looked like a very giant octopus. On its (—head? She didn’t know—) was a helmet that emitted a glittering field around its entire body. Each of its sixteen or so tentacles was holding advanced devices that were like nothing she had ever seen. Overall, she felt that this giant octopus-like creature had a scientific air about it and there was nothing to fear.
“Hello,” she said, hoping this impressive-looking being could communicate in English. “How may I help you?”
“Hello,” it replied (somehow) in a quite courteous and gentle tone. The voice seemed to come from its helmet area as the creature floated up and out of the hole and hovered about five feet above the ground. “I am relieved to see a librarian. I need help, but there are so few around, for some reason.”
“I will do my best, but I should warn you, I know absolutely nothing about this place, which seems to be called Cahokia.”
“Oh, have no fear about that. I am considered one of the galaxy’s leading experts on all the most significant North American cities.”
Now Lenora had a number of questions, as one might expect after hearing such a sentence. She decided to list them off. “The galaxy? Where are you from? What is Cahokia? And what shall I call you?”
“Ah, Lenora, my apologies for not introducing myself, as is your custom. My name is … well, why don’t you call me Rosa. And I’m from a planet known as Zarmina’s World by your scientists, in a star system they call Gliese 581. As for Cahokia, let’s discuss that while we go to the scene of the crime. Will your friends be coming with us, or are they going to stay hidden behind that copper workshop on Mound 34?”
After quickly scrawling Zarmina’s World—Gliese 581—Investigate into her notebook, Lenora called to her friends, “You can come out! It’s okay. This is Rosa!”
Lucy and Haruto popped their heads around the side of a building atop a nearby mound, then walked cautiously down its steps. Reaching Lenora and Rosa, they both gulped and said, “Hello,” in slightly shaky voices.
“Are you an octopus? You look like an octopus,” added Lucy.
“Oh no, not at all,” Rosa answered. “Although their DNA is so very strange that a few Earth scientists have suggested one explanation might be that they are descended from alien DNA, so it’s within the realm of possibility that we are related to Earth octopuses.”
“It’s octopi,” said Haruto.
“No, it isn’t,” said Lenora absently. “Octopus comes from Greek, not Latin, so it’s not pluralized with an i.”
“What?” asked Lucy.
“Remind me to lend you my copy of Latin versus Greek: Battle to the Finish,” said Lenora, and, after scribbling Possible alien DNA in octopuses? Must research into her notebook, she said to Rosa, “You mentioned a crime?”
“Yes,” said Rosa, floating down the avenue while Lenora tagged along, Lucy and Haruto staying a few cautious feet behind her. “You see, I am an archeologist who came here to study the Library’s full-scale re-creation of Cahokia. Cahokia was one of the largest cities in the world during your thirteenth century, rivaling cities such as London and Paris at the time. Though it was later abandoned, no city in North America was larger until Philadelphia toward the end of your eighteenth century. Fascinating place.”
Lenora was writing wildly in her notebook. “Really? Who built it?”
“Your anthropologists know them as the Mississippian culture. They thrived for eight hundred years or so, their lands and cities stretching from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and far to the west as well. I intended to write a book about them, but a thief has stolen my notes and I have no idea how to track them down, and with my return vessel arriving soon, I don’t have time to repeat my studies.”
“Hmm,” said Lenora. She didn’t know much about solving crimes, but she was determined to give it her best shot.
They reached the foot of the very largest of the hundreds of mounds, and either ascended the steps or floated up, depending on whether they had feet or not. The mound was really quite tall and the humans were panting heavily by the time they got to the top, where they found many large buildings and terraces all around. Rosa led them into the largest of them all, which it explained had probably been the residence of Cahokia’s leader.
Rosa pointed to a copper table. “I left my notes right here. Rather stupid of me, but I never imagined anyone would bother stealing them.”
“Hmm,” said Lenora again, thinking hard. “I suppose one of the first things you do when you are trying to solve a crime is dust for fingerprints. But I don’t know how to do that and we don’t have any … fingerprint dust or whatever, anyway.”
“What is a fingerprint?” asked Rosa. Lenora showed hers to the alien.
“Ah, that’s no trouble, then,” said Rosa, and pointed at the top of the table with one of the many devices carried in its tentacles. Immediately, several fingerprints shone brightly. “Now what?”
“Ummm,” said Lenora, who hadn’t thought that far ahead. “I’m not sure. We’d need a … fingerprint database or something. Something to match the prints with a person.”
“No trouble, either,” Rosa replied, and touched another device to its helmet. The device glittered for five seconds or so. “That’s odd,” it said, lowering the device. “No person matching these fingerprints is anywhere in the area. But my notes were only stolen a short time ago, and I began searching for them right away.”
Lenora was crestfallen. If she could not solve this mystery, then Rosa would never be able to write its book, and it sounded like a book Lenora would very much like to read. She snapped her fingers. “You said the prints didn’t match a person. But what about something else? Something not a person, I mean.”
“Don’t only people have fingerprints?” asked Lucy skeptically.
“I don’t know,” said Lenora. “But it’s worth a shot.”
Rosa put the device to its helmet again, and immediately it lit up brightly. “Yes! I have a match. The fingerprints appear exactly like your human ones, but their owner is a small, furry creature with no tail, a large head with fluffy ears, and a nose shaped like a spoon.”
Lenora snapped her fingers again. “I knew there was something suspicious about that koala.”
“Yeah, me, too!” said Lucy, crossing her arms. “They’ve always looked a little suspicious to me. I bet they can steal anything with their little fingerprint trick.”
Lenora continued, “We saw it outside the Flight section a little while ago, wearing a green backpack. Do you think you can catch it?”
“Absolutely,” replied the alien. “I can locate anyone once I have their image.”
Lenora scribbled Human and koala fingerprints look exactly alike, k’s could be master thieves into her notebook and dropped it into a pocket. “Let’s go get your research, then. Which way to the koala?”
“Oh,” said Rosa. “I can teleport us all right to him. The trip will take no time at all.” And the alien raised another of its devices.
“Wait,” said Haruto. “I’d love to go … wherever … with you, Lenora, but I have to return these aircraft.”
“I understand,” said Lenora. “But Haruto—there is a reason you aren’t seeing many librarians around. We have to catch that koala, so I don’t have time to explain, but if you … run into any trouble, or you want to help the Library, find the Googology section. A librarian there named Milton Sirotta can explain.”
Haruto, looking a bit surprised, nodded. “I will.” Then he and Lucy and Lenora hugged their goodbyes, and Haruto departed.
Lenora nodded to Rosa.
Rosa activated its device, and the three of them vanished.
The ancient city of Cahokia vanished, too, and Lenora suddenly found herself in what appeared to be a completely empty section of the Library. But there was no time to study their surroundings, for the extremely shocked-looking koala was crouched in a corner right in front of them.
The koala bolted for the exit.
“Get him!” cried Lenora, and she and Lucy threw themselves upon the thieving marsupial, each grabbing it by one of its forearms.
The koala grabbed for something wrapped around its arm as Lucy clung on.
Lenora recognized it.
“Uh-oh,” she said.
Rosa made a strangled, panicked noise, and whipped something through the air into Lenora’s pocket.
Everything vanished again.
A hard, thick rain pelted them. Lightning bolts cracked the sky all around. Men were running about on the deck of the wooden sailing ship upon which Lenora and Lucy were now standing, men who were shouting to one another in an unknown language as dark, massive waves crashed over the railings, soaking the girls through and through.