press it!”
But Lenora, of course, had already pressed the button on Rosa’s device, and by the time Lucy finished her unnecessary suggestion both girls were sitting on the Library floor in front of the floating alien, who was waving each of its sixteen or so tentacles in what seemed like a happy fashion.
“It is with relief,” said Rosa, “that I see you ascertained the purpose of my device.”
“Not exactly,” said Lenora, panting from exertion. A large pool of water was collecting around the girls, dripping from their clothes. “But you had obviously given it to me for a reason.”
“Yes. That”—and here Rosa used an alien word that Lenora did not understand—“will return objects and persons to me from anywhere they might be. I was sure you would return, but I am surprised to see you also recovered my notes in the process. Extraordinary.”
“I was not going to lose your notes,” said Lenora, handing the device and backpack over to the alien, who accepted both with one of its tentacles. “I hope they are waterproof and fireproof, like my notebook.”
“Naturally,” replied Rosa.
“The koala tried to steal something else, too,” said Lucy sadly. “But I lost it. It sank to the bottom of the sea.” She shivered, crossing both arms around herself.
“You must be cold,” said the alien. “Here.” It pointed another device, there was a flash, and the girls found themselves completely dry.
“Geez,” said Lucy. “Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Quite a bit,” said Rosa, but Lenora was not listening to this conversation. For she was looking past the archeologist now, and seeing that what had once been an empty section of the Library was now anything but. The room was rather small for a Library section, but the formerly bare walls were now covered with images of watery and badly corroded dials, gears, pins, and cranks, some of them looking like a partially assembled mechanism of some kind, and some simply lying on cloths on their own. Some of them had inscriptions on them that looked rather Greek-ish to Lenora.
In the middle of the room was a large table, and on that table was a giant cloth, and on that cloth were many bronze fragments that looked very much like cleaned-up versions of the things in the images.
Lucy had noticed them, too. “Hey,” she said, “that stuff looks really familiar.”
There was something else on the tablecloth. Pieces of a box, partially reassembled, with many parts missing, but looking much like a broken-up version of a box Lenora had seen only moments (or perhaps thousands of years, depending on how you looked at it) before.
“Uh-oh,” said Lenora to Rosa. “I think we might have changed history.” She was worried now, for in books, changing history was almost never good.
“Do not fear,” replied Rosa. “We all change history with everything we do. This is why we should consider our actions carefully, as each one will affect the future to come. Should we join Lucy?”
For Lucy had gone straight to the table, next to a puzzled-looking librarian who was peering down at the assorted fragments, his chin in his hand, deep in thought. So deep that he had completely failed to notice two girls and an alien who had popped out of nowhere—or had they? Lenora was not sure how history changes worked exactly. But she was sure now that the objects on the table had been in the same box that Lucy had lost in the sea.
Giving up (for the moment) on figuring out how history changing worked, Lenora went over to the table, Rosa beside her. She cleared her throat. “Excuse me,” she said to Cosmo (for that was the name on the librarian’s badge).
Cosmo flinched and, looking up, suddenly noticed Lenora and the others. “Oh!” he said. “My apologies. I have been studying the Antikythera mechanism so intently that I frequently fail to notice things around me.”
“That’s all right,” said Lenora. “So what exactly is this … Anti-kith-uh…”
“An-tee-KITH-ur-uh,” said Cosmo. “It is a small Greek island, near which this ancient mechanism was discovered, all broken up into pieces at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. It is estimated to have been lost to the waters around 100 BC.”
“Sorry about that,” said Lucy.
“So what does it do?” asked Lenora hurriedly.
Giving Lucy a strange look, Cosmo continued, “Well, if it were ever to be assembled, one could use it to predict the movements of many astronomical objects and events, such as the sun, and phases of the moon, and perhaps even the locations of planets.”
“Perhaps?” said Lenora.
“Yes,” sighed Cosmo. “You see, we’ve never been quite sure, because we’d never found all the pieces. As the world’s first known mechanical computer, however, the mechanism is of great interest. Knowledge of how to create such an intricate machine was lost in antiquity and not rediscovered until the fourteenth century. And so I was sent on a Library expedition to find the missing bits, like the crank that operates the entire thing. The expedition was successful, but now that I’ve got all the pieces collected and cleaned and patched up, I have no idea how they all fit together. It’s a mystery that I fear we may never—”
“Like this,” said Lucy.
Everyone turned toward the girl. Everyone, even Rosa, gasped in astonishment.
For sitting in front of Lucy was the reassembled mechanism, gears whirling and dials spinning as Lucy turned its crank.
“Lucy!” Lenora cheered.
“What?” yelped Cosmo. “But … you … how?!”
Lucy shrugged. “It’s no big deal. It’s not like I haven’t seen it befo—”
“Still,” interrupted Lenora. “I can’t believe you just put it all together like that!”
“Amazing indeed,” said Rosa.
Lucy shrugged again. “Nah. I like taking stuff apart and putting it back together. That’s how I fixed my toaster. And once I took Daddy’s watch apart and put it back together. It didn’t work after that, though. I guess it was pretty expensive, because he—”
“Marvelous!” cried Cosmo. “Simply incredible. You are a regular Ada L—”
Lucy stopped cranking. And she gave Cosmo a look as cold as the waters of the ancient Aegean Sea, freezing him mid-word. “What. Did. You. Say?”
Cosmo faltered. “I … I was only going to say you remind me of Ada—”
“HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?” shouted Lucy.
Everything went silent as Lucy’s shout echoed around the room.
Finally, Lenora spoke. “That’s your real name?” she asked gently. “Why do you hate it? I think it’s beautiful.”
Lucy softened. “I’m sorry,” she said to Cosmo. “I just really hate that name. It’s boring and dull and I don’t want to be boring and dull. I want to be special and amazing, like Lenora.”
“Oh dear,” said Lenora.
“But it’s not boring and dull at all,” said Rosa. “I believe Cosmo meant to compare you to Ada Lovelace.”
Cosmo nodded.
“Who’s that?” asked Lucy skeptically.
“She was a young human who is quite the legend on my planet and yours,” replied Rosa. “She wrote humanity’s first published computer program in Earth year 1843, before a computer that could run it had even been created. And she was the first human to recognize all the things computers might someday do besides just calculating numbers. As you just reassembled your world’s oldest computer at not much more than a glance, I can see why Cosmo might think of her.”
Lucy looked around at all of them. “Really?” she said softly, her voice breaking. “I make you think of someone like that?”
“Quite,” said Rosa.
“Certainly,” said Cosmo.
“Why not?” asked Lenora with a smile.
Lucy sniffled and wiped her arm across her nose. “Thanks. It’s just—I mean, Daddy tells me how great I am all the time, but I don’t think he really pays much attention to anything I actually do. And I’ve never had any real friends. Just the people Daddy calls our servants.”
“Well,” said Lenora, “you have lots of friends now. And now that you know how cool your name is … do you still want us to call you Lucy?”
Now it was Lucy/Ada’s turn to put her chin on her hand and think. She thought and thought, and then she spoke. “I want to be Ada,” she said, her voice full of wonder. “I’m Ada!”
Cosmo and Rosa cheered as Lenora patted her friend on the arm. “Ada it is,” she said. “Now, we must continue on. Rosa, I don’t suppose our history change … changed anything else, did it?”
Rosa was silent for a moment, lights flashing on and off all over its helmet. “No,” it said at last. “The Library at large is just as it was.”
Lenora sighed and beckoned Cosmo down so she could whisper. “Do you have any idea where we can find Zenodotus?”
Cosmo, seeming to understand, whispered back. “No. I have only heard stories about him. He is described as a powerhouse of courage, with green eyes and a pair of old spectacles, always fighting for the Library against its enemies. Which is quite extraordinary, considering how the Library of Alexandria was ruined when Marc Antony gave away all its manuscripts to Cleopatra. Or so I’ve heard.”
Lenora sighed again. She did not even bother writing this latest tale down in her notebook. “Now that the Antikythera mechanism has been assembled,” she whispered, “I suggest you find Milton Sirotta in Googology. He’ll tell you more when you get there.”
Cosmo straightened and nodded. “Thank you, Lenora,” he said, and rushed out of the room.
And then it hit her. Something Rosa had said earlier … Hoping against hope, Lenora asked with a tremor, “Rosa—you said you can locate anyone once you have their image. Can you find a man named Zenodotus?” Quickly, she described what she knew about him to Rosa, about his distinctive mustache and blue robe, and his energy and vigor and strength and green eyes and old spectacles.
Rosa touched device to helmet, which lit up instantly. “Yes. I have located him.”
Lenora almost fell to the floor. “Where is he? Can you send us to him?”
“Yes. Though…” Rosa hesitated. “He has changed somehow. He is not quite as he was described. I’m unable to tell you more.”
Lenora nodded. “We’ll figure it out when we get there. Let’s go!”
“I will teleport you there,” replied Rosa. “But I am afraid I cannot come with you. For now that I have my notes, I must meet my ship. It is time for me to go home.”
Lenora nodded again. “I understand,” she said. “But just in case anything goes wrong…” And she whispered to Rosa about Milton Sirotta and Googology.
“Thank you,” said Rosa. “I will remember.”
“Thank you!” said Lenora. “Good luck with your book, and do send me a copy!”
“I will,” said Rosa. And the alien pointed yet another device at Lenora and Lucy, or rather Ada.
The girls vanished.