The Edge

Luca: Part Two

Luca was still nervous about whatever they might be facing down below, but he could say this much: the place looked really cool. The stars of the night sky were unobscured by any light pollution, and the landscape was composed primarily of large, quartz-looking crystal formations of various sizes. There were only two clusters of light that indicated civilization; everything else was the purple-blue of the crystals. Luca hoped that small population meant fewer problems.

Then again, with how everything's been going, this will end up being the place we run into something like...crystal monsters or something. As much as his anxiety hated the thought, he couldn't entirely logic his way out of it. So much insane shit had happened to them lately that his mental parameters for what was and wasn't reasonable were a bit skewed.

"I still can't believe there's anyone here," Adoette said. She'd managed to connect to the local 'net and was examining what it had to offer. "I mean, yeah, it's mostly geologists, but it's still more people than I was expecting."

"Geologists?" Luca asked as he glanced back out the window. "So, these aren't just really big crystals?"

"Nah, I guess there's something special about them? There's a lot of words here that are out of my expertise. Nothing dangerous that I can tell...oh, here, something about Alan." Her eyes darted across the page before widening. "Top ten largest libraries in populated space. All the way out here?!"

"It probably helps prevent book theft," Arian noted. "You'd be shocked how much some old books are worth."

"How do you know? Stolen some before?"

"Absolutely not. Book people are insane. Their houses can have more security than most major banks, and even if they don't..." He mimed swinging a weapon. "...they won't hit to maim, they'll hit to kill. I'd heard enough horror stories not to try it."

Luca believed it. He was pretty attached to his guitar as it was; if he had a whole collection of them, he'd invest in a serious security system and a robust bat, too. Seemed perfectly reasonable to him. (Not that he'd personally kill someone with a baseball bat, but it'd be a good deterrent, and it'd make him feel better.) Even Adoette had to shrug eh, makes sense once she thought about it. "So, we should keep your hands in our pockets when we're in this place?" she asked.

"Hands where he can see them is probably better, to be honest. What's his name, again?"

"Alan..." She tapped at the screen. "...Martinez. No picture included, but it looks like he's the only person staffing the place. Did Helen call ahead?"

"She said she was going to. Probably smart. With our luck, he'll be the one book guy with anti-air missiles."

Luca winced. "Hey, could you...not throw stuff like that out there? Because now that's all I'm going to be able to think about."

"Sorry," Arian said. He did sound genuinely apologetic; he'd been around Luca enough to know that he wasn't being dramatic. "I feel like John would've warned us, to be fair. Or maybe he gave Alan advance notice. He seems chill for a guy with an accidental cult."

Luca nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he seemed nice." The ship shuddered slightly as they started descending. Luca flinched. "Should we strap in?"

"Yeah, probably." Adoette sighed as she got up. "I just hope this place doesn't have any shit weather."

"Same." Luca had about had it with weather delays.

Adoette brought up the ship's external cameras as they went in for a landing, giving them their first real glimpse of the library. It looked like a pretty standard mansion-type building, or maybe a fancy city library, just stuck in the middle of a crystal dwarf planet. How had this guy gotten a place like that built? How much money did he have?! "Nearest landing zone is a fifteen-minute walk," Adoette noted, "so there's that."