“Really? And this—the clustering—how often has any Trainee turned that up?”

A quick shake of the head. “Never. This is a new discovery.”

“Really?” She had thought she would surprise him, get some reward, but… new?

“No one knows this. Wormholes throughout! Maybe nearby? So—if there’s one nearby—where is it?”

This was going too fast for her. Drop any mention of the Ythri wormhole, then. “I sure as hell don’t know. I’m not an astronomer! I want to be a lifelong Librarian.” And to live a long time, too…

The Prefect nodded. “So you shall be, in time.” He paused, gazing at the slow, sure grind of the galaxy. “We have a saying, we Prefects. ‘Creativity may be hard to nurture, but it’s easy to thwart.’ You have proven that we do occasionally let talent get through.”

She sat silent, not knowing where this was going.

“Also… congratulations.”

“What?”

“You have found the unsaid. The essence of research.”

“What…?”

“The Library is not a mere decoding society. We must use the full range of exploration, not just the Messages. You saw that. You first ferreted out a truth we Prefects do not wish to make known—the deaths of whole worlds, the closing in of others. Your discovery now, the proximity of the stricken worlds—is a gift.”

“Gift?”

“Yes. Much we discover needs time to… digest. But we become calcified, mere decoders. To become a true Librarian, one must show innate curiosity, persistence, drive.”

“I, I just got interested. You leaned on me hard to keep up my studies, not fall behind the others—”

“It is they who have fallen behind. We cannot drill creativity into our Trainees. They must display it without being asked.”

She gaped at him, not following. “So…”

“You are now promoted. You shall not tell your fellow Trainees why. Let them bathe in mystery. Do not say a word of what you have learned.”

“But, but—”

For the first time ever, she saw the Prefect smile broadly. “Welcome. I will see to getting you a private office now, as well.”

Outside, the night Earth seen through the vast dome was a glowing halo, sunlight forming a thin rainbow circle. She saw his point. Earth was always there, and so were the waiting stars.

And something dark hid in the yawning beyond, something even a Nought or a Prefect did not know. Something shadowy in the offing out there in the galaxy, waiting, patient and eternal.

Wormholes? Through which something horrible came? They were out there, hanging like dark doorways between the stars.

It came in a flash she would recall all her life.

Now she knew what she wanted to solve, an arrow to pierce the night beyond… and find the doorways. To see across eternity and up, up into the consuming dark above that now awaited all humanity.

FRAQ

These grounder creatures have discovered their great truth. If the past is not alive in you, then the future will be empty.

Their future. And ours.