Free Eternity's End by Jeffrey Carver Page A

point?"
    Harriet smiled and took a bite of her scone.
     
    * * *
     
    The Elmira Public Library was a tall-towered affair, originally designed as a mayoral office building and later converted to its more prosaic (in some views) role as library. As they walked from the hoverbus, Harriet told Legroeder that she loved the place, not for its auto-retrieval capabilities (she could do just as well from home or from a coffee bar) but for its collection of hard-copy books. Paper, mylar, parchment... she didn't care what they were printed on. "I like the permanence, the texture, the smell of old books—"
    "The dust, the dust-mites—"
    "Heavens, don't be so dreary." Harriet led the way up the steps and into the central hall of the library. "My dear Legroeder, sometimes you find information in hard-copy, or even from people, that you just don't find on the net."
    Legroeder grunted.
    "Well, you may turn out to be right. We'll see." She stepped forward briskly. They walked through the main reading room, past a small gallery of pastels on paper—aboriginal artwork. They came to a solid wood door at the back of the reading room, which let them into a hallway lined with offices and special study spaces. Harriet knocked on the door of the third room on the right. A Fabri aborigine female looked up from the desk. To Legroeder's eye, she looked identical to Vegas.
    "Quoya, Mrs. Mahoney," the woman said, with a musical chuckle. "Nice to see you."
    "Good morning, Adaria," said Harriet. "I wonder if you could help us with a problem today."
    "Ha, but I always tr-r-ry, do I not? What will it be today? Exotic cuisines frrom the Gar-r-rssen mountains? Animals from the cirrrcuses of the known galaxy? Architectural drawings from Old Earth?"
    Harriet smiled. "Not today, thank you. My friend Legroeder and I are looking for some old information that has passed out of circulation, and I thought perhaps if we searched some of the original paper records, we might find something."
    "Of course," chuckled Adaria, with a toothless smile; the Fabri had a pair of curved plates, not teeth, in their mouths. "What can I help you find?"
    "Well... we were hoping you might have some in-depth information on Impris , the legendary starship. Faber Eridani was its home port, you know. But I'm having trouble coming up with much."
    Adaria rocked back slightly. "Ffff. There was nothing in the main records?"
    "Not to speak of. That's why we thought perhaps the original materials—"
    "Ahh. Those may be a tr-r-rifle difficult to locate. But if you would like to wait—?"
    The librarian rose with a flutter and disappeared down the hall. When she returned, a few minutes later, she seemed agitated. "I've spoken to the archives director. Those were very old papers, and I'm afraid they were removed from the collection some years ago." She puffed a few times.
    Harriet cocked her head curiously. "I'm sorry to hear that. Is anything wrong, Adaria?"
    "What? Ffff—no. That is, I don't think so. It's just that the question seemed to disturb the director for some reason. I don't know why." The librarian nervously fluffed a vestigial wing.
    "I see," Harriet said, frowning. "Would you happen to know why the papers were removed?"
    Adaria looked uncertain. "Lack of demand, is the usual reason. If no one was interested, they wouldn't be kept forever."
    Legroeder stirred. "That seems odd. It was a Faber Eridani ship. Wouldn't someone be interested in the legend—for tourist value, if nothing else?"
    "An inter-r-resting question," said the Fabri. "I recall there were some private press items written on the subject. But they never generated much interest. We don't even have copies here."
    Harriet rubbed her chin, as the librarian shrugged. "Tell me. When the materials were removed, would they have been destroyed?"
    "Well—fffff—that's difficult to know. It's been years."
    "If they weren't destroyed, what would have been done with them?"
    Adaria clucked thoughtfully. "It's possible they were