Somewhere deep in the center of an infinite portion of an infinite building, growing into the endless, infinite abyssal space it sits in, there is a man. He is reasonably sure he used to be considered a human, but that doesn’t matter so much these days. All that matters at the moment is continuing to keep the fires of knowledge burning.

He knows that most, if not all, of the rest of his kind, have fallen to the various plagues that now ravish Under Library, but he doesn’t have time to focus on that. He has valves to adjust and alarms to silence. The impossible balance has to be maintained.

He can feel that something has changed within the stacks of books. There are people planning to help. This will draw the attention of the beasts. Their eternal hunger risked the collapse of knowledge forever. He would not allow it. He pressed a button he hadn’t in centuries.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

There was a low crackling over a speaker above his head as he held the button down. He coughed lightly and then spoke into it.

“All janitorial staff, please begin the process of around-the-clock library card checking. All guests without cards are to be removed from the Library. Please provide Librarian Unit Zero Zero Four and former building engineer Bartholomew any help they request should you cross their paths.” He released the button.

There was more work to be done in the next decade than there had been in the last several hundred, and he was so very tired.