What Is the City But the People

[Athena Myaló]

A library. Thank goodness. Athena stepped through the great glass doors into a bustling community center, full of people meeting and speaking to one another. This was a popular library, apparently, which only affirmed the storm trooper's claims of its greatness. She avoided the crowds and desks scattered around the first floor and began heading towards the elevator, when she stopped abruptly. Oh no. The last time she had been in a library, she had still possessed eyesight. She couldn't read...

With a sigh, Athena turned back and headed for the front desk, mind churning. There had to be a way to access the information in the books without actually seeing it. But, as nothing immediately presented itself to her mind (she felt that she had little Omnilium left, and doubted it would be enough to create a "seeing device" that she had never encountered in reality), she was forced to... ask for help. She bit her lip and approached the front desk, which was attended by a woman in uniform with a small earpiece. The employee looked up from her computer (which she had been busily typing on and maneuvering tabs) as Athena reached the desk.

Okay, Athena, act like you know exactly what you're doing. Her fingers tingled slightly with nervousness as she noticed the woman peering at her blindfold.

"How can I help you, miss?" asked the attendant.

"Well, I can't see..." Athena began. The other woman didn't seem to catch on, which surprised her. Wouldn't it be obvious that she needed an alternative to reading? "...so I need some way to access the information in the books without sight."

The woman at the desk cocked an eyebrow. "You need something that isn't in the Dataverse?" Again, oh no. Athena felt her face reddening a little automatically.

"What's that?" Athena said softly, almost visibly shrinking.

The attendant grinned, which annoyed her greatly, and said in a rather patronizing tone, "Are you new here?"

Athena nodded tersely, her fear mostly replaced by indignation. The woman at the desk proceeded to explain the Dataverse: how it held all virtual information and could be used from outside or entered directly. Athena had never heard of such a system, but it was awfully convenient. The idea of actually entering a physically nonexistent world was especially unusual, but Athena resolved to try it. Such a thing would be helpful to have access to.

"The interface stations are mostly on the eighth floor. The elevator is in the very back of the library. Do you need someone to guide you there?" offered the attendant. Athena didn't much care for her tone of voice during that last part.

"No, I think I can manage," she responded flatly (but mostly without conveying her vexation), and turned away to find the elevator. It's wasn't hard - she could feel the vertical movement inside the metal column, and it was in the very center of the building's rear wall. Once the door opened and she entered, she sensed which button was eighth from the bottom and pressed it. Soon, she was on the eighth floor and in front of a Dataverse entrance station. Now all she had to do was figure out how to enter it.

She carefully reached out to the edge of her senses, where a human was approaching a machine. She copied his movements and soon felt a humming in her mind as she was transferred into the Dataverse.

Athena gasped as light and colors appeared before her. It took her a few moments to realize that since this was virtual reality, it was hooked up directly to her brain - all this was illusory. It was pleasant to "see" just the same, though. She found herself at the entrance of the library known as the Databanks. It wasn't too dissimilar from the one she was physically in, but here she would find all she needed to know in an accessible format. It was perfect.

Now she simply had to find what she wanted to read.