Read Online A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge - Free Book Online Page A

cold was beginning to seep past his jacket and through his full-pressure coveralls. The gear was not designed for extended contact with such a heat sink. He shifted about awkwardly on the narrow steps. In a one-gee field, this sort of acrobatics got old fast....But his new position gave him a view around the corner of the building. And on this side, some of the covering panels had fallen from the windows. Vinh leaned precariously out from the stairs, trying to make sense of what he saw within the room. Everything was covered with a patina of airsnow. Waist-high racks or cabinets were set in long rows. Above them were a metal framework and still more cabinets. Spider stairs connected one level to the other. Of course, to a Spider those cabinets would not be "waist-high." Hmm. There were loose objects piled on top, each a collection of flat plates hinged at one end. Some were folded all together, others were carelessly spread out, like vanity fans.
    His sudden understanding was like an electric shock, and he spoke on the public sequency without thinking. "Excuse me, Crewleader Diem?"
    The conversation with those above came to a surprised halt.
    "What is it, Vinh?" said Diem.
    "Take a look through my pov. I think we've found a library."
    Somebody up above yelped with pleasure. It really sounded like Trixia.

    Thumper analysis would have brought them to the library eventually, but Ezr's find was a significant shortcut.
    There was a large door in back; getting the walker in was easy. The walker contained a high-speed scanning manipulator. It took a while for it to adapt to the strange shape of these "books," but now the robot was moving at breakneck speed down the shelves—one or two centimeters per second—two of Diem's crew feeding a steady stream of books into its maw. There was a polite argument audible from on high. This landing was part of the joint plan, all on a negotiated schedule that was to end in just under 100Ksec. In that time they might not be done with this library, much less with the other buildings and the cave entrance. The Emergents didn't want to make an exception for this one landing. Instead, they suggested bringing one of their larger vehicles right to the valley floor and scooping up artifacts en masse.
    "And still a lurking strategy can be maintained," came a male Emergent voice. "We can blow out the valley walls, make it look like massive rockfalls destroyed the village at the bottom."
    "Hey, these fellows really have the light touch," Benny Wen's voice came into his ear on their private channel. Ezr didn't reply. The Emergent suggestion wasn't exactly irrational, just...foreign. The Qeng Hotraded. The more sadistic of them might enjoy pauperizing the competition, but almost all wanted customers who would look forward to the next fleecing. Simply wrecking or stealing was...gross. And why do it when they could come back again to probe around?
    High above, the Emergent proposal was politely rejected and a follow-on mission to this glorious valley was put at the head of the list for future joint adventures.
    Diem sent Benny and Ezr Vinh to scout out the shelves. This library might hold one hundred thousand volumes, only a few hundred gigabytes, but that was far too much for the time remaining. Ultimately, they might have to pick and choose, hopefully finding the holy grail of such an operation—a children's illustrated reader.
    As the Ksecs passed, Diem rotated his crewmembers between feeding the scanner, bringing books down from the upper stories to be read, and returning books to their original places.
    By the time Vinh's meal break came, the OnOff star had swung down from its position near the zenith. Now it hung just above the crags at the far end of the valley and cast shadows from the buildings down the length of the street. He found a snow-free patch of ground, dropped an insulating blanket on it, and took the weight off his feet. Oh, that felt good. Diem had given him fifteen hundred seconds for