"Why couldn't it be simpler?" Matt complained as he struggled with the security console. It wasn't like the console that controlled the light in the office. It's far more complex and daunting. Using his Sonic Screwdriver didn't do much to help him override it. Apparently, whoever created the library thought ahead and made sure that no one can simply override it, at least with the Sonic Screwdriver. So, Matt's doing it the old-fashioned way and Jodie's helping him, too.
Even she couldn't override it, even if she tired. Someone really thought ahead when they made the security protocols for the library that made it nearly impossible for anyone to override. Overt, it's not easy as it looked, and Jodie's cracked many security systems in her time. She even cracked the security protocols for a toaster and made mayhem with it shooting toast at people.
"Someone must really not want these books getting out," Matt coughed as he tried to squeeze himself into a tight fit, tugging on wires as he went through them. He counted so many fake wires, at one point, he wondered if this was a test kit mixed in with the real thing.
Jodie told him that it's important to have subterfuge whenever possible. Fake wires, fake buttons, the whole nine yards. She said, "These books are one of a kind, Doc, there's no chance anyone's touching them."
The library's built the way it is, at a time when powers tried controlling their people, and one major way, book burning. Fearful of those powers coming into the library, the builders made sure they couldn't do anything to destroy it and the books. Even fireproofing the entire library to keep them from trying.
"Oh, okay, here we go," Matt grabbed two wires and carefully cut them. Fusing them together, Matt asked for Jodie's assistance as she awkwardly moved around his legs to look at the screen as Matt tied the wires together.
Jodie expertly moved her hands over the large keyboard and pressed button combinations as she looked at the scrawls of text.
"How're we looking?" Matt called out to Jodie through the cutout underneath the keyboard that they made so Matt could get underneath and rewire.
Jodie knelt near the cutout to tell him, "So far, still locked. Keep trying!"
Matt sighed as he went through the next bit of wires, trying to find the next two wires that weren't fakes.
It's a miracle that whoever put this security console together didn't get confused about what wires were fake and what ones were real. In fact, it confounds Matt that anyone's capable of doing something like this without going mad or hurt.
He worked with the light from his Sonic Screwdriver as he tried to sort the wires before coming across two more wires that weren't fake and carefully followed the wires to where they attached before making the deduction that they'd help with the effort.
Carefully, he cut them with a little corner of the interior before tying them together. It's getting warmer since there's no ventilation and Matt's breathing caused the temperature to slowly rise. Sweating, Matt wiped his face with his forearm before calling out to Jodie what's on the prompt now.
"Error 404," Jodie told him.
Matt called out, "What's that mean?"
Jodie responded, "You need to find more wires!"
Groaning, Matt continued hunting for the appropriate wires. He searched through the forest of wires before coming across four wires and they're different colours. If he did this part wrong, it'll crash the hard drive and thus Jodie won't be able to access the menu. Using Jodie's help, Matt carefully chose the two wires to cit and fused two halves together before fusing the last halves with the two remaining wires. Then fused the remaining wires together.
"Okay, what now?" Matt called out to Jodie.
Jodie's quiet for a few minutes and she then said, "Okay, it's loading1'
Matt asked if he's able to leave the interior, it's warmer and he rather not stay inside it longer than he should.
Jodie told him to wait and he did.
"Uhhh… says I need a password," Jodie called down to him.
Matt asked if she could override it and she tried, but no luck. She said the only way to bypass the password… more wires.
Groaning, Matt looked for more wires. Searching through more fake wires, he came across eight wires and asked Jodie what they're for. He heard from her they're for admin controls and he followed her commands as he began splicing wires together. It's arduous and Matt's thankful he learned how to do this from Ripley and wished she was with him doing this.
Finding the last one, Matt called out to Jodie one last time and she said she's in the menu and now has admin access to the security console.
She helped Matt out from underneath by pulling on his long legs and he came out with matted hair and sweaty face. Helping him up, Jodie brushed off the dust from his clothes as he stretched his arms and legs, popping his back.
Patting himself down, he turned around to face the large monitor as it's menu loaded, revealing administrative controls for the library.
Maneuvering through the menu, the duo found the map and Jodie downloaded it to her memory as well as Matt downloading it to his Sonic Screwdriver.
With the map, they pinpointed where Mallory's team stationed and worked to unlock the security protocol, allowing the books readable.
"Okay, little this, little that," Matt watched Jodie as she took over. Her dark eyes wildly looked through the scrawls of text before she found the correct settings and maneuvered them.
The moment she hit a button, there text on the monitor spelled out, "UNLOCKED" and Jodie crossed her arms as she smiled.
"Hah! There's no security that I can't beat!" Jodie boasted as Matt sighed.
When the text disappeared, it sent them back to the menu and Matt noticed the log. He asked Jodie to redirect them to it and she nods.
The screen changed to logs and there Matt saw dozens of logs from different dates. He wasn't sure if he saw it correctly, but he saw the dates going far back as 1499.
Dark green eyes moved towards the logs that showed recent dates and he noticed one log out of place. He had Jodie open it and she did with little effort, not even a password.
The log opened and there's only one sentence in it, unlike the quadrillion word counts in the other logs
It read: I LIVE.
The duo quizzically looked at the sentence as it only said that and looked at the date. The date's recent and Jodie affirmed the current date within the library, April 24th, 2100.
"February 13th?" Matt looked at her, puzzled.
Jodie nodded, her short blond hair bobbed up and down.
Matt asked who wrote it, as there wasn't a little bit at the bottom screen.
Working, Jodie shook her head as she didn't know who wrote it, other than they gotten administrative rights to do it. Interestingly, it's administrative rights, but not from a person who helped with the library's creation, rather, it's not a person at all.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Matt blinked.
Jodie couldn't show him on the account all the references of it extended to the quadrillion word counted logs, so she broached the relevant bits and said that when the last person died in the library, they made sure that it's always protected.
They created something, something inhuman, so it wouldn't trip the security protocol, and wouldn't require sustenance.
Practically immortal, it wouldn't die of illness or starvation, whatever it is, lived in the library for thousands of years. It appeared though, as Jodie noted from the bits she took, that there's something wrong with it. It did it's duties in protecting the library, but started acting out, rather unusual for something that shouldn't have any semblance of intelligence.
"What is it?" Matt asked Jodie.
Jodie looked through the logs and replied, "I don't know, it's not in the logs."
She tried, but it appeared the last person that lived deleted the information from the logs. Likely to keep outsiders from discovering weaknesses.
Looking back at the recent logs, it showed that whatever it is, once mindless, now held the markers for intelligence. How intelligent, they don't know.
It appeared that whatever it is, wasn't happy about the arrangement, and shown active aggression to the idea of remaining in the library.
Dawning on Matt, he realized that Mallory said that they didn't find the library until it suddenly showed up on the scanners.
"Oh my god," Matt swallowed air as he realized what happened.
Whatever it is became sentient and intentionally allowed the library to broadcast its location, to lure someone to it.
"It could be anywhere," Jodie flinched.
Matt frowned as he agreed with Jodie.
He rushed with her out of the office they found tucked away behind a fake wall and hurried back to the camp.
There's no chance that whatever this thing is, has good plans when it leaves.
If it's clever in luring people, there's a good chance it'll do whatever it takes to get out of the library, one way or another.
As they moved through the aisles, they noticed the library plunged back into darkness again.
In the distance, the duo saw the faint outlines of the team tending to one of their own and their lights out, too.
Upon arriving, Mallory turned her head to see Matt hurrying towards her.
"Mallory. Problem. Big. Something lured you here," Matt summed quickly.
He saw Clarkson coughing and asked what happened.
"Something grabbed me from behind and dragged me god knows where," Clarkson told him.
Samuels told Matt that it eventually let go and sent Clarkson into a bookcase. He's okay, just a cut lip, but it could've worse.
"I told you I heard something," Rebecca told them.
Mallory got Matt's attention and he turned his head to her.
"What're you talking about?" Mallory asks him.
Matt told her, "It's… uh… guardian… I guess you can say… and it's not happy about the living arrangement."
Confused, Mallory slightly turned her head to her team before turning back to Matt. She leaned forward and asked, "Are you sure?"
Jodie leaned forward and affirmed what they witnessed.
"But you override the security, right?" Mallory asked them.
Matt nodded.
"Why didn't it escape, then?" Mallory wondered why the appointed guardian didn't leave. If it had the administrative controls, it should've easily left on it's own accord.
Until Matt reminded her that the library's on an undisclosed location and given how many visitors came to the library these days, it's likely going for the first ones who spot the library on their scanners. It likely couldn't leave on it's own since there'd be no ways out of the library, wouldn't make sense.
"It's sentient, it can write," Matt told her. "It's probably learnt all sorts of languages here."
Added with its immortality, the guardian spent its eternal years reading, and it showed that it learnt plenty.
"Can it be bargained?" Mallory asks him.
Matt shrugged as he replied, "I don't know. I wouldn't think it'd kill us. We're the only ones that visited the library since inception. More than anything, it'd want your ship."
Mallory flatly told him that it couldn't take the ship, it's locked.
She's the only one with the key and override codes.
"Yeah, well, you know what they say about caged birds," Matt reminded her.
Mallory told him she can handle her own.
Looking around, Matt didn't see Ripley, and asked Mallory, "Where's Rip?"
He saw Mallory look at him funny and he asked her what was wrong.
"Matt, we saw you with her," Mallory told him. "You were looking for Jodie."
While recovering Clarkson from the bizarre incident, the team saw Matt walking with Ripley. Mallory caught up to them and Matt told her that Jodie's lost and that he needed Ripley's help finding her.
She would've gone with, but he told her to stay with the team and help Clarkson.
"Me?" Matt blinked. "Mallory, I was with Jodie the whole time."
Jodie affirmed that he was with her at the security console.
Mallory affirmed what happened and it gave Matt pause.
Turning his head to Jodie, he asked her if she can track Ripley, and she nodded.
"Of course, I can track anyone!" Jodie asserted her ability to track people. She's rather good with that.
Matt told her to track Ripley and she acknowledged his order.
Mallory got his attention and he told her, "When we came here, I grabbed one of the books. I was about to put it away when I got a paper cut."
Coming to the library and noticing the books without words, Matt didn't think of anything when he gotten a paper cut as he tried putting a book he grabbed away. Everyone gets paper cuts, at least once, his thinking went.
"The scanner would've told us," Mallory winced as Matt painted a picture for her.
Matt nods, but he reminded Mallory, "It's clever enough to pull you here. It's clever enough to fool the scanner."