Tomes & Talismans

(dramatic music) (ominous music) (evil laughter) -

Narrator

User youths have studied two human artifacts, books. One is fiction, an invented imaginary story, the other is nonfiction, a book of factual knowledge. The youths set out to find a more complete book data bank. They discovered a bookmobile and the entranced librarian.

In the bookmobile's fiction section shelved by an alphabet ordering system using the author's last name, they find The Story of the Amulet. The librarian awakens. But vicious Wiper scouts lurk nearby. Did you see anything?

There were two Wipers out there but they have departed. I have lost my navigational computer. I will report the Wiper activity and our status to Tesla immediately. I cannot get through on our frequency to Tesla.

That is highly irregular. There must be some degree of atmospheric interference. I know a safe place where we can hide. It's underground.

I suggest we depart for the safe place immediately. -

Varian

How much further is this place? Why is it hidden? -

Ms. Bookhart

It isn't far. This place was hidden away from Wipers to save a copy of all the books that were in existence when my people evacuated 100 years ago. -

Aphos

Was this intended to be your information storage center similar to our Random Access Crystal Storage Area? -

Ms. Bookhart

Uh, well, I guess. It was my assignment to gather and preserve all the books for the return of my people someday. -

Abakas

Do you mean that Earthlings plan to return to this planet in the future? -

Ms. Bookhart

I hope so. Ferrite, don't you have something to do besides bang on that? Like what? Get the platoon commanders together.

I need to talk with them. I'll check on the boys and get on it right away, chief. That's it! Careful.

I hope I can find my key card. Just where I left it 100 years ago. Gonna be heavy. Okay.

(straining) Follow me. (light music) It's a mess. It looks like an earthquake hit. Everything is in total disorder.

Excuse me, Earthling. My name is Ms. Bookhart. You may call me Aphos.

- I'm Varian. I'm Aphos' sister, Abakas. My name is Lidar. Pleased to meet you.

Ms. Bookhart, where may I find the power source in this subterranean location? Oh, it's over there but it may not be working after 100 years of neglect. What is that thing?

It's a limited supplier of energy. Varian, Abakas, and Lidar possess one also. If we use them sparingly they may last us until we return to the base, then they must be recharged. We call them batteries.

No, no, no, don't put that on that. That's good trash. Hey, look what we've got. Look what we've got.

-

Wiper

What do you think it could be possibly? We found it in the bushes over there where somebody dropped it or something. I don't have time for that right now. Chief Humbuckler has ordered all platoon commanders back to headquarters.

He's planning something big. Let's go. All right, oh yeah, follow me. We're gonna see the chief.

- No, no, give it to me. Hey, Montgomery buddy, back to command. Believe it or not, after 100 years of sleep I feel exhausted just thinking about cleaning up this place. I'm beginning to have wished you had never awakened me.

Perhaps the Universal Being can reactivate the spell? No, no, I was only kidding. Kidding? But I was wondering, how did you break the spell?

The Universal Being gave us a clue that led us to The Story of the Amulet. The book just opened to this page. Nobody can continue to live in a land and in a time not appointed. That's me.

Living on Earth 100 years after everyone has left. A land in time not appointed which means a land in time not meant to be. Yes, we know. That's right.

I forgot you have little trouble with our language even as it was written 100 years before I was born. How do you know when the book was written? I simply look for the copyright date in the copyright page. Copyright?

Copyright page? I thought you knew everything. And knowing the word for something is not the same as knowing how the thing is used particularly if it's something you've never seen before like this copyright page. I see your point.

Well, the copyright page is here right after the title page. The earliest copyright shows the year the book was first published. A copyright keeps others from copying any part of the book without permission. Sometimes there's more than one date.

Every date indicates another published edition or version of the book. Why did they publish another edition? Because new information is always being discovered. Many books need to be updated.

The book with the most recent copyright date gives the most current information. You can always tell one copyright date because there's a small "C" with a circle around it next to it. But this is a fiction book. It has no factual use.

It doesn't explain anything real or give any current information. Why did this earthling, Edith Nesbit, bother to invent this book in the first place? That's imagination. Observe here.

Inside the book the name and the author are repeated just as they appear on the outside of the book. -

Ms. Bookhart

That's the title page of the book. Yes, the title page. What use is it? The title is already on the book.

You humans had many useless things. The title page has an important use. First of all, Aphos, the title and author are on this page as well as the person who drew all the pictures. That person is the illustrator.

-

Abakas

In this book the illustrator is H.R. Millar. Good, Abakas. And the name of the company which actually made the book, the publisher.

In this book, MAET Media. Why is it necessary to repeat the same information which appears on the cover? Lidar, books are objects. A book cover may be lost or simply covered up.

Nothing lasts forever. Data from the Alpha Centauri system is being blocked due to unknown interference. Very well. Return to your terminal and keep me informed.

Elder Tesla. - Yes? Please observe my interference indicator. It appears that there is major interference directly over the base at exosphere level one.

Can you verify with another cycle source? (machine beeping) Yes. I verify. Relay this information immediately to all external operator terminals and inform me of any change.

This primitive computer is interesting but it has no communication program, and our personal frequency to Tesla is jammed as well as all general frequencies. Perhaps we should remain here until we can establish communication with the base and verify there's no danger? I agree, but must we simply remain idle? Better to do something than nothing, isn't that how the old saying goes?

Well, you can help me get things back to normal here. Certainly but we do not know what is normal here. Don't worry, I'll show you. Tell you what.

Let's begin over there in the nonfiction section. Use caution. - Be careful! (grunting) Do you know anything about nonfiction?

Nonfiction is the opposite of fiction. It is true information, fact. You are learning about books, Aphos. If you just pick up the books on the floor and pile them here in this cart I'll begin to sort them.

Ms. Bookhart, can you identify this? -

Ms. Bookhart

This is a table of contents. Table of contents? Oh, it isn't a table like this one. The table of contents is the part of the book that appears right in the beginning, usually after the copyright page.

It tells generally what the book contains, the major sections, and the order in which they come in the book. The page numbers over here tell where each section begins. -

Varian

Oh the table of contents is listed in numerical order? Unit 1 The Early Wipers. Chapter 1 The Planet They Called Home. Chapter 2 Wiper Exiles in Space.

What is this book? Aphos, where did you find this? I'm almost sure this is a table of contents from a volume of the history of Wipers on Earth. Come, I'll show you.

Yes. Here's the cover. Ms. Bookhart, please.

This is volume one. This is the same as the book we found at the ruins and brought to our base. The same? Well, that one had the same name, the History of Wipers on Earth, only it was volume three.

Volume three? You mean you found it, the lost volume? That's the book I was searching for when the bookmobile broke down. With volume three here, my mission will be accomplished.

But what good is this library when my people may never return to Earth to use it. But it will be useful to us. We can feed this Earthling knowledge into our main computer and determine how to drive the Wipers from this planet. That would be wonderful.

But we don't have your computer. What can we do now? Better to do something than nothing. Let us begin by reconstructing volume one of the History of Wipers on Earth.

Ferrite? Ferrite! Ferrite! Yeah, right here, Chief.

Are all the platoon commanders here? Yeah, like the say, the jammers work here. Yeah, good. I wanna test the coil.

I wanna test the dome. I wanna test the dome (laughs). Right, Chief. Okay, I think we've got these pages in order now.

Title page, the copyright page, next comes the foreword. -

Aphos

The foreword? -

Ms. Bookhart

It tells why the book was written. It's written by someone other than the author. Then comes the preface. -

Aphos

What's a preface used for? The preface is somewhat like the foreword. It explains how to use the book. It's written directly to the reader by the author.

And next the table of contents listing all the book sections including all the units and chapters. -

Aphos

You see, the units are the larger sections, like Unit 2, The Wipers Come to Earth, and the chapters are more specific like Chapter 3 The Crash Landing. The rest of the book is all the units and chapters in order. But at the end of all the units and chapters, you've put in more sheets of material. You mean pages?

Yes, like most history and other nonfiction books, this book has an index and a bibliography at the end of the book. An index? There are many kinds of indexes, but in books they're all at the end. They list each specific topic in alphabetical order.

-

Aphos

Why is it in alphabetical order? If you want to look up a specific topic, you can find it quickly by looking in the index. Look at the topics in this books. Animals, as food, predatory, antisocial behavior, anthropology, automobiles, destruction of, uses.

This is an index of all the subjects mentioned in the History of Wipers on Earth, Volume One. The page or pages where you will find subjects mentioned in the book appear next to the topic. Where in this book could you find information about Magnet Bombs? -

Aphos

You mean that by turning to page 76 I can find out about Wiper's Magnet Bombs? -

Ms. Bookhart

Yes and you can cross-reference by looking at Magnet in the index. See, Magnet Bomb 76. Weapons, 77 through 81. -

Aphos

How useful! By using the index you can find specific information quickly. This page is titled glossary. -

Ms. Bookhart

Another part of this book is the glossary. It shows how to pronounce some of the unusual words in the book and what they mean like-- -

Abakas

Krasblastonium? -

Lidar

That's one of the Wipers' favorite poisonous gases. -

Ms. Bookhart

And the book ends with the bibliography which is a listing of all the books the author used to get information for this book. The bibliography can lead to the many other books in the same subject. Yeah, Chief, just like we're gonna get those Users when the magnetic dome is ready, slammo. Yeah, I wanna go over the plan with the guys.

But, Chief, what about our dinner? You wanna be dinner? We're not really hungry, are we? We have quite a few books to put back together.

So let's make sure you know the book parts cover to cover and their order starting with-- The title page! - Which has? -

Varian

The title, the author. -

Abakas

The illustrator. -

Lidar

The company that printed the book, the publisher. -

Varian

And the place where the book was published. -

Ms. Bookhart

You do learn quickly. What's next? -

Varian

The copyright page in most books. -

Ms. Bookhart

How will you know a copyright page? -

Abakas

Because the copyright date would be there next to a C with a circle around it. The copyright date tells when the right to publish the book was given. The most recent copyright date gives the most current information. -

Ms. Bookhart

Exactly, Abakas. What's next? The preface and foreword in most books. They both tell why the book was written and perhaps how to use it.

The preface is written by the book's author, the foreword is written by someone else. -

Lidar

The table of contents comes next. -

Ms. Bookhart

Which does what? Tells you what's in the book by units and chapters and on which page they begin. Then all the pages of chapters and units. That's right.

And what normally follows those pages? -

Abakas

A glossary to show how the words are pronounced. -

Ms. Bookhart

Good, and what else? -

Aphos

A bibliography, a list of other books the author used to get information for this book. -

Varian

Then an index, an alphabetical list of subjects and topics referred to in the book. Good. I think you know what you're doing. I'm sorry, Commander, but at this point we have no explanation for this interference.

Col. Holden reporting. Tesla, my mother, I've had great difficulty contacting the base. There is an extreme magnetic force located at coordinates 7.8 at 10.5.

It is exerting emanations in a radius of 128 sets. Yes, we too have recorded aberrant atmospheric emanations. I'm concerned particularly about the late return of Aphos, Varian, and the other children. Perhaps communication with them is lost.

Commander, all systems-- -

Man

Synchronized modulation down. We lost communication capabilities. (men shouting and panicking) Attention, attention. Attention.

Attention everyone. We believe that the immediate exosphere is being blocked by an unidentified magnetic force. I must declare the base in a state of emergency. (machines beeping) (light music)