The Library of Congress .:j:.

[Tyber.Zann]

When I first heard about the Library of Congress on Aricebo it was interesting; the collected knowledge of the Junkers Congress catalogued and maintained since it's very inception. Asking around I found it was thought of more as a memorial than a source of information nowadays as the neural net is so easily accessible. My search for details about a base I know existed but can't find anything about led me to look for alternate sources; why not try the library?

Accessing the database wasn't as easy as just showing up and inputting a search. I hadn't realized the repository contains sensitive information about nearly every group current and past operating in Sirius. There are records of contracts, detailed schematics, stories, and secrets collected from every corner of space. If the wrong people got ahold of the information within fortunes could be had or lost, as well as people's very lives. The Arbiters themselves are the only ones with unrestricted access. They personally grant authorization on a need to know basis.

The information I need relates to an attack on our organization with future security implications for the Congress. As such, Crow himself gave permission to utilize the Library's resources. When I arrived I input the security codes I'd been issued and submitted to the DNA scan to verify approved entry. I made my way to the user terminal, but another junker was already there downloading information. He was using a portable data storage device unlike one I'd seen before; it was a glowing blue cube. I mentioned it looked pretty cool and he smiled wearily and nodded at me. "It is pretty cool indeed" he agreed. I busied myself looking at various displays from the Congress history as he finished in short order what he was doing. I offered a friendly "Take care brother" as he left and he waved his hand in response on the way out.

I entered my query and a long list of results appeared. I began the tedious process of cross referencing and ruling out information to find something actually useful. I stood to take a break after eliminating dozens of irrelevant items and noticed the guy had left what appeared to be a very old piece of parchment behind by the computer banks. Grabbing it I quickly headed to the lobby on the off chance he hadn't left yet. I was alone in the Library.

I addressed the security console to learn the name of the junker so I might at least contact him and let him know he'd forgotten something. The electronic voice suggested 'The only access on this date was Arbiter Tinkerbell and Congressman Zann'. "Computer reconfirm identity, your answer is a mistake. Arbiter Tinkerbell has been missing for years. The man I'm looking for is the junker who was here with me earlier". 'The only access on this date was Arbiter Tinkerbell and Congressman Zann'. "Computer, you are in error; Arbiter Tinkerbell was at least seventy years old when he went missing. The guy I'm looking for is a much younger man and I'm absolutely positive it wasn't our beloved founder Arbiter Tinkerbell! Verify identity of the man here with me earlier". 'The security codes entered identify the owner as Arbiter Tinkerbell. DNA scan inconclusive. Overide protocal initiated. Identity confirmed: Arbiter Vladimir Tinkerbell'. "Computer, What did he download?" 'Everything'.

Immediately I put in a call to the boss. "We've got a problem here at the Library!" Arbiter Crow told me to calm down and talk him through what'd happened step by step. After describing the events he agreed it's not possible it was Tinkerbell, but was perplexed how he could have circumvented security. "What was the document he left behind?" he asked. I'd forgotten about it until he mentioned it. Scanning it quickly I looked into the monitor, "you're gonna have to see this for yourself. I'm on my way to you now".

[Tyber.Zann]

Arbiter Crow insisted I come directly to Carolina Outpost, as he and Arbiter Trenton were there working on the defense plan for Puerto Rico. Finn met me at the docking bay and led me directly to a conference room where the others waited to see what I'd discovered. I handed the parchment to Crow, who read over it intently several times before placing it on the table before us. I asked tentatively "Is it real?"

His face was solemn and he took a deep breath before speaking. "Yes Tyber, it's real. We've wondered for some time what had happened to Tinkerbell. We did everything we could to find him or at least learn what had become of him". Everyone listened intently as Crow smiled to himself quietly for a moment. "It seems my old friend had a last message for me. The freelancer you saw was simply delivering it for him".

"As soon as you told me of the breach in security I had some of our men stop his ship before it could get out of the system. They escorted him to me and I've spoken with him myself. He's no enemy. It was no accident you discovered this document. He didn't know where I'd be so it was his way of assuring an audience promptly. He gave me these". Pulling a black velvet pouch from his pocket he careful pulled out and placed two items on the table next to the parchment; an ancient looking signet ring and a worn gold coin with a familiar .:j:. engraved on the face. "The very first Junkers Congress coin, and Vladimir's family ring. They couldn't be here if he were still alive. He'd have died before giving them up." There was a silence in the room as we each accepted what was being revealed to us. JT stared at the items before him. "So he's really gone... I'd hoped..." He began, but trailed off and simply shook his head slowly. "Better to know" Finn added.

"Tyber" Crow said as he picked up the parchment and handed it to me. "You were chosen to deliver this, it seems right you be the one to read it out loud". Clearing my throat I started reading the words... "The Last Will & Testament of Vladimir Tinkerbell"

---

---

"I grew up at Rochester Junker Base in New York System. As Junkers, my family was never really part of Liberty but even so we had a firm sense of obligation to show a level of public respect to it. Many Junkers were lawfully employed in Liberty salvage operations and we all lived off the resources of the system. As one of these Junkers, I would have been content to simply follow in my father's footsteps but for one thing...his footsteps hadn't walked the path of your typical Junker. By outward appearances you would have never known this but living with him as part of family, it was glaringly obvious.

Late in the night, well-known Junkers would visit our home--patrons, men of influence and respect and power. These were the elders of the Junker community--the men who forged deals with the Outcasts, Corsairs, Rogues, Lane Hackers and police and navy. I knew there was more to Junker life than flying the metal scrap fields of Liberty. There were ship designs like nothing else seen in Sirius--built by Junkers. We had bases scattered throughout Sirius in the most unlikely of places and were present nearly everywhere with the exception of Kusari. Next to the Zoners, there was no one else like us.

I always felt the disdain and prejudice so often directed at us by "respectable citizens" had it's root in fear. We were the shadow...a people who should by all means be living in near poverty with little to show for ourselves but were instead found near every place of power. Our strength was that we couldn't be defined or controlled--we were an enigma.

One of the traditions in my family was the mandate handed down from my father and his father that the eldest was to be taught as a "living book". The traditions and histories of our family all the way back to Old Earth were to be retained in our memories and available for recall to any who wanted to know. I learned of my roots in a place known as Romania and learned the language, it's histories and traditions. My father or grandfather would--without warning--speak to me in the old tongue and challenge me to recite some memorized fact or element of history. For my grandfather, the history of Romania's "Gypsies" was the fondest. Often, he would say that we were the "New Gypsies" of Sirius but then he would emphasize that we also came from a lineage of conquerors and kings. His pride in this was so great that I could not help but to be moved--even though I never fully understood it.

It was not until I was in my thirties that I first heard mention of the word "Gallia". I had never known how many connotations that word "king" had had in our family and it wasn't until much later that I would realize how truly significant it was.

But outside my home, the coming and going of pirate fleets in New York, the never ending stream of Liberty warships on patrol and the mine shrouded entrance to a place that didn't exist all spoke to me too and told me that there was much, much more to life than just gathering scrap and cutting deals for a slice of someone's backroom scam. I knew that if Junkers truly were going to be not just special--but great--that Junkers with that vision would have to stand up and lead. The fact that I, late in my life was willing to do that can be attributed to one thing--the Nomads.
If ever there was anything to be feared and reviled and distrusted and prepared for...it was them. How Liberty and the rest of Sirius could sleep in the presence of such a menace was as frightening to me as the Nomads themselves. I realized that it wasn't only Junker survival at stake--it was mankind's.

So I stood up and did my part. I remember at a young age when one of the new Scorpion gunboats was first seen and actually emerged in New York system. For two hours a battle raged. I had just bought my first CSV and I entered into the naval fight driven by fear, adrenaline and youthful fascination. Several of the Nomad fighters tried to track me but I drew fire for the Liberty battlegroup and they were driven off. What flat out astounded me is afterwards everyone was right back to business as usual. It was as if the circus had come to town, done their show and then packed their tents and left. No one seemed to give it a second thought. For me it was the imprimatur event that showed exactly what was at stake.

Sirius has forgotten the days of Edison Trent and what was risked before his victory. We've fallen into a malaise and convinced ourselves that it is only Nomad sheep in our dreams that we see--that the threat is gone and nothing more now than a vestigial itch.

I recall vividly the night my grandfather and the father of my friend, Oniros were shouting in French at one another. It surprised me. My grandfather had always spoken Romanian as his own book language--unlike the family of Oniros who had indeed always preserved French customs and memory. It was the next morning my father called me aside and explained our Gallic origins and that Oniros' and my own grandfather were still active agents for its Crown. The argument in the night had been over our fathers declaring their allegiances were to the Junkers of all of Sirius and not to a king. I think it was that night that all the memories I had preserved, the proud Junkers I had admired, the wonders of Sirius and the admiration of my own father all came together and convinced me that Junkers needed to be more than servants to others.

So I leave a few humble symbols as examples for all Junkers of what they should be...the Congress, the Barge, the Recycler, Puerto Rico system, the Junker AI Accords and the Library of Congress itself. I leave behind a legacy of standing up to all authorities who use Junkers as convenient resources yet give no opportunity to and I call all Junkers to look to the ideals of freedom, security and self-government and defense as ideals that can bind them together.

The revelation of Gallia is the new great threat to Sirius--the Crown is not to be trusted. War will come. More so, it is always at that point of grand conflict--when all sides are embroiled and sitracted that they come--the Nomads.

Gallia will unlock the gate to hell with its' greed and the Nomads will come through it in a great attempt to claim us all while we are distracted.

The Harvesters are gone. The one thing Nomads have uncertainty regarding and have paid little attention to is the seeming mere "machines" that men have built. The Congress formally recognized those sentiences as individuals because in them lies the potential of our greatest ally against our true enemy--the Nomads. If we can forge relationships and shared interest and views now with our Mecha brothers, then it may be one day that some will stand with us against those who reject us all.

I will not be seen again. The Rheinland reconstruction as not scrapped as we had said. It was hidden in the first barge--the one that has been modified to use the gravities of the Rift in Puerto Rico to attempt to transit space without the aids of gate lanes or wormholes. Harvester One feels confident this might be done and we are merged in this effort. If I survive, I will attempt to get word back to the Congress of how our effort went. Accept any messenger who bears my identifications and codes as you would me.

This is my heritage, this is my legacy. Remember the past and prepare, or perish. No one else will save you Junkers--you must all save yourselves through your own actions and preparedness--and in saving yourselves, you may be the salvation of all of Sirius. Take up the standard.

Vladimir Tinkerbell"