Starfire

Chapter 4: -The Library-

   The library was one of the few places that Najma knew of on-planet that had borrowed technology from other worlds. Thousands of shelves stretched in every direction, extending all the way up to the very tip of the domed roof that let a few glimmering beams of silver-tinged light in. The shelves held any number of different things from across the galaxy. There were long swaths of rolled parchments, books, and little black cases that held a strange things like datas disk which required special equipment to read, among many other things. Practically every way to store information, simply because they had a lot to store.

It also happened to be one of the only buildings that had been designed with bipedal creatures in mind. Most of the technology had been invented by the myriad of different humanoid races that covered the galaxy, and had to be accessed as such. In the center of the room there was a crescent of space with no shelves which held the majority of the digital data, along the computers on which they were stored. Black rectangles were inlaid into the tables every several feet, covered in shining black keys. When they were turned on, shimmering blue screens materialized above them. They flashed with colors and images of far-off worlds. The strangest thing about them, however, was the fact that he would have to shift to be able to work them.

Shifting was something that he hadn't yet learned to do—one of the few things that wouldn't be covered in his schooling that he was yet to learn. He would master it just as quickly as he'd learned everything else, though. He was sure of it.

He'd heard almost as soon as he'd learned to fly that most other species felt more comfortable when the person that was judging them or their case looked a little more like themselves, rather than an animal or beast, as they seemed to think the Yu-Liang were. That was the main reason that shifting was still practiced, but there were other reasons too. Shifting into a bigger creature so that one could do heavier work, shifting into a smaller creature to reach otherwise unreachable places, and if someone wanted to, they could blend in anywhere without being noticed. It was an exciting prospect, and just one more thing to make him a bit stronger.

It was made even better when he'd learned that it was among one of the traits that had to be intentionally honed. It had fallen largely out of practice among the average citizen, and the genes were singled apart and strengthened down the lines of council members. Najma happened to be the end of a particularly skilled shifting line. In fact, the Alnurs seemed particularly good at just about everything.

It made his claws itch just thinking of it, as well as all of the questions he'd refrained from asking until the time was right.

He was stunned out of his thoughts when, right before his eyes, his mother suddenly began to shrink. Her scales disappeared, and she no longer had claws, as if they had never been there at all. Her limbs straightened out and slimmed down. Her eyes were the only constant. The ice blue was an anchor, especially when he saw that she was an alien now. Well, he'd never seen an alien up close before, but he was fairly confident that she was one. She was just about the perfect size for using the little computers embedded in the table, and her paws now looked quite a good deal more dexterous than before. She might as well have not been his mother at all. Her face was flat, with front-facing, narrow eyes. It was a bit disappointing to realize that the first alien he was seeing in person wasn't really an alien at all.

She walked over to one of the desks after briefly baring her teeth in his direction. Her gait was odd, walking on two legs like that. She almost seemed to fall forward again and again, only just catching herself with the other gangly leg. But it was strangely graceful. She was built for it, after all. At least when she was like this.

She sat down on one of the alien chairs and started to click the little buttons in the desk. The blue screen flickered to life. Her bony, thin hands flew faster than he could track them. Script from another language began to fly across the screen before he could analyze it.