Starfire

Chapter 5: -Earth... and The Courthouse-

   "Of course. It's a restricted planet. Near the edge of the quadrant, actually. Why?" she kept her eyes on the cube and its reader for a moment, expression cloudy. Then she looked back at him and the warmth was back.

   "It just seemed familiar, as though I'd heard the name before." He placed a hand over the data cube and let it linger there.

   "Maybe you're mistaking it for something else?" she suggested lightly before immediately brushing it off, maybe a bit too hastily, and moving on. "I've come to make sure you've eaten recently. I would have come sooner..."

   "It's alright. I know you're busy." He moved his hand from the cube to the side of his mother's face. It was warm and rough, broad beneath his small hand. "I actually ate just a few hours ago. I've been trying to remember, for your sake."

   She huffed, and he laughed in return, letting his hand fall to his side.

"I don't know what I'm to do with you."

   He tried to ignore the faint trace of sincerity hidden in the well-humored jab. He couldn't be sure, after all, if he was imagining it or not. He'd been trying to figure out if anything he noticed in her expressions was actually there, ever since the day he'd first realized that they might fear him or what he was capable of.

   "I can get you some additional information on Earth, if you'd like." She carried on, and he also tried his best to gauge if she was trying to distract him from what might have been a slip in her demeanor. "There are some things from before it was declared restricted, as well as plenty of records from routine monitoring."

   "That would be great." He smiled again and brushed off his doubts. He was being ridiculous.

   In addition to the lessons after that, he devoured every bit of information on Earth that they had, including what came in with the regular reports. It started as a driving curiosity to figure out why it had piqued his interest in the first place, but then it became closer to a fondness. There was something about the little outcast planet, isolated so far from other civilizations...

   He began to use a human form most frequently almost without thinking it. It was similar enough to the Laurangin one he'd been using. If his mother noticed the change, she didn't make any comments.

   He continued as normal, with the addition of any new information on Earth that he could gather.

   And so, after over a decade, Najma was finally finished. He used disks, little compact cubes that held data, books, and rolls of parchment, each one telling him something new about the culture that it came from, or about general galactic history. Wars without winners, conflict and peace, life and death. It was spread so thickly, everywhere he looked. It surrounded him, filling shelf after shelf. The entire universe might as well be held here. He knew now that there were several other floors, and even separate buildings that housed other stores of knowledge from across the quadrant. Of course, only the most important things were in The Library.

   At first, he couldn't believe he'd reached the end. He knew the last lesson had been approaching for some time, but it hadn't felt real up until the moment it happened. He even instinctually queued up the next lesson and waited a second, but it didn't come.

   Of course, he knew instantly that he would continue to learn. The records here were far more extensive than any other in the known universe, and held practically anything anyone would ever want to know about... everything. He could pour over any number of the thousands of records, and it was only a matter of choosing where to start—or where to continue.

   He jumped when the door to the library opened, and it took him a moment to pull himself out of his thoughts.

    His mother padded in, walking on all fours. He suddenly remembered the head council seat that he was supposed to fill one day, and was stunned that he'd ever managed to forget in the first place.