REZQ-universe commission for Scriber!

Even in the deep dark space future, where digital (and post-digital) technologies are everywhere, there is still a market for paper-based books. To this end, a number of spaceborne 'libraries' (though they are not working on the kind of generous, civic model as we might recognise them, being more like antique warehouses than libraries) operate to serve the storage and access needs of collectors, enthusiasts, and, most often, investors in the somehow constantly-appreciating value of paper books.

Scriber works in one such spaceborne library. Being worth--in financial terms--far less than any one of the books that he helps to administer, he is not able, unlike many would expect, to desert a 'live' storage room in the middle of an audit, even if the ship has just been punctured without warning by a chunk of asteroid. Especially when the ship has just been punctured without warning by a chunk of asteroid. Somebody has to put themselves between the books and any hard surfaces which might cause damage to them.

Poor Scriber -- if only he knew how happy most of the owners of the books would be to claim on his employers' insurance if the books were damaged.