Challenge #02182-E353: Feeding Time at the Library

Been a while since I submitted a prompt, but I thought of some Archivaas running across references to DNA data storage - look here for my ramblings on the subject (it became too long for a normal prompt, as I am forever incapable of being concise). -- RecklessPrudence

[AN: They have actually encoded a gif in bacterial DNA so we're maybe not that very far off. There is a generational corruption problem to conquer though.]

Archivaas are not a race, though a large portion of them are Humans. They are not a religion, no two of them have the same relationship with any given deity. If they worship anything, they worship the preservation of information. Any information. They are that weird uncle who keeps all his receipts in a shoebox, and hoards gift cards for an unspecified future purpose. If anything is a temple to them, it is the library.

This library, however, is a zoo. Specifically, a herpetological zoo. If one wanted to get even more specific, it is a zoo of whiptail lizards. Hundreds of enclosures, each containing a perfect environment for a dozen whiptail lizards. These are the only known lizards with categories, ISBN's, and Dewey-Decimal encoding. Each enclosure contains a small library. They are DNA-encoded collections in biological containers. Not books. Anthologies. Encyclopaedias. Collections with themes.

Archivaas Prentice Taen's job was to bring around the grasshoppers. They are also carefully kept to reduce the instances of epigenetic drift that could corrupt the data. She always smiles when she reaches this particular enclosure. Dedicated to science fiction of a specific era. Of course, her supervisor and Senior Reshelver noticed.

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