Chapter 4
The Awakening
Chloe waddled cautiously toward the stairs; her petit frame straining to carry the load of books she planned to check out. Why did I forget my bag, she thought frustrated. She was always forgetting things when she got excited and in a rush, like when she would go to The Library. The bag was a birthday gift from her mother, so she could carry her books on her regular escapades. Chloe would usually check the maximum number of books allowed every visit and read every one of them in the two week rental period. She loved books. Her brother had been trying to convince her to use digital copies and the Library even had such copies of every book in its collection for purchase or rental, but nothing could replace the sensation of having an actual book in her hands. She was not alone in this sentiment; the other bibliophiles that frequented The Library felt much the same way. It was the reason why the Lux Corporation constructed the planet sized facility in the first place. She could not wait to get home and start reading the books she was carrying which where selections from Victorian science fiction.
As Chloe began to daydream about the weird and wonderful adventures she would have in her reading nook, she reached the bottom of the stairway leading to the local check out desk. Chloe knew most of the librarians by name, since she had checked out books from nearly every section, but she could not remember who the librarian for this section was.
Finally, she reached the top of the stairs a little exhausted but triumphant. Now, she thought poking her head out from behind her books, how to open the door. After a little shifting, she turned her body so her left hand might just reach the door handle, but before she could get a hold of it, the door flew open and a tall raggedy man with a mighty chin stepped through as if on a mission. He was quite the intriguing character, not unlike one of the characters she might find in her books. Chloe managed to step out of his way just in time. As she turned to see the rude visitor gallop down the stairs, a second person came through the door and this time she could not avoid the collision. Chloe fell, losing her books and her glasses with a loud series of thumps.
"Oh! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me," he exclaimed.
"Oh, no, it's fine," assured Chloe, having pulled herself to her knees as she reached for her glasses. "This sort of thing happens all the time." She adjusted the amber frames of her glasses to her face and looked up at the man who bumped into her. He was dressed similar to the raggedy man from a moment before, like a throwback to the Victorian era of Earth history dressed in black, but he was not as tall or as thin. His face was square and handsome with a large crooked nose like it had been broken before, a goatee, and topped with wavy light brown hair slicked and combed to the side. He appeared to be of similar age to Chloe, twenty-five or twenty-six years of age. The young man's blue eyes stared down at her kindly. Chloe adjusted her green cardigan as she tried to regain her composure.
"Here, let me help you with that," he said stooping down and picking up a copy of H. G. Well's The Time Machine. When he noticed the title, he smiled. "We all have our time machines, don't we?" he recited as he handed her the book. "Those that take us back are memories and those that carry us forward…"
"…are dreams," said Chloe, finishing the quote excitedly. "You know H. G. Wells?" she asked eagerly.
"Indeed I do," he said with a chuckle as he began stacking books. "He was a fine fellow, but I couldn't say the same for Jules Verne. I found him to be a bit arrogant."
They finished gathering the books, and got back to their feet. Chloe straightened out the folds of her flower print dress and placed her brown hair band back in place before accepting the rest of the books from her new friend.
"But after a drink or two he calmed down enough," he continued, "One night between the two of them they developed the concept for warp drive…but then the arguing started again when Herbert wanted me to discuss the philosophical implications of it." The gentleman looked confused as he tried to recall the memory.
"Excuse me?" said Chloe bewildered.
"Come along, Clara!"
The summons came from the bottom of the stairway. Chloe turned her attention and saw it was the same raggedy man from earlier. He was going back and forth, following her fellow patrons and waving what looked like a small torch with a green light around them. Understandably, those he followed seemed annoyed by whatever he was doing. She wanted to shout back to him that shouting in the Library was prohibited, but after considering the irony, decided against it. When she turned her attention back, the man that helped her was staring pensively down the stairs at him. "A friend of yours?" she asked.
He turned his head towards her and gave a gentle smile. "Of sorts," he replied.
It was then that the door opened again, but this time it was a woman also about Chloe's age with brunette hair.
"Ready, Ms. Clara?" asked the man in black, but then hesitated. "Are you alright?"
Chloe was about to answer until she noticed that he was addressing Clara instead. Clara looked like she had seen a ghost.
"Yeah," Clara replied, "I'm fine." She smiled to try and reassure him, and he gave a skeptical stare in return.
"Ok," he responded, but it was obvious he did not believe her answer. He returned his attention to Chloe once again. "I'd say you're a regular patron, yes?"
Chloe blushed. "Yeah," she said more than a little embarrassed. She read so much that she had little to no social life except for her periodical visits to The Library or the occasional book club meetings. That was when she was not reading at home.
"Nothing wrong with that," he said with a smile. Putting his hands in his trousers' pockets he asked, "This might sound a bit daft, but why are there people here? Where are the Vahsta Nerada?"
"The Vashta Nerada?!" she exclaimed, "That was over fifty years ago!"
With a big grin, he shrugged his shoulders and responded flippantly, "What can I say? I'm ignorant."
"Clara!" yelled the raggedy man, who was now being scolded by one of the patrons, presumably for shouting or annoying her or both.
The man in black rolled his eyes and turned to Clara. "We'd better go," he said, "before he hurts himself." He stepped off to the side to allow Clara to pass before resuming his conversation with Chloe. "So you were saying? What happened to the Vashta Nerada?" he inquired as he slowly started down the stairs.
Chloe, unwittingly, followed after the stranger. "Excuse me, but who are you?"
"Oh!" he said, snapping his fingers. "Sorry, I skipped the introduction bit again!" Placing his palm on his chest, he said, "I'm the Professor," then motioning towards Clara, "and I'm sure a clever girl like yourself has gathered who she is, and the one with the chin in the burgundy coat downstairs is the Doctor." The Professor glanced at Chloe. "And you're Chloe, yes?"
Chloe stopped and looked at him amazed. "How did you know that?!" she demanded.
He replied with a wink, "I'm psychic."
The blood rushed out of Chloe's face. "H-how?"
The Professor smiled gently to assure her it was only in jest. "The bracelet on your wrist reads 'CHLOE," he said motioning to her left hand, and sure enough he was right.
Chloe tried to hide her face behind her books out of embarrassment and almost dropped some of them again, but the Professor caught them and carried a few to lighten her load.
The Doctor was losing patience. Where are they? he thought as he put away his sonic screwdriver. He had been going back and forth along the balcony area at the bottom of the stairway scanning the shadows of visitors, and there was nothing. There was still nothing hiding in the shadows, no Vashta Nerada stalking any of the visitors. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself down. If I lose my cool, I can't keep The Library's patrons safe…or get to River.
"Still nothing?" asked Clara, who had just joined him. The Doctor shook his head in the negative. "Well," she said hopeful, "maybe they're gone."
The Doctor doubted that possibility. "No, no, no, no!" he asserted nervously. "You don't just simply get rid of Vashta Nerada," he said turning to her. He turned his head in every direction scanning the area and continued, "There's something wrong here, but I can't put my finger on it."
Clara could tell he was frustrated, and was trying desperately to solve the problem quickly. Just then, it was as if the light bulb in the Doctor's cranium switched on.
"I need a wider search pattern," he stated thoughtfully as he remembered why he came to this part of the Library in the first place. He spun on his heels and jogged over to one of The Library's computer terminals along the wall with Clara in tow.
"And how exactly do you plan to do that?" she asked
"Well," explained the Time Lord pulling out his sonic screwdriver, "The last time I was here, I found The Library completely devoid of visitors. Now this facility can easily accommodate a population in the billions with lots of room left over." The computer screen came to life as the Doctor put his beloved tool back in his coat pocket. "I mean, it is a planet sized library after all," he continued, "but on a regular basis it only has a population in the thousands. However, when I did a scan for humanoid life forms," he turned to Clara, "it only found two."
"You and…"
"Donna," he said finishing her sentence, a hint of sorrow in his voice. He tried not to dwell on that chapter of his life, and returning to his work, he continued his exposition. "Then I decided to do a scan for any old life form and the computer couldn't complete the scan because there were too many: a million million life forms and nowhere to be seen. If I set the scanner to scan for Vashta Nerada and get a similar reading, I'll have all the evidence I need."
"I doubt you'll find much for concern," remarked a male voice from behind him. It was the Professor, a small stack of books under his arm. "Well, that is, according to Ms. Chloe, here," he said gesturing to the shy little woman to his left.
She was a small woman, the type one tries not to hug too hard for fear of breaking her. Her face was an intelligent one, with green eyes peeking out from behind amber rimmed glasses. Black curls that reached down just past her shoulders and were pulled back by a brown hair band framed her thin cheeks. She was wearing a green cardigan over a white shirt and a dark flower print skirt. The Doctor and Clara fixed their attention on her to hear what she had to say, but it was evident that she did not want to speak. "Just tell them everything you told me," urged the Professor gently. The Doctor returned to his computer search but continued to listen to Chloe's story.
"Well," she said in a hushed voice, "seventy years ago, shortly after it was discovered that The Library was infested with Vashta Nerada, the whole planet was put under quarantine."
"Yes," retorted the Doctor, "we know that already…"
Clara gave him a swift smack on the shoulder and glared at him as if scolding a child. "Shush!" she said. The Doctor looked at her in disbelief while rubbing his shoulder, and gave his full attention to Chloe.
Chloe, not sure of what to make from the exchange, continued. "After the planet was declared unsafe for visitors, the Lux Corporation started researching ways they might neutralize the Vashta Nerada and reclaim The Library."
"What's the Lux Corporation?" asked Clara
"They're responsible for the creation of this facility," responded Chloe before the two veteran time travelers could answer. She seemed to be gaining some confidence. "They put a lot of time and effort into its construction, and were almost desperate to see it reopened."
"Because of CAL," muttered the Doctor to himself.
"Excuse me?" asked Chloe surprised.
Wanting to not get side tracked, Clara inquired, "So how did they get rid of the Vashta Nerada?"
"The Lux Corporation," continued Chloe, "wanted to neutralize the Vashta Nerada without harming the books, so they started looking at creating specialized weapons that utilized light."
"It is believed Vashta Nerada are extremely sensitive to light," piped the Professor. "That's why they seem to never appear in a well light room."
"But light would only work as a deterrent," said the Doctor annoyed at the current conversation.
"Let Chloe finish," snapped Clara. The two men exchanged a glance of child like shame and remained silent until Chloe finished.
Chloe smiled nervously and continued her explanation. "Yes, you're both correct. The light weapons developed by Lux Corps only worked as deterrents, but one of its partners discovered a means of neutralizing the Vashta Nerada. A type of radiation called Abraxis…"
"AAH!"
The sound echoed through the vast space, startling the patrons around them who began to murmur in alarm. The only two who seemed unfazed were the Professor and the Doctor, who turned sharply as if to find the source of the noise. There was a brief pause, and then the two bolted toward the source of the screams with Chloe and Clara not far behind.
Soon, other patrons who had also heard the cries began heading in that direction. After about five minutes of searching for the source of the screams, someone cried, "I found her! She's over here!"
The Doctor and the Professor ran toward the voice that raised the alarm, twisting and turning through the seemingly endless aisles of books. When they finally reached the scene of the crime, they found themselves facing the backs of a crowd.
"Excuse me!" the Doctor asserted, pushing through. The Professor remained close behind, tailing the Doctor as if he had done this for years.
What they saw was exactly what they hoped not to see: a skeleton stripped clean to the bone with tattered clothes that looked like it had been torn by a wild animal.
The Professor turned and immediately addressed one of the bystanders. "Who screamed?" he demanded. One of the patrons pointed to a middle aged woman dressed in grey trousers and a red shirt nearby. She was in the fetal position crying and trembling.
The Doctor gingerly walked over to her and, in a show of compassion, tried to live up to his namesake. He knelt down and took her hand and whispered, "It's alright. I'm the Doctor. I'm here to help." While he tended to the woman, the Professor squatted on his hunches and began to examine the corpse.
Chloe and Clara, winded, finally caught up to the duo. Upon viewing the scene, Chloe gasped clasping her hand over her mouth. Clara put her arm around her to try and calm her down.
Soon three security guards arrived. The one who appeared to be the lead immediately tried to take charge of the situation. "Alright," he said forcefully, "what's going on here?"
"Ah," said the Doctor rising to his feet, "you're late!"
The security guards were taken aback by the Doctor's remarks, especially the leader of the trio.
"Ten minutes, gentlemen," stated the Doctor, looking at his watch, "Ten minutes, is far too long a response time for Lux Corps' standards."
"Lux Corps?!" The guards were even more bewildered.
The Doctor pulled out his psychic paper once again, and showed it to the guards. After reading it they straightened up.
"Sorry, sir," responded the lead guard trying to keep his composure, "we were unaware you would be visiting."
The Time Lord beamed with confidence as he put his "credentials" back into his inside coat pocket and adjusted his bow tie. "That's the thing about surprise inspections," he said and poking the guard's forehead, "you're not supposed to know about them. If you knew we were coming it wouldn't be much of a surprise because then you'd know."
The guard stared at the raggedy man nervously. "Er, yes, sir. Sorry, sir. It won't happen again."
"See to it, er," said the Doctor leaning in much too close to read the guard's ID tag, "Mr. Weathersby. We'll reset everything and try running the exercise once more. Clear the area so we can get everything ready."
] "Yes, sir," responded the guard, "not a problem." With a nod of his head, the lead guard had the others clear the area of onlookers. Once the surroundings were clear, he came nervously to face the Doctor, straightening his spine as if at attention. "Is there anything else we can do to help you, sir?"
The Doctor gave him a curt nod in reply, stating authoritatively, "Thank you, Mr. Weathersby, that will be all."
When the guards left, Chloe looked at the Doctor skeptically and obviously confused. "If you're with the Lux Corporation, then why are you asking about the Vashta Nerada?"
The Professor, who was still crouched next to the victim's remains taking readings with his vortex manipulator, glanced over his shoulder at her. "I don't know. What do you think?" he remarked dryly.
Chloe, dejected, buried her face into her books.
He paused and looked up at Clara dumbfounded and asked, "That was rude; wasn't it?"
"Yeah, a bit," she responded.
"Because we're not from the Lux Corporation," asserted the Doctor casually, "It was a clever little lie to give us some time to investigate and keep everyone from panicking."
Chloe did not like the sound of that. "Is this some kind of prank?" she asked earnestly of Clara. "Are you all trying to wind me up or something?"
Concerned the three time travelers fixed their collective gaze on her. "You can stop now because it's working!" she whimpered, unwanted tears slipping down her cheek. As she began to cry, the Doctor embraced her warmly.
"Shh. There, there," he said, "no one is trying to wind you up." He looked into her eyes with his hands gently cradling her head. "Do I look like someone who would wind you up?"
The Professor and Clara exchanged a glance that would suggest otherwise, but Chloe did not notice. She tried to stop herself from crying and gently shook her head 'no.'
The time adventurer smiled and said, "Trust me. I'm the Doctor."
Chloe did not know entirely what the Doctor's words meant, but it was enough to calm her for the time being.
He gave Chloe one last lopsided grin of encouragement and abruptly turned to look at the corpse. "It's not a prank," he said thoughtfully, "and our only witness is catatonic I'm afraid." He gestured towards the woman in fetal position. She, who supposedly seen the whole thing had not really moved since their arrival.
"Are we sure this is Vashta Nerada?" inquired the Professor putting away his vortex manipulator. "There are perhaps other creatures that could have done this."
The Time Lord starred at the young man as if he was reading his mind. "What do you mean?" he asked.
The Professor shrugged. "I'm just considering other possibilities."
The Doctor was beginning to feel suspicious of his new companion again, but for the moment he ignored his suspicions and moved along with his argument. "Back there I had The Library's computer system do a planet wide scan for Vashta Nerada, and you know what it found?"
The man in black looked up at him with a quiet ire of arrogance that rivaled the Time Lord's, but it was short lived.
The Doctor held up his right hand and formed a circle with his fingers. "Zero."
Clara noticed the Professor's countenance rapidly change. His expression went from unaffected arrogance to worry as the Doctor's discovery sank into his mind. The Professor took a deep breath and placed the palms of his hands together as though he were praying, his eyes darting back and forth anxiously.
"So much for a freebie," he muttered under his breath.
"I don't understand," said Clara voicing her confusion, "isn't that a good thing? No Vashta Nerada?"
"In a word, 'no,'" quickly replied the Professor looking up at her. Inhaling deeply once more, he explained, "Vashta Nerada are like cockroaches. Well, not exactly like cockroaches, but that's beside the point. The point being this: they're everywhere and in every environment with few exceptions, emphasis on 'few,' and The Library is not one of those exceptions. They were supposed to be neutralized, not eradicated! There should still be a small population of them left, and I use the term 'small' loosely because the population would still be in the billions. However, it wouldn't be a threat to The Library's patrons."
With dread, it dawned upon Clara the reason why the Doctor's readings were so suspicious.
"Someone," said the Doctor as he began to pace and think out loud, "is trying to cover up something, and it's related to the Vashta Nerada." As the cogs of his mind started to turn, he began tapping his temples in frustration. "C'mon! Think!"
"Doctor," interrupted the Professor who seemed to have collected himself, "we need to figure out a way to get these people off planet; preferably without starting a panic. We don't want a repeat of what happened last…" he stopped rising to his feet slowly. The Professor inhaled deep and exhaled and a white cloud of vapor came out. The Doctor and he exchanged an uneasy glance. The temperature had inexplicably dropped.
POP-FZZZ
Clara and Chloe squealed at the sound, including the witness who was still huddled on the floor. She raised her head as her trembling slowly escalated, trying not to scream. The Doctor rushed to her and grabbed her hand as he got on his knees. "What did you see?" he demanded, "What happened?"
POP-FZZZ
The pop came from the right just a few rows away. "Doctor," murmured Clara, nervously.
Though trying to be gentle, the Doctor cradled the woman's head and urged her, "You need to tell me what you saw, and quickly. A lot of people could get hurt if you don't."
She still would not speak. Paralyzed with fear, she continued to fight back the urge to scream and softly whimpered instead. The Doctor placed his forehead to hers.
POP-FZZZ
"Doctor," urged the Professor, "it's no use. Get her to her feet. We need to get out of here. Quickly!"
POP-FZZ
At the end of the canyon of books, the bulb in the ceiling fixture blew instantly putting that portion of the aisle into utter darkness.
The Doctor grabbed the woman's hand and with a sudden jolt brought her to her feet, "RUN!" he yelled.
Chloe dropped her books and began to run as fast as she could, the others following closely behind. As she turned back to see if they were still with her, she saw the lights blinking out one by one down the corridor, and the darkness was gaining on them.
POP-FZZZ
Chloe screamed as the lights ahead of them began going out, stopping in fright, but was then pushed down the next aisle to their right by Clara and the Doctor.
The Doctor and Clara urged her forward, pushing her down the next aisle of books. "Keep running!" he commanded. Lights on every aisle were blinking out. Ducking and weaving between the rows of shelves they tried to make their way back to the balcony in front of the stairs and to daylight.
POP-FZZZ
The light ahead of them blew once more.
"This way," yelled the Professor motioning down an aisle to his right.
"Stay together," urged the Doctor. Coordinated hunting, he mused while running, They're trying to cut us off from the balcony.
The group continued to run for their lives from the approaching shadows, but it ended abruptly when they came to a wall. They tried going to the left, but the lights down every lane of books started blinking in their direction. When they reached the corner of that section of The Library there was nowhere to go. The Doctor and the Professor tried to put as much of their bodies as they could between the darkness and the women in their care. The visitor who saw the first attack started to sink back down to the floor between the two men when a shadow reached out and grabbed her ankle!
"NO!" she screamed. The rest of the group, horrified, grabbed hold of her to keep her in the light.
"DOCTOR!" screamed Clara as the shadows grabbed her by her right arm. Seeing this, the Doctor immediately let go of the stranger and began to help Clara, leaving Chloe and the Professor to struggle with the other woman.
BUZZZZZ
The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at the shadows gripping Clara's arm. The pulses from the sonic device appeared displeasing to the creature and with a painful screech it released her. Physics took over and the Doctor and his companion fell back into the Professor and Chloe. The impact was enough for the two to lose their grip on the woman desperately trying to hold on to them. She was swiftly dragged into the dark, uttering bloodcurdling screams. Soon, the shadows engulfed her and the screaming ceased. The single light they were under began to flicker as the darkness slowly advanced like fingers on the floor and walls.
They were trapped.