Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction story and not written for any financial gain of any kind. All rights to Doctor Who and any associated material belong to the BBC and any other affiliated entities. Thanks. Also, the story of Lady Silverhair comes from Neverwinter Nights 2, which is the property of Atari, Obsidian, Wizards of the Coast and any other involved parties.

A/N: OK, if you've read this far you know that this is a blatant Super!Martha fic, and is a Martha/10th Doctor romance. Please hit the back button if either of these things offends you. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review, I really appreciate it. Please feel free to put in suggestions if you have them.

Part Ten: The Silence in the Library

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

Seneca

Martha

She was currently six months pregnant and had quite a bump showing. Martha, the Doctor and Donna had visited various different places on Earth and elsewhere for their 'honeymoon'. Today though, he'd asked if they wanted to visit The Library. Being fond of learning and loving books, Martha had immediately agreed. Donna, who was not so fond of reading, also agreed, albeit a bit reluctantly.

When they got there though, it was weird, but the place just felt empty. Of course, libraries were usually quiet, but this one was deathly silent. It alarmed her, and Martha found her eyes flitting from shadow to shadow as they left the room the TARDIS had landed in and went out onto a balcony.

"The Library. So big, it doesn't need a name. Just a great big 'the'," the Doctor was saying to Donna, as the two of them, with their long legs, strode ahead of her. Martha wasn't offended, she knew they wouldn't go off without her, but it was irritating at times when they forgot to moderate the length of their strides.

"It's like a city," Donna said, looking around. Martha already knew about this place, having once recalled something about it from her benefactress, she had taken her own initiative to check it out for herself in the TARDIS data banks.

"It's a world – literally," Martha interjected from behind them, and felt slightly satisfied at their sheepish looks when they realised they'd been making it hard for her to keep up. She smiled, absolving them, and taking the Doctor's offered arm.

"Martha's right – it's a world. The whole core of the planet is the index computer – biggest hard drive, ever. And out here, every book ever written – whole continents of them – Jeffrey Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Brand new editions – specially printed. We're near the equator, so," he licked his finger and held it in the air, as if he was feeling the wind. Martha exchanged a glance with Donna. "So, this must be biographies!" the Doctor shouted suddenly, making them both jump. "I love biographies," he added.

"Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end," Donna noted. They argued back and forth about biographies, death, and spoilers for the future, but Martha mostly ignored them. She was still feeling very uneasy, and a frown was taking root on her face. Something just wasn't right here.

The Doctor seemed to have noticed too, because she heard him say, "This is the biggest library in the universe. So, where is everyone?"

"It's silent," Martha said, staring ahead but not really seeing anything.

The Doctor went to a terminal and switched it on with his sonic. Donna was now on at him about why they were here, since he'd told her yesterday that they could hit the beach today. He performed a scan for humanoid life forms – the type who would be able to read books, and it only oscillated between three and five. She assumed it meant him, Donna, herself and the babies, but since the babies weren't born yet it couldn't decide if they counted or not.

When he broadened the search for all life forms, the scanner stopped working at a million, million. Trouble was, where were these millions of life forms? And what were they?

"It's not the books, is it? I mean, it can't be the books," Donna protested, looking between Martha and the Doctor. They managed to freak each other out, looking at a stack of books right in front of them. Martha had to drag them both back towards the TARDIS. When they returned to the room they'd arrived in, a courtesy node was turning towards them.

Not liking animatronics and such after their experience on the Titanic, Martha scowled at it. Her scowl only deepened when it started speaking, "I am courtesy node 710/Aqua." She didn't listen to the rest of the message, she couldn't focus on anything but the shadows.

Her attention was drawn back to the node when it mentioned a message from the Head Librarian, "Run, for God's sake run. Nowhere is safe, The Library has sealed itself, we can't, oh, they're here, aarrg, slaarrg, snig, message ends." Somehow, it felt even more chilling to hear such a message from the even toned courtesy node.

The Doctor

"So that's why we're here," the Doctor muttered, earning himself significant looks from his wife and his best friend. He ignored them for the moment, "Any other messages, same date stamp?" he asked.

"One additional message. This message carries a Fellman-Lux coherency warning of – "

"Yeah, fine, fine," the Doctor cut the node off, "Fine! Just play it," he demanded. The node obliged.

"Message follows, Count the shadows. For God's sake, if you want to live – count the shadows, message ends,"

He could feel Martha's fear radiating into his mind, feeding his own. He reached out for her hand, which she gripped hard.

"Donna," he said, looking round them warily.

"Yeah?" she answered.

"Stay out of the shadows," he warned, knowing that he didn't need to warn Martha. She already suspected, just as he did, what was lurking in this library, though neither of them could fathom why. She'd whispered it, in his mind as they looked at each other.

"Vashta Nerada,"

"Why, what's in the shadows?" Donna asked, but neither of them had the heart to tell her, just now. They hesitantly moved out of the dark room and into the bowels of the library, where the stacks of books reached up into the sky.

"So, we weren't just in the neighbourhood?" Martha asked, and he winced.

"Yeah, I kind of, sort of, lied a bit," he said, reaching into his pocket for the psychic paper. He knew he was likely to get an earful, Martha hated it when he lied or concealed things from her. She didn't mind if he didn't want to talk about something, or, if there was something he couldn't tell her – so long as he had a good reason and told her so. Outright dissembling was not something she approved of. It was one of those things he'd have to get used to, a part of his new married life.

"I got a message on the psychic paper," he showed his two ladies, "what do you think?"

It read, "The Library, come as soon as you can. x"

"Cry for help?" he suggested and both women scoffed.

"A cry for help, with a kiss?" Donna mocked. He frowned.

"Well, we've all done that," he protested.

Donna asked him who it was from, but he truly had no idea. To be frank, it made him feel a bit awkward. As far as he knew, there was no one out there who would send him notes signed with a kiss – other than his wife and Captain Jack of course, and latter was safely tucked away on Earth in the 21st Century while Martha was right next to him. So who was it?

It couldn't be Rose – no way – she was in a parallel world, not this world and not in the 51st Century. Then again, she could have got hold of some alien tech, who knew what she would do then? But surely, she had learned enough from him to know how dangerous it was to meddle with time and space?

"Doctor!" Martha suddenly shouted, pointing at the light bulbs behind them which were going out one by one.

They ran for a nearby door, but it wouldn't open. The wood was warped and unfortunately his sonic didn't work on pure wood. This time he immediately stood back for Martha to kick it open, and then three of them ran into the room, shutting the doors behind them. They wedged them shut with a nearby book and then turned.

There, floating in the centre of the room, was a security camera.

Donna

She was not at all happy with being stuck in this library. She had been looking forward to day at the beach, but no, space-man had got a 'cry for help' and just had to go racing off after it. She, too, was baffled about who might have sent it, since as far as she knew, the Doctor only had one wife and she was right here – so who could be calling out for help and signing it with a kiss?

She glanced at the Doctor and Martha, and saw they were examining the security camera. He was using his sonic on it – probably trying to switch it back on again. She looked around, wondering what the hell they'd just run away from. She got the feeling her two friends knew a bit more than they were letting on.

"Are we safe here?" she asked and the Doctor glanced up at her. He was crouched on the ground, with Martha leaning over him.

"Of course we're safe! There's a little shop," he said, nodding towards something behind her. She turned round and saw he was right, there was a shop, but she wasn't at all sure why that meant they were safe.

She heard the Doctor apologising to the camera, and frowned at him. "It's alive," he said, bemused.

"You said it was a security camera," Donna protested and he got up, leaving the camera on the ground.

"It is, it's just an alive one," he replied in a tone which suggested that should explain everything. She glanced at Martha, but found her to be completely baffled too.

They were looking down at the display on the camera, still trying to work out what it was, when a new message appeared. "Others are coming," it said.

"What does it mean? What others?" Donna asked, looking all around them. She walked over to a courtesy node like the one in the other room, and asked it what the security camera meant.

The Doctor told her that she wasn't likely to get any sense out of it, and she countered with the fact that it had a face. That's when she discovered it was a real face, donated by a dead person. She was backing away in horror when the Doctor suddenly grabbed her.

Martha

"Wait, wait, no," the Doctor said, pulling her towards him.

"Oi! Hands!" Donna protested.

"Shadow," Martha herself said, looking at the shadow on the ground with palpable dread. "But what's casting it?" she added, looking up to the open roof, over which there was nothing to make the shadow which had appeared on the ground.

She knew then, that they couldn't deny the truth of what she'd first thought was here.

Vashta Nerada.

The Doctor was glancing down the aisles, and Donna was with him, but Martha kept her eyes on the shadow. All she did was blink, and then it was gone.

"Doctor," she warned, and he turned to look at her. She pointed at the ground where the shadow had been, and then looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes. In spite of her powers, in spite of the fact that she reckoned she could probably out run them, hells, she could probably grab both Donna and the Doctor and fly up through the open ceiling and into the sunlight – she was still scared.

The Vashta Nerada were, after all, the stuff of nightmares.

"We need to get back to the TARDIS," the Doctor said firmly. But before they could make a move in that direction, they were interrupted by a loud crash and a blinding flash of light. Someone had blown open the set of doors opposite the ones they had come in through.

They didn't have to wait long before several figures in white space suits walked into the room. One of them went right up to the Doctor and greeted him with, "Hello, sweetie." Martha impulsively felt like punching her lights out.

"Get out," the Doctor replied, "all of you, get out and get back in your rocket. Tell your grandchildren you visited The Library and lived – they won't believe you," he said, but the woman who'd first approached him simply ignored him.

The new group took off their helmets and one of them started having a go at the woman. Martha studied her, unseen for the moment, looking between her and the Doctor. The woman looked at him with a certain fond familiarity. She definitely seemed to think she knew who he was – but had glanced at Donna without a hint of recognition in her eyes. Martha knew the woman hadn't seen her yet, she had been camouflaged by the Doctor at first and then by Donna.

The woman was ignoring the complaints of the slightly plump man who had been reprimanding her, and turned on the spot. When she did this, she saw Martha for the first time.

There was a flash of recognition there, though she seemed a little confused when she glanced down and saw the bump. She came over and spoke to her softly.

"M-Martha? Wha – are you pregnant again?" she frowned, seeming disturbed by the sight of the bump.

"Again? What do you mean, again?" Martha retorted, but the woman shook her head and turned away.

The Doctor didn't appear to have heard their brief exchange, he was busy looking between the newcomers. Martha heard him groan. "Oh, you're not are you? Tell me you're not archaeologists," he pleaded, and the woman who'd just been speaking to Martha squared up to the Doctor.

"Got a problem with archaeologists?" she asked.

"I'm a time traveller – I point and laugh at archaeologists," he explained. The woman held out her hand.

"Professor River Song, archaeologist," she introduced herself, and Martha cursed. The name didn't ring a bell with her inherited memories or her original ones.

"River Song, lovely name. As you're leaving, and you're leaving now, you need to set up a quarantine – no one comes here, not one living thing, not ever –"

"Stop right there!" Martha ordered, pulling back a woman nearby, who was about to enter the shadows. The Doctor joined her, and asked the woman her name.

"Anita," she replied, looking annoyed with both of them.

"Anita, stay out of the shadows – not a foot, not finger in the shadows – that goes for all of you until you're safely back in your ship – stay in the light! Find a nice bright spot and just stand. If you understand me, look very, very scared," he paused. "No, a bit more scared than that, OK, that will do for now." He dashed over to one of the guys.

"You – who are you?" he asked. For her part Martha kept an eye on the shadows on the floor. No telling when the other one might come back.

The Doctor pointed out to the guy who'd identified himself as 'Other Dave', apparently the pilot had joined the team first and so was known as 'Proper Dave', that the way they'd just come in had suddenly become mysteriously dark.

"We'll have to find another way out," the Doctor muttered.

The slightly plump man cut in then, saying, "We're not looking for a way out. Miss Evangelista?"

A very pretty girl approached them then with some blue sheets of paper. "I'm Mr Lux's personal, well, everything. You need to sign these contracts stating that your personal experiences in The Library are the intellectual property of the Fellman-Lux Corporation." She proffered the aforementioned contracts to the three of them which they promptly tore up.

"My family built this library – I have rights!" Mr Lux protested, but Professor Song interrupted him.

"You have a mouth that won't stop," she told him, and then turned to the Doctor. "You think there's danger here?" she asked, looking away from him to glance at Martha for a second.

"Something came to this library and killed everything in it, killed a whole world. Danger? Could be!" he retorted, clearly exasperated. Martha moved closer, reclaiming his hand, but at the same time, making sure their shadows didn't cross.

"That was a hundred years ago, The Library has been silent for a hundred years – whatever came here is long dead," Professor Song declared and the Doctor stared her down.

"Bet your life?" he asked, and River smiled in a way which reminded Martha of her husband.

"Always," she replied.

Mr Lux went over to Other Dave to ask why he was sealing the doors on the Doctor's instructions, and the Doctor took the opportunity to pilfer Mr Lux's torch. Out of the corner of her eye, Martha could see River was watching her. She looked almost... hurt.

She could hear the Doctor talking to Donna and decided to listen, putting the riddle of River Song to the back of her mind for the moment. "Almost every species has an irrational fear of the dark, but they're wrong – 'cause it's not irrational," the Doctor was saying, and Martha could feel her heart pounding in her chest, "it's Vashta Nerada."

"What's Vashta Nerada?" Donna wanted to know.

"It's what's in the dark," the Doctor began. "It's what's always in the dark," she echoed him as he said the words. She'd always been afraid of the dark herself, even as a child. Lady Silverhair too, until she was grown – she'd hated the dark – a bit of a problem it had been too, since she'd grown up in the swamps and when the sun went down, there were no streetlights to guide your way.

If there was one thing Lady Silverhair loathed more than the undead or even Pyroviles, it was the Vashta Nerada. Martha shared this hatred, and the fear which came with it. If she was honest with herself, she understood why too – you can't fight Vashta Nerada, you can only run. And with that came the fear that one day there would be nowhere left to run – one day, they would get you.

"Lights! That's what we need – you got lights?" The Doctor's voice shook Martha from her introspection. He was telling the expedition team to set up a circle of lights pointing outwards.

The Doctor

Martha stepped into the centre of the circular design on the floor, and raised her hands. She muttered something, and then a big ball of light – like a mini sun, hovered over their heads. "It's not pointing outwards, but at least you'll be able to see what you're doing," she explained when everyone stared at her.

Surprisingly, River shrugged, seemingly not surprised by a display which some might call magic.

"How did you do that?" Proper Dave asked, and Martha shrugged, coming over to stand with the Doctor.

"Proper Dave, just leave her be for now. Come on, we need to set these lights up," River told him.

"You're not listening to them, are you?" Mr Lux protested, and River sighed at him.

"Apparently, I am. Anita, unpack the lights. Other Dave, make sure the door is secure and then help Anita. Mr Lux, put your helmet back on and block the visor. Proper Dave, see if you can access a library terminal, I want you try and find out what happened here a hundred years ago. Pretty Boy, and Mu-Martha – you're with me, step into my office."

Since he was lying on the floor, looking at the shadows and facing away from everyone else, the Doctor didn't see Martha frown and then make her way over to River Song. Instead, he got up and went over to Proper Dave, saying that he could maybe help him.

"Pretty Boy? With me, I said!" River called over to him, and he turned surprised.

"Oh, I'm Pretty Boy?" he asked Donna, who was standing nearby.

"Yes!" she said, exasperated. "Oh, that came out a bit quick."

"Pretty?" he questioned, incredulous. Then he shrugged and started walking over. "Don't let your shadows cross," he warned the rest of the team. "Seriously, don't let them even touch, any of them could be infected" he added, before joining his wife and River by a desk.

"How can a shadow be infected?" protested Other Dave, but the Doctor ignored him for now.

He and Martha waited while River fished various things out of her bag. He got a little impatient, though, and cleared his throat significantly.

"Thanks," she said, pulling out a book with a blue cover and leafing through it.

"For what?" he asked.

"The usual. For coming when I call," she told him, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Oh, that was you," he commented and River sighed.

"You're doing a very good job acting like you don't know me, both of you. I'm assuming there's reason."

"Well, a fairly good one," he replied, glancing at Martha, and then back to Professor Song.

"Right, shall we do diaries, where are we this time?" She'd opened the book and was alternating between looking at its pages, and then at him and Martha. "Going by your faces, I'd say it was early days for you two, yeah, so um, crash of the Byzantium, have we done that yet?" She looked at them both intently, taking in their silence and then turning more pages.

"Obviously ringing no bells. Ah, picnic at Asgard, have we done Asgard yet?" she asked, clearly remembering something she'd enjoyed, since her face had lit up. "Obviously not, blimey, very early days then. Phew, life of a time traveller, never knew it could be such hard work," she said, looking back at her book and flicking through the pages again.

For their parts, Martha and the Doctor just looked back at her blankly. Who was this woman, and how did she know them, when they clearly had no idea who she was?

"Is she from our future?" Martha suggested silently to him, and he turned to look at her.

"I think she must be. Remember what I said about non-linear time," he reminded her, and he heard her laugh in his mind. He was glad of it, to be frank, he'd been feeling almost constant fear coming from her since they'd arrived, and was worried about the effect it might have on her and the babies.

"You're just trying not to say, 'wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey' again!" she accused and he also laughed in their minds.

"You're never going to let me forget that are you?" he retorted, smiling at her, almost getting lost in her eyes.

"Um," River said, calling them back to the real world for a moment. She stared at both of them, amazement in her face. "Look at you," she began, "you're young,"

"I'm really not, you know," the Doctor told her, thinking that, depending on your point of view, neither was Martha, not any more.

"No, but you are, your eyes," she said placing a hand on each of their faces. "You're younger than I've ever seen you," she went on, awe and wonder in her voice.

"You've seen us before then," Martha said, glancing at the hand which was stroking her face with wary eyes.

"Doctor, Martha – please tell me you know who I am," she said, worry in her voice.

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked, and River drew back from them, with pain filled eyes.

They were interrupted by a bleeping noise of some kind, which Proper Dave said he had caused when he was trying to get through the security protocols.

Donna

She kept quiet while everyone was working and her friends were talking to the Professor. She did eavesdrop on their conversation, but didn't feel bad about it, since she knew that if she hadn't, one or both of them would tell her everything later anyway.

She felt sorry for Miss Evangelista though. Other Dave and Anita had fobbed her off when she offered to help them, and then laughed at her when her back was turned. When the bleeping noise started, she frowned for a moment. It sounded familiar.

"Doctor, that sounds like a phone," Donna said, and he agreed.

"I'm trying to call up the data core, but it's not responding – it's just that noise," Proper Dave said, and everyone crowded round the console he was using.

"But it's a phone!" Donna insisted and was a little irritated when it seemed like no one was listening to her. Then Martha was there.

"You're right, Donna. It sounds just like a phone. Hang on, Proper Dave said he was trying to 'call up' the data core," she murmured and Donna reckoned she was the only one who could hear Martha. "What if he meant that literally?" Martha added, but Donna wasn't entirely sure what her friend was going on about.

The Doctor was fiddling with the terminal thing, and Donna heard a gasp from the people surrounding him. She couldn't see anything, but she heard him having a conversation with what sounded like a little girl. A moment later he was dashing across the room, calling out that they needed to get the lights set up, and then going over to another console.

She watched Martha go to join him, and then both of them stare at a blue book, on a shelf next to the other terminal. It was the one Donna had seen River Song pull out of her bag earlier. When the Doctor picked it up though, River took it off him and told him he wasn't allowed to see inside the book.

"It's against the rules," she told him.

"What rules?" the Doctor asked, indignant.

River glanced at the Doctor and Martha, before replying, "Your rules," and walking away.

Donna had to duck rapidly a few minutes later, as books started flying from the shelves on their own! This was starting to become her least favourite trip, ever. Even facing down a husband-stealing giant spider had been better than this!

"What's CAL?" She heard the Doctor ask and unseen, she rolled her eyes at him. She looked over and saw Miss Evangelista looked really upset, and was glad that at least there was someone here she could help.

"You alright?" Donna asked her, and the younger woman looked at her with frightened eyes.

"What's that? What's happening?" she asked, and Proper Dave called out, "Don't know,"

"Oh, um, thanks, you know, for offering to help out with the lights," Donna said to Miss Evangelista, trying to get her to focus on something else.

"They don't want me," the young woman replied. "They think I'm stupid because I'm pretty."

"Of course they don't, no one thinks that!" Donna told her. The kamikaze books had stopped for the minute, and they both sighed with relief.

"No, they're right though. I'm a moron, me. My Dad said I had the IQ of plankton and I was pleased,"

Donna laughed. "See, that's funny!" she told her.

"No, I really was pleased. Is that funny?" Miss Evangelista asked and Donna did some hasty back-pedalling.

"No, no." She was sort of glad when the books started flying again, since it got her out of that awkward moment.

"What's causing that? Is it the little girl?" Professor Song asked, and the Doctor turned to answer her.

"Who is the little girl?" he began.

"And what has she got to do with this place?" Martha finished.

They'd been doing that more and more often since they had bonded and Donna had had to learn to take it in her stride. It was more difficult to cope with when they weren't standing next to each other – that's when you felt like you were watching a tennis match.

Martha

A fleeting smile crossed River's face when Martha finished the Doctor's sentence for him. It had almost seemed fond, like it was something she had witnessed before and hearing it now brought back happy memories.

"How does the data core work? What's the principle? What's CAL?" the Doctor wanted to know.

"Ask Mr Lux," River told him, and they turned to the slightly plump man.

"CAL – what is it?" Martha asked him.

"Sorry, you didn't sign your personal experience contracts," the man said and she glared at him.

She walked around the desk they'd been using and went to stand in front of him, her husband right behind her. With the difference in their heights she had to look up a bit to meet his eyes, but that didn't stop her.

"Mr Lux, right now you're in more danger than you've ever been in, your whole life. And you're protecting a patent." She practically hissed the last word at him.

"I'm protecting my family's pride," he retorted.

"Well, funny thing, Mr Lux," the Doctor cut in, "We don't want to see everyone in this room dead, because some idiot thinks his pride is more important."

"Then why didn't you sign his contract?" River asked and they both turned to look at her.

The three of them stared at each other for a long moment before River spoke again, "I didn't either. I'm getting worse than you two," she said ruefully.

"OK, OK, OK, let's start at the beginning," the Doctor said, taking Martha's hand and leading her over to where Donna was standing. Suddenly the arrangement of people in the room felt a bit, 'us and them'. "On the actual day, a hundred years ago, what physically happened?" he demanded.

"There was a message from the library," River told them, "'the lights are going out', then the computer sealed the planet, and there was nothing for a hundred years."

"It's taken three generations of my family just to decode the seals and get back in," Mr Lux admitted, but was interrupted by the voice of his personal assistant.

"Um, excuse me?" She asked from behind them.

"Not just now," Mr Lux dismissed her.

Later Martha would curse her distraction that she, too, ignored the young woman. Distraction, or arrogance, that was.

"There was one other thing in the last message," Professor Song began, reaching down to her bag.

"That's confidential," Mr Lux began, but she interrupted him.

"I trust this man, and this woman, with my life – with everything," she said, causing Donna to look at them both with confusion. Martha herself was equally baffled.

"Clearly, she knows us, but we don't know her. She knows us very well, too, it seems," she observed silently to the Doctor. She felt his agreement but he didn't say anything.

"You've only just met them!" Mr Lux shot back at River.

"No, they've only just met me," she retorted, and then showed Martha and the Doctor something on a handheld device of some kind.

"Um, this might be important actually," Miss Evangelista cut in again, but Mr Lux dismissed her once more. Unfortunately, so did everyone else.

"This is the data extract which came with the message," River explained and the Doctor read it aloud.

"4,022 saved, no survivors."

"4,022 – that's the exact number of people that were in The Library when the planet was sealed," River told them.

"But how can 4,022 people have been saved, if there were no survivors?" Donna wanted to know. The four of them, River, the Doctor, Donna and Martha exchanged looks. None of them were sure what it meant.

"That's what we're here to find out," River told them.

"So far, what we haven't found, are any bodies," Mr Lux put in at this point. They stood and puzzled over it for a few moments, before a shrill scream interrupted them from behind.

"Miss Evangelista!" Martha exclaimed silently to the Doctor. She gestured with one hand and from overhead her ball of light followed them through a door which had suddenly appeared in the panelling of one of the walls, and into what looked like a reading room.

The sight which greeted them was equally as gruesome as it was tragic. The Vashta Nerada had got to Miss Evangelista and all that was left of her was her shredded space suit, and her bones. Her bones were a stark white, not a scrap of flesh remained on them.

"Everyone be careful – stay in the light," the Doctor said, looking grimly at the remains of the young woman.

"You keep saying that," Proper Dave began, "but I don't see the point."

"Who screamed?" the Doctor asked him.

"Miss Evangelista," he replied warily.

"And where is she?" the Doctor pressed, his tone soft, but harsh. Martha knew why he was being harsh with these people – they seemed to have no concept of the mortal danger they were all in.

River tried to contact Miss Evangelista on her communicator, but only heard an echo. This made them admit the truth – the skeleton on the chair in front of them was all that was left of the woman they knew.

"But we heard her scream only a few seconds ago," Anita protested, disbelief in her voice. "What could do that to a person in a few seconds?"

"Took a lot less than a few seconds," Martha spoke up. Her voice was low, but in the silence of The Library, everyone heard her.

"What did?" Anita demanded, but was interrupted by the voice of Miss Evangelista.

The communications equipment the team were using could retain a copy of a person's consciousness after death, they called it a data 'ghost'. Miss Evangelista was asking for 'the nice woman', meaning Donna. Her words to Donna made the rest of the team feel ashamed.

"What I said before, about being stupid – don't tell the others, they'll only laugh."

The pattern which was holding the impression of her mind began degrading, and she started to repeat herself. When she started looping the phrase, 'I scream,' River asked if anyone minded if she switched the device off. No one did, so she stepped forward and put Miss Evangelista to rest.

"That was, that was horrible. That was the most horrible thing I've ever seen," Donna said, tears streaming down her face. The Doctor reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, and Martha stepped forward to take her hand.

Professor Song sighed, and put Miss Evangelista's communicator into her pocket. "It's just a freak of technology," she said, apparently unaware that Donna was from the 21st century and such things were not commonplace for her. "But, whatever did this to her – whatever killed her – I'd like a word with that!" River said angrily.

"I'll introduce you," the Doctor declared.

The Doctor

He led the way back into the room in which they'd originally found the security camera, and asked for a packed lunch. River crouched to get one out of her backpack, and he and Martha crouched down with her. Well, Martha bent down, crouching was a little beyond her at this point.

It was funny, but even though she herself complained about her increased girth, every time he saw her belly so full of child – full of his children, he felt his hearts in his throat, and his knees went weak. She had never been more beautiful to him than she was now.

When he saw River pull the blue book out to get access to something deeper in her pack, he couldn't help asking, "What's in that book?"

"Spoilers," was all River would say.

"Who are you?" he pressed.

"Professor River Song, University of – "

"To us, who are you to us?" he insisted, indicating himself and Martha.

"Again, spoilers. Chicken and liberty salad, knock yourself out," she replied, holding out said salad in a metal tin. They both stared at her for a moment – him and Martha, before nodding in acceptance. For the moment, anyway, they had bigger problems.

"Right, you lot," the Doctor said, standing with the salad in one hand, and a torch in the other. "Let's all meet the Vashta Nerada," he said, and then he moved off to edge of the light circle and began scanning for signs of a swarm.

"Martha, can you move your light back a bit please," he asked, getting down on the ground and moving his sonic around. Martha did so and then stood off to one side, waiting.

He could hear Donna talking to River Song. "You travel with them, don't you? You travel with the Doctor, and Martha?" she was asking Donna.

"What of it?" Donna retorted a touch frostily. "You know them, don't you?" she added.

"Oh God, do I know them. We go way back, those two and me, just not this far back."

"Sorry, what?" Donna said blankly.

"I sent them a message," River told her. "But it went wrong, it arrived too early. This is the Doctor and Martha in the days before they knew me. And they look at me, and they look right through me, and it shouldn't kill me – but it does."

"What are you talking about? Are you just talking rubbish? Do you know them, or don't you?" Donna demanded crossly.

"Donna!" he scolded, "Quiet, I'm working."

"Sorry," Donna muttered.

"Donna? You're Donna, Donna Noble!" River's voice sounded surprised.

"How come she knows us, but not Donna?" Martha asked him silently.

"Maybe, well, maybe Donna's not with us any more, when we meet River. Whole of time and space, remember – we might not meet River again for fifty, or even a hundred years," he told her softly, unsure of whether he was trying to reassure himself or his wife. He decided it was a bit of both.

"I do know the Doctor and Martha," River assured Donna, "But in the future. Their personal future," she explained.

"So, why don't you know me? Where am I in the future?" Donna wanted to know, and River's silence said it all.

"OK, we've got a live one," the Doctor broke into the awkward silence, standing and facing the others. Martha moved to stand beside him.

"It's not darkness down those tunnels," she began for him.

"This is not a shadow," he continued. "It's a swarm, a man eating swarm."

He bent down and threw a piece of chicken into the swarm, it was stripped bare in less than a second.

"The piranhas of the air," Martha said solemnly.

"Vashta Nerada, literally 'the shadows that melt the flesh'," the Doctor added. "Most planets have them, but usually in small clusters. I've never seen an infestation on this scale before, or this aggressive," he mused.

Donna had come up behind them and cut in at this point, "What d'you mean, 'most planets'? Not Earth?" she asked, incredulous.

"Yeah, Earth too. And a billion other planets. Where there's meat, there's Vashta Nerada. You can see them sometimes, if you look – the dust in sunbeams," the Doctor said, not totally insensitive to the chills which were likely going down Donna's spine at the moment.

"If they were on Earth, we'd know," she hedged, not wanting to believe him.

"Well, normally the live on roadkill. Sometimes people go missing, not everyone comes back out of the dark,"

"Every shadow?" River interrupted them, and the Doctor glanced over his shoulder at her.

"No, not every shadow – but any shadow," he replied, thinking at the same time that it was small comfort.

"So, what do we do?" River urged.

"Daleks? Aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans? Back of the neck. Vashta Nerada? Run, just run," and then he understood why Martha was so frightened. Because this was something she couldn't fight, this was something no one could fight. He'd said to her, when they were on the Titanic that together they could do anything, but this time it seemed as though they were faced with an enemy they could not fight.

And Martha was carrying their sons.

Donna

"Run, but run where?" River asked frantically, and Donna looked around for any clue. Then she saw it.

"Doctor, the little shop – they always try and make you go to the little shop on the way out so they can sell you something!" she reminded him and he ran over to take a look.

"Brilliant, that's why I love the little shop!" he replied and she felt slightly less terrified than she was before. They all started running towards the shop and the teleports the Doctor said were inside, when the Doctor stopped Proper Dave in his tracks.

He had two shadows. The Vashta Nerada had latched on to him – the Doctor said it was how they hunted. He got Proper Dave to put his helmet back on, and got the others to make their space suits denser, hoping this would stop the Vashta Nerada from being able to chew through them.

The Doctor used his sonic to dial up the density by eight hundred percent, but when he offered the sonic to Professor Song so that she could pass it on, she produced her own sonic screwdriver. This knocked the Doctor for six. It didn't stop him grabbing Donna and Martha and dragging them into the shop.

"What are we doing? Are we shopping? Is it a good time for a shop?" Donna said, looking at the trinkets on display.

"No talking, just moving – try it – just stand there, in the middle – it's a teleport. Can't send the others, TARDIS won't recognise them." He was twisting dials on a console of some sort, and had apparently not noticed that Martha hadn't got onto the teleport.

Martha did something then which she rarely did – she planted a thought directly into Donna's mind. "I'm not using that teleport, it's safe for you, but not for the babies," She told her and Donna sent a thought back to her, down the same temporary conduit.

"Give him hell for me, and watch out for those little ones,"

Out loud, she asked the Doctor, "What are you doing?" She was trying to distract him from Martha, who was silently and speedily walking out of the shop.

"It's not safe, I'm sending you to the TARDIS," he replied and she frowned.

"You don't have a suit either, you're not safe and I'm not leaving you!" she declared, and he looked up at her.

"Donna, let me explain," he said and then the world turned into a blur. For a moment, she could see the inside of the TARDIS, but then something else happened, and she screamed.

Martha

When she left the shop, River saw her and approached warily. "I thought you were going to teleport out of here?" she asked, concern in her expression and voice.

"That thing is pretty old, and while it's safe for Donna, it's not safe for the babies," she explained, gearing herself up to have this argument with the Doctor in a few moments.

"So you are pregnant then," River looked deep into her eyes for a moment, and then seemed to come to a decision. "Your first?"

"Yes," Martha replied warily, wondering if she was giving something away. But then, since River seemed to know her already, it was likely she knew a lot about Martha's personal timeline anyway.

"I see, well, hold on to your hat, because trouble's coming." She nodded to something behind Martha, who didn't need to turn around to know it was her husband, and that he was not a happy bunny.

"Martha, get on that teleport right now, or so help me –"

"Doctor, be rational for a moment please." Ah, wrong thing to say, he was looking even more angry now. "There's three people living in this body of mine right now, and I am not going to trust a teleport, which hasn't even seen a service engineer for at least a hundred years, to reassemble myself and our two sons correctly," she told him matter of factly. She could tell she was getting through to him, but she could also sense that he was still terrified at the thought of her and the babies being caught by the Vashta Nerada.

"But, Martha, please – I don't know what to do, if anything happens to you or the boys," he pulled her close and rested his forehead against hers. The other people in the room felt like they were intruding on an extremely private moment.

Mr Lux had to go and spoil it though, "Oh, so you're pregnant then? Right, I see," he said, as if that explained it all. Martha narrowed her eyes at him.

"What? You just thought I was fat? Is that it?" she demanded and wondered if the man was more scared of her or the shadows just then.

"No, no, not at all, I, ah..." His voice trailed off as he could find no way to dig himself out of the hole he now found himself in.

Martha placed a hand on either side of her husband's head and spoke directly into his mind. "Look, there is something I can do. Remember when I told you that I might be able to travel in time and space without a capsule? Well, the TARDIS and I have been working on it. I can't time travel as yet, I haven't even tried because of the babies, but I can transport myself directly into the TARDIS from here. It's not like a teleport, there's no danger of my atoms being scrambled or anything. If it means that much to you, I'll do it. I don't want to leave you, but just like with the Vespiform, if you'd rather I was in the TARDIS, then I'll go."

She waited for him to think it over, almost certain she knew what his answer would be.

"I wish I could keep you with me, but for the sake of our children, please, go to the TARDIS," he replied and she nodded.

"Take this," she said, placing her hands on his head in a semblance of a blessing, and causing his skin to glow softly. "And see you soon," she kissed him soundly, pouring every ounce of her feelings into it, and then took a step back.

She shimmered for a moment, and then she was gone.

To be continued...