Me: And thank you to Ahsilaa for a name for Tory's silver stuff! It is now known as, from this point forth, Meridian particles!
Tory: For this great service you are rewarded with the answer to any question you wish to ask of the author or her characters! The answer can be posted or given to you by private message, your choice!
Me: Enjoy the chapter! Which, by the way, is Silence in the Library! I will also be naming the chapters after their episodes to try and prevent confusion, remember I did say TRY!
Tory: Warning mention of rape in this chapter, nothing graphic.
)0(
I had being called to the library, the planet not the building, by an old friend. I appeared in a study of some type, by the use of my newly named Meridian particles (the silver stuff) and in front of me was a woman with crazy blonde curls.
"River?" I asked staring at her, "River Song?" she spun around.
"Tory!" we ran and hugged each other.
"You naughty thing you! What are you doing here?" I asked smirking.
"Little of this little of that!" she laughed.
"Tory?" I looked over her shoulder at the Doctor and felt the blood leave my face; it was 10 which meant….
"No," I muttered backing away from both of them, "No please not today."
"Tory, love what's wrong?" River asked.
"Todays the day." I looked at her and I knew I was crying.
"Tory?" the Doctor stepped towards me slowly, "What's wrong?"
"Todays the day it all ends."
"What ends?" River asked.
"Spoilers." I smiled at her weakly. "Spoilers." She stared at me for a moment before turning back to the Doctor.
"OK, shall we do diaries, then?" she asked him, "Where are we this time? Uh, going by your face, I'd say its early days for you. Yes? So, um," she flipped through her book, "crash of the Byzantium, have we done that yet?"
"River," I said quietly, "he hasn't met you yet at all."
"What?" River asked me sadly.
"I know her?" the Doctor asked at the same time.
"Yeah, yeah you do, just not yet." I told him sadly.
Suddenly we were interrupted by an alarm, an alarm that sounded like a phone ringing. We ran back into the other a room which was a circular shape and all the walls were covered in bookshelves.
"Sorry, that was me." Said a man over the alarm, he was standing in front of a console, "Trying to get through into the security protocols, I seem to have set something off. What is that? Is that an alarm?"
"Doctor?" she spotted me behind him, "Tory?" she shook herself, "Doctor that sounds like..."
"It is. It's a phone!" he strode across the room with River and I following him.
"I'm trying to call up the data core, but it's not responding. Just that noise." The man kept going.
"Let me try something." The Doctor commanded, the man stepped aside and the Doctor pulled out his sonic. He buzzed for a moment and the screen sparked, showing 'Access Denied', "OK, doesn't like that, let's try something else." He changed the setting and repeated his actions. "OK, here it comes." A young girl in her living room appeared on screen. "Hello?" the Doctor asked surprised.
"Hello. Are you in my television?" she asked.
"Well, no, I'm, I'm... sort of in space. I, I was trying to call up the data core of a triple-grid security processor." I blinked at him; did he really think a little girl would understand that?
"Would you like to speak to my dad?" she asked and I grinned, she had more common sense than the Doctor. River had a matching grin on her face. Our eyes met and we looked away from each other quickly to stop ourselves bursting into laughter.
"Dad or your mum, that'd be lovely." The Doctor answered her.
"I know you!" she cried suddenly, "You were in my Library."
"Your Library?"
"The Library's never been on the television before. What have you done?" she asked scared.
"Ah, I... I just rerouted the interface..." the screen went black and flashed back to 'Access Denied'.
"What happened, who was that?" River asked. The Doctor ignored her and kept working. The screen didn't change. He spun around and ran back into where I had arrived.
"I need another terminal. Keep working on those lights, we need those lights!" he ordered as he walked.
"You heard him, people, let there be light." River repeated and then followed him.
Donna walked up to me and predictably slapped me on the arm.
"What was that for?" I whined, sounding disturbingly like the Doctor.
"For leaving me with 'im. He's so love struck he can't handle it, drives me mad it does." I grinned at her put on annoyance.
"I'm so sorry my happiness causes you pain Donna." I told her mock seriously, "I will try and be less so." We both smirked and she hugged me.
"I missed you."
Suddenly something hit me in the back of the head, hard. I looked around it was a book, now lying on the floor, entitled 'Machines are people to!" with a picture of a computer with a smiling face displayed on its screen across the front cover.
"You have got to be kidding me." I muttered as Donna laughed, the irony not lost on her. More books flew off the shelves and I pulled Donna down to stop her getting hit.
"What's that?" the Doctor yelled as he and River came running out of where they had being working, "I didn't do that, did you do that?"
"Not me." The man said, the same one as earlier. The Doctor looked at a terminal for a moment.
"What's CAL?" he asked. The books stopped flying and Donna walked away from me toward a very pretty but scared woman standing be herself a short distance away. Books started to fall again.
"I love a good book as much as anyone else but I don't need them thrown at me thank you!" I yelled.
"What's causing that?" the River asked, "Is it the little girl?"
"But who is the little girl?" the Doctor shot back, "What's she got to do with this place? How does the data core work? What's the principle? What's CAL?"
"Ask Mr. Lux." River shrugged. The Doctor turned to another man, Mr. Lux.
"CAL, what is it?"
"Sorry. You didn't sign your personal experience contracts."
"Mr. Lux, right now, you're in more danger than you've ever been in your whole life. And you're protecting a patent?"
"I'm protecting my family's pride." Mr. Lux glared at the Doctor.
"Pride?" I asked loudly, "Pride!" I strode straight up to him and got into his face, "Your pride is going to kill everyone in this room!" I spat. Mr. Lux's eyes widened in fear and I grinned harshly. I grabbed the back of his neck in one hand and his forehead in the other and forced my way into his mind.
I have to keep her secret because she's family! CAL... Charlotte Abigail Lux. My grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library, and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time, any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything. He gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show.
I felt myself being pulled back roughly and I let go of Mr. Lux's mind. I gasped.
"What the hell are you doing?" the Doctor yelled in my ear his grip on my arms uncomfortably tight; he was the one who pulled me away!
"Trying to save our lives!" I hissed.
"By forcing your way into someone's mind?"
"If that's what it takes!" I yanked my arms out of his grip angrily.
"'If that's what it takes.'" He repeated coldly, "That's one step away from 'for the greater good'. Why on Earth did I think you were not anything like the Master? You had his mind connected to yours for close to a year! The connection had to start somewhere, this is where!" I gasped and stepped completely away from him, he had no idea what I'd gone through! Maybe it was time to tell him.
"That connection started when you broke my heart by falling in love with another woman and ended when you cared more about the Toclifane then you did me, and somewhere in the middle I was tortured for days on end, beaten within an inch of my life more times than I can count and raped over 100 times!" I was screaming at him but could still hear Donna's and River's surprised gasps, "So don't you ever accuse me of being like the man I hate most in my life." I turned away from him and back to Mr. Lux, "I don't want to see everyone in this room dead for your pride."
"Then why don't you sign his contract?" River asked me, thankfully changing the subject, "I didn't either. I'm getting worse than you."
"Oh River," I winked, not really meaning it be forcing myself to act, "You'll never be worse than me."
"Tory," I heard the Doctor's voice behind me and stiffened, "I'm sorry." I didn't turn towards him or give any sign that I had heard what he said. I walked to stand beside Donna without looking back.
"Okay," the Doctor started, probably still staring after me, "Okay, okay." There was regret in his voice, "Let's start at the beginning. What happened here? On the actual day, a hundred years ago, what physically happened?"
"There was a message from the Library." River told him, "Just one: "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 added.
"Um... excuse me..." the woman Donna had being talking to said.
"Not just now." Mr. Lux snapped at her.
"There was one other thing in the last message..." River told us.
"That's confidential." Mr. Lux interrupted.
"I trust this man and this woman." She squeezed my arm in support, "With my life, with everything."
"You've only just met him!" Mr. Lux objected.
"No, he's only just met me."
"Um. This might be important actually..." the woman started again.
"In a moment!" Mr. Lux snapped.
"This is a data extract that came with the message." River pulled out a PDA and showed it to the Doctor.
"'4022 saved. No survivors.'" He read out.
"4022, that's the exact number of people who were in the Library when the planet was sealed." River informed us.
"But how can 4022 people have been saved if there were no survivors?" Donna asked.
"That's what we're here to find out." River said.
"And so far, what we haven't found are any bodies." Mr. Lux said worriedly.
Suddenly a female scream rang out. We all spun to face it and saw a new door opened it the wall. We ran through and into another room that had wooden benches running along the sides. In the centre of the room was a large high-backed chair and in that a skeleton.
"Everybody, careful! Stay in the light." The Doctor ordered.
"You keep saying that. I don't see the point!" Proper Dave, Donna had whispered his name in my ear earlier, said.
"Who screamed?" The Doctor asked him.
"Miss Evangelista." Proper Dave answered.
"Where is she?" The Doctor asked him.
"Miss Evangelista," River spoke into her communicator, "please state your current..." we all stared at the skeleton as an echo of Rivers voice came from it, "Please state your current..." she stopped and then whispered, "position." She walked forward and pulled a piece of what I now saw to be the remainder of a space suit. A green light was still flashing on the communicator, "It's her. It's Miss Evangelista."
"We heard her scream a few seconds ago. What could do that to a person in a few seconds?" the only remaining woman from Rivers team spoke, Anita.
"It took a lot less than a few seconds." I whispered. The whole team looked at me.
"What did?" Anita asked me.
Hello? Miss Evangelista's voice came out of the groups communicators.
"Um, I'm sorry everyone, um, this isn't going to be pleasant. She's ghosting." River was visibly shaken.
"She's what?" Donna asked.
Hello, excuse me? I - I'm sorry, hello? Excuse me?
"That's... That's her, that's Miss Evangelista!" Donna looked at me frantically.
"I don't want to sound horrible, but couldn't we just... you know?" Other Dave asked.
"This is her last moment... no, we can't. A little respect, thank you." River snapped.
Sorry, where am I? Excuse me?
"But that's Miss Evangelista." Donna argued.
"It's a data ghost," River told her, "she'll be gone in a moment." She spoke into her communicator, "Miss Evangelista, you're fine, just relax. We'll be with you presently."
"What's a data ghost?" Donna asked the Doctor.
"There's a neural relay in the communicator, lets you send thought mails. That's it there, those green lights. Sometimes it can hold an impression of a living consciousness for a short time after death. Like an after image."
"My grandfather lasted a day. Kept talking about his shoelaces." Anita added.
"She's in there!" Donna cried.
I can't see, I can't... Where am I?
"She's just brain waves now. The pattern won't hold for long." Proper Dave argued.
"She's conscious! She's thinking." Donna shot back.
I can't see, I can't... I don't know what I'm thinking.
"She's a footprint on the beach." The Doctor said sadly, reaching for my hand, "And the tide's coming in." I let him take my hand, I hadn't completely forgiven him but I needed comfort as much as he did.
Where's that woman? The nice woman... is she there?
"What woman?" Mr. Lux asked.
"She means... I think, she means me." Donna hesitated.
Is she there? The nice woman?
"Yeah, she's here, hang on." River turned off her communicator and turned at Donna, "Go ahead. She can hear you."
Hello? Are you there?
Donna shook her head in horror.
"Help her." The Doctor whispered.
"She's dead." Donna looked at me for help, I smiled gently.
"She needs to move on, help her." I held her hand in my free one.
Hello? Is that the nice woman?
"Yeah. Hello. Yeah, I'm, I'm... I'm here. You OK?" Donna asked.
What I said before, about being stupid. Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh.
"Course I won't. Course I won't tell them."
Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh...
"I won't tell them. I said I won't."
Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh.
"I'm not going to tell them."
The lights on the relay were blinking, I squeezed her hand.
Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh.
"She's looping now." River spoke quietly, "The pattern's degrading."
I can't think, I...don't know, I... I... I... Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream.
She kept repeating.
"Does anybody mind if I...?" River asked. No one objected so she stepped toward the skeleton and turned off the relay.
"That was... that was horrible. That was the most horrible thing I've ever seen." Donna looked close to crying. I pulled her into a hug and felt the tears spill out onto my shoulder.
"Oh Donna." I sighed and wrapped my arms around her and rubbed comforting circles onto her back.
"No." River told Donna as she moved towards us, "It's just a freak of technology. But whatever did this to her, whatever killed her... I'd like a word with that."
"I'll introduce you." The Doctor growled. He turned and rushed back into the original room. I wrapped my arm around Donna's shoulders and followed him, the other humans behind me.
"I'm gonna need a packed lunch." The Doctor announced.
"Hang on." River led him over to her bag and started searching through it, she pulled out her diary.
"What's in that book?" the Doctor asked as I walked up beside them, having left Donna with the other humans.
"Spoilers." Was the only answer he got.
"Who are you?" he tried.
"Professor River Song, University of..."
"To me." He cut her off, "Who are you to me?"
"Again... spoilers." I felt my hearts lurch but ignored it, the TARDIS had shown me the future, how close River and the Doctor had gotten and I was nowhere in sight. She handed him a lunch box, "Chicken, and a bit of salad, Tory's favourite, just not yet." She winked, "Knock yourself out."
He stared at her for a long moment before standing.
"Right, you lot. Let's all meet the Vashta Nerada!" he walked back into the main part of the room and pulling out the sonic to scan the shadows.
River and I joined Donna.
"You travel with him, don't you?" River asked, "The Doctor, you travel with him."
"What of it?" she asked defensively but River didn't answer so Donna asked her own question, "You know him, don't you?"
"Oh, God, do I know that man. We go way back, that man and me. Just not this far back."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"He hasn't met me yet." River explained, "I sent him a message but it went wrong, it arrived too early. This is the Doctor in the days before he knew me. And he looks at me, he looks right through me and it shouldn't kill me, but it does."
"What are you talking about?" Donna's voice got louder as she spoke, "Are you just talking rubbish? Do you know him or don't you?"
"Donna! Quiet! I'm working." The Doctor ordered.
"Sorry!"
"Donna?" River looked shocked, "You're Donna? Donna Noble?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"I do know the Doctor. But in the future. His personal future."
"So why don't you know me? Where am I in the future?" before River could answer or I could try to stop her the Doctor jumped to his feet.
"OK, we've got a live one! That's not darkness down those tunnels, this is not a shadow. It's a swarm. A man-eating swarm." He threw a chicken leg into the shadow, it was stripped of all flesh as it passed through a shadow, "The piranhas of the air, the Vashta Nerada. Literally 'the shadows that melt the flesh'. Most planets have them, but usually in small clusters. I've never seen an infestation on this scale, or this aggressive."
Donna asked about Earth while I let my mind wander.
"I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry. But you've got two shadows." I jerked back to reality and stared at the floor by Proper Dave's feet, two shadows, "It's how they hunt, they latch on to a food source and keep it fresh."
I looked over at Mr. Lux and moved to his side, he flinched away.
"I won't hurt you," I whispered, "and I'll protect your secret." I promised him. He nodded and I took a step back.
"Tell the Doctor I'll catch up." I instructed and vanished in a flash of Meridian particles.
)0(
I reappeared in the control room for the whole complex. A white pillar stood in front of me a girl's face at the top.
"Hello Charlotte." I whispered and stroked my fingers over her cheek, gently, "What have the monsters done to you?"
)0(
I walked between bookcases following the voices of the Doctor and River. He was standing on a chair sonicing a light while River stood beside him.
"Trying to boost the power." He said in response to whatever she had asked, "Light doesn't stop them, but it slows them down."
"So, what's the plan? Do we have a plan?"
"River this is us, do we ever have a plan?" I asked her as I walked up. We grinned at each other. She pulled a sonic out and aimed it at the light like the Doctor and it became stronger.
"Your screwdriver... looks exactly like mine."
"Yeah. You gave it to me." River smiled as she put it away.
"I don't give my screwdriver to anyone." The Doctor told her sharply.
"I don't even have one." I sighed, not meaning for the other two to hear but River smirked at me.
"Not yet." She winked and then turned back to the Doctor, "I'm not anyone."
"Who are you?" he asked.
"What's the plan?" she ignored his question.
"I teleported Donna back to the TARDIS." He stared but I interrupted.
"No you didn't." both of them looked at me, "I would have felt it." The Doctor frowned and looked down at his sonic.
"She's not there." He confirmed, "I should've received a signal, the console signals me if there's a teleport breach."
"Well, maybe the co-ordinates have slipped. The equipment here's ancient." River suggested as I looked at her horror-struck. I grabbed the Doctor's hand and dragged him over to a nearby node.
"Donna Noble. There's a Donna Noble somewhere in this Library. Do you have the software to locate her position?" he asked quickly. The node turned, it was wearing Donna's face.
"No!" I screamed staring at the node, "No Donna!"
Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved.
"How can it be Donna?" River asked, stepping up to me and taking my hand, "How's that possible?"
Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved. I turned my head and buried it in her shoulder.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?" Skeleton/Dave appeared in the aisle.
"Doctor! Tory!" River yelled trying to get us to move.
Donna Noble has been saved.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?"
Donna Noble has left the Library.
"Doctor, we've got to go, now!" she grabbed our hands and pulled us after the other humans.
Donna Noble has been saved.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?"
Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved. We were cornered between bookshelves.
"Doctor, what are we gonna do?" River asked as she watched the Skeleton get closer.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?"
Donna Noble has left the Library. Donna Noble has been saved.
To be continued...