Hearing that Basil's brain liquified, didn't ease Theodore and Lila's concerns as they stood around talking with the Doctor about what killed Basil. Few things able to liquify brains and if not the conventional means, then what else's there that caused Basil's death.
Theodore went over to Basil's body and checked his head, he sees the liquid oozing from his ear holes, and he affirmed that it wasn't natural causes that killed Basil. He asked if the Doctor's sure that Basil didn't have any enemies and the Doctor affirmed that Basil didn't have any other guests except him.
"Someone killed him," Theodore stood up as he pulled on his stitched coat. "Someone with reason, I'm sure."
The Doctor disagreed, as he pointed out if anyone caused problems, it wouldn't be hard to sic the Vashta Nerada on them.
"Maybe not directly, but someone killed him," Theodore elaborated his conclusion.
The Doctor raised a bushy brow at this as he asked what Theodore's thinking and he shrugged his wide shoulders as he said that he doesn't know.
Someone else found out about Basil and killed him, that much he's figured out.
Not human, that much's clear.
Not the conventional sort of suspects fit the bill, either, and it's a short list as Theodore went through it.
That's not even touching motives, what motives someone could've had to kill the alien, on account he only wrote about humans, and didn't seem bothered to leave his prized library.
The Doctor's correct, nobody else came to this library, and if they did, Basil would've told him about it, so whoever killed him did it with the Doctor away. Either by coincidence or knew, Theodore didn't know for sure, but it meant that whoever killed Basil wanted to make sure he was dead, and his mind irreparable.
"If there's a motive, we're better off finding it," the Doctor decreed as he pulled on his brown pinstripe jacket. There's a reason for Basil's death and he wanted to find the person responsible.
For now, they needed to find the motive, and go from there, but that alone's problematic. They don't know it or if there's any evidence in the library. It's too systematic for it to be random, Basil doesn't have any riches or anything of perceived value to outsiders, only his books.
Made no sense at all, it's bothering him.
"Maybe someone didn't like the mention?" Lila guessed the reasoning behind the murder. Basil might've not written about aliens directly, however, he might've referenced them. Like how he referenced the Doctor's father in his mother's biography. Someone took offense or had a good reason for not wanting anyone to find out about it. Of course, this is just speculation, with trillions of books, it's a difficult process. Even Basil couldn't find the Doctor's mother's book that easily, because the volume of books written.
Thinking, Theodore agreed with Lila, that there's a possible motive, but they have nothing to go on, and the Doctor sucked air through his teeth while prattling along the area, trying to find clues.
Basil kept things near him if needed, an extra pot of nourishment for the long nights he writes about a human, pens, inkwells, papers, binders, the pressers, everything he needed to process and finish his books.
Hurrying around the side of the counter, the Doctor searched through the counter, he found empty pots of fermented berries that've long since lost their scents, twine Basil used to tie the pages together before he glued them to the back of the spine. Large inkwells he hadn't touched yet, there's an opened one half-full that Basil recently opened, and the Doctor searched for the pages that he wrote.
Basil took the craft seriously, whenever he wrote a biography, he made sure the pages completely dried before he bound them in the binder. Depending how long the biography, it could take weeks before he's able to prepare the book.
Rummaging through the counter, climbing it as he's physically able, the Doctor looked for the pages, but he didn't find them, and he knew Basil didn't bind them yet, because he found the hardcover, twine, and glue set aside for the book.
Whoever came here and killed Basil took the pages, but either forgot the hardcover or didn't think to take it.
The hardcover laid flat with the small lines pinpointing where Basil would've pressed it with the pages.
Picking it up, the Doctor flipped it over and read off the name on the book, part of it wasn't finished. Basil never gave biographies their namesake's until he's absolutely done with their biography. His way of keeping things concise. Basil never liked it if things changed without him knowing, messes up the workflow for him, and gets him in a bad mood.
RIVER
Just that, nothing else, don't know who it could've been, if that's their first or last name. It wasn't finalized, the bubbled cover still reacts when the Doctor lightly touched the name. Basil would've have hardened it once he completely wrote out the name and everything.
"Who's River?" Lila asked the Doctor as he came from around the counter and showed them the hardcover.
The Doctor replied he didn't know anyone with that name, if it's even part of a name, but it's the only evidence he found. He never found the pages.
"Could've he put them somewhere else?" Theodore asked if it's possible the Doctor overlooked the pages, but the Doctor disagreed. He described Basil as methodical, he'd never misplace his pages, and always keeps it close to him so he'd easily get them and bind them together.
The two helped the Doctor search for the missing pages, but couldn't find them anywhere in the counter, unable to find them, they're at a lose.
"Whoever this River is or was, they must've mattered for whoever came and killed Basil," Lila commented as she scratched the side of her head, unable to come up with answers as to why River's biography remained incomplete.
If what the Doctor said's true enough, Basil should've had it complete and if not, somewhere close to him to reach.
Theodore added, "We still don't know how they found out about Basil, you were the only one who knew him personally. How did he write about humans?"
It is peculiar an alien knew so much about humans he never saw in-person and the Doctor agreed with Theodore there, but he explained that Basil had a peculiar quirk compared to others of the same species.
He had a bizarre foresight.
An ability where he can "see" the lives of a person from beginning to end, like he's there, and able to translate it to text.
Think of it like the person who transcribes court hearings in the corner of the courtroom, but change out the court hearings, and change in the life of a person down to the minute detail. Everything they said and did, every person they met, it's all in the biography.
Basil never censored his biographies either, everything's exact, and he didn't have the same constraints as humans held.
"So, you think whoever killed him must've picked up on that and went from there?" Lila guessed on how someone could've found out what happened.
Someone prominent in River's biography caught on that Basil was an invisible rider and took offense to the eavesdropping. Guess something happened in the biography that the person couldn't risk letting escape and tracked down Basil.
Basil wouldn't let anyone take a biography from him so, the culprit killed him, liquified his brain, stole the pages from River's biography, and that's that.
"Problem is, how were they able to know he was watching them and know how to track him down?" Theodore pondered as he chewed on his bottom lip thinking about the culprit.
The culprit's an alien, that much's evident.
No other explanation for how they caught onto Basil watching River's life, someone capable of sensing or even seeing Basil somewhere watching everything happen.
How they managed to track him down, no answer there, only that they succeeded, and powerful enough to kill Basil without giving him a chance to defend himself.
The Doctor noted that Basil's physique caught him off-guard when he first met the alien, but after seeing the alien in action, his long legs and arms moving around the library, he's stronger than he looked, and would've defended himself if given the chance.
"What're we thinking. Not a Dalek, that much's clear. Everything in the library would've been destroyed," Lila crossed her arms as she thinks about the culprit.
Not their usual brand of aliens, the evidence of their doing evident the moment they landed in the library.
Can't think of a damn one, to be honest.
"How about you?" Theodore looked towards the Doctor for any chance of finding out who killed Basil.
Thinking, the Doctor paced around the area, before he concluded that no one came to mind. His variety of aliens didn't have the capability of coming to the library and they certainly couldn't spot Basil.
"Another thing, who knows how many aliens Basil could've indirectly written about, out of god knows how many, this is the only one that found him. Don't think the potato heads could've find the library even if it had a huge yellow illuminated sign with an 'L'!" Lila pointed out that given Basil's nature, he wrote wrote passages about humans' contacting aliens. Who knows how many passages of aliens he indirectly wrote about and how they didn't know it was happening, but this one alien did, and didn't like it.
Which led her to realize that given the volume of books, Basil wrote about Theodore's mom. It included aliens she met during her travels with Theodore's dad and the progression of her relationship with Theodore's dad.
Really don't want to read that section in public. Might make a few old ladies' pacemakers stop working if they even get a brief glance of some of those passages. Don't want that all-over the news, not with Hammond. His lid may never stick back on if he found out.
Made Lila wonder how Basil wrote those chapters.
No, rather, Lila rather not think about it, no thanks.
Forget she asked.
Theodore, ditto.
Man already turns into a bright red tomato any time he finds a loose "Bedroom Games" card somewhere in the TARDIS. He'd turn permanently red and Lila doesn't know how treatment for that goes for half-blooded Time Lords.
There are some things better left to the imagination and nothing more.
"All I know's it can't be a ship. You can't land here," the Doctor told her as he looked around. Humidity doesn't do books any good, they need a constant temperature of cool dry air. No moisture or else it'll mess with the pages. Couldn't exactly control an entire planet's thermostat and get building permits for a library with temperature control.
Oh, and finding local who aren't going to try and kill him out of fear since to them, he did look imposing.
Basil's eyes didn't allow him to easily see the sunlight, they're more accustomed to darkness and dim lighting, like the library. It'd be akin to the sun blinding someone who hadn't opened their eyes in a while, such as someone getting up from sleep.
"Underground?" Lila raised her brow as she guessed where Basil and the library's located.
Nodding, the Doctor revealed that, yes, the library's underground. Not near the molten core, not near any fault lines, any areas that suffered erosion, earthquakes, or other.
"How's he able to keep the air consistent?" Theodore inquired how Basil kept himself from becoming oxygen deprived.
The Doctor told him that while Basil didn't need a tonne of oxygen since his lungs developed differently, Vashta Nerada do, since there's literal clouds of them. Oh, and the books need some oxygen, too!
"How else are we breathing?" The Doctor pointed this out to Theodore.
Lila blinks as she gave the Doctor that one.
"He's right," she said as she noted that if there wasn't enough oxygen, they wouldn't survive this long with all the talking they'd done.
One thing bothered her and she asked what planet Basil's living on and the Doctor referred to it as less a planet, something uninhabitable on the surface.
Lila pointed out the Daleks lived on an uninhabitable planet and while the Doctor agreed with her, this one, not something even the Daleks wanted to attack.
Yes, you heard the Doctor, there is an actual planet that even Daleks, yes, known invaders infamous for razing planets for resources and slavery, won't even attempt an invasion. Something so fierce on the surface, they'll lose countless Daleks before they surrender, which they never do, and vacate the same space.
Almost a miracle Daleks haven't tried razing the planet from afar, but the Doctor gave a good explanation as to why that is, there's no sun in the system the planet's in.
Absolute darkness.
Why would it matter in the scheme of things?
Let's just say, there's things in space that even the Doctor doesn't want to face, and he pilots the TARDIS.
If that's not enough?
Even the Daleks feel the same way.
Should really tell you something, don't it?
"So, whoever we're looking for either went through "Event Horizon" to find this place… or what if they found a rift that took them here?" Lila gave her thought to the men.
She seen Theodore and Hammond use tears to get around while working, just walked into the solid wall, disappear, reappear somewhere else. They only use them locally.
As Theodore told her, rifts have more "juice" and if someone's capable of manipulating them, they could go anywhere if they wanted to, and unlike tears, rifts having more "juice" aren't as of a risk of collapsing. Provided the manipulation doesn't expend the "juice" of the rift.
Theodore looked towards the Doctor and asked if he can see rifts and tears, to which the Doctor replied he could, describing them as little cracks and gapes floating in suspension.
"Did you ever see any here?" Theodore asked the Doctor.
Pondering, the Doctor thoughtfully told him that he didn't. The TARDIS didn't show him anything out of the ordinary either.
"Not even remnants," the Doctor gritted his teeth.
Few ways in here and there's not even a trace of anything opening here.
Lila rubbed her nose and swore smelling something. It smelt like oak, like the kind her dad uses for barbecuing.
There's even a familiar charcoal sm—
"Oh… crap…" Lila lowered her hand as her eyes widened.
Theodore sees this and starts smelling…
"Run!" The Doctor ordered them to run and they followed his lead.