AN: Hello friends! I absolutely adore River Song so I've loved writing these stories - and I really can't wait to get around to the next tales! (I strongly suspect it's because I have a massive crush of Alex Kingston... but don't we all?)
Chapter 10: Forest of the Dead
She watched with mild interest as the curly-haired woman made a large square hole appear in one of the bookshelves and the rest of the group ducked through it.
"Dad, the library, it's on television now."
He sighed. "How many times, darling? The library is just your imagination."
A little disgruntled, she flicked through some of the other channels, many of them showing various views of the library. Until she came across one that showed something entirely different - a large stone building with several ambulances parked outside. As she watched, the camera zoomed in on the ambulance that had just arrived, keeping the focus there as the back doors were opened, revealing someone she recognised strapped to a stretcher.
"Donna?"
Donna sat on the bed, looking at her reflection cautiously in the mirror on the opposite wall. She felt uncomfortable in the strange room, not entirely sure how she had gotten there, or why she was there at all. There was a knock on the door, and a bald-headed black man wearing a smart suit entered.
"Hello, Donna."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Doctor Moon. I've been treating you since you came here, two years ago."
Something clicked in her mind, and she laughed apologetically.
"Oh God. Doctor Moon, I'm so sorry. What's wrong with me? I didn't know you for a moment."
He simply smiled. "And then you remembered. Shall we go for a walk?"
As they strolled across the gardens, he was asking her how she had been.
"No more dreams, then? The Doctor and Eris, and the blue box, time and space."
She blinked in the fresh air. "How did we get here?"
"We came down the stairs, out the front door. We passed Mrs Ali on the way out."
"Yeah. Yeah, we did. I forgot that."
"And then you remembered. Shall we go down to the river?"
And then they were beside the water, a packet of slightly stale bread between them. She frowned.
"You said river, and suddenly we're feeding ducks."
Before he could explain it away, a rather handsome man holding fishing equipment walked up to them.
"Doctor Moon. Morning."
He smiled back, introducing the patients to each other. "Donna Noble, Lee McAvoy."
Donna held a hand out. "Hello, Lee."
"Hello, D- D- D-"
"Ooo, you've got bit of a stammer there. Bless."
"D- D-"
"Oh, skip to a vowel. They're easy."
Lee blushed a little, and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand,
She walked back to the hospital with Doctor Moon, something nagging at the back of her mind. She was sure they had just had this exact conversation, but she simply couldn't remember any of it.
"How did we leave it, him and me?"
"I got the impression he was inviting you fishing tomorrow."
Those few hours (that must have happened, even though she couldn't recall what she had been doing in that time) passed in the blink of an eye, and she found herself standing outside Lee's door. She knocked and entered, twirling a little to show off her sequined dress to the gobsmacked young man.
"So. Fishing."
It turned out that fishing wasn't anywhere near as glamorous as she had dressed for. But it was quite nice, she supposed, sitting with her head on Lee's shoulder as they huddled under a large umbrella in the pouring rain. He hadn't had much luck with bites just yet, but neither of them really seemed to mind.
"D… D…"
She grinned up at him. "Gorgeous, and can't speak a word. What am I going to do with you?"
Eighteen months had felt like eighteen seconds - although, she supposed, it was just the way memories worked. She was sitting on the sofa in their living room now, not being carried over the threshold of their home in her wedding dress. You couldn't possibly remember everything that had ever happened to you, so it made sense that only the highlights popped out. It felt a little strange sometimes, but she was starting to get used to it.
Her reverie was broken by her children chasing each other around the sofa, screaming loudly.
"Stop it. Stop it now. We've got a visitor."
Doctor Moon smiled as he looked through the photo album, documenting every birthday, Christmas, and family holiday. "You've done so much in seven years, Donna."
"Sometimes it feels more like seventy. Mind you, sometimes it feels like no time at all."
"Can I just say what a pleasure it is to see you fully integrated-"
He seemed to freeze for a moment, then flicker out of view - to be replaced by the Doctor. He didn't seem to notice her at first, focused on the sonic screwdriver.
"No, the signal's definitely coming from the moon. I'm blocking it, but it's trying to break through. Donna!"
And then Doctor Moon glitched back into solidity, a hand on his stomach.
"Sorry. Mrs Angelo's rhubarb surprise. Will I never learn?"
She sat down heavily, a hand halfway to her mouth.
"Oh, the Doctor. I saw the Doctor."
"Yes, you did, Donna. And then, you forgot."
She blinked, head going fuzzy for a second, and then smiled brightly.
"Doctor Moon. Oh, hello. You didn't say you were going to pop round. Shall I make you a cup of tea?"
Cutting through the wall again, River led them through into another of the central circular areas, spotting a well-lit circle in the centre.
"OK, we've got a clear spot. In, in, in! Right in the centre. In the middle of the light, quickly. Don't let your shadows cross. Doctor."
"On it." He started scanning the edges of the shadows.
"There's no lights here. Sunset's coming, and the moonlight won't be enough to protect us. We can't stay long. Have you found a live one?"
"Maybe. It's getting harder to tell." He whacked the sonic against his palm. "What's wrong with you?"
"We're going to need a chicken leg. Who's got a chicken leg?" The rest of the crew rooted through their packs until someone found one. "Thanks, Dave."
She tossed the meat into the shadow, wincing a little as the flesh was stripped from it instantly.
"Okay. Okay, we've got a hot one. Watch your feet."
"They won't attack until there's enough of them. But they've got our scent now. They're coming."
As Eris crouched next to him, trying to sort the sonic out, Other Dave grabbed River by the arm.
"Okay, who is he? You haven't even told us. You just expect us to trust them?"
She shrugged. "He's the Doctor. And she's Eris."
Lux rolled his eyes. "And who exactly are the Doctor and Eris?"
"The only story you'll ever tell, if you survive them."
Anita looked between the strange travellers and her friend.
"You say they're your friends, but they don't even know who you are."
"Listen, all you need to know is this. I'd trust those two to the end of the universe. And actually, we've been."
"Well, he certainly doesn't act like he trusts you. And she looks at you like you're some kind of mythical being."
"Yeah, there's a tiny problem. They haven't met me yet."
She moved to join the Doctor and Eris, who seemed to have had very little success with the screwdriver.
"What's wrong with it?"
He sighed. "There's a signal coming from somewhere, interfering with it."
"Then use the red settings."
"It doesn't have a red setting."
"Well, use the dampers."
"It doesn't have dampers."
"It will do one day." She held up her own sonic, and Eris held a hand out.
"May I?"
"Oh, please."
She passed over and watched as the brunette turned it over in her fingers, an odd look on her face.
"Dad."
"What is it?"
"These adjustments… they don't look like your typical style of tinkering, do they? It's closer to the sort of work I've done on the console. Look."
He took it and examined the tool, seeing her point. He passed it back to it's owner, frowning.
"So, some time in the future, I just give you my screwdriver. And not just any screwdriver, a screwdriver that's been hand modified by one of the cleverest scientists I know."
She shrugged. "Yeah."
"Why would I do that?"
"I didn't pluck it from your cold dead hands, if that's what you're worried about. Although, Eris, it's not like that would really be possible anyway."
The Doctor was quickly growing frustrated with her blasé attitude. "And I know that because?"
She huffed. "Listen to me. You've lost your friend. You're angry. I understand. But you need to be less emotional, Doctor, right now."
"Less emotional? I'm not emotional."
"There are six people in this room still alive. Focus on that. Dear God, you're hard work young."
"Young? Who are you?!"
On the other side of the room, Lux scoffed.
"Oh, for heaven's sake! Look at the pair of you. We're all going to die right here, and you're just squabbling like an old married couple."
They exchanged an awkward look, and River chewed the edge of her lip in a way that was scarily reminiscent of Eris' own nervous mannerisms.
"Doctor, one day I'm going to be someone that the two of you trust completely, but I can't wait for you to find that out. So I'm going to prove it to you. And I'm sorry. I'm really very sorry."
And she leant up to whisper in his ear. He looked stunned, barely noticing the woman duck a little to do the same to his daughter.
"Are we good? Doctor, Eris, are we good?"
"Yeah, we're good."
"Mhm. Yeah, ok, good."
"Good."
And she stalked back to the centre of the room, hoping that her spacesuit would hide the worst of her trembles.
The moment she was out of earshot, Eris rounded on him.
"What did she say to you?"
"I…"
"What was it?!"
She was almost hyperventilating, and the Doctor put his hands on her shoulders, concerned.
"What did she tell you?"
"She…" She had to take a breath before being able to finish the sentence. "Her exact words were, 'You're a product of the Enyo Corporation'. I've never told anyone but you that information before, not ever. And I can't imagine ever wanting to tell someone else, so how the hell does she know?"
He pulled her into a quick hug, feeling the shakes subside a little as he wrapped his arms around her back.
"It's ok. She knew my name. And you know I've never shared that information with anyone who's currently alive, other than you."
She pulled back, eyes wide. "Your name? But that… that's not possible. It's one of the only Gallifreyan rules you still stick to with any consistency. That's why you didn't tell me until after that adoption thing we did after that… disastrous trip to Milan."
"I know. But this means that clearly, at some point in the future, we both trust River enough to tell her these very serious parts of ourselves. So I think we need to trust her now. Just for long enough to get through this."
"None of this makes sense."
"Yeah, you're telling me."
Sighing, the Doctor moved into the centre of the room, raising his voice so everyone could hear him. "Know what's interesting about my screwdriver? Very hard to interfere with. Practically nothing's strong enough. Well, some hairdryers, but I'm working on that. So there is a very strong signal coming from somewhere, and it wasn't there before. So what's new? What's changed? Come on! What's new? What's different?"
Other Dave - well, the only remaining Dave - shrugged. "I don't know. Nothing. It's getting dark?"
He raised an eyebrow. "It's a screwdriver. It works in the dark. Moon rise. Tell me about the moon. What's there?"
Lux glanced up at the structure. "It's not real. It was built as part of the Library. It's just a Doctor Moon."
"What's a Doctor Moon?"
"A virus checker. It supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet."
"Well, still active. It's signalling. Look." He switched on the sonic again, focusing on the tiny displays. "Someone somewhere in this library is alive and communicating with the moon. Or, possibly alive and drying their hair. No, the signal is definitely coming from the moon. I'm blocking it, but it's trying to break through."
Eris grabbed his arm. "Dad, look!"
River had seen it too. "Doctor!"
He followed their gaze, jaw dropping. "Donna!"
Their friend was standing there, a translucent hologram, a look of shock on her face. Before they could reach out to her, she vanished.
"That was her. That was your friend! Can you get her back? What was that?"
He whacked the sonic again. "Hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm trying to find the wavelength. Argh, I'm being blocked."
Voice shaking a little, Anita piped up. "Professor?"
River, too busy trying to help with the technical issues, brushed her off. "Just a moment."
Eris glanced back. "What is it, Anita?"
"It's important. I… I have two shadows."
The others whipped round to look at her, indeed seeing the two shadows perpendicular to each other on the floor. River took control.
"Okay. Helmets on, everyone. Anita, I'll get yours."
Anita sniffled. "It didn't do Proper Dave any good."
"Just keep it together, okay?"
"Keeping it together. I'm only crying. I'm about to die. It's not exactly an overreaction."
Eris offered her a smile as River fastened the helmet in place. "Hey, hang in there. We're going to figure this out, we understand them a bit more than we did last time."
The Doctor approached her, sonic at the ready. "Hang on." And he activated the polarising filter.
River, watching over his shoulder, blanched.
"Oh God, they've got inside."
"No, no, no. I just tinted her visor. Maybe they'll think they're already in there, leave her alone."
"Do you think they can be fooled like that?"
"Maybe. I don't know. It's a swarm. It's not like we chat."
Dave took a step closer to her. "Can you still see in there?"
She managed a slight laugh. "Just about."
The Doctor, adjusting some of the settings on the front of Anita's suit, held out a hand.
"Just, just, just stay back, okay? Just in case."
Noticing something out of the corner of her eye, Eris took River by the elbow and led her away from the rest of the group.
"Professor, a quick word, please."
"What? What is it?"
"Look, you said there are six people still alive in this room."
"Yeah, so?"
"So, why can I see seven?"
Following the shorter woman's line of sight, River saw the dark figure standing stiffly just within the shadows.
"Hey, who turned out the lights?"
"Run! Everyone, now!
"Hey, who turned out the lights?"
Donna returned to the living room with two mugs of tea, blinking in confusion as she registered that her guest was no longer there. "Here we are, Doctor Moon. Oh."
"Mummy, I made you!" Her daughter bounded up with a multicoloured plasticine figure in her hands, grinning.
"Oh, that's nice, Ella. Where's the face?"
"I don't know."
"Did you see Doctor Moon? Did he leave?"
Lee came around the doorway, putting his briefcase down just as the twins set eyes on him.
"Daddy! Daddy!"
"Hey! Hello, you two. Come here. Big hugs. Big Daddy hugs."
Ella thrust the figure in his face. "Look what I made."
He examined the odd blob for a moment, before making an educated guess.
"Oh. It's… Mummy."
Donna raised an eyebrow. "Er, it hasn't got a face. Did you see Doctor Moon?"
"No. Why, was he here?"
"Yeah, just a second ago. You must have passed him."
She moved to the window in the hope that she would see him on the street - he had always been a very quick man, but this was certainly strange. But he wasn't there. What she did see, though, was a woman in a long black Victorian style dress. At least, she assumed it was a woman - the head was covered by a thick veil.
Lee came to stand behind her, pressing a kiss to the side of her head.
"You alright?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. It's just…"
"Just?"
"Nothing. It's been a long day, that's all. I'm just tired."
And suddenly she was wearing pyjamas, and the lights were dimmed. She frowned, and her husband caught the expression.
"You okay?"
Donna shook herself a little, trying to remember what Doctor Moon had taught her to do when her memories escaped her. "I said I was tired, and, and we put the kids to bed, and we watched television."
He nodded encouragingly, and she relaxed - until the sound of the letterbox rattling made her jump.
"Was that a letter?"
"It's midnight." He grumbled around his toothbrush.
"Go and see what it is. Please."
He left the room, and she pulled the curtain aside to look out of the window. The veiled woman was there again.
"The world is wrong."
"What?"
Lee held up a piece of folded paper. "It was for you. Weird, though. Dear Donna, the world is wrong. Meet me at your usual playpark, two o'clock tomorrow."
She huffed. "Nutter."
And yet she went. Something within her was drawing her there, pulling her to meet with the stranger that seemed to know so much about her. Of course, a large part of her was also saying this was a very bad idea - but she was ignoring that bit for now. She crouched to speak to Joshua and Ella as she spotted the veiled woman alone on a nearby bench.
" All right, you two, off you go. No fighting."
As they ran off, she crossed the park and sat down next to her.
"I got your note last night. The world is wrong. What's that mean?"
"No, you didn't."
"I'm sorry, what?"
The woman continued. "You didn't get my note last night. You got it a few seconds ago. Having decided to come, you suddenly found yourself arriving. That is how time progresses here, in the manner of a dream. You've suspected that before, haven't you, Donna Noble?"
"How do you know me?"
"We met before, in the library. You were kind to me. I hope now to return that kindness."
"Your voice. I recognise it."
"Yes, you do. I am what is left of Miss Evangelista."
The group legged it across one of the high enclosed walkways to the adjacent skyscraper, aware that the skeleton in the suit was getting faster as it learned to control the limbs. Eris stopped halfway between the entrance and the exit, noticing the fine seams in the floor.
"Doctor, we've got a chance."
He nodded and gestured to River. "Professor, go ahead. Find a safe spot."
She glared at them. "It's a carnivorous swarm in a suit. You can't reason with it."
"Five minutes. We'll be fine."
"Other Dave, stay with them. Pull them out when they're too stupid to live. Two minutes, Doctor. No more."
She took the remaining people through to the next building as the remains of Proper Dave appeared, chanting it's usual mantra.
"Hey, who turned out the lights?"
He took a step forwards, hands out in a gesture of peace. "You hear that? Those words? That is the very last thought of the man who wore that suit before you climbed inside and stripped his flesh. That's a man's soul trapped inside a neural relay, going round and round forever. Now, if you don't have the decency to let him go, how about this? Use him. Talk to me. It's easy. Neural relay. Just point and think. Use him, talk to me."
"Hey, who turned out the lights?"
"The Vashta Nerada live on all the worlds in this system, but you hunt in forests. What are you doing in a library?"
Other Dave was growing more anxious by the moment as the dead man got closer.
"We should go. Doctor!"
"In a minute. You came to the library to hunt. Why? Just tell me why?"
Proper Dave stopped, falling silent for a moment. "We… did not."
"Oh, hello."
"We did not."
Eris switched on the charm, keeping her voice low and soothing.
"Take it easy, you'll get the hang of it soon. You're doing so well. Did not what?"
"We did not… come here."
The Doctor huffed. "Well, of course you did. Of course you came here."
"We come from here."
"From here?"
"We hatched here."
"But you hatch from trees. From spores in trees."
"These are our forests."
"You're nowhere near a forest. Look around you."
"These are our forests."
Eris looked around them, realisation setting in. "Oh… Of course. We were so stupid."
"You're not in a forest, you're in a library. There are no trees in a-" He looked down as his daughter grabbed his wrist, then at the look on her face. And everything made sense. "-library."
Other Dave tried again. "We should go. Doctor!"
"Books. You came in the books. Microspores in a million, million books."
"We should go. Doctor!"
"Oh, look at that. The forests of the Vashta Nerada, pulped and printed and bound. A million, million books, hatching shadows."
"We should go. Doctor!"
At the third rendition of this request, both time travellers turned to look back at their companion, hearts sinking as they saw what had happened.
"Oh, Dave! Oh Dave, I'm so sorry."
Both Dave's took up their respective phrases once again, all rapport lost.
"Hey, who turned out the lights?"
"We should go. Doctor!"
He let Eris centre them between the seams as he rambled.
"Thing about me, I'm stupid. I talk too much. Always babbling on. This gob doesn't stop for anything. Want to know the only reason I'm still alive? Well, partly because I've got a daughter with far more common sense than I'll ever have. But here's a handy bit of advice for anyone - always stay near the door."
And he opened the trapdoor with the sonic screwdriver, the two of them dropping through and vanishing. With slow, stiff movements, the two suited swarms came to look through the hole.
But there was nobody there.
"Have I ever told you that you're an idiot?"
He managed the slightest of laughs as he focused on keeping his grip on the support beam, inching his way towards the next building as she followed a foot or so behind him.
"On several occasions."
"How did you forget that paper is made from trees?"
"Oh, you're never going to let me live that down are you?"
"Nope. I'm going to add it to my list of things to repeatedly abuse you for over the next few centuries."
He grimaced. "Yeah, I thought so. Sometimes I really question why I chose to adopt you, you know that right?"
She snorted. "Even if you hadn't, you'd have no hope of getting rid of me. You're stuck with me, old man. Better get used to it."
Miss Evangelista sat with her hands folded in her lap, looking out at the multitudes of children playing on the equipment.
"I suggested we meet here because a playground is the easiest place to see it. To see the lie."
"What lie?"
"The children. Look at the children."
Donna didn't see anything odd about them, and changed the subject.
"Why do you wear that veil? If I had a face like yours, I wouldn't hide it."
"You remember my face, then? The memories are all still there. The library, the Doctor, me. You've just been programmed not to look."
"Sorry, but you're dead."
"In a way, we're all dead here, Donna. We are the dead of the library."
"Well, what about the children? The children aren't dead. My children aren't dead."
"Your children were never alive."
"Don't you say that. Don't you dare say that about my children!"
"Look at your children. Look at all of them, really look."
So she did - and she saw it. Ella and Joshua, playing on the swings. Ella pushing Joshua down the slide. Ella crossing the monkey bars with Joshua's help. Ella and Joshua laughing as they made the roundabout go faster. Ella and Joshua. Ella and Joshua. Every set of children there was Ella and Joshua.
Miss Evangelista sounded like she regretted pointing it out.
"They're not real. Do you see it now? They're all the same. All the children of this world, the same boy and the same girl, over and over again."
Donna felt an awful tightening in her chest. "Stop it. Just stop it. Why are you doing this? Why are you wearing that veil?"
And she pulled the veil away - before wishing she hadn't. She screamed at the sight; for what had once been a beautiful face was warped, distorted and stretched beyond recognition.
Night had finally fallen, and the Doctor and Eris still hadn't joined the rest of the group. River paced around the room, checking every shadow with her own sonic. She was half talking to herself, half talking to the others.
"You know, it's funny, I keep wishing the Doctor was here."
Anita frowned - then remembered that nobody could see her do it.
"The Doctor is here, isn't he? He is coming back, right? They both are."
She stopped pacing and sighed. "You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you knew them. And it's like they're not quite finished? They're not done yet. Well, yes, the Doctor and Eris are here. They came when I called, just like they always does. Eris never changes - she might not know me, not yet, but other than that she's the same person I know and adore. But he's not my Doctor. Now my Doctor, I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And he'd just swagger off back to his Tardis and open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor in the Tardis. Next stop, everywhere."
Looming over the railing, the Doctor scoffed.
"Spoilers. Nobody can open a Tardis by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that."
"It does for the Doctor."
"I am the Doctor."
"Yeah. Some day."
Eris rolled her eyes as they descended to join them. "Oh, shut it you two. It's getting boring. How are you all doing?"
River eyed them. "Where's Other Dave?"
"He's not coming. I'm sorry."
Anita hummed thoughtfully. "Well, if they've taken him, why haven't they gotten me yet?"
"I don't know. Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference."
"It's making a difference all right. No one's ever going to see my face again."
The Doctor took her hand, trying to comfort her. "Can I get you anything?"
"An old age would be nice. Anything you can do?"
"I'm all over it. Promise."
"Doctor. When we first met you, you didn't trust Professor Song. And then she whispered a word in your ear, and you did. My life so far. I could do with a word like that. What did she say? Give a dead girl a break. Your secrets are safe with me."
He frowned. "Safe."
"What?"
"Safe. You don't say saved. Nobody says saved. You say safe." He rounded on Lux. "The data fragment! What did it say?"
The man repeated what he'd told them earlier.
"Four thousand and twenty two people saved. No survivors."
River frowned at the two of them. "Doctor?"
"Nobody says saved. Nutters say saved. You say safe. You see, it didn't mean safe. It meant, it literally meant, saved!"
The veil had been replaced, and the two women had moved to the bandstand at the end of the park: partly so that they wouldn't be overheard, and partly so that Donna wouldn't have to look at the horrific truth about her children anymore.
"What happened to your face?"
"Transcription errors. Destroyed my face, did wonders for my intellect. I'm a very poor copy of myself."
"Where are we? Why are the children all the same?"
"The same pattern over and over. It saves an awful lot of space."
"Space?"
"Cyberspace."
Curled on the sofa, a pillow tucked under her chin, the little girl shouted at the television, suddenly very scared.
"No, don't tell! You mustn't tell!"
With a lot of technical difficulty - and a fair amount of swearing from Eris when one of the circuits had blown up in her face - the Doctor had managed to access the library's archive files from the time of the original incident.
"See, there it is, right there. A hundred years ago, massive power surge. All the teleports going at once. Soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attack. Someone hits the alarm. The computer tries to teleport everyone out."
River looked impressed. "It tried to teleport four thousand twenty two people?"
"It succeeded. Pulled them all out, but then what? Nowhere to send them. Nowhere safe in the whole library. Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. Four thousand and twenty two people all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent, like emails. So what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?"
And she understood. "It saved them."
He patted his pockets down, frowning slightly. "I could've sworn I had a marker pen in here."
Eris waved it at him. "Yeah, sorry, borrowed it. Here you go."
He took it back with an admonishing glare, and cleared a section of the nearest table so the polished surface was available. First he drew a large circle, and then drew a smaller circle in the centre and scruffily shaded it in.
"The library. A whole world of books, and right at the core, the biggest hard drive in history. The index to everything ever written, backup copies of every single book. The computer saved four thousand and twenty two people the only way a computer can. It saved them to the hard drive."
Miss Evangelista continued her explanation.
"Your physical self is stored in the library as an energy signature. It can be actualised again whenever you or the library requires."
"The library?" A thought hit Donna like a brick. "If my face ends up on one of those statues…"
"You remember the statues?"
"Wait, no, just hang on. So this isn't the real me? This isn't my real body? But I've been dieting!"
"What you see around you, this entire world, is nothing more than virtual reality."
"So why do you look like that?"
She shrugged. "I had no choice. You teleported. You're a perfect reproduction. I was just a data ghost caught in the Wi-Fi and automatically uploaded."
"And it made you clever?"
"We're only strings of numbers in here. I think a decimal point may have shifted in my IQ. But my face has been the bigger advantage. I have the two qualities you require to see absolute truth. I am brilliant and unloved."
"If this is all a dream, whose dream is it?"
"It's hard to see everything in the data core, even for me, but there is a word. Just one word."
The little girl clung to the remote control tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"No, no. You can't, please."
"CAL."
Cries from the playground made Donna jump to her feet, and she rushed over to find a rather guilty looking Joshua standing over his sister by the swings.
"I'm sorry, Mummy, I think I pushed too hard."
"Mummy, my knee!"
She crouched by them, doing her best to reassure them both.
"Oh! Oh, look at that knee. Oh, look at that silly old knee! It's okay Joshua, accidents happen. It's alright Ella, we'll go home now and Mummy will kiss it all better."
Standing over them, Miss Evangelista sighed. "She's not real. They're fictions. I'm sorry, but now that you understand that, you won't be able to keep a hold. They are sustained only by your belief."
Donna spat back. "You don't know. You don't have children."
"Neither do you. Donna, for your own sake, let them go!"
The little girl was angry now. "Stop it! You'll spoil everything! I hate you! You're going to ruin everything! Stop it!"
Her dad came into the living room, concerned by the shouting. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"
"Shut up!" She grabbed the remote and pointed it at him, pressing a button. He vanished, and she put a hand to her mouth. "Daddy! No! Daddy! Daddy, I'm sorry!"
She threw the remote to the floor, sobbing harder as it clattered and fell apart.
An alarm began to blare, and the remaining lights started to flare red. Lux glanced upwards, worried.
"What is it? What's wrong? What have you done?"
The computer's response was the exact opposite of what they all wanted to hear.
"Autodestruct enabled in twenty minutes."
River read the computer display. "What's maximum erasure?"
The Doctor groaned. "In twenty minutes, this planet's going to crack like an egg."
Lux shook his head, pushing them aside to try and work on the circuits.
"No. No, it's all right. The Doctor Moon will stop it. It's programmed to protect CAL."
The television was still playing as she curled up in a ball on the floor, the words from the screen barely registering in her mind.
"Mummy, what did the lady mean? Are we not real?"
"Where are we going?"
"Home!" Donna said. "We're going home."
And they were back in their living room. But something was wrong - the lighting was an ugly red and a harsh alarm blared in the background.
Joshua and Ella were tucked against her side.
"That was quick, wasn't it, Mummy?"
"Mummy, what's wrong with the sky?"
Doctor Moon crouched by her, stroking the top of her head gently.
"Now you really must stop this, you know. You've forgotten again it was you who saved all those people, haven't you? And then, you remembered."
She reached for the remains of the remote again, glad to see the batteries were still in place.
"Shut up, Doctor Moon!"
And then he was gone too.
Every computer terminal shut off without warning, and the Doctor thumped the nearest one with his fist.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
The computer above chimed in. "All library systems are permanently offline. Sorry for any inconvenience."
Now that the safeguards were entirely down, Lux looked a bit more concerned.
"We need to stop this. We've got to save CAL."
"What is it? What is CAL?"
"We need to get to the main computer. I'll show you."
"It's at the core of the planet."
River nodded. "Well, then. Let's go." Aiming her sonic screwdriver at the library logo in the central decoration on the floor, she switched it on. The space opened, revealing a hovering disc in a field of blue-white light. "Gravity platform."
Eris nudged her. "I bet we like you."
"Oh, you really do."
They all stepped on, spacing themselves so the weight was evenly distributed. With another burst from the sonic, they began to descend.
Huddled on the sofa, Donna clung to her children as the red light only seemed to grow more intense. Joshua squirmed a little.
"Mummy, you're hurting my hand."
"Oh, I'm sorry darling. You just, you just stay where I can see you, all right? You, you don't get out of my sight."
Ella nuzzled into her side. "Is it bedtime?"
And then they were in the children's bedroom. Both of them were tucked up under their duvets, looking very cosy. She closed the book that was in her hands, and pieced her way through the evening.
"Okay. That was lovely, wasn't it? That was a lovely bedtime. We had warm milk, and we watched cartoons, and then Mummy read you a lovely bedtime story."
Ella looked up at her, wide eyed. "Mummy, Joshua and me, we're not real, are we?"
"Of course you're real. You're as real as anything. Why do you say that?"
Joshua picked at the edge of his blanket. "But, Mummy, sometimes, when you're not here, it's like we're not here."
"Even when you close your eyes, we just stop."
She moved to kiss each of them on the forehead.
"Well, Mummy promises to never close her eyes again."
But by the time she had leant down, both beds were empty. Neither of her children were there, and her heart stopped.
"No! Please! No, please! No! No, no! No, no!"
They reached the central core just as the computer gave them another reminder.
"Autodestruct in fifteen minutes."
The Doctor stared up at the pulsing globe above them and whistled, impressed.
"The data core. Over four thousand living minds trapped inside it."
River wasn't quite so enamoured with it. "Yeah, well, they won't be living much longer. We're running out of time."
A quiet voice seemed to echo from somewhere close by.
"Help me. Please, help me. Please, please help me!"
Eris glanced across at the others, but none of them seemed to have heard it.
"Dad?"
"No time, Eris. Aha! Access terminal."
He started working at the keyboard.
The next time the voice spoke, he was the only one who didn't hear it.
"Help me. Please, help me."
Anita turned to look in the direction of the sound. "What's that?"
River frowned. "Was that a child?"
The Doctor was more bothered about the total technical shutdown he was battling against.
"The computer's in sleep mode. I can't wake it up. I'm trying."
"Doctor, these readings…"
"I know. You'd think it was dreaming."
Lux sighed. "It is dreaming, of a normal life, and a lovely Dad, and of every book ever written."
Anita shook her head. "Computers don't dream."
They all heard her voice this time. "Help me. Please help me."
Eris met Lux's eyes and understood everything.
"No, but little girls do. Don't they Mr Lux?"
He nodded and reached for a breaker, pulling it with one strong movement. A door opened, and the group followed him through.
In the next room, a smaller version of the library nodes was wired into the central mainframe. The face on it's headpiece was one they all recognised.
"Please help me. Please help me."
"Oh, my God."
"It's the little girl. The girl we saw in the computer."
Lux gazed fondly at her. "She's not in the computer. In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is CAL."
The Doctor rounded on him, furious. "CAL is a child? A child hooked up to a mainframe? Why didn't you tell me this? I needed to know this!"
"Because she's family!" He roared back. Taking a breath, he continued a little more calmly. "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, and he gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show."
Eris put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "So you weren't protecting a patent, you were protecting her."
"This is only half a life, of course. But it's forever."
"And then the shadows came."
The mention of the creatures seemed to catch her attention.
"The shadows. I have to- I have to save. Have to save."
The Doctor moved a little closer to her, brushing her forehead in the same soft way he'd used to brush his children's hair away from their faces while they slept, centuries ago. "And she saved them. She saved everyone in the library. Folded them into her dreams and kept them safe."
Anita remained at the back of the group as the others clustered.
"Then why didn't she tell us?"
"Because she's forgotten. She's got over four thousand living minds chatting away inside her head. It must be like being, well, me."
River looked between the girl and the Doctor. "So what do we do?"
The computer hit them with another unpleasant reminder.
"Autodestruct in ten minutes."
He clapped his hands together. "Easy! We beam all the people out of the data core. The computer will reset and stop the countdown. Difficult. Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer. Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer. She can borrow my memory space."
Eris raised an eyebrow at him. "Difficult. It'll kill you stone dead. Like, very much actually dead."
"Yeah, it's easy to criticise."
River seemed furious at the suggestion. "It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate!"
He shrugged. "I'll try my hardest not to die. Honestly, it's my main thing."
"Doctor!"
"I'm right, this works. Shut up. Now listen. You and Luxy boy, back up to the main library. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download, and before you say anything else, Professor, can I just mention in passing as you're here, shut up."
"Oh! I hate you sometimes!"
"I know!"
"Mister Lux, with me. Eris, Anita, if he dies, I'll kill him!"
As the two of them left, Anita asked,
"What about the Vashta Nerada?"
He responded without looking back at her.
"These are their forests. I'm going to seal Charlotte inside her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content."
"So you think they're just going to let us go?"
Eris folded her arms, looking at the suited figure coldly. "Best offer they're going to get."
"You're going to make 'em an offer?"
"Well they'd better take it. Because right now, and I'm sure my dad would back me up if he had the time to take his attention away from the computer, I'm finding it very difficult to see any way to be generous."
"Why?"
"Because I really liked Anita. She was so brave, even when she was crying, even when she was terrified of dying. And you ate her."
Borrowing the sonic for a moment, she cleared the visor, revealing what was left of the young woman.
"But I'm going to let that pass, just as long as you let them pass."
"How long have you known?"
"We counted the shadows. You only have one now. She's nearly gone. Why can't you for once, just be kind?"
"These are our forests. We are not kind."
"He is giving you back your forests, but you are giving us them. You are letting them go."
"These are our forests. They are our meat."
The skeletal figure sent shadows stretching out in their direction, and she took a step towards them. If the swarm had been able to look surprised, it certainly would have.
"Oh, come on. If you're here to play games, you picked the wrong person to mess with. You just killed someone we liked a lot, and that is a very dangerous place to put yourself in." The shadows were only a few inches away from her feet now, but their growth seemed to be slowing. "Hey, we're in the biggest library in the universe for goodness' sake! There's billions upon billions of books here, and access to one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date search engines history has ever seen. Now, you could go searching for my name and find all my little contributions to early science, which I think is very cool. But if you looked up my dad? If you looked up the Doctor? Oh, the things you could find. Go on, tap in. Ask all your little buddies for a hand. You came from these books, so the content of their pages is ingrained in your memories. Look. Him. Up."
There was a pause as the swarm within Anita's suit searched through their collective hive mind, dredging up information on the Doctor. And they clearly didn't like what they found. The shadows withdrew, and the suit spoke one final time.
"You have one day."
And then it collapsed.
River rounded the corner, crouching by the remains of her friend.
"Oh, Anita."
The Doctor, nose still firmly buried in the computer, sighed.
"I'm sorry. She's been dead a while now. Anyway I told you to go!"
"Lux can manage without me, but you can't."
In three steps she had crossed the room and punched him hard, knocking him out in a single blow. She turned to Eris, an eyebrow raised.
"Are you going to let me go through with what I'm planning if I let you stay awake?"
She shook her head. "I think I know what you've got in mind, and I can't let you do that. I just can't. If you set the computers up, I will happily take your place. I can't die - and I'm sure you already know that."
"You sound pretty confident about that."
River's quietness made her falter for a moment, but she brushed the sudden spark of fear away.
"I will survive this. You won't. Just let me-"
But River put her hands on the smaller woman's shoulders and pressed her thumbs into the recess where her neck began on either side. She dropped to the floor next to her adoptive father, unconscious.
"I'm sorry, sweet one. But it has to be me this time."
As the Doctor came to, head throbbing, he could hear the computer.
"Autodestruct in two minutes."
And then he could see River. She was sitting in the large chair at the wall, twisting a few wires together. A circular metal structure was resting on her lap, and he realised what was happening.
"Oh, no, no, no, no. Come on, what are you doing? That's my job."
She managed a slightly teary laugh. "Oh, and I'm not allowed to have a career, I suppose?"
He tried to get up and pull her away from the chair, but found that he couldn't move - he had been cuffed to one of the railings. "Why am I handcuffed? Why do you even have handcuffs?"
"Spoilers."
"This is not a joke. Stop this now. This is going to kill you! I'd have a chance, you don't have any." He tried to reach for the sonic, but it was laying just out of his reach - along with River's sonic, her diary, and Eris' little lock picking kit. She really had covered all bases to make sure neither of them would get out and stop her.
"You wouldn't have a chance, and neither do I. I'm timing it for the end of the countdown. There'll be a blip in the command flow. That way it should improve our chances of a clean download."
"River, please. No."
He looked down at Eris for some support, but saw that she was still passed out.
River's hands were shaking as she fastened the halo around her head, careful not to catch too much of her hair in it. "Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you both knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you - the real you, the future you, I mean - you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. And Eris, she looked so beautiful, like an angel. The two of you took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you both cried."
"Autodestuct in one minute."
"You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time. My time. Time to come to the library. You even gave me your screwdriver, with all of Eris' little adjustments. That should have been a clue."
He stretched for the sonics again, fingers brushing the ground just a few centimetres away from them. She shook her head at him, taking both ends of the strap cable in her hands.
"There's nothing you can do."
"You can let me do this, please."
She was visibly tearing up now. "If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you."
"Time can be rewritten."
"Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare. It's okay. It's okay. It's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that wonder to come. You and me, and our little firecracker, plus all time and space. You watch us run."
He could feel his own eyes watering now. "River, you know my name."
"Autodestruct in ten-"
"You whispered my name in my ear."
"Nine, eight, seven-"
"And what you told Eris, that's not something she would ever tell someone else. There's only two reasons I would ever tell anyone my name, and I've only ever done it once, with her, after the adoption. There's only one other time I possibly could."
A single tear tracked it's way down her cheek. "Hush, now."
"Four, three-"
"Spoilers."
"Two, one."
And she joined the strap cables together. Both of them scrunched their eyes shut as a blinding white light filled the room.
Lee burst through the front door to see a damp-faced Donna sat at the bottom of the stairs.
"Donna? What's happening?"
"I don't know, but it's not real. Nothing here's real. The whole world, everything. None of it's real."
"Am I real?"
A bright light started to seep through the seams of the building, and Donna reached out for him.
"Of course you're real. I know you're real. Oh God, oh God, I hope you're real."
But she couldn't reach him - her fingertips wouldn't quite meet his. He was pulled away from her into the light, and she called after him.
"I'll find you. I promise you, I'll find you!"
Lux, tucked behind the desk terminal in the library's main reception, barely noticed the surrounding carnage - until a man leant over and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Excuse me? What happened? How did we get here?"
He stood up, mouth wide open as he looked around at the thronging people, turning to each other in confusion.
"Look at you. You're back! You're all back! He did it! You're all back. Look at you!"
He ran down the stairs to the nearest balcony. As far as he could see, the corridors between the nearest buildings were also full of people.
"Look at that. Oh, look at that. He did it. Four thousand and twenty two people, saved."
In the bowels of the library, the Doctor slumped against the piping, staring at the empty chair. Next to him, he felt Eris stir, and he moved his free hand to stroke the top of her head.
"Eris? Are you alright?"
She groaned, stretching her neck and leaning back against his shoulder.
"Ow."
"She got you too."
"Clearly doing a very thorough job." She managed a laugh, but then registered the look on his face. "What happened?"
He sniffed, holding back the last tears that he hadn't managed to clear away.
"She's gone."
Her face fell, and she squirmed to reach for the little stack of their belongings. Unlike him, she was able to contort herself enough to get a grip, and she went for the sonic first. She undid both sets of handcuffs, sorting their possessions out before hugging him as tightly as possible.
"We'll see her again, though. We have to remember that."
The sentiment didn't stop either of them from crying, but it at least made the emotions a little easier to bear.
The two of them leant against the wall of the shop, watching as Lux operated the teleport platform - now fully repaired.
"Please be patient. Only three can teleport at a time. Do not state your intended destination until you arrive in your designated slot."
Gradually, they were making a dent in the number of people who'd been trapped there, sending them all out to a hospital facility so they could be assessed before being sent back home. Donna weaved her way through the crowd, looking downtrodden, and Eris offered her a smile.
"Any luck?"
She flopped against the wall next to her. "There wasn't even anyone called Lee in the library that day. I suppose he could have had a different name out here, but, let's be honest, he wasn't real, was he?"
"Maybe not. I'm sorry. That's pretty rough."
"I made up the perfect man. Gorgeous, adores me, and hardly able to speak a word. What's that say about me?"
The Doctor seemed to be in a world of his own. "Everything." When the redhead glared at him, he tried desperately to correct himself. "Sorry, did I say everything? I meant to say nothing. I was aiming for nothing. I accidentally said everything."
Lux shepherded the next group onto the dais. "Stand right in the middle of the teleport, please. Keep your hands and feet inside at all times. And remember to switch off your mobile comm. unit."
Donna smiled gently at the two of them. "What about you? Are you both all right?"
He smiled back. "I'm always all right."
Eris nodded. "Yep. All right. Promise."
She looked at them both, taking a surprising amount of comfort from the fact they had clearly been affected too. "Is all right special Time Lord code for really not all right at all?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm all right, too."
"Come on. Let's go home, hey?"
The three of them linked arms and made their way through the shop. As they reached the door, the next group of people stepped up onto the teleport - and Lee was in the central circle. He spotted them as they walked away, recognising the head of ginger hair, and tried to call after her. But his stutter held him back, and he was barely on the first syllable as the teleport activated, sending him on to his next destination.
They stood on the same balcony they had gone to when they arrived, setting River's diary and her sonic screwdriver on the top of one of the stacks of books. Letting her fingers linger on the cover, Donna felt her unease spike again.
"Your friend, Professor Song. She knew you in the future, but she didn't know me. What happens to me? Because when she heard my name, the way she looked at me."
He tapped the book. "Donna, this is her diary. My future. I could look you up. What do you think? Shall we peek at the end?"
She paused to think for a moment. "Spoilers, right?"
Eris squeezed her shoulder. "Right. Besides, you mean the world to us either way. No matter what happens, you're part of us. Part of a family that extends for millennia and covers thousands of light years. Whether you're with us for another five days or fifty years - we won't let just anything happen to you."
The Doctor pulled them both into a quick hug, before leading them back up the stairs.
"Come on. The next chapter's this way."
They had barely reached the top step when the Doctor bolted back, grabbing the sonic.
"Why? Why would I give her my screwdriver? Why would I do that? Thing is, future me had years to think about it, all those years to think of a way to save her, and what he did was give her a screwdriver. Why would I do that?" He pulled away a tiny panel on the side, revealing four minute rectangular windows. Two of them were flashing with green lights. "Because my daughter is a menace who has to fiddle with anything she touches! Oh, Eris, you gem!" He kissed the top of her head and grabbed her by the hand. Donna felt like she was missing something.
"What have you done?"
Eris grinned. "I think I've just saved her."
They sprinted through the stacks towards the reading room they had been in before, keeping a close eye on the one remaining light on the relay.
"Stay with me! You can do it, stay with me! Come on, you and me, one last run!"
They burst through the doors and ran for the gravity well, Eris grabbing the sonic as they got close enough. "Sorry, River, taking a little shortcut!"
The platform was disabled, and the two of them leapt into the well, plunging back to the library's core as the last light flickered.
Taking it back, the Doctor plugged the screwdriver into the core, grinning widely as the fragments of her neural energy were transferred. The Charlotte node smiled across at them as Eris flung her arms around him, the two of them tearing up as the last vestiges of River Song were downloaded and saved.
River felt like she was regaining consciousness, blinking in the bright sunlight and fresh air. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and she wore a loose white robe. She had no recollection of how she had got there. As her head cleared a little more, she realised that the girl, CAL, and a man that she somehow knew to be Doctor Moon were standing in front of her. Charlotte smiled.
"It's okay, you're safe. You'll always be safe here. The Doctor fixed the data core. This is a good place now. But I was worried you might be lonely, so I brought you some friends. Aren't I a clever girl?"
"Aren't we all?" A familiar voice made her turn, and she grinned widely. Miss Evangelista, accompanied by the two Daves and Anita, was walking towards her. They were all dressed in white, and looked happy and healthy.
"Oh, for heaven's sake. He just can't do it, can he?. Those impossible people. They just can't give in."
And she ran to her friends, holding them as closely as she possibly could.
And then, she was in her adopted children's bedroom. Joshua, Ella and Charlotte were tucked up in their beds, each with a teddy by their side. They had listened raptly to the whole story, and now, as their eyelids began to droop, she was coming to it's end.
"Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair, and the Doctor comes to call. When you run with the Doctor and Eris, it feels like it will never end. But however hard you try, you can't run for ever. Everybody knows that everybody dies, and nobody knows it like they do. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark, if he ever, for one moment, accepts it. Or if she ever, for even a fraction of a second, stops trying to save everyone. Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today."
She closed her diary, and smiled at the sight of the children, now fast asleep.
"Everybody lives."
She kissed each of them on the forehead, and stood in the doorway to switch off the light.
"Sweet dreams, everyone."
See you soon, and happy reading!
Much love,
Azzie xx
