As the small drawer slid open, River peered inside. Her curiosity was extremely high and her eyes fixed onto the drawer.
Inside, the first thing she saw was yet another sticky-note. It was attached to a small cylinder flask-type piece of machinery. It was grey and blue with a small panel on the side and a beacon on the top.
She immediately closed the drawer after taking out the object with the sticky-note. Her attention wasn't averted from the metallic item as she scanned it.
"...A data stamp?" River questioned as she identified the object. They were common in the 51st century and used widely. "Why does he have a data stamp especially for me?" she asked herself. This man was even more enigmatic than she thought when she talked to him for the brief moments before his sacrifice for her.
She picked up the data stamp in her hands, it was cold. She placed her finger on the bottom of the sticky note and smoothed out the curled end and she began to read it.
'Take this back to the Library and download it to the now safe core.'
River grew puzzled. She began to wonder what was on the data stamp as she tossed it between her hands. What important data could be on this data stamp, and why would he have it?
No matter how curious she was, she had planned to never return to the Library... River felt as if her heart was being torn out of her chest, she couldn't bare being in the Library after the events of last week. She sighed as her curiosity was beginning to overpower her sadness. Her mind was set...
She started to walk around the console and read the various notes on how to fly the TARDIS and she followed every one of them including the one that said 'NEVER use these blue buttons, if you value your existence!' obviously he was lying but, how was River to know?
Each sticky-note explained what part of the TARDIS control panel does what and when she should use it. The notes were numbered in the order they should be used when piloting the TARDIS.
She set the co-ordinates to the Library and the TARDIS began to fade away through the time-space vortex. The engine hummed and the console room vibrated and shook violently as River tried to guide the TARDIS back to the Library.
River questioned why all of the controls couldn't be next to each other to make it a lot easier to fly. She held tightly onto the panel in front of her so she wouldn't be thrown around too much, as this was her first time inside the TARDIS and she wasn't sure if she was flying it right.
Just then, the TARDIS halted suddenly and she was hurled to the floor. Luckily for River, she had quick reflexes and she managed to place her hands in front of her before she hit her head. She lay on the floor and her heart was racing as the adrenalin in her body pulsated through her veins.
River paused for a moment trying to regain her senses after the rough ride. She lifted herself up and brushed herself down and sorted out her hair. Her eyes scanned the floor in search of the data stamp that fell out of her hand. She looked at the lower level of the console room and she spotted it lying on the floor.
She leapt down to the platform below and landed firmly on her feet. She knelt down and picked up the data stamp. As she took hold of it, the TARDIS made a faint but calm humming noise and it made River jump. She pivoted on her heels and turned to the centre of the TARDIS- she was facing the heart of the great time-machine. "Wow..." she mumbled under her breath as she gazed at the centre of the TARDIS' heart.
River took a few steps closer to the centre and she reached a hand out towards it. As her fingertips were planted on the pillar, the humming grew more excited and harmonic and River smiled.
"Who was he? Who was I to him?" River questioned still stroking the pillar protecting the TARDIS' heart.
Even the time-machine recognised her but, surely she would remember stepping foot inside a living time-machine. There was something that she was missing, some key evidence as to who the mysterious Doctor was to her.
She smiled at the time-machine as her hand ran across the smooth surface of the pillar. The beating and humming was so peaceful that River had completely lost all sense of anxiety and worry about returning to the Library. Her emotions were neutralised by the melody of the TARDIS bonding with her.
After a moment of silence and deep thought, River remembered that she had a job to do so she clutched the data stamp tightly in her hand and she walked to the door of the TARDIS. With a mighty pull, it opened and River took a hesitant step outside...
The Library core room looked exactly the same as it did one week ago, apart from no Doctor. She took shaky steps towards the main computer with the data stamp in hand. The machine that he died on was still there, coated in a thin layer of dust now. River felt a stabbing pain in her heart as her eyes rest upon the machine in front of her.
Her footsteps echoed throughout the silent room and her breathing was shallow and uneven. This place... made her scared, the one place in the universe that made her scared. But, she had to know what was on the stamp. River Song always has to know...
She connected the data stamp to the computer and on the screen were details on the data on the stamp. 'Preparing to download 'Anita', 'Miss Evangelista', 'Proper Dave', 'Other Dave', and 'Mr. Lux.'' River couldn't believe her eyes. The data was of her friends, the friends that had died last week- the Doctor must've known all if this would happen.
The Doctor had done this for River to make her feel happy but she still wasn't satisfied. He wasn't there, his name never appeared and there were no records of him on the data stamp. All she wanted was to know who he was...
After the downloads were completed, a note came up on the screen. It read 'Contact time: 11:00 – 12:00 each day.' River glanced at her watch and it was exactly eleven o'clock, the contact time is determined when the download finishes.
"I have time..." she told herself. She was debating whether or not to talk to them so soon. As she thought, she opened up the side panel to the data stamp and inserted new details using the mini keypad.
River was fiddling with the data stamp and her attention was diverted from her downloaded friends for a moment, she had one more important thing to do before she speaks to them...