CHAPTER SIX

PLANETARY LOCKDOWN

The engines of the TARDIS became silent as River checked the outside cameras on the monitor.

"No life forms in the surroundings," said River, flicking through multiple camera feeds. She turned to Clara and handed over an earpiece. "What's this for?" asked Clara, taking the small device from her hand. River sighed and turned back to the console. "I'm not real, Clara," she whispered, fiddling with small knobs and buttons on the monitor screen, "I am a computer data ghost from the Library's hard-drive at the centre of the planet. I cannot leave the TARDIS or the connection will drop out."

"Hang on. If you're not real, how did you travel from the Library to here?" asked Clara, watching River closely. "I am the child of the TARDIS," River replied, "I am the daughter of Amy and Rory Williams."

"Amy …" whispered Clara, remembering back to when the Doctor regenerated in the TARDIS. He had hallucinated about a girl, a girl named Amelia Pond, "the first face his face saw."

"Sorry?" asked River, her eyes looking back at Clara.

"Nothing. So you can travel anywhere in the TARDIS and the Library, but you physically cannot leave it?"

"Exactly."

"What do I do?" Clara asked, a surge of adrenaline filling her veins.

"Exactly what I tell you through that earpiece," explained River, "we're in a utility corridor leading to the Atrium of the Shadow Proclamation –"

"What's that?" exclaimed Clara, pressing the earpiece into her left ear.

"They're like the Police."

"A Intergalactic Police squad?" Clara chuckled sarcastically.

"Exactly. Now, hurry, go outside and follow my instructions," ordered River. Clara walked to the police box doors, took a deep breath and pulled the handles. The doors squeaked open and Clara stepped out. The TARDIS was parked at the end of corridor made entirely out of metal. In the corner next to TARDIS was a mop in a yellow bucket and broom.

"Testing one, two, three," River's voice crackled through Clara's earpiece. "Yeah, I can hear you … wait, can you hear me?" Clara noticed she had no microphone. "Yes," River's voice answered, "the earpiece has an invisible audio field of twenty metres around you.

"Alright, where do I go?"

"The TARDIS has old blueprint maps somewhere in its database. Give me a second," River voice faded and a number of clicks and beeps came through the earpiece.

The corridor ahead of Clara was eerily quiet. She gulped and felt the chill flow down her neck. "Okay, got it! Had to download an update for the TARDIS database," River spoke through the earpiece, "you'll want to go straight ahead and take the first right. Don't rush or panic – any sign of it and they might think you're an insurgent."

"Insurgent?!" exclaimed Clara in a hushed voice.

"Don't panic!" River ordered, her voice crackling through the speaker, "stay calm and walk as if you know exactly where you're going."

Clara took a deep breath and continued to walk up the corridor. The walkway was lit by fluorescent bars of lights, along the bottom of the walls. Clara followed them, watching everything around her.

"Why are we here, River? I mean, I know you said re-enforcements but why would the Shadow Proclamation want to help us?"

"Because we've got the location of a criminal who is Number Two on their Most Wanted List," River answered. Clara adjusted the earpiece, "Sorry, did you say we've got a criminal?"

"The Nightmare Child, Clara," said River ominously.

"Right, naturally. So what's he done that's so bad to make it to the Most Wanted list? Oh, wait, here's the corridor on the right," informed Clara, turning right into the corridor. It too was another empty hallway, however the end of it opened up into what looked to be a large, brightly lit room. "Follow this passageway straight through. It'll leave you straight into the Atrium," River's voice crackled through.

"Okay. So the Nightmare Child, what did he do?" asked Clara again.

"Violated countless laws against the Shadow Proclamation and has never been punished for it," River replied bluntly. "Surely there must be more to it than that, to be named the second Most Wanted Criminal?" retorted Clara, pressing for more information.

"Well, this is what the database says. When the Time War first started, the Shadow Proclamation could not stop the initial wave of conflict between the Time Lords and the Daleks," River explained, "instead, they established a number of laws and regulations to contain the armies involved, stopping the local species and races around Gallifrey declaring war too. One of those laws was that no life-forms, other than the armies currently involved, would be allowed to join in. The Sontarans were infuriated the most by this rule, because they love a good bloodbath.

"However, the Nightmare Child and his Librarians broke through the Time Lock placed around Gallifrey. It's assumed they got through by manipulating Dalek and Time Lord timelines in order to place themselves on the planet before the Lock was set in place. They dismantled it from the inside and the Nightmare Child got through, wreaking havoc in his wake.

"Because the timelines were so damaged in the War, the Nightmare Child created the Paradox Army. The Time Lords called it the Could-Have-Been King and his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. The army was a corrupt collection of what could have been future versions of Time Lords, who had died in the first wave of attack. The Child used the mangled timelines to create an impossible army, an army whom couldn't be stopped because they were technically already dead."

"That's terrible," whispered Clara, eyes wide in horror of the story she had just heard.

"The only thing the Time Lords could do was to line the dead bodies of the soldiers who had died in a complete, unbroken circle around Arcadia. The Paradox Army were unable to cross it, because –"

"They were already dead," muttered Clara, a tear falling down her cheek, "okay, I'm in the Atrium."

The room was magnificent and the height of it made Clara gasp. The walls were made out of crystals with beams of light shining through from the top, lighting the room with incredible rainbows. The Atrium roof had to be at least eighty metres high.

"Alright, remember to not stand around suspiciously. Pretend you know what you're doing and where you're going. Head to the Inquiries Desk and –"

"River, we have a problem," Clara injected, her voice becoming shaky and worried, "why are there twenty rhinos in space suits heading towards me?"

In all directions, rhinos in spacesuits appeared from nowhere, heading exactly to where Clara was standing. Clara was frozen on the spot, attempting to think about how River was going to try and get her about of this one.

River's voice immediately became firm and crispy, "Repeat these words as I say them."

Clara gulped and as River spoke through the earpiece, Clara echoed the message aloud, "The planet called the Library has been taken under control by criminal forces. I am here to inform you of the situation that has arisen, who is involved and a plea for your assistance to capture those responsible in the –"

Clara's earpiece suddenly crackled and went silent. River's voice had disappeared.

The rhinos formed a semi-circle around Clara. One of them raised its wristband to its mouth and spoke in a deep, commanding voice that Clara heard, surprisingly, in plain English.

"Communication signal to external earpiece device intercepted. Judoon Troops will now take female human into custody for treason and security violation."

"Wait!" Clara yelled across the Atrium, raising her hands up in the air, "please, listen!" The Judoon Troops moved completely in sync towards Clara, "Human will be incarcerated immediately."

Clara closed her eyes and yelled louder than before, her voice reverberating off the crystal walls, "I know where the Nightmare Child is!"

The Judoon stopped at once, staring at Clara with one metre between them. The rhino directly in front of Clara spoke loudly, "Do not move, human," and then turned to another Judoon, "Summon the Shadow Architect immediately."

Two Judoons marched away as the centre rhino turned back to Clara, "Human, you will follow me." Clara walked behind the Judoon as they made their way across the Atrium. Directing her to a nearby lounge and pointing to it like a robot, the Judoon ordered Clara to sit down. Without a word, Clara did so and remained quiet. The Judoon stood in front of her, arms side-by-side and stayed still.

An awkward silence filled the grand room. Clara cleared her throat and relaxed slightly. The Judoon however made no movement.

A minute or so passed and the two Judoons returned with a pale-skinned, red-eyed woman with white hair. She was tall and thin, wearing a white gown that looked too big for her.

The Shadow Architect spoke with a cold voice, "Who sent you here?"

Clara gulped and gathered her thoughts, "R-River Song."

The woman's eye twitched slightly, "What is your name?"

"Clara O-Oswald. I'm a companion of - I mean, I travel with the Doctor."

"The Doctor, you say?"

"Yes – the Doctor, he's at the Library."

"And he's captured the Nightmare Child, correct?"

"Well, I'm not sure. I mean, I-I left."

"You left?"

"Yes, with River Song. She said we needed re-enforcements."

The Architect laughed and turned away from Clara, "Re-enforcements? The Doctor really has no idea, does he?"

Clara watched the Shadow Architect in front of her, "I'm sorry?"

"Judoon, get the shuttle ready. Prepare the Library for Planetary Lockdown," she ordered to one of the rhinos, "Clara Oswald, is it?"

"Yes, ma'am. But I don't think you understand the scale of the situation," Clara replied, standing up from the lounge. "Oh, I think I do, Clara. The Nightmare Child, who is trapped in the Time War and unable to get out, has miraculously escaped and ended up in the Library. I've heard a lot of things from the Doctor but I have to say, this is the best red herring he's passed on yet."

"I may be a low-class human to you and your, err, Judoon friends, but I know when I'm being mocked," snapped Clara.

"Then, if you know the Doctor as well as I do, Miss Oswald," replied the Architect, walking across the room and grabbing a black coat from a nearly desk with a large sign above it, reading: Inquiries Desk, "you'll know what his first rule is."

Clara was silent for a moment.

"The Doctor lies," the woman called as she left Atrium with the rest of the Judoon following after her.

Clara clenched her fits and turned around. Walking back, Clara passed through the same walkway she had entered the Atrium in. She turnt left into the adjoining utility corridor and spotted the TARDIS.

Clara's mind was filled questions. Why did the Architect not take Clara seriously? Why did she laugh when Clara said River needed re-enforcements? Was there something she was missing, something staring her right in the face?

Clara reached the police box and opened the doors. River was standing inside by the console desk, her hands across his face. "Hey! They've gone!" Clara piped up, watching River closely by the console, "the Judoon-rhino things and the woman called the Shadow Architect have gone to put the Library in Planetary Lockdown."

"Oh, Clara, what have I done …"

River's voice seemed quiet and broken. Her head remained in her hands as Clara stepped up on the Console platform, "What's wrong?"

River looked up, her face red and puffy. She had been crying.

"What's happened?" asked Clara worrying.

River turned to the console monitor and spun it right to Clara, "The TARDIS database hadn't been updated in years. I-I didn't realise."

"I don't understand," Clara said, looking at a bunch of files opened on the monitor.

"The Doctor hadn't downloaded the latest updates of the Shadow Proclamation's Database. So when I downloaded it, I read to you the updated information about the Nightmare Child."

"You said the Nightmare Child was the Number Two Most Wanted Criminal," replied Clara slowly, attempted to piece together what River was so upset about.

"I then looked to see whole updated Most Wanted List, and I –" River choked and shook her head.

"River, what's going on?"

"I-I was about to tell you when the signal dropped out and I lost the earpiece connection."

Clara pulled the earpiece out of her ear and looked from it to River, "You were going to tell me something critically important, weren't you?"

"Isn't strange that a creature like the Nightmare Child, who breaks numerous amounts of laws and commits terrible crimes within the Time War, would only be Number Two on the Most Wanted List?"

Clara suddenly had a terrible thought, "River, tell me what's going on."

River turned to the Clara, tears streaming down her eyes, "The Doctor hadn't come here in centuries. The last time he was here was when Earth was stolen and taken to the Medusa Cascade. He and Donna Noble arrived her and gained the help from the Shadow Architect."

Two sentences Clara remembered from earlier floated into her thoughts: 'But I don't remember most of that' … 'And best not to, love. Don't want to do a Donna Noble."

"River, if the Nightmare Child is Number Two, who is Number One?" Clara demanded, worry and anxiety pumping through her veins.

River looked up and said two words that sent chills down Clara's spine.

"The Doctor."