Chapter Twenty-four: Count the Shadows

The Doctor's hearts stopped, and Rose's shock mirrored his. I can hardly believe we'd even tell that to family and friends, he told her.

Rose squeezed his hand. But what better code word could there be? We'll definitely never share it with anyone who isn't family, or nearly.

A loud "brng" interrupted their private conversation. The Doctor was frankly grateful for an excuse to turn away from Melody Pond.

"Sorry, that was me," Proper Dave said, his hands hovering over the keyboard. "Trying to get through into the security protocols. I seem to have set something off. What is that? Is that an alarm?"

"Doctor?" Donna turned around and walked towards them. "Doctor, that sounds like—"

"It is," Melody agreed, seeming to have regained her composure. "It's a phone."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. The sound of a telephone ringing wasn't one you heard in the fifty-first century, hence Proper Dave's confusion. So how is Melody Pond familiar with it?

The Doctor jogged over to the terminal, vaguely aware that Donna was explaining what a phone was to Jenny.

Proper Dave was working on the terminal again, but the phone kept ringing. "I'm trying to call up the data core, but it's not responding. Just that noise."

"All right, so why is a phone ringing in the middle of the Library?" Rose asked practically.

The Doctor had an idea. In a Library with living security cameras, what if calling up the data core was literal? "Let me try something." He put a firm hand on Dave's shoulder, and the man slid out the way, allowing him to take the keyboard. If I can just get the call to connect… he thought as he typed commands into the computer.

A moment later, the message. "Access Denied" flashed on the screen.

"Okay, doesn't like that. Let's try something else." He switched to the command that would bring up the video call interface, and almost immediately, the monitor faded to static.

"What did you do?" Proper Dave said.

"I made a call," the Doctor explained as they waited for the lines to resolve. "Okay, here it comes."

But the picture wasn't what he expected. Instead of being an office or futuristic setting, they were looking at a perfectly average home. A young girl sat at a table colouring, but when the call connected, she looked up and stared at him in shock.

"Hello?" the Doctor said.

"Hello. Are you in my television?" she asked.

The Doctor scratched his face. "Well, no, I'm, I'm sort of in space. Er, I was trying to call up the data core of a triple grid security processor."

The girl nodded immediately, some of her confusion fading. "Would you like to speak to my dad?"

He nodded. "Dad or your mum. That'd be lovely."

The girl's head tilted, then her eyes went wide. "I know you. You're in my library."

The Doctor's jaw dropped slightly. "Your library?" he repeated.

"The library's never been on the television before. What have you done?" she demanded, more than a hint of accusation in her voice.

"Er, well." The Doctor looked down at the keyboard. "I just rerouted the interface."

He tapped something on the keyboard, and the picture disappeared.

"What happened?" Melody asked. "Who was that?"

Sudden understanding swept over Rose, and the Doctor glanced down into her eyes, sparkling with excitement. He shook his head just slightly, and she raised an eyebrow, but gave an equally imperceptible nod.

"I need another terminal," the Doctor said when he got yet another "Access Denied" message. He grabbed Rose's hand and darted around the edge of the circulation desk to the terminal there. "Keep working on those lights," he ordered Anita and Other Dave as he and Rose jogged past them. "We need those lights!"

All right, Rose, what have you figured out? he asked as soon as they were alone.

You called the data core, yeah?

He nodded.

Well. If it's that literal, what if… what if there's some kind of virtual reality or artificial intelligence at the heart of the computer? What if the girl is the computer?

The Doctor tugged on his ear while he considered Rose's suggestion. And she asked if I wanted her dad when I mentioned the security, he realised.

Yeah, that was when I started to put it together.

I think you're onto something, Rose. He typed furiously, trying to make the same video call connection that he'd made before, but it seemed like the program was completely missing from the hard drive. The command path didn't even exist anymore.

"Why won't you just work?" he growled quietly at the terminal. The shadows at the edges of the room pressed down on him; any one of them could be infected.

Rose put her hand on his shoulder. "Calm down," she whispered. "You'll figure something out, and then you'll get us all home."

The Doctor took a deep breath, then reached up and squeezed her hand. Thank you.

Donna watched Rose calm the Doctor down from where she stood on the other side of the room. There was something—at least one thing—that they weren't telling everyone else, she realised.

"I know," Melody Pond said from Donna's other side.

She and Jenny turned around to face the unknown woman, Donna with a scowl on her face. "What? You don't know what I was thinking."

Doctor Pond arched an eyebrow. "You were thinking that they're so obvious, and they don't even have a clue. Because you're right, Donna, they're over there having a private conversation about what's going on that they don't want to share with us yet."

"How do you know that?" Jenny challenged, her arms crossed over her chest. "How do you know my parents, and us?"

Doctor Pond looked at Jenny, a sad smile on her face. "I can't tell you that, Jenny. There are rules in time travel, and I'm bending them already." She took a breath and nodded in the direction of the Doctor and Rose. "But I do know you, and that's how I knew what Donna was thinking, and it's how I know what the Doctor and Rose are doing." She held her hands out. "I know you. All of you."

Donna snorted. "Look, Doctor Pond—"

The archaeologist flinched. "Melody, please."

"All right, Melody. You're trying to tell me that wherever you are in their future—which I'm not sure I believe that, by the way—I'm still there?" She shook her head. "There's no way. I'm surprised they've kept me around this long."

Melody's eyes narrowed. "Donna Noble, you are brilliant," she said earnestly. "The Doctor and Rose would have taken you home after a single trip if you weren't cut out for life on the TARDIS."

Well, that settles the question of if she really knows them, Donna realised. Or at least she knew enough about them to know the name of their ship. Still, she scoffed and shook her head. "On my first trip, I tried to get them to change a fixed point in time. Not so brilliant."

"You couldn't know," Melody countered. "And you were the one who encouraged them to save someone. Yes, I know the story," she added, then immediately pressed her lips into a thin line and rubbed at her temple. "I shouldn't be saying this, but I couldn't let you think they don't value you."

Jenny nudged her and smiled brightly when she looked down at her. "I told you, Donna!" she exclaimed. "You're an important part of our family."

Donna started to look back at the Doctor and Rose, but her gaze fell on Miss Evangelista, looking awkward and alone on the edge of the room. Melody Pond chuckled. "Go on, Donna. Be brilliant."

The encouragement felt sarcastic to Donna, but then Jenny nodded, the smile still on her face. "Go on—talk to her. I'm going to see if I can help Proper Dave on the computer."

Donna straightened and walked across the room, trying not to think about how badly she failed at encouraging Agatha Christie. Halfway to Miss Evangelista, books started flying through the air. When she was nearly knocked out by a copy of Atlas Shrugged, she crouched and put her hands over her head to avoid getting hit.

"What's that?" the Doctor said from his terminal. "I didn't do that. Did you do that?" he asked Proper Dave.

"Not me," Proper Dave denied, still working at the other terminal.

The books finally stopped flying, and Donna stood up and brushed herself off. Then she continued on her way to Miss Evangelista. "You all right?"

The young woman was shaking a little, and she danced from one foot to the other. "What's that? What's happening?" she asked, looking over at her boss for some kind of reassurance.

"I don't know," Mr. Lux called from the other side of the room.

Donna thought quickly, searching for some reason to talk to Evangelista. "Oh, thanks," she said, putting a hand on the woman's arm, "for um, you know, offering to help with the lights."

A wry smile crossed her pretty face. "They don't want me. They think I'm stupid, because I'm pretty."

Donna shook her head, feeling her ponytail brush against the back of her neck. "Course they don't. Nobody thinks that."

To her surprise, Evangelista just shrugged. "No, they're right though. I'm a moron, me. My dad said I have the IQ of plankton, and I was pleased."

Donna laughed. "See, that's funny."

But Evangelista shook her head. "No, no, I really was pleased." She paused, then looked at Donna hopefully. "Is that funny?"

"No, no." Donna lapsed into silence. There wasn't much more she could say to encourage the young woman. She wouldn't join in with mocking her—she still remembered how it had felt when Lance had mocked her to the Doctor and Rose—but she finally had to admit the assistant was a bit dim. Thankfully, only a few seconds passed before books started flying off the shelf again, making conversation difficult.

The Doctor moved away from the terminal when books flew through the air a second time. Must be a bug in the system, he told himself as he hopped up on the circulation desk. Rose rolled her eyes, but when he grinned at her and patted the empty spot beside him, she boosted herself up and snagged his hand.

Across the room, Jenny raised an eyebrow at them. "All right, Dad, do you know what's making the books go soaring off the shelves?"

"Is it the little girl?" Melody added quickly.

He looked at Rose, and it only took them a moment to come to an agreement. "The little girl is the data core," he explained. "But what I don't understand is what Cal is."

"Ask Mr. Lux." Melody gestured at the man standing behind her.

The Doctor shifted his gaze to man whose family had built the Library. "Cal, what is it?"

Mr. Lux pressed his lips into a smirk and shook his head. "Sorry, you didn't sign your personal experience contracts."

The Doctor looked at Melody, but she just shook her head. He jumped off the counter and crossed the room until he was standing almost nose-to-nose with the arrogant man.

"Mr. Lux." The Doctor scowled down at the man who represented the worst of the mercenary attitude he hated. "Right now, you're in more danger than you've ever been in your whole life. And you're protecting a patent?"

Mr. Lux gritted his teeth. "I'm protecting my family's pride," he hissed.

The Doctor clenched his jaw as he attempted to maintain his temper. "Well, funny thing, Mr. Lux," he said through gritted teeth, "I don't want to see everyone in this room dead because some idiot thinks his pride is more important."

"Speaking of idiots who think their pride is more important," Melody said, amusement ringing in her voice, "why didn't any of you sign the contract?"

The Doctor wheeled on Melody, but before he could snap at her, Rose put her hand on his arm. "She has a point, Doctor," she said quietly. "I think it's ridiculous too, but if it's what we have to do to get home alive?"

He pressed his lips into a thin line and raked his hand through his hair, then finally blew out a loud breath through bared teeth. "All right," the Doctor growled. "Get us your contracts." He still didn't like it, but hearing Rose frame it as a matter of life or death helped him regain a bit of perspective.

Miss Evangelista appeared with four copies of the contract, and they each signed one. As soon as they'd handed them back, the Doctor crossed his arms over his chest. "Tell me who Cal is," he demanded.

Mr Lux nodded. "You were right, Doctor. The little girl is the computer core. CAL is Charlotte Abigail Lux, my grandfather's youngest daughter."

"Er, excuse me?" Miss Evangelista interrupted.

Mr. Lux shook his head, ignoring his assistant. "Not just now." He sighed and ran his hand over his thinning hair. "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."

"Er, this might be important, actually," Miss Evangelista said.

"In a moment," Mr. Lux snapped. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before continuing with his story. "She loved books more than anything, and he gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace."

The Doctor pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth and remembered the little girl they'd seen on the video call. "So you weren't protecting a patent. You were protecting her."

Mr. Lux stretched his arms out, gesturing at the planet his grandfather had designed for his aunt. "This is only half a life, of course. But it's forever."

The Doctor nodded slowly. It was a common choice of the wealthy in the fifty-first century, saving a loved one's consciousness to virtual reality. The notion had never sat quite right with him—would anyone really want to live forever in a computer programme?

But ethical questions aside, the truth of CAL was far more than the proprietary information he had expected. "I owe you an apology, Mr. Lux," he said, feeling humbled. "I thought you were obsessed with losing money, but you were protecting your family's pride—just like you said."

Mr. Lux nodded. "I knew CAL's secret might come out on this expedition, and my grandfather's dying wish was that his daughter would never be made into a freak show."

A shrill scream interrupted the thoughtful atmosphere that had settled over the main reading room. The Doctor spotted the open panel in the wall right away and realised what must have happened. He snatched up a torch off the floor and raced through it, even though he knew they were already too late.

Miss Evangelista was nothing but a skeleton when they found her in a long, narrow room filled with tables and chairs. The muscle in the Doctor's jaw twitched when he looked down at her, but he didn't lose sight of the danger they were obviously in.

"Everybody, careful," he warned as people crept forward towards the body. This room had less light than the main reading room, and shadows were everywhere. "Stay in the light."

"You keep saying that. I don't see the point," Proper Dave argued.

The Doctor turned and pointed the torch at him, tired of his constant pushback. "Who screamed?"

Proper Dave rolled his eyes. "Miss Evangelista."

The Doctor nodded. "Where is she?"

Melody reached for the communicator on the collar of her suit. "Miss Evangelista, please state your current…" Her voice echoed through the speaker on Miss Evangelista's headset, and the Doctor watched her put the pieces together. "Please state your current… position."

She got down on her knees and pulled the remnant of the collar around so they could see the green lights of the communicator. "It's her," she whispered, looking at the skeleton. She stood up and slowly stepped back. "It's Miss Evangelista."

"We heard her scream a few seconds ago," Anita protested. "What could do that to a person in a few seconds?"

The Doctor shook his head. "It took a lot less than a few seconds."

Jenny looked up at him. "What took less than a few seconds, Dad?"

"Hello?"

Even though he'd known it was coming when he saw the lights on the neural relay, the Doctor still shuddered when he heard Miss Evangelista begin to ghost.

Melody grimaced. "Ah, I'm sorry, everyone. This isn't going to be pleasant." She swallowed hard. "She's ghosting."

"What does that mean?" Rose asked, wrapping her arms around her waist.

"Hello?" Miss Evangelista repeated. "Excuse me. I'm sorry. Hello? Excuse me."

"That's, that's her," Donna gasped. "That's Miss Evangelista."

Proper Dave shuffled his weight from one foot to the other. "I don't want to sound horrible," he said—a sure sign he was about to say something horrible—"but couldn't we just, you know?"

The Doctor glared at Dave, but Melody answered before he could. "This is her last moment. No, we can't. A little respect, thank you."

"Sorry, where am I?" the dead woman asked. "Excuse me?"

"I don't understand," Jenny said. "If she's dead, how can she be talking to us?"

Melody drew a deep breath, then looked at Jenny, Rose, and Donna, all varying levels of confused. "It's a data ghost. She'll be gone in a moment." She held her finger to the button on the communicator. "Miss Evangelista, you're fine. Just relax. We'll be with you presently."

Despite all his questions about who Melody Pond actually was and if she really knew him and Rose, the Doctor felt a great deal of respect for the way the woman was ushering Miss Evangelista into a peaceful death.

"A data ghost…" Rose mumbled. "Jack told me about those once. It's from the neural relay in the communicator, right, Doctor?"

He nodded, then looked at Donna and Jenny, who were both still completely confused. "See those green lights?" he said, pointing at the communicator. "That means the device is connected to her brain, allowing her to send thought mail. And sometimes… Sometimes it can hold an impression of a living consciousness for a short time after death. Like an afterimage."

"My grandfather lasted a day," Anita said. "Kept talking about his shoelaces."

"You mean…" Jenny looked at the skeleton and shuddered. "You mean her mind is trapped in that communicator, and she doesn't know she's dead?"

"I can't see. I can't…" They all heard awareness creep into Miss Evangelista's voice. "Where am I?"

"She's just brain waves now," Proper Dave explained. "The pattern won't hold for long."

"But, she's conscious. She's thinking," Donna protested, her voice choked with tears.

"I can't see, I can't. I don't know what I'm thinking."

Rose and Jenny shifted closer to the Doctor, and he wrapped an arm around Rose's shoulders. "She's a footprint on the beach," he explained to Donna. "And the tide's coming in."

"Where's that woman? The nice woman. Is she there?"

"What woman?" Mr. Lux asked.

Donna looked at Miss Evangelista's skeleton. She wanted to be sick, but the idea that her one conversation with the girl would have cemented her in her mind as nice… "She means…" She had to pause to swallow past the lump in her throat. "I think she means me," she managed on the second try.

"Is she there? The nice woman."

"Yes, she's here," Melody said. "Hang on." She pressed a button on her suit, then nodded at Donna. "Go ahead. She can hear you."

"Hello? Are you there?"

Tears were welling up in Donna's throat, and she looked back at the Doctor, Rose, and Jenny, shaking her head.

"Help her," the Doctor said quietly.

"She's dead," Donna whimpered, mourning the woman she'd only known for an hour.

Rose stepped out of the Doctor's protective embrace to put a hand on Donna's shoulder. "You can help her, Donna."

"Hello? Is that the nice woman?"

Donna swallowed hard and stepped towards the skeleton. "Yeah. Hello. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm here. You okay?"

"What I said before, about being stupid. Don't tell the others—they'll only laugh."

Tears spilled over, despite Donna's best attempts at holding them back. That this would be her last thought—the awareness that her colleagues viewed her as a laughingstock, and wanting to make sure no one gave them more material.

"Course I won't," she promised, her voice hoarse. "Course I won't tell them."

"Don't tell the others—they'll only laugh."

Donna shook her head, even though Miss Evangelista couldn't see her. "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."

"Don't tell the others—they'll only laugh."

"She's looping now," Melody explained. "The pattern's degrading."

Donna realised the lights on the communicator, which had been a solid green before, were flashing now.

"I can't think. I don't know, I, I, I, I scream. Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream."

Melody looked at the group. "Does anybody mind if I…?" She gestured at Miss Evangelista's body, and when no one protested, she reached down and pulled the comm unit off the suit and turned it off.

A sob shook Donna's body, and she felt Jenny's hand on her back. "That was, that was horrible," she mumbled. It was tempting to turn around and let Jenny, or Rose, or the Doctor comfort her, but she stood straight and wiped the tears from her eyes. "That was the most horrible thing I've ever seen."

"No. It's just a freak of technology," Melody countered. "But whatever did this to her, whatever killed her, I'd like a word with that."

Donna heard the Doctor take a deep breath, and she finally turned around to look at him. There was a dark anger in his eyes that she'd only seen a few times before—when they'd liberated the Ood, and when Jenny had died in his arms. This time though, his anger didn't scare her. Instead, she felt like maybe Miss Evangelista would get the justice she deserved.

He nodded once. "I'll introduce you."

oOoOoOoOo

Back in the main reading room, the Doctor tried to think of a way to demonstrate the Vashta Nerada as he pointed his torch into the shadows. He could find a live one with the sonic screwdriver, but that wouldn't show people what the shadows could do.

Ah. Of course. "I'm going to need a packed lunch," he called out, assuming the expedition team had brought food with them.

"Hang on." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Melody Pond reach into her bag.

The Doctor still had a hard time buying her story about being someone from their future. He crouched down beside her so he could question her without everyone overhearing.

"Who are you?"

Her hands shook minutely as she opened up her lunch. "Doctor Melody Pond, University of—"

"To Rose and me," he qualified. "Who are you to us?"

It was a test. If she was really someone they knew, then he would have told her—they both would have told her—never to give away spoilers. Timelines had to be preserved, no matter how difficult it was.

Melody Pond swallowed, and for a moment, he thought he'd pressed too hard. Then she looked at him with her eyebrow arched and an amused smirk on her face. "Doctor, are you asking me to break the Laws of Time?" she teased. "Or… are you testing to see if I know them?"

He tugged on his ear, making her laugh.

"I can't tell you who I am to you, but you already know that." She handed him a box. "Chicken and a bit of salad. Knock yourself out."

The Doctor stood up with the box lunch in one hand and the torch in the other. "Right, you lot." He flipped the torch and caught it without looking. "Let's all meet the Vashta Nerada."

He got down on the floor with the torch in one hand and the sonic screwdriver in the other. Every shadow he saw, he buzzed with the sonic, trying to find one that was live.

Rose wasn't idle. "So, while the Doctor is hunting, maybe we could get a little more background information," she said. "What happened here? You said the Library had been silent for a hundred years. What happened on that day?"

From his spot on the floor, the Doctor shook his head and smiled. Rose was absolutely the best partner he could ask for. That same question had occurred to him earlier, but in between finding out about CAL and Miss Evangelista's death, he'd forgotten to ask. He moved on to the next shadow, listening to Melody's answer while he worked.

"There was a message from the Library," Melody said. "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.

Moving across the floor, scanning the shadows, the Doctor reached Proper Dave, standing right in his way. "Proper Dave, could you move please?"

It didn't surprise him when the other man's response was a surly, "Why?"

The Doctor pointed with the torch. "Over there, by the water cooler," he clarified, not bothering to answer Proper Dave's question.

When the man moved, the Doctor glanced back at Melody, anxious to hear more about the reason behind the expedition. She nodded and turned slightly towards Rose.

"There was one other thing in the last message," she said.

The Doctor heard a rustling, and when he looked over his shoulder, Melody was reaching into the pocket of her space suit, pulling out a data pad. She beckoned, and Rose walked over to look over her shoulder.

"This is a data extract that came with the message."

"Four thousand and twenty-two saved," Rose read. "No survivors."

Four thousand and twenty-two saved… but no survivors?

"Four thousand and twenty-two." Melody took a deep breath. "That's the exact number of people who were in the Library when the planet was sealed."

"Wait a minute," Jenny said. "What does it mean, four thousand and twenty-two people have been saved?"

"Yeah, who was saved if there were no survivors?" Donna agreed.

"That's what we're here to find out," Melody explained.

"And so far, what we haven't found are any bodies," Mr. Lux added.

Not even the skeletons left behind when the Vashta Nerada devour the flesh, the Doctor realised, just as the sonic blinked.

"Okay, got a live one." He jumped to his feet and pointed to the living shadow. "That's not darkness down those tunnels. This is not a shadow." He picked up the box lunch and crouched down in front of the shadow. "It's a swarm. A man-eating swarm."

He took a chicken leg and threw it into the darkness, and the meat was consumed from the bone before it hit the ground.

"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."

Rose swallowed hard. "By most planets, you mean including Earth."

The Doctor stood up and brushed the wrinkles out of his suit. "Mmm. Earth, and a billion other worlds. Where there's meat, there's Vashta Nerada. You can see them sometimes, if you look. The dust in sunbeams."

Donna shook her head, her eyes wide and pupils dilated. "If they were on Earth, we'd know."

"Nah." He wrinkled his nose and shook his head. "Normally they live on roadkill. But sometimes people go missing. Not everyone comes back out of the dark."

"Every shadow?" Melody called out, interrupting his rambling.

"No." The Doctor stuck his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "But any shadow."

"So what do we do?" she asked.

And that was the problem. There was no way to fight the Vashta Nerada. "Daleks, aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans, back of the neck. Vashta Nerada? Run. Just run."

So your plan is to just leave? All of us? Rose asked.

He took her hand. My plan is to get us out of here alive. There's no one here to rescue, except the ten of us.

You're not even the least bit curious about those four thousand twenty-two people saved?

The Doctor sighed and looked around the reading room. Dust motes danced in the shadows—or were they Vashta Nerada? He shuddered and looked back at Rose.

Saved, but with no survivors, he reminded Rose. And a mystery isn't worth risking your life, and Jenny's and Donna's.

"Run? Run where?" Melody demanded.

"Hopefully, to safety," the Doctor said. "This is an index point. There must be an exit teleport somewhere."

He glanced at Mr. Lux, but the other hand shook his head. "Don't look at me. I haven't memorised the schematics."

"Doctor, the little shop." Donna pointed at the front of the room. "They always make you go through the little shop on the way out so they can sell you stuff."

The Doctor let go of Rose's hand and ran to the shop entrance and peered in, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw a teleport pad. "You're right. Brilliant! That's why I like the little shop."

"Okay, let's move it," Mr. Lux ordered.

Proper Dave took a step towards the shop, and that was when the Doctor realised they were already too late to save everyone. "Actually, Proper Dave? Could you stay where you are for a moment?"

"Why?" the man demanded with all his trademark belligerence.

The Doctor walked towards him slowly. "I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry. But you've got two shadows."

Everyone looked at the floor, where a Vashta Nerada had latched onto Dave, making it look like he had two shadows.

"It's how they hunt," the Doctor explained. "They latch on to a food source and keep it fresh."

Proper Dave, who had previously been so dismissive of the Doctor's orders to stay out of the shadows, was shaking slightly. "What do I do?"

"You stay absolutely still, like there's a wasp in the room," the Doctor said rapidly. "Like there's a million wasps."

"We're not leaving you, Dave," Melody said, meeting the Doctor's gaze over his shoulder.

The Doctor shook his head quickly. "Course we're not leaving him."

At least…

The Doctor looked at Rose, and Jenny, and Donna. Three of the most important people in his life were in grave danger.

He squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't send Rose away, not without asking, and she wouldn't agree if he did ask so there was no point. But Donna and Jenny…

He set the thought aside for the moment and looked at Proper Dave. "Where's your helmet?" The man's arm twitched, and the Doctor shook his head. "Don't point, just tell me."

Dave's eyes shifted to his right. "On the floor, by my bag."

Anita went to get the helmet, and the Doctor caught her eye as she got close to Proper Dave. "Don't cross his shadow," he ordered. She stepped carefully around the real shadow and brought the Doctor the white helmet that completed the environment suit. "Thanks. Now, the rest of you, helmets back on and sealed up. We'll need everything we've got."

"But we don't have helmets, Dad."

The Doctor glanced up at his daughter as he sealed Dave into the suit. "I know, Jenny." The truth was, the suit was only going to offer minimal protection anyway, but he wasn't going to say that out loud.

"Well then, how are you going to keep us safe, Spaceman?" Donna asked, fear making her voice sharp.

"Give me just a moment and I'll tell you."

He bit back a sigh when Rose narrowed her eyes at him; she would work out his plan in the next few minutes. Even if they hadn't had a telepathic bond, Rose would have known what he was planning. Sending his companions away to safety was a habit too deeply ingrained to be abandoned entirely—especially when one of his companions was his own daughter. Memories of leaving Susan behind on Earth with David surfaced, but he quickly forced them back.

He shook his head slightly, then looked at Melody. "Melody, anything I can do with the suit?"

"What good are the damn suits?" Mr. Lux said, sounding panicked. He pointed towards the lecture room where they'd found the skeletal remains of his assistant. "Miss Evangelista was wearing her suit. There was nothing left."

"We can increase the mesh density," Melody suggested. "Dial it up four hundred percent. Make it a tougher meal."

"Okay." The Doctor pressed the sonic screwdriver to the control on the front of the suit. "Eight hundred percent. Can you finish everyone else, Rose?"

She nodded and went to Anita first. To the Doctor's surprise, Melody turned to Other Dave and pressed a familiar looking tool to his suit.

The Doctor's eyes widened. "What's that?"

She looked at the screwdriver, then at him, mock confusion in her eyes. "It's a screwdriver," she said, playing dumb.

"Yeah, and it's sonic," the Doctor said.

She looked at the tool in her hand, and the smile on her face was almost laughter now. "Well look at that, so it is."

The Doctor ground his teeth together and ignored the sassy archaeologist. He could focus on figuring her out later, after he saved Donna and Jenny.

He grabbed their hands and ran towards the shop. "With me. Come on."

Rose's eyes widened as he pulled the two women away from the group, but he ignored the sudden understanding and anger pulsing over the bond. He could handle her being angry with him much better than he could watching either Jenny or Donna die when he could have done something to save them.

"What are we doing?" Donna asked as they jogged through the shop, past the racks of souvenir merchandise. "We shopping? Is it a good time to shop?"

The knots in the Doctor's stomach loosened when he spotted the teleport. He tried to run to the controls on the other side, but Jenny dragged her heels. The Doctor looked down at her. Her mouth was pressed into a thin line, and he realised she'd picked up just enough of his panic and Rose's anger to figure out what he had in mind. He looked at her pleadingly, and she sighed and stepped onto the dais.

"Come on, Donna," he said to the woman who'd wandered off to look at the merchandise. "Right, stand there in the middle. It's a teleport. Stand in the middle. Can't send the others, TARDIS won't recognise them."

"What are you doing?" Donna demanded, her voice sharp with suspicion.

Jenny took her hand. "He's sending us back to the TARDIS so we're safe, Donna."

Donna glared at Jenny. "Yeah, well I don't see him or Rose wearing a spacesuit, so they're in just as much danger as me and you."

"Don't worry, Donna." Jenny took her hand. "The TARDIS will help me monitor what's going on, and if we need to, we can come back to save them."

Donna nodded. "All right then. As long as we're not going to just sit there."

Jenny looked at him over Donna's shoulder. "We are definitely not just going to sit there."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and slapped the button the teleport. "Like mother, like daughter," he muttered as they disappeared. He should have known when Jenny stepped onto the dais willingly that she had a plan.

I didn't trick them into going, he told Rose as he flipped the sonic screwdriver and put it back into his pocket. They agreed to go. There was a lot more to the story than that, but he didn't have time to get into the rest of it, and this much was the truth. After a moment, her anger abated, and he relaxed slightly.

Melody called his name, and he ran back into the other room. He looked at her, then at where she was pointing on the floor—to Proper Dave's shadow. Shadow, singular.

"Where did it go?" the Doctor asked Melody.

"It's just gone," Proper Dave said. "I looked round, one shadow, see." He pointed at the floor, where only one shadow stretched out from his body.

"Does that mean we can leave?" Melody asked. "I don't want to hang around here."

"I don't know why we're still here," Mr. Lux added. "We can leave him, can't we?" He pointed at Proper Dave. "I mean, no offence."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. Would that statement pass the Felman Lux Decency Filters?

"Shut up, Mr. Lux," Melody ordered, speaking for all of them.

Something wasn't right about this. "Did you feel anything, like an energy transfer?" he asked Proper Dave. "Anything at all?"

"No, no, but look, it's gone." Proper Dave turned in a slow circle to demonstrate the lack of an extra shadow.

The Doctor held his hands up. "Stop there. Stop, stop, stop there. Stop moving." Something was not right about this, and the way Proper Dave was moving, his shadow was bound to cross someone else's. "They're never just gone and they never give up." He got down on the floor and sonicked the remaining shadow, but the results came back clean. "Well, this one's benign."

"Hey, who turned out the lights?" Proper Dave demanded angrily.

The Doctor looked up at Proper Dave's back. "No one, they're fine."

"No seriously, turn them back on."

"They are on," Melody said.

"I can't see a ruddy thing."

A hard knot tightened in the pit of the Doctor's stomach. Oh, I think I know where they've gone… "Dave, turn around," he said out loud.

"What's going on?" asked Proper Dave as he turned slowly to face the Doctor. "Why can't I see? Is the power gone? Are we safe here?" When the pilot turned around, the visor of his suit was completely dark.

Rose gasped. They got tired of just being his shadow and have moved into the suit, she realised. So why haven't they eaten him?

The Doctor shook his head. Yet. The operative word is 'yet.'

"Dave, I want you stay still. Absolutely still." Dave's body jerked, but the Doctor refused to believe what he knew that probably meant. "Dave? Dave? Dave, can you hear me? Are you all right? Talk to me, Dave."

"I'm fine," Dave said, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm okay. I'm fine."

"I want you to stay still," the Doctor repeated. "Absolutely still."

"I'm fine. I'm okay. I'm fine. I can't…"

The Doctor's hearts sank when he realised that Dave wasn't actually alive. He was just ghosting.

"Why can't I? I, I can't. Why can't I? I, I can't. Why can't I? I—"

"He's gone," Melody said quietly when the communicator started blinking. "He's ghosting."

"Then why is he still standing?" For once, Mr. Lux asked an important question.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?" Proper Dave's voice asked, and the Doctor realised that was the last thing the man had said before he'd been eaten by the swarm. "Hey, who turned out the lights?"

Two warring instincts battled in the Doctor. On one hand, Rose was right—the mystery was intriguing, and it was only getting deeper. How were the Vashta Nerada keeping the suit upright?

He took a step towards the suit formerly known as Proper Dave, then he stopped. On the other hand, there was nothing he could do for the dead man, and the longer they stayed in the Library, surrounded by Vashta Nerada, the greater the chances they would all join him.

"Doctor…"

He nodded and backed up. "I know, Rose."

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

The Doctor looked over at Melody. "I know you said you wouldn't leave Dave behind…"

Her face was drawn in tight lines, but she shook her head firmly. "Proper Dave is gone," she said, her voice betraying not a hint of indecision. "We're still here—still alive." She looked up at him, trust and fear both showing in her hazel eyes. "Can you get us to the TARDIS, Doctor?"

"Who turned out the lights?"

The Doctor's head swung around just in time to see Proper Dave take a lurching step towards them. "Right everyone," he said, taking a step backwards. "I think this would be a good time to run!"

They all spun around and realised simultaneously that they were trapped against a wall. "What do we do?" Mr. Lux moaned. "Where do we go?"

The Doctor heard a strange shuffling gait behind him and looked back at the suit, now one step closer.

"Doesn't move very fast, does it?" Melody asked as they slowly backed away from the walking spacesuit.

"It's a swarm in a suit. But it's learning." Proper Dave's single shadow split into four shadows, each of them spreading in a different direction, looking for prey. The Doctor swallowed hard and reached for his sonic screwdriver. "Right, time to find a way out of here."

Melody shook her head and pulled something out of her pocket. "Let me, Doctor. Everyone, duck."

The Doctor just had time to recognise the weapon she carried before she fired it at the wall, making it disappear. "Squareness gun!"

"Good for getting out of a tough situation," she said as she shoved it back into her pocket. "Go, go, go," she ordered, hurrying her team through the door she'd created. "Move it. Move, move. Move it. Move, move."

Rose reached for the Doctor's hand as they followed Melody through the opening. He was tense, and she squeezed his hand. Jenny and Donna are safe, she reminded him. And we can find a way to get everyone else back to the TARDIS.

The aisle of shelves they stepped into was almost completely in shadow, and they all paused. "You said not every shadow," Melody protested.

"No, but it could be any shadow," Rose reminded her.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

A cold feeling of dread settled in Rose's stomach as the Vashta Nerada followed them through the opening Melody had created. The shadows were only a possible danger; Proper Dave was an active threat.

"Run!" the Doctor shouted.

He tightened his grip on Rose's hand, and they followed Melody through the Library stacks. Behind them, the shuffling, zombie-like gait of the swarm soon faded, but they didn't stop running until Mr. Lux nearly collapsed and Anita called out to stop them.

The lights here were working marginally better than they had been in the aisle they'd first entered, but even at that, the Doctor immediately grabbed a stool and went to work on them, turning the brightness up.

"Trying to boost the power. Light doesn't stop them, but it slows them down."

"So, what's the plan?" Melody was bent over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. "Do we have a plan?"

"The plan is not to be eaten," the Doctor said caustically. "So far, it has an 80% success rate. I'd like for that to not fall any lower."

The fixture still wasn't shining very brightly, so Rose pulled out her screwdriver to help. With two pointed at the light, they finally got it to work properly. She looked up at the Doctor as they worked, going from one light to the next. "You know I don't like it when you send people away from their own good, but I have to admit, I'm glad Donna and Jenny are safe."

To her surprise, his immediate response was not smugness or agreement. Instead, he looked at the sonic screwdriver with something like horror in his eyes.

"Doctor? What is it?" Rose asked.

"I teleported Donna and Jenny back to the TARDIS. If we don't get back there in under five hours, Emergency Programme One will activate."

"I can't believe you still have that programme," Rose muttered.

"Well, there's not a setting for you," he told her. "Since the TARDIS is your home."

"We need to get a shift on," Melody interrupted.

"No, you don't understand." The Doctor stared at his sonic screwdriver, and Rose's gut tightened when she realised what he was about to say. "They never made it to the TARDIS. I would have gotten a signal… she sends me a message when there's a teleport breach."

Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand. "It's not your fault, Doctor," she said immediately. "Whatever happened, it's not your fault." He pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded once.

Melody cleared her throat. "Maybe the coordinates have slipped," she suggested. "The equipment here's ancient."

With three hearts beating unnaturally fast, Rose and the Doctor spun around, looking for a Courtesy Node or a terminal. They found two Nodes standing almost side by side, and as they approached, the Doctor was already rattling off their request.

"Donna Noble and Jenny Tyler," he barked. "They're in this Library somewhere. Do you have the software to locate their position?"

Rose clapped a hand over her mouth when the nodes turned in unison, one of them bearing Donna's face, the other Jenny's. The two nodes spoke as one.

"Donna and Jenny have left the Library. Donna and Jenny have been saved."

The Doctor reached up and touched Jenny's face. "Still think this isn't my fault, Rose?" he asked without looking at her.

"Donna and Jenny have left the Library. Donna and Jenny have been saved."

Rose pulled the Doctor close and tried to comfort him over the bond, but the potential loss of Jenny and Donna—her step-daughter, and the woman who was like a sister to her—made it impossible.

"Donna and Jenny have left the Library. Donna and Jenny have been saved."

"How's that possible?" Melody asked.

"Donna and Jenny have left the Library."

Rose glared up at the replicated versions of Donna and Jenny. "Yeah, we've got it," she snarled. "You can stop now." The courtesy nodes obediently fell silent, and Rose pressed her tear-streaked face into the Doctor's chest while he nuzzled into her hair.

They stood like that for a few seconds, trying to be strong for each other and lean on each other at the same time. Then Rose heard it—the stomp-shuffle they'd left behind five minutes ago. She slowly pulled away from the Doctor to look behind him.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

She cursed fluently, and Melody grinned at her. "It's a three language day," she noted. "That's our system for designating how bad a situation is—how many languages does it make Rose swear in?"

"Yeah, that's hilarious, Melody," Rose bit out. "But I'm a bit more concerned with running from the shadow zombie."

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand, and they ran from not-Proper Dave. Improper Dave? Rose thought, unable to stop a giggle at the inappropriate humour.

But her giggle died almost immediately, when she realised the shadows were closing in in front of them as well. "Doctor."

"I see it."

Melody skidded to a halt beside them. "How are we going to get out?"

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Well, you're the one with the squareness gun," she pointed out.

"Oh. Right."

It was almost a relief to see that the calm, self-assured archaeologist could be flustered enough to forget how they'd gotten through the wall in the first place. Melody pulled her gun out and pointed it at the wall, and they all ran through the new opening, into a room that still had plenty of light.

The Doctor was trying to be calm, but Rose could feel his guilt and panic. She squeezed his hand as they ran. They aren't gone, she insisted. You can still feel Jenny in your head, can't you? She felt him reach out, and calm down a moment later when he recognised the faint telepathic signal that was Jenny. We'll find someplace safe and figure out how to bring them home. Do you hear me, Doctor? They will be safe.