When neither the Timelord nor Gideon answered her, Donna made her way over to one of the nodes.
"Excuse me," she said, "what does it mean, 'others'?"
"That's barely more than a speak your weight machine." The Doctor told her. "It can't help you."
"So, whys it got a face?" she asked.
"Honey, I wouldn't ask that if I were you." Luna told her, taking a couple of steps closer to her then taking her hand. She knew that the human wouldn't understand the 51st century school of thought when it came to donations after death.
"Why?" Donna asked.
"This flesh aspect was donated by Mark Chambers on the occasion of his death." The Node said.
"That's why." Luna sighed.
"It's a real face?" Donna screeched.
"It has been actualized individually for you from the any facial aspects saved to our extensive flesh banks." It told her. "Please enjoy."
"It chose me a dead face it thought I'd like?" Donna demanded, shocked. "That statue's got a real dead person's face on it…"
"I did tell ya that ya shouldn't have asked it." Lu told her, shaking her head.
"It's the 51st century," the Doctor told her. "That's…basically like donating a park bench."
"It's donating a face!" she told him, her eyes wide in horror while she backed away from the Node slowly. However, before she got too far, Lu took hold of her arm and yanked her forward. At the ginger's questioning look, she simply glanced behind her.
"You were about to walk back into a shadow."
"Remember 'Count the Shadows'." The Doctor told her.
"One." Donna replied. "There, I counted it, one shadow."
"Yeah but, what's the thing that's casting it 'cause if you look up, you'll see that there's nothing there." Lu told her, pointing upwards. Her two companions did the same, seeing that there was nothing to cast it.
"Oh!" the Doctor suddenly exclaimed, making them jump. "I'm thick! Look at me, I'm old and thick! Head's too full of stuff, I need a bigger head!". If he were honest with himself, he was hoping that Luna would shoot something sarcastic back at him, something to show that there were no hard feelings between the pair but she simply stood beside Donna, refusing to look at him.
"Why is the corridor dark?" he asked.
They all looked and saw that only one lamp was on, and it was blinking.
"Power must be going." Donna said.
"This place runs on fission cells." The Doctor told her.
"They'll out-burn the sun." The crimson haired alien told her.
"Then why is it dark?" Donna asked.
"Here's the catch babe. It's not dark." Luna said, her eyes glued to the floor. The older woman looked as well, only to see that the shadow that was there had suddenly moved.
"That shadow." Donna said slowly. "It's gone."
"We need to get back to the TARDIS." The Doctor told them.
"Why?" Donna asked.
"Because that shadow isn't gone." Luna told her. "It moved."
"Reminder:" the Node called. "The Library has been breached, others are coming. Reminder: The Library had been breached, others are coming. Reminder: The Library has been breached…"
A door burst open and six people in spacesuits entered the room. One of them walked right up to the Doctor and switched her visor so it was transparent. Inside was a woman smiling at the Doctor.
"Hello sweetie." She said.
"Get out!" the Doctor told her.
"Doctor." Donna rebuked.
"All of you, turn around, get back in your rocket, and fly away!" he told them, refocusing on the other group. "Tell your grandchildren you came to the Library and lived. They won't believe you."
"Pop your helmets, everyone." The woman ordered. "We've got breathers."
Everyone took off their helmets.
"How do you know they're not androids?" another woman asked.
"We are in the room ya know." Luna called but she was simply ignored, causing her to huff in irritation.
"Cause I've dated androids." The first woman replied. "They're rubbish."
"Who is this?" one of the men demanded. "You said we were the only expedition, I paid for exclusives."
"I lied." The woman replied. "I'm always lying. Bound to be others."
"Miss Evangelista, I want to see the contracts." He called.
"You came through the north door, yeah?" the woman, who seemed to be the leader, asked. "How was that, much damage?"
"Please, just leave." The Doctor told her. "I'm asking you seriously and properly, just lea…Hang on. Did you say expedition?"
"My expedition, I funded it." The other man told him.
"Oh, you're not, are you?" the Doctor asked. Donna could help but notice the small smile creeping onto Lu's face as she chuckled quietly.
"Oh they are."
"Tell me you're not archaeologists."
"They are." She whispered to Donna, watching it play out in front of them.
"Got a problem with archaeologists?" the woman asked.
"I'm a time traveller." The Doctor told her. "I point and laugh at archaeologists."
"Ah." The woman replied. "Professor River Song, archaeologist."
"Told ya" The Gideon said in a sing songy voice.
"River Song, lovely name." the Doctor told her. "As you're leaving, and you're leaving now…you need to set up a quarantine beacon. Code-wall the planet, the whole planet. Nobody comes here, not ever again…not one living thing, not here, not ever." As he was speaking, he noticed someone walking away which caused him to quickly shout out.
"What's your name?"
"Anita." The woman replied.
"Anita, stay out of the shadows." The Doctor told her. "Not a foot, not a finger in the shadows till you're safely back in your ship. Goes for all of you. Stay in the light. Find a nice, bright spot and just stand. If you understand me, look very, very scared."
They all just looked at him with blank looks, except for River, who smiled at him.
"No, bit more scared than that." The Doctor told them.
Miss Evangelista had the sense to look slightly more scared.
"Okay, do for now." He said. "You, who are you?"
"Uh, Dave." The man answered.
"Okay, Dave…" the Doctor said.
"Oh, well, Other Dave." The man interrupted. "That's Proper Dave, the pilot. He was the first Dave, so when we…"
The Doctor grabbed the man's arm and pulled him to the door they had come through.
"Other Dave, the way you came, does it look the same as before?" he asked him.
"Yeah." Other Dave replied. "Oh, it's a bit darker."
"How much darker?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh, like I could see where we came through just like a moment ago." He replied. "I can't now."
"Seal up this door." The Doctor ordered. "We'll find another way out."
The Doctor walked back to the rest of the group.
"We're not looking for a way out." The business man told him. "Miss Evangelista?"
She stepped up to the Doctor, Luna, and Donna with papers in her hand.
"I'm Mr. Lux's personal…everything." She told them. "You need to sign these contracts to say that your individual experience inside the Library are the intellectual property of the Felman Lux Corporation."
"Right, give it here." The Doctor said as he and Luna held out their hands.
"Yeah, lovely." Donna said. "Thanks."
In perfect sync, all three of them tore the contracts into small pieces though while the Doctor and Donna dropped them, Luna threw hers up into the air.
The small action was enough to make River to laugh quietly.
"My family built this Library." Lux told them. "I have rights."
"You have a mouth that won't stop." River told him.
She turned back to the Doctor.
"You think there's danger here?" she asked him.
"Something came to this Library and killed everything in it, killed a whole world." He replied sarcastically. "Danger? Could be."
"That was 100 years ago." River told him. "The Library's been silent for 100 years. Whatever came here is long dead."
"Bet your life?" he asked her.
"Always." She replied, smiling.
"What are you doing?" Lux demanded.
"He said seal the door." Other Dave replied.
"Torch!" the Doctor ordered, snatching Lux's out of his hand.
"You're taking orders from him?" Lux demanded.
"Kinda scary isn't it? It's just the way it works. Hierarchy structure. You see Lux, logic says that everything falls into the structure, starting with the oldest. Let's go with it shall we? I like being second in command." Luna explained, finishing with a huge grin that worried the man a little but he quickly pulled himself together, standing his ground a little more firmly.
"And who are you to say such a thing?"
"I'm Luna Trinity Goodwin from the planet Gideon in the seventh system of the Artemis cluster. I'm the second oldest in this room and believe me, one of the only people who can get any sense from Theta so shut your mouth, stand there and look pretty-ish... got it? Good."
The Doctor walked around the room, using to the flash light to light the dark corners though he still listened to her put the man in his place.
It made a nice change from it being him.
"Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark." The Doctor said.
"Not really irrational when there is something that does actually want to kill ya." Lu pointed out though there was a slight reluctance in her voice when it came to helping the Doctor.
"Very true." He replied. "Cause it's not irrational. It's Vashta Nerada."
"What's a Vashta Nerada?" Donna asked.
"It's what's in the dark." The Doctor told her before walking back to the group, leaving Luna to explain it to her a little bit more.
"It's like a swarm of flesh eating insects that live in the dark. They're always in the dark."
"Lights!" he announced. "That's what we need, lights. You got lights?"
"What for?" River asked.
"Form a circle, safe area, big as you can, lights pointing out." The Doctor ordered.
"Oi!" River called. "Do as he says."
"You're not listening to this man?" Lux demanded.
"Apparently, I am." She replied. "Anita, unpack the lights. Other Dave, make sure the door's secure, then help Anita. Mr. Lux, put your helmet back on, block the visor. Proper Dave, find an active terminal. I want you to access the Library database, see what you can find about what happened here a hundred years ago. Pretty Boy, you're with me. Step into my office."
She walked over to a desk with an information terminal.
"Professor Song, why am I the only one wearing my helmet?" Lux asked.
"I don't fancy you." She replied. Luna couldn't help but laugh at that, looking at the woman with a sparkle in her blue eyes while the Doctor walked over to Proper Dave.
"Probably I can help you." He told him.
"Pretty Boy, with me I said." River called.
"Oh, I'm Pretty Boy?" the Doctor asked, confused.
"Yes." Donna replied. "Ooh, that came out a bit quick!"
"Pretty?" the Doctor asked.
"Eh."
When the Doctor made his way towards River, Lu moved and began to follow him which caused him to spin around with an eyebrow raised.
"And where do you think you are going?" he asked.
"I'm not going there for you, if that's what you're thinking. I'm going 'cause I like this River chick." she shot back, about to walk on but he grabbed hold of her arm before she could get too far. After casting a quick look around, he pulled her just out of ear shot from the group as to preserve some kind of privacy.
"What's wrong Loony girl?" All she did was look at him, her arms crossed over her chest. "Come on, talk to me."
" You don't approve of me." she muttered, looking up at him through thick black eyelashes.
"Of course I do. What gives you the idea that I don't?"
"I open the door in a way that Jack taught me and you said that you weren't sure if you approve of it."
"Luna... I didn't mean it like that."
"But don't you see? You left me for 40 years on Earth and you were expecting me to just stay the same? A little girl from Gideon, travelling around in a police box with an enemy of her home planet? The minute you left me was the minute she died! I had to learn new things to survive! I needed to do something to occupy my time and I thought... I t-thought by helping free contained aliens, you'd c-come back. T-that you-you'd want m-me back." She cried though towards the end, her words began to slur as tears filled her eyes but all he could do was stare.
It was his fault.
"Loony girl, they killed my whole planet... my people. I didn't want them to take you away from me too. Not when I'd finally got to keep you." He shared, carefully wiping a stray tear from her cheek with his thumb before leaning forward to press a kiss to her forehead.
"Sweetie... Loony girl... With me." River called with obvious impatience. The sound of the familiar nickname shocked the pair out of their little reservoir. Taking a few moments to compose themselves, they both began to walk towards her though the tension between them had been shattered.
"Don't let your shadows cross!" he called to the rest of the group. "Seriously, don't even let them touch. Any of them could be infected."
"How can a shadow be infected?" Other Dave asked.
Looking around, the only one with nothing to do was Miss Evangelista.
"Excuse me, can I help?" she asked.
"No, we're fine." Anita replied.
"I could just…you know, hold things." She said.
"No, really we're okay." Other Dave replied.
"Couldn't she help?" Donna asked.
"Trust me." Other Dave told her. "I just spent four days on a ship with that woman. She's…"
"Couldn't tell the difference between the escape pod and the bathroom." Anita told her. "We had to go back for her. Twice."
River was taking out things from her pack, including a book that looked vaguely like the TARDIS.
"Thank you." She said to Luna as the pair of aliens approached her.
"For what?" she asked.
"The usual." River replied. "Making sure he comes when I call him. You know what he's like."
"Yeah, sure. Any time." she said, waving off the woman's thanks in confusion.
"You're doing a very good job, acting like you don't know me." River continued. "I'm assuming there's a reason."
"A fairly good one, actually." The Doctor replied.
"Ok, shall we do diaries, then?" she said. "Where are we this time? Uh, going by your face, I'd say it's early days for you. Yes? So, umm…." She flipped through the book. "Crash of the Byzantium, have we done that yet?"
The Doctor and Luna stared at her.
"Obviously ringing no bells." She said, turning some more pages. "Right, um, oh. Picnic at Asgard. Have we done Asgard yet?"
They continued staring at her.
"Obviously not." She said. "Blimey, very early days, then. Huh, life with a pair of time travellers, never knew it could be such hard work."
She examined the Doctor's face and seemed surprised. She reached out to touch him but he took a step away from her.
"You're both so young!" she marvelled.
"We're really not." The Doctor replied.
"Oi! Speak for yourself. 361 isn't that old."
"But you are." She said. "Your eyes. You're younger than I've ever seen you."
"Sorry... Confuzzled. You've seen the plonker before?"
"Doctor… Luna" River pleaded. "Please tell me you know who I am?"
"Who are you?" the Doctor asked.
"Professor River Song. An archaeologist." The Gideon stated, repeating the information that she had been given earlier but they were interrupted by a loud noise.
"Sorry, that was me." Proper Dave called. "Trying to get through the security protocols, I seem to have set something off. What is that? Is that an alarm?"
"Doctor?" Donna called. "Doctor, that sounds like…"
"Mmm, did that sound like a phone to anyone else?" Lu asked.
"It is." The Doctor replied. "It's a phone!"