the hourglass (doctor who fan fiction)

Silence in the Library

A/N: hi gang! so i'm going to skip the unicorn and the wasp since i don't really have any ideas for it, but i have plenty for this one! i hope you don't mind, but if you guys want i could do unicorn and the wasp in the future? maybe >:)

  "Books. People never really stop loving books." the Doctor said walking around the tardis. I had been studying my necklace after thinking about what Donna told me in the tardis a while ago. It confused me. The tardis began to materialize snapping me out of my thought. We walked out into a mostly empty area with just a few small cases of books.

"Fifty first century. By now you've got holovids, direct to brain downloads, fiction mist, but you need the smell. The smell of books, Donna and Juno. Deep breath." he took a breathe in. I chuckled and looked around. "The Library. So big it doesn't need a name. Just a great big 'The'." I spun around. "It's like a city." Donna commented.

  "It's a world. Literally, a world. The whole core of the planet is the index computer. Biggest hard drive ever. And up here, every book ever written. Whole continents of Jeffrey Archer, Bridget Jones," he began. "Monty Python's Big Red Book." I said with a grin. "Brand new editions, specially printed." the Doctor smiled. We looked over a balcony onto bookshelf's below. "We're near the equator, so this must be biographies. I love biographies." he said turning to us. Donna rolled her eyes, "Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end." He turned to Donna. "You need a good death. Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size."

  Donna picks up a book, I quickly took it from her. "Way-a. Spoilers." I said putting the book back down. "What?" she asked. "These books are from your future. You don't want to read ahead. Spoil all the surprises. Like peeking at the end." the Doctor explained. He glanced at me, then focused his attention back on Donna. "Isn't travelling with you one big spoiler?" she pointed out. "I try to keep you away from major plot developments." he turned around to face the balcony.

"You're very bad at that." I said. "It seems so, 'cause this is the biggest library in the universe. Where is everyone? It's silent." The Doctor ran over to a nearby screen, he used his screwdriver, bringing it online. "The library?" Donna asked. "The planet. The whole planet."

"Maybe it's a Sunday." Donna reasoned. "No, I never land on Sundays." the Doctor scrunched up his face. "Sundays are boring." I said. "Well, maybe everyone's really, really quiet." Donna turned to the Doctor. He looked back at her, "Yeah, maybe. But they'd still show up on the system." he looked back to the screen. "Doctor, why are we here? Really, why?" Donna asked. "Oh, you know, just passing." he didn't look up from the screen. "No, seriously. It was all let's hit the beach, then suddenly we're in a library. Why?" Donna pointed out. "Yeah, I was excited for the beach." I frowned.

"Now that's interesting." the Doctor ignored. "What?" me and Donna asked. We walked over to the Doctor. "Scanning for life forms. If I do a scan looking for your basic humanoids. You know, your book readers, few limbs and a face, apart from us, I get nothing. Zippo, nada. See? Nobody home. But if I widen the parameters to any kind of life."

The screen says Error 1,000,000,000,000 lifeform number capped at maximum record. "A million, million. Gives up after that. A million, million." he said. "But there's nothing here. There's no one." Donna tilted her head. "And not a sound. A million. million life forms, and silence in the library." I shivered. "But there's no one here. There's just books. I mean, it's not the books, is it? I mean, it can't be the books, can it? I mean, books can't be alive." she turned and slowly reached for a book. "Welcome." the voice made us jump. "That came from here." Donna said, her eyes wide. "Yeah."

We went back to the mostly empty room. A vaguely humanoid sculpture by a curved desk turned its head and speaks with a female voice from a small face on its surface. "I am Courtesy Node seven one zero slash aqua. Please enjoy the Library and respect the personal access codes of all your fellow readers, regardless of species or hygiene taboo." it said. "That's so creepy." I walked up to it. "That face, it looks real." Donna was at my side. "Yeah, don't worry about it." the Doctor told us.

"A statue with a real face, though? It's a hologram or something, isn't it?" Donna turned to the Doctor. "No, but really, it's fine." The Node spoke again, "Additional. There follows a brief message from the Head Librarian for your urgent attention. It has been edited for tone and content by a Felman Lux Automated Decency Filter. Message follows. Run. For God's sake, run. No way is safe. The library has sealed itself, we can't. Oh, they're here. Argh. Slarg. Snick. Message ends. Please switch off your mobile comm. units for the comfort of other readers."

I turned to the Doctor. "So that's why we're here. Any other messages, same date stamp?" he asked it. "One additional message. This message carries a Felman Lux coherency warning of five zero eleven." the Doctor spun around. "Yeah, yeah, fine, fine, fine. Just play it." the Node spoke again, "Message follows. Count the shadows. For God's sake, remember, if you want to live, count the shadows. Message ends." I turned to the shadows on the floor. "Donna?" I said. "Yeah?" she answered. "Stay out of the shadows."

"Why, what's in the shadows?"

"So, We weren't just in the neighbourhood." Donna said. "Yeah, I kind of, sort of lied a bit. I got a message on the psychic paper." he pulled it out, it read: 'The library come as soon as you can. x'. "What do you think? Cry for help?" he asked.

"Cry for help with a kiss?" Donna scoffed.

"Oh, we've all done that." the Doctor reasoned.

"Who's it from?" Donna asked.

"No idea."

"So why did we come here? Why did you-" We turned. "Donna." The lights behind us were going out. "What's happening?" she asked. "Run!" me and the Doctor yelled. We ran to the nearest door, but it wouldn't open. "Come on." he pushed on the door. "What, is it locked?" she asked "Jammed. The wood's warped." he answered. I began to try and push the door as well. "Well, sonic it. Use the thingy." she yelled. "He can't, it's wood." I answered. "What, it doesn't do wood?" she questioned. "Hang on, hang on. I can vibrate the molecules, fry the bindings. I can shatterline the interface." he pulled out his sonic, but Donna had another idea. "Oh, get out of the way." Donna kicked the door open.

We bursted in. There was a metal globe in the air. "Oh. Hello. Sorry to burst on you like this. Okay if we stop here for a bit?" The Doctor asked, it fell to the ground. "What is it?" Donna asked. The Doctor ran over to it. "Security camera. Switched itself off." he picked it up. The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on the security camera. "Nice door skills, Donna." I complimented. "Yeah, well, you know, boyfriends. Sometimes you need the element of surprise." After a minute, Donna asked, "What was that though? What was after us? I mean, did we just run away from a power cut?" the Doctor was still looking over the security camera. "Possibly."

"Are we safe here?" I asked. He looked up at me. "Of course we're safe. There's a little shop." he pointed to a sign on the wall that said 'The Shop' and 'Entrance This Way' The Doctor managed to get the camera open. "Gotcha!" he exclaimed. Words scrolled across a little panel on the camera. "Ooo, I'm sorry. I really am. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's alive." he stopped "You said it was a security camera." Donna said confused. "It is. It's an alive one."