Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

Silence in the Library

"Books!" the Doctor grinned, grabbing his coat off a Y-beam and racing towards the TARDIS doors, "People never really stop loving books." He stepped outside to find they'd landed in an empty reception area. Donna followed and the Artist brought up the rear after doing her usual check of the outside environment. "51st century." the Doctor rambled, "By now you've got holovids, direct-to-brain downloads, fiction mist. But you need the smell. The smell of books. Deep breath." He took a deep lungful of air, then opened a door and led the women out into large columned area with stairs leading down to a balcony that overlooked a vast city below. "The Library. So big, it doesn't need a name, just a great big 'the.'"

"Just like you." the Artist smiled, "No name, just 'The Doctor'."

"It's like a city." Donna breathed, looking at the view below.

"It's the whole planet." the Artist explained, "This entire planet is one great big library. The core contains the index computer, the biggest hard drive ever created, and up here is every book ever written."

"Jeffery Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book, The Railway Series." the Doctor listed off, "Brand new editions specifically printed. We're near the equator, so..." He licked his finger and held it to the air. "This must be biographies. I love biographies."

"Yeah, very you." Donna remarked dryly, "Always a death at the end."

"Death is a natural part of life." the Artist replied, "Gives us a perspective of things."

Donna started to lift a book up but the Doctor swatted her hand away. "Oi, spoilers!" he scolded.

"What?"

"These books're from your future. Ya don't wanna read ahead, spoil all the surprises. Like peeking at the end."

"Isn't travelling with you two one big spoiler?" Donna countered.

"Good point." the Artist conceded, "But we try to keep our companions away from major plot developments. Albeit not very well." she muttered, recalling the Doctor's bad idea to take Rose Tyler to the end of the Earth on her first trip, or when the TARDIS had ended up taking Martha Jones to the end of the universe.

The Doctor suddenly realised something. "This is the biggest library in the universe so... where is everyone?" he wandered.

"Come to think of it, it is a bit too quiet for my liking." the Artist frowned.

"What, the Library?" Donna questioned as the Doctor went over to an information kiosk and flashed it with his sonic screwdriver.

"The planet." the Doctor replied, "The whole planet."

"Maybe it's a Sunday." Donna suggested, remembering when she worked at Hounslow library, which was shut on Sundays.

"No, today's Monday." the Artist replied, having checked the date on the TARDIS monitor.

"Well then, maybe everyone's really, really quiet." Donna tried.

"Yeah, but we'd still hear some noise." the Artist pointed out, "Nobody can be 100% silent."

"And they'd still show up on the system." the Doctor added, fiddling with the information point.

"Doctor, why are we here?" Donna asked seriously, "Really, why?"

"Oh, just passing." the Doctor waved her off.

"No, seriously." Donna insisted, "It was all, 'Let's hit the beach', then suddenly we're in a library. Why?"

"Now that's interesting." the Doctor murmured, looking at the screen.

"What?"

"Scanning for lifeforms." the Doctor explained, "If I do scan for ya basic humanoids, ya know, ya book readers, few limbs and a face, apart from us I get nothing. Zippo, nadda, see?" He gestured to the screen, which showed three life-forms, themselves. "Nobody home. But if I widen the parameters to any kinda life..." He did just that and the number of life signs shot up until the screen read; '1,000,000,000,000'. "A million million. Gives up after that, a million million."