Chapter 11: Saving River
The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, in his hand he clutched the jam jar full of the recharged nanogenes. They whizzed around inside, chittering and glowing brightly after being recharged to 2989% by using an exploding supernova and channelling the energy through the TARDIS. He had landed in the main reception, just in front of the helpdesk; he spun around twice to get his bearings.
A round bronze sphere dropped out from its socket in the wall and hovered towards him, spinning madly around and around in the air.
"Doctor!" A crackly voice emanated from the speaker grill at the bottom of the camera. It was the voice of a young girl. "Doctor!"
"Catherine Abigail Lux!" The Doctor greeted her, attempting to smile but found his mouth only stretched a little. It was a half hearted smile.
"Doctor! They're coming! You have to leave!" CAL warned urgently, the bronze sphere spinning more frantically around him. "Doctor!"
"Yes, I see them." He whispered back, noting the thick black shadows creeping slowly towards him. Already they had enveloped the lights on the edges of the room, making their way towards fresh meat. He was reminded of River as his hearts thudded and wondered how close they were to her. He spun around on the spot towards the thickest part of the shadows.
"Vashta Nerada!" He shouted and they stalled in their advance, recognising the blue box but also the tone of voice that could only belong to the Doctor. "There is a woman several floors below, her name is River Song and she saved everyone here, the whole planet!" He paused and fixed a steely glare to the shadows. "And now, I'm going to save her."
The shadows inched a little closer and he glared furiously at it, "I don't want to repeat myself so see if you can remember. You have one warning Vashta Nerada, I'm the Doctor, you've looked me up in this library, you know what I've done, what lengths I'll go to to save someone, whoever they are. I'm the Oncoming Storm; I can tear down civilisations, stop armies and wars. You think the dark scares me; you think I'm afraid of your shadows?" He questioned and the shadows began to retreat, inching away slowly.
"Because if you think that, you're mistaken. And if you try to stop me from saving her..." His threat petered off as he looked back to the gravity platform.
"You leave her alone." He ordered and ran towards it, disabling the safety once more before jumping down the chute which lead to the data core of the planet.
The swarms of Vashta Nerada in their shadows retreated quicker as they pulled back into the corners of the reception trying to conceal themselves. They hid densely packed in the shelves of the Great Library. And they stayed there until the blue box disappeared because they had read every book in the Library, they were part of every book and they knew of the Doctor.
The ancient Time Lord with so many faces, companions and enemies. They knew of the Oncoming Storm and what he had done. The Last Great Time War with everything on fire, planets blazed and burned in the frozen expanse of space. The two mightiest races to ever exist fell, tumbled, crashing down to be no more. And the Doctor, the name he had chosen for himself, the very last of the Time Lords had done that. And while he was not afraid of them, the Vashta Nerada also known as the Piranha of the Night across several galaxies feared him and they hid. Because the wrath of the last Time Lord terrified them.
The Doctor stepped out of the gravity tube and he looked at River, motionless on the metal chair. He swallowed nervously before setting down the jam jar full of the modified nanogenes on the floor and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He pointed it at the communicator device on River's space suit. It was working at 100% with all five bars brightly lit up. The device itself stored her consciousness and was wirelessly linked to her nervous system and to CAL's systems.
