An alarm began ringing through the library, joined with stereotypical flashing red lights. Everyone began looking around, trying to work out what was happening while Danni stayed focused on the duplicate stretching from underneath her. She couldn't die here, she had still so much to do. Eleven was waiting for her, he loved her, how can he do that if she dies here? She shivered, because time can be rewritten. That thought alone filled her with dread; she couldn't lose him, not now.
"What is it? What's wrong?" The man barked. The Doctor and River ran over to the terminal, checking the screen, seeing the countdown for the library's auto destruct. River turned and frowned as Danni stood in the same place, she was normally first by the Doctor's side. Danni lifted her arm, watching the shadows move with it. Would the Vashta Nerada be able to eat through the Manipulator, with it being a fixed point, or would her arm hang there forever?
"What's maximum erasure?" River asked, turning back to the screen, her mind turning over all the possibilities of what Danni was doing.
"20 minutes, this planet's gonna crack like an egg." The Doctor replied. She gasped, but was becoming increasingly concerned about Danni. She shot her another look and Danni was stood there, oblivious to the commotion happening around her.
"No! No, it's all right, the doctor moon will stop it. It's programmed to protect CAL." The man explained calmly, trusting the moon to protect them but before anyone could reply, the screen on the terminal went blank.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor exclaimed, jumping onto the top of the terminal to fix it. River looked between him and, seeing he didn't need her, approached Danni slowly.
"Danni, what's wrong?" She asked. Danni's head shot up, a tear running down her cheek and she held her hand out to stop River in her tracks.
"Don't tell him. Please." She whispered, barely audible over the alarm.
"Don't tell him what?" River replied, confused.
"Promise, please." River nodded, panicking at her begging.
"Okay, I promise. What's wrong?"
"Look down." Danni told her pitifully and River looked at the floor, her eyes instantly drawn to the second shadow instantly.
"No." She breathed and Danni nodded slowly.
"I have two shadows." She stated, her voice cracking as she shook.
"No, no, not my... no." River stuttered, almost as pale as Danni. She looked over at the Doctor who hadn't noticed their interaction then back at Danni, "We have to tell him, he can help..."
"He can't." Danni replied firmly, "I'm still alive, and if he becomes emotional then we're doomed." River nodded, not liking it but agreeing. The Doctor would explode into a ball of rage if he knew Danni was in trouble. He might not have been her Doctor, but she knew that he wouldn't let her go lightly, whichever version he may have been.
"We have to save CAL." Danni stated, sounding more confident than she felt and drawing the Doctor's attention to her. They had to save the little girl. The Doctor looked at her, obviously sensing something was wrong as he regarded her and River, both looking devastated.
"What is it, what is CAL?" He asked.
"We need to get to the main computer, I'll show you." The other man told them.
"It's at the core of the planet." The Doctor replied, knowing they didn't have time to get there. Danni reached forward and poked River, making sure she didn't let the woman touch her shadow.
"That's your cue." She told her with a sad smile. River just stared at her, then nodded, determined and grabbed her hand.
"Well, then. Let's go!" She pulled Danni over to the middle of the room, pulling out her sonic and using it on a giant symbol on the floor. It opened up, revealing a huge blue tunnel, it pulsing with energy, "Gravity platform!" She explained to the confused ginger.
"I bet I like you." The Doctor told River, who nodded, trying to smile.
"Oh, you do!" The Doctor moved over, reaching to grab Danni's other hand when she flinched away, looking alarmed. He frowned at her.
"What's wrong?" He asked and she shot him an obviously fake confused look.
"Nothing, why?" She replied, stepping into the blue tunnel and onto a metal disc. He studied her for a moment, trying to work out what was wrong, before the all stepped onto the platform and it started to descend.
~0~0~0~
"Auto destruct in 15 minutes." The system told them as they reached the centre of the planet. The Doctor ran up to a burning core suspended in the ceiling, looking like a star. He looked at Danni again, he had been shooting her glances all the way down the tunnel, then up at the ball of flame.
"The Data Core! 4,000 living minds, trapped inside it." He told them all. River glanced up at it, then at Danni's second shadow.
"Yeah, well they won't be living much longer, we're running out of time." She told him, meaning more than just the countdown as the image of the second shadow burned its way into her minds eye. The Doctor nodded and ran off, deeper into planet, through hallways up to a computer terminal with two screens. The Doctor stood at one as River moved to the other.
"Help me. Please, help me." A little voice begged.
"What's that?" Anita asked as River tried to locate the voice.
"Was that a child?" River exclaimed, looking at Danni for an answer. The ginger girl nodded slowly and River's mouth fell open slightly. A child, in the centre of the library?!
"Computer's in sleep mode." The Doctor explained as he began typing on the console's keyboard, "I can't wake it up. I'm trying." Danni placed her hands on top of his, stilling his typing as she recalled what was happening to the little girl.
"Stop." She told him forcefully. He looked at her and she stared back, her look never wavering. She wanted him to stop, so he did. He turned back to the readings and tapped the touchscreen with one hand.
"Doctor, these readings!" River caught his attention as she typed and he nodded.
"I know, you'd think it was... dreaming." He settled on, perplexed.
"It is dreaming..." The man stated as he took off his gloves, "of a normal life, and a lovely Dad, and of every book ever written."
"Computers don't dream." Anita pointed out as he opened a door on the many cabinets on the wall, revealing some switches.
"Help me. Please help me." The voice pleaded again.
"No." He confirmed, "But little girls do." He pulled a switch down and a door slid open behind the Doctor. He ran off into it, the rest of the group following closely. The room was directly above a statue, one of the Node's Danni remembered with the faces on. It span slowly, revealing the face of a small girl, pleading them for help.
"Oh, my God!" River breathed.
"It's the little girl. The girl we saw in the computer." Anita stated.
"She's not in the computer. In a way, she is the computer. The main command node." he turned to the Doctor, "This is CAL."
"CAL is a child!" The Doctor exclaimed, outraged, " A child hooked up to a mainframe? Why didn't you tell me this?" He looked down at Danni, "I needed to know this!"
"Because she's family!" The man defended, turning back to face the Node "CAL... Charlotte Abigail Lux." Lux, that was his name. Danni bit her lip, she had been trying to remember it since she landed, "My grandfather's youngest daughter. 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. She loved books more than anything. He gave her them all." He turned to the Doctor, "He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show." A tear ran down his cheek as he looked at his aunt, the poor little girl trapped forever in a computer.
"So you weren't protecting a patent, you were protecting her." The Doctor replied in realisation, his anger calming down. He wasn't hiding information, he was hiding the little girl from anyone he thought would want to harm her.
"This is only half a life, of course. But it's for ever." He walked up and stroked the face gently, and she looked at his hand as if she could feel it.
"And then there the shadows invaded her dreams." Danni muttered, glancing down at her own double shadow. Her mum and dad would never know, would they? She disappeared only to be eaten by a shadow. They couldn't fold her away into her dreams, she was already there.
"Shadows. I have to... I have to save. Have to save..." The little girl interrupted.
"And she saved them." The Doctor whispered, "She saved everyone in the Library, folded them into her dreams and kept them safe."
"Then why didn't she tell us?" Anita asked.
"Because she's forgotten. She's got over 4,000 living minds chatting away inside her head, it must be like... being..."
"You?" Danni asked and he turned to her, smiling gently. She was biting her thumb nail, something he knew she did when she was nervous or upset. If he didn't think she'd flinch away again, he would've held her hand to stop her.
"Yes, me." River caught his eyes wandering downwards and stepped forward, grabbing his attention.
"So what do we do?" She asked.
"Auto destruct in ten minutes." The computer declared.
"Easy!" The Doctor shouted as he ran back into the other room and up to the terminal, "We beam all the people out of the data core, the computer will reset and stop the countdown." He frowned at the results as he typed on the keyboard, "Difficult, Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer." He ran over to the wall and began pulling wires out, "Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer and she can borrow my memory space!"
"No!" Danni shouted as she ran over with River, standing far enough away that the shadows didn't touch anyone. She knew he would be okay, she knew what River was going to do but her heart dropped just hearing him say it. He couldn't hook himself up to the computer, he just couldn't!
"Difficult!" River shouted, obviously agreeing, "It'll kill you stone dead!"
"Yeah, it's easy to criticise." He replied, sorting through the wires and not looking at either of them.
"It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate!" River continued.
"I'll try my hardest not to die. Honestly, it's my main thing." He pulled out something else of the wall and began sonicing it.
"Doctor!" She urged.
"I'm right and this works!" He interrupted her, "Shut up. Now listen, you and Luxy-boy, back up to the main Library. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download," He placed everything back into the wall, "and before you say anything else, Professor, can I just mention in passing as you're here, shut up!" He pointed both fingers at her before running back to the terminal. River turned to Danni, who just shrugged, not really knowing what to say. 'Oh, don't worry, he doesn't kill himself because you take his place?'. That'd go down real well.
"I hate you sometimes!" She screamed as she ran over to Mr Lux.
"I know!" He replied.
"Mr Lux, with me!" She turned to the Doctor, "You'd better look after Danni! Anita, if he dies, I'll kill him!" River and Mr Lux ran out, leaving Danni, the Doctor and Anita in the room. Danni counted her shadows, still two, which was much more reassuring than scary now she thought about it. Two shadows meant that she was still okay, then she looked at Anita. She blinked and moved over to the Doctor apprehensively; she only had one.
"What about the Vashta Nerada?" Anita asked as he ran off from the terminal to yet another cupboard, flicking some switches before running past Danni to another cupboard, sonicing the contents inside.
"These are their forests. I'm gonna seal Charlotte inside her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content." He replied.
"So you think they're just gonna let us go?"
"Best offer they're gonna get."
"You're gonna make 'em an offer?"
"They'd better take it, cause right now, I'm finding it very hard to make any kind of offer at all. You know what..." He ran over to the terminal then paused, turning to Anita, his gaze hard, "I really liked Anita. She was brave, even when she was crying, and she never gave in. And you ate her." He soniced the spacesuit's visor and Danni yelled slightly as a skull fell against the glass, "But I'm gonna let that pass. You know what I'm not going to let pass? Danni." Danni spun to looked at him, surprised, "She had two shadows, and I'm doing my best to stay calm. You will let her go and I will let it pass, or I'll take the whole planet down with me. Just as long as you let them pass, and you let her go."
"How long have you known?" The Vashta Nerada asked with Anita's voice.
"I counted the shadows. You only have one now." He walked up the spacesuit and his gaze turned her neural relay, "She's nearly gone. Be kind."
"These are our forests. We are not kind." It replied.
"I'm giving you back your forests, but you are giving me them. You are letting them go, and you are letting her go." He walked back to the terminal.
"These are our forests. They are our meat." The suit raised an arm and shadows began stretching towards them, Danni's extra shadow expanding around her. She stepped back, trying to draw it away from the Doctor as he spun back around to face the suit.
"Don't play games with me!" He barked, eyes blazing as he stared the swarm down, "You just killed someone I liked, and you have someone I love. That is not a safe place to stand. Don't think I won't burn this planet to the ground for her, I've done it for less! I will take every single swarm down with me if you hurt her!" Danni stared at him, mouth open as he glared at the suit. He didn't even realise what he had said, he was just so angry. "I'm the Doctor, she's Danielle Fielding and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up, and then look up what I will do to save her." There was a pause, then the shadows slowly began to withdraw as the Vashta Nerada looked them up. She almost sobbed in relief; he'd saved her, she was fine. With a sigh she stepped over to the Doctor, reaching for his arm but he yanked it away. She winced slightly as he refused to even look at her, furious she had tried to hide the extra shadow from him.
"You have one day." The Vashta Nerada declared and the suit collapsed as River came back in.
"Anita!" She breathed as she leant down by the suit, stroking it's helmet sadly.
"I'm sorry, she's been dead a while now." The Doctor explained shortly before turning to River, "I told you to go!"
"Lux can manage without me. But you can't." She stormed over, spinning him around and punching him. He flew into a column, sliding to the floor with a small thud. Danni walked over and looked over him as River panted slightly.
"Well, he's going to be as mad with you as he is with me now." She stated and River turned to her.
"Sorry." River stated before doing the same to Danni, knocking her out cold.
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