"Yes, the Doctor's here. He came when I called, just like he always does. But not my Doctor. Now my Doctor, I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And he'd just swagger off back to his Tardis and open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor in the Tardis. Next stop, everywhere." That was the story she fell in love with. Thanks to Ginger, she grew up with stories of a man searching the stars for her and he would be there for her every beck and call.
"Spoilers." The Doctor made our presence known, "Nobody can open a Tardis by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that."
"It does for the Doctor."
"I am the Doctor." Not yet.
"Yeah. Some day."
The Doctor seemed to throw it in a file, ask her how she knows. Who she is. Sometimes, I find myself asking the same question. "How are you doing?"
"Where's Other Dave?"
"He will catch up, and don't be happy when he does."
Her voice sounded sad, "Well, if they've taken him, why haven't they gotten me yet?"
"I don't know. Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference." No, they want us scared. They want us gone.
The person with the helmet on has two shadows, "It's making a difference all right. No one's ever going to see my face again."
"Can I get you anything?" He was so kind...The Doctor was so kind.
"An old age would be nice. Anything you can do?" Anita. That's her name. I like that name.
"I'm all over it."
"Doctor. When we first met you, you didn't trust Professor Song. And then she whispered a word in your ear, and you did. My life so far. I could do with a word like that. What did she say?" He hesitated. "Give a dead girl a break. Your secrets are safe with me."
"Safe." His eyes sparkled with realization. River has a similar sparkle. No, Melody... That's what I call her.
"What?"
"Safe. You don't say saved. Nobody says saved. You say safe. The data fragment! What did it say?"
"Four thousand and twenty two people saved. No survivors." Pilot Dave nodded.
"Doctor?" Mels recognized that look... No, Melody. Mels was a long time ago, Mels died.
"Nobody says saved. Nutters say saved. You say safe. You see, it didn't mean safe. It meant, it literally meant saved!" The Doctor rehacked into a Library Archive File, "See, there it is, right there. A hundred years ago, massive power surge. All the teleports going at once. Soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attack. Someone hits the alarm. The computer tries to teleport everyone out."
"It tried to teleport four thousand twenty two people?"
"It succeeded." He corrected, "Pulled them all out, but then what? Nowhere to send them. Nowhere safe in the whole library. Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. Four thousand and twenty two people all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent, like emails. So what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?"
"It saved them."
The Doctor draws on a large polished table, "The library. A whole world of books, and right at the core, the biggest hard drive in history. The index to everything ever written, backup copies of every single book. The computer saved four thousand and twenty two people the only way a computer can. It saved them to the hard drive."
Stop it! You'll spoil everything! I hate you! You're going to ruin everything! Stop it! Her screaming rung in my ears.
Shut up! There was now a static ringing.
Daddy! No! Daddy!
An alarm starts going of and Dave and Anita begin to worry, "What is it? What's wrong?"
Autodestruct enabled in twenty minutes.
"What's maximum erasure?"
"In twenty minutes, this planet's going to crack like an egg."
"No, although Doctor Moon failed, it won't crack like an egg. The data will be lost and the planet will blow." All those people will be gone.
Shut up, Doctor Moon! More static.
The terminal screen goes blank, the Doctor panics, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
All library systems are permanently offline. Sorry for any inconvenience. Shortly-
"We need to stop this. We've got to save Cal."
"What is it? What is Cal? You said ask Lux, but he is gone and it seems like you are the only one with awnsers."
"We need to get to the main computer. Follow me." To the heart of the planet.
"It's at the core of the planet."
"Well, then. Let's go." River points her screwdriver at the library logo in the middle of the compass rose in the floor. It opens. "Gravity platform."
"I bet I like you." His smile and tone broke my heart.
"Oh, you do." River states excitedly, I state it more disdainfully as we step on the platform and descend.
***
Autodestruct in fifteen minutes.
We enter a room and look up to see a globe with swirling energy in it, "The data core. Over four thousand living minds trapped inside it."
"Yeah, well, they won't be living much longer. We're running out of time."
Help me. Please, help me. Please, please help me! She feels so helpless, so alone.
The Doctor finds an access terminal.
Help me. Please, help me. The voice in my head is in sync with the child, shes burning me up.
"What's that?"
"Was that a child?" River sounded so sad, so lost.
"The computer's in sleep mode. I can't wake it up. I'm trying." The Doctor taps at the keyboard, and toys come to life in the girl's home.
"Doctor, these readings-,
"I know. You'd think it was dreaming."
"It is dreaming, of a normal life, and a lovely Dad, and of every book ever written. Screaming when her telly doesn't show her the program she wants to see and when the plot shifts in a way she doesnt want it to." Screaming in my head.
"Computers don't dream. And they certianly don't scream."
Help me. Please help me.
"No, but little girls do." I pull a breaker and a door opens. We run in to face her nightmares.
***
YOU ARE READING
Stormhold Sweetie
RandomI figured since so many fanfics take way River's Doctor, I would at least give her a good companion. Ophelia had the worst memory of any creature in the Galaxy. It was a curse of hers. She had decided to keep a journal, but, she seems to have mispla...
