The Boy Who Sang About the Stars

Chapter 22

The moment I stepped foot out of the TARDIS I was showered with an overwhelming sense of guilt and sadness. Coming to this place was a horrible idea, but it was the best place to find what I was looking for. The last time I had set foot on these polished hardwood floors death had been hiding in the shadows, literally, and made the overall experience something I would rather like to forget.

Amy and Rory stepped out behind me craning their heads to look up at the domed ceiling lined with rich mahogany shelves.

"So you think the first step to finding Adam is in a dusty old library?" Amy remarked.

"It's not dusty, and it's not just any library. It's the Library." I said walking over to one of the CAL monitors mounted on the end of a bookshelf. "Every book ever written is stored here, which is exactly why we came."

"Are we researching?" Rory asked.

I began typing out commands on the monitors keyboard releasing a rapid stream of tiny clicks to the air. "Good observation Rory, if I had a gold star I’d give you one. So you're just going to have to settle for a mental pat on the back."

"Couldn't we just go to the very distant future and, I dunno, look stuff up on a high tech computer?" Amy picked a book up off its shelf and examined the cracked cover.

I ignored Amy’s question and focused all my attention to the CAL monitor. After typing Adam’s name into the search bar at the top right a long list of books spanned in front of me. On the bottom right corner was a small button reading “Deliver books?”. I pressed enter and turned around to face my companions.

“Yeah, we could, but theres nothing like good old fashioned research!”

A Library patron nearby, a sweet looking old lady, brought her finger to her lips and gave me a consistent shush.

“Sorry, my bad.” I whispered. The woman glared at me and brought her finger to her lips again only to give me another ferocious shush. Rory grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me away from the monitor and the bad tempered granny.

A loud kerthunking noise sounded from a marble column adjacent to Amy. Startled, she jumped back and knocked a few dusty books off the shelf behind her. Although the old woman wasn't in sight anymore we could hear her shushing from a few rows down.

I put an arm around Amys shoulder, and the other around Rory pulling them close to me. “Do either of you have any duct tape?” I whispered loud enough so that only they could hear my words. “Or perhaps some rubber cement?”

“Uh, no, why?” Amy whispered back. I nodded my head in the direction of the old lady in reply. “No! Doctor we are not gluing her mouth shut!” she shouted.

“Silence is golden!” I shouted back. “Well, no they're actually more of a weird off whitish color if I can recall correctly. Then again, who can?”

“Doctor?” Rory inquired. I hadn't noticed that Rory had wormed out of my grasp and gone over to inspect the column that had emitted the noise earlier, and looked away from Amy to see why he wanted my attention. Once my gaze met his he hefted a large stack of books out of a compartment built into the marble.

“Oh, I’ve got mail!” I rubbed my hands together excitedly and sauntered over to Rory grabbing a book off of the top of his stack. There was another shush from the old woman but I did my best to block her out.

“Theres at least a dozen more in there” Rory noted as he struggled to keep his grip on the volumes in his hands. Amy reached in and grabbed the remaining ones and nodded her head to a table in the far corner of the room.