The Fall of Arcadia (Book ONE)

Chapter 10

"Oh, smell that!" I laughed, stepping out of the TARDIS and seeing the entrance to the Library.

The Doctor followed me out and grinned. "Books. People never really stop loving books"

"I should hope not, otherwise my business would go bust! Fifty first century. By now you've got holovids, direct to brain downloads, fiction mist, but you need the smell. The smell of books, Donna. Deep breath"

We wandered to the first balcony we could find and saw the building spreading out over the entire planet. "The Library. So big it doesn't need a name. Just a great big The."

"It's like a city" Donna breathed, looking around and seeing the bookshelves spanning a mile long wall.

"It's a world. Literally, a world. The whole core of the planet is the index computer. Biggest hard drive ever. And up here, every book ever written. Whole continents of Jeffrey Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Brand new editions, specially printed." I leant over to balcony and saw the roofs of the other buildings. Heights never bothered me, only water did.

"We're near the equator, so this must be biographies. I love biographies."

"Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end." Donna sighed, looking at titles.

"You need a good death. Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size." I remarked, seeing the Diary of Anne Frank and Hitlers Journal next to each other for some reason. I watched Donna take a book off a shelf and took it off of her.

"Way-a. Spoilers"

"What?" she blinked, getting confused.

"These books are from your future. You don't want to read ahead. Spoil all the surprises. Like peeking at the end." I explained.

"Isn't travelling with him one big spoiler?" The Doctor just gave her a pained look.

"I try to keep you away from major plot developments. Which, to be honest, I seem to be very bad at, because you know what? This is the biggest library in the universe. So where is everyone? It's silent." I could see what he meant. The Library was a massive planet that had a million million books, people should be flocking.

I watched the Doctor sonic the information panel and peered over his shoulder at the data. "The library?" Donna asked, eyebrows raised. I could tell what she was thinking, that libraries were supposed to be silent, but no this silent.

"The planet. The whole planet." I muttered. "4000 and 22 saved, no survivors" I added, seeing a screen that I wouldn't really see for another hour or so.

"Maybe it's a Sunday?" Donna smirked, not hearing me.

"No, I never land on Sundays. Sundays are boring." the Doc said, scratching his head.

"Well, maybe everyone's really, really quiet."

"Yeah, maybe. But they'd still show up on the system" I said, seeing the screen say there were only 3 people in the Library. The Doctor, Donna and I.

"Alice, why are we here really?" The Doctor asked suddenly. I froze, not wanting to tell him about when I'd seen the message in my dream.

"It's me. A planet of books. You're really asking that question?"

"Now that's interesting." he said suddenly, getting distracted by the screen once more.

"What?" I asked, looking over his shoulder again.

"If I widen the parameters to any kind of life. A million, million. Gives up after that. A million, million."

"But there's nothing here. There's no one." I cried, going back over to the balcony and looking about again.