Rachel Survived (short story)

Rachel Survived was the first story in 10,000 Dawns to cross over with the Doctor Who universe. Written by James Wylder to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Faction Paradox's introduction in Alien Bodies, Rachel Survived featured the licensed use of Rachel Edwards from Andrew Hickey's Head of State.

Summary
On 11 November, Rachel Edwards is visiting a coffee shop in New York City when she is accosted by a young woman wearing a red blazer, white blouse and black tie as well as a tall man in what she assumes is eccentric cosplay. The two try to explain to her that she is in danger and they are here to protect her, but, assuming they are either insane or scammers of some sort, she shakes them off. Later, walking down the street, she encounters a very cute cat. As she is trying to coax it into letting her pet it, however, she is jumped by a mysterious person in black robes who demands to be taken to the Book of Books by her. When she tries to run away, they do not release their grip on her shoulder, nor chase her; instead, they hold fast as their arm extends like rubber. However, she is rescued by the young woman in the red blazer and the "cosplayer", with the young woman slapping a metal disk on the black-cloaked person which seems to teleport them away in a flash of white light. Frightened, Rachel tries to run away, but trips and falls — and then wakes up at home, but not before hearing the young woman's voice saying "Ugh, this is why you should never meet your favorite characters". Writing off the whole bizarre encounter as a dream, she writes it out on her blog.

The next day, while, elsewhere on the Internet, a video of a mysterious "ninja" in a doughnut shop goes viral, Rachel interviews Johannes Englesberg III about a cache of old books seemingly dating back to the 18th century which were recently discovered, and describe "a war of powerful beings and the humans who interact with it" in what might be the first true great work of science fiction.

On 13 November, however, overt weirdness resumes for Rachel. While walking past an abandoned shopfront, she is suddenly attacked by a hand dripping neon-blue ooze which pokes out from the shop's door and pulls her inside. She briefly panics, believing it to be the killer from the election the previous year, but her captors turn out to be a pair of similar-looking "goo-faced folks", who identify themselves as "the Strid". Before she can really get a grip on who they are or what they want, however, the two people from 11 November literally crash through the ceiling and demand that the goo-faced people let Rachel go "in the name of Dawn". When they refuse to comply, the tall male one, displaying incredible speed and strength, quickly incapacitates both, slamming one into the wall and the other one to the floor. They start to get up again, largely unharmed thanks to their gooey constitution, but the woman informs them that the cyborg — "Archimedes" — has "built-in weaponry" capable of genuinely harming them. Though protesting that the two "outsiders" have "no right to the Book", the two Strid retreat.

Introducing herself as Graelyn Scythes, the woman confirms that the two Strid were aliens, tells Rachel that she loves her blog, and then tells her to hurry before the Strid return with reinforcements. After getting to safer ground in the form of an empty theatre on Broadway, Graelyn awkwardly explains that she and Arch are from a parallel universe where, as it happens, Rachel's life was the subject of a book written by a man called Andrew Hickey and published by Obverse Books in the 21st century. The books about the War which Rachel is currently doing a story about are, likewise, not from her universe. Archimedes then shows her a holographic play he created, using the likenesses of actors Rachel likes to play the characters, in order to explain the rest of the situation to her concisely.

In the play, Why We Need This Book, the Arbiter of Eternity (as played by Lin-Manuel Miranda), the immortal protector of the 10,000 Dawns and ruler of the Firmament, complains of boredom. His daughter the Arbiter of Knives (as played by Tracy Thoms with brief glitches of Matthew Broderick) suggests reading; he retorts that he long ago read every book from every one of the ten thousand universes making up the 10,000 Dawns, but the Arbiter of Knives tells him of the Book of Books, a book from "another 'verse" altogether which is literally infinite. The Arbiter of Eternity is intrigued, but fearful of incurring the wrath of the Firmament's equivalents in this other universe by intruding on their turf to steal one of their artefacts. The Arbiter of Knives reassures him that she will be quick about it, and that she has a man on the inside, and the Arbiter of Eternity ultimately agrees, though he warns her that he will not help her if her plan goes awry.

Unbeknownst to both Arbiters, however, they have been observed by Hyperion and Galvin, two spies from the Council of the Great Assimilation (as played by Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick) who decide to bring the Book back to their own rulers to curry favour with them. They have themselves been observed by Graelyn and Archimedes (as embodied by Idina Menzel and Kyle Scatlife), who determine to get to Rachel to get the Book first before the Firmament or Great Assimilation operatives are noticed by the local powers and cause a war. Finally, the Strid, as represented by Andrew Chappelle, arrive on the stage and discuss how all these interdimensional beings' arrival are gumming up their own ongoing plan to invade the Earth, but they intend to take advantage of it.

It is at this point, before a big chorus piece, that Rachel interrupts the hologram, having gotten the point. She asks why she comes into this, and Graelyn explains that Dawn prevailed on a friend in low places among the hierarchy of this universe to ignore any "funny business" to do with Rachel in the coming days; thus, it is only acting through her, using her privileged position as a journalist reporting on the book, that they can safely get to it without arousing suspicion. However, the other factions have figured out the same thing, hence trying to capture Rachel themselves.

Rachel goes home with the copy of Hickey's book, and wakes up the next day to find the book has not vanished, confirming it was not a dream, something she has mixed feelings about. In short order, Graelyn and Arch drop in on her again, bringing a bounty of doughnuts and hot coffee. (Meanwhile, the "doughnut ninja" has struck again, but this is surely a coincidence.) They head to the library, but a sign by the entrance announces that the public unveiling of the books has been cancelled. They hurry to the showroom, where they find the woman in black and blue, the Arbiter of Knives, standing with a few other people — including more Strid-possessed New Yorkers — over the wounded or dying bodies of many beings, some of them wearing elaborate robes, others masks or silver jumpsuits.

She explains that these are all representatives of powers from this universe, and that she, the Strid and the representatives of the Great Assimilation have agreed between themselves that the Strid, who are the ones currently holding the Book of Books, should make their choice of who to sell it to only between the alter-universal powers. While the Arbiter and the Assimilation spies make their pitches (followed by Graelyn and Arch refusing to negotiate on behalf of Dawn and simply demanding the Book with no compensation other than letting the Strid go free). The Strid take stock of all three offers and ask for a few moments to discuss them. Rachel, to whom no one is paying attention, rifles through the other books — which include Burning with Optimism's Flames, The Book of the War and another copy of Head of State — for an edge, but she finds that despite the strange metafictional relationship between her world and the Dawns, it is not quite so literal as to permit her to rewrite reality by scribbling in one of the books.

Struck by the realisation that despite their mutual fictional counterparts, the people from the other universes are just that — people, not flat characters — Rachel asks Graelyn what she saw in the Head of State book when she was younger, with Graelyn telling her about her hard upbringing in 2471 Moscow with an abusive mother. Rachel then grabs a knife discarded by the Arbiter and holds it up to her own throat, bluffing about threatening to kill herself, which would instantly remove the interdimensional interlopers' covers. Unwilling to take the risk, all three powers soon acquiesce, and the Strid hand the Book of Books over to Rachel as they all depart.

However, the Arbiter leaves Rachel with a spiteful prediction that the local Firmament-equivalents do not take kindly to members of the lesser species learning about embarrassing secrets like this one, and will likely wipe her mind of the encounter. Though dreading this prospect, Rachel does not take the warning lying down, and she makes multiple copies of her (mostly private) blog posts about the events, hiding flash drives here and there as well as printed copies.

On 15 November, it is reported on an official news channel that the cache of rare books recently acquired by the New York Public Library will indeed not be put on display after all — the official reason being that they need to be quarantined, having turned out to contain a cultivar of a dangerous, rare parasite on which the deaths of the museum employees killed in the incident have been blamed. Visible in the background of the picture, if you know what to look for, watching as the Book is moved to a secure location in a hermetic container, are Strid — waiting, silently, patiently. "This is only their beginning too."

Characters

 * Rachel Edwards
 * Graelyn Scythes
 * Archimedes Von Ahnerabe
 * Johannes Englesberg III
 * Strid
 * Arbiter of Eternity
 * Arbiter of Knives
 * Hyperion
 * Galvin
 * Mr Sprinkles
 * Ryan Tockle
 * Graelyn Scythes's mother

Worldbuilding

 * Rachel refuses to ride with Uber, a company she describes as "collaborationist bastards" — preferring Lyft instead.
 * Graelyn explains that Archimedes Von Ahnerabe "was raised on a space-station in the middle of nowhere where they lied to all the inhabitants and told them that the world outside didn't exist".
 * Graelyn and Arch's home universe did have a version of Rachel Edwards, who was aware of Head of State featuring a protagonist with the same name as, and multiple similarities, to herself. However, she never lived through its events.
 * Graelyn originated in a universe where the solar system was controlled by a company called "Centro Systems".
 * Graelyn uses a stasis crate to keep coffee hot overnight.
 * The Arbiter of Knives is aware that "most" of the people native to this universe who came to try and get their hands on the Book of Books, who include people in elaborate robes, people with masks, and people in silver jumpsuits, "have some way of getting up again or hopping into a new body" after being killed. The Arbiter of Knives displays the ability to temporarily inhibit the process used by the local Firmament-equivalents.
 * Graelyn is pansexual while Rachel is bisexual.

Story notes

 * The story does not identify Graelyn Scythes's home universe, identified elsewhere in the 10,000 Dawns series as Dawn 5.

Continuity

 * Rachel sees a poster of the President and "tries to ignore it". (PROSE: Head of State)
 * Graelyn mentions the previous year's election. (PROSE: Head of State)
 * The Book of Books and the texts surrounding it, all of which crashed to Earth in the 18th century, tell of a war between powerful beings and the humans that interact with it. (PROSE: Alien Bodies, The Book of the War, et al.)
 * The equivalent group of the Firmament in Rachel's universe have a name like "Cool Tower or something. Good Home? Exemplary Mansion?". (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, The Book of the War, et al.)
 * These aforementioned powers are prone to wiping the memories of members of the lesser species who learn what's going on in the higher spheres. (TV: The War Games, The Pilot, etc.)
 * A "silver orb" is seen floating next to the Arbiter of Knives. With the context provided by PROSE: A Bright White Crack and PROSE: Life After Death, this is evidently a Foce.