Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything related to the shows canon. I am making no profit from this story.

Speaking of stories, one of mine has no reviews. Not a single one. Kind of makes me sad.

Chapter Two

For a TARDIS, growing up took a very long time. It took the young Type 40 200 years to reach full size. She whiled away the centuries immersing herself in the intricacies of time and space. Everything there was or would have been, everything that is, everything that will be or could be; she memorised every atom of space and every strand of time.

The time machines, being telepathic, had no need to refer to one another by name. However, they still labelled each other with nicknames based on the general state of their minds. A time machine with a bewildering consciousness would be called the Confusing One, for instance. The unique Type 40 was dubbed the Curious One by her sisters, because of her endlessly inquisitive nature.

Why don't other aliens visit Gallifrey? What if I try to take off and get stuck? How do the Time Lords get their Time Sense? Despite having access to all the answers, the TARDIS seemed to delight in questioning the world around her. She usually received the same answer, delivered in an exasperated tone: It is just the way things are.

When she wasn't asking questions or familiarising herself with various timelines, the TARDIS played mind games with her Sisters. A popular pastime was to have a conversation backwards, by replying to statements that had yet to be spoken. Another game was to guess whether a described timeline was current, alternate, or aborted.

In what seemed like no time at all, the TARDIS found herself experiencing her species version of adolescence. Her form became a blend of organic and mechanical, and streams of programming were embedded into her consciousness like artificial instincts. 201 years after first becoming conscious, the TARDIS was taken out on a test flight. It was the most thrilling experience of her life; racing through the Time Vortex like a roller coaster, or a boat in a storm, or a dancer. She landed on a beautiful pink skied planet, and watched strange birds flit past in awe. Her first new planet was called Cerisa.

Soon the newly matured time machines were allocated to pilots and crews. They gossiped about their Time Lords, and the Type 40 often felt left out. The Proud One extolled her pilots virtues every chance she got, and was indignant when he passed her off to a snob with no redeeming qualities. Then an older Type 38 capsule, belonging to the Supervisor, became badly damaged and decommissioned. What does 'decommissioned' mean? What will happen to the Thoughtful One? she asked the Kindly One. Her Sister tried to think of a way of explaining the circumstances.

Well, when a time capsule becomes too old to fly, or too damaged, the Time Lords let her have a very long sleep whilst they fix her up she lied. The Type 40 believed this, because as well as being curious, she was also very naive. To her delight, the Supervisor selected her to be his new ship. "It's about time this capsule proved its worth" he said. When he imprinted on the Type 40, she was honoured and eager to do his bidding. The Supervisor visited a number of planets with the Type 40, according them different statuses. Some, like Sol Three, were deemed 'Unimportant' and completely ignored.

However, the TARDIS was still forced to wait in the docks for sometimes years on end, whilst her crew attended to other matters. To pass the time, she studied the stunted tree that stood outside the window. She counted how many leaves it had (160,000), calculated the angle at which it leaned to the left (14 degrees), and watched its temporal journey from seed to full grown, albeit rather small tree.

One day, a terrible piece of news filtered through the minds of every time machine, from the youngest coral to the most ancient ship. The Time Lords were instigating a new policy, and if every single time machine didn't pass a rigorous test to prove they were reliable, they would never fly again.