The Doctor was sleeping with his head against the control panel. Images flashed through his mind: a youthful Susan Foreman standing outside the TARDIS, shouting and crying for her grandfather; her key, a key to a type 40 TARDIS, tossed and landing in the dirt; a hand retrieving the key and the face David Campbell, the man Susan Foreman loved. These images are followed by a vision of Rassilon proclaiming that all traveling Time Lords must to return to Gallifrey; Rassilon sending out the Sweepers. The last vision causes the Doctor to shudder himself awake. The Doctor jerked his head left and right. He wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and the control panel. "We must have been dream sharing!" he said to his machine. "River's ring is that key. Susan's key… How do I get a hold of it?"
The Doctor paced back and forth. Then he snapped his fingers and began speaking aloud, as he always did, whether someone was there to listen or not.
"I visit the 22nd century and find David. Susan couldn't have taken the key with her, otherwise how could I get a hold of it to give to River?" He entered codes and moved levers. The TARDIS gears and lights buzzed and flashed. The Doctor went on, nearly shouting above the noise, "Susan may be gone, but David Campbell will still be there. He could tell me when Susan left, what her life was like before the Sweepers came and brought her back to Gallifrey." The Doctor paused, then quietly said, "Perhaps I'll just focus on what happened to the key."
**{+==]***
In a forest, on a night with a full moon, three young rascals gathered on the edge of a clearing. In the clearing was an old cottage. The vines covering the stone walls make it impossible to deny its age, yet it was well kept. The door of the cottage is painted royal blue with four small darkened windows at the top. "There it is," said a tall thin boy. "The house of the witch. They say she's lived there for over a hundred years, and she looked old even then."
"No way," said a chubby boy with brown hair. "That house was built way back in 2165. My grandpa told me so. There's no one living in there now."
"Then you wouldn't be afraid to go and knock on the door now, would you?" challenged the third boy.
In the cottage, an old woman was asleep. The voices of the boys taunting each other drifted through the open window above her bed, but she did not hear them. She was dreaming. In her dream she is traveling across time and space with a white haired gentleman in a dusty Edwardian suit. Her dream ends with the old man clutching his lapels as he gives her a farewell speech. "Believe me, my dear," he says, "Your future lies with David and not with a silly old buffer like me. One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back."
The a loud whirring noise awakened the old lady from her dream. She looked out her window and saw three school boys running away in fright. She pulls on a white cotton robe and moves to the door as quickly as her aged body can go.
She opened her blue door to see a large, bright white cylinder hovering gently above her front lawn. A door became visible and glided open. A small ramp slid down to the ground. Out stepped a short, scruffy looking fellow in black overalls. A sonic screwdriver and several other Gallifreyan gadgets were peeking out of his pockets.
"Sorry about the loud noise, ma'am," said the fellow. "Sounds horrible, I know. Just like a TARDIS with its parking brake on."
The old woman looked disappointed and confused. The man scratched his beard and took a fat scanning wand out of one pocket. He waved it in front of her face and chest. He checked. "First cycle, age 300." He nodded and returned the wand to his pocket. "Okay, ma'am, where's your TT capsule?"
"I... I don't have one," stammered the old woman. "I traveled here with my grandfather, almost two centuries ago. I was left behind."
"Ah, well. Come on in. I'll give you a lift back to Gallifrey." The man sauntered back up the ramp to the big white cylinder.
Susan put her hands on her hips. "Who are you?" she asked.
"I was sent by the President. Sweepers we're called. You remember the message was put out for all traveling Gallifreyans to return home and fight in the Time War -"
"Time War?"
"Ah, I guess you didn't get the message. Sent across the universe telepathically. You should've had dreams about it."
"I've been having different dreams," the woman confessed.
"No matter. Come along. The Mod-Hopper will get you back to Gallifrey no trouble. We need everyone we can get."
She entered the cylinder cautiously. "It's exactly as big on the outside as it is on the inside!" she exclaimed.
"She's exactly as big as she needs to be," said the man, shutting the door. He went to a console and began to enter codes. He mumbled to himself as he typed, "Female, 300, no repairs needed, does not own TT capsule..." He looked up at his guest. "What name do you go by?"
"Susan Campbell," answers the woman. She then corrects herself, "Just Susan."
"Would you like to take advantage of our on-board zero room for your regeneration?" asked the man, his finger hovering above the "yes" key.
"What do I need to regenerate for?" asked Susan. "My grandfather did plenty in his first cycle."
"Well, surely you're not gonna try to fight in an arthritic old body like that."
"I wasn't planning on fighting. I thought I could be a nurse, you know, patch up the soldiers and unfortunate civilians..."
"Honey," said the man in the overalls, "There are no civilians. Rassilon has everyone who can launch a grenade doing something. And as far as patching up the soldiers... it's better to just let them die and regenerate."
Susan's face hardened. With a surprising amount of force, she opened the door, grabbed the man by his overalls, and tossed him outside. They were still hovering only a meter above the grassy ground, so his fall didn't hurt. She reached down and snatched the sonic screwdriver out of his front pocket, then slammed the door. The man lay on the ground looking up in bewilderment as his Mod-Hopper flew away.
The man with the black overalls got up and dusted himself off. As he pulled little bits of grass out of his blonde hair and tried to get his bearings, he heard a familiar whirring sound. To his surprise, it is not his Mod-Hopper but the infamous TT capsule he has heard so much about; the TARDIS with the broken chameleon circuit. A man in a bow-tie steps out.
"Are you David Campbell?" the Doctor asked the man in the overalls.
"No," the man answered.
"Is this the home of Susan and David Campbell?" asked the Doctor eyeing the house's blue door.
"It was," responded the man, "When David Campbell was alive. I believe it is just Susan Campbell living here now. She obviously outlived her husband by many years."
"Ah," said the Doctor. He quickly sent a glare in the TARDIS's direction. "Have you met Susan?" the Doctor asked.
"Briefly," responded the man. "I hope to see her again."
"Did you happen to notice if she was wearing a key ring?"
"Uh…" the man fiddled with his own ring of keys, "Not that I saw."
The Doctor bit his lower lip. "This investigation is not going as planned." He re-entered his traveling machine and left with the unforgettable whirring sound.
The sound becomes louder as the Tardis faded from sight. The man in black overalls saw his shadow grow large in the grass. He turned around and was relieved to see his Mod-Hopper come back. The door slides open and the face of a young woman smiled sheepishly at him. She has short brown hair with streaks of white, and she is a nightgown and cotton robe.
"Um, sorry about what I did what was it, ten minutes ago your time? Whatever. Need your help, now." She held out her hand. The man took it and crawled into the Mod-Hopper.
"I see you chose to use the zero room after all," the man said.
"No, I just died."
"Ah, sorry.".
"Not your fault. Just help me navigate."
The scruffy man closed the door to the hovering craft. "Never did tell you my name. Yours is Susan, right?" He looked around. Everything appeared to be as he left it. Susan nodded in response to his question. "They call me Sven—those who don't call me Sweeper. So, what is the trouble?"
"I keep getting the error message TMLCK."
Sven cringed. "I've missed my deadline!"
"What?"
"I was given 36 hours relative ship time for repairs and transportation. After that, Rassilon said he'd initiate the Time Lock."
"What does that mean?
"For us it means we won't be able to get back to Gallifrey."
"Sorry, I didn't know. I went looking for my grandfather."
"Your grandfather isn't the Doctor, is he?"
"Yes! Do you know him?"
The man hooked his thumbs under his overall straps. "I saw him again just now, blue police box and all."
"And I missed him! Why didn't he wait for me?"
"He seemed to be more interested in finding some fellow named David Campbell. Something about a key ring."
"He probably means this," said Susan, pulling on a thin chain around her neck. A key turned into a ring hangs on the end of the chain. "I keep it with me always, as close to my heart as I can. David made it for me. The key used to open the Tardis, and could summon it, too. I never did summon it successfully. David worried that he wrecked the key's powers by bending it. I just think the Tardis is ignoring me."
"Type 40 TT capsules can't ignore summons, can they?"
"Some have more personality than others."
"But he was here, looking around, in his post-eighth self. He lived through the Time War," Sven said, his mouth twisted and his and brow wrinkled.
"Why do you look so puzzled?" asked Susan.
"I don't get this reading over here," answered Sven. "It has the date for the 61st century," Sven said.
Susan interrupted, "Yeah, I changed the computer to use the New Byzantian calendar. I works better that way."
Sven cleared his throat. "It has a date way past the end of the Time War, and look at the coordinates."
"They are the coordinates for Gallifrey."
"Now look at the view screen."
"It's an asteroid field." Susan's eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped. "Gallifrey blew up!"
"Yes," said the scruffy blonde man in black overalls. "Your grandfather, you, and I may be the only surviving Gallifreyans in the galaxy."