Chapter Four
I finally got it up!
Sorry if it's taken a while,
Hope you enjoy!
When the crew arrived at the TARDIS's doors, the Doctor once again began to search his pockets for the key. He gave them all a slightly nervous look when his search was clearly taking longer than expected.
"Don't tell us you've lost the key!" Ezra sighed.
"Far from it!" the Doctor replied. "It's just a key can get easily misguided in pockets as deep as these . . ."
The atmosphere began to grow slightly awkward as the Doctor struggled to find the key. He searched his trouser and shirt pockets; his efforts remained futile.
However, it wasn't long before Sabine spoke up. The Doctor turned to find her pointing at him.
"Um . . . is that not it around your neck?" she said.
"What?" the Doctor said, looking down.
He chuckled when he pulled the string from the concealment of his shirt.
"So it is indeed!" he laughed.
Inserting the key into the lock, it clicked softly when he turned it. The door opened with a creak, and the Doctor took a step forwards to head inside. He then turned round to see the crew still standing stationary a small distance away from the ship.
"Come on!" he said. "She may be a bit grumpy, but she's harmless enough . . ."
Despite their obvious apprehensiveness and reluctance, the three crew members stepped forward to enter the TARDIS. Of course, they were expecting to be cramped within a claustrophobic environment with nothing that impressive to expect once in there. However, when Ezra entered before Sabine and Zeb, he soon realised that what they had anticipated was the complete opposite of the reality.
"OKAY . . . WOW!" he said when he stepped through the doors.
"HOLY MOLY . . ." was all Sabine managed to say for a moment.
Zeb, however, stayed silent. Instead, his mouth fell slightly open as his eyes examined the ship in awe.
The room they had entered was enormous. A short walkway led them from the doors to a large control console constructed on a platform above a floor below. A green, glowing, cylinder-like structure reached from the console up to the ceiling.
Sabine suddenly hurried back out through the doors. She returned a few seconds later and gave the Doctor a suspicious glare.
"But . . . how can it be . . ."
"Bigger on the inside?" the Doctor finished for her. "I just love it when people say that!"
He dashed around the console and activated a switch. The room was suddenly filled with light, causing the occupants to momentarily squint when it came on.
"Simple enough really, the TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental. To put in non-Gallifreyan terms . . . the inside and outside exist in separate dimensions."
"How can something like this be possible!" Ezra gasped. "I mean, how was this thing built?"
The Doctor strolled over to the crew. "Let me correct you there, a TARDIS isn't built; they're grown . . ."
"Like a plant?" Zeb questioned.
"Grown like coral actually . . ." the Doctor answered.
Dashing back to the control panel, he began to programme a sequence of controls. A hissing; was then heard from underneath the platform.
"Just opening MY ship's maintenance hatch . . ." the Doctor spoke softly.
He then hurried down a short spiral staircase that led down to the lower floor. A clanging; was then heard as the Doctor threw a decently large metal panel across the floor.
"COME ON, DOWN HERE!" he called out.
The crew made their way down and found the Doctor poking his head into the opening of the lower section of the large cylinder. Inside, a green light glowed with a bunch of wires and tubes running through it. He removed himself and sat on the floor.
"She'll take quite a bit of fixing!" he groaned. "But I've got to try, hey!"
He stood up again and clapped his hands together. "Now, I would give you the full tour, but to be honest, I'm not sure where to start, seeing as I've never fully explored the whole of the TARDIS: so we'll just have to get to work and scrap the tour!"
"Work?" Sabine said.
"Yes, well, speeds things up a bit of multi-tasking, don't you think?" the Doctor replied.
"First things first, though; whose the most competent out of you lot?"
The crew didn't answer but just glared instead.
"Right, maybe not the best selective system," the Doctor muttered.
"Let me put it like this . . . I might need a small favour from you lot."
"Okay . . . What?" Ezra asked; suspiciously.
"Well, if I tried to explain the mechanics to my phenomenally complicated spacecraft, I'm not sure that you'd ever begin to understand . . . So I'll just say I need I'll need a couple of you to operate the control panel whilst I try and re-coordinate the TARDIS's flight path guidance. . ."
"Well . . . sounds simple enough, I guess," Zeb muttered.
"Steady on, old chap . . . it took me centuries to learn how to fly this ship properly!"
He then began to climb the small, spiral staircase back up to the control platform.
"Come on, back up, I'll explain in the most simplistic form that I can . . ."
The crew approached the stairs to follow him; when the Doctor suddenly descended a couple of steps and leant forward against the platform, facing the crew straight on.
"Uh, I'll probably only need a couple of you to work the sequence. So . . . One of you, feel free to hang around for a few minutes."
He looked at Zeb and Ezra.
"You . . . Gigantore and Titch, you wouldn't mind giving me a hand, would you?"
Zeb growled at the Doctor's words.
"Well, I wouldn't mind if you don't call us those names again!"
The Doctor shrugged, clearly unaffected by the threatening persona of Zeb.
"Just trying to lighten the mood, you know . . ."
Suddenly, Sabine spoke up and broke the awkwardness.
"Well . . . What about me? Need me to do anything?"
For the first time since they'd met him: the Doctor looked like he had been caught off guard.
"Um . . . nothing really. Tell you what though; just, maybe . . . I don't know . . . Observe for a little while until we're done."
Feeling quite stung by the Doctor's throw-away attitude towards her, Sabine stood back and watched her crew follow the Doctor's instructions on how to operate the basic controls of this mysterious time machine. When he positioned Ezra and Zeb around the console, he hurried back to the underside of the console's cylinder and lay on his back. He then poked the top half of his body back into the open panel and removed his sonic screwdriver from his pocket.
"Right, when I yell, activate those switches!" the Doctor called out.
The first few times they attempted to re-coordinate the TARDIS, it failed miserably. Sabine was beginning to get bored as she watched the Doctor run up and down the spiral staircase to give updated instructions to the pair.
She decided maybe now was the right time to have a little exploration of the ship by herself.
Around the control room: there were small openings that led off to the other areas of the TARDIS. Looking back at the group once more, Sabine quietly crept off into the depths of the ship.
The further she walked, the more the astronomical enormity of this alien ship became apparent. Along her walk, she passed a large swimming pool, an observatory, numerous different bedrooms and a six-storey library. The scale of the TARDIS was unbelievable. It seemed that it was never-ending, just an infinite labyrinth!
Finally, however, she stopped in her tracks when one certain opening caught her attention. It led into what looked like a tired old storage room; and not exactly a large one either. The room was full of shelves and tables, all stockpiled with dusty old items that it seemed the Doctor had hoarded over time. On one of the shelves, she found a small wooden model of a police box which replicated the TARDIS's exterior. However, what caught her attention was a lengthy clothes rail that had been left neglected off to the side of the room. All the items hung on it looked dusty and worn.
When she walked over to the rail: she lifted a relatively large brown hat that was perched on one of the rail supports. Also leant against it was an old black and red umbrella; the handle having been modelling to look like a question mark. Sabine, of course, was rather confused as she didn't know what the item was; or half the clothes hung up for that matter. Nevertheless, she carried on her search through the variety of clothes. Next, she found a very long, striped, colourful scarf casually slung over the rail.
Holding the items in her hands: a sudden mischievous grin crept onto her face. She placed the hat on her head, tied the scarf around her neck: and picked off a large black cloak with red interior lining from the rail. And finally, she found a very long, dirty, brown trench coat.
Dressing up in the items, she soon found a tall mirror sat at the side of the room. She inspected her new attire: and couldn't help but laugh at just how ridiculous she looked. Something, however, felt incomplete.
On a nearby table, there was a pot that was filled with a numerous collection of weirdly familiar-looking gadgets. They all looked very similar to the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, only a variety of different designs. She picked one up. This particular design came with a small lever and two buttons positioned at the top and bottom of the grip. Sliding the lever forward, the top section holding the bulb lifted upwards. Sabine then pressed the small button on the rough, cream coloured grip. The small, blue bulb faintly glowed as the device attempted to create a familiar buzzing sound.
"I might have said 'observe', but this isn't really what I had in mind!" said a familiar voice all of a sudden.
Sabine spun around; and saw the Doctor leaning against the room's opening with his arms crossed: a grin plastered on his face.
"You know, I haven't touched those clothes in years!" he said.
"You used to walk around in these!" Sabine laughed. "I'm glad to see your fashion taste evolved for the better over time!"
The Doctor walked into the room. He abruptly removed the old sonic screwdriver from her hand. She watched as he stared at it in his hands for a few moments: as if holding it brought back a barrage of memories.
"It's weird to think, I used this screwdriver for nearly three hundred years . . ." he mumbled to himself. "And it helped save my skin more times than I can count! That and Rose's . . . Martha's . . . Donna's . . . I even made Sarah Jane her own . . ."
"Sorry . . . Who are you talking about?" Sabine said, confused.
The Doctor sighed and placed the screwdriver back into the pot.
"Nothing, ignore me, just a few past memories . . ." the Doctor muttered. "By the way, don't tamper with a retired sonic screwdriver; dangerous risks linger with old gadgets all the time, you know!"
"Like what?" Sabine retorted.
"You ever had something explode in your hands? It does sting a little! Never know, you might get a blister!" the Doctor replied, casually, as he took the brown fedora from Sabine's head and placed it on his own.
Suddenly, he broke out beaming. He then pulled the long scarf from around her neck.
"Oh, you found my scarf! I used to love, love this thing! Was capable of tripping me up occasionally though if I wasn't careful!"
He then hurried past Sabine and began rummaging through the items placed on the various shelves around the room.
"Reminds me of something actually!"
He threw the odd item off the shelves and let them crash to the floor during his search. Soon enough, though, he found what he was looking for.
"Aha, there they are!" he yelled as he retrieved something from the top of one of a shelf.
He suddenly turned back to Sabine and held out a small paper bag.
"Jelly baby?" he smiled.
"Umm . . ." Sabine said, looking and feeling awkward.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist!" the Doctor said, picking a small, colourful object from the bag and popping it into his mouth.
"I grew quite a fondness for these Earth sweets quite a few centuries ago. You should have seen me back then: much taller; and ridiculously curly hair! Although I had a brilliantly rich accent!" he rambled on whilst chewing the sweet.
Sabine just raised an eyebrow.
"You're weird; you know that Doctor . . ."
The Doctor shrugged.
"Ah well, you can't ever truly be an adult if you can't have an element of childishness in you at the same time!"
He then placed the small bag down on a nearby table and flicked his wrist out; before pretending to read an imaginary watch.
"Aha, that must be our calling card!"
He placed the fedora back onto Sabine's head, turned around and prepared to walk out of the room.
"Better go back to your normal attire . . . I think we'll be arriving soon!"
Once Sabine had placed his old clothes back on the rail, he led her back to the TARDIS's control room. Zeb and Ezra were casually sitting around and chatting. Ezra stood up from his seat on the small, spiral staircase when he saw the Doctor remerge with Sabine.
After Sabine rejoined the group, the Doctor suddenly activated a switch on the control panel. The TARDIS hastily shuddered as the time rotor pumped up and down a couple of times. Soon after, the Doctor activated another switch, and the ship was shut down again.
"What did you just do?" Ezra asked nervously.
"Nothing much, just a small, time jump . . ." the Doctor answered. "I managed to stabilise her enough for minuscule journeys. So, if I got it right, we should have moved forward about an hour and a half . . ."
Running to the doors of the TARDIS, the Doctor opened up the spacecraft and leant out. Just as the crew were moving to join him, Hera's voice was suddenly audible.
"Everyone, get up here; we'll be landing in fifteen minutes."
The Doctor grinned as he and the crew exited the TARDIS.
"I've still got the old, time instinct!" he chuckled as he locked the door once again.
He turned back to them as he placed the key back around his neck.
"Right . . . Onto Lothal!"
I'm glad to finally get this chapter done and dusted,
Word of warning, there might be slightly longer gaps between chapters in the future,
Still got planning to do,
See you all soon,
Cheers!