The lights dimmed, flickering with protest at the strain, then almost went
out completely. Various pieces of machinery (which had been surprisingly
silent up to this point) began to make noises very much like a model 40
TARDIS limping and struggling with age.
For a few seconds the room felt alarmingly sideways. Then the control room shivered, and everything settled with a thump.
There was a moment of silence, during which nothing exploded, or caught on fire, or disappeared. The Doctor and Sarah peered around the edge of the console.
The Doctor cleared his throat. "I wasn't quite sure that would work."
He remembered that he was supposed to have done this before. "This time. Wasn't sure it would work this time. Every TARDIS is different. Well, the two I've used have been different. Nothing I can't work around of course."
"Of course," Sarah agreed, not moving from behind the console. "Do you think it's safe to open the door?"
"I can't think of any reason why not."
"I can. Lot's of 'em."
It was almost disappointing when, after all that anticipation, the door opened and everything continued to not blow up, catch on fire, or disappear. Although it was quite an effect.
The two of them stood in the doorway, facing away from the control room of the TARDIS, and stared into the control room of the TARDIS.
"This is making me dizzy," Sarah said wryly.
"It's amazing, just amazing." The Doctor strode into the old TARDIS, and looked with delight at the new TARDIS (which still resembled a bright-green- with-white-trim potting shed) sitting at the edge of the control room. "Good thing I knew when the old girl was going to be here, or this might not have worked."
"When exactly are we?" Sarah hadn't yet gotten up the nerve to step across the doorway. She had the unsettling idea that she might look around a corner and find another Sarah-Jane looking back.
"We're several hours after I first arrived on Gallifrey. This was the earliest time I could find when someone wasn't messing with the TARDIS. Thought maybe I could save the old girl. No such luck though. I was absolutely right about Enaral, he must have ordered the break-in as soon as I'd turned my back."
There was in fact a gaping hole where a large bank of controls had been. "Lucky for us he didn't take out the dimensional gate too, or it might have been a little crowded in here.
"Just a little," Sarah said weakly, even less eager now to leave the doorway.
"Best get to it. We've got about half a day's worth of time before anyone thinks to look in here." He knelt before a large panel and took something out of his pocket. Sarah thought she saw him try to keep whatever it was out of sight, but a familiar high-pitched humming noise gave it away.
"Doctor, isn't that your old sonic screwdriver?" Ten years ago she'd decided she was sick of even looking at the Doctor's favorite gadget. Now she smiled at the sudden flood of memories.
"Mostly." There was an almost sheepish note in the Doctor's voice. "It's actually more of a descendent, the Sonic Screwdriver Mark.." and here his voice faded to an unintelligible mumble.
"I didn't catch that. Mark what?"
"Eleven hundred six. Now don't.." Sarah had interrupted him with a peal of laughter. "I had to make some improvements," he said defensively.
"I can imagine, but over a thousand?"
"Well yes, that, and my tenth incarnation was a bit clumsy. Look, do you mind.."
"Just going." Sarah walked back inside the new TARDIS, still laughing, and left the Doctor to his work.
* * *
It didn't take long to demolish the TARDIS' control panel. As with most things, taking it apart was much easier, and faster, than putting it back together was going to be.
Not everything could be salvaged. The dimensional gate would have to stay, for obvious reasons. The time traveling mechanism was beyond repair (as well as being beyond reach) and anything near the gaping hole in the control panel had been partly melted, to prevent its ever being fixed.
Everything else was surprisingly small, once each piece had been lifted free. After some bullying, the Doctor managed to annoy Sarah enough to make her cross the doorway and help him with the bulkier pieces.
None of it was in terribly good condition. A couple thousand years of traveling will do that. Great care was going to be necessary when reattaching everything, so the old machinery wouldn't go into shock from waking up in a new TARDIS. The Doctor imagined he have to work for years putting all of it in place.
He was quite looking forward to it.
* * *
Everything was finally aboard the new TARDIS. Sarah had kept busy while the Doctor worked, finding some food, and bringing over those possessions that the Doctor wanted to keep. Which wasn't much. He seemed to have gotten leery of hoarding anything away.
There hadn't been a sound from the old TARDIS for over an hour when Sarah tentatively stepped back across the doorway.
She found the Doctor standing in the center of what was left of the main control room, lost in thought.
"You're awfully quiet," she said. "Are you all right?"
"Hm?" He looked up. "Yes. Just thinking."
"About?"
"About how tired I am," he gazed about the ancient TARDIS thoughtfully. "So very tired of all the interference from this planet."
It was sadly quiet in the demolished room. The ever-present noise from the TARDIS' machinery had been silenced, and most of the winking lights had gone dark, or were gone altogether. The Doctor wandered the control-room slowly, running a hand over a panel here, pausing to touch a row of dials there. "It's amusing when you think about it. The Master brought you here to destroy my chances of ruling Gallifrey. I'm sure he didn't even consider the idea that I never wanted to rule, or even stay."
"Sour grapes, Doctor?" Sarah couldn't resist asking.
"Stop that." There was enough of a twinkle in the Doctor's eyes that she couldn't take offense at the chiding tone. "I would hope I've established what, and who, I really want."
Satisfied that he'd made his point (the smile he'd given her had quite taken her breath away) he turned back to the ruined controls. "So much time wasted," he mourned. "Having to hear again and again that I should return to Gallifrey. 'The Duty of A Time Lord'. Piffle. A duty that requires you to never do anything, never speak with anyone, never lift a finger unless existence itself is in danger, thousands of years spent watching from a distance and making 'tut tut' noises. No wonder they were forever calling on me to fix things; they've never solved a single problem on their own planet, much less anyone else's. Well I'm done with them. Let them solve their own problems. I've got my hands full with the rest of the universe."
"Hear hear," Sarah chimed in. Softly. The Doctor was scowling at the melted hole where part of the TARDIS had been ripped away.
"I never actually believed it of course, that my travels were nothing but a waste of my talents. But for a while I was so tired of having to justify myself that I came to believe I was wrong for not wanting more. Before I walked into that Tower room, I was actually about to end all my wandering and settle down on a planet that bored me, in a society I disliked. Not, mind you, because anyone wanted me there (which they didn't), or because I wanted to, but because I thought I wanted to want to." Sarah laughed at this, making the Doctor smile again. "Oh I know the Time Lords aren't entirely to blame. I was the one who decided that it made sense to do what I hated, and hope that it would make me content simply because it was supposed to. But I can't be blamed for being just a little annoyed, especially since I almost gave away my last chance at happiness."
The remark was tossed off casually, but he reached over and took her hand as he said it. "I insist on being allowed to think for myself, to choose for myself. I am, after all, an adult."
He held her hand against his face for a moment, and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, it was with his wickedest grin. "Now I'm going to play a mean trick and make them all sorry. Coming?"
Sarah nodded eagerly, and returned the grin.
* * *
What happened next took a bit of time. Several bits actually, put together rather differently.
Managing the different time fields was an interesting puzzle, if an insanely complicated one. Just keeping track of what had been put where, and when, was difficult enough.
Here's how it worked, roughly. First, walk back into the new TARDIS and materialize it into the control room of a completely different TARDIS, in an adjoining storage-room. Then, walk into the control room of this completely different TARDIS and time-travel it (the new TARDIS still inside the control room) into place. Then walk back into the new TARDIS, take it into another completely different TARDIS.
Again, insanely complicated.
Things became even more complicated when each machine had to be stolen from its berth a few seconds before the last had been taken, meaning that they were always a few seconds ahead of any alarm that could be raised. Then, to make sure they didn't try to materialize inside a machine that wasn't in place yet, each TARDIS they took needed to be moved through time to a few seconds after the last one had been placed.
The math involved could give blinding headaches. Sarah lost count at twelve and refused to stay in one place, insisting on walking through each door along with the Doctor. She wasn't so much afraid of getting lost, as she was of having a room disappear around her.
Of course that would never happen, at least according to the Doctor. Never, most likely never, probably not. And no, the TARDIS didn't shudder as it materialized, it was just her imagination. Mostly.
Sarah crowded through the door in step with the Doctor, leaving the last stolen TARDIS behind.
* * *
It wasn't until the TARDIS was safely back in the Vortex that Sarah was able to relax. "I don't think we should push our luck any further."
"One more stop." The Doctor was bent over a square fragment of metal on the console. "I want to leave this outside the old girl before we go."
"We're really cutting it close," she warned. "This would be the perfect time for someone to find us and start yelling 'Halt!' or 'Stop Thief!' or something like that.
It didn't look as though he'd heard. Curious, she peered over his shoulder. The Doctor was using the sonic screwdriver to write a note on the scrap metal in glimmering blue letters.
"There Will Be No More Practical Jokes," it read in a surprisingly elegant hand, "As Long As You Leave Me Alone."
"A-HEM," Sarah said loudly.
"What?"
Sarah glared at him, then at the note, then back at him. She raised her eyebrows and waited.
After a moment's hard thought, the Doctor figured it out. Passing the makeshift pen over the note, he changed the word "Me" to "Us".
Sarah nodded. "Better."
For a few seconds the room felt alarmingly sideways. Then the control room shivered, and everything settled with a thump.
There was a moment of silence, during which nothing exploded, or caught on fire, or disappeared. The Doctor and Sarah peered around the edge of the console.
The Doctor cleared his throat. "I wasn't quite sure that would work."
He remembered that he was supposed to have done this before. "This time. Wasn't sure it would work this time. Every TARDIS is different. Well, the two I've used have been different. Nothing I can't work around of course."
"Of course," Sarah agreed, not moving from behind the console. "Do you think it's safe to open the door?"
"I can't think of any reason why not."
"I can. Lot's of 'em."
It was almost disappointing when, after all that anticipation, the door opened and everything continued to not blow up, catch on fire, or disappear. Although it was quite an effect.
The two of them stood in the doorway, facing away from the control room of the TARDIS, and stared into the control room of the TARDIS.
"This is making me dizzy," Sarah said wryly.
"It's amazing, just amazing." The Doctor strode into the old TARDIS, and looked with delight at the new TARDIS (which still resembled a bright-green- with-white-trim potting shed) sitting at the edge of the control room. "Good thing I knew when the old girl was going to be here, or this might not have worked."
"When exactly are we?" Sarah hadn't yet gotten up the nerve to step across the doorway. She had the unsettling idea that she might look around a corner and find another Sarah-Jane looking back.
"We're several hours after I first arrived on Gallifrey. This was the earliest time I could find when someone wasn't messing with the TARDIS. Thought maybe I could save the old girl. No such luck though. I was absolutely right about Enaral, he must have ordered the break-in as soon as I'd turned my back."
There was in fact a gaping hole where a large bank of controls had been. "Lucky for us he didn't take out the dimensional gate too, or it might have been a little crowded in here.
"Just a little," Sarah said weakly, even less eager now to leave the doorway.
"Best get to it. We've got about half a day's worth of time before anyone thinks to look in here." He knelt before a large panel and took something out of his pocket. Sarah thought she saw him try to keep whatever it was out of sight, but a familiar high-pitched humming noise gave it away.
"Doctor, isn't that your old sonic screwdriver?" Ten years ago she'd decided she was sick of even looking at the Doctor's favorite gadget. Now she smiled at the sudden flood of memories.
"Mostly." There was an almost sheepish note in the Doctor's voice. "It's actually more of a descendent, the Sonic Screwdriver Mark.." and here his voice faded to an unintelligible mumble.
"I didn't catch that. Mark what?"
"Eleven hundred six. Now don't.." Sarah had interrupted him with a peal of laughter. "I had to make some improvements," he said defensively.
"I can imagine, but over a thousand?"
"Well yes, that, and my tenth incarnation was a bit clumsy. Look, do you mind.."
"Just going." Sarah walked back inside the new TARDIS, still laughing, and left the Doctor to his work.
* * *
It didn't take long to demolish the TARDIS' control panel. As with most things, taking it apart was much easier, and faster, than putting it back together was going to be.
Not everything could be salvaged. The dimensional gate would have to stay, for obvious reasons. The time traveling mechanism was beyond repair (as well as being beyond reach) and anything near the gaping hole in the control panel had been partly melted, to prevent its ever being fixed.
Everything else was surprisingly small, once each piece had been lifted free. After some bullying, the Doctor managed to annoy Sarah enough to make her cross the doorway and help him with the bulkier pieces.
None of it was in terribly good condition. A couple thousand years of traveling will do that. Great care was going to be necessary when reattaching everything, so the old machinery wouldn't go into shock from waking up in a new TARDIS. The Doctor imagined he have to work for years putting all of it in place.
He was quite looking forward to it.
* * *
Everything was finally aboard the new TARDIS. Sarah had kept busy while the Doctor worked, finding some food, and bringing over those possessions that the Doctor wanted to keep. Which wasn't much. He seemed to have gotten leery of hoarding anything away.
There hadn't been a sound from the old TARDIS for over an hour when Sarah tentatively stepped back across the doorway.
She found the Doctor standing in the center of what was left of the main control room, lost in thought.
"You're awfully quiet," she said. "Are you all right?"
"Hm?" He looked up. "Yes. Just thinking."
"About?"
"About how tired I am," he gazed about the ancient TARDIS thoughtfully. "So very tired of all the interference from this planet."
It was sadly quiet in the demolished room. The ever-present noise from the TARDIS' machinery had been silenced, and most of the winking lights had gone dark, or were gone altogether. The Doctor wandered the control-room slowly, running a hand over a panel here, pausing to touch a row of dials there. "It's amusing when you think about it. The Master brought you here to destroy my chances of ruling Gallifrey. I'm sure he didn't even consider the idea that I never wanted to rule, or even stay."
"Sour grapes, Doctor?" Sarah couldn't resist asking.
"Stop that." There was enough of a twinkle in the Doctor's eyes that she couldn't take offense at the chiding tone. "I would hope I've established what, and who, I really want."
Satisfied that he'd made his point (the smile he'd given her had quite taken her breath away) he turned back to the ruined controls. "So much time wasted," he mourned. "Having to hear again and again that I should return to Gallifrey. 'The Duty of A Time Lord'. Piffle. A duty that requires you to never do anything, never speak with anyone, never lift a finger unless existence itself is in danger, thousands of years spent watching from a distance and making 'tut tut' noises. No wonder they were forever calling on me to fix things; they've never solved a single problem on their own planet, much less anyone else's. Well I'm done with them. Let them solve their own problems. I've got my hands full with the rest of the universe."
"Hear hear," Sarah chimed in. Softly. The Doctor was scowling at the melted hole where part of the TARDIS had been ripped away.
"I never actually believed it of course, that my travels were nothing but a waste of my talents. But for a while I was so tired of having to justify myself that I came to believe I was wrong for not wanting more. Before I walked into that Tower room, I was actually about to end all my wandering and settle down on a planet that bored me, in a society I disliked. Not, mind you, because anyone wanted me there (which they didn't), or because I wanted to, but because I thought I wanted to want to." Sarah laughed at this, making the Doctor smile again. "Oh I know the Time Lords aren't entirely to blame. I was the one who decided that it made sense to do what I hated, and hope that it would make me content simply because it was supposed to. But I can't be blamed for being just a little annoyed, especially since I almost gave away my last chance at happiness."
The remark was tossed off casually, but he reached over and took her hand as he said it. "I insist on being allowed to think for myself, to choose for myself. I am, after all, an adult."
He held her hand against his face for a moment, and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, it was with his wickedest grin. "Now I'm going to play a mean trick and make them all sorry. Coming?"
Sarah nodded eagerly, and returned the grin.
* * *
What happened next took a bit of time. Several bits actually, put together rather differently.
Managing the different time fields was an interesting puzzle, if an insanely complicated one. Just keeping track of what had been put where, and when, was difficult enough.
Here's how it worked, roughly. First, walk back into the new TARDIS and materialize it into the control room of a completely different TARDIS, in an adjoining storage-room. Then, walk into the control room of this completely different TARDIS and time-travel it (the new TARDIS still inside the control room) into place. Then walk back into the new TARDIS, take it into another completely different TARDIS.
Again, insanely complicated.
Things became even more complicated when each machine had to be stolen from its berth a few seconds before the last had been taken, meaning that they were always a few seconds ahead of any alarm that could be raised. Then, to make sure they didn't try to materialize inside a machine that wasn't in place yet, each TARDIS they took needed to be moved through time to a few seconds after the last one had been placed.
The math involved could give blinding headaches. Sarah lost count at twelve and refused to stay in one place, insisting on walking through each door along with the Doctor. She wasn't so much afraid of getting lost, as she was of having a room disappear around her.
Of course that would never happen, at least according to the Doctor. Never, most likely never, probably not. And no, the TARDIS didn't shudder as it materialized, it was just her imagination. Mostly.
Sarah crowded through the door in step with the Doctor, leaving the last stolen TARDIS behind.
* * *
It wasn't until the TARDIS was safely back in the Vortex that Sarah was able to relax. "I don't think we should push our luck any further."
"One more stop." The Doctor was bent over a square fragment of metal on the console. "I want to leave this outside the old girl before we go."
"We're really cutting it close," she warned. "This would be the perfect time for someone to find us and start yelling 'Halt!' or 'Stop Thief!' or something like that.
It didn't look as though he'd heard. Curious, she peered over his shoulder. The Doctor was using the sonic screwdriver to write a note on the scrap metal in glimmering blue letters.
"There Will Be No More Practical Jokes," it read in a surprisingly elegant hand, "As Long As You Leave Me Alone."
"A-HEM," Sarah said loudly.
"What?"
Sarah glared at him, then at the note, then back at him. She raised her eyebrows and waited.
After a moment's hard thought, the Doctor figured it out. Passing the makeshift pen over the note, he changed the word "Me" to "Us".
Sarah nodded. "Better."
