Chapter 5 – A Tale of Two TARDIS –
Kymern looked around the Doctor's TARDIS, taking in its dark and misty aura, whilst nothing upon it's almost cosiness, and warmth. Ironically, this warmth was clashed with an almost cold look from the shell of the TARDIS, an aluminium and bored metal dome, covering the inside of the ship. He decided to hum appreciatively, for it certainly had a kind of natural beauty to it, but unfortunately had lost the clean and cool look that the old default look for the ship had. He took a stroll round the dashboard, looking carefully, and noticed that the Doctor had changed some of the layout around a bit. Good then, the Doctor wasn't content with default settings, much like him. He did notice that the vortex inducer (the tube going up from the TARDIS' heart to the ceiling) had been raised dramatically, and wasn't too sure whether he liked it much, but then again, it wasn't his ship, it was the Doctor's. Never the less, he still couldn't help notice that something was severely missing, and it wasn't until he looked around, that he actually noticed what it was. He turned to the Doctor.
"So… Well, where are the other rooms?"
The Doctor just laughed a bit, but Rose gave him a puzzled look, and wondered to herself, what these other rooms he was talking about were. Could the Doctor have kept secrets about the TARDIS from her? The Doctor soon explained.
"Well, unfortunately, over time, I've had to get rid of a few, and eventually I ended up with only a few corridors left, so I just decided to remodel the entire interior. I went with a slightly gothic look for a few years" he chuckled to himself, not entirely quiet however "but, well, lets just say that part of me is well and truly dead."
Rose failed to get the hidden joke in this, for the Doctor had yet to explain to her the whole ideas, and process of regeneration, but Kymern understood fully about this, and laughed.
"So, what is it now Doctor? Last time I heard you'd hit 7. That whole ugly business with the Master's death wasn't it?"
"Years ago Kymern. I must admit I'm currently on 9"
Kymern seemed shocked, for it was rare for Time Lords to normally pass 5. But then again, most Time Lords did seem to spend most of their lives away from the dangers of the universe, and stayed on Gallifrey. Rose just assumed they were talking about how many TARDIS redesigns he'd done over the years, for otherwise she had completely lost the plot of this conversation.
"Yourself?" The Doctor asked, for he had no idea of who Kymern actually was, for even Kymern must admit to himself, that he was not exactly the most active Time Lords. Indeed, before Gallifrey had gone, Kymern had been a traditionalist, and kept well within the rules of the Time Lords. However, he always had envied the Doctor's brash and exotic lifestyle, which he did try and lead himself, not with much success however.
"Not even my first" he beamed proudly. "But I've not exactly seen that much danger on my travels"
"Ah, well, how old are you anyway?"
"526"
Rose, although she had gotten used to the Doctor, despite looking 30-40, maybe a bit older at times, being 900 years old. Could not grasp the fact that this other Time Lord, who looked nearly twice as old as the Doctor, at least 60 in human years, was actually 526. She just suddenly gave up hope, and went to stand outside. Listening to two Time Lords rambling on was not exactly the most exciting of prospects, nor was it the best of ways to spend your days.
The Doctor noted this, remembering back when he was in his 500's, this was when he had actually started to contemplate stealing a TARDIS, and exploring the galaxy. He wondered if Kymern would have followed the same path had things been different.
"Well, anyway, what do you think of my old girl?" the Doctor changed the subject, of course referring to the TARDIS, old girl was just something a lot of Time Lords tended to call their ships.
"It's very beautiful in a sense, I think I prefer it to the default design, but it just seems to be a little too small for my liking, I must admit"
The Doctor couldn't blame him, for TARDIS's could range from small lounges, to gigantic ships stored inside them. The standard Gallifreyian issued TARDIS, one of which he had stolen, was quite large, normally 5 rooms, including the control room, he remembered. He nodded in agreement with Kymern, although he was very fond of his own design.
"So, Doctor, if you would like, we could pay a trip into my TARDIS. I'm very fond of it I must admit, had it built specifically for me. Wasn't completed entirely however, was about 95 done when the Time War started. Very impressive however. You can bring your TARDIS with you if you want, its on the other side of town"
Kymern put on a very cheesy grin at this point, and the Doctor felt like he would have to say yes, otherwise he would be pestered by Kymern for a good few hours. Besides, he didn't really have much to do, for there wasn't much he could do in this time period now, and what was done was done, and anyway, Kymern's TARDIS did sound very impressive. He nodded to Kymern, then walked outside to call Rose. He found her staring off into the clouds, looking for something, although the Doctor, nor Rose for that matter it would turn out, knew what.
"You ready?" He grinned "We're off now"
She turned, a look of surprise on her face. "We're leaving? But what about J.F.K, and the photo"
"There's nothing else we can do, is there?"
"Well, I guess not, but…" she sighed
"Come on, we should be going somewhere fun anyway, we're going to see Kymern's TARDIS" He smiled at her
"He has one too?" She seemed more shocked than surprised now.
"Yeah, why? Though they were one of a kind? That I was a prince in shining armour on a bold steed?" He had to laugh Most Time Lords have one, we use them to travel in, although I'm not entirely sure how many there are left, Kymern is trying to find them all, Come on, you'll like it"
"Go on then" she laughed, and walked inside, finally giving in and closing the door behind her.
"Well, where is it parked then?" The Doctor asked, leaning over the control panel, his hand on the lever.
"Oh, you needn't worry about where it's parked anyway Doctor, I've got something better." He lifted up his left sleeve, revealing a silver and sleek wristband. He flipped up a screen on it, then tapped a few buttons. Suddenly a green light shone from the wristband onto the TARDIS' dashboard. "There you go, I've given it coordinates, you can just go."
The Doctor looked puzzled, for nobody had actually ever used a remote device to communicate with his ship, and he wasn't entirely sure if it was a new version of the sonic screwdriver, his version of which was pretty much 300 years old at least. Nevertheless, the TARDIS was indeed actually read to go, and so he just activated the drive, and within seconds, it was pumping away, travelling through space with ultimate ease. A few seconds again, it stopped, and the journey had finished. The hum of the drive died down, only to be replaced by a few background noises. He turned to look at Kymern.
"So, how far to walk to your TARDIS?"
"Walk?" Kymern, who was actually the only person who knew where they were, smirked and pointed to the door "Go outside and find for yourself"
The Doctor and Rose promptly did, but as they opened the door their mouths dropped, and instead of walking outside, it was more of a stumbling outside. Rose was just simply astonished by the sight, and was lost for words. The Doctor on the other hand understood the whole physics and complications behind such a feat, and was actually lost for words. Kymern, stood behind them, felt proud once again, for it was quite a long time before anybody else had come on his ship, and he loved the first impressions when people came on board.
They had landed in a large room, absolutely massive in scale, full of what appeared to be a million doors, yet they were the only actually people using any door, and were the only people in this room. It was not any ordinary docking room however, for they had actually just parked the TARDIS in Kymern's ship. To be more precise, Kymern's TARDIS.