Chapter 7 – Welcome On -

As the Gravitation lift went upwards, Rose tried to look around her. All she could really see was white lights streaking by, and occasional curves in the path above them. She felt a slight breeze blowing its fingers through her hair, and she sighed and relaxed. It is a strange coincidence that it is always these moments when you are least expecting something to happen that something actually happens, and this moment was no exception to that, for suddenly the lift slowed down to a crawl and stopped, the lights around them becoming dim, and a small opening appearing in front of them. Kymern held his cape in hand, and then stepped through, turning around and then letting his cape sweep dramatically behind him, which despite impressing the Doctor really did impress Rose quite a lot, for it seemed he was full of bravado, and style, something which, as loveable and caring as he was, the Doctor failed to have.

"This Doctor, happens to be the Operation centre of my ship" he said very proudly and then turning to Rose "Or as you lesser minded Humans do like to put it, a cockpit" he added cheekily.

Rose looked around. The room didn't seem too large, which came as quite a nice surprise following the last room. It was roughly the same size as the Doctor's TARDIS, but styled much differently, using the same black and blues of the Hangar. The central control panel was a hologram of stars and maps everywhere, and the walls were now full of control panels and display units. Thanks to its colour scheme, it was very dark and sombre almost, but it definitely looked cool beyond belief. This is what Star Trek should have looked like, were it crossed with the Matrix.,she thought to herself. Rose herself was fairly impressed by all of the flashing panels and lights everywhere, but the Doctor, she noted, was completely mesmerised. It was if he was a small child who had only just found out the wonders of the toy shop. He just gazed around the room grinning, his eyes wide open. He turned to Kymern.

"We…. I mean Gallifrey….. we built it?"

"Indeed, quite a marvelous piece of technology isn't it?" Kymern

"It's…. well, to put it simply, Fantastic"

Kymern laughed, and took a stroll around a small star map hologram in the middle of the room, coming to a small chair behind it. He sat in it, when it promptly swivelled round to face a wall, and 3 large screens hovered down in front of his face. Each one flickered to life in it's own separate way, and started to display figures and charts. The Doctor followed him, peering at all of the displays, which were littered with symbols Rose couldn't recognize at all.

The Doctor stared at a few of the screens for a while, then asked Kymern "So, exactly what type of TARDIS is this?"

Kymern just stared into the screens, saying matter-of-factly "It's a custom-build carrier ship, designed specifically during the Time War. However, of course it was never finished, and a few smaller features like entertainment suites were never put in. It runs on a type 92 drive, which as you know was one of the best type drives we had ever invented. Bettered only by those up to 97, which isn't a lot when you think about it. However, due to the immense power used during travel, most of the power is emitted as sound, like your type 40 basically. Therefore, when it runs, it will sound very familiar to you."

The Doctor nodded, stroking his chin slightly, his eyebrows lowering as he stared off non-literally into space. This must have come as a bit of a good surprise to the Doctor, as he wasn't really aware of how many Time Lords there were still left, Rose thought, and had always assumed that he was the last upon numerous occasions. He seemed very deep in thought, which Rose finally realised now obviously meant he wanted to think of ways he could possibly rescue his fellow species. Rose sighed. This obviously meant they were going to be staying with Kymern for some long time now. This wasn't to say she didn't like Kymern, quite the opposite. He had a very strange and eccentric aura about him. He shared the same childishness that the Doctor would display at times. But travelling around looking for people wasn't exactly her idea of adventure. She wanted to see the stars and planets that the Doctor talked about all the time. She wanted to travel to more planets, to look for hours out across their landscapes. She even wanted to visit the past and future of her own planet. There was still a lot to do. She couldn't just give up on all her hopes and dreams. But if the Doctor wanted to stay here….. what could she do? She suddenly felt lonely, not sure what to do, left out with these two people. She had for so long got used to the fact that the Doctor was her Doctor. It was as if this protective bubble around them had suddenly popped. She always had this feeling that no matter what, he would come back to her in some shape or form, but now, it was gone. She tried to hold back the tears that were slowly forming in her eyes, to not get upset over this, and only just managed to do it. But only because the Doctor wasn't looking. Had he looked, he would have instantly known what was wrong. But this time he wasn't looking. He was too busy with Kymern.

"So Doctor. Where to now?"

The Doctor shrugged "I don't know….. you're the one who's been looking for the longest. Where do you think?"

"Listen here, I've been searching for nearly 80 years now, and you are the first true Time Lord I've found, and that was only by chance. I certainly am not picking any more places, I have bad luck already with them. You pick"

The Doctor thought outloud "Now, if I were a Time Lord… what would I do?" Before suddenly realising the irony of what he had actually said. "Oh no… that doesn't sound right…. If I were a Time Lord trying to find other Time Lords, where would I go to?" He corrected himself. A few seconds later he jumped and laughed at the same time.

"Fantastic! It would have to be Forbius!"

"Isn't that in the Getriaxan system?" Kymern noted, nodding along to the Doctors plan "Good chance they might be some there. Didn't they want build a temple as a tribute to the Time Lords or something…. What time was that?"

"Roughly about 23030GTC, give or take a few cycles" The Doctor was now grinning madly. "What do you think Rose?"

"Well….I.."

"Oh leave her, she's only a human, she'd probably just say Earth…. All Humans do…" Kymern laughed.

Rose felt deeply offended. She had used to like Kymern, but now as each minute passed, he would make some witty remark that she didn't like, and it really was beginning to grate on her nerves. That and the Doctor seemed to getting too close to him. She might lose him forever. Have to travel back to Earth, to live with Mickey and her mum again. She sighed, and looked into the wall, loving searching for her past. She failed to note the banter of the two Time Lords that went on for a few minutes, before they finally decided that possibly Forbius was the best place to search first. The only thing that snapped her out of the day-dreaming was the familiar sound of the TARDIS grating its way through space, or so it seemed. The sound relaxed her, although it was noticeably quieter than the Doctors. She glanced around, to see that almost every console or screen in the room had lit up, and flashing massively, obviously charting their path through time and space. She sighed, hoping that the Doctor would soon come to his senses.

Yet again however, the Doctor and Kymern were grinning at the screens, and failed to notice Rose for the umpteenth time.