32. The Lady with Secrets.
1. Resolution.
Recently, Chloe has had access to documents from the Library on Gallifrey. After studying them for a long time, she has built for herself, and then miniaturised, a device able to transport her in time and space using the Time Continuum, not the Time Vortex that Tardises use, but she likes to call it her Wristwatch Tardis (ref. 29).
Unsure what to do with her new-found freedom, she finds that she can go out to far-off places whenever she wants to. She enjoys this and treats herself to a series of exotic holidays. Very nice, too!
A while before this, Chloe's mother, Crystelle, acquired a Tardis from below the destruction of Gallifrey (Ref. 12) just before the roof of the Tardis storeroom collapsed. She regarded it as fair game (or even a rescue), but the Doctor had other words to chide her with (ref. 13). Yet he had been gracious and had forgiven her completely. He had said that without love, forgiveness and mercy, the universe would be a very poor place.
Chloe gains access to the co-ordinates of many places from her mother's Tardis before going there.
Nolland.
Chloe is in her mother's Tardis at the Tardis Console.
"Tardis, please could you show me a place that is beautiful, quiet, safe, and secluded?"
She has asked this many times before with different requirements. Most were unsafe until she added that as a criterion.
The Tardis shows her a simple undulating surface; "Nolland" is provided as the title. Who called it that is unknown, yet it meets her given criteria.
There is no vegetation, just soft ground. Its only inhabitants, Nolls, are Football-shaped lifeforms who can roll around or gradually morph to other shapes at will but are said to be completely harmless. They feed directly off the energy from the local stars and have a blissfully simple lifestyle.
Chloe goes there to experience Nolland and check it out. As she looks up into the morning sky she sees two suns quite close together - a binary star at the centre of this solar system.
The ground is beautifully soft and dry to sit or lie on; Chloe briefly wonders what the ground is made of, but it resists being pulled away strongly, so she can't take a sample home to analyse. She feels it's like a wonderful holiday where she might choose to spend a lot more time, except that there's no suitable food here. She meets some of the inhabitants and enjoys petting them as if they were dogs or cats, but after a few hours enjoying it all, she feels the need for human company again and returns home.
Chloe feels she needs someone to visit places with to really enjoy them. Going to beautiful, scarcely inhabited places is one thing, but it means little unless she can appreciate it with someone else; the enjoyment is in the sharing. She longs for a friend, a companion to delight in all this with.
The Resolve.
From her earliest years her mother, Crystelle, would tell bedtime stories and Chloe would listen in wonder. She had spoken highly of the librarian on Gallifrey, Gwendolina.
Chloe had resolved to go and visit her. After Chloe finished building her Wristwatch Tardis (ref. 29), her first outing was to visit Gwendolina.
Gwendolina was very touched by the visit – all Tardis outings usually have a business-like and secret purpose, yet Chloe had chosen to visit Gwendolina personally on her first outing.
After the visit, Chloe was puzzled by something Gwendolina had said during her visit.
"Is your Wristwatch Tardis registered? I suppose it must be - you got here."
Chloe resolves to do the right thing - to go and register her Wristwatch Tardis. How difficult could it possibly be?
Is this wise, though? She has used information from the most secret areas of the Gallifreyan Library to build it; won't they be annoyed about that?
Then there's the Gallifreyan security...