2. The Tardis Factory.
"Dad, I'd love to see how proper Tardises are built or serviced," Chloe wants her father's advice.
"What do you want to do that for? You built your own, and it works great," Devyon says.
"Dad, there are so many things I might add to my Tardis to make it safer."
"Yes, your mother is always telling me how worried she is! But if you keep adding to your wristwatch it will get so heavy you won't be able to lift it!" .
"I'm sure I can decide what to add and what not to," Chloe says. "But should I apply for a job there or should I just suddenly appear in the workforce?"
"You'd be rumbled in moments if you try to just suddenly appear in a workforce!" Devyon grasps what Chloe is saying, but to him the choice is obvious. "Security would throw you out immediately – after a grilling!" .
"But it would be so interesting – to see inside the Tardis factory – how it works, what goes into a Tardis."
"For sure it would," Devyon says. "But you might want to look at it for a bit longer than a minute before they eject you!" .
"So, what should I do?" Chloe asks. Even just a moment's consideration suggests that it might take considerable time acquiring the necessary qualifications and skills and she hopes to skip this stage.
"Apply for a job as an apprentice, definitely," Devyon says emphatically. "Start at the bottom of the ladder and work up – that way they won't rumble you. You start off with no-one expecting much of you, build your skills and find out what you want along the way. Simple!"
Chloe remotely applies for the job of Tardis Manufacturing Apprentice. Surely she won't stand out so much if little is expected of her?
GTM (Gallifrey Tardis Manufacturing). Application for the role of Tardis Manufacturing Apprentice.
As she reads the requirements for the job she recognises that many of the requirements aren't written there. For such a job you must surely be expected to be from Gallifrey - a Gallifreyan, yet she is Earth descended. She decides she will still have a go at applying.
She must also find somewhere to live on Gallifrey for the interview, the medical examination and ultimately for when she's working there. She knows two people on Gallifrey. No, not the Doctor - she must either ask Gwendolina or her mother's friend, Ommera.
Early Gallifreyan Myths and Legends.
During her preparation, Chloe finds interesting documents about early Gallifreyan myths and legends.
A tribal stone-age group from somewhere (they had no idea what it might be called, they just called it "home") had thought they had lost their way but had passed through an odd green translucent tunnel as they had been starting out on a trek returning from their next village after inter-village warfare. The sunlight had changed during their trek, and the planet flora and fauna had changed, too.
As Chloe reads it she is reminded of how it feels to walk through a spacetime rift; the Doctor had taken her on an outing once and they had done just that. She recalls the event, how it felt, and can easily empathise with what had happened for the stone-age group.
The group had re-settled on Gallifrey.
Then Chloe finds images of drawings in caves and on dung parchment that they made. These are said to be drawings that the group made of each other shortly after they had re-settled. As she looks at the drawings she recognises one face, then another. She has met these people! Chloe feels like her hair is standing on end.
The Doctor had taken her on an outing to the stone-age on Earth, nominally it was to meet Fred Flintstone, but these people had been the nearest thing the Doctor knew about (ref. 28). It was these people that she had met who had gone on to become the founders of Gallifrey!
Chloe can clearly recognise the two leaders called "Fox" and "Vixen" in titled images who she spent some time with on that outing.
The Medical Examination.
Will Chloe even possibly pass the medical examination?
Chloe is fully Human. A few millennia after the Doctor's favourite time to defend, she is from an inter-stellar mission to populate planets in her area to be ready for the intergalactic collision with the Andromeda galaxy to make the Human race intergalactic. Planet Tinsel had been populated for only five decades when she had been born. It still felt like a struggle to survive; yet life had moved forwards from that desperate survival point with at least some luxuries.
But Chloe is Human. How can she possibly fool the medical team on Gallifrey? All Gallifreyans have two hearts! .
The day for her medical examination for the job arrives. She walks the short distance, from the nearby village where she has been advised to take accommodation, to the Tardis manufacturing installation, GTM.
A message shows Chloe where to go.
Although she has thought she must evade this moment, she still has no plan. She recalls that the Doctor often had no plan, and she relaxes a little.
The previous person in the queue reaches the end of their examination.
"Fail, please leave by the red door. Next."
Chloe has been moving along a queue of young aspiring Gallifreyans and has finally arrived at the front of the queue. She still has no plan.
Chloe steps forwards and into the consultation room.
The outfit is simple. One doctor, one nurse, one extremely narrow, probably unused, examination bed.
The nurse approaches her holding a hand-sized metal-looking cylinder. "Please hold this," she is instructed.
A heart trace appears on the display screen near the doctor.
She needs to distract them now! They will be able to instantly notice that she hasn't got the familiar two hearts of a Gallifreyan, won't they? She still has no plan.
"Next."
Has she passed? Has she failed? The nurse motions for her to go through an open green door. A red door remains closed nearby. Should she just go quickly before they challenge her? Desperately she wants to know the result, but if she asks they may look closer at the result and notice that she hasn't got two hearts.
Maybe she passed just because she had one healthy heartbeat? .
She takes a quick look at the heart trace on the display. But surely it shows two heart beats. Is it stuck? .
In the next room she must perform some complex tasks, presumably to show her dexterity. She passes easily through the next green door.
After what seems like countless rooms she emerges with a certificate showing that she has passed her medical examination, no grade attached. .
Chloe wonders if she has a second heart as she has regeneration developed from the Gallifreyan regeneration.
Does Chloe have two hearts? She was born with regeneration that her mother had requested be re-developed from documents from the Gallifreyan Library. Could it be that she has a second heart that has gradually grown beside the first as a result of having the same style of regeneration capability as Gallifreyans?
If Gallifreyans are Earth descended, too, then maybe the same side-effects have already happened to her?