6. The Surbiton Diner.
Before Chloe walks the short distance to the Diner, she checks she has everything.
Chloe messages her mother's friend, Ommera, to ask what she might need. She finds that she has everything and that Ommera wishes her well and is excited for her.
But what does Ommera know? She knows nothing about Chloe's self-named 'Wristwatch Tardis', or why Chloe wants to be on Gallifrey, just that she is on Gallifrey, as if she is just there on holiday! .
Chloe is only contacting her to check the minimum things possible to keep things as secret as possible. She feels the secrecy of her mission more keenly now.
Chloe approaches the Surbiton Diner. She wonders whether there is one, or ever was one, in Surbiton, London on Earth. Doubtless the Doctor has named the suburb on Gallifrey in a delightfully playful moment! .
Simeon steps forwards as Chloe approaches. "Hi Chloe," he greets her. "You look wonderful."
Chloe hadn't made much of an effort to look great tonight, just enough to look a little different from earlier today. She chooses to overlook this compliment.
"Hi Simeon," she says. "It's lovely to see you." She walks right up to him and kisses him. This may be alright on her home planet, Tinsel, but she wonders whether she is being too forward for Gallifrey, but she must know if she can trust him before sharing very much.
In response, Simeon puts his arms around her and kisses her. "It's customary for the guy to initiate kissing," he says softly.
This must be a local custom. Chloe's stomach tightens. She has been too forward, maybe much too forward for Gallifrey, but there it is, it's done now.
They enter the Diner. It is simple; the entrance door, two rough unplastered walls, and direct view into the kitchen area. Gallifrey is still fairly Spartan; too much had been destroyed in the destruction of Gallifrey.
They are shown which seats to sit on, opposite each other on benches each side of a long pasting bench on trestles as a table. A long thin paper roll acts as a tablecloth. Chloe feels somewhat let down by the austerity, but maybe that's what it's like everywhere here on Gallifrey just now?
Another couple are dining two arms' lengths away. They have eyes only for each other.
The waiter comes to take the order. Simeon asks for two rashers. "It's like bacon," he tells Chloe. "It comes with leaves of the day - whatever someone went out and gleaned today..."
"I sensed that you have lots to tell me," Simeon says. "But all that can wait until you're ready." He wants to put Chloe at her ease as she does seem rather tense tonight.
"I'm sorry," Simeon says. "I just want for you to relax."
"Thank you," Chloe says. "I'm sorry, I was rather forward before."
"That's fine," Simeon says, smiling. "But I can tell you're not from around here. I'm all ears, and I'm very good at keeping secrets and confidences. First, where are you from?"
Chloe feels she needs Simeon as a friend. It isn't as easy as she had imagined going somewhere completely different and trying to survive.
She feels she must grasp the moment. She just must tell him openly at least this first morsel of information.
"I'm from a planet called Tinsel," Chloe says.
"The name rings a bell," Simeon says, "though I can't recall why. You mentioned you'd travelled with the Doctor; did he bring you here?"
This is a tricky question. Chloe had come here on her own, but actually, it was something the Doctor had said that had started her off developing her Wristwatch Tardis in the first place, so maybe the answer is yes. Otherwise, it might get more complicated making up some other means of getting here.
"Yes," Chloe says. "He was very kind."
Chloe needs to know more about Simeon's past.
"Maybe I should ask where you're from?" Chloe smiles, hoping she won't just get the short answer, Gallifrey!
"My parents were some of those rescued by the Doctor from the ruins of Gallifrey," Simeon says (ref. 9). "But my older brother perished; he was at home being looked after by a deaf nanny when the alarms went off. They never got to an assembly point, so they were never rescued."
Chloe looks into Simeon's eyes. His tears are brushed away as he regains his composure.
"I'm sorry, that's years before I was born, but I have often wondered how it would be to have a brother."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Chloe says, finding her own tears to wipe away.
"Sorry, I didn't want to upset you," Simeon says. "Everyone was in the same boat, so everyone just got on with it. Just occasionally I wonder about it."
"Your parents didn't have more children?"
"No, it wasn't encouraged at that time," Simeon sighs. "There were few toys – all the metal went to construction for years. There's still a shortage here as you'll see when they bring the food."
"How awful for you," Chloe says sympathising. Then she wonders how much she ought to reveal about her own background.
The waiter comes with their rashers, covered in a thick sauce in a simple hemispherical bowl that would roll around the table if they let it! Doubtless a factory off-cut. .
A side plate is piled high with local edible flora. The only thing to eat it all with is a large flat bread, so it's tricky! Metals are too valuable to squander on cutlery. .
They start their meal.
"Yes," Simeon says. "This must be the best defended planet in the universe now. Maybe I should say a welcome?"
"That's very kind," Chloe says.
"But what makes you want to take an engineer's job if you're elite?"
"Maybe I'm not elite?" Chloe proffers.
"Oh, but you are," Simeon says. He had fetched an Artron energy detector after Chloe had told him at work that she had travelled with the Doctor. He now knows just how extensively she has travelled! Hundreds of Tardis journeys. Yet he so likes Chloe that he's not going to let her down in any way. He decides to turn his last statement into a romantic start. He smiles. "You're elite in my eyes."
Chloe giggles, then they laugh. It just sounds so ridiculous.
"I really like you, Chloe," Simeon says. "You're the first engineer from outside of Gallifrey to set foot in the Tardis factory." Actually, it's forbidden, but Simeon carefully glosses over this. .
"And I think you like being first at things," he adds.
Chloe tenses. "How do you mean?"
"You were the first person ever to repair a circuit board in the Tardis manufacturing area. And what a repair! I didn't even know the boards could be repaired."
"Sometimes they need to be when you're away from base," Chloe says. Long adventures travelling with the Doctor, fighting many battles necessitated rapid fixes, especially landing circuits, or you can't land!
Simeon smiles, an understanding sort of smile. Maybe it just made some sort of sense to him. A recognition that things sometimes get tough.
Chloe finally relaxes. There had been so many things from earlier to cover. She feels she can begin to trust Simeon.
"How much can I trust you, Simeon?"
Simeon is aware that Chloe has other secrets, so he knows she must somehow check him out if she is to share them.
"I'm aware you have lots to share, and I really like you."
"Can I take you somewhere wonderful tonight, after the meal?" Chloe asks.
Simeon thinks of all the places on Gallifrey just now. "That sounds nice; where did you have in mind?"
"Nolland. It's the land of the Nolls."
This isn't any of the holiday places on Gallifrey that Simeon knows of. "Oh, where's that, somewhere new?" .
"It's somewhere beautiful. A beautiful planet. I went there, and I slept so well."
A planet? For Simeon, who had never dreamt that he might travel in a Tardis, this sounds wonderful. "Would we travel by Tardis? How would we possibly use a Tardis?" He knows they are all securely stored away from anyone but the elite.
"Shall we finish our meal?" Chloe asks. There's still some tasty sauce on her plate but she's run out of flat bread to eat it with! .
How will Simeon cope with Chloe's Wristwatch Tardis?