Chapter 14

TARDIS plunked down with a solid jolt that nearly sent the four passengers to the floor.

"What was that for?" The Doctor demanded of her.

The TARDIS ignored the question.

"Are we here?" Graham asked. "For the coronation?"

The Doctor looked at the readings. "I don't think so," she said. She looked thoughtfully over what she read. Suddenly she brightened. "Let's go see, shall we?" And she headed for the door at her fastest walk.

The three followed behind her, Graham asking, "Are we going to be back before supper this time?"

"Can't really say, can I?" The Doctor asked as she threw open the door.

"I really wish I had somewhere to stash something for these jaunts," Graham muttered under his breath.

The four walked out into a pristine forest. In the distance, they could hear music.

"This way!" The Doctor said, leading the group toward the music.

They hadn't taken six steps when her sonic screwdriver made a sound. She pulled it out to look at it, and that thoughtful look returned.

"Uhm… Wait here. I need to… Wait here." She jogged back to the Tardis, disappearing inside.

Yasmin looked at Ryan and Graham. "That's never happened."

"What's that?" Ryan asked. He was looking at the forest around them.

"Her sonic going off and her running back to the Tardis."

"Probably forgot to set the alarm system," Graham quipped with a grin.

The Doctor reappeared, and they were off. As soon as the group had gone out of sight, the TARDIS left.

#

"TARA!" a voice yelled.

Tara turned. Sara stared at her with a cross glare.

"What?" Tara asked.

Sara looked away from her into the crowded marketplace. "Let's get me home," she quietly said and then turned to return to the TARDIS.

Tara was surprised by Sara's request. "Did you say something important?"

"No," Sara said as she disappeared into the crowd.

Tara quickly reappeared at her side but had to follow through the crowd behind her.

The Arzerun Marketplace was the largest in this universe, covering half of a small moon situated in the middle of three gas giants. It was a rare place where the giants orbited a speck. Different species of creatures roamed the streets or sold wares, many from places that didn't even have a name yet. Robots, androids, and other holograms mixed with them. The air was filled with a cornucopia of languages from gravely and gruff to angelica and musical.

The market was protected from the cold vacuum of space by a large dome. From any point in the market, three large gas giants could be seen, reflecting the distant sun on the moon like gold into the market. It was a place that had to be seen to grasp the awesome feat species had created and were capable of when they weren't fighting with each other.

Tara relentlessly begging finally won Sara agreeing to come here. She thought her best friend would enjoy the sight once she arrived and maybe they could forget what had made them fight to begin with.

That didn't happen.

Sara hadn't shown the slightest interest in the market, and her cheery, friendly disposition was not returning.

Tara suddenly she had stopped following Sara, and her friend was nowhere to be seen. She disappeared and reappeared at her side again. Sara sat on the steps of the TARDIS, staring at the floor. Tara slowly sat down next to her, watching her. For hours the two sat without speaking.

"I…" Tara finally said, "I don't know how to make this right, Sara. I don't know what to do or say." Tara looked away. "I wish I had a body right now."

Sara looked up at her. "Why is that?"

Tara's program produced tears. She looked up at Sara.

"I'd hug you and tell you I am so, so sorry. I tried to protect you. And then I did what you asked and told you about Jason dying. Neither was right. I don't know how to be friends with you again now."

Slowly Sara looked back at the floor. Minutes of sitting in silence passed.

"I did ask you to tell me," Sara quietly said, "but I should have left it at never knowing. I won't be making that mistake twice."

"Does that mean we can be friends again?"

"We never stopped being friends, Tara. Friends get angry with each other. It's part of being friends with a human."

Tara risked a smile when Sara looked up. Sara didn't return it, but she didn't look away this time.

"The Doctor said you were more mad at me because you were hurt, and you needed to blame someone for that pain."

"Aye."

"Did it help?"

"Did what help?"

"Blaming me for your pain?"

Sara shook her head. "Not at all."

Tara let her confusion show. "Does that mean you're still angry with me?"

"No, Tara. It means being mad at you didn't help make the pain go away. Nothing could, except time."

Tara looked away this time, thinking about something else.

Sara was suddenly in her line of sight, saying, "Did you hear me?"

"What? No. What?"

Sara sat back down, turning on the step to face Tara. "What is wrong with you? Are you sick?"

"There's nothing wrong with me."

"Don't lie to me. You are spacey and forgetful. You practically dropped us here instead of your usual gentle landing. And you keep… I don't know. Black boxes keeping appearing on you like you're not showing up right or whatever it's called. Is it the necklace causing all that?"

Tara shrugged. She looked at her hands, slowly wringing them together.

"It works better if you talk to me, Tara," Sara said, leaning in. "Now I wish you had a body. I'd grab your hands, so you had to pay attention to me."

Tara smiled. "I'm fine, I'm not sick. I'm just… Distracted."

"Distracted by what? By who?"

Tara shrugged again.

"Won't you tell me?" Sara quietly asked.

"I don't know what's wrong with me!" Tara started crying. "I get confused now. I'm not myself, I know that. I can't even set myself down neatly. I don't know why, but I don't want to go to the places she wants me to go. I try to tell her about more important things happening, and she ignores me. I try to talk to her, but she just has question after question after question. And do you know when the last time was that I had a good tube cleaning?" Tara looked at Sara. "Nearly two years, right before the regeneration! I have rooms that haven't been cleaned in just as long. She doesn't even remember how to run the droids to do that! She won't stop moving long enough to learn. And the way she…" Tara got up and paced a few times. "I don't like how she mothers me. Tells me what to do and not to do. We don't ever talk about anything anymore. It's just, 'TARDIS do this. TARDIS do that.'" Tara stopped. "Do you know that she has never once called me Tara? Not once! It's like I don't even exist to her. And these three she's dragging around treat me like a car or a machine with no mind. She's never once tried to tell them what I really am, how I feel things. I have four beings that I carry everywhere, and I have never felt so alone!"

Tara sat down, crying into her hands. She looked up suddenly, staring at Sara. She was hugging the railing of the stairs, patting it, and smiling at her.

"You told me you can feel every touch," Sara explained. "It's the best I could find for a shoulder."

Tara smiled. "Thank you."

"So, you're having problems with your Doctor."

"Yes."

"Because she's now a she, not he?"

"No. I don't care."

"Don't you now? When was the last time he was a she?"

Tara thought about that a moment. She looked sidelong at her friend. "Never."

"You're used to men."

"It shouldn't matter."

"It shouldn't, aye. But it does, doesn't it? It matters to me too. I get on much better with men than women, usually. Guess that's why you and I get on so well."

"But you don't like to adventure like men do."

"Not all men do, either. Or do they and I've misunderstood the few I've met who don't?"

"No. Not all. You're right. I can't not like my doctor. That can't be true."

"But it is true." Sara pulled away from the railing. "And you aren't okay with that either, eh?"

"I can't be. She's all I have in the universe. Next to you, of course."

"Of course, but I won't be around forever, so she really is all you have when it comes down to it. I think you and your Doctor need to have a conversation sooner than later."

Tara shook her head. "It won't work. She won't listen."

Sara laughed. "Just as stubborn as always."

"I am not stubborn."

"You're being stubborn this moment, so yes, stubborn."

"You're the stubborn one of us."

"I never said I wasn't stubborn. And so are you. And so is your Doctor. But if there's one thing I have learned about the first two versions of him, her…" Sara paused to shake her slightly. "What I've learned is that The Doctor will listen if you ask. So, ask."

"It doesn't work that way. That's now how we work. He just knows me."

"Yes. He just knows you. She clearly does not. But she brought this to me." Tara pulled her locket from under her shirt. "So that you and I could talk again. She knows you enough to listen to you."

"She'll be angry with me."

"So? What would she do to ya? Send you to your room without supper? Paddle ya? You're a time-traveling ship. And you are her friend. We fought. We made up," Sara hesitated, then added, "We are making up. If you two fight, you'll be mad at each other, then make up. Simple when you look at it that way."

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Now what?" Tara asked.

Sara shrugged.

"You didn't like the market?"

"I think it's fascinating, but what fun is a market if you don't have any money to spend. I don't think anyone here would take the four American dollars in my pocket."

"American money hasn't been around for several millennia now, so probably not. But I can help with the money." Tara stood up. "Come on. Let's get you a credit slip."

"A credit slip?"

"Yes. We'll put some Arzerun marks on it, and then we can go shopping in the market."

"Does this money just magically appear?"

Tara laughed. "No! I put it on the slip, the merchant runs the slip through to deduct payment into their account."

"And this account—"

"Is The Doctor's. She won't mind if I give you some money."

"I'd rather she tells me that herself. After all, weren't you just telling me you were worried she'd be angry with you for how you feel? I can't imagine taking money would go well."

"It would, actually. Even this version of her isn't very material. Besides, she has more than enough. That happens when a being keeps getting trapped in places for centuries and millennia at a time with accounts that gain interest."

Sara stood. "And I'm not even surprised by hearing she gets trapped for a few millennia, that's how familiar I am with her odd luck."

"Yes," Tara grinned, walking up the stairs. "It is odd luck. Let's go shopping."

"You know what I wish you had?"

"Hm?"

"A kitchen. There were some interesting looking foods out there."

"I do have a kitchen. I have four. And if you don't like any of them, I can make another one."

"Does The Doctor use the kitchens?"

"No. She, or he, has never cooked. I'm not sure she even knows how."

"Then why do you have them?"

Tara smiled over her shoulder. "For the same reason I have a pool and a greenhouse. Because I can."

#

Four tired souls left Willa and King James in the woods as the TARDIS door closed behind them. The Doctor walked to the controls and set a course, then sent them away from this period.

"I could sleep for a month," Yasmin said.

The Doctor sniffed her coat. "I could use laundered clothes. I smell fishy. I rather like the smell of fish, though."

"We don't," Ryan told her.

"I could use some dinner." Graham sighed, leaning against the controls. "I guess that's why I'm smelling something good cooking."

The Doctor sniffed the air. "No. You aren't imagining, Graham."

They all sniffed the warm smell of cooking food.

"Someone is cooking somewhere in here?" Yazmin said.

The Doctor sniffed a couple more times, then turned to a monitor behind her. She beamed.

"SARA!" The Doctor cried and darted up the stairs and through a doorway.

"Sara?" Yazmin asked the men, who could only offer a shrug.

The three followed the Doctor.

#

The Doctor burst into the kitchen with a wide grin. The kitchen was small and quaint, like it had been lifted from a cottage in upstate New York and plopped into the TARDIS. It had older appliances and a Formica table with six matching chairs around it. Tara and Sara sat at the table, stopped in mid-conversation.

Sara picked up her teacup and sipped her tea, before calmly replying, "Doctor."

The Doctor threw her arms around Sara, hugging her tight. "It's always good to see you, love!"

Sara accepted the affection with a simple pat on The Doctor's arm. "You smell like you've been swimming in a bog, Doctor!"

She stood up. "It was a pond. I think there were fish in it. I do smell a bit fishy."

The door opened as Yazmin pushed it back, leading Ryan and Graham into the kitchen.

"You have a kitchen?" Ryan asked.

"Four," the Doctor and Tara said at the same time.

"Four, huh?" Graham asked. "I see you got something cooking on the stove there. Is it any good, Doctor?"

"I don't know. Is it any good?" the Doctor asked Sara.

Sara shrugged. "It's made with meat, vegetables, and spices I'd never heard of, but Tara said they were in a recipe she had. I guess we'll see in another hour."

"I like the sound of that," The Doctor said. "Oh! That'll give me enough time to get laundered. I'll be back." She darted out of the kitchen.

The soft sound of the pot on the stove simmering filled the silence that followed.

"So…" Graham started, looking at the two women. "I'm Graham."

"I'm Sara."

"Tara," she said with a shy smile.

"Good to meet you ladies. Although—"

"Who are you and what are you doing on the TARDIS?" Yazmin demanded.

"I need to go check on… Something." Tara disappeared.

"That… Wasn't a person?" Ryan asked, staring at the empty chair.

"No. That was the Graphical User Interface of the TARDIS. She's like a cat around strangers- skittish."

"We're not strangers!" Yazmin insisted. "We've been riding around in this thing for weeks, or months…" She paused with the realization, "I'm not really sure how long we've been riding in her."

A sound came from behind the walls. It was almost a painfully high-pitched hum.

"See, that's the part The Doctor should have explained to you three. You don't ride around in the TARDIS. She's a ship and all, but she's sentient. She doesn't really like that you three treat her like a car, so to speak. Maybe be a little more respectful, give a room or two a good cleaning now and again, and you'd get on better with her."

"Just who are you to tell us how to treat a ship?" Yazmin demanded.

"Her best friend, next to The Doctor." Sara sipped her tea.

Her answer silenced the three.

"I need sleep." Yazmin left.

"Me too," Ryan said, following her.

Graham watched them leave, then turned back to Sara.

"Say, is that a cup of tea?"

"Yes."

"Is the pot still hot for another?"

"Aye. The tea is in the cupboard by the cooler, and we got milk."

He made a cup of tea before joining her at the table.

"Whatever you're cooking smells wonderful."

"I think so."

"Don't mind the kids. They're tired and cranky."

Sara smiled. "I didn't."

"How long have you known The Doctor and this ship? Tara, you call her?"

"Aye. I've known the two for several years."

"You make it sound like the ship is a person."

"Aye. She's sentient, full of emotion and independent thinking."

Graham leaned in slightly. "Are you saying this ship is living?"

"Aye."

"Well, that wasn't something the good Doctor has ever mentioned."

"Aye." Sara sipped her drink.

"But I thought she was called Tardis."

"That's an acronym."

"Is her name Tara, then?"

"It's the name she chose, so yes, I guess."

"It's a good name. As is Sara."

Sara chuckled.

With a smile, Graham asked, "Say, I don't suppose you picked up any eggs, pickles, and bread, did you?"

"No, but I bet Tara can help us get them."

Graham smiled. "I hope so. I get rather spent running around an entire day or better without so much as a crumb. I think it's time I start planning ahead."

"I've been told adventurin' does that. Let's see what Tara can do. Tara, would you help Graham make his sandwich?"

A different sound came from the walls. Sara nodded.

"She's working on it. Tell me, Graham, how did you, and the other two, end up with The Doctor?"

Graham chuckled as he leaned back in his chair and began telling his story of meeting the woman who fell from the sky.