Short 4 - The TARDIS and the Doctor

I watched Abby enter her apartment, contented from a week's impromptu vacation seeing sights across the Multiverse (and our unplanned adventure on Layom Station). I returned to the TARDIS and shifted it back into the Time Vortex to pick up Janias and Camilla after what I hoped to be a refreshing week off for them.

As I fiddled with the TARDIS controls I noticed a light come on beside me. I looked at it and tried to think of what it was connected to.

"Hello."

The voice made me turn in surprise. I faced a young woman, almost a teenager from how young she looked, wearing a pink shirt with the words "GEEK PRINCESS" written in purple on the front. Her purple skirt went down to her knees and pink slippers rounded out her attire. Bright hazel eyes looked at me and dimples formed on her mouth as she smiled. "Hello Doctor."

I stared. "Caterina?", I asked.

You see, I had seen this girl before, but I had not. I say both because she had, up until that point, only existed in my head, a character made for stories. Ironically, stories that just happened to be about 21st Century people traveling the Multiverse, albeit in "normal" starships and not a TARDIS.

The connection was, I suppose, fairly obvious.

"That is the name you gave this form," the girl answered. She looked down at her hands. "I liked her, so I picked her appearance. I wanted to talk to you."

And then it hit me. It had never occurred to me, honestly, that this TARDIS may have differences to the Doctor's TARDIS. I had apparently found one. "You're the TARDIS?", I asked, incredulous.

"Yes," she answered, her smile growing wider. She came up to me and embraced me. "And you are my Doctor."

"But... I'm not a real... I mean, I was Human, I was turned into a Time Lord, and I took the name from another..."

She nodded and brought her arms back from the hug. "Yes, all of that is true. But you're still my Doctor. A Doctor of my very own!" She made an enthusiastic little hop.

It was a holographic construct, but a very good one. I could feel warmth when I settled a hand on her shoulder. "I knew you were alive, but I never imagined you could do this."

"I'm different from the old TARDIS you think of. I'm made to be this way." She considered me closely. "I've been having so much fun with you, my Doctor. You take me to so many places!"

A thought entered my head. I asked, "Why did you pick Caterina as your appearance? You said you liked her."

"Yes. In your mind, she is... me. She wants to see everything and is excited by even the smallest of new discoveries." "Cat" smiled at that. "You make her so joyful at finding new things, so curious! Just like me!"

So that was that. My TARDIS was apparently a wanderlusting and relatively young unit.

I still had questions. "When you say I'm 'your' Doctor, do you mean you know of the original one?"

"Oh yes, of course. And now I get to have a Doctor too!" She grinned widely. "So, where are we going next?"

"Well, I do have to pick up the girls. And after that... who knows?" Having answered her question I felt another finally burst through the sheer volume of the ones I wanted to ask. "Do you know who did this to me, Cat?"

The smile faded. She had to shake her head. "I am unable to tell you."

"As in you don't know or you won't tell?", I asked, my voice laced with suspicion.

"I am incapable of providing the answer," she said, her eyes lowered. "I do not know if the information is simply locked down or if it does not exist. I am sorry."

I let out a sigh of frustration and anger. I needed to learn more and yet another avenue was closed to me.

The TARDIS' eyes glanced upward. "You... you're still going to take me places, right? I was kept alone for so long, I just want to travel with you. Will you still be my Doctor?"

For a holographic avatar of a self-aware ship that could go through time and space, she was surprisingly, well, human as I looked at her and saw her vulnerability, her bewilderment, her terror that I would turn her down. I got the feeling this was a very young TARDIS, one that had been confined for her entire existence.

I smiled softly at her. "Of course I will. There are so many places we have yet to visit."

I got a smile in reply to that. "Thank you."

"Of course, I have to ask... Are you going to take me where I want to go or where I need to go?"

The TARDIS winked at me with Caterina's adorable face. She faded from view at that point.

I let out a laugh. "Good answer. Okay, time to pick up the lovebirds."

I materialized the TARDIS on the Hot Springs planet and within moments the doors flew open. Janias and Camilla ran in carrying their bags and huffing like mad, their one-piece swimsuits showing signs of being involved in a lot more than swimming given the small tears and frayed edges. "Quick, Doctor!" Janias looked back out the door. In the distance I could see people with big guns of some kind rushing our way.

"Oi, what did you now?!" I reached to my controls and shifted the TARDIS away.

Janias plopped the bags on the floor. "Well, there was this pirate guy running around..."

"...and something about..."

"...this red-haired guy had a gun that fired projectiles that used the Force..."

"...and the cat lady almost..."

By the time they regained their breath and got through their story... the gist of it was something to do with space pirates and hijinks involving the crew of the vessel Outlaw Star. I tried not to laugh. "And here I was hoping that my staying far away would prevent you girls from facing such craziness."

"I need a vacation from that vacation," Janias groaned, collapsing to a seat on one of the stairs leading up to the corridors leading into the TARDIS.

"Yes, well, I'll think of something," I promised. "A nice visit to Disney Planet, perhaps."

For a brief moment, I heard a giggle that seemed to come from nowhere. And I smiled, resting my hand on the control. That I knew no more about what had happened to me didn't matter to me, not compared to just what she was.

She was my TARDIS. I was her Doctor.

And we had a Multiverse to explore.