The Time Ship.
Gallifrey.
The TARDIS control room was arranged in two ways; the first was the console in the centre of the room, with the time rotor in the centre of the room. The console was arranged in a circle, with panels separated from each other. On the wall and on the console monitor with the dematerialisation-navigation panel, were the scanners that allowed Harry to see outside his ship. The dematerialisation - navigation panel had on it mounted a computer that people from 21st century Earth was an Apple Mac PC, with a keyboad mounted on the panel. This simple looking panel allowed Harry to set the controls for anyplace in time and space he wished to head for. With the computer, Harry could program a dematerialisation and rematerialisation within a second of each other, the more advanced space-time drive compared to the early time machines he'd constructed superflous compared to the instantaneous movement through space-time, though Harry also had the option of programming for a gradual flight as well. To the right of the demat panel was the master control panel, and next to that was the communications panel. The exterior monitoring panel was covered in gauges that measured light, gravity, atmosphere and air toxicity. They may have looked primitive, but each of the dials were in fact linked to the TARDIS monitoring computer, which sampled the air outside the exterior shell. The defensive panel controlled the programming for all TARDIS defence systems - the forcefield that protected the outershell, the interior systems protection grid which stopped people from simply waltzing inside the time machine and so on. The environmental panel controlled the lights, temperature, gravity and the life support systems within the time ship. The informational panel, like the dematerialisation panel, boasted a Mac computer, though this one was built into the panel itself for easy viewing.
The console room itself was shaped roughly like a seashell, with alcoves and rooms ajoining the console room. There were bookshelves with books neatly arranged, with paintings and medieval tapestries arranged on the walls. Timepieces, each one polished and hung on the walls next to an ancient grandfather clock, showed in tandem the time passing inside the ship. One of Harry's greatest and most proudest pieces was the Harrison lesser watch. Greek and Roman, and a few alien, statues and sculptures dotted the room, with swords - Roman, Chinese, Japanese, all through the centuries with suits of armour neatly arranged, taking their place as sentinels. One wall had a collection of CDs, vinyl records, and there was even an old gramaphone player in the corner. Some of the walls were covered in movie posters framed and mounted, proudly joining Harry's collection. Towards one section of the console room was a table and chairs, with a chessboard that was more for show than for an actual game, with a leather armchair in front of a Television set with a matching couch joining it opposite, all nice and tucked out of sight of the console itself. The television was attuned to the TARDIS, and with it Harry was able to tune into any point of history, as well as catch a hockey match.
The rooms ajoining the TARDIS led to the bedrooms, dining room and kitchen, and towards the garden where Harry could grow his own fruit and veg in a contained environment without worrying about rain or snow, though on occasion Harry did allow the sprinklers built into the ceiling panels which produced artificial sunlight to douse the crops. In the garden was an orchard, where he grew apples, plums, pears, bananas, oranges, and cherries, with carrots, cauliflowers, lettuces, potatoes and flowers all lovingly arranged. There were even a few beehives in the vast garden, which helped pollinate the room and also promoted growth.
Harry himself had been travelling in the TARDIS for as long as thirty years already, and yet he looked no older than 17 years old. Dressed in a blue shirt and black trousers with matching trainers, a black jacket draped over a chair waiting for it to be picked up again, Harry was dressed simply and not extravagantly. In fiction, the writers always had the time travellers dressed as if they were going to a ball.
A door opened, and Harry smiled as Natalie, his fellow traveller came from the wardrobe. Natalie and Harry had met in London 2056, and she was as bright as Harry was, though she probably couldn't understand the workings of the TARDIS. Harry admired her for her beauty, and her intelligence. She was as tall as he was, only she came up to the base of his neck. She had a roundish face, grey eyes with long brunette hair. She loved experimenting with the various clothes in the TARDIS, ranging from mixing 60s clothes with those of the 90s, not that Harry minded.
Natalie had been working as a nurse in a hospital where she discovered a hidden government experiment, they had wanted to experiment on the patients with a new kind of drug, and they had tried to kill Natalie before she was saved by Harry, who was also investigating the hospital. With his help she was able to understand that the drug, although it worked to a degree also killed the patient. They stopped the drug and exposed the evil scum behind it. Disgusted by how people experimented on the sick, Natalie started travelling with Harry, hoping to gain a better understanding of the universe.
" You look rested, after that little...incident on Peladon." He commented.
Natalie grimaced. The planet Peladon had always been a turbulent place, but in the last hundred years since they joined a Galactic Federation, the place had become even more hazardous, especially when there was a new King, who'd taken a fancy to Natalie, much to Harry's consternation. Harry had been too busy stopping an attempted assassination of an important government figure to stop it, only to find that the King himself wanted the assassinations to strengthen his own power base. Harry had stopped the plot, but he also needed to comfort Nat, who understandably felt betrayed by her feelings. Harry couldn't blame her, she'd been taken in. He knew how it felt to be betrayed by feelings; he felt betrayed by his parents and the knowledge they had abandoned him the way they had. He would never forgive them for that, and to tell Natalie it was her fault she'd been taken in so easily like that was hypocritical on his part.
It had been a fortnight since their trip to Peladon, and the TARDIS had been wandering aimlessly through time and space, but Natalie hoped they were heading for somewhere they would be able to relax. " Where are we going?" Natalie asked.
" The TARDIS has picked up temporal flux in the past, over 10 million years or so." Harry replied, his frown not leaving his face. As a matter of curiosity, he'd travelled to some of the largest temporal distortions where species attempted to travel through time and space, but this was different. Those races were playing, almost as though they had a gallon of nitroglycerine with a sledgehammer nearby, but this one was more refined.
Natalie saw his concentration, and she fought against her curiosity. No contest. " What is it?"
Harry glanced up at her. " Hmm?"
" Why the frown?"
Harry sighed. " Most races experimenting with time travel employ a sledgehammer approach, this one's different. Its both crude and yet its well thought through."
" Are we gonna take a look?" Natalie asked, a grin on her face. She loved travelling and seeing different aliens.
Harry laughed. " Of course." He started setting the controls.
When the TARDIS landed on the planet, neither traveller left the ship. Harry didn't want to leave the ship, not with the time distortions out there. Natalie watched him impatiently, but knowing he wasn't going to budge when in this mood.
" Atmosphere's breathable."
Natalie jumped up in joy. Harry opened the doors of the time machine, and they stepped out. " Binary suns," he remarked, gazing up at the sky. A brilliant and vibrant orange, the sky seemed to be on fire. Natalie pointed, " Snow capped mountains, red grass."
" Everything seems red here, like on Earth everything seems both blue and green. I personally prefer green." Harry replied.
The two left the TARDIS behind them and walked gingerly down the hill. " What do you think's causing those time distortions?" Natalie asked.
" I don't know. This one seems to be developing, similar to the way computers on our world were made."
" So for these people, their computer evolution is in time travel?"
Harry chuckled. " Yeah."
As they trudged through the valley, near two mountains, Natalie pointed, " Look, a city!"
Harry looked where Natalie's hand was pointing. The city was a cross between a Roman city and a futuristic mega city. It looked both ancient and modern at the same time with magnificent towers and statues the two travellers could barely see. The city had the same colour scheme as the planet, a reddish colour, though some of the towers were a silvery colour.
Harry glanced back at Natalie, who shrugged. " Let's go."
Before either of them could go closer, two people stepped out from behind a rock. Natalie and Harry stopped as well, but there was nothing they could do, it happened so fast. One of the figures raised a device, and there was a flash of light, then darkness...
Now they're on Gallifrey, what happens next?