Guardian

by Nacanaca

Gallifrey is on the brink of war, a war which is slowly spiraling out of their control. Three young Gallifreyans must choose to either watch as their planet falls apart or to find a way to escape into the unknown before the Last Great Time War traps them in its web of paradoxes. But how long can they run before the Time War catches up to them?

8. Console

Angelo paced, unable to overcome his restlessness. He liked the ship and he knew its halls well, but some more regimented part of him refused to be limited to the walls and halls and admittedly pretty cool book collections. No matter how much he liked them, he felt certain that there was a certain part of the day that should be reserved for walking nowhere, so he did. He paced about the TARDIS console room until TARDIS sat him down and asked him what he thought he was going to achieve by marching around like that for hours on end, or if there was at least something other than that that he wanted to do.

Angelo shrugged. When looking up at the screen of the TARDIS console from the jumpseat, the neatly printed words didn't seem to offer much other than neatly organized rooms, a small world that looked like it had never been lived in, trying to be inviting, trying to care.

"Would you like to go somewhere?" she wrote.

He nodded, not quite sure what she meant.

"Where would you like to go?"

"Where can I go?" the boy asked.

"Anywhere."

"Anywhere?"

"And anywhen."

He looked at the console for a moment, confused, then he smiled, his eyes alight. "The algorithm!" he exclaimed. "Did it work, did you get the flight codes?" He was leaning forward now, anxiously awaiting the words that would come next.

The word was yes.

Angelo's smile lit the room. "I want to see the stars!" he blurted. "I want to see the stars and the open sky and cities made of crystal without a crack in their walls and oceans so deep you can't touch the bottom with creatures so strange… I want to see everything!"

The timeship felt for a moment that she had found a kindred spirit, another person who yearned to fly.

"...But technically speaking that would be illegal in more ways than one…"

The moment was over, but the timeship was quite sure that she could change his mind.

The engines revved, the switches flipped, and the air hummed with excitement as the ship rushed off to the open sky, leaving the Citadel's cracked dome behind in search of something not only better, but fantastic.