-0-
"Was it really necessary for you to hit him like that, Jenny?" Romana asked in exasperation as she helped manhandle her old friend into his old Type-40 TARDIS. She looked around the TARDIS console room with a wistful gaze, remembering the good times and the bad she'd had when she'd travelled with him.
"I was getting tired of speaking to him, at the same time I didn't think he'd help," Jenny replied as she too looked around the TARDIS.
The moment she walked inside, the Doctor's TARDIS burbled and hummed brighter than ever.
Narvin looked around in amazement. "She likes you," he said.
"What do you mean? I know TARDISes are supposed to be sentient, but I never imagined one showing this type of emotion," Noah commented.
"The Doctor's TARDIS is rather sentimental," Romana flashed the time rotor a cheeky smile before she left the Doctor on a couch. With that, she hurried to the console and she was setting the controls. "Mm, good. The Doctor's found a way of sneaking to and from Gallifrey without being detected."
"How's he managed that?"
"He's simply jumping the timelines. It's more power intensive, but it works," Romana said and she began setting the controls, "Are you sure you want to do this, get to Gallifrey and steal a TARDIS?"
Jenny nodded. The four of them had spoken with each other at length about what they needed to do. The bottom line was, while Jenny was good in a fight and Noah was a genius - by other races' standards - they simply didn't belong here, and Romana and Narvin were needed to form a frontline resistance against the Time Lords and the Daleks.
Romana and Narvin had both expressed their wishes she could do more for the resistance, but Jenny had refused. She didn't want to be in the Time War anymore, where she would be used as bait. The Daleks, upon learning of her, had tried to get after her and kill her. They had very nearly killed them all just a week before.
"It's the only way, and then we can escape from this war," Jenny said, "we don't belong here, Romana. Noah and me, are from a different time in the universe, a time where the Time Lords no longer exist, and he's the only one left." She added, looking down at the Doctor's prone body. She looked up as a burst of inspiration hit her. "Romana, do you think it's possible for you to sound out how many Time Lords and refugees might want to escape from the Time War?"
"I might do, why?" Romana asked.
"What if we can all escape through the same crack that brought us here?" Jenny asked excitedly.
"And go out into the Post-Time War universe?" Narvin caught on as well.
"Yeah," Jenny nodded as she looked between them and her father's eighth incarnation. "If you can find other Time Lords and refugees, then we can get them out of the Time War, like a railroad."
"A railroad?" Narvin wasn't familiar with the term.
"Yeah, Noah and I came across a few of them on Earth; when they had slavery before it was abolished, there used to be secret and hidden escape routes with different cover stories, tunnels, that kind of thing. What if we find dozens of people trapped in the war and give them a chance to live anew in the Post-Time War universe?" Jenny asked.
"The only flaw I see with the idea, Jenny, is Rassilon. He's bound to catch wind of it."
"No, not unless we're quick," Romana smirked.
-0-
In one of the TARDIS hangers, docks, landing bays, whatever the Time Lords called them, Romana and Narvin took Jenny and Noah to them. They had just arrived on the planet in secret, but the moment they arrived Jenny and Noah had been brought down here because what Romana and Narvin and to do would take forever.
And besides, the Time Lords were time travellers; they could easily jump time tracks and arrive after whatever TARDIS Jenny took, so the young girl wasn't worried once they'd explained it to her.
"Here, take your pick," she said.
Jenny was strapped for choice as she and Noah looked at the numerous TARDISes; she was more than aware TARDISes could change their appearance to fit in with their surroundings. She knew it was to disguise their presence at different times, but Jenny hadn't expected this display. It was like the TARDISes were showing off.
Jenny walked around the bay, 'listening' to the various songs from the different TARDISes before she found one that was reaching out, calling for her. The door opened.
Romana gasped. "Remarkable," she hissed.
"I've never seen that before," Narvin agreed.
"I know TARDISes can choose their favoured pilots, but I've never seen anything like it before," Romana had more experience than either of them in how wilful a TARDIS can be.
Jenny heard the conversation but she didn't care.
She had waited a long time for this moment. Space travel and vortex manipulators were good and all, but Jenny had been hoping for a chance to get a TARDIS of her own. She had hoped the TARDIS disguised as a planetoid Dorium had planted his base on was more than enough for her, but the TARDIS had been old and tired and dying; she had gotten the impression the old TARDIS had wished she could travel with Jenny, but the young Time Lady knew the TARDIS was too exhausted and wanted to die.
Followed by Noah, Jenny walked inside her new TARDIS, and Romana followed with Narvin in tow.
"This is a Type 63, Jenny; it's an antique like the Doctor's," Narvin commented.
"Maybe Dad and I have good taste," Jenny chuckled with a wink before she patted the console. It lit up and hummed louder in gentle welcome. "You are the most beautiful thing I've ever known!"
-0-
Jenny wasn't able to stop herself from running her hands over the console of her new TARDIS. Noah was by her side as they watched on the scanner the small fleet of TARDISes. It was amazing how many there were. There were at least a thousand of them, each one carrying thousands of Time Lords, with collections of Time Lord knowledge, genetic material and other TARDISes.
They had travelled in the Time Vortex when they had suddenly detected the presence of other TARDISes following in their wake; according to her new TARDIS (WOW, she loved the sound of that!), the Time Lords had jumped time tracks after her, before they'd passed through into the Post-Time War universe.
"There they go," Noah remarked before he turned to Jenny.
"Yeah," Jenny replied.
"How long do you reckon it will take the Time Lords to adjust to this new time?" Noah asked. "I mean from what we learnt about them, they have a black hole as a power source; do you think they can replicate that and still monitor the timelines?"
Jenny honestly didn't know. "I think that the Time Lords we brought through will have to deal with a stripped-down civilisation, Noah," she replied sadly. "The good thing is the kind of Time Lords we brought in. I dunno what my view of them was before I met the likes of Rassilon, but I'm glad I met Romana and Narvin. I only hope they chose Time Lords like themselves, and not those who turned their noses up at everything."