Fairytales and TARDIS'es
Chapter Five
Fairytale's and TARDIS'es
Harry awoke once more feeling frightened and confused. He was still lying in a soft bed, and he wasn’t hurting anymore. It had been so long since he had not felt in constant pain. Not since Daddy and New Mummy had gone away.
He looked around the room to where the tall man who felt like fire, ice, warm, cold and so much between was sat. This was the man who told him he was his Dad! Dad to Harry meant tall, wild black hair, glasses but he was gone!
There was a woman beside “Dad?” who felt bright – warm, light, fiery, full of emotions and concern. She was so different to the cool-ice minds of those who surrounded him usually, of those who hurt him.
She smiled at him when he looked.
There was an older woman who was sat beside him. She had the same feelings as the younger woman, but they were more muted in some ways but sharper in other ways. She too smiled at him as he looked at her eyes warm but sad.
The man had come to sit beside him, ‘hi, Harry, how are you feeling?’
Harry touched the man’s face feeling his emotions come to life. Harry projected his own feelings into the man’s head. The man smiled at him as he did so, Harry continued back thoughts of relief and the sentence the man had uttered last night “you are safe here, I’ll protect you”.
‘Good, I’m glad,’ the man said aloud. ‘And, of course, I’ll protect you.’
‘What?’ the older woman said.
‘Time Lords are slightly telepathic,’ whispered the younger woman. ‘They’re communicating with each other.’
The older woman looked horrified, ‘you haven’t used any your mind voodoo on me.’
The man chuckled, ‘of course not, Jackie, I wouldn’t dare to go into your mind.’
‘Good,’ Jackie said. ‘Wait was that an insult.’
The younger woman rolled her eyes, ‘Doctor! Mum, look at them, they are in physical contact which is how Time Lord telepathy works.’
Jackie nodded, ‘good.’
Harry watched the three of them with fascination. They responded to each other so different than anyone else around him in years. It reminded him of the way mummy and daddy and Paddy and Moony and Wormy were with each other.
He missed them.
“Dad?” smiled at him, ‘these are my friends Jackie and Rose Tyler. They are good people. You can trust them.’
Harry yawned.
‘You’re tired,’ Dad said. ‘Go back to sleep. I’ll tell you a story. On a planet far, far way, where the twin suns shone making the grass glow red in the dying light, there was a young Time Tot, probably about your age. They were out running through the grasses and the silver oak trees where they came across a strange creature. It had eyes as red as the grass and hair as silver as the leaves on the trees and skin that glowed gold. It said I am a Toclafane and I have seen your future if you want me to tell it to you.
‘The young Time Tot knew they should say no. His Professors had warned them of the dangers of meddling in time and the consequences of knowing your own future. But they were a curious Time Tot and couldn’t resist the Toclafane’s temptation.
‘The Toclafane said I will tell you three parts of your future – your mind, your heart and your body. Firstly, your mind – you are a bright, young Time Lord who should be the Ruler of Gallifrey if you were not bested by the one you once called friend.’
Now the Time Tot who had great ambitions of one day being the President of Gallifrey was saddened to here, that would not be the case. And angry that someone they called friend would beat him. He wouldn’t let that happen they vowed.
‘Secondly, you are in love now and it is real and powerful, but your future does not lie with your lover. They will betray you and it will be many Regnerations before you find the one,’ the Toclafane said.
The Time Lord who was in love with their best friend was shaken to the core to find this out. They had so many plans together. And yet, it was not to be, because their love was due to betray them one day.
‘Thirdly, though this body will not stand the test of time, its death will occur in a violent collision between two TARDISes. That I have spoken, that will be true.’
‘So, the young Time Tot returned to the citadel and tried to forget the things that the Toclafane had spoken. But the Time Tot now no longer trusted their partner. They spent the days looking for the deceit they knew would follow. And one day their partner took comfort in another proving the Toclafane right.
‘Then came the time for their TARDIS exam and they refused to step one foot in the TARDIS and flunked the exam. Due to not being able to fly TARDISes the Celestial Intervention Agency rejected the Time Lord’s application leading the Time Lord to becoming nought but a low ranked city guard.
‘They rose through the ranks and one day ran for President against the one they had used to love. The Time Lord knew he would lose so didn’t bother trying to win. He didn’t prepare for debates, nor did he try to convince the votes. And he lost.
‘But here is the thing – did the Toclafane foretell what was to happen or did they make it happen? What if the Time Lord hadn’t listened to the Toclafane’s treacherous words? Would they have still driven away their love? Would they still have failed their exams? Would they have won the presidency? We will never know but should the time come, young Time Tot, to know your future be very wary of knowing too much because the knowledge may create the future.’
Harry yawned and was asleep within seconds of the story ending.
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The Doctor watched as his son fell asleep after the story that was what the Grandmothers at House Lungburrow when he was a little Time Tot. The same story that he had told to his granddaughter when she had first come to him. Alex, his great-grandson, was the last person he had told that story to.
‘Was that some sort of Time Lord Fairy Tale or fable or something?’ asked Rose softly.
‘Yes,’ the Doctor said softly. ‘I haven’t had reason to tell that story to in such a long time.’
‘It’s weird!’ Jackie said.
‘Fairytales always are,’ the Doctor said dryly. ‘Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretal for example. And, like your fairy tales ours too have a hidden meaning. If Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretal are warnings against trusting strangers, then the Time Tot and the Toclafane is warnings against meddling in your own future. A lot of our fairy tales have themes like that.’
‘You said he was your son – how?’ asked Rose.
‘I don’t know,’ admitted the Doctor. ‘I don’t think it’s happened for me yet.’
‘What are you talking about!?’ demanded Jackie.
‘I don’t know,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘Time Lords don’t always do things in the right order.
Grandfather first.
Then father.
All before ever fathering a child.
’His mother …’ the Doctor trailed off.
How did he explain the Master?
Or their relationship?
‘…well … I know him only as a male,’ admitted the Doctor. ‘But I don’t think I knew him all his regenerations so he could have a female form I was unaware of before … the end.’
‘Wait you can rejuvenate into a woman?’ demanded Jackie eyes popping.
The Doctor sighed, ‘regenerate, Jackie.’
‘That’s what I said,’ Jackie said.
‘But yes, it’s rare but it can happen,’ the Doctor said. ‘It’s easier for a female to turn into a male as females have three full-sized sex chromosomes whilst a male has one or two full sized and one or two small chromosomes. For a female to become male it means losing parts of the sex chromosomes whilst for a male to become a female it means gaining them. It is much easier to lose rather than gain.’
And the reason why Looms were used because females were so much rarer than males on Gallifrey after your first regeneration. And it was considered much like teenaged parenthood to have a child in your first regeneration before you knew your parents. House Lungburrow didn’t even let you adopt a Loom-Child in your first regeneration and natural born children were considered a mark of bad decision making.
‘Huh,’ Jackie said.
‘Yes, a Time Lord male can become a Time Lord female,’ the Doctor said with a sigh.
Rose squeezed his hand, ‘and not the point. Is there any chance he could have survived?’
The Doctor started, ‘if there was anyone who could then it would be him … but I would know it. I would feel it.’
Plus, there was no way the Master would resist causing him trouble for too long.
Rose’s eyes softened, ‘so what are we going to do?’
‘We?’ asked the Doctor.
‘I told you that I’m going to stay with you forever,’ Rose said softly. ‘And that means helping you raise your son.’
‘Helping me raise a child that’s a big commitment,’ the Doctor said softly. ‘Harry won’t be fully grown until he’s a hundred – another seventy-five years.’
Rose would likely never see that.
The Doctor didn’t like the think about that!
‘Then you are going to need help,’ Rose said.
Jackie nodded, ‘raising a child on your own is hard, take the help when it is offered.’
The Doctor looked at strong, brave, kind, caring Rose Tyler. The woman who had managed to make him feel happy again in a time when he thought he would never feel happy again. The woman who had won a place in both of his hearts.
The woman he could never deny.
The woman he loved.
But he could never say that.
And he looked the woman who had raised her on her own.
He nodded, ‘thank you. Well, firstly, I am going to take a seed from the TARDIS and find a safe place for it to grow where there are no people but there are the correct energies for it to grow. It will take about a hundred years – maybe more because conditions won’t be the same as the grasslands of Gallifrey where they were grown but it will mean that Harry will have TARDIS when he is older.’
‘What does it need?’ asked Jackie. ‘Homebase has a good range of fertilisers.’
The Doctor snorted, ‘no Jackie it needs Time Energy.’
‘Where are you going to get that?’ asked Rose.
‘Somewhere that time and space energy leaks,’ the Doctor said. ‘A tear in space-time reality.’
‘A rift,’ Rose said. ‘Cardiff.’
‘What are you two talking about?’ demanded Jackie.
‘A Rift in Time and Space is a tear in reality,’ the Doctor explained. ‘Usually, caused by a massive spatial-temporal event.’
The Time War.
It was over.
But it had left scars on the fabric of reality.
Cardiff was not the only one of its kind.
‘It connects different times and places together,’ continued the Doctor after taking a breath. ‘It also leaks chronal energy. Gallifrey grew up under one – the Kasterborous Rift located in the space just above Gallifrey – and Time Lords and much of the life on Gallifrey were affected by the radiation. Its why we can regenerate and are so sensitive to the flow of time. It is how TARDISes were grown there.’
‘Well, where are you going to find one of those?’ asked Jackie.
‘Cardiff!’ The Doctor and Rose said together.
And then grinned at each other.
‘Cardiff!’ Jackie said incredulously. ‘You’re going to grow a time-machine in Cardiff!’
‘Of course not,’ snapped the Doctor. ‘There’s too many people and dangers around. I can’t risk a juvenile TARDIS in modern day Cardiff. And quite frankly it wouldn't fit in Cardiff.'
'But it's a box,' Jackie said.
'Only it's outer dimensions,' the Doctor replied. 'And before it's outer shell has fully formed a TARDIS'es inner dimensions can sprawl out for miles.'
'But the Rift exists throughout history due to the complicated space-time event that it is. As long as the location that is today called Cardiff, but the New Roman Empire will call it Taffort whilst the Ancient Romans called it the Fort of Didius – horrible man. Tried to have me executed. Well, he thought I was a Celtic spy.’
‘Oh, there’s a surprise,’ Jackie snorted.
‘Anyway, no I was planning to go to the Siderian era, 2.4 billion years in your planet’s past, during the beginning of the Oxygen Catastrophe,’ the Doctor said.
Jackie and Rose blinked at him blankly.
‘When Cyanobacteria started producing oxygen which produced your oxygen rich atmosphere,’ the Doctor explained. ‘Early on in the Siderian era where it had oxygen but lower than would eventually become and the land was dry and cool is similar to Gallifrey so the TARDIS will grow there easiest. The Rift or what would be Cardiff is present in centre of the supercontinent Kenorland.
‘There is no life on Earth more complex than Cyanobacteria and the Universe is still pretty young. Most of the early space faring races haven’t got very far from their own planets yet and would have no interest and barren, barely habitable planet. Even Gallifrey were still at war with the Racnoss and Omega and Rassilon hadn’t developed time travel yet. Yes, a TARDIS would be quite safe growing there.’
‘When did you decide that?’ asked Rose.
‘Oh, when I was watching him sleep,’ the Doctor. ‘If he’s anything like me he’ll want his own TARDIS. Or the Master for that matter. We were always rebels.’
‘Of course, you were,’ Rose grinned.
‘Could I have been anything else?’ chuckled the Doctor.
‘So, when will we be going?’ asked Rose.
‘Now,’ the Doctor said. ‘We’ll drop Jackie off first, of course.’
‘And after that,’ Jackie said. ‘What are your plans for raising him?’
‘I think we’ll have to stay somewhere more permanently I’ll have a think where,’ the Doctor said. ‘I’d like it to be a planet with similar childhood spans to us so he can fit in. Earth-schooling would not work long term – he ages too slowly. Or at least an intergalactic school that caters to different species.’
‘And will you be staying there?’ asked Jackie.
‘I don’t know,’ the Doctor said a little harsher than he had attended. ‘I don’t know, Jackie, I just don’t know. We’ll take it one day at a time. TARDISes are the easy part. But my first priority is him healing. We’ll likely stay on Earth whilst that happens.’
Jackie looked relieved to hear that.
They dropped Jackie off.
‘I don’t mind if we do settle further away from Earth,’ Rose said softly. ‘I mean we’d still visit Mum, frequently. I would hardly be the only person to settle away from home. Janine from school is doing a year abroad in Canada.’
The Doctor smiled, ‘yeah?’
‘Yeah,’ agreed Rose.
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The next time Harry woke up he was on his own. He felt fidgety and better than he remembered feeling since he was tiny, since his mummy and daddy fell down, since the strange man with red eyes came to his house.
Harry got out of bed.
He followed the warm feeling out of the room where he found a corridor. He followed the warm feeling out and found a round room with some sort of machine in the middle and a tall roof golden and glowing.
He felt the warmth surrounding him causing Harry to smile.
“Where are they?” Harry sent to the warm presence.
A door opened revealing a grey-red scene with blue skies. Harry couldn’t remember the last time he had seen the outside. He nervously took a step outside feeling the rough sand and rock beneath his bare feet. It felt nice.
Rose with her bright yellow hair was clear in the grey-red atmosphere. The mind of his “Dad?” was so strong and powerful in his mind. But there was something, something overwhelming, a presence that he felt was wrong.
Harry put a hand to his head and cried out as he fell to his knees.
“Dad?” looked around and saw him.
‘Oh, kid,’ he said.
“Dad?” was with him in seconds.
‘It’s wrong,’ Harry said voice hoarse.
‘That’s the rift in time and space,’ “Dad’s” voice was gentle as he picked Harry up. ‘I know it feels, uncomfortable, but look what we’re doing. He carried over to a patch of rock where a little glowing yellow-green thing was present.’
‘It’s a seedling from my TARDIS,’ the Doctor said softly. ‘We’ll have to tend to it and engineer it over the next century. But when you are an adult, you’ll have your own TARDIS, if you want it.’
Harry blinked.
‘Come on we’re done here let’s get back home,’ “Dad?” said softly.
“Dad?” picked him up and carried him back to the TARDIS with Rose following behind them. Harry leant his head against his chest smiling as he heard the double heartbeat of the man who said he was his father.
He looked out at the alien landscape so different than anything he had seen before. It was strangely beautiful even if it did make his head throb with the strange wrongness of it. It was nice to see something other than white rooms.
‘Beautiful,’ Harry said.
“Dad?” stopped and looked around.
‘Yes, it is,’ agreed Rose.
‘Yes, I suppose it is,’ agreed “Dad?”. ‘Would you like to see more?’
Harry nodded eagerly.
‘Okay, then let’s go,’ grinned “Dad”.
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The Doctor brought his son into the TARDIS and placed him on the seat. He was looking, a lot stronger but he had been badly hurt. But the Doctor wanted to show him the wonders of the universe. The wonders he hadn’t seen until he was about two hundred years old.
‘So where do we go?’ asked the Doctor. ‘Past or future?’
His son looked blankly at him.
His son who had seen nothing; past or future it was all the same to him.
‘Oh, how about the first of January 3000,’ the Doctor said. ‘The celebration of the new millennium. Weeklong fireworks display in the skies above earth. We can watch it from space.’
The Doctor landed them in the space just above Earth and flung open the doors and sat down with his legs swinging out of the door. Rose sat down beside him and his son following their example sat between them.
Everything was still for now the sight of the Earth which glowed green and blue with specks of light from the cities dotted around. It was as beautiful as it ever was with its continents only shifting mildly in the short thousand years.
‘Wow,’ the boy whispered hazel eyes wide.
The Doctor smiled, ‘it is, isn’t it. And it’s about to get even better.’
There were other spaceships coming to surround the Earth. Some obviously came from Earth but others the Doctor could tell were tourists wanting to see the Earthian spectacle. There would be humans watching from down below as well.
All coming together to see in the new millennia.
The first firework exploded into a blaze of red and green forming the shapes of apples, oranges, dragon fruit, malum and other fruit from Earth and elsewhere. The Doctor and Rose grinned at the sight of it. The boy jumped at the sound of the fireworks and was suddenly in his arms.
The Doctor winced he should have thought about that. His son had seen nothing but pain and despair in his short life. And he had brought him to a place full of fire and bangs and thought he would like it.
The Doctor had just wanted to show Harry something beautiful and amazing and non-threatening. He had thought a firework display would be fun. It was the kind of thing he had taken Susan to shortly after they had run away.
But the boy wasn’t Susan.
Susan was isolated and bullied at the Academy and judged harshly by the Council, but she had never felt threatened or hurt at least not whilst she was with him. His son had known nothing but pain and hurt and fear.
Taking him here was a mistake.
He should have taken him somewhere quiet.
A walk through the forests of Sheem maybe.
‘It’s okay,’ the Doctor said carding a hand through dark locks. ‘Nothing will hurt you. It’s just a light show. And it can’t get into the TARDIS.’
Rose moved close to him, so she was leaning against him.
‘Look,’ the Doctor said softly. ‘It’s just pictures in the skies. Look there’s sunflowers.’
‘It’s beautiful,’ Rose said softly.
‘Like Daddy used to do,’ the boy said.
‘Daddy?’ asked the Doctor surprised.
The boy nodded, ‘I loved him. He made lights appear. Then the monster came and made lights. Mummy and daddy fell, and I couldn’t feel them anymore.’
It was the most his son had said.
And it spoke of great personal tragedy.
But who were “mummy” and “daddy”?
Him?
The Master?
Or someone else?
The boy winced as the sky exploded into the man’s face with bright gold hair and bright blue eyes. The Doctor recognised him immediately as King Charles IV, the current King of Britain. The great-grandson of Queen Elizabeth X who had been exiled in a revolution. Not that he would last long on the throne before the Queen returned.
That would lead to the Civil War.
And the end of the monarchy of Britain.
‘That’s King Charles the fourth,’ the Doctor said. ‘The last King of Britain.’
His son just looked shocked.
‘I think that’s enough,’ Rose said softly.
The Doctor nodded, ‘let’s go home.’