Suddenly, he was awake – but didn’t know why. The room was a blur, his head filled with a thousand incoherent thoughts. But then, his senses attuned to his constant portent of doom, the distinctive sonorous tolling of the cloister bell reverberating throughout the TARDIS, somehow far sadder and more foreboding than normal. His hearts sank. He could never grow accustom to it, heaping the burdens of the Universe upon his solitary shoulders once more. He squeezed his fingers through his tired old eyes, simultaneously exhaling a sign of resigned inevitability. “Time waits for no man…”, a sad thought accompanied by a wry smile, so poignant, passed through his mind. “How did it come to this ?”, he wondered. All those lifetimes ago, he’d run away on some crazy, wild-eyed adventure, he never wanted to be the story. He had wanted to observe, to learn, to be excited by the infinity of it all. Only his burden remained endless. Reluctantly, he slowly heaved himself off his bed as a man of 2000 years showing his age for once.
The console room was dim, a faint greyish, unworldly glow from the control panels. Whilst the clangour continued, the time rotor was stationary, indicating that where-ever they were heading, that had already arrived, but the destination was simply listed as “UNKNOWN.”
“UNKNOWN.” He read, disbelieving. “How can you not know where we are with that sodding bell clanging away!” Rolling his eyes as he chastised her, but the machine remained her usual uncommunicative self. “Don’t you worry,” the Doctor retorted in sarcastic tones, “I’ll figure it out…” He strode purposefully towards the door, collecting his jacket as he went, thrusting his arms into the sleeves in turn. He gave her a brief backward glance as he departed, “And I’m picking the next holiday!”
As his eyes focussed on the new world before him, his mood sank further. He knew where they were, of course he knew. He felt as if he knew it as soon as he’d heard that wretched bell! That feeling in your bones, the tingling in your fingers and toes when you return home after so many years. But it wasn’t the home he knew – he saw that at first glance. Something had happened, something so terrible it made him sick to the stomach, twisting away inside him.
Gallifrey.
The console room was dim, a faint greyish, unworldly glow from the control panels. Whilst the clangour continued, the time rotor was stationary, indicating that where-ever they were heading, that had already arrived, but the destination was simply listed as “UNKNOWN.”
“UNKNOWN.” He read, disbelieving. “How can you not know where we are with that sodding bell clanging away!” Rolling his eyes as he chastised her, but the machine remained her usual uncommunicative self. “Don’t you worry,” the Doctor retorted in sarcastic tones, “I’ll figure it out…” He strode purposefully towards the door, collecting his jacket as he went, thrusting his arms into the sleeves in turn. He gave her a brief backward glance as he departed, “And I’m picking the next holiday!”
As his eyes focussed on the new world before him, his mood sank further. He knew where they were, of course he knew. He felt as if he knew it as soon as he’d heard that wretched bell! That feeling in your bones, the tingling in your fingers and toes when you return home after so many years. But it wasn’t the home he knew – he saw that at first glance. Something had happened, something so terrible it made him sick to the stomach, twisting away inside him.
Gallifrey.
