The Orphan in the TARDIS

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Right, what d'you want us to do?"

Sandshoes smiles at her. "You think you could get all of me to turn up? Give us a hand?"

She weighs her options for a moment, "Yeah, I don't see why not. It'll take a few minutes."

He bounces up and down, "Yeah, yeah, okay. You can handle that from the TARDIS."

"Which one?"

The three Time Lord's turn to glance at each other, seemingly having a silent conversation. After a few moments in silence, the Warrior turns to look at her, "Mine, come on."

She shrugs, smiling at the other Doctors, following the youngest into his TARDIS. She pulls her cell phone out, quickly dialing speed dial two. It rings for a few moments, before the phone is picked up.

"Hello?" the Time Lord says, she recognizes the voice as the youngest of the Doctor's

"Heya, Doc. Sorry, hate to bother you, but we could use your help on Gallifrey. Maybe just tell the TARDIS, she'll take you here when we need. I really don't feel like calling all of you."

"Yes, alright. See you soon?"

"Yep!" she cheers, before quickly hanging up. She shoves her phone back into her pocket. "There you go? How's your plan coming?"

"Nearly there."

***

A little less than ten minutes later, the three TARDIS' open a linked channel to call to the Gallifreyan War Room. Sophie stands behind the Warrior, gazing at the monitor in front of them. The oldest Doctor is the first to start speaking, "Hello, hello, Gallifrey High Command, this is the Doctor speaking."

"Hello! Also the Doctor," Sandshoes follows. "Can you hear me?"

"Also the Doctor, standing ready," the youngest Time Lord finishes. His claim of being the Doctor causes Sophie to grin.

"Dear God," a voice sighs, "three of them. All my worst nightmares at once."

Pinstripes stares into the monitor, his brown eyes sparkling in the lights of his TARDIS, "General, we have a plan."

"We should point at this moment, it is a fairly terrible plan," Bow tie states.

"And almost certainly won't work," Sandshoes adds.

"I was happy with fairly terrible."

"Sorry," he shrugs, "just thinking out loud."

"We're flying our three Tardises into your lower atmosphere," the oldest Gallifreyan informs.

"We're positioned at equidistant intervals around the globe. Equidistant. So grown up."

"We're just about ready to do it," the Warrior says, turning to glance at Sophie, who smiles happily at him.

"Ready to do what?" the General asks.

"We're going to freeze Gallifrey," his oldest self says.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Using our Tardises, we're going to freeze Gallifrey in a single moment in time," Pinstripes continues.

"You know, like those stasis cubes? A single moment in time, held in a parallel pocket universe," the War Doctor explains.

"Except we're going to do it to a whole planet," the eldest says.

"And all the people on it," Sandshoes continues.

What? Even if that were possible, which it isn't, why would you do such a thing?"

"Because the alternative is burning," Bow tie starts, being followed by his younger self once again.

"And I've seen that."

"And I never want to see it again," Chinny finishes.

"We'd be lost in another universe, frozen in a single moment. We'd have nothing," the General grumbles.

"You would have hope. And right now, that is exactly what you don't have."

"It's delusional. The calculations alone would take hundreds of years."

"Oh, hundreds and hundreds, but he's been working on it a long, long time. And he's got me," Sophie smirks, leaning into view of the monitor.

The General's eyes widen, "Sophia. I thought you weren't supposed to ever come back to Gallifrey."

"Maybe not, but I've never really been one to follow the rules. Learned that from my best friend." At that moment other TARDIS' begin to swarm in around the three ships already there. "Ah, would you look at that. Right on time, which is surprising, even with their time machines."

The General looks terrified, as he gazes up at the monitors. Over the monitor link, the voices of many Doctor's begin to drift through, most of them male, but Sophie can make out a few female voices in the mix as well.

"Sir!" the other Time Lord in the War Room calls, interrupting the Doctor's, "The Daleks know that something is happening. They're increasing their fire power."

"Do it, Doctor. Just do it. Just do it."

"Okay. Gentlemen," Chinny starts, before Sophie interrupts.

"And ladies." She's met with blank faces on the screen, "Sorry," she grimaces, "spoilers."

"Right, Gentlemen, and ladies, we're ready." He grabs a lever, flipping it with a fervour, "Geronimo!"

"Allons-y!" Pinstripes says, flipping a lever of his own.

"Oh, for God's sake," the Warrior grumbles. He looks over at Sophie, rolling his eyes. Grabbing a large lever of his own, he states, "Gallifrey stands!"

The TARDIS' all converge around the planet, as all the monitors fill with a bright white light.