The Story of Sally Armstrong (Doctor Who)

Chapter 8

"I don't understand,  why can't you teach me how to fly this thing?" Sally followed him around the center conceal. 

He stopped what he was doing to turn and face her that almost caused her to walk right into him.  "This thing is one of the most sophisticated technologies in all of time and space and is the single most important thing I own.  And I will not have you calling my TARDIS a thing! And two; I'm not some idiot who thinks a reasonable way to fix a TARDIS is with the blunt end of a hammer. And—"

"What does me flying a TARDIS have to do with hitting it with a hammer?" Sally eyed him, brow twitching.

His eyes widened as she spoke "Do not interrupt me!  And that's not the point. The point is it is a very precise machinery and I'm not going to just let anyone touch her," he said, sounding more irritated by the second.

"Her?" She found herself giggling at this.

"It, it," he began. "It is a precise machinery."

"Well then, show me the basics if you can't show me everything. Maybe just show me how to open the door?" she didn't let him waver her. She stood in front of him smiling at him as he scowled at her. 

"It's not that easy. You can't just open the door. There are things you must do first. You have no idea what is out there or even if the air is safe to breathe." As he went on, she turned at the controls. And started touching some of them. "Stop that! Are you not listening to a word I have said? You can't just—" Then he stopped as she watched what she was doing.

"This one is to turn on the monitor, right?" she asked as the monitor came on. "And these right here, they are the readings of the air and the environment?" she pointed to a second monitor that had a bunch of circles on she couldn't read.

He stretched out his hand to reach for the monitor with the circles sprawled across it, leaning over so he was within inches of Sally. "And I suppose next you'll be saying you can read Gallifreyan?" She ignored the smugness of his smile, moving her face an inch closer to prove some kind of the point, or so that's what she told herself.

"Well, I guess my evil plan is to learn how to fly your ship and still it is foiled. I guess I'll be stuck with you." His face froze for a moment before pulling a lever on the console. The door flung open as a smile formed back on his face.

"That's how you open the doors for the console." He pulled away from where he was standing, making it to the opposite side from were Sally was standing. "There are also a few things I like to put into place before leaving my TARDIS, I always have things set up, but I don't know. I just feel safer knowing they are in place when I leave." And he began to show her how to activate some of them.  "The security provisions and the doors, that's it. Just because I can see that it may be useful for you to know the basics of the TARDIS."