The Sacred Garden

Chapter Two

Later on, Andred would jokingly blame it all on having had endured a second lunch in a row in the company of Maxell. When he came home that evening, frustrated, annoyed, and restless, Leela greeted him like a cat pouncing on its prey.

"Good, you're home. Let's go."

"Go? Go where?"

The light in her eyes made her look just a little fey. "I don't know. Anywhere. Somewhere – random."

Andred looked around for K9. He saw the automaton sitting in the living room flanked by Leela's suitcases. "This is Gallifrey," he said slowly. "There's nowhere to go."

"I know."

"Are you crazy?"

"I soon will be if I stay here. And so will you be if I stay with you. This is not a place where you and I, where we - can – be."

Andred's hearts both started pounding – twin emotions: excitement, terror. "I can't just leave! I am the Captain of the Chancellory Guards! I have responsibilities."

"Guards! Your talents are wasted here. Nothing ever happens!"

"Nothing?" He looked at her.

"Once in a lifetime, maybe. ..." she shrugged.

"Everything I know how to do is – here."

The self-doubt he only ever showed to her was suddenly naked in his face, and she knew she had him.

"You don't know yet what you can do."

Last night, he had finally told her about the coolness of his friends, the snickering innuendo from Maxell. It had made the decision before her suddenly bright and clear. The only place on Gallifrey she could be happy was Outside. But that was no place for Andred. In a TARDIS - wandering, but in a controlled environment - was the neutral space they needed. The only thing left to debate was how to get him to agree to come with her, quickly and painlessly. She had finally decided on shock treatment as the best course. He would think too much.

"What do you intend?" he asked desperately. "To find the Doctor?"

She shook her head. "I need no other traveling companion but you," she said firmly. "And K9."

Andred's breath hurt. "You have a way to do this?"

She grinned. "K9 does."

He leaned, collapsing, against the wall. "I – how long?"

"I cannot answer. How long do you think I can continue here?"

Like Andred, Rodan spent the largest portion of her working day staring at monitors on which nothing untoward ever appeared. She, however, worked alone in the traffic control center, seeing nobody except Kaylu and Befford, who worked the shifts before and after hers, respectively. She lived in East Citadel, in a block of single housing units referred to by the tenants as "The Ant Hill." The Ant Hill had no commons, and its rooms were connected by poky, restrictive hallways, discouraging socialization. Which is why Rodan had been assigned to live there.

Rodan had already been severely agoraphobic when she had gone to Academy, and she developed a whole subset of phobias while there – glossophobia first and foremost, which made class participation impossible. By the time she was a Third Year, and preparing for exams, her collection of bizarre fears - ranging from achluphobia (fear of the dark) to xanthophobia (fear of the color yellow) – were so crippling she was nearly immobile. On the verge of failing out, she had finally sought therapy – but the damage to her educational career had been done. She had studied astral mechanics, and knew her stuff, but she was marked as a poor student and eventually graduated in 2nd form, near the bottom of her class. Now, although she had conquered many of her phobias (well, she still assiduously avoided wearing yellow), the powers-that-be had assigned her, as per her student profile, to socialization-free living quarters and a crowd-free workplace. Being naturally reserved did not help her. Although no longer afraid of social contact, she did not actively seek it, and she lived much as she had in college: virtually unnoticed.