Short Stories: Behind TARDIS Doors

Part One: Doctor, who?

She had looked into the time vortex - something never meant for any other life form than a Time Lord. The time vortex would burn you up from the inside and only the regenerative powers of his kind made it possible for them to do so - regenerative powers given by the time vortex itself. Every Time Lord was introduced to the time vortex as kids and it had killed many who simply refused to regenerate, had made others go insane or, like the Doctor, made them run away.
Although he had taken away the knowledge of having looked into the time vortex, it was still within her, dormant and dangerous, and if it ever resurfaced it would kill her. When he took it away she forgot everything. She forgot Bad Wolf, how she had scattered every atom that made the Dalek race and spread them across the universe, given life. For a split moment she had been time herself - all the suns, stars and universes. Taking it all away had cost the Doctor his own life, having had to regenerate and change again and it had taken them weeks to find their friendship again and for the Doctor to get used to his new body - his new life.

But that wasn't everything - danger wasn't over. Bad Wolf was dormant in Rose - the borrowed power of the time vortex could be restored - and this fact had become apparent across the universe. The Daleks knew what she had done - what she had become - and they were coming for her. With Bad Wolf they could unlock the time bubble created around the Time War - they could change everything.

So he had to do the only thing he could to keep her safe - a special power reserved for Time Lords and only possible for Rose who was now part Time Lord, if only dormant, herself. He had given her his fob watch - the biodata module that could store the essence of any Time Lord, embellished with Gallifreyan script on the obverse, and he had made her forget everything - himself included.

He couldn't leave her in her own time - too many possibilities of someone recognising her or her memories returning, so he had left her in the year 2223 - far enough in the future for no one to remember her, and had settled for Scotland, just in case.

***

Rose, or Iris MacLeod as she was known as now, woke up to her alarm ringing for the fourth time, meaning the automatic wake-up mechanism was now also shaking the bed. "Alright, alright," she mumbled, rolling out of bed and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She dragged her heavy body into the shower and set the programme to wash and dry.

Iris was still five minutes early when she stepped into the office, coffee in hand, her hair in a messy up-do with golden strands framing her face, tugging on the black dress (part of the dress code) that she had to wear. Honestly, it's 2223 - you'd think these things would be more comfortable! she thought to herself. She passed a row of desks before getting to her office, having been recently promoted which now earned her the luxury of her own private space.
"Morning sunshine!" a chippy voice yelled after her from one of the desks. "Morning John," she replied without as much as looking and simply waved a hand before disappearing into her office.

Torchwood, the company she worked for, monitored anything alien, allied with UNIT, who was the national extraterrestrial guard. Iris speciality was artefacts - alien artefacts - they had either acquired or otherwise found. Her current project involved a tablet, seemingly blank, made of black obsidian, that a recent Mars-landing had brought back - or rather - had suddenly appeared inside the capsule bringing the crew home to Earth.

She had found herself quickly climbing the ranks, having started as a simple touch-typist, typing into English the many translations of alien artefacts. Until one day, as she was typing in a recent translation, she had spotted a few mistakes and brought it up with her supervisor. She had then been given an incomplete translation and had found herself able to read it, clear as day (the wonderful effects of the TARDIS still very active in her head). Within a couple of months she had found herself head of the department and invaluable to the operations team.