12: Centre of My Universe

“So what do you want to do today? I am seeing my sister and our friend Asha tonight but otherwise I have nothing planned” Shakira asked.
“I don’t know…we can go anywhere in time and space…you have any good ideas?” Farrah answered, still lying on her side as Shakira had just given her a B12 injection. She now looked like she had a buzz-cut as all of her hair had come back, and was wearing a strip of lace as a headband.
Shakira sat down next to her. “Actually I have been thinking about a woman I have met who travelled through time and space with a Time Lord, her name is Nyssa of Traken. I was about to work in the hospital she ran, but I chose Holly’s planet instead.”
“What’s she like?” Farrah asked.
“She is a pretty, tiny lady who is quite sweet and reserved, but also highly intelligent and very, very strong. One has to be when they run a hospital floating in space that was once a leper colony. The Time Lord she was with- his name is The Doctor- she doesn’t miss him as much as her friend Tegan…I noticed many pictures of her.”
“Then why don’t we get ‘em back together?” suggested Farrah.
“That is actually a good idea!” Shakira said. “She told me where Tegan is now, they haven’t spoken but she learnt these things from The Doctor. Tegan lives on the same Earth as one of my enemies, Sarah Smith.” Shakira picked up her computer and, because she knew where to look, quickly found information on Tegan.
“How many Earths are there?”
“Many…there are some humans who have this ability where the stories they write become real, it is strange. I just hacked into the Brisbane airport’s computers, and I know exactly where Tegan is!” Shakira typed in the necessary co-ordinates on her TARDIS console, and as she was flying it, asked: “Farrah do you still remember all the sign language I taught you years ago?”
“Yeah, you have to turn this thing off again?” she answered.
“It would be best, and because I cannot get new hearing aid batteries until tomorrow and these ones are running out, I would like you to translate their English into sign language for me.” Shakira turned off her hearing aids and took them off her ears, then landed her TARDIS in a dusty storeroom in the airport and turned it off too. She used her sonic screwdriver to unlock the door, freeing them to find the staff lounge where Tegan was. “Shakira, where did you learn to hack computers?” Farrah asked as they were walking.
“Medical school, it is a long story.”
“And how do you know she’ll trust us?”
“She trusted the complete stranger who she came to know as The Doctor.”
Eventually they found Tegan, sitting by herself with a sandwich.
“[…]”
“Hi, my name is Farrah, and my friend says ‘hello, my name is Shakira Seddiqi, are you Tegan Jovanka?’” Farrah said, translating for Shakira.
“Yes…I am!” Tegan answered, with her loud Australian accent. “Wait, what do you want?”
“[…]”
“Were you friends with a man who called himself The Doctor?” she continued.
“Yes…are you from UNIT or something? Because I don’t want any trouble and I’m over fighting monsters.”
“[…]”
“Shakira says that she doesn’t know what UNIT is, but she knows your friend Nyssa because she’s a doctor too and owns a TARDIS and is asking if you want to see her.”
Tegan’s face lit up. “Really? Alright let’s go! Wait, can she bring me back here on time?” she asked Farrah.
“[…]”
“She says you don’t have to worry about her taking you to the wrong place.”
“Great! It’s more than anyone can say for The Doctor!” Tegan laughed, and then followed these strange people to their TARDIS. “So…yours is stuck in the form of an old wardrobe? The Doctor had his as a police box”, Tegan asked once they found the storage closet.
“[…]”
“No, she just likes it this way.”
Shakira unlocked and turned her TARDIS back on, and signed “I won’t put my hearing aids back in because this will only take 2 minutes”, which Farrah translated, and added, “She has a severe hearing impairment.”
“Why is she asking you to interpret for her when she could have left this thing on?”
“It’s just safer, she changed the past for me so the Time Lord police are out to get her.”
A smile spread across Tegan’s face. “Oh! So you’re in-“
“No we’re just friends” Farrah said, rolling her eyes.
The TARDIS landed silently. “[…]”
“She says we’re here.”
“Where’s that whooshing sound?”
Shakira laughed. “[…!]”
Farrah giggled. “That only happens when you leave the brakes on!” Once again, Shakira turned her TARDIS off, and they all left to find Nyssa. She had landed her TARDIS in a hallway not far from Nyssa’s office, the first place they looked.
“[…]”
“She’s not in there, maybe she’s doing surgery.” They continued down the halls, with Tegan sometimes stopping to look out the windows. Bloody hell, I didn’t know that I actually missed this. I really hope she hasn’t forgotten me. Shakira peered through the windows of a doorway labelled “RECOVERY”, and nudged Farrah’s shoulder to get her attention. “[…!]”
“Shakira says she found Nyssa!” Farrah said as her friend opened the doors of the recovery ward. Nyssa looked up at the three visitors, and Tegan froze as Nyssa’s eyes met hers for the first time in years. “…Nyssa?” was all Tegan could manage to say.
“Tegan? Is it really you? How did you get here? Has it been ten years for you too?” Nyssa’s lovely face lit up as she realised that this was not a dream, but indeed real.
“Yes it is me!” The burning desire she had for Nyssa was no longer supressed, and she rushed to embrace her for the first time in too many years. Nyssa then slipped her arms around Tegan and began to kiss her passionately, no longer telling herself to move on from her past. Farrah and Shakira were surprised. “I had no idea they were this close!” Shakira signed.
“That’s so sweet! They’re still in love after all these years!” Farrah added.
“I never want to be separated from you again! You’re the centre of my universe and you always will be!” Tegan declared.
“Neither do I, but, don’t you have a life on Earth to go back to?” Nyssa asked.
“Yes…I do…your friend Shakira brought me here and it has been ten years and I wish there was some way that we could visit each other whenever we wanted!”
A chubby woman with dark hair looked up. “Where I come from, we have two-way teleporters that can be set to two different places, and if necessary, time periods. Are you from the same time as Nyssa?”
“No”, Tegan answered. “I’m from 1500 years in the past.”
“Well I can get you two a pair, and set it so not only can you come here, and Nyssa can come to you, but your timelines will always be aligned. Like for example if you go a week without visiting Nyssa it will also be a week for her regardless.”
“That’s amazing! Please, please do that for us, I don’t know how I could repay you but please do it!” Tegan was not going to let this opportunity slip past her. Nyssa just smiled, with her hands covering her mouth. This was the best day they both had in a long time.
“Oh it is no problem. The teleporters are cheap outdated technology now; I can get them at those stores that charities run for poor people.”
“Thankyou so much, Ursula”, Nyssa said. Farrah raised a just-regrowing eyebrow. Is she- no she can’t be! “By the way my name’s Farrah, and Shakira told me this was a leper colony….Nyssa I think your work is amazing from what I’ve seen.”
“Thankyou”, Nyssa replied, with an air of aristocratic propriety.
“[…]”
“Shakira says she can take you home in her TARDIS to get the pair of teleporters.”
“Thankyou Shakira, normally for me it would take an hour to get there”, Ursula replied in her strong German accent.
“[…]”
“Is it alright if we leave you here Tegan?”
“Sure! We have a lot of catching up to do, you know?” Tegan agreed, winking. Ursula then left with Shakira and Farrah to buy the $10 set of teleporters, thinking “Is the blonde- no, she looks too young!”, while Nyssa shirked her duties onto other people so she could go and have hot sex with Tegan. They understood. Awww.

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