Chapter
3
They both walked out of Sally's office. Sally turned to her secretary. "Kathy, I'm going out, but I'll be back,"
she stopped and looked at the Doctor.
He understood her unspoken question: How long does
time travel take? "Within the
hour," he finished her sentence.
"Within the hour," Sally repeated to her
secretary.
"Yes, Dr. Armstrong," Kathy said. She looked at the Doctor and he smiled at
her. As they walked out of the office,
the Doctor noticed the secretary's face blush.
Sally led the Doctor out a side door. From there he took the lead.
"If I agreed to go with you, and we traveled
somewhere in time, could you really have me back within the hour?" Sally asked.
"Time machine," the Doctor said.
"So where is this time machine of yours?"
Sally asked as they turned a corner onto the street where the TARDIS was
parked.
The Doctor pointed at the blue box in front of
them. "Right there."
"I was expecting something different. Something like the time machine in H.G.
Well's book," Sally said.
"I love that book!" the Doctor said. They reached the TARDIS and the Doctor pulled
out his key. He opened the door and
allowed Sally to enter first.
Depending on the passenger and the circumstances
they were brought into the TARDIS, he usually enjoyed the first time reactions
of visitors upon seeing the TARDIS interiors.
Many were shocked and would run back outside to see the small dimensions
of the box. Others stood in shock,
unable to form words to express their feelings.
Others would accept it with little issue. Sally was one of the latter. She was a scientist after all. She walked right up to the console and began
looking over the various knobs, switches, levers and displays. She ran her hand alongside the console, but
never touching the controls. She finally
turned to face him and noticed more of the room she was standing in.
"This is a beautiful place," she said.
The Doctor smiled.
"I don't know that anyone has ever called the TARDIS beautiful
before, but you're right. It is."
Sally looked around the room some more and turned
back to gaze at the console. "It
isn't at all what I expected. I thought
it would be white and sterile looking.
Metal and hard, but this is beautifully decorated, ornate and comfortably
furnished."
"This is my home. It's been white and sterile looking before,
but I finally decided to decorate it a bit and make it a comfortable place to
live."
"Your home?
So you live in here?"
"Yes.
Down the hall is my bedroom, a kitchen, a library, a garden, a music
room, medical bay, wardrobe, and sometimes there is even a swimming
pool." The Doctor casually walked
over to the console.
Sally laughed.
"You're putting me on, Doctor.
And wait, all of this is inside the blue police box?"
The Doctor nodded.
"I see.
The box is a disguise, is it?"
Sally asked.
"Your right Sally," the Doctor used her
first name, hoping she wouldn't bite his head off again.
She smiled, "Well Doctor, I'm impressed. So, if you remember, I promised to come see
your time machine, but I didn't promise to go with you."
The Doctor's hearts sank.
Sally saw the change in the Doctor's mood. She smiled a bigger smile than before. "However," she said, slowly
dragging the word out, "it seems a shame to go now that I'm here. Plus, I want to see if what you say is
true. Can you really travel in
time?"
The Doctor smiled, "Just wait and
see." He flipped a few switches and
sent the TARDIS into the vortex. Sally
felt the TARDIS move slightly and her eyes grew wide. "Now, anywhere you want to go? Anytime in history you wish to see?"
Sally thought for a few moments. All of time was open to her. She thought about asking him to take her to
the summer 2012 Olympics, just to see if it was truly held in London, but she
knew she would find that out eventually.
She would be alive for that event, older, but alive. No, she knew what she wanted to see. Her work at the Ides Scientific Institute was
working on robots and computers.
Teaching robots to learn, think and retrieve data. She wanted to see the beginning of the
computer's life. One of its earliest
ancestors. "France, 1642, the first
mechanical calculator."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her, smiled, and set
to work on the coordinates. "You
want to see Blaise Pascal?"
"Yes, or at least see that first
calculator. You know Doctor, we have a
calculator at the ISI, but it is huge, takes up an entire room and cost us
quite a bit of money. Most of the money was
from grants and donations. The Pascaline
was hand held. Smaller than our own typewriters
that we use every day. It used hand
crafted metal cogs and had to be hand cranked.
People worried then that the Pascaline would be the end of many
jobs. They were afraid that technology
would out-source humans."
"The first technophobes," the Doctor said.
She laughed.
"If only they knew the number of jobs computers would create and
how much our lives would change for the better."
The Doctor was watching her intently. Foreknowledge was dangerous. It was always a risk he took when he traveled
back in time. "Sally, you mustn't
let on that you know the future. Time
travel is as dangerous as it is wonderful.
We mingle and meet, but we cannot interfere with events. No giving hints or suggestions on how to
improve. We observe only. Do you understand?"
"I do, Doctor.
I have no wish to interfere, only to see the Pascaline." Sally
thought for a moment about this time traveler and the things he might have
seen. "Doctor, you've been to the
future, haven't you?"
"Many times," he answered.
"Then you know the future of the
computer," she asked.
He nodded.
"It's probably beyond my imagination what
computers will be able to do in 20 or 30 years," she hung her head sadly.
"Am I right?"
Again, he nodded.
"Then is it worth my doing?"
"What do you mean, Sally?" he asked.
"The work I'm doing. My computers and robots that I'm
building. Is it worth continuing when in
just a few decades my work will probably be completely obsolete and irrelevant?"
"Sally, listen to me. Your work is not irrelevant. Do you think that the computers of the future
will be able to be created without the discoveries you will help make with your
work? Just like Pascal paved the way for
modern calculators, your work will help pave the way for the next generation of
computers. Your work is very
important. Keep it up and never for a
moment think that it is irrelevant."
Sally looked at the Doctor. Her eyes were moist, but his were intense and
sincere. She was surprised by the
intensity of his gaze. She felt relieved
that she could perhaps make a difference in the creation of computers. "Can we go see the Pascaline
now?" she asked.
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