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The TARDIS console hums beneath Martha's hand as she runs her fingers across it, touching all of the levers and buttons that the Doctor gets so tetchy about.
The ship feels alive, as complicated and warm as any human body, lined with nerves and blood vessels and possessing a beating heart at its center.
Martha understands humans well. She is a doctor, after all.
She understands this ship less.
But there are quiet moments when they are alone -- when her eyes close and her mind opens -- that Martha wonders if the key to true understanding is right here beneath her fingertips, that if she cracks this puzzle, the world might open up to her.
In her time, there are still illnesses without cures, injuries without solutions. Problems go unnoticed and undiagnosed simply because there are not yet tests to identify the issue. It is a sad reality with which every doctor must contend.
The TARDIS, however, touches everything. It is infinite, vast, and wise.
Perhaps if Martha can find a way to be an engineer, if only for a moment, she might be a better doctor.
It is an intriguing thought.
And against the Doctor's orders, Martha pulls a lever.