Part 32 - Distractions

When computers sleep, it's blackness. Nothingness. When a TARDIS computer “sleeps,” she wanders the vortex and looks at all of time and space. However, I'm neither now. I am a Timelord, and I came to realize a century or so ago that I have a responsibility.

You see, Timelords aspired past our station in life. We began with a lowly organic lifespan with weak bodies, small minds, and a stunted society. By sheer force of will, we became the most powerful single civilization in the universe. I think many Timelords, even if they are loathe to admit it, look at the universe with a certain wonder – well aware of the fact that we really have no business being able to experience what our technology allows us to.

So I found a hobby. An excuse to travel the universe and explore. Upon becoming organic, the flood of emotion every time I examined a past memory was crippling. Phaon assisted me greatly with mental control exercises, but I still found it very challenging. Humans from Earth seemed to struggle with this same issue, and one of the most consistent tools I found throughout Terran history for turning emotion into a positive, driving force is music.

So I took a few decades to train myself in the play of the most common human instruments. The SASTAP cloister room is now bursting with various instruments in temporal suspension from throughout history that have an especially emotional attachment. Here is what I have so far, with the list growing as I continue to explore music performance as a method of self-exploration.

1) An electronic keyboard taken from 2010 Earth used by composer Eric Whitacre to compose the choral piece Sleep.

2) A record player from taken from the 2371 home of human Captain Benjamin Sisko.

3) The harpsichord played by L.V. Beethoven in 1787 for a performance in which W.A. Mozart was in the audience.

4) The music stand used by L.V. Beethoven to conduct the first performance of his ninth symphony.

5) A grand piano from the home of Franz Liszt used to compose his second rhapsody for violin and piano.

6) The third violin created by Andrea Amati in 1558, taken from 1693 Earth.

7) A keytar purchased in 1984 by an unknown child, taken from an Earth colony vessel before it's crash landing on the planet Frontios in the year 176,338.

8) Six cellos (which has emerged as my favorite instrument).

1. A Stradivarius made in 1680 for King James II, taken in 1697.
2. The 1711 Duport Stradivarius, taken in 2267.
3. One of the first mass produced cellos from a 1938 US factory.
4. A handmade German cello made in 2003 that I used in a local orchestra for 5 years.
5. A cello rescued from the planet Malcassairo eight months before the last life in the universe went extinct, construction date unknown.
6. One cello built by myself, in the shop and tutelage of Nicolo Amati in 1654.