“That was totally unnecessary.” He growled, “I already gave you my word that I would help you. That was a completely pointless killing, and you know it.”

“Nothing the Daleks do is ever pointless, Doctor.” The Central Command Dalek told him, “The death of the human was very necessary. We have now shown you that we do not make threats. We have proved to you that your friends will die if you do not help us. The remaining humans will continue to live, as long as you do as we say and obey without question.”

“Obeeey! Obeeey!” Chorused the Dalek guards, like a pair of demented parrots.

With Rory holding her tightly, Amy looked away from the Dalek on the screen, to the Doctor. He had gone pale, and seemed almost like he was going to be physically ill. Catching her eye, The Doctor simply stared blankly at her. Amy sucked in her breath. In all the time she'd known him, she'd never seen him appear so utterly helpless and defeated. The Doctor suddenly looked very sad and lost, and that almost scared her as much as the Daleks.

.Rory softly asked Amy for her denim jacket she'd been wearing. She was about to ask what for, then realized why Rory needed it. Taking it from her, he knelt down, and respectfully placed it over Malcolm's body. He closed the man's staring eyes, but couldn't do anything about the pained, shocked expression, which death had left frozen forever on the scientist's face.

At the Central Command Dalek's orders, one of the guards raised the barrier of the Doctor's cell. At gunpoint, the Doctor was escorted away to the lab where he was expected to work on the Dalek's new weapon. The Doctor went quietly, without a word or look at Amy or Rory.

However, just for a second, Amy saw him turn and stare over his shoulder at River. He gazed at her with an unfathomable expression, before a nudge from the Dalek behind him, made him turn away . Within moments, the Doctor was lost to their view, as he was marched off down the dim corridor. The remaining Dalek guard stood outside their cell, silent and unmoving, but with his weapon arm pointing at them.

Several minutes passed, before River whispered into Rory's ear. Seconds later, Rory nudged Amy and whispered to her.

“It's all your fault!” He said out loud. Displaying anger and distress, he began to pace, moving away from River and Amy to the other side of the cell. “We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't gone traipsing off with the Doctor.”

“Er---oh yeah, Rory,” Amy replied, trying to think of some suitable retort, “well, you could've stayed safely behind in London, eating chicken and chips. No one forced to to come with me.”

“Silence!” The Dalek ordered.

Rory saw the Dalek's eyestalk focusing on them, before rounding on Amy again. “You're my wife, Amy. In case you didn't noticed that bit at our wedding, we pledged to honour and obey. You said let's go with the Doctor, I honoured your orders and flippin' obeyed!”

“You're so full of it, Rory!” Amy said shaking her head and going over to Rory. The Dalek came right up to the bars, its eyestalk intently shifting from one of them to the other, every time they spoke, as if it were watching some verbal tennis match. “I didn't order you to go anywhere! I merely suggested that we go with the Doctor. There's no contract that says that you have to follow my every suggestion. I'm your wife, not your mum!”

“The prisoners will be silent!” The Dalek ordered again. The two of them both deliberately ignored it and kept on fighting.

“Ha! That's rich, Amy! If I don't do as you ask, every time, you go off in a huff and pout like a little girl!” Rory shouted back. “I might as well have a blinking ring in my nose for you to lead me around with.”

“I do not pout like a little girl!” Amy shouted back.

“Yes. You do!” Rory told her.

“No, I don't!” Amy told him, crossing her arms and pouting like a little girl.

“Look at you!” Rory retorted, “You're pouting right now! I told you so!”

In the meantime, while the Dalek was focused on Rory and Amy, River had reached surreptitiously into a hidden pocket in her gown, and pulled out a small cobalt blue vial of what appeared to be spray cologne. As the young couple continued their pretense of a marital squabble, River slowly and carefully sidled closer to the Dalek.

Amy noticed that River was trying to get closer to their guard, so she abruptly get go with an “Oh yeah? I'll show you who pouts!” and decked Rory with a right cross.

.Rory yelled, “Ow!” and fell to the floor. It was then that the Dalek opened the cell.

“You will be silent, or you will be exterminated!” It shrieked at them, it's eyestalk entirely focused on Rory's prone body.

Without warning, River stuck her hand in front of the Dalek, and let go with a couple of sprays of the perfume. Immediately, the Dalek rounded on her, bringing it's gun arm to bear. Suddenly, it stopped, seemed to give a little wobble, and it's weapon abruptly lowered.

“Hey baby, what's your sign?” It said to River Song, the Dalek's voice going strangely soft, “I find you very sexy. Can I buy you a drink?”

Dropping their pseudo-fight, Amy and Rory stopped short and boggled at the Dalek.

“What the hell?” Rory said, completely taken by surprise by the Dalek's precipitous change in demeanor.

“Hallucinogenic perfume mixed with psychic nasal spray. The Daleks have been studying Earth's history, now one of them is re-living it.” She smirked. “I've made it think that it's 1978 and he's a balding, middle aged American stock broker clubbing at the Studio 54 disco in New York City.” River explained, as she ushered them out of the cell and locked the Dalek inside. “They took my gun, but this” She said, holding up the bottle before slipping it back into her pocket, “registered as harmless on their weaponry scans, so the Daleks never bothered to take it from me.”

As they went down the corridor, River stopped every few feet, to check for surveillance equipment. When she spied something, she had Amy and Rory duck down and carefully go around its field of vision.

“Where are we going?” Amy asked, holding Rory's sweaty hand. Sweaty hands. Without even looking at her husband, she knew now that he was just as scared and nervous as she was. Somehow that was strangely reassuring.

“We,” River said, while doing a limbo-like maneuver under a movement sensor she'd spied, set at chest height into either side of the corridor, “are going to rescue the Doctor, get back the TARDIS, blow up this ship and then get the hell out of here....if Daleks don't find and exterminate us first, that is”