“Arrrgh! Can't see! Can't see! Vision impaired! Help meee—!” The Dalek screamed.

“You lot always act so butch. But, the minute something goes wrong, you cry for your mummies. You're not tough,” River said, as she leaped on to the Dalek, her long blue dress flaring out behind her, “you're just loud and mean and have no regard for anyone by yourselves. You're about as tough as candy floss. Now me,” She calmly muttered, still clinging to the Dalek, as it bumped it's way around the room,. “I'm tough. You won't catch me whinging when things aren't going my way. I prefer to take the bull by the horns...or the Dalek by its gun arm. Makes life much more interesting, I think.”

While River was speaking, one hand was searching under the tarp, looking for a hidden catch release on its external armour. The other hand was forcing the Dalek's gun downward, where it wouldn't do any harm if it went off. She hoped. The Dalek continued to moan and cry out for help.

Amy yelled for River to look out, as the Dalek almost slammed the both of them into some machinery near the far wall. Rory thought that River looked as if she were on some sort of lunatic fun fair ride. When Amy surged up to go and help the woman, Rory held her back. As he did, the Dalek's gun went off.

The gun sent a beam of energy straight down into the floor with a high-pitched whine. A thin splash of molten metal flew through the air. Rory heard River suck in her breath with pain, as one hit her left arm, making a smoldering pinhole on the posh golden glove. Scolding it for ruining a perfectly good glove, River finally sprung the latch, opening the Dalek's upper casing.

Unable to tear her eyes away, Amy caught a glimpse of the horrible creature inside. This was the Dalek in its natural state. It was like a small, shriveled, green one-eyed octopus. Its tentacles thrashed the air, as River physically grappled with it, striving to strangle the creature.

The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. It was finished, he'd gotten the device to work...without it exploding in his face, or making all of space and time vanish faster than a Gorgellian gambler's winnings. Those Gorgellian's did like showing off their bling-bling. Then, thinking of the destruction of earth's time stream, which the Daleks would bring about when they used this weapon, he sighed again.

“What have I just done?” The Doctor whispered, rubbing his face tiredly. “Did I do the right thing, this time? Is there anything right, when it comes to dealing with Daleks?” he turned his head and looked at the Dalek guards standing passively a few paces behind him, and said aloud, “Write on one side of the paper only, please.”

“We do not understand these instructions. One of the Dalek guards told him. The Daleks do not obey your orders, Doctor.” The other guard said.

“Yeah, I didn't think you were housebroken. I pity the person who tries to take you for walkies, and positively shudder to think of the mess you'd leave on the carpets.” He told them, straightening up and rubbing his sore back. The Doctor noted that the Dalek's guns and eyestalks followed his every move.

“So what happens now? Kill me and my friends, then kill everything else in the universe, I suppose.” He said sarcastically as he stood, brushing his hands on his trousers. “Isn't that how you usually do things around here?”

“That is a control decision. Our only function is to obey orders. One of the guards replied. “I will inform the Central Command Dalek that the device is ready.”

“Oh, and while you're at it, would you ask your boss to send me down some tea? The Doctor quipped, with more bonhomie than he actually felt, “I'm rather parched! I mean, it's the least you can do. It's hard work helping you to destroy every life form in existence, you know.”

The Central Command Dalek's image flickered on in the laboratory, slightly over head height, between the Doctor and his guards. The Doctor noted that the Dalek's leader had a predilection for making everyone physically look up to him. A strangely human trait, in a being that abhorred humanity.

“Doc-tor! I have been informed that the device is ready.” The Dalek leader asked.

“You don't have to do this, you know.” The Doctor said, trying to reason with what he knew to be a completely unreasonable creature. “The universe was never meant to be uniform and perfect, don't you understand? It's the millions of variations and imperfections which makes the universe and all life forms, so diverse and unique and wonderful!:”

“You call them wonderful Doctor, we call them an abomination.” The Central Command Dalek answered. “We will use this weapon your people created to wipe out every species in existence. Since you are the last of the Time Lords, Doctor., then you should know that it is now your time to die.”