THE TICK-TOCK PARADOX

Chapter 14

The door to the lab burst open with a fiery explosion and five Daleks entered, their guns and eyestalks swiveling about every which way. A thin trail of smoke wafted through the room, as one of the Daleks glided over to the open grating covering the air duct. Another was standing in front of the damaged locking mechanism next to the door. A third Dalek was examining one of the lab's computer terminals. The two others roamed about the room, looking for the escaped prisoners.

“Report!” came the booming voice of the Central Command Dalek. “Have you located the prisoners?” Oddly for a Dalek, their leader sounded particularly peeved.

“The Doctor and his companions are not here.” The Dalek at the computer terminal spoke. “According to the data, the Doctor has disabled the security scanners within the lab. They must have escaped through the environmental control vents”

“Then we will fill the shafts with limonsian gas. The Doctor and the human's skin will burn and their blood will boil. They will all die! I order you to bring the Time Lord weapon to the command deck. We must prepare for its deployment. Nothing will stop us now. The destruction of the human race will begin!” The Central Command Dalek sounded almost giddy with happiness.

“We obey!” the five Daleks chorused, as they trundled out of the room, two of them taking the black box between them.

For the first time in hours, the Dalek laboratory was empty and silent. Then, a trickle of dust filtered down from the ceiling. A pair of booted feet in argyle socks appeared, accompanied by the bottom half of some dark blue trousers. The Doctor shifted one of the ceiling tiles, and dropped to the floor . He frowned as he noticed that one of his red braces had come undone.

In a nearby part of the ceiling, Sparkling gold shoes attached to a pair of shapely legs also dangled from an opening in the one of the panels. River dropped neatly to the floor, smiling with satisfaction at having tricked their enemies. Likewise, in other parts of the lab, Amy and Rory emerged. Rory held out his arms for Amy as she jumped down from above. He became unbalanced, and fell over when he caught her.

“I love you very much Amy, but maybe you should lay off the fried Mars bars for a while.” He muttered, trying to regain his breath. Jeez, he had no idea she was this heavy. She looked so thin, Rory thought she'd be light as a feather. Apparently not when she dropped on him from a ceiling, however.

Are you saying I'm fat?” Amy huffed, pushing herself off of him.

“Uh-oh, Rory,” River laughed, “I think you're in a lot more danger from Amy right now, than from the Daleks.”

“Erm--?” Rory said, sitting up but keeping a wary eye on Amy's right fist, “No, not at all, Amy. I Er--think you're perfect, just the way you are.” He cringed at the incensed look on his wife's face. “Please don't hit me.”

“Oi! You two!” The Doctor said, “ Save the domestic spats until after we've defeated the Daleks and I get you back home, yeah? Preferably someplace nowhere near my TARDIS. I don't do marital squabbles. Why do you think I used to always travel with single people?”

“Because they're so much more sexy?” River asked, giving the Doctor a suggestive leer. She laughed when the Doctor's face actually reddened. He gave her a disgusted look and turned away, pretending to rummage in his pocket for something.

“How are we supposed to get back to London, Doctor?” Rory asked, hoping the change of topic would give Amy something else to focus on. He stood, brushing the dust from his jeans. “Last that I noticed, our only mode of transport was sitting smack in the middle of the ship's main command deck. I mean, it's not like you can just swan in and say 'hullo Daleks, I'd really like my TARDIS back, cheers'.

“Well, I could try that approach, I suppose,” the Doctor said, pulling out his sonic screwdriver, “ but that sounds rather dull, and I don't do dull. Ask River, she'll vouch for me.”

“No, definitely not dull, Doctor.” She smiled. “Though there was that incident with the giant broccoli on the third moon of Larry when....oh, sorry. Spoilers. Have to watch that, don't want the universe to implode, do we?.”

“Wait,” Amy interrupted, “there's actually a moon called 'Larry'?'”

“Of course not, Amy.” The Doctor answered. “That particular moon is called Fred. The planet it orbits is called Larry. The other two moons are Gladys and Bertha.”

“You realize that none of this will matter, if the Daleks get that weapon to work, Doctor” River said, her face suddenly somber. Three of us and billions of other people will never have existed, by then.”

“Trust me.” The Doctor said, grinning at them like a kid on Christmas morning, “I have a plan.”

“What plan?” Rory said, looking very dubious.

“Dunno' yet, but I'm sure it's going to be totally awesome.” The Doctor announced, brandishing his sonic screwdriver.

“Doctor, I swear, if the next words out of your mouth are 'surf's up, dudes', I'm afraid that I'll have no choice but to gaffer tape your mouth shut.” River said, rolling her eyes.

All of the sudden, the four of them heard a hissing noise. Eight pairs of eyes were drawn to the open air vent shaft on the other side of the room, where an bright yellow cloud of noxious gas began billowing out, slowly filling the lab.

“Limonsian gas!” The Doctor said. “They must be couching their bets, making sure we can't escape back to this room. We've got to get out of here, now!”

The Doctor bolted towards the door, the others following close behind him. Pressing the door switch, he expected the door to automatically slide open, but it was shut fast. Pointing his sonic at it, he pressed down. The screwdriver gave a high-pitched warbling sound. Nothing happened. The Doctor stared at the door, silently cursing in old low Galifreyan.

“What's happening, Doctor? Why won't the door open?” Amy asked.

“The Daleks have deadlocked it shut.” He said, sheer desperation creeping into face. The Doctor turned to his three friends, not looking them in the eyes. He could see the yellow gas slowly creeping across the floor towards them. “I can't do anything. I'm sorry. I'm really very, very sorry. We're sealed in. This time, there really is no way out.”

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