"Here we are," the Doctor turned to Dodi, "better grab hold of something. It's going to be a bumpy ride."

But it wasn't. The TARDIS sailed through the time lock as if it hadn't a care in the universe.

"What?" the Doctor gasped, knowing full well that his ship should have crashed violently against the lock, "it's like, like the lock isn't even there!" He glanced at his instruments and paled. Dodi, careful not to touch anything, walked over, but as always, the spinning circles and blinking lines on the screen meant nothing to her. She didn't have to wait long to find out what was wrong, however.

"Something else came through before us," the Doctor gulped, "Cara's TARDIS wouldn't have left that big of a hole on it's own. Some other ship…"

"Are we too late?" Dodi asked quietly.

The Doctor didn't answer, but he did make several strange expressions at his controls. He brought the TARDIS to a stop just as Gallifrey died for the umpteenth time.

Dodi noticed the wheels on the screen stop, reverse themselves, and start over. Some of the circles whizzed around, but some stayed the same.

"Doctor?"

Voices came through static on the TARDIS speakers.

"…to all TARDISes, this is Gallifrey, do you read us? We are under heavy attack, please resp-aaaaaa!"

"Doctor?" Dodi exclaimed in alarm. The Doctor was staring straight ahead, horror struck, a deep sadness filling his eyes.

"Doctor!"

"What?" the Doctor yelled.

"What's that!"

Cara glared as her TARDIS cables glowed red. She dove to the gel box, but switched it to missile control. One of the panels on her TARDIS exterior slid open, revealing a launcher. The Daleks' weapons impacted harmlessly against her shielding, and she could almost hear the surprise in their repeated command, "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

"Not if I exterminate you first!" Cara fired.

The missile reached its target, leaving them reeling for a moment while Cara switched back to manual control and piloted her ship farther from Gallifrey and the Dalek fleet. She noted that without her TARDIS' generators, time had once again frozen into a locked position. The tape was on pause. The Dalek fleet had just begun to arrive in the system and was now stopped mid-flight. The ship that had fired on her, however, was definitely moving and in pursuit.

"Great, come after the flying white brick." Cara grumbled, "How I wish we could duck into the Vortex for a second and come back with rockets the size of suns." She reinitiated the wall projections and set it to show the immediate area, plus readouts of systems statuses. Taking it all in at a glance, she punched another button, throwing her TARDIS into full battle-mode.

Or so she thought.

"!" said the TARDIS.

"Uh oh," said Cara. She immediately began following the trail of cables and wiring across her console with one hand. Her fingers came up with one small fiber optic cable, frayed beyond repair, the broken ends glowing orange like embers of a dying fire.

Cara hissed in frustration. She grabbed hold of her console as the Daleks began hammering her TARDIS with their weapons. All of the cables turned bright red and flashed as sparks flew from her console. The Daleks knew right where to aim.

"Oh, no you don't, I just got this thing back!" Cara whipped her ship around and gave it a burst of speed, strafing the Daleks. As she headed back toward Gallifrey, more Dalek ships began appearing from the past. Cara spun around again and headed back toward the non-frozen Daleks, determination burning in her eyes.

The Dalek ship faced her, its smooth surface almost glowing copper in the starlight. It didn't look like any ship Cara had ever seen, but there was something about the way it moved. Something cold, sinister, and calculated lurked beneath the smooth, delta-shaped dome. As it slowed to a stop in front of her and its weapons powered back up, Cara reached toward it, scanning it with her mind.

She could see only about seven Daleks on board, one seriously injured, though whether this was by her or not, she could not tell. They were not nearly as irritated as they ought to be. In fact, they seemed to be barely interested in her, merely toying with her while they waited. Waited for what?

Cara began a barrage of all available weapons, hoping to disable the Daleks before they caused any more trouble. She maneuvered her ship around the outside of the Daleks' hull, looking for vulnerable spots. It didn't seem to have any. She dropped chroniton mines and plasmic interphasing disruptor grenades. The Daleks didn't flinch, though parts of the hull were red-hot and phasing. Then too late, Cara saw why.

A wave of distortions blew toward Cara's TARDIS, too quickly. She tried to move out of the way, but was caught in the blast. End over end, she tumbled, still firing, various systems and lights blinking off until the entire TARDIS was dark inside, lit only by the projections on the walls. Cara stared in horror at the totally disabled console and realized that she had lost all ability to steer. The Dalek ship moved now, closer to her, as if it was a child inspecting an ant that it had just toasted with a magnifying glass.

Cara was already on her knees, head halfway inside her console, trying to coax life back into the machine. "Come on, baby, one more time, just for me…" She made a few hasty re-wirings, to no avail. Her TARDIS could self-heal most of the wounds inflicted, but not nearly quickly enough. Frustrated, she pulled herself back out of the console just in time to see the Daleks swing around for the killing blow. She jabbed the firing controls repeatedly, knowing that nothing would happen. The Dalek ship started glowing again.

Cara grabbed the microphone, "Hey canheads! You've got a lot of nerve attacking me. You must really have no idea what I've got on board."

The Dalek ship seemed to hang in space.

"That's right," Cara continued, "ever heard of an infinite improbability drive? Well I've got one, and it'll scatter your very molecules across time and space."

"YOUR WORDS MEAN NOTHING TIME LORD." The Daleks weren't buying it. They continued to power up for another blast.

"Well, I guess you're not as 'soo-peer-ee-orre' as you think you are," Cara's voice dropped mockingly, "because I was speaking quite plainly."

"THE DALEKS ARRRRE SU-PE-RI-OR!" the Daleks yelled, "THE TIME LORDS WILL SUBMIT OR DIIIIE!"

"Go exterminate yourself," Cara grunted, punching her console buttons furiously. But it was no use. There was one thing left to do. Her mind roamed, reaching toward the Daleks, searching. She blinked, finding a wall. Something interfering. Something from within herself. She tried to push past it, but couldn't.

The wave of energy was almost to a climax.

Cara slid to sit next to her console, pieces of her ship in her hands, Gallifrey in perpetual distress on her walls, and realization in her eyes. "So long, Number Seven."