I didn't know if 92419902 were telling the truth, but it didn't matter. She was going to kill Robert if I didn't do something. I'd have to get him out of here now, cured or not, and somehow find a way to safety, away from all the Daleks, away from my people.

I had no clear plan to get him out of there. I was still in the early stages of planning. But I had signed my death sentence the moment I stepped in 92419902's path.

I wrenched the disruptor cannon out of the way before she could vaporize me, hitting her in the face with the butt. Nothing special, just basic martial arts training.

She came back with some moves of her own, throwing me to the floor, firing a shot at my head that would have killed me had I not rolled away.

I swept her feet out from under her, attempting to snatch the weapon from her. Instead grabbing it, I ended up knocking it away.

She grabbed me by the throat, shoving me into a wall.

I kicked her in the crotch.

She tore at my head tentacles.

I clawed at her eye.

We scuffled in this style for over a minute.

Just as I thought I was getting the upper hand (or flipper, if you want to get technical), I suddenly see 92419902 dive for the weapon, pointing it at my head before I could make another move.

"I've been wanting to do this for a long time," she growled.

As she was activating the firing mechanism, the lights went out.

"My vision is not impaired!" 92419902 cried, but a moment later, I saw a laser beam shooting off in an incorrect direction.

When the lights came back on, I noticed a pair of human hands around her throat.

Somehow, someone had deactivated the locking mechanism to his cell.

"Hurry, Dee!" he cried. "Stop her!"

92419902 elbowed him in the crotch, turning the disruptor on him.

"No!" I screamed, charging at her, but it was too late.

I saw a flash of blue light, then heard a scream.

92419902 collapsed on the floor with a gaping hole in her chest.

Robert, gasping and panting for breath, arose from the concrete, weapon in hand.

"How'd I do?"

I ran to him, throwing my arms around him, kissing him on the lips.

He pushed me away. "We should go."

"You can't see yet!" I protested.

He nodded. "It doesn't look like I ever will. Not fully, at least...which way is out?"

"The walls are weak around sleeping quarters," I said. "But there are too many Daleks around there. Plus we'd have to go through a busy training center."

"I thought you had a plan," he said with a smirk.

"It all depended on us going at a specific time," I groaned. "After I'd worked some things out. I didn't have time to work out all the details."

"I thought Daleks were supposed to be superior to other lifeforms." He was smiling as he said this.

"Sometimes we are," I said, hot with embarrassment.

"It's okay to make mistakes," he said. "It's human. How about the place where they dump the experiments? Trash can't be guarded that carefully, can it?"

"You're right," I said. "And we can grab weapons in the room next door."

I frowned. "But that place is next to our training center. Someone is sure to find us."

"Many someones," Rob grunted.

He pointed down the hallway. "What's all the way at that end?"

I sighed. "That's where they put newborn Daleks into machines."

"Babies," he breathed. "Sounds easy enough. We can probably find a way out through their abortion machines."

"We don't abort Dalek fetuses," I said. "We just drop the defective ones down a chute into the caverns."

"Sounds like a crowd of kids I'd like to meet," he joked.

Suddenly I had a vision of he and I living together, caring for those abandoned creatures. The thought made my legs tremble.

"Wait," I said. "That's perfect! We'll go through the dump chute!"

With Robert's hand clutching my flipper for guidance, we ran down the tunnel, pausing only when we heard the screams.

"What's that?" Robert said.

"Hurry or you'll be joining them!"

I pressed my flipper to the door at the end of the corridor, but it refused to open.

"I think they know," I said, blasting open the door control plate.

I knew exactly how to cross the wires to open the hatch. In a few seconds, we were in the Dalek machine room.

The room was filled with gray metal Dalek shells, covered all around by shiny black sense spheres. They stood like statues, pointing their disruptors straight ahead, their darkened grills and randomly flickering dome lights giving no indication whether any of them were occupied.

"Whoa," Robert breathed. "Are those alive?"

"You can see them?" I asked.

"They're just dark outlines, but yes."

The eyestalk on one of the machines raised up, pointing at me. Its disruptor followed. "Unauthorized method of access. Explain!"

"Panel is inoperative," I said. "Removed panel with disruptor and rewired the interior."

The Dalek processed this. "Why did you not use regulation tools?"

I blasted its head open, grabbing Robert's hand. "Let's go."

We ran through the tight rows of machine shells.

After going a few feet, I heard a mechanical voice yell, "Stop! Defective unit! Remain stationary to await extermination!"

I blasted that one too, but more came to take its place. As I dodged, laser beams ricocheted off random shells, causing things to explode and catch fire.

I broke through the security lock on a panel at the end of the room just as a group of Daleks and human Daleks began to file in through the other hatch I couldn't close.

The Dalek nursery was a humid, foggy sort of factory. It worked rather like an assembly line. In the rear, pipes full of chemicals pumped into mechanical wombs, where the Dalek larva incubated until it was time to expose them to the outside air, send them down a conveyor, and place them into their training compartments, simulations of their future vehicles.

A mechanical arm dropped down from the ceiling to remove the simulation failures. Even as we crept through the room, it was at work removing the imperfect ones.

When I saw it drop one of the struggling creatures down the chute, I pointed and shouted, "There!"

"Where?" he said, mystified.

I led him ahead.

Our pursuers had entered the chamber, but they moved with caution, withholding their fire to avoid hitting the infant Daleks.

It was a tight fit, but we managed to squeeze inside the chute.

The chute was chrome, with a trap door to prevent unwanted visitors. As we approached, the automatic cover was sliding closed, a double protection against invaders. It would only open again if the mechanical arm came back around.

As quick as I could, I pushed Rob in first, firing at my pursuers as I jumped in afterwards.

We slid down a metal tube, into a dark cave, landing on a massive squirming mound that wailed helplessly beneath our feet. My heart broke to see all those discarded Daleks. I picked one up, crying as I gently stroked its exposed brain.

"We have to do something about them," I said.

"Like what?" Rob asked. "I wouldn't even know how to raise one...Plus there's a whole lot of them."

I put the infant down. "You're right," I sniffed, wiping my teary eye. "Our priority right now is getting us out of here alive."

"I suppose we could manage one," he muttered. "If it makes you feel better."

"It would," I said, picking the little one up again. "We can try."

I handed him the weapon.

With the baby in one arm, and Rob's hand in the other flipper, I ran through the cavern, anxiously searching for signs of danger, Dalek or otherwise.

The tunnels were winding, dripping with slime. The most bizarre looking variety of creatures shadowed us, part human, part animal, part Dalek. All different. Nothing at all like the homogenized beings I spent every waking hour with. They stalked at a wary distance, neither attacking nor going away.

We turned a corner, and things got silent, our deformed pursuers at last fading into the background.

At first, I thought it meant something very bad for us, like running face forward into a Dalek trap. But I knew our traps, and this wasn't one I was familiar with. IT appeared that we had just stumbled upon a safe, secluded area.

We stopped to catch our breath.

Seeing a flat shelf, I set the baby down on it. It seemed okay for the moment.

If we could only escape this place safely...and find some way off the planet...

In the dim light, I could see Rob smiling at me. I smiled back.

And then, it was as if something inside me just snapped, and raw emotion took over me.

With thoroughly un-Dalek-like abandon, I pulled him close to me, viciously attacking his mouth with the most passionate of kisses.

His eyes widened with shock, arms flailing around like he were about to fall over, but then he closed his eyes, grabbing me possessively as he kissed back.

I heard a distorted grinding, tearing sound, and the entire cavern filled with light.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a blue wooden police box materializing out of nowhere.

Robert pulled his lips away. "Well that's new!...Another Dalek invention?"

I just rolled my eye, shutting him up with another kiss.