"We had a little more trouble than we originally thought," Jack explained. "Just getting it out of the casing was bad enough, but then the wiring was quite complicated."
"Please, Jack, spare me the monologue," the Doctor said irritably. "Does it work? Do you have any idea of what to do or how to use it?"
The captain frowned. "Not a clue, Doctor. Sorry."
The Doctor scoffed and walked a distance away.
"Why would the Matron suggest Dalek technology if no one knows how to use it?" Rose asked.
"Because we asked if there was any cure," River told her, "not necessarily an accessible cure." She frowned. "This is the cure; it's just…inaccessible."
Then the Dalek, who had been silent thus far, began to laugh in its gargled voice. "Oh, you dumb little life forms. You know what this is, don't you?"
"Stop it," the Doctor ordered.
"Defeat. This is me, a naked Dalek, your oldest enemy, Doctor."
"Stop it."
"Here I sit, imprisoned, unarmed, and still I have the last laugh."
"Shut up!" the Doctor snarled and punched the container. He grunted as his knuckles made solid contact. Nothing happened to the container, but there was a definite crunch in the Doctor's hand. He sucked in a breath and stamped his foot as pain lanced through his hand and up his arm. Only Susan was brave enough to approach him. She gently took his hand in hers, set and held the bones, and allowed a bit of regenerative energy to flow into him and heal the wound.
"Calm down, Grandfather," she said softly. "Remember you used to sit down with a cup of tea and think things over? I'm sure you can come up with a solution, but getting angry won't help. All right?"
The Doctor sighed in defeat. He clenched and unclenched his fist as the regeneration finished its work. "You're right. I think we all could use a cup of tea. Come along."
"I'll be up in a moment, Doctor," Jack called after them. "What do you want done with this stuff?"
"Bring the systems up; we'll connect them to the console later. Get rid of the casing."
But event as they were leaving, the Dalek was still going on. "Hehehehe, poor Doctor. Run, Doctor! Run for as long as you can…because the Daleks will get you…"
"So, what's our next move?" Jenny asked as they all sat down around a table, each with a cup of tea.
"We should map out the Dalek systems in greater detail," Jack suggested. "If we can do that, we can at least narrow down which ones might be used to reverse this."
"How do we do that?" Rose wondered. "How do we know which ones will have any effect?"
"I think we can rule out the gun," John threw in.
"How many systems does a Dalek have?" Susan inquired.
"Thirty-seven," River answered, not missing a beat.
"So, we're down to thirty-six," Jenny stated. "Jack, you can probably map out the systems faster than anyone."
"The Tardis can do it faster," the Doctor cut in before Jack could speak. "That's why we're going to wire them together."
"Then we can cross-reference them with the medical readout and hopefully find an answer," River went on. "Or at least a direction."
"Well then," Susan said, standing. "I've had quite enough of this. I'll get started on the wiring."
"You can't do that," Jack blurted.
"Oh? Why not?"
"Jack, she knows more about alien tech than even you do," John told him.
Jack was at a loss. "I was only saying that…"
"What?" Susan challenged. "Because I'm a girl, I don't know how to do some heavy-duty Tardis wiring? All I have to do is link the primary power source to the Tardis power outlet and run a second line to a fail-safe switch to keep it from overloading or trying to access the main computer. Then I can link each system to the basic readout as well as organic diagnostics, failure diagnostics, and the external keyboard. After that, I can-"
"All right," River interrupted. "I think you've made your point. Go on."
Susan gave Jack a look and bounded off to begin her work.
Jack, John, the Doctor, and the others arrived later to see Susan just finishing hooking up the Dalek systems to the Tardis.
"She doesn't like this hooking up to the Dalek system," Susan said, looking at River who pulled down the monitor and began tapping away at buttons and knobs on the console.
"What are you doing?" the Doctor wondered.
River gave him a look. "Easing her pain. The Tardis is certainly capable of keeping control over that 'monstrosity' as she puts it, but she doesn't like it." Her head snapped back to the console. "Now don't give me that attitude!"
"She can actually hear the Tardis?" John whispered to the Doctor.
"Just like I can," he hissed back. "Do you still hear her?"
"I can feel her, certainly, but not hear her as I once did."
"Still do."
The former Time Lord gave him a look. "But how?"
"I'll show you later."
"All right," River said, relieved. "That's a good girl. Now then, what can you give us?" She did some more things; the screen changed quickly and eventually just went to a "progress" screen. River turned back to the group. "We'll have our results momentarily."
Even as she finished, the bar filled and results started pouring across the screen. River, the Doctor, Susan, and John all crowded around the screen trying to read it.
"So, what does it say?" Rose asked.
River shook her head. "Nothing useful."
"Nothing useful," the Doctor scoffed. "Of course there is something useful in all this. We've narrowed down our possible solutions from a thirty-seven to nineteen."
"How do you figure?"
"Can't you read?" John asked.
"See these?" Susan said, pointing. She quickly launched into a detailed, technical, and anatomical explanation that only the Doctor and John really would have understood. River picked up on pieces of it, Jack and Jenny looked rather intrigued, but Rose was completely lost.
"Well, that's great," the Doctor said after Susan finished. "Means we have it down to seven possible solutions."
"How do we narrow it down further?" Jack wondered.
The Doctor sighed. "Well, we have to return to the Matron. She may have some insight."
"It just killed you to say that," River stated.
"You've no idea."
"All right," Susan said, leaving the screen to take a position around the controls. "Destination, New Earth."
"To see the Matron," John confirmed, also finding a spot.
"Geronimo!" the Doctor cried as he pulled the lever.
John looked at him. "Don't. No, don't do that. Seriously."
"I thought we already went over this." The Doctor collapsed into the seat. "I am the Doctor now. You are a human passenger."
"We share nine hundred years!"
"And I've lived the last five hundred very happily without you!"
"Doctor!" River snapped.
"Well it's only been five for me, and I still can't adjust to domestic life!"
"John!" Rose barked.
"Yeah, well I've known three of you and since I can't die, I might just live to know the rest of you!" Jack threw in.
Everyone looked at him.
"Are you part of this?" John demanded.
"No. But I've seen enough that-"
His sentence was cut off as the Tardis suddenly jerked, throwing everyone off-balance. The four Tardis pilots all clambered around, trying to diagnose the problem. Jack and Jenny made a dive for the Dalek systems, both to rescue them and disconnect them from the Tardis. Rose clung to the railing, trying to stay out of the way.
"What's going on?" Jack cried over the shaking and rumbling. "Did we fall out of the time vortex?"
"We didn't fall!" River reported. "We're being pulled out!"
"Pulled out by what?" Jenny asked.
"Hold on!" John interrupted.
There was a final jolt, throwing everyone to the floor, then all was still. No one wasted a moment checking balance or getting bearings. As soon as possible, they were all on their feet and awaiting some sort of explanation.
"So, what happened?" Jenny breathed. "How did we get pulled out?"
"It would have to be something very powerful," the Doctor and John said simultaneously. They glanced at each other and the Doctor went on. "No ordinary tractor beam or weapons' fire could do anything like that."
"No, it would have to be some sort of gravity pulse," John continued, "fired at the exact moment we entered the vortex."
"Doctor," Rose said from the doorway.
"Not now, Rose, we're trying to figure this out," the Doctor said.
"But a gravity pulse doesn't just appear," Jack pointed out. "And there weren't any ships around that I saw."
"Doctor," Rose pressed.
"Could it have been cloaked?" River wondered.
"No. Even if it had been cloaked, the energy to fire a gravity pulse would have to build over a long period of time, and that energy would have been detected by the Tardis," John explained.
"Could we have been hit while in the vortex?" Susan ventured. "Maybe a passing blow caught us by accident?"
"Doctor!" Rose cried.
"Yes, Rose, what is it?" the Doctor said, turning to her.
"You might want to see this."
Only a tad frustrated, the Doctor descended from the platform and went to the door. A chill ran through him, the same chill that swept over the others as they went to the door.
Outside the Tardis, the entire Dalek fleet sat, waiting for them.
The Doctor swallowed and wondered absently, "Anyone here think we have a valuable hostage in that Dalek downstairs?"