The cage came down around me. I couldn't turn my head, but still caught glimpses of things out of the corners of my eyes, other victims strapped to tables, Dalek robots, machines lowering squirming creatures on people's faces.

A victim gurgled next to me. How long would it be before I had one of those things in my throat?

No creatures came for me yet, but seconds remained before one would. A machine dropped down from the ceiling, cutting my hair down to tiny bits of stubble.

I felt alone. Betrayed by the woman I loved. Ashamed of my own stupidity. Depressed that this would be the way my life ended. I hated my wife. I hated Riversong for not being helpful. I felt...puzzlement.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Eve doing...something to a Dalek, poking something, turning one of the bubbles on the thing's armor. The thing let out a protesting scuba regulator scream, and she held up one of those fluorescent tube things, complete with the hidden metal box thing that it attached to. Something exploded.

A ghastly squid thing dropping down over my face.

I would have screamed, but knew it would be like putting a big welcome mat in front of my mouth and telling it to come in. I squirmed and clamped my teeth shut, sort of puffing my nostrils in hopes I could keep the thing out.

The moment a tentacle touched my lower lip, a female hand closed around the creature's head, squeezing into a fist. Black blood sprayed all over my face, and the cage came flying open.

I quickly jumped off the table, finding myself in the middle of an exploding laser light show.

The Daleks only stood at a certain height, their laser cannons only pointed down so far, so my woman took advantage by hiding under tables and sniping at them with the tube thing. They blasted away a few tables and victims in the process, but she'd just move to another, barricading herself in with shattered tables whenever the robots got in a good firing angle.

As Eve dragged me along with her, I offered to fire the laser, but she told me I couldn't, I'd have to undergo the treatment first.

She blew up several of the squid laying machines, ushering me to a door at the end of the room.

"We have to rescue Riversong," I said as we pushed out into a hall full of screaming robots.

She blasted a row of robots to pieces. "First we find safety."

Eve stuck her hand out straight, spreading her fingers, and a door across the hall opened on its own accord.

Another robot exploded, and I got dragged through the opening and down a narrow passage that appeared to be built from cinder blocks.

Eve pointed a hand at the hall behind us, clenched a fist, and the door slid shut, dimming the light to a feeble yellow haze.

She set down the gun, blocking my passage with her arm.

The next moment, she shoved me against the wall like a jock trapping the prom queen at the school lockers. We kissed.

Despite the bizarre taste and the tongue tentacles, it excited me, and didn't break away from her until the angry robotic voices got louder. That and the guilt about how I ruined her life, our abandonment of my fellow prisoner, and...all those people on tables.

For the victims, I had little hope, but..."Riversong. She knows about the TARDIS. The woman in the cell next to mine. We have to rescue her."

I heard a young girl's voice responded, "Then would you mind rescuing me from this vent!"

A teenager with dirty blonde hair glared at us from the slats of an air conditioner vent. I in shock. "How did you get in there?"

"Magic."

"You look...different. How many Riversongs are there in this place?"

"Never mind that. Did you find a sonic screwdriver yet!"

An adult lady, a little girl, and now a teenager, all with the same name, all talking to me like the adult I spoke to earlier. My immediate conclusion: These Dalek things cloned human beings like the lady in Resident Evil, in addition to sticking squirmy things in their brains. "I don't have any screwdriver."

"Were you only trying to remove some bolts?" Eve asked.

Riversong let out a sigh. "Obviously! Do you have a tool or not!"

Wordlessly, Eve raised a hand and spread her fingers in the direction of the grate.

Her hand glowed blue as bolts rotated and fell out on their own. I stared as the grate clattered to the floor.

The dirty blonde girl clambered out, frowning at my companion.

Riversong examined Eve's hand with a sad look on her face. "You poor girl." She cast me a sideways glance. "You poor, poor girl. Be thankful he has an open mind. No offense, but I don't think you'll do much better."

I scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"She has three eyes and tentacles. Do I need to paint you a picture?" Riversong paused. "Of course, there are so men on Gumac 9 that like a good cyclops..."

"Are you a clone?" I asked.

The teen looked down at her space uniform and patted herself, as if to check. "No? Do I look like one?"

I shrugged. "I saw a child in the cell with the name Riversong, and then I—"

"...Died in a fire fight, leaving me to my own devices for seven years. I know, I know. If it wasn't for that Denarius that fell out of your pocket when you sat down on the bed, I wouldn't have been able to escape before they put a thing in my brain."

I gawked in astonishment. "I had a Jesus coin in my pocket?"

She shrugged.

My eyes narrowed. "I died?"

"Um hum?"

"Seven years have passed?"

"No. And I'm here to make sure you make it through all seven of them. Or at least rescue my younger self and make it to the TARDIS before you die. Whichever comes first."

"Wait a minute. If you used my coin to get out, why do I need to rescue you?"

She gave me this look that said `Doctor Greene, it's too late to save the patient.' "I didn't make it very far."

Her expression turned completely blank as a fissure opened in her forehead, a telescoping eyestalk poking out and staring at us while a threatening weapon muzzle popped out of her upraised palm. "I'm sorry..." she croaked as she aimed the weapon at me. "Please understand I really don't want to do this..."

Eve smiled. "No worries."

She waved a glowing hand at Riversong, and the eyestalk slid back in the teen's head smoothly as a CD deposited into a disk drive. The gun retracted, and Riversong stared vacantly at me for a second before blinking several times and asking what happened.

I guess the poor girl did have something stuck in her brain, but nothing could be done about it. When I attempted to tell the girl about it, Eve just elbowed me and said, "I'll tell you later."

"So..." I began again. "Riversong. You're saying you are actually your future self come to prevent us from being killed by robots."

She nodded.

I shook my head. "Cloning is much more believable."

The woman chided me with tsk sounds. "You really are thick."

"All right, Sarah Connor. If I died, why did your adult self see me in the cell?"

"Magic!"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Don't tell me. Tell me this, though. What happens if we rescue the little girl? Will you cease to exist or something?"

The teen seemed to pale a bit. "Yes and no, but if we can make things right, my life won't matter."

"That's a sad thing to say."

"You don't know what my life has been like!" she practically screamed.

We all fell silent, eyes darting back and forth for signs of Dalek alarms.

In a low voice, Riversong said, "You're going to live this time. I am going to cease to exist, and you are going to bring that little girl out of this accursed place!"

"Wait, if we can do that, can we save Eve before she gets her brain cut open?"

"No. Besides being the only one who can operate the laser, your girlfriend wasn't conceived on a TARDIS like I was."

Wow. I'm going to have weird kids, I thought. I stared in puzzlement. "Why me? Why do you think I can actually help you?"

"For one, your girlfriend can unscrew bolts with her hand. For another, only you can show me the exact location of the Doctor's body. The fact that the TARDIS is still operational is a strong indicator that the Doctor is still alive. When the spirit of the Time Lord is gone, the spirit of the TARDIS dies with him."

I frowned. "What if you're wrong?"

"That's why I want to see the body. It's true, he didn't have any regenerations left, but the TARDIS only works while he's alive."

"What if this TARDIS spirit likes someone else and decides to stick around?"

She shrugged. "What if? What if a Time Lord has more lives than we thought? What if said Time Lord can fix your girlfriend?"

"Good point."

"I'm his wife," said Eve. "We're married."

I frowned. "What good is knowing the location? The Daleks stole the TARDIS!"

Riversong gasped in shock, smiling at my wife. "You're married? When did this happen?" I guess the stolen TARDIS was old news.

"A few days ago...um...thousands of years ago."

She practically squealed in excitement, shaking my wife's hand. "Congratulations, Mrs. er..."

"Wilson," I prompted.

Eve nodded.

"You're a lovely couple." Riversong let out a heavy sigh. "We may not have the TARDIS, but if there's a will, there's a way. I've heard rumors of a Type 39 TARDIS buried out in the desert wastes. If we can get my selves out of here, and find a map..."

Eve went into a catatonic state for a minute. "I have detailed memories of floor plans and topographic maps of the planet Skaro," she answered in a flat monotone. "Hence the reason for selecting this disused access corridor."

"You're scaring me," I said.

Eve turned her head and smiled. "Would it help if I kissed you again?"

"It might."

The door exploded.

"Save it for later, lovebirds!" Riversong cried, diving back in the vent.

Eve picked up the laser, blasting the lid off of one of the robots.

"How are you doing that?" I heard a voice cry from the air duct.

"Strategically placed electromagnetic discharges." Eve fired a blast at the ceiling, creating an avalanche of debris.

Riversong popped back out. "Go!"

Eve took one step down the corridor, then collapsed on the concrete. I dove to her side, attempting to lift her to her feet, but I wasn't strong enough to pull it off. "Eve! What's wrong!"

"Too...weak," she moaned. "Blood sugar too low."

I heard a sigh from within the vent, and a foil package came flying out. "Here! You can have my supper." Eve gave her a polite look like `No, you have it', but the girl in the vent added, "I do so love the taste of dog food."

Eve tried to eat the package whole.

"Unwrap it, dear."

I helped Eve with it, and she devoured whatever it was in a couple bites.

"How much of my wife is still in there?" I asked the teenager as she climbed out of the vent.

"Difficult to say. Normally they have no free will, only obeying orders from Dalek High Command. But if what you told me about her being a cavewoman is correct, she might have been all brain stem, short circuiting her programming."

"Wouldn't it instead have made everything super easy?"

"You would think. Mary Shelly had the same idea about giant bodies. Nothing is as simple as you think."

"Or maybe," Eve said from the floor. "Maybe it's just that both of us really love you."

I stared at Riversong in confusion. "Is there something you..."

"I have but one love..." Riversong stammered.

Eve nodded. "I was referring to me and the creature."

Riversong's face flushed red. "I am not a c—"

"The Dalek in my brain."

We both stared at her.

"Whew!" Riversong breathed. "It's not me! What a relief!"

"The thing in your brain?" I said. "You and the thing in your brain? You both love me?"

"Yes, Robert."

"Stephanie Meyer would approve," I joked.

Eve smirked. "I remember that movie from my data pod."

"Your what?"

"Before I inhabited this body, I inhabited a...pod. One with access to all of Skaro's data systems."

"Kind of like the internet?"

"Not...exactly. Our pods contain all the knowledge in the known universe, and the speeds are beyond human comprehension." She groaned and staggered to her feet. "I'd exterminate for a wooly mammoth steak."

Riversong, following after us, winced at the statement. "I'd go easy on the Dalek death ray until you get your strength back."

Eve stumbled ahead a few paces, but I could tell she had difficulty with the heavy gun thing. I offered to carry it for her, but she refused.

"You're sweet. But you're in no position to protect anyone."

I sighed, watching her tottering on her feet for a couple yards. I flinched at the popping and exploding sounds coming from both ends of the tunnel.

All of a sudden, I had a momentary flash of intelligence. "Stop. Let me see that gun."

Eve refused. "Why."

"I got an idea. You said that thing is powered by electricity, right?"

"And why is that important? Did you find a battery, or were you thinking of undergoing the procedure?"

"I'll show you. Hand me the gun."

She obliged me, but the thing was heavier than an industrial sized chainsaw.

Quickly, I handed it to Riversong. "Here. Hold this and point the metal box towards me."

She stared at me in bafflement, but did as asked.

I pulled off my shirt, and her expression reflected annoyance. "Now really. This is hardly the time or the place—"

When she saw me wadding my shirt into a ball and rubbing it together, she fell silent, staring wide eyed as I touched the fabric to the metal box.

Nothing happened. In my defense, a spark did leap from the shirt to the gun. "I thought that maybe we could use static to power it for a few short bursts."

I tried again. Nothing.

I impulsively tried rubbing the shirt against Riversong's uniform, but I still couldn't manage to get a charge.

Riversong sighed and shook her head. "If a Dalek and a cavewoman is occupying her skull, where did they put your brain?"

"Shut up."

Riversong stared at my cuts and scars. "What happened to your chest?"

I put my shirt back on. "Long story."

"Not everyone uses wedding rings." Eve started unzipping her jumpsuit.

Riversong blanched. "Please, I don't want to see it."

Eve's tentacles quivered. "You just gave me an idea."

"Another?" Riversong moaned.

"Not to worry. It's good. I have the Dalek brain." She gave me a serious look. "What's the least sensitive part of your body?"

Not a question I get asked very often. "What?"

"Are you afraid of needles?"

I paled. "Why are you asking me these questions?"

Instead of answering, she only muttered, "Your thigh would be a good target, but I'm afraid of what will happen if I hit a major artery..."

Before I could utter a word of protest, she blurted, "Give me your hand."

I unthinkingly complied, and caught a glimpse of needles coming out of her palm.

Too late to pull my hand away. She slapped her palm against mine, and I screamed as a dozen needles buried themselves into the meat of my hand. In retrospect, I should have suggested she stab my butt.

My pulse shifted in alarming ways as I watched her eyelids flutter. Heat pulsed through my wrist.

Eve drew in a shuddering breath that seemed almost sexual, then the needles came out.

She pulled away, leaving a ring of puncture wounds on my skin.

I suddenly felt very faint. I could tell by the bloody welts and the weakness that she had drained my blood, or transfused it somehow. The fact that her body hadn't rejected it, and even seemed to make her energetic pointed to her either being a vampire, or having the same blood type. I prayed she was a vampire.

One of the robots broke through the barricade, another opening the door we had intended to pass through. My wife, carefully conserving her energy, destroyed the two with only a couple shots.

"Okay, where's the cell?" I asked.

Eve pointed to the end of the hall. "Down there, then right past the Electrical Room. We'll need to cross through Weapons and the Master Control Room."

Riversong paled. "You'll never survive. Look at how weak your husband is."

She was right. I kind of shuffled down the hall, light headed, and dizzy from the blood drain.

"He was always weak," Eve said. "His sensitive nature is one of his most endearing charms."

And there you have it, I thought. `Strong cave woman pull weakling boy by hair.'

Riversong gave her an `oh brother' look, rolling her eyes. 'Never mind." She squinted at a section of wall, frowning at the concrete blocks. "Wait. I see something. This area seems familiar." She knelt in front of a grate, peering through the slats. "Yes! This is it! My cell is straight down at the end!" She gestured at it, grinning at Eve expectantly. "Would you do the honors?"

My wife removed the bolts, and Riversong dived in the vent. When Eve tried to climb in with the gun, she said it made too much noise.

Eve set the gun against the wall for a minute, like she's leaving it, but then I suddenly found my shirt being removed. With a smile, she takes wraps the gun with it, leaving me in goosepimples as I follow her into the vent. We crawled through a long dingy aluminum box.

Not really the straight shot Riversong had described. And when we crawled to the end of the box, it angled up and wound around more corners.

The tunnel darkened as we crawled ahead. My mind raced with questions. Who was this Riversong person? Who were her parents? Why did she have a stalk in her head instead of the tentacles? What was her relationship to the Doctor? How much did she really know about the TARDIS? Why did she get to be Sarah Connor Chronicles and not my wife?

"River?" I called. "Is the Doctor your father?"

She laughed. "No. He's my husband."

I was about to make a smart elec comment about him dating jail bait, but I refrained. "You're a bit young for him." I had to repeat myself due to being behind Eve and the ventilation system.

"He's over three hundred years old! Everyone's too young for him!"

Now I had even more questions, but the blower drowned out conversation.

We crawled through an L joint, and the blower fell silent for a moment. "What about the grown up Riversong?"

"What grown up?"

"The one in the cage across from you. The one that looked like the doctor from ER."

"There you go with those strange jokes. It was only us two in that prison. Nobody else was in that other cell. How can you look straight into the face of a little girl and say they look like some grownup from a hospital show?"

She was right. Paradoxically, I remembered babbling away to an empty cell while the girl talked to me from the other one, despite also having a memory of a woman being there. Again, anything was possible with Sarah Connor Jr. Maybe that's par for the course when you rescued time travelers.

The blower came back on.

"Just a little further," Riversong said as I slowly dragged myself through an elbow joint.

Something scuffled behind me. "What's that?"

"Trust me. You don't want to know. Hurry!"

"Tired," I moaned. "Too weak."

"If I were you, I'd stop being so weak, and quickly. When not devouring dust, the Pipe Cleaners like to supplement their diet with meat!"

"Pipe Cleaners?"

"Don't ask. Just crawl."

"Genetically enhanced lifeforms developed for the sanitation of ventilation ducts," Eve explained.

More scuffling sounds, this time off to my right.

A dark thing with thousands of lashing tentacles and a single red glowing eye came crawling up the end of the pipe. We halted.

"What's going on!" I shouted in panic.

"Shut up!" two female voices hissed at me. "You'll get us all killed!"

"My cell is straight ahead," Riversong said. "Keep going. I'll distract them."

As I passed the girl, she gave me a sad goodbye wave and said a thing that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. "Whether or not you're the Doctor, carry his torch the best you can. Give them hope. I believe in you."

Kneeling on all fours with no shirt with my bare flesh tingling in the cold air, I felt like anything but a hero. "Thank you. For your help. I'm...sorry it had to end like this."

"I'm not! Go!" She waved me on up ahead.

As I forced myself to crawl hurriedly onwards, she banged the sides of the vents, shouting at the things.

I crawled faster, trying to keep up with my wife, already nearing a square of light at the far end.

As the tin box got brighter, I heard pounding, scuffling, shouting, and then a loud agonized scream.

Ahead, someone muttered. We came to a standstill for an entire minute.

Unable to see anything else ahead of me, I admired how the seams on my wife's outfit curved around her shapely derriere.

The derriere backed up, crawling down an adjoining tunnel.

"What are you doing!" I called, but then the little girl climbed in.

"Don't get caught this time," I warned.

"What?" The kid looked baffled. Little Sarah C apparently didn't know about her bleak torturous future.

I shook my head. "Never mind. Come with me if you want to live."

I followed the butt down the adjoining passageway. "Where are we going!" I shouted over the blowers.

"You're weak! You need nourishment! This tunnel connects with liquid nutrient storage!"

"A bar?"

"Not exactly. And it's not Slimfast, either."

"Sounds delicious!" I joked as I trailed her.

After an agonizingly long crawl, through shafts, elbow joints and U shaped connections, Eve opened a narrow vent cover beneath her belly.

Dropping through the hole and doing a monkey swing beneath the vent, (I couldn't see what she was doing), she popped back up with a box full of glass tubes full of white glop. The stuff tasted like stale oatmeal, tofu and beets.

After I had choked down four of these (Eve insisted), and gave four to the little girl, something happened to the vent cover she'd set aside, and the noisily clattering object brought an army of screaming robots into the room below.

Something exploded, and everything tilted at an angle as the ventilation shaft broke free from its moorings.