6. In the Strong Room.
The Watchful Dalek is there when they arrive but can't see them behind the Dalek equipment just where they are. The Doctor's relieved and lowers his kit to the ground gently. He starts a delay timer of a minute and turns to see Chloe, ready for the return journey. But Chloe's aghast. Her earlier self has just arrived in the Strong Room, and she watches horrified as she's shot by the Watchful Dalek. It's horrible watching herself in pain, difficulty and danger.
The Doctor interrupts her with a hug that prevents her from seeing herself being dragged out of the Strong Room. Then they're alone with no Watchful Dalek in the room.
Chloe looks at the Doctor. "We arrived a bit early. Better make that two minutes on the delay timer!"
It's the Doctor's turn to look aghast. "Once I've started it I can't change it!" .
"What? What do we do?" Chloe asks urgently, worried there may not be enough time before her earlier-self departs for the last time.
"We can stay until time minus five seconds, and I could try to remove the detonator clock if we still need more time."
It all feels rather close for Chloe's comfort. "Alright," she says, cringing at the thought of her earlier self being caught in the blast if something goes wrong.
Chloe watches carefully from behind Dalek equipment as she watches out for her previous self. She keeps on glancing at the countdown display getting nearer to zero. She sees herself and Alyssa appear behind the Watchful Dalek and hears the Dalek's shriek of anger when Alyssa touches it.
This distracts the Doctor from watching the countdown, but Chloe knows exactly the moment she and Alyssa will disappear. The Doctor's watching events unfold. Just before she activates her wristwatch transport, she glances at the countdown; two seconds! She grasps hold of the Doctor, thinks of home and activates her wristwatch transport...
"That was too close, Doctor! Two seconds left!" Chloe wants to upbraid the Doctor for using an unpausable detonator.
"Two seconds, you say! Far too close!" the Doctor agrees.
"Doctor, could you use a pausable detonator next time?" It feels like a plausible request. .
"They don't make them pausable, or anyone could stop it, even the Daleks could stop it!" .
Chloe groans as she collapses into an armchair. She's given herself quite a shock.
"Was it successful?" Alyssa asks.
"I hope so!" Chloe says. "After all that risk and effort, it better had be!"
Insurrection.
"I want to know if that was successful," Chloe says later.
"I need to know if it was successful!" the Doctor says. "Gallifreyan authorities want a full report on it, and I don't have a proper ending... It might happen again is about all I can say."
"Why don't we listen in?" Chloe says.
"Because we can't go there!" the Doctor replies. "Unless..." he looks at Chloe sharply, then reprimands himself. "No, no, no! No more massive risks with you!"
"I've been there before," Chloe tempts the Doctor.
"When?"
"When I caused their cessation of hostilities," Chloe says (ref. 31). "I'll go and find out."
Chloe walks to the Console and starts tapping away at the keyboard.
"What are you doing?" Alyssa asks, inquisitively.
"Looking at the Timelines. They might have settled down a little by now."
Alyssa wanders over to join her sister. The screen makes no sense to her, and Chloe isn't going to show her just a small insight into reading the Timelines - a little knowledge can do a lot of damage. A full course on reading Timelines would be great, but there isn't time. Chloe's buzzing.
"That's the meeting I should intrude on. It's the same room I went to before. I'll just be a few minutes."
"And what do we do if you're longer?" Alyssa demands to know. "We can't send out a search party!"
"That's my worry, too," the Doctor owns. "I'm more frustrated that I can't do anything more due to the Daleks' Tardis Repulsion System."
"When I was there just earlier," Chloe says, "I came across the Tardis Repulsion System, and I was able to turn it off. It's in a small storeroom. Should I go there first?"
"Yes," Alyssa says. "Too good an opportunity!"
"They may have it guarded," the Doctor warns.
Chloe feels her patience ebbing – it's a dangerous moment! . She just wants to get on with it.
"I'm going straight to their meeting!" She thinks of that meeting and activates her wristwatch transport...
She's straight back. "They removed the screen I hid behind when I last went!" .
"Alright," the Doctor says, laughing, despite the danger Chloe had just been in; just glad to have her back! "I've an idea. I'll challenge them in a hologram. I've thought what I'll say - I'll simply berate them while sharing their plot – with every Dalek!"
He strides to the Console and taps a few buttons. Choices appear on the screen, and he selects a one-way high-definition Hologram, broadcast to every Dalek spaceship and colony.
For Alyssa, watching the Doctor standing and addressing no-one, it seems strange, but Chloe's seen the hologram used before to good effect and knows its usefulness.
"Daleks, you failed! You're all failures! Your latest venture was the most ridiculously stupid idea yet! Dalek stupidity has known no bounds! To willingly end the whole Universe, including every Dalek? Surely the flawed logic of this can't evade even the most stupid of Daleks! This venture of yours would have ended every Dalek along with the Universe! Never, ever do anything so stupid again!"
The Doctor flips a switch to end the communication and turns towards Chloe. His tone becomes gentle, as if he's mocking at the Daleks. "I'd like to be a fly on the wall when they have to explain that to every other Dalek! It might cause a Dalek insurrection!" .
"Saves you a job, then!" .
THE END
The previous episode in this series is called "Alyssa's Outing" (ref. 42).
The next episode in this series is called "The Welsh Power Pool".
I hope to add further episodes soon.
Sparse References.
Reference 14 Episode DalExDev in this series,
where the Doctor had been on another Dalek colony who had a Tardis Repulsion System that occupied a whole large room, but that had been a while ago.
Reference 29 Episode The Wristwatch Tardis in this series,
where Chloe developed her Wristwatch Tardis to ancient Gallifreyan plans.
Reference 31 Episode Peace at Last in this series,
where Chloe had chanced to cause Dalek hostilities to pause, at least for a short time.
Reference 38 Episode Time Distortion in this series,
where the Doctor asked his Tardis to build a Time Distortion Nullifying machine – so Chloe now knows about it,
where Chloe previously met with the Tardis Consciousness to save the day,
where the Doctor recalls the successful rescue of all present.
Reference 41 Episode Alyssa's Stowaway in this series,
where Chloe severs a Dalek suction probe and the Doctor disposes of it.
Reference 42 Episode Alyssa's Outing in this series,
where Chloe was kidnapped by mutant Daleks who knew about boats... but the mutants never saw the Doctor for long enough to recognise him.
At points in the story where there is humour, an additional full stop is added. .
ANOTHER END
