"Ceros?" She used the name by which she had heard the naked, defenceless, seemingly gentle creature addressed when she first encountered it back in the cave. "Ceros, it's me. Jasmine. You remember, don't you?"
The thing didn't so much as pause, the twitch of its gun was the only warning she got, and as she leaped aside, over the lip of the crater, a stream of lethal energy coursed through the spot where she had been standing an instant before. Jasmine tumbled over in the dust, her legs giving way and her feet twisting beneath her, and crashed painfully to a halt lying awkwardly on her side, facing down the slope.
She was aware of Kerrigan running up to her... Straight past, ducking frantically as he sprinted towards the Tardis. She turned her head in time to see the young captain's body dissolving in a storm of blue fire from the Dalek's gun, the charred remains of his bones collapsing to the ground to mingle with the dust. Then the Dalek itself came gliding into view at the crater's edge, its gun and eyestalk both focussed on her.
So this was it. The thought flashed across her mind that she had killed herself through her own idiocy.
There was a sharp clatter as the Doctor's full weight hurtled into the back of the Dalek. It barely shifted under the impact, but when he wrapped his hands over its single mechanical eye it lurched backwards, its voice blaring out in high pitched agitation:
"Under attack! Vision impaired! Assistance required! Repeat, assistance required!"
Teeth clenched, the Doctor clung on like a limpet as the creature span and circled, trying to shake him off.
"Jasmine!" he shouted. "Get back inside!"
Clambering up to her feet, she hesitated, every instinct roaring at her to run instead to his aid, and he spat out his next command like venom.
"Do as I say!"
She ran, into the Tardis and to safety. An instant later the Dalek paused, calculated, then wheeled and reversed with bone-jarring force into the Tardis itself. Winded, the Doctor slumped helplessly to the ground, while the Dalek turned and backed off, levelling its gun.
"You are the Doctor. You will be exterminated."
But the Doctor was checking his watch, and looked up with a relieved grin.
"Not this time."
He flung up his arm to cover his eyes as the entire scene was bathed in a white light so intense that it blotted out everything else. Protected by a complex system of computerised filters, the Dalek's eyestalk swivelled to stare at the sight of the entire colony being consumed in a detonation of pure energy from the overloading power plant. Instantly it switched back to the Doctor, and found itself looking at an empty space. The Tardis door clunked shut.
Frenzied, the Dalek commander fired blast after blast, blue flame spattering harmlessly against the time machine's indestructible side, then blazing aimlessly away across the wilderness as the police box groaned and wheezed its way out of existence. A second later, in a surging black duststorm with a roar like a thousand rumbles of thunder, the shockwave struck, and scorched the landscape clean of Daleks and every other living thing.
----------
The Doctor watched the steady rise and fall of the control column and leaned forward over the console, releasing a long, slow exhalation of pent up tension. He shook his head with a rueful smile.
"You know, I have a feeling most of my previous incarnations were braver than this."
No response, and he turned to look at Jasmine, sitting huddled on the floor. Her white, strained face pointed fixedly at her feet.
"I'm sorry," she croaked. "I'm so sorry. I should have listened to you. I almost got you killed."
He seemed about to make some light response, then frowned, walked over, and squatted down in front of her. He lifted her chin on the curled knuckle of his right hand so that she found herself looking into his eyes.
"I love you for trying, Jasmine."
The Doctor stood, and walked from the room.
END