Chapter 2

Rose watched the Doctor as he desperately tried to slow down the TARDIS.

"You said if you tried to reverse us or slow us down we'd freeze completely," She said.

"Anything, and I mean anything, is better in my books than crashing into Skaro right now. And besides, if we do freeze the other time lords can get us out."

"You sure about that?" Rose asked uncertainly. He was just about to reply when the TARDIS shuddered violently. Both of them grabbed onto the control panels to keep themselves upright until the shuddering stopped which was a minute later. The Doctor looked up at the engine which was still moving. "Still going," he said rather to himself than to Rose. "Why won't we stop? Why are they doing this?"

"Is there any way you could contact the time lords?" Rose asked him nervously.

"No. I'll bet my life the Kaleds disabled the communications." He replied.

"So, I take it at this moment in time the Daleks are still the Kaleds and the Thals still inhabit Skaro with them. Am I right?"

"'Fraid so. And you know what? When we hit the beginning of Time which will be very soon," he glanced at his watch again. "We'll bounce right back to the end and keep reversing unless the TARDIS stops. And if that happens we'll go into the year of the Kaled and Thal war. We'll be caught in the middle. Oh, by the way, if we crash before there, which will probably be soon, the Daleks still inhabit it because in the past they're still alive -"

"Wait!" Rose interrupted. "You told me when I looked into the TARDIS in the future I said 'I can see the whole of time and space, every atom of your existence and I divide them.' Surely that means they're gone forever?"

"I would love to say you were completely right, but there's a loophole. You destroyed every living Dalek and past ones. But on Skaro they're still Kaleds. They aren't Daleks. Think about it."

Rose put her hand to her mouth. "But then… you said they mutated after the war. If they're still Kaleds the war hasn't happened. We'll crash when it's either just begun or finishing."

The Doctor nodded sadly.

"Oh my god. What are we gonna do? How will we defend ourselves and the TARDIS?"

"We still have the force-field for the TARDIS. But about us I don't know." He didn't look her in the eye.

They didn't speak for a while. The Doctor had decided there was nothing he could do to prevent the time skipping so sat down next to Rose. "Are we gonna die?" she asked at last.

The Doctor looked at her and smiled. "I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure no harm comes to you."

She frowned.

"Look, you know I can take care of myself. Regeneration and all that."

"Well, I'll do everything in my power to make sure no harm comes to you," Rose said, giving him a small smile. It faded as she said, "You're sure we can't get in touch with the other time lords?"

"Positive." The Doctor answered. "I just wish I could do more to stop this."

"You've done everything you can," she told him, resting her hand gently on his arm. "Like you said we have to wait and see."

She took her hand away and he looked at her. "You always say the right things, ask the right questions." He sighed. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

She grinned. "You're stuck with me if you keep up the flattery!"

The Doctor laughed but then frowned after he looked at his watch. "We're near Skaro and the wars going to start in eight decades time. That's not that long. Rose, check the news again."

Rose slowly walked over to the screen and turned back to the news channel.

"…the machine now recognised as a Time and Relative Dimension In Space machine by the time lords is heading straight for the planet Skaro inhabited with the Kaleds and Daleks and if the time lords have calculated correctly they will collide soon when they are about to break into war..."

"You were right." Rose said. "We're going to land right in the middle of a war zone about to be invaded by a mixture of Kaled and Thal. We're doomed." She said slowly.

"Don't talk like that. It's a possibility that when we crash, the TARDIS force-field should stop the impact from being so hard and that'll weaken it, but the best thing we can do is stay put. The engine will stop then so I should be able to figure out how to fix it."

"Your using 'should' a lot." Rose commented.

"Best I can do at the moment." He looked at his watch again. "Nearly there. Strap on your seatbelt, Rose."

"What seatbelt?"

He pointed his sonic screwdriver at the seats he and Rose sat on. She looked around and saw a new seatbelt had been attached. "That seatbelt." He said. "Hang on now we're about to break into Skaro's atmosphere…"