"THE LAST TIME LORDS MUST BE EX-TER-MIN-ATED!" the Dalek commander cried victoriously as he watched the lone TARDIS' polished white walls flicker, "STAR-TING WITH THIS ONE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

The other Daleks prepared to do just that, but never got the chance. The entire ship began to shiver, its swirling diamond-shaped screens shutting off one by one.

"WHAT IS HAP-PEN-ING!" the Dalek commander demanded.

"A-NOTHER TARRRRDIS HAS ARRRRIVED!" one Dalek shrieked, sliding sideways heavily against a wall. The others scraped and slid across the floor toward him as the ship tilted awkwardly.

Cara blinked at the floor of her ship. She was still here. Her life had not ended in any way. She looked up, surprised, and saw a blue police box hovering between her and the Dalek ship. All around it, puffs of blue and purple gasses seemed to come from nowhere, creating a beautiful and effective veil protecting Cara from the Daleks. She could see the Dalek ship flicker and tilt, and could sense the surprise of the inhabitants.

Once again, Cara tried to focus on the gelatin-like minds of her enemies, sending back to them their own command. Exterminate! This time she wasn't stopped.The word was a cutting laser, slicing through the vacuum of space, aimed at each armor-plated creature in turn. The seven streams of consternated thought ceased abruptly, and the ship drifted. Letting her eyes close, Cara took a deep breath and released it slowly, wondering why she felt so drained. Confusion twisted in her gut, but she pushed it away. The Mission was all that mattered.

"What happened?" Dodi cried when the barrage of weapons fire had stopped, "did we win?"

"They stopped," the Doctor's brow furrowed, "Both of them."

"What are they?"

"Well, one of them is Cara, and I'd bet it's the one we just rescued."

"And the others?"

The Doctor paused, "I'm not sure. That technology is beyond the ships of this period, even with all the wibbly wobbly going on."

"Someone from the future?" Dodi looked excited, "maybe that's who came through the hole before us! But who is inside? And why did they want to kill Cara? And why did they stop?"

The Doctor just worked several controls on his console, establishing a communications link with Cara's TARDIS.

"Cara, this is the Doctor. Are you all right?" he asked.

"Fine, thanks for dropping by, " came the scratchy reply, "the Daleks weren't expecting you."

The Doctor answered, "how long do you think it'll take you to repair your TARDIS?"

"Quite a while, from where I'm standing," Cara's voice sounded somewhat amused, "but don't worry, she'll be okay. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. Goodbye, Doctor. By the way, boiled Dalek really reeks."

"What?" The Doctor blinked, "she's in the other ship. How did she get to the other ship?"

"What's she doing over there?" Dodi asked, feeling foolish for asking so many questions.

"She's…she's heading for Gallifrey!"

Cara smiled, pleased with herself for having stashed a miniature teleport in one of her TARDIS' cupboards. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of cooked Dalek and frowned at the carnage piled against one wall. There was too much goo leaking everywhere to tell where one Dalek ended and another began. However, flying a ship full of stinky dead Daleks was far better than being a ship full of live ones.

The workings of the ship were alien to her, but she managed to find a throttle and basic steering device among the controls. The delta-shaped ship hummed and smoothly darted forward, with the orange ball of Gallifrey directly ahead.

"Cara, you've got to stop this," the Doctor's voice continued to plead, "I know you think that what you're doing is right, but it isn't. You're being manipulated by people who have been dead for years. People who took advantage of you. They hurt you, Cara, but I want to help. It's not too late."

"This isn't about me, Doctor," Cara snapped, "it's bigger than me. It's bigger than any of us. You don't understand, how could you? But you will. Everyone will."

"Cara, please don't make…"

Cara shut off the comm. and started descending into Gallifrey's atmosphere, reaching with her mind to find a single speck on the surface.

The Doctor saw the dropped signal and banged on his TARDIS speaker with his fist, "Come back!"

"If her ship is disabled," Dodi reasoned quietly, "the machine you mentioned might be, as well."

"Yes," the Doctor nodded bleakly, already having thought that out, "which is why she's going to Gallifrey. She's going to find the machine from this time. The one that what was left of the Infinity Syndicate had just finished."

"Which was where?" Dodi asked, "could we get there first?"

"It was…" The Doctor thought, then leapt into action, "better hang on, I'm going to try to make a vortex hop, and in the middle of a time locked area, this could be a very bad idea. Best case scenario, we land with concussions and possibly missing body parts." He looked at her apologetically, "but it's the only way to get there ahead of her."

"Wait, what's the worst-case scenario?" Dodi asked nervously, stopping one of the Doctor's hands.

"Hmm?" the Doctor looked up, "oh, we could be flattened into a stream of particles a millionth the thickness of tissue paper and scattered across time."

"Oh," Dodi sat weakly on the TARDIS bench and was finally quiet.

"Here we go," the Doctor's finger hovered over the button, "Alonz-y!"