The crack hung in space as if embedded in a wall, yawning across the face of space-time itself. It glowed perpetually, emanating brilliant white tendrils of light. Beautiful as they were, a touch from those appendages of energy doomed one to be erased from the timeline, as if you were never there at all. And one of the fatal extensions had wrapped itself around the saucer rotating in front of the crack.
Though the ship was over 200 metres in diameter, it was dwarfed by the immense breach in the fabric of reality. It spun on its axis, the lights on its hull encircling the ship once every second, but it was no use. Electromagnetic pulse generators could not outrun the time field, and the disturbance from the crack prevented the ship's inhabitants from accessing a time corridor. The distance between the saucer and nonexistance dwindled with every passing second.
Temporal forces rocked the ship, causing the five Daleks inside to drift about the control room. The New Dalek Paradigm, fresh out of their progenitors, were about to become extinct again.
"Emergency! The crack has increased!" the Scientist Dalek shrieked, its small dischargers lighting up its orange casing. "We will be drawn in and out of existence!" The Dalek turned from the console to face its superior, the white-liveried Supreme. "The time is now!" Its voice rang with urgency.
"Drone, activate transmat! Bring him before me!" Growled the Supreme in its deep voice. The red Dalek sitting to the left obliged its orders, interfacing with the ship's computer.
"Transmat engaged! Materialising now!" The Drone rasped.
In front of the Supreme the air began to glow, charged with chroniton particles. An outline appeared, egg-shaped with a tapering, globe-adorned base, armed with a manipulator arm and a gunstick. The bronze shape of a Dalek became apparent, then with a flash it was there in the room.
The Paradigm's guest was no grunt. Once the leader of the revered Thirteenth Assault Squad during the Last Great Time War, it was now the last surviving member of four Daleks specially engineered to perform the most controversial and unconstitutional of Dalek tasks: conjecture.
Dalek Caan looked around, confused and disoriented by his surroundings. One moment he had been in the maelstrom of the Time Vortex, fleeing his race's near destruction at the hands of the Doctor and his accursed human companions. Now he was here, on the tattered bridge of a ship whose designs were oddly familiar.
"What is happening?!" Caan screeched. Staring at the huge white verson of himself, he decided to default on the attack. "State your identity! Identify immediately or you will be exterminated!"
With no response from the opponent, Caan took aim. The fire mechanism gave no response. Caan stared down at his disobedient gunstick. "Weaponry malfunction?!"
The ocean-blue Dalek known as the Strategist moved out of the shadows behind the new arrival.
"Your weaponry has been disabled!" it screeched in its falsetto tones.
The transmatted Dalek was perplexed.
"Your outline resembles that of Dalek design!" he realised. "Initiating internal scan!"
Caan raised his manipulator arm and, sure enough, it could detect the presence of its own kind within the larger casings. But there was something else, something far more interesting…
"Scans confirm you are Dalek. Your genetic structure is pure!" Caan did not understand. There had been no pure Kaled DNA in the Dalek race since the days of the Imperial-Renegade War. How was this possible?
"You are pure Dalek?!" he queried.
"Correct." the white Supreme Dalek replied. That settled the mystery. For once, the last member of the Cult of Skaro was in the prescence of his superiors.
"Why was I extracted from the vortex?" Caan asked dutifully. The Supreme drifted closer, its larger casing an impressive sight.
"Are you aware of your purpose?" The Supreme asked.
"My purpose…" Caan hesitated. The conditioning took over. "...Is to ensure that our race continues by any means necessary."
The Supreme stared at him with its blood-orange eye.
"That is not your purpose. Your destiny is far greater than that!" The white Dalek reversed into line with the other members of the New Dalek Paradigm.
"Dalek Caan, fulfil your destiny. Become the saviour of the Daleks!" It announced dramatically.
"Saviour?" Caan was intrigued. "Explain!"
The Strategist moved forward.
"We are the Paradigm of a new Dalek race." It explained. "But we exist because of you!"
This revelation twinged suspicion in Caan's emotionless mind.
"How?" He demanded.
"You will return to Skaro at a point in time when the Thals are driven into the jungle," the Supreme rumbled, its bass voice giving no inflection to match the significance of this revelation.
"You are to remain in the lower levels of the city where your activities will not be detected," The Strategist continued. "We have analysed a point in time where a lone unit will descend to the lower levels. Disable it. Use it as a resource for genetic extraction."
Caan listened intently. The amber-coloured Scientist turned from its console and approached the Dalek from the right.
"Once you have procured the DNA, inject it into this progenitor," the Scientist said. It lifted its manipulator arm, revealing the small egg-shaped device. It exchanged the device with Caan. The bronze Dalek had no way of knowing that it was the same one which had been used to create the Paradigm not long before, and would be instrumental in securing the timeline.
The Scientist turned back to its console.
"You will construct a genetic regenerator which you will use to create a Geneticist from pure Dalek DNA." the Scientist reached the machinery.
"Downloading regenerator schematic to your databank," it croaked. Caan felt the new information being uploaded to his internal computer. He understood the plan now, but somehow it did not add up in his mind. He felt suspicious, if Daleks could 'feel'. Caan had always been an independent Dalek, and even in the presence of pure Daleks he didn't make exception.
"For you to exist, you must create yourselves." he thought out loud. "You are a paradox of your own design. Why should I help you?"
The Supreme moved forwards imposingly.
"Your journey to the past is to ensure Skaro's survival from its destruction by the Hand of Omega. If you do not help, then past, present and future of Dalek kind will cease to exist!"
Caan understood. This mission was of vital importance; adequately engineered for a Dalek of his stature.
"Then I will follow my primary objective: to save the Daleks!" he conceded.
The Supreme backed down, satisfied.
"How will I secure Skaro?" Caan asked.
The air shimmered to Caan's right. He turned to see a large piece of black machinery phase into existence. It was shaped like a cylinder, flanked on four sides by triangular panels of metal. The panels were lined with buttons designed for Dalek interface.
"Activate this device." explained the Strategist. "It will create a temporal fazeshift which will conceal Skaro from the Time Lords!"
The Supreme stared at Caan.
"Do you understand what must be done?"
Caan revised the data he had been given.
"Yes...I understand." He moved over to the device.
"Activating temporal shift!" Caan was consumed with white lightand vanished. The fazeshift device shimmered away after him, leaving the Paradigm alone and silent in their ship.
To be continued...