Ultima: Pandora's Box Chapter 1, a Doctor Who + Avatar Crossover fanfic

The Great Epiphany exposed the onmi-verse to everyone.

One day, with absolutely no warning, three marvelous things happened that signaled the beginning of a new age. The first was the sudden and instinctual understanding of their being more than what one knew, with no further details to go on provided. At least, until the second signal, the unexplained appearance of the Shards of the Not, crystals with unique powers that came from globs of light that fell from the skies, all skies, everywhere. Those two events lead to the third, the true epiphany of the Great Epiphany.

There were Realms outside of yours. Everything anyone in the onmi-verse ever knew, even an entire multiverse, was merely a single Realm out of probable trillions. Universes and multiverses were like marbles on a table. Each was unique and detailed in their own right, and yet only a small piece of a larger whole.

At first, the most shocking part of the Great Epiphany was the understanding that these others Realms were not all together unfamiliar. They were usually previously known. But not as reality, per say. They were usually known as fiction, or what had been thought as fiction before the Great Epiphany. But as it turned out, every book, movie, TV show, video game, or other example of fiction was a reality somewhere out there in existence.

The hefty philosophical implications of this were often put aside amongst practical concerns. The newly revealed omni-verse soon became a warzone the likes of which none had ever seen. Two factions arose from the infinite possibilities to battle. The first to form was the Organization, a cabal of unrivaled scale and ruthless ambition made up of by the lion's share of all the evildoers of Existence, from all Realms, who would tolerate this alliance of convenience only until all their traditional enemies were obliterated. Those traditional enemies, the noble and extraordinary defenders of the innocent and righteous, united into the Society, dedicated to opposing the Organization and improving the omni-verse for every single living thing in its truly infinite Realms.

Due to a heroic sacrifice early in the Great Epiphany, the Society gained a stronghold and base of operations in the Shield, a barrier surrounding twelve Realms that is impossible to enter without the direct permission of a one of a dozen beings known as a Shield Bearer.

The omni-verse was a stage on which the ultimate drama would play out, good versus evil. Both sides were aiming to not just destroy the other but also claim new lands, new Realms, for their own. Whether it was by legitimate alliance or conquest, the desired end result for both was the same, more allies and resources for them to use against the other.

But there was a time before these massive collectives formed and waged war on one another. And there were factions independent of both who could affect the status quo of their conflict in any number of ways.

The inhabitants of a moon millions of lightyears from Earth in Realm 251 would soon learn the truth of this. Just three days after so many possibilities were opened to them...the People of Pandora would have them closed off from them forever.

The Box was about to be opened...by beings who didn't have any hands...

(3 days AGE, Realm 251, New Hometree, Pandora, August 28th 2154, sunrise)

Jake Sully opened his eyes. Around him he saw the hollow in the trunk of the new Hometree for the Omaticaya clan that he and his lifemate had claimed as theirs. He smiled. Neyiriti was still asleep, though he could tell she would be waking up any moment now. Part of him was tempted to wait for her, but he had to answer the call of nature and it refused to be put on hold.

He stood up, and took a moment to savor the feeling of the hard bark underneath his toes. Then he made his way out to the more common area of the communal home of his people. In so many ways this new dwelling was an exact copy of the previous one. But it wasn't the same. Jake knew that, and he knew why. He knew who was to blame for its destruction.

Him.

Oh sure, he hadn't blown up the gigantic tree. But he had given the humans who had done so everything they needed to know to destroy a people who in so many ways were humanity's betters. He remembered back to when he had been a dreamwalking cripple trapped in a metal box. The former Marine still couldn't believe he had ever sided with the Resources Development Administration.

He shook his head. There was no point to dwelling on the past. The RDA was gone now. The majority of the humans had left Pandora. Somehow, the Na'vi had forgiven his betrayal. Not just forgive him, but reward him. He was now the leader, the Olo'eyktan, of the Omaticaya.

The shared light of the binary stars Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B made the morning radiant and ethereal in a way that would have been mere poetic hyperbole back on Earth.

The former human surveyed everything the light touched, all of it was now his new home.

Pandora.

The fifth moon of the gas giant planet Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri System.

A paradise as alien and miraculous as could be envisioned by the human mind.

The different varieties of bioluminescence from the native flora and fauna that had turned the night into a colorful marvel had been at last overpowered by the solar rays that would dominate this world for the remainder of the day-cycle. The primary color now was a lush green. In the early morning, some of the beasts of this wonderful world were stirring at last. A mass of gray bulk visible from even hundreds of feet in the air suggested a herd of hammerhead titanotheres. No, not hammerhead titanotheres, he corrected himself. Those were called angtsiks. That was the proper name for those creatures, according to the Na'vi, of which he belonged now. The flashes of blue-green moving through the branches revealed a pack of Prolemuris, no, syaksyuks, swinging from tree limb to tree limb on their four arms and two legs. The sky was starting to become populated with the bodies of forest banshees and stingbats, ikranays and ritis, spattering the cyan expanse with green and purple.

It was a world that shouldn't have existed but did anyway. A world with no corruption or sickness.

Jake had no way of knowing that this would be the last day that the light of Pandora's twin suns would illuminate the wondrous moon.

A purple portal opened up in the air before winking away.

And an object that hadn't been there a second before was suddenly in the morning sky. Its shadow covered the gentle warmth of the rising suns with a cold and unstoppable finality.

Jake Sully stared through the gaps in the dense foliage of the jungle at the object for a few moments before reclaiming himself and issuing commands to his fellow Na'vi. Whatever this thing was, it hadn't attacked them out of the gate or bellowed any commands. It didn't seem hostile, at least in these tense introductory moments. Most of the Na'vi were already awake but a few had the sleep blasted from their lazy eyes as they saw what Jake had. Though obviously alarmed by the object's appearance, the Na'vi generally handled it well.

They formed the same basic opinions as he had, this unknown thing might not be dangerous. Maybe. Their new leader had considered something like this happening and issued the command that had been discussed shortly after the Na'vi had repelled the human invasion.

Wanting to avoid a repeat of what happened with Hometree, the majority of the able-bodied adult Na'vi gathered their weapons, mounted their mountain banshees (the ikrans), and took off for a space in the jungle that was several miles away from their home. If things came to fighting, their true home wouldn't be at risk. The only ones who stayed behind were the children and a few of the adults who were their primary caretakers when the other adults went off to hunt or fight. If it turned out the tree would be attacked, it wouldn't take long to return.

The dragon-like ikrans spread their leathery wings of various colors over a jungle that had been just as alert to the intruder as the Na'vi, with a chorus of panicked animal cries making this quite clear. They flew until they reached the agreed upon location, a space of jungle that didn't have a thick canopy and thus could have the ikrans easily land. Jake dismounted his ikran, which uttered a brief cry as the Toruk Makto disconnected his neural tendrils. A calm hand on the creature's hide was enough to soothe the dragon-like beast. The other Na'vi followed suit, dismounting their mounts. They looked upward.

Now that they were closer to the object, the Na'vi got a better idea of what exactly it was.

It was something that hadn't been seen on Pandora since the RDA had been expelled. A created mass of metal that hovered over the trees that were the Na'vi's homes. A spaceship.

But this craft for traversing the stars wasn't a tuning fork shaped ISV Venture Star or a bulky but recognizably space-rocket shaped Valkyrie. Instead of those shapes that made sense to the former human, the undeniable object blocking out the sun was a shape that was the most absurd he could have imagined. A shape that only existed in the daftest of pulp fiction tales, usually only found in tales of patently nonsensical science fiction meant to entertain children.

A flying saucer. A massive brass colored disk-shaped ship that spun as it hovered in mid-air.

The Na'vi trapped within its flat shadow marveled as a part of the saucer seemed to peel away, in a manner like a garage door opening or a pair of motion recognizing doors parting. Out of that opening in the flying saucer flooded out so many little dots that couldn't easily be identified due to the distance from the craft and the darkness of the ship's shadow. The only salient point that could be easily noticed was the number of the dots leaving the ship.

Thousands.

Whatever those things were, there were a lot of them. At least two thousand of them.

The Omaticaya clan stared dumbly until four of the objects leaving the ship started to slowly hover down towards them. This caused some of the Na'vi to prime their bows and arrows.

"Pey!" Jake said in the tongue of the Na'vi with authority and a raised hand. "Ayfo kxawm ke lu lehrrap!"

The faces of the Na'vi told him they didn't believe him that these newcomers wouldn't be dangerous, but they obeyed their leader and lowered their weapons. Jake smiled at that, though the pleased grin left his lips when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around in place, he gazed into the beautiful face of Neytiri, the woman he loved most. Just seeing her lush mauve lips, big golden eyes, and long locks of braided hair helped soothe the tension that had been fermenting in his belly. Even the look of concern on her features didn't sully her beauty in the slightest.

"Tam nga ningay omum ayfo ke lu lehrrap?" she asked softly, making sure not to be overheard by their skittish compatriots. "Pehem txo Tawtute ne'im fpi tsam?"

Jake didn't begrudge Netyiri for questioning him or asking if this might be the return of the humans to Pandora. That possibility had been the paramount one on Jake's mind. After all, he had spent the majority of his life as a human. And as a result, he knew how highly they valued revenge. The RDA coming back with a larger force to secure the unobtanium of Pandora had always been something that could happen. Unlikely given the dying state of the Earth these days and the need for all forces to save the human race but it was still a real possibility.

However, several details about this situation made Jake fairly sure this wasn't the RDA. For one thing, it took around six years to travel from the Earth to Pandora, and that much time hadn't passed yet since the united Na'vi forced the humans to leave their home. Also, despite the technology on display being at least as advanced as that of the human race, the design most certainty wasn't. It was something more out of pulp sci-fi rather than human engineering. Before Jake could reveal any of this to his lifemate, something took his attention away.

The four unknown shapes descending towards the Omaticaya clan had at last landed, a few dozen feets away from the gathered group. Then they began advancing towards the natives. The gradual closing of this distance made their anatomy easier to comprehend.

At least, in the sense that they could be seen clearly.

Jake Sully was no stranger to the strange. He was a human who's consciousness was permanently within an artificially grown body of a ten foot tall blue skinned cat-like alien. The flora and fauna of Pandora never ceased to amaze with how truly bizarre Nature could get. But never in his life could the formerly crippled Marine have imagined beings like these ones. Towering over the odd creatures, the reborn Na'vi surveyed them with his golden amber eyes.

They were round metal things about five feet high that looked like upturned beakers with domed tops. The former human thought these things had the crude basic shape of a salt shaker. These things being a robotic entity of some kind was obvious, and the same applied to the brass color scheme that predominantly featured. Their bodies looked thick and sturdy, like they could withstand a firing squad's salvo without any difficulty of staying upright and functioning. These things were a garish eyesore seemingly cobbled together from whatever junk someone had laying around after a few crates of vodka.

At the top there was a single long mechanical periscope-like eyestalk on a rotating dome that ended with a glowing blue wide-angle lens. Blinking over that sapphire shine was a special shutter that seemed capable of rapidly expanding and contracting. Behind the lens was a series of small disks that were a part of the overall eyestalk. Two small glass domes on either side of the eyestalk looked like outdated light bulbs taken from an old garage sale. Vertical grille panels beneath the domed head suggested the general impression of a neck.

Jake's gaze moved down towards the ground, at realizing he hadn't heard any footsteps. The reason quickly became obvious. These things had no feet. And for that matter, no legs of any kind. Instead, they had a sturdy base as mechanical in nature as the rest of their apparent characteristics with a skirt-like structure of dozens of vertical plates studded with four large brass globes each. The base's bottom, which was black and roughly square shaped, seemed to smoothly roll over the ground, making their gliding advance towards them eerily inevitable.

As these oddities traversed the space between themselves and the Na'vi, Jake's eyes were drawn towards their midsections. Though there was stiff competition, this might have had the oddest features on creatures that were a chimera of them. The primary reason for this were their "arms," though the term could only be applied to these limbs in the loosest possible sense. Rather it would be more accurate to call them appendages, with each of them being very different from the other. One, he was sure, was supposed to be a weapon muzzle of some kind, since it was a stubby barrel that was little more than a stick with a hole running through it. The only other feature of it were attachments of thin metal rods fused to the length. These attachments gave the limb an appearance far more akin to that of an egg-whisk.

And the other appendage was something that looked like…

Jack Sully blinked a few times, to make sure he wasn't just seeing things. He wasn't.

It was a long black rod with a black semi-circular suction pad. It looked like...

Their other appendages were...toilet plungers…

Honest to god toilet plungers!

The quartette of curious creatures ceased their footless advance about four feet from the Na'vi. By the time they stopped, every single member of the Omaticaya clan had gotten a chance to look at these things and then turned to each other, finding only a matching confusion. Even their leader, who had come from a planet far more technologically advanced than theirs, seemed at a loss. Said leader shrugging his shoulders confirmed this observation. Regardless, that same leader felt he should be the one to establish first contact with these things. They didn't seem like they were going to do it, so he would get the ball rolling.

"Pesu lu aynga?" Jake asked, in the dialect of his newly chosen people. "Peu kem si aynga neu?"

The metallic beings said nothing. Did nothing. Remained unnaturally still. Only staring.

Four camera-like eyes were gazing upon the gathered entirety of the clan unflinchingly. This continued as Jake repeated the same questions, as a well as a few others, a few more times. Though these things had said and done nothing, some of the Na'vi were starting to get freaked out. There was something powerfully creepy in these things just staring at them with their blank, unbiased, and unblinking eyes. It was impossible to know what these things were thinking, and no matter what species a being was, the most terrifying thing was the unknown.

Jake was starting to realize that speaking to them in Na'vi would be a perpetual deadend. These odd things weren't understanding him. He had to do something so he took a gamble. The former human chose to speak in a tongue he hadn't used since the RDA left Pandora. "Who are you?" he asked in English. "What do you-?"

"I-DEN-TI-FY YO-UR-SEL-VES!" The trash can leading the others screamed in a furious and shrill monotone, in English. The twin glowing bulbs on the creature's head came to life as they flashed violently in unison with the words spoken. There was the impression of vented emotion with those bulbs, like if they didn't exist the intense hatred so obvious would cause this thing to explode. "I-DEN-TI-FY YO-UR-SEL-VES!" The thing repeated, its voice unchanged. All of the Na'vi, even Jake Sully, were too stunned by this to even attempt an answer. "WE SHALL ONLY SPEAK TO YOUR HIGH-EST MAS-TER! PRO-DUCE THEM!"

"PRO-DUCE THEM!" A second of the oddities shouted in a matching scratchy voice.

"PRO-DUCE THEM!" Chimed in a third.

There was a chorus of identical cries that droned out all other sounds, demanding results.

Jake looked around at his fellow Na'vi. The sensitive ears of the Na'vi winced at the suddenly escalated volume. Their faces were pained. Jake had handled their screechy voices the best it seemed but he could easily understand why his fellow Omaticaya clan members were affected by them so. This thing's voice had a high-pitched English accent, sounding on the urge of absolute hysteria, filtered through a harsh electric staccato set at the highest possible setting. To be honest, the former Marine found the voices to be exceedingly irritating. Aside from machines of war and slaughter, the Na'vi had no prior experience to sounds like these.

Other than his lovely lifemate Neytiri, the rest of the Omaticaya clan were staring at him with transparent fear in their big Disney-equse eyes. They were looking at him to lead them. "Outstanding," the former human said softly to himself. Then he raised his voice to be heard by others and over the screechy inflictions. "That would be me. Who are you?"

"WE ARE THE DA-LEKS!" The one leading the others said, "WHAT AM I AD-DRESS-ING?"

The clan's leader cleared his throat and prepared to be the kind of leader his new people needed. "I am Jake Sully, Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya clan. I demand to know who you are!"

"WE ARE THE DA-LEKS! WE ARE THE SU-PER-I-OR BEINGS! THE MAS-TER RACE!"

"THE MAS-TER RACE!" Said another Dalek, soon to be followed by all of them echoing it.

"THE MAS-TER RACE!"

Jake was taken aback by such bombast, with him subconsciously dropping his commanding persona in the wake of his sincere confusion. "Uh...I don't think any master race would have egg-whisks or toilet plungers for arms." He briefly chuckled at the absurdity of that statement.

"WHAT YOU THINK IS IR-REL-E-VANT, JAKE SUL-LY!" the lead Dalek shrilly screeched.

"WE RE-QUI-RE IN-FOR-MATION!"

Jake blinked at how swiftly this thing had steamrolled to the new topic. Its voice and demeanour took some getting used to. The former Marine had met some real tight-wads in his time, both on Earth and on Pandora, but none of them had anything on these creatures. But so far, aside from assaulting the ears of his new people with their shouts, they weren't a danger. Choosing to indulge the harmless request, he asked, "What do you want to know?"

"WHAT IS THIS LO-CA-TION?"

"Uh...the moon Pandora."

"PAN-DOR-A?" the Dalek paused. There was less than a second of silence. "OUR DATA HAS NO REC-ORDS OF A MOON PAN-DORA! HOW CAN THIS BE!? EX-PLAIN! EX-PLAIN!"

Before Jake could attempt an answer, a second Dalek spoke up, its eyestalk turning towards their apparent leader. "IT SEEMS OUR IN-ITI-ALL PRE-DIC-TIONS WERE COR-RECT! THE PUR-PLE CRYS-TALS EN-ABLE TRA-VEL TO FOR-EIGN UNI-VERSES NEAR OUR OWN!"

"A-FFIR-MA-TIVE! PRE-DIC-TIONS VIN-DI-CATED!" the lead Dalek said, swinging its eyestalk towards the other of its kind. "TELE-PORT-ATION IS NOT THROUGH TIME BUT UNI-VERSES! A NEW VAR-I-ABLE! SUR-VEIL-LANCE EF-FORTS VIN-DI-CATED!"

"FORE-ST-ALL-ING OUR PRI-MARY OR-DER HAS PRO-VEN WISE!" A third Dalek grated. "WE SHALL PRO-CEED FUR-THER!"

"IN-ITI-AL SC-ANS SHOWED AN AN-OM-ALY AT THIS LO-CA-TION!" said the fourth Dalek. "IN-TELL-I-GE-NCE ON THIS AN-OM-ALY IS RE-QU-IRED FOR FUR-THER AC-TION!"

"INI-TI-ATE FUR-THER SUR-VEIL-LANCE!" The lead Dalek ordered. "INI-TI-ATING!"

There was a long period of silence as the Daleks just glared at the Na'vi with their cerulean cyclopean stares. It was mildly distressing to be gazed at with such a dispassionate intensity. They felt like experiments being studied in a laboratory, being surveyed as lesser things.

The two Na'vi in front, Jake and Neytiri, were focusing on the Daleks. The four eyestalks would sway around slightly, in unison with the others, before the lone lenses at their ends would contract. Then they would expand to their original dimensions before starting the process all over again in a slightly different spot.

Quickly the two lovers were paying attention to where exactly the Daleks were surveilling.

They stared at Neytiri's hands, then Jake's. The Na'vi looked at their hands. Neytiri saw three fingers and an opposable thumb. Jake saw four fingers and an opposable thumb.

They lowered their eyestalks before sweeping them from one set of feet to the other. Neytiri looked down at her four toes as they wiggled absentmindedly, with her opposable big toe digging extra eagerly in the dirt. Jake did the same, viewing five toes with none possessing prehensibility.

Their eyestalks raised upward, seemingly to their limits of elevated sight, attempting to gaze into the eyes of the Na'vi, which were at least four feet higher in the air than their domed tops. Being unable to look at their own eyes, the Na'vi settled for the next best thing and felt around their eyes. Neytiri felt smooth skin on her brow bone. Jake's fingers brushed over his eyebrows.

The Daleks kept up this silent analysis for what seemed like a small eternity. Then it ended.

"MAS-TER OF THESE PRIM-I-TIVES," the lead Dalek said screehily, turning its eyestalk back to be looking right at Jake Sully. "YOU ARE THE AN-OM-ALY! YOUR GE-NET-ICS ARE NOT LIKE THE OTHERS. EX-PLAIN!"

Jake was stunned by that. He had an idea for how this thing realized that but it seemed like a stretch. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"A DA-LEK'S COM-PUT-ER IS CA-PA-BLE OF COM-PUT-ING A THOU-SAND BILL-ION POINTS OF DATA IN A SIN-GLE REL!" The Dalek said,with a slight change in tone that showed pride. "OUR SC-ANN-ERS HAVE BEEN AN-A-LYZ-ING YOU AND THE OTHERS HERE! YOUR PHYSI-O-LO-GY DE-VI-ATES FROM THE OTHER PRIM-I-TIVES TOO FRE-QUEN-TLY TO BE ANY-THING BUT A DIFF-ER-ENT BIO-LOG-ICAL COM-PO-SITION!"

Jake blinked. "What the hell is a...uh...a reel?"

"REL!" The Dalek shouted anew. "THE TERM IS REL, YOU IN-FER-I-OR LIFE-FORM! EN-UN-CI-ATE! OR IS THAT TOO DIFF-I-CULT A TASK FOR ONE SUCH AS YOUR-SELF?"

The former Marine weathered the howling insult with ease, though not a lack of annoyance. "So what is it?" he asked, not even trying to pronounce the word at all.

"PUT IN TERMS YOUR IN-FER-I-OR MIND WOULD UN-DER-ST-AND," the Dalek explained, its voice conveying smugness. "IT IS LITTLE MORE THAN ONE EARTH...SEC-OND."

Jake laughed. "That took a lot longer than a second, buddy."

"SIL-ENCE IN-FER-I-OR FILTH!" the Dalek thundered, sounding the most enraged it had yet. "WE HAVEN'T EN-COUNT-ER-ED YOUR KIND BEFORE, BUT NOW WE KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU! YOU KNOW NO-THING OF WHAT THE DA-LEKS CAN OB-SER-VE!"

THE PRIM-I-TIVES' BI-O-LOGY HAS CELLS LA-CK-ING NU-CLE-IC ACIDS TO EN-CODE GE-NET-IC IN-FOR-MATION BUT YOURS DOES PO-SSESS THEM!" added the second Dalek.

"LINES OF BIO-LUM-IN-ES-CENT MARK-INGS RUN CON-CUR-RENT TO THE CIR-CULA-TORY SYS-TEM!" inputted the third Dalek. "THEIR BLOOD IS AN IRON BASED OXY-GEN TRANS-PORT-ING COM-PO-UND!"

"AND THEY PO-SSESS AN IN-TRI-CATE SYS-TEM OF NE-UR-AL TEN-DR-ILS SHE-ATHED ON THEIR HEADS CA-PA-BLE OF IN-TER-FA-CING WITH SIM-ILAR SYS-TEMS!" declared the fourth.

The lead Dalek grated with vindication as it added, "ALL THIS AND MORE IS KNOWN TO THE DA-LEKS AFTER A FEW RELS OF OB-SER-VA-TION! AND WE HAVEN'T SCA-NNED YOUR BR-AIN WA-VES FOR MORE IN-FOR-MATION YET!"

Jake blinked a few times. 'Okay, these things are not just full of hot air,' he thought to himself. 'They are very smart. And kinda insecure. They feel the need to loudly defend and prove their supposed superiority from a casual jab.' Out loud, he said, "Okay...uh...duly noted."

"EX-PLAIN WHY YOU ARE DIFF-ER-ENT! EX-PLAIN!" The lead Dalek demanded once more. Just as previously it was supported by its background singers playing the same beat.

"EX-PLAIN!"

The newly chosen Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya clan debated the merits of revealing that to this newcomer. At the end of the day, Jack saw little harm in explaining why that was the case. Maybe it would somehow lead to a peaceful coexistence with this new race of unique beings? He had a gut feeling that this was a long shot, but that still made it worth trying. If worse came to worse, he was confident his clan could knock over some blow-hard trash cans.

"This body is artificial, created by combining human DNA with the cells of the Na'vi." Jake explained. "But I chose put my human mind in this new Na'vi body because I realized-"

"HU-MAN? YOU WERE HU-MAN BEFORE?" The Dalek's voice was even louder than before as he cut the hybrid off. Loud enough to make the Na'vi wince once again. "THERE IS AN EARTH IN THIS U-NI-VERSE?"

"Yeah."

"YOU CHOSE TO BE ONE OF THESE NA-VI?"

"Yeah."

There was a brief beat of silence.

"YOU BE-TRAY-ED OUR OWN KIND AND HAD YOUR GE-NET-IC MA-TER-IAL RE-CON-STR-UCT-ED INTO A CON-TAM-IN-ATED HY-BR-ID!?" The Dalek roared, its screechy voice thoroughly proving how Daleks had absolutely no concept of an 'indoor voice.'

With a face pinched by a mounting anger, Jack once again answered with, "Yeah."

The Daleks were all silent at that, their glowing eyestalks staring down the blue-skinned bipeds more intensely. The shouting trash cans were silent as the grave, to a degree sharp enough to make some of the more passive Na'vi turn away as if staring into a noonday sun. Jake found himself wishing they would start talking again.

And eventually, but not soon enough, he was granted his wish.

"AN-OM-ALY DEE-MED NOT A THR-EAT! NOT A THR-EAT! ONLY TWO MORE POINTS OF IN-FOR-MATION ARE RE-QU-IRED BE-FORE PRI-MARY OR-DER CAN BE IN-ITI-ATED!"

Before Jake could ask what that meant, another Dalek shouted out one of those questions. "ARE ANY OF YOU TI-ME TRA-VEL-ERS?"

"Time travelers?" Jake parroted, perplexed. "What are you talking-?"

"AN-SWER!"

"Uh...no…"

The Daleks paused, and turned their eyestalks to stare at each other. They seemed to reach a silently shared conclusion about something that Jake wasn't privy to know. It was time for the final question, the one that had stayed their nonexistence hands just as much as desiring information on the genetic anomaly their scanners had detected from orbit.

"ARE YOU A-WARE OF THE...DOC-TOR?" A Dalek asked. There was a slight difference in its voice. Its shouting default was lessened, as if weighted down by some rarely felt emotion.

Jake didn't pick on this, was oblivious to a subconscious clue that might have made all the difference, and so said the words that would determine the fate of the Na'vi forever.

"What is that? Some kind of title or something?" the former Marine answered vexed.

The Daleks again didn't say anything as they regarded each other. When they spoke again, it was as an overlapping chorus that made it near impossible to isolate any single thing said.

"THE DOC-TOR WILL NOT IN-TER-FERE!"

"THE DA-LEKS ARE FREE OF THE ON-COM-ING STORM!"

"OUR VIC-TOR-Y IS AS-SUR-ED!"

"THE DA-LEKS SHA-LL SUR-VIVE!"

"THE DA-LEKS SHA-LL SWE-EP AWAY THE IN-FER-I-OR!"

"You know," Jack said, speaking over the shouts, finally giving voice to what he first suspected, "Not that I put too much stock in the opinions of rude trash cans, but I'm starting to think that you aren't a friendly bunch who means to make trouble?" He asked rhetorically, as he and other Na'vi tightened the holds on their weapons. Spears were primed and arrows were notched. The moment any of these things showed any aggression, they would attack.

"THAT IS COR-RECT!" The Dalek agreed. "THAT IS OUR PRI-MARY OR-DER!"

"What do you mean?"

"DA-LEKS CON-QU-ER AND DE-ST-ROY! WE ARE MADE TO EX-TER-MI-NATE ALL OTHERS! YOU ARE NOT DA-LEKS. THERE-FORE YOU WILL BE EX-TER-MI-NATED! EX-TER-MI-NATED!"

"EX-TER-MI-NATE!" Another Dalek butted in, as with its shrill gusto bordering on ecstasy, acting as if a dog handed a bone covered in fresh steak. And as was often the case, the other Daleks were caught up in the collective frenzy.

"EX-TER-MI-NATE!"

"AN-NIHI-LATE!"

"DE-ST-ROY!"

"DA-LEKS CON-QU-ER AND DE-ST-ROY!"

"EX-TER-MI-NATE THEM!"

"EX-TER-MI-NATE!"

"DA-LEKS CON-QU-ER AND DE-ST-ROY!"

"UNLESS YOU O-BEY OUR OR-DERS!" The lead Dalek added in, over all the other shouts, YOU WILL BE EX-TER-MI-NATED! CHO-OSE! CHO-OSE!"

The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Jake turned his big golden eyes to his fellow Na'vi. Those same windows to the soul showed worry. They were scared, angry, and in the just the right mindset to do something incredibly stupid. A few hand gestures and snarled hisses were able to plaicate them enough that Jake could face the Daleks.

"You really wanna bring this to war?" asked Jake Sully.

"THIS WILL NOT BE WAR! IT WILL BE PEST CON-TROL!"

The Na'vi released a new salvo of disgusted hisses. This time Jake had to fight the urge to not unleash them upon these vile things. "You will not defeat us." He said with confidence.

"WE HAVE SCA-NN-ED YOUR WORLD! YOU HAVE NO SAT-EL-LI-TES! NO MA-CHIN-ERY! NO AD-VAN-CED WEA-PON-RY! ONLY PRIM-I-TIVE WEA-PON-RY!"

"Funny you should say that," Jake said, allowing a dark smirk to show on his cerulean face. "That was the case with the forces of Earth too. They had guns, planes and mech suits. And you know what happened?" He paused for effect. "They lost. We kicked their uptight asses!"

"IR-REL-E-VANT! THOSE WERE HU-MANS! WE ARE DA-LEKS!"

"Oh yeah, because you being able to whip up a bunch of cookies on the fly makes you a much more credible threat," Jake said, with his sarcasm thicker than frozen maple syrup, staring at their whisk-like limbs. "Besides, Trash Can, I don't know if you know this but numbers tend to win battles. And how many of you Daleks are there here?"

"FOUR!"

"Yeah, there are. And in case you haven't noticed," Jake added as he gestured to the dozens upon dozens of Na'vi towering over the foursome of loathsome things, "we are a lot more than four. You would defeat all of us Na'vi with four Daleks?"

"WE WOULD DE-ST-ROY ALL OF THE NA-VI WITH ONE DA-LEK!" the lead Dalek declared. "OTHER DA-LEKS ARE TAR-GET-ING THE OTHER NA-VI TRI-BES ALL OVER THIS MOON! THEIR EX-TER-MIN-ATION HAS BEEN UN-DER-WAY SINCE WE LAND-ED!"

Jake froze for a moment. "You...you're lying!" he snarled, hoping it wasn't true.

"THEN WHAT IS THAT GA-THER-ING OVER THE HOR-I-ZON, JAKE SUL-LY?" As this was asked, the lead Dalek moved its eyestalk so it was staring out in a particular direction. The seeing appendages of the other trio of talking trash cans did the same.

Spurred by this, the Na'vi began to turn and look in the same direction. Within a few moments of doing so, a variety of expressions could be seen painted on faces of cyan blue.

Confusion. Doubt. Fear. Sorrow. Anger. And escalating horror.

Finding a stone the size of Spain dropping in his gut, the leader of the Omaticaya clan turned to face the same direction. The stone slammed down hard and seemed to ripple throughout his core as he recognized what the Daleks and Na'vi had been staring at.

Smoke. A thick, billowing cloud of ebony vapor. A big cloud of the stuff, coming from who knew how many miles away. Above that cloud there was a purple portal that opened in the sky. Just like before, the ship opened up and several thousand Daleks came pouring out. They hovered downward and started firing blazing blasts of cyan tinted energy around what could be assumed to be the point of origin of the smoke pillar.

Then Jake found something even worse.

Another pillar of smoke with a flying saucer lingering close to the rising proof of destruction.

And then another.

And the another.

And then…

This thing was right. This goofy looking trash can with a toilet plunger for an arm was part of an invading force that was attempting to wipe out the Na'vi. With every new second, another pillar of smoke was added. Soon the sky would be black and choked with the stench of death.

The Omaticaya clan reeled at the understanding of their kin being slaughtered at this moment. Their big eyes widened as some of them stared vacantly and others cried. Those who did neither of those reactions turned towards the vile things and glared as harshly as they could.

The humans who had been daunting enough. They had been a people who came from the sky, that flew in things that weren't any sort of beast, that had weapons that spat death, and that could turn swathes of Ewya's beauty into burning wastes in a matter of seconds. But even that paled in comparison to what they were witnessing now. As insane as the Sky People had been, at least they had tried to coexist to some degree with the Na'vi until the inner strength of the blue humanoids proved unyielding to the former people's greed and ego. At least they didn't primarily seek to destroy everything that wasn't like them from the get-go.

"UN-LESS YOU CHOOSE TO SUR-REN-DER AND BE-COME SLA-VES OF THE DA-LEKS, YOUR KIND WILL CEASE TO EXIST BE-FORE YOUR SUNS SET ON THIS DAY!"

"You are wrong!" Netyiri shouted as she pushed her way past Jake to glare right into the lead Dalek's single camera-eye. She had to force herself to not back off from the oily, noxious smell. "No matter what you try, Eywa will destroy your evil!"

"WHAT IS THIS EY-WA? IS IT A WAR-RI-OR OR LEAD-ER? EX-PLAIN!"

"No, she is far greater than that! She is our goddess! The embodiment of all that is-"

"THE DA-LEKS SHALL NOT BE DE-TERR-ED BY A PRI-MIT-IVE SU-PER-STI-TION!" A Dalek at the back of the group shouted, cutting the tirade of the Na'vi faith off at the knees.

"A-FFIR-MA-TIVE!" the lead Dalek agreed. "THIS EY-WA SHALL BE EX-TER-MI-NATED!"

Netyiri reeled back like she had been slapped in the face. She released a shocked gasp. "What? But...but...Eywa is everything! All living things! She is Pandora!"

"IR-REL-E-VANT!"

"B-b-but...but she is our goddess!?"

"ALL THINGS IN-FER-I-OR TO DA-LEKS SHALL BE EX-TER-MI-NATED!"

The Na'vi en masse blinked and showed widening gazes of confusion and primal horror. Such a concept, killing Eywa...killing their goddess...it was impossible for them to grasp. It was the height of evil. Not even the RDA destroying the sacred Hometree matched such depravity.

"Yo-your insane…" Netyiri said in a whisper as she backed away.

"IN-COR-RECT! IN-SAN-I-TY IS NOT SUB-MITT-ING TO THE SU-PRE-MACY OF THE DA-LEKS!" the lead Dalek declared, not missing a beat. "THIS SO-CIAL IN-TER-ACTION SHALL CEASE! TIME TO CHOOSE! SUB-MIT OR BE EX-TER-MI-NATED! CHOOSE!"

Jake Sully had officially had enough of this. It was time to get to what seemed unavoidable.

"How's this for an answer?" The former Marine said, all full of piss and vinegar, roared a command to the Na'vi. All at once, every member of the Omaticaya clan that had bow primed fired an arrow at the four vile abominations.

Over fifty separate arrows flew towards their unmoving targets at maximum speed. Every single one of them was on point. The Na'vi were unrivaled in their skill with a bow and arrow. Jake's face was a massive grin as he envisioned these trash cans being torn to pieces.

Time seemed to slow down as the projectiles were within spitting distance of their quarry.

And then...

Jake blinked. He had seen something that wasn't possible.

The arrows...vanished.

They had been barreling towards their intended targets in one second and in the next they had melted out of existence before being able to leave a scratch on the invaders' bodies.

He was so shocked the implications of it didn't even sink in until a few moments later.

These fiends, these Daleks...they could withstand the weapons of the Na'vi with no issue.

The natural implications of that bloomed with his mind as the other Na'vi realized the same thing. And despite not being able to show it, the outsiders seemed to understand this too.

Any doubt was exorcised by what the lead Dalek said in response to Jake's earlier question.

"VE-RY RE-VEAL-ING!"

"Pandora's Box wasn't a box at all. It was an urn. As if the greatest threats to life itself could be so easily kept." -Alex Ross, Project Superpowers, issue #1.

That concludes the first chapter of a two chapter story! As always, I hope you liked it!

Anyway, I've got a few things to say about this one. Firstly, the main drive was the fact that I recently discovered Doctor Who...and I've been loving it! I finished the entirety of the Davis Era, or the first four series (or seasons) of the revival period, not too long ago and I'm still gushing over it. I highly recommend you check it out! And don't worry, you don't have to know squat about the older Doctor Who to follow or enjoy it.

But in particular, one of my favorite elements had to be the extraterrestrial race featured in this chapter...the Daleks! I knew the look of the hate-filled pepper pots but I didn't know anything more about them. And then I watched the series 1 episode simply titled "Dalek"...and I fell in love with them while shitting my pants! Lol.

But seriously, that episode was the perfect introduction to just how scary these things can be. It does for the Daleks what the first Alien film did for the xenomorph...and it did it with a creature that has a toilet plunger for a limb! After seeing that episode, I KNEW I had to use the Daleks in Ultima! This is just the starting point of a storyline with the Daleks that will both be its own thing but also heavily connected to the events of Doctor Who. I wrote this chapter assuming that none of you would know what a Dalek is. So...how well did I do that? And what are your impressions of the Daleks so far?

Either way, I gotta say...the Daleks are really fun to write! There's something about their over the top dialogue and the way they break down words by their syllables that I had a blast recreating. Lol

And since we'll see things from the Dalek's point of view in the next chapter, let's turn our attention to the Na'vi. Truthfully, I wasn't a huge fan of Jame Cameron's Avatar. I thought the movie was visually impressive but ultimately hollow and insultingly derivative of far better stories. Despite that, I wanted to use them to show how capable the Daleks can be, even against a physically superior race they've never met before. But you'll get a better sense of that in the next chapter! Lol

Writing this chapter helped me open my eyes to something...the lore of James Cameron's Avatar is WAY more interesting than the events of the movie! So much so that it actually makes me hate the movie more for not even trying to include this stuff so it could have a generic white savior story instead! You wouldn't know it by watching the movie but James Cameron actually hashed out a detailed timeline for the Earth, considered the ways that the bodies of the Na'vi are different from that of humans (in ways aside from the painfully obvious like the greater height and blue skin), and even developed a honest-to-god legitimately alien language for the Na'vi to use in the film. He put in a lot of effort for elements that are barely acknowledged in the actual film.

Also, I don't know where else to put this so I'll just say it here. The man who created the tech that allows the hybrid Na'vi bodies to be used is a man named Dr. Lovecraft!

And yes, I actually looked up that official language of Pandora's Na'vi for this story! There are real Na'vi translators and glossaries on the Internet. That allowed me to have this chapter feel as authentic to the film as I could reasonably have expected.

So, how do you think I handled Jake Sully's thought process and interactions with the Daleks? Remember, this only takes place about three days after the end of Avatar. So he's still getting used to being among the Na'vi as truly one of them. And, well...I wouldn't get your hopes up on him having a long and happy career as their leader. Lol

As I said earlier in these author's notes, there will be a part 2 from the Daleks' POV. Aside from the author's notes, that's completely written so it shouldn't be too long for that to be uploaded. I'll probably wait a week after I post this one unless I get a lot of reviews or favors to suggest that this story has people eagerly awaiting the finale.

So, until next time, please read, review, favor, follow, and spread the word!