Chapter 1

Captain Kathryn Janeway is in terrible danger. She is running through a jungle that was covered in ash. Everything was covered in ash, every tree and every leaf. There was a metallic screech ringing in her ears. When she glanced back, a beam of light blasted a nearby tree into a shower of splinters. Janeway covered her eyes with her arm and kept running.

Her heart was beating so hard, she could hear it like a pair of drums being pounded next to her ears. She was unarmed; no phaser to shoot back with. All Janeway could do is keep running. That she did, until she tripped on the root of a tree.

As the Captain tried to get to her feet, another metallic screech rang through the jungle. Looking back, she saw another beam of light coming right at her. Only, now everything was happening in slow motion. The beam, her body, the disturbed ash in the air. Everything had slowed to a crawl.

A word suddenly screamed into her ears in the same tone as the earlier screech. Before Janeway could make out what it was … she woke up.

Her breath was ragged and she wiped sweat from her forehead. Janeway turned on the lights, then she got out of bed and went to the replicator in her quarters.

"Coffee. Black. No milk or sugar." Janeway said to the machine, then to herself, "That was quite the nightmare."

Janeway wondered what prompted it. Yes, she and her crew were stranded tens of thousands of lightyears from the Federation and anything familiar. However, there was something odd about that nightmare. Something just did not feel right about it. Janeway could not shake this feeling of wrongness.

"Bridge to Janeway," the comms in her quarters relayed. "Captain, I think you should come to the bridge. We seem to have picked up an unusual signal."

"On my way." Janeway replied, then quickly got into uniform.

Lieutenant Tom Paris was firing his phaser over and over again at the approaching machines. However, the machines were firing back with savage ferocity. Tom fired once again as he fell back to a better position behind a collapsed house.

"Not my day." He said to himself as he checked the charge of his phasor.

When Tom saw it was out of juice, he tossed it away. He tried to take deep breaths, but his attempts were ruined. A soaring screech overhead nearly deafened him and a bright light glared down on him. Looking up, he saw a saucer-shaped spaceship. This ship fired a blast of plasma at him. It missed by a small margin, resulting in Tom being thrown off the ground instead of insistently killed. As he hurtled to the earth, Tom heard something. Time seemed to slow around him as the sound in his ears repeated.

"Wake up, Tom!" Ensign Harry Kim said, trying to wake his friend from what was obviously a nightmare. "Snap out of it!"

Finally, Tom opened his eyes and said, "Woah, Harry? What's wrong?"

"You were having a nightmare." Harry answered. "A pretty bad one, judging by how hard you were breathing and how much you are sweating."

After a deep breath, Tom replied, "Yeah, it was a rough one. I was in the middle of some battle. There were these machines … It was awful. Thanks for waking me up."

"No problem. Now we had better get to our stations. The bridge called us a short while ago." Harry said. "We really need to get on our way."

Tom got to his feet. "Let's get going then."

On Voyager's bridge, Captain Janeway and her crew were observing an image of some sort of space station. It was in the general shape of a pear with an antenna rotating at what appeared to be the top.

"Analysis, Mr. Tuvok?" Captain Janeway inquired.

"It appears to be a derelict space station." The Vulcan security chief replied. "However, we are detecting a message being broadcast from it on subspace. We are still deciphering it, however, the message seems to be repeating, like a distress signal."

"Any life signs?" Janeway asked.

"We are scanning now." Lieutenant Commander Chakotay said.

Janeway studied the strange space station. Suddenly, she could swear she heard an odd noise. A sort of wheezing that grew louder then faded.

"Did you hear that? What was it?!" Janeway asked her bridge crew.

"Unclear." Tuvok answered. "There appears to be no cause onboard the ship. In fact, the ship's sensors did not register the noise at all. Though, there was a momentary disruption in the signal originating from the station."

"There appears to be active life support in the station. Permission to prepare an away team, Captain?" Chakotay requested.

After a moment of contemplation, Janeway gave her approval. "Be careful."

Onboard the space station that piqued Voyager's interest, a seemingly wooden blue box reminiscent of 20th century Earth materialized. The doors to this box opened, releasing white smoke. There was also an alarm sound coming from inside the box.

A man emerged from the box, cursing under his breath. "Do you really have any idea how to pilot this infernal thing, Doctor?!"

Another, older man followed him out of the blue box. He has white hair combed back, a wrinkled face and wore a black coat, white shirt, with a black tie.

This man replied, "Of course I know how to pilot it! It is my Tardis, Chesserton."

"It's Chesterton! Ian Chesterton!" The reply came in a very frustrated tone. "If you are going to abduct someone from their native time and place, you should atleast get their name right, don't you think, Doctor?!"

"Hmm. I do believe you have your own curiosity to blame for your predicament." The Doctor said. "If you had not followed my dear Susan to that junkard back on Earth …"

"Stop fighting, you two." A young woman came out of the blue box with a stern expression. "This is not the time. By the way, Grandfather, I think you had better come back in and look at something. I believe the power surge caused a malfunction."

"Alright. Alright, Susan." The Doctor said. "What kind of malfunction?"

"I am not quite sure." Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter replied. "I need your help to identify it. Oh, and Ian, Barbara is still lying down for a bit. She said the trouble on Skaro tired her out."

"I would expect so. That was a truly terrifying adventure." Ian said. "I hope to never see those Dalek creatures ever again."

"Well, that should not be a worry." Susan said as she and her grandfather started back into the Tardis. "After all, we managed to destroy them all. I hope the Thals will be able to build a great civilization with their technology and resources."

"Perhaps, we should plan on a return trip to Skaro, only at a later point in time. Then, we will be able to see for ourselves." The Doctor said.

Susan smiled at hearing the idea.

"How much later, though?" The Doctor pondered out loud. "One hundred years? Two hundred? Hmm, this will require a bit of thought."

"Hey, Doctor, where have we landed?" Ian asked, standing by some kind of metal sliding door.

When Ian pressed a button to the left of the door, it slid most of the way open. The left side became stuck partway through the process. Ian cautiously stuck his head out and saw a dimly lit hallway. A few of the lights were flickering, in fact.

The Doctor walked over to the window located behind the Tardis. Outside, he saw nothing but stars in every direction. No landscape or buildings, just stars.

"We appear to have landed on a space station." The Doctor replied. "Most likely a derelict one, judging by the amount of rust and disrepair I see."

"A space station?" Ian said in wonder as he joined the Doctor at the window. "Amazing."

"This is just the start of the wondrous things you will see with us." Susan said.

"Hmm." Ian murmured. "Do you think this was made by futuristic humans or a completely alien species?"

"Well, we will have to see for ourselves." The Doctor replied.

The Doctor started towards the door Ian had opened, Susan right behind him. Ian sighed. Here we go again.

First Officer Chakotay was preparing himself in the transporter room when he heard a strange shrieking noise. He turned around, his eyes darting every which way, but he did not find the source. In fact, everyone else did not seem to hear it because they were going about their preparations unfazed. Ensign Kim noticed his behavior and asked, "Everything alright, sir?"

"Did no one else hear that?" Chakotay asked.

"Hear what?" Another ensign asked.

"Nothing," Chakotay answered. At least, I hope it was nothing.

Once he and his Away Team were on the platform, the engineer activated the transporter while saying, "Energize."

For a moment, Chakotay, Kim and the rest of their team glowed with a pale blue light. The next moment, they were no longer on Voyager. They were inside the space station. The first thing they saw was a large viewing window. Nearby were metallic tables and chairs with plates and utensils on some of them. It appeared to be some sort of cafeteria. A few of the tables had been turned over, made into some kind of barricade.

"Commander, take a look at this." Ensign Kim examined one of the overturned tables.

"Scorch marks?!" Chakotay murmured. "Could there have been a battle here?"

"Possibly," Kim moved towards a panel on one of the walls. "Let's see if we can access the station's data storage systems."
"Yes, let's do that." Chakotay said. "But be careful. We know nothing about what happened here. It is possible the systems could have some sort of booby trap."

Just as Kim was about to try to connect to the station's computer system, a scream rang out. This scream did not come from any member of the Voyager's away team. Someone else was aboard this station.

Chakotay sprang into action. After ordering the away party to stay here and work on accessing the station, he headed in the direction of the scream, phaser in hand. He managed to squeeze through a partially open door, and ran down a hallway. Stopping at a corner, he cautiously peered around it.

There were three people standing in front of an odd machine. Two men, one rather old and the other young, and a teenage girl. The old man wore a black button coat, gray pants and carried a cane. The younger man wore a navy blue sweater vest, a white shirt and gray jeans. The teenage girl wore a white coat and a striped skirt.

The machine was between five and six feet tall, with a telescope-like eye and two mechanical protrusions midway down its body. One of the protrusions looked like a gun of some kind and the other was like a toilet plunger. It was just standing there, in the middle of the hallway. Perhaps, some kind of robot assistant?

Chakotay hesitated to step out from the corner. For some reason, when he looked at the machine, Chakotay felt a surge of fear. He began to sweat and his heartbeat accelerated. Also, these three strangers seemed to recognize the machine.

"Grandfather, it's a Dalek!" The teenage girl said, clinging to the old man.
"A dead one, it seems." The old man replied. "Chesterton, let's examine it."

"Doctor, how is there a Dalek here?" The younger man asked. "I thought we witnessed their destruction back on Skaro?"

From what Chakotay understood from their conversation, they were familiar with the robot. Every time they said that word, "Dalek," Chakotay felt a sharp pain in his head. Just when he decided to call out to these people, the space station shook somewhat.

A moment later, the pain in his head became overwhelming, to the point where he started to pass out. The last thing he saw was the strangers heading towards him.