Two objects orbited the small blue/green planet of Botan, fifth in the Pyrnica system.

        The first, the only natural satellite, was a barren, dark, rock faced moon and had been held in place by the fog planet for a thousand millennia. No living creature ever had or ever would set foot on the surface.

        The second was a manufactured space craft and had been there for only a few seconds. It was the size and shape of a Police Box used on the streets of mid-twentieth century London on the planet Earth.

        It was the TARDIS and the Doctor was at the controls.

        He was alone except for K9, a mechanical assistant, that bears a remarkable resemblance to an Earth dog. (Earth being the only planet where natural dogs are found.) A dog, that is, with antennae for ears and a tail, a computer readout for a tongue, and a blaster gun for teeth. K9's builder, Professor Marius, had given the original K9 and this newly charged K9 Mark II to the Doctor. Professor Marius would have been very surprised at some of K9's adventures. He would have been even more surprised to learn the K9 Mark I had recently found a new home on the Time Lord planet of Gallifrey.

        K9 rolled to the Doctor's feet and asked, "What is our destination, master?".

        The Doctor wished once again that K9 would not call him 'Master.' It was the name of the Doctor's archenemy and gave him an uncomfortable shiver when he heard it. The Doctor ground his teeth together for a moment before answering.

        "Oh," he said, moving a lever on the console, "a lovely green planet on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. There is a magnificent fern that grows there, beautiful plumage, that I thought might add a touch of color to the control room."

        "Would you wish to play a game of chess before we land?"

        The Doctor pushed another lever and the central column slowed to a halt.

        "I'd love too, K9, but we are already there."

        A week ago the peace of the small clearing had been shattered by the crash of an Earth space vehicle. The silence had quickly returned but the splintered trees and torn ground would take many years to recover and to hide the twisted wreckage. Now, on a damp morning only a few days after the capture of two of the ship's occupants, the silence was again disturbed as a wheezing, groaning, sound split the still air. Slowly the TARDIS materialized not far from the dead ship.

        David Bauer, commander of the destroyed Earth Space Agency's "Capricorn," stood atop a hill not far from the site. "Another miserable morning," he thought aloud, then smiled for the first time in a long time. "Another miserable day is more like it," he said to himself. The clouds were hanging, as they always did, low over the planet's surface giving a grey tint to the sky and land.

        Major David Bauer was just over twenty-five years old. He had entered the Space Agency at the age of fifteen as a cadet. That age was in itself late for the new generation of astronauts but his ability to react in all sorts of command situations had promoted him rapidly. At the age of twenty-three he had been given a command and was again tested with command situations for this mission. He was learning now that no matter how tough the situations they were tested for were they were far short of the real thing.

        He shook and reminded himself that this situation, simulated or not, needed to be the center of his attention.

        He quickly surveyed himself. His uniform was torn but presentable. Dirt and grass stains covered the white markings on his black jacket but his green shirt and pants were still clean. The blaster he carried had been recharged and was slung in it's holster at his side. Physically he was near exhaustion. He knew that before long he would have to sleep but he wanted to make it back to his ship. If, or rather, when, a rescue mission came they would search there first. He would have to be near to quickly warn them of the danger. He also doubted that the monsters that had taken his ship down would still be looking for him.

        He set off through the forest to the clearing. It was not far and at the ridge above the crash he stopped. Before him lay the remains of the "Capricorn". He studied the wreckage carefully and was surprised when he found the difference. Near it was a man, a mechanical dog, and a small blue shack.

        "Rescue," he said. Too excited to think he stood high on the ridge and shouted a brief message of welcome and warning.

        The Doctor and K9 heard the call and came to a sudden halt. They had been so intent on investigating the twisted metal hulk that neither had been studying the horizon line or the forest edge. They quickly spotted the figure sliding down the ridge and running towards them.

        "Shall I take defensive action, master?"

        "Nonsense, K9, the man seems very friendly," the Doctor scolded him. "But be prepared just in case," he said slyly. The Doctor had learned through his many travels that appearances were not always what they seemed.

        David's mind was too clouded with joy to accurately study the situation. This was rescue! It had to be! He ran up to the Doctor and patted his shoulders warmly. "I'm glad to see you!"

        The Doctor smiled, "Well, I am quite pleased to see you, too. Uh...?"

        "Bauer. Major David Bauer," David introduced himself.

        "Glad to make your acquaintance, Major Bauer. I am the Doctor," he shook the other's hand.

        "You must have been pretty close to get here this fast. I thought we'd be stranded here for weeks or months." David was excited and talking frantically. "I figured I could build a shelter in the trees and scavenge what I could from the ship's emergency stores."

        As he spoke he motioned toward the "Capricorn" and came to a sudden halt. The close sight of what had once been his ship sobered him quickly.

        It had once been his ship and they had once been his crew. So much was different now and the remembrance of the beginning of this terrible ordeal cut through him.

        The Doctor watched him carefully. He could sense the young man's terror but there was something he had to know. "Who were they?" he asked slowly.

        David shuddered in agony and said, "Daleks!"

        The Doctor stiffened in surprise. Could his enemy be here?

        David continued to shake. "They were those robots... I didn't even think they really existed anymore. They had these long black ships like the torpedoes that old submarines used as weapons. They came after us. We tried to surrender," Davis said. He was no longer just telling the story but reliving it. "We surrender. Halt your fire we--"

        David's knees buckled and he dropped forward. With surprising speed and agility the Doctor grabbed him and held him up. The Doctor pulled him away to the far side of the TARDIS where he could no longer see the crash and propped him up for support. David was breathing heavily and suddenly stopped as the strange appearance of the craft came to him and the Police Box logo was recorded in his mind.

        That's not right, he thought. No rescue unit would use a seventy-five year old box as a shelter for a landing party. His confusion multiplied and his hopes disappeared as he passed into darkness.

        Far away across the fields, marshes, forests, and swamps of Botan was a fortress. It was massive, the size of a large city, and was completely buried underground. Aside from a powerful antennae mast there was barely a break in the landscape to reveal it's location. Many of the entrances and exits and a large tunnel system had been integrated into the natural caves of the planet.

        In the fortress, at an observation window, a Dalek stood viewing the area of the base that was most important. The pepper pot shaped Dalek was the largest of the Botan force. It's sucker arm and laser stretched far from it's mechanical body. The eyestalk centered in the dome of it's head could closely examine objects at a great distance.

        It was the Dalek Supreme, leader of the assault troops here, and it was very pleased with what it saw.

        As the Doctor entered the TARDIS control room he called for his companion. "K9?"

        "Yes, master?"

        K9 had done it again and the Doctor took a deep breath before speaking. "I want you in his room with the Major and inform me when he wakes up and I'll tell you how to proceed."

        "Yes, master." K9 started to exit and then stopped. "A question?"

        "Go ahead, K9, what is it?"

        "I cannot find a reference in my data banks to the Dalek's using the types of ships that Major Bauer described. Is my stored information incorrect?"

        "No," the Doctor said, lost in thought. He had also noticed the discrepancy and it made him very worried. The Daleks did not use that type of ship but someone else he knew of did. "Look after the Major," the Doctor ordered.

        "Yes, master," K9 said and rolled away.

        Later, David awoke with a start and the images that haunted him in his sleep faded away. The dark mist that had surrounded him in his nightmare evaporated and was replaced by the strange yet reassuring walls of the TARDIS. The bed he was in was very soft and for a moment he wished he could lay there forever. With regret he realized that that wish, like many others that he had made during the last few days, would not come true.

        The size of the room caught his attention. It was much to large to have been placed inside the small Police Box he had seen before. He deduced that that meant that they were no longer planet bound.

        That's not right, he thought, my crew is still down there.

        He stood quickly and another sensation of wrongness passed over him. He was to high and unstable. He looked below him and saw the flat back of K9 beneath his feet. He carefully stepped down.

        "Sorry," David said, unsure.

        "No apologies necessary."

        "Oh! You talk?"

        "Correct. I am K9."

        "For some reason that name doesn't surprise me." He patted the silver and gray metal head of the robot. "Good afternoon, K9."

        "Correction, it is morning."

        "How long have I slept?" David asked. He felt physically a little better than before. Mentally the confusion had begun to pass but the memories of the losses had not.

        "Approximately twenty-one planet hours."

        David sat back onto the bed and stretched his back. He rubbed a bruised elbow and realized he was still wearing his green shirt and pants. He looked and saw his jacket lying near the bed on the floor.

        "That..." David searched his memory for the name of the man he had met. "That Doctor? Where is he? I have to be returned to the planet."

        K9 informed him that the Doctor would meet him in a few minutes to discuss what had happened. Then K9 led him to another room with a shower. The liquid warmth soothed some of David's aching muscles and he felt much better after he dried and wrapped himself in a warm robe.

        Next he was taken to a room containing hundreds of articles of clothing. He tried on, just for fun, a frilly white shirt and was surprised it fit him so well. He exchanged it for an old frock coat and was surprised it also fit him well. All the clothes he tried on fit him perfectly and he was delighted by the choices. He settled for a pair of black jeans and tight blue shirt. He added a pair of spaceman's flexiboots and returned to the bedroom.

        Under his jacket he found his blaster and belt and he fit everything on as K9 led him into the control room.

        "You're looking much better, Major Bauer," the Doctor smiled as he looked up from a scanner.

        "I'm feeling much better."

        "Yes, yes," the Doctor said. "I felt that giving you a chance to revitalize yourself at your own speed would work wonders."

        "Thank you, Doctor." David knew what he had to do. "Doctor," he said after a moment. "There were seven crew members aboard my ship when it crashed. Three died on impact and the remaining four of us were captured by the Daleks. One of us was killed and I managed to escape. Two of my friends are still alive and I have to go back to Botan."

        "Actually," the Doctor said, "we've never left."

        "How could you manage to get a ship this size past the Dalek radar? In space they'd have caught you a thousand miles out."

        The Doctor considered his answer for a moment. In his travels he had tried to keep the secrets of the TARDIS hidden. Even though a ship like this could not be operated by a being other than a Time Lord technology could be revealed to an observant watcher and led to the wrong hands. But the Doctor could tell that David's desire to help his friends was sincere. He knew the human wanted their safety even over the destruction of the Dalek force. He was also aware that David was intelligent and would have to be told. Slowly and clearly he gave the story of the TARDIS to David.