The year is 3185 A.D. the Deep Space Mining Corporation has dispatched the Andromeda a lightly armed corvette (on loan from the Earth Imperial Space Navy)to the area of the Dark Matter halo that sorrounds the galaxy. In charge is Captain Benjamin Horatio Forrester and his First Mate Jack Morrison, who also heads up a security detail consisting of his Symbiote clone brothers interlinked via implants in their heads. Most of the crew are unaware of this about Jack and only find out his true role when the ship is attacked in an asteroid field by a squadron of Daleks on hoverbouts. Of the other crew there are two exobiologists, Simon Stillman and Jane Horowitz, who are compulsory additions due to Galactic Mining regulations. Even though no one expects to find any life out here in the cold reaches of near intergalatic space, there is nevertheless a remote possibility. Stillman and Horowitz's role is to assess any possible environmental impact of any mining operations in this remote asteroid field. At the start of the story Stillman is very bored because his specialism is Macro-exobiology, the study of alien life-forms that are 'visible to the naked eye'. Horowitz is far from bored having catalogued dozens of species of space-faring microbes living deep within the rocky matrices of the asteroids themselves. Unfortunately for Stillman, he isn't bored for very long as he and the rest of the crew are taken prisoner by the Daleks. When the Daleks take over the Andromeda, they robotise Morrison after killing all of his Symbiote brothers, he then pilots the ship into the asteroid through a vast airlock. The interior of the asteroid has been pressurised and rotates so that gravity is reproduced at Skaro normal. The Daleks as a species were thought to have died out centuries before when their home-world was destroyed in a supernova. However, a group of them have managed to survive out here on the edge of space and have made a home for themselves in the hollowed out interior of one of the larger asteroids. Optimistically dubbing this place 'New Skaro', the Daleks have been mining Dark Matter for use in the creation of a new race of Daleks- the Mark 6. On New Skaro the Dalek Supreme introduces the Mark 6 Prototype Dalek to the Supreme Council. They react with hostility and attempt to destroy the Dalek- screaming 'Abomination! Abomination!' as they do. The Dalek Supreme orders them destroyed. When the Andromeda lands the crew are inspected by the Mark 6 Dalek Prototype; it determines that Horowitz is pregnant and asks its mentor, the Dalek Supreme whether it should exterminate her. The Dalek Supreme informs the Prototype that the Daleks are interested in human reproduction and that therefore she is to be spared and sent to Dalek Science. This of course is a massive blow to Stillman as he is the father of Horowitz child and wasn't even aware she was pregnant. Before he can absorb this information he and the rest of the crew are split up and sent their separate ways. As an aside the Dalek Supreme reveals to the Mark 6 prototype a machine that can observe parrallel universes. One universe in particular interests the Dalek Supreme, one where the Daleks are ruled by a Gold Emperor. In that universe Skaro still exists and the Dalek Supreme would like nothing better than to be able to conquer this world. Meanwhile, unknown to them, the Gold Emperor's Daleks are obseving their counterparts through the same machines. As time passes they are becoming increasingly worried that an attack is imminent... Horowitz is dispatched along with the Robotised Morrison to Doctor Invidious, a particularly creepy human replicant whom serves the Dalek cause. He enjoys rare privelages for a non-Dalek life-form, seeming to be on excellent terms with the Dalek Supreme, though he is resented by the ordinary Dalek ranks. Stillman and the ship's medic Lemuel are sent to the Dark Matter mines where they come under the wing of Olsen, a human co-opted by the Daleks who are holding his daughter hostage. He has no option but to serve them as an Overseer, and to do this he not only has to be absolutely ruthless but smart with it. He maintains order by appearing to be a lot harder than he is, and bribes one of the other prisoners, a huge lunk called Branley to take a fall for him when ever a new group of slaves are brought in. He is forced to rely on such tatics because the Daleks cannot stay near the mines for too long because of the way raw dark matter interacts with their electrical systems. For the same reason it is impossible to send Robomen to the mines as the exotic energy given off by the rocks would drive them to insanity even faster than normal. On his first day at the mine, Stillman becomes q entangled with the wall of a cave at the quantum level. Only the intervention of Orpheus, a mysterious psychic saves him from becoming absorbed into the wall forever. Olsen likes to hold parties for several reasons- to meet his own needs and to give the miners a break, and ultimately to get bladdered on 'Dalek Gin' a particularly potent alcoholic beverage that is brewed up in the rusting carapace of an old discarded Dalek travel machine. However this last detail does not escape the Section Leader who arrives unexpectedly in the middle of the party along with a squadron of air-borne Daleks. They have brought a special announcement from New Skaro Central. The Mark 6 Dalek is now going into full production and has far as most Daleks are concerned it is a simple upgrade to their present travel machine. Those who have observed the Mark 6 prototype from close up know that this isn't true and that the creature inside the casing is an 'Abomination'- a Dalek but not a Dalek. The Section Leader is perfectly aware of this, but cannot risk showing any outward signs of rebellion. The Section Leader is in cohoots with Red-Leader- the head of Dalek intelligence, who is equivalent to him in the Dalek hierachy. Red Leader has been interrogating Captain Forrester with a psionic beam- a mind probe that they use on him with all the finesse of a road digger on an orange. They are convinced that Forrester is managing to hold something back from them, nevertheless Red-Leader has little success for his efforts. The Dalek-Supreme (who now calls himself the Prime Imperial Designate- he is to become the Dalek's new Emperor)- over-rides him by placing Invidious in charge. Invidious uses Morrison, whom he has freed from crude robotisation, to talk to Forrester. However the Captain does not trust his first mate and comes to the conclusion that the only answer to their problems is for both men to die. However before he can procede to develop this notion any further he succumbs to one of the violent hallucinations that he has been experiencing since being subjected to the psionic beam. Because of Morrison's implants, which Invidious has upgraded from their crude Earth manufactured equivalents, he is able to interact with Forrester's hallucinations. They take the form of grim monsters whom Morrison is able to mostly subdue with a combination of brute force and psychobabble. However, the last of the monsters- a fierce werewolf- the Loup Garoux- proves very much stronger than anything else. Seeming to possess Forrester the wolf attacks Morrison. Jack has little choice but to kill his former friend in order to protect himself. Red-leader is furious (and slightly jubillant as well) that Invidious has failed and demands that Morrison is also exterminated. Invidious intervenes and saves Morrison by promising to duplicate Forrester, that way he should be able to reproduce the neural pathways and memory engrams that constitute Forrester and so the Daleks can continue their interrogations. Morrison is bitterly opposed to this move, having fought with something evil that had taken control of a close friend. However Invidious over-rules him and the Forrester duplicate is born. Horowitz was also interred by Invidious and is kept in an 'apartment' with three other women- Marianne, Nootka and Frenamee who are also apparently pregnant. They are happy to be in his care, seeming to be oblivious to the fact that they are no more than experimental subjects to him. Horowitz is horrified at the prospect of bringing a child into such a place but cannot countenance a termination. Invidious offers her a third option- that the foetus be kept in suspended animation until such time as she feels ready. He leaves her to consider her options. Meanwhile the Daleks return to the Dark Matter mines where they recruit some of the miners for the Mark 6 Factory. Returning to New Skaro Central are Olsen, Orpheus, Stillman and Lemuel. Stillman is caught nosing around as the Section leader menaces Olsen. He is apparently 'exterminated'. Meanwhile Horowitz has decided to take up Invidious' offer that the developing foetus be removed and placed in stasis. After the procedure she is depressed and it is at this point that Invidious takes them down into the depths of New Skaro for an exercise that he dubs 'Collective Problem Solving.' The women are sent into the catacoombs to seek out the Maze of Being, deep within the maze is an alien artefact, left behind by an ancient pan-galactic civilization thirteen million years before. It is here that the Loup Garoux has made his home. For the Loup Garoux is more than just a mere phantom, it is a weaponised meme dispatched from the future to deliver the Word to a suitable civilization and to destroy those who would oppose the word. Splitting his subjects into two teams- Invidious and Morrison monitor their progress from the Daletrix- the Dalek Data-Net which contains all their pooled data and ultimately is the only thing they have that can be called a culture. However the experiment goes off the rails when Horowitz is plucked into the void by the Loup Garoux and then finds herself teleported into the captivity of the Daleks once again. Stillman awakes to find he has a silver mop of hair and a subtly altered face and although you can't tell from a comic strip- his voice has been lowered a couple of octaves as well. He is coerced by the cabal of rebel Daleks that consists of Red-leader and Section-leader who are holding Horowitz hostage in a chronon sheilded cell. His name has been changed to Milos M. Mandible in an attempt to not draw attention (and they dress him in an orange jump suit- well that's Daleks for you). Stillman is transported to the Mark 6 Factory where he witnesses what is actually happening to the old Daleks who have given up their casings as part of the 'Dalek Scrappage Scheme'. Having been led to believe that they will be upgraded to new Mark 6 travel-machines they are instead put into giant liquidisers and shreded into their component particles. The Mark 6 prototype, who has been proclaimed the new Supreme Dalek, now that the former occupant of that role has promoted himself to God of All Daleks, uses this as a ploy to win over the workers. He proclaims a Brotherhood of Nations and leads them to believe that the Daleks will live in harmony with their neighbours. Stillman is horrified as he is all too aware of the Mark 6's true nature, however that is not his only problem. Olsen, his former Overseer at the Dark Matter mines, is now working at the factory after being replaced by his former stooge Branley. Olsen recognizes Stillman and, suspicious of the fact that he has come back from the dead, trys to attack him in a corridor. But Stillman has toughened up in his time on New Skaro and wipes the floor with Olsen who was nothing more than a puffed up bully in anycase. Stillman realises that their true enemy remains the Daleks and that they must do all in their power to stop them menancing the universe once again. Tommorrow we rejoin the adventures to pick up on where everybody is. This will be one year precisely since the first posting of this story on Renderosity.