Running Boldly Forward Pt 1

Running Boldly Forward
By Nikki O'Shea
Ten and Donna Dr. Who Crossover with OriginalStar Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation

Standard Copyright Disclaimer: All Star Trek and Dr Who characters are very obviously not mine but belong to their respective studios/creators. This is for fun and I make no profit off it.

Additional Disclaimer: I know nothing of science and would have no idea about the actual viability of any of this. In all seriousness, it is just a means to an end and I was having fun. I hope we can all suspend our disbelief and enjoy it anyway.


Part 1: Who Was That Strange Man?

The scene opens into a circular room with levels. There is only one door at the back of the room. It must be the back because everyone's facing away from it. Directly opposite the doors is a large window, or a screen perhaps, showing just the vastness of space – a starry field as far as the eye can see.

Ranging around the curve of the wall between the door and the window, on both sides, is a ledge of seats and stations filled with screens, lights and buttons. Various people in both red and blue clothes are sitting or standing at the stations.

Going past the rail of the ledge and the short step down into the center area are three people at two free standing stations. In the front, sitting side by side, are two young, black haired fellows, one of them Asian – maybe Japanese.

Behind them, like a king in his throne, sits a handsome, dirty blonde man in a gold shirt, smiling at the pretty young woman who has just presented him with a metal pad. He opens his mouth to speak when he finds himself suddenly cut off by the strangest sound he had ever heard on his bridge.

Everyone who could possibly have some bearing on this immediately springs into action, anticipating his command to find out the cause of the noise. The lovely dark woman in red at one of the stations along the wall just behind him on his right calls out first.

"It is not coming over channels, sir." She pauses, "Or the intercom."

He nods and stabs at the arm of his chair and leans down and in to speak.

"Engineering, report."

"Och, there is nothin' to report, captain. Everythin' is normal down here." Came the confused reply.

"Are you…sure?" he asked as the doors behind him wooshed open, allowing a slightly older man in blue to enter and immediately stop upon hearing the noise. He looks over to the screen as all but one of the rest are now doing.

"Uh, Jim? What in the blazes is that?" All but one stare at the blue box fading in and out, getting more and more solid, the noise louder. Finally it coalesces into a...Police Box as the alarms suddenly sound.

"Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert." The one lone figure still hunched over his station finally straightens up and speaks for the first time.

"Fascinating."

"Is it really? I thought it was more on the verge of strange and confusing myself." Said the newcomer from over by the Captains' chair. The Captain stood up.

"Bones, easy. Spock, how did it get past our shields, what's in it and why, why, why does it say Police Box?" But before anyone could attempt to answer even one of those questions, one of the doors opened and out stepped two people. A handsome young man with slightly wild hair dressed in a blue striped suit and a tan over coat, accompanied by a woman with red hair, dark clothes and large jewelry.

"There you are, Donna, we're on what you would call a proper space ship this time."

"Starship. This is the U.S.S. Enterprise, a Federation Starship and I'm -" the blonde Captain started to say. He wasn't able to get very far.

"We-e-ll, Starship, Spaceship, same difference, really." The man shrugged off with a grin. "Right! Who are all of you then?" The red haired woman aimed a light punch to his shoulder.

"That's a bit rude, don't you think? Not even going to introduce ourselves first? Here we are with a few extra minutes, not running for our lives, and we can't do this properly for once?"

"Oh, right, sorry. I'm the Doctor, and this is Donna Noble and no, we are not together. Everybody always asks that. So who are you again?"

"Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. How did you get past our shields?"

"Oh, my ships good at that, she is." The Doctor patted the blue box proudly.

"That's a ship?" snorted Bones. "Looks like something from a museum."

"Oy, that hurts – you didn't hear me knock your ship, did you?"

"Actually –"

"Right then – who's next?" The Doctor stopped in front of the two black haired men as the one called Bones started to fluster.

"Now wait just a goddamn minute –" he turned to the captain who was motioning men in red to stand back. They reluctantly complied, leaving their hands on the equipment strapped to their hips, obviously weaponry of some sort. "Aren't you going to do anything about this, 'Captain'?" he demanded with a snarl.

"Yeah, Bones, I am. He seems harmless enough at the moment; I want you and Spock to scan them and his – ship – and to do it quietly." Bones stopped short at the command from his Captain, looking a bit dumbfounded and sheepish at the same time.

"Oh, okay." He pulled something out and turned it on, trying to discretely point it at the visitors to scan as asked. Spock, his pointed ears catching the Captains' soft words looked up from his station in acknowledgement and back to the equipment he'd already been using.

"Showoff." Bones muttered. The Captain turned back to put his complete attention back on the visitors instead of leaving it divided. He knew he could trust his crew to tell him anything he needed to know.

"Flying a ship is one of the best things in the universe, isn't it?" The doctor was asking the Asian man. He turned to the other dark haired man, "So, what about you?"

"I'm Ensign Pavel Chekov, nawigator," he said proudly. The doctor grinned.

"Oooh, what an accent," he turned to Donna, "Did I ever tell you I love accents?" he turned back to Chekov. "Let me see, that's Russian, right?"

"Aye, sir –uh," the young man flustered, uncertain.

"No, no, just call me the Doctor. No need for titles." Donna laughed heartily as the Asian man and Chekov gave each other looks over that incongruity. Moving onwards, the Doctor headed towards Spock, who had once again straightened up. Spock raised an eyebrow as he looked at the Doctor.

"I see you are familiar with Earth culture?" Spock asked.

"Oh yeah, quite a bit actually. Been there looooads of times. I've had a chance to experience practically a little bit of everything by now."

"Remember Pompeii? Cor, that was a trip!" Donna mentioned.

"Ah, the Pompeii exhibit, founded on site in the 21st century, is a great study in early cultures…" Spock trailed off as the Doctor frowned and Donna laughed.

"Oh, that's too much! He thinks we saw something a simple as an exhibit!"

"But there is no exhibit at Pompeii on Earth. And you, sir, would you be so kind as to introduce yourself?"

"I am Commander Spock, 1st Officer."

"And a pain in my medical backside. I'm Dr. McCoy." He interrupted, holding out a hand. The Doctor shook it as Donna laughed yet again and said,

"Why's that? He's not an elf is he? I bet that would play havoc in medical circles."

"I am not an elf, I am Vulcan." Spock stated firmly but quietly.

"Only half Vulcan. He's half human too and that's what causes all the problems."

"Ooooh…." Donna nodded sagely.

"Right then, nice to meet you all, we have to be going now." The Doctor, so calm and relaxed seconds before, started rushing his companion back towards their Police Box.

"Wait, why? We've only just got here! We haven't even been exploring yet."

"No time to explain Donna, into the TARDIS, quick as you can." Donna planted herself and crossed her arms.

"Oy, Spaceman, I'm not budging a milli-meter until you tell me why."

"Don't argue with me Donna, we're running out of time." She glared at him. "What if I promise to bring you to the biggest mall in the universe, where you can get anything you like as long as it fits through that door?" Donna lit up.

"Oh yeah?" She asked as he got around her and opened the door. "How big are we talking?" She followed him inside.

"Planet sized. The whole planet actually." He was heard saying. She gave what could not be quite called a squeal as the door shut and the strange noise started all over again. As they faded out, the Captain snapped.

"Report! What did we get? Bones, you first. Were they human?"

"Uh…that's actually not so easy to answer, Jim. She was definitely humanoid of the Terran variety, but with some odd variations I can't account for – well within our norm, it's just that I've never seen them in that range before. He, on the other hand, while holding some of the same trace variation, is most definitely not human. In fact, we've never encountered anyone like him from the little I could tell from a measly hand scanner. I would have loved – I mean, needed a more in depth scan to be certain. But human he most definitely is not."

The Captain nodded and turned to his first officer as his medical officer finished. Spock stepped forward in anticipation, everyone obviously listening.

"Spock, how about his 'so called' ship? It looked like a plain wooden box to me."

"Scans were hard to tell as it resisted all probing, but if I am reading what little results I received correctly, the exterior was just a shell and was no more really wood than anything on this bridge."

"So it was camouflage?"

"Yes."

"But Spock, you can't believe their claim that it was a ship-it's too small! They landed it on the bridge for gods' sake!" Bones declared.

"Indeed, I am aware of that fact doctor. None the less, it was the vehicle they used to travel in. You, yourself, saw it appear."

"So maybe it wasn't really the ship, it was just a landing pod, like one of our shuttle crafts?" ventured the Asian man.

"That is not completely out of the realm of possibility, Mr. Sulu." Sulu beamed at the compliment and Chekov leaned over and whispered, "Nice job!"

"That still doesn't make sense – it couldn't be meant for long distance travel of any kind. There's just no room in there. Was there anything nearby?"

"Not that I am aware of, doctor."

'That still doesn't explain how they got inside our shields, Mr. Spock." The captain interjected finally.

"I am at a loss to explain how that was accomplished. Their ship," McCoy grunted at the statement but Spock continued on undeterred, "was surrounded by an energy field I did not recognize and the computer failed to analyze."

"So the long and short of it is, we just don't know?"

"That is correct."

"Then couldn't you have just said that?"

"I did, doctor."

The young, dark woman in red sighed. The Captain turned to her, "What's the matter, lieutenant?"

"Oh, nothing Captain, I just never got the chance to introduce myself and from the way they left, we likely won't be seeing them again."

***

In the meantime, in another circular room bearing no resemblance at all to the bright, clean and uncluttered bridge of the Enterprise, the Doctor and Donna stood around the center console and tower that dominated the impossibly large room.

"So, are you going to tell me now why you rushed us out of there so fast?"

"Because, Donna, if we had lingered there for too long, the TARDIS would have been completely cut off from her source of power."

Donna heaved in a deep breath, "Do you mean…to tell me… we could have been trapped there…forever!?"

"Eh…maybe, maybe not. Not really, okay possibly, well, I really just didn't want to take that chance. The TARDIS was an old model when I – uh – acquired her and we've been together for a looong time now. I really wasn't sure I could have pulled off the same trick twice."

"You mean this has happened before?" Donna's voice started to get a little shrill…

"Oh, just once, just once. Actually, still not sure how it happened the last time." He mused.

"How what happened last time? Did the TARDIS lose power?"

"Another dimension, alternate realities, some have big differences, you know, others not so much. This one was big."

"But how did you know?"

"That it was an alternate reality? Because I'm a Time Lord and I know how history is supposed to unfold. But no worries now, we had enough power to leave before it was too late, so let's see where we are now."

"You promised a mall the size of a planet." She reminded him.

"I know what I promised, and you'll get it, never fear, but I needed to get us out of there first. Now, let me get my bearings." He pulled a screen over and looked at it. "Hmm…an empty and quite unremarkable white corridor with shiny black strips on the walls. I like shiny. Gives it that new ship feel. Well, let's go see!" He rushed back down to the door in just a couple of bounding steps. Donna followed, taken in again by his infectious curiosity.