Chapter Text
Stardate: 52605.3
Harry Kim was halfway through a quiet alpha shift on the Bridge, when his console beeped for his attention. Sensors had found something noteworthy, and it took him a couple times reading the data before he managed to alert Captain Janeway.
“Captain, I’m detecting another unidentified object floating in space.”
“An UFO? Don’t see that every day.” Tom called from the conn. He and Harry had just started exploring a Captain Proton holodeck story, and the pilot was an aficionado of the early science fiction stories from Earth's past.
“Thank you, Mr. Paris.” Janeway said from her seat and then turned to face her ops officer. “Another, Mr. Kim?”
“We found that truck a few years ago before we encountered the group of 37s.”
The Captain was intrigued. She rose to move next to the Ensign at ops. “Is this another truck?” They had encountered a 1936 Ford pickup floating in space three years ago. When investigating, they discovered several humans, including Amelia Earhart who had been abducted from Earth by aliens.
Harry brought up the recorded data from when he had found the truck as reference. He showed both sets of data to Janeway. “We found the truck through tracking a trail of iron oxide, but this is coming up as organic.”
“Organic?”
Harry tapped a few buttons on his console. “Wood. It would appear.”
Janeway considered the new information for a moment. “Do we have a visual?”
After a couple quick button taps, the viewscreen in front of the bridge displayed a small blue wooden box, floating rather aimlessly. It was completely covered in ice and listing to one side.
The bridge crew stared in silence. Not even Tom offered one of his usual wisecracks. Janeway drifted back down to her command chair, eyes fixed on the slowly rotating box. Of all the things to stumble upon in the the cold vacuum of space, she had never expected something organic.
“How far away is it?” She asked.
“Still 75,000 kilometers.”
“Tom, take us closer. One-quarter impulse.” Janeway finally took her eyes off the viewscreen, just for a moment so she could sit down.
Janeway asked for the image to be magnified. The box nearly filled the viewscreen now. Three of the sides were identical wood panels. Beneath the sheet of ice some of the blue paint was chipped or thinning. The bottom base was slightly wider, while the top had what appeared to be a lamp.
The fourth panel slowly rotated into view and Janeway gasped. She had waited for visual confirmation that it was the same box that Jean-Luc picard had described in his logs before deciding what action to take.
“Can we beam it aboard?”
“Captain,” Tuvok called from his Tactical post.”I would not advise doing so until we have identified what this is exactly.”
"Looks like a Police Public Call Box," Tom piped up, reading the sign on the top of each panel.
Janeway didn’t respond but instead walked to the other side of the bridge where Tuvok stood at his post. “May I?” she asked as she approached his console. The Vulcan raised an eyebrow at this curious request of his captain but stepped back to give her better access.
After entering one of her many authorization codes, Janeway showed her security officer Picard’s log. “It was classified as level 9 clearance nearly 7 years ago,” she kept her voice low.
Tuvok studied the readout before giving his consent. “Very well.”
Janeway looked over to her ops officer and nodded.
“Transporters are having difficulty locking on.” Harry’s console beeped once again. “Captain, you’re not going to believe this, but I’m detecting three lifesigns inside the box. Two of them are extremely weak.”
“Can we beam them from the box?” she asked.
Ensign Kim frantically tapped his console, trying to work the transporter beam to do his will. Finally after a long couple of minutes he looked over at Captain Janeway. “Beamed them directly to sickbay.”
“Good work Harry.” Janeway tapped her combadge. “Janeway to Sickbay, do you have them?”
“Acknowledged Captain.” The voice of Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram filtered through the comms.
"On my way."
The captain was the only one on the bridge who knew who the occupants of the box could be. She did not invite anyone one, not even her first officer or Tuvok to join her. She hesitated before moving to the turbolift. "Tom take us to tractor beam range. If we can't beam that aboard we'll have to tow it."
"Aye Captain."
Chakotay rose from his chair and asked what was going on. She flashed him a quick smile. "Captain's prerogative, Chakotay. I will of course bring you all up to speed as soon as I can. But for now you have the bridge." Chakotay gave her a smile of his own and sat back down.
The turbolift opened and she made a quick getaway. Until the situation was under control she was duty bound to honor the level 9 clearance the Doctor and his TARDIS was classified under.