Captain Picard, along with the rest of the bridge crew, watched as five of their crew mates were destroyed in a quick instant. Most of them were unable to hide their shock, and looked towards Picard for guidance and orders. Even Picard had noticed that his mouth was aghast, and his eyes were dry from not blinking.

“Send all security officers, and tell them to detain our guest. Riker, set up force fields along its path. Let’s see if we can’t capture it and communicate with it.” Picard sighed before continuing, “Security is not to fire unless fired upon, but tell them to keep strong defensive positions.” Picard knew that these tactics were fairly unoriginal and by the book, but he hoped he could salvage this first contact situation, especially if Q was watching.

He brushed aside any emotions relating to the five dead officers, attempting to think only of the seven hundred and fifty other crewmen and women that needed him to keep them safe.

Continuing to follow the creature on the view screen, Picard could see the energy barriers going up in its path. He watched as three were put in place in front of the hulking creature, and another three were placed behind it. Bumping into the force field only seemed to increase the aggression of the metal monstrosity that was terrorizing the ship. It quickly turned towards a nearby bulkhead and plowed its chainsaw surrounded sword, and then its arm into the bulkhead to its left. Pushing its other arm into the hole it created with weapon still in hand, it pulled apart the wall and entered one of the crew quarters.

Everyone on the bridge stopped breathing, and the lack of living noise was deafening. A small security detail was on the other side of the three forward force fields, watching as the beast disappeared through the hole it created. They all stumbled back a step in shock and were confused at what to do next.

A chime in the bridge warned the Captain that Menik was attempting to contact them. “Sir, Menik here. Did you just see what I saw?”

“Yes, Lieutenant, unfortunately I did.”

With fear in his voice, Menik continued, “how are we supposed to contain that thing?”

Picard’s mind was racing, but came up short. He looked around to his bridge crew, “I’m up for suggestions..”

Data, turned back towards his console, “Captain, I believe we could transport it out into space.”

Picard took a moment to weigh Commander Data’s idea, but quickly decided against it, “I’d like to hold that in reserve for now, Commander.”

The Captain punched a few buttons on the console built into the arm rest of his chair, and spoke out. “This is the Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise to whatever is currently moving through our ship. We mean you no harm, and we hope to start a dialog with you. Please stop, and let us know if you are willing to discuss our mutual situation.”

Picard watched as two new holes were sheered through the bulkhead near Menik and his tactical squad. Fifteen security officers with phaser rifles at the ready awaited the deadly creature’s exit from the wall. Holding their distance at over five meters away, none of the brave men felt safe. Pushing itself through want almost seemed like tissue paper, the behemoth looked directly at the group of men in his path, and from the bowels of his armor came a deep voice, “send me back to my men, or die!”

The security officers held their ground, and Picard smiled on the inside, successful diplomacy was something that gave him great pleasure, and despite all the horrific things he had already seen, he was hopeful he could reason with what was attacking his ship, and his crew. “Who are you, and where do you want to go back to?”