A few moments later, deep within the Enterprise, the turbolift doors opened, revealing the massive marine to a young ensign trying to arrive back to her quarters to see to her children. No one was supposed to be walking around, except for required personnel. The hulking suit of armor shifted slightly, and the ensign held her breath.

They looked at each other and neither moved an inch. The ensign saw her life flash in front of her eyes, and her peripheral vision was completely black. She hesitated to even breath.

A few seconds later, the doors closed, and the turbolift was back on its way. Breathing a sigh of relief, she worried even more about her children, not knowing if they were safe, or where the beast she had seen was going.

Captain Picard was also watching from the bridge, and was happy that Data’s fast moving actions had potentially saved at least one of his crew.

“Data, I think it is time to enact your idea. We need it off our ship. Can you still beam it off?”

Data swiveled in his seat and nodded. Picard shook a single finger at Data, and in an instant, the turbolift was empty.

Floating a few hundred meters outside the ship, the being that had caused so much damage and death rotated slowly in the vastness of space. Turning, it came to face the bridge of the ship once again, and despite the fact that the armor didn’t shift or change, Picard swore that it looked more angry than before.

A blue energy field enveloped the massive hulking humanoid and in a flash, it was gone once again, and frustratingly, the intruder alert was once again blaring.

The speakers of the bridge came to life, and the sound of explosions, the screams of metal sheering and of people filled the dome-like room. “Captain, it is here, in engineering. It has already killed the security we had here.” The worried officer continued, breathing heavily as he delivered his report, “most of the other officers are dead…”

The comms went silent. Picard closed his eyes, and looked down with a solemn expression. Despite the alarms, and the noise of the ship, Picard found that he couldn’t hear anything. It felt as though his whole world had collapsed in on itself. Strategy, technology, brute force, communication and diplomacy had all failed. There weren’t any tactics left. One creature was ripping apart his ship from the inside, killing an endless number of people, and Picard was helpless to stop the madness. Calling out from his mind, he screamed out for Q to end it, but wasn’t surprised when nothing happened.

Shaking slightly, Picard tried to recompose himself, “ideas, strategies, long-shots. I’ll take any worthwhile suggestion right now.” Looking around the bridge, he saw little more than blank stares.

Riker turned and looked at the control panel at his chair. “Captain, a type nine shuttle is approaching.” After a short pause, he continued, “It is Worf. He was supposed to arrive tomorrow to spend two weeks on leave here.”

Picard thought about the potential strategic value of having Worf on board, “inform him of our situation and bring him on board.” As a tactical officer, Worf had helped see the Enterprise through numerous threats, and his ability to sway a combat situation in his favor was well known.