In the cargo hold of PATHFINDER, Hisko and his head of security, Eric Pierce, watched as the strange object shaped like a diner was pulled inside the ship by the tractor beam and gently deposited in the centre of the chamber. Stepping towards the unusual structure, Hisko ran a hand along one of the walls.
"Well, this is certainly an unusual find we have here, isn't it Eric?" remarked Hisko.
"I'll say, John," agreed Pierce, eyeing up the diner. "Maybe someone's touting for business. If so, I'll certainly wouldn't say no to a breakfast baguette."
Hisko smiled at his friend's joke. The two men had been friends for a long time and it was on Hisko's recommendation that Pierce, a highly experienced soldier with a pleasant personality, be assigned a chief of security on PATHFINDER. Should any trouble arise during the voyage, Hisko was certain that Eric Pierce was more than capable of handling it.
Peering through one of the windows, Hisko could see that the interior of the structure was also styled like an American Diner with a counter and various serving tables. As he looked closer, his eyes widen as he saw a rear door open at the back and two ladies emerge, heading straight for the main entrance.
"Watch out, Eric, we're about to have company," said Hisko as he took a few steps back, just before the main door opened and the two ladies emerged holding hands together.
"Oh hi there," said the first woman, who was dressed in some sort of suit. "I'm Clara Oswald and this is my wife and companion, Me." She gestured to her partner, who gave the two men a friendly wave."
Straightening himself to his full height, Hisko assumed an air of authority. "And I am Captain Hisko of the starship PATHFINDER. Would you mind explaining what you're doing here, floating about in space?"
"Oh just exploring," said Me with a sweet smile. "More to the point, what are you guys doing here, kidnapping innocent ladies in space?"
Hisko gave an embarrassed cough, much to Pierce's amusement. "Ahem, yes, sorry about that. But we detected your unusually shaped space station in orbit and thought it abandoned. Our instruments detected no life signs aboard, so we thought we'd examine it."
Clara and Me shared a look, knowing full well why PATHFINDER's scanners could find no life signs, since the TARDIS had shielding against such scans and in addition, Clara was frozen in time and thus did not have a pulse to detect. But of course, the two girls knew it would be too hard to explain to the crew that they were in fact dealing with two virtually immortal ladies, so opted to skip that explanation.
"Examination, you say? Are you some kind of science team or something?" asked Clara.
"You could say that," came a voice from behind. Clara and Me turned to face a pleasant looking man, with a big red beard and dressed in grubby overalls, step forward from a control panel that presumably operated the tractor beam.
"Hi there," he said cheerfully as he shook each girl by the hand. "Jack Sawyer, chief engineer, at your service."
"So you're the guy who snatched us up?" said Clara with a friendly smile.
"'Fraid so," said Sawyer. "Though I have to say you picked a weird place to set up a restaurant."
"Oh you think so? Well perhaps you'd like to become our first customers?" suggested Me cheekily.
"Perhaps we should continue this discussion on the bridge," said Hisko firmly, more as a statement rather than a suggestion. "There are more than a few questions that both sides could do with answering."
"Sure, why not?" shrugged Clara. "I'm kinda curious to know what you're all doing out here too."
Pierce gestured to one of his security personnel to act as an escort and soon the two girls were in the turbo-lift on the way to the bridge. Once the ladies were out of sight, Hisko turned to Pierce.
"So, what do you make of them?" the Captain asked his head of security.
"Well they seem harmless enough," said Pierce as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't see why we can't act civil towards our unexpected guests. Though it might be best to keep half an eye on them, just in case."
Hisko nodded in agreement. "I agree, Eric. I'll follow them up and see if I can find out a bit more about them. In the meantime, have some of your guys keep guard on this diner or whatever it is."
"Sure thing, Cap," said Pierce, who then went to detail a couple of his men to the task. As this was being sorted, Hisko turned to his chief engineer.
"Okay Jack, you better get that tractor beam back up and running," Hisko ordered. "Andrews wants one of the rocks from the planet's rings in his lab to examine."
"Sure thing, boss," smiled Sawyer. "Hopefully we won't be bringing any more surprise visitors onboard."
A few minutes later the tractor beam engaged again and got hold of one of Epsilon-Gamma's orbiting rocks, gently and gracefully lifting it way from the ring and towards the ship. However, deep inside the large boulder, something malevolent was stirring. Awakened by its container being moved away from its proper location, the creature inside immediately ran a scan confirming that it was being pulled aboard an alien ship orbiting the planet.
Rage and hate filled the creature's mind and it swiftly considered its options. Clearly the aliens that had captured it did not realise what they had in their grasp, otherwise they would have tried to destroy it rather than take it aboard their ship. That meant the element of surprise was on its side. Certain that its transmissions would not be detected, the creature swiftly sent a signal to others of its kind, intent on alerting them to the presence of the aliens:
SENTINEL ONE TO BASE. AM TRAPPED IN THE TRACTOR BEAM OF AN UNIDENTIFIED SPACECRAFT ORBITING PLANET. CAMOUFLAGE DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE COMPROMISED. REQUEST INSTRUCTIONS.
It took just 40 rels for the response to arrive and when it did, the instructions contained were just as the creature had expected:
INVESTIGATE ONCE ONBOARD. TAKE CONTROL OF ENEMY SHIP AND ESTABLISH OBJECTIVE OF ALIENS. IF NECESSARY, SIGNAL FOR REINFORCEMENTS TO ANNIHILATE ALL ENEMIES. ALL OPPOSITION IS TO BE MET WITH LETHAL FORCE.
The creature's objective was certain. It would break free and seize control of the alien ship. And should the alien crew try to stop it... then they will die.