The Navigator of the Interstellar 1 Research Cruiser, pressed the intercom button,

"Krane to Main Engineering, please respond!"

"Engineering here!" The calm voice of Chief Engineer Thomas Prakar came through on the loud speaker, "What seems to be the problem?"

"I just picked up a blimp on my monitor, I was wondering if you could run a diagnostic on the sensors for me, Krane out !"

"Fine I'll get onto it straight away." Prakar singed off.

Krane's educated fingers worked the control-panel, instinctively he reported what he'd seen to the Captain. Captain Joe Egals was lying on his bunk when the call on the intercom asked him to meet Krane on the Bridge, Egals raised his arm above his bunk and pressed the intercom button, "On my way!"

Egals arrived on the Bridge a short time later, He walked across to where Prakar was standing, "So what's going on?" Egals questioned Prakar.

"Well sir, I saw a unidentified object on the screen." Prakar answered.

"And?" Egals said anticipating an answer.

"And nothing sir! Hang on a minute there it is again?" Prakar surprised by the sight of the object again.

Both men stared at the monitor until the object disappeared again,

"Is it a problem with the sensors?" Captain Egals said asked.

"Negative, I've had them checked." Prakar answered.

"Can we see it on the screen, or is it to far away?" Egals questioned.

"We'll soon find out!" Prakar said as he turned to the controls, he started to type and in a matter of minutes the unidentified object was on the screen mounted at the front of the Bridge.

"What is it?" One of the junior Bridge Officers said.

"I do not know, get Loum Threal up here on the double." Egals ordered, he pressed the com button "All hands, this is the Captain speaking, RED ALERT THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"

The crew prepared for danger, the Bridge became quite as Threal entered,

"What was so important that my research was disrupted and why are we on red alert?" Threal snapped.

"Take a look at the monitor!" Egals said abruptly.

Threal looked at the monitor he saw a huge object, dark and mysterious.

"It looks like a triangle." Threal said.

"So that's your scientific explanation Threal!" Egals said.

Threal went to the computer, he started to key in commands as he did the ship slowly moved towards the object,

"It's defiantly a space vehicle of some kinds sir." Threal announced.

At that moment the Alien spacecraft started to spin,

"What's it doing?" Egals questioned.

The alien ship span faster and faster until a large beam of light fired towards them,

"Brace for impact!"Egals shouted.

The beam of light hit the ship, it rocked wildly, the crew was hurled from their seats. A massive power discharge ripped through the ships systems and the bridge was plunged into darkness, computers consoles exploded all around the senior crew, the ship rocked violently once again, cables fell from the ceiling and smoke now filled the air. After a short time the emergency lighting came on, Egals opened his eyes, the automatic sprinkler system was not operating he thought, a number of small fires raged on the Bridge.

Egals stood up and coughed, and then pressed the com-button, "Emergency crews to the Bridge!"

The main Bridge monitor flickered and fizzed, on the screen, a dark room appeared, a face slowly emerged from the darkness, "Surrender your craft or be destroyed!"

"Who do I have the pleasure of talking to?" Egals bellowed.