A ground vehicle similar to the one that had captain Maguire had boarded, shot into sight and stopped some meters from the Sandawana. A side door slid open and the familiar figure of captain Maguire emerged and walked towards the starship. He stopped next to one of its landing pods and looked up expectantly at the starship.
The crew were watching him on the giant monitor's big screen.
"Why is he standing there, looking up like that?", lieutenant Anesu sitting at the navigation console wondered aloud.
"Maybe his communicator is not working?", suggested lieutenant Tanaka at communications looking at the instrument panel before him, "I am unable to pick it up even though he is just outside the Sandawana".
"Com, perch me through to the Sandawana's external public address system", captain Lucinda ordered lieutenant Tanaka at communications.
"Done", reported lieutenant Tanaka after manipulating the instruments on his console.
"Welcome back captain", captain Lucinda greeted the figure of captain Maguire, her voice coming over the starship's external speakers.
"Thank you ", he replied.
"By the way captain did you forget your communicator during the briefing?", she asked.
"Oh yes, silly me", he gave a little chuckle. Let me in".
"Not on your life!", said captain Lucinda.
"Captain we have incoming!", urgently called out lieutenant Tanaka studying his instrument panel.
"On screen", ordered captain Lucinda.
The image of the figure of captain Maguire was instantly replaced by a view of what appeared to be a dark mass sweeping across from end of the sky and shutting out the light of day as it fast approached the starship.
"Zoom in on visual", captain Lucinda ordered and the image on the screen was magnified several times over. A large number of starships moving fast approaching in tight formation came into view on the giant computer's big screen.
"Chaldarians!", several crew members exclaimed at the same time.
"Security be on the lookout for possible chaldarian infiltrators", captain Lucinda ordered briefly speaking into her hand held communicator.
"Pilot, initiate emergency lift", captain Lucinda ordered lieutenant Tashinga sitting at his post at the flight control console.
Lieutenant Tashinga got busy executing the order and the Sandawana shot up into the sky ahead of the approach armada.
"I 'm sure that was not captain Maguire we saw outside, it was a chaldarian shape shifter", captain Lucinda explained. He must have been distracting us while the rest of his team were looking for open vents through which to infiltrate the Sandawana. They could have camouflaged themselves and stealthily approached the Sandawana without our knowledge. We must there assume the worst case scenario and assume some of them managed to get onboard.
Captain Maguire's hand reached down to the communicator on his utility belt.
"That's wise decision captain", Gomalux remarked, closely watching captain Maguire. "Talk to your crew, it will make this much easier for everyone".
Captain Maguire's hand rested on the over his communicator briefly while he loosened an attachment with his little finger, allowing a flash grenade to slip out from the utility belt. The device released a powerful white light upon impact with the floor.
He put up a hand to shield his eyes from the light whose brilliance temporarily blinded everyone in the room. Taking advantage of the brief spell where people taking cover, ducking and looking away from the blinding light, captain Maguire charged at the Gomalux, snatching the life switch out of his hand as he suddenly loosened his grip in the chaos. In the same instant he grabbed princess Elantra, clumsily inserting the life switch into the back of her head.
She snapped to life and shouted, "run!", before the chaldarians realised what had happened they were running out the room.
"Call your guards !", he urged her.
"I 'm still too weak, the life is not fully operational", she replied as they ran along the long passage heading for the exit. "They are in suspended animation, do not have enough power to summon them, she she struggled to utter as they ran. "Only...driver ...can help.
The chaldarians chased after them as they exited the main palace, just as the ground vehicle came speeding to a stop in front of them. "Quick get in", the humanoid shouted standing the open door way. Captain Maguire and princess Elantra rushed into the vehicle as the chaldarians reached the main door.
Taking his place at the controls the humanoid pressed the power icon and drove at high speed quickly clearing the vicinity of the palace. Looking back in a rear view mirror to check for any sign of pursuit, the humanoid caught sight of a warrior cyborg on Bydanian hover bike.
"Your majesty, we are being pursued he calmly announced. Captain Maguire looking back saw that the cyborg was fast having on them. Detaching the blaster from the utility belt on his waist, he perched himself on a side window his torso partially outside the speeding vehicle. He fired at the pursuing warrior cyborg who kept swerving, successfully evading captain Maguire's shots.
It seemed nothing could faze the warrior cyborg as it pursued stubbornly and rapidly gained on the ground vehicle.Captain Maguire knew he didn't want a physical confrontation with the heavily built cyborg. It didn't help that the cyborg did not keep to a straight line, but kept weaving in and out his range of his line of fire making it impossible to shoot it.
It was like trying to hit a swinging target in a dark room. Only this target was way too dangerous to accept failure to hit the bull's eye as an option. There were only two choices, it was either that they could outrun it. As that option was clearly not viable as evidencing by the diminishing distance. The only other option was for him to shoot it and stop in it dead in its tracks.
The ice cold expression on the muscular contours of its face said, there was no room for negotiation. It had only one mission, and that was to kill them.