Star Date 47212.4, for the last week, the Enterprise has been working with the Griffin and the Orion in the Danu star-system monitoring Tallos’ Planet and deflecting asteroids from entering the planet’s atmosphere.” Picard recorded. “The crew is ready for some shore leave as we part for a course toward Kurkopolis-4 for some much needed R and R.” Captain Jean-Luc Picard recorded his statements in the log before joining the bridge. Captain Charlotte Tilton of the Griffin was the daughter of an old classmate of his from Starfleet and the navigator of the Orion was an old friend of his First Officer William Riker. Captain Daniel Summers of the Orion congratulated Picard on his command in deflecting and destroying the larger asteroids from entering the planet and damaging any of the colonies started there. It had been years since the planet was first settled by the Tallos family, and the planet was still a rich source of supply for dilithium and deutronium as well as for archaeologists exploring its many ruins. Picard gave the command to take the ship out of orbit.

“Set course for Kurkopolis-4, Mister Data.” Picard gave the order.

“Set course and plotted, captain…” The yellow-skinned android Data set the navigation course and tapped it in. “Captain, the helm doesn’t seem to be responding.”

“Could it be kryptonite dust from the asteroids?” Riker asked.

“Yeah Riker…maybe we should warn Superman….” haaaw haaaaw haaaw haaaw!!!! (the crew joined in) …Data help our dumb-ass First Officer out will ya…Is he right?”

“Negative.” Data was trying to affect the course from the helm. “Our sensors showed that our screens deflected all the debris from the asteroids. Whatever seems to locking us from affecting our course seems to be coming from on board the ship.” Picard looked to Deanna Troi, the ship’s counselor, looking confused to him. Worf, their Klingon security officer, began scanning their systems for foreign programs.

“Geordi,” Riker spoke through the ship’s intercom system. “Can you access the helm?”

“Not from down here, sir,” Geordi surveyed the ship’s readings from his diagnostic panel in the Enterprise ’s engine bay deep in the bowels of the ship. “What ever seems to be affecting our helm is not registering in our scans.”

“Lt. Tallos… What is our current course?” Picard turned to the brunette beauty that should be at his helm, but the figure that was sitting there was not a young lady nor attractive. He was trouble every time he appeared.

“A course for adventure, a course of delights and a mission of excitement, mon capitaine,” The cosmic trickster Q jumped from the seat as having revealed himself. “Don’t tell me you forgot me already!”

“Q!” Picard was stunned to see him back. He was like the annoying relative who constantly returned to destroy the house and annoy the people living within it before deserting it. Their Norse Loki to Kirk's Olympian Apollo... Riker stood at attention to see him back, and Worf raised his phaser to him despite knowing it was little good against the omnipotent prankster. Data and Troi just looked upon him tired and annoyed.

“What are you doing here this time?” Picard was never that afraid of him. Just irked at him...

“Jean Luc, you treat me as if I was one of your little Earthly plagues.” He pouted a bit hurt. “What have I done to ever register this sort of dissent?”

“You held humanity in contempt for sins of the past.” Riker announced.

“Introduced us to the Borg.” Worf mentioned.

“And sent me through two alternate timelines and the future to nearly destroy the Earth in the past.” Picard recalled the last one.

“Trivialities and misfortunes…” Q tried to bond with his mortal playmates. “You never seem to understand. I am your friend. Your guide to the universe and all it has to offer, and yet, all I seem to get is your distrust and horrible accusations. I am hurt, Jean Luc…” He paused for effect. “Why can’t I ever seem to get, “Q, my old friend, how are you doing today?”

Picard and Riker shared looks of disbelief.

“Q,” Picard sighed and changed his tone. “I apologize. How are you? How is your day?”

“It’s too late, I am hurt, Picard.” Q wandered over the wall, overly-dramatizing bracing on it and sighing heavily distraught like a character in one of Dr. Crusher's plays. He turned back around having snapped from that facade of a depression. “I hear you all desire rest and relaxation, but what more relaxation can you get by discovering a whole new galaxy so far unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. Different antagonists, new challenges, new cultures and foreign new races unlike anything you’ve ever seen or experienced from a galaxy a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away. I have searched all the known galaxies, and have found…”

“We’re not interested.” Riker spoke.

“Have you always had that beard? It looks as if it’s consuming over your entire face.” Q turned from Riker to Picard. “Jean Luc, you can’t tell me you’re not interested. Aren’t you just the least bit intrigued?”

“Q…” Picard was growing annoyed by the minute as were his other crew present. “We will experience this race in all due time, but for once, could you please…”

“But you’ll never experience this universe without me!” Q was eager to show it. “You must let me show you… Time’s up! We’re on our way!!!!” He flailed his hand and the entire starship jerked from its course. Riker and Picard were thrown to the floor, and Deanna clung to her seat to resist being tossed by it. The ship’s engines started screeching, lights started flickering and the warp coil pulsated faster and faster. Lt. Donna Tallos, the granddaughter of William Tallos of Tallos's Planet, was back at the her station at the helm near Data trying to correct the course. Systems crackled and flashed on and off. Geordi and his staff in the engine room were watching the readings as the core was pushed to its limits.

“Captain…” The visor-equipped prodigy clicked his com-badge despite the vibrating and shaking of the ship. “We’re exceeding Warp 14…” He pulled himself up to his console. “Diverting power to the shields, trying to get the core back on-line… We’re being dragged through some sort of rip in the space time continuum!” The rattling seemed to be abating enough that Picard could reach his seat. Lt. Worf started checking the ship as it slowly reached its destination. The crackling of power stopped, lights went off and emergency lights went on over the ship. The Enterprise finally came to a halt near an asteroid belt in a foreign star system. Ever diligent, Worf started getting read-outs from the diagnostics console. Unwilling to hear the screams, Q had vanished to let them experience this brand new universe.

“Minimal damage...” Worf began reading his controls. “Some minor systems are off-line, some stress to the integrity of the hull, weapons systems off-line, warp core at sixty percent power, shields at eighty-one percent…”

“Yellow alert!” Riker gave the command for the crew to stand by for battle stations.

“Q, what have you done to us this time?” Picard mumbled under breath and wiped his forehead afraid of what they were about to meet out of their known boundaries. “Sensors, Data…”

“Sensors on-line…” Data started scanning beyond the Enterprise . “Captain, we seem to be at the outer rim of a large asteroid field starting to be pulled into orbit around a Class-M star. High readings of radiation present… it seems to be the fragments of a planet that has been recently destroyed.”

“Recently destroyed?” Riker didn’t like that. “Is that possible?”

“Any signs of the cause of its destruction?” Picard nervously responded.

“If I am reading this correctly…” Data scanned the asteroid fragments beyond them and their energy readings. “The fragments seem to have been charged with ions and then pierced with a powerful blast of plasma-charged molecules contained within a beam of light… a laser of sorts… The concept is theoretical.”

“What could generate a laser of that size?” Riker wondered out loud.

“Captain, I’m detecting a craft in the vicinity.” Worf soon had their answer. “120 kilometers in size in synchronous orbit at bearing zero point nine.”

“On screen.” Riker called for it to be revealed to them. It looked like a small moon nearly directly ahead of them on the other side of the asteroid field. If the field was the shattered remains of a planet spread twenty times out in size, the object could be its moon, but there was something odd about it. Its mountains were too linear; it’s craters too perfect and lines too precise.

“Could it be a ship?”

“ Readings show 2, 998, 567 life forms on board it.” Worf continued scanning. “It appears to be a space station powered by an energy source I cannot identify.” What he did not read was that they were being discovered as well.

**************

“My lord…” An officer aboard the moon-sized station was reading the Enterprise . “A strange ship suddenly appeared in synchronous orbit with us beyond Alderaan’s former orbit.” He placed it on screen. Admiral Tarkin reared his head toward the foreign ship on the Death Star’s scanners. By his side, the black skull-like helmet of Darth Vader turned toward the strange ship before him. What was this ship before them? What was it doing here? Now? Could their security leak of their station's battle plans have lead to a ship filled with Alderaanian refugees escaping their destroyed planet?

“I’m not familiar with this sort of design.” Tarkin reacted with confused alarm and spoke with totalitarian decision. “Scan them for weapon defenses.” His men started scanning the ship.

****************

“Captain, we are being scanned.” Back on the Enterprise , Worf detected the Imperial signal breaching their computer core. “Our data banks, our weapons systems…”

“Red alert!!!”

“Weapons on line!” Picard gave the command. “Go to warp!”

“Captain,” Geordi was rushing to get the warp core on line. “Getting dragged through Warp 12 knocked our telemetry off-line. It’s going to take a minute.” He was racing around hitting his control and directing his ensigns to pull off a hundred chores within seconds. “I do have weapons back up… everything you want…”

“Photon torpedoes… phaser systems…” Tarkin’s eyes read what the Death Star was reading from the scan of the Enterprise .

“Transporter technology!” Vader's deep timber roared with interest. “Take us into tractor range! Kill everyone on board and capture that ship! It wants it intact and stripped for its technology!”

“Reaching tractor range now, sir…” An Imperial lieutenant locked on to the Enterprise .

“Captain, they’re locking tractor beams on us.” Worf started focusing on the multiple Death star system’s locking on them. “Engaging photon torpedoes to break us free.” He fired on the beams holding them. For each one knocked off, another one locked on. Deanna’s psychic senses started reaching beyond her mind. She felt a presence… a powerful will she had never felt before possessed of incredible anger and fury. It was the darkest soul she had felt in her life. Vader sensed her too. His breath rushed through personal his life support system as he felt her. She was not a Jedi, but she had the promise of one. Her will could be made compliant to him.

“Interesting…” Vader mumbled under breath as he read her mind. “Someone with inherent powers close to my own…”

“The craft is pulling us in!” Worf continued firing torpedoes to fire them off. “Distance at 33.7 kilometers and decreasing!”

“We have to get out of here!” Deanna realized Vader wanted the transporter systems and herself.

“Circular phaser bombardment in conjunction with our own tractor beams in reverse!” Riker rose and started assisting Worf. “If we can’t break ourselves free, we’ll blast ourselves free!”

“Do it!” Picard ordered. The Enterprise ’s forward array charged and burned a circle behind them into the Death Star, knocking out several tractor beams out as they lurched once then pushed forward. In a moment of decreased attraction, the Enterprise broke free and started pushing ahead of the Imperial threat. Geordi had the warp core going as the lost Federation starship vaulted ahead into full warp. The Death Star was coming toward them.

“The station seems to be following us.” Worf was reading it. “…and it’s matching our speed.”

“Something that big couldn’t possibly follow us into warp.” Riker wondered aloud like the moron he was. He then put on his pink tutu, he wore on the SSW and did a little jig with Geordi

“At this time, I’m not making any guesses.” Picard had nothing to base that assumption on. One of the ship’s sensors detected activity. The Klingon lieutenant checked his proximity fields and discovered the crafts coming toward them in attack patterns.

“Fifty small one man crafts gaining on us…” Worf detected the TIE Fighters over taking them and blasting at their hull and engines. “Ion-powered, laser-defenses, not much of a match for us… Shields holding at full.”

“Take us to warp.” Picard watched as the small fighters buzzed and blasted over the Enterprise like bees over a running horse. If they were the horse, the Death Star was a giant angry fat Lynn with a bad temper controlled by a John-Lee’s fat black ass. The Enterprise shot down a few, but the hits they took rattled their hull and proved to be a little annoying to their engines. The Death Star started pulling closer.

“We will be in tractor range again, milord.” The lieutenant addressed Admiral Tarkin at command.

“Knock out their systems this time.” Tarkin stood watching from a platform over his subordinates. “I wonder… could they have been contacted by the Princess as allies?” Vader’s breath pulsated through his helmet.

“Imagine what we could do with transporter technology.” Vader’s mind reflected on the possibility. “We could send troops across the universe at a minute’s stroke. The Resistance would never have a chance.”

“Locking on tractor beams once again…” Another officer reported just as the Enterprise ’s engines flared up. Then just before the Death Star could establish a lock, the Enterprise sprung form their grasp, jumped to warp, and vanished from their sensors.

“Ship has jumped to hyperspace.” Another officer used the references familiar to their universe. “We can start tracking it on your order, sir.”

“Start tracking immediately,” Tarkin turned from the edge of his command station. “I want that ship!” He turned away as Vader followed him unerringly. “First off, let’s see what the Princess might know about them…” He motioned to the turbo lift to head to their detainment cells down below them.

2

“Captain’s log, supplemental…” Picard reported. “The Enterprise has been forcibly relocated into another universe where we have made contact with a hostile enemy force with weapons almost on par with our own. Their effort to seize the ship was not successful, but we still have incurred damage. We have gone into orbit around a large Class-B planet to undertake repairs and decide a course of action.”

“First off…” Picard called together his officers to his ready room. “We should identify where we are at least. Is this the Delta quadrant or another region of space?”

“I don’t think so.” Geordi was using the view screen in the room to display the star charts they had on their sensors to compare with their own known regions of the galaxy. “I have compared all we have on file with the bodies of stellar regions we have. Nothing comes close, plus I checked the ship’s chronometer. Q has taken us back almost two thousand years to this specific moment in this galaxy’s history.”

“He did say a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” Riker looked back to his captain. Kurk, who had just overhead Riker’s comment, stepped up and slapped the bifagular homo first officer. 

“So, even if we make ourselves back to the known universe,” Beverly Crusher, the ship’s medical officer, spoke up. “We’d be far from our true time.”

“What did we get in our scan from that space station?” Picard turned to Worf.

“At first,” The Klingon security chief looked up. “I thought it was a Dyson sphere, but instead it seems to be a massive heavily armored station built around a power source of super-charged hypermatter, something similar to our warp core but with a more massive power reading feeding a centralized super-laser. The station is in a sense a giant laser cannon with the power to destroy planets.”

"That would explain the shattered planet we found." Geordi spoke up.

"If they have a weapon that powerful," Riker was thinking out loud. "Why not just turn it on us?" Kurk raised a hand as Riker spoke up, but as Riker shielded his head and face Kurk kicked him in the balls. It was a classic move and Riker fell for it…again. There was a round of laughter on the bridge and then, slowly, they returned to the crisis at hand.

"Commander..." Data added his observations. "It is logical to assume that such a weapon would require a maximum of two hours to charge. Therefore, they might not be able to use it in battle situations nor desire to abuse their creation on less than stellar targets. Furthermore, the battle station constructed around it appeared to have built to handle large scale threats, but in my observations, I noticed it had very few secondary or tertiary weapon systems. In its design, it was not equipped against small scale attacks.”

“They probably never estimated they’d ever be attacked by anything other than a starship.” Picard realized. “I’d say if it had not been for that fact that we’d not have been able to get away as easily as we did.”

“There’s something else.” Deanna turned her head up. “Captain, I sensed a powerful telepath on the station with mental powers above my own. It was a completely cold and ruthless being calling himself Darth Vader…”

“You got his name?” Beverly was intrigued but stood down seeing that Kurk’s head suddenly had turned towers her. “Sorry Kurk…” she muttered.

“From my initial contact,” Deanna continued. “He appears incredible strong, defiant and angry… striking out at the universe and very hostile at the world around him. He was beckoning me to give in to my base primal urges… succumb to some religious concept he calls the Force.”

“This Force…” Picard was intrigued. “I take it… he has succumbed to it?”

“The dark side of it…” Deanna explained. “It represents the dark primal instincts of the human mind while the higher or more rational side would represent what he would call the light side which he has rejected. It would appear that this religion of a Force would represent the duality of the human mind and of the universe.” She became a bit of a theoretical anthropologist in her interpretation.

“The Klingons have a similar concept called the pra’or’dal.” Worf added to their discussion. “If a warrior turned against his teachings, he was said to reject the pra’or’dal and be consumed by darkness. If he gave into it and died as a warrior, he became one with it, his strength added to the strength of all other Klingons after him.”

“An individual of that sort of darkness in control of such a powerful weapon.” Picard leaned back in his seat to absorb what he had learned. “I wonder if Q brought us here to destroy that station or to be humbled by it.”

“Captain,” Riker had been thinking. “If a battle station like that was constructed to be used as a symbol of power and intimidation, logic would dictate that they would have sort of rivalry with another contingent, some enemy of sorts.” He paused briefly. “What if we tried to make contact with them as allies?”

“Commander, I do believe the effort you are describing would be classified as a violation of the Prime Directive.” Data responded. “We could as easily find ourselves in the middle of a three-sided war without any allies.”

“I have to agree with Data.” Picard sighed a bit. “We are in uncharted territory here against a hostile enemy we know very little about. We could make the situation worse if we are not prudent in how we advance.”

“What a shit-head” Kurk mumbled

“What was that Kurk?” Picard asked.

“Oh just reminiscing on your “tactical brilliance there, Johnny”

“Kurk, please….call me Captain when the crew is around.” Picard whispered

“Yeah, no sweat ‘Captain’ …(pinch of the cheek - - slap)

“What about Q?” Geordi mentioned the cosmic trickster at the source of this trouble. “What does he get out of this?”

“I’d rather not waste our time to try to decipher his intentions.” Picard looked back to his Chief Science Officer. “He’ll tell us soon enough.” He rose first to return to his command. Dr. Crusher turned to hurry back to Sickbay to expect a surge of injuries to Riker from Kurk. Picard walked through the opening hatch to return to his bridge with Riker limping behind him and Data returning to his post at the helm.

“Did I sense my ears burning? ….oh Kurkostimus…what-up-bro?” Q said. Kurk & Q did Bro hand shake. Q was in the Captain’s chair and wearing a Starfleet uniform again. “Have you been talking about me, Jean-Luc?” Picard and his crew paused unexpectedly. Frustrated, Picard walked up frankly to his longtime antagonist and stood above him.

“Q, get out of my seat.” He told him.

“Just keeping it warm….” The alien troublemaker claimed, rose to his feet and half-seriously dusted it off. He then leaned back on his feet with a wide smirking grin. Riker stood before him a still in pain from Kurk’s kick, then took his seat by Picard’s right. Deanna sat to the Captain’s left in the Lt. Commander's seat.

“Q…” Picard reacted rationally. “I am asking you rationally and delicately. Will you return us to our proper home and time?”

“But you haven’t played the game, Picard…” Q looked at him with unbridled excitement. “You’re not relaxed yet. Do I intrude your office, kick over your chess board and storm out? You still have much to experience.”

“On what terms,” Riker spoke. “An enemy we do not understand, weapons that destroy planets, religions practiced by madmen?”

“I give you the pieces, you fit them together…” Q riddled clandestinely fascinated. “Isn’t your credo to search out new life, new civilizations? I guarantee you. You leave now, you will never find this universe in your lifetimes. If I return you know, you will forever wonder what you might have experienced or learned. Think about it, Jean Luc.” The miscreant vanished into a ball of white light that vanished with him. Picard was left feeling frustrated. He had a duty to his crew, but as Q had pointed out, he was indeed very curious.

“Doesn’t his absence just brighten up the room?” Kurk said. – In fear, they all nodded in agreement.

“Captain, we are being hailed.” Worf was reading an alien signal from the planet.

Picard and Riker shared looks. (hee heee heee heee)

“Put it on the screen.”

Suddenly Picard and Riker’s smiling faces were on the view-screen

“Not that…Kurk…please!!!”

Kurk gave the order while posturing in his seat. The view screen accepted the transmission and deciphered the alien communiqué, deciphering it as best as it could as per the alien technology. The screen showed a mature dashing figure of possible African descent if for a man from Earth, but he was far from their own culture. He was accompanied by a bald figure of a man in administration attire wearing a computer device over his head.

“This is City Administrator Lando Calrissian of Bespin to the unidentified ship in orbit above us.” He spoke to them. “Please identify yourselves.”

“I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise .” Picard rose from his seat to Calrissian. “We are explorers far removed from our native galaxy and in orbit above your planet undergoing repairs from an enemy we do not understand. We do not wish you any malice.”

“I’m not familiar with your ship or your designation.” Lando seemed to be checking his files as he talked to Picard. “You must really be lost. How did you get so removed from home?”

“We were removed from it by a powerful being known as Q.”

“Must be a pretty powerful entity to move a starship.”

“You have no idea.” Riker added.

“Well…” Lando noticed Deanna and beamed a wide grin. She sensed his romantic thoughts and desires about her and tried to stifle a smirk to her lips. “Captain, you don’t want to be all distant to us and hiding in the clouds. Come on down and my staff will grant you all the help you need plus as much rest as you desire. This may be a mining colony, but we have casinos, spas, resorts, fine food… all welcome to you as my guests.”

“We wouldn’t want to intrude.”

“It would be an insult not to accept my invitation.” Calrissian eyed Deanna. “Are all your ladies as attractive as this one?”

Deanna discreetly fawned a bit. So there were some things in this universe that were constant and quite like things back home. Even Riker reacted with a bit of jealousy.

“Well, how can I refuse such an invitation…” Picard recanted his initial misgivings and then turned to Riker who had misgivings with this First contact.

3

What began as a friendly liaison turned into a fact-finding mission. Bespin officers were exposed to the visit of humans with transporter technology coming to indulge in the recreational pursuits of Cloud City . Data stayed behind to take the bridge. Riker indulged in new games of probability and immediately started gaining an upper hand. Picard and Deanna were invited to Calrissian's formal dining room for a dinner they had never once experienced. Robotic droid servants served on them. Data even thought forward to engaging in conversation with one of these sentient artificial beings. Lando offered what he knew about their new antagonists.

“Captain,” He leaned back in his seat at the end of the table. “You are far more lucky to escape than you realize. The Empire is the seat of power in our universe, but it always wasn’t as so. We had a more democratic government a generation ago, but an opportunistic senator named Palpatine gained a lot of power and had himself made Chancellor to dissolve the senate and create an Empire under his direct control. Since then, a resistance of planets faithful to the Old Republic has been trying to remove him from office, but… it’s not been very successful.”

“We had a similar madman in our history.” Picard sipped Corellian tea. “A man named Adolf Hitler was elected into office and tried to conquer half the planet on a platform of prejudice, hatred and delusion. Like all tyrants, he suffered an ignominious end.” He paused a bit. “How does Vader figure in this Empire?”

“Vader is the commander of the militia equal only to Admiral Tarkin in command of the Death Star.” Calrissian picked up a pitcher to offer Picard more drink. “I’d get yourselves home as fast as possible. The Empire tends to seize any technologies it doesn’t have.”

“They haven’t bothered you.” Adorned in a long red dress native to the Cloud City , Deanna lifted her head up to the conversation..

“We’re located so far on the outer rim that the Empire doesn’t consider us of importance.” Lando turned up his eyebrows hoping it would stay that way. “We stay… just under their radar.”

*************

Back at the Death Star, Tarkin and Vader were being briefed on other enemies and other forces they still have tried to crush under the power of their armies. For what power they possessed, they still excised a lot of fear in the universe, but they still had enemies that would undermine their presence. Enemies who somehow managed to elude them.

“Our scout ships have discovered the remains of a base on Dantooine, but they confirm that it has been deserted for quite some time.” A scout reported to them and excused himself. Tarkin pounded his fist to the table in anger. That false data had been given from the princess they held as a traitor and spy to the Empire.

“She lied. She lied to us!” He declared with clear anger to his voice.

“I told you she would never consciously betray the rebellion.” Vader reminded him.

“Terminate her! Immediately!” He had had enough of that princess in his hold. He had drained as much from her as possible. Vader turned from him to carry out that order to pass from the room with the presence of a demonic shadow brought to life. He departed Tarkin and glided through the hallway toward the turbo lift to carry out the termination of another deterrent to the Empire. The lift appeared and he stepped into it, standing upon it for a mere minute as it carried him from one level to the next. When it stopped, he stepped forward and looked around. This was not the detention area as he had planned. He seemed much deeper into the bowels of the station. It much darker than he was prepared for, a mechanized hell of endless cables, ruined technology hanging loose and near silence except for humming in the fabric of the walls. The only thing that could be heard was the wheezing gasp of his own lift support system. His helmet turned left and right upon this ruined chamber. Lining the wall were a series of corpses held in computerized stasis, each of them blue of skin and cybernetically attached to computerized parts that replaced heads, eyes, arms and limbs. This had not been his planned destination. He had been spirited here by forces that dwarfed his own. He looked right and left upon this mechanized hell looking for answers. Hs hand reached to his light saber. There was movement behind him.

“You are human.” The Borg drone reacted. “You will be assimilated.”

“And you are just another enemy to the Empire to be eliminated.” Vader ignited his light saber and severed the drone from his head. With that attack, the drones in stasis sparked with life. He reacted to their attention with his first instinct to attack and fight them. Two drones came toward him and he severed another of them from his arm and head, but the third generated a force field to his light saber. Vader struck against it over and over, and when it fired upon him, his used his saber to deflect the blasts. Where he had to turn to defend himself from this strange new foe, he realized he had other powers that they would not have power against. Calling upon the Force, he glided the debris around him to strike upon his enemies.

The Borg Hive started reacting in confusion. They sensed an intruder of one, but then where were these other attacks coming from? If they were attacked by other objects, just what was throwing these objects? Vader severed a metal support with his light saber and leapt to another platform as the damage he caused dropped several Borg crashing through their own craft. When Vader turned round expecting more attacks, another drone transported right next to him and he reacted seconds before being taken against it. His saber could not break through those shields of theirs, but he could keep them permanently confused and firing at the wring areas by telekinetically tossing objects and debris upon them. There was a lot to choose from. Their ship was littered with everything from discarded parts to abandoned limbs. While he could not break through their shields, he could damage much more to keep them busy.

“Interesting…” He noticed more drones in stasis coming to life and searching for more unseen intruders and coming toward him. A wave of his hand and he could ruin their guidance systems, causing their cybernetic implants to pop loose or just short circuit. The Borg had yet to experience an enemy who could tap into the life force of all living things for feats resembling magic. The Dark Lord of the Sith laughed at their lack of ability to comprehend the Force and turned round to face more attackers, but in that flash, whatever had transported him here had moved him again. He now found himself in a great hall lit by ceremonial fires. A band of large figures in bulky heavy warrior armor turned toward him. They were larger than human and darker of skin with heavy crested foreheads.

“Intruder!” A Klingon chieftain called his men in his native language. “Slay the invader.”

Vader now had to change his tactic, returning to use his saber as a weapon than a distraction. He attacked first, severing one of their weapons in two and detaching two Klingons from their weapons by cutting through their arms. What these warriors lacked in stragedy, they made up for in strength and numbers. The dark imperial commander found himself hopelessly outnumbered by their forces, but he was very quickly dwindling their ranks. His skills were nearly to par with their martial arts, his efficiency with a sword far and above their skills in combat. He severed one of them from his weapon at the wrist, another at the shoulder. They did not believe in turning coward, they were going to fight to the last figure down. Vader forced the last Klingon to his feet and was hit by a cowardly attack. Someone fired on him from behind with a phaser weapon. His armor just barely protected him. He rejected it and turned round once more; his surroundings having changed again. He was now in the middle of an arena supported by Romulans.

“Stranger…” A Romulan lieutenant stared him down with a phaser in his hand aimed at him. “You invade Romulan space, and you die in it.” He was joined by a retinue of lieutenants and adjutants.

“Don’t be making promises you cannot keep.” Vader deflected the next blast with his saber. A burst of light from their weapons, and Vader charged head first into these foreign new foes. He deflected their weapons with little effort, and quickly realized they were not above cheating. He dodged their weapon fire and psychokinetically removed them of their weapons. One Romulan after another found his phaser being tossed from their hands. They looked up to see their commander dismembered from his right arm. They looked upon each other, their commander bleeding to death at their feet, and fled from the arena to save their own lives. His breath pounding through his helmet, Vader turned to reach down to the Romulan commander. He was missing, but someone else now stood before him.

“I’m curious…” Q stood face to face to him. “What is this fascination with cutting off arms and hands? I bet you broke your toys as a boy.”

Vader struck Q across the chest with his saber, only Q did not fall. He remained standing, a gap seared from his side to his left shoulder. His head and upper torso and left arm seared away but still in place.

“Well, that was highly uncalled for!” He announced, snapped his fingers and was whole once more. “You know, Vader, you fascinate me. You really do. Here you are, a commander of one of the most powerful armadas known to the twelve universes to ever exist, and you allow yourself to lead around by that shriveled up little former figure of a man.”

“I do not have time for former gods or deities!” Vader held the tip of his light saber to Q’s face. Q looked upon it once or twice barely fazed by it.

“I see that.” Q pulled the saber down without being further singed by it. “But I am not a god, not even a former one. I am just Q. I am as far above the Force you believe to exist as you are above common slime. It is I who has been dropping you into these little scenarios. Quite interesting, are they?”

“Then you will return me to my proper place.” Vader was willing to fight to his death.

“And if I don’t…” Q was quite intrigued to see what he’d do. “What will you do? You see, Vader, your demise has already been set by destiny. I am not interested in hastening it. You are nothing but a mere plaything in my shadow. Remember that when you next excise your powers of the Force.”

“Lord Vader, was there anything else?” Admiral Tarkin looked up to see Vader suddenly by his side. The Dark Lord of the Sith suddenly snapped from a trance, looked around once and realized where he was. Tarkin was looking up at him.

“Nothing, commander.” Vader’s voice sounded between breaths. He looked round once. His helmet turning to and fro before departing, wondering about his destiny and brooding over the words of that entity.

4

“Stardate, supplemental…” Picard reported. “We have departed the generosity of Bespin for a brief charting of the local systems to choose our course of action. The brief liaison has been very beneficial for the crew, but we are also very concerned about our eventual return to our home galaxy. In the meantime, we have accepted a communiqué from the local resistance to the Empire in the area. They have offered their support and protection while we are away from home for as long as it may last.”

Counselor Troi drifted through the corridor of her quarters looking for rest and sleep. She had enjoyed her immersion of the Bespin culture and Calrissian was very charming, but he was no Kurk. Her lovely presence glided into her quarters and lightly yawned, but then her psychic senses went on alert. She felt she was being watched. Her eyes looked around her toward an armored stowaway hiding in her quarters. Her first instinct was to call for help, but his reaction time was quicker and he tranquilized her with a dart from his wrist before she could make a noise.

“Sleep well, counselor…” Boba Fett caught her and hoisted her up over his shoulder. He had been hired to seize a potential Palawan for Lord Vader and to disable a crew. He departed Deanna’s quarters with her limp form over his left shoulder, checking the corridor briefly and then continuing on his way. His steps took him toward one of the transporter rooms. He used the Federation technology to set the coordinates for his ship attacked to the hull then took the remote off his belt to release his corbomite gas across the ship.

“Captain,” Worf was at security. “Someone is activating a transporter signal to a ship locked to our hull.”

“Over-ride it.”

“They have somehow blocked our override.” Worf smelled something and looked at Kurk who just shrugged and made a crack about yesterday’s lunch. The golden yellow gas was coming from every vent, filling every corridor, choking the breaths of all the Federation crewmembers. Sustained by his own helmet, Boba Fett used their own technology to escape with Counselor Troi. The gas had an immediate effect to the nerves, creating convulsions, next constricting the lungs and absorbing oxygen from the blood of all it affected. It was once used as a form of germ warfare. Doctor Crusher fell in sickbay from the gas as Geordi tried to reach the main atmosphere controls. Riker started choking and wheezing from the gas. Worf crashed to the floor as Picard tried to rise from his seat, but instead crashed to the floor. Someone wanted the counselor and the ship, and Boba Fett and pulled off both jobs very easily. After dispatching several gas filled canisters across the ship and tampering with their systems, he made it to his ship with Counselor Troi with him. The gas would kill the Federation crew in thirty seconds. He detached his ship with its coordinates for the Empire to capture it and disregard of the bodies aboard it for the technology. He had overlooked one detail. One crewmember was not human.

Data glanced at Kurk who was immune to the gas. “What do you think, Kurk?”

“Well they are a bunch of toads but, do what you think is best. I mean if Riker and Picard are gone, who’s going to clean my room and make my food? – make it so or some shit like that” Kurk ordered.

“Accessing atmosphere controls now, Kurk” Data started venting the ship from the helm. “Sensors indicate the gas resembles a form of nerve gas T expelled at Friendly Franks; filling the ship with the antidote in gaseous form with moderate amounts of Lysol and anti-stink stuff.”

“Thank you Mister Data…(Grrrrr)….err …I mean Mister Kurk”, Picard wheezed for air from the floor. As fast as the gas had filled the ship, it was going to take a while to fully purge it. Riker was clutching his chest as he started coughing up residue of the poison from his lungs. The antidote had a mint aftertaste to the olfactory senses. He helped Worf as best as he could and checked the ship for himself.

“Captain…” Riker felt his lungs about to explode. He hacked up some phlegm from his throat. “Sensors show a ship departing us…” He choked and hacked while rejecting the poison from his system. “At high speed…”

“Course?” Picard tried to stand with his eyes watering. Data moved among them unaffected. He assisted Lt. Tallos to her seat and helped Picard to stand to his feet.

“Craft seems to be bearing a trajectory of 9.5.” Riker continued giving sensor results while struggling to stand erect. “Back to the Death Star….”

“Captain,” Data had turned to an adjacent terminal. “I checked the crew complement. Counselor Troi is not aboard ship. I believe she may have been abducted.”

“Thank you, Data…” Picard covered his mouth as he coughed. “You have the bridge.” He staggered for his ready room as Riker supported Tallos to the turbo-lift. Worf tried to stay at command, but eventually, Dr. Crusher came to him to inject him for better resistance to the long-lasting results to the gas. With her three assistants and several volunteers, nearly everyone was doctored and back to health with few lingering effects. Within thirty-minutes, Picard and his officers were planning their rescue attempt from the ready room.

“Captain…” Geordi was still coughing a bit. “Here’s what I’ve come up with. We can’t do a direct attack on the Death Star otherwise they’d just lock their tractor beams on us, so I developed an alternate stragedy: we pass by them at warp, transporting three crew members on to the station to rescue the Counselor and then beaming them back aboard from warp again during a separate pass.”

“Transporting from warp…” Picard choked back a lingering tickle to his throat from the gas. “We’d have to time it pretty close.”

“Well, with Data…” Geordi had already calculated the plan. “He leaves us with very little chance for error.”

“I recommend Worf, Data and myself on this mission.” Riker insisted. He seemed one of the few already completely free of the gas.

“Hey, I’m willing to risk it too...” Kurk added, “…I mean were talking Riker here, right”

(Hmm, good point…he makes sense…sounds good to me…)

“One thing,” Picard tried to defiantly clear his throat. “Why the counselor? What would they have to gain by capturing her? She’s certainly not valuable as a hostage in a strategic tense.”

“Captain,” Data thought he had a theory. “As a Betazoid, Counselor Troi could be valuable to the Empire for her abilities as an empath. Perhaps, they see a chance of making a weapon out of her.”

“But Deanna is not a warrior.” Riker mentioned. “That alone could bide us time to reach her.”

“Yeah but she’s one fine momma….eh Johnny?” Kurk added

“I agree…” Picard leaned back holding his chest a bit. His lungs were still partially ablaze. “How long to make contact with the Death Star again?”

“Thirty minutes.”

“Make it so.”

5

Deanna started to stir again. First she noticed she was not in Kurk’s bed. This was a smaller more restricted fold-down bunk in a small ten by ten foot cell. The walls were dark gray, the floor cold light gray steel. Her mind was still trapped between sleep and the waking world. Her head lolled a bit as she tried resisting the sedative given to her. Her lips lightly gasped as she looked up to the presence standing over her.

“Welcome, counselor….” Vader stood above the lovely Betazoid. He looked much more intimidating that she believed. He was seven feet tall and of incredible girth, completely in black with that huge cape hanging over his armor. The helmet was pitch black, resembling a skull imbedded in the helmet of a long dead warrior. His appearance was obviously designed for fear, his size for intimidation. His breath poured and rushed through his helmet, his incredible visage evoking the appearance of the Earth concept of the grim reaper.

“What do you want of me?”

“Want?” Vader stood above her on the bed. “I rescued you from an attack on your ship. I now have you in protective custody.” He lied to her to try and gain her trust.

“You’re lying.” Deanna could sense his cold deceit and dark ulterior motives. “You want me for some reason.”

“Deanna… I feel your fear welling within you.” Vader continued standing over her. “Your fear, your hate… give into it. Give into the dark side.”

“No…” She moved away from him. “I won’t let you in my head.”

“I’m already there.” Vader was practically demonic in how he reached to her. “Give into your fear. I can show you the true power of the Force. You could be a great warrior by my side. You could wield powers you never though existed. I could help you gain power in two universes!”

“You’re wasting your time.” Deanna turned away from him. “I cannot be subverted by your power.”

“Your friends are dead.” Vader told her, either unaware of the truth or concealing it. “Your ship filled with the bodies of the dead waiting to be claimed for its technologies. You have no choice but to follow me. You will soon call me, master…”

“Lord Vader,” The door to the cell suddenly opened to a young Imperial ensign in a black cadet uniform. “We just captured a ship that just blasted its way out of a Mos Eisley space port.”

“Bring the counselor a uniform better representing the Empire and tear that Starfleet costume from her.” Vader ordered. “She’s going to be working on behalf of the Emperor from now.” He moved outward. The cadet saluted his commander and sealed the door behind him. Once alone, Deanna reached for her combadge, finding a ripped hole in her blue Starfleet uniform where it once was. She raised unsteadily, the effects of the drug used on her still in her system. She feared what else might have been done to her. She pulled her left sleeve up and found a number of injection marks. What had they been giving her? More drugs, brain-washing serums? She paced around her cell looking it over for signs of a possible escape. Turning once on her left foot, she lightly swooned and tried to brace herself on the bunk, but someone caught her.

“Counselor, you are not looking well.” Q appeared to her in a red commander’s uniform.

“What have they done to me?” She tried to stand.

“Oh, just a few mind-altering drugs to make you compliant, confused and readily willing to their control.” He looked at her deadly amused. “Tell me, what does it feel like to be mortal and under those effects?”

“Like I’m trapped in a dream…” Deanna looked at her own hand. It felt so strange to her. Her vision almost distorted. “My body feels like a lead weight.” She took a deep breath and tried to remain standing. “Q, you must get me back to the Enterprise …”

“I can’t help Jean Luc cheat at this game.” He mused as Deanna leaned into him. “He must play it through, and he’s doing so well at it. His Enterprise has nearly been captured, his crew poisoned, his counselor kidnapped and now he’s flying toward almost certain doom. Why should I take his fun away from him?”

“Q…” The walking around had hastened the drugs in her on their affects to her mind. She fell unconscious once more against him as Q whisked her back into the cell bunk with a gesture. He hovered over her whispering things to her mind.

“You are Deanna, member of the House of Troi of Betazed… very soon to be the Palawan of a Lord of the Sith…” He mused toward her. “If you wait long enough…” Q looked upon her. “You might be rescued by a mere farm boy.”

“….or worse…by Riker…who isn’t much brighter than a farm animal.. ” Kurk added … hahahaahhahahahahahahah… Q & Kurk high-fived, then laughed & laughed….

6

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