By: Deathstrike

Luke's lightsaber sounded almost angry, humming and crackling as he continued to hack down the surprised security forces on the Vindicator's bridge.  Blaster shots flew at him, but Luke let the Force guide him, and blocked them all while still managing to cut down another 2 stormtroopers. Luke was preparing to deflect another volley when something horrible happened.  A red-shirted security guard from the Enterprise D suddenly flew back into a bank of controls, blood shooting from his mouth, ears, nose, and eye sockets in thick, powerful jets.  The Emperor had just used the Force to burst the man's internal organs.

  "Skywalker, you young fool.  You may be able to deflect my powers, and perhaps even kill my entire bridge crew.  Your companions are not so fortunate.  Now..."as the Emperor spoke, Picard suddenly doubled over, wracked with pain, blood trickling from his nose and mouth.  "If you do not surrender immediately, your valiant friends will die here, now, before you.  And you will be able to do nothing about it.  Is your personal vendetta against me worth their lives?" The Emperor already knew the answer...there was no option for Luke.  Picard was now rolling on the floor, the veins in his temples and neck puffing out.  The Emperor grinned, his yellow teeth gleaming disgustingly in the light.  How many fools had come up against him and been defeated? Would they ever learn?  The Dark Side was unstoppable...

  Suddenly, Data's fingers blurred across the tricorder he had with him.  Almost immediately, a huge shockwave jolted the Vindicator, causing all present, even the Emperor, to stumble sideways.  Everyone except Data, who had known what was coming.  In an instant, he leapt into motion, streaking past Luke and snatching the lightsaber out of his hands.  Moving so quickly he could barely be seen, he was upon the Emperor and sent the gleaming green light blade right into Palpatine's midsection, then hacked sideways, half-disemboweling the Dark Side Master.

  Palpatine screamed, a horrible, reverberating, soul-crushing scream, and a seething cyclone of Dark Side energy erupted around him, encasing him in an opaque sphere of evil-looking energy.  The bridge of the Vindicator was thrown into chaos.

  Picard gasped and hauled himself to his feet, his face crimson.  He wiped the blood from his nose, but couldn't speak.  Data didn't pause for a second, leaping upon the shocked Imperial bridge crew and bringing their lives to a quick end with Luke's lightsaber.  The D's crew scrambled to pick up the phasers that the Emperor had discarded only moments before.  Even as they did, more Stormtroopers came piling in through the bridge entrances.  Data used his incredible speed and dexterity to deflect several blaster shots from the Imperials with the lightsaber, then tossed the vepon back to Luke.  Data ran up to a bridge console and began keying in, learning in the blink of an eye the way their system worked.  He opened the Vindicator's holding bay force field, and used the Vindicator's own tractor beams to maneuver the Enterprise out into space.  He used the tractor beam to give the powerless Enterprise a push, granting it about 1/4 impulse velocity.  It began to move towards an incoming Mon Calamari cruiser.  He then activated an 8-gigabit encryption algorithm and locked out the command functions.  It would not be easily cracked...

  Suddenly, two blaster shots ripped into Data from behind, and he reeled sideways.  Grand Admiral Thrawn had grabbed a downed stormtrooper's weapon!  Riker came in from the side with a kick, and sent the blaster sailing.  Number 1 was greeted by a hammerfist in the sternum for his efforts, as Thrawn put an exotic and deadly alien martial art to work on the bearded one.  In another second, Riker's left arm was shattered, 3 ribs smashed, and he was sailing across the room to land at Data's feet.  Before Thrawn could retrieve his weapon, the Bridge crew was beamed back onto the receding Enterprise D.

  They called for medical assistance to the transporter room, Troi cradling the beaten Riker, and Picard slowly asked Data what he'd done.

  "Simple, Captain..." Data replied.  "I used the tricorder to transmit a message directly to the Enterprise's main computer, and had it fire off 4 class-V probes.  The low power of the Enterprise didn't affect them, since they use a solid propellant igniter and a self-contained ion drive to power them.  Although they are not explosive, the raw kinetic energy of the probes slamming the interior of the Vindicator created a shock wave that I hoped their inertial damping could not contain.  My gamble worked."

  "Well done Data!" Picard grinned.  "You single-handedly disabled the Vindicator and killed the Emperor!"

  "He's not dead, Captain," Luke said.  "The sphere of energy you saw envelop him was a Dark Side regeneration cocoon.  He'll be back," he said ominously.

  The medics arrived and began to care for Riker, and the Mon Calamari cruiser energized a tractor beam and towed the D out of harms way.  Or at least off to the side of harms way for the time being...

  On the bridge of the Vindicator, Thrawn stared in amazement at the cocooned Emperor, the locked out computer system, and the bodies strewn across the floor.  Amazing that such a feat could be accomplished.  These new enemies were by far the best he had faced.  He would not underestimate their technology again.

  He keyed over to Grand Moff Andara.

  "What is it now, Thrawn? Can't keep your ship in one piece, can you?"

  Thrawn ignored the insult; instead countering with news that would make the Moff blanch.  "The Emperor has been wounded and is incapacitated.  I am in command now, Grand Moff Andara."