"First Ones"

The doors slid open and Sheridan rose to his feet. 

  “Captain Sulu.  Always a pleasure.”

  “The Excelsior’s re-fit is almost complete.  We’ll be ready to get underway...”  Delenn barreled through the door.  She almost knocked down Sulu.  “Bad news Captain,” noticed Sulu, “Captains.”

  “Well?”

  “We’ve lost two more major ships around sector ZZ9ZZA.”

  Sheridan filled Sulu in.  “Eight ships have been lost in that region.  Babylon Five is close enough to pick up their signals...but we’re too far to do anything about it.  We need to investigate further.”

  “Why not put up warning beacons to tell ships to stay out of the region.  There could be an unknown anomaly there.”

  “No Captain.  I have to know what’s there.  You see…my wife was on one the missing ships.  She was on a science vessel investigating a new planet.  It held promising signs of an old race.  They were never heard from again.  I have to know what’s out there.”

  Sulu paused. 

  “Listen.  After the Excelsior is finished being re-fit.  I run her through a short shakedown cruise and then I’ll take her out for a look.  Our mission is exploration too.  For the record, what’s the name of the planet?”

  Delenn chimed in, “In local legend it’s called Z'ha'dum.”

  “Fall Back!!” Worf bellowed.  He swept his phaser across another five or six stormtroopers.  They disintegrated…their armor unable to block Starfleet weapons.  Worf turned around and looked at the hall.  He was almost to the turbolift.  His security team was down to three people.  And as best as he could figure it, there were still several hundred stormtroopers aboard.  He had to give them credit; the Imperial forces knew how to take down a ship.  They had easily overwhelmed Engineering.  The aft decks were theirs.  Worf had only kept them from creeping forward by irradiating decks by overloading phasers and using them like grenades.  Now secondary explosions rocked the ship as it suffered from continuing damage.  Worf fired at the new rank of stormtroopers he took four down before his phaser rifle’s energy dissipated.  He switched to hand phaser.  Everyone was slammed and pinned to one side of the ship as the inertial dampeners cut out again.  For a moment the high G forces of the Enterprise’s uneven acceleration pinned everyone to the port bulkhead.  The Enterprise was still being towed by the Mon Calamari cruiser.  But the cruiser was itself dodging fire from uncountable snubfighters and the Eclipse.

  Then the ships systems compensated.  Worf fired a wide beam at the stormtroopers.  Then made a break for the turbolift.  The staccato blasts from the imperial weapons punctuating his every step.  Just before he made it to the turbolift doors, they opened.

  And Stormtroopers poured out.

  Worf growled and grabbed the lead stormtrooper and tried to put him through a bulkhead.  The others stunned him and the stormtrooper he had grabbed.  A stormtrooper marched up and took aim at Worf’s head.  Another stopped the first.

  “Do you want me to spare him?  This beast killed half my squad.”

  “Grand Admiral Thrawn wants the officers alive.”

  “Very well.”

  The turbolift doors opened and Worf was dumped unceremoniously on the floor of the bridge.  Riker lay in a heap.  Troi at his side as he coughed up blood.  Data was immobile, a restraining bolt protruded from his forehead.  Luke and Picard knelt on the bridge floor.  Numerous weapons were trained on them.

  The ship lurched again.  This time because the Mon Calamari cruiser had suffered a crippling blow and had its own survival to worry about.  It deactivated the tractor beam and broke off contact.

  “Well,” Picard thought out loud, “it looks like this is it.  We’re in a real dilemma and fresh out of allies.”

  Luke tried to cheer him up, “the Force is always an ally.”

  A blaster butt to the back of the head rewarded him. 

  “Be quiet rebel scum.” The stormtrooper keyed his comm-link, “Grand Admiral Thrawn.  The ship is secure.  We have sustained heavy casualties and await relief.”  Thrawn's voice cut through the comm-link sounding distant and tiny in it electronic reproduction.  “Excellent.  I will order craft to escort you momentarily.”

  Just then the Enterprise communications panel began to chirp.

  “Grand Admiral, the rebels are trying to send a message to this ship.”

  “Let me hear what it says.”

  The stormtrooper played around with the user-friendly Enterprise controls.

  A voice.  Kirk’s voice broke the silence.

  “Picard…. This is Enterprise calling.  Do you read?”

  Picard and Luke exchanged knowing smiles.  These stormtroopers were as good as dead.

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