Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

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Post by Mike DiCenso » Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:39 pm

Looking forward to it. Don't forget to review the last poll, too... unless that's included in your notes as well.
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Post by Jedi Master Spock » Tue May 26, 2009 9:27 pm

Episode 05: Unwilling guests

USS Cheron:

“I would rather keep our transporter technology under wraps, on the chance that they haven't developed something like that, so we have a better chance of beaming you out if things go poorly. Play your cards close to your chest; I want them to learn as little of tactical importance as possible.” Captain Robinson paced back and forth in front of his fish tank as he spoke, not even looking at them.

“We're not including any human crew members in the away team for just that reason. I have a bad feeling about this situation. I don't know if we can trust anyone on this side of the wormhole - terrorists or navy officers - but we do need to know more. You each have a full download of Ensign Hoop's analysis of the anomaly. Everything I just said about playing your cards close to your chest?” He stopped and faced them. “Doesn't apply to that. We can't expect them to be forthright with what they know about it if we aren't.”

“There are only seventy five nonhumans on the crew. I appreciate each of you volunteering for this mission; I would gladly go myself, but as Commander Shovas suggested to me earlier, it is better that we do it this way.”

Low orbit:

The Y-Wing fighters flew by the small freighter once, twice, flickers of incandescent light flaring in the darkness as bolts of galvened particles buffeted the ship, bursts of flak flaring like fireworks on its flanks. It was the work of moments; the freighter's running lights flickered, and then cut off completely as the ship lost power.

The fighters dallied, slowly circling the craft like bored sharks, as the shuttle approached. There was no need; the rebels aboard weren't even trying to restore power.

Aiyira quietly prayed in the darkness. May the Force the Jedi kept yammering about hide me! Please! Let me not be found! She knew it was a futile effort. The Jedi were dead; their Force hadn't even helped them. And the Imperials probably had intercepted her transmission, even if the Andorian ship hadn't helpfully forwarded it to them.

She held an invisible expression of distaste as she swallowed the datacube. Its edges rubbed her throat as a metallic clang rung the locker she'd stuffed herself into.

Roaman alone still sat in the cockpit. He'd just stopped talking at one point, a small sad smile on his face. Xej had refused to hide - or put up any more with Roaman's pessimism. Instead, he was laying in wait for them around the corner from the airlock, blaster cocked and a thermal detonator in his off-hand.

The thunder of a thermal detonator going off shook Aiyira's hiding place. Then a tingling swept across her body as she dissolved in a swirl of light. What was this?

Hangar of the Judgment:

The blue alien commander's shuttle, with its angular box-like lines and the pontoons, resembled none of the other craft littering the spacious bay of the Judgment. To Commander Garnik, it looked almost aquatic.

“I wonder... could the nacelles be an underwater propulsion system?”

Technician Makray suppressed a frown. “As good a guess as any, at this point. They don't seem to have been doing anything, either on the mothership or their shuttle. Can't wait to have a closer look myself, sir.”

The shuttle landed lightly on the deck with a puff of thrusters. The door opened, and four aliens, wearing red tunics over black pants, walked out. Commander Garnik made it a point to try to take in the decorations that distinguished them. The differently colored stripes, perhaps, or the differing metal decorations on them? Perhaps some were service medals.

The first alien was familiar looking - blue, with antennae. He - or was it she? - was little taller than the average human. This must be Commander Shovas. Immediately behind him was a more familiar-looking alien, what appeared to be a female Farghul with tawny fur, the light green stripe nearly matching her green eyes.

The third alien was bulky and imposing, a reptile with heavily muscled form, silver faceted eyes, and a large jaw full of visible sharp pointy teeth, the broad expanse of its white-topped uniform broken by a dark green stripe with a simple hollow square of silver and the common gold star on the opposite breast. After a moment, a fourth alien, a bug-eyed reptilian, exited the craft, the door silently closing behind him. His stripe was grey.

Garnik strode forward boldly. “Greetings, Commander Shovas! On behalf of Captain Zhet, welcome aboard the Star Destroyer Judgment. If you would just be so kind as to step this way, I would be delighted to show you to the captain's dining room.” He made a show of concentration. “If I may ask, which of you are Mr. Hoq, Ms. Mzz'kiti, and Mr. Slar?”

Captain's dining hall:

They were all human, and all male. It was a quiet and civilized dinner. Captain Zhet waved away any suggestion of talking about the anomaly at dinner when Commander Shovas breached the topic.

“Please! We will have enough time to fiddle with datastreams and indulge the wild speculations of the supposed experts later! I am quite tired of talking non-stop about spatial whosits and temporal whatsits with the technical experts. Tell me, the star you carry on your left breast - what does it symbolize? And why red uniforms for all of you?”

Further down the table, amidst the quiet clinking of silver, china, and crystal, Lieutenant Mzz'kiti's high-pitched laugh cut across the low frequency murmur of male humans.

“I'm sorry,” she said after recovering her poise, “but whatever that noise was, it sounded absolutely ridiculous coming from a-” She caught herself before saying human. “-hairless ape-oid. Was it suppose to mean something?”

“Well, in the traditions of, er,” Commander Garnik paused, trying to figure out how to say your people without giving away the whole game, and then the concussion grenades the waiter had cleverly hidden at the bottom of a basket of roll went off, and all hell broke loose.

Bridge of the USS Cheron:

“Sir! Weapons fire, biometric readings are going wild!” The ensign at the desk was in a panic.

“Mr. Kowalski! Lock onto the away team!” Captain Robinson's order to start the beam-out process overlapped with the ensign's next line - a little late:

“They've fired at us!”

Captain Robinson's eyes widened as the tactical demands of transporter operation and combat crossed his mind. Meanwhile, a rain of weapons fire flew towards his ship, and the small parasite craft that had been loitering none too far away raggedly reacted as their pilots received orders to move out.

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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Jedi Master Spock » Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:40 am

Episode 06: Cowards, Traitors, and Heroes

Earlier:

A gout of thermonuclear fire erupted between the boarding craft and the freighter, consuming the airlock and ripping open the freighter's hull. Ten stormtroopers died in an instant, and the atmosphere of the freighter began to vent through the large open hole in its side. Xej never even felt a moment of pain from the thermal detonator he held. Roaman Lekva, in the cockpit, felt, as much as heard, the explosion, and then the suction started. I wasn't expecting to die today, he thought to himself, why did that idiot Zabrak have to decide to kill himself in the messiest way possible?

He felt a tingling across his body. So this was what death by decompression felt like. He closed his eyes, seeing blue light through them. Maybe the Force is real, he thought himself. The tingling faded, and he cautiously opened his eyes. He was standing on a raised circle, a dias of sorts. He slowly raised his eyes. There were three young men, one young woman, and another antennaed blue person like the Commander Shovas who had been on the comm earlier, and they were pointing something vaguely menacing-looking in his direction. All of them wore red shirts topped with white mantles and dark green stripes, except for the Andorian, who had a white stripe and no white mantle.

Beside him, Aiyira was sitting on another raised circle, her legs clutched tightly to her chest. Her lekku were moving and her eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"Welcome aboard the USS Cheron," said the Andorian woman.

Bridge of the Judgment:

Lieutenant Babyface was relaying more news. "Captain Zhet, we've finished searching the Rebel ship. No sign of the stolen data, or any Rebel bodies. They must have all been vaporized in the thermal blast. We have a team working to see if they can recover the data from the navigational computer."

Molan frowned. "I wanted them alive. Well. Commander Garnik, dinner should be about ready. Shall we go?"

And now... the unfolding saga:

Dining room of the Judgment:

When the basket of dinner rolls exploded next to Mzz'kiti and Garnik, it took all of the officers seated at the dinner table by surprise. There was a scream of "Treachery!" from someone - perhaps a waiter? Garnik and Mzz'kiti hit the wall hard, flying like limp ragdolls. The table broke apart, and for a moment, nobody said anything, a measure of wordless sound as cutlery flew like shrapnel, plates and glasses shattered, and the table broke. About half the company present sensibly dropped to the floor. Others ran for the door. It was chaos. There was a chirp of a comm badge. "Beam us out of here now!" There was the sound of blasterfire, and white-clad stormtroopers burst into the room, responding less than ten seconds after the blast.

Captain Zhet and Commander Shovas both shouted at the same time from the opposite sides of a sideways chunk of table as the first stormtrooper showed up in the entryway, blaster at the ready.

"Set blasters to stun!"
"Set phasers to stun!"

In that eerie moment, both officers looked over the broken table at each other. Slar, a trained security officer, was already firing at the incoming stormtroopers. Maximum stun setting, widebeam, holding up a mostly-intact table as a shield against the incoming stormtroopers and firing around it as he advanced to block the entrance. Molan Zhet went down, stunned in the crossfire between the stormtroopers and the two reptilian Starfleet officers.

For a moment, all four Starfleeters were highlighted with blue sparkles, and then the sparkles faded. "To the shuttle!" Shovas fired a couple more shots over Slar's shoulder and then followed his own advice, Mr. Hoq ahead of him.

Slar shook his head. "You go on!"

Bridge of the Cheron:

"They've fired at us!"

Captain Robinson's eyes widened, and the deck bucked underneath his feet. Red alert sirens blared. "Shields up! Kowalski, belay that transport. Cierra, all about full. Evasion pattern epsilon!"

"Sir! Their first volley got through before the shields. Hull breaches on decks seven and eleven. Damage across decks four through twelve and twenty one through twenty six. Starboard nacelle is venting plasma. Shutting down the warp core and stabilizing the EPS grid." A console exploded in sparks, and then the ship rocked again as more fire came in from the Judgment. "Shields at fifty three percent, and the parasites are firing some kind of torpedoes."

"Lieutenant, take us back out through the rabbit hole while we still have impulse power. Mr. Spiff, fire at will, I don't want any of them following us through." Starfleet needs to know about what's on the other side of this rift. "We'll have to write off the away team."

The battle as viewed from space

The Ambassador class starship slewed to the side, a trail of glowing dust leaking behind it, shields flickering blue as they were brought online against the incoming turbolaser bolts. Tiny starfighters deployed S-foils into attack position, nearly invisible proton torpedoes arcing towards the larger vessel; then, licking out in response came the phaser fire, stabbing at the tiny fighters. Two volleys of photon torpedoes arced out of the aft launcher, one targeted for a blinding proximity spread in front of the larger wedge-shaped vessel, the other aimed for its giant ion engines.

Brig of the Cheron:

Outside the forcefield that served as the door to Aiyira's cell, a man lounged about with an air of boredom. The white uniform top, she'd learned, seemed to represent enlisted ratings, and the dark green stripe seemed to mean soldiers. She'd seen other colored stripes on other uniforms as she first went through a medical examination, and her interrogator sported a white stripe, but her escorts and guards all had dark green stripes. Military police, perhaps.

Aiyira lay on a bunk, reflecting on the events of the day. She had spent almost all day thinking about her own impending death - whether during a rough interrogation at Imperial hands, blown out of the sky by Imperial fighters or the Star Destroyer, shot during the boarding action, or killed by Xej's holdout thermal detonator, and here she was, alive and well. The Federation had handed her ship to the Imperials and then, in an act of technological magic, whisked her out of their grasp. This prison cell was actually more spacious and more comfortable than the cabin she'd had on the freighter. That, more than anything, had put her off her guard - they were kind. They didn't drug her, beat her, or threaten her to try to get more information out of her, and when she'd pleaded stress and weariness, they'd left her alone in her luxury cell to sleep.

Suddenly, the ship jolted. She sat upright on the bunk. Red lights flashed and sirens filled the air. Maybe I will die today, after all...

Beta Quadrant:

The bridge of the IKS Yoj was dimly lit, the way Captain Klarg liked it. "So the Federation targs were skulking around here, and then just disappeared? At this anomaly?"

Uneasy silence answered him. Everybody's patience was wearing thin after two hours of waiting to see if the Federation ship whose ion trail they had been tracking would re-emerge from this wormhole. The anomaly throbbed, twisting in place, but doing nothing. The cloaked Bird of Prey was parked forty thousand kilometers outside of the spatial anomaly. They had radioed back to the Empire, and a battlecruiser would arrive soon, but in the mean time, it was proving to be a long and boring wait.

Something beeped. The sensor officer leaned forward in his chair, excited for a moment. "Increased gravimetric flux!" Then the anomaly flared.

Ensign Hoop's quarters:

The red alert siren woke up the sleeping ensign. Oh no! She forced herself out of her bed and into her uniform as the ship shuddered under fire. Then she felt it as the Cheron plunged into the rabbit hole, a trace of gravimetric shear that her stomach found familiar. Her stomach twisted as she remembered her simulations of what was likely to happen to the Cheron under the stresses of the rabbit hole. Something must have gone very wrong for Robinson to risk it.

She pulled up the terminal in her quarters, and was immediately baffled at the readings. The Cheron had taken some kind of battle damage, but the transition through the anomaly simply hadn't strained the structure the way the previous one had. What was different?

"Ensign Hoop, report to the bridge." She sullenly ignored the page for a moment. "Ensign Hoop, are you there?"

"Yes, sir. Be up shortly."

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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Mike DiCenso » Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:08 pm

All right! I'd just about given up on all hope of seeing more chapters. Way to go, JMS!
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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Jedi Master Spock » Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:06 am

Episode 07: Substitutes

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away:

Captain Klarg gripped the arms of his command throne as the ship lurched, buffeted on a flare of energy. The bridge lights flickered.

"Helm! Take us away from the spatial anomaly! Damage report!"

"Captain! All systems normal. We experienced a minor gravitational shear across the hull. Cloak is still operational." The sullen second officer continued after a moment's pause. "Picking up an unknown battleship, one-plus kilometer in length. Muon residues indicate Federation-style photon torpedoes detonated less than a minute ago. Some battle debris."

"Was the Federation ship was destroyed?"

The second officer hesitated, not wanting to be wrong, then answered. "No. The debris is mostly durasteel, not tritanium, as it should be if the Cheron had been destroyed. Nadion residues consistent with phaser fire. And there's not enough debris for a Federation cruiser. I'm picking up a shuttlecraft exiting the battleship."

"Put the battleship onscreen." Klarg rubbed his chin.

Bridge of the Judgment:

Commander Elan Daro reacted quickly to the news of chaos in the dining room, executing Captain Zhet's contingency plans with speed. The man was eccentric, but at times like this, Elan Daro was glad to have a captain who laid plans for every occasion. If the Federation did anything unexpected and hostile, he was to take down their ship as quickly as possible, and attempting to assassinate the captain over dinner surely qualified. Barbarians.

"Starboard batteries, continue firing at will. Shields to full. Bring fighters about to intercept."

"Direct hit! Their shields were down, sir!"

"Fighters beginning attack run, sir!" A cluster of small dots blinked onto the flashing red icon of the round ship on a tactical display. The screen blinked again, and the cloud of dots shrank, then disappeared with the next update. "We've lost contact with both squadrons. They're gone, sir."

The commander gaped. Impossible! Two squadrons of the Empire's finest had vanished in moments.

"Incoming missiles! Brace for impact!" The bridge shuddered as a blinding white flare illuminated the windows; then the ship shook.

"Aft shields holding at half strength. Ion engines number 2 and 4 inoperative. The Confederate - er, Federation ship is heading for the anomaly. Three thousand gravities." The lieutenant's voice held steady as he reported the improbable figure. A ship simply shouldn't move like that on thrusters so small they couldn't even be seen.

"Sir! The extragalactics are reported to be heading for the reactor room! Dispatching three squadrons of stormtroopers to the reactor room to stop them, sir." Another lieutenant, whose voice cracked partway through. Either he was stressed, or going through puberty a little late.

Elan nodded assent, distracted. "Full stop. Try to get those shields back up and scramble damage control in position." He fumed impotently, watching the icon of the Federation ship approach the anomaly. Closer... closer... then, before the ship had reached the visible anomaly, the anomaly flared outward, the tangle of space-time rifts becoming as large as a gas giant for a small fraction of a second to engulf it.

Dining room of the Judgment:

Sargeant TK-1139 ducked back behind the corner, knocking over a cart loaded with nerf sausage. The limp body of a fellow stormtrooper slid past him in the middle of the hallway. "Kriff!" He slapped a fresh power pack in his blaster and came around the corner on his belly, firing upward at the advancing Gorn from underneath the table.

The Gorn jerked stiffly. Another stun blast came from a stormtrooper behind him, and the massive reptile dropped the table, staggering like a drunken man and firing aimlessly down the hallway before the sargeant remembered to fire again, blue rings catching the Federation security officer in the face. Slar collapsed sideways with the grace of a sack of bricks, his head coming down hard on a tray of sausages on the counter.

TK-1139 stood up slowly, keeping his blaster trained on Crewman Slar. "Shab, boys, I think that did it, he's as tough as a bantha. You three drag him down to holding." He stepped carefully into the captain's dining room, shards of fine Alderaanian crystal goblets crunching underfoot. Kriff, but this is a royal mess, he thought to himself. There are breadcrumbs embedded in the wall, even. A flattened dinner roll dropped from the ceiling as he surveyed the scene. Blood, pieces of fine china, food, and Imperial officers were scattered everywhere. Some were conscious. A waiter was yelling at him and pointing towards an exit.

"That way! Quickly! They're getting away!"

The stormtrooper sargeant almost slipped in a pool of blood as he stepped quickly over the prone body of Imperial lieutenant commander with a knife in its back. He looked over, and saw the unconscious feline lying next to Commander Garnik.

"Corporal, take that one down to holding. The rest of you, with me, double time." The stormtroopers hustled down the corridor, headed away from the hangar and towards the reactor room.

Alpha Quadrant:

Ensign Hoop walked out of the turbolift with a growing sense of scientific curiosity. Something very different had happened in this transition. The gravimetric shear that had nearly torn the ship apart on its way into a galaxy far far away had been gentle, orders of magnitude less dramatic. Barely detectable, in fact, but the ship had clearly gone straight through a warped rabbit hole of subspace. The bridge was abuzz with conversation. She didn't pay any attention to it.

She sat down at the science station, displacing a disgruntled looking lieutenant without so much as an exchanged courtesy. Captain Robinson cleared his throat audibly. "I'm working on it!" she said. "Any luck locating where we came out?"

"Ensign Hoop," said Captain Robinson, "We know exactly where we are. We're about a dozen light years out from Cestus III in an uninhabited system. I was expecting we'd be back in the Beta Quadrant in Klingon space."

"Interesting, sir." Ensign Hoop blinked, the dark circles under her eyes making her look owlish, and then turned back to the console, now alert. Her fingers danced over the board like hyperactive spiders. "Counterweights! That's it! Well, part of it, sir. I think I know what we're looking at, but I would need to send several probes through to be sure, sir. It's a very crooked space-time pretzel, sir."

Brig of the Cheron:

Aiyira felt reality briefly invert. Her stomach folded over on itself, and she felt as if suddenly, a trillion voices she hadn't known she was listening were suddenly silenced, cut off like a Wookiee cooking show on the newly rebranded Imperial Entertainment Network. She was dying. Alone. She fought the urge to break out in tears.

Then the sensation passed, and she felt perfectly fine. And the red alert sirens cut off. Normal lighting returned. I still live.

Federation shuttlecraft, in a galaxy far, far away:

"Mr. Hoq, warp speed now." Commander Shovas was bleeding from his scalp. "Get us out of here before we get shot. I'll start scanning nearby systems. Hopefully they're too busy to chase us."
Last edited by Jedi Master Spock on Thu Nov 24, 2016 4:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Adding NUMBER A

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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Khas » Wed Mar 31, 2010 1:42 pm

Ah, another fine work of intentional mediocrity.

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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Mike DiCenso » Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:44 pm

Great fun, JMS. Although you were getting dangerous close there with the wookie cooking show bit to referencing that Star Wars Holiday Special abomination.
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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Jedi Master Spock » Sun Aug 04, 2013 6:07 am

Episode 08: Connections

Bridge of the USS Cheron

"So what you're saying is, the wormhole is activated only when something passes directly through it. However, once it is activated, each end pulls in surrounding matter." Captain Robinson took a sip of coffee.

Ensign Hoop nodded, and reached out to trace the projection of a knot in mid-air. "It shouldn't really be called a wormhole, it's really a knot rather than just a hole, sir. But yes, it rotates matter through on all sides. Including the ones we haven't seen yet. During that last transition, there was another large object moving through; I believe the mass difference factor was somewhere between five and ten, which reduced the shear substantially."

"So it could have been another one of those big battlecruisers?" Captain Robinson looked concerned.

"Possibly, sir." Ensign Hoop shrugged. "The size factor is symmetric, it could be that the other object was between one fifth and one tenth of our mass. It may not have even been a ship; it could have been a stray asteroid."

"And more than that, you can't say without more data." Captain Robinson looked glum. "Well, whatever else we cycle through, we need to know what's going on. Hoop, I want those probes programmed ASAP. As many as you think you're going to need."

Bridge of the Judgment

"The other two assassins escaped?" Commander Daro was ready to spit nails. "After trying to blow up half of the ship's senior officers, you let them escape? After murdering three imperial officers and putting several dozen more in the infirmary, not to mention making a mockery out of the honor of the empire? Dismissed, soldier. I don't want to hear your excuses; put them in your written report."

The stormtrooper clicked his heels and walked away. Elan Daro brooded in near-silence on the bridge for several minutes, the officers and enlisted ratings of the Imperial Navy cowed by the tirade they had just listened to him give the hapless stormtrooper. The shift had been filled with tension, hours on end. Then, there was a chirping noise; and then a junior lieutenant with a pinched looking face turned, stood, and saluted smartly, clicking his heels for good measure.

"Sir! The unmanned fighter we sent out has been located. It was found by an independent trader in the Outer Rim, sir!" The lieutenant waited pensively.

"So now we know where the other end of this rabbit hole goes." The commander's eyes flared. "Where did our so-called 'extragalactics' really come from?"

"Dantooine! They're on Dantooine!"

Brig of the Judgment

"Us try to assassinate your officers? You were the ones who tried to blow us up! We were only defending ourselves!" The farghul-like alien yowled animalistically as the interrogation droid jabbed her with an injection; another compound that its expert heuristics calculated was likely to reduce inhibition.

"Tell the truth, furball." The officer in charge of interrogation showed a face no more friendly than the droid.

TK-1139 tapped the officer on the shoulder, gesturing towards the next room. After he felt reasonably sure the prisoner couldn't hear them, he spoke quietly. "Sir, I've been combing over the dining room carefully and debriefing witnesses, and I think she's telling the truth."

"Three officers of the Imperial Navy are dead, sargeant, and several dozen of this ship's crew are in sickbay. And you saw for yourself that they went down shooting." The officer looked dubious.

The sargeant shook his head. "Two officers died from the effects of the explosive - one was too close to the blast, and a fork propelled by the blast passed through the eye socket and into the brain of the other. Finally, one was stabbed in the back with a carving knife."

"Your point?"

"Nobody died from the weapons the extragalactics were using. Those weapons were stun weapons of some kind - a less-than-lethal method of self-defense. You don't pack stunners on an assassination mission, sir." The sargeant sounded very sure of himself. "I think we have a traitor on board. Someone who didn't want the captain to make friends with the extragalactics. A rebel in our midst, sir. Possibly several cells of rebels."

Brig of the Cheron

Aiyira noted that the human who stepped into her cell this time wore the ubiquitous red uniform of her captors, but two minor variations caught her attention. First, the stripe was tan, a color she had seen only rarely and wasn't quite sure of the meaning of; green stripes were for soldiers, lighter green stripes were for medics. Second, his rank insignia was one she hadn't seen before - a long lozenge shape, crossed by three bars inside of it.

Fancier than any she had seen before. This was a high-ranking officer of some kind. And he looked in a foul enough mood to slit a baby's throat. Her heart skipped a beat. For the third time in the span of a single day, she felt certain she was about to die. However well they had been treating her, here was a man who had the power to make a decision about her disposition, and he looked in the mood to dispose of things.

He sat down. "Four of my people are dead or imprisoned," he said. "This Captain Zhet of your Empire seems to think that 'diplomacy' is a game that you play in order to lull your enemies into a false sense of security before springing an ambush. He also described you as a dangerous terrorist, but I'm not inclined to trust him at this point."

He turned his terrible gaze directly into her eyes, fierce and powerful. Even after he had told her that her own enemies were now his enemies as well, the dark rage emanating from him was terrifying, and she trembled involuntarily, looking away.

"I want you to tell me everything you know about the Empire and its enemies."

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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Jedi Master Spock » Mon Aug 26, 2013 5:19 pm

Episode 09: Whom dogs destroy

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away:

"Reading about a hundred and twenty thousand human lifeforms," the Saurian announced. "Close to half of those concentrated in one city on the island off the coast of the northern continent, the rest are scattered a bit on the island. Nothing presently in orbit, but there are some ships on the ground, including the three-winged shuttle type we saw in the hangar of the Judgment. We have found our first Imperial world."

"Interesting, Mr. Hoq. Let's make a few orbits before announcing our presence. It's taken us days to find them, and I'd like to get to know them a little better."

Bridge of the Judgment:

"Sir, it would take us ten days to reach Dantooine." The lieutenant had a somewhat plaintive note in his voice. "I do not feel, sir, that it is appropriate for us to abandon the anomaly in order to chase after a stray shuttle, especially with a damaged ship."

"And the longer we wait before starting our pursuit, the more time they will have on the other hand. Your objections are noted and registered." Junior Commander Elan Daro (promoted just last month and quite proud of it) had determined for himself that he needed to be bold and decisive in his command. With Captain Zhet and Commander Garnik incapacitated and the next most senior of the lieutenants commander dead, it was up to him to take decisive initiative.

Who knew how long it would be until they regained consciousness? The lieutenant saluted and turned sharply on his heel, his face an expressionless mask. Despite the crisp gesture, Daro felt vaguely insulted. A bit of white caught his eye, and an inquiring "Sir?"

A stormtrooper, leading a manacled Farghul. He wondered briefly if it was the same stormtrooper he had dismissed earlier.

"Ah! One of the so-called 'extragalactics.' Rebel Farghul, you should know we've found out where your operation is really based. Dantooine. You're Rebels, not extragalactics." Elan Daro took the confusion in her eyes for terror. "Whatever your plan was, it's ruined now."

The stormtrooper cleared his throat. Elan pointedly ignored him, staring down at the prisoner, enjoying her obvious discomfort. He pulled the bit of gold jewelry off her chest. "I think I'll have that for a souvenir," he said, then gave her a punch to the gut.

It felt good, like he was in control of things. "Take her back down to the brig, soldier."

"Sir, there's something I-"

It must be the same stormtrooper. He sounded similar. Elan's thin veneer of patience vanished. "Brig. Now. Off with you."

The stormtrooper turned and walked out with the prisoner.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, orbiting the planet Miktoraan:

Commander Shovas pulled up the planet on his display. "I read eighty million humanoid life signs on the northern continent. Not human, not anything in our database. Typically 1.4-1.7 meters in height and forty to sixty kilos, males and females about the same size."

An image of a lanky humanoid with four spider-thin arms popped up on the screen. He was clad in flowing robes, gesturing animatedly as he gave a speech. Shovas touched a button on his console and the view zoomed out, showing the alien to be giving a speech in an amphitheater. A pair of bodyguards stood impassively behind him, glittering bronze spears and breastplates polished to a bright shine. One had a blaster pistol in a holster opposite his sword; the other had a blaster carbine slung across his back.

"There's a whole pre-industrial civilization on the northern continent. Mostly bronze age, though there are a scattering of technological artifacts, such as personal energy weapons. The southern continent appears to be mostly uninhabited. We can conclude that the Empire doesn't believe in the prime directive; not only are there scattered technological artifacts in the native population, but they employ the natives as laborers in some of the outlying agricultural areas."

Mr. Hoq nodded, and shared what he had learned. "I've determined that the herds are comprised of non-native creatures called 'nerfs.' That and local gem-mining operations appear to be the Imperials' main economic concern. Of particular interest is that the Imperial presence is not only human. There are close to two hundred different species represented in the capital city, mainly concentrated around the spaceport. The communications I have been able to monitor haven't included any mention of us - not our shuttle, not our persons, and nothing about the Cheron. Either the Judgment hasn't been able to report back in to their superiors, or the Imperial military is keeping a close lid on the news."

Commander Shovas shrugged. "Can you get into their information systems directly?"

Mr. Hoq hesitated. "I could try, but that would probably reveal our presence."

"Better to stay anonymous. And those ships won't stay grounded forever. We need to investigate in person." The Andorian frowned. "I need to investigate. You should stay with the shuttle."

Bridge of the IKS Yoj

"There's been an open Federation broadcast coming from their ship for the last two hours." The second officer was rubbing his hands gleefully. "Apparently they have a Federation prisoner. She just made it to the command bridge."

"Put it on," Captain Klarg said, as Elan Daro began his gloating. He nodded to himself. "See if you can't pick out information on where they're going from the bridge chatter."

"Yes, Captain." Snippets of audio began to play. After a while of this, the second office shrugged. "No good, sir, without knowing more about their navigational systems or even drive system. They're planning to head off in about fifteen minutes, but I'm not sure they're using a proper warp drive. We may have trouble tracking them."

"I see." Captain Klarg stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I also believe I understand this Elan Daro. Tactical, I want magnetic clamps and helm control to my board. At the first sign of trouble, decloak and raise shields. I have an idea."

Exterior, Judgment:

The somewhat battered Judgment turned slowly in space. Emergency repair crews were heading in. The ship was not fully repaired; but all breaches were sealed, temporary plating showing in bright spots in contrast to the scorch marks surrounding them.

A lone droid still wheeled on the dorsal surface of the ship a hundred meters forward from the bridge tower, welding away, the job not fully finished to its satisfaction. Clang. The droid was knocked sideways and leaped off the ship, then lowered, slowly, back down to the hull, wheels spinning desperately. Crunch. The droid squealed futilely into the silent vacuum of space as its round body was compressed between the hull and some invisible flat object, deforming, its lateral cross-section looking more like a wedge and less like a circle.

Then the droid was launched into space, victim to having been a round object squeezed too tightly between two not-quite-parallel flat surfaces, and the handful of fragments of it left behind on the hull flattened abruptly. Clang.

Bridge of the IKS Yoj:

Clang! "Do you think they heard that?" the tactical officer asked furtively, his hand hoverng over his console.

The second officer looked back at him and shrugged, then spoke up loudly. "Clamps are secure, sir. Full contact."

"A perfect touch-down, if I say so myself." Captain Klarg beamed.

Miktoraan

The cantina was poorly lit but had a live band. The hooded figure paused for a moment, waiting for his eyes to adjust, then headed towards the end of the bar. A Trandoshan sitting at the bar turned, and then put an arm out, stopping the figure.

"We don't want any trouble, you understand?" As far as Gissk was concerned, a strange human trying to stay anonymous meant trouble. Possibly Imperial trouble. There was little enough on Miktoraan aside from the native Miktos and nerf-herders.

The hooded figure turned to the Trandoshan. Gissk peered into the hood, and was surprised to see blue skin and red eyes. And antennae. Not a human. Not a Twi'lek. Something unfamiliar to Gissk. The Trandoshan decided not to ask.

"No, we don't," Commander Shovas told the hulking reptilian alien, looking him in the eye. Slar might fit in better, he thought to himself, surveying the bar. In spite of the fact that the Imperial vessel had been crewed entirely by humans, and in spite of the human lifesigns the computer had picked up from orbit, he didn't see any in this establishment. A wide variety of species were represented - some with fur, some with multiple arms, some with tentacled faces.

Gissk grunted and turned back towards the bar. The hooded figure didn't move on, instead tapping him on the shoulder.

"Say, maybe you could help me out."
Last edited by Jedi Master Spock on Thu Nov 24, 2016 6:12 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Fixing typos, setting Time A

Mike DiCenso
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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Mike DiCenso » Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:08 pm

JMS, I know your trying to write this story in the vein of a so-so fanfic, but wouldn't a simple DNA check have revealed that the Caitian was not Farghul?
-Mike

Jedi Master Spock
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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Jedi Master Spock » Sat Aug 31, 2013 6:17 pm

Mike DiCenso wrote:JMS, I know your trying to write this story in the vein of a so-so fanfic, but wouldn't a simple DNA check have revealed that the Caitian was not Farghul?
-Mike
The smart ones think she's Farghul-like. Elan Daro assumes she's actually a Farghul because he's prone to jumping to conclusions, and hasn't listened to anybody who knows otherwise yet. The interrogator should actually know better, since he has an interrogation droid telling him about her biology. I'll fix that.

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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Jedi Master Spock » Fri Nov 25, 2016 6:26 am

Episode 10: A blue hope

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away

"Say, maybe you could help me out," the hooded stranger said.

"I could help you out," Gissk repeated affirmatively, his eyes fixed on the red eyes of the hooded stranger. Gissk wondered why he had said that. He wasn't the sort to volunteer help, or for open-ended tasks. What if the stranger wanted to ... Gissk shuddered. What had he just volunteered for?

"I'm new here, and I was hoping I might find a local willing to show me around," the hooded stranger said. "Perhaps answer a few questions. I'm curious about how this planet fits into the Empire. I can pay in barter."

Gissk considered. Playing tour guide for a suspicious stranger he had never seen who clearly was attached to potential Imperial trouble of some kind sounded like a terrible idea. He opened his mouth.

"I will show you around and answer a few questions," Gissk said, nodding his head. Why had he agreed? He looked around the bar. The bartender and several other patrons looked away. Gissk cursed inwardly. Without a regular job, he relied on odd jobs to make ends meet, and he relied on a reputation for always following through to get him those odd jobs. He was now committed to playing tour guide if he wanted to keep his reputation.

Aboard the Judgment:

Commander Garnik floated peacefully in a bacta tank. Captain Zhet spared his first officer a pitying look as he strode by. Footsteps sounded behind him.

"Careful, Captain Zhet! The medical droid didn't think there was anything wrong with you, but you were rendered unconscious by an unknown weapon. Shouldn't you wait for a full examination?" A concerned lieutenant jogged after the captain, whose longer legs were moving deceptively smoothly in a very brisk walk.

"You're getting above yourself, lieutenant." Molan didn't remember the name of this lieutenant, either. There were not very many women serving on the Judgment, which should have made it easier, but his memory was a little foggy from the fight. "Why are we in hyperspace?"

"I don't know, sir." The lieutenant seemed puzzled. "All I know was that there was a bombing in the dining room and then things got really busy for me in the infirmary, sir."

"I don't either. That's why I'm going to the bridge, now. If you want to follow me and make sure I don't suddenly fall over, fine, but I'm going to the bridge.'' Molan paused, noting the passage of a pair of engineering crewmen in a crossing hallway.

They were talking. He listened.

"One salvo from that Federation ship, and half our engines were out of action, just like that! And their engines have got to be crazy. I talked to Ensign (NAME B), the kid who works in the sensor rooms sometimes - he said they were pulling three thousand gees. That's (NUMBER A) times what we could pull with all four of the big guys in working order."

The other crewman responded, too quietly for the captain to hear as the two headed away. Molan shook his head, an unfortunate possibility coming to his mind. Would he need to relieve Elan Daro for cowardice in the face of battle? Fleeing into hyperspace hadn't featured in very many of the contingency plans he had left behind.

Cestus System

Captain Robinson sat in a comfortable chair in the governor's office. "I don't want to cause unnecessary panic, but this is too important for you to try to keep it under wraps. You have an open doorway to another galaxy containing a hostile political power. This is the most important emergency you or any of your predecessors have faced since the Metron intervention."

"Which is why you shouldn't go haring off back into the wormhole. I've read your report, and it's clear enough to me that sending a lone vessel back in represents a major risk.'' The governor steepled his fingers. "I want you to stay here until we hear back from Headquarters, which will take (TIME A), and we can get other starships in this area for backup, which will take (TIME B). I also want you to transfer the prisoners you're holding to my custody planetside."

"This is a fast-developing situation,'' Robinson said. "According to Ensign Hoop, there is a fourth node of the spatial anomaly, which will lead to a star system that we haven't yet explored in the other galaxy. We need to act before the Empire does. I also have no intention of leaving my crewmen languishing in Imperial custody. As far as my extragalactic guests are concerned... their knowledge of their own galaxy could be an invaluable asset in both of those tasks."

Beta Quadrant

A trio of Klingon (CLASS NAME) battlecruisers searched for signs of Captain Klarg's Bird of Prey.

Bridge of the Judgment:

"Sir, the hyperdrive is showing an unusual level of strain." The lieutenant seemed concerned.

Junior Commander Elan Daro peered over the man's shoulder. "What does it mean?"

"I'm not sure, sir. It looks a little like the readings I would get if we were towing a ship a little too large to fit in the hangar.'' The officer tapped a button. "But we aren't towing anything, sir, so that probably means we have a motivator problem brewing. If it burns out completely, that would be a problem, sir."

"Captain on deck!"

Junior Commander Elan Daro experienced a sense of mental whiplash as he realized his brief moment of command authority was suddenly and unexpectedly gone.

"At ease, gentlemen." Molan Zhet looked around the room. With nothing more urgent than his own need for information, he located what he thought was the seniormost lieutenant in the room and pointed at him. "Lieutenant, you have the conn. The junior commander and I have things to discuss."

An appropriate pair of "Yes, sir"s later and a short walk later, Molan Zhet and Elan Daro were sitting in a briefing room together, the lieutenant from the infirmary standing in the corner. The captain considered dismissing the junior officer, but her concern about his condition was not completely unfounded.

IKS Yoj:

"So that's why you decided to set a course for Dantooine?" The voice of the Imperial officer sounded a little bit distorted on the bridge of the Bird of Prey.

"Yes, sir. I realize that it wasn't in your contingency plans, but it seemed the logical next move, sir, and I didn't know how long you would be in that coma." Elan Daro's voice was significantly louder, if similarly distorted.

"I did leave a standing order to keep a watch on the anomaly unless it was necessary to preserve the ship. If the Federation vessel fled through the anomaly, you were technically in violation of that order. I am willing to overlook that, however, as the scenario you found yourself in was not one I had expected, but in the future, you should consider acting less precipitously when faced with an unusual situation."

"Sorry, sir."

Captain Klarg rubbed his hands. "So that's the voice of the person in charge of this battleship?"

"It would seem that way, captain." The comms officers shrugged. "This is the first time we've heard this Elan Daro treat someone else as a superior."

Sideswipe
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Re: Yet another wormhole-based crossover fanfic...

Post by Sideswipe » Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:01 pm

I kind of want to read this, is it complete?

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