Star Wars Vs. Star Trek : TOTAL WAR
            by Bobby Hardenbrook

{This story is a piece of fan-fiction. It uses
characters and situations from both Star Wars and
Star Trek. This work in not being written for profit, but 
instead for the enjoyment of fans of Star Wars and Star 
Trek. Please feel free to distribute this story, but please don't
alter it!}

The time for the Starwars universe is just before 'A new Hope' The
time for the Startrek universe is just after the Romulans joined the
war against the Dominion. This is the first chapter of a planned
fanfic novel of total war between the Empire and the Alpha Quadrant.

Now on to the story....



        Chapter 1 : "Breach and Contact"

	The Ferengi ship _Deltar_ cruised through the alpha quadrant
at a moderate warp factor of 2.5. The captain of the tiny scout ship
sat in his command chair and dreamed of Latium. Gold pressed Latium.
Latium he would never have, unless by some miracle this joke of a
mission actually turned up something. He wasn't counting on it. Only a
standard year before he had been a Daemon, had owned the rights to a
proud trader ship and her entire crew of slaves and concubines. But
when his scheme to steal supplies from a Romulan science outpost had
failed he had been stripped of his ship, title, and fined a sum 
about equal to his entire net worth. The only thing they hadn't taken
was the ancient long range shuttle he'd inherited from a long-dead
distant uncle. He'd somehow managed to scrape together enough Latium
to refit the old shuttle and hire a skeleton crew to go exploring the
fringes of the known alpha quadrant in search of wealth.
	No matter. He would put that behind him. His only hope, his
last hope, was to redeem himself by discovering something of great
value. These kinds of missions rarely did. For hundreds of years the
Ferengi government had encouraged small scouting missions to discover
new planets and aliens to trade with. Captains of such missions were
often given some percentage of the profits from discoveries made or
new trade routes opened by them. More than a few such lucky captains
now owned entire moons and held positions of power among the Ferengi
elite upper classes.
	Leaning back in his chair the captain settled in to catch up
on some sleep. Just as his eyes were about to close the shuttle's
pilot spoke excitedly. 
	"Captain, sensors have detected a possible wormwhole 350
million kilometers from our position". 
	"Take us in, now!" the captain quickly replied. Visions of
wealth were swirling in the Ferengi's head already. 
	In the face of such potential wealth no amount of danger could
contain his lust for gold. His greed lead him on. As the small ship
neared to within a thousand kilometers space in front of the craft
erupted into a brilliant display of color. A massive iris unfolded in
front of the ship and spread out like a massive Cardasian airlock
pressure hatch. By instinct alone the Commander brought the scouting
shuttle to a halt. He stared in awe at the view screen. "Why have you
stopped pilot?" the captain snarled. In as calm a voice as he could
muster the pilot replied "This wormwhole is strange, captain. It is a
thousand times the size of the wormwhole in the Bajor system". The
captain seemed to calm down visibly at that comparison. Thoughtfully
the greedy captain said "That would mean it is a long one right? It
might reach out of our galaxy! Think of the trade possibilities! A
whole galaxy to explore, my glory and riches would be assured! Take us
in!" 
	The little speech had gotten the pilot excited now. "Yes sir!"
The pilot and other crew members knew very well they would be
obligated to a small portion of that wealth and fame. The captain sent
a subspace signal away to the homeward. It would take several days to
reach the nearest Ferengi outpost, but their discovery of the wormhole
could not be challenged by other explorers now. Slowly, the shuttle
moved forward and was enveloped by the massive wormhole.

	"Your certain" captain Verson stated incredulously for what
must have been the tenth time. "Absolutely" the bounty hunter stated
calmly once again. He went on. "The ship has been spotted in thirteen
systems now. A small scout by all accounts, with a crew of a new,
unknown, alien race. Apparently they represent a trading block of some
type, though communications with them has been sparse at most." The
bounty hunter stopped speaking and waited for the captain to respond.
After several minutes he looked up from his desk. "I have heard
enough. I will look into what you have told me. Here." The Imperial
captain gestured to a data card laying on his desk. "That will give
you access to a civilian account planetside. You will withdraw one
thousand credits, no more." The final comment had an air of finality.
Without a word the bounty hunter reached down to grab the card. The
captain grabbed his arm. "Speak of this to no one". With a wordless
nod the bounty hunter turned to leave the room. As Boba Fett left, 
captain Verson considered what he had learned. A ship of
unknown design, and crewed by unknown aliens from an unknown
federation outside of the empire, was snooping 
around the trade routes that his patrol covered. To be unknown the
aliens must almost certainly be from another galaxy since this galaxy
had been explored and mapped in it's entirety for thousands of
generations.
	Tapping several buttons he entered the Imperial Holonet and
opened a line to the local sector fleet headquarters. He would need to
get permission from Admiral Dilgario before he could take the
_Goliath_ to investigate the strange alien ship. His patrol out here
in the fringes was generally mundane and terribly boring. To actually
do something with the Victory class Imperial Star Destroyer he
commanded could be interesting. 

	The captain of the _Deltar_ sat in orbit above the world known
as 'Tantooine' and was completely satisfied with himself. He had
explored and cataloged twenty starsystems in the span of just two
weeks  and had discovered an abundance of alien populated worlds to
claim as his discoveries. This world was one of his better
discoveries. A desert planet with some local industry and agriculture.
It's primary importance seemed to be as a center of trade. He had
enjoyed his stay in Mos Eisley, a city he could almost learn to live
in. It was just as he was about to order the ship to leave orbit that
the weapons master called out. 
	"Sir, a large ship has just appeared one hundred thousand
kilometers from our position. It is closing!"
 	"Why didn't we detect it's approach?" the captain asked in an
irritated tone.
	"I don't know, it just was just there all of a sudden from out
of nowhere" the weapons master whined in response. "Show me it" the
captain stated bluntly. The forward viewer filled with an immense
ship. He knew it must be a warship. It was larger and deadlier looking
by far than the smallish trading freighters he had run across until
now. It's wedge shape looked ominous against the backdrop of stars.
	"It's over a kilometer long, and heavily armed and shielded.
Their weapon systems are fully powered" the weapons master stated
gloomily.
	"Hail them on all frequencies" the captain said.  
Several moments later the pilot looked up in frustration. "No response
sir. Wait. I'm detecting some lower order sub space transmissions.
I'll put the signal on audio."
	A human sounding voice filled the room speaking in gibberish.
"The Translator doesn't have enough data to work with, just like all
the other worlds" the pilot said in frustration. "I'm trying to
program the translator to recognize their speech but the going is
tough" he continued. The captain said "Put me through to them"
	"Yes sir." was the simple response. "This is captain Warer of
the Ferengi Alliance. I invite you to beam aboard so that we may
negotiate peace and trade agreements." The human-like voice continued
to speak in gibberish. "Cut that blather". The noise ceased. "I don't
like this, take us to warp..."

	"Fire!" The captain of the Imperial Star Destroyer _Goliath_
shouted crisply. Immediately a burst of ion energy emerged from a
forward ion battery and raced towards the tiny vessel. Just as the
Ferengi ship was about to accelerate the ion energy slammed into the
vessel. The ion bolt hammered into the shuttle sending waves of
crackling energy rippling across it's hull. he ship rocked, it's
shields breached, but the small ship remained powered. "By the Force,
that ship must have a hell of a lot of electronic shielding to
withstand a shot from a heavy ion cannon" the captain remarked to no
one in particular. "Forward Ion batteries, open fire"
the captain ordered. More blue energy bolts lashed through
space to hammer into the motionless scout ship. Finally,
after a staggering eight Ion bolt hits, the tiny ship lost
all power. Either it had the latest military class electronic
shielding or it used some exotic form of power
and data transfer. Whatever the case, it was now helpless
as one of the tractor beams slowly maneuvered the alien ship into the
_Goliath's_ hangar bay.

	Several minutes later captain Verson stared at the craft
sitting silently in his hangar deck. Tech crews were swarming over the
tiny alien vessel, attempting to glean any bits of information that
were there to be discovered. More scientists were examining the alien
bodies in the infirmary. Apparently the ship had outlasted the crew
during the Ion attack. He had called for a freighter and two escorts
to haul the alien ship back to Corellia for closer examination by that
planet's experts. His investigations has determined a general region
of space that the alien must have come from. Whatever planet that ship
had come from was not under the domain of the empire. It would be. 

	"We're sending a science ship out to investigate" admiral
Johnson said. "The Ferengi don't swarm like this unless something
profitable has been discovered. And it must be real damn profitable to
have them committing their fleet"
	"The Ferengi" Admiral Sulan stated simply. "Do not commit
their fleet." 
	"Hello." admiral Johnson said as he shook Sulan's hand.
Admiral Johnson continued. "They are now. At least three Ferengi
cruisers, all commanded by Daemons, and a few smaller support ships.
They're on to something big. They're being too quiet about it. Their
destination, from what we have deduced, is in unclaimed space coreward
of the inhabited sectors of alpha quadrant. It's really on the
fringes".
	"What have they found?" Admiral sulan asked. 
	"We don't know, that's why I'm sending out a science vessel.
They can't keep us out, it's in unclaimed space after all. Just in
case I would like to have all ships within thirty lightyears of the
Ferengi border space worthy and ready to go to alert at any moment."
	"No problem" was Sulan's prompt reply.


	"There she is captain" the young officer said excitedly. The
vast spacial anomaly sat slowly rotating in front of the Star
Destroyer. The captain made a decision. "That alien ship made it
through, so can we. We must investigate this. Alert sector HQ to send
any available support to these coordinates and wait for us to return".
	"Yes sir" his first officer said while snapping off a crisp
salute. From the bridge the captain looked through the forward
observation bubble as the huge distortion in space-time grew larger
and larger, and then they were inside it. Space became a blue swirl
cut through with streaks of varying colors. The ship vibrated
noticeably but not nearly enough to cause any harm. For several
minutes this continued, until with a bright flash of white light the
Imperial star destroyer emerged into normal space. Several scanning
officer's shouted at once. "Multiple ships close by!"
	"Shields to full, power up all weapons!" the captain
commanded. Officers began to scramble about to man battle stations as
battle claxons sounded throughout the ship. The star destroyer slowly
turned to port to line up all three of the larger enemy vessels in her
sights. The aliens had begun a series of wild, and impossibly fast,
maneuvers. But they remained within the firing arc of a full barrage
from the Destroyer's forward batteries. The Captain smiled. They were
scurrying about like a swarm of scurriers upset by a passing aircar.
"Hail them on all frequencies" For several moments they waited. 
	There was no response. Maybe they didn't speak standard. He
couldn't assume that. He must assume they were ignoring his commands,
Imperial commands. He would teach them to regret that error. He began
to issue orders. "Launch three flights of tie fighters and bombers,
they are to attack and cripple or destroy the four smaller enemy
vessels. Target all forward turbo laser batteries on the lead enemy
cruiser" Officers shouted out orders to relay his command through the
ship's vast communications relay system. Within two seconds space in
front of the destroyer exploded with radiant energy. Several dozen
green turbo laser bolts lanced out and struck the lead cruiser. It's
shields glowed brightly and appeared to weaken. "Continue to fire at
the leader at will, keep those two cruisers a safe distance away." The
commander observed the tactical readouts as the first wave of tie
bombers made their runs on the first smaller vessel. One of the
smaller alien vessels exploded after just three tie bombers had made
their runs. Now the aliens came out of their apparent state of shock.
The lead cruiser, with it's shield rapidly weakening, began a violent
maneuver to avoid the energy bolts while the other two alien cruisers
split up, one moving below the destroyer while the other moved above.
They were fast! Incredibly so! They move like fighters, not capital
ships! The ship shuddered around him. The two maneuvering cruisers
were firing some kind of energy beams. An officer from one of the
bridge sensor stations spoke excitedly. 
	"They cut right through the deflector shields but the particle
fields seem to absorb much of their power sir. I think they're using
some kind of matter chain reaction technology. They're intense enough
to partially penetrate our particle shields" 
	"All ties are to begin attacks on those cruisers! Squadron
leaders may attack at will." If even just part of the chain reaction
inducing energy beams could penetrate the particle fields then the
hull could be cut to pieces in short order. He needed those cruisers
dead; now.
	The Star Destroyer began a hard move to starboard as the
navigational officer attempted to keep the lead alien cruiser within
the ship's forward batteries firing arc. Just as the alien was about
to escape a lucky turbo laser blast impacted and penetrated the alien
shielding. The bolt impacted along the ship's hull leaving a deep scar
which began to vent plasma and debris immediately. Internal explosions
erupted along the scarred hull sending the ship spinning through space
out of control. A few escape pods were ejected before the ship finally
vaporized in a core reactor failure. 
	The ship shuddered again as the strange beams cut into the
Star Destroyer's thick armor. "Turn the bridge away from those ships,
let the hull take those hits!"  Captain Verson was upset. The
navigational officer should have already taken that action. More
successful hits traced melted scars along the destroyer's outer hull.
If one of those aliens hit an already damaged portion of the hull they
would have problems. Luckily the ties were beginning to have an
effect. Alien beams cut multiple lines around their own ships as they
tried to deal with the dozens of tie fighters and bombers. The tie
bombers we're beginning to score hits as they brought their numbers to
bear
	Then the alien cruisers made a crucial mistake. They
approached the Imperial destroyer to attempt to finish her off. They
didn't realize that the _Goliath_ still had a lot of damage to take
before she was done. Turbo lasers began to score hits as the alien
cruisers came into closer range. By the time they had realized their
mistake it was all over. The first of the two remaining enemy cruisers
exploded just fifteen hundred meters of the port bow of the mighty
vessel. The entire port hull was slagged into roiling molten metal.
All batteries and sensors on the port side were lost. The ship rolled
to bring her starboard side to bear on the enemy. The last cruiser
began to move away at a unbelievably rapid pace and fire sporadically
at the _Goliath_. The alien hadn't noticed the flight of tie bombers
that had been loitering in the area. The cruiser began to take
multiple hits. Just before the alien was about to implode the cruiser
became an elongated streak and was gone. The two surviving smaller
craft disappeared in the same manner. 
	The Captain of the Imperial Star Destroyer _Goliath_ fell into
his chair with an audible sigh of relief. The aliens had moved off at
FTL speeds through normal space? That form of travel would be
incredibly slow. That was pre-Republic technology. Yet the aliens had
been formidable working together in numbers. The chain reaction
inducing beams were a technological path which had been abandoned
in the far past in favor of simpler energetic plasma based weapons. He
had never been in such a fierce battle. He knew he shouldn't push his
luck any further. He recalled all ties and discovered that twenty nine
of the forty eight ties launched in the battle had been destroyed.
That was an atroiously high loss rate. The aliens apparently possessed
excellent tracking systems and their beams could fire across a very,
very broad arc. His own Star Destroyer was very nearly crippled. She
could maneuver, but little else. The Imperial Star Destroyer limped to
the wormwhole and disappeared in it's mighty vortex.
	On the bridge of the _Goliath_ captain Verson vowed 
revenge for the thousands of crew killed on his ship. For
the Emperor and for his crew he would have his revenge.

Chapter 2 : "Reaction and Cross Over"
	
	"The Ferengi have withdrawn out of the region. War isn't
profitable. It is clear there may be war. That battle took place just
five parsecs from the edges of Romulan space. They are mobilizing a
fleet of at least forty warbirds to guard the wormhole. We all know
how the Romulans reacted to the Dominion threat when it first became
evident. We think they have something similar in mind. And they want
us to help." 
	"I never though I would hear that" Admiral Sulan stated
bluntly. Admiral Johnson continued. "Not just that, but the Klingons
are assembling a fleet as well. They're coming with or without our
request. I'm sending in everything I could scrape together close to
that region. Eleven possum destroyers, three excelsior class
starships. And the Enterprise will serve as the fleet flag. We'll get
more in there within a week or two but we need to get at least a small
fleet over there to keep the Romulans and Klingons from each others
throats. The Klingons still trust us somewhat but they may shoot the
Romulans on sight, even though we're all supposed to allies against
the Dominion, without us to keep them apart. Dammit, we're getting
stretched to thin with the Dominion pressuring us on the war front"
admiral Johnson finished.
	"And what is our policy in regards to the aliens across the
wormhole?" Sulan asked curiously.
	"We've reached the conclusion that normal first contact
procedures are not in order at this time. The aliens have already
proved hostile by attacking the Ferengi ships without apparent
provocation. Frankly, with the war against the Dominion we can't
afford another new threat in the region. Our policy is simply to
prevent the aliens from crossing into the alpha quadrant. Furthermore,
I'm going to give Picard standing orders to destroy the wormhole if a
breach by the aliens appears imminent".
	Sulan considered that. Even a year ago such orders might have
seemed insane. The chance to explore an entire new region of the
universe did not come along often. But with the war still raging the
hawks among Star Fleet had recently gained the upper hand. As much as
the policy disgusted her, she had to admit that it made sense in terms
of securing the Federation from another set of powerful hostiles.
Picard would not like the orders either, but even he would have to see
the necessity of such orders in times of war.

	In one of the massive Imperial dockyards in orbit above
Correlia the tiny alien scout ship lay scattered in hundreds of pieces
through a massive hangar. Thousands of Imperial techs were going over
every piece of the ship in detail. Already they had deduced some of
the principles behind the alien's unique chain reaction energy
weapons. It was fascinating to discover an entire weapons technology
that had been ignored and virtually forgotten for thousands of years.
Even more fascinating was the alien ship's exotic plasma power
conduits and waveguides. These aliens used an entirely different
theory of ship design which was foreign to the best techs the Empire
could muster. As far as anyone could tell such power and data transfer
systems had never been in general use in this galaxy at least as far
back as coherent records still existed. 
	All of this was at the same time fascinating the troubling to
Vice Admiral Chambers, deputy head of the Imperial technology
division. If all of the alien's ships used such exotic systems then
they would be largely immune to all but the most intense Ion attacks.
Their plasma waveguides were largely immune to the electrical
disruptions unleashed by Ion bolts. Perhaps even more troubling were
the beam weapons they used. By focusing large portions of their
power into a single intense matter chain reaction inducing beam the
aliens could partially penetrate the particle shielding of most
capital ships. The particle shields could perhaps be strengthened to
counter the new threat but retrofitting a fleet consisting of tens of
thousands of mass produced warships would not be an easy task. And
more power flowing into the particle shields would mean less power for
weapons and deflector shields. Upgrading the power systems of 25,000
Imperial Star Destroyers did not strike Chambers as a good idea. A few
could be upgraded but the vast majority would have to make due with
their standard configurations. Luckily, the Super Star Destroyers had
good enough particle shielding to ignore the alien beam weapons and
the Death Star would certainly be safe.
	For the short term Chambers needed to learn as much about the
alien technologies as possible. The next step would be to learn how to
actually put some of the more useful alien technologies into
manufacture. Slow FTL speeds in normal space might be useful in some
ways, and their plasma waveguide power-data design methods could be
used to help harden some ships against Ion attacks. With reports of
the tiny battle across the giant wormwhole starting to filter in it
was clear they would need to understand the new enemy. And a
fascinating enemy it was it seemed.
	The Empire would put to use everything it learned from the
alien scout. They had the resources of millions of worlds to work
with. Vice Admiral Chambers had a lot of work ahead of him. Keying in
his ID code Chambers began transmitting a detailed report to the
Central Fleet HQ back on Coruscant via the Holonet.

	Admiral Dilgario looked over the fleet he had hastily managed
to assemble in a few days in this backwater sector and was not
pleased. Three Star Destroyers, five nebulon B frigates, two Mon
Calamari cruisers, and a host of corvettes and other escort ships. It
was not the finest of the Imperial fleet but it would have to do. This
sector was so large and dispersed that the sector fleet was mostly
scattered into tiny patrol forces of one or two ships. It would take
at least a week to rally together the sector fleet to form a real task
force. Right now time was of the essence. Dilgario needed to know what
was happening on the other side of that spatial distortion. If he was
outnumbered he could always withdraw back through the distortion and
flee. 
	The Captain of one of those Star Destroyers had already seen
action against the aliens. Dilgario would move his flag to the ship he
commanded, the _Goliath_. She was in bad shape, the entire port side
was bare of batteries or senors, but crews had welded new armor plates
over the slagged hull for some measure of protection. But more
importantly, he could use the captain as a valuable source of
information in the coming mission.
	As the admiral looked out the view port of the shuttle he
looked again at his fleet and wondered if it would be enough to secure
the far side of the wormhole. They had to hold the wormhole until a
proper fleet could be mustered and sent out here.

	Captain Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise was in his ready room
when word came the wormhole was opening. He rushed into the bridge to
see a score of large ships emerging from the huge wormhole. 
	The wormhole was big enough to allow the aliens to emerge in
formation. Three massive triangular ships of unfamiliar design formed
the core of the emerging fleet. To either side of the cluster of three
huge ships were equally large, but much more rounded in appearance,
warships. They might have been built by entirely different races. A
multi-racial empire, and a big one to build ships of those size. In a
sphere extending around the central core of huge ships were a few
dozen vessels of varying sizes that he could only think of as
destroyers or frigates. This new enemy had sent a rather sizable fleet
through the wormhole. A sign of curiosity or outright aggression? 
	"Hail them on all frequencies ensi..." Picard was cut off in
mid sentence by his new tactical officer, Lieutenant Anderson. "Sir,
their weapons systems appear to be fully powered and their shields are
up, strongly suggest we go to red alert and raise shields" the
Lieutenant said.
	"Negative Lieutenant, I will not take any actions that
might provoke a battle here. They may simply be a cautious people"
	"Yes sir" the young tactical officer responded. Picard could
understand his concerns. Anderson had been transferred 
from the U.S.S. Mars, a ship destroyed in action by the Dominion just
under a month before. Anderson had made it into an escape shuttle with
seconds to spare. 
	"They're not responding to our hails,  sir" a young
ensign reported. 
	"Sir, I'm detecting a massive power surge in the forward
sections of those large..." Just then the Imperial fleet opened fire
as one. Space in front of the wormhole erupted in a brilliant display
of green energy streaks. The bridge seemed to leap under Picard's feet
and he was thrown out of his chair and across the bridge. He heard a
snapping noise and then he felt nothing at all. There was only
blackness.

	A grin of sheer delight split the normally cool face of
captain Verson. The alien ships had sat there with their shields down
simply waiting for him to strike them down. Were the fools insane? His
joy almost over rode the disgust at having admiral Dilgario on his
bridge. He'd never liked  operating with a higher authority looking
over his shoulder. But Dilgario was keeping to himself at the moment.
	The largest of the sleek appearing alien ships had  exploded
shortly after the first full barrage tore through it's exposed hull.
Whatever power cores they used seemed to be highly unstable under
adverse conditions. Where the largest of the alien ships had been
there was only a rapidly dissipating cloud of plasma and charged ions.
A few of the escort ships had actually taken damage from the huge core
failure.
	Several of the other lesser alien ships had also been
destroyed in the fleet's first massed volley but more of them were now
violently maneuvering in an effort to dodge the storm of turbo laser
streaks. Most of the firepower in the initial volley had been focused
on destroying their largest ship. Large was actually a relative term
here. The 'large' alien ship was actually not much bigger than a
Nebulon B frigate. Or had been before it was vaporized by the core
reactor failure. Inwardly Verson scoffed at the ease of that ship's
destruction. Her captain had been a fool to not raise his shields
when his oppnent had already done so. As soon as the thought
was raised it was dismissed. Such was not Verson's concern.
	The surviving alien ships were now firing back with their beam
weapons of the same type used by the first group of alien ships. The
speed and quickness of the alien ships was an astounding thing to
watch and with their shields now active they were withstanding the
occasional turbo laser blasts which found their targets. They were
like snub fighters with the firepower and shielding of a moderately 
powerful escort ship. In numbers these ships could be,,,,interesting.
	Verson was about to begin issuing orders to capture one of the
smaller alien ships when a scanner officer suddenly interrupted his
thought.
	"Captain, more alien ships just appeared three hundred
thousand kilometers to port! They must have been cloaked sir" the
officer said tensely. On the tactical readouts Verson could now see
the new group of ships rapidly approaching his ship and the rest of
the fleet. Their profile almost reminded him of a bird of some sort...
	"Bring us about to put the new enemy ships in our primary
firing arc, and launch all available tie bombers with full fighter
escort" Verson ordered calmly. The escort ships could deal with the
surviving alien ships from the original contingent. A glance towards
Dilgario showed the admiral giving a nodding approval. This was the
situation that Star Destroyers were made for. Verson's grin widened.
His path towards becoming a Vice Admiral might have just
begun to accelerate. Assuming he performed well here of course.
By the Emperor this was getting more interesting by the moment.
	Against a backdrop of criss crossing green turbo laser fire
and the occasional solid red alien beam  the _Goliath_ began to rotate
on it's axis to bring it's functioning starboard batteries to bear on
the approaching new group of alien ships.

Chapter 3 "Battle at the Gates"

	The Klingon ships which were keeping station near the wormhole
were sitting silently with their cloaking devices engaged when the
aliens emerged from the wormhole. Other than their single uncloaked
transport there was no sign of the fifteen ship Klingon fleet. General
Zor'tal sat in the command chair of the Klingon Battle Cruiser
_Dargnal_ and waited to see what these new aliens were about. 
	The alien attack on the Federation task force was so sudden
and massive that the General had been, for a moment, simply too
stunned to react. Whoever these aliens were they knew nothing of
honor. The humans had been defenseless after foolishly leaving their
shields down in an attempted gesture of peace. About half of the
Federation ships had survived and were bravely attempting to maneuver
and fight back against the treacherous aliens.
	"All ships, begin attack run!" the general commanded over the
intra ship communications line. Twelve Klingon Birds of Prey and three
Battle Cruisers, including Zor'tal's flagship, began charging headlong
into the alien fleet. 
	The Klingon ships de-cloaked at maximum weapons range and
fired a volley of plasma torpedoes from maximum range.
Before the first volley reached their targets the aliens had
spotted them and were reacting accordingly. Zor'tal could see the huge
alien ships maneuvering to face his force. The first wave of fifteen
plasma torpedoes impacted among the alien fleet with little effect.
The deflector shields of the larger ships appeared to easily withstand
the impacts. One of the smaller ships did appear to take significant
damage however.
	"General, the largest alien ships appear to be releasing
dozens of tiny probes or shuttles of some sort. 
They are on a course to intercept us" a scanning warrior
reported.
	"Good, our first kills" was Zor'tal's simple response.

	Squadron Commander Malhaven checked the status of his
squadron to ensure that everything was in order before they
reached the rapidly oncoming enemy ships. An intuitive status display
on his helmet's HUD confirmed that all the Tie fighters in his
squadron were accounted for and combat ready. He spoke into his helmet
over his squadron's own EM frequency. "Malhaven here, all fighters
check in" he ordered. One by one the pilots of the squadron reported
their presence. "Ok people, we're focusing on the target designated
Bravo 1 on your tactical displays. She's the left most of those three
bigger alien cruisers. Target the protruding sphere on the front.
Remember that our real purpose here is to distract the enemy's
attention away from our bombers."
	Malhaven looked at the tactical readouts being displayed in
glowing color on his HUD. Eight squadrons of
tie fighters and five more squadrons of tie bombers, well over one
hundred ties in all, were arranged in formation and rapidly closing
with the fifteen alien cruisers. 
	The bombers were already nearing the effective range of their
concussion missiles and guided torpedoes. Apparently the enemy had no
fighters to oppose them. Not surprising considering how small their
cruisers were. They looked two small to have hangar bays. Malhaven was
starting to think this would be a slaughter in his favor when the
aliens finally reacted. Instead of firing another volley of those
plasma torpedo weapons at the capital ships they began firing beam
weapons at the fighters and bombers. The tactical display quickly
became a chaotic mess as the tie fighters and bombers began to
independently maneuver in order to avoid the lancing enemy beam
weapons. 
	The alien beams were sweeping back and forth in cris cross
patterns clearly designed to sweep the incoming fighters as best as
they could. But the ties were very small and there were a lot of them.
A few exploded in brief burts of energy and detonating armament, but
most continued on towards the enemy.
	Malhaven was busy himself, keeping clear of the beam weapons
that were by now reaching through space attempting to kill him and his
squadron. A squadron-mate to his right who wasn't so lucky exploded in
a brilliant ball of light. Dammit, one lost already!, Malhaven
thought. He inwardly whooped with joy when the first waves of tie
bombers began launching missiles and torpedoes. 
	As he watched the torpedoes and missiles closed on their
targets. The enemy cruisers began some impressive maneuvering that
only a fighter should have been able to perform, but they didn't seem
to have any kind of point defense system. Eight of the enemy ships
took hits despite their excellent evasive actions. One of them took
five simultaneous hits from torpedoes. The combined energy was enough
to overwhelm it's shields and split the small cruiser in half right
down it's mid section. Each segment spiraled away spewing plasma and
debris. The other hits failed to penetrate their target's shields but
depleted them to some extent.
	Now Malhaven brought his attention to own situation. He was
rapidly coming within range of his designated target.
His HUD was now being fed data from his tie's weapons sensors. A green
circle clearly marked the enemy ship he was to attack. Using a toggle
at his side he further focused the circle onto the enemy ship's front
spherical extrusion.The rest of the squadron would be doing the dame
by now.
	His pass of the enemy ship was rapid and he barely managed to
fire off three bursts before he was beyond the enemy ships. His
fighter's relative closing speed with the enemy cruisers was such that
the encounter was extremely brief. Sensors indicated that all three
burts had hit the designated target but he didn't know how much
damage, if any, he had caused to the cruiser's frontal sphere. The
rest of his squadron had similar levels of success. Looking back to
the tactical readout he could see yet more waves of fighters making
their passes as the first tie bombers were already turning around to
make another pass. Another of the smaller enemy cruisers exploded as
it's shields were overwhelmed by several missile and torpedo impacts
in combination with the shots of another tie fighter squadron.
	Suddenly the thirteen surviving enemy ships elongated into
streaks and darted off in the direction of the capital ships of the
fleet. They had apparently engaged their FTL normal-space drives which
he had been briefed about. The tie fighters and bombers began forming
up to head back towards the fleet. Of over a hundred tie fighters and
bombers, thirty one had been destroyed by enemy fire. An appallingly
high loss rate. These alien ships had few weapons batteries but they
were highly accurate and capable of very high rates of fire. Their
tracking was far beyond that of your average turbo laser battery. For
the losses sustained they had dealt out only a tiny amount of damage
to the enemy. Just two of their smaller cruisers destroyed. The use of
normal-space FTL tactics could very well render Malhaven's job
obsolete. Unless fighters could be outfitted with their own FTL
normal-space drives. That might reset the balance. 
	Malhaven was just thankful he had only lost one man in the
pass. Other squadrons had lost three or even four or five. The
tactical displays now showed the enemy ships approaching the fleet at
several times the speed of light. Malhaven wished he could travel at
FTL speeds through normal space. The ties the Empire fielded didn't
have FTL drives or even shields for that matter. The idea being,
Malhaven mused, quantity over quality. With any luck, the tie
squadrons could still be of help when they got back to the fleet in
several minutes. Malhaven longed to destroy one of the sleek and swift
enemy cruisers.

	Onboard the Imperial Star Destroyer _Goliath_ Admiral
Dilgario examined the 3-d rotating tactical display which
hovered before him on the bridge. Elongated blips with
estimated vectors were shown heading for the fleet along
a very direct path. They had used their normal space FTL drives to
skip past the fighters and then dropped back to sub-light propulsion.
They had resumed firing their plasma torpedoes as they closed.
Dilgario could only assume that either they could not fire their
weapons while using their FTL drives or they chose not to do so for
reasons he was not aware of. Perhaps the plasma based torpedoes lost
some effectiveness while traveling at FTL speeds? 
	There was no subtlety to their approach. These new enemy ships
were boldly led if not exactly tactically astute. Their encounter with
the ties indicated that they had little experience dealing with small
one man fighters. Dilgario entered a note in his perscomp remarking on
the observed weakness. He also noted, however, that their normal space
FTL drive allowed them to avoid the fighters in open space. Fighters
then might be more useful in a close in engagement. Dilgario also
noted that. 
	He was already learning a lot about the enemy but there was so
much yet to learn. A series of shudders that rolled through the bridge
brought the admiral's attention back to more immediate matters.
"Forward shields down to 92%, sir" a young officer reported to captain
Verson. That was the first enemy torpedo to actually impact against
the _Goliath's_ deflector shields. The rest had been destroyed by
intense turbo laser fire or by the close-in laser defenses. The enemy
plasma torpedoes delivered an amount of energy similar to that of half
a dozen turbo laser hits, meaning they were not very effective against
the Star Destroyers which used shielding designed to shrug off
hundreds of turbo laser blasts. A glance at the tactical readouts
showed the _Goliath's_ forward shields climbing back up past 94%
already. 
	The enemy had apparently not taken long to figure this out on
their own. Their plasma torpedoes were now being directed towards the
fleet's escort ships. As Dilgario watched a Corvette took three enemy
plasma torpedoes on it's port side and exploded into flaming debris
when it's deflector shields dropped. 
	As the new enemy cruisers entered within the more effective
range of turbo laser fire from the fleet they began to maneuver as
violently as the first group of enemy cruisers had and still were. The
tactical readouts were now a chaotic mass that even admiral Dilgario,
a veteran of dozens of battles and skirmishes, could not decipher.
With the enemy cruisers all maneuvering like fighters and operating
independently it was difficult to engage them with general fleet
tactics. Instead single ships or small groups
of ships dealt with the enemy as best they could.
	A glance out the transparasteel viewing windows of the bridge
showed nothing but a mass of green turbo laser fire with a few
Imperial ships hanging in the distance. Dilgario felt completely
isolated here on the bridge of a warship right in the middle of a
battle involving his own fleet. The situation was simply too confused
for him to run the entire battle. Instead he issued occasional general
orders through the fleet command net. Dilgario began to slowly tighten
the fleet's formation in order to bring more firepower to bear on the
wildly maneuvering enemy ships. He ordered each ship to protect the
ships around it much as fighters used 'wingmen' to cover each other.
	The four surviving ships from the original enemy contingent
had by now mixed with the eleven surviving ships of the second group
to the extent that it was impossible to classify them as separate
groups anymore. Another shudder rocked the bridge as the enemy scored
another hit. 
	"Port side deflectors down to 86%, regeneration underway."
reported an officer. Another spoke up as well, facing in the direction
of captain Verson. "That enemy torpedo was more powerful than the
first, it apparently used some sort of quantum effect to generate a
quantity of energy equivalent to several standard torpedoes. The
ballistics of the torpedo indicate it was fired from a ship of the
first group, sir" the officer finished. Dilgario considered this new
information. If these two groups of ships used such entirely different
weapons technology it would be safe to assume that they were of
distinct factions and perhaps distinct species as well. Dilgario added
yet another note to his growing collection. 
	
	Captain Talnar of the Romulan Warbird _Defender_ sat
in his command chair watching the battle at the wormhole unfold. The
small probe that was relaying data from the battle site had so far
been ignored by the invading aliens. The battle was not going well for
the remaining Federation and Klingon ships. After the aliens had
ruthlessly attacked and devastated the Federation fleet without
warning they had systematically engaged the remaining Federation, and
then Klingon ships, with a patience that Talnar could actually admire.
Six Klingon Birds of Prey and two Battle Cruisers remained stubbornly
weaving amid the alien ships fighting with characteristic Klingon
brashness. Three surviving Federation 'Possum' destroyers and a single
surviving Excelsior class ship appeared determined to fight to the end
as well. The aliens had lost eight of their smaller warships to
Federation and Klingon fire and several more of the smaller ships
appeared to be heavily damaged. The five largest ships in their fleet
appeared to be completely unharmed. Whenever a Klingon or Federation
ship scored a hit on them they would simply roll to spread the energy
across their multiple deflector shields. Talnar guessed that it would
take either a single massive hit or a persistent series of lesser hits
to significantly damage those heavily shielded battleships. The sensor
readings indicated that all of the alien ships were almost certainly
dedicated warships. All had multiple deflector shields, a large number
of independently shielded and powered weapons batteries, and
independently powered and modular ship sections as well. To put their
ships out of action you had to utterly destroy them. 
	Neither the Klingons, nor the Federation, captains could flee
the battle and leave the invaders in control of the wormhole. These
new aliens were either insanely arrogant or strategically brilliant
depending on whether they could back up this fleet with more, and
soon. Their destruction of the Federation fleet, and the killing of
the famous Picard and his _Enterprise_, would draw the Federation into
war without a doubt.  
	Now Talnar was faced with a critical decision and he didn't
have time to wait for a delayed subspace transmission from Romulus.
Should he let the Federation and Klingon ships be defeated and simply
observe the results or should he aid them now before it was too late?
Talnar considered the situation. He was all to aware of what had
happened when the Dominion came across the wormhole. Talnar had
decided. He could not allow these aliens to establish a bridge across
the wormhole, not when he had a force capable of very possibly
preventing this from happening. That doing so would be a huge
propaganda victory for the Star Empire was a secondary bonus. Talnar
sent a simple message to the rest of the fleet. The message was sent
in a millionth of a second in a compressed burst format. Seven cloaked
Romulan Warbirds and nearly a dozen smaller supporting ships began to
move invisibly into position near the wormhole. With all the sensor
clutter emanating from the battle there was little chance of the
aliens detecting them before they de-cloaked. Talnar knew that he
would need to use his crucial few moments of surprise to the upmost.
That would be his one, and perhaps only, chance of defeating the alien
fleet.

	Captain Ron Geralds of the Excelsior class Federation
starship _Venture_ clutched the arms of his chair to prevent himself
from being thrown onto the floor of his bridge. Sparks exploded from
multiple consoles as crew members scrambled around to man the few
remaining functioning computer interfaces.
	"Shields down to 23%!" the tactical officer, Lieutenant
Hudson, called out frantically. On the view screen another spread of
quantum torpedoes burst forth from the torpedo tubes to race towards
several enemy cruisers which had moved to block their wild pass
through the alien fleet. The shields of one enemy cruiser buckled
under a direct hit and exploded into shattered fragments. The other
two cruisers survived the quantum torpedo hits but lurched wildly off
their previous course venting gasses through multiple hull breaches. 
	The _Venture_ moved swiftly through the gap the torpedoes had
opened. Hudson wanted to get some distance between himself and all
that alien plasma energy. He needed time to think, if only for a
minute or two. The _Venture_ was the last of the three Excelsior class
starships that had been keeping station at the wormhole. The others
had been destroyed in the initial moments after the aliens had
attacked, before they could maneuver or effectively defend themselves.
Them, along with the _Enterprise_. Geralds had only barely managed to
put the impact of her loss aside for the time being. He'd known Picard
since their academy days and the _Enterprise_ was a legend.
Again he forced himself to put those thoughts aside. He had a battle
to fight.
	Hudson, always the over cautious tactical officer, had raised
the shields just a fraction of a second before the energetic plasma
weapons had started lancing through space, cutting apart the other
ships of the wormhole fleet. Since that initial disaster the surviving
Federation ships had been able to survive, for awhile anyway, and deal
out some damage of their own by staying mobile and by focusing on the
smaller alien ships. Attacking the kilometer long battleships seemed
utterly pointless in their present condition.
	Now that the Klingons had joined the battle some of the
pressure had been taken of the Federation ships. Still, of a starting
fleet of fifteen ships, only his ship and four other destroyers
remained. In return they had destroyed ten of the smaller alien
cruisers. But the alien battleships remained untouched despite the
Klingons throwing plasma torpedo after plasma torpedo at them when
they first joined the battle. 
	Just then Geralds saw the _Tiger's Paw_ explode into pure
energy after a plasma bolt breached her hull and evidently ruptured
the core containment field. They were now down to the _Venture_ and
just three destroyers, plus a few Klingon Birds of Prey and a single
remaining Klingon battlecruiser. Just then the bridge rocked and
Hudson's grip on his chair was finally overwhelmed. He fell hard to
the deck and felt a lance of pain in his nose. It had broke for
sure. Hudson stood up, wobbled slightly, and spit out some blood from
a broken tooth. 
	The bridge was eerily quiet. Glancing around Geralds could see
crew members sprawled around the bridge. An ensign was just getting to
his knees while the science officer,
Lieutenant Angeles, clutched at her arm in obvious pain, it hung at an
awkward angle. 
	"Lieutenant Hudson, what is our status?" captain Geralds
called out over the sound of burning consoles and crackling
waveguides. The sounds of the heavily damaged bridge were all that
greeted him. "Lieutenant Hudson?" the captain called questioningly.
Nothing. Walking around to the tactical station Geralds soon learned
why. A fragment from a wall had lodged itself deeply into Hudson's
skull. Brains and bone fragments were all that remained of his
officer's head. He forced away of wave of nausea that threatened to
make him vomit on the spot.
	Geralds took up the tactical station even as the bridge
shuddered again. By some miracle, he was still getting readings on the
console. Shields had been knocked out and the torpedo tubes had
apparently taken enough damage to render them useless for the moment. 
	The young ensign at the helm had recovered his place at the
navigational station. "Ensign, plot a course for the nearest alien
battlecruiser and initiate the maximum warp we can achieve" Geralds
said grimly. The young ensign, who couldn't have been older than 21,
seemed to nod to himself after hesitating for half a moment. "Yes sir"
the young man responded as his fingers flew across the still
functioning navigational controls.
	"Enga..." On the static filled viewing screen a Romulan ship
de-cloaked and simultaneously opened fire on a nearby alien cruiser,
destroying the ship who's shields were already weakened.  
	"Belay that order!" captain Geralds shouted. The ensign seemed
to collapse into his chair in relief or perhaps exhaustion. Looking at
the tactical readouts Geralds could see that more than half a dozen
warbirds had de-cloaked along with a dozen smaller support ships.
	One Warbird had de-cloaked just several hundred meters from
each of the five alien battleships and all had opened up from extreme
point blank range. All of the alien battleships began taking immediate
heavy damaged to their back facing deflector shields. The smaller
Romulan support vessels swooped around firing torpedoes at other
shield facings of the battleships. 
	The smaller alien cruisers began to rapidly close ranks with
their parent craft. The Romulans were already on the move to avoid the
tremendous plasma counter fire now coming from the huge alien
warships, but they continued to focus their weapons on the back-facing
shielding. As the warbirds began hard maneuvering to avoid the alien
counter battery fire, the smaller Romulan ships began making fresh
attack runs on the already heavily depleted rear shields of the
battleships.
	The rear shielding on two of the wedge shaped battleships, and
one of the more rounded ones, failed as torpedoes and phaser based
weapons scored multiple hits on all of the battleships. Energy tore
into the exposed hulls on these ships but with their incredibly thick
nuetronium armor the actual internal damage from the second attack
pass by the small Romulan vessels was minimal. But the damage to the
rear shields was done.
	The three surviving Federation destroyers were swooping in to
attack the exposed rear portions of the battleships. Quantum torpedoes
and phasers struck home. Two of the battleships began to vent debris
and plasma from hull ruptures. The mighty battleships were trying to
rotate to keep the exposed sections facing away from the enemy but the
destroyers and Birds of Prey were too fast for this tactic to be
entirely effective.
	Another Destroyer and Bird of Prey exploded as the aliens
pumped out heavy fire to cover their exposed sections. Suddenly a Bird
of Prey lanced across the battle zone at warp speed and smashed into
one of the alien wedge shaped battleships. The energy unleashed in the
collision was sufficient to instantly vaporize the massive battleship
into it's base atoms. A cloud of free ions and non associated
particles expanded away from where the battleship had been just a
moment before.
	Two Romulan Warbirds had been destroyed by now but the others
were streaking around the core of the alien fleet strafing the
battleships in their already exposed rear sections, not allowing them
a chance to regenerate their rear facing shields. 
	One of the more rounded alien battleships exploded in a
violent ball of burning debris after several Romulan Warbirds, and the
still fighting Klingon Battlecruiser, concentrated all their firepower
on a hull section where it's shields had collapsed. Geralds could see
that the aliens were clearly beginning to move towards the wormhole. 
	"Engineering, status" captain Geralds asked after tapping the
comm badge on his chest. The ship's senior engineer responded. 
	"We've got main power and I can give you warp 2 for a short
period of time. The shields are operating at 10% and regenerating
slowly. We've had to divert a lot of power to keep them up as long as
we have. We won't be firing torpedoes for a long time, sir. She'll
need a full dockyard work over for that" the man said.
	"Very good. Geralds out" the captain replied. All in all, Ron
Geralds felt lucky to be alive. He now owed his life to Romulans. The
thought was almost amusing. The captain looked back to the static
filled viewing screen at the front of the bridge. It looked as if they
might just hold the wormhole, at least for the moment.

	Looking over the tactical readouts Admiral Dilgario was not
pleased, to say the least. A star destroyer and Mon Calamari cruiser
lost, to say nothing of the dozen frigates and corvettes destroyed and
more that probably would not make it out. They'd only barely managed
to recover the ties in time, and the hangar bays of the two surviving
star destroyers were filled far beyond their normal capacity due to
the loss of the ISS _Revenger_. Loosing the tie squadrons of three
star destroyers and two Mon Calamari cruisers would not have been
good, to make an understatement. Dilgario ordered the remaining three
ships of his fleet core to began withdrawing to the wormhole. Every
last bit of energy was pumped into the turbo laser batteries. They had
to keep those fast cruisers at bay. Those alien cruisers were like
giant fighters, fast enough to evade turbo laser bolts and swoop right
past his screening ships into the fleet's core. Even as he looked on a
green tinted cruiser, shaped much like a bird of some sort, swooped in
between his two star destroyers without taking so much as a glancing
hit. It was infuriating. 
	The aliens seemed to be coming at them harder than ever. They
knew he was attempting to enter the wormhole. A group of four of the
smaller green ships had formed and now charged the _Goliath_. "Hard to
port!" captain Verson shouted as loud as he could. Dilgario was nearly
tossed out of his chair as the ship performed the tight turning
maneuver. The turn brought the starboard batteries to bear on the
group. Without waiting for orders the gunners began blazing away at
the small group. Two of the ships exploded in a hail of plasma and
energy, their shields already weakened earlier in the battle. Dilgario
grimaced, another small victory in an otherwise dreary battle. If the
third group of enemy cruisers had not de-cloaked right in the middle
of his fleet the matter would have already been decided in his favor.
As it was Dilgario was forced to make a tactical withdrawal.
	As the remains of his fleet limped into the wormhole he vowed
to seek revenge on these ingenious aliens and their infernal new
challenges.

	Geralds pointed to a small alien ship on the screen. "That
one" he said. "Take a security team and capture that ship,
Lieutenant". 
	"Yes sir" his newly appointed tactical officer replied as he
began heading to the transporter room. By all rights the young officer
he'd given the job should have been five years or more from the
position. But with half of the _Venture's_ crew killed in the
engagement he'd been forced to make many early promotions. The young
man would have to rise to the occasion.

	Captain Pierce of the Imperial Corvette _Infernal_ stared
gloomily as the battle neared it's completion. A small group of
frigates and corvettes had somehow fought their way across to the
wormhole an hour ago but he, and several other ships, had been
stranded too far away to possibly join with them. When the core of the
fleet had left through the wormhole many escort ships had been
stranded and cut off from the wormhole by the enemy cruisers. 
By a harsh quirk of fate, the _Infernal's_ hyperdrive motivator had
been damaged in the battle and he was stuck in real space.
	Pierce had decided to put some distance between himself and
the winding down battle. Later, he thought, he could return when the
aliens had their guard down and make his run for the wormhole. He had
easily decided against forming up with the three frigates and six
corvettes that remained. They had formed a tight box and were
attempting to hold off the alien cruisers. He knew they would not
succeed. His ship would live to fight another day.
	He was beginning to feel good about escaping the battle when a
dozen men in strange red uniforms materialized on his bridge. He
ducked behind his command chair while the storm troopers on bridge
duty exchanged fire with the enemy. They took out four of the invaders
before they themselves succumbed to superior numbers. Pierce found
himself looking into the end of one of their strange weapons. He stood
and tried to look dignified while staring at his captor. 

	"We lost twelve men to their internal security troops, but
she's ours captain." the young tactical officer stated flatly. Geralds
looked over the man. A scar across his face and a makeshift splint
indicated the ferocity of the ship board battle. Twelve men was nearly
half of the entire security team he's sent! "How did you take the ship
after such casualties?" Geralds asked.
	"Their internal security was mostly concentrated in their
quarters. Apparently they aren't used to being boarded without
warning" the Lieutenant replied. "They seemed shocked that we had
transported over. Either they don't have the technology or they choose
not to use it for some reason" 	
	"You should get to the infirmary" Geralds told him. As the
young man left his ready room he tapped his comm badge 
and spoke to the bridge. "Take the alien ship in tow, commander
Robins. Set course for the nearest starbase, warp one" he said.
The _Venture_ couldn't handle anything beyond that for any sustained 
period of time in her present condition.
	Commander Robins had been knocked unconscious early in the
battle but she was back to her duties already. She hadn't let the
doctors keep her from the bridge despite a concussion.
	Geralds considered the events of the day. Whoever had built
those ships relied more on size and brute force than on subtlety. A
large empire, perhaps larger than all of the alpha quadrant combined,
loomed on the other side of that wormhole. The alpha quadrant, he
feared, faced a danger even greater than that of the Dominion.

	The leftovers of the Imperial fleet, two star destroyers, one
Mon Calamari cruiser, and several frigates and corvettes, sat one
million kilometers out from the massive wormhole. Dilgario knew that
if the enemy arrived through the wormhole with reinforcements he would
have no chance of defeating them. Better to withdraw and assemble a
proper fleet to deal with the enemy scum. One corvette would stay
behind, with it's hyperdrive ready for an escape jump, to alert Fleet
Command if the aliens did come through. The Empire had work to do if
they were to assemble a fleet that could meet this new threat.

TO BE CONTINUED....