The text of this story has been copied with permission from the author’s 
website, where an HTML version, including pictures, is available. 

http://www.angelfire.com/empire/blueyard/STvSW.html

Thanks, Paul! --Ed.



CLASH OF THE TITANS. 
by Paul Cassidy (paul_cassidy@altavista.net).

	Voyager shook as the Borg's tractor beam locked on, and the cutting laser 
sliced into the ship's forward hull. Behind her, Janeway could hear Kim shouting 
that Borg drones were aboard, and she knew beyond doubt that her gamble for an 
alliance with the Borg had failed. She briefly looked at Chakotey, and was 
surprised to see that his face held no sign of "I told you so". Then her hand 
stabbed down on the auto-destruct switch, and the Voyager exploded like a star, 
taking with it the secret of the modified Borg nanites.

	

	 Three months later…..

	The Borg cube fled from the smaller ships chasing it. There had been a 
time when the collective could not even consider the possibility of defeat. But 
the last four months of warfare had taught them that defeat was not only 
relevant, it was very very real. Now the collective was scattered, each ship 
forced to control itself. Some had simply stopped, unable to cope, but others 
had managed with a varying degree of success to carry on. This ship had been 
lucky, it had avoided detection and survived, but it's luck was just about up. 
The course of events had already been calculated, the ships of species 8472 
would catch them in 4.12 minutes, and when they did, the cube would be 
destroyed. Quite why they continued to flee therefore seemed odd. There was no 
logic in it, but still they fled.

	Sometimes however, logic does not have all the facts, and therefore cannot 
generate correct conclusions. The appearance of the type 4 wormhole ahead for 
instance. The Borg had explored this area of space, but had never detected this 
wormhole before. There was a slight pause while the new calculations were 
performed to see if the odd of survival would increase by using the wormhole, 
and then the cube altered course. Three minutes later, the Borg ship dropped to 
impulse, and passed through the wormhole, closely followed by the eight bio 
ships.

	********

	Admiral Raeder was not a happy man. Quite what he had done to offend his 
superiors was not clear, but the effects of their displeasure certainly were. 
Thus he found himself in command of a "fleet", in the most Sith-forsaken part of 
the galaxy. He smiled mirthlessly when he thought of his rag-tag group of ships 
as a fleet.

	His most powerful ship was this one, his flagship, the Imperial Star 
Destroyer Black Star. However, the Black Star was over twenty years old, and 
well past the due date of a refit, only carrying half her maximum complement of 
fighters. She had spent her time out here patrolling the outer rim. Quite what 
the threat out here was, no one was sure. The area, at the extreme edge of the 
galaxy, was sparsely populated, and not even the rebellion seemed to bother 
coming out here. Put simply, it was the backend of nowhere.

	This was probably just as well, since his fleet (the 121st according to 
his orders) was not capable of fighting a major threat. Consisting of 1 ISD, 2 
Dreadnoughts and 6 lighter frigates, any serious attack would roll straight over 
him. His fleet got the leftovers No new ISD II's out here, nor Super star 
destroyers.

	Still, there didn't appear to be a major threat. At least there hadn't 
been in the three months that he had been here……

	********

	The Borg ship emerged from the wormhole, just seconds ahead of the 
bioships. It immediately performed a scan of the area. Within moments, it had 
located a clutch of artificial objects, probably starships. If the cube could 
plant a Borg drone aboard the ships before they were destroyed, the collective 
could grow again. The cube immediately altered course towards them

	The bioships emerged from the wormhole, and scanned space. It was 
interesting that the wormhole point seemed closed this end. It would be 
undetectable to normal scanners, but since they know where it actually lay, they 
should be able to find it to get home.

	 They continued scanning, and the Borg cube was detected immediately. A 
pursuit course was entered, but seconds later it became clear that the Borg ship 
was heading towards some other ships. The bio ships considered. Even if those 
other ships turned out to be Borg, they wouldn't be heavily outnumbered. There 
were only 9 ships ahead.

	 *******

	Aboard the Black Star, Raeder was pulled out of his introspection by the 
call from an officer.

	"Sir, we have a contact on two ships heading towards us. They are very 
close."

	"Why were they not detected by our TIE patrols?" he replied.

	"Unknown sir, they just seemed to….appear." answer the officer.

	Raeder scowled. "I can see that extra training is required from our 
scanning department".

	Another officer looked up. "We're getting some kind of message…."

	"Then let's hear it"

	There was a pause, and then a strange cybernetic sounding voice came over 
the speakers.

	"WE ARE THE BORG. LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND SURRENDER YOUR SHIPS. WE WILL ADD 
YOU BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS TO OUR OWN. YOUR CULTURE WILL 
ADAPT TO SERVICE US, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."

	"Not very friendly bunch are they?" said Raeder lightly. " Sound 
battlestations and open a channel"

	The ISD's alert siren sounded, and the officer nodded to the Admiral 
indicating that the channel was ready.

	"Borg ship, this is the Imperial Star Destroyer Black Star. You are in 
violation of Empire territory. Halt your ships, lower your shields, and prepare 
to be boarded."

	Almost immediately, the answer was returned.

	"EMPIRE IS IRRELEVENT. TERRIATORY IS IRRELEVENT. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED. 
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE"

	As soon as the message was received, a strange green beam lanced out from 
the cube, hitting the star destroyer's shields.

	"Return fire" snapped Raeder. "Damage?"

	"No damage to the ship, but the shields are being drained. We're down to 
90%…..85%."

	Through the windows, the Admiral could see the turbolaser fire heading 
towards the Borg cube. The first bolt struck the cube, blowing a large chunk of 
the corner. More bolts struck seconds later, causing further damage.

	"Sir," called the weapons officer. "Our shields are down to less that 
40%."

	Raeder nodded. The other ships were also firing now, and it seemed to him 
that he would win the race. His fleet was doing huge damage to the Borg ship, 
much faster than it was draining his shields. This race could only have one 
outcome!

	He felt a surge of satisfaction, as the Borg cube suddenly exploded before 
him. But the satisfaction only lasted a second. From the centre of the explosion 
emerged a bright orange beam, blasting straight through the cube, and heading 
directly towards the weakened ISD. Raeder had just enough time to open his 
mouth, before the combined fire of 8 species 8472 bioships, blasted straight 
through his ship's weakened shields, destroying it instantly.

	Seeing the destruction of their flagship, the other Imperial ships were 
momentarily stunned, but then they shifted their fire to the eight bioships.

	The bioships broke formation, manoeuvring rapidly to avoid the turbolaser 
bolts. They returned fire individually, almost immediately hitting three 
frigates, all of which exploded in an eye watering glare. The remaining Imperial 
ships regrouped, and poured fire at the bioships. Two of the bioships took 
multiple direct turbolaser hits, and were destroyed, but the others fired again, 
destroying the remaining frigates. The two surviving Imperial ships continued 
firing, destroying a third bioship, but they also turned to escape. It was clear 
that they couldn't defeat these aliens alone, and it was important that a 
warning was given to the empire. However, it proved useless, the aliens were 
fast and nimble, and both ships were struck before they could make their jumps 
to hyperspace.

	With the destruction of the last of the Imperial ships, the remaining five 
bio ships turned back towards to wormhole. It was clear that these aliens were 
not Borg, but then they were also hostile. It would be necessary to clean this 
galaxy of them, but not just yet. First they would have to summon more forces…….



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 2 (Note: I am unsure about ISD ship names, so 
apologies if I get them wrong)

	It had been a month since the destruction of fleet 121. In a galactic 
fleet that consisted of millions of ships, even the loss of nine ships took time 
to be noticed and acted upon. However, noticed it had been, and a force had been 
dispatched to discover its fate.

	The squadron of five ISDs led by the Revenge, an ISD II, emerged from 
hyperspace at the lost fleets last known location. Fleet 121 had been on a 
general patrol, and it was not known exactly where they had been lost, but here 
was a good place to start. Although this squadron only had six ships to the lost 
fleet’s nine, it was much more powerful, since all were star destroyers.

	As soon as the fleet was organised, it launched hundreds of small 
fighters, to look for any clue of Admiral Raeders lost fleet.

	However, hours went by, and not a sign was found. Was it possible, thought 
Admiral Quan, that nine ships of the Imperial navy could have vanished without 
trace? A more sour thought crossed his mind. Could Admiral Raeder have defected 
to the rebels and taken his ships with him? After a few moments, Quan rejected 
that idea. The rebels had been on the run since Hoth, and anyway, even if Raeder 
had defected, some of his crews would have disagreed and got a signal off. No, 
whatever happened wasn’t defection.

	As more time passed, the ship settled almost into a routine, sweeping 
slowly through space. The routine was shattered by the report that a TIE had 
received a signal.

	"Play it!" snapped Admiral Quan.

	"I’m afraid it rather garbled" apologised the comms officer as he brought 
the signal up. For a moment there was silence, then the speakers crackled to 
life.

	"zzzztttttt...the Imperial Star Destroyer Black Star...zaaxxkkkttt. of 
Empire..vvssttzzzzz shields..tzzzkkkkk."

	"I’m sorry, that’s all there was. It has stopped now" reported the comms 
officer

	Quan’s flag captain came up and stood beside him.

	"It could be a distress call. They did mention their shield." He said

	The Admiral was silent for a moment.

	"Indeed they did. However, it’s too easy. The Black Star was just one 
ship, what about the others? It smells like rancor’s dung to me. If I wanted to 
lay a trap, I would do something similar. Look, the message originated from this 
nebula. Our sensors can’t penetrate it, so we don’t know what’s there unless we 
go and look." Replied Quan.

	"What are your orders?" asked the Captain.

	"The fleet will hold here, but the ISD Imperial Sword will continue to the 
nebula. They will investigate, while the rest of the fleet stays here outside 
any trap, and ready to help." Ordered Quan.

	Five of the giant star destroyers came to a halt, whilst the sixth 
increased power to it’s engines, and swept towards the nebula, accompanied by a 
swarm of TIE fighters.

	*******

	The commander species 8472 fleet watched the data relayed from a tiny 
sensor buoy on the edge of the nebula. The Imperial ships had split up. That was 
unfortunate, since it would have been easier if they had all entered the trap 
together. The recording had been a good idea, but the enemy commander was 
obviously no fool. However, the trap could still be sprung, it would just take a 
few modifications to the plan. After all, they did massively out-number the 
aliens. Reinforcements had been pouring in for the last month, and in a few days 
they would be ready for the offensive. In the meantime, they had to make sure 
that no warning was given, and that meant that all these ships had to be 
destroyed. His orders went out to the fleet.

	*******

	The commander of the Imperial Sword watched the scanner screens carefully. 
Something didn’t feel right here. He ordered the TIEs to sweep ahead of him to 
make sure that there was nothing hidden there. However, the reports came back 
negative. He held the Sword on the edge of the nebula, waiting until his TIE’s 
had reported. After all, he didn’t want to be blind inside the nebula.

	He was just about to report to the flagship, when he heard a shout from 
one of the bridge officers. He started to turn towards him, but his eye was 
caught by the sight outside the huge windows, of space ripping open, and tens of 
ships heading directly towards him.

	He didn’t even have time to shout the order to fire, before 40 alien ships 
combined their fire and blew his ISD into a million small pieces.

	*******

	Admiral Quan watched in horror as the Imperial Sword exploded. He had 
never seen firepower on that scale before. There had been no warning of their 
arrival, no detection in normal space, and no hyperspace signature or footprint. 
Space had simply opened up and dropped them onto the Sword.

	He saw more ships emerging, and knew that his remaining ships could not 
fight them alone, they were simply too powerful and there were too many of them. 
Whirling quickly, he ordered all ships to withdraw, and jump to hyperspace.

	However, even as he gave the order, he saw the space outside his bridge 
open up, and hundreds of ships started to appear. The Imperial gunners were not 
caught napping however, and opened fire on the aliens with hundreds of 
turbolasers. TIE fighters joined in, adding their firepower to the defence of 
their motherships.

	Tens of the bioships exploded under the intense concentration of fire, but 
other holes opened in space, and more ships poured out. Combining their 
firepower, the bioships methodically fired on the ISDs destroying them one after 
another.

	The Revenge shuddered from a non-fatal hit, and Quan covered his eyes as 
the star destroyer Venom exploded nearby. Looking back up, Quan saw 8 bio ships 
ahead, start to link their fire, and knew that he was a dead man. However, just 
as the beam fired, stars turned into lines, and the Revenge, the only surviving 
ship, shot into hyperspace and safety.

	*******

	The commander of the fleet was reasonably satisfied. The enemy had been 
defeated and the remaining fighters were not a real threat. Although the ambush 
had been mistimed, and one of his ships had escaped, it was not critical. He 
knew that the ship that had escaped would return with reinforcements, and so he 
ordered all ships to pass over into fluidic space, and await further orders.

	The commander of the Species 8472 fleet looked at the remains of the ISDs. 
Most of them had been destroyed outright, but one of them was still relatively 
intact, just missing most of it’s bridge superstructure. He made a few quick 
commands, and watched as three of his bioships took hold of the star destroyer 
wreck with a tractor beam, and pulled it towards the rift. It would be useful, 
to study, especially to find out what kind of drive system these ships had, and 
maybe to find out more about this galaxy.

	*******

	Quan looked over the damage report. It was serious, the Revenge would be 
in yard hands for months. However, the main thing was that they had survived, 
and they could sound the alarm. He smiled grimly. When the empire came back, 
they would do so in force. Then these aliens would see that they had roused a 
dragon that would consume them!



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 3

	Just over a month after the battle of the Nebula, Admiral Quan looked with 
pride at the huge fleet that floated above Coruscant. He had never seen such a 
concentration of firepower in one place. There were hundreds of Star Destroyers, 
and literally thousands of other ships, ranging in size from dreadnoughts to 
small frigates. The whole force was lead from the Super Star Destroyer Iron 
Fist.

	There was already a smaller fleet out at the rim, but it had found little 
other than the odd raid by the aliens. Though there had been no major reports of 
the enemy since the loss of his squadron, the Empire had mobilised its forces 
with surprising speed, and gathered them at Coruscant. From here, they would 
proceed to the outer rim where they would destroy the aliens once and for all.

	 There was even talk that another fleet of a similar size had been 
mobilised out at some little moon…Enlor…Enmor….something like that. Quan 
couldn't understand why anyone would want to assemble a fleet in such an out of 
the way location, but it wasn't important, this was his fleet, and he was second 
in command after Admiral Piett.

	 There had been disgruntled murmuring amongst some officers, that 
withdrawing this many ships would leave the empire open to the rebellion However 
it was judged that the fleet should be able to smash the aliens, and then return 
to their normal patrols before the rebellion could organise anything too big. 
However, increased rebellion raids had already been reported, so the quicker 
they could defeat the aliens the better

	As second in command of the fleet, he was in direct control of the fleet's 
vanguard. This solid force of 50 Imperial Star Destroyers, and numerous smaller 
ships, would in normal times, be considered a huge fleet. But for this 
enterprise, it was merely the vangaurd. He glanced at his panel, and saw that 
Admiral Piett had given the signal. Slowly the fleet began to move. Uncoiling 
itself like a giant snake, and heading out in open space. As they moved, they 
passed the giant Golan defence stations, sitting in orbit above the galactic 
capital.

	Finally all the ships were in position for the hyper jump, and with 
another signal from the flagship, the starlines stretched and the Imperial fleet 
shot into hyperspace. The Empire was going to war!

	********

	The commander of the 8472 fleet looked again at his display of this 
galaxy. It was difficult, he thought, to co-ordinate an attack on this scale 
across galactic distances, but if you wanted it to work, you had to put a lot of 
trust in the subordinates to follow the plan.

	Just a few more days and everyone would be position, and then they could 
launch the attack. In the meantime, it was time for the diversion…..

	********

	Admiral Jacoby looked at his display of the Garrett system in concern. 
After weeks of relative calm, with just the odd raid, the aliens had obviously 
decided to make a major push. Over 100 of their ships were bearing down on his 
fleet. He would have felt a lot more confident if the aliens had delayed another 
few days before their attack, since Admiral Piett was no more than 24 hours 
away. However, he still felt reasonably confident. He had under his command over 
140 vessels, including thirty ISDs, and perhaps more importantly, a number of 
orbital fortresses and their fighters. For the first time in this war, the 
empire would be able to fight a battle on it's terms.

	 "Captain, give the order, launch strike alpha!" he ordered.

	The fleet captain nodded, and turned to his panel. Moments later, hundreds 
of fighters began to launch from the planet and the orbital forts. Whilst his 
ships also carried fighters, he wanted to hold them in reserve to take part in 
any pursuit operations. The forts and the planets contained nearly 700 TIE 
fighters, and 200 TIE bombers.

	"Let's see how you deal with this, you bastards!" muttered Jacoby to 
himself.

	On screen, the alien fleet seemed somewhat perplexed by the appearance of 
nearly a thousand fighters. The fleet halted their approach, and then slowly 
began to withdraw. The fighters continued onwards, altering their course to 
intercept, and increasing their speed. The alien ships however also accelerated, 
and the closing speed dropped.

	"Can our fighters still intercept?" asked Jacoby.

	"It's going to be tight sir, with this closing speed, the fighters are 
going to be at the extreme of their range," answered the captain.

	"I see, in that case, order the fleet to launch it's fighters, and tell 
them to land at the forts and the planet. The fleet will then advance, and will 
support the fighters, by providing landing bays for refuelling. This will 
dramatically extend the range of the fighters." Ordered Jacoby.

	"Excellent idea sir, in effect, we are just exchanging our fighters for 
the planets. I will give the orders at once"

	Jacoby turned back to the screen, and watched as the fighters slowly 
overhauled the aliens. The perspective on the screen shifted slightly as his 
fleet left orbit, and also pursued the enemy. He could see clouds of fighters 
leaving his ships bays, and heading towards the forts and the planet's surface.

	*********

	Aboard the TIE fighters, the pilots could see that the alien ships were 
almost in range. Soon it would be time for revenge. The fighter squadrons 
shifted formation slightly, opening the way for the bombers to make the first 
attacks, whilst the more agile fighters covered them and exploited any damage.

	Aboard the bomber leader, the pilot kept a close watch on the range panel. 
Soon they would be in range….almost there…his finger hovered over the fire 
button, when suddenly the alien ships seemed to just disppear in a flash of 
light.

	The pilot blinked in confusion. Many pilots would have assumed that the 
alien ships had simply exploded, or simply frozen in disbelief, but this pilot 
was an experienced leader, and he quickly checked his scanners. For a second, he 
could only believe that his sensors had gone mad. Nothing could move that fast! 
However, calls from other pilots soon confirmed what his scanners told him. The 
alien ships had accelerated away at over 1000 times the speed of light, leaving 
his fighters wallowing in their wake. Even as he watched, the aliens wheeled 
around, and shot back towards the planet.

	Desperately he activated his comms system to warn the fleet.

	*********

	Aboard the flagship ISD, Admiral Jacoby looked in disbelief as the alien 
ships shot towards him at impossible speeds. He turned and shouted to his 
officers.

	"Open fire. Blanket the ahead ahead of them…HURRY!"

	The Imperial fleet began to fire, and first raggedly, but then with 
increasing violence and power. Within seconds, all ships were firing at their 
full rate, blanketing the area ahead of the onrushing bioships. Surely nothing 
could survive that level of firepower…..

	

	 *********

	With uncanny precision, the fleet dropped out of hyperspace and returned 
to normal space in the Garrett system. First to emerge was Admiral Quan's 
vanguard, and then the main fleet.

	Quan's flagship ISD was immediately rocked by a huge impact. He looked out 
of the ISD's huge windows in disbelief. The whole area was filled with 
asteroids. He turned to the navigation station in anger.

	"Navigation, report, have you brought us out at the wrong place?"

	 "No sir, the nav computer says that we are well within the target zone! 
Maybe it's an uncharted asteroid storm?" responded the officer as he quickly 
scanned his panel.

	Another officer shouted across the bridge.

	"Sir, we're getting reports from the fleet, the smaller ships are taking a 
real hammering. They can't withstand these kinds of impacts."

	Quan looked quickly at his fleet display, and saw that some of the smaller 
ships were already breaking formation to avoid the huge asteroids. Even as he 
watched, he saw a Nebulon frigate disappear in an enormous impact.

	"Order all ISD's to form a line abreast. Smaller ships to take station 
astern and support them with turbolaser fire. The ISDs will blast a path out of 
the field for the rest of the fleet," he ordered quickly.

	The Imperial fleet was well trained, and quickly moved to follow his 
orders. He could see that his plan was working, but he could also see the damage 
codes appearing for his ISDs. Though they were heavy warships, designed to take 
damage, they were still suffering damage from the impacts.

	The navigation officer called him again.

	"Sir, I'm having a problem locating the planets. There should be three 
planets and two inhabited moons in the Garrett system, but there is nothing but 
a huge asteroid field"

	"So you have brought us out at the wrong place," accused Quan.

	The officer swallowed nervously.

	"No sir, the nav computer confirms that this is the Garrett system, but 
the planets are….gone!"

	"Impossible," scoffed Quan.

	The communications officer called out before the navigation officer could 
reply.

	"Sir, I'm getting a hail. It's Admiral Jacoby"

	Quan turned back to his screen.

	"Show me!" he ordered

	The image of a haggard looking Admiral Jacoby appeared on the screen. 
Behind him, Quan could see the image of a heavily damaged ISD bridge. Admiral 
Jacoby looked up, paused for a moment, and then spoke.

	"This is Admiral Jacoby, commanding the remnants of task force 7. I beg 
leave to report an Imperial victory!"

	Quan looked in disbelief at the image of the shattered bridge, and then 
looked at his display of the system, and the broken ruins of the three planets.

	Victory?



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 4.

	The commander of the species 8472 fleet frowned at the report from 
Garrett. It was clear that the local commander had been inexperienced and had 
completely disregarded his orders. The attack on Garrett was only supposed to 
have been a diversion, not a major attack. The commander had obviously seen the 
chance for glory, and it had cost him his life. Which was just as well, thought 
the admiral grimly, because if he had survived, he would have killed him 
himself.

	The Imperial fleet at Garrett had stood and fought bravely, showing 
surprising tactical awareness, and had inflicted heavy losses on the attacking 
squadron. Both sides had fought themselves to a standstill, and the slaughter 
had been high on both sides. Each sides had lost over eighty ships, and only a 
few of the enemy's large ships had survived, and all of them had been heavily 
damaged. The battle had also destroyed the system's inhabitable planets, so the 
loss to the Imperials had been extremely heavy. However, in the end, it had been 
the bio-ships that had been forced to withdraw.

	It wasn't a defeat really, he told himself, but it was a long way from a 
victory.

	 The admiral consoled himself with the fact that the main attack was due 
to be launched in less than 24 hours.

	 The latest reports showed that the empire had withdrawn a lot of its 
ships to form nodal fleets, to use against the species' advance. However, the 
side effect of this concentration was that many of the primary targets had been 
left relatively undefended. The decision of which systems to target had been 
based upon the tactical data recovered from damaged Imperial ships from the 
first two battles. A number of prisoners had also been taken, and under 
telepathic probes, had helped to flesh out the target list. Since empire was so 
large, only the systems that had some special significance could be targeted in 
the first wave. However, loss of these worlds, might well cripple the empire's 
ability to fight the war.

	He looked again at the target list. Many of the names seemed very strange 
to him, Thyferra, Mon Calamari, Loronar, Correllia, Coruscant. He put the list 
down. The names were not important, just the effects of their destruction on the 
empire. 

	********** 

	Loronar was an old world, with a long tradition of ship building and 
commerce. It had thrived under the old republic, but when the empire had arisen, 
it had become an important centre for the imperial fleet. Now that war had 
broken out with these new aliens, the Loronar Corporation shipyards were busier 
than ever, refitting ships, and starting new construction.

	 A damaged Victory class star destroyer was being pulled into a dock by 
two tugs. It had been involved in a serious collision with an asteroid two days 
earlier, and it's captain was glad that his beloved ship was finally safely 
home.

	He was just checking the latest report from his engineer, when he heard a 
shout from his tactical section. He started to look up to see what the shout was 
about, but his action was cut short as the blast from nine bio-ships tore his 
cherished ship to tiny pieces, killing him instantly.

	The bio-ships had appeared from nowhere, an interspatial rift opening up 
just a quarter of a million miles from the planet. Over seven hundred bio ships 
emerged, and began firing almost immediately.

	 The Imperial forces were caught completely unawares by the attack. After 
all, Loronar was a long way from the war's front line. However, the commander of 
the planetary defences was very alert, and the planet's shield snapped up just 
moments after the attack began.

	 While some of the bio-ships attacked the planet's defenders and orbital 
shipyards, some of them headed directly for the planet itself. Nine bio-ships 
linked together, and fired directly at the planet, striking the shield. The 
powerful bio-blast played over the shield, causing power surges and feedback on 
the planet below. A giant power generator on the planet was unable to take the 
strain, and exploded in a huge blast. But the shield held!

	 However, seconds later, another group of bio-ships linked their fire and 
also struck the shield. The Imperial commander saw his display go red, as the 
shield grid overloaded. Power stations began to shut down, and the power levels 
dropped dramatically. A third group of bio-ships fired at the planet and the 
shield collapsed completely. The three beams struck the planet at the same time, 
and the result was horrific. The entire surface of the planet, liquefied within 
seconds, and the core, unable to take the pressure, exploded moments later, 
killing all life on the planet, and destroying all the orbital facilities.

	As soon as the planet was destroyed, the bio-ships turned around, and 
headed back to the rift, their mission completed.

	 Loronar was gone, and with it, one of the empires main warship building 
and repair facilities!

	********

	At the centre of the room, Mon Montha signalled for silence, and the room 
fell obediently quiet.

	"Welcome everyone," she said. "We called you here originally to tell you 
the grave news that the Empire had begun construction of a new Death Star above 
Endor's moon."

	For a moment, a horrified stir swept around the room at the terrible news.

	"We received information from Bothan spies that the new Death Star was not 
complete, and we had planned to mount an attack to destroy it before it was 
fully operational."

	 She paused and looked around the room. "It has turned out however, that 
the information was false. The Death Star is fully operational! The information 
seems to have been planted by the Empire to lure us into a trap."

	She signalled to Admiral Ackbar, and he stepped forward and addressed the 
gathered rebels

	"Although not fully completed, it appears that it's superlaser and engines 
are fully operational. It also appears that there was a significant portion of 
the Imperial fleet at Endor."

	He turned and looked solemnly at the audience.

	"If we had attacked, that concentration of force would surely have 
destroyed our entire force. We can but thank the force that we didn't launch our 
attack."

	The onlookers murmured their agreement of his assessment.

	 "However, both the Death Star and the Imperial fleet accompanying it, 
have now left Endor. Actually, I should clarify that, since Endor no longer 
exists. Before they left the system, the Death Star tested the superlaser 
against Endor and destroyed it utterly."

	Another shocked murmur swept the room, and Ackbar had to raise a hand for 
silence.

	"As I said, we know that the Death Star has left Endor, but we do not know 
for certain where it has gone. However, we do have some ideas. The empire has 
been involved in a war with aliens of unknown origin out on the rim. We have 
only received sketchy reports, but it seems that the empire has lost at least 
two battles to these aliens. Whoever these aliens are, they seem to possess 
sufficient force to make a stand against the empire."

	Mon Montha stood, and again spoke to the rebels.

	"Since the aliens have this much power, they may be our only hope of 
defeating the Death Star. It is therefore our decision to send a small force to 
find and negotiate with these aliens. Hopefully we can bring them into the 
rebellion. In the interest of secrecy, this force has already departed. In the 
meantime, Admiral Ackar intends for our fleet to resume hit and fade operations 
against the Imperials."

	"It should be far more effective now," added Ackbar. "The Imperials have 
withdrawn large numbers of ships the fight the aliens, and that should allow us 
freedom of movement that was previously denied us."

	He started to say more, but was interrupted by the door banging open, and 
a sergeant-at-arms rushing in. The human ran directly to Mon Motha, and 
whispered in her ear. Mon Montha seemed shocked at his words and shook her head 
in disbelief. The Sergeant nodded vigorously, and showed her the report in his 
hand. Mon Montha took the report and examined it for a moment, and then, her 
face unreadable, turned back to the crowd.

	"My friends, I'm afraid that we must cut this short, we are receiving 
disturbing news. I will arrange a briefing for you as soon as possible."

	Without waiting, she turned away from the podium, and left the room, 
followed closely by Ackbar and General Madine.

	Behind them the murmuring of the assembled rebels rose in volume.

	********

	A few minutes later, the rebel council was assembled before Mon Montha.

	"We have disturbing news from our intelligence sources," she began. "We do 
not yet know if this is true, but the report speak of massive attacks by the 
aliens across the width and breadth of the empire."

	She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath.

	"The report speak of attacks on a large number of planets. These include 
Thyferra, the centre of Bacta production, Loronar a major Imperial shipyard, and 
even Correllia."

	"How much damage have the planets taken?" asked General Madine.

	Mon Montha looked ill, and seemed to have trouble speaking. Finally she 
managed to force the words out.

	"Destruction was total. The planets are gone!"

	

	 ********

	Darth Vader stood on the bridge of the Executor, examining the devastation 
around the planet below. The alien attacks across the empire had been totally 
unexpected, and the damage had been very heavy. Most of the empire's main 
warship construction facilities had been lost, along with many other important 
worlds. The aliens had dealt the empire an unexpected and devastating blow, and 
he wasn't yet certain whether the offensive was finished.

	 The aliens had also attacked here, but they had run into far more 
resistance than they obviously expected.

	When the fleet had come out of hyperspace, the alien attack on Coruscant 
had been well underway. Thousands of their ships had been attacking the orbital 
defences and stations. The planet's defence shield had been under heavy strain, 
and near to collapse. However, the surprise fleet arrival had caught the aliens 
between the planet and the fleet.

	 The aliens had thrown themselves against the fleet, in an effort to open 
an escape route. For a while it had looked as if they might manage to blast a 
hole and escape. Many ships had been lost, including a large number of star 
destroyers. However, in the end, the appearance of the new Death star had tipped 
the balance. It had stood in the centre of the imperial line, blasting away. The 
final alien attacks had blasted and scorched it's hull, but had not destroyed it 
completely.

	Vader looked across space at the Death Star. Huge blasted holes pockmarked 
it's surface. The north pole showed a particularly large crater, where the last 
four alien ships had fired.

	Yes, thought Vader, the Empire had taken huge losses today!

	An officer came up and stood respectfully to the side of the Dark Lord. 
Vader turned towards him.

	"Yes, Commander?" said Vader.

	"My Lord, I have the damage report from the Death Star." The officer held 
out his report for Vader to take.

	Vader took the report and examined it briefly. The Death Star would be 
operational again in two days.

	"Was there anything else commander?" asked Vader.

	"No, my emperor!"

	Yes, thought Vader, the Empire had taken huge losses today, but not all 
news was bad.

	The Emperor was dead; Long live the Emperor Vader.



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 5.

	The Millennium Falcon swept around the nebula at high speed, closely 
pursued by four TIE fighters. Around them a respectable space battle was forming 
as X-wings and TIE fighters engaged in a melee around the rebel capital ships. 
The small rebel fleet had been sent to the place where the aliens were first 
contacted, in an attempt to make contact. Unfortunately when they had emerged 
from hyper, they had run headlong into an Imperial force. Suspecting an Imperial 
trap, the rebels were trying to fight their way out, but it was tough going.

	 Wedge pulled his X-wing around in a tight circle, and shot after the TIEs 
chasing the Falcon. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another X-wing drop 
into formation off his left wing. He keyed his comm system.

	"That you Luke?"

	"Sure is Wedge. The rest of the fleet is getting ready for hyper, but the 
Falcon needs help to shake those TIEs before they can make the jump."

	"I'll take the two on the right"

	"…and I'll take the two on the left!" finished Luke.

	Wedge smiled to himself. Luke might be a Jedi knight, but he still sounded 
like a farm boy.

	Aboard the Falcon, Lando and Han kept up a constant barrage from the quad 
turrets, whilst Leia and Chewie flew the falcon in complex evasion patterns. 
However, the imperial pilots were good, and another burst of fire struck the 
rear of the light freighter causing an alarm to start wailing.

	"Han, we're losing power to aft shield." Shouted Leia from the cockpit.

	"Chewie, shunt power from the auxiliary generator" Han shouted back as he 
swung the turret around and loosed a burst at the TIE. He missed as the TIE 
pilot threw his agile fighter to the left. However whilst the manoeuvre made the 
fire from the Falcon miss, it put the small fighter directly into the sights of 
Wedge. Han breathed a sigh of relief as Wedge's X-wing swing in behind the TIE, 
and blew it to pieces with a quick burst.

	He turned and shouted down the access tube at Lando.

	"Looks like the cavalry's arrived!"

	As if to prove him wrong, the Falcon shuddered from another hit, and he 
smelt something burning. Smoke began wafting up from the lower compartments.

	"Han, we've got a problem," shouted Leia from the cockpit. "The rest of 
the fleet has gone to lightspeed, but now the Imperials are concentrating on 
us."

	"How's the nav computer doing?"

	"It's coming up with the jump co-ordinates now!"

	"Tell the fighters to make the jump, and then hit it!"

	On his X-wing, Wedge heard Leia's patrician voice give the order to go to 
lightspeed, and he prepared his jump. As he activated the jump engines, he saw 
the Falcon start to make the jump. But something was wrong….

	 Instead of the ship turning into a streak of light as it passed into 
hyperspace, the Falcon seemed to be falling into some kind of whirlpool that was 
rapidly forming around the ship. Wedge had no time for a closer look however, as 
his sleek fighter shot into hyperspace.

	Luke saw the strange whirlpool too, and swung his fighter around to head 
back towards the Falcon. However, the distraction cost him dearly. The TIE 
fighter leader managed to fire off a quick burst, that shredded Luke's fighter's 
top port S-foil.

	 The fighter spun out of around madly, and Luke wrestled with the stick 
trying to regain control. He could hear the high pitched whistles from R2 as the 
little droid tried desperately to restore some kind of control to the fighter. 
Red damage icons flashed across his display, but then suddenly the small fighter 
stabilised. Luke was just about to congratulate the little droid, when he 
realised that it wasn't the droid that had stabilised the ship, it was the 
tractor beam from the Imperial star destroyer bearing down on his position. He 
checked his panel again, but the display and the mournful whistle from R2 showed 
that escape would be impossible.

	"Oh I've got a bad feeling about this," he murmured.

	*******

	Things were not going much better aboard the Millennium Falcon either. 
Control boards sparked and fused as strange electrical arcs shot through the 
ship.

	"What the hells going on?" shouted Han as he launched himself toward the 
cockpit.

	"I don't know. We engaged the hyperdrive, and then all hell broke loose." 
Shouted Leia in reply.

	Han scanned the displays, but they made no sense. The energy from the 
hyperdrive seemed to be in some kind of feedback loop. He glanced outside the 
cockpit, but instead of the stars of space or the odd blue glow seen during 
hyperspace, there was some kind of electrical storm. He was about to shut down 
the hyperdrive, when he heard it give a long groan, and shut down. Immediately 
the strange electrical storm disappeared, and the cockpit returned to a view of 
normal space.

	"Chewie, get the deflectors up, and see if you can find the Imperials" he 
ordered.

	Chewbacca yowled something in reply.

	"What do you mean you can find them?" shouted Han.

	Before Chewie could reply, the Falcon shook from a huge explosion, and 
acrid smoke filled the cockpit.

	"The fire suppression system is out, the lower holds are on fire" screamed 
Leia.

	Han glanced at his control boards, desperately trying to think of 
something to save his ship, but the boards showed that the Falcon was dying. 
Without power, and without the damage control systems, there was no way he could 
save it.

	"Chewie, do we have power to the lifepods?" he shouted.

	

	 ********

	"Report!" ordered Picard as he walked onto the bridge.

	"Sir, a ship just appeared just over twelve million kilometres away. From 
the neutrino emissions, it seems that it came from some kind of wormhole, but I 
am not detecting any such phenomenon." Report Data.

	"Yellow alert sir?" asked Riker

	"Not just yet number one. They're still some distance off, so we can take 
our time about this." Replied Picard.

	"I am not sure we can sir," interrupted Data. "The ship appears to be 
heavily damaged, and life support is failing."

	Picard glanced at Riker, and gave a short nod.

	"Helm, lay in an intercept course." Ordered Riker briskly.

	"Course laid in," reported Ensign Ro.

	"Engage!"

	The mighty Galaxy class starship leapt forward towards the stricken ship.

	"Sickbay, prepare to receive casualties. Engineering, prepare an away 
team. It looks like they need help" order Riker.

	"Open a hailing frequency" commanded Picard.

	"Frequency open!" rumbled Worf from the tactical station.

	"Unidentified ship, this is the Federation starship Enterprise. Do you 
require assistance?" said Picard.

	The captain waited a moment, and then glanced at Worf.

	 "There is no reply sir. However, their ship does appear to be in a 
serious condition.

	"Lifesigns?" asked Riker

	"Yes, four. Three human and one…..other!" reported Worf.

	"Transporter room one. Lock onto the lifesigns on the alien ship, and beam 
them aboard. Number one, put a tractor on the ship, and get the damage control 
teams aboard. Mr Worf, you're with me" said Picard as he stood and walked 
towards the turbolift.



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 6.

	Worf and Picard entered the transporter room, just as the transporter 
chief was re-materialising the crew of the alien ship.

	Picard had dealt with many first contact scenarios, and met literally 
hundreds of other races, but nothing could have prepared him for the scene that 
greeted his eyes.

	 As soon as the transporter cycle was complete bedlam broke out. The 
aliens were crouched down, looking as if they had been shielding themselves from 
something, probably the fire aboard their ship, thought Picard. One of the 
aliens, a huge hairy creature, started howling, and beating himself with his 
huge plate sized paws. The white male human ran around the panicked creature, 
frantically shouting at it, trying to calm it, and only making things worse. It 
all looked like some bizarre comedy routine.

	"Chewie, calm down, you're NOT on fire!!" screamed Han.

	None of the aliens seemed aware of the fact that they had left their ship, 
until the only female in the group looked up for a second, and realised that the 
flames (and their ship) were gone. Her face showing total shock, she glanced 
around quickly, and her gaze fell immediately upon Worf and Picard, standing 
watching their bizarre antics with barely concealed amusement.

	"Han?" she said quietly.

	Han Solo was so intent on Chewbacca, that at first he didn't hear Leia.

	"HAN!" shouted Leia in a louder voice that even got Chewbacca's attention.

	"WHAT?" shouted back the angry Corellian. However, even as he shouted, he 
seemed to become aware that his surroundings had changed. He stopped, and looked 
around in bewilderment.

	 "…..the hell?" he finished weakly.

	Picard glanced at Worf, and then stepped forward.

	"Welcome aboard the Enterprise. I'm sorry that we took you from your ship 
without warning, but it seemed that you were in immediate danger."

	"Uh…yeah…sure," said Han. "Umm….how?"

	Picard looked confused.

	"How what?"

	Han looked confused, and started get angry, but Lando stepped quickly 
forward.

	"I think my muddled friend is trying to ask how we got from our ship to 
yours," asked Lando, moving smoothly to the front of the group. He held out his 
hand. "Lando Calrissian."

	Picard took the man's hand and shook it firmly.

	"Captain Jean Luc Picard, commander of the Enterprise. As for how you got 
here, you were transported aboard using a matter energy transporter." replied 
Picard.

	"Matter energy transporter???"

	Lando paused to look at Leia, who could only shrug helplessly. Slowly 
Lando turned back to Picard and gave a crooked smile.

	"Ummm where are we?" he asked finally.

	Picard smiled at the man's confusion.

	"Maybe we should get you to sickbay, so our doctor can check you over. I 
assure you that you are safe aboard the Enterprise, and that we are doing all we 
can to save your ship," replied Picard trying to calm the obviously confused 
group.

	"My ship?" demanded Han pushing past Lando. "Where is it?"

	"We have damage control teams aboard, but we are bringing it into the 
shuttlebay. If you want, I can take you there, but I would recomm…"

	"Yeah yeah, later, first I want to see my ship," interrupted Han.

	Picard gave a mental sigh.

	"Of course, I understand. Mr Worf, will you take Mr…." Picard glanced 
questioningly at Han.

	"Solo, Han Solo." supplied the Correllian.

	"…Mr Solo down to the main shuttle bay," continued Picard. He glanced at 
Lando and Leia. "With your permission, I will take the rest of you to sick bay. 
I can answer any questions you may have there."

	Han looked about to argue, but Leia suddenly stepped in front of him, 
cutting him off before he could complain.

	"Captain, thank you for your offer. However, I've just realised that we 
are missing a member of our crew. He must still be aboard the Falcon."

	 Now it was Picard's turn to look confused.

	"Our sensors only picked up your life signs. I'm sorry but…"

	"No, you don't understand, it was a droid, an artificial construct. It 
wouldn't register as life." interrupted Leia.

	"I see, " said Picard, and quickly touched his comm badge. "Mr La Forge. 
The alien ship has an artificial life-form aboard. It won't register on our 
scanners, but please try to rescue it."

	"La Forge here sir," came the reply. "The alien ship has just been pulled 
into the bay. Fire crews are going aboard now. La Forge out."

	Picard turned back to Leia.

	"My people will do their best. They will get him out if at all possible."

	"Thank you Captain, that is much appreciated." replied Leia gratefully. 

	********** 

	Mon Montha looked out the window at the galaxy laid out before her. From 
this range, it all looked deceptively peaceful, but Montha's despair mirrored 
the despair of the whole rebel alliance. Almost the entire rebel alliance was 
here now, a battle armada, hovering outside the galaxy, driven from their hiding 
places by the on-going war.

	 At first she had watched with horror as the aliens destroyed planet after 
planet. Then she had been shocked beyond belief as the empire, now under Vader, 
had responded by destroying planets that the aliens had captured, with the might 
of the new Death Star.

	The whole war seemed to have degenerated into some horrific nightmare. 
Barely a day went by without news of yet another planet destroyed. The worst of 
it was that the news had ceased to shock her.

	For a while, she had held out some hope that the rebel mission to 
communicate with the aliens might succeed and that peace might be restored. She 
laughed grimly at that. Things must be bad if she considered the time before the 
aliens came as "peaceful". However, even that hope had been shattered now. Early 
this morning, the contact fleet had returned, with the news that not only had 
they failed to contact the aliens, but that they had lost Luke Skywalker, 
General Solo, General Calrissian and Princess Leia to an Imperial trap.

	It was a body blow to the rebels, and one that she wondered if they could 
ever recover from. Already there were rebels who said that they should contact 
Vader, and put the rebel fleet at his disposal to defend the galaxy from this 
terrible threat. After all, at least the empire was made up of their people. 
These aliens were something else entirely.

	She knew that unless something changed in the next few days, a split in 
the rebel alliance would become almost inevitable. 

	********** 

	Luke sat calmly in the cell aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Dark Star 
practising his Jedi meditation techniques.

	 He had known as he watched his X-wing pulled into the cavernous shuttle 
bay, that the Imperials would find out who he was. He was reasonably sure that 
Vader would have taken steps to ensure that if he ever was captured, that he 
should be brought to him as soon as possible. It had therefore been no surprise 
when a number of heavily armed guards had arrived at his cell, and transported 
him to this high security cell aboard the Dark Star for passage to Coruscant.

	 The Imperials seemed to be taking no chances with him. There were always 
at least ten heavily armed stormtroopers outside his door, and a number of 
surveillance devices were attached to the walls and ceiling of his cell. If he 
so much as sniffed, the Imperials would know.

	 Of course, none of these precautions could actually have kept him here if 
he had been truly determined to leave. However, the Imperials had told him that 
the survival of the other captured rebels on board would depend upon his "good" 
behaviour.

	Luke didn't trust them of course, but until the opportunity arose to 
rescue the other rebels, he had to go along with them.

	In the meantime, he meditated. 

	********** 

	"…and so Lord Vader, as you can see we have taken heavy damage to our 
construction facilities. It will take months to get new facilities on line, 
especially considering the manpower shortages" reported the officer.

	"Manpower shortages do not concern me Captain. I want new ships!" said 
Vader ominously.

	"But my Lord, people are fleeing the planets. They’re terrified that the 
aliens will appear and destroy them. Whole economies are collapsing because 
there aren't enough people to…"

	The Captain stopped suddenly, he eyes bulging as an unseen force gripped 
his throat a squeezed. Vader stepped closer and spoke menacingly.

	 "I don't think you understood me Captain. I said that manpower shortages 
do not concern me. The empire is at war. If people will not go to work 
voluntarily, then you will shoot deserters. Do I make myself clear?"

	The officer nodded frantically, unable to speak as the pressure on his 
throat increased.

	"Very good. Then I expect the manpower problems to cease."

	Vader turned to a Lieutenant standing waiting to deliver a report, and the 
force holding the Captain's throat was released. The nearly asphyxiated officer 
pitched forward onto the table, gasping and coughing weakly.

	The lieutenant stepped forward nervously, glancing at the spluttering 
Captain, and then snapped to attention as Vader spoke.

	"Report!" ordered Vader.

	"My lord, we have a report from task force 117.2. They report that they 
have captured Luke Skywalker and have dispatched a ship to bring him here."

	Vader made no movement, and after a few seconds, he nodded to the 
lieutenant to leave. The officer left quickly, glad that he had brought good 
news rather than bad. So many officers found that bringing bad news was….fatal!

	Vader stared out the window the Imperial palace. So his son had been 
captured. All was coming together. Soon he would rule the galaxy unopposed, with 
his son at his side.



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 7.

	Han walked dejectedly around the Falcon. The ship had always looked 
battered, but now it looked like it might well be about to fall apart. Scorch 
marks lined the walls and the floors, and the stench of burning filled the air. 
He was lucky that this ship…the Enterprise… had turned up when it did. A few 
more minutes and the Falcon would have been a total loss. He sighed and forced 
himself to catalogue the damage;

	 Environmental system - destroyed

	Sub-light engines, heavily damaged, but repairable

	Sensors - surprisingly intact.

	Weapons - destroyed (the Falcons internal ventilation system had funnelled 
the fire and heat down the shaft leading to the quad turrets and totally 
destroyed them!)

	Hyperdrive - damaged, but at least it looked repairable.

	 He sat down heavily on the ramp, and hung his head in his hands. How the 
hell was he going to get the ship repaired?

	********

	Luke stood in the control centre of the Death Star. Bustling imperial 
officers hurried about their business, pausing only to salute him as he walked 
over to the main fire control station.

	Taking his position at the main console, he looked up at the main display. 
He could see the beautiful image of the peaceful blue planet ahead of him. The 
Death Star's scanners showed the appearance of towns and cities. With the force, 
he could sense the presence of billions of beings on the world, their hopes, 
their fears, and their loves.

	 Slowly and deliberately, Luke reached over and pushed down on the fire 
control button. The Death Star's super laser fired, striking the planet almost 
instantly, and blowing the beautiful blue planet, and it's six billion 
inhabitants into dust.

	Luke woke up screaming…….

	For a few seconds a mix of terror and exultation filled him, and even with 
Jedi relaxation techniques, it took a few moments before he could calm his 
shivering sweaty body.

	 Once he managed to calm himself sufficiently, he took a deep breath and 
tried to consider his dream. Yoda had taught him that sometimes dreams could be 
a way of accessing the subconscious, or could even be hints about the future.

	Could this be his future?

	Surely not!

	It was a long while before Luke Skywalker could sleep again.

	

	 ********

	"I'm telling you, there's no way I'm going cap in hand to the empire," 
said Ackbar angrily.

	"Dammit Admiral, no one is saying that. All we want is to help defend this 
galaxy. It is our home you know!" said an angry Correllian pilot.

	"Maybe Ackbar would feel differently if his planet had been destroyed," 
commented the Bothan councillor Borsk bitterly.

	"That unfair," shouted Wedge. "The Admiral has as much at stake here as 
the rest of us. You're fools if you think the empire is just going to kiss and 
make up."

	"What choice do they have. The empire is losing this war. They need us, 
and that means we can make our own terms. Besides, we're not dealing with the 
emperor now," shouted a human from the back of the hall.

	Mon Montha closed her eyes in sadness. The rebel alliance was coming 
apart, and there was nothing she could do to save it. Too many planets had been 
destroyed, and almost everyone had lost someone that they loved. It was no 
surprise that the average rank and file wanted to fight back. Even if that meant 
fighting alongside the empire.

	"Maybe you humans might get a good deal from the empire, but I doubt that 
the rest of us will," said Ackbar bitterly.

	The hall exploded into shouts, and Mon Montha realised that the meeting 
was close to chaos. A number of the more headstrong members looked close to 
violence. Slowly she stood, and looked out over the assembled rebels.

	At first the noise continued unabated, but slowly people saw her standing 
there, and began to stop arguing and wait expectantly for her to speak. Finally, 
even the most violent debaters paused and turned to hear her.

	 "My friends, we formed this alliance to fight the worst evil in the 
galaxy. However, now some of you are saying that another, more terrible evil has 
arisen. You say that we should put aside our differences with the empire, and 
fight alongside them to repel this alien invasion."

	She paused for a moment to gaze around the crowded hall, a terrible 
sadness filling her as she saw the angry faces and realised that this might well 
be the end of the alliance.

	"This alliance was founded on the principles of hope, justice and common 
interest. Without those principles, it cannot survive. Therefore, the future of 
the alliance will be decided here and now. We are the representatives of the 
alliance, and we will vote on its future. The choice is simple. Do we join the 
empire in it's war with the aliens, or do we remain independent, and do what we 
can from outside the empire? I will abide by the results. If the vote is to join 
the empire, I will open negotiations to obtain the best pact possible for 
everyone. May the force guide your decision."

	With a tired sigh she sat back down, and the hall exploded once more into 
argument.

	********

	Lando and Leia stopped talking as the door slid open and Han walked in.

	"Han, how bad is it, can the Falcon be repaired?" asked Lando.

	Han gave a short laugh.

	"Sure, if you have to have a couple of billion in the bank to pay for it." 
He answered grimly.

	Leia glanced at Lando, and then turned to Han.

	"Actually money make be the least of our problems," she said. "Have you 
had a chance to talk to the crew of this ship?"

	"Not really, I've been in busy in the Falcon. Why?"

	Leia gave Lando another worried look.

	"They've never heard of the empire!"

	Han looked at Leia as if she had just gone mad.

	"Never heard of the empire?" he asked sarcastically. "What, did they just 
miss the last twenty five years? Don't be ridiculous, everyone in the galaxy 
knows about the empire!"

	"Yeah well that's really the crux of it old buddy," said Lando. "You see, 
as far as we can tell, we're not in our galaxy any more."

	There was a long pause.

	"You have got to be kidding me," said Han. "The Falcon is the fastest hunk 
of junk in space, but even it would take years to cross the space between 
galaxies."

	"Then how do you explain it," asked Leia in exasperation. "These people 
have never heard of the Empire, yet they claim to be one of the major powers in 
this quadrant of the galaxy. They have technology that we have never seen before 
like this matter- energy transporter."

	Han shivered slightly.

	 "Yeah, I don't like that idea at all." He said.

	"I know what you mean," replied Lando. "One of the crew explained it to 
me. You get taken apart, molecule by molecule. Then you get moved and slowly 
reassembled."

	He stopped to look at Han's horrified expression, then shivered 
theatrically and continued

	"It's enough to give you nightmares. But let me show you something else 
they told us about when they brought us here."

	Without waiting for an answer, he walked over to an alcove in the wall.

	"Computer, give me a glass of water!" he ordered.

	"Please specify temperature," replied the computer.

	"Ummm…something just above freezing should be fine." He answered.

	Han had been watching without much interest, but then he shot bolt upright 
in shock as a glass of water materialised in the alcove out of nowhere.

	"How the hell…..?" began Han.

	"They call it a replicator. Apparently they get all their food from these 
whilst aboard ship." He paused to hand the glass to Han. "Try it!"

	Looking at the glass as if it were some kind if venomous Mynock, Han took 
a short sip. To his surprise the water tasted quite normal.

	 "Not bad is it?" asked Lando.

	"No, in fact, it tastes quite good." Replied Han.

	 He took a longer drink.

	"Especially considering that it apparently comes directly from their waste 
systems." Finished Lando smugly.

	The sound of Han spitting the water across the room was only beaten by the 
sound of the others laughter.

	********

	"So what are you saying Data?" asked Riker. "How can they be human if they 
don't come from this galaxy."

	"Commander," replied the Android. "whilst it is an established scientific 
fact that most humanoids are descended from stock planted on different planets 
by an extinct race that we know only as 'The Preservers'. It is not known 
whether the preservers limited their activity to just our galaxy. Indeed, we do 
not know whether the preservers actually originated in our galaxy. We do know 
that they had access to advanced transportation techniques, similar to that of 
the Iconian empire. It is quite possible that these aliens are descended from 
the same human stock, but planted in another galaxy. In effect commander, they 
are your cousins."

	Riker turned a gave Picard an incredulous glance, and then shook his head 
in disbelief..

	"Their genealogy can wait for another time. How do we know for certain 
that they come from another galaxy?" asked Picard.

	"Captain, there seems to be ample evidence to support this theory. I have 
reviewed the sensor logs prior to their appearance. Whilst there was 
considerable neutrino interference, I have managed to provide enough filtering 
to get clear readings. As we suspected, they did originate from a wormhole, but 
the power of the wormhole is far greater than any others were have ever 
encountered. For the brief instant that the wormhole was open, we got a reading 
of the space at the other end of the tunnel. The stellar cartography department 
is still trying to discover exactly which galaxy they come from, but they report 
that it must be 'far far away'." Reported Data.

	"They also asked about something called 'The Galactic Empire'," said Worf. 
"and seemed shocked that I did not know of it."

	"Also, there are no records of any species like that big hairy one in the 
Federation medical database." Reported Beverly.

	"Hmm….well, it certainly seems like we have a mystery here. For a start, 
where is the wormhole now?" said Picard.

	"I wish we knew sir," answer Geordi. "It seems as if the alien ship, the 
Millennium Falcon I believe they call it, it seems it destabilised the wormhole 
somehow. In effect, our end has become unglued."

	"Unglued?" asked Riker.

	"Yes sir. At the other end it's still in the same place, but our end is 
now jumping all over our galaxy. Only the gravitational pull of our galaxy stops 
it from jumping clean away." Answered La Forge.

	"So it could reappear in the next minute, or never again." Said Picard.

	La Forge could only nod sadly in reply.

	"I see." Picard took a deep breath as he tried to think of the best way to 
proceed. "Very well, Data, Geordi, I want you to try to find some way to predict 
where the wormhole will go. If we can help them we should at least try. Will, 
you have the bridge. Lay in a course for Outpost Liberty, warp four. Deanna, you 
and I will break the bad news to our 'cousins'!"

	

	

	********

	The Commander of the Species 8472 fleet stared out into space in dismay. 
Since they had arrived in this galaxy, the species had received a steady supply 
of new ships from home to fuel the colossal war effort.

	However, the only link they had to home was the wormhole. Normally this 
would mean that there should be a huge fleet around it, making sure that no 
aliens could get near it. However, after many debates it had been decided that 
since the wormhole was invisible on this end, its best defence was to not defend 
it at all. A fleet presence around the wormhole would be sure to draw an alien 
attack, but since the aliens knew nothing of the wormhole, it was reasoned that 
it was safer to leave it undefended. Convoys from home were only allowed through 
when the area was clear of alien ships.

	 Up till now, the theory had worked well. After all, the odds of a ship 
physically running into it were astronomically remote.

	 However, it seemed that in this galaxy, million to one chances happened 
nine times out of ten.

	 A small battle had erupted unexpectedly around the wormhole, with 
fighting between two different groups of aliens. One of the alien ships had 
tried to jump to hyperspace, but had run directly into the wormhole as it 
engaged it's engines.

	 Unfortunately, this had caused the wormhole to become unstable. He had 
ordered some ships through, but none had returned. Worse still, no convoys were 
coming through from home.

	 Up till now, the war had been progressing quite satisfactorily, but 
without supplies and reinforcements……

	 He had already sent out orders to cancel new offensives. Until the link 
to home could be re-established, the species would have to stand on the 
defensive!



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 8.

	The Rebel officer handed the note containing the vote result to Mon 
Montha. He then gave a sharp salute and stepped back, his face stony. Mon Montha 
opened the note and read it carefully, her face betraying no emotion.

	 "So," she thought. "This is the future of the alliance."

	She stepped up to the comms station, and waited quietly for the comms 
officer of the cruiser "Rebel Hope" to patch her through to the rest of the 
fleet.

	The voting results had finally been calculated, and it was now her duty to 
pass on the result to the rest of the rebellion. It had been far closer than she 
had ever believed possible, but at least they now know, at least there was now a 
decision.

	 The rebellion seemed to have been split almost in half. On the one hand 
there were the people who had personal reasons to hate or fear the empire. These 
included people who had been former imperial slaves, but also those who had been 
former Imperial officers. For many reasons these people could never contemplate 
fighting alongside the empire. Their leader was Admiral Ackbar.

	The other group was made up from people who had joined the rebellion for 
many other reasons. It included many of the youngest members of the alliance. 
Often idealistic "farm boys" whose eyes were filled with dreams of glory. It 
also included some of the more political members, who thought that with the 
emperor's death, an honourable peace could be made. Others were simply people 
who had seen their planets destroyed, and would do anything to get a chance to 
fight back against the aliens. This group's leader had emerged as Councillor 
Borsk.

	 The bridge was silent, and then the comms officer nodded for Mon Montha 
to proceed.

	*******

	On the bridge of Calamari cruiser "Home one", Admiral Ackbar watched the 
viewscreen showing Mon Montha's address. Over the whole rebel fleet, almost 
everyone was watching.

	"My fellow rebels," began Mon Montha. "The vote is complete, and the 
results have been calculated. I know that this has been hard for many of you, 
but I ask that you abide by the result and that…."

	"TRAITOR!!!!"

	For a second Admiral Ackbar thought the shout had come from his own 
bridge, but then he saw Mon Montha start to turn around, her face etched with 
shock. She didn't complete the turn! A blaster bolt hit her squarely in the 
chest, blasting a huge hole and throwing her backward out of the camera's view.

	 A fraction of a second later the officer who had fired (it was the 
officer that had handed Mon Montha the vote result, realised Ackbar) was cut 
down by multiple bolts. Other Blaster bolts rapidly filled the screen as bridge 
officers drew their weapons and started to exchange fire.

	 "Oh Sith!" spat Ackbar as he watched the "Rebel Hope" start to slowly 
drop out of position as the fighting spread rapidly through her. He turned a 
slammed a hand down on his chair's comm system.

	"Rebel fleet, the word is "Yavin". I say again, the word is "Yavin"!" he 
shouted.

	*******

	Down in the ship's fighter bay Wedge heard the order with disbelief and 
cursed softly. He had never quite believed it would come to this. Rebel fighting 
rebel? However, he had his orders, and almost as soon as Ackbar cleared the 
channel, Wedge was speaking.

	"Okay Rogues, you know what to do, let's do it!"

	Without further comment, his X-Wing fighter was blasted out into space by 
the grav catapult.

	*******

	Throughout the rebel fleet the fighting spread like wildfire. People, who 
days earlier would have called one another brother, now turned on each other 
with unbridled fury.

	 A Nebulon B frigate lurched out of position spinning slowly with small 
explosions rippling down her flanks as it's engineering section was turned into 
a bloody battlefield.

	A Correllian corvette announced it's loyalty to Admiral Ackbar, and was 
promptly pounded by concentrated fire from a Carrack cruiser. A Nebulon B joined 
in, adding it's fire to the Carrack's and the corvette blew apart.

	Other ships took this as a signal, and opened fire on the Nebulon and 
Carrack. The fleet rapidly degenerated into chaos.

	 In some ships, where neither side had complete control, weapons were 
fired at ships from both sides, adding to the confusion. In one case, control of 
a turbolaser battery changed three times. Each time control changed, the battery 
changed it's targeting to attack the other side. Eventually Ackbar's forces took 
the battery and the ship.

	Three lighter ships attacked a Calamari star Cruiser, one of them 
physically ramming the larger ship. The Star Cruiser lurched away from the 
battle, atmosphere streaming from her shattered hull, and leaving a trail of 
debris.

	Fighters swept around the fleet, trying to pick out friends from foes. 
Often not knowing even when they fired, whether they had identified correctly.

	The battle descended rapidly into chaos!

	*******

	Luke walked slowly up the steps flanked by two of the elite praetorian 
guards.

	He had been brought aboard the Super star destroyer just minutes ago, but 
he could already feel Vader's…..his father's….presence.

	Ahead of him the door slid open, and without a word the two guards stepped 
to either side leaving him alone to enter. He glanced at them for a moment, and 
then stepped into the semi darkness of the room, his jedi senses alert.

	 The sound of Vader's laboured mechanical breathing filled his ears, and 
he stepped lightly forward towards the sound.

	 Yoda had told him that he must confront Vader, that it was his destiny. 
Deep inside, though it terrified him, he knew that his wizened teacher had been 
right. Somehow he knew that by confronting Vader, he would fit the last piece 
into the puzzle, and he would become a Jedi at last, like his father before him.

	Ahead of him, he could make out the black robed figure of Vader, standing 
with his back to the room, gazing out of a window to the stars.

	 Luke walked slowly forward, then stopped as his eyes fell on the two 
short metal tubes lying on a table just behind Vader. Almost automatically, he 
started to reach out with his mind to pull his lightsaber to him, but something 
made him stop.

	 He could almost feel the war raging inside his mind. One part of him 
wanted to take the weapon and use it to cut down Vader. The Dark Lord was 
defenceless. There would never be another chance like this! Luke could destroy 
him here and now, and free the galaxy from his evil presence.

	 But the other part of Luke mind bade caution. Was Vader really 
defenceless? Was this the right thing to do? The ways of the force were subtle, 
and many paths led to the dark side.

	Slowly he forced himself to relax and lower his arm.

	"Yoda taught you well young Skywalker" intoned Vader, turning around 
slowly.

	"Yes….father!" replied Luke, acknowledging Vader as his father.

	"So, you have accepted the truth?" gloated Vader.

	"I have accepted that you were once Anakin Skywalker….my father!"

	There was a long pause.

	"I am still your father…and your emperor!" replied Vader eventually.

	Luke shrugged.

	"The Emperor is gone. Will you last as long as he did?"

	Vader seemed to regard Luke for a moment.

	 "Did Yoda teach you how to manipulate the force to see the future?" he 
asked finally.

	For a moment Luke was thrown by the sudden change of topic.

	"Some," he admitted. "He taught me that the future is always in motion. 
That it is difficult to see."

	For a moment Luke remembered that it was his attempt to see the future 
that had lead to his last confrontation with Vader. Slowly he flexed the 
artificial hand, remembering what the last meeting had cost him.

	"What did you see?" asked Vader.

	Luke considered, wondering what it was that Vader wanted.

	"I saw images, it was very confused."

	"Try now!" ordered Vader suddenly. "Try to see the future of the 
empire….the future of this galaxy."

	Luke looked warily at the Dark Lord, wondering if this was some kind of 
trick. But then he shrugged. If Vader wanted him dead, there were many more 
efficient ways to do it than to bring him here. He closed his eyes, and started 
to use Jedi meditation techniques to control his breathing.

	At first he found it quite hard, since his body was so keyed up, but 
eventually he slipped into a relaxed, almost trance-like state.

	Concentrating his mind, he focused on the future. At first it was 
difficult to bring order from the chaos, but finally he managed to visualise a 
pattern.

	The future lay ahead of him. Like a giant root system, paths lead off in 
many directions. The future was not set, and any of these paths could be the 
route that history would take.

	"Focus your mind on the broad sweep," ordered Vader. "Do not get caught up 
with details or individuals. What do you see?"

	Luke pushed his mind forward, travelling down the pathways, seeing the 
pathways branch and multiply in a bewildering kaleidoscope of colour. Suddenly 
he felt his mind freeze as a horrifying cold blackness swept over him. 
Instinctively he recoiled back, his mind shuddering in horror. He pulled himself 
out of the blackness and started to retreat back up the paths of history to the 
present. However, he was quickly stopped by Vader's voice.

	"Now try again! Take another path."

	Warily Luke obeyed. However, this time he was more careful, probing ahead 
with his mind. He only progressed a few paths, before he sensed the horrifying 
blackness ahead once more. Not wanting to get any closer, he stopped, retreating 
a few paths to try again. But once again he hit the blackness. And again….and 
again.

	Finally, after many attempts, he brought his mind back to the present, and 
slowly opened his eyes.

	Vader still stood before him, and imposing figure in black.

	"What was that darkness?" asked Luke. "Why could I not sense the future of 
the empire through the force?"

	 There was a long paused before Vader replied.

	"You could not sense the future of the empire, because it has none. What 
you saw was the emptiness that is left when all life in this galaxy is gone! 
What you saw was the defeat of the empire by the aliens."

	Luke reeled back from the answer, his mind refusing to accept. He had 
fought against the empire since he had first left Tatooine, but somehow the 
empire had always been there, a solid foundation. He had hope that the empire 
could be defeated and turned into a new republic, but thought of total 
destruction had never crossed his mind. The thought that it could be totally 
destroyed was almost beyond comprehension. He realised that he had felt a taste 
of what Ben had felt when Alderran had been destroyed. A terrible disturbance in 
the force.

	"But that's not possible, there must be something we can do." He cried.

	"There is," replied Vader. "The future is not set, it is always in motion. 
Though you did not see them, there are still other futures, a few paths to 
victory…to the survival of at least some of our galaxy."

	"How?" blurted Luke, unable to stop himself.

	There was a long pause, and then Vader held out his hand.

	"Join me Luke, and together we can save the galaxy!"



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 9.

	Outpost Liberty lay in one of the most critical areas of the Federation. 
Not far from the Cardassian and Klingon borders, it had been attacked many times 
over the years. However, it had always seemed to weather the storm somehow.

	The crew of the Millennium Falcon watched through the large windows of 
tenforward as the Enterprise began docking at one of the station's large pylons.

	Other starships were also docked or lazily orbiting the massive structure. 
Some of the Enterprise's crewmembers could be heard commenting on the other 
ships.

	"See there, that's the new Excelsior, Admiral Quinton's own ship…"

	"Hey look, that's the Solturian ship…the Manticore….I wonder what she's 
doing here?"

	"….Is that the Defiant? Oh no, it's the Valiant, the station's picket 
ship!"

	"Hey look, there's the Vengeance, Gabriel Rames's ship. Must be trouble 
out along the Cardie border….."

	 None of the names meant much to Han, but it was interesting to see the 
design of the other ships. Some seemed to be similar to the Enterprise, but 
others were completely different. One of the ships even had an almost organic 
look to it (complete with tenticles!).

	"Are you sure we're doing the right thing?" asked Lando.

	"Well old buddy, it's not like we've got a lot of choice." Replied Han. 
"The Falcon's not going anywhere until she gets some serious repairs. Since we 
don't have any hard cash, all we can do is trade."

	"Do you think they'll go for it?" asked Leia in a worried voice.

	"Are you kidding? Once we tell them how fast hyperdrive is, they'll bite 
our fingers off." replied Han with a grin. "No, I'm more worried that we won't 
be able to mate their technology to ours to repair the Falcon."

	"Besides," interrupted Lando with a predatory grin." There's always plan 
B."

	"Plan B?" asked Leia warily.

	"Yep. I was talking to the first officer…what's his name….Riker? Anyway, 
the Enterprise apparently has some kind of card game night….something called 
'Poker'?"

	"You're not suggesting???" asked Leia with a pained expression.

	"Sure am. If they won't trade, we'll win the cost of repairs off them" 
said Lando with a laugh.

	*********

	"Captain, may I speak with you for a moment" asked Data from the science 
station.

	Picard looked up from the PADD he had been examining. He hated docking 
with starbases because it always seemed to allow vast amounts of paperwork that 
had been chasing him around the quadrant, to finally catch up with him.

	"Of course Mr Data, what is it?" he replied.

	"I have been examining the sensor data from the wormhole, and comparing it 
to the sensor data that Captain Solo gave us from the Falcon. I have been able 
to refine the data quite considerably. In effect, we now have data from outside 
the anomaly from our sensors, and from inside the anomaly from the Falcon."

	"I see, and what have you discovered?" asked Picard.

	"The subspace fluctuations that are present within the anomaly, whilst 
still very powerful and unknown, may not, after further investigation, cause the 
anomaly to have a truly indiscriminate oscillation in it's prospective 
locality."

	Picard thought for a moment.

	"You mean you can predict where it's going to appear?"

	A small frown creased Data's forehead.

	"I believe that is what I said." He replied in a puzzled voice.

	 Picard suppressed a smile.

	"Where will it appear next?" he asked patiently.

	Data turned back to the science console and touched the display.

	"Here sir. Just inside the Federation border with the Klingons. It will 
appear in 72.2 hours, and will only remain there for 23.5 hours."

	"Hmmm" muttered Picard. "That doesn't give us much time to help these 
people. Is there any way to stabilise the wormhole?"

	"I believe so sir. The wormhole seems to exhibit some gravitational 
attraction. If we could create a gravitational field near the location, it 
should hold the wormhole there. There is a planet nearby that should provide 
sufficient gravitational attraction."

	"How do we get the wormhole near the planet though?"

	"I have also examined some possible solution for that too. If two 
starships were to focus their navigational deflectors on the anomaly, they 
should be able to generate sufficient force to start the object moving. Once 
near the planet, they could simply reverse the deflectors to bring it to a 
halt."

	Picard considered the idea for a moment.

	"I want you to continue to refine your data and this plan. I'm going to 
talk to Admiral Quinton to see if he can release another starship to help us." 
Said Picard.

	*******

	"….and so you see Admiral, this could be a mutually beneficial exchange." 
Finished Lando.

	Admiral Quinton sat back in his chair and considered the three people in 
front of him. He had read Picard's report on them and the wormhole, but he still 
found it hard to believe that they had indeed come from another galaxy. After 
all, they looked so….human.

	"Of course, I only have your word that you have this technology." He said 
stalling for time.

	"Believe us Admiral, we do. You are more than welcome to examine the 
Falcon's performance charts. Of course examination of the actual drive system 
will have to wait until after we sign an agreement." Said Leia smoothly.

	"And what do you want in return?" asked Quinton finally.

	"Nothing much. We want full and free repairs to the Falcon, and help 
finding the wormhole so we can get back home." Said Han firmly.

	Quinton considered. If these people were telling the truth, this could be 
the biggest breakthrough in drive technology since Zefram Cockrane had perfected 
the warp core. It was, he decided after a seconds thought, worth a gamble.

	"Okay," he said finally. Then he grinned. "We'll repair your ship. 
However, if your claims for the drive system don't pan out, you'll owe us one 
heck of a repair bill."

	"What about help finding the wormhole?" asked Lando.

	"Captain Picard has already submitted a plan to do just that. The 
Enterprise and the Excelsior will be leaving in three hours."

	"Three hours??" bemoaned Solo. "There's no way we'll get the Falcon 
repaired by then."

	"Not to worry Captain Solo," said Quinton calmly. "We also have a plan to 
lock the wormhole in position. Assuming the plan works, the wormhole will be 
there until we get the Falcon repaired."

	Quinton gave another big grin.

	"Besides, Liberty could do with it's own wormhole. Deep Space Nine has 
been getting far too big for it's boots."

	Leia looked at Quinton in confusion.

	"Deep space what?" she asked.

	*********

	"Are you sure about this?" asked Han for the twentieth time.

	"Of course I am," replied Leia testily. "You and Chewie are needed here to 
supervise the repairs to the Falcon. It makes sense that Lando and I go with the 
Enterprise. We'll be perfectly safe."

	"Besides," said Lando putting an arm around Leia and pulling her in close. 
"I'll look after her."

	Han muttered something unintelligible under his breath, and then 
deliberately removed Lando's arm from Leia.

	 "That's exactly what I was afraid of." He replied.

	Leia smiled reassuringly.

	"We'll be fine. Besides, you needn't worry about me. Lando has his eye on 
the Enterprise's councillor." She said mischievously.

	"Deanna and I are just friends." Replied Lando airily.

	"Yeah right," replied Han without conviction.

	"No really," said Lando with a hurt expression. Then he grinned weakly. 
"Besides, that Klingon chief of security warned me that he would kill me if I 
did anything."

	Han laughed.

	"Maybe I should start some rumours before you leave," said Han.

	"It's okay for you, you don't get threatened" moaned Lando with a pained 
expression. "If I had a Wookie guarding me, no one would threaten me either."

	"Take care of yourself Han, and don't worry." said Leia giving him a quick 
kiss. "We'll be back in a few days. After all, it's not as if we'll be going up 
against the Empire."



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 10.

	"Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" ordered Picard to the replicator, then paused and 
turned to Riker. "Can I get you something number one?".

	"No thanks sir. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

	Picard paused for a moment, a frown creasing his brow.

	"Have you spoke to our guests much regarding their own galaxy?" he asked 
finally.

	"Not really sir. I understand that they have been involved in some kind of 
war, but I don't know the details. Councillor Troi may have a better idea, she 
has been spending some time with one of them." Replied Riker without changing 
expression.

	Picard looked up sharply at Riker's tone.

	"Jealous number one?" he asked lightly.

	"In no way sir. Deanna and I are just friends. She can see who she likes."

	Picard regarded his first officer for a moment, and took a sip of the hot 
tea.

	"You know Will, sometimes you have to make sacrifices in life, but 
sometimes you don't. There's nothing actually in the regulations that stop you 
and the councillor having a relationship."

	"I understand that sir," replied Riker." But really, we are just friends 
now."

	Picard took another sip of tea, not fooled at all by his first officer's 
insistence. However, after a moment's consideration, he decided not to press the 
issue. After all, it wasn't exactly a problem that, as Captain, he could 
properly interfere in. He sighed and decided to let it rest.

	"I have spoken at some length with our guests. It seems that they are not 
so much involved in a war, as a rebellion." Said Picard.

	Riker blinked in surprise.

	"I see. May I ask how that affects their request for aid. After all, isn't 
it Federation policy not to get involved in internal power struggles?"

	Picard looked troubled.

	"Normally yes. However, there are a number of factors that make this case 
particularly sensitive. Firstly, it seems that the other galaxy is united under 
the rule of a single government. As you can imagine, that is an extraordinarily 
large political unit, and one that the Federation council is most worried about. 
Especially in light of what our guests have told us about it's policies. Whilst 
we obviously cannot take what they say as the truth, their stories 
are…..worrying. This 'galactic empire' appears to be brutal in the extreme"

	"I see," said Riker. "In that case, why are we going to stabilise the 
wormhole? Surely it would be safer to leave it alone."

	"Starfleet is worried that since the wormhole is currently jumping around 
the galaxy, it presents an unpredictable hazard. Currently we have no way of 
knowing if ships are coming through from the other galaxy or not. However, if we 
lock it in one place, we can monitor and hopefully control any passage of 
ships."

	"And what if the aliens are hostile? What if this 'empire' decides to try 
to come through?" asked Riker.

	Picard took another long sip.

	"Starfleet has learnt a lot from the mistakes that were made during the 
first contact with the Dominion. It is therefore their orders that other than 
the Millennium Falcon, no ships will be allowed through the wormhole. As soon as 
it is in place, we are to place a large number of gravitic mines around the 
entrance. Other ships are on their way to stand guard until some permanent 
fortifications can be brought up."

	"Fortifications?" exclaimed Riker. "That doesn't sound much like of a 
first contact procedure"

	 "As I said, starfleet has learnt a lot from the Dominion. Including the 
lesson that not all aliens will listen to reason. Hopefully this will all turn 
out to be paranoia, but in this case, discretion may be the better part of 
valour."

	********

	Far away from the Enterprise, the commander of the Species 8472 supply 
fleet was not happy.

	 The wormhole had disappeared, and he had been out of contact with the 
invasion fleet in the other galaxy for over a week.

	 Two ships had returned from the other galaxy, but they reported that the 
wormhole was unstable, and that they had been deposited in this galaxy in 
completely different locations.

	 The species scientists had determined from the ships sensor logs that the 
wormhole had become unstable. They were trying to predict where the wormhole 
would appear, but until then, all the commander could do was to continue the 
search through the galaxy.

	*******

	The Imperial squadron hung motionless in space, their sensors operating at 
maximum power….and seeing nothing.

	"Are you sure that this is the right place?" asked Captain Caroc.

	"Yes sir. This is the exact co-ordinates that the commodore said that they 
saw the rebel freighter disappear." Replied the intelligence officer.

	"Hmmm….well there's nothing there now. In my opinion this is a waste of 
time. We should be out fighting the aliens." Said the Captain testily.

	"I'm not sure that your observations are to be trusted Captain" said a 
voice behind him making him jump.

	"Admiral Thrawn, I was just going to call you" he spluttered.

	"Indeed captain. Your dedication to duty is truly outstanding, if a little 
tardy."

	Thrawn ignored the red face Captain and carefully studied the sensor 
readings.

	 "However, you do appear to be correct. There is nothing there. At least, 
there's nothing that we can see from here. Prepare a number of probes, we will 
launch them in one hour." said Thrawn finally. " I will be in my chambers until 
then." 

	********** 

	"Signal the Excelsior, and prepare to activate the main deflector." 
Ordered Picard.

	"Commander Verlin on the Excelsior reports ready." Reported Riker.

	"Activate!" said Picard.

	The Galaxy class starship's mighty deflector came to life, glowing with 
power. A beam lanced out striking the wormhole and making it flare with energy. 
A few kilometres away, the USS Excelsior also fired, her deflector beam striking 
a fraction of a second after the Enterprise's.

	"We are moving the anomaly sir," reported Data. "Acceleration seems to be 
steadying at 8km/sec2. The anomaly is emitting some odd theta band radiation, 
but otherwise all readings are within expected parameters."

	"Excellent Data. According to the projections, we will need to continue 
pushing for the next ten minutes, and then we swing around to the other side to 
bring it to a halt. Is that still correct?" asked Picard.

	"Yes, sir. Everything is going according to plan!" replied the Android.

	 *********

	"Commander," shouted the species 8472 scientist excitedly. "The wormhole 
is emitting theta band radiation over subspace. We have managed to use it to get 
a lock on it's location."

	 The scientist looked down at his computer for a moment.

	 "We've got it. I'm transmitted the co-ordinates now."

	"Excellent work," replied the commander. Then, with a quick command, he 
changed to the fleet communication system. "All ships standby. We have located 
the wormhole and are proceeding there now. Estimated time of arrival….25 
minutes."

	********

	Admiral Thrawn's communicator chirped at him."

	"What is it bridge?" he asked calmly.

	"Sir, we are getting some odd radiation readings. They appear to be coming 
from the exact location where the rebel freighter disappeared." Reported the 
Captain.

	Thrawn could hear some excited bridge chatter over the intercom.

	"Sir," continued the Captain. "We're now getting something else…please 
wait just a moment…....sir, there's definitely something there. We're trying to 
get a firm reading, but it looks like some kind of wormhole."

	Thrawn smiled slowly.

	"Captain, recall all the fleet fighters, and bring the fleet to alert 
status. As soon as the fighters are aboard, the squadron will proceed by 
divisions into the wormhole."

	"Understood sir. The last fighter should be aboard within twenty minutes!"

	 *********

	"Deactivate deflector in three…..two….one…..now!" ordered Picard.

	Princess Leia watched as the viewscreen showed the beam hitting the 
wormhole stopping abruptly.

	"Deflector beam stopped." Reported La Forge.

	"The Excelsior has also stopped. I am checking the wormhole's location 
now." Said Data. "Confirmed, the wormhole is now in a stable orbit of the 
planet."

	"Excellent work everyone. Standby to proceed with the second phase" 
ordered Picard.

	Leia and Lando stepped forward from their position at the side of the 
bridge.

	"Captain, I just want to thank you for all your help. We won't forget 
this." Said Leia

	"You are quite welcome Princess. After all, it wasn't that difficult." 
Said Picard with a smile. "It's good to have a flawless operation once in a 
while."



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 11.

	"Helm, bring us about, one quarter impulse. Lay in a course to take us on 
our first minelaying run." Ordered Riker.

	Picard watched for a moment as the Enterprise swung smoothly around onto 
it's new course, then he turned to the first officer.

	"You seem to have it all in hand here number one, I'm going to my ready 
room."

	"Understood sir. I'll let you know when we've finished our first run." 
Replied Riker.

	Picard had just reached the door of the ready room, when a call from Data 
stopped him.

	"Sir, I am receiving some very odd readings from the wormhole."

	"Explain!" ordered Picard.

	"I am not certain I can sir. The energy output just jumped by an order of 
magnitude, and it has begun emitting tachyon pulses." Replied the second officer 
in a puzzled tone.

	Picard thought for a moment, then a worried look crossed his face.

	"Could it be something coming through?" he asked the android.

	Data considered for a second.

	"It is possible sir, but the energy levels are far beyond what we saw when 
the Millennium Falcon exited the wormhole. To cause these power levels would 
require a large number of vessels the size of the Falcon."

	Picard's face frowned with worry.

	"Or a smaller number of very large vessels……..Red alert!" shouted Picard

	"Battlestations, all hands stand to battlestations" said Riker as the red 
alert lights began to flash and the alert sirens started to sound.

	The bridge crew swung smoothly into action, and within seconds the shields 
came up and the weapons systems flashed ready.

	"Helm, new heading, 270, mark 10, full impulse. Engage! Mr Worf, alert the 
Excelsior, tell them to get clear of the….." Picard started to order.

	"Sir," said Data urgently. "I'm picking up multiple subspace rifts forming 
behind us.

	"What the…??" began Picard.

	Outside of the Enterprise, the very fabric of space was torn apart, and 
multiple giant rifts began to appear. Seconds later, a swarm of organic bio-
ships began to appear. At almost the same moment, the wormhole opened, and the 
first ominously dagger shaped vessel began to emerge.

	In between lay two white starships. 

	********** 

	Aboard the ISD Invader, the crew gave a sigh of relief as they saw the 
strange electric storms of the wormhole give way to normal space.

	Their relief was short lived however, as the tactical systems began urgent 
beeping as they raced to scan nearby space to provide a tactical picture for the 
command staff.

	"Sir," shouted a weapons officer. "We have bandits inbound, directly 
ahead."

	"All batteries engage at will. Launch all fighters!" shouted the captain.

	The captain could see that this was not going to be a neat engagement. 
Both forces were emerging almost on top of one another. Three Imperial Star 
Destroyers were through the wormhole already. Other smaller ships, cruisers and 
frigates were following quickly, spreading out to cover the ISD's blind spots. 
Ahead of them the bio-ships were streaking inwards, obviously intent upon 
destroying the Imperials as they came through the wormhole one at a time.

	Turbolaser bolts fired from the massive batteries, and in the heat of the 
moment, the Imperials didn't notice that the two closest alien ships bore no 
resemblance to the bio ships. In fact, in the heat of the moment, it is doubtful 
that they would have cared.

	 *********

	The Commander of the species fleet swore as his ships emerged from fluidic 
space. The wormhole was directly ahead, but alien ships were already emerging 
from it.

	"All ships engage! Destroy them as they come through the wormhole!" he 
ordered.

	In the heat of the moment, he didn't notice that the two closest alien 
ships bore no resemblance to the other Imperial ships he had seen. In fact, in 
the heat of the moment, it is doubtful that he would have cared. After all, the 
weak will perish!

	********

	Damage alarms shrieked aboard the Enterprise as the first bio blast 
slammed into the shields. The blast sending the ship tumbling out of control 
despite everything that the helm systems could do. The sudden movement caused 
the first few turbolasers to miss, but then a number of turbolaser bolts smashed 
into the weakened shields, wiping them out and opening three decks to space.

	"Shields are down," shouted La Forge. "I'm trying to re-route power."

	"Helm, full evasion, pattern omega five. Get those shields back up 
Geordi." Ordered Picard urgently.

	"Open fire, full phasers and torpedoes." ordered Riker.

	"Helm controls aren't responding" shouted ensign Ro desperately.

	At tactical, Worf locked onto a bio-ship that was about to fire, sending a 
phaser blast and a volley of photons. It was a perfect combination attack, the 
torpedoes striking the area of the shield weakened by the phasers. The torpedoes 
struck with deadly precision, killing the species 8472 crewmember, and wiping 
out the bio-ships navigation system. Unfortunately, without anyone at the helm 
control, the bio-ship spun directly towards the Enterprise.

	The shields had just started to come back on line when the Species 8472 
ship struck the starboard nacelle.

	The Duranium shell was immediately ruptured, and drive plasma began to 
flood from the damaged nacelle. An enormous power feedback caused a surge in the 
ship's power systems, causing consoles to explode, and many critical systems to 
go off line. The inertial dampers failed, and the Enterprise lurched to one 
side. People who were not strapped in were immediately thrown from their feet, 
and smashed against the bulkheads.

	The remains of the bio-ship smashed through the nacelle, and crashed into 
the engineering section. A huge gash was torn in the side of the ship, and the 
atmosphere rushed out, pulling people and equipment with it. Even if the 
emergency force fields had been on line, it is doubtful that they could have 
coped with the huge rip in the Enterprise. Without them, over half the ship 
depressurised in just less than ten seconds, killing more than half the crew.

	The saucer section was the least damaged part of the ship, but even there 
the damage was widespread. Most of the saucer's fusion generators were ejected 
to prevent a catastrophic explosion. Only two remained operational to provide 
power to the saucer.

	 Aboard the remains of the bio ship, a fusion generator exploded causing 
the Enterprise to lurch again. People had just begun to get to their feet when 
the ship staggered once more. Once again people were smashed into walls, and 
more of the ships systems went off line. The Enterprise's warp core was ripped 
from its mountings, and toppled slowly over. Coolant spewed out, killing many of 
the engineering staff instantly.

	The computer detected the warp breach, and sealed engineering with a 
combination of blast doors and force fields. On the bridge, La Forge wiped some 
blood off his forehead and saw what had happened in engineering.

	"Captain, engineering is gone. We have a warp core breach in progress. 
We've got less than two minutes before the whole thing goes up." shouted La 
Forge desperately.

	Picard glanced quickly at his chair's damage control display, and saw that 
the situation was hopeless, the damage was too extreme. The saucer was almost 
completely cut off from the remains of the engineering section.

	"Sir, most of the lifeboat ejection systems are off line." shouted Riker.

	"Initiate saucer separation," ordered Picard hoarsely. "All hands this is 
the captain. The saucer will separate in thirty seconds. If you can't get to the 
saucer by then, try to find a working life pod. Good luck everyone."

	"Sir," called Data. "The automatic separation system is off line, we will 
have to explode the connecting bolts."

	"Prepare to seal all hatches and fire the emergency separation system." 
ordered Picard.

	"Sir, the core is going critical" shouted Geordi from the back of the 
bridge.

	"Fire the separation system NOW!" shouted Picard

	Around the saucer of the Enterprise, the explosive separation bolts fired, 
disengaging the saucer from the stardrive section. As the bolts fired, the 
thrusters propelled the saucer away from the ship at over 10 meters per second.

	 Once clear, the remaining impulse engine went to full power pushing the 
damaged saucer away from the stardrive section. Around the stardrive section, 
working lifeboats began to separate and power their way from the crippled 
starship.

	The stardrive section began to glow as drive plasma filled the ship. 
Finally the antimatter containment system breached, and there was a mighty 
flash. Microseconds later, the warp core blew, and the universe was filled with 
light. For a moment, the explosion outshone the nearby star, before it faded, 
leaving nothing but a few lifepods, and a critically damaged saucer falling 
towards the nearby planet.

	Behind them, as the battle continued to rage, a number of TIE fighters 
broke away from the main battle, and streaked after the damaged saucer.



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 12.

	The bridge was a place of chaos. The normal bright lighting had been 
replaced by emergency red lighting. Smoke from damaged burning consoles filled 
the bridge. Distant explosions shook the damaged saucer as it plummeted towards 
the planet surface.

	"Report!" shouted Picard above the din of explosions.

	"Helm control is off line. We're caught in the gravitational pull of the 
planet, we're going down!" screamed Ro.

	"Primary stabiliser offline," reported the computer emotionlessly. 
"Secondary stabiliser off line. Mains power off- line"

	"I am trying to re-route auxiliary power, but I am afraid that the power 
relays are quite damaged." Added Data.

	"Try to get some power to the lateral thrusters, We need to slow our 
descent." coughed Riker as a console burst into flames near him. He grabbed an 
emergency extinguisher, and tried to contain the flames.

	"Sir, a number of small enemy craft are following us down. They are firing 
on us!" shouted Worf from the back of the bridge. "I need power to weapons and 
shields now!"

	"There's no power to give Worf," shouted La Forge. "We're down to just two 
fusion reactors and the batteries."

	"Mr Worf, do the best you can." Said Picard. "Helm has the priority for 
power I'm afraid."

	"I understand sir." replied Worf grimly glancing at the approaching ground 
on the viewscreen.

	Worf scanned his panel, wondering what he could do, then an idea struck 
him. A few key presses showed that it might be possible. Keying the remote 
shuttle access code, Worf activated the power systems of the shuttlecraft 
Hawking. With the remote link established, he tapped into the shuttles 
transporter systems.

	 He remotely locked onto a photon torpedo in the saucer's weapons bay, and 
beamed it into the sky behind the damaged saucer. He deliberately scrambled the 
materialisation sequence slightly, so that the torpedo reappeared with its 
containment field breached. The resulting explosion destroyed one TIE fighter, 
and forced the others to temporarily break off their pursuit.

	 Leia and Lando hung on grimly as the saucer continued its rough descent 
onto the atmosphere. Unfamiliar with the Enterprise control systems, there 
wasn't much they could do, beyond helping the wounded. The air had become hot as 
the friction of the saucers descent heated the hull, and sweat poured off them 
as they struggled to give first aid.

	 On the viewscreen, the ground loomed ahead of them, tumbling slowly over 
and over as the saucer made its uncontrolled plunge.

	 "Gentlemen, we need a solution now!" said Picard in a strained voice.

	Silence filled the bridge.

	*********

	"Faster helm, faster" shouted Commander Verlin aboard the Excelsior.

	The Excelsior had been lucky. The first bio blast intended for her had 
instead struck the Enterprise. It had given the Excelsior enough time to realise 
what was going on, and engage their evasive manoeuvres.

	 Though they had been hit a number of times, none of the shots had yet 
caused critical damage. The Excelsior had been firing furiously at anything that 
moved, and so far seemed to have a charmed life.

	For the first few seconds they had been too concerned with survival to 
worry about the Enterprise. However, they fought their way clear of the battle 
just in time to see the Enterprise collide with the bio-ship, and mere seconds 
later, they saw Enterprise's star-drive explode.

	 Commander Verlin had immediately brought the Excelsior slashing back 
around as the saucer began its uncontrolled descent towards the surface. He was 
determined to get close enough to the saucer to save it from crashing.

	However, squadrons of Imperial TIE fighters had seen them and were heading 
directly for them. The TIEs were between them and the Enterprise's saucer.

	The Enterprise and the Excelsior had a great rivalry, with both ships 
having proud traditions stretching back to Captain Kirk's day. The various 
Excelsiors had saved the various Enterprises many times, and the Enterprises had 
often returned the favour. Verlin was damned if a few piddling fighters were 
going to stop the Excelsior now.

	"Tactical, forget the big ships, get those fighters. Helm, direct course, 
straight through them." ordered Verlin with gritted teeth. "Full power to 
forward shields. Let's see who blinks."

	"Great" said the tactical officer no quite to himself. "We're playing 
chicken with a 500 meter long starship."

	The tactical officer quickly targeted the fighter ahead

	"Firing photons now. Let's see if we can get their attention."

	 *********

	The TIE's sat right on the tail of the stricken saucer, deluging it with 
laser bolts. The TIE's weapons were light, but they were scoring multiple hits 
on the hull.

	 Two of the TIE fighters slashed across the hull in formation, ripping a 
huge gash, and destroying the last remaining impulse engine. A piece of the 
saucer ripped off in the airflow, and collided with a TIE as it screamed past, 
ripping the solar panel off and sending the little fighter into a terminal dive.

	With its last engine gone, the saucer staggered onwards for a moment, then 
dipped suddenly, and began its final uncontrolled plunge into the ground.

	 Suddenly, two of the TIEs exploded, and a large shadow swept over the 
saucer. The Excelsior, it's hull blackened and heat marked by the rapid descent 
into the planet's atmosphere dived out of the sun, and swept low over the 
Enterprise's saucer. Two tractor beams lanced out and seized the damaged saucer. 
The Excelsior's engines screamed as they throttled up, straining to stop it 
crashing.

	"We've got it!" shouted the Excelsior's tactical officer

	"Helm, pull us up, get us some height" ordered Verlin.

	"The Helm officer shook her head. I'm sorry sir," she cried. "It's too 
heavy in this gravity. We're not designed to be down here ourselves, with the 
saucer as well, we can't even maintain this altitude. We're going down."

	"Sir, there a mountain range ahead." muttered the tactical officer 
anxiously.

	Verlin nodded in understanding, then keyed his comm system

	"Transporter chief, start beaming the Enterprise survivors off. Use all 
the transporters we have, including the ones on shuttles. We don't have much 
time."

	Without waiting for acknowledgement, he spun around to face the 
Excelsior's tactical officer.

	"Okay tactical," he said. "You need to keep those fighters off us while we 
drop out shields. Ready?"

	The tactical officer didn't waste time responding. Instead, he 
concentrated on the phasers, striking rapidly at the remaining TIEs.

	

	 *********

	On the Enterprise, the bridge had fallen quiet. Most systems were off 
line, including transporters, sensors, even environmental system.

	About the only thing left working was the viewscreen, and the crew watched 
it with almost detached fascination, as the ground grew larger. A mountain range 
loomed large ahead of them, only seconds remained before impact. Picard turned 
towards Riker and gave a wry grin.

	"It seems number one, that we've run out of options."

	Picard paused, his face suddenly serious.

	"It's been an honour serving with you, Will."

	 Picard stopped for a moment then turned to the rest of the bridge.

	"It's been an honour serving with all of you." He amended quietly. "All 
hands, brace for impact!"

	 Riker opened his mouth to reply, but the words were drowned by the sound 
of a transporter effect…..

	********

	The Excelsior released its tractor, and banked sharply as it flew between 
two mountain peaks. The mighty starship rolled rapidly onto its side to avoid a 
rocky outcrop, passing through the gap with just meters to spare. In it's wake, 
dust and debris was sucked up, forming a small vortex. Streaking out of the 
cloud, a number of TIE fighters followed them through, firing furiously as they 
came.

	The Enterprise's saucer, freed from the tractor, dropped away, and seemed 
to roll lazily to the left, before it clipped a rock outcrop. The saucer was 
spun around by the impact, before smashing into a rock face.

	 Half the saucer disintegrated into a cloud of debris immediately on 
impact, but the remains of the saucer cartwheeled off the cliff, and began a 
long slow tumble down the sheer rock face. Aboard the saucer, the terrible 
impact ruptured the saucer's antimatter containment system, and the antimatter 
spewed out.

	As the Excelsior pulled up, straining it's engines to gain height, a 
blinding flash shone out behind it, slowly fading to reveal a massive explosion 
forming slowly into the shape of a giant mushroom cloud. The cloud climbed 
rapidly into the sky, marking the final funeral pyre for the Enterprise.

	In the sky above, flashes and explosions continued, as the two fleets 
fought.



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 13. 

	Luke sat with his eyes closed in the Admiral's chair of the Imperial Super 
Star Destroyer Executor.

	As sat there, his force senses alert, his mind went over the events of the 
last few weeks.

	At first it had been an almost automatic response to reject Vader's offer 
to join him. After all, Vader was evil, the personification of the dark side. He 
could not be trusted. But the force visions of the future had made him pause. 
What if Vader was right and the galaxy was facing a threat so terrible, that the 
entire empire could be destroyed?

	How could it be right to refuse to fight alongside the empire, if his 
refusal destroyed the galaxy? He had tried to reach out to Ben or Yoda, but 
there had been nothing. Either they couldn't, or wouldn't respond to him. His 
decision had been made no easier by his ongoing troubled dreams. Again and again 
he saw himself doing terrible things. Could he be on the road to the dark side 
or was it simply nothing more than a bad dream?

	Though Yoda and Ben had trained him, much about the force was still a 
mystery to him. He desperately needed to ask questions, to learn more about the 
force. But with the Ben, Yoda and the Emperor dead, the only other Jedi in the 
galaxy was Vader…..his father.

	 Though he had accepted the truth that Vader was his father, he was still 
troubled by it. He wanted to believe that deep inside Vader there was still some 
goodness. Now that the Emperor was dead, could he bring that goodness to the 
surface? Maybe by fighting alongside him, he could bring the goodness out and 
bring Vader out of the dark side.

	For days he had refused to give Vader a decision. Vader had taken the 
refusal with surprising calmness; merely insisting that Luke read the latest 
dispatches from the Imperial navy. Luke had agreed, thinking that he really had 
nothing to lose.

	 The reports had been far more shocking than Luke had imagined. The rebel 
council had sent him on the mission to contact the aliens before they had begun 
their massive offensive. He had not heard of the terrible destruction that had 
swept across the galaxy. The reports forced him to open his eyes.

	Nearly five thousand of the most powerful and industrialised worlds in the 
empire had been utterly destroyed in a matter of days. Many more had been 
attacked, and suffered varying degrees of damage. Almost three thousand systems 
had been captured intact, or surrendered to avoid total destruction. No one 
seemed to know the fate of the people of these worlds.

	Effectively, the empire had lost the production and supply facilities of 
almost all of the top ten thousand worlds in the empire. It was a defeat the 
like of which had never been seen before.

	Almost all the dedicated Imperial military shipyards were gone, along with 
many other important worlds. Bacta was becoming increasingly scarce since the 
production centres had been destroyed. The Imperial navy had suffered terrible 
casualties, especially in it's lighter ships like frigates and cruisers. The 
best estimates said that the empire had lost something like a hundred thousand 
ships of various classes. Most of those had be destroyed when the planets there 
were orbiting had been destroyed, but even so, the losses in fleet actions were 
horrendous.

	 The death toll so far was unthinkable. Most of the destroyed planets had 
populations measured in billions. Luke's mind simply could not contemplate that 
level of destruction and loss of life.

	The reports from the hospitals were almost worse. Soldiers, who had fought 
the aliens in hand to hand combat, often returned with minor injuries or cuts. 
Normally these would be quickly healed, but in many cases the cuts became 
horribly infected with alien cells. The alien's cells seemed to resist all 
attempts to destroy them, and very quickly devoured to victim from within. Bacta 
had proven the only solution, but since the production areas had been destroyed, 
there simply wasn't enough to go around. Troopers that should have returned to 
combat in a matter of days were instead incinerated on death to prevent the 
spread of the cells.

	The first time Luke saw an infected soldier, he was physically sick and 
had to leave the room. The smell was bad enough, but to his force senses, the 
alien's cell infection was like a force null area. It felt like some kind of 
horrific cancer, a terrible malignant force that consumed to helpless rotting 
soldier from within.

	 After seeing the patients, he became more convinced that the aliens were 
a terrible threat, which could only be stopped by their utter destruction. He 
was finally pushed over the edge of accepting, when Vader had come to him 
personally with a report. Ships from the rebel alliance had contacted the 
empire, and asked to be allowed to fight alongside the empire in defence of the 
galaxy.

	 For Luke it had been the deciding moment. How could he stay aloof from 
the struggle, when other members of the rebellion, people he considered friends, 
had decided to fight.

	Vader had seemed unsurprised when Luke told him of his decision. He had 
merely commented that "…it was inevitable" because it was Luke's "…destiny."

	Luke had found his calm assurance…..annoying.

	However, Vader had immediately put his acceptance to use, and Luke soon 
found himself with the rank of Imperial Admiral, aboard the Super Star Destroyer 
Executor, preparing for a major Imperial offensive.

	Almost as if his decision had turned the tide in the war, other good news 
had started to trickle in. The rebel ships, though few in number, had given the 
empire a huge moral boost, just when it needed it. People had started to go back 
to work, and production levels were climbing again as civilian shipyards were 
rapidly converted to produce warships. Rebellious worlds turned over their 
weapon and shipbuilding facilities to the empire. It was as if the entire galaxy 
had put aside its disagreements and united against a common foe.

	More good news arrived daily, as the most recent intelligence reports 
showed the number of attacks by the aliens had decreased dramatically. Though 
they were not yet sure why, the analysts reported that the aliens appeared to 
have reached the limit of their advance. For the first time since the war began, 
the Imperials had been able to restructure and strengthen their lines.

	Now it was the Empire's turn to strike back. Until now, the empire's sole 
offensive weapon had been the Death Star. The Imperial fleet had been scattered 
and off balance, reduced to defending where it could, and trying desperately to 
parry the enemy's blows.

	 The Death Star was different. Even the might of the alien's planet 
busting weaponry had found the Death Star a tough nut to crack. It's powerful 
shields meant that it could shrug off hits that would reduce a star destroyer to 
vapour. It had thousands of turbolasers that could fend off hundreds of alien 
bio-ships. And most importantly, it was the only weapon that the empire had that 
could match the might of the alien's planet destroyers.

	Since the war began, the Death Star had been fighting a desperate counter 
action to keep the aliens off balance. Appearing out of hyperspace without 
warning, it had the firepower to fight off defending ships. It would close to 
superlaser range, and destroy the target world with a single shot.

	 It was a working tactic that denied the worlds to the aliens, but it was 
far from ideal. Every world the Death Star destroyed was a captured Imperial 
world. What the Empire really needed was to recapture those worlds, and get 
their resources back. However, it had not been possible because of the enemy's 
superiority in fleet actions.

	That was about to change! 

	********** *

	The commander of the species 8472 invasion fleet bared his teeth in a 
predatory grin. The species had been trying to catch the Imperial's monster 
battle-station for weeks now, but it had always seemed to evade them.

	 It had kept appearing at captured worlds, destroying them before the 
species could bring a fleet to defend it. Now however, the battle-station 
commander had made a fatal mistake. This was no ordinary world; it was the fleet 
base for the entire seventh fleet.

	The "Death star" (as it was named by captured Imperials) had arrived in 
the system twenty minutes earlier. The system had four planets, all of them gas 
giants. The main species base was on a large moon, orbiting the second planet. 
The Death Star had dropped out of hyperspace on the far side of the gas giant, 
and proceeded to rapidly orbit the planet.

	What the Death Star could not see from it's current position was the fleet 
of bio-ships that were waiting for it on the far side of the gas giant. The 
entire seventh fleet was here, over six hundred bio-ships. Not even that 
armoured monster could survive that amount of firepower.

	 The commander glanced at his display. The fleet was already moving out in 
attack formation. The Death Star should see them about…..now! 

	********** 

	The principle warfare officer aboard the Death Star could hardly believe 
his eyes as his screen updated to show over seven hundred enemy vessels heading 
directly for them from the far side of the gas giant.

	"Sir," he shouted. "We have a contact…. multiple contacts inbound."

	Darth Vader looked at the screen, his masked face hiding any emotions he 
might be feeling.

	"Time to enemy firing range," he asked, his respirator rasping.

	"They'll be in range in…. thirty seconds" replied the tactical officer.

	"Bring us about….full speed. Head us directly away from them. Launch all 
fighters. All weapons engage at will" ordered Vader. 

	********** 

	 The species commander ordered more speed from the fleet as he saw the 
battlestation falter, and then turn away.

	 "No," he whispered. "Not this time. You can't escape us this time."

	The Death Star was obviously trying to run away. It need to get away from 
its pursuers until it could calculate a jump, and engage it's hyperspace 
engines. But it was also obvious that there wasn't enough time, the bio-ships 
were only seconds away from firing. Soon the Death Star would be nothing but 
glowing plasma, floating in space.

	Small Imperial fighters were spewing from the embattled Death Star, 
streaking towards the approaching bio-ships.

	"All ships. Full power to front shields. Blast straight through the 
fighters, it's the Death Star we want!" ordered the species commander tersely 
from the fleet base. 

	********** 

	"Now Luke!"

	Luke jumped as Vader's voice boomed inside his mind. His eyes snapped 
open, and his hand slammed down on the button in front of him.

	On the bridge of the Executor, a hundred eyes locked onto the giant 
tactical display, which currently showed only blackness.

	Cloaking devices had been invented many years before, but they had always 
been of only limited tactical use because of their double blind operation. It 
was true that a cloaked ship was totally invisible to an enemy, but it was also 
true that the cloaked ship was also blind. Not being able to see where the enemy 
was, or where you were going, was a huge liability in a battle. Physicists had 
tried for years to find a communication or sensor device that could operate 
through a cloak. They had failed.

	But the force didn't operate under normal physical rules. Two Jedi's could 
communicate on a level that could only be described as telepathy.

	Barely seconds after Vader's telepathic order to Luke, the tactical 
display cleared as the Executor and forty Imperial Star Destroyers appeared 
directly astern of the bio-ships, their weapons already trained on the area of 
space where they had been briefed to expect the aliens to be. Almost immediately 
their sensors locked on, and they fired.

	 Over 1,600 turbolaser bolts, and hundreds of ion cannons and heavy lasers 
blasted at rear of the aliens vessels. The alien's shields had been braced for 
attack from the front, and most of the ships were utterly unprepared for the 
sheer scale of the assault from astern. The bio-ships at the rear of the 
formation simply ceased to exist as multiple bolts collapsed their shields, and 
struck their unprotected hulls.

	 Over half the alien's fleet disappeared in that first terrible broadside. 
The shocked survivors swung their ships around, trying to cover their 
dangerously unprotected sterns as they worked frantically to reconfigured their 
shields. But only seconds after the first devastating attack, the Imperial 
fighters from the Death Star arrived, laser cannons spitting bolts at the 
weakened shields. Ahead of them, the Death Star slowed and began to turn back 
towards the developing battle, it's weapons already firing. Behind them, Luke's 
fleet advanced, fighters launching from their bays, and turbolasers spitting 
from their turrets.

	Caught between the hammer and anvil, the species 8472 fleet lost all 
cohesion, and scattered in all directions trying to escape. The pursuit began 
immediately.



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 14. 

	 Picard walked into the large strategic operations room on Liberty station 
feeling quite out of place despite the fact that he was in charge. It had been 
nearly four weeks since the Enterprise had been destroyed. 

	 He thought about that for a moment. He had lost his ship! There should be 
guilt he thought. Nearly three quarters of the Enterprise's crew had died. 
Either blown out into space when the Enterprise's hull ruptured, or killed by 
the terrible inferno when the warp core exploded. 

	 However, instead of guilt, there was just...numbness. It had all happened 
so quickly. One moment they had been on a simple mission, the next they had been 
caught in between two huge alien fleets. There had, the counsellors told him, 
been nothing he could have done. 

	 He agreed. 

	 And yet, there was still..numbness. 

	 In the last two weeks that had changed somewhat. Admiral Quinton had 
pulled him out of his self-imposed exile, and forced him back to work. 

	 Starfleet had initially been cautious regarding the aliens. After all, it 
was obvious that both sides in the conflict were extremely powerful, and no one 
wanted the Federation in the middle of their war. Since it's birth, the 
Federation attitude to new aliens had always been one of peaceful contact. 
However, the war between the aliens was being fought on Federation territory 
even now, and the Federation was desperate to gain some measure of control over 
it. 

	 The starfleet attitude to the "Imperial" aliens had changed rather 
dramatically when they had consulted with Princess Leia and the other aliens 
from the Millennium Falcon. The Princess had given them a potted history of the 
empire, which had terrified the assembled admirals. A fleet that numbered in 
millions, ships sixteen kilometres long, and armoured battlestations that could 
(and did) destroy planets. Obviously they were sceptical at first, but as the 
Imperial ships kept coming through the wormhole, it became obvious that the size 
of the imperial fleet at least, was no exaggeration. In fact, if it hadn't been 
for the second set of aliens destroying the Imperial ships almost as fast as 
they came through, the Federation would already have been outnumbered in ships. 

	 The second set of aliens were perhaps even more terrifying. 

	 The Federation's obvious solution to the Imperials was to contact the 
other aliens and try to ally with them. However, the Federations first three 
attempts to communicate had been met with the same response. A telepathic 
message saying, "The weak will perish", followed by the quick destruction of the 
Federation ship. 

	 So far, neither group had strayed far from the wormhole. The Imperials 
seemed to be able to bring just enough ships through to keep control, but not 
enough to expand their power. The aliens on the other hand could not capture the 
wormhole, but had managed to stop the Imperials building too powerful a 
bridgehead. 

	 Monitoring starships seemed to be safe as long as they didn't venture too 
close to the wormhole. They had seen huge battles of thousands of ships, with 
powerful weapons and thousands of fighters. However neither side seemed to have 
the advantage yet. 

	 It was a delicate balance, and one that could easily be upset. If either 
group managed to get the upper hand, the consequences for the Federation could 
be disastrous. 

	 Picard had therefore been placed in command of the strategic operations 
team to deal with the alien's threat. 

	 Starfleet was taking the threat very seriously, and had already assembled 
a fleet of over a thousand ships. The Klingon alliance had been activated, and 
the Empire was sending as many ships as it could spare. Even the Romulans had 
agreed to help. "In the interest of Galactic peace" they said, though the fact 
that the war zone was only 1 day from the Romulan border at warp six must have 
concentrated their minds enormously. Other governments had also joined the 
"Grand Alliance", and in all, there were over three thousand ships gathered at 
Starbase, Liberty station. 

	 They even had a plan! 

	********** 

	 Leia stubbed her toe against something and swore quietly to herself. 

	 "Han, this is stupid. Take off the blindfold" she said. 

	 "Okay, just a second, we're nearly there." 

	 She stumbled forward a few more steps wishing that she had refused Han's 
childish request, but then she felt Han's hands stop her. 

	 "Okay", he said. "We're here. Ready?" 

	 "Just take off the blindfold" replied Leia in an irritated voice. 

	 She felt Han slowly pull the blindfold up, and she blinked in the sudden 
bright light. She found herself in Liberty stations large main shuttlebay, with 
dozens of the compact Federation shuttles that she had seen before. However, the 
ship sitting proudly in the centre of the bay grabbed her attention. The 
Millennium Falcon seemed to have gone back in time. Gone were the hundreds of 
dents and scars that it had accumulated over the many years. The ship gleamed, 
it's metalwork in sharp contrast to the uniform white of the Federation ships. 

	 "Han..I'm impressed." Said Leia finally. 

	 "You wait till you see inside. We've completely refitted the old girl." 

	 Han and Leia walked slowly up the Falcons open ramp admiring the pristine 
freighter. 

	 "You know," said Han. "It's amazing really. These Federation guys are 
really backward in some ways, can you imagine taking years to cross the galaxy? 
But they're really advanced in others. For instance, look at this." 

	 He pointed to a new console on the side of the bridge. 

	 "We scrapped the old quad lasers, and fitted phaser systems to the top 
and bottom of the ship. The whole thing's computer guided so they can be fired 
from here. No more climbing down into cold turrets. Also, the waste disposal 
system's incredible. 

	 "Waste disposal?" asked Leia in a neutral voice. 

	 "Yeah, wanna see it?" Asked Han. 

	 "Ummm.maybe another time. Why is it so special?" 

	 "Well, we fitted a replicator system, so all waste is recycled. We won't 
have to stock up any more, the ship will be self sufficient." Said Han excitedly 

	 Leia still looked unimpressed. 

	 "Unlimited showers too!" said Han. 

	 Leia looked up. The Falcon's shower had always been somewhat limited, and 
she always felt as if she smelled after she had been aboard for any length of 
time. Maybe the Federation upgrades were a good idea after all. 

	 

	**********

	

	 Admiral Quinton and Captain Picard walked slowly along Liberty station's 
stardock viewing platform. In the dock, hundreds of ships of all sizes sat at 
rest 

	 "So, how are the plans going?" asked Quinton. 

	 "Not too badly Admiral," replied Picard. "The last of the Klingon ships 
should arrive tomorrow, and there have been some overtures from the Solturians 
about joining the alliance." 

	 "The Solturians? That could be useful, if they can tear ships away from 
their war with the DracSonians." Replied Quinton. 

	 "Indeed. The Manticore is already here of course, but a few more of their 
battlecruisers, or even a dreadnought or two, would be very handy." Said Picard 

	 "Excellent. Are we on schedule?" 

	 "Pretty much. I think three more days and we will be ready to go. What 
about the other side of the plan?" asked Picard. 

	 Quinton face clouded for a moment. 

	 "I was planning to speak to the Princess this afternoon." He said. 

	 "Admiral, that's cutting it very tight." Said Picard in a worried voice. 
"They really should be leaving within twenty four hours." 

	 "I know. But I have to admit, that side of the plan worries me. We don't 
really know them, and I don't like gambling the future of the Federation on 
strangers." 

	 Picard thought for a moment. 

	 "I don't think we have much choice. I'm reasonably sure, given the 
information on Imperial capabilities, that we can handle the ships on this end, 
but if more ships come through the wormhole...then it's anyone guess. We need 
them Admiral!" said Picard firmly. 

	 "I know. But I don't have to like it!" replied Quinton. 

	 Picard nodded. 

	 "Have you decided on the commander of the fleet?" asked Captain Picard. 

	 "Yes, that's why I brought you here. I want you for the job. You've 
experienced the aliens, you know them best." Said Quinton. 

	 "Admiral, I don't have the rank for command." Argued Picard. 

	 "Actually you do." replied Quinton with a grin. 

	 As he spoke, he held up a small gold object. Suddenly Picard realised it 
was a collar rank insignia. 

	 "Congratulations...Commodore Picard." 

	 Picard seemed lost for words. 

	 "Thank you Admiral." He finally spluttered. 

	 "Don't mention it, it's long overdue anyway." said Quinton with a smile." 
However, that's not all. I'm relieving you of your job as strategic operations 
officer." 

	 "What? Why?" gasped Picard. "Admiral, I'm needed there!" 

	 "Yes, but you're needed here more." Said Quinton with a smile. 

	 "Picard looked confused for a moment. 

	 "Look behind you Commodore." Said Quinton. 

	 Picard turned, and saw that they were standing near to one of the main 
docking points. At the end of the docking arm lay a huge but sleek starship. As 
his eyes roamed over her smooth lines, he heard Quinton speaking behind him. 

	 "Sovereign class. The very latest thing to come out of the ASDB. 
Sustainable warp speed over warp 9.8, type XII phasers, quantum torpedoes, 
biological data network and ablative armour." Said Quinton examining the 
beautiful ship. "This the first ship. She was originally launched as the USS 
Sovereign, but when the Enterprise D was lost..." 

	 Picard's eyes finally found the ship's name and registry number.. USS 
Enterprise. NCC 1701E. 

	 "How could we face a threat like this without an Enterprise?" asked 
Quinton gazing at the sleek starship. "She's all yours Commodore. Do us proud 
and bring her home safe!" 

	 Picard turned slowly back to Quinton, the beginning of a smile on his 
face. 

	 "Believe me Admiral, I've lost the last two ships I commanded, I don't 
intend to lose the third!" he replied.



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 15.

	"I suppose," said Wedge reflectively. "That there might be a more god 
forsaken place in the universe, but somehow I just can't think of it right now."

	Tycho gave a short laugh and stepped up onto the observation platform with 
Wedge.

	"Oh I don't know. It's not so bad. If you ignore the smell, the heat, the 
humidity and the insects, it's not too bad."

	He paused to flick an insect the size of his thumb off his arm before it 
could bite.

	"After all," he continued, it's not though we had a lot of choice."

	Wedge grunted in agreement. The last few weeks had been amongst the worst 
he had ever known. Ackbar had left the rebel civil war with just over half the 
original number of ships. The "traitors" (as they were now known) had escaped 
with about a quarter, and the rest had been destroyed.

	For the next two weeks the rebels had fled from place to place, avoiding 
attacks from the Imperials and even from the invading aliens. The traitor rebels 
had given the empire knowledge of all the rebel bases, and within days, most 
were under Imperial control.

	Only Ackbar had held the rebels together, and eventually had brought them 
safely here to Dagobah. It was a place so far out of the way of anywhere, that 
not even the Empire or the aliens were interested in coming here.

	The rebels had taken the unexpected sanctuary to heart, even though the 
planet itself was scarcely inviting. For the last week, the rebels had repaired 
their ships, healed their wounded, and taken time to consider their options.

	The repairs had been the easy part, deciding what to do when the whole 
galaxy was against them was the hard part.

	**********

	The commander of the Species fleet in the new universe considered his 
options. Since the wormhole had started moving, he had received no new ships or 
supplies from his home universe.

	Even when the wormhole had stopped it's random movements, the situation 
had not improved. Somehow the Imperials had discovered it's location, and 
started throwing everything they had at it.

	Knowing that he had to restore contact with his own universe if he was to 
win this war, the commander had made many attacks to destroy the defending 
imperials. Hundreds of ships had been destroyed on both sides, but the imperial 
commander seemed to be something special. Somehow he had beaten off each of the 
species attacks, and still managed to hold the wormhole. The commander suspected 
that he was also managing to fight off attacks from the other side too.

	It was really quite an impressive performance, and his respect for his 
adversary had grudgingly grown.

	However, it was also very annoying.

	Without communication with the other side, there was no way the species 
could co-ordinate their attacks. This meant that the Imperials could concentrate 
the side of the wormhole that was currently under attack, and leave the other 
side with just minor defences.

	So far it appeared to be a stalemate. The Imperials kept throwing ships 
in, but they also kept losing them. However, as long as they held the wormhole, 
they would get stronger, whilst the species forces in this galaxy could only get 
weaker.

	The situation hadn't been helped by the huge losses to the seventh fleet. 
The commander could only guess how the Imperials had managed to ambush the 
fleet, but the losses were there for all to see. Over six hundred of the species 
ships destroyed with little or no damage to the Imperials. It was perhaps the 
most serious defeat the species had ever suffered.

	For a few more minutes he searched for an answer, but he found nothing. 
There was really just one last chance.

	They had to retake the wormhole, whatever the cost!

	His mind made up, he sent out his orders. The species fleet would halt 
further offensives. Instead, they would mass together to retake the wormhole. It 
would take a few days to assemble them, but surely the thousands of ships that 
he had left would be enough to retake the wormhole.

	**********

	The commander of the Species fleet in the Borg universe considered his 
options. Since the wormhole had started moving, he had received no reports from 
his colleague in the invasion fleet.

	Some amongst the species were saying that the fleet was lost, and that the 
whole invasion of another galaxy before this one was subdued had been one huge 
mistake. Although the Borg collective was no longer a threat, many of their 
ships still survived scattered throughout the galaxy. In time they could 
theoretically rebuild their hive like collective and again pose a threat. Also, 
the species had explored only a tiny portion of this galaxy, and so did not know 
what other threats might be out there. Many had counselled that now the Borg had 
been eliminated as a credible threat, the species should withdraw back to the 
safety of their own fluidic space.

	Although this view had a lot of support, the council had overruled them, 
and the species military had drawn up plans to retake this side of the wormhole 
as the first step to re-establishing communication with the invasion fleet.

	The fleet was nearly assembled. Thousands of bio ships were even now 
preparing to take the wormhole by assault. It would take a few days to assemble 
them, but then the weak would perish!

	**********

	Grand Admiral Thrawn looked over the latest reports. He still held the 
wormhole. The losses in these battles had been horrendous, well beyond anything 
the Empire had ever experienced. Battles involving hundreds of ships had been 
commonplace.

	In most of the battles he had been outnumbered and outgunned, and it had 
taken all of his tactical guile and cunning to keep control of the wormhole.

	The Empire had over ten thousand ships at the wormhole now, divided 
equally between the two sides. That sounded very impressive, and it was. His 
fleet was probably the most powerful fleet the empire had ever assembled. 
However, the numbers didn't tell the whole story.

	Most of his ships were damaged to one extent or another, and he had very 
few of the really heavy ships that he needed. His largest ship was his flagship, 
the Super star destroyer Iron Fist. However, to support it he had just five 
hundred and twelve standard star destroyers. Most of his other ships were small 
frigates and corvettes that were little more than target practice to the aliens. 
He was also forced to divide his forces, something he hated to do, to cover both 
sides of the wormhole. Of course, once an attack was underway, he could bring 
forces through from the unengaged side, but that took time.

	So far the reinforcements that he had received had only enabled him to 
just about hold on. He needed more ships, and most especially he needed heavier 
ships.

	With his mind set, he sat down to compose a message to Emperor Vader. He 
knew that even if his requests were granted immediately, it would take a few 
days for the ships to assemble and travel here.

	He would just have to hold on till then.

	**********

	Vader looked at the reports. The war seemed to have tipped slowly in the 
Empire's favour. The alien's attacks had dwindled, and now they were doing 
little more than raiding.

	It was clear that as long as Admiral Thrawn could hold the wormhole, the 
aliens would get weaker. However, this must also be clear to the aliens, and 
they would know that they would have to do anything they could to regain 
communication with their homeland.

	"Luke, prepare the fleet. The Fleet and the Death Star will proceed to the 
wormhole!"

	Luke Skywalker nodded once and moved to relay the orders to the fleet. 
Vader watched him carefully. Slowly he was corrupting Luke, bringing him to the 
dark side, but it would be some time before he could be totally sure of Luke's 
loyalty. But that was acceptable. Once the empire won the war, he would have a 
lot of time.

	For the first time in a long while, Vader considered what would happen 
after the war. Losses to the empire had been huge. Over half the fleet was gone, 
along with many of the most productive worlds. It was unlikely that after the 
war was won, that the Empire would be able to rule the galaxy with it's rod of 
iron as it had before the war. The fleet had been stretched very thinly before 
the war. Now there would simply not be enough ships to keep the Empire subdued.

	He considered that for a moment. It might be necessary to make some small 
concessions to ensure the continuing loyalty of many of the worlds. Large 
concessions could be avoided as long as the Death Star remained. The threat of 
ultimate destruction would keep most world in line. However, once the fleet was 
rebuilt, firmer control could be returned to the galaxy.

	Then he could truly rule the galaxy with his son.



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 16.

	Captain Shelby looked over her new command with pleasure. She smiled when 
she thought of Captain Sisko's face when she arrived on DS9 and told him that 
she was here to take the Defiant.

	He had not been happy!

	However, after the short conversation with Admiral Quinton over the 
subspace link, he had grudgingly handed over the "keys". The technicians that 
Shelby had brought with her swarmed over the ship to begin the "modifications".

	The hyperdrive system was a surprisingly small piece of equipment. 
However, to run it they had been forced to fit extra fusion generators to 
provide the power. The Defiant had been chosen because she was a small ship. The 
experimental hyperdrive could only power a small ship, and they were pushing it 
even for a ship of the Defiant's size. However starfleet had been determined 
that the device would be fitted, and so some extreme redesigns had been 
required.

	The Defiant's shuttlebays had only been small, but they had been one of 
the few open areas on the ship. They had also been designed to allow extra 
weapons or computer upgrades to be fitted, so it was a fairly simple matter to 
convert them to house the extra fusion generators.

	In all, they had managed to squeeze another six fusion generators in the 
bays, doubling the Defiant's fusion power output. However, simulations said that 
it would take all six of the new generators, plus a working warp core to provide 
the power for the hyperspace jump. The good news was that this meant that the 
Defiant would still have the power from it's six original impulse engine fusion 
generators.

	Since the ship was going to be away from the Federation for some time, 
they had crammed the ship with everything they might need. Spare torpedo casings 
lay in corridors, and boxes littered any spare floor space. It was a worry, 
especially if the Defiant suffered damage, but there was really no option. The 
ship was simply too small, and not designed for long term operations away from 
base.

	The technicians had worked three shifts for a week to get the ship ready 
in time. The Federation had given them a blank cheque to beg, borrow or steal 
anything they needed. In fact, Captain Harris of the USS Nottingham was still 
cursing Shelby, as engineers stripped his Nebula class starship for parts. She 
doubted he would ever speak to her again.

	By the time they left DS9, the ship was still not 100% finished, and they 
still had engineers working on some of the modifications. However, a day out 
from DS9, the engineers declared the hyperdrive ready, and with a twinge of 
nerves, Shelby ordered the system engaged.

	Everyone had been prepared for a something horrible to happen, but with 
just a slight dimming of the lights as the power drain increased and the 
gentlest of acceleration surges, the ship had made the jump.

	The first jump had lasted just a few of minutes and was at a relatively 
low power, but in that time they travelled nearly two light years.

	After a few software corrections and the replacement of a defective plasma 
conduit, they made their second jump.

	This one had been longer and had placed them just a couple of hours from 
Liberty station.

	It still wasn't perfect, and the engineers said that they had to work on a 
potentially serious reactor flutter, but it did work. They estimated that in 
just a few hours they would have the problem solved

	It wasn't as fast as a Solturian wormhole jump, but it was streets ahead 
of warp drive. The Federation would never be the same. The whole galaxy 
literally lay open for exploration.

	If they could survive the Empire!

	Shelby had faced some dire threats in her time. She had served briefly as 
the first officer aboard the USS Enterprise during the Wolf 359 incident. But 
somehow this threat was even worse. At least with the Borg they had faced a 
single cube. Now they faced a foe that could, if given half a chance, literally 
bury them in ships.

	***********

	"With respect Admiral," said Han. "That has to be the most stupid plan 
ever. There's no way the Falcon will get past the guard ships to the wormhole."

	Admiral Quinton suppressed a sigh.

	"Of course not, that is why we will fit your ship with a cloaking device. 
That way you will be able to make it to the wormhole unseen." He replied.

	Chewbacca growled something, and Han nodded in agreement.

	"Absolutely Chewie," agreed Han.

	"You will be able to see the wormhole, " said Quinton. " The cloak does 
not stop you from seeing out."

	Han looked surprised.

	"You speak Wookie?" he asked Quinton.

	"No, but the universal translator translates for me" answered the Admiral 
tapping his ear.

	"Uni.what?" said Han blankly.

	Before Quinton could elaborate, Leia cut in.

	"Admiral, assuming that we could get through the wormhole, why do you want 
us to go?" she asked.

	"We need you to find your rebel friends and get them to distract and tie 
up the Imperial forces on that side of the wormhole. We think that the allied 
forces can handle those on this side, but if they get reinforced, there's no way 
the plan will work." Answered Quinton.

	"With respect Admiral," said Lando. "What's in it for us. If the Rebellion 
tries to fight a force that size, we're likely to get ourselves killed. We've 
been fighting the empire for years. Having them distracted here works in our 
favour."

	Quinton nodded slowly and then picked up a PADD.

	"On this PADD, we have details of Federation, Romulan and Klingon 
technical systems, including warp drive, phasers, quantum torpedoes, cloaking 
devices and replicators."

	He paused to look at them.

	"From what you tell us of Imperial capabilities they are very advanced. 
However, our systems and technologies also have advantages. Our phasers and 
torpedoes have a significant range advantage over Imperial turbolasers and 
missiles. That could be very useful for your rebellion, especially in hit and 
run raids. Thin about it, you would not even have to come into range of the 
targets defences. Our cloaking devices are much more compact than yours and have 
significant tactical advantages. They can also be fitted to almost any ship and 
would give you a critical advantage over your Imperial adversaries. Our compact 
industrial replicators would end your rebellion's supply problems overnight. 
Finally, although warp drive is notably slower than your hyperdrive, it's use in 
a tactical environment could be crucial. These technologies could well give your 
rebellion the edge it needed to win your civil war."

	Leia considered his words for a moment.

	"How do you know you can trust us? How do you know that we won't just take 
the data and run." She asked.

	Quinton looked slightly embarrassed.

	"That did cross our minds, so we won't be sending you alone. A Federation 
starship will accompany you. We've constructed a single prototype hyperdrive 
from the plans you gave us, so there should be no problem with it keeping up 
with you. It will escort you, and provide you with protection. Once you have 
located your rebel friends, it will accompany you back to the wormhole, then 
transmit the data to you. Whilst you distract the Imperials, it will return."

	"With the whole Imperial fleet there.you mean 'try' to return." muttered 
Lando darkly.

	"I see you've covered all the angles." Said Han

	Quinton looked back levelly.

	"In our situation, wouldn't you?" he answered. "The Federation ship with 
the hyperdrive, the USS Defiant will be ready in three hours, I will require 
your decision by then."



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 17.

	"Admiral, I have a lot to do aboard the Enterprise. If she's going to be 
the fleet flagship, we need to get her ready." Said Picard as he and Quinton 
strode briskly down the corridor in a high security area aboard Liberty station.

	"I know how busy you are Picard, but you need to see this." Replied 
Quinton. "I'm afraid that I'm going to be poaching one of your crew for a 
special mission."

	Picard's eyebrows rose in surprise.

	"Who?" he asked simply.

	"Commander Data."

	Picard immediately began to protest.

	"Admiral, Data is a vital part of my crew. How can you expect me to get 
the Enterprise ready if."

	Admiral Quinton raised a hand to stops Picard's outburst.

	"I understand how you feel Commodore. However, the matter is closed. 
Commander Data will report aboard the USS Defiant and take up the position of 
first officer."

	"You're sending Data through the wormhole? Why?" asked Picard.

	"From what the Princess tells us, the science of our galaxy is very 
different to theirs. We are ahead in some areas, but they are vastly ahead in 
others. Starfleet feels that Data's ability to store information will be 
invaluable. What he sees and hears over there may well advance our science by 
years. It's something that we simply cannot afford to pass up." Answered the 
Admiral.

	Picard sighed. Much as he hated to lose Data, the idea did make sense. 
With his positronic brain, he was probably the equal to a number of the 
Federation's top scientists.

	"I'll still need a top notch science officer if we're going to pull the 
plan off." Argued Picard.

	Quinton smiled a slightly nervous smile.

	"And you're going to get one."

	He paused outside a door to one of the science labs.

	"Jean-Luc." he began, then paused as if thinking better of it.

	"Let me introduce you to your new science officer." He finished.

	With a resigned sigh, the Admiral opened the door.

	**********

	The Falcon zoomed between the gleaming white starships that lay around 
Liberty station. It's totally different design made it look quite out of place 
compared to the other ships.

	However, the ship that followed also looked out of place despite the 
Federation insignia. The USS Defiant was a prototype vessel, designed to fight 
the Borg. It was small, compact and powerful. It lacked the saucer and outboard 
nacelles that characterised normal Federation designs. However, it was fast and 
manoeuvrable, and kept up with the Falcon as it zigzagged to the front of the 
fleet.

	"I just want to say for the record that I have a really bad feeling about 
this." Said Han.

	Leia smiled at him.

	"You have a bad feeling about everything." She replied.

	"Yeah, and he's normally right." Said Lando morosely.

	Han grimaced. They had discussed this mission in great detail, but in the 
end there was really only one choice.

	The opportunities offered to the rebellion by the Federation technology 
were simply huge. Ships with warp for tactical combat and hyperdrive for 
strategic advantage. Photons torpedoes and phaser systems powered by Imperial 
designed reactor systems that could outrange anything in the Imperial arsenal. 
And that was just for starters. Once the Rebellion's scientists got their hands 
on the technology, who knew what hybrid devices could be built, maybe even 
galactic holo-net based transporter system. Theoretically you could have almost 
instantaneous transport anywhere in the galaxy, or beyond.

	In the end, there had really only been one option.

	"Falcon to Excelsior, we're ready to go." He said into the comm system.

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

	Aboard the USS Excelsior, Commander Verlin stood and slowly walked to the 
front of the bridge, looking at the image of the strange ship as it sped through 
the fleet.

	"Acknowledged Falcon. Excelsior to Defiant, We're ready here, how about 
you?"

	On the Defiant, Captain Shelby glanced at her new first officer.

	"Well Mr Data, are we ready?" she asked with a smile.

	Data glanced up from his display.

	"Yes Captain, all the Defiant's systems are operating with peak 
efficiency."

	"Defiant to Excelsior, we're ready. Let's go and find us a wormhole."

	"Captain," said Data with a confused look. "We already know where the 
wormhole is. I'm sure that Admiral Quinton should have fully briefed you on 
the...."

	Shelby held up a hand to stop the flow of words. She had forgotten how 
literal Data could be.

	"Just an expression number one. Lock onto the Falcon with the forward 
tractor. They don't have warp drive, so we're going to have to tow them there. 
Helm, ahead full impulse. Follow the flagship's course instructions." 
"Understood," said the young woman at the helm. "Receiving instructions now."

	Shelby sighed and looked around the small bridge with pleasure. Yes, she 
thought, it wasn't the Enterprise, but it was a hell of a ship.

	On the display, forty Federation starships moved away from the main fleet 
and headed out into space. Most of the ships were older Excelsiors and Mirandas. 
Their job was just to provide a distraction to the Imperial ships, not to engage 
them. The idea was that they would fly up and down for a few minutes, and allow 
the Falcon and Defiant to slip through under cloak and enter the wormhole.

	Since they were just a distraction, the Federation didn't want to show the 
Imperials the best ships they had. Whilst the Excelsior herself was a much more 
modern ship, like the USS Lakota, she was an experimental ship with modern 
weapons and shields, most of the other ship lacked the upgrades that the more 
recent Galaxys and Nebulas had as standard.

	Yes, thought Shelby, it was a great plan as long as it "didn't" come to a 
fight. If it did, these old ships were likely to have a very hard time



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 18.

	"Damn it Admiral, I will not have a Borg on my bridge!" raged Picard.

	"She's not a Borg anymore Jean-Luc," said Quinton patiently. "None of them 
are. They have all been separated from the collective. They're individuals!"

	"So you say," retorted Picard angrily, nearly shouting. "But how do we 
really know?"

	"I believe that you spent some time as a drone.Locutus." Responded Quinton 
with an edge of steel in his voice as Picard's face went white with rage. "Some 
people were not sure about letting you back into starfleet. Were they right?"

	Picard's mouth opened to give an angry retort, but then the fire in his 
eyes faded and he sat slowly down with a sigh.

	"Maybe you should find someone else to Captain the Enterprise." Said 
Picard quietly.

	Quinton banged his fist down on the desk, making the ornaments shake.

	"Don't be so bloody selfish, Picard. You're the best starship commander in 
starfleet and you know it. Are you going to turn your back on the Federation 
when it needs you the most? Are you that small minded?" shouted Quinton.

	Picard looked up, his eyes again flashing with anger.

	"Don't push me Andrew. You may be an admiral, but I won't be spoken to 
like a child." He said coldly.

	"Then stop behaving like one." Responded Quinton.

	The Admiral took a deep breath, deliberately calming himself.

	"Look Jean-Luc. I know that this is hard for you. We've known each other 
for years. But I am the Admiral in charge here, and I cannot let personal 
friendships get in the way. You are the best Captain available to lead the 
fleet, and your personal feelings cannot be allowed to interfere with the good 
of the Federation."

	"Then explain to me why I have to have that Bo.that woman on my bridge?" 
asked Picard.

	"Simply because she, like you, is the best suited for the job. She spent 
years as a drone, and she has access to knowledge and memories that cannot be 
matched by any other person. Quite simply, she may be the most knowledgeable 
human alive. You may well need that knowledge on this mission. This mission may 
well be the most difficult and dangerous you have ever undertaken. The 
consequences of failure could mean the end of Federation."

	Picard sighed in resignation. Quinton was right, and Picard knew that his 
he had no choice.

	"So how did she even end up here?" he asked finally.

	Quinton recognised the olive branch, and seized it gratefully.

	"Well that's something that you will like. The collective is gone. The 
Borg apparently bit off a bit more than they could chew when they decided to go 
dimension jumping. These "weak will perish" aliens, the Borg call them Species 
8472, apparently come from another dimension or something. The physicists did 
try to explain it to me but it's rather complex."

	He paused to take a sip of coffee.

	"Anyway," he continued. "The Borg attacked them in their universe, only to 
get their butt kicked. Species 8472 came streaming into our galaxy and proceeded 
to take the collective apart. Eventually the collective had taken so much damage 
that they lost the ability to project their group mind across galactic 
distances. Ships found them out of touch with the collective for the first time. 
One such ship came screaming out of a transwarp conduit and crash landed on a 
small moon in sector 472. The USS Atlantis monitored the crash and raced to 
investigate. They found that four of the Borg had survived, and had started to 
return to their pre-Borg state. They brought them here for medical treatment and 
rehabilitation. We thought it best to keep their presence a secret to avoid 
unnecessary panic."

	Picard was silent for a moment trying to grasp the full implications.

	The Borg were gone!

	I was indescribable, like a giant weight had been lifted from his heart. 
For years he had lived with the nightmares of his assimilation and the fears 
that the Borg might return. Now it seemed that the threat was gone. It was like 
a ray of light streaming into a dark dusty room. He blinked in the sudden light, 
and then looked up, seeing the world afresh.

	"So what's her name?" he asked.

	"Seven," replied Quinton. "Seven of Nine."

	************** The comm system chimed, and Admiral Thrawn looked up 
wearily. Surely the aliens couldn't be attacking again. Not so soon.

	"Yes, captain, what is it?" he asked.

	The intercom sounded slightly tinny, but the Captain's voice held a hint 
of uncertainty.

	"Sir, we've picked up some contacts heading towards us. Tracking has 
counted forty plus bogeys, inbound at about twice the speed of light. We 
detected no subspace rifts, and the energy signatures seem quite different to 
the bio-ships."

	Thrawn though for a moment.

	"Can we get size estimates?" he asked.

	"Yes sir," answered the Captain promptly. "There are a number of different 
sized ships, ranging from 270 meters, to over 500 meters."

	Thrawn considered. That was quite small compared to his star destroyers, 
but if this war had taught him one thing, it was not to confuse size with power. 
The alien bio ships had a power level far greater than their size might suggest. 
He had lost too many ships to ever make that mistake again.

	"Time to intercept?" asked Thrawn quietly.

	"If they continue inbound at this speed, we estimate one minute and...wait 
one second sir."

	Thrawn waited impatiently for the Captain to continue.

	"Sorry sir. The bogeys have halted their approach and dropped to sublight 
speed." Said the Captain.

	"Interesting. What is the range?" asked Thrawn

	"Approximately 36 million kilometres sir."

	"Very well, maintain sensor scans, I'm coming up to the bridge. Alert 
Victory flotilla five, six and seven to prepare to receive orders."

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

	"We've reached the end of our second leg sir." Reported the Excelsior's 
helm officer.

	"Very well, " replied commander Verlin. " Bring us about and take us onto 
the third leg."

	The tactical officer looked up from his station.

	"This isn't smart sir. We've repeated this course twice already. We should 
be varying our course and speed, not to mention jamming their sensors." He said.

	Verlin looked back at the tactical officer.

	"I know, and for the record I agree. However, we want them to get a good 
look at us. Our whole mission is to be the focus of their attention on us and 
stop them noticing the Defiant and Falcon as they make their runs to the 
wormhole."

	Verlin paused and smiled at the tactical officer.

	"Not getting nervous in your old age are you Paul?" he asked with a grin.

	The tactical officer snorted.

	"Sir, I taught tactical at the academy for years. Believe me, nothing can 
make you nervous after you've seen the way cadets handle starships the first 
time. However, I do wonder why we keep getting these assignments?"

	Verlin laughed.

	"Just lucky, I guess."

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

	"They just keep flying backward and forwards." Said the officer pointing 
to the screen.

	"Yes they do." Said Thrawn quietly. "Almost as if they want us to keep 
looking at them. Is there anything else on scanners?"

	"No sir, scanners are clear." Reported the officer.

	Thrawn considered for a moment. It was clear that the aliens were up to 
something, but for the life of him he couldn't see what. Maybe they were trying 
to get him to send forces out to attack the fleet, so that he would weaken his 
forces defending the wormhole. But that didn't make sense. His forces were now 
on full alert, and would not be caught by surprise.

	"Okay, are they on their old course?" he asked.

	"Yes sir, they just turned back onto it for the third time."

	"Very well. Send a courier ship through the wormhole to warn the other 
side. Then order Admiral Quan to take his vanguard fleet and execute a micro-
jump to engage the enemy at close range. His squadron is large enough to engage 
them, but will not significantly weaken our defences here. Let's see what he can 
stir up."

	Admiral Quan didn't have the full force that he had left Coruscant with 
many weeks before, many of his ships had been damaged or destroyed. However, at 
his command, 30 Imperial Star Destroyers, and nearly 50 smaller ships moved out 
and prepared to engage the enemy.



CLASH OF THE TITANS. Part 19.

	Shelby looked up at the tactical display.

	"Okay people, the Excelsior and the others have begun their run. There's a 
small enemy ship heading towards the wormhole. Let's see if we can slip in 
behind it. Signal the Falcon and let's start moving towards the wormhole. Keep 
it nice and slow, we don't want our impulse emissions to give us away."

	"Understood ma'am," said the female helm officer.

	***********

	"There's the signal," said Leia tensely.

	"Okay then, hold on everyone, we're going home" replied Han as he 
manoeuvred the Falcon to follow the cloaked Defiant.

	***********

	Slowly the cloaked Falcon and Defiant moved towards the wormhole. As they 
moved, their scanners failed to detect a third cloaked ship, also moving towards 
the wormhole behind them.

	On the bridge of the USS Sub Rosa, the first officer turned towards the 
Captain.

	"Ma'am, the Defiant and Falcon are moving in. We're right behind them at a 
distance of 100 kilometres."

	Captain Michelle West nodded in approval. The USS Sub Rosa was tucked in 
tightly behind the two ships. Hopefully their impulse emissions would hide any 
trace of the section 31 ship.

	Section 31 had been set up to counter any threats to the Federation. Most 
Federation citizens were completely unaware of its existence, but that didn't 
mean that section 31 did not have access to the most advanced equipment.

	For instance thought Captain West looking around the bridge of the Sub 
Rosa, this ship. Originally the Sub Rosa (the second Defiant class) was to have 
been named Valiant, but it had been appropriated by the section for this 
mission. The section had also gained access to the plans for the conversion of 
the Defiant to carry the new hyperdrive. At section 31's secret base, the 
conversion for the Defiant had been performed on the Valiant too.

	West didn't particularly like her current mission, but then you didn't 
join section 31 to pick and choose missions. The Section did not believe in 
leaving things to chance where the security of the Federation was concerned. 
West believed that the starfleet plan to secure the wormhole would work, but 
just in case, section 31 had put it's own plan into effect. But just thinking of 
her mission made her spine crawl, and again she wondered if what they were doing 
was justifiable. She turned to the chief of security standing beside her

	"Check that the cargo is secure. I don't want it getting loose during the 
trip." She ordered tensely.

	The security officer nodded and left the bridge.

	On the screen, the blinking red dot of the enemy ship proceeded towards 
the wormhole. Behind it two other blue dots representing the Falcon and the 
Defiant moved to follow.

	"Nice and easy," muttered West. "Just one long procession."

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

	On the USS Excelsior, the helm officer turned back to Commander Verlin.

	"Sir we're coming up on the end of our third run." She said.

	"Acknowledged. Prepare to begin fourth and final run." He ordered.

	"Sir," interrupted the tactical officer. "I'm getting some odd readings 
from some of the enemy fleet. There's a big power build up."

	"Are they preparing to fire?" asked Verlin quickly.

	"I don't think the power is going to their weapons, it seems to be feeding 
their engines." Replied the tactical officer.

	It only took a second for Verlin to realise the danger, but it was almost 
too much.

	"All ships," he shouted into the fleet's comm system. "Evasive action, 
Break formation and retreat NOW!"

	He had barely finished speaking when the tactical officer shouted behind 
him.

	"Multiple bogeys, close range, they're firing."

	"Return fire," shouted Verlin as he threw himself into the captain's 
chair. "Full evasive pattern, Verlin Alpha one. Helm, warp speed, get us out of 
here."

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

	The Federation fleet broke formation mere seconds before the Imperial 
fleet completed it's microjump. The Imperial fleet was firing even as it emerged 
f rom hyperspace, but luckily for the Federation ships, most of them had moved 
enough to avoid direct hits.

	The Federation formation came apart in a carefully pre-planned manoeuvre, 
as ships shot into warp and safety.

	Not all ships were so lucky. The USS Mandino, and old Excelsior class ship 
took three direct hits to its saucer. It tumbled away out of control, with the 
bridge crew dead and most of the saucer-section open to space.

	Two Miranda class starships, the Seetak and the Majestic were slow to make 
their manoeuvres and paid the price. Both ships were totally destroyed before 
they could go to warp.

	The return fire and been sporadic and limited, as ships tried to escape 
rather than fight. Only one old Nebulon B had been badly hit, taking a photon 
torpedo into it's engines. The engines were heavily damaged, but almost 
immediately a Victory class destroyer laid a tractor beam on the damaged ship, 
pulling it back into formation.

	Admiral Quan muttered in frustration. If the aliens had stayed in 
formation for another second, he would have had them.

	He sighed and opened a channel to Admiral Thrawn's flagship.

	"Admiral Thrawn, the enemy have escaped. We managed to destroy at least 
two of them and heavily damaged a number of others." He reported.

	Admiral Thrawn nodded gravely.

	"I saw," replied Thrawn. "My scanners show that one ship seems out of 
control. I want that ship captured. We can learn a lot from it's computers."

	"I understand", replied Quan. "We will lay a tractor on it immediately."

	He turned to the Stormtrooper beside him.

	"Prepare an assault force. I want that ship within the hour."

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

	Lieutenant Sonia Gomez dragged herself back up off the floor ignoring the 
pain from the broken left arm. A quick look around showed that the rest of the 
Mandino's engineering crew were either unconscious or dead.

	She wanted to go and see if she could help them, but for now she had other 
more important jobs. After a hit like that she thought, it was likely that the 
warp core was unstable. If she didn't stabilise it quickly then everyone would 
die.

	Wiping the blood out of her left eye, she scanned the damage control 
board. Many of the Mandino's systems were off line, but the damage control 
remotes gave her the basics.

	Half the saucer had been blown away, so it was unlikely that anyone had 
survived on the bridge. She could be the sole surviving senior officer she 
thought distantly.

	She pushed the thought of the deaths out of her mind. Once, when she had 
served aboard the Enterprise, 18 of the fellow crewmembers had died in the first 
Borg encounter. The deaths of those people had nearly paralysed her, and it had 
taken harsh words from the Chief engineer to snap her out of it. But she was 
older now and more experienced. She had seen others die, and though it still 
hurt here, she no longer locked up.

	The warp core looked stable, so she began to check life support and the 
damage control systems. Suddenly the ship rocked, and she wondered if they were 
being shot at again. However, almost immediately she rejected the idea. The 
movement had been very different to a weapons hit, more like..a tractor beam 
locking on.

	She left the damage control station and moved to the sensor relays. The 
main sensor array had been totally destroyed, but after a few seconds she 
managed to get a sensor feed from the lateral sensors.

	A huge alien ship hung over the damaged Mandino. There was no visual sign 
of a tractor beam, but the Mandino was definitely being tractored. As she 
watched, a number of smaller craft broke away from the huge ship and moved 
purposefully towards the Mandino, and Sonia realised that the enemy intended to 
board them.

	A cold ball of fear settled in her stomach. The Mandino's computers would 
give them all the information they needed about the Federation and the rest of 
the alpha quadrant. Whatever happened, she couldn't let them take the ship.

	She left the sensor station, and moved the to auto-destruct system. One 
look was enough to tell her that it was off-line. Without pausing she moved to 
the main computer station. The port computer core was gone, but the starboard 
system was on line.

	Deliberately she started releasing the ships safety interlocks one by one. 
The magnetic holding fields for the antimatter containment started to decay, and 
the nacelles started to build up plasma pressure. She then remotely accessed the 
shuttlebay systems, and started the destruct sequence on the remaining undamaged 
shuttles. A quick check showed that the containment would breach in about forty 
seconds. Finally, she ordered the computers to begin to purge themselves, just 
in case something went wrong.

	Feeling very tired, she walked back over to the sensor station and sat 
down painfully. The small ships had attached themselves to the hull, and were 
cutting their way in. Soon they would have access to most of the ship.

	But not soon enough you bastards, she thought to herself with a tired 
smile.

	Not soon enough!

	

CLASH OF THE TITANS
Part 20


"There she goes." muttered the Defiant's tactical officer quietly.

Shelby looked at the screen stoically, as the Mandino exploded. She wasn't
certain, but it was likely that she had just lost someone she knew. Starfleet
was a big organisation, but despite that, it was almost family like.

Deliberately she forced herself to look away.

"Okay people, the fleet have done their job. Twenty seconds to the wormhole.
Everyone hold on, we don't know how rough this will be." She ordered.

Ahead of them, the Imperial courier ship vanished into the tear in space.
Seconds later, the Defiant followed, and disappeared from the galaxy.




"Here we go everyone. Hold on" ordered Captain Michelle West as the USS Sub Rosa
followed the Defiant and Falcon into the wormhole.

She ship slid easily into the hole in space. For a second time seemed to stand
still, then the Federation ship vanished from the galaxy.




Thrawn watched as the alien ships fled from the Imperial warships. The victory
had been….easy! Too easy by far. More was going on here that met the eye.

"Scanner section," he ordered. "Check for any unusual scanner anomalies in the
last four hours. I want to know about anything, however small. Send your
analysis to my quarters. I'll review it there. Stand the fleet down to alert
status 4."

The imperial crew quickly bent to their tasks. They knew better than to annoy
the alien admiral.




"Sir, report from the fleet" called the comms officer in Liberty station's large
operation centre.

"Go ahead" ordered Picard.

"Excelsior is reporting, three ships destroyed, and ten damaged. One seriously.
The fleet has disengaged, and there is no indication of pursuit."

Picard nodded. The cost had been high, but it could have been far worse.

"Did the Defiant and the Millennium Falcon make it through?" he asked tensely.

"They believe so. Obviously they couldn't scan the ships, but the wormhole power
did spike when expected. It seems very probable they were successful."

"Very well. Inform the Admiral, and inform the fleet that Operation Knife Edge
will begin in 24 hours." said Picard.


"So," said Thrawn reflectively. "the Aliens have sent a ship through the
wormhole."

The scanner chief coughed and pointed at the screen.

"Actually sir, there may well have been two ships there. We can't be certain,
but the power spike lasted longer than it should have. If you look here, you can
see that the Imperial courier boats spike lasted a short time than the aliens."

Thrawn considered.

"But you're not certain?"

"No sir," answered the chief. "We know very little about the aliens technology.
The longer spike could be a result of something else that we don't know about."

Thrawn considered for a moment.

"Speaking of the aliens technology, it is interesting to note that the ship, or
ships, that passed through the wormhole had cloaking technology. However, none
of the alien ships that attacked us seemed to show that technology. I want a
full analysis done of the alien attack. I want to know everything I can about
them. Are they on the side of the other aliens, or do they have their own plans.
In the meantime, send another courier boat through the wormhole, and start a
search for the alien ships."

Thrawn stopped and considered for a moment.

"Assign Admiral Quan's Victory star destroyers to prepare a scounting
expedition. I want to know where those aliens came from."


"We've reached point alpha ma'am." Reported the Defiant' helm officer.

Shelby nodded and turned to Data.

"Are you sure that we are far enough outside their scanner range that they won't
detect us if we use warp?" she asked the Android.

"Nothing is certain Captain." Replied Data. "But given the records from the
Millennium Falcon, we should be outside the range at which they can detect our
warp signature."

Shelby sighed.

"Very well. Lay a tight comm beam on the Falcon, and tell them to prepare to be
towed to warp. We'll move off some distance, and then engage out hyperdrive
engine."


As the Defiant shot away to warp with the Millennium Falcon in tow, the USS Sub
Rosa turned away and set another course.

"Using the Falcons nav charts, we've laid in a course for the planet called
Tatooine." Reported the helm officer.

"Very well, you may engage when ready. Tatooine is quiet and out of the way. It
should prove and excellent test site. Order the cargo bay to begin to unload the
cargo when we arrive." commanded Captain Michelle West.




Aboard the new USS Enterprise, NCC 1701-E, Commodore Picard looked up at the
bridge's view screen. Admiral Quinton's face appeared looking worried.

"Commodore, what is the status of the fleet?" asked the Admiral without
preamble.

"Very nearly ready Admiral. We have seven hundred and ninety two Federation
ships, three hundred and seven Klingon, one hundred and forty six Romulan and
about two hundred ships from other races. By the time we're ready to go, there
should be about 1500 ships in all. That should be enough I think." answered
Picard without having to glance at the data readout.

"We've also got six complete tactical fighter wings arriving aboard the USS
Monarch tomorrow. It'll take a day to get them ready for action, but they'll be
a useful addition to out forces" He continued "We can stage some of them through
some star ships near the frontline, but I'm thinking that we'll have to keep
most back at Liberty station for station defence."

"Remember Picard, your job is not to defeat the aliens. You're not out there to
win the war all on your own. You just need to make sure that neither alien
empire wins. More ships are on the way, and we don't want to take risks." Stated
the Admiral in a worried voice.

"I know Andrew," answered Picard with a smile. "I came up with the plan
remember."

"Of course, Jean Luc. I apologise. It's just I've got panicked politicians from
the Federation council calling me every hours, who are worried that a
battlestation the size of a small moon is going to pull up over Earth any day
now!"

"I can understand their concern, but we've seen no sign of that monster. Maybe
it's been destroyed in their war on the other side."

"Maybe, but maybe not. As I said, we don't want to take chances."




Aboard the Death Star, Luke looked up as an officer entered the cabin.

The officer looked around awkwardly, holding a message pad in his hand. Luke
smiled inside. The officer was probably very uncomfortable with having to serve
under a former rebel, and a famous one at that!

"What is it?" asked Luke in a harsher tone than he intended.

The officer swallowed uncomfortably, but Luke's tone seemed to bring him back
under control.

"A message sir, from the wormhole fleet. Admiral Thrawn reports that one, or
possibly two, alien ships have slipped past the fleet and entered the wormhole
to our side. The ships apparently were cloaked." He reported.

"Has the Emperor been notified?" asked Luke.

"Yes sir." Answered the officer. "He asked that you handle it."

Luke considered.

"Very well, detach escort groups three and seven to search the star systems near
the wormhole." He ordered.



CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 21

The Millennium Falcon slowly approached the small green moon, home to a secret
rebel base. Aboard the freighter, Han tried the commmunication system again.

"Base zero four one, come in please" he called.

He waited, hearing only static.

"Maybe they're having communication problems?" suggested Leia.

Lando scowled.

"Yeah, well that may be, but what about the ships in orbit?"

He paused and glanced at the new sensor system display in the Falcon's cockpit.

"We have a Nebulon B, a Carrick and a Victory class star destroyer in orbit.
The last I heard, the rebellion didn't have any Victory class ships." He growled.

"Maybe it defected?" answered Leia.

"Yeah, and maybe the rebellion has joined the empire!" answered Lando sarcastically.

"Well the Nebulon and the Carrick are both listed as rebellion ships" replied Leia.

Chewie yowled out a comment.

"Yeah" said Han. "I've got a bad feeling too!"

Abruptly, the comm. system came to life.

"Millennium Falcon, this is base zero four one. Sorry for the delay, we had an
energy leak, but we're fine now. Please continue your approach and prepare for
further instructions."

Han glanced at the others.

"Uhh…base zero four one, we couldn't help noticing the star destroyer in orbit
and we were wondering how..."

"Don't worry about that Falcon," answered the ground controller. "We captured her
from the Imperials in a recent battle. She's one of ours now."

Han glanced at the Star Destroyer, now clearly visible in the cockpit window.

"Umm...roger that base zero four one." He replied.

Lando leaned over Han's shoulder and looked hard at the Victory star destroyer.

"She's doesn't look very damaged to me. Wonder how they managed to get her so intact?"



Aboard the Imperial Victory class star destroyer Javelin, Captain Crosus watched
with pleasure as the Millennium Falcon came closer.

The Javellin had been sent to this out of the way place to assimilate the rebel
base and ships into the Imperial fleet after the rebellion had split. This rebel
base had elected to join the Empire in the fight against the aliens. It had seemed
to be a bit of a dead end assignment to Crosus, but if he could capture the Falcon,
he was sure to get a promotion...maybe even be given command of an ISD. A shiver
of delight ran through him at the thought.

"Let them get a little closer. Then, on my command, nail them with the tractor"
he ordered.



"There's something definitely not right here" said Lando. "If they took her in
battle, how come there's not a mark on any of the ships?"

There was a pause as they all looked intently at the large cruiser ahead of them.
There was no sign of battle damage. Even as they watched, a pair of Imperial TIE
fighters launched from its hanger.

"Turn the ship around, let's get out of here" shouted Lando urgently.

"I think you're right. Full reverse Chewie" ordered Han.

The nimble freighter turned quickly away from the cruiser, but then suddenly
the small ship shook violently.

"Tractor!" should Han. "Chewie, lock in auxiliary power."

The Falcon's engine pitched climbed quickly, becoming a roar as the ship struggled
to break the invisible beam.



Captain Crosus smiled with pleasure as the Victory class star destroyer locked a
tractor onto the small freighter.

"Open a communication channel to that ship" he ordered.

The communications officer pressed a few controls then nodded to him.

"Millennium Falcon, this is the Imperial Star Destroyer Javelin. You will cut
your engines, lower your shields and prepare to be boarded. If you resist, we
will destroy you. This is your only warning!"

He sat back in his command chair, confident that he held all the cards. His ship
was vastly more powerful than the small freighter, and was not threatened by the
tiny insignificant weapons on the Falcon. The Falcon's only option was surrender
or destruction.

He was utterly astonished therefore, when a sudden shout from his sensor section
interrupted his triumph.

"Sir a ship is decloaking directly astern!"



The USS Defiant emerged from cloak, with her weapons already locked onto the Victory
class cruiser.

Rolling rapidly as she came, the Defiant launched a full barrage of pulse phasers
at the engines of the Javelin and then followed with a pair of quantum torpedoes at
point blank range.


The Javelin, caught by surprise, had its shields angled to deflect any fire from
the Falcon in front, and was totally unprepared for the attack from the rear.

The combined phaser and torpedo attack overloaded the shields and the starboard
engine catastrophically ruptured as a quantum torpedo exploded inside the exhaust
bell.

The stricken star destroyer immediately lost main power, as energy spikes went
through the ship's main control computers.

Without power, the tractor released the Falcon and the cruiser began to drift out
of control.



Aboard the Defiant, Shelby was just about to order another torpedo launch at the
stricken Victory cruiser when suddenly the tractor beam released.

"Shelby to Falcon, you're free, let's go." She ordered tersely.

The Falcon, free of it's invisible bonds, leapt away from the crippled cruiser
and joined the Defiant racing back out of the system. The Carrick and the Nebulon B
belatedly gave chase, firing as they came. A number of TIE fighters also pursued.
But as soon as the Falcon and Defiant were clear of the planet, they both engaged
their cloaks and disappeared from the Imperial and traitor rebel sensors.



Wedge threw his X-wing into a hard turn to port, whipping the agile fighter around
on the tail of the Imperial fighter. Ahead of him, the TIE Interceptor
lined up on another helpless freighter and prepared to fire.

Wedge and Rogue squadron had been sent to escort this vitally needed convoy to
the rebellions new base at Dagobah. It was becoming harder and harder to get
supplies. That was partially due to the loss of a large number of key Imperial
planets to the aliens, but also due to the crackdown by the empire aided by the
traitor rebels. Some supplies had dried up almost completely. For example, Bacta
had become impossible to get hold of now. The rebels had finally managed to
secretly buy some supplies from the Hutts (a sign of the rebellions desperation)
at exorbitant prices. It was a cash and carry deal, which meant the rebels had
to pick up the supplies and get them back to the new base on their own. There was
a lot riding on this mission.

It had all gone well until the convoy had dragged out of hyperspace by an
unexpected mass shadow.

Not expecting an Imperial trap, the rebels had been stunned to be bounced by three
cruisers, escorted by fighters. Three freighters had been destroyed and a Nebulon B
frigate damaged almost before the rebels could react. Imperial fighters were fast
and agile, and made very difficult targets for the turbolaser gunners on the
frigates and corvettes.

Hoping to destroy the fighter before it could fire on another freighter, Wedge fired
his quad lasers, raking the enemy ship. To his disappointment, the fighter did not
explode, but at least it did roll away, out of control and shredding debris.

With the immediate threat averted, Wedge quickly scanned the area of space around
them, trying to discover what had pulled them out of hyperspace. The scanners
quickly identified the mass shadow.

It was artificial!

A second later, the R2 unit identified the source as an Imperial Interdictor
cruiser.

Wedge was stunned. What was an Imperial cruiser doing out here? The answer came
to him almost immediately. The Hutts had sold them out!

"All Rogues, form on me. We have to take out that Interdictor so the freighters
can escape." Wedge shouted into the comm system.

"What about the freighters?" asked a young Rogue pilot.

"They have the frigates and Corvettes to protect them." Answered Wedge. "But if
we don't take that cruiser out, no one is going to escape."

He glanced around and saw that the Rogue X-Wings were forming up on him, and smiled
with approval, but then his face clouded with worry.

An Interdictor cruiser was 600 meters long and bristled with weaponry.



CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 22


The USS Sub Rosa moved quietly and invisibly around Tattoine in a high orbit.

The ship had arrived two days ago, and the crew had spent the time carefully mapping
and analysing the planet and the space traffic. The ship had spent the whole time
under strict cloak, ensuring that no stray emissions were made that might betray
their presence.

Captain Michelle West looked up from the report at her senior officers.

"Which of the test sites do you recommend?"

The first officer glanced at the science officer and then pointed to the display.

"Here ma'am. It seems to be a well fortified area, but well away from any populated
areas."

He paused and pressed a few buttons, changing the display.

"As you can see," he continued. "There are a variety of life forms within the
structure. It should provide a good test for the cargo. We can deploy the cargo
here...here and here for maximum coverage."

Captain West nodded with approval, then looked at the other officers.

"That is what we'll do then. Any other comments or suggestions?"

The young medical officer coughed nervously.

"Yes?" asked West.

The officer flushed nervously, but then seemed to gather his strength of mind.

"Ummm...I was wondering if this is right. I mean, some of those people are humans
down there." He finally stammered.

West regarded him gravely.

"I believe lieutenant, that you saw the section 31 tactical and threat analysis
regarding the Empire before we left? You saw the loss of life estimates if the
Empire gets a foothold in our galaxy?" she asked calmly.

"Yes ma'am, of course. But these people, they aren't combatants, they are
civilians." he replied uncertainly.

"That is true. But civilians die in all wars lieutenant. This is no different."
Stated the Captain.

"No ma'am...I mean yes ma'am. It's just that it wouldn't be so bad if we were
killing them. But to do this to them...?"

"I understand your moral objections." Answered Captain West. "But the threat from
the Empire demands extreme measures. We need to ensure that this galaxy will never
be a threat to the Federation again."

The young officer looked around the table, looking for support, but all the
officers were Section 31 veterans, and all were nodding at the Captains words.
Without support, he nodded and sank into silence.

The Captain smiled grimly.

"Very well. Since we have disposed of the moral objection to the plan, we will
begin in one hour. I want the ship brought to battlestations five minutes before
implementation. Dismissed!"



Raucous music filled Jabba's throne room. Degenerate creatures from all over the
galaxy drank and revelled in the base pleasures available. Some were bounty
hunters, some pirates, and some smugglers. Others were just servants and slaves.

In front of Jabba, a human slave girl, dressed only in a skimpy silken outfit
danced on the end of a long chain. She had once been a princess on a small planet
in the outer rim, but had been given to Jabba to pay off her world's debts to him.
Though once a princess, she was now just another girl in Jabba's harem, dressed in
a revealing outfit, and forced to partake in all manner of depraved acts.

Around the room, hard eyed guards fingered blasters, ready to gun down anyone who
threatened their master.

Jabba gave a yank of the chain and licked his lips with his long snake-like tongue.
Slowly he pulled the girl towards him. The poor girl knew what Jabba wanted and
despondently she made her way past the drunken bodies on the dance floor towards
him.

However, before she arrived, the room was filled with a strange noise, and in the
centre of the room, a glowing light appeared. Some of the guards grabbed their
weapons and pointed them at the pulsing light in the centre of the room, but
lacking a definite target, held their fire. The blue glow reached a peak, and
then subsided, revealing a strange round metal container about a foot high.

Some creatures were pushing forward for a better view, whilst others were stumbling
backwards in case the strange device turned out to be dangerous.

They were right!

Suddenly and without warning, the device detonated.

People automatically dived for cover, but they soon realised that the blast had
been very small, no more than a firework explosion.

The room was filled with a strange heavy smoke, but no one seemed hurt, and nothing
seemed damaged. People began to slowly get back to their feet, laughing and
chattering about their close escape. Obviously the device had been a bomb but it
had been a dud, and had failed to explode correctly.

Only the slave girl, who had been the closest to the blast, did not get back to
her feet. Instead, she remained face down on the floor, her body clenched in agony.

After few seconds, Jabba gave the chain a pull, but the girl didn't move.

Jabba pulled harder, and suddenly the girl looked up. Half her face was discoloured
with strange grey blotches. Even as they watched, the blotches grew and spread.
Her mouth opened in a soundless cry as a sliver of metal pushed through the skin
of her cheek and began to spread up her face.

"Boskca!" bellowed Jabba at one of his guards.

The guard raised his blaster, and fired directly at the young girl. The slave
girl was blasted backwards against the wall, a massive smoking hole in her chest.

But even before she landed in a twisted broken heap, other members of Jabba's palace
began to collapse and moan with pain, their bodies discolouring with metallic blotches.

Guards began shooting indiscriminately, but soon, the strange disease affected even
the guards. Finally, even Jabba succumbed as the metallic stain climbed up his
massive swollen body.

Eventually, even the moans of pain stopped and silence filled the chamber.



An hour after the device detonated, the silent palace chamber was again filled with
the sound of a Federation transporter. Captain West, her science officer and three
security guards appeared and looked around. The science officer raised a tricorder

and looked at the sensor display. He pressed a few buttons, and then showed the
screen to Captain West.

"You see ma'am?" he said. "The air is now clear of the modified Borg nanites. We
achieved 97% infection within 5 minutes of deployment of the cargo, and 100% within
twenty minutes."

The Captain nodded.

"And do we have operational control of them?" asked Captain West pointing to the
prone forms around the room.

The science officer nodded.

"Yes. Watch!" he answered.

He pressed a few buttons on the tricorder, and one of Jabba's former guards got
to his feet. His face was covered in strange blotches, and small metal slivers
poked painfully out of his body. But he stood quietly, staring into space. A few
more tapped commands from the science officer, and the drone started walking around
the room. Another command, and he stopped.

The science officer smiled and looked back at the Captain.

"Normally the Borg nanites would connect new drones to the hive mind. But there
is no Borg hive mind anymore. We are running the hive from here through the ship's
auxiliary computer system. We can download whatever commands we want from here.
In effect, we are the new hive mind. They'll do whatever we want. However, once
there are more than a thousand drones, we will have exceeded the capacity of the
ship's computers and we'll have to generate a new hive mind. We can load that hive
mind with our safety interlocks and imperatives of course, but we will have to
hand over control to it."

West nodded.

"We don't want to lose control of this. I want to keep this hive under our control
until we're sure it's safe." She paused to look around. "How many drones do we
have now?"

The science officer examined the tricorder.

"There were seven hundred and twenty six lifeforms in the building." He reported.

West nodded thoughtfully.

"Not all of these drones will be useful to us." She paused and nodded towards
Jabba's borg body. "That piece of garbage will be useless to us. It will barely be
able to move. Rationalise the drones, get whatever data you can from their minds,
but only keep only as many as will be useful to us. Scrap the rest."

"I understand ma'am." Answered the science officer.

"In the meantime, get whatever useful data you can and send it back up to the ship.
We'll examine it there. Assuming no surprises, the next phase will begin in twenty
four hours."


CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 23

Picard looked around the crowded assembly hall on Liberty station. The room was
filled with nearly two thousand starship captains from many different races and
states.

Picard looked over the Worf and nodded.

"Mr Worf, with you please begin the briefing." he said.

The burly Klingon nodded and began to speak.

"Detailed combat evaluations will be sent to each of your ships, but I have been
asked to give a general strategic and tactical overview."

He paused for a moment, and then gestured to the last screen set into the wall
behind him. The screen flickered and then filled with the image of the Milky Way
galaxy.

"The wormhole is situated here, close to the meeting point of the Federation,
Klingon and Romulan empires."

He paused for a moment as the viewscreen zoomed in.

"As far as we know, no enemy ships have left the wormhole yet, though we should
be vigilant, since our covert scans can be patchy, and are by no means 100%
effective."

He paused a pressed another control. The screen zoomed in further, and four icons
were highlighted.

"Our combined forces have four main bases in the region. The Klingon Targ base is
here, the Romulan Tal'zen base is here, and there are two Federation bases, Deep
Space 9 and Liberty station. We are currently using Liberty station as our primary
base, though both the Romulan and Klingon governments have reinforced their defences
at their bases. Deep Space 9 is our reserve base and is currently being used as
a repair base for the ships damaged in the recent battle."

"The Imperial forces continue to be attacked by the alien race that, we have come
to know from their Borg designation, as Species 8472. Battles so far seem even. The
Imperials seem to have more ships, but have also taken heavier losses. Given what we
think are the fleet balances, we estimate that losses have been high on both sides.
Our best estimates are that the two sides have lost something like twenty thousand
ships between them in their battles since they arrived in our galaxy.

"As you are aware, Imperial forces have continued to transit the wormhole into our
galaxy. Our best current estimates are that there are at least five and half thousand
ships on our side of the wormhole. We also think that there may be at least that
number on the other side."

A horrified murmur ran around the room as the sheer size of the enemy fleet was
made clear. Only a few fleets in the galaxy could have mustered enough ships to
equal the number of Imperial warships at the wormhole, and none could have taken
the level of losses the Imperials had taken.

"However, continued Worf. "We estimate that only 25% of that number is made up of
their most powerful front line units such as their so called "Star Destroyers".
We think the rest is made up of what they class as Frigates and corvettes. Furthermore,
covert sensor scans have revealed that the majority of the enemy vessels have some
kind of combat damage. Intelligence suggests that their fleet should be considered
no more than 64% combat effective."

Worf paused and his scowl indicated exactly what he thought of the intelligence
section's estimate.

He pressed a button and the screen filled with the image of a massive Imperial
Star Destroyer.

"This is the enemy's primary combat platform. They call it an "Imperial Star
Destroyer", or ISD for short. It is 1.6 kilometers long, and heavily armoured and
shielded. It's primary armament is a kind of energized plasma weapon of great power.
The Imperials call these weapons "turbolasers". We think that each ISD is armed
with 16 heavy and 64 light turbolasers weapons, mounted in multiple batteries.
In addition the ship carries a number of projectile and ion based weapon systems.
Sensor evaluations from the USS Excelsior taken from both times the ship has
engaged show that a hit from a heavy turbolaser can well be fatal for smaller ships.
THe best advice we can give is don't get hit. However, rate of fire for heavy
turbolasers seems low."

He pressed another button, and the ISD slowly rotated. As it rotated, various
weapons emplacements came into view and lit up.

"An ISD is designed for fleet combat in which most of their weapons can fire on a
specific target on a specific vector. As you can see on the display, their weapons
do not give the ship uniform coverage unlike most of our designs. This is a weakness
that may be exploited by a fast maneuverable opponent. We estimate that 80% of their
weapons are set to fire to the front, but only 10% to the rear. Furthermore, tactical
analysis shows that there may be a sensor blind spot directly behind the ship.
Therefore, the tactical recommendation is that you keep your ships out of their
forward arc at all times, and seize any opportunity to strike from the rear."

A blue tinged hand raised itself in the audience. Worf nodded in acknowledgement,
and a blue skinned woman stood up.

"Captain Syrinx, HMS Manticore, Royal Solturian Navy" she said. "I was wondering
how maneuverable these beasts are. What are our chances of getting into their blind
zones and staying there?"

Worf nodded gravely.

"A good question Captain. he answered. "Obviously your chances will depend upon
the capabilities of the various ships involved. Ships equipped with cloaking devices
should have an immediate advantage. Furthermore, smaller ships like Intrepid and
B'rel classes should have little problem. We estimate that even larger ships like
Galaxys, D'Deridexs and Negh'Vars have a maneuverability advantage over ISDs.
However, an ISD will only have to turn a few degrees to allow it to bring it's
lateral armaments to bear. Therefore, we recommend that larger ships do not close
in, but instead stay at long range and provide fire support."

As the female Captain nodded and returned to her seat, Worf turned back to the
display and pressed a button.

"Long range fire may be another advantage. Whilst we have no idea of the maximum
range of the Imperial turbolasers, the weapon does have some serious shortcomings
at long ranges. Weapon propagation speed seems very limited. We estimate that
the plasma bolts travel at no more than 250 kilometers a second. Therefore, engaging
at ranges above 100,000km offer a great deal of safety, as the bolts will take
seven minutes to arrive. That should allow ample time for evasive tactical maneuvers.
However, be aware that the Imperials have the ability to jump large distances in
a fraction of a second. At the recent battle, the alliance task force was surprised
by the sudden appearance of eighty enemy ships. They lost three ships and had ten
damaged before they could go to warp and escape. Therefore, if you engage at long
range, vary your speed and course constantly. Use bursts of warp speed if at all
possible."



Admiral Quan's victory class star destroyers emerged from hyperspace and immediately
scanned the surrounding space.

Quan tried not to look anxious as he waited for the scanning sections report. He
had tried to track the alien fleet as it fled from his ambush. He had managed to
track them for some distance, but had lost them as his ships had tried to calculate
multiple micro-hyperspace jumps to keep up with the aliens faster than light drive
system. Micro jumps were difficult at the best of times, but in a strange unmapped
galaxy, they were all bust impossible. His navigation section had performed wonders.

However, after some searching, one of his ships had detected a plasma trail that might
have come from a damaged ship. He was now making small micro jumps, and trying to
track the trail. However, each time he made a microjump, he took the risk that he
might lose the trail completely.

"I have the trail again sir. Bearing 147 mark ten. It seems to be getting weaker.
Maybe they've fixed the damage to their ship."

Quan cursed and grunted in acknowledgement. That was all he needed, to lose the
enemy now.

"Calculate the next jump." he ordered between gritted teeth. "And send a message
back to the flagship informing them of our intention to continue pursuit."



Aboard Deep Space 9, Captain Sisko watched as a damaged Excelsior class starship
was brought gently up to one of the stations lower docking pylons.

As the ship drew nearer, he was able to get a closer look at the damage. It looked
like the ship had taken a direct hit in the centre of the saucer. The entire bridge
superstructure was gone, and he could see directly down into the inside of the saucer.
The ship must have lost pretty much all her senior staff. It was a miracle that
the ship had survived at all.

Beside him Chief O'Brian whistled softly.

"I'm not sure whether to say that ship was lucky or not" he said.

"I know what you mean." murmured Sisko. "Do what you can for them."

O'Brian nodded at the saucer section.

"I doubt we have the ability to repair that here. It's going to take a full blown
shipyard for that. The warp drive looks okay, so I think the best I can do is patch
it up, reinforce its structural integrity field, and send them back to Utopia
Planetia or Antares."

Sisko nodded and then sighed.

"I'm hoping to we can patch her up and keep her in the fight." he said. "We need
every ship we've got."

O'Brian nodded in understanding.

"I'll take a runabout out and look her over from the outside, maybe we can do
something here." he said



"Contact sir." shouted the Imperial sensor officer excitedly. "Large target at
extreme sensor range. It appears to be stationary. Could be a station."

"Any other contacts with it?" asked Quan.

"The sensor officer shook his head. "As I said, we are at extreme range. There might
be other smaller targets there, but we can't see anything else that big."

Quan gave a predatory smile.

"Any indication that they have seen us?"

The sensor officer shook his head.

"Excellent." said Quan. "All ships close up to battlestations and prepare to jump
to hyper as soon as we can calculate it. We're going to pay them a little house
call."


CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 24

The runabout lifted smoothly off the platform, and headed away from Deep Space 9
on manouvering thrusters. O'Brian ran quickly through the runabouts post launch
checks. Once he saw that all systems were operating properly, he guided the runabout
around the large docking pylons, until he was hovering one hundred meters over the
saucer of the damaged starship.

The USS Harrier was one of the oldest Excelsior class starships still in service.
She had been only the seventh Excelsior class ship launched, and had a long
distinguished history. Although scheduled for her third service life extension refit,
she had been pressed back into service in light of the new threat. In the recent
battle at the new wormhole, she had taken two direct turbolaser hits. The first
had wiped out her old and underpowered shields, and the second had punched through
the saucer from top to bottom. All the bridge crew had been killed, and only luck
and the prompt actions of her engineering staff had saved her.

O'Brian brought the runabout down further, until he was hovering just meters above
the remains of the bridge. Setting the runabout to automatic station keeping, he
turned to the scanning systems, and scanned the old starship.

It was amazing that the ship was so intact. Apart from the large obvious hole in
the saucer and a large number of microfractures, the hull was surprisingly solid.
The warp engines were undamaged, but the impulse engines were shot to hell.

O'Brian began to catalogue everything he would need to get the ship operational
again. Maybe he might be able to surprise Sisko after all.



Sisko had just stepped out of the turbolift into the Operations room of DS9 when
the stations alert siren began to wail.

"Report" he shouted.

"Ben," shouted Dax. "We have a large number of ships, at least thirty, just appeared
two thousand kilometers off pylon 4. Computer identifies them as Imperial."

"Go to battlestations and get an alert off to the fleet at starbasae Liberty."
ordered Sisko.

Even as Dax turned to obey, the station rocked as imperial turbolasers started to
hit the shields.

Sisko turned to Kira.

"Major, return fire and get any ships that can move off the station now!"



For O'Brian, everything seemed to happen at once. He had just finished a detailed
sensor scan of the saucer's structural intregrity, when the runabouts alarm system
went off. Before he could react, a greenish bolt flew past the runabout and struck
one of the warp nacelles of the ship in front of him. The USS Harrier's nacelle
exploded, violently rocking the small runabout and sending it spinning out of control.

He fought for control of the wildly spinning ship, and only narrowly avoided hitting
one of the huge docking pylons. In the background he could hear Major Kira's voice
ordering all ships to blow their docking clamps and get clear of the station.

He finally managed to stabilize the small craft, and had a chance to look at the
runabout's sensors. His blood froze as he saw over thirty large ships encircling
the old station. All the ships were firing intense green bolts, pouring fire into
the old Cardassian mining station. Deep Space Nine's shields glowed and sparked
angrily as they fought to disipitate the huge energy levels.

The runabout's tactical system beeped urgently, and O'Brian saw hundreds of small
craft seperate from the enemy ships and head towards the embattled station.



Admiral Quan watched with satisfaction as his ships poured fire into the enemy
battlestation. They had obviously taken the enemy almost totally by surprise.

"Enemy shield strength is down to 64% Admiral." reported his operations officer.

Quan nodded with satisfaction. The station obviously had powerful shields, but
nothing could withstand this level of bombardment for long.

"Order the TIE fighters to hold their distance." he ordered. "We can destroy that
station ourselves. Tell them to stop any ships trying to escape."

He could see enemy ships desperately trying to get away from the station. Most of
the enemy starships appeared to be damaged to some extent. Only a few were actually
firing back at his ships.

Suddenly the enemy station opened fire. Bright lines of energy lanced out, and
multiple yellow balls shot from the pylons, heading towards his ships.

O'Brian swore as Deep Space Nine opened fire. The station had been massively upgraded
during the Cardassian/Dominion wars, and now sported powerful shields, phasers and
torpedo systems. The space around the small runabout crackled with energy, as
phasers designed for planetary defence lanced out, missing his small ship by meters.
He put the ship into a wild turn to avoid a string of photon torpedoes.

He knew he had to get out of this deadly cross fire, before an Imperial turbolaser
tore his small ship apart, or a stray photon torpedo vaporised him.

He quickly looked at the tactical display and saw that the Imperial had spread out
to surround the station. Hundreds of small fighters were waiting for anyone to try
to escape.

There was no way out!



Aboard the Enterprise E, Commodore Picard was enjoying a cup of Earl Grey Tea when
the comm system beeped at him.

"Picard here." he said answering the call.

"Sir, we are recieving a hail from Deep Space Nine, priority alpha." said the
Enterprise's communications officer.

"Route it through to my terminal!" he said immedietely.

Picard frowned as he waited for the call to be routed. Priority alpha calls were
rare. What was happening at DS9 he wondered. He hoped that it wasn't the Dominion
again. The last thing they needed now was another major threat.

The screen cleared, and an image of Captain Sisko appeared. At once Picard sat up
in his chair in alarm. He could clearly see that Deep Space Nine was under heavy
attack. Behind Sisko, Picard could see that the operations room of DS9 was on fire.
Starfleet and Bajoran crewmen rushed around, fighting fires.

"Commodore," shouted Sisko. "We have an Imperial fleet here."

Sisko ducked as a console next to him exploded in a shower of sparks.

"Thirty seven ships appeared out of nowhere. We've already lost the Harrier, Savage
and Akira. We destroyed at least two ships and maybe damaged others, but they've
got us surrounded and our power's fluctuating." said Sisko

"Ben" shouted Picard. "Hold on. I'm ordering a relief force to your location immedietely.
They'll be there in a couple of hours."

Sisko shook his head wearily.

"Don't bother about us, Jean-Luc. Our shields are down to 24%. We wont last another
five minutes. But Bajor, Jean-Luc. Bajor is not prepared to resist an attack like
this. Promise me that you'll protect Bajor. Promise me!"

Before Picard could answer, he saw a massive explosion behind Sisko, and the screen
abruptly went blank.



O'Brian whipped the runabout around in another hard turn, narrowly avoiding a turbolaser
bolt. He knew he was running out of time. He had seen most of the damaged ships
around DS9 destroyed as they tried to fight or flee. The station itself had begun
to take hits, as it's shields were overloaded.

For the first time he forced himself to admit that the station wasn't going to survive
this attack. It had survived the Cardassians, the Klingons and the Dominion, but
this attack was simply too much.

As he watched, a turbolaser broke through the shields and struck the outer ring,
causing a massive explosion.

The Station was still firing, but O'Brian knew that hits like that would cause the
old Cardassian station to experience power fluctuations and system failures. DS9
was built as a mining station, not a battlestation.

He knew he was going to lose friends today, and there was nothing he could do about
it. At least he knew his wife and children were safe on Bajor.

Painfully he looked away as more turbolasers hit the embattled station. Soon the
station would be gone, and then the Imperials would come after him. Desperately he
tried to think of an escape. Even going to warp would not guarentee his escape.
With the amount of ships, fighters and weapons fire around, he was likely to run
directly into something.

The Imperials seemed to have him totally surounded.

Unless?

He quickly punched in a new course, and pushed the impulse engines to the limits.
The little runabout shot ahead, towards the Imperial ships. Dozens of small Imperial
fighters broke formation and shot towards him, determined not to let him escape.

He routed more power to the engines and shields as the first of the TIE fighters
opened fire on him. The runabout shook as the bolts hit, but the shields held.

More TIE fighters were closing in now, but he wasn't worried about them. He was
more concerned with the massive wedge shaped vessel that was moving to cut him off.

As he watched, green bolts shot towards him from the star destroyer. He managed to
evade the first salvo, but he was running out of time. A bolt just missed, passing
close by the runabout, filling the cockpit with a green glow. He knew that any
second now he would be hit.

The runabout shook again as an Imperial TIE fighter shot past. He looked out the
cockpit window, and saw a huge green bolt heading directly at him. He opened his
mouth to scream, but suddenly the starfield was replace by a huge blue green whirlpool.

The runabout disappeared into the wormole, and the turbolaser passed harmlessly
through the space where it had been a moment before.



Admiral Quan watched in amazement as the Bajoran wormhole opened up near his ships.

How many wormholes are there in this galaxy he wondered to himself.

And where does it go?


CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 25


Wedge scrambled into his X-wing as the base's alarm screeched it's warning. The
ground crew had already powered the fighter up, so within seconds he was ready to
launch.

The base's scanners had detected a ship heading towards Dagobah, and they needed
to know if it was an Imperial ship. Normally they would have had a standing combat
space patrol up, but supplies were so short now that they simply couldn't sustain
constant patrols. Instead, two fighters were kept on the ground on a quick reaction
alert.

The supply situation had gone from bad to desperate in the last few weeks. The whole
rebellion network of supplies had collapsed, as base after base had fallen to the
empire or the new aliens. One by one, the remaining ships of the rebellion had
made their way to Dagobah. Now, almost the entire remaining rebellion fleet was
here. It was a respectable force of ships, but it was hamstrung by lack of supplies.
The rebellion was slowly but surely dying of starvation.

With skill born of years of practice, Wedge started the launch sequence at the
same time as he went through the standard pre-flight checks.

"Hey!" he exclaimed as he checked the weapon status board.

With a curse he opened a channel to the ground crew.

"What are you guys playing at?" he shouted. "There are no protons loaded."

"I'm empty too!" shouted his wingman from the other X-wing cockpit.

"Sorry Wedge." replied the ground crew officer. "Due to munition shortage, Admiral
Ackbar has ordered that we keep expendable weapons back unless absolutely needed."

Wedge look at the officer in rage.

"We do need them. What do you suggest I use if this contact turns out to be bigger
than a fighter?" he asked angrily. "Bad language?"

The officer shrugged his apologies, but obviously wasn't going to budge and disobey
orders.

Wedge swore again. If he came back from this mission, he was going to have words
with Ackbar.

The two X-wings lifted off smoothly and accelerated out of Dagobah's thick atmosphere,
in a very loose formation. They had already lost a number of craft in this pea-soup
to mid air collisions. Even instruments seemed unreliable.

His astromech droid patched the X-wings systems in the ground control, and his
scanner lit up showing the incoming craft. To his relief, the craft didn't seem
large. It was difficult to tell at this range what it was, but it was certainly
no star destroyer.

The ground controller brought the X-wings around in a larger arc, designed to bring
them into the intercept in the target's rear. The target craft was coming slowly into
the system, obviously in no hurry. As he watched, the it began a slow turn away
from the planet.

He increased power to his engines, and began to close the distance.

Wedge opened a communication channel to his wingman. He wanted to tell him to hold
back until he had a better idea of what they were facing. It unlikely that the ship
was an Imperial vessel, if they came, it wouldn't be a single small ship. It was
far more likely to be a rebel straggler, but Wedge hadn't gotten so old by taking
chances. If anything did happen, he wanted his wingman far enough away to raise
the alarm.

To his surprise, his wingman didn't respond. A quick glance at his scanner showed
the his wingman's X-wing was heading off into the distance, slowly rolling. It was
obviously not under control. He tried the comm system again, but there was no reply.

He was just about to call back to base and tell them that something screwy was going
on, when a strange tingling feeling suddenly covered his whole body. Sparkling light
danced in front of his eyes, and when it cleared, he was stunned to find himself
sitting on a glowing panel on the floor in a strange room.

For a second he wondered if his X-Wing had been hit and he had died and gone onto
some odd form of afterlife that some species believed in.

Then he saw Princess Leia, and he was sure he had!



The USS Sub Rosa stealthily approached it's next target, an old pre-imperial freighter.
This freighter would make the third ship in twelve hours that had been captured and
"infected".

Captain West sat back in her chair in satisfaction. Over the last ten days, they
had infected seven planets and dozens of ships.

The planets were easy to infect. The ship merely entered a high orbit under cloak,
and then proceeded to beam people up from the surface. The prisoners were infected
with modified Borg nanites and then transported back to the surface with the mission
to infect others. After a while it became a self sustaining reaction and they could
leave it and go onto the next target. All the planets infected so far were like
Tatooine, small border worlds that no one would miss much if they dropped off the
galactic map.

The ships had been easy too. This galaxy was filled with small "tramp" freighters
scratching a living between worlds. It was a simple matter for the Defiant class
ship to find isolated targets and to beam the nanites into the target ship's life
support systems. The ships then proceeded onto their destination, and continued
to spread the Borg "infection".

She was pulled back from her musings as the operations officer spoke.

"Ma'am, the target is turning and increasing speed. They may be about to go to
hyperspace."

Captain West cursed silently. This one wouldn't be so easy, but she was determined
not to let the ship escape.

"Okay, let's get them before they do. Full impulse! Battlestations. Drop the
cloak and order them to stand too in the name of the Empire." she ordered with a
grin.

They had made more than one ship stop simply by pretending to be an Imperial
naval ship. Most ship's captains were terrified of the empire, and would automatically
obey an order. Of course, as soon as they got a good look at the Federation designed
ship they realised that they had been conned, but by then it was often too late.

"They're heaving too, but their shields are still up." reported the tactical officer.
"We need them to lower their shields before we can transport the nanites aboard."

West nodded.

"Put a phaser pulse across their bow" she ordered. "Then order them to drop their
shields."

The tactical officer nodded, and on the screen West saw a burst of pulse phasers
shoot out past the enemy ship.

"We are being hailed." reported the communication officer.

West nodded.

"Put it on screen." she ordered.

The screen cleared and the image of a human appeared.

"Captain" said West. "You will lower your shields and prepare to be boarded."

The human smiled grimly at them.

"No," he said. "You will lower your shields and prepare to be boarded."

West smiled at him, impressed by his bravado.

"Very humorous. Perhaps you didn't see our weapons fire across your bow a few
seconds ago. Would you like a closer look?" she asked lightly. "We outgun you by
a significant margin. Surrender now or be destroyed! This is your last warning."

The human on the screen scowled at her.

"Yes, you do outgun us, but..."

He was interrupted by a shout from the Sub Rosa's tactical officer.

"Ma'am, hyperspace footprint. A ship is dropping out of hyper right on top of us!"

The ship rocked as the shields took incoming fire.

"Full impulse!" shouted West. "Evasive maneuvers and return fire!"

The ship shook as nearby turbolasers detonated in flack bursts.

"What are we facing?" she demanded.

The operations officer hung onto his console as the Defiant class starship snarled
around in a tight turn.

"Computer identifies it as a Imperial Star Destroyer. Heavily armed and shielded."
he shouted.

Before West could reply, the tactical officer shouted.

"We have taken multiple hits. Shields failing."

The Defiant class ship was highly maneuverable, and it dodged and weaved amongst
the storm of fire that the star destroyer unleashed, but not every bolt could be
avoided, and every now and then a turbolaser struck the shields making them spark
and glow as they tried to dissipate the massive energies from the turbolasers.

"Helm, warp speed, get us out of here!" ordered West.

The helmsman nodded and quickly programmed in a course and speed. The Sub Rosa's
warp engines flared, but just as the ship shot into warp, a final turbolaser bolt
hit. It pierced the weakened shields and blasted into the bull near the starboard
pulse phaser system. The ablative armour took the brunt of the damage, but a large
hole was smashed in the hull.

Across the bridge, crewmen were thrown off their feet by the force of the explosion,
and consoles sparked with small explosions. The ships structure groaned as the
warp field stressed the weakened hull.

"Report!" screamed West above the noise.

"We've taken heavy damage to the starboard hull. Starboard pulse phaser system
destroyed. Cargo bay three is open to space. Transport room two destroyed. Infirmary
destroyed. Warp and impulse systems operational, but we have multiple hull fractures.
We shouldn't stay at warp for long."

"Where is the enemy ship?" asked West.

The tactical officer shook his head.

"Tactical sensor systems are off line." he said. "However, they don't have warp,
so we must have left them behind."

"But they might be able to track us." muttered West. "Very well, drop out of warp
and engage the cloak. We'll withdraw on impulse."

The operations officer looked up.

"Ma'am," he said miserably. "We can't cloak. That last bolt destroyed the whole
cloaking system."

West swore violently.

The cloak was a critical part of her mission here. Without it she wasn't sure if
she could complete it.

"Okay, stay at warp for now, let's put some distance between us and them." she said.

"What the hell was that?" asked the first officer.

"It was a bloody Q-ship number one. They planted a nice juicy freighter for us to
attack and then jumped right on us when we took the bait. I'll say one thing for
them, they're not stupid. Well, that's a lesson for us. We won't underestimate them
again"

The hull groaned again ominously.

"Ma'am," said the engineer. "The hull is under extreme stress. Microfractures are
increasing."

"Understood." she said. "Drop out of warp and proceed on impulse. We'll just have
to hope that we're outside their sensor range."

The tactical officer looked up.

"Ma'am, there's an asteroid field nearby. We might be able to hide in there until
repairs can be made."

West nodded. It was their best hope.

"Make it so." she ordered.


CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 26

The USS Defiant and the Millennium Falcon hovered two hundred meters away from the
vast rebel ship, Home one.

On board the massive rebel ship, a small group was gathered in one of the huge
ship's cargo holds.

Captain Shelby of the Federation starship Defiant walked around some of the packages
that had just been transported to the rebel ship. She picked up one small box
containing medical supplies.

"This is just a small sample Admiral, we can solve most of your supply needs
overnight." she said.

"But only if we agree to your request." exclaimed the Admiral. "A request that
might well get hundreds or thousands of us killed."

Shelby reluctantly nodded.

"Admiral" said Leia. "The Federation is fighting the same enemy as us. I've been
to one of their starbases and met their people. They are good honest people, and
they're not trying to trick us. They are facing the same threat as us. They're
not asking us to defeat the Imperial fleet in battle, merely to provide a distraction.
To give the allied forces time to close the wormhole."

"Even that won't be so easy" said Wedge. "The Imperial commanders aren't dumb.
Unless we commit a sizable force to the attack, they won't commit their reserve
forces to this side of the wormhole. It's going to take the entire remaining
rebel fleet to pull this off."

Shelby nodded.

"That is true." she said. "But we believe that the weapon and system upgrades we
can provide will allow you to take on a much larger force than you could normally.
And naturally the Defiant will fight alongside you."

Tycho laughed.

"Great, another little corvette might just tip the balance against the entire
Imperial fleet."

Han gave Tycho a level look.

"Hey kid, don't underestimate these people. That 'little corvette' punched the hell
out of a Victory class Star Destroyer on the way here. It's a tough little ship!"

Shelby nodded her thanks to Han, and then looked straight at the old Admiral.

"If I may be blunt, you need these supplies. Without them your rebellion is over
anyway. You can't continue like this. At least with our plan, you have a chance."

The alien Admiral nodded slowly looking around the nearly empty cargo hold.

"You are right." he said wearily. "But we will need your full cooperation. If we
are going to do this, I want full access to your technology base."

Shelby paused and glanced at Commander Data.

"I think that can be arranged with a few minor exceptions." she said. "Perhaps
I can give you a tour of the Defiant, and we could discuss the details. Would you
like a tour?"

The Admiral nodded slowly.

"You know Captain. Even if we do sign this agreement, its going to take a while
to refit our ships even with your 'replicators'. Can your people hold out that long?"

Shelby looked at Data, then back at the Admiral.

"They will have to Admiral." she said. "They will have to!"



The high commander of the Species 8472 fleet looked at the report. The fleet would
be totally gathered in a few days, and then they could strike and regain the wormhole.
The war had been going well, until they had lost control of the wormhole. Now
their forces on the other side were starved of ships and supplies and they had
been forced onto the defensive.

Once they controlled the wormhole again, they could push ships and supplies through
to the other side again, and take the war to this 'galactic empire' again. The first
offensive had shown that the enemy were not strong enough to resist them, they
were weak! Apart from that massive battlestation, their 'Death Star', these aliens
had nothing that could stand up to them in a straight battle. In battle after battle,
thousands of Imperial ships and planets had been destroyed.

Soon it would be time for the final offensive!


On the massive Death Star, Luke Skywalker sat in the commanders office going over
reports. His father Darth Vader had returned to Coruscant, and Luke had been ordered
to take the Death Star and the Empire's prime strike fleet to the wormhole and secure
it. The war was going well now that the Empire controlled the wormhole. However,
the Empire's strategists knew that they must maintain that control, and so the
Death Star was headed there now.

Luke had come to hate paperwork. Somehow he had always thought that if you were
the unquestioned ruler of the galaxy (or his son), someone else would do it for you.
Apparently that wasn't how it worked. He also had a dark suspicion that his father
was palming off some of his paperwork onto his unsuspecting son. Truly Vader was
evil!

With a grin, Luke imagined the late (unlamented) Emperor, drowning in paperwork as
he tried to control the whole galaxy. Somehow that image seemed to make things better.

He wouldn't have minded if the paperwork was relevant to his job, but most wasn't.
Most wasn't even interesting. Why he needed to know that the empire was reducing its
purchase of E7 droids in favour of the R4 type, he didn't know. With a shake of his
head he placed the report in his out tray and picked up another. He sighed as he
saw that this was yet another report that was of no interest to him. Apparently
there were vague reports of some strange new disease on the outer rim. So far only a
few dozen planets were infected. The report was very vague on the issue, it didn't
describe the disease, or even say whether it was fatal. This was surely something
that could be dealt with by the planetary authorities. Luke was still wondering
what to do with the report when his desk communicator beeped.

"Yes?" he asked.

"My Lord." said the officer on the screen. "The station's tactical officer wishes
to see you to discuss fleet deployments."

Luke looked between the screen and the report.

"Dammit" he thought. "I'm the son of the Emperor, not a doctor."

With another shake of his head, he placed the report in his out tray, with a quick
note saying that no further action was required by him. After all, a dozen small
low population planets was hardly noticeable in the galactic context. Someone else
would deal with it he thought. This meeting is far more important than some minor
unknown disease in the outer rim.

"Send the tactical officer in!" he said.



Captain Michelle West looked at her engineering officer in annoyance.

"So what are you saying?" she asked testily.

"I'm saying ma'am, that short of a trip to the dockyard, I can't make the ship totally 
battleworthy again.  I can patch up the warp drive to give you warp six, and I can
fix the hull fractures, but there's nothing I can do for the starboard weapon systems
or the cloak." said the engineer.

"So we're down to half weapons, half engines and we can't hide!" said the first
officer grimly.

"I'm afraid that's about it." said the engineer apologetically. "That last turbolaser
blew a hole the size of a house in the starboard hull. If the shields and ablative
armour hadn't taken much of the damage, we wouldn't be having this conversation now!"

West nodded. They had been playing hide and seek with the huge star destroyer in
the asteroid field for the last forty eight hours. There had been a number of close
shaves, which given the star destroyer's firepower, and the damage the Defiant
class starship had already suffered, could well have been fatal. However, they had
been lucky, and managed to evade and hide from the massive ship long enough for
it to lose interest and leave. The Imperial officer had probably figured that a small
ship like the Sub Rosa had been destroyed in the asteroid field.

"What about the hyperdrive?" asked West coming back to the present.

The engineer nodded slowly.

"I think it's okay." he said slowly. "Obviously we don't have as much experience
with those systems as I would like, but from what I can see, it should get us
wherever you want to go."

"Might we be able to find a shipyard somewhere in this galaxy?" asked the first
officer.

"No, anyone who gets a good look at us will know that we're something strange and
might alert the authorities. We can't take that risk." said West

She paused for a moment, lost in thought.

"What's the status of the project?" she asked finally.

The science officer looked at his padd.

"We've seeded seven planets ourselves with the modified Borg nanites." he said
displaying the galactic map on the screen. "But we've also infected forty five ships.
Each of those ships were instructed to go onto their destination and infect those
planets. Obviously they might also infect other ships on the way.  We estimate that
currently about thirty six planets are infected. Seven have been almost totally
taken over, and another ten are at fifty percent infection."

West nodded.

"Is that enough?" she asked.

The officer shrugged.

"It's difficult to say." he said. "The plan showed us seeding the infection on a
number of planets all around the outer rim. We've only managed to seed a quarter
of the planned planets. So it really depends largely on the Imperial response.
The simulation showed that the 'infection' should spread fast enough to limit the
warnings that would be given. We also selected those planets because they're out
of the way with little or no Imperial presence or customs.  Basically they won't
be missed much. But eventually someone is going to notice. They may have already.
Once they notice, it depends on their response. If they respond quickly and
decisively that probably is not enough. If they delay their response....it might
be enough."

"So what you're saying, is that we need to infect a lot of people, very quickly
to ensure the plan succeeds."

The officer nodded.

"I guess I am." he said. "But where are you going to find that many people?"

There was a pause as West brought up the star charts, then her finger stabbed at
the screen.

"There!" she said. "Coruscant!"


CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 27

The Death Star decelerated smoothly as it approached the imperial side of the
strange wormhole. Units of the Imperial fleet had already formed up in parallel
lines as the Death Star approached.

Luke looked out at the space ahead of him.

"Can we detect the wormhole?" he asked.

"No sir." answered the sensor officer. "But the location is clearly marked by sensor
beacons."

Luke nodded.

"And are you sure that we can fit through it?" he asked.

The science officer stepped forward.

"My Lord, we cannot be entirely sure. As far as we can determine, space and time
are heavily warped here, so it should not matter what size vehicle we are in."

Luke sighed.

"So you're not certain!" he said.

The officer started to say something, then thought better of it.

Suddenly the Death Star communications officer looked up.

"Sir, a picket ship has just come through the wormhole. Admiral Thrawn reports
that a major attack is underway on the other side. He is asking for reinforcements"

Luke nodded.

"I guess that decides us. There's only one way to find out if we'll fit through
the wormhole." he said. "Order the pilots to their fighters, sound battle stations
and take us in!"




Three hundred bioships had emerged without warning from subspace rifts around the
Federation side of the wormhole.

The Imperial fleet was not caught napping!

Grand Admiral Thrawn had ordered that at least one third of the fleet must always
be on alert. The strain on the crews was horrendous, but it paid off as the ships on
alert reacted within seconds, blanketing the space around the rifts with thousands
of turbolaser bolts. Ninety bioships were destroyed before they could clear the
rifts.

As the remaining two thirds of the imperial fleet raced to actions stations, the
surviving bioships broke formation and split into smaller groups to attack.

Within seconds the area around the wormhole was a melee of confusion. Turbolasers
exploded and thousands of TIE fighters raced though the explosions to get at the
bioships. The bioships themselves concentrated on the larger Imperial ships, ignoring
the fighters, frigates and gunships to take out the cruisers and Star Destroyers.

A star destroyer was hit, and fell out of formation, colliding with a Carrick
light cruiser. The smaller ship was destroyed and the star destroyer, wracked by
internal explosions drifted away from the battle, escape pods spilling from its
ruptured flanks. A bioship, firing at a Victory class cruiser, accidentally hit
a fellow bioship as it swooped to attack a star destroyer, destroying it instantly.

Nine bioships managed to pick their way through the lattice of turbolasers and fighters,
and launched themselves at the Super Star Destroyer 'Knight Hammer'. The Knight
Hammer responded by intensifying its forward firepower, and ordering all it's fighters
to intercept.

Avoiding the turbolaser bolts, the bioships managed to get into position to link
their fire. Even the powerful shields of an Executor class ship would not be able
to withstand a blast that could shatter planets.

A beam of energy lanced out from one of the bioships towards the centre ship. It
was quickly joined by five more beams.

But as the final two beams fired, a lone TIE Defender broke through and squarely
rammed the centre bioship on its prow.

The lightweight TIE fighter was instantly destroyed, but it had mortally wounded
the centre bioship, destroying it's main cannon. Filled with energy from it's
consorts, but now unable to release it, the centre bioship simply vaporised in a
single massive explosion that also destroyed it's unfortunate consorts.

Cheers sounded on the Knight Hammer's bridge, but they were short lived. A single
bioship dodged fire from the Super Star Destroyer, and fired a single burst directly
into the bridge. The bridge crew died instantly, still cheering, never having seen
their killer.

With the bridge superstructure destroyed, the Super Star Destroyer lurched out
of formation. For a few vital moments the mighty ship's guns fell silent. Their
central fire control point had been destroyed, and it took time to switch to
manual local control.

Taking full advantage of the giant ship's confusion, another bioship fired at the
Knight Hammer, striking it astern and sending the massive ship pin wheeling helplessly
towards the wormhole.




Luke watched the Death Star's main display screen with interest as the giant battle
station transitted the wormhole. Strange electrical discharges raced around the
spherical hull, but so far Luke's fears about the massive station getting stuck
seemed unfounded.

"The navigation officer reports that we will clear the wormhole in ten seconds."
reported Luke's aid.

"Very well. All gunners, prepare to open fire, all TIEs prepare to launch." ordered
Luke.

The view screen flickered. One moment it showed the strange electrical bolts inside
the wormhole, the next it showed......

For a second Luke's brain simply refused to recognise what he was seeing. It simply
couldn't be his brain screamed.

The Death Star emerged from the wormhole just one mile from the stricken Super Star
Destroyer. At the combined speed the Knight Hammer and the Death Star, there was
simply no time to react at all.

A second after the Death Star emerged from the wormhole, the vast bulk of the Super
Star Destroyer 'Knight Hammer' slammed into it, dagger point first.

On board the Super Star Destroyer 'Iron Fist' Admiral Thrawn and the rest of the
bridge crew watched with horrified fascination as the stupendous collision took
place. A massive gout of flames shot from the Death Star, instantly consuming
hundreds of thousands of people, and also the entire seventeen and a half kilometer
long super star destroyer.

Thrawn was the first to recover himself, and a few snapped orders were enough to
bring his highly trained bridge crew back to the task at hand. The alien ships
had been roughly handled, with well over half their initial number destroyed, and
a good hundred bioships obviously damaged. The remainder were, even as he watched,
making a rapid retreat back to their rifts. Thousands of TIE fighters were in pursuit
picking off the damaged stragglers.

Feeling secure that the battle was under control, he turned back to the view of the
Death Star. The giant battlesattion had emerged from the explosion, trailing a vast
cloud of debris and atmosphere. There was a massive crater, perhaps a hundred miles
in diameter and twenty miles deep on the side where the Knight Hammer had struck.
Explosions could be seen spreading across the surface, blowing vast sections of
hull out into space.

However, despite the visual damage, the Death Star still seemed to be under some
measure of control, as it slowly slid to a controlled stop. Unbelieveably, even
after such enormous damage, maybe it wasn't a total loss considered Thrawn.

"Communications!" he said. "Can you raise the Death Star?"

The communications officer looked up.

"We're not getting anything from the station's control deck, but we are getting
confused reports from some of the docking bays. I think they are from the ships
and fighters inside."

"What do they say?" asked Thrawn.

"They're reporting massive explosions and fires..." The officer paused and listened
intently for a few seconds. "The core has been shut down, and the station is
being controlled from it's emergency control deck. They are asking for damage control
help."

Thrawn nodded.

"Order all ships that can spare them, to send their damage control teams to the
Death Star."




On board the Death Star, damage control team A-17-Alpha fought it's way towards
the main control deck. Around them fires raged, and only their environmental damage
control suits kept them alive. Ahead of them, the thick doors had been blasted away
by the impact and metal girders twisted like paper. The Super Star Destroyer had
struck just twenty miles from this location, and the devastation was total. So
far they had found no survivors.

The commander of the team pressed his communicator. He had to shout to be heard
over the groans of the twisted metal and raging fire.

"A-17-Alpha to Damage control. We've reached the main control deck. It's condition
Omega. It's a total loss. Repeat, main control deck status Omega. Over."

The speaker in his helmet crackled.

"A-17-Alpha. Do you have any survivors? Over." asked the controller.

The damage control team commander looked around in disbelief. As if anyone could
survive this he thought. However, deciding to go by the book, he ordered his team
to activate their life form scanners.

To his utter surprise, just a few seconds later, one of his team's crewmen gave
a shout.

Lumbering over to the crouching crewman, he found him leaning over what, at first
glance, appeared to be just another blackened and burnt part of the deck. The crewman
held up his bio scanner and then pointed it back at the object. The commander felt
his stomach heave as he realized what he was looking at. Nothing that badly burnt
could possibly be alive his brain screamed at him, but the bio scanner didn't lie.

Swallowing down the vomit that threaten to rise up his throat, he pressed the
communicator button.

"A-17-Alpha to Damage control. We have a single survivor. Badly burnt and unconscious,
but alive."

"A-17-Alpha, this is control. Priority Alpha orders. Keep that being alive and get
it to a med lab at whatever cost. If necessary, consider your entire team expendable
for this mission."

The damage control team commander ground his teeth in rage.

"What?" he shouted into the mike. "You've got to be kidding. Why should we risk
our lives for some half dead bridge technician?"

The was a pause before the answer came.

"Lord Vader's son was on the control deck! If that's him, and you don't get him
back alive...."

The damage control team leader felt the blood drain from his face.



CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 28

On the bridge of the USS Enterprise, NCC 1701 E, there was silence. On the main
screen, the image of the battle around the wormhole was showing. The image was
being relayed by a cloaked Klingon bird of prey, just a hundred thousand kilometers
from the battle.

As Commodore Picard watched, a species 8472 bioship penetrated to the heart of the
Imperial fleet, sending one of the huge ships spinning out of control towards the
wormhole.


"One of the enemy command ships has taken severe damage" reported Worf. "However
it's core systems seem stable, so they should be able to..."

Before he could finish, the wormhole seemed to pulse, and an enormous grey spherical
object appeared from nowhere. The Enterprise's bridge crew hardly had time to react,
before the dagger like shape of the Super Star Destroyer slammed into the giant
station.

"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed Picard in a whisper as a huge fireball blocked out one side
of the battlestation.

"Report!" he ordered automatically.

Even Worf, normally unflappable in battle seemed stunned by the disaster unfolding
before him.

"The Imperial command ship has been destroyed!" reported 7 of 9 emotionlessly. "But
the Death Star still appears structurally intact."

Riker looked up in disbelief.

"You've got to be joking!" he said. "It just got hit by a ship over seventeen
kilometers long. Nothing can survive being hit like that."

7 of 9 regarded at the first officer calmly.

"Your statement is illogical!" she said. "The sensor readings are clear. The Death
Star has suffered massive internal damage, but structurally it is still intact.
Barring any further damage it has survived the impact!"

There was an appalled silence on the bridge. Finally Geordi said what everyone was
thinking.

"How the hell do we destroy something that can shrug off that much damage?"




The head of the Species fleet looked over the report and tried to conceal his delight.

"You're sure that the 'Death Star' was destroyed?" he asked.

The warrior that stood before him gestured at the sensor recording.

"We were forced to withdraw before it's final destruction, but the enemy command
ship crashed directly into it. I can't see that it could survive an impact of
that magnitude." he answered confidently.

The commander regarded him for a moment.

"I'm not so certain." he replied. "We've hit that accursed thing with our heavy
weapons a number of times, and yet we haven't managed to put it out of action."

He paused and thought for a moment. The Death Star was the most deadly weapon
his enemy had. If he could destroy it, the balance of power would clearly tilt
towards the species.

"However, an impact that large must have heavily damaged it at least. Maybe we
can take advantage of it's weakness. Order another strike prepared. The priority
target is the Death Star!" he ordered.




Thrawn was looking over fleet reports in the privacy of his day cabin.

The first report was about Admiral Quan. He had sent the Admiral off a few days
ago to pursue the damaged alien ships. At first there had been standard reports,
indicating that he was tracking a number of ships, then a contact report that he
had found an alien battlestation and attacked it. Some prisoners had been taken,
and were bing returned to the fleet on a damaged Victory class ship. However,
Quan had reported that another wormhole existed near the station. The last report
had indicated that he intended to investigate. However, since that report there
had been nothing. No reports, no returning ships. Attempts to contact the scout
fleet had come to nothing.

Thrawn considered. The loss of Quan's squadron was serious, if not fatal. He would
have liked to send another force to investigate, but until the Death Star was
operational, he didn't want to weaken his forces further. He made a note that he
wanted to see the prisoners as soon as they were returned to the fleet.

The second report dealt with Luke Skywalker. Against all the odds, it seemed that
the Emperor's son had survived the explosion on the Death Star's command deck. His
burn injuries were terrible, but he was receiving the very best care that the
Imperial fleet could provide. Emperor Vader had been informed, and had sent special
instructions for his son's care and rehabilitation.

The final report concerned the damage to the Death Star. The main reactor had taken
heavy damage, and was still shut down. Damage control teams were still trying to
get to some areas of the station. Repair estimates for the reactor alone varied
from a week to a month, depending on what further damage might come to light.
Only 10% of the station's weapons were on line, and it's shields were at less
than 25% (when they worked at all). Sublight engines were lightly damaged, and
the engineers said the hyperdrive 'might' be operational but until main power was
restored, it was difficult to be sure.

He would have liked to have sent the station back through the wormhole to Imperial
space where repairs could be expedited, but the engineers said that they couldn't
risk sending the station back through until more of the serious damage was repaired.

The good news was that finally large numbers of Imperial ships were arriving. In
the last 24 hours alone, nearly a thousand new ships had come under his command,
and around 100 of them were new ISD II class ships. It was estimated that in another
24 hours, another 2000 ships would arrive at the wormhole. If all the projected
ships arrived, he would have nearly 15,000 ships, of which nearly 4000 would be
Imperial Star Destroyers, on both sides of the wormhole.

The Death Star was the key. It was the only weapon in the imperial arsenal that
could match the aliens planet busting weapons. He needed to protect the Death Star
until it was repaired.

He keyed a few instructions in the computer, dividing his ships into three categories.
The category 1 ships were his fully functional large capital ships. The category
2 ships were his undamaged smaller ships like corvettes, frigates and gunships.
The category 3 ships were the remaining damaged ships of all types.

He assigned all the damaged ships (nearly 4000 ships) to take up station around
the Death Star and continue repairs. They would, in the event of another attack,
provide point defence for the Death Star. The category 2 ships (around 7500 ships)
would provide general defence around the wormhole, leaving him with nearly 2500
undamaged, fully functional capital ships as his prime strike fleet.

The next time the aliens attacked, he didn't want just to defend, he wanted to
destroy their entire force.




Wedge looked over the new, enhanced X-Wing. The new fighter looked pretty much
the same as the old fighter, but in fact it was almost an entirely new design.
It had been designated as the X2-Wing, to show its enhanced capabilities over
it's predecessor. The sleek new fighter had been built in just hours, using
modules from the new industrial replicators.

The first replicators had been small affairs, but they had been used to make larger
ones and so on. The new 'industrial' replicators could replicate objects as large
as a 100 meter cube. A new set of 'super' replicators were being planned that
would be even larger.

"We have larger replicators back on our major planets and stations." said Captain
Shelby of the Federation starship USS Defiant. "But power was always a problem for
smaller ships and stations. Your power generation systems are amazingly powerful
and compact."

"They needed to be. Hyperspace travel takes vast amounts of energy." replied Wedge.

"I know," answered Shelby. "We had to fit extra fusion reactors in the Defiant's
shuttlebay to give us the power we needed to make jumps."

Wedge nodded.

"I'll talk to our people. We can probably help you upgrade that. After all, this
tech exchange should go two ways!"

Shelby smiled. Ever since they had arrived at Dagobah, she had found herself liking
these people. They had a refreshingly optimistic view to life, despite being the
underdogs for so long.

"You should find the addition of the structural integrity field and the inertial
dampers a major advantage to your maneuverability." said Shelby. "The fighter has
a built in replicator, so long trips should be rather more conformable. Also, the
targeting system has been upgraded to allow the use of two small phaser emitters
on the upper S-foils. They are able to fire anywhere in your front 180, so you
no longer have to be pointed exactly at your target. Given the space available,
the phasers had to be relatively small, but they should still be excellent against
fighters. We left the lower wing laser cannons and the enhanced the proton launchers
in case you run into anything heavy. The computer systems have been upgraded, so
you don't actually need an R2 unit anymore. We tried to design it with a cloaking
device and warp drive, but we couldn't make the cloak small enough to fit a fighter,
and warp speed would have required an entirely new design. Given the urgency, we
thought it was best to stick with a tried and tested design."

Wedge nodded.

"We're already planning a warp fighter, it's called the H-Wing." replied Wedge.
"I can't wait to try her out. In the simulations she wipes the floor with the TIE
fighters, even the best projected TIE designs. In the meantime we'll make do with
this. According to the reports it should be better than anything currently flying."

"That's the plan." answered Shelby. "How is the refit to the fleet going."

Wedge gave a huge grin.

"Before you arrived we were scavenging for parts and supplies. Now we have more
ships and supplies than we know what to do with. In fact, we've made so many fighters,
that our problem is finding enough people to man them. You can't replicate people
can you?"

Shelby laughed.

"I'm afraid not!" she said with a grin.

"Ah well." said Wedge. "You can't have everything. We'll just have to make do with
what we've got."

He ran his hand down the sleek lines of the fighter.

"The empire is going to get a hell of a shock when they meet us next time." he said.



Captain West watched with satisfaction as the USS Sub Rosa slid gently into the
large freighters docking bay. The freighter was called Jasper, and had been quietly
minding it's own business when the Sub Rosa had dropped out of warp on top of it.
A couple of shots from the pulse phaser had convinced her Captain to surrender.

The Jasper had been chosen because she was a large bulk carrier (almost 2km long)
and had a large enough docking bay for a Defiant class ship to fit inside her.

There was a slight bump as the Defiant class ship touched down inside the bay.

"Contact light!" reported the navigator. "We're down and safe."

Captain West nodded.

"Well done. Power down main systems. Take the warp core off line. Tell the Jasper
to pressurize the main bay."

She turned and gestured to the Sub Rosa's chief engineer and chief science officer
to approach.

"As soon as the bay is pressurized." she said to the engineer. "I want you to get
outside and have a look over the damage. We're going to need the ship as operational
as possible by the time we get to Coruscant, so this is your best chance for repairs."

The engineer nodded and left, and West turned to the science officer.

"What's the latest on the Borg?" she asked.

The science officer glanced at his padd.

"The last report showed that over two hundred planets were infected, with seventy
eight showing 100% infection. In addition there are about five hundred ships infected."

Captain Michelle West considered the figures for a moment.

"Are the safety interlocks and imperatives holding?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am. They are spreading out as ordered, but everything seems okay." he answered.

"Where should we be at this stage?" asked the Captain.

The officer looked uncomfortable.

"If we were going to plan, we would have five hundred planets infected at this stage,
and would be preparing to start infecting some of the key worlds."

"So we're way behind schedule?" said West.

The science officer nodded, but then looked brighter.

"On the other hand Ma'am, we have yet to see an Imperial response. Our estimates
said that they would have responded by now."

West considered.

"Yes, that is helpful. However, it seems to me that we still need to get Coruscant
infected to increase the numbers."

"You do realise that infecting Coruscant will make the Imperial aware of the Borg."

"I do." said West. "But by that time the Borg should have a large number of planets
in the outer rim anyway. If the infection is wide enough on Coruscant, they'll
have their hands full there anyway."

She paused and looked around her.

"We proceed to Coruscant!" she said.


CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 29

The massive cargo ship Jasper dropped out of hyperspace just 2km from the aim point.
Corusucant was the most heavily populated system in the entire empire, and the space
around it was filled with thousands of ships coming and going. Space traffic control
was an important task, and was strictly enforced.

Within seconds of dropping out of hyper, the bridge of the Jasper received a set
of instructions ordering the massive bulk carrier to clear the hyperspace drop out
point, and to proceed to the customs zone. A very clear flight path was included,
with the warning that any deviations from the flight path would be harshly dealt
with.

On the bridge of the Jasper, Captain West looked at the scanners.

"Wow!" she said quietly.

She had never seen space so crowded with ships. There were over a hundred massive
defence stations, and thousands of warships of every kind. Milling around in a
seemingly aimless pattern, vast numbers of civilian cargo ships lumbered from the
orbital docks to the hyperspace queuing stations.

"Are you sure we can do this?" asked her first officer.

"Too late to turn back now." replied West. "Is the Sub Rosa ready?"

The first officer nodded.

"As ready as she'll ever be. We managed to patch up the hull and fix most of the
microfractures. We've enhanced the structural integrity field, and fixed all the
damaged shield emitters. The chief says that main shields will be at 90% by flight
time. Hyperdrive and impulse are fully operational, and warp is available up to
warp 6.5. The starboard torpedo system is working, but it's jury rigged. The chief
says that he can't vouch for it if we start to take hits. Worst of all, the starboard
pulse phaser and cloak are gone, no chance of repair. All other weapon systems are
fully operational."

West nodded. The chief engineer had done wonders, far better than she had realistically
hoped for. The USS Sub Rosa was in good enough shape for this final mission.

"Okay." she said. "Show time. I'm returning to the Sub Rosa to prep for take off.
I'm leaving you here to finish up. When the time comes, don't hang about up here."

The first officer nodded his understanding and turned back to the bridge crew to
supervise their final approach.

Around him, the former crew of the Jasper worked quietly, their new Borg implants
linking them together into a single efficient unit.



Consciousness returned slowly to Luke Skywalker. There was no sharp dividing line
between the preceding darkness and the awareness of being alive. They just seemed
to blend together.

He slowly tried to open his eyes, but they seemed to be covered in some kind of
opaque goggle. He tried to move his arm to remove it, but his body didn't seem
to respond to his orders. Even his breathing sounded strange.

He lay back for a moment, running Jedi calming matras through his mind, trying to
relax and slow his pounding heart.

Where was he?

He searched back through his mind, trying to think where he had been.

He remembered the Death Star, arriving at the wormhole, entering it, and....

....nothing!

His memories seemed to stop at that point.

What had happened to him? Had the Death Star got stuck in the wormhole as he had
worried it might? Had there been an accident, or an ambush?

Again he forced himself to calm down. He was obviously alive, so the Death Star
must have survived whatever happened. He must be in the med bay recovering from
whatever had happened to him. He knew from first hand experience that the droid
doctors could perform wonders.

With his body calming, he tried to use the force to reach out and find out where
he was. However, after a moment of trying he gave up exhausted. The force was still
there but his battered body and mind could not focus it at the moment for anything
too strenuous.

Without his eyes or force senses, he tried to use his hearing. After a few seconds
he managed to pick up the faint sound of electronic equipment.

He tried to talk, and after immense effort he manage to croak out a faint 'hello?".

There was a whir of motorized limbs, and the electronic voice of a droid doctor
sounded from above him.

"Are you awake sir? Can you hear me?"

Luke managed to croak out a faint affirmative noise.

"Please remain still, I will activate your systems." answered the droid doctor.

'Systems?' thought Luke. What does that mean?

After a few seconds, a faint glow appeared in front of his eyes, growing steadily
brighter. The glow spread until it filled his vision. Then suddenly the glow resolved
itself into an image of the med bay.

"All systems are functioning within normal parameters. Can you see anything sir?"
asked the droid doctor.

"I can see." answered Luke.

He had been expecting his voice to be a croak as before, but instead it seemed to
come out as a clear, deep baritone.

"Your visual, audio, oral and respiratory implants are working at optimal efficiency."
said the doctor emotionlessly.

But Luke didn't hear him. The image in front of his eyes cleared further, and he
suddenly realized that he could see his own black image reflected in the burnished
steel plate chest of the droid doctor.

Truly he was now his fathers son.



The watch officer responsible for the incoming civilian traffic sat up sharply as
one of the slow lumbering cargo ships suddenly flashed red on his display showing
an emergency.

He quickly punched a few keys, bringing up the ships identification, registry and
a comm link.

"Golan traffic control to cargo ship Jasper, come in." he said into the small mike.

There was a hiss of static, and then a mans voice spoke, sounding panicked. The
transmission was garbled and difficult to understand.

"Golan control, thissszzzzz....sssss...is the Jasper. We've suffered a massive
explosion in our main drive section we're out of control and venting atmosphere..."

There was another long hiss of static.

"...debris and life support is failing. We are taking to the lifepods and auxiliary
craft. Can you assist?"

The watch officer immediately pressed the alert button, to get the ready shuttles
and TIE fighters launched.

"Jasper, this is Golan control. Emergency response craft are already on their way."

He glanced at the display, and noted that the massive ship was heading directly
towards to grey planet below.

"Jasper, can you adjust your heading? You are on a collision course with the planet."

"Negative Golan control, helm is out."

"Understood." he said. "Stand-by!"

He quickly changed to another channel, calling up the stations fire control officer.

"This is Golan flight control. We have heavy freighter that has suffered a drive
explosion and is out of control heading toward Coruscant. Can you raise the planetary
shield and lock onto it with a tractor beam. I'm uploading the telemetry."

There was a pause, then the fire control officer came on the circuit.

"The freighter is at the edge of tractor range, and there's a lot of very large debris
around it. However, we can destroy the ship with turbolasers, and then we won't
need to raise the planetary shields."

The traffic control officer nodded in agreement. Raising and lowering the shields
was a pain, involving rerouting thousands of ships. He also knew that in the recent
alien attack, the planetary shields had been strained to breaking point. Many
generators were still off line, and the planetary defence forces didn't like to
raise them unnecessarily. If they could destroy the ship with turbolasers, they
wouldn't need to raise the shield.

"We have a few minutes before it enters the atmosphere. Let me get the crew off
and then you can destroy it."

"Understood." replied the fire control officer. "We're standing by."

The traffic control officer switched back to Jasper's comm channel.

"Jasper, this is flight control. You need to get off the ship so we can destroy
it before it hits the planet. Do you understand?"

There was another hiss of static, but then the man spoke again.

"We understand. We're abandoning ship now."



"Everyone's aboard ma'am." reported the USS Sub Rosa's transport chief.

"Very good." said West. "Looks like we've fooled them so far."

She turned to face the helmsman.

"Okay, move us away slowly. Make us look like a giant lifepod. Prepare the warp
hop!"

Captain Michelle West watched the helmsman frown with concentration. She knew that
moving the ship away to mimic a lifepod wasn't hard, but the warp hop was.

She had known that they would never be able to pass the Coruscant customs inspection,
so they had to come up with a way to get close enough to the planet to deposit the
Borg nanites. Using the Jasper had got them into the system, and faking the explosion
had got them much closer. Now the plan was to make a sudden burst of warp speed,
to take them to the edge of the atmosphere, and inside the shield perimeter. Once
there, they just had to survive long enough to deposit their 'cargo'.

The problem was, if the warp hop was off by the tiniest of margins, they would hit
the atmosphere and burn up. Briefly she wondered how much damage that would do to
the planet, but then she shook herself, clearing her mind to concentrate on the
difficult task at hand.



Tahru Elessar was the fire control officer on board the massive Golan defence
station. He was a veteran of numerous combats with the rebels. He had been lightly
wounded in one early battles with these new aliens, and had been assigned to the
Golan station while he recovered.

His experienced eye watched the display showing the stricken freighter. There
certainly was a lot of debris around the ship, he thought. The explosion must have
been very large. As he watched, a number of lifepods broke away from the side of
the freighter. The rescue shuttles immediately moved to intercept, making sure not
to foul the range of his massive turbolaser batteries.

Suddenly his eye was drawn to movement on the far side of the ship. The movement
was almost hidden by the bulk of the freighter, and a less experienced man might
have missed it.

"What is that?" he muttered to himself.

The object was moving away from the freighter towards the planet. It was only moving
slowly, but was far too large to be a lifepod. He examined the screen carefully.
The object was definitely too large to be a lifepod. It could be a ship that had
been docked inside the freighter, but if that was the case, why was it moving away
from the rescue shuttles?

A suspicion began to form in Tahru's mind that all was not how it should be. He
quickly brought up his scanners, and checked the object. Even a superficial scan
showed the object to be much larger and more powerful than any shuttle or escape
pod.

The sense of unease was growing rapidly now, and his reflex reaction, born from
years of deep space combat, was to bring his targeting scanners up.

However, even as the scanner came on line and began their targeting computation,
the object seemed to disappear. It only took a second for the Golan's tactical
computers to work out what had happened, and to refocus on the object that was
now a mere 150km above Coruscant's surface and diving rapidly.

Reacting almost instantly, Tahru slammed his hand down on the alert button, and
sirens began to wail throughout the massive battlestation. Although this ship didn't
look like the ships that had previously attacked Coruscant, Tohru knew of only one
species that could make their ships go that fast in real space, and that was the
new aliens.

The last time they attacked, there had been thousand  of ships. This time it was
only a single ship, but it was also much closer to the vulnerable planet below.
Too close for the planetary shield to be useful. Even more worryingly, the ship
was between him and the planet below. If he wasn't careful, any shots that missed
the enemy vessel could well hit the planet. Even a single turbolaser hit on the
surface could kill millions.

As these thoughts were racing through his mind, he reset the targeting scanners to
aim at the now distant vessel, linking the other Golan stations to his fire pattern.

Muttering a short prayer that his targeting was accurate, his finger stabbed down
on the fire button, and bolts of energy leapt towards the enemy ship.



CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 30

"More fire, incoming from port!" screamed the USS Sub Rosa's tactical officer.

"Helm, corkscrew starboard......now!" ordered Captain Michelle West in a harsh shout.

The Defiant class ship turned rapidly, rolling onto it's side, then plummeting closer
to the ground below.

Four turbolasers flashed past where it had been a second before, and a fifth, within
flak range, burst above them in an eye-watering glare.

On the bridge of the Section 31 ship, more damage alarms began to wail.

"Hull breach on deck 2. Force fields in place. Starboard torpedo system is off line."
shouted a crew member from the back of the bridge.

"Helm, report!" shouted West.

"Our altitude is 60,000 meters and descending rapidly." answered the harassed helm
officer.

West glanced to her right at the science officer. He shook his head.

"We need to get down at least 20,000 meters maximum before we deploy the nanites."

West nodded her understanding.

"Helm, get us down. Engineering, we need everything you can give us for the next
two minutes." ordered West.

She didn't wait to hear the engineer's answer, instead she turned back to the tactical
plot as more turbolasers flashed towards them.

"Helm, barrel roll to starboard, then come port to 316 mark 3, push that nose down!"
she shouted. "Tactical, as soon as we reach 20,000 meters, start venting the nanites."



Tahru Elessar, Coruscants chief fire control officer, was sweating heavily as he
fired another salvo of turbolasers at the tiny ship below. He had never seen a ship
that size move the way it did. It had managed to evade most of the shots fired at
it, although he was sure he had hit it at least once. He had also managed to get
a number of turbolasers to 'flak-burst' near it, and that should have done some
damage.

The problem was, he was handicapped by the planet below. The enemy ship was between
him and Coruscant. If he fired wildly and missed, a multi-megaton turbolaser would
detonate on the heavily population planet below, killing millions.

The small ship spun away from yet another salvo, descending rapidly, and Elessar
was forced to grant grudging respect to its commander. He paused for a moment, then
quickly punched in a set of new commands. Seconds later, another salvo flashed out.

This one was targeted differently. Instead of trying to hit the alien ship, he was
trying to herd it in a particular direction. If he could bracket it and force it
into one small area, then he could eliminate its maneuverability advantage.

As he watched, he saw a thin trail of vapor start to come from the sides of the
enemy ship. Probably atmosphere venting through a hull breech he thought. He also
noted that the planet based weapon systems were beginning to come on line. They
would be able to fire without worrying about hitting the planet.

Surely this enemy's time was running out.



The USS Sub Rosa shuddered as another turbolaser missed by bare meters. The ship
curled around into a tight turn, a thin vapor trail coming off both nacelles.

"Venting underway. Modified Borg nanites being dumped at a rate of 2 million per
second!" reported the science officer.

Before Captain West could respond, the Defiant class ship's luck ran out, and a
turbolaser struck the upper shields. The ship was spun away from the explosion,
its crew being thrown from their seats. For a few precious seconds, the small Defiant
class ships was without active helm control, making it an easy target. The helmsman
was just struggling back into his seat, when an ion cannon on the planet's surface
fired, and scored a direct hit just behind the bridge.

Across the bridge, panels exploded in sparks as energy poured into the ship. The
ship's core systems were protected from such an attack, but many secondary systems
immediately failed. Some exploded violently, causing chaos and confusion.

"Helm, get us back on course, evasion program delta seven!" shouted Captain Michelle
West.

The helmsman immediately started entering the new instructions, but there wasn't
enough time. Another turbolaser struck the shields, wiping them out completely,
and blowing a large hole into the underside of the ship. On the bridge, a girder
broke loose and fell, knocking the Captain from her chair, and pinning her to the
deck.

A third turbolaser struck the weakened starboard nacelle, blowing it, and a large
section of the hull, completely off the ship.

Critically damaged, with main power off line, the ship rolled over and began it's
final death plunge.

As it fell, the thin vapor continued to stream from the port nacelle.

As the damaged ship disappeared into the clouds the nanites that made up the vapor
trail began to slowly fall to the surface. There were millions of them. Some were
swept up by the wind, and blown hundreds of miles away. Others floated gently down,
and landed on buildings, vehicles and living beings!



Emperor Vader was meditating in his chamber deep inside the royal palace. He allowed
his mind to drift, slowly examining the endless future possibilities.

Prediction of the future was a difficult art, even for a force user of Vader's power
and skill. The problem was, what you saw in your vision might not be the future
that would actually come to pass. The realization of a vision may only come to pass
if the person did something to bring it about. Or, on the other hand, it may only
come to pass if the person did nothing or actively tried to stop it.

It was a pretty hit and miss affair. In general, the further you tried to see,
the cloudier and less reliable the visions became. With concentration, you could
see pretty accurately a few seconds in the future. Whilst that was a valuable skill
in direct combat (allowing you to see what you opponent would do before he did it),
it was of little help in ruling a galaxy.

Since the war with the aliens had begun, future prediction had become both easier
and harder. On the one hand, the massive disruption caused by the aliens in the
force was easier to read, but it had led to a exponential growth in the galactic
possibilities. The only consolation was that most of these new 'possibilities'
led finally to a universe devoid of all life, and could therefore be discounted.

Small consolation!

However, despite his gloom, Vader knew that things were actually getting better.
When the aliens had first attacked, almost all futures led to galactic destruction.
He had managed to guide the empire through the dark patches, and now there were
far more survival futures than there had been even just a month ago. Things were
definitely getting better. The Empire was definitely winning the war.

Happy with what he saw, he allowed his mind to drift back towards his body, relaxing
from the intense concentration.

He almost missed it!

Back.....back.......There!

There were a new set of branches. Branches he had never noticed before. He had
missed them because they were not the same as the 'dead' branches caused by the
aliens. Those branches reaked of death, of the loss even of the force in the galaxy
once all life ended.

These branches were different. These branches still had life, but it was a strange
and twisted form of life. Neither the light or dark side of the force was relevant
to it. As he watched, the branches grew and multiplied, and he knew that whatever
this new future was, it was becoming more and more likely. He had discovered another
major threat to the galaxy. He examined the branches closely, and began to receive
strange visions of cybernetic beings, faceless, unthinking, billions of them, all
tied to a single hive mind.

It was horrific, like a whole galaxy of ants crawling over and inside his brain.

What was this new horror?

He tried to trace the branch back to see what had caused this strange and disturbing
possible future. It was difficult and hard, there appeared to be multiple centers,
scattered all across the galaxy.

But one thing was clear.

The main start of this future was here. On Coruscant!

Now!



CLASH OF THE TITANS
Chapter 31

Captain Benjamin Sisko looked around carefully as he was led by two Stormtoopers
into the spacious cabin aboard the Super Star Destroyer 'Iron Fist'. Actually,
cabin didn't do this room justice. It was huge! The wall alcoves were filled
with paintings and sculptures of all kinds. Sisko didn't consider himself to be
an expert on art, but some of pieces were clearly Bajoran, and must have been taken
recently. Most of the rest he couldn't even tell what they were supposed to be,
but they all looked to be of extremely high quality.

A door slid open and an odd alien figure entered the room. He was tall, with a
strange blue tinged skin and fiery red eyes. His was dressed immaculately in a
white military uniform.

The Stormtroopers came immediately to attention, saluted, then turned and left the
room without a word. Sisko watched them go impassively.

"Captain Sisko, a pleasure to finally meet you." said the alien. "I am grand Admiral
Thrawn of the Galactic Empire. I am the commander of this small fleet."

Sisko paused and considered the man before him. His starfleet training had prepared
him to meet new cultures and people, but that normally took place in an atmosphere
of peace. He was here as a result of these people attacking his station. There was
only one response he could make.

"Captain Benjamin Sisko." he said. "Commander of Deep Space Nine, United Federation
of planets. Service number 245-AGI-4761."

Thrawn regarded him for a moment, then nodded.

"Quite!" he said. "That is probably the response that you are supposed to make to
any enemy during an interrogation. But I assure you, this is not an interrogation,
and I do not want to be your enemy. In fact, quite the opposite. After this meeting,
you will be given a shuttle and you will be free to go."

Sisko looked up in surprise.

"That is very generous of you. But what about the rest of my people?" he asked.

Thrawn nodded gravely, then gestured towards the chairs.

"I understand your concern about them, but I assure you, they are being treated
well. If you will take a seat, we can discuss the matter."

Sisko hesitated, then slowly sat down in one of the large leather chairs.

"Thank you Captain." said Thrawn as he seated himself opposite. "In answer to
your question, I'm afraid that we cannot let the rest of your people go at this
time. However, I hope that soon their release will soon be possible."

Sisko considered.

"And what would make their release possible?" he asked carefully.

There was a long pause, then Thrawn leaned forward.

"Why are your people attacking us?" he asked.

Sisko blinked in surprise at the change in subject, then gave a short laugh.

"Admiral, you have it the wrong way around. You attacked us!" he said.

Thrawn nodded gravely.

"That is correct." he said. "But that was a mistake! We are engaged in a deadly
war with an implacable opponent. They attacked our galaxy through this wormhole,
destroyed thousands of planets and killed trillions of people. So naturally when
we counter attacked, we assumed that anything on this side of the wormhole was an
enemy. I see now that was a mistaken assumption. Your people have been caught in
the middle of a war that is not of your making, and are simply defending yourselves.
I would like the opportunity to correct our mistake, and bring peace and understanding
between our peoples."

Sisko gave a rye laugh.

"With respect Admiral, we knew about your 'Galactic Empire' before you came through
the wormhole. I've seen the Starfleet report on you. We know that you destroy whole
undefended planets too!. We know that you are ruled by a dictator. Therefore, what
we know of you does not lead us to believe that we can trust you."

Thrawn shook his head sadly.

"You judge us through our enemy's eyes!" he said. "We are not perfect, and do not
claim to be. I grant you that. But I believe that you should see both sides of an
argument before you jump to conclusions. Not everything you have been told about
us is true. For example, I presume that you were also told that the Empire oppresses
those that are non-human?"

Sisko nodded slowly.

"Yes, that is true." he admitted.

Thrawn gestured to himself.

"I thought of much. It is a standard lie of our enemies. But how do you explain
my presence here. I am in command of this fleet. If non-humans were oppressed,
then why am I here, and why am I in command?" he asked.

Sisko was silent.

"The fact is," continued the Admiral. "that you have been told some truths, some
half truths, and some lies. I would like the opportunity to correct those lies.
When I have told you my side of the story, I will let you return to your people.
There is no need for us to fight, we should be allied against these aliens that
would destroy us all!"



On board the Rebel cruiser 'Home one' an alarm sounded.

"Admiral, we've got hyperspace footprints inbound. Initial count says forty ships."
shouted the sensor officer.

"That's too many ships to be chance. They've found us!" said the ship's captain.

Admiral Ackbar nodded in agreement and pressed a button to connect him to all the
ships in the fleet.

"Rebel fleet. We have Imperial ships inbound. Begin the evacuation procedure. All
warships rendezvous at location gamma immediately." he ordered.

"Sir," said the communications officer. "The USS Defiant is hailing us!"

"On screen!" ordered Ackbar.

The image of Captain Shelby appeared. Behind her, red lights flashed on the
bridge of the Federation ship, and crew members rushed to their stations.

"Admiral!" said Shelby. "We copied your transmission. We want to help. Can you use
us?"

Ackbar nodded gratefully.

"Thank you Captain." he said. "Take position with the Millennium Falcon on the right
flank. We need to buy time for the transports to escape!"

"Sir!" interrupted the sensor officer. "The bogey force has dropped out of hyperspace.
We have confirmed id's on the ships. There are 15 Imperial Star Destroyers, 15
Imperial Victory Class destroyers. The remaining 12 ships appear to be our own
ex-rebellion ships. They are launching fighters and ordering us to stand down."

Ackbar looked at the screen in hate.

"So the traitors show their faces do they?" he hissed. He turned to his fighter
controller.

"Are the new fighters ready?" he asked.

The controller nodded.

"All squadrons report ready to launch!"

Ackbar nodded in satisfaction.

"Then let's hope the new systems work as we hoped. Launch the fighters and signal
all ships to advance!"



Wedge swore as his new X-Wing again failed to start. All around him fighter engines
whined then roared as they moved into their launch positions. And he was stuck
here with a dead ship.

"It's no good sir!" shouted the technician standing on the ladder next to the cockpit.
"The primary power shunt is down. We'll have to replace the whole thing."

"How long will that take?" shouted Wedge over the din.

"One hour!" replied the tech with an apologetic shrug.

"Then get me another fighter!" he shouted in reply.

"We don't have any more aboard. All the reserve fighters are on the transports being
evacuated!" answered the technician, as he began to climb back down the ladder.

Wedge ground his teeth in frustration. How could he let his squadron go into battle
without him. He looked around the fighter bay in despair, and then suddenly his
eyes fell on the strange fighter tucked away at the back on the bay.

The new H-Wing!

He reached out of the cockpit and grabbed the tech's shoulder.

"What about that one?" he said pointing at the H-Wing.

"Are you mad?" shouted the tech. "We've only done flight simulations. It hasn't
even been flown yet! It's maiden flight was supposed to be tomorrow! And you're
not qualified!"

"I know I can fly it, I've done it on the simulators. But can it fly, is it ready?"
shouted Wedge.

"Well yeah, I guess," replied the tech. "But it hasn't been tested!"

"Then get it ready!" said Wedge grimly. "it's about to be tested!"



Thrawn watched the screen showing the shuttle leaving the bay, and heading out
into space.

"Any word from Admiral Quan?" asked Thrawn.

"None sir. The Star Destroyer 'Savage Titan' arrived there an hour ago. She reports
that the station is still under our control, but there has been no word from the
other ships. As per your orders, it has not entered the new wormhole to search."

Thrawn nodded gravely. There was a long pause as they watched the Imperial shuttle
move through the massive Imperial fleet.

"Do you think these aliens will go for it sir?" asked the Captain of the Iron Fist.

Thrawn considered for a moment, turning a small sculptured figure over and over
in his hands.

"They are a strange people." he said finally. "I can tell they have a basically
warlike nature, and yet, they have a strange craving for peace at almost any price."

He paused, and looked again at the sculpture in his hands. It had been taken off
the Federation space station Deep Space nine. The report said that it was called
"Rodin's 'Thinker'".

It was an interesting piece that told him a great deal about the people he was
dealing with. And yet, it was a piece that seemed to be made of contradictions.

"I'm not sure yet." he admitted. "It's a question of whether their primitive
nature is stronger than their yearning for peace. We shall see!"

On the screen, the shuttle, piloted by Captain Sisko, disappeared as it went to
hyperspace.