The Merging (Star Trek, Star Wars crossover) last chapter up

[Star Empire]

This story was my first fanfiction and I’m happy it’s finally complete. I got the idea for this story when I saw Star Wars Episode I and started writing it back in high school. I found an uncompleted version awhile back that shows how far my writing has come. Below is the version that was my original complete version that I submitted for the old achieve which contained a lot of Star Trek/Star Wars stories (and is actually a lot better than my uncompleted version from a few years earlier). I’m certainly not a great writer now, but looking back it’s at least nice to know I can see progress.

I don’t know if he is reading any of these anymore, but if he is, I’d really like to thank X-Over. He read this story like this and liked it enough to write me and encourage me to keep going and then Beta read for me in episode II and my first attempt at a rewrite of this story. X-Over sorry I haven’t made it further.

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It is said that there are an infinite number of universes. That for every choice that is made a unique new universe emerges.


A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away and in our own galaxy in the 24th century

Star Trek and Star Wars

Episode I
The Merging
It’s a dark time for the Republic. Led by Count Dooku, the Separatists are gaining ground, as thousands of worlds start to consider and make preparations to leave the millennias old institution. Two assignation attempts against the former queen of Naboo, Senator Amidala, have already taken place. To make matters worse, the Jedi Counsel’s ability to use the Force has been limited by the Dark Side. Obi-Wan Kenobi, in pursuit of a bounty hunter named Jango Fett, has been captured by a droid army. Anakin Skywalker and Senator Amidala, in an attempt to rescue their friend, followed him to Geonosis, only to be captured as well. On Coruscant, the Jedi are preparing to leave and rescue their companions.

The United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire have been fighting the Dominion for months now, and failure is the most likely outcome. The only thing preventing more Dominion reinforcements from coming through the Bajoran Wormhole and making defeat inevitable is a large number of cloaked self-replicating mines. In hope of changing the odds, the Federation makes plans to recapture their former wormhole base of Deep Space 9. Intelligence suggesting the Dominion found a way to deactivate the mines has forced the Federation to attack early, despite being outnumbered 2 to 1. Klingon reinforcements change the odds, and the U.S.S. Defiant slips through the Dominion lines and heads for DS9. The battle starts to lean towards the Federation and Klingons, but the Dominion is almost ready to destroy the mines.




The Defiant rushed towards DS9 at its best speed. Dax looked at the time. “Ben, if I were you I would start coming up with a Plan B.” Sisko looked at the view screen as space returned to normal, they were out of warp. There was a huge explosion already in process. The sight was a nightmare. The mines were gone. They were too late. They had failed. Dax was the first to ask, “What do we do now captain?”

What was there to do? They had made it all the way back here, but now it was too late. He wasn’t going to go back. “Take us into the wormhole.”

O’Brien shocked said, “What the hell, were just going to meet a couple thousand Dominion ships.”

Dax wasn’t too impressed either, “One ship vs. a whole fleet that’s one hell a Plan B.”

“Chief how does that poem end?” it was Garak.

“You don’t want to know.”

The Defiant went through the wormhole. This was a fitting place for it to end. The crew had discovered the wormhole. The bright blue they had seen so many times seemed as beautiful as ever. “Full stop. Chief, divert all power to forward shields and weapons.”

Dax: Captain, I’m reading multiple warp signatures ahead.

Sisko: On screen, Maximum magnification.

Thousands of Dominion ships filled the screen. Sisko knew what he was looking at and by the looks of his crew he could tell they did too. This fleet was almost three times the size of the one they just narrowly beat (which certainly didn’t mean it was completely destroyed). There would be even more too. Well, if the Dominion saw any need to send more there would be. He wasn’t really looking at the fleet though. He was looking at the end of the Federation. With this they could go straight to Earth. Defeat had always been the most likely outcome, but it had never been inevitable. But now defeat was very close indeed. It might be as little as two weeks away. The entire Federation, what it had stood for, there would soon be nothing left. “Lock phasers. Prepare to launch quantum torpedoes.”

And then his life was lifted from that plain of existence. The Profits. Perhaps he should have felt grateful for this temporary salvation, but he didn’t; he felt annoyed and extremely angry. “Why have you brought me here.” “Show yourselves. What do you want?”

A figure that looked like Odo appeared. “The Sisko has returned to us.” As usual, others started appearing and again disappearing. His surroundings looked like DS9, but that of coarse was an illusion too.

Jake: He has arrived with questions.

Kira: There are always questions.

“I didn’t ask to come here.” He really hadn’t and they didn’t have the right to just take him.

Dukat: You desire to end the game.

“What game? I don’t understand.”

Weyoun: You wish to end your corporal existence.

Damar: That cannot be allowed.

Odo: The game must not end.

“The game. You mean my life. Is that what this is about. You don’t want me to die.”

Dukat: The game must continue.

Weyoun: You are the Sisko.

“Believe me. I don’t want to die, but I have to do everything I can to prevent the Dominion from conquering the Alpha Quadrant. If that means sacrificing my life and the life of my crew so be it.”

Jake: We do not agree.

Kira: We find your reasoning flawed.

Odo: Insufficient.

“I’m flattered you feel that way but it doesn’t change anything. Now send me back to my ship.” The scene did change. He was on the Defiant, only still not the real one. “This isn’t what I meant. I want to return to my reality.”

Damar: You are the Sisko.

“I am also a Starfleet captain. I have a job to do and I intend to do it.”

Weyoun: The Sisko is belligerent.

Dukat: Aggressive

Damar: Adversarial

“You’re dam right I’m adversarial. You have no right to interfere in my life.”

Kira: We have every right.

“Fine, you want to interfere, then interfere. Do something about those Dominion reinforcements.

Odo: That is a caporal matter.

Dukat: Corporeal matters do not concern us.

“The hell they don’t. What about Bajor? You can’t tell me Bajor doesn’t concern you. You sent the Bajorans orbs and emissaries. You even encouraged them to create an entire religion around you. You even told me once, you were of Bajor. So don’t you tell me your not concerned with corporeal matters.”

“I don’t want to see Bajor destroyed, neither do you, but we know that is exactly what is going to happen if the Dominion takes over the Alpha Quadrant.”

Odo: He will not listen.

Damar: We must proceed ahead.

Weyoun: We have no choice.

Odo: The corporal time is incorrect.

Dukat: It is close enough.

Weyoun: It must start early

“What, what must come early?”

Kira: The merging.



Sisko looked around again. He was back on the Defiant. It was the real one this time. He looked up at the view screen to see the Dominion fleet. Before he could even realize what he was looking at, he was forced to the floor as the ship was thrown from the wormhole. “Report.”

Dax looked at the panel in front of her. “We have been thrown just outside the Bajoran system captain. I’m not sure, but I think the Dominion fleet was thrown to their side.” She trailed off at the end as she tried to figure out what she was reading. “Captain, I’m reading several new stars in the area. It looks like the star count around here has skyrocketed.” What had the profits done? Then Dax noticed one other thing on her sensors. This one brought a smile to her mouth. “Captain, Deep Space 9’s weapons are off-line.”

“Good job, Major,” Sisko said to himself. “Take us back and prepare to attack the station.”




On Coruscant, the order was just about to be given to lift off. Yoda had already left to retrieve the clone army, but the rest of the Jedi that they could get where on board a couple of starships. Before they lifted off though, they all felt a massive disturbance in the force. The Jedi tried to concentrate on it for a moment and then started talking about it. One asked Mace Windu what he felt. The Jedi remained silent for a minute longer and then answered, “I’m not sure, but whatever just happened may have been the largest disturbance in the force in millions or even billions of years.”

The pilot, who was about ready to hit the button to launch got an order and turned around. “Master Windu, I had permission to lift off, but have since been ordered to remain here. I’m not sure why?”

Still in total awe, Windu said, “It appears that Obi-Wan is going to have to wait.”



In the Gamma Quadrant, close to the center of Dominion space, and also close to a cloning planet, Dominion ships detected a large ship just appear on their sensors. They did not ask questions. Immediately, a dozen small Jem’Hadar warships and one larger one set a coarse for it. Thirty seconds later, they were within weapons range. All 13 ships fired immediately. It’s shields held for a moment, until a smaller Jem’Hadar vessel did a suicide run against its shield generator. After that, Jem’Hadar beamed over and took control of the ruined vessel.


In the Delta Quadrant, a Kazon ship detected a smaller ship in what the sect considered their territory. They powered their weapons and approached it. Unfortunately for the Kazon, size doesn’t always determine power and the ship they were confident they could beat had raised its shields and quickly returned fire. The Kazon were little match for the turbolasers and iron canons coming at them.


In the very heart of the Republic, just outside of Coruscant, Republic sensors picked up a ship, coming in at high velocity in normal space. Fortunately, it stopped just outside the system, but when a young Republic captain requested to board the ship and search because of its proximity to Coruscant, fighting almost broke out. Cooler heads did prevail though, and the Republic could consider the Corta Alliance as the first contact with a new galaxy.



All over the galaxy space ferrying races were trying to figure out what was going on. Almost any government with more than a world found that it had other new systems inside its space. Each species reacted differently. Most just waited and tried to make sense of everything. Not all acted like that though. Some species, assuming they were under attack, stared attacking every unknown ship they came across. After less than an hour, The Dominion ordered almost all their ships back to the center of their space fearing something might happen to the Founders.

There was one species though that seemed to be affected little by the sudden changing of the galaxy. For the Borg, why this happened was unfathomable, but it didn’t change anything for them. It only meant, they would have to adapt. They would find out eventually what had happened. After all, someone they assimilated would eventually have to know.

Vessel design unknown, species unknown, weapons analyzed, weapons inefficient to penetrate cube defenses. Cube 13569 assimilate. “We are the Borg, lower your shields and surrender your vessel. Your cultural and biological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is Futile.” Vessel attempting to escape. Firing weapons. Shield down. Lock tractor beam. Assimilate vessel. Add technological and biological distinctiveness to our own.





On Coruscant things were a mess. It had only been half an hour since the event, and they were receiving millions of distress and emergency calls. It had never anticipated anything of this magnitude occurring. The Senate, which had been in session, had been evacuated in case this was some form of attack. The individual members were now in what were considered safe areas and trying to figure out what was going on. So far all anyone knew was that another galaxy had just popped right on top of them.

A great number of rumors had started though. One was that giants planet sized ships were currently destroying whole systems. Another more humorous one was that Republic scientist had been working on a new hyperdrive and had somehow transported the whole galaxy to this new place.

Word was also now being sent to higher officials, that new races around Coruscant were primitive and as confused as they were. In truth, no one really knew if they were more primitive. They had seemed that way from scans and initial contacts, but no one really knew. All the same, anything that would quiet the nerves of their own leaders was being used now. Palpatine sat in his chair in his office about to make a speech. He was told he was on and he started.

“Greeting all people of the Republic and all else who receive this transmission. As almost everyone is already aware, a major event has occurred. We here on Coruscant are doing our best to find out what has happened. It seems that our galaxy and that of another have some how merged. I must assure everyone this does not appear to be an attack. The center of both our galaxies seem to be at about the same location. From there, with what little information we have so far, it appears our galaxy expands slightly past the edge of theirs. This merging threw many, if not all our ships, out of hyperspace. This was fortunate, because without every additional star, planet, moon, and other astronomical phenomenon in the computers every jump would be the equivalent of a blind jump. There could have been millions of deaths. For the time being all ships in the Republic are ordered not to engage their hyperdrives again. We will update our computers with every new item as soon as possible, but for the time being, I must insist this rule be obeyed. If you find yourself under attack use it carefully. If there is an emergency that requires going across galaxy and cannot wait please slowly go above or below the galactic plane, stopping after shorts jumps until you are there. After that, proceed to the point directly above or below your location and follow a similar procedure coming in.”

“Coruscant is capable of going through the numerous signals we are now getting. However, the sheer number of signals is slowing down response time to the true emergencies. For this reason we request anything sent to the government on Coruscant have a priority code attached. The code is as follows. Level 1 is planetary assault or other actions of that equivalent. Level 2 is for attacks on ships or life threatening damage to a ship. Level 3 will be used if you have a high representative from the new galaxy. Please do not contact us just because you have encountered a new civilization. Thousands others probably have as well. Level 4 is non-life threatening damage to a ship. Also, if you are just contacting us because there are a lot more stars, please stop, we already know. If you believe you know what caused this, please respond with a level 4 priority. If you are absolutely sure you know what caused this please respond using a level 2 priority. If you are a non-Republic ship ask any Republic ship if you need help contacting us. For every one receiving this not from my galaxy, I am Chancellor Palpatine representing the Galactic Republic which is made up of most my galaxy. I will send out another communication later when we find out more about what’s going on. Thank you everyone. This message will continually run until we update it.”


On Geonosis, Anakin and Padme kissed as they were being led out on chariot, to what should be their deaths. After their lips part they realize something interesting. They aren’t heading the direction they should be. Instead they are heading back the direction they came. “Where are we going?” Padme asks.

“I don’t know. I get the feeling that we’ve been at least temporarily spared though.” Anakin had of coarse felt the earlier disturbance in the Force, but despite its enormity, he had quickly stopped focusing on it. It had seemed gigantic, but unable to help him, and unimportant compared to spending these moments with Padme.




Over the first day, a lot happened all over the galaxy. On Coruscant, Republic leaders finally started to accept that this was not an attack. Palpatine had stated that almost immediately, but no one had seemed to be very convinced. The Senate had reconvened and was trying to work through the chaos and find out something to do.

In the Alpha Quadrant, the Federation and the Klingons had signed a temporary cease-fire with the Dominion. There wouldn’t be much fighting right now anyway, both sides were still healing from their wounds of the previous day, but both sides still preferred to have something official. All the major powers and most the minor ones had tried to contact Coruscant. Slowly they all were getting a chance to talk to someone. Of coarse, none of this Quadrant’s civilizations had the ability to communicate that far, so they had to contact one of the Republic ships or planets and ask to use their equipment. This was very embarrassing for a few of the civilizations, which thought of themselves as very advanced.

The Ferengi had been in talks with large numbers of planets and ships and seemed to be working to acquire all this new technology first. Barely an hour after the unification had occurred, ships were receiving orders to negotiate for whatever new technology they could get. Many had started before those orders, and the Ferengi were shocked to discover that this Republic wasn’t more advanced in all areas. That made trading easier. It especially made it easier when the Ferengi started coordinating. They would give one Republic ship transporter technology for hyperdrive. The next Ferengi ship would trade its transporter technology for Republic energy cores technology. Since the Ferengi were in an alliance and still able to communicate easily enough with each other and move around, and the fact that they were generally dealing with individual merchants or cut off members of larger groups who had to stay in one location made this easy. Very few were actually willing to trade anything yet, but even having just a few was giving the Ferengi a lot of business. By the end of the day, the Ferengi had almost all common Republic technology and some not so common technology and hadn’t had to deal with a single official Republic negotiator.




A lot can change in a day Sisko thought. He was now in his office, back on Deep Space 9; two Starfleet admirals had just left about an hour ago, they had just received the same report he already had given once over subspace. Sisko figured they would probably be back in a few hours to hear it again. Yesterday, the Federation was as close to destruction as it ever had come, and now there was a cease-fire. Of coarse things were far from perfect. The Dominion could start up again at anytime. He didn’t know what would happen if they tried to use the wormhole again, but he was far from confidant the Profits would stop them again. In addition to that, he had two ships of this new galaxy docked at the station. One was pretty small. It was a little outside of the Bajoran system and a galaxy class ship had tractored them here. The other had been farther away and had detected the station after it had stopped. Not wanting to be in the middle of nowhere, it had engaged its engine again and came here. That was just before the Chancellor of the Republic had sent out that communication.

From what Sisko had found out about their drives, they were fast. They were a lot faster than warp. This new group sending communications all over the galaxy probably would have other advanced systems as well. Sisko wondered about what would happen if the Dominion acquired this technology. No, there was no ifs, they would have it and probably sooner rather than later. They won’t even have to use the wormhole, he thought. He just hoped that they would be so concerned about the Gamma Quadrant, with their space now full of new planets and ships, that they wouldn’t put the resources back into the Alpha Quadrant. He didn’t have a clue what the Federation would do if this new race was hostile. Spread across a whole galaxy almost definitely put them in the most powerful position. Admiral Ross walked in and interrupted his thoughts. “Admiral back so soon.”

“Starfleet has just completed first contacted with the Republic.”

“That was fast. Did they tell them my story?”

“Yes they did. They are a little skeptical.” That was a shock; virtually everyone he had told in Starfleet was more than a little skeptical, and they at least had read previous reports on the wormhole aliens. “But they want you to go their capital anyway.”

“How do I get there?”

“Actually we made them a deal. We gave them our star charts and they gave us this engine design of theirs. It’s quite impressive. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have done something like that right through subspace, or whatever it is they use, but we are worried the Dominion might get it first. You won’t be going by hyperspace on one of our ships though. It will take too long to install the engine. The bigger alien ship said they could carry the Defiant if they have to. I think the captain is just happy for an excuse to leave. Anyway we are downloading our star charts to him now and they should be ready shortly. A team full of ambassadors will follow soon on the Enterprise. It’s near the Neutral Zone right now and has already been ordered back to install the hyperdrive. You’ll get there first though. I can’t tell you enough, how important it is that we have a good start with these people.”

“I understand.”




Back on Coruscant things weren’t settling down. Thanks to brief negotiations with the Federation and a few other races they had encountered, they had managed to update the star charts almost completely, but sending that out to millions of ships was taking longer than just sending one speech. The Federation wasn’t the first civilization they got charts from. They had actually already got quite a few, but the Federation’s been far and away the best so far. Many in the government had not been happy about Palpatine “just giving” hyperspace technology away. The Republic could of coarse find all the information it wanted by itself. That would have taken time though, and these races would have acquired the technology on their own as well. The Republic simply couldn’t control all trade. After all, all it took were a few merchants to spread the technology. Besides others argued, why keep potential friends from getting the technology, while others were attacking and getting it for free.

The Senate had come up with an idea to have a galactic summit and try and establish relations with all these peoples. The sheer number of governments and species was making this difficult. It had been a long time since the Republic had worried about first contacts. In the confusion, they had almost completely forgotten about the separatist forces. They had bigger problems for the time being. Several worlds, most of them in what the Federation called the Delta Quadrant had reported being under attack. None of the ones in the Delta Quadrant could be reached any more. All of the planets were under a small region of space and were probably being attacked by the same species. A small fleet was being prepared in the area to take out whatever hostile force existed. A few of the planets had said the species identified itself as the Borg.

Palpatine sat at his desk again. He was ready to make a speech again. It would be his second in a day.

“Greetings once again to all of the Republic as well as everyone else receiving this transmission. I am Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic. I am the leader of a republic that spans most of my galaxy. We would like to thank everyone for their patience in this difficult time. As I said earlier, it appears that two galaxies have somehow combined into one. One galaxy was ours, that of the Galactic Republic, and the other is one full of many small, but great civilizations. As of right now, we do not know what has caused this. We will continue to investigate though.”

“To all those out there, who are not of my galaxy, I would like to extend an invitation. Two weeks from today, here on Coruscant, we will be starting a Galactic summit. We will make contact with all civilizations that attend and attempt to make at least temporary treaties with everyone. I understand that most of the civilizations of this galaxy will be unable to make it here on their own propulsion systems. If you contact us, we will arrange something. We look forward to meeting everyone”

“To all Republic ships, we are now sending out updated star charts. Please be patient. After you receive the new star charts please travel carefully. We have worked diligently with governments from around the galaxy to get these, but I suspect there are still small details left out. Merchant ships, I must also ask for your help. As I said earlier, we are preparing for a galactic summit. In order to get everyone here we need help. I ask that if requested to bring a representative ship to Coruscant that you respond. If possible, we may try to compensate you later. Thank you everyone for your patience. If we continue to work together everything should work out fine.”




On Geonosis, Obi-Wan started to hear a lot of commotion. It wasn’t the first time in the last day that he had heard a lot, but this time it seemed to involve more panic. After 5 minutes he was being led in chains to a ship. He then saw something he shouldn’t have. Anakin should not be here. He was supposed to be protecting Padme, but it appeared she was here too. He was pushed over with them. “What are you doing here? You were supposed to forward my message to Coruscant.”

“I did, and then we decided to try and rescue you.”

They were being pushed on to a ship. It looked like they were the last ones getting on. “Some rescue. I suppose we’ll talk about it later, do you know where we going?”

Before Anakin could answer someone else did. “You’re not going anywhere. Leave them here.” It was Count Dooku.

“What if they escape?” The Viceroy of the Trade Federation said a little nervously.

“There is no where for them to escape to.” The three got pushed out and the ship started to take off. “Obi-Wan, you’ll be needing this. I’d give Anakin his back, but it was destroyed.” He threw the lightsaber to the ground.

“What is he giving this to us for?” Anakin said, as Obi-Wan destroyed his own chains. He then destroyed Anakin’s and finally Padme’s.

“It can’t be a Republic attack.” Padme said.

“No, it can’t be. I don’t know, but we need to get to the ship you came in.”

Unknown to the trio, on the planet, 114 cubes had approached what the Borg considered a new planet. An assimilated transport had revealed this was a huge military base. Had it been a little further away from their space it would have been completely ignored. Unfortunately, for the Separatist and now for Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme this planet was now in the heart of Borg territory. They rarely sent many ships much beyond their space, but they would always strike nearby planets in full force.

The Separatist had realized they probably weren’t a match for a fleet that size. If they were, they would have to use everything against it and they couldn’t afford that. The Borg ships had dropped out of warp just outside the system. The Separatists barely made it out before the cubes arrived at the planet. They had left behind, a lot of supplies, but they survived and their movement would as well.

Back on the ship that Anakin and Padme had come on, 2 droids sat. The little one was trying desperately to repair a small, but important console. R2-D2 and C-3P0 had returned just after someone (probably on Dooku’s orders) had come and shot the navigational controls. The repair was a small one, but not one that could be waited on when the others arrived.

After arriving on the planet, C-3PO had been decapitated. His head had been put on a Trade Federation droid body and vice versa. After a few hours both of the Trade Federation droids pieces had malfunctioned. R2 put him back together and they had gone looking for Anakin and Padme (actually R2 looked and C-3PO followed). After attaching himself to a computer, R2 found out that they were already on their way back. R2 and C-3PO returned to the ship and ended up beating the others by about four minutes. C-3PO looked back outside just in time to see two Jedi and a senator returning to the ship. “Master, you’ve returned.”

“Sorry no time to chat.” Anakin and Obi-Wan rushed past C-3PO and up to R2-D2.

“Master, I’m afraid that R2 is still fixing the controls.” As if waiting to contradict him, R2 got out of the way and beeped. “R2 says that he has just completed the repairs.”

“Good timing. I think we’ve been here long enough.” Padme turned to the two Jedi. “Can you find out why everyone is fleeing?” That certainly was the truth. On the way over they had seen what looked like a total evacuation. A lot of droids were being left behind, not to mention the factories and a lot of materials, but all the ships seemed to be leaving, and no one seemed to be staying behind.

“I’m detecting over a hundred ships. Each one of them is a cube, about 3 kilometers long. I don’t see how we are going to get around all of these.” At that moment the Borg started slicing though the planet, assuming its resources.

“Well we’ve got to go somewhere.” Anakin took the controls. He plotted a coarse with the least amount of resistance. He could feel them with the Force. His skills as a Jedi were inferior to very few. When they reached the upper atmosphere the Borg tried to lock on to them for the first time. Anakin felt this and had to turn the ship into a tight turn to avoid it. This was difficult, the Borg could compensate almost immediately. That meant it had taken more than a small change in direction to avoid them. A few seconds later another cube tried the same thing. A little more out of the atmosphere made dodging a little easier this time. Anakin could sense what was doing this. In a way it was one entity, but in a more realistic way it was many. Something was taking away their free will though. The thought made Anakin sick, it also made him angry. He had to try very hard to keep that anger in check. That made the next dodge a lot more difficult. He still avoided it, but barely.

“Anakin you must keep your feelings in check.”

Easier said then done, he thought, but still managed to do it. Two cubes simultaneously tried to grab them next. The area Anakin could maneuver to and avoid both tractor beams was very small. Everyone was knocked to the floor as he did move there. Anakin quickly got up. He had made it past the last of the ships, but surprisingly none were following. “I guess they finally decided they’d never get us.”

“More likely they don’t consider us a great enough prize to be worth anymore trouble,” Obi-Wan contradicted. “Get us out of here.”







Sisko stared at the view screen. The ship carrying them, the Quick, was about to stop. The distance they had traveled in such a short time still amazed him. He saw the white lines stop and a picture of Coruscant appear. The planet was nothing like anything he had ever seen. In addition to that thousands of ships were surrounding it and sensors detected hundreds more coming in at warp from all sides. As they got closer Sisko could see the ships in more detail. Some seemed almost monstrous. There were several designs that were over a kilometer long. The Quick let go of the Defiant and she moved in on her own power. Dax turned toward Sisko and said, “Captain, we are receiving a hail from the planet.”

“On screen.”

“Welcome to Coruscant. Please take a shuttle to the coordinates we are transmitting now. Send no more than 4 people. Your ship must remain at least two million kilometers from the planet at all times. Is this understood?”

“Yes. We’ll be right down. Defiant out.” “Chief, how many ships are there out there?”

“There is about 3000, not including the fighters or shuttles out there. About three quarters of the ships are Republic. Most of them are merchant. There appear to be 400 Republic warships and a lot of little fighter supports close to the planet.”



Sisko, Dax, O’Brien, and Bashir were on the Federation shuttle about to land. Sisko was completely amazed. He had been expecting a highly populated planet, but this was far above his wildest expectations. The Federation still had a capital with oceans and forests and deserts. This planet, not only didn’t have them, it had run out of ground millennia ago and had just kept buildings higher. The population of this planet probably rivaled the population of the entire Federation.

When they landed, several guards were waiting for them. One of them spoke, “Welcome to Coruscant. Captain Sisko if you’ll follow me I’ll lead you to the chancellor. The rest of you can follow Jason.” He pointed to another guard. “He will take you to meet with a lot of the others we have encountered.” Sisko, in all honesty, had expected to be brushed off. He had almost hoped for it. He would prefer the Dominion never hear about how this happened. That would be more likely if fewer people knew what had happened. Why didn’t he want the Dominion knowing? If they knew this happened because they were going to attack, then wouldn’t that mean they would be less likely to attack again. He supposed he really didn’t want anyone to know. He didn’t know what other species reaction to the wormhole would be. It was too late to hide it now though. His guards led him to a room on top of one of the highest buildings. The guard led him in and then left. There was a man in a chair there. The man walked up, and put his hand out. “Welcome to Coruscant, Captain Sisko.”

As Sisko shook his hand, he all of a sudden felt cold. “A pleasure to meet you, chancellor. I have to tell you, I never expected to come straight here.” There was something very wrong with this man. He didn’t know what, but there was definitely something wrong. A word flashed into his mind, “counterpart”. He didn’t know what to make of it and quickly dismissed it.

“The Jedi felt your story was credible. They were reviewing all explanations for this event; we’ve had quite a few. They will talk to you about it in a little bit. They wanted to see you as soon as you arrived, but I decided we had better get in a little talk in first.”

“Thank you, who are these Jedi?”

“That’s a difficult question to answer. Have you ever heard of the Force?”

“No, can’t say that I have.”

“The Force surrounds all living things. Some people have the ability to use the Force, to do what might otherwise appear to be almost magical.”

Palpatine could tell Sisko was unimpressed. Sisko tried to explain it a little. “They have strong mental powers. They can control things with their minds. We have come across species like that before.”

He had no idea of he power he was talking about. “That really isn’t that good a comparison.” Sisko could almost feel a little rage, despite no change in voice. “You should meet them, perhaps then you will understand.”

“I would like that.”

“I glad you would. I believe you will be impressed. The enemy fleet that was coming through the wormhole, have they tried to reenter it?”

“Fortunately not. They didn’t like what happened last time and I don’t think they’re willing to take another chance at it right now. Plus I’d guess they are more concerned about protecting the Gamma Quadrant right now.”

“Are you convinced that they know the wormhole was the cause? From their perspective, could it have been just a symptom of what was happening to the rest of the galaxy?”

“No, you maybe right. They might have thought it was just bad timing going into the wormhole. Or at least, now they might.” This could be a very big problem, if the Dominion only thought they were thrown out, because of the effects of the merging and the merging wasn’t because they were there. Still, Sisko thought they would be more worried about other issues for a while and would ignore the Federation’s part of space. He still didn’t want them to know.

“Perhaps, it would be better to keep this quiet for the time being.”

“Yes, I agree.”

“Good, the Republic would like to make a few requests.”

Sisko hadn’t really expected this, but we was prepared. “Such as?”

“Thanks in large part to your Federation, we have accurate star maps. Your scientists seemed to put the most detail into their charts, which is essential for hyperspace.”

“The Federation has always considered exploration one of its largest goals. We try hard in making sure we do it right, I’m happy they were so useful for you.”

“Yes, I’m wondering if the Federation is equally careful in records relating to the different civilizations it has encountered.“

“Yes, as explorers that is just as important as the information on stars and planets.”

“Good, if possible, we would like the information you have on the different cultures you have come across. We are communicating now with hundreds of different worlds, and we would like to have some idea who we’re dealing with. We’ve already been attacked in some areas.”

“I hope the attacks haven’t been too severe.”

“Some have, I’m afraid. In what you call the Delta Quadrant we have had numerous attacks in a portion of our space.” Sisko hadn’t even thought about that yet, he had been so focused on the Dominion, but being across the whole galaxy, put Republic systems in Borg space.

“That would probably be the Borg. We should get you all the information we have on them immediately. I suggest you evacuate anyone in that area for at least the time being.”

“I’m not sure that’s possible, but we’ll take that under advisement. What about information on the rest of the civilizations you’ve encountered.”

“I talked to Starfleet Command before we left about that. They are willing to let me give you information on the planets and cultures of our galaxy, if you give us the same information from your galaxy.”

“That should be acceptable.”

“I believe we should give you all the information we can now on the Borg though, the problem is only going to get far worse.”

“After you see the Jedi and we transmit our information to each other, I’ll set up a meeting for you with our military leaders. Thank you for your help. If you have any requests during your stay, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“I won’t. Again, thank you for seeing me.”

“Thank you captain. The guard who led you in should lead you to the Jedi when you go out.” Sisko left.

As Sisko went out the door Count Dooku reemerged as a hologram. “What are we going to do with the main base gone?”

“It doesn’t matter. This new circumstance requires a new approach. We might be able to use the Borg to our advantage. This Federation though, they are the key.”

“Did Sisko know what caused this?”

“Yes. I have a mission for you. Go to the planet identified as Bajor and find out all you can on these profits of his.”




The next room Sisko walked into was circular and again on top of one of the higher buildings. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. There was a circle of people, about half looked like humans. A black man spoke first. “Welcome Captain, I am Mace Windu and this is the Jedi Council.”

“On behalf of the Federation, thank you for seeing me.” He didn’t know what else to say. This planet, its culture, still had him in awe.

The little green alien spoke next. “Powerful beings help influence the Force around you. Prophets you call them.”

“The Bajorans do. I suppose I do too.”

“Much planned for you, they do. Emissary you are.”

“Yes, how do you know that?”

“Force reveals much, even when clouded by dark side.”

“I still don’t understand this force, what is it? And what is this Dark Side?”

“Soon will you understand. Now, what did these Profits say? Hum?”

“They said, they said it was too early, but they had to start the merging. I guess they meant of our galaxies.”

“Perhaps, but much more could that still mean.”

Sisko answered questions and received answers for almost another hour and then left. After he left the council continued. They had much to discuss.




Streams of ships had been entering Coruscant for hours. The last one to arrive, one that had managed to snag a ride onboard a ship heading here hadn’t really wanted to stop. It would of preferred to keep going right back to Earth. It didn’t have that option right now though so almost half way back home was pretty good. Like the Defiant’s crew they were awe struck by the planet and the number of ships around it. It had been better than ten hours since the Defiant had made it here and the ship count had almost doubled. Merchant ships of all types were doing business with their counterparts. Fifteen Ferengi ships had just appeared out of hyperspace. No surprise they got that technology almost immediately.

Tuvok was the only one not smiling, “Captain, I am detecting one other Federation ship. It appears to be the USS Defiant.”

“Open a channel.”

“Channel Open.”

A moment later a Klingon popped onto the screen. “I am Commander Worf of the Federation starship Defiant.

“I’m Captain Janeway of Voyager. I see Starfleet hasn’t wasted any time getting a ship here. I must admit I thought we’d be the first. We were a little closer than any other Federation ship.”

“I think I remember hearing about your ship. How did you get here?”

“We’ve been trapped in the Delta Quadrant the past four years. When this happened we tagged on to a ship heading here.”

“It is an honor to meet you. It must have been difficult to survive so long, without any type of help. It takes true warriors to survive by themselves.”

“Thank you commander. As hectic as things are around here, to us it just seems like more of the same. This event has really helped us out though. I wasn’t expecting to see another Federation ship in the near future. Has Starfleet sent a team of ambassadors down there already?”

“No, the Enterprise will be here in a little less than two days with that. We’re here because Captain Sisko may know something about what caused this.”

“Really? Could you tell us.”

“I don’t think the captain wants us telling anybody right now, my apologies.”

“That’s alright. There are a lot of ships out there, Mr. Worf.”

“Yes. A lot more are arriving all the time. It’s mainly merchants. They come and see everything new arriving. They trade technology and supplies. There probably will be a lot more ships soon. Their government ordered all ships back another ten million kilometers from the planet just before you got here.”

“So this is a big commotion, even to the ones who built that world.”

“They’re got over 900 large military vessels closer to the planet. Plus they have a few thousand small fighters there. That’s more than double what it was when we arrived. I don’t think they know what to expect. It is better to be prepared.”

“I suppose it is. Do you know how many governments have representatives here now?”

“We’re not sure. There are at least 900. More are arriving every minute. Right now, most come out of warp from nearby areas. We are in the center of the galaxy and stars are more numerous, there are a lot of different civilizations nearby in what was our galaxy. We are currently detecting hundreds coming in at warp and ships come out of hyperspace just as often.”

Nine-hundred. Could they really be that insignificant? This was only a fraction of galaxy represented, at that. Even with the Federation’s size they would only represent a small fraction of people here. Of coarse, the last few years away from home had taught her that the Federation really wasn’t that big, but this just furthered that realization. “So what’s been going on at home since we left?”

At this, Worf paused. “A lot.”




Janeway had gone to meet Worf after their first conversation. She briefly saw Captain Sisko, but he looked exhausted from his day on the planet. She was now back on Voyager and had some news she’d rather not to deliver. She invited Chakotay to her ready room to tell first.

“You wanted to see me, captain?”

“Yes, I need to tell you about what’s been going on back home since we left.”

“I take it, the news isn’t good.”

“Not particularly, no. The events leading up to this are complicated, but the bottom line is the Federation and the Klingons have been fighting the Dominion for a few months now. The war has gone badly.”

“How badly?”

“Pretty badly, but things have been getting better lately. There’s more though. The Cardassians are members of the Dominion. They joined a few months before the war began.”

This took a minute for Chakotay to take in. Then it hit him. “The Maqui, what’s happened to them?”

Janeway gave a sympathetic look and continued, “After large amounts of Dominion forces were in the Alpha Quadrant, they did a huge three day offensive. The Maqui were almost completely knocked out. I’m sorry commander.”

“Thank you. I think we should gather the former Maqui first before we tell the rest the crew.”





Darth Sidious stood next the holonet, his hood on. He had been meditating in the little time he had free. He now realized sending Dooku had been a mistake. “What have you found on Bajor?”

“Their entire religion and much of their society is based on these Profits. What the Federation calls the wormhole is their home. The Bajorans term, the Celestial Temple, is more accurate. They may prove to be a very big threat if they get involved like they did by merging our galaxies in the first place.”

“They won’t get directly involved again. I have decided that you should return.”

“But I can destroy them. These Profits have many enemies of their own. With a little time this can be accomplished.”

“No. Return to Coruscant.”

Dooku responded, “Very well,” but both knew that he had no intention on returning. Dooku had found something that he thought he could challenge even Palpatine with.




Sisko could tell something wasn’t right. He had to get back to Bajor and had to get there soon. He thought about asking Palpatine for a ship, but just as he knew he needed to get to Bajor, he knew he could not let Palpatine know. He guessed that the Prophets were letting him know these things. Still, what was he going to do. His ship couldn’t go to hyperspace, and the Enterprise wouldn’t be here for almost a day still. Then he thought of the Jedi. Palpatine would know if he went to them, but at least he wouldn’t right away. Sisko beamed just outside the building with the Jedi Council, but before he went in, he saw two people walk out. One of them was probably close to 30, but the other couldn’t be much older than 20, if that. Sisko felt drawn to that one. He saw the older one start to walk in one direction. The other started to walk in the other and then turned around. “Any reason your watching me?”

“I’m sorry. You don’t, by chance, have a ship that could fly half way across the galaxy and a pilot for it, do you?”

“It’s not a good idea to approach a Jedi when you don’t really need one and they’re busy. Who are you?” Anakin didn’t show any sign of sensing anything, but he could. There was something important about this man and he really did need a ride.

“My name is Benjamin Sisko. I am a captain in the United Federation of Planets. I know how I sound, but I really need to get somewhere.”

He really did, and this was important. Anakin could sense that. “All right. I’ll have a ship ready in half an hour where do you need to go?”

“Back to Bajor.”

Half an hour later they left. They left 23 hours before the Enterprise arrived.





Palpatine knew that Sisko was leaving. He even knew Anakin would take him. The easiest way to stop this would be to stop Anakin, but he didn’t want to go there just yet. He could ask Anakin to go on an important mission, but he wasn’t sure he would go. Anakin trusted him and everything would probably still work out, but if he interfered in Sisko returning, the Profits might interfere more to get him back. He doubted it, but he couldn’t see for sure. Still, he couldn’t risk loosing Anakin. The trip itself wasn’t going to be a problem; he knew that, but once they got there he was almost blind. He couldn’t see what would happen. He would have to make something happen to force Anakin to come back. Then he saw the path. Yes, it would start everything. He left his office. He needed to send out a signal to the Delta Quadrant.

[Star Empire]

Picard had started to have a headache about an hour before they arrived. It wasn’t until they exited hyperspace that he realized why. “Oh no. They’re coming here.”

Data turned around, “Who’s coming, Captain?”

“Data send a signal to Coruscant, priority one”

Less than two minutes later he had a reply. “This is Captain Salons, Captain Picard, this signal is reserved for the most extreme emergencies. Are you sure this is what you want? The Republic will take trivial matters or jokes very seriously, and it will reflect very badly on your people.”

Picard ignored this, “Captain, there is no time to explain how I know this, but a hostile force is heading for this planet.”

“Are you sure Captain?” He didn’t looked at all convinced.

“Yes, trust me, I’ve dealt with them before.”

“Who are they?”

“The Borg.”





Anakin and Sisko were about an hour outside of the Bajoran system. Most of the trip had been in silence, they both had been thinking. “Mind telling me exactly where we’re going?”

“I’ll tell you what I know. There is a wormhole close to Bajor. It leads to the Gamma Quadrant of our galaxy. That is well out of reach for our starships. Although, I suppose it won’t be for much longer. That is the least significant part of it though. When we discovered the wormhole, over 5 years ago, we encountered an alien species that in some way dells in the wormhole, created it in fact. The Bajorans have their entire religion based around them. They call them, ‘The Profits.’ The Profits have sent the Bajorans orbs, which have revealed parts of the future, and have had some other effects as well. After we discovered the wormhole, the ‘Celestial Temple’ as the Bajorans call it, I was contacted by the Profits. I became the Emissary. Since then they have become more and more involved in what goes on with my life. I don’t know how, but I know now that I must return to Bajor. I must go to the Fire Caves.”

Anakin couldn’t doubt any of this. Still, it didn’t seem to make sense. All his training in the Force could not explain what he was being told. Still the Force did tell him that this man was telling the truth. “Do you know what you must do there?”

Sisko shook his head. “No, I’ll know when I get there though. I can tell something else though.”

“What’s that?”

“I wasn’t supposed to be doing this yet. The Profits expected me to have more time.”

“Maybe that’s why I’m here.”

“Maybe.” Sisko somehow doubted that, but said nothing. There was silence for a few seconds and then Sisko asked, “Who are you?”

“My name is Anakin Skywalker. I’m originally from a dessert rim world known as Tatooine. I’m supposed to be the one who can bring bounce to the Force.”

“Why is that?”

Under most circumstances Anakin would never say this, but this wasn’t most circumstances. “I have no father. I was conceived by the Force.”

Anakin expected this to be countered saying it wasn’t possible, but Sisko seemed to be lost in thought after that last statement.





Picard had talked to at least seven high ranking military officials of the Republic in the last hour. He thought he had finally convinced them they had a real threat coming. This time he got Palpatine on. “Captain, I understand that you have some information on an attack that will occur here shortly.”

“Yes. And we must coordinate a defense before they get here. They almost never plan to engage unless they have a high probability of success.”

“How long do you think we have?”

“An hour, maybe two, I can’t guarantee even a few more minutes though. We should start coordinating with all the other ships here. If we work together we may have a chance of winning.”

“Thank you captain, but this will be an attack on the Republic and we will handle it. I would appreciate it however if you will talk to our ship and fleet commanders. They’ll need to know everything they can about this enemy.”

“I understand you wanting to handle this, but there are thousands of ships out there that can help. You may need everyone of them.”

“Captain, most of those ships will not be willing to fight an enemy they know nothing about, for a Republic they know almost nothing about. Many of them are from civilizations that have few ships to begin with. Almost all have representatives that our government is planning on contacting, and they are supposed to be in Republic care while they are here. We could make a lot of enemies if those ships don’t return. Besides, if the Borg will bring what they think they need to win then they probably will be outmatched. We traded information on species and cultures with your Defiant when they arrived. Your information shows they are in the Delta Quadrant. If they have attained information on our standard defense here, then they will be greatly surprised when they get here. We have over 1500 capital ships here now. That doesn’t include our smaller vessels or the almost limitless amount of fighters.”

That was impressive and Picard knew that Palpatine had a point. Still he knew that when fighting the Borg, take every advantage. “At the very least, the Enterprise will be in the battle.”

“We thank you captain.”





Picard left the Enterprise and spent the next fifty-eight minutes on the Republic flagship giving as much important detail about the Borg as he could. He then returned to the Enterprise. The Enterprise had dropped off all its ambassadors during his absence. A few were not too happy about his decision to commit the Enterprise (a few doubted the Borg were coming at all).

Picard hadn’t liked the way the meeting had gone. He could tell many of the people there, were there for political reasons and few others. They asked a lot of repetitive questions, and he knew at least half believed there wasn’t anything coming. Most of the others hadn’t understood what he meant when he told them, that they couldn’t treat this like a standard attack. What might be enough for one cube at the beginning of the battle might not end up being near enough for one at the end. If they divided their forces too much, the Borg might have ships repairing at a rate fast enough to negate a lot of the damage they were causing.

How many ships were coming? That was an important question. The Federation had never really had to completely destroy a cube the way the Republic would need to today. The first cube had been destroyed by putting in a fatal order into the cube through him (as Locutus). On the second one, he had detected their weak spot. He was pretty sure they had cut him off from that information. He knew now that they had quite a few ships coming, but not a number they would use to attack a planet close to their space. They had brought what they thought would be enough. Still, how many did they think they would need? They never thought they needed more than one against Earth and had never brought more. Hopefully all those extra Republic ships would make a difference.

Just as Picard entered the bridge, the red alert signal started to sound. “How many?”

The new chief of security, Lt. Commander Slaughter, answered, “43 sir. They exited hyperspace on the far side of the system. They are breaking up their formation somewhat, taking slightly different courses to the planet.”

The whole bridge stared at the view screen awestruck. Riker said, “I didn’t think they’d ever send that many to one place. Raise shields, load torpedoes, and ready phasers.”




No one doubted that Picard was right about someone coming now. The Borg opened a channel, it was the first most had ever heard of the Borg. “We are the Borg, lower your shields and surrender your vessels. Your cultural and biological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is Futile.”




Anakin was setting the vessel down just outside the Fire Caves when he realized something bad was happening at Coruscant. He searched harder and saw it was under attack. Fortunately for Sisko, the Bajorans had let them land as soon as they realized he was on board, because Anakin wouldn’t have waited to drop him off otherwise. As it was, they were down anyway. “Sorry I can’t come with you. I need to back to Coruscant now”

Sisko stepped out. “I know. Get back to your wife.”

Anakin, despite his urgency to lift off, was stunned for a moment. He had married Padme just after they got off Geonosis. How did he know? Well, not much made sense with this guy anyway. He pushed a few controls and set off. Sisko turned and entered the fire caves.




Picard: “Data, how is the Republic dispatching their ships?”

Data: “They are dividing themselves pretty evenly. There are about 30 ships going against each cube. The others seem to be staying closer to the planet. Some compensations appear to have been made for groups with extra or smaller amounts of firepower.”

“They didn’t listen.” Picard signed. “Take us in. Fire at will.”



The ships of the Republic engaged the enemy as far away from the planet as they could. When they had detected the enemy, they had moved into intercept courses. They did not want the ships close enough to directly attack the planet or use those transporters of theirs. To the newly appointed Grand Admiral in charge, Picard had seemed like a very unmilitaristic man. He was probably a diplomat or a scientist trying to plan military strategy. Maybe for the Federation that worked, but it wouldn’t for the Republic.

Picard had suggested that the fleet throw as much of its firepower as it reasonably could into one cube at a time. He knew that, with this many ships, the fleet couldn’t follow that plan completely, but he had strongly advised that they follow that reasoning as much as possible.

He also had advised that they make the battle as quick as possible. Why Picard had said that, wasn’t completely clear to this commander, but he thought that was better advise than taking on a cube at time.




For most of its existence, the Republic had the ability to quickly develop strong new weapons and ship designs. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t do any good in this battle. Like the Dominion found out when it started to fight the Federation, being millennia older might lead to many advantages, but they weren’t always as great as you might think. The Republic, had little reason to develop new weapon technologies over the past millennia and it was showing in this battle. There were definitely new technologies that emerged regardless, but it had been a long time since there had been any significant changes in the military fleets. Actually, more had changed in the past 5 years (due to a slight worry about Separatists) than in almost the past 500 years.

The first waves of Republic ships did pretty well. Despite information from earlier assimilated ships, the Borg were not ready for the full force of the Republic guns. The first couple cubes were destroyed pretty quickly. However after that, things started to go in a downward spiral. These cubes had more weapon points than the ones Picard had explained. Maybe they had always had them, but just didn’t feel they needed them against the Federation. Regardless, they skipped past the Republic shields half the time and were causing direct damage to ships.

Most of the Republic ships in this battle had never experienced more than runs against pirates. Some of the crews had received very good training, but those were in the minority. On some ships all order was completely lost. As the chaos continued to grow, fighters were ordered to charge cubes in the same area that capital ships were firing. The results were obviously fatal for the pilots.




The Enterprise released another wave of quantums and saw another Republic ship go down. What were they doing, Picard thought. Palpatine had been completely right, shockingly the tremendous reinforcements Coruscant had received was enough to handle the Borg. This amazed Picard, but this fleet was organized in one of the least effective ways he had ever seen. He was almost certain now, that the Republic would win, but the losses might be 10 times what they needed to be. The ship they had moved to concentrate on (Voyager and the Defiant had followed as well) was the one that seemed like it had the most disorganized fight going on. The grand admirals ship was on almost the opposite end of the battlefield. As Picard watched a wave of fighters get destroyed by their own ships he made a decision that would probably get him in trouble, but he couldn’t let this go on any longer. “Patch me to all the ships that are engaging this cube.”

“Ai Sir, your on.”

“This is Captain Picard of the Enterprise. All fighters engage on sides 2 and 3. All other ships proceed to sides 1 and 4. If there isn’t room for you, get to side 5. All ships, try and coordinate your ships firing at these coordinates, I’m sending now.” The Republic had labeled sides on each cube automatically as the Borg had entered the system, it had been one of the few smart things they’d done.

“Sir, are those points critical systems?”

“I doubt it Data, but if we can cause damage all in one area, they aren’t going to be able to clear it up so fast and maybe we can weaken their defenses a little faster.”




Picard was right, the cube could not keep repairs up at the rate damage was being caused. A maneuverability advantage was lost to the Republic, but there had been almost no advantage anyway due to the large number of ships fighting in such a small area around a single cube. After another minute the cube was gone and before the fleet could break up and randomly choose new cubes, Picard ordered them all on to the next one.




The Borg knew the probability of their winning was now less than 1%. The communication they had been sent suggested that there were only around 500 ships and a small compliment of fighters. This was close enough, to what assimilated records had shown about the typical defenses of the planet, that the Borg had believed it. They had planned accordingly. The planet had interested them from when they first found out about it, but it was the signal from the planet itself, asking them to come and saying that they would join without the Borg having to waste their resources forcing assimilation, that had made the use of the cubes now the best perceived coarse of action. Now they were going to lose all of their ships though. They would have to use a different method to get to the planet. Before the last few cubes were destroyed the Borg activated their transporters.




There was loud cheer on the Enterprise as the last of the cubes exploded. His security chief looked down at tactical station and then at Picard. “Sir, the Grand Admiral would like to speak you.”

“On Screen.”

The Grand Admiral was clearly furious. “Captain, I have just received word that you gave orders to Republic forces during the battle.”

“That is correct Grand Admiral.”

“That is highly unacceptable and will be regarded very badly by my superiors. Thank you for the warning you gave us, but I don’t want to ever hear of you ordering the Republic again. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.” It didn’t do any good to fight with men like this; it would only make things worse. “You will be checking all of your ships for possible Borg won’t you?”

“I see no reason to. They were clearly after the planet and clearly eliminated.”

“If you don’t search there is a good chance the Borg will end up on Coruscant.”

“If there are any, our soldiers will handle them on their own thank you.”

With that the channel died. “Try to open a channel with Chancellor Palpatine.”




It took ten minutes to get hold of Palpatine and by then several shuttles had landed.

The chancellor had a smile on his face and said, “Captain Picard, I’m glad you made it threw the battle. I trust your ship is in good condition still.”

“Yes chancellor, but I have another possible problem to report.”

“I see. What is it?”

“The Borg could have easily transported on board one or more of your ships at the end of the last battle. Many ships had their shields down and your shields seemed at least partially ineffective to the Borg. Since then many ships have sent shuttles down to the planet.”

“I wouldn’t consider a few shuttles awkward, but you may be right. From what I’ve read even a few Borg could turn into a major problem. I will take appropriate steps. Why didn’t you contact the Grand Admiral?”

“I tried, he wouldn’t listen.”

“He also criticized your intervention in a fleet that was doing badly. Thank you Captain for your bravery and your information. The entire Republic thanks you. Without you, Coruscant may not have been saved, and you may have just saved it again.”

“Anytime Chancellor.”

“You may also have done us another great service by exposing a problem in our chain of command. Thank you again, now I’ll get started.”




Sisko continued through the Fire Caves. He could tell he was falling further behind the man he was following. A little late wouldn’t make any difference, but being anymore than that could be a very big problem. He was running out of energy, but he picked up the pace all the same. He wished he’d gone back to DS9. From there he could have taken a roundabout and transported through most of the distance. Maybe this was how it was supposed to be though. Maybe he was getting prepared for something.




The Borg had transported to three different ships. One ship had had extreme damage, and the Borg had managed to take control of most major systems immediately. They sealed all escape areas and communications. From there, they started to assimilate the crew.

The second ship had been almost as bad. Unfortunately for the Borg, the area they transported to was sealed off seconds later as life support power was diverted to other areas. The area had been exposed to space and without life support, the area became cold and lost its air fast. The Borg died in the corridor.

The third ship the Borg beamed to was largely intact and had only lost shields to a portion of itself. It was deemed that if they tried to take control there was a 90% chance the ship would be destroyed by surrounding ships or a self destruct would be activated or that they would be destroyed by the crew. The Borg there proceeded to a ship they could secure and use to land on the planet. When they got to the hanger bay, one shuttle was preparing to leave. The Borg assimilated the people in the shuttle and around it and took off.

As fate would have it that shuttle had been ordered to bring scientist back down to Coruscant to examine the Borg technology. When the planet ordered the ship into a position to land, the Borg had no reason not to follow the instructions. This was after all a clear flight path that made the most sense to land on.

When the shuttle landed, two very shocked security guards tried to react. One got out two blasts at the Borg, before he was picked up and assimilation tubes pressed into him. Neither shot penetrated the Borg force field. The Borg had encountered too many of these identical weapons in the Delta Quadrant (by now several worlds full of them) and no modifications had been made. The other called in an emergency before being assimilated as well.

At about the same time that emergency was being called in, the ship the Borg had adducted the shuttle from, was reporting there had been Borg onboard. A minute later Palpatine spoke to Picard.

The Borg on the planet proceeded into the building they had just landed on. It’s top floors were the corporate headquarters for a medium sized company that mined for resources on inner outer rim planets. The Borg number had increased from 15 to 17 (on the first ship they beamed to, there were over 100 Borg, but there had been less time and a smaller opportunity on the ship they had beamed to). They assimilated many of the people there (although many escaped) and the computers. They started to set up a hive.

After receiving word (although he already knew), that the Borg were taking control of a building, Palpatine asked the Jedi to deal with the problem. He didn’t do as others might and blow up the building. That would cause questions afterward, about killing civilians. Also, he might have a chance to pull off a little more if he was lucky. There was a small possibility that he might be able to kill a Jedi in the next wave of Borg that he knew was coming. If he concentrated at the right time, maybe he could help the Borg fight a little better against some random young Jedi. It would be a small accomplishment, but every Jedi gone was one less to face later. Also, he sensed there was something else that might accomplish. He wasn’t sure what yet though.

More than a hundred Jedi entered shuttles that would take them half way around the planet to get to the Borg location. It took a few minutes to safely get there. The group was led by Mace Windu, for some reason Yoda had stayed behind.

They exited their shuttles and all ignited their lightsabers, slowly making their way for the building.

Mace Windu: “Hopefully they haven’t gone to the neighboring buildings.”

Obi-Wan: “I don’t think they have. Hopefully by the time they’re ready the buildings will have been evacuated.”

Mace Windu: “Let’s stop them before it gets that far.”

Obi-Wan: “I think most of them are still on the upper levels. I would say the mid two hundreds.”

Mace Windu: “Yes, that feels right to me too. We’ll divide up. A third will stay outside and prevent any Borg from leaving. Keep your minds opened. If any leave at the mid levels, you might need to shoot. One group in that should get into a shuttle and patrol the area. Another third will go up the elevator to floor 200. If they’ve deactivated the elevator, take the stairs. Go up the steps from there until you start to come across Borg. The rest of us will take a few shuttles to the roof and come down.”

There was little question which of these jobs was the most difficult. Preventing the Borg from leaving was an important task, but not a difficult one. The other two groups would squeeze the Borg together. However, since the 3rd group was going straight to the roof, they would run across Borg first. It might take the 2nd group an extra 30 floors of climbing before they reached any Borg. No one complained though or questioned the orders.

Mace Windu and Obi-Wan both took shuttles to the roof. Both also wondered something. They both had the feeling that the Borg could be a major threat now, but both felt something wasn’t quite as it should be. Other than Yoda though they were the only ones to feel any of this. The Dark Side was very busy clouding over the truth.

The shuttles heading toward the roof landed. There were no longer any Borg on the roof, but Windu quickly went into the shuttle the Borg had taken and destroyed the hyperdrive. On the next floor they found that the Borg had been to work and that area was starting to look more like a Borg structure than the building it had been designed for. Concerned for the individuals he felt trapped inside the Borg, Windu said, “Knock them out or paralyze them if you can. They are Borg, not individuals, at least not anymore, but we may be able to save some of them.” Three Borg started to approach the Jedi and were quickly dealt with.

On the next two floors the Jedi encountered another 30 Borg. Most of them didn’t even really look like Borg yet. They had obviously been assimilated, but they didn’t have any of the gear on. The presence of the Borg could be sensed though.



The Borg who had managed to acquire a whole ship were now finishing installing transporters. They were made quickly and wouldn’t be as efficient as standard transporters, but were the best the Borg could do with the time and resources. They followed another ship that was preparing to land and got close to the planet. They quickly started receiving warnings about leaving or being destroyed, but that was irrelevant. They reached the point where they could transport to their destination and beamed down. They beamed right into the Galactic Senate.






The Senate was not currently in session. Most Senators were in the building though. They were either monitoring the current situation or reviewing the battle. Another session was scheduled to begin in an hour. The plans for evacuation, which had been reviewed in case the Borg succeeded in battle were now washing away from the Senators minds as they returned to their offices and left the area closest to their emergency escape ships. If Picard’s warning about an upcoming battle had been taken seriously, the Senate might have been evacuated before the battle. As it stood though most Senators had never even heard of his warning.





Anakin was in his shuttle still a long way away from Coruscant, but he could see what was happening as clearly as if he were there. He couldn’t explain his sudden spark in awareness, but he wished he couldn’t see this. There was nothing he could do. He would make those Borg pay. By the time he got there though they would all be gone. He needed to get there and he needed to get there now. Then he heard a flash behind him.

“You really should give the Borg a chance. At least their emotions are bit more predictable.”

“Who are you?” This creature seemed to exist outside of the Force. Anakin could tell nothing about him, but he seemed extremely powerful.

The voice was a mocking hurt, “Here I am considering offering you something I never even was willing to give to Janeway and you yell at me. Maybe I should just leave.”

“You still didn’t answer my question, what are you offering?” If this could help him get to Coruscant faster or prevent what he saw happening, he would do anything. Anakin thought that and meant it quite literally.

The man smiled. “My name is Q and I’m offering to take you were you want to go.”

“You’ll take my ship back to Coruscant?”

“If you want to bother with your ship sure. If not I’ll willing to take you as far as just outside the Galactic Senate.”

“What is the catch.”

“Nothing, just tell Picard that I am giving him a little hand, but the trial is still going on.”

“All right. Who’s he?”

“Oh, you’ll see him soon enough. While you’re at it tell Janeway I said hi. I suppose it’s to late for you to tell Sisko I hope he falls on a rock.”

“Suppose so.”

“Well maybe not, if you see him tell him.”

“Sure. Can we go now.”

“Sure thing.” And in a flash of bright light they both disappeared.




Anakin appeared just outside the Senate just as Q said he would and he rushed into it. An alarm was going off as he came in. The only immediate sign of the Borg were the people rushing out of the building. Few Senators though, most of them were in the upper levels. Anakin rushed toward the elevator. It opened and a group of Senators came pouring out. Anakin got on and sent it up. He hadn’t seen the guards, they must have left the entrance to try and get rid of the Borg. He was half way to where he was heading, three quarters the way, and then it stopped. The power had been cut. The Borg had just taken over the power controls for the building and were now diverting power only to where they thought they needed it.

Anakin opened the door with the force and climbed onto the next floor. He rushed to the stairs. He used the force to lift himself past the hordes of people coming down and up one floor after another. He grabbed the railing on each floor and propelled himself to the next floor. He knew that below him many people were rushing right into a Borg position, but right now he didn’t care. He had to keep going before it was too late.

Then it hit him. Some of what he had feared was already happening. It wasn’t too late though; he could still save her life. He had to hurry. As he finally reached the 453rd floor he could tell he was in the center of the Borg’s new hive. The anger flowed within him. He tried to push it back, but he couldn’t. He ripped right through one of them and approached another. He easily killed it before it had a chance to even try to hurt him.

He kept going. He could now hear another lightsaber down the hall. It was distant though. Anakin went past another 15 Borg and then he saw it. There was a newly assimilated Borg. This was one of the few that had actually got the full Borg outfit. Just in front of him stood the assimilated form of Padme. Another Jedi was almost up to them now. Ten Borg were going at him almost all together. They weren’t like the others though; these were being helped by something, by what Anakin didn’t know. It felt like the Force though. Was that possible?

The Jedi also seemed to be fighting at something else. The Jedi, whom Anakin had never seen, sliced through two Borg just as another hit him. His lightsabor went flying. It went flying just as Anakin had foreseen. It was heading straight at Padme. Anakin used the Force and barely managed to push the lightsabor away before it hit her, dead in the face.

The Borg were reaching for the downed Jedi now. He still seemed to be fighting at some unseen evil and these remaining 8 Borg seemed to be acting extremely quickly. Anakin was furious at this Jedi, but he was still angrier with the Borg. He used the Force to take the other lightsabor and rushed. The Borg turned. As they saw him, they seemed to return to the every day variety Borg. Anakin easily cut the first two heads off. He dogged ones attempt to assimilate him cut this one, a former maintenance officer onboard the Republic ship Unity, in the middle. He jumped, avoiding two more and cut both of heads off. He then cut the arm off one, before it could get close to his neck and pushed the lightsaber straight through the middle. He then threw the other fallen Jedi’s lightsabor at one of the two remaining Borg and pushed his through the last one.

Anakin ignored the other Jedi, who was now getting up, if Anakin had said anything he knew he’d kill him. It took all Anacin’s effort not to do that anyway. He went to Padme. She was now trying to assimilate him herself. He grabbed her and she tried to get her hand to his neck. He kept it out of reach of his whole body. It wasn’t easy. In his current state, it was taking all his concentration to counter the new strength she had.

Now Anakin had a problem, how was he going to get out. He couldn’t go down the stairs. He couldn’t keep Padme safe and fight the Borg. Going up he had the same problem. Getting Padme to a group of Jedi, wouldn’t be easy. Almost all the Jedi on Coruscant had gone to take out the first group of Borg. That had been extreme overkill, but they hadn’t known there would be a second group. Yoda only had the slightest notion that there might more trouble, and that was why he had stayed behind. Yoda had sent the few extras they had left to the Senate, but they were all over the building now, not concentrated in a group he could get to.

“Thank you. That bunch must have been something special. I felt the Dark Side in them. What are you holding her for? Paralyze her or knock her out real well and we’ll save her later if we can.”

“Get out of here!!!”

The Jedi looked confused for a moment, but sensing Anakin’s feelings decided it would be better to listen for now.

A second later Anakin felt himself dissolve. Padme disappeared from his sight and a small room appeared in her place. He realized he was on a ship. Padme wasn’t with him. There were others standing on the other platforms beside him. There was a man behind a console and several people by the door. They looked like security. The one in front spoke. “Welcome to the USS Defiant. We are currently helping to evacuate the areas of the Galactic Senate that are full of Borg. Please follow these two so we can beam-up more people.” He gestured to two of the other security officers.

Anakin went right next to the transporter officer. “The person I was with, you have to transport her here. She is extremely important.”

“Was she assimilated?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t matter. I’ll prevent her from harming anyone.”

This didn’t shock the ensign who had been speaking. They were beaming people out from the most heavily Borg populated areas. He had bet, that someone probably would ask something like this. Maybe, the person was a friend who had just been assimilated. Still, he knew the right answer to this. “I’m sorry I can not do that.”

“Look I don’t have time to argue with you.” Anakin reactivated his lightsabor. He put it next to the transporter chief’s head. “I’m a Jedi, I can secure her, trust me.”

Now the ensign was shocked. “That’s impossible, we are avoiding the ones the Jedi sent in. We got sent their signatures to avoid them.”

“I wasn’t with them. You have five seconds before I kill you, and trust me I can kill you all.” He could feel the Dark Side pushing now. He also realized something else was pushing back. Something he had never felt before though. It had been pushing on the planet too. He realized that now, but what was it? He suspected it might have been the only thing that prevented him from joining the Dark Side after seeing Padme.

Then one of the senators who had been beamed up beside Anakin spoke up. “Yes that is a Jedi, it is Palatine’s favorite. He is Anakin Skywalker.”

“Time’s almost up.”

Seeing no alternative the security officer spoke up. “All right. Transporter Room to Bride, we are going to beam one Borg to the brig on a request from a Jedi.”

“Very well, make sure there are guards there.” Worf didn’t like what he was hearing, but there had to be some reason for this. Plus he had heard near panic in the transporter chief’s voice.

The transporter chief pushed a few buttons and said, “There, she’s on board.”

“Thank you.” Anakin finally calmed a bit.




Everyone who had been transported was being sent to one room. The ship seemed small and the room was almost at its limits. Anakin asked to be taken to Padme. The chief guard sighed and said, “Yes, but you are going to have to give me that weapon of yours for a while.”

“I could kill everyone in here with this if you say no.” Whatever had been pushing back against the Dark Side was gone now. Maybe it thought he could avoid it on his own, or maybe it had other things to worry about.

“Maybe you can, but I’m not willing to let you bring that into a room we are trying to hold a Borg in.”

“All right, but I want it back.”

Anakin sat in the brig just outside her cell for the next hour until Worf came down.






Palpatine thought the Borg operation had been a total success. He had only killed one Jedi, but there had been other major accomplishments. He had killed the Jedi who Anakin had met. Palpatine didn’t want the Counsel getting overly worried about Anakin just yet. Anakin was well on his way to the Dark Side and would be ready soon, but it wasn’t quite the time. Fortunately for Palpatine, the Jedi Anakin had met was a new one and at the bottom of the barrel in skills (although of coarse, still very good). Palpatine took control of six Borg a little farther down the hall from where he left Anakin, and had managed to take out the solo Jedi. This had been a risk since he had to focus so much on controlling the Borg, that if a one of a handful of Jedi had been meditating on who the sith master was, Palpatine’s secret probably would have been lost. Yoda was the biggest threat. With the first eight Borg, Palpatine had merely sped the Borg up, he hadn’t actually taken control of them. Fortunately, by the time, Palpatine was concentrating on the lone Jedi, Yoda was in the fight and not in meditation.

The fact that he had almost completely hidden the second attack, was another major accomplishment. He had managed to completely hide the Borg’s second assault from most of the Jedi. Anakin had known, but Anakin would ultimately be with him. Obi-Wan and Mace Windu would be threats, but they would be ones he could deal with. Yoda was of coarse a problem, but he would deal with him in time too.

The Senate would now jump on the opportunity to take the clone army and he would be granted whatever power he wished. He could justify however much reorganization in the military he wanted, by saying the old system had completely failed to produce what the Republic needed. After how miserably it had failed today, no one could argue. The fact that he had arranged it so the most incompetent commanders were in the battle was something almost no one could find out. The Federation was even coming into the position he needed them. He would need them, first against the Borg, and then for something else.

All was going to plan in that area. The plan had come quickly, but he thought success would come out of it. He would need to be careful, a small mistake against the Borg could be very deadly, but he was sure he knew the path.

There were two things still troubling him though. One was why hadn’t Anakin turned in the Senate. It was better that he didn’t just yet, but still that event should have been enough to bring him to the Dark Side. Something had strengthened him there. Would that something help him again? Palpatine really wasn’t certain. He did think he knew what helped Anakin though. The Profits had, of coarse. That brought about his second troubling thought. What was happening on Bajor? He knew that Sisko must somehow succeed and defeat his former apprentice. He wasn’t sure defeat for Sisko was possible. He still couldn’t see what was happening there though or for what reason and this concerned him greatly. Palpatine knew that something was about to be accomplished from the Profits standpoint. What concerned Palpatine was that he couldn’t see what it was.





Worf hadn’t completely understood why Anakin had brought the Borg onto the ship. Anakin said she was someone important. She was an important senator. Worf had thought there had been more to it than that, but he hadn’t pressed it. He explained the Defiant didn’t have much of a sickbay, but that the Enterprise probably could handle removing the Borg implants. “I’ll contact Captain Picard and have both of you sent there. Is that all right?”

“Yes. Did you say Picard?”

“Yes,” Worf was a little confused. “He was my former captain. He is the best in the Federation.”

“What about a Captain Janeway?”

“She is Captain of the Starship Voyager. It had been missing for years, but now is here in this system. How do you know all this?”

“I’ll have to ask Captain Picard about that. Thank you.”

“Your welcome. I hope she is ok.”

“I do too.”






Sisko was finally approaching the end of his journey. The other man, the man in black, should be just in front of him. He turned the corner and saw him. There was fire all through the great opening in front of him. The man was throwing another into the fire. “And the sacrifice is complete, although I’m not sure it was necessary. Who has followed me?” He was also holding a book.

“I have. The Emissary of the Profits.”

“Oh, yes, of coarse.” The man looked crazy with the power he now possessed. The Separatists barely would have recognized him. Unknown to Sisko, the book Dooku was holding wasn’t meant to be read by him. Using the Force, he had managed to negate most of the negative effects, but it had driven him half mad, and the rest of his journey, leading up until now, had driven most of the rest of him mad.

“You are no match for me. You were no match for me before and now I’m stronger than anyone. The Pah-wraiths have filled my power. Even Sidious is nothing compared to me. I will consume all. I will rule all.”

“You just seem like another power hungry villain to me.” Something came to his head. The book. The book was the key.

“Am I. Let’s see how right you are about the power. I have seen what could have happened. A man named Dukat would have been here. Do you know him?”

“He is a madman. I doubt you are any better.” Sisko tried to charge and push him into the fire, but Dooku pushed him to the group with either the Force or his newfound power.

“I’m not sure just how that ended, but you somehow won that battle. Before you did though he had you bow. I think I’ll still have you do you that too. Now bow!”

Sisko tried not to, but he was being pushed down. “You are pathetic!” He needed to distract him.

“Am I. Well maybe we should end this then.”

He loved this new power. That was how he would distract him. “Who is Sidious? What makes him so powerful? I doubt you can take him.”

“Nothing compared to him.” He laughed. “He was my master, but now he will see what true power is. The Pah-wraiths are stronger than my former master. The Pah-wraiths won’t waste time conquering like he would, they will simply consume. We will see who will bow to who.”

Sisko could tell Dooku was loosening his concentration on him. “What power? What power do you have that can compare to his?”

“What power? What power! I can control galaxies now. Watch this!” Dooku turned to the fire.

It was now or never. Sisko used all his strength and pushed himself into a jump. The man turned just in time to see him, but not in enough time to react. The Force should have prepared him, but he was so confident in his powers that he didn’t pay a bit of attention to any warnings until it was too late.

They both fell through the fires and the Paw-wraths were forced to take Dooku. The Profits willingly took Sisko. His work was far from over.





The operation was almost complete. Anakin hadn’t left Padme’s side, despite Dr. Crusher’s request that he leave. She had finally consented to him staying as long as he was far enough away from the patient so as not to interfere with the operation. Crusher had been requested to go down to the planet to help them unassimilate those the Jedi hadn’t killed. Few had more knowledge than her on the procedure, and even if the Republic had some pretty advanced technology, they never had done anything like this before. Fortunately, a doctor from Voyager had somehow gained experience and was now talking to doctors on Coruscant. Despite an urgent feeling to get down there she didn’t rush this, she wasn’t going to loose a patient, because she was in a hurry.

Picard walked in. “How is she doing?”

“Just fine, I think that we’ll be done shortly.”

“Good. They really want you down there.”

Anakin: “Are you Captain Picard?”

Picard: “Yes. You are the Jedi who came with this Borg right?”

Anakin: “Yes. But don’t call her that.”

Picard: “I’m sorry. You’re right.”

Anakin: “You’ve been assimilated?”

Picard was silent for a moment then spoke. “Yes. As far as I know, I’m the only person from the Federation ever to be unassimilated.”

Anakin: “You were someone important to them, weren’t you?”

Picard: “Yes, but how did you know that?”

Anakin: “I’m not even sure. By the way Q said to say that he is giving you a little hand, but the trial is still going on.”

Picard: “I can see we have a lot to talk about.”





Over the next two weeks Padme slowly recovered and order started to reemerge on Coruscant. The guard had been increased to 4000 capital ships. The fighter count once again rose to very high levels. Many other systems and whole sectors argued that they were being left defenseless, but with better than 800 capital ships already lost, 35 Senators dead, and another 300 recovering after they had intentionally been paralyzed or made unconscious (fortunately the combination of medicines was proving beneficial for them), no chances were being taken on Coruscant. The Senate had voted to take the clone army and order as many more as possible. Palpatine was given full authority to do whatever he wanted to do with the military. He made what would normally have been several controversial decisions. He placed new power in men who most had never heard of and took it from even very respected generals. He placed some very good fleets in dangerous places. The Borg continued to strike at their Delta Quadrant planets, but the Republic wasn’t ready to go toe to toe against them just yet. There was now a mass exodus of people leaving planets in or near Borg space.

The Galactic Summit the Senate had prepared for was now ready to start. Palpatine started by addressing the crowd. “Thank you everyone for being here. It is my pleasure to welcome you all to Coruscant and into the heart of the Republic. We invited you here hoping our galaxies could come to peaceful relations. We still hope that is true. Everyone’s decision to come is a good start. Over the next few weeks, we will be trying to work out at least tentative treaties with all of you and permanent ones with as many as possible.”

“I wish that I could say this meeting was happening on the best of circumstances. Unfortunately, it isn’t. We are now one galaxy. We will no longer be two that share the same space, but we must be one. I hope everyone here agrees with that. Being part of the same galaxy means that we must share our responsibilities and our rewards. Right now there is a great threat to all of us. Many of you in the Delta Quadrant have been dealing with them for a long time, but they are a threat to us all. The Republic experienced first hand the destructive ways of the Borg less than two weeks ago. We must thank the United Federation of Planets and in particular Captain Jean-Luc Picard for their part in this. The Republic owns you a life dept and we will not forget this. We must also thank the others who helped.”

“Our ambassadors will show you exactly what the Borg have done, but here I will say this. They steal the very essence of people. They take away free will. They will take every individual they can and use them as they see fit. We must strike this enemy now. The Milky Way galaxy could not handle the problem alone and neither would our old one have been able to. But together, we can ensure that everyone keeps their free will.”

“The Republic wishes to form a Grand Coalition. Whatever each civilization can provide, will be most appreciated. Together we can save the galaxy. To show that we are committed to the integration of our galaxies, we ask that a member of your galaxy lead the coalition. If not for this man, it is likely that Coruscant would now be an assimilated planet. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, will you lead the forces of the galaxy against the Borg?”

Picard slowly stood up. Of all the things that could be happening now, this was nothing he ever could have foreseen. He was being asked to lead a galaxy wide effort to destroy the Borg. He wasn’t sure that he was the best for this. Despite success, he was not a general or a military leader. Still what could he say? “Thank you Supreme Chancellor, I am honored and will lead as long as it’s felt that I am the best person for the job.”

“Thank you Captain. This Great War began with the Battle of Coruscant. Hopefully it will end with the destruction of the Borg.”




Anakin had just left Voyager where he had talked to Janeway for the first time and was now heading to see Padme again. He had barely left her side for the first day. After that she had enough strength to tell him others would definitely become suspicious soon, if they weren’t already, and he needed to leave. She was now back on Coruscant and he could visit her more freely, but he knew questions might be in people’s minds. Oh well, he was going to see his wife.

He did have a lot of questions to answer. He had taken a ship without consulting anyone (which had just dropped out of hyperspace a day after the battle empty), and that was just were questions would start. He thought there was a good chance someone would figure out that he had married Padme. Still, it wasn’t a certainty. Obi-Wan was really worried, but Anakin just responded to this, by avoiding his questions entirely.

Anakin thought about these things and what he would do. Then all that was pushed from his mind. He wasn’t on Coruscant anymore. The area around him seemed to be all white light coming from all sides.

“Welcome Anakin.”

“Captain Sisko.”

“You know longer need to use captain, and Ben will be fine.”

“Where have you taken me?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take you back the exact moment you left off. No one will know you were gone.”

“You know you got me in a lot of trouble.”

“Sorry.”

“Where is this place?”

“This is the Celestial Temple. I am now truly the Emissary and my job is to prepare you.”

“Prepare me. For what?”

“For the Merging.”

“What do you mean?”

“The merging was started when the Profits decided to unite our universes. It isn’t complete yet though.”

“When will it be?”

“When you bring balance to the Force.”





Thanks for reading this story. I hope you enjoyed it. I know the writing itself is nothing great, and the punctuation probably isn’t very good, but I hope the ideas made up for those flaws. I don’t know whether I’ll write Episode II or not. I’ve a general idea of what would happen there and throughout the rest of a nine-episode story, but I doubt that I’ll ever write all that. This took a long time for me to write, and if there is an Episode II, it will probably awhile before it comes out. I really need to read Star Wars Episode III first, and time is limited. Thanks again.

[post notes from 2012: I know basically what is going to happen and it will be a 6 part rather than a 9 part series]

[Themightytom]

Um you should probably read Unity
http://sfdebris.com/main.asp

and Twilight war in the Completed And Cleaned Up Fiction forum. They will probably provide some inspiration and style ideas.

[Star Empire]

I'm going to debate for another day or two, I am probably going to remove all the ancient Bajoran stuff from the story. I liked it, but it got too long to be just backstory and really doesn't relate enough to the rest of the story.

The first part of episode II will hopefully be up this weekend.

Um you should probably read Unity
http://sfdebris.com/main.asp

and Twilight war in the Completed And Cleaned Up Fiction forum. They will probably provide some inspiration and style ideas.

I was reading Unity back when Paradise Lost was stuck at 2 chapters. One of my favorite stories of all time and it was sfdebris links that actually led me here (probably never would have heard of stardestroyer.net otherwise). I'm not sure I'm up to date on Twilight War though. Might re-read some. Improving style is probably the thing I need to do most.

[Highlord Laan]

I can't help but think that the Jedi and the Vulcans will get along fabulously.

[Borgholio]

I am wondering about the Dominion though. There has not been much mention of them after the actual merging took place. I cannot fathom that the Founders would choose to not get involved in what clearly is a game-changing event for both galaxies. They are a very major player in the Milky Way so they can't simply be ignored.

On the somewhat funny side, I'd like to see the antics that take place when the Ferengi try to do business with the Trade Federation.

[aussiemuscle308]

could do with a proof read. there's a few mistakes that won't be picked up by a spell-checker

I’m supposed to be the one who can bring bounce to the Force.”

Force basketball?

[Borgholio]

could do with a proof read. there's a few mistakes that won't be picked up by a spell-checker

I’m supposed to be the one who can bring bounce to the Force.”

Force basketball?

You swine, I thought this was an update!

[Star Empire]

Chapter 1 of Episode II is up now: http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=157482

[Star Empire]

Oops on the spelling mistakes. No matter how many times I seem to read through and revise, I always end up with some.

I am wondering about the Dominion though. There has not been much mention of them after the actual merging took place. I cannot fathom that the Founders would choose to not get involved in what clearly is a game-changing event for both galaxies. They are a very major player in the Milky Way so they can't simply be ignored.

On the somewhat funny side, I'd like to see the antics that take place when the Ferengi try to do business with the Trade Federation.

The Dominion will be very involved going forward; that much I promise.

[astrospace2020]

very impressive and good Story so far . i hope you continue , or a sequel

[Borgholio]

very impressive and good Story so far . i hope you continue , or a sequel

Dude...a two-year thread necro. Don't do that.