Artoo's Encounter. Chapter Five (standard:Fan Fiction, 5631 words) [6/7] show all parts
Author: Tanada	Added: Dec 19 2002	Views/Reads: 2786/1912	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Leia completes her training and helps Yoda search for Luke.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

because of the heavy armour all Alliance designs are equiped with. We 
manufacture armor on Mars at a rate of 13,000 tons per day and beam it 
up to Utopia Planitia. We then cut an Oberth class ship into masses 
small enough to fit into the replicator feed. These masses are reformed 
into blocks of 8,350 tons each and the scrap mass is scanned along with 
an armor block of 3,250 tons and replicated into a 1/3rd modular 
section of a Corvette. 

The Oberth class ships provide the mass for the ship components,
engines, tankage, crew quarters, and the factory on Mars provides the 
armor mass. This allows us to replicate 4 modular sections per day. The 
60 crew members from each Oberth we scrap form the command staff on the 
Corvettes with additional recruits being assigned to fill the vacant 
positions." 

"How big are these Modules?" 

"Our modular component replicator can make peices up to 50x50x72
meters." 

"I must admit to being most impressed Admiral. At this rate you will
have 40 Corvettes per month!" 

"Actually Luke we are building more Armor factories and expect to be
replicating 200 per month soon." 

"Outstanding! How soon can your crewer's be battle ready?" 

"We plan to give each ship 8 weeks to train, familiarizing themselves
with their new ships and the new tactical and strategic implications." 

"Admiral Gingerbeard I am at a loss, I didn't realize you had the
abillity to mass produce at anything like this rate!" 

"Ship production once a design is finalized has not been a problem for
the Federation since the introduction of the Replicator Luke, though 
with these new modular unit replicators being so large we no longer 
have to spend weeks assembling the components into a working ship. 
These Corvettes are small enough in physical dimensions to allow us to 
make them with just two joins." 

"You sound as if you have a problem with something besides the ship
production." 

"Unfortuanatly Luke you are correct. The Dominion can match or better
are production of ships, we can always get into a replicator race and 
we beleive such would lead us to a stalemate, however the Dominion also 
clone's their Jem'Hadar warriors and Vorta administrators." 

"So in essence crewers are your limiting factor?" 

"Correct Commander, we do have high hopes that the advantages of
Hyperdrive will allow us to defeat the Dominion before they can 
overwhelm us with sheer numbers. Strategically it appears from our 
simulations that one Hyperdive ship will be worth between 5 and 10 warp 
drivin ships." 

"Admiral in terms of Strategy hyperdrive will mean at least that much.
With Hyperdrive you will need to keep your fleet concentrated, from 
what I have seen while I have been here you had your fleet totally 
dispersed along your hostile borders." 

"Our simulations have demonstrated the truth of that strategy Commander.
Even now the new 1st Fleet with 600 ships is engaging the Dominion near 
Delalt. Assuming we win that engagement with the aid of out Klingon 
allies we will send our 2nd fleet to pounce on the survivors in 3 
days." 

"Delalt? That's interesting I have heard Han mention Delalt. But he
never said anything about the Federation." 

"Delalt is a world between Betazed and Bajor, who is Han?" 

"A good freind of mine, a freighter Captain." 

"Well Luke, we have thuroughly searched the Federation database since
you arrived in our territory and we have absolutly no evidence that any 
Alliance or Imperial ships have ever visited us before your arrival." 

"Can we see Delalt?" 

"Certainly." Gingerbeard said, calling up information and a global map
on the LCARS display panal. The southern Hemisphere contained one 
continent, shaped rather like a fishook that started north of the 
equator, looped near the south pole and then back up a third of the way 
to the equator, while the northern hemisphere held two smaller 
continents and an archipelligo of thousands of islands. 

"Artoo?" Luke asked. 

"Beep Bop " Artoo said and projected a holographic image of another
world with a very similer Hook shaped continent in the south and two 
smaller continents in the north. Clearly they were not the same planet, 
but from a casual glance they did look very much alike. 

"Coincidence?" Gingerbeard said uncertainly. 

"I do not beleive so Admiral. 10,000 years ago or so an Hegemony ruled
by a being known as Xim the Despot built a huge treasure vault on the 
planet Delalt. The treasure ship deposited it cargo along with a colony 
and guardians and then flew away leaving a false trail, never to be 
heard from again. If they came here as I did they could have found your 
Delallt while searching for a way home and settled there." 

"Interesting, we had always assumed the inhabitants were descended from
one of the lost colony ships launched 300 years ago. When the system 
was rediscovered 120 years ago it had a population of several hundred 
million humans living in agrarian state, pre-industrial." 

"Admiral you have an incoming transmission from Captain Sisko." 

"I'll take it in my office, excuse me Commander Skywalker." 

"Of course Admiral." Luke said, exiting with Artoo in tow. 

Once they were in his assigned quarters Luke replicated a meal and sat
at his desk studying the history of the Federation Delalt. There was 
not much, but reading it from his perspective he quickly became 
convinced that the descendents found on Delalt were the remote 
antecedents of the Queen of Ranroon's crew. 

"Imagine that," Luke muttered under his breath, "A gateway between
galaxies has been here for at least 10,000 years and only discovered 
twice." 

"Artoo," he continued in a firmer voice, "plot a trip back to our point
of orrigen in this galaxy, if its that hard to find we better not wait 
any longer before we head back. The Alliance needs to know we have 
allies here, and what they are capable of building." 

"Beep beep " 

Deep in interstellar space a Federation scout determined the immediate
destination of the Dominion fleet remnant from the Battle of Dellalt. 
Though they had been beaten and bloodied of the 800 ships they had had 
to begin with 422 were still able to maintain the Warp 8 velocity of 
the withdrawal towards Cardassian space. Little did they know that a 
series of sensor buoys equipped with cloaking devices and passive 
sensors had been salted in their pathway by hyperdrive equipped 
Federation scoutships. 

These passive buoys allowed the fleet to pass them by, sitting nearly
invisible both because of there small size and there cloaking devices, 
and then once the fleet was past they relayed all data gathered to the 
USS Lakota. By the time of the battle plus 48 hours the destination of 
the Dominion fleet was no longer in doubt, a major shipyard at the edge 
of the Cardassian/Federation border in formerly Maquis territory. To 
make the fleet as weak as possible the attack was set for 4 hours 
before they would arrive, when they had already been straining for 40 
hours at high warp with battle damaged ships. 

12 Federation Peregrine II fighters dropped out of Hyperspace 100,000 KM
from target Beta, the orbital shipyard the Dominion needed to repair 
and replenish there battle scarred fleet in perfect hemispherical 
entrapment formation. Each of the 12 had a heavy jamming buoy which 
released from the #1 torpedo hardpoint and started sending out 
terawatts of subspace interference automatically when the fighters 
dropped out of hyperspace. Before Dominion sensors had even detected 
the fighters the entire system was heavily jammed and right behind the 
jamming came 5 Quantum torpedoes from each of the fighters, 60 in all 
from 12 different points in space. 

"Alert! Jamming detected all around us! Raise shields!" the Jem Hadar
officer on duty ordered. As the junior officer of the watch reached for 
the sheild switch the torpedoes hit, too soon for shields and far too 
soon for the defensive phasers to target and destroy them. Coming from 
half the sky they had a flight time of only a few seconds, exploding 
with a force of over 100 megatons each they vaporized the Dominion 
shipyard and 12 ships under construction. Closing in the Peregrine II 
fighters vaporized all pieces larger than a meter in length, then 
returned to the Lakota. 

The jamming pods continued to function for 1 hour after their launch,
then self destructed with simple but very effective 20 KT nuclear 
explosions, leaving nothing in the system but a few small pieces of 
equipment and a lot of vaporized solids to show that a shipyard had 
ever been here. 

On the Dominion fleet the sudden jamming was detected three and a half
hour before the fleet arrived, and it was decided to send the few ships 
capable of faster flight ahead.   72 ships broke formation and 
accelerated to Warp 9.2, leaving 350 more damaged ships behind. 

"Admiral Jellico, they went for the bait." Captain Boyd reported on the
Lakota. 

"Is everyone ready?" 

"Admiral your fleet is fully prepared." 

"Excellent, we do this by the numbers. The Peregrine II fighters will
drop out of hyperspace in globular entrapment formation half a light 
year out and drop their jammer pods, creating a bubble a full light 
year across that will be blind deaf and dumb for an hour. As soon as 
they do 2nd fleet will drop in and engage the Dominion heavies while 
the Peregrines close at Warp and pick off any stragglers." 

"Aye sir, all 360 Peregrines are ready to jump at your mark." 

"In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, MARK!" 

12 seconds later "Jamming field active Admiral" Captain Boyd reported 

"Take us in, and look sharp. We have them outnumbered more than 4 to 1
but they will fight to the finish." 

"Microjump initiated.....breakout in 3, 2, 1, engaging Warp drive!” 

The Dominion fast fleet had not yet detected the Subspace interference
rushing towards them from all directions when suddenly 302 Federation 
ships appeared just behind them moving at Warp 9.3, substantially 
faster than there own warp 9.2.   Shields were raised and weapons were 
armed but with a 4 to one advantage the Federation chose to begin 
saturation firing of Torpedoes, 302 being launched once a second for 10 
seconds as they closed in from behind. 

60 Dominion ships exploded from the first volley but 12 Federation ships
were caught by return fire and destroyed as well. 200 Additional 
torpedoes were fired at the 12 surviving Dominion ships and 30 seconds 
after that the battle was over, having taken less than 4 minutes. 

Having an hour before the remaining 350 Dominion ships would arrive
Admiral Jellico chose to move his fleet several light-years due 
galactic south of the former location of Target Beta and observe. Once 
again as there timers ran down the 360 jamming buoy's exploded in 
nuclear fire, vaporizing themselves. 

The Dominion slow fleet arrived where Target Beta had been to find what
they expected, someone had been there and erased it, and the fast fleet 
as well. Regional damping had so clouded all communications and sensor 
readings that absolutely nothing was known about HOW the shipyard and 
fast fleet had been destroyed, only the knowledge that they had been 
was available. The Dominion commander of the slow fleet really had 
little choice, clearly a superior force was out there somewhere, 
waiting to pounce on any force smaller than itself. If he divided his 
forces again he might loose everything, and his surviving ships were 
already damaged and in serious need of repair. He without hesitation 
set out for the second of the three Dominion shipyards in the Alpha 
quadrant, in orbit over Cardassia Prime. 

"Well Admiral it appears you were correct, they have set course for
Cardassia and are proceeding at Warp 8." 

"Very well, have the Lakota continue to track them as before and
initiate plan Gamma." 

"Immediately Admiral Jellico!” 

Meanwhile the 287 X-Wing fighters built by the Federation were cleansing
Federation territory of all Dominion ships that had made the error of 
traveling alone. Most of these were Karema cargo ships bringing 
supplies forward to the Dominion fleets at DS9 or formerly at Dellalt. 
As soon as a ship was detected traveling alone it was assigned a 
squadron who paced it with hyperdrive jumps of 10 LY each while it was 
in Warp. 

Once its destination was plotted the X-Wings assigned would take up
positions 10 LY away and wait, usually impatiently, for the ship to 
drop out of Warp near its destination. 5 seconds after they dropped 
into einsteinian space the X-Wings would microjump to point blank range 
and hit them with Proton torpedoes. 

Of 212 cargo ships detected and attacked not 1 managed to send a
distress call before being immolated. Of the 18 Warships ambushed only 
3 managed to raise shields, but in their case the jammers aboard the 
X-Wings themselves prevented the warnings from spreading. By one week 
after the route at Dellalt the Dominion troops deployed to Betazed, and 
other planets within Federation space, were aware that things had 
changed. 

Each planet they held was being jammed across all subspace frequencies
and the orbital defensive stations were being destroyed leaving the Jem 
Hadar warriors and Vorta administrators on the planets themselves with 
three choices. Surrender, which was rejected in every case, take 
hostages and negotiate for passage back to Dominion space, or rampage 
and kill as many of the civilians as they could before they were killed 
themselves. 

Fortunately only 2 planets were devastated in this fashion, the
remainder of the Vorta negotiated transfer to Cardassia Prime for 
themselves and the Jem Hadar they commanded. As per the agreement the 
Jem Hadar and Vorta were beamed aboard Federation ships and placed in 
Stasis chambers under guard. Little did they know because of the 
intense jamming just what awaited them upon arrival. 

"Admiral Jellico sensors indicate Target Gamma is in stand down, sensors
are active but sheild are down and weapons systems are inactive." 
Captain Boyd reported. 

"As expected Captain, after all we are deep in Cardassian space, any
warp driven fleet would take days to arrive here for an attack, plenty 
of time for conventional warfare by the book preparations." 

"But we are using a new book Admiral." Boyd replied with a smile. 

"Indeed we are Captain, signal the Peregrine II's to commence the attack
as planned." 

"Yes sir" the tactical officer said, sending the signal. It was like
watching an instant replay Boyd thought, as they had at Target Beta the 
Peregrines dropped in at a range of 100,000 KM in hemispherical 
entrapment formation and released there jamming buoys, then proceeded 
to fire off 60 Quantum torpedoes at the shipyard, 4 other orbital 
stations and 7 ships under construction. Everything targeted was 
destroyed leaving just 10 objects in orbit, 9 Jem Hadar attack ships 
and 1 Galor class Cardassian ship assigned close in planetary defense. 
The second wave of Peregrines arrived 30 seconds after the first, 
giving them time to fire all torpedoes and retreat at hyperdrive. The 9 
Dominion attack ships were each targeted with 6 Quantum torpedoes and 
the Galor with 18, none of them survived the second volley. The third 
wave of Peregrine fighters arrived and fired there 72 Quantum's towards 
Cardassia Prime, having no further space targets to engage. Because of 
there desire to limit civilian casualties all 72 detonated at 100,000 
feet altitude, causing a world wide Electromagnetic pulse that 
destroyed 95% of civilian electronic and duotronic devices. Power grids 
went down world wide except for the 57 military installations with 
independent hardened power supplies. The side effect of this fact was 
to make all 57 highly obvious to visual scanning, just in time for the 
Federation 2nd fleet of 290 capital ships arrive in orbit and target 
them with Phaser fire, phasers being used to limit civilian casualties 
again. No less than 5 ships targeted each military installation, the 
combined beams of energy overwhelming their shields and vaporizing them 
down to bedrock. 

A semi permanent subspace jamming network of buoys were deployed into
Cardassia Prime orbit a little over one hour into the battle of 
Cardassia and 10 ships took up blockade duty, there job being to 
destroy every piece of equipment that could fly or achieve orbit. The 
Civilian population of Cardassia were given explicit warnings via 
transported leaflets that all aircraft and spacecraft were forbidden 
and only handheld weapons were allowed, any aircraft or spacecraft 
would be destroyed without warning. 

"Admiral the operation was flawless! We achieved all objectives without
losses." 

"Captain Boyd, no operation is ever flawless, however I am quite
satisfied with the performance of the fleet. Proceed to the next 
target." 

"Aye sir!" 

And so it went, for it had been proposed by Jellico and approved by
Starfleet that all Cardassian planets would be placed under blockade 
during this phase of the war and with a week to go until the Dominion 
slow fleet arrived Jellico was putting those plans into action. 

Only Cardassia prime warranted a 10 ship Blockade, each of the other 55
targets hit that first week had a pair of starships and a squadron of 
Peregrine fighters, one capital ship in distant orbit and one close in 
with a third of the Peregrine's patrolling at all times. Each of the 55 
worlds blockaded after Cardassia Prime was deeper in Cardassian space, 
beyond it from the perspective of the Dominion slow fleet. Though they 
did not know exactly what was going on the Dominion slow fleet soon 
realized just how grim things were when first Cardassia Prime ceased 
communicating, then day by day fewer and fewer signals were received. 
With few alternatives left to him the commanding officer of the slow 
fleet altered course to DS9, planning to resupply there and join up 
with the 2,000 ships promised to arrive from the Gamma quadrant within 
a week. What he didn't know was that they were already coming. 

"Admiral Gingerbeard are you sure this will work?" 

"Absolutely Captain McDonnell, the Jem Hadar attack ship we captured
last year has been fitted with a hyperdrive and a 20 Gigaton nuclear 
warhead." 

"You're sure it can hit the target?" 

"Oh yes, it will exit Hyperspace exactly at the coordinates of the
wormhole in the Gamma quadrant and signal the all clear signal for the 
fleet to advance. If it is fired upon or ordered to lower its shields 
it will microjump into the fleet and detonate, if it is ordered to join 
the fleet in returning to the Alpha quadrant it will take up position 
at the rear of the formation and follow them through the wormhole, 
detonating 1 minute after it arrives at our end of the wormhole." 

"So no matter what we win?" 

"Well if they attack the Attack ship it will kamikaze their fleet and
destroy at least 1 Battleship and possibly a few other ships close to 
it. If the Dominion falls for it and comes through the wormhole they 
will run full throttle into the minefield. The Peregrine II's will be 
deploying Jammer buoys 10 minutes before the decoy will arrive at the 
Gamma end of the wormhole, and as soon as the decoy returns to 
realspace the hyperdrive motivator will be beamed into the pattern 
buffer by the escape transporter and held in suspension. If the 
Dominion detects the trap and the Fusion warhead fails to detonate as 
planned a fail-safe warhead of 100 KT will detonate vaporizing the 
Decoy ship and eliminating any possibility of the Dominion capturing a 
hyperdrive motivator." 

"Very well Admiral the Galaxy stands ready to assist." 

"Glad you could make it Captain, the Decoy attack ship arrives in 10
minutes. All ships to Red Alert!" 

In the Gamma Quadrant things didn't go quite as well as hoped, but then
what plans ever do. 

"Commander an Attack ship has arrived at our end of the Wormhole and
reports that the Minefield has been deactivated." 

"Excellent, order the fleet to advance!" 

"Immediately Commander! The first flight is entering now!" 

And so they were, the ships began pouring into the Gamma entrance of the
Wormhole, which opened in a wide whirlpool effect. 

"Something is wrong." the Commanding officer muttered, "Why didn't we
see the wormhole effect when the Attack Ship arrived? Signal that 
attack ship for a detailed log of its trip through the wormhole!" 

"No response Commander!" 

"Have that ship boarded NOW!" 

"Signaling them to drop shields..." 

The Attack ship flickered with psuedomotion and a huge fireball appeared
between two of the Dominion Battleships, destroying both of them and 6 
Attack ships in close formation, as well as damaging a dozen more. 
Unfortunately in the confusion created no-one thought to order a halt 
and the surviving Jem Hadar continued to advance into the wormhole. In 
the Alpha quadrant wave after wave of Attack ships exited the wormhole 
into the jaws of death, blundering with sensors blinded by the jamming 
into the globular minefield deployed at that end by Captain Sisko 
before he abandoned DS9. 

Most Attack ships survived one detonation, some survived two, but none
of them survived three in rapid order. Of the 1,992 ships that entered 
the Wormhole at the Gamma quadrant entrance nearly a thousand were 
destroyed by the mines. Of the thousand remaining many were damaged 
when the Federation signaled all remaining mines to detonate. The 
Federation 1st fleet with 500 ships and the 2nd fleet with 240 ships 
dropped out of hyperspace at point blank range with 300 X-Wings and 455 
Peregrine II fighters in attendance and it was bloody. 

The massed Federation forces fired Quantum and Photon torpedoes as fast
as they could be loaded from their englobement formation hitting the 
ships within seconds of the mines command detonation. The Dominion 
fought back desperately but they were out numbered more than 2 to 1 and 
already damaged from the minefield, only 212 ships managed to disengage 
and flee back through the wormhole. 

"Second fleet Pursue and destroy!" Admiral Gingerbeard ordered
gleefully. 214 Capital ships and 218 Peregrine II fighters dove into 
the wormhole, the Peregrines landing and rearming as fast as they could 
find an open spot in a shuttle hanger on any available ship. 

"First fleet, reaquire target Alpha and plot intercept course for 21:00
hours!" Gingerbeard further ordered, giving his main fleet 6 hours to 
prepare for the attack on the Dominion slow fleet now headed for DS9. 

Arriving at the Gamma quadrant terminus 2nd fleet discovered that the
Dominion was not out of the fight quite yet, the 200 escapee's had 
spread themselves out in globular trap around the terminus of the 
wormhole and began firing torpedoes as fast as they could as the 2nd 
fleet emerged, while the 12 remaining ships were fleeing in 12 
different directions in hopes that at least a few of them would be able 
to survive and report to the Founders what had happened. 

Jellico however had been expecting this tactic and had assigned 60
Peregrines of microjumping one LY away from the wormhole upon arrival 
where they would search for any fleeing ships and target them for 
destruction. The remaining ships of the 2nd fleet jumped out in random 
directions for 1 million KM as soon as the first Dominion torpedo 
detonated, allowing them to fire off 500 torpedoes that found no 
targets when the 2nd fleet dissapeared. 

Thinking for a few moments that the 2nd fleet had cloaked the Jem Hadar
were shocked when they microjumped back to point blank range having 
located the Dominion blockading fleet and calculated intercept jumps. 
Two Excelsior class ships were destroyed when they collided close to 
the same target but the remaining 212 Capital ships and 158 Peregrine 
fighters poured torpedo and Phaser fire into the 200 Dominion ships at 
minimum ranges. 

Here three Peregrines took on a Jem Hadar Attack ship, overwhelming it
with their combined firepower, there a pair of Excelsiors pounded a 
Battlecruiser with Quantum torpedoes and multiple Phaser strikes. 
Firing back the Battlecruiser destroyed the Crazy Horse, but not before 
it Warp Core began to breach, quickly exploding and destroying the 
Battlecruiser. 

The story was repeated dozens of times over, as before well over half
the Dominion ships were Attack ships, capable fighters but not sheilded 
enough to stop multiple homing Quantum Torpedoes, Photon Torpedoes and 
Phaser strikes. As the Attack ships were destroyed more Federation 
ships were freed up to target the heavier Battlecruisers and the 3 
surviving Battleships. The Battlecruisers were tough, the 12 of them 
destroyed 15 Federation capital ships and 20 Peregrines before they 
were destoyed themselves, the Battleships were a whole other catagory, 
the three of them alone destroyed 22 Capital ships and 37 Peregrines 
before they were totally wiped out. 

Across space the 60 search and destroy Peregrines divided into 12
flights of 5 each and targeted the 12 fleeing Battlecruisers. Because 
the BC's were all at high Warp the only Tactic the Peregrines could use 
was too hyper in front of them, go to max warp towards them and fire 
off their 6 Quantums each, the Quantums traveling at Warp 6 closed on 
the BC's traveling at Warp 9.2 on reciprical bearings with only a 50% 
chance of hitting the target instead of exploding behind it. 

With 30 Quantums fired at each BC 10 were destroyed with 12 or more hits
in under a minute. The remaining 2 BC's were both damaged, one with 8 
hits and one with only 5. The Peregrines evaded all return fire with 
quick and dirty microjumps, which were quickly becoming a favored 
technique among Federation fighter pilots. With two BC's surviving the 
Peregrines paced them with Hyperjumps and called for backup. 

The USS Galaxy responded, jumping to a postition astern of BC target 1
and accellerating to Warp 9.3 

"Number one?" Captain McDonnell asked. 

"Targeted Captain" Data replied. 

"Fire!" McDonnell ordered and the forward torpedo tube fired a burst of
6 Quantum torpedoes, then 5 seconds later a second burst of 6 more. The 
BC Returned fire with its aft tubes but the Galaxy was no longer there, 
a microjump of 1 LY due south had placed them out of range as there own 
torpedoes homed and destroyed the first target. 

'Target One completely destroyed Captain," Data reported, "Ready for
jump to Target Two at your command." 

"Jump." 

"Aye sir.....returning to normal space in 3, 2, 1, transition. Target
aquired, accellerating to Warp 9.3." 

"Now at Warp 9.3, closing fast." Lt. Locarno reported from the helm
position. 

"Fire spread one." 

"Aye sir." 

5 seconds later "Fire spread two and evade." 

"Aye Sir, spread to fired, jumping now." 

"Results Data?" 

"The same Captain, Target two destroyed, no survivors." 

"Hmm hyperdrive makes killing a far simpler and safer act in this war."
Captain McDonnell commented. 

"In deed Captain, against a warp driven ship we are almost untouchable.
Once this technology spreads I am certain things will change however, 
for the moment at least we can attack the Dominion with impunity." 

"Yes, and if Jellico's blockade proves as effective as the simulations
show it too be the Federation will be growing substantially as the 
Cardassian Union worlds are invited to join." 

"I wonder if anyone has been simulating combat between two hyperdrive
equiped fleets?" 

"Now there is an intruiging problem Data, why don't you see what you can
come up with in that area?" 

"Yes sir." 

Meanwhile in the Delta Quadrant 

"Captain Janeway, your hyperdrive checks out at 100%, if you will link
your system to ours we can begin the trip home." 

"Acknowledged Captain Picard, establishing navigational linkage now." 

"Prepare for hyperdrive in 5...4...3...2...1...now!" Marina O'Leary
counted down as the computer linked ships entered hyperdrive together. 

Flying on parallel courses the two ships remained close enough for a
carrier signal to be sent and received via subspace between them, if 
either ship lost the carrier signal lock both would drop from 
Hyperspace together, eliminating the possibillity of either ship being 
lost and alone with a damaged hyperdrive or other problem. 

"Tuvok?" Janeway asked anxiously. 

"All systems are functioning as expected Captain, we are now traveling
at 127 LY per hour towards due galactic north." 

"Seven?" 

"Confirmed Captain. It is fortunate the Borg do not posess this
technology." 

"Fortunate is one word for it Seven, if this Alliance representative had
met them before he met the Federation, well its too horrible to 
contemplate." 

"The Borg would be willing to aid the Alliance for this techmology."
Seven said without hesitation. 

And in a Galaxy far far away. 

"Training is yours completed Jedi Organa." Yoda said 

"Thank you Master Yoda. Now what?" 

"Guide you the Force will, when you are calm lead you it will, serve you
well it has." 

"Yes Master Yoda, I keep seeing visions of a great war, and my brother
Luke." 

"Yes...yes need you with him he does, allies he has found to help defeat
the Empire." 

"Han it is time for us to go." Leia informed him calmly. 

"At last, after two months in this place I thought I would never see a
pure sunny day again! Chewie get the ship going, we are getting out of 
here!" 

"How good is that cobbled together hyperdrive anyhow?" 

"Well we can do 41 LY per hour, thats enough to get us somewhere we can
get repairs done." 

"Plot this point as our destination." 

"Leia that's a point in open space, there isn't anything there." 

"That's where Luke went, so that's where I need to go." 

"OK but I'm telling you right now that if we don't find anything inside
a day I am setting course for Bespin." 

"Don't worry I'll find what I'm looking for." 

Within hours Leia had proven herself once more, guiding Han to the
wormhole and through to near Ferengar space. 

“Very good Jedi Organa, the bond between the two of you was an excellent
guide.” 

“Thank you Master Yoda, now we can find Luke and you can finnish his
training as well. 

Moments after they arrived Luke himself arrived out of hyperdrive from
Earth, having spent a few days adding to the immense store of knowledge 
of the Federation, the Klingon Empire, the former Cardassian Union, the 
Romulan Star Empire and Gorn Space. 

"X-Wing please identify yourself." 

"Han is that you?" 

"Luke? Well I will be dipped in Bantha dung!" 

"Luke, how are you." 

"Leia? I was just coming to look for you. You won't beleive what we have
here." 

"Looks like I found you first, the Falcon needs repairs, is there
anywhere we could set down for repairs and doing or catching up?" 

"I know just the place, and they will be thrilled to work on the Falcon!
In fact I bet they would be willing to give you a brand new Corvette 
for the Falcon Han." 

"What kind of freinds have you been making here Luke? Rich or just
stupid?" 

"Artoo send them the coordinates, I will explain when we get there." 

End of Chapter 5 


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