Star Trek Meets Star Wars

I wrote this many years ago. It was one of the first pieces I felt brave enough to share with others. It is virtually unchanged from its original form. Please let me know what you think.

"Sir, Long range sensors have picked up three vessels" said the Ops Officer in a slightly bewildered tone.

"Course and speed, Mr. Dolin?"

"They are on an intercept heading at Warp Factor 3. Standby Captain, I will be able to identify them in 15 seconds."

John Doersham, Captain of the USS Enterprise, sat in the command chair and rubbed his chin. He often did when pondering a perplexing situation. This sector was supposed to be cleared of all traffic.

"Ensign Carol, are there any scheduled Federation patrols in this area?" the captain said to his young helmsman.

" No Sir, the last Federation ship in this sector was the USS Farragut. It passed through here 36 hours ago and deployed several message buoys warning all craft away so the sector would be clear for the experiment."

"That's what I thought. Mr. Dolin, do you have an identification on those ships yet?"

"Yes Sir, three Cardassian Galor class cruisers."

"Time to intercept and their ship's status," asked the Captain as he stood up from the command chair.

"One minute, 35 seconds, Sir. Their shields are raised, but no weapons are on line."

"Very well, Mr. Dolin. There's no need to take chances here. Go to Yellow Alert, and give me a visual as soon as you've got it."

Captain Doersham turned to speak to his Weapons Officer as Ensign Dolin relayed the command for Yellow Alert and the ship's shields were raised. "Lieutenant Jensen, prepare to go to Red Alert at the slightest hint they are going to power up their weapon's arrays and get Commander Riker up here now."

"Aye Sir," Lieutenant Jensen said as he readied the galaxy class cruiser's systems for a possible battlestations command. "Jenson to Commander Riker, please report to the bridge."

"We have visual now, Captain," said the Ensign, his tone now hard with an edge of anxious excitement.

"Very good, Mr Dolin," the Captain said as he turned back to face the main view screen. "Open a channel to their command ship. Let's see if we can find out what is going on here. Put it on screen as soon as they respond."

As the Captain waited for a response, he contemplated facing this tense situation while working with the most worthless First Officer in the fleet. He did not understand how anyone that displayed such poor leadership qualities could have come with such high recommendations. Commander Riker was never on time for duty and often became agitated when working in high stress situations. No matter, the Captain thought, I will handle this as I do all matters ... and I will deal with Commander Riker later.

Just as Ensign Dolin announced that Gul Farak had answered the hail and was on screen, Commander Riker came stumbling out of the turbolift struggling to pull on his left boot. Captain Doersham grimaced at this absurd display by his First Officer and turned in time to see a look of amused disdain cross the face of the Gul.

"I'm Captain Doersham of the USS Enterprise. I'm sure you know that you are now in Federation space and in violation of the Federation/Cardassian treaty. I'm also sure that you have received the warnings sent out by the communication buoys in this area. May I ask the nature of your business in this sector?

"Gul Farak at your service Captain. I might ask you the same thing. Our intelligence reports tell us the Federation is testing a new device for use by the Maqui in their war against the Cardassian Union. A weapon that ..."

"I'm afraid your intelligence is incorrect, Gul Farak ," said the Captain as he interrupted the Cardassian. "I assure you we are here only to investigate the appearance of several strange anomalies reported in this sector."

"Your honesty is refreshing, Captain," said the Gul as his face set in a hard glare. "I know you are here to investigate those anomalies, but you already know what caused them. It is a new Federation weapon. A cloaked photon torpedo!"

"Gul Farak," the Captain said soothingly as Commander Riker failed to conceal his shock that the Cardassians could have learned so much about this highly classified information.

"The Federation has no such......."

"Enough," the Cardassian shouted. "We will not let these tests proceed!"

"The Cardassian ships are powering their weapons, Sir," reported Lieutenant Jensen as Gul Farak's image faded from the view screen. "Two of the vessels are moving to flanking positions."

"Red Alert," yelled Commander Riker in a shrill voice tense with fear.

"Helm, evasive pattern Doersham Beta One," the Captain said, his voice hard and in control. "Mr. Jensen, fire phasers at the flanking cruisers and as we pass the lead ship, launch a full spread of photon torpedoes. We'll show them a thing or two about new weapons systems!"

As the Enterprise accelerated in a hard turn to port, the ship rocked viciously under the combined fire of the three Cardassian ships and Captain Doersham was knocked off of his feet by a sprawling Commander Riker.

"Get off of me you idiot!", the Captain yelled as he pushed his trembling first officer off of his legs. "Status, Mr. Jensen."

"Shields at 63 percent and holding, Sir. The lead cruiser was destroyed by the photon spread. Minor damage reported on decks 13 and 25."

"Good. Helm, attack pattern Doersham Lima Three. Let's show these Cardassian whelps what........."

"Sir?"

"Sir, are you ok?"

"What," said Lieutenant Commander Doersham in a slightly confused tone. Jumping slightly, John Doersham realized he must have been daydreaming again. "Yes, I'm ok," he said to his friend and shipmate Ensign Ephram Carol, the ships helmsman. "Just thinking, that's all."

Damn! I can't be doing this on the bridge, he muttered under his breath. I can't let it go. I just can't let it go and it's starting to get out of hand. As his friend smiled, shook his head and walked away, John's face turned red with embarrassment. No one blamed him for his bitterness and hatred.

If that primadonna Will Riker hadn't cheated me out of my promotion, he thought, I would be the First Officer of the Enterprise, but no .... Will Riker gets the promotion and the glory and I get stuck on the science vessel USS Raman. What glory is there in doing sensor scans of gaseous anomalies? At least I get a chance to sit in the command chair at this post, even if it was on the last watch of the day.

"Sir, I'm picking up some strange readings 400,000 kilometers off the starboard bow," said Ensign Dolin. "Preliminary sensor readings indicate a spatial anomaly."

"All stop. Mr. Dolin, give me a full sensor sweep of the area."

"Aye, aye, Sir," replied the Ensign. Doersham smiled at the young ensign's use of the archaic terran naval response and waited for the results.

"Commander, it seems to be some kind of temporal rift. I've never seen anything like this before, and it's getting bigger."

Finally, Doersham thought, something interesting to break the monotony. "Mr. Dolin, put this on screen. Helm, back us off to 1,000,000 kilometers and notify the......" Before he could finish his sentence the rift burst open in a blaze of intense white light and several ships emerged heading straight for them.

"Commander?"

"Commander, what are your orders," said Ensign Carol. "John!"

John Doersham was frozen in shock. He didn't know what to do. These ships were of strange design, and they were so big! My god, he thought, they're going to kill us. As the rest of the bridge crew watched in stunned silence, the alien ships cut suddenly hard to starboard, the last ship missing the Raman by less than 10 kilometers. Startled back into reality by the loud blare of the ship's proximity alarms, Lt. Commander Doersham finally regained enough composure to yell at the helmsman. "Helm, get us the hell out of here. Give me warp speed, maximum warp. Hurry!"

"Heading, Commander?" asked the helmsman.

"I don't care, just get us out of here!" Doersham yelled, his voice shrill from panic. "Dolin, send out a distress call!"

John Doersham was sweating heavily. The ship seemed sluggish to his adrenaline sharpened senses. Suddenly, another six ships popped out of the rift in front of them and started to fire theirs weapons. "Helm, I said get us the hell out of here, NOW! Tactical, respond with all phasers and prepare a spread of photon torpedoes," Doersham yelled. "Red Alert! Dammit, put us on Red Alert. Dolin, get the Captain up here immediately........

As Doersham started to call out his frantic commands, the alien ships now in front of him fired their weapons again in a blaze of shimmering white streaks. The small science vessel's shields buckled under the awesome power of the attack and failed. White-hot shards of burning energy tore into the hull of the ship with a violent ferocity causing a massive many-colored explosion.

The USS Raman was gone, but in its place something new and evil had come - The Empire.