Copyright Notice: Star Wars: The Clone Wars and all its characters belong to LucasArts/Disney; Star Trek: The Next Generation and all its characters belong to Paramount.
This story is (c) 2015-2016 by ArdiMaster; available under the terms and conditions of the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 International license.

Rex, Cody, and The Enterprise

Chapter 1: Stranded in Space

Revision 2016-02-22

Captain Rex and Commander Cody were aboard a shuttle, returning to the Resolute when they were engaged by a Separatist fleet.

"We have to get out of here! We don't have the weaponry to shoot our way through!" Cody shouted.

"Agreed," Rex said, "I'm plotting a course… Engaging hyperspace drive… now!"

Just a split-second before he pressed the button, a laser bullet came towards the ship, critically hitting the drive. Before they knew what was going on, the faulty hyperspace drive engaged, opening a wormhole right in front of them. The shuttle got sucked in.

# # #

Meanwhile aboard the USS Enterprise…

Captain Jean-Luc Picard sat in his chair on the bridge of the Enterprise. Everything seemed to be quite normal.

"Captain, I am detecting an anomaly forming about ten kilometers off the starboard bow," Data said.

"What kind of anomaly, Mr. Data?" Picard inquired.

"Scanning… It appears to be a wormhole, highly unstable… Captain, there seems to be a ship emerging from it," he answered.

"Mr. Worf, shields up, just as a precaution," Picard instructed the Klingon at the tactical station behind him. "What kind of ship is it, Mr. Data?"

The response came a few seconds later: "There are no matches or even similarities to any ship type in the database, sir."

"Mr. Worf, tactical analysis," Picard requested.

"They are armed only with laser cannons. Their defensive systems consist of deflector shields, primitive by our standards, but their propulsion system is unlike anything we have ever encountered before."

"Is there any obvious threat to the Enterprise?" Picard asked.

"No, sir. Their weapons are no match for us, and the wormhole from which they emerged has already collapsed," Data responded.

"Hail them," Picard ordered, "I want to know who they are and what they want from us."

"Channel open."

"This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the federation starship Enterprise. Please identify yourself."

# # #

Aboard the republic shuttle…

"This is not good," Cody said, looking at the displays in front of him. "I have no idea where we are, how we got here, or what that ship over there is. Plus, the hyperspace drive is completely screwed, and we sure don't have the means to repair it."

"Commander," Rex said from the pilot's chair, "I'm receiving a transmission, not holographic. I think we are being hailed by that ship."

"Maybe we can get some answers," Cody replied. "Put it on screen."

The transmission showed what they expected to be the other ship's bridge. One man stepped forward. "This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the federation starship Enterprise. Please identify yourself."

Cody gave Rex a meaningful look, then replied: "This is Commander Cody of the Grand Army of the Galactic Republic. I have to apologize for our sudden appearance, but we are experiencing issues with our main drive, we have no idea how we got here… Wherever here is."

The man from the Enterprise, who had identified himself as Captain Picard, motioned to the man at the back of the bridge, who tapped a few buttons on his control panel, apparently muting the audio transmission. After conferring with his fellow officers, he ordered the audio transmission to be turned back on. "Although I somewhat doubt your story, we can offer you to land your ship in our shuttle bay, and be our guests while our chief engineer takes a look at that man drive of yours."

Rex gave Cody an uneasy look. "Thank you for your generous offer, Captain Picard. Please understand we need a moment to consider it," Cody answered him.

"No problem. Take your time, Commander." Cody gestured for Rex to mute the audio on their side.

"I don't know, Cody… Seppies might be setting us a trap," Rex said, concerned.

"Yes, possibly. But it would be very unlike them. Also, I have never heard of a Federation, nor have I ever seen a ship like that. Would be a pretty huge effort to build such a ship just to fool us, huh?" Cody said.

"Hm, yeah. Guess anything would be better than rotting here in space," Rex relented.

"My thoughts exactly. Reopen the audio channel, Rex," Cody said.

"Captain Picard, we are grateful that you offer your help. We are accepting your offer," he answered.

"Alright, we are preparing our main shuttle bay for your landing. You are currently off our starboard bow, please approach our ship from the back, you will find the shuttle bay open. Picard out." The transmission was terminated.

"Well, this is going to be interesting," Rex said, piloting the shuttle to the back of the Enterprise.

Author's notes: So, here is the first chapter! Your constructive criticism would be very much appreciated. I do also apologize for all those point of view jumps, I will try to decrease their count in the following chapters. Unfortunately, I can't promise exactly when I will post new chapters, depends on how much time school leaves me, and how long it takes for a chapter to feel "done".

Update 2016-02-22: I will be making some revisions throughout the story during the following weeks. You will always find the date of the latest revision at the beginning of each chapter (no date means the chapter hasn't been revised since its publication).