The bridge of the USS Enterprise D was full of light chatter until Captain Picard strolled onto it from his ready room. His face was pale and his expression was that of someone who had just seen a ghost. Everyone fell silent.
"We have been ordered to Earth," he said in a low tone. "To intercept a Borg cube until reinforcements arrive from other sectors."
The bridge was still silent as everyone exchanged uneasy looks. The captain took his seat and ordered them to Earth at maximum warp.
When they arrived there, the Borg cube had already beaten them there. It released a Borg sphere and headed for the planet.
"Captain, the Borg are preparing to travel back in time," Worf announced.
"Follow them. We must prevent them from altering history!" Jean Luc commanded firmly.
"Aye sir," Wesley Crusher said.
The Enterprise chased the Borg Sphere through the time-space vortex, firing phasers and photon torpedoes before they could arrive at their destination. Suddenly, the Borg stopped time travel due to damage and landed in a completely unknown to them.
"Fire on the Borg before they can beam to the surface!" Captain Picard shouted. Worf nodded as a stream of laser beams poured from the Enterprise. Almost immediately, the Sphere fired back. The ship rocked as they were thrown almost completely from their chairs. The Enterprise kept firing until finally the Borg Sphere was eaten by flames. Jean Luc sighed in relief.
"Data, what date did the Borg take us to?" he questioned.
The android punched buttons on the console in front of him. "The year is 1964 AD, sir."
Jean Luc cocked an eyebrow. "I wonder what time they were heading to."
"You never know what the Borg are up to," Will commented.
"Number one, assemble an away team and see if the Borg did any damage to the surface," the captain told Riker.
"Aye sir," Will replied as he headed toward the turbo lift.
Deanna looked at the Captain. He had a worried look in his eyes.
"Captain, what's wrong?" she asked.
Picard stared at the screen. "That was too easy."
Everyone on the bridge anxiously awaited a report from the away team. While they were waiting, there were a few problems with the power, to which Geordi said he'd get to work on right away. About a half hour after the away team left, Riker and the three other men contacted them with the good news.
"We destroyed the Borg ship before they could beam anyone down. Nothing down here was affected," Will said over the communicator.
"Good," Picard said. "Bridge to Chief O'Brien, prepare to beam up four."
"Aye sir," O'Brien replied. "I may have a bit of trouble getting a lock on them. They seem to be in a big crowd of people outside a building."
"Noted. Energize," Picard commanded.
Suddenly, the lights flickered off for a moment, and then back on.
"Report," the Captain said.
"We sustained some damage during the battle with the Borg," Data replied.
A moment later, O'Brien's voice came over the communicator. "Uh…Captain…you better come down and take a look at this."
Captain Picard and Counselor Troi looked at each other in confusion.
"I'm on my way," Jean Luc replied, getting out of his chair and moving toward the turbo lift. He paused and turned to Data. "You have the bridge, Commander."
Captain Picard walked through the transporter room doors to see a look of terror in O'Brien's eyes.
"What happened?" Jean Luc asked.
"Look," O'Brien told him, pointing to his right. There, stood four men who were definitely not the away team. They were dressed in identical black suits and ties. They all had the same hair color and style, and man one was shorter than the others. Their facial expressions matched that of O'Brien's.
"Oh my God," Picard breathed. "O'Brien, you've beamed aboard the Beatles."
Jean Luc couldn't believe what he was seeing. He was standing in the same room with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr: four musicians who changed music completely during the Twentieth Century…four men who have been dead for over four hundred years.
"Where the hell are we?" John asked confusingly. "How did we get here?"
Picard and O'Brien just stood there. What would they tell them?
"Who cares? They got us out of that huge swarm of girls," George uttered, brushing some dust off of his sleeve.
"If you want an autograph, you'll have to wait, because I don't have me pen with me," Ringo said.
"Oh stop it, Rings!" George snapped. "They probably don't even know who we are!"
"Of course they do! Everyone knows who we are! They're probably sick deranged fans who knocked us out and kidnapped us!"
"Now how do you know that?"
"Gentlemen…" Jean Luc cut in. The Beatles were silent. The captain turned to O'Brien and whispered, "I suggest you beam them off right now."
Before O'Brien's index finger could get close to the transport button, the power flickered off and on like a strobe light. Just a moment later, it went completely out. The Enterprise had completely lost power.
"Mr. LaForge!" Captain Picard shouted after he pressed his communicator.
"The ship was damaged more than I thought!" the Chief Engineer's voice said over the communicator. "Transporters are offline. It'll take at least two hours to bring them back online."
"Well, make it quick. We've had a slight problem in the transporter room. We didn't exactly beam aboard the away team," Picard replied with a shrug.
"I'll work as fast as I can, Captain," the Chief Engineer said. "LaForge out."
"Would someone tell us where we are? This isn't funny! We have a show in two days!" John exclaimed.
Captain Picard turned to O'Brien. "We might as well tell them. I'll have Dr. Crusher wipe their memories of this ship before they leave."
"Yes, I was just getting to that," Picard told them. "I am Captain Jean Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise. We are from what you would call the future, the twenty-fourth century to be exact. We were attacked by a cybernetic race called the Borg, and we can't get you back to Earth until our chief engineer repairs the transporter. A lot of this might seem strange to you, but don't worry. You'll be home in no time."
The Beatles looked confused. Finally one of them spoke. "You brought us to a space ship from the future and we can't go back because a bunch of freaks broke it?"
Jean Luc shrugged. "If that's how you look at it…yes."
"I knew I had too much to drink last night!" exclaimed one of the Beatles.
"I can assure you this is no dream," Picard told him. "But there is no need to panic; we mean you no harm. We're going to keep you aboard this ship until Chief Engineer LaForge can fix the transporter, along with a lot of other things that were damaged during the battle."
The Beatles stood there. One of them turned to his friends. "It looks like we don't have much choice, boys." He turned to Captain Picard. "But we need to get back to Earth soon; we have to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show in two days."
"I'll see what I can do," was all the captain could stay. "Now, I don't think you want to wait in the transporter room all day, so I will show you to your quarters."
Jean Luc led the Fab Four to the turbo lift. They stepped in and the door hissed shut behind them.
"Whoa, this is not like any lift I've ever seen!" Ringo exclaimed.
Captain Picard smiled. "You'll find that a lot of things on this ship are not like what you're used to."
When they reached their destination, all the Beatles could do was stare.
"Hey lads, look out the window!" George shouted.
"Wow!" the other three exclaimed, running over to the window to gaze at the sea of stars.
"Look! It's Earth!" Paul said, pointing to the left. "Hey, I can see Liverpool from here!"
The Fab Four laughed happily. They kept staring in awe at the stars and Earth.
"Isn't it amazing? I had the same reaction when I first saw Earth from space," Jean Luc said. "Now, the gyms, holodeck, and Ten-Forward are all at your disposal during your stay."
"What's Ten-Forward?"
"What's a holo-deck?"
Before the confused Beatles could get an answer, Picard was already out the door.
"Wait!" Ringo shouted, to no avail. "Blast! Now what are we supposed to do?"
It only took a moment of silence. The Beatles each looked at each other and smiled. Immediately, they ran out the door. They would do what they do best besides play music: explore.