The Stars, the Ring and Bad Guys

Chapter One: Greeting

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters and I have endeavored to keep them as true to the real thing as possible, but if I have made any obvious errors please inform me and I shall do my best to fix the characters. I apologize for any grammatical errors in the first chapter and if pointed out to me shall correct them when I am able. Thanks very much.

"She's going down!"

Luke cried seconds before he was thrown back in the seat as the X-wing fighter hurtled from space to the ground.

What had gone wrong with the plane? He had checked it twice himself. It seemed impossible to think he might survive this encounter. So, the sith did not kill me, but a plane crash will he thought feeling a sense of fate close around his soul.

The snow was getting closer. Luke had merely a moment to wonder about death when the plane collided with the unforgiving Hoth and Luke was smashed against the window and knocked unconscious.

"Red alert. Shields up."

Captain Picard of the U.S.S. starship "Enterprise" commanded as he peered out the bridge viewer at the enemy Cardassian ship.

"Blast them." He muttered. "Hail them, lieutenant."He said to Lieutenant Worf who quickly obeyed.

"They are not responding, captain."

Picard sighed.

Suddenly Worf yelled,
"Captain, they are firing at us." Streaks of red shot toward the Enterprise and engulfed her.

"Load the torpedoes, prepare to fire."Picard commanded."Damage to the ship, Lieutenant?"

Lt. Worf shook his shaggy head. "Minimal captain."

"Fire."

Picard said pointing towards the viewer as the torpedoes were launched. There was an explosion on the Cardassian ship and Picard took a deep breath hoping he had managed to disable them.

"Damage to their ship, Lieutenant?" he asked.

"Their shields are down to five percent."

Picard nodded, though he was surprised how quickly their shields had fallen down.

"Hold your fire. Hail them, Lieutenant."

Lieutenant Worf shook his head again. "No response captain. Wait, sir, they are firing." There were two more streaks of red light. They hit the Enterprise and with a resounding screech part of the bridge command center exploded. Picard's last thought was, how did they manage to pretend their shields were almost out?

"Elizabeth's in danger and your haggling over the price of passage to free her?! WE have got to free-"

"-Elizabeth, I know laddy, you've told me this many different times in many different ways and my answer shall stay the same. Elizabeth is always in some sort of danger and she's always alright in the end, savvy?"

Will glared at him. "If she had never met you she would not be in trouble!"

Jack sighed and swung his arms wide at Will. "And what do you want me to do about it, eh? She's met me an' thars not much I can do about it now so why don't you go and amuse yourself. That's a good boy."

Will glowered and stomped off. How he hated Jack sometimes!

Suddenly there was a boom and something landed feet from the ship on which Will was marching on.
"Jack, were under attack!" He screamed. Jack looked up.

"Look, lad, if you can't stay silent I am going-" Then he caught sight of the large dark ship bearing down on their own one.

"Quick sell me yer ship." He demanded of the small, mousy man who owned the ship. The mousy person whined pitifully.
"You'll never leave the ship alive, matey unless you sell it to us, eh?" Jack said. The man hesitated and grabbed the cash and the dove towards the little boat Jack and Will had rode in on and rowed fast to the small island a few hundred feet from his, or now Jack's ship.

Jack raced towards where the wheel was left unattended and yelled around at the crew staring at him dumbly.
"Alright ye landlubbers, I know this is an unorthodox way to become captain but unless ye all want to die now I suggest you follow me. Bring this ship around now!"

The crew hesitated and then raced to do as he suggested. Will looked anxiously at the ship. It was to close. Jack had men at the guns now and Will could see the cannonballs race towards the ship, but fall to far. He raced to assist the gunners.

"Fire!"

Jack shouted. Once again the balls flew to far and then the other ship fired and Will could see the cannonball fly towards the main mast and hit it. Splinters flew everywhere and the mast fell. The screams were the last thing Will heard before something sharp hit him and he fell unconscious.

The first thing Luke noticed upon waking up was that he was warm. This was something he had hardly ever seemed to be since he left Tatooine for good. Tatooine….Luke looked up. He was lying on his back in the sand, the two suns beating down on him.

"Ow, ooh, I feel like bantha fell on me." He muttered rising and touching his head were his hair was matted with blood. "By Obi Wan's beard, how did I manage to get back here?" He asked.

To his surprise someone answered.

"My exact same question."

A sophisticated voice said and Luke sitting up saw a man wearing the oddest clothes staring at him.

He was bald and tall and wearing a red and black tight fitting uniform of material Luke had never seen before in his life. He had no visible weapons, but that did not mean anything.Luke's friend, Han Solo had always carried weapons and Luke had never seen them until he pulled them out to fight with, but then Han was an old hand at tricking people into believing he was defenseless and easily taken out.

"I mean you no harm. I am Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation of Planets." The man said extending a warm hand to help Luke up.

Luke watched him out of narrowed eyes. The last time he had gotten involved with a stranger he had found himself thrown into a war and became a Jedi knight. He shrugged and took the offered hand. At least this man was not wearing a hood or telling him he had to fight his father who was really a machine.

Luke found he was a foot shorter then this Picard. He rubbed the dirt off and looked past Picard to see a very odd man. Luke took a step back. Picard smiled.

"Ah, yes, this is my second officer, Commander Data. Data this is…"

"Luke Skywalker." Luke supplied. Picard smiled again and motioned Data forward to join them. Luke could not help, but watch him. He was wearing the same outfit as Jean-Luc Picard, but it was yellow as Data himself was yellow.

"Forgive me, but you don't appear to be a human."

Data raised his eyebrows at him and said in a good natured voice,

"No sir, I am an android." Luke was surprised, but before he could say anything a sword was pressed against Jean-Luc Picard's neck and a voice said harshly, "Nobody move or this one is dead."

"I am really quite sorry about William, but he is distraught over the loss of his bonnie lass."

This came from a very browned and strange looking individual who approached them with sword drawn and pointed at them. "Now, to where have you brought us and-" Here browned pirate caught sight of Data. He jumped backwards. "What in Davy Jones' name happened to you my good fellow?"

Data frowned slightly before responding,
"Are you referring to the fact that I do not appear to be human?" The pirate wrinkled his lip and stared back.

Appearing satisfied with that non-verbal answer Data nodded and said, "I am an android."

The pirate leaned back and whispered to William who was still holding a sword to Jean-Luc Picard's neck, "Do you think he's balmy?"

Data just stood staring.

"Enough of this. I want answers and solutions, now!" Willaim cried out loud.

"Aye!" The browned pirate agreed heartily. "I'll give you my friend William Turner in exchange for safe passage back to me own home."

"Jack," William gasped at him. Jack threw out his arms.

"What, I did it once before."

Picard tried to speak now. "Please, if you will allow me to go free for a second. I am unarmed and I have no idea where I am either so if you'll just calm down I am sure we can come to some sort of pact." Jack who had been searching for any amount of rum on his person now turned around to face Picard

"Now you wouldn't be thinkin' of the blood letting, arm clasping type now would you."

A look of disgust was quickly squashed on Picard's features.

"I thought not." Jack said and went back to searching for rum.

"Please let me go." Picard said to William who was still holding his sword to his neck though his grip had loosened slightly.

Finally Will, seeming to make up his mind shoved Picard from him and glared around at the others.

"Jack, get back up here." He hissed at Jack who having found no rum had now resigned himself to pulling off his shoes in order to dump out the sand that had gathered at the bottom.

"Never a moment for peace, always having some greenhorn puppy leaping down me back at the slightest sign o' trouble." Jack muttered standing and pulling his boot back on.

Picard put out his hands placating and said,
"Look, I am sure we can all find a way out of this together. I don't know where I am and neither do you, but there must be some sort of explanation or this."

Luke stepped forward.

"I do know where we are. Tatooine. I was born here, I could no more mistake it then I could an X-wing for an imperial starship." The others stared at him blankly and Luke felt something like dread fill him.

"You are all from somewhere else I take it."

Picard smiled at him. "I am from Earth."

Jack looked back at him.

"You know that's really interesting because you see I am from Earth to only in my Earth men don't go around wearing monkey suits." Jack said waving his hands to indicate Picard's suit.

Picard frowned. "Where I come from the men are civilized." Picard retorted irritated and abruptly ashamed at himself for getting pulled in to a useless debate.Jack grinned, but at a glare from Will spun around on his heel and tried to ignore them all.

"You say you were born here?" Picard directed at Luke who felt he was seeing far to many strangers in these last few years.

"Yes, I was born just south of here is my guess, but begging your pardon all of you, none of you appear to belong here."

Picard shook his head. "No, I am afraid we are all strangers in a strange land, forgive the referral." Picard eyed Jack who having seemed to have lost all interest in the conversation was exploring the dunes while glancing around furtively. "Some stranger then others." He added muttering.

Luke spread his arms. "If only we had some clue as to how we all got here. I was simply flying along to the surface when I lost control of the X-wing and then I found myself lying here."
Picard nodded.
"The only thing I can say is that I somehow have this and before, well, I did not. I don't even own rings." He showed the object he was holding in his hand, which he had been unconsciously circling on his thumb. It was a large ring, gold and polished to a high sheen that seemed glimmer in the two suns.

"May I?" Data stepping forward asked and cupped the ring in his hand when Picard handed it over with reluctance. "Hmm. It seems to be made of the soft metal gold, but it is unusually forged. Indeed I cannot tell what other components have been used in its creation." Looking up he directed his next thought to Picard. "You say you did not have this until after you came here?"

Picard nodded. "I woke up here and this was in my hand." Will, who had been silent until now stepped forward.

"How does this connect with us coming here then?"

"I am formulating a theory as we speak, gentlemen, but it is by no means perfected." Data answered.

Will shrugged as if irritated by a fly.
"I don't care how perfect or imperfect your theories are, I just want to get home and rescue Elizabeth."

Picard smiled at him and said soothingly hoping to calm him, "My dear sir we all feel the same, but we must work together to find the answer to this riddle. I suggest we start out by finding what this ring is made of. It could help us."

Will nodded, but at that moment Jack surfaced.

"Aye, an excellent idea. I shall lead this adventure."

But Picard was shaking his head."No, sir, I think Mr. Skywalker should lead us there. He after all knows the area and the people around here."

Jack drew himself to his full height, "I think not. I am Captain Jack Sparrow and I can tell you dear sir that I am far more qualified to lead an expedition that to certain death may of course lead and all."

Picard shook his head.

"Mr. Skywalker knows the terrain and you do not Mr. Sparrow." He said politely.

"Who made you admiral?" He retorted melodramatically.

"Shut up, Jack! Let, let Luke lead." Will cried fed up with the captain's attitude. Jack sniffed, but gave in with grace.

"Fine. But if by chance we are engaged in a deathly battle of certain circumstances I shall presume to lead us forth from said circumstances eh, savvy?"

Luke who had not understood anything he had said nodded.

"Fine, whatever, I don't hope to get into circumstances anyway, Captain Sparrow."

Jack bowed with a flourish of his hat.

"Then lead on mate and keep to the right side of fate I do say."

"I intend to keep on the right side." Luke muttered as he lead them out.