Data climbs up on the X-Wing and scans R2 with his Tricorder. There are some blast marks on various areas of it, but none on R2. He hits a few buttons, and then stands with a contemplative look.
"Fascinating." says Data
"What?" says Geordi
"These noises no question indicate this component has sentient intelligence. And there seems to be some sort of locking mechanism inside that has been detached. This is some sort of artificial intelligence. Nothing like I have ever seen before. And it is stuck, unable to escape. I am going to attempt a extrapolative algorithm, with my Tricorder, to see if we can establish communication." says Data
"Go ahead, and see if you can get this compartment open, so we can analyze that being inside. I will relay what we know so far to the bridge." says Geordi as he walks away tapping his communicator.
Data then goes to the side of the X-Wing and grabs it, where the cockpit top comes down, and lifts it up. After a moment, he is successful in lifting it up entirely. He reaches inside and pulls C-3PO out. As he does this he sees a button inside the cockpit beeping and blinking. At that moment his Tricorder beeps. He looks at the readings, and he then he says "Can you understand me?" directing that comment at R2-D2.
R2 beeps, and Data looks at the Tricorder. "So, you able to understand me. Remarkable. How am I able to extract you from this craft?"
R2 beeps again, and Data leans into the cockpit, and hits the lone active beeping button. This acts as an eject button for R2-D2, and he pops out, and then his self-propelling rockets activate, keeping him from crashing on the wall, and leveling him until he gets on the floor. Geordi and Barclay stand there stunned
"Remarkable! Do you have a name or means of identification?" says Data
R2 beeps again. "R2-D2?"
R2 beeps again, and moves towards C-3PO. "OK, my name is Data, of the United Federation Of Planets..."
R2 beeps in a frightened manner. "No, we mean you no harm."
R2 beeps again even faster. "Trade Federation? No, that is incorrect. We are from the United Federation of Planets. It seems what you refer to as "Trade Federation" and The Federation are different. Please if you would explain to me, I assure you that you and your associate will be safe. And we will do everything in our power to repair him."
R2 beeps and turns to face Data. "C-3PO? Understood."
A matter of hours later, we see the senior officers, minus Worf, enter the conference room, and sit down.
"What do we know thus far, Mr. La Forge?"
"These two beings are called C-3PO and R2-D2. One is a humanoid and the other is a short one less than a meter tall, and has various forms of propulsion. Data was successful in establishing communication. He is actually repairing the other one now. Worf is there on security detail. All our scans don't show any sort of weapons on them. A few tools but no weapons."
"What about the craft?"
"The craft seems to have hit by weapons fire. Nothing on records matched the signature. The craft is clearly meant to have defense capabilities. It has some missile or torpedo tubes, but they are empty. Hence more than likely possible they were in some sort of battle. They are possibly equipped with some sort of energy weapon, but the craft lost all remaining power when R2-D2 was ejected. From what we can gather, it also has an impressive range of propulsion. But any form like that would leave a noticeable energy trail, and we haven't detected any in that range."
"What about a wormhole or some sort other subspace anomaly?"
"There are no indications of worm-holes or other temporal anomalies in this region of space. The only thing we found is a Class 17 nebula. We have had some issues scanning it from here as the unknown energy seems to be interfering with the scans. The few fragments of information do suggest some debris, similar what we encountered, is also present there. So it's possible this unknown energy that we detected, maybe an unknown weapons signature."
"OK, let's lay in a course, and see if our new friends can help us figure out what happened and where they came from."
Just then, a message comes over the communications system. "Worf to Captain Picard."
"Go ahead, Mr. Worf."
"The little being has finished the repairs on his associate."
"Understood. We will be right down, Mr. Worf. Picard Out."
Picard along with Geordi, Riker, and Data all head to the cargo bay, which has a couple of security officers stationed outside of it. A few moments later, they arrive and they open the door. Inside is Barclay standing next to R2-D2 and a now fully functioning, C-3PO.
"Hello, I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations, and this is my counterpart, R2-D2." C-3PO is showing some scarring and burn marks, from possible laser blasts, especially in the chest and face, but still functional. All of the senior Enterprise officers have a surprised look that is clearly visible. Picard raises his eyebrows for a split moment and returns to his normal expression.
"I'm Jean-Luc Picard, Captain of the Federation Starship, Enterprise."
"Captain, a pleasure to meet you. I must say, sir, that you and your ship don't look like the Federation I am familiar with."
"Yes, so would please be so kind to let us know what is going on? How did you and your companion end up here?"
R2 beeps, and C-3PO responds. "Relax, R2. If these people has anything to do with the Empire, we'd likely be scrap by now. They seem to be genuinely curious on what happened, and are willing to help us."
R2 beeps again, and C-3PO starts to explain.
"We were on a mission, with our master Luke Skywalker & Captain Han Solo. We were supposed to obtain the only known blueprints of the Death Star that were left, or possibly destroy them. We had obtained intelligence about a secret manufacturing facility on Mustafar where the plans were being held guard by a small security detail, for a short time. We went using the Millennium Falcon and an X-Wing. I accompanied Captain Solo and R2 accompanied Master Luke. We landed in separate areas. As Captain Solo and I were approaching our destination, an alarm was tripped somehow, and the blast doors closed shut, and we couldn't get inside our destination. Then there was a tremor, and we made our way back to the Falcon, at one point the roof for the passageway collapsed, and I was cut off from Captain Solo. I told him to leave as it was clear it would take too long to clear the debris. I turned around and rushed to find another way out. I soon found R2 inside the X-Wing. As soon as I was about to ask him what happened to Master Luke, I was almost hit by a laser blast, and I could see Master Luke fighting off some Imperial Stormtroopers. He yelled for me to get inside the X-Wing and hit the auto pilot, so R2 could get back to the Alliance safely. I did but the last thing I was remember was being hit by a laser blast, just as the cockpit was being closed, until R2 fixed right here and now."
Picard then expressed a curious look, as did his other Starfleet officers. He soon turned to Data and said "Mr. Data?"
"I know nothing of any location named Mustafar." said Data. "I do have a possible theory, Captain."
"Explain."
"C-3PO, can you and R2-D2 create a star map of some systems you know? We can compare to all the information in our navigation charts and Starfleet records, and it may offer a clue. And then we can possibly help you."
R2 beeped, and C-3PO nodded and spoke. "R2 said we will help you with your request, so we can get back to our mission. Mission? What mission?"
R2 beeped quickly. "Oh, of course!"
"Very well. Do what you can, Mr. Data to see if you can match their records to anything we have, that we can use to figure a location. In the meanwhile, we will continue to run analysis of the debris, and scan those energy readings we found with you two Droids, to see what we can find. Since some of the debris was coming from the direction of that nebula, there has to be a connection."
"Aye, Captain." said Data, as the Starfleet officers of the dispersed.
"If you would please follow us, so we can get started right away." said Data, as he walked with the Droids and Geordi down the hall, to get started.
"Where to, Data?"
"Perhaps my quarters would be best. The computer there has faster processing speed that make work much more efficient, in light of whom we are working with."
R2 beeped, and everyone stopped. "R2 asked if you have a data port, so as to make it easier, and lay out our flight plan and navigation records." said C-3PO. Just then, R2 exposes his Scomp link. Data and Geordi kneel and look, while Data scans it with his Tricorder.
"It's a data terminal access port of some sort. I think we can replicate an interface that might work." says Geordi.
