The dusty streets of Anchorhead lay quiet and deserted in the blazing midday heat of Tatooine's binary suns.
An old woman began to cross the street from one cluster of bleached buildings to another.
Suddenly, a landspeeder appeared out of the waves of heat shimmering along the ground. It flew past, narrowly missing her, and careened down the street, all three engines whining in protest.
"Won't you kids ever learn to slow down!" The old woman shouted hoarsely and shook her fist at the retreating hover vehicle.
The driver, a youth from a local moisture farm named Luke Skywalker, gave no indication that he heard the woman, but pulled his dull beige landspeeder to a sliding halt outside a long, low concrete way station.
Luke leaped out of his vehicle and slammed the front door open spilling light into the dim interior of Tosche station.
"Hey!" Luke called out to get his friend's attention. A rugged young man slumped behind the station's control desk with a pretty young girl curled in his lap. Both groaned and blinked in the sunlight; the girl, Camie, covered her eyes and tried to bury her face in the mechanic's shoulder.
"Hey everybody!" Luke yelled again, trying to get some response from his friends. He ran past the desk, piled high with spare parts and junk, and into the instrument room at the rear of the station.
Fixer ran a hand over his stubbled face and grumbled darkly.
"Oh," Camie yawned, "that was just Wormie on another of his rampages," she stretched sensuously.
"Shape it up you guys!" Luke charged into the back room in search of two of his friends, Deak and Windy. The commotion reached a crescendo almost immediately.
"Biggs!" Luke shouted.
There was his old friend, back from the academy, in an officer's uniform, and wearing a big grin. Luke suddenly remembered why he had been so excited in the first place.
At first, none of his friends would believe him, but he waved his macro-binoculars like a madman and with a combination of cajoling shoving and pleading he got his friends out into the morning sun and searched the heavens with them for signs of interplanetary combat.
At first, Luke whooped triumphantly then passed the binoculars to Biggs, but once he saw the somber look on his old friends face, he knew something was wrong.
"Biggs, what's wrong?"
The debonair, arrogant old Biggs looked a little ill as he handed the binoculars to the now very excited patrons of Tosche station.
"Luke, come inside with me for a minute will you? I have some things to say that you will want to hear." Biggs sighed and shook his head.
Luke stared at his old friend. I guess he really has changed.
They went back inside and made themselves a couple of drinks while Camie, Fixer, Deak and Windy argued over the Binoculars and gave a running commentary on the battle like it was a Bunta eve pod race.
"What is it Biggs? What's got you so spooked?"
Biggs smiled thinly and wagged a finger up at the ceiling meaningfully, "I wasn't gonna bring this up until just yet Luke, but the situation just changed."
Luke felt like laughing at Biggs' strange behavior, it was like he was a rebel and those were his comrades fighting up in orbit. Once he looked into the older man's eyes he paused and took a swig of his drink.
Biggs nodded to himself then leaned over the table and began to speak rapidly and quietly in Luke's ear.
Lord Vader strode onto the bridge of the Devastator flanked by two Imperial Stormtroopers. Their bone white battle armor contrasted sharply with the Sith Lord's jet black biomechanical suit, midnight robes, and sloped helmet. The powerfully built dark lord strode across the deck and forced the Stormtroopers, both nearly two meters tall themselves, to hurry in order to keep up with him. Despite hurrying through many decks of the massive ship, Lord Vader's mechanical breathing remained at a steady mechanical pace. It's low menacing wheezing echoed through the halls warning lower-ranking officers and crew scurried to get out of his way.
Captain Praji fell into step with Lord Vader before the massive blast doors finished closing.
"Give me your report Captain," Vader rumbled. He led Praji down the runway to the forward most observation post, and ignored the furtive glances of the other officers.
"Lord Vader, this vessel, the Enterprise, interfered with our operation to seize the rebel blockade runner. We gave them a warning and launched TIE's to escort them out of the area. Then--" Captain Praji paused and swallowed heavily.
"Go on," Vader said, a hint of amusement in his voice.
"–Then they generated some sort of energy shielding around the corvette to cut off our sensor scans and simultaneously disabled twelve of our fighters by somehow killing the pilots," Praji stood rigidly and ran a gloved finger around the inside of his collar. "But we have caught both ships in our tractor beam now and the Enterprise shields will be down in moments. We can then use our docking clamps to secure the blockade runner at our leisure." He indicated a graphic that represented the Rebel's estimated shield output structural integrity and weapon emplacements, then fell silent, awaiting Lord Vader's reply.
The Sith Lord turned and moved closer to the window. Even through his grotesque breath mask, the officers could sense the intense and unnatural stare, as if there was a hum or ripple in the air about him. They edged back from this threatening miasma.
When Lord Vader did not speak, Praji coughed nervously then continued, "My Lord, the failure to secure the rebel ship and the loss of our TIEs is entirely my fault, I apologize." He snapped to attention and waited rigidly for the Sith lord's judgement.
"There is--" Darth Vader paused for a pair of slow breaths, "–something..."
The gull winged craft struggled feebly in the grip of the Devastator's tractor beams and began to move slowly and inexorably towards the main hangar bay. Despite being firmly caught she continued to spit phaser beams and a steady stream of photon torpedoes at the tractor beam emitters.
Guinan stood motionless in Ten Forward watching the escape pods from the Tantive IV make their desperate plunge towards the surface of Tatooine.
"Are you having fun Q?" She glanced around the room. "I know you can hear me. Tell me, what are you up to this time?"
A beat. Q did not appear.
Guinan sighed. How could he do this? This will change everything, whether I choose to act or not. "All right Q, you can test the humans all you want, but now you've started messing with my people. I bet you think you can manipulate me into trying to alter the course of events, and thus bring about all that I try to prevent. It's the oldest trick in the book Q, and I won't fall for it. But I will not stand by let these people die here either.
Guinan strode to the window and glanced upwards at the massive silhouette of the Stardestroyer above them. She could feel him, his foul presence reaching out to the Enterprise like a giant hand grasping her hull.
Guinan closed her eyes and began to peel the dark tendrils back from the hull one by one.
"Transport complete," Wesley announced.
"Helm, get us out of here!" Riker cried.
Wesley tapped on his console, which emitted a contradictory buzz, "no-good sir, their tractor beam is preventing us from generating a warp field."
"Continue firing at their emitters Mr. Worf," Picard ordered grimly. His fingers dug into the faux leather armrests of his command chair. Beads of sweat formed on his brow. A small knot of the Republic officers came out of the turbo lift flanked by a pair of Federation security guards.
A tall officer in a buff jacket and polished leather knee boots stood out along with a delicate looking young girl wearing a flowing white robe. She wore her brown hair in a pair of regal looking braided buns over her ears. Picard gave them a friendly nod and waved for the security team to bring them over.
Ah, Captain Antilles and Princess Leia I presume.
Picard motioned for counselor Troi to greet them while he handled the ongoing battle. The Betazoid counselor nodded and slipped out of her chair quickly. A wide smile broke across her face. Deanna felt a wave of peace and subdued strength flow through her when she looked at the Princess. 'We have made the right choice,' she thought.
"Auxiliary power is online sir. Shield strength has been boosted from twenty-one to thirty nine percent," Data said.
"Thank you Geordi," Riker laughed in relief, "let's hope it's enough."
"It will have to be Number One, keep us out of their sights and prepare to give them exactly what they want," Picard smiled.
Riker threw a lopsided grin at the wily Captain, "let me guess: Use the main tractor beam to shove the Tantive IV right down their throats?"
"You read me like a book Number One," Picard laughed.
"Evasive maneuver Kirk-epsilon," Riker called, "prepare the tractor beam. Re-route all weapons power to the shields."
There was a slight pause as if everyone held their breath at once.
"Engage tractor beam!"
A bright blue energy field erupted from the Enterprise saucer and pushed the Corellian Corvette upwards into the Devastator's hangar bay. The Enterprise engines flashed blue light and she lurched forward, upending the Corvette and causing it to miss the hangar bay by several degrees.
Guinan stood silently, with perspiration running down her face and soaking through her dress in spots. She stood with her legs braced and threw her hands up protectively in a vague marital arts stance.
The dark tendrils retreated for a moment, and then returned tenfold, an evil laughing presence, raging and contemptible. You cannot hide from me, it is useless to resist.
"No!" Guinan cried out and fell as if a hammer had struck her between the eyes.
Darth Vader whirled suddenly, "Captain, fire on the Corellian ship, destroy it now!"
Captain Praji nodded to the gunnery officer, "Do it!"
A pair of turbolaser bolts struck the ship which snapped in two and then erupted into a fireball that blossomed into space engulfing the underbelly of the Devastator, collapsing the shields, melting into her armor, and damaging several of her tractor arrays. Klaxons wailed and blast doors closed all over the ventral side of the gargantuan vessel.
The Enterprise slewed off to one side, her shields dancing with nuclear fire and debris.
Vader grated out another grim command, "Captain, use the Ion cannons before they escape, before it's--"
"–too late!" Worf cried out. The viewscreen went white and the deck shuddered with the force of the explosion.
"Helm, full impulse. Take us right over them!"
"Aye sir."
The Enterprise streaked out from behind the blooming explosion and sped past the Imperial Stardestroyer at an incredible relative speed. She twisted and rolled through a hail of turbolaser bolts, joined by bright blasts from the Devastator's Ion cannon batteries.
Riker stared at the view of the looming battleship, and like many a Starfleet officer in similar situations, had a few lines of poetry rise up in his gullet unbidden. Half a league, half a league, half a league onward! Into the valley of death rode the brave six hundred!
The Enterprise lost ventral shields almost immediatelyand executed a perfect barrel roll as she strafed the Devastator with phaser fire from above. The Imperial bridge crew would later describe in each port and space station they visited the beautiful yet shocking sight of the smooth silver hulled Enterprise charging straight past them rolling and jinking like a starfighter.
The Devastator struggled to turn and keep her forward and dorsal guns on the Federation ship.
"Bring us about, 180 degree yaw to starboard. Don't let them get away!"Praji shouted.
A dozen Ion blasts rippled from the Devastator once she had finished her turn. One blast caught the Enterprise' port nacelle and it darkened immediately. Crackling energy discharges flowed through the superstructure and the twinkling lights shining from her many windows winked out one after another. The Enterprise began to coast, out of control.
"Mr. Data, report!" Picard shouted.
"The unknown energy weapon bypassed our shields completely Captain, we have systems failing all over the ship," he replied.
The bridge lights flickered and died around them. Suddenly the raging energy surges reached the Enterprise bridge. Panels exploded in showers of shrapnel and melted components. Wesley Crusher tumbled to the floor clutching his bloody face, while the science officer, Lt. Harris, fell back with a fist sized hole bored through his chest by superheated plasma erupting from conduits in the bridge's rear wall.
The lights failed completely and they were left in the gloom with the bridge lit only by small fires and flickering dull red emergency lights.
Picard stood up, "Picard to engineering!"
Worf slammed a fist on his unresponsive console, "all systems down, minimal life support. No engines, shields or weapons, we're dead in space Captain."