Jean Luc awoke, lying on the battle bridge. He blinked and glanced around. Two faces loomed over him, the beatific and smiling princess Leia and the concerned glower of Chief Miles O'brien.
"W-what?" He croaked feebly.
"Whoa, take it easy there captain. You were stunned and I had to bring you around with this," the chief held up a hypospray, "you're going to feel pretty lousy for a little while."
Picard groaned while the pair helped him sit up.
"Jean Luc," Leia cried kneeling next to him and throwing her arms about his neck, "you're awake, you're alive!'
"I'm awake in any case Leia, barely. Chief, report;" Picard glanced around worriedly at the controlled chaos then added, "quickly."
"We have partial main power, and most systems aren't fully prepared, but we are ready to separate. If we're going to do it, we'd better do it now."
"Agreed Chief," Picard stood with a grunt, leaning heavily on the princess, "Will, Data, the others?"
"Commander Data and Counselor Troi beamed to the surface, Geordi in main engineering, Worf is badly wounded, and Doctor Pulaski, and Wesley are among the missing," Chief O'brien paused and glanced down sadly.
"Commander Riker?"
"He attempted a surprise attack to retake the bridge. We lost contact with his team a few moments ago," O'brien sighed. "Sir, there are no life signs from his team."
"Dear god," Picard shook visibly, but continued the briefing, "have we evacuated the saucer section completely?" Picard allowed the Princess to help him into the command chair.
"Yes captain, I transported all the survivors into the drive section just before I woke you up. Security force fields are holding the Stormtroopers back, for now."
"Then we have not a moment to lose. Chief, commence saucer separation," Picard set his jaw and glanced at the image on the main viewscreen: the bow of the Devastator jutting out above them like the upper jaw of some great beast.
"Saucer separation in three, two, one, mark!"
The Enterprise decapitated herself with a resounding clang and the familiar pulsating hum of her main reactor. A quick hissing burst of maneuvering thrusters pushed the drive section down and away from the swiftly orbiting Devastator. Blue light flashed from her impulse engines and the Federation flagship shot forward in graceful flight.
"Ensign, prepare to bring her about. Bridge to engineering," Picard said calmly tapping at his armrest.
"Laforge here," came the reply.
"Commander I need warp power in less than a minute."
"You've got in now Captain, but even so, we can only get to warp 4.5 safely, and only for a few minutes. Otherwise we won't be able to maintain a warp field."
"A few moments is all I shall need, Picard out." The Captain turned to the rest of the bridge crew and issued a rapid fire fusillade of orders.
"Captain! The Enterprise has escaped our docking clamps!" the cry rose from the Devastator's scanning station.
Captain Praji spared a glance at the status boards, "impossible! All boards show that we have them! We have prisoners; Stormtrooper teams throughout the--"
The Enterprise drive section swooped out in front of the Stardestroyer the turned one hundred and eighty degrees and headed back towards the Imperial ship.
The Imperial Bridge erupted into chaos.
"They're moving to attack position!" Lt. Hija exclaimed.
"Shields up," Praji called over his shoulder.
"Target locked, permission to fire," the gunnery officer glanced up, his hand poised above the controls.
Now, a conundrum, their orders were clear: capture, do not destroy the Enterprise.
Praji opened his mouth to reply, but the communications officer broke in, "receiving a hail sir."
Praji ground his teeth, "hold fire. Let's see this hail."
Hija and Praji strode over to the holo-communications station and waited stiffly for the transmission to come through.
"Onscreen," O'brien stated.
PIcard took in the grainy blue image of the two imperial officers standing in the dim gunmetal grey command deck of the imperial warship. Black clad chief and bone white stormtroopers scurried in the background.
'So, that was what Q meant, taunting me with that uniform. This is entirely my fault!' Picard thought at the sight of the two men facing him. The federation captain grimaced, the veins in his temples trobbing angrily. He took a deep breath and began an exposition rife with barely suppressed rage.
"I am captain Jean Luc Picard of the Federation starship Enterprise., to whom am I speaking?"
Captain Praji motioned Hija back and took one step forward, "Captain Anton Praji of the Imperial stardestroyer Devastator. Surrender Pikard, we have what's left of your ship in our sights and--"
"Captain Praji," Picard interrupted, "we have extended a hand of friendship and diplomacy and you have cast is aside. We merely wished to serve as an intermediary between your parties, to preserve innocent--"
"Intermediary, negotiations, what sort of drivel is this? Don't bark at me Pikard, you are in no position. Now, lower your shields and surrender, or we will destroy you."
"Your arrogance is your weakness captain. You overestimate your vessel's strength. We have you in our sights as well, and you know the effects our phasers have on your shielding," Picard paused for the thought to sink in and smiled grimly, "what we have here is a Mexican standoff."
"A what?"
"Each of us holds the life of the other. Now, we can destroy one another or we can talk."
Praji laughed," your quaint vessel doesn't have the power to seriously damage an Imperial stardestroyer!"
Picard smirked, "one does not require brute force when one has deadly accuracy." He nodded to Chief O'brien who tapped in a few commands on the tactical console.
"Phasers and photon torpedoes locked on their bridge captain," O'brien announced loud enough for everyone to hear.
Praji glanced at Lt. Hija who took one look at the scanning station, looked back to his superior and nodded slowly.
Praji snarled and whirled back on Picard's blue image floating on the holo-imager before him, "take your best shot Pikard!"
He raised a gloved hand to signal the gunnery officer who in turn took a split second to scream down into the fire control pits, "all guns, fire!"
Picard saw Praji's hand begin to raise, his index finger extending, "helm, engage!"
A dozen turbolaser bolts erupted at once and converged on the Enterprise hovering just above the Devastator striking her full force. The bolts then emerged from the other side of the Federation ship, blossoming outward just as they had converged a moment before.
But, there was another Enterprise, for a split second connected to the first by a blur of multicolored light. While the confused gunners of the Devastator were trying to get a damage assessment on the Enterprise above them, the true enterprise dropped out of warp behind them.
The intertial dampers could barely compensate for the tremendous force of the deceleration, but the crew was prepared and braced themselves.
Picard hung on to his chair as his ship shuddered to a halt, "ready all aft batteries!"
"Aye sir!" O'brien cried hanging onto his console for dear life.
"By the Emperor, what was that?" Praji cried, "where are they? Track them!"
Lt. Hija tumbled to the scanning station, "oh, no."
"This is for Will Riker you bastards," Picard whispered softly, then "Fire!"
Aft torpedoes shot forth and flew up the Devastator's exhaust nozzles. The main engines ruptured with a thunderous explosion spewing radiation and flames into space.
"Fire!" He shouted.
Phasers cut through the ray shielding and sliced into the rear of the bridge tower and the scanning globes, one of which erupted into a fireball.
"Fire!"
An additional spread of photon torpedoes savaged the entire rear of the Stardestroyer in a broad assault, blasting secondary engines and hammering rear turbolaser batteries.
A victory yell resounded through the enterprise bridge and Picard slumped exhausted inot his chair.
"We did it!" Leia shouted gleefully.
Picard exhaled and slumped into his chair, exhausted, "Chief, get us out of here, warp two any heading, engage."
The enterprise seemed to elongate for a moment and with a flash of light was gone.