[Author's Note: Sorry for the long delay -- my work (I actually write
professionally under a different pen name) and Real Life have conspired to
keep me away from these stories. Two-three more chapters to go, and then
it's off to From Dusk to Eternity, featuring Buffy, Blade, assorted
Eternity Legion agents and the casts of From Dusk to Dawn and John
Carpenter's Vampires.
Chapter Five
Starship Enterprise
"We have a visual on the Imperial Fleet, Captain."
"On screen."
The huge armada filled the screen. Dozens of Star Destroyers, hundreds of auxiliary craft, thousands of fighters. And, looming in the background, the Death Star. In terms of sheer size, Picard had seen few structures that could match the artificial planetoid. As to its power, he would soon know how it compared with such juggernauts as the Borg cubes. The technical readouts had been impressive enough; even an incomplete Death Star would be quite the challenge.
"How long until we're detected?"
"We'll be entering maximum coverage in about seven minutes," Worf replied. Picard found himself missing the hyper-competent Data, but he was a necessary -- and indispensable -- part of the third team, and he had a feeling everything hinged on the performance of that team. There had been no word from the Endor commando; they had to be presumed lost, likely captured, probably dead. A part of Picard refused to acknowledge the possibility; the Eternity Agents were among the most resourceful people in a myriad universes, and their companions were equally gifted. If anybody could snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat, it was them.
The question was, would they be able to do so in time?
Forest Moon of Endor
This is the way the world ends.
Unconsciousness was bliss. Pain lapped its edges, trying to overwhelm the cool oblivion and drag him screaming back into reality. He resisted; a part of him feared what awaited him when he woke up.
"This is the way the world ends," he muttered as, despite himself, he began to stir. Why was he thinking about that poem?
Quinn Mallory opened his eyes.
"Not with a bang but a whimper," Wade Wells finished the quote.
Reality was an assault of the senses. Shadows and lights struggled for supremacy. Quinn could smell cold, damp earth, rich and organic; campfires, lots of them, burning seasoned wood somewhere nearby; and a strange animal musk. Drums were beating in the distance, hundreds of them; their rhythms reverberated through his body, making him vaguely ill.
"Where...?"
"Some sort of village," Wade answered. Quinn looked around. He and Wade and were bound to a gigantic tree with crude vegetable fiber ropes. Hand Solo, Leia and Gabrielle were tied up to another tree, not too far away. Gabrielle was still unconscious. Quinn couldn't see any others, but he thought they were nearby, in the same situation. Some heroes we are, he thought bitterly.
"Are you all right, Wade?" he asked her.
Wade gave him a small half-smile. "Some burns and bruises. The force fields absorbed the worst of it. You?"
"Same. We've got to get out of here." He started struggling against the ropes. One of the furry natives emerged from the shadows, gibbering menacingly and gesturing with a spear. Quinn froze.
"They're keeping a close watch on us," Wade whispered. "The Imperial troops have withdrawn. When I woke up, the last Imperials were leaving. For some reason, they've left us with these teddy bears from hell."
"They probably figure whatever these critters do to us will be worse than anything they can think of." Squinting into the dying light, Quinn saw a pyramid of skulls in the distance. "I think they had a point."
**********
"That was some ride," Indiana Jones muttered as he walked away from the burning wreckage of the Imperial hover-bike. The chase had lasted for a long time, an insane roller-coaster at dizzying speed, dodging and weaving through the massive trees. One of the Imperials hadn't maneuvered fast enough and had ended up splattered all over the forest floor. The other two and nearly shot Indy's ride to pieces, until a fourth bike had shown up and struck them from behind. The unexpected rescue hadn't arrived in time to save Indy's bike from being disabled by a blaster shot. If he hadn't been able to use his whip to swing clear of the bike, Indy would have become one with the forest, and not in a nice holistic way.
Doc Savage stopped his own purloined hover-bike in front of his colleague. "Dr. Jones," he said.
"Dr. Savage," Indy replied. Doc was a good many things, but an entertaining conversationalist wasn't one of them. "That was good timing."
"Your spur-of-the-moment plan had some merit, so I chose to imitate it," the Man of Bronze said. "We must make a difficult decision, however."
Indy nodded, inwardly dreading what he knew was coming. "Do we try to save our friends, or do we try to carry out the mission? Yeah, I know. A real doozy." He fully expected Doc to err on the side of logic; they didn't have any time to waste, and saving the rest of the team, even if they were still alive, would take too long.
"I believe we should see if we can effect a rescue operation," Doc Savage continued. "What's your opinion, Doctor Jones?"
Indy's jaw dropped. "I thought I'd have to try and talk you into it."
"I don't think the two of us have a reasonable chance to destroy the facility, given the Imperials' current state of alert. A rescue attempt may prove to be unfeasible, but we should at least assay it, don't you agree?"
"You betcha."
"Then if you don't mind riding pillion, we should get going."
**********
The teddy bears from hell were cannibals, apparently. Or something like that; Quinn didn't know if cannibalism was the right term if you were eating a person from a different species. Either way, it wasn't good.
"Xena!" Gabrielle screamed, pulling against her bonds. The Warrior Princess was still unconscious. Her body hung limply from as the Ewoks lashed her to a long stick -- a cooking spit, apparently. Other little furries were stoking a large fire. Maybe unconsciousness was a mercy.
"Could this suck any more?" Quinn muttered through clenched teeth.
"I tried using the Force while you were unconscious," Wade said, "but some of these critters have been attuned to it, and they prodded me with spears until I stopped."
"This is getting better and better."
The fire was getting hot enough Quinn could feel it even from where he was. Xena was going to be cooked alive by a bunch of murderous stuffed toys. The former Slider looked around, hoping for a rescue, anything. Indiana Jones and Doc Savage were still at large, but two against a whole tribe wasn't the best odds.
But there was something else, wasn't it? Something he could do. Something that scared him almost as badly as being killed by tiny cannibal monsters.
"Wade." He pulled one his bound wrists until he managed to grab one of her hands. She squeezed it almost painfully. "I think I can get us out of here, and then we can save Xena."
"What are you talking about?"
"Dr. Crusher was telling me she got some strange readings off me, some sort of side effect of all the Sliding we used to do. I."
"Quinn," Wade said. "If you can do something, do it NOW."
Xena had been placed over the fire.
"Crap." Quinn grabbed Wade, concentrated. "There's no place like home," he whispered. That didn't work. "Shazam?" Nope.
Xena's armor started to smolder. The heat was waking her up; she stirred against her bonds, but her eyes were still closed. Gabrielle screamed at the top of her lungs, and the Ewoks chattered contentedly.
"Quinn."
"Shit." Do it. Do it! Quinn tried to visualize the jump. Wade had been in danger, and he had wanted, had needed to be someplace else.
Something snapped in his head. He felt himself falling through a Sliding tunnel. The damp ground slapped him in the face. There was a weight on his back. He twisted around; the ropes holding him fell away, and as he looked, he discovered why. He had teleported himself, Wade and a chunk of the tree; that had effectively cut off their bonds.
"How did you do that?" Wade said.
"I won't bore you with the technical details," Quinn replied, struggling to his feet. "Besides, we don't have the time. Xena's cooking out there!"
"Can you bring us back?" They were at the clearing where they had been ambushed.
"I'd better, I guess." Hopefully this would get better with practice. He should be feeling elated, he supposed, now that he had super-powers all of a sudden. Right now he was just too worried about screwing up.
He held on tightly to Wade. All right. Visualize the bonfire. No, not the bonfire; he didn't want to land in the middle of it. Next to it. And. push.
He landed right where he wanted. The Ewoks were all looking at the spot where he and Wade had disappeared. Good. He punched one of the fuzzies rotating Xena over the cooking fire. Wade gestured towards a pile of captured weapons, and her light saber jumped into her hands. She wielded it in a deadly spiral, and two Ewoks fell away, limbs seared away.
No time to untie her. Quinn grabbed the spit, held onto Wade, and pushed again.
His head throbbed painfully, and he found it hard to concentrate. They were back at the clearing. Xena looked up at her rescuers. "Well, will you untie me, or what? We need to rescue the others."
In the distance, Quinn heard the distinctive sound of a phaser beam.
"I think other people are working on it," he replied.
**********
"I didn't know he could do that," Doc Savage muttered as Quinn disappeared with Xena and Wade. He used the distraction to good effect, however, phasering the Ewoks as they tried to react to the sudden appearances and disappearances. The camp was utter chaos; some of the Ewoks were shooting at each other in their confusion.
Indiana Jones crept towards the prisoners. Every time an Ewok came close enough to detect his approach, Doc Savage shot it down. Quinn's escape had made their job a lot easier, but they were still dealing with a couple hundred angry cannibals.
Quinn reappeared, Xena and Wade in tow, right next to the weapon pile. Xena and Wade cut through all the nearby natives while the Slider grabbed a phaser rifle and fired a wide stun beam, knocking down dozens of Ewoks.
That was enough for the rest. They broke and ran, except for a few holdouts that were easily dealt with. A few minutes later, the remaining Eternity agents were free. Gabrielle embraced Xena. "I thought this was the end," she whispered, smiling through her tears. Han Solo shook Indy's hand. "That's another one I owe you." Han looked uncomfortable saying the words, but he was clearly determined to be fair about things.
"My pleasure," Indy replied awkwardly, feeling as if he was talking to a mirror. Leia and Indy exchanged an uneasy glance, then looked away.
"Well, time to get back to work," Jones said.
**********
Starship Enterprise
"Fire at will."
The Enterprise exploded in a kaleidoscope of phasers and photon torpedoes as the Rebel fleet struggled to break through the defensive screen of Star Destroyers masking the unfinished Death Star. The Imperials had been waiting for them, however, and were in full battle array. The Rebel ships ran into them like waves smashing against an unyielding reef.
"The Defiant has breached the enemy defenses, captain," Worf reported. A Star Destroyer exploded, struck on its unshielded rear once again. That trick would not work again, Picard knew, but hopefully once was all they needed.
"Unto the breach!"
The Enterprise dived in between two Star Destroyers, lashing at their weakly shielded sides, even as more Rebel ships followed in its wake and poured their broadsides into the Imperial vessels. One of the Destroyers broke apart in flames. The other reeled away, and suddenly there was nothing between the Rebels and the Death Star beyond a thin screen of fighters.
That, and the still functional shield, that is.
"Captain, I'm detecting a power surge in the Death Star. It's targeting the Defiant!"
**********
"Fools," the Emperor said, watching the battle on a holographic screen. "Let us show them the power of our fully operational Death Star!"
**********
Starship Defiant Kira Nerys nodded as a spread of photon torpedoes wiped out a dozen TIE fighters. The way was clear to the Death Star. Kira hoped the enhanced torpedoes would do the job. The sensors officers shouted a warning. The flash of light from the Death Star was warning enough, however.
"Evasive maneuvers! Now!"
The Defiant spun in the vacuum of space, trying to avoid certain death. It managed to escape the full fury of the Death Star, but even the glancing impact was enough. An energy beam that could shatter planets hit the Defiant. Its shields collapsed like a crystal vessel struck by a hammer. The rear third of the ship was obliterated; the rest was flung away like a discarded, broken toy.
**********
Starship Enterprise
"No."
Picard froze for one second, but he had a job to do. The whispered word was the only epitaph he could afford to give now.
"Come about, flank speed."
"We are in range, Captain."
"Fire!"
**********
The shield protecting the Death Star shuddered under the impact of the enhanced photon torpedoes. For an instant, it flickered.
But it held.
**********
Death Star
The floor beneath Obi Wan and Qui-Gon trembled slightly.
"The Enterprise failed to breach the shield," Qui-Gon commented. The fact that its success could have resulted in their deaths remained unsaid. "And."
"Master?"
"The Defiant has been nearly destroyed." Even amidst the psychic cries of thousands of lives being snuffed in the battle raging outside, Qui-Gon had been able to sense the deaths of men and women he knew personally. There were survivors, but he felt they would not last long.
"The commando attack on the shield generator has failed. Data will no doubt try to do what's needed. As must we."
"Then it is time to confront Palpatine," Obi Wan said.
Chapter Five
Starship Enterprise
"We have a visual on the Imperial Fleet, Captain."
"On screen."
The huge armada filled the screen. Dozens of Star Destroyers, hundreds of auxiliary craft, thousands of fighters. And, looming in the background, the Death Star. In terms of sheer size, Picard had seen few structures that could match the artificial planetoid. As to its power, he would soon know how it compared with such juggernauts as the Borg cubes. The technical readouts had been impressive enough; even an incomplete Death Star would be quite the challenge.
"How long until we're detected?"
"We'll be entering maximum coverage in about seven minutes," Worf replied. Picard found himself missing the hyper-competent Data, but he was a necessary -- and indispensable -- part of the third team, and he had a feeling everything hinged on the performance of that team. There had been no word from the Endor commando; they had to be presumed lost, likely captured, probably dead. A part of Picard refused to acknowledge the possibility; the Eternity Agents were among the most resourceful people in a myriad universes, and their companions were equally gifted. If anybody could snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat, it was them.
The question was, would they be able to do so in time?
Forest Moon of Endor
This is the way the world ends.
Unconsciousness was bliss. Pain lapped its edges, trying to overwhelm the cool oblivion and drag him screaming back into reality. He resisted; a part of him feared what awaited him when he woke up.
"This is the way the world ends," he muttered as, despite himself, he began to stir. Why was he thinking about that poem?
Quinn Mallory opened his eyes.
"Not with a bang but a whimper," Wade Wells finished the quote.
Reality was an assault of the senses. Shadows and lights struggled for supremacy. Quinn could smell cold, damp earth, rich and organic; campfires, lots of them, burning seasoned wood somewhere nearby; and a strange animal musk. Drums were beating in the distance, hundreds of them; their rhythms reverberated through his body, making him vaguely ill.
"Where...?"
"Some sort of village," Wade answered. Quinn looked around. He and Wade and were bound to a gigantic tree with crude vegetable fiber ropes. Hand Solo, Leia and Gabrielle were tied up to another tree, not too far away. Gabrielle was still unconscious. Quinn couldn't see any others, but he thought they were nearby, in the same situation. Some heroes we are, he thought bitterly.
"Are you all right, Wade?" he asked her.
Wade gave him a small half-smile. "Some burns and bruises. The force fields absorbed the worst of it. You?"
"Same. We've got to get out of here." He started struggling against the ropes. One of the furry natives emerged from the shadows, gibbering menacingly and gesturing with a spear. Quinn froze.
"They're keeping a close watch on us," Wade whispered. "The Imperial troops have withdrawn. When I woke up, the last Imperials were leaving. For some reason, they've left us with these teddy bears from hell."
"They probably figure whatever these critters do to us will be worse than anything they can think of." Squinting into the dying light, Quinn saw a pyramid of skulls in the distance. "I think they had a point."
**********
"That was some ride," Indiana Jones muttered as he walked away from the burning wreckage of the Imperial hover-bike. The chase had lasted for a long time, an insane roller-coaster at dizzying speed, dodging and weaving through the massive trees. One of the Imperials hadn't maneuvered fast enough and had ended up splattered all over the forest floor. The other two and nearly shot Indy's ride to pieces, until a fourth bike had shown up and struck them from behind. The unexpected rescue hadn't arrived in time to save Indy's bike from being disabled by a blaster shot. If he hadn't been able to use his whip to swing clear of the bike, Indy would have become one with the forest, and not in a nice holistic way.
Doc Savage stopped his own purloined hover-bike in front of his colleague. "Dr. Jones," he said.
"Dr. Savage," Indy replied. Doc was a good many things, but an entertaining conversationalist wasn't one of them. "That was good timing."
"Your spur-of-the-moment plan had some merit, so I chose to imitate it," the Man of Bronze said. "We must make a difficult decision, however."
Indy nodded, inwardly dreading what he knew was coming. "Do we try to save our friends, or do we try to carry out the mission? Yeah, I know. A real doozy." He fully expected Doc to err on the side of logic; they didn't have any time to waste, and saving the rest of the team, even if they were still alive, would take too long.
"I believe we should see if we can effect a rescue operation," Doc Savage continued. "What's your opinion, Doctor Jones?"
Indy's jaw dropped. "I thought I'd have to try and talk you into it."
"I don't think the two of us have a reasonable chance to destroy the facility, given the Imperials' current state of alert. A rescue attempt may prove to be unfeasible, but we should at least assay it, don't you agree?"
"You betcha."
"Then if you don't mind riding pillion, we should get going."
**********
The teddy bears from hell were cannibals, apparently. Or something like that; Quinn didn't know if cannibalism was the right term if you were eating a person from a different species. Either way, it wasn't good.
"Xena!" Gabrielle screamed, pulling against her bonds. The Warrior Princess was still unconscious. Her body hung limply from as the Ewoks lashed her to a long stick -- a cooking spit, apparently. Other little furries were stoking a large fire. Maybe unconsciousness was a mercy.
"Could this suck any more?" Quinn muttered through clenched teeth.
"I tried using the Force while you were unconscious," Wade said, "but some of these critters have been attuned to it, and they prodded me with spears until I stopped."
"This is getting better and better."
The fire was getting hot enough Quinn could feel it even from where he was. Xena was going to be cooked alive by a bunch of murderous stuffed toys. The former Slider looked around, hoping for a rescue, anything. Indiana Jones and Doc Savage were still at large, but two against a whole tribe wasn't the best odds.
But there was something else, wasn't it? Something he could do. Something that scared him almost as badly as being killed by tiny cannibal monsters.
"Wade." He pulled one his bound wrists until he managed to grab one of her hands. She squeezed it almost painfully. "I think I can get us out of here, and then we can save Xena."
"What are you talking about?"
"Dr. Crusher was telling me she got some strange readings off me, some sort of side effect of all the Sliding we used to do. I."
"Quinn," Wade said. "If you can do something, do it NOW."
Xena had been placed over the fire.
"Crap." Quinn grabbed Wade, concentrated. "There's no place like home," he whispered. That didn't work. "Shazam?" Nope.
Xena's armor started to smolder. The heat was waking her up; she stirred against her bonds, but her eyes were still closed. Gabrielle screamed at the top of her lungs, and the Ewoks chattered contentedly.
"Quinn."
"Shit." Do it. Do it! Quinn tried to visualize the jump. Wade had been in danger, and he had wanted, had needed to be someplace else.
Something snapped in his head. He felt himself falling through a Sliding tunnel. The damp ground slapped him in the face. There was a weight on his back. He twisted around; the ropes holding him fell away, and as he looked, he discovered why. He had teleported himself, Wade and a chunk of the tree; that had effectively cut off their bonds.
"How did you do that?" Wade said.
"I won't bore you with the technical details," Quinn replied, struggling to his feet. "Besides, we don't have the time. Xena's cooking out there!"
"Can you bring us back?" They were at the clearing where they had been ambushed.
"I'd better, I guess." Hopefully this would get better with practice. He should be feeling elated, he supposed, now that he had super-powers all of a sudden. Right now he was just too worried about screwing up.
He held on tightly to Wade. All right. Visualize the bonfire. No, not the bonfire; he didn't want to land in the middle of it. Next to it. And. push.
He landed right where he wanted. The Ewoks were all looking at the spot where he and Wade had disappeared. Good. He punched one of the fuzzies rotating Xena over the cooking fire. Wade gestured towards a pile of captured weapons, and her light saber jumped into her hands. She wielded it in a deadly spiral, and two Ewoks fell away, limbs seared away.
No time to untie her. Quinn grabbed the spit, held onto Wade, and pushed again.
His head throbbed painfully, and he found it hard to concentrate. They were back at the clearing. Xena looked up at her rescuers. "Well, will you untie me, or what? We need to rescue the others."
In the distance, Quinn heard the distinctive sound of a phaser beam.
"I think other people are working on it," he replied.
**********
"I didn't know he could do that," Doc Savage muttered as Quinn disappeared with Xena and Wade. He used the distraction to good effect, however, phasering the Ewoks as they tried to react to the sudden appearances and disappearances. The camp was utter chaos; some of the Ewoks were shooting at each other in their confusion.
Indiana Jones crept towards the prisoners. Every time an Ewok came close enough to detect his approach, Doc Savage shot it down. Quinn's escape had made their job a lot easier, but they were still dealing with a couple hundred angry cannibals.
Quinn reappeared, Xena and Wade in tow, right next to the weapon pile. Xena and Wade cut through all the nearby natives while the Slider grabbed a phaser rifle and fired a wide stun beam, knocking down dozens of Ewoks.
That was enough for the rest. They broke and ran, except for a few holdouts that were easily dealt with. A few minutes later, the remaining Eternity agents were free. Gabrielle embraced Xena. "I thought this was the end," she whispered, smiling through her tears. Han Solo shook Indy's hand. "That's another one I owe you." Han looked uncomfortable saying the words, but he was clearly determined to be fair about things.
"My pleasure," Indy replied awkwardly, feeling as if he was talking to a mirror. Leia and Indy exchanged an uneasy glance, then looked away.
"Well, time to get back to work," Jones said.
**********
Starship Enterprise
"Fire at will."
The Enterprise exploded in a kaleidoscope of phasers and photon torpedoes as the Rebel fleet struggled to break through the defensive screen of Star Destroyers masking the unfinished Death Star. The Imperials had been waiting for them, however, and were in full battle array. The Rebel ships ran into them like waves smashing against an unyielding reef.
"The Defiant has breached the enemy defenses, captain," Worf reported. A Star Destroyer exploded, struck on its unshielded rear once again. That trick would not work again, Picard knew, but hopefully once was all they needed.
"Unto the breach!"
The Enterprise dived in between two Star Destroyers, lashing at their weakly shielded sides, even as more Rebel ships followed in its wake and poured their broadsides into the Imperial vessels. One of the Destroyers broke apart in flames. The other reeled away, and suddenly there was nothing between the Rebels and the Death Star beyond a thin screen of fighters.
That, and the still functional shield, that is.
"Captain, I'm detecting a power surge in the Death Star. It's targeting the Defiant!"
**********
"Fools," the Emperor said, watching the battle on a holographic screen. "Let us show them the power of our fully operational Death Star!"
**********
Starship Defiant Kira Nerys nodded as a spread of photon torpedoes wiped out a dozen TIE fighters. The way was clear to the Death Star. Kira hoped the enhanced torpedoes would do the job. The sensors officers shouted a warning. The flash of light from the Death Star was warning enough, however.
"Evasive maneuvers! Now!"
The Defiant spun in the vacuum of space, trying to avoid certain death. It managed to escape the full fury of the Death Star, but even the glancing impact was enough. An energy beam that could shatter planets hit the Defiant. Its shields collapsed like a crystal vessel struck by a hammer. The rear third of the ship was obliterated; the rest was flung away like a discarded, broken toy.
**********
Starship Enterprise
"No."
Picard froze for one second, but he had a job to do. The whispered word was the only epitaph he could afford to give now.
"Come about, flank speed."
"We are in range, Captain."
"Fire!"
**********
The shield protecting the Death Star shuddered under the impact of the enhanced photon torpedoes. For an instant, it flickered.
But it held.
**********
Death Star
The floor beneath Obi Wan and Qui-Gon trembled slightly.
"The Enterprise failed to breach the shield," Qui-Gon commented. The fact that its success could have resulted in their deaths remained unsaid. "And."
"Master?"
"The Defiant has been nearly destroyed." Even amidst the psychic cries of thousands of lives being snuffed in the battle raging outside, Qui-Gon had been able to sense the deaths of men and women he knew personally. There were survivors, but he felt they would not last long.
"The commando attack on the shield generator has failed. Data will no doubt try to do what's needed. As must we."
"Then it is time to confront Palpatine," Obi Wan said.