Smile
Crossover 2. An Ending
It was, like so many things about these people, unassuming.
At least, it was unassuming at first glance. The room was simple, plain and white with an impressive computer console to one side, behind a bit of plated glass. A simple look around the room would confuse someone who did not know the room's purpose. The greater portion of the room was occupied only by a flat platform, slightly raised. A series of yellow circles were lit around the platform's edge, with a larger circle in the center.
It almost looked like an empty storage room. Almost. The computer console was the only hint it was something else.
The first time he was sucked up in it - well, disassembled in it - he hadn't been expecting it. Emergency extraction in the Republic usually meant having a team come in on a LAATi for a rescue. To these people, it meant tearing him apart at the atomic level in one place, then reassembling him in another place.
They called it a transporter.
Obi-Wan liked it about as much as he liked flying through asteroid fields with a twelve year old Anakin in the pilot's seat. Anakin, of course, loved it. Ahsoka seemed to think it was the most useful thing ever, as did Cody. Obi-Wan had to agree on that point at least. Over the last two months, the transporter had transported a great many people out of harm's way, himself included.
Like so many things about these people, this ship, it didn't appear to be much at first glance. Once in action, though...everything changed.
Every Jedi down to the youngest initiate felt it happen; the massive disturbance in the Force that signaled their arrival. It echoed with all the power of a sonic boom. A huge, gaping maw of a rift opened up deep in the Outer Rim, spitting their delicate white-grey ship out into a new galaxy, so far, far away from their own.
When contact was finally made, they called themselves the crew of the Federation Starship Enterprise. They'd done battle with a monolithic starship with advanced technology, and overcame it by exploding a mysterious substance they could only call Red Matter. The explosion ripped open a rift, and they'd been pulled through by the wormhole's gravimetric field.
They'd found the remains of the ship they called the Narada. It was half buried in the soil of a planet near to the rift's opening; estimates indicated that by the ship's decay, it had crashed there some seven thousand years earlier. Such were the ways of unstable wormholes; the Narada entered the rift only a few minutes before the Enterprise.
During first contact, there was only confusion. There was no such thing as a United Federation of Planets, the Enterprise's design matched no known construction models, the languages they were broadcasting in were all unrecognized and on non-standard frequencies, and if it weren't for the concerted efforts of several protocol droids, the talented Lt. Uhura, and the universal translation programs on their ship, the confusion likely would have lasted longer.
Eventually there came overtures of friendship. The Enterprise was damaged from her battle, and her crew lost in a strange place. Assistance was offered; technological differences were noticed.
At first, Obi-Wan heard only of inferiority. Though there were powerful engines on the ship, and a fascinating crystal matrix powering it, they had no hyperspace capabilities. Likewise, their photon torpedoes and phaser banks were interesting, but they did not supersede the raw power of turbolasers. The differences in technology were interesting, but hardly worth noting.
Then some clone technicians assisting with repairs ate in their cafeteria.
Somehow, they were capable of taking a raw lump of base matter and transforming it into a tasty, fresh, completely healthy meal of exotic vegetables (something called broccoli and cauliflower) and pasta. The Enterprise crew seemed to think it was entirely practical and didn't get the food quite right.
They called it a replicator. To the technicians, used to freeze-dried, mass produced rations at best, it was a revelation. Moreover, the replicators didn't just make food. They made almost anything, from underwear to weapons. That got a lot of people's attention.
Then there was the transporter. The military uses alone ranked in the dozens. Instantaneous planetary transportation. Instantaneous interplanetary transportation. Evacuations that didn't risk other people's lives. Transport of personnel and materiel. The Enterprise crew were rather proud of it - apparently it was a newer invention. Their chief engineer was apparently an expert and had recently moved out of theorizing about how to do transportations while moving at faster-than-light speeds. It was now an applicable mathematical algorithm and physically possible.
When it came down to it, Obi-Wan realized it was because of all the peace.
He'd shared several long conversations with the stiff, logical man working as their second-in-command. It only made sense they didn't have the weapons. For all the reports and descriptions of fighting, border patrols and neutral zones, for all the terror this man named Nero had recently unleashed on their galaxy, the Federation was, mostly, at peace. It was a shockingly different galaxy these people came from. Their technology was driven by curiosity, not necessity. Their armada was for peace-keeping and humanitarian aid, not war. Their technology revealed a peaceful nature, not a warlike one.
Still, the transporter and the replicator had potential military application. The result was the Enterprise getting caught up in a political conflict in the Republic Senate. Some Senators tried to defend their right to own their own technology. Others screamed that they were at war and the ship should be stripped of any useful tech to aid the war effort, the displaced Federation crew willing or not.
The Separatists didn't bother to debate. They just attacked.
Of course, a team was sent to retrieve the stolen schematics, before the Separatists could learn anything from them.
Obi-Wan sighed as he looked over at his former padawan. If there was one thing he learned from the entire encounter, it was this: Never, ever allow Anakin Skywalker to race James T. Kirk in a speeder. Obi-Wan sighed again. He'd always thought Anakin was the best in the universe at attracting trouble. It seemed he now had a rival. When Acting Captain Kirk wasn't attracting trouble, he was making it (Kirk ended up spending a large amount of time trying to avoid an angry Master Luminara. Obi-Wan didn't know the specifics, but apparently it had something to do with being mistaken as a species called "Orion"). How they all got the data files back in one piece, Obi-Wan still didn't know. There were certainly enough hungry rancors and explosions involved in the retrieval mission.
In the end, they decided to try returning home.
Obi-Wan didn't blame them. He feared for them, but he didn't blame them. The Separatists had already attacked them, and the Chancellor had just come out as supporting the "take the technology by any means" faction of the Senate. The more aggressive Senators were already suggesting that the crew be drafted into the construction of the technology. Obi-Wan loved the Republic, but the forcible enlistment of beings into a cause not even of their own galaxy was deeply troubling.
This was not a galaxy that was welcoming to them, and it was growing less welcoming by the day. Spock said they had a plan. The Red Matter wormhole had not yet finished collapsing on itself – theoretically, the tunnel was still open, but would not remain that way for long.
It was time to say goodbye.
Cody, Rex and the few remaining clone troopers on the Enterprise had already beamed onto the Resolute. That left Anakin, Ahsoka, and himself.
Ahsoka was saying her goodbyes to two of the bridge crew. She was close in age with the young man named Chekov, and she and the ship's primary pilot, Sulu, had struck up a friendship over several rounds of sparring; he had a delightfully different style of swordfighting. Both men were fascinated by the lightsabers. Chekov wanted to know how the power output was regulated without exploding, and Sulu just wanted one to use.
Anakin was saying goodbye to the Acting Captain. This apparently entailed giving a detailed explanation of how he won the Boonta Eve pod race on Tatooine; Kirk was responding to this childhood story by retelling his own fond memory of being arrested after driving an antique speeder into a very large canyon. Obi-Wan sighed again, this time with a definite note of despair.
"It is fascinating," a voice said. Obi-Wan turned to see Commander Spock beside him, an eyebrow arched in the general direction of Anakin and Kirk.
Obi-Wan chuckled, running a hand over his beard with amusement. "More like a minor miracle."
Spock tilted his head towards Obi-Wan, and his brow seemed to quirk ever so slightly higher. Obi-Wan smiled and added, "Your ship is still in one piece with the both of them on it." A second brow rose to join the first, and Obi-Wan decided this was a sign of agreement. "I wish you well on your voyage home."
"Your sentiments are appreciated, General Kenobi."
Obi-Wan looked over the assembled crowd. The transporter room was a good size, but it was not huge. The room was filled with Enterprise crew for their send-off. Obi-Wan's smile changed from one of exasperated amusement to one of pleasure. They would make it home. None of the Starfleet people were Force-sensitive, but even with their lack of Force-sensitivity, each positively glowed with the Force. Even their ship seemed bright, almost alive, humming happily with the crew that lived within its' metal skin. The Force may not dwell within them, but it most certainly graced them with its power and presence.
This ship, with its crew, was not meant to linger here. It was not meant to be pulled apart by the desperation of a Senate at war with itself as much as with the Separatists. The Force was with them. They would make it home.
Ahsoka was the first to pull away from her new friends. The two men were smiling, the younger one waving as Ahsoka stepped up onto the transporter platform and centered herself in the middle of one of the rings on the floor, taking a deep breath as she got settled. Previous rides through the thing had not left time to think about the process of being pulled apart, molecule by molecule. Now she needed to steady herself for the process to come. She exhaled and smiled down at the gathering.
"Commander," Obi-Wan said with a brief nod at Spock, who returned the gesture as Lt. Uhura stepped up to join him. Obi-Wan caught Anakin's eye as he moved forward, inclining his head towards the transporter pad in an effort to move Anakin along. With a final grin at Kirk, Anakin too finished his conversation and stepped away. They climbed onto the transporter platform at the same time, each taking up a place in one of the circles.
They seemed so very different. Even the red-shirted security officers did not have the militaristic feel that even the non-clone members of the Republic army and navy possessed. Even if a part of their duties included battles and military fighting, their primary mission was to explore new worlds, to simply see what was out there. There was an innocence to it, an honesty that seemed to stand in stark contrast to the way things were now done in the Republic. They were seeking out new life, new civilizations. They seemed so young.
Were the people in this galaxy once this way? So honest, so eager to explore? Was the galaxy ever such a new place, as much full of wonder and beauty as it was full of danger and pain? Obi-Wan's face softened as he looked out over the small crowd, in their bright, primary colored shirts of yellow and red and blue. In the white room, each person stood out so boldly. Everything about them was bright and new and strong.
He said to them all, "May the Force be with you."
Several smiles formed on several faces. Spock, though he did not smile, lifted a hand, separating his fingers into a vee-shape. He said, simply, "Live long and prosper."
Two very different phrases, that ultimately had the same meaning: Good luck, my friend.
An officer at the transporter's control panel moved, and Obi-Wan found himself surrounded by a soft wash of sound and light.
And then the Enterprise was gone.
The Star Trek side of this is taken from the Star Trek 2009 movie. Except they get pulled into that giant Red Matter wormhole at the end of the movie and end up in the GFFA instead of escaping.
I've loved both Star Wars and Star Trek since I was a kid. (So no bashing. Star Peace, people, we're all geeks here.) I've had vague crossover-y ideas about them both before, but nothing ever seems to solidify in my head. There are references in here to a lot of completely unformed plot ideas and scenes. I've always thought it would be a perfect ending, though - an exchange of two of the most recognizable phrases in science fiction: "May the Force be with you" and "Live long and prosper".
Also...I have to ask, since this has been bubbling incessantly through my brain the last couple weeks - would anyone be interested in a full length version of the Doctor Who crossover from last time? I've been working on a new fic project for awhile, and am nearly done with it...and looking towards the next fic after that. Initially the DW/SW crossover was going to be a oneshot, but I've been getting a few other ideas and might have enough for a longer story. Thoughts, anyone?
~Queen