Prologue: The First Meeting

Prologue: Part1: The First Meeting

(A/N: There will be some slight discrepancies. Gauged to take place 30 years before episode IV)

Qui-Gon Jinn watched the stars blur by as the Endurance entered hyperspace. The Consular class starship was one of the more widely used ships for the Jed, since at that time, they had no official vessel.

He thought carefully about the mission the council had given them both. His new, young padawan, Obi-wan Kenobi, were being sent to Manaan, in the hopes of settling a diplomatic crisis at Ahto City.

The Jedi Council had given him a data disk with a description of the planet, and the current dispute. Pulling it fro his robes, he stole a glance at it, wondering if there would be any way to solve the problem before him.

It seemed a Noval Yzalli had been given a permit from the ruling council of Manaan to build a second city on the surface of Manaans oceans. But just as construction had began, they began to make complaints to the Republic embassy to remove him from the planet, on the basis of “ruining the ocean”. While the republic had investigated his operation to see if there was any cause for this complaint, they hadn’t found any. But the Selkath continued to plague the embassy with messages asking for his removal, and so, they had asked the Jedi to both mediate and investigate the dispute.

He knew this would be his first real test of his padawan’s skills, but he had a strange feeling about the mission. Something he just couldn’t place. He had told Master Yoda of his feelings, but he had said the force would guide him where it wished.

“Perhaps might the force leading you be to Manaan for a purpose yes?” he asked, taking his usual style of talking with his sentences garbled. Qui-Gon had yet to understand why he spoke this way, but had learned from experience to ignore it.
Still, Yodas words had helped him only slightly. He couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen on this mission. All he knew, was that he would be better prepared for it if he meditated for a while.

Before he could, Captain Kaida Geilvta strolled in, a data pad in her hand. She was a good friend of his, ever since she had helped get him out of a sticky situation on Aargonar. The mission he had been on then had been a bit over his head, but if it weren’t for her kindness and quick thinking, he might not have been standing there that moment.

“Hello Kaida, it’s a pleasure to be on the same ship as you again. I was sorry to hear about the loss of the Jinotaur.” He said coolly, wondering if this visit was personal or mission related.

Smiling slightly, Kaida shook her head, dismissing the subject. “I’m just glad that the whole crew got out alive. But that isn’t why I’m here Qui-Gon.”

Glancing at her curiously, he took the data pad she was now holding out to him. He sped through the information, then put the pad on the table near him. He closed his eyes and thought carefully for a moment, then said
“Yes Kaida, I have no problems with us changing course to aid the Korodan. How long will it take for us to get there?”

Being the captain of the ship, Kaida was the one person onboard past the pilot who could possibly figure the math in her head. After a few seconds, she said “Dropping out of hyperspace and resetting the navicomputer will take about 15 minutes, and it’ll take us about an hour to reach the Korodan.”

Nodding, he soon followed her out of his quarters, in a search of finding his padawan, who he would need to inform that the mission was being put on hold for a moment. They chatted lightly as they neared the bridge, where she continued forward to the Bridge, he turned left to find Obi-wan talking with Selkath diplomat.

“The contractor Noval Yzalli needs to understand that the Ruling Council is merely worried about the ocean, and that they are simply over exaggerating the problem.” Clph Lonarcch was saying to Obi-Wan as Qui-Gon was entering. Obi-Wan looked ready to continue, but then he noticed Master Qui-Gon leaning against one of the walls, listening intently to their conversation. Clph nodded to both of them and left, saying that they could continue their discussion later.

“Enjoying yourself my apprentice?” Qui-Gon asked, an amused smile on his face as he sat down next to Obi-Wan. He was still not completely used to him as an apprentice, but knew it would pass in time.

Grinning widely, Obi-Wan replied “Of course master. I was talking with Clph about the upcoming diplomatic mission, and what he thought about it. His view seems to be a bit different then that of most Selkath.”

“That’s probably because he’s spent more time around other races then many of his species.” Qui-Gon said, then decided to get to the point of why he had looked for him.

Obi-Wan nodded, understanding why his master had made this decision. “I hope we make it there in time to help.”

Qui-Gon nodded, and only hopped the ripple in the force he was feeling wasn’t connected to the Korodan.

Captains log, Stardate 18447.4:

The USS Pandora is on a routine patrol of the Omega Slavix system, along the Federation/Tholian Border. We have detected a strange spatial anomaly and are enroute to investigate it. First Officer Thompson has put the ship on yellow alert on the off chance this is the doing of the Tholians.

Captain Mary Galveston stood over the science station, watching the readings carefully. She had only had the Excelsior class USS Pandora for less then a year, but already, she knew almost everything about the ship, from its personality quirks to seconds before something was about to malfunction. Originally being an engineer, it made her much more capable of noticing such things.

Smith Thompson stood at one of the science stations, looking over Lt. Aira Matthews shoulder as they continued their scan. Neither of them was exactly sure what they had found, and it was well known aboard the ship that they both shared a love for science and the unknown. She smiled as she watched them out of the corner of her eye.

In front of her was Ensign Pi’talak, one of the few Romulans serving in Starfleet. He was still busy playing out scenarios of an encounter with the Tholians, whom he had stated his opinion that whatever they were going to find was probably being controlled by the Tholians.

Glancing back up at the viewscreen, Mary wondered if they would find anything new, something that wasn’t in the Federation databanks, when one of her newest crewmembers, a fresh faced Cadet by the name of John “Wesker” Madison, suddenly turned in his chair,

“Captain, I’m picking up a distress signal. Its very weak, but I don’t think its because of damage sir.”

Now curious, Mary stood up from her chair and strode over to the communications console, and peered at the message Wesker was picking up. She could see why it was weak, since it was on a different wavelength then what normal Federation ships used.

“Put it on audio Cadet.” She said, turning back to face the rest of the bridge, so that she could better gauge their reactions and thoughts of the message.

After a bit of static, which Wesker quickly cleared up, muttering about hanging whoever was using this wavelength to confound him, which caused a few of the bridge personnel to chuckle a little the message came in clear.

“This is the space freighter Korodan, we are under attack by the Pirate vessel O’rlak, and require immediate assistance, to any Republic vessels in the area, we are sending the hyperspace coordinates to assist us… This is the…”

Wesker ended the message, saying “Its on continuous playback. They obviously are in enough trouble they cant keep a live message.”

Ensign Ssverenth, the Pandora’s navigator, said in his hissing and slurred English

“The coordinates for this hypersspaccee is unfamiliar to me. But perhaps Cadet Wesker can trace the message.”

Mary nodded, turning away from the Saurian as he and Wesker quickly triangulated the coordinates of the message. When they were finished, they said

“Captain, the message appears to originate from the area we detected that spatial anomaly.”

Nodding, Captain Mary went to stand in front of her seat as she said

“Red Alert. Relay a message to Starbase VII on what we have found and set course for the anomaly, Warp factor 7.”

Qui-Gon and Obi-wan watched as the ship dropped out of Hyperspace. It had taken them less time then they had thought, but then the Hyperdrive was not a completely worked out piece of technology yet.

Stretching out with his feelings, Qui-Gon could feel the essence’s of both the Korodans and the O’rlak, both of which were still out of the Endurance’s sensor range.

“They are their Captain Kaida. Even though the Endurance can’t detect them yet, they are there.” He said motioning his hands in the general direction of the freighter they were attempting to rescue.

Nodding, Kaida went about getting the ship ready to render whatever aid it could, and proceeded to increase the ships speed so they would make it their in time.

Obi-wan sighed, and turned to Qui-Gon, asking

“Do missions for the council ever go as planned?”

Smiling slightly, Qui-Gon continues looking through the cockpits portals as he says “No, not really.”

Orlon Solo fired several blaster shouts down the corridor, hoping the shots took a few of the invading pirates out.

Just what I didn’t need he thought to himself as another of his crew spun around and fell to the floor, a blaster wound in the center of his chest.

The boarding party was made up mostly of Twi’leks, with a few humans and adapted droids fitted out for battle. So far, at least by Orlon’s estimate, they had killed only 10 of the invading pirates. From what reports he had gotten from his crew elsewhere, things weren’t going good there either.

“What we need is a miracle.” He grunted as he dashed to a new hiding place while sending another pirate to his cold grave.

The USS Pandora dropped out of warp after about 20 minutes of Chief engineer Janice Yun complaining that the dilithium crystals were going to shatter if they kept going at warp 9.

“Captain,” Lt. Matthews was saying, “We have arrived at the anomaly. The distress call seems to be coming from the other side of the rift.”

Mary turned and raised an eyebrow, stating “It would be nice of the science officer to actually tell us all what the anomaly is?

Flushing, Matthews turned back to her science station to make sure she had everything right, then turned back around.

“The anomaly seems to be some sort of spatial rift. As far as I can tell though, it is unlike any other rift known to Federation science.”

Frowning, Mary came over to look at her readings herself.

“How so?” She asked, looking from each screen, trying to find out why Matthews thought this rift so strange.

“Because it would appear that, instead of opening into another time, universe, or dimension, this one seems to open up into another Galaxy.” Matthews stole a quick glance at the viewscreen, which showed the rift sitting there in space, an alien starfield visible through its gaping maw.

Suddenly, Ensign Pi’talak was saying “Captain, I detect two vessels on the other side of the rift. I’m picking up weapons fire both between the vessels and inside the larger vessel. Scans indicate it could be the Korodan freighter.”

Nodding, Mary turned to Ensign Ssverenth and said

“Bring us as close to the rift as possible, and lock tractor beams on both vessels. Have security and medical teams ready in transporter room one through three. Ensign Pi’talak, prepare to disable the pirate vessel once their clear of the rift.”

Well, I hoped you enjoyed it. More is coming soon.