Fanfic / The Unity Saga

"I'm sure there's nothing to fear in letting Admiral Thrawn examine our works of art."

— Captain Picard, Worlds Without End Part VI

The Unity Saga is an epic Star Trek/Star Wars crossover by Chuck Sonnenberg telling the story of Unity, the path to peace between two galaxies.

Originally published from 1999 to 2000 as a standalone trilogy, collectively titled Worlds Without End, on the Usenet newsgroup alt.startrek.vs.starwars^note Now-defunct, the old newsgroup's archives are preserved on daltonator.net, the story was later revised and expanded from 2002 to 2006 to encompass two trilogies;

The Road To Unity

• I: Worlds Without End
• II: Shadows of the Night
• III: Against All Odds

The Price Of Unity

• IV: Paradise Lost
• V: Blood of Heroes
• VI: Dawn of Forever

Totaled, the saga is 250 chapters in length. Did we mention it's epic?

Read it here.

Not to be confused with the comic book event of the same name by Valiant Comics in its early years.

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Tropes:

• Affably Evil: Grand Admiral Thrawn, of course.
• Alternate History: The Oracle Janeway, among her various time-related abilities can see the past the way it would have been, were it not for the two galaxies interacting.
• Anyone Can Die: At least a few major characters from both franchises bite it in each of the six parts. The original characters don't exactly make it through unscathed either.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Picard, following the dénouement of Against All Odds.
• Author Appeal: At one point, Darth Whind says that the only one who can stop them her, Luke, and the Empire is the former Borg (with enhanced reflexes and strength) Seven-Of-Nine... and Ben Sisko. If you have ever watched SF Debris opinionated guides to Deep Space Nine, he's a massive fan of Ben Sisko and Seven of Nine is his favorite character from Voyager aside, perhaps, from the holographic Doctor.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Thrawn can derive an uncanny amount about a civilization from analyzing their works of art and the Federation is so eager to exchange cultural information, they're basically an open book.
• Badass Boast: Admiral Piett.
  Piett: "We'll show the Borg whose resistance is futile."
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: In Shadows of the Night, Seven of Nine^note the non-drone half of her brain versus 7 of 9^note the drone half.
  • And then Luke decides to get more involved, as it were.
• Because Destiny Says So: Throughout, but it becomes most prominent in the latter trilogy.
• Betty and Veronica: Seven of Nine and Mara Jade serve as this to Luke's affections, though it's Played With in that while the Dark Side-aligned Mara is clearly the Veronica, Emotionless Girl Seven doesn't correspond to all the traits normally associated with a Betty.
  • During the final lap of Dawn of Forever, events conspire to place Seven in the body of her counterpart from an Alternate Universe where Luke knew both women but married Mara, who here pulled a Heel–Face Turn. The two women end up on good terms and Mara even helps Seven make a difficult return journey to her home universe.
• Big Bad: Several, including Emperor Palpatine, but The Oracle really has to take the cake.
• Big Damn Heroes: Even the Borg manage to pull this off against the Vong.
• Bittersweet Ending: Aside from Worlds Without End, none of the stories end on an altogether happy note.
  • Shadows of the Night: Seven of Nine successfully shuts down the Borg Collective, finally freeing the galaxies from their threat, but after struggling the whole story, Luke Skywalker falls to the Dark Side, and even though Thrawn is assassinated by Delric Taar, it's clear that Darth Whind will continue her crusade using new pawns.
  • Against All Odds: The Galactic Empire steamrolls both galaxies. This isn't made out to be as bad as could be, however, since Sisko's spirit has taken over Palpatine's clone body to continue controlling events from behind the scenes, whilst Darth Whind is dead, and Luke has returned to the Light and is expecting a child with Seven.
  • Paradise Lost: After fifteen years, as in New Jedi Order, the Yuuzhan Vong have begun their invasion, and this time have more than one galaxy in their sights. On top of that, Luke has been killed by a corrupted version of Ben Skywalker, his son from an Alternate Universe. The silver lining is that Sebastian Skywalker, Luke and Seven's son in this universe, gets together with Jorielle Sunspring.
  • Blood of Heroes: With Emperor Sisko and his successor Leia both dead, the war against the Vong rages on at increasingly morally-questionable prices, Seven is taken captive by the Oracle, while Jorielle and her unborn child were killed by Ben. A grief-stricken Sebastian, having reactivated the Borg Collective, voluntarily lets himself be assimilated to escape the pain.
  • Dawn of Forever: The Galactic Empire and the Vong are both finally defeated, Seven finds definite closure with Luke's memory and Mara before dying, having managed to thwart the Oracle's plans once and for all, Ben has pulled a Redemption Equals Death, and after reforming the Borg from the inside, Sebastian now presides over two united galaxies. However, Q makes it clear that preserving Unity will be a life-long task. He does at least grant Sebastian that he can have his wife and child back.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Luke is able to benefit from learning Vulcan mind techniques to augment his Force powers. This has unexpected side-effects, since Luke's fall to the Dark Side results in him developing a Split Personality, which compartmentalises his innate "good" self while his body commits crimes under the influence of his "bad" self.
• The Chessmaster: The Oracle, aka Kathryn Janeway.
• Chickification: Both Seven and Mara are hit pretty badly by this in the story, as their driving motivation becomes who gets to hook up with Luke Skywalker.
  • A large source of Seven's angst stems from the fact that as a Borg, she cannot bear children.
• Cool Versus Awesome: Seven of Nine, a Borg, versus a Wookie during the Tsunkatse.
• Cosmic Plaything: Sebastian Skywalker.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Quite a few. Klingon vs Jedi, because lightsabers slice right through Batt'leths. Early battles between the Empire and pretty much anyone they encounter in the Milky Way due to superior speed and firepower.
• Cybernetics Will Eat Your Soul: A recurring motif brought together by the various cyborgs of both universes. In this series, its more attitude than reality. In fact, Seven's implants come in very handy when she uses them to generate lightsabre-proof armour in her fight with Darth Whind
• Dead Person Impersonation: Quark died on DS9, the one on DS13 is a holographic spy planted by Garak.
• Door Stopper
• Dysfunction Junction: Such a trope is likely to happen whenever you got a story involving Star Wars and the Dark Side but among the dysfunctional cast, Seven of Nine reaches the top of the highest mountain, requiring a good father-figure in Picard, a Battle in the Center of the Mind, two Jedi, two telepathic Betazoids and regular interventions from not one but two Physical Gods to get a semblance of closure.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Dozens, including planets that fans of either series has come to know well. The Endor Moon, Coruscant, Cardassia Prime, the Ssi-Ruuk homeworld...
  • Not to mention all of those planets that Taar allows Tyrine to destroy off-screen when he gives him a superlaser to use at his discretion. At the very least, a Kazon planet and the Malon homeworld are destroyed.
• Easily Forgiven: Not quite, as Han never forgives Luke for killing Chewbacca during his stint on the Dark Side until after his erstwhile friend dies, but it's Played Straight by most of the other characters.
• Failsafe Failure: It turns out those arches in the holodeck are a safety feature which everyone just ignores; Troi is erased from reality by standing in the middle of the room when the simulation is turned off and the cleaning program glitches.
• Faking the Dead: The Blessed One, e.g. Darth Whind, helps Picard to do this after Thrawn orders his execution as a Xanatos Gambit.
• Fate Worse than Death: Borg assimilation, as always. But the fear of it in this story is one of the more prominent themes.
• Field Promotion: Picard has Seven of Nine made a Starfleet officer without going through the Academy, promoting her directly to Chief Science Officer.
• Foregone Conclusion: Anyone familiar with the author's Opinionated Voyager Episode Guide won't be too surprised by the latter half of Janeway's character arc.
  • No, he made Janeway competent. In the reviews, his version of that character has become a very competent evil.
• Freudian Excuse: Done most tragically with Ben Skywalker, who was raised by a Mara Jade corrupted by the Dark Side.
• Fridge Logic: As a plot point. Darth Vader corrupted Data by pointing to all the times Starfleet had mistreated him.
  • Done again when Vader realizes that the Emperor never came through on his promises to save Padme so he doesn't actually owe the man anything, and now he's ordering him to kill his own children. It prompts his return to the Light Side.
• Good Versus Good: The Rebel Alliance and the Federation start out on opposite sides because the Federation is initially duped by the Empire. To their credit, both sides eventually figure out who they're really dealing with and team up.
• Heel–Face Turn: Several, most notably the Borg.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The Rebel Alliance gets a bad first impression of the Federation by reputation, because their initial information comes from all the species Janeway pissed off in the Delta Quadrant.
• Human Alien: The preponderance of these and the more subtle kinds of Rubber-Forehead Aliens in the Star Trek galaxy confuse the hell out of the Star Wars characters in the first book, not to mention that genetically identical humans apparently evolved in both galaxies somehow.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: "Never check a free dewback's hide."
• I Die Free: Due to the nature of the Borg, many try, most fail.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Luke gets one in Against All Odds.
• Informed Attribute: Early on in Paradise Lost, the Galactic Empire is stated to have undergone reformations under Emperor Sisko, making it a less cruel place than it once was. Tell that to Molly O'Brien, whom we're introduced to as she is sentenced to medical experimentation.
• In Spite of a Nail: In spite of returning to the Alpha Quadrant early, Seven of Nine manages to be abducted for the Tsunkatse tournament.
  • The triple-nacelle Enterprise and Warp 13 from the future-based scenes of the last episode of TNG show up here. Picard even comments upon it.
  • Leia and Han get married and have the same children they had in Star Wars Legends.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Janeway, as the Oracle. Initially motivated by her guilt at bringing the Empire to the Milky Way Galaxy and leading to the downfall of The Federation, her mistake is to dabble in The Dark Side in order to further her goals of "fixing" history; by the end of the story, Janeway is willing to destroy Earth itself if it will lead to her victory.
• Love Before First Sight: Luke Skywalker and Seven of Nine.
• Ludd Was Right: This is what Senator Alixus believes, hence why she supports the Vong.
• Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Luke's journey to mastery as a Jedi is much more complicated because the final confrontation with his father never happened.
• Mama Bear: Janeway. And that's what breaks her.
• The Man Behind the Man: This trope is everywhere in Shadows of the Night. The Ssi-Ruuk are tricked into attacking The Republic by the Borg, who are under the leadership of Anansi (e.g. Grand Admiral Thrawn), who is being manipulated by Darth Whind, who is being possessed by the reborn Emperor Palpatine, all according to the grand plan of Benjamin Sisko.
• Messianic Archetype: Sebastian, in case his impossible birth from Seven, an infertile Borg, didn't tip you off.
• The Mole: Data in Worlds Without End.
• Mother Nature, Father Science: Inverted Trope. Luke is the spiritual one. Seven is the scientific, logical one.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Captain Picard, when he turns over the Federation's secret weapon to Thrawn to try to spare the Federation.
  • Captain Janeway suffers this because she introduced the Galactic Empire to the United Federation of Planets.
  • Luke Skywalker after he turns to the Dark Side and then comes back.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Emperor Cyber-Jedi Sebastian.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Counselor Borui. She tends to put her duties above critical missions.
• Oh, Crap!
  "Sir, Borg cubes coming out of warp!"
  "What? How many? I said how many,"
  "One hundred twelve, sir."
• One-Steve Limit: Averted, owing to the presence of Benjamin Sisko and Ben Skywalker.
• Organic Technology: The Yuuzhan Vong.
• Passed-Over Promotion: Picard pulls favors to get Seven of Nine commissioned as a Starfleet officer and promoted directly to chief science officer of the Enterprise without having to put in time at the Academy or climb ranks. Seven displaces Data, which becomes a sore spot for him later in Worlds Without End.
• The Peter Principle: Though Chuck Sonnenburg doesn't care for Janeway as a captain, he portrays her as being quite competent in certain other endeavors owing to her background as a science officer. For example, she figures out how to run transporter beams through hyperspace.
• Pet the Dog: For the author. Though he beats up on the Voyager crew a lot in his reviews, he generally shows most of them at their best here and even allows them to grow, and even have heroic deaths.
  • He also simply opts to have Neelix Put on a Bus early on and never return. Now that's willpower.
• Redemption Equals Death: Unsurprisingly for Star Wars, which lives by this trope, this is the resolution of Ben Skywalker's character arc.
  • Data sacrifices himself to destroy the Death Star after killing Troi and betraying Seven.
• Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: The first trilogy plays the concept completely straight. The second one features the Borg becoming a corporation and characters from other fictional universes wandering into the plot.
• Science Cannot Comprehend Phlebotinum: Specifically, the Force defies analysis.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Q can make sound in space, because he has no respect for the physics of vacuum.
• Sex Is Liberation: Seven of Nine in Shadows of the Night.
• Shout-Out: Many other crossovers, including Conquest and Star Crossed.
  • Picard questions his right to commit genocide against the Borg in a very similar manner to the Doctor in "Genesis of the Daleks", though this may also be a Call-Back to the other times Picard has pondered this subject, regarding both the Borg and the Crystalline Entity.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Janeway protests the slaughter of thirty million people aboard the Death Star and gets this reaction from Han Solo.
• Summon Bigger Fish: The Federation's motivation for allying with the Galactic Empire, due to the threat of the Borg Collective. Naturally, this turns out to be a bad idea.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Luke's first act after giving in to the Dark Side is to destroy a bunch of Borg cubes.
• Suspiciously Apropos Music: Seven of Nine and "Puff the Magic Dragon.". NOT in regards to marijuana use.
• Techno Babble: Exploited Trope towards the end of Worlds Without End when Data needs to fool the defectors into launching an attack on the Death Star, so he makes up a plan to attack a false weakness with lots of technobabble to make them think it would work.
• Tempting Fate: Troi really should have known after Descent to tread more carefully when encouraging Data to explore powerful negative emotions.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Seven tends to talk like this, although she is rediscovering her emotions throughout much of this story.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Luke basically talks himself into falling to the Dark Side, and the emotion that does it is fear... of falling to the dark side. He's so convinced that emotion-powered Force use is inherently evil and everyone will hate him for it, that after destroying a Borg fleet to rescue Seven, he falls into despair and switches sides. The disconnect means the real Luke never fell, and the Sith Lord version is just an emotional shell he built around himself that does evil for evil's sake, but doesn't enjoy it. Or something.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: In Against All Odds, with the Borg no longer a distraction, the rebuilt Galactic Empire promptly launches a full-scale invasion of the Milky Way. How do the United Federation of Planets fend off the onslaught? Short answer; they don't, and all four Quadrants are placed under Imperial domination for the next two decades. Turns out that luck and a little pluck may have won the day in Worlds Without End, but It Only Works Once.
• Underestimating Badassery: The Galactic Empire sends in a fleet to destroy enough Borg ships to show that attacking them would be a waste of resources. This goes about as well as you'd expect.
  • It also goes the other way. The Empire never sends more than a tiny fraction of its forces into the Milky Way at a time because most of their fleet is required to hold down their own galaxy, meaning the other factions keep drastically underestimating their real power. When they invade in force during Against All Odds, it's a complete walkover.
• The Unintelligible: Chewbacca as always. It seems that even the Federation's universal translators can't handle the Wookie language.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: A rare heroic example by most of the main characters, but especially Sisko and Empress Leia.
• Worthy Opponent: Delric Taar, who despite being an Imperial TIE pilot who gets a good number of kills including Tom Paris is a very likable and engaging character, and one of the most developed throughout the whole story.
• You Can't Fight Fate: A major theme.

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