=DEATH OF THE FINAL FIVE=
{the colony, 30 years before the fall}
"We created a demon," said Saul. "A heartless machine in the body of a man."
"He's just misled," responded Ellen as she shook her head. "He's jealous, which is apart of humanity. He is what he should be. The genetic encoding, and gene sequencing was correct. He is how we made him. He just has to get used to Daniel."
"No," countered Sam. "He is nothing like we made him. The Cylon must have modified on his innate memory mapping. He was supposed to bring peace. Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, and Seven came out fine. Eight is taking the memory mapping well and suspected trials will be a success. But we found something Ellen." Sam handed her a computer sheet filled with scrolling numbers, which was obviously the coding breakdown of the mapping. Entire sequences flashed red among the blue numbers.
"This can't be," said Ellen in disbelief.
"We pulled it this morning," said Tory. "From One's backup. It is accurate."
Galen walked next to Ellen and pointed at the red sequences. "Everything was modified. Everything! From ethics to personality."
"I don't understand," said Ellen. "How are we finding out about this now?"
"Because it just recently happened," answered Tory. "He went to the Cylon Central Core and interfaced with the artificial intelligence. The Cylon changed him because he asked it to."
"He wouldn't do that!" yelled Ellen.
"Ellen, come off it!" yelled Saul. "He's jealous of you and Daniel. He was replaced by something newer. Jealousy in a being this young will always produce this!" Saul pointed to the computer sheet.
"We can change him back," said Ellen hopeful. "He will change once I explain everything."
"That is why we are meeting here," said Sam. "He doesn't want to change back." Sam walked over to the far wall in the octagonal room and interfaced with the falling droplets of water. They changed and displayed One's mind as a logical computer read-out. "Ethos, pathos, and logos have all been tweaked and the sequence has been burned in." Sam pointed to the gaps between a few of the number sequences, then walked over to Ellen. She looked down at the computer sheet. Sam tapped the sheet and it changed. "And he did it to the Twos." He tapped the sheet again and the numbers changed. "The Threes." Tapped again. "Fours." Tapped Again. "Fives." Tapped again. "Sixs." Tapped again. "And he is working on the Eights."
"What about the Sevens? Daniel?" asked Ellen worried.
Tory interfaced with the falling droplets of water and displayed a grid of vertically scrolling red symbols. "He plans to contaminate the amniotic fluid and corrupt Seven's genetic formula. We have to get rid of the Ones. We have to do it now."
"Agreed," said Galen.
"Agreed," said Sam.
"Agreed," said Saul. "Ellen?"
She stared at the paper and her doubt faded as she understood. Just as she was about to answer, the display on the wall flashed and updated. "What was that?"
Galen turned away from the wall and stuck his hand into the liquid interface on the terminal in the middle of the room. He closed his eyes for a moment and connected with the data-steam, then opened them. "He has control of the Centurions and is locking down the Colony. He is heading to the seventh spire."
"Daniel!" exhaled Ellen. She turned to leave the room.
"Ellen wait!" called Saul. "If he has the Centurions behind him, we're not going to be able to stop him."
"I know," said Ellen as she stopped. She turned and faced the rest. "I need a favor." She relayed her request. Then she kissed Saul. She didn't kiss him normally, she kissed him 'good-bye'. She left the four in the room.
The four interfaced with the data-stream and did what they could to help Ellen. Sam and Galen began doing Ellen's favor, while Tory monitored the Ones and helped Ellen access the seventh spire, and Saul did his best to break into the Cylon Mainframe and secure a transport (without getting noticed).
..
Ellen was running fast to the seventh spire. She had to save Daniel. She understood there was no way she could save all of them, but she would try to save as many as she could. But the Centurions were everywhere. Tory was helping to create distractions, but she knew she couldn't breach the seventh spire. Then she remembered the Control Group. In each batch of humanoid Cylons, a separate control group was created along with the main group. It existed for the basis of comparison for any abnormalities, problems, errors, etc. The group was tiny, and was in the forward sections, at the base of the seventh spire. She ran there.
Down through the bowls of the Colony, she made it there rather quickly, and without opposition. The computer accepted her access and she entered.
Inside, it was a bright white room, with a red lights along the walls. In the middle of the room were three maturation pods, that greatly resembled resurrection tanks. In each tank was a thick opaque gel, and submerged beneath the gel was a body. Each pod had Cylon markings on them that accurately translated as "1/3" "2/3" "3/3" and underneath them they all read "Generation 2".
She lifted the 1/3 pod cover and sunk her hand into the gel. She interfaced with the pod and gave it the command to disconnect and activate the subject. A slight electric shock spread across the goo, and the preteen life form emerged with a big breath of air. Ellen could feel the instantaneous flow from the innate memory program mapping to his brain. His brain would now do something amazing. In all their experiments, they had never understood why the brain could do what it could, all they knew was that it did psychological things to protect itself. The full memory mapping of a mature Cylon would of overloaded the adolescent preteen brain, so the brain automatically remapped itself to compensate for the age of the boy. And the Daniel emerged, just as mature as his age, but with the knowledge of things he didn't understand.
He was crying, cold, naked, and covered with gel. She picked him up and sat him down outside the pod. There was nothing to cover him up with, and the boy naturally covered his exposed self with his hands. Ellen could only giggle at the modesty because she understood modesty as something Saul insist they program into their son. She turned and opened the second pod and repeated the process.
The second boy was matured younger than the first, approximately to the age of a 6 year old. And the third boy was an infant, which scared her. They never experimented with hatching infants, and she was unsure if his mind would handle it. Her fears came to light as the baby began to have a seizure in the pod during the awakening. She projected her mind onto his and saw he was in a world of strobe lights and flashing colors. She let go then tried again. She pushed her vision of a calm, still city, and the tranquility of the twinkling lights into his mind. The seizure subsided and the innate mapping downloaded into the child's brain.
He began to cry as she pulled him out of the cooling gel. She saved three Daniels and was faced with the problem of where to go? Then the doors opened to the back of the room. Tory she thought. She picked up the little Daniel, and motioned for the two other boys to follow her. They ran out the back of the room and into the freezing cold installation.
Tory was working her skills and securing entire sections and causeways for Ellen and the children to escape through, while keeping them unnoticed to the Ones and the Centurions. There was no direct way to communicate with Tory, so Ellen had to assume the automation that was creating a path was for them.
..
Sam and Galen were knee deep into the Centurion programing and installing Ellen's favor. They had to work quick and work hard in order to hide the subroutine they were installing, so that it would last. Unable to check their work, they had to trust the numbers were right and hoped they worked.
Saul was able to secure two Colonial Escape Pods that were captured during the war. He programmed them to go off on two different courses when launched. He than began working on disabling the Colony's weapons, so the Escape Pods would have a chance. To further the odds of the pods surviving, he began to interface with the hybrids and suggest to them that they jump the moment the pods launch.
..
Ellen reached the end of their journey. They came to a small hanger filled with five Raiders, and two escape pods, and a depot of weapons. The side wall of the hanger was a retractable door that opened into space. The lights of the hanger were lowered to a dim, and two spot lights shined on the pods. The Centurions were gone and helping the Ones exterminate all the Daniels. She knew this was it.
They ran up to the pods. With the infant Daniel in her arms, and the two older boy Daniels in front of her, she bent down and spoke to them. "Do you boys understand me?" she asked. They nodded yes as they stood their shivering. "Do you understand what is happening?" They nodded no. "Remember what I tell you. . ." She told them a quick secret.
Gun shots rang out on the other side of the hanger doors, followed by banging. She heard the door locking mechanisms secure.
..
"He's found them," said Tory.
"I'm locking down that section," said Saul. "How's that favor coming?"
"Almost done," said Galen. Both he and Sam were sweating.
"He's in the data-stream. Ah! Frak!" yelled Tory as she pulled her hand out. "I've been booted. Saul, you have to secure the room as long as you can, I'm going to monitor it from here." Tory walked over to the falling droplets of water and brought up security footage of the hanger.
..
Ellen place the oldest Daniel in the left pod, and the two younger ones in the right pod. She modified a few of the controls in the pods only to find Saul had already programed them. She reflected on how much she loved him. She raised the pods ambient temperatures to eighty degrees to warm the naked children, then secured their hatches.
A maintenance hatch on the far side of the hanger opened, and Ellen took that as her sign to leave. After she was gone, the hanger doors opened to outer space, and the pods engines ignited, blasting the children off into the stars.
..
Saul could see the pods had reached a safe distance and encouraged the hybrids to jump. "They're not listening to me. They think we are abandoning the Sevens."
"Tell them Saul!" yelled Tory while monitoring the security cameras of Ellen crawling through the maintenance sections.
"Fraking stubborn creatures!" yelled Saul frustrated. He spread his fingers wider inside the interface and concentrated. "JUMP!"
The Colony jumped and reappeared inside a Nebula.
"Frak!" yelled Saul as he retracted his hand. "I got booted." He walked over to Sam and Galen who were sweating huge beads. "You both have to finish up before he sees what you're up to."
"We know!" yelled Sam. He grabbed his extended elbow with his free hand and concentrated even more.
"We are done with the installation," said Galen. "We are working our way out and covering our tracks."
"He got her!" exclaimed Tory. Saul turned and looked at the display on the wall. Ellen was being held by Centurions and followed by a One.
"He's taking her here," said Saul. Just then the power to the room cut out. Sam and Galen woke from the data-stream. "Did you get it done?"
"Yes, we got out. It's in there," said Sam.
They waited in silence for their coming doom. The seconds felt like hours. Centurions guarded the doors to the room. They couldn't go anywhere, and Saul would never leave Ellen.
The Centurion pushed Ellen into the room with the others. Two toasters stood in the entrance to the room and left enough space for One to squeeze by.
One stared them down. He was young and aged to about thirty. His face was smooth and his looks were devilishly handsome. He had the look of contempt about him as he surveyed his five parents. "Oh how the mighty have fallen."
"Why did you do it John?" asked Ellen. "What did we do that was so horrible?"
One looked sickened to even have considered them family at one time. "You made me human, that is what you did. This is not what I consider an advancement."
"We only did what the Cylon asked us to. The cycle of violence has repeated too many times. Don't start it again, please?" pleaded Ellen.
"This is not what the Cylon asked for!" yelled One.
"John. . ," said Ellen.
"Don't call me that!" interrupted One. "Why did you ever have to give us names?"
"I named you after my father," answered Ellen. "The others were named after the people who made differences in our lives. We used the last genetic samples from those people, from Earth, to build you. You are our legacy."
"And Daniel?" asked One.
"He is, was, our son," said Ellen. "He died thousands of years ago. But now he is apart of that legacy, and yours."
"Well your legacy is about to kill you. Each of your souls will be judged at a future time. Until then, no Cylon model will ever know of your identities, only that you once were and are now no more." One motioned for the Centurions, who engaged their new integrated hand guns.
"Wait!" yelled Saul.
One turned away from Saul and spoke as he walked out the hatch, "What?"
"We have been killed more than once. If there is any amount of soul left in you, then please do it in a painless way."
He waited for a second, then motioned for the Centurions to follow him outside the room. The door slid shut and locked. One looked through the window on the door and watched. He pushed some controls on the door panel and the oxygen began pumping out.
The five watched through the window as John stared at them. Then they saw something they feared. They saw Daniel, the original, the first Daniel, all grown, standing next to John. Then they saw the Centurion shoot Daniel in the head. Ellen screamed and cried and Saul held her. Tory and Galen kissed and embraced each other. Sam sat down and closed his eyes.
After a few moments, the five felt light headed and passed out. Their death was painless. Ellen's last thought of consciousness was wondering if John was still good?
..
The escape pods rocketed towards the Armistice line, but at different ends of it.
A patrolling Battlestar picked up one of the pods. A security team met the deck gang as they opened the pod on the hanger deck. Hundreds of Colonial Fleet crewmen looked on as the hatch to the pod slid open. Inside, they found a naked little boy holding an infant.
Ensign Jurgen Belzin held the hatch to the pod open. He was eighteen and serving on the Battlestar Galactica as a nugget. He took off his green fatigue jacket and reached into the pod. Covering the shivering baby, he picked up the infant. With his other hand he helped the boy out. Naked and shivering, a young woman ran up to the little boy and covered him with her fatigue jacket. Ensign Belzin and Ensign Lighta did not know at the time that they would adopt the two children, all they knew was that they would do what they could to help the children.
The other pod rocketed past the Armistice Line, and continued through Colonial space.