Battlestar Galactica

Lost Salvation

In the vast empty expanse of space, two small sleek craft make their way thru the endless night that had been their home for nearly ten yahren as they searched for what many believed was nothing more then a fable. These two were the advance scouts for a small, vagabond fleet of ships carrying the last remnants of a once thriving civilization. A civilization that was all but wiped out of existence by an enemy without mercy or conscience, an enemy who's only reason to exist was to destroy the life form known as man.

Piloting the two craft, what the humans called Vipers, were two of their finest Warriors, Captain Apollo and Lieutenant Starbuck. Apollo and Starbuck had served together for many yahren and were the very best of friends. Their mission on this occasion was to explore a distant star system that lay along the course of their fleet, a course they had followed for the better part of eight yahren. It was believed by the leader of their people, Commander Adama, that a branch of humanity had set off along the course they now followed some seven millennium before, in search of a new world.

As the legend had it, human life began on the planet Kobol, a planet that was dying. The system that Kobol was a part of had but a single star that was burning itself out, thus turning the once lush, green planet into a dry, arid and totally uninhabitable wasteland. The people of the Kobol, knowing that their world could not sustain them any longer, built massive transports by which they would move their people to another world where they could rebuild their civilization.

It took generations for them to complete their fleet of transports, but once they were finished, the people boarded the great ships and set off for the stars, where after hundreds of yahren, the found a star system consisting of twelve planets and three stars. Each of the different ethnic groups of the fleet, what they referred to as "tribes", claimed one of the planets as their own and began the process of colonization.

The last of these tribes to leave Kobol decided to go in a different direction however, preferring to strikeout on their own. And so the "thirteenth tribe of Kobol" went off into deep space, never to be heard from again. But the legends about them were passed on from one generation to the next until they became less and less a piece of history and more the fabric of fable or fantasy.

It was this legend that had led Commander Adama to seek out these lost brothers of man in the hope that they might be able to aid them in there flight from their relentless enemy.

The Cylons!

"Hey Apollo, do you think we'll find anything this time?" Starbuck asked, not believing their luck would change after having searched so many star systems in the past without any positive results.

"I don't know Starbuck; we've searched every star system from Terra to here for signs of the thirteenth tribe and haven't found much of anything." Apollo replied. "But this system does fit the description of the one that Earth is suppose to be in, nine planets circling a single star."

"Yea, I know but, we've found dozens of systems like this one and so far we've found nothing!"

"I know Starbuck, but I have a feeling about this one." Apollo told his discouraged friend. "This is the first star system we've found that was directly along the course we got from the beings from the ships of light. All the other systems we've checked we had to deviate from the point nine course."

It wasn't long before the two Vipers entered the star system and began their reconnaissance of the nine planets.

"Okay Starbuck, lets split up and see what we can find. Keep in contact and yell if you find anything."

"Will do, I'm going right." Starbuck said as he peeled off to Apollo's right, his turbo's blazing white exhaust.

"Right, I'm going left." Apollo said turning toward the first planet in the system.

The first planet he came to was totally uninhabitable. It was made up almost entirely of frozen nitrogen and was so cold; it hardly registered any temperature at all. Apollo wasted little time leaving this cold little planet behind.

The next planet Apollo checked was perhaps the most beautiful planet of the system as its massive rings were reminiscent of some of the planets Apollo remembered from the star systems of their own galaxy. It was a giant of a planet, measuring nearly a hundred twenty thousand kilometrons in diameter. Two things Apollo found very interesting about this planet were that it rotated at such a high rate of speed, the "poles" of the planet were flattened out somewhat and that the planets density was so low, that if placed in water, it would float, that is if a body of water could be found that was large enough to hold it.

Apollo also noted that the winds on the planets "surface" were in excess of seventeen hundred kilometrons per centar and that there were thirty six natural satellites in orbit and what at a distance looked to be three large rings was in truth many smaller rings. Satisfied that there was no way human beings could survive on this planet, he made his way to the next one.

The next planet Apollo checked was gigantic compared to the others in the system. It was so large that, if it were hollow, it could easily hold all of the other planets and their moons inside it! Apollo had to be very careful not to get too close or he might get caught in the gravity well of this monstrous world. He made several orbits of the giant planet, finding some twenty eight moons and a single ring in orbit. Several of the moons he found here were larger then the first planet he had investigated. The planets atmosphere was comprised of hydrogen and helium and the gravity was nearly two and a half times that of Caprica's. No way humans could survive on this world.

Apollo checked his chronometer and found that it was almost time to rendezvous with Starbuck, so he turned his Viper toward the coordinates he was to meet his wingmate at and left the giant planet behind.

Starbucks first planet was a medium sized, blue world comprised of compressed gas. He entered a high orbit and began his scans. It had eight moons in orbit and four small, thin rings swirling about it, one of which seemed to "twist" in places. With an atmosphere comprised mostly of hydrogen, helium, and methane and wind speeds reaching two thousand kilometrons per centar, it was no surprise to him that there were no life signs. Starbuck turned his viper away from the planet and headed for the next one.

Starbuck made his way toward the second planet in his area, a medium sized blue-green planet orbiting nearly three billion kilometrons from the single star of the system. He was sure that he would find no life form readings on the planet, just as they had found none on any of the other thousand or so planets they had searched over the yahren, but it was his duty and he would carry out his search to the best of his abilities.

It was a fairly unspectacular planet, atmosphere made up of hydrogen, helium, methane and just a touch of acetylene and some other hydrocarbons. He measured winds ranging in velocity from forty to a hundred sixty metrons per micron blowing across the surface. He also noted that the planet had twenty two moons in orbit and as many as fifteen rings. After a few orbits to verify his readings, Starbuck moved on to the next planet in the system where he would meet up with Apollo.

A short time later Starbuck pulled his ship in next to Apollo's. He asked Starbuck if he had found anything.

"Not a thing." Starbuck replied. "The two planets I checked out were not even close to being able to sustain life as we know it."

"Yea, I know, but we have to check anyway." Apollo said. "We can't afford to miss anything. Besides, these first five planets are all well outside the "habitable zone" for humans. Once we get thru that asteroid field ahead, there are at least three planets that might have some kind of life."

"Well, I guess the sooner we get started, the sooner we can head back to the Galactica." Starbuck said. "I told Cassie I'd take her to the Rising Star tonight."

"Oh really, what's the occasion?" Apollo asked with a big grin on his face.

"Oh ah, no occasion, I just wanted to take her someplace nice is all!" Starbuck said somewhat defensively.

Apollo shook his head and laughed as he led the way thru the asteroid field.

When the two Vipers emerged from the asteroids, they were greeted by a bright, shining planet. It was very similar in size to the planet Aries back in the colonies but was all together different. As Apollo and Starbuck approached, they found that their scans of the planet were being obscured by the planets extremely dense atmosphere.

"Hey Apollo, are you picking up anything?" Starbuck asked.

"Not much, the atmosphere of this planet is about ninety times as dense as Caprica's and is almost totally made up of carbon dioxide." Apollo said as he tried to increase his scanners resolution. "Add to that the fact that the planet is fully enveloped in clouds made of sulfuric acid, I doubt that we'll get any solid readings from this planet. One things for sure thou, it's a sure bet there isn't any human life of this planet."

"So, which way do we go now?" Starbuck asked, looking at his scanner. "The next two planets are about the same distance from here. Maybe we should split up again."

'Well we could, but I don't think we have to worry about that small planet to port, my long range scans of it show a surface temperature well above human tolerances, even with environmental domes." Apollo said. "Let's head for the planet to starboard first then we can catch the one to port on the way back."

"Sounds good to me." Starbuck said.

The two Vipers approached the next planet and found it to be quite an eerie sight. The first thing that struck them was the color of the planet, a very dark, forbidding red.

"Hey Apollo, does this place remind you of anything?" Starbuck said, the trepidation in his voice very evident.

"Yea, the planet we found Count Iblis on." Apollo said in a hushed tone.

They continued on toward the red planet, hoping that the strange color was nothing more then a coincidence. They began their scans of the planet and were surprised by what they found.

"Hey Starbuck, are you picking up anything on the magnetometer?" Apollo asked.

"Yea, looks like some kind of forged metal down there." Starbuck replied. "What do think it is?"

"Good question, I wish I knew. Let's go down and take a closer look."

The two Vipers sweep in low over the planet and slowed their speed to get the best view possible of the surface. When they came upon the area where the metallic readings were, they slowed down even more and began low level passes of the surface.

There were several locations on the surface that the mysterious metal objects were detected. At each location, they found several items spread out over several kilometrons that were made of refined metals and other materials that could not be natural. It was at one of these that Apollo was able to spot what looked like a small vehicle of some sort.

Most of the vehicle was covered by dirt from countless storms that had blown thru the area in the past, but there was enough of it visible to tell that at one time it had been some kind of small, robotic probe vehicle, probably sent to this planet as part of a research project by some unknown people. There was no telling how long it had lain on the red planet.

Apollo wanted to land and pick the strange vehicle up so they could take it back to the Galactica to be studied, but after analyzing the atmosphere, it would be impossible to land without environmental suits. Instead he recorded the exact locations of all the metal objects so that they could come back and retrieve them at a later time.

With that done, they moved on to the next planet.

The planet was very close to the size of Caprica, but looked little like it. This world was surrounded by dark, swirling clouds of dust that obscured the surface and made any visual reconnaissance impossible. Apollo began taking readings of the planet and found it was surrounded by extremely high levels of radiation and that the surface temperature was well below the freezing point. He detected large bodies of water that were covered with thick layers of ice, ice that was over a kilometron thick in places. There were also a large number of heat sources detected on the surface. Apollo thought these must be caused by volcanoes or some other natural seismic activity. A check of the atmosphere showed high levels of methane and carbon dioxide along with sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide, all commonly found in volcanic regions.

Apollo called Starbuck to see if he had found anything of interest on the planet.

"Not a thing, from what I'm picking up on my scanners, this rock couldn't sustain any kind of life as we know it. Not even the Cylons could survive down there for more then a few centars!" Starbuck told him. "You think we should take a closer look?"

"No, the radiation levels are far too high to get close enough to see the surface. I'm having trouble getting more then a few vague readings as it is. Looks like you were right Starbuck; this was just another one of those empty star systems. What do you say we call it day and head back to the Galactica?"

"You'll get no argument from me buddy!" Starbuck said as he brought his Viper alongside Apollo's

Apollo nodded over to his friend and the two ships streaked away, their turbo's leaving a bright trail behind them.

"You know Starbuck, there's one thing about that last planet I don't understand." Apollo said.

"What's that?"

"How many planets have we scanned over the yahren? A thousand? Two thousand?"

"I don't know, I'd say at least a thousand, why?" Starbuck said.

"I was just thinking ….. how many of those planets do you remember having radiation levels as high as those we found on that last planet that occurred naturally?"

Starbuck thought about it for a moment before answering.

"None!"

"Yea, none!" Apollo replied thoughtfully as the two Vipers continued on toward the giant war ship they had called home for the past ten yahren.

Back on the surface of the dark, forbidding world, the fires continued to burn, giving the landscape a hellish aspect. If the two space travelers had braved the radiation and descended below the clouds of dust and ash that enveloped the planet, they would have found a scene out of their worse nightmares. What they had believed to be volcanoes covering the surface of this inhospitable world were in truth the remains of what had been a thriving civilization only a short time before. The fires raged thru what had once been great metropolis's, fueled by the structures that had once reached high into what had been a bright blue sky.

But no more.

Now this was a dead world.

A world devoid of all life.

A world murdered by one being.

A being with an undeniable thrust for revenge!

A being that at that very moment stood in the middle of the devastation and laughed.

"Did you think I would not have my revenge Apollo?" the being yelled at the dark sky above. "Did you think I would just let pass the insult you and your pathetic species inflicted upon me? I told you I'd have my revenge! I told you you had not seen the last of me!"

The being swung its arms wide as if to encompass the nightmare landscape and laughed before beginning its tirade anew.

"What do you think of this little world I made for you? Don't you like it? I prepared it just for you and your people. The inhabitants of this world were oh so accommodating when I offered to give them the power to destroy their enemies. It took so little convincing to get them to launch every weapon of mass destruction they had at each other, and look at the wondrous results!"

"Yes Apollo, look at this wonderful world and delight in the fact that you have finally found that for which you have sought. Welcome to your salvation Apollo! Welcome to the world your father dragged your people across the heavens to find."

"Welcome to Earth!"

And with that said, Count Iblis, dressed in long white robes began to laugh loudly as he slowly disappeared.

THE END