PROLOGUE

150000 YEARS AGO…

She rode away from the blue-green orb at sublight velocities accompanied by a knot of smaller vessels, the Colonial Fleet. Together they headed straight for the most brilliant point of light in the sky, a source of radiance and warmth, the parent sun of humanity's new home, Earth. They were but hours from their final rendezvous, the last journey any of these ships would ever embark upon. The Battlestar Galactica led this suicide charge, as it were, into the stellar furnace that would soon claim them and make them onto a level of existence less than dust.

Samuel Anders lay in his Hybrid pool, voicing the many random titbits of information channelled to him through the datastream. He was the pilot. He guided the Fleet on its final journey. There was not much time left now as they made a close pass of this system's innermost world. It was a dry, airless, torrid rock floating in space, pockmarked with craters. Anders made a few choice course corrections to keep the fleet on target for a simultaneous collision with the star's outer atmosphere when a series of systems faults and power fluctuations flooded into his conscious awareness. "Fluctuation in feedback from primary sensor array, isolating navigational sensors from error. Environmental systems failure, air temperature dropping ship-wide, CO2 scrubbers rendered ineffective. No matter, our course is set. Our final destiny awaits…NO! Sublight engine cooling unit failure. Engine temperatures approaching critical. No, we must not waver, we must not diverge from this path. We have to be consumed in all-encompassing light…Total engine failure, we slow, slowing, slowing…we drift. The others, they still follow a path that shall lead them into the embrace of the fiery corona. We lay here in the path of a dead sphere of stone. We will not find our way to the light but forever be taunted by its presence so near, so near."

Despair consumed him now as he sensed the gravitational pull of the oncoming planet pull him down to its dull and dreary self. A solitary wandered down his face as he gazed upward saying, "I told her I'd see her on the other side."

A hand appeared from nowhere, caressing his cheek, and gently pulling his head to the right. The woman who stared back at him with warmth and love had beautiful hazel eyes and flowing straight, blonde hair. Her smile was like a soothing melody that brought calm and comfort as she used her other hand to wipe away his tears. From her touch, he knew she was really there, but he felt the need to confirm it, so he reached with his left hand to brush back the hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear. It was then that she leant in and kissed him on the lips gently. To Anders, it was perfection, sweet ecstasy. In that moment though, his Hybrid mind-set seemed to dissolve, his former identity reconstituting itself, returning to the fore. He inhaled sharply and thrashed in the tub as though he were surfacing after a long submersion in the cold, cold depths. The woman held him still and whispered in his ear, "Shhhhh, it's okay. I'm here now, and I'll be here with you always."

"What's happening? How'd you get here?"

"All that doesn't matter any longer. What's important is that our journey is not yet complete. I believed we would see each other on the other side, but God has other plans."

"I don't understand."

"You will, in time."

The ship began to shudder as it made its descent, though with little to no atmospheric resistance, it was merely the forces of gravity at work. Lights and system controls continued to flicker around them, sparks erupting in places. The woman just held him up with an arm around his shoulders and continued to stroke his face. She said, "You must sleep now, Sam, for a very long time. You have a greater purpose. You are integral to God's plan. The cycle is inevitable. The question is not will it happen but when. God knows when, only you can change the outcome."

"How will I sleep?"

"The tub will preserve you in a dormant state. Only when other souls step aboard this vessel will you reawaken. I must go now, Sam."

Grabbing her hand tight, he asked desperately, "Will I see you again?"

She smiled her cheeky grin and said, "Let's just say I will be back, but not as you might expect."

The Galactica groaned as her hull flexed under the force of gravity. The ship was nearing the surface. All the major systems lost power as it was diverted towards Anders' tub. He held on to her hand tighter and said, "I'm scared. Promise me I'll see you again."

"I promise."

"I love you, Kara."

"I love you, too, Sam…but that's not my name."

In a split second, she vanished as though she were vapour slipping between his fingers. His eyes rolled back into their sockets ass he lost consciousness. Finally, the lights flickered and died on the CIC, and the Battlestar Galactica disappeared into the dark depths of a sheltered crater.

Earth – 20 years later…

The cave was poorly lit and dingy, but it was the only place safe to give birth with all the predators on this planet. Already, several of the group had fallen victim to attack by large felines who then surrendered their leftovers to packs of marauding canines. Sol and Ellen made their way inside with haste, wrinkling their noses from the smell of guano. Already, Gauis Baltar and Caprica Six were present along with their panicked son who was also soon to be a father, Liam. He looked much like his father himself, but had his mother's height for certain. He held the hand of his distressed wife tightly as Doc Cottle attempted to deliver her baby. It was hard to believe that this twenty-four year old woman was once the little child who stirred up such controversy by the mere miracle of her existence, the result of a mating of a human and a Cylon, Hera Agathon.

She lay on a bed of animal furs so as not to contaminate her with the filth that constituted the floor. Whilst her husband held her left hand, her mother, Athena, knelt beside her right, holding her by the hand and elbow. She cried an endless stream of tears and pleaded with Cottle to help her little girl. The labour had already lasted eighteen hours, and Hera was growing weak. Her pregnancy had been difficult, plagued with problems that Doc Cottle could do little about without any of his equipment. Liam, too, cried for his struggling wife, feeling guilt and remorse as not long after they were married, she found out she was pregnant and almost immediately needed to be put on bed rest, or the best approximation of it given their nomadic lifestyle. The last nine months she had felt like a constant burden, and her mood swings usually landed her in a state of brutal depression. He thought that maybe it was partly due to the recent death of her father, Helo.

Just a month before they were due to be married, they had all gone on a hunting trip together into the grasslands. As they traversed the open savannah and into the scrublands, they came across a herd of small, deer-like creatures with brown backs and white underbellies separated by a black stripe. Her father, unfortunately, chose a target among the herd that had already been claimed by something else. When he scared off the buck, the predator decided he would do instead. A spotted feline emerged from the high grass as if out of nowhere and lunged at his throat. They had all speared the animal to death before it could totally kill him, but the wound was mortal.

He did not make back to their encampment.

Hera had struggled with her own guilt, feeling that she could have saved him and that perhaps she had been too easily convinced to take that trip; she had been feeling ill, probably the early symptoms of her as yet unknown pregnancy, but Helo had been adamant about them all going or not at all. As she inhaled and exhaled rapidly, punctuated by bloodcurdling screams, Caprica whispered to Gaius, "She's going to die, isn't she?"

"I don't know, my love. Let's hope not."

"I don't understand. God wanted us to protect her, to save her, but for what? Surely not this."

"I don't get it either. It seems like such a waste."

"Liam is going to be devastated."

At that point, Caprica cried into his shoulder as he put his arm around her, his own eyes watering. Doc Cottle shouted encouragingly, "All right, Hera, you can do this. The head's almost out, just a few more pushes, okay?" She barely acknowledged him but then, Cottle started counting. "…Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, PUSH!"

And she did, as hard as she could. This repeated a few more times before the baby slipped from her womb. Cottle held her up before Hera and said, "It's a little girl. Congratulations, Hera, you did it."

Everyone seemed a little relieved. The child seemed fine and did not so much as cry, but Hera spoke distantly, "Can I hold her?"

Doc Cottle passed the baby girl to her mother, and she said, "Hello, little girl, I name you Azura."

"That's a beautiful name," Athena said.

She cradled the child for a moment longer before passing her to Liam, who held her close in his arms, crying tears of joy. Everyone smiled except for Gaius, Caprica, and Doc Cottle. Cottle saw the colour leave her cheeks as her breathing shallowed. He looked straight down to see blood spilling from her uterus. He yelled, "My Gods, she's haemorrhaging."

Hera's arms feel limply to her sides, and her eyes became vacant as though she were looking past everyone and everything. Athena gripped her daughter's shoulder and said, "Baby, please don't go. Please!"

Liam cradled little Azura who remained quiet and peaceful despite the crying and the screaming. Athena stared at Cottle pleadingly, but helpless, he just said, "I can't stop it. I'm so sorry."

Athena wailed as Liam trembled, despite now being comforted by his parents. Sol and Ellen held each other, tears welling up. Yet, just as life seemed to be leaving her, she momentarily became alert, staring at Ellen and Sol. She said, "Tigh, protect my daughter."

"Of…of course…but I ain't got many years left in me, kiddo."

"She's important, like I was."

"We all know that, she'll be well looked after."

Vacancy returned to her expression as she said, "None of them along her line will know what they are worth."

Sol's expression was one of shock, as Hera lost consciousness and passed on. Azura fell asleep in her father's arms.

2009 AD…

At a newsstand on a busy New York street, a man purchased the latest copy of the National Geographic magazine with a story of a major find in the world of archaeology. He immediately opened it to the appropriate page and began to read. However, as soon as he had opened the article, a man and woman appeared at his back and peered over his shoulder at the magazine. The woman began to read it aloud, but the man didn't so much as flinch, as though he were totally unaware of their existence, probably as they would like it, given the circumstance. She began, "At a scientific conference this week at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the startling announcement was made that archaeologists believe they have found the fossilised remains of a young woman who may actually be Mitochondrial Eve. Mitochondrial Eve is the name scientists have given to the most recent common ancestor of all human beings now living on Earth. She lived in what is now Tanzania over one hundred and fifty thousand years ago."

The man added jestingly, "Along with her Cylon mother and human father!"

As the man departed, they, too, walked along the busy pavement. The woman eyed her surroundings, saying, "Commercialism, decadence, technology run amuck. Remind you of anything?"

The man replied, "Take your pick, Kobol, Earth…the real Earth before this one, Caprica before the Fall."

"All of this has happened before…"

Interjecting, he said, "…But the question remains, does all of this have to happen again?"

"This time, I bet no."

The man stopped, turning to the woman, he asked, "You know I've never known you to play the optimist, why the change of heart?"

"Mathematics, law of averages, let a complex system repeat itself long enough, eventually something surprising might occur. That, too, is in God's plan."

The man leant in and said, "You know he doesn't like that name." The woman merely gave him a disdainful look, and he simply said, "Silly me, silly, silly me."

They continued to stroll down the street as a familiar tune played over a radio. The woman said, "I suppose some things are inevitable."

The man replied, "What makes a good tune is a constant in human society I guess."

As they observed the many advances in robotics being played out on TV sets in a number of technology stores and news agents, they both stopped dead in their tracks at a street corner and looked at each other with surprised smiles. The man said, "Well, it would seem we will know the answer to that question very soon."

She replied, "Indeed, too bad God doesn't feel we have a part to play in this."

"Not yet anyhow, but our counterparts should do nicely."

"They've seen this happen before."

"Hopefully, their guidance will prevent it happening again."