The idea for this story is based on my fantasy BSG 2003 Reboot.

Chapters 1-8 are to be read as a series.

Chapters 9 and on are to be read as episodes.

All rights and credit is given to RDM and NBC Universal except for my original concepts and characters.

This story features 6-7 BSG characters as well as 6-7 original characters. It is not an AU but is set way into the far off future post Daybreak and fits in line series canon.

Characters include but are not limited to: Saul Tigh, Ellen Tigh, Laura Roslin, Bill Adama, Sharon 'Athena' Agathon, Karl 'Helo' Agathon, D'Anna Biers, Sam Anders and OCs

This story contains strong language, sexual situations, violence and mature complex subject matter just as BSG 2003 did.

**This story also contains mentions of futuristic languages based on linguistics, mostly from Eastern Europe and China. The fantasy languages known as Eastern Federalist (E-Fed), Union, and Eastern Republic (E-Rep) are fictional and not meant to truly emulate French, Chinese, Polish or Russian though they are inspired by a mix of actual dialects. The translations found at the bottom of each chapter ( by reader request) are approximations of each fictional language. The languages are meant to symbolize a melding of linguistics hundreds of years after an apocalyptic event. They are not meant to be taken or used in real life.

Please leave reviews to let me know what you think!

Good Hunting!

LOCATION: ALPHA SPACE STATION; approximately 200 miles above the surface of planet Earth

YEAR: 2315

She silently stood in front of the stasis chambers staring intently as she so often did. It was something she'd grown up doing. It could almost be called a habit, a ritual of sorts but this day was different. The cold recycled air of the space station's laboratory whirred in her ears. The sound was a constant comfort to her throughout her life in Orbit, though she would only have known that had it ever stopped, and it never did. Twisting a strand of her long dark hair around her index finger she peered through the glass of one chamber, then the other, fixated on the precious inhabitants suspended within the crystal clear solution. It had always been one of her favorite places to be. She all but grew up in the sterile laboratory. Hell, she was born there. When the man she called her father was still alive he would bring her there to watch him work. He would explain every process, every theory, every calculation and algorithm to her in great detail though she was only a small child. She was fascinated and enchanted by it all, because, as he told her from the time she was born, it was all for them; the lifeless bodies of the man and woman in the giant tanks.

"We owe everything to them, Yekaterina." She could still hear her foster father say. "The entire human race exists now because of them," He would tell her with such passion it gave her chills long before she was even old enough to understand just what it meant. "Especially you my little Katya, because I made you from them. And one day they may save you and all of us once again," He would say to her over and over. "That is why they are so precious, more precious than even you my koshka. This is why their care is indispensable and why you must look after them, even if one day I am not here with you."

And she did. Even after her father's death Katya continued to stay close to his cherished projects; training with the space station's scientists, monitoring solution quality, keeping up with program projections and even personally caring for the bodies when they were taken out of stasis for chamber maintenance and other procedures. She cherished those times most of all. When the the bodies were out of stasis they were put on life support. Katya would hold the man's cold hands in her own as if she could warm them. She would sit by his side staring at vacant cobalt eyes that so perfectly matched her own. They were usually closed in stasis. She was only able to see them on the rare occasions when he was out.

She would brush the woman's long red hair that seemed more alive than the body it hung from. Though it didn't match her own dark waves Katya was always mesmerized by how much the texture and thickness of the curls felt like her own.

She would always stay with them until they were safely re-submerged. Most days though, she would just come to stare, watching them age at a controlled unnatural pace. She did it even now that she was grown and her interests and capabilities had taken her attentions to other station priorities. She did it even though it upset her husband and took her away from time she probably should have been spending with him. She made sure that she spent time there with them as often as she could no matter what.

The couple who raised her on Alpha Station after her foster father's death had known them. They had known the original "them". They had touched and embraced the original bodies. They were even responsible for providing the materials needed to create the identical reproductions that now existed, but most importantly to Katya, they had known the souls who possessed them. They often told her stories of their times together. They told her of their fight to find the planet she and her people currently orbited. They told her of their character, their passions, their strengths and their flaws. Sometimes while she watched the faces through the glass she would imagine she could see hints of the personalities that her adoptive parents spoke about. Rationally she knew that none of it was really there. She knew that they were just copies, just reproductions of the people who had found Earth over two hundred thousand years ago. They were inanimate replicas, just lifeless shells; at least they would be until later in the day.

The thought made Katya's stomach turn. Though her childhood and adolescence had been consumed with daydreams of a time when it would finally happen age and cynicism had worn away at the fantasy of a happy meeting and warm familial interactions.

It was happening for a higher purpose. It was fulfilling a prophecy. It was for humankind, for the future of Earth, so that her people wouldn't have to abandon the home that so many had fought to find them thousands upon thousands of years before. It wasn't about her.

"Big day today, Captain," A voice startled Katya, interrupting her solemn thoughts.

A petite young woman with dark brown skin and warm happy eyes stood smiling at her.

"Yes," Katya agreed, trying but failing to force even the smallest smile in return.

The woman walked toward her in a bright white lab coat that was at least two sizes too big. She stopped by the chambers and quickly punched some numbers into the screen that sat between the two tanks. She then took a small transparent tablet device out of her lab coat. Like most image screens in Orbit the device looked like nothing more than a thin clear square of plastic but as she swiped her dark delicate fingers over its smooth surface it began to glow with colors and graphics and endless streams of data. The scientist recorded her findings onto the tablet before slipping it back into her coat pocket.

"We already started to decrease the chamber pressure last night. We should actually have them out within the next few hours if all goes as planned," The cheerful woman explained. "I'm sure you'll want to prep them for the download," She added with a smile.

Katya looked passed her toward the screen and then back to each tank before stubbornly crossing her arms in front of herself.

"Not this time, Sydra," Katya said without taking her eyes off of the glass.

"But why?" The smaller woman asked, visibly surprised.
When Katya didn't answer she went on.
"I just assumed that you would want to get the bodies ready. Maybe spend some time with them? You always take such good care of them during maintenance. Why not brush her hair today when she will finally be able to appreciate it?" The young doctor tried to joke.

"I won't be coming today," Katya said softly, still not offering the other woman any eye contact.

"Not coming?" Dr. Sydra gawked. "But why? How could you miss it? After all you're…"

"I'm just not coming today," Katya sternly cut her off before she could finish.

The young women reluctantly nodded in acceptance. More than a little confused she slowly walked away to return to her lab work leaving Katya to stare at the tanks alone.

"The hell you're not!" A grumbling voice suddenly shouted from behind her.

Katya winced but didn't bother to turn around.

"You can't force me to go, Uncle Saul," She retorted keeping her focus firmly intact as the grumpy balding man joined her by her side.

"Katya, come on now, we've been over this a thousand times. The download is scheduled to begin at fourteen hundred hours and I sure as frak expect you to be there," He barked.

"Expect it all you want. I'm not going." Katya said in protest.

"This is absurd. You know how important this is, to all of us," He argued glaring at her in frustration with his one eye.

Growing up Katya had always been surprised at how much emotion just one eye could convey. She knew his people probably had the technology to repair it for centuries. They'd sure enough gone through great lengths to stop the aging process on he and his wife, and yet she'd met him with a scowl and a patch on his face. She knew that when Saul and his wife had moved to Alpha Station the doctors aboard had offered to procure him a cloned tissue or digital ocular substitute quite a few times. He'd refused every offer. Katya had asked him once why it was that he didn't want his vision fully restored, let alone his face repaired. He had told her that it didn't feel right. He told her that the people he had fought alongside had suffered greatly and long been dead and buried. He lamented that he couldn't change it or anything else that was lost during their battles. He said that he already had to live an eternity without them; so he might as well live with a constant reminder of the times he struggled by their sides. For a moment Katya wondered if he would feel differently by the end of the day.

"We don't even know if it's going to work," She said looking away from him, knowing the anger that her snide remark would spark.

"It'll work, and you and everyone orbiting the planet better hope like hell that it does," He growled.

"I hope it works, you know that," She defended. "I just don't want to be there. Aunt Ellen understands, Alexi understands. Why can't you?"

She shook her head and Saul grabbed forcefully at her arm.

"I understand just fine, little girl. And for the record Ellen wants you to be there. She could sure use your damn support," He added as he wagged his finger in her face.

"And another thing; that husband of yours has a bigger chip on his shoulder than you do. Stop letting him take away your hope because he's got none."

Saul had a point. Katya's husband had his own demons to deal with over where he came from. Alexi was hopelessly ashamed of coming from the clones of the ancient cylon Six and the infamous Doctor Baltar. When their stasis chambers were destroyed during an attack on Gamma Station Alexi had insisted it was a blessing for him, no matter what the prophecy said. He said it was just one less reminder and that it would make it easier for him to forget about his birth parents altogether. He told Katya that she would do herself a service to try and forget as well before she set herself up for great disappointment. She used to think Alexi was a cynic, but Uncle Saul was right, and at some point she had started to believe her husband's way of thinking.

"We understand your concerns, but dammit this is it Katya! This is what the prophecy is telling us needs to happen and take it from me; I've learned a thing or two about this stuff having gone through it a few hundred thousand years ago! This is what it's all about!" He went on, turning her by her shoulders to face him.

"I know what this is about," She spit back.

Saul paused in the face of Katya's obvious anger and distress. He eased his grip on her and gave her as much of a smile as he ever gave anyone.

"Ya know, when you were a little girl you would sit on my lap and ask me question after question about the two of them. You had me tell you every story I could remember about 'em until you could recite it all back to me word for word," He told her, hoping to incite her lost enthusiasm. "You can't tell me part of you doesn't want to be there today to ask them all the questions I couldn't answer for you. Ellen and I know you're afraid of their reaction to all of this. Believe me, I am too. You know I'm not too overjoyed about tearing people away from what's supposed to be their eternal resting place, but we have the means now and unfortunately we have the need…And they would want to help, Kat. They will help. Trust me. If they have any notion of what's happened here they aren't resting peacefully. They didn't go through all they did so that their people's descendants would eventually have to hover over the planet held up in a bunch of bunkers. They gave their lives for Earth. They wouldn't want its people to give up on what they worked so hard for. This has all happened before, but it doesn't have to happen again, Katya."

She was silent for a moment, trying like hell not to let the tears in her eyes slip. When she went to speak he cut her off.

"I know you're worried about them finding out what…who you are...but we don't have to deal with that right away," He said with a soft squeeze to her shoulder.

"So are you finally agreeing not to tell them?" She tested though she knew his answer.

"Of course not. You know I won't lie to the Old Man, even by omission. Doing that wouldn't be any more fair to them than anything else we're doing. We owe them at most our lives and at the very least our honesty."

Katya nodded and let out the breath she held. She already knew that he wouldn't lie. She'd wasted countless hours trying to convince him. Dozens of family meals had been ruined by shouting and tears as they fought over the topic. Ellen was the only one who had even entertained the thought, but Saul wouldn't hear of it.

"They won't want to know me," Katya sighed, turning back to the chambers. "She's going to be appalled."

Saul put his arm around Katya's shoulders and hugged her close to his side.

"Kat, you don't know that," He attempted. "And if they don't…if she is…then so be it. This is the hand you were dealt. You didn't ask for it and it's not easy, but you have to walk your own path no matter how treacherous. We can't assume how they will react, but I know the Old Man. Even after two hundred thousand years I know the man he was and I think at least he might be more accepting than you think…eventually."

Katya rolled her eyes and huffed.

"And Kat," He went on, "You know me and Ellen...we love ya. We love you no matter what. You're our little girl and we've always loved you just like you were our own. If nothing else, you know that won't change."

At that she nodded and leaned into his embrace. As gruff as he was he had always been there for her. He had always been so sweet to her and to Ellen when no one else was around to see his boorish reputation tarnished by kind sentiments and protective hugs. When the man she had called her father was killed she was only seven years old. She was so afraid of being alone, of being just another orphan on Alpha Station without anyone to call family. Then the ancient cylon couple had shown up. Once they learned of who and what she was they had scooped her up and embraced her, never allowing her to feel alone or abandoned again. Over the past fifteen years the three of them had made a strange yet relatively loving little family and Katya was eternally grateful for them with all of their quirks and oddities.

Katya's silence made Saul squeeze her even harder.

"DNA doesn't make a family. You know that, Kat," He told her more softly than before. "But knowing someone is your blood, that's a powerful bond. I've seen it. Why do you think you've had your eyeballs glued to those tanks your whole life? Cause the Old Man's such a looker? Hell, no. They belong to you, and you belong to them...in some way."

But Katya knew that she didn't. She belonged to their copies. She belonged to their lifeless clones. She was made from two hollow shells and not by the ancient souls they would soon house. She wasn't their choice. She didn't come from their love that she had heard about all of her life. Alexi was right; he and Katya were part of a failed experiment; the bright idea, the plan B of well meaning scientists like her father and government delegates who panicked when the project wasn't going quickly enough. She would never belong to Bill Adama and Laura Roslin.

"So I'll see you at fourteen hundred then?" Saul said turning to her, straightening his posture and assuming his typical exterior once more.

"Do I really have a choice?" She asked, reluctantly facing him.

"Gods no. It's time to buck up, Captain."

With that she saluted him. He returned the gesture and turned on his heels to leave.

She looked back to the tanks, the number on the control screen rapidly counting down to their goal.

Saul stopped at the laboratory hatch and called back.

"You know we'll be there with you, Katya" He said before turning to leave.

She only half turned and nodded but she could see the tentative hope in his face. She thought for a moment that he must be as nervous as she was. He surely wasn't an optimist but this was something he had to believe would work out.

"And make sure that husband of yours is there with you. Might as well make this as awkward as possible," Saul joked as he walked out the lab hatch and outside security closed it behind him.

Once she was alone again Katya ran her fingers over the cold clammy glass of each tank trying to commit the familiar sensation to memory. She knew it would be the last time she would stand there. For a moment longer she stayed staring at each chamber wishing she had been raised to pray to deities. One all knowing all powerful God would do, or maybe even an army of strong but flawed demigods. But there was no one to pray to anymore, no higher power to look to. She sighed again letting her shoulders slump. Her father had told her once; that was what happened when you looked to gods and found them to be but men.