The ODYSSEY

Chapter 2: Frak!

Kara was a day's hike away from New Caprica city. She had gotten sick of the depressing nature of the city that was still trying to build itself and develop an infrastructure. She needed to get away from it all and so had decided to venture off towards the mountains. Kara had asked Sam if he wanted to join her but it looked like he was suffering from pneumonia.

She had just crested a small mountain and was looking back down onto the delta that New Caprica City was situated on when a loud explosion behind her spun her around. "What the frak?!" she exclaimed as she looked up and saw a fireball come crashing to the surface.

She was about to write it off as just a piece of space rock when she saw four small specks follow in its wake, however at a much more controlled speed. When she saw the four objects decrease their speed the closer they got to the surface she knew that what she had seen was not an asteroid. Those were controlled flight objects. She marked their landing site as she raced down the side of the mountain to investigate, figuring that the Old Man would be sending a team to investigate as well.


"Ugh," was the low guttural sound as the lid was removed from Jack O'Neill's escape pod. He shielded his eyes from the bright light and saw the contrasted form of his teammate. "Daniel," he breathed out in relief.

"Yeah, Jack. Come on," as he offered his hand to help him out of their coffin shaped salvation.

"Where are the others?" Jack asked as he looked around the mostly rocky surroundings.

Daniel continued up the small slope of the hill they were on, "This way."

They first came upon Teal'c's vessel and eased him out of it. As they lowered him to the ground Teal'c began to come to.

"You're awake," Jack exclaimed after finally get some good news.

"I am."

"How ya feeling big guy?"

There was a short pause as Teal'c took a mental inventory of his body. "I have been better."

"How's Junior?" he asked cautiously.

Another pause. "He is weak, but with enough time he should recover."

"Good. Sit tight, we're going to go find Carter," he patted his friend on the shoulder as he stood up and moved on.

When he looked up Daniel already had the lid removed from the fourth pod. "Sam?"

The moment Jack saw Daniel reach in to the coffin towards her head and have a look of intense concentration on his face he broke into a sprint to find out her status.

"Daniel?" he called out warningly.

The man in question looked up and nodded, "She's got a pulse, she's just unconscious. She must have passed out during re-entry. Her hands can't be feeling any better, that was a pretty rough ride."

After checking himself for a pulse, he leaned back on his haunches and touched his hand to his forehead, "Yeah, I definitely banged my head a few times." He looked up at his teammate, "Come on, let's get her out of there."

An hour later they heard the clear sounds of a ship entering orbit and heading towards the plume of black smoke that was coming from the other side of the mountain they were on. They looked overhead as they tried to recognize the two inbound vessels.

"Anyone?" Jack called out with the implicit question that they all understood to be, 'Recognize those ships?'

An array of ,"Nope," "No, sir," and "I am unfamiliar with this type of vessel," was his response.

"Alright, in the mean time let's take cover. Just in case," he was reaching for the one tunic they had between them that laid on the ground when an unknown voice startled them.

"Hold it right there you mother frakking toasters!"

The entire team turned around as they all subconsciously reached for a side arm that was not present. The only thing that prevented Kara from shooting them at their sudden movements was that she had been monitoring their movements for ten minutes and hadn't seen any signs of weapons among the group of four.

"Hands up, nice and slow!" she gestured with her weapon.

SG-1 slowly complied with the order seeing as they really had no other options. Despite the fact that they outnumbered her four to one, she had a weapon.

"How'd you find us?"

"Look lady, we just crash landed here, we have no idea where we are or who yo-"

"Don't lie to me you Skinjob! You're here to infiltrate the city aren't you?!" She waved her gun more menacingly as she urged them to continue their way up the hill towards where the other ship had landed. "Frakking toaster's," she uttered to herself.

"What the hell are you talking about! Why are you calling us toaster's?" Jack shot back thoroughly confused by her choice of insults.

She paused as she eyed them carefully, "Because that's what you Cylons are!"

Daniel turned around and tried to be more gentle than Jack, "Look, we're not Cylons. We have no idea who they are. Like he said, we just-"

"Shut up and keep moving," she told them as she moved her gun to point at each one of them individually.

They continued on in relative silence, the members of SG-1 silently speaking to one another intermittently. Behind them Kara kept a watchful eye as she marched them towards the raptors. Small bits of doubt invaded her mind. The four individuals – Cylons, she corrected herself, looked worse for wear. They looked like they had been tortured, and the woman's hands were covered in burns. She also thought about how they looked completely confused by the epithets she had hurled at them. 'Just a Cylon trick,' she tried to convince herself.

After an hour of hiking they were coming down the other side of the mountain and the marines from the landing party were heading their way to join them.

"Starbuck?"

Kara finally took her eyes off her prisoners as the squad of marines surrounded them. "Look what I found Helo."

Her old friend shook his head, leave it to Starbuck to come waltzing over back with four unknowns under watch.

"Who are they?" he asked.

"They gotta be Skinjobs."

At that the marines visibly tightened their fingers on the triggers.

The elevated tension did not go unnoticed by the members of SG-1. "This is so not good," Jack mumbled under his breath.

"Secure them and load 'em up," another voice called out as the marines stepped even closer and secured handcuffs on the wrists of each new comer.

Sam was the only one lucky enough to get her hands secured in front of her due to the injuries on her hand. 'At least they're not uncompassionate,' she mused.

As they neared the two raptors Helo took charge of the situation once again. "Split 'em up. Mathias I want you to take them back up to Galactica. Leave two marines here with Starbuck and me, we're going to take a look around at their wreckage. Send a shuttle back here in six hours, before nightfall."

"Yes sir," she dutifully answered as she had Jack and Sam loaded into one raptor and Daniel and Teal'c in the other.


When the two raptors reached the Galactica an even larger contingent of marines was waiting for them.

"Not a very trusting bunch, are they," Jack commented to Sam who couldn't help but smirk at the evident truth before them.

They turned their attention when they heard the lead marine address an officer on the deck. "Admiral, one of the prisoner's is injured," Mathias told her CO as she pointed at Sam.

Finally knowing who the man in charge was, Jack decided to speak up. "Look, Admiral, I think there's been some kind of misunderstanding."

Adama studied the man carefully before turning back to the Sergeant. "Take her to the infirmary and the rest down to the brig."

"Yes sir," she smartly replied before mobilizing her troops into action.


Three hours after the two raptors had left, the three colonial fleet members and Kara were making their way to the site where Kara had found the four newcomers. Karl and Kara were leaned over one of the empty pods when one of the other marines called out to them.

"Sir, I think this belongs to one of the prisoners."

The two friends looked up and saw the marine holding up a green field tunic. Both of them stood up and walked over to the marine.

"Yeah, the old one was moving to pick it up when I came upon them."

Helo took it in his hands as he looked around, "This the only one?"

"I haven't found any others sir," the marine replied.

Helo turned back to Kara who had taken the tunic from him and was intently looking at a patch on the left sleeve of the shirt.

"Do you think it strange that they only had one jacket between the four of them?" He continued to survey their surroundings. When he hadn't heard a response he turned back to Kara, "Kara?"

"Frak me," she whispered to herself as she ran her finger over the patch, and traced the upside down V with a small open circle at the apex. Only five people had seen that symbol before.

"Helo, I have to get back to the Galactica right now."

Helo looked away once again, "Relax Starbuck, the shuttle will be here in a little under three hours."

Kara looked up and glared at her friend, "No Helo! We need that raptor down here right now!"

He turned back to her with concern, "What is it Starbuck? What's wrong?"

She looked back down to the symbol as she whispered to herself, "They might not be Cylons after all." Looking up at Helo with pleading eyes, "Just get the damn raptor down here!! Please Helo!"

He studied her momentarily before calling one of the marines over who had the radio.

"Frak!"


TBC