Chapter 2

Double D mused about events as he watched the stars out of Command's transteel dome. Eddy was off gathering support for his attempt at becoming the creche's new 'kith patriarch', and Ed was...off doing whatever it was Ed did in these sorts of situation.

He lowered his eyes to the sensor readout in front of him, and looked it over. Nothing but rocks.

He blinked as Lilandra set her hand on his shoulder. He managed a shy smile and looked at the readout again. "Nothing. Lots and lots of nothing."

Lilandra sat in the chair next to his. "That can change quickly, you know. We're only so well camouflaged. Odds are that the Vaygr'll find us eventually." Double D sighed.

"I hope not. I mean, we're pretty much unarmed, aren't we?" He looked at Lily's golden eyes, and she smiled warmly.

"Yeah...it'd be pretty bad."

The conversation found itself promptly cut off as Aleks Soban stormed through the hatch.

"That little, twisted, son-of-a...do you know what he did?" Aleks turned his glare on Double D, and Edd groaned inwardly. Any time Kevin or Aleks got set off, there was only one person at fault. Always.

Eddy.

"What now?" Edd asked softly, watching Aleks do his best to wear a rut in the deck plating.

"He managed to get himself declared the Kith Patriarch, that's what." Aleks threw up his hands in disgust, before letting them flop to his sides.

Double D giggled softly at that. "I'm surprised. Normally Kevin or Ed manages to poke a hole in his schemes before they reach fruition."

"Kevin tried, believe me. And Ed...Ed's been in the cargo holds since the briefing let out. But Eddy's new fangled position isn't everything that galls me."

Lilandra frowned. "Drop the other shoe, Aleks."

"He's renamed this place."

Lilandra blinked, not sure what to make of that piece of news.

"Run...run that by me again."

"He's renamed it. He's calling it New Peach Creek now."

Edd's hand covered his mouth to hide his widening grin, and he managed to choke an explosive laugh into a fair cough. Lily, on the other hand, looked as though she was about to have a fit of unimaginable proportions.

"I know. I know!" Aleks continued to pace, and finally brought his hands down on the central tactical tank.

"Well, it could be worse," Edd ventured softly. Both the Hiigaran kids favored him with a slightly bewildered glance. "He could've called it 'Eddyville'."

Lilandra's jaw worked for a few instants, before her mind caught up and she closed it with a click. Aleks sighed.

"You're right. Sajuuk knows." Aleks leaned against the back edge of the communications console and favored the other two with a wry grin. "Guess he doesn't realize how much trouble's headed his way when-"

"Double D!" Ed happily burbled as he tore into the room and headlong into the far bulkhead. Aleks shook his head at the tall boy.

"Kind of makes you grateful everything's-"

"DON'T!" Edd cried out causing Lily and Aleks to look at him as though he'd lost his mind. "He'll see it as a challenge, and, well..."

Aleks shrugged. "Okay, big guy. What'd you find?"

"A probe." Ed smiled. "At least, that what it looks like."

Lily blinked. "Well, this was a survey station. May as well take a look."


It was a small device, no larger at it's center than Eddy, perhaps, with antenna sprouting from it at off angles.

"Sajuuk-cor."

Edd and Lily glanced at Aleks, who wandered around it with wide, wide eyes.

"Do any of you have any clue how old this thing is?" the older boy asked, pulling a black lock of hair back behind his ears.

"Not a clue." Lily muttered, folding her arms over her chest. Edd only raised his eyebrows in curiosity.

"Sumo wrestling mutants must have made it!" Ed shouted happily, and Aleks smirked.

"Try at least a century, maybe older. This model dates back to the Homeworld War, maybe even further, before our exiled ancestors left Kharak..." He looked at Ed in awe. Ed grinned his huge, thoughtless grin back.

"I wonder if it still works." Ed said, promptly falling silent as the other three kids looked at each other and grinned.


"Sockhead, where have you been? I've been trying to comm you for an hour and a half!" Eddy stormed into Control, hands flailing around almost wildly.

"Just a second, Eddy, then I'll be free to assist you. The preparations for my project took a little longer than expected." Double D glanced over the controls, then at Lilandra next to him. "Launch computations completed."

"Copy. Dispatching probe." Lilandra moved with a fluid grace as Edd watched her out of the corner of his eye, and she managed a shy smile as her eye caught his. As Eddy watched silently, Double D turned a very interesting shade of red, and his short friend was almost certain that the hat-clad boy would pass out.

"Okay, a probe? Have you found a way home?" Eddy asked at long last, breaking the awkward silence. Edd cleared his throat.

"Maybe. We're looking into something one of the harvester crews saw a few weeks back. We won't know for a few hours, though. So what do you need?"

Eddy grinned. "Help setting up the projection TV."

Edd groaned, and Lily looked at him. "Something I should be aware of?"

"Just Eddy trying to fleece everyone-" Double D started, but Eddy raised a hand.

"Hey! I'm not chargin' anything! Just that they looked like they needed a pick-me-up, and we can't be working all the time, can we?" Eddy chuckled, and the other two looked at each other with a glance that showed more than just a little distrust of Eddy's statement.

"And what's on the viewing agenda for tonight?"

Eddy took a deep breath. "I raided your dad's DVD collection, and somehow I felt that the Battlestar Galactica mini-series would be appropriate."

Edd felt his stomach turn to ice. "Eddy, you may be courting disaster with this." The shorter boy shrugged at the comment.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Sockhead."

Double D hated it when he said that. "I'll go with you, Edd. To make sure nothing untoward happens." Edd looked over at Lilly, who brushed her pink hair behind an ear. He blushed and said nothing, but nodded.


"So say we all."

Munching microwave popcorn from a shared bowl, Lilandra Sjet silently watched along with forty other creched children as Commander William Adama paced in front of the funeral assembly, who echoed his words back softly.

"So say we all!"

The words came back stronger this time, but again the Commander repeated them. And again the crowd repeated them, nearly shouting now. Lilandra stopped eating, and watched almost entranced.

"Are they the lucky ones? That's what you're thinking, isn't it? We're a long way from home. We've jumped well beyond the Red Line, into uncharted space. Limited supplies, limited fuel. No allies, and now, no hope. Maybe it would have been better for us to have died quickly, back on the colonies with our families. Instead of dying out here slowly...in the emptiness of dark space. Where shall we go? What shall we do?"

There was a soft, murmured whisper as the figure on the screen turned to face the assembled group in front of him.

"Life here began out there. Those are the first words of the sacred scrolls. And they were told to us by the Lords of Kobol, many countless centuries ago. And they made it perfectly clear, that we are not alone in this universe."

There was a sharp intake of breath in the makeshift theater as the assembled kids watched Adama then turn and point at the priestess behind him.

"There's a 13th colony of human kind, is there not?" The Commander demanded, and the priestess hesitantly nodded.

"Yes," she said to both Adama and (what felt like) the kids themselves, "The scrolls tell the 13th tribe left Kobol in the early days. They traveled far and made their home upon a planet called Earth, which circled a distant and unknown star."

"It's not unknown!" Adama roared, and the kids jumped in their seats. Even Lily jumped, spilling the bowl of popcorn all over herself and Double D. Edd groused and began to pick kernels of popcorn off him, but Lily barely noticed.

"I know where it is! Earth! The most guarded secret we have! The location is only know by senior commanders of the fleet. And we dared not share it with the public, not while there was a Cylon threat upon us! A refuge that the Cylons know nothing about! It won't be an easy journey! It'll be long, and arduous. But I promise you one thing. On the memory of those lying here before you, we shall find it. And Earth will become our new home." Adama paused. "So say we all."

The theater erupted in cheers, and Double D looked up in surprise. "I never expected..." Eddy, who sat on the far side of the projector looked on and nodded.

Lily grinned. "This is so cool."

Double D felt the mobile comm he'd taken in case the probe found something vibrate. He pulled it out and flipped it open. "Yes, Aleks?" He paused, listening, then shut the comm and nudged Lily and Eddy in turn.

"We've got something."


The trio strode into Command with the surety of a trio of kids who'd just watched a science fiction. "What've we got?" Eddy asked.

"A ship. Derelict." Aleks gestured to the hologram hovering in air over the tactical table. "Can't tell, because it's only a partial reconstruction. Probe caught an asteroid in the main array, and the images aren't real clear, either. This was the best I can do."

Eddy looked around. "Intact?"

"Couldn't tell, fearless leader," Aleks looked down at Eddy's glaring visage, "But it looked at least mostly. Maybe we could find you a way home."

"Maybe, Aleks," Lily broke in, "We ought to go take a look." Aleks opened his mouth to protest, and cut himself off.

"Fine. They've got vacc suits in their quarters, right?" Aleks asked, and Lily nodded again.

Edd gulped, and Eddy frowned as well. "We're going out there? In vacuum suits?" Eddy asked, and Aleks shook his head. "No. We'll take a harvester, but safety requires a vacuum suit."

"Oh, dear." Edd managed.

"Fine. Call down to the deck, and have them prep a harvester. Take off in thirty." Lily said, and Aleks nodded, picking up a headset to make the call. Eddy and Double D retreated.


Edd struggled into the bodysuit that formed the basis of his supposed 'vacuum suit'. It wasn't that different from his one-size-fits-all pajamas, but the more rubbery feel put him off.

"Edd?"

Double D gasped, going rigid as he pulled the upper half of the suit up to cover his bare torso and shoulders. "L-Lilandra!"

"Problems?" The pink haired girl inquired, and a blushing Double D turned to stare at her.

"Yes! I mean no! I mean-"

"I came at a bad moment, right?" Lilandra shook her head and looked over Double D's suit before reaching out. Edd cringed as she took the upper half of the suit and stuffed him into it.

"Ugh. So embarrassed about it. How did your people ever become a star-faring species?" Lily demanded as she forced Edd's arms into the sleeves and sealed the suit.

"We aren't. We're, ah, we're barely space-faring as it is." Edd admitted as she helped him with the rest of the suit.

"So you're the first people from your world to have traveled by hyperdrive?"

"Inadvertently, yes." Edd admitted, slipping into the outer plating more easily. He may have nearly had a heart attack, but he was grateful for Lilandra's help.

"What's your world called, anyways?" she asked all of a sudden, and Edd froze.

She poked him gently, and he mulled several possible answers, but his conscience would allow him only one. "Earth."

She paused now. "Earth."

"Yes."

"As in Galactica's Earth?"

"That's correct."

"Commander Adama 'our most guarded secret' Earth."

"As far as I'm aware."

"As in the thirteenth tribe?"

"...Well, actually, that's never been proven, though there is some evidence to suggest that."

Lilandra stared at him. "This is so cool," she breathed, helping Edd into his chest plate, finally bringing his helmet over his head.

"Hope this fits," she said, rolling his hat under and twisting the helmet in the lock. Double D looked at her through the clear plastic. Her suit was a similar soft suit, fitting to her adolescent form well. Edd looked at her, realized he was staring, and blushed and made to look away. Lilandra smiled at him, sealed her own helmet, and leaned in, touching the helmets together.

"Don't be ashamed." The words were poor echoes of her voice, but she made a light kissing motion with her lips, and Double D went as red as his shirt.

"Oh, my..."


"What kept?" Eddy demanded over the comm. Edd chined his mike on, and sighed.

"Nothing, Eddy. Don't worry about it." Next to him, Lily offered Eddy and Aleks a shrug. Aleks chuckled over the comm, and marched across the catwalk into the harvester module.

Eddy looked at them both, and shrugged. "Fine. Not my concern. And will it ever be?" He asked slyly.

"I'm not prescient, Eddy. I can't tell you what the future holds." Eddy laughed at that, and entered the harvester himself. Lilandra pulled Edd along, grinning at a saluting Ed. (It had to be Ed; nobody else was wearing their helmet backwards.)

Aleks sat in the co-pilot seat, next to their volunteer pilot. "Strap in," he said, even as they did so. "I can't find the hard points," Ed commented. Lily reached over, unlatched the big boy's chest plate, turned it around and plopped it back down on the fuzz-headed youth's shoulders.

"Hi!" Ed waved as Lily re-latched the chest assembly. Aleks snorted in laughter and Eddy shook his head behind his own helmet.

"Everything changes, but Big Ed stays the same, don't he?" Eddy asked. Lily shrugged, and Edd chuckled. "Certainly seems like it." Double D admitted wryly.

The pilot turned. "All right. Control, this is harvester Junius-Taloc-Niner-Eight-Seven requesting launch."

"Affirmative, JT-987. Moving into launch position now."

With a lurch the harvester moved before the launch bay, in view of the black outside. "Copy launch position. Ready to launch."

"Copy Wilco, JT-987. Thrust is go on your command. Call it."

The pilot manipulated the controls with a surprising professionalism for someone no older than Jimmy. "Copy, Control. See you on return, rendezvous in...Six point nine cycles."

"Cycles?" Eddy whispered through helmet-speak to Edd. "Hours, Eddy. The better part of seven."

"Well. Anyone bring any cards?" the short boy asked as the rear thrusters lit up, throwing the crew forward at a surprising clip for something that looked so awkward.


"Gin."

Eddy shook his head, leaning back. It was cumbersome to play cards in a vacuum suit, even one as light as the Hiigaran-made ones. Nonetheless, Eddy had been surprised as Ed had produced a deck of well-worn playing cards (Produced from where, nobody wanted to know). The short boy had promptly taught them every gambling game he knew, though Gin Rummy by far seemed the most popular with their small group.

Aleks, in particular, was proving to be very much a cutthroat player, winning almost half as much again as any of the others.

"At the rate you're going, I'll be Kith-sa in another ten minutes."

"No, you won't," The pilot remarked, turning around. "We're getting in range. Stow and secure the cards."

There was a brief scramble as they gathered the cards, and Eddy tossed them in a cargo locker. "Secured."

"Stand by maneuvers. Active field, so nobody takes their straps off, scan?"

There was a brief acknowledgment from the other occupants of the harvester.

A harvester, Edd thought later, lacked the gravity fields that compensated for both null-G and acceleration stress. Which is why the kids were being thrown around in their seats as the pilot dodged moving rocks to get near their suspected ship.

"Sajuuk!" the pilot cried, and the others looked. Above and in front of them loomed a massive shape that eclipsed the sun, Eddy whistled.

Aleks sucked in a hissing breath. Lilandra looked at him, but said nothing.

"Aleks?" Double D asked softly.

"I've seen it before, in my studies, old ships from after Landing."

Aleks looked back out the port. "I know this ship."

"Kuun-Lan."