The door opened to reveal the engineering section of the Enterprise.
"And this is our engineering section." said Kirk gesturing inside.
The Cylons looked around and were amazed. This ship was nothing like they had ever seen before.
"This is amazing." said Sharon looking around.
The Cylons were astounded that any such ship like the Enterprise could exist. It could easily go toe to toe with an entire battle group, or two or three Battlestar groups. And the Federation was supposed to have more of them! They had been allowed to view the bridge, regular crew areas, but were kept out of the armory, captain's quarters, and command crew quarters
But it wasn't just the military might of the Federation that interested Caprica Six. She had been allowed to view the Federation Laws, and one caught her interest. It was a law regarding refugees. It made her smile for the first time in months.
--
The Colonial Stealthstar emerged from its jump with a momentary flash of light. The pilot confident he had arrived far enough out of range for the new ship and the Cylons to detect him. The pilot pushed the thrusters forward and the small fighter was propelled straight towards the group of ships. He could make out the shape of the Cylon Basestars, and the damage on them, and the strange elegant new ship that had decimated the task group charged with eliminating the Cylons.
As far as he could tell no one had noticed him.
--
"How long has he been there, Mr. Spock?" asked Kirk sitting in his command chair.
"One minute and two seconds, Captain. No weapons armed, and it is using a low EM pulse scanner and digital camera on us. It does not represent a threat to the ship." said Spock.
"It's a Stealthstar." said one of Cylons.
"No doubt sent out for reconnaissance." said a Number Three,
"A spy mission. One would think the Colonials would hold of attacking after seeing what happened the last time they engaged us." said Kirk.
"Sensors show the fighter to be constructed of carbon composites no different than what was used to construct your Earth's twentieth century NASA space shuttle Orbiter. That is somewhat fragile." noted Spock.
"The carbon composites make it almost invisible to our DRADIS systems." said Caprica.
"An illogical and arrogant move by the Colonials. They know enough to know that we are more advanced but believe that we cannot detect their stealth craft despite our advanced level of technology above them." said Spock.
"Their president, Quorum, and their top scientists are arrogant in every sense of the word. It's a wonder they even made it out here." said Caprica Six remembering how Baltar betrayed her to the authorities.
She jumped out of the house and fell to her death but by the time she was resurrected the Colonials had taken the Cylons by surprise and launched their counter attack.
"The Stealthstar is launching probes and is retreating." said Spock looking at the scanners.
The view screen showed the Colonial ship disappearing in a flash of light.
--
(Forty light years away from Federation space)
"Admiral, DRADIS contact, thirty vessels."
Cain turned to the DRADIS officer.
"Identification." she demanded.
"IFF transponders actice. The Warstar Olympia and her escorts."
The Olympia was among the most advanced ships of the Colonial fleet. She was constructed with salvaged Cylon technology allowing for greater jumps and FTL communications. Through this word of what happened to her strike force of forty ships had been sent back to the Colonies faster than before.
"Open communications." said Cain.
A few minutes later the massive ship responded.
"Admiral Nagala, pleasure to see you again."
"The feeling is mutual, Admiral Cain. What's the sitrep?"
"An unknown ship met up with us as we were closing in on the Cylon remnant. They claimed we were entering their space and warned us to back off. When we refused they opened fire."
"And the Cylons?"
"Our stealth ship returned and has reported that Cylons are still there with the unknown ship holding station."
"Than we must hurry. Admiral Cunningham's group will join up with us in two hours and we shall go and meet this new ship."
"Understood."
--
Inside the briefing room Kirk addressed the senior staff on their findings. They had all gone over the information on the Cylons and the Colonials and were ready to submit their reports.
Spock was the first.
"The Cylons operate their ships with a humanoid Cylon called a Hybrid which is incorporated into the vessel. Their ships are highly automated and the Hybrids control their ships and in extension are their ships. In a way the ships are their bodies while they are the ships' mind. They operate a Stardrive which enables the vessels to fold space and arrive at their destinations instantly.
They can travel potentially many light years, instantly. While this drive requires extensive calculations and consumes fuel each time the ships 'jumps' their computers allow for quick calculations for each jump." said Spock.
Spock nodded to Scotty.
"Captain, the vessels appear to be powered by fusion reactors that will theoretically operate for fifty years can provide unlimited electrical power. They can reach a top acceleration of 3 G but due to high fuel consumption and extra strain on the engines the ships will only travel at 0.5 G for any extended trips. Colonial ships are powered by a fuel from tylium ore. A primary speed they can travel at a slight fraction of the speed of light which is sufficient to traverse the distances between planets in a solar system." said Scotty.
Scotty then nodded at Chekov.
"Captain, the Basestars are constructed with hardened circuitry and the ship itself is built with shielding to prevent EMP and jamming from damaging circuitry. The effect is that jamming and EMP will not damage any system while it can blind the ships radar and radio communication system. Laser systems will not be affected by jamming. They also come with a jamming system that scrambles all electronic signals for a range of 16,000 miles in space and will penetrate an atmosphere for a distance of 160 miles.
The Colonial ships of the last Cylon war operated computers dedicated to the ship's critical functions but were not networked making them very complex. However even the most updated computer systems the Colonials have is almost completely similar to technology from Earth's 21st century. They still use electric powered systems but thanks to salvaged Cylon technology that was found from the remains of Cylon ships they destroyed they upgraded what they call the Colonial Defense Mainframe and the Command Navigation Program that would provide the entire fleet with all data regarding navigation and logistics with FTL communications that the Cylons developed allowing them to sent their comm. messages back over several systems. They probably sent a message back to their home and a fleet has already been mobilized." said Chekov.
Uhura came up next.
"Sir, I have gone through their communications network and tide them into the universal translator. Their primary language is ancient Greek. Their communications systems are nothing more than old fashioned radio."
"The Historic records point out that the Colonials worship the same Olympian gods that Ancient Greek had worshipped thousands of years ago." said Spock.
"First off, let's forward our findings to Starfleet and see what they have to say. No doubt they'll want to take a look at the Stardrive and other Cylon technology." said Kirk.
"Aye sir." said Uhura.
--
"You are telling us that they detected a Stealthstar just a few hours ago? It's only a matter of time before the Colonials come back!" said Number Six.
"I don't think we have much to worry about with the Enterprise with us. You have not seen what we saw aboard their ship." said the Eight known as Boomer.
"What can one ship do against an entire Colonial attack fleet?" asked a Cavil.
"They use anti matter to power their engines and they have energy fields that can shrug off all of our nukes. Their technology makes ours and the Colonials look like plastic toys." said Caprica Six.
"Not to mention there were aliens on board the ship. I saw them." said Leoben.
"Real aliens?" asked Dianna.
"Yeah. According to their history the first time they came into contact with aliens was in the year 2063 when they developed an FTL engine different than ours called the warp engine. As far as I can tell the humans of Earth along with these Vulcans, and two more species the Andorians and the Tellerites formed the United Federation of Planets and which was over half a century ago. Now they have over thirty member species and seven hundred colonies." said Boomer.
"Their warp engine is slower than ours. It allows their ships to travel faster than light in normal space but ours is better. That's only advantage we and the Colonials have over them." said Caprica Six.
"And why should we trust them? They could just be pretending to be helping us." said Doral.
"I thought of that but if it was a trick they wouldn't have dragged on for so long or made a ploy this complex. From what I can tell they are completely different from the Colonials." said Six.
"We might have no choice but to trust them. I have an idea to gain their trust." said Boomer.
"And what would that be?" asked Dianna.
"We offer them the schematics to our FTL engines after we ask for refugee status. They would be bound to give us food and supplies and the FTL schematics might make them trust us. We could be given a new home." said Boomer.
"Can we afford to trust them?" asked Simon.
"We might have no choice. If we jump deeper into their territory they will not take it so well and if we turn the Colonials will hunt us down and kill us all." said Six.
"She's right. We are at the end of the line. Do we ask for asylum here or de we run?" asked Leoben.
"I vote we make peace with Federation." said Boomer.
"I agree." said Six.
Everyone else at the table more or less agreed.
"Warning, FTL signatures detected. Colonial Vipers approaching." said a Centurion.
"Launch all remaining Raiders and get the nukes ready. Contact the Enterprise." said Six.