Chapter Three.

The instantaneous pulse of a ship exiting from hyperspace registered itself on the sensors of the reconnaissance drone as it swept through the outer reaches of the system. Immediately the drone focussed its passive sensors in the direction that the pulse had come from. Soon, the bleed-through of constant radio chatter began to impact on its passive sensors.

A quick positional check showed that the chatter was coming from the inner system, and an examination of the last positional update (fed through to it by a sharply-focussed hyperspatial communications link in a burst transmission) of its mothership showed that the squadron had not yet reached that section of the inner system. Besides, the ships in the squadron would be using hyperspatial burst transmissions or, if they were within range, thin laser beams acting as optical transmission systems. Terran humanity had long ago abandoned the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum as a means of communications.

The designers of the reconnaissance drone had built into its hard-wired molecular circuitry an impressive amount of autonomous thinking. Except for the Three Laws of Robotics (which were always hard-wired in) it could have been considered to be a Cylon probe. But compared to this device, Cylon probes were unthinking automatons. The technological sophistication of this device would have scared the Cylons... assuming that they had been able to detect it in the first place, as it had been designed to deal with Terran sensor packages. And those were considered the best available, even by their Raptor enemies.

Quickly, it consulted with its fellow drones. A quick realignment of the sensor sweep formation enabled the remaining eleven to cover as best they could any gaps the absence of this particular drone might cover. But then, Terran drones were always deployed with considerable overlap of both their active and passive sensor suites.

With that taken care of, the drone, with a few bursts from its directional thrusters, changed direction. A short burst of its inertialess drive sent the probe hurtling in the direction of the hyperspace pulse had come from. At the same time, it sent a burst transmission to its mothership informing it of what it had discovered and the action it had taken.

The communications panel set in the desk in Commodore 'Abal's day cabin chimed. 'Abal stirred on her divan, put down her data slate and then looked in its direction. "Answer," she said. Immediately the chiming stopped and above it appeared a holographic bust of her flag lieutenant.

"Something up, Andy?" she said.

"We just received a burst from Arethusa, ma'am," said Morgan. "One of her reconnaissance drones has picked up a hyperspace jump pulse from the inner system.

'Abal sat up. "Raptors?" she asked.

Morgan consulted the ship's data cache using his biochip implant. "According to the information we've received so far, it isn't," he said. "Do you want me to have the cache download what we have to your implant, ma'am?"

'Abal didn't hesitate. "Yes," she said. Instantly her biochip implant began feeding into her consciousness the information that the drone had sent back to its mothership. She could see why her flag lieutenant was quite sure that this was not Raptor activity: the signature of the pulse did not match anything that Fleetnet had on its database regarding Raptors. It did, however, come close to matching the signature of a late 22nd Century CE hyper drive.

Which suggested that the unknown ship was human. But not any human spacefaring civilization that was currently known to the Imperium. And then there was the radio traffic. Most civilizations had long since stopped using the electromagnetic spectrum as a means of communication in favour of the instantaneous communications that the hyperlink system, using a "band" of hyperspace not accessible to shipping. And the data cache had identified the language as a variant of a Terran language.

"Great," she sourly muttered. "A possible 'First Contact' with a potential 'Precursor Reserve' civilization in the Conflict Zone. Just what we needed." She looked at her flag lieutenant. "Has Ibn Sina determined the language being used?" she asked, using the name that the ship's AI computer was referred to by. Although the rest of her crew called him by the Westernised version of the name, she preferred to use the original Arabic.

"He seems to think it's some form of Greek," replied Morgan. "He's tearing the data cache apart for any references of any Greek reserves out this way that may have been established by the Precursors. However, he promises to have a translation of the chatter in about an hour. He also requests that you have Arethusa transfer the drone feed to his control so that he can have a constantly updated data feed."

'Abal thought on this for a minute. Then she said "Have him contact me in my cabin and I'll discuss it with him," she said. "In the meantime it might not be a bad idea to have Arethusa hand off control of that drone to us. See to it."

"Aye aye, ma'am," said Morgan. "I'll see to it at once." His image disappeared from the communications plate. 'Abal sat up and straightened her day uniform, which she had changed into once she had reached her day cabin. As soon as she finished, she heard the different chime used by the ship's AI when it wanted to speak to her come from the communications plate. "Enter," she said.

Immediately the image of a distinguished Arabic scholar, somewhere in his late forties and dressed in the robes of medieval Baghdad appeared before her. He gave her a traditional Arabic gesture of greeting, touching first his forehead with the fingertips of his right hand, then his lips and finishing it with a twirl of his right hand underneath his neatly trimmed beard. " Peace be upon you, Commodore," he said.

'Abal returned the greetings. "And upon yourself and your house," she said. She waived her hand, and a coffee set, already poured out, rose from her coffee table. At the same time a holographic representation of a traditional Arabic seating arrangement for one person appeared on the opposite side of her coffee table. "Please sit down," she said.

The holographic projection of the ship's AI did so. 'Abal again gestured, and a holographic cup of Arabic coffee rose from Ibn Sina's side of the table and drifted towards him, He plucked it out of the air and "sipped" from it. His virtual eyebrows rose in appreciation. "Jamaica Blue Mountain, Commodore?" he said.

She smiled. "A gift from my uncle," she said, "to celebrate my promotion." She in turn sipped her own coffee. "He was on Earth and managed to purchase some from a wholesaler while he was there."

"Your family shows its taste," said Ibn Sina. He put down his cup, and it "refilled".

'Abal did the same. She then leant forward. "My flag lieutenant tells me that you wish one of the drones to be slaved to your information gathering processors on a live-feed basis," she said. "You know that the SOP for the Zone prohibits that."

"But Commodore," said the AI, "slaving the drone to my information gathering processors is the best way to get real-time information on what promises to be an interesting First Contact with another human civilization!" He also leaned forward, his "face" showing the passionate excitement of a scholar immersed in his work. "This way, I can present to you the best first-line approximations that I can produce."

'Abal leant back and placed the fingertips of both hands under the point of her chin, something she always did when thinking. The AI recognised this and waited. Finally, 'Abal said "How about we give you the raw data after it has passed through the filtering buffers, and I tell Captain Jaidev to direct his duty watch to take their directions from you regarding the drone?" she said. "That way, you get the raw feed and we stay within the SOP." The AI looked thoughtful at that, and 'Abal pressed home her advantage. "Besides, you are as well aware as I am the reasons why the Admiralty issued those instructions." Early on in the offensive a scout ship's computer system had become infected with a very sophisticated malware package while scouting out a Raptor-held system. Although the ship's AI had managed to eventually fight it off, it had been a near thing. Subsequent analysis revealed it to be a variant of a malware package that had been used by the Precursors in their war. The end result was that a new and highly sophisticated filtering system had been added to all ships in the Imperial Terran Navy whereby all raw data from both a ship's own sensors and any reconnaissance drones were passed through a separate computer system that acted as a malware filter before being passed on to the ship's data cache and the AI.

The AI nodded his head. "Considering the alternative, I think I can find that arrangement acceptable," he said. He finished his coffee and rose, 'Abal following his example. "Now, if you can forgive my rudeness, I must ready myself for the task ahead," he said.

'Abal nodded. "Before you go," she said, "how are you coming along on the translation of what we have received so far?"

The AI paused, and assumed a pose of thinking. In reality, he was accessing the set of subroutines that he had assigned that task to. "It appears to be a mixture of several forms of Greek," he said. "Mainly Bronze Age and Greek Dark Ages, with several concepts coming from Classical Greek," he finally said. "Possibly some Latin as well, which argues that this must be an extremely isolated Precursor Reserve," he continued. "I'm still accessing what records we have in the ship's data cache, but the more data I can get, the better my analysis will be. When we get back to base I'll consult with the base's cache as well as the Intel AI."

'Abal nodded. "Excellent," she said. With that, both she and the AI exchanged traditional Arabic gestures of parting, and the AI's image disappeared. 'Abal moved towards the communications plate and called up the signals rating on the ship's bridge.

"My complements to Captain Jaidev," she said, " and will you please inform him that I wish to speak to him."

Pilot's Briefing Room, Colonial Battlestar "Galactica", some twenty-four hours later.

"All right, what do you have for us?" Adama asked. Seated with him were Tigh, Roslyn and their respective staffs. They occupied the first row of seats in the briefing room.

Apollo stood at the podium, with Athena, Gaeta, Doctor Cottle and Tigh off to one side. With the exception of Athena, each one of them had a thick sheaf of notes. "We have come to several conclusions," said Apollo. "First, Lieutenants Agathon and Gaeta, having examined the memory core that we brought on board, have determined what happened to the Cylon ship and how it got to its current location. Chief Tyrol, in combination with myself, have examined the equipment that belonged to the dead alien we brought on board as well as the survey images that were taken of the base star by the Raptors. Finally, Doctor Cottle has carried out a complete autopsy and examination of the dead alien itself. He also has the results of the examination of the samples the survey of the inhabitable planet that was carried out while Galactica was near the base star. Without further ado, I would like Lieutenants Agathon and Gaeta to present their reports. Sharon, Felix?" Apollo stepped aside as Athena and Gaeta stepped up to the podium.

Athena spoke first. "Firstly, I would like to say that it was a good thing that we decided to examine the data core in a controlled environment. When we accessed it using a computer terminal that was dedicated solely to that purpose, and in isolation from the rest of the ship, Mr. Gaeta and myself found that the core, and therefore the computer system, including the Hybrid, had been infected with a highly sophisticated computer virus," she said.

"How sophisticated was it?" Adama asked.

Athena looked at her audience. "It was far more sophisticated than anything I have ever seen," she said. "It looked like a complete package: an idea that I can tell you has never occurred to any Cylon. It was also very clever: it forced the Hybrid to focus solely on attempting to contain it while it disabled the base star's guns. However, the Hybrid was able to isolate the Centurions, setting them to fully autonomous mode. It was also able to prevent the package from completely shutting off power." She hesitated, as if at a particularly unpleasant memory. "I ended up accessing the terminal directly in order to contain the package," she said. "Once I had disinfected the terminal I was able to examine the package's code, which is how I was able to determine what it was capable of. I was only able to do this because of the relative unsophistication of the terminal Mr. Gaeta and I were using compared to the systems on the base star. However, that aside, this package would be a viable threat to a ship like the Pegasus, with its more integrated systems."

Athena dimmed the lights and activated the briefing room's video camera. "We were also able to get audiovisual footage from the base star's internal cameras, as well as DRADIS data, of the battle it was involved in." She visibly swallowed. "I had better warn you, some of this is pretty harrowing stuff," she said. She stepped out of the way and started the footage rolling.

The first images were of a standard DRADIS display. Only the labels on the friendly icons indicating the locations of Cylon vessels, plus the sidebar showing a continuous display of ranging and other data, gave any indication that this had been taken from a Cylon vessel. "Mr. Gaeta and I decided that it would be best to render the DRADIS data in a format that was familiar to all," Athena said. "This has been speeded up in order to demonstrate what both myself, Mr Gaeta and Major Adama felt were the key points. In particular, note the attack patterns of the alien ships." She stepped back and allowed the display to unfold. After a while, one of the Colonial officers said, "They're stripping the base stars of fighter cover through successive passes."

Apollo nodded. "Mr. Gaeta said that the tactic reminded him of how wolves operate against herd animals," he said. "Also, note the formations. It wasn't until I saw the surveillance footage from the base star that I realised that each formation, in its makeup, resembles how the alien creatures attack an opponent in hand-to-hand combat. Athena, do you think we can cue the camera footage?" he said.

Athena nodded. She switched the briefing room's camera from the DRADIS footage to a tape showing the interior of a base star. A group of Centurions were working to erect a barricade from which to fight from behind. ("Centurions building a barricade!" muttered Tigh to Adama. "This whole story gets screwier by the minute!" Adama, fascinated by what he was seeing on the screen before him, only nodded in reply.) Although the footage clearly showed that the heavy-duty bulkhead door was sealed, it was equally clear that the Centurions had little faith (if that term could be applied to them) in its integrity. The footage also showed a group of Centurions setting up what appeared to be a 20mm cannon from a Raider on an improvised mount behind the barricade. From behind the bulkhead door the sounds of heavy fighting could be clearly heard.

Suddenly, the sound of fighting stopped. The Centurions all sung their heads in the direction of the door. After a few moments a red line, just a few centimetres in from the sides of the door started to appear. It ran all around the door down to the floor. Within seconds the line went from a dull red to a cherry red, and then went white hot. During all of this the Centurions got down behind the improvised barricade and trained their weapons on the door.

With a loud clang the door fell inwards, and armoured nightmares, many of which showed signs of heavy fighting, swarmed inwards. Seeing them on their feet and moving made the onlookers realise that Athena's description of the aliens as "giant lizards" was only too accurate.

Immediately the centurions started firing their weapons, aiming in most cases for the aliens' helmet visors. The sudden lack of sound indicated that the compartment was now open to vacuum. One visor exploded in an extravagant shower of pieces of visor, flesh, blood and bone as it failed under the fusillade of shots hitting it. The alien dropped, but others ran over its twitching corpse, firing their energy weapons at the Cylon defenders. And they were eerily accurate too, as smoking holes started to appear in Cylon heads.

They were also very experienced fighters. The first group of Cylons to fall before the onslaught were the crew of the 20mm cannon, as did any other Cylon that moved to take their places. Then, the aliens were upon the Cylons, and a hand-to-hand melee erupted.

The watching Colonials could only look on with amazement mixed with more than a hint of fear as the aliens literally tore the Cylons apart. Several Centurions had managed to unsheathe their side arms, with one managing to drive its weapon through the visor of an attacking alien. Then, aliens and Cylons started to drift away from the floor as the base star's artificial gravity failed. This turn of events placed the Centurions at an even greater disadvantage as the aliens demonstrated that they were excellent zero-g fighters as well.

The footage then ended. Athena again took the podium. "From what I have managed to gather from the memory core," she said, " the internal cameras all failed at the same time. The Hybrid was unable to stop the invasive software package from disabling the cameras. However, I can tell you that the images from the rest of the cameras tell a similar story."

Tigh spoke up. "From what I saw it looked as if these Cylons knew what was coming," he said. "Hell, during the War they never built barricades. Didn't need them, since the only thing that stopped them was an explosive round to the head."

Athena nodded. "It appears that this particular base star was the rearmost in a group of six that was attacked by these creatures," she said. "Data from the core tells us that this ship's hybrid was able to observe what happened when these aliens attacked the other five base stars and somehow managed to take appropriate precautions. That, however, didn't save them."

President Roslyn spoke up. "Lieutenant, I seem to recall that one tactic that was employed by the Cylons during the War and, indeed, in the attack on the Colonies was to subvert our computer systems," she said. "They did try to do this on these aliens, didn't they?"

Athena nodded. "They did, but it was completely repulsed. That was then followed up by the attack on the Cylon computer systems." A stunned silence fell over the room as the significance of that statement took hold.

"So you're telling us that these creatures are better at computer warfare than the Cylons?" asked a visibly shaken Roslyn.

"According to the evidence that we've gleaned from the memory core, yes," said Athena. "However," she added, "it must be remembered that this all took place fifteen years before the attack on the Colonies. So I can't say if they can pull the same trick on Cylons of my generation. I must admit, though, that I was only able to catch this little trick because Mr. Gaeta and I inadvertently used the terminal we were accessing the core with as a kind of... "filtration buffer" is probably the best term for it."

"I remember being on some base stars that we captured during the War," said Tigh. "Those bulkhead doors are pretty solid. The Marines that captured them either went around them or used shaped charges to get through them. Yet is looked as if these things somehow burned their way through. Did they use these energy weapons of theirs to do this?"

Apollo spoke up. "Colonel Tigh, you are correct in saying that they burned their way through the bulkhead doors. However, they did not use their laser weapons to do this. I think that this might be a good point for Chief Tyrol to tell us of his findings regarding the alien equipment we recovered. Chief?" Apollo stepped aside as Tyrol stepped forward.

Tyrol deactivated the video projector and activated the slide viewer. An image flashed up of the armoured suit the dead alien was wearing, as well as all the equipment it was carrying. "First of all, to answer Colonel Tigh's question, we can safely say that they did not use their energy weapons to burn through bulkhead doors," he said. "What they did use was a kind of thermal paste that we found on the dead alien. We smeared some of it on a piece of scrap hull plate we had lying around, and then ignited it. Within minutes it had literally burned a hole clean through the hull plate. I should add that the plate was a piece we had removed from the outer hull of the Galactica during repairs to some battle damage." He looked at the audience. "I can also add that this stuff is far more efficient in generating heat than the stuff the Fleet construction yards use when sweating armour onto the hulls of warships."

He took up a light pointer and used it to indicate the armoured suit. "When we first looked at this suit after it had been removed from the dead alien's body I had first thought that it was simply an armoured space suit. A closer examination revealed that this is actually another item that I had only heard of in connection with pulp science fiction. This is the first ever suit of powered battle armour ever seen by the human race!" He paused to let the words sink in.

Adama spoke up. "That then explains the ease with which they tore apart Cylon Centurions." He suppressed a shudder. "If our Marines ever encounter this stuff..."

"Yeah, Admiral. Gunny Mathias and Lieutenant Burrell said similar things when I told them what this stuff was," Tyrol said. "I must admit the hind claw had me puzzled for a bit. Then I saw some of the footage of these things in action, with one of them using some kind of flying kick to rip open a Centurion's lower abdomen with the claw."

He then threw up another slide showing a close up of the suit's interior. "This suit is also designed to operate in vacuum," he said, "and appears to be controlled by a system of sensors that enables the suit to imitate what the wearer's muscles are doing. It also has a set of integral jets that allow the suit to jump up to one hundred metres. The suit also enhances the strength of the wearer, thus enabling it to perform the feats we saw on the security camera footage.

"The suit is incredibly tough. The one we have had already taken several rounds to its torso and limbs from some pretty heavy ordinance. Doctor Cottle tells me that the impact from one round actually broke the alien's arm. However, we found something that Doctor Cottle identified as a complete integral medical pack that applies various forms of medication immediately to a wounded fighter. Lieutenant Burrell commented that this means that the wearers of this kind of gear can keep going even while suffering from wounds that would halt one of us or, as Lieutenant Agathon pointed out, a humaniform Cylon. Its only weakness is the visor, where if you fire enough rounds at it it would eventually shatter. The problem is it would take a lot of ammunition to do this.'

Tyrol shut down the slides and activated the video projector. "This is some footage of a test we performed with the suit's actuators. I might add that Fleet Procurement was looking at developing a one-man cargo handling frame for the shifting of heavy items on the flight deck of a battlestar, so the principles of this suit were not all that unfamiliar."

He keyed on footage of a flight deck crewmember wearing the arm assemblies from the suit. "Eerily enough, our hands and arms fit, but of course we can't wear the rest of the suit," he said. He fell silent as the footage started.

The crewmember, trailing what was clearly improvised power runs from each arm assembly, walked over to a workbench and picked up a metre-long length of solid tubular bar stock, the kind used as bracing on a battlestar's main hull. He held in both hands, and then, using only his forearms, bent the bar into a horseshoe shape. A startled murmur rose from the audience as he then straightened the bar out. Putting the bar down, he then picked up a piece of three-inch high-pressure tubing. Holding it in both hands, he turned towards the camera, and crushed one end of it with his right hand. He then held it by the left hand only, showing the crushed end towards the camera.

"We also performed a test with some stress gauges enclosed within identical piping," Tyrol said. "Those things have a crushing power in excess of three tonnes." He again paused to let the murmuring that had arisen die down. "Yet it is also quite clear that they can be used to handle quite delicate objects. I'm looking at putting together a proposal for the Admiral's consideration on salvaging some more of these suits so we can modify them for use by the flight deck crew in repairing our small craft."

"Do you think they will be that useful, Chief?" asked Adama.

"Yes, sir, I do," he said. "I can think of hundreds of situations where equipment like this could have made all sorts of tasks much easier for my crews. Holding wing assemblies while we replace damaged wings or even strip whole engines out of damaged Vipers, for instance. We calculate that, suitably modified, this gear could let just one tech move a Viper engine all by himself, and hold it in place while another bolts it in."

"All right, Chief. Put it together and send it to me, and I'll look at it." Adama looked over at Roslyn. "I'll have to run it past the President, though, since this could mean we spend more time in this system than we had planned on."

"Yes, sir. I should add that we are still examining the rest of the suit: there's stuff in there that we have no idea about what it does. We think we've found something analogous to DRADIS, but it also seems to do much more than that.

"The next item is the energy weapon that was found with the alien." Tyrol keyed off the video and flashed up another slide onto the screen. "This is an energy weapon, something I had also until now associated with pulp science fiction. It operates by emitting bursts of coherent light at a very high level of energy, enough to cut through fairly thick metal. We use similar, but much less powerful, devices as training aids, surveying tools and aiming devices, to name just a few uses. I have since found out that the Colonial Fleet had been examining their use as weapons, but that there were several obstacles in the way at our level of technology.

"Experiments with the weapon found that it was easily capable of penetrating the hull casing of either a Viper or a Raptor, and quite easily penetrated the kinds of ballistic body armour our Marines use. Evidence was found on the derelict base star that it could penetrate bulkheads, and we have just seen footage of what it can do to Centurion-calibre armour. We have also found that it is a selective-fire weapon, much like Colonial Fleet issue longarms, and is powered by a compact energy cell. We have also found that, by making some slight modifications to our connectors, we can actually recharge the cell using the charging equipment we employ in charging the power cells in our small craft."

"Now that is excellent news," said Tigh. "That alone would warrant us going back to that hulk. We recover as many of these things as we can, issue them to our Marines and we no longer have to fear being boarded by Cylon chrome-jobs."

"But can we maintain them?" asked Adama.

"Apart from keeping the cells charged, no, sir," Tyrol answered. Not unless we went into an in-depth analysis of how the weapon is constructed, especially its emitter rod. And again, unless we can work out what the power cell is made of, we won't be able to replace them. However, seeing the number of dead aliens we saw on the area of the base star we were in, I'd say that we could easily equip a rapid reaction force of Marines with these weapons and keep them in power cells. I'd love to be able to fit them to our Vipers but..."

"Thank you, Chief, for your presentation," said Adama. "The information you have given us will feature prominently in any discussions we may have about returning to the derelict." He looked at Apollo. "Are there any more presentations to be made, Major Adama?"

Apollo nodded. "Doctor Cottle has some information both on his dissection of the alien and on the samples taken from the inhabitable planet the survey of the inner system found," he said. "Then Lieutenants Gaeta and Agathon have some more information about what they have found in the Cylon memory core." He nodded at Cottle, and stepped aside as the doctor took the podium.

Cottle addressed the gathering in his gravelly, terse manner. "Although I could easily see why the boarding party thought the dead alien was a giant lizard," he began, "my examination proved that, while it does have some kind of reptilian ancestry, it is nothing of the sort. The dead alien is in fact warm-blooded, just like us. It is, however, definitely not mammalian. It appears to be something completely new to us." He paused to let his statement sink in.

"Examination of what was left of its head revealed a large cranium containing the remains of a highly-developed cerebral structure. Put simply, this thing is smart, and in all likelihood at least as smart as us. An examination of its teeth indicates that it is omnivorous, again like us, but has a carnivore as an ancestor, unlike us.

"I then looked at its musculature. This thing is definitely stronger than a human, and may be as strong as a humaniform Cylon. The muscles in its legs suggest that this thing is quick, and its overall build suggests exceptional agility. I did some number crunching and worked out that this thing could easily move at a speed of between sixty-four and eighty kilometres per hour." A murmur swept through the gathering. "I consulted with Lieutenant Agathon and she told me that this means that it could easily outrun a humaniform Cylon.

"However, the real kicker came when I examined its genetic material. This thing employs the exact same DNA structure as do all forms of life that are familiar to us. I then compared it to our own, and was amazed to discover that, according to the evidence, the ancestors of this creature and our own ancestors evolved on the same planet, but millions of years apart! Yet we have no evidence at all of anything even remotely like this thing ever being on any planet humanity has ever occupied!" A stunned silence swept over the assembly.

Laura Roslyn then spoke up. "There are mentions in the Sacred Scrolls of creatures that are called 'dragons'," she said in a shaky voice. "Could this be a ... dragon?"

Cottle snorted. "I had the same thought," he said, "reflecting on what we found on Kobol. However, when I looked I saw that there were warnings against what were called 'dragons'. I also saw that some descriptions generally matched our dead alien friend, while others mentioned scales, wings and a fiery breath. They do not, however, say that humanity ever shared a planet with them, but that they had similar origins. However, I'm leaving that up to the theologians.

"And if that wasn't enough, my examination of the remains of the brain found this." He flashed up a slide on the screen. There, next to a graduated scale showing its size, was a square object. On its surface the unmistakeable marks of integrated circuitry could easily be seen.

"Is that..." began Roslyn.

Cottle nodded. "Yes, Madame President. That is a computer chip of some kind. I found it attached to the brainstem. Lieutenant Agathon tells me that it is far, far more sophisticated than anything she knows of. And when a Cylon says that, then I'm scared." He took a drink of water from a glass that stood on the podium. "Our best guess is that it ran off of the body's own bioelectricity. It's construction appears top be partly organic matter.

"On a rather unrelated matter, I also have the results of my examination of the air, water and soil samples taken from the inhabitable planet. Turns out that it is inhabitable after all. There are no pathogens, tailored or otherwise, that are a serious health threat to the Fleet." He stepped back from the podium.

Apollo again took the podium. "Thank you, Doctor Cottle," he said, "for that... edifying presentation. I would like Lieutenant Agathon to tell us about the additional data she and Mr. Gaeta managed to extract from the Cylon memory core." He stepped away as Athena took the podium.

"Since Chief Tyrol seems enthusiastic about going back to the derelict I should add some relevant data about its condition that I extracted from the data core's damage control files," she said. "Although it looks as though it was badly shot up, and has no functioning artificial gravity or life support, the derelict is actually in pretty good shape. The reasons it lost power and life support is because the Hybrid eventually lost its fight against the invasive software package. However, before that could happen, the Hybrid managed to jump the base star to its current location quite randomly. It was only after it had arrived in this system that the package took over.

"The reason the base star did not self-destruct was because that was one of the first things the invasive package took out. It then went about taking out the weapons systems. Some of the smaller gun emplacements were destroyed, but the data core makes it quite clear that was done when the alien boarding party started its assault. Basically, the weapons systems on the base star are intact. So, too are the magazines, the power generating plants, the tylium reactor cores and, most importantly of all, the hyperdrive."

Silence gripped the room. Then Adama said, "So, you're telling us that, except for the damage we have seen, the base star is virtually intact?"

"Yes, sir," said Athena. "Hyperdrive, manoeuvring engines, weapons systems, reactor cores, power plants, the lot. And, because this type of base star was designed to be almost self-sufficient, so too are its manufacturing plants. All they need is energy, some repairs to the hull to establish vacuum-tight seals, and a clean computer system to operate."

Again silence gripped the room. Then Adama turned and faced his son. "Major Adama," he said. "Given that you are familiar with the information that has been given to you, if we decided to salvage this vessel, what would it do for the Fleet's capabilities?"

Apollo stepped forward. "Assuming that we eventually managed to repair the base star fully, it would give us a ship that has all of the capabilities of a Mercury-class battlestar," he said, "built with technology not too far removed from either the Galactica or an early-model Valkyrie," he said. "We would have the capability to manufacture pretty much anything we needed. In addition, it would give us a ship that has a much greater internal cubic capacity than Galactica, which would help ease crowding on several other ships in the Fleet." He paused, and then added, "There is also a sizeable asteroid belt outside the orbit of the fifth planet in this system. It was overlooked, for understandable reasons, in the initial survey. The Fleet's mining ship, escorted by one Raptor and three Vipers went out to perform a quick survey and found that there are plenty of resources that the Fleet can use if we do decide to repair the base ship."

Adama shot his son a sharp look. "You think we should repair the base star, then, Major?

Apollo looked his father steadily in the eye. "Only presenting the President and yourself with as many options as possible, sir."

Athena again spoke up. "It appears that this ship was in the process of launching its raiders when the invasive package struck," she said. So, it turns out that she also has nearly a full wing of the last generation of Cylon Raiders prior to the latest models on board. Of course, their piloting intelligences are long dead, but Major Adama, Chief Tyrol and I believe that, with some work, we could modify them to be piloted by humans." Another silence took hold of the room as all assembled there took in the importance of what had been said.

"So you're saying that in addition to a virtually intact base star, we also have almost a wing of Raiders?" said Adama.

"Yes, sir," said Athena. She didn't elaborate on her answer.

Adama sat back in his chair, visibly turning this new piece of information over in his head. Then he turned to Gaeta, who was the only one who hadn't spoken. "Well, Mr. Gaeta," he said, "virtually every one else has delivered at least one bombshell, so we might as well hear what you have to say." He waited as Gaeta moved up to the podium.

Gaeta nervously cleared his throat. "Well, Madame President, Admiral. My role was basically to assist Lieutenant Agathon in decoding the memory core. The... invasive package was a surprise to both of us, but we have managed to isolate it and I am studying it so as to work out an effective defence against it and with an eye towards using it against our pursuers.

"However, it was while looking at some records not pertaining to the combat that this base ship had been involved in that I found out something interesting. You see, this ship was part of a group of six base ships that were exploring this area. About a day before they were attacked, a damaged Raider from the other group of six base stars, followed shortly after by two more, were recovered by the Cylon force. Their reports were downloaded and stored in the memory core.

"It appears that they were the survivors of a preliminary probe that was examining a system some distance from where they were picked up. During the course of that exploration they encountered a force of around twenty vessels, each about one hundred tons in displacement. These vessels just suddenly appeared on the Cylon DRADIS without warning and effectively locked them up with some kind of targeting array. At the same time they broadcast on several frequencies a challenge in several languages. One of them bore a strong resemblance to Classical Colonial."

Adama shifted in his seat. "Do you have a recording of this transmission, Mr. Gaeta?" he asked.

Gaeta nodded. "I'll play it for you now, sir." He touched a button on the podium. After a brief hiss of static the assembled group heard a strangely accented voice come out of the speaker. Adama caught several words that he understood, but Laura Roslyn listened with great interest. After a while, the recording stopped.

"Do you understand what he was saying, Mr. Gaeta?" said Adama.

"I did," said Roslyn. "Classical Colonial was one of my subjects at university. However, this sounds like it had been put through some kind of machine. Some of the grammatical intonations were just a bit odd."

"I had some understanding of it, Madame President," said Gaeta, "but I'm afraid that Classical Colonial wasn't exactly on the curriculum at the Academy."

"Well, he identified himself by some rank I couldn't get, a commander of some sort," Roslyn said. "But he also identified himself as belonging to something called the 'Great King's Terran Navy,' or something like that. The word he actually used, and I'm sure I've got the pronunciation wrong, was 'Imperator's', or something like that."

"Interesting," Adama said. "So we may have yet another set of aliens to deal with."

Roslyn shook her head. "I'm afraid I'm not making myself clear, Admiral," she said. "The word 'Terran', is, I'm sure, a derivation of the Classical Colonial word 'Terra', which is a word meaning 'dry land', or... Earth."

A stunned silence fell across the room as the implications of Roslyn's statement sank in. Then Tigh shook himself. "My Gods!" he said. "Are you telling us that the Cylons may have found Earth?"

Roslyn shook her head. "Not from what I got of that message," she said. "This 'Flying Commander Thums', I think it was, said that they were in a system claimed by the Thirteenth Tribe, if that is who these 'Terrans' are," she said. "That argues quite strongly that they may have several systems under their control."

Gaeta nodded. "From what I could gather, that seems to be the case," he said. "Anyway, it seems that the Cylons may have come to the same conclusion, because the combat record indicates that they tried a computer hack on these 'Terrans'. It seems, however, that it failed, because the next transmission said something about it being considered an 'act of war'. I'm pretty sure I got that bit right. After that, the record indicates that at least two Raiders jumped out system to where their base stars were and brought them back.

"When they arrived they found a fully-fledged battle going on, with the Cylons getting the rough end of things. It seems that these 'Terrans' also have a wide array of energy weapons, including a point defence system, plus a superior type of armour and, unbelievably, some kind of energy field that they use to protect their ships from enemy fire."

"An energy field." By now, Adama was beginning to feel somewhat numb under the constant bombardment of revelations that challenged his perception of the universe. By the looks on their faces, so were Tigh, President Roslyn and all the others in the audience.

"Er, yes sir. But that's not all. These vessels were joined by a squadron of interceptors that make our Mk VIII Vipers look pretty ill in comparison. They too, had better armour, these energy shields and also a wide array of energy weapons. Together, the two groups started to conduct a fighting withdrawal towards an unknown destination, and the Cylons followed. Judging from what I could glean from the core, the Hybrids had decided that they were dealing with Earth's fleet, and were going for the kill.

"The Earth ship's defences were, however, not so perfect. Two of the larger vessels fell out of formation, having suffered some damage. They immediately came about and launched a suicide run on the nearest base star, launching six missiles that were far larger than anything we've ever seen carried on small ships. These turned out to be carrying very large nuclear warheads. They detonated some distance away from the base star. This was deliberate, as the data core revealed that these nuclear warheads each generated several very powerful lasers that apparently were in the x-ray spectrum. I have been able to determine that the Colonial Fleet's R and D department were investigating this as a weapons system at the time of the Cylon attack.

"At any rate, these weapons did cause the lead base star to fall behind the others. The running battle lasted for two hours before it came in sight of a large structure, which, because of the size of it and the size of the two vessels covering it, the Cylons assumed was some kind of base station. Then, it jumped a short distance away."

"How large was this structure, and how big were the supporting vessels?" asked Adama.

"The structure, which had a very wide array of defensive weapons and seemed to be some sort of base ship, was three thousand metres in length," answered Gaeta. "The two ships were easily the size of a battlestar."

"Gods!" said Tigh, "that's one huge frakking ship!"

"When this ship jumped away eight other ships were revealed. They just suddenly appeared on the Cylons' DRADIS screens," Gaeta said. "Four of them were the same size as the one that had jumped away, but they flanked four bigger ships. Each of the four bigger ships was four thousand metres long.

"But that was nothing compared to the firepower these ships suddenly produced. The Cylon DRADIS simply went white tracking the insane number of missiles these eight ships fired. And, it turned out that they all were tipped with warheads identical in type to the ones fired earlier in the action by the two smaller ships, except that they were much larger. When the screen cleared only one base star was left, and that was quickly finished off by several of the one hundred tonne ships. The only reason the raiders survived is because they were out of the direct line of fire and jumped out when they had a chance."

Silence again fell across the thoroughly benumbed audience. Then Roslyn shook herself and looked around. "People," she said, "if, and I do say if, these 'Terrans' are the Thirteenth Tribe, it is clear that they have not only survived their exodus from Kobol, but have thrived. However, it is a big assumption to assume they are the Thirteenth Tribe simply because the word they use to describe their nation means 'Earth.'

"That aside, we have several questions to answer. First, how do we find them? Second, how do we approach them for help? What will their response to an approach for help be? Will they help us at all, or will they simply turn their backs on us? And how will they view us?"

"Gods, yes," said Tigh. "If their technology is anything like what we've seen so far, we're going to look very much country cousins to them! That is assuming they even condescend to talk to us in the first place, let alone us finding them!"

"On that note, Mr. Gaeta," said Adama, "do you have any idea where we could find them? Or at least the system that this second engagement you've told us about took place. I think we're all agreed that we don't want to run into any living examples of these... 'dragons', for want of a better term."

Gaeta took a nervous sip from the glass of water at the podium. "Well, Admiral, the, er, 'dragons' are actually a lot closer than you might expect. The overflight by the Raptors of the inhabitable world has found signs of a settlement on one continent. A lower reconnaissance run showed that it was at a primitive level, and that it was made up of these 'dragons'. We are presuming that they are quite likely the survivors of the boarding party and their descendents.

"As to finding the system the Cylons encountered the Terrans in, I have managed to download the stellar charts that the Cylons were making of this area of space. I have yet to compare them fully with the charts we've been making, but I may be able to locate both systems, given enough time."

Gaeta stepped back from the podium. Apollo took his place and said, "This brings our briefing presentation to a close. If the various teams find out more information, they will inform Galactica's XO as well as President Roslyn's chief aide. Thank you for your patience."

Laura Roslyn got up. So did Adama, Tigh and the rest of the audience. Roslyn turned and faced Adama. "Well, Admiral, I don't know about you, but I feel that I'm going to have to take some time to simply absorb what I've heard today before I make any decisions that could affect the Fleet."

Adama nodded. "Me, too," he said. He gestured towards the briefing room door. "If you wish, Madame President, I'll escort you to your ship. Perhaps we could discuss some of what we've heard on the way there."

Roslyn smiled. "Thank you, Admiral." Turning, she walked out of the briefing room, followed by Adama and their respective staffs.