Author's note: I would like to warn at this point that this story and the other one that I'm writing are not in sync. The events here are happening many months earlier while the Terrans were still dealing with the Ori. Just so there's no confusion. Also, many have asked about more Terran involvement in this story. What I can tell you is that the story is only at the beginning - this is only the fourth chapter - and although there will be more Terran involvement as the story progresses, this story primarily focuses on the Colonials and the Cylons. That said, well, here comes some more Terran involvement ;)

I hope I have answered to all reviews through PM. With both stories out, I'm starting to have problems remembering what reviews I replied to and what reviews I may have missed. If I missed responding to any review, sorry about that. Feel free the send me a PM, and I'll reply in short order. This applies to both stories.

Thanks to my beta for his help, and to you for reading my story. I hope you like this chapter too.

Updated on 6/6/2019

Roslin slowly opened her eyes, her vision, still a blur. There was a lot of light in the room, much more than was usual for her quarters. It was a sign that something was different from the last two weeks during which time she'd woken up in her bed aboard the Colonial One. And the reason for that was because she wasn't in her bed, or her room, or on Colonial One.

She was now awake enough to understand that little fact.

With eyes wide open, Roslin began scrutinizing her new environment, with a hint of fear. This ship clearly wasn't Colonial One. The architecture of the room was very different from any room on any of their ships. For a brief moment, her thoughts went to the unpleasant place of her being on board a Cylon baseship, taken prisoner. There were no Cylons, though, and she wasn't restrained in any way, which was giving her hope.

Just a sliver, though.

Roslin could remember that, before waking up in here, she was on Colonial One and the Cylons had just attacked the Fleet. She could clearly remember seeing through one of the ship's small windows raiders as they were targeting the Galactica and Vipers chasing after them.

Now she finally remembered how it had ended. A damaged raider had veered off, away from the Galactica and on a direct course for the civilian fleet, straight toward the Colonial One. The Fleet was already jumping away when the raider rammed the Colonial One, the same moment that she lost consciousness.

Roslin was so concentrated, trying to remember everything that had happened before her waking up in this place that she didn't notice when somebody entered the room.

"How are you feeling?" Doctor Lam asked politely.

"W-Who are you? Where am I?" Roslin asked with a trace of fear.

"I'm Doctor Carolyn Lam. You don't have to be frightened. You are safe here."

"Where… where is here?" Roslin was rubbing her eyes, trying to wake up fully. It was not the kind of conversation someone had with half of her brain asleep.

"You are aboard a Terran spaceship, the Prometheus. You were injured and brought to the sickbay upon retrieval from your ship."

"Terran? Prometheus?" Roslin murmured those two words in a questioning manner. She didn't know who the Terrans were, and why they named the ship after a mythological figure from her culture.

"Yes, we are Terrans, and we are from Earth."

While thinking about the revelation that this ship belonged to the people from the Thirteenth Colony, Roslin also questioned the validity of the doctor's claim that she'd been injured. She couldn't find any injuries, and she never felt better. "What injuries? I have no injuries."

"Your injuries have been tended to even before I was brought here. I'm here because scans showed that you had cancer and the ship's doctor wasn't qualified to treat you."

"Had cancer?" Why was she using the past tense?

"I was able to devise a treatment for your illness. Currently, you have no cancerous cells present in your body. I would still like to make a few more tests to make sure, but I'm confident that you've completely been cured."

"That… that's impossible! My doctor said I have maybe three more months to live!"

"Our medical knowledge allows us to treat such diseases with relative ease," Lam replied, thinking how not more than five years ago, her answer would have been a very different one.

Roslin knew there had been suspicions of the humans who had helped in the Cylon attack being technologically more advanced. Them being able to counteract the Cylon virus was clear proof of that fact, but their ability to cure a disease that her people could not, it meant that in other areas as well they were ahead of them. "Thank you."

"No need to thank me. I took an oath to help whoever is in need," Lam replied.

"You're from the Thirteenth Colony?" Roslin asked.

Lam looked at the woman, thinking on how to reply, "I'm a doctor, Vice President Roslin. I can answer any question you may have regarding your health, but for everything else, you'll need to ask somebody else."

"I understand. Is there someone I can ask then?"

"There is. He came on the ship together with me, and he's impatient to meet you. If you have no more medical questions, I can tell him that you're well enough to speak with him."

"Thank you. I would very much like that."

Lam nodded and moved out of the room. Walking down the corridor, she found Daniel already on his way. The man did look like a child waiting for his candy, every time there was some new culture to meet or when he found some unique five thousand years old pot on some planet.

"Doctor Lam. How's your patient?" Daniel asked, wanting to know if he could finally talk to her. Doctors were rarely accommodating when a patient's health was concerned.

"She's awake and well. Her cancer's gone, for now," Liam replied, ending the sentence somberly.

"For now?"

"Yes, for now. While I was making tests, I've noticed a deviation in her DNA when compared to ours."

"What do you mean by deviation? Isn't it normal for a race that lived on another planet to have a slightly different DNA due to living in a different environment?"

"It's normal to have a slightly different DNA because of living on a different planet, yes - I have witnessed such deviations in other human-populated worlds many times - but the expected deviation is of less than .05 percent. She's showing more than half percent difference in her DNA, with an even greater difference in her mitochondrial DNA."

"That's strange. Isn't mitochondrial DNA used by biologists and archeologists to elucidate the evolutionary relationships among species?"

"It is, and that's because the mother exclusively inherits the mtDNA. It is also why I'm certain such change should not be present only because of environmental differences."

Daniel was already thinking of something, but right now, he was more preoccupied with Lam's statement of Roslin being clear from cancer, but only for now. "Doctor, why did you say she's free from cancer for now?"

"I will have to make more tests, but I believe her disease is genetic in nature and unfortunately hereditary; which means that I would find the same defect in other Colonials."

"Well, Doctor, we have more Colonials aboard. You can run tests on them as much as you want."

"I will."

"Thank you, Doctor. I'm going to check on our VIP guest now."

While Lam continued on her way down the corridor, Daniel quickly crossed the remaining meters separating him from Roslin's room. Entering the room, he could already tell the Colonies' vice president was eagerly awaiting his arrival. She must have a lot of questions that she etched to ask, but he still wasn't sure to how many he could - or should - answer.

"Vice President Roslin, I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson. I'm a member of the Terran Council," Daniel said politely.

"Doctor Jackson, can you explain to me how I ended up here?" Roslin asked.

She went to ask questions right away. "I wasn't present, but from what the captain told me, a Cylon raider badly damaged your ship by ramming it. From what he told me, it looks that your ship performed an erroneous jump. You were stranded, your ship was damaged beyond your crew's ability to repair it, and there were injured people on board. At that point, the captain decided to act and come to your aid. It was that, or leave you to die."

"Then I will have to thank your captain for saving us," Roslin replied.

"I'll make sure you have the chance before you are returned to your ship," Daniel replied.

"Back to our ship? But you just said the Colonial One was damaged," Roslin replied.

"It was, but we were able to repair the damage. Once we make sure all those that sustained injuries are healthy again, you'll be sent back so that you can rejoin your fleet. We wouldn't want your fleet to proclaim you MIA less than a month after your journey began," Daniel replied, smiling.

"But, Doctor Jackson, we are here searching for you. We are searching for the Thirteenth Colony. Why would you send us back now that we found you?" Roslin asked in puzzlement. She had the slight feeling that these people were trying to get rid of them.

"Uh… that's a tough question. Let's, for now, say that we are not ready to meet you, not yet anyway."

"Why are you referring to us like we are not the same people? You are the Lost Tribe, and we are all the People from Kobol."

"Um… yeah, that's not exactly correct," Daniel replied awkwardly. He didn't want to give her earth-shattering revelations, but there wasn't much he could tell her without doing precisely that.

"I beg your pardon?" Roslin asked, not knowing what he meant.

"Miss Vice President, what do you know about the Thirteenth Colony?"

It was a strange question to ask, but she decided to answer it anyway. "I have to admit that it isn't much. From our historical records, we know that almost four thousand years ago, the Thirteenth Colony left Kobol and venture into space. They went in search of the promised land, Earth."

"Yes, that's what we know about it too, but the problem is that we have evidence on our planet of human civilizations going back more than ten thousand years in the past. So, you see, we have a slight problem with the timeline."

Roslin was blinking in puzzlement. Was this man lying for some reason? Or, if he was telling the truth, what was going on here? There was no way their historical records were that much off. Their scrolls maybe didn't talk about the exact year when the Lost Tribe left Kobol, but an error of so many thousands of years was impossible. "That is not possible, Doctor Jackson. Life began on Kobol, and we know the Lost Tribe didn't leave ten thousand years ago. Your tests must be wrong."

Daniel smiled, inwardly. They were currently at the denial phase of their discussion, which will probably be followed by the angry stage. Still, there was not much he could do about it. And the worst part was that he'd been ordered by the council to keep the revealing part at the bare minimum. He was having a crucial and delicate conversation with his hands tied behind his back.

"There are many things we still don't know, but we are certain that humans have been present on Earth for longer than four thousand years," Daniel replied, not wanting to mention that they'd traveled back in time to 4000 BC; so there wasn't much doubt about the Colonies being in the wrong here.

"You say that it is and yet you give me no proof, and your answers are also very vague," Roslin replied.

"I can remedy that," Daniel said, taking out of his right pocket a strange piece of clay and showing it to her.

"What is that?" Roslin asked. It didn't look like much.

"Well, I can't give you a whole piece of pottery - we are very protective of our archeological findings - but this should be enough for you to perform a thermoluminescence dating test to establish how long ago it was made. It should prove that this piece was heated more than seven thousand years ago, when the vase, which this piece was part of, was made."

Roslin took the piece of ceramic, looking it intently from every side. "You have advanced technology at your disposal. You could have forged this to fool us."

"Madam Vice President, if you are already convinced that whatever I say is a lie and that we can forge whatever we want, then there's no reason for us to have this conversation. Whatever I say that isn't to your liking, you'll dismiss it as being a lie or a fabrication. I also believe that you should ask yourself why would we go to such length to make a fake piece of pottery to convince you that life on Earth predates the time when the Lost Tribe left Kobol."

"So you admit you have technology capable of making this piece look as if it's seven thousand years old even if it isn't?"

'Stubborn woman!' Daniel thought.

"To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I'm not a scientist, but I do believe that we have the capabilities to accomplish something like that if we put our minds to it," Daniel replied.

"Then giving me this doesn't prove anything," Roslin replied.

"I suppose it doesn't," Daniel replied, deflated. "Not sure if anything would."

Roslin looked at Daniel without saying anything for a good thirty seconds, "Why aren't you willing to help us?"

"It is not that simple. There are many things we need to consider before we even begin to think about joining this war of yours, a war that is not ours to fight."

"What is there to consider? Machines are killing humans - your people Doctor Jackson - and that's all that you need to know," Roslin replied angrily.

"I'm telling you again, we are not your Lost Tribe, and also, we still don't have enough information even to know how to approach this war. The only reason we helped you protect your ships from the Cylon virus was that we wanted to stop genocide from happening; the genocide of your people."

"What do you mean you don't know how to approach this war? They are machines!"

"Your point being?" Daniel replied, angrily.

"My point? Are you telling me you would side with machines?" Roslin replied incredulously.

"I'm saying that it doesn't matter if they are Cylons, humans, little purple aliens, or any other sentient race. The decision on which side we side on, if we side with any, depends solely on the actions that have been taken by the two sides involved. That is if we even want to join the war because, at this moment, we don't. It's not our war."

Roslin was dumbstruck by what she was hearing. This man was telling her there was a chance of them siding with the Cylons, "Doctor Jackson, how can you side with machines that have tried to commit genocide."

"As you can see, we are not. But I also can tell you that we are not ready to side with someone who has created a sentient race only to enslave it, or to side with the side that is also responsible for breaking the hard-fought armistice," Daniel replied, pissed about this woman telling him what they should do. There was no way the Terrans were going to get involved in every human conflict that others start. Humans need to learn to clean up their own messes, and the Cylons were their mess to deal with. Besides, they were having problems of their own — much bigger problems.

"What? The Cylons broke the truce. Something you're well aware."

"No, Miss Vice President. From your records, we know that several years ago your military ordered an incursion into Cylon territory with the sole purpose of testing their reaction and capabilities to protect their border. And from what we've gathered thus far, it looks like that was the incident that made the Cylons decide to retaliate," Daniel replied.

"Our records? There's nothing in our public records on what you're referring to," Roslin replied incredulously.

"Well, I'm not talking about your public records, am I?" Daniel spat back.

"You have access to our classified documents?" Roslin half asked, half stated.

"Of course. From the moment we found out about you and the impending war, except for saving your ass, our goal has also been to find out the truth, as much of it as possible. And public records are not the best source if you're looking for the truth. Public records are probably the worst place if you want to find out what happened."

Roslin was speechless. Even she didn't have access to the classified materials that these people had been able to acquire. Well, maybe now that she was the vice president perhaps she could - she did have the necessary authorization - but she never came across a document containing what Daniel mentioned. And the worst part was that these people were not against sticking their collective noses where they didn't belong.

Daniel noticed the thoughtful expression on Roslin's face. He knew she didn't like what he'd told her; any of it probably. "Madam Vice President, I could have come here and told you a bunch of lies. I could have told you what you wanted to hear, maybe even promise you something that we are not ready to deliver. Instead, I came here and told you the truth as we know it. I have given you proof that should indicate we're not the Thirteenth Colony that you're searching. It is now up to you to believe me or not."

A lot to think about was put in front of Roslin, and most of it she didn't like. However, one thing was troubling her above the others. She believed that this man was telling her the truth, which meant there was a lot she didn't know about the history of her people. "If you're not the Lost Tribe, then where is it? They went searching for Earth four thousand years ago."

"We don't know. What we do know is that they never reached Earth."

"And if you are not the Lost Tribe of Kobol, then who are you?"

"We are humans from Earth. We were born there, the same way as all our ancestors were."

"Doctor Jackson, human life began on Kobol," Roslin stated.

"Yeah, that's where our findings would disagree. But, since we still don't know a lot of our history, debating about this is pointless, wouldn't you agree?" Daniel replied, mostly wanting to end this conversation.

"At least we agree on something. There is no point in discussing this," Roslin replied, not very happy on how this entire conversation had gone.

"I'm sorry, I know you're disappointed and that you expected more from this meeting. I hope that, one day, we will be in a better position than we are today and that talks about an alliance between our people could take place, but for now, this will have to be it. We never intended to meet you at this point. We did so only because you would have died on your ship if we didn't."

Roslin nodded in understanding, although she had the nagging feeling that this man was not telling her everything. Actually, she was sure that this man was concealing many facts from her, but what and why he was doing it was beyond her.

Roslin and Daniel continued discussing a few other topics regarding their separate cultures and their people's history. Here as well, Roslin had the impression that Daniel was telling her many facts, but nothing of any importance. As their conversation finally ended, Daniel explained that their ship was repaired and that soon, after the Doctor cleared them, they would be allowed to return to it in order to rejoin their fleet.

As Daniel made his way out of the sickbay, he almost bumped into Jack, who was leaning on the wall just outside the room. Together, the two of them continued their walk down the corridor.

"So, how did it go?" Jack asked.

"How do you think it went? I wasn't allowed to tell her about the other races in the galaxy, I couldn't tell her that there are thousands of worlds with humans and other non-human races, and I couldn't even tell her that we can't help them because we have big problems of our own."

"So, not good," Jack replied.

"Not in the slightest."

"Look, Daniel, I know you're for telling the truth, everybody getting along, and all that, but it's not our place to reveal the existence of other races to the Colonies or the Cylons. From what I understand, whatever we tell the Colonies, the Cylons learn about it, so we need to keep the information leakage on the down-low."

"I know Jack, but without being allowed to tell Roslin the real situation in the galaxy, I had to tell her a bunch of half-truths. Maybe if I told her that one of the reasons why we are not getting involved in their war is that we have several galaxies with hostiles to worry about, she would have taken it a little better than my explanation how we don't know how to approach their war or whose side was worse!"

"But we don't, Daniel. On one side, you have these toasters more than willing to commit genocide. And on the other, you have the Colonials who want to do the same and think of the Cylons as nothing more than badly programmed tools, and we know that at least the human form Cylons are not - probably the toasters too."

"Jack, you just referred to the Cylons as toasters."

Jack looked at Daniel quizzically, "You're right, I shouldn't have. It's just that when I see those tin cans…" Jack stopped, again thinking of what he'd just said, "Fine! I won't call them that way anymore!"

"Well, it's a start."

Jack needed to change the topic, "So, what do you think will happen when she gets back to her fleet?"

Daniel sighed, thinking for a moment, "She didn't like the fact that we are not prepared to help them, she didn't like that I told her we are not the 13th Colony, and I think she also didn't like when we talked about our respective histories, especially the part related to our different religious beliefs. I don't know which part she liked less, or believed in for that matter. When I told her that most people on Earth are monotheists, the fact that we have many different religions on our planet, or that many don't believe in any religion, she almost blew a gasket. As far as I can tell, whoever doesn't believe in the old Greek gods is a heretic or something close to that, depending on which planet in the Colonies we are talking about."

"So, not good," Jack replied.

"Well, you tell me what will happen when this reaches back the Colonies. I don't see them like it very much, and the fact that they now have reason to believe we could side with the Cylons too, well, I would say not good is the understatement of the year."

"They are still far away from Earth, and without knowing where it is, they won't be able to find it so easily. Let's hope that the war with the Ori will end soon so that we can divert some resources here and maybe even find those Cylons and convince them to stop this war. Also, this is Klaus' shindig, and I'm not crashin' it. Not that I'd even want to."

After the last raid the fleet had sustained, things went from bad to worse. It wasn't any damage suffered during the battle, or anything related to the military. The problem was in the civilian fleet.

The Colonial One had been hit by a damaged raider, causing the ship to make a faulty jump. Worst even, the fact the Colonial One didn't jump again to the rendezvous coordinates meant that the vessel was damaged or, worse, it had been destroyed. Searching for the Colonial One had immediately started, the moment they understood the ship was missing, but it was futile. A faulty jump could have transported them anywhere in the void of space or even in the middle of a planet or a star.

As hope of finding the ship was dwindling, tensions inside the civilian fleet started to mount. Their government didn't have a leader, and with almost no hope of Roslin returning, the hastily formed Quorum of Twelve wanted to elect a substitute to take her duties - and power.

Something Adama was categorically against.

He didn't know Vice President Roslin well enough to form a complete opinion of her – he still didn't know how capable she truly was – but what he did know was that she wasn't the usual power hungry politician he often had the displeasure to deal with. He didn't know if this was due to their extraordinary circumstances or if it was her character - after all she'd been the Secretary of Education before hastily being promoted to vice president – but at least it looked as if she was more preoccupied with the welfare of the Fleet than by spending time consolidating her position. He also knew that back home elections were in less than two months, which meant that, even here far away from home, there was a possibility the civilians asking for reelections; even for the fleet's civilian leader. But now that she was missing, there was no doubt anymore if there would be reelections.

At least not if she didn't return any time soon.

Alarms began blaring through the CIC, making Adama look at the DRADIS console. There was an unknown contact displayed on it, and it appeared in the middle of the fleet. Then, suddenly, the grey icon turned into a radiant green one.

"Sir, it's the Colonial One," Gaeta promptly replied, the moment he got the ship's identification codes.

"Launch the alert Vipers and order the civilian fleet to jump immediately." Was this a repeat of the Delphi? Adama thought it probably was.

"Yes, sir," Gaeta replied.

"Dee, contact the Colonial One," Adama ordered with apparent urgency in his voice.

"Channel open, sir," Dee replied shortly after.

"Colonial One, this is Admiral Adama from the Galactica. You are ordered to power down all nonessential systems and prepare to be boarded," Adama said, pausing for a moment. "Failure to comply will be met with deadly force."

Even before any reply came, the Colonial One powered down its systems.

"Galactica, we've received your orders loud and clear, and we are complying fully. We are ready to receive your boarding party."

Adama thought about the response, still uncertain if this was a trap or not. He muted the mike before addressing Lt. Gaeta. "Mister Gaeta, are there any radiological emissions coming from inside the ship?"

"No, sir. Nothing that would indicate the presence of nuclear ordinance."

"Bill, you still think this is a trap?" Saul asked.

"I don't know what to think," Adama answered, before pushing the mike's button again. "Colonial One, can you explain your long absence?"

"Galactica, the damage the raider caused made us jump to the wrong coordinates. Thankfully, we found friends who helped us tend to our wounded. They also graciously repaired the damage done to the ship, free of charge."

Adama was puzzled. "Friends?"

"Yes, Admiral, friends. They are Terrans, Admiral. And they are from Earth."

Adama's eyes went wide, the same as of the other crew members present on the CIC. "You made contact with the Thirteenth Colony?"

"Um, I'm not sure about that, Admiral. Not if what they've told us is the truth. They say they are not the Thirteenth Colony, and that their civilization predates the Thirteenth Colony's departure from Kobol by thousands of years."

"What?" Saul shouted, but even before Adama could register Saul's question, the reply from the Colonial one continued.

"Admiral, I believe the best thing is for you to have this conversation with the vice president. She talked to them the longest."

Adama couldn't agree more. He was now fully convinced this wasn't a Cylon trap, which was fabulous news. "I agree, Captain. Two Raptors are already on their way."

"Acknowledged Galactica. We are staying put and awaiting their arrival. Colonial One over and out."

The conversation was cut off, leaving Adama with his thoughts. The boarding and the medical protocols that would follow would take at least a few hours. That time he would have to spend doing something else to keep his mind busy, away from thinking about the many questions he had. He knew how important this first contact could be for the Colonies, and he was impatient to debrief Roslin and the rest of the crew.

This could be what their mission was all about.

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