Roll the Dice Carefully...
Activity in the CIC of the Baseship became even more hectic than before as they became aware that the Zephyr's self-destruct sequence had initiated and the crew directed the Hybrid to move the Baseship to a safe distance.
"New contacts coming from the ship!" one of the Eights said. Seconds after the detection, a Three's voice sounded over the wireless.
"This is D'Anna Biers. I've launched from the Bolt of Zephyr in an escape pod. Assistance requested at..."
The occupants of the CIC were alarmed by the sudden silence and the barely audible skittering sound in the background, which was quickly followed by a gunshot.
"Other pods have launched," she said a moment later. "Send SAR Heavy Raiders to retrieve us."
"Raiders en route," the Eight confirmed. "What happened over there?"
"Stray alien I had to squash." was the reply. "Not sure what I got on my hands as the result, but it reeks..."
"New contact!" A Six interrupted.
"It's the fuel tanker scheduled-" said Natalie. "...but it's jumped right on top of the Zephyr! Order it to jump out now!"
It almost did, but just when the space fold was formed, the Zephyr had already detonated, enveloping the tanker in the explosion, causing a reaction from the tylium within.
Natalie lowered her head as the gravity of the situation sunk in: Without the tanker, the local Cylon task-force would be rather short on fuel, and may not have enough to return to the main fleet. Without the Resurrection ship, the casualties on the Zephyr were permanent. All because of an alien threat that they weren't even sure yet was averted!
She slammed on her data panel, splashing a bit of water out of the font and startling the Cylons around her.
"All pods have been retrieved," reported the Eight, after recovering from the outburst.
"Instruct the Heavy Raiders to bring the pods to Hangar Bay one," ordered Natalie, as she was exiting the CIC, she glanced back with ire in her eyes. "Full decontamination and quarantine protocols."
When the feeling of that 'presence' suddenly became an absence, Steiner had no illusions about the situation he was in now. If not handled properly, today could very well be the last day of his short life.
Which meant it didn't come as a surprise to him when he heard fast, angry footsteps drawing near.
Natalie Faust rushed in to find Steiner sitting at the edge of the bed in wait, evidently having expected her arrival. He gestured to the e-sheet which lay next to him.
"You left this," he tried to state nonchalantly, but his tone ever so slightly hinted how the woman intimidated him.
"Choose your words carefully, or they will be your last."
If the Six didn't have his full attention before, she did now. "Duly noted," he answered.
"Did you know they were there?" she 'asked.'
"You'll need to be more specific," answered Steiner.
"The Bolt of Zephyr has been destroyed," she began. "We were ambushed from within, by those things," she pointed to the Infection Form on the e-sheet beside him.
"There were many more than the one we found in your quarters, somehow an entire hive that managed to hide for days."
"I take it that means you've already debriefed any survivors," Steiner surmised. "You should know however that it is unlikely that they 'hid.' It can take less than half a day for a hive to form. Your crew could have searched the ship top to bottom and never found such a thing in the first sweep."
"You seem to know an awful lot about them," Natalie said, with growing ire in her voice.
"And yet you never sought to learn that before, even when I mentioned it during my examination. Some 'black ops' force you are-"
Steiner would swear that not even a heartbeat had passed when he felt a hand on his throat, lifting him up an inch. Despite the strong grip, she had evidently adjusted to avoid completely constricting his airways.
"No more games," she promised. "You've certainly earned that much after the lives lost on that wreck."
"You have my condolences for the casualties..." Steiner insisted. "...but if you're searching for someone to blame, you're looking in the wrong direction."
"Would the Zephyr's crew have attested to that?"
The implication behind the woman's jab angered Steiner. "I guess you'll never know," he shot back.
The grip around his throat was now definitely constricting his airway.
"Sister, stay your hand!"
Her grip loosened, and when Natalie turned to face the intruder Steiner caught sight of her as well.
"What...?" Steiner whispered in confusion.
It was Natalie. Except...it wasn't. Natalie was still holding him by the throat, while this look-alike had platinum blonde hair...
"We are convening to ascertain the use of the materials salvaged, and decide his fate," Ms. Platinum informed.
"You aren't..." Steiner affirmed as he looked between the 'twins' and the Centurion guard, and put two-and-two together.
Natalie turned back to him, looking like she was about to say something, but evidently deciding against it, she released him, leaving him to catch himself of his own equilibrium.
When he looked back to where his visitors had been, there was only the Centurion.
"So..." he said to the guard. "I take it you'll be my executioner if I am sentenced?"
The silence was his answer.
"Nice talking to you."
As he sat at the bed where he was before the altercation, Steiner found himself fascinated by the turn of events, despite, or perhaps in spite of the danger. While he certainly expected his hosts weren't UNSC, this was an unanticipated variable.
The digger begins the tightrope walk, fighting the gale brought by cosmic imperatives. Core reboot imminent. Biological laws favor but attrition is unwieldy. Casting the universal stone casts the questioning answers; the rogue star burns once again. End of line.
"The destruction of the human ship is unfortunate, but it was not a significant loss," said the One present in this meeting. "Given all that we've salvaged."
Yeah, "we", D'Anna thought. "I'm sure our lost brethren would wholeheartedly agree," she said instead.
"Did any of them download before the Resurrection ship was ordered to retreat?" inquired the Six.
"No," Simon affirmed. "Unfortunately that means we have no way of determining whether the Parasite could be downloaded like the beacon-virus."
"After what I saw there," the Eight spoke up. "We won't want to find out."
"We concur," the Four responded. "This lifeform poses too great a threat for study. The pods and ships that departed from the Zephyr must be searched for any remaining traces of the organisms. We'll purge them upon discovery."
"You might as well just eject the ships and destroy them."
"That would be too cost-prohibitive," D'Anna interjected. "We'd lose over half of our Heavy Raider complement."
"As well as those 'Pelicans' and the 'Phantom,'" the Five added. "What about the rest of the equipment we recovered?"
"Technology is another matter," Simon answered. "While overall inferior to our own, these humans made noteworthy achievements. I recommend we begin testing the weapons we found and replicate them if possible."
"These tests should extend to the recovered aircrafts as well," Doral added.
"While a significant amount of information was lost on the derelict," the Two finally spoke. "We believe more can be learned of these humans from what remains. We should all analyze the recovered logs and texts, perhaps they could give us a clue as to Earth's location."
Good luck with that...the Eight thought.
"I understand there was another crucial piece of technology we procured," the One said.
"The Zephyr's Artificial Intelligence," D'Anna confirmed, as she paused in twirling the small chip that was between her fingers. "It downloaded itself into this storage unit after the self-destruct sequence was triggered."
"Does it have anything about Earth?" the One pressed.
"Unfortunately it seems the Intelligence was damaged before we arrived," the Eight answered. "We didn't even know it was aboard until shortly before the aliens were discovered, communication with it seems nigh-impossible."
"Then why do you sound hopeful, Eight?" the One noted.
"If we can connect it to the Hybrid, maybe she could disseminate what's left of it."
Murmurs of approval swiftly filled the room.
"Which just leaves the matter of the human aboard this ship," announced Doral.
Cavil found his interest level in a flux whenever he was brought up. "What about him?"
"His usefulness is now in question," Natalie answered simply.
Now Cavil was very interested, if Steiner's own overseer supported his predetermined outcome for the nuisance.
D'Anna seemed to have taken interest in the Six's judgment as well. "I've never noticed such a venomous tone from you, Six, however subtle it is. What's the basis for this outlook?"
"I have reason to believe he was aware of the alien presence aboard the human warship, despite his vehement denial," she explained. "Before we even learned of the attack, he indicated his prior experience with the creatures, and before then, when we found the tissue anomalies in his blood."
"You actually believe that kid orchestrated a surprise attack?" Doral said incredulously.
"Perhaps not specifically against us," Natalie conceded. "However, given how little we still know about him or where he came from, it is reasonable to consider such a motive."
"Speculation," D'Anna argued. "Likely unfounded. The logs we examined before the attack suggested a mutiny."
"A mutiny he may have had a hand in!" Natalie emphasized.
"The implication that this human is somehow tied to the attack..." Cavil added. "...compounds the likelihood of the threat his continued presence poses."
"Only as long as our knowledge of him remains as limited as it is," D'Anna interjected. "We have the opportunity to learn from him what we can't from the ship, or this A.I."
"A...I..." Doral muttered.
"As I was saying," D'Anna continued. "We know very little now, but that can change, if we have Steiner's cooperation."
"And how do you propose we acquire that?" Natalie jabbed. "Given that he knows we're not who we claimed to be."
There was a moment of silence as D'Anna pondered the effects of this revelation. "Actually," she deduced. "That should ease our efforts, if only slightly. Just as Dr. Baltar has so far proven his usefulness to us, so may Steiner."
"How foolishly optimistic," Natalie muttered. "How do you intend to garner that cooperation?"
"I won't start by nearly killing him." the Three retorted. "Actually, I should thank you for that, now the duty falls to me to feed him the carrot."
The suggestion produced murmurs of concern, approval and disgust, which dissipated into silence when the Cylons realized that all but Cavil had spoken.
Said One was masking his frustration over the turn of events with a feigned disinterest. "Fine. Proceed."
Since the first models were awakened, there was a general consensus that the Hybrid was aware of everything aboard the Basestar. Therefore, it came as no surprise to the geek squad of Eights that her rambling turned into less metaphysics and more data analysis, likely in response to their presence.
After agreeing to save the Artificial Intelligence for last due to the potential security risk, the Eights began their task of compiling sensor data from the recovered Phantom and the Pelicans, in the hopes of tracing Steiner's path pre-Bolt of Zephyr, or any clue as to Earth's location.
As expected, the navigational logs in the Pelicans were as empty as the banks of the Zephyr. The alien transport ship, on the other hand, still retained a fragment of its navigational data, verifying that the Zephyr found and boarded it. Conveniently, though, there was no record of where the ship came from. Given recent events, the team was lead to believe Steiner erased the data.
Having been assigned to the analyses of weapons and other defense tech, Doral had quite a bit on his plate. After prioritizing tasks by level of simplicity, he and his team of Fives and Fours began with the small-arms first.
These parts of the study, the live-fire tests, were something he found he enjoyed most, mainly because every time he fired at the head of an inactive Centurion, he envisioned some measly human who more than likely deserved it.
Although, after the close call on the Bolt of Zephyr, his imaginary humans were quickly being replaced by mutant zombies. Somewhere in a dark corner of the Five's mind was a silent reminder that he was expending more ammunition than necessary.
After emptying the clip of the 'M6D' magnum, he finally stopped to record results, charting both comparisons between it and the Colonial 'Clamshell' magnum as well as the Five-Seven.
His final addition to the report noted that the UNSC munitions were remarkably similar to Colonial technology, yet significantly improved.
Kyle savored the cool sensation of the water splashed on his face. It was a pleasant distraction from the heated confrontation with Ms. Faust, which more than likely put him in a negative light.
When he opened his eyes, he just barely noticed something in his reflection. He peered closer to the simpleton mirror, and found that for the first time since his encounter with the Zephyr, his irises were their perfectly normal hazel.
Well hopefully that's a good sign, he thought, as he began checking his pearly-whites, his jaw, his collarbone, his ears, any place that might hide some kind of anomaly he might have missed before and wasn't already aware of. Just like the previous times, he found nothing.
Stepping back to allow himself a little room, he started brushing his teeth with the 'Felgerkarb,' inwardly criticizing whoever labeled their toothpaste brand with that name.
When that was done, he finished drying off and changed into a grey-white dress shirt and fitting shorts.
Then came the obstacle of opening the door, which he had yet figure out, at least from the inside of the facilities. It took long enough to figure out that one of the light squares was a touch panel. Certainly it must've worked the same way...
With each failed attempt his stream of muttered curses raised in decibel, until the door opened, startling Steiner with yet another visitor.
It certainly wasn't Ms. Faust, though she appeared just as intimidating.
"To what do I owe the visit?" he greeted curtly.
"Sit," she ordered. Steiner easily noticed the 'fuck around and you're dead' tone and quickly complied.
"You've made quite a resumé for yourself in such a short time," the woman stated. "Hitching a ride on a lost warship, bringing an extremely virulent organism along, and endangering our crew to the same fate as the Zephyr personnel."
"I didn't-" Steiner started, but quickly shut up in response to the clear warning implicated by her ice cold glare. The way she started circling the bed didn't do anything to lessen the tinge of trepidation creeping up through his chest.
"Natalie Faust informed me of your proclamations of innocence," she continued. "You should know that a number of personnel files and logs were recovered from the warship and a number of them point to the contrary."
"Now," she stabbed. "What would be your defense against that?"
Steiner realized his response was likely to determine his fate. "If you're fortunate, they'll tell at the most half of what you could know."
Based upon the subtle movements of her eyebrows, Steiner hypothesized that somewhere along the line he gave her the answer she wanted. "Half..." she repeated. "That's a rather generous amount, given what we didn't know beforehand."
"Generous..." Steiner emphasized. "...but obviously not enough for you, or this conversation wouldn't be happening."
"So certain of that, are you?"
"I know that I've been a prisoner here for almost a week, and despite an interesting revelation of your nature, not to mention the crisis that you insist on blaming mefor, you have yet to off me. You want something."
By this point, the circling ceased. "Your cooperation, for one," she waved. "The others seem quite certain this will not be achieved."
Well, now, Steiner thought as he ran his nails through his hair. Isn't this interesting?
"Maybe," he answered. "Though, you have yet to mention what requires my cooperation."
The woman let silence briefly fill the room before she answered. "The destruction of the Zephyr inadvertently created a problem for us. A tanker that was scheduled to refuel our ships was lost in the explosion. Our ships would be empty by the time the next one arrived. As a consequence, we are forced to search for other sources."
And that's where I come in? Steiner thought incredulously. "Since boarding the Zephyr, I've had no idea of where it's gone, so unless I saw at least a star chart of some sort, won't be of much help there."
The woman's eyes lit at the response. "That's a yes?"
Steiner leaned forward. "Get me a chart, and I'll find a fuel source, and if not that, then a route to wherever there might be one minus surprises like the one 'I' endangered you with."
Her attention briefly drifted off, she gave a miniscule nod, and then began making her way out. "Good. We'll talk again later."
"Until later then, Ms..."
"Biers," the Three answered without looking back.
Harvest: The Fall and Rise, Murder at Hayward Shore, Nineteen Eighty-Four, three Lord of the Rings books, Hamlet...
It didn't take long for Leoben to discover that the captain of the Bolt of Zephyrhad more fiction than any other texts, but the one discovery he considered a personal achievement was that of the Bible. From it, he discovered that these humans shared the Cylons' monotheistic belief.
As he memorized the Ten commandments, he wondered what else they might share...
Soon after Ms. Biers' generous offer, Steiner found his bed-space occupied by dozens of e-sheets. Most of them were the star charts he requested, while the others comprised of the fuel and elements used, mining and refining processes, UNSC inventory, which was being updated periodically.
The hard part of his task was cross-referencing the star charts and Covenant Fleet deployments, which there was no e-sheet of.
Steiner paused in the middle of skimming through the fifth chart as the realization dawned upon him. How the hell does he know anything about Fleet deployment patterns or anything about this region of space? Is it-?
Later, he decided as he locked that thought out and continued his examination of the charts.
"Hello..." he said with newfound interest. "...what have we here?"
