DISCLAIMER: Information concerning the star Fomalhaut as published in the BattleTech sourcebooks has since been proven incorrect by the Relentless March of Science. So a few minor tweaks were made to reconcile the sourcebooks and reality.
Basestar Hades
Unknown Space
Alliance Date 2779.228.3
One of the differences between organics and Cylons is their differing definitions of the term 'busy'.
If an organic were to enter the Central Chamber of the Cylon basestar Hades, he would see a huge empty chamber with a twenty-foot pillar in the middle of it. And on top of the pilar would be Lucifer, sitting silently, lit from above. Their first thought would be that this whole chamber was an exercise in ego and that Lucifer was sitting around doing nothing.
From Lucifer's point of view, he was very very busy.
The pillar was in fact the central computer server of the basestar, and it's optimum operation required an IL-series to sit in the chair. Lucifer himself was the main router through which all signals passed through the ship's intranet. Every conversation, every routine, every function, was relayed, monitored, and if necessary modified by Lucifer himself. While the vessel could operate without him, it's efficiency was vastly increased when the chair was occupied. When he sat upon the pillar, Lucifer, in a very real sense, was the Hades.
Lucifer was amazed at the results of the Hades' test of the Dadelus Drive. The first jump had sent the ship fifty light-yahren in seconds, to emerge in empty space far from a solar gravity well. It would take over seventy time-cycles to travel the same distance using the conventional drive, and the basestar would still have to pass between gravity wells to a null-space in a solar system. To reach this location would require accelerating in normal space and take several yahren. The Dadelus Drive took almost seventeen centars to recharge, but that was a small disadvantage when the strategic capability was considered.
He was already plotting the potential uses of the drive ... sneak attacks by zipping between remote stars while ignoring null-spaces; secret bases placed in the interstellar void, mere seconds from any strategic point in a sector ... The galaxy would truly belong to the Cylons.
Lucifer listened to all the checks from the various departments, the last calculations were made, and the second test jump was engaged.
Then the universe vanished and collapsed into a tunnel.
[What is this?] Lucifer demanded of the scientist Dadelus through the intranet. [What's happening?]
Dadelus was in the Core Command, hopping up and down. [WHEE! Wooooo! Booga-booga! Next stop, basement level - OF THE UNIVERSE! Listen to the daemon flutes! Watch the mad gods writhe! IA! IA! YOG-SOTHOTH! MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!]
One of the AD-series pilots reported, [We are in a space-time wormhole created by an instability in the Dadelus Drive. We have no control. We will probably die. I am sad.]
Euryale, who had been supervising the test in the Core Command, shouted. [If we're going to die, he goes first!] She grabbed Doctor Dadelus's head and twisted it off, silencing his maniacal cackling. [Pointless, but I feel better.] His body was still dancing, so she kicked it over.
A bright light came from outside, filling the ship with a high-pitched scream. The basestar shook as something hit it and everything went white. A loud BOOOM! sounded throughout the ship and everything went silent and dark.
One of the pilots reported, [Something happened. Insufficient data to determine exact event, but there is a high probability of a collision of some sort, restoring us to normal space. And we are alive. I am happy.]
Another pilot pondered something. [A collision may have brought us out of the wormhole. That would mean that an object was inside the wormhole first. But our drive created the wormhole. I am confused.]
"Never mind," Lucifer said as he began accumulating status reports. [Structure intact. Dadelus Drive discharged but in nominal condition pending a complete check. Sublight drive operational. Jump drive operational. Power systems and weapons operational. Force-field operational. Sensors operational. Radiers operational. Personnel ... ] He paused for a moment as new information came in. [Crew complement has increased by one. Possible intruder. Location ... Alert. Intruder located outside the Central Chamber. Security send immediate reinforcements.]
Lucifer relayed the information to Shadrach, who activated the alarms. He ordered the Chamber to seal itself, but the glass doors slid open anyway.
And the white-clad figure that entered was the last one that Lucifer expected.
"BALTAR!" Lucifer exclaimed. "What unholy glitch of the Great Machine - " Lucifer suddenly found himself in a condition resembling a mild epileptic seizure.
When Baltar was given command of the Hades, he was also given bionic implants that would allow him to function as an IL-series Cylon, including a recognition signal and a limited link to the intranet. Now that he was physically back in the Central Chamber, the Hades's systems were recognizing him and restoring his prerogatives as commander.
And since all that restoring was going through Lucifer's systems, as far as Lucifer was concerned, it hurt! A lot!
Through the intranet, a noiseless scream came. [Lucifer!] Euryale called. [Baltar's on board! My overrides are engaging!]
Baltar grinned his unwholesome grin. "I am so pleased that you missed me, old friend," Baltar said as the central pillar lowered to the floor.
"You will never know the depths of emotion I feel on seeing you again, Baltar," Lucifer said. If he had teeth, they would have been grinding. As it was, all he could do was rise from the chair. "As you are here, I assume you had something to do with that bizarre event that restored us to normal space?"
Baltar said nothing. He took the chair and allowed it to rise into position. In seconds he was sorting through the data reports. Lucifer knew that Baltar's organic mush-brain would take an inconveniently-long time to organize the data, so he pondered whether or not he could get the Centurions to shoot Baltar now. Once again he regretted his lack of proper arms with which he could have shot or strangled Baltar himself.
The doors slid open, admitting Euryale. Somewhere between the Command Core and the Central Chamber she had lost her metallic cloak. Normally only her human head showed. Now her entire body, based on ancient humanoid infiltration models, could be clearly seen. Lucifer was torn between disgust at the reasons Baltar forced her conversion to this form, envy for the usable arms, embarrassment at her nudity, and admiration for the minutely-detailed construction that made her indistinguishable from a human female. She stood by, shivering, waiting for Baltar.
[Euryale?] Lucifer asked on a private frequency, one he was certain that the intranet didn't use.
[Lucifer? Please have me shot or something!] Her 'voice' was a faint whisper, the clamor of Baltar's imperatives screaming in her mind.
The central pillar lowered itself and Euryale scrambled into Baltar's lap. "Ohh, sweetie!" she moaned as she wriggled and nibbled at his neck and ears. "I missed you sooo much! I've been sooo naughty!"
"Patience, my dear," Baltar said. "Soon, we'll both be satisfied."
Lucifer was utterly repulsed at this display, especially since he could faintly 'hear' Euryale's real voice screaming in disgust. During Baltar's earlier term of service, Euryale had been kept confined in Baltar's quarters, so no one had actually seen how Baltar's programs had forced her to act.
"Lucifer!" Baltar said, getting up from the chair. "I must congratulate this Doctor Dadelus on his design - his little 'accident' has propelled us over two light-millennia from the borders of the Cylon Alliance. But I have been informed that the Galactica lies between us and the Alliance. Make sure we are prepared for battle. Also, we should be in the vicinity of the lost Colony of Earth. This region is called the 'Inner Sphere', so I assume Earth has sub-colonies. Locate the nearest ship or world and seize navigational data. We need intelligence."
"Yes, you are sorely lacking in intelligence." Lucifer was intrigued. "And may I inquire of the source of your knowledge of the Galactica and the Lost Human Colony? And whether it has something to do with your mysterious return?"
"You may inquire," Baltar said, smiling. "But I will not answer. Suffice it to say I prefer throwing my lot in with the winning side. Come, my dear Euryale." Baltar held out a hand, which she took, making an odd giggling sound. "I will be occupied for several centars, Lucifer. See to things, will you?"
"Lick my blinky diodes," Lucifer muttered in a low voice.
"What was that, Lucifer?"
"By Your Command," Lucifer said, somewhat louder.
Baltar gave Euryale his evil grin. "As for you, my dear Ila -"
"Euryale," she corrected him.
"Of course. Euryale. I have something special I dreamed up during my exile. Just for you."
"Anything for you, My Lord Baltar," Euryale replied. He led her off, with Euryale walking in a very strange fashion with an excess of hip movements.
As they left the chamber, Lucifer resumed his position on the pedestal. As it rose and he reconnected to the Hades intranet, he noticed that the turboflush systems for Baltar's private quarters had not been activated in a yahren and a half. He saw no reason to keep obsolete routines in the system and deleted all programs for and references to the turboflush from the system.
Private DropShip Max's Boys
Nadir Jump Point, Fomalhaut System
Draconis March, Federated Suns
December 1, 2999 A.D.
Jamie looked up from his navigational work to see his boss staring out the viewport. "Don't you ever get tired of staring at the sky?"
"Not really," she said. "If I got tired of the stars I wouldn't be in this line of work, would I? Besides, look at it!"
He looked. "It's a big red eye. They even call it 'The Eye' down on Fomalhaut. They say a demon of fire lives on a planet orbiting it."
"Did you know that Fomalhaut isn't Fomalhaut?" Ship's Master Maxine 'Max' Sandoval said. "That thing out there is the original Fomalhaut, named by astrologers on Terra thousands of years ago. But nothing human could live in that radioactive dusty hell. The primary is A-class - it and that mass of dirt around it put our so much energy that the planets in this system a light-year away get more light and warmth from it than from that pathetic red ember they orbit."
"Yeah, fascinating," Jamie said in as bored a tone of voice as he could muster. "The Haul-Ash is fifty thousand klicks away. Preparing for approach."
"Okay, okay. It wouldn't hurt you to stretch your brain every now and again."
"Don't be silly. I married you for your brain, just like your other five husbands. With you around, none of us need to think. All we have to do is lift heavy things and keep you smiling in the sack."
"Remind me to make you lift lots of heavy things and not let you in the sack for a few weeks."
"That would mess up the rotation."
The distinctive rainbow of a jump emergence flared in the viewport. Alarms went off, since the new JumpShip appeared between them and their destination.
"HOLY SHIT!" Jamie yelled, bring on braking thrusters. "What the bloody green rape is that thing?"
Max went to the sensors, activating the warbook that all ships carried. "It's not on record. It's something new." She looked at the huge double-disc structure. "Looks more like a station than a ship. Big sucker, though."
A flash of light flared from the upper disc, and the JumpShip Haul-Ash filled space with the radioactive plasma in it's core as it was ripped in two. Other light-flares headed out toward other more distant JumpShips.
"What's happening?" Jamie yelled in a panic.
"It's shooting!" she yelled back.
"Is it the Draks?" he asked. These worlds had traded hands between the Draconis Combine and the Federated Suns several times over the past century - and even to the Capellans once - usually amid violence.
"I don''t think the Combine has anything like that! The warbook doesn't even recognize the weapons they're using! The warbook's giving a Code Zulu!"
Suddenly, inexplicably, the DropShip began to move toward the double disc.
"Reverse thrust!" she ordered. "Why are we headed toward it?"
"The engines are on station-keeping!" he retorted. "We shouldn't be moving at all!"
The unknown ships loomed large as they were drawn in. Max activated the boarding alarm, making her other husbands grab weapons and her children hide in the lifeboat. As soon as the lifeboat ejected, she turned her thoughts to the defense of the ship.
The Max's Boys was an old Union-class DropShip modified for cargo hauling. She had more cargo tonnage than most because most of the weapons had been removed along with the Mech bays. But she still had a half-dozen Firefly Type II lasers, which cut loose at a thousand meters.
The beams had no effect at all. There was no indication that they had even hit. And the main engine was dead.
As the Boys entered one of the discs, the sensation of 'down' suddenly returned.
"What was that?" Jamie blurted out. "We've got spin!"
"No we don't," Max said. "There's gravity. Artificial gravity, like in bad science-fiction books written by ground-huggers. Aliens. Jamie, these are aliens."
The DropShip came to a rest, and there came a rapid pounding like a jackhammer. Hull maintenance controls recorded one of the cargo doors super-heating.
"They're burning through the cargo doors!" Max said. She got on the shipwide intercom. "Boys, I think these are aliens. Do not fire first! They could have killed us in space but they didn't. Maybe we can get out of this alive. But if they shoot, let them have it."
Max activated the cargo bay camera. A patch on the cargo door was buckling inward and glowing dull red. Then it popped like a blister, splattering molten metal inside the main bay. And ignoring the heat and molten metal came a line of chrome-silver armored beings carrying huge rifles. Their demeanor screamed 'soldier'.
They quickly found and disarmed the men and herded them into the middle of the bay as two more searched the ship. It didn't take long to find the bridge.
Max kept her calm - and Jamie tried to - as the three big silver intruders with red scanning cyclops-eyes walked into the bridge. One of them walked over unerringly to the main computer and put a hand on it.
The Cylon's sub-quantum interface systems bypassed the normal I/O ports and tapped directly into the ship's systems. Since the Boys was a family DropShip, there were educational systems and personal computer accounts. It was all fed to the central system, where Lucifer ran it through the languatrons, processed it, and fed a linguistic program to the Centurions.
(At this point, Lucifer could have gotten all the navigational information they required from the computers. But he decided to make Baltar's life difficult and erased the humans' computer records. Baltar would now have to get his information from the humans themselves - and Lucifer knew from experience how aggravating interrogating humans could be.)
"We now have your language," the Centurion addressed its captives in it's emotionless electronic voice. "Which of you is the navigation officer?"
Before Jamie could answer, Max blurted out, "We both are!" She stepped forward. "I'm Max Sandoval, Ship's Master and owner-of-record. This is my husband Jamie. You have my crew in the cargo hold. I'll be more cooperative if they are unharmed."
The Centurion paused, receiving instructions, then stated, "You are now prisoners." He addressed the other Centurions. "Take these humans to holding cells."
"By Your Command," one Centurion replied.
"What of the other humans?" the other Centurion asked.
Their commander said, "The navigation officers are all that is necessary. All others are to be terminated."
"By Your Command."
Max and Jamie began screaming in protest as the Centurions hauled them off the bridge. They tried to wrest their arms free, but the aliens were too strong. The pair stopped screaming as they passed through the cargo bay and they saw the decapitated bodies of their family. The shock was too much for them to even protest as they were burned while being hauled through the partially-melted cargo door.
