Well here I am! As promised with a new chapter! Same things as always apply, hope you like it and everything. Sorry I'm not as upbeat as usual, bad day at work (grumblegrumble)

Anywho! R&R!

Allons-y!

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Chapter Ten: The Call for Help

The Doctor skipped through the ship happily, it wasn't so bad here after all. They hadn't had a Cylon incursion in a while and moral was high. The crew were even beginning to be pleasant to him! He'd worked his first shift at the medical block too. It was mostly cold compresses and stitching small wounds but it was still fun. He liked helping people. It made him happy.

A kind marine directed him to the Admiral's quarters while he skipped, his trainers squeaking ever so slightly. He was due there for some sort of meeting, a treaty or something. He wasn't all that interested but he'd been promised tea. He liked tea. Tea was good.

He grinned at the marines outside the Admiral's door warmly, they nervously smiled back. "Can I go in?" he asked politely. He'd been so rude earlier, Rose would've hit him so hard.

They nodded slowly, eyes flitting to each other. Clearly not used to being talked to. "Ah! Thank you!" Without another word he bounded inside.

The room was clearly a combined meeting room and living quarters and very nicely decorated. It even had a small shrine in the corner dedicated to what looked like a pagan god of some kind. His eyes flitted over the books on a nearby shelf. Paying no mind to anyone in the room he pulled one out and examined it. It had no corners. He looked at it in amazement. "It has no corners," he muttered.

"Doctor," a voice called behind him.

"I like corners! Especially on books. They're traditional," he continued to muse to himself, turning it over in his hands.

"Doctor," the voice became more insistent.

"Why would they cut off the corners?" He put the book back on the shelf with a frown.

"Doctor!"

"Oh sorry! What is it? No need to shout," he beamed at them happily.

The occupants of the room, one Admiral Adama, President Roslin, Lee Adama, Gaius Baltar and Saul Tigh, stared back at him. The Admiral indicated a chair and the Doctor promptly skipped over to it, seating himself. He put his feat on the desk in front of him, Adama senior's, with a relaxed expression. He put them down when Roslin coughed politely with a sigh. "What can I do for you?" he asked amicably.

"Doctor, when you outlined your agreement with us promised us information about the creature discovered on this ship," Adama began. "What have you discovered?"

"Well, like I told you he's a bio-mechanised creature. Bits of flesh and bits of cogs. Really clever design actually, if a little haphazard," the Doctor told them with a shrug.

"And it's harmless?" Lee Adama pressed.

"He is harmless," the Doctor replied, correcting him brazenly. "I took a good look at him and his insides, nothing more than a mimicry."

They seemed satisfied with this and moved swiftly onto the next aspect of their agenda. "Doctor, you told us you're an alien and that's hard for us to believe. But if we do believe it I believe it only courteous that we offer you the same tolerance and etiquette we offer any minority on board," this came from Roslin.

"Why thank you, Madam President," he smiled.

"But in order to do that we first need to know who we are dealing with, trust is based on honesty after all," she continued.

"I wondered when this would come up," he laughed.

"So you understand that we would like to know a little bit more about your...species?" Adama chimed in.

"I thought we'd been through it but sure, go ahead," the Doctor continued to smile. It was almost unnerving for the humans present.

"Alright, we have a few questions. First, what planet are you actually from?"

The Doctor was about to reply when suddenly the ship shuddered and, on a nearby wall, the radio sparked to life. The ship shuddered again. "Admiral Adama, can you hear me, sir?"

The Admiral stood and strode to the radio, "report, soldier."

"It's the Cylons, Admiral. Half the fracking armada just jumped onto our radar and now they are up our arse!" Those words sent visible fear through the humans present.

"The fleet?" The question was tense, prepared for the worst.

"Jumped away," came the response after a pause and everyone let out a relieved breath. "Jumped on emergency coordinates."

Immediately everyone made for the door and the bridge. The Doctor tagged along, as if he'd be left behind. They were running. Now there was something he was used to. Even in the worst situations he could have the best fun.

When they reached the control deck it was a hive of activity, shouting and orders and confusion. This was of course what the Cylons wanted. He stood back and watched as men and women ran back and forth. What surprised him was that they'd been found so quickly. He shrugged it off, maybe they were just smarter than the humans.

Upon reaching the control room he realised that the young soldier had been right, the radar was filled with angry red dots and the air was alive with the sound of panic. Yet there it was again, that psychic probe. That brush against the edge of his senses, familiar now and so very tired. He closed his eyes trying to tune into it, he could hear an edge of music. Every psychic being sang their own song after all, as the Ood had said. If you knew the song, you knew the singer. But the song was muted, so very quiet. Maybe if he could just-

"Doctor," a voice called him back once more. He opened his eyes to see Lieutenant Gaeta glaring at him.

"Hm?" he questioned with a smile. Then he remembered he was supposed to be helping with jump coordinates. He took up a pencil and idly began to write down numbers and calculations.

The ship shuddered slightly as something hit the side with a crunch. "What was that?" bellowed Saul Tigh.

"Sir, we have heavy incoming!" replied a nearby soldier at what looked like to be a control desk. It was just like a scifi movie! "We're taking damage!"

"Yes, but that didn't sound like an explosion," Adama stated coolly.

The soldier squinted at his instruments and frowned, "appears to be some kind of docking vessel, sir. It's latched onto the side of this ship," he was interrupted by a grating noise that echoed through the very timbers.

The Doctor whistled and they looked at him. "Well, it sounds like whatever's in the ship wants to say hello as that's the sound of a high frequency partical laser cutting through the hull of a Battlestar."

His words sparked panic, first to react, unsurprisingly, was Adama. "Which area was it?"

"Near the hangar deck, sir."

"Seal it off and keep the hangar intact if you can. Post marines at the entrance to protect the flight deck, we need our birds, soldier," he spoke quickly, concisely and firmly. The Doctor liked him more and more.

"Deck section sealed, sir. We've lost maintanence areas," was the eventual reply.

"Show me." Adama examined the blue prints on the soldier's screen as he indicated which sections had been lost to possible insurgents.

He jumped when the Doctor suddenly shouted as he hadn't realised the man had come to stand behind him, "No no no!"

"Sir?" the soldier asked, utterly perplexed.

"My ship is down there," he grumbled. All of the central command turned to look at him and the Doctor scratched his unruly hair in thought. "Well, it's not as if they can get in I suppose, I have got extrapolator shielding and a DNA lock. But the old girl will never forgive the hubbub. I'm sorry I'm babbling aren't I? I do that when I'm excited, can't seem to stop myself-"

"You're excited?" Roslin interrupted after a moment. He'd forgotten she was even there. "You're excited during a battle that could destroy us?" She was a little incredulous.

"Oh, yes," he replied glibely. "It won't destroy you anyway, you're big, bad humanity after all." He laughed to himself.

"You're insane," she continued.

"So they have said," he beamed back at her. "But what's life without a little danger, hmm? Let's you know you're alive!" He reached over and flicked a nearby switch.

"Sir," barked a soldier suddenly. "Cylon raiders are losing navigation abilities, our Vipers are confirming it."

"What did you do?" asked Adama after a shocked second.

"Oh nothing. Picked up the Cylon blindfold matrix they were trying to broadcast to your ships, replicated it back and looped it on a therdack scale to continue self replicate infinitely for as long as we are in range of transmission. Easy really." He returned to his paper and calculations.

"You did what?" this came from Baltar himself, the proclaimed genius.

"I turned up into down and left into right. Should confuse them for a while. But computers are good at figuring out patterns like that," he put the pencil between his teeth and pulled out his glasses.

"How did you do that?" asked Baltar putting on his own glasses.

"Now that would be telling," the Doctor smiled to himself, almost done. Doing the work of a day in ten minutes.

"Give me a status report on the incursion," called Adama after a moment.

"Sir, marines report no contact!"

Adama nodded slowly, "we'll keep on the defensive. Let's not get carried away on good fortune."

It was a few hectic moments later when a transmission came through that would change everything. The Doctor was just translating his calculations out of Gallifreyan and inputting them into the computer when the sirens began again.

"Sir, Cylons appear to have regained navigation," a soldier shouted over the noise.

"Frack," growled Saul Tigh.

"Sir," another called bewildered. "Raiders are retreating."

Everyone turned to stare at him, why weren't the Cylons pressing their advantage of numbers? Suddenly half of the Cylon base ships disappeared in a flash of FTL until only one remained. What was more shocking was that it was shooting down the Cylon raiders.

"Sir," it was the same soldier, "we're getting a distress signal."

"Where from?" Tigh was first on the ball.

"From the Base Star, sir. They're hailing us for help," the soldier seemed to bentering a state of shock.

"Let it burn," growled Tigh.

At the exact same time Adama spoke: "Patch it through."

A visual appeared on main screen and showed what appeared to be the Cylon control deck. It was covered in bodies, debrie and was severely damaged. In front of them was one of the skin Cylons, she was blond, dishevalled and bleeding. She looked like she was struggling just to talk to them. Her words shocked the humans. "You have to run away," she gasped, casting a terrified look behind her at the door.

"What's going on?" Adama inquired tersely.

"They're coming. We were stupid, so stupid! You have to run and run now!" she all but screamed, flinching at a nearby grinding sound.

"Who's coming? Why are you helping us?" This came from none of other than Roslin.

"There's no time! You've got to get away," she stopped, breathing harshly. She was dying.

"Why are you helping us?" repeated Tigh. "It could be a trick," he asid to the others.

"Now they're free no one is safe, not us, not you. The picture is so much bigger than our war now," she coughed, blood flecked the screen.

"What is it?" the Doctor asked quietly, "what have you let loose?"

"The Demons! We thought we could control them, use them against you. But they were too strong," she gasped.

"Use them against us?"

"In an incursion pod," she also fell sideways with the effort of speaking.

"And the other ships just left you?" he asked incredulously.

"The Hybrids must be protected, now go. Go quickly." She stopped short as there was a sudden swooshing of doors opening. "They're here," she whispered with terror. Suddenly the screen was filled with static. Suddenly the Base Star was gone as it jumped away.

There was utter silence. Well, there was until the radio crackled urgently, "sir, we have confirmation of contact. But it's not a Cylon!"

"What is it?" Adama pressed, grabbing the nearby radio.

"I don't know, sir. But we can't stop it. We're down," he was gasping, clearly in pain.

"Who's down?"

"The whole squad, everyone's-" he was cut off by a strange noise and his own pain filled screams.

Adama moved to silence the radio but the Doctor's hand was on his arm. "Wait," he asked, face intent. "Let's hear what we're up against."

They waited in silence until there was more shouting. "Fire, fire," someone howled desperately.

As he heard the reply the Doctor went very still, his eyes wide.

"Exterminate. Exterminate!"

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Well done not-for-lack-of-trying for guessing it! It probably wasn't that hard but I digress, I liked to think of it as a plot twist! Also glad that you thought the same as me when it came to the end of BSG2003, nice to have some support in it (my flatmate hates me for it lol)

Polaron: Hi there! About the cylons I used, I know they're taken but its been ages since I watched the series so I don't remember what for. It doesn't matter anyway! You'll see! XD

Any other questions feel free to ask!

R&R! Please feed my confidence! It will love you in return!

- D