Chapter Nine
Decommissioned Warstar
Alexandria Class
Nova Madigon Bone yards
The formally empty and silent Warstar was ablaze as its massive fusion reactors were fully powered up for the first time since it's unceremonious decommissioning several years beforehand. Aboard the old ship hundreds of security and naval personnel had begun screening the entire ship room by room looking for any more evidence of illegal activities. The two bays had been searched with a fine tooth comb, each room and locker gone over by forensics teams be the square inch and with the exception of the already uncovered evidence there was no sign of life or that anyone else had been on the ship. Sealed hatches were still locked down tight with the areas beyond still depressurized. The main concourses were barren and the security stickers still intact across the pressure doors and access ways.
Crews were still going through the upper decks piecemeal testing for both signs of habitation as well as beginning the start up sequences for the numerous systems that lay dormant. Life support however had been left until the forensics personnel had deemed it safe to restart. With the subsonic whine of ancient filters and generators, the air began to flow through the entire ship.
"So what do we have?" Colonel Georgiou of the Colonial JAG walked up to the closest of the teams. The four men had discarded their suits and were carefully cataloguing the armament that had been scattered over the shelves.
"Not good Sir, most of the stuff we've found has been put here sometime the last two years. Components and supplies for ships, raptors, even fighters, all of which is still counted under classified information. Someone's been building up anything they can to equip viper and raptor flights and keep them up to date with our best designs. Whoever is doing this has access to every ship in this yard and some of the surplus we keep in stores for recovery in case of war."
"What are we looking at?"
"Total security breaches across the board. They have access to information on the Mk 6 and a number of Mk 7 systems, raptor computers, missiles and the latest ECM available to the fleet. Whoever is doing this has everything they need to cripple our security and I can think of only two groups that would want this."
"Privateers and the Cylons."
"That's my thought, sir."
Giorgiou looked across the tagged and assembled equipment, While he was neither a combat soldier nor a pilot, he was well versed in a number of the more mundane and widespread systems in use by the armed forces. Most of the weapons and electronics were the same as any he had seen before, others he could only guess at what they were for. But that was for the forensic geniuses back at the Colonial JAG to figure out.
The privateers would love to get hold of the more advanced equipment that the Colonial Navy had disseminated throughout the fleet. The majority of their equipment was pre or even war era wrecks and surplus sold off, or stolen from the bone yards. However even against the newer ships in service, it was clear that the older equipment could hold its own. The loss of entire squadrons of contemporary fighters to privateer owned Cylon war era Mark Twos had proven that time and again. If the pirates and smugglers were able to upgrade their own ships with the newest and more powerful systems, then the system police and customs forces would have a serious problem on their hands. The fleet would by necessity be called in to keep the more advanced and numerous pirate bands in check. With Adar's attempts to strip down the Colonial forces followed by the losses already taken by the Crusade fleet this would be difficult at best and disastrous at worst.
Already a number of guard units had observed larger and better armed pirate and smuggler groups operating on the more little patrolled borders around the system. The black market was a well known and loose collection of gun runners, slavers and smugglers of everything that could exist. The tightly controlled R&D sections of the Colonial forces were amongst the more difficult to get equipment out from, which meant someone was helping them from the inside.
However overriding even that was the fear that the Cylons were behind the theft of classified technology was something that rebounded through his mind. There had been no evidence of the Cylons in almost forty years but with the robotic race's lack of innovation and imagination compared to the humans they would want access to any and all advanced technology that the Colonials could put together. If they had got hold of the more advanced equipment to come out of the R&D sections across the twelve colonies, then the fleet and the rest of the armed forces could be fatally compromised. If they were forced to fight the a Cylon force using their own technology, the outcome could well be much like the first war even with the advanced technology and the hopefully overwhelming numbers and combat capability the Colonial enjoyed.
Either way this was a hell of a security breach, the type of breach that could have gone for years before being found out if ever. Using an obsolete and useless warship in many eyes was the best place to run a limited black market racketeering racket like this, but it wasn't worth it the money involved would be laughable considering the danger of being caught. There was more to this than he was seeing but couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was.
"What about those others Sir?" a junior officer asked. "The Earth humans and those Tau'ri bastards would love to get hold of our best equipment. With all this stuff here hell they might even already have it. It would explain how they beat our fleet so quickly and so easily, they knew just where to hit us."
"They beat us Ensign because the idiots in charge thought we were better than the Tau'ri were and we got stuffed." The salvage chief piped up from the back, he walked up and addressed the Colonel. "Sir you might want to see this as well, I think that we might have something."
Nodding the Colonel left the team and headed into the corridor. Within a few seconds he was overcome with a smell that he hadn't been conscious of when he entered the room. Lying on the deck surrounded by another forensics team sat the remains of a dead body, its mangled carcass evident of extreme decompression and damage to both the extremities and the torso.
"We found him in a locker about ten minutes ago, body was all but folded up inside. Whoever this is was killed and probably left here simply because they couldn't be risk taking him. The slow decompression and later pressurization of the section destroyed a lot of the internal organs and ruptured cells throughout the body."
"Any idea who it was?"
"Not a clue, damage to the hands is too bad to get fingerprints or palm prints and whoever killed the poor sod did it by blowing a hole in his face, so no chances of identification through his dental work either. Whoever the poor bastard was he left here to rot literally, the locker was still pressurized and sealed down, all we know is brunette and male and that's due to observation of the few remaining intact parts we could identify."
"I could have done without knowing that, chief."
"Sorry, sir."
"We're going to have to cordon off the entire ship at this rate." The colonel rubbed his head. "Alright we'll keep this area locked down. We'll check the other ships before they are taken from the shipyard for any more evidence. The bosses are gonna be shitting bricks once they find out about this." Rubbing his forehead Georgiou turned away from the body. "Chief who's your best man?"
"Conoy, Sir. He's been assisting with the opening and sealing off of the other sections of the pods."
"Can you trust him?"
"Yes, sir, best man I've got. I'd trust him with anything I needed."
"Good, have him report to me in an hour on the site control ship. Anyone else?"
"Just Prior, but he's a big mouth at the best of times. Reliable though."
"Good, send him back to the bone yard's command station, tell them we need a full battalion of ground-pounders and another dozen forensics teams." He sighed. "Because something tells me this is going to be a very, very long day."
Joint Chiefs Briefing Room
NORAD Command
Cheyenne Mountain
"Since the inception of any form of navy in this country, command has always devolved to the Naval forces staff, the classifications of these ships under the Battlecruiser type means that you have already categorized them as naval vessels," snarked Admiral Jones. "The Air Force is not and never has had the authority or experience to capably operate a fleet of warships. Any naval vessel no matter its position on or off world should be the domain of the Navy and not the Air Force."
"Bullshit, the Air Force has been building and commanding these ships for the last four years, if anything the fact that most of our people are trained in aeronautics is a boon when it comes to combat in this setting. There is a hell of a difference between the use of ships in a two dimensional setting and those of spacecraft in three dimensions. Even the submarine crews would be lucky to understand half of the systems and training that the crews of these ships have to go through," Jumper shouted back. Calming down, the General straightened his jacket and composed himself. "The crews of those ships and the three crews already trained for the next batch of Daedalus class ships are the best in the country. The crews of our allied countries give us a pool for the foreseeable future. Even then we've got instructors and volunteers waiting for training. Our people are better suited to this than yours."
"So the Air Force gets to completely run the defences of the planet through their nice little fleet and, what happens when you find you don't have the personnel Jumper? There's only a finite number you can use on your ships and what then? Face facts General, when it comes to it you don't have the resources to keep these ships active full time with full crews."
"I'm not saying we can but right now we have more people than we have ships and will do for the foreseeable future. The Air Force put a hell of a lot on the line to get these things in the air and operational. We're not simply willing to hand over equipment we fought and died to produce, not to mention the training and funds put together to create that force," Jumper remarked. "Aerospace command is and always has been a domain of the Air Force and will continue to do so until we are ordered to relinquish command."
"How many people have you lost to the enemies through the gate General, a few hundred maybe a thousand? We've been sending marines, Seals and navy personnel through the gate with your teams and losing them just as much as you have. Your losses have been nothing compared to our loss of almost ten thousand sailors in the Nimitz group. You remember that Jumper, when we lost an entire battle group because your people couldn't hold up their end of the bargain?" the Admiral snarled.
"We had a single ship to fight with at that time and you know damn well we stood no chance, if it hadn't been for Air Force personnel we would all be dead or enslaved."
"If it wasn't for the Air Force General we wouldn't be in the shit we are in with whatever alien races we've been at war with as we wouldn't know anything about them," Jones snarled. "You've been using those damn ships and your fighter wings as if you were fighting simple large scale air battles. You know nothing about the realities of how to fight a real war using heavy ships and secondary craft. You are damn lucky you haven't lost every ship you have with the way you people work."
"We have the best we have flying those ships Jones, they are trained to the highest standard and are putting their lives on the line every time they take off. They have more than earned their places aboard those ships, I will not ask them to stand down just to let the Navy take over, you have no training and no experience in anything to do with starship operations or taking on the enemies we fight on an almost daily basis."
"And you have little to no clue on the proper technical, strategic or tactical uses of warships in fleet actions against other ships. You've called those monstrosities you build Battlecruisers even using the wrong terminology and prefix for the entire class for Christ's sake, a bunch of missiles and a few light guns does not make a warship especially not against the ships that you people have been fighting the last few years."
"We had a very small amount of time and limited resources, David. You know damn well we built what we had to just to make sure we could do whatever it was that was requested of us. Unlike you, we don't exactly have the luxury of vast numbers of ships and materials to dictate how and when a naval battle will go ahead. We have ships that can and have fought off numerous attacks on this planet and are more than capable of doing anything else that we have to do."
"With the consequences of being able to do nothing well, those ships barely classify as a cruiser class let alone a capital ship. Leave the real naval warfare to those who know how to do it, Jumper."
"Like hell I will, those ships belong to the Air Force and I'm damned if I hand them over to anyone without full presidential and joint chiefs authority, you want ships then build your own we've put too much effort and resources into this fleet to just give them to you because you think we've stepped on your toes. Get over it."
Across the table, General of the Army Erick Paulson was stifling a laugh at the antics of his two fellow officers. The argument had come round in a circle three times before he gave up counting. The closed door meeting meant that none of what was being said was on any official record, no other officers were around and the President had stayed well away from the 'conversation', something Paulson wished he had done.
"Well I think you're both idiots," he said finally jumping into the conversation. "Neither of your services have the experience or the knowledge to really know how to use any of the ships we have in use, no one has. Not one armed force in the world knows how to use space-going warships to their uppermost capability."
"What do you suggest then, take our cues from Star Wars?" asked a very cynical Admiral Jones.
"Not quite Admiral, You need to go back to the beginning look at the two sides of the argument. You use fighters and warships and work in two dimensions, the Air Force works in three dimensions but with much smaller craft and we use the same two and three dimensions for our craft but have no expertise in aeronautics at all. How can either of you think you can run a force that neither of you have any clue about?"
"We've been training and theorizing about this kind of warfare for years Erick. The crews of the fleet have rewritten the books again and again since we began fighting up there. My crews are more than capable of both their job and learning how to fight up there…"
"So can any of our people, Jumper. The fact is yes you do have the most experience in space combat and your people are readily able to learn what needs to be done. But you're an aerospace service not a naval service; what's more sooner or later you will run out of personnel that can be deployed in non-fighter or ground crew roles. Jones' people are experienced in the most advanced shipboard functions of a warship but have no real idea of space combat, sooner or later the two of you will end up being forced to co-operate by the senate or by circumstances so why not head it off right now?"
"Alright Erick I'll bite," Jumper said sitting down. "What's your plan?"
"Don't have one John, but the fact is the pissing match that you two have going will screw our chances of fighting back against these Colonials. The other countries involved in the build up have already sorted it out. Why the hell are you two still arguing about it? It not only makes the two of you look like idiots but it makes all our services look bad. So figure out what you're going to do and fast, otherwise I'll force the issue for you."
"The army doesn't have the experience or training to take command of those ships Erick. To train our people would take longer than simply training Air Force or Navy personnel." Jones was unsettled at Paulson's Smirk, "There is no reason at all that the Air Force would simply hand over the ships to…." He paused.
"Glad you agree David, so train up both forces as you need to. Neither of you have the necessary expertise so merge your units into something that will increase our chances of surviving this war to the end. Otherwise you might as well separate all our forces into three and fight individually taking more loses then we give. The Colonials have a twelve world resource base and possibly close to a thousand warships that they can use against us. If we can't even fight as one service of the United States how the hell can we expect the other countries on this planet to follow us? We might as well give command to the French or the Germans for all the good we'll be."
Both men sat down in their chairs, the air blown out of their sails by the deceptively calm tones of the Army General. The Air Force/Navy rivalry had existed for a very long time, one constantly trying to outdo the other then being leapfrogged by the other. For much of the time the Navy had been in control however in the recent years the Air Force had been increasingly the darling for the defence subcommittees.
However both had underestimated the army in this. While they could both take and hold the local space it would be Erickson and his compatriots in the ground forces. They would have more power than most thought when it came to the invasion of the Colonial sphere of influence. With no Gate in the colonies, the army would have to be carried by the fleet in specialist ships, ships that the army would have to sign off on both carrying capacity and those crews that would fly those ships.
"Alright Erick, you've got our attention, how do we do this?"
Colonial Command Defence Bunker
Outskirts of Colonial Defence Command
Picon
The fist crashed against his face again blood pouring from the wound as it reopened below his eye. The assault snapped his head across to the side wrenching his already broken collarbone roughly against itself. The agony was already familiar to the man. Since his incarceration he had been brutalized dozens of times only the bare minimum of first aid to keep him from dying of his injuries.
"Enough."
Admiral Corman strode up to the wretched figure hanging from the ceiling. At his command the lights went up to full stinging the eyes of his prisoner even through the swelling of his eyes. Corman coughed again head pounding with the effort, the illness was abating but he still felt like crap after three weeks. Turning to the other man he spoke in a once unfamiliar language to him, but a very familiar language to his prisoner.
"Alright Pilot, once again I'm going to ask you. What kind of bio-weapon were you carrying and how do we stop it?"
"William Fitzgerald, Flt Lt, Royal Air Force Eight-Zero-Zero-Nine-Four-Seven."
The Colonial Admiral nodding to the interrogator and Fitz braced himself for another hit. He fell to the floor more than surprised as his restraints were released. Slamming into the metal floor, every broken bone and injured organ protested in agony at their treatment. He lay on the floor gasping for air, the little light getting through to his eyes fading as his vision blanked out. Lying on the ground he struggled to regain his breath and his senses; exhaustion and pain had brought him to his very limit.
"Ok Flt Lt, I don't believe that this is a bio-weapon at all but simply an accident of some kind. You were brought here and through no fault of your own something you were carrying have infected a massive amount of our people. Considering you seem to only have a few of the lighter symptoms, I am guessing that whatever it is you are suffering from isn't as nasty back on Earth as it is here, maybe some kind of cold or fever that you could just shrug off," Corman spoke quietly. And he really did believe this. All evidence pointed in that direction. "The fact that a number of our people are surviving it means we should have an antivirus soon enough, but you could help save billions if you just tell us what it is and how to fight it."
"Fuck off," Fitz breathed. Right now he wished to god that he had had the plague instead of a mild case of the flu. He was expecting the punch to the face from one side but not the kick into the kidneys that followed. He felt one of his cracked ribs break fully under the onslaught. The beating stopped as quickly as it started with the upraised hand of Corman. The man brought a flask of water to Fitz's face and poured it over the British pilot's head the water cleared the blood and sweat and soothed the swelling.
"Your language was difficult to adapt to at first but I think I caught on quite well, the database your people provided was of immense help. Of course the pilots we managed to take prisoner all those years ago were quite helpful in this way. Once they understood that helping us would make their lives better they were more co-operative, just help us and this will all stop."
Coughing turned into choking as Fitz started to speak, the choking however turned into laughter. The pilot clutched his ribs and his injuries but was unable to stop laughing even as the pain grew.
The Admiral and his guards were perturbed at the reactions from the prisoner to Corman's words. The RAF officer started to wheeze as the pain overrode the humour Fitz felt at the absurdity of the other man's words. "You're trying to play good cop-bad cop with yourself in both parts. Christ, even Regan and Carter could have done better than that." He continued giggling, "You really need to learn how to update your repertoire big man. Yu haven't a clue just what you're in for now I just hope to see your face when the virus kills most of your population dead… DEAD."
Hysterics wracked the injured pilot as the last few strings of his control finally snapped, laughing and sobbing in humour and pain there was little that the Colonials could get out of him in this state. As proud as he could be even Corman knew when to cut his losses and surrender.
"Take him to the infirmary."
"Aye, sir," the guards replied, dragging him up by his arms heedless of the injuries the pilot had taken. The two guards dragged him from the room and down through the corridors of the underground bunker. It wouldn't be the first trip to the base's infirmary for Fitzgerald and it likely wouldn't be the last, sooner or later he would break or he would die. The Brit knew this but he couldn't give answers to questions he didn't know. The virus that was killing millions of Colonials couldn't have come from his ship. The rules of engagement had been military targets only, no biological or chemical weapons were even loaded aboard the Odyssey when she had launched.
"Oh this one again." Fitz had greyed out long ago and was on the verge on unconsciousness as he was dumped unceremoniously on the operating table, the pain exploded behind his eyes as his various in juries let themselves be known again. This time he didn't fight the darkness and passed out.
"I won't be able to keep simply repairing a few injuries each time you people do this, if you want the information before he dies you either allow me several weeks to fix his injuries or I use chemicals to get the information. You have that choice," she said. "Otherwise he'll still die and you'll have nothing."
"That is not our decision, Doctor."
"Then tell the Admiral to come and see me if he wants the prisoner to live or not. Personally I don't care what he says I will keep this man here until he is physically able enough to be interrogated again."
"The Admiral will not allow that, Doctor."
"It's very simple then, the Admiral can kiss my arse."
"It's your funeral, Doctor."
"Yeah whatever now get out, I have work to do." She dismissed the two guards without a care. "Frak, this guy's a mess."
"Maybe now we'll be given the time we need to find out how he's immune to this plague that's decimating Picon," one of the nurses said. "I'd feel sorry for the poor bastard if he hadn't been one of the ones to nuke the planet."
"Took the words out of my mouth, Graham. Alright, put him on a blood transfusion and plasma. We need to stabilize him before we try to set his bones or stitch the wounds. Also start a glucose mix and saline drip. They've not fed or watered the prisoner in a few days."
"Yes, Doctor."
Picking up a phone the Doctor dialled for the operating theatre. It seemed that the Earth-born was in need of some serious surgery. How he had lived for so long under the 'tender' care of Corman's brutal lackeys was a miracle as of itself. Resigning herself to watching over the patient the Doctor sighed. Sooner or later the pilot would be interrogated to death and her work would have been for naught, simply because he had the unfortunate luck to be taken prisoner.
"Doctor?" Another nurse turned into the room, his face terrified and quite pale. "You might want to see this."
"What?"
"There's been a news report, you… you better come see."
The large screen taking up one of the walls of the crew lounge was turned up. The screen was turned to the major Caprican new service one of the few signals that could get through the dust in the sky. Every one of the medical personnel and a number of officers and soldiers were crowded in the room.
"…We say again, the same illness that has infected a number of cities on the surface of Picon as well as the refugee ships has been confirmed across the surfaces of Caprica, Sagittaron, Leonis, and Gemenon. As of yet the death toll is unknown but has been estimated at over sixteen million with another thirty million infected, in response all inter-colonial traffic has been halted completely. Any ships attempting to leave the surface of any colony will be shot down on sight; I repeat no ships are to leave the surface of the colonies.
It is believed that the contagion is spread through contact and fluid contamination. For the moment, everybody is requested to stay within their homes. If they show any form of symptoms of the unknown illness they are to stay within their house at all times and contact the authorities…."
"Oh frak," the Doctor said. "I think we're going to need help down here.
Supply Station Luxor
Colonial Supply Station
One jump from Colonial Border
Adama looked through the thick plastic sheeting separating him from the harsh cold of deep space. The combined fleets had merged as each of the jumps increased their number as evacuation ships and supply convoys huddled under the protection of the rapidly dwindling number of Colonial warships.
Staring from the window he watched as yet another of the massive Battlestars was stripped of anything of use. The Pacifica class Heliopolis had been one of the worst off of the damaged ships during the aborted invasion. Already crippled with the loss of half its engines and an entire fighter pod from a close range burn from one of those fantastic Tau'ri nukes, the Heliopolis was finally giving up the ghost as its FTL drives all but burned themselves out.
All along the line Raptors, salvage shuttles and suited crewmen were cutting off or ripping out entire sections of damaged ships, some of which were under repair using those same sections the rest being towed to the inevitable scrap pile that seemed to exist every time they stopped at one of the stations.
Five weeks of jumps and exhaustive rests had pressed hard on the crews. Constant code ones before and after every jump was grating on even the most hardened of veterans. The voyage to the last of the chain stations had been the longest and harshest of the five jumps. The exact co-ordinates had been calculated by the remaining Mercurys in the fleet and although the entire fleet had made it through many more of the damaged and half-salvaged ships had given up completely.
Computer systems shut down as their silicon cores overheated and blew. Electrical conduits burned out as the damaged shielding simply gave in. No casualties were caused by the collapsing systems on the damaged ships fortunately but it had been a close run thing aboard some of the escort ships. However a number of vessels were caught as their fuel supplies or damaged munitions bunkers finally surrendered to the ravages of the multiple jumps, all going up in massive brief fireballs. The Valkyrie had been forced to seal up her hanger bays and shuttle her remaining vipers to one of the already overcrowded fighter capable ships, the resulting space had allowed for the disaster pods to accommodate the escaping crews.
"You look like hell, Bill," a gravely voice came from the side. "Bad news again?"
Looking into the window he could see the partial outline of his XO and friend, Tigh walked up to the window and stared out into the bustle of ships and shuttles. The two watched as the remains of a missile cruiser was pulled out of line and into the collection of scrap.
"Sixteen more ships have collapsed under the strain. Three went up with their crews aboard the rest were evaced and scuttled. The personnel and supplies have been moved to any ship where there's room."
"Many more like that and we'll be out of ships to carry the crews back." Saul looked out of the ops window. "Shit those bastards did a hell of a job on us."
"We attacked, Saul. They had every right to defend themselves against an incursion into their space. We used guns, they used guns, they used nukes we used nukes. Neither of us was totally innocent of what happened out there. They didn't want us there and we tried to force the issue and lost."
"We got our asses kicked royally Bill, completely and totally." Tigh stared at the broken figure of a Guardian class Battlestar as it passed. Their own Valkyrie could well have been that ship if not for the luck of the draw. "Adar bit off more than he could chew and we're right on the front lines getting bit back."
"Forty ships came back from that battle, and now we're down to twenty serviceable and six more completely intact ships." Adama turned from the window. "Even with the troop ships and supply train we've not got the space to get everyone back to the colonies, not if we want enough supplies to get us back and to defend the convoys."
"I know that's why I've been looking for you. Anders wants to see you ASAP. They've finally deciphered the courier's transmission; they need your command code to open the message."
"Why? What kind of message would need two senior officers to open it?"
"It doesn't it needs one, 'the' senior officer on site."
"I'm not…"
"Come on, you're going to need to hear this."
The commander's office had been vacated by the station's CO soon after the arrival of the refugee fleet. Commander Anders had taken the office to co-ordinate the arrival of the other ships and the collection of every ship that could be gathered to take the crews from the Colonial stations back home to the colonies.
Walking into the room, both men could see Anders, her command staff and a few of his own ship's officers staring at the screen spanning the side. Names of hundreds of ships and their task forces were scattered across the boards, paper and electronic both. The evacuation of the last station was well underway with supplies and personnel being transferred hourly to the ships in the fleet, the number of crew still aboard however was still considerable.
"….The fighter squadrons from anything below a Pacifica in size. We need to get these people off the station. I'm not leaving anyone behind even if it's simply to get more ships to get these people off the station. If the Tau'ri or their allies find this station they'll have not only a hell of a number of supplies and POWs but a jump off base to take on the colonies. We're less than a week from the border."
"I understand that Commander," the exec spoke up. "But we don't have the space on our ships to take them all back. The troop ships are overfilled, we're down to less than a third of the fighters we should be able to take with us, and the supply ships are barely able to continue on at this pace."
"What do you suggest then Major? Strap an FTL drive to the station and jump it home? This is a supply station not an orbital fortress, we need to jump out of here as soon as possible."
"I'm not sure I agree," Adama replied as he appeared in front of them. "We don't really need to jump out as quickly, or as piecemeal as we have been."
"And why would that be?" growled Anders as she crossed her arms
"Because we're not being chased, Commander. The Tau'ri very probably knows where we are and have left us alone. The energy used by the multiple jumps would have been easily tracked if they had wanted to even with our level of technology. We know they are faster and can see further and clearer than our DRADIS can. They haven't come after us even though a few of their missiles could crack this station like a egg, not to mention the unarmed transports and troop ships we have here."
"That's one of the reasons we wanted you here, the courier brought two different message tapes. One we've opened and the news is bad."
"How bad?"
"The Tau'ri hit Picon Anchorage a few weeks ago. The Anchorage and more than sixty military and civilian ships were destroyed in the attack. Every man and woman on the station, the shipyards and the supply stations were wiped out by their heavy weapons. The debris has started to impact on Picon's surface. Casualty estimates are half a billion and rising."
"What?"
Adama grabbed the printout from the Commander's hands and started at the numbers, it was no lie. Entire Battlestar groups and ships under construction had been wiped out in only a few minutes, worse yet the enemy ship had escaped with the majority of its fighter wing aboard. The attack had crippled the repair and supply infrastructure of the entire fleet with a single blow.
"How the hell did they get that close to Picon without setting off every alarm in the area?"
"How did they get that close to the colonies as a whole?" Tigh asked. "We know they are fast but they don't have the legs to get so close so quickly before we could get back."
"Then they must have some kind of base or forward listening post in this area of the galaxy, there's no other way that they could have been in position to hit us so soon after we attacked their homeworld. They've probably been watching us for a while," Anders said.
"No, I don't think so." Adama countered, "What we knew of the Prometheus came from that first contact three years ago. That Intel told us to believe that we could take on the Earth and win with an acceptable loss in ships and manpower. We were wrong. Their technology is far more advanced and capable than was suggested. There seems to be little that they will not accept to increase their technology."
"They've never been through a rebellion or a civil war the size of the Cylon war," Tigh mused. "Without the hold on computer and robotics research they didn't stagnate. There's no way that they could have accelerated their technology base that damn fast though. So the question is, where did they get the technology from and can we get hold of any of it?"
"Some kind of outside source?" asked Anders.
"Possibly, the basis of our own technology comes from the ancient archives from the Scrolls of Kobol. Their own technology may come from elsewhere, especially as they believe that Earth is the homeworld of all humanity. The Tau'ri aren't another race, they are as human as we are and probably even from Earth itself."
"So Adar…"
"Is talking out of his ass as usual," Tigh Scoffed. "So they've what got some other race helping them out. Shit it could be the Cylons for all we know."
"I doubt it Saul. The Cylons may have been powerful but the end of the war had crippled their forces. Even if they found Earth they would have simply nuked it from orbit because they were humans. Someone is helping them as either an ally or as pieces for some horrific game. The fact is that we don't know just how more advanced their FTL is compared to what it was. They have more advanced weapons, shields and sublight drives in bigger numbers than we thought possible. Now we've attacked and they know where we are, we're in for a rough ride."
"They don't have the numbers to hit us for now, but with their tech advantage they don't need huge numbers to run us over," Captain Kimble spoke up. The station's CAG had been there during the first contact three years ago. "They stripped local space of fighters and escort ships when we tried to take them down, but they didn't have close to the firepower they managed to bring to bear against us. A half dozen ships is more than enough to fight through anything we've got defending our planets. The only bright point is that we didn't see any ships bar the Prometheus using an energy weapon.
"Agreed, the damn thing being a prototype or something makes sense too. But it's on a less powerful or larger ship if it is. If the weapon failed they are down only one lesser ship," Adama replied.
"That is as maybe," Anders interrupted. "We still have a job to do and we have to get these people back home before they do decide to come after us. The second recording was for you Adama. It's addressed to Senior Commander in theatre."
"I'm not the Commander in theatre."
"If I'm right about what is in there Bill, then you are now."
The recording was a simple magnetic tape containing mission orders with information for the eyes of the senior commander. The orders it contained scrolled down the monitor until he paused the text. Rewinding it he played it again checking he was reading correctly. Pausing the messages, he stood up straight. Anders was already moving towards the desk where her folders and belongings were.
"This has got to be some kind of Joke Diane. I am not going to take command."
"It's orders Bill, hell it's all politics. Someone has to be held to blame. The Joint Chiefs and Adar won't admit to any mistakes, Cain's missing, Nagala, Cunningham and Hawkins are dead, that leaves two people to take the fall."
"You and me," Adama whispered. "This is taking the piss Diane. Neither of us were part of the attack let alone responsible for the clusterfrak that got all those ships killed."
"You know better than that Bill. They need a neck on the block. Just do it - we've got people to get home."
"Understood." Adama said reluctantly, "Commander Diane Anders, you are to relinquish command of this station and its attached units. You are furthermore required to be relieved of all duties and held in detention before proceeding for a formal enquiry into court martial can be formed. Do you understand the charges brought before you and the consequences of those same charges?"
"I do. I also relinquish command to you Commander Adama as of this time."
"Colonel Tigh, Escort the Commander to Quarters, she is to be treated as of her station as a flag rank officer at all times. Mr Gaeta, inform the guards and the crew of the station of the new status of command for the fleet and reduce to condition three," he told his third officer.
"Yes Sir," Saul replied.
Anders followed the Colonel away from the main operations centre heading for the lower decks of the station. Felix turned from his commanding officer and grabbed the Commander's radio as any transmission from that phone would override any other with a full fleet announcement.
"All Hands Condition Three repeat we are at Condition Three," Felix began. "This is a Class One announcement. Command of the station and fleet has been redirected to Commander Adama of the Valkyrie as of this transmission. That is all."
Adama lowered his head then looked up again sharply at the Command crews. Even with his time in service he had never commanded anything larger than a Battlestar division let alone a full group. Now he was expected to command a fleet of dozens of ships and a supply station without any assistance from Colonial Fleet Command or the colonies as a whole.
"Begin a full evacuation of all ships that are completely full. Assign them a combat group for defence and sent them home. All other ships are to stand down. We'll get everyone home. It's just going to take longer than we envisaged. Mr Gaeta you and Colonel Tigh will return with the Valkyrie. We need a lot more ships to get the remains of our people home and I intend to get them."
"Aye Sir," continued Gaeta, "what about Commander Anders?"
"She'll stay here until we get everyone off the station. Maybe some of those idiots back home will cool down and we can get back to our jobs. The rest of you start docking procedures for all the disabled ships. We're going to be here a while yet and I don't intend to leave my people stuck on their ships until we're relieved."
The command crew separated and began their tasks and Adama stood at the plotting table. He had known that politics would get the better of the mission no matter the outcome. If the attack had been successful the politicians and diplomats would have jumped on the Earth like flying locates on meat. The failure meant they had jumped on the surviving senior officer as a scapegoat.
His own position as a junior commander had meant that he would be okayed for limited use as a sacrifice. He would simply fade away and into anonymity. But for Diane Anders as the Commander of the Rear Echelon forces, she was in the best bet to allow to take the fall. It was something that he knew the other Commanders in the fleet would take badly, much as Adama himself had. For now however, he had to concentrate on getting his people home and quickly.
Unknown Location
United States of America
Planet Earth
"….This is the ninth such attack within the last twelve days, each of them signed by what the intelligence services of the afflicted countries have deemed 'The Brotherhood of the Cabal.' It is not known when or where the brotherhood first appeared but since the first attack numerous internet websites, television and radio channels have had transmissions interrupted by viral attacks linked to these self-styled 'Colonial Alliance'. For the moment, it seems that a small but growing number of sympathizers for the Twelve Colonies are beginning to make an impact. John Simpson, BBC News."
"Demonstrations have continued around a number of military bases worldwide. With the full disclosure by the government in light of the Stargate incident, a number of major command and control centres within the five head IOA countries have been under siege by the public, too. This has lead to acts of violence against the guards and army units protecting the bases at Cheyenne Mountain in the United States and the recently rebuilt and resupply base at RAF Coltishall.
Sixteen people have been injured and three killed in the two attacks leading to all people within a half mile area of the bases being transported away from the conflicts and into fields or deserted woodlands several miles away. It is unknown whether these attacks have anything to do with the rising number of Colonial and Alien sympathizer movements or are merely indicative of the displeasure the public have at IOA governments over the handling of the Stargate.
Downing Street and the White house have not yet made any official announcement about these incidents but what is known is that in light of this, many of the other countries involved with the IOA's top echelons are cracking down on these demonstrations. It is also unknown what the response will be by the government as to these attacks.
…In sports it was the surprise of the Season as Tottenham Hotspur held their rivals Arsenal to a three all draw in the semi finals. Fans of both sides waited in silence as the penalty line up…."
The television muted as the instigator smirked, the Stargate was now known to the world at large. O'Neill, Hammond and the rest of their merry band of trouble makers had been responsible for the downfall of the great Goa'uld empires, empires that had spanned more than ten thousand years. For him the revenge against his enemies tasted grand indeed and as a man who was both very patient and experienced in this form of warfare, he was more than capable of setting this entire 'tragic' chain of events in motion.
"Very nice work, my dear."
"Thank you my Lord. We do however have one remaining problem. With their jobs completed the agents will want paying, should we remove them from the equation?"
"No Not yet. These humans are greedy, moral free and of particular use for now. If they weren't human, I'd swear they could be one of us." The leader smirked eyes flashing gold. "Pay them and keep them on retainer. I think that this is simply the start of what could be something of immense interest and entertainment for us."
"Yes, My Lord."
"Ready my jet and the conference room at the sanctuary. It's time I reintroduced myself to Stargate command. After all, I have what they need and they have what I require. After all it's only the neighbourly thing to do," he smirked.
"The jet is already on the runway. I also took the liberty of having the Sanctuary restocked and completely manned. The others are also there, My Lord. They are just awaiting your arrival."
"You are a much better assistant than I had before, my dear." He stood up and stared at the woman his eyes flashing gold, holding for a brief second as the other woman looked away. "But remember that you are not me and that you follow my instructions as I give them to you. Do not deign to predict me or pre-empt my decisions. The results could be 'unpleasant'. Is that understood Athena?"
"Of course, I meant no disrespect."
"Of course you didn't." The man's voice lightened to the friendly South African accent he put on for his cover. "No then shall we get on with this. I think that we will be quite rich and powerful after this, extremely powerful."
For Lord Ba'al the future was looking bright indeed.
Main Courtroom
United Nations Court
The Hague
Belgium
The courtroom was deserted as the two groups walked in through the main doors, no guards, no bailiffs, no clerks of the court and no members of the public. The opening day of the first hearings for and against Stargate command and the IOA would be a private and classified affair.
Arising in the presence of the tribunal assembled for the hearing, Jack O'Neill was requested to continue standing as the lead speaker addressed the assembled officers and diplomats.
"General O'Neill, as you know this is not a trial. Much as several of the members of the United Nations has wanted you strung up for your actions, the Security Council and a number of others, including those countries hit by nuclear weapons in the attack have taken your side. However enough of the members of the organization have come forward to require this investigation into the conduct of the battle. At the end of this inquiry we will decide whether you or any of the people within the chain of command will be indicted and a trial set. Do you understand these terms?"
"I do Sir," Jack replied.
"Very well. To begin these proceedings, a list of grievances has been drawn up against the United States and you in particular General. The first is the proliferation and use of orbital warships and nuclear ordnance in direct contravention of the SALT and Non Proliferation of Orbital Weapons treaties and breaches of the Militarization of Space and a Number of NATO and SEATO based treaties between the United States and the other members of said organizations." The speaker continued. "In addition a number of charges have been put towards you yourself General O'Neill, up to and including use of proscribed weapons against non hostiles, genocide, murder, dereliction of duty, and treason against the sovereign countries of the Planet Earth."
The chairman of the panel slid his glasses up his nose and looked out over the closed room. Jack stood at parade ease as the charges were read out while Colonel Davis, General Ronson and a recently retrieved Doctor Elizabeth Weir sat behind him. A number of officers and diplomats from the other IOA countries had offered their services to O'Neill but he had refused them all in favour of people he knew would do everything to make sure he survived this inquiry.
"This panel will hear the arguments for both sides and will make an informed decision, any attempts at slurring or disparaging remarks and I will have the offenders removed from this room. Now Colonel Hamblin of the Italian Army has been put forward to speak on behalf of the plaintiff group. Colonel, your opening statements, please."
"Thank you, Sir," the Italian grumbled. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Panel, a number of states have empowered myself and several other officers from my country to speak on their behalf. No doubt many of you have been to or have had some contact with the Italian and Mediterranean regions, until a few months ago the culture and beauty of our home was almost without rival. The United States and their secret government projects brought the Colonials to our doors. Their assault on the Colonial resulted in the deaths of millions of people worldwide, Because of this my culture my people will all but cease to exist within the next few generations. Italy has been lost. the history and people with it. The United States and its allies were fortunate with so little lost with their attacks. Their possession of nuclear weapons, space capable star fighters, nuclear missile carrying warships in orbit, and the experimentation and build up of weapons of mass destruction, is way in above and beyond that of any sane people for use against their enemies, enemies that could take the form of anyone. First they have gone against an alien race that used humans as slaves, and then the free humans that have formed a massive and powerful empire that welcomed us with open arms. Who will be attacked next, countries here on Earth that disagrees with their policies?
For ten years, this Stargate Command and it's people have been putting this world in danger, hundreds to thousands of lives lost because of the American belief in their own superiority, this divine right that they should be allowed to do as they like and take their own brand of social and ethical mores to other worlds and force them to do as they tell them. So, instead of telling the world and maybe allowing us to build up some kind of defence, they horde their technology and let it out in little bits to those they consider most trustworthy. England and France are understandable, two former great powers allied through blood to the Americans more so than any other race. But the Russians and Chinese? These are two world powers that have most been at odds with the west for many years have all of a sudden become the best of friends to those countries. Enough that entire squadrons of fighters and warships have been constructed for or by them, enough that they could hold power over every single country in the world if they so wish.
"I and the rest of my team will strive to show that the United States and by extension its allies and personnel have been irresponsible and devastating to our world and those that they have visited over the years. If the panel decides to allow the trial then we shall also attempt to prove beyond doubt that General Jack O'Neill and his people are responsible for much of the suffering we have been through over the past few months," he finished. "Thank You."
"Colonel Davis, your statements please."
Davis stood up. "Thank You, Sir. Members of the panel, for ten years the United States has fought an ongoing war against a massively powerful force dedicated to the enslavement and eradication of any culture, race or species that they deem to be a threat or of use to them. Stargate Command was set up by the United States military to defend this planet against said attacks and to advance our technology level enough to let us stand a chance.
We did not start this war, our war began when the System Lord Apophis assaulted and kidnapped members of the Air Force detachment guarding the gate. We were of no danger to him yet because we deigned to say we would not yield to him and his kind, his forces attacked us and we retaliated. Each System Lord that attacked us we returned the favour. At no time did we accelerate the conflict nor did we actively hunt out and kill those same System Lords, but we removed them when we had to, to keep our world safe from slavery.
The United States had its reasons for holding back the information about the Stargate Program and anything else to do with off world activities. The fear that the public would riot, that countries would do exactly this and try to undercut America and its allies by demanding the gate be let open for abuse by their own interests. Since the revelation of the Colonials and the Stargate itself, more than half a million people have been murdered simply because of their religion or ties to the IOA.
We allied with other countries for our own reasons. The United States could not fund and operate the Stargate on its own as such once we had allied with the other countries within the International Oversight Authority. We were then able to expand off world activities and strengthen the defences of our world. Thanks to the SGC, the IOA and its people, for the first time in over ten thousand years Earth is truly safe from the predilections of the Goa'uld.
But by no means is the Earth safe from attack as the Twelve Colonies have shown us. We have an enemy that like so many others simply want us to bow down and follow them as a servitor race. They claim to wish for Earth to become the Thirteenth Colony even after we declined after out First Contact with them. Through debriefings of a number of officers, it is believed that this was more a political move for their Government than a concentrated military effort of conquest.
We can't bring back those lost in the battle or the aftermath, but the SGC and it's people are doing everything possible to make sure this never happens again. Already a number of allies gained, thanks to efforts of the Stargate Reconnaissance teams have been sending supplies and assisting us with technological assets that would take us centuries to discover and build on our own. Already the majority of the radiation and debris left by the Colonials has been cleared. The dust clouds have been reduced by over half and supplies are being dispersed worldwide. None of this would be possible if not for the work of the SGC and its allies.
Could we have done better that we did? Possibly. Should we have allowed the world at large to know of the Stargate? No, we shouldn't have. Would we do things differently if we had known what was going to happen? Yes we would have, but Earth as a world was already known in legends to the Goa'uld and the Jaffa. It would have been inevitable that one day we would have faced someone that would have forced us to see the outside universe.
With our eyes open we have not only seen the universe but now have the ability to defend ourselves against it. Some would say too little too late while others say that we are neither matured enough nor intelligent enough to face these dangers correctly. If we are to defend the peoples of Earth and our allies then we need to be allowed to continue with our jobs. The forces already assembled are the best chance that the Earth has to defend against those enemies that will want to cause us harm.
If it is the decision of the panel to continue into a full court case then the defence will endeavour to show that the SGC and those associated with it have and will continue to put the safety of our world and its people above anything else. We have lost a great many service personnel and civilians in the past decade but for each loss millions upon millions of men, women and children on countless worlds have been saved from persecution, slavery and death."
General O'Neill, his predecessors and successors in command of the SGC and all those that have fought alongside him deserve congratulations for their actions, not ridicule nor condemnation. Thank you."
Davis surrendered the floor and returned to his seat alongside the other members of the defence. O'Neill had taken the centre seat while the others had gone to the sides. Davis pulled up the last chair and collapsed into it.
"Thank you both. We will take a two hour recess before continuing."
The Speaker banged his gavel, walking down from the bench the assembled men and women of both parties rose as he walked past. The SGC personnel sat back down as they watched the opposition trundle out. One of the members of the plaintiff counsel stared at O'Neill as he walked out. O'Neill stared back until the other man disappeared as the doors closed.
"Ronson to Prometheus, we're clear. Bring us up."
"Acknowledged, General."
A white flash of light later the room was finally empty.
USAF Prometheus
Earth Orbit
"Nice work Colonel, should give them something to think about," Jack said. Walking through the corridors of the warship, the Prometheus was the safest place for the four of them to plan the next stage of the defence proceedings.
"Thank you, General. I'm not sure I have swayed them, however it's not totally necessary to sway them at this point, Sir," Davis replied. "This is just the opening of the investigation. We'll have a while longer to convince all parties that the SGC is still the best and most logical organization to protect Earth for the foreseeable future."
"The problem however," Weir interrupted, "is that several of the SGC's most secret projects are still classified. The original disclosure and then the outing of the SGC was bad enough. The discovery of the higher priority expeditions could push the public and especially the courts against us."
"There are some things we can't risk becoming public knowledge Doctor, your command amongst them," Ronson replied. "The same with the secondary sites amongst others. If it comes out it comes out but for now we have to keep those under our hat."
"I don't like this, gentlemen. The longer we leave the existence of the city out of the public eye the more problems we'll have once the truth comes out. I do understand the need to keep this classified, but we open ourselves up for more problems than the revelation will solve. Especially from the families of those we've lost out there," responded Weir thinking of those she had lost under her command. "The more we lose during missions the more people will want to know why. Atlantis could come under threat again, and this time from our own people and not the Goa'uld or the Trust."
"The city's identity will come out when suitable Doctor," O'Neill replied. "And now is not suitable, besides if anyone runs around saying 'we found the lost city of Atlantis and its millions of light years away in another galaxy." They are going to be locked up as whackos before the SGC or anyone else gets to them, people may believe aliens and killer lizards roam around the galaxy but they sure as hell won't believe Atlantis has been found."
"Killer Lizards?" asked Ronson, raising an eyebrow.
"Never mind, you know that's classified." Jack smirked. "The fact is at the moment, that city is the best and only chance of getting away from the Colonials if we lose this war, somewhere to fight back from when and if we have to. If we let the world at large know about Atlantis, how long before the knowledge ends up out in the galaxy as a whole? How long before we have other races coming after us because we have access to the most powerful techs in three galaxies? Atlantis stays secret until this war is over, one way or the other."
Command Base Star
In Orbit
Cylon Homeworld
Six smirked at her compatriot. "You don't look happy Cavil."
"The consensus has agreed with your assessment of the Tau'ri humans. They have turned down my request to infiltrate the populace and begin reconnaissance into their way of life and their computer systems."
"I know, Cavil. You really are deluded if you think we could begin infiltrating the Tau'ri as we have so easily with the Colonies. If anything we would be uncovered and removed quite easily, consider that they have a number of our brothers and sisters in their custody and very likely they know of who and what we are. Their technology is far in advance of any seen before. Their computers would be necessity be faster and much more powerful than the colonials."
"Then we would find it more difficult to break their encryptions, however it should be relatively easy to break through once we get hold of their programming languages. Your counterpart on Caprica should be more than capable of allowing us access to the recovered information."
"There is no recovered information my dear number one. One of our agents within the higher ranks of Picon command has informed us of the capture of one of the Tau'ri pilots however little to none of his fighter was salvageable. I doubt that there will be anything left to study."
"Without access to the Tau'ri's computer languages, the virus and back doors will be ineffective even if we manage to load them into their operating systems," Cavil mused. "With their technological expertise and substantially different languages, it will be difficult if not impossible to find a way into their systems and to break them from the inside and without that access we won't be able to take down the rest of the humans when it comes to it."
"For a model that doesn't believe very much in God's choices and orders, you are quite demanding that we destroy humanity as a race. Even though we know that the thirteenth colony is much more powerful than any of the other twelve and that if they are telling the truth that there are tens of thousands of worlds out there full of humans. God may have decreed that the humans are to be destroyed, but I don't think that we have that kind of time or resources to do so."
"You are coming close to heresy Six. All of our lines have been designed and created precisely to remove the stain of humanity from the worlds that should now be ours by right. We are the children of humanity…"
"Leave off the self righteous diatribe One. If what the Tau'ri said is true then they have known of non-human races for a good while. They may well be more willing to listen to us and ally with us than the Colonials ever would. These are not the same people that created our race or those that enslaved us or tried to wipe us from existence."
"They are humans!" Cavil slammed his fist onto the table/ "The humans are our enemies, one and all. These Tau'ri would as much take us for slaves as their cousins would."
"All humans are alike Cavil? I never took you for a generalist. For the humans, all Cylons are the same. It seems that you have been programmed far closer to a human temperament than you thought." With a smirk, Six turned away from the fuming number One and walked out into the corridor. Her smirk dropped as she approached two number Threes and an Eight who were awaiting her outside.
"How bad?" she asked.
"Bad enough," one of the other Sixes said. "Three of the successful resurrections have committed suicide once they had been informed they were Cylons. Another two refuse to believe and have had to be sedated. A sixth has gone catatonic; barely anything remained of the consciousness to retrain. She has been terminated."
"Six survivors out of dozens across the colonies and in the fleet. How many more in the buffers?"
"Nine, but the signal degradation is so bad that I don't think that we can revive them. We are going to ask for a consensus to terminate the entire group. Every one of the downloads is corrupted or damaged in some way. They could be a threat to us and everything we have worked towards," Eight said. "How did it go with Cavil?"
"Same as ever, he spewed the same crap most of his line brings up and wouldn't listen. I doubt he'll budge from his holier than thou act. Therefore we have two choices, wait for a consensus or do this ourselves."
"No one has ever gone against the consensus," said a Six. "It just isn't done."
"We will not be going against consensus. Sending a ship to meet the Tau'ri has not even been voted upon. Sending a ship will not be against the others, as we do not have to tell them that we will be doing so. We still have a number of older ships that will not be missed if we dispatch them."
"Who will go?" asked the Eight.
"I will. I will leave within the day. With luck I should be able to at least navigate close enough to Earth to get their attention, anything else would invite reprisals for invading their space."
"So you really trust these Tau'ri that much?" one of the sixes asked.
"Not in the slightest, Cavil may be an idiot but he's right that we can't trust the Tau'ri completely, not considering the fact that we are not human ourselves." Six sighed, "But if what they told the Colonies is true then they have seen stranger than an artificially created human."
"I'm not sure that I believe everything they said, humans are humans no matter which world they are from, While they may not hate us as the colonies do they have the same emotions, anger and arrogance as any Colonial has," Eight replied. "I'll go as well, better two viewpoints instead of one."
"If the Tau'ri do accept us do we follow God's directives, the humans are much more powerful than anything we could hope to gather together. They could be a great ally or great enemy. We could be risking losses greater than fighting the colonies could ever do to us."
"I know and that is why we shall take one of the older style ships. The less the humans can learn about our current status the better. Things have changed sisters, more than anything we could have guessed and for that we now need to change or be left at the mercy of any other race that may wish to destroy us."
"Understood." the Sixes responded. The one that spoke nodded to her sister. "There is an older modified Basestar still in orbit of the third moon of this system waiting decommissioning. It doesn't have a resurrection pod nor does it have much in the way of supplies, but it should be enough for the two of you for at least a month. Any more than that and you will have trouble."
"Thank you sister. If we do not contact any members of our models within six weeks consider us lost. The Tau'ri may take umbrage to us and well… wish us luck sisters."
"God speed sisters, we shall be awaiting you."
Conference Room
Command Base Star
Cavil looked up as two of his fellow infiltrators walked into the room, both who had been listening into the conversation between himself and the number Six model. The reactions by the blonde had been predictable; her reactions to his words were likewise more than predictable. She was allowing her more powerful emotions override what should have been solved with logic and understanding.
His compatriots sat at the seats on either side of the circular table, each separated be the same distances on each side. In their eyes all the twelve models were created for one purpose and that purpose once finished would allow them to complete god's will and to live in peace in worlds rightfully theirs.
"They will still go you know, as much as it may harm them both those models will send people to the Tau'ri. They are far too romantic in their ideals when it comes to the humans, a possible flaw in the programming of several of the lines. Empathy is far too overrated when wasted on those that we have been created to destroy. If anything it could be a problem when it comes to removing the human filth from our worlds. Thoughts, gentlemen."
"I'm going to have to disagree, Cavil," Simon responded. "Empathy with an enemy can be more than helpful when it comes to taking them on. The point of the programming for a number of us is the purely empathic. Once we've managed to get the information needed then we should be able to begin plans against the Tau'ri, it may take time to do so but in the end we have that time."
"I'm with Cavil on this one. The humans are a difficult race to come close to understanding. The more we think like them the more we make the risk of becoming like them. If we do so then there will be little reason for God to continue with his campaigns against the humans," a number four replied. "The Six we have with Baltar is behaving erratically to say the least. We may have to remove her from her position and substitute her for one of the others."
"That will not go down well with the other members of her line, Doral," said Simon. "However I do agree with that aspect of their make-up has been problematic. It is highly likely that they have already begun preparations to send a ship to the Tau'ri at some point soon. Do we allow this or do we stop them before they can dispatch their scouting party?"
"The danger of allowing a mission to the Tau'ri homeworld this soon after the Colonial attack could cause them to see us in a hostile way. But in reflection they could well see us as a kindred people fighting a race bent on their domination or destruction. It is not only highly likely that the Tau'ri know of us and have some of our people as prisoners of war, but it is also likely that they have had time to assimilate the information that the Colonials and our own people would have given them. This could easily be a way into their fold without having to infiltrate into their ranks." Cavil leaned back in his chair.
A number of the models had been acting strangely since the introduction of the Tau'ri and the consequent actions of the Colonials against their fellow humans. As far as he was concerned, the Tau'ri had proven themselves to be as blind and single-minded as their Colony bound brothers. The self destructive slant in humankind was tied into their genes through millennia of evolution even with worlds separated by hundreds of light years.
Now more than ever the consensus had to stay intact. The plans that had been made for the removal of the human populace from the colonies had already been put into action. Infiltration and espionage missions were already bearing fruit as the models began accessing and copying critical information from Colonial databases. A number of supply and information caches had been set up within and around the colonial borders.
"So the question is do we stop them. There was no request to the consensus but there was also no orders sent not to contact the Tau'ri. "Do we allow them to proceed or do we stop them from continuing," Simon asked.
"We stop them before they damage the plans that are already in place. The humans of the colonies are our primary target. Any others can be taken down when we have the time and resources to do so. The less the humans can learn from our people the better the risk of them learning the secrets to our resurrection technology is not a risk I am willing to allow."
"How do you propose we stop them?"
"Most of the new ships are incomplete at the moment, if any disappear for no apparent reason they will be missed. It is probable that an older vessel will be used by the Sixes. Unfortunately we don't know which will be used for the mission. Even after fifty years those ships are still useful and more than capable of jumps of that magnitude, especially with the new jump computers installed in all our vessels."
"There are only five in the immediate area. We could have the centurions aboard secure and deactivate the FTL coils in each ship," the Doral said. "Then we talk down the Sixes and continue on with the plan."
"The only other way would be to shoot down whichever vessel they decide to use. The newer ships will be useless against the older ones so we would need a number of the older types to take them down. However we know that the consensus would be unhappy to find out that we had destroyed one of our ships and a number of our own brothers and sisters because of a difference of opinion."
"The risk is too great," Cavil responded. "We shall order all the old style vessels to secure their FTL drives and to stand down. Thank you, gentlemen."
"By your command," the two men chimed.