Chapter 11
It was a quiet morning in the New Lantea System. Floating through space on the edge of the system, the early warning and defense satellites noticed the purple swirling cloud beginning to appear. The subspace tear silently released a new ship from within, then quickly closed and disappeared from sight, leaving the space at the edge of the system quiet. The ship that exited hyperspace was new, and her sleek lines did much to hide the awesome power that she now controlled.
"New Lantea, this is Galactica Actual. Requesting clearance to enter the system and take orbit around New Lantea." Admiral Adama said from his CIC. The new ship was a nice one. She still wasn't the old girl he had just finished decommissioning, but even with all of the new gadgets on board she still felt like a Colonial ship. Now that they had formalized relations with the Tauri and exchanged some technology, the Galactica class was the first fruits of that relationship. She had a new hyperdrive, as well as basic shielding technology. Apparently the Colonies already had a working design; they just lacked the power to run it. That all changed when they got their first look at the Naquada reactors the Tauri used. It turned out the power systems were all they really needed to jump-start all of their new systems and their technological advancement. Adama was also surprised to find that their heavy gun technology could be improved upon. While he still didn't totally understand the heavier beam technologies that the Tauri used, they could easily adapt their rail gun and plasma technologies. It amazed him how much the Tauri were willing to share. He still found it hard to believe there had not been more backlash within the Colonies regarding these unbelievers. Part of that could be explained by the rather large display of power they displayed in saving the Colonies from the Cylons. Without them, the war could have been disastrous. Quietly, to himself, Adama hoped the good feelings would last.
"Galactica Actual, this is New Lantea control. You are cleared to enter and maintain orbit. Dr. Weir has been informed of your arrival and will be awaiting your delegation." Adama often recalled how he'd come to ally his people with the Tauri. Already it had been a year since he had met Dr. Weir and General O'Neill. It had been a hard year for him, all of the fighting early on and then all of the aid work to help the Thirteenth Colony recover from their enslavement.
"Understood. Galactica out," he said, and then placed the microphone back on its holder. "Move us in and put us in orbit of New Lantea. Set the Cap on standby. We don't need them out in this system."
"This is a great new ship, Sir. Power plant still reading full power," Tigh remarked as he read the information from his station. The door to the CIC opened and in stepped the president of the Twelve Colonies.
"Good morning, Admiral," the president greeted him, strolling into the CIC from the new officers' mess two decks below.
"Good morning, Mr. President. We've just entered the New Lantea System."
"This new propulsion system seems wonderful. I actually slept during the trip - some of the best rest I've had in a long time. We never could have done that with our old jump drives."
"Yes, Mr. President, that is definitely a good thing about these upgrades. Personally, I am anxious to try our new shielding systems. I know they aren't as powerful as the ones the Tauri use, but they should still be substantial."
"Let's hope that is not today though," Adar cautioned as he looked around the room. "It is a beautiful ship, isn't it?"
"Yes, Sir!" At that, Adar stepped away from the plot table at the center of the room and sat down in the command chair. The command chair was new to the Galactica-class ship.
"We'll be in orbit in ten minutes, Mr. President," Mr. Gaeta announced as the new Galactica passed the gas giant that dominated the system.
New Lantea had become a hive of activity over the last year as new ships were built and the four city ships sat in orbit, producing things for the war effort. In addition to the four city ships in orbit, the Colonial corporations that had come to construct the new orbital shipyard were nearly done. With the Thirteeners having also moved onto the planet after evacuating Zion, the planet itself had begun a significant population increase. Fortunately, because of all of the new production going on, most of the people from the Thirteenth Colony had jobs ready for them with their new brothers, the Tauri, and their old brothers of the Twelve Colonies. In some ways the situation could not have been better for them. Already their presence had paid large dividends, as more than two dozen Tauri ships circled the planet and another dozen had left orbit on their way back to the Milky Way galaxy for service there. With the new treaty that they would sign today, it was also quite possible that those same Colonial corporations would be making a trip to the Milky Way to build shipyards there as well. Today's treaty signing would very likely solidify the Colonies as a true power in this galaxy, something Adar most definitely wanted his name attached to. Unfortunately Adar also understood that being a power figure meant they would have to expose themselves to danger, and that meant the Wraith. Only those members of their now three-month-old Colonial Star Gate Teams had had any experience with them, and they did not tell any fun stories. At least when they fought the Cylons, nobody got eaten.
"Admiral, we are now in orbit," Mr. Gaeta called out as the Galactica pulled herself into a parking obit along with all of the other orbiting ships.
"Mr. President, these people need a proper space station," Adama said as they both left the CIC, closely followed by the president's staff and Colonel Tigh. Very soon they would be sitting inside one of the Colonial Jumpers. The first two had been a gift from the Tauri, but all of the ones to come would be from their own city ships, which they would take possession of after this treaty was signed. While the Colonies could conceivably lay claim to everything that was on Kobol, they knew enough to understand that the Tauri also had some claim and could very easily take what they wanted.
"You'll have to talk to them about those space stations," Adar joked as they all stepped inside their Colonial Jumper and began their trip down into the atmosphere.
-New Lantea-
Dr. Weir thought about the last year as she waited in the new planet administration building. She was currently sitting on the stage of the auditorium waiting for the delegations from the Colonials, Thirteeners, and Travelers to arrive so they could formally sign their treaty. In the last year, she had worked very hard to bring all four of their peoples together to make this alliance. She of all people understood how difficult it could be to get different peoples together, even when they all agreed and understood each other. In spite of all that, today they would sign a formal treaty with the Colonial people.
"Dr. Weir, if you're ready, the delegations are arriving. The Colonials just entered orbit and the Travelers should be ringing down shortly," General O'Neill said
General O'Neill had just finished taking a tour of the Thirteeners' new city. Apparently some of the people from the Thirteenth Colony had decided to stay permanently on New Lantea. After his tour, he strolled into the hall looking for Dr. Weir. Once he heard the Colonials had entered the system, he knew it was time to get things ready. The Travelers had been in orbit for a few days working out the last little bits of their part of the treaty. Colonel Sheppard had been seeing to them most of the time they had been here. Sheppard's relationship with Larrin, their leader, made him the perfect person for that job.
"I am still pretty amazed that you were able to get this done. You did a great job, Elizabeth," O'Neill said, smiling as she walked down the hall towards him.
"Thanks, Jack. I didn't do it by myself, though." Jack turned around to face the door he had just come out of as she strode up beside him. As they both walked out of the hall together, they could clearly see the new Colonial Puddle Jumpers coming through the clouds on their way to meet them, not far from the hall they had just left. Jack and Elizabeth were on their way to the Gate Room and the people coming from Earth. "I hear we might have some surprise company." Elizabeth smiled as she said this to Jack, who gave her a quizzical look.
"Who could be a surprise guest on a day like this? We know the President of the United States is coming as well as the head of the U.N. And all of his people."
They entered the building as Jack finished his sentence and could clearly hear the alarms blaring and the Gate Tech calling over the intercom, "Unscheduled off-world activation." Elizabeth jumped in, reaching over to the wall and pressing the intercom button.
"Belay that. I did not get time to put them on the schedule, but this is a scheduled visit." Jack was very curious now, as it was highly unusual she would miss something like that.
Jack and Elizabeth stepped quickly into the Gate Room as the vortex was just finishing flashing out and then stabilizing.
"Receiving proper IDC codes; opening iris now," the Gate Tech announced as the first of the large party emerged from the event horizon.
"Dr. Beckett, it is good to see you," Elizabeth said warmly as he stepped off the platform and turned around to wait for the rest of the party.
"Who is with you?" Jack asked as the two men shook hands.
"I think you'll be happy to see a friend of yours…." As he said this, the next two people came through the Gate. The first person through the Gate was another doctor Jack didn't recognize, but the person next to him simply took Jack's breath away. He was less brown and slightly taller than Jack remembered but the eyes and head shape were unmistakable.
"Thor? How?" Jack was beyond surprised and a little suspicious as he looked back at Elizabeth
"O'Neill, it is me. It is good to see you," Thor said, stepping up to Jack, who was obviously still in shock. They embraced in a short and very rare show of affection. The Asgard never did show much emotion.
"It's great to see you, old buddy," Jack said excitedly.
"As I am sure you are aware, when the Asgard gave us the Asgard core and blew up their home world, they implanted the consciousnesses of many of their people within that core. What you don't know is that the Cylons' reproduction technology we recovered last year turned out to be useful for our research teams." Dr. Weir stopped to let Thor finish the short story.
"It turned out the nanites that kept their bodies working properly could also be used to adjust their genetic structure to accommodate our minds. That is how they resurrected me. And once they were done, we irradiated the nanites and we now have new bodies that can reproduce. The Asgard are returning." He did his best to smile, as much as an Asgard could smile.
"That is unbelievable. How many of your people will survive?"
"Unknown yet, but there were several thousand of us inside the Asgard core," Thor said as Odin and Mjolnir came through the Gate, which closed behind them.
"We need to move on...the ceremony starts in twenty minutes and we still have to greet the Thirteeners and the Colonials." As Elizabeth finished her statement, the Gate again began to spin as the Thirteeners dialed in from their new home world. The wormhole quickly formed and stabilized, with the iris opening a few seconds later. As Jack and Thor continued to talk quietly, the first of the Thirteeners stepped through the Gate. It looked like the entire council - Commander Locke and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar was coming for the ceremony.
"It is good to see you, General," Commander Locke said, approaching the general and the small receiving line that had formed.
"And you, Commander. These are my friends Thor, Mjolnir, and Freyr. They're Asgard. Dr. Weir, you've already met." Jack made introductions as Commander Locke moved further down the line shaking hands warily with Thor, who spoke softly to the commander. The line progressed quickly with all of the Thirteeners unsure what to make of the Asgard. None of them had ever seen someone not of human origin. After the greetings were done the entire group made its way back to the hall where the ceremony would take place.
Dr. Weir and General O'Neill slipped out of the group and made their way to the landing area, where the Colonials had just landed, which had been cleared for the event. Leaving the first craft, President Adar and his security detail moved toward the hall as well, after being briefly greeted by the general and Dr. Weir. The second craft also opened as the president and his detail trailed off into the ceremony hall.
"Admiral Adama - it is good to see you." The general and the admiral shook hands as he stepped up to be greeted. Jack and William had become friends over the last year while they worked together to unlock some of what Kobol had to offer and other related things. Having both lost children and both fought in some nasty situations, they had a lot they could share and in some ways they could share things with each other they couldn't with others. It was a rare situation for Jack, who did not often have the kind of relationships where he felt free to share his thoughts and emotions.
"I have some old friends who are going to want to meet you and your people. They'll also want to thank you," Elizabeth said as she shook hands with the admiral.
"Do you remember me talking about my friend Thor?" Jack asked as they all began the walk to the ceremony hall.
"I do, but didn't you tell me all the Asgard were gone? Genetic degradation or something…." As the Admiral said this, he realized how they might have been helped. "Did you use the Cylon resurrection tech?"
"Apparently we did."
"That could be a problem," Adama said a little worriedly.
"It shouldn't be. We irradiated the nanites so there's no Cylon technology in their bodies at all," Dr. Weir explained. "You will get to meet them shortly." She finished as they reached the entrance to the ceremony hall.
The last to arrive was the Earth delegation with the U.N. resident and the president of the United States. The U.S. president would be giving a short speech, along with President Adar and Morpheus. Larrin from the Travelers was not really a speech type, so she opted out. Opportunities like these were ones that Jack did nearly anything to miss, so when a call came from the CIC, he was more than happy to answer it.
"This is General O'Neill. What do you have to report?" He spoke softly into the telephone that was in the back room of the meeting hall, where the festivities had just begun.
"Sir we have a contact on the outer edge of the system. We believe it is Cylon." Jack's interest piqued at that, and he let the officer of the watch know he was on the way. With so many dignitaries on the planet, he couldn't afford any dangers to go unchallenged, especially not today. Hanging up the phone, he quickly crossed the area between the meeting hall and the CIC. Once there, Jack stopped to look at the situation board at the center of the room, where they coordinated all in-system defenses. The sensor data was collected for everything from foes to friends, and even space dust was collected together and displayed on this board.
"Sir, the contact is still in the outer comet shield of the system. I think they believe they are hiding from us."
"Why's that, Major?"
"Because, Sir, they're sitting in the asteroid field and not moving. They seem to have most of their power systems wound down in order to be harder to find. The Ajax is approaching under cloak." He pointed to the glowing green dot that was approaching the red dot on the map. "Sir, preliminary data is coming in. It's definitely Cylon, but it looks different from anything we've seen before."
"How so?"
"Well, Sir, it looks like they have some new form of reactor; even powered down it looks stronger than their older systems."
"That's definitely concerning. Get me the captain of the Ajax." Jack was growing worried. He knew he should probably get General Caldwell and Dr. Weir for this, but they were both in the ceremony and someone from this galaxy should be involved in the treaty signing. Besides, he knew what he was doing.
"This is the Ajax." The voice came over the comm line.
"I have an emergency order for you. I want you to remain cloaked and follow that ship. We need to know where they came from and who's there. I'll have a ship relieve you in two days. In the meantime I have something else planned. Sit tight." Jack closed the line with the Ajax and motioned for the officer of the watch to put the captain of the Kronos on the line next. "Captain, I need you to proceed to the unknown contact at the edge of the system. Once there I need you to challenge him…."
-Edge of New Lantean System-
"Sir, we are approaching the unknown contact. It appears there are actually three vessels here, Sir," the tech said as the three smallish ships came on the front viewer. They were well hidden in the field of asteroids on the edge of the system, sitting in a rough triangle formation in order to provide cover fire for each other.
"Are the other ships powered down as well?" The captain asked. They floated not but a few hundred kilometers away from the three unknowns. Fortunately, they had engaged their cloak while still in orbit of New Lantea so being detected was not an issue. They observed for several more minutes, waiting to see if the unknown ships would do anything of interest, but after ten minutes they had not.
"Bring our shields up and disengage the cloak. I want an active scan of those ships." At his order, the Kronos revealed herself to the three intruders and actively scanned all three ships. The three ships immediately powered themselves and darted out of the asteroid field, staying in their same tight formation. "Helm, keep us in front of them, open a channel."
As the Kronos backpedaled, the comms officer called out that the channel was open
"Unidentified ships, you are in restricted space without authorization. What are your intentions?"
"Sir, they're attempting to access our computer systems. They're definitely Cylon," the comms officer said as he moved to block the intrusion.
"Save any of their intrusion software that you can. I would like to have that as evidence if possible. And reopen the channel." He waited a second until the comms officer let him know the channel was again open. "Unidentified ships, we will not allow you to access our systems. That was an act of aggression and while I will forgive this one act I cannot allow any more acts of aggression without a response in kind." As the captain spoke, the lead ship began to power its weapons systems while the two ships behind it winked out of existence.
"Sir, ships two and three have engaged a Cylon-style jump drive. Tracking them eight light years out." Before the captain could respond, the lead ship fired its first weapon at the Kronos. A very narrow orange beam of light erupted from the front of the lone Cylon ship and lightly touched the forward shield of the Kronos. The beam did no damage to the Kronos or her shields, but it was still a bit of a shock to the crew, since they knew the Cylons were not supposed to be this advanced.
"Return fire, front rail guns only. Let's incapacitate, not destroy," the captain said. In response, the forward rail guns began to spew their first trinium-depleted uranium rounds, which bounced harmlessly off of the Cylons glowing blue shields. Everyone on the bridge stared in surprise. This was a real problem. "Weapons, fire up the beam cannons. Two shots at eighty percent power. Let's break that shield." The captain seemed now visibly upset and the weapons officer called out that they were ready to fire. "Target their shields only. Fire." With that, two blue beams of energy shot from the Kronos, slamming into the shields of the small ship, which simply glowed an almost electric blue and crackled. "Good, maybe now they will listen. Open the chan…." The captain stopped midsentence as the last ship disappeared from existence, following its two brothers.
"Sir, we are tracking the first ship now, eight light years out." After a few quiet curses, the captain gave the order to contact command back at Fort Point. General O'Neill's voice came over loudly through the bridge.
"Kronos, do not pursue. I want you to make a full scan of the entire comet shield, we have to know whether there are more of those ships waiting around." As the Kronos moved off to begin that scan, the captain and the bridge crew could clearly watch the hyperspace window open and the Ajax de-cloak and disappear into the window on her way to track this new threat. At least, that's what the captain assumed as he smiled and thought about how tricky General O'Neill could be sometimes.
-Void between Star Systems-
The Ajax had only been in hyperspace for a few moments before she had to exit out into normal space on her way to track the three Cylon ships. They were all surprised when they found they had opened their exit window much closer to the Cylons than they had anticipated. What greeted them, though, was even more shocking as all three ships fired their beam weapons at the Ajax before she could raise her shields. The bridge rocked violently as the six beams struck the Ajax. It took a few moments before the captain and bridge crew could regain their seats.
"Captain, shields are now up. But they are only at fifty percent."
"Damage report!" The captain called out, still feeling his head where he had knocked it against the wall and then floor. He often wondered why there were no seatbelts on starships.
"Sir, weapons are offline and hyperdrive is down. No report on injured yet." The captain was not surprised at that but wanted to know how the three Cylon ships had been able to surprise them so easily. "Sir, the lead ship is hailing us." The comms officer opened the channel on their end. He was startled along with the rest of the bridge crew as the front view screen sprang to life revealing a beautiful, tall blond woman who had to be a model Six. What surprised them all the most, though, was the fact that she was wearing a Genii uniform.
"Captain of the Ajax, I am Carrice, leader of the Genii. What you have done could be seen as an act of war, which is why we responded in the way we did. We will not attack you again as a sign of our lack of hostile intentions. Let it be known that we do not wish relations with the Tauri or any of your allies." With her statement finished, she shut off the connection and all of the bridge crew watched as the three Cylon/Genii ships opened a hyperspace window and disappeared inside it. The captain broke the dumbfounded silence with a question to his XO.
"Did you place the locator beacon?"
"Yes, Sir." The XO smiled as he answered his new captain in the affirmative and continued smiling as he thought about his time with the Genii and how their new leadership had secured his current position for him.
-New Lantea: Six Hours Later-
It was quite a scene inside the CIC. For the last two hours, the captains of the Ajax and Kronos had been briefing the Traveler and Tauri leadership on the situation that had transpired earlier. General O'Neill did not want to bring in the Colonials just yet. Somehow these Cylons were involved with the Genii and Jack needed to know how they were intertwined and jack knew that if the colonials were involved the fate of the genii wouldn't mean much to them.
They did not know what to make of it all. Jack new more would come from this but he knew he did not have all of the pieces of the puzzle on this one. He would have to leave this one to General Caldwell because he had other business to attend to.
-Enterprise-
"Hello, O'Neill. It is good to see you again," Thor said as Jack appeared. He gave the slimmest of smiles to his friend, who looked surprised at Thor's new facial ability.
"I see your new bodies are agreeing with you. I don't think I have ever seen you smile."
"We used to smile a great deal, before our bodies began to deteriorate. Once that happened, we lost the ability. I would have smiled for you many times before this if I could have." Jack returned the smile.
"Do you like the ship?" He asked when he noticed Thor looking around the bridge and motioned for Thor to follow him to the ring room.
"This is a beautiful ship. I am pleased that you were finally able to use the name you always wanted to for a ship. I believe our next line of ships would have been Enterprise class if my people had survived to make them." Thor stopped at the thought of his people, lost now. The smile abruptly left his face.
"Didn't they tell you there were more Asgard inside that computer core?" Jack asked, genuinely surprised. Thor turned around at Jack's statement. They were already in the ring room and were in the process of navigating through the supplies.
"What do you mean?" Thor asked, himself looking surprised. Jack couldn't get over how strange it was to see facial expressions on his friend's face.
"Major, activate the rings, bring our friends on board," Jack called to the ring control booth as he stood quietly next to Thor, who was probably getting annoyed with Jack for his non-answer. Within moments, the rings activated and Thor and Jack watched as the large set of rings floated up from the floor and deposited more than five hundred Asgard onboard the Enterprise. "Welcome to the Enterprise," he greeted them. Thor seemed to be on the verge of tears.
"Thank you, O'Neill," Thor said quietly as he stepped in among his people. After a few moments Jack cleared his throat and asked in nicest possible voice.
"Could everyone move out of this room into the adjacent room? We have more people coming aboard and we need this space cleared. We have people waiting in the other room to assign quarters and give you any information you might need," Jack instructed as he and a dozen or so enlisted men and women helped the Asgard make their way to the next room. Thor approached Jack.
"We will never be able to repay you for this, O'Neill." Jack stopped him short.
"Don't start yet, you still have another two loads of friends to greet. They sent a little over fifteen hundred Asgard through the Gate today." Thor was speechless. "Why don't you greet the rest of your people and meet me back on the bridge in two hours? We should be ready to depart then." Thor nodded in agreement and began to walk away, but turned around abruptly to ask one more question.
"Where are we going?" He wanted to ask more but Jack held up a finger.
"I don't want to ruin the surprise. Meet me on the bridge in two hours." With that, he left the room for Thor to talk to his fellow Asgard.
-Two Hours Later: Enterprise Bridge-
Jack was sitting quietly in the command chair of the Enterprise. He had cleared all of the safety systems in orbit and the ship had just left New Lantea.
"Is the ZPM installed, Captain?" Jack asked of the captain who was sitting in the XO's chair behind him.
"Yes, General. It is installed and the ship is functioning at peak efficiency."
"Excellent, Commodore Missen. Do you know why I have given you this mission?" Jack asked as Thor came onto the bridge.
"No, Sir. You have not made that clear yet." Jack smiled at Thor who had stepped up next to him as Missen.
"You see, Thor, after your people went away we sent a ship to survey your home galaxy, to see if you left anything or anyone. What we found was that in your haste to destroy yourselves, your people left a few ships and things lying around."
"Really? I thought we were quite thorough," he responded, thoughtful and wondering what they might have left.
"And usually that is true, old buddy, but I am sure that as your people died, many smaller things fell by the wayside. Anyway, we have repaired what we could and have placed everything in orbit of one of your original planets. Commodore Missen and I are going to escort your people back to the Ida Galaxy where you can begin to reconstitute yourselves." Thor had nothing to say, Jack was sure his head was just swimming now. "The trip should take us a while, so we will have plenty time to go over our plan and spend some time together. Commodore Missen here is being given the job of assisting you in any way he possibly can." Jack stopped there.
"Sir what other assets will I have?"
"Your former ship, the Normandy, will accompany us to Ida along with two RED HORSE battalions and an intergalactic Gate they have in their hold. Once there, I will Gate back to Earth and whatever other needs you have, you can request through normal channels. We'll go over all of that later." Jack finished talking to them and motioned to the comms officer "Is the Normandy ready?"
"Yes, Sir," the comms officer answered as he gave the signal to the Normandy to join them in formation, ready for the hyperdrive window to open.
"Let's get going," Jack said, and with that the Normandy and the Enterprise together opened a hyperspace window and disappeared on their way to new adventures.
Authors Note:
While this is the end of this story, it is not the end of the tale. More stories will come because there are many questions left unanswered. I hope you enjoyed the story. I also wanted to say thank you to my beta reader R0cketScient1st. You did great work and we all appreciate the part you have played in the telling of this story. If you are looking for the next chapters they will be a few weeks in coming. I have new job issues so that will take a majority of my time for the next few months. For those of you who have liked the story more will be coming and those of you who didn't well I will torment you more in the future. Thanks for reading.
