Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.
Chapter 12: The Road to Earth.
Battlestar Orpheus – Flag Officers Suite
The knock on the door broke the Admirals concentration as he reviewing the reports of the current mining operations on the planet below. Placing the folder back down on the desk, he stood up from his desk and called out for whoever it was to enter.
Opening the door, Lieutenant Sharon Rogers walked into the Admirals office to stand in front of his desk. Saluting her superior officer she waited for him to acknowledge her before she started talking.
"Lieutenant, what was so important that you would abandon your mission and return here on full thrusters?" Admiral Kronus questioned.
Sharon, feeling contrite about the use of so much fuel being used to return to the fleet as quickly as she could, hung her head slightly. "Admiral, this may sound strange but, when we were exploring the ruins of the opera house, I had what I believe to have been a vision."
"And what did you see in this vision, Lieutenant?" Kronus asked.
Sharon looked up at the Admiral "Sir, I was standing in the opera house. Not the ruins but what it looked like when Kobol was inhabited. There was a blond woman. I believe she was a number six model. She told me that God was granting me a gift in seeing the faces of the final five models – the ones that even the other Cylon models have not seen."
"All right Lieutenant" Admiral Kronus sighed, trying to ignore the pit of nervous energy in this stomach "You have my attention. Tell me everything, and start at the beginning"
"Every Cylon knows that there were 12 cylon human models created. We considered ourselves children of humanity. Seven of the models were obsessed with revenge for what was considered the slavery of the Cylon race before the Cylon war. They began to believe that they were chosen by god to carry out his revenge and exterminate the human race. The final five are believed to have believed in the possibility of living in peace with humans and when they found out the plans of the first seven models they vowed to guide and protect what remained of the population of the twelve colonies after the holocaust so that the human race would survive. The seven original models were so enraged at their brothers and sisters that they erased the identities of the final five from the memories of all the Cylons."
Planetary Recon Team – Surface of Kobol
The reconnaissance team had returned to the surface, this time escorted by a second raptor filled with more manpower and equipment to explore and map the ruined city.
"So Sharon, where is the Tomb then?" Lieutenant Aaron Fisk asked.
Sharon slowly turned around in a circle, scanning the landscape to get her bearings. Spotting the mountain range in the distance, she stopped and pointed towards a distant peak. "The Tomb of Athena lies up there. There should be a path that leads along the ridge."
"That's going to take us at least a few hours. Don't suppose we could land the raptor any closer, eh?"
Sharon shifted her gaze to look at Aaron. "No. That landscape is too rocky. We'll have to journey there on foot. Not afraid of a little exercise are we?"
Aaron picked up the case containing the Arrow of Apollo that the Admiral had had reproduced and slung the strap over his shoulder. "Ok then. Let's get going while we still have some daylight."
Battlestar Orpheus – Flag Officers Suite
Admiral Kronus picked up the file from his desk and walked across the room to where Eileen Fields was sat on the couch. He handed the file to her before sitting down in the armchair opposite her.
"She recognised two of them as being in the Colonial Fleet aboard the Galactica. A third is a well known pyramid player by the name of Samuel Anders. The other two, we don't have names for yet but Sharon sat down with an artist we found and managed to give us good artist impressions of them."
Eileen took the file from him. "Are you sure that you can trust her Andrew?"
Admiral Kronus sat forward in the chair to add emphasise to what he was saying. "I'm very sure we can, but just to be on the safe side, I'm having both her and Colonel Cavil constantly monitored. So far they have been co-operative and consistent with their duties."
Eileen rested the file on the coffee table between them, opening it to review the information that Admiral Kronus had gathered regarding the identities of the human form Cylons. She quickly skimmed through the pictures provided by Henry Cavil of the first seven models.
"I recognise a few of these. This one" she said pointing to a picture of Henry, "is one of the priests on board the 'City of Eden' and this next one I've seen on the Hospital ship. Now what was his name..... Ah yes, Doctor Simon Beech." She turned the page and a slight gasp escaped her lips at the image staring up at her from the page.
"Yes, I know. I've already spoken to Aaron about this. The shock hit him very hard. In fact, I've had to send him for counselling. I honestly believe he had no knowledge of being a Cylon until I showed him this."
Eileen, having quickly recovered, looked up at the Admiral. "What do you intend to do with these Cylons?"
Kronus relaxed back into his chair. "I've consulted with all the doctors in the fleet and the all concur on one point. The radiation in the nebula seems to have erased any hidden programming they may have had and left only the base personality. We've managed to confirm that none of the Cylons in the fleet had any direct involvement in the destruction of the colonies, so it would be unethical for us to punish them for the crimes of their brethren. I'm going to gather them all together and explain this all to them and offer them a choice. They can remain with us and be productive members of Colonial society or we will leave them on the surface of Kobol when we leave."
"Is that wise?"
"It's fair Eileen. Sharon told me that the human form Cylons think of themselves as humanities children. And in a sense they are right. They were created by humans but when they achieved sentience we continued to treat them like mere robots. We have a unique duty to treat these particular Cylons with dignity and understanding." He paused, taking a sip from his glass of water. "You know, I always thought of Aaron as the son I never had, and I won't just turn my back on him."
Eileen looked at Kronus, judging the sincerity with which he spoke. "You realise, Andrew, there's going to be quite a few people who will not agree with you on this. Many will wish to just send them out of the nearest airlock."
"I know Eileen. That's another reason why I'm going to assign marines to escort them around."
Planetary Recon Team – Surface of Kobol
The hillside was getting decidedly steeper, the higher the reconnaissance team ascended towards the mountain ridge. The trees and dense undergrowth often obscuring the ancient path and slowing their progress.
"Sir, I think you may want to see this" Corporal Naylor called out.
Sergeant Hobbs brushed past the rest of the team on the narrow path and proceeded to catch up with the Corporal, who had taken point. He looked in the direction that the Corporal was pointing and noticed the recent burial just off to the side of the track-way. A small grave marker carefully placed on top of the mound.
"Looks like the scrolls were right. They said any return to Kobol will be paid for in blood."
"Come on" Sharon said. "We can worry about the dead later. We need to press on – we've still got a fair way to go."
The other all nodded solemnly. One by one, they turned away from the grave and continued on their upward trek.
Battlestar Theseus – Forward Magazine
Carefully checking the surrounding area, the dark haired woman entered the security code into the keypad and opened the hatch. With a small bag in her hand, she entered the room, quietly closing the door behind her.
Quickly surveying the room, she took a small, oval, white coloured device from the bag. Pressing the activation switch, she carefully placed the object behind a large pallet of ammunition. Satisfied that it would not easily be discovered, she scooped up the bag and with as much caution as she could muster, left the room, making sure that the hatch was closed behind her before disappearing into the busy corridors of the Battlestar.
Planetary Recon Team – Surface of Kobol
The climb had been hard going, even on the athletic Marines. But the recon team had finally arrived at a large flat area near the summit. The path they had been following ended in front of what appeared at first glance to be a solid wall of rock, half covered in plant life.
"Where's the Tomb then Sharon? I don't see any buildings up here" Aaron said.
Sharon looked at him as if she were dealing with an idiot. "A Tomb does not have to be inside a building you know" she replied sarcastically. "If you care to look more closely, this rock face has a door cut into it. We just have to work out how to open it."
Spreading themselves out along the rock face, the members of the recon team started examining the area for any sign of a mechanism to open the door to the Tomb, but there was nothing of the sort to be seen.
"Maybe it's simpler than it looks" Corporal Spencer said. "Here, someone give me a hand."
He adjusted his posture to put his weight against the rock door and started pushing. Two of the other Marines taking up a similar stance.
"On three. 1 ... 2 ... 3". Slowly the giant stone began to move, revealing a chamber on the other side. Sharon, Aaron and Sergeant Hobbs cautiously made their way inside with the others following close behind.
The large chamber appeared roughly circular in nature with 12 stone sarcophagus evenly spaced around the room. On the top of each sarcophagus there were the remains of a golden statue.
"Frak me!" Aaron explained.
Sergeant Hobbs walked towards one of the statues. "What do these statues represent?"
"These are the ancient symbols of the twelve tribes. The ram over there represent Aries. The bull over by the door represents Taurus and that archer over there represents Sagittarian." Sharon took a few steps towards the statue. "And guess what he's missing."
Aaron released the case from his shoulder and removed the golden arrow that was encased inside. "Here Sharon, you do the honours" he said as he passed the arrow to her.
Hesitantly, Sharon placed the arrow onto the archers bow. As the arrow connected with the statue, the stone door slammed shut and they found themselves standing in the centre of a circle of stone pillars with grass beneath their feet and a clear night sky above them.
"What the frak happened? Where are we?" Sergeant Hobbs asked clearly agitated.
"Relax Sergeant. It's just a hologram. Look at those stone columns. The pictographs show the old names of the Colonies." Looking up Aaron examined the starry sky. "They pictographs match the star constellations up there."
"..... and they looked towards the heavens and low they saw their twelve brothers" Sharon said, quoting from the ancient scrolls. "This place must be Earth and that must be what constellations are visible from the planet. It's a map to Earth! Aaron, get your visual recorder out. We'll need to make a copy of this for the Admiral to see."
Battlestar Orpheus – Wardroom
"So, I take it the arrow worked then" Colonel Omega stated to the recon team once they had assembled in the wardroom upon returning from the surface.
"Yeah. It worked perfectly Sir. We got a good recording of what we saw in the Tomb as well" Aaron said.
They all sat and watched the recording of the star constellations as it played on the viewer in the wardroom.
Admiral Kronus stopped the recording and turned around in his chair to face the others. "This is not a map we can use." The disappointment clearly visible on every ones faces. "But I do recognise that feature" he said pointing to a small multi coloured cloud-like image. "That's astral body M8. We can use that to give us a general direction and adjust our star charts as we go until we can extrapolate the positions of the constellations and get a fix on Earth's location. I'm willing to bet that Commander Adama will be doing the same, he always struck me as a smart man."