DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, Stargate, or anything else you may find in my story that in any way resembles a character, story, or plot that is owned by another person.
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Chapter 21
Timeframe: 2012-2013, continued...
Aboard the Galactica, the Quorum continued their meeting, arguing about how to respond to Emperor Potter's offer. Setting aside the disbelief of some of their members they were debating the efficacy of returning to the colonies-if the Avalonian's could do what they said they could do.
Commander Adama was advocating that position. He never dreamed that they could counter-attack the Cylon's and take back their worlds and beyond that, his imagination didn't even contemplate that they could clean the world's of the radiation and restore their ecosystem. If they could do all that, and surely there would be pockets of colonial survivors, if they'd lasted this long, they deserve the chance.
As he readied to make another impassioned plea about that, the klaxons went off again...
"Action stations, action stations. Set condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill." came over the 1MC.
"Gentlemen, please stay here under guard for your safety. Officers, with me to the Bridge." ordered Commander Adama.
As they arrived on the bridge, the Commander ordered "sitrep! what's going on?"
"Sir," the OOD said, "Long range dradis has picked up three sets of three Cylon base ships converging on our position from equidistant vectors forty-five degrees apart. They clearly mean to wedge us in."
"Indeed Lieutenant. Helm, maneuver us below the civilian fleet placing them in the middle between us and the Avalonian's and keep our entire fleet within their shield cocoon. Since they mean to protect us lets keep our charges directly between us." ordered Commander Adama.
"Captain Apollo, as CAG, I want you and every Viper in the air immediately. Do not leave the shield cocoon to engage either. Let them come to us. Let's see what these people can do." he continued.
"Relay those orders to all fleet captains. Go!" ordered Commander Adama.
A cacophony of salutes and 'Yes, sir's' echoed throughout the bridge as everyone scattered to perform their duty.
Silently Adama prayed to the Lords of Kobol and any other God that might be listening that he didn't destroy them all when he agreed to stop and hold behind the safety of the Avalonian's shields. He still doubted their shield could do that much. They had experimented with energy shields too but it didn't amount to much. Frankly, he was counting on those big capital ships making a bigger target and having big guns.
...
Aboard the Leviathan...
"Ops Boss, order a unit of Destiny's to advance on all three of the sets of incoming Cylon base ships, and the two Liberator's and their three remaining Destiny to take up screening positions between them and the Colonial fleet." ordered Harry.
"Yes, sir." answered Ops.
"Sir, scanners detect one human life sign aboard one of the lead base ships." said Ops.
"Interesting. Beam the human to the medical bay in stasis and under quarantine until we can have the time to check on him. Doc, you can check to see if he needs medical attention but, I suspect that won't be the case." said Harry.
...
Back aboard Galactica...
"Sir, the Cylon's will be in weapons range of our new friends Battle-cruisers in ten microns. All nine base ships are launching raiders."
10 microns later...
"Whoa! Holy mother Kobol, did you see that?!"
"Easy ensign, calm your theatrics, just report what you see." said Colonel Tigh.
"Sorry sir, the base ships all opened fire on one of the friendly battle-cruisers with their main pulsar cannons. The blasts just stopped in mid-strike hitting an invisible force field of some kind. The friendly's haven't retaliated yet." said tactical.
"The Cylon's have just opened fire with their forward nuclear missile batteries." seconds later... "Sir, the missiles met the same force field and exploded. No damage to the friendly's. God's this is unbelievable." said tactical.
"Ensign?" prodded Colonel Tigh.
"Sir, the raiders are attempting strafing runs against the battle-cruisers, which is also stopped by their force fields. Several raiders that got too close just exploded, sir."
"Sir, comms coming in from the Leviathan sir, they want to know if that is all these Cylon's have." said communications.
"Reply back-yes, except just more of the same at close quarters." said Commander Adama.
A few seconds later, nine bright blue and yellow striped bolts of continuous plasma fired from the battle-cruisers to each of the base ships, making them explode into infernos of debris.
The raiders with no where else to go attempted to run the screen to get at Galactica but never got within half a light year of the shield cocoon as the plasma cannons from all fourteen ships blasted them out of the sky with unequaled speed and precision.
"Wow!" said Colonel Tigh.
"Why Colonel I do believe you just interjected an exclamation. That is so unlike you." replied Commander Adama.
"You should have heard me when that Leviathan appeared out of nowhere." replied Colonel Tigh.
"Oh, Ensign, I believe they call those shields, not force fields." said Adama.
...
Later, that evening Commander Adama played host once again to Emperor Potter and the Quorum of Twelve.
The men in robes seemed quiet and subdued as Commander Adama took the floor.
"Emperor Potter, I have been elected to speak for the Quorum. Please accept my sincere apologies for our rude behavior this morning. After witnessing your military power today against the Cylon's I believe our most ardent members have come to accept the truth before their very own eyes, even if some do not yet understand it."
"Furthermore, it is with humble gratitude that we accept your offer of aid. We would like your help in vanquishing the Cylon's for good, then reclaiming and restoring the health of our home worlds. We hope actually, to find that there might be pockets of survivors that we might return home to liberate and restore to health as well."
"And finally, if you are still willing we would like very much to part as friends and to begin trade relations with you." said Commander Adama.
Then Harry took the floor and said.
"You're apology is accepted. Thank you. We will be happy to do all of these things. Let us begin by having my crews work with your crews to top off all your supplies, assist with repairs, and provide any medical assistance you might need, while I send my fleet out to dispatch the Cylon's, then we can be on our way back to your home worlds." replied Harry.
There was soft, respectful applause as Harry returned the floor to Commander Adama who dismissed the meeting, leaving Harry and his officers behind with Adama and his officers to exchange liaison officers and to coordinate next steps.
"Oh, by the way I think I found something of yours." said Harry, as he waved his hand to his side and appearing next to him was none other than Baltar.
"Baltar!" the Colonial officers exclaimed.
"Captain Apollo, take a security detail and secure this venomous piece of trash in the brig and sit on him to make sure he doesn't get away this time-and tell him nothing of our new friends. We'll deal with him later." said Commander Adama.
"Thank you for finding our lost trash Emperor, we'll make sure to dispose of it properly this time." said Commander Adama.
Harry laughed and said, "Well he's all yours."
...
The colonial fleet watched as the Leviathan dispatched six more Liberator dreadnoughts, that subsequently each dispatched six Destiny, for a fully deployed fleet of eight Liberator dreadnoughts and forty-eight Destiny battle-cruisers that once formed up, leapt as one into hyper-space.
"Frak me, that is impressive." said Commander Adama.
"Thank you Commander, I will pass that along." said Knight-Commander Vane, as she entered the bridge, escorted by Lieutenant Starbuck. Who quickly volunteered when he saw the deliciously hot Imperial Knight from the Leviathan get off the drop ship she used as a shuttle.
"Commander, this is Knight-Commander Romilda Vane of the Leviathan, assigned as your personal liaison to Emperor Potter. Commander Vane, this is Commander William Adama, CO of the Colonial Fleet." said Starbuck.
They exchanged greetings and when there was a clear dismissal implied, Lieutenant Starbuck graciously offered to continue to show Commander Vane around the Fleet if the Commander was too busy.
"Thank you ...Lieutenant, but that is Knight-commander if you please. And, I'll keep that in mind." she answered with a wink.
Ahem. "Yes, thank you Lieutenant, that will be all for now." said Commander Adama.
...
By the next morning, the Fleet was abuzz with representatives from the Leviathan on almost each of the two hundred twenty ships in the fleet, coordinating supply drops and repair actions-all facilitated by strange beams of light that kept materializing and de-materializing matter all over the place to get things moved quickly, and AI repair drones which made the colonials very nervous, skittered about inside and out making repairs to everything, the hull, missing screws, filling deep scratch marks, whatever. They seemed like they were aiming to make the entire fleet as good as new and they were almost done already.
All the civilians had new clothing replicated for them, some of the children even had new toys made for them once some of the older ones explained to the Leviathan liaison officers what they liked. The Colonials couldn't believe the type of technology and the amazing science that must be behind it all that these Alterans as they were being told now to call them were capable of (not Avalonian's if you please).
Emperor Potter and his Ops Officer was meeting with
Commander Adama and Colonel Tigh for a small lunch and tour of the Leviathan and the pair of Colonials could hardly keep the drool in their mouths, and that was saying something for the always stoic Colonel Tigh.
They discussed the concern that made it's way up the scuttle-butt chain of the Alterans use of robots like Cylon's. Harry explained to them the differences and even a small tale of how they had been perfected and misused over the years. Even their own problems with them millions of years ago and briefly the Asgard's war with them. He understood their concerns but promised them, they had their human form replicator's under control. Then he took them to a nanite lab, where he showed them in slow motion how one of them is put together by the hundred trillion or so of microscopic nanites.
"So, do you all have the concept of nanotechnology or nanorobotics in your science?" asked Harry.
"No, not as you do. We do have nanotechnology but it is limited in use to medical science right now." answered Commander Adama.
"Good. That's how we started off with it too, long ago. I suspect you are on the right path." said Harry.
He kept the rest of the tour light. They were already suitably awed by their capabilities, he didn't need to rub it in their faces. Nor did he just want to start handing out even some of the advanced concepts or principles of all their technology. They still had some growing to do themselves. The decision to return to their home worlds was probably the best for their development all around. He would take their civilization under their wing and try to help them as much as they let him, but only insomuch as they were truly ready. But, they would need help with infrastructure and resources to rebuild quickly and they could spare some of that technology to help them along.
The final leg of the tour was the bridge and Harry's personal command deck on the bridge, with his adjacent ready room.
Both Colonials let out a large whistle in appreciation.
"By the Gods, there is no doubt you people are millions of years ahead of us as you've said. I am certainly glad you came along when you did." said Commander Adama.
"You're welcome Commander. I'm glad we got here in time. Let's retire to my ready room and get the status of the Fleet operation against the Cylon's." said Harry.
"Ops Boss, how goes the hunt for Cylon's?" asked Harry.
"Sir, we have caught up to and destroyed half of them. They finally realized they were in big trouble and tried to both move their colony base and retreat most of their ships to it. Unfortunately for them, we were right on top of them when they moved it and destroyed their colony." answered Ops.
"The Cyrannus system has been purged of all space-born Cylon's as well. We have not yet searched the surface. We are focusing on catching up to the other fleeing base stars, which will be done in a few hours. They are quite slow." said Ops.
"Good. Well then, why don't we let the Fleet continue that Op. while we go ahead and move the Galactica and her flotilla back to Cyrannus and then begin to work on the surface and the environment. Ops send those orders out, and I will coordinate with the Commander here for moving the flotilla." said Harry.
"Yes, sir." said Ops, as he left to update the orders to the Fleet.
"How will you get us all to Cyrannus so quickly? I mean, it seems clear that your ship can do that, but we can't move that fast." asked Colonel Tigh.
"Ah, yes. Well, you all are going to get let into one of the best kept secrets of this ship. I explained to you just a little bit about the hyper-space travel you saw our fleet do. We also have another drive that we usually only use when traveling inter-galactically because it takes a lot of power. The secret is that I can use the wormhole drive of my ship to open a stable wormhole through subspace from here directly to, well anywhere and hold it open for other ships to pass through." said Harry.
"So, roughly my plan is to open up such a wormhole to say one light year away from whatever planet in Cyrannus you want to first arrive at, then you would take your fleet into the wormhole and arrive from your perspective, instantly at that destination. Then I will follow you in the Leviathan and close the wormhole behind me after I arrive."
"Is there anything you people can't do?" asked Colonel Tigh.
"I'm sure there is, but if so please don't tell me because I have this unsettling drive to then go figure out how to do it." answered Harry, truthfully.
"I bet." replied Colonel Tigh.
"Well, this whole day has been very enlightening and I have no doubt you can do all that stuff you just said. But, I'm an old Viper pilot, not a scientist so... I'm just going to trust you to get us home safely. I think we should thank you for your hospitality and return to the Galactica to make ready for all this. I guess we'll coordinate everything through your Knight-Commander Vane still?" said Commander Adama.
"Yes, that will be fine. We'll wait to hear from her, to make ready next steps and set schedules." said Harry.
...
By evening they had decided on a plan. The fleet would arrive at two hundred thousand kilometers from Canceron. The Quorum decided that since their population was now so small that they would ask the Alterans to make cleaning up and restoring Canceron a priority and that the entire fifty-thousand population would settle there, regardless of their traditional colonial heritage. They would need each other to work together to survive and re-build.
The reason they chose Canceron instead of their old Capital planet Caprica is that it was hit the hardest and because out of all the other major planets of the colonies, it appeared to suffer less destruction of its infrastructure according to Alteran scans. And it is actually best overall for a new colony starting over, with its two great landmasses with fertile plains, good harbors, tall mountain ranges, and vast mineral deposits of coal, iron, and silver. After thirty years the radiation half-life will have already dissipated far from dangerous levels.
They would then ask the Alterans to clean and restore their other planets and that they would simply start new settlements on them to re-colonize when the time was right. Meanwhile, they would also ask the Alterans help in finding all survivors if there are any on any of those planets and help them move to Canceron and rejoin the rest of their new primary colony. If anyone doesn't want to move, they wouldn't be forced to. But, there would be no guarantee of support from Canceron for a long time either.
...
The following morning Ops on the Leviathan reported to Harry that the Fleet confirmed the destruction of all known base ships and Cylon outposts and that they were now in station keeping orbit of Canceron, ready to begin surface operations to finish off any lingering Cylon presence, which there did not appear to be much of. It looked like they had abandoned any significant presence on the colonies long ago.
Next, Ops confirmed coordination with Galactica that they successfully finished finalizing fleet maneuvering plans with all ships in their fleet in regard to wormhole travel following distribution of the protocols sent by the Leviathan. They are ready to begin at 1000 hours as planned.
"Ops, have the Fleet dispatch a Destiny class to each of the other eleven colonies to begin surface operations there and to make sure we don't have any more surprises while we're focusing on Canceron. The Liberators and the remaining Destiny escorts begin surface operations on Canceron immediately. We will be there soon." said Harry.
"Yes, sir." answered Ops.
...
At 1000 Harry comm'd Galactica to let them know they were ready to begin maneuvers. Once Galactica's fleet is in position, the Leviathan will open the wormhole. Galactica will take point as per her request, the rest of her fleet will follow, and they will bring up the rear.
Aboard Galactica...
"Nice. Look at that. Did you ever imagine you would see the day where a single ship could create their own controlled singularities that ships could travel through?" mused Commander Adama.
"No sir. I'm still having a difficult time believing half the things we've seen in the past few days." answered Colonel Tigh.
"Well, let's get on with it. Signal the fleet that we will proceed as planned. Helm, take us into that wormhole, maneuvering thrusters only." ordered Commander Adama.
"Yes, sir." replied the Helm officer.
...
Two hundred and twenty-one ships later, the Leviathan emerged from the wormhole to see the Galactica fleet formed up as planned, ready to proceed to Canceron.
"Ops, signal Galactica that we ready to proceed to Canceron orbit. Take us into orbit." ordered Harry.
"Yes, sir." replied Ops and the Helm.
...
This next part was interesting and would take a while. For all the apprehension and excitement leading up to it, returning to Canceron orbit was just the next step. The entire fleet would remain in orbit for a while longer while the Leviathan deployed it's exogenesis machines to purify the environment.
Everyone in the fleet watched as all four sets of the Leviathan's bottom hangers re-opened and what emerged from it was sixty-four flat saucer-shaped obviously unmanned objects, each about one kilometer in diameter that were clearly capable of space flight and according to the Alterans, atmospheric flight, but one couldn't see how. Probably that anti-gravity nonsense they mentioned. The people in Galactica's fleet were just beginning to think that everything these people do is like magic.
The sixty-four sections of the exogenesis machine maneuvered at until in they were in orbit of the planet just within its thermosphere, and then began distributing itself into sixty-four equidistant points surrounding the planet.
Commander Adama turned to Knight-Commander Vane and asked: "We're sure that what they are doing isn't going to harm any survivors that might be down there right?"
"Yes, sir. If we were performing a complete zero-case terraform operation, yes we would worry about life on the planet. But, they are only going to use several discrete modes of the device that will purify the air, purify the waters, and either neutralize or actually collect any harmful radioactive particles or waste that is leftover, depending on the type of particle of course." answered Knight-Commander Vane.
"Good, good. Emperor Potter has explained all this, but it makes me nervous." said Commander Adama.
"Understandable, sir." replied Knight-Commander Vane.
...
Then they all saw a series of one hundred and four large satellites launch from the Leviathan and maneuver themselves into high orbit of Canceron at fifty thousand kilometers, above the geosynchronous orbital zone of the planet.
"What are they doing now?" asked Colonel Tigh.
"They are launching one of our self-healing defense and communication satellite grids." answered Knight-Commander Vane.
"This might sound like a stupid question, but beside the obvious what does it do, or I guess I should really ask what can it defend against and what other capabilities does it have?" asked Colonel Tigh.
She explained the concept of the sixty-four outer ring of satellites, the inner ring of thirty-two spares, and the eight lower ring of molecular constructor satellites that self-repair the entire grid.
"When the shield grid is activated the entire planet will be enveloped in a shield cocoon very much like the one we deployed around the Leviathan and your fleet a few days ago. Each satellite possesses one of the same heavy plasma cannons you saw the Destiny class battle-cruisers use against the Cylon base ships, but with not as much power behind it as the ship-borne weapon. They also serve as a deep-space surveillance and early warning system, and can serve as military and government grade satellite communications. Oh, they also can cloak themselves so they are hidden when not in use." answered Knight-Commander Vane.
"Merlin!" exclaimed Commander Adama.
"Who's that?" asked Colonel Tigh.
"I don't know. Something I heard some of the Alterans say when we were visiting the Leviathan the other day. I think it means the same as when we say, 'Gods' to exclaim something."
Knight-Commander Vane just burst out laughing but then quickly controlled herself.
...
The exogenesis saucers seemed to be in position because they all began to descend slowly into the atmosphere, each emitting bright flashes of light across a wide range spectrum of color of lights, just repeating in a cycle; with the rays from each craft overlapping the others, making for a very interesting light show.
It was fun to watch in the beginning, but then it would give you a headache. So, everyone went back to their duties. In particular the officers wanted to know how the surface operation was going.
Knight-Commander Vane communicated with Ops on the Leviathan and reported:
"Commander, they are suspending surface operations because they have found zero Cylon presence remaining there." she said.
"That's good news. Thank you." replied Commander Adama.
"Yes, sir." she replied.
"Do you know if they have completed full life-sign scans yet to determine if there are any other survivors?" asked Commander Adama.
She comm'd Leviathan again.
"Yes, sir. I'm sorry to report that they have found no other human life signs on the planet. They've told me that evidence left behind from the Cylon presence that used to be here is that they had a large surface operation of their own, apparently... Uhm, it appears as though they were rounding up any survivors sir." answered Knight-Commander Vane.
"I see." said Commander Adama, quietly; sharing a solemn look with Colonel Tigh and other close members of his bridge crew. "Thank you." he concluded.
...
This exogenesis operation went on for several days until the Leviathan reported that the operation was complete and a success. The Emperor recommended that they land their fleet at their convenience and they will meet them on the surface to finalize the next steps of the re-building process.
They decided to land on the outskirts of the city of Mangala, a former trading port which was the planet's third largest city, known for its fine art and museums; and for whatever reason most of its infrastructure and buildings were largely untouched in the bombings. The city residential district would be easily large enough to accommodate their fifty thousand. So, they would begin re-settling and re-building from there. There was also some former light industry so if much of that remains intact too as it appeared, they might be able to get some organic re-building processes back up and running for their own sustainability sooner rather than later.
As for the Galactica, they decided it would remain in orbit. They would just run shuttles to and from the surface and maintain a skeleton crew. To maintain their own military presence there as well as serve as the colony's initial orbital relay and anchorage point until they can begin to rebuild any shipyards of their own.
Later in the day, as all two hundred nineteen ships minus the Galactica landed in the newly designated space-port just outside the city. Having offloaded as many terrestrial transport vehicles that they still had, they began making their way to the city center.
Meeting them there was a large contingent from the Leviathan and almost everyone from the Galactica that could be spared.
Commander Adama broke down and wept for their return home and for the loss of twenty-eight billion other lives throughout the colonies. The Emperor had privately confirmed for him their findings that they detected no other human life-signs in the colonies. Perhaps their would have been soon after the initial attacks, but the Cylon's since then had been very thorough.
Captain Apollo and the rest of their family spent some time with the Commander just trying to console each other. It was a bittersweet return that was certain. But they were happy to have saved the lives of their rag-tag fugitive fleet. They were no longer fugitives. Thanks to the Alterans, they were home!
The bulk of the population was giving themselves a tour; not the least of which were the eleven thousand of the fleet's survivor's that were originally from Canceron. Even though they hadn't seen it in thirty years, they knew their way around and the portion that were from Mangala which was not many actually, were going about the business of re-claiming their homes. For that very small portion they might even scrape together a tiny resemblance of their previous lives. Or that is they might find some old belongings long ago abandoned to be of some use still. Eh, they would take any minor miracle the Gods afforded them.
When everyone in the leadership had composed themselves, Harry and his entourage met with them and they were led to the building complex that the government and the military were going to claim as their headquarters, they went in and sat down, at the moment with no power or lights. Fortunately it was still daylight. And that was the first order of business. Power, logistics, infrastructure and just getting a basic colonial life started again.
Fortunately, Harry's Fleet engineers along with their HFR support were way ahead of all of them and had already located and started banging on the right things to make them start working again. They were just waiting on approval to begin restarting power plants, testing and repairing power distribution systems, and the same for water, sewer, and some other basic services.
"Commander, Sire Uri, as I understand it you two are going to co-govern this colony as it gets started again. So, I'm coming to you with this. I have thousands of engineers and work crews already present in many of the infrastructure facilities, starting with power, water, and sewer; and they are telling me they are ready to begin turning plants back on and restoring services. They are just waiting for your permission to start." said Harry.
"Thank you Emperor Potter, I can't tell you how much we thank you. Yes, please tell your wonderful engineers we would be grateful to them to get those service restarted." answered an awe-struck, subdued, and genuinely grateful Sire Uri.
"You're welcome gentlemen. I'm glad this is all going to work out for you. I am going to get ready to leave personally, with the Leviathan. But, I am leaving your planet protected by one of our self-healing satellite defense grids. I am also leaving one Destiny class battle-cruiser in orbit and patrol of your other eleven former colony worlds while they supervise the movement and application of the exogenesis machines to clean those worlds as well. When the whole process is done I'll return to collect the exogenesis." said Harry.
"Also, in the meantime I am leaving two Liberator class Carrier-Battleships with their twelve Destiny class escorts here for your defense and to assist you with rebuilding and other logistical support you may need. Their contingent of engineers and other support staff should be more than enough to continue to assist you with your re-building work." said Harry.
"When we're all done with all twelve planets and you feel secure and if you wish us to leave and take all our military presence with us, we will with no concerns. As I said, we are not here to dominate you. But, I don't want to leave the job half-done either. In the meantime, if you wish, please ask the Captains of any of these ships to allow you to use their holodeck to learn more about our Empire and culture if you wish. And when you are ready we will discuss how we might engage in some form of real trade someday." said Harry.
"Oh, and there is something of a gift I want to give you on top of everything else, because I think this will help you bounce back. You probably wouldn't have asked assuming that it's impossible. But, as we speak the Leviathan is towing your Scorpion Fleet Shipyards, as damaged as they are, from the orbit of Scorpia to Canceron. When it gets here, the Leviathan will use its array of one hundred twenty heavy molecular construction beams to repair and rebuild your shipyards to their original specification using raw materials from the debris field of its destruction itself as materials, including the still docked wrecks of several hulks of Battlestar's, Cruisers, and Transports. I suspect you will need to go up there and do plenty of finishing work to them, but we will get the bulk of the heavy construction of the hulls fixed up and done." said Harry.
"Thank you Emperor Potter. I simply don't know what to say. You have saved us and have done everything you could to give us a leg up on re-building. We also thank you for your patience to allow us to get re-settled and think our lives through before we make any more big decisions about the future. And your protection between now and then is invaluable to us as well. So, just thank you sir, from the bottom of my heart on behalf of our people." said Commander Adama, shaking Harry's hand.
"You're welcome Commander. Good luck." concluded Harry.
A/N: