THE FARTHEST ONES FROM HOME
A Battlestar Galactica/Space Above and Beyond Crossover Story
By Robert Perkins
PROLOGUE
Long ago, many hundreds of millennia in the past, the race of humans evolved on the planet known as Kobol. Over time, they developed a great civilization on that planet, organizing themselves into thirteen nation-states which became known as the Tribes of Kobol. But a great disaster befell them, and humanity was forced to leave its ancestral home on Kobol and seek other homes among the stars.
Twelve of the tribes of humans traveled together, and discovered the Cyrannus Star System, located about 2,000 light years from Kobol, where a group of twelve habitable planets orbited the stars Helios Alpha, Helios Beta, Helios Gamma, and Helios Delta. There they settled, and gradually rebuilt their civilization. Eventually, they organized themselves into a common government, the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.
The Thirteenth Tribe, however, went its separate way, traveling in a different direction, and settled in a sector of the galaxy which was very far distant from that settled by its twelve sister tribes. Thus it was that they lost contact with the Twelve Colonies, and over time, were nearly forgotten by the people of the Colonies.
The civilization of the Twelve Colonies grew ever more advanced technologically, and eventually, their scientists developed artificial life-forms, robotic servants to perform the labors which men found dangerous or otherwise found distasteful. But these artificial servants, called Cylons, gained sentience, and rebelled against their masters. A great war, filled with many atrocities on both sides, broke out which lasted for many years. Finally, a treaty of peace, the Cimtar Accords, was agreed upon. The Cylons left the Twelve Colonies and withdrew into deep space, where, for many years, they were seldom heard from. The people of the Twelve Colonies breathed a collective sigh of relief, and considered the danger to be at an end. Peace returned, and their civilization gradually repaired the damage done by the war.
But unknown to the humans of the Twelve Colonies, the Cylons considered this peace to be a mere armistice, and used the time thus gained to rebuild their strength even greater than before. Led by a new breed of biological Cylon, who resembled humans so closely that they could successfully infiltrate human society, the former slaves plotted the ultimate downfall and extermination of their former masters.
The Cylons secured, through the efforts of one of their infiltrators, the assistance of an unwitting human traitor named Gaius Baltar, who gave this infiltrator full access to the defense computer systems of the Colonial armed forces. The infiltrator inserted a virus into those computers, which rendered the Battlestars and Vipers of the Colonial defense fleet useless, allowing them to be easily destroyed. And then, when the Colonies were completely defenseless, the Cylons brought forth their Base Stars, huge battleships which bombarded the Colonies with nuclear weapons from orbit. Billions of humans died in nuclear fire on the first day, and most of those who survived would die of radiation poisoning in the next few weeks. Cylon landing parties would hunt down those even those pitiful survivors, exterminating them without mercy. Fewer than 50,000 escaped from the holocaust, fleeing into space aboard every serviceable space vessel with Faster-than-Light (FTL) capability which survived the attack. Fortunately, one Colonial Battlestar…an antiquated relic of the First Cylon War called the GALACTICA, whose computers had not been infected by the Cylon virus…survived the Cylon attack and took this ragtag, fugitive fleet under its protection.
There was much despair among the survivors, not least because even though they had survived the Cylon genocide, there seemed very little hope for them. There was no obvious place for them to go to escape from the Cylons, and all they could look forward to was eventually being hunted down and exterminated by the pursuing Cylon fleet.
But Commander William Adama, in command of the GALACTICA, recalled the ancient legend of the Thirteenth Tribe, and the green planet called Earth on which they had settled. Although he scarcely believed in the legend himself, he and President Laura Roslin, the sole surviving member of the civilian government of the Twelve Colonies, declared that the goal of the fleet would be to find Earth and seek the aid of the long-lost Thirteenth Tribe of Humanity. Endlessly pursued by the Cylons, the Colonial Fleet wended its way across the galaxy, searching for a planet and a people who they were not even sure existed. And thus began the Exodus of the survivors of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.
The Cylon pursuit of the human refugees was hampered by the destruction, on Day 177 of the Exodus, of their Resurrection Ship, which allowed the consciousness and memories of Cylons destroyed in battle to be downloaded into new bodies, thus affording them a kind of immortality. The Cylons greatly feared the permanent death which would strike them if they were destroyed without a Resurrection Ship nearby to allow their rebirth, and they greatly scaled back their pursuit. This caused the Cylons to lose contact with the Colonial fleet.
On Day 270 of the Exodus, Lt. Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson was assigned to accompany a rescue mission to the planet Caprica. The mission, led by Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, had as its objective the rescue of human resistance fighters which were known to still be alive on that devastated world. However, the FTL jump system aboard Edmondson's Raptor malfunctioned. Instead of bringing her to Caprica, it brought her to the Lion's Head Nebula.[1]
Edmondson managed to repair the malfunction and get back to the Colonial fleet, where President Laura Roslin, who had been intently studying the ancient Scrolls of Pythia for any clue to the location of Earth, listened to her description of the nebula with interest. Roslin recognized the nebula as an important guidepost to Earth, recorded in the scrolls.
The announcement of this discovery raised new hope within the fleet, and President Roslin was able to easily defeat her opponents, Gaius Baltar (whose role in the fall of the Colonies had never been discovered, and who now argued in favor of trying to find a peaceful settlement with the Cylons) and Tom Zarek (a former political terrorist only recently released from prison, who nevertheless commanded a large following among the disaffected elements of the Colonial survivors), in the Presidential Elections which were held shortly afterward. Combined with the continued lack of contact with the Cylon fleet, President Roslin saw the discovery of the guidepost predicted by the scrolls as a vindication of her belief that the fleet should press on and try to reach Earth while the Cylons were in disarray.
For nearly four months, the fleet pressed on, gradually discovering other guideposts as described in the scrolls. Finally, on Day 387 of the Exodus, the Colonial Fleet jumped into an unknown star system.
[1] In the series as it appeared on television, the malfunction brought Edmondson to the nebula where she discovered the planet of New Caprica. Therefore, in this alternate version, New Caprica is never discovered, and no colony is ever founded there. The fleet presses on for Earth, and the train wreck which was Seasons 3 and 4 of the series never happens.
CHAPTER ONE
THE PROCYON SYSTEM, 1 JANUARY 2064 (DAY 387 OF THE EXODUS)
Lieutenant Shane Vansen, a pretty but diminutive young woman with long, auburn hair and green eyes, sat in the cockpit of her SA-43 "Hammerhead" Endo-Exo-Atmospheric Fighter, on a recon patrol in the Procyon star system with her squadron of the United States Marine Corps Space Aviator Cavalry, the 58th. The squadron was also known as the "Wildcards," and Vansen's own callsign was "Queen of Diamonds." It had been over eight months, now, since the ruthless Chig attack on the Tellus and Vesta colonies had plunged the people of the Earth into a war with a vicious and unrelenting alien foe. But, for the moment, it was quiet. The Wildcards were nearing the end of their patrol, and getting ready to return to their carrier, the U.S.S. SARATOGA, and they had encountered none of the deadly enemy fighters whose appearance had been the harbinger of death for all too many of her Marine comrades. This is a hell of a way to spend New Year's Day, she thought to herself. Bored to tears, looking at dead rocks in space.
Of course, she knew that, back home on Earth, her New Year's Day wouldn't be much better. She effectively had no family back home with which to spend the holiday. Her parents had been murdered in cold blood by A.I.s…androids, also known as Silicates…during the ten-year-long A.I. Rebellion which had ended just four years before. Since then, she and her surviving siblings had become estranged. When she had joined the Marines, none of them had shown up to say goodbye, and she had gotten precious few letters from any of them since. Who needs them, anyway?, she thought bitterly to herself. The 58th is my family now.
Vansen scanned the screen of her LIDAR [1] once more, to see if it had picked up any long-range contacts. "Nothing," she muttered to herself. She didn't know whether to be upset or overjoyed. Then suddenly, her screen lit up with dozens of contacts which seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
"Queen of Diamonds to King of Hearts," she said into her radio microphone.
"King of Hearts," said Lieutenant Nathan West, flying off her left wing. West, a strikingly handsome young man with dark hair and eyes who, after Vansen, was the best pilot among the Wildcards and had assumed the role of her second in command on their missions together, had trained to become a colonist on the Tellus colony, but had been bumped from the mission by Aerotech in favor of a Tank…an In-Vitro, an artificially gestated human, born and bred as a laborer. [2]. Like Vansen, he had come to regard his buddies in the 58th as the closest thing he had to a family. Well, other than the annoying kid brother he had left back on Earth.
West's fiancee, Kylen Celina, had also trained for the Tellus mission, and unlike West, had not been bumped. She had flown off to Tellus, leaving him behind on Earth. West, hoping to be reunited with her, had joined the Marines after learning that a Marine unit was being sent to Tellus to provide security for the colony. But then the Chigs had attacked, and West didn't know if she was alive or dead. Now, his only hope of seeing her again was that he might find her, against all odds, still alive, and rescue her.
"King of Hearts, check your LIDAR," Vansen said. "Do you see the bogies which just popped on my screen?"
"Affirmative, Queen of Diamonds," West replied. "LIDAR reads a group of sixty three bogies, about 500 MSK [3] from our position." There was a moment of silence, then West said, "Whatever they are, they're big, and they weren't there just a moment ago. Is there a wormhole in that area?"
"Negative, King of Hearts," Vansen responded. "I'd better report this to base."
"Queen Six, this is Queen of Diamonds, please respond," Vansen said. The voice of her commanding officer, Colonel T.C. McQueen, came through her headset.
"Queen of Diamonds, this is Queen Six," McQueen said. "What's your situation?"
"Queen Six," Vansen said, "A large group of bogies just appeared on LIDAR out of nowhere. One second, there's nothing, then the next second, our screens are lit up with contacts. We count approximately sixty, I say again, sixty contacts, and they appear to be large contacts. They are presently about 500 MSK from our position. Should we investigate?"
Aboard the space carrier, U.S.S. SARATOGA, Colonel McQueen, a tall, strongly built man with graying blonde hair and blue eyes, looked over at Commodore Glen Ross, who had been listening to the message as it came in. Ross, a stocky middle-aged African-American man, nodded. and McQueen answered, "Affirmative, Queen of Diamonds," McQueen said. "Determine the nature of the contacts and report."
"Affirmative, Queen Six," Vansen replied. "You heard him, Wildcards," she said to her squadron mates. "Looks like our recon ain't over just yet."
"That figures," said Lieutenant Paul Wang, a Chinese-American Marine whose call sign was "Joker." "There's a Bears game tonight on A.F.N.E. [4], and I'm gonna miss it." Wang was a dedicated Chicago sports fan. If the Cubs, the Bulls, or the Bears were playing, you could count on finding him glued to a video screen to watch, at least if the game was being carried by A.F.N.E.
Lieutenant Vanessa Damphousse, call sign "Ace of Hearts," smiled at Wang's grousing. "Too bad, so sad, Joker," she gibed. "Better luck next time." Damphousse, a pretty young African-American woman, secretly thought Wang was quite sexy, in a nerdy kind of way. But she knew she could never express that…at least, not while they were still wearing these uniforms. In combat, you spent your time watching each other's back, not admiring each other's assets. But this war wouldn't go on forever…and then, who knew?
The 58th Squadron continued on its way to the coordinates where, according to their LIDAR, the unknown contacts should be. And then, they saw them. A motley collection of large space vessels, freighters and other civilian vessels by the look of most of them. But not all of them. One of them looked very much like a military vessel, at least twice the size of the SARATOGA, shaped vaguely like a giant alligator and by all appearances, heavily armed and armored. And it was launching what appeared to be fighter aircraft as they approached.
"Holy shit," Lieutenant Cooper Hawkes, call sign "Jack of Spades," exclaimed. Hawkes, a stocky young man with an unruly shock of dark brown hair, a strong, attractive face, and brown eyes, was one of the artificially gestated humans known as In-Vitros. He had taken a while to bond with the rest of the 58th. In-Vitros…or "Tanks" as they were derisively called by "natural born" humans…had no family, and usually had difficulty forming friendships. But the crucible of combat had forged a relationship between him and the rest of his squadron-mates that went beyond friendship…indeed, beyond family. He would trust any of them with his life…and had on many occasions. "Those aren't Chig fighters," he continued. "Who the hell are they?"
"Unknown, Jack of Spades," Vansen said. Just then, to Vansen's surprise, a human voice came over her headset…one she did not recognize.
"Alien spacecraft," the female voice said, "You are approaching the Colonial Battlestar Galactica. Identify yourselves immediately."
Vansen was amazed to hear the voice speak in the English language. They must have some sort of translation device, she thought to herself.
"We were going to ask the same of you," Vansen said. "But we'll go first. This is Lieutenant Shane Vansen, 58th Space Aviator Cavalry Squadron, United States Marine Corps."
"United States Marine Corps?," the voice asked. "What planet are you from?" By now the alien fighters were getting very close. She could easily make out their odd, triangular profile.
"The planet Earth," Vansen replied. She heard a burst of excited chatter through her headset, evidently the voices of the other alien pilots, or maybe even people on the larger ships, she couldn't tell.
The female voice came back on, this time somewhat shaky. "Please confirm…did you say Earth?"
"Affirmative," Vansen said. "Who are you?"
In the cockpit of her Viper, Captain Kara Thrace was grinning broadly as she watched the alien fighters get closer and closer. "Family," she said in reply. "Family, come from far away."
NOTES
[1] LIDAR…Laser Infared Detection and Ranging.
[2] Tank…An In-Vitro, an artificially gestated human, so called because they are grown in gestation tanks.
[3] MSK…Mega Statute Kilometers.
[4] A.F.N.E…Armed Forces News and Entertainment.
