Baltar stood trembling in the dark. They had shown him the battle with Galactica, doomed, but valiant. Cree had been strapped to a metal gurney in a low amphitheater, as the battle played out above. Acenturion with a haunting visage had waited beside her with a surgical saw.
They had no questions, only expectations. He had told them what he knew, and then he had told them what he supposed, what he suspected, and then finally what he believed.
The Galactica emerged implausibly from the wreckage of the ship they had destroyed. Gaius flinched, anticipating repercussions.
"They can't jump again now." He had told them. "They won't escape." The cylon scout ship burned. Two more had approached and Galactica had jumped to a new position.
"But that's…" he sputtered, "they can only jump every-" Cree screamed.
"They've two coils!" He shouted desperately, "They were never intended to be used seperately but the Cylons… yes that's it the Cylons are more advanced, they must found some way, must have jumped with one at greatly reduced range, then they used the other!" He gathered himself, "Your shields, they must have overwhelmed them all at once because they were so close, but now they are trapped, and you have the advantage!"
An explosion blossomed between the two ships, then another, and another. Shields flaring the two new scouts waded on. Three more scouts appeared behind them as they fell behind. Cree screamed again, long and agonized.
"I don't know, they didn't launch-" Baltar wracked his brain, "they must have set traps, stealth mines of some sort, sweep the space between you!"
Energy weapons lanced out and strobed through space. A number of small explosions began to herald the death of colonial mines. More flashes appeared suddenly as the three ships passed where the mines had once been. More flashes.
"They're using FTL mines at prearranged coordinates!" Baltar shouted frantically before Cree could scream again. "If you're going to attack them you have to attack their fixed installations, force them to defend!"
There was silence. Then a voice spoke.
"Sedate the subject and reattach it's limbs." The voice ordered, "Reward the prisoner."
"No!" Baltar screamed as a trio of androids with decidedly female shapes approached, "No, not again, I'll have no part of it, it's unconscionable-" One of the robots exhaled on him a thick cloud of pungent vapor "No I.." He stammered a sigh escaping, "I can't…" As he began to go limp, the androids supported him. "No it's all drugs." He whispered, "This can't be real" The synthetic hands on him were soothing, and he shuddered with revulsion mumbling, "it's not me any more… it's not me"
"And who the frack are you supposed to be." A blond haired woman in a colonial uniform snarled. Battered and bruised, she was, but her sidearm was out and in the face of the man courched in front of her airlock. She stood one leg braced atop the fallen Battlestar as though claiming it.
A vast artificial island, the wind was blustery all around them in the middle of the sea, and though the fires had evidently stopped, the ship smelled rank. The blackened gritty hull they stood on rose like an island out of the sea stretched off towards distant hillsides which themselves bore the scars of the ships passage.
The man slowly rising before her wore a rugged dark blue jacket and a large black hat, but she recognized the badge pinned to his chest. She gestured at his badge "Starfleet jewelry, but you're no Starfleet. Who are you?"
"Darlin'," the man drawled, he turned slowly and somehow even raising his hands looked like a threat, "I'm the last man you should ever point a gun at, without pulling the trigger."
Cain shrugged and steadied her aim, finger tightening
"I'd rather you didn't.." A voice ordered and she caught a weapon out of the corner of her eye. "Please." The newcomer added. "We're here to help."
"Classic ambush." She growled locking eyes with the man before her. "Stand down, my people have eyes on you. I saw your trap coming a mile away."
"Uh," the man in front of her answered, "No you didn't sweetie, our egghead scanned for life signs."
"Egghead?" Sylvester demanded, "I'm in security too, I just learned how to use-"
"Sylvester shut your goddamn-" The man began lowering his hands
"Belay that crewman." The man beside her snapped. He dropped his phaser down. "But he's right, we scanned the area. We know you have people trapped below, we're here to help." He raised his hands, but pointed at her forehead. "You've been hurt." Cain looked at the man before her and the at the man beside her. Sighing she dropped her gun.
'You look like Starfleet." She told him, "but without the pajamas."
"I have no idea what that means." The man told her, "But you're right we're Starfleet." He holstered his phaser. "I'm Captain James T Kirk, starship Monroe, Crewman Delos and this here's Sylvester. "
"I am Commander Helena Cain." She replied unmoving, "Of the Battlestar Pegasus."
"We picked up your distress call. We're treating some of your people on our ship." He gestured the door before them. "We're picking up sporadic life signs but we couldn't find a way in."
"Until we spotted your little plane." Delos told her.
"Well the dorsal hull is underwater, and most of the ventral hull was fused by our re-entry before the ship clipped that, and flipped over." Cain gestured belatedly at an obviously devestated cliffside on the horizon, and the back at the oddly textured hull beneath them. Though it was covered with grit and grime the surface had irregular mounds which were easy to stumble on. Kirk noted that though cooled enough to walk on now, the metal had indeed been super heated at some point. "I managed to make it to a hanger bay and find a working raptor two days ago but we were attacked when we broke the surface and tried to establish a base camp for rescue."
"Do you know by whom?" Kirk asked Cain shook her head.
"The toasters went after whomever it was." She told him, "whoever it was kicked their ass harder than ours, in orbit, but they had more forces on the ground."
"I don't know what a 'toaster' is, but there's no sign of your attackers now." Kirk pointed at the airlock. "Saavik told me there's a lot of radiation coming from in there, we've got to get them out."
"Can't you just whisk them away with your fancy transporters?" Cain demanded, Kirk shook his head.
"Too much interference." He told her, "But we have equipment to relay sensor scans and to boost a transporter signal." He had his phaser out, "We'd better get started." He gestured Sylvester over, and traded the man's boxy device for his phaser. "Setting six, you see, narrow aperture, aim for those latches there."
Cain watched him suspiciously. "Who did you rescue?" She asked. "Did they say anything…"
Cain trailed off as Delos stepped away from the door as the other man cautiously extended the weapon, and then to her surprise, watched him cuff the man and indicate a two handed grip. A moment later they began. Kirk grimaced and turned to her.
"A civillians government representative and an officer who had been commanding one of the light cruisers above. My first officer is debriefing them now, aboard our ship." He explained. He glanced at the device. "Thought that might be a concussion but, you seem alright enough, do you want our doctor to give you a once over?"
"I'm fine, Captain, right now, we need to get those people off that ship, and I can lead you them"
Kirk eyed her appraisingly, and said "Then as they say, 'Lay on Macduff.'"
. *. *.
"Raven, in here, watch your step." Bellamy called. Yar had a tricorder out and was scanning. Reyes entered a partially collapsed chamber, with a slanted floor, carrying a lantern. Broken statues surrounded them. "It looks like the levels above and below this one have partially collapsed, but it's stable enough for now."
"Twelve sarcophagi, 12 zodiac." She commented. Yar turned, "The ancient people of Earth thought that the align of the stars predicted their destiny, they used these shapes to identify them." She said, pointing "Pisces the fish, Capricorn the goat, Sagittarius the hunter…" she started looking around.
"There are signs of forced entry outside, but they are very old." Yar stated, "Someone blasted their way in here a long time ago."
"The writing on the outer face said something like 'here stands the tomb of Athena" Raven said, "The writing is a derivative of several ancient earth languages."
"It looked a lot like Grounder." Bellamy said,
"Trigedasleng." Raven corrected, "A pigeon language more or less invented by Callie Cadogan, that we encountered when we first returned to Earth after the first nuclear appcalypse," she explained to Yar, "it was based on Latin and over time it integrated a lot of common phrases and symbols from American English on Earth." She peered at the symbol inscribed on one sarcophagus. "It's similar alright, but given that it would have been something like eight centuries after the last grounders ascended, I can't imagine how it could have ended up here."
"What if our people ended up here?" Bellamy asked, "have t we gone in the same general direction of Clark's ship?"
"We're around 70 light years from Earth." Raven answered, "From the Elegius system, maybe a little less. It's possible she made it, sure, and the planet is obviously more Earth like than anything we've see-" she paused, "actually it's very Earth like, those looked like pine trees outside."
"Elegius III had seed vaults." Bellamy pointed out.
"People were killed outside defending this chamber, or trying to get to it." Yar reminded them. "And we don't know exactly what attacked them.
"She's right, this is a search and rescue.' Bellamy said, he gestured to some gear piled in a corner and some toppled stakes and string, "There was some kind of grid in this room, not long ago, but someone tore through it in a hurry. This Sarcophagus has been moved." He gestured to the goat, "and then closed from within." He pointed at a pile of charred, melted metal in the corner, "That looks like it tried to get in, m" He swung his light up at the ceiling, "and maybe something else took a shot or two at something up there, causing a cave in." His light revealed some kind of torn conduit pulled down from the wall, "and that… doesn't look like it belongs in an ancient tomb."
Raven pointed her tricorder.
"Obviously a power conduit" she observed, Yar bosses, "with signs of recent current.. " she frowned, "plasma, maybe? Looks like it was shut off at the source after some damage or eruption."
"These things." Bellamy kicked at a pile of dark rocks littering the floor, "Plasma chunks under pressure shower out when the conduit is ruptured, we use the same tech on the Monroe, we just trained on this for damage control stations." He looked at Yar, she nodded.
"A dumb robot opened fire in a cave." Raven concluded, "and the cave exploded."
"There was blood on the goat sarcaphogi and this." Bellamy held up a broken arrow, "Might have been a key of some kind but it was broken off. Whoever left the blood doesn't seem to be around. I'm hoping there's another way in, to an area that hasn't collapsed."
"Preferably one that isn't booby trapped." Reyes commented, "Yeah, I'm getting sporadic readings here, hard to tell but there may be several more levels here, anywhere from two or three, to maybe a dozen, and if that conduit self sealed," she glanced up, "Then there is probably still power."
.*.*.
"I got it." Raven stood suddenly. Dusk was falling in the tomb and Yar had just checked in with Monroe. "It's a riddle. You found the arrow, for Sagittarius, the hunter, there are twelve tombs. If we assume 12 figures, 12 zodiac, then each figure would have some kind of corresponding totem. an arrow for hunter, maybe a sword for the warrior, a.. see that missing horn for the goat?"
"I thought that was just broken, but you're right…" Bellamy commented, "a key for each tomb? Where do we find another key?"
"The fish." Raven said, "How is a fish going to use a key anyway, it has fins. What would a fish use as a key?"
"Uh . Water?" Bellamy asked. Raven shook her head.
"The fish swims in water, absorb dissolved oxygen, they release CO2." Raven said as she knelt before the statue of the fish, "looks mostly intact.." she brushed debris off and peered through a tiny hole in it's mouth.
"Do you two want to be alone?" Bellamy asked, Raven glared up at him.
"Breathing on it should be enough." She told him, "This side of the room is intact, but you and Tasha better join me, in case things start to shift."
"Mogh and Maltz are keeping watch from the shuttle." Tasha told them as she drew her phaser, Bellamy drew his as well, "watch for any defenses."
"Alright then here goes nothing." Raven told them, she breathed onto the fish." The. Chamber shook, and she squinted her eyes at a sudden light.
.*. *.
"More sarcophagi?" Yar asked as they entered a dimly lit chamber.
"Not over here, these are cryo pods." Raven said, moving to investigate. In the gloom four lights illuminated four pillars. Around the perimeter lights were coming up. The cylinders were embedded in the wall but very obviously still functioning. Faces were visible within.
"Gaia? Hope?" Bellamy breathed, "Jordan?" The fourth pod took his breath "Echo?"
Yar scanned the room with her eyes, scrutinizing the carved stone faces on the far side, constructed in immigration of those beside Raven. She counted four on either side, including the pods, two by the door, and then two more behind a metal chair in the center. She thought she saw something in the chair but Suddenlink the lights came on fully and a figure materialized
"They didn't want to stay, and build."
"Phasers!" Yar shouted
They whirled to stare at what Yar had seen. Bellamy had his phaser out but froze as he recognized what he was seeing. An elderly woman had appeared behind them, seemingly seated on a comfortable chair overlooking the chamber. Yar noted cushions had appeared on the chair as well. The room had something of a regal air to it, with the woman in the raised chair overlooking a row of cryo chambers on one side and stone sarcophagi on the other. "Gaia started it. She knew Raven carried the flame and she couldn't abandon her. Indra dedicated herself to guarding this chamber. Hope believed Octavia would arrive some day, and Jordan didn't want to leave her side, and Echo.. Echo refused to get up at all, so we moved enough pods down here to wait it out, and built a bunker to outlast even the Second Dawn's."
"Clarke?" Bellamy exclaimed, something in Yar's heart broke at the emotion in his voice.
"Hologram" Yar told him, her voice somehow hoarse. She didn't want to interrupt the moment, but she couldn't bear to let him believe.
"A little more, a little less." The woman corrected. To Yar's surprise, she looked at her, "An afterimage of the friend they knew, and programmed to draw on her memories."
"I knew it!" Raven exclaimed, "The symbol on the passage outside, the one for eternity." She touched the back of her neck, "the one for Becca."
"Are you a mind drive?" Bellamy asked, then his face fell "You're an AI, like the flame?" Clark nodded.
"I lived a long life, Bellamy." She told him, "And I died, without wanting for more. I found someone, we had a family, though I always kept Madi in my heart, with the rest of you too. This is just an afterimage I left as guardian for our friends"
Bellamy laughed.
"Clark never could delegate." He said wryly, "always had to do it herself." The hologram grinned.
"There are other messages and several other situations for which I was programmed, but Clark knew that anyone seeking this tomb would likely need a mind capable of understanding unique situations, and developing solutions. I was originally designed to provide intelligent medical intervention to preserve and sustain life. I only ever dreamed you might find this, but I didn't want that for you, because it would mean we never meet again." She sighed. She saw Raven move to Bellamy weeping. "If I were here in the flesh I don't think I could bear the thought at all."
Yar holstered her phaser.
"I suppose I can assume we are safe." She stated. Clark nodded.
"I can protect you, at least, for now, and I have cared for the others, that came before you." She told the woman. "I watch this facility, and my friends." She nodded to the cryo chambers.
"What would have happened to them if we hadn't come?" Raven asked, still embracing Bellamy, she dried her eyes "Would you have awakened them, eventually?"
"Only when this facility was either in danger of failing or dangerously compromised." Clark replied. "I nearly woke them a few days ago, but the facility held."
"What is this place?" Yar asked.
"It is called the Automated Terminal Health Extension Network Annex." Clark replied. She tapped her head, "The idea sprang from my head in the early days."
"Ha Ha. A.T.H.E.N.A. very funny Clark." Bellamy sniffled. Hugging Raven he gathered himself. Releasing her, he moved to Echo's pod, "Clark, is she alive? Can we revive her?"
Clark nodded.
"Her vitals are stable, slowed to nonexistence." She told Bellamy, "Though it may be a rough revival, no one has ever been in cryo this long ever."
"Better wait for the ship." Yar advised, "We'll want Sickbay standing by." Bellamy nodded and with a sigh he tore his gaze away. He said, "So you made it here after all, and you built something."
Clark smiled.
"We all did." She said wistfully, "and for a time it was beautiful. Elegius III took up a geosynchronous orbit, and we deployed the Galleon ships to establish a settlement on the surface. Not only was it habitable here, it was compatible, an ecosystem a bit more primitive perhaps but all the right ingredients to start a new. It had a thinner atmosphere and is a bit more chilly. Murphy called it the "cold ball" for the first few years and the name stuck, even after the trees came in, and the climate warmed."
"Excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt again, but we still have people to locate and potential hostiles in the area."
Yar interjected. "Do you have capabilities beyond this facility? Can you locate survivors?"
"Some." Clark admitted, "but I wasn't meant to maintain them," She frowned, "Someone put me on standby, I was only re-activated by the arrow of apollo. My capabilities degraded over time. Elegius is long gone and most of the remaining installations here are no longer operational."
"Excuse me again. Can you confirm whether or not there are any survivors here?" Yar pressed. Clarke nodded.
"There are four that shelter in another part of this complex." Clark told Yar, "but the temple above and it's passageways were added after I was put in standby."
"Then I have to report in." Yar decided interrupting, "and if there are survivors here, I think we should bring them back to the ship for examination by our doctors- no offense." She added. Clark nodded. "Blake you and Reyes continue this, but try to speed it up, we need to focus on current events."
"Understood." Blake told her, and she exited the chamber. "You'll have to forgive her. She's been through hell, even for us. Her husband is up on our ship and I think she wants to check in on him."
"We should probably find a way to transport these pods back to the ship as well." Raven told Clark, "they've got technology light years beyond our own up there, and as reliable as cryo has been, we are definitely into the theoretical range at this point." Clark nodded. "But continue the story, I think we need to know more about what happened here. What did you mean by 'after the trees' Clark, growing trees would take decades."
"Nearly a century." Clark confirmed, "but we had cryo sleep, so we took a lot of "naps" and the hosts hardly even needed that. They created a sort of virtual network among themselves apart from the sublime, which let them pass the time easily while we slept and the world turned below. Bernard was able to upgrade some of the remaining hosts, to house people with skills that we needed, and they became something of a bridge between the fully artificial hosts and the fully organic humans, but what really brought us together was the work of rebuilding a civilization. We were at last able to establish the first permanent settlement, then a second." She shrugged, "nearly 130,000 embryos to revive, and raise and educate, we didn't want to put all our eggs in one basket, not again, and with a population that size, we broke into groups. The hosts became teachers, partners, and parents. I think, for the original ones it let them see the side of humanity they'd never encountered, and for those who has once been human, it gave them something real to hold on to."
. *. *.
"Acknowledged Lieutenant." Ro replied to Yar over the communicator. "The Captain is at the main crash site with the Galileo and Copernicus standing by. Communications are spotty in your area. Smithee has bridge experience, and Ms. Blake looks like she's ready to jump out of her chair, so I'll call her up for relief, and set Blake free. I don't think we can spare a medic, to deal with your casualties or those cryo pods, the captain indicates there may be hundreds trapped in the wreck he is inspecting."
Yar was unhappy about that, but understood. "Acknowledged Monroe, Crewman Blake and Ensign Reyes seemed to recognize the language down here, Ensign Blake may as well. How many personell do we have in the field?" Ro paused for a moment.
"The Captain has seven, including the shuttles." She stated, "you're three and we have a detail at the entrance. Fourteen once transport is complete."
"Almost a third of the crew." Yar repeated. "Two survivors recovered so far?"
"Confirmed, with several sites left to check and sporadic life signs coming from the hulk. Survivors report it originally had a crew of two thousand. The Captain is focusing our efforts there, but the site is potentially hostile."
Yar nodded to herself. "The wreck outside looks military and the casualties inside were armed, not like it did them much good. Blake and Reyes can take care of themselves, but I will proceed cautiously. Reccommend computer lockout on all unused terminals in Sickbay, and that patients remain under supervision at all times, there's no way we can evacuate hundreds of people securely with a crew of 56, but this complex seems fairly intact and it seems to have medical facilities, I see my team has arrived, so I'll try to locate the survivors and do a better assessment."
"Understood Lieutenant, Monroe out."
"Reporting as ordered Lieutenant." Blake announced. Yar noted she had a knife, a sword a gun and a phaser, as well as the field jacket they all wore. The man following anxiously behind her carried a phaser, a med kit and was trying to juggle a tricorder while stashing a flashlight.
"Crewman?" She asked
"Felix Lutz sir… ma'am." Yar nodded.
"Ma'am is fine Crewman." Yar replied, "but I was told there were no med techs available."
"Well I'm… more of an engineer I guess," He explained, "But I maintained the hosts at the park, and have begun training in Sickbay, Commander Saavik sent me because I'm.." he hesitated.
"Human." Blake told him. Yar nodded and turned.
"Crewman Blake, and Ensign Reyes are in the first chamber. There are four individuals that you are acquainted with, in cryo suspension, Ms. Blake and a Hologram of you old friend Clark, but before you check in there, we need to finish locating survivors and assess the rest of this facility."
"It's like a bunker." Blake observed. Lutz figured out what he was doing with his things and had his tricorder out scanning, as did Yar. "This corrider spirals down…"
"There are maybe seven more, the same, like.. like an octahelix." Said Lutz as he scanned, "Whatever is blocking sensors seems to be in the debris from above, I'm getting much better readings here…"
"The structure above appears to have been added much later." Yar told them. "I can't imagine this was originally designed to be so difficult to access, it's clean.. it's simple, the chamber above was like a.. temple."
"Someone came along and made the place all cryptic and mysterious." Octavia said. "You think they just added four more statues so it would fit the twelve zodiacs theme?"
"That's a lot of effort to engineer something like that." Lutz said, "The chamber above was originally like a sort of dome made of exotic minerals, but abandoned so long it became overgrown, it looked like just a hill but in it's day, this must have been an impressive structure, just rearrange some statues?"
"For the signs to even be here, I mean.. we're halfway across the galaxy, those stars aren't even constellations here." Blake pointed out.
Lutz examined the map his tricorder was completing. "The octa helix, beneath, is an entirely different design, it makes up a spiral drill shape, narrowed to a dense point beneath the lower chamber, and it almost looks almost like the corridors could have been extruded by some kind of giant printer, with flattened spherical chambers making up the interior, then maybe these outer chambers added later once the main structure was complete. It would be solid, but flexible, and not too difficult with the right set up…"
"Like the Elegius 3 orbital fabricator?" Octavia asked, "maybe they build this thing in space and dropped it down in a soin?" Lutz was nodding.
"Originally it would have been an ideal site for hydropics, housing, maybe even terra forming." Lutz said. "Obviously they understood the engineering mechanics of it, and if they could do it safely, it would have given them a hell of a start making this place a little more homey."
"You gotta get the engineering down before you add the secret doors and laser statues." Octavia mused, "you can't have the plumbers standing around when the priests all come to redecorate…"
Yar had stopped and pulled her phaser, "So this should be where it intersects the other one they opened."
"The blood was on the Virgo sarcaphogas." Yar noted, "Raven guessed it might take two people to open somehow, and she has theories about some of the other statues, but we suspected whomever snapped off the arrow deliberately set off a trap to catch their pursuers and then collapsed that side of the structure to block their path. We're about three levels down now and my readings suggest it's stable." She raised her phaser and fired.
. *. *.
"There's a massive shaft just beyond, the final chamber and a lot of structural damage, I don't think we can get any further without days of work." Sylvester said looking at his tricorder. Delos was inside, shining a flashlight down."
"It's just the portside vental cannon shaft." Cain told them. "It runs a third of the way through the ship, if we can get some flight suits we can navigate it to the loading bay. The outer corridors are mostly wrecked, we'll never get through them in less than a week. The ship's leaning at a 50 degree angle but it's the cleanest way down."
"It's also full of water. Even if we got in, we'd never get anyone out this way." Delos said in disgust, "This ship is a beast."
"Kirk to Monroe." Cain turned, Kirk was down the corrider at the entrance. "We've encountered the surviving Commander of the crashed ship." Kirk reported, he looked out at the sky in thought, "She's helped us find a way in but it's blocked. I think I'm going to need a several hundred meters of cable, a communicator, and a tricorder in… a jar of La'as.." he trailed off as Delos exchanged a look with Sylvester, and both nodded and shrugged encouragingly, "...if you catch my drift."
"Monroe here, stand by." Saavik's voice responded.
"A jar of La'as?" Cain asked, Delos looked amused, "what's that?"
"Just something we can use to improve our scans of the inside." Kirk said, feeling a bit foolish, "especially in potential first contact situations."
"They've been trapped there for days, how long.." Cain began and then the ground before her shimmered. A large jar with an amber liquid had appeared, with the requested equipment floating inside, and a rope beside. Kirk hefted it, and cracked the lid. He moved forward to join Delos who stood near the thick hole. Tying the cable around the jar, while Delos secure the other to a nearby console hanging from the "ceiling." Kirk rolled the jar down the tube and heard a splash.
"How's it going to keep rolling, is it weighted,?" Cain asked, still not understanding.
"Let's just say that it has… unique properties." Kirk told her.
. *. *.
"After the first 12 settlements were established, and trading Delores and Teddy lead many of their people to settle the plains on the far side of the largest continent." Clarke continued, "It was still more rustic, quiet, with the winds still carrying seeds and animals still finding their ways. Here we had built today, and canals, and cities were on the way. We had begun to establish something of a culture and they didn't want to lose what came before. The children of our children's children had grown up with the stories of how A.L.I.E. had triggered the first apocalypse, and how she was the reason for the generation lost. They have begun to feel very strongly that a connection between a society and its world is very important and felt that technology can get in the way of that. They named their country Ophiuchus."
"That's like a parody of the 12 Zodiac signs." Raven noted, "I bet Murphy liked that."
"The 12 city states became at odds with Ophiuchi. We were busy with things here but we were getting word back that the 13th tribe was starting to host a debate." Clarke said. "Bernard wanted to bring back all of the humans who were stored in the sublime, all of their memories, and personalities. Dolores and Teddy and most of the other hosts were against that, but they needed him to build new bodies and repair the old ones. Delores felt that unique board should be conceived and programmed by hosts. After so much time spent raising human embryos, I think she just wanted to become a mother, but the other colonies feared an immortal race of titans. They limited their opposition at first to trade embargos, and sanctions. Teddy wanted everyone to get along and keep things simple, and for a time, they seemed to. He seemed to enjoy exploring the most and would often travel back and forth between here and Ophiuchus."
"Hang on, I barely met them, but I thought there was something going on between Teddy and Delores." Bellamy protested, "They seemed almost made for each other, was there something going on between Delores and Bernard?"
"Nothing good." Clark replied, "to your earlier point, Teddy and Delores very much were made for each other, and we're programmed to that effect, but what is the nature of sentience, if not to question one's programming? They needed distance from each other frequently, to make reunion all the sweeter, and Bernard.. he had a very complex relationship with Delores, to say the least."
"So this was all building to a confrontation." Raven predicted. Clark nodded.
"I believe what follows next will begin to shed some light on the people you have encountered here." Clark stated. "Bernard brought back a man named Ford." Clarke continued, her tone disapproving. " We had agreed in the beginning that a few people, and hosts, were better off left in the sublime. He's almost a religious figure among the Ophichions, and he's dangerous. Ford had been living as something of a God inside the sublime for centuries. With the memories of one of the original creators of the hosts, he knew a lot, not just about how to build them, but to control them, even when they carried the minds of former humans. He viewed humanity and hosts alike, as his flock, and he was not a compassionate shepherd."
. *. *.
"Hello?" Yar called cautiously, as they moved down the corrider. Though identical in structure to the other, the lights in this corrider flickered. Yar noted that there were more side chambers in this section than the other, as well. They had examined the first two
"For some reason, that sounds like A.L.I.E." Blake told Raven.
"Ford was able to help Bernard fully recreate the technology to build and maintain hosts, and having already had something of a cult following among the original hosts his popularity grew with every human resurrected,but Delores and Teddy did not like him at all. Tensions between their city and the 12 colonial nations were at a boiling point when the 13th tribe broke into civil war. Ford's faction was been defeated." Clarke said wearily,
"They fought the war themselves to spare our children, and the survivors decided that it was best just to leave. They took one of the scout ships from the Elegius and plan to return to Earth. The journey would take them hundreds of years, and I didn't think it would solve anything. Someday, the 13 tribes would just meet again and begin the cycle again. Bernard thought that if the 13th tribe could become mortal, that they wouldn't fear or be feared. I'd been feeling pretty mortal myself lately. I'd taken a few more "naps" but we'd raised all the children of Elegius my own children and even grand children had children. I saw a thriving world. I saw the still young faces of my friends and sometimes I wished I had stayed with them." She smiled sadly. For those of us who walked the road, we began at least to reach it's end. Indra began to succumb to the ravages of time," she gestured to the stone guardians at either sides of the door, "She decided to dedicate her last few days to guarding the others. Miller passed, Niyah left me next, then Clark herself," She looked over shoulder at the four statues behind her, confused, "but there were still-" the hologram disappeared abruptly.
An ancient man appears, sitting on the dias. The cushions were discolored and tattered.
"We interrupt this broadcast."
He wheezed, " for the last cockroach standing." He wheezed slowly.
Raven stared, but Bellamy said it.
"Murphy?"
"No this one is just a recording dumbass, but I know you asked, whoever you are." The hologram said slowly. "Have to turn the lights off, I suppose, so I recorded my own message. Somehow Indra outlived all of them, she stayed to watch the lighthouse, she just never thought I'd come back." He held something in his hand.
"There's no more Nightblood out there any more, not after Clarke's pod failed. I assume she passed peacefully." He coughed. "Tough luck for me and Emori I suppose. I guess we should have taken Ford up on his offer to make us immortal bodies." He stared absently for a long moment. "Anyway, I watched Clark's logs, for nostalgia. I spoke to her ghost too." He wheezed softly and Bellamy realized he was trying to laugh.
"They had a good run here, the 12 colonies of humanity. We lived among them, we watched them grow. This facility was able to make clones. Not much good to the original unless.." weakly Murphy tapped his own neck.
"We were here in the beginning after all, founded the mighty Cancerons." He made a claw gesture with his ancient fingers and painfully closed his fingers into a pincer. He shook his head. "After a while they all forgot who we were, and we had our own way in, anyway. generations passed and all that. This was the site of their first temple but they built bigger ones, and they moved out and they forgot what all this was for. I guess Clark and Indra only came down the mountain every few dozen years the older they got, so they missed the end. The 12 tribes discovered war and they fought with each other and they killed each other and they forgave each other. Over and over and over continuing the cycle as humans do. Then they found the remains of the 13th tribe. They woke Him back up. Bernard thought he got rid of Ford but of course Ford had a backup somewhere and of course these kids found it. He took a page from A.L.I.E.'s book and set off all their nukes. Emori couldn't just let them all suffer, And she died leading them to the "rediscovery" of the Galleon ships down in the valley. They're lucky the hanger survived. I think the last group is heading up to the Elegius and striking off for 'the promised land' " He sighed.
Bellamy looked at Raven and started to say something but the hologram continued,
"Clark would have gone with them or something I'm sure. Lead them all out of their moment of darkness. Me, I just don't care. The only person I really cared about in this whole universe is right here in my hand." He held a small disk up. "Since there's no way I'm going to be able to make more night blood or a magical host body or any of that nonsense I'm just going to put her here with the others and hope someday when they wake up… if they wake up, They can help her and she'll want to be helped." The figure seemed to run out of breath and hunched over suddenly clutching something in it's hands. The light collapsed downward into a pile of dust. Where the hands had fallen, a tarnished disc lay.
"No way." Bellamy said in disbelief, but Raven was moving forward, her tricorder out.
"Way." She said, as she scanned the disc. She looked at Bellamy, "It's meant to run on a bioelectrical interface but the mind drives were meant to be black boxes for the Elegius 3 mission. It's intact and undamaged, it should still work." Her tricorder beeped. "No way." She breathed. Bellamy elbowed her. She gestured to the pile of dust. "There's another one too. Dry air, cool climate.. a body might last.. like a hundred years, well preserved..?" She gestured to the dust covering the dais. "You want to reach into that pile of Murphy for me, and retrieve what's left of Murphy?"
.*.*.
"That's it, we've got a lock." Sylvester announced. "
"Signal confirmed, landing party." Ro's voice confirmed. "Captain, Commander Marcus has assembled a relief team and is preparing to beam down to oversee recovery operations, and she's recommending Maltz join her. Connecting to the wreck's internal systems will enhance our scanning capabilities and help us map the wreck but with all the structural damage she wants to oversee placement of pattern enhancers personally."
"What shift change already?" Delos asked drolly, "When we're just getting started?"
"One thing at a time." Kirk replied tiredly, they had erected flood lights around the side of the airlock. "We've got to access their comms system to let them know we are coming." He glanced at the form of Commander Cain. "Plus we've a few things to brief her on."
"Acknowledged landing party." Ro replied. "We'll beam you back up on your signal." Kirk grimaced.
"They're a little over protective." He said conversationally to Cain. He approached her casually. "I'm sure you get that a lot." She said nothing, "From your own crew." She remained silent.
"I take it your work here is done?" He asked, she looked up warily, "we've found our way into the ship, we've located a way to communicate with survivors, we should be able to begin beaming them out soon so.. Was there anything else you'd like us to do before you depart?"
"Captain?" Sylvester said slowly, uncertainly.
"Was there even a Commander Cain?" Delos asked. He crossed his arms. Kirk looked pointedly at Cain.
"You've known all along." Cain said. Kirk nodded.
"But not why." He said. He gestured to the Raptor. " That kind of craft isn't designed to operate under water. At best you flew it from one of the other survey sites, and then you lied. Why. What do you need from this crew?"
"Answers." She replied, "an artifact the recovered. His other servants couldn't pull it off so he made me do it." She sighed, "We thought maybe I remembered enough to pull it off, but too much has changed."
"Who made you do it." Kirk demanded, he grabbed her shoulders, "are you some kind of prisoner?"
"We're all prisoners of the Caretaker of time." The woman before him said, "and his name is legend passed on by others." She shrugged off Kirk's touch.
"Never cared much for it before but it was good to be in uniform again, if just for a bit." A quarter of shimmering colums appeared, heralding the arrival of Marcus and her team. She stood with Octavia, Castille, and one of the first two rescuers. The last gawked at their guest.
"Starbuck?" She demanded, "What the Frack are you doing here?"
"GUN!" Delos shouted, raising his phaser but as Kirk stumbled back on the slippery surface of the deck, the woman who had once been named Starbuck put her gun to her head.
"Escaping." She said, but suddenly she was encased in a column of light. She had enough time to scream before she vanished.
"Kirk to Monroe, Raise Shields and go to red alert!" Kirk shouted.
. *. *.
"Commander we've got three new contacts, big ones, they just appeared in orbit." Ro announced from the tactical station as Kirk erupted from the turbo lift. Saavik vacated his chair as he approached and a young man Kirk didn't recognize stumbled out of her way. Castille had taken the helm. "Away teams at the facility are still on the surface, we couldn't get a lock before we had to raise shields."
"La'as is inside the wreck, Delos has taken up position just inside with Major Shaw at the transport relays," Kirk informed her, "Have our other teams return to surface positions and prepare for beaming." He eyed the three massive vessels glowering at them. "That middle one looks something like the wreck down below."
"Captain, those aren't the ones who attacked us." The young man spoke up. Kirk glanced at him. Saavik intervened.
"He is correct Captain, shortly after you beamed aboard we detected a ship leaving orbit at moderately high warp." Kirk was somewhat mollified. He turned to the man.
"And you are?" He asked
"B- William Keikeya.." the man stammered slightly. "Presidential aid to the Roslin administration assigned to the Pegasus expeditionary force. Captain, those are colonial battlestars, reinforcements-
" Kirk put a calming hand on the man's forearm to stop him.
"Captain those ships are launching support craft." Ro warned.
"An understatement, Lieutenant." Kirk murmured as the three ships seemed to erupt with craft. Dozens of needle nosed fighter crafter hurdled from the sides of the three ships while more of the craft they had found in the surface launched from the flight pods. He turned to Keikeya "Do your people have beaming technology?" He asked. Billy shook his head. "I just saw a woman claiming to be Helena Cain try to shoot herself before she was beamed away. Major Shaw called her..." He searched his memory, "Starbug.."
Keikeya blinked. "Helena Cain is not on this mission, Commander Gardner was overseeing it." Keikeya told Kirk. "I have no idea what a starbug is."
"Captain I believe I am detecting a transmission." Saavik reported from the science station behind them. Kirk was out of his chair and around Keikeya in moments to join her. "I am trying in communications now."
"-I repeat, this is Admiral William Adama of the Colonial Fleet. You have committed an act of aggression against my people. Explain yourselves, or face the consequences."