Thirteen
Chapter Two:
Blackbird, Meet Whitestar
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace jumped into the sector of space expecting to see the Cylon fleet that she had been briefed about, and she spotted it sure enough. Two massive Cylon basestars, several other support ships, and the unknown mothership that dwarfed the basestars were within her sight, and she activated the camera as she went in for an up close look at the fleet.
Her nerve held, as did the stealth capabilities of the improvised fighter she flew in, nicknamed the Blackbird. It had been the pet project of deck chief Galen Tyrol and his crew, and the carbon composite idea that her fellow pilot and friend, Karl "Helo" Agathon, had come up with for the skin of the ship that made for its relative invisibility.
She laughed as she turned away from the fleet and flew away, wanting to jump at a point where they would not detect her. She was about to hit the faster-than-light drive when a massive vortex opened up in front of her and a weird looking ship came speeding towards her. Starbuck had no chance to move out of the way, and she said a quick prayer to the gods Aphrodite and Artemis as she closed her eyes and expected to die from the collision.
Anla'shok Denise Sanchez jumped back into normal space and saw the unusual looking ship right in her path. "Holy mother of God!" she cried out as she hit the panel to move her Whitestar II class ship out of the way, but not fast enough to avoid contact with the ship. The thud wasn't that loud, but she heard it, and she quickly asked the computer to scan the ship for life signs.
The computer replied, "Confirmed. One life sign. Human."
Sanchez ordered the computer to lock tractor beams to bring the damaged ship on board to check on the pilot. She wasn't that familiar with the ship, but wouldn't have been surprised if this was one of Earthforce's "black" projects, which they were almost notorious for, despite the best efforts of the Earth Alliance president. She made her way down to the launch bay to check on the pilot, which didn't take long as this newer Whitestar was meant to be operated by a single person and was much smaller than the original.
Starbuck woke up to a rampaging headache. She checked her instruments, only to find that she was no longer in space. Wherever she was, it wasn't anything Colonial. She slid the canopy of her fighter forward so she could get out, which made her headache even worse, and started to get out of the ship. Slowly, in order to protect her bum knee, she dropped to the floor and thanked the gods that she landed solidly and firmly.
A voice called out to her, "Hello?" and Starbuck spun around, pistol in hand at the voice, only to find a short, dark-haired human dressed in some sort of flowing brown robe. The woman quickly went into her robe and took out a device of some kind, which, to Starbuck's shock, expanded in a blink of an eye.
"Who are you?" Starbuck asked the woman.
"My name is Denise Sanchez, and I am a Ranger."
Starbuck looked puzzled. "Excuse me?"
"Ranger? Anla'shok? You've never heard of them?"
Starbuck's aim of her pistol never wavered despite the fear building inside her. She thought for sure that she had encountered a new kind of humanoid-Cylon, but what was the deal with that pole? "Can't say that I have? Now, you'll tell me why I am aboard this fracking ship, or else I shoot you!"
Sanchez also never wavered, and, Starbuck saw in her face absolutely no fear in her eyes. She looked to be in her mid-forties and in the peak of fitness, and Starbuck wondered if she could take her in a fight. Much to her amazement, she didn't think she could beat this person at any hand-to-hand combat.
"You're not Earthforce?" asked Sanchez, and Starbuck's breath caught in her chest.
"Err…err…Earthforce? You mean Earth?" she said, in stunned disbelief. She stepped back and bumped into the Blackbird without even noticing, not quite comprehending what she was hearing.
Sanchez said, "Yes, Earth. Where are you from?"
Before she could say anything else, the room span around for Starbuck and she fainted. She never hit the deck, as Sanchez was quick enough to catch her before she fell. Sanchez shouldered the unknown woman and took her to the modest infirmary aboard ship so that the computer could monitor her vital signs as she returned to the Independence.
Starbuck awakened and blinked against the bright lights that were shining in her face. She was in a medical facility of some kind, and her bed was surrounded by some kind of white curtain. The bustle of activity indicated that there were others inside the room, which scared her even more. The last time she had been in a hospital bed, she had been shot by a Cylon Centurion and dragged to a hospital, or so she had thought. It had turned out to be a Cylon "farm", where they held childbearing capable women in order to breed Cylon-human hybrids.
The white curtain slid back and an older, dark-skinned male walked through the curtain with a smile on his face. This one looked a lot different from the one she had encountered on Caprica: shorter, with a flat top that was going gray, wearing a uniform distinctly different from that of the Colonial fleet. Her breath still caught in her throat in terror of memories of her recent experience on the planet, and it clearly alarmed the man.
He put a hand out and said, "You're safe here. No need to worry. What's your name?"
She still was shaking from nervousness, but managed to get out, "Kara Thrace".
"I'm Doctor Stephen Franklin. Do you know where you are?"
Starbuck looked around and said, "I'm in a hospital of some sort. How long have I been out?"
"Only a couple of hours. A Ranger brought you in, saying that she had a collision with your ship. So why were you out there at the edge of Earth Alliance territory?"
Starbuck looked at him puzzled and asked, "Earth Alliance?"
Franklin said, "Yeah, the Earth Alliance. You never heard of Earth?"
"We only knew it as a myth, in the Sacred Scrolls. We've been trying to find it ever since the Holocaust…"
The doctor held out a hand and said, "Wait, wait, wait! Holocaust? What holocaust?"
"You don't know of the Cylon attacks on the twelve Colonial worlds?"
Franklin whispered to himself, "Cylons?", then walked over to someone and ordered, "Get the President down here. He needs to talk to this woman."
He?, she asked in her mind. Laura Roslin was back on the Galactica, for all she knew, and she was unmistakably female. Starbuck knew she was dying of terminal breast cancer, but hadn't expected her to die so soon.
Then it hit her…she was on a supposed Earth vessel, so he must have meant the president of this Earth Alliance they kept talking about. She lay back on the bed, her mind running at hyper speed as she tried to figure out what was going on.
President Garrison Hollifield walked into the medlab aboard the Independence with Interstellar Alliance president John Sheridan and their mutual friend, Michael Garibaldi. Doctor Franklin met them shortly inside the door, and he began to brief them on their patient.
"I ran her name and her image through the computer. There's no Kara Thrace in Earthforce, as far as I know. Funny thing is, when I mentioned Earth, she said it was a myth…"
Sheridan asked, "Myth? So she doesn't even know Earth exists? How is that possible?"
"I don't know, but she mentioned Cylons and I know that was the name you heard in your vision, Garrison, so I figured that you should come down and meet her. Maybe you can get something out of her that I can't."
Hollifield snorted and said, "Stephen, that's an understatement with the way I am." He turned to Garibaldi and Sheridan and said, "Maybe you should watch this from the monitors. We don't want to overwhelm her with all of this, if she is telling the truth."
Garibaldi looked suspicious, and said, "And if she's not?"
Garrison replied, "Then I'll find out what she's really up to then. I am a telepath, after all."
Garibaldi nodded and he followed Sheridan of them went over to the office inside the medlab with Franklin. Hollifield walked over to the encircled bed and he could feel the fear and nervousness coming from the young woman in his mind. He slowly opened up the curtain, hoping as not to scare her even more. It was then that he noticed that she was the one from his vision.
"I know you! You're the woman from the vision!" said Hollifield before he could think.
Starbuck looked at him and said, "How do you know me?"
"You were in a field, with three others. An older man with black hair and dark skin. A young white male who favored the older man. And a reddish brown haired older woman. You were looking up at the stars in the sky. Twelve of them. The signs of the Zodiac."
Starbuck's jaw hung open, but she managed to rally enough to ask, "How do you know all of this?"
"So the events in my vision happened? Tell me why you were there."
"We were on Kobol," Starbuck said, not bothering to realize that Hollifield had no idea what or where Kobol was. "We had just entered the Tomb of Athena with the Arrow of Apollo to find out where Earth was. When I placed the arrow in the hands of the statue of the archer, that was when a light flashed and next thing we knew, we were in a field, looking up at a star field."
Hollifield shook his head and walked away for a moment, deep in thought. He looked back at her and said, "I don't understand any of what you just said. The only Athena and Apollo I know of were Greek gods in our ancient times. Heck, I know Apollo from the old American space program of three centuries ago, and my wife commanded the Athena before she took command of the Liberty shortly before the Drakh plague."
Starbuck, for some unknown reason, began to laugh. She stopped long enough to say, "Do you know how ridiculous all of this sounds? Besides, if you are from Earth, then why are you speaking in a Colonial tongue?"
"English, you mean?"
Starbuck shrugged her shoulders and said, "If that's what you call it."
From the monitors inside the office, Franklin, Garibaldi, and Sheridan followed the conversation between Hollifield and Thrace. Hollifield managed to find out about the colonies she kept talking about. "Twelve colonies: Caprica, Gemenon, Canceron, Picon, Sagitteron, Leonis, Libron, Aquaria, Virgon, Aerelon, Tauron, Scorpion. Notice anything familiar?" asked Sheridan.
"The signs of the Zodiac." Garibaldi said. "How could she know that and not be from Earth?"
"I don't know, but she seems like she's telling the truth, from what I've seen. Granted, I'm no telepath like the president is, but it seemed that way to me." Franklin added.
"As much as this is going to shock everyone in this room, I agree with you, Doc. I think she is telling the truth." Garibaldi said. "Call it a gut feeling, but I don't think she's lying, and I don't think she's had this story implanted in her mind by a telepath."
"Well, that's a first. So do you think we should go find this Galactica and Pegasus she talked about?" Sheridan asked.
"Don't you think so? I mean, if she and her people are from somewhere else in the galaxy, then that opens up a whole can of worms that we never knew existed." Garibaldi replied.
Sheridan looked back at the monitor and said, "Considering where we picked her up, we need to check it out. We all know that no one besides Lyta Alexander and President Hollifield have ever been in Vorlon territory, much less the Vorlon homeworld, and never returned. So then why do we find this woman in her ship so close to the border with the old Vorlon Empire? I lay you odds that these Lords of Kobol and the Vorlons have something very much in common.
"Why the similarities in language? Why the fact that their gods are so similar to Greek gods? Their worlds named after constellations from our world? And the fact that they are humans themselves? I think we should delay the trip to Earth and check this out."
"Wonder what Delenn will think of this?" asked Sheridan.
"I don't know. At this time, it's best to keep this Kara Thrace away from her for now, as well as Emperor Cotto, because we have enough to talk about without going into other sentient species. Besides, if we can convince her to take us to that fleet she talked about, we can find out more about these Colonials she talked about."
The next day, Starbuck was taken to quarters inside the ship and allowed to shower and freshen up. President Hollifield personally attended to her, which amused her until she realized that there was a reason for it: the others on board didn't know that she wasn't from Earth. She put her uniform back on and walked with the president to the conference room aboard the Independence, and she noticed two other men in business suits and a woman in a similar uniform as that of the doctor were seated at the table. Sanchez was also there, clad in what she had learned was the uniform of the Anla'shok, or the Rangers. Why that uniform was so different from the others puzzled her, but, then again, all of this was a conundrum to her.
"Ms. Thrace, this is Interstellar Alliance President John Sheridan. We'll explain the whole Interstellar Alliance thing later on. Think of it for now as similar to the Colonial government that you are used to, and Earth as the…Caprica?…that you are familiar with. This is Michael Garibaldi, who is a liaison, if you will, between President Sheridan and myself. And this is Captain Sibohan Brennan, who commands the ship you are on at present."
Starbuck nodded her head to all of them and sat down, still somewhat stunned at all that was going on. She wondered what Lee "Apollo" Adama and the expedition to the Cylon fleet were up to, as well as what was going on with Commander Adama aboard the Galactica. She was still miffed at the transfer to the Pegasus and the attitude of her crew, especially that of the battlestar's commanding officer, Admiral Nelena Cain. In a strange way, she wondered what that bitch of an admiral would think of her bringing back a highly advanced warship from Earth.
However, before the meeting could even begin, a signal came in for Captain Brennan from what passed for the Combat Information Center here on the Independence, something they bizarrely called a "bridge".
"What is it, Commander Akhbar?" asked Brennan, and that puzzled Starbuck even further. How can a mere captain talk to a commander like that? Starbuck thought, but then she realized that the ranking system was probably somewhat different here.
Akhbar said, "Sir, the fleet we've been monitoring…the Cylon fleet…had disappeared from view. We think they've jumped somewhere, but we don't know where. We picked up some fighters and another transport of some kind, but they jumped as well."
Starbuck's breath caught in her throat as a frightening thought came to her mind. "My Gods!" she cried out without regard to the others in the room.
"Something, Ms. Thrace?" asked Brennan inquisitively.
"I think that fleet is going to attack the Galactica and the Pegasus. We need to get there and stop them." Starbuck was surprised at how she sounded so desperate to herself.
Sheridan and Hollifield looked at each other for a moment, as if they were trading thoughts, then Hollifield turned to Brennan and ordered, "Slap an Earthforce transponder to that Blackbird ship. Give her an Earthforce communications link so she can contact us as to what's going on when she gets back there. If they are indeed attacking, we'll bring in our task force into the fight."
Brennan nodded and left the room to carry out the orders. Hollifield turned to Starbuck and said, "I know that you probably don't trust us that much, and that this is overwhelming to you. Believe me, this is a bit too much to believe for us as well. But if you take us back to them, we'll help you defend your fleet. If what you say is true, then we have an obligation to protect those precious thousands that remain from your Colonies."
Later, Starbuck boarded the Blackbird and piloted it out of the immense landing bay of the Independence. "Ready to jump, Independence. Transponder is working."
Akhbar's voice came through clear in the earpiece inside her ear. "Confirmed, Blackbird. We read you. Proceed with jump."
Starbuck activated the FTL drive inside the Blackbird and jumped back to the last known coordinates of the Colonial fleet. When she arrived, she saw something that stunned her more than she already had been.
Brennan asked her executive officer, "Are we picking up her signal?"
"Confirmed, sir! We have her coordinates for her location. Jump engines ready at your command!"
"Patch me through to her." Brennan said, and, a moment later, she could hear the breathing of Starbuck in her ear. "Thrace, what's going on?"
"Independence, you need to get here soon! The Pegasus and the Galactica are about to launch an attack on each other! Please hurry!"
Brennan looked at Presidents Hollifield and Sheridan, and it was Hollifield who said, "Jump to those coordinates. Prepare Thunderbolts for launch!"