Note: This chapter contains possible spoilers to the second season of Battlestar Galactica

Thirteen

Chapter 32

Mysteries of Laser and Circuit

Alwyn was glad to have Galen along for this trip, even though if things went wrong, this might be the last for both of them. To the best of their knowledge, they didn't think the Cylons could detect the presence of their black, triangular ships. This was good because it allowed them to place millions upon millions of their microscopic probes all through out the Colonial worlds as well as on several Cylon basestars that they had encountered in their meandering journey through the Colonial system.

They had just deployed another faster then light relay to keep in touch with all these probes when the sensors aboard Alwyn's ship detected a jump point. He summoned a visual and found that Drakh ships had entered the system, near Caprica.

"It's what we suspected alright. Now the question is, why are they here?" said Alwyn.

The six people inside Alwyn's ship gathered around the visual and studied it intently. G'Leel was one of the two non-humans on board, and the Narn female looked at the visual and growled, "What are those scumbags up to? Surely the Cylons aren't that stupid to hop into bed with those creatures?"

Matthew and Elizabeth Gideon stared at the display silently, along with Dureena Nafeel and the other technomage, Galen. They watched as the Drakh ships passed close to the Cylon basestars.

"Either side powering up weapons or launching fighters?" Matthew Gideon asked.

Galen shook his head slightly and said, "No, no indications of any military activity at all. I am detecting scanners at work, though."

"Do the Drakh have any cloaking technology active on their ships?" Elizabeth inquired.

"They have the technology to mask themselves, just as we have, but they've chosen not to use it. The Cylons should be able to see those ships, yet they do nothing to respond to them. Curious!" Alwyn answered, as he was transfixed with the data coming from the sensors.

Alwyn directed his ship to follow the fleet of ships, staying just far enough away to give him time to react should the Drakh detect his presence. The guests aboard his ship spent their time going over the data, eating, sleeping, and using the bathroom. This wasn't a pleasure cruise, for sure, but the old man was glad for the company.

They spend the better part of three days tracking the fleet visiting each of the Colonial homeworlds. They made no secret of their presence, even jumping into normal space within a click of a Cylon basestar around Libron. After searching through all the twelve planets, the Drakh fleet left the system and headed back to their apparent staging area in the Horvan system on the edge of Centauri space.

Alwyn had a twinge of remembered pain as he entered Centauri space. He couldn't help but to think of his former student, Carvin, who had died so long ago. She had always had fearlessness about her, as well as an intense curiosity and a love of showmanship that touched his heart. She had been like a daughter to him, and to hear that she had died on the diversion to Babylon 5 had torn at his soul.

While the others slept, Galen came up to Alwyn as he stared at a picture of his former student in the kitchen area. "The pain never goes away, does it?" he asked.

Alwyn looked up at him and replied, "No. It never does. I could live for another fifty years and it would always hurt like it does today. You know this all to well yourself."

"Yes. Isabelle's been gone for almost a quarter century now, and even though I've found love again, it still hurts. I think it's because, deep down, I worry that I may lose Dureena in such a similar way." Galen spoke as he sat down on the opposite side of the table from Alwyn. Alwyn noticed for the first time that Galen was getting old, with the wrinkles starting to form on his face from age.

Isabelle had been Galen's first love, brutally taken away from him by the traitor technomages, Razeel and Elizar. They had been dealt with in the end, but their deaths had not brought Isabelle back. Nothing would do that, and, for a long time, Alwyn worried that Galen would kill himself from the pain. Even after Galen had found a way to bring his restless tech under control, he had always wondered if the pain would eventually consume whom he considered his nephew.

Galen's parents had died when he was ten. They had been technomages, and everyone who abided by the Code of the technomages had suspected that the couple would meet a bad end. Elric had been assigned to monitor them, and when they had killed themselves aboard a stellar cruise ship from a violent argument, he took custody of the young Galen.

Galen became Elric's student, and, despite his troubles, was an excellent student. He did have a dark side, though, which almost cost him the chance to become a technomage. They kept him in, though, because Galen had found within himself a weapon of mass destruction. To this day, he still had it, but the urge to destroy and kill had been drained after the tech had been tamed within Galen.

Alwyn was more than surprised that Galen had fallen for Dureena after the end of the Drakh plague on Earth. Galen went his own way after Earth had been cured, while Dureena had gone to Minbar to become a Ranger. A couple of years later, Galen had been asked by President Hollifield to gather reconnaissance on Centauri Prime, and he had asked Dureena to assist him. The mission was a success in more ways than one.

These days, Dureena served as the liaison between the technomages and the Rangers. The remaining technomages were still in hiding, having gone there shortly before the outbreak of the Shadow war to avoid becoming used as weapons in the conflict, and they had no intention of coming out anytime soon. However, they had designated Galen to be their representative to the Interstellar Alliance, as well as their connection with the renegade technomage Alwyn, who had chosen to fight the Shadows alongside Hollifield and Sheridan instead of fleeing to the hideout.

Alwyn was too old for love himself. He didn't mind, though. He'd had more than enough experiences to fill twenty lifetimes. To him, the Code of the technomages had an addition of wine, women, and song, and he had lived those three tenets to the maximum. As far as he knew, he had no offspring, but there was always the chance that he had impregnated a few of the women he'd seduced over the years.

Galen went to bed and Alwyn stayed up longer, enjoying the jambalaya he had made from a recipe he had received from one of the lady friends he had bedded. This one was still the preeminent chef in New Orleans, a city that Alwyn had loved and almost made his home, except another technomage had made Earth her place of power and it was forbidden for another to come there and do the same thing.

Andromeda was still there, refusing to flee from her home deep in the Appalachian Mountains when the technomages fled from the oncoming Shadow war. She was a friend of Hollifield's to this day, and she had been instrumental in helping the forces of light to overthrow the darkness that was President William Morgan Clark's regime. She could have left when the Drakh plague was unleashed because the technomages were found to be immune to it, but she defiantly stayed behind to help where she could.

Galen was making his way to his room after finishing his late night meal when he got a signal from his ship that a message was coming in for him. He sighed and went back to the ship's bridge to receive the signal. It was Garrison Hollifield, his old friend and president of the Earth Alliance. He still had a youthful look about him despite his age, but the iron gray was slowly taking its hold among the jet-black hair on his head.

"Howdy Alwyn! So what've ya found?" Hollifield said with an exaggerated southern drawl that showed to him that his old friend was running on little sleep these days.

Alwyn told him what he had found out, then asked, "So what do you plan on doing about it?"

"Good question. The head of the Centauri military, General Rhys, is on his way here to consult with me on what we should do. Emperor Cotto and he are unsure of what the Drakh are up to, and whatever assistance you can be in finding out would be of great help."

"I'll do what I can. We'll do all we can here." Alwyn said, then he changed the subject. "How's Andromeda these days?"

"Still living up in the woods near Boone. Still teaching at Appalachian State University under her alias, Andrea Medina. Still spooking the locals with her pagan disguise."

Alwyn laughed and added, "So no calls for lynching her as a witch? Or as a bloody pagan?"

"Nope, thank goodness! Nah, they left the lynching for the blacks back in the day, before they were forced to give that up by the better part of society." Hollifield said, but then added, "Of course, when telepaths were discovered, they didn't mind lynching a few of them."

"I remember what you told me about the Spartanburg massacre of 2115, shortly before Lee Crawford managed to get the situation under some control." Alwyn reflected on the video taken by WSPA-TV of the telepaths brought into the downtown area and hanged by the mobs while police stood by and did nothing. He shook his head at how his kind could do so many great things, yet commit such barbaric atrocities.

"Yeah, I remember that as well from school. How can I not remember it, when the Psi Corps considered the place to be ground zero in their struggle against the normals? My mom would go out of her way to avoid that place while on the way to see family in Georgia."

Alwyn was about to go on, but he received a signal from one of his probes. One of the Cylon basestars had jumped into space around Horvan V. "This should be interesting." Alwyn said as he relayed the news to Hollifield.

"Yes it should. Keep in touch, Alwyn. We need all the heads up on this that we can get!"