It changed everything. It changed us all. The day it happened nothing would be the same again.
It was a normal high school day for me and as usual I went to class, studied, and went about my daily activities as a normal teenager would. Nothing really special or unusual at first. But just as normally as the day began, suddenly things started to get really interesting.
Around lunchtime, a sudden announcement was made in the school PA system telling all students that classes were cancelled for the day. There was no reason mentioned, only that we were allowed to leave early today, and that our parents were picking us up. Naturally I was curious even though like any teenager, an early exit from school without being in trouble was a welcome event.
It was when my mom came to pick me up that I really started to worry. I could tell because she seemed really uptight and nervous. Of course I had to ask why but she would not give me the details. She only told me that I was to remain at home and never leave the house unless told to. In her voice I could sense the urgency and fear which made me nervous as well. But I didn't press the issue while she drove me home.
Once home I was told to go to my room and study. I saw Lucy and Kevin there too and so were Aunt Julie and Uncle Hank. They too looked very worried and scared but neither would tell me what was going on. I knew that the situation was really serious when they ordered me not to listen in the back stairwell while they talked adult business. Not satisfied at not knowing I called my friend Yasmine to see if she knew something. And was in for the shock of my life.
About 3 hours earlier, several spaceships, around 30 or so suddenly appeared behind the moon. A whole fleet of ships, and in the center, a large, well armed warship. For the first time ever, Earth was officially visited by a race of sentient beings from another world. And they came in full force.
Of course we were all scared, naturally because of the large warship. But then we received a signal from the fleet, bringing a message of peace and a desire to enter in important negotiations over something very important regarding Earth. At least that is what I heard in the news.
My dad had called the Colonel, my grandfather asking if this was all a hoax or something but even the Colonel couldn't refute the obvious. My dad had his faith somewhat turned upside down at the reality that life actually existed beyond Earth and that we were not alone in the universe. But we all took it in stride. I thought it was cool.
The next few months were hectic and full of surprises. As it turned out that even though the aliens were from another world, they not only looked like us but were in fact the same race! Or very similar that is. Or at least most of them. Some of them were cylons, androids or synthetic persons built to look like us and had once been a dangerous enemy. Apparently the humans of the fleet had once been part of an empire, a collection of 12 planets or colonies that was somehow wiped out by these cylons. The humans in the fleet are now all that remain of those 12 colonies. And they had been fleeing the cylons for years until a space borne virus, one that affected only cylons, nearly wiped out the entire cylon race. Forced with the possibility of extinction, the cylons surrendered and ended all hostilities and those cylons who had infiltrated the fleet because they did look like regular humans and could only be detected through a special device asked for asylum. They were conditionally granted it.
It was a lot for the people of Earth to swallow. And believe me my dad was up in arms over this. But gradually over the first few months the Colonials, as the aliens were now referred to, both human and cylons, continued relations with the people of Earth. They offered us technology and friendship in exchange for a planet to stay, or maybe be allowed to colonize other planets in out solar system. Since we really had no way of stopping them it was no biggie and as time went by we were discovering that the Colonials were a noble and honorable people. They just wanted a planet to set up roots and begin again. And they had been fairly honest with us so far. The United Nations decided to allow it and now some of the Colonials that were in the fleet were starting to settle on Earth and build a colony on Mars.
There were of course ulterior motives for the Colonials offering technology as advanced as theirs but they had been upfront about it from the beginning, so they weren't really being dishonest. The cylon empire, while it had been weakened by the space borne virus that had nearly wiped out their race, was still at large. Apparently while contact between the cylons and humans were limited to within the fleet, many of the cylons believed a cure was found and that many cylons other than that were now part of the Colonial fleet survived. That was 10 years ago and the Colonials were not sure whether the cylons were able to rebuild their empire. The cylon empire had vastly superior technology compared to what the Colonials had and out of fear for our safety given our less advanced technology, the Colonials offered to slowly bump up ours to a level sufficient enough to build a suitable military defense should the need arise. And so for five years the Earth-Colonial space navy was slowly built.
My family was changed drastically by the arrival of the Colonial fleet. My dad eventually accepted the existence of the Colonials, not that he really could refute it, and used his ties to the military, thanks in large part to the Colonel, to get involved. Our family had heard about the tragic circumstances that led to the Colonials plight those 21 years ago and naturally we were moved. Naturally we all pitched in to help them move on and rebuild their society and culture. We had made many friends among the Colonials, one of them even became my best friend, Hera. She was the same age as me when the fleet first arrived and now we were inseparable. She also happened to be the daughter of the commander of the Galactica, Commander Sharon Valerii. This was kind of interesting given that Sharon was a cylon.
I'm not sure about the whole story about how a cylon got in command of the famous battlestar but Admiral Lee Adama and the other humans trust her. From it started with her falling in love with Hera's father Colonel Karl Agathon and eventually led to her defection to the humans' side. Which is kind of romantic now that I think about it. Probably more to the story than a simple love affair but still, Commander Valerii seemed like somebody you could rely on and she had obviously gained the trust and even admiration of the entire Galactica crew. Because of my friendship with Hera our family had grown close to Sharon and Karl and sometimes every Thanksgiving or Christmas they would come visit us in Glen Oak.
But the biggest change was caused by me. Most of my family generally avoided joining the military, well my siblings anyways. Except for Matt who was ordered by my parents no less to not join the army. However at age 18, after I graduated high school, I enlisted in the space navy program, trained for 3 years at the newly formed Colonial Military Academy and am now a newly assigned viper pilot aboard the Battlestar Galactica. My call sign is Sniper, given that I so happen to have such a good eye, one refined and well trained thanks to my academy training, that I was now an expert markswoman. I have no regrets and while my family was weary and upset about me joining the military, they still support me and allow me to follow a childhood dream of mine that never really died, becoming an astronaut.
Now as I step on the flight deck of the Galactica for the first time, I look forward to the future and what it might bring.
TO BE CONTINUED