Chapter 7 Prelude to Contact
A grim man was walking the corridor towards the CNC of his ship, the Galactica (BS-75), Battlestar in the Jupiter class. Just outside his XO, Col. Saul Tigh drinking is "coffee".
"Saul." said the Man.
"Bill," said Col. Tigh to his Commander William "Bill" Adama.
"Any news about Ellen?"
"No. I don't try to search any, however" said Col. Tigh, He had split with his wife during his recent layover after finding evidence about her constant infidelities whenever he was in space.
"You will find someone, Saul." said Comm. Adama.
"Hope not." said Col. Tigh as they walked through the bulkhead to the CNC.
"Latest reports from the dogwatch, Sir." said Junior Lieutenant Felix Gaeta often called Specialist due to position in the CNC.
"Anything interesting?" asked Comm. Adama Lt. Gaeta.
"Outside our new orders, nothing new otherwise."
"New orders? And You didn't wake the Commander up." said Col. Tigh sternly.
"Command, sad it was low priority no real need to wake the Commander." said Lt. Gaeta.
"Saul, no need to be angry." said Comm. Adama.
"Yes Sir." returned Col. Tigh. "The orders?"
"We are to travel to a location near the Red Line, and start listen on the 2kc frequencies for transmissions."
"Cylons?"
"Unknown, but there are indication that they are artificial so most likely Cylons."
"Could the Cylons be able to use 4kc bands to communicate?" asked Lt. Gaeta.
"Maybe, though it seems to be a bit absurd that they are more advanced than us." said. Col. Tigh. "Even we don't have the technology to send, just receive."
"Perhaps, Lt. Gaeta set jump coordinates to a position 1 minute from the Red Line." said Comm. Adama. "And Saul, talk to the CAG about setting up a duty rotation of Raptors to act as scouts for any potential Cylon movements."
"Will do Bill."
Tomin of Ver Isca looked through the see-through mirror into the room where Adria Mal Doran a.k.a. the Orici of his former faith was held. He was the Prince (First among Equals) of Celestis galaxy
"I can't believe they descended her." he said. "How long and how did she survive?"
"It seems that they descended her out ten years ago." said Dr. Jackson, Tomin's ex-wife's current husband. "Around the same time as Anubis. And for how… It's complicated.
"It seems, unlike Anubis, that they descended her in a blank slate, using their powers to create a background for her as Adrienne Malcolm, an Air Force Veteran, retired with honors as a Captain.
"She got a Veteran benefits and was treated for PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, she was a the daughter of Kasuf and Aset al Abydos and is married Hanna Malcolm a tattoo artist in Honolulu and got three children, Vala, Daniel and Tomin."
"Really?"
"It seems that she used some latent memories for that."
"Works making custom motorcycles, and her memories started to resurface two years ago."
"What does she feel about what she has done?"
"Remorse, shame, abject horror about what she has done, and she is truthful about it. We have read her mind and divined her truth."
"Excuse me, Prince Tomin?" said Sergeant Harriman of the SGC. "The conference is about to start."
It had been a long two days on the Galactica. So far no confirmed Cylon activity had been detected and all what they got so far is a few minutes of transmissions decoded.
"Is that all." said. Col. Tigh.
"Yes" said Lt. Gaeta. "Lt. Dualla is currently making translations on two transmissions."
"Why two."
"Because the others speak in a language that we have no knowledge about or have a frame of reference." injected Lt. Anastasia "Dee" Dualla.
"Play them Lieutenant." ordered Comm. Adama.
"Yes sir." said Lt. Dualla as she played back the two transmissions.
"The first one sounds similar to the original language in the Scrolls of Pythia." said Comm. Adama. "The other sounds like an Æsir cultists in bad movies."
"You are right Commander, on both counts and we prefer to be called Æsir worshippers." said Lt. Dualla pointing out one of the two elephants in the room when it came to Colonial religion, the other was the monotheists. "So far three words stands out 'Tau'Ri', 'Goa'Uld' and 'Tok'Ra'.
"I heard them on the first recording." said Col. Tigh.
"Yes Colonel, the thing is while the words 'Tau'Ri' and 'Goa'Uld' are believed to be of the same language as the found in the Scrolls but they are only found in the Æsir Sagas and means 'First World' and 'Deceptive Idols' respectively.
"'Tok'Ra' translates as 'Against Ra' what or who Ra is unknown."
"Is 'Tau'Ri' another name for Kobol?" asked Lt. Gaeta.
"Negative Lieutenant, in the Æsir Sagas Kobol is only mentioned under the name Raluch and is referred as a 'Goa'Uld' slave colony.
"Keep going on the translations Dee and Gaeta keep on recording any transmission." ordered Comm. Adama.
"Yes Commander." said Lts. Dualla and Gaeta in unison.
In a conference room in the SGC, Tomin of Ver Isca was feeling tired. He was discussing with the various leaders within the upcoming Tau'Ri Commonwealth and with independent worlds that fell within Tau'Ri's borders.
"How many needs to be evacuated?" asked Jonas Quinn from the independent world of Langara.
"About 120 billion from Celestis, some 3 milllion Ursinis and 50 billion Nakai." said Tomin. "I'm not counting the 100'000 Novans that are already settling their new refuge colony on Arrakis."
"How many worlds do we have?" asked Sento, Director of Serrakin Corporate Authority Gen. Carter.
"We cover some 42 billion individual starsystems and about 63 million are habitable." said Gen Carter. "And only 2 million have populations of their own,"
"That would be what some ten thousand per remaining system?."
"More like three thousand, Director. The provisional Tau'Ri government however is setting some 6 million systems for this project."
"And you are certain that no Berzerker drone will enter the Milky Way, Sam?" asked Jonas.
"Yes Jonas, once we are finalised the evacuation, we are going to destroy the Celestis supergate, with Mark IX nukes, applied to each cell the Supergate."
"That's good to hear. And now the last order of business, the Orici:" said Director Sento.
"We have no claims of Justice on her." said Tomin.
"She was your ruler for almost a whole year."
"Yes, besides the few decisions she made through the Doci wasn't out of the ordinary from that the Ori did, if anything she just kept the wheels of government turning so to speak. And any Milky Way claims?"
"Besides leading an crusading army that committed genocide against non-believers? None. Those orders were already in place as far as we can tell from your records and as far as we are concerned she has been punished for carrying out those orders, twice over."
"Twice over?" asked Gen. Carter the Serrakin Director.
"Yes, first by the SG1 when the activated the Ark of Truth and second when the Ancients threw her out from the higher planes and stripped her of her memories.
"But, we do request that she is put on parole as a teammember of an SG team. And that request is from all of us."
"Done Director, Col. O'Neill², the clone of Gen. O'Neill has already asked if she an join his squad."
"Then you can start evacuate your people Prince Tomin, the Milky Way will not stop you." said Director Sento to Tomin
"Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, I nor any person from Celsetis, Ursini or Nakai will forget your decision, but we will celebrate this day now and forever." said Tomin.
The six UHADN-312 (DSCV) Hadrian class ships had just finished their trials and was loading the H(ASR)DST-201 Kusanagi (Listed as Heavy (Armed, Screened, Recon) Defense Satellite). Each ship could carry two, and each ship had twelve satellites to deploy. To protect the Hadrian class ships (despite what they were listed as, they lacked any armament outside of Point-Defence cannons, each cannon was a triple-barrelled gun at 31.25mm in calibre with a 46.875mm calibre launcher attached to each barrel, while small each barrel could launch the equivalent of a 312.5mm artillery round at a firing rate of 3000 rounds per minute among other munitions) each ship was assigned a flight II Odyssey class ship.
General Singh was sitting in his office reading the latest reports, the Excalibur class space station was being in its final revision before being built (I would be listed as a UHDSS-202 or Ultra Heavy Defence Space Station), though his aide had started to called it the Death Star from the Mystic Falls equivalent of Star Battles due to its capabilities) and the 2 million people from Celestis that were being sent to Valhalla as part of the Evacuation. Himmel had also volunteered to take up 12 million evacuees. The final report of the day was about the potential to build pocket- and super-capital ships. They would filled niches found in Interior and Perimeter Commands respectively, though Gen. Sing wasn't sure of it.
He looked outside to see the Hadrian class ships being loaded, the 72 satellites that were being deployed should at as first as a border marker towards an uncharted stretch of space in the Milky Way, and second as a first line of defence against any threats towards Valhalla. His concentration was broken as his aide came in.
"Problems, Lt. Ndlovo?" Gen. Singh asked his aide, a Witch from the world of Mystic Falls, or more precise, their colony on the world of Arrakis.
"Nothing much to worry." said the Lt. "The Britannia blew a few fuses in her main drive, we have spares to replace them 5 times over."
"Good, since she and her sisters are the crown jewel of our fleet at the moment and they are going to part of the unveiling the day after tomorrow. Any thing else?"
"Yes project Noah reported that they finished phase four early and is starting phase five next week."
"That's good." Project Noah was perhaps the most ambitious project currently on Valhalla, but it involved the least amount of Military direction. The Asgard had scanned over 500 mating pairs from over twelve thousand species. This was in turn supplemented with similar scans from mating pairs on various fantasy worlds in Grantville-Westeros system.
The General himself had taken his twin daughters to see the fruits of phase four's labours. They saw a herds of African Elephants, White Rhinos, Giant Sloths among others. The best part for the project that the introduced species didn't outcompete the native wildlife but filled various ecological niches that was missing.
"Lieutenant, please remind me what phase five entails." asked the Gen. Singh the Lieutenant.
"Phase five entails the cloning of major sea animals such as the Blue Whale." answerd Lt. Ndloyo.
"Anything else?"
"The SGC are starting to send journalists through the 'Gate."
"It must be quite of a surprise for them."
"It is, by the way Captain Karstag has taken the liberty to set up interviews with yourself, Adria Mal Doran, Gen. Khorfu and others."
"Good, I gave him the preliminary orders a few days ago about this, it good he showed some initiative." said Gen. Singh. Captain Karstag was a Nord from Tamriel that had over 10 years of service in the Imperial Legions of Cyrrodil. Adria had moved her family to Valhalla two days prior as she joined Col. O'Neill²'s squadron as part of her parole.
A Few Kilometres away from Gen. Singh's office, the oldest human on the planet was sitting in a Starbucks drinking green tea.
Yu Jai-Hong was waiting for his grandson and his family so they could visit various building projects around the city.
He looked outside and saw a tattooed woman in her thirties arguing with a Chinese officer attached to the City Planning Board. The view of the Chinese offices brought forth memories when the old man was a young seventeen private in the South Korean Army when a Chinese bullet made him walk with a cane for the next seventy years. But it didn't impede his architectural career nor becoming a Professor of Architecture first in Seoul and then in his native Chuncheon.
He shifted his gaze towards the massive skyscraper that was his masterpiece. It was built to be the headquarters of the 1st Perimeter Command and of all Military Forces assigned to the various Administrative Commands that had local offices on Valhalla supplying bureaucrative support for 1st, 4th, and 8th Perimeter Commands and for 3rd and 5th Interior Commands.
"Simply Magnificent" said mr, Yu about the skyscraper, which put Burj Khalifa in Dubai to shame, though the builders of the Burj Khalifa didn't have the technology that Yu had.
"Yes sir, it is." said the server as he cleaned the nearby table. "Do you want me to turn on the TV?"
"Yes thank you." said mr. Yu as the server turned on the Holographic display. Technically the broadcast wasn't a normal TV broadcast but an AI generated live feed. This particular feed was the local branch of CNN relaying a newsbroadcasts from Earth. The British and Chinese forces had launched an assault against African warlords that had attacked recent UN relief missions, and the next segment was about rebuilding efforts in California after the earthquake eight months prior.
"Grandpa" yelled a small voice.
Yu Jai-Hong looked towards the entrance and saw his six year old great granddaughter, his grandson and his wife. He stood up and picked out a piece of candy out of his pocket.
"Hello my little princess." said mr. Yu and gave her the candy.
"Wish you didn't do that." said mr. Yu's grandson. "We try to keep her from eating candy before dinner."
Yu Kim was the only child of Yu Jai-Hong's late son, while the elder Yu had two more children none had any grandchildren of their own yet. But like father, son and grandson Yu Kim was an accomplished architect, both in Korea and in America, where his wife was from. Da-Eun Malcom-Yu, was an civil engineer of of note.
"Nonsense Kim." said mr. Yu to the man he took in after the younger Yu's parents had died when he was eight. "Grandfathers are allowed to help the young ones break the rules."
"I just saw my cousin Hanna outside." said mrs. Malcom-Yu. "She was talking to the city official about opening a tatoo shop across the street."
"Really?" said mr. Yu.
"Yes, I didn't know that she had clearance, she invited Kim, Ari and I for dinner tomorrow to explain why she and her family is here. I told her I should ask you to come with us. Her wife is an amazing cook."
"Well then, then I go with you."
"Grandpa, guess what!" said little Ari. "Daddy got the job, he will make Elsa's Castle at Disneyland."
"Really?" said the elder Yu who had already seen the blueprints for it. The castle was built to be similar to the one shown in the movies and was going to be built using materials similar to those found and used in Norway during the European Middle Ages.
Part of the build-up for the unveiling was that selected companies was made aware of the 'Gate beforehand so they wouldn't be overwhelmed by the few interstellar companies that already existed. It did help that they quickly partnered with their analogues in Grantville-Westeros system with many choosing to place their company headquarters off-world after the unveiling.
"Yea. Its going to be amazing grandpa. Will you take me and my new sister there when its finished?"
"New sister?" said the elder Yu looking puzzled at his granddaughter-in-law.
"We just found out this morning that I am pregnant with a girl." said Da-Eun, noticing her daughter started to sink "Let It Go" in Korean. "But she is more excited "Frozen II" then a new sibling."
Far to the north of the happy family 32 men and women in flight suits was shivering in a large hanger at one of the many military bases found on Valhalla.
Each member had the Tau'Ri flag on their right arm followed by their homewold symbol and their national flag if any. The group was made of various pilots from different military performance squadrons though four were natives from Pegasus and one woman was from Himmel.
Deeper in the hanger 33 ULTF-305 was sitting in waiting.
"Attention, Officer on Deck!" said a US Navy Pilot from the world Darkness, and group stood readied.
"Listen Up!" ordered Major Winters, an African-American Air Force veteran with fifteen confirmed kills in the Pegasus galaxy. "We have only two more days 'till the unveiling. So we better get our performance right. Do you understand?"
"Sir, Yes Sir! Crystal Clear, Sir!" said the assembled pilots to their commander.
"Good. Lets get to our flights!"