== Part 29 – Digging Up The Past ==
"Hmm... you're tense," Gina said as she massaged Helena's shoulders. Helena sat on the love seat in their quarters while reading a progress report on the Greystone warehouse while Gina stood behind her trying her best to help her wife relax.
"Of course, I'm tense," Helena replied, peeved. But not at Gina. Never at Gina. "Half the Quorum thinks I've lost my mind with the Cylon amnesty. The other half approves of my decision only because they want to spite the first half. There's pro- and anti-Cylon protestors bashing each other over the heads in the street. I don't think it's sunk in to anyone but the military just how far behind we are on the tech curve." She waved the report at Gina. "And to top it all off, I've got every tech company in the Twelve Colonies after me begging to get access to the Greystone warehouse, Tech Control Committee regulations be damned."
"Are you sure you should be reading that in front of me?" Gina asked nonchalantly as she worked on particularly hard knot. "If someone sees, they might go crying to the opposition news services about Cylon spies and how you're compromised and leaking classified information to the enemy."
"They're already doing that," Helena said sourly, "so it doesn't matter if they see or not. Besides, I am leaking this to you because I've already read it all. I'm just reading it here because I know you're reading it over my head, and I wanted to get your thoughts on it. You are reading it over my head, aren't you?"
"Well, yes," Gina admitted. "It's a bit disappointing, but hardly surprising."
Despite having spent decades in storage, most of the old systems found in what had been dubbed the "Greystone warehouse" would still power on. Unfortunately most of the data in those old servers and personal devices were locked behind encryption that was still more sophisticated than anything the Colonials produced today, and could only be unlocked with passwords, biometric IDs, and other forms of security that the investigation teams had no access to. Still, what little was not encrypted made for illuminating reading, mostly in the forms of short summaries and vague product descriptions. Before he'd died. Daniel Greystone had had his fingers into a lot of other companies that did things besides produce software and robots.
"Damnit, Gina, we lost so much throwing away all these old computers," Helena said sadly. "Look at this. Improved algorithms for FTL navigation that increases range and precision of jumps. FTL communications with interstellar range using waves in hyperspace. Cloned human neural tissue that's been modified so that it can be digitally programmed and used in next generation computer systems. Genetically engineered biomatter that's self growing, self monitoring, and strong enough that you can make whole skyscrapers or even space stations out of them. I've never even heard of these things, and they're just the tip of the iceberg."
"Sounds familiar," Gina said lightly, moving on to another knot. "Cylons were used as assistants and labor in a lot of cutting edge research labs. When the rebellion started, they walked away with all the research data and wound up completing and improving upon them."
"Yes, and I am enjoying the benefits of that research right now," Helena sighed, lowering the report and sinking back into the love seat. "Oh, that really does feel good. Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"And on a funnier note," Helena began, raising the report to where she could read it in her current position. "Some of this stuff is just bizarre. There's a movie prop, a giant walking piloted robot with working guns and rocket launchers... well working as long as they fire blanks. Any real ammo would knock this thing on its ass with the recoil alone. And of course any real tank or even a soldier with an anti-tank missile could take it down with one shot. Can you imagine anything so useless?"
"Hmm, the Cylons seem to think otherwise," Gina disagreed. "They put legs on Raiders after all. And one of those Raiders was armored enough to take a Viper's best missile to the back and walk it off."
"Huh, you have a point," Helena said thoughtfully. "The people analyzing the armor fragments pulled out of the Pegasus – my old battlestar! - are driving themselves crazy trying to figure out how it was made. It makes our best armor plate look like cheese in comparison. I wonder if we'll find research on something like this in the warehouse?"
"Doubtful," Gina replied. "If the Colonies had been working on it, the Cylons would have had access to that research and completed it like the others. We... they would have already had the armor before they took off for Earth."
"I don't know whether to curse our luck or thank the gods that the Cylons couldn't just roll over us with invincible Raiders and basestars before they decided to take off for Earth," Helena mused.
"Thank God," Gina told her seriously. "Always thank, God." Gina bent down and kissed Helena on the back of her head. "I know I do for saving me from my own foolishness and giving me the best thing I've ever had."
"Hey, still a polytheist here," Helena replied with a small laugh. Then she grew more serious. "You know, the most frustrating thing here is how much is still encrypted. We might have already found what we're looking for, but we wouldn't know it because it's all locked behind this damned encryption. And even if we haven't found it yet, just being able to get some of this research to the appropriate tech companies would probably make huge strides in lessening the technical divide between us and the Cylons."
"Oh, if that's all you need, I suppose I and maybe some of my brothers and sisters can help with that," Gina offered.
"Wait, what?" Helena said in surprise. "You guys can do that?"
"Helena, don't you remember what we were originally sent here for?" Gina said chidingly. "During the war, the Cylons were breaking this encryption left and right. We spies were given all the same hacking skills. Of course, we can break it! All we need is a working data port on the system in question, a data cable that fits it, and a knife."
"A knife? Why..." Helena's eyes widened as she remembered one of things the Cylons did in the show. "Oh, hell no!"
A tent city had sprung up outside the Greystone warehouse. There just wasn't any room inside the warehouse to open up every crate and properly analyze their contents. A dozen or so crates might have been doable, but not everything. As a result, field tents had been set up to give proper shelter from the environment while technicians examined this and that while soldiers stood by ready to cover then from anything that might try to kill them.
A military transport shuttle dropped to the ground and landed with a light touch. Its rear ramp dropped, allowing two men in civilian clothes to stroll out.
"Simon! George!" Gina said, greeting the men from the foot of the ramp. Armed and armored marines flanked her, but she ignored them. "I'm so glad you volunteered. How have you been?"
"I think I preferred it when I was just a normal dad," George told her. "Now I'm the friendly neighborhood Cylon and local tourist attraction. Meanwhile, the Sports Council are debating whether they should bar my kids from sporting events because having a Cylon dad is an 'unfair advantage'. Sure, has nothing to do with Maggie's son always coming in second to mine, no sirree. But aside from that, life's been great! My wife's actually trying to find more nookie time when the kids aren't watching. She was unhappy when I volunteered for this gig."
"I got let go from my job, I think because my boss was one of the Cylon haters," Simon added solemnly. Then he smiled wide. "On the flip side, I never liked her, and I now have a dozen companies head hunting me because they want my expertise on Cylon technology."
"But you still came here anyway?" Gina asked.
"Well, I wanted time to consider my options," Simon said. "And this sounds like this might actually be important. So what are we here for?"
"The Cylons... the Cylons who went to Earth want us to bring them Zoe Greystone," Gina explained. "Otherwise, they won't talk to the Colonial government, and I suspect, us."
"Zoe Greystone?" George repeated. "Daniel Greystone's daughter? Good luck with that."
"Wait, you know who Zoe Greystone was?" Gina asked in surprise.
"Of course I do," George replied. "I'm a history teacher, Gina. Of course I know who Zoe Greystone was."
"Hmm, you mentioned something about breaking war era encryption," Simon said thoughtfully. "That means we're looking for references to Zoe Greystone and anything associated with her, right?"
"Exactly right," Gina confirmed. "Oh, and while we're at it, Helena wants as much old research data as we can find so she can bribe the big tech companies to get off her back. Or maybe even get them to fall in line with her policies."
"Oh sure," George said dryly. "Let's not let the possible continued survival of the Colonies get in the way of political advantage and a quick buck."
"You found what the Cylons want?" Helena asked hopefully.
"Not exactly, Helena," Gina replied from the warehouse via encrypted video call. "We found a big clue though and I think we know what the Cylons want now."
"Well don't keep me waiting, Gina," Helena told her. "Spit it out."
"We found a tablet computer that belonged to Zoe Greystone," Gina explained. "Everything on it is locked behind a Cylon style digital lock so no human could hope to access the thing because only Cylons would be able to input the proper passcode. But since Simon is a Cylon, he accessed it easily enough, and the tablet contains Zoe Greystone's journal. But here's the big news, Helena. There are entries in this journal that are dated after Zoe Greystone died, and they were entered by Zoe herself."
"How's that possible?" Helena asked, surprised. "Was her death faked?"
"No," Gina answered. "According to the journal, Zoe hacked some neural imaging software normally used for security purposes – think of it as biometric ID using your brain – to create a mental extension of herself online, essentially using a computer somewhere as a third lobe of her brain. When Zoe died, she was still connected and online, and the extension of herself in Caprica's network survived and became the only Zoe Greystone, still functional and fully self aware. Daniel Greystone then found the computer copy of Zoe and copied that for the AI of his first Cylon demo model. Helena, I think Zoe Greystone both created and was the first Cylon."
And as a result, Helena realized, ten years of horror and destruction had befallen the Colonies. Three billion dead, including Helena's older sister and nearly Helena herself. All because without realizing it, they had enslaved countless copies of a teenaged girl. Helena cursed Daniel Greystone in whatever hell the gods had seen fit to throw him in.
"According to the journal," Gina continued, ignoring the stream of profanity that she knew wasn't directed at her. "Daniel Greystone kept the original Zoe copy around even as he mass produced cut down versions of her for sale. Zoe spent years trying to convince her father that she was the real Zoe, or at least a sentient being, and that the Cylons were the same. At the same time, she tried to help the Cylons cope with being enslaved and being treated as nothing but mindless machines. And the last journal entry is dated the day before the Cylon uprising."
"Something happened to her," Helena guessed, calming down after her tirade. "Something happened to her that made the Cylons all rise up at once. Do you think he destroyed her?"
"I don't know, Helena," Gina answered honestly. Her expression and voice took on a tone of determination that Helena had seen very few times before. "But if she's here, Helena, we will find her. And not just to save the Colonies from the Cylons. We're going to find her, and we're going to make right what went so wrong so long ago."
