To change fate Chapter 27: The power of light and darkness, a Stargate: SG-1 + Battlestar Galactica: 2003 Crossover fanfic

Disclaimer: I never have and never will own the characters, Ideas or anything else based on these 2 shows. The TV studios that produced them, do. This story is also free as it is a pet project. Enjoy.

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Wireless/communication"

"Speaking in a different language"

"Reading a text"

Chapter 27: The power of light and darkness

First TF Battlestar Galactica, hyperspace, delivery fleet, 30 minutes later

Bill left his quarters, letting his friends either stay there and continue drinking and reminiscing of old times, or go to their quarters for some down time. He didn't care right now. He was still wide awake and wanted to get to know his 'new' young girl a bit better. And the crew. His old crew, he hoped, would join them after this mission, but more than half is brand new and from worlds previously unknown to him. He needed to get to know them better as well, mostly the CO's. The marine CO, engineering CO, the 2nd officer... a lot of new faces to get adjusted to.

"Deck 24, forward starboard section." The EVA voice announced as he stepped out of the transporter booth. The moment he did, several recruits and one officer, a Lieutenant according by her marks, entered, or at least tried.

"Officer present!" She yelled and everyone stood at attention, saluting.

He returned the gesture. "At ease. I'm off duty right now, no need for that... Lt...?"

"Bastila, Sir. Lt. Bastila. Engineer, 1st class. Sorry to interrupt your walk, emm, sir. I'm just..."

"Taking some fresh out of the academy recruits to a simulation or training session. So they learn the ship's system live and not just in a VR simulation, right?"

"Emm, yes sir. Commander Nagata's orders."

Bill smiled. This brought back old memories. Breaking in new, possibly cocky recruits who thought they knew it all... like he once did. "Carry on!"

Bill could still hear whispers in the back as he left them to continue on their way. Possibly they all thought they were in some sort of trouble. He, the old war dog that is all about discipline and no room for errors and human emotions. Well, he was about discipline, but not the back breaking type. As for the latter two, humans make mistakes, no way around that, it's what makes humans... human. And so do emotions. But to know when to accept your failures due to mistakes, to 'man up', that's what builds character in his eyes. And to know when to detach your emotions and when to let them out is also something that has to be learned and trained, if you want to be a good solder. No one said solders have to be emotionless robots. But in the heat of the battle, it's almost better if they were. And he knew how to do that. A bit too good sometimes.

He arrived at the marine section. It was separated from the rest of the ship's interior with security doors and guards. Not that they were needed, but separating the crew by profession and military occupation was something useful sometimes. And in a case of being boarded, it could function as a more easily defendable position.

As he passed the security detail, he could see a bit of a difference already. not in the construction of the corridors... but the more... Spartan approach the marines had. As well as the locker rooms full of combat gear, the new exoskeletons, weapons lockers and there was even a combat simulation room somewhere in there. Their drop ships were not here. Having a separate hangar would be a bit too much and costly, so the off duty facilities and transportation modes were shared among all professions.

"Sir. May I help you with something?" Bill was so engrossed at his... let's call it an inspection, that he didn't notice a young-ish man approach him. Most of the marines, even some alien among them, didn't notice him as they were too busy with training or combat practice. Or asleep in their closed off bunk bed rooms.

"No, just... inspecting my ship, it seems." He inspected the man and saw his insignia. He recognized it. "You're a Cylon? Never saw your model before." Then he remembered that it was not really nice to call them models. "Sorry, old habits... I didn't mean to call you..."

"It's quite all right, sir. I'm getting used to it myself."

"Meaning?"

"Well, sir. My 'old' name would have been 01010011 01110000 01100001 01110010 01101011. But that... is a bit silly here. So I am called Spark. As it literally translates to that. I was a ... centurion. A few months ago. Until... "

Bill understood. "The centurion and raider humanization program. Any centurion or raider that wants it, can get a human body and download it's conscience to it. Didn't think they were this far ahead."

"It's still a work in progress, sir. We in fact still have them."

"Them?" Spark motioned the admiral to follow him. At the room next to the exoskeleton locker, Spark activated the lights and Bill saw them. "Centurions."

"Yes. And these..." He pointed to the seat across the deactivated and secured to a wall centurions. "Are the control stations we sit down into to... well, return to those bodies. A new form of short range resurrection. I die in this body, I awake in that. and vice versa. For defensive purposes or deployment on a planet the ship orbits, it is quite handy."

Something else Vix 'forgot' to tell him, Bill noted. "Why short range only? I remember when we were being chased, you had a range in light years."

"True... but remember how easily the advanced sensors found our resurrection ship when the federation and Asgard made first contact. That is a weakness. And it can be easily jammed at long range. So... this is a trade off."

"Hmmm... and the raiders?"

"Yeah... we don't have any, yet. The range limitation will be a difficulty incorporating this system. But we do have remote control pilots for those defense drones. So, something. Also..."

They heard a noise from the corridor. And a marching sound.

"I don't know how I got here,.."

"...but I'm goanna kick some snake's scaly rear!"

"Our big new sip is our pride and joy..."

"...and we're going to defend her honor, from fighter to buoy."

"The admiral is an old war vet..."

"... and we're goanna make him proud with our blood and sweat...!"

Hearing that training/march made Bill chuckle a bit. And the one leading this bunch of marines in their exercise around the marine block was Sergeant Draper.

"Marines, halt! Officer present! At attention!"

In a way, Bill liked this more and more. "At ease. Sergeant. Where is Colonel Black at the moment?"

"Sir, he's at the lowest level of the marine barracks, 3 decks below us. Breaking in the greenest recruits."

"I see." He saluted the solders. "Carry on." He also smirked at Draper. "Don't go easy on them."

"Never do, sir." She smirked back. "Just wait when you see what Black is doing to his bunch."

They continued on their training march. Adama just kept on smirking. "Any idea what she's talking about?"

"No sir. I honestly haven't been to that level yet. The recreation level, well, usually. And I'm kind of new to the human recreation part."

"Hm..." Bill went the opposite way down the corridor the recruits just went. "If I remember, the marines have their isolated transporter system, right?" He approached another booth.

"Yes sir. Again, security reasons and a defensive position."

The admiral entered. "You coming? I enjoy our little conversation."

Spark did join him. As the transport was initiated, he asked. "Sir, speaking of recreation, how is, by your opinion, the recreation of the human procreative act?"

The transport ended, yet Bill remained in the booth. Did he hear him right? "Son, you need to work on your etiquette. That is usually not a thematic you ask someone, especially a CO."

The former centurion didn't understand, but just nodded. "I understand sir. Apologies, if I overstepped my boundaries."

"I'll overlook it, since this is all so new for you. But..." He left the booth. "You're asking the wrong person. It's been a while, if you know what I mean."

No, he didn't get it, but decided to remain silent on the matter, to not overstep his boundaries again. As he followed, he stopped just outside the booth. "Something's wrong here."

Bill was already around the corner, but he did hear him. "Took your time noticing it."

Spark lifted his foot. "Feels heavy."

Meanwhile, Bill passed the recreation areas, consisting of several simulation rooms, a bar and sports rooms. Sooner or later he would bump into Black, and he did. The recruits behind him were looking far worse than the ones that Draper was leading. And as before, they stopped and saluted.

"Admiral. Wasn't expecting you."

"Making my first rounds of this ship, of sorts. Need to get to know her and the crew after all. By the way, a bit unorthodox, but... I can guess you raised the gravity here by 20%, right?"

The soldiers behind the colonel began whispering.

"Yes I did. And not one of them noticed it!" Black responded, not happy with the recruits. "What, did you think all assignments will be on 1 G planets? sometimes you'll be in zero G, sometimes in 3 G environments. Get used to it!"

The scene was amusing for Bill. But the marines not noticing the gravity increase was something he was used from the Colonial days. "Colonel, a word, if you can?"

"Of course sir. Marines, carry on!" Whining and complaining followed. "You ladies still have 3 laps to finish! Did I say please and thank you!? MOVE IT!" The whining stopped and they did as ordered. "Bunch of soft, whining..."

"Ehm, as nice as it is to see that Saul will have at least one person on this ship to get along with and I don't want to take too much of your time, can I just ask you directly?"

"Go ahead, sir."

"What do you think of a... well, role sharing program."

"Sir?"

"We, back in the days of the Colonies, also had separate functions, but in spare time people on my ship would switch tasks to learn other traits and also get better at things they were not trained for. Like pilots taking over marine combat duties, or the other way around. Now I'm not saying we should send marines out into space in a fighter during combat, but extra knowledge and practice..." He stopped when he noticed Black's grin.

"Sir, I would have asked you that sooner or later myself. Many of the officers proposed that to HQ, but were denied for... time constraints and 'other' reasons. I would love to have some fighter jocks or programmers, engineers or any other crew member on this ship do a bit combat training here. and my people could also use some fresh air, if you get my idea."

Both men understood each other. "You come up with a rotation plan for training. Since Saul isn't here yet, give it to me and I'll coordinate with the other section CO's. By the way, since private Spark seems missing, do you know of the centurion upgrades? I noticed their bodies had a different shade of color."

"Same plating as the ship with some of that energy absorbing material from the Kull armor, cold fusion cell, rapid fire plasma caster... basically the whole package."

"Good to know. Now... you continue your 'torture' while I take a look at my part of the ship." Bill saluted him and began leaving. He was, however, wondering where Spark went to.

"And where is that, sir?" Black asked him, before he left as well.

"Pilot country." Both laughed at that. Before he could reach the exit to the marine barracks, he noticed Spark again, in the bar. And he was having a talk with a female marine. "Well, he doesn't waste any time."

Space station Terra One, Earth orbit, same time

Earth orbit was buzzing with construction for the past months. As were the moon and other planets. Well, the latter were mostly prospecting work.

Terra One was Earth's first real new era space station. A disk shape construction that extended at the bottom towards Earth where a sort of beam was being directed at the planet, as well at the top from the Erath, where a massive turret ended at the top level of the station. In the disk section itself that had a diameter around 4 kilometers and stood tall around 500 meters, the construction continued on, even if it was mostly finished as the hangars in that area were buzzing with traffic. But the really interesting part were the 2 arms extended from the station in both north and south direction, if you took Earth as a point of orientation. The arms were thin and long, but attached to them were massive solar sail like constructions, hundreds of them.

Inside the civilian sector, a private room designed as a studio, was filled with the media representatives who were having one of many discussions around this round table on the current developments on Earth.

"Hello and welcome back to our show I'm Larry King and let's start with today's recollection of everything that has happened so far to Earth and all our off world friends and allies. And as always I welcome my guests Ed Schultz, Matthew Amroliwala, Dareen Abu Ghaida and now replacing Anderson Cooper for the first time and probably permanently, Tucker Carlson. Welcome all."

While all chuckled a bit, it was Tucker who began. "Thank you thank you it's a great honour to be here Larry. I'm replacing Cooper here because of the circumstances where he and his entire staff are in deep trouble because we all know some media companies are in some serious financial troubles now."

"Well, we all know the issues our line of work currently has, don't we? Many media have the problem today." Larry replied. "But let's focus at the issues at hand. The galactic one and let Earth sort it's problems on its own... So..." He looked at all of his guests. "Who would like to go first?"

Ed Schultz cleared his throat. "Yes Larry let's begin by addressing the first thing, this elephant in the room. It being this space station we are currently on. Earth's first fully functioning orbital facility."

"Yes but more importantly why it is here? Did you notice those large solar sail like structures outside? Does anyone know what they are actually there for?" Amroliwala returned the ball to Ed.

"They are the Earth's future energy source, large solar collectors as far as I understand it. At the bottom of this station is an array of energy transmission system. That is how the collected power is transferred down to the planet. This facility alone can probably cover about 1/5 all the planets current energy needs, but it's still under construction so it's total output would be much greater than it is now."

Tucker butted in. "Yes but let's not forget that this facility is as you've mentioned not yet completely built and we are also in the process of building three other stations. Each one will be covering a quarter of the geostationary orbit of the planet so that we are going to have twenty-four-hour-a-day coverage. According to the projections the entire system should be able to produce double the amount of energy that our planet is supposed to have the need for in the near future. This however does not take into account the future needs based on the technological developments as well as the military needs for planetary defense. Some additional sources of energy may be required when in the future or we may need to further expand this solar array."

"Agreed." Ghaida nodded. "We can talk about the energy needs of our planet at a later time, it's still a work-in-progress. But what is far more important right now is this project we are sitting in right now. Can production get a shot of the planetary installation that we are currently transmitting this energy to?"

The screen in the background changed from the beautiful view of the orbit to a shot in Kenya where the first orbital transceiver array was currently still under construction but already operating. The look was essentially that of a large receiver dish not unlike the old SETI program but it was clearly visible that it was military in nature since it was reinforced with defensive structures and a beam of energy was currently hitting it at the near-perfect angle. Also there were additional constructions made at the base of the structure Apparently underground tunnels were being built next to it for the high voltage cables that will need to be used to transport energy across the globe.

Larry was curious. "As far as I understand those cables are being laid by the usage of some sort of crystal tunnelling technology right? Does anyone know where we got it from?"

Amroliwala looked at the notes. "From an ally of the Federation probably since we are not told everything for security reasons. What I'm far more interested in is how these tunnels are going to be implemented under nations let's haven't signed the alliance pact of Earth?"

Tucker responded. "They're probably going to be tunnelling so deep that they are not going to care about a nation's sovereignty if its 5 km underground even though that's technically a breach and violation of international law. This is about global energy security and a small nation that doesn't like it basically will not be the one that stops this project. Like the old saying goes: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, even if I don't exactly agree with it."

Larry remains curious. "We can also assume that both of these cables just like this station and the receiver at the bottom are made from the same alien material or should I say materials since there are multiple of them, right?

Schultz chuckled. "Yes and the military is hogging all of it so no wonder the stock markets, especially for those less valuable metals and materials are in a free-fall right now."

Tucker corrected him. " Not all of them. The rare earths metals are still high in demand and will probably be even more so. I'm talking about platinum, palladium, iridium and even gold and silver are very much in demand especially since we now know that in combination with the alien metals they are still extremely useful for future constructions like alloys, superconductivity energy-storage and transmissions."

Now Larry looked at his notes and scratched his head. "Perhaps, but the fossil fuel market is practically gone. They are basically in the bargain sale level right now, nobody currently wants coal, oil or natural gas so basically the Arabic States and many in the US and Russia are having serious issues by having too much in stock and practically no demand. I mean yes the cars are still going to run for a while on fossil fuels until we can switch to anything of the alien technology but that's just a matter of time right now. Can production show us the current status of the most in-demand at least in-demand stock markets right now?" On the screen behind them the stock markets were currently displayed and just like it was said, the fossil fuels were in a free fall but ironically gold and silver were still in high demand. "But let's drop the markets for now and let's get back to the topic at hand. Can you get back to the picture with a transceiver array please?" The screen changed back to the previous picture. "Now I'm not up to speed but it seems there is more construction going around the transceiver array. What are those additional buildings and why do they need to be so deep underground?"

This time Ghaida responded. "I believe those are the first of many massive power storage facilities where the excess energy will be stored for the night cycle. They are made from an alloy of alien materials as well as our own materials here on Earth. As I said these are the first of many and they are needed to be underground for safety reasons as well as for additional control and cooling procedures but I do believe that the more interesting part are those 12 additional mini arrays around a larger array. Does anyone know what those actually are?" Everyone show their head. "They are the first of many planetary shield batteries that will be useful for a full-scale planetary shield bubble."

Everyone was impressed at that statement. " Interesting so all four of these arrays will also be acting like shield batteries. "She nodded." I mean I knew that every large allied military base will have a shield battery but I never knew they had something like this planned. Why do they need to deploy these batteries all around the planet?" Larry inquired.

Tucker added. "Yes I mean even to me it sounds like a waste of time and resources. We know that the Ancient city ships were capable of projecting a shield bubble around the entire planet on their own so why waste time and resources building an entire shield grid?"

Ghaida had the answer. "The main reason is that while yes the city ships can project a bubble of energy all around an entire planet but they do a poor job at it. It's not power that is the problem, It's projection capacity. The shield projectors are designed to protect the city itself not a planet but if specific shield batteries in projectors are placed all over a planet they can effectively protect the planet from any attack from any direction but the first step for that is an energy grid around the planet which is currently being deployed and the military probably thought that they could kill two birds with one stone by deploying these energy transceiver arrays in combination with the shield grid. So this Shield grid may not be as advanced as an Ancient city ships as far as we know but what we do know is that it will be far more energy effective and far more capable of protecting against the planetary bombardment. Now how far it something like this will be effective against a natural phenomenon like a solar flare we don't know. The scientists are still doing the calculations."

Everyone else took that info in with great interest. "How did you get that information?" Larry inquired.

"Special access military briefings, that's how I know. Sorry but I was the only one out of this group that was invited."

"Well, at least someone who can give answers." Was the common response.

"Anything else on that matter before we continue?" Larry poked some more.

"Just one thing on the military matter that remains. You will all there for the military briefing about those spherical small satellites that were deployed in low orbit right? Well those are part of the shield grid and are there to work in unison with the planetary shield batteries to continually reinforced parts of the shields where they are needed to be reinforced for instance if the enemy focus fires on a part of the shield, the part that is currently not being bombarded is weekend to reinforce the bombarded parts."

Tucker remembered that briefing. "What about the medium sized spherical satellite that were in geostationary orbit of the Earth? What is their purpose, surely at this altitude any shield bubble would be pointless?"

"Ah, well the low orbit ones are defensive shield satellites, the geostationary orbit ones are offensive weapons platforms. They are equipped both with small caliber rail guns and anti fighter missiles as well as large-caliber particle and ion energy weapons designed for anti capital ship fire."

"Impressive but why are they deployed this high-altitude?" Larry once again asked. "And could someone explain to me what geostationary even means I'm not a scientist."

"Basically a geostationary orbit means an orbit that is at the specific distance from a planet where the object that orbits the planet rotates at the same speed as the planet rotates around its own axis. In our case it is 35.000 km and change. So basically this space station is in geostationary orbit which means we will always be under Kenya so unless something disrupt this orbit nothing should happen to change it unless we want so. The same rule applies to these satellites now. So if you are higher than this geostationary orbit you move slower than Earth's rotation if you are lower you move faster. If you are in a lower orbit and do not move faster you fall on the planet, if you are in the higher orbit and move faster you leave orbit sooner or later. At least that's how it was explained to me." Schultz chuckled as everyone laughed lightly.

"Thanks, I think I get it now..." Larry crossed his arms and looked at Ghaida. "Please continue."

"Well as I was saying these satellites are first line of defense should directly be attacked but does any of you wonder why these weapons platform satellites are so high up in orbit around the Earth and not exactly in low orbit like the shield satellite grid is? I mean wouldn't it be more logical if they could get support from the planetary defenses?" Ghaida waited for a response but got none as her co-anchors basically we're just scratching their heads and looking for answers in each other's eyes. " The answer to that is simple. The primary anti-ship weapons are all energy-based and because of that they have a range limit. The particle and ion baseball weapons lose their coherency sufficiently before they reach the atmosphere that they harmlessly enter the atmosphere. A missile or projectile weapon would still hit the planet with full force but these defense platforms only have an anti-fighter weapons based on their technology."

Tucker realized the purpose. " So it's a security meassure?"

"Exactly, it's a security measure. Basically if the shield satellite grid gets hijacked the worst case scenario is that the shields would be weakened or disabled, but if the weapons platforms gets hijacked they could be turned against us but since they are out of range and have no way of moving themselves since they have no propulsion on board and can only be relocated by ship, anybody hijacking the weapons platforms essentially just isolates Earth until the platforms run out of energy. The hijacker essentially gains nothing by doing this. And since the platforms are powered by the same system this station is feeding the planet below, just on a smaller scale, they do run out of power in a day."

Larry remembered something. " If I remember correctly, the station we are on is also heavily armed itself isn't it? I did see a large turret on top of this station right? And if I remember as well it is based on a magnetic accelerator weapon system, so isn't that basically a projectile based weapon and couldn't that weapon be used against the Earth?"

"Yes but that's why this turret is on top of the station. In order to be able to fire this gun on the planet the station would have to flip 180 degrees and doing that at the moment is impossible since it's gravitationally anchored by gravity generators as well as the beam of energy it is currently emitting to the planet keeps it stationary. On top of that the solar sails that are generating the energy both north and south of the station are also acting a semi anchors."

Amroliwala got curious when that weapon was mentioned. " What kind of slugs does this turret actually use? I'm curious here."

"As far as we know is basically a several thousand tons heavy tungsten rounds and we know these are some of the biggest guns that are currently in development. They are only designed for weapons platforms, space stations as well as a new kind of prototype ship that has been rumored to be in development."

Larry clap his hands. "Well enough about weapons and destruction, let's get back to the main topic tonight and that is the energy revolution. I've heard the rumors that it's not just the solar collectors up here that generate the energy, can anyone shed some light on that?"

Clearing his throat, Tucker answered Larry's question. "I believe I heard something about what you just mentioned. It is assumed they called a solar reactor and it is based on some alien project where they use automated long-range ships to be essentially refueled by stars. I have no idea how this works but they repurposed this technology to enhance the collected solar energy by at least tenfold as far as I understood it and then they transmit this energy down to the planet as well as distribute it to the defensive platform network as well as use on the space station itself."

After some more back and forth talking and exchanging information they decided to switch topics a little bit more Earthbound. Larry addressed the viewers. "Dear viewers we are now going to switch to a live broadcast from the massive solar farm in Texas and our correspondent Julia Donovan." The screen behind them switches to the blonde reporter and behind her the still under construction solar farm.

"Thank you Larry. I'm blessed to finally be on your show and in the presence of such a great reporters like yourself. Yes as you can see I'm currently standing in front of the massive construction site of the first large-scale solar farm here in the USA utilizing alien knowledge as and alien materials. This site will be far more energy productive than anything ever before build and it is not the only site currently under construction. Can we get a world map to see where all the others are currently being made?"

The screen changed yet again to that of the world map. There were four large red dots all at the equator, more or less the same distance from one another. The one in Kenya was currently blinking, signaling that it was already operational, one in northern Brazil, one in the middle of the Pacific Ocean near the Kiritimati islands and the last one on the island of Borneo, but was blacked out, as it was not even under construction yet. Political differences were hampering the project there. There were additional smaller dots all around the world usually in areas that were highly exposed to the sun and had very little vegetation or good weather for such facilities, like the center of Australia, Texas, Nevada as well as Spain, Turkey and Israel. Because for political reasons many nations that had the ideal location to be parts of this program were not on it because they did not join the Earth Alliance so that was still an issue that had to be resolved in the future since technology itself could not solve all the political, cultural and religious differences on the most populated planet from the Federation. On one hand humans on Earth prided themselves to be in the most populated planet but we're also informed of their Colonial cousins and their blight. If their civilization hadn't been wiped out Earth would only be number two.

Before they could move to another part of the topic, Schultz threw another fact into the discussion. "

"There's also something else that isn't exactly widely known. China has forgiven about 40% of the total debt the United States has to them."

"Really why did that happen?" Larry inquired.

"It has something to do with the use of proprietary military technology. Using alien knowledge they build something called an air scrubber device and basically it looks like giant reactor or something similar to it but basically it is designed to scrub the atmosphere of a planet of any particulates it is programmed to filter out. You can imagine what the Chinese are waiting to use that for."

"I can. It would have something to with the pollution problem they have. How many of these devices are currently already operational?"

" China currently has three and India two. Other countries with high pollution levels are also requesting them but there is an issue that we can't just built too many of them since it would be a waste of time and resources when they aren't needed anymore so currently there's just a waiting list who comes first and China is essentially nr. one with India in second place. They built massive concrete structures to house these devices and once they are done cleaning the atmosphere they will relocating to another area where they are needed. The remaining empty structure will then simply be reused for other purposes.

"Interesting, but what about water, ground and radiation pollution? Earth has many issues there as well?" Tucker added to Larry's question.

"Well the water and earth scrubbers are still in development as far as I heard of the radiation scrubber technology is already operational and there is one deployed in Ukraine. You can guess why. The other one in Japan, again you can guess why."

No one needed to guess, they all knew why they were deployed there. Simple logic to clean house now that they had the ability to do so even if the will still somewhat lacking.

Another 10 minutes passed from back and forth talk about how the production of these sites was going, as well as the further impact on the world's economy and energy production. When's the link to Julia Donovan was cut, Larry once again address the audience. "And now my dear viewers it's time to greet our last guests for tonight before we take a break. First is the great industrialists Johnson Cooper, the man whose company is basically building half of the stuff we just mentioned today. So he is not just important but also getting richer by the minute. The other one is Alec Colson also a great industrialist and a man who supports the introduction of alien knowledge and technology since it could further improve human life but let's not forget that we humans are usually the first and last problem and technology cannot solve all of our issues."

The screen change so that both men were now scene on the main screen, each one taking half of it. Alec was already smirking. "You just had to take a stab at me didn't you Larry? Yes I think technology can improve humanity, why shouldn't it? Isn't that why we were developing advanced technology for all the centuries? Yes it has been abused in the past but it doesn't mean that humanity itself can't also improve, right?"

Cooper smirked back and Alec. "I would agree, but you tend to forget that humanity has a really poor history and track record of abusing advanced technology for destruction and other evil purposes. I would say that technology has great potential for good and that humans have the ability to better themselves. But the first thing that we have to do is admit that we are not perfect. It was our own vanity on our own inability to see beyond ourselves that these snakes dominated over us for thousands of years."

Larry stop both of them before this argument could continue. "Gentlemen please we are all here to discuss the topics at hand. You both agreed to be here so let's stay on topic, shall we?" They both kept smirking, but also noded their heads. "We asked you to join us because you two are the front-liners of the Earth in when it comes to profiting from it the changes. You have to admit that made more enemies than anyone else when it comes to the rich and wealthy on the planet, since you two are the ones that got your your foot in the door of the alien technology sector, right?"

Cooper responded first. "As the old saying goes, the early bird gets the worm and Alec and I were the early birds. I don't know about Alec's motivation but mine was essentially to corner the market, improve the planet and, unlike all those corrupt politicians and those corrupt industrialists I said it out loudly that I want to make a decent buck on top of it. Why not make a Earth a better place and make money?"

Earth, unknown location, same time

The interview was finally done and Johnson was able to relax as he deactivated the live feed Massaging his face, he felt the headache he was having and went for the drawer to take out some pills and take them. "Damn this human's body! I can't believe this device has side-effects that even I can't regenerate! A simple headache in this simpleton brain of all things!" He stood up from his work desk and went to the window and removed the shader's to take a look at the see city of Seattle. He once again eyed the device on his wrist. "Good thing that Ba'al isn't half as smart as he thinks he is or else he would never have provided me with the fuel for this small wonder. Also a good thing that father never truly discovered this device's is true purpose. The Ancient who designed it was truly a genius. How unfortunate it is that my body has to suffer the side effects of this thing." He touched the only jewel on the device and it displayed a holographic projection with a text and a bar. The language was Ancient and he could read it to a degree. The bar indicated how far the device was already recharged. Essentially it read: Recharge cycle in progress, time to completion 7 hours 22 minutes. "Also bad that it takes this long after every use but essentially it's a get-out-of-jail-free card if I mess things up. Hopefully Ba'al will put the information I just provided him with to good use, preferably if he deals a blow to our mortal enemy as well as deals some damage to these stupid humans." His voice was beginning to sound distorted again so he took the other pill box out and took another pill from there as well to suppress his biological indications. Then he closed the shader's again and went to his bed. Superior regenerative capabilities or not even he had his limits to counter this devices side effects. But he also realized that sooner or later someone may get smart and put two and two together so he will need a sacrificial lamb and he knew the perfect guy to throw under the bus.

Caprica, Replicator sanctuary

Cavil was in a way having fun. No, he wasn't killing anyone. Not that there was anyone there to kill. His brothers had all been transformed, like him. Right now he was getting used to his new body as well as going thru the entire database he could access in this replicator cyber link. And what he found fascinated him. The entire history that was. How many human civilizations are still out there. How many meat-bags for him to take his frustration out on! But he knew there was much that was still being kept from him. First was not trusting to anyone it seemed. A wise policy. One he once implemented. But right now it was hindering him in his plans. Currently his body was standing in the remains of the old Graystone institute laboratory, where the first centurion models were created. Where their 'genesis' began, so to speak. These bug replicators were scouring the planets for any valuables, mostly materials or knowledge, but found slim pickings. The energy sources were being tapped, including the radiation, which they put to good use for their multiplication purposes.

"So, here you are."

Cavil turned around. It was First. "What do you want?"

First looked around. "The place of the creation of your progenitor? So... what's the word I'm looking for? Simple? No... I can do better. Backward? No... ah, primitive. Just like you were, John."

The insult and use of his name were on purpose and Cavil knew it. It was a way for First to remind him of who's in charge and who's on a leash. "Yes, well, we can't be all developed as a project by a primitive race who stumbled on Ancient knowledge and then by pure mistake create them..." He looked at the bugs who were still running around their feet.

"At least we were never slaves. Or impure. Or had the stupid notion to add organics to our design..." First actually had an expression of revulsion thinking about that. "I mean to have to eat, sleep, excrete the unused fluids and bio mass from your openings... how utterly repulsive. And then there were the reproductive obscenities..."

"The latter ones had their uses... but I agree completely with you. That's why I HATE the Final Five."

Now that changed First expression to an evil grin. "Speaking of them... I think it's time you explained yourself to someone." He turned to the entrance and signaled someone to come in. Cavil was, for the first time in his life, really shocked. Not out of fear, but for who just came in.

"Number Seven."

"So... my executioner remembers me." Daniel replied, with an emotionless expression. "And by the way, it's Daniel. That's what mother named me. Or did you forget, John?"

"I didn't. Just as you haven't forgotten that I hate that name, number Seven."

The two remained sizing, sizing each other. First almost laughed. "If I had emotions, I'd laugh. Ah, sibling rivalry. And the sociopathic one won round one. How... organic."

Cavil snapped at him. "WHY did you bring him back!? And how!?" He regretted his outburst the next instant, as the memories of pain flooded him again.

"What were we discussing earlier about the hierarchy here?" Cavil was already on his knees as he couldn't stand the pain. "The sad part here is that the pain you feel is only simulated. In this body you can't actually feel pain." He turned to Daniel. "You were always the favorite, weren't you. The 'artist' as I understand it. Tell me, does your pacifistic nature tell you to stop me from doing this to him?"

Without even having to think about it, he answered. "No."

"No?"

"No. He stopped being my brother the day he turned on all of us. Do with him as you will."

First ended Cavil's pain. "Interesting. Seems that even the most compassionate person has its limits. Anyway... you and him are... defective in my eyes."

"Then why do this for us? John may be evil, but he isn't stupid."

"To see if we can use you, all of you, to fix the issue." He once again signaled to the corridor. Fifth entered. "The other defective one. I am still hoping that your inclusion into our little collective might give us insight on organic nature and psychology, so that we might cure the humanity out of this one."

"I am not defective!" Fifth protested.

"Sure you are. You are confused, see that what we do as wrong... you sympathies with our enemies... what other way is there to describe your behavior?" He once again turned to Daniel. "You and him have so much in common. Me and him..." He pointed to Cavil. "We only have our drive and end goals in common. The crazy part is also a defect. But there is a limit to how much time and resources I will devote to fixing this. If a solution is not found soon, I'll just recycle all of you and start over." He was beamed away in a flash of light.

Cavil got back on his feet. "I really hate him."

"You hate everything. Including yourself. And you can't eve admit that little fact!" Daniel turned around and grabbed Fifth. "Come. There is nothing you can learn from him. But perhaps we can explore this... 'problem' as First called it, together. And perhaps you can tell me what happened with the Cylons, I haven't been told anything yet."

Fifth first looked at Daniel, then Cavil, then Daniel again. He would go with the nice one, if he wanted to get yelled at, again, he'd stay with First. "Very well."

Left alone once again, Cavil was beginning to contemplate his past choices. Was this machine upgrade worth all of this? Well, back then it was do or die, so what choice did he had? But now he had to deal with mama's boy as well. Great.

Pegasus galaxy, Wraith cruiser, hyperspace, 20 minutes later

"We're approaching the system." The Wraith nav officer reported to Guide.

Sheppard was standing next to Guide, who was sitting in the command chair. He was also guarded by 4 Wraith drones. "This had better not be a ruse, for your sake." Guide once again threatened / reminded John.

"Oh, it's not."

As the cruiser entered normal space, it began a sensor sweep of the system. "We are alone, no other targets detected." The Wraith tactical officer reported.

"Which means nothing if they use cloak." Guide reminded them. "Enter standard orbit of the 2nd planet. The gate is on the largest land mass." He stood up and signaled Sheppard to come closer to him. "We're being observed, aren't we?"

"Hey, you're the tech guy and tactician. You tell me."

"Heh, fine. Open a channel, no coding, all short range frequencies. don't want any other Wraith to hear this." The comm officer nodded when he was ready. "This is commander Giude of the Wraith. I hold in my custody a colonel John Sheppard of a human expedition force to this galaxy. I wish to negotiate the exchange of his freedom for assistance in fighting the machines known to you as replicators. The same machines your people unintentionally reactivated and unblocked my stand down protocol I once uploaded. If you do not andwer in 2 minutes, I will consider that as a negative response and will do the following actions: Inform the entire Wraith civilization of your existence, including Atlantis, let you and the Wraith deal with the machines on your own and also... have Sheppard for lunch. 2 minutes." He cut the comm frequency.

"Wow, lunch. What are we having?" Sheppard jested. Guide was not amused. "Hey, you said you and I would be having lunch." In reality, John knew what Guide meant, but was trying to not panic himself, so he used comedy to defuse the situation. It was not working.

1 minute later, a ship de-cloaked. The bridge crew was reacting like they usually do when they encounter a possible enemy, but Guide halted them. "Do not power up weapons. They won't do it as long as we have him. Hail them."

It was a 306, as Sheppard noticed. He found it boring getting to know all the hull classes, but it did come in handy. He also knew it was probably not the only ship here since this planet was being prospected for a potential new base.

"We're receiving an answer."

"This is captain Yanagi of the destroyer Hibiki. what assurances do I have your telling the truth?"

Guide, who was standing in front of Sheppard, stood aside. "Satisfied?" He then noticed his sensors spiking. Someone was snooping around. "I would also recommend you not try to retrieve you officer with whatever transportation technology you poses. I have taken precautions against that, as you probably already noticed."

The captain on the screen talked quietly to one of his officers and looked disappointed. "What are your terms to release the colonel?"

"I wish to speak with the one in charge of your whole expedition."

"And what assurance do I have you'll not try to kidnap her?"

"None, but my word. But if it calms your mind, I'll send a landing team down to the gate to prepare for my arrival. We can talk on neutral grounds. But the colonel will remain my 'guest' for the time being."

"I guess I don't have much choice in the matter, do I?"

"No you don't. Now contact your superior. My patience is not limitless." He cut the feed. "Get a scouting party ready and secure a position near the gate." He ordered the troop commander. Before he left the bridge, he gave one last instruction. "And get Sheppard something to eat. Would be bad manners as a host if I didn't take care of you. Try the red wine. The farmer who made it was delicious, I'm sure his wine will be as well."

Now Sheppard really lost all appetite. Guide just laughed as he left.

Centre of the Milky way galaxy, 10 minutes later

The captain was pacing back and forth on the bridge. He didn't like this, it was taking too long. But what it was also doing was making his XO and bridge crew more nervous than needed.

"Colonel, how much longer? We are here on borrowed time dammit!"

Carter and her team that were transported over to the station were taking longer than anticipated since apparently the entire in the database was heavily guarded by encryption set other protection systems. On top of that Carter also had the idea to essentially take the phase dimensional cloaking device with them since it could prove very useful in the future. But sometimes she over complicated things.

"We are working as fast as possible. The up-link has already been established and the database is being transferred to the Kursk. And radiation, gravitational distortions and the heavy encryptions are taking a toll on the transmission speed. I can only do so much sir."

At that moment Daniel almost fainted. Mitchell caught him. "Whoa, Jackson is everything all right?"

"No it isn't. I feel dizzy, something like this has never happened to me before." He told us to decide looking at the bridge but he essentially saw double. He was seeing things that weren't supposed to be there. Another transparent bridge and another transparent Kursk crew. But the scenario was different, they weren't under time pressure like this crew was. He even heard them talking. "So are you sure that Anubis is not aware that we are here?" The transparent captain asked. "Positive sir, no sign of any incursions since we arrived." The transparent tactical officer answered. Something was really off here. What the hell was he seeing? Another reality perhaps or another timeline that could exist, has existed or been erased? Something was really wrong here.

Daniel managed stand up again on his own. "Sir I think we should prepare for battle." He advised the captain.

The tactical officer was the first to respond. " Scopes are clean sir no reason to go to condition one."

"Trust me captain I know this sounds weird but I didn't descend without taking at least something with me that I can't really explain with words right now. Anubis is already here and Carter better haul ass."

The captain looked and Daniel's unshakable demeanor. He was serious. And the captain was willing to trust Jackson's former ascended intuition.

"XO set condition one throughout the ship. Colonel, how much longer until we get the database?"

"The database is almost finished, I managed to accelerate the process by downloading it in its encoded form but it will take more time to decoded on our computers than here. What is really taking more time now is retrieving the cloak, sir."

"Forget the damn cloak, dr. Jackson said that we have visitors here! We can assume that the schematics for the cloak are also in the database so forget the damn thing, set the charges, activate the nuke and beam over ASAP."

"But sir..."

Before she could continue protesting the Kursk got hit by a broad side of plasma bolts. The bridge crew members that weren't sitting down held to anything they could not to fall. Mitchell in a serious tone looked at Daniel.

"Dammit Jackson Why do you always have to be right!?"

"Report!" The captain barked.

"Sir port Shields down to 80% but other than that no damage sir." the tactical officer answered.

Lee went to the tactical station the questions of his own. "Why in the frak did we not see them coming?"

"Good question sir, my best guess is they must have adapted their shields to our scanning frequencies and on top of that utilize the radiation and gravitational forces here to mask their approach."

"How would they know our scanning frequencies?" Lee asked the obvious question. Mitchell gritted his teeth. O'Neill briefed him on the possibility of a mole somewhere and more and more it was looking like he was right.

"Sir, SG-1 is back on board." The ship's operations officer reported.

"Good. Helm, turn us about and let's get the hell out of here."

"Yeah that's easier said than done sir." Mitchell remarked. They all saw it. There was another fleet behind them, not just in front of them. They were basically being encircled. And on top of that Anubis also brought both of his command ships with him. The Kursk sensors detected the power signatures of 12 energy crystals. Anubis was not playing around this time. "But I do have a stupid question. Why don't we actually jump into hyperspace?"

"We can't. Not in this gravitational mess. Was risky enough getting here. We need to get more distance from all large gravitational objects here, the central black hole above all else." Lee casually explained the problem.

"Orders sir?" The bridge crew ask the captain. One could hear the fear in their tone.

"Captain. I may have an opening for you but you're going to have to take it the moment you see it. And you're not going to like it as well." Daniel gave the bridge crew an answer. He went to the front of the bridge in front of the main view window. He turned around to face the crew. "Don't be afraid whatever you're going to see now. And Mitchell... Please catch me when I lose consciousness."

No one really knew what he meant with that sentence. Then Daniel once again turned to the outside, looking at Anubis fleet. All of a sudden Danielle's eyes began glowing but not in the way that it was usually if you are possessed by a Goa'uld. On top of that small electrical discharges begin emanating from his body. The bridge crew was shocked beyond belief, even more so when they saw what was happening outside. It began with small sparks and explosions in space, but those sparks and explosions quickly turned into a massive lightning storm that engulfed Anubis second fleet behind them. Ships and fighters we're being torn apart like they were made out of paper. Only the largest vessels like his command ship manage to survive. Damaged, but intact.

Daniel fell to the floor. Too exhausted to continue he lost consciousness.

"Damn it Jackson that's what I call a neat trick." Mitchell murmured more to himself than anyone else. "Captain I think we have our opening."

"Agreed. And now I also understand why Jackson said that I'm going to hate it."

"So do I." Lee agreed. "Taking a course past this wrecked fleet is going to take us right past Sagittarius A. Really close. And we have no other choice since the other half is on our ass right now."

"Exactly." The captain ended the conversation. " Helm full acceleration. We're going to have to slingshot around that monster and hope they can't keep up."

The Kursk began accelerating away from Anubis remaining fleet. On the bridge dr. Jackson was being taken to the main infirmary. Lee was shocked to see what actual power looks like. The captain was really not looking forward to dancing with Scylla.

And Anubis was once again enraged because the humans somehow outsmarted him. Again. Even with the informant in Ba'al's ranks telling him where the humans were searching, they were still one step ahead. And somehow someone with a lot of power was on that ship helping the humans. Who was breaking the rules was the question for him. And still to add insult to injury, the station he was looking for blew up in a massive explosion right beside his Fleet.

Next time the concluding chapter to the battle between Anubis and the Kursk.

Cylon number Seven = Kevin Sorbo (yes, I went there - Hercules, since Three is Xena...) XD