Children of the Stars
Chapter 5

Authors note:
Its exposition time for the Rag Tag Fleet, given just how confusing and round about the history of BSG is I'm sticking to the known facts. Some, like the size and speed of a classic Battlestar, have always been more than a bit fuzzy. Even basic facts are hotly disputed, so for the sake off this story I'm using a combination of; best guess, some nudging here and there, and the battlestarwiki.

Faith didn't regret much in her life, actually it was all just a matter of scale. When you make the sort of mistakes she had over the years it sort of skews your perspective. When you compare murdering someone on the orders of a whack-job town Mayor who wanted to become a giant demon just to avoid dying to a bad one night stand, the one night stand looses its sting. So to speak.

Now shouting down the old guy wasn't up there with knifing poor Lester but still it was a mistake. But if wasn't for the fact she was still screaming it could have been cool. 'You can stop now.' The graying pilot helpfully suggested when she stopped for breath.

'Where are we?' She croaked out.

'Haven't you looked out the window?'

'No, but that's because my eyes are still closed.' Faith admitted.

Xander's dad laughed lightly. 'Well I believe your people call it Tranquility Basin.'

'Who would call it that...' something in the back of her mind connected the reference. 'That's where the moon landing happened!' She gasped and opened her eyes. It was. Sitting outside her side window, hanging in the night sky was a blue disk. covered in slowly moving patches of blue, green and white. The Earth, pristine and the most fantastic thing she had ever seen. 'Wow...'

'It's a beautiful world. But every yahren I doubt even more that my people will ever set foot on it freely.' Troy said with a catch in his voice.

'What... You don't know if you'll be excepted.' Faith said in a rare moment of insight. 'Too many people like me out there.'

'No, we can prove we're telling the truth. The problem is too many people are afraid of us. What we can do.'

'How you going to prove it, take everyone up one one of these things?' She looked around the cockpit. That would just about do it.

'We do have... other ships. I'll show you one if you like.' This time Faith had her eyes open so she watched as the space fighter began moving again, without the massive take off throwing her back like a good kick to the gut this time. Pulling up and away from the Moon they headed off into space.

Faith watched in awe as the universe moved around them, the Earth and Moon becoming specs of light in the distance behind them. 'So why haven't you told everyone?' she asked

'We arrived in the year 1980. Your world had been on the brink of nuclear war for decades. When we monitored your transmissions and learned this we became afraid of what our presence would do. Worse still our enemies, the Cylon Alliance, had hunted us across space. We had lead humanities greatest foes to the doorstep of our last outpost...'

'Wait hang on, you guys got your butts kicked by these Cyclops guys and then lead left a trail of bread-crumbs for them to find us. Thanks.'

'We thought we had lost them, but we didn't.'

'So these guys followed you. Why? We're no threat to them and your people weren't in any shape to fight back.' Buffy asked. Her, Giles, Willow and Kennedy sat at one end of the table facing Xander, Dillan, Jamie, the new dark skinned guy Boomer and Commander Adama. Dawn, of course, was watching through the window. The rest of the Slayers were scattered around the castle somewhere.

'Our very existence, our peoples very way of life is a threat to the Cylon Alliance. Their mechanical minds are ruled by order and structure. Freedom, our own individuality, is a source of chaos to them.

'You see more than a thousand yahren ago the original Cylon people were a noble race of lizard like creatures. Our allies had contact with them and we through them. Then one day they disappeared. The next anyone heard of them the were the Cylon Alliance, robots and machines the original race had built to serve them.' Commander Adama explained. 'The Cylons spread across space like a wildfire. Most races had achieved peace with themselves and others early in their expansion into space. They were no match for the militaristic Alliance.'

The old man swallowed. 'Our own past was not so sanguine. After the first exodus from Kolbol our twelve colonies were intense rivals. Without a central government there ware no laws or treaties in those early yahrens. Piratical infighting and raiding parties were common until we formed the first Quorum of Twelve. After that the Colonial Military was formed to put an end to the pirates and the splinter colonies they formed. Putting us in the perfect position to fight back.'

Giles interrupted. 'I'm sorry it was what, six or seven thousand years that this happened?'

'More like five.' Dillan answered

'And you still had a functioning military after all that time? It took that long to deal with these pirates?' Giles finished. It was a good question.

'No, but we never truly destroyed the pirate actions. The military helped to unify our people and eventually it became more a form of what you would call a civil service. Colonial Warriors were trained in advanced sciences, from hyper-physics to cellular biology. After the thousand yahren war started more combat orientated training was included.'

'A form of, I don't know, renaissance warrior. An interesting idea, would they just be pilots or general infantry.

Commander Adama smiled ruefully. 'They are both.'

Buffy thought that one out. As she did Giles took off his glasses and polished them. 'Then their nearest analogy would be commandos or even the SAS. Impressive.'

'What now?' Willow asked confused

Giles explained; 'The SAS, British special forces. It stands for Special Air Service, mostly used behind enemy lines in small teams. Skirmishers, only not as, well, black as your American Black Ops team.'

'That sounds about right.' Adama agreed.

Faith looked out over the pilots shoulder again. There were a little cluster of stars they were heading towards. 'So how this war get started in the first place? I mean if they kicked your butts that's not the sort of fight you want to pick.'

'A thousand yahren ago...'

Faith rolled her eyes. 'Didn't anything happen last week for you guys. And would it kill you to call it years.'

'... Our friends and neighbours, a race called the Hasari, were attacked by the Cylons. They almost totally destroyed the Hasari civilisation, scattering the survivors across space. The Colonies intervened, hoping a show of strength would, if nothing else, halt the Cylon advance.'

'Instead they just kept coming.' Faith supplied, joining the dots. 'And a thousand years later they beat you. Good job.' The stars in front of them were getting bigger, a lot bigger and quickly. Especially the one in the front. Faith looked again, they weren't stars. They were spaceships, great huge spaceships heading right for them. 'What is...' her voice died in the back of her mouth.

'That, young lady, is the Battlestar Galactica.'

'So you guys lost. I hope you gave them one hell of a fight.' Buffy said before asking. 'So how did you lose anyway if you lasted a thousand years.'

'We were betrayed, by a member of the Quorum of Twelve. A man by the name of Baltar who sought power at any cost. He entered an agreement with the Cylon's Imperious Leader. With words of peace and armistice the President of the Colonies went to meet with the Cylon leader.'

'Let me guess, big trap?'

'For all of us Miss Summers. In a single sweeping attack our fleet was caught unaware and decimated by wave after wave of Cylon fighters. My Battlestar alone survived when we realised what was happening to our homeworlds.'

The old man closed his eyes and there was a catch in his voice when he opened them. 'With our forces out of position and under attack Cylon command ships moved into orbit above our major cities. Raining mega pulsar blasts down upon our civilian populations and launching even more Raiders to strafe anything and anyone they saw. In a single night billions of people were slaughtered, the Galactica arrived too late to save them.'

'So these guys pull the wool over your eyes and enjoy massacre fun time. I take it you did the smart thing and ran.' Buffy pushed. Not a good idea but that side of her mind was busy wincing at billions being killed.

'If you mean did we run from battle, no. We did what we could but one Battlestar is no match for a dozen Baseships with fighter support. We believe the Cylons must have used all their resources in their attack and despite the massive losses of our own fleet a number of our fighters survived while theirs were defeated.

'Also not all of our people were killed in the attack. Broken and battered the survivors boarded two hundred and twenty ships and set out across the heavens, that is how we lost the war and began our quest to find Earth.

Faith's eyes must have been the size of dinner plates. The big old space ship was bigger. A lot bigger. Troy flew the fighter in between great pylons that held these big pod things on either side.

They flew past the ship slowly then spun in space. 'We better land and refuel.' The pilot said and they flew slowly towards one of the pods. It was a great big landing strip.

'What is this thing.'

'The last Battlestar, Galactica. It's guided and protected the fleet for more than forty yahren.'

Faith watched as the landing hanger swallowed the little fighter she was sitting in. 'You had a fleet of these things and got hammered. Your not about to tell me that these are all show and no pants.'

'Sorry?' he asked as the fighter slowed down and stopped.

Faith just rolled her eyes. 'Are these Viper things the only fight this oversized toy has?' The canopy opened and some guy in an orange jump suit pushed a step ladder on little wheels up to them

'Hardly.' Troy said, taking off his big gold helmet and putting it in front of him. Big was a word Faith felt she was going to use far too often in this place. 'A Battlestar is a carrier battleship. As well as the usual four squadrons of Vipers a Battlestar has sixteen weapons emplacements, consisting of a paired Turbo Laser and an Anti-Fighter turret each.' Math was never Faith's strong point but that sounded like a lot. 'We've also got a couple of Mega-Laser cannons for capital ships.'

Faith got out after him and climbed down the ladder. 'I have no idea what that means, between one to ten on the kick ass scale where's this bad boy come.'

'Between one and ten?'

'Yeah. One's like... A Tie Fighter and tens the Death Star.' Faith grabbed at the first thing she thought of. Star Wars. 'You tell anyone I've seen that flick and I'll kill you.'

'I've seen it too. My wife insisted we did. I liked it.' Troy thought for a moment. 'I'd say eight.'

Faith let out a long whistle

'And you guys fell for it?' Buffy asked. 'Haven't you people ever heard of the fall of Troy. The Trojan horse.'

'You were paying attention in history that day?' Willow asked her blinking, Giles had the same expression but mixed with pride.

Xander waved a hand. 'No, she just saw an episode of Red Dwarf on T.V. with me a few nights ago.'

'That and the movie had Brad Pitt in it.' she admitted

The Commander hung his head. 'Our history is full of such tricks used in our own ancient past. Even if the fall of the city was in this worlds history you are not the first to draw a similarity. You must understand the war had been in a stalemate for much of the last five hundred yahren, since the development of the Battlestar and the Cylon Basestar, our forces were too even. Still, eventually, their ability to rebuild and shear numbers would have turned the tide. While the chance our experience and advancing technology could have turned the war in our own favour our losses were immense.

'Quite simply a great number of our people were tired of war and afraid that our only hope was peace. The Cylons timed their overture perfectly.' The commander explained.

'I bet a traitor in your command didn't help very much.' Giles guessed.

'Whoa I thought my life was bad.' Dawn said in the following silence.

Faith watched as the fighter was towed into place. 'So that old man I kind of insulted. He was the captain of this ship?' The Viper

'The commander is president of the Quorum of Twelve and leader of the fleet. He has been for more than fifty yahren, since he lead lead us from the destruction of the Colonies.'

'Crap, fifty years? I owe the old guy an apology. Just how old his he anyway?' She said suddenly.

'Over two hundred yahren and for your information a yahren is around fourteen of your months, slightly longer than a year because of Kolbol's size and distance from it's local star.'

Faith just blinked at that. 'Oh, that's... that's... He's no spring chicken then.' Two hundred years old, no even more. A hell of a lot more. That was old.

'He his not. They should have refueled the Viper by now and it's time we got you back to Earth.' Troy said

Faith was about to climb in when one of the people in orange jump-suits handed her a golden helmet. 'Urm.. thanks.' she said as she turned it over in her hands it was a little smaller than Troy's and a bit more elegant but still had the lights where glass should be and the big gold bird thing mounted on the forehead. 'So what have you guys been doing all this time? I mean twenty odd years out here getting dizzy going around Earth must take up a lot of time.

'We have done several things. Set up colonies on Earth, they set up farms to feed our people and places that accept us.'

Faith sat down. 'So your like on Earth, now but in secret. Isn't that kinda like spying on us?'

'A friend of ours said the same thing, no we are not spying on you or Earth. Instead we are here to help. Over the last twenty years we have introduced technology and science it would have taken you twice as long to understand. We hope to bring Earth close to our own level of technological and social development before making official contact.'

'So where does Xander fit in to all this.' Willow asked and Buffy cast a side long glance at her friend. He looked uncomfortable, probably guilty he never told them. She wanted to tell him it wasn't his fault. That she never would have believed him without proof, thing was she did.

Before the spaceship and the whole appearing commander thing, in fact the moment his bother let it slip Buffy knew it was true. She got that odd feeling again someone had played her but she couldn't say who, what or when.

It was Jamie, Xander's mom that answered. 'Not all Galacticans agree with Commander Adama and Doctor Zee's plan to develop Earth today. One of these, a former ship captain and council member, Xavier, has a different plan. He want's to go back in time and change Earth's past. Give them technology far in advance of today, then.'

'Sounds like a plan, might actually work too.' Giles admired. 'if, of course, he has access to time travel

'The Galacticans do, They call it time warping.' Jamie. ' The thing is he doesn't care who he gives the technology to as long as they get it. One time he was involved in the V2 rocket program.'

'Ahh.' Giles took off his glasses and polished them. 'I take it you interfered?' the woman nodded. 'Good job.' He was probably wigged by the time travel thing, Buffy was too.

'What's a Vee-two?' Buffy asked, Giles just hung his head

'Ballistic missile, Nazi Germany developed them during the second world war. Sort of like a cruise missile nowadays only they weren't that accurate' Dawn answered and got a strange look from her sister. The Giantess made a sort of arc motion with a finger. 'Sort of like France to England. Boom. Wasn't very good though, planes cost less and did more. With better aim.' Buffy didn't stop looking at her. 'What? I used to pay attention in class.'

Jamie laughed. 'So did I. That's why I went along, to help stop him. Wasn't the only time either. If he'd succeeded Germany would have won the second world war.'

'Okay, even I know that's not good.' Buffy winced

'Nope, it's not. It wasn't the only thing he tried but we stopped him each time. He... he...'

Xander picked up the story. 'He decided to take it out on Jamie, Troy and the Commander. When he found out I was born he had a plan. So late one night he came along and kidnapped me.'

'As both my great grandson and the first child born of both our fleet and Earth Xander is an important symbol to our people.' Commander Adama added. 'A symbol of hope and the future of humanity.'

'So no pressure.' Xander joked

'But with all of Earths history to hide him Xavier could have left Xander anywhere and anywhen.'

'So we going to move or what?' Faith asked.

Troy looked over his shoulder. 'We've refueled and ready. Do you want to launch?'

'Urm wow. Sure, why not.'

'Good, now to your left there are three switches marked turbo. They prime the boosters for launch. Press them in sequence.'

'What about this one on the joystick?'

'Leave that one for the time being.' Faith pressed the big buttons, each one lighting up. With the last one the fighter dropped a inch. 'Whoa.'

'It's fine. This is Viper Recon One, ready to launch.' Faith wondered who he was talking to with that last bit.

'Launch granted One' a flight controller's voice came over the radio.

Troy turned back to Faith. 'Now on the control stick there's a pressure switch on your finger. That's your throttle, squeeze it all the way back.' She would have called it a trigger but it was there. When you've done that press the thumb switch marked Turbo to launch and hold the controls dead strait. You don't want to go spinning out of control out of the tube.'

'What about the floor pedals?' Faith tapped the two of them.

'Leave them, they're for pitch and roll controls.'

'Well here goes nothing' She pulled the trigger and then pressed the switch.

It was one thing to launch from a planet, quite another to be catapulted out of a lunch tube. Even slayer strength can be taken by surprise and going from dead stop to hypersonic in less that three seconds was more than enough to do that. Faith was thrown into the back of the chair as it felt like the three thrusters were trying to push themselves through the back of her skull. Like a bullet from a gun the fighter was lunched into space straight and true.

'Release the turbo now.' Troy said calmly, this was something he did everyday. He did that everyday. Finally she did as she was told. 'You did well.'

'That was awesome.'

Troy laughed lightly. 'No this is awesome.' He then put the Viper through its paces and Faith knew what he meant. When your a kid you dream of flying, then when you do get on a plane you sit down. Get a packet of peanuts, a tray-table and have to sit next to some fat guy that takes up half your seat and another dream dies. This was what flying was supposed to be. Dancing in the air like the Viper was. Spinning, ducking and diving for the simple joy of it. It was fantastic.

Faith had to thank the old guy, and apologise of course.

End chapter 5