Hekate's Path

Chapter 2 – Reunion

The familiar and intense wave of displacement made its way through all the forty eight thousand or so people of the fleet. They had jumped. How they had jumped, they had no idea since their ships were all still without power.

Ares – CIC

The Ship Master stepped over to where the War Master and his lord, Ares were standing.

"My Lord, the jump is complete. The engineers tell me that the strain of maintaining the null field over so many ships during the jump has severely depleted our energy reserves. We can make a short jump now if we drop the field."

Ares knew this is what would happen. But he had no choice. He gazed at the portal in space only a few hundred thousand kilometers off the bow of his ancient ship. He put a hand on the console nearest him. This ship had served him well … so had his crew. He realized that the age of the Lords of Kobol was coming to its end.

"How long before the human ships regain power after we drop the field?"

The War Master consulted the screens at his station.

"My Lord, the field will remain in place for no more than a few minutes after we shut down the generator. We will be gone long before the humans would ever detect us."

"Very well, Ship's Master. Prepare to jump to the coordinates given us by Hekate for our rendezvous. War Master, drop the field just before we jump. The ship Hekate is shepherding should be here just as the field fails."

Only a few minutes later, having collected its smaller utility craft, the mammoth ship jumped a short distance away to await Hekate.

Battlestar Galactica – CIC: 8 minutes after the jump

They sat in absolute darkness. Not even their flashlights were working. All they could hear was their own breathing. Then, like a switch being thrown, power returned. Lights, life support, engines, DRADIS … everything just turned on. Adama looked around for just a moment.

"Sit-rep… Now!"

Checks were made, statuses reported. The ship was secure. Messages filtered in through the wireless from other ships that their systems came on just as they had aboard Galactica.

Saul stepped over to his Commander and friend. He wanted a somewhat private word.

"Bill, we've got to find out who the hell is frakking with us. I didn't think the Cylons could bring down a ship this way without networked computers. And why the Frak are we alive? They should have blown us to the stars!"

"I don't know Saul. Get your department heads manually checking every system. Get an extended CAP out there. I don't want to get caught like that again."

Battlestar Pegasus – CIC

Fisk hand carried the piece of paper the Admiral had been treating like a holy relic to the FTL plotting station and oversaw the work of the technicians transcribing the coordinates. Quickly, it became clear that the calculations were for more than one jump, both incredibly long. The first jump would bring them to an intermediate point so that they could recharge their FTL systems in preparation for another jump. The second jump seemed implausible because the math showed the endpoint to be outside the known universe. But he decided to just have the techs work out the jump since the Admiral was convinced she was given this by an actual Lord of Kobol. Fisk was not a religious man and could not except divinity. What he did accept, however, was that the Admiral's word was law and breaking her law had severe consequences. When the techs finished their work on the first jump and validated the coordinates, he stepped down to the center deck of the CIC.

"Jump is plotted, Admiral."

Cain looked almost giddy. Her eyes shone with an intensity Fisk could have sworn was insanity. She smiled at him, reached out her hand to retrieve the piece of paper handed to her by Hekate, and gave the order.

"Colonel Fisk, jump the ship."

Fisk turned to the FTL station where Shaw had taken control of the glowing key.

"Lieutenant Shaw, start the clock please."

Shaw inserted the key and counted down the remaining time.

"5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – JUMP!"

The intense and familiar wave of displacement grabbed hold of the entire crew and Pegasus vanished in a flash of light.

Hekate – CIC

Ship's Master Filippos Areleous watched as the much smaller ship jumped away and called to his Mistress's chambers.

"Mistress, Pegasus has jumped and our scout has returned to inform us that Ares has collected the human fleet with a null field and jumped with them to the portal and then jumped away to our planned rendezvous coordinates. His ship will be low on power if we jump now. Shall I jump to the rendezvous with Ares?"

Her voice silky smooth could seduce even through the communications system.

"Yes, Ship's Master. Prepare to jump to Ares. Make certain we are ready to engage his ship the moment we have jumped. You must eliminate his ability to fight, maneuver and flee. But we must not destroy his ship until we obtain the Null Field generator. Follow the plan, Filippos. Follow the plan and we shall rule a new universe."

"Yes Mistress. It shall be done as you command."

Massive anti-ship weapons that hadn't been fired in anger for three millennia were raised from the hull. Rail guns were loaded with their massive slugs. Missiles armed with nuclear warheads in the gigaton range were prepared for launch. Immensely powerful plasma cannons … a technology not just superior to human weapons but utterly different than anything the fleets of the Twelve Colonies ever fielded … were charged and ready to inflict destruction upon Hekate's brother and former lover. The Lord of War would be slain by weapons of war wielded by the Goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy.

Once the ship was ready, the word was given and Hekate jumped to a new destiny.

The Portal – Battlestar Galactica – CIC

"DRADIS contact! Ten thousand kilometers from the rear of the fleet, slightly to port, twenty two degrees above us! It's closing at space normal speed. I have Colonial IFF! It's Pegasus, Sir!"

Too much had happened too quickly for Adama to take chances.

"Hostile challenge, Dee."

"To the ship closing on our stern, identify yourselves and send authentication codes."

Even as Dee spoke into the wireless, the alert vipers were launching and moving quickly toward the rear of the fleet. The sight that greeted them was beyond unbelievable. The Mercury class Battlestar Pegasus came majestically into view preceded by her own Mark VII vipers.

Dee validated the authentication codes and nodded to Adama who picked up a handset.

"This is Commander William Adama commanding the Battlestar Galactica with greetings to Pegasus Actual."

There was a pause and some static before the clear strong voice of Admiral Helena Cain came through the CIC speakers.

"Adama is that you? Gods how good it is to hear your voice!"

"Yours as well Admiral, yours as well."

"Bill, we're going to form up with you and then I'll be over to see you. I have got news you will not believe. The Lords of Kobol are real and they've heard our prayers! I'll be in your port flight pod in an hour."

Everyone heard the line click off. Adama looked over to Tigh.

"Colonel, prepare to receive Admiral Cain on the flight pod. The President should be there as well. Send a Raptor to Colonial One to collect her and her senior staff."

Tigh began relaying orders and the CIC became livelier than it had been since The Fall almost six months ago.

45 minutes later - Battlestar Galactica – Port Flight Pod

Adama stood stiffly in his dress uniform. While proper laundry services were nearly non-existent within the fleet, his uniform looked pressed and pristine. President Roslin, however, wore a somewhat tired looking business suit and appeared tired, too thin (honestly with food rationing they were all thinner than they had started out), and not quite well. The military and civilian officials who reported to them were also in their best clothing and stood eagerly waiting behind their two leaders.

The Raptor from Pegasus was towed into its spot. It looked cleaner and newer than anything fielded by Galactica. As the hatch opened, Tigh called the crew to attention. Four marines exited first and took up position on either side of the hatch. They were followed by Pegasus' CAG (Stinger) and her Executive Officer, Colonel Fisk. Finally, the Admiral herself stood at the hatch and looked around. She quickly spotted Commander Adama and jumped off the wing root and strode directly to him. Adama snapped a salute which Cain quickly returned.

"Welcome aboard Galactica, Admiral," Adama said as he shook Cain's hand.

"Praise the Lords of Kobol at least two ships of the Colonial Fleet are together again, Bill!"

Cain looked around the flight pod at Galactica's crew and saw their hopeful, expectant faces and then smiled widely at Adama.

"Admiral Cain, allow me the pleasure of introducing you to President of the Twelve Colonies, Laura Roslin."

Cain looked questioningly at Roslin as the two shook hands. Roslin understood the confusion and simply said,

"It's a long story, Admiral."

"I'm sure that it is, Madame President. But that story will have to wait. I need to speak with your fleet's leadership … Commander Adama, his senior staff and … I suppose you. We need to prepare for a massive jump. The people of the Colonies are saved and have a new place in the cosmos waiting for us. But we have to move quickly."

Cain looked at Adama.

"Bill, we need a room so we can speak and we need it now. Time is short."

Cain's eyes were wild. Adama worried about what he saw there.

"Colonel Tigh, please dismiss the crew and then meet us in pilots briefing room 4 portside."

Tigh dismissed the crew who began to mingle with those who flew over from Pegasus. He then followed Adama's group to the briefing room.

Rendezvous Coordinates – 10 light hours from Galactica and Pegasus

Ares ship was slightly darkened due to the reduction in available power. The maneuvering thrusters were keeping the ship stable but her massive main engines on the stern of the ten kilometer long vessel were dark and cold. It would be several hours before the enormous ship would be able to travel.

"Life support is stable. DRADIS is functioning for near space detection and we have wireless communication systems online. But long range imaging, main propulsion, fighter launch and recovery systems, weapons and most other systems are offline until we can generate enough power."

Ares listened closely to the sit-rep his Ship Master gave him and nodded. In an unprecedented move, he put his hand on the Ship Master's shoulder.

"Then it will be here and soon, Ship Master. Soon we will walk in the Elysian Fields. We need only await my sister's arrival to send us on our way."

The Ship Master nodded sadly as we returned to his station. Ares turned to look at the stranger in the CIC wearing the strange black and red uniform with the four raised pips on a gold bar fastened to his high collar.

"Your willingness to allow the humans their destiny without their deities is not something that will not be appreciated by those of us who care about these things. Your sister's duplicity will be dealt with. She will find that she is not a god if she makes the crossing. Good bye Ares. It was nice meeting you."

The creature vanished in a flash of light.

50,000 km from Ares

"Mistress, the jump is complete. We are launching fighters and all weapons are ready for action."

Even from the distance between the two ships, the imaging and sensing systems showed that Ares was running on greatly reduced power and that the ship was essentially helpless. For a brief moment, a look of remorse shadowed Hekate's face only to be replaced by steely determination.

"War Master, launch the attack."

Nearly a thousand sleek fighters launched from the huge ship's flanks and sped beyond their mother ship's firing solution on Ares. The giant cannons began belching their destructive streams of energized plasma. Moving at nearly seventy percent the speed of light, the plasma crossed the distance in a fraction of second and began obliterating the dense armor protecting Ares and quickly destroying the interior of the ship. The fire was directed to nearly every section of the ship except for the aft third where the Null Field equipment and engines were housed.

Within seconds, the massive ship was nearly lifeless. Hekate knew that Ares would be standing serenely in his CIC welcoming his final death. She watched as both massive flight pods were torn from the central hull and ripped to shreds. She looked on as the massive normal space engines separated from the rest of the mangled ship and seemed unconcerned when the fore two thirds exploded leaving no debris larger than five meters square.

"Ship Master, send a recovery crew to secure the Null Field generator. Then load it and an engineering crew aboard a utility craft and jump it to Pegasus. Our daughter, Cain, must have this device before they jump to the new realm. Install it on her ship and have someone show her … and only her … how to activate it. With the limited power on Pegasus, it will only operate for a few hours before it fails and becomes useless forever. She must activate it the moment she completes the jump. Make sure she understands this. The utility craft and its crew will travel on Pegasus for the jump."

She didn't even let him respond. She turned and retreated to her chambers. Nobody saw that she shed a single tear for her brother, her lover, the only god who had ever had her heart. She turned back to the Ship Master to give one more instruction.

"When the utility craft jumps to Pegasus, we will jump through the Portal and wait some distance away for the children."

Somewhere else

"Your restraint and composure have been noted Ares. It was decided to pull you and your crew away from the destruction. There are others from your domain that will require … guidance. Be that guide to the Children of Man. They will find their way across to the new domain and they must be redirected away from their mission of vengeance. If they are not dissuaded, they will be destroyed. Humans in the other realm are far more powerful that you realize and your sister will find them more than her equal. The Cylons need a hopeful, peaceful guide. You must be that guide."

Disembodied, non-corporeal … the former God of War, the Lord of Kobol understood his new purpose and willed all the remaining Baseships, raiders and other craft bearing Cylons both human form and mechanical back toward the Hub. Once satisfied that they were moving, he himself departed and traveled through nothingness to the Hub. He had to teach the ways of peace before he could let the Children of Man approach the portal. He also knew which body, long hidden in the deepest part of the Hub he would be reborn as. He would bring serenity and balance to the Cylons as an Avenging Angel of mercy and peace.