Chapter 17: Finding Earth


"Alright," She took a seat around the plotting table, seeming to not notice how people stared at her. Roslyn was sure no teenager could manage such a degree of indifference while still being totally aware of her surroundings. "So you had better start walking me through your history, political structure, basics of your laws. That sort of thing."

"You first," Roslyn said. "This Terran Federation of yours, how big is it?"

"According to the last census I saw, we had sixty-seven planets with a population of over a hundred million for a total population of just under a hundred and fifty billion."

"How many people in your military?" Adama asked.

"If you look at the entire Fleet, the Marine Corps, the smaller local defence forces - and exclude the part-time reservists - you're looking at better than nine billion. That's been steadily decreasing since the war finished, though."

"Nine billion," Adama looked shocked.

"Less than one billion currently stationed aboard interstellar ships."

"Oh." They still looked shocked.

"Each planet or other stable celestial body with a population of under five million has a Planetary Governor who acts as a representative of the President; the Governor is appointed by the President - or, in reality, by a staffer of the President, since there's so many of them - and when the planetary population hits a hundred thousand the Governor is elected by the populace. The rules for elections to the Senate or Parliament are much more complicated - two houses of representatives. The Parliamentary reps are elected, one per planet that doesn't have a Governor; the Senate is done by borders drawn arbitrarily based on population percentages as determined by a formula in our Constitution. There's a hundred senators, and at present, six hundred and ninety-six Parliamentarians. Or possibly more; we're at the tail end of the news services out here, and there were five more applications going through sometime this week that we haven't heard about yet."

Everyone looked surprised at the numbers. "What system did you use?" She asked after a moment.

"We had a two-house system," Roslyn said, "Senate and Congress. There were a hundred and forty-four senate seats, twelve per colony, and five hundred Congress seats apportioned according to population."

"And the Senate was the upper house?"

"Yes."

"Same for us. And you had an elected President, and a Constitution."

"No, we didn't."

"I think you call it the Articles of Colonization." She caught the look Adama flashed her. "I talked with your son and the other pilots on the way in." He nodded. So Lee Adama was his son. She had wondered.

"Well, yes, but it's not a Constitution as I understand the word."

"I'd like to read your Articles sometime." She frowned. "Only twelve colonies?"

"We only had twelve habitable planets. The Colonies of Kobol were - well, we hadn't finished filling up the planets, so we never needed to look for more planets to settle."

"How long had you been settled there?"

"About a thousand years," Adama said.

"And before that?"

"Our forefathers fled from Kobol after a nuclear war made the planet uninhabitable," Roslyn said. "There aren't many records. Weren't many records."

"And how long were they on Kobol? And where was it?"

"We don't really know," Roslyn said. "Perhaps another thousand years."

"And before that?" Reece had adopted a poker face.

"We don't know. Religion aside; you should talk to Elosha, the head priest in the fleet."

"That's interesting," she remarked. Only one religion? Better not discuss that until she understood it a bit better. Too easy to offend someone.

"Why?"

"Because we've only had space travel for aboutnine hundred years."

"Well, there were thirteen colony ships. Not twelve." Tigh shook his head.

"Yes, yes, I suppose you could be the descendants of the thirteenth," Baltar said. "Oh, but the numbers - how could there be so many people?"

"Even if we bred like rabbits, the math doesn't work, unless it was a humongous ship," she agreed.

"Maybe it goes back further than that," Lee said.

"How did the language survive unaltered?" Roslyn asked. "How come you speak our language at all?"

"It's just English," Reece said.
"That's not what we call it," Tigh said.
"What happened to the odd one?" Reece asked. "The thirteenth ship. The one that isn't accounted for?"

"We don't know," Adama senior admitted. "Legend has it that it established another colony on a planet called Earth."

Reece laughed. "Sorry. I shouldn't find it amusing, but I do."

"What's so funny?"

"My parents were born on Earth. Humanity evolved there. We've been around for millions of years. There's no way we're descendents of your colony ship"
Everyone in the room was staring at her. "But given the math adds up wrong for you to be descendents of us - well, the historians are going to go apeshit. I've never even heard of a planet called Kobol, but I'll look it up." The sheer shock in the room was like a physical force.

"But you said it was the Terran Federation," Roslyn said weakly, her beliefs crumbling. "The planet's got a lot of names. Earth was a common one for a while, but Terra won out."

Adama looked ready to have a heart attack. Lee looked shocked. Baltar was working his jaw, eyes darting around madly.

"Were you looking for Earth?" Reece put two and two together. "You were running to the only hope you had. And you found us." She put her head in her hands. "If that's right, we're almost going to have to admit you to the Federation, or at least make the offer. There's a particular ethic the military and a lot of civilians live by - we look after our own, and the President can't afford to lose too much support if she expects to get re-elected next year. The last election was far too close for her comfort." Reece leaned back against a console. "If you want to go to Earth, you probably could, eventually, but I've been there. It's so overpopulated it's not funny. You'd do better on some of our colonies."

She realised no one was really listening, and shut up and observed. It was like watching a Jew being told the Messiah was born at last.

Author's note: The name Terran Federation is a bit of a homage to a childhood love of Blake's 7.