Chapter 2: Revelations

Galactica – CIC

Under normal circumstances, the CIC would be full of the sound of cheering crew members to find a ship willing to help them out of their predicament. However, this time the entire CIC was silent... nobody knew what to say. The newcomers sounded human, but the long journey and countless battles against the Cylons had made them wary. There was no guarantee that those on the other ship were who they appeared to be.

"Tigh... I want you to head down to the port hangar to meet the scouting party." said Adama. "I also want to you take a squad of marines down there... just in case. We have no idea what to expect when they arrive."

"Aye aye Commander." he replied, wide-eyed.

"I want this to go smoothly, if we piss them off... it may just get us all killed." he whispered. "Try not to give them any reason to attack us, only take people you know can keep their heads under pressure."

"I understand Bill."

"I want you to take Sgt. Hadrian with you, she has a knack for judging when people are lying to her."

"Are you sure about this Bill?" Tigh asked "Last time you let her off her leash, she started a witch hunt on the ship..."

"Maybe so, but she's the highest ranking officer in the marines we've got left ..." Adama whispered, "and she proved herself when Gaeta instigated the mutiny... I'm willing to give her the chance to be 'one of us' again."

"I'll make sure she knows that sir." he said, throwing a lazy salute before leaving the CIC, heading straight to the marine ready room.

When he arrived, he found the place in chaos. The ready room had been transformed into a makeshift med bay to help cope with all the wounded. Tables, camp beds, and any spare blankets were being used as temporary sick beds, however many just ended up lying on the floor.

Tigh looked across the hall, and spotted Hadrian on the other side, helping to apply bandages to another marine. "Sgt. Hadrian," he called as he approached, she stood and saluted. "You have orders to assemble a squad of marines in the port hanger. They need to be able to keep a level head."

Sgt. Hadrian looked at him, with a look of confusion on her. "Are you sure the admiral wants me on this sir?" she asked nervously. The events of the last few days had obviously rattled her, but she was managing to keep her cool.

"The admiral specifically asked for you Sgt." Tigh replied. The fact that the admiral had asked for her personally seemed to make her grow a few inches, as the feeling of pride filled her. Standing to full attention, she saluted like she was back on a parade ground.

"I won't sir, you can count on me. I've got just the squad in mind." she blurted.

Tigh couldn't help but smile. Only Adama could inspire people to do their duty like that.

"At least she's trying" he thought . "Good to hear Sgt, you need to make sure they are ready for anything... these things sound human, but for all we know they have eight arms and talk out their asses!" he whispered.

"To be fair Colonel, I've met plenty of humans who talk out of their asses too!" she replied with a smile.

"You have your orders Sgt." he said. He then left the room and headed for the hangar bay, while Hadrian began putting together her squad.

Galactica – Port Landing Bay

Tigh stood on the flight deck, awaiting the arrival of the scouting party. Debris was strewn around the hall, with the broken remnants of the Viper and Raptor squads moved into various piles. Available deck hands and crew rushed around clearing an area near the hangar doors to serve as a meeting point between the two ships representatives.

Sgt. Hadrian approached the Colonel, "We're as ready as were gonna be sir", she reported.

"Well I hope they get here soon... they sure are takin' their sweet time!" he grumbled.

The ship's intercom sounded. Tigh walked over to the nearest receiver, and picked it up.

"Tigh," Adama's voice said, "DRADIS has confirmed the scouting party's shuttle is inbound... they should be landing any time now... be ready for them when the hangar doors open. We still can't be sure what to expect when they arrive... so keep your guard up."

"Will do Bill." Sirens then sounded, followed by loud thuds and hissing as pressure was restored outside the hanger door. "Gotta go Bill... looks like our guests have parked up outside and waiting to come in." he said.

As Tigh made his way back towards the marines, the hanger doors began to open. On the other side, he could see an odd-looking craft. Roughly the same size as a Raptor, it looked like a flying brick, but coloured blue and white. It was clearly armed, however. He wondered what it handled like, as far as he could tell it didn't look very space worthy at all.

A door in the side, which he previously hadn't noticed, opened and four beings poured out, taking positions on either side of the craft, obviously trained professionals. A larger being, which Tigh assumed was their leader, then exited the craft. He appeared to survey the area, but it was hard to tell where they were looking through their dark coloured helmet visors. The larger one also seemed to be carrying the largest weapons. Tighs hand strayed to his pistol subconsciously, but he restrained himself from drawing it. Another being left the craft. This one appeared less threatening than the others, and was concentrating on a large glowing dial that extended along its arm. This one appeared to be female, from a quick glance over its build and frame.

"What the frak is that sir?" asked Sgt. Hadrian, gesturing to the glowing device.

"Damned if I know Sgt... just keep your head, and watch them. They ain't shooting, so we show them the same courtesy." he ordered.

After a few seconds, the one with glowing object leant over and whispered something to the leader. Tigh thought he could hear them, but he couldn't understand a word of the language they used. 'Gods, I wish I could at least see their faces," he thought, "At least then we might have some idea what we are dealing with here."

The leader raised his gun, then to Tigh's amazement, folded it up into a cube half its original size, and stowed it on his back. Another glowing device instantly appeared on his arm, which he then spoke into. As he spoke, the device then started talking in a language they could understand.

"Greetings... errrrm... I'm Lt James Vega... Systems Alliance, my medic's done a quick scan of the air in here, and apparently we all breath the same stuff." He looked around the room at Tigh and the marines. "I'm gonna take this helmet of so we can all talk proper... get me?" Tigh nodded at him. The leader slowly moving his hands up to his helmet. There was a hiss as the seals detached, and pulled it off of his head.

Every crew member in the hanger bay gasped. It was human. They had already seen all the Cylon models, so he HAD to be a real human being. Not a single word was said... but everyone was thinking the same thing... "What the frack is going on?".

SSV Orizaba

The captain's quarters were silent. Sat at her desk, clutching a framed photo in one hand, and a glass of scotch in the other, Hannah Shepard thought of her daughter. It had been nearly three months since she had received the news... her child had died, for a second time. Now all she had to remember her by was the photo she now clutched, the few extranet messages they had exchanged over the last few years... and the stories she heard from passing strangers. The legend that was Jane Shepard would live on forever... but to her, the little girl with pig-tails in the photo was now gone.

"Not that the pig-tails lasted long anyway" she thought. "Three weeks later she came back from school with cropped hair and a busted lip."

A knock at the door snapped her out of her mournful daydreaming. "Enter!" she called as she hastily wiped a single tear off of her face.

A dark-haired girl poked her head around the door, "Ma'am," she said with a clear British accent, "We have a situation in the CIC."

"Report Officer Traynor, what's going on?"

"There's an incoming distress call coming from the Arcturus Stream... authorisation codes confirm it's the SSV Shanghai, ma'am."

"Shanghai... aren't they supposed to be out there on a training run?"

"They were ma'am, but they seem to have come across something that is rather out of their pay-grade..."

"Report back to the CIC officer... I'll be there in a moment." Hannah ordered.

"Ai ai ma'am."

Traynor retreated back behind the door, and closed it behind her.

Hannah took one last look at the photo. "If you are watching, I've got a feeling I'll need your help on this one baby girl." she thought.

She placed the picture back into the drawer, straightened her uniform, and headed for the CIC.

As she entered the CIC, she found a scene of organised chaos. Officers and crew members darting from one place to the next, trying to gather as much information as possible on the situation. Hannah took her place at command station. "What's our status... I need to know everything."

"According to the intel, the Shanghai encountered a strange craft of unknown origin." Traynor replied. "The crew appears to be human, but they are definitely not alliance."

"Could they be Cerberus?" asked the admiral. There were still elements of the racist, bigoted, bastards holed up in various parts of the galaxy. Hannah had made it her mission to clear out as many of these remaining groups as possible. In general the races were more united than ever after the events of the Reaper War, and they didn't need anyone screwing that up. Besides... her soon-to-be grand-daughter would be an Asari.

Thinking about this reminded her... she really needed to contact Dr. T'soni to see how she was doing. She had thought about it several times before, but struggled with the thought of facing her without Jane. She snapped back to reality as Traynor replied.

"As far as we can tell... it is unlikely, ma'am. The Shanghai is treating it as if it were a first contact situation. No indications to suggest Cerberus has any connection to this thus far."

"This is getting weird," she whispered to Traynor, "I had wondered if it could have been another colony, isolated after the relay network went down... however, they would have still recognised an alliance ship."

She looked down at the various reports before her, intended to help her make an informed decision, but she already knew what she needed to do.

"Right... we have an alliance vessel out there that needs our assistance," she announced to the room, "Helmsman... have us plot a course for the Shanghai's position. Traynor, notify the admiralty board of our situation. Hackett and the fifth fleet will probably want in on this, and god knows we may need them if this goes tits up!" She ordered.

Traynor blushed slightly at the mention of 'tits'. She stoically moved on and did her job, despite a nearby ensign giggling to herself at her reaction. "I've plotted the course, and set the coordinates in the NAV system to the nearest relay, ma'am." She said. She looked to the ensign and gave her best 'Commander Shepard glare', which quickly silenced the giggling. "Shepard would be proud." she thought to herself.

As the dreadnought approached the relay, the rings within it started to spin faster, powering up, and white light built up in the centre. The ship turned to the correct angle of the next relay, and built up speed.

"Prepare to jump!" Shouted the helmsman.

The entire ship was smothered in the white light, and with a loud crackling noise the ship blinked out of existence, towards its destination.

Galactica – Port Landing Bay

Vega stood there... the awkward silence that had descended was getting weird as it stretched on.

"Uhm... Is this thing on?" he said, tapping his Omni-Tool. "You guys understand what I'm saying?"

The representatives from the Galactica were just stood there staring.

"They look like they might be in shock, Lt." the medic whispered.

Tigh finally composed himself, "Ohhh... we can hear you alright boy... we just don't quite get what's going on here is all."

Vega was taken-aback by this statement. "I don't get what you mean. It's not like you've never seen another human before right?"

"I seen plenty o' humans in my time... most of 'em died back home in the colonies!"

"So... you from another lost colony or something?" Vega said. "Jeez..." he thought, "these guys rode in right of the crazy train outta nowhere."

"Was it the Reapers?" Vega asked.

"What the frack's a Reaper?"

It was then that the main hanger bay doors opened, and Adama walked in, with Roslin hanging onto his arm, and Lee. They stopped next to Tigh, a look of bewilderment on their faces as they saw Vega and his team stood there.

"I don't believe it." said Roslin, breathing heavily. "Are you survivors from the Cylon attack?" she asked.

"Cylon attack? Lady I don't know what you are talking about... we are Earth Alliance marines! I never heard of these 'Cylons'... unless that's what you call Reapers where you're from?"

Everything was silent again... Roslin, Lee, and Tigh were all stood there open-mouthed and wide-eyed.

"Earth..?" she breathed. "Are you sure?"

"Last time I checked," answered Vega, now completely confused by these people, "Where else would I have come from?"

"Knowing you, sir, probably a big amoeba that wandered in from one of the moons of Jupiter!" one of the marines shouted. The other marines fought to suppress their laughter.

Roslin stood there clutching Adama's arm shaking. The questions and confusion whirling around in her mine was making her light-headed. Overcome with exhaustion, she began to slump to the floor. Adama caught hold of her, and lowered her slowly to the floor.

"Laura... you shouldn't have come down here..." whispered Adama.

"I am president of the Twelve Colonies Bill..." she said breathlessly "... I NEED to be here."

This was when the Field Medic began to stride over, pressing staring intently at her Omni-Tool. As she approached the Galactica marines stiffened and aimed their weapons.

"STOP!" yelled Vega, as he rapidly raised his own weapon. The colonials stared in amazement as the small box unfolded into a gun in the blink of an eye. "LOWER YOUR WEAPONS... OR I'LL BLOW SO MANY HOLES INTO YOU... YOUR MOTHER WOULDN'T RECOGNISE YOU!" The other members of his team also locked their weapons onto the Galactica crew members.

"I'm not going to hurt anyone..." the medic said "... I just want to make sure she's ok?"

The medic stood there, and removed her helmet, revealing a pretty faced young woman with shining auburn hair tied back into a neat bun. The Galactica were taken-aback, but kept their weapons locked on the woman.

"LOWER YOUR WEAPONS!" barked Adama, he was wary of the newcomers... but Roslin obviously needed medical attention. "These people may be able to do something for her." he thought.

The marines slowly lowered their weapons, and the medic carefully approached Adama and Roslin. She knelt beside them and began fiddling with her Omni-Tool again.

"Ok... I'm just going to do some preliminary scans on her to find out what we are dealing with here." she said to Adama.

"You can do that with that thing?" Lee said sceptically, standing over them like a guard.

"I can do many tricks with this 'thing'." she said, throwing Lee a quick wink, which left him blushing slightly.

The dials spun and lights flashed on the omni-tool as she waved it across Roslin, who was slipping in and out of consciousness.

"Oh..." she said quietly "... stage four cancer... originating in the breast from what I can tell..."

"Can you do anything?" asked Adama.

"I can't do anything more than stabilize her and make her more comfortable here." she replied. "With something like this she needs to see a qualified surgeon. With your permission, I want to give her a shot of Medi-Gel?"

"What's that?" Lee said defensively.

"It's a treatment we use in the field for most wounds," she replied, "But in this case it might slow down the progress of her illness. It also acts as a painkiller and sedative."

"You can't let her do this Dad," Lee whispered to his father, "We literally just met them, and now she wants to start injecting her with things? How do we know we can trust her? What if it kills her?"

"Lee... she is going to die without help," he replied calmly, "if she's going to go... at least this way she'll go peacefully." He then turned to the medic. "Do it."

"I promise you don't need to worry about it," she told them, "Medi-Gel has never caused a death, except when intentionally overdosed... and I'm going to be extremely careful... ok?"

Lee glared at the woman, desperately trying to read her intentions. She knelt there, staring straight back up at him, unblinking.

"Fine." He huffed. "Do it."

END OF CHAPTER