Colonial Government Buildings

Caprica City, Caprica, Helios Alpha, Cyrannus System

President Richard Adar was furious, nearly blind with rage, and screaming his head off at an aide when Admiral Corman entered the office. Corman, as the Colonial Fleet's liaison in the government, was used to dealing with the politician's notorious moods.

You could flip a coin to predict Adar's mood, at any given time there was an equal chance that he would be pissed off at something, or horny and calling one of his various mistresses.

"Frakking hades, Corman, what are you frakking people up to?" Adar clutched a piece of paper and waved it madly for a few seconds, "Have you even frakking seen this? That bastard Nagala has gone mad! That or this is some plot to damage my chances in the election!"

"Yes, Mr. President, I have seen Admiral Nagala's report." he wasn't really sure what to think about it, he had been informed about Adama's initial message before Nagala's departure from Picon HQ, but had kept it from the President as per the navy's orders. He thought it was more likely a Cylon trap than a political plot; he just couldn't see the likes of Adama and Nagala being involved in politicking.

"And?" Adar shouted, throwing the paper at Corman and glaring at it when it fell to the floor far short of the target, then starting to pace around behind his desk.

"I think perhaps you ought to get ahead of everything, you could see this so-called Promethean ship for yourself?" Corman had his doubts about the story, he had never heard of any Promethean exodus from Kobol, and he had read many of the scrolls as a child. But then, the story fit some details of the story of Prometheus, so perhaps it was true.

"Why the frak would I want to do that? I've got appointments, places to be, babies to kiss, I need to win this gods-damned election!" Adar looked at Corman as if he had just grown a second head, before slowing his pacing and looking more thoughtful.

"Send someone though, as my mouthpiece. They might not be the Thirteenth Tribe, but they are a lost branch of humanity all the same, so we should celebrate their rediscovery." the anger was dissipating fast as the political mode engaged, "Even if they are just here to have their ship repaired, we should milk this for all it's worth. Frak the Gemenese and other zealots, they'll probably whine about the Titans, but the average voter won't care about such ancient history."

"Who would you like to send?" Admiral Corman was sure whoever was delegated would end up with at least a handful of hand-picked reporters sharing their shuttle, to make sure everything was reported as favourably as possible.

"I was going to send Laura to the Galactica, for the disarmament ceremony. I'm sure she'd love to be out there learning all about Promethean history or whatever the frak she gets up to in her free time. Have someone contact her, will you?"

"Yes, Mr. President." Corman agreed, and was soon waved out of the room. As he closed the door behind him, he caught a glimpse of Adar approaching his aide again with an unfortunately familiar look. The coin had flipped.

Oranu

Gemenon, Helios Alpha, Cyrannus System

James Yerios was an entirely unforgettable citizen of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. He was of about middle age, of average height, weight and appearance with plain features, dark hair and brown eyes. He was born on Tauron but raised on Gemenon, and had served a short term in the army after leaving school, guarding politicians from terrorists or theoretical Cylon invaders - he'd missed the war by more than a few years.

After getting out of the army, he had soon found a girl, settled down and got married, working for her father in a small mechanics shop in the outer suburbs of the Gemenese capital city Oranu. A few years ago James had taken the business over after the older man retired.

After finishing early (the perks of being the boss! that new guy Doral could clear up the tools) James lay back on his couch and watched a repeat of last week's pyramid game - go Buccs!

Anders was the star, as usual, and James had already downed a few cans of ambrosia by half time, so he was was quite loud when the ref pulled some felgercarb about a penalty and sent Anders off - James shouted at the screen, but the idiot ref didn't hear.

Luckily the Buccs still won.

Eventually the kids got home from school, and his wife from her work at the salon not long after. They spent some time discussing where they wanted to go on their upcoming vacation when school let out for the inter-term holiday, and had the options down to either a space-cruise of the system, or a visit to some beach resort.

A dinner of roast lamb and vegetables followed, and soon James was asleep on the couch as his wife watched her programs.

Life was good in the Colonies.

Star Destroyer 'Wrath'

Cyrannus System, Colonies of Kobol

Flight Officer Haff Veen, formerly Herk-05 of the Star Destroyer Devastator's Herk Squadron, had stayed in the hangar after his comrades 09 and 11 had carried 12 off to the medbay after he slipped and hit his head while exiting his TIE.

The hangar was a mess, after the order to retreat had been given, it had been a mad scramble to the nearest capital ship for any TIE pilot. The Devastator had been destroyed earlier in the battle anyway, so the survivors of Herk squadron couldn't have returned to their home base even if they wanted to, and they had made it to the Wrath instead.

According to an officer Haff had asked, there were currently 16 TIE Interceptors, 37 TIE Bombers, 83 TIE Fighters, 1 Curich-class shuttle, 6 Lambda-class shuttles and two Telegorn-II-IPC Gamma-class shuttles on-board the Wrath.

Most of the TIEs were from the Wrath's own squadrons, which had been kept close to the ship during the battle, but there were dozens of others like Haff who had made it onto the Wrath before it's jump, who belonged to various other ships and even the DS-II battle-station itself.

One of the Lambdas, and both the Telegorn shuttles, as well as a number of TIEs, had originally been assigned to the DS-II station. Even though the station was incomplete, it had still had an enormous contingent of men and ships stationed on it.

And most of them, presumably, were now dead. He had tried not to think too much about the battle or it's aftermath, or the announcement that the Captain had made over the ship's coms about certain death only for them to not die but instead find themselves in some unknown corner of the universe.

Instead he had thrown himself into helping sort out the hangar, the ship's racks could only hold 72 TIEs, so almost half of them would have to remain parked in the extensive hangars. They had the space, but it did mean that pilots would now have limited maneuverability while in the hangars, as they would have to navigate around all of the other ships.

While they were working to clean up the hangar, the Captain himself had come down with a few other officers, all wearing Stormtrooper armour for some reason, and said that they were going to take a shuttle over to an unknown warship.

Nobody had questioned them, but Haff had chuckled to himself at the sight of the Navy men clearly less comfortable in the armour than the couple who must have been real Stormtroopers.

It had taken a few more hours of work, but now everything was stowed away that could be, and the pilots helping the deck crew were dismissed. Haff had gone to check on the rookie and found that his squadmates hadn't even got him into a medbay, the other pilot had woken up half way there and suggested finding the nearest cafeteria instead.

The Wrath, as it turned out, produced an identical set of dishes to those made in the kitchens on the Devastator, but at least their tubers seemed to have been cooked properly. The group had scoffed down the rations like starving rancors.

"What do you think about that black hole mess then, Haff?" Herk-09, Eldin Rathma, asked surprisingly legibily with a mouthful of mashed tubers. Haff just shrugged, but Herk-11, Carr Ballitt, leaned in to answer.

"Bunch'a bollocks I reckon." he had the type of Core accent that officers didn't, the lower-class variety more stereotypical of petty criminals and pickpockets. "Prob'ly some bloody reb playin' a dirty trick, tryin' to freak us out."

"Nah, something weird must have happened, I don't know if any of you stopped to look out the hangar bay into open space while you were in there, but I did, and I didn't see any of the constellations we're trained to find." Haff shrugged, "Maybe we went through a black hole and come out in upside-down land, cause the stars are wrong. The Wrath's Captain, anyone know his name? Him and some other brass piled into a shuttle in Stormie armour and went off to visit some aliens."

"Ah sure, it's a strange enough situation." Eldin replied, "What's wrong rookie, you look constipated?" the three more senior pilots laughed at the intent thinking expression on Herk-12, Erril Ynnian's face.

"I dunno, something just feels... weird about this place, I think you're right, we've gone somewhere." Ynnian looked seriously at Haff, who almost laughed at the expression on the young man's face, "How far away would we have to be for the stars not to match? Would we even be in the same galaxy?"

"Huh, I'm actually not sure." Haff answered honestly, they were trained to see all sorts of constellations, most of which were only visible from certain sectors, but there should always be at least a couple visible from any given spot, looking in any given direction, at least within Imperial space.

Could the stars visible from out in Wild Space be so different? Surely not so much that they were unrecognisable? The Burning Snake, Drall's Hat, the Pirate's Eye, Prefid's Belt, the Silly Rabit, there were probably thosuands of constellations known to the various starfaring and stargazing civilisations of the galaxy.

But he hadn't seen any of them.

"How bout we go an' 'ave another look, eh?" Carr pushed himself up and away from the table, taking his tray over to the used-tray receptacle and sauntering out of the mess with the others following behind. "Betcha I spot one before any of youse do."

"I'll bet ten creds that we really are too far away for anything recognisable." Ynnian, the rookie, fished a credit chip out of one of his pockets and fiddled with it a bit before putting it back.

"Well, I'll bet we're all dead from that kriffing black hole, and this is the afterlife." Eldin joked, and soon the group were standing around as close to the edge of the hangar as they dared, looking like a group of idiots as they moved around looking in all directions.

"What are you lot looking at?" a navy officer in his grey uniform came up to the group, and started trying to spot what they were seeing.

"The stars, they're wrong." Haff felt a bit like laughing, "I don't know where we are, but we're pretty kriffing well lost."

The navy man squinted, as if something would then suddenly appear in the distance, and began to look concerned as he too looked around and couldn't see any of the familiar constellations. Even the dense band of stars that was the distant parts of the galaxy itself looked different.

"Where the fuck are we?" Eldin asked, but nobody could answer.