Chapter 10

XANADU – GAMMABRUCKE, PLANETARY ADMINISTRATOR'S PENTHOUSE

"Alexandra?"

The melancholy Planetary Administrator did not bother to look away from her intense contemplation of the watered-down cocktail she'd been nursing for the past half an hour. "What is it, Katherine?"

Her home's guiding Artificial Intelligence said, "I have Vice Admiral Amato on hold. He apologizes for bothering you at this hour but would like to speak with you. He says it's important."

Unlike most of the Fleet's senior leadership in this sector, Admiral Dennis Amato had been nothing if not gracious to her and her staff. Even so, it was difficult for her to control the natural wariness that came from being a Schlein scion in the presence of a flag officer of her family's former foe.

Alexandra placed her glass down on her coffee table and directed her AI to put the call through.

Moments later, Katherine activated the living room holo-projector and the Fleet Commander's head and torso instantly materialized right before Alexandra's very eyes.

She'd first encountered the flag officer at the party where Malcolm Jackson had made such an impression on her. At one point during the evening, the Admiral had taken her aside and expressed his gratitude for her attempt at bridging the gap between the Fleet and her people.

"It's a pity," he'd said,"that many on both sides have yet to put the past behind them. Yet, it is imperative we do so to face the challenge of the Sakqua, for if we do not hang together, we shall all surely hang separately."

Now, she forced a smile to cover her despondency regarding the whereabouts of her missing captain. "Hello Admiral Amato."

He gave her a genuine smile in response. "Good evening, Administrator. Please forgive me for calling upon you at such a late hour."

She shook her head. "Think nothing of it, Admiral."

"Thank you, Administrator. We have something of an emergency on our hands; however, before I go into that, I'd like to bring you up to date on recent events involving the Sakqua."

She leaned forward, her gloomy mood pushed back into the cheap seats of her mind for the moment. "I'm intrigued. Please continue."

"One of our brain ships stumbled upon a Sakqua staging area between the coreward side of this cluster and the closest Gamma Quadrant cluster. We believe it was a reconnaissance-in-force fleet."

She nodded. "What led you to believe that?"

"Their vessels were the equivalent of our non-capital ships. There weren't any battleship or battlecruiser analogues in the formation."

"I see."

"When their vessels were detected, they attempted to chase down and destroy the brain ship before she could warn us of the danger. Fortunately, she attempted to shake her pursuers by leading them into the gravity well of Dead Star 81. Then she performed a brilliant tactical maneuver that allowed her to rapidly withdraw from the dark star's hypergravity, leaving most of the enemy vessels ensnared by the dark star. Once she warned us about the Sakqua formation, I dispatched half of my battle squadron to strike them. Essentially, we controlled the high ground, as it were, and proceeded to pound the enemy. By the engagement's end, we destroyed sixty percent of the enemy's vessels. Although the survivors were able to flee, we have scout ships discretely tracking them. Hopefully, they'll lead us to their forward base of operations, giving us the opportunity to bring the fight to them for a change."

Her grin was ferocious. "That is excellent news indeed, Admiral! I am most impressed by both the gallantry of the shell person, I believe is the correct term?"

"Yes, it is, Administrator."

"Thank you, Admiral. And I am also impressed by the rapid response of your squadron to eliminate the immediate threat to our system. I trust you shall provide the shell person with the appropriate recognition for her valor."

"Indeed, we shall. I have recommended her both for promotion to the rank of captain and the receipt of the Fleet's Silver Cross for valor under fire."

"Splendid! Would you mind if I attended her medal ceremony so I may express our government's gratitude for her meritorious actions?"

"I'm certain both she and the Fleet would be quite pleased to have you there, Administrator."

"I am happy to oblige, Admiral."

He smiled warmly then said, "Oh, I have another piece of good news to report to you. The first elements of the Seventh Fleet have arrived in system. Task Force 70 and Task Force 71 are already on station and ready for action. The rest of the fleet will trickle in over the next few weeks. By then, we'll have more than five hundred additional warships in this sector."

"Admiral Amato," she said quietly, an expression of relief and gratitude on her exquisite face, "I simply don't know what to say! 'Thank you' seems so inadequate to express how grateful the people of this sector truly are for the spirited defense the Fleet has mounted on our behalf."

The humble officer merely nodded to her. "We couldn't have accomplished any of this without your leadership and willingness to work with us, Administrator."

"Please call me Alexandra, Admiral, when we're away from the public eye," she offered with a smile.

"I'll agree to that as long as you call me Dennis."

"I believe we have struck an equitable bargain on this issue," she teased. "Now, Dennis," she drawled, her voice provocative, as she leaned toward his image like one co-conspirator to the other. "What sort of favor did you desire to ask of me?"

He paused for a moment, apparently to gather his thoughts. Then he began. "Yesterday, another of our brain ships ran across a small craft in a system ten light years rimward of Xanadu. The craft used an FTL drive humanity hasn't seen since the early days of the Imperium. Even more intriguing was the fact the human occupants of the craft had heard neither of the Old Empire nor the Alliance."

She pursed her lips at that part of his tale. "That is hard to believe, Dennis."

"At first, I thought so as well, Alexandra, until we realized these people weren't equipped with a universal translator. The brain ship crew had to communicate with them the hard way; the crew had the ship's onboard computer develop an application to translate from a hybrid of Ancient Greek into our language."

"They speak a form of Ancient Greek?"

"Yes."

"That is very odd indeed."

Amato smiled. "You have an admirable gift for understatement, Alexandra," he teased. When she returned his smile with one of her own, he continued. "Once we could understand them, they told us an incredible tale. Apparently, they're the remnant of a dozen colony worlds that had been settled by their ancestors two thousand years ago. Almost two years ago, their worlds were annihilated by sentient Artificial Intelligences they'd created more than fifty years ago. These AI creatures are called 'Cylons.' After the Cylons had almost wiped out their entire population, these people fled across the stars in search of a planet called…Earth."

"What? How could they be searching for Earth if they know nothing of the Imperium?"

"Well, actually, though they hardly know anything about Earth, apparently, they're searching for one of their lost 'tribes.' You see, their religious texts stated their long lost cousins had left the planet they had believed was the cradle of humanity, Kobol, two thousand years before the other twelve tribes had left that planet to settle in the system where their colonies were located. Their cousins supposedly settled down on the planet Earth and the Colonials had lost touch with them over the millennia."

"Dennis," she asked, her mind reeling from the story he'd just told, "did these people tell your crew all this during that initial meeting?"

"No," he admitted. "Most of this information came from a meeting between their leadership and Captain Jackson."

Other than blinking twice, the Schlein scion remained stoic on the outside. But inside, a feeling of relief flooded her entire being. Mal's alive! she screamed inwardly. "So, Captain Jackson was able to contact you?"

"Actually, it was his colleague, Commander Stenger who returned to the brain ship and sent me their findings via Hypercom."

She nodded, happy to know Stenger was with Mal. Although the woman had her secrets, she was both a skilled marksman and a trained assassin. Malcolm stood a better chance with Stenger than without her. "Dennis, what's this about this planet…Kobol, was it?"

"Apparently, these people believe humanity originated on that planet where mankind supposedly lived in harmony for a time alongside the deities our ancestors on Earth had known as the Ancient Greek Gods."

"Do you mean the same ones the Hellenists of today worship?" she asked, the lift of her brows a testament to her utter fascination by the possibility of people who were actual devotees to the original ancient religion. Hellenists, or adherents of the religion of Hellenismos, if one wanted to be technically accurate about it, practiced a revival of the Ancient Greek religion. Hellenismos had developed in the latter part of the twentieth century long before the Imperium had been formed. Hellenists worshiped the ancient Greek Gods, including the Olympians, nature divinities, and heroes, and certain moral codes that originated in Ancient Greece. Although it wasn't a popular faith, by any means, among the humans of the Alliance, she knew of one world in the Family star cluster where a third of the planet's citizens identified themselves as practitioners of that faith.

"I believe so," the Admiral said.

"So, what did Malcolm do after they told him about this planet...Kobol?"

"He tried to break it to them gently," Dennis noted with a sigh, "that humanity originated on Earth. Understandably, they're having a little trouble accepting that fact, though."

She grimaced at that. Pointing out that a society's entire belief system was wrong tended to be a dangerous undertaking for the messenger.

As her aura of relief began to be displaced by a growing sense of dread, Amato said, "Malcolm also discovered that some of the Cylons, according to the Colonials, have evolved from their mechanical origins into humaniform models. These pseudo humans infiltrated the Colonies and brought down their defenses, paving the way for the Cylons' genocidal attack on their creators. Unfortunately, some of these infiltrators may have stowed away on the refugee fleet. If so, we're hesitant to bring them here until the physician who traveled with Malcolm can devise something to detect the infiltrators."

"I agree, Dennis. I would not want these Cylons to threaten the security of either Xanadu or the Alliance."

"I'm glad to hear that, Alexandra. However, from a military standpoint, neither the Cylons nor the Colonials are credible threats. Although they both use nuclear missiles, their missiles still use solid fuel propellant instead of magnetic drives like ours. Also, they still use projectile weapons for ship-to-ship combat and rely solely upon armor for protection. Neither the Cylons' nor the Colonials' ships are shielded against energy weapons whatsoever. Finally, the fold space jump drives they both use are quite dangerous in the era of hyperspace mines. If any of their ships attempted to jump into this system within 1 AU of Xanadu, the mines we laid to force the Sakqua to reenter real space at an appreciable distance from your planet's gravity well would phase inside either the Cylon or Colonial ships and destroy them."

"That is good to know."

"Now," he said with a tiny smile, "we come to the favor I would like to ask of you. It is our understanding the refugee fleet cannot move from its position for several weeks because it's waiting for the return of a search and rescue mission it dispatched to their Colonies. While the fleet is out there, I'd like to provide it with protection in case either the Sakqua or the Cylons show up. I also want to ship the Colonials some relief supplies as well. According to Malcolm, these people are subsisting on half rations and are in dire straits."

"Dennis, the people of Xanadu would be happy to provide the Colonials the supplies they so desperately require."

"Thank you, Alexandra. Of course, the Fleet will see that you are fairly compensated—"

She cut him off instantly. "There is no need for that, Dennis! After both the Alliance and the Fleet have stood by us in our hour of need, we would not dream of accepting payment for providing relief material to people who have lost nearly everything. Indeed, if it were not for your valiant defense of our world from the Sakqua, we could have shared the Colonials' fate."

Whatever else Alexandra Schlein might be, she was most definitely a realist. Although she was proud of the accomplishments of her Family in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, commerce and naval architecture, she knew they'd dropped the ball in constructing adequate defenses for the worlds of the cluster near the Gamma Quadrant. Their attention had been solely focused on the Alliance and that short-sightedness had nearly cost the people of the planet she'd always consider, in her heart, to be Schlein Gamma IV, everything.

Now the world she'd been charged to administer and protect was the home of not one, but two Watchtower class orbital starbases, each with the fire power of a large task force, not to mention the two thousand starfighters stationed aboard each starbase. With the Alcubierre, the dozen or so space defense platforms the people of her world had constructed to Fleet specifications, and soon, more than half of the Seventh Fleet stationed here, Schlein Gamma IV, or, Xanadu, as it had come to be known by the victorious Alliance, had become almost as powerful and well-defended as the Fleet's home port in the Tau Ceti system.

Touched, the elder man bowed slightly to her. "Your faith in us has brought me low, Alexandra. I am humbled by the honor you have bestowed upon the people of my command."

She didn't know how to respond to that, so she said nothing and simply bowed slightly to him.

"I am pleased that She has shown favor upon me by having you as my partner in this endeavor," he said.

"As am I, Dennis."

He simply nodded and said, "I'd like to send the supplies to the Colonials with Task Force 70. I've ordered the task force to leave at 1000 hours standard time tomorrow."

"Very well. Do you have a list of the requisite material you can provide to me?"

He reached out for something out of the view of his camera. "I've just forwarded the list to your computer."

As she awaited the file's arrival, the little devil on her shoulder decided to prod her just then. "Dennis, I just had a thought. Would it be possible for me to travel with your ships in the morning? I'd like to get the lay of the land on these Colonials, so to speak. If they are ultimately coming to Xanadu for respite after their harrowing journey, getting to know them now may be quite helpful. Besides, if they were able to actually develop sentient AI's, my R&D department may be quite interested in consulting with their experts."

Amato blanched at her request. "Alexandra…I'm somewhat hesitant to send you into harm's way."

She grinned at him. "Dennis, ever since the lizards fired their missiles at Xanadu, I've been in harm's way!"

"True," he begrudgingly admitted. "However, I fear the wrath of a certain senior captain who is a mutual…acquaintance of ours far more than the martial skills of either the Sakqua or the Cylons if something were to happen to you."

Although Amato had made the statement in jest, neither of them suffered from any delusions concerning Malcolm Jackson. The man was an effective intelligence operative who was well known for both his loyalty to his friends and his ruthlessness to his enemies. Her operatives had reported that Mal had been hung out to dry on occasion by some of his previous commanders. Even so, he'd always completed his missions and managed to survive even when the odds were stacked against him. In the meantime, some of those commanders who weren't as caring for his well-being as they should have weren't around anymore. Their reports also indicated that Amato was the rare commander who'd developed a close relationship with Mal and the Admiral had pulled quite a few strings to have Intelligence HQ assign him to the Alcubierre for this campaign.

Now she sighed deeply and decided it was best to come clean with him. "I understand, Dennis," she murmured. "But I need to know he's all right."

The man simply gazed at her for several moments. Then he said, "I will instruct Rear Admiral de Ruyter, the task force commander, to prepare a stateroom for you on her flagship, the battle carrier Hermes. Please board Jantiene's vessel by 0900 hours tomorrow. Her task force will be docked to the Watchtower stationed in orbit over your north pole." Then he smirked and said, "If any of your deputies are concerned for your safety, please inform them you shall be well-protected. The Hermes is one of the finest ships in the fleet. Moreover, the task force will include two heavy cruisers, three destroyers, three frigates and a stealth corvette. Their sole purpose is to screen and protect the Hermes."

Alexandra smiled brightly at the elder man. While the First Son had strenuously disagreed with her policy toward the Fleet, the Family's Father had approved of her collaborative approach with the Fleet officers assigned to defend their planet and assets from the lizards. Yet, she had no idea how Father would feel about her pursuing a relationship with a Fleet Intelligence officer. In any event, she hadn't achieved all that she had by being timid. As her Father had always said, "Fortune favors the bold!"

"Dennis, I want to thank you both for your kindness and understanding."

"Actually, it is I who must thank you, Alexandra. Please accept my gratitude for your support, your faith in the Fleet, and your generous heart."

"Now, Dennis," she drawled, "let's make certain we keep that last part between us. As a Schlein, I do have an image to uphold!"

They shared a laugh before they terminated the call.

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