It isn't mine because if it were, they'd have sacrificed the Bucket instead of the Beast. Stargate isn't mine either.
Not intended for profit. Thanks for all the support.
This is a bit short. The next chapter should have more substance.
Ensign Samuel "Longshot" Anders returned to a Demetrius that was in uproar. "So I guess I missed all the excitement, huh?" He queried a waiting Felix Gaetta as he climbed down from the airlock. Gaetta simply nodded. "Starbuck found something alright. Though there's some debate as to what that something is."
Felix then followed Sam into the bridge where the other officers on the expedition were deep in discussion.
"I don't like the looks of this." Ensign Diana "Hardball" Seelix was shaking her head. Anything from the Cylons was always suspect. Guarantees of safe conduct from an unknown faction more so.
"What if it's a frakking Cylon trap?" Junior Lieutenant Eammon "Gonzo" Pike put in his two cents. "Is it any coincidence that these new guys speak some frakking Cylon language?"
"It's not Cylon, it's Ancient Kobolian." Athena corrected him. "There's a difference."
"Oh yeah? What difference is that?" Gonzo wasn't convinced.
"Because we don't have a spoken language of our own." Athena explained patiently. "Just Caprican standard same as most Colonials do. It's the language of choice for law and academics. Most of the Fleet speaks Picon standard. Almost identical, just more naval terms and slightly different intonation. If you were to go to say, Gemenon or Libran, the native language there would be vastly different. All of these languages however, have their roots in an older tongue that was spoken on Kobol before the Caravan left."
"Does anybody else in the Fleet speak Ancient Kobolian?" Helo's curiosity was piqued.
"Maybe the odd academic or two. Priests, oracles. Anyone who studies scriptures. It's what the scriptures are writtten in. All Cylons are familiar with the scriptures up to a certain degree or another, so everybody just happens to speak it as a matter of course."Athena answered.
"Right. And these Tau'ri just happen to speak the language. Anybody else see that as suspicious?" Uncertain looks were exchanged at the implications.
"What exactly did we get?" Sam tried to steer the discussion back into relevant territory.
"Jump coordinates that will take us deeper into the system. Plus some guarantee from these Tau'ri that it will be neutral territory. Leoben said he has a proposal for us." Gaeta answered the question for him.
"So what? You think that guarantee's reliable? Frak. Are you actually thinking about doing this?" Seelix was incredulous. Sam himself was secretly intrigued at the possibility of meeting the Cylons and these Tau'ri face to face.
"XO, listen, meeting the Cylons, that's suicide. If it turns into a firefight we're frakked. Vipers need the Demetrius to go anywhere. Demetrius is a sitting duck without the vipers." Gaeta tried to be the voice of reason.
"Nothing's been decided." Helo said.
"And what, you trust Starbuck to make the right decision? Because she's out of control." Athena deadpanned.
"Whoa, what are you saying?" Sam didn't like the tone of her voice.
"We are running on fumes, Anders. In two days we are gonna be overdue for our rendezvous with the Fleet." Athena didn't really like the idea of being left behind. "We gotta do something before she takes us all down with her."
"Are you talking mutiny?" Helo wasn't pleased. "Because that's sure what it sounds like. You want to tear this ship apart, then keep riling up the crew making your crazy-Starbuck cracks. Otherwise, I suggest you both shut the frak up."
"Starbuck is leading us into a trap." Athena insisted. "If the Cylons capture the freighter, they're gonna have nav data straight back to the Fleet."
"Then we better keep that from happening." Starbuck finally decided to make an appearance at this point. She'd been in her quarters making up her mind. "Order the CAP back and lock down the ship. As soon as we can work through the jump coordinates from Leoben, we go. It's a chance to find Earth, I intend to take it."
Pike didn't like that. "Talking to the Cylons wasn't part of the mission, okay? If we don't return, we are all gonna die!"
Starbuck held her ground. "We came out here to complete a mission. The Cylons have something to do with it, we are going to meet them. End of discussion." She finished, then went back to her quarters.
Pike wasn't gonna take it sitting down. "No, you know what, frak her! And Frak the Cylons, okay?"
"Let it go, Pike, Just let it go." Hotdog tried to stop him.
"Get the frak out of my way! We are all gonna die unless I do something about her." Pike evaded him only to find Helo in his way.
"Just walk away, this doesn't have to go any further." Helo tried to remain calm.
"Just figures you'd side with the Cylons, right?"That was it. Helo let him have it.
"I must admit this is unexpected." Col. Paul Davis addressed their unannounced guest.
"Not surprising. I must beg your forgiveness for the deception. But it was felt that it was the only way we could resolve our problem with some degree of privacy." Their guest replied back.
"So what can we do for you?" Sam already had her suspicions. There were very few items that could draw the notice of their onetime ally enough for him to show to himself like this.
"I believe you already know. There are certain technologies that have always been of significant interest to us and they were bound to attract our notice enough to make contact like this. A chance to study how another species utilizes them firsthand would be greatly appreciated. We might learn something useful."
"Sadly the faction that made contact with us is the one that no longer has access to the type of technologies you wish to study. We are about to mediate in negotiations between the Cylons and the Colonials, though. So anything can still happen." Sam didn't really want them to get their hopes up.
"We will keep you apprised." It was the only thing they could promise at this point, Davis thought.
"That will be more than enough." Their ally assured them gratefully. "These people are fortunate to have attracted the attention of the Tau'ri." The barest hint of a smile graced their guest's normally impassive features.
"WE were fortunate to have attracted your attention." Sam smiled back.
"Do you think they will agree?" Natalie asked Leoben anxiously. It was Leoben who had brought the invitation to the Colonials.
"If they think it through, they don't really have a choice." Leoben replied.
"You mean we don't have a choice." The Eight grumbled.
Sonja could only look at the Eights sadly. Not known for their steadfastness, the series of setbacks had laid their spirits low. Ironically, those Eights that did put their mind to it had ended up revolutionizing Cylon civilization. Or tearing it apart. Literally. Either way, the potential was there. One could only hope these Eights could step up to the examples their wayward sisters had set.
"What about these Tau'ri? What are we to do with them? We know next to nothing about them." It was inevitable that somebody would eventually raise the question. The mysterious Tau'ri were an enigma. This system obviously was not their home. Yet they stayed to protect it. Covert surveys had been done in the inner planets and a human culture had been found in one of the planets therein. But those farmers made even the Aerilons look sophisticated. Their discrete inquiries had found that while that they were familiar with the Tau'ri as peaceful explorers, they were not aware the Tau'ri had such an interest in their well-being. They did not know the amount of resources the Tau'ri were willing to expend in their defense, neither did they consider themselves under some form of Tau'ri authority. They did not even know weren't from the same planet. Or that there were other worlds aside from theirs to begin with.
This was obviously not their home system. Which begged the question of where their home system was. Astrogational surveys with the Baseships' telescopes had determined that this was a relatively desolate area of space. Given the atmosphere aboard their ships, the conditions on their homeworld could not be very far from Colonial standards of habitability. Yet there were no stars even remotely capable of supporting such a planet for dozens of lightyears around that they could find. Colonial FTL technology would have been hard put to maintain a presence over such a distance.
That was another question. Nobody had ever seen the Tau'ri use FTL. Their fighters had obviously done some sort of FTL jump to get so close to the Demetrius, but it had not registered on DRADIS the way Cylon or Colonial FTL would. They had footage of the Hammond in action, and it was still as spine chilling to watch as it had been during the day of the actual battle. Even the Mercury class Pegasus, the most powerful of Colonial Battlestars had broken itself taking on those kinds of odds. Yet the Tau'ri had made it look easy. That was when they made their presence known. It had been pointed out more than once that they could have just watched Cavil's forces slaughter them without doing anything and no one would have noticed they'd been there the whole time. When they did make their presence felt, they did so with no ambiguity whatsoever. They were quite simply the most heavily armed peaceful explorers the Cylons had ever seen.
The potential for damage was unnerving to say the least. Some Cylons were beginning to wonder what it would take to gain the help of the Tau'ri against Cavil's fleet. Just a single ship could even the odds significantly.
"They've offered to mediate between us and the Colonials. Perhaps we can learn more then." Leoben answered. Perhaps they would even like what they would learn.
Meanwhile aboard the Demetrius, all hell had broken loose.
"You wanna know who's in charge? You wanna know who's in command? You frakkin' wanna know?" Sam Anders had just shot Felix Gaeta in order to prevent the latter from jumping the Demetrius back towards the fleet. Felix Gaeta had fallen on his back, cursing as the armor piercing round shattered his leg bone.
"Sam!" Starbuck tried desperately to calm him down, but her efforts were hampered by the mutineers' hands on her.
"It's Captain Thrace, gods damn it! Now you let her go!" Sam kept waving the gun around, daring anyone else to take a shot.
"Stand down!" Karl frantically repeated. Sam had broken the standoff by firing his gun. The last thing everybody wanted was to escalate the matter further. They were all Colonials. They were not supposed to be shooting at each other.
Finally a medkit had arrived and Felix' injury had been seen to and dressed. The cursing had stopped as the morpha had sent him into blissful oblivion.
"You're right, Helo, I never should've ordered the Demetrius to jump. Too many lives to risk on a gut instinct." Starbuck conceded.
Quickly new arrangements were made. The Demetrius would hold position while the Raptor went on the trip. Starbuck, Anders, Jean Barolay and Athena would crew the Raptor to meet the Cylons and the Tau'ri. The timer was set. If they did not return within the specified time, the Demetrius was gonna have to return to the fleet without them.
"You have 14 hours and 40 minutes. Godspeed." Helo wished them off as the Raptor launched.
The Raptor jumped. Straight into a graveyard.
"Multiple contacts, all quadrants." Sam called out from the ECO station.
"What the frak..." Barolay stared past the cockpit window in awe. The Galactica had been through numerous space battles. This was her first time seeing the end result of warships fighting and dieing.
"I make it three Baseships destroyed in relative proximity to each other. Another two a short distance off. Both sets were in close formation. Opposing each other." Sharon looked thoughtful.
"Frak... Are you saying the Cylons did this to each other?" Barolay was trying to wrap her mind around the concept of Cylons splitting up in a state acrimonious enough to actually shoot at each other.
"Frak indeed." Starbuck didn't find the idea any easier to digest.
"We're being hailed." Sam had stepped back to the ECO station after taking a quick peek outside.
A voice stated brusquely in Caprican Standard for them to identify themselves. Surprised that these Tau'ri had apparently now learned Caprican Standard as well, Athena replied, identifying herself and communicating their desire to parley. They were told to await landing instructions and Athena acknowledged.
As soon as they cleared the debris field, Starbuck screamed and giggled girlishly. Right there, it was the image that had been haunting her throughout most of the trip. A gas giant with a pair of Baseships hanging like stars just off the southern pole and slightly to the side. A ship coasting like a comet just under the northern pole of the planet. It was the same ship that was giving them landing instructions.
They maneuvered into a brightly lit hangar bay. Rows of the dark fighters that had interrupted their earlier confrontation with the Cylons were parked off towards the rear of the landing bay. A Heavy Raider sat parked off to the side closer to the bay doors. The Cylon delegation was already there.
Jennifer Hailey suppressed a wistful sigh as the three spacesuit and one civilian clad figure stepped out of the Raptor. The SGC didn't have anything even remotely close. All their spacesuits were of the bulky and unwieldy type. NASA was developing the next generation Constellation suit and Homeworld Command was already planning the appropriate upgrades/refits to make sure it fit their needs. It was unfortunately still too bulky for the pilots, who still had to make do with unpressurized flightsuits. There was a Bio-Suit under development by an MIT team under Prof. Newman that looked promising. There was also some parallel research over at Cyberdine, but all these were years away from actual use.
The three removed their helmets and the short brunette began the introductions. Another one of Satterfield's look-alikes. Since the translation devices had been fabricated with Asgard tech, the poor woman had taken to avoiding these meet and greets altogether. Hailey was going solo for this one.
"I am Lieutenant Sharon Agathon, callsign Athena. This my commanding officer Captain Kara Thrace, callsign Starbuck." She indicated the single male in their party, "that's Lieutenant Sam Anders, callsign Longshot, and Jean Barolay a civilian volunteer." Athena spoke hurriedly.
At Starbuck's prompting she continued. "Before anything else, we would like to request emergency medical assistance. One of our people is badly hurt." Understanding the need for urgency, she quickly relayed the request to Col. Carter who quickly agreed. The tanned brunette moved to go back into the Raptor before the taller blonde held her arm. Quickly indicating that she was needed here, Capt. Thrace motioned Lt. Anders to go instead. Jean Barolay shrugged and climbed back into the Raptor to help him.
"I'm Major Jennifer Hailey, by the way, callsign Comet," she quickly introduced herself to the two women as she ushered them out of the landing bay so that it could be de-pressurized prior to the Raptor's launch. Most of their technologies were still being kept under wraps. Including atmospheric force shielding. She muttered a quick prayer that they were not too late as she led the two to their assigned guest quarters to freshen up and await their injured man.
It was at this point that Starbuck realized what had happened. The introductions had been made in Caprican Standard, which Major Hailey had spoken flawlessly and without any hint of an accent. The flight control officer who had guided the Raptor in had also spoken in the same language with similar precision. Yet during that first encounter, they had spoken Ancient Kobolian. Starbuck had ordered the stand down out of gut instinct, but Athena had confirmed later that that was exactly what the Tau'ri had demanded. Now just a few hours later they were speaking Caprican Standard in a manner that would make its elitist upper crust elements green with envy. A cold chill ran down her spine. What were these people?