Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Adama's Quarters

"Why did you do it, Bill?" Roslin was disappointed. These people were obviously advanced and they must have had access to multiple resources.

"I don't know whether or not to trust these people, and I'm not willing to risk this fleet on a possibility. You saw what they were capable of Laura. Hell, we're still combing the fleet to make sure they didn't take anyone else away when they first appeared.

"That woman, Colonel Carter, she put her trust in us, even after the incident with Kara. I really don't think she was lying." She sat down beside the Admiral. "When Zarek finds out that we ran at the chance of a possible alliance he's going to milk it for all it's worth. We won't be able to make him pay for what we did if he gets the support of the entire fleet behind him. He twists things, and he'll be able to twist the incident with Kara and Colonel Carter too."

Adama sighed. Ever since he had given the order to jump away, the possibilities of what could have been were playing on his mind. It was too late now though. It was doubtful that they would ever bump into them accidentally again, and after what had happened he doubted that these people were in a rush to find them again.

Atlantis

When Samantha Carter beamed back down to Stargate Operations in Atlantis she was met straight away by Daniel Jackson and Vala Maldoran, who both hugged her as the others had done. "Good to have you back, Sam."

"It's good to be back, Daniel." She smiled at her old friend, but his face changed when he got a proper look at her.

"What happened to you?" He asked, looking concerned.

"Ah, nothing. You and I both know that I've been through much worse!" Daniel decided to leave it at that and embraced his friend once more, before moving on to shake Sheppard's hand and welcome him back to his home of seven years.

"Are you sure you're OK?" Asked Vala as Sam turned to her.

"I'm fine. I'm more disappointed than anything. I actually wish we'd gotten to know those people more… Hey, maybe we'll see them again."

Vala put her arm around her friend's shoulder and they began walking to the mess hall. "You never know."

Atlantis Infirmary

As soon as he returned from the mission on the Hyperion, Rodney McKay headed straight for the infirmary. He desperately wanted to see his younger sister to make sure she was feeling better. However, as he approached the door, he noticed Kaleb sitting by her side, with Madison on the bed with her. The whole family together, smiling and having fun. Rodney smiled, before taking one last look, and then turning around, walking back off to Stargate Operations.

Battlestar Galactica

"Fellow Colonials, this is a sad day in our history, one not seen since New Caprica. We have lost the opportunity to forge a relationship with an advanced race." Tom Zarek addressed the room full of news reporters and Colonial representatives. "However, we cannot allow the blame to fall solely on Admiral Adama's shoulders. I too must take part of the blame."

Adama stood in the corner of the room with the President, both of them seething in anger. If Zarek hadn't managed to build up his popularity so much over the past few years and hadn't managed to secure almost unanimous backing from the fleet, then Roslin would have been happy to flush him out an airlock.

"I sanctioned an interrogation of the prisoners we had captured, which caused the leader of these people to be… slightly less willing to cooperate than they would have been, even though they still had the decency to extend us an olive branch."

Tom had a good way of twisting an insult against someone and make it sound like he was being sympathetic to the person, and Adama knew it.

"I did what any other sane person would have done, however I still take part of the responsibility. Now, we must strive forward and continue our search for resources. It has been decided that we will not yet return to the planet we discovered, but it is a possibility in the near future."

Atlantis

Rodney McKay cam running up to Sam as she and Vala left the mess hall. "Colonel Carter, you might want to see this."

The two women hurriedly followed McKay back towards the control room. "What's happened Rodney?" Sam asked concerned.

"It's the Colonials…" he replied, also looking concerned. "I've just detected six Wraith Hive ships heading towards them on the long range sensors."

Daedalus

Steven Caldwell had been in command of the Daedalus for over five years now; it didn't just feel like his ship, it felt like his home.

His ship was still one of the ships that travelled to the Pegasus Galaxy, along with the Hyperion and the Phoenix. The Apollo sadly no longer made the trip following its destruction, in which his friend, Colonel Abe Ellis, had perished.

The ship had only dropped out of hyperspace a few moments before Colonel Carter was on the line. "Steven, good to see you back in Pegasus."

"Good to be here Sam. How's things?"

Sam frowned as she stood in Stargate operations, surrounded by expedition members. "Not good. It seems the Wraith have decided now's the time to take a more active role in the Galaxy again, and we've detected six Hive Ships heading towards the Colonial fleet."

Caldwell grimaced. "What can we do?"

"The Hyperion left about 20 minutes ago carrying the General and some members of the expedition, as well as the General and Daniel. I need you to beam me, Rodney and Sheppard up to your ship so we can join them."

"You got it Sam."

"And Steven, that's not all. We're detecting a massive number of Hive Ships coming online in the far corner of the Galaxy. I've already asked General Landry to send re-enforcements; both the Odyssey and the Phoenix are on their way, and an Asgard ship is due in a day or two. Usually I wouldn't ask to leave Earth without a ship, but this is big… Plus, the Dauntless was meant to be coming online in the next few weeks; they're going to push to get it going by Tuesday instead."

Caldwell was settled somewhat by the fact that they would have 5 ships to combat the Wraith as opposed to just two. "OK. Is Earth sending more marines to Atlantis?"

"Yes, there should be a few thousand coming through. Not all of them will be assigned to Atlantis, we're sending some to the Alpha Site and others to our allies, but it should hopefully help."

"Right, that sounds good. Are you guys ready?"

"Ready as we'll ever be." With that, Carter, Sheppard and McKay disappeared from the control room.

SGC

General Hank Landry was out of practice. It had been a long time since there had been any major threat, and Earth's forces had not been needed in this capacity since the height of the Ori invasion. He stood and watched from the briefing room as teams of marines left through the Stargate. The ZPM had been brought from the outpost in Antarctica so that Atlantis could be reached more easily, otherwise the process would have taken longer than it needed to. When you were in this sort of situation, every second was important.

"Hank. Good to see you again." The General turned around to see the face of an old friend, someone who he hadn't seen for over a year.

"George, good to be seen. Have a seat." The two men pulled out chairs from either side of the large table in the centre of the room and sat opposite each other.

"I just wish this visit had been under different circumstances." Hammond frowned, this was the first time he had been to the SGC since his visit in 2008 and he had hoped then that the next time he came the situation would be similar, calm and without a looming threat. "The IOA are pressing to get the Dauntless up and running as fast as possible. They've been willing to compromise and accept a temporary USAF crew, and for now they've put the plans for a fully international crew on the backburner. No one was expecting this, a ship hasn't been pressed into service early since the Korolev, and we all know how that one turned out."

Hank grimaced. "Indeed. I'd rather avoid a repeat of that, especially considering the X-305 is going to be Earth's flagship. If our enemies are moving against us again then we can't afford to lose it."

"Exactly… What's the situation with Pegasus? The Colonials and their fleet?"

"We're sending the last of the marines through to Atlantis, and the Hyperion and Daedalus are already on route to the Colonials position. Colonel Morgan and Colonel Lorne have been instructed to get their ships straight to Atlantis. We're hoping to head back to M1K-773 soon after." Hank had faith in the abilities of Earth's fleet even though it was small, and he trusted that it could defend Atlantis. However, he knew there were potential problems closer to home. "I'm sure your aware George that the Alex Morgan came across a strange alien fleet on the Odyssey's last assignment before being called to Atlantis. Well we tracked that fleet, and let's just say that we aren't too thrilled about what we found…"

Hammond didn't need to hear this. If there was a direct threat to Earth, then one or more of the ships would have to be called back from Pegasus and that could still leave both sides spread pretty thin. Hank continued after a brief pause. "They joined up with a considerably larger fleet. At this point there's nothing to say that they have any interest in Earth, but its best that we don't let our guard down. The defence grids online and we're sending the ZPM back to Antarctica soon, and hopefully if we can get the Dauntless up and running we'll be adequately defended. Right now, it's a case of wait and see."

Hammond sat for a second to allow the new information to sink in. "Alright. Keep me updated. But right now, I think we could both do with a drink…"

Hyperion

"They say we may have to beam over to help the Colonials if the Wraith manage to board them." Ronon Dex walked in to the mess hall of the Hyperion to see Teyla Emmagan alone, looking out the window at the hyperspace tunnel that the ship was travelling through. "Apparently General O'Neill wants to go over there anyway, and I'll be damned if I just let him and Tea'lc go themselves."

Teyla continued to stare out the window. "I wouldn't expect any less."

Ronon walked over to her table and sat next to her. "What are you thinking about?"

"Everything" Replied Teyla. "My son has not known an all out Wraith attack; he hasn't known a Galaxy where they are dominant. I was hoping to keep it that way."

Ronon placed an arm around his friend. "We can still keep it that way. We fight now so he doesn't have to fight tomorrow." Teyla smiled, and the two warriors sat there together, both watching the amazing blues stream past the window in front of them. The pair sat for a few minutes before a fellow warrior entered the room.

"Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex." Tea'lc bowed his head respectfully as he entered in what had become his trademark gesture. "We will be arriving at the Colonials position within twenty minutes, the Daedalus is apparently not far behind. General O'Neill would like us all on the bridge; he is formulating a battle plan."

Teyla and Ronon both stood up. "Good." Ronon said as he walked towards the door. "This should be fun."

Battlestar Galactica

Caprica Six held her child in her arms, shushing her to sleep as they waited for her partner to return. Ever since Ellen had been born Caprica had changed. She had not wanted to hurt any of the Colonials in a long time, but once Ellen came along she had decided that she would remain with them for the rest of her life. Ellen had been named after the ex-wife of her father. Caprica had actually been the one to suggest the name, and Saul had gone with it straight away, surprised at the gesture the mother of his child had made.

That was then. He hadn't seen Ellen in months. After the revelation regarding four of the final five Cylons, it had taken people a while to accept him again and he had hit the bottle harder than ever. Caprica had eventually decided that he wasn't fit to see Ellen, and he had happily agreed.

The door opened and Gaius Baltar walked into the room, his lips curling into a smile when he saw Caprica and Ellen. He was working full time again, Roslin had forgiven him on the Basestar a couple of years ago when the four were first revealed, and kept the secret that she'd learned to herself. As she sat next to Baltar trying to save him from death she realised that he was just a man, granted a man who had made some big mistakes but then everyone one makes mistakes, no matter how big or small. After that the animosity towards him slowly began to die down until the day eventually came when he was able to walk to the lab without a security escort.

Since that day Gaius had been working as hard as possible to try and right the wrongs he had caused, in any way possible. He wanted to give something back to the Colonial Remnant after he had taken so much away, and that meant extremely long hours and barely any rest when you took his new family into account as well. Much like Athena, Caprica earned her place among the Colonials, she had done good deeds and helped them negotiate a treaty with the Cylon rebels, and now she called herself a Colonial.

Galactica's CIC

The decision Admiral Adama had made the day before still played heavily on his mind, and he was sure it would for the rest of his days. More and more he felt like he had chucked away the Colonials best chance at surviving, and now he wasn't even sure why he had done it. He stood in the CIC wondering what could have happened as people rushed around going about there jobs as if nothing had. His people were loyal, that was for sure. They stuck by any decision he made, this one was no different. They had a lot of respect for him, but he had even more for them.

"Sir, we just picked up a ship on DRADIS!" Adama was brought back to the present by the voice of Felix Gaeta.

Straight away Adama was back to normal and ready to lead his people. "Get the fleet ready to jump. Is it the Cylons?"

"No sir…" Gaeta replied. "It's General O'Neill's ship."

A wave of relief ad curiosity washed over Adama, for a number of reasons. "I want to speak to that ship."

Hyperion

General O'Neill watched the Colonial Fleet, expecting them to disappear but this time feeling slightly dismayed when they didn't.

"Admiral Adama's on the line sir."

O'Neill looked over to Major Ross. "Put him through."

Within seconds Adama's voice was heard on the bridge of the Hyperion. "This is Admiral Adama. You'd be surprised how good it is to see you again. Why have you returned?"

O'Neill answered quickly, wasting no time. "Admiral, there is a fleet of enemy ships on their way as we speak. I suggest you get your fleet out of here before they arrive and we'll take care of them. You're more than welcome to stay and help if you want, but they'll be here any minute now."

It was an understatement to say that Adama was shocked by O'Neill's words. "General, why should we believe…"

"If you don't believe then your fleet will be destroyed. These… things that are coming. They don't negotiate. They'll destroy your ship and take the rest of your fleet. Just get your people out of here, as I said you're more than welcome to stay if you want to." O'Neill waited for a response.

Adama stood in the CIC with the eyes of his people watching intently, it took him only a few seconds to make his decision. "Jump the fleet. We're staying. And get the President up here right now."