Escortstar Guardian, In Orbit Near The Object, One Month Later
Having risen to command of the escortstar Guardian from the fleet's ranks of engineers, Colonel Jacob Gram had spent most of spare time during this deployment on the Guardian's observation deck, examining the object, where he currently could be located along four other crewmen on the deck doing the same. The entire crew was ecstatic, here they were on the cusp of humanity's first contact with an alien race and, until they were relived in three months by BSG 75, they were effectively leading the military's part charge.
Although many on the ships in his flotilla had taken to calling the Object "the Fork", Jacob refused to think of it that way. He could never think of something as large and mysterious as the Object in such a manner. He'd give anything for the chance to get inside and see what made it tick, but unfortunately Admiral Nagala's orders were clear. No docking and no boarding of the object. Of course though that hadn't stopped him from acquiring copies of the scans and visual checks performed by Guardian's two Raptors, it wasn't very hands on but it would sate his curiosity for now.
Apart from inspecting the alien device though the only thing in this mainly empty solar system was the construction of the research base on the moon. It had become obvious by now that it was abandoned and so hundreds of men and women were currently being gathered back in the colonies to come and find out what its purpose was and those hundreds would require food, bunks and, on this world, air. Currently the fleet supply vessel Erickson was handling that portion of the mission
There was only a small team studying the object for the time being, lead by Doctor Gaius Baltar. Although so far all that they had found on the object were half a dozen ports emitting some kind of strange thermal signature and what the Doctor had theorised as being an access point of some kind, the Doctor had told him several times that they would find something big eventually, albeit after he whined for a few minutes about not being able to board it.
Among Guardian's crew, theories as to its purpose ranged from it being long range communications relay system to being a planet-killing mass driver, similar to what Picon had considered building for use against the other colonies prior to unification. Although Jacob had initially favoured the mass driver theory he had dismissed that later. The object had no discernable means of propulsion beyond basic station keeping thrusters and without propulsion such a design would be useless. Of course it might have some kind of jump drive aboard but then the question was, how did it get here with no crew aboard if it could have jumped home or to a nearby friendly world.
Jacob sighed and wondered if all the questions he had about the object would be ever answered. Or whether they would be buried in the Fleet's mountains of classified files.
Raptor D289, Callsign-Regent, Five Hours Later
Gaius normally hated the military's vacuum suits, although he reasoned that he would probably appreciate it a lot more if he suddenly found himself outside the air filled interior of Regent's Raptor, currently he was to busy fuming over his inability to actually land on the object and take a look. Who knew, if that actually did turn out to be an airlock they had discovered earlier, the object might be operational before the army of engineers even arrived.
But noooo here he was, in possession of the greatest human mind of all time and unable to get a close up study what could become known as the greatest discovery in human history since FTL. All on some bloody over cautious Admiral's orders. At least he was allowed to do scans of the outer structure. Visual, LADAR and penetrating radar were still providing some data and that would sate his curiosity for now.
"Doc, are you ready for the next pass" the Raptor's pilot, a Lieutenant who insisted on being called by his callsign, asked.
"Yes I am Regent, although I feel I should once more state that we should be aboard that thing rather then, once again, staying half a kilometre away and simply running scans" Baltar replied
"Yeah well, don't take it out on me Doc, bring it up with Nagala next chance you get, or better yet go to your great buddy Adar" Gaius sighed at the last remark. During their many days together in the cramped confines of the Raptor, Baltar had quickly learned of the pilot's near fanatic dislike of the current Administration, which in Regent's opinion had mishandled everything from the economy to defence to education, although the Scientist did agree that Adar's administration was not likely to survive the next election.
"Let's just run a few more scans and head back to Erickson. I want to start building a 3D model of the object using the data we've collected as soon as possible"
"But I thought we hadn't scanned the whole thing yet"
"Yes but with the data from the other teams we've collectively scanned both the prongs and the housing for those rings. I can use that data to start making the model and then add to it with information from our future scans."
"Then lets get this over with then shall we" Regent then activated his radio "Guardian Regent, beginning our next scan"
There was a slight rumble as the Raptor's engines shut down and then several slight shudders as regent began using the ship's manoeuvring thrusters to move them along, beside the object, at a slow speed.
Regent flicked a few switches then said "Scanners are running, you getting this doc"
As streams of information began flowing across the screens in front of him Baltar replied "Yes, I'm receiving now"
As soon as he got the chance he was going to demand that Admiral Nagala give him permission to board the object.
The Colony, Central Meeting Area, One Day Later
Although the large meeting area in the centre of the Colony was always full of Cylons of all models, only one representative of each model sat at the table. It was in this room that decisions not affecting just one ship, or fleet but their entire race were made and the topic of this day was the postponing of the long prepared for extermination of the Humans. What had sparked the renewed was the reports the Cylons had received from some of their highest placed infiltrators in the Colonies.
Currently the Ones were arguing for them to merely accelerating the pace of the plan and to exterminate the humans before any kind of alien force came into play.
"We all know what the humans are like, one they realise we have a serious disadvantage they will seek us out and destroy us. Mark my words, virus or no virus, aliens or no aliens we have to strike now before our chance is gone forever"
However the Ones were countered by the Sixes who advocated renewing relations with the humans, so that they may also have the chance to make first contact with an alien race and to take advantage of any kind of technology or knowledge that could come their way because of it.
"We know that the humans have an ever growing movement that supports our views. Two of those supporters are members of the Quorum. If we approach them at this crucial juncture, offer support to the humans they may even be grateful enough to let us share their new technologies"
The Fours proposed that they merely wait until the Colonials made contact with these aliens. After all, they might end up doing their job for them and then if they proved hostile to the Cylons, they could merely pack up and run, or stand and fight depending on the enemies capabilities.
"We have always had a great knowledge of how the humans fight, that is why we needed our viruses to defeat their superior warships and these aliens are a completely unknown factor. It is far wiser to sit and wait it out, we stand to gain nothing but we could lose everything."
The remaining models were undecided but the Twos and Fives were leaning towards siding with the Fours.
The debate raged for many hours, with the Ones trying desperately to convince their siblings to commence the attack, but failing to sway them. The Sixes were able to win over the Eights but the remaining votes went to the Fours proposal.
The Cylons would hold off on their attack but their infiltrators in the Colonies would be ordered to act in accordance with their covers, so at least some of them could be heading into battle.
As they various Cylons filed out of the meeting, a One, the model known as John Cavil hid his furious rage behind a mask of a seemingly emotionless machine. His siblings would not fight the humans, but John had learned long before the others even spawned that just because a motion was defeated it did not mean it was dead.
Turning to his personal centurion he ordered "Gather Samuel and James and tell them to meet me at my personal heavy raider, tell no one of this but them and when you are done wipe all data pertaining to this task from your memory banks"
No, the plan was far from dead.
Scorpion Fleet Shipyards, Battlestar Leviathan, One Week Later
Leviathan was a monster in the truest sense of the word. At just under 1800 metres long, covered in heavy composite armour, mounting 40 main gun turrets and dozens of point defence guns and carrying a wing of over two hundred Vipers and fifty Raptors she far outstripped anything Adama had ever been aboard, whether it was a baby battlestar like Valkyrie, or a soon to be ex flag ship like Galactica.
His next command was indeed a fine one and she was almost ready to leave the docks. She was even going to be present for Galactica's decommissioning ceremony. After the flyby, the Galactica's Vipers would land on her successor and later that day most of the crew would transfer over. The Leviathan would then escort Galactica back to Caprica, before linking up with the rest of the reformed BSG 75 and jumping out to the Object.
Only half the crew would be going with him to his new command of course but the rest would be heading off to crew one of BSG 75's Valkyries, Thor, so they would still be under his command and better yet, they weren't going to be kicked out of the fleet. Every one of the crewmen he had commanded on Galactica were among the best he had ever had in their respective fields and if first contact turned into a conflict, or if the Cylons came back all of them would be sorely needed, although many of the ones that he had spoken to about their next posting were apprehensive about serving on a ship named for the god of a splinter religion.
With him, as always on these inspections, was Saul Tigh. Being one of the crew that would be following the Admiral over to Leviathan but having even less experience with a Mercury as his long time friend Tigh had come to learn as much as possible before he became Leviathan's XO. Although so far his "learning" experience seemed to amount to reading the horde of manuals that the chief had heaped into his hands, while making jokes about his age, and in true bureaucratic tradition about three quarters of the material was stuff he already. Honestly, he got a few wrinkles and suddenly he didn't know how to organise DC crews over the ship's computer system.
The Admiral meanwhile had been busy trying to familiarise himself with Leviathan's computer system. He had, quite reluctantly, acceded to Admiral Nagala's request but that didn't mean that he wouldn't remove as much of the threat as he could. While Saul inspected the rest of the ship he had spent most of his inspection in the CIC going over the computers.
Currently however the two officers were onboard a raptor, their inspection completed, heading back to Galactica.
After grinning at Saul's mound of manuals, Bill asked "You got enough there Saul"
"Frakking engineers give me a dozen books I've already read then demand that I know them cover to cover" the Colonel moaned
"Well, at least you can get away with not reading them. I've been pouring over the computer guides since I got them" Adama replied
"I thought the Admiral gave you orders not to screw with Leviathan's computers"
"No he told me not to take the network apart, screwing around with Leviathan is still my decision. I'm trying to find a way to isolate a few of the less protected systems without impeding on the ship's performance"
"What LADAR, short range comms"
"Those and a few others, I'm going after the system's that don't necessarily need to be networked but are equipped with less protection"
Saul held up a book and replied sarcastically "Well don't switching anything that's in these. The Gods know I have enough I'm expected to know before I toss a few hundred cubit's worth of paper into a viper's thrusters"
The two friends both started laughing as the Raptor engaged its jump drive.
Escortstar Guardian, In Orbit Near The Object, Three Days Later
As Gaius donned his borrowed flight suit, he felt like giggling with excitement. He had done it, he had finally convinced the Admiral to let him take a team aboard the Object for closer study and better yet Colonel Gram had given him a Raptor, piloted by Baltar's old friend Regent, as soon as he had told the military officer the news, to transport and support his team for their initial entry.
As the Raptor swung around for the final approach to what he believed he went he checked his suit's seals, it wouldn't do him any good if he left the raptor and he died from sudden decompression. He was about to make his mark on human history and nothing would stop him.
"Twenty seconds to infiltration, entry team line up" the Regent ordered, as the Raptor began slowly inching towards the door using its manoeuvring thrusters the entry team, made up of Baltar, chiefs Ellington and Williams for engineering support and marine Sergeant Carver and Lieutenant Tru for security, stood up and hooked their safety lines to a rail just above the door. Through the lining of his helmet, Baltar could vaguely hear the low hiss of the cabin's air supply slowly leaking into space. This was it, he was about to make history.
"Good luck guys, go find out what the fork does" Regent radioed as the door opened
The Lieutenant went first with Chief Williams right behind him. The door appeared similar to the starship doors from the old Cylon War era ships, however in place the large locking mechanism it had a large flat panel, raised slight above the surrounding surface. After Baltar had identified the door he had theorised that it may be some kind of touch screen.
However as the two soldiers floated towards it, the panel began to glow and the door immediately opened. Everyone watching was stunned until Williams muttered over the radio about motion sensors. Approaching with even more apprehension then before, Baltar breathed a sigh of relief after the two soldiers placed their magnetised boots on the "floor" of the interior.
Although they had expected long corridors branching out through the object Tru and Williams were instead greeted by a small room with nothing but a series of long flat panels running around the room at around waist height. As the two of them slowly entered, both with their sidearms in hand, the Lieutenant accidently brushed one of the panels and suddenly the entire room was lit up by alien letters and numbers, there was a rumbling that nearly through them off their feet.
Back in the Raptor, Gaius watched as lights began to appear along the objects surface and the rings in its centre began to rotate and a strange blue light, similar to a hologram, burst into existence. On the area communications channel hundreds of voices began asking what was happening.
But all Gaius Baltar could think of was the possibility that someone had beaten him to his discovery.
Turian Patrol Frigate, Firaxa, The Same Time
As the Turian vessel prowled through a distant Nebula, her engines and major systems offline but her sensors running, her crew was mainly on the lookout for pirates. But when they began to detect Element Zero emissions that matched a Mass Relay where, according to their charts, there should be none, her engines were spun up in moments and she sped towards the source.
On the bridge, Command Vakarian began recording a message to the local fleet command. He simply stated "Previously unrecorded Mass Relay detected in charted space, moving to investigate. Request backup be placed on standby"
The Firaxa was currently three hours out from the reading. As reasons for this strange occurrence ran through the Commander's mind, the most likely one and the reason he settled on was that it was probably pirates activating a dormant relay. Such activities had been highly illegal for civilians since the Rachni Wars and whenever a government opened a new relay they normally sent through a large military fleet.
When the Firaxa was one hour out he received a reply that cause the Commander to shift his mouth into the Turian equivalent of a smile. He was to secure the relay, then wait for the sector defence fleet to arrive. Two dozen cruisers, many frigate flotilla's and even a dreadnaught were one their way.
As the peacekeepers of the Galaxy. The Turians took breaches of Citadel Law very, seriously.
A/N
Okay, I don't like this chapter. It's entirely filler that only serves to give a little to the overall storyline beyond activating the Relay and what introducing what Cylon's are planning now that the "Plan" has gone a bit haywire.
Now a few things I feel I should mention based on the reviews.
Although the Turians are Humanity's first contact in this fic, they aren't going to be bashed around to much. Their ships are smaller, but they have the advantage of shields and their spinal guns, which in a fleet action could do some serious damage. I'm going to try and portray them as being a much more successful and effective military power in this rather then the no hopers that some people choose to write them as. They will be a bit frightened at first though by the the alien Dreadnought Fleets.
While their will most certainly be a religious element in this story, it will only play a small part. Like I wrote earlier I'm throwing all that "Divine Hand" crap out the airlock.
And finally Earth will only be mentioned in passing, like I said I'm going to be throwing the Final Five into this with a few minor changes, so Earth as the Cylons know it is nuked as far as this fic is concerned.
