The Hour of The Wolf
Chapter Two

Starbuck chomped down on a fumerello as he watched the survivors. This Federation was an odd race. Well they weren't even a race. They were an amalgamation of different peoples. Most of them seemed to be human, but there were other people with all sorts of non human features thrown in.

Their shuttles were strange too, their small thrusters meant they could only short range, but there was a lot more room inside than in most small transports. Most Federation craft also had two large sponsons either side of the main hull. They looked like massive field generators, but Starbuck couldn't figure out what they would do.

Shrugging he headed to see one of the Galactica support teams. They, along with a few gold shirted Federation members, were moving some of the small ships out of the way. Benjamin was there overseeing the move.

The Federation had a strange ranking system where as well as specialities denoted by the colour of their uniforms Captain's ranked higher than Commanders. Benjamin was one of these Commanders, but in reality he was the same rank as Colonel Tigh or that of Strike Captain. Thing was the dark skinned Federation Officer hadn't quite grasped that and kept on coming to attention whenever Starbuck was near

'Captain Starbuck.' He stood up straighter.

'Benjamin, just heard from Cassiopeia and the med-techs. Your wife and son are alright. They're both on oxygen support for the some damage to their lungs, but both our and your doctors say they'll be on their feet in no time.'

Some of the stiffness flowed out of the other man as he too took breath. Starbuck had seen it before, hades he'd done it before more than once. Focus on working, on your job, to ignore the pain and worry. 'You alright?'

'Yes, yes I'm fine. Thank you captain.'

'Don't mention it.' Starbuck grinned and sucked on his fumerello again. 'How's things over here?'

'We've got the last of the escape pods on board. We lost a lot of good people, but thanks to you and this ship it wasn't more.'

'Just lucky to be passing through.' Starbuck shrugged before catching something from the corner of his eye. 'What the fracks going on over there?' he pointed at what looked like the start of a fight.

A blue skinned non-human, with a large ridge down their face was backing away from a couple of members of Council Security. Both he and Benjamin jogged over.

'What do you think you're doing? What is this thing?' one of the security officers snapped, waving what looked to be a handheld federation device.

'Ensign, report.' Benjamin ordered, quickly heading off the more colourful put down Starbuck had for the Blackshirt.

'Commander, I was… I was just…'

The blackshirt spun on Benjamin. 'Council security, sir. Your man here was pointing this at one of our shuttles.' The device in his hand was bleeping and a tiny readout seemed to be flickering. 'Is it some kind of weapon?'

'Don't be a Galmonging Snikrat Reece.' Starbuck snapped. 'Anyone with half a brain can tell you that's a handheld scanner.'

'We call it a tricorder. Like Captain Starbuck said, it's just a scanner.'

'Why was he scanning our deck?' Reece snapped.

Starbuck had never liked Security, least of all Reece and his cronies. Grabbing the device he handed it to Benjamin before either of them could protest. 'You read this thing?'

'Of course.' he frowned at it. 'The ensign was doing a quantum dating scan. Trying to get the age of the ship, but the tricorder must be damaged some how.'

'Why?' Starbuck asked and the ensign answered.

'Sir! I was checking our shuttle for structural damage when I got a reading on the deck. I couldn't believe it so I ran a full diagnostic. I was trying to identify the fault in the tricorder.'

'Sounds reasonable to me.' Starbuck pointed out to the blackshirts. They glared at the three of them before slinking off, probably to accost an orphan playing to loudly. 'Sorry about that, They think just because they get their mandate from the Council they're doing the Lords work!'

Benjamin snapped the scanner shut with a flick of his wrist. 'What's your name Ensign?'

'Bjot Commander. Ensign Bjot Assigned to the USS Melbourne.'

'Well then Ensign, this won't go on record, but next time your tricorder malfunctions try a different one. We're guests here and we don't know their customs, or laws.'

'Yes sir, but that was the third tricorder I tried.'

Starbuck shook his head. 'What's the problem?'

Benjamin opened the tricorder again. 'The quantum scan, it says actions of the deck plating are over eight hundred years old.'

Starbuck thought about that. 'I'm not sure how long a "year" is supposed to be, but the Galactica is over five hundred yahren old.'

'Five hundred?' Benjamin gaped.

'Oh yes, the old girl was one of the first twelve Battlestars and now she's the last.' He told his new friend who looked as if he'd just lost a yahren's pay on card game to a perfect hand. 'What?'

Troy pulled off a tight turn and headed back towards the ship. It seemed to be made of four main sections. An upper saucer, a lower section and two large pylons. All connected to the lower section as a sort of central hub. From behind he could see that its engines were small, a slit like thruster in the middle of the wide neck between saucer and hub and two more either side of where the neck met the saucer.

His comm system crackled into life 'This is Captain William Riker of the Federation Starship Enterprise. Your fleet is currently in Federation space and on course for our administrative capital. We have been sent to identify your intentions.'

Troy looked over his shoulder at his wingman who nodded back. 'We are refugees Captain. The last survivors of our people, searching for our ancient brothers. We are no threat to you or your Federation.' Easing back on the throttle Troy used the retro thrusters to come to a complete stop. If this strange looking, almost delicate, ship was a threat he had them right in his sights.

'Good to hear Lieutenant.' There was a pause before Captain William spoke again. 'This ship was responding to an attack by one of our enemies in this region when we were redirected here at the last moment and look for your fleet.'

'Our base ship responded to a series of distress calls nearby, leaving my squadron behind for defence.' Troy admitted. 'Captain, with your permission I'd like to land. Discuss this face to face.'

'Hold transmission.' There was a pause where the signal cut out. Obviously the Captain was thinking about it. It snapped back on 'Agreed, we can beam your fighter into our main shuttle bay.'

'Beam?' Troy didn't know what that meant and told them so.

'We have a technology that allows us to transport you from where you are to inside this ship.' To Troy that sounded a little too much like magic and he'd never trust it even if it wasn't.

'Negative Enterprise. just open the bay and we'll land.' Above the engine strips, almost at the very top of the ship a large bulkhead opened. It wasn't as big as one of the Galactica's bay's, but there were smaller amongst the fleet. 'Dillon, you follow me in.'

'Confirmed.' His usually jocular wingman responded. 'This is going to be a tight fit.'

'We've done worse on simulators, hades we've done worse trying to land on the schooling ship.' He was kidding of course. The docking bay might have been smaller on the old transport, but you only ever landed a shuttle on that thing. Vipers had much more sensitive controls and one wrong move could mean disaster.

Still, he was the son and grandson of two of the best warriors his people had ever known. Tapping the controls he brought his Viper in a shallow angle and so slow that it was almost going backwards.

Passing through the bay's magnetic shield he felt the controls rock slightly, but not enough to put him off. Inside was a hanger deck that took up most of the level. there were a number of small support craft docked inside but there was more than enough room for Troy to stop the viper safely. 'Watch that entry.' he warned Dillon as he followed.

'Got it.' A few microns later the other Viper pulled to a stop. Troy had taken the time to run an atmosphere check. Pressure was a little lower than that on the Galactica, gravity a little lower too. Nothing damaging, but it would be noticeable. Opening the canopy Troy got a chance to look around.

Behind him the bay's bulkhead was already closing and above he could see windows looking down on them. On the other side of the transparent panels were what looked to be technicians looking back at him. As he pulled himself out he saw a hatch open to one side of a large central pillar in the middle of the hanger. Outstepped several crew members, some were human looking others not. Their uniforms were strange too. A single jumpsuit like the pressure suits pilots wore under their uniform, just a little less form fitting, with a large auric section across the torso.

The biggest and most imposing of them was a hulking non-human with broad shoulders, mid length hair and a silver sash over his chest. Of the other three two looked human and the third had a slightly green shade to their skin and pointed ears. 'I am Lieutenant Worf.' The big man growled as Troy took off his helmet. 'Chief of security.'

'I guess you don't have that many problems then.' Dillon joked as he climbed down on to the deck.

'I'm here to escort you to the observation room.' He told them before looking at their holsters. 'No weapons onboard.'

Troy was half way down from his Viper and drew his laser. 'Do as he says Dillon.' Flicking the activation switch with his thumb he threw it back into his cockpit before closing it. He jumped the rest of the way down and turned to see that the security officers had their own pistols. The security chief had it half drawn before ramming it back in place. They were strange curved things, holstered on their left hip. That meant they had to reach across their own bodies to draw. Carefully Lieutenant Worf let go of his pistol and waited for Dillon to climb back down.

Both Troy and Dillon were eventually escorted to the same hatchway the security officers had come from. It was a small ascension tube, voice activated when Worf barked his order at the ceiling. Troy was taking a risk boarding an unknown ship but it was calculated. If they were telling the truth then everything would work out, if not the fleet was still on maximum and putting a lot of distance between them.

The tube came to a stop and they were escorted into a room dominated by a large window. From the direction they had moved and the curve of the window Troy guessed they whereat or near the top of the ship. Inside a red haired woman in a blue uniform was sitting at a table with a number of other officers and was arguing with the man at the head of the table. 'Frankly Will I don't agree. We need to know what happened to Jean-Luc.'

'Doctor I agree, but Admiral Hanson was his friend too. I have to believe that if he sent us here it was because here is were we need to be. If the battle is over then we can't change what's already happened. Either the Captain was rescued and is safe or not. There is nothing we can do right now.' Captain William was another large man. Human with dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard. His uniform was red and Troy noticed four Auric pins on his dark grey collar. The doctor had two and an extra one that had been blacked out. It was obviously a symbol of rank. Much like the warrior pin he and other full warriors wore.

'Captain.' He came to attention. 'Lieutenant Troy.'

'Welcome Lieutenant, please sit down.' Captain William waved his hand at a pair of empty seats. 'As you can tell were still trying to gather up what informant we can. Command is being tight lipped about what happened.'

He began pointing to members of his crew. 'Doctor Beverly Crusher, ships chief medical officer. Lieutenant Commander Data, ship's operations officer and Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, chief engineer. This is Ships councillor Deanna Troi. You've met Lieutenant Worf.

Troy looked at each of them, the only one not in uniform was the Councillor. 'Madam councillor.' He nodded respectfully, not quite sure what such a high ranking politician was doing on board or involved in what was strictly a military meeting, but that wasn't important. 'Lieutenant Troy, this is my partner Lieutenant Dillon. Battlestar Galactica, Green Squadron.'

'A pleasure to meet you.' The councillor said with a politicians smile before looking to Captain William.

'Now that we all know each other, let's see if we can figure out just what hell we do now?' The Captain suggested.

Commander Adama lent back in his chair and brought the recorder up. 'To have come so far, suffered so much, all to find a place that many of us, even myself, had begun to doubt had ever existed. Our long journey is finally over, we have found our lost brothers. Yet now I fear that in our haste… in our desperation… we failed to ask important questions. Can our lost siblings help us? Will they? Will they welcome us as friends, embrace us as brothers or come to see us as enemies? Do they have enemies of their own? Are we blundering once again into a political and social fog that our very presence could throw into terrible possibilities. Questions that answers could doom us all, in the fleet, the Federation and possibly beyond.' He paused, feeling the weight of destiny settling on his shoulders. 'Lords of Kolbol, what have I done?'

Putting the recorder down he read the words on the screen. After a moment he deleted the last seven of them and stood up from his desk. Outside the porthole to his office the Commander of the Galactica, President of the Twelve Colonies, watched as Federation ships hung there, waiting for his next decision. Beyond them the cube shaped ship who's attack brought them here in the first place.

The war with the Cylons had begun the same way. A Commander offing aid to a desperate people, the Hasari, who were already at war with the mechanical empire. Adama had often asked himself if he would have done the same, knowing what he knew now. The terrible price it had cost the human race. Safe in the knowledge that it was academic he'd always answered yes, yes he would because the ideals he fought for were worth it.

Were they now? Now that an academic debate had become cold hard reality? Had he, like most fools before him, failed to learn the mistakes of the past? Or was his pride, his hubris, exactly that?

His hatch slid open and in walked Adama's son and Colonel Tigh 'You wanted to see us father?' Apollo asked.

'Yes, yes I did. Come in, both of you. Seal the hatch behind you.' They did as he asked. 'This cannot go further than the three of us. If word of this reaches the fleet there could be an uproar. How's the Galactica Tigh?'

'We took some superficial damage, but she's seen worse. What's this about?'

Adama looked again at the ships outside. 'I've finished my talk with Admiral Hanson, I've learnt things. Important things. The Federation is a vast alliance of worlds and people spread across almost a hundred solar systems. One of it's founding members is Earth.'

'Earth?' Apollo whispered, unable to hide the smile on his face. 'We did it, we made it!'

'No! This galaxy is far larger than our own, there are more peoples than just the Federation. It vies against other interstellar governments in a complicated web of treaties, alliances and wars. Our presence could drastically effect the balance of power for this whole quadrant of the Galaxy. The coming secton's are going to be difficult. Over the long yahrens of our journey I've come to rely on you both as my guides and my conscience. I'm going to need you both be so for just a little while longer.'

Tigh shook his head 'That's been you Adama. It's always been you, you did it. When all hope was lost we looked to you. You can't give up now, not when we are so close.'

'I'm not giving up, old friend, but we have to be ready for the next battle and this one could cost us everything.'

Apart from the two of them the void was completely empty. A vast emptiness with no beginning or end. There were no boundaries, no horizon and certainly no land marks. Picard wasn't even sure he was standing on anything or if there was such a concept of direction in this cold, hollow place. 'This way Jean-Luc.' Q, appearing as ever in the guise of a Starfleet Captain, waved Picard on.

'Where are we Q?' he snapped back.

'What is the last thing you remember?' the omnipotent being asked. It as obvious Q knew the answer to both questions, but was playing another one of his twisted games.

Picard sighed before rubbing his temples. 'I was on the Borg cube, their devices… their voice in my mind. I was one of them. Battling the fleet J.P. gathered when that ship came out of nowhere and blew us… blew them out of space like the Cube was a cargo scow.'

'Apt description Mon Capitaine.' Q laughed. 'Tell me, do you think you survived?'

'This is not the afterlife Q. I refuse to believe that the universe is so dysfunctional that you are god.' Picard denied him.

'You wound me Jean-Luc. You think me to petty a thing as god?' He laughed again, this time he wasn't mocking him. 'You're right though this isn't heaven. No, but we are close.'

'So is that where we're going?' he asked, not sure he wanted the answer.

'So paranoid, so full of questions! No Captain our destination is somewhere far more dangerous. Knowledge.' With that he carried on, whistling a nonsense hiking tune deliberately off key.

Setting his shoulders Picard followed. He could have walked for hours, days, or only seconds it was impossible to tell, when he thought he heard something. The tinkling of faint bells on the wind.

'About time.' Snapped Q before coming to a stop.

'Dreadfully sorry. had to make sure I wasn't followed.' A cultured voice with a upper english accent came from the nothing around them.

Picard couldn't see who ti as that was talking and was not amused. 'Who's there?'

The voice was coming from all around. 'Well My name, at least the one you can call me, is John. Sorry about not being able to see me, it's a side effect of who, or rather what, I am.' Something touched Picard's shoulder and it felt like he'd received an mild electric shock. 'There we go.'

Suddenly there was a man there. Dressed in all white. 'There isn't that better. Now Captain, to business.'

Off to one side Q made a show of sighing and rolling his eyes.

End Chapter Two