A/N: Not our franchises. Please review!
Chapter 12
It was early morning in New Caprica City. Laura Adama had spent the better part of the last two weeks in Camelot, the capital city of Iconia Prime, with John Evansville, Moros, John Cavil, and Sulu. Their time had been spent working out trade agreements, and Laura was pleased that the Iconians and Federation had been more than generous. The Colonials had little to trade, but many needs. "Actually," Sulu had told her, "many of the items we will obtain from you will be from the military. I think you'll end up sharing plenty."
Now, she was standing in front of the stargate in her own capital city. She had been talking quietly with Bill, but snapped her head toward the gate when she heard it begin activating.
The puddle formed, and there was a pause for a moment, then two people stepped through. One was a human, and the other a cylon. She stepped forward and embraced her son-in-law, Karl, then turned and did the same to Cy. In her time on Camelot, she had gotten to know the cylon, and actually was growing rather fond of him. She was still somewhat uncomfortable embracing him, but did it for the sake of peace.
"It's good to see you again, Cy," she told him.
"It's good to see you too," came the monotone response from the robot.
A loud buzzer sounded from the column standing beside the gate, and they turned to watch. A beam shot from the top of the column to create a gateway in front of the event horizon. A moment later, they watched as things started to come through the gate, and disappear into the gateway.
"Look!" came a shout from a bystander.
Laura turned her head toward the shout and saw a young woman pointing skyward. She looked up and saw several one man fighters appearing, seemingly out of nowhere, nearly a thousand meters above the ground. Rather than open the space gate, the gateway had been opened where people could see the fighters appear.
The pilots flying the starfighters and Federation fighters were an elite squadron led by Ka'Ra and Ka'Rel. They were going to teach Iconian and Federation tactics to the Colonial Warriors, who would, in turn, teach them Colonial tactics.
After nearly fifty of each type of fighter appeared, five strange looking craft emerged. They were cylindrical, and looked as if they would just fit through the stargate. "What are those?" Laura asked Bill.
"Those are Iconian Puddle Jumpers," he explained. "They're a shuttle, similar to our raptors."
"Our pilots need to know how to fly them?" she asked.
"From what I understand, one jumper could do considerable damage to a battlestar," he replied.
The gateway shut down, and one more human stepped through the stargate before it closed as well. He looked around for a moment, then walked up to the Adamas.
"Hello," he said in a thick accent, similar to the one spoken by Scotty, "I'm Doctor Carson Beckett. I'm here to test for the ancient gene among your people."
"Hello, Doctor Beckett," Laura said, shaking his hand. "I'm still a bit unsure about this ancient gene thing, but welcome to Jord anyway."
"Thank you, Madam President," he said smiling. Then, he turned to Bill and grasped his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Commander Adama."
"Likewise," Bill said.
Later in the day…
Beckett was set up in a laboratory owned by Gaius Baltar, and in fact, the owner was watching, extremely interested, as Beckett was preparing for his first tests.
"So this one gene allows a person to utilize Ancient equipment?" he asked rhetorically. "It's amazing that they built a security system around that."
"Yes," Carson responded, "but it's not the gene itself that activates many of the pieces of technology. It's actually a series of proteins and enzymes that the gene causes a body to produce that does it. You see, if you have the proteins in your nervous system, your mental emissions will be at the correct frequency to operate a puddle jumper, or even a weapons control chair. If the enzymes are detected on your skin, a personal shield will be activated for you. It's all very elegant."
"I see," Baltar said, wonderingly. "So will you test me first?"
"Certainly," Beckett answered.
Baltar expected Beckett to take a DNA sample, but instead, he opened a case and showed the Colonial scientist a small device. There was an LED on the top of the item. Beckett picked it up, and the LED glowed green.
"Does that mean you have the gene?" Baltar asked.
"Yes, it does," Beckett answered. He set it down on the table, and told Baltar, "You don't even have to pick it up. Just touch it and see what it says. If you have the gene it's green. If you don't, it's red."
"That's pretty simple," Baltar responded. He reached out, but stopped just before he touched it. "I'm not sure I want to know," he chuckled. Tentatively, he moved his index finger forward until it touched the side of the thing. The LED immediately glowed red and Baltar sighed.
"Don't fret about it, Doctor Baltar," Beckett said. "Very few people have the gene. We can inoculate you with a retrovirus I've designed, and hopefully, it will take." He laughed softly. "That's what I did with Rodney McKay. He didn't have the gene initially, either."
A couple of days later in Beckett's lab…
Amelia Earhart entered the lab. "Miss Earhart!" Carson exclaimed. "I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance!"
"Thank you, Doctor," she told him.
Beckett heard a bit of a tremor in her voice. "Are you nervous?" he asked her.
"A bit, I suppose. I'm not certain what this will mean if I have the gene."
"There's nothing to worry about," he told her. "If you've got it, you've always had it. If you don't, there's nothing wrong with you."
She seemed unconvinced, so he asked, "You've met Kara and Karl, the Colonial pilots?"
"Yes," she answered.
"Good," he smiled. "I happen to know that both of them have the gene, and they're both pretty normal."
She seemed to gather her resolve, then asked, "What do I have to do?"
The gene detector was sitting on a tray, and Beckett slid it over to her. "Just touch this," he told her.
She took a deep breath, then touched her index finger to the detector. The LED glowed a brilliant green, and she pulled her hand away. "What does that mean?" she asked.
He smiled. "It means, Miss Earhart, that you have the gene. Congratulations!"
She gave a small, nervous, laugh and asked, "So what happens now?"
"Now, I'll let Admiral Cain know, and you can talk to him about the possibility of renewing your pilot's license."
In the city of Let Devetnaeset on Jord…
A buzzer sounded from the column. People who were in the town square scattered, as a man stepped through the gateway, followed by a malp pulling a trailer covered by a tarp. The man allowed the entire trailer to clear the gateway event horizon, then he pressed a button on the remote control he was holding. The malp stopped a few feet from the gateway, and the steady wine from the vehicle's motors died away. John Evansville and Jack O'Neill were standing a few feet from the front of the malp. As it stopped, they stepped forward and shook hands with the newcomer.
"Walter!" Jack exclaimed. "How have you been?"
O'Neill introduced him to Evansville, and they watched as some Iconian soldiers approached. Walter handed over his remote, and the soldiers turned the malp and trailer around. O'Neill pushed some buttons on the column and another gateway opened.
"Why didn't we transport directly to the chair room, General?" Walter asked.
"This is the only gateway column that will open directly to it, but for that one room, the system is programmed to refuse connections if they are through a series of gateways. You have to go directly from this one," O'Neill explained.
They followed the malp through the gateway and stopped. They were in a large room, without any visible entrances or exits. The soldiers had been trained for this job. They removed the tarp from the trailer and carefully lifted down the control chair.
Half an hour later, the soldier in charge announced, "We're ready, General."
O'Neill looked over from where he had been quietly talking with Evansville and Walter, and nodded. He stepped over to the chair and looked at the connections holding it to the floor, then sat down. The headrest of the chair glowed electric blue and a hum filled the room. "Release the targets," O'Neill said to Walter.
Walter relayed the order into his communicator and they watched as several glowing objects appeared in midair above O'Neill and the chair.
Evansville gasped as he watched a holographic representation of Let Devetnaeset appear. The objects were clearly lining up for a strafing run over the countryside beyond the city limits. Jack focused his eyes on the objects, and suddenly, from the top of a tower in the center of the city, three more glowing objects appeared. The drones raced toward the targets as they began to dip low, as if they were shooting at something on the ground. Jack's drones picked up speed, and if the scale of the countryside was any indication, they hit the targets at nearly mach four.
All of the objects disappeared from the air above their heads, and the chair tipped back up.
"This is Apollo," came the voice of Galactica's CAG from O'Neill's communicator. "Visual confirmation. The targets are destroyed. I repeat: the targets are destroyed."
"Excellent," beamed Walter.
"That's quite the setup, Marcus," another voice said.
"Thank you, Bill," Jack answered. "We'll be holding tryouts later today."
An hour later, Bill, Lee, and Laura joined them in the chair room.
"How does it work?" Bill asked.
"It requires that someone with the ancient gene sit in the chair," O'Neill answered. "Someone without the gene can sit there and nothing will happen." He gestured at a corporal who was standing guard. "Do you have the gene, Son?"
"No, Sir," the soldier answered.
"Have a seat," Jack said, gesturing at the chair.
"Sir?"
"If you don't have the gene, nothing will happen. Have a seat."
The corporal looked scared to death as he gingerly lowered himself onto the hard surface. When it became clear that the chair wasn't going to relieve him of his backside, he relaxed a bit.
"Thank you, Son. You can get up now," Jack told him. When the corporal had resumed his place against the wall, Jack said, "Here's what happens when someone has the gene."
As he sat, the electric blue light turned back on, and the chair tipped back. It didn't detect anything over the city, so a hologram of the entire planet appeared, and quickly zoomed out to where the entire system was visible.
"Cain to Sledge," O'Neill said into his communicator. "How about launching a couple of practice drones?"
"Certainly, Admiral," came the mild tones of the Asgard.
Suddenly, the hologram zoomed in to where they could see Pegasus in the drydock, and two blinking red targets flying away from the battlestar. They began to line up to make runs on the huge ship, but from the planet's surface two orange lights rose quickly. As they flew upward, they picked up speed, and less than fifteen seconds after they were launched, there was no trace of them in the holographic display. The chair tipped back up, and O'Neill stood.
New Caprica City…
Helena Cain walked into the laboratory where Carson Beckett was testing people for the gene. Beckett looked up from some paperwork he had been filling out on his last test, and said, "Welcome. I'm Carson Beckett. You must be Helena Cain."
"Yes, I am," she confirmed. "Let's do this."
"Not much for small talk, are you?" Carson said as he put the results form from the last test in his outbox. He picked up another piece of paper and jotted her name on it, and looked up at her face. She scowled at him.
"Oh well, not to worry. Just touch this detector," he told her indicating the small unit.
She sighed and shook her head, then reached out and put her hand around it. The green LED came on.
"Congratulations," Carson told her. "You have the gene."
"Oh," she said and turned on her heel. She left the lab without another word.
Carson gazed after her, shaking his head. Nice looking, he thought. It's a shame she doesn't have a personality to match.
That evening, Beckett sat down for dinner with Jack and Sam on board Pegasus.
"So," Sam asked as they were brought their dessert of blue jello, "What have you found out?"
Carson looked at his bowl of jiggling dessert with a decidedly unsatisfied expression on his face. He glanced at Sam and saw her pointing at Jack and mouthing, his favorite. He looked at Jack, and saw him wolfing down his bowlful, and set down his spoon.
"Well," he said in answer to Sam's query, "Like we thought, those four from the Federation have the gene. The Olympians have it, as does Miss Earhart. Interestingly, none of the Adamas have it except Sharon."
"Sharon's a cylon," Sam told Carson.
"Oh," he said, "I knew she appeared adopted, but I didn't realize that. That explains a lot, actually, because the rest of the cylons also have the gene."
"What about Helena?" Jack asked.
"She definitely has it," Beckett replied, "not that she needs it."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked.
"Well, Merlin has displayed the ability to run ancient machinery without the gene, and since you're Q as well, I kinda figured you probably could."
"Well," Sam agreed, "you're right. I don't have it, but I can operate any Ancient device I want."
After Carson left, Jack and Sam made their way back to his cabin. Waiting outside the door was Helena, prompting a sigh from Jack.
He opened the door and they entered the cabin. Sam sat down on the sofa, and Helena across from her in an upholstered chair. Jack looked at the two women, then sat gingerly beside his wife.
"What's wrong?" Helena asked him.
He didn't answer for some time, and she watched, refusing to avert her eyes. She had learned over the years that eventually her father would be bothered too much by her unwavering gaze and would answer whether he wanted to or not.
Finally, he said, "Carson said you have the ATA gene."
"Apparently so," she agreed.
He looked at her face carefully. He wasn't sure whether she wanted to control the chair or not. He figured he'd have to ask her. "Are you wanting chair duty?" he asked.
"The thought had crossed my mind," she acknowledged.
"I see," he told her. "The problem is, Helena, you're not ready."
"What do you mean?" she asked, a dangerous look on her face.
"I'm not going to authorize anyone for that chair who isn't emotionally stable enough to sit in it."
"Emotionally stable?" she was getting mad now. "You don't think I'm emotionally stable enough to sit in that chair?"
"No," Jack said calmly, "I don't."
"Why not?" Helena's voice was icy calm now.
"Anger can make someone strong, Helena," he told her, "but it can also make one reckless. It takes away your focus. I've watched very strong warriors lose battles because they were angered."
"Anger can also give you focus," she countered.
"It's a distraction," he said shaking his head.
"Maybe for you," she argued, "but not for me."
"I'm sorry, Helena," he said with finality, "but I'm not going to clear you for that chair."
Neither of them had noticed Sam get up and head into the other room while they were arguing, but now, Jack looked at his wife as she made her way back into the room. She was leading a blonde woman of around twenty-five into the room.
"Helena, I'd like you to meet your sister, Amanda. Amanda, this is Helena."
"Sister?" Helena asked with a raised voice. "The only sister I had was Lucy, and she died!"
Amanda had been holding her hand out to her sister, but on Helena's outburst, she took it back. "Lucy died? Only physically. She's in the continuum."
"What!?" Helena asked. "What are you talking about?" As her defenses crumbled and her temper flared, the floor began to shake and a bottle of ambrosia in a cabinet shattered.
"Helena," Sam said firmly, "You need to calm down." As she spoke, her mind wrapped around her daughter and prevented her from damaging anything else.
"Where do you get off telling me to calm down? You left twenty years ago! You died and left me without a mother! Me and Lucy! We only had a father who wasn't here most of the time. He was out looking for cylons, but not the right ones! Not the one that killed Lucy!" She turned a fiery look on Amanda and shouted, "Don't you talk about Lucy! You have no right!"
"Don't you realize what's going on here, Helena?" Amanda asked. "You're Q, just like the rest of us. No one has died. The cylons don't have the power to kill us. Mom and Dad were fobbed. They had no choice, but they did the best they could."
Helena was slowly shaking her head, an expression of absolute disgust on her face. "The best they could? I spent time with family friends when he was away. I was always an outsider. She was gone! I had no one close to me."
"Helena," O'Neill said softly, "I'm sorry I wasn't there constantly. You know that in the military, these things happen at times. As soon as I was able to arrange it, I had Pegasus assigned to guarding Tauron so that I could be home every night."
"It wasn't enough," the woman said through tears. "I wanted parents who were always there, like the other kids. I went from being an orphan to taking care of Lucy on my own. Then I failed her. I watched her shot down in the holocaust!"
"Helena," Amanda's voice was soft, "will you come with me and let me teach you what you are capable of as a Q?"
"So I can break bottles," Helena said, "big deal!"
"You're able to do much more than that," Sam said. "Amanda is very skilled. She can teach you."
"I have responsibilities here."
"You can come back to this exact moment in time when we're done," Amanda told her sister.
Several days later…
The Pegasus had been repaired. It had been returned to its original specifications in every regard except its weaponry. That had been upgraded significantly.
Pegasus was a Mercury class battlestar, and was smaller than her sister Galactica, which was of the new Saturn class. Originally, there was to be a Saturn class for each of the colonies, as there had been with the Mercurys, but the cylon war had prevented that from happening.
On the bridge of Galactica, Bill Adama watched as Pegasus slowly eased her way out of the drydock where the repairs had been completed. The new armor on the alligator head gleamed in the sunlight. He watched as Cain brought his ship close to the nose of Adama's so the new struts supporting the port landing bay could be observed. Those struts had required complete replacement.
Helena Cain climbed into her viper cockpit. She had finally acquiesced and gone with her sister for training in the use of her powers. She had returned to the moment she left, with a glowing report from Amanda. The problem of her anger still remained, but at least, as Sam pointed out to Jack, she had control of her powers. Now, she was preparing to fly in the celebration of Pegasus' return to active duty.
She exited the launch tube and hit her turbo, pulling straight up from the side of the battlestar. She was followed by four complete squadrons. They were launching from the starboard hangar deck, but would land in the port side.
She had done a gradual one hundred and eighty degree loop, and was now flying upside down relative to Pegasus. When she reached the midline of the ship, she rolled port ninety degrees, and pulled up on her stick. This turned her nose toward the front of the battlestar, but she was still flying towards the starboard side. Once more on the turbo, and she was heading towards the alligator head. She rolled her viper so she was once more flying upside down relative to the battlestar. The squadrons followed her maneuvers exactly, and as they flew above the alligator head, they split apart in a fantastic display of synchronized flying.
Once the battlestar had been brought into orbit, the real show began, however. This formation was not to be led by Helena, but by her father.
The Iconians and Federation pilots had, while Pegasus was being repaired, taught her pilots how to fly their fighters. The Colonials had returned the favor, by teaching them how to fly their vipers. However, they had never shown what a viper could do with an experienced pilot at the controls. Marcus Cain was widely regarded as the best viper pilot alive.
He launched from Pegasus, and immediately aimed his nose toward the planet's surface and hit his turbos. His viper was a Mark VII, retrofitted to older avionics, and as he entered the atmosphere at over mach five, he could feel the buffeting of even the tenuous atmosphere around his ship. As he dropped to ten thousand feet, he slowed to subsonic speeds. This special precision flying group was comprised of his and six more vipers, from both Galactica and Pegasus. They had timed it so they would meet him at ninety five hundred feet, and dive with him. Helena, BoJay, and Boomer flew in on his port side, while Apollo, Starbuck, and Serena joined on his starboard. They were heading straight down on the outskirts of New Caprica City, and as they dropped to a thousand feet, they pulled up and went into barrel rolls. Each viper fanned out at a different angle in a formation that blossomed out above the city, just skirting above the tops of the tallest buildings.
A moment later, they were on the other side of the city, pulling up into a one hundred eighty degree loop. They changed their trajectory slightly, putting their intersection point at the center of town, directly above the stargate, and when they hit that point at just meters apart in altitude, they appeared to pass through the same point in time and space.
Each viper continued on its heading until they were far outside town again, and circled around, so that when they returned to the center of town, they were each coming from seven evenly spaced points on the compass. As they came closer into the center of town, they pulled up and hit their turbos. The effect was a circle of seven vipers, their wingtips mere inches apart, that blasted out of the atmosphere, picking up speed as it went.
The crowd watching from the ground went wild.