Chapter Six

New York City

(Nineteen hours post arrival of missionaris to Earth)

"And how do we know this evidence you speak of isn't fake?" Thomasina King asked Ambassador Saltum. "You've been here for a long time and I wouldn't put it past Earth Intelligence manipulating you and your staff, providing evidence that doesn't really exist in order to subvert you and our people."

"It's a real possibility, Ambassador," added Ursula. "The relationship between our people is strenuous at best and such lies could be supplied to you in order to destabilize not only our people but the people of Earth in order to promote ongoing hostility. These falsehoods can easily be used to keep the people of Earth from discovering their true origins, thereby keeping the current leaders in power as long as possible. That would also keep the Terran population from finding out and acknowledging the connection between our people."

The ambassador nodded vigorously, since he was in complete agreement. "Those were our first thoughts when we first saw their evidence. What better way to prove that Earth wasn't connected to the Colonies than by 'proving that Earth was the birthplace of mankind, not Kobol? However, if that is true then much of what we thought we knew was wrong. This was the assumption that we began with." He sighed heavily. "My staff and I spent a month researching their claims. Then we spent a few more months combing through their history and records. We're still researching. I will say that the Terran internet is a very useful tool here and it's something that we might think about building at home while we rebuild the Mesh, with the appropriate safeguards of course," he added. Agasha was somewhat surprised when no one voiced an immediate disagreement at his suggestion. "We've gone to museums and have discussed this subjects with various Terran experts in the field."

Sitting heavily in his chair, once again he sighed. "Their evidence is impressive. I am a Colonial and I can't yet quite accept this evidence that mankind originated here on Earth, but," and here he paused to make sure his next words would be carefully considered by his guests, "when I see the evolutionary pathways of life on this planet; when I see the evidence of the primates and pre-sapient humanoids; when I see how close the animals here are connected to man when I see the genetics–what I understand of it–and how it compares with parallel human evolutionary development, I have to concede that we may know a lot less about or origins than we think. We may be missing a lot of information about who and what we truly are and where we came from.

If you look at the DNA evidence in both animals and humans, the conclusions are hard to deny. And to clarify things, the Terrans don't deny the connection to the Colonies. They instead disagree as to how we are related."

There, he'd said it for all to hear.

Tyberi turned beet red. Lucy meanwhile, prepared a rant to end all rants. She was clearly incensed and horrified that their own ambassador had been so corrupted by these primitive, monotheistic heathens. Elosha and Ursula were from all appearances very disturbed, but at the same time most of the time also thoughtful. One could almost see each of them searching their memories of the scrolls and scriptures in order to confirm or deny the ambassador's allegation. Linus remained silent as did Dodona. Luke simply grunted and continued recording everything in his notebook.

"I'm sorry," Dodona said. "I don't fully understand. I understand the words but not the intent behind them. Can you explain to me this connection between animals and mankind to me?

The Ambassador smiled. "Of course I can. It took me a while to understand it myself. Colonial understanding in this particular branch of science is far less advanced as compared to Earth's and that's partially because we were colonists living on worlds we didn't originate from."

The Theory of Evolution, as it's known on Earth, simply did not as such exist in the Twelve Colonies. The science of genetics was well understood but detailed understanding of evolutionary genetics was far behind its Terran counterpart. Colonial scientists noted certain genetic relationships between humans, animals and plants originating from Kobol, but without a huge database to work from they had little in the way of investigating the family trees on Kobol. Therefore they possessed no way to formulate their own theories of man's genetic evolution. While there were fossils on the planets of the Cyrannus System, they were only fossils of the native life before the Kobollian flora and fauna overran everything. Before the discovery of Kobol, the only evidence of evolutionary genetics originating from Kobol lay in how germs, bacteria and insects adapted to different environments and obstacles. Essentially that was it. Two thousand years was simply far too short for any noticeable adaptive evolutionary changes in human, animal and plant life and Colonial advances in science had only begun to re-establish itself in the previous one hundred and sixty years. There had been no radical shifts in the populations, human or otherwise. Evolutionary genetics was in its infant stages; the missionaries were not very knowledgeable about the subject hence their doubt of Saltum's claims.

"That is another reason why I am pleased that you're here," the ambassador continued when no one immediately spoke up. "You can ask questions we might have missed or not thought of and you will force us to respond with answers that we had not previously considered. If I and my staff are wrong or have somehow been deceived, I leave it to you, our leaders, knowledgeable in the ways of the gods, to discover the deceptions and correct us. But if not, and if we are right then it's my expectation that you will pass this information along to our people."

And with it the firestorm that will erupt if it's discovered that our history is wrong.

"Ambassador Agasha," Tyberi said diplomatically after a few moments. "You've given us a lot to think about and yes we will do our own investigation, a very detailed one I promise you. What you're suggesting, if it is proven true, may well destroy the very foundations of our beliefs." The man's eyes were haunted as his mind played the possibilities of nightmare scenarios on the Colonies. By the gods, Earth was even more dangerous than he expected! "Not only is it frightening but dangerous to our people. Many people will not want to even hear a hint of this.

"We will have to be careful and as thorough as possible in our research given that this isn't our area of expertise." Gone was the usual blustery tone in his voice. "As you may know, but the rest of you don't," he added looking at the some of the younger members in the room, "is when we first encountered the Prometheus, Dr. Jackson told us that humans originated from Earth. He wasn't believed and his words were quickly dismissed as being ignorant of the truth. But what he said was overshadowed and all but forgotten when it was found out that Earth was populated by a large number of monotheists. And I admit there were other reasons why our government was so intent on finding Earth."

"Father Patrenus," Lucy interrupted before he could continue. "I don't believe that our people has seen or been told is the truth. That is," she amended looking at the ambassador, "the whole truth. The scrolls specifically states that mankind originated from Kobol. Remember the day when they told us that Kobol had been found? It's only been a few years but so many records have been unearthed and we've barely scratched the surface. Ambassador, our archeologists have unearthed many records, but many more of them are presumably destroyed due to natural disasters and war before the great exodus."

"And time," added Ursula.

"And time. However, the surviving records we've found so far confirmed what was written in our own scrolls. It is true, we know very little of the history about life on Kobol before the exodus; so, I propose that it is probable that the original Kobollians built ships and explored space, discovered and colonized Earth long ago. The researchers on Kobol have a lot of work to do trying to reconstruct the records. So much history and evidence of their everyday lives were lost, but I have faith that the truth will be discovered and it'll prove my theory. It's so exciting! We're slowly regaining our history." She paused for a moment. "From what little I've read, it must have been paradise."

"But not all of it," Elosha muttered.

From what little she'd seen so far, Earth with all of its fantastic technology was flawed, allowing so much evil to happen across the planet; really no better than the colonies. But those earlier records hinted that Kobol was just as bad. Surveys of the planet had uncovered disturbing evidence that the idyllic dreams about the Kobol of an earlier time were just that–dreams. Evidence had been uncovered revealing a dark side to their ancestors. Human sacrifice, slavery, genocidal wars in the names of the gods, and uncontrolled brutality were parts of everyday life. Paradise, it was not. Carefully preserved and hidden away records were very specific about the events that occurred during the time of Pythia, who was burned at the stake for daring to proclaim the truth about what was happening and prophesize what would occur in the future.

Elosha was brought back to the present when she noticed Agasha nodding at the possibility of Lucy's theory.

"But there's other evidence that can't be ignored," the ambassador insisted. "The DNA data for one, and the tens of thousands of years recorded of the civilizations here. Granted, our own biological scientists have just begun their research on the plants and animals, or what remains of them on Kobol, but it will take years if not decades to determine the planet's biological family tree and how our people developed there. Here on Earth we have another thing to consider and that is the Goa'uld invasion that took place at least six to eight thousand years ago. Those aliens spread mankind across the stars, reportedly from Earth. Miss Ferro, your theory is certainly plausible, but it's only a theory," Agasha allowed. "However, the fact that the goa'uld spread Earth people across the galaxy can't be ignored."

"Facts we can't yet confirm for ourselves," she countered. "In light of that, High Priestess and Supreme Mother Livia Sytomia has said that humanity's birthplace is Kobol and the scrolls speak the truth. Whatever the Terrans here believe, it is only a lie, or a deceit planted by the demons that invaded this world and deprived them of their history as a form of control…these poor, spiritually deprived people."

"Lucy, the scrolls didn't say that mankind arose on Kobol. That doesn't mean that we came from the stars either. There's a lot the Scared Scrolls don't tell us. We're missing a lot of whole truth, but you're saying that Livia's word is final?" asked an incredulous Elosha.

"She is the head of the College, our rightful spiritual leader and for good reason. We have to trust in her that she knows the truth and what is best for the people, all of the people. As she has said, Athena is a patient goddess and we must follow that example if we are to succeed in saving the people of Earth from their ignorance and sins."

"The High Priestess may be the head," Linus said quietly, "but we all have an equal voice here. We are a democracy, remember that? We're here because we choose to be here, no matter the reason. We won't be dictated to by someone sitting in a chair thousands of light years away having no idea what's happening and what we're going through here and now. Yes, I'm as shocked as the rest of you at what our ambassador has said, but I will examine at his evidence and not simply dismiss it because it may be an inconvenient truth."

"You're disrespecting our High priestess and our spiritual leader, Linus."

"I am not disrespecting her," he argued. "I am simply following the example of the gods, not blindly following the orders of our leaders, no offence, my lord Patrenus. I think I will go where the gods lead to wherever it may lead in this matter and if the truth we have isn't the whole truth then perhaps we'll find a little more of it here on Earth, strange as that may be, MS Soter."

Ursula looked on with pity at the ambassador and his wife as their religious leaders bickered among themselves. "Lucy, the scrolls are not the end all to everything. Most of the writing is considered a template as to how we should live, not follow blindly not matter the cost. Livia is my friend," nodded Ursula. "We've spent many years together discussing the scrolls and their significance. But we both acknowledged that there's much we don't know. The gods are cryptic entities and despite what you're assumed, we don't know what happened on Kobol or if they'd traveled to Earth before the exodus of our people to the Cyrannus system. You may be correct or, it might be argued that people from Earth journeyed to Kobol first."

"What!?"

Tyberi jumped in before Lucy could counter attack. "I confess that this conversation is most interesting and I have no doubt that this will be revisited later. Having said that, as a group, we must unite ourselves. This bickering serves no purpose. When we have a chance, we'll start looking at the evidence. But for now, we should strive to remember our purpose for being here and that purpose, need I remind us all, is to bring the light to the people here."

"No," Dodona said. "I must disagree here. You're wrong. I believe that that's now become our secondary mission. As the old Colonial saying goes, 'no plan escapes undamaged in battle'. Our plans must adapt to this new information coming to light. We must readjust our priorities."

"In what way?" asked Elosha before Tyberi could get in a word edgewise, leaving him embarrassed and frustrated.

"Let's learn something about these people first, starting by visiting their temples, seeing their museums, and studying their internet. As wonderful as they are we can't remain dependent on these translators. We need to learn the languages."

"At least one," Saltum said.

The Oracle nodded. "And their cultures, so that we can bring them into the light as our Father so graciously continues to proclaim. We can't help these people spiritually if we can't even talk to them. We need to live among them, talk to them, learn about their religions, learn about them and let them learn about us."

"No matter how distasteful," grumbled Lucy.

"Or how fascinating," continued Dodona without missing a beat, her eyes gazing intently at Lucy who in turned wondered whether the oracle has foreseen something about herself. Dodona quickly broke the eye contact and looked around at everyone. "We can't expect them to take us seriously if we can't listen to them in return. We need to go out and speak to these people as people not as some future member of our faith."

"You mean actually go out and live among these monotheists who by definition are dangerous blood thirsty killers?" Lucy asked. She shook her head. "Go right ahead. I will talk to them; however, I think it's dangerous to actually try and live among them and I, for one, won't do it."

"Why are you so hostile?" a surprised Luke asked.

"I'm not hostile," she protested. "I'm just cognitively aware. Look at all of us, the reason why we're here in the embassy," she said and then she added, "It's safe. They hate us. Pontiff Tyberi saw that first hand with that snotty kid and his disrespectful action."

"And again, you're here because?" prompted Luke. In return, the glare from Lucy was enough to melt his skin from his bones. "The Oracle is right. In a couple of days some of us might not even be able to get to the fresher by ourselves. Others, well, they may not even have any symptoms at all. Either way, I propose we settle down and talk about how we should adjust our priorities before we go out trying to save somebody. Besides, I need to know more about Ambassador Agasha's experiences here and the evidence that he seems so intent for us to see. And I have a thousand questions I would love answered. For example, how is the night life in this huge, dynamic, alien city? What is the average person like? Are their steaks the same as ours? And, have you ever visited one of the dozens of temples that crowd this city? What was it like?

The Ambassador's wife chuckled. "It's more like thousands of churches, or synagogues, or holy places, as they call them. Some are huge like those on Virgon and Caprica. For the truly monumental like on Gemenon, you'd have to go to Europe. Some are home-sized. They have temples here as well but they're not quite what we could call temples."

Ursula was surprised. "I didn't expect that. Why so many and how many do you believe are dedicated to the gods?"

Damari laughed. It was a bemused sound. "In this country, the belief of the one God is dominant. There's no question of that. There are other who believe in gods but not our gods. If you believe that this little adventure is going to be simple, let me dissuade you of that dream. Concerning religion, these people aren't naïve as some of you may think and you're in for a nightmare if you can't bend with the wind and open yourselves to new ideas."

"For example?" Elosha asked.

"Well," she said after a moment. "Here, as at home, many believe that the one God is a jealous God. But here in many parts of the world also believe that He or the spirit is a loving God and that when they pray it's a personal relationship."

"Like the Cylons' so-called 'God is love' dogma?" interrupted Lucy with a sneer.

Damari took a deep breath, mentally counting to ten to calm herself. "Somewhat. Although to say exactly what the Cylons believe past that original proclamation, is something that we may never know. Other than believing in the one God, no one knows the details except the Cylons and we can't ask them," she added meaningfully. "But back to the discussion about Earth. Another faction believes that the one God listens but demands obedience or He will punish their people–long story. Others believe that the one God only created man and waits around to judge you, so one must follow a set of rules and if you deviate from those rules, then you deserve death as punishment for defiling His will. And that answer is simplistic. According to our understanding and our research, the origin of the god of this third faction is not the same as the previous ones I mentioned despite some people assuming all three variations acknowledge the same god. However, these three factions represent the three main religions of the one God. Then there are many, many variations within each group." She shrugged. "It's complicated."

"And all of this is on their internet?" asked a wide-eyed Luke.

"More than you can imagine and it's free! But just reading isn't enough. We've also spoken to some of the religious leaders here in New York."

"Personally?" Lucy all but screamed. "Here, at this place?"

"I'm an ambassador," Saltum said drily. "That's what I do for a living," and again he wondered why this woman was here on Earth. But their presence still gave him comfort and he smiled. In spite of Lucy and her attitude, his other visitors were just beginning to truly understand how deep they'd stepped into it and he felt sorry for them. But he needed them to help him establish a solid relationship with the people of Earth. Anything to help keep the lines of communications opened. "In this country as in several others, they practice what is called freedom of religion. That means that anyone can believe what one wants as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others to worship the way they want."

"And that anarchy works?" asked a very curious Linus.

"After a fashion. It's a strange system, but it works. But I will say that there are many who hate it and continually try to force their will and beliefs upon others."

"And those who believe in this freedom of religion, how do they respond?" Nikko asked. "Do they wipe these offenders out?"

Agasha laughed. "Many want to, no doubt. In this country, they are usually dealt with legally. But in other countries, the people there are free to do as they please and unless their atrocities are too great for the world to ignore, or if these factions become a greater threat then they will be dealt with. Or at least," he continued, "that's the theory so I'm told. The people that live in those regions are not much different from the Sagittarons and Gemenese in attitude as well as in living conditions. There is a lot, I am sad to say, of repression by their religious and government leaders. I'm told that things are slowly changing but there are those who want to return to life as it was eight hundred to a thousand years ago in their belief that life was simpler and better. And they are trying to force many to return to that life with them whether they like it or not. Now, in this country and several others there is an article called the Separation of Church and State." At the confused looks he received he continued. "This means that the church stays out of government business and the government stays out of the business of the church, or in our case, the temple."

"I don't' understand," Linus said.

"Neither do I," added Ursula. "How can such a system possibly work? Why, Elosha here, was a delegate in the Quorum for twenty years before she retired—and, she has been a priestess all that time! Government is a product of the will of the gods. The Synod is the moral center of the people. It advises the Quorum and the People's Council on matters of religion. Without that center, the people wouldn't know the god's will for them. There would be anarchy."

Agasha nodded in agreement. "I asked them to explain it to me several times, but I couldn't fully understand how one could exist without the other. They have priests here as consultants but they have no legal standing or authority to impose any law or ruling on any government official. To me the temple and the government is and has always been intertwined. The people here, meaning this country and several others, believe that the church or religious leadership should not involve themselves in governmental matters and policy. Religion is considered a hindrance and has no business attempting to impose their beliefs and will on the government. But I must be clear here," Saltum continued. "Religion is important to their lives but it's not focused on like our people. It's hard to explain. We consider the gods in everything we do. The people here, the serious ones I've spoken to speak of a personal relationship with the One God. Again not all of the countries believe in the separation. But in the United States they do have this system and it works."

Lucy just shook her head in disgust. "Barbarians," she muttered.

"I'm sure we'll discuss this in detail but, I'm curious," Ursula said. "What did you and the priests talk about?"

"Our respective religions and a great many other things," he answered.

"These priests weren't angry at you because of your personal beliefs?" prompted Ursula.

"Surprisingly, no," he answered. "Remember the freedom of religion here? When I told them of my beliefs, they were curious even fascinated. But I also told them that you were coming here to bring the light to the people."

"How did they respond?" asked Elosha.

"It was a curious reaction. One of them a Father Constantine asked if there was a lot of missionary work performed in the Colonies. I answered honestly and told him no."

"And their reactions to you were?"

"A couple of them smiled. Father Constantine simply said, 'good luck'."

"Nice of them to say that," Lucy said thoughtfully. "I'm surprised they would be so considerate."

Tyberi clinched his fists and slowly started counting as he avoided looking at Lucy's face. Livia's wayward niece was fast shaping up to be unexpected and unwelcomed complication.

Lemuria

"A free floating city in the middle of the ocean," Adar spoke out loud.

It was simply a beautiful site. There was little doubt his people could have done the same feat if they had put their minds to it. But the Terrans had done it and with the obvious addition of their infamous force shield, the city was protected from the fierce elements as well as sabotage and outright nuclear attacks. So it was little wonder that they chose his place for the summit. It bothered him however that the Earth people hadn't told them exactly why they had been invited to this summit in the first place. Earth hadn't been very forthcoming stating only that it would be in their best interests to come as observers of Earth and its allies. That alone was enough to get the Colonial's attention, literally being too enticing a morsel to pass up. Other officials on the Quorum believed that it was a subtle invitation to begin talks, laying the groundwork for a non-aggression treaty or even a subtle introduction to begin talks concerning possible trade agreements. As for Adar, he hoped for the best and secretly prayed that he hadn't come to witness to a signing of a declaration of war

Therefore, it was with a bit of trepidation that he stepped out of the ship and onto the platform serving as a landing port. There were dozens of people arriving by those strange shuttles as well as some more traditional ones. Like Cain, he found that interesting. Two types of technology were in evidence. The more traditional shuttles, as he called them, looked similar to the Raptor design with large engines but they also used antigrav systems that allowed said ships to land with barely a whisper. The men and women that exited those transports were some of the same people he'd seen on the resort. Many were strangely dressed (to his eyes) and their tonal inflections were unusual. Next to him Cain merely smiled and took in everything. Marthia had grasped her husband's hand in a death grip as he almost dragged her through the main doorway into a large control room. Cain followed behind him along with the rest of the arrivals.

Walking through those doors was an experience in itself. The entire atmosphere had changed the instant they passed through the threshold. First, it was warmer and the humidity was lower; the air even smelled different, not processed but somehow fresher than the air outside. But what caught his attention was the object in the middle of the room. It was a stargate.

Watching the device operate was magnificent. He'd only seen the one on Caprica in pictures and video but the device was unmistakable. However, didn't look like the one brought to Caprica and as he looked at Cain he saw that the Lead Admiral had noticed the same thing. This gate looked more refined, more stylish if that word could be used to describe it. Almost on cue, the gate activated lighting up as an announcer talking through loud speakers

"Incoming wormhole. Force shield active."

The inner circle began rotating and the entire device brightened as symbols on the gate, one after another, begin to glow with power. Inside the ring unimagined energy flashed a brilliant blue, looking like an ocean of water struggling to get out. Adar felt his body vibrate in tune with the gate's power although there was no vibration coming from the gate itself.

Cain's short grunt surprised Richard. The man never really showed much emotion when he was in observation mode, so this must have shocked him as much as the active gate had him.

"They have a shield protecting their gate," he whispered to Adar. "That's why the gate energy didn't rush outward like ours does. Good idea. We should devise something like that, maybe a heavy metal shield or something to that effect."

Adar nodded in affirmation. It was a good idea. But the image was so awe-inspiring that he literally forgot that Marthia still had his hand. Here eye were wide as saucers and she was mouthing the words, "by the gods, by the gods!" over and over again. This was her first time seeing a stargate. Understandably, she had no idea that such a thing existed as it was one of the greatest secrets of the CDF. Only a few select people knew about the stargate now on Caprica and what its true purpose was.

There was a brief flash as the shield deactivated. Then people began walking out of the circle of blue energy. As the last person walked through, the gate deactivated and almost immediately, it began the cycle once again. More people exited the gate. By their looks, they had to be Jaffa. That was when Augustus Cain first saw the notorious General Jack O'Neill in the flesh. Listening intently but trying not to be obvious about it, he overheard some interesting information about the numbers of stargates that Earth had.

There's more than one on Earth, he thought.

How was it possible to have a beta (and that meant that there an alpha) gate and have them work independently? And more importantly, why had O'Neill allowed him to overhear said conversation?

Adar held his breath again as the stargate activated once more, spewing forth more people. The sight was breathtaking but his wife's reaction was far more extreme. For a moment he thought his wife was about to faint, or would to sink to her knees and start praying in front of the gate. Augustus, not normally a religious man was himself silently praying to the gods that the woman hadn't humiliated the entire Twelve Colonies. So focused was he on Marthia he hadn't noticed anyone coming towards him.

"Seeing that for the first time is always the best," said a voice from behind causing both men to jump slightly.

Cain recognized him, public enemy number three. "General O'Neill, I presume?"

"At your service, Lead Admiral Cain," O'Neill said. "President and Mrs. Adar. See anything you like?"

"A couple of things," Cain replied easily.

The two men, staring at one another as if they were old acquaintances shocked Richard Adar to his core because he knew better. To anyone else, this would be nothing more than a casual greetings between two people, but Richard could see the almost combative stance both men presented to each other. It was like watching two apex predators taking the others measure. One tiger, one lion, eyes gleaming, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

"You recognized us," Cain said easily, not surprised in the least. "I see your spy probes hiding in our system are doing their jobs."

"I can't complain," smirked the General not even trying to deny the facts. "Welcome to Lemuria. It's our little city in the sea, or ocean, whichever. It's a nice little secure getaway for vacations and private meetings."

"I can see that," agreed the Colonial Admiral. "Speaking of which, on behalf of the Colonies of Kobol, I thank you for inviting us here to Earth and to this magnificent city, but would you mind telling us why we're here?" asked the former president. "Your invitation was somewhat vague."

"And yet you came," the General observed.

"Your invitation was an offer we couldn't refuse," Richard Adar said. "Your people are a mystery to us and this is a golden opportunity to learn about our brethren."

"Well, I'm glad it's you and not Admiral Nagala. Personally, I would have loved to have had him arrested and charged with war crimes for authorizing the use of nuclear weapons over a civilian area." O'Neill clasped his hand in front of him. "You see, we like our cities non-radioactive."

Augusta's eyes went cold as he acknowledged the silent promise of Earth responding on a massive, probably planetary scale. "Those actions weren't sanctioned. One of our officers took it upon himself to use nuclear weapons on Earth. He was never authorized to attack Earth. The Quorum and Flagg staff on Picon weren't aware of the battle until a week after it was over. Besides, as you know, we're here under a flag of diplomatic immunity, something that both your world and our Articles of Colonization have in common. You wouldn't have touched Nagala if he were here instead of me."

"Hey, I can dream," O'Neill answered undeterred by the Admiral's terse response. "But I think you have problems of your own, besides us I mean. Apparently your officers didn't give you an accurate After Action Report," O'Neill corrected. "Captain Frank Cunningham was authorized by Admiral Nagala to launch high-yield nuclear weapons at Earth's cities. And just how do we know this, you may ask?" Now Jack's smile was predatory. "Well, we recorded every transmission by everyone. It took a little while to decode your old security protocols but we got everything. His actions weren't a defensive tactic. It's about as offensive as one gets."

Cain was stone-faced. Hades was coming to the CDF when he returned home. Vital information was omitted from the official reports presented to Command and the Quorum. Just as obvious was the fact that certain logs had been scrubbed.

"Now, as to why you're here. The Terran government wanted you here as non-participating observers of this summit between Earth and its allies. We wanted you to get a feel of the larger galaxy and exactly where you stand in it right now," he said jovially. But both men weren't fooled one bit. That smile had never reached his eyes and the unnamed threat was obvious. "Everything that you see here is what we are and it's impossible to keep everything a secret. You see, we're proud of who and what we are. Most of our allies know what you're about to learn while you're here. Earth's always been independent and we will resist anyone's attempts to force us to submit. We've fought the Goa'uld, the Lucian Alliance, the Wraith, even the Vorlon incursion. We're kinda sensitive about military forces coming too close to our territories without permission. Your military forces have come a little too close for our comfort – more than once. So that made us a bit nervous, especially because of your tendencies to use nukes first and thinking about it later. We would have backed you off ourselves, but the Tollanians beat us to it. They were more aggressive than we liked but you can't deny the results. Anyway, as my ex used to say, we want to keep the lines of communications open. Their actions seems to have helped."

"I must agree with you," said a bitter Richard. "We do need to keep the lines of communication opened to avoid another such incident. But I have to say that your colony seems to be a violent faction of your population and it makes me wonder why you allowed them so much firepower if they're so willful a people"

"Wait, what colony?"

"Your colony, the Tollanians," Cain clarified.

"The Tollanians aren't a colony of Earth, never have been."

"So they're an independent entity?"

"Yep. And they've been so for at least two thousand years or more."

"So they're additional survivors of the lost tribe trying to reach Earth?" asked Marthia. The woman was regaining her composure much to her husband's and the Admiral's relief.

"No, Ma'am," O'Neill answered. "They're descendants of Earth. But you can find out more if you talk to them yourself."

She looked confused by O'Neill's answer. She couldn't understand how lost or abandoned travelers with the Thirteenth Colony wouldn't consider them fellow colonists.

"Well, now that I'm here," Adar began, "I will strive to make sure that we don't come to blows and we needn't go around trying to kill one other."

"Or blow each other up," O'Neill helpfully added.

Cain could feel the tension between them rising and tried to deflate it. "The Colonies of Kobol will not attempt to attack Earth or any of its properties or allies again. It's not in our interest to do so, not to mention the timing couldn't be worse. We know that there's a war looming and what we want is to reunite with the people of Earth to defend mankind. The Tollanians, the Jaffa and others united with us would be in everyone's best interests. The benefits would be enormous for all concerned. And we can't forget that we are all family."

"In theory that's true," the Terran said. "But you know, in reality it's a different story. Families don't necessarily get along." He thought about that for a second. "We even have an old saying about families getting together."

"And what saying is that, General?"

"It goes something like this. 'when it comes to family, reunions are a …'"

(As you've read we are now where Chapter 25 of Worldwar: The Balance Destroyed left off...).

Now some of you may ask what in heck have the Volorns to do with this? Well two things.

One remember that although this is in a RAAB related universe, this was always based on another one of Bob Regent's story.

Two, the story there was a part which was not done involving a very violent encounter between the Vorlons, Asgard with Earth in the middle. There was what one would call a conflict of interest between those powers (Order vs we could care less). But alas, that's a revelation for another time. Never to be mentioned again.

Next. More on the summit.