Chapter Twelve

Minoan Class Battlestar Junis

Fourteen hundred light years from Cyrannus

"There was a minor energy fluctuation in DRADIS, diagnostic shows no problem. It might have been a glitch. They're double checking now to make sure. If not, we may something of interests near the fifth planet. So," Colonel Joan Perris asked, changing the subject, "what happened? Where is the Kimtesh System? I've never heard of it."

"Yes you have," snarled Eddlison as he handed the papers over. "Here…what were they thinking?"

Colonel Perris took the papers and started reading.

"Elements of the CDF were engaged and destroyed in the Kimtesh star system by a ship of the Tollanian race, believed to be either a colony or an ally of the Terrans (Apellai). Ships destroyed with all loss of hands: the battlestars Severus, Hade's Arrow, the Tityos and the Kaberoi. The battlestars Galactica and Tiryns sustained damage but are salvageable. The CDF were unable to inflict an equal amount of damage against the enemy. All elements of the CDF were withdrawn from the system at the demands of the Tollanians."

The colonel was incensed as she continued reading for the next ten minutes. "What were we doing in a system less than twelve light years from their home space? What genius thought that Earth wouldn't feel threatened and not respond to a hostile force within spitting distance of Earth? Didn't we have a treaty with them or something?"

"Joan, look at the date."

"This happened three months ago!" she groused while resisting the urge to throw the papers all over the room. Instead, she placed the report on the table and both officers began going over it once more.

"Three months ago," he confirmed. "We're so far out, we're lucky to get this information as soon as we did. The transports are still on their way. Our subspace communications equipment won't be here for another six months and we're two months out from home base." His eyes were steel as he thought about the consequences. "We could be in the middle of a war and never know it."

"Worse," Commander Eddlison corrected, "it could be over and we'd never know it. Didn't they know how hard that would make things, encroaching on their territory like that? I know we wouldn't have stood for it. Those stealth satellites over our worlds are still causing diplomatic challenges," he growled.

"In all fairness, we're doing the same thing."

"But they didn't put a full combat group in a star system next to the Colonies for all to see."

"As far as we know."

"Point taken. If they have there's nothing we could do about it. But I'm talking about us, not a 'what if'. With tensions as they are, that could have precipitated a war, something I don't think they want. But the point is, is that CDF just backed off from these Tollanians. This report doesn't explain why we were there or why they attacked us."

The explanation wasn't in the report but the look in the commander's eyes told Joan all she needed to know.

"I can read between the lines as well as you can," said Joan, looking at him. "Obviously these Tollanians are some offshoot of the Apellai or may even be a colony acting as their proxy. But look at page three," she continued. "The Quorum is going out of its way not to blame the Apellai. And what's with the name change again? First, we called them Tau'ri, then Apellai, and now we have to call them Terrans."

"The Quorum's frightened, Colonel, and from this report, the situation's almost as bad as when we first encountered the Terrans." He took a sip of coffee and had he been a different man he would have openly cursed the stupidity of his superiors. "I thought we were starting to make some real progress. The trading station was being built and likely the space lanes were being established. So, what happened? Why did our people think that the Thirteenth Colony after several thousand years of separation, would fall into line with the Quorum's dictates or not exercise their independent rights?" The Colonel remained silent since this was a rhetorical question that he would answer himself. "I can tell you why. We thought we could beat them and we went in with guns blazing.

"Unless our politicians get themselves together, we could end up in a war we can't win at this time. The Terrans are too advanced and they have allies who are just as powerful. Think about it," he mused. "On one side we have the Terrans; on the other we have these Tollanians. Behind us are these Goa'uld which, from our reports, hate us all which is good because it's the only thing I can think of that's keeping the Terrans from blowing us all to Hades and back because they're too worried about the serpents to really focus on us."

"Thank the gods for that!" she answered with more than a bit of sarcasm. "But, I think you're being too cynical," his cousin told him. "Sir, I can't help seeing how these reports are trying to put a positive spin on the situation," Joan said. "I think they're trying…at least I hope so. Either way, I'm glad to be out here exploring instead of being used as someone's pissing contest. It does make you wonder though, if the some of the Quorum is pushing for war."

"They're not that irresponsible," Eddlison answered shaking his head. "They're acting like we are irresponsible, pissed that the Thirteeners have more advanced technology than we despite them being only one lonely, isolated colony. We're thinking of them as a tiny, paranoid, barely surviving group of semi-ignorant colonists waiting to use their weapons at a moment's notice while they suppress their own people who are just waiting for us to save them from their miserable existence. He snorted. "Obviously we believe our own hype."

"Other than the fact that they have some great movies, we have no idea what they're really like."

Both of the officers smirked a little, knowing that someone in Colonial Intelligence had managed to bootleg several complete movies and had them translated into Caprican standard. Whoever succeeded quietly made a small mint, considering the fact that the deed was never repeated. The rumor was that Earth had allowed the movies to be released to the cloaked probes constantly monitoring Earth's star system.

"And we've been the aggressors," Joan muttered slowly. "But they shouldn't have given sanctuary to those machines."

"We should have begun a serious dialogue with them long before we started shooting," Demetrius countered. "Part of this debacle happened because of their 'little', and I use that word laughingly, vessel embarrassed the mighty Colonial fleet years ago. A lot of the Brass as well as the Quorum, never got over that."

"I remember. Everyone in the know was salivating at the technology difference after we calmed down. Energy shields!" she grumbled in half exasperation, half admiration. "Maybe we'll do the right thing and send a delegation and have honest talks with them before we get dragged into a war. If they don't want to join us, fine, I can live with that; so can a lot of other people. They don't have to be our friends but they don't have to be enemies either."

"Where have I heard that before?"

"Just agreeing with you," she responded evenly. "I just don't want to fight an unnecessary war. There are real problems out here that we have to deal with. And what about the Cylons on Earth? Shouldn't Earth feel threatened?"

"Who cares? Earth welcomed them into their system, helped them, protected them and have not aggressively started a hot war with us. Strange as it may seem, they have a better relationship with the survivors than we ever did with our own creations. Beside what could we actually do to persuade the Earthers to give them up?" he asked Joan who in turn kept silent. "We were pretty thorough. Unless the few Cylons that are left, do something really stupid and cut their own proverbial throats, then I believe that they won't cause the Terrans problems. It can't be more than five hundred of them still existing. If there are more than that I'd be surprised. We did our jobs and I consider the matter over. Earth isn't stupid to trust them completely. They have to have safeguards so there's no need to 'burn all of the bridges' as they say on Picon. End of story."

"And that's the attitude that got us stationed out here," countered Joan. "A lot of higher ups in the CDF weren't pleased with your outspoken opinions on genocide of a machine threat, especially since the Thirteeners embarrassed us so soon afterwards."

"Possibly," he mused. "I thought that was the case when we were told to stay out here for the greater good." He laughed. "However this has been a boon for everyone rather than a punishment. What we're doing is important work out here."

"Look, I'm agreeing with you," the woman responded quickly. "We're nowhere close to having the amount of knowledge and understanding about the galaxy when compared to the Terrans. Thank the gods that some of the higher-ups are using their brains to see the bigger picture here; but, this obsession with Earth has got to end if we are to move forward and start uniting with one another. Why we decided to occupy a system so close to Earth with tensions being as they are, I'll never understand. A child would have known better than to kick a wary dragon."

The commander snorted. "You're comparing our wise and illustrious Quorum and CDF leadership to Sir Albert the Un-enlightened?" A moment later, he was laughing loudly enough to be heard in the hallway. "That's cruel even for you."

"He was, well, not the swiftest person on the planet. Anyone who fights a dragon with a sword and shield for two days and claims a great victory after it surrenders only to discover that it's a baby, is a fool; especially when he didn't notice the huge monster looking on just to see how well her child was doing. The only good thing about it was that he showed off the live baby to the villagers."

"The bad thing was that Albert never saw the mother dragon behind him until she started slapping him with her spiked tail. Joan, I know the story and I see the comparison you're making."

Every child in the Colonies knew the story. Albert survived the incident, a mercy the dragon allowed since he hadn't injured her little one only exhausted and frustrated it. Albert's sword wasn't the sharpest and he wasn't the great fighter he thought he was. In his excitement he managed to grab a rather dull sword which was all but useless against sword-proof dragon hide. The midget dragonet got in some pretty good licks too which made Albert's supposedly glorious victory all the sweeter. Albert's battle with the mama dragon turned out somewhat differently.

"It took a year for Albert to fully regain consciousness, and another year before he could speak coherently," Joan finished. "But the reputation of being unenlightened stuck with him until he died of old age. Am I suggesting that we Colonials are Albert the Unenlightened? Yes! In this case, that's cruel but sadly accurate!" she laughed. "If it weren't so embarrassing it would be hysterical. But I do see your point which is why I am using this allegory. I don't want our people to be known as the 'unenlightened ones' when it comes to dealing with Earth or any of its colonies. Perception is everything. Most every encounter with them has hurt us and hurt our reputation. Why can't our leadership see this and what can we do change this perception of how people see us?"

"First, we need more people out here doing what we're doing. We need people who will try to get along with the Earthers, those Tollanian people and anybody else out there. We need people who look the Earthers in the eye, and accept them as they are whether they are Cylon-lovers or not." His cousin merely looked at him. "Yes, I have a ways to go as well," he said somewhat sheepishly, "but it strengthens my point. We need to start thinking in different directions, maybe even put Adar back into office."

"You've had too much ambrosia, sir."

"You know I don't drink. I'm serious. He or someone like him needs to be sent to Earth to start diplomatic relations with the Terrans."

Looking at her cousin, she asked, "Are you thinking about running for office when your tour is over?"

Demetrius shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know yet. It has crossed my mind though." His eyes narrowed in contemplation. "I don't like the direction our leadership is heading. We can't force the galaxy into following our way of thinking. I'm sorry but I think our synod has gained too much power and I think we're moving in the wrong direction judging from the ways their prayers and subtle are pushing against Earth. They may be monotheists, I have no idea. But they are not our monotheists. We seem to forget that. We need to send a few people to Earth and start a real cultural exchange before we kill each other off.

"Wait, you want us to send missionaries to Earth?" she laughed again, even louder this time.

"Maybe it can balance out our own paranoia. Having a different belief system isn't the end of the world. And I did like their Earth coffee, the little bit I tasted and that's another reason I hope that our people haven't broken off contact completely. The station was one of our better ideas for trade."

"My cousin is a coffee addict," Joan muttered. "But that's beside the point. You are a superb captain, but you are naïve when it comes to religion. The Terrans would probably kill us all before they allow missionaries to set foot on Earth."

"Maybe you're right but it may be a good way to start sharing our cultural diversities with them. The Terrans aren't as primitive as we want to pretend them to be. Who knows? They might want to send missionaries to our worlds."

Joan shook her head. "In the name of the gods, I have come to save your ignorant masses,"she intoned. "I can see the bloodshed now."

"Pessimist," the Commander growled.

"It'll never happen," the Colonel growled right back. "A hundred credits – it'll never happen!"

Earth: New York-American Museum of Natural History

The Centennial Room was filled with dignitaries talking and laughing with one another, and all of them glancing at the missionaries, some of whom were trying to decide whether to abandon a delicious looking food laid out for purchase or confront the questions besieging them.

Currently, Father Tyberi was feeling the heat from an annoying reporter insisting that her questions be answered, while Elosha simply focused on eating this strange yet superb apple pie with ice cream served with something called root beer—the taste of which was shockingly cloy and took some getting used to. But it was delicious and she seriously thought about getting another one of the desserts, besides, it was his own fault for waving security away. The Terran reporter was insistent and surely a precursor of things to come. All of them expected their own encounters sooner or later.

Still he should have waited until he had eaten something before starting to answer questions. That was certainly what she would have done if she were in his situation. But the man had a lot of disturbing questions on his mind and he as feeling the strain.

She wasn't really in the mood to answer questions right now. The tour of the museum so far was taxing her in ways she would have never believed possible. The animal, plant and sea life both past and present was overwhelming. The so-called humanoids of the distant past–she ... Well, she had to reconcile that within herself. Then there were the gorilla and chimpanzee creatures that were so genetically close to humans that it made her want to scream. Furthermore these apes were still living and housed in zoos for all to see – and she needed to see them live and up close. Even if they weren't mankind, these creatures were so close that only a fool would fail to see that they originated from the same planet as man. This is what the ambassador was trying to tell them and now her own soul was demanding that she find the truth out there along with Luke. Did humanity come from Earth or was it a carefully planned out lie and if mankind did come from Earth could she accept the truth in her heart and soul?

She already knew her answer and she'd have to speak to Luke soon. Discussing this with Ursula Antonia was out of the question right now judging from her sullen attitude and dark looks.

Smiling graciously and graciously accepted a piece of Terran chocolate cake after she'd just finished her first dessert just for comparison of course. Weight gain! Her body screamed in protest.

So what! Her mind retorted.

"Mr. Patrenus," Miss Gonzalez began. "Thank you for speaking to me on such short notice, but everyone's curious. We understand that you've come here to introduce the Kobolian religion to the people of Earth. We've been told that the Kobolian religion is remarkably similar to the religion practiced by the ancient Greeks and Romans more than two thousand years ago. So my first question is, is this the dominant religion of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol?"

The missionary nodded slowly. He assumed that her first question would be something like, 'how do you like being on Earth', but she went directly at his area of expertise. He obliged. "We worship the pantheon of the Lords of Kobol. From our studies, I will say yes, it is very, very similar to the Roman-Greco heritage that you've largely abandoned. To you, in this time, it is merely a curiosity. To us, this is more than just a religion, it is our culture, our sense of being; it is what connects us to each other, and to you by the way. We believe in the gods but we also acknowledge that our religion plays a part in everything that we do, everything that we are. The belief in the Lords of Kobol is older than the Colonies and extends back more than four thousand years to the original home of Man. It is a heritage you Terrans have largely forgotten. We are here to remind you of your lost heritage and to bring unity between our two people."

"How many people represent the Twelve Colonies of Kobol at this time?"

"There are over fifty-eight billion people spread across the twelve worlds of Cyrannus and several other extra-colonial settlements located on new colonies we are in the process of developing."

"And all of them believe in the gods of Kobol, creating a unified religion as such?"

"The far majority acknowledge the gods," he firmly answered. "There are different sects, of course, with their own unique variations but my religion is the dominant one across every Colonial world. There are a few agnostics but then, that is to be expected."

"We have only one world…," Miss Gonzalez said, "…at least for now, but on Earth, there are nearly two hundred different countries and the number of spoken languages here are somewhere between four thousand five hundred, to six thousand five hundred, all unfortunately subject to the effects of globalization. We have no idea how many languages have been lost just this year alone. So, how many of those countries do you plan on visiting and how many of our languages do you understand? The translators can't translate everything. And speaking of countries, just out of curiosity, how many different countries are there for each of your planets?"

"Let me answer your first question. As this is the first non-governmental visit by our people and because of…let us say our recent tensions, only a few countries are allowing us visiting rights. But we hope to spend much of our time visiting as many as we can. Now, since first meeting our cousins from Earth, we were surprised that you've had so many languages beside ancient Kobolian. We have twelve main dialects corresponding to the twelve worlds, not including ancient Kobolian which has its roots extending back more than four thousand years and approximately seventy sub-tongues. Sometimes, the dialects are distinct enough to be called separate languages, which is a legacy of the centuries of separation the early Colonies had from each other. For example, Gemenese can be incomprehensible to those from Caprica, the nearest Colony to Gemenon."

Gonzalez nodded, confident that her watch was recording everything. Her remote-controlled camera drone, controlled by her cameraman, hovered silently in the air, focusing on Tyberi.

"As for countries," Tyberi continued, "that's a bit harder to define in terms that you're used to. It would be better to define each of the original twelve worlds as a country unto itself. The closest analogue we have to Earth is the Colony of Canceron. That world has eighty-eight states, speaking at least nineteen distinct dialects or sub-tongues, not including the fiercely independent Borellian Nomen. Nevertheless, they are united under the Canceron Congress in a manner similar to your India, if I correctly understand that country's political structure.

"I understand that your people left Kobol to search for a new home. So, were you always united as a people?"

"The twelve worlds of Cyrannus are unified now, but there was a time that our worlds fought one another. Several Colonies such as Virgon and Leonis even established empires of their own for a time. In our hatred of one another in the inter-colonial wars, we created the Cylons or artificial intelligences to help in our wars. In time, war became convenient. We used machines to settle our disputes rather than having us kill one another. The horrors of war, of death and dying were eliminated. Using cylons, war was clean, sanitized. But we were in error, not realizing that our creations had become self-aware and intended to rebel against us and when they did, tens of millions died. We fought back, and in the process found a unity that we had never had. But our hatred of the Cylons and what they did to us lasts to this day. It was unfortunate that these things fouled our initial meeting with our fellow brothers of Earth."

"Your ships tried to bomb Earth using nuclear weapons," the reporter clarified. "The cylons may have been a catalyst, but the use of nuclear bombs aimed at our civilian population centers–this is more than so-called 'tensions' between our people!"

"Yes, it is, and there is no way to downplay the deaths of thousands of Colonial men and women compared to the handful of your pilots who lost their lives fighting their cousins. Our forces did try to use nuclear weapons on your world and for that I deeply apologize. However, any settlement and establishment of relations between our governments would be best served by our official representatives, not by humble missionaries who have dreams of promoting peace, understanding, and maybe some tiny bit of shared culture and heritage, which cannot be denied by either of us, between our societies. I, no, we," he corrected, "are not politicians, only humble priests trying to understand a people separated from us by thousands of years."

Gonzalez nodded, conceding his argument for now. "I can understand your reluctance to speak for your government and its actions. So getting back to something you stated earlier. Your culture is essentially unified in its government as well as religion, is that an accurate assessment?"

"That would be a somewhat accurate statement."

"Our world is different. We have polytheistic religions that are different than yours. There are several major religions on Earth that believe in a single god. A large number of people could care less about any religion or god. But we have also seen several instances during interviews with some of the Colonial officials during our early negotiation that have a disdain for monotheism. There were several heated comments stated by a Gemenese official about Earth being cursed by the gods for having abandoned them the Kobolian religion and its people were therefore doomed to eternal torment. It was inferred that we had to convert to your beliefs or there could never be any form of peace between us. If this is true, should we be expecting to go to war with your people if we don't convert?"

"In the week that I've been here, I've been studying the various religions of your world and have come to the conclusion that both of us have radical factions that would love to push us all into war to satisfy their own justifications of religion and faith. The far majority of the people of the Colonies have no interest in going to war with their fellow cousins over religion. That is why we're here, not to provoke but to understand and hopefully help to build a bridge that our people can walk together on side-by-side. As I've said earlier, I consider our religion to be part of both of our heritages, not just ours, but because of our experiences there are many who consider your monotheistic religions to be dangerous and abominable."

"That's a very strong statement, Father. Why is there such hatred for monotheism among your people?"

"To answer the question, you need to understand a bit of our history first," he explained. "Long before the First Cylon War, monotheism developed on Gemenon, which is f ironic when you think about the general Gemenese religious sentiment today. That part of our history I will explain later, but those monotheists turned to terrorism to push their agendas onto the rest of the Colonies. They used the absolutism of their beliefs to justify their terrorism. So many Colonists have come to equate monotheism with terrorism. When we created the Cylons and they rebelled, they, for some reason, decided to adopt at least some of the beliefs of the monotheist terrorists, including the belief in the One God." Tyberi took a deep breath and continued. "Personally I believe that this was done to mock their creators." Eying the woman reporter carefully he pursued his point. "The Cylons that you saved are not real people. They are imperfect copies. They are organic human-like machines created by machines to infiltrate and destroy us, humanity, from within. Whether they pure machine or imitation of real humanity, their purpose for us, their creators, was clear: extermination. They are not true, living beings and as such have no souls and that makes their religion false as it is based on a lie and an assumption solely based on their hatred of us." His voice cracked with anger as he spoke. "Their rebellion and war against us were such that the Colony of Tauron was like, if I read it correctly, your Stalingrad on the scale of an entire planet for years! The Cylons understood how the monotheists in our society terrorized the Colonies, bombing, killing and destroying in the name of the One God of their fantasy religion. The Gemenese butchered people across the Twelve Colonies before they were brought to justice. They were agitators and terrorists and the Cylons followed their example in their war to exterminate humanity. The forty year armistice did nothing to change their conviction.

Miss Gonzalez remained silent allowing him to continue his minor rant before one of the other missionaries stopped him. Her camera man controlling the drone had gotten everything and it turned out to be far more of an exclusive than expected. If nothing else, the Colonial hatred for their creations hadn't dimmed and with Earth protecting them, there was a lot of ill-will that wasn't going away anytime soon. His answers on religion were also telling. To him, it was more than belief or culture. It was a heritage that Tyberi Patrenus assumed every human should follow, expected them to, everywhere. There were so many layers in his last statements that she didn't know where to begin. The reporter wasn't sure that he even noticed the trace amounts of bitterness that crept through his voice as he spoke of the war and the loss of so many Colonial lives. The emotions were raw and the tone suggested that this was as much a religious war as a genocidal one. She would have to ask him to go into detail about the war and how the pseudo humanoid cylons were discovered, what they'd done and how they were dealt with. The two were bitter enemies and Earth was stuck in the middle. The interview was a goldmine, but her instincts were telling her to handle this very carefully. A lot of people were going to see this and they were not going to like it no matter how it was presented.

Battlestar Junis- CIC

"Sir, Raptor Two is reporting in. They found something."

Commander Eddlison waked closer to the DRADIS system looking for anything unusual. "What are they looking at?"

"Not sure, sir. It's like some type of void situated between the fourth and fifth planet."

"Set Condition Two," the commander ordered. "Lieutenant Colonel Kimei, I want to talk to Raptor two. Contact, the Tycheon, I want them to hear this."

"Yes, sir," the communications officer responded. "Tycheon and Raptor Two are on wireless. They're feeding their gun camera imaging to us now."

"Raptor Two this is Junis Actual. What are you seeing out there?"

"We're not sure, Junis. There's some type of void blocking our DRADIS. I've never seen anything like this. Our scans aren't being blocked as much as being absorbed can you see our feed?"

"That's an affirmative but, we're not seeing anything on DRADIS here. It looks clear."

"You might be too far out,"Sundance responded."We're relaying our scans to you."

A few moments later, both battlestars began receiving the transmitted data. A whitish smudge appeared on the screen.

"That is peculiar," Colonel Perris muttered. "It's like something is trying to hide but isn't doing its job."

"Raptor Three to Junis Actual. Raptor Three and Five are here. We are all getting the same results on DRADIS."

"This is Sundance to Junis Actual, permission to move closer."

"Negative," Commander Sacca of the Tycheon broke in. "Do not approach. We're redirecting a probe to get a closer look. If it's clear, we will allow approach. We will rendezvous with you in one hour."

"Understood, sir."

"Sundance," Eddlison added. "Keep comms open. If anything changes we want to know about it immediately."

"Keeping comms open, yes sir."

"Commander Sacca, we're launching two ready vipers to their positions as backup."

"Acknowledged. We're doing the same."

Ten minutes later the probe approached close enough to pierce the blanketing field and began taking detailed scans and images.

"This is Sundance to Junis Actual. This is unbelievable. Are you getting this?"

"Negative Sundance. The transmission is breaking up. Piggyback your signal to us again. Actual over."

"We'll try. It'll take a few moments."

"Please describe what you're seeing."

"It looks like a huge ring, with two inner and outer track, dark blue, almost black in color. Its circumference is six kilometers. Whatever it's made of is not showing up on our periodic table. It completely unknown metal–if it is metal. There are symbols on it. There are thirty-nine symbols on the inner track, nineteen on the center and seven on the outermost ring. I can't identify the language, possibly alien, I repeat, alien in origin. It looks ancient, very ancient. I can see where asteroids have smashed against it, but there's no damage that I can see. It is giving off waves of energy but I can't determine the origin of the power source. Orders?"

"This is Junis Actual. Stay where you are and continue scanning. We'll be there within the hour."

"Continuing to scan."

Yes there is a space station used by Colonials and Earth as a small trading station to test the waters so to speak so there is some small trade there. Coffee, chocolate, tea etc from both sides. Apparently it's popular...