Cylon Earth, Camp Three, 0900 hours.
Giles had just gotten up from his sleeping bag inside the domed tent.
Rubbing his eyes, and then his forehead; he got up off his air mattress and stood up slowly, slightly crouching so that his head doesn't hit the roof of the medium sized tent. He then bent down and picked up a black toiletry bag before looking around the tent. He then picked up a spare set of clothes before looking around his surroundings again. He heard the walls of the tent flutter because of a light breeze from the outside while he put his bare feet on the tarp that covered the ground. After he put on a pair of flip-flops, Giles then quietly walked to the zipper at the front of the tent, opened it, and then stepped out before closing the front panel again behind him. He then stood up, and stretched his hands over his head and yawned before he twisted his body from one side to another.
Giles then nodded his head at Anna who had also just gotten out of the tent she shared with one of the Number Eights. Giles walked towards her, who gave the older man a small wave, before they walked together to get freshened up. On the way, they saw more tents for the humanoid Cylons… as well as some of the Cylons already starting work on items they had found; they were working under large tents that had tables and various equipment brought to them by Puddle Jumper throughout the previous day.
The both of them also saw the Marines doing their rounds, before they saw boxes of bottled water that was meant to last them for four days, with more being sent their way if they needed more time to examine bones, or whatever else they found. Giles remembered being told on Eden before leaving for Cylon Earth that they would have to return to Eden after a week, maximum, so that they could get checked out by the doctors on that planet for any residual effects from the radiation that could be present on the ground. And if the doctors found it to be safe, then he and the others would be sent back to the planet if they wanted to return.
Giles occasionally glanced at Anna as they continued to walk towards four showers, two for the females, and two for the males in the group that was connected to an independent water supply. All of their important necessities were send by Puddle Jumper once they had settled down.
"I believe we have uncoverd some data discs that were buried in the ruins of a building about two kilometres from here" said Anna as she pointed to the outlines of fallen ruins in the distance, "she does not know how damaged they are, or what they may contain. We will use the equipment that we've been sent through the Gate to the Stars, but if we still cannot access that information, then we have to bring it back with us to Eden for further examination."
You will have to bring it back in either case" said Giles as Anna smiled and nodded her head as she entered the shower, and zipped the plastic panel behind her; hiding the majority of her body as she took off her clothes and then hung them on the laundry line right above her. She glanced over at Giles who quickly turned away as his faced turned red while he took his clothes off and then hung it on the laundry line above as well.
"Yes, but they are excited to see what those discs contain right now. If we find nothing, then maybe what we have on Eden would be useful" replied Anna, her face red, as she turned away from Giles and began brushing her teeth before pulling on a line above her that released a fixed amount of water from the plastic showerhead above. The water flowed down her body, and onto the tarp she was standing on before it was channelled back to the ground outside… away from the areas where they had placed their flip-flops. It was after they had soaped up and made another pull on the line that Anna and Giles finished their showers and, after putting on fresh clothes, walked back to the campsite.
As they were walking back, Giles and Anna put their used clothes into bags that would later be screened for radiation. Giles knew that the SGC wanted to be safe, but he sometimes wondered if they were going a little overboard.
'Not my place to say anything' thought Giles to himself as he stopped by Anna's tent as she went inside and placed her toiletry bag inside before putting on a pair of shoes. She then came out again to meet Giles.
She then followed him while he returned his bag into his own tent and then they walked together to one of the larger tents where some of the other Cylons, including a Leoben, A Number Eight, and another Number Six were pouring over some findings.
As they continued to walk, Giles would often glance at Anna as he remembered their first day on Cylon Earth.
Cylon Earth, Unknown location, 0910 hours.
"Triana!" shouted a lightly blonde haired man as he looked at the platinum-blonde haired young woman who was working at a console and then at the rendering at one side of the bunker, the holographic rendering showing her and the other people in the war bunker that a barrage of missiles was heading towards their location. Triana could hear that she was being called, but the voice sounded so far away as she looked at some of the screens in front of her as the massive underground bunker shook thanks to missile strikes on the surface.
"Triana!" shouted the lightly blonde haired man again as he ran up to her and shook the young woman's shoulder. She then jerked up, shook her head and looked at the older man and stood up straight.
"General" said Triana before she fell forward as the area shook harder, with dust falling from the ceiling before she looked at her screen, and then looked at the man next to her again, "that was a the surrounding area's been hit, we've lost… dear God…."
"Don't 'General' me, Triana" said the man as he pulled Triana away from the console and turned her towards him, "not today."
"Sorry, dad" said Triana as she smiled and nodded her head, "do you believe their test was successful?"
"I hope so" said the General as the screen at the front of the bunker lit up, before showing a image of the inside of a ship. It was a few seconds later that five figures came into view as they looked back at the people in the bunker. It was the General who spoke up while the bunker shook again, impact from another missile barrage causing the image on the screen to break up for a few seconds before the image came through clear again, "Saul, Ellen…. I take it the experiment was a success?"
"Yes" said Ellen Tigh as she looked on in horror at something just off-screen, and then looked back at them, "I'm sorry."
"You, Saul, Tory, Galen, and Sam are the best and brightest we have" said the General, "you five did something that only our ancestors were able to do….. resurrection. Congratulations."
"Leo" said Tory as she stepped forward, looking at the light blonde haired man through the screen, "you and the others should have been…"
"Forget it" said the General as he held on to his daughter with one hand and waved Tory off with the other one, "Triana and I are glad that you'll be searching for the other tribes. Warn them about what we've done here, warn then that they need to look after their A.I creations. Don't let this happen to them as well."
"Triana" said Galen as he looked at another screen, and then whispered something into Saul's ear before looking at Triana, "we have a small window to get some of you out. General… you too… . We can send a shuttle down in two minutes. You can…."
"I'm needed here, Galen" he said.
"And I'm not leaving my father" said Triana as an alarm rang in the control room. Triana looked at another screen, and then frowned before looking at her father while the other people in the control room were getting their weapons ready and running out the side doors in the rear of the room. There were others who remained in the bunker's control room, the scientists, and the control personnel who didn't have military experience.
"What's going on?" asked Sam Anders with concern on his face, "General?"
Genera Leoben Connors was the one who recommended to their President that the Tigh's and their team study the old resurrection technology used by their ancestors before they arrived on Earth two thousand years ago. He tried to convince the President of Tarath, his country, that they may have need for it if they were to survive a possible war after they had put down a mini-rebellion by some of the machines that had been working, and fighting wars for them. The General and his officers had been hearing whispers that the machines were planning something, and he wanted to hit them first.
A culling of their versions of the Cylon machines, and Centurions, then began; particularly the ones that had battlefield experience. Over time, those machines went underground and hid, while other 'everyday' machines were supposedly reprogrammed. Unknown to the 'humans', some of the people responsible for reprogramming the machines thought it unethical, and did not do what they were told; lying to their superior that the machines were reprogrammed when they really weren't.
That was something that would come to haunt the people later on.
In the meantime, the General also needed the resurrection technology ready; so he made an appeal to the President that this endeavour be done in secret; that giving the people false hope in case the technology didn't work would be very cruel. He told the President that he knew, and trusted, researchers who could attempt to recreate Resurrection technology. So that in the event that there is an attack, then the military would be able to use that technology and have soldiers who could be virtually immortal.
The General told the President he had faith in the researchers, but since they only had shady intelligence that the machines were planning an uprising; the researchers need the go ahead as soon as possible.
The General received approval the next day.
However, it was two years later, just as the technology was getting ready for a test while using the researchers themselves as guinea pigs, that the machines launched the first strike.
The Cylon's Earth consisted of forty one independent nations, much like the Earth of the Tau'ri, with their own internal problems. The Countries would even go to war with each other over resources, and it was Tarath… the richest and most advanced of the nations that would mediate a ceasefire. Over years, machines with advanced A.I's based on their ancestors programming were crested by scientists at a technology conglomerate in Tara the. These machines were created, and then spread throughout the world with some being involved in farming, other in cleaning roads or taking out garbage, while others were house-sitters, maids, and even soldiers fighting alongside their creators. Eventually, the machines felt themselves being treated as slaves.. and thanks to their A.I's, demanded equality. With the 'humans' refusing that request, the machines launched a mini-uprising that killed thousands before it was put down. However, that wasn't the end of things as two years later, the machines launched simultaneous attacks throughout the planet, with Tarath being the first country hit; and hit hard.
Millions had died in that first strike alone, and one of them was Galen who was one of the subjects for the Resurrection Project. He was already implanted with a chip in the base of his skull that connected wirelessly to a ship in orbit. The nanites that already existed in his bloodstream were programmed to digitize all the information stored in his mind, and then saved into the chip which would then be transferred into a computer on the orbiting ship in real time. The transfer would be instantaneous; whatever new thoughts, feelings, or experiences he encountered would be immediately sent to the computer that was located in the ship, connected to another cloned body of Galen's that was lying in a tank full of amniotic fluid.
Once the initial blast hit, Galen was instantly dead on the surface, but once the computer on the ship lost connection with the original Galen Tyrol, it instantly downloaded a copy all of his experiences into the new cloned body while at the same time it shocked the nanites in his bloodstream awake. The second Galen then woke up with a start as he looked around confused before realizing where he was. He then saw the others wake up in the nearby tanks, with Tory and Sam screaming because of the pain, before calming down after a few seconds.
Back in the bunker, the General told the five people that the exterior sensors, at least the ones that hadn't been destroyed by the missile strikes, detected incoming waves of Centurions.
"About a hundred are coming this way" said the General, 'we've already destroyed one way for them to get into the bunker, but there's one more way in that we need to shut down. But we'll be leaving the underground hatchway clear so that the ones who survive can leave this place once the war's over."
"They're going to slaughter everyone there" said Saul concern on his face, "Leo…. Get the frak out of there."
"We're surrounded" said Triana as she looked at a screen to her right, and then back at the five, "you must go."
"We're sorry" said Tory.
"Go!" shouted the General as the ship above the planet that the people called Earth sped away at near light speed. They were close to redeveloping a faster than light drive based on the original ship that had brought them to this world two thousand years ago, but with the machines attack taking them off-guard, and with the resurrection protect being of a higher priority; they were unable to finish their FTL research.
Back in the bunker, the General ordered everyone to get away from their stations. He told them that he was initiating Argo Protocols. He told everyone that the sensors were to be put onto passive mode, and when everyone looked at him in a strange way, he told them that they've lost the war. He wanted as many people in the bunker to survive, and that the only way to do that would be to use the experimental Cryotubes that were located six levels down. He told them that the sensors would be placed on a low power state, and that the mineral they were experimenting on before the war started would be able to power the bunker for as long as it takes until life returned to the planet above.
"It's not infinite" said one of the scientists as she turned and tapped on some keys while the front screen activated again and showed a schematic of the bunker, "the reactors that are using the minerals for power could last, and this is just an approximation… and as long as this bunker runs of low power and…"
"How long?" asked the General.
"If we shut everything down? if we leave the sensors on passive mode to awaken us once the radiation levels from the nuclear explosions have gone down to manageable levels? And if we shut off life-support systems while using the Cryotubes for our needs?" asked Triana as she looked back at her father after having looked at the screen, "about three thousand years, maybe more…. This is still technically experimental technology. We'll essentially be frozen… literally. Dad, if the power fluctuates, even for a few seconds then some of us would die without ever knowing we died."
"How many tubes do we have ready?" asked the General as the bunker shook again, and his men called over the radio that they were outside the bunker and under attack.
"Fifteen" said one of the male scientists in the control room, "only six could possibly work, the others are still…. Let's say that they're a no-go. We were going to install the critical components after we tested the first six, but…."
"There're three of you" said the General as he looked at his daughter, and the three other scientists, "I want you to go and get into the pods. The military personnel will be heading up; some of us will hold back the coming Centurions, and the others will be destroying the entrance… the elevators… anything that they could use to get in."
"The emergency hatch?" asked the second scientist.
"The hatch will remain unblocked" said the General, "I know that we never placed the emergency hatch in the plans for this place, I'm sure the Centurions managed to hack into our network to get at the plans… and the location of this base. But we'll be destroying the entrances, and they don't know about the emergency hatch."
"You are coming with us?" asked Triana as her father looked at her with sadness, "dad?"
"I'm needed upstairs" said Triana as she wiped a tear and nodded her head.
"No tears, young lady" said the General, "I'm looking to you to lead these three to the lower levels. Place yourselves in Cryo-sleep after you've placed the sensors on passive mode, and disabled life-support and all unnecessary systems. Make sure the computer wakes you people up once sensors have detected people on the surface; have the life support systems activated automatically, and…"
"We know… I know, father" said Triana, "if you survive.. you must…"
"I can't return" said the General as he stood up straight and saluted his daughter, who then returned the salute, "I want you to go… take the others, and survive."
"If I never wake up" said Triana as she stepped forward and hugged her father, "then I hope that I'll be with you in the afterlife."
"Goodbye, my daughter" said the General as the bunker shook again.
Back in the present, the figure that had her head lying on the console in front of her woke up with a start. Once she moved, the lights, and some of the consoles, as well as the holographic renderer lit up as the sensors on the outside of the war bunker activated once again. The platinum blonde haired woman looked at the readings of the Cylons, and the humans, and then looked at her console while a video was playing of an older man under a large tent with what seemed to be one of her own people based on the readings on the holographic rendered that was busy mapping out the nanites in the Cylon's bodies, and then on the other side of the older man stood a blonde version of herself.
Triana slowly stood up as she screamed in pain and grabbed her knee while she stood up. Grimacing, Triana then panted and sat down again while rubbing her knee. She knew that the Cryotube had released her too soon, she could feel that she still wasn't fully herself, at least not yet.
But she survived, unlike the other three whose bodies had already decayed.
Triana, who was still in her late twenties, knew that she was extremely lucky that whatever happened to the other three didn't happen to her. She knew that a quick diagnostic needed to be done, so while still sitting down, she pressed some keys while the screen in front of her showed rows of figure.
"There was a power surge forty years ago" said Triana as she looked at the readings while wiping her eyes and stretching her neck muscles, "the three of them woke up, but the Cyro-liquid was still in their bodies. It wasn't flushed out slowly… they were poisoned instantly. The nanites couldn't handle the strain either."
Triana then saw that only two of the seven generators were working, with most of them almost out of power. She then looked up and saw the hologram before she rolled her chair to another console and turned it off.
"Need to save power" she said to herself before she rolled back to her original place and changed the view on the monitor to that of the video of the older man, and her double, "can't believe they made copies of me, and my father. I wonder if they made one of Ellen's father…. I wonder if they're still alive. I assume they are.. hopefully. I wonder if they managed to reach the other tribes before they built A.I's… If Saul and the others did manage to reach the other tribes before they created A.I's, maybe these are the fruits of their intervention? Maybe the other tribes, and us, have managed to combine our resources and finally explore space? Ummm… I wonder if they managed to achieve Faster than Light travel? We tried… but didn't succeed… they must have. I must meet them."
Winching in pain as she stood up again, Trina then limped towards the door that led out into a hallway. She continued to walk before turning left into another hallway, and then to a door on her left. Sighing at the closed door to one of the store rooms, Triana's stomach grumbled as she opened a panel on the side of the doorframe. She knew that the remaining generators were already providing such low amounts of power that they couldn't be detected, but enough for the lights and some essentials like limited life-support to come back online.
"Another reason I need to get out of here" said Trina as she rewired the panel before stepping back as the door slid open. The horrible smell that came out of the room in a gust of stale air made Triana cover her nose and mouth as she limped away from that store room in a hurry; the smell of spoilt food thousands of years old getting to her. Panting as she limped into another hallway, she leaned back against the wall and shook her head.
She knew that she needed to get out of the bunker.
She needed food.
She needed Water.
She needed contact.
Triana knew that she stood still as time flowed around her while she was in cryo-sleep, a technology her people found on the planet after conducting an exploratory trip in the nearby mountains. Pushing all those thoughts to the back of her mind, Triana looked at, and then rubbed her knee, hoping that the nanites in her blood would help to heal her strained tendons and muscles by overcoming the effects of the cryo-solution that was injected into her bloodstream. She hoped that if the nanites didn't work quick enough, then the antidote that the Cryotube injected occupants with to slowly take them off the internal life support systems would eventually take away the effects of the Cryo-solution.
"Come on" said Triana to herself as she headed to another hallway. At the end of that hallway, she painfully climbed up six stories to where the emergency exit hatch was located. Upon reaching that level, Triana looked back at the other end of the dimly lit hallway at the pile of rumble that blocked her from the main exit to the upper floors.
"Father gave the order to blow up the entrances" said Triana as she headed for the emergency exit hatch after frowning at the rumble. She limped towards it, and then unlocked the door before opening it to reveal a ladder that went straight up to the surface. Looking at the ladder, Triana then sighed and put her hands on the metal rungs which she hoped were still intact after all these years.
'If they are not' though Triana as she put her good leg on the bottom rung, and then winced as she placed the leg that had the painful knee on the same rung as her other leg, 'then this whole thing would collapse and….. come on, Triana… don't be letting yourself down now. Think about going to the surface; staying here… not good.'
Triana then started to climb up the ladder slowly, stopping at certain intervals to rest before starting again.
Cylon Earth, Camp Three, 1115 hours.
Giles was looking at new items that some of the Cylon groups had brought back sealed in plastic evidence bags. Anna had just left with another team to check out some ruins that were about two hours away, while another group had just gotten back with a collection of bones, and even some scraps of paper that were scorched and buried under rubble in some of the remains of buildings. Giles was already looking through some of the scraps, and he could just make out parts of what looked to be zip-codes, scraps of bills, bits of newspapers, and even a casing from what seemed to be a cell phone.
There were numerous cases full of debris behind him that they needed to take a look at before their seven days were over and they had to return to Eden for a check-up. However, Giles liked this… going back to being on the field.
'The old days with Buffy' thought Giles to himself as he headed to one of the cases, and took out some more items before taking them to another table where he could start to catalogue them, 'or during my training at the Watchers Academy, or during my dissertation. I miss those days.'
"Mr. Giles" said one of the Marines who ran towards him while the other one looked up in the sky, "we have company."
Giles walked out of the tent and looked at where the Marine, who was calling for him, was pointing. The other Humanoid Cylons, and the other Marine also looked up into the sky. All of them could see three streaks that seemed to be made by large ships as they headed towards the continent where the main Earth encampment was located.
"I've already received confirmation from base camp" said the Marine who initially called Giles as he turned to the older man, "they've been contacted by the other Colonials. Major Thompson would like for us, and the other two teams, to remain here."
"Do the Colonials know that we have some of the Cylons here?"
"He doesn't believe so" said the man as some of the other Cylons were heading towards Giles who translated what the Marine had already told him, "how about the team that's already out there?"
"We've told them to get back here immediately" said the Marine, while Giles translated for the other Cylons, "Webb's in the air cloaked over base camp. If anything funny happens, he knows the plan… you'll be safe."
"Understood" said Giles as he turned and told everyone that since the Colonial's don't know that they're present on the other continent, then they safe to continue their work for the time being.
"But stay close" said the Marine while Giles translated for him, "if the Colonials do anything funny, then Webb will be getting back to pick us up, and bringing is to safety. We have to dial in to Earth every twelve hours, so if they don't hear from us… teams will be sent to check out what's going on. Continue whatever you're doing, you'll be safe."
"Come on" said Giles after he nodded at the Marine before turning around and motioning towards the tent, "we have a lot of work to do."
As he walked back to the tent, Giles glanced towards the streaks again when he suddenly had a bad feeling that things could be getting bad. But he had faith that the Marines, and the personnel at the main camp would be able to handle anything that comes.
'If not' thought Giles to himself while walking towards the tent, 'I hope whatever magic I remember can help us if these Colonials find us, and then decide to come after us.'
TBC.