Beta Site, a few minutes later.
Triana released a sigh when Sharon read through the lines of code before declaring that the program that Triana wrote had the possibility of lifting the lock that prevented the ones known as the Final Five from accessing their memories. Tori was told by Chief Tyrol to call Ellen, Anders, and Colonel Tigh back inside together with Colonel Pierce so that they could give all of them the news.
As Tri nodded her head, her heart beating excitedly at the prospect discovering who they once were, before rushing to the door that led to the hallway outside, Tiana told them that the question was now finding a way to send the program into the minds of the Final Five.
"There is a way," said Sharon as she pulled up her sleeves and showed Triana the scar that travelled up the length of the bottom of her arm, from her wrist to just below the elbow. Before Triana could ask what happened, Sharon told her about the Galactica having been infected by the same virus that the Cylons had used to disable the ships. She and Chief Tyrol went on to explain that Commander Adama did not want the Galactica's computers to be networked in the event that Cylons could infiltrate their systems, like they had done in the First Cylon War.
The Chief then said that after an emergency, they had to network the computers to recalculate a jump while under Cylon attack.
"And the virus infiltrated our systems," said the Chief, "Gaeta built software firewalls to hold off the virus until we recalculate dour jump coordinates, and then disabled the network connection once we finished calculating, and then jumped. We thought that would be it, but a few weeks later… the systems on the Galactica started to go haywire."
"What do you mean?" asked Triana as she looked at the Chief.
"Computers exploded on their own, lights would flicker on an off, water pumps wouldn't work for some, loss of oxygen in some areas," said the Chief, "a few people got injured, and then Gaeta found out that the virus infiltrated our systems, and was testing out the ship."
"It was a logic bomb," Sharon said as Triana scowled, "a fleet of raider and heavy raiders were on the way to activate the virus which would have kill everyone on the ship by venting all the atmosphere, and then it would have fired the weapons on the civilian fleet. I asked to see the Commander after Karl brought me the code… I told them what to do.. and how to do it. The 'how' was to cut my skin so that I could attach Galactica's computers to my mind though an optical port in my arm."
"And since, from the scans taken of our bodies since we arrived here, we know that were the same as Sharon," the Chief explained, "we saw the same port in our bone."
"I remember," Triana said when the Chief showed her the X-Rays upon the formers arrival at the Beta Site.
"It's the only way to take down the block," said the Chief just as Tori walked back in with Ellen, who was carrying Hope, followed soon by Colonel Tigh and then Colonel Pierce who arrived with a guard. The two of them were soon followed by Anders. Thanks to the Orbanian translation disc on Colonel Tigh's collar, there was really no need for a translator as Chief Tyrol stood up and then stepped next to Triana and Sharon.
"What's going on?" asked Colonel Pierce.
"We finished the program that should unlock our memories," said the Chief, "our memories of Earth… I mean, the other Earth. The Earth that Triana is from."
"It's done?" asked Ellen while Hope reached for Sharon. She smiled at her daughter, and then walked towards her past Anders, and took the child into her arms. Sharon nodded her head while Triana explained that the program needed to be tested on the Final Five; and she explained that the best way was to do what Sharon had done back on the Galactica.
Colonel Tigh knew what the Chief was talking about, given that he was there that day in the CIC when Sharon connected herself to the computers, rewrote the virus, and then send it back to the raiders and heavy raiders that were bearing down on them. The ships were then disabled, and the Vipers had a field day in destroying each and every defenceless enemy ship, just like what the Cylons had done to the Colonial defences.
"We can have the doctor use some anaesthesia before…"
"No anaesthesia," said D'Anna and Sharon together. Everyone looked at the both of them before D'Anna told them that it was possible that the numbing effects of anaesthesia could interfere with the upload of the code to their minds; therefore it had to be done without any pain relievers… at least until the program was uploaded into their minds.
"I'll be the test subject," said Chief Tyrol before anyone could ask for any volunteers. He then turned to Colonel Tigh and told him that there was a part of him that felt as if this was something her needed to do, "the port's in my arm, we know we're Cylons, but… but Colonel, I don't think that make us less as Colonials. I remember all the good we did, and I think that's enough to know that we belong with the humans."
"Despite their many mistakes," said Tori as Colonel Pierce turned to her and arched an eyebrow, "no offence, Colonel Pierce."
"None taken," sighed the Colonel before turning back to look at his counterpart who was simply staring at the Chief, and then at his wife. The then walked up to a shelf while whispering that he 'saw it somewhere' before looking over his shoulder, while rummaging through drawers on each of the four tables in the room, that it would be best if Hope was taken out of the room.
"I'll take her with me," said Sharon as she looked at her daughter, who was looking at all of the people in the room with her eyes and mouth wide open. She then turned to the Chief, and wished him good luck. With her baby in her arms, she patted Ellen on her shoulder before gently placing an arm on Colonel Tigh's arm while Tori went up to the Chief and asked what he was looking for.
"A knife, I thought I saw one here," said the Chief while Colonel Pierce told the Chief to stop before turning to the soldier next to him, and asked him to bring the base doctor.. along with a few scalpels and bandages.
As the soldier left the room, Sharon told Colonel Tigh that he was still an officer of the Galactica despite being one of the Final Five.
"Like it or not, Colonel," said Sharon, "you have those memories of serving in the first war, meeting Commander Adama, marrying Ellen, and everything that happened since then. Those are still real because you know they are… you still feel from them. Doesn't make you any less of an officer to me. If I could serve again, then I'd gladly serve under you and Commander Adama."
Sharon smiled while Colonel Tigh, a scruffy beard on his face, simply stared at her. She then patted the man on the arm before heading out following D'Anna telling her that she'll help with finding the port in their arm, and that she needed to spend some time with her baby. The door closing behind her, Colonel Tigh turned to look at Ellen, and couldn't help but imagine his wife having sex with multiple men behind his back. It was something that he had always suspected, he had even seen her flirting with some officers on the Galactica. But actually hearing about the affairs from his own wife's mouth was a bitter pill to swallow.
He then looked away from Ellen, and sighed.
"I'll volunteer," said the Colonel as he recalled what Sharon just told him, "I'm still the Galactica's X.O, and it should me before anyone else."
"Are you sure, sir?" asked Chief Tyrol. The Colonel simply nodded his head before Colonel Pierce asked everyone to hold off doing anything until the medical teach reached them. It would be five minutes later when the doctor on duty walked back into the room. Colonel Pierce, Triana, D'Anna, and the Chief then explained what was about to happen to the doctor who balked initially at the suggestion that they cut into the arm without any pain killers. However, he listened to what Triana said, and then reluctantly agreed.. with the stipulation that the Five of them take painkillers immediately after the procedure.
"Can't do much about the pain, though," he said as the Chief went back to a table, and grabbed some connectors. On end was then placed into the computer with D'Anna's help, while the other end was placed into medical alcohol to sanitize it. It wouldn't be long before Colonel Tigh was sitting on a chair next to the table with the computer with leads having been attached from his chest, head, and his index finger to various machines that were to the man's left. Colonel Tigh had his arm with the palm facing upwards as D'Anna, the doctor, and the nurse with them stood around the Colonel, while the others stood to one side.
"Until here, doctor," D'Anna said as she indication a straight line on Tigh's skin. Her hand was trembling as she pulled her hand back, with Colonel Tigh and the doctor noticing the shaking. They then looked back up at her, with the latter asking if she was feeling alright.
"I am just excited," said D'Anna as she looked at the doctor, and then at Colonel Tigh, followed by the other Final Five, "this is something that I… I never thought would happen. Meeting our creators, finding out why we were created, and… and it's just exciting for me."
"Yes, well," said the doctor as he turned back towards Colonel Tigh, "please ensure that you wear gloves when it comes time to place the connector into the socket."
"Sorry," mumbled D'Anna as the nurse helped her to put on some latex gloves. The Humanoid Cylon, once her gloves were on, nodded at the doctor who placed the sharp end of the scalpel on Colonel Tigh's skin.
"Ready?" asked the doctor.
"Get this over with," said a gruff Tigh.
The doctor nodded his head, and then made an incision into the older man's arm. Blood started to flow from the deep cut while Tigh clenched in teeth in pain. He then grunted when D'Anna, after having been given one end of the connecter, put her finger into the cut and felt the bone. Tigh was doing everything he could not to yell in pain when he recalled Sharon having had to do the same thing back on the Galactica during what later came to be known as the 'Great Cylon Turkey' shoot.
"There," D'Anna whispered while Ellen slowly walked towards her husband from behind, and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. She then gently squeezed, silently telling the man that she was nearby before he stiffened and, at the same time, his other hand reached up and over on his shoulder. He squeezed Ellen's hand as D'Anna put the connector into the port, and then told Triana, who was manning the computer, to initiate the program.
"Initiating, now," said Triana as she typed a few symbols on the keyboard, and then pressed another button, "it has begun."
Colonel Tigh gasped as he closed his eyes, raised his shoulders, slightly hunched over, and lowered his head. His body was shaking while his breathing and heart rate increased, so much so that the numbers appearing on the machines that measure Tigh's vitals made the doctor tell Colonel Pierce that he needed to stop the process. However, Triana intervened and said that taking the connection out of the port prematurely could be dangerous.
"The block is coming down," Triana said when she turned back to the computer, and watched as symbols floating on the screen in front of her, and then back at Colonel Tigh, "oh dear God, he's getting his memory back."
And the Colonel was indeed getting his memory back.
While keeping his eyes tightly closed, the side of Tigh's head started to hurt as he experienced bright flashes of light and a buzzing sound in his ears. The man gasped against and clenched his fingers into fists when a memory came into being of him in the arms of a man with a woman right next to the him. Tigh instantly recognized the two, they were his parents. Tigh shook his head as he regained memories of growing up, and then of going to school and playing. He saw flashes of memories of meeting Ellen for the first time.. he experienced his heart racing as she held his hand and the both of them sat down on a grassy hill near what he knew to be Korosanth University; in the city of Korosanth.
His memories came flooding back as if a dam had burst, the speed of the memories rushing past his very eyes and occasionally slowing down at what he felt to be were important parts of his life. For example, the rush of memories slowed when Tigh reached the memories of his wedding day, he even remembered his and Ellen's their vows to be with each other always; that nothing was going to keep them apart. He remembered Ellen in her blue and white dress, and he looked down at him self in his black suit. He then looked up at his wife who smiled back before saying 'I do'. There were more flashes of light as memories flew by… he saw their happiest, saddest, and terrifying times.. but the both of them stayed together during all of that. He looked down at Ellen's face, debris all around them as the ground shook. Tigh caressed his wife's cheeks while she was telling him that everything was going to be alright and that they were going to die and the resurrect in orbit.
And then everything went black.
Tigh remembered saying goodbye to General Leoben and Triana. He remembered, just before leaving orbit, he stood with Ellen, Anders, and the others as their planet was destroyed. They saw the nuclear missiles fall on their home… on every continent of Earth. And his heart saddened. Tigh sighed while his eyes remained shut when he had the memory of holding on tight to his wife's hand, and then there were flashes of more memories. He saw familiar people, including a woman who looked just like Sharon who was holding onto a man who looked like Simon. He had flashes of memories where they were pushing him and Ellen away from a crowded room just as everyone turned towards them. He remembered someone who looked like D'Anna working with Sharon and Simon to take then to a small ship… what Tigh could feel in the back of his mind was a shuttle for the larger ship that he, Ellen, and the other Five had escaped in. Back in the memory, Tigh recalled panting as he pulled Ellen behind him while a man who looked like Doral was screaming that they had insulted their god.
As they entered the ship, and then took off, Ellen asked the three people who helped them to come with them. However, they shook their heads, saying that they needed to stay with their people… to try and teach them that there were more things out in the universe than their own slice of life on their own planet. He didn't find out what become of them as the shuttle craft rose into the air,, and Sharon, Simon, and D'Anna ran off towards a growth of tree. Suddenly, there were more flashes of white light before he found himself lying on a cold floor. He was struggling to breathe as Ellen pounded on the door.. the pounding of her fists getting softer and softer as the air started getting thin.
"John," he whispered as he looked at the familiar face looking at them with cold eyes. However, the one who would later be known as Cavil didn't make a move, rather, he watched them die. Tigh saw Anders close his eyes while his body shook; he saw Chief Tyrol and Tori holding onto each other as they took their last breathe. Finally, he saw Ellen collapse onto the floor.. and he called up whatever strength remained and crawled up to his wife. His lungs were burning, but Tigh felt himself moving towards Ellen as she reached out.
But just as he held her hand, everything went black. His last thought was of his wife's hands becoming cold.
"I remember," Tigh whispered as he opened his eyes and looked down at the connection in his arm, "get this fracking thing off me!"
"One moment," said the doctor as Tigh looked over his shoulder at his wife, and then at the remaining four, and then at Triana.
"Triana," he whispered, "it…"
"Do you remember, Saul?" asked Triana as she slowly got off her seat while D'Anna took out the connector from his bone. The doctor then applied some antiseptic before starting to use the suture that his nurse had already set up to close the gash, "do you remember my father? Me? The get together at our home? The outings to Carava Lake in…"
"Geostadt," he whispered as a smile appeared on Triana's face while Ellen looked on confused.
"You do remember," said Triana as she carefully hugged Tigh while the nurse was suturing his arm. In the meantime, the doctor then asked the next volunteer to step up while Colonel Pierce asked Tigh if he really did remember everything.
"Everything," said Tigh nodding his head while he patted Triana's back, who then pulled back and looked into his eyes, "I remember everything, but I still… I still hate the Cylons, and I do not regret anything I did to protect the Colonies."
"The memories are a connection to your past, Saul," said Ellen, "it's not supposed to change who you are and… and I mean.. if you remember everything, were we…?"
"In love?" asked Tigh, "yes, very much."
"I don't understand," asked D'Anna as Tigh turned towards her and glared at the blonde. From the look in his eyes, D'Anna knew that he hated her kind, that wasn't a joke… but she also needed to know why none of the Cylons remembered the Final Five. So she asked Tigh, told him that the questions would get shot down by Cavil… that their programmers didn't want them to know the truth.
"He's the one who killed us," said Tigh just as the nurse finished suturing the deep cut, and then the doctor told her to take Tigh to another table while he started with Ellen, who took Tigh's place and sat down.. listening to D'Anna being enraged at Cavil for lying to all of them. She then had the connector placed into the port in her bone, and gasped as the block was removed and her memories flooded into her mind.
"Ellen?" asked Tigh after a few minutes as she looked up at him with tears brimming in her eyes. The doctor then pulled out the connector, and had the nurse tale the older woman to another table to suture her gash. Ellen nodded her head, and gave a big smile to her husband before her eyes trained on D'Anna.
"Hello, D'Anna," said Ellen as she tilted her head, "it's so good to finally see you again, my daughter."
D'Anna put her hands over her mouth and choked back a gasp before stepping forward and hugging the woman. Ellen hugged D'Anna back tightly while looking back at Tigh; she knew that the Colonel still had his issues with the Cylons, it was to be expected since they just had memories added to their existing memories. Ellen too had mixed feeling about the Cylons since they had attacked the Colonies, but she was more disappointed in herself since she wasn't able to keep Cavil from doing something so rash. As D'Anna stepped back from the hug, she went back to help the Chief in placing the connector into the port. Once her suture was done, and a bandage wrapped around it, Ellen stood up and walked towards Triana. Ellen placed a hand on her shoulder, and then hugged the young woman who she had known since she was a little girl.
"It's so good to see you again," said Ellen.
"I missed you," Triana said just as the Chief gasped once the block was pulled down.
"By the gods," he rasped, "that bastard killed us."
"Who?" asked Colonel Pierce.
"John," said the Chief before he gritted his teeth, "stupid, evil little fracker."
"That's something we both agree on," said Colonel Tigh.
"Colonel Pierce," said Ellen while Triana excitedly hugged the Chief, "we have our memories back, is there any way to set up a meeting between your people, Bill and Laura, and the Cylons on Eden?"
"I don't think that's a good idea, Ellen," said Colonel Tigh gruffly.
"They need to know," said Ellen.
"I agree, sir," the Chief said as he sat down to have the gash in his arm sutured while Tori sat down to have her block removed, "Natalie and the others need to know the truth of what they're dealing with. The Simons have been taken in by the Doral's and the John…. I mean Cavils. They need to know the truth so that there could be some closure."
"Oh dear gods," cried Tori as everyone turned towards her, "we… we… we created them."
"Yea," added Colonel Tigh before he looked at Ellen, "we created the very things that destroyed the Colonies."
"John led them on the wrong path, Saul," said Ellen, "they don't know the truth, our children don't know the truth."
Ellen then turned to Colonel Pierce and asked him again if he could arrange a meeting, and that everything would be revealed then. The Colonel nodded his head and then walked out of the lab, and towards the budding that contained the Stargate. He wanted to notify Stargate Command of the new developments while Ellen and the others welcomed themselves back after retrieving their memories. It had been ten minutes since Colonel Pierce left, and by this time all the Final Five had their memories restored.. leading to hugs between them and Triana who was excited to be in the presence of people she actually knew. IN the meantime, Tori and Chief Tyrol were reminding themselves of the love for each other they once shared when Colonel Pierce walked back into the lab and told Tigh and the others that the Colonials would need a few days before they could meet.
"Something happened on the Galactica," said Colonel Pierce as everyone stayed silent and listened, "the scientist, Dr. Baltar, was murdered."
"What?" asked a stunned D'Anna. She was one of the Cylons aware that Baltar had been unwittingly helping he Cylons, "when? How?"
"That's our questions," said Colonel Tigh as he glared at D'Anna, and then turned to Colonel Pierce to ask him if a hidden Cylon had killed him.
"It was Captain Thrace," said Colonel Pierce.
"What?" asked a surprised Colonel Tigh, "I've always said that she's a delinquent, but a murderer? I can't imagine her doing something so stupid."
"That's all Colonel Finn told me," said Colonel Pierce, "Commander Adama and the Colonials are leading the investigation on what happened. Finn asked to give them a few days while they gather evidence and question Captain Thrace, and then they'll talk. I've talked to Stargate Command about this too, and General Landry's said we'll have a meeting once the situation on New Kobol has quietened down."
"Sounds fair," said a stunned Chief Tyrol, "Starbuck killing Baltar?"
"There has to be a reason," said Colonel Tigh, "she's not capable of cold blooded murder… there must be a reason. At least not of a human."
"We can find out later," said Ellen, "for right now, I think we need to discuss John and his group. We need to find a way to stop them."
"Agreed," said Tori nodding her head, as did the others; all the while Anders was listening in as she thought about Starbuck. He missed her greatly.. hoping that he could be there just to simply stand by her side and keep her mentally strong.
"Colonel," said Anders as he looked at Tigh, and remembered the times that all of them sent on the beach, "can I send a message to Kara?"
"Colonel Pierce?" asked Tigh.
"Yes," was the reply, "I can get a camera for you to record a message."
"Thank you," Anders replied before looking off into the distance as he thought about her. Cavil and the others weren't to much in his mind, even though he hated the former… but he was more concerned about Starbuck. More concerned about the woman he was in love with.
TBC.