A/N: To Guest: Nice ships. Had no idea these existed until your review about these computer models. Anyway, in my mind, the Avalon class is similar in shape to the USAF Ares on the website. The difference is that the 'neck' section is shorter, there are no 'wings', and the head of the ship begins at where the 'wings' are located on the model. As for the larger Capital ships like the USAF Excalibur on the website? I don't really know. Maybe not yet. I do have a transport ship in mind for a future chapter, as well as some wheeled ground based vehicles that would be able to travel through a Stargate for a chapter far in the future.
Furling Earth, an hour later, 1300 hours.
It wasn't long before arriving on Furling Earth through the Stargate, and then being ferried to their current site through the use of a Puddle Jumper, that Racetrack was raising her tent under the clear blue sky above. She looked over her shoulder at her team of eleven archaeologists and scientists, some of whom were setting up tents and whatever equipment they had, while the rest were pulling up the other larger tents. She smiled as the scientists started to argue about how best to raise the tent before she turned her head to the Colonial Marines who were setting up the showering facilities in the distance while others were inventorying their pallets of water and food for the next three weeks.
Another young officer was working the radio they had been lent by the Earther teams; it was a subspace radio that was connected to the Avalon class ship orbiting the planet, to their own hand held radio's, and to the main Earther camp on the southern continent.
It was only an hour ago that Racetrack stood in front of the Stargate with her team of five archaeologists and scientists, as well as two Marines, a part of her was excited about heading through the Stargate. She then turned and looked at her team, as well as the other four teams that were raring to go to Furling Earth. It wasn't long before Riley headed over with Dr Burke and the Vice-President who sent them off. Racetrack then watched one of the Earth officers dial an address into the Dial Home Device before she turned once again as the Stargate activated and the wormhole formed. The young woman did her best not to let anyone know how worried she was, and it was not just about going through the Stargate again.
It was meeting Major Thompson once again. As she led her team through the Stargate, they ended up walking into the cave on Furling Earth were the Gate was located. The first person she laid her eyes on was the Major who nodded his head at the Colonial Officer and welcomed her and her team to the planet. He was looking into her eyes as she walked down the stairs before looking at the other officers and scientists who were walking through the Stargate.
Back in the present day, Racetrack smiled as she stepped back to see her domed tent completed before recalling reading the maps with Major Thompson and the other officers. They decided to choose a continent that was far away from the Cylon groups for obvious reasons, and so that they could conduct their work unhindered without worrying about any attacks by the Cylons.
Racetrack then went back and helped the others set up their tents, and within two hours, the camp was set up. However, with the sun lowering in the distance, Racetrack ordered the Marines to start fires that would keep them warm. It would be another hour later that the scientists had gone out in groups of three with a Colonial Marine to accompany them while Racetrack manned the radio.
Colonial Camp Alpha, Furling Earth, 2300 hours.
Exhausted after having returned from their expeditions out into their surrounding areas searching for artefacts, the groups returned and almost immediately went to sleep in their tents. With analysis of what they retrieved being held off until the next day. It was something that Racetrack understood. While she was sitting in front of her tent and looking up at the stars, Racetrack wanted to call Major Thompson. She glanced over at the two Colonial Marines in the radio tent several feet away and thought against it.
Sighing she turned back to looking at the sky when she noticed lights coming towards her camp, and then the radio buzzed to life with a familiar voice asking permission to land.
Racetrack smiled as she got up while thinking to herself, 'he must have read my mind', and then strode over to the radio tent where she asked one of the Marines to hand her the transceiver.
"This is Lt. Edmondson," she said hiding her smile.
"Lieutenant," said Major Thompson as the Jumper was hovering over them, "I know this is last minute and all, but I'd like your permission to land. There are some procedures and regulations I need to discuss with you."
"Permission granted, Major," Racetrack said before she rushed out as the Jumper slowly landed several feet away from the edge of the camp. The young woman then looked back at the Marines who were about to follow, and told them to pull back and stay at their posts. They nodded before the young woman continued towards the cylindrical ship which was now being approached by two Marines who had been on perimeter watch around the camp.
Racetrack saw the rear ramp open, and then the Major walked out nodding at the two Marines while the ramp rose once again. She saw that he was holding a metal case in his right hand as she walked up to him and welcomes him to Colonial Camp Alpha.
"So, how can we help you, Major?" asked Racetrack as she looked into his eyes while mentally hoping that he didn't really come to discuss procedures and regulations, 'I don't mind discussing regulations and procedures, but I'd hope that you have something in that case in your hand which would make the time go a little bit faster.'
"Well, what I have to discuss is classified," said the Major while Racetrack smiled a little, "I'll need about two to four hours of your time?"
The two Marines by her side looked at each other, while the Major was speaking fluent Caprican Standard, when Racetrack was told that there was a long list of procedures and regulations he needed to brief her on. "And then later you can explain the rules and regs to your team."
"We could go in my tent," said Racetrack who was about to turn around when the Major instead suggested that they go out to the crumbling ruins that were visible in the distance. Racetrack tuned to look at him once again, and then glanced at the confused looks on the Marines before looking back at the Major. "Out to the ruins?"
"Really classified information," said the Major who tried to keep his face as serious as possible. However, he could see that Racetrack was struggling to keep a straight face. He saw her nod her head before turning to the two Marines and telling them that she would be back in about four hours.
"Ma'am?" asked one if the Marines, "one of us will come with you. It's procedure… your procedure."
"I'll be fine," Racetrack said smiling at the young man, and then she looked at the older man standing next to him and asked them to contact her immediately should they need anything. "I'll check in with you every hour. In the meantime, get some rest. There's nothing alive in this continent, according to the scans we were shown, except for the other seven teams scattered all over. So, there shouldn't be any danger."
"No offence, Major," said the older Marine as he stared at Major Thompson before turning to Racetrack, "ma'am, we can't let you go off alone with someone we barely know."
"I know him, and I have worked with him before" Racetrack countered while the Major replied with "none taken". Racetrack then added, "this is my prerogative. Now, get some rest because the first shift that's supposed to be examining the artefacts is in eight hours, and that's when one group will be heading out to the wild to collect more artefacts. So, again, get some rest."
"Be careful, ma'am," said the older Marine nodding his head as he figured that the young woman was right. They had seen the scans of the continent which showed that there were no humanoid beings that were native to the planet anywhere around them. .
Racetrack then nodded her head before turning around with the Major and headed out to the crumbled ruins that were thirty minutes away on foot. It was the first stop for the various groups earlier that day, from which they brought back many objects that they wanted to examine the next day. And now she and the Major were heading up to the ruins, a small part of a city the size of Portland based on orbital scans from the Shen Long, the Chinese Navy's Avalon class ship. They walked side by side in silence as the Marines moved away and walked back to the camp. Looking over her shoulder after a few minutes to make sure that they were not being followed, Race brushed her hand against the butt of her sidearm before looking at the Major.
"Are we talking about procedures and regulations? or… well, or are we going to watch something?" asked Racetrack with a smirk on her lips.
"It's a nice night out here," said the Major as he looked up at the stars and could barely make out the Shen Long in orbit over the planet. He then looked over to Racetrack while walking and said that he did bring along two movies instead of one, "and its sequel."
"There are two?" asked the Colonial Officer in surprise, "I guess our people really do have a lot of things in common, especially this need to have sequels." Racetrack then laughed while the Major chuckled as they continued their walk for the next few minutes.
"I do have another movie with me if you'd like to watch," said the Major as he recalled hearing about what happened to Apollo from some of the Cylon members of a recent expedition. They had been recounting what they heard from the expedition members who had gone to Kobol and were attacked by vampires several days ago. The Major didn't have time to confirm that situation with Willow, who had already explained to him the existence of vampires and demons, but guessed that given the number of humanoid Cylons talking about it; it must have been true. The Major then glanced at the young woman, "it's a movie… a classic horror movie."
"Ummmm…." Racetrack said nervously as she looked over at the Major.
"I heard about what happened to Major Adama," said Major Thompson as Racetrack shifted closer to him while they were walking. She then asked him quietly how he knew about what happened. The Major then explained that the humanoid Cylons who witnessed Apollo's transformation when they arrived on New Kobol after the 'incident' talked to some of their friends about it on Eden. And those friends told some of the other Humanoid Cylons, some of whom arrived on Furling Earth to participate in another expedition on the southernmost pole of the planet. "So yeah, I heard. I'm sorry… I mean he's your friend and…"
"Apparently, his soul was returned to him," said Racetrack nodding her head before closing her eyes and shaking it while her body shuddered as she recalled Apollo leaping towards her while growling. "Could we maybe not talk about it?"
Racetrack wanted to ask about the rumours she heard about Dawn and Willow using otherworldly abilities from the Colonials who were on Kobol. She also wanted to ask him about the young women who had saved her from Apollo. She wanted to ask a lot of questions, but she told herself that they could wait until later. For now, she wanted to enjoy the Major's company. She shuffled closer to him as they walked when the Major asked her if she would mind if he placed his arm around her shoulders.
Racetrack nodded her head and smiled sheepishly as he placed in arm around her shoulders while the walked towards the ruins. As for the Major, this meeting was something he had been looking forward to for some time since he told her about the movie. He glanced over at the young woman and immediately felt regret for everything she had been through.
'I remember her saying that she lost everything,' thought the Major to himself as he gently pulled her closer. He didn't know how far the both of them could go, but he was glad that she didn't pull away. Instead, she placed an arm around his back as they continued to walk in silence. It wasn't long before the Major told Racetrack about his hometown, before moving on to his High Schooling days.
The both of them continued to walk straight ahead while the Major and Racetrack traded stories of their respective lives. It would be several minutes later that the two of them reached the crumbled side of what used to be a building.
Racetrack checked in with camp while the Major sat on the soft ground and looked up at the star laden sky before opening the case. Racetrack then took off her belt, along with the sidearm, and sat down next to him while placing her weapon to her side. She then watched as he took out a rectangular shaped device from inside the case and placed it on the ground. Following that, the Major then took out three other smaller boxes before placing it beside him. The Major then closed the case, placed the rectangular object on top of the case, and then moved it until it was right in front of the both of them.
Racetrack watched as the Major pulled up a screen from the rectangular box, and then handed the young officer one of the small rectangular boxes. She held it in her hand and looked at the cover which depicted a short haired older man wearing a pair of dark glasses with a red glow from the left eye. Racetrack saw the gun in the man's hand, and then she looked up at the Major before handing him the box after giving on even attempting to read the big bold word on the cover..
"I have no idea what it says,' she chuckled as the Major then opened the box, and took out a disc. She watched as he pressed a button on the device, and a cover popped up revealing a circular recess. She watched him place the disc into the recess, close the cover, and then the screen turned on. While the device was activating, she heard sounds coming from the speakers on the sides of the device which the Major explained was the portable DVD player activating.
"So now," said the Major as a menu appeared on the screen with music playing in the background, "this is the first part of the movie I told you about."
"Okay," said Racetrack looking back at him. She looked at him and studied very part of his profile while he was leaning forward to start the movie. A small smile on her face developed as she remembered talking to her mother before her deployment to the Galactica
"It took some time, but we managed to put in some translation at the bottom," said the Major, "as he pressed 'play' on the screen before leaning back against the wall. Racetrack, who placed her belt and her holster to her right leaned forward as she watched the first few seconds of the movie Major Thompson had referred to as 'The Terminator'. It was about two hours later that, while the credits were playing, a smiling Racetrack turned to the Major who asked her what she thought about the movie.
But all she said was that she wanted to watched the next one. And he sighed internally. Major Thompson thought that Racetrack wouldn't be happy about watching a movie about a war between machines and humans, especially since she and her people had just come out of a similar war.
Chuckling, Major Thompson leaned forward and changed the disc while a cool breeze went by as Racetrack got up to flex her leg muscles before calling in to check in with the camp. Once she completed that task, the Colonial Officer sat back down as the Major started the next movie. This time Racetrack leaned back on the wall behind them while watching the sequel. All the while, she was reading the translation at the bottom of the screen, and then looking at the images. She then leaned sideways and lay her head on the Major's arm while whispering if he would mind.
"No," he whispered as Racetrack continued to watch the movie with wide eyed fascination at the subject of an imagined human-machine war. She knew no one had made movies such as this back in the Colonies; an imagined war against man and machine, since they already experienced that first hand during the First Cylon War. Then there was the most recent war where the Colonial humans were nearly wiped out by the machines, just as in the movie they were watching.
'All this to the Earth public are simply fiction,' thought Racetrack to herself as she watched, on the screen, a young man hacking into what the Major said was an ATM machine; a machine that gave out money after inputting a code. She nodded her head while watching the screen. She knew that the war they had just been through, and what her parents had been through before she was born, was nothing to scoff at. But despite her experiences, she was enjoying the movie especially since this was a piece of fiction. It had accomplished its goal of taking her away from her real life.
For the next two hours, she was watching the protagonists trying to change their future while she pushed the Cylons out of the back of her mind. The movie was an escape; and suddenly she was brought back to reality when the movie ended. She blinked a few times before reminding herself she and the others were on a dead world, and that they were in the middle of a war between rogue machines, religious fanatics, and one of their own who had betrayed the Colonies.
"You alright?" asked Major Thompson as Racetrack stayed where she was, her head on his shoulder with his arm lying on her shoulders.
"It was good," Racetrack said as she listened to the haunting soundtrack when the credits were rolling up. She said that some of the translations were inaccurate, but she managed to get the gist of what the actors were trying to convey in their characters. "I liked it."
The Major smiled before, while his arm was still around her shoulder, leaned forward and turned off the device before leaning back against the wall. Everything was quiet as Racetrack closed her eyes and felt the warmth coming from the Major. But she knew that her time to relax was over. She needed to return to her real life, as did Major Thompson.
"Maybe it's time we left," she whispered with her eyes closed.
"We can do something like this tomorrow again," said the Major as a smile formed on Racetrack's face. She then nodded her head before asking about the horror movie he had brought with him. "Well, it's science-fiction horror really. One of Earth's classic movies."
"Time traveling machine?" asked Racetrack.
"Nope," said the Major as Racetrack looked up at him, "aliens with acid blood. Very scary."
"Ooo," chuckled the young woman while she pulled away and looked up at the Major, "has anyone ever said that you look like the actor who played that Reese character?"
"What can I say?" asked the Major shrugging his shoulders while racetrack chuckled before gently punching his upper arm. The both of them then smiled at one another before she started to get to her feet before reaching for the radio and telling her Camp Marines that she was about to return to camp. The woman then put on here belt with the holster, and then turned around as the Major finished packing the DVD player and discs. He then picked the case by its handle and turned to the Colonial officer.
"You ready to go?" asked the Earther.
"Yes… no… I mean… yes," Racetrack shook her head before confirming that she was ready to head for the camp, but liked the feeling of being with someone else so that she could forget about everything that was happening around them. "And now, we're getting back to reality."
"As we always do," said the Major.
"So," Racetrack asked as she took a step forward the Major, "what else happens on a date on Earth?"
"Let's see?" said the Major thoughtfully while looking at Racetrack, "usually there's some kind of a fun activity; like movies, or rock climbing… things like that, and then dinner, drinks. And that's about it… sometimes the couple kiss at the end. It depends on the culture."
"Just like with us on the Colonies," said Racetrack as the Major took another step forward with the case in his hand. "before the movie tomorrow, can you tell me what your planet is like? I mean you told me something about your life, but without telling me any military secrets or anything, can… can you tell me what's it like on Earth. The real Earth."
"Sure," the Major nodded his head as he looked into Racetrack's eyes and wondered to himself if it would be out of line to lean forward and just kiss her on the lips. He could see her eyes shifting to his lips, and then back towards his eyes. 'Okay, I don't know the rules on inter-species fraternization between military officers of different ranks. Is it okay? Or not okay? Or… wait, is she still holding my arm?'
"I… I think we should go," breathed Racetrack who found herself holding the Major's arm. She looked at his lips before back to his eyes again while thinking about how long she and the other Colonials had been fighting with no respite for the past several months following the Cylon attack before meeting the Earthers. It was non-stop fighting, and now they were re-building a new society. She knew that everyone was busy with their own duties with very little time to build new romantic relationships. Racetrack knew a few people among the pilots who had gone into relationships to fight the constant stress.
Racetrack wanted to give in to the silence around them… to the calm around them, and just lean in and kiss the Major. But there was a part of her telling her to stop; that the man standing in front of her was still a rank higher than her. She wasn't sure if it would be okay to even kiss him without asking Commander Adama in private after her tour on the planet was over in three weeks. Shaking her head, Racetrack let go of his hand, and smiled before saying that they needed to head back to their own camps before people started to get worried.
"Or they may get the wrong idea," said Racetrack jokingly.
Racetrack chuckled before turning around. She then stopped suddenly, and looked back at the Major.
"Maggie?"
"Nothing," smiled Racetrack who had a sudden urge to simply grab his hand and kiss the man. But she stopped at the last moment when he called her by name instead of her call-sign. She simply smiled before saying she liked it when he called her 'Maggie'.
"Shall we, then?" asked the Major as he motioned towards the lights from the camp. Placing a hand on the small of her back, the two of them walked back to the camp at a leisurely pace. 'Until tomorrow.'
'And we have tomorrow,' thought Racetrack to herself as she glanced over at the Major, and then back out into the distance.
TBC.