Chapter 11
Location: Presidential Residence, Caprica
Date: February 20, 2021
Time: 2030 Hours
"Doctor Jackson, hello?" she carefully spoke to him, trying to see if he was still breathing, "I'm a reporter Doctor, you know, I talk to people and broadcast the news. Don't you have reporters on Earth?"
"Oh I'm sorry, it's just…my ear piece was acting up, our security men. Always talking about new updates in the situation and where everyone is going and is. Official stuff," Daniel said, ignoring Mitchell's warning.
"Right…anyway, if you'll sit down please?" she said as they reached the interview location her news outlet had basically set up for her to conduct interviews of any Earthers she could sink her journalist claws into.
"Of course, Miss…"
"D'Anna, D'Anna Biers," the blonde woman replied with a smile.
"Nice to meet you," Daniel said as the camera began rolling, reaching over and shaking D'Anna's hand.
"So, do you think you can start by telling us a little bit about yourself?"
"Of course, my name is Doctor Daniel Jackson, I am a Doctor of Archaeology with many years of work with the Stargate Program, first as an analyst and then working in the field with SG-1, our flagship team of offworld explorers."
"Can you tell me Doctor Jackson, how did you make the Ring of the Lords, or as I've heard some of your people call it, the Stargate, do what it did?" she asked, shoving the microphone into his face.
"Well…due to the technical complexities being a little bit outside my professional wheelhouse I can't really tell you the particulars, but I can give you a general description."
"That would be alright."
"Well, in a nutshell, the Stargate works by establishing a wormhole through a dimension we call subspace, this wormhole connects with a Stargate on the receiving end, allowing matter to be sent across vast distances within mere seconds," Daniel said, being very careful with the way he worded what he was saying.
"And, how do you make it work?" D'Anna asked.
"I'm not quite sure how, as in, the physics behind it. You'd have to talk to General Carter, she's the foremost expert on the Gate and a close personal friend."
"Fair enough, it seems as if there's quite a lot to the physics of it."
"Oh yes, quite a bit."
"And what can you tell us about Earth's own adventures in space?" D'Anna asked again as her second camera man moved to get a better angle.
"Well, I can't give you details about that, but I can tell you we've been around the block and can handle ourselves, and that out there is…quite a galaxy," Daniel replied.
"Why can't you tell us the details of what Earth has encountered and done? Has your government ordered your delegation not to reveal such information?" D'Anna prodded, her reporter's instinct showing through, even if she were a Cylon.
"Well yeah, I mean, wouldn't yours?" Daniel shot back with a friendly tone, not really wanting to sound nasty or rude.
"Fair enough," D'Anna shrugged, knowing that there was much to get through in this little time available, "So, what are you allowed to tell us Doctor? I'm sure you can understand that our viewers are wanting more knowledge of Earth."
"Well, there is much I can tell you," Jackson said, "Earth is…it's unique, a planet of thousands of languages and just as many cultures and histories. Ours is a rich tapestry of human achievement, human grace, and its shortcomings. There is no perfection to us as a people. We know we have our issues, but we've come a long way. And we have so much that we'd like to share, and by that same token there is much that we'd like to learn from you and your people."
"Sounds like an invitation for a solo interview? I host a talk show on late night television, perhaps, with the permission of your leaders you can drop by?" D'Anna asked, batting her eye lashes, basically flirting to get her exclusive interview.
"Well, personally, I'd love to. First I'd have to…you know," he pointed up, chuckling as he did so.
"Your superiors?"
"Yeah, we have a pretty strict protocol set up for this type of thing, and I really don't want to be taken off the delegation for messing it up," Jackson said with a bright smile and motioned around him, "I mean, I'm having a great time."
"Understandable, thank you very much Doctor. So, I have heard from some of my sources that your people are looking to establish a more permanent presence here on Caprica," D'Anna said, moving on gracefully, "Is that intended to be something akin to an embassy of some kind in order to facilitate formal diplomatic relations?"
"I…believe so, I'm not sure if we're going to use an already-built location or if we're going to build one ourselves for security reasons. But I anticipate that you'll be seeing an Earth embassy here in the near future."
"Does that mean that the government of Earth is intending on remaining independent and sovereign of the colonies? I'm sure you know that the twelve worlds here have only recently signed the Articles of Colonization, formally banding together under a single government entity."
"I am, and I can tell you with a great deal of certainty that Earth very much intends to remain a sovereign entity unto itself, but we do not intend to keep your people at arm's length. I believe there is too much to be gained from a cultural and historical perspective for both our peoples by doing so."
"Do you think the Colonial government will make such an overture to have Earth co-sign as a member of the Articles of Colonization?" D'Anna asked.
"Uh…I'm not sure. As far as I'm aware your government's proven itself very responsive and as open as they can be, plus we've only just met. It would be like if I asked you to marry me right now, you'd say no. Why? Because…" he held his hand out, knowing she knew the answer.
"Well, I'd be flattered," she giggled, acting it up a bit, "But no, it'd be a no, because we've only just met of course," D'Anna nodded in agreement with that line of thinking.
"Then again, I don't necessarily have much to go on," Daniel shrugged, "There can sometimes be slight differences in the perception of attachment after all."
"Of course," D'Anna nodded in agreement, "So, one more question. The publicly-stated schedule of these expos says that Earth will be capping this off with hosting the final night at the compound we've been told you've rented. Can you shed some light on what we might be seeing?"
"I can give a few hints," Daniel nodded, "We'll be using a format of documentaries and music shows as well as inviting families, we'll be showing some movies from our entertainment sector for children to watch and enjoy themselves, apparently there's an actual movie theater at our compound. Uh…some other stuff we'll showing will be sports, some nature documentaries, some uh…archaeological documentaries as well, which I will warn you may challenge some of the preconceived notions of the Twelve Colonies."
"Can you describe the notions you claim your expo will challenge?" D'Anna asked, sensing opportunity unlike any she'd foreseen.
"Uh…one will be the belief that humanity evolved on Kobol," Daniel said after some thought, knowing that the IOA wanted to broach the subject with the Colonials as soon as possible, much to the military's great unrest. But the IOA had a different viewpoint, entrusting that the Colonials would not be the crusaders that the military had feared they could become. In fact it was ordered that if asked Daniel was to discuss this openly and plainly, to be able to get an early read on the Colonial cultural mindset so that the IOA could make tweaks and adjustments to the Earth cultural exposition show and their own negotiation strategy, or if they needed to cut bait and bail quickly.
"Really?" D'Anna said much louder than she'd intended, "Wow, I mean…I can see why that might be something you would challenge, many have suspected that Earth had left Kobol due to some ideological differences between them and the rest of Humanity, and perhaps that's been proven here."
"That's actually a pretty apt analysis. I'll be present there and will be there to discuss some of these claims, because I'm pretty certain that many will want to discuss this and other subjects. I trust you might be there as well?"
"Absolutely," D'Anna smiled and nodded, and then heard her producer's voice in her earpiece.
"D'Anna, wrap this up, we have other interviews we want to get to," the woman on the other end said, excited and practically buzzing on the end with all the material they were getting.
"Well thank you Dr. Jackson, it's been wonderful to speak with you, I'm sure you'd like to get back to the festivities."
"Thank Miss Biers," Jackson said, reaching out and shaking the woman's hand. But when he did so he felt a piece of paper slip into his hand and looked down to see she'd slipped.
"Dr. Jackson, if it's not too much trouble, is there a way we could request an invitation to Earth's diplomatic mission compound?" D'Anna asked, having a completely different meaning in mind.
It read simply: 'I'm a Cylon, we want to open negotiations. We made a mistake earlier, we want to apologize'. Daniel played it cool, slipping the octagonal piece of paper into his coat pocket so no one saw him and noticed D'Anna watching out of the corner of her eye. Taking a deep breath, Daniel knew he had to be rather ambiguous and covert.
"I'll see what answers I can get from my leaders," Daniel nodded.
- FLASHBACK: 19 Days Ago -
Colonial Fleet Intelligence Service HQ, Moon of Choros
"Holy frak," the exasperated voice of Colonel Tom Freyje, the new head of Colonial R&D, said out loud as the group watched the debriefing of Commander Adama.
"You think he had too much ambrosia?" another older voice, belonging to Commander Katherine Dean, sarcastically asked the gathered Colonial officers.
"I doubt it, he may be an old man, but he is the most reliable man I've ever known," the voice of Admiral Jason 'Roller' Tragan, the commander of all Intelligence in the Colonial Fleet said back. He knew Adama personally, he'd worked with him closely in the past, having flown off of the Galactica together prior to Tragan losing flight status after a car crash broke his femur and he'd transferred to Intelligence.
These three officers were in control of the most technologically advanced sector of the military. Although secretly, the Colonials hadn't abandoned all of their technology, after all, why would you make that much progress and throw it out the window? So Colonial Intelligence had continued upgrading and improving on technologies that the Colonials had long thought was voodoo due to the way Cylons could seemingly control it at will. For years, they'd been at the very forefront of innovation, advancing Colonial computer systems, FTL technology, communications systems, metallurgy, weaponry, propulsion, and armor while investing in the private sector and in universities to develop additional high-science talent. They had amassed an impressive stockpile of prototype technologies that were as advanced if not more advanced than anything the Cylons had been shown to have. Their research and development teams had developed new prototype FTL drives capable of jumping far beyond anything that the Fleet had and also had the greater jump range and accuracy that the Cylons had shown. The weapons developed and now stationed around the large moon were far deadlier than the standard Colonial weapons, the armor on the inside of the massive hollow rock in places was tougher than a Battlestar's. Even a new design of Battlestar was being developed in the simulators of the most powerful computers in the Colonies to replace the Valkyrie-Class. These same computers were guarded by a series of firewalls that previous retrofitted Cylon viruses couldn't even scratch, and provided the necessary computing power to do the complex research of the most advanced projects in the Colonial military.
Expert black ops operators and intelligence agents operated closely classified stealth craft that crept around Colonial and Cylon space, listening for any hints of hostile intent from the Cylons, intelligence on rebel and pirate cells, and hacking into research labs and defense corporations for any sign of an advancement that Colonial Intelligence could use. Then these same operators acted on this intelligence, piercing deep into Cylon territory finding any weaknesses or avenues of transport that could serve as a route of attack for either the Cylons or the Colonials. They looked for installations where the Cylons labored away on their own new designs for weapons and their own evolution. If ordered these ships also had the ability to wipe out pirate fleets without being seen with their more advanced weapons, armor, and propulsion systems. However, they also did one other item that no one outside of Fleet Intelligence and the President himself knew, they had the ability and will to silence fellow Colonials who were deemed too dangerous to allow to live, but too high profile to arrest and try. Sometimes, it was easier to say that they died of a medicine overdose, a car crash, or a catastrophic failure in their vessels' hull integrity, or in one particularly interesting case, died in an iron smelting plant. These people were the ones who had the experience and secretive technology to handle the type of secret they were being entrusted with.
"So what do you think? Give us a breakdown," Commander Dean asked.
"Well sir, if you'll direct your attention to the screen," Colonel Freyje said, tapping a control in front of him to make the screen in the large sealed briefing room light up with the visuals from the two Vipers the Galactica had sent along with the Earth ships, "First thing that we see is that these Earthers don't use the same method of FTL drives that we do. I've talked at length to Commander Adama and to Lieutenant Adama but neither was really able to say anything more than that the Earth personnel call it a hyperspace window. Its capabilities are a mystery and as is its method of operation. I've got people working on it. Next is that the Earth battlegroup doesn't use our standard method of deploying their fighters. You see here that their hangar looks like it is open to space, yet in the screen there are crewmen that are seemingly open to vacuum, this shows that there is some kind of shielding that keeps atmosphere in and allows their craft to deploy at the same time. And it appears as if the Earth ships of the Hammond type have two of these hangers. The ships are built remarkable like Battlestars, yet smaller, roughly comparable to our cruisers in size and overall tonnage. And in a few frames we can see a ship twice the overall size of the Hammond types, which we are calling Hammond Class Battlecruisers, with the exact same layout. This is what we'll designate as an Alaska-Class Battleship, and judging by the fact this battlegroup was named for it and as was a second unit of ships identical to this one we can assume a similar tactical and operational organization pattern to the Earth fleet. This ship is like a small Battlestar, those main guns are about the same size as those we use, but we'll see in a moment they are remarkably different in operation."
The screen showed several flying wing type fighters zooming past the cameras of the Viper as the Viper itself took off to see, off in the distance, four Cylon Basestars.
"But another thing we have noted is that the Cylons have upgraded their ships, as you can see here. But, it doesn't do them much good. According to Commander Adama the Earthers followed his advice and they seem to have adopted our own doctrine and waited to deploy their fighters until their ships had taken out hundreds of Cylon Raiders to give them a much better chance at survival. The report says that extremely powerful nukes were deployed to detonate within the ranks of the Raiders and took out most of them, stunning the majority of the rest. This allowed the Earth fighters, which as you can see are not as maneuverable as our own fighters, to engage at will with missiles and guns not unlike our own."
"What about the Earth capital ships? What sort of firepower and armor did they bring to bear?" Admiral Tragan asked.
"Well sir, we only have fragmented footage of the ships themselves up close in action, but we have been able to see this. Magnetic railguns, very advanced," Colonel Freyje said, showing them a clip of what appeared to be two of the Earth ships firing very short-lived blue lines that hit a Basestar and then sliced clean through, the hallmark of a hypervelocity projectile. As that clip played they also saw a blue bubble flashing into existence as several Cylon missiles impacted the shielding of the ships, "We believe they utilize an energy shield of some type to protect their vessels. This is corroborated by debriefing of Commander Adama and his pilots. The shielding…it's beyond anything we're working with."
"How tough are they?"
"We have yet to see such shields in detail from the operator point of view, so we have no idea sir."
"What about these fighters? What can you tell us about them Colonel?" Commander Dean asked.
"Thankfully, thanks in part to the reports from the pilots, we have more information on them. It seems that they are highly reliant on long range missiles to fight against hostile fighters. These missiles appear to be smaller and more maneuverable than ours and somewhat faster. The fighter-launched missiles witnessed are not believed to be as much of a threat as their ship-launched warheads, which seem to be able to almost entirely disable these Basestars with one blow, which is actually somewhat comparable to our own tylium-spiked anti-ship warheads. But for this we have a defense, layers of flak and thick armor plate. But back to the fighters, they appear to not be as maneuverable as our own Vipers, but just as fast, and they also appear to be flown by combat veterans judging by a few close ups we got from the pilots and their reports stating several different types of silhouettes on the sides of these fighters. They claim that the majority of the fighters on the ship known as the General George Hammond are flown by pilots with such kill markers."
"So good fighters, deadly capital ships, and unknown technological superiority."
"Are we anywhere close to matching any of this?"
"Well sir, we do have operational prototype railguns of several sizes that have been testing on Choros for almost two years with the intent to one day replace all kinetic energy weapons and flak guns aboard our ships. The results so far have been promising. But we would need to completely re-engine whatever ship we put such weapons aboard in order to produce the requisite power in a safe manner. That's a separate topic. But if that can be accomplished with additional investment in retooling a munitions plant to produce an order of the serial finished production design we could have what we believe to be identical weaponry pushed to production within the year and we can begin retrofitting a first prototype within the next year," the man said, getting some nods from the other officers, "But…we have shields on the long-term development list…my people have said that it would take another ten years to even have a prototype. We think have a grasp on the relative physics and the theories of it. The problem has been miniaturization of components and overall power requirements."
"So what's the hold-up with power?"
"According to our modeling it requires a reactor that produces more heat and pressure than our current metallurgy can handle, but due to our experience with the enormous energy requirements of our FTL drives we do have the systems that can handle the power itself, but we'd need to refit all lesser ship-board power systems to handle such conduit upgrades. As I said, the hurtle lies with creating a reactor that is capable of safely using more concentrated tylium in the reactor itself, which historically we've had trouble with except within an FTL drive's reactor, which is far larger and only designed to operate that sort of power for milliseconds at a time," Colonel Freyje replied, "However, it has given us hope that we can do it seeing as Earth has found a way to do this themselves."
"If only we had some copies to reverse engineer…" Commander Dean grumbled.
"Sir, I must strongly recommend that any diplomatic talks made must be to the purpose of acquiring this technology. In particular sir we need these shields, if we can figure out how create shields then that can allow us to create a truly reliable orbital defense system for the first time, meaning that if Earth can get us over the hump I believe we can take it to the next level, creating planet-wide shield coverage against orbital bombardment or intrusion."
"I'm not as concerned about the Earthers and their technology as I am about the prospect that the Fleet could be rendered inert at any time because of this virus that Commander Adama reported that the Earth scanners found on the two Vipers and Raptor he brought along. Colonel, can you repair this damage to the Fleet Navigation Program?" Admiral Tragan asked.
"It's rather easy to eliminate the virus as a threat, sir," Colonel Freyje said back, "All we really need to do is disconnect the network. Unfortunately the network itself is too far gone to be considered for salvage, we'll have to start over, but only after we've reviewed our security measures. The fact that the Cylons were able to get a virus of this magnitude into the network completely undiscovered shows we have serious gaps in our security."
"How long until we can take down the network?" Admiral Tragan asked.
"It's already happened for the mainline formations near the Colonies, but the ships on patrol farther out are still being contacted."
"And then how long until your techies have a new program ready for testing?"
"Hard to say, it all really depends on the success of our reverse engineering this virus and our ability to formulate new security firewalls."
"Okay gentlemen," Commander Dean said, leaning forward with her hands clasped together, "I think we need to deal with this revelation of the Cylons now recruiting humans into their ranks as spies. We dealt with this during the war, it was tough then, it's going to be tough now."
"You're right, back during the war we were able to more easily track Cylon transmissions and movements, but nowadays we're working with one hand behind back because of the Armistice Line precluding us from forward reconnaissance to help us track potential Cylon Sympathizers."
"So what are we going to do about it?"
"Start with our own, Colonel Pyre, the frakker, was a traitor all along, I want this house as sterile as a frakking operating room," the admiral declared, "Then you triple check commissioned officers and then work your way down. Then, we move to our military industrial contractors and support subcontractors. Then with the government and its assorted apparatus and their own contractors. From there we'll go through major corporations, communications and technological development firms and the like, these new traitors are likely to be the young, the ones who have been raised where technology's begun to make a comeback. Root 'em out."
"Yes sir, understood sir."
"And Earth sir?" the most junior of these senior officers now asked, giving everyone pause.
"Well, they're the real deal, no debate on that. But the fact we have no clue where Earth is and the fact Earth's own negotiators have practically refused to reveal their world's location has me worried," Admiral Tragan stated, "It could meant one of two things. They're afraid of us attempting an assault on Earth itself if we feel that we can do so successfully. That's not really an issue for us, that's more of an issue for the government, they need to just figure out how to alleviate those concerns. The second scenario on the other hand is one which we cannot ignore: Earth's worried about us and our intentions, and are preparing a preemptive strike, hence their unwillingness to reveal the location of their homeworld."
"If Earth's preparing a strike then we're in trouble. As it stands now we're outgunned and completely in the dark as to Earth's force presence and their strategic capabilities," Colonel Freyje stated evenly.
"Exactly, which is why the Fleet needs to back the Kobol Expedition, we have to push our sphere of control out away from the homeworlds."
"And the debriefing from Lieutenant Adama? She revealed a general location for Kobol didn't she?"
"She did, which has served the singular purpose of giving us confirmation of the location that we've suspected to be Kobol for some years. We now know where Kobol is."
- PRESENT DAY -
Presidential Residence, Caprica
The largest concentration of security was wherever President Adar was and wherever he was at Senator Jackson was not far away. At the moment the two of them were enjoying a classic ballet from Aerilon's most esteemed dancing group. Senator Jackson and a few other members of his own entourage were really enjoying themselves as they carefully sipped at fine Aerilon Ambrosia as part of the exposition.
"So Senator, what do you think of the Colonies and its people thus far?" Adar asked.
"It is the most pleasant experience of my career good sir, and if the other Colonies are as rich in tradition and culture then I can assure you that I will be a very happy man."
"Yes, Aerilon and its people are very refined and cultured. It was from Aerilon that Ambrosia was started and refined to the fine beverages you are enjoying now," the Quorum delegate of the planet said pleasantly, "And we will be showing far more on the day after tomorrow."
"I look forward to it," the Senator graciously said.
"How does it compare with Earth good Senator?" President Adar asked.
"Well, the Russians are quite the ballet masters, more-so than I am I must admit. But roughly comparable I'm certain."
"Thank you. May I ask, your own suit, it's of a new style that has been experimented with across the Colonies by the most affluent and rich. Is it a similar situation to your own people?" the President said.
"Not quite, it's more a proper dining attire, or something to be worn at one's wedding."
"I see. Perhaps once everything is established Earth's people won't feel very out of place."
The Senator's smile faded, but didn't completely disappear, as his years of experience taught him, never stop smiling. But this little slip of the tongue gave him an insight as to what the Colonials wanted for Earth/Colonial relations. So he had to know more, now.
"What do you mean by that sir? Are you speaking of matters of trade?"
"For starters of course, but Gods willing, we can carefully and gently ease Earth and its people back into the welcoming arms of its brothers and sisters," the very old and self-assured Quorum delegate stated rather smugly and matter-of-factly, getting Adar's attention just as much as the Senator's.
"Well, I don't know if Earth is really ready to be folded into anything madam, we are a proud and independent lot we people of Earth. And we have no plans to assimilate anyone into our culture or be assimilated."
"This is true, after all our own worlds have only recently rallied under one flag," Adar reminded the Quorum delegate, getting a quick scowl from the woman, who was actually a very adamant political opponent of his.
Jackson waited calmly for a torrent of protest from this woman, but the response was unlike anything that he had ever thought of. The Quorum woman laughed, or rather chuckled at this firm stance.
"That is true, but the people of Tauron were the same way, and now, they've become some of our fiercest and most loyal soldiers and officers. Caprica as well was most independent, but now, after realizing all that the other Colonies had to offer they've assimilated and taken their place among the other Colonies as the center of commerce and science of the Colonies. The same goes with all the Colonies, and I'm sure that Earth will have a niche to fulfill."
"I don't mean to be rude, but Earth has long been independent, and has no intention of surrendering sovereignty," Senator Jackson said back, getting odd looks from the Colonials.
"That's perfectly understandable" Adar asked and glared at the Quorum delegates, "And there's no reason to push such a subject," he said, his intention of shutting them up working well, Adar was a rather explosive individual if provoked, "But, you can understand our interest in opening up commercial opportunities and normalizing relations."
"Of course, such things are not off the table," Jackson said, having already worked with the IOA towards looking at the opportunity for opening trade, and the numbers were simply extraordinary. The figures ran into the mid-hundreds of trillions of dollars, such a market opportunity would be about the biggest economic boom in Earth's history, and he wanted to make it happen. In fact, it was this that was the reason for the IOA readying disclosure, not for moral reasons, not for military reasons, not because 'Earth was ready', but due to the fact it was now fiscally-lucrative.
- FLASHBACK -
Two Hours Ago
High Orbit, Caprica
The fleet was gathering, and it was already massive. The Kobol Expedition was set to be among the most expensive and impressive feat the Twelve Colonies had put together as a unit since the foundation of the Colonial Fleet itself. The expedition was gathering together a massive number of vessels, notable among them were more than four dozen large container vessels for carrying dry cargos of every conceivable description while a tanker and refueling fleet was being assembled as well. This element numbered more than twenty ships including four massive super-tankers the size of battlestars built like a thin bushel of grapes with separated fuel pods spaced tightly along their long hulls with a bulky engine space and multiple separated hull sections meant for managing pumping and flowing of fuel between their mammoth cells. Water tankers and water-reclamation ships were also assembled, these numbering more than a dozen such vessels.
The most expensive of the civilian ships were the botanical cruisers, ten of them, with each being specialized with a pair of crossover specialties between two other specialties of other cruisers to insure redundancy of their fleet's food supply, as well as insuring that fresh-air transfers could take place from the CO2-eating botanical cruisers to the CO2-producing rest of the fleet. While CO2 scrubbers did the bulk of the work on ships botanical cruisers were necessary insuring longevity of Colonial life support systems by taking the strain off of these incredibly important and incredibly sensitive systems. Then there were eight mining ships with their eight mining drone carriers in company to mine out raw material for transfer to the expedition's four mobile refinery platforms, each of them was capable of tylium or raw material processing, and had the support of three mining survey ships and a pair of workshop barges and four mobile drydocks able to handle all but the expedition's Battlestars.
The flotilla was also filling its other necessities: sewage/waste water treatment ships, large and small repair tugs for towing any disabled ships and effecting minor repairs and maintenance, deep space survey ships, roll-on roll-off vehicle carriers capable of dropping into atmosphere to deposit their cargoes of trucks, cars, and construction equipment, and of course personnel transports in the form of large luxury transports able to take more than a thousand people aboard quite comfortably. The civilian side of the expedition had a flagship chosen for itself, the super liner Picon Star, a super-sized version of the very common fish-like vessel used across the Colonies except it had Battlestar-esque flight pods seamlessly blended into the hull for housing its large flotilla of cargo ferries and shuttles and was the only ship that could rival the escorting Battlestars.
Already, this armada was assembling in sections according to their specialization and roles, filling out crew requirements as priority maintenance was completed and any necessary overhauls or repairs identified and commenced. Their warship escort group was nowhere to be seen however, but over Caprica the flagship of this future escort group was already present alongside her namesake, two Galactica's standing side by side as one prepared for its service while the other received the last of its demilitarization work before permanent orbit was established and the Battlestar Galactica Orbital Museum was handed over to the Department of Education by the Fleet and opened to the public. The other Galactica on the neighboring slipway was a different story. Radiation alert sensors, secondary zoned short-range DRADIS arrays, Viper and Raptor launch tube magnetic catapults, missile launch silos, and armored shutters for the ship's numerous windows were being installed and thoroughly tested on the outside. Meanwhile the ship's primary, secondary, and emergency life support air ducts were replacing the mobile support units meant for use for the work crews while the ship's computer core was assembled and wired up, a far more intricate and powerful system than any that Adama had ever seen which included its own auxiliary power plant, coolant reserve tanks, lines, and pumps, and would soon have the first of a brand-new set of security protocols installed on it. Wall, floor, and ceiling panels were gone in most parts of the ship as the requisite wiring and plumbing installation was conducted by shipyard specialists. Other systems like the CIC's control consoles for DRADIS, weapons, and other assorted subsystems were being installed and wired up while damage control systems of all types including emergency ventilation drives, fire suppression systems, smoke detectors, airflow sensors, air quality sensors, and others were installed in every corridor, storage hold, room, hangar bay, and engine space in the ship. Minor but still important equipment like everything needed in the ship's mess halls such as friers, grills, ovens, dough mixers, dish washers, storage racks, everything needed to assemble and install the insulation lining and coolant units for freezers and refrigerators, dehumidifiers for dry food storage bays, and the numerous tables, chairs, and even silverware was being brought aboard. Elsewhere in the ship there was exercise equipment, cleaning equipment, desks, printers, copiers, and separate computers, lockers, trash compactors, washers and driers for clothes, a fully-equipped drycleaner, telephones, beds, lights, toilets, showerheads, sinks, chairs, bunks, security cameras, and other items were all being assembled, placed, and if needed, tested within the confines of the ship's hull. Needless to say, it was no small task to fit out a Battlestar.
Sitting in his remarkably spacious office the newly-minted Rear Admiral William Adama had a laundry list of things to do to see to it that this Galactica's schedule was going to be kept and that they'd be ready for departure. The ship was certainly a massive step up in terms of capability from his previous command, he'd been walked through the vessel's Viper and Raptor assembly lines and the raw material processing facility. Adama knew these facilities were crucial, especially with his experience as a Viper pilot to draw upon. The new Viper Mk VII's, while superior war birds than the Mk. II's and Mk. III's he flew in the war and the Mk. IV's he flew immediately post-war, were a bit more finicky when it came to maintenance. The ability to manufacture parts of all descriptions was necessary, and thanks to the fact the Gun Admirals hadn't been able to ignore the Viper Admirals the Mercury-Class and the new Prometheus-Class were equipped to shore up this weakness. Raptors too were occasionally hogs for maintenance, and the Prometheus-Class, with its massive interior space available, was equipped to manufacture new Raptors or high-use parts for them in a facility immediately adjacent to the Viper line, the spaces often intermingling and some parts of the plant pulling double duty, able to be tooled over or able to send off material to either side with the manufacturing specs for parts for both craft installed across both lines with new programming also allowing for tooling to be done towards manufacture of quite a few spare parts used in the ship itself, making the Prometheus-Class very self-sufficient for a creature of its size and technological complexity. EVERY SINGLE PART on the Galactica had a model number, and running it through a 3-D scanner, even if it were somewhat worn out, would yield a model number from the accompanying computer, and said part could then be crafted within the ship's manufacturing center with the push of a button, although really, the manufacturing plant crew would have a quota of spare parts they were to have on hand in the various workshops and stores rooms across the ship at all times and would fight a battle to keep those quotas at the requisite levels as those workshop chiefs sent them their weekly or daily requisition orders. It was how the Mercury-Class functioned in their day-to-day operations, and likely this would be how Galactica's crew would function as well. Everything from Viper cannon barrels to the screw-on feet of mess hall tables were in the system, and could be crafted aboard the ship.
It was this facility that was drawing Adama's attention as he read the ship's most recent readiness reports. The plant's major components such as all the heavy machinery and load-lifting capacity was already in place, built into that particular hull module. But there were still mountains of work needed on the support and control infrastructure for this area of the ship. This latest report included what projects were ongoing, what projects had been completed, what projects had been finished, and what projects had begun. So far, the ongoing projects list was without doubt the biggest, although to be fair to the shipyard the completed and started lists were within reach of one another, nothing was being stretched, and no corners were being cut. After all, with Galactica's fitting out contracted to a Caprican yard as per the Fleet's funding plan approved by the Quorum the ship was effectively a representation of Caprica as a people in terms of pride, despite there being no real differences between the ships of the class, just like the Jupiter-Class had been.
Although in reality the yards had employees from all across the colonies working here, same as the ship's crew, officers, Marines, and pilots who hadn't been chosen for any reason other than the fact they were good at their jobs and were trusted to do those jobs. And the people he trusted to do the job here tended to be people he knew, such as Chief Tyrol, Colonel Tigh, and Lieutenants Gaeta and Dualla. Many of his people from his previous command were here, including his son, his daughter, and of course Kara Thrace. Lee and Kara were currently waiting for a vacancy promotion board meeting to wrap up next door in the conference room, having come up for potential promotion to major and each were in line to take command of one of the Galactica's newly-organized Viper squadrons. Kara had finally made it captain, a reward from the Fleet for her action with the Cylons, which also came with an award of including some of the time in grade she would've been accumulating if she'd been an active duty officer, due to the fact she had been in a captain's billet.
The process was going one that he was all-too familiar with. Lee and Kara had shown up in dress uniform, everything had to be perfect on their uniforms, and they were examined for anything that was out of spec by a third-party group of officers and a senior NCO who'd done the bulk of the inspecting. Meanwhile Bill, Tigh, and the CAG had been present for the hearing and there to answer questions and verify the authenticity of the two officer's service records which were being gone over with a fine-tooth comb, much to Kara's chagrin. It was a painful process, but then again, Adama had been through this himself recently, but for admirals it was mere formality compared to the actual board Kara and Lee were waiting on for the final authorization for promotion and their placement in the often-lusted-for Viper squadron command billet. It was especially more nerve-wracking considering Colonial Fleet SOP was to separate promotion candidates from their shipmates and given a more senior officer who was a grade above them as a chaperone to prevent anyone from helping them progress through the board hearing process once it began.
"Bill, they're ready," Tigh knocked on his door, wearing his dress uniform.
"Well, let's see what the board's decision is shall we?" Adama stood up and followed Tigh out into the corridor with his XO next to him.
"Lee'll pass, no doubt, Starbuck…it's a coin toss," Tigh grumbled, getting a chuckle from his commanding officer.
As they approached they saw Lieutenant Colonel Spencer. The former Galactica's CAG who'd been promoted somewhat more recently and had prepped the two for their hearings and the senior officers noted his nervous pacing in front of the four marines guarding the door. Also present were two of Galactica's squadron leaders, who were Kara and Lee's current immediate superiors. Back on the old Galactica many of the squadron leaders were captains, considering most of the ship's crew and pilots were reservists and organization and rank billets were seldom maxed out for very long and due to reservists accumulating time-in-grade at a different rate from active duty personnel it was all sorts of convoluted.
"Jack," Bill said as he approached, nodding to the man.
"Sir," Spencer nodded back respectfully.
"Ready sirs?" the Marine sergeant at the door asked.
"We are," Adama spoke as the five lined up and the hatch opened and the conference room was shown to be as they expected, a trio of commanders headed by a rear admiral a senior master chief standing to the side, all in dress uniforms.
The rear admiral gave the three a nod as they marched inside and stood in their assigned location at parade rest. It didn't take long before the hatch opened and the footsteps of all four missing individuals marched inside. The senior of the two chaperone majors entered first, followed then by Lee and then by Kara who stood next to one another. This was either really good or really bad. In Colonial Fleet promotion boards if more than one officer of the same rank was undergoing the hearing process the policy was to conduct the final stage together if they either all failed or all passed. If they were separated then one passed and one failed. But both Kara and Lee were here together meaning that one way or another they'd be together in failing promotion and denied the position of squadron leader or being promoted together and each getting their own squadron.
"Attention on deck!" the senior NCO called out, and all present stood to attention.
"This vacancy promotion board hearing is now reconvened," the rear admiral stood up, causing everyone to do so, "All present may stand at ease," he said, reciting the standard speech as per protocol, "Captain Kara Thrace, Captain Leland Adama, this board has completed its review and has come to its decision regarding your promotion to the rank of major and command of the newly-activated Fighter Squadron Eleven and Fighter Squadron Thirteen of the Command Battlestar Galactica, respectively. The two promotion candidates' required time-in-grade and promotion points have been tallied and authenticated, leadership courses authenticated, flight status confirmed, and oral exam and written exams conducted and graded. It is the unanimous decision of this board that Captains Thrace and Adama be promoted to the rank of Major, Colonial Fleet. Raise your right hand please and repeat after me," the admiral ordered, "I, state your name, having been entrusted the rank of major in the Colonial Fleet, do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the people and worlds of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol against all enemies, even if it means my death. I take this oath freely, without any mental reservation or intention of evasion; and that I will faithfully and honorably discharge the duties to which I am entrusted. So say we all."
"So say we all," the entire room now echoed.
"Rear Admiral Adama, will do the honors please?"
"Yes sir," Bill stepped forward and was met in front of Kara by the senior master chief who held a small case with the appropriate badge of rank inside and opened it, "Starbuck, I hope you don't make me regret giving these to you," he said evenly as he took off the captain's pins and replaced them with her new major ones.
"I'll do my best," Starbuck beamed brightly, getting a wry grin and a knowing wink as Bill then saluted and then stepped over to Lee.
"Son," Bill said, standing tall before Lee who in turn stood tall and nodded to him, "Well-done."
"Thank you, sir," Lee said softly, the slightest hint of emotion etched into his voice, and he then saluted after the ranks were applied on his collar.
"Congratulations, Majors," the admiral in charge stood up and was the first to give a short applause which lasted a few moments as hand-shakes were handed out and some pleasantries exchanged as things wound down and after a short few moments the senior officers had departed.
"Finally, I can get out of this monkey suit," Starbuck sighed after the hatch had shut.
"Don't," Bill told her, "We have another appointment on Caprica. The President's extended an invitation to you, Lee, myself, and of course Kelsey to attend the reception for Earth. There's a shuttle docked in pod two waiting to take us to the Presidential Residence, make sure you're on it. And Starbuck, behave yourself."
- PRESENT DAY -
Presidential Residence, Caprica
In another part of the gardens, where Colonel Mitchell was having a rather pleasant and informative conversation with some of the Pyramid players of the multiplanetary league. They were trying to explain the way the game was played, some basic rules and regulations, and other miscellaneous things.
"So Colonel, what kind of sport does Earth play?" one of the players asked.
"Well, we actually play quite a few, there's football, soccer, well, to be honest most of the world calls soccer football which makes things sorta confusing, baseball, hockey, basketball, rugby, and others whose names elude me," Mitchell remarked.
"All those sports? And you don't know what Pyramid is?" another gawked.
"Yeah, we crave contact sports, trust me, you'll either love it or hate it. I saw the video we'll be showing on football you'll be shocked at how good and violent that sport is," Mitchell chuckled, getting some odd looks from the Colonials.
"Well, I guess we'll be wherever you're going to show some of your sports," one of the Pyramid players said, shaking Mitchell's hand and turning to walk off and watch the video of their team's highlights that were being projected in one of the theaters.
"Excuse me, Colonel Mitchell right?" someone tapped on Cam's shoulder.
Cam turned around to see a slightly older woman perhaps in her fifties but with dark red hair and librarian style glasses, in fact she reminded him very much of his old principal in high school. She had a pair of security men behind her, poorly trying to remain hidden in the crowd. So she was obviously a member of the government, yet not a truly powerful person judging by only a single close bodyguard and one aid, but she still had this wise and kind persona to her that was strangely unassuming and nonthreatening.
"Yes?" Mitchell replied to her.
"Laura Roslin, Secretary of Education for the Colonies," she said, extending a hand to exchange proper greetings.
"A pleasure, I would say my name and rank but I guess you already know that."
"It would be a little bit redundant wouldn't it?" she said smiling warmly, "May I ask you a few questions?"
"I'll answer what I can."
"Thank you, I suppose I would like to know if Earth has a system of public education, seeing as I myself am a teacher at heart."
"Well, most of the world has some kind of a public education system, but that is entirely up to the individual nations of the world."
"So Earth is not a truly unified planet?" she asked, pushing her curiosity.
"Not in an official sense, but the most powerful nations of the Earth are genuinely allied when it matters, sorta like you guys. But we've still got a few folks in a few key sectors of the planet that tend to annoy the rest of us."
"Of course, it's only human nature to have some people that are inherently against the majority. Unfortunately, we're not immune from this curse, as we also have a few religious sects, corrupt officials, and criminal kingpins that hold us back from our future."
"We're only human," Mitchell said, receiving another warm smile from the very interested Laura Roslin.
"Indeed."
"I'm sorry, I sort of got off topic, where were we?" she asked, trying to stay away from a topic of debate she didn't really know very much about.
"Education on Earth," he said back.
"Oh yes, so does Earth have a system of higher education? Universities, academies, colleges and such?"
"Oh yeah, quite a few, we pride ourselves on our universities as much as we do our nations of origin," Mitchell said, "At least where I come from we do, mostly in relation to sports."
"The same can be said here, at least on Caprica at least," Laura said, "I guess we're not so dissimilar after all. I mean, we do speak the same language for the most part."
"With a few differences of course, but that's to be expected," Mitchell said.
"Many things can be expected, but sometimes they are the exact opposite of what we believe possible or feasible."
Mitchell nodded, if only you knew, "So…can I ask you a question?"
"Of course, Colonel," Laura said pleasantly.
"Where did you guys find the Stargate, or as you call it…"
"Ring of the Lords, yes well. It was found on Gemenon in a lava flow according to legend, and then it was placed in a palace of a king of Old Gemenon's Warring Kingdoms period and he used it to declare his rule as divine, but of course this didn't last and the city was covered over by a volcanic eruption. The Ring found in the old palace, completely buried under twenty feet of ash and pumice, it was actually remarkably well-preserved. It was in that same palace that we found that symbol you have on your arms."
"Oh this?" Cam pointed at his arm band.
"Yes, it was written in a very old dialect of Gemenese, saying that it was the symbol of Earth's origin, whatever that means. But I'm sure that probably means something to you and your people."
"How do you know about the Stargate?" Mitchell asked, "I mean, you're Secretary of Education, I would think that you would have more pressing matters to attend to than a weird ring thing."
"You would be right then. I only took interest in it when I had to sign off on its transfer from the Museum of the Twins. All museums are within my jurisdiction and my department's authority…which reminds me. Your arrival nearly robbed me of the largest museum of all, the Galactica."
"I beg your pardon?" Mitchell said, afraid he'd said something offensive.
"Your arrival caused the entire military to mobilize and the Galactica's refit from active duty was temporarily halted. It was going to be a museum in tribute to the veterans and fallen of the Cylon War. We had to do quite a lot of rearranging and scrambling to recover the ceremony costs."
"Speaking of the Galactica I noticed Kelsey's not here,"
"You mean Lieutenant Adama?"
"Yeah, I thought she'd be here."
"Oh, she's here, I saw her a second ago. I just spoke to her," Laura responded.
"And now she's here, madam secretary," the voice of the familiar young pilot said from behind Mitchell, who turned around and saw Kelsey in her dress uniform with her hair tied back into a bun, "Hey Colonel, long time no-see."
"Good to see you lieutenant," Cam said, and pointed to her rank insignia, "Promoted."
"Full lieutenant now, finally reached my time-in-grade."
"I hear your old man's an admiral now," Mitchell asked.
"Sure is, the new commanding officer of the Command Battlestar Galactica," Kelsey nodded, "I'm still with him, pending my application for transfer to Fighter Squadron Eleven."
"Moving to uh…" Cam snapped his fingers trying to remember the name of the craft the Colonials used as fighters, he remembered it was a snake but the name just escaped him.
"Vipers, yeah. I'm hoping I'll be sitting in the cockpit of Mk. VII instead of a Raptor on the trip to find Kobol."
"Kobol?" Cam asked, perking up immediately.
"Indeed," Laura answered, "The president will be signing the expedition charter tonight with you here to witness it."