Chapter 21

Location: Aquaria, Iris Island Ring Facility

Date: May 8, 2022

Time: 2030

The alarms within the base were sounding loudly, and for the first time, it was not a drill. Security teams rushed to their positions, the isolated HAZMAT isolations systems activated in full force, and security blast doors began to close and soon the facility was in lockdown, all according to the rehearsals and drills the Colonials had conducted in the past weeks almost nonstop. They were ready, probably more-so than they would have been in normal operations, considering they were planning on a drill later that morning, all part of the enhanced training regimen of the troops who guarded the facility who rotated in and out on six-hour shifts. The gate-room was soon flooded with the B-Shift personnel, who rushed to take positions behind their emplaced cover positions, readied their weapons, and aimed their two HMG gunners aiming through the transparent bulletproof shields on the pedestals they were attached to.

With cameras rolling attached to the walls, the ceiling, and on the helmets of every guard in the room the gate activated as Admiral Queen came jogging into the control room above and behind the men on the ground. It was a nervous time for him, he knew the protocol and he knew the potential possibilities. One could never be sure how they would confront their first test and this was it.

"What's our status?" the man asked as he turned to the chief petty officer who was on the main control console, a young man of great skill who was probably among the youngest in the Fleet due to his immense skill on a computer.

"We have an incoming wormhole sir, all security teams are in position, nothing has come through, no detectable signals or radiation," the nervous man said as he relayed what his screen was telling him with other computer technicians monitoring everything while four guards stood ready, one at each door into the open control room.

"It could be Earth, looking to broadcast some sort of signal to attempt to pinpoint the Ring's position within our space. Are our jammers online?" Admiral Queen responded, turning to the countermeasures station off to his right at one of the three main consoles in the room, this one helmed by a chief petty officer, also quite young for the rank.

"Yes sir, all systems operating at optimal capacity."

"Very well," Admiral Queen sighed but then his breath caught in his throat as he saw it. A lone figure tentatively stepping through the rippling water-like event horizon, "Lords…"

It was hard to believe it, but the person who had stepped through was a young girl, followed by a teenage girl, probably no more than six and thirteen respectively. The young child held a rather worn-down doll with a pink-colored dress and yarn-like hair and a stitched-on smile and blue button eyes. Her guardian held something different, a metal-like staff with a diamond-shaped head on the end and a wider paddle-like section in the other end with a small jewel of some description in the middle. Both were wearing rather worn-out clothing, jackets with patched-up pants and shoes. The elder girl also had a large handbag looped around her chest, and appeared rather weighed down. Neither were particularly threatening, in fact they were quite intimidated as they took in the sight while they could with a spotlight shining brightly in their faces from the ceiling, blinding them to what was in front of them. The young girl scampered in behind the older girl as soon as the Stargate deactivated, and the two were now left alone when Admiral Queen overcame the initial shock and leaned forward and gripped his speaker and spoke out.

"Hold fire, all teams," he ordered, not wanting his people to open fire on these two and have the first blood shed here be that of a child, he then unclicked the intercom and turned to his senior NCO, "Master Chief, do we have anything coming from these two we need to worry about?"

"No radioactivity sir, and no signals. Although I am getting a unique signature coming from that staff, unknown energy reading, but to me sir…it looks like Tylium almost? I'd have to run a detailed scan to be sure."

"We'll check it later, in the meantime, I want HAZOP personnel in there now, maintain lockdown. I'm going down there," Admiral Queen rolled his shoulders back and then reached down to his pistol belt which he always wore and with a movement of his thumb he lifted the hammer strap off, allowing for a quick-draw of the weapon should he need it. Lifting the weapon out he racked a round into the chamber and turned off the safety as he fast-walked down into the room, past his squads of response troops who were nervously waiting and listening, "Stand down!" he called out, and slowly began to walk up the steel ramp towards the two girls, "It's alright, we're not going to hurt you," he said in greeting to the two visitors.

"H-hello," the elder girl said nervously, speaking in a heavily-accented Caprican, but the other girl whispered nervously to her in another language that he had never heard.

"Hello, who are you, little lady?" Admiral Queen asked as he gingerly approached, four of the Colonial guards nervously following him up at their sergeant's unspoken order.

"My name is…Holia, we…come…for help. My fa-father said give you this," the girl stammered, trying to speak in the language she recognized him as speaking, and she hesitantly held out the staff, "It's a weapon…you use it with this," she pointed at the trigger-like mechanism in the middle, "Our…our gift."

"Why thank you," Admiral Queen said softly as he took the staff, keeping his hand well away from the pointed trigger, "What…does it do?"

"It shoots…" she tried to respond in the right language, but instead, she made a simple sound with her mouth like that of a jet engine and an explosion, making a gesture with her hands as she did, "It is Jaffa weapon."

"Jaffa?" Queen asked immediately, recognizing the name from the briefings he'd read from the interview from Lieutenant Adama, "Are…you Jaffa?"

"No!" the younger girl snapped, as if she were incensed and offended at such a question.

"No, we are…c-cousins," the girl known as Holia responded, "We need help."

"Help what kind of help?"

"The Jaffa are coming for us, they're going to…to kill them."

"Now hold on, let's calm down a little bit, medical team to the embarkation room, two patients," the Admiral called over his shoulder to have their two visitors examined.

It wasn't long before uniformed medical personnel, six of them with two rolling litters came rushing in, and saw that their two patients were mere children, and their military mannerisms were softened as they attempted to put the two at ease. It wasn't long before two were laid gently down, and examined for other weapons. The small bag the elder sister had was also noticed.

"We…need you give that to us now," the general said to her, and she acted as though she finally remembered.

"Oh, is for you, your people. Gifts from my father," she stated and the general was passed the bag, which was notably quite heavy, and she opened it, "They are useful," she pointed at the bag.

"What's in here?" Queen asked, being as nice as he could, hiding his suspicion of what was in the bag.

"A uh…Kara Kesh, a Zat'nik'tel, a Vo'cume, a Vo'carr, and a long-range communications device, it is the silver ball. My father says he will contact you with it."

"And what are those exactly?"

"Father knows," Holia replied, not knowing what they did but knowing their names, having been there when the devices were put in the bag, "He can tell you."

"Why? Why give us this stuff?"

"We have nothing else," the elder girl says, tears in her eyes, "My family has been running for years. It is how I know many languages. We have no home, the Jaffa destroyed it."

"Why?"

"Because it is what they do," the younger girl said in very convincing Caprican.

"It's what they do…" Admiral Queen nodded, passing off the staff and the bag to one of his troops, "Well, you'll be safe here. I promise. Take them to the medical isolation ward, and take these to a lab and get the techs on it right away."

"Yes sir," the lieutenant in the embarkation room replied.

"Wait, take that to an isolation room," Queen ordered, reaching into the bag and pulling out the described object, "I want to be ready for the call from…her father."

"Yes sir."

"And get a priority message to the President, we've made contact through the ring."

Picon, Colonial Fleet Admiralty Building

Rear Admiral Adama had not been here since his promotion several months ago, but he was here now for an Admiralty summit, a bimonthly briefing of most of the Admirals in the Fleet as to the latest developments in the Colonial Fleet. This meeting usually included fleet exercises, intelligence briefings of any notable occurrences or developments, technological innovations, an update on ships that were under construction, about to commission, or ships going through refits, repairs, and sometimes what ships were scheduled for decommissioning. This was not a very sensitive briefing, but it was classified of course because it included patrol patterns for certain fleet units and sweeps as well as new tactics being utilized in wargames.

Adama was not exactly looking forward to this, it was a distraction preparing the new Command Battlestar Galactica for her acceptance trials as her fitting out period came closer to being finished. He also had a unique process he'd actually never been on a ship for, an Air Group Standup Exercise, the process that determined if the assembled Vipers, Raptors, shuttles, their pilots, and their deck crews were up to the job prior to formal activation and deployment aboard their home vessel. Aboard smaller ships it was no big deal, but a Battlestar, a Prometheus-Class in particular, was a very different animal. Adama had twenty Viper squadrons in four fighter wings at his disposal plus a two three-squadron wings of Raptors with eight craft per squadron and a pair of shuttle squadrons, again with eight craft present per squadron. Including spare airframes aboard the ship Adama had almost five hundred craft aboard his ship, and every one of them would need to be ready for their AGSE which was scheduled for kicking off in thirty days and would take roughly two weeks to run its course and take another week to complete grading procedures. But, he was an admiral now, and that meant he had to take the good with the annoying.

"Welcome gentlemen, please be seated," Admiral Nagala greeted the assembly of senior officers as he walked into the assembly hall as he was followed by other members of the admiralty and was also joined, strangely, by their civilian boss, the Secretary of the Fleet, Evan Faestan, a former 'Viper Admiral' before he was medically discharged due to a heart attack. Nagala took his spot up at the podium as everyone was seated, "We have a lot to get through, including some items that are of a higher classification than normal, due to the recent events over Virgon. It is only prudent the greater admiralty is made aware of the Fleet's response to what we are witnessing of the capabilities of the Earth fleet."

The first thing Adama saw on the slide show projecting onto the flat screen behind him was a picture of the Earth battle group assembled over the city of Boskirk, an unsettling and unnerving sight for the Colonies as a whole. The Cylons had been able to do that, but only as a last resort to escape a superior force of Colonial Battlestars when they were cornered and unable to jump. But whenever they did, it was disastrous, because the Cylons would devastate Colonial infrastructure and cities with indiscriminate missile strikes, their Raiders would shoot up anything that moved on the ground, and Centurions would land and kill anything with a pulse. All of this bought time for their Basestars to repair, and then they'd jump, the subsequent vortex of convulsing air doing similar damage to a series of thermobaric warheads but without the flame. So to see Earth's equivalent of a Battlestar over one of their cities uninvited and knowing that they'd been ordered out of the airspace but ignored it brought the Colonial Fleet great anxiety.

"We all saw the images and video of the Earth fleet over Boskirk, as all of you know, the Earth ships were ordered to return to orbit numerous times, and only seem to have returned to orbit and maneuvered to Caprica after their own hostage was rescued and safely returned. The manner in which this was done is still not quite known. But it has forced the Fleet into pushing a new program to update our own Battlestar forces with such capability. Battlestar Pegasus is going to be the ship that will field a prototype system that will allow even our largest ships the capability to enter and hold position within a planet's atmosphere. The details are still highly classified, but I can reveal the basic premise as we've understood it in terms of how the Cylons managed to field this capability aboard their main Basestars," Nagala explained and showed an old slide of a Cylon Hades-Class Basestar with a series of lines and an image of a unique piece of machinery, "The Cylons utilized some form of what we have dubbed gravity repulse fields, derived from the same system used in our artificial gravity generators. Using a large enough device or enough of them, hooked to a powerful enough power supply a ship has the ability to counter the force of gravity being exerted upon them from below, creating a reversed artificial gravity field that matches the pull of the planet below with a force that pushes the ship back up with enough force to hold the ship at an altitude using the strength of this field relative to the strength of the planet below. The beauty of this system, when calibrated correctly, is that it does not even have to necessitate a strengthening of the target ship's hull or framework.

"Now, this all a little technical for those of us who didn't start out as grease monkeys in the engine spaces," Nagala chuckled, getting a grumble of humorous replies in response, "But the basic principle has been tested commercially aboard several large container ships and research ships as a proof of concept. The Fleet's had this program in the works going as far back as pre-unification within the old Virgonese Imperial Fleet and the Caprican Fleet for instance. Funding has been allocated that will see us field this technology upon the Pegasus due to the fact she's already set to go through a major overhaul and refit of a kind that will make this system's introduction more cost effective."

The screen changed again, this time, showing a new weapon system whose existence had been floated around quite a bit lately. It was a railgun, a harder-hitting and longer-ranged replacement for their current heavy kinetic main guns. But massive power requirements, a lethargic rate of fire, and sheer expense had made this a tough program to implement and sell to the Quorum especially when their current armaments had been judged as very effective with upgraded targeting systems and armor-piercing warheads and more potent bursting charges. The image on the screen now was a twin-gun turret which dispensed with their manned cockpit section, replacing it with a fully-armored rounded-off capsule with independent DRADIS and optical sensors. The two barrels were notably reduced in caliber, being a shade less than half the original kinetic guns' bore size but posing large round magnet rings around it with ribbing on the outside for radiating heat away from the barrel and sensitive components within it.

"We will also be providing the Quorum an update for the next year's Fleet Funding Law to begin a process of replacement our main battery weaponry. For many years we've counted upon the venerable heavy guns which outfit our ships to this very day, but they've reached the end of their development cycle, and we must look to our next generation program to fill this operational and technical requirement," Nagala informed the brass assembled here who shifted in a mix of excitement and unease at such a massive program like what was being proposed, many didn't think it feasible, "This new weapons program looks to provide the Fleet with a new main battery gun turret which is able to hit with more precision and more force at much more extended ranges. Magnetically-driven projectiles have been tested for use in the past by planet-based batteries. But the fact that such weapons emplacements have been far too large and unable to be adequately defended plus unsustainable power requirements and expense of maintenance precluded their miniaturization and deployment aboard warships at a point when immediate massed firepower was what was needed. With this new project we have overcome those obstacles during peacetime, with us able to spend the time and effort to get a much more potent weapons system built up as standard within the Fleet, with our current agenda taking this program a total of five years to implement fully. Of course, this new weapons system will mean a change in tactics and doctrine, which the War College is currently experimenting with, but it does offer a new possibility for ground-based planetary defenses."

Now, a new image was up on the screen, this one under the header 'Enhanced Planetary Defense Initiative' with the Colonial Fleet logo below it, this signified a new project for discussion.

"We have here gentlemen a new program, one which we intend to use as a powerful deterrent against direct attack upon our homeworlds. Medium and large railguns, fortified into a system of emplacements on the ground with overlapping fields of fire will effectively allow the Fleet to lock down its own local space, protect vital orbital infrastructure, and free up capital units for more aggressive offensive action. The weapons under consideration have the potential ability to shatter Cylon Basestars through sheer velocity of their projectiles as well as the smaller variants having the ability to target and intercept incoming nuclear and kinetic strikes from orbit and even having the ability to target and knock down fighter-sized targets such as Raiders. Such weapons can form a shield for the Twelve Colonies, one which we all know has been severely lacking due to technical limitations."

Adama sat there, taking all of this in, knowing that there was little chance of these new highly-touted projects seeing fruition in the near future. But, the Colonies' military industry was a capable one when it was given the ultimatum of producing what it needed to survive. So, he continued to sit there, silently listening as a few other projects were given some time in the spotlight. Among them were new digital flight simulators for allowing Viper and Raptor pilots more dynamic and realistic ways of getting something approximating flight hours without having to go through the logistics of an actual flight and the maintenance effort and expense that came with it. There was a new replacement for the Fleet Navigation Program in the works, a new weapons upgrade package for the Raptor. The Viper Mk. VIII was announced, although it was really just a modest upgrade package for the Mk. VII improving its handling and simplifying its maintenance with ease of repair in mind for the smaller and more fiddly components. And the Fleet was getting long-awaited missile interceptors to assist in anti-fighter screens at long range or at odd vectors thanks to independent targeting abilities and electronic warfare hardening measures. It was also capped off by a series of new priorities, the Fleet's assets now venturing further out, reasserting their presence over once-abandoned colonies and mining worlds. A new system of communication earpieces was now in production for officers and crew of the Fleet to better communicate on the move or while doing something. And of course the Kobol Expedition was highlighted, with a new emphasis on logistics and the inclusion of a Colonial Army heavy lift transport ship for taking an Army contingent of engineers, logistics personnel, and military police along with the highly-mobile infantry regiment it was normally transporting. Adama knew all of this well beforehand, and when the main presentation was concluded there was a relatively unproductive Q&A session, and then they were dismissed to the afterparty, more of a social event than a military gathering.

Once outside Adama knew he had to shake a few hands, smile a bit, and just make his presence known before he could finally get out of here. He had an appointment, lunch with a certain Samuel Anders. And it didn't take more than a half hour for Adama to be in the Admiralty-provided car with his aide in the driver's seat to be on his way to the café which he had agreed to meet this Pyramid player who he'd learned Kelsey had been dating. It was at Kelsey's request that Adama meet him, which was something the elder Adama had only done with two other boys she'd dated in the past and neither had impressed him and Kelsey's relationship with them ending not long afterwards. This one might have been different, for one, this was the first 'jock' that Adama had noted Kelsey having dated, and the other, was that he was a celebrity, being the captain of the Caprica Buccaneers, so he was certainly the most wealthy boyfriend she'd dated. Beyond that, William Adama knew nothing about him.

After parking the car and giving his aide an hour to go get himself something to eat Adama straightened his uniform and began walking, having seen the café as they drove by to the parking garage. He got a handful of in awe gazes from young children and random civilians as he walked into the café which he saw was more of a stylish upscale sports bar. He wasn't necessarily surprised, but thankfully there weren't many people around, being in an in-between period for this place, not much business. But there was the person Adama was looking for.

"Admiral Adama?" Samuel Anders stood up from a high chair in the back corner, where he wasn't very visible when sitting, having been trying to be incognito as much as he could.

"Mr. Anders," Adama walked over, and offered his hand and was met with a strong handshake.

"Nice to meet you, Kelsey's told me a lot about you," he responded.

"She's been trying to sell you too," the older man replied, and looked around, "Nice place."

"Yeah," Sam said and offered the two-person high table and sat down as he did, "We've uh…got a scrimmage with the Panthers in a couple days. So when Kelsey heard you were going to be in town I recommended that we meet up."

"So it was your idea huh?" Adama asked as a waitress came over.

"Anything I can get for you sir?"

"Just a water please," he nodded.

"You sure?" Sam asked, waiting to do something for him, an easy option being to buy him a drink.

"In uniform," he subtly pointed to himself.

"Right," the girl wrote down, "How about you Mr. Anders?" she said, batting her eyelashes at the sports star.

"I'll…take a water, thanks."

"Gotcha."

As the girl left, this left the two alone again.

"So, you and Kelsey, how'd that start?"

"We uh…met at the event at the Presidential Residence, I asked her out then, and we've been dating since then."

"How serious do you see it?" Adama asked poignantly, looking Sam dead in the eyes, "And don't bullshit me Mr. Anders, I've been around for a little while."

"Pretty serious, at least so far," Sam replied, tone unchanged and eyes meeting Adama's squint of examination man to man.

"Hmm…" Adama hummed as their waters arrived.

"Can I get you two anything to eat today?"

"I'll have…the number three, extra side of dipping sauce please," Anders said as he looked at the menu, having decided earlier.

"Sounds good…and you sir? Or do you need some more time with the menu?" the waitress asked as she wrote the order down, now looking at Adama.

"I'm still deciding," Adama stated as he looked at Anders, his meaning very clear.

"Of course, I'll be back in a little bit to let you take a look," the young lady responded quickly and professionally.

"Question, Samuel Anders," Adama said after taking a drink, "What do you think of Kelsey?"

"What do I think? She's great, certainly better company than the kinds of girls that usually want to date guys like me. She can hold a conversation that doesn't involve shoes or clothes for more than five minutes, and she's, not to put too fine a point on it, a natural beauty."

"Define natural beauty," Adama said back, noting this observation.

"Well, Kelsey's the kind of girl who can shine without making the effort, there's just a…brightness to her, she has a genuineness that I've never really had in a relationship before. If she's happy you feel it, if she's mad you don't have to beat around the bush, she'll let you know, sometimes pretty directly."

"Hmph, I can vouch for that."

"And my friends like her, my agent's wife is an agent too, he said that his wife knows her mom. If Kelsey were to ever decide to leave the Fleet, for whatever reason, she'd be willing to take her on. Apparently Kelsey was in a couple of kids shows when she was little?"

"Yeah, her mother's idea, never was the main star, supporting roles she called them. But she did well enough to be a recurring face in the second show she did when she was eleven for a show that got canned after one season," Adama recalled, not having paid very much attention to it because of how wrapped up his ex-wife had been in this particular subject.

"Yeah she told me," Sam nodded back, "I think she wants to act again when she gets out of the Fleet."

"She's said she wants out of the Fleet?" Adama piped up, attention now firmly drawn to Anders, who realized this very rapidly to be a potential sore spot if he said something wrong.

"No she uh…she's just talked about what she'd like to do when she's left the service, I figured it wasn't my business."

"Want some advice Anders?" Adama leaned forward.

"Sure."

"If you're going to be involved with an officer in the Fleet, in particular a Viper pilot, you may want to get in touch with what it is she does. And not only that, but come to peace with it. A relationship between pilot and civilian is difficult, I know this from experience."

"I know, she warned me when we started dating."

"And you stuck around?"

"I'm here talking with you, trying to get your blessing for the relationship. So I guess I intend to."

"Hmm…" Adama nodded, appreciating the visible honesty he was getting from the man, "Did you ever consider enlisting?"

"I almost did, but before I left the foster system I got lucky that Caprica Tech picked me up on an athletic scholarship and it's been a one-way path since then."

"Did you know what it was you intended on enlisting with?" Adama inquired.

"Well, I had it narrowed down to two options, first, Viper pilot, I mean…what kid doesn't wanna fly a Viper right?" Sam chuckled, getting a smile of agreement from the old Viper pilot in front him, "My second option, special forces. I had a feeling my grades my bite me on a flight school application, so I figured if I were to do anything that wasn't fly I'd want to go with the best, and special forces are a pretty elite crew."

"They are indeed, served with quite a few good men back in the war. A few even saved my life and vice versa."

"Sounds like an interesting story."

"Sorry, that's one story that's still classified," Adama sighed after finishing his drink.

"I've heard that word a time or two as well whenever I ask Kelsey about Earth. It's always classified this or that. I just don't get it, what sorta stuff could Earth really have that could be worth the secrecy?"

"If you knew, you'd understand. Although, if you had decided to go special forces you might have the clearance for it. I hear they're still recruiting if you ever decide you've had enough of foul breaks knocking you out of contention."

"So you do watch."

"Sometimes, but…don't get into an argument with Kelsey's squadron commander about it. Captain Thrace is a much sharper critic than I am."

Dakara, Jaffa Chancellor's Building

Dakara was not nearly as friendly a place as it used to be. This was the initial view that Carter had as she was escorted by Master Bra'tac to Teal'c's office. There were Jaffa warriors everywhere, most young and beaming in pride. Carter came up to this room with Teal'c standing before a young warrior and another older Jaffa wearing armor, apparently they were demonstrating a new innovation for the Jaffa, a new helmet for their army which was built like their previous generation of animal or monster-themed helmets that were meant for the guards details of the Gou'ald lords they once served. The helmet Carter saw was simple but seemingly effective, designed like that of an ancient Greek Corinthian style helmet but bearing Jaffa symbology and bore a simple ridge on the crest with the Y-shaped opening in the front having a strong glass-like substance forming what she was guessing was a primitive HUD tinted dark. It also possessed a pair of flashlights built into it around the jawline facing forward.

"Thank you master armorer, I look forward to seeing our warriors bearing the products of your skilled labor very soon."

"They will begin shipment immediately Chancellor Teal'c," the older Jaffa nodded with a bright smile and the two left, taking with them a new weapon.

It looked like an old TER, modified with what looked like a plasma repeater on the bottom, the same weapon made lethal by Anubis's super soldiers and a staff weapon tip on top section. This was a leap ahead of the old staff weapons, being a more lethal, more ergonomic option for the Jaffa who'd utilized the staff weapon for thousands of years.

"General Carter," Teal'c greeted her as the two Jaffa left, nodding respectfully as they left, "Welcome back to Dakara."

"Thank you Teal'c," Carter smiled back, being offered a seat as she and Bra'tac sat down.

"Now, to what do I owe this pleasure?" Teal'c replied as he sat down across from her. He clasped his hands together, smiling softly, belying the strength and resolve she knew the man had.

"Your planned military operation on P5Y-464, I'm here to try to convince you not to move on the planet."

"I see…"

"Teal'c, you have to acknowledge that your plan to strike back against the people who bombed Chulak plays into your political opponents' hands and into the hands of these terrorists. You know that."

"I know that to do nothing would be a much worse option. It would project a weakness that the Jaffa people would never accept, and this would be capitalized upon by our political opposition. To do nothing would only embolden these terrorists to conduct more attacks on Jaffa, and if that were to happen local leaders, both great and small, would retaliate with or without the Council's permission. At least with this option, our actions are under the control and purview of the Jaffa government," Teal'c replied, being calm and concise, having been thinking of little else lately.

"There's another method of trying to deal with this. This planet is under the control of a human government on P7Y-739, they will not sit idly by and let your forces occupy their colony. They will retaliate," Carter replied.

"We are aware of this world's capabilities," Bra'tac sighed, "We anticipate a hostile response, but not one which a show of force will not quell with minimal bloodshed."

"There's a third and a fourth option here Teal'c. The first is diplomatic, demand that these terrorists be arrested and handed over, or at least evicted, and have spies follow them and arrest them yourselves. Or ask us for help, a terror organization killing Jaffa and fomenting a conflict between Jaffa and human is something we want to remove as much as you do."

"I thank you for your offer General Carter, but I'm afraid those options are not acceptable to the Jaffa nation at this point."

"The government of this world has already refused to acknowledge our requests for an investigation. We believe that their government has no intentions or no capabilities of restricting the operations of these terrorists," Bra'tac stated with a heavy sigh, "I believe that the local authorities and these terrorists and their comrades are far too deeply intertwined with one another's pockets."

"You think local corruption is keeping these terrorists safe?"

"We are convinced of it, we know that the Tok'ra have used it to gain access to a wealth of information from this world in recent years in the battle against the Lucian Alliance."

"As did we," Bra'tac nodded, "This world's ears and mouths proved useful when silver and gold was used to pry open certain doors."

"Can't you try to do the same thing?" Carter replied.

"We considered it," Teal'c sighed, "But corruption goes both ways I fear. If our quarry were to be made aware of our coming we would certainly find them gone and ourselves dealing with a crisis with a human world we do not wish to trouble any more than necessary."

"However there is the option of your assistance," Bra'tac said, looking at Teal'c with a demanding glare, knowing that his former apprentice was best served to take this opportunity which was thought to be a nonstarter before when the Jaffa had thought Earth would refuse to help the Jaffa target their fellow humans. So Teal'c nodded.

"We…would of course welcome the assistance of Stargate Command, what do your propose?"

"We have our ways Teal'c, you know that. The SGC's being severely curtailed in terms of how many teams I have at my disposal, you know that, but we still have teeth. Not only that, we do have a lot of pull with the other major human governments in the galaxy and we have a lot of capability with surveillance and reconnaissance. If you want to go after these guys, can prove that they're there, and prove that the locals won't do anything and that they are planning more attacks then I bet that I can get the IOA to okay a joint mission. But an invasion will likely be off the table."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"A covert reconnaissance and then a surgical strike that uses stealth to prevent an incident with the local garrison. It can be done."

"I know the technique which you seek to have us use. You wish to use Asgard beaming technology, do you not?"

"Of course. It's a proven and capable method of removing the need for a team on the ground."

"This…is not what the Jaffa people need to see. We must be shown to be taking our justice with force. We are an old and traditional people General Carter. Many strides have been made, but there are many things which are not so easily forgotten. To ignore that would be irresponsible and dangerous. The Taur'i are welcome to assist us, but it is the Jaffa that must be responsible for dealing the final blow in whatever form it takes."

"I see," Carter responded with understanding, "I'll see what I can do."

Bra'tac saw that this conversation had run its course, he knew Teal'c far too well to try to pursue a goal which was not attainable. And trying to convince Teal'c from the current course of action was unattainable for sure.

"In the meantime, I have heard that O'rek and Ronac are to begin their training with Stargate Command?"

"Yes, I wanted to pass that along to you myself," Carter said, grateful for the change, "The IOA's approved your request for your grandsons to be given a place in our new training program."

"Excellent," Teal'c nodded graciously, "I thank you for your help in this matter General Carter."

"It was nothing Teal'c, I spoke to them before I came here, they're going through their initial instruction with Daniel right now. I think he's really taken a liking to O'rek, Daniel thinks he can be a great archaeologist one day."

"O'rek's mind is certainly one of the most gifted I have encountered," Bra'tac nodded proudly as his first master, a smile beaming onto his face, "He will do well."

"Ronac and Colonel Mitchell should also cooperate well I feel, Ronac spoke with great anticipation of learning the many Taur'i sports. He feels that the sport known as American Football is a sport with which he'd do well."

"He probably would actually."

"Ronac has a knack for such things," Bra'tac observed, "But the boys are there on a mission. To learn the Taur'i's ways, and to help their own people by being able to return and teach those ways. They must not forget this."

"They won't, that I can promise," Carter swore to her old friends, "We're your friends and allies. I came here to show that that has not changed."

Thanks for reading guys, I appreciate all the positive feedback given so far. And yes, I do remember that the Cylons and Colonials have some unfinished business to take care of and yes I do know that the Cylons gave Earth the coordinates for the Ark of Kobol, but I just haven't been able to get to a point where it would fit into the plot without becoming a jarring separate plot line. But at the moment I felt I needed to catch up on some much-needed character development with some of my BSG characters so this chapter sort of bore that out. However, I am trying to coalesce the different disparate plot lines that on outward initial viewing appear complex and separate, but trust me, there's a reason, please stick with me. We're getting there, the good stuff is almost upon us.

In the meantime, I'd like to open kind of a poll here:

What are your guys' hopes for this story? Are you wanting war/peace/cold war/proxy war? Etc. Let me know in a review and drop any questions you might have.