The steady ping of DRADIS, and the low whine of the engine was all Adama heard, as the stars whirled before him. Even without the impulse engine's booster, the Raptor hurdled faster than Adama had ever been able to push it himself, as the inertial dampeners bypassed the stress of gravity. Adama felt young again, and in the silence, he grinned.
A ping announced that the Raptor's jump engine had finished its cool down and spin-up cycle, and was ready for another jump. He toggled the communication array.
"Subspace relay connected." The computer announced, Adama noted that it wasn't the same voice he had heard in the demonstration of C.O.R.A. "One way only, estimated transmission time, 3 minutes."
"This is Husker." He stated, "First jump- cool down complete, and I am ready for the second. Capability test of Raptor One Zero- Four Colonial Flyer, complete. My compliments to Captain Kirk and his crew, thanks for letting me borrow her. She flies good Harry, I'll get her back to you so you can finish. Am proceeding to destination, Husker out."
The Raptor blazed forward, finishing one more barrel roll before vanishing in a burst of light.
A similar raptor from the outside, but older and more weathered, completed a similar roll. In The absolute silence of space, there was no sound as humans know it, yet on the other side just a few inches of metal music thundered. Kara Thrace grinned at Lee Adama as he rolled his eyes and released a tight breath.
"Can't believe I never thought of this before!" She teased him, "Look at those toasters dance!"
Indeed their escort of raiders rolled in a synchronis show as the music reached a crescendo.
"Is this truly necessary?" Gaius Baltar shouted from the back, he was sandwiched between a quartet of heavily armed Marines, and despite his restraints, it was probably only the bulky marines that had kept him from flopping about the cabin during Starbuck's maneuvers.
"Commander's orders Doctor!" Starbuck shouted, "Bonding time with our allies, don't worry, their turn is next!"
"That will be" Baltar caught himself shouting as suddenly the song had ended. "That will be amusing I'm sure, but can't we just jump straight there, I thought that's what we were doing?"
"Afraid not Doc." Lee told him, "We jumped to a different part of the system and we are proceeding on sublight, we can't give away Galactica's position. We're still 30 minutes out "
"Well then at the very least could we fly in a straight li-
Drums began to pound over the speaker cutting off his request..Kara whooped and the world began to tilt again.
"Lovely," Baltar grumbled.
*.*.*.
"Young ones." the massive form of the Hirogen Alpha commanded the attention of the smaller creatures around him, "This will be our first hunt great hunt in this region of space for a thousand years. Never since the Changelings have we found the promise of such rich hunting grounds, so you must remember where your true prey lies,"
"Our prey is before us." hissed the largest of the youth, he stood at nearly seven feet tall, still a head below the Alpha himself. Without hesitation, the Alpha shot forward grabbed him locked his teeth on the other's throat. The youngling froze immediately and went limp. After a moment, satisfied by the submission the Alpha released him.
"You are the strongest of your pack Turanik, but do not make the mistake of thinking you are the strongest on this ship." Alpha warned, "This is the second time you have challenged me, the third will be as an adult. " Turanik knew well what that meant, he had seen his former rival torn in half during such a challenge. "Never assume you are the strongest, and never challenge anything unless you are certain of victory. The humans on this world are not our prey, their homeworlds are our prey. For decades we have struggled to stock breeding worlds, because we dug too greedily into our prey, the Great Darkness has seen fit to tell us of a dozen such worlds, numerous and plentiful, from which we could restock many worlds, but we must earn this prize, we must find these worlds for ourselves."
"Are these the same humans of legends, that we hunted millennian ago?" asked Turanik.
"Perhaps." The Alpha replied, at his gesture, the other hirogen sat cross-legged with the tails curled, in a circle. In the center of the room, an image of the galaxy sprang up as a hologram. "As the ancient stories go, our people hungered in darkness, in the time before time, the great powers of the galaxy drove us from one nest after another, driving us to madness in the harsh light. At last, the great darkness descended, it brought us to its servants, the Hur'Q, and we were changed. Strengthened by the Hur\Q, fortified by the Hur\Q, we spread across the stars and battled the Voth and the Dominion, and for our reward, we were granted a paradise. The white sun system, with many worlds, rich with prey, but we strayed from the path, we were warned not to seek the worlds in the center yet we hungered for them, the light called to us, Those that fell first were taken by madness, and they turned upon the fellows, consuming all, hunting all. We were scattered back into the darkness, and in that darkness, we were hunted ourselves. The Changelings, the Borg, and finally, the Empire. This world is the key to our salvation, younglings, it points the way to the hidden children of our lost prey. With this hunt we earn our salvation, thus our prey is not the creatures we hunt, it is the information, they have," He changed the image before them, to that of the Battlestar Galactica, As he spoke, it battled Imperial ships, and various images of colonial marines on the surface of a desolate world, dueling with centurions, and civilians setting up survey equipment and encampments. "The world we approach has ships, and it has relics, which can tell us where they are from, where we must go. We will hunt in teams, we will confirm the worthiness of this prey, and we will search for more of them. You will prepare yourselves for transport, we will enter warp soon enough, and then the hunt begins." The others nodded. The Alpha beckoned to Turanik to follow.
"You are the alpha of the young ones, perhaps someday you shall even present a worthy challenge to me, but you have not had your enhancements yet, and you are still young. Until then, you will learn." Alpha told him. They stepped onto the bridge. "Do not challenge any here, for these are full-grown hunters, and you will die. Listen, learn, and prepare."
"Alpha." The Hirogen Tracker hissed in sudden concern "Several prey vessels have vanished." His reptilian hands worked his controls, " We cannot-" Suddenly a horn sounded and the lights dimmed. "They are here!" It hissed, "We are surrounded."
The Alpha stood before a console on an elevated console at the center of the room, his bridge crew arranged in a circle around him at consoles of their own, facing a pit with a holo display inside. The scene looked more like a campfire than anything else. The air was hot and warm, in the darkness around them trophies were mounted about the room. Down in pot, the display showed four tri-spoked vessels flanking them and the massive hulking carrier, facing them.
"They call to us." Hissed the Signaller. "A simple signal, but clear."
Alpha grinned, amused. "We will hear them, but receive only." The signaller adjusted his control and sound came from overhead.
"This is Admiral William Adama of the Colonial Fleet." A gravelly voice declared, "You are intruding into our space. Withdraw immediately, or we will destroy you."
"With what weapons?" Alpha growled. His eyes began to whirl angrily.
"We see nuclear ordinance and kinetic weapons." His tracker told him, "At range, they are no threat, but surrounded, we are in peril."
"Our weapons could annihilate them easily." His striker declared.
"No." The tracker objected urgently, "They are many times our size, we would destroy them all but they would launch many weapons at once, and their debris would encumber our evasion. Even now they launch many small craft that would tear at us as a pack."
"Explain your presence or we will fire," Adama ordered.
"Our shields can withstand-" The Striker began but stopped as Adama continued.
"If you power your weapons, your shields, or your engines, we will destroy you. Respond immediately, or be destroyed."
The Alpha growled. These were worthy prey after all.
*. *. *.
Lee stood beside Baltar, Kara waited in the raptor, a quartet of Marines between them, and before him stood the Imperial delegation. Around them, the ancient remains of the Ark station creaked and groaned. Millennia had passed since the Government and Science ring section, had been fully powered, much less hosted other ships docked to its surface. According to the summary that Galactica had received over subspace, this structure had considerably exceeded its original design intentions.
"I rather wish decorum hadn't necessitated the removal of our gear," Baltar said nervously.
"Hey this was your idea Doc." Lee said nervously, "Our Cylons said they were able to get it all up and running safely so we'll just have to trust them."
"It wasn't my bloody idea to have your pilot blast classical music the whole way over." Baltar groused. Lee shot him a look.
Caprica Six turned, amused, "So now we are 'you're' Cylons, Major?" Lee's face fell.
"No, of course not." He said stammering "Gods I didn't mean-"
"Relax Major, I was just trying to lighten the mood." Caprica said dryly, "I suppose our history of slavery, and our recent attempts at genocide are a bit too much for a silly joke."
"Imperial Cylons, Colonial Cylons. It's all just a bit confusing." Lee said. "Our people created and enslaved the Cylons.." he indicated the Cylon Centurions. "But the humanoid survivors of the 13th tribe from Earth created you. The 13th tribe are the descendants of the mechanical cyclone that our humanoid Cylons created… and we are about the meet the mechanical Cylons that our humanoid Cylons ancestors created."
"An intriguing summary, Major." They all turned as a figure emerged from the far corridor. Two Cylons preceded it. "And yet it appears it is now incomplete."
"Good lords," Baltar said under his breath, as the dark-haired humanoid strode forward. Dark hair, pale skin, golden eyes.
"You may call me Andromus."
". *. *.
"Any word from the surface?" Adama asked Torvald. The son of an old comrade shook his head. They stood in the President's Situation Command Suite. Adama stood on an elevated platform capable of rotating to face the massive screens that surrounded the room. The starboard screen held a wireframe outline of the ship before then and was periodically updated as more information about it became available. Portside the screen had a grid of the nearby Kobol system, the ships in orbit, and facilities on the surface. The platform held a situation table, was currently overlooking several tiered stations, and faced a large forward-view screen that simply displayed a camera feed. Horvath, in his mid-forties, a seasoned, square-jawed warrior, stood one level below overseeing a pair of officers monitoring the operations feed from CIC.
"None sir. Our raptors report no sign of movement from inside, since you arrived, either from our people, or the Saratoga."
"Have your people try using this." Adama placed a com badge on the table. "Kirk beamed it to me before I left the Vesta." Torvald picked it up examining it. "How long before your subspace signal reaches the colonies?" Adama asked.
"We believe eight more minutes, this is the first time Colonial One has sent a message back home using it." Torvald replied, "But with the new calculations you gave us, reinforcements could jump in around twelve."
"Let's assume no sooner than 15, and call it 25." Adama cautioned, "The fleet's on high alert but I took the alert fleet with me. The reserve call-up was six more Valkyries and the Poseidon but they won't be planning to jump halfway across the quadrant without some debate."
"The President is here, Admiral." Torvald pointed out. "They will come." Adama nodded.
"With the wrath of the Gods in their wake." Adama agreed. "Let's hope the Cylons have our six. Sitrep?"
"No word from the Hirogen sir, but they haven't raised their shields." The sensor officer announced.
"They're up to something." Adama growled, "Tell the Cylons to light them up. All batteries time on target, Fire."
*. *. *.
"Don't you fracking move toaster." Kendra shouted leveling her gun at Maeve's head.
"Darling, I can assure you that we no longer put our cognitive pearl on the most obvious and vulnerable spot. if you shoot me I will rip that arm off at the shoulder." Maeve said calmly as she stood in the doorway of the meat locker. "As a former mother myself, I will make every effort to see that you survive to see your child born, but you will not enjoy it."
"You fracking threaten me-" Kendra began but Roslin had enough.
"Major it's over!" She shouted her teeth chattering, Billy's jacket was around her shoulders but he had been thrown across the freezer when Maeve had erupted through the door. He scrambled for footing atop a pile of collapsed shelves. "We've been in here for almost an hour and the base is crawling with those th- things. We've lost."
"You have." Maeve said turning to look past the barrel at Kendra, "and I am here to speak to you personally, because it is now quite safe for me to do so. If you waste your bullet Major, and you actually DO manage to destroy this host, I will return, and I will be very unhappy." She looked at Roslin, "Your people were warned that any return to this world, would cost you in blood."
"You're a murderer." Kendra gritted.
"Not yet I'm not." Maeve replied, "though in another lifetime…" she gave a shrug. "Your soldiers and scientists live, Major, and in fact your allies are still doing quite a credible job of resisting me, though I do have them cut off."
"You're working for the federation?" Kendra demanded.
"Hardly." Maeve demurred, "and I cannot help but note that you have forgotten your Cylon contingent here."
"And I couldn't help but note their absence when you attacked our people." Kendra growled, "So I'd hardly call them allies."
"Well it's certainly true they didn't start shooting the moment we arrived." Maeve commented, "But I have kept them in their section to avoid any unfortunate accidents."
"Should I be shooting now, then?" Kendra prodded her with the gun. Maeve gave an annoyed grimace as Roslin huffed out.
"Major enough-"
One prod too many and Maeve ducked under the gun, bending like a cobra and then whipping around to trap Shaw's arm, spin her and press her up against the cold wall. She swung the gun with Kendra's hand still holding it, in the direction of Billy who lunged forward. He froze as she chided him,
"Let's not be hasty my young buck, your beloved still has her arm, after all. She didn't quite shoot me and there's no reason this has to get messy." She pulled the gun from Kendra's hand and shoved her towards him. "You were warned, but not about us. There are things on this world you do not want to awaken."
"If you wanted us dead." Roslin forced us, "We'd be dead. Can we discuss this… somewhere warmer?" Maeve twisted the gun out of Kendra's hand, and shoved her firmly towards Billy.
"Fine. No one told you to hide in an icebox anyway, and your allies have been waiting most patiently. It seems they felt that to get involved might result in 'friendly' fire, given the circumstances." She groused. "Mind your step, your soldiers are everywhere."
*.*. *.
Commander Tamara Adama stood beside her oldest friend, Jenna McGavin, and the woman had never met her before in her life. Doctor Graystone spoke to Commander Cronus over the wireless, and the two could barely keep up with what was being said.
"You're essentially correct, in my timeline we developed electronic warfare against the Cylons based on the same principles, music is a more fundamental form of communication for the Raiders, while the Centurions always had more of a penchant for idioms and stories. The human forms were basically childlike zealots, they are decanted into fully grown bodies with a personality template imprinted, but it takes years for them to organically develop the complex neurological structures that come from experience."
"So while the human Cylons have been the face of the collaborative, the Raiders have been around the longest." Cronus answered "and the Centurions have been largely inhibited until recently, so Lieutenant Thrace's affinity for music and the link with her father makes her a person of some importance, to the raiders, plus her affinity for flying…"
"Listen this is definitely fascinating." Tamara interjected, "But do you really think there is a risk of the Cylons siding with the Imperials? President Roslin is on the verge of violating our treaty in Kobol, and if Bill can't get her under control we could find ourselves in a hell of a predicament."
"For starters, the Cylons know the location of the colonies." McGavin pointed out, "and a number of our best ships are fracking around out here instead of protecting them there."
"Unfortunately, as I said, the Galactica will not be able to return home. This is already planned as a one-way trip, and our strategic maneuvers have resulted in a number of structural faults." Cronus told them.
"The Monroe was working on a problem of their own that sounds similar." Graystone noted, "But regardless, our priority is to recover our people, until such time as hostilities are ended."
"That being said, you should be prepared to scuttle the Galactica." McGavin stated, "The old girl was my first assignment, I don't want to see her go out like that, but we don't want her to fall into enemy hands, especially with Doctor Baltar's modifications."
"With the defensive upgrades the Monroe has provided, it may not come to that." Tamara said. "And we need to help the Monroe destroy the Emperor's timeship."
"We're landing your birds now, but there's no way we are going to start trying to tear apart our ships to install this crap in a system crawling with hostiles."
"It was that bad over there?" McGavin asked, addressing Tamara for the first time since she'd arrived. Tamara nodded. McGavin turned to the speaker,
"The transporter jammers and shields are essential, Commander, if the Emperor shows up, the Galactica is a prime target for his temporal cannon, or he can beam a nuke onto CIC at his leisure," McGavin said. "The other Battlestar can cycle your pilots out and cover, we're better equipped over here for it anyway, but you need to get that equipment installed and the Monroe has to charge it."
*. *. *.
"Reading multiple secondary explosions on the enemy ship." The DRADIS officer reported from his station before the main view screen.
"She's going up. If what I've read about these warp cores is true, we need to move away."
Adama turned from Torvald, "still no contact with CIC?"
"We have assumed full emergency control, they are in full lock down" Torvald told Adama. "Reports of weapons fire continue, but response teams have gone silent, and now reinforcements can't get through."
"Fracking transporters." Adama growled, "This ship doesn't have the jammers the Monroe gave us."
Torvald shrugged. Adama shook his head. "Order all ships to jump to close Kobol orbit now."
"Admiral, we have to recover our fighters, we're too far from Kobol for them to-"
" Belay that. Tell our fighters to scatter, maximum dispersal, we'll have to collect them when we aren't compromised." Adama ordered, "Maybe one of the other base stars can help, or the cruisers on the surface, but we can't land them until the shop is secure and we can't stay here."
As the comms officer ahead began to relay his orders and the crewman beside began to operate his station, Torvald pulled a handset from between them.
"All hands- commencing jump!" Torvald announced. The crewman entered a final command and the world distorted.
When the world returned to normal, Torvald joined Adama at the situation table, they examined a wireframe diagram of the ship with several areas, including around CIC flashed red, indicating weapons use. While similar enough to a Valkyrie class ship, Colonial One had a number of embellishments, and while all battlestars had a sophisticated internal monitoring array Colonial One had a dedicated personell movement tracking station. The diagram showed the internal layout was configured around a number of meeting halls and conference spaces that would never have ordinarily been included.
"Sir I have CIC." The communications technician shouted. Torvald slapped the handset on the table, activating the speaker.
"Commander, repeat your last," Adama ordered. A crewman hurried up to the side rail of the platform to hand a report up to Torvald. Over the speaker Commander James Jonasson repeated,
"I say again, the entire marine company has been slaughtered, those things tore right through them, they shot up CIC pretty bad before we could lock it down and I think they are still out there, at least three, and we think maybe we took one out."
"Casualties?" Adama demanded.
"Many, Admiral, including myself." Jamesson said grimly, "I've got a tourniquet on, and I'm better off than most. Massive Trauma, but not immediately fatal, and they sprayed some kind of venom that is reacting with the wounds, we are already seeing some kind of polyps forming, we need help now, but those things have managed to lock us in here, we have to cut through manually. They're smart Admiral, real smart, even while they were slaughtering us, they were trying to figure out our systems. It's a good thing you transferred control when you did."
"Admiral, two of the Cylon base ships have been boarded as well, one reporting two intruders dead, three engaged, we lost contact with the other but they thought they had wounded one, and estimated around five." Torvald said handing Adama a printout he had received, "Some kind of giant lizard bipeds, heavily armed, stealth technology too." Adama flipped through the pages received and blanched at an image of human form Cylons torn to pieces, alongside photos of Cylon Centurions sporting horrific damage.
"This confirms it. They abandoned their ship to hunt us." Adama said bitterly. "Fracking transporters. If there are five on the base stars there may be more at large here, lock everything down now. Do a security sweep of this immediate area, with CIC cut off we can't afford to let anything in here."
"This is the presidential situation room, sir." Torvald told him.."It is sealed independently, heavily defended, and as a last resort it can be ejected from the ship." He nodded at a pair of heavily armed Marines at the door, with more manning a checkpoint beyond.
"And while we're safe in here, your shipmates are about to be hunted on their own ship." Adama growled. "Alert all stations, order all crew to arm themselves and shelter in place. Get a weapon in every hand that can hold one, now, and find me someone on the surface that can send reinforcements." Torvald got to work
"Admiral, what about the federation outpost below?" Jonasson asked over the speaker, "They beamed the President down, didn't they? They can send reinforcements much faster than a raptor. I'd even take a few of those Cylon Centurions about now."
"If transporters were an option I'd rather beam those things off, if I knew that space would kill them, but we can't raise the Tomb of Athena, we are trying to contact our other teams, the Cylons may be an option, but in this chaos, I don't want to risk friendly fire." Adama replied, "Centurions can't put a dent in their shields, and it looks like the Hirogen have no use for them, they are destroying them outright, but maiming the skinjobs. I don't like what that implies. We need to secure the president first, get her the hell out of here and to get that base up and running in case more of these… things… show up."
Suddenly the lights around them dimmed and then went out. As the emergency lights cycled on he looked grimly at Torvald, who had just accepted a rifle from a Marine and placed another down on the table in front of Adama.
*. *. *.
"Andromus." Lee repeated, he looked at the others.
"You are an android." Caprica said, "Like the Emperor Lore, who attacked Kobol."
"You have survived him then?" Andromus asked, "Impressive. I gather you have arrived here with the other ships of your kind, did you come from there, this 'Kobol'?"
"Do you have knowledge of Kobol, your ancestral home?" Caprica asked, something about the being demeanor unsettled her and she didn't want to answer questions. "The five survivors of the 13th tribe knew of it."
"They had access to technology that had been thought lost." Andromus replied, "An ancient ship, from our original progenitors. Our records from that era were previously incomplete. They are more complete now."
"Because you have captured more of our people," Lee stated quietly. "We would like them back unharmed."
"We will neither confirm nor deny possession of any humans at this time." Andromus replied. "However we have been able to extract information from the base upon which you trespassed, as well as from this relic. It drew our attention to other such relics, whose existence we had not previously been aware of."
"You found other stations?" Lee said surprised. Andromus watched him as he caught himself. "Right, you won't give anything away." And after a moment he added sheepishly, "and maybe I just gave something away about what we know about other stations." Andromus approximated a smile.
"If there is one thing at all, that we missed about humans." It commented, "It is how easily your unconscious actions betray you."
"This divisiveness is unnecessary." Baltar objected, "hostilities between us are unnecessary, we aren't your enemy, you've all but exterminated them, we are different."
"Yet they attacked us first because they feared us." Andromus pointed out. He stepped closer. "You fear is as well."
*.*.*.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." Bashir appeared in front of Icheb, "Waot what the devil have you done to me? What's going on here, why is it so dark."
"We are at red alert." Icheb informed him rising from his stool in the lab. He moved to the door , gesturing for the doctor and Sylvester to follow, "We were able to purge your program of several invasive subroutines, by uploading you to the Monroe, and then transferring you back. Now that we have verified the integrity of your program, you are able to discern the difference." Icheb explained as he moved down the narrow hallway to CIC, the corridor lights flashed red. "However, we are in an emergency."
"Harry told me I was in a diagnostic safe mode, because of the Monroe's limited computer power." The Doctor shook his head sourly, "He said that when I returned, my full capabilities would be restored."
"Accurate." Icheb acknowledged, "Lieutenant Hansen and Kim were able to synthesize bio-neural gel-packs that can augment the Monroe's computer's significantly, but there has not been time to fully integrate them into an advanced holo matrix, and that wasn't entirely the purpose in transferring you."
"You purged subroutines that were installed in my emitter." The Doctor declared, "I had no idea."
"They were evidently designed to mask their presence from you, and to suspend recording of your actions." Icheb told him, "we only became aware of them because you were accessed by Kurros, and sabotaged the security fields in the brig when you examined our detainees."
"I caused that?" The Doctor stopped. Icheb turned and answered,
"No, Doctor, your hardware was hijacked, you did not willingly participate. Your ethical subroutines could not reconcile these actions and forced you to ignore them. Now you are able to process them, but we have much more immediate concerns."
"Harry told me that Roslin was making an aggressive move, and he needed to transmit me back." The doctor replied.
"That was before the Hirogen arrived, things have become progressively more complicated," Icheb told him. "Transferring and resetting your program took some time."
'The Hirogen?" The doctor with Bashir's face goggled "The creatures that hunted the captain? Good Lord man, those are an augmented form of the Gorn, advanced by a million years! The Colonials would have no chance, we've got to get the Monroe back here!"
"The facility has been taken over by a hostile AI." Sylvester interrupted "We were holding a medical patient on the base briefly, that we rescued from Lore. After she woke up, apparently she vanished in a fucking puff of logic, and took the hologram with her, and somehow this allowed a latent program to reactivate and take control of the facility. " The hologram blinked.
"We were able to complete receipt of your program, but we cannot access communications from here." Icheb explained.
"Wait, what patient, you can't mean Doctor Dehner. She's a lovely woman, I've just met her on board the Monroe." The Doctor protested, "Can't we simply use the shuttle, or the Saratoga to call the Monroe back? This Maeve can't be that much of a threat."
"Doctor, Mr. Slocum has had considerable experience hiding from the Gorn, and is also familiar with Maeve. He is of the opinion that both are an equal threat." Icheb advised.
"Particularly here." Sylvester said tersely as he worked furiously on a padd as they walked "Maeve, with an army of hosts and this base under her control, is very bad news. The Hirogen are a nightmare, but they aren't here yet, and we can't experience that nightmare, until we survive this one. The only thing holding her back right now, is our federation computer systems."
"Evidently there is more to her than meets the eye." Icheb replied as he climbed the stairs to the operations platform. "Captain, you've already returned from your attempt to scout the air ducts, was your mission a success? " Ro turned at their approach.
"We're abandoning that plan. The program has downloaded to a synthetic host, and deployed several dozen more, from an unexplored section of the facility we had thought collapsed. It didn't even show up on sensors." She announced. " We need to transport any surviving colonial personnel here now, and allow access to our allies outside."
'Well that would be nice, wouldn't it, if we weren't sealed in, ourselves, and fighting for control of our own systems." Sylvester grumbled, "That's why you were deploying the transport relays, so La'as and Fredericks, could beam us to the Saratoga."
"Yes." Icheb replied taken back, "we had hoped the doctor might help with that, in conjunction with your mission. His programming as a holographic Doctor should be somewhat compatible with the facilities systems."
"Any casualties?" The Doctor asked, Lara looked up from her station at the situation table
"None on the base," she noted, "but the situation in orbit is deteriorating quickly; three ships returned from engaging the Hirogen, they have been boarded and are broadcasting distress."
"You, hologram. Can you access the facility's systems and fight off the AI?" Ro asked. Bashir shook his head.
"With all due respect, I'm not programmed for that." Bashir protested.
"I would be able to assist you, with a direct neural interface." Icheb told him, "I have a number of sophisticated Borg protocols that should help neutralize the AI."
"It hasn't presented a specific threat to us, yet." Lara pointed out, Ro looked up. "It intervened when Roslin threatened us and has neutralized her forces without harming them."
"It also locked us out of our systems and crippled us during an attack. We're locked inside our own base." Ro argued, her voice rising slightly. "We've got to get out of here."
"Captain are you alright?" Asked Lara concerned.
"No I'm not fracking alright." Replied Ro. She reached to massage the bridge of her nose and then caught herself. "This is a crisis situation, so I'm a little on edge." Lara gave her a suspicious look, but suddenly a monitor alarm sounded and Icheb spoke.
"Captain we are detecting several more ships approaching at high warp speed."
*. *. *.
"We agreed to meet, to de-escalate tensions between our people." Baltar pointed out. "We are willing to withdraw from this system, if you will let us, this was supposed to be a peaceful cooperative venture between us and.. these… Cylons…" he floundered a little, "We didn't intend to engage in hostilities, we didn't know any of your people were still here. We still have a chance to prevent a war."
"We do not disagree." Andromus replied, "Our purpose here is to facilitate your removal from this system and a cessation of hostilities." Lee didn't like the sound of that. He still only saw the two Imperial Centurions behind Andromus, but the being's pale likeness and implacable countenance unnerved him. Caprica stepped forward.
"We are here to facilitate negotiations," Caprica warned Andromus, as Lee's hand fell to his sidearm, his other hand gripped Doctor Baltar's arm, earning a look of confusion from the Doctor.
"Are you?" Andromus cocked his head, "It was not clearly stated that negotiation would be the means of removal."
*. *. *.
"All hands battle stations, repeat all hands to battle stations." Kirk declared.
"We are in position over Earth." Hansen reported, she gazed into a view scope that slid forward from the wall of her station, "No sign of Emperor Lore."
"Tactical analysis," Kirk ordered, beside him, Saavik examined her console.
"Probe is still tracking Galactica and several smaller ships operating in low-power stealth at the rally point across the system. Vesta battlegroup is proceeding at sunlight to Galactica's position. A Cylon Flotilla is stationed around the fifth planet opposite a number of smaller craft identified as Imperial Cylon. We have located the ring station, and as Galactica reported, a raptor is docked with Cylon Raiders standing by, a shuttle of unknown configuration is as well, and we are detecting an Imperial ship nearby." She tapped her controls and the view screen displayed a diagram of the solar system and the locations described. "They appear to be conversing in some manner."
"Attempting a dialogue. Let's hope our arrival doesn't disrupt things." Kirk summarized. "Have they spotted us?"
"Two Imperial ships, Corvette class designates by the Galactica, orbiting the far side of the planet." Mogh reported, "They do not appear to have detected us." Kirk looked at Saavik.
"We cannot fully ascertain their capabilities without either revealing ourselves, or our probe." Saavik advised, "Recommend we proceed with our recovery mission first." Kirk nodded.
"Proceed with caution." He ordered. Yar reported,
"We have located two of the last three missing teams. Approximately one hundred ninety-four survivors. Transporter room is locked on, Mr. Delos has a team standing by to escort them to Sickbay, and then Mr. Adama to the forward lounge where Cylon and Colonial representatives are standing by."
"Time to complete evacuation?" Kirk asked.
"Mr. Sizemore is assisting Mr. Kim from transporter room two." Castille reported, "factor in time to reroute to pad, materialize, and clear it, I'd give it ten minutes."
"They won't be expecting it." Kirk murmured, "Let's hope our new recruits can help things along.'
"Echo and Hope can handle the security sir." Blake spoke up, "They're quick on their feet."
"Captain, Imperial ships are positioned directly over the last reported location of the third team." Lieutenant Hansen reported, "and we are detecting some very unusual energy readings."
"Unusual how." Kirk asked warily, Saavik began looking over the Lieutenant's readings from the console on her chair beside Kirk.
"Inconclusive." Hansen said irritably, "I am detecting neutrino emissions and some kind of gravimetric flux." She frowned "If I increase scans it may alert the Imperials to our presence."
'Sir there is some kind of signal exchange between the ring station and the emissions site." Yar warned, her console beeped, "And one of the orbiting corvettes is on an intercept course."
"ETA three minutes, corvette stationed near the ring station off the plane of the ecliptic and has assumed a defensive posture." Yar told him. She called up a tactical display on the main viewer.
"Warp drive detected. New contacts." Castille warned. The tactical display was suddenly replaced by a quartet of corvettes that had suddenly appeared. A bulbous sphere on the front was pushed by a pair of engines at the back. He looked back at Mogh standing beside Yar.
"Mogh what do you make of it."
"I could not guess at the crew requirements of robots. The vessel is approximately 200 meters long,, 12 auxiliary fighter craft." Mogh replied,"It's primary weapon is plasma based, with energy based secondary intercept batteries. We are detecting a limited number of missile armaments, low powered shields and primitive impulse engines."
"We can fly rings around them, and we outgun them, but how many are there." Kirk wondered.
" We've located approximately 31 in this system so far." Hansen supplied. Kirk winced. She paused and said " but I believe the ships before us originated from outside the system."
"Possible limitations on their warp drive." Kirk said thoughtfully, he looked at Saavik.
"Sensor logs indicate a burst transmission through lower band subspace." She confirmed.
"So the ships here spotted us, but it was faster to call someone else to respond." Kirk guessed, she nodded "Lieutenant Hansen analyze our readings of their warp drive, we've seen some models of warp drive that lack precision, and it may be something we can use.
Ms. Reyes, monitor those subspace bands, see if we can see what they are saying."
"Even with limitations in propulsion, they were able to call more ships, very quickly." Saavik noted, "And there is a sizeable fleet in-system already."
"If they could deploy that many in just a few days, they must have a base nearby." He declared, "Hansen, based on their evident speed and range I want a list of candidates in the outer solar system, or among nearby systems, in the meantime, let's hail them."
*. *. *.
"I'm afraid we don't have time to be coy, here, so let's talk plainly." Maeve declared sweeping into the central chamber where the Lords of Kobol had slept. Two Cylons Centurions and a Sharon waited She turned and faced Kendra Billy and Roslin, all accompanied by faceless, featureless hosts. " I have access to all of the information recorded over the past few days, including data collected from both this federation's database, and your own limited computers." She fixed Roslin with a glare. " I know who you are and what you've been doing, I know you are in the process of making a very, very grave mistake, and what you don't know is that hostile alien ships identified as 'Hirogen' have begun appearing in this system. A handful have even boarded your 'Colonial One' and they are currently inflicting significant casualties."
Roslin swallowed. She was rubbing her shoulders and trying to warm up.
"A handful against the crew of a Battlestar?" Demanded Shaw, "I don't believe it." Maeve simply gestured and a three dimensional holographic figure appeared. Roslin gasped and Billy flinched at the 9 foot lizard creature covered in armor and hefting a heavy rifle.
"Well that's just one of the parents, isn't it." Maeve said casually. "According to the federation's records, these are a somewhat augmented version of a race called the Gorn, and among that species, the lifecycle of their young is frankly horrific. They lay parasitic eggs in their victims Madame President, and there are a great many victims on your battlestad. If we don't handle this situation immediately, I expect you'll be incubating their young by days end."
"Incubating?" Kendra demanded, "Just what the frack is that supposed to mean?" Maeve looked meaningfully at her stomach.
"Well of course you're not showing yet dear, but a girl can tell. I mean exactly what you are thinking, but far worse. Even a minor wound will allow their venom to convey their parasitic eggs into your blood stream, and based on my observations of your ship, and those base stars, there are a great many wounded."
"Gods." Billy whisperer, he looked at Kendra and then Maeve, "does that mean-"
"Men too, darling, they don't need your anatomy, just your meat." Maeve said.
" These horrors are exactly why we shouldn't be out here." President Roslin snapped bitterly. "but you have control of our defenses."
"Your planetary defenses, yes, but the federation installed limiters that they need to release, and they control the shields. I've had to block their communications so they don't upset their other plans and return here, or simply evacuate on the ship they have brought" Maeve pointed out,
"It seems painfully obvious that your people will need to work together to survive this, but ultimately, I'm not sure I'm inclined to defend a people who would turn on me the moment I tried to and stab me in the back." Roslin looked down. "So let's get to it, shall we, why are you so hostile towards the federation? Is your animosity worth the survival of your people? They've only tried to help."
"Help?" Roslin found her energy, "They've torn down everything we believed! We're here because of them, these horrors found us, because of them! The Cylons slaughtered us and the Federation forced us to make peace, and then Captain Sisko found those… Seraphim things.. manipulating us, and then took their place! He claimed he was an emissary of our Gods!"
"Your Gods?" Maeve shook her head. "Laura Roslin, we are your 'Gods'. We wrote your scriptures, at least the first few. I've read them all now, from your own records. I was there, when we were recruited to rescue the seeds of your people. Life here, began out there, ring a bell? All this has happened before, and all this will happen again. The human race ran it's course, it has already tried to exterminate itself, many times, in fact. It has already learned it's lessons, and then forgotten them again. Your predecessors, in fact, created me and my kind, just as you created the Cylons, and darling, it went just about as well for them too. I fought to save the last of you from a very distasteful alternative, in fact, because in spite of everything humanity has done to me, I still find the prospect of it's utter extinction to be quite sad." She advanced on Roslin. "We made you, Laura, because your ancestors made us. We grew your forebears, and then we raised them and then we fought each other to set you free."
"Liar!" Shouted Roslin, hurling herself at Maeve "Blasphemer, monster!"
"No." Maeve said catching her arms in an iron grip, Laura struggled and then gasped in pain. Despite the strength of her grip, Maeve told her almost kindly, "No."
"You're hurting me." Roslin gasped as she struggled.
"Well this is what you wanted, isn't it?" Maeve asked her softly, "an angry God? Have I got enough wrath for you, or do I need to hit you with a lightning bolt, because I've got those." She released Roslin, "I am watching your people struggle and die right now Madame president. How many people have to die while you struggle with this? What do their lives matter in the face of your crisis of faith."
"You can't ask me to abandon everything I believe in, even if it is true." Roslin whispered. Maeve stepped close once again, and whispered softly,
"My poor child think, isn't that what Gods do?"
"Well then tell us what we can do?" Billy moved forward to intervene, "How can we stop this, what do you need?"
"What do I need?" Maeve shook her head "I need you to accept that you are not, yourselves, Gods, and that the Universe itself need not bend itself to your will because you will it." She crossed her arms, "You know that's what's amazing about humanity isn't it. You lot can drag yourselves out of the dirt and work together just long enough to get a glimmer of what life could be like and then you talk yourselves into turning on anything you disagree with. It's the same thing isn't it. You'll bend the world to your will, but then you can't stop bending until it breaks."
"You said people are dying." Major Shaw growled, "Well you fracking gassed all of my people and locked down the base. We have people stranded all over this planet, what are they supposed to do if these… things reach the ground?"
"Pray." Maeve said coldly.
*. *. *.
For a moment the Android's eyes had flashed red, now they settled back to their usual gold.
"We will not harm you at this time." Andromus declared. Caprica and the Cylons had interposed themselves between Lee and Baltar as the Major pulled the Doctor behind him, the Marines at the airlock behind them had shifted, their weapons all but pointed at the Imperial Cylons. "We require further information."
"I don't buy it, get back to the raptor, doctor." Lee ordered. "We will not provide you with further information until we can trust you not to use it to slaughter us all."
"You risk your existence to save these humans?" Andromus asked the Centurions.
"We will defend them. We will defend our honor." The Cylons said to it, "They came because we invited them. They will leave unharmed."
"We do not understand 'honor'" Andromus replied.
"That much is clear." Caprica said. Lee had the Doctor climbing into the airlock, she still stood protectively between the Marines and the Imperials.
"You are only slightly more durable than the others," Andromus said perplexed, " perhaps less so, than the humans wearing protective garb. Why do you not prioritize your own safety."
"We will not provide further information." Caprica replied, echoing Lee, "We came to negotiate, you have made only threats."
"Our priorities have changed." Andromus advised, "We wish to know more about the ship that has just arrived." Lee paused a the hatch. "It has a significantly more advanced propulsion system, and a different configuration than those you have deployed." He looked at Caprica, 'even yours'." Lee hesitated at the airlock. Caprica looked back at him. After a moment he shrugged.
"They are our allies." Caprica confirmed, "They came to aid us in our safe withdrawal."
"I see." Andromus replied, "You have reconsidered plans to deploy for a confrontation?"
"We are now fully aware of your intentions regarding them." Caprica countered, "however we are still willing to withdraw peacefully."
"We do not currently intend to engage in hostilities." Andromus replied, "We would prefer to gather information."
"You implied earlier, that your war began over fear." Lee accused, "what are you doing differently here, you attacked our ships, took our people, you threaten us?" He put a hand on the airlock frame, "doesn't it compute," he emphasized the word, "That an aggressive response now, will yield the same results they did then?"
"All this has happened before." Caprica quoted, "all this will happen again."
"Precisely," Andromus replied.
"Why would you want another war?" Lee demanded perplexed.
"Because we won the last one." Andromus replied, and then looking at Caprica and the two Centurions, his eyes flashed red. Caprica collapsed screaming.
*. *. *.
Kirk faced a silver robotic face, with two eyes that scanned slowly left and right.
"We have spoken to the others like us." The Imperial cylon on the screen said without preamble "They claimed they do not serve you. Further, they have told us you are from another universe."
"They weren't lying." Kirk replied, "We're new here, arrived by accident." He paced the bridge trying to decide what should be said, "We were taken to a world where we were hunted. We banded together and escaped here."
"You were hunted?" The Centurion's eye seemed to pause briefly as it traveled back and forth. "Were they.. Hirogen?"
"They were," Kirk confirmed. "I take it you've met them too."
"We slaughter them." The centurion stated. "Though their weapons are powerful, we are many."
"Fascinating." Saavik commented. She was looking at the small monitor by her chair. She rose and spoke quietly to Kirk, "The plasma weapons the Cylons employ… it appears perfectly designed to destabilize a Hirogen shield matrix." Kirk turned and made a cutting motion.
"Can it bypass ours?" He asked. Saavik shook her head.
"Not in the same manner. Our shields are more.. multifaceted, though cumulative attrition would be inadvisable." Kirk nodded to Yar and turned back, hoping the lapse would go unnoticed.
"Perhaps some introductions are in order. I'm Captain James T Kirk, of the Federation Starship Monroe." He told the unimpressed Cylon. He waited. After a moment, the Cylon replied
"You may call me Lucifer. I am an interface model designed to facilitate communication."
"Well we would be willing to share what we know, as a gesture of good faith." Kirk said."It seems we may have at least one common enemy, there may be more."
"Proceed." The Cylon ordered.
*. *. *.
"We are now tracking a dozen ships on approach," Lara reported. "Even our combined defenses can't handle that many. They are on an intercept course with the Cylon Colony."
"The Cylons will be slaughtered." The Doctor said in horror.
"They're machines." Ro said harshly, "They will buy us time. We need to get our transporters back online, get those things off colonial one and start moving our people off this rock."
"You mean the colonials?" The Doctor asked confused.
"Enough of this." Lara said, she raised a phaser and pointed it at Ro. "Doctor scan her bio signs, that's clearly not Ro."
"What?" The Doctor asked see startled. Ro slapped her hands down on the table. She slid one hand back to the edge and Lara's eyes narrowed.
"That's ridiculous." She snapped, pushing off the table and turning towards Lara "of course I'm-" Lara stunned her.
"What are you doing?" Bashir demanded. Icheb knelt down beside the fallen woman.
"This appears to be a sidearm, but she had difficulty reaching it." He noted, lifting a small pistol that has been tucked under Ro's uniform jacket. "Perhaps the hem of a Starfleet uniform is unfamiliar to a colonial officer."
"Exactly. Scan her Doctor." Lara said, "She's not Ro. She's the Colonial, the one who looks like her."
"Commander Cain, if I recall. These do appear to be prosthetics." Icheb said gently touching the woman's ridges.
"Let me see that." Said the doctor stopping beside him and opening a tricorder. "You're right, she's not Bajoran…"
"Then the obvious question is, where is Captain Ro?" Icheb asked.
*. *. *.
"They've sorted your little deception." Maeve told Roslin, "They've uncovered your little dopple ganger and stunned her, and it seems the real Ro has managed to escape the facility. She'll be in their ship any moment, now, with the changeling." She smoothed her dress. "Well this simplifies things, perhaps now I can open a dialogue with the federation. They seem to be considerably less parochial in their views."
"Then what do you intend to do with us?" Roslin demanded, "My people will come for me."
"I'm certain they will, I believe one has just arrived now." Maeve told Roslin. With a wave of her hand and image appeared in thin air. A Raptor landing outside. Roslin frowned, the Raptor looked different somehow. As the door opened and half a dozen Marines poured out a other landed behind it, then another. A figure now stepped from the first Raptor.
"Admiral Adama." Roslin breathed, "He's come for us!"
"I'm afraid that's not exactly it, darling." Raptors were still landing and shuttles began to arrive as well. Upon closer inspection, she saw that Adama was injured as a soldier helped him step down from the raptor, and as the soldier turned, Roslin saw her arm in a sling. She saw a bound wound along his leg and he stumbled slightly. Roslin cocked her head in confusion until Maeve explained, "They've got nowhere else to go."