All this has happened before, all this will happen again. In the city of the Gods there are many houses and in one such house, at a nexus of many, dwelt the Listener. She could hear the opera house from her home and knew the Seraphim to be discordant. She summoned the emissary and said "The drums drown out the solist, the strings play out of time. Here is a captain to lead the brass. Give him an instrument."
The Book of Sisko
"You have a name." Kirk said tersely as they trekked through the leafy jungle, changing direction once again. Kirk had allowed Mogh to take the Hirogen's weapon, after examining it. Kirk hadn't let him kill it. He had deactivated the weapon's power cell, noting that it could be tracked. Mogh had ensured it could be reactivated immediately should the need arises. The human carried a home made weapon that seemed to be some kind of chemically powered slug thrower. The Klingon nodded to the question.
"I am Mogh, son of Worf." He grunted. The human paused looked at him critically.
"The lawyer?" He replied, "Small galaxy. I think I knew your father." He pointed to a nearby pile of leaves. "There's a pit there, about three meters deep, some sharpened stakes and few dozen indigenous reptiles. Theres an underground cave system that honeycombs the area. We'll go this way, walk right behind me, or there'll be more surprises."
"If you are who you claim to be, then my father defended you against the plotting of that Topah, Chang.." The Klingon allowed, Kirk shot him a look. "But your people claimed you had died with honor, long ago, when I was young."
"The reports of my death have been... somewhat... exxagerated." Kirk quipped. "From what I could tell, your father did his best, but they still sent me and my shipmate to a frozen hell."
"You were not executed." Mogh pointed out. "It cost him greatly to speak for you at all yet his honor demanded he do no less, in pursuit of what justice he could win. As an enemy of the Klingon Empire, you are fortunate to have survived at all." Kirk nodded as they changed directions once again. "you cheated death."
"I don't owe death a damn thing." Kirk said bitterly. He turned to Mogh. "One of your people killed my son. That's a debt you can never repay, that I will be always tempted to collect." Mogh took the warning seriously with a nod, but did not show fear. Kirk shook his head. "All life ends in death, that's what you're taught to believe, isn't it? To be a warrior?" He turned away. "I don't believe in that.The battle we fight, our whole lives long, isn't just against death, it's for a fighting chance to live. Every breath of life is a victory."
"Your words have courage, yet still death must come.' Mogh said, he looked back where they had come from. "There was more in my life, than battle. There was my son, and my mate, and my people, there was honor." Mogh growled. Kirk paused.
"Then there was betrayal, and the dishonor came from among my own people. They took my son, even as they took yours. Death claimed many of those I love. Death claimed my honor, yet still I live, hunted like an animal, for I have another son. I cannot join my mate, and son in Sto Vo Kor, though it is the way of my people. I cannot avenge myself in battle for I must return to protect my other son. I must return to carry the truth of our betrayal to my people. I do not feel like a warrior, only a survivor. When I say you cheated death, I mean I wish I had done the same, but I hear your words. One does not cheat death, when one fights for life." Mogh caught himself as his voice began to rise. "I do not know the way forward." He admitted.
"Sometimes it's best not to go forward. War isn't a straight line, neither is life." Kirk answered him, he gestured to make his comments literal as well as figurative as they sidled around a seemingly innocuous thicket of ferns, 'It's not a progression from beginning to end, that's only how we remember it afterwards. In the heat of battle, things are messy, chaotic. So is life. So is the future." He hefted his rifle, "And sometimes hope, comes from an unexpected place." Mogh nodded and said.
"Death, too, came from an unexpected place, but I was not his enemy, only his prey." Kirk nodded.
"You sound like you know yourself, do you know your enemy?"
"It was called Hirogen." Mogh told Kirk, "It too, sought to battle death, through the hunt." He considered. The Klingon followed Kirk as he changed direction. "The hunter became the prey, and it's death became you."
"That wasn't just a Hirogen, it resembles a Gorn, You know of them?. Kirk asked. Mogh nodded. Kirk continued, "The first time I encountered one I tried to reason with it. We had a dispute over territory and they destroyed the colony at Cestus III from orbit." Mogh glowered at that. "I've dealt with their people before, but these are different." He looked at Mogh, "Funny that the face of a Klingon is more familiar to me than any I have seen since I arrived. We aren't where you think we are, we aren't when, and things here are not what they seem."
. *. *.
"Alright listen up!" Shouted Starbuck as Lee entered the Galactica's briefing room. She needing have bothered, as the moment Cronus entered the room all talk ceased immediately and attention locked into her. Behind her strode Gaius Baltar, and behind them were Galen Tyrol, Saul Tigh and Tory Foster, who shuffled to the side almost warily as murmuring began.
Though Tigh and Galen were still officially active in the Colonial Military, with Tigh in uniform and Tyrol in his coveralls, neither had been seen around in several weeks, and Tory had not been seen at all.
"Thank you Captain Thrace, I'll take it from here." Cronus said dryly. She inclined her head at the three Cylons and Doctor Baltar. "Let's cut to the chase. You all know we have arrived in orbit over Earth, the famed home of the twelve colonies of humanity the rumored ancestral home of humanity itself, and blah blah blah, I don't see any politicians or priests in the room, so to us, it's a barely liveable rock we've been ordered to claim." There were some light chuckles at that. She gestured at the charts pinned to the board before them, a graphic of the solar system and it's major bodies, a chart of the planet and it's continents, and a bulleted list of squadron assignments grouped into phases of deployment.
"If anyone dug up that sketch of Earth in the sacred scrolls, the continents are off. We know, our best guess is that it was made well over a million years before our ancestors even walked on Kobol." She let that sink in. "By now you have had your small team briefings. The ship that stopped the Cylons, the Defiant, has already surveyed this system more thoroughly than we could hope to, in months if not years, so we aren't going in blind, and their analysis shows that Earth has had multiple extinction level events. nuclear Holocaust, melting ice caps, shifting magnet poles, someone threw meteors at it, and it's moon may even have been moved and it's density altered." She gestured vaguely at the charts. "If you were struggling to believe in the gods, than good news, whatever peoples did all this would be as Gods to us anyway, if they hadn't, evidently all killed themselves." She gestured to the three Cylons and Baltar.
"Now you know that these four are among the human form Cylons that were sent to infiltrate the fleet, and most of you are well aware that these four chose in fact, to support the fleet and defend this very ship when the time to stand finally came." Baltar surged forward to whisper hurriedly in Cronus' ear. She turned back to the audience. "I stand corrected, Doctor Baltar has informed me he is not in fact a Cylon, he is simply an annoying and pitiable man." Tyrol pulled the sputtering scientist back and away from Cronus.
"That's a fracking shame, but maybe we can trade him back for the Chief. I like the Chief. " Several deckhands hooted. Despite his outing as a Cylon, Tyrol had been so likeable as a chief, that he still had his supporters. Cronus continued. "These Cylons, are in fact not the ones that were created by the tin cans that we created to serve us that rebelled and tried to murder us all... twice."
Tyrol, Foster and Tigh were looking alarmed at the tone Cronus' briefing appeared to be taking, despite the levity caused by her description of Baltar. Cronus continued, "These three were in fact, originally born here on Earth, the old fashioned way. This is why they are here as our guides. They invented resurrection technology when their planet was on the brink of war, and it was the only reason they survived and escaped, at least until they encountered... our Cylons."
Lee understood now. The Commander was giving an irreverent and highly condensed, but favorable summary of the numerous security bulletins and updates that had passed around. While many of the Galactica's crew knew Tyrol and Tigh themselves, they were certainly a potential target once operations began on the planet. Cronus was portraying then as the allies and important resources that they were... and evidently getting some revenge on Baltar for whatever the poor man had done to offend her.
"Most of that has been classified at one point, leaked, released formally, debated by scholars, and whatever, back home." Cronus concluded, "Since we left, we missed most of that, so I thought I would provide a reminder. These are the good skinjobs. Chief Tyrol, Ms. Foster, and Doctor Baltar, particularly, designed the new jump engine protocols, and the deflector screen used to travel here, without having to turn ourselves inside out for a hundred odd jumps to make the trip. Considering, as I understand it, that they spent nearly two thousand years trying to leave here, it seems mighty kind of them to accompany us back, does it not?" The pilots were starting to sneak glances at the Cylons, some of them wry, as they considered the different way they could have spent the past few months. "We thank them. We need them. We pity the poor crew of Commander Cain's Battlestar that had to go to Kobol the slow way. Work with them and keep them safe." She gazed intently at the room and Tyrol and Tigh found heads lifting in their direction and shipmates making eye contact with the occasional small nod. "Now we've had a development on our trip, that I have decided to make public. Doctor Baltar has been visited by one of the aliens called the Seraphim. These entities appear to consider themselves messengers of some God and were instrumental in goading the Cylons we went to war with forty years ago into doing it again. Listening to them, is considered by our top brass, to be, a very bad idea." All eyes were riveted to Commander Cronus now and Lee shifted uncertainly. "And Major Adama can you please tell us all why this is the case " Lee cleared his throat and stated loudly,
"Because they provide information to manipulate our actions. Captain Sisko advised that our first best strategy would be to contain the threat of an alien influence, if we didn't understand it's purpose."
"Captain Sisko's words exactly." Cronus replied placing a hand on Lee's shoulder. Suddenly he felt a bit warm. "Captain Sisko and his people left us educational material, including a number of Starfleet regulations and protocols to consider." Cronus sighed. "There hasn't been a lot of time to fully digest what we have been given, but I have a very different interpretation. It has become my opinion, that to contain a threat, out here, this far from home, where all we have to rely on, is our ship mates, there comes a point where the best strategy for containing a threat, is to face it together, therefore I am giving a standing order that any crew, pilot, deckhand or civilian that encounters these beings must immediately document this encounter and forward as fully as possible up the chain of command. We need to keep each other in check people. If these beings can manipulate us all at once, we are doomed any way, but I think if these two had been fully aware of who and what they were, when the Cylons returned to the colonies," She jerked a hand at Tigh and Tyrol, "they might have been able to save billions. If Doctor Baltar hadn't been caught up in the kind of military corporate competition that made the Adar administration so very much loved by us all, Lords rest his soul, he probably could have stopped the Cylons from hijacking his defense software updates, right?" Heads were nodding, Lee found himself nodding too, and saw that Baltar was evidently feeling righteous again, based on the scowl of indignation he was displaying to crew members seated around him.
"Chief Tyrol and Major Adama will be giving an overview of the survey missions we will be launching, as well as the assignments to set up our ground based defenses. Following that, Captain Thrace will brief you on our scouting and deployment plan to secure the inner system, and establish a perimeter around the outer planets, but before that, I intend to share the message that Doctor Baltar recieved from the Seraphim, as it is short, and to the point." Cronus gestured to Doctor Baltar who froze like a deer in headlights and then after a shove from Starbuck, stumbled towards Cronus. "Gaius, if you please?"
Baltar cleared his throat.
"I saw her only for a moment, and briefly, and she said to me, exactly this- 'The Nexus is opened, the doorways unsealed. The past is fading away. The only future of man must be his downfall.' "
. *. *.
"Then there are others here too?" Mogh asked. Kirk said nothing, but Mogh had enough of an answer. "And even a hero of the federation must kill to survive."
Kirk replied, "In defense of continued life, and I only kill the enemy. An Earth general once said 'If you know yourself, but not the enemy, for every victory, you will suffer a defeat'." Kirk replied. "You can't defeat death by hunting the living. You only serve it's purpose, until it is done with you."
"Then thank you, for my life." Mogh said finally, "I am not ready to die."
"You seem rather polite for a Klingon, and I think this is the first time I've seen a Klingon run from anything." Kirk replied, Mogh bristled.
"I am no coward." He growled. Kirk nodded.
"I knew you'd say that." He said.
"Where are we going?' Mogh asked.
"Not in a straight line." Kirk observed sardonically. "Your friend back there probably had an accomplice. I figure he's about done trying to save the one we wounded and will be setting out to track us down, so there are traps of course." There was a distance boom, and Kirk paused while Mogh paused. "Damn. There goes the cabin, that took us months to build." He shook his head ruefully. "They travel in twos. Usually an elder and a younger. This world is some kind of training ground so for now, we are going away from where they know we are."
"A species so formidable may not have been killed by a simple-" Mogh was interrupted by another boom. Kirk nodded.
"No." He agreed, "So there's the trap they expect and the one they wouldn't, but I only could only make a few like that, from what I could find. We are still being chased, but hopefully he'll move a little more cautiously. Getting his wounded partner to safety bought us a little time, but if we don't go to ground they'll track us."
"You've been hunted before." Mogh observed as they began to descend into a ravine. "You were brought here for this purpose?"
"I was retired." Kirk said sardonically, "I should have left well enough alone, but it wasn't for me. When someone came along with a mission for me, I took it. I came here on my own, but the first time these monsters came for me, it wasn't for me, and so it became my purpose. Maybe I can't stop death, but I can fight for life, so long as I live it." He paused, as they approached a small stream to one side. He beckoned Mogh forward. As the klingon stepped toward him Kirk handed him a vine. "You mind? I'm not as young as I used to be."
Mogh heaved down on the vine, pulling a branch back that was jammed against another limb. As the second limb shifted it suddenly snapped and a tree that balanced against another began to tumble down.
"I'm not quite as old either." Kirk commented, "When I came back from- whatever plane of existence I was on, I was told I could be anywhere, any when." He sighed. "Of course I learned through experience, not to revisit the past, and I chose to go where I would be needed, I didn't realize I could shave a few years off, wish I'd shaved a few more." He smiled ruefully, "Bones would have a lot to say about me coming back middle aged."
Kirk moved quickly and Mogh followed as the path behind them became blocked and another opened up. Mogh looked questioningly at Kirk.
"They'll have some fun if they go down there." He told Mogh. "Up that way stay in the water about forty meters. They won't use scanners right away, so we can try to hide our scent. " Mogh complied. "The first time they came, it wasn't for me, but the next few times definitely were. I tried to communicate with them, to reason with them. That first hunter..." He shook his head. "It's not their way. After I killed enough of them, they stopped trying to chase me outright. I became part of the hunt, part of the game, and because sometimes I win, they keep playing the game."
"I do not understand" Mogh told Kirk.
"Beyond this small planetary system is a vast magnetic void." Kirk explained. "Without warp power, there's no way out, at least not in one lifetime, the Hirogens use a different power source, and they keep a guard on the entrance. They bring their prey here, or train their young. They've started bringing humanoids on purpose, to lure me out." Kirk was disgusted. ""My guess is that we're pretty far from Qu'onos. Your ship was probably a windfall for them. If I save enough people, win enough times, I lose in the end. " Mogh followed Kirk as the older man splashed ahead panting. The water came no deeper than their shins. In the distance, Mogh heard weapons fire and something roared briefly.
"You become too many to hide, too slow to fade away." Mogh guessed, he did so, he saw Kirk's objective. A rocky overhang that hid a narrow fissure, slippery but passable. The light that filtered down above was only just enough to see.
"There is something you should know." Mogh informed Kirk, "I was not brought here alone " Kirk paused. "My ship was forced down. They will transport us to this area one by one to be hunted. They said we will fight, or they will kill us all at once." Kirk eyed the Klingon appraisingly.
"You volunteered to go first?" He speculated, "Mogh nodded. "Then there's something you should know. You're not the first person I've rescued."
. *. *
"There she is." Lee declared as the raptor emerged from the Galactica's starboard hanger. Through the viewport he saw with his own eyes, the legendary homeworld of humanity. The Raptor was stuffed with a ground team, including Chief Tyrol along to advise. The Chief shuffled forward to gaze out the view port at his one time home.
"The so-called garden of Eden." Selix stiffened beside him. "I know, I know, apocrypha. We were taught that those books were heresy." He glanced understandingly at his co-pilot. "We live in strange times." He switched on the wireless. "Galactica, Apollo. Raptor one-nine is clear of the deck, beginning ascent, and assuming command."
"Copy that Apollo." Dualla's voice answered, "Viper patrols deployed to local orbit from portside flight deck, now launching heavies, stand by for shuttles. Estimate junp for out system deployments in three minutes."
"The apocalypse." Selix said quietly. Apollo turned to her. "Some say we didn't survive the apocalypse, we are what's left after. The heretics."
"It's not the first one." Tyrol pointed out. Seelix glanced at him, "Apocalypse, I mean. I lived through the one on Earth, our ancestors, through one on Kobol, and according to the Defiant's estimates, and references in the earliest sacred scrolls perhaps more." He nodded at Lee, "If man kind didn't leave the Garden of Eden willingly. If humanity has been damned that many times, we must keep drawing the short straws."
"Well if we're already damned," Lee told her, "Then lets be damned for who we really are. "
"Of course it took the end of the world to get me back into flight training sirs." She quipped. "At least until we get to the ground and I can go back to swinging a wrench."
"We need to get the shelters up, and the command post established." Apollo agreed, "But you're going to get plenty more flight time soon enough. Reinforcements are months away, and we have a lot of sky to cover."
"Colonial Heavy 798 and 616 have deployed. " Dualla announced, "Commencing shuttle launch, all craft are instructed to clear Galactica air space for jump." Lee toggled his mic.
"Attention Blue Squadron, this is Blue Leader actual, I am assuming local command. Update designations Colonial Heavy 798, Castor, and Colonial Heavy 616 to Pollux. Viper wings deploy as ordered for C.A.P, Raptor wings escort shuttles to designated landing sites, Heavies, commence orbital prep, and assume polar positions. I want those satellites deployed and our airspace secured before the snipes get their tents up. The race is on, but you have a head start." he heard some good natured grumbling in the back. He turned back.
"Well don't make it easy, Chief." He said to Tyrol, still leaning behind him. " secure for orbital entry, I'll get us down there, I want my tent up too."
. *. *.
"You escaped a Romulan prison camp?" Kirk repeated.
"A ship appeared in orbit, badly damaged, a common design, but with unusual technology.' Mogh explained as they fucked through a cave. Kirk carried a torch of some kind as they splashed through muddy waters. "The Romulans assigned to our camp wanted to seize it, but were few in number. They conscripted those among us to board the disabled ship."
"Unwise." Kirk noted. Mogh grunted.
"It's weapons and propulsion were damaged. They sent us without weapons or translators." He explained, "and some just wanted to fight, but these were not the Romulans who captured me at Khitomer. They didn't know that I can speak federation basic."
"Know thy enemy.." Kirk commented wryly.
"I was able to speak to the Captain of the ship, and we were able to erase the vessel's computers before it was captured, unfortunately, the self destruct was damaged. The Romulans sought to claim it as a prize and dissect it's new technologies."
"Interrogate it's crew " Kirk commented. Mogh nodded.
"But there were others from the federation at the camp. Survivors from another Klingon colony attacked, that tried to intervene." Mogh declared. "Survivors from the Enterprise." Kirk barely missed a step but Mogh noticed. "They were considered honorable by my people, for the attempt. It was not know that any survived."
"History marches on, it seems." Kirk said thoughtfully.
"There was one among the Romulans who became known to us." Mogh said carefully, "She sought to rescue a member of the Enterprise crew, and with this new ship came new opportunity."
"I see." Kirk commented. "Did you take the Romulans' ship, or did you take the federation ship."
"We escaped in the Romulan ship and destroyed the federation ship." Mogh replied, "The other Romulans pursued and we could not escape, but the newcomers knew of a wormhole, the way they had arrived. It was unstable, but our only hope."
"You found yourself in this part of space, but were captured." Kirk guessed the rest. "How many, how far away." He paused grabbing Mogh, "Enough to crew a starship?"
"The Hirogen forced us down on the far side of the planet." Mogh replied. Kirk nodded. "There were perhaps 6 survivors from the new ship, and 8 of us that escaped the camp, when last I checked. I was among the first chosen to be prey, but more Hunters were coming."
"Then we'll have to move fast." Kirk replied, "the Hirogen will be hunting them."
. *. *.
"Lee's on the ground, his command post is reporting in." Dualla announced. "Blue Squadron has established Terra base."
"Excellent." Cronus replied, "Red team?"
"Heavy 317, designated Astreus, has secured orbital space and C.A.P. Colonial Heavy 404, designation Hephestus is still assembling portable habitat around site Sigma." Dualla reported.
"You keep an eye on that one." Tight advised her from accross the table, "We never even knew it was there, the 13th colony wasn't big on space travel." Cronus nodded.
"If we didn't have the sensor readings from the Defiant we wouldn't have found it either." She replied, "To say nothing of this relic" She nodded at the DRADIS console.
"Our legends say we arrived as refugees." Saul told her, "We fled Kobol about 4,000 years ago, we survived, and when we fell upon the Earth, we gave thanks." He shook his head. "We reckon it was about two thousand years ago we had just about cobbled together the resurrection technology we would need to survive, should the unthinkable happen, when it did. We resurrected above a burning world, and with our only chance at survival being to cross the vastness of space to rejoin the other colonies, we didn't hang around to take a gander." He gestured at the DRADIS. "We had no idea any of this was out here."
"Gaeta thinks it was once part of a space station." Cronus told him. "Starbuck isn't taking any chances, she has half of Vigilant Squadron either on patrol, or scouting for Tylium, and the other half pointed right at this thing while the Marines attempt a hard dock. If they can access whatever records it might have, maybe we can gain the location of any other possible population centers, strongholds, archives..."
"You want to get your hands on any advanced technology our ancestors might have left behind." Tigh guessed. Cronus nodded. He glanced at the transparent images on the operations table and picked one up squinting at the ring shape. "This looks downright primitive, and to find it drifting this far out, it must be ancient." Cronus turned.
"This solar system may, or may not have been the actual cradle of humanity." She answered, "Cain and the Kobol expedition seem more likely to be able to answer that question. given the evidence of wide scale devastation we are detecting on the planet. All this has happened before, all this will happen again. If our era is the twilight of millions of years of civilization, rising and falling then this cradle has become a crossroads. I:d expect the most obvious places to look are well picked over, but, I think if we are likely to find advanced technology anywhere, we will need to locate any lost colonies they might have founded." She answered. "If what Sisko and his crew told us was accurate, in his universe, they founded a federation that spanned half the galaxy in just a few hundred years, if humanity is millions of years older than we thought, it seems likely there's something to inherit. If those alien races the Federation encountered are out there, we need to be ready."
Cronus looked at the DRADIS above her. It pinged quietly with the icons of the expedition forces, she could almost imagine the sudden arrival of unknown contacts. "We came this close to extinction, just to find out it isn't nearly the first time. We've got to arm ourselves against the next thing that shows up and tries to kill us."
.*. *.
Following the light of a torch, Mogh and Kirk arrived at an opening that linked several passageways. As they emerged they faced a variety of weapons held by several figures in the flickering light.
"Kirk." a woman spoke, "Did they come after you, or did you bring another stray?" She
"This is Mogh, son of Worf." He told them. "He's a Klingon from a ship that the Hirogen forced down here. There are other survivors and they might have what we need to get the hell out of here for good. Mogh, this is Octavia," The woman nodded, Mogh noted with approval she cared a sword and knives. "Raven, and Bellamy." Two other humans nodded, themselves carrying an assortment of cobbled together rifles themselves. "This is William," A human with an energy pistol holstered at one hip and a large hunting blade at the other, nodded "Laas," Another human male nodded but Mogh peered closely, his features seemed unusual, vague and less refined, almost like a mask "and of course Lorra Veer." A saurian biped, evidently female stood beside Laas, Mogh identified a pair of rods hanging from her hips, he believed to be weapons.
"Your starship." Octavia said to Kirk, "These survivors are enough to crew it?" Kirk nodded. Mogh turned to him, the obvious question in his eyes.
"The Monroe. It's a big ship." Kirk told him. "Bigger than anything I've commanded before, but when I arrived on board my command codes still worked, I was able to assume command, but little more. I've been trying to train a crew. Raven is likely the second smartest individual, I've ever met, but she's only begun to study the technology in a shuttle raft. Lorra's people were more technologically advanced than the federation, but she's a healer, not an engineer. The Hirogen control a vast region of space and it was all I could do, to get the ship here safely, and hidden away before they discovered it. To escape, we'll need warp power, weapons, a navigator, a crew." He turned to the others. "They could double our numbers, and there are Starfleet officers among Mogh"s crew. With their help we could evacuate the other groups and get the hell out of here."
"You also said you were waiting for someone." Octavia pressed him. "You wouldn't help us until they came. We've been here for months, studying your stupid training manuals when we weren't fighting for our lives against these lizards, or fending off attacks from the other groups."
"O, he saved us." the human named Bellamy told her, "Helped us get to shelter, got us to work together. Helped us to learn."
"Helped us all, not just his own people." Lorra told her, "And he's not the only one who might have had a way to leave." She nodded to Laas. He nodded back. Mogh assumed there was some deeper meaning there.
"He's got that shuttle. Laas can only transform into a space bird, he'd be hunted up there, that's different." Octavia argued, "Even if we couldn't escape, we could have gone to this ship of his, instead of scratching in the dirt down here wondering if he'll come and visit."
"Coming together like this is dangerous, we're almost certainly being followed as it is. I wouldn't have called you all if it wasn't important. The minute we power up the Monroe the Hirogen will come looking." Kirk snapped. "Without a crew to operate her, we'd be sitting ducks. Down here we have a planet to hide on."
"I'm sick of hiding!" Octavia flared.
"Do you want to go back up there and fight those murderous dinosaurs?" Raven demanded. Octavia glared.
"She's right darling, you barely got out alive last time." William said. He shifted off of the cavern wall where he had been leaning. She whirled on him, but Blake held her.
"They're right O." Bellamy told her, "It was our decisions that got us here, his, have only kept us alive long enough to regret it. We need to move on."
"We sacrificed everything." Octavia argued, "But now we just go, now, because he says so." She glared at Kirk, "Why should we follow you."
"I sacrificed too." He said quietly. "I endured the hardships of this world, this life. I faced danger every day, but more than that, I sacrificed my duty as a Starfleet Officer." When he glanced around he took them all in. "Each of you suffered a tragedy, each of you a survivor. As a starship commander, my duty is to help, where others couldn't, but I couldn't. A career in space, dedicated to others has left me.." he searched for words, "incomplete, bereft." Octavia looked at him.
"This person I am waiting for is family. All I have left. They carry.. my hopes... my legacy.. and that of those who came before."
He took Octavia by the shoulders, firmly. "I understand what you gave up, first to come back, you and your friends. Your people survived in orbit of a dying world, you were sent by your families to see if it was safe, and when you landed you had to fight every moment to survive, as you have here."
"And we won." Octavia snarled back, "I was hunted, I killed them. I was a captive and I became a ruler. We lived underground, like this-" She flung her hand out, her voice "And I lead us through, and when killers came from the sky to take what we had, we made war, and it all mean nothing!" She shouted. She shook his hands off. "We fought for a peace, we saved who we could and then our moment came, to ascend, we went back to be with our friend, and what did we get next?"
"My people came." William said drolly from the shadows. "To try our hand at worst traditions of humanity. To claim a world and raise the children of humanity as our slaves."
"But you came together." Kirk told her, "You took their ship, and you saved those children, you gave them a future, sacrificing your own. You went into the void, " He looked up at the darkness of the cave ceiling.
"And woke up with monsters." Octavia finished. "You saved us, Kirk, but then you kept us prisoners here. Why should we follow you?"
They heard a distant rumble, the sound of falling rocks, came from the passageway behind him. Everyone looked towards the sound, and Mogh spoke up.
"My people killed his son." Mogh said. They stared. "He saved me anyway." Mogh looked at Kirk, "He is an enemy of my people, and I am dishonored. Were I to fight him, even in defeat, I would regain my place in Sto Vo Kor." Kirk's mouth tightened. "Yet I owe him a debt, and there are others to save."
"And we're out of time." La'an stated flatly. "Someone has to lead, and I will follow him."
"As will I." Said Mogh. Bellamy gripped Octavia's arm as Raven expressed agreement and he followed. Kirk took the initiative.
"Alright then." He said, "These past few months we've made hell a purgatory, salvation has come and we are the angels.. We've got a job to do."
"Can your shuttle sustain us all?" Bellamy asked, but Raven nodded as Kirk glanced at Mogh and said
"Probably in a pinch, but we'd be vulnerable, and we can't abandon the other camps." He decided. "Two teams. one to keep the hunters here busy, the other to get the Monroe back online and activate the beacon. We take a fast orbit, beam our teams back up, beam Mogh's survivors up, and then hope we can maintain warp long enough to leave this void."
"'Hope'" Octavia asked. Kirk and Raven nodded. "Hope." She repeated. sardonically.