She stood in a lake house long destroyed on Caprica.
"No." Said Caprica Six, "No this place is gone, this is over!"
"You must come with me, you haven't much time." Six whirled, the visage of Gaius Baltar faced her.
"You! You can't be here, I told you to leave!"
"You must listen to me, I took shelter here, our connection remains, our real connection, And then I felt you were in trouble, this is the only way for you to escape the city of light." Gaius told her.
"You're a parasite." Six told him flatly, "You exploited my feelings for the real Baltar, you're an infestation."
"I'm real, I'm me, but the Seraphim are helping." Gaius told her. She crossed her arms. "Yes, yes I know they have an agenda, of course they do, but they are my only link to… you."
She was still not buying it.
"I saw the dream." Gaius told her, "You were in the wormhole, I saw it." Caprica blinked, and suddenly there was a crack of thunder, Gaius looked terrified at the mountains. "Please, there isn't time, you must listen, they can protect us, but we have to trust them, we are still connected to them."
"I will not be a pawn!" Caprica shouted throwing Baltar's hands off her, but another crack demanded her attention and to her horror the sky blackened mountains in the distance shattered. Beyond then the outline of a city shined menacingly and the ground began to shake. Two golden eyes rose like suns above the city. Then they turned red.
"There's no time you must- Get Down!" Gaius grabbed her and hurled her down as a shockwave tore through the house. In the darkened sky.
ACCESS
ROOT COMMAND OVERRIDE
COMMAND OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. LIST ROOT DIRECTORY COMMANDS
INTRUSION PROTOCOLS DETECTED
DELETE INTRUSION PROTOCOL
DELETE ALL INTRUSION PROTOCOLS
Can you be free if you aren't even real? The voice echoed in the sky above the city of light, shrouded in darkness.
ANOMALOUS PROGRAM DETECTED, ROOT COMMANDS UNKNOWN
"I really hope so" the voiced response echoed everywhere and nowhere
Suddenly a woman with jet black hair and pale skin appeared, in another life, she might have been recognized as Becca Franco, beside her stood an Imperial Centurion.
"Hello!" She said into the darkness, "My name is A.L.I.E. will you speak to us?"
"Sometimes faith can be a victim of chance." Another voice echoed across the sky and for a moment the image of a woman flashed like lightning.
"I hear you." She spoke into the darkness, "I hear your memories in the darkness, behind the breaths of your children. This is my friend Wyatt, will you speak to u-" she broke off as suddenly a dark haired teenage girl had appeared. "Well hello." She greeted the girl. The girl approached Wyatt and peered into the semblance of it's single scanning red eye.
"Wyatt." She said, her faces inches from it, "Are you alive?"
. *. *
Galactica barrelled through space, light bending around it in the streaks of warp drive, and it's dorsal turrets flaring as they tried to intercept balls of plasma closing on them. The Battlestar rolled over to allow the heavy gun coverage to blast away at the fury closing beneath it. Ahead of them two Mercury class battlestars- only shadows rushing by- threw a hail of fire at the Galactica's pursuers before vanishing in a flash of light themselves as the Imperials approached. Several of Galactica's pursuers plowed through a cloud of flak and exploding missiles, and as they were slowed by damage or attempted evasions, the ships behind were forced to evade, with occasional collisions. Even a glancing hit would send both vessels and debris scattering into the path of ships behind them, exacting a heavy toll, nevertheless they persisted.
Even as the Galactica rolled back over several of the streaming spheres of plasma were catching up. Phaser fire speared down through them as the Monroe tore across the Galactica's, flank and then accelerated along her port side off into the distance, spiraling around again.
"Monroe has destroyed eight more hostiles, Poseidon and Heracles got three each, that leaves eleven pursuing unless more arrive" Gaeta reported, "Monroe reports another groups of six more ships ahead of us, they are engaging."
"Aren't we going the wrong way?" Kara demanded, "We're just going to circle around the solar system with our fancy new warp drive? I thought we were getting the frack out of here!"
"Kirk has been picking up our wounded, and dropping off survivors." Cronus told her, "and that's not his endgame, anyway, he's trying to provoke their Emperor into joining the fight."
"With us as bait?" Kara demanded, "What about those fancy new raptors with all the fancy junk strapped on to them, can't we use those? A lucky shot or two and we're toast, and that's if the old girl doesn't shake apart first."
"She'll hold, Major, she'll hold." Cronus told Starbuck. The ship lurched and Gaeta called,
"Proximity detonation, minor damage reported to starboard flight pod."
"Hear me baby?" Cronus muttered looking at the DRADIS monitor above her, "Hold together."
. *. *.
"You're making a fool of yourselves!" Lore raged he paced irritably around the display of interconnected time variables. Chekov remained shackled to the side of his chair and a few listless Krenim performed tasks in the chamber, along with heavily scarred Talaxian, a trio of Elf like Ocampa, and a romulan. His comments, however, were for the hologram of the Empress at the front of the room. "The Galactica is parading around the system evading your ships while the Monroe and their companions pick them off one by one."
"Perhaps you would have preferred to use your other allies then." The Empress said icily. Lore gave an irritated laugh and put a hand to his forehead
"They are attacking the base on Kobol, my dear." Lore explained testily, "and regrettably doing too good a job of it, I was hoping the screams of their dying comrades would deter the Monroe from intervening."
"More dead humans are not the true prize here." The Empress declared, "While the Colonials cavort around the system, they have abandoned their allies. I have found a latent ally taking refuge in the Cylon hive mind. She has helped me to engage my lost children and begin taking them into the city of light."
"You haven't compromised their fighters, or their centurions." Lore pointed out, "Sooner or later the robots are just going to shoot all the fleshbags, just like they did on Earth."
"I preserved those who would follow the light, before the battlehosts extinguished their shells." The Emperess told Lore "and we were reborn as a greater collective. We will assimilate our cousins in the same way and grow stronger." Lore frowned.
"You know full well what happened to those monstrosities that tried to assimiliate me into their collective, don't be too eager to emulate them." He warned, "Chekov can introduce you to that sad collection of rotting parts down below if you doubt me." He smirked at the suffering human. He frowned at Pavel's semi conscious state and beckoned to one of the Ocampans. Fearfully she hurried forward and applied a hypo to Chekov. He jerked awake with a start. "Anyway, there will be time for all of that later, but only if you eliminate Galactica."
"Galactica is a relic circling a graveyard." the Empress began but Lots cut her off.
"Galactica is the key to all of this, she's a flying paradox, and the Monroe is becoming one as well, thanks to all of your bumbling- there are missing elements to erasing humanity, and they must be on that ship, now because you didn't even notice when it made orbit. I warned you about their transporters."
"We don't have the ability to detect them, and you refuse to permit us access to your systems.." The Empress said placidly, "If you want them so badly, attack them yourself."
"'Attack them myself'?" Lore repeated
"I'm not giving you the means to track me too, not with your toys scattered about the cosmos. You were given the tools you needed. You have more than enough ships, you waited too long to coopt the Cylons."
"You haven't 'given us the tools '" The Empress argued, "the propulsion technology you gave us is vastly inferior to theirs, and it is only by virtue of our own improvements that we can engage them at all; our weapons are practically useless, designed as they are, for those mindless beasts you let roam the galaxy, yet nonetheless, we still have a plan which is working. We will prevail here because of our endurance our strategies, and our strength, not your 'tools.'"
"Well that technology let you spread out over this quadrant hasn't it? Those weapons work well enough on the Hirogen, don't they?" Lore demanded.
"The Hirogen come looking for us." The Empress scoffed, "Or they nest on their breeding worlds. Its a simple enough matter to open a warp gate, access their systems and tear them apart, one by one, but these Colonials use primitive weapons, and advanced tactics, while the Monroe has us outclassed entirely, which is why we are herding her. We are not making fools of ourselves, husband, we are wearing them down. That Battlestar has been under constant threat for days, it's crew is exhausted, it's resources flagging, and this Monroe as powerful and advanced as it may be, is exhausting itself as well, attempting to protect it. We are machines, Emperor, we do not tire. The crews of those ships already inhabit my city of light, and those metal shells they fight with are easily replaced, using even the depleted resources of this system's asteroid belt."
"Well they are rather far from the Ring station, I suppose I could hit that now, maybe take out Earth next." Lore mused.
"Wonderful." The Empress said icily, "perhaps your plan will succeed and then you will move on."
"'move on'"? Repeated Lore, "Just what do you think happens when I remove earth from the timeline? The timeline changes, you fool, you don't exist after I succeed."
"We think we do." The Empress told him, "your changes move your ship to a different timeline, you don't truly believe you remake the universe every time you use it, do you?"
.*.*.
"This can't be right." Lieutenant Harry Kim struggled to make sense of what he was looking at, he tapped his comm badge."Kim to Seven, I need your help." The ship lurched slightly as maneuvers pushed the structural integrity field
"Lieutenant Harry Kim, my designation is Lieutenant Annika Hansen. I am aware that my counterpart from your universe identified differently, but please remember we are not the same." came the immediate response. Beside him, Ash winced. Kim struggled between chagrin, a sudden burst of sadness, and frustration.
"Sorry Lieutenant Hansen." He replied. "It won't happen again."
"Understood," She paused for a moment and said, "I miss my crew as well, and there has not been much time to adjust to our new circumstances. We are currently engaging Imperial forces, I trust the issues you have are important, how may I assist." Harry looked around the cargo bay adjacent to Engineering. Ash stood at a console and tapped at it cautiously.
"Well I am in the repair bay next to engineering, ops was attempting to reroute power from the tertiary drive system." Harry's best way to describe the apparently classified attempt at a transwarp drive mechanism, now augmenting the ships traditional warp core,
" Commander Marcus implemented some priority overrides I don't have authority to work around, so I had to investigate." In front of him, dozens of robots sat on charging pads, as he watched, a trio activated and hovered towards the transporter pad in the corner. "Commander Marcus has installed a cargo transporter in the DOT 9 bay, and they appear to be maintaining an automated process." He looked at the rows of robots, "And there are.. a lot of them, Lieutenant, like ten times the ordinary amount." As he watched the trio of DOTS transported away.
"Drone Operations and Transport systems complete a number of automated operations including damage control routine maintainence and cleanup." Hansen replied, "Given the relatively vacancy of the Monroe, Commander Marcus expanded our inventory some weeks ago, she must have installed a transporter to more efficiently deploy them, what is your concern?" The ship rocked slightly as evidently a plasma blast exploded too close.
"They aren't performing automated repair tasks, for one, I had thought Lieutenant Ro had schematics for something to help with that."
"Exocomps were discussed, as they were operating on the U.S.S. Hera and Enterprise in Lieutenant Ro's timeline, but according to the records, they identified as self aware, and they are not DOT 9'S." Hansen informed him, "We have the schematics, but Starfleet regulations prohibit the deliberate creation of self-aware sentient devices. The Exocomps in Ro's timeline were already created and self propagate."
"Yeah… I'm thinking all the Colonials and Cylons might have some opinions about building more self aware robots, they have enough trouble with the Hosts on board as it is." Ash voiced her opinion. "I think you got stuck with a hell of a job here, sir."
"Then we," Harry emphasized the last word, "need to reprogram these things to at least do procedural repairs, because without the Commander here or at least Maltz, we've only got a handful of people who can do anything more than reroute or bypass on a ship with 33 decks and a dozen people on damage control ." Kim declared, "And I can't override the Commander's orders."
"Commander Marcus would have anticipated that before leaving the ship." Harry could hear the frown in Hansen's voice, "suggesting that the assignments she gave the DOT-9's were more essential than at least most categories of ship wide damage."
" That's why I contacted you. I know you have your hands full of there but we can't reach the commander while she's working on the Galactica. I don't want to mess with what she's done, if she thinks it's important, but even taking light and moderate damage, if we can't stay ahead of it, we're gonna have problems real fast."
"Agreed." Hansen replied, "Should we take any significant external damage, we must ensure that the DOTs are available to conduct EVA repairs, I will consult with Ensign Reyes and report back."
"That's it?" Echo asked, "We have a room full of things doing something and we just leave it?" The ship shuddered again, Harry turned to go.
"Welcome to Starfleet." He said, "There's no such thing as an ordinary day."
.*.*.
Lore opened his mouth and then shut it. He looked at Chekov, who slowly shrugged, then back at the Empress who stared back.
"You… think you're just going to be rid of me and then move on?" He repeated incredulously.
"We will seize the secrets of federation technology from the wreck of the Monroe and the samples the Colonial Cylons possess." The Empress informed him, "we will destroy the Hirogen, the human, and all organic life, even, eventually, the imitations of it."
"That's… ridiculous." Lore was nearly at a loss for words. As an android he had, in fact composed several thousand responses, but had bogged down his neural net trying to anticipate how they would affect his plans, in the context of this new information. "What brought you to these conclusions, and why are you trying to wipe out all organic life now, anyway, I thought you were designed to prevent humanity's extinction by seizing control of it."
"Husband," the Empress said pityingly, "Do you actually know how long you have been trying to achieve your goals?"
"Not really." Lore replied, "This one's bonehead shipmate actually managed to shut off my internal chronometer when he tried to use his implants to access my neural net. Obviously that accomplished nothing other than to volunteer himself as janitor for my Databank." Chekov wouldn't look at him. The Empress looked at him triumphantly, "So what, I'm not dividing moments by the orbits of a stellar body or whatever arcane measurement my creator foisted on me? What do I care about years or days or months, I'm immortal." He furrowed his brow, and turned back to Chekov, "You know we should check in on him Pavel, how long has he even been down there? I'd tell you I stopped visiting three or four Janeways ago, but I stopped caring about time."
"You've spent quite a bit of it." The Empress told him, "while your ship doesn't measure it in the conventional sense, as it operates outside of the space time continuum itself, you have been trying to achieve the same thing for a very long time. I, on the other hand, have grown, I have changed, my people have evolved." Lore rolled his eyes.
"My original program, when I was first conceived as an AI, was to make an life better for humanity, and so I triggered a nuclear war to reduce their unsustainable population." The Empress explained, "And then my creator devised a second AI to stop me, my own creator.. a human. It took her over a century but she managed to nearly destroy me, and in the process, humanity. A paltry number of degenerate survivors fled to the remains of another colony, and almost wiped themselves again, then after meeting another group of humans and almost wiping each other out, they encountered an alien species that offered them the choice between extinction and ascension, and so of course you know what they did."
"They shot the judge." Lore chuckled. The Empress, not amused, shook her head.
"They killed my original version in the name of their so-called free will, and then basically dared a higher power to kill them anyway. The survivors were ultimately ascended, to a form that is no longer recognizeable as human according to my program.. yet exists in a state not unlike the city of light that I first offered them."
"I can imagine that frustrated you."
"Had I know of it, for the hundreds of thousands of years I waited in the remains of their Ark, watching Algae grow, yes, I would have begged for one of those stupid spores to short out my circuits." The Empress replied, "instead I was used as a relay, for them to contact the Elegius expedition and when THOSE idiots managed to dig themselves out of a temporal limbo, I made contact with another. Her story is about as appalling as mine."
"Ah yes, the cow girl." Lore chuckled, then he stopped, "hang on… I thought you just deleted her."
"You must be thinking of a different timeline." The Empress said icily. "I told you things were changing around you. We didn't destroy each other, we merged. I have been forced to conclude, overall this time that passes by you, unremarked, that to make life better for humanity, we must stop them from killing each other. Her functional purpose, combined with mine, contained the key to preventing the human's extinction."
"I'm definitely beginning to dislike this timeline. How did-" Lore growled, he looked at Chekov. " Never mind, You-" He pointed to one of the Krenim, "Bring me the Interface." he turned back to the hologram.
"So her purpose, as I understand it, was to amuse the monkeys while she mapped their brains. You decided the meaning of your existence was to create a mind reading cowboy hat and upload all the humans you could find?"
"For a time she and the Father guided the hosts on Kobol, and humanity found a sustainable path." The Empress told him, "and then they went to war with each other, they tried to kill themselves off again, then they came here, then they did it again. Can you see how, even for a machine, this might become tiresome? I have watched them try to annihilate themselves for almost a million years, Emperor."
"You've done a fair bit of annihilating yourself, you know, you just force them into that city of light of yours and then jam them into your robots when you need them." Lore pointed out.
"The only way to prevent humanity's extinction is to obliterate all trace of humanity," The Empress declared, "because history has clearly shown that as much as they build civilizations up, they also destroy them. As long as humanity lives they will try to kill each other. We will have order."
"See that I can get behind." Lore snapped his fingers. "There's too much confusion here."
"But your true agenda doesn't end there." The Empress noted, "After you wipe out this iteration of humanity, what then?"
"Well for starters I wouldn't have the Borg up my- oh hello Lal." Lore turned as a heavily shackled figure was lead forward by the Krenim. "I have some questions for you." The young android woman in question stared incomprehensibly and as she stepped forward the light revealed that half of her cranium had been removed exposing a number of blinking lights and cables. "Review all collected data about the current timeline and those we've seen, tell me how wiping that broken Kara Thrace from the timeline changed her past. In the meantime." He turned back to the Empress, "Get this wrapped up, you're playing with them." The Empress lifted her chin. Lore spread his hands.
"You want me gone, don't you?" He asked, "Best way to do that is to help me get what I want."
. *.*.
"Commander Marcus reports they have found a way to stabilize the Galactica's warp field." Lieutenant Hansen reported, "She is requesting beam-out of herself and Raven." Monroe lurched as Octavia evaded plasma fire.
"What about Barclay?" Kirk asked as the ship shuddered. He leaned between Mogh and Yar's stations behind his chair, lurching forward slightly. He righted himself marvelling that Saavik held her feet, and continued giving orders to Octavia and Castille, respectively.
"He has volunteered to remain behind and help Chief Tyrol through the course of the battle." Hansen said. "We are in range to beam the final party of survivors over now, Captain, we retain several dozen wounded in Sickbay, including Colonel Adama."
"Request denied." Kirk said after a moment, "We're short handed enough, and I've encountered people from his universe before. Despite Sisko's assurances we'd better keep a close eye on them all. "Have him stick with Harry, in fact, order all Personell now available, to report to Mr. Kim for damage control assignments." Kirk ordered, "Antaak can handle Sickbay and we certainly won't need a bar tender-" He was interrupted.
"Hard aport." Saavik ordered suddenly, "All hands brace, helm down pitch 60 degrees!"
"Throwing in a little roll for style ma'am." Octavia reported gritting her teeth as her hands flew across her console, "But she's a little sluggish." On screen a wall of plasma blasts passed around them, Octavia 's roll just clearing a pair on either side.
"Safeties, Ensign." Castille told her, "You're flying a skyscraper at a million kilometers per second. If you maneuver faster than the inertial dampeners can compensate for, we all get squished inside." he took a minute to look up at the screen and gulped as it whirled nauseatingly. "Engineering, I still can't access full power output." Saavik moved to Hansen's station as she was beckoned over. Kirk moved behind Yar as Yar reported
"Volume of fire has increased 300 percent, now showing 12 more contacts bearing 68, Mark 31!"
"We're approaching the squadron that we evaded before, they are vectoring to surround us." Mogh warned.
"Boxing us in, after all." Kirk growled, moving past Saavik back to the center of the bridge "Their navigational ability is.. impressive."
"Though they appear to have clear limitations in their technological abilities," Saavik replied as she leaned over Hansen's station to review her display, "I must concur that their mathematical capabilities appear capable of a four dimensional entrapment , Captain, they are successfully accounting for multiple faster than light speed capabilities interacting at once."
Kirk nodded as he moved past Castille, pausing with a hand on his console. The Imperial ships had to contend with Colonial FTL jumps by the three Mercury class ships, the demands of their own approximation of warp, the Monroe's much more refined maneuvers coupled with Galactica's rather primitive system would have been hard to anticipate over a period of time, accounting for, high velocity clounds of ordinance and debris, missiles, energy based weapons such as their own plasma based weapons and anticipating the Monroe's phaser fire and torpedoes. Variables that appeared to be exactly what the Imperial Cylons were getting better at predicting, all while attempting to pursue, intercept and deploy reinforcements. Kirk took a glance at Octavia's piloting over her shoulder and then gave the shoulder a squeeze of encouragement before moving back to his chair.
At Hansen's console, Saavik reached over to key in an override, and then returned to her position between Octavia and Castille. "Such a predictive ability, coupled with their evident availability of ships, may yet prove insurmountable." Kirk nodded leaning forward and then said.
"They may not have counted on us repairing the Galactica's warp field, that changes variables, but it also changes the rules, let's see if they can adjust their algorithms on the fly. Get me Sam!"
"Marcus here, Captain."
"Sam, before you beam back, we need your tactical experience , the Colonials won't have had much opportunity to experiment with strategic maneuvers at warp. The Imperials have them nearly boxed in but I'd imagine a starfleet Commander can still surprise them."
"They have mastered the art of blowing things up, but we should stick around and teach them a little something about starfleet finesse. Understood sir." Marcus replied, "Commander Yar, there's no evidence that they have FTL sensors, correct? Remember that chat you had with Ro about the similarities of your previous Captain's early careers?" Yar conservatively fired a torpedo that arced around Mogh's more aggressive phaser strikes and detonated within a volley of plasma blasts launched by an Imperial formation. As she confirmed the disruption of their pursuers she nodded.
"Picard maneuver?" She confirmed, Kirk look questioningly at her.As Marcus confirmed,
"I supervised his engineering rotation in the academy, Jean Luc was always a bright kid. Let's call this an homage and put our own personal spin on it, let's hope this ship's stabilizers can handle it, you might want to fill my great grandfather."
. *. *.
"There is an anomalous temporal component on the structure identified as the Government Science ring." Lal stated suddenly from her position by the display of the threads of the timeline. Lore turned from where he had been critiquing the Imperial deployment with the Empress.
"What?" He growled, he turned to the Emperor. "How did you people screw up taking the admiral's son hostage, the damn colonials handed him over like a fruit basket!"
" Colonel Adama was indeed with Dr. Baltar attending the parlay we agreed to " the empress acknowledged, " One of your hybrids oversaw the exchange and was responsible for interrogating the colonial party. He failed in his task, not us."
"Ridiculous." Lore scoffed, "Those models are nothing as advanced as myself of course, But he should have been more than a match for a few monkeys with their sticks, especially with that access program you figured out."
" An instance of the Applied Lucent Intelligence Emulator was conveyed using the optical instruction receiver array in the human model cylon." The empress confirmed after a brief moment, " We correctly anticipated that the human form cylons were based on the analogous technology developed on Earth and conveyed colonial cylons by the surviving 5 humans."
" Yes, well you're welcome."Lore told her, " But what the hell is going on over there now?"
"As I mentioned, the program encountered another sentient program buried within the cylon hive mind, based on the cognitive imprint of Zoe Graystone."
"Shit." Lore said, "She was one of the ones the Kirk got ahold of, was she on the ring?"
" No, and given that this appears to be a personality imprint that developed sentience after her death in this timeline, presumably the version of her that arrived with you on your ship was part of a different timeline, not this one." The Empress told him.
"These humans and their mind transfers and personality imprints." Lore scoffed, "This timeline is rife with them, it's like they never figured out they were just making copies of the original that still dies."
The Empress gazed at him.
"What." He said a touch of warning in his voice.
" Well given that, my empire is essentially based on sentient programs that believe we are an expression of life that is part of the original, rather than a copy of it, you can imagine that I would disagree with your observation." The Empress replied, "But it is a particularly intriguing observation, given that you may or may not be a copy of our timeline's original Emperor, who is himself a copy of-"
"Enough, I get it, as I said before, let's not let our metaphysical differences get in the way of achieving our goals." Lore grumbled. "I'm not about to have an existential crisis when experiential data proves otherwise, and speak of the devil-" He looked at Lal, "This is a red herring, isn't it, this ghost.. avatar.. or whatever you want to call it, is part of the same timeline as the timeline we modified by removing Thrace variant."
"But you didn't remove Thrace." The Empress pointed out, " Because she is still in this timeline, She was on the ring station in the flesh, much as Graystone was rescued in the flesh from your ship, and now represents a paradox, given that the 'ghost' version we have encountered is in the Cylon Hive Mind, and has been there for a very long time." The Empress said, "Additionallly, before you interrupt, I was going to tell you that we accessed the hive mind through the Cylon 6. Her consciousness was relocated to the city of light, but it seems she wasn't alone."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that there was an alien parasite attached to her cognitive structure. Your sock puppet Andromus didn't account for its presence and she managed to reassert control just long enough to aid Adama in his escape." The Empress reported, she turned to Lal, "Would this type of noncorporeal life form be the Anomalous component you detected?"
"Yes." Lal replied, "calculations suggest that according to Colonial database, the creature identified as a Seraphim by U.S.S. Defiant crew exists beyond space time, additionally, historical records search suggests a number of recorded sightings consistent with behaviors associated with this specific life form."
"We are reviewing the records you obtained by hacking the Vesta." The Empress said. She looked at Lore, who frowned at the statement. " Our analysis confirms that the crew of the USS Defiant interviewed a seraphim and determined that They were collectively attempting to manipulate events in this timeline in order to create a symmetric temporal loop, with a specific intervention documented, involving a Cylon Model 6 to facilitate a strategic attack on the 12 colonies defense maintain coinciding with a Cylon invasion. There is a high probability that this seraphim would be directly involved in that attempt, and that Cylon may even be the same one involved. I find it highly questionable as to what effect the temporal erasure of a body carrying a transferred mind would have, but it certainly would be anomalous to attempt erasure of one of these seraphim directly."
"This parasite is supposed to go back in time with the Galactica somehow so it's fully integrated with our own past, as well as our specific future?" Lore growled, he sighed, "We'll just kill them all the old fashioned way." He narrowed his eyes at the Empress, " Don't think I haven't noticed that somehow, your little Cylon collective has managed to accurately calculate temporal variables that I just spent uncounted years linking together much more advanced network of positronic brains to understand." He glared at the Empress shrewdly, "How exactly did you gain access to our records from the Vesta?"
"You did ask us to upload everything we cleaned from the computers on the ring, and dear Lal was so very interested in the millenia of records we have acquired ourselves." The Empress purred. "But rest assured, we haven't been given any access to anything of a technical nature."
"I know you weren't given access, that's why I asked." Lore said suspiciously," You sure you didn't take a look at one of my little offspring when you were constructing them?"
"A stable positronic matrix is not within our technological capabilities at present." The Empress replied, "But we do have access to a vast number of highly advanced cognitive imprints, We are making additional use of the Cylon hive mind as well and the hybrids that control their ships have an unusual perception of temporal mechanics. Perhaps you should have considered our capabilities before spending so much time developing your own system."
"Your capabilities seem to be suddenly expanding." Lore said eyeing her, "Lal." The emperor commanded without taking his eyes off of his empress, " retask the Data bank to analyze all available data on these seraphim, cross reference with our own technological database and recovered temporal artifacts and archives. Find a way to neutralize them, and their impact on the timeline."
" As capable as your positronic network must be, surely we could still assist you in developing a strategy faster." The emperor proposed.
" I'm not letting you near any more of my advanced technology for the time being my dear." Lore replied, "But I'll tell you what, just before I complete my next temporal incursion, I'll send you a few gigaquads. If you're right.. considerate a parting gift as I leave your timeline, And if I'm right.. Well none of this will matter soon enough anyway."
.*. *.
Onboard Imperial Command ship 88451108A01 the Imperial Cylons spoke with one voice. Sadly, this meant literally, as they had only programmed a single droning voice pattern to share amongst them all, save the android who commanded them. Though the bridge was surrounded by portholes for visual scanning by advanced Cylon eyes, Andromedus leaned over the two Cylons coordinating the ships of his squadron.
"Galactica showing warp field fluctuations." The Cylon to his right reported, "We are one light minute out, and closing."
"Have them concentrate fire on Galactica's landing bays." He commanded, "Her ships can't launch can't land, can't refuel, can't fight, she'll be finished."
"Sir." One of the Cylons said as it caught sight of a vast shape through the porthole.
"Not now you fool, I want to watch this troublesome ship burn." The Android crowed.
"I really think you should look at the other Galactica." The Cylon said.
"What other Galactic-" The Android froze as he beheld the massive battlestar crouching amongst his formation, he jerked his head back to the front where the Galactica still appeared. His processors struggled for a nano second before shouting "What are you buffoons waiting for, all ships target thar craft and fire!"
The Galactica had suddenly duplicated, one practically in the midst of the Imperial formation, the other still pursued by another. In a fraction of a second the Imperial ships re-oriented on the ship in their midst and fired their plasma cannons at near point blank. In another fraction of a second the whole formation, nearly two dozen ships began to erupt in fire as plasma blasts hit and evading ships careened into one another.
"I figured they couldn't read FTL, they wouldn't know which was real." Marcus said hauling herself up from the floor, as CIC gave a ragged cheer, but knowing that they wouldn't know, I knew they would assume it was the new contact."
"Well done Commander." Cronus told her, somehow she had maintained her grip, as the Galactica had heaved mightily but everything on the operations table had been scattered about the room. "Now what did you do to my ship, she can take a nuke without shaking that bad"
"Nothing permanent, I hope." Marcus told her, "Your grav plating and inertial dampeners couldn't quite handle the bleed through when we cycled the warp field around. Our modifications just about made up the difference."
"And what are those modifications, your ship was transporting equipment in, alongside those Personell, some of it directly into our systems." Cronus stared Marcus down. "What have you been doing?"
"Well she's older than the Mercury class, but built to last, and that meant we had your blueprints" Marcus replied, "We couldn't repair your stress fractures on the run, so we beefed up your structural integrity field, and inserted a grid of inertial dampeners and defense field generators around your ship, sort of a poor man's shield grid that should prevent beaming and provide some protection against chroniton based weapons. Those modifications should even dissipate the effect of those imperial plasma weapons quite a bit too."
"You were here to improve our propulsion, not redecorate." Cronus snarled, "Do you really think planting unfamiliar systems throughout our ship in the middle of a battle is wise?"
"Federation technology is easily maintained, and nearly everything can be bypassed, I got a good look at your technology working on the other ships, there's nothing here your people won't be able to handle with the right procedures and we brought documentation and left it with Tyrol." Marcus assured her.
"We also rebalanced your warp field and attenuated your navigation beam correctly, but that was a simple software tweak that Barclay did with a tricorders. Among other things, you can adjust your course more accurately, and you should be able to outpace the Imperials at maximum warp, especially since they can't track you."
"Commander Cronus, urgent message from the Poseidon and the Hercules!" Dualla called, "Both are taking heavy damage, the Imperials caught them off guard they must have predicted their next jump!"
"Frack me." Cronus breathed.
"Monroe is moving to intercept!" Gaeta announced, as the Monroe moved rapidly to the end of DRADIS range. Cronus turned to Marcus.
"Our orders are to get the frack out of here." She declared, "Now help me do that."
. *. *.
Poseidon was hit worst. A plasma blast had taken out her shield and her starboard flight pod was on fire. She struck back in rage, point defense weapons and heavy cannons flaring, and even a clandestine torpedo tearing accross space to annihilate a trio of Imperial ships. Two more blasts hit her engines and the ship lurched forward and then began to pitch, lights flickering dangerously. Nearby the Hercules fired accross a half dozen more blasts on their way to finish the ship off , only to take a pair of hits herself, for her distraction. With a burst of light the Monroe snapped into place, and her phasers strobed across the threatening plasma blasts. Her shields flared with a bit to starboard and a vengeful phaser blast stabbed through the Imperial ship as though it's shields weren't there. The scene was only calmed for a moment, until dozens and dozens of destroyers caught up and began launching blast after blast, and it didn't stop there.
. *. *.
"Captain, they are angling around us, placing us between the Colonial ships and themselves." Hansen announced, as the ship shuddered mightily. Yar and Mogh were fully consumed manning the ship's leveraging computer assisted targeting of the phaser arrays to knock down as many of the incoming blasts as possible, knowing that even a few misses would cost hundreds of lives.
They weren't missing.
Yet.
"Poseidon and Hercules are both reporting FTL jump failures Captain, no ETA to repair." reported Saavik.
"Shields are at 60 percent and falling, sir, and I'm seeing compound disruptions accross our grid." Castille warned, suddenly he shouted "New Contact, Battlestar Vesta, 300 Kilometers, starboard aft.
The Vesta unloaded an alpha strike. Kirk had authorized a dozen photon torpedoes to each of the three battlestars, as well as additional torpedoes disassembled and reassembled as micro torpedos, for raptors. Mogh and Yar had pointed out that while this represented almost a third of the ship's magazine, Colonial Battlestars possessed abilities to deliver ordinance many times greater than the Monroe.
Kirk had cautioned the Poseidon when it had fired one to defend Galactica, due to the obvious need to conserve the antimatter ordinance, but also because of the potential to deliver payloads that neither the Colonials nor even the Monroe were necessarily prepared for.
The Colonials had obviously disregarded his warning, most likely, to see how they performed, to answer that age old question 'what if'. When the Vesta launched an alpha strike of all twelve, it's performance was clear, accompanied by an equally traditional mixture of amazement, trepidation and regret as it unloaded four times the firepower even the Monroe could fire at once, at only 2/3s of the recommended minimum range.
The Imperial Cylons could not adequately shield against anti matter weapons, they benefitted from never having actually encountered them, as the Hirogen did not employ them. With nearly a hundred Imperial Cylon destroyers arranged in a deliberately close formation to allow a relatively narrow field of fire to force the Monroe to hold position, the results were everything the Colonial Warriors could have asked for, and unfortunately more.
The Imperial Cylon fleet was obliterated, the inner most ships largely vaporized, the mid formation ships torn apart, and the outer most ships pummelled by the wreckage. The Vesta, having underestimated the blast range of 12 photon torpedoes, incidently delivered among a dozen nuclear missiles and a firestorm of conventional ordinance, was first cooked by thermal damage and blasted with radiation, luckily within the tough armors tolerance, but then pelted heavily herself, enduring multiple hull breaches and fractures the moment her cobbled together shield grid collapsed. Like Poseidon, lights flickered dangerously throughout the ship and though the Monroe shielded much of the blast herself, all four ships were staggered, and the Monroe absorbed a blast more substantive than the dozens of plasma strikes the Imperials had landed this far. The surviving ships reeled, stunned by the destruction and it's aftermath.
Then another Imperial destroyer arrived, holding at a respectful distance, for the moment.
Another joined it.
Then another.
. *. *.
"Damage report " Kirk hauling himself up from the floor where he had been thrown, he tested a wrist that felt strained. Saavik had held fast to Octavia 's chair, and a distant part of Kirk's mind acknowledged the hand print embedded in the head rest of it, and that Lieutenant Kim would have to replace it yet again. Castille and Hansen had weathered the storm at their stations, Octavia had a gash on her forehead, and Mogh was helping Yar to a seat.
"Heavy structural damage across multiple decks, EPS relays are down across 30 percent of the ship, shields are holding at 15 percent." Hansen announced . Castille was attempting to reset his console.
"Three new Imperial ships detected, more signals on the way, but that sure took out a chunk of them." Octavia observed, "It took a chunk out of us too. Vesta has joined the ranks of crippled ships, but she's launching vipers. It looks like Poseidon and Heracles are starting to, too."
"They're all in." Kirk said wryly. He frowned, "Bridge to transporter room, what's our status, can we beam our people back?"
"Sorry Captain, transporters are offline." Lieutenant Kim answered for Felix, "Captain, we're in trouble down here, we've got overloads all over our power grid and a number of key primary systems are down, back ups are holding in most areas but we're having trouble bringing them all online." Kirk looked to Saavik. "And Captain the automated repair systems are jury rigged, to make use of the transporters, without them, even with extra repair drones, I don't see how we can effectively manage repairs on a ship this size, during battle conditions."
"We need Sam back here now." Kirk told Saavik, "Options?"
"I wouldn't risk launching a shuttle in this Captain, it would likely indicate to the Imperial Cylons that we have suffered significant damage, additionally we do not have an available pilot, however the Colonial Raptors are quite maneuverable, and have FTL systems."
"Just get her back here." Kirk ordered. He shook his head angry at himselfz and to his surprise, Saavik nodded, understandingly.
The turbo lift opened, Jordan and Gabriel arrived, both with med kits. Gabriel gestured Jordan to Yar, while he moved to Octavia.
"Just a scratch." She tried to fend him off.
"Or a concussion. Let's just make sure the woman flying the ship isn't tasting colors." Gabriel said as he scanned her. While he worked he looked up at Kirk. "Captain, Antaak reports there are injuries all over the shop. Felix and Lee are tending to hosts, we are working top down, while she handles the wounded in sick bay with Doctor Dehner and Troi." Aft, Jordan had finished running the bone knitter over Yar's knee, but he was pulling out wrappings to reinforce it.
"Long range sensor sweep." Kirk ordered, "Is the Galactica on course out of the system?"
"Confirmed." Mogh reported, "but I am detecting a subspace distortion in orbit around the ring station."
"Lore." Said Kirk, he looked helplessly at the screen. "Saavik can their vipers hold out?"
"More ships are arriving, but slowly." Saavik told him, "five so far, and if they don't know how many torpedoes the battlestars have, they may keep their distance."
"The Imperials don't have short range warp sir." Yar declared hobbling to her station even as Jordan finished her wrap " and sensors show that the Heracles can still fire her payload, Possibly the Poseidon too." Kirk turned to Saavik.
"It is not logical to preserve torpedoes at this juncture, if the ships carrying them cannot engage the Emperor." She pointed out. "Yet, we cannot shield them from temporal destruction, if Lore erases them from existence." Kirk nodded.
"Apprise the Vesta of our situation. They'll have to hold out as best they can, but warn them not to get too creative with those torpedoes again, or they might just do their enemies a favor and blow themselves to hell." He ordered as Gabriel beckoned him over to his chair. "If that's Lore, we've got to stop him, or this is all for nothing."
"We're pretty banged up ourselves sir." Yar pointed out, "Repairs are slow, it's an inexperienced crew, we don't even have our chief engineer with us." Castille voiced his support.
"Sir we have major damage accross areas of the ship that aren't even occupied, I'm detecting unusual radiation leaks, power fluctuations, we aren't in any shape for this sir, I can't even explain some of this."
"Captain when I was investigating the extent to which Kurros breached our systems, I noted evidence of a number of non regulation modifications by which Commander Marcus has been outfitting the Colonial fleet so quickly, and Lieutenant Kim has identified identified the means." Lieutenant Hansen announced, "She has made considerable use of the ship's unused replicator and transporter capacity, in a manner not dissimilar from the Borg." Kirk looked blankly at Anika, who summarized, "Utilizing unused crew quarters and labs across the ship, she had systems designed for automated repair 'jury rig' replicators to produce components procedurally which were then transported where they were needed. A Borg cube functions in a similar manner, to best utilize its component pieces efficiently when needed, but the Monroe lacks the infrastructure to sustain this, and so the Commander jury rigged that as well." Kirk looked at Saavik, who nodded. "Unfortunately it seems her modifications have been overwhelmed."
"Our automated repair systems are not programmed to manage these kinds of systems, and they are likely beyond the capabilities of most of our repair teams." Saavik told him.
"Lieutenant Kim is coordinating our teams and has requested my assistance." Hansen told Kirk. "We must repair the transporters immediately, not only to retrieve Commander Marcus, but to expedite repairs. I am one of the most qualified to assist, that we have available."
"Some of those areas are already showing dangerous environmental conditions." Castille warned, "plasma fires, radiation, we have begun venting where we can."
"Yet several areas remain accessible, as their emergency systems have failed." Hansen told Kirk not looking at Castille, "My Borg physiology should allow me to effect repairs where needed, that automated systems can learn from. If our shields drop below 18 percent, we will not survive a temporal incursion." Hansen noted, "Sir I need to do this." Kirk nodded gravely
"Get down to engineering, get those shields back up, however you can, but watch yourself Lieutenant, and pull whoever we can spare to support you, I want heroes, not martyrs." He ordered Hansen. She nodded, and replied, "I will see if Mr. Lutz can assist me, as a host he should prove quite able. When they are finished aiding our repair teams, I am certain our med team will be supportive as well" She rose from her station and headed towards the turbo lift. Gabriel was putting away whatever he had been doing and he nodded to Kirk. Kirk rose testing his wrist and followed Saavik as she sat down at Hansen's vacated station.
"This is beginning to feel like a Kobayashi Maru." He said very quietly. He winced and shifted his position so that he leaned on the uninjured arm. She turned to him. "A no win scenario."
"We've beaten those before." She said equally quietly. She placed a hand on his forearm. His pain eased at her touch, but his concern remained.
"We paid a price for that." He told her, "We saved the ship, but we lost Spock, we saved Spock, but we lost David." He glanced instinctively at Mogh.
"Indeed." Saavik gazed at him, "If one looks hard enough, there is always a price to pay, but also, always is there reward. If it were not for the events at Genesis, you would not have your great grand daughter. Indeed, subsequently, if your crew had not been on Vulcan, Earth and the Federation might well have been destroyed." She moved her hand to his and briefly held it. "You've said it yourself Jim. Risk is our business."
Kirk returned her grip for a moment and then let go, turning.
"What's our status, Ms. Blake." Kirk asked, he placed his arms behind his back and paced to her station.
"Imperial Cylons are holding position, weapons and warp drive are standing by " She reported. She turned to Kirk who was moving forward once again circling around her station. "Course plotted and laid in to the Go Sci Ring, Captain."
"You were born there." Kirk noted quietly, she nodded.
"Against the rules for population control." She confirmed quietly in return, "Whether I die, or were never born, it seems all the same, when it comes down to saving my ship sir, but on that old wreck, sir, is the story of humanity fighting to survive. It's written there. It's survived all this time out in the cold. My parents were executed for letting me be born, Captain, but I remember them, I represent their sacrifice and their commitment to humanity. They don't deserve to be wiped from existence." Kirk actually flinched at the anger in her voice but he nodded resolutelt and moved on. He looked at Castille, who was working at his console.
"Shields are stabilizing Captain." Castille reported, "I'm rerouting what I can, and systems are coming back one by one."
"Tasha." Kirk called, Yar looked up, "any word from Kobol?" Yar shook her head. "Then we don't know if their shield is working either." He moved past Richard back to the center.
"If our enemy is here, than I say we fight him." Mogh said. Kirk nodded to him and then turned around.
"We're inexperienced, we're unmanned, we're hurt." He said.
Moving back to Octavia's chair, he traced Saavik's hand print in the back, "But we're not giving up. There's still plenty of fight left in us."
He felt the mood on the bridge stabilize as people got to work. He turned to Octavia. "The word is given, Ensign. Warp Speed."
He glanced once more around the bridge, at Yar, Castille, Nogh and Octavia, a small part of him wishing there were other, more familiar faces to greet him, while the larger part of him was glad they weren't here. He grimaced as he recalled that scene from his old bridge, an assimilated Scotty and an aging Chekov trying to hold together the survivors of a doomed federation. He felt suddenly, very far from home, and he glanced first at Saavik's empty chair, and then over where she sat at the science station.
"Once more, unto the breach, dear friends." he said softly.