Battlestar Galactica

Past, Present, Future

Chapter 22

Friends or Foes

Sergeant Duggan was bored.

He was in the sixth centar of his ten centar shift in the small, claustrophobic listening post where he had been assigned ever since he had joined the Colonial Warriors some seven yarhen before. He had joined the military because he wanted to do what he could to fight the Cylons and win back his home world.

A world that he had never seen the surface of!

Like all those assigned to the listening post as part of the communications unit, he spent the majority of his time monitoring the communications of the Cylons, listening for anything that might be important to the continued survival of their people. So far, he had heard nothing of any significance.

Duggan was one of an ever growing number of humans that had spent their entire lives living underground in the super secret military complex known as "The Dreamworks". Before the destruction of the Colonies, it had been the Colonies ultimate weapons development lab, known to only those few in the government and military that had the need to know. It was a multi-level complex buried nearly four kilometrons below the streets of Caprica city and was designed not only to house the secret weapons labs, but was also meant to be used as a operations bunker and shelter for the President and the Council of the Twelve in the event of a direct Cylon attack on the Colonies. Unfortunatley for them, the President and the council were with the Colonial fleet when it was destroyed at Cimtar some thirty yahren ago.

Duggan's story was somewhat unique as it started before he was even born. His mother was in the ninth sectar of her pregnancy when the Cylons attacked. She was celebrating the "peace conference" along with nearly every other inhabitant of Caprica when life as they knew it ended. The Cylons rained death and destruction down upon the children of Kobol without remorse or mercy. The death toll was already in the billions when the Cylon Centurions began landing and started the final assault on the human race.

Duggan's mother, Ariel, was captured by a Cylon patrol and was taken to a holding area near the Presidium. She didn't know why she had not been executed like so many others she had seen, but was thankful that she hadn't. She knew that as long as she was alive, there was a chance she and her unborn child would survive. She believed this until she and a large group of prisoners were told that they were being taken to the Caprica City Aerodrome where they would be loaded onto transports and taken to the Cylon homeworld where rumor had it they would be used for experimentation and public execution. And so, Ariel was forced to walk the three kilometrons to the aerodrome and certain death.

Or so it would seem.

The prisoners walked thru a section of the city that had been a hub of activity only days before but was now a ruble strewn scene of wholesale destruction. Everywhere one looked, you would see the burned and broken remains of buildings and hovermobiles ….. and of people! It was a site that Ariel had wished she could shut out of her mind, but knew it would haunt her the rest of her days, however many of those she had left.

As they rounded a corner, she noticed that the Warriors that were among the prisoners had begun to move toward the outer edges of the group and close to the Centurions that were taking them to the aerodrome. She wasn't sure what they were planning to do, but she wanted to be ready to make a run for it when they made their move. She edged to one side of the group, behind one of the Centurion guards and waited.

She didn't have to wait long, for just as she got into position, all Hades broke loose! A man near the front of their group took off running toward a nearby side street in an attempt to escape. The Centurion guard closest to the young man raised its laser rifle and fired once before being hit by a laser blast in the chest, sending sparks flying and the centurion tumbling to the ground. Microns later, a crossfire of laser fire began cutting down the Cylon guards. Several of the Cylons were able to return fire and even began taking shots at the prisoners as they began to run from the carnage, but these were quickly taken care of by the Warriors in the group that had retrieved the weapons of the fallen Cylons. The firefight lasted only a few microns, but the devastation was tremendous. In all, a dozen civilians lay dead and at least that many more wounded as a result of the firefight that had just occurred. Arial had been lucky to find a place to hide when the shooting started and was not harmed at all. Within a few centons, the Warrior in charge of the rescue had them all on their feet and moving along toward what turned out to be "The Dreamworks"

They had only been there a few centars when Arial went into labor and shortly thereafter, Duggan was born, the first child born in the subterranean world of the Dreamworks. Thus, Duggan had never seen the surface of his homeworld. Never felt the warmth of the sun on his face or the wind blowing thru his hair. All he had known from the day of his birth was the cold, dank halls of the Dreamworks.

And so he sat, listening to the endless stream of Cylon messages being sent to and from their command center that the Cylons had set up in the Presidium. Most of what he heard was the everyday reports sent to the Cylon homeworld regarding ship arrivals and departures, troop basing levels, supply requests and a hundred other reports that the Cylons sent out every day, day after day, for the past seven yahren that he knew of. Granted, once in awhile there would be the stray report coming thru of some sort of military action or perhaps a Cylon patrol finding recent evidence of humans, but mostly it was only the daily housekeeping reports that were heard. What Duggan would give for just a little distraction!

"Hey Duggan! how's it goin?" a voice called out from the doorway behind him. He wheeled around in his seat to find his friend, Corporeal Yother standing there. Yother had joined the Colonial service a yahren after he had and was assigned to the life center as a med tech. He was a few yahren younger then Duggan and was known to be, for lack of a better term … a chatterbox!

"Hey Yother, what brings you to the "Pit"? Duggan asked. The "Pit" was the derogatory term people used for the listening post since it was set off by itself, far from the more active areas of the base and was not much more then a room full of electronics specifically designed to intercept and decode Cylon transmissions.

"I was just passing by and thought I'd drop in and see if you were still awake down here." Yother said. "Anything exciting going on with our mechanized friends upstairs?"

"No, nothing but the usual felgercarb" Duggan replied. "I swear the Cylons could kill more people with their lack of personality then with their laser weapons."

"I bet! Hey listen, what are you doing next secton? I have four ducats' to the triad semifinals and you and I are going along with those two extremely hot and tasty little girls from the mess hall. You remember them don't you?"

"Yes, I remember them." Duggan said, rolling his eyes at the descriptive terminology used by Yother. "I think I have that night off. We should …."

Duggan trailed off as something in his headset caught his attention.

"That's great Duggie!" Yother said, oblivious to what Duggan was doing. "Here's what we'll do! First we'll …."

"Hey, hold it down!" Duggan said as he tried to listen to whatever it was that he heard.

" … go down to the main mess hall and get some of their prime eats. Then we'll grab some ambrosia and …"

"Hey Yother, shut up man!" Duggan said loudly as he began flipping switches and twisting dials on the large panel in front of him. Yother finally notice what Duggan was doing and wondered closer to see what was happening.

"What's going on Duggie?" he asked.

"Duggan didn't respond as he was too engrossed with what he was doing to answer.

"Hey Duggie, whats going on man?" Yother asked again.

Duggan didn't respond or turn around to look at his friend; he just continued to make adjustments to his equipment for several was about to ask what was going on again when Dugan looked at his friend with what could only be an expression of fear.

"Go find the Commander." he said with a shaky voice as he turned back to his equipment.

"What?" Yother asked, somewhat confused by his friends sudden change. "Why do you want the Commander? What's going on Duggie?"

Duggan wheeled around in his seat and yelled at his befuddled friend, "Yother, shut the frak up and go get the frakkin Commander!"

Yother jumped back several steps, shocked at his friend's sudden outburst. Then he nodded his head and left to find the Commander.

It took Yother several centons to locate Commander Saxton, who was getting ready to attend a staff dinner with President Illya and several more to convince him to come to the "Pit". Finally the two of them arrived along with Colonel Nader and Command Sergeant Kelso, who had refused the offered commissioned rank of Major stating that he would rather be busted down to a "snitrad cadet" then be an officer.

"Hey Duggie, I brought the Commander like you asked!" Yother said.

Duggan didn't immediately acknowledge the arrival of Yother and the senior officers, still intently listening to the signals he had picked up some ten centons ago. After what seemed a full centon, Duggan pulled off his headset.

"Frak, I lost it." He said as he turned to see who was in the room with him. He nearly jumped thru the overhead when he saw the Commander and Colonel standing there, looks of both impatience and humor on their faces.

"Sorry Commander, I didn't know you were there." Duggan apologized.

"Don't worry about it Sergeant, just tell us what it is you found that was so important that this young man insisted that I come here instead of going to my meeting with the President."

Duggan cast a glance at his friend, who shrugged his shoulders and said, "Dude, you said to get him down here so …."

Duggan looked back to the Commander and said, "Well sir, you see, I was here, and ah …."

"Look Sergeant, just relax and tell me what it is you heard." Saxton said, trying to keep calm as the young Warrior tried to pull his thoughts together.

"Alright, I was listening to the Cylon transmissions and it was the same old general felgercarb as always when I heard what sounded like a distress call from a Cylon Baseship!"

Saxton and Nader exchanged startled looks.

"Are you sure it was a distress signal Sergeant?" Saxton asked.

"I didn't know for sure sir." Duggan replied. "I've never heard one before, but I ran the signal thru the computer and it identified it as a "Class Alpha Cylon distress signal."

"A Class Alpha signal?" Nader whispered to Saxton. "The Cylons only send those out in the event of eminent destruction!"

Saxton nodded his head slowly as he thought about this, then he asked, "You said you ran this signal thru the computer, did you record the signal as well?"

"Yes sir!" Duggan responded. "I got all but the first few microns. The signal was extremely weak and I had to put a power booster on it to make it readable."

Duggan turned back to his console and began flipping switches and turning knobs. Saxton couldn't believe how primitive the equipment was that this young man was working with. Some of the components he was sure were over a millennium old. Finally Duggan flipped a switch and thru some heavy static, a voice could be heard.

The electronic voice of a Cylon.

"Baseship two five five under attack … kasis system. Basesh ….. four five and two three five destroyed. Enemy vessels unknown. This ship will not survi …."

The recording ended.

Saxton stood silently for several moments, trying to assimilate what he had just heard. After a few microns, he turned to Colonel Nader.

"Call the senior staff together. I want to have a briefing on this in fifty centons in the command center. Also inform the president of what we just heard and tell her we'll have to skip dinner tonight."

"Right!" Nader said as he left the small room. Saxton turned to Duggan and asked, "Can you make me a copy of that recording and all the computer analysis you did?"

"Yes sir, I've already burned off a copy for you." Duggan said and handed him two small infodisks. "I figured you'd want copies"

Saxton nodded his approval and took the disks. "Good work Sergeant. I'll be sure to mention your good work to Major Leia. Carry on!" Then he turned and departed with Sergeant Kelso almost running to keep up.

"Hey Duggie, what in Hades is a "Class Alpha Distress Signal"?" Yother asked after the Warrior officers left. "What the frak is going on?"

Duggan didn't answer. He sat down in his chair and stared off into space for several moments. Then he turned to Yother and said, "That signal means someone or something just attacked three Cylon Baseships and destroyed them!"

Yother stared at his friend for a moment, letting these words sink in, then he smiled a nervous little smile and said, "That's a good thing, right? I mean if something is out there blowing the poogies out of the Cylons, that's a good thing ….. isn't it?"

Duggan looked at his friend for a moment, and then said, "I don't know Yother. It's good that whatever it is is attacking the Cylons, but imagine what kind of firepower it takes to destroy a Baseship! Whatever is out there just took out three of them!"

Yother nodded his head slowly.

"Well, I'm just glad whoever they are, their on our side!" Yother said.

Duggan looked at Yother and said, "How can you be sure their on "our" side?"

"They attacked the Cylon's didn't they?"

"Yeah, they did, but that doesn't mean they won't do the same to us." Duggan said. "Whoever these people are that attacked the Cylons, they could very well come here and do the same to us! They might turn out to be far worst then the Cylons ever were!"

Later in the Command Center, the senior staff met with President Illya and her staff to discuss the ramifications of the signal Duggan had recorded. They listened to it several times, trying to pick out anything that might have been missed before, but found no new clue to who it was that attacked and destroyed three Cylon Baseships.

"At this time, we have no new details or any further signals from the sector where the Cylon Baseships were located." Nader reported. "Whoever or whatever attacked the Cylons, made good its escape."

"What kind of response have we seen from the Cylons so far?" Saxton asked.

"So far, we've noticed an increase in Baseship readiness in this sector." reported Major Keitha. "We've detected thirty six Baseships in route to the Narkasis system and reports of over fifty more being diverted into that area. Whoever these folks are, they sure got the Cylons attention."

"Commander, what does this attack do to us? I mean, how will it affect us here in the "Dreamworks"?" Counselor Bawel asked.

"At this time, we don't know. We don't know who attacked the Cylons or why. All we do know at this time is that whoever they are, they are extremely powerful and as odd as it may sound, they put a scare into the Cylons." Saxton stated. "Until we learn more, we need to be extra careful about our security. So, from here on, we do everything we can to minimize the chances of tipping off the Cylons or these new comers to our presence here. We have to be sure that all noise is kept to a minimum and that only those patrols that are absolutely necessary are made."

"Noise? What noise are you talking about Commander?" Doctor Prior asked. Prior had at the time of the holocaust been left in charge of the "Dreamworks" facility, but had been relieved of all military duties and given full charge of the labs and work shops on the lower levels of the "Dreamworks" Over the yahren, he had become a valued member of the President's and Commanders staffs.

"Well for starters, the noises coming from your workshops Doctor." Saxton said. "Until further notice, I'm going to have to ask you to secure your operations down there until we learn more about this situation."

"Is that really necessary Commander? We are after all over five kilometrons below the surface down there. Certainly they can't detect use that far down!" Prior said.

"I'm pretty sure the Cylons can't detect us down here. We've done a number of studies to prove that already. But these newcomers, we have no idea what their capabilities are or what their response to us will be. I think that, until we have more information about them, we need to err on the side of caution."

"I understand that Commander, but we're not even sure that these "Newcomers" are coming this way! Perhaps their encounter with the Cylons was just a chance happening! A simple miscommunication. Perhaps they've already moved on and are long gone?"

"That's very possible doctor, but until we know more, you'll have to secure your operations." Saxton said with an air of finality.

Prior knew it would do no good to argue the point further, having butted heads on numerous occasions with the Commander before. So he simple nodded his head and said, "I'll have my people begin shutting down everything immediately Commander. We have a few experiments running that are nearing completion however, would you consent to let them run their course before we shut them down?"

"How long do you need doctor?"

"Two days, three tops!" Prior said. "It will take us that long to failsafe most of the other programs anyway."

"Alright doctor, save those projects for last. Let them run their course, but be advised, if we detect any kind of searching near the surface, you'll have to shut them down immediately!"

"Will do Commander!" Prior said with a slight smile, "and thanks."

Saxton nodded to the scientist, thankful that he didn't want to argue about this decision. Then he looked around the room.

"Any more questions or comments?" he asked.

"What do we do if these "newcomers" attack Caprica and find us here?" Asked Cantor, who like Prior, had been a major pain in the ass, but over time had become an important member of the President's staff.

"Well, I hope it doesn't come to that. But, if it does, the President and I have formulated a plan that will hopefully give some of our people a chance to live. Half the people will head out through the escape tunnels to the surface while the other half board the Battle Cruiser that Doctor Prior and his people have been working on for the past twenty yahren. They'll make a break for it while I and the rest of our Warriors hold off the attackers and engage any fighters that try to stop the Battle Cruiser. With any luck, one or both groups will escape and find a safe place to start over."

"Not much of a choice, is it Commander?" Cantor said with just the slightest bit of sarcasm.

"No, it's not! But if you have a better plan, I'm all ears!" Saxton said flatly, leveling a cold, hard stare at Cantor. Cantor knew he should say no more and simply shook his head.

"Anything else?" Saxton asked. No more questions were forthcoming so he called the meeting adjourned and began speaking to the President.

"You were a bit more generous with Cantor then usual this time Commander!" Illya said with a grin.

"I must be getting soft in my old age!" he quipped. "Besides, he's right, it's not exactly a stroke of brilliance what we have planned."

"No, but it does give our people more then one chance of survival if we are found." Illya said softly. "And at this point, that's more then can reasonably be expected."

Saxton nodded.

"So, what do you think of these "newcomers"? Do you think they're here to begin a war with the Cylons or was this just a chance meeting?"

"I don't know Madame President; I only know that whoever they are, their a lot more powerful then we are!" Saxton said. "And anyone that powerful needs to be watched very closely. I only hope that whoever they are, they don't turn out to be worse then the Cylons!"