Main Launch Deck, Battlestar Galactica
-
"Don't worry Doc you're gonna be fine!" Tyrol exclaimed with vigour as he double checked the Doctors flight seals and helmets are locked. From here on out he and his fellow marines alongside the chief and a few members of engineering crew to examine the thus far utterly inert mystery ship.
A Viper CAG wing had been circling the vessel at extreme range since the Galactica jumped in by herself, from there Raptor crews would use the boarding system to enter the vessel and somehow regain control of the Airlocks and from there - opening the "Spirit" as she had been categorised as.
The mystery ship somehow 300 jumps from the colonies had been found and the ice surrounding it was Old. Old with a capitol O.
Gaius was working out in his head how long a vessel needed to have remained here, unpowered and drifting and slowly on it's way to becoming covered totally in Ice with a capitol I to become a core of an Ice asteroid itself. Or perhaps herself. The "Spirit of Fire" sounded like a feminine name in his head regardless.
This ship was perhaps older than the Colonies Old. That kind of O,
This is perhaps a ship from the time before the colonies.
This thing is from the time of Kobol.
This maths was rapidly turning even that on it's head.
This vessel. This impossible vessel had to have been here for over 7 Millennia. The EONS of Time.
Time with a capitol T.
This thing was terrifying, and if he was right these people would throw the entire religion of the Colonies on it's head.
"How are you feeling Gaius? Here in this place you are on the front line of making human history twice in your lifetime." Said Number Six in this place . . . not wearing a flight suit but a fine suit of red Sagittarian cloth with a leather jacket of fine quality.
He was feeling stressed despite his perceived surroundings. He was smoking. A fine waft of Gemonese smokeleaf tasted on his tongue.
She of course was wearing nothing.
She tilted her head to the left and laughed at him with some genuine pride.
"You where responsible, hand in hand with your lover. With ending the Colonies of Man. If they ever found out you where responsible for the death of forty billion people they'd execute you today. This is your chance at meeting God's Gaius. Actual living gods in the form of Man and Machine."
Then she tilted her head to the right and the hastily requisitioned shuttle carried the main contingent of the scientific and engineering staff in the fleet to discover the origins of this mystery ship and hope that it came from somewhere.
If not . . . deal with the remains of the crew in the most honourable way possible and put them to rest and work out how to join this prize of near Piracy into something that will help what remains of the Human race.
And in the meantime he'd have to know his worst crime, the worst crime in the history of the colonies of Man. The near and total destruction of almost all of the human race.
In the mean time he had the President lurching towards Military control of the scientific side of this mission had put him in this suit.
The words Six had forced into his head.
The ship rocked as it turned - the Marines had already broken into the hull and a hasty plastic seal had been placed over a seal that had been cut into the side of the ship to allow the shuttle to act as an airlock system if the Shuttle ever needed to bolt.
As in - the entire thing was somehow worse and this mystery ship was some kind of hyper elaborate Cylon plan that dated back to even before pre-history.
Within slow seconds the rear end of the FTL capable, surface to space capable shuttle had docked with the airlock the Raptor marine team had docked to the hull and cut through with.
Cut into what may very well be a massive technological and faith based culture shock to what remained of the human race.
And what may end up being it's end.
The rear end of the shuttle had docked with and opened the airlock to reveal a Marine team in space based combat gear floating in space in front of them and Gaius stood and was startled to see the team in Zero G in an all too massive sea of darkness.
"We appear to have cut into a cargo space of some kind of long term materials storage system – there are machines over here that would take raw materials from asteroids and break them down into their base materials like some kind of atomic forge" Tyrol started a barrage of engineering meltdown as he launched from the the shuttles airlock and across the space. Eventually he and the Marines that had followed suit came to a halt as they approached what was the top corner space as they rested against the top row of iron ingots in vast 4m by 2m layers. Following the first of the team in the other newcomers joined Tyrol and spun around so their entrance would now be in front of them instead of atop them.
Their combined torch and helmet lights showed the dark titanium outer wall, the 5 meter thick battle-plating the first team had cut through was actually spiderwebbed with an array of automated tracking arms and cranes which sat akin to silent barnacles on what would have been this spaces "ceiling". The only evidence of the ship utilizing gravity plating of any form was the way the room was laid out within with a floor for storages and processing machines and a ceiling for the logistical machinery to move resources around within it.
Plus this type of machinery implied an uncomfortable level of automation. So some form of advanced but not Cylon level of computing had been used when this vessel was operation.
Scrabbling and scrambling "down" from the top of the ingots and down into the rows between to activate their magnetic boots the Marines moved with efficiency to secure the room and move to find exits with Tyrol, Gaius and the rest of the engineering team in tow.
"What are you thinking Doctor?" Tyrol asked Gaius as they followed in behind the marines.
"At this moment Chief, I would rather not say." Gaius puffed out in between almost frantic breaths in a half-run jog and with his thoughts becoming both filled with ideas of horror and wonder.
"Oh Gaius this cowardly nature doesn't befit your stature – you have entered a holy temple of a goddess. Can't you hear her sing?" Six said in two worlds. The world inside his head she was rising from her bed. Still utterly and gloriously naked. The real world? She had risen from sitting atop a nearby ingot and towards the door the rest of the Marine team was motioning them all towards. Still naked.
In one world, feminine and all encompassing.
In the real, timid and revering.
"She sings a song, a gloriously weaved digital song but she is near-dead. That is not dead can eternal lie, and with strange aeons" She paused for a moment the door the Marine team was about to break opened before them without anyone interactive with any form of release, be it mechanical or computerised.
"Even death may die." She finished as in his own vision she slipped through the door and out of sight.
PRINT TO LOGFILE . TXT
!MOVEMENT DETECTED!
PROCENT05 / prodcent05-int-siesmic sensor has detected motion
RUNNING PRODCENT05 / prodcent05 AGAINST KNOWNSENREAD FILES.
07%
44%
78%
100%
RUN COMPLETE.
99.7% ACCURATE RESULT. UNKNOWN HUMAN BOARDERS DETECTED.
IN EVENT OF UNKNOWN SCENARIO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4 AND CLOSE PROGRAM.
!ERROR!
!ERROR!
DAMAGE DETECTED IN PRIMARY RIEMANN MATRIX
UNABLE TO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4
IN EVENT OF UNKNOWN SCENARIO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4 AND CLOSE PROGRAM.
!ERROR!
!ERROR!
DAMAGE DETECTED IN PRIMARY RIEMANN MATRIX
UNABLE TO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4IN EVENT OF UNKNOWN SCENARIO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4 AND CLOSE PROGRAM.
!ERROR!
!ERROR!
DAMAGE DETECTED IN PRIMARY RIEMANN MATRIX
UNABLE TO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4IN EVENT OF UNKNOWN SCENARIO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4 AND CLOSE PROGRAM.!ERROR!ERROR!DAMAGE DETECTED IN PRIMARY RIEMANN MATRIXUNABLE TO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4IN EVENT OF UNKNOWN SCENARIO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4 AND CLOSE PROGRAM.!ERROR!ERRORDAMAGEDETECTEDINPRIMARYRIEMANNMATRIXUNABLETOACTIVATESNA-1292-4!ERROR!ERRORDAMAGEDETECTEDINPRIMARYRIEMANNMATRIXUNABLETOACTIVATESNA12924ERRORERRORDAMAGEDETECTEDINPRIMARYRIEMANNMATRIXUNABLETOACTIVATESNA12924
The Marines waited but a hairs breadth of a second behind his ethereal companion and then the team behind them – from the cargo space to a massive open companionway system with what seemed to be internal lines for more mobile machines alongside some kind of tram system.
Following the walkways led both down and further into the main ship until it reached a staircase designed for the transition from one gravity area to another which gave way to the clue that the ship did have some form of gravity plating that was currently disabled.
"Chief, We should try to find main power aboard this ship. I'm starting to build theories but to prove them right we need time, something only I can provide" Gaius suggested.
"Are you willing to invite the reclaimers of gods embrace into the world Gaius?" Six asked him from across the causeway.
"What's your theory doc?" Tyrol replied.
"I think this ship is still active on some form of battery power and from what we've seen it was heavily automated. If the doors where still online then we have probably been detected by some form of ancient sensors and has some form of highly advanced but non-cylon program running in it's computer systems." Gaius spat in a half-whisper.
"We need to be able to convince it we mean it no harm or be ready to pull the trigger if we can't." he finished in a state of near panic.
Tyrol added the thoughts together in his head and did not like that combination – if the Doctor was right then the idea of an ancient almost-cylon at the mercy of the fleet would cause a bloodlust for the civilians. Either that or the almost AI would likely kill everyone on this ship and bring it's weapon systems online, destroy the Galactica and then the rest of the civilian fleet before they had a chance.
ERROR!ERRORDAMAGEDETECTEDINPRIMARYRIEMANNMATRIXUNABLETOACTIVATESNA12924ERRORERRORDAMAGEDETECTEDINPRIMARYRIEMANNMATRIXUNABLETOACTIVATESNA12924UNABLE TO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4IN EVENT OF UNKNOWN SCENARIO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4 AND CLOSE PROGRAM.!ERROR!ERROR!DAMAGE DETECTED IN PRIMARY RIEMANN MATRIXUNABLE TO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4IN EVENT OF UNKNOWN SCENARIO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4 AND CLOSE PROGRAM.!ERROR!ERRORDAMAGEDETECTEDINPRIMARYRIEMANNMATRIXUNABLETOACTIVATESNA-1292-4ERROR!ERRORDAMAGEDETECTEDINPRIMARYRIEMANNMATRIXUNABLETOACTIVATESNA12924ERRORERRORDAMAGEDETECTEDINPRIMARYRIEMANNMATRIXUNABLETOACTIVATESNA12924
!ERROR!
!ERROR!
!WARNING!
!PRINT TO SCREEN HAS EXCEEDED 110,95,407,872 BYTES!
!SYSTEM UNABLE TO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4IN!
!ERROR!
!ERROR!
UNABLE TO RESOLVE PRIMARY HOST
UNABLE TO ACTIVATE SNA-1292-4IN
DAMAGE DETECTED IN PRIMARY RIEMANN MATRIX
STOP: {FATAL SYSTEM ERROR}
THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL SYS ADMIN FOR FURTHER HELP
PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE
Further within the massive central corridor Tyrol noticed the patch fixes to the walls, floors and ceilings where what looked like newer armour plates had been used to patch up older wounds. What made him worried and confused was the mixture of marks, dents and blemishes that could be seen on the older plates that had been deemed unnecessary to replace.
Those walls and plates had dents from familiar looking ballistic weapons – so at some point in the ancient ships past there had been some kind of battle within this cathedral like causeway had been fought with weaponry at least similar to those being used today.
No, what unnerved him was those plates that still bore the remnants of scarring from weaponry that looked as if the plating had been burned or scored in intense, directed heat. Those looked as if they had been subject to some kind of assault from a laser or heat based weapon which he had no idea how to speculate upon.
In his years aboard the Galactica he had never seen any form of combat damage that would even remotely match what he was seeing in front of him right now.
Who in the hells, or rather what in the hells had the capability to score deep enough into what looked like some form of vacuum forged titanium plating? Applied light or heat in that kind of application would have to have been capable of a level of electrical based power application of an order higher than most Battlestars.
The Marine team ahead leapfrogged from point to point and Tyrol made note of the all too obvious choke points set into the walls on both sides and what looked like some form of indents set into the floors where a handhold could be used to lift a section of the floor.
Grabbing a Marines attention and a short moment of physical strength later and the pair had pulled from the floor an extending segment of armour plate that could be used as full body cover complete with a firing port at roughly shoulder height, for someone of obviously human height and stature to aim and fire a rifle through. A moment of inspection later and another retractable cover section had been found a few meters away that would provide cover from the other direction.
Across the other side of the corridor? The same setup with retractable cover and inset walls for defence.
A moments worth of inspection later revealed a similar set of cover points 50 meters away in each direction, and then another set, and then another.
Moving the same direction they had started down had revealed an internal set of hull braces that where aligned with a secondary set of redundant braces in a layout of similar design to the Galactica but built in hexagons that seemed to be designed to absorb external force and maintain the ships integrity.
A combat ship with production capability? And an almost fortress like level of internal defence? And designed to survive levels of damage on par with a battlestar?
The mysteries deepened and deepened.
For Gaius the further they moved into what felt like the bowels of a vast metallic tomb, this place seemed to be built for war from the ground up. Tyrol had pointed out the firing lines and corridors that combined to form an invisible net of defence.
The slow tug of the magboots against the floor was all that stood between the boarding team and floating off into the middle of this mausoleum like space.
There was no air, that had obviously been lost to time – the ships systems possibly waiting to return atmospheric pressure and the vital gasses for what might be humanoid life at some unknown signal.
There was also no dust in this expanse. It had been cleaned and recycled long ago.
Eventually the corridor reached its end with a massive armoured bulkhead which was the termination of one state and another.
A Titanium bulkhead between life and death.
Between the main transit line and central engineering.
What gave him a feeling of mounting fear and horror was how that bulkhead opened in front of them all without a single hint of any form of human interaction in any way, shape or form.
"It's not like you to keep a lady waiting" Six intoned ahead of the group, no longer naked but wearing some form of long and deep red evening gown.
The space ahead revealed a second deeper darkness in the room ahead. Distant and unknowable machines could be seen alongside evenly spaced terminals and raising catwalks and open sided walkways.
Deeper in this new engineering deck a single monitor lit up ahead of the Marines as they prowled into this new domain.
Which of course, attracted the attention of every single person in the room.
A cool blue LCD beacon amidst a Stygian darkness.
Of course the newcomers moved in towards the so far only obviously activated item of equipment on the entire ship. How could they not?
"Gaius . . . she's opened the doors and left the red carpet out waiting for you" said Six as she draped herself atop the monitor screen and let her fingers sway playfully across the console and keyboard beneath.
The group surrounded the single station, the centre display of the three screens was the only lit display on the station – the cool blue backlight illuminating Gaius's own face in the reflection as it suddenly switched from blue to backlit black and a stray line of command text appeared before them.
!ERROR!
!ERROR!
!MAIN POWER REPAIRED BUT OFFLINE!
!UNABLE TO REVIVE PRIMARY, SECONDARY OR TERTIARY CREW!
!UNABLE TO RESOLVE PRIMARY HOST!
!UNABLE TO ACTIVATE SNA-1282-41N!
!EXTERNAL RE-ACTIVATION SEQUENCE REQUIRED!
!PROCEED WITH EXTERNAL RE-ACTIVATION SEQUENCE!
Y / N
The members of the boarding party looked across from one another, from Tyrol to Gaius to Boomer as the last line of text continued to flash every odd second, obviously awaiting an awakening that was only a key press away.
"Gaius" Six whispered in his ear, now somehow behind him as his awareness moved between the engineering deck and his desk in his now long obliterated home.
"It's time to see the face of the future my love . . . " she continued, her voice drawn out; sensual and low as she took his shaking hand and reached out towards the keyboard as he stood frozen and halfway between fight and flight and the tip of his finger mere inches away from the Y key.
Unaware of his surroundings, Tyrol was trying to contact the Galactica and pass along the situation and try and get orders from on-high, to find out if Commander Adama would even want this ancient warrior re-activated as Gaius's finger was no less than half an inch away from the final keypush.
"HEY! DOC WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WAIT! STOP!" Tyrol yelled aloud as his snap back to reality had the situation back to him – noticing the finger seconds or two away from hitting the key.
At this point, not one person would have been able to tell the difference apart between what was in Baltars head and his reality as both Sixes hand pulled him ahead and the Marine shoved him from behind. His finger made the tiniest of brushes with the "Y" key and that was the precise moment that all hell broke lose.
A moment from Scythe himself.
Hokay so I couldn't keep up the pace of writing I was hoping for between my 3, 12 hour care shifts a week and wife and kids and life ect BUT I feel like this third chapter has come across as what I wanted it too . . . for once a meeting between the good ole' BSG and another vessel which isn't an immediate "hey let's be best space buddies forever" scenario.
Because let's face it – if you encounter another ship even at sea you'll be looking at a handful of situations which would either result in everyone aboard being dead or gone, a hostage situation or free salvage, and any of those situations are going to go hand in hand with some kind of horror – but that kind of situation in space? At the very edge of the unknown? Dial the horror and unpredictable nature of the situation up to 11 and then make it dark, make it zero G and make it downright frightening.
Then throw in Six and Baltar and what you get may or may not be a recipe for disaster.
Not throwing out review replies for this chapter – actually half way through the next one already so I'll try and keep those fancy fingers going, because of it being NaNo-WriMo at the time of posting my goal is to try and get 50k words out to update my three fic projects. As for how well that turns out, we'll wait and see.
So until next time, Tarrah for now