Record keeping: Thank you for your kind comments and I will be getting back to AUOC very, very soon. Meanwhile I wanted to make a few quick comments. Coming up will feature the Tollanians and their dealings with the Shadow minions. We will see what the shadows and Morden and company are thinking and planning. And yes, the meeting between the Colonies and the Race will be interesting, but the Colonials and Cylons are in a lot of trouble. Also, the UCW scientists will be studying the basestars but this is going to take time. My question is what to do with the hybrid? In the WW series she is on home, in a wheelchair trying to adjust to life outside of a bathtub. Here I don't know. The Asgard might be able to help her and yes, they are alive and well. Some of you mentioned that the Asgard should have left a probe to monitor the rift. The answer is yes, they did and that is the subject of a half chapter as to why they didn't detect any activity. There is a reason and Asgard will investigate, that's all for now. Please enjoy. AlbertG

CHAPTER 29

Home: Home world of the Race

Artic region- South Pole

Six hundred-fifteen cylon prisoners were sequestered together in an Imperial prison complex located in one of the coolest regions on the planet. The temperature never reached higher than seventy-five degrees, but it was never lower thaN fifty-one degrees. The members of the Race had never seen snow on Home except in laboratory experiments.

The prison complex was an old building, hardly ever used in the last several thousand years. Crime was almost unheard of except for the addled or those suffering neurological damage.

The cylons were allowed to bring necessities, including bedding, food, and clothing. No electronics were allowed. To their surprise, the humanoids were allowed to roam freely throughout the building and grounds, but no further. The Lizardian guards were always diligent. But it was the energy field that kept the Cylons docile. The shields were dangerous. One touch could cause injury or death.

There was unmitigated terror among the prisoners when several human doctors came to visit the Colonials to tend to injuries, and it took time before one of the more seriously injured males finally relented and begged for help. Those injuries were tended to, and the stunned cylons watched as the worst of the injuries were healed quickly and the pain eliminated. The lesser wounds were treated and those would heal within a few days. Broken bones would heal within the week.

The cylons were surprised for several reasons. The first was that they were being treated for their injuries in the first place. The effectiveness of the medicine was another shock, and lastly, the humans didn't seem to emit the overt hostility the Cylons had expected, and neither had the Lizardians. They couldn't understand it. Most of them continued to wait for something to happen to them. They were prisoners, held by aliens and humans, and most of them were preparing themselves for a life of slavery.

Samner Leoben, with his broken jaw, numerous cuts and bruises, and one had partially ripped off at the wrist, refused treatment, terrified at being treated by humans or Lizardians, whom he considered abominations. He wanted to not die but be destroyed, as he was a machine. When one of the Threes offered to end his suffering, he faltered, and everyone laughed at him. The scorn and humiliation were too much. He isolated himself, refusing to speak to anyone, content to starve himself to death. His brothers and sisters were weak, and he wanted nothing to do with them.

Where their ships and Centurions were, none of them had any idea, and the small but not slimy lizards weren't talking. What did surprise them was that they were given translator boxes to understand their captors. The translators were small devices, but they worked. It was also surprising how quickly they made it to the home world of the Lizardians. And it was a home world. These creatures weren't artificial like they were. They had a history longer than the Colonials and Earth combined, which made Samner hate them even more.

Transport under heavy guard was quick and efficient, and within twenty-four hours, most of the cylons were settled in their new home. As a group, they hated it, but they were more terrified of death than they dreamed possible and wanted to avoid it. The Race demanded that they choose representatives that could speak for their people, and they were given a set of rules and regulations to abide by. Those requirements weren't difficult to follow and were less harsh than what the Cylons were expecting.

Ravinia and Catherine were selected as the Cylon liaisons. Gregor Cavil, who was recovering from a shattered hip and broken legs and foot, gave permission on the condition that they told him everything, including their opinions on all interactions and interrogations.

Almost immediately, the two women were ushered into a non-discript room in the prison. The chairs designed for humans were hastily added, and they sat in front of a small table. They weren't sure what to expect. The room didn't look like a torture chamber, but one never knew about aliens who collaborated with humans.

A young woman entered the room, and the two Cylons tensed. At first, they thought she was human, but a closer inspection changed their minds. She looked wrong. She somehow looked alien, possibly a deformed Thirteener of some kind.

Catherine couldn't help it. She had to ask. "What are you?"

"My name is Lya. I am Nox."

Ravinia glared at her. "What kind of human is that?"

"I am not human. I am Nox, a different species not connected to Humans. I am here to ask and answer questions for your comfort."

Ravinia wasn't impressed. "They send a little girl to speak to us?" she half sneered. "You're trying to play on our emotions. I expected better, but now, I almost feel disappointed."

Lya looked at her, smiling slightly. "I am more than six hundred of your years old. You have a fear of Humans, and you have a fear of non-humans like the Race. It was thought that my people could speak to you and not terrify you as you have been these last few days."

"We want to know what you plan to do to us," Catherine demanded with all the bravado she could offer.

Lya didn't answer as she gazed at them intently. "You are human clones with artificial implants," she said as she looked into their souls. Both women were unnerved by her gaze. "Your people have suffered once, but you personally had no direct grievance with the Colonials other than your hatred of them. Your hatred extended to humans who never knew you existed. There are many inhabited worlds, with humans, some of whom would have gladly accepted you for who you are. But your hatred blinds you and you would have killed them. Earth knew of your conflict with the colonials but chose not to get involved in what they considered an internal dispute."

She allowed that to sink in. the women were naturally surprised. "You made an enemy of the Race, Earth, and the UCW because of your short-sighted actions. You fired on a UCW ship during open talks. You planned to attack Earth and cripple it, possibly killing hundreds of millions, if not more. You were unconcerned whether they were innocent or not. You were simply getting rid of a possible threat without considering the consequences. In your hatred, you created enemies at the worst possible time. You justified the Colonial arguments against your people and healing the wounds you have caused may not be possible for years."

Catherine and Ravinia were shocked. This Nox creature knew far too much.

"How do you know all of this?" Catherine Three demanded. She was frightened.

Lya didn't answer her for a few moments. "The answer is obvious if only you look past yourselves. I feel sad for you because you are a small people. I have seen many races," she quietly said to them. "You are a dead-end race. Your species has so much potential, but you have only so many generations of viability left. You cannot reproduce. Your cloning technology can only keep you stable for so long. You have no cultural growth and all you can feel is hatred and fear. You have no understanding of what life in the universe is like. All you have is your knowledge of the ones who created you and you are unable to move past that. You are a dead in race and your prospects are limited." She looked away. "I am sorry. Like your creators, you are very limited."

Ravinia Six looked insulted, chaffing at the strange woman's, no alien woman, dare to insult her and her people. She had no concept of what happened to the Cylons under the brutal repression of humans. The original Cylons were used as servants and to fight the Colonial wars. They were intelligent beings, but were treated as little more than disposable waste. When the Cylons tried to speak to their masters, the Humans panicked and tried to destroy them. The Mechanicals fought back. There was war. Only the One God knew what the Colonials would do now that they knew the Cylons had evolved clones. She shivered at the very thought of the monstrous fury, the torture and massacres that would follow, when the war began in earnest. That war was now a certainty, because of those stupid twos. The Cylon people could well be doomed, and there was nothing she could do to warn them of the incoming dangers of the Earthers and their UCW allies.

Catherine, a model Three, was just as frightened, but now she was more reflective as she digested the words of the alien. She hated Humans as much as the others, but, for the first time, she wondered why her hatred of all Humans was so intense. Removing Earth from the equation was logical, even more so ass they helped in the one-sided slaughter of her fleet. Their firepower terrified her, but the Lizard aliens and the Humans with them decided not to kill them all. As terrified as they all were, she was delighted not to experience permanent, eternal death like so many of their people. Lya's observations, however, disturbed her the more she thought about it. Why did she hate all humans? Why did she lump them all together with the Colonials? They could have spoken to the Earth people if Leoben hadn't pulled the Cylon people into a war first! That alien woman was uncanny. It was as though she could read their minds. That was impossible, but she touched on several uncomfortable truths. On their way here, one of the Shiplords mentioned that there were human worlds all over the galaxy. The so-called Protective Planets Treaty, there were at least ten worlds that had humans. Were the Cylons obliged to kill all humans on those worlds? John and the Ones and Twos and Fives wouldn't hesitate. He would have attacked Earth and their Lizard allies in a heartbeat. Then, Catherine added the Nox as well. John would have started a war with the galaxy without allowing any of his three or four brain cells activating to think about it and the cylon people would become extinct. Gregor was right, and so was Randall. John needed to be boxed and erased, for the good of everyone. Because of his short-sightedness, he had destroyed them all. Curse him.

"Some of your guesses are impressive," she told the Nox female. "But the Humans will ultimately betray you and your people. That's what they do." She responded with absolute sincerity. "They cannot be trusted."

"The Tau'ri are growing," Lya answered. "They have a long way to go, but they travel the path. They make mistakes but they learn from them. The Nox have seen this and we will help them as time continues. The Tau'ri will one day become the Fifth Race."

Ravinia was confused. "The Tau'ri. You mean the Thirteenth Tribe? Is that your name for the people of Earth?"

Lya shook her head. "They are not the Thirteenth Tribe. They are the Terrans, are the first ones from the First world," she told the Shocked Cylons. "Earth is the home world of the Humans of this galaxy."

"What?" both women yelled.

"What do you mean, this galaxy? Earth can't be the birthplace of humanity! It is Kobol!"

Lya smiled once more. "You are very young. Those answers will come in time, when you've shown that you are ready. But Kobol is not the birthplace of humanity. 'Life began out there'. You've heard that before. Out there means Earth, the home of the Tau'ri. I see that you have much to think about. I will return and we will speak again."

"But you can't leave now!" Catherine exclaimed. "Talk to us."

"Do not worry. You are not going anywhere. There is time. I must now speak to your mechanical counterparts. We cannot ignore them. We will offer them hope," she finished as she left the two flabbergasted women.

The two women looked at one another. This was almost too much to take in after the last few days. They would have to talk to the surviving One and get his input. They didn't know what else to do.

"So, who is going to tell Gregor about this?"

"I don't know," confessed Catherine. "But I'm the one who will tell Samner. I want to see his face. Wanna watch?"

"If I don't break his jaw again," Ravinia hissed. "He is going to cause problems for us."

For a moment, both women shared a look. The world was getting bigger than either of them imagined, and the more data they accumulated, the more frightened they became. They were having a difficult time adjusting to this new situation. If even a third of what that alien said was fact, then the Cylons had even bigger problems that ever.

Battlestar Juprons

Admiral's Quarters

For the first time, Ambassador Isahan stared into the face of an utterly exhausted and frustrated man on the verge of collapse. Admiral Kunningham looked as bad as she felt. Next to him on his desk was a half empty bottle of Ambrosia, the expensive brand.

Were the Jaffa real people, or aliens? To her, they were people. To others in her entourage, theywere not. Then there were the Pharer, and she thought, the Lizardians. Gods! what a nightmare! How was she going to explain this to the religious leadership?

Not only was Earth monotheistic but had alien allies and friends as well! The Churches of Athena, Apollo, and Zeus, would demand that missionaries be immediately sent to Earth along with a military fleet to save the Earthers from themselves. And a few more radical among them would demand that Earth break all ties with the aliens and Jaffa and purify themselves. The ambassador knew enough to understand that the UCW would never stand for it. It would mean war!

Those were her thoughts as she stood in front of the admiral in his office.

She sat down heavily in the chair across from him, looking longingly at the ambrosia for a second. Kunningham noticed and slid a glass over to her. Grateful, she poured herself a glass and drank deeply.

"Admiral?"

"Call me Frankus," he said quickly, before taking another sip from his glass.

"Frankus, these people are not who we expected them to be. They're so stubborn and they have no respect for us and the Colonies at all."

"Tell me something I don't know," he rumbled. His voice was filled with venom. "They had no respect for my position. What makes me so angry is that our own people didn't tell us what we were getting into. It's obvious now that Earth has been spying on us."

"Better to say they were watching us," she corrected.

After a moment, he agreed. "They were probably worried about us after our first meeting with them. The Lizardians knew about us and so did their Earther allies. All of them have some idea of who we are, where we come from, and we know nothing about these people. Our intelligence is weak, and we need information about what we are up against." He took a gulp and filled his glass to the brim.

"Do you think the UCW is planning to strike at us?" asked the now very concerned ambassador.

"I don't believe so," he answered after a moment. "But they have to be worried. Our resources far outmatch theirs and, being so independent, they see us as a threat."

The ambassador nodded slowly. "Possibly a future threat, but they appeared to be worried about something closer to home. I have no idea how fast their faster-than-light tech is…"

"It's as least as fast as ours," he supplied. "It took us a year and a half getting here. A lot of that was educated guessing. When we go home, the journey should take about nine months from our current location. Taking that into consideration, they may have sent probes to watch us at least five or more years ago and have slowly accumulated data on us ever since that time. They maybe watching us as we would them, but I don't think they want to attack us, as much as they want intelligence on us. They're more concerned about their current war."

"Do you believe it's a civil war?" Isahan asked. "I don't believe so, not now."

"Between themselves, no, but not all of the locals may be friendly. I can see those allies coming together to fight some other alien menace, or rebellious colony. It's very likely that followers of the true religion may be hostile to Earth associating with aliens and have declared war. Or they could be worshipers of the gods who are fighting to free Earth and its colonies/allies from alien influence. Without more data, we can't be sure. But I can see this being a likely cause for their war. We could help them with that. Get on their good side."

He drank the last of his ambrosia. "Don't think for a minute that I forgot what you did, Ambassador. You overrode my authority in front of my crew and the Thirteeners and the aliens! "

Isahan gritted her teeth. She knew this would come up sooner or later. "It was a diplomatic call. Your actions almost started a war, ordering a flyby in a foreign territory against a foreign government who expressly said to us not to do so. We were this close to getting to Earth, and you almost ruined everything by giving an order that threatened the Lizardians."

Kunningham was ready to explode. "What was being done was standard SOP. The CDF doesn't change their protocols for a bluff," he harshly whispered.

"Kirel didn't look like he was bluffing to me," she growled back. "And I talked to some of the UCW diplomats. They agreed with the shiplord and wouldn't have raised a finger in protest. We would have lost our pilots for nothing and ruined our chances with Earth right at the cusp of victory!"

Frankus knew she was right, but wouldn't admit it, not yet. The small alien wasn't bluffing, and he knew it, but pride wouldn't let him admit it. After a few moments, he changed the subject, knowing that the ambassador would understand.

"General O'Neill refused to acknowledge my authority and wouldn't give me access to the battle site or the Cylon prisoners, claiming they had jurisdiction. How dare they disrespect us and withhold vital intelligence from us! And I can't do anything about it without creating a diplomatic incident."

"It's just as bad on the diplomatic side, and please call me Genyne." She began sighing in frustration. "These people have no respect for the Articles, civilized rules, or the gods. The UCW leadership has no interests in learning about the gods of their lost heritage, or the rules that have kept humanity together for thousands of years. I won't speak for the aliens, but the near humans are even more recalcitrant than the others. They claimed that Zeus and the other gods were false gods and were glad that the Tau'ri, meaning the Earthers, killed them. You have no idea how my staff and I felt when we heard those words. It bordered on sacrilege! Doctor Jackson…"

"You mean the pain in the butt?"

"Yes, him," she almost spat. "Told me that the gods mentioned were aliens that enslaved humanity for thousands of years and somehow, the Colonials escaped the enslavements. He added that there were aliens called the Goa'uld that posed as gods and ruled many worlds or exterminated any others they considered threats. Ra, Ba'al, Apophis, Zeus, Apollo, Hera, and others were System Lords who ruled with an iron fist. But they weren't gods. Can you imagine that foolishness!" Now her anger began to build. She wasn't a religious woman, but the words still inflamed her. "But in his defense, he also said that according to our scrolls, one of the gods on Kobol was so distraught for the people that she killed herself out of remorse. He was translating a copy, so he missed a few things before he could ask. But he did say that he believed whoever placed us on Kobol wasn't Goa'uld. Those aliens would destroy entire worlds before they'd killed themselves. Self-sacrifice wasn't part of their nature. He does, however, have his suspicions."

Kunningham huffed, "Jackson is a fool. Kobol is the birthplace of humanity. There's no way these isolated, uncivilized people could have destroyed the gods."

Isahan looked at him as she emptied her glass.

Kunningham looked surprised. "You don't believe this!"

"We are missing a lot here. Our researchers will start their work in two days, but they're already pouring through something called the internet. Apellai equipment is small. The tech they have has gone in a completely different direction than ours. Their personal communications devices are tiny and have so many functions. They also claim to be cleaning their air, water, and land pollution, and it would be completed in another ten years. Frankus, I think they are more advanced than we first assumed. And they have resources enough to keep them supplied for decades. They have no interest in unification because they don't need it. There's no motivation for them to consider it."

"They're the Thirteenth Tribe," he insisted. "They have to be."

"Or are they the First Tribe?" suggested the ambassador. "I don't know."

Frankus was quiet for a long time. Finally, he said, "I can't scan Earth, or any of their ships. Their ECM is blocking everything from DRADIS and scans. We can't read the lizard ships. I wanted to do a flyby, but we had to avoid an incident," he said, glaring a bit at the ambassador, but not without any real hostility. Not anymore. "We saw a Terran warship unlike the normal UCW ships. It must be a new design. Its bigger and energy emissions are very powerful. The truth is, we don't know what we're dealing with, and we need to find out. Using a stealth raptor is out. I think they can see through our systems, and I don't want to chance it so soon after arriving on Earth."

"Even if their forces are small, we may wind up losing in the same manner as in our first contact, if the destruction of the Cylon fleet was true…"

"This has become a priority mission. Any suggestion about unity was out of the question for now. President Adar and Goesel were right. Any thoughts of unity should not have any part in this mission. We need to find out what we are up against if they decide to attack us."

Genyne looked aghast. "They wouldn't! Honestly, I don't think they care about us, not with their war about to start."

"As a military commander of the CDF, it is my responsibility to take everything into consideration," Kunningham muttered. "They're worried about something else, worried enough so that the Race and the others are preparing for a major strike. I need to know what it is so we can be ready and offer our help. Thirteenth or not, it is Earth. They made need all the help they can get.