Roads Paved in Shadows

CHAPTER 30

Battlestar Radiance

Admiral Kunningham's quarters

"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 newer design. Its bigger and its 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. Things would go smoother if they at least acknowledge our common heritage."

"The first thing that they must do is to acknowledge the Articles of Colonization. Without that acknowledgment, we cannot begin the true basis for diplomatic talks."

"We both know that the articles have only been in existence since we've landed in the twelve colonies in the Cyrannus system, after the wars. The articles were only officially established during the Cylon wars."

"I am aware of that, ambassador," Kunningham said. "But the basis of the articles were established more than two thousand years ago, and the Articles are based on the original documents. That is something that these people should have had and should have never lost! Unless something catastrophic happened, I can't see them losing a part of their heritage. Even if they were the first tribe, the memory of those documents should have stayed with them. Something must've happened for them to have forgotten that birthright."

"My people had just begun looking at the entertainment transmissions coming from the satellites that they have orbiting all over the planet. It is good that we have a translation system, otherwise would be hopelessly confused. Nevertheless, one of the more interesting things is that my people saw some of the nature documentaries. They have so much information on so many life forms, which is simply amazing. The ecospheres on this planet rivals anything that we've seen on Caprica. The variation of life in the oceans is something our people can study for a hundred years and still not catalog everything. Apparently, they're still cataloging as well. But what was most interesting were some of the animal life forms that they have here. The creatures here are called the great apes, and monkeys, who look so much like humanity that even I have trouble believing that they're not related. And these are just the first few programs that we've seen in our couple of days here. Some of our scientists are pouring over the genetic structures of these animals that were presented on video and making a direct comparison with that of humanity. The chromosomal number may be different, but the actual configuration of the individual chromosomes a striking!"

"You're going over my head, madame."

"Over mine, too. But these beasts have forty-eight chromosomes while we have forty-six. But that is because one pair is broken into two."

"Which makes material enough for forty-six. Naturally, the genes are different."

"Close enough," she acknowledged. "Not only that, but the similarities between the genomic structure of the great ape beasts, and humanity, have flabbergasted our people. Right now, our people are obsessed with wanting to study these creatures with the Earthers so that they can confirm the data they've seen in those videos. They want to see them in person to see if they are real living things. As I said before, it's only been a few days that we've been here, but already we have a wealth of information. My people are beginning to catalog it. Personally, I have to stop them from cataloging now, so that they can actually get out there, and experienced the planet firsthand and validate what they seem."

"I didn't know that our people were advancing so quickly. This Internet system that they use really gives us access to a lot of information, if we can trust it. Speaking of which, the first large group of our people are going to the planet in two days and put the finishing touches on a compound. It's in the secured area and the Earthers have allowed us to use our own colonial Marines to help secure the place. We'll sweep the area for any surveillance equipment, but I don't think that's going to be a problem, but better safe than sorry. These people may be very stubborn, but they are still open enough to be able to learn something. What I'm planning to do is to have their military officials come and visit my ship. I will allow their military and civilian members to see what it's like to experience a real ship, not the little, tiny vessels that they have right now. We have hundreds of years of experience behind our designs, and they're going to see it and understand how to construct a real warship. I've also instructed our people to search for tyllium. There is none in the system and none of the civilian and military shifts that we have scanned show any evidence of using it. Their power sources are unknown to us. However, it has to be highly efficient for them to be able to do what they do when entering and exiting faster–than–light speeds. That is something that will be of interest to us since our resources are being depleted at a rate which will cripple us in less than thirty years. We'll be forced to search ever further away from the Colony worlds for our tyllium. Costs will explode when that happens. If we can convert to another source of energy to supply ships and our economy, that will be a boon to us."

Isahan nodded. The Colonies were in desperate need of a new power source. Earth and the UCW might be able to help in this area. "Tomorrow, I am scheduled to meet with the Langarans, and then later, the Orbanians. This will give me a chance to feel them out, find out a little more about them in more detail. I want to find out more about their history and how they broke away from earth and why they haven't rejoined earth until just recently. I also want to find out how they relate to the non-humans. We need to get a first-hand history of what is happening with these independent colonies, what separated them, and why they are slowly returning to Earth's embrace. But I am curious. Have you appointed anyone from the CDF to speak to the Lizardian's military?"

"Yes, that has already been taken care of," Kunningham said. "We need to understand their military structure, and maybe find out information on their strengths, how many ships they have, the command structure, and their reasons why they joined Earth and the UCW. They're aliens. Why would they do such a thing? And why aren't they at war with humanity? Those differences seem to be too great. As you said, we need to understand all of these people if his part of our mission is to be successful. We need to find out these answers for ourselves, not trust Jackson's word for it. I think he's feeding us a load of crap. We need to find out what's really happening with these people."

UCW command Center Earth

"I understand. I will relay the message immediately," General Chao said before cutting the transmission.

Wasting no time, he ordered the array to focus on grid one-one-nine-six, full sweep. The sensor net wasn't completed and the sectors in question weren't close enough to scan. But Tollanian probes in the area allowed the net to be extended another three hundred light-years.

Two minutes later, the specialists softly cursed even as the general and others saw what the scans had now detected.

"Why didn't the probes detect this earlier? It is massive," the general hissed. He quickly grabbed his government phone and started making calls even as he listened to the answer.

"The Tollanians picked this up, sir," Lieutenant Jones told them. "Their extended probes picked them up as an anomaly, not normally screened for. The array alerted them as the unknown Ha'tak reentered normal space. Once we detected them, the scan identified the ship drives and added it into regular screening programs. The Tollanians then started using a wide spectrum sweep trying to detect our unknown enemy's drives. The Asgard programs searched the database and identified it.

"It's the same as the Vorlons' ftl drives used, but not as submerged. It's more like the Earth alliance ships use. But it's not them."

"No, the configuration is completely different, and they are coming our way. The signature is huge. Scans show four hundred capitals and about a thousand gunboats. It also identified three mother ships about sixty kilometers long, and two large signatures that the database can't identify."

"It's an invasion," O'Neill coldly announced. "They're after all of us. The Vorlons must be really pissed off at us. Of course, we blew up three of their suns, so I can understand why they might feel upset. They've hired mercenaries to do the job they couldn't."

"General Chao nodded in agreement. We need all of our forces here," she announced. "Our reaction forces can arrive at any of the UCW worlds within an hour, but I believe Earth is their primary target."

Now. O'Neill nodded quickly. "We're bringing n Atlantis and the second fleet. They will be here in one week. We don't want them attacking us anywhere near Earth, but there may not be a choice. We don't have the knowledge to enter their jump space yet."

"There is also the beacon they have placed near our moon. It will lead them right to us. We ill be able to see them, but not stop them until they enter normal space. It is too close for comfort for my taste."

"I hate this," Jack grumbled. "I ordered Mitchell to gather his squadron and hunt down that Ha'tak and kill it. It's a good bet that those are the things that wiped out the Tok'ra and the three other worlds. Send all available data to him and let him know they're using jump engines to keep from being detected. The array will help track it down."

"Full stargate security protocols are initiated," Chao said on all worlds. "No one in or out without proper ID transmissions. Alert everyone and tell Daniel that I need to speak to him, also Colonel Carter. I need to rack her brains for something. Contact Teal'c. I want to talk to him, move it, people."

Unknown regions-Milky Way

Jason McGuire took his time as he walked into the main dining room. He smiled brightly as he saw several of his companions were already there. Two of them were more than and Anna Sheridan. Vincent was nowhere to be seen at this time, but he was sure that the man was coming because this was an important meeting that they all needed to attend.

Several high level Shadows were there as well on cloaked and waiting patiently for him to sit down. Everybody seemed to be in a jubilant mode and they had every right to be. Plans were going according to predictions and soon the Drakh would eliminate a threat that Jason confessed was a worry to everyone, including his masters. The Earth people of this universe, the Tau'ri, were a concern for his masters and, by extension, they were concerned about him and his people. These Terrans were being hailed as the future Fifth Race. His masters did not know exactly what that meant and they were worried enough to send two entire fleets to destroy the planet, which meant that they were considered the dangerous threat.

The Shadows had established a new home here on this world and in many ways, it resembled Z'ha'dum. However, this planet did not have that touch of darkness that the original home world had. It was just another world, one convenient to use until the proper time where they could search and find a world that suit them better. For use as the colony world, however, this was more than satisfactory.

Jason smiled brightly at his coworker, Mr. Morden, who was also seated, drinking what suspiciously looked like champagne. Anna was also seated there. As per usual, she wasn't smiling. She was just indifferent about this, observing everyone and everything around her with that unemotional gaze of hers. The lack of emotion was the price she paid for being attached to one of the mother ships. Jason involuntarily shivered at the very thought of being attached to one of those alien warships. It was known that they devoured the mind and the soul, changing and re-creating them into something that it could use, and the person was never the same again. The Shadows saw Anna as something they could use and they pulled her out of her mother's ship, but it was far too late. The changes have been done and she would never be as she was. But what she was, was a devoted servant, one of the prime messengers of his associates. She demanded respect, and he gave it to her, as did the others.

Facing Morden, he began a quick summary of what happened with his time with President Clark. "The man was overjoyed when I told him that we have found O'Neill's planet of origin," he explained. He started laughing. "You should have seen him trying to maintain a cool and almost indifference to what I was telling him. But if you look closely, you can see the man was practically jumping up and down with excitement. And most of all, and this is the important part, he believed he got something over on us, that we had no idea of what was truly there on that planet Earth."

"The man is always been greedy, and that's why we offered him the Stargate's," the other man said. "He has control of almost everything around him, yet he still wants more. It's a classic example of pure greed and stupidity. But who are we to tell him about the stupid part?"

"You're right about that," Jason smiled. "I could tell that he's already planning a war with the Centauri. Can you imagine two mad men with armies behind them fighting it out? Talk about the chaos! It will be wonderful to see the results of that. Unfortunately, though, I believe that Catagia and, by extension, Centauri prime wouldn't survive the onslaught that's about to occur. But once is over and Earth Alliance has total control, then the nonaligned worlds will fall under his command. That won't last long and the galaxy will go up in flames. The strongest will survive and they will all be the better for it."

"Clark will be the premier power in that part of the galaxy. I almost feel sorry for the Vree. But they might be strong enough to survive, although I suspect they may have to relocate from the home world to do it."

Morden took another sip of his drink. "We've given him the tools to do the job and I have complete faith in him. Madness and chaos are such a wonderful combination. I'm sure that our associate's plans will come to fruition there, as I expect them to do here."

Now Anna chimed in. "The Ashtorath are power here, but they are too closed minded. They are power, but they are afraid of Earth and that fear keeps them from doing what needs to be done. Once earth is removed, then these new System Lords will run amok. By the time they finish, most of this galaxy will be fertile ground for us to do as our masters wish. Once Earth is gone, we will not have any real resistance to what we plan. The Asgard are dead." Now she smiled. It almost looked real. "At least the Vorlons did something right."

One of the Shadows moved closer to the group. Its movements were graceful and its threat permeated throughout its entire body. "The Vorlons made a mistake," it said easily. "They underestimated the power of the Asgard at the cost of their worlds, their people, and their stars. It is dangerous to underestimate one's enemy, and this is why we have two full fleets of our minions coming to destroy earth and the surrounding UC W worlds. They cannot be allowed to continue to exist and threaten our plans."

"What are we going to do about the Tollanians?" Jason asked. "By all accounts, they appear to be very advanced, although they are few in numbers."

"You are correct," the Shadow intoned. "Plans have been initiated to remove them from the equation. As for Earth, we will use their Stargate to devastate a large portion of the military and civilian population. There will be in disarray. When our servants attack, they will be unable to mount an effective resistance by receiving aid from the Stargate. They will be overwhelmed by our military and then our Shadow planet killers will do the rest."

"May I be permitted to ask a question?" Jason asked. "Will the planet killers be required for all of the UCW worlds?"

The male shadow twisted his head in amusement. "They are there to be used as a backup. But the fleet should be sufficient to do the job and we need not to squander our resources unless absolutely necessary. The fleet will destroy the UCW worlds. Earth will receive the attention of our planet killers."

Jason bowed to his master's wisdom. The plans were emotion and would not be stopped now. It was only a matter of how many of the service would be killed in the conflict. Then he smiled again when he imagined Clark's face, when he finally saw the devastated world, one that he had been waiting to destroy for such a long time. "I imagine Clark would be emotionally distraught," he laughed.

"That's one way to describe it," Morden said. "But he's the last person that needs all of that technology that they have there. It will make you more arrogant, than he already is."

"Yes," the Shadow agreed. "He does not know when to stop, which is why he is such a valuable servant. It is our hope, though, that he survives until old age. The chaos that he will bring satisfies us most eloquently."

New Tollania

"The stargate is under security setting Alpha Three," Councilor Travell said to her people. "Our military is on alert, and orbital and planetary defenses are active. Please continue your observations using the array and inform me of any changes," she said. She appeared extremely worried.

Narim and his team moved quickly, acknowledging her orders. The older woman had learned a lot since the goa'uld Tanneth had utterly destroyed their colony world. she made a mistake and almost compounded it by agreeing to use a phase shifting bomb on Earth's stargate. Narim destroyed the weapon, but his world paid the price. Tanneth killed tens of millions of his people and turned the survivors into refugees. Earth, the world most of his people considered too primitive and unruly, were the ones that helped when no one would or could. It gave Narim a measure of comfort. His people were humbled and slowly re-evaluated their decisions concerning lesser advanced cultures. Those thoughts made him laugh out loud. The Earthers were catching up and had surpassed them in some ways. But they also offered the Tollanians an opportunity to work with them and his people accepted the challenged and never looked back. His world still treaded carefully when it came to younger, less evolved cultures, but instead of ignoring them, they were now looking out for them, just like the Earthers.

Had it really been less than twenty years?

Lemuria

UCW Command Center

General Jack O'Neill wouldn't tell anyone, but he really, really, did like his office here in the city. It was quiet, secure, and it was in the middle of everything. Not only that, but he didn't need to walk for ten minutes to get from place to place. The transport booths instantly took him where he needed to go in the city, not that he didn't like the exercise. Ancient medical technology, supplemented by Asgardian science, helped to extend the lives of humans and provided cures for a lot of conditions, including his arthritis. Medical sciences were booming on Earth. The researchers were confirming everything, which took years to get approval, but the progress was steady, and everybody was benefiting, including the allies of the UCW.

Things were changing, however, as it always did. Daniel was retiring from his current position soon and taking a government job as head of archaeological research for the UCW. Sam had her own command and was soon to be promoted to general. Of course, throughout the years, their on again, off again relationship was back on again. Naturally. Everyone from the President on down knew about it. He should have just gone on and married her. The truth was, he was somewhat afraid. But he was getting past that now, and knew he had to commit. The opportunity was closing fast. Neither one of them could wait forever.

Teal'c was on the council of the Jaffa Nation and had gotten married, had a kid on the way. That made Jack smile. Atlantis was doing fine and heading to Earth with the second fleet. He nodded to himself in satisfaction. They would need the firepower. The incoming signal they were tracking was huge, and everyone concluded that the Vorlons meant business.

Speaking of which...

He pulled out a small stone and pointed it towards the large screen monitor in his office. Immediately, the image showing an Asgardian mixed with human characteristics wearing a toga appeared. The change was still striking to Jack, but the Asgardians learned the hard way that countless generations of cloning as a form of reproduction and immortality were ultimately a sentence of death. Cloning was a trap. Reproduction was starting the old-fashioned way. Abandoning their ways of correcting the problem while keeping everything else that was unique to themselves had failed. The price of the new approach was steep, but extinction was worse.

"Hiya, Freya. Sorry to bother you, but we have a problem."

"Greetings, General. What does this problem concern?"

"We think the Vorlons are coming for a return visit."

Freya's entire body language changed. "General O'Neill, you have my complete attention and that of the Council."

He told her everything and provided the data.

The Asgardian was extremely unhappy.

TBC