Record keeping: Here we go. Responses and comments. Arthorious: I remember that as well. But keep reading. I will say that Terra has a lot of enemies lining up to stomp on them flat, as you will notice in this chapter. People forget and I constantly remind them that Adama was a soldier who could have cared less about his fellow Colonials. See the original mini series. He could do a lot and not bat an eye. Why wouldn't he try to nuke earth?

Skelly78: It would be cute having an ascended coming to visit them, but that will not happen. However, That brings up an important point I will bring up in both the Universe of Change series and this one about the ascended coffee drinkers. This involves the Q and others who are considered ascended. There is a big problem going on with them that I believe no one had thought of before and I will throw out that theory in both this and the other story. What does it mean to be ascended? We've seen the SG ascended Ancients, and the Q which I will use as examples. I think that being ascended as we have seen is a honey trap. I will let you all think about that.

Robo Reader 21: you are correct concerning the African American comments if they were around. This is something I have discussed with people and they concluded the same thing. But also, I have taken into account that the colonials have a culture that is alien to earth, no matter how similar it appears to be. They would not fully understand why black folks would not be happy with them. This was touched on in WW Missionaries down to Earth. And a lot was touched on with Sisko in the AUOC series with more coming.

The Colonials are being hypocritical, but they really don't know, and they don't see it…yet. Now, just because one does not see it does not make it better. Earth Alliance is a lot closer to Terra than the Colonials and would see the problem immediately. The problem here is 1) expectations and 2) religion.

I received a review from a reader who hates WW: establishing the Balance. He or she hates the way I portray the colonials. My response is that I call it the way I see it. Remember, we are talking about a tiny portion of the population onboard a besieged warship and a few refugees and perverted robots. To me, and I speak for myself… none of them, except maybe dee Dee, were worth anything. I don't blame the actors, but I do blame the writers and creators. Some people loved that show. I thought it was full of it and I have not changed, hence my portrayal of the colonials here. As you said, earth has had its problems is the SGverse. We in reality life is worse and we continue to repeat mistakes. But we also learn from them. Sadly, we have a ton of people that wish to go back to the olden days and that will not happen. In this story, everyone is going to learn that we one thinks, is not necessarily what it really is.

Okay. Let's continue with this story. Thank you for your comments, everyone.

AlbertG

Roads Paved in Shadows

CHAPTER 46

Sol System

Lemuria

General O'Neill continued. Everyone could tell he was somewhat tense and was responding to Kunningham's attitude with is own. "We connected to a gate once that was being sucked in by a star that turned into a black hole! And no, it wasn't the one your fleet ran into. We almost lost the planet! The Ancients ultimately left the gates to be used by everyone. They were brilliant, but not as well versed on the darker side. They left the gates. For better or worse, the stargate is open season. Ambassador, we have no doubt your people would try to spread your beliefs to the other humans and nations in the gate system. That would create animosity at best, and war most certainly. We can see it here. Some of your people would most certainly try to force your opinion about religion to every human society you encounter. And what happens if they disagree with your religious beliefs? Look, there is a lot you need to learn about before you go out and try to convert humanity for the gods of Kobol whom most of the galaxy fears and hates."

"We wouldn't force humanity to follow the ways of the gods. But they deserve the right to know about them." Kunningham snapped. The comment had stabbed him deeply. It struck very close to home. But it was his culture they were insulting, and he had to retaliate. "And what do you really know about the gods? You don't remember your ancestral heritage!"

"I was hoping we wouldn't get into this now," General O'Neill snapped back. "Your gods are hated through this galaxy. The Goa'uld used their names and posed as those gods, including the gods of Olympus. In their name, the Goa'uld rule this galaxy in fear, murder, and they dominated and treated humanity like dirt, enslaving and slaughtering humans for thousands of years. They wiped out most of the intelligent aliens in this galaxy, experimented on everybody. The gods you believe in may not have been the Goa'uld. There is evidence that suggests that. But the Goa'uld turned their names into monsters and that is what you would re-introduce; monsters, every time you invoked their names. Is that what you want?"

"You're lying," choked out the ambassador. This was blasphemy of the highest order. She wasn't overly religious in her dedication. However, the Tau'ri's hatred of their true gods angered her to the boiling point. "The gods are loved! No human could ignore the truth. They've guided us for thousands of years, from our most primitive times until now. No human can consciously ignore the truth once they heard it from those who know the truth!"

"Loved? Maybe by the Colonials, but their very names involve fear and hatred across space. The beings that you worship may have been benevolent, but usurpers controlled the narrative for thousands of years. If you went out extolling the belief of loving gods, what the others will see are thralls following Goa'uld monsters. The Jaffa told you this several times! Were you not listening?"

The other Colonials were speechless for the moment. But beneath the surface, the anger was bubbling up and threatening to erupt. What they believed was being mocked, one of the greatest insults imaginable, especially coming from no-nothing monotheists from a world that rejected every shred of their true heritage. Frighteningly, it matched what the Jaffa humanoids had told them.

"Are you purposely trying to destroy our culture just to satisfy your own justifications?" General Cain questioned. "Do you hate us that much?" she stared at Daniel, not in anger but concern. "You make me wonder if it was better for us never to have come here–to your world."

"The truth hurts, but better for you to know than to get out there and get slapped down, or forcing a world to follow beliefs they spent thousands of years living under the lash of with no hope of escape," Daniel countered.

"You people are barbarians," Kunningham concluded. "I don't know if unification is even possible! But, maybe we can create a trade agreement between us someday. But for now, I think I have had enough of you people." all thoughts of diplomacy had flown out the window. He needed to cool down and re-evaluate the situation and get input from his senior officers and specialists in the fleet. He needed to refocus himself. "I…"

He was cut off by the announcement of an off-world activation by the stargate. The moment he realized what it meant, he literally forgot what he was about to say. He wanted to see the gate work once more. It was captivating, and he wanted to see it in operation. He could watch it for years and it would never get old.

"Off world activation," the voice repeated. "Shield active. No IFF identification. Objects-"

The energy shield protecting the glowing blue aperture went opaque a half-second before something collided with the shield. Whatever it was, could not fully form, but the kinetic wash shook the room. The shaking was accompanied by a huge boom, immediately followed by a second, equally large boom. The noise sounded like the end of the world.

"Deactivate the gate!" Screamed the general, but the stargate crew in control had already done it. O'Neill, Daniel, and others had seen this before. "Someone tried to use the gate to nuke us, sounded like two detonations, very close together."

"Gate busters!"

Whoever it was, tried to kill them all and a significant fraction of the planet.

O'Neill had rushed to the control room without fully realizing it. the specialist controlling the gate was already at work. She had barely acknowledged the general's presence and was giving out details before he could ask questions.

"Some type of nuclear ordinance, two of them. Size, five hundred megatons each. Nuclear material unknown, analyzing. Sir," she said. "Those bombs could have breached the tritanium shield."

There was no way this attack was a coincidence, not with the enemy fleet homing in on them. He was overjoyed that this was an Atlantis-class stargate, one of the modern ones. Operations was a lot more sophisticated than in the good old days. In the 90s, the US had developed their own control system. It was slow and primitive, but it worked. The titanium retractable shield did its job and saved them all more than once.

The ancients had something better, a fully developed energy shield. And as an added factor, the controller could track the origin of the incoming wormhole and inactivate the gate quickly and easily. By studying the Lemurian gate, the Tau'ri discovered that the older gates had some of those capabilities, too. But they didn't know about said capabilities until they had a chance to study the Atlantis and Lemurian gates. They were still learning about the wondrous device.

"Where is the origin of the other gate?" he demanded.

"We have the location locked," came the response. "It's not in the database of previous incomings. It's about a thousand light years from here."

"Keep the address handy,: he ordered. "That address is blocked as of now." He would have one of the ships investigate when he had the chance. No way was the UCW not going to respond to this blatant attack.

Meanwhile, Daniel was explaining to the visitors exactly what happened. He summed it up in one sentence to the frightened group in front of him.

"That is a declaration of war."

Mister Morden and the Drakh soldiers and technicians continued staring at the gate, which had abruptly shut off several moments after two planet Shadow killer warheads were launched into the gate. The missiles were mini versions of the ones used in the shadow cloud planet killers. Those missiles were powerful enough to penetrate to the very core of a planet. The missiles used now were estimated to be strong enough to penetrate the metallic shield used by these Earth people. Earth didn't have a chance of stopping one of them, less two.

The gate and Earth territory for sixty kilometers in every direction should have been a pool of molten lava, and that did not include the effects of the naquada-built gate would add. But…

"Did it work?" the human asked.

The Drakh commander, standing near him, answered yes, but Morden could tell that he wasn't positive.

The gate on this cold world experienced some energy backwash before it cut off. That was expected, but it wasn't confirmation of the destruction of the Terran gate.

One of the Shadows appeared next to Morden, not seeming to be affected by the intense cold. It gazed at the gate with an intensity that frightened the human. It finally decided. "Dial Earth again," it intoned.

"If we dial Earth's stargate, and it connects, they will know where we are," the human said cautiously.

"We have determined that the stargates do not have the capability to determine the origin of our outgoing gate. They cannot find us. If the gate connects, then we have failed. If not, then we have succeeded in our mission and a part of Earth is in ruins."

Morden wasn't sure, but he didn't comment. The Shadows hated this Earth. They were still upset about this Earth interfering with the great debate. They hated those humans because they almost wiped out their enemies, the Vorlons, before the Shadows could legitimately claim victory in the great debate. The young race had no right interfering with their betters' interests Earth's death was demanded if his masters were to be satisfied.

The gate refused to connect.

"Once more," the Shadow ordered.

The coordinates were dialed again and failed to connect. Morden and the Drakh commander were pleased.

"It is done," the Shadow master said. "when our fleet arrives, they will confirm the destruction of the gate, and destroy what is left of that world. We shall now leave this wretched planet."

Morden was happy to go, finally. It was too cold and dark here. If he never sat foot on it again, he'd be happy. If the missiles did what was expected, then Earth's ecology had suffered a major blow equal to a super volcano erupting, and that was putting it nicely. Tens of millions would be dead and dying. Their governments would be in shambles and their infrastructure would be crippled. Soon there could be starvation and disease which would kill millions more.

But not before the Drakh arrived and added to the destruction and carnage. Then, that world would be consigned to death and justice served. The Earthforce's weapons could never equal what was coming. The masters would be very pleased, since this was personal.

The man known as Mister Morden headed towards his ship as the Drakh technicians began breaking down the equipment for transport.

Ragnar

Commander Adama gritted his teeth in anger and fear as he began frantically issuing orders the moment the small fleet under his command jumped to Ragnar. Thirty Cylon warships and five support ships were already in the area, fully powered and combat ready. They were spread outside of the entrance of the way to Ragnar Station. There was only one safe way through to the anchorage. It was old and unkept but had the luxury of being relatively forgotten and isolated and supposedly unknown to the Cylons which turned out to be a lie.

The Cylons had known about the station and were raiding the place. The high levels and type of radiation in the gaseous cloud surrounding the station were suspected to be harmful to Cylons, however, that was only conjecture. The dilapidated station was all but abandoned, being serviced by only three hundred personnel who were no doubt dead by now. the cylons would not have allowed for any survivors. The only reason Adama could think of for them being here was to take advantage of the Colonies' plight and steal everything they could get their hands on. That included food stocks, and fuel, ammunition and other critical military supplies. But Adama had gambled on acquiring the old but still usable ammunition and nukes he so desperately needed. It was a gamble he just lost.

"Saul screamed orders as he strutted around looking as grim as ever. If you looked into his eyes, however, you could see the fear and loathing and anger at his traditional enemies. He looked like a vicious, trapped, angry animal. There were too many of them.

"We're screwed," Saul growled at Adama. "We'll take as many of them as we can."

The commander nodded. He couldn't see a way out of this. The jump engines were charging, but it would be a couple of minutes before they could jump and with the numbers out there arrayed against them, two minutes was just enough to be too late.

Lieutenant Greata, still in pain, looked on in surprise. The Cylons weren't firing, weren't even targeting them directly. It didn't make sense. The toasters had them dead to rights.

"Sir, we're getting a transmission from the lead Cylon ship." Lieutenant Dualla appeared confused and highly suspicious.

"Don't trust them," Tigh hissed.

The commander noticed that his old friend hadn't advised him not to respond. "Open."

"Comms opened."

"This is Commander Adama of the Erétris. You are in violation of the treaty, and this violation is a declaration of war. Leave now."

The visual activated and a beautiful blond woman stared back at him. And she was impressive, but she also looked emaciated, tired, and, most importantly, frightened.

"The famous Commanda William Husker Adama. It is nice to finally meet you. You look so old," she said to him. "Older than I expected."

"Traitor," Saul yelled before his commander could shut him up.

The woman glared at him and then smiled, although that smiled didn't reach er eyes. "Sorry to disappoint you, Colonel Tigh, formally of the Battlestar Galactica. I am Cylon, the next evolution of your children." She smiled as everyone in the Colonial Command Center was wide-eyed, shocked, and frightened. "Oh, yes. We evolved." The woman's eyes were blank. "There is no reason to keep the secret anymore. You Humans won," she told Adama in her flat, unemotional voice. "Your lost Thirteenth Tribe found us, and they and their pet aliens destroyed us!" she screamed in avoice so desolate that no one could miss it. Instantly, she calmed down, and that false smile returned. "We, your children, are taking what little inheritance we have from you and are leaving. With the One God's will, we will never see another Human or alien again."

"You are not our children!" Adama was extremely cautious. But his curiosity peeked. "What are you talking about? Aliens. What fools do you take us for? The Thirteenth attacked you?"

The number Three glared at the man. "You don't know, do you? The Thirteenth Tribe attacked our home, destroyed all of our assets with those super nukes. Then the others came." She shivered. "The ships they used were nothing like anything we've seen before. We couldn't stop them, and they destroyed everything they touched while the humans collected our survivors, our centurions, and our dead. They killed our civilization, and it's all your fault! So, you have won, and we are leaving. If you hadn't treated them so harshly when you first met them, they might not have attacked us. Our condition of non-combative hostilities would still exist."

"Good riddance," Saul muttered."At least the Thirteenth did something right."

"Shut up, Saul," Adama hissed. "You know Earth attacked us. And we know you had a war fleet tracking our diplomatic fleet headed to Earth. It could have been your fleet's action that started this war with them!"

She slowly nodded. There was no point in keeping things secret now.

"Possibly," she admitted. "Whether or not, that is true. You see the result. Both our sides have been ravaged. We wanted the Colonies wiped out because of the evilness of your species. We expected to win if hostilities broke out, what we didn't expect was that we would suffer such devastation. But even if this is all your fault, the Colonies didn't start this war against us. So we have left your people alive at Ragnar. We only took what we could and left the rest. As you might suspect, that station is not healthy for our people. You are obviously here for the same reason as we."

The commander didn't say anything. It was strange, talking to his most hated enemy. He didn't want to believe a word she said, but they didn't attack when they could have. For some reason, he wanted them to continue talking, if for nothing else, it gave him time. "There are no such things as aliens."

The Cylon woman's laugh was bitter. "It is a wake-up call, Human. For both of us. They are worse than you and we can't stop them. So, we run. Maybe if we meet again, in a thousand years, our people may not try to kill each other. But if we find the Thirteenth world, we will do our best to kill them all and you best stay out of our way!" She paused for a second and consulted with others before turning back to face the screen.

"Here's a parting gift. What you do with it is your own affair. You didn't start the war with us and for that, we will extend this small mercy." There was a data squirt sent and communications checked it for malicious content. It was stored in an isolated drive unit. "We have what we want. I hope we never see you miserable beasts again!"

The Cylon ships began to blink out without a shot fired, leaving the small fleet f confused and supremely worried Colonials alone in the dark.

"Colonel, have our analysis double check the data and then let's look at it. Have our people get to Ragnar and see if what the Cylons said is true. If it is, grab as much as we can carry and get the survivors."

Saul, ever paranoid, started yelling out orders.

An hour later, the fleet command crews were rocked to their cores as they read the data. If true, then everything they knew had changed.

"This can't be real!" grumbled Colonel Tigh, even as he doubted his own words.

The Earthforce ships were clear, identifiable. The other ships were something else entirely. The video of the aliens chilled him. Naturally, his mind wanted to believe this was a Cylon trick. But the other part of him violently disagreed. The Cylons had the small squadron dead to rights and could have wiped them out. But they chose not to do so, much to the relief of every Colonial.

True to their word, and he hated to admit it, most of the three hundred skeleton crew on Ragnar were not harmed. The cylons did take two-thirds of the munitions and ordinance, including the much needed nuclear missiles, but left a considerable amount. Fifty containers of the prepared food packs were left untouched and untampered with, according to the crews who checked for signs of tampering. The greatest loss was the amount of Tyllium taken. Only a quarter of the stored fuel remained. However, even that was surprising. The toasters robbed the station of most of its stores, but not everything. It wasn't enough to justify going to war over. Saul didn't like it. it gave them more credibility.

Adama clenched his fists tight enough that his fingernails drew blood. The man was so angry that he'd forgotten about the pain of his still mending bones. He believed. The Thirteenth were more than just traitors.

They consorted with monsters.

"Order our ships to gather as much as they can," Adama ordered. "Plot a course to the border. The fleet guarding the border is still there. We'll join up with them and plan our next move."

The old man hated to admit it, but the Cylons were right. Earth needed to pay, and he intended to be in on it.

"So say we all," he whispered to softly for anyone to hear.

Sol system

Frankus Kunningham was foremost a soldier, trained to be one most of his life. He grew up on the stories of the wars with the cylons, Watched the videos, and documentaries on the war. The Colonies' newscasters never allowed the people to forget that they were set in a condition of non-military-hostilities–what the Tau'ri called a cold war. He listened as the talking heads endlessly discussed the illogic of artificial intelligences believing in a god and not the gods. There were spirited discussions whether they could have emotions, or was it some deep-seated fault in their programming that occurred when they rebelled and tried to kill their masters.

The stories and culture were embedded into every Colonial. They were the enemy.

This displace… colony, whatever they were, were so different, he couldn't get a handle on them. They hadn't had the experience with the Cylons. They dealt with aliens. They expressed their religion in a thousand different ways. They didn't have any real connections to their true Colonial relatives and had no interests in rejoining them. They were like people who grew up for generations on a distant island, who needed to be brought into the fold. And they resisted.

What disturbed him the most was how badly the Earthers had been misjudged. They had access to stargates! They controlled stargates and traveled to worlds so far away that he had trouble conceiving the distances.! He knew beyond doubt that some of the officials at home would be appalled for a single colony having such power. And they would be more appalled that the Earthers were exposed to such alien cultures polluting their own. Such exposure would be unacceptable among the more religious hard core factions. Those same factions would demand an immediate cessation in the use of the gates and the expulsion of any and all aliens and near humans.

They would also immediately demand that Earth and its allies, or fellow UCW humans, convert to the rightful religion. Others would demand that they share their obvious wealth, assuming they were basically primitives, easily manipulated. Those beliefs had the perfect recipe for a war.

As for the war happening at home, he was sure the CDF could take care of themselves. One diplomatic fleet months away from home would not make a difference.

Those were the thoughts that rolled back and forth in his mind. He was a soldier, not a true diplomat. He had to admit that he was somewhat stiff when it came to having his way. Being an admiral pulled one in that direction. It also made one used to having one's orders followed. That wasn't happening here on this world and frankly, Frankus hated it. but for diplomacy's sake, he did his best to endure it.

But he couldn't ignore the facts. These people went out of their way to antagonize their Kobollian cousins. And it felt wrong. Less than a month ago, he was expecting the Earth people to fall over themselves to bask in the glow of their elder brethren, with him taking his proper place as supreme Commander of the now Thirteen Colonies of Kobol.

His parents would be horrified at how things played out. The President, the CDF, and the Quorum, would go ballistic, and that was putting it nicely. The entire mission was a mess. Now he was thankful he was so far away. His plans to assist Earth in its defense would have surely met with intense resistance by many people at home. The Quorum would have split down the middle, or demanded reparations that Earth would have never accepted. He could easily see the Quorum demanding full access to the stargate and demanding absolute authority over them, just because they could.

The stress was getting to him and the others. He needed to relax his mind, even if it was only for a little while.

TBC