Chapter 6 - 14 years before the fall - New Altera reveals itself and the truth about their past
(TN-I'm still looking for someone to beta my work so be forgiving with any mistakes i miss)
It's been two years since the first battlestar built by Kronus shipyards was launched and that has been followed by 2 more with the final battlestar to be completed in 6 more months. Thankfully the government hasn't started to withdraw funds from the military budget yet so they have already placed an order for 4 more and an additional order for 12 of the new Gunstars that they have since brought into service to replace cruisers in close escort to battlestars.
Leo found himself looking at the space dock of Picon as his family's yacht docked with the station next to all sorts of military and civilian ships from liners to fleet tenders all performing the delicate dance of moving goods and people around the larger Cyrannus system. The Yacht is here for a meeting to go over the reports from the scouting trip Mr Thrace did to the system that they will build their new colony in.
It was 2 hours later that they were all sitting in the meeting room on the Yacht all waiting on Mr Thrace to start his report.
"Well I can now say with certainty that the system you sent me too is a gold mine for both resources and an almost perfect planet for us to colonize." Mr Thrace started as he stood at the front of the room with a large screen behind him showing some pictures taken of the planet and system. "The system make up consists of 8 planetoids and a large number of moons..."(TN-for full description of system look at bottom of chapter as so now to bore people with a large amount of info)
Leo looked around the room at all the smiling and excited faces and said "I think we should name the system Altera Prime and the planet where we are going to colonize New Altera."
At that suggestion everyone looked at him with a weird look and he knew that it's time to fill the group in on their race's historical background.
"I know it's a strange name but there is a reason for it so please bear with me and keep your questions till the end of my explanation." He looked around the room and waited for them all to nod in acceptance and then prepared himself for what comes next.
"Ok so you all know about the message i received from Athena right?" They all nodded at that "Well that is the truth but it didn't happen as i said and i didn't tell you everything that was talked about."
After giving them a moment to get over the shock he continued "What i told you about having the memories of another life is true but i didn't just have those memories i actually lived as that person for 35 years before dying in a test flight of a new engine for a atmospheric fighter. I woke up in a 1980's earth diner sat across from a woman he didn't know who introduced herself as Athena..."
Leo then went on to describe the meeting with Athena and what she told him about their ancestry, about what Aries did with the tv show and then finally what is going to happen as well as what Athena is allowing Leo to do to change the outcome.
"Now I have told you all this. I will give you the room for 15 min to discuss among yourselves and if you still want to continue to follow me." Leo said before standing up and leaving the room.
The group sat looking at each other for a few minutes and then Leo's mother spoke first. "He might have been another person but he is still my son and I will follow him as he has done nothing to warrant our distrust."
James Adama agreed with his daughter and said as much "No, he hasn't and he is doing his best given his limitations to save as many people as he can. Do you really think if they gave him free reign and he went out and told the public what he told us that anything would change. They would just lock him up and throw away the key while seizing all his assets and sharing them out amongst themselves."
The rest agreed with that and then they talked it out a little more amongst themselves, talking about how they are descendants of such amazing people and that they have forgotten so much and that they can achieve it all again in the future.
Leo spent a long 15 min waiting outside and then knocked, waited for a response and then walked back into the room to be met by his mother and receiving a hug from her and a pat of the shoulder from his grandfather.
"Leo, we might not like that you kept it from us but we understand and although it might take us longer to get over it fully we all agreed to support you and what you mean to do." His mother said with affirmatives from the rest of the group.
Leo smiled in relief at that statement then he headed back to the head of the table and directed them to sit to complete the meeting and to make a few more detailed plans now that they all are on the same page.
Leo began "Ok, what we need to do is to subtly start to move the families of our employee's to this system on the colony ships and agro ships so we have a ready workforce to start building infrastructure, housing, farming and the like. Also i think we should start recruiting and moving as many of the old timers that we can get away with to the system after the gene therapy to give us the starts of a experienced work force and a strong foundation to build on as we move more people to the colony as we get closer to the attack."
Dr Williams was the first to disagree "I think that's a mistake as we would be rushing things if we did that. We can start the recruitment of the old timers but what i think we should do is build a layover location where we can gather people and resources and make it look like where building a base there such as a mining colony or a civilian scrapyard that's base outside the congested cyrannus system."
Mr Adonis agreed and followed up "I agree with the doctor as i think if we move to much to quickly it will cause more problems than it will solve as we will need the hyperdrive ships to move the people and resources to the Altera prime system which is 3 weeks away by hyperdrive but over 1.5 years away with current current jump drive tech." He then looked at Leo "Also if we are to save more survivors after the attack we need to leave anchorages in safe places on the ideal flight path to the new colony to provide the resources needed to keep those fleets going for that amount of time to get there."
Leo took in what was told to him and thought it over and realized they were right and he was trying to rush things a little too much. "Ok how about Mr Thrace and Mr spencer go over the data he collected and figure out where to build the anchorages, Dr Williams and Mr Adonis work out what is needed to speed up the conversion of the ships to hyperdrive, also i want you to look at what is needed to build the Construction machines up to and including building a dedication production ship for them." He waited for their acknowledgements before continuing. "I then want Miss Holloway and Miss Torres to start going over their plans and make a report of what resources they need to get a settlement for 200,000 people built in the next 5 years. Mother, you and my grandmothers need to start looking into recruiting old timers from all colonies who have skills we need or will need and work out a way to get them in one place so that we can maybe fake their deaths or something to move them towards the new colony. Lastly Grandfather you need to start looking at what ships we can officially mothball that have the new hyperdrive that we can send ahead to secure the new system."
Once Leo was finished he looked at them all with determination "If you know people who you think we can rely on to help then let me know and if i don't get a warning then i will give you the ok to recruit them as if we are to do this in the time we have then i think we need more help with the management."
They all agreed and the meeting started to wind down and Leo left the Yacht so it could take the short trip back to caprica orbit.
It was 8 months after the meeting that he decided he needed to tell Louise everything before they took their relationship any further so he had 2 weeks leave approved and planned on taking her to his family's holiday villa on Scorpio and tell her everything. So it's with that decision made that Leo found himself in the study of the villa sat across from Louise trying to plan out how he was going to reveal this without her thinking he was a few cards short of a full deck.
"Louise, the reason I brought you here apart from a nice vacation was to tell you something before we took our relationship any further. Before you judge you need to listen to everything and then I will give you the option to walk away but know I love you and want you to be my forever Partner." Leo explained to Louise.
Louise looked a little startled but happy at what Leo said at the end "Leo I trust you and I will listen to what you have to say with an open mind."
Leo smiled then started to explain everything about who he was, his plans, what he hopes to accomplish as well as what he hopes her part in it all will be. Leo spent nearly 3 hours talking and explaining to Louise and she just sat there listening to it all without reacting apart from making a few faces at certain parts such as about the attack and his wanting to make a colony that doesn't owe allegiance to the colonies.
"So there you have it, everything you need to know about me and what my future holds. Do you have any questions?" Leo asked Louise
She responds with a little heat to her voice "So you're telling me that our gods are not gods but our ancestors who evolved to a higher plain of existence and that they sent you here from earth there home in the milky way galaxy. Also that the cylons are going to infiltrate the colonies and that our ancestors can't get involved directly so they sent you back with the ability to save people but won't allow you to save everyone. Did i get that right?"
Leo looks at her and answers "Yes that's the gist of it, but you have to understand that if i went to the government or higher ups with what i just told you they would throw me into a padded room, forget about me until the attack kills us all." He then takes a breath and continues "One of the main reasons i joined the fleet was to be in a position of power to make rescuing as many people as i can possible as even with the resources they have given me or i was born with can only do so much."
Louise stands up and looks at Leo. "I need some time to process this so I will see you in the morning." She then walks out of the study to her room and slams the door shut.
Leo looked at where she stood and sighed and decided to pour himself a drink of something strong. He then spent the rest of the night going over what happened and worried that maybe he just lost the love of his life.
The next morning Leo was set at the table eating breakfast when Louise walked in with a serious look on her face. "Leo, I want to speak to you when you're done eating, I'll be in your study waiting for you." She then left the room again and headed to the study.
Leo was sitting there looking at the space Louise had vacated with a fork half way to his mouth as his mind started to run through all the worst case scenarios he could come up with. It was nearly 5 min before he was brought back to reality by the eggs falling off his fork and into his lap. He then quickly cleaned up and went to the study to face the coming storm.
While Leo was going through all this something else of importance was happening on caprica which would later lead to a lot of misery and death.
It was a busy spaceport as the colonial heavy transport landed and disembarked all the passengers from an outlying mining station who were returning to Caprica after a long time away. What made this different from any other time was the old man who got off the ship dressed as a preacher and looked around with a certain arrogance at the hustle and bustle of the spaceport.
He was known to the other passengers as brother Cavil a traveling preacher who arrived at there mining station 1 month ago and was returning to caprica after spending 5 years traveling between mining stations and outlying colonies administering service to the faithful. No one suspected his true reason for being here and that he was here to set the grounds for the cylons future attack to eradicate the colonies.
Brother Cavil left the spaceport and made his way into Caprica City where he would start his mission to insert the information for the first wave of agents into the colonials systems. He was to insert birth certificates and education records into the civil records for the 2 dozen agents they plan to insert into key places and industries to start laying the groundwork for the newer agents to follow later.
What he was also to do after that was to make contact with a politician who would serve their purpose of gutting the colonial fleet's budget and giving them access to the higher levels of both the government and colonial armed forces.
TN :- System Altera Prime
- Yellow Dwarf Star roughly 3.8 bill years old
-1st position is a Volcanic type planet with large amounts of metals and gasses with no moons
- 2nd position is a lifeless rock with 2 small moons in mirror orbital paths around the planet
- 3rd position is barely in the goldilocks zone and is a desert planet with a very thin atmosphere that has plenty of resources to be mined. It has 3 moons all in different orbital distances from the planet with various resources from metals to gasses.
- 4th position is an earthly planet with a make up of 55% water with 5 large land masses and a few chains of medium to small islands. It has 2 moons both small in size, one made mostly of rock but the second has large deposits of tylium.
-between the 4th and 5th planetoid is a large asteroid belt with plenty of resource rich asteroids
-5th position is an ice planet which is again on the edge of the goldilocks zone. The planet has 5 moons and an orbiting asteroid.
-6th position is a large gas giant which has 4 rings of space dust spread from the north pole to the south pole making it a large flight hazard
-7th position is a Helium planet with 7 moons with various resources
-between the 7th and 8th planetoid is a smaller asteroid belt with smaller asteroids and what appears to be large ice chunks
-8th position is an ice planet that has no moons and regularly travels through the edge of the small asteroid belt which accounts for the small chunks of ice in the belt and why the belt is so small.
TN-:I've read the reviews from readers and plan to complete this story so if you have ideas or questions I'm willing to listen so please don't be shy.