BATTLESTAR GHOSTSHIP by Corwin Black

CHAPTER 1: "A Light - In The Black, Or Just A Fear Of The Dark?" -Iron Maiden.

22 years after the 2nd Cylon war.

The Wild Weasel jumped in front of the Celestial Void. The Veil of Hades itself. The view of the raptor was minuscule compared to the darkness expanding in front of the tiny craft. Like a black hole without the gravity, but all of the horrors of being sucked in and never allowed to leave. There was a saying about the Celestial Veil of Hades. "You could go in but you can never leave."

"Please tell me this is the right spot?" Asked Sam as she checked the instruments on her flight panel.

Kilroy looked at the Wild Weasel's DRADIS. He then turned off the power to the computers. "This is it," he said.

The five person crew of the Wild Weasel was aware of how dangerous this mission was. "Okay Kilroy; please tell me you can pull this off?" asked Alex.

"I can and I will," Kilroy said confidently. The other four on the small craft new that Kilroy was not prone to exaggeration, especially when he sounded like he was exaggerating. His confidence brought some ease.

"You know that the Cylons won't get within parsecs of this place; right?" Alex stated what was common knowledge.

"We are counting on it," stated Elizabeth. "Any Cylon who enters the Veil of Hades loses contact with Cylon network, or they just go mad and kill themselves." Elizabeth was a Cylon. She had already cut off her connection to the network.

Entering the Veil of Hades was a favorite place for people to be buried in space, or to commit suicide. Many had tried to navigate in and out of the void safely, and as many had died. At least that was the rumor.

There were urban legends about how this person or that managed to enter the Veil of Hades and leave without getting hopelessly lost. Most of these were thought about as realistic as the Picon Sea Monster, or the Gemenon two headed giant. The reputation for getting lost in or near the Veil of Hades was worse than the dreaded Bardurian Triangle on Aquaria.

Kilroy opened a secure case that was about 17 inches wide and 11 inches tall, and 7 inches deep. He pulled out a circular device that looked like a pocket watch. He handed a duplicate item to Sam; the pilot. It was about 3 inches in diameter and one inch thick. He placed it on the computer console and watched intently.

"What's that?" asked Alex.

"It's an analogue computer," Kilroy said. "The Cylons have significant trouble hacking them, or even understanding them," he concluded.

"He's using it to navigate," said Sam (the pilot).

"Okay, so why are the computer's off?" asked Alex.

Elizabeth replied, "It's necessary to find what we are looking for," she said. Alex didn't like that answer but he let it go.

"How are you feeling Elizabeth?" asked Kilroy.

"I'm okay. I'm trying to keep my subsystems at idle," she concluded. Elizabeth was a model 17 Cylon who left the network and joined the human rebellion.

"So Kilroy; why do you actually think someone would hide a weapons cache in the Celestial Veil of Hades?" asked Alex.

Kilroy ignored the question and kept diligently making calculations with pencil and paper. He then fiddled with the pocket watch device. "Navigation is now calibrated," he said.

Kilroy now answered Alex's question, "I know for a fact that an arms anchorage depot was hidden just inside the Veil of Hades, about 10 years after the first Cylon war."

"Why the frak would they do that, they'd never recover it?" observed Alex.

"That's what our whole expedition is about," said Elizabeth. "Kilroy believes that the colonials had developed a way to navigate the Veil of Hades. He's spent over a year reverse engineering it."

"The analogue computer," observed Alex.

As Sam looked out the front window of her raptor she saw Cylons incoming. "We have two base stars coming at us, they're launching raiders!" she exclaimed.

"What the hell?" asked Calvin. "We have to be on to something important to get that much attention."

"What were we just saying about the Cylons not getting close to the Veil of Hades?" asked Alex sarcastically.

"Okay Kilroy, this is your mission. Where the frak should I be going?" asked Sam.

"Turn off the FTL drive," ordered Kilroy.

"Are you crazy we should be jumping out of here!" exclaimed Alex.

Calvin grabbed Alex and pulled him back into the seated position, "Kilroy knows what he's doing, now please be quiet," he said with a stern but remarkably calm voice.

"FTL drive offline," said Sam.

Kilroy fiddled with the navigational watch, "Okay we're completely calibrated. Turn into the Veil of Hades."

Kilroy turned to Alex, "I'm well aware that nobody has ever entered the Veil of Hades and returned to talk about it. You're gonna have to trust me," said Kilroy confidently.

"Please tell me that you're the first scientist to figure out how to do that," said Alex.

"I am, actually," he replied.

The raptor changed course and accelerated towards the Veil of Hades. The Cylon Raiders were in pursuit; at first closing rapidly and then began to slow and then stop. They knew that entering the Veil of Darkness was pure suicide, with no chance of resurrection. That was a well-established fact; especially among Cylons.

As the complete darkness consumed the raptor and its five person crew; the mood began to get rather dreary as one might expect. "So we're looking for that arms depot just on the other side of the darkness?" asked Alex.

"Actually no. The colonials retrieved it and moved it to Ragnar," said Kilroy. "That's how I know that this analogue computer actually does work."

"So what are we looking for?"

"A Battlestar, a big one."

THANX FOR READING! There's more to come! If you liked please share this with your friends.

Corwin Black 24th of July 2024