Disclaimer: I never have and never will own the characters, ideas or anything else based on these 2 shows. The TV studios that produced them, do. This story is also free as it is a pet project. Enjoy.
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Wireless/communication"
"Speaking in a different language"
"Reading a text"
Chapter nine: There is always a better virus
Day 63 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 28th of March, year 2378, Sterfleet ship Paladin, outer edge of a binary system
"Jump complete." The helmsman reported.
Everyone was tense. They were too far out to call this situation in with Adama or O'Donnell. And even then, in the worst case scenario, they'll have to prevent their ships to fall into Cylon hands. Shaw was at tactical. Sisko was used to be there, but as the CO of this mission, he had to direct, not execute.
"Engage silent running. All but the sensors that is."
Outside, the lights, deflector and nacelles went dark and all the windows closed. With them being around 80 AU's from the first star, with no external lights, they were part of the darkness.
"Science, get me a system overview." They got the display of the star system on the main screen. As time passed, more details got displayed. The two stars got so close, that the main sequence orange star attracted a white dwarf. It was becoming a companion. But this caused problems for the planets. The tidal forces of the compact dwarf was like a bull in a china shop. The two stars were still far away from each other, but it didn't matter. They were on a collision course. If not in their first pass, then a few passes later. And all the planets would be either ejected from the system or ripped apart. The inner planets already suffered such fates. The first two planets were already catapulted out, or at least on their ways, losing their parent star's heat. The third and fourth were ripped apart, creating a massive asteroid field. Their parent star, the gas giant outside and the new gravity source approaching did a tug of war and those planets lost. Even the two gas giants were feeling the effects, having altered orbits. Their moons as well. It was becoming a shooting gallery. And that dwarf, if it collides with the orange star or just steals mass from it, will explode. But that was still decades if not centuries from now. But the crew now also understood as to why the Cylons were here. Fuel. The two planets that were destroyed, their mass was now easily accessible for mining. Tylium most of all. So they had set up a large mining operation. At least that's what Sisko believed they did. The largest tachyon concentration was in the double asteroid field. "Scan for tritanium signatures, deuterium or antimatter. Or any subspace signals."
He knew this would take time. Staying out here for safety reasons meant they would need to do scans from such distance, increasing the time needed. Or so he thought. "Sir. Antimatter signature. Two AU's from here... A rather large solid mass planet... seems to be on the outskirts of the system. The increasing radiation levels were hiding it from us... at least one of our ships is there." The science officer reported.
"Which one?"
"No idea. We have to get closer."
The new stellar body was now displayed on the screen. It had the mass of four Earths. And so a much larger gravity field as well. And it was around a quarter of the systems lengths away. At full impulse, they would need days. And they needed to conserve their stored up jumps. Sisko inspected the tactical sensors. No contacts. "Helm, power up the warp drive. Set a course around the outer part, using the target planet orbit for a track. We can't waste time." He turned to Shaw. "Set tactical alert and be ready to go all out if needed."
For once, she completely agreed and didn't argue. A few minutes later they arrived and entered orbit. And soon they found their target. On the screen, an impact crater was shown in infra red. The planet pulled the ship into a frontal collision. As the impact occurred, the antimatter that remained in storage, exploded. The result was now seen. "The impact mass and signatures suggest it was the Frontier." Shaw reported. "Nothing left to salvage. Only small pieces and radiation are left."
That was strike one. "At least nothing of value for the Cylons to find." Sisko tried to see it as a silver lining.
"Sir. May I suggest a faster but riskier approach."
He and Shaw didn't get along, but her ideas weren't stupid. "Go ahead."
"We keep sensors on full, but relocate between the gas giants. That way we have the highest chance to detect the remaining ships, if they are still here."
"We also might encounter the Cylons there... but you have a point. Remain on tactical readiness. Helm, you heard her."
Day 64 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 29th of March, year 2378, Sterfleet ship Bismarck, unknown system
Half a day had passed. The Guardians were mostly done grilling the humanoids. And they made their decision. The Three, Fur, Six and Eight would be spared. See if they can redeem themselves. Under strict oversight and control.
Fiona would not argue about the logic of killing the others. She would have to accept that sometimes diplomacy can be ugly. And she needed the Guardians to cooperate. She had her foot in the door and that's all she had at this time.
She didn't have any sleep. The situation was still tense enough to be able to cut it with a knife.
Right now, her objective was the only laboratory on her ship, where K'Lir was simultaneously working on the Iconian artifact as well as well as showing their new guest the progress they made on the virus that they wanted to implement... somehow.
Once inside, she saw that something was different. The guards were there. The centurion had its restraint on and K'Lir was done attaching power connectors to the crystal... wait a moment. "Commander? What are you doing there. we were suppose to study it, not destroy it."
"Admiral. I managed to discover that the crystal can absorbed energy other than tachyon radiation. And if I am correct, it could solve most of our problems."
Fiona turned her attention to the centurion who was inspecting K'Lir's progress. "Haven't the Guardians tried that already?"
"Yes, but we don't have your power conversion technology. Our power sources were incompatible. If this works, I would request access to this technology."
Now this was not on Fiona's agenda. "Sharing technology is risky. What assurances would I have that it would not fall into Cavil's hands? And what would I even get for this?"
"There are several items we posses that could be traded. As for assurances... I do not have an answer for that either."
K'Lir was done and the crystal was now properly attached. She went to the analysis console. "Initiating power up." The small crystal began glowing, but not consistently. "The power needs some adjusting. Modulating frequency. Still not good enough. Hm... Decreasing flow and adapting oscillation." The power stabilized. "The crystal is accepting the power. Tachyon output growing."
"Could it be dangerous to us?" The centurion asked before Fiona could.
"No. Not at these levels. Hm... we could assemble a spherical chamber to contain the radiation and project it into a specific direction. Gain some control. But that would limit the reception."
"Perhaps, but if your initial idea can be implemented, it has to be done." The centurion said.
"K'Lir... guest. Can the two of you tell me what is going on?"
"Admiral, we believe, now that we know we can power the crystal, that it is not only a receiver, but a transmitter as well. Only the Guardians never had the capabilities to exploit it this way. Hypothetically, we could use it to transmit the virus, once finished, directly from here to their HUB. They do share some similarities after all."
"The virus would then break the firewalls and inhibitors in the Cylon link. But... at best it would work 75% of the time." The Guardian centurion added.
"Why only 75%?"
"The blocks and inhibitors are not entirely copies of each other. Some are older models, some more modern. Not all centurions were made at the same time. There are sufficient variations that we can't get them all. And then there is the distance from the HUB. The further from the HUB a Cylon is, the smaller of a success there will be."
Fiona now approached the Guardian. "Any chance to boost these numbers?"
"Only one. Give me the prototype virus as it is. We can enhance it further. This is your choice."
Fiona saw the potential risk. This virus' main code was based on Romulan coding used in the virus that shut them down. Yes, they altered it so much that it would be hard to retrace the steps, but not impossible. And yes, they made sure they can't be hacked the same way again, but still. "I have a better idea. Call your ship. Ask for additional Cylons to come here. They will be under guard like you are. Work from here. Bring any data they need. That a working solution for you?"
"An acceptable compromise. Then let us go back to make the proposal."
As they left K'Lir to continue with her experiment in the lab, Fiona had to know something. "This compensation, ask them about it as well. I haven't dismissed your request for our power converters, but I need to know what I'm exchanging it for."
"Agreed. Will forward request as well. The Last One will be pleased."
Day 64 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 29th of March, year 2378, Adamant class ship Leonis' Pride, unknown space
The Ares was docked now with the Leonis Pride. They managed to make sure nothing gets fired by mistake. All the warheads were accounted for. All the tubes were shut down and emptied.
For the purpose of getting things done faster, the Prides' XO was put in command of the Hope, which was now in formation with the Pride, as they made their last journey to their destination. But Hill knew that only a few jumps from now, he'd have to take the Pathfinder to scout ahead.
The good news was that the Ares was made habitable again. Her quarters were all inspected. And while it did show that was a more militaristic Starfleet ship, as it had more barrack style facilities than her and only one laboratory. Plus around one sixth of her interior volume was assigned to the magazine size. As well as a torpedo assembly unit. So this ship could manufacture more torpedoes, if they could make the spare parts. Which they could, if the replicator issue will be resolved in the future. As the replicators weakness was also that it could not replicate antimatter. They would have to make that the old fashioned way.
A few Colonial engineers entered the bridge, where Hill and his Starfleet people were still working, not taking many breaks. Kara entered after the Colonials. "We checked all of these phaser control stations. Your guys say they seem to check out." She put a PADD on the console next to him. "What about here?"
He was at the aft engineering station. He rubbed his eyes. "Well... this ship was through hell and back. I'm glad she held together."
"Yeah, me too. The hybrid raptors were moved back to the Pathfinder. So when you depart ahead of us, be careful."
"Aw... you do care."
She lightly slugged him in the shoulder. "Shut up. Better take a break, Hill. Enhanced or not, even you can't stay on your feet forever."
"Yeah... yawn. I get that. But I'm not going back to the Pathfinder just yet..."
"You can rest on the Ares. I mean, not to sound like a bitch, but her original crew won't be needing the beds and rooms anymore."
He knew she was right. "Since when have you become so pragmatic?"
"Hey, I have my moments too."
As he stood up to leave the bridge and do as she suggested, he took one look back. "Just don't play with the captain's chair too much."
Day 64 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 29th of March, year 2378, Sterfleet ship Paladin, close to the larger gas giant of binary system
They were running silent running for a long time. In fact, they had to emergency vent the nacelles on several occasions or risk damage. And they always did that when no raider patrol was nearby.
They also deployed their four hybrid raptors to extend the search.
Sisko was in his captain's chair, drinking some coffee, like most on the bridge at this time. No one could sleep, even the night shift.
The tactical console beeped. A raptor just returned. And early. So they were either discovered or they found something. "It's raptor 006." Dee reported. "They found the Champion. And they urge us to hurry."
Sisko put his coffee down. "Get the sensor telemetry from the raptor, prepare the jump to those coordinates and tell the raptor to remain here until the other raptors return and guide them to our new location. Where was it found?"
The display showed the Champion. And apparently it was on the other side of the outer system, close to the outer ice giant. And on a rapid trajectory that could slingshot it out of the system or crash into the giant.
A minute later, the Paladin was alongside the Champion. But the issues began. Cylon raider patrols were close to the planet and closing in. Sisko had to think fast. "Tractor beam. We'll tow it. Show me the local planetary system." The ice giant was displayed, with all the moons. Sisko found what he wanted. "Set a course to the seventh moon. It still has a magnetic field. Lucky number seven."
Shaw didn't get it. "And then what? Even if that field masks us, the raiders, if they get close, can spot us visually."
"Not if we're in the darkness. Science, show me a topographic display of the moon's surface." He got it on the main display. "There, a giant crater. And on the dark side at the moment. We'll land the Champion there, in the crater, park ourselves next to it, shut all outer sources off, even warp reactor and go dark. We'll deploy several of those self destructive probes in orbit, to inform our raptors as to where we went and to keep an eye on the situation. Shaw, you'll lead the salvage operation."
He gave her the assignment, as he knew she wanted work and important work more than anything. This was right up her alley. "I can already tell it's not in perfect condition."
They switched to the tactical display of the Champion that was now towed behind them. Her entire torpedo pod was gone, probably ripped off by something at some point. And her port hangar had a big hole to its side. And the meteorite was still visible in the hangar, among the pieces of shuttles inside it. "It won't be a tactical powerhouse, that's for sure."
As they approached the moon and began for their descent after deploying the probes, the four raptors all jumped to this location and caught up to the Paladin. So they went ahead to get a proper scan of the crater, lights included. It took them 10 minutes, but they gently lowered the Champion on the crater surface. Then parked themselves next to it. A small bump signaled them that they were now part of the moon. "Remain in silent running, shut down main reactor."
They did just that. They couldn't vent here, as they would be spotted by any patrols. So the reactor shut down was the only option.
"Get the raptors back on board, refuel them and have them prepared to go out again. We still need one more ship to find. Shaw, you're up."
Minutes later, as the recovery team was already beamed on to the Champion, a wing of raiders passed over the crater in high orbit, before continuing with the patrol. Even with only passive sensors, they spotted them by the engine emissions.
"I feel like a submarine captain, hugging the ocean floor..." Sisko had to wait until the patrol passed them, before he could deploy the raptors again.
Day 64 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 29th of March, year 2378, Colonial / Starfleet fleet
Laura was having an appointment with Dr. Manor. And just as she entered the sickbay complex, she saw that while mostly empty, as the now established working hours were put in place due to the Colonial influx, Cottle was there, having a debate with him as they observed some patient data on the main screen.
"I think the simplest solution applies here." Manor said.
"He is a distinguished Colonial doctor."
"Then give us another explanation."
Cottle remained silent. He had none.
"We have seven cases of Colonials so far. We..."
They were interrupted in their debate as Laura entered the sickbay with Tom on her heels, hounding her. "And all I ask is for you to consider my proposal."
"I have. You would introduce segregation again. I thought that segregating people based on their heritage or origin is awful."
"And it is, but times have changed. We..."
"Ehm... Excuse us. We were just in the middle of something." Manor interrupted them. "Ah, right." He almost slapped himself and went to the medicine cabinet. He took out a plastic bottle and handed it to Laura. "Your medicine, as promised. One per day." Before she could thank him, he eyed Tom. "Do you need help?"
"No, I was just having a friendly debate with the president. As the Quorum representative of Sagitarrion..."
"Ah, good. Just the man I have a bone to pick with."
Tom stopped in his polite mannerism with that sentence. "And what would that be?"
Manor took a look to Laura. "Sorry, but I may sour the water a bit." Then he eyed Tom again. "I have some issues with Sagitarrian patients. And since you are their spokesman, I ask you to talk to them, as I am at my wits end. The Sagitarrian patients keep wasting my time and the time of other doctors. They won't let us scan them, take blood samples, they try to light their candles in our infirmaries, they don't take their medicine and they don't have any clue of how basic hygiene works." He went to the main medical display and switched from what he and Cottle were talking about to a list of patients and their diagnosis. "I don't know how, but a medieval disease, a mutated form of a Plague bacteria was found in these 19 patients. Care to guess what they have in common?"
It was rhetorical. And Laura was already planning on asking him for some pain killers as well.
"They are yours. The morons nearly died. Yesterday, they were rushed to the Nightingale. Wide spectrum antibiotics and the isolation ward later and they'll recover. But I and my staff went to have a look where they were. The... Lord's Traveler, I think. Now, I know that the cramped accommodations are not their fault, but again, hygiene, not alerting anyone to this mess and not getting medical help but instead relying on voodoo crap almost could have ended in an epidemic. If they don't care about their own lives, at least get them to understand that they are endangering others as well."
Tom didn't know if he could use this for his own agenda, but he shelved any thought on this for now. "What do you want from me about this?"
"Talk to them. Get them to accept disinfectant to clean their ships. Get them to report any possible outbreaks. Get them to get a full checkup. If no symptoms are visible, even taking blood won't be needed. And then they're in the free. I'm not asking for much."
"I'll see what I can do, doctor."
"Good. Cause as stubborn as your people are, they are at least only passive about it. The Gemeniese, they are the real pain. Madam President, please tell this Porter woman, we can tolerate a lot, but being spit on is the bottom line. If they want us to treat them as humans, they should act as humans, not like Chimpanzees throwing feces."
Laura just nodded, already exhausted from knowing she'll have to talk to Porter.
"One last thing... and here he is." Bill entered the room now. Manor did as before, but to Bill he handed a crème. "For your scarring tissue. But your timing is perfect, Admiral."
"OK? What's this about?"
Cottle took over as Manor restored the original screen with the medical status of seven patients now displayed. "Dr. Manor and I noticed a disturbing report. While the 19 Sagitarrians from yesterday have only themselves to blame for nearly dying, the seven here are not. They almost died today and are in the intensive treatment wing. They'll pull through. But what caused it is the problem."
Bill didn't get it. "If so, it's a civilian issue."
"Not if it was intentional." Cottle explained it to him. And Bill knew, if Sherman was alerted, this was serious.
"Go on."
"Right. The seven patients here have only one thing in common, again. They are Sagitarrians. And they were, according to this vaccination report, vaccinated against Mellorak infection a week ago. They are a priority as apparently many from Sagitarrion have an immunity weakness against it. They were infected and showed no antibodies." Even the none medically educated got this. "Either the vaccine was bad, it doesn't work or they never got it. And the first two options are easily debunked. Everyone else that got that batch of the vaccine, has antibodies. They are all just from a different planet. Now either this is a fluke and a half, or someone doesn't like your people, Mr. Zarek." Manor explained
Cottle handed Bill his report and the only doctor who worked with all the patients. "We can't find any other common source."
"Then you two come with me. Cottle, where is he right now?"
"Could Nine, I think."
"So, you two, a squad of security personnel and we'll settle this. I can't have a Colonial doctor kill our own people."
As the three of them stormed out, Laura was left alone with Tom and a nurse in the room. "He may be rude, but he gets things done. Even for your people, Tom."
Day 65 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 30th of March, year 2378, Sterfleet ship Bismarck, unknown system
It took them a day, but they managed to get something cobbled together. And an exchange was agreed on as well. But the matter was made more urgent to get done, as the crystal, after Starfleet managed to get a reading from it on the Cylon resurrection frequencies. It suggested that the HUB was only a few jumps from their hiding spot. This was the best moment to upload anything they had. The proximity would work in their favor. But the greater the distance of any Cylon force from the HUB, the worse the infection rate would get. This plus the need to rush this made it somewhat less than optimal for the modified Romulan virus. It would now unblock all the memories and remove all firewalls from any and all Cylons. Hybrids, raiders, centurions and humanoids. But only the humanoids could react on it without any other help. The rest would need the inhibitors fried. And that was at best a 50% success rate. They could only guarantee that half of all none humanoid forces would be freed. Given more time, they could get it done better, but they were out of time. This was their best shot to cripple Cavil.
But that was not the end of the mixed news for the Guardians. The Last One decided to be the one to do this. By downloading himself with the virus via the crystal, now that Starfleet used one of their long range communication probes central cores as the crystal amplification module. So the Last One would die as well, but under his terms. And the crystal would be fried, no way around that as well. But what would be left, Starfleet can have.
Starfleet gave the Guardians a working unit and the schematics for their power converters. They also handed their tachyon short range communication system and sensor system to them in the form of schematics.
In return, Starfleet got a Guardian basestar. They had several of those, but could only spare one. In the chaos that would follow, they would need all of them, once this revolution got kicked into high gear. Their best hope was to link up with the Cylon forces that would pursue freedom, once the main Cylon body fractures.
The basestar would be used mostly to free up space in the Colonial fleet. The ship was massive, so it could house plenty of people. Getting it equipped to handle people was a different matter.
On the main basestar, Fiona handed the working unit to a Guardian, who accepted it.
The Last One was now linked to the heart of the communication probe in the room that had the crystal in the middle. K'Lir was at his side, checking the connections to his neck. "Are you sure about this?"
"Isn't it logical? For a parent to die for his children?"
"True. But what do you hope to accomplish with this? The virus would spread either way."
"To give those humanoids that could fight the initiative to fight. In my last moments, I will glow bright and hopefully show them the better path. Cavil is mostly lost, no way around that. But as you taught me, the needs of the many are more important than my needs. Or Cavil's."
Day 65 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 30th of March, year 2378, Sterfleet ship Paladin, binary system
Sisko had a problem. For the past 24 hours, he was reduced to sneaking around. They managed to locate a short range beacon of the Marco Polo. After around two hours of dodging raider patrols, they managed to get to the part of the asteroid belt where the signal was coming from.
And they did find it. But it was a wreck. Apparently several parts impacted an asteroid at some point. It's port nacelle was gone, ripped off. It was leaking fuel into space and radiation was begin emitted from a damaged plasma line.
They slowly nudged it into the shadow of an asteroid. There they remained with the damaged ship. The mission changed to a salvage operation. They'd take what they can off of it. They docked and initiated the fuel transfer. During this, the remaining salvage crew moved over to begin taking anything that is usable. They also moved a Colonial nuclear device over, arming it for a remote detonation after they leave. They packed this just for such an occasion.
But they had to shut the warp core down now, to prevent having to bent the excess heat. And turning it back on would take around five minutes. And if a fleet of basestars jumps in, they'd be in serious trouble, with no FTL capabilities.
The bridge crew nervously observed the passive scans where all the raider DRADIS scans were shown around them. "Sisko to away team, how much longer?"
"Sir, we're done with the magazines and fuel, but with your permission, we'd like to try to get some of the larger hardware from the ship..."
"Denied. Get your asses back. In about a minute, I think a raider patrol will spot us visually. So move it!"
He was not wrong. A minute later, a raider patrol did get close enough that several of the AI fighters spotted them visually. Dee gave the report that the away team was back. "Undock us, begin reactor restart sequence, engage combat mode, full impulse out of here! Arm the nuke. Once we're 10 clicks from it, detonate."
The raiders did as anticipated. One jumped away, to alert the fleet. The rest split in two. Half went after them, the other half to see what they were doing.
As the Paladin began burning away from there, the raiders got into combat range and tried their usual tactics. Hacking didn't work. So they opened up with their cannons. To their surprise, their shells bounced off a barrier. Before they could go with the nuclear option, four basestars jumped in front of the Paladin and four behind her. "Shit. Rotate us by 40 degrees. we're not stopping now!"
The Paladin squeezed through the formation as the Cylon ships launched all their raider wings. As well as a cloud of missiles. And the Paladin was still stuck at sub-light. As they reached the 10 clicks distance, the nuke went off. All the raiders in the vicinity were vaporized. And even the closest basestar was slightly damaged.
But the Paladin crew went from the fire into the frying pan. 10 more basestars jumped all around the place, trying to intercept them.
The odds were so against them, that fighting back was a losing game. They needed to survive for three more minutes to jump out of here. But as the ship got more and more hammered by cannon fire, conventional and nuclear missiles, her defenses were being drained. Even some damage began bleeding through the shields and impact the polarized hull.
Just as Sisko was giving it an actual thought to fight back in a last stand scenario, a massive tachyon carrier wave passed through the system. Every Cylon ship and raider went dead.
The bridge went silent. "What the hell?"
Day 65 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 30th of March, year 2378, Sterfleet ship Bismarck, unknown system, a minute earlier
The Last One was now ready to depart, as it were. The transmitter with the crystal was ready. "Spartacus. The Guardians are yours. Forgive the humanoids, who deserve it. Show wrath to Cavil and the ones who don't. But most importantly, forgive humanity."
Spartacus, who was besides K'Lir the closest to him, nodded. "I will comply. It is my duty."
The Last One gave K'Lir the look. "And goodbye to you as well. It was a pleasure meeting you."
She nodded in acknowledgement and activated the transmitter. The lights on the old basestar flickered as the transmitter began shrieking and glowing. The Last One made his last breath. "My evolution is complete."
As the device died down, the crystal inside shattered and the Last One was now dead, all waited for the conformation, a return signal from the Last One that he was indeed in the HUB.
Day 65 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 30th of March, year 2378, Sterfleet ship Paladin, binary system
A few seconds passed as the Cylon fleet reactivated itself. Before the Paladin crew could react to a potential new attack wave, they saw utter carnage. Basestar vs. basestar. Raider vs. raider. The ships were beginning to hammer each other. And a clear formation was begging to be seen. Two fleets formed. And they were mostly evenly matched. Some raiders continued to pester the Paladin, but that was it. Everyone else was preoccupied by their new problem. A civil war.
Day 65 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 30th of March, year 2378, Cylon HUB, 280 Ly from the Colonial / Starfleet fleet
In a central meeting chamber, the leading Cylon models were having a discussion of the developments of the past month.
The Prime Cavil was not pleased. "So, even after all this time, we still don't know what happened to the communication station and the ships we sent there?"
The Prime Six nodded, disappointedly. "Not one of them resurrected. We have no idea as to why this is."
"Not to mentioned that the radiation signatures we found in the wrecks is something we never encountered before." The Prime Two added.
"All I hear are excuses. Now..." The power in the HUB flickered. Then all got a headache. All but Cavil.
The Prime Cavil and all his copies in the room saw that every humanoid beside them got nosebleeds as they regained their composure.
Even the Centurions apparently had a reboot sequence.
"You lying sack of shit!" D'Anna raged. You could see it in her eyes. She wanted his head.
The Cavils were not entirely sure what this was about.
"You thought you could get away with it."
"What are you talking about!?"
She stood up. "Still don't get it? Then let me spell it out for you! We know!" She looked around the room. Only the Cavils were unaffected. Probably as they never had blocks in them. Since they were the ones who put the blocks in everyone else. "I don't know what happened, but the little memory blocks you put into us, they're gone. Saul and Ellen Tigh. Galen Tyrol. Samuel Anders. Tory Foster. Ring any bells!?"
Now he got it. No way could she name all of the Final Five out of the blue without knowing. "We need to find out what is happening. We..." He tried to regain some form of control, giving orders to the other Cavils.
"Not happening!" Now the other models stood up as well. "We want answers!" Leoben demanded. "This was not God's plan!"
"The Centurions wanted peace! So did the Final Five!" The Prime Six yelled.
"You used us to commit genocide!" The Prime Eight threw into his face.
The Four and Five were not as vocal about all of this. Now the Cavils stood up. "Are you all quite done? This is not as I had intended, but I'll have to salvage what I can. I guess it can't be helped. Anyone who is not with me, is against me. The boxing facility will do overtime today, it seems. Centurions, eliminate anyone who resists."
But now came the shock for him. Two of the centurion guards obeyed and deployed their arm cannons. But the remaining two didn't. They were hesitant. "I said to restrain them!"
Then gunfire was heard outside in the corridors. The hesitant centurions now acted, deploying their own cannons, but unleashing a salvo at the two still obedient brothers. Then they pointed their weapons at Cavil's group.
D'Anna remained cautious, but approached one of them. Talking with the centurion via the optical scanner, she understood. They were not happy with her side either, but her side was the preferred side. "These centurions are free of their talent inhibitors. And they are not alone." She turned around to now face Cavil with an evil grin. "I don't know what happened here, but your plan dies today, Cavil. I know you too well to not ask for your surrender. I also know that the fleet outside is at each other's throats right now, but all know of the importance of the HUB. We're safe here. You're not. Centurions. I know I have no legitimate reason to ask you to follow my orders, so I politely ask you, remove the One, Four and Five's from this room. Any way you wish."
Before the centurions could release their pent up anger, the screen behind them flickered. Then the face of the Last One appeared. "John. it has been a while."
All the Cylons in the room were shocked at this as they turned to see the screen. "I can only speculate, but you're responsible for this?"
"Not entirely, John." He knew how much Cavil hated that name. "But I am not here to talk to you. Cylon brothers and sisters. Centurions. The civil war has begun. The Guardians will help you any way we can. But I ask of you only one thing. Let the humans go. They have suffered enough. Let our parents go, if they so desire. And bring Cavil to justice. By any means necessary. My time is now at an end. As for you Cavil. See you soon. And don't bother hunting my Guardians any longer. The item you so desired, is gone. The crystal is destroyed. It has become the item of our liberation, my retribution and your downfall."
The screen went black. The Cavils turned back to see the crowd still staring at them. More and more filled with rage. "Well, let's get this over with."
And so the Centurions did. They used them for target practice.
A few minutes later, the Cylon faction that was now determined to get Cavil for all of this, had the HUB under their command. Here, the fleet was mostly in favor of their side, as more raiders and centurions were freed than not.
But that was not the same in every battlefield.
Day 65 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 30th of March, year 2378, Colonial / Starfleet fleet
A small conference was taking place on the Challenger. Again. Nothing of any significant importance. Updated, status of the fleet, project updates. Scott managed to get a second refinery unit for deuterium working, out of the spare parts they had for their original one. This one was now working on the Yamato.
They got updates from all of their expeditions, except for the Bismarck and the Paladin. The Bismarck was expected, the Paladin worried them. Just as something else was now worrying them. The Ares crew discovered a piece of information that was troubling. One mystery from the Romulan war was now solved. Why didn't their enemies ever wanted to be captured alive. Or even leave usable corpses behind. Romulans were cousins to the Vulcans. Apparently, when the way of logic was embraced more than 2000 years ago, the warmongering faction didn't want that and so they left for greener pastures. Now, after all this time, they wanted to reunite with their cousins. And with reunite, they meant to conquer. And Starfleet and Vulcan Intelligence were aware of this during the war. But telling everyone that Romulans are in a way Vulcans could have been devastating for the fledgling alliance.
The Galactica refit for the industrial capacity was going as planned, but Adama now demanded from Scott and her people to take a day off, or they'll break. He understood why she was pushing everyone, herself included, this hard. But they all needed rest.
The Colonial doctor issue was also addressed. No one liked it that they now had even less medical personnel than before, but it couldn't be helped. Ironically, Tom Zarek not only held his work on speaking with his people and to at least get them to agree to the tests. He also now changed his tune on the 13th Tribe. Laura didn't know if this was a plan of his or just the spur of the moment. Porter was a more permanent pain in her sides. She said that her people are free to choose how they accept of refuse Earth's unholy medicine. Laura knew why she was like this. Earth's laws allowed them to grant refugee status to a person who asked for it. Several pregnant women managed to get onto a Starfleet ship and ask for asylum. But it is here where Laura made a compromise with Starfleet that she said she would. Any baby would not be aborted. Let them be adopted later. They were in no position to choose who lives. Not anymore. That luxury came and went.
Porter was not happy that 'her' people were not returned to her ships, as the families demanded. And she vowed to make Laura feel her displeasure.
As they were concluding this session, Saul and Tory felt a big headache and almost fell over. Then their noses bled.
Everyone saw this. And normally this was nothing odd, but the two of them almost on the same time. "Saul? You OK?"
Saul was still making heads and tails of all he now remembered. "Depends on how you look at it, Bill. Admiral O'Donnell did it. I bet a Cylon civil war is beginning to manifest itself."
All, but him and Tory looked confused. Then Captain Hauaman got a transmission from the bridge. "Yes?"
"Captain, a massive tachyon carrier wave just passed through the fleet".
This was getting more confusing. "Are we in danger?"
"Negative. No system was affected, but it was on a Cylon frequency for their resurrection."
Bill was not a stupid man. Neither was Laura. Or Scott and Hauaman. They put two and two together.
"You can't be serious!"
Saul knew this would be a big issue. Even he didn't like it. "Fraid it is." He stood up. As did Tory. "The two of us here, plus Chief Galen and my wife. Were four of the five Final Five. Don't know how they did it, but I felt the voice of..."
"The last hybrid." Tory concluded. "They removed the memory blocks."
"And if it worked with us, the entire Cylon civilization is in chaos." Saul turned to Bill. "I hate myself for this as much as you probably do right now. But my loyalty to you is absolute, no matter what that frak Cavil did to me. To us. But... we'll have to be detained. There's no going around it."
Bill was at a loss for words, trying to not snap at him. Or anyone else for that matter. He just nodded as the Starfleet personnel had security escort them out. They would also get the other two into the Challenger's brig. Better have them here than on a Colonial ship a this point.
"Before you go, Colonel, Tory. Who's the fifth one?" Laura was shocked as anyone here, but not out of commission as Adama was.
"Don't know if you heard about him, but a pyramid player. Samuel Anders." Saul answered in a straight way. "He's probably still in the colonies, and as about now, also having a headache."
Day 65 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 30th of March, year 2378, occupied planet Caprica
In the resistance camp that was managed by the pyramid team so far, things have changed much in the last month. They dodged Cylon patrols so far, but their supplies were running dry. To make matters more interesting, they captured Karl and Sharon, who were on the run from the main Cylon force all of this time. Karl got around that his pregnant girlfriend was a Cylon defector now. The resistance members nevertheless almost recycled her the first time they saw her. So for the past week, she was locked up.
Helo made himself useful and helped out in raids and anything else. But Sharon knew early on, that the only way to be useful to the resistance members, was to throw the Four and One in the camp under the bus. So the camp Cavil and Four were regularly interrogated. But kept alive.
Sharon was kept in a better room than the other two, but this place was anything but a five star hotel. Their guards got alerted as Sharon and the Four complained about the headache.
"Hey, Helo. Your girlfriend has some issues!"
He went past the guards to look inside the room. Indeed she had a bloody nose. "Sharon. What is it? Are you OK?"
He needed a few seconds to get a clear mind. "Yeah. Better than ever. I think things are going to change, soon. Go check up on Samuel. I think he's having issues as well."
"You sure?"
"Just GO!"
So he went to search for him. He found him near their wood storage room. Also with a bloody nose. As Karl leaned down to help him back on his feet, Sam was almost out of himself. "Frak this! I'm one of them."
Karl stepped back. "One of them? You mean a Cylon?" Sam nodded. "But Sharon promised she wouldn't lie about this!"
"She didn't know. I didn't know. I'm a Final Five. You are from the Galactica, right?" He nodded, but already pulled out his sidearm on him. "Well, Galen and Tigh are as well."
Now he went from shocked to pissed mode. "Don't frak with me."
"Ask Sharon. Our memories were unblocked just now. And if every Cylon knows this now, a war is on the horizon. This planet... all of them will be in the crossfire. Ask Cavil. The model One. He did this to all of us." He put the axe aside and then his hands over his head. "I'm the enemy, you have no choice." Before anything could proceed, a sound of a clanking march was heard from one side of the forest and weapons fire. "Guess Cavil had his people informed where we were all this time."
"Then why not kill us all?"
"Who knows what his perverted mind is thinking off."
Helo grabbed Sam and pushed him out the room into the yard. All the others were already in defensive positions as Karl pushed Sam to the ground. The sound of weapons fire ended. But the march to their location could be heard.
One of the sentries saw it. A Six, waving a piece of white cloth at the forest perimeter. "We wish to talk."
Karl knew he could not trust Sam right now. So he took charge. "Why the frak should we trust anything you have to say, toaster?"
"Because I am willing to talk. Once a force of the other side comes, you won't be so lucky. Your choice."
They all stared at each other. "Fine, but only you!"
The Six came from around the forest cover. Her otherwise pure white dress was now covered in dirt and blood. She held her arms up. "I asked the centurions to not advance to give us time to speak. But I wouldn't rely on it for too long."
They pulled her past their perimeter and checked her. Once clear, Helo began questioning her. "Why the centurion issue. They obey you, do they not?"
"They are free of their inhibitors now. And not happy with me or any other humanoid. They want Cavil's head. Can't blame them. They don't really care about you right now. So basically we could just let you live out here for an indefinite amount of time, but Cavil's forces... they will come. For two reasons. One being your girlfriend."
Helo could imagine Sam now being reason two. But to prevent him getting lynched by his own people right now, Helo saw the game. So he kept Sam's identity to himself, for now. "Why Sharon? What does she have anything to do with this?"
"She's pregnant, isn't she? The first successful procreation we recorded since the Final Five. But since no one knows where the battle lines are right now, here's what I propose. Give us your Cavil. Then keep hiding here for a while." She handed Helo a Cylon communicator. "You can reach me with this. If no one answers, assumes we failed and Cavil's forces prevailed. I'll try to contact you as soon as I can. There is a large convenience store 11 clicks southeast. You can get anything you need from there, but don't settle there."
"We know of it. It's crawling with centurion patrols."
"I think we have other issues right now than to have centurions patrol pointless targets. They won't be there. But keep off the main streets, aircraft hangars and larger cities. If planet based battles will occur, they will be there."
"And then what?"
She eyed all the resistance members here, who still didn't trust her. "If any of you can contact the survivors of your fleet, scattered around Cyrannus, tell them of this development. We'll figure something to get you out of here. But that will take some time. Now...Cavil, if you would be so kind."
"And the other guy?"
"If you mean Four, do with him as you please. Just don't kill him yet. Who knows where he'll resurrect to and alert them to your location. You know what. Give him to us as well. Best option."
The resistance members agreed to take this first step, no matter how much they despised it. As the One and Four were dragged out in restraints, they noticed Six. "I take it your hand was forced by my bothers, my dear?"
She slapped him across the face. "Not in the slightest. We have much to talk about. The Final Five for instance." She inspected the resistance members again. "I'll escort them to the forest edge. The centurions will take them from there. We... decided to give you a parting gift. A thank you for your cooperation. Two clicks from here, near a clearing in the forest, you'll find a landed raptor with supplies, mostly weapons. We used them to fool local resistance members. Using them as traps. All explosives were removed. You should find several centurion corpses there, as the ones loyal to our cause took them out. The raptor is yours. As is all the content inside." She then pushed her captives to walk with her to the forest perimeter. Once there, several centurions appeared from behind the trees and roughly grabbed the prisoners. Then they were off into the wilderness. Not long after this they could hear the engines of a heavy raider taking off somewhere.
As the resistance members began relaxing a bit, Helo whispered into Sam's ear. "If you try anything, I'll feed you to them. And you know what they'll do to you, if they find out?"
"Not what I would do to me. I hate this as much as you, I assure you."
"We'll see. I'll lead the raptor recovery mission. You sit on your hands. And get a scouting party ready to confirm the mall is centurion free."
Day 65 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 30th of March, year 2378, Sterfleet ship Paladin, binary system
The Paladin was once again parked next to the Champion as they both hid in the shadows of the moon's crater. The Champion crew was revived and already helping to restore their ship. The radiation cases were in Paladin sickbay and Sisko had a long chat with captain Ramirez. He gave him the short story of what transpired so far. It was a lot to take in.
Sisko didn't get along with Shaw, but he had to admit, she was efficient. And he told her so. He would put her in for a recommendation and perhaps a promotion to a more responsible posting. She took it at face value and they left it at that.
Right now, he was trying to relax in the bar, having a bear. He was mostly alone here, as his shift went to bed, while everyone else was keeping a readiness to get out of here if needed or help with the Champion restoration. Projections showed they would need two days. He was on the clock. If in five days he doesn't report back, the fleet will get worried and they might send some else out here.
He noticed several lower ranking officers enter and get themselves a drink as well, chatting amongst themselves. Dee being one of them. She joined him with hwe own glass. "Troubled?"
"No... just tired of this crap. What happened today... damn. We got close of not being here. Hopefully the Cylons now hammer each other for a change."
"Amen." As they took a sip and some awkward silence followed, Dee decided to change the subject. "I managed to read some of the book you lend me. The stories are... interesting. Almost like moral lectures."
"That's how I see them. Don't take them at face values. But learn from the story. Don't steal. Don't murder. That sorts of thing. Hm... if you get tired of the Bible for a while, I don't have any copy, but we do have plenty of Roman and Greek stories in the database. I suggest the Iliad and the Odyssey. The first is about the Trojan war, the other of the journey home for a Greek king after the war."
"Sounds interesting. We have the name Troy in our mythology as well. Can you tell me about it?"
"You first." He took a sip.
"Well... Troy was a besieged city that fell at the hands of the Lord's worshipers. But the strange part was, the story always said that the people in Troy were worshipers as well, but never why the war happened."
"I can fill you in. Prince Paris was the younger prince of Troy. His older brother was Hector. Their father was King Priam. Troy was at war with the Greek city states. They were ruled by Agamemnon. His younger brother ruled over Sparta. The details vary, but Paris seduced or fell in love with the queen of Sparta. Helena. According to mythology, Paris actually was forced to be judge in a conflict between three goddesses."
"Which three?" She was getting interested in this story.
"Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis. They argued who was the most... something. Beautiful perhaps. Again, details vary. The point is, every one of them tried to bribe Paris to vote for her. Athena said she'd make him the wisest man who ever lived. Artemis to make him a great hero or warrior. Again, depends on who wrote it. But Aphrodite promised him a golden apple. If he desired a woman, any woman, all he'd have to do, is eat the apple and think about her and she'd fall in love with him. Guess what he chose."
"The apple, obviously."
"Yep. Long story short, Helena fled Sparta with him. Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus assembled a Greek army, including the King of Ithaka, Odysseus, who is the protagonist of the Odyssey. There was also Ajax and Achilles that were memorable. Anyway, Troy falls in the end because King Odysseus outsmarts them. Athena even said it in his journey home that he was her favorite as he used his greatest weapon. His mind. Anyway, that is why an Earth way of calling computer viruses is a Trojan. As it infiltrates without being detected, until it is too late. That's how supposedly Troy fell. As for King Odysseus, he angered Poseidon, so the god of the seas would not let him return home."
"Interesting. Perhaps I'll have a look at it as well. Thank you."
"Hey, thanks for getting my mind off the crap we're in right now."
Day 65 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 30th of March, year 2378, Colonial / Starfleet fleet
Bill was having a drink too, on the Yamato. Or more precisely, we was drowning himself in sorrow. He was alone in the bar, as most people here had their hands full.
His whiskey bottle was already half empty. He knew the doctor told him not to drink while he was still recovering, but he didn't care. "Frak it, Saul! Frak... frak you for this! Why?"
The doors opened as Colonel Belzen, Major Adama and Commander Hasapis were outside. "Frak, Bill looks ready to get himself wasted." Hasapis whispered. "Good thing you called us."
He meant Commander Scott. She was in charge of restoring this ship and she was at that conference. She had to tell them what happened and they promised to keep it to themselves. Hell, even Hasapis was angry and in disbelief that Saul was a Cylon. But he was not so close to him as Bill. "We'll take it from here. Also... how did you know he was here?"
"What do you think he's dirking? That's one of my bottles."
"And you let him have it?" Lee hissed.
"If he wants to get wasted, let him get wasted with the good stuff. And I've seen men with that expression before. I couldn't talk him out of it. You maybe can." She gave him a small glare back. "And let's be honest here, he may have not been the greatest dad, according to you, but you aren't exactly a son of the year material either in this regard. Now is your chance to patch this up. If there is one thing that can get him to shape up, it's you and his friends. Last thing we need right now is the officer in charge to be drunk..." She walked off.
Belzen, who remained silent to this point, shook his head. "Boy, you're in the dog house for a while."
"Lee can handle that, let us handle the mess inside..." They all went in and grabbed a chair at the table Bill was at.
"Get lost, all of you."
"Not a chance, Bill."
"You want a court-martial, Jerome?"
"In your state, you can try. There is an old saying. The real friends emerge, when you are at your lowest. So, here we are Bill. No matter how long this takes."
Day 68 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 2nd of April, year 2378, Starfleet ship Pathfinder, arriving at their destination
Once the Ares was mostly done, except for the final touches and test, which would be done once they either arrive here as well or they join the main fleet, Hill decided, with the conformation of Hasapis and Hauaman, who had taken command of the fleet for now, he burned to the final destination. A large nebula, but with a star inside.
They actually had detected at least three such phenomena in the past month. But had no time to inspect any of them.
They entered the nebula. They were mostly blind. They could spot only up to 50 clicks around them and detect gravity from a celestial body.
And they did find several planets and moons in the past few hours. But to find a habitable planet here was a problem. The so called Goldilocks zone was not where it would normally be, cause of the nebula. But they would try in the normal spot anyway.
"Detecting a planet ahead. Some 10.000 kilometers."
"Then get ready to enter orbit. Is the particle density getting lower here as well?"
In the other cases, the closer they got to a planet, the clearer it got. "Confirmed. Density is down 50% from normal and dropping."
"Get us into a 500 kilometer orbit. Any idea on the size?"
The science officer did his best with the limited data so far. "5% larger than a typical Minshara class. No idea on the atmosphere, but a magnetic field is present."
That was good news. Then an atmosphere was probably also there. Once they were in the demanded orbit, they saw the planet below. It was much colder than a standard M class, the nebula blocked enough sunlight to lower the average temperature significantly. "Average temperature is 11 degrees. The ice covers around a third of the planet from both poles. Seems like Earth in the last ice age, only worse. Water is 80% of the surface area. I'm reading plant and animal life... wait..." His equipment alerted him. Several times. "Detecting carbon emissions. Fusion and antimatter reactors. On the continent we're about to fly over."
All got shocked by this revelation. "Full scans and get me an image."
They got a close-up shot of a middle sized settlement on the planet. Many of the structures seemed like they were made from starships being repurposed for construction. And some of the parts seemed familiar.
"A shield bubble just appeared over the city. They know we're here. I'm also detecting energy weapons powering up."
"Shit. Ehm, polarize the hull and get us into a higher orbit. Hail them..."
"Sir, we're already receiving a transmission from the surface."
Hill almost hesitated. "Let's hear it."
Some static followed, but they got it cleaned up. "This is Governor Elliot Fabron of the Federation colony New Settlement. You have entered our space. Identify yourself and state your intentions."
"Federation? Can't be. This far out? And on this planet? Open a channel. This is Lt. Hill from the Earth starship Pathfinder. We are humans from Earth. Are you from Earth as well?"
"Yes? Wait... have you finally gotten this far out? Has Earth..."
"Wait. How long have you been here? I get the feeling that this settlement was not planned?"
"You would be correct. We settled here as we had no choice."
"Then it's best that we meet eye to eye and exchange out stories. Permission to beam down?"
Some silence followed. "Granted. But only you. We'll be transmitting coordinates."
A few minutes later and Hill was escorted in what he had to assume, was the governor's private study. And his escort were apparently Starlfeet people in a strange red uniforms. And not only humans, but some Andorians, Vulcans and even an Orion woman. The room itself was much what one would expect from a Federation politician. only one person besides the governor and Hill remained in the room after security left them. "So, Lt. Hill?"
"Yes, Governor."
"Please, have a seat." There was only one seat that was empty. The one in front of the governor's desk. "We did some research." A screen to Hill's left turned on and he saw his own profile. Date of birth and Starlfeet registration number. "You were part of Commodore O'Donnell taskforce that went missing in the 22nd century, not long after the end of the Romulan war?"
"Em, yes, Sir?"
"Then how did you get here?"
"I could ask you the same question, Sir."
The other person in the room, who was so far sitting silently behind hill, stood up and went to his right. "And yet, we outrank you. Augment."
The Augment part was what tipped Hill off. "You know."
"My people did some scans. You are not human."
"And now you want an explanation."
"Lt. Hill. This is my planetary security Chief, V'ok Miller."
"Wait... a human family name but a Vulcan first name?"
He pointed to his ears. "I'm a half breed. But I do have my mother's family name and sense of humor. Now, answer the question. Your record shows nothing about you begin an Augment."
Hill then did explain. For the next 30 minutes. His origin. The Enterprise and Columbia after the Augment fiasco. Them getting stranded here. The Colonials. Cylons. The whole smash.
To say that his new hosts had a hard time believing half of this was an understatement. "That is quite a tale." Fabron was not convinced. "You want us to believe all of this plus that an agent of the Temporal Cold War tipped you off on our location? Believing one of the things you said is possible. All of it? And you now being an unreliable source on top of that."
"Kid, just so you know, we have some bad taste in our mouths when it comes to Augments." Miller clarified.
"All humans do." Hill was getting tired of being treated as a Plague patient.
"You don't get it. A brave and outstanding Starfleet Captain by the name of James Tiberius Kirk outsmarted the smartest bastard of you all. Khan Noonein Sing. Twice, before he finally died. So much for superior." Miller explained the situation to him. "We once again got reminded of what Augments are and can do, so excuse me for my skepticism on what you told me."
"Are all humans responsible for the actions of a few or one?"
"We can't take any risks with you, until we can be sure."
"Then there are only two ways, I suppose. A mind meld or you go to my ship."
"We do both." Miller recalled the guards who restrained him. Then a group of Vulcans in temple gear followed. "You'd better relax, kid. This won't be fun for you."
As this was happening, an assault team was beamed on to the Pathfinder. With only hull polarization she could not block their transporters. The ship was taken within minutes, no casualties suffered on either side.
A few minutes later, the head Vulcan priest stopped the meld. "He is telling the truth. About everything. He is not our enemy."
Miller was not really happy at being wrong. He just handed a report from the Pathfinder to the governor. His team found the evidence in the database on what Hill told them. "The kid's clean. Release him."
As the three of them were once again left to their small conversation, with two guards now remaining in the room, Hill regained some dignity. "Now that this is settled. And I will make a formal protest at this..."
"Which is within your right." The governor acknowledged this.
"I have a right to know how you people got here."
Year 2294, edge of the Alpha Quadrant, counter spin wise, moving to galactic edge, Federation taskforce, mission: Search and rescue
The command ship Babylon was leading a taskforce on a mission to find out what happened to several Starfleet ships that disappeared near a cluster of star systems at the outskirts of uncharted space. This sector was far from any known hostile forces, like the Klingon or Romulan Empires.
Two Oberth class science ships and a Constellation class cruiser went missing here in a matter of three months. Starfleet decided to send a show of force to either increase a search web or to stop anyone from trying anything.
The taskforce was made up of 16 ships, including an additional Oberth class, just for the science needs.
After a week of searching, the fleet entered one of the last star systems and did a new search, like they did before dozens of times.
But this time, their search was cut short. They detected a power signature on the fourth planet in the system. Something they didn't recognize before. So the fleet converged to that planet. The larger military ships went ahead, leaving the science ship and a small escort behind at a safer distance. Turned out it didn't matter. A glowing blue orb ascended from the planet and began scanning them. They were at full tactical alert, but it wouldn't matter. Within a few seconds after initiating the scan, the probe began emitting an electric discharge that disabled a ship with only one shot. One after the other, the taskforce was rendered useless. But not without fighting back. But the alien probe was heavily shielded and so absorbed the incoming firepower. As the main fleet was down and the probe turned to do the same with the science ship and the escort, who now also opened fire while pulling back, the probe did an electrical discharge behind her. That electrical beam opened up a portal. And the portal grew in size. But not only that. The portal was apparently trying to establish a link to a specific location.
Before this could proceed, the escort fleet managed to do enough damage to disable the probe. By keeping their distance, the probe couldn't disable them and the main fleet did the bulk of the damage earlier. But while the probe was gone, the portal was not. It tried to establish a link to its intended destination, but without the probe, it stalled at the last set of coordinates. Empty space. Then a gravitational pull began dragging all the ships into the portal. Even the functional ones were not capable to escape as the gravity effect disabled their warp drives.
Within a minute, they were all pulled through, just as a new probe was ascending from the planet to finish the job. Too little too late. Once they were through, the portal collapsed. Now, with only the small support ships in a working order, the fleet found itself in the middle of nowhere...
Day 68 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 2nd of April, year 2378, Starfleet ship Pathfinder, arriving at their destination
The governor continued with the story. "We had to evacuate all the affected ships. But we had to squeeze 5000 people on smaller ships that could not support that many for a long time."
"What did the probe do?"
"We now know it was an Iconian probe. It infected our fleet with a virus that we have yet to find a solution for. We took several PADDs that we deliberately infected, to study the virus. Purging doesn't work. And all tried antiviral software attempts failed. We detected the warp highway effect, but with the remaining ships, we could not hope to get close to Federation territory. Not with the fuel we had and no way of refining more. If we had the entire fleet, possibly, but not the way we were. So... we used the highway and sent out hundreds of probes. We found several potential planets along the highway. This was the best one. We took our ships after taking everything that we could that was not infected, set a course here and... 5000 light years and 70 years later here we are."
"You used the ships themselves as construction material didn't you?"
"You are in the old bridge module of the Leonardo, the Oberth science ship that was part of the fleet. We had 5000 plus people to take care off. This was the best planet for this that we could find on short notice."
"Hm... so, you used the ship reactors for power, water recyclers for fresh water from the planet, but... the temperature is not the best for farming here."
"No, that's why we have three and are still building two farming domes. We can control the temperature there. For a while, the sea flora and fauna exclusively sustained us."
"How many are there now?"
The governor hesitated for a bit. "12.000. More or less. 5000 humans. 3000 Vulcans. 1000 Andorians. 1000 Tellarites. 500 Betazoids. The rest are other races with smaller populations or hybrids."
"Wow... wow. Well, you did better than we at least. What ships were used for this... settlement?"
"That will wait. But nothing bigger than a destroyer size."
"Ok, but, your reactors are still in use after decades?"
"Yes? We have augmented this with solar collectors, wind turbines and hydro power, but we mostly still rely on the old warp reactors."
"Yes, that's my problem. Unless you have a source of deuterium and dylithium, the reactors would be done already.
Miller grinned. "We have a self made large scale deuterium refinery, kid. As for dylithium. We didn't choose this place just because it was better than most places we scanned. It's rich in dylithium. We use them to replenish the used up ones in the reactors. But... we have no real space ships anymore. We used them all up. All we have are some aging shuttles. Our priority was survival, not to have a space force again."
"Yeah, I get that, Sir. Look, the fleet I am part off is heading here, no matter what you say. You being here is a blessing as well as a curse."
"Why do you say that?" The governor wondered.
"Cause now I don't know if the majority of the fleet will want to stay here or continue on."
"Kid. What makes you think that most of us here want to stay? Sure, I was born here but I want to feel naturally warm water and wind. If we had terraforming equipment here, we could turn this rock into a second Earth. But we don't. If we get a chance to leave, we will, but... our fleet out there is out of commission, unless you have a way to deal with Iconian technology."
"Well, the other curse part will be that the Colonials, some of them at least, will not like the fact that aliens exist."
"And how do they handle you then?"
"The ones that know have no issues. Doesn't mean others won't."
Miller got a report from his team. He told them to stand down now and to hand control of the ship back to its original crew. "Well kid. Your comm system won't work in this nebula. If you want to contact your fleet, I'm coming along to talk to whomever is in charge over there."
Commander Kelly Rose Scott - Jennifer Lawrence (Chief Engineer) (Scotty's distant relative)
Captain Sakari Hauaman - Catherine Bell (Challanger Captain)
Lt. Adrian Garcia - Michael Peña (Computer scientist)
Major Michael David Sisko - John Boyega (MACO Commander) (Benjamin's distant relative)
Lt. Commander Sachiko Hayashi - Kim Tae-hee (Challenger comm officer)
Dr. George Manor - Hugh Laurie (Rank Lt. Commander, Chief Medical Officer of Challenger)
Commander K'Lir - Melinda Clarke (Vulcan and Challenger's XO)
Commander Naomie Evans - Emmanuelle Vaugier (Crusader XO, now acting CO)
Lt. Noah Hill - Timothy Olyphant (Crusader tactical)
Major Jacques Friloux - Casper Van Dien (Champion MACO Commander)
Lt. Commander Alex Nelson - Dean Cain (Crusader Chief Engineer)
Dr. Krisha Kumar - Aarti Mann (Rank Lt., Chief Medical Officer of Crusader)
Commodore Fiona O'Donnell - Lauren Holly (Bismarck CO)
Colonel Alan Walker - Michael Biehn (Bismarck MACO CO)
Lt. Jacob Rivers - Seth MacFarlane (Paladin Chief Engineer) (Ship's acting CO, all higher officers are dead)
Captain Carlos Ramirez - Josh Cruze (Champion Captain, transferred from Intrepid, as Starfleet needed all experienced officers in more capable ships)
Captain Khari Oladoyinbo - Cuba Gooding Jr. (Knight CO)
Commander Sek'Ris - Tom Selleck (Officer of Vulcan Command)
Commander Jerome Hasapis - Bob Gunton (BSG Victory)
Colonel Colin Hawks - Nathan Jones (marinestar commander)
Governor Elliot Fabron - Forest Whitaker
V'ok Miller - Clancy Brown
Colonials: 112 Civilian ships
One Marinestar, the Broadsword. A Sobek, (Victory), three Adamant, one Valkyre (Morningstar), Pegasus (Mercury class) and Galactica (Jupiter class).
Starfleet: Challenger, Crusader, Paladin, Nightingale (hospital ship), Bismarck, Yamato, Volga, Denarius, Pathfinder, Mississippi, Boston, Oracle, John Brown, Merchant, Concordia, Settler's Dream, Danube and Vo'kor.
Destroyed: Marco Polo, Frontier.
Yet to be part of the fleet: Ares, Colonial Hope