Encounter at Kobol Chapter 10: The ever shifting battle lines, a StarTrek: Other + Battlestar Galactica: 2003 Crossover fanfic

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 ten: The ever shifting battle lines

Day 68 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 2nd of April, year 2378, Starfleet ship Pathfinder, outside the nebula

The Pathfinder crew managed to establish a comm link to the Ares, as they made the comm system there a priority to be used as a link to the fleet.

"Hill. You finally called. What's up?" Was Kara's cheery personality. Guess getting a new ship for the Colonials made her day for several days.

"Kara. I have... a situation. Patch me through to the Challenger. I need to speak to the Admiral."

"Sure. Can I stay on the line. Night shift is so boring."

"Best you call the Pride's commander as well."

The people on the Ares did as asked off and half a minute later, the screen was now split in two. On the left was the Ares bridge, on the right the Challenger bridge. "Captain Hauaman. Lt. Hill here. I need to ask you to call Admiral Adama. I have an urgent report to make."

"He's not available at the moment. And O'Donnell hasn't returned yet, but will within a day. So, I'll be the recipient of that report. Go ahead."

Hill looked to V'ok, who still had his civilian uniform on. He now stood beside Hill. "This is V'ok. The Security Chief of the Federation colony called New Settlement. On the M class planet in the nebula."

The utter confusion could be seen on the faces of the people on both ships. Hill let V'ok explain. And it took a while. Again.

"Wow. That's... unexpected. Captain Thrace, what's your ETA to the nebula?"

"3 days at this rate. We're still repairing the Ares..."

"Skip it, full speed to the nebula. You can finished the repairs there. Mr. V'ok, can I assume that you have competent engineers there?"

"We do. But doesn't mean we'll just assist you out of the blue. This is uncharted territory. From what your Lieutenant told us, you have an interesting ragtag fleet."

"The same goes for you and your colony."

"True, but we are of one political body, not divided to 12 so called tribes and counting us as the 13th. And then there is this AI mess we now know about..."

"About that. A civil war has begun between them. The Paladin and Bismarck confirmed it, independently of each other. That said, you mentioned an Iconian probe?"

"Yes?"

"This is the second time today that the word Iconian was mentioned to me. Admiral O'Donnell said that the Cylon organic long range memory transfer technology is apparently based on an Iconian crystal. It's broken now, as they used it to initiate the civil war with the Guardian's help, but we got to keep the pieces."

"Then I ask for you to bring it here. Perhaps it could help us to develop an antiviral procedure for our fleet."

"Good idea."

Hill stepped in. "Captain. Anything else about that situation? Have we recovered other ships? Has the admiral gained anything else but that crystal leftover?"

"Two of the smaller ships were not recoverable. The main targets were. Most will join the fleet within the day. The Champion and Paladin will need two days, the Bismarck one. And... we got a first Colonial war era basestar as compensation for our power conversion technology from the Guardians. Also... Spartacus stayed there. He's been appointed their leader, it seems."

Hill actually smiled at that. "Good for him. Showoff."

"Anyway, I'll inform the brass. Thrace, you know what to do. V'ok. We only have good intentions. We'll keep the Colonials in line. As it is clear that keeping the whole alien part a secret won't be an option any longer."

Day 68 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 2nd of April, year 2378, Starfleet ship Challenger, Colonial / Starfleet fleet

Hauaman went straight for the presidential quarters. She knew that Adama was still in a form of therapy to process this mess of the Final Five. But Commander Hasapis was with President Roslin right now, wither in her quarters or the conference room on the same floor.

She tried her quarters, but no response. Since the guard was also not there, the conference room it was.

The guard let her pass, as he knew her and she was unarmed anyway. As she barged in, Laura was having a discussion with not only Hasapis, but Billy and several ministers. "Captain. Unless this is urgent, you are interrupting important matters."

"It is urgent all right. We got a call from Lt. Hill. You won't believe it."

A good 10 minutes later and Laura was in shock. "12.000 settlers? 12.000?"

"Well, mostly descendents from the disabled fleet. And many aliens among them. And now hybrids as well. The secret won't remain a secret for much longer."

"What else can you tell me. The planet? Settlement?"

"Not much else. Hill said he's going back down there with more people to get the lay of the land. They grow their own food and have a refinery for the fuel we need. The original settlement was made from the ships they had. So they really are stranded there."

"What about the ships they left? Can they be salvaged?" Hasapis was the military guy in the room. He wanted to know about the military issue.

"Remember the Iconaian crystal Admiral O'Donnell mentioned? Well, this fleet was stranded here by the same race. Probably an automated outpost of some kind. And the larger ships still are disabled by an Iconian virus, so advanced it makes the Romulan and Cylon ones look primitive. Even after 80 years, they are not any closer to get the virus removed."

"Great. Seems that Fiona was right with her suspicion that we got to Kobol probably with some Iconian crap." Hasapis cursed. He didn't get her insistence on this, but now, it looked as she was on to something.

"I've ordered our three ships there to stop with the Ares repairs and to get to the nebula ASAP. We need to get on good terms with them, fast."

Laura was puzzled. "Aren't they your people?"

"They... learned about some of your people's xenophobic tendencies. They are reserved about you."

Laura now had two battles ahead of her. Keeping her colonies together and not piss off this colony. And they might be both mutually exclusive.

Day 68 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 2nd of April, year 2378, Federation colony New Settlement

Half of Pathfinder's crew were now planet side. The governor had addressed the political leadership, which was mostly made off a representative of each race, making eight representatives in total. Then he addressed the people. Explaining to them about the lost 22nd century fleet. He left out the while Colonial / Cylon mess for now. And the Temporal agent.

So Hill, like his people, had an option. Go and relax on the planet or have a tour of specific facilities. But they had to leave everything but their communicators on the Pathfinder.

Hill did the most important tour in his mind. The dylithium mining and deuterium processing. And he was impressed. They managed a lot in only 80 years. "V'ok, can I ask you something?" They were walking through an access tunnel that connected the main refinery complex to the settlement outskirts. The atmosphere was breathable, but for the ease of movement and transport the tunnels were made. And to avoid walking in the freezing winter temperatures.

"Sure."

"I see you are still expanding? I mean, the living dome buildings and larger apartment complexes... all is connected via this tunnel system. I get that the reason is the harsh winters, but why expand this much?"

"Population. Sure, the multiple species being here makes genetic diversity much more easy to deal with, but for a long term sustainability, the science administration calculated that we would need 100.000 people within the next 200 years. So a small scale city. Population is power after all."

"I get that. I just didn't believe how efficient all of this is."

"We had to be. Or die. Unlike these Colonials who still bicker about everything, we can see the big picture... Ironically mostly thanks to the Starfleet training our predecessors got and we got from a second hand, but the Vulcans here... they make making rational decisions easy."

"Heh, you would know."

"My father would disagree."

They were approaching a connection HUB. V'ok let Hill decide where to go next. So he decided to see one of the farming domes. "He still alive?"

"167 this year. Mom died at 97 years. He would never admit it, but misses her. Emotionally I mean."

"And you?"

"I was given the choice to make my own decision how to be raised. Traditionally Vulcan, Terran or a mix. I choose the mix. It gives me a certain perspective on both cases."

A short walk later and they entered into the large dome. The sunlight was amplified inside as several reflective surfaces bounced the existing light around. There were also larger lamps, for winter use. It was also relatively warm. 26 degrees. "Nice. I see mostly terran plants here."

"The others are grown in a separate dome. The environmental needs are different. Most Earth plants would die in the heat Vulcan plants need."

As they continued walking, Hill noticed something else. "I also see little other races here, but humans?"

"It is logical to assign most tasks a race would be good at to that race. Andorians are the best hunters, fishermen and outdoor survivors on a planet like this. For them the winters here are like a summer on Andoria. Vulcans are by far the best scientist. Betazoids social workers... we humans can fill any role, but you get the point."

"Yeah. If you fight for survival, you need to be efficient, like you said."

"Exactly." They left the large dome back to the connecting tunnel.

"You know what, I can see more later. I need to get some rest. I am on the night shift right now. Even I can't stay up forever."

Day 70 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 4th of April, year 2378, Colonial / Starfleet fleet

The Paladin and Champion had just arrived to join the fleet. All ships were now assembled. Well, all but two. The newly acquired basestar and the Vulcan cruiser Vo'kor kept a substantial distance from the main fleet. The military knew about them. The civilians did not. The Vulcan ship would raise questions. The basestar would cause panic.

Fiona heard about the Final Five in the fleet and how Adama was taking it. She had no issues to cower for him. So for now, she was back in charge. And also at a loss on what the Pathfinder found. She agreed with Hill. This was a can of worms. Anything could happen. Who knows which side would be the one to initiate a mess.

The Champion was in a bad shape. But since she was still salvageable, they would fix her. But Scott was at her wits end. She was the best engineer they had, but this was not manageable any longer. So they decided to put all repairs on the Champion and Yamato on hold. They can fix them at their destination, like the Ares. Hopefully with a fresh batch of Starfleet engineers to boot.

But Adama's situation was what worried Fiona. Her idea was that he lead the expedition back to the colonies. The way he was now, he could not do that, or even lead this fleet.

The Vo'kor, Ares and Bismarck were the obvious choices for this mission and she had Scott begin installing the cloaks on the two ships they already had here. As well as continue with the Galactica retrofits and the usual fleet wide repairs and updates.

But to have a potential pit stop on their way, real ground under their feet and fresh air above them was an inviting prospect. She however did share Hill's fear. Would the fleet still want to continue to Federation space, or to just stay there? I mean, the groundwork was already done. Let the Cylons hammer each other. And let Starfleet find them, even if it takes centuries.

Currently, Scott was having a break and a meal in the Yamato mess hall. They had already installed one food replicator here as well, but she didn't use it much. The users were split down the middle. Some didn't trust it, others were enthusiastically using it.

She was more playing with her food with the fork, letting her thoughts wander. Garcia put his plate on the same table. "Hey, Chief. You look beat."

"Thanks. You're a sight for sore eyes as well."

"Hey, just looking out for you..." He began eating. "How is that other problem going?"

She knew what he meant. "Well, we'll get some R&R at that colony..."

"You know what I mean."

She sighed. "I can't really kick the Colonial VP in the nuts, can I?"

"Well, there's always the indirect approach."

Again, she knew what he meant. "Forget it."

"Hey, I am not saying for you to say yes to the Major, there are others who showed interest. I just think he's the best of the batch."

"He has some serious daddy issues."

"Who doesn't."

"Hey... why are you playing matchmaker here?"

"I am not, but truth be told, Baltar is going on my nerves as well. Just yesterday, I had to give him access to all none restricted data in the library. He is so full of himself, I tell you. And if he's bugging you..."

"I'm a big girl. I can handle him."

"That's what I'm worried about. You can easily have him beamed into space without anyone knowing."

"You think I'd kill him?" She was holding back her outrage.

"Anyone can do anything, if push comes to shove. Look, I know you wouldn't do that, but an incident could occur. He is known as a skirt chaser, so anything he does is expected by their public. You acting out on his annoyance would be bad for us. And let's face it. A boyfriend is a good deterrent. And Major Adama does look like he could easily take him."

She scoffed. "I could easily take him, so that's not saying much."

On Cloud Nine, Laura was just finishing with a Quorum session. She was worried. Porter was still on the fences and now Laura had to return the favor. No more playing nice. She began calling her out as much if not more than Porter did her. Porter threw the asylum issue in her face, she threw the bad manners of the Gemenise back at her. No love was spared between them. Baltar was himself, Laura's little dog, nodding all the way.

Tom was playing the field as best as he could. And he was already on the path of getting one thing he wanted. The elections would arrive. Only now Laura didn't know how to break the whole Earth colony with aliens in it part. She would have to play the waiting game. And she could have used Sachiko Hayashi's help. But her presence was not needed for this session. She was busy counseling Adama. She was the only qualified one in the fleet to do so. He could not drown himself in a bottle. He did end it, with the long talk he got a few days ago. It really helped. But the question on what to do with the Final Five still lingered in the fleet. At least to those who knew.

O'Donnell was also having a conference of her own. With Bill out for now, she had to keep the navy and military going. And now she had the captain's of every meaningful Starfleet ship here in addition to the Colonial commanders.

"Colonel Belzen, I hope you won't mind, but I'll make a new adjustment to the plan of you being the XO of the Yamato."

"Ma'am?"

"Depending which Colonial officer will lead the three ships back, I'll move my flag to the Yamato. So, Colonel Walker, for now your rank remains unchanged as well. A mixed crew it will be in all three cases, but I still think that a Colonial officer in charge of the mission would be better than me. So either Admiral Adama get's his shit together, or Hasapis, your it."

He agreed with her assessment. "Who gets what then?"

"Well, either you or Adama get my ship, the Bismarck. The most experienced captain I have is Hauaman, so she'd get the Ares. Commander Sek'Ris, you'd remain in command of your ship, of course."

"I concur with this arrangement." The Vulcan male responded. "If I may add..."

"Please."

"I suggest, since this colony has substantial amount of Vulcans there, that my ship be also manned by them. Not a pure crew, but at least 100 Vulcans would be appreciated."

"Well, that's not up to me, is it? Anything else?"

Hawks had a question. "And the XO's and other officers?"

"As said, mixed crews. Including officers. Whoever will be the Bismarck CO, I think Walker should be the XO on that ship for the mission. On the Ares... you, Hawks would make a good XO."

"Mixed experiences as well. A well thought-out arrangement." Sek'Ris complimented her in his stoic way. "Has Commander Scott given her projections on when the cloaking systems can be tested?"

"She and her people get a day off tomorrow. I think in three days, we can test both of them."

As the main topics were done and people began leaving, Fiona stopped Hasapis and Sek'Ris. "Commander. Good work talking to Adama."

"Helped only in a limited form."

"Better than nothing. If you can think of anything else..."

"I will notify you." He left, his destination a raptor intended for the basestar. The Colonials were leading the repurpose program on this ship and Starfleet was doing the support role.

"What do you wish to discuss with me, Admiral?"

"Sek'Ris, you studied Vulcan meditation on one of your temple worlds?"

"Yes. And I see where you are taking this. I can prepare a meditation session for the Admiral. I believe of what I heard of him that he indeed possesses many Vulcan attributes. Mostly making decisions without passion. Letting facts guide him. But I also understand his current situation. He lacks our mental discipline. If he is willing, I can guide him. Teach him to find balance again. To forgive, both himself and his friend."

"Then... I'll go talk with him..." She looked at the time. "Hayashi should be done in 10 minutes. I'll inform you then."

On the battlestar Pegasus, a daily exercise and training session was taking place. Since now all the Starfleet personnel that can be found, was found, they were getting up to speed on what was established between Colonials and Starfleet to make this fleet function.

Since Hawks and walker were still getting to the ship from the meeting, Sisko was overseeing this operation.

"Come on, Jacques, let me see you didn't lose your sharpness." Sisko pushed his friend from the Champion in the shooting range.

He had just emptied a power pack and was reloading. "You really do know how to motivate a person, Michael." He began shooting at the holo targets. They were in the modified target range on the Pegasus. To conserve ammo, the Colonials adopted the system from Starfleet, where they even managed to put together training weapons that could simulate Colonial ammo.

"98% hit rate. You're as good as ever."

"Better than you..." They grinned and congratulated each other as the old friends that they were. "The Colonials aren't bad either. I see they can use our gear pretty well."

"Yeah, I had time training them. Well, me or Colonel Walker." They left the shooting range. In the wide Pegasus corridors, they were passed several times by smaller units of solders that were on an endurance run. "Feels almost like home, doesn't it?"

"The size fits. It's not as cramped as ours would be." They arrived in the hand to hand training room. "And I see you showed them the Klingon moves we copied in the field."

"You'd be surprised how often they work." He now had an evil smirk. "Want to test yourself?"

"Oh, hell no. I'm not in the mood..."

"Hey, everyone. Who is willing to go a two vs. one mock battle against the Major here?"

Everyone stopped mid practice. "Major, if that officer is an Augment as well, we'll politely pass..." One of the Colonial privates remarked.

"Nope, regular human. Let's motivate him to be a sport about it. What say you, Jacques?"

They saw, how one of the training mats was cleared of the previous trainees as two larger Colonials put their padded helmets and teeth guards on. "You want to disappoint them?"

"One of these days..." He grabbed his own helmet and teeth protection. As he entered the ring, so to say, one of the trainers at the entrance ringed the bell.

The Colonials decided to go on the offensive right there and then. At the same time. The Major slapped one punch to the side, then redirected a kick from the other side to the other attacker. He used their won momentum and lack of coordination against them.

As the Colonial to his left got up first, he grabbed him from behind and as he was doing the reverse slam move, he also twisted around to slam him into the other opponent.

"Frak. They're bigger than him, yet he's playing with them." One of the Colonial observers remarked.

"Size is an advantage, but not if you don't know how to use it. And a disadvantage if the enemy knows how to use it against you." Sisko explained. "Major Friloux is the best hand to hand we have. Only Lt. Hill can beat him, for obvious reasons."

This continued on for a few minutes. They never landed a direct hit. He always made sure they only hit hard targets, like this arms, shoulders or chest, never his head, feet or abdomen. He always used their own strength against them. He was fighting smart and preserving his strength. After four minutes of this, he floored them again and this time they stayed down, too exhausted from this. He was tired as well, but you could not tell from the outside. He extended his hands to help them up. "You have good stance. Good form. Bad speed. Bad hand to eye coordination. No coordination between yourselves. You threw all this energy around while I exerted almost nothing and used your own power against you." He looked around. "Tomorrow, anyone who wants, I'll be having a training class on this combat style. How to be the most efficient with your strength. Because if you are on your last leg to claim victory, we call that a Pyrrhic victory. A victory that might as well be a loss. So, anyone wants to learn, be here, tomorrow at eight o'clock sharp in the morning." He then looked at his tired opponents. "I'll show you how to fight together, not against each other. You do that, I'll be in trouble next time." He smirked at them, nodding. "Nice work anyway. Now, 10 minutes of rest, then back to training. And if you can floor me once tomorrow after I show you how, the beer is on me."

He put the protection gear back to where it was and left with Sisko. "You wanted this, didn't you?"

"I have to get you motivated somehow, don't I? You were one of the best instructors at the academy before the war after all. You know all of Earth combat styles and even what? 12 alien ones?"

"17."

More time passed in the fleet. The progress on the Galactica was going as planned, but it had to be painstakingly accurate. And since Galen was 'called' on a different assignment, Peter Laird was made deck chief of the Galactica. He knew what had to be done and only the dismantling of the three ships in the pod and the programming was still in Starfleet's hands.

Right now, Commander Scott was inspecting the refinery line on the Daru Mozu. This was Galen's project from the beginning, but things change. "I see the reinforcements were done to the processing line..." She checked that off on her PADD's list.

The foreman was beside her as the work continued. "Yes. Those tritanium reinforced holding braces work well. We didn't have an incident in weeks."

"That's the idea. OK... the liquefaction plant... are the new fuel pumps and control processors doing as expected?"

He checked his report. "Ehm... more than that. 62% increase in efficiency."

"Good. That means we can give both the people and machines a break sooner than planned. Now..." She turned to inspect him. "Your people. How is moral?"

He was dirty with machine oil but still managed to smile softly. "Better than in months. With our kids on those ships of yours and we getting some decent rest in actual beds... we can't thank you enough."

"Hey. We all benefit from this. And the rations?"

"Also better. Food deliveries and actual medical supplies really help. Your... transporter things really make movement easy."

"Yeah... but you still rely on the big ships... Anyway. Chief Tyrol won't be around for a while, so I hope you don't mind this."

They moved on to the bridge. "Any issues up here?"

The foreman nodded to the pilot who stood up. "We did have some issues with the DRADIS acting up. I don't know if it is important, but... the system is directly linked to navigation?"

"Right. I'll have Peter and two engineers come tomorrow and check it out. Unless this is a major glitch, it can wait."

On the Bismarck, Saul was moved to the main conference room, restrains and all. And only he, the others remained in the brig.

They secured him to the chair, but his hands were still usable, if chained.

He was left alone in the room for a while, then Bill entered, alone, as his guards were told to remain outside. Bill then put a bottle on the table. Then he poured himself one and Saul one glass. Saul's restraints did enable him to grab it. "What's this about, Bill?"

"I just had a long... and interesting session of meditation. The Vulcan Commander gave it to me. And while I was skeptical at first, it did help me. To not drown myself in this..." He inspected the liquid by moving the glass a bit. "Usualy this was your problem."

They raised their glasses, acknowledged each other and drank it down. "That's it for me for a while. You can have all of this, if you want. I already owe Commander Scott a bottle. What is one more."

Saul did help himself to a second round. And a third. And a fourth. "Frak it... how did we end up in this mess?"

"You tell me. You were born, what? 2000 years ago?"

"Don't remind me."

"While I got the mind meld report... I want you to tell me everything. And start at the beginning."

"That explains the booze. I can't shut up if drunk. You sneaky prick..."

Day 68 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 2nd of April, year 2378, occupied planet Caprica

The resistance did manage to contact the remaining fleet. They were really fragmented all around the system. They had to be, on top of as decentralized as possible. If one cell got caught, they could not compromise more than one or two other cells.

So while it took time, the word did get out. The toasters were now hammering each other. And the raptors that did the reconnaissance runs, confirmed this.

The survivors on Caprica also communicated with each other, via the few raptors they now had. But they all agreed, this planet was harmful to humans for the next 50 years due to radiation. And the amount of medication was limited. The same was on all planets. And Sharon told them of Kobol as well, but in this war, that planet would be caught in the crossfire as well. They would need to leave, as soon as possible.

But how to find Galactica's fleet?

Helo returned from another raid to the mall 10 clicks and went to first check up on Sam. He didn't tell anyone yet. Sam was having a talk with the other resistance leaders in the camp. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"How did the supply search go?"

He gave them a rough inventory list of all they got. "Mostly canned food and anti-radiation meds. But the mall is down to 50%. Any word on an evac?"

"No. Nothing. The fleet up there is scared shitless that this still might be a ruse."

"Can't blame them, really... And Sharon?"

The people there looked at each other. "As before. But you do know that you're the only one who trust her, right?"

"I do too." Sam added. "What? She never lied to us."

"Helo we get, he knocked her up, but you?"

"Things change. Look. She is one person. And you heard that blonde Cylon. She is valuable to them. They won't hurt her."

"That is the point, Sam. Anything valuable to them is a problem for us."

Helo didn't like this train of thought. "Hey... She exposed the two moles, did nothing but help where she could..."

"And yet, 50 billion of us is gone. I don't care what she does, she is guilty..." Sam stepped between Helo and the angry resistance member.

"OK, Richie, take a walk. Cool down. We have more pressing matters than Sharon, right. Point is, the Cylons that have helped us would not take it kindly if we did anything to her. Let's keep it that way, shall we?"

All agreed, somewhat.

As the talk was over and everyone went back to his or her task, Helo stepped up to Sam. "Hey, thanks for the support."

"Won't mean much if they know... I think we need to do a more aggressive approach."

"Anything in mind?"

"I talked to Sharon. She has a good idea on where the Cylons would be. The one's we need. You're a pilot, of sorts. Want to go on a raid into a city?"

"They told us..."

"Yes, but this is taking too long. I won't be a target, cause... you know. All I want is a lift..."

Thinking it over, Helo nodded. "Fine, but if anyone asks, we were on patrol."

30 minutes later, they landed in an abandoned airfield on the outskirts of Caprica City. They both grabbed their rifles and sidearm. Helo used the binoculars to look around the perimeter. "Lots of scrapped centurions and even a few shot down raiders. This is getting messy. And now?"

"We can't go in the night. Centurion target tracking is better with infra-red vision at night."

"You said..."

"For you."

"Ah, fine..." They went from building to building. They slowly approached the political district. Good thing it was not in the main city center, as that would be a walk of a few hours.

Crouching next to the Colonial history museum, they took inventory. "A real ghost town."

Sam nodded. "If you ignore the fire fight sounds in the distance..." A pair of raiders flew above the city. "Or them."

Then they heard shots i the museum itself. "OK, either we go around or we check what is going on?"

Helo hated this idea. "We are suppose to not get shot at,"

"And we need to find one of the Cylon humanoids. Preferably not Cavil. We have to start somewhere..."

"Fine!" Helo hissed as they both went around to the aft entrance and sneaked inside. There were fresh bullet holes, blood on the walls and floor and corpses of centurions and humanoids everywhere.

"Wonder who's wining?" Sam asked no one in particular as they passed the exhibition of natural wonders.

"You hear that?"

"Yeah... voices..." He leaned from behind a statue of Zeus as they just entered the religious section. "Think that's in the next room. Artifacts..."

Helo went past him. "Then follow me, weapons at the ready and stay quiet."

They stepped over a fresh centurion corpse and snuck behind an old, now destroyed text of the Lords.

"Any last words, my dear?" A Cavil asked a Six. They were apparently leading each a unit of centurions. Her unit lost. As the remaining three centurions on Cavil's side had her in their crosshairs.

She was holding a golden arrow in one of her raised hands. "That I'll get you back for this."

"Just because your side controls the HUB for the moment, means nothing in the long run. Now, if you would kindly die..."

Sam shot the centurion to Cavil's left in the head. Helo went around to get a better position, but time was against them so Sam just took the initiative. Cavil ducked as the remaining two centurions now suppressed Sam with their fire. But as one of the centurions went around the display case and saw who it was, it looked at Cavil, as if asking what to do. "What is it? Kill the human!"

The centurion didn't obey. "Frak this, drag the monkey out, I'll do it myself then..." He picked up a pistol from a dead Four next to him. The centurion obeyed this time. "Ah, that explains it. Hello, Father Sam."

"John." The centurion disarmed him. "Guess I can't order it around, can I?"

"No. They only obey me now. But the issue is they won't attack you either... I have only myself to blame for it. And I can't kill you, as I do still need you and I don't know where you'd resurrect..." He pointed the gun on Six. "So, where were we?"

This time was all Helo needed to relocate. He shot the centurion that dragged Sam out. As the centurion fell to the floor, it also released the weapon it took from Sam. In the confusion, the last centurion went to suppress Helo with weapons fire as Sam grabbed his gun from the floor and killed Cavil. Six hit the ground as well, to take cover and she grabbed the gun from Cavil's dead hands, aiming it at the centurion along with Sam.

As the bipedal machine fell, Sam pointed his gun at Six. She saw this, but didn't drop her weapon. "Drop it!"

"Hey, we're in the same boat here..."

Helo emerged from cover. "Listen to the man..."

She did as ordered, but stood up. Helo kicked the gun away. "Now, let's have a chat..."

"Listen, morons..., not that I'm not grateful, but someone heard that. We need to be long gone, before that someone gets here."

"One of your model said you'd secure the city..."

"No, Helo. She said they'd try to defeat Cavil."

"Whatever. We need some explanation, now!"

"Fine..." She hissed. "You want answers, I can get them for you, if you follow me. Otherwise you saved me for nothing."

She wanted to grab her gun again. "Ah, not going to happen."

"You expect me to walk around unarmed?"

"Yes, I do." He motioned her to stand up and to get moving. Sam grabbed the gun for her.

As they left the museum, taking cover at every corner, a patrol of centurions emerged from down the street, their aim clearly the museum.

As they passed them, Sam gave her the gun. "She may be on to something."

"Sam, what the hell?"

"She needs us like we need her. Now, lead the way."

A few minutes later, they dropped into the sewers. "Wow, never saw this place so... empty of sewage."

"Karl Agathon, is it? No humans, meaning no human waste. What did you expect?"

He didn't like that remark. "Just move. And tell us how far this is?"

"Three clicks. So we best keep moving."

Some time passed, but they arrived at an intersection. She checked the corner. And waved. "Boys, now you'll hand over the weapons."

A unit of centurions turned the corner, all with a red paint across their torso. Sam and Helo aimed at them, but the centurions didn't mind their presence. "They say to hand over your guns. You will not be harmed."

Sam hesitated a bit, but Helo needed convincing. Once they were allowed past the reinforced door, they were checked for any other weapon or explosive. "This is an old military bunker, from the first war..." Helo figured it out."

"And the human get's a golden star." The Six joked. She took the golden arrow in her possession again, after she was bandaged up. "You want to talk to our leadership, come."

They passed several security checkpoints, storage facilities, server rooms and living quarters. This was all originally a Colonial installation, put to new use.

They arrived what looked like a battlestar CIC room, complete with a planning table and display of the planet. And the newly added Cylon equipment was also there, including the neural interface.

The Cylon humanoids in the room stopped what they were doing as Sam entered the room. "Didn't expect this." A Two responded.

"Yes, me neither. My entire retrieval force was destroyed. Cavil knew we'd go for the arrow."

She placed it on the table. The Three inspected it. "He knows the crystal is gone now. Any chance he had to level up is on Kobol or with the Earth / Colonial fleet now. And Kobol is the easy target."

"Wait... Earth?" Sam was puzzled. "But... I'm from Earth?"

"Different Earth." The Six explained. "You can use the interface, the human will have to watch the old fashioned way on the monitors. You wanted to talk, here you go."

Sam was not sure what to do, but they came this far...

His mind was now in a digital form in the HUB server. There were around a hundred avatars of humanoid Cylons and centurions.

"Not what I expected."

"Helo, Father Sam." He was warmly greeted by most. But they all made way for a single centurion to approach him.

"OK, and you are?"

"Call me Spartacus. The name was given to me by a human from the first Earth."

"He represents the centurions in this." Caprica Six explained. "We're spread all over the place so we use the HUB for the communication central."

"Wait... you have the HUB!"

The Guardians established contact within hours of the battle lines being drawn. The Cavil Cylons were at the back foot, for now. But that would change. The rebel Cylons had the HUB and a larger portion of the basestars, raiders and centurions, but he had the Colony ship and Colony planet. He had the larger industrial infrastructure and mining power. And the rebels, while they had the HUB, could not modify the HUB to be discriminative as to whom it will resurrect. Either all have it or all don't have it. If they shut the HUB down, it's just a small industrial ship made out of glass in space. But doing that would not only deny all Cylons resurrection, but they don't know if they can turn it back on again. Not without the Five.

They explained about the humans from Earth, the Last Hybrid, the Guardians... everything they knew. The bottom line was this, Cavil was dragging this war out. The more he can stall them and not fight now, the more he will have the numerical advantage within a year. Their main objective was taking the Cylon home world, the Colony word. They take that, Cavil has a real problem. But taking that was easier said than done. He had full control there.

The planet was so well defended that the rebels could take it, but not hold it. The only way would be if they can bypass the defenses. Yes, they could just nuke the planet, but then Cavil still controls the Colony ship and they are back at square one. And that was the main reason, but not the only one, to have the humans out of here. To get on an even better footing with the Earth humans. They know that they will have a rescue mission to the Colonies. They just hope it will not be too long as they will want to ask for their assistance with the Cylon Colony world. So to help evacuate these humans off the former Colonial worlds would be showing good faith. An exchange as it were. And for the other, they did make a promise to the Last One.

After about an hour, Sam was overwhelmed with information. "OK, I get all of this, but we are on our knees here and as you said, we don't know when this rescue will come."

"We don't exactly have resources to spare either, but we do have an idea." Caprica said. "Cavil... or should I say we, left many resources of the Colonials intact. I mean, why bother destroying everything. We just disabled your entire fleet and left most of them adrift in space. Your civilian fleet is in a similar position. Most grounded civilian transport ships or those belonging to large corporations, are docked on a planet, but disabled. They were guarded before, but now... the war changed everything. We can provide you with the counter hack key for the shut down program. But getting them working again without getting noticed is another matter as the battle lines move around both on the planet and in the orbits continuously."

Sam nodded to this proposal. "Fine. Once I'm back to the real world, give me this key and we'll see what any military survivor in the hidden fleet thinks about this. Can we contact you here again?"

"Unless Cavil finds us, yes. And this place is so obvious that he would never look. And we made sure no power signatures come from here. But he will send someone to check, sooner or later."

Day 68 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 2nd of April, year 2378, Federation colony New Settlement

The Adamant and her D-6 escort had arrived at the nebula and entered orbit of the colony, with the Ares still docked.

There was tension, but the engineers from the colony got the Ares running at 90% efficiency in under two hours. This was old tech for them.

V'ok was on the bridge, exchanging notes with Kara and Hill as his engineers were still buzzing around. He got Kara out of the captain's chair soon after his arrival. "Can't believe this was so close to here. But then again, your jump drive makes exploiting this highway even more easy. Captain Thrace, I have a question."

"Em, OK?"

"We still have the old landing locations where we landed all the ships before dismantling them. The Soyuz was a bulkier build, so this could land there as well. The D-6 as well. We can go and inspect the hull much easier that way, on the planet."

"I'll... go talk with the commander. Doubt she'll complain."

"Good. Now, the governor has extended the invitation. You can all go to the surface, get shore leave, R&R. But obey our rules. No bad behavior."

"Don't worry, Sir. Any Colonial military personnel act out of line, I'll floor them myself."

"Well then, we'll land this baby as soon as you get permission. Your Adamant is a bit too big for out landing locations..."

"Is there a long flat surface area, at least 700 meters long anywhere close to the city?"

"Hm... the southern location could do the trick. But we would have to scan your ship to see if the ground can handle the weight. It's close to the dylitium caves and I don't want to cause a cave-in."

"Right. Then I'll see what the CO says."

As there were now only Earth people on the bridge, V'ok eyed Hill. "She on the level?"

"Most of the time. Heck of a fighter and pilot, not so good at following orders."

"Heh, my human side approves, my Vulcan one shakes his head. Anyway, you had some good rest?"

"So-so. I could use some fresh air, truth be told."

"Then can I suggest that you and anyone that has too much energy, take a tour of the local mountain. Hikers, Andorians especially, love to climb that thing. I'm not saying to climb it, but go for a walk in that direction. But do put warm clothes on, it may be autumn on the planet, but it's already cold."

Day 73 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 7th of April, year 2378, Federation colony New Settlement

The Colonial / Starfleet fleet was now waiting outside the nebula. They had arrived an hour ago. And they had some things to clear up, before proceeding. Right now, Laura was on Colonial one, awaiting her new guest to arrive. Via raptor, to keep the public in the dark for as long as possible, until she addresses them and the Quorum.

Two security officers entered the room ,clearly wearing updated Starfleet security gear, followed by Governor Fabron and Admiral Adama and O'Donnell.

Bill managed to calm down to be present here. But the whole mess with Saul and the others was still in the air. They could not just go back to the way things were, but outing them was also a bad idea. So for now, they were all confined to their own quarters on the Yamato, under guard.

"Governor Fabron, a pleasure to meet you in person at last." She extended her arm. They had been talking for several days via subspace communication, to exchange their situations and ideas on how to handle this.

They shook hands. Her staff was behind her, ready to make any notes that come from this as they both sat down. "Likewise, President Roslin. I will be gladly present, when you explain this mess to your people. All of the citizens on the planet have been informed on the matter. We had a referendum 20 years ago that if a way to get us home presents itself, we'll take it, but 20 years is a long time. We'll have to redo it. But I doubt it will change. But I still stand with my previous demand. We are glad to take as many from you in as we have room for, but they would have to submit to our rules. If they have an issue on the religious practices we have, that's their problem. We tolerate differences in thought here."

"I understand and I agree with you. I would say the same, if the roles were reversed. Now, as for the issues we still have..." A Colonial military officer pushed a small box across the table and opened it. It contained the remains of the Iconian crystal. "I do hope this will help."

"So do I." One of the guards on his side took it. "Perhaps some of those Cylons could also take a look at it, at least if you have any you trust?"

"We'll see about that as well. Now, both admiral's here had an idea on how to solve the space issue, no matter, if we can get those other ships working again, or not. We got a working first generation basestar with us. The technology difference is not the issue. The size is sufficient that it can carry most of your people. Getting it ready to accommodate them with the needed facilities is the real problem. So interior remodeling, as it were."

"Well, we repurposed our ships to make a colony out of them, we can repurpose a large ship and make it habitable as well. Same for your ships when it comes to repairs. I would ask that those that can land, should land, after we get things sorted out. Also, we got both the Klingon D-6 and the Ares fully operational again and are waiting for the cloaking system to be delivered."

"I'll let my chief engineer inspect them first, if you don't mind." Fiona responded.

"Of course, even if she is 100 years behind ours."

"Technically you are as well, for the Earth today..." Adama retorted. "But let's not argue here. Your people have the better knowledge now, they have experience, as you said, only a few Vulcans are still alive from the original crews, everyone else went through a similar style education as your Academy on Earth has, but they were not even once in space for the most part. So mixing and matching is the best we have here. The same goes for our mission. We have the knowledge of our space and enemy, Fiona's people have overall experience, your people have the knowledge."

An hour passed and they sorted most matters to everyone's satisfaction. It was even decided that once they do continue with their journey, Governor Fabron would be the Federation representative. How they would solve the whole population mix and the voting system then, was in the air, as Laura would need to see how the Quorum and more importantly the people, react.

So an hour later, they were all on Cloud Nine in the Quorum chamber. They would broadcast this through the fleet via their wireless system. The Quorum members were all at their seats with their names displayed for all to see and their Tribe's flags behind them. They all wanted to know who the newcomer was and what this was about, since they were already at their destination.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, members of the Quorum. As the president of the Colonies, I have an announcement to make. One that is directly linked to us arriving to our current destination. I already know how some of you will react to what I will disclose. And I hope that most will keep a level head in this matter. There is a partially habitable planet in this nebula that we arrived at. How we knew this or why we're here is military secret, so I cannot nor want to disclose that information. But there are certain matters that were known to me and the military for quite some time that we kept a secret for reasons that once disclosed, will be apparent to all of you... We have information from both Earth and the Cylons that we, as in the 12 Tribes of Kobol, are not the first human civilization that existed in this galaxy. In fact, Earth is the birthplace of humanity. Now, before any of you go on a rampage and accuse our cousins of anything, know this: The Earth ships that were escorting us to here are NOT the 13th Tribe. They are, for a lack of another description, in fact the First tribe. The 13th Tribe was all this time... Cylon."

She could see the shock or displeasure in the eyes of many Quorum members and the press. She could only imagine how the fleet was reacting. "The Cylons themselves have confirmed that apparently the first Cylons originated on Kobol. They made humanoid bodies, then left Kobol to found their own colony. A millennia later, they mostly forgot their origin, had children like we do and then created their own AI. History repeated itself. The survivors of that holocaust ended our war with our centurions. They wanted peace and the centurions agreed. But one of the humanoid models, the model One, still wanted war and betrayed his so called parents. The rest is now history. The good news. This is now known to all Cylon models. A civil war has erupted, so the main Cylon force is in no position to keep chasing us. Now, what does this have to do with the other Earth? They have the evidence that their civilizations are millennia older than ours. Somehow, our ancestors got from Earth to all the way out here... and that is a matter that we are still in the dark about." She paused briefly. "That said, the reason I am telling you all of this now, is that on the planet we discovered, is, well, not just an Earth colony, but a Federation colony. A Starfleet taskforce was disabled and dragged out here. With only a few ships still functioning, they decided to keep themselves alive, by colonizing this planet. There are just slightly over 12.000 people on the planet, in a small city. And they are willing to take us in, until we can fix our fleet and get underway again, this time with them as well. Now comes the main reason for this session. The biggest secret we kept from you. The priests always said the galaxy belonged to us. Preparing for this, I asked Priestess Elosha to look over any and all texts of the Lords in regards to this matter. She found no evidence that any such claim existed in the past. All that has happened before will happen again. Life here began out there. Both statements are now more or less true. But not that this galaxy belongs to us alone. The reason I say this... is that we are not alone. Earth is in a part of the galaxy that is full of alien life. Sentient alien life. In some cases more advanced than us."

She saw Porter on the edge of her seat and possibly a bit red in the face. "The Starfleet ship Challenger's first officer is an alien. There is a ship of alien origin not far from our fleet. It and a captured Cylon basestar have been keeping their distance to not cause a panic. Earth has in fact been helped by some of them to recover from their past wars. And Earth has formed a military, political and economic alliance with three other races, 200 years ago. That is why I call the colony on the planet we arrived at a Federation colony. Earth is a founding member of the United Federation of planets. And the colony on the planet was made slightly less than 100 years ago. At their time, they had dozens of member worlds. I know that the anger and shock will subside, in most of you, but we are part of a greater galaxy and galactic society. We can no longer afford to remain ignorant at what we see with our own eyes. Earth has accepted this a long time ago. We will have to do the same. Our only saving grace at begin so ignorant to this truth is that apparently we are in a distant galactic arm where habitable planets are sparse. Not so in the rest of the galaxy."

She took a breather again. "Now, before I take questions from the Quorum members, I would like to announce the governor of the planet we came to. Governor Elliot Fabron, representing New Settlement and all of its inhabitants. Once things settle down, he will represent not just Earth, but speak for the Federation in these meetings." She once again greeted him in a gesture to promote diplomacy and friendship. The reaction from the Quorum members and the press were mixed at best. She dropped several bombs on them.

"Now, questions, please?"

They went in a specific order. Baltar would be last, so the Aerilon representative went first.

"Yes... well, shocking announcements for sure, madam President. How... I mean, are you yourself convinced of all you said?"

"I can understand your skepticism. But all the relevant data will be made available to anyone in the fleet on this matter after today. As for the alien part, there are thousands of them on the colony below. Unless all of us will remain on the ships while the military conducts its own operation and we stay here to repair the fleet as best as possible, you won't be able to ignore that fact. Also, the governor has made it clear to me and I now do the same to you: All visitors can get guest accommodations there and a job to work during this time, but if you behave inappropriately or break their laws, you will not be welcomed back. That said, they did not object, if any members of a colony make a temporary settlement on a different continent or island. But once you get the information on the planet, you will understand what the issue would be."

Virgon was next. "The military operation you mentioned, what is it?"

"Without going into deeper detail, we left many people behind. Three Starfleet ships, under the command of Admiral Adama, will attempt a rescue operation back to the colonies. That is all I can say."

Aquarion went next. "I can see that this nebula would be a strategic asset in hiding our presence. Was this part of the reason we came here?"

"Partially yes." She had to lie there, as this question, if answered this way, increased her credibility. She could not say 'we had no idea, we came because a hologram from the future told us'. That would be her end, had she said the truth.

"If they want to leave with us, how will we do that, there is barely enough space for us here." This was a good question from the Tauron representative.

"Well, the expedition fleet back to the colonies will have to gather ships to save our people there, so we will get more ships this way, then there is the remaining disabled fleet for the colonists here, if we can reactivate the ships. The last option is the basestar we now have. It is large enough to support that many people, if repurposed and redesigned on the inside."

"What is the legal status here? Does your original plan that Earth handles its own matters now transfer to this... Federation?" Typically Libran. The legality question.

"Yes. The governor has agreed to this and sees no problem with it."

"What about the food, water and medicine question. We have only enough production to supply ourselves?"

"Their engineers got the same training as the people on the Earth ships got. They will help us finish all the food, water and recycling projects much faster and add their own on top of that."

"What about fuel?" Was Scorpia's question.

"Believe it or not, they have a refinery on the planet that currently produces the fuel for their ships, but they are aware of larger tylium deposits on the planet's natural moon. We can mine that ourselves while they reconfigure a part of their refinery to process the tylium to our specifications."

Now it was Porter's turn and Laura dreaded this. "Madam President. Assuming you are not a liar, fraud or just plainly insane, do you honestly think we will believe that aliens exist! Such blasphemy!"

"I think green blood, blue skin or telepathic capabilities tell a different story. And believe it or not, many of Starfleet's technologies that we got accustomed to, Earth copied or got from aliens. Including the cancer treatment that healed me. And remember when you praised those food replicators that the people are yet to see, when I asked the Starfleet engineers to explain them to you, when they got the one on the Galactica working and you were also shown the industrial ones that were being installed. They were acquired from an alien space station. So you too benefited from alien technology and knowledge."

This was partially intentional by Laura. On one hand she wanted to slowly get many people accustomed to these things. On the other hand Porter already praised some of this. So she unknowingly praised technology that originated from something her faith said was impossible.

Porter was not happy. She would use this against Laura, but Laura could use this against her as well, calling her a hypocrite.

Laura only really feared one more person. She knew what Baltar would ask her. They did rehearse after all. Tom was a blank. She had no idea what he would ask.

"Madam President. I knew you had secrets, we all have them, but I must say, as far as secrets go, these were better than I expected. I expected that we would have a rest on a desert or ice planet and then move on. I must say, well done. But what I want to know... what if some people would want to stay?"

"You mean settle down here?"

"Yes?"

"Then we vote. And we do it not on a majority decision, but each colony decides for itself. If your people want to stay, they can have a referendum and if they get the needed majority, they can stay. But the rest of us will move on. Starfleet definitely will."

"I see. Thank you for that clarification."

"Now, before we move on to the press, give you a video representation that will explain about Earth and its history a bit better to the citizens in the fleet, Are there any other questions, for either me or the governor?"

There were plenty for both, but only small ticket items. Or just plainly annoying ones. Even some questions about alien mating practices were heard. But Laura could read the room. This was still on shaky grounds. This could blow up in her face if she's not careful. Porter will want the fundamentalists and traditionalist on her side. If Tom will support her is anyone's guess. But she can't really alienate the other Tribes or even their saviors at this point.

About an hour later, the two remaining ships joined the fleet properly. Then the restored Ares and the D-6 joined them as well.

A raptor was assigned to film them to give the people a better idea of this development. Two alien ships. They could not ignore this.

On the Colonial Hope, the Colonial gang was having a tour delivered by Kara Thrace of all people. Bill decided to let her handle it, as she would be hounded anyway, once it got known that it was she who made first contact. After about 10 questions on her adventures when she was missing, they finally both got to the bridge and the reporters began asking her questions not about her. "OK, so this is the ship's CIC?"

Kara was really wishing to not be here. Did she piss off the old man or something. "Yes. But almost no one out there calls it a CIC, but the bridge."

"Interesting. So, I will do the filming section for all the people that have the ability to receive the video transmission, James, you could do the audio description in the meantime?"

"Sure, Sekou." He motioned half of the support staff to follow him, the others did the same for James, who tried to get some shots of the bridge while keeping his colleague Playa and Captain Thrace in the shot.

Playa continued with the interview. "So you found these ships as well?"

"More through coincidence than anything else." She had to use the cover story. "But this ship is ours now as Starfleet really has no use for it."

"And... what is it's classification? I mean I know it's of alien origin, but... what can you share?"

"Well, apparently a race by the name of Klingons, a warrior race, by the way, used these D-6 class battlecruisers during their war with the Federation."

"Wait..." Everyone of the media stopped and once again focused only on her. "An alien race was using this to wage war on Earth and the other... well, races?" You could still hear the difficulty this word was spoken. Many were still in denial.

"Yes. not the first time, by the way. This ship is classified as a battlecruser, as the Klingon Empire apparently loved fast, maneuverable ships with firepower, but not durability. Anyway, let me tell you, Colonial military ships are a hotel when compared to this. We're still trying to get the best use of the arrangements, which we heavily modified or are still in the process of doing."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning, the toilets were a joke, the beds had no mattresses, the galley was a nightmare... since they had live prey for food..." They intensified their disbelief. "I'm not joking."

This went on for a few more minutes. "Any idea who will command this ship?"

"Nope. A mixed crew as before, but this ship will remain here on perimeter duty."

Day 74 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 8th of April, year 2378, Federation colony New Settlement

Porter was sitting alone in the bar area on Cloud Nine. She was fuming. If steam could leave her body, it would be getting out of her ears, like a boiling tea kettle.

She only stared at her drink. And she notice him. "Tom, what a... unexpected pleasure." She didn't mean it, but was friendly to her only possible ally.

He took a seat next to her. "Have you been down on the planet?"

"No." It was a direct, cold reaction. The fleet moved into the nebula and the people in the fleet were asking for permission to either visit the planet or to even land on designated areas. The mining ship went to work, well, mining on the moon, as they would need plenty of tylium for their next leg of the journey.

"You should go, take a look. Astounding what only 5000 survivors managed to accomplish in less than 100 years, with only the materials of six ships to use. The temperatures are something you'd need to get used to, but an Aquarion does feel like at home."

The main city HUB was a large dome structure where all the public life happened. All other structures are either build to be directly linked to it, or were connected via the tunnel system. Which also included the turbo lift system, that was directly reused from the ships themselves. Technically you could use them to get anywhere in the colonies, except the restrictive sectors, like reactor zone, military complex and research.

For the Colonials it looked like a more advanced off world colony that was build on a barren planet, only here it was the freezing winters that made the large domes a necessity.

"Believe it or not, some of my people, while not really happy with seeing blue skinned aliens walking around, asked for quarters, since many were free in the larger complex that is still being built, and they got them."

"Whatever would the traditionalists that are your people, want to do there?"

"Farming. Believe it or not, they really like farming. And the domes are pure heaven for them, after months living in the flying cans. They only avoid two of the domes, as only alien plants are grown there. But some have asked to be allowed fishing as well. So my people are taking the good with the bad. At least most of them. They did have to agree with strict hygienic measures and to accept their medical checks. Your people on the other hand... I heard 17 were already banned for a week."

"So did I. Those godless people down there... they allow those alien scum to worship what they like...!"

Tom got where she came from. But she was doing political suicide here. She was fighting a modern war with outdated tactics. "You are not doing yourself any favors foaming around the mouth like this. You want Laura gone. I want Laura gone, but so far, you are her greatest ally."

"What!?"

"She can use you. You are loud, you attack directly... you were never a real politician."

"Neither were you."

"But I had to learn how to play the game. And I still intend to, with or without you." He finished his drink, went to pay the tab and got around the table where Porter was still sitting. "This is a different world now. You need to get along with the times. But you are... what were those animals that ruled the Earth millions of years ago..."

"You believe that crap they showed us?"

"That's not the point. They went extinct. Ah yes, Dinosaurs. You are a political dinosaur. Either let me take the helm, or just don't sabotage me. Cause tell you the truth, it does have an appeal, settling down there."

Down on the planet, the situation was developing slowly. The refugees could relax a bit after all this time. And most did it while restraining their generations of beliefs. The fall of their home did slap them in the face to not be picky. In most cases.

Felix, Dee, Lee and Kara were having some off time in the main dome that was the recreational and connecting piece of the colony. "Sitting in a small coffee bar, relaxing, seeing actual trees again in this small park..." Kara leaned over the glass fence to see a few levels lower to the ground floor where a park was being used by many people. "And our guys are getting used to seeing other skin colors."

"I think it's the exotic appeal." Lee guessed.

"For sure..." Dee sipped her tea.

"So, how are you guys anyway. We haven't seen each other for a while."

"Busy, Captain." Felix remarked tiredly. "This may be a long pit stop, but we can't relax either."

"True." Lee agreed. "Any idea who's going on the rescue mission? I mean besides my dad."

"I think I'll ask him if I can tag along." Kara responded.

"Why?"

"Well, I kind of like missions like this. You can babysit here while I go blow shit up... and I think I can spice things up here as well..." She stood up and went to the bar.

"What is she doing now?" Felix wondered.

"We can't drink while awaiting to return to our assignments." Dee pondered.

She came back with a tray and four different drinks. "Not alcoholic, if your wondering. I asked to give us a mix of different alien brewages and the woman at the bar had some interesting ideas. Now, who wants' to try what?"

"What did you get anyway?" They all asked.

"Hm... Vulcan meditation tea, Andorian survival drink, Betazoid ambrosia and Tellarite spice coffee. And she even gave me the description on what they were used for... OK, the Vulcan stuff is self explanatory. The Andorian drink has proteins and caffeine in it. A power drink to survive in the cold winters. The Betazoid... OK, that's different. And aphrodisiac drink. So that is either for Lee or Anastasia, since you both have some interest in particular Starfleet officers..."

"Very funny, Kara."

"Hey, I'm impressed you haven't made a fool out of yourself, yet."

"Can we move on... what's the last one?"

"Well, coffee that really packs a punch... somehow." She took a sip. "Oh yeah, I get it." She drank her glass of water down fast. "It is really spicy. These people like to torture their tongues."

While they all tried every drink, they stuck with their original orders. "Oh great, here goes another one..." Kara said sarcastically as they saw the colony's security escort two Colonials in restraints to the hangar, where there was now a raptor taxi service deployed for anyone who didn't want to use transporters. "Using raptors and restrained. Gemeniese again."

"When will they learn that screaming at people or worse, will not only not get them anywhere, but only off the damn planet." Felix added to the argument.

"Technically not off the planet, just off the colony. The Gemeniese have landed several of their landing capable ships several kilometers from here, refusing to abide by the rules here. This is... such a fraking mess. At least my people are not an embarrassment... much of the time anyway." Dee commented.

"With so many people here, it's only a matter of time until something happens. " Lee commented. "Best we be ready to help security. If some can drag the Colonial name through the mud, we have to defend it."

"Speaking of people being here, I haven't seen any of our higher-ups here today..." Anastasia wondered while finishing her tea and switching to the Vulcan one.

"My dad and all of Starfleet, Colonial and this colony's military brass have a meeting in the colony's CIC. Like an inventory check, the status of the three ships, departure plan, plan for those that remain here... so on."

"Commander Scott is also really busy..." Felix entered this conversation. "Every chief engineer from our fleet, well, all but Galen, are now down here, inspecting the colony, exchanging data and ideas... also they want to get up to speed what developments Starfleet made in the 90 years. I heard that several vipers were moved to the manufacturing sector."

"Why?" Kara asked with genuine interest, as most of the other stuff so far was only 50% of interest to her.

"Remember the plan to replicate our vipers?" All nodded. "Well, they have superior molecular scanners. So, they can make better scans and using those, the replicators can make superior copies." A unified AH was heard around the table. "I also heard Commander Scott got annoyed as to how she was treated for a while, until that was cleared up."

Lee wondered what Felix meant. "Meaning what?"

"Well, not only is she famous from her era, so many were in awe of her, but apparently the name Scott is famous. Her... ehm, I forgot, great, great grand nephew or something along that line, was really famous in their era. Captain Montgomery Scott, I think. Still haven't gotten around to read about all of this..."

"Speaking of reading material..." Kara asked about his 22nd century Starfleet PADD.

"Ah, this. I downloaded some of the accessible data from the colony. The fleet they came here in is freely available, it is the ships that remained, that are still off limits."

Lee stretched out his hand. "Can I see...?" Felix handed it to him. "Hm, it was said they only had the support ships to survive. 2 Akula destroyers, one Oberth science ship, two Okinawa frigates and one Soyuz medium cruiser. So the last one is a bigger ship class anyway. I do wonder what the remaining fleet out there is like."

"Who cares. It's disabled." Kara huffed. "No point in thinking about what if's..."

Dee remembered something. "Didn't the president hand over some crystal that might have something to do with the virus you're talking about?"

"Hey, good point." Lee agreed. "And Manson, Cottle and most physicians are down here as well. Also most scientist. But at least that made Baltar finally get the hint and piss off, once he saw the blue and green alien women. I tell you I get the urge to hit him sometimes."

"Aww, you afraid he'd steal your woman?" Kara teased him.

"She does not like him, not one bit." Dee argued back. "And I understand why. But on a lighter note, there is a sports arena and a theater. I heard some of the colonists here actually showed interest in Pyramid sports so some people are trying to arrange a game."

"Wow... hey, I could go at it for a game or two!" Kara got fired up.

"Not a bad idea... Felix? Dee?"

Felix shrugged. "If I have time, sure."

"I'll skip. Lt. Garcia wants to use the theater to show some old movies from time to time. Major Sisko has shown me some of Earth's old stories in text or book form. So when Garcia had this idea, Sisko asked him to put a movie up that showed a story from that time period, no matter if made on real events or a story in a religion. I think it's currently between Clash of the titans, Troy and 300. Apparently they are Garcia's favorite from that period."

Some silence followed. "Isn't this weird. After all this mess, we just casually talk about sports and movies, like normal people again." Kara joked.

Day 74 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 8th of April, year 2378, occupied planet Caprica

The war raged on in space and on the planets themselves. One in their resistance group managed to get the word out to some of the ships in hiding. Everyone was running out of supplies. They could keep on raiding stores, fuel depots and storage facilities only for so long. And this was looking at the entire star system. So they needed to get out of here, while they still could and grab whatever they could. The Cylon civil war was a blessing and a curse. The Cylon forces didn't bother with them anymore. But now getting caught in the crossfire was a real possibility.

The resistance military had tested out the key on one disabled battlestar in the outer regions of Colonial space. No Cylons were spotted there for weeks, so a good testing location. It worked. The computers booted back up and everything went the way it was meant to. They then deleted the CNP, moved the corpses to be buried somewhere else and moved the Colonial ship to their hiding spot, but only after making sure and disabling the tracking device. Disabled or not, the Cylons made sure that they could still track the Colonial hardware. The rebels showed them how to find them.

They tried two more times. A smaller civilian ship, also in a remote area of space. And a military base on Aquarion. That planet was already fully evacuated and most battles were far from it, so getting as much stuff and equipment from there was easy. The problem was that there wasn't much to get anyway.

So now, most of the resistance cell where Helo and Sam were part off, were hiding at the forest edge near a civilian spaceport, where over 70 civilian FTL capable ships were parked and were also disabled. They were here for an hour already, making sure to inspect everything from a distance, before risking anything. "I tell you, no centurions anywhere." A sentry said, still observing the landing area and the ships.

"I'm more worried about the fuel depot and comm tower." Helo replied. "OK, since we have no indications that there is anyone here, we go as planned. Before those distant explosions come any closer to here..." Then a small skirmish of several raiders happened above them. Raider engaging raider. this was a novelty for them. They didn't know which side won, but they also didn't care. The only issue was that two of the shot down raiders crashed into the field. one into a landed ship, destroying it, the other made a small hole on the tarmac. "OK, move it people."

Several groups ran from the forest line. Then they began splitting up. Sam led the group that would inspect the tower and fuel storage. Karl was in charge of the group that would inspect the ships and their viability after the key was used. The remaining groups were the forest perimeter watch, the on the ground perimeter and the tech people. The last group was mostly military they managed to scoop up in the last few days as the rebels showed them how to mask their comm chatter to not be located.

Helo entered the cockpit of a Colonial transport, not unlike Colonial One. The technician linked his mobile computer to the ship and uploaded the key. The ship's systems came alive again. "Purge complete. The CNP is gone. Loading the regular navigational software. How's it look on your end?"

"Em... electronics is good. Life support green. Power plant is good, comm, gravity, sub-light, FTL... yeah, as we feared. Fuel. The tank is as dry as a dessert."

Most teams reported the same issue. Empty tanks. So the ships now worked, but had no fuel. So the on the ground people got their hands dirty and hooked the fuel lines to the ships.

Sam's team got the tower working. They kept the DRADIS down, to not alert anyone, but got the fuel pumps working. They only had one more problem. They had the coordinates to where send the fleet to, the military ships out there had a gathering area for this. They had the mostly civilians ready to be called to get on the ships fast and just leave. But even if they could get all the ships here to leave at full capacity, it was estimated that at least 30 to 60 thousand people per large colony were still trapped on a planet. So at best, 660.000 people, since Aquarion was the only confirmed fully evacuated planet. So this fleet here could at best, handle 15 thousand. And they would need more time to get food and medicine on the ships as well. The remaining problem was fuel. This spaceport only had 40% of its total capacity. They could refuel half of the ships here to full or begin rationing. They chose to ration.

Around two hours later, they got the fuel, food and all other things on the ships they wanted to use. They would launch several of them with minimal fuel on auto-pilot as a distraction.

Helo was waiting at one of the ships that they managed to get running again, as the civilian arrived, many with only the clothes on their backs. Helo and all at the ships were waving at them frantically to run faster. "Move it already!"

The elderly, families, injured, children, there was no real discrimination on survivors. Once a solder on a ship showed the sign that a ship was full... and they put 50% more people on a ship than what it was designed to safely handle anyway, the people at the ramp stopped the civilians and directed them to another ship.

Once done, they would begin the departure. And they had to do it in three stages. Stage one, the decoys would go in different directions. They would sacrifice 20 ships for this, but they had to do it. Then the industrial ships, like the two refinery ships and the one half full fuel tanker would go. Only then would the civilians go.

As the plan was initiated, the decoys lifted off. It didn't take long until they got the attention of enemy raiders. But while some started to fire at the civilian ships, others tried to shoot down the aggressors. The same scenario happened when the industrial and then civilian ships took off.

The resistance members that remained, could only look from the forest edge. They could clearly see that some ships did get shot down before they could reach a safe FTL jump altitude. But they also saw the continuation of rider dogfights.

Sam grabbed Helo by the shoulder. "Best we go. The main Cylon force should be coming here soon to check out what happened. And we don't want to be here."

In space, there were two Cylon fleets doing a small skirmish in orbits of Caprica and Gemenon. Neither wanted to commit to this battle and were just feeling the other side out. For the past few days, both sides had hemorrhaged forced all across the Cylon, former Colonial and even wild space. Cavil on paper lost more, but he could, if given time, recover. So the rebels pulled back to their main force in Colonial space much faster than he did. His forces were scattered far more than theirs and clustered around his remaining two assets. The Colony ship and Cylon home world.

As both sides spotted the fleeing Colonial ships, Cavil in his predictability, ordered his raiders to deal with them, before they could jump away. The rebels, while not really wanting to help the humans, decided to kill two birds with one stone. They used the distraction to engage Cavil's main force while his raider force was at half strength. The raiders he devoted to engage the humans were also distracted, as the rebel raiders shot their nuclear payloads at them. They knew that all would be shot down, but a truly free raider could think creatively. This would not only break Cavil's raider formations, but buy the humans time.

In the end, all managed to jump away while Cavil got humiliated and was forced to retreat this day.

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 (Short for V'okoris)- 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, Champion, Knight, Ares, Colonial Hope and Vo'kor.

Destroyed: Marco Polo, Frontier.

To all who would 'Still' say the Ferengi are a mistake: The Ent. episodes Acquisition and Dear doctor say otherwise. Complain to CBS about the continuity error. Since I used Ent. Era (22nd century) ships and people as a foundation, it counts and is NOT an error. So, please read this response and don't bother me with fantasy errors. It would be an error, had there not been a continuity error on CBS' side between shows. And even then, I could have claimed "free expression" on my end, but still, I'd admit that mistake, unless I had claimed the change from beginning. So I assumed that most of you saw ST: Ent.? If so, it should count for you as well. So unless people want to be penny pinchers, there are plenty of other 'mistakes' the ST shows did by ignoring either other ST shows or even themselves. Romulan cloaks, first Borg encounter, Klingon foreheads, Eugenics war timeline... so on.