A Chance Encounter Version 2
Disclaimer: I do not own most of the characters, and definitely not the universes as things would be seriously different if I did, that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own amusement. Sadly, all Robotech and Battlestar Galactica concepts and characters remain the property of Harmony Gold and Ronald D Moore I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Chapter Fourteen
Natasi was nervous as she guided the heavy raider towards the resurrection hub. The great vaguely diamond shaped mobile space station hung there in all its glory surrounded by nearly a hundred baseships and thirty cruisers. All of whom had their missile batteries – and in the case of the cruisers their gauss guns and heavy artillery cannons – locked onto the Haydonite cruiser a few hundred kilometres behind her now, ready to blast it out of the sky should it threaten such a critical lynchpin for the Cylon race. Not that they would be able to as the Haydonite ships defences – designed as they were with far more powerful weapons than even heavy nukes in mind – would easily withstand their fire while the cruisers beam cannons would annihilate their ships with ease.
Ahead of her a landing bay door was opening, beckoning her – and the small Haydonite delegation she had with her on the heavy raider – to come inside and land. While normally that would not make her nervous, she couldn't help but notice that the hubs defensive cannons were also tracking her, and several raiders were keeping pace with her. All of them fully armed and clearly prepared to shoot her down should she try anything untoward. Something had happened, something major, that had put her people on very high alert.
And she was willing to bet she knew exactly why that was.
The Ones had launched their attack on the Colonial Fleet with a group of Terran warships present. Warships whose weapons systems were so far beyond their own that it wasn't even funny – indeed they were advanced to the point that Vowad had told her even the Haydonites would have to be cautious in a fight with them – and would have had little difficulty tearing their ships from the sky in a hail of absurdly powerful energy beams. No doubt their fleet had been virtually destroyed – as the Ones especially John Cavil would never want to retreat from humans – which would well explain why her people were so jumpy.
They were expecting Terran warships to appear from something called foldspace at any time and annihilate them. She knew it wasn't likely at this time, the Haydonites could apparently detect their ships within a few
dozen light years and there were none near here right now – the Colonial fleet had also vanished, though from the Haydonite long range sensor readings they hadn't all been destroyed but taken by the thirteen tribe – meaning the Cylons were safe. For now, at least.
"Hopefully that will give us enough time to figure out a way out of this mess," she said softly to herself. Assuming her people agreed the Haydonites were willing to provide them with more advanced technology than what they currently possessed. Technology that would give them at least a fighting chance against the Terrans – or protoculture addicts as the Haydonites called them for some reason – if they decided to take revenge on them for the annihilation of the Twelve Colonies. She hoped it wouldn't come to that as there had been enough death, enough destruction for everyone. Well unless you were one of the Ones, they never seemed to be happy and always pushed to wipe the Colonials out to the last man, woman and child.
She was brought out of her thoughts by the need to concentrate on landing as she entered the bay. She was somewhat surprised to see that it was relatively quiet, with many of the vast amounts of Scimitar-class raiders kept aboard the HUB as part of the hubs defensive garrison remaining in their docking slots drawing nutrients from the station's biosynthetic systems. She would have thought that her fellows, if they were truly fearful of an incoming Terran or Colonial attack, would have had those raiders scrambling to join the combat patrols outside or at very least prepared for immediate launch.
Instead, they were just sitting there not even being armed up ready. Which was very confusing, something had clearly happened here while she had been gone meeting with the Haydonites, something major but what that was she had absolutely no idea. Whatever is going on I will find out soon enough, she thought as she lined the heavy raider up on a landing pedestal and set down. Immediately pipes locked on and began refilling the fuel tanks as well as sending nutrient fluid to the heavy raider's biosynthetic computer. A check of the external cameras showed a boarding tube extending and connecting to the airlock, locking on a second later with a muffled thud.
She removed her hands from the control interface and stood up. It was time to find out just what was going on here and introduce her fellows to new friends. And in the process do her best to ensure the survival of the Cylons.
Arriving in the rear compartment she found Vowad waiting for her. The Haydonite ambassador had insisted that he accompany her to the hub leaving the rest of his people aboard his cruiser. "Follow me ambassador," she said.
"Of course. Is everything alright you seem troubled," Vowad asked his sensors showing the right combination of pheromones that indicated concern and confusion coming from the humanoid Cylon. It had been quite interesting to learn that the biosynthetic creatures emitted the same kind of pheromones that Tirolians and other organics did. Having sensors meant to detect such things, and processes that allowed him and others of his kind to manipulate them would make it much easier to convince the Cylons to accept their assistance against the latest race to fall victim to the addiction of protoculture.
To this day Vowad didn't understand why Haydon himself had stopped them wiping out the Invid, and with it protoculture, over a fifteen centuries ago. Why he had actually taken the survivors of the Invid from their original homeworld – as their ships rained antimatter torpedoes down upon it – to Optera. And why he had forbidden them to venture there and complete the annihilation of the Invid and protoculture. Given how powerful protoculture was, the potential it had to threaten the power of Haydon and the others of his ancient race, surely eliminating it would have been good practice. The Awareness didn't understand either and before he had retired for a sleep cycle – which was due to last another seven hundred years – as his species, the Seraph, did every so often – he hadn't been inclined to explain himself. A lack of explanation that the galaxy was still paying for.
Vowad dismissed those thoughts from his mind as he glided after the humanoid Cylon as they exited the heavy raider and began moving along the umbilical corridor. His sensors confirming idly that like the hub itself the tube was made of a previously unknown type of biometallic alloy. It was quite durable though woefully inferior to their own ship armour, and once again pointed to the enormous contradiction that there was with the Cylons. On one hand the biosynthetic base to much of their technology marked them as impressively advanced but on the other hand they were absurdly primitive still using such outdated weapons as nuclear warheads.
It was an interesting contradiction, a conundrum that the Haydonites collectively were looking forward to solving.
It was at that moment that they reached the other side of umbilical and passed through an airlock into the interior of the hub. Vowad wasn't surprised to see six identical versions of Natasi standing there along with a group of tall fully mechanical beings. All of the mechanicals were armed as Vowad's sensors detected not only did they have very sharp taloned hands, but each had a retractable kinetic energy weapon in their wrists.
"Sister where the frack have you been," one of the other Six's – one with chestnut coloured hair – asked before looking over at Vowad, eyes widening in surprise. "Who is this? What is this?"
"My name is Vowad," Vowad answered, "and by the will of the Awareness I am the designated ambassador between the Haydonites and the Cylons."
"The Haydonites are like us a race of machines," Natasi explained, "though their technology is substantially more advanced than ours is."
"I would not be so certain about that your biosynthetic technology is very sophisticated," Vowad answered "to perfectly blend the strength of machinery with biological systems in the way you have done is very difficult and an impressive feat of bioengineering. Thus, your technology will be comparable to ours in some areas though in most areas it is true we are more advanced but then we are far older than you. For such a young machine race you have great potential."
"Ugh thank you," one of the other Sixes replied clearly nervous about speaking to another sentient non-Cylon machine. "So why are you here Ambassador Vowad?"
"The Awareness became aware of your troubles with protoculture addicts. I and the others on my ship have been sent to assist you in improving your technology and defences ready should they choose to attack you."
"Protoculture addicts?"
"He means the Terrans," Natasi explained.
"Among others," Vowad answered at the shocked looks he got back he explained. "There is another Colonial-like race beyond the Terrans, the Tirolians. And they are both far more powerful and far more ruthless if you encountered them then you would either be exterminated or enslaved."
"Yikes. You better speak to the others then," the first Six who had spoken said before looking at Natasi. "I will take our guest to meet with the others. Will you go with Jennifer, sister? There are a few things you need to be made aware of before you rejoin us."
Natasi scowled, not liking the sound of that but knowing that she really didn't have a choice. While Natalie had framed it as a request, she knew an order when she heard it. While she considered arguing a quick glance at her assembled sisters told her it would be beyond futile. The Centurions would no doubt be used to force her compliance if she resisted in any way.
"Alright," she said at last before looking back at Vowad. "I will speak to you later ambassador."
"Of that I have no doubt," Vowad replied before watching as the two Cylons left the room. Then he turned to the chestnut-haired Six.
"This way please ambassador," Natalie said, resisting just the impulse to pinch herself that she was actually meeting a real-life alien being. Albeit one that like her was a sentient machine, albeit one that was certainly mechanical and not biosynthetic in the way they were. This was very different to meeting the Terrans whose existence was easier to understand as they were just another tribe of man. And now if what Vowad said was true and there was a fourteenth tribe then things could get very nasty for the Cylons.
She put those depressing thoughts out of her mind for now and began walking, heading towards the main control centre where all the other models including Galen would be waiting for them. Vowad followed her silently, something that she couldn't help but find very creepy as aside from the faintest of humming sounds there was no sign that anyone was following her.
It was unnerving.
Natasi was somewhat confused as she followed Jennifer not to an interrogation room as she had been half expecting – she had taken the heavy raider without permission after all, and right on the eve of a massive offensive against the Colonial Remnant at that, no doubt her fellow Cylons would want to know why exactly she had done that – but a small sitting room. There was a comfortable looking red sofa of traditional Caprican design with a matching chair and a table on which sat a hand light beacon.
"Please sit on the sofa," Jennifer said.
"Why? What's going on here?" Natasi demanded to know her patience at an end.
"Please do as I have asked, Natasi. I will explain everything once you've done so I promise."
"Fine," Natasi said with an annoyed sigh before she walked over to the sofa and sat down, the feel of the cushions bringing back some very pleasurable moments she had spent on a similar sofa in Gaius home outside Caprica City in the months before the attack on the Twelve Colonies, what the Colonials called The Fall. "Okay I'm sat down now what the frack is going on here?"
"Please try to relax this will be uncomfortable and I apologise for it beforehand but it's necessary," Jennifer replied before picking up the hand beacon and switching it on, shining the light in her sisters' eyes as she had done numerous others of both their line and others. As always Natasi immediately went as stiff as a board then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed onto the sofa as the hard reset began to take effect.
It was at that moment though that something strange happened. Unlike every other Cylon she'd done this to Natasi abruptly arched her back and screamed – a shrill scream of pain and horror – right before her whole body flashed and rippled with a reddish-white light. What in God's name, Jennifer thought for a moment before a pink and blue mist emerged from her sister and formed into a glowing geodesic sphere of light – a light that seemed to glare at her for a few moments before compacting down into a tiny speck and shooting away – disappearing through a bulkhead with the biosynthetic alloy rippling like water as it passed through.
"What the frack was that" she exclaimed aloud as Natasi quietened and lay there silent for a few moments as the reboot process continued. Given what had just happened, the strange energy thing that had emerged from within her sister Jennifer was especially concerned as who knew what damage that thing – whatever it was- had done to her. She just hoped the reset removed whatever tampering it had done just as it had removed all John's tampering from the rest of them.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few minutes at the most, Natasi's eyes opened, and she shot up cradling her head with a groan. "Oh, my head," she moaned as her brain felt like it did that time after she and Gaius went out for a meal and as part of the experience tried Gemenese whiskey. Something that had been enjoyable at the time but which they had both major regretted the following morning. New information suddenly surfaced in her head, and she shot up, eyes practically ablaze with righteous fury.
"WHERE IS THAT BASTARD I'M GOING TO MURDER HIM A MILLION TIMES," she screamed fury at what John had done to her, and to the Cylons in general, burning like molten lava in her veins. It was because of him that they had attacked the Colonies, his undying hatred and unwillingness to just leave the Colonials be – as they had for decades – and reprogramming of everyone so that they had become monsters. Become the murderers of countless billions and the slayers of twelve entire planets. When she got her hands on him… oh he would pay and pay big time for what he had done to them, what he had made them become. The crimes he had led them to commit crimes that god would surely never forgive them for.
"Calm down sister he has already been dealt with," Jennifer said placatingly not at all surprised by her sister's rage. Every single Cylon – herself included – had expressed the exact same rage, the exact same desire to murder John a few million times, when they finished resetting and realized what he, in his evil and his madness, had done. "He's currently in a secure cell on one of the lower levels his access to the data stream and resurrection network blocked. He will remain there until the rest of the Final Five can be found only then will we all commune and decide what his final fate will be."
The calm words of her sister pierced the veil of Natasi's rage like a bolt of light piercing the night. She blinked and then realized exactly what Jennifer had just said. The cells in the lower levels were known to be both particularly secure and particularly uncomfortable as due to their proximity to the ventral heat exchangers for the main reactors they could get very warm. The thought of John sitting in one of those cells, unable to escape or interact with any systems due to blocked access not that there were terminals in the cells anyway, brought a smile to her lips.
Then the words about the Final Five registered.
"One of the Final Five, our original creators, is here?" she exclaimed shocked, "who is he? Where is he?"
"He's in the command centre with representatives of the others including the Centurions," Jennifer explained, "they'll be meeting with Ambassador Vowad shortly. As for who he Is well it's the deck crew chief from the Galactica. Her destruction during the battle with the Colonials triggered his resurrection, he found out what John had done to us and figured out a way to fix it – so he did."
"Galen Tyrol is a Cylon! I… I would never have expected that," Natasi admitted even as new, long repressed behind a file wall, memories surfaced showing Tyrol and the other originals – who they now knew as the Final Five – caring for them, teaching them and preparing them to face the galaxy doing the things any good parents would do. More than anything right now she wanted to go up to him and give him a hug and admit how much she had, unknowingly thanks to that fracking bastard John, missed him. "Can I go see him?"
"Not right now. There is something else we need to talk about, something that happened while I was just resetting you as Galen reset the rest of us."
"Oh? What happened?"
Jennifer told her and Natasi blinked and sat back down, mind trying to process just what the other six was saying. There had been something inside her? Some type of strange energy being? A being that must have been what she had perceived as a representation of Gaius.
"So that's what it was," she admitted sitting there at the look Jennifer shot her she explained, "ever since I resurrected for the first time after the attack on the colonies, I kept seeing Gaius in my head. Sometimes he would give me information that really helped us, other times I would just feel him there but not see anything. The last bit of information he gave me was a set of coordinates – I went there and found the Haydonites waiting for me, apparently their core AI called the Awareness had been contacted by someone to come and help us."
"Why did you never say anything to us sister?"
"I… I thought I was going crazy or that my program was glitched," Natasi admitted, "knowing what we know now you know what John would have had done to me if I had said anything."
"He'd have declared you insane and had you boxed," Jennifer said knowingly. It was one of the legacies of John's madness that they were really going to have a tough time dealing with as so many had been boxed. Some for good reasons but others had likely been boxed because of contrary opinions to John's that he for one reason or another just couldn't reprogram out of them. They were going to have to review every single case to try and sort out the mess.
"No doubt."
"So, tell me a bit more about what this being has been showing and telling you the last few years. Maybe we can figure out just what it is and what it wanted with you."
Natasi nodded and began to speak.
Command Centre
Cylon Resurrection Hub, That Same Time
Galen Tyrol stared in absolute fascination at the alien being that had been led into the room by the model six who called herself Natalie. Before his homeworld's destruction due to their own hubris they had long theorised about the existence of aliens, that the galaxy was simply far too vast and far too complex for Cylons and Colonials to be the only sentient beings in existence, but they'd never actually met any. Well not officially though there had always been reports of some individuals being briefly abducted by aliens for whatever purpose that usual involve humiliating but ultimately harmless things like anal probing.
Vowad for his part was equally as fascinated by Galen. His sensors confirmed that like the others he was a biosynthetic android though far more sophisticated as not only did he have the same kind of organic silicon neural relays and circuitry that the others did but there were nanobots – again made of organic silicon – floating in his blood assisting and maintaining all his functions. Clearly wherever he came from was the source of the biosynthetic technology the Cylons were using. He would have to introduce him to the Awareness so the great being who ruled the Haydonites could ask him a bit more about the utterly fascinating technology.
But that was for later.
"May we begin speaking," Vowad asked, "or are we going to stare at each other?"
"I'm sorry," Galen admitted, "I have never met an alien being before, to my knowledge none of my people did though there were rumours of abductions and humiliating if harmless experiments."
"They certainly happened as there are some species in the universe who delight in such things," Vowad answered, "they consider such actions along with drawing crop circles fun. But discussing them is not why I am here, instead I am here to offer you our assistance in preparing for a likely conflict with the Terrans and others like them who use protoculture."
Galen grimaced. "I am hopeful that we can avoid further conflict with them," he replied hoping that the Terrans at least would give the Cylons the chance to explain themselves the next time their ships met in space. Though knowing the Colonials as he did, he doubted that they would ever listen, or ever forgive them, for the destruction that had been unleashed upon them because of John's madness. Hopefully the Terrans would restrain them somewhat.
"A worthy aspiration," Vowad agreed, "and from little we currently know of them the Terrans are a merciful, level-headed people who generally don't hold a grudge once you cease to be a threat. The fact that they have not committed genocide on the Zentraedi – and are in fact helping them how to learn to be something other than the tools of conquest and oppression that they have been for over five hundred years – despite having fought a war with them is a good sign for them.
"However, protoculture is insidious in its corruption," he continued "plus there are other users of protoculture who both are far more ruthless and far more powerful than the Terrans are. And they are coming to this galaxy now that they know the Zentraedi not only failed in their task but have been turned against them. If they discover you, they will move to enslave you and if you resist you would be exterminated without mercy."
"Just how powerful can this other group be," a five asked,
"I will show you," Vowad answered a moment before a small device emerged from somewhere in his robes and made its way to the centre of the room. There it began projecting a holographic field, a field that in the centre of which was a beautiful blue-green world not all that different to Caprica, Aerilon or any of the other colonies before their destruction.
"This was the planet C'vona," Vowad said, "a peaceful and prosperous colony world in the then Tirolian Republic. When the Tirolians discovered protoculture a change took place in their species, a harsh regime led by beings who came to call themselves the Robotech Masters took over and began transforming the Republic into the current harsh totalitarian empire that has conquered and enslaved countless worlds. C'vona rose in revolt against the Masters and this was their response."
In orbit of C'vona dozens, then hundreds, thousands of massive green and purple ships began appearing through strangely elongated jumps. The same kind of prolonged jumping sequence that Terran ships had been seen to use. The ship moved into position to surround the planet. Once they were in position a change occurred with the forward sections on some of the ships splitting apart into a tuning fork like arrangement. The inner surfaces of the split hulls beginning to glow, and rippling arcs of yellow-white-orange light began to crackle along the booms like some bizarre school science experiment. The arcs began to crackle and snap together between the booms as a phenomenal build-up of power occurred.
"What is that," Galen asked a cold feeling growing in his stomach. While he didn't know what it was, he recognised that it was a) a weapon and b) that it was powering up to fire.
"It is a form of quantum energy weapon routinely referred to as a reflex weapon due to the physics involved," Vowad answered as the build-up of power on the ships completed. A moment later they opened fire unleashing a storm of massive energy beams that slammed into the planet All the other ships also opened fire with more familiar looking beams of searing energy all of which were aimed at the planet the deluge of fire being so great that the whole globe disappeared in the flare of the energy streams. After a moment or two the ships ceased firing though the planet remained invisible behind the flare of the imparted energy, Slowly the glow faded away…
… and as one the Cylons gasped in horror at what they saw.
Where there had once been a living breathing world, home to who knew how many, there was now nothing more than a much reduced blackened cinder. A cinder that was rent through with great tongues of molten rock and surrounded by a massive corona of cooling plasma. As they watched it began breaking apart, sections flying away into space and with a jolt they all realized that the blackened cinder was actually the planets core, that everything else had simply been vaporised.
"Gods," Galen breathed feeling sick at the sight of such a slaughter. It was in many ways way worse than anything the Cylons had done to the Twelve Colonies. After all the planets were still there and once the radiation levels dropped and the nuclear winters ended would eventually be able to bear life once again. But this, this was worse this was the utter annihilation of an entire world. "How many?"
"C'vona had a population of two and a half billion Tirolians and approximately two hundred and ten million Karbarrans with an estimated transient population of another eight million from all known spacefaring species on the planet at any one time," Vowad answered knowing that even some of his kind had been there as while they generally liked to keep to themselves even, they had to trade for some materials they needed, "none of them survived. In the centuries since then a number of other worlds have suffered this fate."
"And the people who did this are coming," Galen asked.
"The Zentraedi are already here but those who ordered it, and who have carried out similar attacks themselves, are coming yes. I should point out that the Terrans also have reflex weaponry in both the cannon form you have seen here and in a smaller but still devastatingly powerful missile/torpedo form."
"And you can help us defend ourselves against such weapons," Galen asked.
"We can indeed. If you are willing to hear the proposal of the Awareness."
Galen glanced around at the other Cylons. In the expressions of the humanoid Cylons he could see his own horror at the devastating power of the reflex weapons reflected. Along with the fear that those weapons could be turned on them and would wipe them out with even greater ease. Especially as the Terrans also apparently possessed such power. There was no need to hold a vote, he could tell what they all wanted. So, he turned back to look at Vowad. And he spoke the words that though he did not know it yet would change the Cylons forever.
"Tell us."
Authors Notes: Well, this is it the final chapter of this particular story bites the dust. I hope you all enjoyed it as it has been quite a ride to say the least. Though let me assure you that while A Chance Encounter has ended this is not the end of this particular story universe as we will be returning with one or more sequel stories as well as a one-shot bridging story set between this fic and the next full length story in the series. I'll get to work on it soon. Until then thank you everyone for sticking with me with this story and I hope to see you all again in the next instalment. Until next time.