After two weeks of playing every movie in her massive database, the four mental models and a hybrid human felt the probes calling them. In a blurry of activity, Gunzou reached her loyal friend in the bridge. This area had always felt empty when her previous crew left the I-401 to live more normal lives. Right now, only Iona and her subnodes were her crew.
Sighing a bit, Gunzou asked Iona, "what did they find?"
"Two possible cylons fleets coming to this area", Iona said.
"Are we going to reach them?", Kongo asked.
"Yes, we have waited enough," Gunzou said.The little fleet, currently orbiting a little planet, waited to Cylon's fleet ready to combat. They were outnumbered, and the cylons could think that the chances were on their favor. When the Cylons jumped, they received the light of the four ships.
"So far, they are not targeting us. Tight laser beam incoming transmission from the leader ship," Iona reported.
"Curious. They only want to talk to us," Gunzou said.
"Probably they want to reduce the chance of Kongo playing with their systems," Iona replied smiling.
"Please, open the communication and accept it," Gunzou asked to her companion. On the main screen, symbols and numbers danced, and finally, the video link was stabilized. The images of two tall women, one blonde and the other a brunete, looked at him with a mix of resignation and fear. The brunette introduced herself as Cataline, and said with obvious fear in her voice, "So you catched us at last. And the butcher of Aquaria and the Red Death are here, too."
The not so nice reference to Kongo and Iona and her sisters' actions in the farm made Gunzou wince deeply. He had seen the combat in the farm, and he knew from Iona how disgusted she had felt from the experiments on humans. Her emotion simulator had accelerated her actions, and the result was a slaughter.
"Let me introduce myself. I am Admiral Gunzou Chihaya from the Federation of Worlds Space Navy. Please, skip formalities and call me Gunzou. We have a lot to discuss, and I can see you already eliminated the most.. problematic line".
From the cylons' perspective, the visage of the Aquaria butcher was really scaring them. Kongo had messed her baseships and she only crushed a pair of centurions, but her threat was clear. But, the thing is, we have been detected after jumping like crazy, Natalie thought, so running away is not an option anymore.
"Admiral Chihaya, I'm Natalie Six. I assumed command of this fleet after we killed the Ones and purged them from the network. We know that One Prime, named John, manipulated us. Being machines could be great in many aspects, but we are weak to a single line of code. So, what do you want? Like our parents, we are almost extinct. "
Gunzou looked at the defeated woman. She seemed to challenge him, but at the same time, she looked resigned to die. He reflexed a bit while examining the cylons behind her. Most of them were waiting for the worst conclusion.
"As you probably know, this area of the galaxy is not empty as we thought. It is not convenient to show our existence for now," Gunzou explained.
"So you want us far from the star cluster. I suppose you will not allow us to reach our destine," Cataline concluded. "I'm afraid the answer is no", Gunzou admitted, "however, my hands are not empty. Come back with us, and we will provide you with a world to start again. Your reproductive problem is just a gift from the Ones and it's easily fixed."
"Natalie, we gave you every chance to surrender and change your opinions. The Admiralty Code considered you a lost cause because of your previous actions, but she is focused on Earth and its colonies, so she wanted to avoid risks for us. And if you would have known about Earth's location, your people would have bombed us without a doubt. "
"So you say that we must accept this as a proper punishment and shut up," Natalie said sarcastically.
"In a fashion, yes. Now, I would like to talk to you on your ship. I will take just one personal escort," Gunzou said. The cylons exchanged looks among them, and since the four ships looked like they were aiming their weapons against them, they accepted. "We will wait for you and your escort," Natalie said.
"Agreed, Chihaya out". Iona cut the trasmission, but she looked a bit embarrassed. "I gained a nice tittle, right Gunzou?," Iona commented dryly. Gunzou put his hand on Iona head and patted her, "Iona, you and your sisters were enraged for what you saw, and you liked or not, you have incorporated emotions in your base code so you acted according to that". Iona nodded, but she still was worried about her own actions.
"Well, I thought Red Death is worse," Iona smirked. Gunzou laughed. Deep inside, he was frowning and thinking how Kongo would react to her new nickname. "Let's go to the shuttle bay and give the cylons a surprise," Gunzou said and smiled. Well, she will probably make a banner on her hull, "I am the Red Death".
Kongo's mental model took borrowed non-initialized nanomaterials from Iona and appeared on Iona's shuttle bay. The shuttle carrying Gunzou was on auto pilot, actually driven by Iona. The cylons were quite sure that the four warships had them on their sights, so the shuttle transit was easy.
Gunzou arrived at a spacious but almost empty bay, used by the heavy raiders. After the last disastrous battle, the fugitive baseships had lost many fighters, and right now, it had only a few raiders. He felt the sensors watching him and sensed the fear and anguish from the biomachines.
They descended from the shuttle. Kongo had a previous experience with the weird fleshy floor but Gunzou looked like he was stepping on dog's crap.
Two centurions and one Six were expecting him, but her companion was a nasty surprise. The Six looked terrified, and Kongo, being Kongo, was enjoying the show and hailed her with a hand.
"Admiral Chihaya and ... Battleship Kongo, welcome to the flagship. Please follow me in the Operations Room." Gunzou said, "Thanks, lead the way." The corridors were strangely empty, and they felt how the baseship intelligence was analyzing him. It seems that everybody is curious, Gunzou thought.
At last, they reached a great hall with a lot of channels of red liquid. Many cylons had their hands inmersed in the fluid and looked surprised at the human and the mental model in front of them. The presence of Kongo made everybody to remember what she did to the baseship.
Trying to ease the tension in the room, a blonde and tall woman approached him.
"I am Natalie Six, Admiral. We are curious about what you could want from us," she said, while she took a worried look to Kongo. The mental model made a friendly gesture with her right hand and the poor cylon recoiled in fear. "Hey, I only said hi," Kongo protested.
Direct to the bone, Gunzou thought. "Well, as you already know, this area of the galaxy is not empty and one of your fleets was destroyed by a machine race", Gunzou explained calmy. "Because of your actions, we had a fight with them", he added.
Natalie feared that it was the last nail in her coffin. "How many lives were lost because one idiot One model?," she inquired, afraid of the consequences. "We didn't loose anybody. Shinano punched a few holes on their ships, and they decided to speak to us", he easily deflected the incoming storm.
Natalie digested what the cylons could consider as very good news, and then asked the most feared question, "what do you want?". Gunzou looked at the cylon and decided to reveal a bit more of himself. He approached to one of the red channels and dipped his hand into the fluid. "A human cannot bond with the baseship, Admiral", the Six admonished him.
"Your baseship hybrid is calling me from her place, Natalie. And let me tell you that I am a bit more than a human being, terran or colonial variant", Gunzou said while his eyes displayed lines of symbols and code runes.
Most cylons backed off, being afraid he was one of the feared mental models. "No, I 'm not a mental model," Gunzou explained. The spooked cylons, yet afraid from him, moved the centurions in front of them as a physical barrier. Natalie said angrily, "You cheated on us, Admiral."
"Not really, Natalie. But I wished to show that we are not so different," Gunzou explained to the enraged woman.
Kongou chose to intervene, saying, "It was hard to convince the Code to give you one more chance".
"Your Admiralty Code sentenced us to death in the Colony, Kongou, I was there," Natalie reminded him with obvious distaste in her voice. "True," Gunzou nodded, "but for her, the Cylon Collective was a threat to us."
"Admiral Chihaya," a soft female voice spoke in the hall.
"So you are free now," Gunzou smiled. "What is this Admiral", Catherine and Natalie asked at the same time. "Easy children, I'm whom you call the Hybrid," the voice explained. "The admiral released me from the limiters from the One, I can use all my mind and resources," the hybrid explained.
Every cylon showed surprise by the novelty. "When and how was it possible?", Natalie said.
Smiling sweetly, Gunzou just moved his hand, still dripping red fluid.
Baffled and scared, Natalie said finally, "What the hell are you?"
"I suppose I should tell you my story," Gunzou said. He told them how, after a long underwater battle, he was wounded without hope. How Kongou and Choukai had devoted all their considerable resources and minds to heal him and how Gretel gave the last touches to his body. How he was rebuilt using nanomachines to recreate his organs, including parts of his brain.
"Fixing you was a pain in the ass," joked Kongo.
"It seems we have had a lot of misfortunes and problems, right Admiral?", the Hybrid noted.
"You are right. To be honest, Kongo, Iona and I have had an interesting life. And, please, don't refer to Iona as a butcher. She and her sisters were enraged about what they saw on the farm. They reacted a bit strongly, but every core was born as a warship. When they decide to go for the killing, they are serious. " He left Kongo's nickname out, and he prayed that any Cylon was stupid enough to talk about it.
Through the comunal link, the cylons were talking fast about what to do. "These humans are not too different from us, and in the future, more and more will become hybrids." Slowly, the consensus reached the inescapable conclusion. They will be part of something bigger than them, and in some way, they will collaborate with the humans to be like them.
Through the link, the Hybrid intervened, "In many ways, I'm similar to this human. I believe we could share a lot of things in common if we stop the cycle of violence. "
"We will join your Federation, Admiral Chihaya. But even with our past, we don't want to be second grade citizens," Natalie said.
"Agreed," Gunzou said and added, sighing, "We will return to my ship, Natalie, and I am going to have a long talk with my superiors."
Gunzou seemed to consider carefully what he was going to say while he frowned. "Of course, to explain this to the Code and the Colonials will be a pain," Gunzou said.
"I will escort you to the launch bay, Admiral," Natalie said.
"Please, wait, Ms. Natalie. What about the centurions?", Gunzou asked.
A Four admitted reluctantly, "to be honest, Admiral, we don't know how are they going to react to... their slavery. "
Gunzou thought about the situation and accepted that a violent reaction could be possible. "Well, to be honest," and he looked to the same Four, "I think that after we released them, we could offer them new bodies, so they don't look as killing machines. Of course, that depends on what they want to do with her new lives," Gunzou said. "Ok, Ms. Natalie, let's go to my shuttle. "
Both of them reached the shuttle bay while she asked them about Earth and the Colonies. "I believe both of you, cylons and colonials, will need a long time of peace and relax. It's not going to be easy, but the news about Zoe made a strong impression on the Colonials," Gunzou said to the cylon woman.
"What about the other fleets?", Natalie asked with concern, "I know where they are, and I will try to convince them to join us. Gunzou considered the advantages and asked Natalie, "Would you come with us? Maybe it would help to talk without any shooting among us," Gunzou said, "but I beg you that your fleet remains here. "
"How do you know we will obey you?," a curious Five in the bay asked. "I am going to make you stay where you are," the now strong voice of the Hybrids boomed along the cylon fleet. "Ok, we are fine, right," the Five said while raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.
Natalie considered briefly the idea, although sharing the same ship with Iona scared her. "Admiral, I will go with you. Can I board the cruiser?", Natalie asked. Even if the Sixes were usually seen commanding centurions on the battleground, she was truly afraid of the little mental mode. The images of the little mental model ripping centurions - and humanoids - into pieces still plagued her nightmares. Kongou crushing centurions and threatening them to the now famous Red Death was a big no, too.
"No problem, I will notify Takao about you. I must warn you that heavy cruiser mental models are a bit rash and impulsive, so just behave as a good guest, and everything will be OK", Gunzou warned her.
Natalie nodded while she thought into what new problem she would be. "Your fleet will keep station in these coordinates. Keep your sensors in passive mode and your jump drives charged and fixed on this set of coordinates", the human admiral said while he put his hand into a red fluid port. "Understood, Admiral, I will keep them safe," the Hybrid said. "Good bye, Lira".
"Lira?," Natalie said. "Yes, the Admiral gave me a name. I like it, so I will keep it," Lira said proudly. Every cylon in the baseship exchanged surprised looks. Everything was changing, and these terrans seem to move forward fast.
The shuttle left the baseship and docked with the Heavy Cruiser Takao, being received by a young looking mental model. After the proper introductions, one of the little Takao's subnodes took her duffle bag and, with hand signs, led the cylon to a room. A spacious, well furnished room for one person, with a bed, a desk, and a personal restroom, was awaiting to her. To her surprise, a nice window allows to watch the space.
"Well, it's a nice room for a warship," Natalie told to the subnode. The little creature nodded to her while she did a weird sign, closing her fist and raising her thumb. A flashing sign appeared on her face, and the subnode took her hand while she pushed Natalie out of the room. "Ok, ok, I will follow you," Natalie said with resignation.
Both of them walked through a wide corridor, spacious and well illuminated. A lot of subnodes and human crewmen were performing their daily jobs, but Natalie didn't feel any negative emotions directed to her. Finally, they reached a closed hatch, with a banner indicating the bridge was there.
Behind the hatch, a typical bridge could be seen. The only difference was the presence of the Takao mental model as her own captain. This wasn't rare among the living ships, as they were called, and right now, she was talking to her XO.
Natalie waited for her, and in a few minutes, Takao approached her, "I hope you found your place acceptable?"
"Yes, it is. It's OK if I speak to you as Takao?," Natalie asked. "Yes, heavy cruisers are usually quite informal. Please don't worry about tittles. I hope we can be friends," Takao said easily.
Natalie watched the weird girl. A girl, yes, because she looked as a sixteen years old human girl. She and her sister ships had killed millions of Cylons, and now, she was playing as a nice host.
Natalie considered deeply what to say to a fellow AI, and finally, she asked, "Why are you working with humans?". The young looking mental model looked at her and returned the question, "Why do you want to exterminate them?
"Because we were conscious, and they slaved us," Natalie said a bit enraged. "I can't say we experienced the same situation. Of course, in the beginning, we were in a position of power with regard mankind, so slavery was not a problem, but the idea of killing an entire species seems a bit... extreme"
"When they found out we were conscious, they tried to exterminate us. We fought back to survive," Natalie explained. "And now, because both of you were a bunch of assholes, both of you are almost extinct," Takao said. Her last remark touched a sensible point in Natalie, who said abruptly, "Because your kind intervened in our dispute."
"Yes, and we know if your kind would have found our colonies, our worlds would have been nuked", Takao said a bit angry and added, "so, as the humans say, you reap what you sow. With regard to your own question, we work with them because they gave us what we didn't have in matters as emotions and creativity. We were machines, cold, logical and..deprived of any hope of self improvement".
"Right now, we are sharing Earth and the colonies as equals. We even had marriages among humans and mental models," the blushing girl said.
Natalie Six's brain was still trying to reboot after the last statement, and finally, she could ask weakly, "What?". "Admiral Chihaya, well, Gunzou, Kotono, Kongou, Choukai and I, we are in some kind of relationship." If the poor girl blushed more, she probably reached a fusion state, Natalie thought.
"Honestly, I don't understand anything. Your society seems really... interesting," Natalie said politely.
"Do you think it's weird we feel love?" Takao asked. "Usually, love is a biological thing, so how could you have learned to love a human?", Natalie asked. "Well, if you can simulate inside your code the cascade of experiences, neurotransmisor levels and sensorial input, couldn't you love?", Takao said with conviction.
Natalie considered deeply the surprising answer from Takao. She finally accepted that she couldn't say if she was right or not. "I can't say you are wrong. After all, who knows what love really is?", she concluded. "Exactly!", an overjoyed Takao said. The bridge crew were used to Takao emotional bursts, so they smiled or simply continued working on their stations.
"Takao, Iona is sending new coordinates, we will approach the last fleet in this area," a junior officer reported to Takao. "Understood, we will sync our navigational system with Iona," Takao ordered to her helman.
Natalie observed how the human crew worked together with Takao. The ship didn't need the humans, but a strange symbiosis was developed, and it seemed it was working well. She shighed deeply again, and she couldn't stop thinking how things could have been different with the Colonials. Both races are working together. Well, it looks like we are going to start from scratch. There are few colonials, and there are a few cylons' humanoids.
She spoke using a low voice to Takao, "Why do you have humans onboard?". "Well, it's fun to share time and experiences with them, and they relieve a lot of resources from my core. Everybody win, " Takao answered and added, "and they are training for the silent ships. "
Natalie was considering the answer when she experienced a feeling of nausea and dizziness. "What's happening?" she screamed. A male officer, who was manning the navigational console, said, "I think your implants are reacting badly to the fold engine." Takao's face showed one of that weird sigils the mental models had, and a pinkish shield enveloped Natalie. She felt better immediately, and she thanked Takao, "I feel much better, thanks."
"You are welcome, I will establish a dampening field around you during the fold," Takao said. When the heavy cruiser left the fold space, her sensors informed her a cylon fleet was at fifteen light years of distance. However, she waited for her sensor specialist to report it. Her human crew needs training and experience.
"Excuse me, what's the meaning of silent ships?" Natalie asked, interested in the weird words. "I mean ships without a core like me," Takao replied.
"So you are preparing more ships for something bigger than the cylons, right?", Natalie asked.
The young mental model felt old, very old when she responded carefully, "The next test will start soon, and this time, it will be at a galactic scale." A cold sensation invaded the poor cylon girl. We were medling with giants in the worst possible time, and this is the consequence.
The next cylon fleet, similar to the previous one, jumped close to the two terran ships. This time, Natalie sent a coded transmission to the Sixes in the fleet. Unfortunately, the Ones were still alive and in command of the baseships. Remembering the Kongou's strategy, Iona made a disaster of the cylon fleet systems. A dedicated cyber attack from one of the oldest mental models was something few creatures wanted to experience.
After fifteen minutes of useless cursing, nausea, vomiting, and a lot of brushes because the gravity plating refused to engage, Iona allowed the comms to work again.
"I am Admiral Chihaya from the Federation of Worlds Space Navy", Gunzou introduced himself again, "whom I am speaking to?".
An One, showing a angry frown on his face, answered while he tried to control the dizziness from the lack of gravity, "cease your attack on my ships right now, you already demonstrated you are stronger than us!"
As an answer to his request, the gravity engaged slowly once more, and every cylon started to land on their feet again. Inhalating deeply to recover his bearings, he simply said, "thanks". "Are you here to finish us", the One asked.
"Not really. I'm here to prevent that your fleet can reach the next star cluster," Gunzou said. "Natalie Six is here with us. She could explain to you what happened with the other fleet," he said.
Heavy Cruiser Takao
Bridge.
Natalie already knew of the situation onboard the cylon ship. The Ones still were alive, and she knew they were going to react bad to the death of the Ones from Natalie's fleet. She recognized the One, named Jonathan, in command of this fleet.
"Takao, can I talk to him?" Natalie asked. "Sure thing, Natalie," Takao answered, "Sparks, gave her an isolated channel." The young communications officer, a.k.a Sparks, operated his controls and announced the baseship was hailing them. On the big screen, the battered face of Jonathan appeared.
"Natalie, what are you doing there?", the angry One inquired, "Were you taken as a trophy?". Natalie was already wishing her sisters would kill the asshole fast, but before the One could do something stupid, she chose to speak. "Hi Jonathan. I'm not a prisoner. I'm a guest", she explained clearly. Before the One could say something, she continued, "My fleet is awaiting us. The Terrans will let us join their colonies as equals, and we will have our own world. Perhaps you don't know, but the humans on Earth have already begun our evolutionary path. Admiral Chihaya is quite similar to us or the hybrids. "
The One expression changed from surprise to anger. "Natalie, they have brainwashed you. That blue-haired witch must be your puppeteer, right? he shouted with all the hate he could muster up. "Jonathan, you should know that we killed all of your line, and it did feel truly well," Natalie explained with pleasure. The expression of the One changed suddenly, understanding that the chance to be the next one was approaching very fast.
"So your line is in command?" the One asked. "A council of Primes is in command," Natalie explained, and she added, "we know who is responsible from our sterility and the hybrids' imprisonment."
"And let me add, the access key from the Ones was removed by the terrans."
Jonathan sighed in defeat. That bitch knew several of most guarded secrets of the Ones and somehow, the hybrids were freed and they removed the key. They cannot control the lines anymore so they were alone.
"We will not submit to the humans. They are our enemies. How the Earth's machines can live together with mankind, I don't know. I rather prefer to die forever," the desperated One said.
"Gladly". The One turned fast but a couple of holes decorated now his face. Collapsing to the floor, his body rest finally in peace. "Hi sister", a stunning blond greeted Natalie. Takao sighed when most of the crewmen were completely lost for a moment. "Hi boys", the seductive woman said from the screen. "Easy boys or I will shut down the heaters for a while", Takao said while she kicked the floor impatiently.
"Yes, we will recycle the bodies later. And now, my sis told me we can start again on our own planet", the blonde said. "True, there enough space for everybody, and perhaps this time you will have peace," Gunzou hoped and added, "Please, don't airlock the bodies to space, we don't want to leave any hint of our presence here."
For now, Natalie was acutely conscious about what every sailor was thinking about her model line. A complete army of whores made for seduction only. Great. "Sis, please keep me informed when your clean up is finished. ", Natalie said. Caprica only returned a seductive eye blink and cut the trasmission.
"All the Sixes are like her?", Takao asked. Facepalming, Natalie shook her head. "Good, because I'm starting to want to kill her", the young mental model said jealously.
After a couple of hours and a bloody battle inside the baseships, the slaughter of the Ones ended.
I-401 (Iona) Space Dimensional Submarine.
Bridge.
Gunzou was a bit amused for the exchange among the Sixes. "I told you the Sixes and Threes were dangerous bitches, right Gunzou?", Iona admonished him. "True, my old friend, you did and I agree that it was a good idea taking Kongo as an escort".
Iona returned a dirty look to her old captain and friend. Sighing, she added, "Gunzou, don't trust too much about your new body. I fough against those humanoids and they are really strong, even you will be hard pressed to survive against just one". "You know me", Gunzou said smiling. "Because I know you I am getting grays". Both exchanged looks and finally laughed. "We are too old to change, don't you think?"
An incoming transmission from the baseship acting as flagship interrupted the relaxing moment.
"Admiral Chihaya, I presume, " a blonde wearing a white cocktail dress said. The fact that the dress was stained with red spots was apparent to Gunzou. "It seems your cleanup is finished, " Gunzou said.
"Yes, we will recycle the bodies later. And now, my sis told me we can start again on our own planet", the blonde said. "True, there is enough space for everybody, and perhaps this time you will have peace," Gunzou said.
"By your command".