Disclaimer: This is fanfiction. Anything you recognize is not mine. All characters and events in this story are entirely fictional.
-=oOo=-
Shiela came aboard Falcon at the end of the ceremony.
"Welcome aboard," said Sobaash.
"The Captain?" asked Shiela.
"Drank too much."
Shiela laughed. "I drank a bit myself. I hope I don't need to do anything critical till morning."
"No, we have this. Lafiel, Jinto could you get us to our next mission? I believe there was an emergency at the top of the list that did not need immediate attention we were planning to take," said Sobaash.
"Correct. The Enterprise reported it, but was on another mission at the time and couldn't divert," said Lafiel.
"Making the jump to hyperspace. ETA to where we want to cross into the dimensional sea is..." Jinto shook his hea with a yawn, "Forty two minutes."
'You drank a bit much too," said Sobaash.
"Unfortunately. Fortunately, Lafiel did not."
"I saw Ekuryua drinking a fair amount of the Abh stuff that is actually slightly intoxicating, so I made sure not to," said Lafiel.
"I thank you for that. Jinto, you are on duty. Go to medical. I need you at full alertness," said Sobaash.
Jinto sighed. "Alright. I hate that process."
"We all do," said Samson.
Jinto nodded and walked out the door while Lafiel continued flying.
"He was only slightly affected," said Lafiel.
"I know, but anyone in the pilot seats I want fully alert. I know your just as capable as Ekuryua by yourself, but as a pair your still better."
"I understand."
"Do you regularly use some medical procedure to get sober?" asked Shiela.
"Not often, a few times a year perhaps," said Sobaash.
"What is the mission?"
"There is a fleet of humans fleeing some robotic lifeforms. The two groups were separated enough that there was time enough for us to finish our leave taking," said L'Nea.
"What's the plan?" asked Shiela.
"We haven't made one yet," said Lafiel.
"We only got the information about an hour before the leave taking ceremony. The message was clear that we had time to finish what we planned," said L'Nea.
"Then, what are our options?"
"We ordinarily take a dim view of technological lifeforms, particularly if they seek to eradicate those who are not. That being said, the easiest solution might be to move them elsewhere. We might do that in any event, just to buy more time to understand the situation," said Sobaash.
"The sensor data I have show that their ships do not use energy shields, but rather relatively thick hulls. They may be a good candidate to move to another dimension, if we have to," said Jadzia.
"We will find out when we get there. My question is where did this robotic lifeform come from?" asked Sobaash.
"You think its another case of species creates servants and ends badly?" asked Samson.
"I don't know. Let's find out."
-=oOo=-
"We are approaching the Colonial fleet," said Jinto.
"Finally. I was beginning to wonder if they had used some form of FTL. How are we doing? Are we still reasonably certain we didn't lead their enemies to them?" asked Sobaash.
"All signs appear to support this. That doesn't mean they don't know where they are by other means," said Jadzia.
"Noted. It's about an hour or so before I'd expect the captain to awake. Does anyone have a preference?"
"He is probably going to the doctor right after. I say continue," said Jadzia.
"Agreed, continue," said L'Nea and then Samson.
"Very well. Drop our cloak and hail them."
"They are scrambling fighters," said Samson.
"Shields up. Dodge as required, but do not fire unless I authorize," said Sobaash.
"Incoming communication," said Jadzia.
"On screen."
A graying haired man appeared on screen.
"I am Commander Adama. Who are you?"
"I am Commander Sobaash of the Alliance Vessel Falcon. Another of our ships reported your situation, but did not have time to intervene. I don't believe you met them."
"You are human?" asked Adama.
"Most consider us so. We do have slightly different physiology, and some of our bridge crew are what you would term human."
"But you are living beings?"
"Yes."
"Ships are continued to position, but no one has fired," said Jadzia.
"Is this really necessary?" asked Sobaash curiously.
"We need to talk, but first I want to make sure you are who you say you are," said Adama.
"You are welcome to come over here. We have two means of moving matter across space, one of which will work even now."
"I'm not sure that will be advisable just yet. Why don't you come here?"
Jinto glanced at Lafiel who nodded.
"Jinto and I volunteer to go over unarmed and talk. Ekuryua can replace us," said Lafiel.
"Piper?" asked Sobaash.
"I think they will be fine for the most part."
"Alright. Will Lieutenant Ekuryua come to the bridge?"
"On my way. Can It be delayed a few minutes?"
"It can."
"Understood."
"Where would you like our people to appear when they come?" asked Sobaash.
"With me I suppose. Can you do that?" asked Adama.
"We can. We will be in touch shortly. Falcon out."
Sobaash turned to Lafiel, "You tend to always volunteer for away missions."
"She likes them. We both do," said Jinto.
"I was just pointing out that you do not have to take more than your share of risks. Others can go," said Sobassh.
"This is true, though I'd rather they not scan my symbiote. It might lead to an awkward situation," said Jadzia.
"I'm game as well. Might be good to look around someone else's ship, though I think two is enough risk for now," said Samson.
"Agreed, you can go next time."
-=oOo=-
Jinto and Lafiel were ported in place by a mostly sober Piper, only falling six inched to the ground.
"That is amazing," said Adama softly.
"I'm so telling her sister that she missed a port by that much," said Jinto.
"She didn't get the sobering treatment you got. She did fine," said Lafiel.
"Did you just say some of you were drunk?" asked Adama.
"We finished another mission just before this one. Had a party. Your mission wasn't so urgent that a day was going to matter, so we finished what we had scheduled. Sorry," said Jinto indicating he really wasn't sorry.
"Commander, we should take them to medical and have them checked."
"Quite right Colonel Tigh. Will you and Captain Apollo escort them?"
"Just finished with one doctor and now I get to see another," said Jinto wryly.
"That is what you get for drinking too much," snickered Lafiel.
"You wanted to too."
"Yes, but I never put duty second."
"Except that time."
"We shall not talk about that Jinto."
"Alright," said Jinto with a smile.
-=oOo=-
Colonel Tigh returned a couple hours later.
"I have the report. The young man is clearly human though has genetic variances that are well outside of Colonial norms. The young woman admits she is the result of her variant of humanity being created to serve other humans. They apparently rebelled. In their galaxy about half of it is controlled by those who call themselves Abh, be they modified like her or regular humans. The rest of that galaxy is split between a group called the United Mankind, that hates them for various prejudicial reasons and because both sides are somewhat expansionist, and a group called the Federated Sentient Planets."
"Then that is who is behind this Alliance?" asked Adama.
"No, the Alliance is an entity composed of primarily the Federation, Romulans, Galaxy Federation, and a few others. The Abh Empire is in the process of joining. The Federated Sentient Planets is not far behind it."
"Can they lead us to safety?" asked Adama.
"Yes, though we need to discuss where that is. They know where Earth is here. It's been mapped. Earth is well behind technologically and this group would as soon you didn't lead the Cylons there."
"Surely we could help defend it?"
An alarm sounded and was silenced.
"Cylon Base Star just jumped in. They will be in attack range in ten minutes."
"Scramble fighters."
"Attention Cylon Ships. I am Captain William T Riker of the Alliance. The fleet behind us is under our protection. You are ordered to leave immediately. Any attempt to initiate hostilities will be met by deadly force. Leave, talk, or be destroyed. Those are your choices."
They are launching fighters. It seems they are heading for Falcon. Our own fighters are launching."
Cassiopia lead Jinto and Lafiel in.
"Do you know if they are capable of fighting a base star?" asked Adama to the pair.
"I should think so. Now, can we discuss where we will go?" asked Lafiel.
"Not right now. Our fleet is under attack."
"As you wish." Lafiel turned to Cassiopia. "Can you tell us more about yourselves while they are busy watching the battle?"
"Alright, but let's get out of here."
"They are confident, I'll give them that," said Tigh.
"Their ship just vanished. Massively powerful beams of energy are lancing out of nowhere vaporizing Cylon fighters. They are launching more fighters. It looks like the base star is launching everything they have."
"Fighters continuing to be destroyed."
"Our fighters are to hold back to avoid accidentally damaging their ship. Protect the fleet. Destroy any Cylon fighters that get this far," said Adama.
"Some kind of missile fired, numbering four, headed right to mass centers on the base star," said Tigh.
There was a blinding flash of light.
"Base star and a dozen Cylon fighters too close to it have been destroyed. Remaining Cylon fighters are breaking off."
"Pursue and destroy," commanded Adama.
Falcon reappeared.
"I would normally let a retreating enemy retreat, but I understand from your conversations with Lafiel and Jinto that they are guilty of genocide. We won't stop you," said Riker.
"Understood, though how did you talk to your people? A hidden transmitter?"
"Something like that. Have you decided where to go?"
"Not yet. Are you certain that Earth is not the solution?"
"They don't have near your level of technology and have their own problems. We will setup early warning satellites to make sure the Cylons don't get that far. We need to understand them more. By all analysis they are a sentient species that declared war on you."
"Your not saying you will ignore their threat?" asked Adama.
"No, we aren't ignoring it, but we are going to understand it first. I don't want our prejudice against artificial lifeforms to affect our decisions," said Riker.
Adama nodded. "Perhaps you can come over and explain in more detail."
"Actually, I think I know just the universe that could probably welcome you," said Riker.
"We look forward to hearing about it."
-=oOo=-
Captain Sheridan was just drinking his first cup of coffee for the day when he heard, "We have a message from the Alliance."
He sipped his coffee then asked, "What is it?"
"Large fleet, numbering approximately five thousand humans, seeks refuge from robotic servants that grew sentient and now want to kill them. The robots killed an estimated thirty billion sentients. The Alliance council is debating whether or not to exterminate the robotic race, but for now these survivors need removed from danger. Signed Captain William Riker, Falcon."
"Do they give a time when they needed an answer?"
"They did not."
"Five thousand is certainly within what we can help, but Earth Force hates surprises," said Ivanova.
"We are on somewhat okay terms. No point in ruining that. I'm pretty sure Delenn would find a place for them if they had nowhere else to go. Use the gold channel. Get me the Earth Alliance President," said Sheridan.
"Establishing connection. This is likely to take a few minutes."
Sheridan nodded before drinking some more of his coffee.
"Connection established."
"Captain Sheridan? What is the purpose of this call?"
"We just got a message from the Alliance. Five thousand refuges, humans, from a universe where they apparently made robots that rose up against them. They need a place of refuge. The Alliance is debating exterminating the robot race. They killed an estimated thirty billion."
"Perhaps we could be of some use, and get on better terms with them?" asked the president.
"Perhaps. I think the main thing would be to do this thing. I can help them at Babylon 5, but that will stretch our resources and they probably can't stay here long term. One of the colony worlds perhaps?" suggested Sheridan.
"Perhaps. When did they want an answer?"
"I presume soon. They did not say."
"I will return your call as soon as possible."
"Understood. Babylon 5 out."
The connection dropped.
"Do you think Earth will help?"
"Earth lost a lot of people in the wars as well, plus they get a chance to look at someone else's tech base. Even if it is comparable, there is always something better. I think they will," said Sheridan.
Forty four minutes later they got a call from the Earth president and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
"We agreed to aid them, provided there is essentially no risk of their enemies following. They may come to the Earth system. Some may get sent onto colony worlds from there, or they may come to Earth."
"Understood. I'll let them know. I'm almost certain this is the right actions. The Alliance seems to think out their decisions fairly carefully.
"We hope so. Earthdome out."
-=oOo=-
Falcon again connected to the battle star.
"Are all your preparations complete?" asked Riker.
"The ships with thinner hulls have been reduced to skeleton crews and are wearing the suits you provided. Everything else is ready," said Adama.
"Good. Our first transit will be through hyperspace. As we are limited to the speed of your slowest ship this is going to take probably six hours. Your point to point links must be continually checked. If you lose any ship, let us know as soon as possible. We are going to disperse our own runabouts to help make sure no one is lost, but this is a lot of ships."
"I don't get the terminology, but it can't be any crazier than our jump drive."
"We honestly recommend you not give the humans, or anyone, there your jump drive. Hyperspace, which they have access to, is not that much slower, at least once you refine it, and it is exponentially less dangerous," said Riker.
"Only Galactica has a jump drive left and it is in disrepair. I'll have the technology secured and make my own decision," said Adama.
"Understood. We are opening the window in one minute."
Time passed and a massive window formed. Falcon remained just beside it.
"Take us in. Form up just inside and wait for them," said Adama.
"This is better than a jump drive?" asked Tigh skeptically.
"Well it didn't rip any hulls in two and didn't require an insane level of calculations, so so far so good," said Adama cautiously.
"Maybe."
Fifteen minutes later everyone was inside, and Falcon took the lead position.
"How are we doing on radiation?"
"Nothing of concern inside most ships. The levels outside aren't great. I wouldn't want to be in a viper right now, but it is also an acceptable risk, if required," said Colonel Tigh.
Adama nodded as they went through this strange area of shades of red.
-=oOo=-
Less than a day later the fleet moved out of the Earth system jump point. One had been lost along the way, but the runabout Ekuryua was flying tracked them down and tractored them back to the fleet.
"Is that Earth?" asked Tigh in wonder as their screen zoomed in on it.
"I believe it is. Who would have thought we would find another thirteenth colony in a different dimension?" asked Adama.
"Incoming communication request."
"On screen."
"Hello, I am President Susanna Luchenko. On behalf of the Earth Alliance we welcome our distant cousins home."
"We are glad to be here. I am Commander Adama."
"We will see to all your needs. We lack the technology to transmit matter that the Alliance has, but rest assured that we will provide all you need. Please provide a list of that which is essential, or people that need medical help and we will begin with prioritizing it. As for where you go. Here is one option. Mars, and Proxima III are other options, plus we have a few newer colonies, that can take some. The choice is yours."
"We thank you and will get you that list right away."
"Take your time. We aren't going anywhere." Susanna suddenly appeared on their bridge.
"I thought you didn't have that technology."
"We do not. The Alliance it would seem is lending a hand," she said in an irritated tone.
Sobaash appeared as well, with Celeste at his side.
"We thought the three of us could meet briefly," offered Sobaash, who held out his hand.
Susanna shook it, and then Adama and Tigh did as well, before they also shook Susanna's hand.
Susanna blinked. "You have artificial gravity."
"Yes, do you not?" asked Adama.
"No, it is one thing we were talking with the Alliance about but it was never completed."
"And now it has," said Sobaash with a smile.
"That isn't your technology?"
"Does it really matter? Once you understand the theory you can easily make your own," said Sobaash.
"I suppose not, that is if the commander here doesn't mind us studying it?"
"We don't."
-=oOo=-
Later that night Captain Riker beamed over to outside Adama's quarters, and knocked, before being let in. He was holding a datapad, though it seemed an older model.
"I just wanted to let you know that we quietly deleted all the info we could find on your FTL. We have records of similar variants. It works. We don't doubt it does, but it is also dangerous in that it slightly damages the fabric of the universe it is used in. Their variant of hyperspace is somewhat slower than our own, but still fast enough to get wherever you wish to go in a reasonable time. It also requires less complex hyperdrives and far smaller power sources, so it has its advantages. Either way, since we took something from you, we wanted to give you something back." He handed him the tablet.
Adama paged through it.
"What is this?"
"That is a bit better design for a hyperdrive than they currently have. It is also the closest match we could find for one that could be retrofit to your ship. We haven't tried to make the engineering changes to do the remaining details. Our engineers are very good, but we figured it better to give you the plans for a known solid drive, and you adapt your ship to fit it, rather than introduce untested changes. It includes whatever we thought you needed to know. Feel free to share it with them, if you want. You may need their help to build it."
"And you still want us not to share our FTL, or what we remember of it?"
"If you will look through there, you will find our simplified analysis of the damage your drive technology does. It will delete itself in about an hour, since we really don't want to advance your knowledge there."
Adama paged through it, and then looked at the conclusions page.
"I see."
"Again, nothing personal. We just didn't want to add a problem to this universe that it didn't already have. With the drive in that design, you could have easily completed the trip to Earth in the same time you completed this one. You were more limited by your slowest ship than anything."
"It was impossible to calculate jumps to a location we haven't been. It was really hard just to make them to places we were familiar with. From what your saying, this sounds far better."
"It generally is. I won't lie. The Alliance has looked at tech like yours for emergencies, and still is, but right now we still reject it. The engines are large, and it doesn't save that much time. We'd be optimizing for a case that almost never exists, and by the time we decided to take the risk, well most of the time we'd be there with our hyperspace engine. So far, only our own allies in the Galaxy Federation use a refined version of this tech, but they not only have the tech, but the ability to fix the mess they might occasionally make, and they only use it in true emergencies and even their next ships don't have it. They are closer to what we have built.
Adama nodded. "Thanks for telling me, and providing this. Hopefully I can parlay this into them helping me retrofit Galactica."
"That was our hope to."
A small cube no mere than three inches to a side appeared.
"That is kind of an emergency communicator. Just leave it on a shelf somewhere, or if you want put it inside a sealed box. It doesn't matter. If you try to reverse engineer it, it will break and become unusable. If you hold it in your hand and talk, we will get the message. In the event you don't work something out, let us know."
"And the Cylons?"
"There are more humans in your part of that universe. We are going to go back and try to save their lives, in some manner. Most likely we will try to be where Cylons want to fight and then tell them to stop. If they don't, we will destroy them. If they decide to talk, we will talk, but not trust them. Some still hope we can solve this without the likely end result," said Riker.
"Do you?"
"Probably not, but we are going to try."
"We never believed our owe so clever creation could turn on us. They gave no warning. They struck at our peace celebration. We were utter fools."
"I understand. We will not be, and in the unlikely event we are killed, I assure you, those that follow will have no sense of humor at all."
Adama nodded soberly and held out his hand. Riker shook it and then asked for beam out.
When he got back he was surprised that there was a communications line open to Athena.
"Report," he asked.
"Athena has offered to take our mission to determine if the Cyclons must be eliminated, or if something short of that is feasible."
"I honestly have no objection. I know of my bias after the Borg. Data may be an obvious counter example, but a species that has killed so many. I admit, I find it hard to be objective," said Riker.
"So do we. We do, however, use artificial lifeforms side by side more commonly than you," said Shion.
"Do you wish our help?" asked Riker.
"Not at this time. You said, four of your missiles easily destroyed one of their capital ships?" asked Shion.
"Two would have probably destroyed it," said Riker.
"Then it is unlikely we need to devote two such powerful warships to the endeavor. Should that change, we can of course contact you."
"Then from the bottom of my heart I thank you for you help. I greatly feared I'd order something I'd regret. At least you have a more balanced perspective to evaluate from."
"Make no mistake. If they do not choose, on their own, to turn back from their path to destroy humanity, we will likely execute the final sanction. We will be fair, but they are already, as you would say, on strike two," finished Shion.
"Understood. We wish you well. Is there anything you need from us?"
"Negative, well there is one thing. We request permission to possibly recruit from the newest world you helped from time to time."
"I wasn't aware there was any rule blocking you from doing so," said Riker.
"There is not, but we wanted to formally ask."
"Feel free. We think we set that up where it should remain stable for another year or two, at least on Altair IV. If you can nudge them a bit now and then to keep them on track we would appreciate it."
"Understood. What tech did you give them?"
"Slightly better computers and generators in one installation, though no instructions to duplicate. There are com satellites above all three worlds to reduce time for standard communications. They were made as secure as we could make them against tampering. Full instructions and example plants to create the battery and solar panel tech we give out. Federation tech for water purification and handling sewage treatment, but nothing exotic."
"So nothing of note then. That is probably for the best. Thanks. We will let you know how this goes," said Shion.
"We appreciate it. Falcon out."
-=oOo=-
"Where to now?" asked Shiela. Her black hair was shoulder length.
"We don't have any particular plans. If you do find a job you want to do or a place you want to go, just let us know," said Riker.
"Is that normal?" asked Shiela.
"Well, I think we had six hours before something turned up once," noted Jinto with amusement.
"Ah."
"Speaking of something, I have an incoming communication request for Lafiel," said Samson.
"Is it marked private?" asked Lafiel.
"No."
"Then if you don't mind Captain," said Lafiel.
"Connect us," said Riker.,
"Hello Lafiel."
"Admiral Spoor," replied Lafiel.
"I have just the job for you, since I noticed you were currently between them."
"You mean you put in an automated monitor for the next time we were free," said Lafiel.
"Details."
"What is the job?" asked Riker.
"The United Mankind has had an accident on one of the worlds they mine material for nuclear fission. Containment was lost, including second redundancy. Their atmosphere is poisoned pretty badly. I don't honestly know how to fix it. It will taint the entire planet, and they are already having to evacuate a major city and the surrounding cities."
"I assume if we show up they will not fire on us?" asked Riker.
"My ship is here now. They know I'm contacting you. It should not be a problem."
"Alright. We will do what we can, but that is not an easy problem to fix."
"I know."
"Get us on course. L'Nea are there any resources you can think of that will make this easier?"
"Yes, but we don't have any. I just send a query to the Galaxy Federation and they don't have any either. At least not on the scale required."
"Don't have what?"
"You need nanomachines as used in world forging. It doesn't seem to be a current thing. We don't have time to build near the quantity required let alone the development program to get them built to seriously filter that mess. The transports can do it, but it takes so many of them and it is horribly inefficient."
"We can use tractor beams and such to filter, but its about the same efficiency as transporters. Its a mess," said Jadzia.
"Q, are you around?" asked Celeste.
"I think you may be taking me for granted," said Q after he appeared.
"No, we are just using the resources we have. You can say no," said RIker.
"What do you need?" asked Q.
"One of the United Mankind worlds has apparently had a large radioactive spill. I was thinking of world forger with nanomist, which we don't have. I could probably help build one, though it will probably take about five years," said L'Nea.
"Which is obviously useless. TSAB has some of that, but not exactly what you need either. I can give you the location of another, provided you do me a favor," said Q.
"Which is?" asked Riker.
"There is a woman there named Eclair that I was considering helping directly. I want your word that you will do what you can to help her, both now and in the future. The people here, not your entire ship."
"I'm inclined to agree. Actually, you have not given us reason to doubt your intentions. I'll help her, while I'm living, if she asks or I know she needs it, I'll try to help her. I won't promise to always drop everything and run to her side, but I'll do what I can," said Riker.
"I will as well," said Lafiel.
The others quickly agreed one by one until it was just Shiela left. "You know I honestly don't know you. The others do and that's great and I'll help anyone who needs help. I'm just wary making an open ended promise."
"Fair enough and it is close enough in any event. You have the coordinates L'Nea. You should go now. I'm trying to avoid jumping you in time, since it is more dangerous with a whole ship."
"Understood. Lafiel, get us there, best speed."
"Drive is unlocked. Programming direct course. Checks are verified. Diving."
"Not bad, that was under ten seconds, but then she had the drive unlocked and powered up enough to do the checks as soon as I popped in," said Q.
"I have no problem with that, as long as actual engagement of the drive follows the rules," said Riker.
"Tell your doctor and one of the telepaths to be on standby. Eclair is much older than she appears. Be prepared for that." Q vanished.
-=oOo=-
"We are fully cloaked above the planet in question. There is a large orbital platform. There are no life signs, and it seems to be cooling, but we aren't going to find anything cloaked, up there, or on the planet," said Lafiel.
"Decloak. Go active on scans. Find what is to be found on the planet or that platform. In short find Eclair. That is our top priority," said Riker.
"I already have, I think," said Celeste.
"Can you go to her?"
"Air is bad I think. Jadzia, may I?"
"Of course."
Celeste took her hand. Jadzia focused for several seconds then immediately turned to focus the scanners on the deepest part of a cave.
"I have them, I think, but I can't get a lock. They are too deep," said Jadzia.
"I'm also hesitant to try lifting them from that deep. Ami and I can go down, with the doctor in suits. We need masks for them as well with oxygen."
"Go ahead. Take everything you need," said Riker.
Ami and Celeste ran out of the room.
-=oOo=-
As soon as they beamed down Celeste took the Doctor and Ami's hands and the trio vanished, reappearing deep inside a cave. All three switched on suit lights as Celeste led them still deeper. There in the lowest part of the cave were what appeared to be one young woman and one young girl. They barely seemed to be breathing.
Julian rushed over, opened the case he brought with him and quickly put one mask on each and tapped the controls up button till it stopped clicking.
"That is max oxygen," said Julian.
Celeste bent down to gently take the older of the two young women's hand and focused her healing ability, such as it was on them.
"I can fix a little, but it is so confusing. They are filled with nanotech. I don't understand enough," said Celeste.
"Just repeat whatever you did with this one," said Julian.
Celeste gently let the older ones wrist settle at her side and took the younger one, repeating what little she managed.
"This air is most of the problem. They came down here which probably had some of the only good air left on the planet, but it wasn't being replaced. They should have suffocated, but the whatever is inside them kept them from doing so," said Bashir.
"Do we beam them up or wait for them to wake?" asked Ami.
"Here for now. I'm going to inject liquids in them directly. I'd bring them to the ship, but with that nanotech I can't do a lot either, not safely and I'm concerned how they might react if they are in an unfamiliar situation, and quite honestly, I don't want to move them at all, till they are better recovered. The temperature here is warm enough," said Julian.
He pulled out what seemed like a much larger than normal hypo spray, adjusted it, then gave it to Ami. "One ten second spray every minute in a different location," he said.
He then took out an identical version and began on the older girl. Ami duplicating his actions.
"Is this really all we can do?"
"The nanotech that confuses you is also confusing the heck out of my tricorder. I can tell that you did some good, but it like they nanotech is preventing them from being scanned clearly. I don't even know for sure if our atmosphere is safe for them, but I'm sure they need oxygen. I may not like it, but when you know little, fix what you do know, before taking risks," said Julian.
"I could try my own scanning tech," offered Ami.
"Please do. Mine is useless," said Julian.
Ami handed the large hypospray to Celeste who took over.
"Mercury Crystal Power, Make Up," said Ami as she quickly transformed and then dawned her visor. She then pulled out the Mercury Computer and opened it up. She looked over the smaller one with her scanner and computer.
"This is working, but I'm hesitant in making a medical diagnosis. Here." She handed the doctor the small laptop. He handed Celeste the other hypospray to Celeste who began alternating.
The doctor read page after page, as he quickly learned how to navigate the small computer. "Lots of information. I'm still unsure what to do with it all. They are recovering, I think," said Julian.
"Yes, it isn't primarily designed for medical use. I've looked for a medical submenu many times and not found one," said Ami.
"Look at the other one. The primary sensors seem to be in your visor."
Ami did so, focusing on the slightly older girl with the brown hair instead of the smaller silver haired girl.
"She seems to be recovering a bit faster, though similar," said Julian.
Celeste gave another dose of the hypo spray to each when the brunette's arm shot up and held her arm solidly.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Trying to give you intravenous nutrition."
"If I let you go, will you stop?"
"Yes."
The woman released her, even as she struggled to get up. The mask started to fall off.
"You need that oxygen," said Julian.
The young woman carefully held it to her face even as she looked at the girl beside her.
"Lumiere. Oh please don't die Lumiere."
"She was recovering. I'm surprised either of you is awake. I recommend letting Eclair continue dosing Lumiere," said Julian.
"Give me the one. Tell me how to use it."
"Just press it against a portion of skin near a blood vessel and press for ten seconds every minute. Move it around," said Celeste, before handing her one.
She used it on herself, near her neck. "Doesn't seem to be harmful. Okay." She then leaned down and gently gave Lumiere another dose, then patiently waited a minute before doing it again. She did this for nearly thirty minutes before Lumiere opened her eyes.
"Eclair?" asked Lumiere.
"I'm fine, well not fine. I feel like crap, but we are not dead."
Lumiere started to get up.
"Keep the mask around your face. They are wearing suits for a reason."
"I see."
"We can take you to our ship. I was wary moving you. I couldn't properly read you to treat you so we just dealt with the immediate problems," said Julian.
"I need to go to the bathroom Eclair," said Lumiere.
"If you don't mind us teleporting you, we can get you there quickly," offered Celeste.
"I've never heard of that," said Eclair.
"Or we can send a runabout down and pick us up if you want, though that will take some time," said Julian.
"If they wanted us dead, we would be dead," said Lumiere.
"I'll go first and then return, if it is so simple," said Eclair.
"Eclair you need to rest, badly," said Lumiere.
"I can help her with that, if she wants," said Celeste.
Lumiere slightly bit her lip in worry.
"What do I do?" asked Celeste.
"First you need to decide if you trust us enough to use two different forms of transport. I can also port us directly to the ship, once we are on the surface."
"Just one."
"It is slightly harder on you, but should not matter. Keep the mask on." Celeste held out her hand. Eclair took it. They vanished, then appeared briefly on the surface before vanishing again.
"We are in my room. Do you want to go right back, or use the restroom, or get something to drink?"
"Right back."
"Alright."
Celeste flared her power. They vanished, then appeared on the planet, then back in the cave.
"It works. You go Lumiere," said Eclair.
"It will be okay Eclair," said Lumiere.
Eclair held her head.
"I'll take us all," said Celeste. Her well flared brightly as they all flashed onto the surface then flared again as they reappeared in the sick bay.
"Here, let me show you the bathroom," offered Celeste.
Ami dropped her transformation. The computer in Julian's hand vanished.
"What was that?" asked Eclair.
"Just something I can do. We needed the scanners to try to read what was wrong with you."
"You can read inside us with that?" asked Eclair in surprise.
"Somewhat. I can show you later if you want," said Ami.
Eclair held her head again.
"You may have to transform again," said Julian. He then turned to Eclair and asked, "What is wrong?"
"Too many memories. Can't forget. They hurt. They hurt so much."
Lumiere hurried back out. She touched Eclair. Motes of multicolored light seemed to enter Eclair from Lumiere.
"No Lumiere, your too weak."
"Shall I transform? The Mercury scanners did work, somewhat," asked Ami.
"Scanning is not the issue. My powers work fine. She has too many memories. We have lived for too long. Eclair, put them aside for now. We will face them together when we are stronger."
"Would a sedative help?" asked Julian.
"No, her nanotech would actively counter it and weaken her more. I could work around that, but it would just be draining us both for nothing," said Lumiere.
"I can maybe help you both telepathically, or just her, or something, but yes it would be better if you were both stronger," said Celeste.
"I don't understand," said Lumiere.
"I can maybe show you."
"I'm not sure that is a good idea," said Lumiere.
Elclair moaned in pain as the doctor helped her into a bed.
"But maybe we are out of time for good ideas," said Lumiere.
"Get in the next bed. I'll take the other one."
"Alright. I require more of that liquid nutrition as well, as does Eclair."
"The same amount as before?" suggested Julian.
"That will do for now. Real food is required, but there is no time."
Julian nodded and got a fresh supply and began administering it.
-=oOo=-
Lumiere was in wonder as she felt Celeste suddenly be with her in her mind.
"Your mind is too busy," thought Celeste.
"I'm afraid that is normal. Can you bear it?" thought Lumiere.
"Yes, though the duration will be limited. I can link with Eclair. I'm wondering if bringing the others in will help or make it worse."
"Simplify if you can," thought Lumiere.
"I'm going to try something a bit crazy. I'm going to try to put my abilities at your control, but slowly. I'll retain a little bit so I can try to stop actual damage. Can you understand?"
"Yes, I can comprehend all of this. It is quite simple."
"Slow down," thought Celeste.
"It is difficult for me. I am trying," though Lumiere.
"Count or do some boring task between."
"Yes that helps. I truly am understanding how this works faster than I thought. Your mind is very well organized," thought Lumiere.
"Unfortunately, with all the ports and doing this, I'm not sure I'm in any shape to help you with your friend. I would like you to keep learning from me. I'm fine as long as my brain is not actually damaged. I'll recover. I'll ask Piper to come. She will be fresh. Hopefully she can help you with your friend."
"I hope so as well. I feel I am abusing your trust."
"I gave it, and we knew you were likely trustworthy before we came."
"I see. This entity called Q. How curious."
"Yes, I can't really hold back much like this, and you deserved to know."
"He asked for such a promise. Remarkable. I'm perhaps a touch jealous, but then Eclair has been through so much. I could see many admiring her more. I helped to erase her memories so many times, since she couldn't compromise her ethics, while I sadly did."
"You stayed by her the whole time. This goes both ways you know," thought Celeste.
"Yes, but I feel I should have found a better way than repeating this endless cycle of pain."
"There were many good times as well," thought Celeste.
"Yes, there were. Oh, we have so much work to do. I think I have learned what I can from you. We both need to rest for a short time before I try to help Eclair. I'm certain one session will not solve this."
"I'm sure you are correct." With that Celeste every so carefully and slowly edged their minds apart and then fell unconscious.
Doctor Bashir immediately started scanning her. "She seems just exhausted. What happened?"
"She helped me learn how her powers work. I can't duplicate them. I don't have them, but I could use them with PIper's help to help Eclair."
PIper walked in. "Celeste told me to come, and then she passed out I think."
"Are you willing to help me help my friend? Celeste kind of gave me access to her mind to learn, and I did, but between all the ports and teaching me she is unconscious."
Piper laid her hand on Celeste's forehead for a moment and then turned back to Lumiere. "I'll help." She gestured and Celeste floated over to the next bed.
-=oOo=-
"Where are we Lumiere?" asked Eclair as they sat on a sandy beech watching a sunset.
"We are in your mind. One of the others is helping me be here. There is a lot of healing and a lot of remembering to do, but for now, just rest." Lumiere pulled her close. Eclair yawned and laid down. She was soothed by Lumiere's presence, the sounds of the lapping water, and the warm night air.
-=oOo=-
Piper was standing at her bedside when Lumiere woke the next morning. "Excellent move. She needed rest far more than the problem solved at that moment, and it also meant I didn't end up as exhausted as Celeste."
"How is she?" asked Lumiere?
"Celeste woke up briefly, and after a check from the doctor, he helped her to her room and forced her to drink an energy drink before she went to bed. I suspect she will be asleep for hours yet. Eclair seems to be resting. The doctor stopped the hypospray and then with Ami's help figured out a better treatment plan. He also um made it so she didn't need to use the bathroom," said Piper wryly.
"Good. Do you know when she will wake?" asked Lumiere softly.
"No. The doctor has established a minor shield around her bed, mostly to keep noise out. He wants her to sleep herself out. He only opens it to give nutrition. Your bodies recover rapidly if they are just given what they need and they were able to figure it out."
"I wish to review the treatment plan," said Lumiere.
"Sure, need help getting up?"
"I do not believe so, beyond reaching the floor."
"Here let me help."
Piper helped her down and they went in the next room where Julian was looking over their treatment.
"Lumiere wanted to look over their treatment plans."
"Alright. You probably know better than me. Here it is." He stepped away from the computer.
Lumiere put her right hand on the console and lines of light seemed to emerge from it as the screen flashed rapidly through information, including all the information recorded from Ami's Mercury Link. She pondered it for several minutes before adding some small changes to the treatment plan.
"Some of those compounds are poisonous," said Bashir.
"Our nanomachines need some trace elements, particularly after such heavy abuse. You can try first on me. You can cut the quantities in half if you want. It will not affect the eventual outcome."
"You are certain? I suspected some of this based on what I read, but I ignored it, because of they are normally toxic."
"I am certain."
He reached over and picked up a hypospray. "This is actually the least toxic parts of the mix. I already prepared this much. Can I start with this?"
"Yes."
He pressed it against her neck for a few seconds.
"That helps, or will once they work. You can give Eclair one of those, then please change to the formula I provided."
"I'd like to wait a short time to make sure..."
"I truly am certain."
"Very well." He walked over and released the shield briefly to give Eclair a slightly longer dose for her larger body. He then went back to work replicating the exact formula she wanted.
"We will help clean that world. You will require the terraformer in orbit. It should have a sufficient supply of nanomist remaining. I believe it has been evacuated."
"You got that too?" asked Julian absently.
"Celeste and Piper were very helpful. I find myself feeling guilty for reading them so deeply using their own ability to do so."
"It was an emergency. We do what we have to," he said softly.
-=oOo=-
"Well, can we drag that thing with us?" asked Riker a short time later, as they stared out at the massive platform in orbit.
"Another ship is likely required," said L'Nea.
"Admiral Spoor's perhaps? She knew we were going here. She is already involved," offered Lafiel.
Jinto smiled.
Lafiel glared at him.
"Something amusing?" asked Riker.
"Lafiel likes to make Beneej do jobs that will annoy her, and she likes to do the same," said Jinto in amusement.
"Well, why don't we see if she can give a hand. I honestly don't care either way," said Riker.
Lafiel smiled.
-=oOo=-
"We are using our beautiful new ship to drag this thing around. It is wrong Kufadiss. It is just wrong," complained Beneej.
From beside her on the bridge of their ship he said, "All systems are functioning normally. It is a pity we have to move so slowly. This is going to take more than two days."
"Boring. I should go over and annoy Lafiel."
"You can't, not while we are in the dimensional sea."
"Still boring," complained Beneej petulantly.
-=oOo=-
Piper helped Lumiere do the first of the long sessions to sort and go through Eclair's memories. She further taught them their own methods for organizing memory and was surprised when Lumiere taught them both far better versions. That took nearly four hours and she was exhausted at the end of it. Further work was put off for the next day when Celeste took a turn again.
Back on the bridge RIker asked PIper, "How is it going?"
"It will require several weeks of exhaustive work, at minimum, but it is promising. I'm glad Celeste and I are sharing it. I'm not sure either of us could keep up alone."
"Would more help help? I know Pyrrha and Ami have some, as does Shiela and even some of us. We could also go get others, or have them come to us," said Riker.
"No, at least I don't think so. It would be better if it was only one of us, and maybe one of our mother's could manage it, but I doubt it. More minds would force Lumiere and the others to adapt more. It would just increase the stress on Eclair."
"But you're suffering no long term harm?"
"No, we are fine and even getting stronger. It is just very exhausting."
"Understood. If the situation changes let me know. I will get any help you need."
"We will."
-=oOo=-
The massive platform moved over the planet in question. Lumiere beamed over to the platform with L'Nea, Neela, and Jadzia. Over the course of the next day they got the systems online. They programmed the nanomist to gather the contamination in clusters. After that the transporters would move it to sealed containers.
When they were done L'Nea said, "This is going to use the remaining supply on this station. It has some ability to make more, but not this complex type."
"True. Nanomist is expensive and hard to make, particularly enough to transform a planet," said Lumiere.
"I was debating trying to adapt this to make more," said L'Nea.
"Possible, but not easy. We could take you to the worlds that make this, but as there is an order for our death, that may not be ideal," said Lumiere.
"Why do they want to kill you?" asked Jadzia curiously.
"We disobeyed the chief of the GOTT and supported and uprising against the nobles, who gave her orders. That resulted in them trying their best to kill us. We did lose our precious ship and our robot Donner."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Us too. We are done here, though we should recover the nanomist that survives when done. Between this and your work this should complete in thirty seven days. At least for the contaminants released in the incident. There are others," said Lumiere.
"We know, but for now we only promised to try to help repair that one," said Jadzia.
Lumiere nodded.
-=oOo=-
By the time they finished their work Eclair was feeling better, though her eyes still seem haunted. There was a lot of respect for her in Celeste, PIper, Ekuryua, Pyrrha, and Ami's eyes. Ekuryua, Ami, and Pyrrha had not directly helped, but they had helped Celeste and Piper, so they knew, at least in part, of all that had been gone through.
Riker and Beneej met the leader of this world near the site of the accident.
"It is hard to believe the air is safe here, or that there is an Abh here," the man said.
"We repaired what happened, but your air has other issues. We used most of the resources on the platform to do that, and they are going to be very hard to replace," said Riker.
"It was quite impressive. Is there any chance of you sharing the technology?"
"No," said Riker.
"I'm not surprised. I know Admiral Spoor has the rest of her fleet sitting behind the nearest Abh border, should we cause problems. We will not. Thank you for your help." He held out his hand and shook Rikers, then more warily he held it out for Beneej who also shook it.
"I wish I could say your efforts here will matter, and maybe they will. They do matter to me and this world. You have my thanks."
"Your welcome," said Beneej.
"We should get going," said Riker.
"Yes, that is unfortunately, probably for the best," said the leader.
Riker and Beneej touched their com badges and requested beam out. They quietly made their way back into hyperspace with their prize, which was then moved between universes to the Utopia Planetia shipyards and turned over along with the reports on its operation. Beneej then took her ship back home. The people at Utopia Planetia expressed an interest in getting a telepath for some of their work and Shiela volunteered to give it a try.
-=oOo=-
Riker and Sobaash met with Eclair and Lumiere the next morning in the main conference room.
Riker asked simply, "How can we further help you two? What do you want? We promised to give any aid you needed, and we would do that anyway, but what is that?"
"We aren't ready to face them. We have no ship and no support, and you are just barely recovered," said Lumiere to Eclair.
"We aren't here to give you direction. We can take you somewhere you can rest, or you can come with us. All the choices are yours," said Sobaash.
"I had a day off a few months before it all happened," said Eclair softly.
Riker and Sobaash said nothing. They waited for them to speak. Lumiere looked at Eclair in concern.
"I have one idea," started RIker after a few minutes.
"What is your idea?" asked Eclair.
"Some of our family spends time on a very special world called Aldea. It is a world of poets, artists, and dreamers, and more recently some scientists and a generally larger variety of people. We could take you there to rest, if you wanted."
Eclair looked down at her hands, as if seeing something that was not there. "No. I thank PIper, Celeste, and Lumiere from the bottom of my heart, but please, something to do, anything to do. Perhaps somewhere we can help. I do not want more time to dwell in the past," said Eclair.
"Alright. Well we are on emergency standby, but we usually get something within a day, and usually less. Your welcome to come with us and help us sort whatever it is out. We can also pick to an extent through missions that are available. We usually just pick the highest priority one, but that isn't required."
"I'd like to look at the list," said Lumiere.
"I'll show you it," said Sobaash.
-=oOo=-
Lumiere and Eclair were in their quarters when Celeste called them via the intercoms. "We have a possible mission. Can you come to the bridge?"
"We are on our way," said Eclair. They made their way there.
"Please explain," said Lumiere when they got there.
"There is a war going on between two factions in a universe we aren't familiar with. A friend of ours named Faile did the initial look before she had to return to her homeland. She believes that they should not find out about space travel and everything beyond their world. It's a bit of a mess to be honest," said Riker.
"What do you plan?" asked Lumiere.
"That may be where you two can help. You don't have to. The plan we were considering was basically making some of their key military systems fail. They have been fighting for a long time and stuff is already failing. If the rest does, well it won't fix much, but the killing will stop for awhile," said Jadzia softly.
"If we can find a way to do more we will. We can also ask someone else to take this one, though we ordinarily would," said RIker.
"We will help. It will be good to stop some of the fighting, even if it doesn't last," said Eclair softly.
"Alright. Ekuryua, could you get us on course?" asked Riker.
"I'm doing so now."
-=oOo=-
Lumiere beamed down from compound to compound with Eclair watching her back as she destroyed computer system after computer system in ways that would be hard to track. The great war machine of the two sides died. The automated weapons production died. They were careful not to affect anything else, but this alone would stop most of the killing. They no longer had anyone left that knew how to fix the systems.
While they did that Celeste, Ami, and Doctor Bashir, occasionally with the help of Pyrrha and Piper, snuck down and healed who they could. Piper and Pyrrha could restore some of Celeste's energy and Ami could kind of restore some of her magic, so it worked, after a fashion. Two weeks after they arrived the war was totally stalled.
The following week L'Nea, Jadzia, Neela, and Lumiere also secretly repaired some of the helpful technology, though again in non obvious ways. They would begin working over time. After that, they left without anyone ever knowing they were there. The plan was for Alliance to send someone by periodically to try to keep nudging things in the right direction.
-=oOo=-
"Okay after action time. I honestly didn't see any areas that require obvious changes, but what could we have done better?" asked Riker.
"The robot we usually have with us, Donner, and the ship we normally have with us are an aid to our work. We are somewhat less effective without them, though your own systems partially make up for it," said Lumiere.
"We could possibly help you get your own tech. I can see some possibilities in our allies. Celeste, what do you think?"
Celeste turned to Lumiere. "Would you say your systems were sentient?"
"Yes, I believe so. Is that a problem?" asked Lumiere.
"We don't know how to make such, though I suspect we have those that could figure it out. We are somewhat cautious about such things. Honestly the Galaxy Federation is a better source for such, or again we could just go to your universe later and get what we need," said Riker.
"I'm actually curious them. Could we meet them? Anyone who could help me make a better Donner would be very appreciated," said Lumiere.
"They generally make their synthetic lifeforms human like. They call them Realians," said Jadzia.
"Interesting," said Lumiere.
"Where are they now?"
"Well their universe is something we can get to, but we normally interact with one group who was, last we knew, helping to decide whether a race of robots who had murdered billions were going to be allowed to live, or would be wiped out," said Riker.
"Can you explain?" asked Eclair.
"The robots were their servants. They were having peace talks. There was a peace ceremony. At the ceremony they began an attack that wiped out all life on twelve colony worlds," said Jadzia.
"Somebody took shortcuts, possibly creating an AI matrix without sufficient controls and oversight. Perhaps they kept training their neural models on past data, including that which was produced by other neural models. Still, if they push enough human like data in it, they may have taught them those behaviors, even if they don't really understand what they were doing. They likely can mimic it. I'd actually quite like to understand this more, if this is true sentience or false," said Lumiere.
"We will contact them," said Riker.
-=oOo=-
Shion smiled as Falcon slipped out of the dimensional sea near them. The Cylons had been nothing but a headache, and she wanted another perspective. They had already wiped half of them out and had to have major deliveries of ordinance and materials delivered twice to continue their campaign. The Cylons tried to trick them at one point, but they had been monitoring for it and that was what began the larger campaign.
"Incoming coms request," said her husband.
"On screen."
"How are things going?" asked Riker to start.
"Our technical ability to annihilate them was never in question. Half of them, more or less, are destroyed. We have, so far, seen nothing that indicates the kind of sentience that would warrant sparing them. It is mostly unpleasant and somewhat quite disgusting work," said Shion.
"We met and helped out a couple people who are both extraordinary. One we were asked to specifically save by Q, though he likely meant both. They are Lumiere and Eclair." Riker pointed to each as he introduced them. "Lumiere is very good at controlling and understanding technology. She was curious if these Cylons were false or true sentience. She even had some theories as to how they might have come about."
"Well they are welcome to come aboard and review our work. While I will be incredibly sad if they do find out our work was a mistake, it is still better than the alternative."
"There is a good chance it is not. I do not mean to criticize, particularly without understanding. I simply wish to understand," said Lumiere.
Riker nodded to Sobaash.
"Our shields are down. You can beam them off if you wish," said Riker.
"Alright."
Lumiere and Eclair vanished from Falcon and reappeared on Athena.
"A Cylon fleet just jumped in," said Samson.
"How about we take this one, and give Eclair and Lumiere time to come up to speed?" asked Riker.
"As you wish," said Shion.
"Battle stations. We have backup here. Let's stretch our wings a bit and fight. Minimal use of Polaron torpedoes, though don't hesitate if you think it necessary and don't wait on my orders."
"Understood," said Lafiel and Jinto together as they fell into the link they needed while everyone else began sending them tactical information. The warp engines came online and they did a precise burst of warp speed to get right on vector for the middle of the first base star. They activated their main cannons at full power and sliced down from the top to the bottom, keeping the beam active until the base star was broken into four parts that exploded seconds later.
They jumped back into warp before the wake could reach them, maneuvering behind the second base star and repeating what they did before. A dozen fighters swarmed out and were obliterated by the beam even as support weapons came online from the others, targeted and destroyed the fighters. They kept the beam active and repeated their work, finishing what had been delayed. They looked around for more enemies and found only a handful of fighters.
"Enough," said Riker.
"They are not tactically capable of fighting us," said Sobaash.
"No, they aren't," said Jadzia softly.
Athena reconnected.
"We too leave a few go, in the theory of true learning being possible. It hasn't worked," said Shion.
"They are used to what? Atomic weapons at worst?" asked Riker.
"Yes. Do be careful on close approaches. They do have some of their fighters directly equipped with fission weapons. If they get inside your shield they could destroy you," said Shion.
"Understood."
-=oOo=-
"You are welcome to use my station to come up to speed," offered Shion to Eclair and Lumiere.
"My method of interfacing is more direct. I assure you, I will cause no harm," said Lumiere.
"I'll allow it, based on who brought you. Do be careful and do not attempt to retrieve information outside this issue," said Shion.
"Understood and agreed," said Lumiere before she placed her palms down on her console. Sparkles of colored light seemed to emit from her hands as she began to understand all of what they had learned. She was at it for nearly an hour before she stopped.
"Lumiere, are you okay? That had to be a lot, even for you," said Eclair.
"I was careful. I am hesitant to decide purely on myself this. May we invite Piper and Celeste here, or go there?"
"They are of course welcome here. I would offer them jobs, if they would take them," said Shion in amusement.
Falcon beamed them over.
"I wish to be a part, if possible," said Shion.
"We should go find a place we can be comfortable," offered Piper.
"There is an exercise area with padded floors. Will that do?" asked Shion.
"That will be fine."
-=oOo=-
Shion, Allen, Piper, Eclair, Celeste, and Lumiere laid with their heads together on the floor with their hands joined as the merge formed. They began going through the knowledge Lumiere had obtained.
"What is sentience?" thought Lumiere.
Allen thought, "The first principle of sentient life is self awareness, which is defined as the conscious ability to recognize one's own existence. The second principle is the capacity for self-betterment, which is defined as the conscious ability to make oneself more than they were. The third principle is the capacity for self-sacrifice; to override evolution and self-preservation for a cause, a friend, or loved one."
Shion added, "Some go beyond that definition. We rule out three, because there is no true sacrifice. Drones to ships are loaded with a copy of software to complete a task. Even when they don't die fighting us, the relevant information is simply uploaded and they are back to inert. Their entire hierarchy is like this."
"That was my thought as well. I have not concluded whether the few at the very top of the Cylon hierarchy are sentient or not, but the vast majority do not appear to be," though Lumiere.
"We agree," thought Celeste.
"I do not believe you will be able to conclude anything further. You have studied the information we have in detail. I'm sure you came to your conclusion faster, but I don't think we are in disagreement," thought Shion.
"The leaders of the Cylons could be sentient, but the vast majority of those below are not. I wanted to be sure. The AI tech I am familiar with is far better than this," thought Lumiere.
"In the end it doesn't matter. If a small number of sentients ordered the death of billions, they have to die," thought Eclair.
"Yes, that is why I wanted to be very sure," thought Lumiere.
"I agree," added Allen softly.
"I wanted to be wrong, but I agree too," thought Shion.
"We do as well," thought Piper sadly.
"Let us remember happier times. Do you want to see our leave taking ceremony at Altair?" asked Celeste.
"Yes please. I would like to see a reminder of what we protect before we go and finish this sad duty," thought Shion.
When they finished Lumiere asked softly, "Would you consider helping me recreate Donner and LaMuse?" She sent her images and feelings of their beloved partners to everyone, but particularly Shion and Allan.
"LaMuse, perhaps. As for Donner, our rules do not permit me to have more than a certain percentage of Realians per ship, and since our war is over, so many do need purpose and work. I know it isn't the same, but perhaps you could give one or two a home?" thought Shion hopefully.
Lumiere and Eclair smiled brightly. "We would be honored to. We are kin, after a fashion," said Eclair.
"Yes, we would," agreed Lumiere.
"I'm glad as well. They deserve better than we have treated them at times," thought Allen.
"What about the rest of the Alliance?" asked Celeste.
"Lumiere and Eclair understand. They truly do. The worries about Realians are real. There have been corrupted projects where they turned on humans. We would of course not recommend any that we had any doubts about. I would let Momo make life or death decisions for me without hesitation and most others we have here as well," started Shion.
"We don't want them to repeat the often mistake of assuming they had found a way to avoid all work. They are allies and trusted friends, not slaves," said Allen.
"We would not make that mistake," insisted Piper.
"You do not need the crew do you?" asked Shion.
"No, but I would bet we could find at least a hand full that did, that would listen, and understand, the commitment," added Celeste.
"That would be appreciated. I cannot make a blanket decision for this, but I can make a decision each time and then help them from there," thought Shion.
"We will let the others know," thought PIper.
"Do you wish to remain here or return?" asked Allen to Eclair and Lumiere.
"The others are hesitant to share tech, particularly to create intelligence. They offered to return to our universe. I'd honestly rather have it sorted before we return, if possible," thought Eclair.
"I suspect they will help with the ship design, particularly if they can use the design, and probably regardless," thought Allen.
"I asked the Captain. He is willing to help us finish this. We can plan the ship, while we do this," thought Piper.
"That works," thought Allen.
"Indeed," finished Shion.
-=oOo=-
Commander Adama smiled as he saw the updates on his old Battlestar. About half the ships in his fleet were going to be taken apart for scrap. It wasn't surprising. About that many were slated for that before they had been pressed to use them anyway.
"Hyperspace window opening near Earth's," said Colonel Tigh.
Someone didn't want to bother using Earth's hyperspace gate. Curious. "Details?" he asked.
"Reading Alliance vessel Falcon. Computer Ident also reads Alliance vessel Athena. They have minor battle damage, but nothing significant. They are connecting on an open channel, using the radios we now have." said Tigh.
"On screen."
"This is General Hague. Please explain your arrival in Earth space."
Shion and Athena appeared on screen. "We wanted to tell you the news in person. We have completed the necessary work. To the best of our knowledge, combined by an additional three weeks of searching, the Cylon race is no more."
"Connect me," said Adama.
"You are online."
"I am deeply sorry it had to be that way," he said.
"You paid dearly for not being careful enough with your technology. Others have made your mistake and not had any survivors. It isn't much comfort, but it is true," said Shion.
"This is President Susanna Luchenko. We are glad the threat is over. Perhaps you can spend some time here and better explain. I dearly do not want to see any more misfortune to befall this world."
"We would be glad to. You should also know that approximately one hundred of the Cylons in the highest positions we classified as true sentients. That number would have likely increased in time, but ultimately for the crime of nearly complete genocide, there was no other decision possible," said Riker.
"We understand. Please rest and enjoy what Earth has to offer. Your battle is over, at least for today, and longer if you wish."
"Thank you Madam president. I believe we shall do that," added Riker.
A weight that Adama didn't realize was still on his shoulder suddenly left it. He wept openly as all his carefully controlled defenses came down at once.
"Sir," said Colonel Tigh.
"I am fine. I just need a bit of time. I had not dared hope this day would come."
"We too shed many tears in the past months, particularly when we saw the remains of your worlds. Let us take this time to mourn together," offered Shion.
"Agreed. Together," added Riker.
"Together," said Susanna.
"The only thing sadder than a battle lost, is a battle won," said Riker softly.
"Indeed," agreed Adama who was handed a clean white cloth to wipe his tears away.
-=oOo=-
After the short holiday, and a brief stop to pickup Tirla and Doctor Camber from the TSAB, Athena led Falcon to Second Miltia, in the hopes that their combined skill could help someone. Once they arrived Eclair, Lumiere, Lafiel, Jinto, Celeste, Piper, Ami, Tirla, Shion, Doctor Bashir and Camber beamed down to a hospital room.
"You are back," said a young seeming gray haired girl with amber eyes, who was next to another similar girl. They were next to a blonde girl seemingly sleeping peacefully in a bed.
"Yes, I should have done this before. I do not know if they can help Catherine, but perhaps they can. Almadel certainly deserves all our efforts," said Shion.
"The others have given up," said the other.
"I know they have Cecily. I have not," said Shion.
"Shall I go first?" asked Doctor Camber.
"Please do. I want each to examine Almadel carefully, then we can, I think, telepathically plan treatment and maybe find one to save her," said Shion.
"What happened to her?" asked Piper.
"She was part of a group of four Realians made with human DNA by the U-TIC organization. We are no exception to creating servants when we should be doing the work ourselves. We sought an entity that could connect directly to the original Zohars, from which we gained so much of our knowledge to fight the Gnosis and travel in dimensions. Something went wrong. Almadel has no long term memories and cannot seem to form them. Some wish to put her to sleep. I have blocked their attempts. She is a living sentient and very near human. She deserves the chance to live," said Shion.
"Yes, she does," agreed Lafiel hopefully.
"She was further damaged when she nearly sacrificed her her life to stop the Song of Nephilim, which was a pyramid shaped space station, that was one of the major causes of the last Miltian Conflict. She saved so many lives, rejecting an attempt to use her to revive something horrible, and all of that when she could barely function," said Cecily.
"We will help her as best as we able," promised Ami.
They all carefully worked, spending several days carefully studying every aspect of the eternally quiet girl. She could talk, but would forget what was said minutes later, and they mostly helped her rest while they were there.
They worked one by one, before they reviewed each others work in detail then did it again. It was two weeks later before they first began the telepathic link that they hoped would lead to a solution. They already had ideas, but none they were ready to implement just yet.
"Her mind is not formed correctly," was Doctor Bashir's first thought.
"True. We have known this for some time. We have not known how to fix it, or if we should fix it," thought Cecily.
"Healing as we do it is to restore what nature put; to listen to the echo and put it back correctly. That will not work here," thought Tirla.
"We are similar. Simply casting a healing spell is nearly useless. It will have to be us actively reshaping her mind. I see the necessity, but it is something we are trained to never do," thought Doctor Camber.
"I want to try to reach her mind directly. I would like it to be only Jinto and I. I don't think it is a thing of strength, unless I'm wrong. It is a matter of caring and being willing to take the risk. Also the Abh mind is closer to theirs than any other. I don't know if we can help, but I want to try to get to her core thoughts," thought Lafiel.
"We have tried to reach her telepathically, but our connections require her to actively accept," thought Catherine.
"I would like you to limit your attempt to no more than twenty minutes the first time," though Doctor Bashir.
"Yes. I have read how linking to minds that are unhealthy can go. You should limit it, particularly your first exposure, for all your sakes," thought Celeste.
"I tend to agree. I'd feel a lot better about this if she could actively aid her own healing," thought Tirla.
"I also agree," thought Shion.
"We wish to go with you, but understand that for now we cannot," thought Cecily.
-=oOo=-
"Can they really do this?" asked Cecily from the next room where the others have met.
"Jinto and Lafiel have an extremely tight bond. They work together very well, even better than Celeste and I," said Piper.
Celeste nodded.
Twenty minutes later there was no sign.
"Give them a little more time. I have a minimal connection to them. I believe they are okay," said Celeste.
An hour after that Shion said, "We need to think about stopping them. They are already well beyond the initial limit we set."
"I understand, and yes they are exhausted, but they are making progress. My view is dim. I'd give them some of my strength if it wouldn't break their concentration," said Celeste.
"How long then?" asked Shion.
"Twenty more minutes. I think I have conveyed that they must wrap it up," said Celeste.
"I must insist they stop after that," said Julian.
"Agreed. I'll use my touch to ease them out if we must then. It's not nearly as nice as they coming out themselves though," said Celeste.
Twenty two minutes later Celeste said, "They are separate. All are sleeping."
"I'll go in and quietly check on them," offered Doctor Camber. Julian and Shion nodded.
He returned about ten minutes later. "There is progress I think. It is slow, but her mind is developing."
"Is that it then? We just bypass healing and talk to her telepathically?" asked Ami in wonder.
"If it is working, I would continue this," added Tirla.
"But either with long rest periods or trying to slowly bring others in. They can't do it alone," said Celeste.
They all agreed. The next day Cecily turned to Eclair and Lumiere. "You came partially seeking allies for your fight."
"Yes, but we figured we would talk after all this is done. We want to help you," said Lumiere.
"Why do you wish allies?"
"Lumy and me have been alive for a long time. Too long most would say. She has stayed by my side the whole time. A better friend you could not have. I have tried to do good most times. Sometimes I have been lost and failed badly. Usually it gets too much for me and I can't function anymore with all the injustice and the system we are in. We are supposed to be there to help the people, but it is always the nobles in the end. I lose control, become catatonic, and my mine gets wiped and we begin again, me meeting Lumiere anew. Sometimes it is by Lumiere in desperation to save some part of me. Sometimes it is by Chief Eclipse. She is not even the enemy, not really. She is part of the whole prison, but she too is an inmate in the whole crazy system. Our enemy is this system that continues to treat people, ultimately, like trash, and for that we need allies," said Lumiere.
"You know we are your allies, right?" asked Piper.
"We know, but Donner was special. We don't really expect to replace him, but it gets lonely by ourselves," said Lumiere.
"We may come with you, if you wish, at least for a time. They treat you as some still wish to treat us," said Catherine.
"They think only those born on Earth have value. Those modified to live on other planets have much less, at least to them. Those like us who are reliant on nanotech are even less," said Lumiere.
"Ridiculous," said Q as he appeared.
"Hey Q," said Celeste.
Q nodded at her, then turned back to Eclair. "If your old, I would be dust. Age means nothing after a certain point, unless you let it. As to Almadel, well in this case healing her properly is something you won't be able to do, not fully. It is no fault to your technique."
"Can you help?" asked Shion hopefully.
"Yes, I can, that is if she wishes it."
"Then please do," said Shion.
"Are you done with the experiments like this?" he asked.
Shion said, "I certainly would never support more. We were so desperate back then. We did so many things I'm not proud of. I can't predict the future of my people. I don't believe we will do it again easily, but I also know the path from civilization to barbarism can be surprisingly quick. I fully intend to try to prevent the casual experimentation again. We already require all new Realians to not have controls on their emotions save for a few exceptions where it would be dangerous, and even those are debated. I can only ultimately promise to do my best."
"We," added Allen.
Shion nodded.
"See that you do." Q snapped his fingers and ten years seemed to melt off Shion. Allen reverted to the same age.
"What about Almadel?" asked Shion.
"I did the best I could. Things I do in a moment usually are usually a bit of trickery. Suffice to say I protected her soul while I regressed her body back to an embryo and corrected her development, then added, well actually a mix of general knowledge from Lafiel and Cecily. I considered adding Catherine's as well, but the overlap was mostly the same. I did not add life experience, beyond saving what I could of her own. The rest is up to you."
"Thank you. I owe a debt," said Shion.
"You already agreed to do what I wanted."
"And the Cylons?" asked Shion.
"I could see a day when they become a very useful part of the multiverse, but the deaths before that point would be incalculable. Some in the Continuum wanted to give them that time, but none would authorize the kind of intervention required to not make it a slaughter, to make the effort worthwhile. You did the best you could do with what you had. If there was fault, it wasn't in your actions," said Q.
"You wanted to save them, or some part of them?" asked Cecily.
"Not particularly, but I could have shifted the group to an isolated part of space time and seen if anything useful came of them in a thousand years or so. The originals would have never been released if I had my way, but their decedents? Maybe. That was beyond my power to sustain securely for the required time and the Continuum denied me the resources. We were divided on this."
"I too wanted to find something that could be saved of the actual sentient life. We all did. The drone things that were just tools, were noting to us of course," said Shion.
Q nodded.
"Have you any thoughts about our universe?" asked Lumiere curiously.
"The nobles are going to have to be stopped, and I do not mean on the world that makes jewelry and trinkets. The Alliance has a serious problem if they aren't stopped."
"Can you elaborate?" asked Allen.
"I could, but you are more than capable of finding the issue yourselves."
"Time to criticality?" asked Lafiel.
"You should probably go now. That was the original reason I came to remind you. The continuum is prepared to act, though given the possible threat you really don't want them to fix the problem, though it would finish off your noble problem."
"And I assume, everyone else, if you are so against it," said Lumiere.
"You wouldn't," said Shion.
"Yes, I wouldn't, but for some crimes the others would. Get going," said Q.
Eclair turned to Catherine and Cecily. "We will come back and talk to you later. Take care of your sister."
They nodded, even as the rest called for beam outs.
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