-For those in the know.

Katasi: The Sensal Incident

Chapter Two

CDF Pegasus

Colonel Fist's mind focused heavily on the report with more than a casual interest as the DRADIS officer continued intelligence about the cylons. There were seven basestars now.

They are not even trying to hide from us. The ships are at the edge of Katasi. They are transmitting in the clear," Janice said. They're still in open communication with us, waiting for our response."

Standing behind them both, glaring at what was happening, Admiral Cain was furious. But she was also thoughtful. This was so obviously a trap, but she couldn't understand why the Cylons chose to reveal themselves after almost fifty years of isolation. They revealed their capital ships' new design, and didn't care that the Colonials knew.

"Their base ships are completely different from our old data records," Fisk growled as he continued looking at the long-distance visuals coming from the probe. "Admiral?" he asked, waiting for her orders.

Cain wasn't sure. The Cylons were there, just waiting, almost begging to be attacked. She wanted to give the order, but then she would start a war. The Cylons were there, not doing anything but making their presence known. The ships were sitting there in what was unclaimed space. Treaty or not, they didn't have the right to force the Colonials to return to Colonial space. And both sides knew it. If there were seven of those ships out there, then surely there had to be more, and only the gods knew how many raiders. If she and the others ordered an attack, then the Sensal system would be vulnerable.

The Protea had two warstars supporting her at Katasi, SOP for the outer reaches combat group designed to protect the civilians mining the asteroids. The Cylons had made themselves visible and wanted to talk. Both sets of Colonial defense forces were ready.

After a few moments, she made her decision. "Open a channel to the Cylons. Make sure Admiral Adeanis is kept up to date."

"Hostile challenge sent via subspace transmission, Admiral. They are responding, audio and visual. We have a six second delay."

On screen, a golden centurion, it single cyclopean-like blood-red laser imager, moved back and forth within its black visor. The Colonials glared at their enemy. Even through the screen, they could see the mass and height of the imposing artificial intelligence staring back and analyzing them. The laser eye stopped moving, and it began speaking. "Colonial Battlestar Pegasus, commanding Colonial fleet. I am Designate CV1. I speak for the Cylon collective."

"This is Pegasus Actual, Admiral Helena Cain responding," Cain angrily answered, "responding to your transmission. What do you want, Cylon?"

C01's voice was cold, metallic and devoid of any emotion. In other words, it sounded like the characteristic machine every Colonial knew by heart. "The treaty is in violation. The Colonies have entered restricted space in violation of the Armistice treaty signed forty-four point seven-seven-eight two years ago. The 'Armistice Line' is violated. The Colonies have declared war against the Cylon collective."

Cain's lips thinned as she listened to the robot utter its nonsense at her. "We have not declared war. We have not traveled anywhere near Cylon territory. You have no right to claim all of space, minus our protected territories in the Cyrannus system, as property of the Cylon Empire. This area is unclaimed space. We are free to do what we want."

The Cylons ever moving laser eye stopped for a moment as it appeared to analyze the admiral's words and form a reply. "The Armistice Line remains intact. Conflict has not been initiated by Colonial or Cylon forces. Negative contact is to be avoided." The AI paused for a moment. "Do the Colonials desire to renegotiate the treaty?"

Cain's eyes widened in utter shock, then narrowed in suspicion. "What?" Cain had expected fighting to break out. This was the last thing she expected and didn't quite know how to respond. "You want to change the specifications of the treaty?"

"Renegotiation of the treaty will facilitate non-hostilities between Cylons and Colonials. If your government is in agreement to alter the conditions and boundaries identified in the treaty, we will open talks."

Cain's mind dripped with suspicion and distrust. "You Cylons haven't spoken to us since the treaty was signed. We tried, but you machines refused. Now, you want to open talks with us?" She glared at the machine with open curiosity. "You must want something in return. What exactly do you want?"

"The Colonial Defense Force sent a stealth ship into Cylon space in violation of the treaty. That was a reason for war. We did not initiate hostilities. The Colonial ship was destroyed. We are aware of your curiosity and fear of your creations. War has no advantage. We will negotiate. We demand access to the asteroid belt at coordinates four-two-nine-one. This sector is three hundred seventy-two point two million kilometers from the Colonial mining operations."

Cain stated. Her smile was predatory. The officer now understood why they were having this unprecedented discussion between blood enemies. "You want tylium," she said evenly.

"Affirmative. We will negotiate instead of initiating conflict."

"Keep your communications system opened. I will return shortly," the admiral said as she ordered her comms cut.

Colonel Jack Fisk was astounded at what he had just heard. This was history in the making. "They need tylium, so much so that they're willing to make peace? Admiral, I never expected something like this."

Cain was in agreement. The Cylons were so anxious that they were willing to talk for the first time. That meant they were desperate, desperate enough to want to establish a dialogue with their sworn enemies. They were also afraid of what could happen if the Colonials said no.

"They have seven basestars close enough so that we can see them," she said. They're expecting us to say no, and if we do, they'll start a war right here, right now. If we say yes…"

"It will give us some time to continue to build up our forces and collect as much tylium as we can get and secure our asteroid fields. The area they are requesting is far enough away from us and it's enough for us all if we do this correctly."

"They shouldn't be here," Cain hissed. "But this is an opportunity to keep watch on them and give us time to build up our forces, so we will be ready when they betray us." There was silence for perhaps five minutes as the woman commander thought about this unprecedented situation. "I hate those machines. I want them wiped from the universe. But, we can also work this to our advantage," she announced to the entire bridge crew. "Open communications."

The appearance of the golden Cylon once again filled the screen. It waited silently. "I will need to confer with my government," Cain told the Cylon. I will return with our answer in forty-eight hours. Maintain your current distance. We will reopen comms as soon as I receive an answer."

"By your command." The screen went blank.

"Prepare a raptor to send home," she ordered. "I have a message to compose."

"Yes, ma'am."

Basestar V188

"Therese looked on is surprise. "They're actually going to consider it!" staring at the golden centurion, the number Three model smiled viciously. The use of one of the older model centurion was inspired. The humans weren't aware of the newer models or the human Cylons, and they planned to keep it that way. "I thought Cain would charge in, cannons and missiles blazing."

"Humanity is so arrogant," smiled Caprica Six. "They assume they have the upper hand. We sounded desperate, so they responded accordingly. "if they agree, then they will honor the ceasefire and we can obtain tylium while we prepare our plan. Who knows, they might not betray us for a while."

"if it's approved. How long will they honor this agreement?" asked Jennifer Eight.

"Who cares?" sniffed Gregor. "The longer, the better for us."

D'Anna Beers, once a deep cover number Three Cylon operative, who had the misfortune of dying a useless death in an auto accident, was less optimistic. "We know how Cain is," she said. "She's worse than her father. Our reports on her indicate that she could well allow her hatred of us to overwhelm her common sense. We have to be careful with her. We want our plan to work, so we have to adhere to everything in our final approval negotiations with them."

"Until we are ready," Cindy Eight added. "But what if they honor the agreement?"

Gregor One glared at her for bringing up something he really wanted to dismiss. "I hate to say it, but we will then honor ours, until the right moment. We need the tylium and we don't need to fight the humans every moment trying to get it."

Caprica Six and D'Anna agreed with his decision. "Until we're ready to strike."

Two months later

Two weeks earlier, an accord was signed by both the Cylons and Colonials by radio transmission. A three million kilometer wide border was designated, keeping both sides from coming close to the other.

Working with machine efficiency, the Cylons wasted no time in setting up operations and were beginning to extract the precious material from the asteroids in their sector. The Colonial politicians jumped at the idea of opening communications and revising the original treaty. President Goesel readily agreed, but to his credit, he also submitted a request for more battlestars and support ships to be commissioned and built as soon as possible. He had zero trust in the Cylons, and sooner or later, he expected this wonderful little peace initiative would fall on his face.

Cain absolutely hated the idea of dealing with the Cylons, however she also saw the practicality of it. Security was heightened, naturally; and more Colonial ships were arriving, including old man Adama and his renovated Battlestar, the Galactica. It was slated to become a museum piece, but with the presence of the tylium and Sensal's discoveries, the ship was gutted and rebuilt. Its useful life was extended for a few more years.

But it was Admiral Adama that was the real prize. He should have remained retired, but both Adar and Goesel convinced him to come back and serve a little longer. His experience and understanding of the Cylons was invaluable, and he was needed. The complete rebuilding of the Galactica, that old Colombia, was one of the inducements which pulled him back for this final mission. As another incentive, he was allowed to pick his own command crew, which he did and that saved Saul Tigh from being court-martialed and tossed out of the service for conduct unbecoming an officer. Alcoholism always extracted a price. That was the good news, and a reprieve for the executive officer. The bad news was, that the Katasi did something that upset everyone.

It pulsed.

It did it six times. The directed gravity shears swept across its sister nebula at impossible speed, in effect tearing it apart. The shears had all of the signs of a gravity distortion, but the scientists observing the actions didn't have any other words to describe what happened. Whatever happened, occurred at velocities of multiple times the speeds of light. The colonial scientists never detected the actual waveforms, only the undeniable results. The effects were impossible, according to all known science.

The Colonials developed a theory that whatever happened must have occurred in the dimensional layer named subspace, the same layer they used for faster than light communications. It was only a theory, however. Whatever it was that happened, Cain almost gave the order to abandon the asteroid field and the star system.

Once again, the nebula, if that even what it was, displayed how dangerous it could be, if it decided to shift in their direction.

When the pulses happened, the Cylons were more than upset. Their understanding of subspace was a little more advanced, and they detected waves of subspace energy cascading from the nebula, interfering with their electronics and causing the Cylons neural implants to have fits. It took hours for the humaniforms to fully recover.

Once was enough,. They were ordered to abandon the area, leaving only a skeleton crew of Cylons and the centurions to continue managing the mining operation. The centurions were affected as well, however, their neural nets recovered quickly.

The results of the pulses were more dramatic for everyone who observed the event. Within minutes, the Charnell nebula dissipated. Energetic gas clouds, the remnants of an exploding star, which extended for billions of kilometers, ceased to exist. Although they suspected, the Colonials never found any direct evidence that the Katasi had absorbed the material.

In the Sensal system, the effects were equally dramatic. On Sensal IV, the bluish -red sky change to bright green a total of six times, before returning to its normal color. On Sensal V, the beautiful green skies changed to blue, returning to green in between each of the half dozen pulses. All across the world, the animals went silent. The humans on both worlds panicked, having no idea what was going on. The fleet in orbit suffered EM interference, all of which returned to normal after the pulses ceased. The physics was unknown and frightening, and solidified Cains belief that these worlds were a powder keg, just waiting to explode. Lightspeed physics, behind the event, couldn't account for what they were seeing in real time. In fact, it generated ideas for an entirely new line of astrophysics. However, that would come later.

Neither the Colonials nor the Cylons understood that the katasi pulses weren't some random, unknown phenomenon of nature. Katasi had sent a message.

And something responded.

CDF Pegasus

In the month and a half after was being called the Katasi incident, a still very wary Admiral was about to get some much needed relief. Between worrying about the Cylons, the 'event', and the Cylons acting and doing effectively nothing but what they said they'd do, the woman was an exhausted wreck. She required a few hours of downtime, while still debating whether to scrap his entire mission. That decision was her first choice, but the government saw the enormous wealth presented in the local system and asteroid belt, and greed was the natural outcome. They also didn't want the Cylons to take over everything, something that couldn't be allowed under any circumstances. If they surrendered and fled, it would set a precedent with the Cylons that could not be tolerated. It would be seen as a sign of weakness to the Cylons, making any future relations with them that much worse.

The woman was growling to herself when she was sure no one was looking. She didn't want to give the crew the wrong impression. This is what happened when one wished for a little escape from tedium.

"Colonel Fisk, you have the comm," she said as she stifled a yawn. I'll relieve you in eight."

Yes ma'am. Rest well."

She half-smiled. "The word 'rest'? I'm not familiar with that word," she responded drily. "I'll be in my quarters after getting something to eat."

Fisk nodded. He understood exactly how she felt.

"DRADIS contact!" the officer on duty yelled out. Thirty thousand meters. It just appeared. No IFF!"

All thoughts of sleep evaporated for Cain as she headed towards DRADIS and Scanner command and control. "Set Condition One. All ships go active," she ordered. "Contact Adama's squadron. Inform them of our situation. Inform Admiral Kosef and tell him to prepare for a possible Cylon attack. Main weapons active, but do not fire. Make sure we are recording this."

"What are we looking at? Is it Cylon?"

"No, Admiral. I don't believe so. The energy readings are all wrong. I can't detect any tylium residue. Power source unknown. Energy source unknown. Length is forty meters. Configuration is completely unknown."

Fisk was behind the admiral, studying the data. "It's got to be Cylon. One of their new ship?"

Cain was already shaking her head. "Don't think so. They haven't done anything and the way things have gone, I'm keeping an open mind." Coming from her, the words were shocking. "Have the alert vipers do a fly-by. No firing, just scans and video. No aggression unless threatened. Who's on point?"

"Hades One, Admiral."

"Give them the go ahead to make the run," she ordered.

"Do you think this is a first contact situation?" Fisk asked. "Is this a ship of the Thirteenth Colony?"

In her opinion, that comment was a stretch. The Thirteenth Colony was a myth, pure and simple. For all they knew, if it wasn't Cylon, it could be a ship of another lost colony, one from rumored ships lost during the great migration. Now that would be something amazing. The only thing she knew was that this wasn't from the Colonies, not with those readings. "We don't know what we're looking at. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"Hades One is on its way."

"Keep comms open. I want to hear this."

Admiral, Adama's squadron will be here in fifteen."

"I want them here when we contact this…" and she paused for a second. "Ship."

XXX

"Hades One to Pegasus Actual. Closing in, slow approach. Scans and DRADIS online. Getting some form of interference. Are you receiving?"

"Affirmative. Report, Hades One."

The vipers of Hades One Alert four, approached the strange craft. Whatever it was, it was unusual, to say the least. Two vipers flew above, over the craft, and two under.

"This is Hades One, commander. We just overflew the target. No response. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. Transmitting images. Do you copy?"

"Copy that. Any weapon's ports?"

"None that I can see. The ship is a light gray, elongated oval shaped with a tapered bow region. It looks smooth, almost no protrusions or external. No markings that I can see. The front end has a bluish green disk in front of the ship. Back end has four glowing engines of some kind embedded at the rear. There is a small window at the front of the ship but it is darkened. It has not responded with communications that we can tell. It hasn't responded to our presence. We're performing another run."

"Affirmative. Continue watch."

"This is strange. It's just sitting there," Fisk said to the admiral. "It's not doing anything." He stared at the object on the viewscreen. "I think it's pointing at the planet, not us. Look at its positioning. It doesn't seem to be interested in us."

Helena Cain was not amused. Some unknown violated Colonial claimed space and had proceeded to ignore them. "I don't want to lose our formation in case something goes down. How long before Adama gets here?"

"Five minutes."

Cain stared at the object once more. "DRADIS, go to full active. I want a good look at it since it's being so cooperative."

"Gone full active." The lieutenant performing the scans shook his head. "Nothing, sir. They have some kind f ECM. It's blocking everything. We can get visuals, but no details." Then he frowned. "Their ECM just increased.. I am not getting any readings at all, not even energy profile, or visuals."

Cain looked alarmed. "Are we being targeted?"

"Not sure, Admiral. Hades One confirms it hasn't moved. We just can't see it from our scans. It hasn't moved. They're just blocking our probes."

"We're being scanned!" very powerful!" DRADIS screamed. "It just burned through our ECM!" the lieutenant yelled. "They're scanning us. We can't stop it!"

Lights in the Pegasus and other ships began to flicker, due to the intensity of the unknown scan. They could actually see transparent waves of energy passing through the command center. Everyone's hair stood up on their ends. Admiral Cain almost panicked and ordered a strike against the unknown. Her ship's scans had somehow provoked the unknown in responding with probes of their own. The scans were so powerful. She was almost at the edge of ordering the retaliatory response when suddenly the scans stopped.

Across the fleet, ships and crews recovered from the shock. Hades One was asking for orders as they readied an attack on the unknown ship. As much as her instincts demanded her to do so, Cain resisted ordering her ships to fire. She was still debating whether this was some sort of attack when the Bridge center went almost white with light. A moment later, the blinding light narrowed into two columns of intense light. The powerful light dimmed quickly, and the crew could see two images forming, humanoid figures. The figures appeared female, judging from what little the crew could see. Security was already on their way and would arrive at the bridge in seconds ready to support the bridge guard.

Two females, one older and one younger, obviously related, formed out of thin air. Both olive-skinned women were dressed in blue flowing gowns that served to accent their figures. The elder female's hair color was deep flowing brown, while the younger's hair color was a lighter brown and much longer. They were both exotic in ways no one on the bridge could describe, but despite their human appearance, there was something different about them both, something off.

Colonial marines stationed on the bridge were on them both in a moment, guns drawn, looking for any signs of hostile activity. Both intruders had arrived on the bridge of the Pegasus unannounced. Both females looked unperturbed at the threatening gestures and guns pointed at them. They looked more curious than anything else.

The admiral was livid and frightened. These intruders had arrived by some unknown means. They weren't holograms, but real creatures. She refused to call them women. Somehow, the term didn't fit.

Surrounded by the bridge stationed marines, ready to pull the triggers, she glared at the two creatures. "Who are you? Identify yourselves!"

The younger female, incidentally the most beautiful female Helena had ever seen, was the one who spoke. The elder female just stared at the bridge, intrigued and curious. She bowed her head at the Admiral.

"Dimensional incongruity," the older female said, who looked no older than twenty-eight to thirty. Her voice sounded strange, almost electronic. It sat the Colonials on edge, more so than they already were. "An example of infinite differences in infinite combinations."

The younger female, who looked all of twenty, smiled at her mother in agreement. Grandfather had worked with mother for a long time and she was progressing, but she was first generation and it would take time. Therefore, she would become the spokesperson for this contact with people who were so familiar but so different from those she knew.

"I am Suchita, daughter of Ilia," she told the crew of the Pegasus and everyone else who was listening, pointing to the elder female.

Cain and Fisk were unnerved by the intruder's indifference to the number of weapons pointed at them. "How did you get here?" she demanded, wanting answers now. "Are you from the ship?" She was sure they were, but wanted confirmation. "What is your purpose for coming on my ship?!"

"Yes," Ilia responded in an air of indifference. "We are from the ship stationed not far from here. "We detected you and were curious. You are human, but not Terran. I can see a genetic drift within you of four thousand years," she said. "It indicates you were taken from the parent population."

Most interesting," Suchita said. "You are not humanoids of the Alpa Beta Delta or Gamma quadrants. Your people are Human, and you are something new."

"What the frack are you?!" demanded Helana Cain just as the additional Colonial security, carrying heavy weapons, rushed in.

Suchita glowed for an instant as she prepared her response. "We are Human," Ilia announced with pride. "We are Deltan. We are progeny of V'Ger. We are unique."

Unique wasn't the word forming on Admiral Helena Cain's lips.

TBC

Katasi. Courtor. What is it? What are they? What is the relationship? Where are they located and most importantly, is there more than one? Answers coming up.