Chapter 2 - Making decisions and putting family first
The next day he was on mission to get the first few doses done so that his grandparents and mother can live longer and possible help him, The machines arrived promptly at 10 am and the materials only an hour later, so Leo spent the next few hours locked in the basement where he set up his lab making the first few doses of life extension gene therapy for his grandparents.
A few hours later he was looking at the table with 12 doses of the Gene therapy that if it worked right would after a night of rest would extend the life as well as rejuvenate the appearance and body of the taker. He left the basement under the worried gaze of his mother as he went upstairs to his room to change to get ready for his meeting with his family. He was getting ready for what he knew was going to be a hard conversation with the last of his family when there was a knock at the door.
Leo called out "Come in Mother"
His mother walked in with her father who was a retired admiral in the colonial navy and her mother who was a socialite and dedicated military wife in the upper levels of caprica society, 10 min later after the first round of greetings his other grandmother who was a weapons control officer during one of the many inter colony wars before she retired and married his grandfather before the whole religious upheaval of the one god and the trouble that followed and then the Cylon war happened that took her only son. from my memories i know the only reason she survived the whole ordeal was that i was around so she had someone to put all her attention on instead of wallowing in grief.
"So now that we're all here I have some things I need to confess. I have memories of a previous life in which I was from earth. In my last life I was part of the air force on the planet earth and died while test piloting a new fighter craft when the engines malfunctioned." Leo explained to the shocked and worried looks from everyone in the room. Who looked at him like he was losing it.
"Is this a joke Leo, as it's not funny at all?" His mother said sternly while he continued to get worried looks from both his grandmothers but his grandfather just looked at him with judging eyes from years of experience judging officers and war weary soldiers.
"Mum I'm not making things up, yes I'm your son but i also have all these memories and experiences from another life plus a conversation with the god Athena warning me that the Cylons will be coming back and there's nothing i can do to stop it and she is asking me to save as many as possible by starting a new colony and she even gave me the ability and technology to do it" He explained while giving them a pleading look.
There was a few minutes of silence with them looking back and forth between each other when my grandfather signs " Leo i believe you, after years of looking down officers who lied or embellished there deeds and soldiers who have has enough of war I know when someone is making things up or have lost their grip on there sanity. Thankfully I don't see any lies in your eyes." He looked at my mother and by grand mothers "The least we can do is finish listing to what his plans are and help him as what's the worst that could happen, we would have a new colony which we strictly own and all the resources from that system to expand our businesses and judging by what he said he also has other stuff as well so let's wait and listen." he explained patiently and with a no nonsense attitude.
My mother glared at her father and then exchanged a look with her mother and mother-in-law then looked back at me and nodded for me to continue.
"Well yes they did give me some more technology and resources but also some rules and I'm sorry to say that it's going to be bloody when the attack happens, from what i was told billions are going to die in a little over 30 years from now but with what I know and the conditions i have been given i could potentially save millions if done right." At that i look up into there shocked faces "ok so here is the conditions i have been told and they are that i can't interfere with the main events that are to happen as for some reason the gods want this to happen and i think it's to be a catalyst to change the very fabric of what our society is as there is to much infighting and corruption in the Twelve Colonies. What with all the pirates and seditious elements from the colonies that have been downtrodden for decades. The only reason we are one government and not still largely fighting amongst ourselves is the Cylon threat. The name we give ourselves is a prime example as we still think of everything as separate colonies and not as one nation or federation."
They look at me in shock at that and my grandfather is nodding his head and says "I totally agree with that as the colonial fleet is largely tribal although all colonies serve there are major differences between what people from each colony can do as how many pilots and officers do you see from the poorer colonies compared to just say caprica and it's the complete opposite for the mechanics and the people doing the dirty jobs on a ship they mostly come from the colonies with massive populations suffering poverty. Also nothing going to change as those at the top promote based on colony loyalties"
Leo looks at him and he smiles back, then he looks at my mother and she nods her head agreeing "I agree with your grandfather that things do need to change. It's just hard to accept that billions need to die to do it and there's nothing we can do to stop it."
"Before we go any further I want you guys to know that I was given a way to extend how long people live with gene therapy and I have 5 doses here for us to take. We take these and then meet back up tomorrow to continue the meeting but be prepared for a big change as it will make you look younger and give you the energy of someone in their 30's" Leo looked at them and smiled as he handed each of them a dose and told them to take it just before they go to sleep.
At that he sat down for the next few hours explaining what's to happen and what technology he has been given to change things and improve their chances of succeeding. Lastly they started to discuss who exactly they could recruit with the incentive of being able to live longer and who would support them in their role. But they all agreed that they will not be explaining where everything came from or the memories or visions of Athena.
The next day a entirely different looking group sat in the study there was obviously Leo and his mother who while looking younger didn't have much difference but her father whose name is James Adama who's older cousin is will adamas grandfather looked like an older version of Leo with dark brown eyes and at some point cut his hair to a military style cut and at 6ft 3 inches looked very imposing and dangerous.
Then there's her mother Elisabeth Adama formerly Nagala a distant cousin of Admiral Nagala's father who has light brown hair and looked a lot like Leo's mother except had blue eyes with green flecks in them and stood at 5ft 11 inches.
Lastly there was my other grandmother Diana Kosta formerly Williams who has dark brown hair and light blue eyes and stands at 5ft 4 inches with the pose of someone who belongs among the nobility and a gentleness that would make you want to do whatever she asked.
When they all sat down Leo asked "So how are you all feeling?"
They all looked at each other then James answered "I think I speak for all of us when I say we feel great and thank you for sharing this with us" He smiled at Leo and they all nodded along.
"I'm glad and I plan to do the same for many ex servicemen and professional in all the areas we could need for the new colony which is where you come in grandfather as with your old rank you know better than i would of who would be approachable and who to avoid as although we need to save who we can we also need to keep it under wraps as we will not be following the colonial government and we will be doing a lot of stuff that will look odd but will prove critical to our future."
He looked at them and then came the hard part "From what i was told i cant effect the main timeline so i need to approve all names so that i can make sure they don't affect the the future outcome as the gods have told me that if i change to much to effect the future attack I would be punished and I'd hate to see what that will be."
Leo knew he was playing heavily into the whole god's thing but he figured it was the easiest way to get things to a point where he could later tell them the truth about their ancestors and what they could achieve in the future. "Lastly both an Adama and Nagala will be playing important roles in what's to happen so I need you to make some sort of contact with the rest of your family to at least be able to influence things like purchasing all Battlestar's and other ships as they get decommissioned. Also we can use those contacts to save some of the colonial fleet and fold them into our new colonies defence force after the attack."
They looked at each other and said they will do what Leo asks but that he will need to do most of the talking later once they reconnect so that they don't accidentally do something that would affect the timeline and get them all punished.
James looked at him and asked how many doses does he have left of the gene therapy. Leo told how many and he said he had some names of people we could recruit from the old guard who would be able to recruit more and would lead us to have a good foundation to move forward. Also Grandmother Kosta added a few of the older ladies she knows that would be ideal in colony building and have little to no family left to ask questions if they get younger. So with that Leo ended up with a list of people to speak to and he asked them to get in touch with them for a meeting tomorrow afternoon.
So it came that Leo was waiting in the dining room for 7 people to turn up and listen to his pitch at subverting colonial law and starting a new colony away from here. The people he was waiting for are according to his grandparents people who would join them but Leo was still hesitant to add to many people into there group to early but they needed the man power and connections.
So at 2pm 4 males and 3 females walked in. First people through were a couple named James and Jessica Spencer both in their mid 70's but both looked professional. James Spencer was a retired general from the colonial marines who retired just after the Cylon war and has since been stuck giving the odd speech at marine officer schools and trying to fish. Then there is his wife who is an out and out military wife who has contacts with ex-service men and women and their spouses. They have children which wasn't ideal but at the same time they were disillusioned with the colonial way as they lost 1 son and 2 daughters in the Cylon war and their only living son is currently a Major and serving as a XO to a marine battalion stationed on Sagittaron.
Next was Luke Adonis who was in his early to mid 80's and was an engineer and materials specialist who was in R+D development before he retired and still has contacts within those departments and companies. Also he has only one living family member who is serving as a Weapons Control Officer on board a Battlestar who is his nephew and adopted son.
Then there's Dean Williams who is an energy specialist and nuclear physicist and is in his 90's. He was largely responsible for building and maintaining nuclear weapons and generators during the war for the Battlestar project which means he has good knowledge of how they can update and replace old generators on the Battlestar's they plan to acquire from the scrapyards. He never married as due to an accident when he was younger he was made infertile and never felt the need to drag someone else into his misery which made him an ideal person especially with the fact that Leo can repair the damage.
Next to come in was Karen Holloway an 82 year old Civil engineer and architect who retired in her early 50's because she was disgusted with the way projects where won due to connections and not the best design and has no living family as she was the sole survivor of her family when the cylons attacked her home colony. Next to her was Christina Torres who was rather young in this group at only 54 but was a botanist and zoologist and would be ideal to design and build the new colonies' agriculture and poultry farms. Last to enter and with a slight haunted look in his eyes was John Thrace who happened to be Kara Thrace great uncle and thankfully estranged from his family because of his role as a Viper pilot during the war and managed to get to the rank of Major before retiring and becoming a test pilot. He was critical in the design of the latest batch of viper MK4 currently used by the colonial navy and knows them in and out including their weapon and flight systems.
As they all sat down at the table and gave Leo strange looks his mother and grandparents walked in and sat down to the shock of the 7 guests. There were some questions that flew straight out of their mouths before they could recover from their shock and most of them where how did this happen and where can they get some, much to Leo's amusement.
"Please, calm down and I will try and explain!" Loudly said by Leo.
After that they started to sit back down and waited patiently for him to start. "Ok you were all asked here because my grandparents know you and agreed that you would make good additions to what we have planned. As you can see i have developed a gene therapy that lengthens the natural lifespan on humans but i think that if i release it to the general public those in power will do there best to steal the Formula and try and use it for there elites only and that is not what i want to do and to be honest I'm fed up with the way those from the poorer colonies are treated. So with this in mind I have come up with a plan to start my own colony and invite those who are fed up with the infighting and general attitudes of the colonies and their governments."
He waited for a reaction to what he said and he wasn't disappointed as the looks were mostly disbelieving but 1 or 2 had curious expressions on their faces as they contemplated what they could possibly achieve.
"So what we're looking to do is to scout out a system we found several tens of light years away from the colonies to start a new colony, to do this we have developed a new type of faster than light travel that reduces the time to travel great distances by massive amounts and is more stable than jump drives. To do this though I need the help of Mr Adonis and Mr Williams in confirming and improving initial designs on a fusion generator that's much more efficient and safer than current generators. To this end i want to give you 7 people the first doses of the gene therapy and count you amongst my closet advisors in going forward as i know i can't do this alone and to do it right i need people with both experience of the good and bad of our society as well as the skills to help this ambitious plan succeed."
Leo then continued "I know some of you have family that you will want to include and i more than willing to do that but until we have somewhere we can take them where people won't ask to many questions of why they look younger and wont go running to the government as soon as they find out our plans for a new colony then I'm sorry i wont do it at least for now. But if they are willing to leave service as i know both are currently serving the colonial navy and marines then I'm more than willing to arrange a role in one of my companies for them at a massive increase in wages and perks until it is time to bring them into the fold and give them the therapy as well."
With all that said Leo and his family offered them the dining room for 30 min to discuss amongst themselves if they were willing to join the program or not and they left the room for Leo's study.