Supercarrier Galactica

The hybrid battlestar had left Alex ten days ago. In the aftermath of the failed attack on Earth, the Fleet launched multiple raids with small flotillas to maintain pressure and assess the Machines' resources and reserves.

So far, these attacks had painted an intriguing picture of their enemy. Four stars appeared to be acting as collection points, gathering remnants from other systems. The unusual behavior was spreading, and data from the Machines' civil war was still under analysis. However, Admiral Saul Tigh had little interest in the Machines or their peculiarities at this moment. What he truly wanted was to take the small yacht he'd purchased and explore the galaxy in peace.

Currently, he was walking through the internal corridors of the Galactica. Lee had taken on more responsibility for "Gal," as they affectionately called her, and it was clear he would soon inherit command of the ship. For now, Galactica and six heavy cruisers were patrolling a sector near Kappa and Hephaestus. Tigh shared Chihaya's opinion that naming systems after Greek letters was impractical.

He arrived at his beloved Ready Room, the space he almost considered his home. The Marines on guard saluted him, as always, and he returned the gesture with a grumpy smile.

It was an old joke among the veterans, and Tigh let it stand. Lee was still a bit stiff in comparison, but with time, he'd learn to relax. As Tigh entered, the massive virtual screen activated, demanding his attention.

"Patch me through, Gal," he instructed.

The face of Laura Roslin, President of the Fourteen Colony, appeared on the screen. "Admiral Tigh, I hope you're doing well. The people of Phoenix support you and your crew. My husband..."

The aged, weathered face of Admiral William Adama filled the screen. He greeted his old friend with a smile.

"Hey, old daggit. How are you treating our girl?"

Tigh smirked. "Busy, Bill. You know, blowing up stars and all that."

Adama chuckled. "I've heard about the 'Galactica maneuver,' but we think it's time to send you some help, don't you agree?"

"Who?" Tigh asked, his interest piqued.

"The Avenger will jump to your coordinates in four hours," Laura informed him.

"And let me tell you, Hyuga, Ise, and a certain girl will be joining her too," Bill added, smirking knowingly.

Tigh groaned. "Oh, crap. Don't tell me she and—"

"Exactly," Bill interrupted. "And, my old friend, remember that to the Federation, she's her daughter. Got it?"

Tigh sighed and nodded, understanding the unspoken message behind Adama's sharp tone.

"Understood," he replied.

Laura took over. "Saul, help them finish these Machines. We've already had our share of disasters from crazy machines."

"Consider it done, Madam President," Tigh said seriously.

"Good luck, Admiral," Bill and Laura said in unison before the viewscreen went dark.

Tigh was sorely tempted to pour himself a drink.

Four hours later, three ships arrived. One was unmistakably a Colonial battlestar, though it had undergone extensive modifications to Federation standards. The dorsal turrets, once home to solid-round batteries, now housed powerful plasma lances. Below the hull, an additional row of turrets guarded the vulnerable underside, and at the bow, four upgraded railguns had replaced the older models. Thanks to Hyuga's enhancements, the coils allowed the projectiles to reach nearly 20% of the speed of light, making each shot almost as devastating as an SGC.

The other two ships were clearly Federation battleships. Hyuga and her sister ship, Ise, had come to escort the Avenger. The three vessels hailed Tigh and the Galactica.

Tigh had spoken to Avi, the mental model of the Avenger, several times before. She was a tall figure, alternating between dressing like an ancient Greek noblewoman and a Colonial officer. As she appeared on the screen, she greeted him respectfully.

"Admiral Tigh, it's a pleasure to meet you again," Avi said, standing beside an old acquaintance, Seelix, who had continued her Navy career. Seelix was one of the fortunate few to have found a relative aboard the battlecruiser Athena.

"Admiral, good to see you again," Seelix greeted warmly.

"Likewise, Seelix," Tigh replied with a nod.

Two more familiar faces appeared on the screen—Hyuga and Ise, the Federation battleships' mental models.

"Admiral, how have you been? Have you seen what we've done with Avi? She's itching to test her arsenal on the Nexus," Hyuga said, smirking mischievously.

"Sister, stop teasing the Admiral!" Ise scolded, her tone half-serious. Tigh noted the jingling bell-shaped ornaments in her hair and on her ears, which added an almost playful touch to her otherwise commanding presence.

Before Tigh could respond, a girlish voice interrupted.

"Hi, Admiral Tigh!"

A young brunette emerged from behind Hyuga, her appearance a near mirror of her adoptive mother's. Tigh still felt a chill whenever he saw her—Zoe Graystone's reincarnation was a lot to process.

"Hello, young lady," Tigh managed, maintaining his composure. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well, Admiral. Trying to keep up with Mom is a challenge, though," she replied, grinning as Hyuga laughed.

"Keep dreaming, little girl," Hyuga teased affectionately.

Tigh observed the scene with a mix of awe and curiosity. It was becoming common in the Federation for mental models to adopt orphans, a practice wholeheartedly supported by public adoption committees. The models' patience and care made them ideal guardians.

The fleet, consisting of a hybrid carrier, a battlestar, two battleships, and six cruisers, defolded near the outermost planet of an uncharted star system. The Machines, as always, had done something new.

A peculiar station orbited the planet—two rectangular pyramids joined at their bases, forming an unusual structure. A dozen cubes and spheres lazily orbited the station, appearing almost defenseless.

Tigh scrutinized the scene. "It looks barren and defenseless," he remarked, though his tone carried suspicion. The Machines often laid ambushes, and he wasn't about to be lulled into complacency.

Lee joined him, studying the monitors. "It looks like a newly established colony, but we know nothing about that station."

Suddenly, alarms blared in the CIC. Tigh and Lee turned to the sensors, where an officer reported with urgency.

"Incoming ships! Seventy-three-four! Human fleet IFF detected. Superbattleship Luddendorff as flagship, Admiral."

Tigh exhaled heavily. Lee and Gal looked at him, their concern evident. He understood why—Chihaya had begun with over a thousand ships. If his fleet had dwindled to this number, the battles must have been catastrophic.

"Send a hail to the Luddendorff," Tigh ordered.

The comms officer nodded, signaling the connection was established. The sigil of the Luddendorff filled the screen, followed by the image of one of its two mental models.

"Admiral Tigh, a pleasure to meet you again," she said warmly. Turning her attention to Gal, she added, "Hello, Gal!"

"Hi, girl," Gal responded with casual ease. "It seems you've been busy."

"You could say that. We'll catch up later, okay?" the mental model replied.

"Sure."

It was customary for mental models to speak first in such encounters; they were the ships, after all, and humans considered themselves cargo—albeit useful cargo.

Finally, Fleet Admiral Chihaya's weary face appeared on the screen.

"Admiral Tigh, it's good fortune to find you in this system. We need to rest and repair. My fleet has sustained heavy damage, and this station is unlike anything we've seen before. I'll send you twenty battleships, including the Luddendorff, to support your mission. Meanwhile, I'll transfer my flag to the Pennsylvania. Good luck. Chihaya, out."

As the screen went dark, Tigh muttered under his breath, "Gods help me. This guy has gone to Hades and back."

"Gal, request the Luddendorff's combat logs," Tigh ordered.

"Of course, I will," Gal said. She accessed the fleet virtual network and organized a meeting with Ludden, Hyuga, and her sister. Gal had designed a beautiful and relaxing environment inspired by a Greek agora. A luxurious olive tree offered a tempting refuge from the strong sun. Under the tree, several stone chairs awaited her guests. Both girls joined the virtual room, greeting her. "Hi, girls," Gal said. "How're you doing? It seems you had a lot of combat, right?" Hyuga and Ise asked her. Ludden joined later, greeting the two legends in front of her.

Ludden replied, "We had a hard couple of weeks, believe me. The Nexus is changing. Something happened, and they are changing to survive. The viral weapon was a real challenge, and what's more worrisome is that they accessed the cores' external ports. It should be impossible, but they did it. We still have two destroyers' cores too infected. To be honest, I don't know if they are recoverable."

Gal explained the reason for the meeting. "We want to analyze the viral code with Zoe's help. The capabilities of this software are impressive. And, if we are lucky, we can use the infected cores to understand the malware."

Hyuga pondered the challenge in front of her. "I read your report, Ludden. The idea of something like the quantum rings to access the quantum crystal is hard to digest; I don't think that it's remotely possible."

Ise added her own conclusions, "However, my dear sister, the only long-range interaction among two separated physical systems includes quantum entanglement and dimensional tunneling. South Dakota analyzed their technology on Proxima. There is no evidence of anything like that."

Gal looked at her seniors. "It's too fast to develop a new branch of physics. A third party meddling?"

Two stunned sisters looked at Gal. "A third party, interfering and giving access to our systems to our enemies," Hyuga considered the idea. "Our only possible source of information is the infected cores."

"We are looking for something more than physical coding, my sister. And if it couldn't be impossible, someone could have given them information about us, so we could be infected without our knowledge," Ise completed the idea.

"Even if this is possible, we don't have any proof of this theory," Gal admitted, a bit frustrated.

"I will submit the code to Maki. We brought physical hardware isolated from my network, so it should be safe," Hyuga said.

"Sis, you should use an ECM barrier and a shield around the computer," Ise advised her sister. "And it would be better if we added a static Klein Field around the computer room," she added.

"The Klein Field should stop every known long-range quantum interaction," Hyuga nodded.

"Well, let Maki work," said Gal.

Battleship Hyuga

The meeting finished, and Hyuga went to talk to her adoptive daughter. She found her in front of her personal computer in her laboratory. Many times, they had played trying to block each other's access to this system. Hyuga recognized she had lost several times, and the balance began to equal wins and losses.

The woman, already close to thirty years old, was dressed in a typical laboratory coat. Her obvious physical resemblance to Hyuga helped her to feel part of a family, and she was already helping her mother at the university. She turned to greet her mother and asked her what had transpired in the meeting.

"Dear, I have quite a challenge for you. You know about the viral attack on Chihaya's fleet, right?" Hyuga asked.

"I talked a lot with Gal. It's an impressive piece of software," Zoe admitted.

"The coding is impressive. But we need you to evaluate, from an infected core, how they accessed the external core ports. It shouldn't be possible, but they did it. Daughter," and she was quite serious in saying it, "we are considering the possible participation of a third party. Don't disclose this idea to anybody. Understood?"

"Ahh, yes, Mum. Do you mean aliens?" Zoe babbled with open eyes.

"For now, let's keep the phrase 'third party,' okay?" Hyuga rectified her.

"Yes, Mum. Please, give me the infected core," Zoe said.

"First, we are going to implement some extreme security measures," Hyuga said.

Five minutes later, Zoe was completely sure her mum was becoming paranoid.

Zoe's Laboratory

Zoe had been working on the infected core for six hours. She was analyzing the data flow inside the synaptic channels among the different nodes inside the core, especially around the ports. She had purged the virus hours ago, and she had to accept that the mind inside was unfortunately dead. The data corruption left almost nothing to work with. Sad, but now she had a core to study.

This was the first time she observed a phase discrepancy when the energy flow was analyzed with the n-dimensional vector array. An alarm flashed slowly, indicating that somewhere, an unknown influence was adding a new phased wave to the energy flow. Zoe worked feverishly, refining the analysis. Finally, a clear picture emerged. The electron flow showed several modulated patterns of phased energy.

Zoe was tired, but she knew she was on the right path. How could this thing be an active code? She tapped commands on her virtual keyboard at full speed, assigning values to the data. After one hour of furious work, she could translate the patterns into some kind of code.

After a few minutes of careful consideration, she used a laser light to stimulate one of the channels with the phased wave. The pattern reacted in front of her, and she used lasers of different colors and frequencies. After that, she incremented the number of pulses. Every time, the pattern reacted, returning to the resting configuration, but the changes started to become predictable. What was more concerning was that the response depended on the number of pulses. The pattern reacted as if it were calculating.

She was unable to understand the coding, but she was sure it was real. She didn't know what the code was doing, but at least she could trace in which systems they were located.

Four hours later, Zoe had mapped the malware. It was running mainly in the navigational system of the core. That meant, in theory, the locations of the planets and the Fleet could be compromised.

Now scared, she opened her personal comm to her mother. "Mum, come here. NOW!"

"Going!" a very worried Hyuga replied.

Hyuga didn't waste time walking. She reformed her mental model outside the laboratory and ran into the isolated room. Zoe was there, looking at a virtual screen hanging from the ceiling.

Zoe looked at her and explained, "I found a code imprinted on the energy flowing inside the core. It seems to be self-sustaining; I cut the energy flow, and it didn't dissipate. I speculate that it depends on a paired quantum object to exist. It's like a... quantum malware. Read the analysis."

Simulated or not, Hyuga felt real fear. This thing was the work of a genius. It showed, furthermore, that the girls had won the battle against the virus, but this thing could still be alive in every infected core. "The Tactical Network!" she screamed in fear.

Zoe understood the danger immediately. One of the fleet's most valuable assets, the paralyzed sharing of knowledge, could be a backdoor to everything in the Fleet and the Federation.

"Mum, I believe I know how to kill this thing," Zoe said to calm her adoptive mother.

Hyuga looked at her and said, "If it's primarily phased energy, we can use waveform cancellation."

"Exactly!" said Zoe, "You caught up super fast!"

"Don't write anything on a computer. Even I could be infected. Let's work, young lady!"

Both geniuses began what proved to be a long and hard task. Fleet technology helped to produce a viable "antivirus" based on waveform cancellation. In simple terms, two waves with inverted amplitude cancel each other. It was a crude, unrefined procedure, and more importantly, it was an untested method. Could it work on a working core? The unlucky destroyer that owned the core on the lab table couldn't offer itself for scientific advancement, but Hyuga rebooted the core. She and her daughter observed, a bit intimidated, how the quantum malware was still there. Hyuga downloaded a dummy system used to test new cores in the Core Forge on Earth.

Zoe connected the isolated interface, applied the field, rebooted the core several times, and checked if she could detect the malware. Smiling a bit like her mother when she reached success, she said, "The thing is dead, mother. I don't like it, but we need to check your core."

"We are in deep space. Are you sure it is safe for you and the crew?" a concerned Hyuga inquired.

Zoe thought deeply about the situation and said, "We can disconnect the auxiliary core and check if it's clean. If it's infected, we test the cleaning procedure. After that, if we are successful, we separate your core and pass the control to the auxiliary core. Then, the ship and the crew would be safe. Just in case, everybody will be using space suits. What do you think?"

The battleship analyzed the logical steps and nodded, "I believe it must work. But I'm thinking, if my core is infected, every nanoreplicated system could be infected too. If energy is flowing, these things could be having a party, and we wouldn't know anything."

She sighed, "This is a nightmare, Zoe. All the Federation could be infected."

Zoe nodded, "Probably it already is, Mum."

Zoe took a shuttle and visited Galactica. She took one of the transport tubes and ran to the CIC. She knew that Tigh didn't like her, but she needed his authority. The Marines guarding the CIC doors knew her, and one of them accompanied her to Tigh. He was talking to Gal when he saw her.

Tigh kept a civilized facade in front of her. "Young lady, it's... curious that you visit us without proper notice."

"Admiral, I need to talk to you and Gal, now," Zoe said, stressing the words and the urgency. Tigh watched the woman, and Gal said, "It's about the virus?" Zoe nodded while saying, "It's worse than you can imagine, Gal."

Right now, Tigh changed from annoyance to worry. "Okay, let's go to my Ready Room."

When the trio reached and entered the room, Zoe was direct, "Mum and I were analyzing an infected core. What we discovered was terrible. A new way of coding using phased energy. Let me show you."

For twenty minutes, she explained the discoveries. Gal was making her best imitation of panic, and Tigh was sweating. All the Federation could be infected by this quantum malware. What if the virus creator decided to shut down our weapons, sensors, or life support?

Tigh found his voice again and asked, "You said you found how to clean the ship and the core. How?"

Zoe explained, "We need to affect all the ship's systems and the core. The only way to clean a ship is to load the canceling pulse into the shield's modulation. The cores require physical disconnection and exposure to the field. I don't know another way."

"You know how to make me run to retirement," Tigh said and sat heavily on a couch.

Gal added worriedly, "What about Chihaya's fleet? It must be infected too."

"Surely it is; we must talk to them," Zoe replied.

"Wait. We must test your cure with Hyuga. If it works, Gal can use her flagship privileges to expand the shield modification to every ship. The cores, however..." Tigh said. Zoe accepted that they were limited in their options. "It's better if we don't lose more time."

Tigh agreed with the girl. Gal added a new idea. "If, as you said, the Tactical Network could be used to infect us, it could be used to propagate the cure."

Zoe opened her eyes, recognizing that it could work. "We can test that in the Fleet here."

"Do it," Tigh said.

Two hours later, Zoe was ready to test the cure on her mother. The shield was modified, and the field was activated. Zoe had previously probed a nanoreplicated tablet for quantum malware. It wasn't a surprise to find the code doing God knows what. The canceling effect was immediate, and no traces of the malware were found.

Hyuga took a deep breath when they reached the Inner Core Room, the place where her core rested in the hull. Zoe exposed the auxiliary core to the field, and after a reboot and a test, she bypassed her mother's core. Now, Hyuga couldn't even maintain her mental model.

The cure was applied, and the core was tested again. So far, no catastrophic effect was destroying the ship. Zoe couldn't detect more activity from the malware, so she allowed her mother to take control of the ship again.

Hyuga reformed her mental model and embraced her adoptive daughter. "It seems I am still here, dear."

Zoe had been scared while she proceeded with the "cure." She didn't understand what the malware was doing. It could be sending all she had in her mother's databank to who knows where. Slowly, she and Hyuga explained the cure and the procedure to Ise, Luddendorff, and her escorts. Five hours later, they were certified as clean.

Now, it was time for Chihaya's fleet.