Derelict. A Stargate - nBSG crossover

[dragon]

Very nice. Except I thought Kinsey was fired as VP at the end of season 7. I haven't seen season 8 yet other than a few scattered episodes. Did he get but back in power.

[Arrow]

Need... More... Now!!!

Great chapter!

[LadyTevar]

*10,000 Cylon Centaurians and 10,000 Kull Warriors get up. Conducted by some human form Replicator, they sing a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday for Tev, in appology for the late Birthday Present*

It's not late, Chris. TODAY is my birthday
the update, and thanks for the song! **Smooochies!**

[Perseid]

Great chapter Chris, especially with the Jaffa SW fans

I hope your not gonna keep us all waiting this long again for an update

[Soontir C'boath]

I was hoping for more dialogue between SG-1 and BSG but it was a good chapter nonetheless.

[LadyTevar]

Now that I've had a chance to get home and re-read it in the entirety (not as mini-bursts between customers at work) I have to say that this is a fantastic First Contact. Once again, you have the characterizations down perfectly. The timing of serious v/s comic, teh way that the nBSG people react to the PuddleJumper, how Daniel and Baltar interact... just perfect.

The cameo by Baal was amusing. Now I'm getting images of the BaalClones meeting a group of Sixes (Minds OUT of gutter, please) ... or how Adama would react when/if he runs into multiple Baals. It would be so easy for Baal to fake being a Cylon....

The political manuvering is the best part, however. Zerak is still a manipulative bastard, perfectly telling the press absolutely nothing while making it seem like the Quorom was in the know. Same with Baltar, upstaging Adama at the press conference. Like HeadSix... I must applaud you.

[Redleader34]

This story made my entire day Thank You chris... Thank you,, How long untill Ba'al meets Giaus... I see a strange friedship brewing

[Alterran]

Heh. When I saw the Star Wars part, I though for a minute that you were going to cross them in, too.

[Alan Bolte]

Yeah, that mindbend at the opening was a good one.

[Crazedwraith]

Nice chapter, Chris. Though I can see what you mean about the slow build up.

The idea of Teal'c showing the grand council Star Wars movies is quite amusing though I confess I did at first think: WTF?

Hope you keep continuing this as I'm very interested in seeing where it's going.

[DrMckay]

Nice chapter, great work. Hate to sound like an ingrate, but what's the timeframe for the next one?

[Zed Snardbody]

[NecronLord]

The cameo by Baal was amusing. Now I'm getting images of the BaalClones meeting a group of Sixes (Minds OUT of gutter, please) ...

No.

*Cues porno music*

[AnakinFlair]

You know, for a moment there I thought you took this to a Star Wars/Stargat/BSG crossover- then I moved past the opening paragraph and laughed.

Great job. Hope we get more soon.

[ray245]

Someone is really gonna to kill me for this...but...when is the next update? Or is this stories is going to end here?

I was really hoping that we can see the pegasues in this fic. Definetly one of best written fanfic around for SG1-verse.

[Soontir C'boath]

Someone is really gonna to kill me for this...but...when is the next update? Or is this stories is going to end here?

Since this question is directed to the author, you should PM him but since you didn't. *activates chainsword*

[dragon]

Hum been over a month, bumb.

[JME2]

Aaargh, don't do that!

[HSRTG]

Hum been over a month, bumb.

There's something called a PM. Use it lead-for-brains.

[LadyTevar]

DAMMMIT!!!!!!!!!! I THOUGHT IT WAS AN UPDATE!!!!

[Chris OFarrell]

Some Birthday present *mutters under breath*

[dragon]

Some Birthday present *mutters under breath*

Whos' birthday?

[ray245]

Chris?

[LadyTevar]

Some Birthday present *mutters under breath*

*huggles, smooches* We loves you anyway.

[Chris OFarrell]

Stargate Command Commissary
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado
Earth
January 12, 2005

The SGC Commissary was an integral part of the larger Stargate Command facility. It was a place where the men and women (and occasional alien with a compatible digestive system for that matter) could stop to get a quick bite to eat on the run, or if they had the time to do so, sit down for a good old fashioned meal.

The problem was, it didn’t exist.

The US Air Force Commissary Service was an often overlooked component of the worlds most powerful Air Force, having a much lower profile then a shiny new F-22A Raptor squadron or a row of brooding B2 Spirit bombers. But as Napoleon had famously said; ‘an army marches on its Stomach’ and the Air Force did like its creature comforts. Without the services of this small department, no USAF base would be operational for lack of food…making Stargate Command’s position somewhat tricky given that –as far as the Commissary service was concerned- there was no such command.

Luckily with NORAD directly overhead, the easy solution was to simply append the SGC’s food requirements (and many many others for that matter) to their own and publicly change NORAD’s staffing numbers upward, reflecting new secondary NORAD missions such as deep space radar telemetry analysis, improved command and control functions and other semi classified cover stories as necessary.
But there was arguably a slight difference between providing enough food for two hundred extra personal per shift and fifty thousand per shift…

“So can we say if we have allies or enemies here?”

“After six hours of talks? Not in the least. But Doctor Jackson thinks their intentions are honorable. Which brings up a lot of questions”.

Doctor Caroline Lam and General Hank Landry occupied a wall table in the increasingly bustling commissary. The General had been only a matter of minutes away from crashing in his small on-base bedroom, the relay of coffee cups that had kept him going through the night rapidly loosing their effect as the sun started to rise over Colorado.

He tried not to hold it against the good Doctor that as soon as he had reached for a cup of coffee; she had just as firmly reached out and taken it away from him with a look in her eyes that he recognized only too well from her Mother. Still, he was starting to wish he had just taken it regardless of that expression; he felt as if he was about to fall asleep here and now on the table which wasn’t the right look for the new commanding officer of a frontline facility like the SGC. Not to mention the senior USMC officers from SG units 3, 10 and 15 were sitting two tables over, taking a quick bite after their ‘wakeup’ ten kilometer jog earlier in the morning.
The last thing he needed was the jarheads thinking he was a wimp.

“That many people on the run for that long are probably going to be running low on medical supplies, especially if it was an unplanned evacuation. Assuming they even have proper medical facilities at all on board those ships-”

“Well that’s the long term problem” Landry responded with a shrug. “The short term question is where the hell do we put them?”

“I’m taking it that ‘Earth’ would not be an acceptable answer?”

“You take correctly” he replied, sipping at his water and wincing at the bland taste. “Ignoring the slight problem of the security breach fifty thousand humans from another planet would pose, the IOA would never be able to agree to who gets whom”.

“Sorry?” Lam asked with a frown, clearly not following.

“Well there isn’t a chance these Colonials could simply land and establish their own country on Earth. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the best seats in the house have long since been taken. Which would mean the population would have to find a home in one of the countries already here…”

“Meaning each of the nations would want to skim the best scientists, military officers, engineers…”

“And so on” Landry agreed, rubbing his eyes slightly. “So resettlement on Earth is right out. The only other real option is to find a planet in our Galaxy and help them rebuild their society in some form”.

“Which would require huge amounts of infrastructure, supplies, manpower…”

“Which would be problematic at best” Landry agreed with a nod as he placed the cup of water back down and picked at the slice of toast he had grabbed on the way in. “But that kind of approach does have its advantages. The Pentagon is in love with the idea of a relatively sane human ally in our neighborhood…”

“Who just happens to be indebted to Earth” Lam replied dryly.

“Were you always this cynical?” he sighed as he leaned back in his chair.

“I’ve had a lot of practice” she shrugged, though her pointed look pierced deep into Landry’s heart.

Small steps he reminded himself.
“So…how’s your mother?”

“Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

Okay, wrong question Hank he told himself, picking up his glass again to hide the flash of emotion he felt at the slightly barbed response.

“So, you’re all settled in?”

“Renting” she replied with a nod, in gulping down the last of her slice of toast and reaching for another. “I’ve got a nice place up in Cimarron hills I’ve been staying in”.

“Well you should buy, it’s really nice up there this time of year” Landry replied with a slightly forced smile.

Lam simply raised an eyebrow in a manner that made him wonder if she had been spending time around Teal’c recently.

“Well…I’m thinking about it…but as I don’t really know how much longer I’m going to be here…”

“Caroline” he tried again, putting his cup down. “No-one forced you to take the job…”

“And General O’Neill didn’t tell me that you were going to be my boss” she responded in a slightly sarcastic tone, before breaking eye contact and directing her gaze towards the table with an ever so slightly embarrassed expression on her face. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for”.

“But understandable” Landry replied, seizing on the chink in her armor and pushing forward. Privately, he was starting to wonder if should have put off this encounter for a while, but after a night of running verbal battles with Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Paris and London, he had decided his daughter couldn’t be much worse.

Oh boy, had he miscalculated.

“I didn’t know about you getting the job either until I took mine” he replied with a touch of good humor. “Jack can be a little irritating that way. Colonel Mitchell didn’t know SG1 had disbanded either”.

“The General has a strange sense of humor” she noted with another raised eyebrow. “Still…this job is something else”.

“Not quite John Hopkins” Landry smiled slightly. “But Jack didn’t pick you because of me or vice versa. He picked you because he wanted the best of the best to look after his people. And if Jack didn’t think that, he wouldn’t have fought so hard with Doctor Weir over you”.

“Doctor Weir?” she asked with a quizzical, if not hostile frown.

“The Atlantis mission” he clarified. “Doctor Weir was looking for an assistant chief surgeon to back up Doctor Becket. In fact I understand his exact words after reading your file were ‘how in the bloody hell do I compete with someone who jumps off cliffs?’”

Managing not to choke on her toast, Caroline Lam smiled, if only slightly at the horrible Scottish accent.

“He said that?”

“More or less” Landry nodded, frowning at his now empty cup of water and gesturing to an airman to bring coffee and to hell with his daughter. “And I have to admit I was…a little freaked out that you were into base jumping”

“Not exactly daddies little girl anymore” she stated, with a hint of pride and defiance, but little real rancor. “And after stepping through the Stargate…jumping off a cliff sounds so…blasé”.

“It’s a hell of a job” he yawned, rubbing his eyes as the Airman finally arrived with a coffee refill.

“Stop that” Caroline ordered as the airman eased the pot into place, before turning her gaze back to her father. “How long has it been since you’ve had some sleep?”

“Too long” he chuckled. “I had an all nighter with the Pentagon, White House and most of the IOA. When I saw the time I knew you would be around so…”

“One more cup and you’re going to give yourself and ulcer” she commented, sipping carefully from her own to hide her expression. She couldn’t help but be touched at her father’s efforts…even if there was no way in hell she was just going to pretend everything was peachy on a personal level with him.
Still you had to start somewhere...

“Well they say the Doctor always knows best” Landry nodded, wiping his mouth with his serviette. “You might want to look at some of the contingency plans Doctor Frasier wrote up for large scale humanitarian work off world with SGC resources. If we get the green light to start aid shipments to these people, I want to see food and medicine flooding through the front door within twenty four hours of the Go signal from Washington. I have a bad feeling they need it”.


Battlestar Galactica
Alternate P4X-221 Star System.
Cylon Genocide + 203 days.

“I appreciate your concern, but the fact is we are in no position to refuse help on this scale” President Roslyn commented to the group crowded into the briefing room. Where the room had seamed so empty to her earlier when it had been filled with just the two Earth representatives , facing the Quorum of Twelve it now felt far too small.

Or perhaps it was the ego rolling off the twelve politicians in front of her that had eaten up the empty space.

“This…story you’ve told us Madam President” Tom Zerak said with a skeptical expression. “I don’t doubt that it is exactly what they have told you…but I find it a little hard to believe. A world that isn’t aware of a full scale Galactic war and the existence of aliens?” Zerak wondered with a skeptical look as he slowly paced in front of the table Laura sat at. “A world where space traveling technology is almost non existent, but, they are capable of building ships like that monster?” he asked, waving at the far bulkhead in the general direction of the distant Prometheus.

“They’re not spear wielding barbarians Tom” Laura replied, a hint of irritation starting to work its way into her increasingly tired voice. “A great deal of their general technology is comparable to ours if not superior in some respects, but unlike us, they did not inherit more advanced technology from the Gods when they left Kobol”.

“And let us not forget the near heretical claims they have made of the Gods” Sarah Porter spoke up quickly (and predictably) at the opening. “They have apparently been here less then a day and yet they presume to instruct us on the history of the Gods when-”

“Putting the religious questions aside for now” Tom commented as he tried to regain control of the conversation, “we have to ask what these people want in return for-”.

“-Excuse me Tom” Porter jumped back in with an icy tone in her voice, “I don’t believe there can BE any more important question then this. We are talking about a long term involvement with these people, the damage they could do to our society-”

“-Pails in comparison to the blatantly obvious benefits they can bring us. Those small insignificant things, you know, like food, water, medical supplies, protection from the Cylons; all those irritating little parts of staying alive that might concern us in some way?”

Porter turned her icy glare onto the person who had dared speak out against her carefully planed tirade, only to have Gaius Baltar return it with a look of mild indifference that verged on smug superiority.

“Putting aside the religious question” Roslyn tried again with a good deal more volume, “and putting aside the past, we need to look to the future. Doctor Jackson has provisionally agreed to address the fleets press in a limited question an answer session and Colonel Mitchell has invited a small group to pay a visit to the Prometheus. I’m opening the floor to comments”.

Fourteen people instantly started talking at the same time.

“It never ceases to amaze me how…limited the human political method is” the tall and regal looking blond commented from her place next toe Baltar, with a look of mild amusement riding on her face as she observed the exploding argument only a matter of meters away. “Is it really this hard for humans to see the only logical outcome of this situation?”

“I suppose the Cylons have a perfect unity in their opinions?” Gaius responded dryly as too watched the debate, none of whom would be able to hear him (even if they cared) over the racket they were generating, which was now expanding to include both Adama and Tigh in a free for all encompassing everything from Religion to the fleets food supply situation.

“Oh, you’d be surprised” Six laughed in response to his question, stretching her perfect body with a grace and ease that made him believe sometimes that she truly WAS an Angel from God. “All beings are imperfect Gaius” she continued, looking at Roslyn’s haggard face as she tried to restore order. “It’s simply a fact of the universe. Humans are an imperfect creation and we are an imperfect creation of humans. But we work with a consensus; a unity that humans have never come close to achieving. Human ego” she said with completely insincere sadness sitting on her face, “will always triumph over human humility”. Swinging her legs to get to her feet, she shot a wicked grin at him. “It’s what made it so easy for me to seduce you”.

Baltar felt a muscle in his mouth twitch slightly at the almost caviler way she once again tossed his role in humanities fall into his face, holding back a useless response to the thin air she had just occupied, glaring at the empty space until it finally dawned on him that someone was calling his name.

“Doctor Baltar? Mister Vice President? Are we boring you?”

Turning back to face the President, Gaius let the anger drain out of his body and tried to refocus on the argument, which was now as more between the Quorum themselves (excepting Tom Zarek who had carefully stayed neutral in the whole mess) as between the President and the Quorum.

“Absolutely” he responded with a wan smile. “I’m afraid I’m still something of a part time politician so you’ll have to forgive me…but is this the normal way politics works?”

“More or less” she decided with a very slight smile of her own. “You should have seen the Cabinet room back when President Altar floated his tax increase proposal”.

“Loud?”

“Very” she nodded. “Anything to add?”

“Not as such” he shrugged. “I talked to the press earlier and I don’t think they can be put off for much longer. Not without the whole situation blowing up in our face at any rate”.

“Blow up in our face or yours?” she asked mildly, but with a tone behind it that he found chilling. “Billy was kind enough to bring me a transcript of your press conference, where you assigned yourself the position of press liaison between the Earth delegation and the fleet” Roslyn said, leaning back in her chair and studying his face closely. “Seconded by Tom Zerak himself” she added as an afterthought, glancing at the Quorum member who almost appeared to be gloating over the chaos he had caused from a corner of the room.

“Now wait a minute” Gaius protested, forcing every bit of indignant anger into his voice that he could muster. “I stood up on your behalf to try and calm down a very difficult situation that could have caused Commander Adama a great deal of difficulty. In case you have forgotten, while you were off on Kobol running around with Tom Zerak, Adama and Tigh were failing miserably at managing the press. Frak, they created the situation where you were able to abscond with a third of the fleet from under his nose! The LAST thing this situation needed was the image that the military was in total control. Everything I said was for your benefit, not mine!”

“In that case” she replied –while her expression said plainly that she didn’t buy any of it- “I apologize and thank you for your help”.

“Apology accepted” Gaius replied blandly with a look that said he didn’t buy her easy concession anymore then she did.
The lines had been drawn.



“DOES THAT STAND FOR ANY PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES??!!”

Captain Kara Thrace was used to dealing with Colonel Saul Tigh on a day to day basis. They butted heads as a matter of routine and she had spent more then a few days in the brig, time she accepted as a part of their unusual hate-hate-grudging respect relationship.

But she couldn’t ever remember his face ever being such a deep red and took it as a sign that she might just have not only crossed the line with him but detonated a nuclear weapon upon it, rupturing the thin veneer of civilized behavior that kept the Colonel in check.
Either that or he had been hitting the bottle again.

“Do you have ANY FRAKEN IDEA what you could have DONE with that STUPID, IMMATURE -and oh so Starbuck who gives a FRAK about the fraken consequences- COMMENT?”

“Well if he got offended I’d guess we’d know that he has a small-”
“SHUT YOUR FRAKEN MOUTH!!” Tigh nearly shouted into her face at point blank range, Starbuck obeying with a soft click of her jaw sealing tight and deciding this time she might just keep her mouth shut.
Tigh held her stare at point blank range for a few seconds before stepping away, his hands flexing dangerously, almost as if he had a pistol in his hand and was working the trigger.

“Gods I hate today. When I woke up, everything was nice and sane. Now I’m about three hours overdue for getting some rack time and rather then throw you in the brig, I have to come down here and…Zeus give me strength, I can’t do it. APOLLO!”

“Right here Colonel” the younger Adama spoke up carefully as he stepped forward, trying to keep a solid desk in the empty ready room between himself and the raging XO as he moved up”.
“Please explain to Starbuck what the Old Man has decided is a suitable punishement for our hot shot pilot here after her stupidity today”.
Taking a slight gulp, Apollo turned his attention to the officer standing at attention for perhaps the first time in as long as he could remember.
“Uh Colonel Mitchell extended an invitation for a small group to have a walk over their ship some time tomorrow, after we’ve all had a good nights sleep…and he asked by any chance if you would be willing to…uh….”.

“Get out…you want me to go over to his ship?” she asked with a stupid grin starting to spread over her face and instantly destroying her military attitude, less at Apollo’s statement then at the vein that started throbbing near the top of Tighs left eyebrow.

“Want you to?” Tigh echoed in a dangerously soft voice, cocking his head slightly as if considering the notion. “If I had my way Captain, you’d be grounded for the next month after that little stunt of yours. But apparently the Commander, the CAG and the President think it’s a fantastic, wonderful idea!” Rolling his eyes, Tigh stepped back from the lectern he had been subconsciously throttling with one hand, moving towards the door in great strides. “Gods know you’ll bring us into a war with Earth sooner or later, might as well be after a good nights rest. Be ready in full dress by oh eight hundred tomorrow for a briefing. You’ll meet the rest of your team then”.
Without bothering to dismiss the two officers or acknowledge the salutes (one sloppy one not), the XO passed through the door and woe to the crewman who might be on duty between him and his quarters.

Hissing out the breath he had been holding, Apollo shook his head slightly and turned to his best pilot with a look that spoke volumes.
“Are you ever going to grow up?” he demanded with an exasperated look as he flopped down into a convenient chair.

“Oh come on Lee, you could hear the way he was talking on the wireless, he’s a pilot like you or me. Okay perhaps I went a little too far-”

“A little too far?”

“Okay fine a LOT far. But hey, you can’t argue with success!”

“You know, I’m really starting to get tired of this seat of the pants crap Starbuck” he snapped, letting some of the irritation he had hidden from Tigh –he’d never let either the XO or his pilots see overt agreement or disagreement in an argument- show through. “I always have to come in and defend your latest crap in front of Tigh and I’ve had it up to here with being blasted on your behalf”.

“Hey I never asked you to run interference with shinny head for me-”

“The hell you didn’t” he interrupted her protest. “Remember when we were jumping away from Ragnar? When I tried to get your stubborn ass to take stims like everyone else, you told me to stop trying to be everyone’s best friend and start being the CAG. The CAG’s job is to defend his pilots and to kick their fraken asses when they screw up”. Holding Starbuck gaze until she glanced away, he sighed and took a few steps away, hating himself for having to come down on one of his oldest (if most erratic and pain in the ass) friends like that.

“Look Kara” he tried again in a calmer voice. “You flew better then anyone out there today and hell, you’re still the best pilot we’ve got. I don’t know what happened to you on Caprica…but since you got back you’ve been walking around with a chip the size of an asteroid on your shoulder, just looking for a fight. This contact with Earth could be the turning point we’ve been looking for and we can’t frak this up. Everyone is tired, everyone is desperately hoping for something good to come of this. You’re not the only one with issues, not the only one who’s had to leave people behind on-”

“That, has nothing to do with this Lee” she flared, for the first time actually showing some real emotion instead of her typical cocky expression she used to hide her real feelings.

“Good” he replied mildly, sitting down on a spare chair in the front row of the amphitheater. After a few seconds, she sighed and flopped down next to him; finally ready to start talking…he hopped.
“So what’d I miss?”


Battle Cruiser Prometheus.
Alternate P4X-221 Star System.
January 12, 2005.

“Knock knock”

Daniel looked up from the digital scanner in Prometheus’s tiny office as Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter poked her head through the doorway. Installed almost as an afterthought between the 8th bulkhead damage control locker and the number six railgun magazine, the room was just large enough to fit in a pair of PC’s and a scanner, photocopier, printer combination deal that Daniel was having the devil of the time getting to work.

“Hey. Any idea how to work this thing” he asked, pressing a likely looking button and getting a loud buzz in return. “You know I can fly a Goa’uld Mothership, work an Ancient computer-”

“But Microsoft Office is completely beyond your understanding?” she asked with a tired laugh as she stepped in. “I’m thinking the next time the Cylons try to hack into the ships systems we should just upload Windows to their ships and see what happens”.

“Yeah isn’t there a line in the Geneva Convention about cruel and unusual punishment or something?” Daniel muttered, giving up and making way in the cramped room for Sam to get at the scanner. A few keystrokes on the keyboard and a quick tap on the buttons on the photocopier and she stepped back.

“For each page just press this and it’ll scan an image into this directory” she explained as Daniel moved back in, carrying the Ancient book he had recovered from under Glasdbury.

“So how did it go with Pendergast?” he asked as he carefully placed the book onto the machine and started copying the precious records into a less vulnerable digital format.

“Well I can’t say he was happy about your idea to bring people on board for a tour”.

“Really?” Daniel asked in mock surprise as he flipped the book to the next page and restarted the scanner. “Then he’s going to hate when the Stargate program goes public. Can you imagine of the line of VIP’s demanding joyrides after the program becomes public knowledge?”

“Well I’ve been more worried about how it becomes public knowledge then what happens afterward” Sam pointed out, typing in a command on the keyboard to better adjust the settings for the strangely sized book starting the scanner back up again.

Daniel grinned. “Jack thought the classy thing would be to have Thor stand in front of one of those rovers on Mars and wave at the cameras. Either that or fly into orbit and carve crop circles that say ‘bite me’ in Asgard throughout the Midwest”.

“Well that’s subtle” Sam replied with a somewhat amused roll of her eyes. Stifling another yawn the Colonel rubbed at her eyes, beginning to really feel the fatigue catching up to her. “It’s been a hell of a long day. Pendergast is going to finish up with a final communication to the SGC and turn in. Oh and I almost forgot, Raknor just arrived with two Motherships on our side of the Gateway to protect the station for us, complements of Teal’c.”

“Wow…” was all Daniel could say in response to the surprising outcome. Even after the fall of the Goa’uld where scores of Motherships had been liberated by the Jaffa, getting two of them detached for Earths use was a rather unprecedented state of affairs.

“Yeah apparently Teal’c and Bre’tac have scored a major victory over the hardliners in the Jaffa Government. Raknor sounded rather pleased with himself, but I figure you’d understand the politics better”.

“Well yes and no” Daniel replied as he continued to flip through the pages and scan them “Jaffa politics are the main problem with establishing their Government, before the Goa’uld collapsed Jaffa politics generally meant you followed the leader or you challenged him to a fight to the death”.

“Interesting way to run an army” Sam commented dryly.

“Yeah…” Daniel replied with a shrug. “Funny how similar the Cylon story is” the Doctor continued, with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Come again?” Sam asked with a confused look, Daniel once again changing tracks faster then she could keep up.

“Just think about it” he thought out loud, turning pages on the book as the train of thought expanded slowly through his fatigued mind. “The Jaffa were bred to serve the Goa’uld for countless generations. They were controlled through false religion, rituals, whatever. The Cylons on the other hand were created as servants for much of the same reason, disposable foot soldiers and cannon fodder. They also broke free and fought back”.

“And took it to somewhat different levels” Sam pointed out. “I mean the Jaffa might try to kill every Goa’uld they can get their hands on, but the Goa’uld are arguably beyond redemption as a species –excepting the Tok’ra- at any rate. The Colonials, assuming they were telling the truth, acknowledged their mistakes with the Cylons, signed a peace treaty which lasted for half a century until an unprovoked attack on a Genocidal scale”.

“Yeah so I heard” Daniel nodded. “But we only have the word of these people for exactly what happened. I just wish I could find a Cylon willing to sit down and talk with us”.

Carter tried not to smile, remembering Daniels almost violent insistence back in the Puddle Jumper that they had to try and defend the civilians from the Cylons…now he was sympathizing with them? It was so like him, to force himself to see every problem from every perspective with his uncanny ability to empathize with beings and find some common ground to work with.

Then again, given the icy cold attitude he had said had been directed towards the Cylons by the colonials, he might have a bit of work to do before he could get them sitting in the same room together.
But she knew he would sure as would try.

“Come on Daniel” she said, walking towards the thick door and swinging it open into the corridor as she put of any future thoughts more distant then the rack in her cabin upstairs out of her head. “Let’s get some sleep”.



Al’Kesh Bomber.
P4X-221 Star System.
January 12, 2005.

“My Lord, we are approaching the designated co-ordinates”.

The great God Ba’al looked up with a very un-Godlike look of irritation at the Jaffa manning the ships piloting station. He had been greatly enjoying his latest foray into Earth culture, a magazine as the Tau’ri called one of their many forms of publications, this one a military one on the evolution of combined arms doctrine over the last fifty years of Tau’ri history.

It made for most interesting reading when compared to the thousands of years of memories his bloodline contained, none of his predecessors had ever thought of war the way the Tau’ri did. After all, the Goa’uld dynasty was forever, from one generation to the next it was an eternal line unbroken that would always be.

Unfortunately, the System Lords had forgotten to inform the United States of that fact and when the Asgard had placed them under their protection, they had lost their window to stop them. Like a patient rust working on the foundations of a skyscraper (another thing that had impressed him upon his arrival on Earth), the Tau’ri had undermined the very building blocks of the dynasty as they had killed off System Lord after System Lord, inciting uprising after uprising…

And now here he was. Sneaking through a part of space where once millions would cringe in terror at his presence.

Still. These Cylons offered an opportunity. It would have to be carefully approached and studied from all angles. If the fall of the Goa’uld Empire had taught him anything, it was that careful planning and patience was a much more useful weapon then a legion of Jaffa or a squadron of Motherships.

But as the Tau’ri were so fond of saying, opportunity knocked…

“Very well” he replied, tossing the magazine onto the throne he had installed onto the Al’kesh command deck, stepping forward to the Mothership style control board. “Drop us out of hyperspace…now”.

A hyperspace window was ripped open in the fabric of space, just long enough for the sleek silver shape of an Al’kesh to fall back into realspace before dissipating. Dropping his ship into realspace on the far side of the systems primary from the Ancient space station, Ba’al was confident that he would avoid detection. A confidence that increased as his hand moved in the command console and activated the ships cloaking device.

“We are secure from Hyperspace my Lord and the cloaking device is operating normally” the Jaffa intoned from the pilot’s seat in a monotone voice, the result of the rather stringent reprogramming he had put the few Jaffa who still served him through. One of the many useful tools Anubis had developed after his return.
In fact the ship was crammed full of technology Anubis had developed after his return to the System Lords, some of which could prove quite useful in this endeavor.

The Al’kesh swiftly cruised through the star system, taking a close slingshot around the systems primary at a not inconsiderable percentage of light speed before starting a gradual deceleration towards the brooding mass of the Ancient space station. As the ship moved closer, the bright spot of light that was the station and the two slightly smaller spots that were the so called ‘Free Jaffa Nation’ Ha’Tak slowly resolved into shapes over points of light. Ba’al idly wondered if one of them was his former flagship, lost in orbit over Da’kara, then shrugged. He’d get that ship and far more back one day. Unlike the rest of his species who had mostly managed to get themselves killed in the orgy of rage the Jaffa had indulged in over the last few months, he had simply melted away with enough resources to start over, using fortunate preparations he had been making to quietly slip away from Anubis after his return. The Galaxy was still a big place with plentiful resources after all.

The compromised Trust leadership had provided a wonderful opportunity for keeping an eye on Earth and her allies. Already the risk of heading to a planet with skilled law enforcement was paying off. These…Cylons might well accelerate his timetable by years if he was lucky…but he would just have to see.

Glancing up as the Al’kesh slowly drifted past a Mothership and towards the shimmering field of the inter-dimensional gateway, he allowed himself a full two seconds to reflect on notions of once again commanding fleets of such vessels that would sweep the Galaxy clean of his enemies.

And then playtime, as the humans said, was over.

“Gateway in ten seconds” the Jaffa counted down, carefully aligning to hit the dead centre of the field.
“Maintain cloak and make sure we impact as slow as possible” Ba’al ordered as he worked his controls. Anubis for whatever reason had done some research into dimensional travel, probably in the long years of his exile and from those records he had been able to get a rough idea of what was involved. The ships cloaking device had been adjusted accordingly and if he was right-
With a slight shudder, the Al’kesh ‘pushed’ its way through the gateway.

Of course technically his ship didn’t PUSH anywhere. From his understanding of the technology, the diamond shaped dimensional vortex had expanded and enveloped hull of the Al’kesh instantaneously, dematerializing it and shooting it ‘through’ the dimensional bridge to rematerialize on the far side. The expanded cloaking field left behind dissipated less then a second later, but it was enough time to hide the flash of radiation and light from the transition.

And the stations two escorting warships continued their lazy orbit of the distant star, ignoring the irrelevant and almost insubstantial pulse of radiation that had come from the gateway seconds before, neither knowing nor caring about its source.

After all, they were on the lookout for hostile ships.



Cylon Occupied Caprica
Occupied 12 Colonies.
Cylon Victory + 204 Days.

“So this is where you’ve been hiding”

Standing on top of a skyscraper from which one could see all the way to the distant green hills that ringed Caprica city, the Cylon currently known as Caprica Six slowly stood from where she had been leaning against the metal railing, but didn’t turn from the glorious vista of the sunset she had been watching.

A few seconds later, footsteps sounded followed by a door closing as the intruder realized Caprica wouldn’t look away, deciding instead to come over and join her. Even if the voice hadn’t given her identity away, the footsteps would have. They were perfectly ordered, drilled with military precision despite he high heals she wore, with left foot precisely following right foot in a measured cadence that brought her to the railing.

“I wasn’t hiding” Caprica responded after just enough time had passed, still watching the ball of fire on the horizon as it slowly sunk towards the ground. “I was just looking for some time alone, to think.”

“Celebrity Caprica, running away from her loyal fans” the Three laughed, leaning down onto the railing and around at the view. “Well I can understand the need for time alone. Your Sisters just walk down the street happy to go about their tasks but you…everyone looks at you, stares at you, whispers to their colleagues about you…it’s almost…human”.

Finally turning her head slightly to look at the Cylon Women next to her, Caprica couldn’t help but wonder as she always did if there was a double meaning somewhere under the straightforward statement.

“Ahh now you’re getting it. Paranoia and suspicion are such useful senses in a Cylon with your life expectancy”.

Six redirected her vision out towards the orange-red horizon as the lightly sarcastic voice washed over her. In her peripheral vision, a tall man in a half done up business suit sauntered up on her right and leaned with his back against a railing, fiddling with a cigar.

“Oh please, I had enough time with the human mob back in my deep cover days, I don’t think I could stand any more” Caprica said with a slightly forced tone of amusement that caused the Three to smile as she watched the sun slowly sinking towards the ground.

“Glorious isn’t it? I can see why you come up here at this time. It’s almost like feeling God’s love washing over you, almost blinding in intensity but so brilliant you just can’t look away” the Three softly spoke in an almost reverent tone as the ball of fire gently touched the ground and started to sink under it.

“No…” Gauis Baltar –or his reflection or whatever he was- commented with a frown, glancing over his shoulder at incredible vista with an expression of mild indifference, “Reminds me of a fifty kiloton nuclear bomb going off on the horizon. Though I’m sure some of the billions of humans who died on this planet fell to their knees thinking something about God when they saw it”.

“Yes” Caprica agreed, forcing an awed expression onto her face as the Sun continued to sink. “Up here you can almost forget everything and believe that it’s just you and God in the world”.

“And if only it could last forever” she commented with a somewhat exaggerated sigh. “But we have to live in the world and all its imperfections…like our latest setback on the front lines”

“Oh?” she asked with a disinterested tone that belayed the relief that Three apparently hadn’t come looking for her for yet another public ‘tour’ of the rebuilding of the city, showing her off to the crowds made up of the same seven gaping faces…

“Yes our fleet, the new point defense upgraded Base ships in fact, caught Galactica in orbit of a planet about thirty light years from Kobol”.

“Well what could the problem be? That’s five ships against one”.

“So it would look…except Galactica got help”.

“Pegasus?”

“No. In fact we’ve lost track of her in the middle of this confusion. A new ship, one according to the reports we’ve received claims to be an Earth ship”.

“…And they fought against us?”

“Yes, if you can believe it, they did considerable damage to the task force”.

“You’ve just wiped out billions of humans in an unprovoked surprise attack, what possible reason could a human ship have to side with Galactica against you?” Gaius asked with a roll of his eyes as he took a drag on his cigar, leaving phantom clouds of smoke drifting in the orange glow around them.

“Did we even attempt communications?” Caprica insisted, ignoring her invisible companion, but silently agreeing with the point in fact so many Cylons were overlooking with their current plants.

“THEY did” the Three said with a look of near contempt on her face instantly washing away her dreamy smile. “One of the fives was in charge of the tactical situation and decided it was nothing but a Colonial trick. Their response was rather pointed”.

“She’s hiding something” Gaius declared as he slowly paced like a predator around the pair on the rooftop. “She’s scared about something…there is something more about this battle she isn’t going to tell you”. He paused for a second in his pacing and frowned at the now worried looking Three. “Funny that. In a society made up of advanced artificial intelligences, a society built on consensus and unity…she is keeping things from you”. He took another long drag on the cigar and blew the cloud over the Threes face with a tight grin. “Makes you think doesn’t it?”

“Regardless of what happened” Caprica forced forward, and pushing aside the alarm bells that Gaius had started ringing in her head, “the only relevant question is what do we do now?”

“That is the question” she agreed with a sigh as the last vestiges of the sun started to fall under the horizon.

“But the wrong one” Baltar interjected in a thoughtful tone. “After all, why would somebody be trying to impress upon a hero of the Cylons her version of events so carefully of something that happened so far away and doesn’t involve her in any real way?”

“You lived with the humans, among them longer then any of us” the Three pointed out, rubbing her hands slightly as the temperature steadily dropped. “Better then any of us, you know how they think and just how unstable they can be”.

“Within reason” Caprica agreed, shooting a warning look at Gaius as he leaned against the nearby wall, holding his tongue.

“Then you understand why we need your voice so desperately tonight. We need to figure out what our next move will be. We need to help everyone understand the danger if we let these humans unite against us, if we can somehow split these humans away from the Colonials, deal with them on our timeframe rather then theirs…”

“What do you need me to do?” Caprica asked quickly, trying to put an eager to help smile on her face, which the Three returned quickly, reaching out and squeezing her hand in what she no doubt took to be a friendly gesture, but felt almost…cold.

“We’re going to ship out to the Battle group, or what’s left of it, tonight. The Cavals are very interested in trying to talk to these Earth delegates and your experience would be most valuable.

“Well I guess I should go get ready” Caprica smiled, standing up as the last glimmer of the sun fell under the horizon.

“I knew you would be ready to get off this planet” Three smiled back at her. “You’ve spent too much time here already, not that I begrudge you that. You deserve the recognition you get when you walk down a street, you earned it. You managed to seduce a man so totally that he granted you the keys to the human’s greatest military secrets. No-one here can possible understand what you’ve been through…but I’m hoping Caprica, that you might be able to understand someone else”.

“I’m not sure I understand” Caprica honestly replied.

“Well we have another Cylon who is having trouble with accepting her download. An Eight. Another hero in fact. Unlike us, she didn’t have the luxury of knowing her true identity and her rehabilitation has been…difficult. Not that I told you this, but there’s even talk of boxing her if she doesn’t snap out of it”.

“So you put a deep cover infiltrator into the humans, use her as a disposable resource without her knowing who she really is, then go to the trouble of resurrecting her just to shut her down when she finds it a tad difficult to accept her entire life was a lie” Baltar summarized with a thoughtful expression on his face. “How wonderfully inhuman”. Then he paused as if reconsidering his statement and smiled. “Oh that’s right, you are”.

“That’s a little extreme isn’t it?” Caprica protested.

“Like I said it’s a last resort. And ordinarily I wouldn’t have asked you for months yet to help out, I don’t think it’s reached a stage where it’s irrevocable” Three pointed out in a level tone. “But we can’t wait too much longer; she is regressing almost to the point of believing that she IS a human, in denial of her nature. We’ll take her with us, so you can spend some time with her. But if you can’t help her Caprica…” she left the sentence hanging, gave a final smile and quick grip of her shoulder, then turned and strode away towards the stairs in the rapidly darkening night.

Caprica barely noticed her going, her mind churning in the confusion. There wasn’t any rush surely, even with this supposed Earth ship they had neutralized the Colonies as any real kind of threat and they were taking all the time in the world to rebuild these worlds for God’s children. Why couldn’t they take the time to gently teach her to accept her place in God’s plan, instead of simply downloading her into a box and locking her up?

“Now THAT” Baltar whispered with a tight grin, leaning closer to hear ear in the dim light, “is the right question”.



“Damn that skin job is fraked up” a human five hundred meters away commented. Lying flat on the roof of a building on the edge of Caprica City, the two black clad humans were effectively invisible in the twilight. One with a pair of binoculars was focused on the balcony several blocks away while the larger human kept the laser tap focused.

“Why do you say that?” the man with the huge muscles evident of a professional athlete asked as he swept his field glasses around to check on the placement of the centurion patrols which clanked their way around the area.

“The other Cylon left and she’s still talking to herself”.

“Eh, you’re probably catching another conversation” Anders replied to Hilliard with a snort, turning his glasses back. But the light and distance were against him and he couldn’t make out much more then the slim figure standing there in a white outfit of some kind. “After all, any skin job model sounds the same as another of the same model. Hell they even talk about the same fraken stuff all the time”.

Hilliard grunted, neither accepting nor disputing the claim as she flicked off the lasers power unit and started to break it down. The low intensity IR beam could be easily missed in the glare of the sunset, even to Centurions with their integrated sensors, but it was probably too dangerous to keep using it now. Still the bits they had managed to overhear with their last laser a tech wizard had cobbled together months ago -before his death had precluded any more being built- had confirmed their targets identity.

“Still wana bomb the frak out of the building?” Hilliard asked in a conversational tone as she finished stuffing the key components of the jury rigged device into her bag and carefully started to check she hadn’t left anything behind.

“I’d love to” Anders sighed. “Security is minimal, just those bullet heads out front and the one roaming. And there’s a storm drain that would let us right into that Café to kill every fraking one of them when they sit down for their morning coffee. Especially that hero up there…but she’ll be gone before we could get it organized. And we need to get this info back to the group”.

“You really think they’ve run into an Earth ship?” Hilliard asked skeptically as the two started to inch their way backwards towards the air vent system that zig zagged its way down the building to their sub basement access point.

“If I had heard a skinjob claim it two months ago, I wouldn’t have” he admitted, walking carefully hunched over towards the access point they had emerged from. “After Starbucks little visit?” he wondered out loud, then shrugged. “Damned if I don’t think it’s possible. And I want there to actualy be people left to greet her when she comes back for us”.

“If she comes back for us” his companion muttered as she stepped into the vent after him and reached back to pull the grating back into position.

“Oh she will” Anders said with absolute confidence as he started down. “Even if she climbs onto the back of a Base Ship and rides it all the way back here, she’ll be back. She’s too damn stubborn to give up on us”.