Set before the Hand of God and probably before War of the
Gods.


    "I don't understand why we always pull this duty,"
Chekov
complained, shuffling along the dry dusty surface of yet
another
planetoid and holding his tricorder out in front of him.
"It's so
boring!"
    Sulu just smiled in his enigmatic way, walking along
beside him.
"It has to be done, Pavel.  You know that.  Someone has to
map surface
details."
    The Russian sighed.  "I know.  But sometimes I really
think
they're just testing to see if we will go completely crazy."
He
grinned at his friend as he looked up.
    But Sulu was frowning at something ahead of them.  "Hey-
-there's a
cave up there that's giving off strange energy readings.  I
think we
should check it out."
    But Chekov scowled.  "Without alerting Captain Kirk?"
    Sulu's expression changed to one of wry amusement.
"Well, I'd
feel foolish if this were just a maladjustment on my
tricorder.
Remember last time that happened?  Mr. Spock chewed us out
pretty
good.
    Let's at least take a look a little closer."
    "I had better go," Chekov agreed, stepping along behind
him, "so
some wild animal doesn't eat you."
    And they moved toward the cave...
   Sheba stalked along the corridors of the Galactica on her
way to
the Viper bay.  She was fuming.  Apollo had just reprimanded
her for
saving his astrum yet again. So what if the move she'd
pulled had been
against his orders and not in the Viper manual.  It had
worked.
Honestly, sometimes the impulse to slap him was so strong
she had to
ball her fists in his presence and literally bite her
tongue.
   She stopped and leant her head against the wall.  The
cool of the
metal against her heated blood began to temper her mood.
She took a
deep breath.  He could be so sweet sometimes. She'd seen him
many
times with Boxey being patient and understanding.  Yet, when
it came
to her he seemed to turn into a devenian ass.
   Yet sometimes he had the strangest look in his eyes when
he thought
she wasn't looking, but always when she turned to look at
him he'd
look quickly away only to look back with that expression of
obstinacy
on his face.
   She sighed.  The man was a pain, even if he did have
lovely green
eyes. She scowled.  No they weren't lovely they were just
nice.
   Swinging her helmet in her right hand she took off for
the Viper
bay.  Perhaps some time spent tinkering with her Viper might
help her
mood and clear the unsettling feelings that were niggling at
the back
of her mind...
    Chekov stopped Sulu at the entrance to the cave.  "Look,
at least
let me go first.  I am going into the Security Academy when
we get
home in six months."
    "You just can't wait to get that red shirt can you?"
Sulu teased.
He gestured the other man forward.  "Be my guest."
    Chekov checked his tricorder readings once more and
stepped
through, Sulu right behind him.  At once, both men staggered
and had
to hold onto each other for support.
    "What the hell--" Chekov muttered.
    "I don't think we--"
    Then...with a flash...they found themselves plastered
tightly
against one another, metal walls encasing them.  Chekov said
something
vile in Russian.
    "If you just said I'm standing on your foot, I'm sorry,"
Sulu
grunted.  "But I think that's your tricorder jammed into my
ribs,
so..."
    Chekov cursed again.  "I knew we shouldn't have done
this!" he hissed.
    "Shhh," Sulu cautioned.  " I hear footsteps..."
   Sheba was standing next to her Viper waving her sonic
spanner at
Apollo.  She had spent a happy half hour inside the guidance
control
circuits of the navcom when Apollo had suddenly appeared
beside her.
   She'd guessed he'd turned up to try and resolve their
argument and
at first both of them had been quite conciliatory to each
other,
they'd even spent 10 microns looking at and discussing
control
circuits, until she had suggested realigning the crystals in
the
control circuits so that their lattices were in parallel
rather than
in series, which would increase the manoeuvrability of the
tail
struts.  Apollo had disagreed saying that would compromise
the overall
structural integrity of the Viper. It wasn't so much that
he'd
disagreed, it had been how he'd disagreed.
   The diagreement had denegenerated quickly, covering
Sheba's
inability to follow orders (Apollo), Apollo's orders being
overly
cautious (Sheba), Sheba being too like her father (Apollo).
Sheba had
countered that the Galactica needed some flair in tactical
situations
sometimes, which Apollo had taken as a slight against his
father's
command.  All this had left them standing a foot apart
glaring at each
other.
   Breathing heavily, Apollo's face was flushed and Sheba
could feel
the heat in hers. She suddenly felt exhausted and she
lowered her
spanner,  "Apollo" she said, "Why do we always end up
fighting?"
   He sighed, the anger suddenly leaving his green eyes.
"I...." and
that look that Sheba had sometimes seen, was it tenderness,
briefly
flared in his eyes and she had found herself held fast by
what she
could see.
   Their reverie was interrupted by a sudden bang and the
sound of
someone cursing in a strange language.

    At that exact moment, the door to the storage locker
they were in,
stressed beyond endurance by their combined weights, sprang
open and
the two Starfleet officers tumbled out in a heap at their
feet.
   Sheba stared in astonishment at the sight of two men
she'd never
seen before, tangled like puppies at her feet.  They were
dressed in
no style of dress that was popular in the Fleet, both had
dark gold
tunic tops and dark pants.
   One had a complexion very like that seen on Libra, with a
dark
olive skin. He was the one that was staring at her from the
floor, the
other one was lying over his ribs, his limbs struggling to
remove
himself from his companion.
   "Hello" wheezed the dark skinned man.  "Chekov will you
get off me?"
   The sudden blare of the klaxon alerted Sheba that Apollo
had
sounded the intruder alert.  Quickly, she whipped out her
blaster and
trained it on the two men.  "Be quiet!" she said.  "Who are
you?"
    Chekov stood up first and held his hands out to show
they were
empty.  "We didn't mean any harm," he tried to explain.  "We
were
just--"
    "Exploring," Sulu cut in as he got up, too.  "It was an
accident."
 He looked into Sheba's eyes and smiled in a friendly way.
"It's all
my fault, actually."
   Sheba couldn't help but smile at his open friendly face
but she
kept her blaster trained on him.  "Nice smile" and with a
flick of her
head, "Hand over your weapons".
   "You didn't answer her question" Apollo said.  He was
keeping the
blond one in his sights. "Who are you?"
    Cautiously, Chekov palmed down for his phaser and
unhooked it,
then reached for Sulu's and gave them both to the man.
    Sulu responded more seriously now, "I'm Lieu--um,
Hikaru.  And
this is Pavel.  I'm sorry we startled you.  You see, we were
exploring
and sort of...walked into this distortion which landed us in
that."
    He pointed backward at the storage locker.
    Chekov looked all around him then said, "Perhaps...if we
could
talk to your superior?"

   Sulu looked at the two people standing in front of him.
One was a
very attractive woman, with long flowing brown hair and very
determined brown eyes.  The other was a dark haired green-
eyed young
man.  Both were dressed in the same tan dress
which he assumed must be some kind of uniform, and both were
equally
very seriously aiming weapons at he and Chekov.  He searched
frantically for something or someway to defuse the
situation.  It was
then he noticed a helmet lying  on the ground.  He frowned.
It looked
like something he'd seen back on Earth.  He started towards
it, only
to attract the attention of Brown Eyes.
   "Stay right there!" she barked.
   "I'm sorry" he said.  "It's just that, that helmet
reminds me
something I've seen before. On my home planet."
   "You come from one of the colonies?" Green Eyes asked.
   "No" said Sulu.  "I come from the planet Earth"
   That caught their attention.  Brown Eyes looked at her
companion,
with a startled expression.  "Apollo.. "
   "I know Sheba" the one who appeared to be called Apollo
said.
   "Apollo!" said Chekov, alarmed.  "You are supposed to be
dead!"
   "What?" said Apollo. "What are you talking about?"
   "But I saw you.." Chekov started. Sula put an hand on his
arm to
restrain him.  This was an alarming development the last
time they'd
encountered a being called Apollo...
    "Look," Sulu spoke to the two before him, "obviously
there's no
special reason you should trust us.  But...maybe there's
somewhere
other than your hangar bay we can talk?  You've already
disarmed us."
    He looked at the woman then and spoke in a gentler tone.
"Did I
hear your name right?  Sheba?"
   The woman looked over to her companion before looking
back at Sulu
and nodding.  The man, Apollo, lowered his gun just as a
group of
heavily muscled security-goon-types turned up.  Leading them
was a
very handsome blond man, dressed in the same uniform as
Apollo and
Sheba.  "Apollo!" he yelled as he ran up to his colleague.
"What's
going..." then he saw Sulu and Chekov.  "What do we have
here?"

"Two stowaways" said Apollo, "But one claims to come from
Earth."

The blonde's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Really?"

"I think we have to speak to Adama" said Apollo.