Battlestar Galactica/Time Tunnel Crossover
By Eric Paddon

     The official day cycle was over on the Battlestar Galactica.  That
meant most of its crew was bunked in for the night, with only minor crews
left in place to man essential components of the warship.  In some areas,
it meant that there were places of the great warship that were totally
empty at this time.
     As a result, when two men suddenly emerged from thin air, and
tumbled head over heels onto the tarmac of the Galactica's portside
landing bay, no one was there to witness the incredible event.
     "Ouch!" Dr. Tony Newman said aloud as he rubbed his ankle, "Why does
it always happen like this?"
     Dr. Doug Phillips slowly came to a sitting position and smiled at
his colleague.  "We should just be grateful we've never been deposited in
front of a building to smash into, or materialized in between a wall or
in solid rock."
     "I guess so," Tony said as he got to his feet, tugged at his green
turtleneck sweater and then looked about him.  "Where in the world are
we?"
     "No idea," Doug said as he straightened the jacket of his brown
tweed suit, circa 1912.  A permanent reminder of how he had first entered
the Time Tunnel to rescue his colleague when he'd seen him trapped aboard
the Titanic on her ill-fated maiden voyage.  He'd gone through the Tunnel
wearing appropriate period clothes hoping it would let him blend in with
the people he'd encounter, and now it had become a permanent uniform of
sorts for him, just as Tony's 1968 work clothes of green turtleneck and
dark pants had become his.  Even in those places when they'd been forced
to change clothes, they always found themselves back in their original
attire whenever they were snatched out of one time and sent to another
place.  Some other place that was never home, back in 1968 at Project Tic
Toc in the Arizona desert.
     "We're obviously indoors," Tony said as he looked up at the vast
metallic ceiling surrounding them.  "Looks like....some kind of military
craft, wouldn't you say?"
     "Could be.  Obviously from some time in the future, since this
doesn't match anything I know."
     "Kind of reminds me of an aircraft carrier's hangar deck in a way,"
Tony ventured as they took several steps across the solid surface, their
footsteps echoing in the vast chamber.  "But....doesn't feel like we're
at sea."
     "Yeah, I'd agree with that."  Abruptly, the older scientist stopped
in his tracks when he saw the sight of two sleek viper spacecraft before
him.  "Good Lord, Tony look at that!"
     "It's incredible," the younger scientist mouthed, "We must be
further in the future than we've ever been."
     "Or second furthest," Doug said, reminding Tony of the time they'd
chased a potential saboteur of the Tic Toc complex all the way to One
Million Years AD and then back to One Million Years BC.
     "Yeah, right," Tony nodded, "It looks a bit more.....familiar than
that place was.  It does have the feel of an aircraft carrier,
but......those don't look like conventional aircraft at all."
     "No, they're not.  They----,"
     Tony glanced over at his colleague whose expression had become one
of slack-jawed shock.
     "What is it, Doug?"  He grabbed him by the arm, and then he saw what
had gotten his friend's attention.  And then, it was his turned to go
silent in stunned amazement.  Before them, lay the unmistakable sight of
space far off at the end of the tarmac, with two square-like ships
seemingly in position to take off through the opening.
     "How can that be?"  Tony whispered.  "If we're in space, then how
come this area's not depressurized?  We should be exposed to the vacuum!"
     "But we're not!"  Doug took a tentative step toward the beckoning
void.  "They must have some kind of.....force beam or something. 
Something that let's their ships take off safely."
     "I can't even begin to think of that kind of technology!"  Tony's
disbelief deepened, "Doug, how far have we gone?"


     Far across the reaches of time and space, the words Tony Newman had
just spoken were plainly visible through the end of the Time Tunnel in
the deep underground chamber of Project Tic Toc in the year 1968.
     "Well?" General Heywood Kirk impatiently prodded the two scientists,
one man, one woman, who were manning the Time Tunnel controls.  "Just how
far *have* they gone?"
     Dr. Raymond Swain shook his head in disbelief, "General, I can't
*get* a fix on how far into the future they went.  The whole readout is
just in flux."
     "Anne?" 
     Dr. Anne MacGregor was equally baffled, "Same thing, General.  We've
got a fix on them......but for some reason we can't take readings on the
time and space they're in now."
     "Is it a malfunction in the system?"
     Anne shrugged in frustration, "In theory, General, it *can't* be a
malfunction in the system!  If we're able to see them, then we should
have the data on where they are and when it's happening.  But we're not
getting that this time."
     The General looked at Dr. Swain, "Ray?  Any theories?"
     "Your guess would be as good as mine, General," Dr. Swain said. 
"All I can go by at this point is a.....hunch.  If there's nothing wrong
with the equipment, then it could be.....an outside force of some kind
that's keeping us from getting the exact data."
     Heywood Kirk frowned, "You mean......something doesn't *want* us to
know where they are and what time it is?"
     "It's a possibility.  After that experience when they went ahead one
million years in the future we have the settings calibrated to handle a
time-shift as large as several million years in either direction.  So
either they're not registering because they've gone even further than
several million years----,"
     "Which wouldn't account for our ability to still see and hear them,"
Anne interjected.  "If we have no fix on the time and location, then we
shouldn't be able to see them at all."
     "Well, let's keep watching," the General looked into the tunnel at
the hazy image of Doug and Tony in their new surroundings.  "Maybe
they'll find out where they are before we can."


     "Tony, I'm not about to hazard a guess as to what time it is," Doug
took another step toward the void, but stopped, feeling it was tempting
fate to get too close.  "Obviously it's the future.  We're in space, but
exactly where we'd need to get more information."
     "Could be we're on some alien ship planning an invasion?" Tony
ventured, "We've been through something like that once."
     "I remember," Doug nodded, recalling how they'd once landed on an
alien ship from the planet Alpha One, attempting an invasion of Earth in
the year 1885.  But then he caught sight of several figures in the
distance attending to one of the strange flying machines.  "Look!  Those
people aren't aliens, they're human!  That means this *has* to be an
Earth ship!"
     Tony crouched next to him and put his hand over his eyes to get a
better look, "You're right, they do look human!  And that means we
haven't gone one million years in the future or they'd look just like
those silver-faced ones we saw when we were chasing the saboteur."
     "We still can't assume they're friendly," Doug cautioned.  "For all
we know they could be the bad guys in a new superpower conflict."
     Tony shook his head and let out a mirthless chuckle, "Why is it that
just once, we can't land in some place uneventful, like a normal spring
day in old Chicago, or the '39 New York World's Fair?  Someplace where we
could spend some time in the past and just *relax* for a change."
     "You think I've never asked that same question these last eleven
months?" he returned it.
     "Halt!"
     They slowly turned around and saw a man in what looked like a
strange tan uniform with a darker brown jacket holding what looked like
some kind of gun on them.  But it was a gun that didn't match anything
they were familiar with.
     "It's okay," Doug said calmly, "We meant no harm.  We just.....got
lost."
     "That's the understatement of the millennia," the guard kept his
pistol trained on them.  "Just where in Hades did you come from?  There
haven't been any civilian shuttles here for the whole cycle."
     "We....came from a long ways," Tony knew he had to be very careful
in how he chose his words.  
     "What ship?" he refused to lower his weapon.  "What ship are you
from?"
     Doug took a breath, "From.....one of the support ships."
     "You're getting way too vague," the guard took a step toward them. 
"Let's have the name of your ship."
     Tony and Doug exchanged glances with each other, and both seemed to
realize it was fruitless.
     "Look," Doug held up his arms in resignation.  "We surrender.  You
can....do with us as you please."
     "That's mighty nice of you," he said sarcastically and waved his
pistol in the direction of the companionway at the end of the landing
bay.  "Move your astrums, now!"
     Slowly, the two American scientists walked across the tarmac.  When
they came to the companionway, they could see from the corner of their
eye, the guard remove what looked like some future version of a
telephone.
     "Hello, this is Corporal Lomas of Colonial Security.  I've just
found two unauthorized civilians in Alpha Landing Bay, and they refuse to
say where they came from.  Am escorting them to the Brig, and suggest
that Colonel Tigh be notified so they can be questioned.  Right, thank
you."


     From Project Tic Toc, the scene of Doug and Tony being apprehended
aboard the mysterious spacecraft of the future played itself out......and
then abruptly ceased.
     "What's happened?" General Kirk demanded with concern.
     Dr. Swain looked up grimly, "Whatever was interfering with our
ability to tell what time it was, and where they were is now blocking our
ability to see and hear them."
     "Anne?"
     She shook her head and rapped her knuckle against the console,
"There are no anomalies on our end causing this.  I can't do a thing
about it."
     "What about boosting the power?" the General speculated, "Maybe that
would compensate for whatever it is that's blocking the signal."
     "And if we tried that without trying to pull them out to somewhere
else we might overload the system!" Anne MacGregor protested, "We'd be
gambling with their lives if we did that."
     "Then maybe we should pull them out right now!"
     "General, we can't now that we know they're in close proximity to
others," Dr. Swain said.  We'd have to calibrate the machine for three of
them and there's no guarantee we'd get both of them out.  We're just
going to have to play this out for a bit."
     "I agree," Dr. MacGregor firmly nodded.
     "All right then," General Kirk reluctantly nodded and looked back at
the tunnel, "We wait."


     The Security Guard had taken Tony and Doug up two deck levels and
down a long corridor before arriving at the Security Operations Center,
where they'd been placed in the brig.  The American scientists both
noticed how instead of bars and steel, a clear translucent door was used
instead to keep them contained inside.  
     "I'll be back with the Colonel in a centon," Corporal Lomas said,
"Make yourselves comfortable, and start coming up with some answers for
him."
     As soon as the guard's footsteps echoed away, Tony finally felt safe
to break his silence.  "I don't get it!  I can understand much of what
they say, but their terminology doesn't make sense a lot of the time."
     "Tony, for the first time I'm really at a loss," Doug shook his
head, "That other time we ended up aboard an alien spacecraft in 1885, we
at least knew within minutes we were dealing with beings from another
planet, and that they had hostile intentions toward the Earth.  But this
group.....I don't know.  They seem to be human, because they immediately
thought we had to be one of them.  I don't think what we see of them
conceals some other appearance."
     "Guess so," Tony could think of nothing else to say.  "But if
they're from Earth, we must have gone thousands....maybe tens of
thousands of years into the future."
     "Well if that's the case, I suppose we should feel some cause for
optimism," the scientific side of Doug tried to take hold.  "At least it
means the human race is still around!"
     The younger scientist seemed glum.  "I don't know, Doug.  Going this
far in the future is more......frightening.  Because it's one thing to go
back into the past and see things you already *know* about from history. 
You know how things are *supposed* to unfold, but......this time.  It's
just way out of whack.  And if we ever get home......would we have the
ability to change all that?"
     "Tony, you're starting to sound like Senator Clark and all the
watchdogs who wanted to scuttle Tic Toc from the get go," Doug sighed. 
"Too much knowledge could be a dangerous thing, they all said.  That's
what we spent years trying to fight against."
     "And maybe I was wrong," Tony's glumness seemed to increase.  "Maybe
what's happened to us is just another example of what happens when men of
science think they can play God in ways they shouldn't."
     "We've already seen one million years in the future before," Doug
pointed out.  "That was a future I don't think any of us would want to
have envisioned.  You weren't being so philosophical then."
     "The way things go for us with what we get dropped into, who has
time to be philosophical?" Tony said.  "Maybe all these experiences are
just getting to me all of a sudden.  All these crazy situations we've
been thrust into and......" he stopped and shook his head, "Having to see
how my father died at Pearl Harbor."
     His older colleague decided not to push him.  Doug had never
admitted it before, but he'd had his moments too of increased doubt about
the purpose of Project Tic Toc.  For over ten years since he'd first
joined the project, it had represented a wonderful scientific challenge
of being able to prove that time travel was possible.  The ethical
questions had always seemed secondary to him.  Now that he and Tony had
been trapped in this never-ending cycle of being thrust from one place in
time to another and so often in the midst of historical events.....he was
beginning to wonder whether all the years of effort and expense had been
worth it.  On the one hand, he could say that he and Tony had fulfilled a
purpose by *insuring* things happened as they were supposed to in the
history books.  But at the same time, there had been other occasions,
starting with the Titanic, when they had consciously tried to change the
outcome of history without stopping to think of the ramifications.  Doug
now realized just how much of a mistake that had been and in the time
since had always acted carefully when it came to a journey into the past. 

     But on those rare occasions when they had gone into the
future.......the sheer wonder of *being* in the future had crowded out
the ethical issues.  Now though, here in the isolation of this cell on an
unknown ship somewhere in space where they weren't facing a known crisis
moment as had been the case with their other two visits to the
future......there was seemingly more time for reflection.  And he
realized that inside, his views were closer to Tony's than he would have
liked to have admitted.
     Their silent reflection was broken by he sound of the footsteps
again, though this time they could tell it was two people approaching. 
They got to their feet and saw Corporal Lomas, accompanied by a tall
black man wearing a dark blue uniform.  His bearing suggested a man in
high authority.  And for the first time, Tony noticed how the collar of
his uniform, much like that of the tan uniform of Corporal Lomas, had an
almost Egyptian like quality.
     "All right gentlemen," the man said.  "Explain who you are and how
you came to be on the Galactica."
     "Oh, that's the name of this ship?" Doug asked, trying to sound like
someone interested in learning more about their surroundings.
     The man glared, "You know perfectly well what the name of this ship
is!  Now why don't you explain who you are and how you got here?"
     "My name is.....Doug Phillips.  This is Tony Newman," he motioned to
his colleague.  "I guess you could say we......stowed away somehow and
came to be here."
     "On what?  And what ship in the Fleet did you come from?  I want the
name of your ship."
     "We.....ah.....didn't come from a ship," Tony was less inclined to
play the game.  As far as he was concerned it made little difference at
this point.  Unlike their many excursions into the past, there was no
historical knowledge to draw from that could let them fake things.  Their
one trip into the future, had been the near-future of ten years later and
they could also keep things under control.  Not so this time.
     "Then where in the name of Kobol did you come from?" he was rapidly
losing patience.  "Did you just pop in out of nowhere?"
     "Something like that," Tony said, before Doug could protest. 
"What's Kobol?"
     Finally, the man shook his head in exasperation.  "This playing dumb
is going to stop now or else you're both going to end up in the Prison
Barge for the next twenty yahrens!"
     "We're not playing dumb!" Tony's voice rose, "We're not.....of your
time."
     "Tony!" the older scientist said angrily.
     "Doug, we have to give them the truth!  There's nothing we can
possibly fake our way through with here!"
     The man in authority looked Doug in the eye, "Does he answer to you,
ultimately?"
     Doug let out a sigh of defeat, "Yes."
     "Then you're the one who can tell me everything," his voice was less
exasperated and had taken on a probing quality, "Do you know who I am?"
     "You're.....in charge of this ship, this......Galactica."
     "No, I'm not," he said.  "You're.....from another civilization?"
     "Another time," Doug said quietly.  "From......your past."
     The black man shook his head, "You're not from our civilization if
you don't know what Kobol is," he then paused, "What planet do you come
from?"
     "From Earth of course!" Tony blurted.  "Just like you!"
     The eyes on both Corporal Lomas and his superior bulged to the size
of baseballs.  Both of them looked shocked, and the two scientists
couldn't understand at all why.
     "Corporal," the officer whispered, "Get a full security detail ready
and prepare to escort them to the Commander's quarters......just as soon
as I give him the heads-up about this first."


     "Well?" General Kirk impatiently inquired.
     Dr. Swain took a breath, "We have a fix on them in the sense that if
we wanted to remove them, we could.....but again the variable of at least
one to two others in proximity makes it too much of a risk without visual
reference to guide us.  Any attempt to grab them could result in taking
along the others or leaving Tony or Doug behind by accident."
     "Still nothing on what time and place they're in?"
     "Nothing," Anne MacGregor shook her head.  "I have to go along with
Ray.  I think something is keeping us from taking that kind of reading. 
It could be a scientific phenomenon we're unfamiliar with and not
necessarily an overt intelligence, but even so, there's nothing we can do
to override it.  We have to wait until it clears up and maybe then we can
isolate Tony and Doug directly for a transfer."


     "Earth?" Commander Adama could scarcely believe what Tigh was
saying.
     "Yes, Commander, they said Earth.  What's more bizarre is that they
seem to think *we're* from Earth!"
     "And there's no explanation for how they came to be on the
Galactica?"
     "None!  It's as if they suddenly popped in out of thin air.  They
don't have any ship of their own and they don't seem to have been
stowaways on any of our shuttles."
     "But if they have the capacity to appear from out of
nowhere.....then why don't they just disappear from their cell?"
     "I don't know, Commander.  I can only assure you they're not armed. 
They meekly surrendered the instant they were spotted by Security."
     Adama drummed his fingers on his desk and then decided to take what
he knew could be a great risk.
     "Have them brought to my quarters immediately."


     Corporal Lomas and Sergeant Castor had let Tony and Doug out of
their cell.  With pistols raised they motioned the two to follow Colonel
Tigh out.  The Executive Officer led them back through the corridor
they'd come through from the Landing Bay before taking a hard right turn
that led to a longer corridor.  
     "How big is this ship?" Tony whispered aloud.  All of his
conceptions of spaceships were based on the small capsules of his own
time.  Even the Mars probe of the late 1970s that he and Doug had found
themselves in on their first journey after the Titanic hadn't been much
bigger.  The only thing this reminded him of was an aircraft carrier. 
And even that, he sensed couldn't do justice to just how big a ship
this.....Galactica was.
     "It's almost like being on a city in space," the older one
whispered.
     "No talking," Sergeant Castor said from behind.
     "That's okay, Sergeant," Tigh said as he continued to lead the
group.  "Let them speak freely amongst themselves."
     The Colonel finally came to the end of the corridor to a turbo-lift
and pressed the button.  After a wait of just over a minute, the door
slid open and he motioned them to step in which they did.  They rode up
several levels and when the door slid open they saw another corridor,
only this one was more busy in nature with a large number of people
moving about.  Tony and Doug were both intrigued by the high proportion
of women moving about, all wearing the same style of uniforms that the
two guards were wearing.
     The future's definitely more enlightened in *some* things!  Tony
thought.
     Colonel Tigh came to stop in front of a door and pressed a button
that sounded a chime.  From inside came a resonant voice saying, "Enter."
     Tigh pressed another button and the door slid open.  He motioned
Tony and Doug to go inside first.  And then, with a wave of his hand to
tell the two guards that they could wait outside, he followed the two men
in.
     Seated behind his desk, Commander Adama eyed the two strangers with
an air of pure caution and tentativeness.  The strangeness of how they
dressed already was a point in favor from his standpoint.  So was their
bewildered expressions.  And yet......the nature of how they'd come
aboard the Galactica was still baffling to him.
     "Won't you sit down," he motioned to two chairs in front of his
desk.  As soon as they were seated, he rose from his own chair and came
round to the front of the desk, letting himself lean back against it so
he could study the two men critically.
     "I am Commander Adama of the Battlestar Galactica," he said.  "You
are?"
     "I'm Dr. Doug Phillips, and this is my colleague, Dr. Tony Newman,"
Doug felt he had to take the initiative since he was, as the older of the
two, usually more mature when it came to handling these moments.  "We're
from the year 1968.  That should give you some indication of how far in
the past we've come from."
     Adama slowly shook his head, "Dr.......Dougphillips, you said?"
     "No, you would just call me Dr. Phillips.  Doug is my first name,
Phillips is my family name."
     "Oh, I see," the commander nodded, "That's.....a custom we've never
fully adopted."
     Huh?  Tony thought, not having expected that.
"But at any rate," Adama went on, "What you said just now, doesn't give
us much of an
indication of anything."
     Doug's eyes narrowed, "You mean.....the dating system's changed?"
     "I would prefer you answer my questions first," Adama folded his
arms.  "How did you come to be aboard this ship?"
     "It's not easy to explain," Doug said, trying to keep a level calm. 
"Dr. Newman and I are time travelers from the year 1968.  We've been
traveling to various times in the past, though this would only be the
second time we've ever gone into the future."
     "How are you able to travel through time?" Adama was also fighting
back the bewilderment in him to maintain a Pyramid face.
     "Through a government project that Dr. Newman and I developed with
other members of our scientific community.  It was called Project Tic
Toc, based in the Arizona desert.  Over five thousand technicians and
personnel worked on it for more than ten years."
     "If you say you travel through time........then how did you come to
choose this time and this location?"
     "We don't have control over where we go," Tony spoke up for the
first time.  "Project Tic Toc is also known as the Time Tunnel.  It was
not in a state of perfection when......I first entered the tunnel and
made the first trip into the past.  At the time, our government felt that
the years of work we'd spent on the concept of a time tunnel were a
waste.  To prove otherwise, I entered the tunnel to demonstrate its
effectiveness and I ended up in 1912 on the Titanic."
     "The......Titanic?"
     Doug was prepared to think that if this was many thousands of years
in the future, even that famous event could by now be forgotten.  "A ship
that sank in the middle of the ocean after hitting an iceberg.  1500
lives were lost."
     "I see," Adama nodded, trying not to reveal how that information
meant nothing to him whatsoever.  "Continue."
     "In order to rescue Dr. Newman, I went into the tunnel myself
dressed in clothes appropriate to the period," Doug absently flicked the
lapel of his tweed suit.  "Because our scientists at Project Tic Toc are
able to monitor us, I was able to get to Dr. Newman on the Titanic."
     "And you then.....prevented this disaster?"
     "No," Tony shook his head, "No, we didn't.  We've.....found that
we've never been able to actually change history wherever we've gone. 
But sometimes......we find ourselves thrust in a situation where we end
up helping the event take place the way history has always recorded it."
     "If I understand you correctly," Adama said with an increased air of
fascination, "You've traveled to many of the most famous events in Earth
history through this......time tunnel."
     "Not by design," Doug said, "You see.....we've been unable to get
back to our own time.  The Time Tunnel as I said was not in a state of
perfection for human use when Dr. Newman first entered it.  Our
scientists at Project Tic Toc......they're aware of what we're going
through and they can monitor us and they can transfer us from one time to
another......but they've been unable to bring us back."
     "But they can see and hear you right now?" from the other side of
the room, Colonel Tigh spoke up for the first time, and unlike Adama it
was hard for him to conceal the excitement in his voice.
     Dr. Phillips looked over at him, "Theoretically, yes.  There are
limits to how long they can maintain a proper fix on us, but most of the
time they have been able to make a connection and that's when they've
been able to successfully remove us from one era when our lives become
potentially endangered.  As to whether or not they can see and hear us
now.....we couldn't know for certain.  Sometimes they've been able to
call out to us through the Time Tunnel itself, but.....that's not always
a given for every situation."
     "Doctor......Phillips, you said?" Adama's voice dropped to its most
cautious.
     "Yes," Doug looked back at him.
     "In the course of your journeys throughout......Earth's past, what
have you seen about.....the earliest periods of Earth history?"
     Doug lifted an eyebrow, not sure why this would be significant,
"Well.....on one occasion, Dr. Newman and I have gone as far back as a
million years to the time when there were no people and only the
dinosaurs walked the Earth."
     "That's......not what I meant," Adama cut in, "I was asking about
the days of early human settlement."
     "Settlement?" Tony frowned, "I don't know what you mean.  We've seen
some ancient civilizations a couple times.  The Trojan War.  The Battle
of Jericho.  But what do you mean by settlement?"
     Before Adama could answer, suddenly the room went red and the sound
of an eerie klaxon filled the room.  He quickly reached over and hit the
intercom on his desk.  "What's happening?"
     "Commander, Blue Squadron Patrol reports incoming attack force of
Cylon fighters!"
     "On my way!" Adama switched it off and looked over at Tigh,
"Colonel, you'll need to accompany me."
     "Yes, sir," Tigh wasted no time and immediately bolted from the
room.  The Commander though stopped to look at the two men critically.
     "There's a lot more we need to talk about, gentlemen," he said
gravely.  "It could well be that your arrival here is the biggest answer
to the prayers of our people.  But it will have to wait for now.  Can I
trust the two of you to wait here until I return after this....matter is
dealt with?"
     Tony and Doug glanced at each other to make sure they were both on
the same wavelength.  Finally, they both nodded.
     "We give your our word," Doug said.  "We'll remain here. 
There's......a lot of things we'd like to know about you and your people
as well.  Specifically what year this is, and what's happened on Earth in
the intervening period."
     Adama's eyes narrowed, "You......think we're from Earth?"
     "Well it's obvious you're as human as we are!" Tony said.
     "I see," a troubled look seemed to come over his face.  "As I said,
we'll discuss this later."
     He then exited the room, leaving the two American scientists alone. 
Both of them very confused.
     "Doug," Tony Newman said, "I'm beginning to get the feeling that
whoever these people are, they're *not* from Earth."
     "That seems to be the indication they're giving," Doug nodded,
"But.....that would mean that there are.....human beings elsewhere in the
galaxy who didn't originally come from Earth?  That's hard to believe."
     "And yet.....why should it be hard to believe?" Tony mused, "We've
seen aliens before who fit the usual expectation we have of life on other
worlds.  Aliens who look strange and who speak differently and come from
different environments, but......why not other humans who look and talk
just like us?"
     "True," Doug conceded, "And did you notice how it was only when we
said we were from Earth, that they suddenly started to treat us as guests
instead of prisoners?  Is that because.....Earth is some ancestral home
they've left behind, and that's the reason why they're traveling in
space?"
     "That would explain things," Tony nodded as he felt a sensation of
speed and motion beneath his feet.  It was clear that the ship they were
on was making some kind of banking maneuver.  "I can't think of an
alternative."
     "I can't think of one either.  But maybe.....if we looked about in
here, we'd find a clue."
     The two of them rose and began to study the layout of the
Commander's office and quarters.  As they felt another sensation of a
banking motion, they found themselves almost stumbling.
     "They're clearly having some kind of combat against an enemy."  Doug
noted, "These.....Cylons they referred to."
     "We'll just have to hope they're good at fighting them," Tony said
as his eyes caught sight of what looked like a bookshelf on the wall
bordering Adama's desk.  Several leather-bound volumes rested on top of
it.  He pointed it out to Doug and the two of them came up to it, each of
them grabbing a book and starting to go through it.
     "This language looks alien to me," Tony shook his head in confusion. 

     "No, wait," Doug said as flipped several pages and began to study it
more carefully.  "There's something.....familiar about this.  It reminds
me of......Egyptian hieroglyphics.....mixed in with......not Greek, but
something more ancient."
     Before Tony could react to that, the corner of his eye caught sight
of some massive bright blue and red flashes.  He realized they were
coming from the porthole on the adjacent wall.  Moving over, he could see
numerous repetitive flashes over and over.  Once, he was sure he caught
sight of one of those vehicles he and Doug had seen in what was clearly a
hanger deck or landing bay.  
     "What does it all mean?" he whispered.


     "General!" Anne shouted, "We've got them back!  We can see them
again!"
     General Kirk's eyes locked on the Time Tunnel.  They could see their
lost colleagues standing alone in what looked like a private office of
some kind.  Tony was looking out a porthole while Doug was holding a book
in his hands.
     "It looks like they're alone, now," the general said.  "Anne, Ray,
is it safe to transfer them now?"
     "We still don't have a time and place fix on them, but......as long
as they're by themselves, I'm willing to try now," Dr. Swain said.
     "Anne?"
     "I agree," Anne nodded vigorously, "Let's get them out of there and
get them back to someplace where we can at least be sure of where they
are and when."
     "All right then, full power, *now*!"
     The high pitched whine of the equipment grew deafening as Dr. Swain
and Dr. MacGregor pushed the power settings of the Time Tunnel to their
maximum limit.
     General Kirk just had enough time to see Tony and Doug disappear
from the room before the image faded out completely.  He turned around
and was about to ask the two scientists if they had a new controlling fix
on Tony and Doug......but suddenly a shower of sparks erupted from the
console causing Anne and Ray to bolt away.
     "What happened?"
     "System overloaded!  Everything's dead!" Dr. Swain said with
frustration.
     "That shouldn't have happened!" the General hurried over to them. 
The sparks had died down, leaving only a smoky residue wafting up from
the console.  "The system's designed to handle the two of them without an
overload."
     "I know that, General, that's why it makes no sense.  But then
again, nothing about this leap of their has made any sense.  We shouldn't
have been able to see them without a time and distance fix, and yet we
did.  We shouldn't have been able to lock onto them for transfer without
a time and distance fix, and yet we could.  And now something like this
happens when it shouldn't.  It's as if the system suddenly has a mind of
its own or it's being manipulated by something outside our control."
     "How long until you can get it back?  Without it, Tony and Doug
could be trapped in an endless stasis."
     Anne threw up her arms, "If Ray's right and this is being
manipulated, there's no telling how long it could take."
     "Get started, immediately!"


     The battle had proved short-lived for the Galactica, as Blue
Squadron, led by Apollo and Starbuck had managed to fight off the
incoming Cylon attack force, which had only consisted of a single
squadron of fighters.  Once the stars were clear, Adama promptly ordered
the Fleet on a new course heading to take them away from the area of
space their enemy had suddenly appeared from.
     With the Red Alert over, Adama and Tigh wasted little time leaving
the Bridge to return to the Commander's quarters.  When they arrived,
they saw Sergeant Castor and Corporal Lomas both standing guard.
     "Have they tried to leave at any time?"
     "No, sir," Castor shook his head.  "No one's come in or left."
     But when Adama and Tigh entered the room, they found it completely
empty.
     "They're gone," the executive officer whispered in disbelief.  
     Adama felt a deep sense of disappointed deflation filling his heart. 

     "Yes," the Commander sighed.
     "It's not possible," Tigh shook his head.
     "You need to put aside your instinct for Skepticism, Tigh," Adama
said, "You heard them say they were time travelers.  Perhaps.....their
friends on Earth were successful in retrieving them this time."
     "Then.....that story was true?"
     "What else could it be?" Adama came up to his desk and shook his
head sadly, "If only we'd had more time.  Time to figure out where
Earth's location was.  Time to learn more about Earth's history. 
Because.....what little we heard wasn't very promising."
     "In what way?" Tigh knew he had to overcome his shock over the
disappearance of the two men and provide some support for Adama. 
     "Well....you mentioned they didn't know what Kobol was.  And when I
asked them what they knew of the early days of human settlement on Earth
they were surprised I'd used the term 'settlement'.  As though......the
knowledge of the 13th Tribe and the settlement of Earth isn't common
knowledge among the most brilliant minds of Earth."
     "But how do we know they fall in that category?"
     He let out a mirthless chuckle, "When you consider that traveling
through time is something *our* science has never begun to contemplate,
it could only take some very brilliant minds to make that
possible......even if the process still has some flaws in it, as they've
acknowledged."
     Tigh immediately felt foolish, "I should have realized that.  I
guess the fact that they seemed so......disorganized and tentative made
me inclined to think otherwise."
     "Don't reproach yourself, old friend.  I wish I'd taken advantage of
the time I had with them to tell the truth about who we are and where we
come from," he sighed, "We're just going to have to think of this is a
lost opportunity."
     "Not completely," the Executive Officer knew he had to get Adama out
of the doldrums.  "We have our first real confirmation of people who come
from Earth, and we've learned *something* about their technological
capability, as well as some of their history."
     "True," Adama conceded, "And yet......if they travel into their past
and their future, the question remains......in relation to us, were they
from Earth's *past* when they found themselves on the Galactica, or from
Earth's *future*?"
     Tigh found he had no answer for that.


     For more than an hour, dozens of technicians associated with Project
Tic Toc had been working hard on the main consoles trying to get power
back to the Time Tunnel.  They had dealt with power shortages and
overloads before but it was clear to General Kirk that this was more
serious than anything they'd dealt with in the past.  
     For Anne MacGregor and Raymond Swain, the sense of powerlessness was
frustrating.  For eleven months, since Tony and then Doug had gone
through the machine and found themselves on the Titanic, it had been
their job to keep them safe and to use their knowledge of the Time Tunnel
to guide them safely from one relay to another, and keep the one precious
link to the present they had intact.  Without their constant work, Tony
and Doug could find themselves trapped forever in an unknown time
period......or worse, they could be trapped in an endless stasis between
time relays.  And for the first time, Anne realized just how worse than
death that could be for the both of them.
     Tony, Doug, forgive me.  Forgive all of us.
     A funereal like pall had come over the Control Complex as General
Kirk handed cups of coffee to Anne and Dr. Swaim.  They had seen Tony and
Doug endangered so many times in the last eleven months but each time,
there was a sense that they could still control what happened.  Now, they
all felt helpless.
     Has any of this been worth it?  Heywood Kirk thought as he sipped
his coffee and stared at the silent and dark Time Tunnel with a mounting
level of disdain.  Maybe Leroy Clark was right all along.  What *is* the
real value of learning how to travel through time?  What do we actually
*gain* from it all?
     The general was in mid-swallow of his coffee when suddenly the dark
and dormant Time Tunnel lit up with a bright intensity he'd never seen
before.  He whipped his head around and was about to shout an exclamation
of thanks to Anne MacGregor and Ray Swain for getting the power systems
back on-line.......but then he saw the stunned looks on their faces.  Dr.
Swain had dropped his coffee cup to the floor and the darkness of the
terminal meant......the power hadn't come back on at all.
     General Kirk slowly turned his head back and looked at the Tunnel. 
In addition to the light there were thick clouds of smoke and mist
obscuring the view of it's far end.
     And then suddenly......two figures emerged from the mist.  Both of
them with expressions of bewildered wonder.  Which was now equally
matched by the expressions of everyone else in the Time Tunnel Control
Complex.
     After eleven months......Dr. Tony Newman and Dr. Doug Phillips had
finally returned home.


     Adama's gaze wandered to the bookshelf mounted on the side wall
nearest his desk.  Immediately, his eyes narrowed as he took a step
closer to it.
     "What is it?" Tigh asked.
     "There are two books of mine missing," Adama's tone was suddenly
less downcast, "As if maybe......they had them  when they were taken from
our time."
     "What books were they?"
     "The Book of the Word, which details in full the origins of our
people," an air of solemn reverence suddenly came over him.  "And......a
bound copy of some of my journal entries about....the history of the
Colonies and the war with the Cylons......and our journey in search of
the Thirteenth Tribe."
     He turned to face the Executive Officer, "It was my intention to
present these to the leadership of Earth one day when we made first
contact, to show the proof of our common heritage.  And to insure
consistency of the historical record, I made sure these entries were
written in the same Kobollian text the Book of the Word is written in."
     Tigh realized the implications of what Adama had said.
     "If they have them......then maybe, it's still possible for Earth to
know of us?"
     "If they ever make it back," Adama knew he had to be cautious, "And
if.....the Kobollian language has its parallel in the languages of
Earth."
     "How can we ever know?" Tigh asked.
     The Commander managed a smile.
     "When we reach Earth, as I know we are destined to one
day.......then we'll know," he turned to look out the porthole, "It's all
in the hands of the Lords."


     The hours of pent-up emotional release and joy at Project Tic Toc
had finally given way to the practical steps of debriefing.  Tony and
Doug, both changed out of the clothes they had been wearing since the
beginning of their ordeal, sat in the conference room with General Kirk
and Doctors Swain and MacGregor.  On the table were two leather-bound
books.  The ones they had been carrying under their arms when they'd
returned.
     "After we transferred you out, we lost power completely," General
Kirk said, "We still don't have it back.  What happened next?"
     Doug shook his head, "General......I don't know what happened next. 
For just a split second, Tony and I were in that stasis condition of
floating through time, but then......suddenly everything changed,
and......." he trailed off.
     "And then what?" Anne asked anxiously.  She had still not fully come
back down to Earth after seeing them emerge from the Time Tunnel.  When
she'd first seen them, she had rushed up first to Doug and kissed him in
a near-passionate way.  For a long time since she'd started working on
Project Tic Toc three years ago, Anne had carried a torch inside her for
Doug Phillips.  But she had always kept her feelings circumspect since
she knew how inappropriate it would have been.
     "I just can't remember, Anne" Doug held up his hands and sighed. 
"It was someplace else entirely.  Like.....being caught up in a vortex. 
Different entirely from what we usually went through when we were trapped
in the Tunnel."
     "Tony?" General Kirk looked over at Anthony Newman.
     The younger scientist could only shrug, "I can't offer anything
different from what Doug has said, General.  It was someplace......but
someplace I couldn't comprehend other than the fact that it was......"
     "It was what?" Dr. Swain prompted.
     "It was......benevolent," an almost mystical air entered the young
scientist's voice.  "It was like.....someplace good and......"
     "Pure," Doug said as the same air entered his tone, "As if.....there
were forces greater than anything we could have comprehended......that
wanted to do good for us, and......found a way to send us home at last."
     "Yes," Tony nodded, "That's what it seemed like."
     "As if you'd gone to Heaven?" Dr. Swain, by nature a religious man
gently asked, which brought a disapproving glance from Anne who was a
skeptic by nature about such things.
     "I don't know, Ray," Doug admitted.  "Who can tell what Heaven is
like?  But.....I did get the sense that we were being directed home at
last.  And that.....there was a greater reason than just getting us home
behind it."
     "What sort of reason?" Anne asked.
     Doug lowered his head awkwardly and glanced at Tony who was nodding
in agreement.  The chief scientist of Project Tic Toc then looked at his
three colleagues directly in the eye.
     "Tomorrow morning," Doug Phillips said firmly, "I am going to
officially recommend to the President that Project Tic Toc be shut down."
     The other three were silent when they heard this.  As if they didn't
find what he'd said surprising in the least.
     "Tony and I have learned a lot these past eleven months," Doug went
on, "And now that we're home at last......the greatest lesson we've
learned from this whole experience is that the ethical questions raised
by time travel far outweigh any meaningful benefits we could ever receive
from it.  These are questions that......all of us put aside for years on
the grounds that we had to know if scientifically it was possible to
travel through time.  But now.....they can't be ignored any longer.  The
simple truth, General, Anne, Ray......I don't believe in this Project any
longer."  
     "Neither do I," Tony added emphatically.  "And if the Project isn't
cancelled.....then my resignation goes into effect immediately."
     The silence in the room lasted for thirty seconds before Heywood
Kirk broke it.
     "I understand where you're coming from, Doug," he said,
"It's.....gotten to me as well.  Whether it means the Project should be
scuttled entirely......I'm not sure yet, but......I do agree that maybe
there are more important things we should be devoting our time and
energies toward from now on."
     "Starting perhaps with these books," Doug pushed one of them forward
towards the other side of the table.  "We.....were each holding one of
them from that last place we ended up.  This ship called the Galactica,
when we were transferred.  And.....this place that was responsible for
sending us home.......I now have a distinct memory of someone......some
voice telling us to learn from what these books say."
     Dr. Swain took the book Doug had pushed across the table and opened
it.  Immediately his eyes widened in amazement at what he saw.
     "Can you read that, Ray?" Tony asked.
     "Well.....not right away, but......it's obvious this was written in
a combination of Egyptian hieroglyphics and.......ancient Sumerian, the
language of Mesopotamia, the first known civilization on Earth."
     "Can we get it translated?" Anne leaned over to look at the book
with its mixture of ancient words and symbols.
     "We just might," Ray Swain looked at his fellow scientists.  "What
impressions did you have of this......Galactica?"
     Doug let out a slow exhale, "We encountered our share of alien races
during our travels through time.  All of them hostile with the usual
plans for Earth invasion that we associate with alien races.  But these
people......they were just like us.  If they weren't some future Earth
civilization......then what they are could represent something more
profound than anything else in the history of our world.  And discovering
that......may prove to be the one meaningful thing that justified the
existence of the Time Tunnel in the first place."
     Dr. Swain had randomly flipped to the back of the book.  He then
pushed it back across the table to Tony and Doug.  The two returned time
travelers were able to see the ancient writing clearly.......and then the
two of them suddenly froze.
     "Tony?  Doug?" General Kirk asked with concern, "What's wrong?"
     Doug Phillips's eyes were locked on the last page, and he slowly
began to read.  Not knowing why he could read it, but knowing that he
could.
     "Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny.......the last battlestar,
Galactica, leads a ragtag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest."
     "A shining planet," Tony Newman suddenly picked up, also not knowing
why it was possible for him to do so, "Known as Earth."
     It was a long time before anyone else in the room found the strength
to say anything else.


The End