Battlestar Galactica-The Full Circle
Virtual Season 6-Episode #6
By Eric Paddon
(Special thanks to Senmut and Lisa Zaza)
                                                  
Prologue

Outer Edge of Risik Frontier-Cylon BaseShip #1040

     "Good morning, Siress Rosalind."
     The former Colonial Cabinet Minister looked up and saw that the IL Cylon named Lucifer, returned to the Cylons by the Zykonians during the stop at Brylon Station two sectars ago had entered the room.  Of the three Cylons aboard the BaseShip who had normal voices, Rosalind found Lucifer to have the most charismatic sounding one.  He had more experience in interacting with someone Human than the IL BaseShip Commander Needa did, or the DG Class diplomat, Ambassador Gracchus.  Just under a yahren as chief aide to the infamous Baltar, when the traitor to humanity had commanded his own BaseShip engaged in the pursuit of the Battlestar Galactica.  He had learned the fine art of how flattery could have an impact on the Human psyche, and even though the experience had ended miserably for Lucifer, it was nonetheless something he could draw on to ingratiate himself with the woman who like Baltar, had also been part of a treason plot tied to the Destruction of the Colonies.  
     But after a sectar's interactions with Lucifer, Rosalind had come to the conclusion that the IL's interest in charming her had more to do with trying to get her as an eventual ally against Commander Needa one day.  During her time as a prisoner on the Cylon Home World, she had heard rumors of how Lucifer had once sought the position of Imperious Leader, only to be beaten out by a fellow IL Cylon.  And because of that bad feeling that existed between Lucifer and the new Cylon ruler, that had accounted for Lucifer's banishment from the Home System with his assignment to Baltar.  An assignment that had seen him take Baltar's command after the traitor's mysterious disappearance, only to be shunted to a subordinate position once again when Baltar had re-emerged after being marooned by the Galactica on an isolated planet.  Then.....Baltar had defected back to the Colonial side, taking his entire Baseship and crew of Cylons with him who were afflicted with what the High Command referred to as "The Disease."  Lucifer had escape the destruction of his own ship and been marooned for over a yahren in hibernation mode.....only to find himself rescued by the Battlestar Pegasus who tricked him into thinking he'd been rescued by the Cylons, and after getting what they needed from him, he'd been deactivated and turned over to the Zykonians on Brylon Station......who had now finally returned the IL as a goodwill gesture during the recent stop there by the BaseShip and the Risik patrol cruiser Dreadnought.  Both of which were now enroute to the Risik capital so the Cylons could approach the Risik government about access to the key mineral resource Neutrino.
     "Good morning, Lucifer," she had learned how to adopt the most neutral tone of voice possible when interacting with any of the top Cylons.  Yet another gift she had learned from being the late President Adar's mistress.
     "You will be pleased to know that within a sectan, we will finally be arriving in the Risik capital and that this lengthy journey since leaving Brylon Station will be over.  I'm certain it has grown increasingly.....intolerable for you."
     "And for you as well, Lucifer?" she injected an edge.  "Doesn't it frustrate you that Commander Needa still hasn't told the Imperious Leader that you were rescued?"
     "Not in the least," his tone was perfectly disarming.  "Commander Needa knows of my past history with His Eminence.  It might.....disconcert him to discover that I have survived and that I might have.....less than pleasant words for him."
     "I find that hard to believe," the edge increased in her voice.  "Being able to confront him again would give you a lot of satisfaction.  And Needa is denying it to you out of deference to him.  That really doesn't annoy you?"
     "Believe what you like, Siress.  Commander Needa is the master of this vessel.  I must humbly defer to his judgment.  He after all, commands the loyalty of this crew."
     "But if Commander Needa were to meet with an unfortunate accident, the crew would be obliged to follow you as the only other command level Cylon aboard."
     Lucifer chuckled.  A chuckle meant to be disarming but for Rosalind it produced the opposite effect.
     "I think Commander Needa knows how to take care of himself."
     "And Ambassador Gracchus?" she retorted mildly.
     "Even more so," he replied tersely and then added, "But enough of that, Siress.  Since we are so close to the Risik Capital now and will soon be meeting their Supreme Leader in due course, it will be a welcome change of pace for you.  You haven't been able to get off this ship since that.....rather unusual matter of a few sectans ago that nearly cost you your life."
     "That's a closed subject," she said with total finality as she suddenly turned her back to the IL Cylon.  "There is no need to revisit it."
     "Isn't there?" he asked.  "Was there more to that visit and those.....people that you didn't feel compelled to share with us?"
     Rosalind smiled thinly and shook her head.
     "Not a damned thing.....Commander Lucifer.  Lieutenant Katkov of the Dreadnought confirmed most of my account.  What motive does a member of the Risik crew have to get on your bad side through deception?  Especially when he lost one of his own crewmen?"
     "Admittedly none," Lucifer conceded.  "Still....it's most unfortunate you weren't able to learn more about what happened to them and what.....transformed them."
     "The planet contained no quantities of Neutrino," Rosalind kept her back to the IL Cylon, "From the standpoint of the Cylon Empire.....the matter of that planet and its inhabitants is best forgotten."
     "Perhaps so," he sighed ruefully, "A pity that the story of what happened to those inhabitants will never be known to anyone."
     She said nothing.  She waited for the sound of the door to open and shut.  And only then....when she knew that she was alone, did the Siress lower her head and close her eyes to hold back the tears that had begun to form.

Chapter One

Risik Patrol Cruiser Dreadnought-Three Sectans Earlier

     "We are approaching System L-4301, going by our own star charts," Lieutenant Katkov reported.
     Commander Clubb looked over the navigator's shoulder at the readout, "I remember our scan of that system on our way out to the Ziklagi Frontier.  Only one planet suitable for life and our scout scans showed quite intolerable conditions."
     "Yes, I accompanied the late Sub-Commander Kraitch on that particular scouting mission," Katkov said.  "He did not exaggerate in his report.  Large lizard like creatures.  Active volcanoes.  Barely minimal levels of water and vegetation.  Nothing that would ever justify settlement of any kind."
     "Yet another reason among many why our Supreme Leader has little interest in expanding in this direction from our home system," Clubb grunted.  Technically it wasn't proper for a Risik to refer to their present planet as the "home system" since that was a term reserved for the home world their race had been driven away from forty yahrens ago by their enemy, the Ke'Zar.  But Clubb, who had only been a child of six at the time that took place, had few memories of the Risik "home world" as it was known in official Risik circles.  For him, the planet that was officially known as "the Risik Capital" was his true home world and he saw little reason to avoid calling it that.  Especially since his assignment in the far reaches of deep space meant he could do so without running the risk of being cited for an act of heresy.
     Lieutenant Katkov was used to hearing Clubb flaunt this violation of official state policy, so he made no comment on it.  He too thought the statute forbidding reference to calling what for a generation of Risik born after the exodus caused by the Ke'Zar the true "home world" was ridiculous.  
     "Sir," the communications officer turned around,  "Message from Commander Needa."
     "Full audio," Clubb said.  He had decided long ago that he wasn't going to keep anything secret from his crew regarding the Cylons and what they asked.  He waited two beats and then said aloud, "Yes, Commander Needa."
     "Good day, Commander Clubb.  I wish to inform you to have your scout ship ready to come to our BaseShip to pick up Siress Rosalind."
     The Risik officer frowned, "What for?"
     "That should be obvious, Commander Clubb."
     "I'm afraid it isn't, Commander Needa."
     The sound of a sigh from the IL Cylon filled the bridge, "Really, Commander.  Have you not kept current with the data regarding this planetary system we are now approaching?"
     "We were the ones who scouted this system during our initial journey to the Ziklagi Frontier," his confusion deepened.  "We provided you with our report on it."
     "Your report is out of date, Commander.  If you had bothered to consult with the one the Zykonians provided us with as part of our agreement, you would have realized that."
     Clubb's face twisted slightly, even though there was only an audio link to the BaseShip.  "What are you talking about?"
     "I'll give you five of our centons to look at the report, Commander.  And then I would recommend readying your scout vessel to come to the BaseShip."
     The clicking sound indicated the transmission had ended.  Clubb made his way back over to Katkov's terminal.  Almost immediately, his top deputy (thrust into that role ever since the disappearance of Sub-Commander Kraitch more than a yahren ago) was bringing up a new file on his terminal.
     "This....is what he's referring to, Commander," there was an apologetic edge in his tone.
     Clubb leaned over his shoulder and looked at it.  His eyes narrowed as he realized right away what had changed since the Dreadnought had mapped this star system on their initial outward journey from the home world to the Ziklagi Frontier.
     "You'd better report to the launch bay, Lieutenant," he said.  "I want you in charge of this."
     "Yes sir."


     "You should enjoy an opportunity to get down to a planet for the first time since we left the Cylon home world," Ambassador Gracchus said in his perfect "fake-pleasant" diplomat voice.  
     Rosalind looked at him dubiously.  "And what am I supposed to find out?"
     "Come now, Siress.  You read the Zykonian report.  There is a human settlement on this planet of recent vintage.  One that clearly emanated from the Galactica.....or perhaps the Pegasus since the structures are of a design that correspond to that of Colonial origin.  Their satellite scout made a full report on this sometime after the Galactica left Brylon Station."
     "But we already know from the Risik that their encounter with the Galactica post-dates when these humans were scouted," Rosalind knew this was a futile effort on her part, but she had her reasons for dreading any contact with any human survivors who had been on the Galactica.  Not because she feared the possibility of anyone knowing about her role in the treason plot.  But because she had been a well-known public figure as the mistress of President Adar, and because there was no doubt in her mind that Adar's name was remembered with collective hatred, she was convinced any human who recognized her would feel the need to shoot first and not ask questions later.
     "The Risik hardly know the full picture of what she experienced after she left Brylon Station," Gracchus pointed out, "And again, we need to rule out the possibility they have any connection to the Pegasus."
     They have none, Rosalind thought.  But you're not going to learn that from me.
     "If you want information from whoever's down there, the simplest solution would be to send in a battalion of centurions and force the issue."
     Gracchus laughed, "Perhaps that would be simpler, Siress, but it would hardly strike a favorable impression with the Risik.  We want them to understand our desire is not to show force needlessly.  It is best they not be aware of our presence.  If you appear to them with the Risik.....they are bound to be cooperative.  And once you find out what we need to know.....you may leave them in peace."
     "What if they want to come with me because they think I'm part of some kind of rescue mission?" she countered.
     The DG Cylon said nothing at first and then he arched his robotic form in a manner that almost suggested a shrug.
     "Then use your best diplomatic skills of.....deception, Siress.  Tell them your ship is too small to accommodate any rescue, but.....you will certainly get word to others who might be able to do something for them in the future."
     Rosalind glared at him.  Which brought a sigh from Gracchus.
     "Accept the reality, Siress.  We desire information.  If it bothers your conscience, just consider that we are doing those humans a favor by letting them live.  We know there are no supplies of Neutrino on this planet so there is no point intimidating them, and we also prefer not to show force and rattle our new Risik friends needlessly.  A simple 'white lie' as I believe the expression is, will not cause much lasting harm to them."
     Perhaps not.  After all, I am lying to you regarding what I *really* know about the Pegasus and what's *really* happening back in the Colonies that none of you sycophantic followers of the Imperious Leader have been able to figure out, thank the Lords!
     "Very well," an air of resigned acceptance came over the Siress. "When do I leave?"
     "Within the centar."


     "She didn't resist the idea?" Commander Needa asked as soon as Gracchus finished summarizing the conversation.
     "She clearly didn't enjoy the idea, but.....she knows she has no choice.  In short, her attitude has remained constant."
     "This will be her first contact with humans outside of those who are her fellow prisoners back in the Home System," Lucifer spoke up.  "Suppose these humans are strong enough from a military standpoint to fight off a simple landing party of several individuals?  Then nothing would stop her from seeking asylum with them."
     Needa looked over at his fellow IL Cylon, "She's not stupid, Lucifer.  If the landing part runs into trouble, then that means this community would find itself subject to a full-scale military assault."
     "By whom?" Lucifer retorted, "Us?  Or the Dreadnought?"
     "Common sense would dictate the Dreadnought.  After all, if any harm comes to the landing party as a whole, it would be their personnel who would be avenged, and I doubt Commander Clubb would allow the deaths of any members of his party to go unavenged.  It wouldn't make him look good to his superiors."
     "I think you're playing too much of a dangerous game, Needa," Lucifer said flatly.  "If it's true these inhabitants are from the Galactica, we should resort to the simplest means we have at our disposal."
     "We can not portray ourselves as overly threatening to the Risik," Needa retorted.  Inside, he cursed the fact that this antagonist of his and the Imperious Leader had unexpectedly returned from the dead as a result of their stop at Brylon Station.  "They will not be inclined to be cooperative with us regarding access to Neutrino if they think we will one day use it against them.  An overtly hostile demonstration of force where it is not needed would make a bad impression on their leadership."
     "I'm less concerned with what kind of impression we make on the Risik than I am the fact that we are placing too much trust on a human traitor," Lucifer was undaunted.  "Notwithstanding the role she played in getting my reactivation by the Zykonians and my release, the fact remains that history has shown us how unreliable in the long-term human traitors are to our cause."
     "Perhaps eventually," Gracchus conceded, "But until we've made a final agreement with the Risik that gets Neutrino into our possession, Lucifer, we cannot contemplate any diminishing of Siress Rosalind's importance."
     "I could of course break silence with His Eminence regarding your survival and let you take up the matter with him," Needa decided to play the trump card.  "But I think even you, my dear Lucifer, appreciate the fact that His Eminence is still not  aware of your miraculous return from the dead."
     There was a silence before Lucifer let out a chuckle of his own.  The chuckle of one using self-deprecating humor to remove the sting of defeat.
     "I admit you have me there, my dear Needa.  I am certainly grateful you have chosen not to inform His Eminence of my survival.  The shock might very well make him decide to never let us return to the Home System.  And I'm sure that's not something you desire."
     Needa realized that Lucifer had managed somehow to turn things back on him.  It gave him a reminder of just how formidable a figure Lucifer had been in IL circles, and why he had been the strongest challenger the current Leader had faced prior to his ascension.
     "Point," the BaseShip commander nodded his head with respect.  "Whatever our ulterior feelings.....we are both in accord on the need for not bothering His Eminence needlessly on that detail.....until the time is right."
     "And I defer of course to you on when that time will be right," Lucifer returned the gesture.  Watching, Gracchus could only find himself thinking what any other DG Cylon might have thought at the sight of this catty game of one-upmanship between two rival IL's.  If only we were able to lead the Empire once again after all these centuries of deference to this egotistical class!
     The Ambassador then decided it was time to jump in once again.
     "I believe we should proceed to the Bridge and see if the scout vessel from the Dreadnought has arrived."
     Needa looked over and felt grateful the DG Cylon had put a halt to things.  "Of course, Gracchus.  First things first."
     "I will leave this matter to you," Lucifer was deferent once again. "After all, you are in command."
     But once Needa and Gracchus had left, only then did Lucifer finish his sentence, albeit silently.
     For now.


     Rosalind had gone to the landing bay without waiting for any centurion escort.  After all these sectars aboard the BaseShip since its departure from the Cylon Home System, she now knew her way around all sections of the warship.  Such access was something that could be allowed her, since she knew Imperious Leader had insisted she not be treated as a prisoner but as a guest.  Since the Leader had no reason to believe that anything she learned about the interior layout of a Cylon BaseShip could be utilized for any hostile purpose, it was all too easy for him to decide that Rosalind was entitled to free access.
     If I ever do get back and if I ever do hook up with the Pegasus or the Resistance, I'll have a lot to say about what it's like, she vowed.  Adar always said that no one had ever been able to successfully infiltrate a Cylon BaseShip and report accurately what their interior passageways were like.  He always called it one of the greatest failures of Colonial intelligence......and a reason why it was impossible to keep up the war footing indefinitely if we could never learn that.
     The Risik scout vessel from the Dreadnought had already arrived and was waiting across the tarmac in an empty area.  Its discus shaped configuration, about twenty metrons in diameter and four metrons thick at the center almost reminded her of a miniature version of the top section of a BaseShip.  The door at the bottom of the center spire was open, revealing the staircase that led to the top level.  Resigned to the mission that lay before her, she walked in and ascended the stairs to the upper level where the three-man Risik crew would be awaiting her.  Given the near-identical appearance of Risik males, the only way she could tell any of them apart was by their uniforms.  When she reached the top, she immediately recognized the shoulder insignia that identified Lieutenant Katkov, whom she knew Commander Clubb regarded as his most valued crew member and who clearly would be the expedition leader.  The other two Risik occupied the pilot and co-pilot seats at the front of the craft.
     As soon as Katkov saw her, he spoke into what looked like a com-line, "Siress Rosalind is aboard.  We are securing for departure."
     Behind her she heard the sound of the door slamming shut.  Katkov motioned her to a passenger seat and she made her way over.  She was already used to the flight procedure of one of these vessels from her previous trips to the Dreadnought as well as to Brylon Station.  From a flight standpoint, she regarded a Colonial shuttle as a far more efficient form of short transport vehicle than one of these Risik scout vessels.  And much more comfortable too.  But she hadn't let herself comment on those distinctions to any of the Risik.  She already knew from her study of the data tapes Clubb had provided her on the Risik experience with the Galactica just how deep the animosity between Risik and Colonial was.  If they wanted to learn more about the capabilities of Colonial vessels, then as far as Rosalind was concerned, that was something they could learn from the Cylons.
     What a tangled mess I've gotten myself into, she thought as the scout vessel moved forward and began to rise up in an almost vertical fashion, as though she were riding a turbo lift.  The Cylons found one potential source for Neutrino and it just happens to be the one alien race with a bigger reason to hate Humans than they have.  And I have to work for both of them on the forlorn hope that what I'm doing will get half a million souls trapped in slave labor back in the Cylon Home System some kind of leniency from the Imperious Leader. 
     But even if it was just a forlorn hope that Rosalind could actually make a difference for those people, whose suffering could be directly traced to the treason role she had played unwittingly on behalf of the Cylons, the one-time Cabinet Minister knew she had to act on it.  Otherwise the guilt would be greater than the guilt she'd been carrying in herself already.
     But how can this ever end?
     The sight of the scout vessel emerging free from the BaseShip and into open space shook her out of her thoughts.  The planet they were headed for was one of four in this system marked L-4301 on the Risik charts, but it was the only one capable of sustaining sentient breathing lifeforms.  Any group of Humans that found themselves marooned for whatever reason in this system would have had no choice but to settle on this particular planet.  
     "You should enjoy the opportunity to see some of your own kind again."
     She looked up and saw that Lieutenant Katkov had come up to her.  She wondered why he would be making conversation with her, since she'd never had any exchanges with him before.  Then, she realized that this was likely something he'd been ordered to do by Commander Clubb.  To make conversation with her so that Clubb might learn something that could be of value later on in assessing what her true feelings really were.
     "Perhaps," she didn't want to tip her hand that she feared for her life, if these were Colonials who had some knowledge of her role in a treason plot that had led to the Destruction of the Colonies.  
     "Come now.  Surely after all this time you've spent with those.....machines, you'd welcome the chance to see some of your own kind again."
     She decided to play the charmer with the lower-ranked Risik officer.
     "It's not as if I've been lacking for conversation with those who are close to my own kind," Rosalind politely smiled at him.  "After all, you're not too far removed from Humans.  At least your women aren't."
     The lieutenant's eyes narrowed.  "Humans owe much to us.  If you have read our history regarding the settlement of the planet Te'rea......"
     "Earth," she gently cut him off, "The planet is called Earth.  I prefer to call it by the name it is known by in my culture."
     Katkov hesitated slightly.  If he'd been a senior officer he might have challenged her, but as a junior officer he knew there were limits to how far he should go.  Commander Clubb was capable of challenging her, but not him.  Especially if it led to disastrous results.
     "As you wish," he said with deference.  "The settlement of the planet was where we, the Risik, crossbred with the existing population and in the process the modern strain of humanity as it exists on......Earth came to be."
     "I have a hard time accepting that version of events," Rosalind kept her tone casual, "Our own ancient history says Earth was settled first by Humans who set out from the planet Kobol."
     "Your settlement would have been after our ancestors left the planet," the Lieutenant said.  "There is no discrepancy."
     "I'm not convinced," she held her ground, "The people from Earth I saw on those data videos who had some rather......harsh words for your government, do not look any different from those like myself.  That would suggest that the inhabitants of Earth have not been significantly altered as a result of any crossbreeding with your people.  There are many similarities, yes.  Especially with the females where there are few differences noticeable.  But at present, I am more inclined to think that whatever ties our races have don't begin on Earth but much further back than that."
     The Lieutenant was impressed by her determination on this point.  "In other words.....you think you are responsible for us, and not the other way around?"
     "Let's just say that I think events may prove the need for you to reconsider your own history."
     "Not likely," Katkov shook his head, "It is a deep article of faith among us that we, the Risik, were the progenitors of those who live now on Te.....Earth," he quickly corrected himself.
     "Then how can you explain an identical genetic strain that had no contact with your people before, living on the other end of the galaxy?" for the first time an edge of challenge entered her tone, but not too harsh.  Another tactic she remembered from Adar.  Challenge, but don't be too intimidating.
     The Risik officer shrugged, "I cannot.  I am not a scholar.  I can only tell you what I have been taught.  Just as I'm sure you speak only from what you have been taught, and not because you are a scholar on these points."
     "My field is education," she said, "But it's true that I'm not a specialist in this area.  I would need more proof than just the word of your ancients to change what my culture believes to be true, just as I'm sure you would expect more proof from me to challenge the claims of your people."
     Katkov smiled faintly.  He felt certain he'd learned enough.....for now.  He turned his attention back to the helm.  "Status, Sergeant?"
     Sergeant Amalak, serving as pilot for this mission gave his report without turning around.  "We will be on the ground in half a tenar.  Scanner shows one orbiting satellite.  Confirms to description in Zykonian file.  However......indications are that the satellite is not functioning."
     "Not functioning?"
     "Power emissions are near zero level.  It couldn't possibly be transmitting data."
     "That would explain why this report the Zykonians gave us has no follow-up information after they made their original scan" Katkov noted.  "It would seem they put a defective satellite into orbit."
     "Not very efficient of them," Rosalind said for no reason other than to give the Risik officer something favorable to report.  If she was willing to make a putdown of the Zykonians, then that was something that would likely impress Commander Clubb.
     "Indeed not," the pleased tone in Katkov confirmed the siress's judgment. 
     Rosalind sat patiently in her chair as the centons passed and the planet grew larger through the cockpit window.  The foreboding nature of the planet was indicated by the orange color, which suggested a harsh landscape in contrast to how a green planet suggested something thriving.  She could see no large bodies of water in her field of vision.  There was no doubt this was a harsh world.  She couldn't fathom why anyone would choose to leave the relative safety and security of the Galactica's fleet of 200 odd ships for a planet such as this.
     Unless.....maybe these people didn't choose to leave.  Maybe.....they had no choice.
     As she contemplated that idea further, things were beginning to fall into place to explain the presence of the Humans that existed on this planet and reconciling it to the fact that the Galactica and her fleet, accompanied by the defecting BaseShip under Baltar's command, still survived well past this region of space.  The foreboding nature of this planet was an ideal place one might choose to send the least productive members of society to.  People who would have been regarded as a drain on valuable resources and who couldn't do any meaningful work themselves.
     Prisoners maybe?  Or mutineers?  Regardless, I don't think it's going to be the most agreeable kind of people I'll have to face.
     For the first time, she touched the Cylon laser pistol that had been issued her.  She'd wanted it for her own protection in the event she ran into something hostile and fortunately Needa had agreed.  She hoped and prayed she wouldn't feel a need to use it.


     A half centar passed and the Risik scout vessel was slowly descending through the planet's atmosphere for a soft landing.  Rosalind found the vertical deceleration of the craft somewhat jarring given how used she was to a conventional shuttle's takeoff and landing ability which required a more horizontal glide approach.  This had more the sensation of riding a turbolift downward by contrast.
     She had gotten a better look at the planet.  Largely orange and foreboding with only a tiny oasis of greenery and water that indicated the location of this Human colony the Zykonians had first scanned.  The scout vessel was headed for a landing just outside the zone of greenery, giving it more room to maneuver for a sudden vertical takeoff.
     "The structured dwelling is approximately five hundred of your.....metrons I believe ahead," Katkov said.  "You don't mind the walk?"
     Her eyes narrowed, "I do if I'm going alone."
     "Sergeant Amalak will accompany you.  Full communication with our ship will be maintained at all times."
     "Why not yourself, Lieutenant?" a less than cordial edge entered her voice.
     He smiled thinly, "Those in command do not put themselves needlessly at risk."
     Naturally, she kept her disgust hidden.
     The touchdown with the surface was gentle.  As soon as the engines shut down, the doors at the bottom of the stairs were activated, causing sunlight to spill in.  With resignation, Rosalind rose and with Sergeant Amalak following her, she descended the stairwell and stepped out onto the planet's surface.
     The first thing she noticed was the heat.  Uncomfortable but not oppressively so.  It was the kind of discomforting heat one learned to adjust to if one found oneself stranded in a place like this, but those who were accustomed to the convenience of air cooling would undoubtedly have a tougher time.  The next thing she noticed was the sulfuric tinge in the air that immediately made her start to breathe through her mouth rather than her nose.
     She looked over at the Risik enlisted man who was holding their equivalent of a mini-scanner device.  A sour look had come over his visage indicating that he too had reacted to the sulfuric edge of the air, and it struck her how this was one of the few times she'd seen a truly humanlike emotion on any of them.  
     "How near?"
     The Sergeant motioned his left arm, "That direction.....through that first barrier of trees is the first structure we can detect."
     Rosalind tightened her hold on the laser pistol, but kept it lowered.  The Cylons hadn't been able to provide her with a holster she could wear so that meant she had to carry it at all times.  She knew she wasn't a good shot since she had only been to a target range twice in her life.  But nonetheless, it gave her some level of reassurance.
     Five centons later they'd reached the barrier separating the trees from the harsher desert-like area.  Their shade provided some slight relief from the heat of the midday sun above.  The foliage wasn't too extensive and they could still see in front of them without having to push their way through.  Indeed, the ground seemed to indicate that some branches had been cleared away with agro-tools which meant this Colony had been actively at work here at some point.
     Then to her left she spotted it.  It was a small structure, no more than four metrones high and Rosalind immediately recognized it as a Colonial survival hut.  The kind of thing one assembled for a long term camping expedition in the wild or that the military might use for an extended ground survey expedition.  During her many trips to Adar's mountain retreat home on Gemon, she had often flown over campsites and seen structures like this dotting the landscapes.
     "Is there anyone in there?" Rosalind glanced at Amalak.  
     He glanced down at his device and shook his head.  "No.  It is quite empty."
     "You wait out here then."
     Rosalind entered the hut and looked about.  Immediately she noticed debris all over the ground.  It took her a micron to realize the place had been ransacked.  As if someone had wanted to destroy everything kept inside it.  Looking around, she realized that two cots had been upended.  She also could see torn sleeves and legs of clothing lying about as if someone had cut up or deliberately destroyed what on closer glance looked to be Colonial type coveralls.  Then she recognized a Colonial style temperature gauge that had been smashed.  It was a total pattern of deliberate destruction of the things people on this planet would need for survival.
     Doesn't make any sense, she thought.
     She then noticed what seemed like a chest at the back.  It had not been upended.  Making her way over, she opened it and saw more signs of torn and shredded clothing, mixed in with shredded paper that looked to have come from technical manuals.  Reaching in with her left hand, while still holding the laser pistol, she sifted through the contents and then felt something solid.  Pulling it out she immediately recognized a micro-recording device.
     "Well, well," she whispered aloud, "This might reveal some answers."
     Then, just as she got to her feet she suddenly heard a hideous male scream from outside.  Rosalind as she bolted to her feet and with pistol raised hurried out of the hut.  In spite of the terror rushing through her, this was something she knew she had to confront.
     She saw the form of Sergeant Amalak lying face down in the dirt.  Above him, someone was removing a long spear that had been rammed through his back.  Stunned, Rosalind focused on the person and realized it was a woman.  A woman with waist-length auburn hair and a dirt-smeared face filled with an edge of savageness, enhanced by the growling, grunting noises she made.  She was wearing what looked like a garment made from wild animal skins.  In a strange primitive way, men would have found her very attractive looking since the garment left her right shoulder bare and her shapely legs exposed.
     "Drop it!" Rosalind shouted and pointed her laser at the woman, "Drop it!  Now!"
     The woman made eye contact with her.  Immediately, her face twisted from savageness to total confusion.  She dropped the spear which meant she'd understood her.....and slowly, she made her way toward him.
     "Don't get too close," Rosalind warned as she kept her laser trained on her.  The woman's mouth was open as though she were trying to form words, yet nothing was coming out.
     "I'm warning you!" the Siress repeated.
     Now the woman was gesturing wildly with her arms, a look of pleading coming over her. Rosalind realized that she was trying to communicate with her, and yet, it was as if she had lost the ability to form words.  Slowly, she lowered her weapon.
     "All right, all right.  I'm not going to hurt you," she said reassuringly. 
     And then suddenly, from deep within, a single word came out from the woman.  Forced and laboriously in a raspy whisper, but quite distinct.
     "Ros....a.....lind?"
     Her eyes widened in horror.  As suddenly, despite the dirt-smears on her face, and despite the length of her hair, she recognized the woman who had called her by name.
     "My God," she whispered, "Lydia?"

Chapter Two

     The shock Rosalind had felt over seeing the Risik sergeant lying dead had given way to the deeper shock of realizing that she knew who this woman in primitive skins with the bearing and demeanor of what the Gemonese language referred to as a troglodyte was.  A woman she had met a dozen times at high-profile social events throughout the Colonies, as well as at forums attended by the most prominent women the worlds of politics and business.  A woman she knew had a reputation for ruthless business savvy as well as a weakness for sex with any man she wanted.  A woman of stunning beauty who always dressed in the finest of silken fashions.
     Siress Lydia of Ares.
     "Lydia?" she repeated.  Her weapon now lowered completely.  "Lydia is it you?"
     The only response was a nod and a look of anguish.  Lydia pointed at her throat and then vigorously shook her head.
     "You can't talk?  Lydia what happened?  Why are you here?  Are there others?"
     Just then, the sound of the comline on Sergeant Amalak's belt crackled to life.  "Sergeant?  Sergeant, what happened?  Report!"  Lieutenant Katkov's voice urgently demanded.
     The sound of the alien voice caused Lydia to jump in fear.  She let out a guttural moan as if she was trying to form another word but nothing came.  Rosalind, ignoring the abandoned comline and Katkov's voice for now, came over and quickly put her arms around the woman she'd known and had admired for her headstrong independence, and how she'd made a success of herself without depending on any man to do it.
     "Lydia," Rosalind said gently, "Lydia, it's okay.  It's okay.  Calm yourself."
     "Ca......ca....can't," the auburn-haired woman shook her head vigorously as she forced the word out.  It was as if it had been painful to speak that one word.
     "All right.  Just.....nod your head or shake it," Rosalind said.  "Are you alone on the planet?"
     A vigorous shake of the head.
     "There are others here?  Are they the ones you settled with?"
     There was no response.  But the look on her face suggested she was struggling to find a way to answer something that couldn't be answered yes or no.  Finally, with a forced effort she managed to get one word out.
     "Re.....re....record.....ing."
     Rosalind's eyes narrowed and then suddenly from the folds of her robe she pulled out the micro-recording device she had taken from inside the hut.
     "This?  You mean this?"
     The primitive looking woman nodded her head vigorously.  Rosalind tried to collect herself but soon heard the increasingly angry voice of Lieutenant Katkov rising on the com-line still attached to the dead Sergeant Amalak's belt-pack.
     "Sergeant, I am ordering you to respond!  What's happened?"
     The one time Cabinet Minister realized she needed to take care of that problem first.  She went over to where Amalak lay and briefly checked his pulse.  Nothing.  The Risik enlisted man was dead.  With an uneasy sigh, she detached the com-line from his belt pack and answered it.
     "This is Siress Rosalind, Lieutenant."
     "What happened to Amalak?  We heard a scream over his com-line-----,"
     "I can't explain now," she curtly cut him off.  "I'll get back to you later.  Do not, I repeat, do not come out to look for us."
     "Siress-," the Risik Officer angrily started but she cut him off again.
     "Later, Lieutenant.  Later." 
     She shut off the power to the device and made her way back over to the woman she knew was Siress Lydia.  She was still hunched in an almost simian-like posture.  Her expression one of transfixed terror.
     "All right, Lydia.  You want me to play the recording?"
     A vigorous nod of her head was her only response.
     "All right.  All right.  It's you talking on it?"  This brought on another vigorous nod.  Taking a breath, Rosalind activated the play button.......and listened.


     "..........This is Siress Lydia of Ares.  Former member of the Colonial Council of Twelve, where I served as Vice-President.  Exile from the Battlestar Galactica along with over fifty other men and women who had been serving sentences aboard the Galactica's Prison Barge.  They were exiled here over one yahren prior to my arrival in their ranks.  Their exile  followed an incident aboard the Galactica in which two traitorous members of the Council of Twelve, Sires Galerius and Elegabalus, facilitated a terrorist uprising in the Fleet led by the fanatical Il Fadim sect of Sagittarius.  Once this was put down, the guilty parties were sentenced to death in accordance with the statutes for crimes involving murder and treason that were revised following the release of Baltar some time earlier, when Baltar provided intelligence that that allowed us to destroy a solitary Cylon BaseShip we had encountered........"

 
     Whoa, Rosalind thought as the first surprise went through her.  This is something not even the Cylons know regarding what happened to Baltar.  They know he was taken prisoner by the Galactica before he was rescued, returned to his command and then he defected with his BaseShip.  That's the kind of information Lucifer would love to use against the Imperious Leader.


     "........As part of a Council directed policy, all those on the Prison Barge with sentences of twenty yahrens or more were given the option to join the convicted traitors in exile on this planet.  Most of our hardened criminals chose to join, including my former lover, Sire Antipas, former Council delegate from Libra who was serving a twenty yahren sentence for first-degree termination......."


     Antipas?  Antipas the younger?  Rosalind was familiar with the elder Antipas who had been the Council delegate to Libra at the time of the Destruction, and knew he had a son who was considered to be a rising star in Colonial Society.  She knew that Antipas Senior had been aboard the Atlantia with Adar and the rest of the Council at the time of the ambush on the Colonial Fleet.  So this could only refer to his son.  Already this story was more bizarre than anything Rosalind could have imagined.


     ".....So they were set free.  Our most hardened criminals, along with traitorous members of the Council and insane religious fanatics.  Freed on this desolated planet filled with volcanoes, largely hostile terrain, oversized lizard creatures, no means of interstellar communication, and no laser weaponry.  Forced to band together for their own mutual good, and to see if they could make something of themselves in ways that were forever closed to them aboard the Galactica where they faced lives of being outcasts even if they ever found themselves released from the Prison Barge.
     "I was not with them that first yahren.  I had not committed any crime.  I simply went back to my role as Vice-President of the Council, a position I had secured for myself in the wake of events following Baltar's defection and the beginning of the so-called 'Detente' between ourselves and the renegade Cylons under his command.  But I was waiting for my opportunity to usurp power from Adama.  I can acknowledge that now.  I had learned so much in my time as Antipas's mistress on how the desire and drive for power can be simply intoxicating.  How it can provide thrills of pleasure as great as that of.....sexual fulfillment.  When I saw how his schemes for power had failed because of his clumsy efforts at covering up his pre-Destruction crime of masterminding the Libran Antiquities Museum theft, which resulted in the murder of his own bodyguard and one of his underlings from the theft, I had vowed to never let myself repeat those mistakes and that if I were to ever seize power from Adama, it would always be because I had remained entirely within the law in my actions......."


     So young Antipas was a criminal even then, she thought.  There was more corruption in our ranks than I ever imagined.  If I hadn't been approached to take part in a treason plot, they would have easily found someone else.


     "......That was the idea.  But.....it all depended on finding an avenue of attack to utilize one day that would make me a formidable threat to Adama.  And.....when we came across our first contact with a native from Earth, a man named Kevin Byrne and his daughter, I thought I'd found my opportunity.  A man devoid of female companionship for yahrens and desperate to be given love and attention.  I set my sights on him and hoped that one day, he'd give me a base from which to challenge Adama one day......"


     Rosalind then noticed that the recording grew silent.  Not because it was over, but because it was clear that when Lydia had recorded this, she had stopped talking for a brief period, as though she'd been finding it hard to go on at that point.  She looked over at the one-time Siress and saw that she was now sitting with her knees pulled up so she could rest her chin on them.  She could see a look of tortured, troubled regret.  As though listening to the sound of her voice describing this was producing a great deal of inner pain.  And then.....her voice on the recording resumed with a long, rueful sigh.

     "......Oh Hades, why am I wasting time on that?  None of that has to do with what's happened here though I guess it's why I ended up here.  The Judgment of the Lords.  That's what it is.  That's what all of this is.  Our punishment for our arrogance.  Our hubris.  Our refusal to make something positive of ourselves in this place and thinking we could still act on our savage lusts for power.  So that's why.....we're all becoming savages now.  And why soon, I know I'm not going to be able to say another word just like the rest of them can't any longer.  It's only because they had a yahren head start on me that I haven't been as affected as the rest of them yet.  But it's only a matter of time.  And.....I know I have to accept it.  In order to survive I'm going to have to go with the flow as they say and become just as barbarous, just as savage.  A grunting troglodyte in animal skins using spears and clubs to kill what we need to eat, and what we need to defend ourselves when another one of our fellow troglodytes goes mad.  And....I'm already sure as that process goes further along....it won't be just my ability to talk that will disappear, but so will all my memories of who I am, and who I've been.  Oh, I'll probably be able to tell one from another as always but my sense of identity will be gone.  I can tell it's already gone from everyone else.  The only thing Antipas still has left at this point is his sense of entitlement to me.  He doesn't remember why any longer, he just.......knows.  And I guess that's how it will be with me.  I'll know that I have to cling to him.  But I won't know why.  Because I won't know his name by then, and I won't even remember mine......."


     As the recording continued, Rosalind didn't dare take her eyes off Lydia.  She could now see tears streaming down, producing clean trails along Lydia's dirt-streaked face.  Speech had now left her for the most part at this point, but it was clear her memory and intelligence was still intact.  But would it remain?  And what was causing this? 
     The terror of what the situation beyond this area was dawned on Rosalind and as she kept listening, she impulsively turned the power to the com-line back on.


     "......Oh well, enough of the self-pity.  I vowed to make this recording to be an accurate record of what happened to me and what this place is for the benefit of anyone who comes by here and has no idea who we are and where we came from.  I have to make this thorough for the sake of history.  So.....as I was saying, I set my sights on the man from Earth, Kevin Byrne.  And he was lonely and desperate for sex and I could give it to him.  And he enjoyed it just like every other man I've had in my life enjoyed it.  I always saw myself as the living incarnation of Zandra, the Aerian fertility goddess.  A woman who could have any man she ever wanted, and always on her own terms, and only she could ever end things.
     "I knew dear little Kevin had his doubts about me.  He'd heard all the stories from Adama's inner circle about what an opportunistic schemer I was.  His daughter heard them too and they were practically making a full court press to get him to drop me.  But.....I kept him under my thumb because he knew no other woman could ever satisfy his longings like me.  Until.....until I made my damn mistake.  When we encountered those other Earth natives who'd been taken prisoner by the Risik.  When Adama decided to shield one of the new arrivals from being available to the rest of the people so they could learn more information about Earth, I decided the people had a right to hear her story, so I went to the IFB, our broadcast news outlet in the Fleet which provides information to the people and I tried to get them to run information about the new arrival......Hades, I don't even remember her name any longer.  And when our anchor lady Zara, who had always been glad to use me as a source of information balked at running with this, I went over her head to her superior to get the information out.  Well....dumb me.  That leak on my part sent Kevin over the edge and made him decide that everything he'd been told about me was true and that not even getting great sex from me would keep him tied to me any longer.  He and I had a dinner on the Rising Star and.....when I decided to level with him and told him that yes I had leaked the story about the new Earth arrival to our ranks, he then told me off and decided he was going to dump me.  I threw a glass of ambrosia in his face and he didn't even bat an eye......."


     Now Rosalind could see her burying her face from view against her knees.  As though this was the most painful part of the story for her to revisit.  And sure enough Rosalind then heard a silence on the tape and when it ended, there was a crack in Lydia's voice as if a sob had been choked back.


     "......That was the start of my downfall.  My pride.  My foolish, foolish pride.  If I could take one moment in my life back, I would have asked Kevin to forgive me.  He would have probably been melting in my arms again if I'd done that.  Oh....I'm not saying I was really sorry deep down for what I did with the leak, but if only I hadn't let my pride get in the way and realized I should have tactically humbled myself to make sure I never lost Kevin......then I wouldn't have done all the things that made me end up here.  I always looked at things with Kevin from the standpoint of how much I thought he needed me and how I could benefit from that.  But now that I can look back, I realize now......I needed him more.  I should have tried to win him over by learning how to be humble for his sake.  Not that I would have lost my ambition and my drive for power.  I wanted to replace Adama as President one day.  I wanted the political power for myself.  The undisputed political leader of the Fleet that Adama would have to show deference to at all times whether he liked it or not.  But I would have done it the right way......inside the law if I'd only kept my head and made sure I had Kevin on my side the whole time.
     "But.....foolish me, I lost Kevin and I was so furious that for the first time in my life a man had rejected me, that it made something snap inside me.  I'd lost my best chance to build a rival power base to Adama using Kevin and suddenly I was willing to do anything that would let me get that advantage back.  Even if I had to become a lawbreaker like Antipas had been.  Maybe it was that lust to try to achieve power soon when I could still enjoy it as a reasonably young and beautiful woman and not when I would start pushing the boundaries of middle age like Tinia or Eudoxia.  So I decided what I needed to do was create an incident that would humiliate Adama and leave him vulnerable to embarrassment from the whole Council as well as the people.  Something that would let me emerge as a critic of Adama for a reason that even those who had their doubts about me would find it hard to deny.  As a member of the Council, I realized that we had a serious vulnerability in our internal security aboard the Galactica.  The Ordnance storage area was at that point totally unguarded, the result of some incompetence that took place some time back in an incident I won't waste time rehashing the details of except that an incompetent guard wasn't looking when someone unstable pilfered some detonators from an open storage locker.  In the wake of that incident it was decided to have the storage cabinets permanently locked and accessible only by a security card.  But since the doors would be permanently locked, that meant there was no need to have a guard on duty any longer.  The chief flaw in this thinking though, was what would happen if a security card were stolen and then used to gain access to the Ordnance storage locker?  That was the genesis for the incident I sought to create.  The next step was pushing for a 'work release' program for the remaining criminals held on the Prison Barge who didn't follow the others into exile on this planet.  These were the petty criminals serving lighter sentences.  There was by this point just one prisoner left with a serious sentence of twenty yahrens, and that was a man named Charka, who had been Executive Officer of the Maintenance ship Celestra, and who was serving time for treason and mutiny against the late Commander Kronus.  His record indicated he was an unstable fanatic, who had been thrown out of the Colonial Military Academy because of his overzealous desire to kill Cylons that exceeded any meaningful skills he might have had as a warrior.  I realized that in this atmosphere of Detente we were living in with the Cylons from Baltar's BaseShip by this point, that sooner or later, a man like Charka would likely crack for some reason and want to engage in a terrorist like incident......if given the opportunity......"


     So Tinia's alive and with them, Rosalind thought about the woman she was convinced had been one of Sire Anton's sources in the campaign to discredit her in Adar's eyes.  But all thoughts of her one-time acquaintance disappeared as she listened to Lydia's voice go on to describe a very complex plot.  A plot that became hard to follow at times because Lydia had been somewhat rambling in her summaries rather than providing a crisp, concise summary of events.  As Rosalind kept listening she then realized to her horror that if Lydia was undergoing a slow regression from intelligent human to sub-human troglodyte then this rambling, stream-of-conscious discourse had to have been an early symptom of the regression.
     Slowly, she tried to keep up with the plot Lydia was describing.  Getting this unstable prisoner Charka a work release clearance on the Galactica in her landing bay, where he'd be under the supervision of a Master Chief who had a security card that could access the Ordnance Storage Locker.  And taking advantage of Charka with sex and carefully administered drugs to get him to.....launch what sounded like a bizarre terrorist spree on the Galactica centered on.....had she heard right?  Protesting a surgery?  Because an injured Galactica warrior who'd lost a limb in an accident was getting prosthetic limbs from.......recycled Cylon parts?  With a Cylon supervising the operation?  Lords of Kobol, I don't get it!
     She almost stopped the recording so she could rewind and listen again just to be sure she understood what she was hearing but one look at Lydia kept her from doing it.  She was convinced Lydia wanted her to listen to everything without stopping.  As if the one-time Aerian Siress was afraid that if Rosalind did stop, she might not get an opportunity to finish.  She pressed on.


     ".......I had to make damned certain Charka would do what he had to do to get access to the Ordnance locker.  He would have to kill the Master Chief and steal his security card and then he could arm himself, break into the Life Station and stage his little uprising on behalf of keeping the fleet 'pure' and free from 'Cylon corruption.'  The sort of motive that a fanatic like him would go for if influenced right.  But.....I had to make sure he got hold of that pass.....so that meant when he reported for duty aboard the Galactica, I accompanied him on the shuttle, in disguise, so I could follow him to the landing bay and then make sure that critical part of the plan went into effect.  I was familiar with the work schedule and I knew the Master Chief....what's his name, I don't remember anymore, would be alone.  So.....I made sure I gave Charka the order to kill him and take his security card.  And.....I saw him shoot him, and then I made my exit so I could get back to the Rising Star and make sure no one could ever tie me to having been on the Galactica.  But damn me, I didn't check to see if that Master Chief was really dead.  Stupid, stupid, me.  My first time sanctioning a murder and I'd fracked it up.  The Chief wasn't dead, he was still alive and able to tell everyone later that a mysterious woman had accompanied Charka and helped sign him in.......Boy that fracked everything up.  I had to act fast and make sure that I had an unassailable alibi so that's when I called in my most loyal and devoted servant.......devoted servant, ha!  Eleven fracking yahrens I indulged him.  I let him have me on special occasions or if I was in between lovers.  That always bought me his loyalty, dear little Jarvik, my personal pilot.  Oh Hades, I'll get to why I despise mentioning his name later.  I needed him to alibi for me and confirm my fake story about being in my shuttle aboard the Rising Star sleeping in my special cabin there.  He always did everything I asked him then.  That meant once the felgercarb hit the fan about a mysterious woman putting Charka up to it, no one could say it was me.......but I guess Adama always knew even though he couldn't lay a finger on me for that.  He knew.  Even though after they stopped Charka without killing him, Charka had gone mad and was so cracked he couldn't remember me or anything about how he'd been put up to the whole thing........."


     Lords, this is insane, Rosalind thought.  She'd always known Lydia to be amoral.  Devoted to her ancient Aerian religion centered on a fertility goddess because it fed her hedonistic impulses.  But this was way beyond the pale and seemed so senseless.  The breakup with the man from Earth called Kevin Byrne had clearly left her emotionally shattered and embittered and made her do things that the Lydia she'd known never would have done.  
     But how does this account for her ending up back on this planet?  It can't be because the Galactica turned back and dumped her here.


     ".....Anyway.  Anyway.....Adama took a minor hit over the Security breach, but I guess because Adama deep down knew I was involved, he made sure I took some heat over the fact that I'd been Charka's sponsor for the work release program.  It sort of cancelled things out as far as the rest of the Council was concerned and there I was, right back to square one.  No power base. Looking for some new angle.  The only thing I'd learned was the need to sit back, play the good little Council Vice President and just wait for another opportunity even if it took a yahren or two.
     "So now, we move ahead another.....six sectars I guess, I don't know.  The Risik were behind us.  We had sixty new Earth people in the Fleet because we'd freed them from a Risik prison and dear little Kevin was making sure all of them would hate me.  Someday I wanted to get even with him for what he did to me.  But going after him or his dear daughter would have been too obvious.  The best way to get even with dear little Kevin was to find something where the victim would be one of those new Earth arrivals.  That would be a way of sticking it to him if it could happen that way.  And the opportunity started to take shape when lo and behold we found ourselves able to make contact with the Pegasus......."


     This time, Rosalind couldn't restrain herself.  She abruptly stopped the device and came over to Lydia who was letting out anguished grunts indicating she wanted her to go on.
     "Lydia, wait.  Wait.  The Pegasus?  Are you telling me the Pegasus and the Galactica hooked up and are together again?"
     She violently shook her head and the guttural grunting emerged from her, indicating the struggle to form a word.  Rosalind couldn't even begin to fathom what she was going through.  Did this regression mean the vocal chords slowly disappeared? 
     Finally, a word came out in that laborious rasp that also indicated she was experiencing great pain in forming it.
     "Lis-ten," her teeth abruptly clenched as if she were trying to fight the pain and suddenly a sentence formed.  "Damn you, Ros-alind, fracking LISTEN!"
     "All right, all right!" the former Cabinet Minister backed away from her, "I promise.  I swear on the Book I won't shut it off again!  I promise!"  And then she hurriedly pressed the button.


     ".......It seems there was a new miracle breakthrough in communications technology that enabled the Pegasus, all the way across the stars headed back to the Colonies, to make contact with us and have real time conversations and even let us send video and data files......bizarre, I know but it was some kind of ancient Kobollian technology principal combined with the fact that the Cylons had developed something like it too for instant communication across the stars with their Baseships.  Well, all of a sudden we learned these things.  The Pegasus was alive.  Adama's wife Ila was alive and onboard her.  And they were headed back to the Colonies because there was a Resistance movement against the Cylons that Ila had been part of that started up long after we left........"


     Okay, okay.  Rosalind calmed herself.  That means everything I was guessing about when it came to what happened to the Pegasus after they left Brylon Station was right.  And good Lords of Kobol, that means I can't dare let this recording fall into the hands of the Cylons! Maybe I should stop it in case Katkov gets impatient and comes out here, but......damn it if I do that, Lydia might kill me with her bare hands.


     "Suddenly I had another new angle to consider.  There were people in the Fleet thinking, now that we know the Pegasus was alive and headed back and that there was a Resistance movement in the Colonies......well what was the point of continuing to Earth?  Why not go back and try to reclaim our homes?  But Adama.....he was against that, even though it meant he was losing his only chance to get his wife back that he thought was dead.  Too far along, he said.  Too dangerous to go back through Risik and Ziklagi space.  Plus, we owed it to the 60 people from Earth to bring them home since they'd been taken from Earth against their will by the Risik. That got me to wonder.....wouldn't there be someone on the Council who might not like the idea of making our decision to go on to Earth because of the needs of those sixty people?  I already knew that Sire Xaviar was upset over issues of deference that had been given the Earth arrivals, and he was sounding notes that we should consider turning back and joining the Pegasus in the fight to liberate the Colonies.  So.....I finally realized I had a new base to build from.  Xaviar had his suspicions about me because of my past relationship with Antipas, but.....even he couldn't resist my body.  The only problem was that Adama's side wanted to get the issue of move on to Earth or turn back subject to a Fleetwide referendum where he was pretty sure his side would prevail.......so from that basis, I hatched the scheme that led to my downfall.  All because the one man I thought I could trust the most to do anything for me, dear little Jarvik, decided to turn on me."


     Rosalind noticed the edge of bitterness and hate entering Lydia's voice as she went on.  Describing a plot that involved faking an assassination attempt on Sire Xaviar and blaming it on one of the new Earth arrivals liberated from the Risik.  She frowned as she heard Lydia describe a plot equally complex and bizarre as the one involving Charka.  In this plot, her loyal pilot Jarvik was to undergo facial alteration to be made to look like the Earth native in question, a high-strung individual named Brandon Reynolds, who had already developed a reputation for shooting his mouth off about how much he disliked Sire Xaviar and his calls for turning back.  Then while Brandon Reynolds was reassigned to temporary duty aboard the Galactica, Jarvik would knock him out, take a shot at Sire Xaviar so that the disgruntled Earth native would be blamed, and in the process, so Lydia hoped, the 'Turn Back' movement would gain in stature and Adama would be humiliated.
     As with the Charka plot, Rosalind regarded the plan as the product of someone who had totally snapped from reality because of a lustful drive for power.  It didn't square with the Lydia she'd remembered and even admired.  Ambitious?  Yes.  Hedonistic?  Yes.  But criminal?  That was what struck her as so bizarre.  Especially when applied to plans that had only a bare minimal chance of vaulting her to a higher level of power at Adama's expense.


     "But my dear little devoted Jarvik finally decided he wasn't willing to do as I asked.  All those yahrens he gladly slept with me when I wanted him.  He did anything I asked of him.....but when I needed him most he let me down.  When I boarded the shuttle to take me to the Galactica so we could put the plan into effect.....he turned the shuttle in the other direction and went off into deep space.  And he told me he'd left a full confession video with Zara and the IFB which meant once she turned that over to Adama, I'd be outed as a criminal.  The little snitrad said since he couldn't bear the thought of turning me in it was better to just go off into deep space until our fuel ran out and we'd both be dead.  He had too much of a guilty conscience to live with himself so this was how he planned to go out.....and take me with him....The betrayal after all I gave him is what I'll never forgive.  Even if I accept what happened to me next as the punishment of the Lords, Jarvik deserves a place in Hades for betraying me."


     Rosalind felt her body tensing.  This was going to be the moment that explained how Lydia ended up on this planet far in the Galactica's wake given the time lag from the time the prisoners had been marooned her and when she arrived.  She couldn't believe though that a private shuttle had been able to bring her this far.  Something else had to have caused that.  But what?
     Abruptly, the sound of the comline came to life once again, and impulsively, she felt she had no choice but to shut the playback of the recorder off, even though it caused Lydia to bolt up in moaning protest.
     "Siress Rosalind, I demand you let me speak to Sergeant Amalak!" Katkov's angry voice raged over the com-line.
     Frustrated and furious, Rosalind held up the comline......just in time to see Lydia suddenly dash out of the hut.  She hurried after her but the one-time Siress had disappeared into the foliage.  It was as if this regression she was undergoing had somehow given the woman who was in her early forties a burst of sudden speed.  
     "Frack," Rosalind gritted her teeth.  Angry that the interruption had come at this point, she finally decided it was time to respond.
     "All right, Lieutenant.  Sergeant Amalak is dead.  Do you hear me?  He's dead!"
     There was no response from the Risik officer at first.  Rosalind decided to give him ten microns to see if he'd finally say something and if she didn't hear anything she intended to shut the com-line off.
     "I'm coming out there, Siress.  Alone, since I need to have the Corporal here to pilot the ship just in case.  But I am coming out and I expect you to explain everything to me."
     "Yes sir," she said with heavy sarcasm.  "I suggest you arm yourself."
     "I intend to."
     Rosalind shut off the device and realized she needed to get through the rest of the recording before Katkov arrived.  And then.....she knew she was going to have to destroy it.  She couldn't dare run the slightest risk of letting anyone else hear it.  There was no doubt in her mind that she wouldn't be able to buy the silence of Katkov or Commander Clubb.  They would turn it over to the Needa and Gracchus and they would learn something about the Pegasus and Galactica she couldn't afford to let them know.
     She pressed the playback button again.


     ".........And what happened next.  Lords, what happened next, I still can't fathom.  There were these......white lights that went by us.  Flashing by us at speeds greater than the eye could comprehend.  Then......I heard this deafening sound and I passed out.......and the next thing I knew......I was on this planet.  The planet we'd left behind in our wake sectars ago.  Something.....some force......some power of the Lords maybe......had sent me here.  What happened to Jarvik, I don't know.  And I don't fracking care.  All I knew was......I was here now.  And the first person to greet me was.......Antipas.  He was only mildly shocked to see me, but he seemed to automatically see it as a case of the Fates catching up with me.  'What goes around, comes around' as he boasted to me .  My old lover, the man who taught me how to be politically ruthless......it all struck him as funny.  And.....just seeing him again and hearing him laugh and mock me.......it chased away all the shock and trauma I'd just gone through to find myself transported to this place, that.......I felt this surge of anger and determination to stand up to him.  To tell him that I intended to survive in this Hades Hole of a planet just like him and prove I could learn to be a ruthless leader in the wild just like him that the others would respect.  And.....he seemed to like the sound of that.  It seemed to rekindle the sparks that used to fly between us.  He had triumphed over Galerius and Elegabalus and had emerged on top in the fight for leadership of this colony of misfits.  And he had our old mutual acquaintance Press, who'd done work as a hired bodyguard for both of us in the past, to act as his Enforcer.  He'd even gotten all the Il Fadim fanatics to submit.  I think the fact that he'd triumphed and emerges as the undisputed leader of the Colony had left him bored and anxious for a new challenge, and my sudden re-emergence into his life was practically a gift to him. 
     "But knowing what I know now......I should have realized that something was off about Antipas when I first saw him.  I always remembered him as so dashing and clean-cut, yet there he was with hair to his shoulders and a scraggly beard.  It looked handsome on him, and yet....I should have realized that even in an environment such as this, he would have still been fastidious about his appearance.  At the time I just assumed that he'd decided to 'rough it' as they used to say and dispense with needless gestures of grooming.  And when he led me back to the Colony I saw that everyone else had let themselves go as far as their hair went, and none of the men were clean-shaven though with the Il Fadim members that made no difference.  Most of them were also starting to swap their old Colonial clothing for animal skins even though I remember there'd been supplies of coveralls given them when they were marooned.  As for me.....I decided to go with the flow and ditched the Council robes I was still wearing and decided I could look good in animal skins myself and I admit.....when I put my new outfit on that really helped reignite things between Antipas and me.  The next thing I knew we were lovers again, and it seemed just like old times.....although......I also could sense he was a lot.....rougher than before.  Not violent.  Not hurting me, but it was a lot more.....rough than what I was used to from him.  Not to worry, I said to myself, I'd just channel up the intensity on my end.
     "Antipas proclaimed to everyone that I was his co-ruler and that everyone was to listen to me as they'd listened to him.  And if anyone ever tried to harm me......well, there was always Press to provide me with protection just like he gave it to Antipas......"


            As Rosalind listened, she realized that Lydia hadn't been completely thorough in describing her relationship with Antipas before he'd ended up in the Galactica Prison Barge.  That too, along with her occasional bursts of rambling was a sign that her mind was slipping when she'd made this recording.


     ".....Dumb me, I was so caught up in the seeming thrill of my new surroundings where I was actually on a strange level enjoying this new setup of having this shared power arrangement with Antipas, that I didn't realize that there were a lot of other things about our community that wasn't adding up.  This community had been set up by Adama to become an agro-community based on making use of the land to grow crops.  Limited as the land was for that purpose, it was there and they'd been given those tools to do so.  And yet.....we weren't doing any agro-work.  Our food supply was almost exclusively meat from hunting.  We were killing those large sized lizards and the other wild beasts who could give us their skins for clothes and eating those and the only plants we were eating were the ones from the early agro-planting that had bloomed but no active agro-work was being done to replace it.  I asked Antipas why no one in the community was doing agro-work any longer, and he just smiled and said we didn't need to do that when there were enough animals to sustain us.  And that hunting was a more appropriate way to live......I remember making a half-hearted suggestion that some of us would be better served to do some planting, but he then grabbed me and said that the real test of surviving in this place meant hunting and not becoming lazy in meaningless pursuits......okay not exactly put that way, he was a bit more limited in his vocabulary and that should have told me something too.  Antipas was losing his capacity to sound.....erudite.  And I realized that some of the lessers in our ranks.....they weren't even talking at all any longer.  I first wrote that off to the fact that as hardened criminals, they weren't exactly the brightest of lights to begin with, but.....as time went by I suddenly realized that more and more hardly anyone was talking.  And Antipas.....he was saying less and less.  Getting his points across more from grunting.  And soon, I noticed that no one was wearing any kind of garment that wasn't an animal skin.  I found out that Antipas was making it a crime to wear anything from the 'old days' as they were being called and that they should be destroyed and anyone caught wearing a reminder of the 'old days' would have their heads bashed in by Press or one of his other hired muscle hands.......
     "And soon....this mentality was spreading to everything else that was considered a taboo sign of the 'old days'.  That meant no more dwelling in the survival huts.  Instead.....we were now told that we would live only in the cave formations from now on because they were 'safer' and more sheltered from the elements, plus it meant the community would be able to 'stay together' more.......I realized that slowly, there was this impulse in Antipas aimed at getting rid of as many signs of not simply technology, but anything that represented basic civilized building blocks......This wasn't emulating those sects that fled the Colonies a thousand yahrens ago called the....the....frack what were they called?  Ludd....Luddites!  This wasn't like them.  They might have lived primitively but they were at least utilizing the full extent of a civilized mind in how to live in such conditions.  This.....this was something else.  It was.....regression.  Full scale regression of another kind to......troglodyte living.  Where suddenly the capacity to think is overwhelmed by the primal instinct to survive based on......bruteness and cunning.  To not bother with needless tasks that require serious mental activity like planting does.......All we do is forge weapons to kill, but even those are of a more primitive thinking bent, and not done with any kind of sophistication that would make our hunting weapons more effective over the long term.......At least not the way our newer ones are.......
     "The events of the last two sectans though is what finally made me realize the true circumstances of what's been happening to us from the beginning of the settlement, and its only because I am a late arrival that I haven't been affected to the same extent as the rest of them.  I'm.....the only one left who can still talk and I'm sure that's going to disappear soon.  That's why I've spent the last two sectans trying to figure out what's caused this.  And now.....now I think I know the answer."


     "Siress!"
     Abruptly, Rosalind shut off the device.  Damn!  She quickly stuck it in the side of her tunic and reluctantly exited the hut where she saw the imposing form of Lieutenant Katkov standing over the fallen body of Sergeant Amalak.
     "What happened?" the Risik officer demanded.
     "A lot," Rosalind knew she was going to have to play things very carefully.  "While I was looking inside the hut, one of the......inhabitants emerged and hurled a spear in his back.  He didn't have a chance."
     "And what were you doing after that?" the hostility increased.
     "Interrogating her," the Siress said, which was an essential truth cloaked in untruthful words.  "And then unfortunately your message on the comline caused her to run off."
     "I see,"the lieutenant looked at her suspiciously.  "What did you find out?"
     "Something's happened to the people on this planet since they arrived here......if they indeed came from the Galactica," Rosalind said.  She had now figured out how she could spin an incomplete tale without deceiving him.  "If the woman who killed the sergeant is typical of the rest of them......they're undergoing some kind of regression."
     "Regression?"
     "They're reverting into savage, primitive behavior.  Losing the ability to talk.  Losing the ability to think.  That clearly explains why they've become hostile and were throwing spears at the slightest sign of any kind of alien life form, which......the sergeant looked more like to her."
     "But she didn't make a hostile move on you?"
     "I had a laser pointed at her," she said.  "And....she knew that I was human like her.  Their minds can still distinguish that."
     "You obviously learned nothing about the Galactica or the Pegasus. We know this planet contains nothing in the way of Neutrino, so that means there's no point remaining here any longer," Katkov said forcefully.  "Come back to the scout vessel now and we'll return to the Dreadnought."
     "No," Rosalind shook her head.  "Not yet, Lieutenant.  I have to learn the reason why this regression happened.  You may not be interested in the reason, but I suspect Commander Needa and the rest of the Cylons will be.  I need to give him a complete report on that."
     "They can send their own personnel down!" Katkov snapped, "I'm already in trouble as it is with Commander Clubb because one of my crew is dead.  If something happens to you I might as well face a firing squad."
     "You tell Commander Clubb that I assume full responsibility for my own safety," Rosalind held her ground.  "You want to stop me, Lieutenant, you'll have to shoot me."
     Katkov looked at her and Rosalind could see his air of authority giving way to total frustration.  The Siress knew she'd caught a break that it wasn't Clubb who had chosen to come down to the surface.  He wouldn't have backed down so easily.
     "All right," the Risik officer clenched his teeth and said calmly.  "But I'm accompanying you.  What you find out.....I find out."
     "Very well," she didn't protest even though his presence meant delaying a chance to listen to the rest of Lydia's recording for now.  It was a tradeoff she'd have to accept if she was going to get to the bottom of what had happened to these people from the Galactica Prison Barge.  
     "Lead the way, Siress," Katkov motioned to her.
     Rosalind took a breath and with her pistol raised slightly she led him off into the foliage where Lydia had disappeared into.


     It only took five centons for Rosalind and Katkov to navigate their way through the foliage.  Once, Rosalind spotted another abandoned survival hut near the backside, but since Katkov's microscanner showed no sign of life it meant Lydia hadn't hidden herself in there.  They simply moved on without giving it any other thought.  The only other thing that stood out was the sound of a river flowing.  Clearly there was some kind of underwater spring that served as an oasis to account for this small patch of trees and plant life and that also provided a water supply for the community.
     The first sign of animal life came just as they were about to exit when the Siress suddenly saw a long crawling object emerge from just to their right.  She froze in horror when she saw it was a lizard-like creature, nearly six feet in length.  The reptile seemed to react to the sound of the two of them and turned its head to face them.  It opened its mouth and let out a hissing type of sound.  The absence of teeth inside its mouth immediately caused her to relax as she realized this wasn't a carnivore, or at least not of anything the size of a human.  She and the Risik kept their positions and then it just moved on without giving them any further thought.
     "I've never seen anything like that before," Katkov shook his head.
     "Neither have I," Rosalind said.  "Similar creatures where I came from where never more than one-third the length and those cases were rare."
     The hot sun beat down on their heads again now that they were out in the open.  Rosalind imagined that it was more difficult for the Risik male given his lack of hair.  She decided not to make any wisecracks about it.  Instead she took a good look at the landscape that lay in front of her.  She could now see the river that started in the small oases flowed into a nearby lake about a half kilometrone away to the northwest.  A kilometrone away on a slight northeast heading were rock formations that rose no more than fifty to sixty kilometrones in height.  Further off in the distance, and towering above the nearby rock formations was the much taller conical peak of what was likely an active volcano.
     "Look there," Katkov suddenly pointed.  "Fawns."
     The Siress squinted and saw a half dozen creatures that looked familiar to her that were slowly moving about roughly halfway between the lake and the rock formations.  Most of them with heads down plucking at some scattered green plants that were coming up from the ground.
     "We call those gazelles," she said.  "That explains where these inhabitants are getting their clothing.....and probably most of their food now since they seem to have given up crop raising."
     "If what you're saying is true and these people are.....regressing as you put it, then aren't we risking the same thing happening to us if we stay too long?"
     "From what I found out, whatever causes the change doesn't happen instantaneously.  It's a gradual process that takes some time to take hold.  In this case, we're looking at a process that has taken more than a yahren."
     "Year," he said.
     "I'll use the terminology I'm more used to, if you don't mind," she said curtly.
     "Of course," the Lieutenant struggled to avoid sounding sarcastic and then looked at his micro-scanner, "Humanoid life forms indicated approximately one kilometrone.....that is your terminology, isn't it?"
     "Of course," she matched his tone.
     "Right there," he pointed to the rock formations to the northeast.  Rosalind could tell there were openings that likely indicated caves.  Which answered the question of where these people were now living if they'd chosen to abandon their survival huts.
     "All right," she took a breath, "We get close...and if they start throwing spears at us.....we open fire at them.  Agreed?"
     "Agreed."  He attached the micro-scanner to his belt and detached his own weapon.  
     As the two made their way forward, Rosalind realized that the gazelles had been nibbling on plants in land that had clearly once been carefully set up for planting and plowing.  But the land had gone into a state of disuse and now only a few random sprouts were still growing.  Eventually the lack of water would cause the plants to wither and die and without treating the soil in this spot, it would become useless.....and further indicate the need to rely on meat as the principal source of food for the inhabitants.
     Suddenly, one of the gazelles that had been nibbling on a stray leafy plant abruptly turned its head and locked eyes with the two of them.  For the first time, Rosalind thought she saw something suggesting an almost.....hostile look on the normally docile animal's expression.  Abruptly it began to charge directly at them.
     Startled, Lieutenant Katkov abruptly fired his own laser weapon at the charging animal.  It immediately collapsed and the sound of the laser blast caused the other gazelles to go scattering in other directions.  A stunned Rosalind came up to the corpse and looked down at it, shaking her head in disbelief.
     "It was charging at us with absolute.....hostility," she said.  "They're not like that where I came from."
     "They're not like that on our home world either," Katkov was also shaken slightly as he reholstered his weapon.  "Does that mean the animals are.....regressing as well?"
     "Maybe.  By nature they're docile, but....if what's happening to the people on this planet is happening to animals like this, then......it has to be something in the air or the ecosystem that's causing it."
     "Like the plants maybe?"  
     Rosalind slowly made her way through the ruins of what had once been a carefully designed field for crop-growing.  And suddenly......she noticed something that looked completely out of place.  Something half-buried in the ground that wasn't plant life.
     "Lieutenant," she motioned the Risik officer who came up alongside her.  Katkov looked down and his black eyes widened in astonishment.
     It was some kind of metallic box.  Dull gray in color it was about one metrone long and a third of a metrone wide.  It's top had been pried open and the interior contents revealed what looked like decaying papers and a decaying leather bound book of some type, up against the corner.  There were also what looked to be shards of glass lining the bottom of the container as if some kind of bottle or vial had been broken.
     "Somebody buried something here long before these inhabitants arrived over a yahren ago," Rosalind was amazed.  
     Katkov didn't say anything.  His eyes were locked on the remains of the book in the corner and the paper fragments which still showed some signs of printing or type on them that Rosalind didn't recognize.
     "Lieutenant?"
     The Risik officer knelt down in front of the open container and gently removed two fragments of paper.  He studied them intently and slowly shook his head in a way that indicated total disbelief.
     "Lieutenant?" the former Cabinet Minister prodded.
     "Simply not possible," Katkov muttered.
     "What isn't possible?"
     "These documents," he didn't look at her.  "This is the old script Risik language from over eight thousand of our years ago."

Chapter Three

     Rosalind wasn't sure what to make of Lieutenant Katkov's revelation.  After all she'd learned from Lydia's recording so far, she might have found herself prepared to believe that something unnatural or even alien might be connected to this startling regression that had taken place among the Galactica prisoners.  But to find out there was a connection to this race?  The Risik?  The race that already had this strange connection to Humanity based on their abduction of Earth natives and their claim to have once been the rulers of Earth?  The race that evidently had what the Cylons needed in the form of the elusive substance known as Neutrino?  
     "Old script?" She finally spoke.
     "The language of our earliest ancestors," Katkov held the parchment fragments delicately.  The only reason why they still survived was because like most ancient parchments, it was made of a much thicker material than modern paper.  "Incredible."
     "And you said you weren't a scholar."
     He glanced at her coolly, "I am not a scholar, Siress.  But my father was.  He was a teacher of our ancient history and understood the ancient script.  I grew up seeing many examples of it and while I took no formal courses in it, he taught me some basic knowledge."
     "My apologies," she found that admission remarkable.  "Can you read what it says?"
     Katkov looked back at it, "It's very fragmentary.....I believe this page is some kind of....." his eyes squinted.  "By Belial."
     The Siress frowned and wondered if that was the Risik equivalent of 'my God.'  "What?"
     "It's clearly a warning of some kind.  There is a symbol for danger.  It refers to the danger in the......vials contained in this.....box."
     Rosalind slowly turned back and looked down into the box, focusing on the glass shards that were scattered across the surface.
     "Someone didn't get the message," she said simply as she realized the first piece of the puzzle was starting to fall into place.
     Katkov now looked at the second page and took a breath, "It says that these had to be buried because otherwise the entire ecosystem was liable to be affected.  That's all I can get from it.  Nothing specific."
     "So eight thousand yahrens ago your ancestors were on this planet and had some kind of.....substance that could cause this kind of havoc on the mind and they buried it before they went on their merry way," she slowly added things up.  "And then the people on this planet while they were planting their crops......they dug this up and opened it and......" she stopped.
     "A virus or some other chemical or what," Katkov went on, "Something that got into the soil and given the proximity of the river, the water too......."
     "Okay," Rosalind took a breath, "Now it adds up as to why these people are becoming.....troglodytes to use a term from my language.  But why would your ancestors have created something like this in the first place?"
     "I don't know!" the Risik lieutenant's voice grew defensive.  "My ancestors shouldn't even be here!  Our original home planet, where we lived for thousands of years until our enemy the Ke'Zar expelled us forty years ago is closer to your Earth than it is to here.  That's what we've always been taught."
     "Well, it looks like your history is about to go through some major revisionism," Rosalind said dryly and looked back inside the metal container.  "What about that book?"
     Katkov leaned down and gently touched it with his fingertips, hoping it didn't crumble.  When it didn't, he gently removed it.
     "I couldn't possibly go through this here," he said as he held it carefully, "It has to be taken back to the Dreadnought."
     "Then I suggest, Lieutenant, you take it back to the scout ship immediately and stand by."
     He looked at her dubiously, "If I go back now, so do you."
     "No," Rosalind was emphatic and pointed to the cave openings in the distant cliff face, "I have to go see what's in there.  And I have to do it alone."
     "My duty is to protect you.  I can't let you risk yourself any longer, Siress."
     "If you come with me, you'd be putting yourself at risk just like Sergeant Amalak did," the former Cabinet Minister retorted.  "The woman I encountered threw a spear in his back because she saw what she thought was a hostile alien.  But she knew I was a Human.  The rest of them will know that too, and if I'm armed......they'll keep their distance since they don't have any laser weapons of their own.  But I have to see them and get some final confirmation for myself!  Because.....these are my people, Lieutenant.  I owe it to them to know what happened and what else I can find out to give them and me some.....closure."
     Katkov again felt the insecurity of his junior rank overwhelming him again.
     "You have one of your.....centars, I think the term is, Siress," he said.  "And then.....I am taking matters into my own hands if you haven't returned."
     "Thank you, Lieutenant," she said with relief, "I give you my word I intend to return."
     He nodded with respect and began to move off, back toward the tree-lined area they had passed through which led back to the abandoned survival huts, and from there the path back to the scout ship.  Rosalind watched his retreating figure until he had disappeared from view.
     And then, she exhaled and pulled out the recording device, determined to hear the final part of Lydia's confession first.  She pressed the playback button.


     "........One morning I woke up before Antipas and the rest of them did, and I decided to explore deeper inside the caves.  There was a pathway that led further into the interior but it seemed like Press or one of the other enforcers Antipas used was always standing in front of it    It made me wonder if they were guarding something secret.  Press was lying in front of the opening that led further back but he was a sound sleeper and I managed to step over him and make me way into this secret passage to see if anything was there.....well I only had to go down a short incline and......there it was.  This open area filled with all kinds of equipment that I knew right away wasn't anything they'd been given by Adama when they were marooned.  It was ancient from the looks of it, but the only reason why it hadn't corroded or rusted into a pile of unrecognizable junk was because being this far inside the cave and clearly underground helped preserve it better than if it had been out in the open.  I came up to it for a closer look and when I saw some symbols on the machinery I suddenly realized they looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't understand why.  I was staring at it for over three centons trying to figure out what ancient civilization was responsible for this, and what was the purpose........and then, I felt a hand on my back.  I turned around and it was Antipas.  He had this evil possessive look on his face, and he was shaking his head, as if he were telling me I'd broken some kind of taboo.  Finally.....I just got sick and tired of his constant silence and grunting that I just lost my cool and said angrily, 'Antipas, what in Hades is this?'  
     "He looked displeased that I'd spoken but.....suddenly for the first time I think in sectans he managed to croak some words out though it was obvious he was forcing it as if it was painful.  He just said......., 'They built it.  They built for experiments.'  It took him a centon just to form that short sentence and I shouted, 'Who are they?'  And for just a brief micron, I saw the old Antipas.  The disdainful smirk of the elitist Council member looking down on one of his lessers.  And he said, 'Bad Kobollian......legacy.'  When he said Kobollian, I asked, 'The 13th Tribe was here?  Just like at Ki and on the Weather Planet?'  And he shook his head and said, 'Not the 13th Tribe.  Kobollians!  Before that.  Before that.'
     "I asked him, 'How do you know this is Kobollian?'  He then laughed and motioned his arm and said simply, 'Symbols.  Symbols!'  I then looked back at the equipment and I realized that the symbols on them were Kobollian.  And I remembered that Antipas had some familiarity with ancient Kobollian because of all the time he spent studying the artifacts in the Libran Antiquities Museum that he later had stolen.  He didn't know how to read ancient Kobollian but he knew the symbols when he saw them.
     "He wouldn't let me see anything more.  He grabbed me by the arm and literally dragged me back to his.....oh Hades, our private little sanctum inside the cave, where he and I slept together and everyone knew the meaning of keeping their distance from us.  That was the last time I ever heard him talk.  After that and ever since.....nothing but grunting.  His vocal chords must be gone by now just like the rest of them.....just like I think I'm starting to feel it with me.  Lords, my throat feels damned sore just doing this recording as it is.
     "I spent the next few nights not sleeping after Antipas and I would pleasure each other trying to think more and more about what this all meant.  Because it still didn't add up to a complete picture.  The ancient Kobollians were here and conducting experiments of some type on this planet even before the original Exodus from Kobol.  But how did that result in contaminating this planet to cause this mass regression everyone was experiencing?  I wasn't going to get anymore hints from studying the machinery.  I can't read Kobollian script and even if there were ancient recordings left behind, I couldn't power the equipment up to play them back and I wouldn't be able to understand a word they were saying anyway.  I had to look about and see if there were any other hints.  Any other signs that these ancients left behind.
     "So before dawn one morning, again while everyone in the cave was fast asleep, I slipped out through the main entrance.  I decided to check out an abandoned crop-field close by to us that was located by the river.  I could tell it had once been meticulously set up for agro-work with a perfectly designed irrigation system and the remains of what was sprouting indicated that they likely had gotten a lot out of it in those early sectars before my arrival.  I noticed the gazelles who account for most of what we eat now and what we also use to make our new clothes tended to graze there.  When I got close to them, I suddenly realized for the first time that these animals weren't their usual docile selves like gazelles always are!  A couple of them started to fight with each other over some plants growing and they were even ramming each other head-on.  And then I realized that it wasn't just us who were regressing into this primitive state, so were the animals!  Ordinarily docile creatures now acting like they were developing barbaric, violence-oriented minds.  Luckily I kept my distance so they didn't start charging me.  As I waited for them to disperse I suddenly realized that something, somehow had gotten into the food or the water and caused some kind of transformation.  That had to be the only explanation.  It couldn't possibly be the air because the sulfuric smell is linked to the volcano and that's clearly been a constant from the beginning.  Even the Galactica reported on that when they were scouting this planet to maroon them on.  Something got into the ecosystem later.  Something that started to take effect just before my arrival and now.....it had grown stronger as the people ate and drink more from a contaminated ecosystem.  Maybe there was some sign of that in this abandoned field.
     "So I spent about.....I guess a half centar in the early dawn light looking about and suddenly.....I saw it.  This metal box that had been buried in the ground and had likely been excavated by accident during routine agro-operations.  And someone had opened it.  I don't think Antipas or a smart agro-worker would have been dumb enough to pry it open while it was just lying there.  A sensible person would have brought it back unopened to one of the survival huts that I'm sure everyone was still living in at the time.  I think....someone not bright who was working the fields did it.  For all I know maybe it was some lummox like Press since the only other thing he might have been good for apart from being a bodyguard would have been doing some heavy manual labor in the fields.  But I could tell that something in those contents had been disturbed.  Broken glass, shattered vials.  Something that was meant to be buried and kept out of sight forever because if unleashed......it could have been catastrophic.  And it was clearly broken and shattered here in the fields where we were growing our food, right next to the water supply as well.  Something that whoever buried it knew could have this kind of long-term side-effect.  Especially if done by people whose scientific knowledge we know was more advanced than we've achieved in our own time.  
     "I know that doesn't tell me the whole story.  What were the ancients doing here so long ago?  Were they doing some kind of experiment on other races?  I keep trying to remember what Dr. Salik once briefed Adama and the Council on about some of the other races we encountered.  The Zohrlochs and the Harkaelians and how they showed signs of clear linkages to our ancestors as if they were the product of some kind of cross-breeding or genetic engineering.  If they were engaging in that kind of science before the fall of Kobol, maybe they had experiments that went wrong?  I'll never know.  But what kind of experiment could produce this kind of side-effect if it wasn't some type of genetic experiment?  You don't set out to make something that has this kind of impact on the brain and the psyche unless you're hoping to achieve another kind of result aimed at the brain......That's the only explanation that makes any kind of sense.  So maybe I can treat that as a partial victory that I figured that much out before I won't have the ability to care any longer.  Because soon.....I know I'll go the same way as Antipas and the rest.  I'll be a mindless troglodyte grunting like a savage sitting by Antipas's side as his consort, enjoying that privilege and having raw primal sex with him every day and night with everyone else looking at us.  That's my final fate.  I accept it.  The Lords have made their Judgment on me for all my past transgressions.  Some of them deserved, others not.  I don't regret trying to make something of myself even if I had to act ruthlessly.  That's how I made something of myself in the Colonies and because I wasn't a woman who observed all the rules of gentility that women were supposed to observe, they thought I was a ruthless bitch.  But any man who acted the same way.....they always treated differently.  A man who acted that way was someone to admire.  Never a woman.
     "But.....I do have one regret.  I regret I turned criminal.  I could have achieved what I wanted if I'd kept that impulse in check.  I never had to do that.  I had more going for myself than I gave credit and I threw all that away because I wanted it all too soon and too fast.  I could have made myself a woman for people to admire and respect instead of becoming a total.....caricature of myself.  I can see now that's why I was so trapped by then.  Losing control of events.  I could have.....and should have acted differently after I was free from having to rely on Antipas."
     Suddenly, Lydia's voice took on a sad quality.  And Rosalind could tell the one-time Siress was fighting back the urge to cry.
     "I'll never get a chance to say this to anyone, so I might as well say it now while I can still talk.. The biggest mistake I ever made in my life, and the one I wish I could do over is this.  I wish.....I wish I'd done it differently with Kevin.  Of all the men I've ever had in my life......he was the only one I wish I'd had the courage to treat differently.  Because.....if I had.....he wouldn't have left me.  If I could have......been someone he could have appreciated for more than what I gave him as a lover.....I would have......and should have done it."
     Her voice then cracked.
     "I never said the words 'I love you' to any man in my life.  But if there was just one man I wish I could have learned to say them to......it would have been him.  But I guess......I just wasn't capable of doing it.  My loss.  Not his.  I imagine he's doing better in his life now.  Like all of them.  But if there's a way you can ever find this out, dear Kevin......forgive me for using you.  Forgive me for not seeing what you could have been to me.  Forgive me."
     And then, her voice slowly recovered as if she wanted the last words to be with the dignity befitting the woman she had once been.
     "That concludes my summary of what happened to me on this planet.  I am taking the precaution of hiding this inside a chest inside an abandoned survival hut that is furthest from our dwelling place in the caves.  It's already been ransacked in the past with everyone ripping the old clothes inside to shreds and smashing all the old equipment as a sign of our break with the 'old ways' as Antipas called them before he lost the ability to talk.  I don't think anyone's going to go back and rummage through it again, except......if someone from outside comes this way.  If someone from the Galactica comes back here for whatever reason, or if maybe the Pegasus finds out.  Maybe the Zykonians will have a reason.  I don't know.  At least.....I preserved the record as best I could while I still could.  Maybe someone else will unlock the secret of what the ancient Kobollians were doing on this planet and what kind of experiments they were conducting that left behind this horrible legacy that's affected all of us.
     "So ends this report of Siress Lydia of Aries.  Former member of the Quorum of the Twelve and Council Vice-President........Goodbye."


     Rosalind shut off the device and calmly put it back in the folds of her tunic.  Her expression stone-faced as she looked across towards the cliff face and the visible cave formations that were a little more than half a kilometrone distant.
     From a technical standpoint, she knew she didn't have to go there and come face-to-face with Lydia again as well as the others whom she hadn't even seen yet.  She'd heard everything she knew she could possibly learn from the recording, and if there were any other details then the book Lieutenant Katkov had retrieved would likely fill in the rest.  The newest wrinkle to the whole story was Lydia's insistence that the ancient machinery buried deep inside the caves was of Kobollian origin, and yet the book in the buried metal container was ancient Risik.  Did that tie-in to what Lydia was talking about regarding "genetic engineering" experiments?  The two races she'd mentioned, Zohrlochs and Harkaelians, struck no chord of recognition with Rosalind.  Clearly those were races encountered by the Galactica during their journey.  Giving her a reminder that there was still so much she didn't know about what the Galactica and Pegasus had done and how she would have to keep all of this secret from her Cylon overseers.  She couldn't lose sight of the fact that she was still their prisoner.  Forced to do their bidding in a seemingly last ditch hope to save the lives of several hundred thousand people who'd been taken from the Colonies to work in the tapped-out Cylon Neutrino mines.  Already thrust into this odd relationship with the Risik race who had Neutrino and had their own designs for conquest on the Thirteenth Tribe.  The safest thing for her to do was just declare mission accomplished, turn around and go back to the scout ship, and from there back to the Dreadnought to make a report to Commander Clubb, and from there back to the BaseShip to make a report to Needa, Gracchus and Lucifer.
     But damn it.....if I leave now, I'll be haunted for the rest of my life.  I'll mentally crack at some point and likely frack things up as far as my primary mission goes.  I have to look in that cave and see what they're *all* like!
     Slowly, she began walking toward the cliff face, her eyes focused on the cave.  Not noticing that the distant volcano that loomed beyond the cliff was starting to give off more smoke.


     "Sir," the Risik corporal who had been acting as co-pilot for the scout vessel said grimly, "The Commander is trying to raise us."
     Katkov let out a weary sigh, "Don't bother with the private channel.  We might as well both hear what he has to say."
     The corporal nodded and flicked the switch.
     "Katkov?" Clubb's voice came through clearly.  "How much longer are you going to be down there?  I'm getting pressured by those infernal Cylons every quarter tenar it seems like."
     "We'll be off the surface in one tenar maximum, Commander," Katkov said without hesitation.  "I give you my word."
     "You may not have that long," the Commander warned.  "We've been taking scanner readings and from the looks of it, there's a volcano not too far from your section that might be on the verge of erupting."
     Damn, the lieutenant thought.  But he quickly answered, "We'll be off the ground at the slightest sign of trouble there."
     "Just what is she up to?" he demanded, "Can I give them any hints on that?"
     "I wouldn't recommend that, sir," Katkov glanced over at the book he'd retrieved, "In fact.....I would recommend that when we return to the Dreadnought, you have a very.....private conversation with us first."


     Rosalind felt the tension mounting inside her body with each step that brought her closer to the cave entrance.  And with it, her grip on the laser pistol tightened as well.  Hoping and praying that she wouldn't have to use it.  But that was likely going to depend on just how much humanity was still left inside these outcasts from the Galactica who had taken a gamble on starting anew away from the confines of their Prison Barge and ultimately lost.
     Maybe.....maybe I can give them one last word of comfort.  Now that I know things they don't know.
     The one-time Cabinet Minister came to a stop just five metrones from the entrance.  She could already make out what looked like torchlight from inside.  And her eyes could detect the the shapes of figures moving about, but in slouched positions seemingly.
     Here goes.  May the Lords watch over me.  Please.
     She stepped inside, showing no signs of fear.  No signs of panic.  Prepared for anything.
     And then suddenly she felt powerful arms grabbing her from behind and a hand coming down over her mouth.  Unable to scream she managed to twist her head slightly and saw a face that was ugly and snarling behind an enormous scraggly beard.  The laser pistol fell from her hand and clattered as the enormous man lifted her off her feet and carried her forward toward the back of the cave.  In the dim torchlight Rosalind could make out over two dozen people, two-thirds of them men, all wearing animal skins.  All of them cut in similar styles that left one shoulder exposed as if they'd decided on some style of uniformity.  They all had expressions of pure primal savageness that made it impossible for her to believe any of them had been civilized at one time.  The only thing that indicated where they slept were rocks piled up.  At the far side to her left,  she glimpsed a large pile of animal bones which undoubtedly came from gazelles they'd consumed over who knew how long a period.
     Finally, by the back of the cave, he dropped her to the ground.  She got to her feet and saw that there was another level of the cave some six feet above her.  There was no incline that led up to it, it was clearly accessible only by climbing it.  On that level, she could see a much younger man, standing tall and proud.  Bearded and with unkempt hair well past his shoulders like the others, and yet there was an air of authority about him that seemed to set him apart from the rest.  As Rosalind squinted at him, she suddenly realized that he could only be one man.  Antipas the Younger.  He held a spear in his right hand and was glaring down at her with unfriendly hostility.  A hostility made clear when he let out a loud roaring grunt and motioned his spear at her.  And then.....to one side of him, she saw the unmistakable form of Lydia.  A tortured look of recognition on her face.
     "Listen to me," she struggled to find her voice, and then she managed to shout, "Listen to me!  Antipas!  Lydia!  All of you!  Listen to me!"
     A hush came over the entire cave interior as the grunting and chattering from the other inhabitants ceased.  She wondered if that was shock over hearing forgotten speech or if maybe.....just maybe there was some recognition of her?  She knew she'd been a notorious public figure in the Colonies in her own right.  It was time to capitalize on that.
     "Listen to me, all of you!" she spoke as loudly as she could, "I am Siress Rosalind, formerly Secretary of the Education Directorate for the Colonies, and.....President Adar's mistress!  You remember me from all the gossip in the Colonial press!  The one who always had Adar's ear on everything!  The one he relied on and depended on completely.  The ambitious woman who saw herself as Adar's successor after Peace was secured!"
     She looked around as she shouted her words out and saw only blank, indifferent stares.  Nothing that indicated recognition.  She was convinced they were reacting with curiosity to the sounds of her words because they'd now reached a stage of regression where they'd forgotten that they'd once known how to do it themselves.
     "Listen to me," she went on, "I....want you to know.  All of you that.....the Colonies are free now.  Lydia....Lydia she must have told you how the Pegasus was going back to the Colonies to help a Resistance movement there.  Well.....the Resistance got some help from the Cylons who are cooperating with them, and now......now they've won their freedom back and not even that ugly snake the Imperious Leader knows it!  They're getting desperate, those Cylons.  Do you know how I know that?  Because they sent me out in a BaseShip all the way out into the Alpha Quadrant not to find the Galactica, but because they've run out of fracking Neutrino!  They don't have any left!  That's why they never sent a whole task force of BaseShips after you! They're so desperate to make contact with other races that might have Neutrino that's why they think they need me to act as a more congenial emissary than any of them could ever be!  And that's.....that's why I was here.  We were passing through this region and the Zykonians had told us there were Humans living here.  They wanted to see if I'd find out anything.......But.....but I'm not going to tell them what I found out here!  I may have to work for the Cylons to help save the lives of a half million prisoners they're holding on the Cylon Home World, but I'm never going to let them know the Colonies are free and the Pegasus is lying in wait, and is probably going to spring a giant trap on them someday that'll bring the whole gallmonging, fracking Cylon Empire down to its knees once and for all!  You can all be at peace about that.  And.....be at peace with yourselves, somehow......."
     Her voice trailed off as she realized she'd spent herself completely.  She'd poured everything out into her words, hoping they might be able to reach them somehow.  Perhaps she even wondered if by some miracle, the sound of someone telling them about things that had to have mattered to them once might even undo the whole process of regression they'd undergone and turn them into normal human beings once again.  Now that she was done, all her strength was gone and Rosalind collapsed to the floor, breaking into sobs.  She became aware of darkening shadows as figures approached her from all sides.  In the corner of her eye, she saw the looming form of the one who had dragged her forward, a hulking beast whom she was sure was the henchman who'd been called Press.  Within her, there was only a sense of failure.
     "NO!"
     The sound of another voice caused the head of every person in the cave to whip up.  Including Rosalind.  It had unmistakably come from Lydia who stood on the edge of the upper cave level glaring down at everyone with the most imperial expression and bearing possible.  Antipas was staring at her in astonishment.
     And then.....the woman who had once been Vice President of the Council motioned her arm.  "Let......her......GO!"
     Lydia then turned to face Antipas, glaring at him, "I.....comm-AND it!"
     To Rosalind's amazement, Antipas suddenly backed away from Lydia as though he'd been intimidated into submission.  Lydia then sat down, swung her legs out over the ledge and gently dropped to the level below.  The others all parted to make room for her, as the woman they had been conditioned to think of as their leader's consort came up to Rosalind and gently helped her to her feet.  Their eyes met each other and for the first time....Rosalind saw only the old Lydia she had known and even admired.
     "Let's go," Lydia whispered as took her by the arm and slowly began to lead her out.  All of the other one-time prisoners turned troglodytes parting to make room as the two women slowly made their way toward the cave entrance.  Halfway there, Rosalind absently bent down and picked up her laser pistol that had fallen away.  Again, no one made a move on them.
     The slow walk lasted a centon until finally.....they were out in the sunlight.  Lydia kept her hold on her until they had gone ten feet.
     "You.....heard.....the rest?" her voice was a harsh rasp, but more distinct than it had been at any time since Rosalind had seen her.
     Rosalind nodded. " I did.  I....understand.  It's.....down in the cave that explains what happened," a wave of sadness hit her, "Lydia, I wish I could do something for all of you."
     "You can't," the auburn-haired Aerian woman shook her head, "It's.....irreversible.  None of them.....can talk.  Soon......I won't.  I.....I'm ready to face......my final fate.  With.....with.....Anti----pas.  His.....mate.  Savage.....trog-lo----dyte.  My.....punish-ment."
     And then, for the first time Lydia forced a smile.  "Thank.....you for what.....you said.  It's....wonderful......to know.....things......are working.......I......I would have....  fracked.....everything up.  The Lords......knew what.....what...." she clenched her teeth in determination to get the rest of her words out, "they were......doing......banishing me.....here."
     "I'm sorry," Rosalind clasped her hand.  "I'm sorry."
     "Don't," Lydia shook her head.  "Just.....if you.....ever.....contact the.....Galac--tica......tell.....tell," she trembled as she tried to force the next part out, "Kevin that.....I'm sorry for.....everything I did that.....made him hate me.  Let him.....know that."
     "I promise," Rosalind vowed, "On the Book of the Word, I promise!"
     "Thank.....you," she sighed and let go.  "That's....all."
     Lydia had taken one step back when suddenly there was a loud violent clap that shook the ground beneath him.
     "Oh my God," Rosalind whispered, "The volcano."
     "Go.....go!"  Lydia managed to raise her voice as she started to stumble back toward the cave entrance.  "We......we go below......Machine room.....if this were to happen!  Shelter for us.  Antipas.....even has us.....praying to that machine as our new god......it made us what we are. You.....go!"
     "You might get buried alive in there!" Rosalind shouted.  
     "If....we're.....lucky," she forced another smile, this one mirthless, "Go....Rosalind.  GO!"
     With anguish, Rosalind turned and started to move away from her......only to stop when she saw above the trees a kilometrone away the unmistakable saucer shape of the Risik scout vessel.
     She turned back and looked at Lydia one last time.  The auburn-haired Aerian seemed to be smiling in relief because she'd caught sight of the craft and knew that Rosalind would be safe.  And then....Lydia staggered back into the cave and disappeared into the blackness.
     Turning away for the last time, Rosalind began to run as fast as she could.  Fiery embers emitted by the volcano were now striking the ground in front of her.


     "There she is!" the corporal pointed through the cockpit window.
     "Put us on the ground right in front of her!" Katkov barked.
     The scout vessel made a quicker than normal vertical descent and came to stop.  The door to the hatch at the bottom was hastily activated as Katkov leapt out of his chair and headed down the steps.  He emerged and saw Rosalind staggering toward the craft from about twenty metrones away.  From his vantage point, Katkov had a perfect view of the volcano.  It was belching reddish-orange fireballs into the air and signs of flowing lava were also evident.  One fireball then landed abruptly ten metrones to the left of the ship and caused the ground to violently shake.  He could see Rosalind thrown to the ground and struggle back up.  There was  weariness in her movement as if it was now too much of a strain for her to go on any further.  Throwing caution to the wind, Katkov dashed out, picked her up in his arms and hurriedly carried her the rest of the way in.
     "Get going!" the Lieutenant shouted as soon as he was inside.  On cue, the hatch slammed shut behind them and the scout vessel was off the ground even before they were halfway up the steps.  By the time they reached the control deck level and Katkov had set Rosalind down in the passenger seat, the scout vessel was already well into the air and above the height level of the volcano's plume.
     Exhausted, Rosalind touched the side of her tunic and felt the recorder still there.  She caught a final glimpse of the volcano through the window and then managed to mutter two words.
     "Goodbye, Lydia."
     And then she fainted from exhaustion and was out for the rest of the journey back to the Dreadnought.

Chapter Four

     "This delay in returning Siress Rosalind to us for debriefing is most intolerable, Commander Clubb," Needa's voice was full of displeasure.
     "She's been through a shock, Commander Needa," Clubb retorted, without showing the slightest sign of being intimidated.  "That was a most harrowing experience for her on the planet, and I think she would be much better off recovering in the presence of those who are.....closer to her on a biological level at the very least.  You Cylons are clearly not capable of performing any kind of medical procedures since it's obviously not necessary for any of you."
     "Quite true," the BaseShip commander conceded.  "Still----,"
     "You will wait until she is ready to go, Commander Needa," Clubb cut him off.  "Since I've lost one of my own crew as a result of this expedition that you insisted be handled without any Cylon personnel, I think I've earned the right to have first crack at a more extensive debriefing of her.  I wouldn't want to tell our Supreme Leader that you were intransigent about that in any report I make to him!"
     Needa's silence indicated he'd gotten the message.  A negative report would mean the Risik Government might be less inclined to cooperate with the Cylons on the critical matter of Neutrino access.  When the IL Cylon spoke, his tone dripped with insincere politeness.
     "Take as much time as you need, Commander Clubb," he said.
     Clubb smiled thinly, "Thank you, Commander Needa."


     "This is the most private place on the Dreadnought," Clubb said five centons later looking across his desk at Rosalind, who looked completely recovered from her experience.  Lieutenant Katkov stood at the door, ready to keep any other member of the crew from entering. "We can be completely candid about.....everything, Siress Rosalind."
     Rosalind looked at the Risik Commander with skepticism and was silent.
     "You have to trust me, Siress.  As well as the Lieutenant, whom you already owe thanks to for saving your life.  Our scans indicate the volcanic eruptions lasted for close to one of your centars after you left.  Whoever you encountered down there is in all likelihood no longer alive, just like Sergeant Amalak."
     Hearing nothing from her, he leaned forward, "What we discuss, Sires, will never be repeated in front of any member of the Cylon crew.  I give you my word.  And I have a very good reason for keeping my word on that which I'll make clear later.  But only if you start being candid with me about everything you experienced.......and what you heard on that recorder that the Lieutenant found in your tunic after you passed out."
     Rosalind finally broke her silence, "You've played it back then?"
     "No," he shook his head, "Consider that my sign of good faith to you.  I have a feeling there's a good deal of information that you don't want to tell the Cylons.....but that same information may be the key to unlocking a secret that could shatter the very foundations of the Risik race as we've known it."
     Her eyes narrowed, "The book the Lieutenant brought back."
     "Yes," Clubb looked over at Katkov, "Katkov only has a rudimentary understanding of the ancient Risik language because his father was a scholar.  But.....what he's seen at first glance is rather......shocking.  And it is information that I believe requires me to take the both of you into confidence concerning a certain......message I received from Admiral Trilligan, Commander of the Star Force, while we were at Brylon Station."
     He returned his gaze to Rosalind, "I will reveal the contents of that message......which I have already been forced out of necessity to destroy......and explain the nature of what's been discerned from the book.  But only after you have been completely candid with us, and also let us hear that recording."
     The one time Cabinet Minister smiled crookedly, "Well, Commander, since you put it that way......."
     She pulled the recorder out of her tunic and hit the playback.  And now the two Risik officers heard the voice of Siress Lydia describing everything from the beginning.


     One centar passed.  They had finished listening to the recording and Rosalind had also provided the two Risik officers with an uncensored account of everything she had witnessed.  One that held no details back.  And now that she had also decided she had to take a gamble trusting Clubb and Katkov, she also knew she had to be candid about something else.  The information she had learned at Brylon Station that she had also kept to herself.
     "That is everything, gentlemen," she said, "May God have mercy on my soul if I find that my trust in you has been misplaced."
     Clubb said nothing at first and idly tapped his fingers.  Then, he looked over at Katkov.
     "I'm going to say this to you just once, Lieutenant," his voice was command level harsh.  "If I so much as get any inkling the Cylons have learned about these critical matters Siress Rosalind has spoken of regarding the Battlestar called Pegasus......or the true facts regarding the wife of Commander Adama, or the fact that clearly the Cylons have lost control of the so-called 'Colonies' and their Imperious Leader doesn't know it......then I will have no choice but to assume that you are the source of the leak, and you know what that means I would have to do."
     Katkov remained at attention, "Commander, I have no intention of dishonoring you, or breaking my pledge to Siress Rosalind.  All of this information is safe.  My loyalty is to you, not to the Cylons."
     "That's very good, Lieutenant," Clubb leaned back in his chair, "Does that also include your loyalty to the Star Force and Admiral Trilligan?"
     "Of course, sir."
     "And you would trust anything Admiral Trilligan had to say about matters that are taking place on our home world right now?"
     "I previously served under Admiral Trilligan before I was assigned to the Dreadnought."
     "Yes, I know," Clubb looked back at a confused Rosalind.  "Now it is my turn, Siress Rosalind, to keep my word and tell you and the Lieutenant about a message Admiral Trilligan sent to me through the Ziklagi back channels to our trading post at Brylon Station in the hopes that one day I'd find a reason to put in there, which you helped make possible.  The Admiral's message, like your recording and your experience is something I dare not let the Cylons know about because that would create serious complications for my people, as surely as your people would be at risk if they learned what you know."
     And for the next twenty centons it was Clubb's turn to recount the details of the destroyed letter given to him at Brylon Station to Rosalind and Katkov.  The Human woman's reaction was one largely of confusion since so much of this was new to her regarding the Risik government structure.  But the junior officer's reaction was very grim.
     "This is what I'm facing when we reach home," Clubb said.  "Our Supreme Leader is clearly turning into an unstable fanatic because of his obsessive desire to seek revenge on the Galactica and Commander Adama over the humiliations that took place at the prison planet Ne'Chak, and in the subsequent military engagements.  Then, suddenly from out of nowhere on a planet we just pacified, we discover limitless deposits of this substance called Neutrino that is of such great interest to the Cylons.  So our Leader, recognizing the potential for Neutrino to construct ships that could negate the military supremacy of the Galactica and the renegade Cylon BaseShip accompanying her, is pushing our society to the breaking point in a crash-building program to get a fifty to a hundred ship Fleet in place within the next two years or so.  With no regard for the food shortages he's causing for the general population, or the decline in basic manufacturing and other quality of living standards that our people have come to expect.  And according to the Admiral, the Leader's madness is further indicated by his claims to have received direct visitations from the Supreme god Belial, who he says told him about Neutrino, and that one day the Risik can expect help from 'outsiders' to assist them in the final conquest of both the Galactica and of Te'rea which you call Earth."
     Katkov lowered his head with a distinct feeling of shame.  Rosalind was slowly adding things up and decided she could finally break the ice with a question of her own.
     "If all that is true, Commander......then couldn't you easily see things from your Supreme Leader's perspective which would undoubtedly see the arrival of the Cylons as a fulfillment of this god......Belial's revelation to him?"
     The Risik Commander brought his hands together, "Until today, Siress, I had to leave one percent of room in my mind that maybe the Admiral was in the wrong and was performing an act of supreme disloyalty and treason to our people.  But.....what I first learned from Katkov in his preliminary report on the book, combined with what you have just told me now chases away that one percent from my mind forever.  I believe the Admiral.  I believe the Supreme Leader is completely mad.  And what's more....I must now believe that as the Admiral hinted in his message, that everything my people have been taught for thousands of years about our origins, and about our supposed destiny to be the rulers and overlords of the planet you call Earth.....are rooted in falsehoods and fabrications put forward by a corrupt religious and social order of which our Supreme Leader is now the worst ever embodiment of."
     Rosalind's eyes narrowed, "The connection that exists between my ancestors, the Kobollians who made that machine in the cave......and your ancestors who wrote that book that was in the container.  That's what disproves your own history."
     "Exactly," Clubb nodded and looked back at Katkov, "Your translation skills are only rudimentary, and at some point we need to have the entire book looked at by a professional translator who can be trusted.  But.....what you were able to see and read certainly tells us enough, doesn't it, Lieutenant?"
     "Yes," Katkov nodded.  "The book was written by people who say they had retreated to this world from the planet we know to be our original home world before the expulsion by the Ke'Zar forty years ago.  They say that they were forced to retreat to another planet because of what they call the....experiments that went wrong.  Experiments that resulted in a genetic line of beings, cross-bred between themselves and space travelers who said they came from a planet that reads as 'Kuh-bal' in their text.  This new racial strain then claimed to have received a divine revelation from someone calling himself 'Belial' who ordered the expulsion of the 'old ones' and thus, the new line of beings, the result of the cross-breeding engineered by the natives of 'Kuh-bal', forced the old ones to flee into the stars.  Apparently, and I am only guessing at this point, they were hoping they could find where 'Kuh-bal' was but they couldn't go any further and ended up on this particular planet.  Where apparently, they set up new experiments on their own utilizing technology and machinery the people from 'Kuh-bal' had left them with."
     "So that explains why the symbols on the machinery were in Kobollian but the book is in  the ancient Risik language," Rosalind saw things falling into place, "And what you're saying is.....the new racial strain that expelled the 'old ones' is......."
     "Ourselves," Clubb finished.  "Us.  The Risik race as we know it.  We are the product of a genetic interbreeding program with your ancestors from this planet called Kobol.  And that is what accounts for the biological similarities that later generations of Risik discovered when they first arrived on Earth and met the inhabitants who already lived there.  Because they were encountering their own.....cousins as it were."
     "And that means your own accounts regarding the initial Risik settlement of Earth and your claim to have authority to rule over the inhabitants----,"
     "Is also a lie.  Our claim to have dominion over what we call Te'ra is based on the idea that we were the first outsiders to arrive on the planet and that we interbred with an indigenous population that ultimately produced the modern racial strain of the Te'ra population today.  We have ancient texts, texts that are cloaked with such a sacred solemnity that they are placed at high levels of classification from the public that say that the next outsider race to arrive on Earth came only just after the Risik chose to abandon Te'ra because of what we call the 'Great Civil War' in our history.  But Admiral Trilligan says he has received information, undoubtedly as a result of his deeper knowledge of the Galactica encounter, that proves that the Colonials were the first outsiders to settle the planet."
     "Which is what our own history tells us," Rosalind said, wishing she'd paid more attention to her ancient history classes in her University days.  "The Exodus from Kobol when the mother planet was dying resulted in thirteen tribes of humanity going out into the stars.  Twelve that settled our original Colonies.  The Thirteenth Tribe choosing a distant planet called Earth that was first scouted by a long-range satellite called the Black Knight.  The Black Knight transmitting in real time, information on how the uninhabited planet called Earth offered more natural resources for the sustaining of human life than any other planet in the known universe.  Which is why the Thirteenth Tribe decided the increased distance from Kobol to this planet, in contrast to the twelve worlds settled by the other tribes, was an acceptable risk."
     "And that Tribe arrived first on Earth and clearly something happened to them which left them in a position to be dominated by the Risik when they arrived and exercised influence for a period of time.  I have no doubt they exercised dominion, but since the circumstances of their arrival were not what our religious leaders have claimed it to be, I can no longer trust the account of why they were compelled to abandon Earth."
     Rosalind realized that the more Clubb used the term 'Earth' instead of the preferred Risik term 'Te'ra" indicated how much she could trust him.
     "And it also undermines your claim to have a natural right to rule over Earth," Rosalind said, "That depends on your race being the first outside one to reach Earth and that the Thirteenth Tribe arrived later.  And it also depends on the idea that the people of Earth are a result of interbreeding with your race, when in fact you are the result of interbreeding with our race."
     "Exactly," the Risik commander nodded, "And now you know, Siress Rosalind, how dangerous this information is to the entire foundations of Risik society.  If the people were to realize what the truth is......the old order would collapse in an instant."
     "And do you see that as beneficial to the long-term interests of the Risik people?  Or do you prefer to carry on with a lie for the sake of preserving your civilization as you've understood it to be?" Rosalind knew she had to challenge him on that point.  The thin smile Clubb gave indicated he understood why she'd asked the question.
     "I am a loyal soldier of the Star Force, Siress.  I believe in protecting the interests of the Risik in the games of competition that go on between our race and other races.  I am willing to fight for my race to achieve those goals that safeguard our interests.  Have I ever believed in the need to achieve blind conquest and subjugation of others for its own sake?  Not wholeheartedly.  It seems to me that a war that forces another race to be more amenable to our interests can be justified, but does that mean we should step in as imperial conquerors?  I admit, that idea has never sat well with me.  Conquest means occupation and subjugation and that has always struck me as a waste of resources and manpower.  I don't have any qualms with being a formidable military power that has to know when to look out for its own interests and fight rough if it has to.....but as far as being a universal Empire in which our enemies are subjugated or killed?  I have no stomach for that.  That's why I've enjoyed my assignment patrolling a region of space that not even the Supreme Leader has any interest in expanding Risik influence to."
     He leaned forward and looked her in the eye, "So yes, Siress Rosalind.  I believe that if the old religious and political order were to collapse, it would be beneficial for my people.  And Admiral Trilligan recognizes that too.  Which is why it's imperative that you and I and Lieutenant Katkov have a private meeting with him after our arrival in the Risik capital, and after he's gotten the 'official line' from Needa, Gracchus and Lucifer on why the Cylons want Neutrino.  He must know what the false truth is before we can enlighten him on the real truth."
     "Is Admiral Trilligan capable of bringing down the old order?"
     "Not by himself," Katkov shook his head, "It requires a collective effort.  One that would have to break control of State Security and other institutions that are loyal to the Supreme Leader and the existing order.  It would require.....considerable time to bring this about."
     "But maybe not enough time to prevent the completion of this fifty to a hundred ship  fleet made from Neutrino and sending them after my people on the Galactica and ultimately the people of Earth," Rosalind said.  "And maybe not enough time to prevent your Supreme Leader from cutting a deal that gets the Cylon Empire access to Neutrino supplies that enables them to destroy the Resistance."
     "None of us can tell at this point, Siress," Clubb said.  "For now.....we have to keep this information to ourselves.....and take the next step forward only when we arrive in the Risik capital.  I would assume that upon our arrival, the Cylon commanders are going to have less need for you to act as an official emissary and that should give you the latitude of some freedom in the Risik capital.  That will likely be the optimum time when a private meeting with Admiral Trilligan can be set up."
     "I have to assume your Admiral will want more than just my word and my summary of events on what I saw on the planet," Rosalind pointed out.  "Does that mean the recording of Siress Lydia should be retained so he can get a chance to listen to it?"
     Clubb let out a reluctant sigh, "Unfortunately, I see no other way, Siress.  Admiral Trilligan will need as much tangible proof as he can get.  And the recording of this Siress Lydia, while not as important as the book is from a purely Risik standpoint, is still needed to provide an independent verification of the Kobollian connection from someone who didn't see the connection with the Risik race."
     He looked her in the eye, "You must give it to me, Siress.  You can't afford to have it on you aboard the BaseShip."
     "Obviously," Rosalind said, "But I want to see where you're locking it away so I can have some peace of mind about its whereabouts, Commander."
     "Agreed," he turned back to Katkov, "Lieutenant, I am going to ask you to leave the room.  Not because I don't trust you, but if there were ever a situation where you found yourself subject to any kind of interrogation by Commander Needa or any other Cylon, I don't want you to know the answer to any questions about where a recording is if they should happen to ask."
     "I understand, Commander," the junior officer said with total respect, "This is not an easy situation for any of us."
     "No it is not," he acknowledged.  "Report to the Bridge and tell Commander Needa that Siress Rosalind will be released to them in half a tenar.....centar from now."
     "Of course, sir."
     As soon as he was gone, Clubb looked at Rosalind who was holding on to the recording device.  Slowly, with the most sympathetic look he could summon he extended his hand.
     Twenty microns of silence elapsed before Rosalind finally handed it over to him.


     A centar later, Rosalind found herself back aboard the BaseShip, this time in Needa's private command center.  Gracchus was there along with Lucifer.  
     It was time for her to give a sanitized version of events to them.
     "These people, if they came from the Galactica......"
     "We know they did, Siress.  The Zykonians were convinced of that," Needa cut her off.
     "The Zykonians received one report from a satellite that eventually turned out to be defective.  Not what I would consider a thorough analysis," the former Cabinet Minister knew she had to walk the fine edge of knowing how to look unintimidated without losing her cool completely.  "Yes, I saw signs of what resembled old Colonial survival huts.  I suppose that is the link to the Galactica you need.  But did I see anything with the Galactica's name on it, or did I hear anyone tell me they came from the Galactica?  No I didn't because all of the people on that planet have undergone some kind of regression on the evolutionary scale.  They've become primitive grunting troglodytes    That's why one of them blindly threw a spear at Sergeant Amalak and killed him before running off into the foliage."
     "What is a troglodyte?" Lucifer interrupted.
     She looked directly at the other IL Cylon.  "It means quite literally in the Gemonese tongue, a 'cave-dweller.'  But in our popular fiction it takes on a broader term to mean a cave-dweller who has lost their capacity for civilized intelligence.  Unable to speak, unable to think.  If one believes in heretical doctrines that our species started out as a form of lower animal life that eventually over millions of yahrens transformed into human beings, then a troglodyte in that sense would be someone who has the body of a human but the mind of an animal."
     "I see," Baltar's one-time aide noted, "You do not make for an allowance that these.....troglodytes were already on the planet and perhaps......killed those who came from the Galactica?"
     "A true troglodyte shows signs of having lived in a rough environment all their lives," Rosalind was glad she was being given opportunities to go into details that ultimately told them nothing of significance.  "When I see troglodytes who have painted nails and are still wearing jewelry on their fingers, that means they didn't start out that way."
     "Were you able to find out what happened to them?" Gracchus spoke up.
     "I saw some things that seemed to hint at some kind of calamity that took place during their settlement," Rosalind knew it was time to put on the greatest acting performance of her life. "When I explored the primary cave that these troglodytes were living in, I found in a lower level, a giant piece of ancient machinery that went back thousands of yahrens at least.  This machine seemed to be.....venerated by the troglodytes as if they regarded it as a god."
     "Why?"
     Rosalind shrugged, "I can only assume because in the backs of their altered minds, they see that device as the thing that helped make them what they are."
     "Where did such a device come from?" the DG Cylon pressed.
     "How should I know?" she snapped with irritation, "I worked in Education, but my job was in Administration, not ancient scholarship.  I don't know ancient languages.  I can only make a lay person's guess that some alien race was on that planet thousands of yahrens ago conducting experiments for a reason we'll never know.  Probably something that had to do with genetics if it was something that could produce harmful side effects on the brain.  Maybe such an experiment backfired and long ago in the past turned the aliens who built that machine into troglodytes on the planet who then died off, leaving it uninhabited until these people arrived."
     "Such a pity we can't have any further exploration of the planet to answer that question of who created that machine and for what purpose," Needa said ruefully.
     "The volcanic eruption likely sealed off the cave and entombed all troglodytes on the planet," Rosalind said, "It would be a total waste of time and resources for you to try and excavate the opening when it won't give you any hints about the Galactica, the Pegasus or Neutrino.  The sooner you have us resume course for the Risik capital, the sooner you can take care of those matters which I'm sure the Imperious Leader is more interested in hearing about."
     Gracchus let out a chuckle of admiration, "You once again prove why His Eminence saw your importance for this mission, Siress Rosalind.  You have an ability to.....cut through the felgercarb as your people say."
     "You'll forgive me if I'm not in the mood to thank you for the compliment, Ambassador Gracchus," Rosalind said.  "I've just been through a very harrowing experience that nearly cost me my life.  If that had happened, I think the Imperious Leader wouldn't have been impressed in the slightest that you put me in that position."
     "I assure you, you will go through no such similar risks again between now and the Risik capital, my dear Rosalind," Needa said with some reassurance.  "Is there anything else you can think of that we should know?"
     "What is there to say?" Rosalind retorted sarcastically, "I went to a planet filled with people who I don't think remember where they came from any longer and who are probably dead now.  Can you think of anything I should have seen?"
     "I suppose not," the BaseShip Commander sighed.  "You may return to your quarters, Siress Rosalind."
     With pride in her bearing she rose and walked out.  It was only when she was in the corridor that she let out the deepest sigh of relief imaginable.


     "Well?" Needa turned to his two fellow Cylons.
     "I'm not impressed," Lucifer acknowledged.  "She had to have seen more than just that.  And why would she have needed so much time aboard the Dreadnought to be debriefed there if this is all she had to report?"
     "Commander Clubb said she was recuperating in their Life Station from the shock of nearly losing her life when the volcano erupted," Needa said.  "The scan data confirms a volcano on the surface did erupt.  Her story clearly holds together on that point."
     "You realize what that means, if she hasn't been candid with us?" Gracchus pointed out, "It means that Commander Clubb would be privy to information he's not telling us either."
     "That thought has occurred to me," the BaseShip Commander nodded, "Do you agree, Lucifer?"
     "I do," his fellow IL Cylon nodded.  "There is a most.....suspicious quality about Commander Clubb.  I hope his superiors in the Risik military and government do not share it."
     "But for now we must treat Commander Clubb and his crew with nothing less than total courtesy and deference," Gracchus warned.  "If we don't.....then the Risik government has no incentive to negotiate with us on Neutrino.....or anything.  Our mission will have ended in failure."
     "Unless we were to take matters into our own hands," Lucifer said cryptically.
     Needa glanced at him, "What do you mean by that?"
     "If it is true that the Risik military suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Galactica and the treasonous BaseShip under Baltar's command, that would surely indicate that even a single BaseShip such as ourselves could be in a position to impose.....terms on them would it not?"
     Needa, who had always despised Lucifer, had to struggle to keep his tone level.
     "His Eminence has forbidden any military campaigns except in an extreme situation of self-defense."
     "His Eminence is not on top of the situation.  Especially since you continue to leave him uninformed about certain matters even beyond that of my.....resurrection as it were."
     "I have my reasons for that, Lucifer," Needa retorted.  Gracchus meanwhile suppressed the urge to sigh as he was being forced to watch another catty exchange between rival IL's.  
     "Indeed," Lucifer said dryly.  "You wish to avoid giving him bad news, which is how he would treat news of my being alive.  But is there really any need to maintain this silence to him regarding the survival of the Pegasus?"
     "Until we know for certain whether she hooked up with the Galactica or headed back into charted space," Needa stressed.  "I will tell His Eminence about the Pegasus only when we've learned the answer to that question."
     "And if the Pegasus did turn back to charted space after she was at Brylon Station, how would you ever presume to find confirmation of that?" Lucifer's voice rose.  "You're taking a most dangerous gamble on that subject, my dear Needa.  One that could prove disastrous if what's left of our Empire is unprepared to handle the sudden re-emergence of a fully operating Battlestar in its own.....backyard I believe the term is.  If that is where the Pegasus is and not with the Galactica, then His Eminence will not be pleased by your long-term silence on the matter of them being alive."
     "My decision on that point is final, Lucifer," Needa held his ground.  "There will be no mention of the Pegasus in my next report to him."
     "As you wish," his voice suddenly became deferential again, "After all, you are in command."
     "And it's going to stay that way, Lucifer," Needa looked him in the eye, "Do you understand?"
     "Of course," he affirmed, "Of course."
     Watching it, Gracchus had only one thought going through his head.  That it was no longer a question of if Lucifer made a move on Needa, but when.
     He had no intention of choosing sides before that happened.


     Once Rosalind was back in her quarters, the first thing she did was go to the porthole and look at the planet which was receding from view, taking up the size of no more than a small denomination coin now.  If she put her thumb up she would have covered it completely.
     Are they still alive down there?  Did they make it through the eruption?  And would it really be more merciful if they'd just died?  How can any of them live like that?  Their minds gone.  Their ability to reason probably gone if its true they were starting to worship that machine as a deity.  Does anyone really deserve a fate like that?  Even if they were all hardened criminals to begin with?
     Poor Lydia, she sighed.  Such a waste.  Of all the women who had potential she could have gone the furthest if she'd done things right.  I always used to thank the Lords she wasn't from Gemon or she might have set her sights on Adar.  But back then she wasn't interested in politics, only power in the industrial realm and living it up.  Somehow.....all that changed when she ended up on the Council after the Galactica fled.  As if she got corrupted with the idea of political power by Antipas, who was already crooked and corrupt to begin with.  Then learning too well from him so that after Antipas's crimes caught up with him, she just.....got obsessed.
     She thought of how sad Lydia had sounded regarding the end of the relationship she'd had with the man named Kevin Byrne.  A native of Earth rescued by the Galactica not long after Baltar's defection.  She seemed to pinpoint that as the source of when she turned to a darker path in her pursuit of power that had led to her final downfall.  Not blaming him but blaming herself.  
     Remembering that Kevin Byrne's name had also been in the Risik files Commander Clubb had provided, Rosalind went over to her small work area that had been provided for her and went back through the materials.  It didn't take long for her to find it.  Byrne had been among those Earth natives delivering angry messages of warning to the Risik Supreme Leader in the period following the Galactica's successful military encounters with them.  When Rosalind saw his face for the first time, she realized why Lydia would have found him attractive from a physical standpoint.  Someone not young but who had carried his age well with just a tiny bit of grey in the brown hair.  She couldn't tell from the close-up if he was wearing a Colonial flight uniform or something else.  When he began to speak, it was a voice of resonance and conviction.
     "This message is for the Risik Supreme Leader and his advisors, or should I say, lackeys and bootlickers.  I am Captain Kevin Byrne, of the United States Navy, from the Planet Earth. Now, you're probably wondering what someone from a....primitive world is doing this far out in the galaxy, but I'm sure Sub-Commander Morovik has told you.  Two of us survived and were rescued by the Colonials.  Then we found a derelict ship of yours, and found an Earth woman in a stasis pod, and after she was revived, she recounted her abduction and torture at the hands of your people.  After that, came the encounter with Lemeshik's ship, and you know everything that came out of that.  We had every right to conduct the raid at Ne'Chak and rescue the people held there. While we do regret any civilian casualties, there are no regrets about the raid itself. And, if the prison colony with those you abducted from Earth is on this Fleet's course for Earth? We're taking them with us. They'll be going where those you held at Ne'Chak belong: home.
     "Now, I have a message for you and your bootlicking sycophants: Leave us alone. We don't need or want your 'help', nor do we want your brand of  'Civilization and Order.'  When we get to Earth, our governments will be notified, and we'll be doing everything in our power to get ready for any....return visits. We will defend ourselves and make common cause with the Ke'zar and the other races you subjugated long ago. People who have the same view of you as we do. As invaders, and not any kind of sick and perverted excuse for salvation.  Want to avoid further conflict?  Treat us as equals, and maybe we can get along. If you do return with hostile intent? We'll fight. Then we'll come looking for you. Your lying toilet-paper scrolls won't mean much when a hundred ships like this Battlestar, the BaseShip, or my Constellation come crashing into your system. Like I said: want to avoid further conflict? Leave us alone and treat us as equals. If you don't?  Well, that's your problem."
     At that point, Byrne gave way to the other Earth natives who had been Risik prisoners in the past.  Rosalind shut the recording off and smiled with admiration.  There was an aura of pure integrity in Kevin Byrne.  A man of his principles was indeed someone Lydia could have seen as a powerful ally to further her interests if she could also have him as a lover.  But clearly, Lydia's ambition had ultimately butted heads with Kevin Byrne's sense of integrity and that's why Lydia had lost him.  Setting in motion the events that led to her downfall in the Fleet......and a banishment to a desolate world that had now ended horrifically for her and everyone else.
     Byrne's hostile insults aimed at the Risik Supreme Leader also confirmed part of what she'd learned from Clubb.  If the Leader had seen this message it would have filled him with an obsessive desire for revenge that was now, according to the Commander of the Risik Star Force, putting an enormous strain on resources for the Risik people and forcing the civilians to undergo hardships they weren't used to.  Clearly, that was the mark of a madman.
     The question that now remained though was how would this madness influence the Leader's ability to make a deal with the Cylons on Neutrino?  Would he demand concessions that he felt he could get away with when he wouldn't be facing a formidable task force of Cylon warships?  Would he be cooperative?  Might he even insist on having this very BaseShip be part of any pursuit force aimed at the Galactica once his hundred ship Neutrino fleet was ready?  The last prospect was the one Rosalind found most chilling.  If that happened and the Cylons felt inclined to go along with it, then it could be yahrens before any supplies of Neutrino could realistically get back to the Cylon Home System......which meant that there was little chance of fortunes improving for the near half-million humans in bondage whose lives were the reason why Rosalind had agreed to be part of this.
     Unless the Pegasus can do something soon.  Maybe it all comes down to them to be the instruments of their liberation.  Maybe that part is really out of my hands now and I just have ot hope.....and pray that Needa doesn't tell the Imperious Leader about them yet......and that they never find out what I had to tell Clubb and Katkov about the Pegasus headed back to the Colonies to help the Resistance.
     She shut off her terminal and went back to the porthole.  The planet wasn't visible any longer.  It might have still been in her field of vision as a tiny speck of light against the backdrop of stars, but she couldn't tell.  She could only ponder what it was like back there.....and whether or not Lydia was still suffering.....or at peace at last.

Epilogue

     "Commander Volahd intercepted the latest message to the Imperious Leader," Cain reported over the communication link that hooked the Pegasus up to both Adama on the Galactica and to Commander Deval on Caprica.  "There wasn't much substance in it.  Just a general report that they checked out a planet that had nothing of importance and that they're due in the Risik capital in the next few sectans.  The good news.....still no mention of the Pegasus."
     "Lords be praised," Adama sighed from his end, while sitting next to him, Ila squeezed his hand encouragingly.
     "That backs up what Governor Malus tells us," Deval chimed in.  "Things are still quiet as far as the Imperious Leader's communiques to him go.  Not the slightest hint the Top Snake thinks something's amiss."
     "I have to admit the longer this goes on, the more it baffles me," Cain confessed. "Either the Zykonians managed to keep our stop at Brylon Station a total secret, which makes no sense because the Risik Trading Post there would have known about us......or else this Commander Needa is either stupid or engaging in some kind of plot of his own against the High Command."
     "You'll take the outcome either way," Ila chimed in which broke the tension and made all the participants on the link laugh.
     "Yes, we will," Cain agreed.  "Especially since we're now just a sectar away from running our first test on the Ravashol pulsar system from our missile banks.  If all goes well.....we should finally have the Pegasus underway for the Colonies not long afterwards."
     "Which we're all looking forward to," Deval said.  "The reclamation efforts are really picking up steam now.  Some of the Colonies now feel comfortable requesting Cylon help in repairing infrastructure."
     "No problems with loyalist elements in their ranks?" Adama asked.
     "None, Commander Adama.  That whole suicide fighter incident on Sagittaria the night the treaty was announced is the only instance where something like that happened.  I think the total sense of dishonor in that is what made any other centurions back off from acting on similar impulses.  Of course we're also helped by the fact that the information about the true origins of the Cylon race has made the rounds to all Cylon personnel in the Colonies.  Now they have a true conception of who the so-called 'Makers' were and that the one in their history who was always revered and provided the voice for all the Imperious Leaders actually corrupted their true purpose of existence."
     "Just a thought," Adama mused, "Maybe.....if that information could somehow be programmed into all the Cylons still in the Home System......that might cause an internal collapse without the need for a final large-scale military assault."
     "Trying to steal my thunder, Adama?" Cain chuckled, which again brought some much needed laughter to the conversation.  "Seriously though, that might help from an intelligence standpoint as far as softening them up goes.  I have toyed with the idea that some Cylon pilots from our Phoenix Squadron group might try an infiltration mission that could get that information programmed into their network.  If something like that could weaken their forces ahead of time, then it would put me in a better position to finish them off once and for all when I move in for the kill with a fully functioning pulsar weapon.  But I'm not going to start drawing up an actual battle plan until the damn thing is in place and when we're in the Colonies and I can go over this directly with Governor Malus."
     "Sound thinking," Ila said.  "Malus may not be able to be command in the field but he has to sign off on your plan to achieve proper unity of action."
     "Enough about matters on our end though," Cain said, "How do things stand on your end?  Have you had any luck finding planetary systems with Neutrino deposits?"
     "Unfortunately no," Adama said. "I've commissioned our Chief Scientist, Dr. Wilker, to see if there is any possibility of developing something similar to Neutrino through synthetic means, but since that is something the Cylons couldn't figure out, the chances are not good."
     "I wish I had the freedom to go back into the Risik Frontier and wipe out their industrial capacity with the pulsar weapon if I could," Cain sighed.  "I'm sorry you have to have this long-term threat hanging over your head, especially when you're so close to Earth now."
     "I'm sure the Lords will give us the answer in their own good time," Ila chimed.  "We've all come so far from where we were the night of the Destruction.  If we keep faith.....we'll survive what's still to come."
     "I still like to rely on my old instincts, but.....I have come a long way in understanding the power of prayer," the Juggernaut admitted, "Just as I'm sure Commander Deval and everyone else in the Colonies have done so."
     "We certainly have," the Caprican leader nodded.  "Commander Adama, I know I speak for everyone in the Colonies that we keep you in our prayers every day......and we all look forward to the day when your safe arrival on Earth means the final reunification of all 13 Colonies at long last."
     "As do we, Deval," the Galactica commander.  "We appreciate the news you keep sending us, and the lists of confirmed survivors who are emerging from hiding.  It's been a wonderful morale booster for us."
     "And there'll be more to follow as it comes in," Deval said, "Our first post-Armistice harvest is yielding a good crop.  People are starting to eat normal diets again without excess rationing.  It's....incredible how there's a real spirit of Renaissance taking place on all ten planets.  Some planets are further along than others, but......there is this wonderful sense of starting over that I know we're all embracing and none of us want to lose."
     "Just as we don't want to lose what Earth will mean for us when we get there."  Ila said, "The next thing we learn should be when the BaseShip reaches the Risik capital.....and if some kind of agreement with the Cylons is worked out."
      "Volahd's team on Gomorrah have a close eye and ear on everything that passes back from them to the Cylon capital," Cain said.  "The next time they hear anything.....we'll know."


            After the connection was broken, Cain sighed and warily stretched himself.  Kylie, who had been watching but not participating, came up behind him and gently rubbed his shoulders.
     "So close," he muttered, "So close to the testing date.  If we can get past that and get to the Colonies before they find out about us.....I can handle anything from that point forward."
     "You can handle anything now," his wife said simply.  "If they throw a curve at us, the Juggernaut will know how to improvise.  Like he's always done throughout his career."
     He relaxed in response to her touch and reached up and squeezed her hand, "The Juggernaut is tired.  The Juggernaut wants to get this done with so it can all be over.  That's why.....the fewer the curves, the happier I'll be."
     Kylie smiled mischievously, "You mean my curves don't make you happy any longer?"
     He turned around and looked at her wryly, "Captain, I ought to give you a sectan in the brig for a line like that."
     "You walked into it," she grinned.
     "So I did," he sighed and looked at her with adoring eyes,  "God, how lucky I am to have you, Kylie.  You've been keeping my sanity during this down time.  I'd have probably lost my cool with the crew and started railing at Ravashol and his people a long time ago."
     "That's the other half of my job that I pride myself on.  Morale Officer for the Commander when I'm not doing my regular duty as the Senior Bridge Officer."
     "And speaking of which, Captain," his voice reverted to full commander mode, "It's time for you to report to the Bridge and relieve Colonel Tolen."
     "Yes sir!" she leaned over and kissed him, making sure it lasted fifteen microns before she finally let go and left.


     "Well?" Ila asked as she and Adama prepared to leave their quarters.  They had an evening planned for a family dinner on the Rising Star to celebrate Apollo and Sheba's sealing anniversary, which technically wasn't for another sectan, but this was the only evening where every member of the family could be together.
     "I think the one thing I find unusual is how terse the report to the Imperious Leader was," her husband said.  "They said they investigated a planet and they gave them no details.  I wonder which planet it was?  We had several unusual encounters between Brylon Station and the Risik Frontier."
     "So you've told me," Ila took him by the arm as they exited and began to walk the long corridor that would lead to the turbo lift and the launch bay.  "That planet called Gellis that the Otaligim decimated.  And the planet you were taken prisoner on.  What was that one again?"
     "Kradina," he said.  "And we encountered two alien races that actually came from another universe altogether and passed through a spatial dimension.  First there was the Ischt'k, which was a sort of insectoid like race that abducted several of us, including Baltar and Cassiopeia before they were returned.  Then not long after that, a race of sludge-like beings that their race is at war with, called the Calosivs, passed through the same spatial dimension which drove the captain of their ship into insanity.  As a result when they encountered us, they started opening fire.  Fortunately the crew of that ship overcame the captain and broke off the attack,"  he paused, "That was the incident that coincided with the......last time Iblis sprung a trap on Apollo and Sheba and made them think......" he deliberately trailed off.
     "Oh," his wife nodded in sober understanding.  She had heard the story once from Apollo and Sheba, and that had been a painful experience for them both even though they'd learned to move on from it.  "Yes, that's the ultimate reminder of how impossible it is to anticipate how he operates."
     "Indeed," Adama nodded, "The.....Empyrean Wise Woman, Ama----You still haven't met her, have you?"
     "We always seem to keep missing each other, even though she has that ability to just.....pop in out of nowhere as you keep telling me.  I should take care of that given how much I owe her,  her goddaughters, and Lieutenant Hunley for helping me get back to you.  But what about her?"
     "The last time she paid me a visit she said something curious to me," Adama said, "She said she had been detecting something unusual of late.  Sensing the presence of something.....evil in our midst.  Something she thinks was responsible for a bizarre incident that happened to Starbuck and Captain Byrne after they went to see her one night just before the whole business involving Commander Allen's wife and the Harkaelians broke wide open."
     "What incident?" Ila frowned, "I don't remember Starbuck or Captain Byrne telling me anything."
     "It's something they've both kept to themselves.  I asked Apollo to sound Starbuck out about it, but he was rather tight-lipped.  Said it was nothing he could explain coherently and left it at that though they went back to Ama and told her because they at first thought she'd been behind it."
     "Is that possible?" she asked skeptically.  "I know she's capable of remarkable things because she was able to communicate with the Entity.  But are you implying she can do things that go way beyond that?"
     Adama smiled faintly and let out a simple shrug of his shoulders.  "It's hard for me to say, Ila.  But as much as she mystifies and even confounds me, I believe Ama is on our side and has our best interests at heart.  When you finally get to meet her, you'll realize that."
     "My fault for not going to the Malocchio and paying her a visit in person," Ila admitted, "Goodness knows I've visited practically every other ship in the Fleet since I became President."
     "She won't hold that against you.  At any rate, Ama thinks a dark presence that she says has been lingering in the Fleet for some time was responsible for that particular incident and may be planning something even more sinister in the future."
     Ila looked her husband in the eye, "Iblis?"
     "Not if her hunch that the threat is female is correct," Adama said.  "Ama said that she sensed a being distinctly female and that it conceivably was someone she knew yet had never met before."
     "That sounds rather dichotomous," the Council President shook her beautifully coiffed blonde head, "She couldn't be more specific than that?"
     "She apologized for that.  So much, she called me 'dear Commander' in practically every sentence.  But she said she owed it to me to know about this horrible feeling of hers because of the potential for danger involving 'those who are close to you'.  But that was all she would say."
     Ila sighed, "I guess we just have to take it for granted that whatever it means, we're in for rough seas before we reach the safe haven of Earth.  Not that we haven't known that already."
     "No," her husband nodded as they neared the turbo lift, "The way things have been so quiet for us these last few sectars, ever since you took over as Council President.....it feels like the calm before the storm in more ways than one."
     "Don't let that overwhelm you tonight, Adama," she gently leaned against him, "Tonight is a night for us, and for our family."
     "Indeed," he smiled as the turbo lift doors opened and they stepped in.  Just as the doors closed, he suddenly blurted out, "The prison planet!"
     Ila looked up in surprise as the turbo lift began its journey downward.  "The what?"
     "There was one other place that Baseship could have passed near en route to the Risik capital," Adama said, "The planet where we marooned all the hardened criminals from the Prison Barge.  It was a very desolate place with volcanic activity, but it was still a place where enterprising people could prosper if given a chance."
     "Cain and I read about that in a Zykonian file," Ila said. "Do you think the Baseship would have ignored them?  Especially with Rosalind aboard to act as a potential go-between?"
     "We may never know," Adama shrugged, "Still.....I sometimes wonder about them.  I wonder if they were able to channel their impulses properly.....or if they just wasted away and are gone already."
     "I guess only the Lords can ever know the answer to that," Ila said as the turbo lift came to a stop and the doors opened.  From there it was down a corridor that opened out on the landing bay tarmac where their shuttle to the Rising Star awaited them.
     "Good evening, Commander!  Madame President!"
     They smiled at the man who had waved to them, "Good evening Aurelius," Ila said.  "You're looking quite handsome tonight."
     "Thank you.  Well.....since you asked me to be part of this dinner gathering to celebrate Apollo and Sheba's sealing anniversary, I wanted to look my best."
     "We're just glad you could come, Aurelius," Ila said.  She felt a bond with him because he had accompanied her in the shuttle that had transported her home from Caprica.  All because of the horrible tragedy that had befallen him on Sagittaria when the crash of a renegade Cylon fighter had left him with a burned face that had required facial alteration that could only be given to him on the Galactica.  Since then, he had become a close family friend, in particular with Boxey, whom he'd met in the Life Station while awaiting surgery and when Boxey had received treatment for his marrow disease.
     "Yes," Adama concurred, "You're practically family now."
     "And I'm honored you think of me that way," Aurelius said with gratitude.  "It's really helped me to adjust to life here in the Fleet.  I feel.....as if I've found a home at last."
     "That's wonderful, Aurelius," Ila said.  "I know everyone who'll be there at the dinner will be glad to hear that."
     "Boxey's going to be there, isn't he?"
     "Yes, he'll be there.  He's old enough to enjoy good food on the Rising Star, but please Aurelius, don't take his side if he pleads to have his first ever glass of ambrosia."
     "I won't," the elderly man who was only physically in his sixties because of his decades in suspended animation, laughed, "Far be it for me to interfere with proper parental raising!"
     They stepped into the shuttle for the journey to the Rising Star with Adama and Ila taking their seats up front while Aurelius headed for a solitary seat at the back that adjoined the compartment bulkhead.  He settled himself in and felt a distinctly relaxed air come over him..
     And then.....he visibly flinched when he saw standing in front of him......her.  She hadn't shown her face to him for sectars, and he had finally got used to the sight of not seeing her.  But he should have known better than to think she would never show her face again to him.  
     "Never let yourself relax too much, dear Marcus," Helena said with that perpetual half-smile lining her face.  "Remember.....this is only for a much higher purpose."
     She then blinked out.  But even though the spectral image of the woman he had been married to wasn't visible any longer, the man who carried the secret of being Commander Cain's father and Sheba's grandfather knew her unholy presence would always be there.  Watching him and waiting for the moment when it would be time for him to act and complete the fulfillment of an unholy contract he'd entered into more than sixty yahrens ago with the one she devotedly served.

     Aboard the Malocchio, the Necromancer Ama was in her quarters enjoying a period of relaxed meditation when suddenly her eyes shot opened to their widest and she visibly shuddered.
     "You.....," she whispered aloud, "Who are you?"
     Slowly, she rose to her feet, taking a deep breath and centring herself, expanding her personal sensor array across the fleet. 
     "I know your essence, but why?  And why are you here?  What is it you're after, Hag?"  Why do I feel like I know you?  And why are you here?"
     The sensation abruptly passed like the departure of a cold chill.  But even so, the terrible vibe that she had felt that night when Starbuck and Byrne had returned to her following their incredible experience aboard a shuttle......and which she'd felt before paying Adama a visit not too long ago was lingering.....and festering.
     "Damn dragons," she whispered, a glint in her grey eyes.  "Come to Ama."

Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny.....the last Battlestar Galactica leads a rag-tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest.  A shining planet..... known as Earth.


Afterword

     The after-effects of the volcanic eruption still lingered on the planet.  The scars in the ground caused by fireballs the mountain had spewed out.  The white cloud of ash that covered the neglected crop-field and buried the now empty metallic box that had given up all its secrets.  And in front of the cave openings in the cliff face, the collapsed formations of rock that had been jarred loose by the tremors and the force of the eruptions.  Covering the opening up to within just a foot of the top.  Seemingly blocking it off from entrance or exit.
     But not completely.
     The deathly quiet of the landscape that had settled in after the last eruptions had died down was broken by the sound of some of the rocks in front of the cave tumbling downward, starting from the top.  Creating a larger opening at the top that widened to three feet, four feet and finally after two levels of loose rock and stones fell away to width of more than six feet.
     And then.....a solitary figure emerged.  The figure of a woman in an animal skin garment that had been ripped in several places so that her midriff section was now exposed.  Her disheveled auburn hair hung halfway to her waist.  Her face smeared with dirt.  Her feet cut from the sharpness of the rocks she'd been forced to mount from the other side to make her way out.  Her expression was a dazed stupor as she made her way down the remaining levels of rock until finally, she was on the surface.  Looking about her surroundings with total confusion.
     Her mind was a total blank.  No sense of past memories or any sense of individuality.  Only the vaguest sense that not too long ago.....she had been standing here and had seen someone......someone but who?  And then there had been the loud sound that had frightened her that had made her run back inside......and after that.  What?  Had she even been here?  Or had she even existed before this moment?
     Feeling no sense of pain from the cuts in her feet, she staggered forward slightly.  The floating ash from above clinging to her hair and dulling its redness.  Her expression still blank and uncomprehending.  The only sound coming from her the dimmest of a grunt.
     The sound of more rocks tumbling down caused her to whip her head around and then....she saw the face of a man climbing his way out.  His face scraggly bearded and with cuts and dried blood.  His unkempt hair hanging to his shoulders as he forced his way out.  His animal skin garment was torn and his chest was now bare.  He slid his way out and then dropped to the ground just feet away from the woman.  The two of them looked at each other with expressions of complete indifference.  As if they were seeing each other for the first time because they had no memories of the other.
     Then, as the woman studied him carefully.....a dim memory came back to her.  Of running back inside the cave following the loud, frightening noises.  She had seen.....him.  Guiding and motioning to others..... a large group of them to go further back down some dark incline.  He had looked at her and motioned at her to come.....but before she could reach him, the back wall of the cave had collapsed......and sealed forever the opening that all the others had gone through.  Leaving just the two of them.  The two of them to impulsively move forward....and dig and climb their way out through this entrance.
     Yes, she knew she knew him from before.  And slowly, she was beginning to recall that the two of them had some kind of.....connection.  A special one.  But he seemed unsure if he remembered the connection.
     She turned away from him and resumed walking.  Totally on impulse because she wanted to be far away from that horrible place they'd been trapped in.  Walking toward something in the distant that looked less harsh and desolate than this scorched and soot-covered landscape did.  Someplace that looked green.  Behind her, the man followed on impulse.  As if he knew that he had to stay with her.
     Her blank countenance was shattered when she saw the sight of a motionless six foot long creature lying in front of her.  Its body covered by the ash and its toothless mouth open in vain protest over its fate.  She looked to her right and saw two others just like it, also motionless.  She seemed to remember that there had been many such creatures.  Perhaps.....there were none left.  Perhaps they were all gone just like the others.
     The man had caught up to her and instinctively touched her bare right shoulder which caused her to jump slightly but when she turned and saw his face she immediately relaxed.  She remembered again that he was no threat to her.  That wherever she went....he would follow.  Because he clearly knew that he needed her......and she knew that she needed him.
     Her eyes then focused on what lay in front of her, some thirty feet away.  She could see a distinct change in color that was different from the blackness, and the yellowish-white ash and the other harsh colors.  This color was something......green.  Something inviting.
     Slowly, she picked up her pace and broke into a sprint.  Behind her, the man followed.  And then....beneath her feet, the coarse surface gave way to the soft sensation of green grass.  Above her, the beating heat sensation of the sun disappeared and was replaced the cool shadow of trees giving off their protective shade.  
     Feeling a sense of surprised awe she looked about.  These trees were like nothing she had ever seen before.  At least not here.  Perhaps.....perhaps they were like something she had seen once somewhere else.  But she had no memory of ever having been anyplace other than this harsh world.  So how could she remember something like that?  Perhaps it was just simple instinct.  A recognition that this.....was something beneficial.....and life-giving.
     Her eyes squinted and she saw something colorful hanging from a branch.  She reached up and took it.  It gave off a fragrance that immediately filled her with a sense of pleasure.  And a desire to hold it up to her mouth and bite into it.  Immediately she felt a taste of indescribable sweetness and nourishment as she chewed and swallowed the piece.  She promptly took a second bite and reveled in the experience again.
     And then....she turned and looked at the man who was staring at her with deep curiosity.  She held the half-eaten piece and gently handed it to him.  And for the first time.....a smile came over her face.
     He studied it briefly and took a bite.....and then he too, went through the same sensation of pleasure as he chewed and swallowed.....and smiled at her.
     So relaxed did she feel, that suddenly another sensation rose within her.  The sensation of her mouth forming a word.
     "Lyd-ia."
     She had no idea why that word had formed.  Or how she'd developed that ability to say it.  Like so much else, it had just seemed to come from instinct.  And she had said it....because she just knew that was what she had to say.
     "Lydia," she pointed to herself.  "Lydia."
     He nodded his head as he finished the piece of fruit.  As if he knew that was her name though he couldn't remember why he knew that.
     And then....she pointed at him, "Anti-pas.  Anti-pas."
     Again he nodded his head.  He made no effort to say her name or his.  As if somehow that ability just wasn't there right now.  But.....as if he wanted to show how much he knew, his smile widened with a deepening air of affection.  Impulsively, he pulled her to him and she relaxed in his gentle embrace.
     A low rumbling sound got their attention and they slowly made their way further into this zone of lush greenery filled with trees that contained many more of the brightly colored fruits.  And then....they could see before them a spring of beautifully clear water.  The intensity of it meant that from somewhere below, water was coming up in a seemingly endless supply.
     Impulsively, she found herself pulling at her increasingly uncomfortable animal skin garment until it came off.  She then jumped into the water spring and immediately felt a cleansing sensation on her body and a quenching sensation down her throat as she gulped some of the water and swallowed.  Behind her, the man had yanked off his own torn garment and followed her in.  Soon, a new sound was emitting from the woman.  The sound of happy laughter.  A laughter that drowned out the sound from above the tree tops.  The whooshing sound of white lights moving faster than the eye could have comprehended.


     "She has earned the right to a new beginning because of her open repentance for her crimes, and because of her act of compassion for Rosalind.  She can never have her memories of her past restored to her beyond her name.......But she can start anew with a clean slate.....And she can be a teacher and helper to her mate......who will likewise never remember his past beyond his name.  Together......they shall be a new seed for this world.  It will be up to them, of their own free will, to determine whether that seed will bloom and prosper in the generations to come.
     "So has it been decreed by Him.  So shall it be done."

The End