Battlestar Galactica / Stargate SG-1 Crossover
"The Thirteenth Colony"
Part Three
WAR CRY
By SG07

Posted May 2006

** 

     "Cain, how in Hades did you survive over twenty two yahren ago and
how did you find us now?" Apollo asked.
     Cain smiled a sidelong mischievous grin at Apollo, "Oh, Hades had
nothing to do with it."
     Apollo waited patiently for Cain to continue, but instead he paced
the room looking at the floor. Finally he exhaled sharply, looked Apollo
in the eye and said, "Apollo, You're never going to believe this, but..."
     "But what?" Apollo prompted.
     "It was a miracle." Cain simply said and gave him a small smile.
     Apollo squared off his shoulders and stated disbelievingly, "Last
time we met, you told my father that you made your own miracles." 
     Cain uncharacteristically said, "I was wrong."

**

     There are those who believe that life here began out there, far
across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the
forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. That they
may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost
civilizations of Lemuria or Atlantis.
     Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now
fight to survive, somewhere beyond the heavens.

***

     A Colonial Viper came to a stop on the immense landing bay of the
Battlestar Galactica. Laser burns marred its sleek design, melted and
fused metal spotting the undercarriage and the left and right sides of
the craft. Smoke from the ruined metallic components and steam from the
temperature difference of the ship and the landing bay competed to reach
the ceiling beams of the bay.
     Starbuck and Bryan's damaged viper had landed without further
incident. As soon as the damaged viper came to a complete stop deck crews
descended on the craft from every direction. Some carried portable fire
extinguishers searching out any flames to extinguish, while others
quickly and expertly assuaged the ships damage.
     Starbuck shut everything down, first the ancillary controls such as
life support, electronics, and finally the engines. He paused momentarily
processing the events of the past few centaurs. Realizing he could no
longer delay the inevitable, he pressed the switch to open the canopy of
the viper. The see through canopy rose with an audible whirring sound.
Reaching its predetermined height it stopped as suddenly as it began.
Starbuck pulled off his Egyptian style helmet and leaned over to his
right. Shaking his head as he looked up and down the length of the craft
he muttered, "I sure hope I don't have to pay for the damage."
     Bryan smiled, "Well for what's its worth Starbuck, thanks. That was
an adventure of a lifetime! I can't imagine anything topping that."
     Starbuck came back to himself, "Stick around kid, something always
seems to be happening around here."
     Bryan smiled knowingly, "Tell me about it! Since I met you guys,
I've been shot at, ran a marathon back on P2S89G, fell in love with a
beautiful alien girl, lost the girl, been reprimanded by my boss, nearly
died in a space battle, and nearly crashed in the only fighter plane I've
been in!"
     Starbuck came back to himself, "Yeah, speaking of which, I got
another party to go to." He referred to the impending battle with the
Cylons bearing down on the Galactica.
     Fortunately for the fleet, Starbuck and Bryan took a barely
authorized joy ride in a training viper and happened upon a Cylon
Taskforce heading directly toward the Galactica. With Starbuck's
legendary skills in the viper and Bryan's ingenuity with electronics they
managed to barely survive to return and warn the fleet.
     Flight crews placed a tall, gray boarding ramp that began with
narrow stairs and terminated with a large flat, horizontal stepping
plate. Bryan pressed the button to release the restraining straps and
started to exit the viper, "Oh! And Bryan?"
     Bryan turned, "Yeah?"
     "Remember what I said." Starbuck quipped.
     Bryan inclined his head but said nothing. 
     "About Hera." Starbuck answered.
     Bryan smiled, "I will, thanks Captain."
     Artemeus, the flight chief interrupted them, "By the Lords of Kobol!
Captain Starbuck you are the luckiest man I know!"
     Starbuck started to pull a fumerello from his uniforms coat pocket,
thought better of it, and smiled instead. Shrugging he said, "Well, ya
know."
     Artemeus shook his head in a wide grin and then wiped his smile away
and was all business; "Core Command said you are to get your astrum to
your assigned viper."
     Starbuck smiled and nodded acknowledgement and raced to his new
viper he was assigned to in Section Eight of the landing bay.
     This left Bryan descending down the boarding ramp alone. Artemeus
grinned sideways, "Commander Apollo said you were to report to the bridge
immediately."
     "Yes, sir." Bryan gulped in apprehension and headed in a general
direction to find his way to the bridge. On the way he realized he
couldn't remember which turbolift to take and he needed to find his Air
Force Battle Dress Uniform or BDU's as they were called.
     His orders came from Commander Apollo himself and he had every
intention of making his way to the bridge as soon as humanly possible,
but to his consternation he couldn't remember where the uniform closet
was or how to get there. Alpha Landing bay was enormous. 'Each landing
bay had to be as long as an aircraft carrier back home.' Bryan thought to
himself.
     Frustrated he had to stop for directions, but the usually cordial
and polite Colonials, 'Well at least in my case', he thought. The were
too busy with battle preparations and running to and fro doing only God
knows what, that no one would give him the time of day, much less
directions. He would have returned to the damaged viper but already it
had been removed from the flight line, presumably so a technician could
fix it.
     Bryan was starting to get more and more frustrated and had to back
track a couple of times looking at different areas of the various turbo
lifts. "He wasn't sure if all turbo lifts in each area went to the same
level of the ship and did not want to inadvertently get even more lost.
Everything appeared to look the same to him. It was only when he finally
gave up and stopped looking, the small storeroom with several spare
uniforms and flight helmets he had left his uniform in were right in
front of him. Smiling to himself, he silently prayed his uniform was
still hanging up. After all it would be difficult enough explaining his
flight with Captain Starbuck, but showing up in an unauthorized uniform
would be hell to pay. 'I hope that Colonel O'Neil doesn't find out about
this.' Besides the Colonial uniform made him feel more like a cowboy in
the old American west than an actual super advanced race of humans that
travel in space as easily as he drove his truck to work. 'Sure would hate
to have to wear this ugly brown uniform all the time.' Thought to
himself.

***

     Inside Stargate Command a crisis of a different nature was taking
place. Senator Kinsey, Chairman of the Senates Armed Forces Committee was
the key leader in approving the Armed Forces budgets each fiscal year. He
had heard about the SGC's good fortune and believing all of it to be a
ruse of some kind, canceled his busy schedule and appointments and got to
the SGC in what he had hoped would be "In the nick of time" to stop any
further damage of the alien influence to Earth.
     Kinsey was a staunch advocate against any exploration through the
Stargate and once before had tried to shut the program down and almost
succeeded, that is if SG-1 had not disobeyed direct orders to stand down.
Luckily for SG-1 the attack on alternate reality Earth that Daniel kept
talking about after he returned from that mirror universe turned out to
be right. SG-1 single-handedly destroyed two Goa'ould mother ships as
they approached Earth orbit by penetrating their defenses. Mistakenly the
group believed they had been gating to a planet with a Stargate, which
actually the gate had been transferred to one of Aphophis pyramid
battleships. With the help of the Master Jaffa Bra'tac, his former
instructor, they escaped and dropped grenades into the shaft that
traversed down the center of the ship, to the heart of the shield
generator. Before SG-1 had been captured, they had planted enough C-4
plastic explosive to destroy the controls on the second ship and thereby
rammed the first. The group had escaped by stealing a pair of death
gliders.
     Now Kinsey had arrived in time to witness a frantic plea from the
other planet where the Colonials had been demanding travel to Earth.
     Stargate Commands radio came to life, "SGC this is base camp!
Satellite imagery has identified the entire Colonial Fleet taking up
positions in orbit! Several large ships are landing and shuttles are
arriving by the hundreds!"
     General George Hammond keyed the microphone, "Colonel Makepeace,
what's happening?"
     "Sir, according to reports from the Colonials, a combined force of
Goa'ould and those machines has nearly destroyed their space carrier. The
area is being overrun by civilian men, women, and children who are
demanding travel through the Stargate. The people are panicking. If we
don't get help the people might riot, sir."
     Senator Kinsey smiled arrogantly, "This is exactly what I was afraid
of. General we will not take on more problems, tell your people to lock
down the Stargate. No one is too come through that gate till further
notice."
     Hammond looked incredulous at Kinsey, "Sir, are you serious? There
are women and children in a war zone. We can't..."
     "Those are my orders general." Kinsey crossed his arms and gave the
general a look of finality.
     Hammond not to be bullied said, "Senator, you may control the budget
for this facility, but I am in command here." Then Sergeant Weaver,
"Sergeant! Tell Colonel Makepiece..."
     Kinsey was not a man to be toyed with and had destroyed other men's
careers for less impertinence, "General Hammond! I gave you a direct
order and for the record, I am the highest ranking person in this room.
The only person who out ranks me is the president. NOW then! I'll give
you one more chance, general. I suggest you carry out your orders."

***

     Bryan stepped out of the clothing issue locker and the coordinated
yet rushed pace of the Colonials had stepped up to full runs in every
direction. A couple of vipers were being frantically worked on from what
apparently had to be battle damage. Bryan was about to turn around and
enter the turbo lift that he had sought after when the floor fell out
from beneath him and he found himself falling hard sideways. Bryan
propped himself up on an elbow trying to get up when another rumbling
seized him and he promptly fell onto his face, this time cutting a gash
into the side of his right cheek. "Ow! Geez!" Bryan howled. Rubbing his
face with his hand he was rewarded to see part of his hand covered in
blood. "Great!"
     Experience spoke volumes to him and he just lay on the floor as two
more violent shudders rocked the deck again, then silence. Blood flowed
down his facial wound and ran in droplets down his face, staining the
collar of his BDU shirt. Unaware of the damage he focused on the only
thing that meant anything to him now was life. 
     Bryan did not need to be a seasoned space veteran like Starbuck to
realize that was not normal. He heard a noise above him and saw a long
flat blur coming toward him at incredible speed.
     Bryan's mind did not need to fully analyze the object to know that
being underneath that object would probably be a bad idea. He rolled left
as fast as he could and ripped the clothing on the right side his uniform
sleeve. A thunderous crash and sparks fell onto his head, singeing the
back of his neck. Rolling once more he missed several cables that fell
where he had been. Frantically Bryan looked upward as his mind screamed
to him, "RUN!" Beams and unknown electronic devices fell near him and it
would have appeared to an observer that he was dancing a jig. All the
time his mind barked orders to his body, 'Dodge left! Step back! Run!
Dive right! Bryan had known fear back on P2S89G when Hera and he had ran
for their lives, but this was a complete free for all, and only bad luck
or lousy footing would be the end of him.
     Bryan ran for cover, but the only cover he could find was a viper's
pitch-black launch tube. As he ran past the side of a viper a technician
was repairing; a beam fell unawares toward her. Bryan ran as fast as he
could but it seemed that time had slowed to a barely perceptible crawl.
Bryan's arms pumped up and down furiously as he tried to outrun the beam
heading toward the unsuspecting stranger. He plunged toward the
technician; arms outstretched holding nothing of his strength back. He
reached a juncture in mid-flight that his mind screamed that this was a
bad idea and definitely the point of no return, Bryan leapt as fast and
as straight as he could into the path of the girl much like a football
player tackling the quarterback would.
     A bone jarring crunch and the two forms fell toward the launch tube.
They landed on the catapult rail that was raised off the floor about
three feet and without intending too, they rolled off the railing and
fell, landing in a crumbled heap, arms and legs flailing in a tangled
mess.
     A thunderous crash and the beam lay where they had initially landed
on the catapult railing crushed the nose of the viper, which raised the
back end up. Bryan looked toward the railing where the beam had fell and
realized that only by sheer dumb luck they had survived because of
clumsiness! Sparks flew off cables that had been severed from up above
when the beam had fell and disappeared just prior to hitting the floor.
     The moment spent, reality came rushing back to him, as time appeared
to resume at normal speed. His heart raced as adrenaline pumped blood so
loud through his ears it seemed as if someone was beating drums right
into his ear canal. He willingly tried to calm his heart rate as he tried
to inhale great breaths of air. But for some reason he couldn't draw a
deep breath. 
     It was then that he remembered the girl who was laying on top of him
in a most undignified way. She had just turned her head back from seeing
her almost fate and looked deeply into his eyes, almost without emotion.
     Bryan started to ask if she was o.k. when she burst out weeping.
     Concerned that she might be hurt he asked, "Hey! Are you o.k.?"
Gently grabbing her with each hand he rubbed her shoulders and asked in a
firmer voice, "Are you all right?"
     She buried her head on his shoulder and sobbed. He rubbed the top of
her back gently, "Hey, shhh! It's o.k. You're all right now."
     The shaking and rumbling of the deck had died off all together, but
the two did not notice. Stray sparks hit the floor beside them and
vanished.
     She raised her head and Bryan noticed her features for the first
time. Her copper deck crew hard hat had fallen away. He peered intently
into the most amazing blue eyes, as deep as any sea back home. Her
beautiful dark, jet-black hair was silky smooth and had once been pinned
in a ponytail style. Instead of looking childish, it added an attractive
quality to her overall beauty. She was one of the most beautiful women
Bryan had ever seen on all two planets he ever been too.
     The technician abruptly came to herself and sat up taking stock of
truly what had happened. "You, you saved my life." She said using the
cuff of her orange coveralls to daintily clear the tears away.
     Bryan smiled losing himself in those eyes and without meaning too,
his eyes gravitated to more obvious natural features of a woman that a
man might take notice of. She misconstrued his actions and for the first
time she realized she was straddling a stranger in a most intimate way.
She bit her lower lip and smiled seductively at him and said, "Are all
Earth people this blunt?" All traces of the incident faded as quickly as
they had appeared, 'probably a coping mechanism.' Bryan thought to
himself.
     Bryan was not prepared for that statement and momentarily confused
muttered, "Huh? Excuse me?"
     She got up and with one hand reached down and gave Bryan a hand up
and purred, "There are easier ways to get a date in my society."
     Bryan was at a complete loss at her joke, "Uh, well. I, ah, what I
mean is..."
     "I'm Methany." She said.
     "I'm Bryan. Bryan Torres." He stuck out his hand for a professional
handshake; instead Methany had a different idea of a greeting. She closed
what little distance had been between them and kissed him hard and
passionate on the lips. Bryan had been so shocked at her behavior that he
just stood there as she rewarded her benefactor. When she paused to
breathe she said, "Well, Bryan Torres, I owe you my life. If we weren't
at battle stations I'd buy you a mug of grog." Beaming a beautiful smile
she pointed at him and said, "I'll see you later!" Methany put special
emphasis on "you".
     With nothing else said she spun around and dashed to where she was
needed. Bryan stood speechless for a few seconds and shook his head,
"Women." Then he made exhaling sound that blew air through his lips. Not
remembering his previous injury, he rubbed the right side of his face and
was rewarded with a red-hot searing pain. "Ow! Geez!" 
     Flight Chief Artemeus stood there in total seriousness and demanded,
"You!"
     Bryan looked around and saw that a man was pointing to him, "Who,
me?"
     "Yes, you! Come here!"
     Bryan walked hastily toward him, "Sir?"
     The man brusquely said, "You all right?"
     Bryan smiled, "I'm fine, just a scratch..."
     Artemeus grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him toward the
center of the landing bay, "Great, you get over there and tend the
wounded."
     Bryan stumbled a bit and said, "I am not trained as a medical
technician."
     "Well, you're the only one down here that I don't have to have
working in the landing bay, you see those people lying all over the
deck?"
     "Yeah?"
     "That's your job, now. Go!" He shoved a field medical kit into
Bryan's hand and said, "Do what you can." Then he took off grabbing other
technicians as they stumbled their way toward emergency positions.
     Bryan stood motionless for a moment at the debris and bodies strewn
all over the vast landing bay. Smoke created an ugly gray haze that was
rapidly diminishing as the environmental systems aboard the Galactica
removed the deadly toxins.
     Bryan came to himself and realized the first step in an emergency
was to call for help. Calling after Artemeus, "Hey! Did anyone call Nine
One One?" Not realizing what he had said would be lost on the Colonials.
     Artemeus ignored him and disappeared down the length of the bay.
Bryan took one more look at the incredible amount of damage and bodies
strewn about and shook his head, "Crap!" He said.

***

     Hammond squared off with Kinsey as Sergeant Weaver stared open
mouthed at both verbal combatants. Other personnel stopped what they were
doing in order to listen in, wondering who would win this argument. Open
mouths of astonishment gaped awkwardly at the spectacle.
     "Senator. You are directly interfering in this commands operation."
He continued to stare at Kinsey while he ordered Weaver, "Sergeant, tell
Colonel Makepeace that help is on the way and to hold the crowds back."
     Weaver turned to the microphone and depressed the send button,
"SG3..."
     Kinsey's eyes narrowed and his face turned beat red, "Ignore that
command, sergeant. Tell them to lock down the gate."
     Weaver stopped in mid-sentence and looked up at the general for
confirmation.
     Hammond turned to Weaver, "Carry out my last order sergeant."
     Weaver nodded once and keyed the microphone again, "SG3 this is..."
     Kinsey pointed to the airman, "Sergeant! You touch that microphone
again and I'll have your stripes."
     Weaver turned widened eyes toward the senator incredulously and
exhaled sharply.
     A crackling noise filled the air, "SGC, this is Makepeace, say
again, I didn't copy over?"
     "General Hammond, I am warning you." Glaring at Hammond, Kinsey left
the threat hanging in the air.
     Hammond's eyes twinkled dangerously as he smiled thinly, "Security
to the control room!" Hammond did not bother looking over his shoulder;
so confident his orders would be carried out immediately and effectively
without the slightest delay.
     Kinsey's eyes widened in surprise and demanded in disbelief, "You
wouldn't dare?"
     A few moments later four security forces airman came running into
the control room with M-16 rifles held loosely in front of them pointing
their guns upward, a determined look in each pair of eyes.
     Hammond's eyes followed the entry of the SF's and Kinsey took his
cue by turning his head in and huffed in disbelief, "Your making a big
mistake general. I'll have you removed from this command within the
week."
     Smiling Hammond ordered the SF's, "Escort the senator to the
conference room. See that he doesn't leave there."
     "Yes, sir!" The calmly walked up to Kinsey and flanked him, "Sir, if
you will follow me?" 
     When he did not comply one of the airman pushed his gun gently up
against the senator, "Sir, you will come with us."
     Still believing this to be a bluff of Hammonds he stated
confidently, "I am not going anywhere. Gentleman, you will escort the
general to his office and hold him there. He is to be confined there till
further notice."
     Turning back toward the airman he noticed that they stared at him
with determination, "Sir, if you don't come willingly we will be forced
to arrest you."
     Kinsey's look of complete control and air of authority deflated
somewhat, "Son, do you know who I am?"
     The airman nudged the senator more forcibly toward the door. Off
balance Kinsey looked down at the rifle in his chest and became outraged,
"How dare you! I am a Senator and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Armed
Forces Committee!"
     Hammond crossed his arms, "Senator, I strongly suggest that you
follow the SF's to the conference room. I would prefer that they did not
have to get "disrespectful".
     Kinsey was livid, "How dare you! Hammond, when I am done you won't
get a job flipping hamburgers!"
     Hammond nodded once to the senior SF and two airmen each grabbed an
arm, twisting it behind his back. They half carried and half pushed a
livid senator out the door as he screamed back toward the general,
"Hammond!" A couple of seconds later another scream reached his ears
faintly, "Hammond!"
     Hammond smiled a little too openly at the door the senator had been
taken through moments before, "Been wanting to do that every since that
arrogant..." Coming to himself he looked around at his peoples
open-mouthed stares. His grin dropped into a thin line as he remembered
his duty as a General Officer and said,  "Back to work people."
Scientists and military alike started at Hammonds command and with new
found respect quickly focused on their assigned duties or just left the
control room as quickly as they could. Hammond stared impassively at the
empty entrance, wondering what machinations he had set into motion in
this room. 
     Looking down at Weaver, "Sergeant, I want every SG team here armed
and ready for deployment in three minutes!"
     Weaver still shocked at the confrontation, stared open mouthed,
closed his mouth and with a new respect for his boss smiled
enthusiastically, "YES, SIR!"
     Hammond keyed the radio microphone himself and gave Makepeace his
orders, "Colonel Makepiece, this is Hammond..."

***

     A fleet of battlestars dropped from light speed and immediately
pummeled their mutual enemy without mercy as literally hundreds of vipers
overwhelmed the Cylon and Goa'ould fighters.
     Hera focused on the intricate dance of battle that all fighter
pilots in the universe, regardless of their nationality, machine, or race
dealt with; life. Just one more moment, and then another, and perhaps one
more moment.
     This endless loop of moments somehow stringed together a battle
which usually lasted only centons all the way up to a centaur.
     This latest battle was her longest one yet and it took all of her
reflexes, concentration, and skill; to not only destroy the enemy, but to
prolong her life as well as her wingmen, in this case, Starbuck's. So far
the battle was going well. She already had chalked up several confirmed
kills, but right now, this particular micron, she only cared about one
more moment of life. She pulled her viper out of a dive and a roll as a
death glider moved on to easier kills. She located Starbuck's viper as he
let loose his charge of death from the twin lasers mounted on the wings
of his craft. He did not see Cylon raider as it dived after him. 
     Hera hit her turbo's and dispatched the enemy fairly quickly. They
regrouped as a pair and flew headlong into the fray again.
     Hera's proximity alarm went off and she saw a spectacle not seen
since before the destruction of the Colonies. Hera's generation had only
seen the history scans of the awe-inspiring sight.
     In the micron it took for Hera to understand what was happening she
saw a fleet of battlestars drop from light speed and she knew
instinctively whom they belonged too. It was no hyper-spatial math after
all. The answer was quite simple. It could only be the one man in the
seven thousand-yahren history of the Colonies that had continually
snatched defeat from the jaws of certain death and return from it alive.
The only man that could possibly build a fleet of battlestars after
losing not only the war but also his world and the worlds he had sworn to
protect. 
     It could be none other than the Legendary Commander Cain, her
grandfather. With an excitement and awe that her maternal grandfather
could only have produced in her she grinned ear to ear as Starbuck said
the only thing to come to mind, "Holy Frack! By the Lords! Apollo was
right!"
     Hera asked quizzically, "Knew what?" She asked the blatantly
obvious.
     "Your father said over twenty two yahren ago that there was no
military way that Cain could survive, but if anyone could, he knew your
grandfather would."
     Apparently Starbuck was also quick to figure out where all the
battlestars had come from as well.
     Every comm circuit in a viper was flooded with whoops, whistles, or
sat in quiet awe, in between fighting for battle.
     After all it had been over twenty-five yahren since any warrior had
seen so many Battlestars in one area of space. To the ole timers it
seemed like the renaissance days of the Colonial Fleet, to the younger
pilots who grew up after the holocaust it was a sight they would remember
for the rest of their lives.
     Questions flooded the comm circuits and it was Boomer who got the
warriors to focus, "All right! Focus! We still got a job to do!"
     The enemy fighters who momentarily pressed their attack where
overrun by hundreds of fresh vipers coming in hot and flashing angry
orange bolts of fury from their laser cannons. Overwhelmed and a recall
signal from the retreating Goa'ould and Cylon Basestars had whole
squadrons of the enemy breaking formation and exiting as quickly as
possible.
     The vipers pursued till Boomer's comm signal chirped, "All viper
pilots return to base. Blue Squadron is ordered to land on the
Galactica's Alpha landing bay. Eagle and Raptor squadrons will land on
the Battlestar Pegasus. Red squadron will remain in the air as fuel
permits."
     Boomer announced to all viper squadrons, "We're getting a recall
signal from the Galactica. Break off; break off. We're going home!" Then
Boomer relayed squadrons landing assignments.
     Every warrior cheered as one! 'After the Galactica was stabilized;
the grog and ambrosia would flow freely in the officer mess tonight',
Boomer thought to himself. He had no idea how wrong he was.

***

     Bryan spent the next indeterminable time setting up a make shift
triage. Using common sense, Air Force training, and his knowledge of war
movies and old reruns of the TV. show M.A.S.H. he made two distinctive
spots. One was for the dead. That was obvious. The other pile consisted
of non-life threatening to serious, then to the 'Oh! My God! Their gonna
die pile.'
     In less than ten minutes Bryan had blood stained in patches all over
his uniform. Dust, sweat, and debris clung to his face as he worked as
quickly and efficiently as he could under the stress. Dust collected on
his sweat covered face, hands and back. All of the people that had only
superficial cuts, broken appendages, etc shuffled off to complete damage
control, leaving Bryan with only himself to help those more seriously
injured.
     Bryan used all of his first aid and CPR skills he had learned in the
Air Force. Fortunately, both were mandatory annual training in every
branch of military service in the U.S. He treated injuries according to
severity, the worst first and the least injured last. He wrapped bandages
around bleeders. He put tourniquets on those without limbs and marked
their forehead with a large "T" and wrote the time from the ballpoint pen
in his BDU pocket. Those with internal injuries he tried to make
comfortable as best he could.
     Bryan's thoughts repeated the same message continuously, "Assess the
patients: check for injuries, check airway, breathing and circulation.
Prevent further disability, stabilize, and move to another victim."
     Bryan noticed movement to his right and saw an orange coveralled
technician swiftly moving past him. He grabbed the technician running
past him and nearly tackled him to get his attention. "Go to that storage
locker and get as many uniforms or blankets as possible."
     The technician in orange coveralls tried to move past Bryan and in
anger Bryan yanked the fellow around and said, "NOW!" Pointing Bryan
waved his hand in a sweeping motion.
     The technician looked over the mass of bodies and saw his friends
and coworkers and nodded without saying anything. In a few moments he
came back with a large bundle of uniforms in his arms.
     Bryan knocked the clothes out of his hands and onto the deck, "What
are you waiting for? Go get some more!"
     The technician asked, "What the frack are you doing with this. Our
people are dying! Is this some primitive Earth ritual?" His sentiments
about Earth proved to Bryan this guy was one of the minority of Colonials
who did not believe a non-space faring Earth was advanced enough to
settle on.
     Bryan ignored the comment and wadded up a pair of pants and gently
put it under one of his injured patients head. He took a Warriors jacket
and put it over the chest of the victim, quickly and efficiently tucking
the edges under their chest, then balled up another garment and placed it
under the victim's legs. He turned his attention to the technician in
anger, "Its called shock! If we don't elevate their legs and keep them
warm they'll die from system shock. Now!" Bryan yelled, "Are you going to
help me or am I gonna have to knock you on your ass?" Bryan spit back
losing all self-control.
     The man saw Bryan meant what he said and nodded soberly, 'Maybe
these people are not as primitive as I heard.' He thought to himself.
Grabbing articles of clothing he mimicked the Earther. 
     At times he would hold the dying patients hand and watched the light
of life seep slowly from their eyes. It was almost too much for him to
bear. He needed more help! "Dammit! Where are the medics?" He complained.
     At some point Bryan noticed the unnamed technician left after he had
helped stabilize the living.
     Tears from the stress and horrifying scenes played over Bryan's face
from the countless victims injuries. He held a woman's hand that he had
never met prior to this battle. She asked him for water and he gave her a
sip from the bottle in the med kit. Dirt caked her face, while blood was
smeared on her face and limbs.
     She pleaded, "Help me! I don't want to die!"
     Bryan's anguish did not ease up and his mind willed him by sheer
force to do the only thing he could, he cried with her. His mind raced
for some sort of comfort.  Tears streaked down his face as he lamented,
"I'm sorry, I don't know how to use this medical equipment."
     "It hurts! Please help me!" She wailed.
     Helpless he stroked her auburn hair with one hand and held her hand
with the other. Then he did the only thing that readily came to mind,
which was from his religious upbringing, "Listen to me. I want you to
repeat after me, can you do that?"
     She squirmed in pain but managed a nod.
     Somberly, he began, "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy
name."
     She began tentatively repeating the unfamiliar words as her eyes
locked on his.
     "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven."
     She repeated his words though she had never heard them before and
the pain in her eyes lessened as she meditated upon the words and
wondered at their meaning.
     "Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who have trespassed against us."
     She gasped in unimaginable pain. Spasmodically her body twisted in
agony and convulsed. Blood ran out of the side of her mouth. She coughed
hard ragged coughs that spit more blood up.
     Bryan held her bloody hand with both of his as tears streamed down
his face unashamedly, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil."
     Her eyes never once strayed from Bryan's even while gasping again in
pain. He waited till the spasm ended and then concluded with, "For thine
is the kingdom, the glory, the power, now and forever. Amen."
     At these last words she struggled to say "Amen", "Ame, Amen." With a
final gasp of pain she said, "Thank, yoooouuuu..." Immediately after she
had that her body relaxed completely and air exhaled almost silently from
her lungs. Lifeless eyes stared blankly toward a perpetual heaven.
     The hand in Bryan's went limp and fell to the deck unmoving. His
eyes poured forth tears from reservoirs unknown and he rocked back and
forth as another patient cried for water. 
     With a sadness that could have written an epitome he silently pulled
the warriors tunic over her head. Something had changed in him. Years of
hard experience had been bestowed upon a once carefree young man and only
time would begin to show how his character had changed. His tears
expended, he slowly got up and moved silently with a slow methodical gait
to the next patient.
     His torment continued for an indeterminate time. Some people lived,
some died, while others groaned and moaned in agony. Because Bryan did
not now what type of medicine or dosage to give a patient for pain, or
how to properly use the electronic devices in the med kit, he could only
console them and mop their brow with a damp cloth.
     After a time Bryan heard a distinct sound throughout the quiet
landing bay. He looked up in time to see several shuttles landing as
quickly as they could. 
     The first shuttle carried what appeared to be several firemen who
carried portable equipment, presumably to help with a fire, while other
shuttles opened up as steam rose sharply into the air. The next wave of
people who came out of the shuttle noticed Bryan and came running with
all due haste. Medical relief had finally arrived but not from the
interior of the Galactica as he had supposed. He mused, "They must be
from some other ship in the fleet." Then another thought surfaced, "Uh,
Oh! That means its worse here than I thought!"
     The relief crews paused long enough to wonder at his odd looking
clothing with blood all over it, since it was not an authorized uniform
in the Colonies for either Med-techs or Warriors. Once they realized he
wasn't in immediate need of medical care they moved on to Bryan's make
shift triage area. Several men and women began using portable scanners
assessing the patients and treating them. Bryan stood motionless, swaying
slightly and dazed from physical and emotional exhaustion. He stared
dumbly toward the medics, hardly believing that his torment was over.
     A technician ran toward the row after row of patients lying still
with warrior's jackets and tunics over the top of their head. Shaking his
head in grief, he nodded to Bryan once as he passed by him and then
helped the other Med-Techs.
     A man approached him asking, "Son? Who are you and what is that
uniform?"
     Bryan gave the man a quizzical look and thought, 'I know their fleet
is large, but I thought everyone by now had seen some footage about the
Earth people. After all, they only have one news channel on their
television."
     Bryan decided to keep his explanation simple, found his voice and
managed to croak, "I am Sergeant Bryan Torres, from Earth."
     The man's eyebrows went up in shock, "Earth!" The stranger's
appearance certainly was no uniform the Colonies ever used. What would
woodland camouflage be used for in space? The young man was completely
dishelved, his uniform was in tatters and had several rips and pieces
torn away from it, and blood smeared several places on his torso and
appendages. His face had a long thin gash running diagonally down his
cheek. The blood from the wound had long since clotted with dried blood
and covered most of the swollen wound, making his wound look rather
serious. Dirt and caked blood caked other portions of his skin and face,
while sweat matted his hair down severely.
     Bryan nodded as if to a child, "I thought everyone in the fleet knew
about us."
     The man nodded in understanding, "I am not from the Galactica, and I
am Doctor Merrin from the Battlestar Pegasus."
     Bryan was confused, "What? I thought there was only one Battlestar."
Bryan said and pointed at the floor for emphasis.
     Merrin smiled and said, "That's a long story." Changing the subject,
"Tell me, did you do all of this yourself?"
     Bryan nodded slowly. He felt as if he was about to be reprimanded
again for using arcane and barbaric medical practices from a primitive
Earth. "I didn't know how to use the equipment in your first aid kits,
but I..."
     The doctor understood what Bryan was trying to tell him and smiled
fondly at him trying to put him at ease. He placed a reassuring hand on
his shoulder, "You did a great job, Sergeant. Unorthodox, but effective.
You saved a lot of people here today! You should be proud!"
     Bryan smiled weakly and saw that his patients were now in good hands
and that his personal burden had been lifted. He sighed in obvious
relief. That was when his adrenaline rush wore off and he stumbled
backwards. The doctor helped him sit down on the deck and used his
scanner, "Just relax son." Pausing a moment he allowed the hand scanner
to do its job. You're suffering from adrinolan shock. Your lifelines
indicate exhaustion and dehydration." He put a scanner up near Bryan's
head and pressed another device to Bryan's neck he thumbed a button and a
small hiss released its medicine. "Just relax Sergeant, you also have a
concussion. This will balance your lifelines, but I need you to stay
conscious." Merrin looked Bryan squarely in the eyes to ensure he was
heard, "Do you understand?"
     Bryan immediately began to feel better and nodded vaguely to the
doctor. Merrin called over his shoulder, "Barok! Hand me an Auto-Sealer,
and wipes!" A young man promptly brought the device to Merrin and he
began cleaning Bryan's wound. The pain from the wiping off blood and dirt
from his facial wound went ignored. A few microns later he picked up the
Auto-Sealer to mend the cut on his head. A whirring sound emitted from
the small device and a light beamed into his cheek. If Bryan had been on
Earth the nasty cut would have required several stitches and would have
left a nasty scar for the rest of his life, however being on an advanced
space ship, medical technology did the seeming impossible. The result was
a light four-inch scab, "There Sergeant. Just sit there and we'll handle
the rest. Your injury should not leave a permanent scar."
     Merrin pointed to a technician that was looking his way and the tech
came over and put a blanket around Bryan as he sat there with
disorienting thoughts.
     Bryan thought about a girl with deep-sea blue eyes and long
jet-black hair. A passionate kiss and something more he thought, 'Hera
sure is beautiful', His confused mind thought and then realized that
something was wrong, 'No that's not right!' He thought to himself. 'Hera
has blond hair and brown eyes. Who was that other girl?' Then his
thoughts became more confused. He tried to focus on one person, "Hera."
He stared off into the distance and whispered to no one in particular.
     Doctor Merrin began to set Bryan up with an auto-hydrator that would
replenish his dehydrated body.
     Barok walked up beside him, "Did he really say Earth?"
     Merrin smiled and put a hand thoughtfully his chin, "Yes."
     "By the Lords!" Changing the subject, "Will he?"
     Merrin momentarily lost in thought came to himself and smiled, "Yes,
yes. He'll be fine, at least physically. I can only imagine what
something like this would do to a young mind. He'll have to be counseled
of course."
     Barok nodded, "Did he really do this all by himself?"
     Merrin continued studying Bryan's form that was staring off
distance, "That's what he said. Amazing isn't it. Earth must be a really
advanced culture if one man could do all of this with no medical
technology at hand."
     "I'd love to see how far medical technology has progressed. Bet they
can cure the common cold!" Barok said.

***

     Colonel John Andrews of the U.S. Air Force more recently turned
Colonial Viper pilot believed he would never see his friends and family
again. They were up against impossible odds, how could they hope to win?
He would die doing what he had always done; defending people he did not
know. 
     The Colonial and Earth forces defending the Galactica were
hopelessly out numbered. It was only sheer stubbornness and anger that
kept him on the offensive. This enemy was relentless. He knew there would
be no surrender, no quarter given and no prisoners of war, not after
seeing the bodies of Air Force men shipped back through the Stargate to
Earth in body bags. The gate room had been filled with them.
Unfortunately, there was not much room, so bodies had been stacked like
so much firewood.
     It did not bother him so much that he was going to die, but the fact
that his family would never know the truth of how he was over two
thousand light years from Earth did bother him.
     "There won't even be anything left to bury."
     Colonel Michael Sharpe commanding Raptor squadron asked as he banked
hard left, "John? What did you say?"
     John was about to answer but he had his hands full as two Cylon
Raiders dived after him, as two Goa'ould death gliders close behind them.
He pushed his joystick forward all the way and hit his turbo. The viper
dived at an extreme angle away from his pursuer.
     His head and back slammed into his acceleration seat and he gained
one more moment of life. He checked his fuel gauges. There were actually
several small tanks. He had been using full battle thrusters for so long
his tylieum tanks were nearly exhausted, including his reserve tank.
     John called over to Michael, "Raptor One! Your fuel status, over?"
     Michael's voice sounded strained, "Standby." He said curtly as he
expertly dodged the enemy. Then a moment later, "Whew! Probably the same
as yours, but we are so busy I don't see how we can refuel now. It would
be suicide."
     "We don't have a choice. All squadrons prepare to..." 
     John was cut off by a screeching sound that alerted John to a
proximity alarm and although he did not expect to see anything in the
vastness of space he still looked through the cockpits canopy by reflex.
Battlestars as far as the eye could see appeared out of nowhere. Immense
ships of war opened fire on Goa'ould and Cylon alike without any preamble
or warning.
     "What the hell?" John demanded. Through experience he ordered
reflexively, "All Eagle and Raptor Squadron take cover behind the
Battlestars!"
     Michael asked in disbelief, "My God! Where did they come from?"
     "I don't know, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Mike!"
     "Roger that!"
     As both squadrons dove underneath the city-sized battlestar, fresh
squadrons numbering in what must be the hundreds flashed past them at
near light speed. It was more awe-inspiring than any battle over Baghdad
during the Gulf War he had seen. A rectangular column that spanned a half
astronomical unit attacked Goa'ould and Cylon retreating craft like an
angry hornets nest. His scanner registered literally over four hundred
Vipers blazing like supernovas toward the enemy unleashing fiery death
upon their common enemy.
     And in that moment, John knew he would live another day. Entire
squadrons of vipers banked sharply in precise formation. As one body,
each squadron headed toward different vectors to eliminate their foe.
     A voice called over their unicom, "Attention Galactica Viper
Squadrons, this is Colonel Ananias, Strike Wing Commander from the
Battlestar Pegasus, Silver Spar Squadron. Over."
     John did not want to confuse their new friends, so he kept it
simple, "This is Colonel John Andrews, Wing Commander of Eagle Squadron
and Raptor Squadrons. Boy! Are you a welcome sight!"
     Ananias was a little confused about John's using two names and the
non-regulation squadron names of predatory animals instead of the regular
colors standard. "Er, Colonel John Andrews." He said John's name as if it
was one long name, "We'll take it from here, since you're probably low on
fuel and the Galactica is obviously damaged proceed to the Battlestar
Pegasus for..."
     John smiled interrupted, "Colonel, we can refuel and be back in a
flash!"
     "Negative."  Ananias ordered. Then with an undertone of humor he
added, "You and your warriors all fought bravely today, let someone else
have a turn."
     John nodded his head by reflex knowing full well no one else could
see him, "Good luck."
     Ananias final words were, "To us all."
     John addressed both squadrons, "Eagle and Raptor squadrons we are
ordered to land on the Battlestar Pegasus immediately. Anyone out of fuel
has priority."
     A Captain Smith radioed John, "Eagle One, this Eagle Twelve, which
one is the Pegasus, over?"
     John frowned a bit at his ignorance, "Uh, I don't know, try that
bigger one over there."
     Captain Smith shrugged and muttered, "Roger."
     Aboard the Pegasus Commander Cain turned toward the transceiver in
shock and smarting pride, "What does he mean WHICH one is the Pegasus?
Doesn't Apollo require cadets to review history scans in the Academy?"
Then to himself, "Hmmmppphhh!"
     Tolan, his second in command, shrugged, and nodded to the comms
tech.
     A smirk crossed Mikes face in the darkness, " Battlestar Pegasus,
this is Raptor and Eagle Squadrons from the Battlestar Galactica, we're
nearly out of fuel; requesting landing instructions, over?"
     An unseen male voice announced, "Galactica viper squadrons, you are
cleared to land. Eagle Squadron will land in Alpha Landing Bay and Raptor
Squadron will land in Beta, transmitting landing beacon signal, now."

***

     The Cylons were winning obviously and the Galactica would soon be
gone. It neither pleased nor upset the machine race of Centurions
fighting the human remnant. It simply followed its instructions, first
from its original command set from their former Imperious leader and now
from their "god" Heru'Ur.
     Of course its programming was enhanced by Heru'Ur but it still was
not a conscious living being. Albeit its programming was significantly
more advanced than its previous master had included.
     "Continue assault on the battlestar." It droned slowly.
     The pilot centurion started to answer, "By your command." But
instead simply droned, "Which battlestar shall we attack?" Its mechanical
voice asked.
     The command centurion swiveled its head and stated the blatantly
obvious, "The last battlestar."
     "Scanners indicate fourteen battlestars including the Galactica."
     "Impossible."
     "No. Scanners registered thirteen other battlestars dropping from
light speed ten microns ago."
     The centurion contemplated its imperatives and in lieu of new orders
began to issue a continued attack.
     "Scanners indicate four hundred and twelve Colonial Vipers
attacking."
     "It is a human deception." The ships commander reasoned in its slow
mechanical voice.  "Recall all fighter craft and regroup." He contacted
his base ship and requested instructions.
     A flash of fire from several fighters at one time and the Cylon Wing
Commander's fighter blew into thousands of small micrometeorites as the
vipers descended on the other fleeing raiders like wild daggits ripping
apart their prey.

***

     Several long hours of receiving refugees had threatened to overwhelm
the SGC's resources. When word of the miraculous last minute save by
other Colonial Battlestars, the influx of Colonials had been halted.
Instead a refugee camp had been setup on P2S89G. Colonials built it under
the direction of Earth SG teams that were now guarding the Stargate and
surrounding countryside.
     By the time the sun went down over forty-five thousand refugees were
planetside. Over the next forty-eight hours several thousand tons of
Earth based equipment would be shipped. The inventory included a very
similar setup of a deployed U.S. military base during a campaign or Air
Expeditionary Force (AEF) rotation. There was the WOC or Wing Operations
Center for the senior staff, which in this case included Colonel
Makepiece, his officers, and the Colonial Governmental contingent.
Bulldozers arrived during the night and began clearing several acres of
land for the base setup. In addition, several trucks loaded with gravel
were dumped to create a makeshift roads and streets. 
     A medical area comprising of Doctor Janet Fraiser and a small
contingent of her staff led the setup of several large tents that would
serve as an infirmary. This setup was standard operating procedure during
deployments that the majority of all Air Force personnel were required to
participate in either annually or every eighteen months. It was a welcome
routine for them and they could have practically set the base up with
their eyes closed if need be.
     In the next day or so several dining facilities would be setup for
the refugees. The Colonial police officers known as "Black Shirts" and
their Earth Air Force counterpart Security Forces (SF's) worked together
by setting up boundaries and several miles of concertina wire. The coiled
razor sharp barbwire spiraled round and round and had been stacked upon
each other two high. It lent to the allusion of a giant slinky toy common
several years ago in mainstream Americana life. Although the wire would
cut clothes as easy as flesh, its primary design was to entangle an
intruder and delay them till forces could arrive on scene.
     Portable Shower Tents and restroom/lavatories were hastily setup
after shipment through the Stargate, and the camp was divided into two
groups, families and single. The latter was setup in separate areas for
men and women. Upon realization a third area was setup for the orphans
from the orphan ship. Within twelve hours after the initial planet fall,
two hundred tents had been erected that housed up to fifteen individuals
if they did not mind giving up their personal space, with many more being
set up by the Colonial men and women who could free themselves from their
families needs long enough to help.
     This joint base camp was an interim solution to so many people
needing refugee status on Earth. Simply put, even utilizing the Stargate
non-stop would require thousands of hours to process so large a group. In
order to remedy unnecessary suffering, the base camp on this side of the
Stargate had been created.
     Colonel Makepiece of the SG3 Marines was the senior ranking Earth
officer and took command of the base. Fortunately, the colonials also had
tents, food and water as well. The ships that landed had facilities for
personal hygiene and cooking so the immediate needs that night were seen
too. Those that could not fit in tents slept in the larger transports and
shuttles till proper facilities could be constructed, while several opted
to sleep under the stars. A luxury not usually afforded during their
twenty-five yahren journey.

***

     After several other SG teams had traveled to P2S89G, as well as all
of the shipments, a new signal came through. The gate opened and Weaver
announced, "Inbound traveler, inbound traveler. Security to the
embarkation room!"
     Weaver stared intently with one hand poised over the iris palm
scanner that would open the iris in order to allow a traveler to pass
through to Earth.
     The monitor received a GDO signal and confirmed its authenticity,
"Receiving Tok'Ra I.D. Opening the Iris."
     A few seconds after the iris opened up and disappeared into the
Stargate. The Tok'Ra agents stepped out onto the ramp.
     Hammond had just entered the control room, and looked down to see
Sam's father, Jacob Carter and two of his associates arrive.
     Jacob looked upward to Hammond and said with a playful smile on his
face, "Who's been holding up the damn gate?"
     With a smirk on his face George went down to meet his friend.
     Hammond came down to the embarkation room and smiled, "Jacob, what
brings you back to Earth again so soon?"
     Jacob smiled and shook George's hand, "Every time I call you the
gates busy!" Laughing the two old friends left and headed to his office.
     Hammond smiled, "We've been busy here."
     Jacob gave him a sardonic grin, "No kidding. I was wondering when
you were going to stop long enough for me to get a turn. I have been
trying for the last two hours!"
     Hammond regarded him seriously, "It's going to be even busier than
you imagine. You might want to leave soon or it could be several days
before we can let you back through."
     They headed upstairs to Hammond office. Jacob started to take a
shortcut through the conference room, but Hammond stopped him short, "Ah,
let's go around."
     Jacob smiled, "You got something in there you don't want a Tok'Ra to
see, George?"
     Hammond looked down for a second, "I got Senator Kinsey locked up in
there."
     Jacob smiled even wider, "You mean that arrogant son of a ..."
     "The same."
     Jacob shook his head, "You don't mind playing with fire, do you?"
     Hammond harrumphed, "You don't know the half of it, Jacob. The
president was not very happy how the good senator came storming in here
giving orders."
     Jacob said, "Maybe you better start from the beginning."
     Hammond led Jacob to his office and told him what had happened.

***

     Inside Hammond's office, "Basically, the President agrees that we
need to keep the Stargate project as quiet as possible, but there are
people on the other side of the gate who fled their space ships in order
to come to Earth..." Hammond told him.
     "But you don't have the facilities to process some many people."
     "Right."
     "You know you could send them to the Alpha site?" The Alpha site was
a world within the Stargate network that the Goa'ould did not know about.
The SGC had learned that a race known only as the Ancients who had
actually built the Stargate network throughout this galaxy had several
Stargate addresses that the Goa'ould did not know about. It was an ace up
their sleeve. 
     Originally, Earth had only the cartouche symbols he had found on
Abyados sometime after the first mission through the Stargate. During
their first couple years traveling through the Stargate, SG-1 had
traveled to a world where a single room was accessible. After mistakenly
awakening an artifact, the device downloaded all of the knowledge of the
Ancients into Jack's brain. That device began rewriting "software" in
Jack's brain so that eventually he could not even speak English. One of
the benefits of the SGC received from the ordeal before the Asguard race
removed that knowledge from Jack's brain. Before that happened Jack for
reasons unknown to him reprogrammed massive amounts of data in the bases
central command computer mainframe. This allowed them to find a planet
that was being utilized as a bare bones facility in case the Goa'ould or
some other danger destroyed the Earth. An Alpha roster of personnel for
immediate deployment stood by in case Earth was doomed.
     Hammond shook his head, "Afraid not. There is even less resources
there, than here. The Joint Chiefs and the President have decided that we
will ship as many people we can through the Stargate to this facility in
the timetable that the gate operates on and then send them upstairs where
they will be sent to Peterson Air Force Base and live in several hangers
for the interim. P2S89G will be the staging area and even now
construction is underway to setup an interim camp."
     Jacob processed that thought and asked, "I thought you said their
carrier was almost destroyed and the enemy was pressing in for the kill?
There's what? Close to seventy thousand people in their fleet, right?"
     "Right. You and I both know it would take weeks to ship all those
people out. The best we can do is get as many as we can through, but."
     Jacob tilted his head, "There's more?"
     Hammond smiled, "Turns out that their battlestar is not the last
after all. Apparently a small fleet of battlestars had found them and had
been trailing them for sometime. They managed to defeat their machine
enemies and the Goa'ould."
     Jacob smiled, "More than likely they scared them off."
     "Right. Which brings me too...?"

***

     The Galactica hung motionless in space and listed to its side
approximately fifteen degrees. To an observer approaching from afar the
ship could have been skewed sideways or on an even gyroscope for what the
ship itself considered level. Such was three dimensional space, however
if the darkened view ports and the raging fires from multiple hull
breaches covering the old girl weren't enough the Beta Landing Bay was
missing. Where the long cigar like arm used to lay empty space now
blanketed. The three support columns that held her fast exhaled round
burst of fire from punctured emergency blast doors. Electronic equipment
and electrical cabling that a few centons before had been hard wired to
sensitive equipment, now resided emptiness and blew large arcing flashes
of electrical current. Every now and then solar wind would push a cable
into the hull where it grounded itself momentarily and then arced in an
expansive flash of power.
     Bodies and debris littered space without prejudice. A gaunt,
freeze-dried form floated freely toward two electrical cables. The body
used to be apart of the deck crew in Beta Landing Bay. 
     Where sensitive organs that had housed three of the five human
senses used to be, gaping holes of destruction now resided from the
explosive and sudden decompression. The form drifted into two cables that
individually were not quite touching themselves and closed the electrical
circuit. Instantaneously exploding the form into small oblong shapes that
rocketed outward in a three hundred and sixty degree angles toward
infinity.
     A large freeze dried ball of blood in the shadow of the Galactica's
side drifted out of its minus two hundred degree haven and where the
distant suns rays touched it, it exploded into super heated red gases
that expanded into distant nothingness.
     The other landing bay known as Alpha Landing Bay was intact and from
a distance the interior could be seen with a few distinct fires flaring
every now and then. Internal structural damage could be made out as beams
and equipment mounted from above had obviously crashed on the deck. A
handful of forms darted around on small machines pushing debris out of
the way. Large support beams littered portions of the deck, while a whole
beam weighing several tons had creased a very large dent into the top of
two shuttles and cleaved a viper just before the cockpit clean into.
     The rear of the Galactica was dark as no power to the energizers or
tylieum reactors or energizers as they were called powered the enormous
beast. Scorched marks and pockmarks of melted metal blanketed the
surface.
     The bridge was no better than the rest of the ship. Pockmarks of
destruction and multiple hull breaches laced the sides, top and bottom. A
few turrets around the side of the ship on either side had been destroyed
as well.
     The relative calm of the outside however did not match the confusion
and chaos that reigned inside.
     Whole sections of the ship had lost complete power. The lack of
power meant that no new heat or oxygen was being circulated, nor were the
gravity energizers currently on. From previous training and drills
colonial warriors and technicians free floated and did their best to stay
calm and not further deplete their oxygen and heat source.
     Many areas of the Galactica had already begun to lose heat and
families had to float in the middle of the living quarters as a whole
body to continue generating heat.
     Per previous training the children faced the parents and clung to
their chests as the parents held onto each other. Near silent whimpering
of the children were the only testimony to anyone's presence in the pitch
black environment.
     On the bridge of the Galactica, beams lay strewn across the bridge
and bodies littered the decks from various injuries. Apollo continued
barking orders in an efficient manner even as he groaned inwardly at the
sheer chaos of the bridge.
     Red lights dimly lit the bridge as the fleeting source of power
drained it at a slow rate. Whole sections of bridge equipment lay dark
and motionless.
     Stale air began to permeate every deck in the vast ship as carbon
dioxide levels raised.
     Major Samantha Carter sat atop an incapacitated Colonial. Her arms
methodically pumped up and down on the mans chest and she counted under
her breath, "One; one thousand, two; one-thousand, three; one thousand."
     When Sam's count reached fifteen, Daniel who knelt beside the head
of the injured person; turned his head sideways and inhaled deeply.
Gently, he tilted the head back and pinched the nostrils and blew two
gentle puffs of air into the mouth. The unconscious forms chest rose up
gently.
     Daniel inquired with his eyebrows on their patient's chances of
survival, "Sam?"
     Sam said nothing verbally but gave a serious, small sideways nod of
her head indicating the victim probably would not make it unless the
medtechs arrived soon.
     Sweat dripped off her pretty face as the constant strain of
performing CPR took its toll. Daniel more than once tried to relieve her,
but she adamantly refused. Her blond hair was dark where sweat pasted it
to her neck and shoulders. Dirt smudged her cheeks. After the two breaths
she continued her ministrations and near silent counting.
     Jack and Teal'c lifted a beam together. Teal'c muscular physique
strained as they lifted the beam up and then dropped it to the side of a
fallen warrior.
     Jack went over the victim's head and placed two fingers over the
neck, just over the artery. After a couple of moments he said, "Come On!
Come On!" 
     Teal'c looked expectantly to Jack who stood up and sadly shook his
head. Feeling helpless he voiced his frustration, "Where the hell are the
medics?"
     "O'Neil, should we not continue searching for survivors?"
     Jack waved off Teal'c "In a second I want answers."
     Teal'c frowned noticeably and followed Jack. They reached the
circular command section in the middle of the bridge and stopped near the
stairs. Apollo leaned over a railing and talked to Omega.
     Omega reported, "Commander, that's it. All primary and secondary
energizers are out."
     Apollo huffed, "How long till secondary energizers are back online?"
     Omega shook his head and Apollo barely saw it, "Commander, the
energizers need to be completely overhauled. This is it. In less than
five centons all residual power in the capacitors will have run out.
We're dead in space."
     Apollo slammed his fist on the railing. "That's it then. Prepare to
abandon ship."
     Omega once again shook his head. "Sir, with power out on several
decks, most people won't make it."
     Apollo's heart seized him with great pain and sadness. "Issue the
order anyway."
     Athena stood up so Apollo could make out her form, "Apollo, the comm
lines are down."
     Apollo sighed, "Then send someone to..."
     Jack interrupted, "No power? Don't you have batteries or something?"
     Apollo turned to Jack, "What?"
     Jack made a frown, "You know a storage container holding backup
power?"
     When Apollo did not respond Jack inclined his head forward and
raised his hand palm up, finishing what he thought was the obvious
answer, "In case you lose your generators?"
     Apollo nodded in understanding, "No."
     Jack shook his head in exasperation, "No?"
     Apollo clearly irritated exhaled sharply, "No. The power consumption
of such a device would not power even life support."
     Thinking the conversation was over he begun issuing orders, leaving
Jack to himself.
     Jack raised his hand outward in frustration, "Am I a wall here or
something? I..."
     "O'Neil, perhaps the Naqadah reactors Major Carter brought might
restore power to vital areas of the ship?"
     Jack turned to face Teal'c and was fully prepared to loose his
frustration on him when Teal'c revelation stopped him cold. Jack smirked
and slapped Teal'c's shoulder with the back of his hand. Smiling Jack
nodded to him.
     Teal'c stoically dipped his head to his friend in acknowledgement.
     Jack surveyed the bridge despite its red lighting casting shadows,
"Carter?"
     Sam stopped CPR as she neared exhaustion, "Sir?" Then she said,
"Over here."
     Jack and Teal'c came over to her, "Will he?" Indicating her patient.
     Sam shook her head sadly, "No, he's dead."
     Jack changed the subject, "Can you rig the Naquadah generators to
power the ship?"
     Sam frowned, "Even with the reactors we have, I seriously doubt we
could power the entire Battlestar. It would take hundreds of gigawatts,
we don't..."
     Jack huffed, "How about life support?"
     Sam raised her eyebrows mentally calculating, "I would have to run
several Naquadah Reactors in a series, and then ground them all to a
major bulkhead on the Galactica's superstructure, then account for the
power conversion ratio of the Colonial measurement system..."
     Jack lost his patience, "Yeah! Yeah! Can you do it or not?"
     Sam blinked, "I think so. I'll need help."
     Apollo had overhead a small portion of the conversation.
Interrupting he inquired, "Colonel?"
     Jack turned to face him, "We just might be able to save the ship."
     "How?" Apollo asked hopefully.
     Sam interrupted, "We should be able to Macgyver a series of Naquadah
reactors together to keep life support and gravity going."
     Apollo sighed in near relief, "What do you need?"
     "Several people to help carry the reactors and someone to show me
where to hook it up, and someone who can help me convert our measurements
into yours, so we don't blow the relays."
     Apollo turned to Omega, "Omega, show her where to set up." Turning
to Athena, "Athena, get those warriors over there to follow Omega!" Then
to Sam, "Concentrate on life support. We can work without gravity, but we
can't live without air pressure, heat, and oxygen."
      Jack turned to his team, "Teal'c and Daniel help Carter."
     Apollo smiled thinly, "Major, you better hurry, there's only centons
left before we asphyxiate or freeze to death."
     As he mentioned the word freeze Sam unconsciously shook and realized
it had noticeably cooled and the temperature was nearly fifty or sixty
degrees Fahrenheit already. So intent on providing CPR to the wounded
Colonial, the heat she had generated from the act prevented her from
noticing the temperature change, until now.
     Sam nodded and the combined team raced from the bridge as fast as
they could.

***

     With flashlights in hand the combined crew of SG and Colonials ran
at breakneck speed barely slowing at corners. Manually climbing up access
ports and eventually made it to the assigned Earth storage rooms. After
retrieving the reactors, Sam grabbed two portable multi-meters designed
for measuring power output and input, a notepad, calculator and a pen.
Sam passed out cables to each person along with a reactor.
     Every corridor the ten members of the rag-tag team ran they saw a
blur of dirty faces, blood, and bodies littering the corridor. Each
person strained under the weight of the small but heavy weight of the
reactors. Naquadah was very heavy. Weapons grade Naquadah the size of a
football would have required two exceptionally strong individuals on a
litter system or carrier to haul it any appreciable distance. The heavy
properties of the rare and powerful element directly magnified any minute
or trace of power on an exponential mathematical curve.
     Combined with Goa'ould, Tok'Ra, or even the relatively primitive
Tau'ri technology it created massive amounts of power. In the Stargate's
case it allowed its other advanced components to channel power into a
wormhole connected to two points in space. In the Tau'ri Naquadah
reactors it carried enough power to be a super-conductor and act as a
remote power source to activate a Stargate that did not have a Dial Home
Device (DHD), or in this case life support, they hoped.
     At the last juncture they crossed a section of deck plating where
gravity ceased. Omega tried to stop short of the corridor as he saw
debris free floating and spinning but due to the train of personnel
running as fast as he and on his heels he was bumped into the corridor
and spun end over end down the length of it.
     He was not the only one, several others free floated down the
corridor. One by one they bumped into each other and somehow managed to
float toward their destination.
     Daniel fortunately was one of the stragglers who had been able to
stop in time. He swallowed hard and Teal'c cautioned him, "Daniel
Jack'son. Push off at an even stride and you should float straight down
the corridor."
     Daniel turned in the dim light, "Easy for you to say. Is this a bad
time to mention I have motion sickness?"
     To Daniel's horror Teal'c pushed him into the corridor and he
flailed with one arm and held his precious cargo with the other. Not
having experienced weightlessness before, he tried to paddle the air as
he would in a swimming pool on Earth. Not realizing the physics were
different all he managed to do was to start spinning sideways in small
circles, and upside down at the same time.
     Daniel's stomach threatened to expel his dinner. It was then he
realized that Colonial food definitely was not meant to go back the way
it had come in. His eyes widened and his stomach cramped as his mouth
spasmed. His mouth felt strangely dry and wet at the same time.
     When he had given up total hope until a strong hand grasped his arm
and in little time his position righted itself and Teal'c and he sailed
smoothly to the end of the corridor.
     Down the corridor Omega sailed into a new section and fell sharply
as he quickly discovered that gravity was still on in this new section.
"Oof!" He exclaimed.
     Sam soon found out as well, but Omega partially caught her at the
last moment. Together they helped the others.
     Reaching their destination, Omega pointed to the chief engineer,
"That's him."
     Demiclees the chief engineer, "What's this? I don't have time for
this!" He said in obvious frustration.
     The engine room was in total disarray and the oxygen in the room was
very stale.  Debris littered the room as several technicians had stripped
away a vast portion of an energizer.
     Sam interrupted, "We brought some of our Naquadah reactors."
     The crusty older engineer frowned, "Look! We only got centons before
we die. I can't believe any culture so far behind ours would have enough
power to turn the lights on here, much less the ship."
     Sam got into his face, "Either show me where the power cables are
for life support and gravity or we can argue about this till we all
suffocate. Which is it?"
     Omega interrupted, "Demiclees, we don't have time for this. Show
Major Carter where to setup, Commander's orders."
     Demiclees shrugged and pointed "Come on."

***

     On the bridge of the Galactica the air had gone from stale to
putrid. Apollo stood helpless by his chair. Sheba's nasty cut had stopped
bleeding but he insisted that she sit until the medtechs could check her
out, which at this time she felt was a moot point.
     Jack sat on the steps feeling even more helpless than Apollo. 
     Athena coughed and asked Apollo, "Shouldn't we make for the landing
bay?"
     Apollo nodded, "Go ahead." As soon as the words were out of his
mouth the red lights winked out for a moment. The bridge was cast into
total darkness.
     Jack reached for his flashlight when a harsh, bright white lights
clicked on throughout the bridge. Everyone blinked and shielded their
eyes until their eyesight adjusted.
     Fresh air began pumping life throughout the bridge and to Jack it
felt as clean as a spring breeze. Ventilation units immediately began
scrubbing the toxic C02 buildup.
     Jack stood up, "Yeah! Way to go Sam! I take back everything I ever
said about scientists."
     Apollo stood up in amazement as his ship came back to life before
his very eyes. He sighed greatly in relief and hugged his wife. She
laughed openly and kissed him not caring who saw.
     Ragged cheers rang throughout the survivors on the bridge.
     Lights on equipment that had not been damaged suddenly came to life
and equipment chirped and beeped as they began their routines.
     Apollo smiled and extended his hand to Jack, "Well done, Colonel.
Thank you."
     Jack smiled widely and shook his head, "Damn! She's good."

***

     In the engine room Sam hooked the last cable. She looked over at
Demiclees who nodded, "The ground is connected. Go ahead major."
     Sam inhaled sharply and pushed the on button of the first reactor.
Its light came on and nothing happened. She exhaled and began turning on
the other devices. When the fourth Naquadah reactor was turned on the
life support console came to life and beeped rapidly. Several tall
gauges, one for every large section of the ship registered the high toxin
levels of the ships and alarms blared.
     Demiclees shoulders sagged in defeat until Daniel said, "Look! It's
working!"
     Gradually the red area of the gauge at the top began falling slowly.
In under a centon the gauge entered the yellow area of critical and still
fell toward safe limits.
     Everyone in engineering cheered loudly and clapped each other on the
back. Within moments the gauge rested in the green safety margin.
     Sam shook her head and smiled, "Let's hook up the others to gravity,
basic electrical power, and see if internal communications can be
restored."
     Everyone pitched in with renewed vigor.

***

     Groups of families huddled in weightlessness when the life support
began again. 
     A father looked around in the darkness, "Did you hear that?"
     A teenage child said, "That's the ventilation!"
     Without warning the lights came on sharply and even though it nearly
blinded them they cheered.
     The father comforted his wife and children, "Soon we'll have
gravity." No sooner than he had said it he felt the telltale tug of
gravity as it gradually pulled them slowly and inexorably to the floor.
     The family cheered and knew they were going to be all right. 

***

     Similar scenes throughout the great ship happened as life was
restored piece-by-piece, and system-by-system. In the life center, Doctor
Cassiopeia worked methodically all the while she fretted to herself for
Starbuck's safety. Hoping she had a husband to come back to her.
     Over the yahren the unreachable and womanizing ladies man, Starbuck
had his heart captured by a woman that in another time and place in the
Colonies probably would not have met.
     Actually that's not entirely accurate, as a true space Casanova he
might have met her in the service of sociallator order.
     The sociallators were highly trained and educated women who served
the physical well being of men who for diverse reasons. For some men,
they provided an alternative for legally seeking companionship apart from
their spouses and without the majority of their society frowning upon
unwise liaisons.
     The service of the sociallator's had begun as an official
institution a thousand yahren ago and blessed by the Lord's of Kobol
themselves.
     Of course in any diverse culture certain groups, such as the tribe
of Gemons or Gemini did openly frown at such activities but actually
despised such deplorable behavior. Their planets more stringent customs
only sanctified the physical union of male and female once every seven
years during the full moon of their planet and by their priest.
     Certain side effects resulted from this, one being the Gemons were
renown throughout the Colonies for being some of the best pyramid card
players, among other things.
     A sociallator began her studies as a young woman. Its focus was not
the more garish or lewd acts of sex, but instead encompassed the overall
well being of the customer. Studies included an accredited degree in
medicine; including, standard practices and alternative and natural
healing medicines, acupressure, acupuncture, Chiropractor,
pharmaceutical, counseling and of course the more sensual arts of
pleasing a man.
     In most facets of the Colonial society a sociallator was looked at
in usually three ways: Everyone knew that their craft was one of high
skill and demand and not anyone could merely become one because they had
the correct body parts. Their career encompassed many fields of
expertise. Another opinion was that of some insecure women who were still
not comfortable in a sociallators presence. Which more than likely
stemmed from a feeling of inadequacy of a jealous spouse. Men on the
other hand justified the practice with either a total disregard to their
professional status and focused on the woman's more physical attributes
or they genuinely desired companionship from someone who would treat them
respectfully and not break their heart.
     Since the destruction of the Colonies there was not a high demand
for sociallators. Everyone had lost someone in his or her flight that
fateful night. After the fleet had put many light yahren behind them and
what was lost several people chose to find someone to fill that gap in
their lives. Without any persuasion couples gravitated toward one another
and in the first yahren alone many new mouths to feed flooded the ships
already cramped quarters.
     When Cassie had come aboard one of the surviving ships that fled the
Colonies, she had met Starbuck who had taken her back to the Galactica to
have her broken arm repaired.
     In the conversation afterward Starbuck vowed to find her a position
on the Galactica so she wouldn't have to return to the ship that housed
several Gemons who had despitefully treated her.
     Since Cassie's high education focused on a medical degree it took
little persuasion to place her in a med-tech career path.
     In less than ten yahren she had become a physician and after Doctor
Salik had passed on five yahren later she took his place as the most
senior medical officer.
     In complete darkness she had tried to assist the wounded but many
died on the table from the lack of power to advanced equipment.
     When the power came on again she immediately went to work on the
living.
     A stretcher came in with a bruised and battered young man she
recognized. She pointed to an empty bio-bed and checked his lifelines,
"Bryan? Can you hear me?"
     Bryan eyes still registered a detached shock from his ordeal. Not
knowing if the blood all over his uniform was his she immediately checked
him out.
     Doctor Merrin smiled, "He's just suffering from Adrinolan shock."
     She looked up, "Who are you?" She noticed the medical smock he wore
and knew he couldn't be a doctor from the fleet.
     He stuck his hand out, "Doctor Merrin from the Battlestar Pegasus."
     Cassie dropped her instrument in response and her hands went up to
her mouth, "Pegasus?"
     That ship meant more to her than most of the fleet. Prior to the
destruction of the Colonies, Cain and Cassiopeia were very close friends.
Through the service of the Sociallators Cain had been her regular client,
helping him adjust to the death of his wife, but as time wore on they
fell in love.
     She had believed Cain was lost at the battle of Molecay until his
triumphant return over twenty-three yahren ago. She was seeing Starbuck
then and a certain rivalry had ensued between the two. With Cain's
disappearance she had moved on and put her love for Cain out of her mind.
     He smiled a friendly smile, "Yes, I assume you are the Galactica's
doctor?"
     She nodded weakly, "All right, I can't deal with that now. What
happened to Bryan?"
     He smiled, "He saved a lot lives in Alpha Landing Bay, but it took
its toll on him."
     Cassie bent over and picked up the instrument and checked that it
still worked. She then scanned Bryan and discovered it just as he had
said.
     That was when Sam, Teal'c, and Daniel came running in. Daniel
huffed, "Is that Sergeant Torres?"
     Cassie nodded.
     Daniel went over to the phone and called the bridge.
     After having Athena patch her to Jack, "O'Neill?" Jack said.
     "Jack!" Daniel exclaimed.
     "Daniel. Good job. Where are you at?"
     "Jack, we're in medical, they just brought in Sergeant Torres."
     Jack's voiced remained silent a moment, "Is he..." Leaving the
question hanging.
     "I don't think so but you better get down to their life center. He
doesn't look good."
     Sam and Teal'c approached Torres on the bio-bed. "My God. What
happened?"

***

     Jack exited a turbo lift and headed toward the life center. At the
end of the passageway he saw Starbuck enter the life center and muttered
to himself as he passed the sign labeling it, "Why can't they just call
it medical?'
     Close on Starbuck's heels, he saw Bryan on the bed with blood
covering most of his uniform. 
     Starbuck went to Cassie and hugged and kissed her gently. She sighed
in great relief that he had once again returned to her after a battle.
     "What the hell happened?" Jack said in his most authoritative voice.

     Starbuck saw Bryan's condition and started to ask his wife how he
was.
     Cassie said, "Relax Colonel. Bryan..."
     She never got to finish as Jack peppered Starbuck with his fury,
"You! I want a word with you!" 
     Starbuck shrugged, "I just got..."
     "I DON'T BELIEVE IT! I DO NOT BELIEVE IT! What the hell is the
matter with you?"
     Starbuck clearly frustrated squared off with Jack, "Whatta ya mean?"
     "How could you take him out in that ship?" Jack forcefully shoved
his index finger repeatedly into Starbuck's chest.
     Starbuck remained somewhat calm and pulled a fumerello out of his
coat pocket and started to put it into his mouth.
     Jack grabbed it and threw it down on the floor. "Answer me!
Captain!"
     Sam tried to get Jack's attention, "Ugh, Colonel, its not..." Jack
never heard her.
     "Look Colonel! I don't answer to you..."
     Jack got within six inches of Starbuck and screamed so hard that
spittle flew from his mouth, "I don't give a damn who you report to. You
stay the hell away from my people, IS THAT CLEAR, you arrogant son-of..."
     "Colonel!" Cassie said breaking Jack's concentration.
     In frustration and the heat of the moment Jack turned to her and
continued his flurry of words, "What!" It was more of a statement than a
question.
     "Sergeant Torres is fine. He's simply in adrinolan shock."
     "What?"
     Sam explained, "Bryan is in shock. After he and Captain Starbuck
returned to the Galactica he somehow got caught in the Landing Bay during
the worst of the attack. He ended up saving over thirty lives."
     Doctor Merrin did not know who Jack was but offered, "He even saved
a technicians life at the risk of his own."
     Jack asked, "Really?"
     Merrin nodded, "Yes. Those people would have died if he had not used
basic life saving skills to stabilize them."
     Daniel asked, "How did he do that?"
     Merrin smiled, "As the Crew Chief Artemeus said, a girl, some
technician, named Methany was working on a viper and the sergeant saw a
beam falling unawares toward her. According to the chief, he jumped into
her path and knocked her out of the way just as the beam would have
fallen onto them. Afterwards he stayed and tended the wounded." 
     Cassie spoke, "I am sure Sire Geller will be very grateful."
     Teal'c asked, "Why would a council member on your quorum be
grateful?"
     Starbuck bent over and picked up his fumerello and dusted it off,
"Because, she is his granddaughter."
     Teal'c eyes blinked but otherwise said nothing.
     "He is a very lucky young man to only have come through so much with
so few injuries."
     Sam asked, "Will he be all right?"
     Cassie smiled, "Yes, he is semi-sedated now, but it's his mental
scars that concern me."
     Jack nodded, "All right. Major Carter, I want a head count of all
our people on the ship. Daniel and Teal'c go with them and make sure they
don't need any help." Jack turned to leave.
     Daniel's curiosity got the best of him, "Jack?"
     "Yeah?"
     "Where you going?"
     Sam never got used to Daniel asking superior officer questions like
that and had to remind herself Daniel was not military. Prior to joining
on with the Stargate program, he had no affiliation with the any branch
of the military and therefore protocol meant very little to him. They
were more friends than supervisor to subordinate in their relationship.
     Jack eyed Starbuck with a dark glint in his eyes, "I gotta take care
of something. I'll meet you in the server room."
     Jack went back to the bridge and found Apollo still there giving
orders and ensuring his ship was going to survive.
     Jack rounded the raised circular platform that was the command area
of the bridge and easily walked the stairs two steps at a time.
     He saw Sheba was finally getting medical attention from a young male
med-tech, "Colonel, how are you feeling?"
     She smiled, "I'll live. How are your people?"
     Jack put his hands in his pockets and looked around the bridge
before he spoke, "Yeah, ya know? That's what I came up here to talk to
you about."
     Apollo paused a moment, "Did you lose anyone, Colonel?"
     Jack shrugged, "Major Carter is still getting a head count. Torres
got banged up and is being sedated, but he'll live."
     Apollo's shoulders relaxed a moment, "Thank the Lords."
     "Sir, when all of this is over and things get straightened out here,
we need to talk." He said matter of factly.
     Apollo lifted his eyebrow as a question.
     "Yeah, ya see. It's Starbuck and that stunt he pulled tonight. I
could have lost a good man today because of his devil may dare attitude."
     Apollo understood the gist of what Jack was saying even if he never
heard the saying before.
     Apollo nodded, "Yes, Colonel. After things get straightened out
we'll talk, and yes I haven't forgotten what he did." 

***

     As Cain's shuttle approached the Galactica he looked out at the ole
girl and shook his head. 'After all these yahren.' He thought.
     His thoughts were interrupted as his pilot requested landing
instructions, "Commander Cain's shuttle from the Battlestar Pegasus,
requesting landing instructions?"
     Cain's shuttle arrived with great pomp and ceremony. Commander
Apollo and Colonel Sheba  were wearing their dress uniforms. The Colonial
Flag waved tall and proud from its stand. 
     The shuttles hull had steam rising off of it from the difference of
temperature from space to an atmosphere. The door opened and a micron
later Cain in his familiar warrior's uniform stepped out. As a former
pilot, Cain had continued wearing his warrior's uniform instead of the
Bridge Officers blue tunic and pants. The only difference was that Cain's
shoulders sported gold braids around the brown shoulder patches
indicating he was a commander.
     His physical body and presence had diminished a little over the
twenty-two yahren since Apollo had last seen him, but his eyes still
shined with a youth and vigor that would rival any young warrior.
     Cain swaggered down the ramp smiling brightly waving his command
baton around at everyone. He noticed something odd though. A small group
of humans stood behind Apollo and wore totally unfamiliar uniforms. They
wore two piece uniform of green with insignia he couldn't quite make out
from this distance. He assumed he would find out soon enough and quickly
put that issue aside for now.
     The landing bay shuddered from the enormous roar of applause and
cheers.  His eyes rested on Apollo in his blue command uniform and did
not seem surprised to see Sheba standing beside him in a command uniform
also.
     Sheba bolted from her position and met her father halfway. Burying
here head into his chest she cried openly, "Father!"
     Cain enveloped his only child with a hug that appeared to wrap the
whole landing bay in a warmth of protection and security. "Baby! I missed
you so much."  Sheba cried pure tears of joy.
     The crowd watched on in respectful silence. Everyone in the fleet
knew who Sheba's father was and gave them a few microns respite.
     After several microns, he released her while she stood protectively
at his side. He turned toward Apollo openly offered his hand, "Commander
Apollo."
     Apollo smiled a toothy grin, "Commander Cain. Thank the Lords you
showed up when you did.
     Cain waved a dismissal with his baton, "Ah, you would have done the
same." Cain paused as he sensed another presence out of all the hundreds
of people in the bay staring holes into him. 
     Quickly looking to his right he saw a young warrior who was the
spitting image of Sheba twenty-five yahren ago, except for the blond
hair.
     He quickly looked to Sheba and then back to the girl. Cain's eyes
twinkled with delight as he deduced who this person was. "Turning to
Apollo and Sheba he asked, "And who do we have here?" 
     Hera stepped forward and smiled sheepishly. She felt as if she was
at a cadet review, She squared her shoulders and looked up into her
grandfathers eyes for acceptance and said rather quietly, "Hello,
grandfather." She tried pushing the lump in her throat she swallowed
rather sharply, "I'm Hera."
     Hera was not quite sure what Cain's response would be. She had heard
wonderful stories about how Cain was a loving father and yet at the same
time how he was the shrewdest man alive.
     Nothing prepared her for his open arms of acceptance. She dived for
his embrace, wrapping her arms around his torso and buried her head in
his chest, like her mother only centons before. His acceptance made her
feel complete and she wondered why she had even been concerned he might
not accept her. Tears slid down her cheeks. "Hera, my granddaughter." He
pulled her away several microns later, still holding her in his arms,
while she looked upward with an awe of respect.
     He smiled at her with a fathers love, "I have a granddaughter." He
shook his head and hugged her again. After he released her he turned to
Apollo incredulously, "Just one grandchild?" He asked holding his index
finger up.
     Apollo shrugged non-committal, "We've been busy."
     Cain shook his head reprovingly. Finally accepting that he looked
over Hera's shoulder, "Apollo, have you changed the dress code onboard
the Galactica?"
     Apollo took his cue, "Commander Cain, this special envoy from Earth?
May I present..."
     Cain looked sharply at Apollo, "Earth?"
     Apollo smiled, "Earth. This is Colonel Jack O'Neil, Major Samantha
Carter, Doctor Daniel Jack'son, and Teal'c."
     Cain expelled a sharp breath, and assumed an air of authority,
"Colonel."
     Jack smiled, "Commander, I have heard almost nothing about you."
They shook hands and Cain smiled to himself, 'I think I'm going to like
this man'.
     He quickly shook the others hands and stopped at Teal'c, "Teal'c is
it?"
     Teal'c did not smile but inclined his head respectfully, "Indeed."
     Cain sensed strength and a warrior's spirit that was stronger than
the others. "Interesting name. You are a warrior are you not?"
     Teal'c seemed pleased at the Commander's assessment and smiled
albeit a little, "I am a Jaffa. A race of warriors known and feared
throughout the galaxy."
     Cain lingered a moment before shaking his hand. "I knew it. Perhaps
we could share warrior stories, you and I? One warrior to another."
     Teal'c once again inclined his head.
     Cain turned his attention back to Apollo, "Well, enough of this
sentiment, there is a war on and I intend to win this one! Yes!" Cain
declared loudly, "By the Lords of Kobol! We are about to destroy the
Cylons once and for all!"
     His impromptu speech egged everyone into a frenzy of cheers that
threatened to seriously hurt everyone's hearing.

***

     The day had gone rather quickly. Cain endured a session with the IFB
news network and now this private meeting with Apollo himself. Later
another session with the council and numerous impromptu meetings, Cain
expected to look up Cassie and see how she had fared all these years and
finally sleep on his own Battlestar.
     Tollan was second in command of his fleet and was very good at what
he did, but Cain reveled in his fleet, although nearly ten times smaller
than the one he left, it was his and now the Colonies. A gift, to the
remnants of the Twelve Tribes of man and perhaps their brothers on Earth.
     Apollo could not sit down in his excitement but he sat on the edge
of his enormous desk. Finally he blurted out the one question on
everyone's mind.
     "Cain, how in Hades did you survive over twenty two yahren ago and
how did you find us now?" Apollo asked.
     Cain smiled a sidelong mischievous grin at Apollo, "Oh, Hades had
nothing to do with it."
     Apollo waited patiently for Cain to continue, but instead it was
Cain's turn to pace the room looking at the floor. Finally he exhaled
sharply, looked Apollo in the eye and said, "Apollo, You're never going
to believe this, but..."
     "But what?" Apollo prompted.
     "It was a miracle." Cain simply said and gave him a small smile.
     Apollo squared off his shoulders and stated disbelievingly, "Last
time we met, you told my father that you made your own miracles." 
     Cain uncharacteristically said, "I was wrong."
     Apollo looked doubtfully and asked, "Cain, what happened to you?
Last Starbuck and I saw were that both base stars exploded and then
nothing. By all rights you should be dead."
     Cain raised his eyebrows "I should have been, but I wasn't." Cain
paced the floor, "We saw a bright light also, but not the one Starbuck
and you saw. A fantastic ship made of brilliant white light, and there
was sound." Cain turned to face Apollo. "It was beautiful and
overpowering...It was like nothing I had ever seen before."
     Apollo finished for him, "The Ship of Lights".
     Cain smiled and nodded, "The Ship of Lights. They said you knew them
already."
     Apollo started to realize what had happened, "Why would they save
you? Their not supposed to interfere."
     "They mentioned that also, but they said that your lives had been
interfered with already by someone named Count Ibilis who had interfered
and now they were nudging fate back into proper balance."
     "Ibilis? I thought he was gone."
     Cain shrugged, "I don't know about that. Those..." He searched for
the right word and finally decided on, "Angels" didn't say much to me
except that he had been banished from our visible dimension, but he still
can influence the seen world or some other nonsense." Cain waved
dismissively, "I'll leave the correct interpretation with the
theologians."
     Apollo shrugged his head, rounded the corner to his desk and sat
heavily into his seat. Reaching for two glasses of ambrosia. Pouring a
drink for himself and then pointed at the other one indicating one for
Cain, who nodded assent.
     "I don't know", Apollo began as he handed Cain the other drink. "Ah,
it's just so hard to believe. I mean your such a..."
     Cain took the drink and smiled mischievously, "A what? A badacka?"
Cain referred to a now extinct furry animal back on Caprica that was an
herbivore, had long ears, a short raggedy tail and made irritating baying
sounds, and was renowned throughout the colonies for being the most
stubborn animal in existence.
     Apollo lips cracked a small smile, "Yes."
     Cain snapped his fingers, "Which reminds me, a mutual acquaintance
wanted me to deliver a message." 
     Cain paused dramatically and then simply said, "John says hello."
     Apollo's eyes widened, "John? The John?" The only person he ever
knew as John, except Colonel John Andrews of Eagle Squadron, was an
angelic being from the Ship of Lights who had acted as mediator between
his race and the Colonial remnant when he was last on a planet called
Terra. Now he knew that Cain was telling the truth. Only a handful of
people knew the details of the incident on Terra.
     "The last time I saw him was on a planet called Terra."
     "I know. He said that you helped prevent a war that would have
otherwise destroyed the planet." Cain smiled widely.
     "You know about Terra?"
     "I better. It's our new base of operations."
     "What?" Apollo started disbelievingly. He shook his head in
exasperation, "Cain, you better start from the beginning."
     Cain began, "It all started the last time you saw the Pegasus up
against two of Baltar's base ships. Baltar's ship pulled back to a safe
range and ordered the other base ship Commander's to take the Pegasus on.
We were outgunned and had the pogee's blown out of the hull on both
sides." 
     He began his tale:
     Captain Apollo, Strike Wing Commander of Blue Squadron from the
Galactica and his wingman Lieutenant Starbuck and the rest of Blue
Squadron were escorting several shuttles from the Pegasus that held
numerous wounded from a previous battle.
     The vipers flew in a staggered and relaxed formation. Several vipers
spearheaded the way back to the Colonial Fleet and the Galactica, while
others formed up on the left, right and the rear.
     Apollo and Starbuck took up the rear flank, "Apollo? According to my
scanners the shuttles are on a course that will take them well out of the
path of the returning Cylon Raiders." Starbuck said.
     Apollo frowned, "That's why were following this heading, it's the
safest route back to the fleet."
     "That means that Cain won't have any support when he attacks the
Basestars. There are more than enough vipers to protect the shuttles. I
was thinking what's one more viper or two if you get my meaning?"
     Apollo frowned even more, "Starbuck, that would mean disobeying
orders."
     "Whose?"
     Apollo was starting to get exasperated, "Cain's!" He said as if it
were obvious to anyone.
     "How can we be accused of disobeying orders, from a man whose
disobeying orders himself?" Starbuck returned.
     Apollo had been about to rebuke Starbuck and caught himself in a
sudden revelation, "Somehow that makes sense." Then to Boomer, "Boomer?
Starbuck and I are going to check out our rear flank."
     Boomer had heard every word and knew what they intended to do, "How
far to our rear?"
     Apollo said, "Don't ask too many questions."
     Boomer shook his head and smirked, "That's what I thought. Good
Luck."
     With nothing more to say Apollo and Starbuck pushed their turbo
button and swung their ships into a tight one hundred and eighty degree
angle and sped back the way they had come.
     The Battlestar Pegasus was fast approaching two of the three Cylon
base ships. Baltar had realized that Cain was after his hide and had
cowardly ordered his subordinate Commander's to move their ships up
forward of his while he retreated.
     Ever the tactical wizard, Cain was counting on that. His second in
command, Major Tollan reported, "Two base ships closing with us. The
third base ship is moving back out of range."
     "That third ship will be Baltar's."
     Tollan interrupted, "Sir, two ships approaching at just sub-light
speed, their vipers."
     Cain frustrated at last minute changes to his battle plans testily
asked, "Well who are they, what do they want? Identify?"
     Apollo and Starbuck moved into position, "Starbuck, I'll take the
one on the left."
     Starbuck stated the blatantly obvious, "I got the other one."
     Both vipers strafed the sides of the base ships that faced each
other one doing incredible damage to their mega-pulsar lasers.
     Tollan announced, "Both vipers are attempting strafing runs on both
base ships."
     Cain smiled deviously, he tightened his fist and shook it in the
air, "Their clearing a path for us. Arm all missiles. Point blank range."
     Starbuck dived into the superstructure of the enemy base ship. He
strafed another line of laser turrets and wondered how Apollo was doing.
     Apollo interrupted his thoughts, "It's nice in here. They can't fire
on us without hitting themselves."
     The Pegasus had slid right between both base ships so that one was
positioned on either side. Both vipers seeing the clash of the giants
fast approaching left the area in a heartbeat.
     Both fired on each other in a fist to fist slugging match. Support
beams fell and fires on both ships began.
     As the pair of vipers put some distance between them and the Cylons,
the first basestar exploded followed a micron later by the other one.
They exploded in a spectacular array of white hot light and debris.
     Starbuck yelled into the microphone in his helmet, "Do you see the
Pegasus?" Squinting his eyes he tried desperately to find it.
     Apollo turned away from the explosions, "I can't see anything except
spots! I've never seen an flash that powerful before."
     Starbuck registered the incoming Cylon Raiders on his scanners.
These were the same raiders that Cain's plan had racing back and forth to
a planet in this sector called Gomoray. The once Delphian home world, now
a modernized city of machine efficiency.
     The Cylons had destroyed over fifty million living beings in that
campaign and took over their cities as an outer capital world.
     Cain had cleverly used both Gomoray and Baltar as a means to get the
Cylon ships to head toward the Colonial Fleet and then hit the Cylon
capital with a strike team that had parachuted in. Once the strike team
blew munitions depot and the control center for the planetary laser
batteries, vipers descended on the planet unleashing their deadly laser
armament.
     Cain could have never anticipated that fortuities arrival of the
Cylons Imperious Leader. An ugly mechanical monstrosity with a huge
bulbous head covered in elegant robes. Its head contained three higher
function brains that provided near sentience.
     If Cain had known how close he came to lopping the head off of the
Cylon Empire he would have changed his battle plan. As it were, by the
time the raiders had reached their halfway point they turned back to
support the attack on the fuel depot and munitions depot on Gomoray. Then
Cain executed the final phase of his plan by going after Baltar himself
in his base ship. 
     Baltar fearing for his life had hastily ordered the raiders to
return. By the time that two of the base stars had been destroyed the
raiders were nearly out of fuel and would surely be lost in the abyss of
space.
     "Apollo! Scanners picking up a large force of Cylon Raiders! What do
we do?"
     Apollo smiled thinly, "We go home, as fast as we can."
     Commander Apollo remembered that incident vividly. Shaking it off he
asked, "I remember that much, but what happened then?"
     Cain arched one eyebrow and shrugged, "During that last moment just
as both base ships blew; time seemed to freeze." Cain stared off to a
point furthest in Apollo's chamber.
     "Then there was a bright light, warmth, sound almost like a heavenly
music, so loud, so overpowering that I lost consciousness, then...then I
awoke."
     Apollo smiled remembering a similar event.
     Cain continued, "I awoke in a vast chamber of brilliant white. The
room seemed to glow ethereally and their were people dressed in white."
Cain lost all focus momentarily and then came back to himself, "Apollo,
to say I was at a complete loss of words, would be an understatement.
     I tried to get up but I was somehow restrained, suspended several
degrees in a resting position but not quite lying down."
     A faceless being spoke, "Balron infusion complete."
     Cain knew he must surely be dead but the no nonsense warrior in him
asked, "Where am I? What's happening?"
     The faceless being seemed to glide toward him, "Commander Cain of
the Battlestar Pegasus."
     Cain eyed him warily but was helplessly restrained by unseen forces,
"That's right."
     "Do not be alarmed."
     Cain asked, "Am I dead?"
     The faceless being did not indicate whether he had heard him or not,
"Death is a primitive understatement of the existence in the universe as
you know it."
     Cain raised his voice, "Don't give me that double talk. Where am I?
Where is my crew?"
     The being countered, "Your people are in similar state of being. As
to your whereabouts, you are in a dimension not quite your own."
     Cain started in confusion and began again to demand answers,
"Look..."
     Without preamble the being spoke again, "You sacrificed yourself to
save the remnants of your people. Rarely is such a deed performed
selflessly."
     "Why are you doing this to me? If I am dead, then tell me, clearly."
     "As you measure death, no, you are not dead, merely apart from your
dimension, temporarily."
     "If my crew and I are not dead, why are we here?"
     Eyes that sparkled like diamonds that radiated warmth toward him,
"Because you surely would have perished in the conflict with our enemy."
     Cain's eyebrows arched sharply, "Surely the Cylons are not a threat
to you."
     "All the forces that corrupt and destroy that which is good is our
common foe", The faceless being spoke.
     Cain couldn't help himself but had to ask, "Cylons are machines,
they were programmed millennia ago by their reptilian creators. The
original organic beings were known as the Cylons but were destroyed by
the machines they created."
     "Yes and the machine Cylon race were created and programmed by Count
Ibilis who had the original Cylon race destroyed."
     "Count Ibilis? Who's that."
     "He was once what we are now, but was corrupted by evil and
darkness. He now uses his knowledge to pervert that which is good."
     Cain struggled with these metaphysic concepts, "Are you saying that
he is Hades?"
     "That is one name he is known by, as well as Mestopholes, the lord
of darkness is another also."
     Cain knew he was in over his head and finally began to listen.
     "Ibilis has already met with the Galactica and nearly destroyed the
remnant of your people, including your daughter..."
     "My daughter! Sheba." Cain strained under his restraints. "Let me
go! I have to save my baby!"
     The angel merely shook his head, "Your daughter Sheba is now safe.
Captain Apollo had sacrificed his life to save her."
     "Apollo's dead?" He remorsed over Adama's son.
     "He was only dead by primitive measures. He is alive and well."
     Cain frowned darkly, "Ibilis will pay."
     "That is not for you to say. He has forfeited his corporal existence
as payment for his deeds."
     "You have power over him? Why didn't you stop him?"
     Patiently the angelic being explained, "Because we value freedom of
choice above all else, his, yours, everyone's. We are not allowed to
interfere in the development of lesser advanced cultures."
     Cain huffed, "What do you call saving my life then?"
     "Your lives were not Ibilis to take."
     "Ibilis? I was fighting Baltar and his base ships."
     "That encounter was carefully manipulated by Ibilis behind the
scenes. You were not meant to sacrifice your crew at that time, but
instead were meant to provide protection for your people. Ibilis changed
all that and now events are unfolding as they should not."
     "How should they unfold? Who are you to say how events should
unfold?"
     "You can not understand at this time. We are the custodians of this
universe."
     The angel glided silently over to Cain and smoothly and quietly
waved his hand over Cain's face and Cain instantly stood up to his full
height.
     "Cain, your continued existence is vital to your people's success."
     "I'll take care of my crew."
     The faceless being shook his head indicating Cain did not
understand. "The remnants of your people who even now flee their
merciless enemy need your resourcefulness."
     Cain smiled and said, "Well then let my crew and I go and we'll be
on our way."
     The faceless being said nothing but simply stared at him a moment
and then vanished.
     Cain was suddenly alone in the vast chamber, "Wait! Where? How?
Hey!"
     A voice spoke from behind him, "Hellloooo!" a cheerful being said
from behind him in a British accent.
     Cain whirled and a human appearing male stood by him smiling. Cain
huffed, "Right. And who are you?"
     "You may call me John."
     "John?" Cain tested the unfamiliar word.
     "Yes." The angel simple stated. Cain looked this rather human
looking angel closely. He was a little taller than Cain, with sandy
blond, curly hair. A rather dignified face that shown from an inner
light. His eyes had wrinkles on the edges from what Cain surmised was
quite a bit of smiling.
     Cain had never heard that name before, "Well then, John. Perhaps you
could tell me, are you an angel too?"
     John mused over that and his eyes twinkled with light humor. "In a
manner of speaking."
     Cain leaned in close and slowly, so as not to provoke his host, he
pushed lightly into John's chest. It was solid. Cain raised his eyebrows
with the unspoken question.
     John did not seem insulted at the gesture, "Consider this a
reflection of intelligence."
     Cain accepted that and then got to the point of the conversation,
"All right, John, can I have my ship and crew back?"
     John gently put his arm on Cain's shoulder and escorted him through
a different chamber, "All in good time."
     Cain paused, "Why?"
     John smiled amicably, "Well commander, your battlestar was severely
damaged and we can't have you going into another battle with a dead hulk,
now can we?" John smiled openly.
     Cain shook his head in acknowledgement and then did a double take,
"What? What battle? We destroyed those Cylon base ships."
     John gently nudged Cain in the correct direction, "Yes, excellent
job by the way. Not our way mind you but...well...You need to be in top
notch condition."
     Cain seemed exasperated, "For what?"
     "Cain, you and your crew are all we have to work with. Your ship and
your skills are desperately needed on a planet called Terra?"
     "Terra? I am not going to Terra. I have to get back to the fleet.
They need me."
     John smiled apologetically as if a teacher to his student, "I am
afraid you won't see your people for many yahren." John remarked
diplomatically. "You have a job to do after all." He added rather
cheerfully.
     "What job?"
     "Terra has been saved by the Galactica, but a new threat from the
Cylons threaten their peace."
     "Galactica? How could the Galactica have saved this planet? We only
just left the fleet and there was only one habitable planet near them,
Gomoray."
     John smiled apologetically, "Time passes differently in this ship;
this dimension. When we arrive at Terra ten yahren will have passed by
your reckoning."
     "Ten yahren? Now wait a centon. I don't care about Terra, I have to
worry about my people."
     "Actually, this concerns your people's welfare as well. We can not
force you to do this but you must know that if you do not; not only will
Terra fall to the Cylons, but the Colonial Fleet as well as the planet
they seek."
     "Earth?"
     John nodded, "Earth."
     "It's real?"
     John once again guided Cain and this time they actually made
progress toward their destination.
     "Yes, and if you will follow my instructions, you will not only save
your brothers on Terra, but you will also save the fleet, and Earth
itself."
     The pair entered an observation window and there in the darkness sat
the Battlestar Pegasus. It nearly glowed in ethereal white.
     "Your ship has been repaired and fully stocked for your journey.
Your crew will be returned and soon you will be in the midst of a battle.
Fight Well."
     Cain turned to John in astonishment, "I don't nearly have enough
vipers to fight a prolonged battle. Most were transferred to the
Galactica."
     John smiled, "A full two squadrons I believe you call them still
remain, what with some older pilots who had moved on to desk jobs over
the yahren. Now then, the Pegasus is fully renovated, fueled to capacity,
and as good as new."
     Cain uncharacteristically resigned himself to the powers that be,
"What do I have to do?"
     John smiled in approval seeing that Cain was uncharacteristically
deferential, "You must win." John said in all seriousness.
     Cain shook his head and smiled, "I never lose."
     John smiled back, "Yes, we know. Now, listen carefully, I am about
to tell you what you must do, but before I do, remember the next time you
see the Commander of the Galactica, you will tell him simply, "John says
hello."
     "That's it?"
     John clapped him on the back, "That's it. Now then, the next several
yahren are going to be very exciting, you must..."John began to fill Cain
in on several key events that Cain must be prepared for.

***

     Cain stopped with his recounting of the event.
     Commander Apollo shook his head, "Cain, if anyone else told me that
I would never have believed them. Tell me, what happened to Terra."
     Cain shrugged, "After John finished speaking I woke up on the bridge
of the Pegasus. My crew had been returned and seemed as groggy as I did.
I ordered a check on all systems and that seemed to bring back the bridge
crew to their duties..."
     Cain awoke on he bridge sitting in his chair, "What? It must have
been a dream", He thought, until he saw his uniform was still a bright
white as well as his crew.
     Cain ordered, "Status? Check all systems."
     A few people responded and started spewing information back to him.
     A figure suddenly touched his arm lightly. Cain turned to see,
"John!"
     John smiled down at him, "You haven't time for that. Your brothers
managed a full assault with their entire space fleet and it is all but
destroyed. 
     Even now a Cylon Base Star has crushed the Terran space fleet and
has leveled several cities around the planet."
     Cain trusting his other worldly advisor ordered, "Battlestations!
Prepare to launch all squadrons."
     Tollan walked warily toward Cain and his "guest", "Sir, What
squadrons? Then all been." The sentence was interrupted by Cain.
     "Yes, Tollan, make a ship wide announcement for all personnel who
can fly a viper, regardless of flight status, proceed to Alpha landing
bay."
     Tollan made the announcement then read what his scanners reported,
"We are on the far side of the a natural satellite that is orbiting a
habitable planet and we're not alone."
     Cain smiled looking to John who nodded back, "Yes, I know. Tollan,
you'll find a Cylon Base Ship on the other side of Terra."
     "Terra, sir?"
     Cain nodded, "Swing the Pegasus around and we'll hit them from the
sunward side. Arm all missiles and mega-pulsar lasers. All qualified
viper pilots regardless of status will launch a the first wave to take
out any Cylon Raiders once they seen us. The rest of the vipers will take
out all raiders on the planet."
     Tollan was clearly shocked, "Sir? Where..."
     Cain motioned for Tollan to wait, "Just carry out my orders Tollan.
I'll explain it later."
     Tollan would have laid his life down for the one man he ever
implicitly trusted and nodded in blind faith, "Yes, sir."
     Cain once again stopped his jaunt into memory lane.
     Apollo smiled, "So, let me see if I understand you correctly. The
Ship of Lights saved you and transported you forward in time ten yahren
after the Galactica saved their planet, then you immediately went to war
with the Cylons and saved Terra..."
     "Yes."
     "Obviously you won." Apollo asked.
     "We totally surprised them. We took their base ship by surprise and
since the Pegasus had been newly refurbished we hit them at maximum
capacity. The battle took less than half a centaur."
     Apollo surprised asked, "Did the base ship get word back to the
empire?"
     "No, we jammed every signal. After we destroyed their base ship we
maintained a vigil and I sent patrols out to watch every corridor to
Terra.
     "You should have seen the victory celebration that Terra gave the
Pegasus!" Cain smiled fondly. "Their good people, great warriors! Yes,
they suffered and lost a lot, but that was a good day."
     "The combined Terran government of course remembered their last
encounter with Colonials who over time they called us Angels. Our white
uniforms did not help. Apparently, once they saw our white uniforms, they
put the previous encounter with you together and that went a long way to
opening diplomatic ties. You made some impression on them."
     After a moment of reliving an obviously enjoyable memory he
continued, "After the celebration Terra obviously wanted to sign a treaty
with us and with the instructions from John I had a new mission."
     "And that is?" Apollo prompted.
     "To build up Terra and a vast armada of ships, like my
Dagger-Stars!" Cain beamed with pride. "I realized that Terra needed a
large number of ships more than just a handful of Battlestars. The
Pegasus became the flagship of Terra's fleet and I became the fleet
commander. We also built over a hundred Dagger-Stars."
     Apollo nearly fell out of his chair as he exclaimed, "A hundred?"
     Cain smiled mischievously, "Yes. Over the yahren Terra recolonized
several of its planets the Cylons took over and we finally drove the
Cylons out of this part of the galaxy. Oh! Apollo, what a battle that
was!" Cain slapped his knee in memory.
     Apollo smiled back, "If you take orders from Terra now, then I doubt
they would let their fleet commander just run off with several of these
Dagger-Stars."
     "Ordinarily no, but as part of our treaty and later merging, I had
the foresight to specify a date and time that a small contingent of the
fleet would leave to help the Galactica and their brothers on Earth."
     Apollo fidgeted in his seat, "Cain, how did you find us? We had over
twenty yahren head start?
     "On the day we left Terra we came across the ship of lights again. A
messenger from their ship told me in a dream where to find you and they
opened a doorway in space that dropped us out laterally to your position
and we have been following you ever since."
     "Ever since?" 
     "For nearly four sectars."  Cain said.
     "Why didn't you contact us sooner?" Apollo asked.
     "Because we were told not too."
     By who? The ship of lights?
     "Yes."

***

     Sheba and Hera sat facing one another in Apollo and Sheba's state
room. Sheba shook her head, "Hera, I don't understand why you won't go
see Bryan in the life unit?"
     Hera turned away from her mother as tears slid down her cheeks,
"Mother, please, just."
     Sensing her daughter's emotions , "Hera? Whats wrong? I thought you
and Bryan...?" She left the question open.
     Hera sobbed openly, "I can't mother. I can't see him."
     Sheba gently turned her around and asked, "Why? Has he done
something to you?"
     Hera embraced her mother's arms and cried even harder. Sheba for her
part did her best to just console her and caressed her back gently, "It's
all right Hera, and it's all right."
     "It's not all right!" Hera moaned and sniffled.
     Sheba guided Hera's head up gently by the chin, "Honey, tell me. You
know I'll try to help."
     Hera looked up tentatively, "Oh! Mother! I told him I loved him and
he wouldn't even look me in the face!"
     Sheba's shocked expression, "Hera? How could you love him? You only
met him a couple of sectans ago. I mean, it's not as if you two had been
intimate. I mean you've only just met and..."
     Hera did not say a word but her eyes poured forth another round of
unending tears. The shocked look of a secret coming out poured forth with
every tear as she ashamedly did nothing but look down at her hands.
     Sheba drew back with a start, "Oh! Hera! You, you didn't. Right?"
She asked the question even though she already knew the answer.
     Hera continued looking down not saying a word. Her silence was
testimony enough.
     Sheba was flabbergasted, "Hera, didn't your father and I teach you
about our ways, our our peoples customs?"
     Hera nodded and mumbled, "I, I didn't mean too. Really!"
     Sheba's eyes flashed in misunderstanding, "He forced himself on
you?"
     Hera looked up in shock, "No! Nothing like that, I just, I mean
we..." Hera sucked in air and paused a moment, "We were just so tired
from running and..."
     "On the planet where you two got separated from your father?"
     Hera nodded her assent, "We." She sniffled, "We ran for so long that
we couldn't go any further. We were alone, and didn't know what happened
to father and Starbuck, Boomer, and Cassiopeia. I..." She faltered.
     Sheba put a reassuring hand on her daughters shoulder and somehow
she continued, "It started raining and we found a cave. It was so cold
and the storm was so bad we ended up holding each other to keep warm."
     Hera paused a moment before continuing, "We were all we had and..."
     Sheba looked into her daughters eyes with compassion. Hera's
countenance changed for a fraction of a micron into something she could
not readily identify. "What?" She asked.
     Hera found her voice, "I wanted him mother." She said unashamedly.
Her conscience reminding her of her predicament, she bit her lower lip
shyly as if to rebuke herself, "And he wanted me." After seeing her
mothers acknowledgement she continued, "We went through so much in such a
short time." She shrugged, "I thought he loved me too but now? I don't
know." She concluded hastily.
     Hera told her how out of the blue Bryan had been when he met her at
the rejuvenation center and told her he couldn't see her anymore. 
     "Just like that?" Sheba snapped her fingers.
     Hera sniffled again, "Yes, I asked him to tell me how he felt. I
don't understand why he wouldn't talk too me. He just broke off all
contact with me."
     Sheba's motherly instincts kicked in and she felt a slow burning pot
of anger churn within her.
     Sheba hugged Hera one last time and said, "It'll be all right. I
gotta go right now, but I'll be back in a few centons."
     Hera seemed confused but nodded absently, so consumed she did not
see the anger reflected in her mothers eyes.

***

     In Apollo's official chambers Apollo paced hastily in front of one
of his officers, "Starbuck! What in Hades possessed you to take Sergeant
Torres on a joy ride?"
     Starbuck's smile lessoned for just a moment, "It's not like that
Apollo. Look, I..."
     Apollo cut him off, "No! You look, Captain. Sergeant Torres could
have been killed in that little stunt of yours! Did you ever think of
that?"
     Starbuck's smiled faded once more as he mulled over it, shook his
head a little bit, and then smiled brightly, "Ah, Apollo."
     Apollo looked at him sternly and Starbuck knew he was on thin ice,
even with his best friend, "Commander", Starbuck adjusted his tone to
something more respectful. "Look Bryan had gone through something and I
was just trying to help him. I just couldn't get a word in aboard the
Galactica. People kept interrupting, ya know, with finding Earth and
everything.." 'Surely Apollo can't fault me for that' He thought
arrogantly.
     Apollo finished for him, "So you thought that you would take
Sergeant Torres out for a spin in ole Uncle Starbuck's viper, huh?"
     Starbuck smiled appreciatively, "Yeah, uh, that's it exactly."
Thinking the conversation was closed he smiled a little brighter, showing
his teeth.
     Instead of showing empathy for Starbuck, Apollo's made a scowl,
"Starbuck! Are you out of your fracking mind? Those ships are not toys or
your personal property. If I did not need you, you would be in
confinement!"
     Starbuck's smile dropped immediately, 'Uh, oh! He's really mad.'
"No, ya see..."
     Apollo smiled trying a different approach, "You know what, Starbuck,
you're a popular man in the fleet and I bet a lot of cadets look up to
you, especially now with you finding Earth and all that?" He mimicked
Starbuck's Maverick attitude.
     Starbuck smiled as he thought he might actually have made Apollo see
reason, "I suppose a few of them appreciate my..."
     "Good! Because I have a job for you?"
     Starbuck inclined his head questionably.
     "Your going to spend the next eight sectans instructing the next
cadet classes, on your off time, about ethics. I believe that course
begins a cycle after tomorrow." It was not a question.
     Starbuck frowned, "You can't be serious, and I already spent my
instructional time teaching cadets on the viper simulators?"
     Apollo did not smile, "I am serious."
     "But."
     "No! Not another word, Starbuck!"
     "But."
     "No buts, or by the Lords of Kobol, I swear I'll pull your
qualifications on a viper and have you checking the prison barge for
solium leaks in an environmental suit for the next yahren!"
     Starbuck knew Apollo was serious. His eyes widened in horror at just
the thought of that disgusting and potentially lethal duty. He bit his
tongue both figuratively and literally in order to prevent himself from
inadvertently saying something he would regret. 
     "Starbuck, why do you think your still a Captain and not a major?"
     Starbuck shrugged non-committal venturing a meek smile.
     Apollo's demeanor switched back into being Starbuck's friend, "Ole
buddy, you don't follow the rules. Now, I want you too..." He never
finished his statement as the door slid open, even though he had locked
it for this personal conversation with Starbuck. The only person who
could override his security code was ship security forces or his wife
Sheba. Sheba came storming into his Commander's chambers and demanded,
"HE'S GONE!"
     Apollo stood just to the left of Starbuck with his hand outstretched
and Starbuck looked like a cadet being disciplined.
     Apollo started to ask, "What? Who's gone?"
     Sheba was only too happy to answer his question, "HE'S GONE! I want
him off this ship. NOW!" She pointed to the floor sharply. Her eyes
stared at him with a fiery presence and her nostrils flared in rage.
     Apollo dropped his hand and in total confusion, "Sheba, what the
devil are you talking about?"
     Sheba paced the room like a caged animal, "HE'S GONE!"
     Apollo and Starbuck stood speechless. Sheba stopped in midstride and
noticed that her husband and Starbuck were staring at her open-mouthed,
"DID YOU HEAR ME?" She demanded.
     "Sheba, Wh..."
     "Apollo! He..."
     Apollo crossed the room and placed his hands on her shoulder,
"Sheba, calm down." 
     She broke out in tears, "He hurt Hera." She managed to choke out.
     Apollo's anger kindled fast as he prepared to launch into the
corridors, "Hera? Is she all right? Who?"
     Starbuck nearly grabbed Sheba from Apollo's grasp in anger and had
to reign himself in.
     Sheba seemed exasperated, "Torres!" She spitted the word out if it
were the most foulest poison in the world.
     Apollo's protectiveness reared up in all of its righteous
indignation, "What did he do to Hera?" His arms felt like steel vises on
her arms.
     Sheba brushed a tear away, "He, used her." She croaked.
     Apollo stopped in mid thought, "What do you mean "Used her"?"
     Sheba eyes flared at him like fiery darts, "You know what I mean."
     Apollo eyes narrowed, "You mean he..."
     "Yes!" She said clearly frustrated.
     Apollo's eyes widened in shock while Sheba explained, "He took
advantage of Hera back on that planet when they were alone and now that
she tried to have a relationship with him, he won't even talk to her! If
this is what Earth's people are like, they can have it!" She nearly
screamed.
     Apollo held his wife as she began to cry. "Get him off this ship!"
She buried her head in her husband's arms.
     Apollo was speechless and could only hold her in stunned silence.
     Anger from within burned deep into his soul until Starbuck
interrupted, "Hey! That's not what happened!"
     Apollo and Sheba said in unison, "How would you know?"
     Apollo considered the source and waved his hand in dismissal,
"Starbuck! Just. Stay out of this."
     Starbuck's anger flared, "Look you may be Hera's parents, but I
raised her too, ya know. She's more like my own daughter and I know what
happened and it's not anything like..." He waved his hands in
exaggeration, "This."
     Sheba jutted her chin out and demanded, "How would you know?"
     Starbuck shrugged, "Well."
     Apollo frustratingly said, "Come on, out with it."
     Starbuck said, "Look. I was there when Major Davis told Bryan he
couldn't see Hera any longer."
     Apollo was confused and by Sheba's equal expression he knew she was
also. He asked, "Major Davis? What's he got to do with this?"
     Starbuck rolled his head in exasperation, "Apparently their Air
Force has some primitive rule about not fraternizing with officers."
     "What?" Apollo and Sheba demanded in unison.
     "It's true, that's the reason why Bryan told Hera they couldn't see
each other anymore."
     Apollo exhaled sharply, "That's crazy?" He said as he raised his
hands in frustration.
     Sheba started, "Why didn't Hera tell me that?"
     Starbuck rolled his eyes, "Because she doesn't know. Poor Bryan was
so choked up over this he couldn't say a word, if I had not seen it with
my own eyes I wouldn't believe it either."
     "When did this happen?"
     "Just before the battle with the Cylons."
     A thought dawned on him, "Is that why you took him out in a training
viper, to cheer him up?"
     Starbuck nodded, "No. I wanted to take his mind off of what happened
and try to find a way for them to be together, but I kept getting
interrupted."
     Apollo smiled, just a little, "All right, that explains why took
your joy ride. So Bryan feels something for Hera?"
     Starbuck smiled, "Yeah, he loves her all right, but their military
won't allow them to be together. Major Davis even threatened to throw him
into the Galactica's brig if he didn't break it off immediately."
     Grudgingly the couple knew Bryan was not fully to blame. Sheba wiped
her eyes with the back of her hand. "That still does not excuse Torres
for what he did to Hera."
     Starbuck quipped, "Way I understand it Hera is as much to blame as
Bryan. I wouldn't blame Sergeant Torres for all of this. Hera's a grown
woman ya know."
     Apollo shook his head, "All right, from what you have said they both
care for each other but I don't see a way for them to be together and I
don't like the idea of Hera and Bryan in that...intimate relationship."
     "Apollo? What do we do about what happened between them?" Sheba
asked.
     Apollo shrugged, "What can we do. We'll talk to Hera, but Starbuck
is right, their both adults." He huffed and shrugged again.
     Sympathy for the couple slowly dawned on Apollo and Sheba as the
truth permeated the hearts. Although they did not agree with Hera's
actions on that planet, they knew Hera was not one to idly give her heart
away.
     "If Hera and Bryan do want to continue seeing each other I'm not
sure that we can violate another planets authority on their own people,
despite how we feel about it." Sheba said.
     Starbuck smiled mischievously, "Ya know, we could offer Bryan a
commission as a Colonial Warrior?"
     Sheba frowned, "Make him an officer?"
     "Yeah. It would solve a lot of problems."
     "No." Apollo said.
     "Excuse me?" Starbuck asked shocked.
     Apollo shook his head, "No. For one thing we have only begun a
treaty with Earth and we can't interfere with another planets sovereign
rights and I can't justify giving a commission to an enlisted person when
even their officers wouldn't pass a basic mathematics exam for the
Warriors Training School.
     "What can we do?" Sheba asked.
     Apollo's eyes widened in surprise as a new thought came to him, "I
think I know. Sheba, can you find Colonel O'Neill and have him brought
here?"
     Sheba looked at him exquisitely but Apollo smiled reassuringly.
     Apollo looked to his long time friend and said, "Well, this
certainly complicates things."
     Starbuck smiled his most charming smile, "Does this mean I don't
have to teach that ethics class, now?" He asked hopefully.
     Apollo smiled fully and without reservation, "Don't count on it."
     Sheba was not sure exactly what had happened, but if Starbuck was
being forced to teach an ethics class, then it must be funny. She quickly
joined in laughing with her husband, while Starbuck frowned openly and
took a fumerello out of his coat pocket and slid it rather sharply in his
mouth.

***

     Jack was escorted by Sheba to Apollo office chambers. She pressed a
button and the door opened immediately. Jack followed her in and looked
around and was naturally curious at seeing what a Battlestar Commander's
office looked like. 
     It looked like an office for just about any other officer he had
seen before. The color schemes were different and a large viewport of
space showed the occasional colonial ship pass by, but otherwise was what
he expected to see.
     On his immediate right there was a beige couch and the viewport
above it. To his left was Apollo's desk with various type of technology
on it. Apollo stood in front of his desk and smiled brightly when Jack
walked in.
     "Colonel."
     Jack nodded, "Commander? What can I do for you?"
     Apollo smiled, "Please sit down." He pointed to the couch where
Sheba was waiting for him to sit down.
     Jack took his seat on the right of the couch as Sheba sat beside him
on the far left. Apollo grabbed a chair and sat in front of him.
     Jack waited for Apollo to begin.
     Apollo took his time and waited to collect his thoughts. "Thank you
for being patient Colonel. This is the first chance I have had all cycle
to speak with you." He began enthusiastically. "You know those Naquadah
reactors are incredible." Apollo began.
     Jack nodded acknowledgement of the fact but showed little interest.
"Yeah, well ya know."
     Apollo knew Jack would know what was coming next but still pursued
it, "Matter of fact, our chief engineer has been pining away to
disassemble one to see if we can't replicate one."
     "Really." Jack deadpanned, not surprised in the least.
     Apollo continued his diplomatic demeanor, "Yes. In fact I was
wondering if perhaps we could get your permission to do just that after
our energizers are operational again."
     Jack shrugged, "Well, Commander, its not up to me, I'll have to
relay a request back to General Hammond. Legalities of the treaty, ya
know."
     Apollo nodded, "Of course. You know it would also benefit Earth."
Apollo had heard the engineers first hand report of how powerful and
compact the reactors were and was chomping at the bit to secure one
himself.
     "Do tell?" Jack said.
     Apollo smiled again, "Our engineer believes that we could adapt the
reactor to our technology. We have high hopes that the tylieum burn
reaction of our fuel will boost the power output ratio by nearly three
hundred percent.
     Jack's brows raised in surprise, "Wow!" Now they had his full
attention.
     Apollo nodded, "Yes. In addition, the preliminary reports suggest
that the fuel consumption ratio would also be reduced by nearly the same
amount."
     Jack stared at Apollo, "Are you saying what I think your saying?"
     Apollo grinned, "All the fleets ships and power systems would be
three times as fuel efficient, while providing three times as much power,
and that's just the first generation of new energizers we are proposing.
Of course as part of our treaty with Earth we will share all results."
     "That's good news, wish I would have brought Carter with me. I'll
radio P2S89G and have them relay your request to the SGC."
     Apollo's shoulders slumped just a little indicating one obstacle had
been overcome.
     Jack looked up to face Apollo, "Well, that brings up the little
matter of..."
     Sheba finished for him, "Starbuck."
     Jack turned to face her with a smile, "Starbuck."
     "I have already talked to him and I can assure you that even though
Captain Starbuck's intentions were in the right place he has been
severely reprimanded and will be doing extra curricular activities so
such a lapse of judgment doesn't happen again. I sincerely apologize."
     Jack frowned openly, "That's it? A reprimand. A slap on the wrists
and he's off?"
      Apollo tried very hard to sound reasonable, "Colonel, as you know
we have encountered our mortal enemy recently, and now somehow our enemy
has allied themselves with yours. I need every viper pilot I have."
     Jack frowned sharply, "I do not believe this!" Jack stood up
angrily, "I don't! That arrogant son-of-a.."
     "Hero."
     "What?" Jack demanded.
     "I believe the word your looking for is hero or "Living legend."
Apollo motioned for Jack to sit down.
     "That's not the word I was going to use." Jack muttered under his
breath as he sat back down reluctantly.
     "Colonel, Starbuck is not only a hero in one of the bloodiest
conflicts in the Colonial history, but a living legend. He's saved
countless lives throughout our flight from the Colonies and has managed
to inspire a whole new generation of warriors. How would it look if I
imprisoned a decorated warrior, one of the fleet's best, and the hero who
discovered the very planet we were searching for over twenty-five
yahren?"
     Jack seeing the obvious shrugged, "Oh, yeah! If he's such a hero
then why is he still a Captain, huh? Tell me that." Jack nodded and
pointed to Apollo triumphantly.
     Sheba smiled, "That's because Starbuck thinks with his heart instead
of following orders, that's part of his charisma also."
     Apollo tried a different approach, "He reminds me a lot of someone
else I just met."
     Jack inclined his head a bit questionably.
     "Tell me Colonel, haven't you ever disobeyed orders or been
considered a little arrogant in your approach toward your military
career?"
     Jack looked to the floor a moment but said nothing in response.
     Apollo grinned, "From what General Hammond told me about the time
you came back from..." Apollo thought a micron, "Abydos on your first
mission, you concealed the fact that you had Doctor Jack'son bury the
Stargate so your military wouldn't send a nuclear bomb through to destroy
any further threats and by doing so you saved thousands of lives there."
     Jack's mouth dropped open a notch, closed it and looked around
uncomfortable, "Well, I, uh, hey! This is not about me."
     Sheba put a reassuring hand on Jack's shoulder, "Starbuck was
looking after one of your people who needed help. He had no idea the
Cylons were on that vector he took or he would never had knowingly put
Sergeant Torres life at risk."
     Jack shrugged, "I guess." Jack thought a moment about what Sheba had
said. "Wait a minute, what happened? How was he helping Torres?"
     Apollo looked from Jack to Sheba and then back to Jack, "You don't
know?"
     Jack raised his hands up, "What?"
     Apollo shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "It appears that Sergeant
Torres and my daughter Hera have been seeing each other."
     Jack inclined his head, "What? You mean." Jack moved his hand back
and forth, "Well, you don't mean "seeing" each other, like..." Jack
paused for emphasis "Dating?"
     Apollo nodded, "Yes."
     Jack put his right hand to his forehead, "That kid's gonna get me
killed one of these days. O.k. now that's a problem."
     Sheba nodded her head, "So we've heard." When Jack did not say more
she continued, "We have just learned that the Air Force has strict rules
of non-fraternization with officers."
     Jack feeling a bit uncomfortable, "Yeah, that's right, what about
it?"
     "We don't." Apollo said.
     "Excuse me? I am sorry, I thought you said that you don't?" Jack put
his finger in his ear and moved it in little circles pretending to clean
his ear out. "I must have heard you wrong."
     "That's right, we don't."
     Jack paused and then frowned, "That's crazy! How would you maintain
order and discipline in the ranks?"
     Apollo shrugged, "It's never really been a problem. Our people
understand their positions and we just don't."
     Jack thought of a similar situation and that if those rules were in
place instead of the Air Force regulations, that means he would be free
to date the one person he cared about and he and ...'Wo!'  "All right,
what happened?"
     Apollo explained the incident in the hallway outside of he server
room with Major Davis and Bryan and then later how he and Hera had their
rift.
     "So your telling me that Starbuck took Bryan out in a viper to
somehow sort this out, right?"
     "Correct."
     "Well, I don't see an answer to that. Look if I can't..." Jack
stopped in mid-sentence and looked around realizing he almost spoke about
how he truly felt about Sam.
     "Yes?" Apollo asked.
     Jack shook his head, "Uh, well that's that. Torres is just going to
have to grow up."
     Sheba asked a little testily, "What about our daughter? Hera loves
him. It's not that simple."
     Jack smirked, "Well, you don't mean, love, love, right?"
     Sheba nodded, "Yes, Colonel I do."
     Jack looked from Sheba to Apollo and then back to Sheba for
confirmation, "Wait a minute! They only knew each other for what? Two
weeks?" Jack paused looking at something in the distance, then said
absently, "Damn! He's good." He shook his head and said more forcibly,
"But that doesn't matter. Rules is rules."
     Apollo shook his head, "I think not."
     "Look the Air Force is not going to bend its rules for one man, I
mean if you know of way for them to be together without breaking the
rules, then I'm all ears." Confident that he had the final say Jack
crossed his arms and tilted his head toward Apollo.
     Apollo smiled openly and metaphorically speaking, put his capstone
pyramid card down, "In fact, I do have an idea. Tell me Colonel do you
have an officer exchange program?"
     Jack's mouth fell open, closed. Then Jack smiled for the first time
since he entered Apollo's office.

***

     Bryan had been released from the life unit and now sported a clean
uniform and shave. He walked slowly, methodically down the passageway.
His thoughts poured over that face. The face of a dying woman he prayed
with and countless other people he was too ignorant to save.
     He lamented over those poor people who died because he was 'Too
Stupid!', He thought to himself.
     The corridor was moderately populated but Bryan walked with his
hands in his pockets either unaware that he was violating U.S. Military
uniform regulations or he simply did not care. His shoulders slumped and
his head down. He never even made an attempt to get out of anyone's way.
Colonials either moved out of his way or made comments, "Hey! Buddy?
What's your problem?"
     A hand grasped his left shoulder and then another on his right.
Bryan absently looked up in despondence.
     "Hey, Bryan!" Joe Daily and Harry Colton, his longtime friends
smiled openly. 
     "How's it going, buddy? Heard you saved a lot of people yesterday."
Harry said.
     Bob Cranton smiled widely, "Yo, Bryan? What's wrong, dog? You're a
hero."
     Bryan weakly smiled, "Yeah. Whoopee. Great." He said lamely.
     Joe frowned, "Come on, man? I heard you got one of these hot
Colonial chicks chasing after you?"
     Bob shook his head, "Uh, huh. Way I heard it is boss man here got
the Commander's daughter. Whew-Wee! That baby is fine."
     Bryan shrugged, "Yeah, well, shows how much you know."
     "She dump you?"
     Bryan looked hurt, "No." He said defensively.
     Joe pointed at him and walked backwards in front of the group,
"That's what it is! You got dumped!"
     Bryan moved Joe's finger out of his face, "Knock it off. Look, just.
Leave me alone will ya?"
     Bob smiled, "No way brother. What you need is to do is get blitzed,
bombed, messed up!" 
     Harry who had been relatively silent now piped in, "Yeah we're going
to the club now and getting shit-faced."
     "Another time guys, I got some thinking to do."

***

     Major Davis squirmed in his chair. He had given many speeches and
briefings for military officers and even politicians before, but he never
imagined his image would be broadcast to several thousand people at one
time before. He felt uncomfortable, 'After all he was endeavoring to
represent well over six billion people of the Earth, give or take a
billion. What the Colonials believed would shape their views of his
world. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
     Zera's unaware of Major Davis discomfort smiled as she said, "Our
interview of Major Paul Davis, United States Air Force, and of Earth
continues live from the Battlestar Galactica. Major Davis, would you care
to explain the..."She scanned her notes for the nomenclature on Earths
holovids, "Movie?"
     Major Davis did his best to smile politely as he inwardly cursed
Torres for insisting that the sitcom series "Friends" be aired regularly.
He remembered the conversation with SG-1 and Torres a few days ago.
     "These people came from another galaxy, and the best T.V. show we
can give them is "Friends"!
     Sam sniggered along with Daniel, and Teal'c as usual watched with
great interest the amount of value the Tauri placed on entertainment.
     "But Sir!" Torres smiled. "The best way to introduce our society
isn't with the discovery channel, its to introduce the climate of our
modern society. It's funny, it's got images of one of Earth's major
cities, and how people react to everyday situations."
     Davis threw his hands up in exasperation. Sam smiled, "You got to
admit Major, that Torres is right. What better way to introduce them to
telephones, microwaves, marriages, cars, and more."
     Davis shook his head once again, "Come on, who at this table
actually watches a show like that?" Confident that he made his point, he
inwardly relaxed until he heard someone clearing his throat.
     Jack was smiling openly and had his hand raised, "Teal'c?" Jack
warned.
     Slowly, a reluctant Jaffa raised his hand and grimaced as if he had
revealed a weakness to his friends.
     Jack smiled and nodded his head, "See! You got to admit! Joey is
funny."
     Teal'c nodded, "Indeed. I also enjoy the one called Chandler."
     Jack nodded again, "Ya see! If Teal'c likes it, it's gotta be good!
Oh! You remember the time when Chandler bet that Joey couldn't fit into
his entertainment center and then Chandler locked Joey inside?"
     Davis and Sam looked at each other in exasperation, "Sir!" Sam said.
     Jack stopped in mid sentence, "Yeah?"
     "I think you made your point."
     Jack nodded and smiled enthusiastically, "Friends it is!"
     Davis sighed inwardly.
     "Major?" Zera's asked bringing Paul back to the current
     Paul Davis mind snapped back to his interview, "Ah, yes. Although I
have not seen this particular sitcom I am told it embraces a good balance
for an introduction to our society for the Colonial people."
      For the hundredth time that day Davis cursed Torres.

***

     Bryan's friends looked at each other and smiled widely, "Well if
that's what you want, man." They nodded to one another and then Bob
grabbed Bryan's torso and pulled him back, while Joe grabbed his feet.
     "Wha...?" Bryan struggled "Hey! Cut it out!" Harry grabbed his
midsection and as one being they ran down the corridors laughing at Bryan
who struggled futilely.
     The group made good time and the Colonials not understanding Earth
rituals pressed against the bulkheads as they yelled, "Coming through!"
     Joe yelled, "Hey! Get out of the way! Yeah you! Move it or lose it!"
Sire Geller jumped against the bulkhead and let a plethora of undignified
remarks expel from his lips. "What in God's name was that all about?
Bloody primitives!" He'd talk to Commander Apollo about this.
     The group made it unscathed to the enlisted club and put Bryan down.
Bryan abruptly turned to leave and they grabbed him back and Joe wagged
his finger at Bryan disapprovingly, Uh, uh, uh!"
     Bryan finally relented and they found everyone staring at them more
surprised than anything else.
     Joe waved, "Don't mind my friend here, had a bad day."
     They made their way to a table and sat down. Joe swung his leg over
the chair and sat like a cowboy from the old west.
     A man came by and asked, "What can I get you gentleman?"
     Harry spoke for the group, "Beers all around."
     The man gave him a blank stare. Joe seeing the bartender's
incomprehension spoke some Spanish knowing full well the result, "Uh,
quartro cerveza, por fa vor? Hondalay! My amigo is thirsty." He slapped
Bryan's back.
     Harry grimaced, "Uh, sorry, we're just kind of pent up. What'ya
got?"
     The man smiled and understood, "First time in space, huh?"
     Harry nodded, "Yeah."
     "Well, we don't have any beer, whatever that is, but we got grog and
ambrosia."
     "What'ya suggest?"
     The bartender shrugged, "You boys don't look like you're the
ambrosia type, how about trying grog?" 
     Harry nodded and then a sudden thought came to him, "Uh, by the way?
How much is it? We only got these rectangular looking domino's you use
for money." Harry poured a small bag of cubits onto the table."
     He smiled broadly, "No problem, here." He separated a few cubits for
the drinks and said. "Tell you what, this will cover the first few rounds
and we'll run a tab for the rest, all right?"
     "Thanks."
     The man nodded and returned a few centons later with four mugs of
grog, "Here you are, gentleman." 
     Bryan looked sullenly at nothing at all. They drank their first
grog, testing it and taking their time.
     Bryan loosely held his drink in his hands. "Come on Bryan. Drink up!
It's not too bad. It tastes kind of like beer."
     Bryan nodded and absently drank his grog.

***

     Across the room four young ladies sat at a table in the corner and
eyed the Earth men. Methany recognized Bryan. She noticed how detached he
looked and said to herself. 'Must have been rough on him, down there.'
She thought. Artememus had told her how after she had left to help with
repairs and battle damage that Bryan saw more death and destruction than
most folks his age ever see in a lifetime.
     Atrillia, Maren, and Erinyes all giggled and put their hands to
their mouth talking about the men from Earth.
     "Do you think their sealed?" Maren asked regarding about their
marital status.
     Erinyes shrugged, "Who cares. Their cute!"
     Atrillia frowned, "Erinyes!"
     Erinyes shrugged and smiled mischievously, "Just kidding."
     Maren laughed, "We should invite them to sit with us. What do you
think Methany?"
     Methany's ocean blue eyes were riveted on Bryan.
     "Methany? Are you all right?"
     Methany dropped her gaze and came back to herself, "That's him."
     "Who?" Erinyes asked.
     "The one who saved me in the landing bay."
     Atrillia sat up and squinted, "Which one?"
     Methany smiled, pointing, "The one with the dark hair."
     Atrillia smiled appreciatively, "The one from the tribe of Leo?" She
looked at the black man and put an ebony hand to her cheek, "He's
handsome."
     Methany shook her head, "No. Not him. The one who looks like a
Sagitarian."
     Atrillia patted Methany's hand, "Fine honey, you can have him, I
want the Leo!"
     Erinyes and Maren looked at each other in competition and smiled, "I
got the Aries."
     Erinyes pouted shook her head, blonde hair waving to either side in
slow swaying motions, "Uh, uh. You stick to the gemons, our tribes got to
stick together."
     Methany frowned, "They don't have the same tribes we do. They
probably never even heard of our tribes!" Methany of course referred to
the Capricans, Taurus, Virgo. Aquarius,
     Gemonesse, Libra. Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio. Aries, Leo, Sagitarius
from the twelve colonies. The same names bore remarkable resemblance to
the astrological signs that was more of an amusement for Americans
reading their daily horoscopes in newspapers.
     "Why don't we meet them first?" Methany finished.
     Erinyes frowned, "Hey that's not fair! You got your Earth man picked
out already." 
     Methany smiled and got up, "He did save my life and I promised to
buy him a drink."
     Atrillia put a hand out to stop Methany but was not quick enough
whispering she asked, "Where are you going?"
     Methany ignored her friends and left their table.
     Bryan and his friends had just finished their first mug of grog and
started playing quarters.
     Harry smiled, "Just like old times back in tech school, huh, Bryan?"
     Bryan's first grog took off the edge of his tension and had already
started to loosen up, "Yeah, but what are we going to use for quarters? I
didn't bring any money?" He referred to their beer drinking game they
played every Friday night at a local bar on base during their tech school
training.
     Harry pulled out an Air Force coin, one given to him by his Squadron
Commander for excellent work during a field exercise and held onto it
firmly and smacked the edge of it on the table repeatedly. "Well ladies!"
Referring to his friends, "Put up or shut up."
     Bob frowned, "Aw! Shit! Your not going to play that dumb ass..."
     Joe and Bryan pulled out their Air Force coins as well and smiled as
they smacked the edge of the coin against the surface of the table
repeatedly, "Wimp, wimp, wimp."
     Bob shrugged not producing a coin, "Aw! Damn! I knew I should have
brought that coin!"
     The other three smiled and pointed to the bartender, "He's buying
the next round!"
     Harry bounced the coin into his mug expertly, "Hah!" He picked up
the mug and drank the whole mug in seconds." He put the mug down and
belched.
     Harry dumped the coin out, spilling a few drops of its liquid onto
the table. He passed it to Bryan, "Come on Bryan!"
     Bryan smirked, "Aw, come on guys, we're too old..."
     "Wimp, wimp, wimp...." The trio chanted.
     Bryan relented, took careful aim and bounced the coin into the mug
and was rewarded with his friends cheering loudly and clapping.
     He chugged his drink, spilling some of the amber liquid onto his BDU
uniform. He ignored it and turned the mug over spilling a little grog
onto the table. Joe took the coin and Bob put his hand on Joe's, "Hey,
dog! Why do you always go first?"
     Bob tried to take the coin and Joe smacked his friends hand away,
"Go on man! We're going clockwise. How come you always start that crap?"
     Bob mockingly frowned, "Hey, that's you, not me!"
     "Uh, uh!"
     "You..." Bob pointed at Joe but his attention was diverted by a
beautiful young woman with dark hair and dazzling big blue eyes that
approached Bryan, leaving the other guys to openly stare with their
mouths open. She looked down at Bryan who was staring at his mug
absently.
     "That game looks like fun."
     Bob ever the ladies man smiled openly, "Well, momma, why don't you
take a seat, we always got room for a beautiful woman."
     Joe smirked and whispered to Bob, "You ole smoothie."
     Bob started to argue with his best friends jibe, but was interrupted
by the woman, "Hello, Bryan."
     Bryan started at his name, "Huh?" He looked up not immediately
recognizing her, then recognition reminded him of his horror from
yesterday. "Uh, hi." Was all he said.
     Methany not put off smiled back, "I still owe you that drink."
     Joe grabbed a chair for the woman and she sat down in-between them.
Bob asked, "Yo, Bryan? Where did you meet this beautiful woman?"
     She flashed Bob a smile, "I'm Methany. Bryan saved my life last
cycle in the Alpha landing bay."
     Joe leaned in, "Really? Do tell?"
     Harry leaned in, "You didn't tell us that?"
     Bryan shrugged.
     Methany smiled and glanced back at her table of friends. They waved
and motioned for her to hurry up. Methany nodded, "My friends and I were
about to ask all of you over to our table, but your game looks
interesting."
     Bob was the first one to cut in, "Well, we would be delighted to
have you ladies join us."
     Methany waved, motioning her friends to join her. Taking their time
they made their way over giggling like school girls, arms rapped in one
another's and hands clasped over their mouths, while the men quickly
acquired other chairs and made room for them.
     The guys stood up and all were introduced. Atrillia gravitated
toward Bob, while Maren sat quickly by Joe, and Erinyes tried not to look
angry at her friend while she quickly sat by Harry and smiled.
     Methany smiled, "What kind of game is this?"
     Bryan felt a heat rise in him as the grog started working on his
system, "Quarters."
     Methany tested the new word on her tongue, "Quart-ters". She pointed
at the coin, Joe was the first one to nod, "Ladies first."
     Methany took careful aim and landed the coin inside on the first
try. She picked up her mug and sipped it. Bryan gently pushed the mug up
in order for Methany to start chugging it. She gasped and set the mug
down laughing.
     Joe smiled, "Come on! You got to finish it." Methany shrugged and
begin swallowing as fast as she could. She finished gasping for air and
sent some residue flying out onto the table.
     Everyone laughed. Atrillia was next and gulped her grog down like a
true champion. Bob's eyebrows rose in surprise, "At least the sisters
here know how to drink!" And so the night passed on while the four
couples got know each other and got drunk.
     The bartender shrugged to himself at the new game and the couples
having a great time, as long as it did not get violent and they had
cubits to pay, who cared if they played some ridiculous game?
     After the fourth round of drinks Bryan had loosened up and sat
closer to Methany as her sweet scent permeated his nostrils.
     She smiled coyly at him and in less than an hour she had her arm on
his shoulder. Several  rounds later, Bryan's eyes were so blood shot and
bleary he laughed out loud at almost anything. Both were leaning against
each other for support.
     Maren started to get sick and ran off to find a turbo-flush to
relieve her aching stomach, leaving Joe to himself.
     Erinyes and Harry decided to take a shuttle over to the agro-ship to
walk the flower gardens, while Bob and Atrillia left for some undisclosed
location.
     Bryan was stone cold drunk and he never felt better. Of course he
knew he was going to pay for it in the morning, but the night was still
young and so was he thought to himself.
     Methany whispered something in his ear and Bryan nodded
enthusiastically a sideways dopey smile, and they left hand in hand. Joe
smiled and hoped his date would return, not that he wanted to kiss her
now, but there was always tomorrow. Every now and then Methany helped
Bryan as he swaggered sideways.
     It was late and very few people walked the corridors at this time.
Methany led Bryan on a sure course where they finally stopped at a
doorway. It opened for her and she helped Bryan in. 
     The room was about twenty by fifteen metrons and three doors were
located on the far wall. Bryan plopped onto a couch and slurred, "Nicccce
plaaacccce."
     Methany smiled coyly, "I'll be right back."
     To Bryan, Methany was gone a very long time, but in reality it was
only about ten minutes.
     She stepped out in a seductively revealing night dress that reached
the floor. It matched her blue eyes and was barely a covering that left
little to the imagination.
     To Bryan it was as if the most beautiful angel in the world had
suddenly appeared. Her exquisite eyes only enhanced her beautiful face.
He lithe physique and well built physical attributes made her seem like a
goddess to him. His heart raced and seemed to clear some of the stupor
from his mind. Somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind told him that
this was not a good idea. When no reason seemed apparent, he mentally
shrugged and went to the most physically appealing woman he had ever met.
Inside his mind told him, 'A beautiful alien from another galaxy wants
me!' He grinned for a moment until another thought came to mind, 'Your
going to regret this!' It was a small urgent plea that Bryan shrugged off
as his mind replied to his subconscious sarcastically, 'Yeah! Right!'
     She pointed at him and motioned with the same finger to follow her.
He got up a little too quickly and swaggered over to her in the open
doorway. He reached for her and they kissed slowly at first. It didn't
take long before they kissed faster and harder, Bryan couldn't remember
why he should not be doing this, and finally surrendered all other
thoughts to their passion.
     Their hands groped at each other and she slid back about a metron
and clasped his hands and led him into the bedroom chamber smiling a
seductive grin. Bryan smiled a stupid, boyish grin as the chambers door
slid shut behind them.

***

     After the interview Zera's and Davis sat in her private office while
she poured them both some ambrosia.
     Paul had gotten to know Zera's a bit and found her intriguing, even
if she was a few years older than him, at least in Colonial terms. By
Earth terms she could have been his mother, but due to the slower aging
process of the Colonials she looked like she was in her mid to late
thirties.
     He took a sip of the ambrosia, "Once we get to Earth, I am sure you
be the most famous news anchor on Earth, more than Barbara Walters or
Diane Sawyer."
     While Zera's did not know these women she was glad to hear that
women were offered the same chance as men in her career field. "That's
good to know, because the greatest story in our history is when we
finally reach Earth."
     Paul smiled as Zera's sat next to him, "So, I bet you never imagined
your career to take this turn?"
     She nodded sideways and smiled a little as she sipped her drink,
"No. I didn't."
     Paul asked, "You know I heard numerous times about how the
destruction of the Colonies happened, but never any first hand reports.
Were you aboard the Communications ship when the Cylons attacked?"
     Zera's smile disappeared and she put her glass down on the small
table in front of her.
     Paul realized he had inadvertently triggered some unpleasant
memories put his hand on her arm lightly, "I am sorry. I didn't think."
     She forced a smile and put her hand on top of his and said, "No
that's all right, I suppose I have to tell the story once I get to
Earth."
     Her thoughts came jumbled as she remembered panicking women and
children with husbands putting protective arms around their spouses in a
vain attempt at protecting them from the unprovoked attack. Those old
enough who remembered that fateful night over twenty-five yahren ago
still had a hard time telling the tale.
     Zera's vividly remembered that fateful day so long ago. "I was a
reporter just starting out. A lucky break on a story propelled me into
every home on Caprica. She took another sip from her glass and began her
tale.
     Several news crews swarmed the outer gates of a military
installation, one lone reporter announced, "This is Zera's with breaking
news! We are currently standing outside of the capital city on Caprica,
near the headquarters of the Colonial Military. Every gate has been
barred and armed guards are tight lipped about several civilian confirmed
reports that Cylon fighters have been sighted in nearly every major city
and at least four planets in the colonies. Reports are that Cylon
fighters have swarmed past our defenses in massive wave after wave. Every
attempt at contacting civil and military defenses has been met by a wall
of silence."
     "Habakuk, do you see that. It's Commander Kronus's personal
hover-car. Move in, move in." The news reporter and her cameraman ran
toward the car and crowds of media and civilians blocked access. Zera's
ran up to the darkened window and rapped loudly on the pane.
     Zera's did not wait for a response, but instead began without
preamble, "Commander Kronus! Can you confirm reports of our warrior's
actions and how the Cylons have pierced our fleet and satellite
defenses!"
     To Zera's's surprise the cars window lowered and Commander Kronus
eyes told the story, "Zera's, I have no comment. Now please get out of my
way."
     Zera's eyebrows went up in surprise, "No comment! Commander, we
have..."
     Nighttime shadows flew overhead in a massive swarm. "Look!" one of
the crowds shouted upwards.
     Several Colonial Vipers were on runways and beginning their takeoff
as they exploded into nothingness. Flight crews abandoned their posts as
sirens blared in the distance.
     Zera's turned to face the Commander with a look of shocked betrayal
on her face. By either reflex or conscious thought she was not sure, but
the microphone in her hand went up to the Commander's face nearly hitting
him.
     Kronus sighed, "All right, yes. Now get out of my way."
     Zera's shock evaporated as she demanded, "Where is the fleet? What
happened to the peace conference and the council of twelve? Why have you
abandoned us?"
     Kronus countenance dropped a notch and said, "Lords protect us."
Then to himself he muttered, "God help us all. Driver, go, go!"
     The commander's hover-car raced away flashing its lights and honking
its electronic horn.
     Several reporters began earnestly filming, but Zera's stared after
the Commander's departing vehicle.
     Habakuk, Zera's cameraman stopped filming and yelled, "Zera's! Lets
go! We got to get this footage!"
     Zera's seemed not to hear him but continued to stare after the
fleeing car. She thought to herself, 'The fleet must either be tied up
fighting the Cylons or their destroyed. Where was the commander going, a
bunker? If this was the end, then no place would be safe, what is he up
to?  If the fleet has truly been destroyed, then this is the end of our
civilization. No hope. There's nowhere on the face of the planet to
go...WAIT! Nowhere on the face of this planet would be safe! That
means...'
     Turning to Habakuk  he yelled over the roar of the explosions,
"Habakuk, we're leaving!"
     Habakuk looked at him as if he had sprouted wings, "Are you crazy!
This is footage of  the millennium!"
     "THINK!" She demanded. "Where do you think the commander is going at
a time like this? If the fleet at the peace conference had not been
destroyed already, would the Cylons be attacking every city in the
colonies? Wouldn't our defense forces have stopped them before the could
attack the colonies?"
     Habakuk was speechless, but Zera's did not let up, "There's nowhere
safe on the face of the planet to go..."
     Habakuk color drained, "That serpent! Coward!"
     "There's no time! If I am right, we just might hitch a ride on his
transport! If we can get up there we should be able to get a message off
with the IFB ship. They were tailing the peace process, but by now they
must have doubled back or hid. If we can borrow a shuttle and rendezvous
with it... "
     "Where would be go? If the Colonies are gone, there's no place safe
in the galaxy?"
     "Look! I don't have time for this, are you coming or not?"
     "My, my family! I couldn't possibly leave without them!" He
stammered.
     "There's no time! If you want to get off this planet, we have to go
right now! Are you with me?"
     Habakuk eyes said what he couldn't. He simply handed the reporter
the camera. "Good luck!" she said.
     Habakuk nodded, "You too, Zera's." With nothing else to say, he fled
for a hover-car.
     Zera's stole another media stations hover-van and chased after the
already fleeing commander. In the confusion no one noticed. Zera's
stomped down hard on the foot pedal and raced ahead into night at break
neck speeds. The vehicle only slowed to take the sharpest of turns. Power
grids were already failing as the explosions to the cities power plants
failed or exploded after the first wave of attacks. Streetlights on
several blocks had already lost power.
     She reached a section of the city where the buildings lights were
still on and it was a good thing, because people were running everywhere.
     "I don't have time for this!" A few microns later she saw the
commander's hover-car and made her decision in a mili-micron. Stomping on
the accelerator she yanked the wheel hard right and drove up on the
sidewalk and honked her horn and flashed her bright lights at already
shocked pedestrians.
     Her flight took her past the traffic she had been trying to avoid
and a law enforcer soon followed her on a hover-skiff, its red and yellow
lights flashing. Zera's questioned her motives for the very first time
this car chase began. She bit her lower lip and decided to keep going.
The worst they could do was arrest her.
     The hover-car rounded the corner with the skiff still pursuing close
behind her. The vehicles standard enforcer radio built into every
civilian vehicle came to life, "ATTENTION! This is Enforcer - 417-B2. You
will pull safely over to the side of the road and await further
instructions. Comply now or your sentence will be harsh!"
     Zera's automatically began to slow her vehicle out of conscious,
till she remembered that if their colony survived the attack she would
gladly pay any fine or spend time incarcerated, but there was not going
to be anything left behind, so she accelerated even more.
     The enforcer never had a chance to make good on his threat as
several shadows descended onto this portion of the city and began raining
fire down upon the buildings. Stone and metal debris fell in a disorderly
fashion and hit the enforcer's skiff in a way that left no room for
thought as to the enforcer's fate. A small explosion resulted and soon
the noise caught up with Zera's car.
     She darted her vehicle left, then right as debris continued to fall
all around her. She accelerated her vehicle yet again to its maximum of
one hundred and eighty metrons per centaur. Streetlights blurred as one
image and soon she caught up with the commander's vehicle again. She
nearly hugged his cars rear to make sure he didn't get away.
     In under five centons both hover-cars reached the military airdome.
The commander's car slowed and Zera's had no choice but to follow suit.
The warriors at the gate checked the commander's identification, while
another warrior came out of the vehicle walked right up to Zera's driver
side window and demanded, "Are you crazy? You could have killed us
driving like that."
     A voice called from the car, "Who is that lunatic, lieutenant?"
     The warrior shined a light in her face and demanded, "Identify
yourself!" Then recognition hit, "Your that reporter, Zera's, from the
news broadcasts." Then to the commander, "Sir, its Zera's from IFB."
     "Figures, tell her to go away. This is a military installation! No
media allowed!"
     Zera's thoughts raced through her head, "Commander! Perhaps you
would like me to tell the warriors here at the gate what your up to?"
     Kronus seemed deflated, "I don't know what your talking about.
Caprica is under attack! I am off to a special meeting."
     "Sure you are; Commander." She said sarcastically. "Is that why your
shuttle is being prepped?"
     Kronus came lunging out of the hover-car and stormed right up to
her, "Look young lady, I can have you arrested for interfering in a time
of war!"
     Her reporter instincts knew she had correctly interpreted the
commander's intentions right from the start, "Commander, consider how
appropriate it would be to have a member of the media with you, for moral
support."
     Kronus looked directly into her eyes and knew that she really did
know of his plans of escape. Instead of giving his blessing he demanded,
"Lieutenant, take this young lady into protective custody and bring her
along." Then too the warriors at the gate, impound this vehicle,
sergeant."
     "Yes, sir."
     The lieutenant quickly opened the door and yanked the reporter out.
Before he could stop her, she dived back into the car and grabbed her
camera and a bag of unknown equipment on the other seat. She knew she
would probably never see it again and this was the opportunity of a
lifetime.
     The lieutenant gently guided her to Commander Kronus car and opened
the door for her. Once seated Kronus asked her, "That was an
irresponsible thing to do. Do you know what kind of panic you could have
erupted?"
     Zera's flashed him a sneer of disgust, "Is it more irresponsible
than what your about to do?"
     Kronus who rarely did not feel in his element, "We have to maintain
discipline even under these circumstances."
     Zera's frowned and replied as if to a child, "Discipline? Our
civilization is all but gone and your worried about discipline?"
     "You wouldn't understand, your not a warrior," he said smugly.
     She sneered, "So what are you going to do with me?"
     Instead of answering her he asked his own question, "Why did you
follow my transport?"
     Zera's smiled thinly, "Because I figured out what your planning to
do and I want to go also."
     Kronus eyebrows twitched ever so slightly in mild surprise, "Your
highly intelligent and intuitive young lady, perhaps that's why I enjoy
seeing your evening news broadcasts." For the first time he actually
smiled.
     Zera's was taken by surprise, "Nice to have a fan." Then changing
tactics, "So which military transport are we taking?"
     Kronus nodded, "Yes, you are direct. I am taking command of the
Celestra. Its an..."
     "Electronics ship." Smiling she said "I did a piece on it last
secton. She's here for a refit. Along with two other ships, I believe?"
     Kronus appreciated intellect, "Very good. The Celestra was to launch
in a couple of cycles, so she's ready. She has been fueled and has triple
the food stores and the crew has been recalled. The ones that don't make
it will unfortunately be left behind. I will be commanding these ships
and we will set out for remote outposts till we can find support or the
Colonial fleet."
     The Celestra and her sister ships took off at break neck speeds and
quickly attained orbit. Twenty viper craft flew escort and they managed
to run the Cylon blockade with minimum damage.
     The Cylon raiders were so busy concentrating on the cities and the
basestars had occupied themselves with the outer planets in the colonies
that they made a clean escape. The ship hid in behind one of Caprica's
natural satellite that was devoid of atmosphere. The ships powered so
much equipment down for fear of detection. Life support levels had also
been lowered and the resulting temperature loss brought the ships
interior to near freezing temperatures. Only passive raidon emissions
would be intercepted from other ships and of course the communications
monitored all broadcasts. So far the only broadcasts were civilians
demanding help from governmental agencies, which of course all had been
nearly decimated or stretched so thin that nothing could be accomplished.
     The mini-fleet sat like that for several centaurs till the
miraculous happened. A lone Battlestar dropped from light speed. Just
one. No more. The Galactica.
     Still the Celestra and her sister ships sat, fully expecting the
Cylons to attack the lone Battlestar.
     Kronus waited patiently while his crew fidgeted in their seats but
knew better than to say anything. Silent tears continued to streak down
several officers and crews faces hours after the holocaust. He ran a
tight ship and everyone knew their place, but the sudden breach of
discipline could be dismissed. He might be the most disciplined officer
in the Colonies, but even he knew the importance of grief. His first
mate, Chacka was a olive skinned man from Sagitarius.
     Chacka was supposed to be the commander of this vessel but Kronus
usurped his command due to his rank. Kronus looked for any signs of
resentment or anger, but to his surprise, Chacka, seemed down right
hospitable and eager to follow his leadership.
     Kronus smiled inwardly, 'That's what I like to see. Professionalism.
I can use a good man here like Chacka. Apparently, I will rely heavily on
this man.'
     His thoughts were interrupted by the communications technician,
"Commander? The Galactica is transmitting a low power; wide band
transmission."
     Kronus smiled, "Ah, Adama. You are good. Bring him up on my scanner
here."
     The technician turned to face Kronus, "Ah, sir. The transmission
voice only and it is not directed to us. It's a general broadcast to
anyone listening in the colonies."
     Kronus obviously disappointed in his former subordinate nodded,
"Lets hear it then."
     A few microns later a voice broadcasted, "Attention! Attention! This
broadcast is for all survivors of the twelve colonies." A pause, then the
voice continued, "This transmission is coming from the only surviving
Battlestar of the Colonial Fleet. The Battlestar Galactica. By now you
all know the truth. The Cylon peace conference was a trap and has
destroyed the Colonial Fleet. 
     The Galactica under the flag of Commander Adama realized that the
Colonies would surely be under attack and left the area and proceeded to
return to our home star system as fast she was able. 
     Unfortunately, we were to late. Commander Adama has decided as the
only surviving council member; to let the word be spread, to set a call
forth for every man, woman, and child in the colonies. To set sail in any
assortment of space vehicle that will carry what's left of our people.
     All those who are able are to rendezvous in orbit of Caprica. The
Galactica will provide protection. Our destination will be revealed upon
departure. Once again, all vessels that are space worthy, whether a sky
bus, tanker, or civilian yachts should rendezvous no later than four
centaurs. The Galactica will be leaving orbit at that time. Please
circulate this message to all cities on planetary bandwidths. Until then
all interplanetary communications are restricted. That is all."
     Kronus nodded to himself, "Very sensible. Chacka, break radio
silence and tell the other ships that we will rendezvous with the
Galactica in three centaurs.
     Zera's stopped her story telling as tears formed on the side of her
eyes, "So overnight I lost my home, my nation, and planet."
     Paul put his arm around Zera's and she leaned forward and put her
head on his shoulder. They remained that way for over a centaur.

***

     In the computer server room onboard the Galactica the next morning,
Bob, Harry, and Joe talked about last nights events.
     Bob smiled, "A brother could learn to like this place!"
     Joe smiled knowingly, "Yeah, where did you and what's her name go
to?"
     Bob frowned, "Her names Atrillia and you know I don't talk about my
love life"
     Joe laughed out loud, "Since when do not talk about women?"
     Bob laughed at his own joke, "Man that girl is fine! She did
stuff...whooo-whee!"
     "Harry, where did you and Erinyes end up?"
     Harry shrugged, "We went over to the agro-ship. They have these
parks there, we walked and talked all night!"
     Bob frowned, "Yeah, that sounds like you. You talk her to sleep?"
Then to Joe he mimicked Harry in an uptight and nasally voice, "You know,
"The Light Emitting Diode or LED, pulses a "Billion Times" a second...".
     Harry frowned indignant, "Hey! She thought that was interesting!"
     Bob and Joe looked at each other and burst out laughing, "Uh, huh!
Yeah, right!"
     Harry frowned, "She did kiss me goodnight!" Turning to Joe, "What
about you and the throw-up queen?" He asked defensively.
     Joe frowned, "Hey, I walked her back to her place and we, well, you
know..."
     Harry frowned, "After she threw up?"
     Joe nodded smiling, "Yeah!"
     Bob stared at him a moment before replying, "Man, your always
talking shit!" Joe knew he was lying but it was all in fun between
friends.
     Before Joe could reply the server room door opened making a
swooshing noise. Major Davis approached them, "Have you seen Sergeant
Torres this morning?"
     The trio strangely grew quiet, "Ugh, I think he might be checking in
on the fiber project in the forward section. Bob is heading that way,
sir."
     Davis frowned, "I just came from there, they haven't seen him since
before the battle."
     Harry frowned, "Ugh, We'll go find him sir, he might not be fully
recovered..."
     Davis frowned, "From his accident? I thought he was released late
yesterday?"
     Harry smiled appreciatively that he did not have to lie, "Yeah, ugh,
he might not be feeling well still, I'll check medical."

***

     Hera reached her parents quarters and the only home she ever knew.
She did not bothering requesting entrance by depressing the door chime as
was customary for non-family members and friends.
     Instead she walked straight in and walked up to the couch her
parents were seated at. They stopped talking abruptly and smiled brightly
at her.
     "Hera!" Apollo stood up and hugged his daughter lightly. Hera
returned his embrace and asked, "You wanted to see me father?" Hera
skipped military protocol in the family's inner chambers. Something
Apollo insisted on unless otherwise instructed.
     Sheba smiled and patted the seat cushion next to her, "Yes, we did,
Hera. Sit down, please."
     Hera's brows knitted in curiosity, but otherwise kept quiet. Apollo
began, "Hera, your mother and I have recently learned that Sergeant
Torres and yourself have, uh..." Apollo stopped abruptly searching for
the correct word. "Uh, been spending quite a bit of time together and
have grown quite attached to one another." Apollo stopped and searched
Hera's face for a moment.
     At the mention of Bryan's name Hera's face contorted into a mixture
of pain and anger. Apollo continued, "So we would..."
     Hera held her hand up in the air and cut Apollo off, "Father, I know
that mother has told you about Bryan and I. First, let me start off by
saying that I am ashamed of my actions, and I knew better. I am truly
sorry for letting you both down."
     Sheba interrupted, "Hera, we're not here to judge you..."
     Hera clearly frustrated put her palms straight up in the air and
motioned, "Mother, please let me finish. This is hard enough as it is."
     Sheba sat back and nodded once. "I truly care for Bryan, but somehow
he's changed and he won't have anything to do with me or tell me why.
I'll work this out, but I am not going to chase after him like some
love-sick daggit."
     Apollo tried to get his daughters attention, "Hera, if you let
me..."
     "Please, father. I'll work this out on my own. I just ask you to not
tell grandfather. I don't want him interfering. I have the sneaking
suspicion that he would blast the pogee's out of him and then throw him
out of an airlock."
     Apollo's dark eyes crinkled around the edges in humor. Instead of
laughing he asked seriously, "Are you finished?"
     Hera blinked twice and realized she had never let her parents get
one sentence in. Silently she nodded.
     Apollo smiled and said, "Hera, while your mother and I are
disappointed in your actions on the planet, we can't interfere. You're an
adult and a warrior now. We can only hope and pray that what we taught
you all your life will weigh against any other similar...situations."
     Apollo smiled genuinely and said, "Of course Bryan's actions are
confusing because you don't understand that he was under orders to end
your relationship." He paused a moment to allow that to sink in.
     Hera mouth parted in shock and managed to croak, "What?"
     Sheba put a hand on Hera's knee. "That's right. Apparently, the Air
Force has strict rules that officers and enlisted can not have personal
relationships."
     Hera looked at her mother and then to her father and back to Sheba,
"I don't believe that. I mean, that's, that's absurd!" She demanded.
     Apollo nodded, "To us, yes it is. However, to Earth military forces
it's as absurd as the Colonial Military having no such rule is to us."
     Hera practically jumped up and paced the room, "That's crazy! I mean
who in their right mind would create such a backwards and demeaning rule
that would break down morale and unity?"
     Hera stopped, "Bryan knew this and he never mentioned it." Hera's
face went wide in shock as memories of recent events suddenly played out
in her mind. Every single moment they were together Bryan was looking
over his shoulder or lead her to a place where they would not be
discovered. Back on P2S89G after they were rescued he took her behind the
shuttle, then on the Galactica in the conference room, his face had
turned red when Colonel O'Neill had called them to the Quorums meeting,
back in the Server room and several other places he managed some sort of
secrecy. Hera turned dumbstruck toward her parents, "I thought he was
shy, but he knew all along."
     Apollo shrugged, "Yes, but he must truly care about you to go to
such measures."
     "Does he? I wonder," Hera asked.
     "You heard about his little adventure with Starbuck? According to
Starbuck he told him plainly that he love's you as well."
     Hera looked on in astonishment and then blurted, "How does that
help? We can't be together?" She spat. Then more gently she said,
"Besides if he can't tell me then we have nothing."
     Sheba glanced at Apollo who nodded encouragingly, "Hera, what if we
told you that you could be with him? Would you want to sort out how you
really do feel for him?"
     Hera looked at her mother with unfeigned curiosity, "How? I doubt
the Air Force would change their rules for one man."
     Apollo interjected, "True, but there is a little known, seldom used
program that has not been used in nearly two thousand yahren."
     When Apollo paused for emphasis Hera made a frustrated gesture that
communicated her impatience.
     Apollo simply said, "An officer exchange program."
     "A what?" Hera asked.
     "An officer exchange program." Apollo repeated.
     Hera frowned and thought back to her history scans during her entire
time in school and could not remember anything mentioning that.
     Sheba filled in the gaps, "It's a program used back when the
individual planets in the Colonies were not united. Before our home
planet of Caprica united under one nation, different nations would
exchange their military officers in order to build a bridge of
understanding between these nations military. Later the program was
adopted when formal relations between the twelve planets in our star
system opened up."
     "I never heard of any officer exchange program during school," Hera
stated.
     "That's because it hasn't been used in nearly two thousand yahren.
You see, when the individual governments of the Colonies unified, the
program no longer served any useful purpose since all warriors
represented all the Colonies. The program died there but it was never
removed from the warrior's directives."
     Hera frowned, "How did you hear about it?"
     Before Apollo could explain, Sheba smiled, "Because your father
loved that era of history and has studied it in great detail."
     Apollo shrugged, "Not all of that time period, I just think that
things might have been simpler then. Anyway, that brings us to Bryan."
     "How would it change anything?" Hera asked.
     "Fortunately, the Air Force has a similar program and I have
personally guaranteed an officer exchange with Colonel O'Neill."
     Hera sighed, "How many people know about this?"
     Apollo smiled, "Hey, you started this, remember. Anyway, next sectan
during the awards ceremony we plan on surprising Sergeant Torres and his
Colonial counterpart."
     Hera bit her lower lip, "Does this change anything?"
     Apollo smiled knowingly, "Although Air Force regulations state that
the airman should wear his branches uniform it also gives the latitude in
certain squadrons that the airman can wear the host nation's uniform and
is subject to their rules and regulations while in their employ."
     Hera's frown lifted a bit as realization, "That means..."
     "That means that Sergeant Torres will be a Colonial Warrior in the
computron department and will continue his work that he began, however,
he will wear our uniform and be subject to our rules and regulations."
     Hera jumped out of her seat and said, "Yessssss!" Hera momentarily
stopped her celebration and asked, "Can I tell him?"
     Apollo shrugged, "It's supposed to be a surprise, but as long as he
doesn't tell anyone I suppose..."
     Before Apollo could say another word Hera kissed his cheek and
hugged her mother and then was out the door to find Bryan.
     Hera's heart soared with elation. She instantly forgave Bryan. 'I'll
try the server room first,' she thought.

***

     In the morning, Bryan woke up with an awful four-alarm hangover. He
opened his eyes and found an arm in his line of sight. He slowly raised
his head; which caused an enormous throbbing and looked at the back of a
woman with long dark black luxurious hair that fell down at least two and
a half feet down her back. Parts of the beds covers were covering the
lower portion of her back, which revealed a perfect skin tone on a naked
back. Bryan clasped his head slowly with both hands and tried not to moan
in his agony. He peeked under the covers and saw her naked form from
behind and noticed his clothes were missing as well. 'Oh! Crap!' He
thought.
     Bryan did not even want to think about what kind of sexual diseases
aliens from another galaxy could have, if any. He put a hand to his head
and slipped a moan out this time.
     The woman stirred and turned bright flashing eyes of blue to him.
She smiled and kissed his chest and worked her way up to his chin and
cheeks.
     Bryan stared in shock, 'It's her! From the landing bay, the one
I...Oh! No! I didn't! Please God, I did not do this! Holy Sh..."
     "Hi," she said.
     Bryan managed a greeting and tried desperately to remember her name,
'Uh, it's Bethany, Sethany, ugh, her names, come on! "Methany!" He
blurted out.
     She looked up in earnest, "Are you all right?"
     "My head hurts like I got ran over by a truck!"
     Methany did not quite understand the entire reference but she
understood enough to discern his meaning, "You ought to go to the Life
Center and have that checked out."
     Bryan nodded, "Ugh, listen, I, uh...I hope I...that is, I mean, we,
ugh..."
     She kissed him and put her mouth to his ear, "Let's not talk right
now. You know, I have the perfect solution to a hang over." She looked
seductively into his face.
     All Bryan had to do was give in. The most beautiful girl he ever met
was an alien from another galaxy and she wanted him. He wanted her and
she wanted him. 'Isn't that enough', he thought to himself. His mind
rebuked him, 'You already gave in!' In a nanosecond his mind instantly
flashed him the image of another woman with long blond hair, soft brown
eyes, 'Hera!' He Thought. 'Oh! My God! What have I done?' 
     He knew he would regret it later, but he stopped kissing her and
looked at his watch, "Oh! Crap! Uh, I am late for work!"
     Methany nodded in understanding, but was disappointed, "All right."
She simply said.
     Bryan got out of bed and searched for his clothes, while Methany
smiled knowingly at him. Bryan looked down and blushed, and quickly put
part of his uniform on. He wore only his BDU pants, t-shirt, socks,
underwear, and held his boots in one hand and his BDU shirt in the other
one. He exited the bedroom chamber and entered the living area. By the
time his boots were tied, and his belt in place, Methany had come out in
her long flowing nightgown. Bryan got to the open doorway when Methany
turned him around and kissed him full on the mouth, longingly.
     Bryan was tempted to stay, 'Just for a minute', He told himself, but
he knew better. 'I don't know how I'm going to get out of this.' He
backed out of the doorway as Methany followed him out continuing to kiss
him.  The door swished open smoothly. He knew he was in trouble as it was
with being late for work.
     He parted with Methany as she blew him a kiss and he backed a few
feet into the hallway. "Duty calls." He said. Turning around he prayed
desperately that he would not run into Hera on his way to work.
     Hera was standing in the hallway about ten feet in front of him and
apparently had stopped mid-stride and stared at a bedraggled Bryan with
his hair all messed up, needing a shave, half dressed and a beautiful
woman who kissed him out into the hallway.
     Bryan's face turned an ashen white and Hera's shock turned into
hurt. She gave Bryan that shocked, hurt look of betrayal and disbelief.
     Bryan stopped dead in his tracks and his mouth tried desperately to
work. Finding his voice he croaked, "Hera!" He turned back to Methany who
was staring at the Commander's daughter with disbelief. Bryan faced Hera
again, "Hera! It's not what you think...well sort of. I mean, its not..."
     Hera's hurt turned into anger and she spun on her heel and quickly
left. Bryan chased after her, "Hera! Wait!"
     Methany crossed her arms and frowned darkly. She had no intention of
losing Bryan to the Commander's daughter, not without a fight that is.
     Bryan bolted around a corner at full speed trying desperately too
catch up with Hera. Calling out to Hera as he raced recklessly down the
corridor he ended up running into her fist. The force of his momentum and
her fist was enough to knock him down instantly. With his dehydration
from his drinking binge and four-alarm hangover, he passed out
immediately, falling onto his back; sprawled on the floor unconscious as
Hera stormed away from him looking like a hurricane searching for
Florida.

***

     Later on, Bryan woke up in the Life Unit as Cassiopeia's exclaimed,
"Ah! Thank the Lords! You were severely dehydrated and had a severe
trauma to the right eye."
     Bryan croaked something unintelligible and touched his throat.
Cassie put a plastic cup to his mouth with a clear straw in it.
     Bryan's throat felt like a dry desert and he drank hurriedly at the
water in the cup. Cassie smiled, "Slow down, Bryan."
     "How did I get here?" Bryan croaked.
     "A warrior found you unconscious on the floor and called for help."
     Harry was there, "Hey, Bryan, how do you feel?"
     Bryan smirked, "How do I look?"
     Harry waved his hand side to side in the air, "Like crap."
     Bryan touched his nose, "Bingo."
     Cassiopeia stated, "Look it's none of my business what happened, but
if I were you I would lay off the drinks."
     Harry smiled his most disarming smile, "Hey, doc? Who said anything
about drinking? Ole, Bryan here..."
     Cassie raised her hand, "What do you call these stains on his shirt
and that he reeks of alcohol?"
     Harry shrugged innocently, "Aftershave?"
     Cassie waived her hand in dismissal, "Save it. I am a doctor you
know and I am married to Starbuck. These blood tests show a very high
alcohol content and severe dehydration throughout his system, indicative
of over consumption of grog or ambrosia."
     Harry smiled, "You're the doc, doc. Hey, uh, you don't have tell
anyone do you?"
     Cassie smiled, "I was young once too." She then pointed at Bryan,
"But if I see you one more time in here for this I'll tell Colonel
O'Neill."
     Bryan nodded somberly, "Yes, ma'am. Ugh, my eye doesn't hurt, am I
free to go?"
     Cassie smiled, "That's because I healed it, but I want you to go to
bed and sleep this off! No work till next cycle! And Bryan?"
     Bryan sat up, "Yeah?"
     "Grog or Ambrosia won't fix those things that our mind is trying to
avoid dealing with."
     Bryan frowned, "What do you mean?"
     Cassie put her hand gently on his shoulder, "You went through a lot
in the landing bay."
     Bryan shrugged, "Yeah, well."
     "If you want I can arrange for a counselor to speak with you?"
     Bryan shrugged non-commitally as Harry helped Bryan off the bed and
nodded reassuringly, "Thanks Doctor, well, we'll be going, thanks!"
     Cassie smiled and shook her head, "Kids, was I ever that young?" She
turned away from them and stopped short, she remembered what she was
supposed to tell him. According to deep physiological scans, Bryan's
cellular decay in his body was twice as fast as Colonial physiology. That
meant he would only live to be about eighty yahren old and die early
mid-life compared to the Colonial lifespan.
     She made a mental note to talk to Apollo about suggesting treatments
to the Earth personnel aboard. For the younger people like Bryan and his
friend it should double his life span to a more tolerable age.
     Bryan spent the rest of the day sleeping and Major Davis never did
find out what truly had happened, which was a miracle in and of itself.

***

     Bryan rounded the corner and stopped in front of a door with a sign
that read "COMMANDER". Bryan reflexively took an unconscious deep breath.
He smoothed any noticeable wrinkles he had in his BDU uniform and slowly
released his breath.
     His black calf-high boots were polished with a deep luster shine.
The sides of his arms had sharp angled creases from its recent pressing.
All in all he was ready for an inspection if called to one, however, he
was not called to an inspection, rather it was more than likely a
reprimand.
     Perspiration beaded the sides of his forehead in tiny droplets and
his heart raced in anticipation of the rebuke of the Colonial Commander.
After all, he could not think of any other reason he was being called to
an alien Commander's office.
     Bryan's eyes went wide at the other possibility. 'Oh! My god! What
if this is about Hera?' Bryan gulped and started to step backward with
the intention of leaving until his retreat was stopped by another person.
     "Torres? You all right?" Jack asked.
     Bryan started and whirled around, his complexion was ashen white and
he stammered, "Uh! Colonel O'Neill! Sir!" Bryan stood to attention with
his hands at his side and his fingers curled slightly.
     Jack frowned, "Nice of you to join us."
     Bryan could not find his voice as his mind focused on how much
trouble he was in.
     Jack not comprehending stepped around Bryan and pushed the door
chime, "At ease. Come on."
     The door opened and Jack walked around Bryan and stopped partway,
turning he motioned for Bryan to follow. Bryan did his best to act
professional, but could not help but think he would soon be demoted to
Senior Airman and shipped back to Earth.
     He walked in rather stiffly. He was not surprised Major Paul Davis
sitting on the couch with an unreadable expression. He was rather
surprised to see Major Carter sitting beside him wearing a barely
concealed grin. Her grin did not belay fear from the inner voice
screaming inside his young mind. Jack moved over to the couch and sat
beside Sam. Colonel Sheba leaned against a bulkhead while Commander
Apollo stood in the center of the room looking like a demi-god of total
control. 'Thank God that Hera is not here', He thought to himself.
Another man Bryan had little familiarity with but recognized was the
"Legendary Commander Cain." Even silent Cain's presence dominated the
room even above Apollo's if that was possible.
     Seated in a chair closest to Sheba was an older man in flowing robes
that Bryan remembered was a Council member of the Colonial Government,
but could not remember his name. Bryan sweated a little more and thought
to himself, 'Oh! Shit! I am in more trouble than I thought!' His only
consolation was that none of the security forces known as "Black Shirts"
were waiting to take him away in chains.
     Bryan mentally shoved all thoughts aside except his duty. Resigning
himself to his fate he stopped short of Apollo's desk, turned forty-five
degrees to the left to face Apollo and his body went ramrod straight to
the position of attention. Unsure of Colonial protocol, Bryan reverted
back to his Air Force Training and what to do in the presence of a
General Officer, "Staff Sergeant Bryan Torres reports as ordered, SIR!"
Bryan shot his hand up in the smartest salute of his career to date.
     Apollo smiled a little, returned a Colonial salute, using his left
hand, he brought it up to his heart. Bryan's hand froze like a statue in
place waiting for Apollo's hand to dip. Apollo lowered his hand and said,
"Staff Sergeant Torres, do you know why you have been ordered to my
chambers?"
     Bryan stared straight ahead toward Apollo, not having been told to
stand "At Ease" he was still in the most submissive form that a military
person could be in. In this position, he could only stare straight ahead
and answer any direct questions with equally direct answers.
     Bryan kept his answer simple, "Sir! I have been ordered to the
Colonial Commander's office in order to be reprimanded for my involvement
with Captain Starbuck's unauthorized flight, SIR!"
     Bryan's response elicited a surprised glance from Apollo, Cain,
Sheba, and probably the rest of the people in the room. 'O.k., obviously
its about Hera, but I am not bringing it up to them.' Bryan thought to
himself in stubbornness.
     "Oh! For crying out loud, Torres! Your not in trouble!" Jack said.
     Bryan's face was an unreadable mask, but his heart beat slowed, just
a little.
     Apollo smiled, "At ease, Sergeant."
     Bryan released a breath and spread his legs to forty-five degrees
and placed his hands behind his back.
     Apollo shook his head, "Sergeant Torres, you have been asked here
because of your involvement in Alpha Landing Bay during the combined
Cylon and Goa'ould attack."
     Bryan's face contorted into a frown, "Sir?"
     "Apparently, you saved over thirty lives that day and with no
support equipment except your heart and your hands. Very Impressive!"
     Bryan's knee's swayed a little bit. Chastising himself, 'My
ignorance had allowed several people to die.'
     Someone cleared their throat, and Apollo amended, "Yes, of course.
You also saved a young technician named Methany."
     Sire Geller stood up and quickly crossed the room and stuck his hand
out to Bryan. 
     Apollo introduced the Sire again, "You of course remember Sire
Geller?" Bryan nodded once and numbly shook the Sire's hand. The Sire
spoke in an elegant British accent, "Impressive indeed! Young man, you
have my sincerest thanks and my lasting gratitude for saving my Methany!"
     Bryan was confused, "You, Your...Methany?"
     Sheba smiled, "Yes, Methany is Sire Geller's granddaughter."
     Bryan's legs wobbled and he gulped, 'Oh! Crap! Could this nightmare
get any worse?' he thought.
     Apollo continued, "The Council of the Twelve has voted to give you
our people's highest honor, "The Star of Kobol"!"
     Bryan did not feel like a hero and if these people knew what he had
done to Hera and now Methany they would be throwing him out an airlock.
Bryan back pedaled, "Sir, thank you, but that's not necessary, I, I, I am
just happy I could help out."
     Sire Geller responded, "Non-sense! You deserve it! I would like you
to dine with my family and I aboard the Rising Star tonight."
     Bryan smiled weakly, "Yes, sir."
     Geller smiled fondly, "Commander? I believe there is also another
item of business?" Geller prompted.
     Apollo grinned, "Sergeant Torres, your out of uniform."
     Bryan unconsciously looked down at his uniform, "Sir?" He asked in
confusion.
     Apollo nodded patiently, "Sergeant Torres, it is also our
government's unanimous recommendation that you be offered an opportunity
to participate in an ancient custom of our people."
     Bryan inquired with his eyebrows.
     Apollo continued, "Colonel O'Neill has graciously accepted our
governments offer to initiate an "officer exchange program".
     Bryan turned incredulous toward Jack. Jack shrugged, "I had a moment
of weakness."
     Bryan grinned ear to ear.
     Sam piped in, "You will still have your duties in the installation
of the network, but..."
     Sheba finished for her, "You'll be under my chain of command and
report to me directly."
     Bryan gulped and nodded soberly at Hera's mother. Bryan's inner most
thoughts strayed as he contemplated Sheba's features and realized for the
first time that this was what Hera was going to look like in twenty-five
years. 'Not bad.'
     "Yes, ma'am." Bryan answered.
     Cain spoke for the first time, "So this is the young man dating my
grand daughter!"
     Bryan cringed a little, apparently Hera had not told them about his
little one sided fight with Hera the other day.
     After a few more congratulatory remarks Bryan was ordered to the
Colonial equivalent of a uniform shop, where he was fitted with the
standard issue Colonial uniform.

***

     Bryan stepped out of the tailors shop and inwardly sighed. 'I did
not think I would be wearing this uniform again.' "Look like a cowboy."
Bryan muttered just under ear shot.
     Starbuck smiled and put an unlit fumerello in his mouth, "See there,
NOW, you look like a warrior! Next thing you know, you'll be flying a
viper with in a sectar!"
     Bryan knew Starbuck was joking and dismissed his comment with a
shaking of his head.

***

     General Hammond and Jacob Carter continued their conversation:
"Jacob, you still haven't told me what your doing back on Earth?" Hammond
inquired.
     Jacob's smile dropped a little, "I've brought news about one of the
Colonials captured and Captain O'Connor."
     Hammond straightened in his seat, "Captain O'Connor? He's alive?"
     "For now. One of our agents onboard Heru'Ur's ship has passed on
that there are three prisoners, two Colonials and Captain O'Connor."
     "Do you know where the ship is now?"
     "Yes. I'll give you the coordinates, but you'll need to hurry.
Heru'Ur is off meeting with the bulk of the System Lords and now is the
time to strike while he is away."
     Hammond frowned, "This meeting about the Colonials?"
     Jacob nodded, "That's a fair guess. I imagine right now he is
consolidating his forces and most likely uniting the System Lords
together."
     "For what?"
     "George, if Heru'Ur is doing what I think he is, Earth could be
facing annilation."
     "What about the Asguard Protected Planets Treaty? How would he
circumvent that?"
     "I don't know, but I would prepare for the worst."
     "Jacob, I can't run to the president and tell him we're facing
imminent invasion based on your assumptions."
     Jacob nodded, "We're working on it."
     George smiled, "In the mean time I'll have SG-1 updated and see if
they can't rescue Captain O'Connor and the Colonials."
     "There's a Tok'Ra shuttle standing by. It's less than fifty light
years from the Colonial Fleet. I'll gate over to the shuttle and pick
them up."
     George nodded, "I'll have my people put together the necessary
equipment for SG-1 and I'll be sending additional personnel for the
Galactica."
     Jacob smiled, "George I am not driving a bus you know?"
     George smiled and then placed a call to make the arrangements.

***

     A secton went by and the only exciting thing that happened to break
the routine of repairing the Galactica was the Warrior Ceremony where
Bryan was awarded the "Star of Kobol and assigned to an Earth/Colonial
exchange program.

***

     Apollo was back on the bridge of the Galactica quietly surveying the
repair crews from his own ship's personnel and Cain's fleet of ships.
     It had taken nearly a sectan to reattach Beta Landing Bay.  Crews
worked around the clock and with thirteen times the amount of repair
crews from Cain's little fleet the landing bay should be fully
operational in less than three additional sectan.
     Flight crews from Cain's fleet had been reassigned to the Galactica
in order to replace the deceased members from their last attack.
     Apollo sighed inwardly at the immense loss of life. It never got
easier seeing people he was responsible for die. 'So many lives lost.' He
thought. 'How many lives were lost during the thousand yahren war with
the Cylons?' 'How many more will die before we can reach Earth?'
     His thoughts were interrupted by Omega, "Sir! Short range scanners
indicate an unknown ship approaching at just under sub-light speeds."
     That got Apollo's attention. His adrenaline pumped into his body as
he prepared to order battlestations, "How did it get so close without the
long range scanners picking it up? Can you identify it?"
     Omega pushed several buttons on his console, "I don't know sir. War
book doesn't show a match, but the power signature is one used by the
Goa'ould."
     Apollo's lips creased into a single line, "What kind of ship?"
     "Size and shape suggests a cargo transport or shuttle of some sort.
Picking up twelve life forms and one alien."
     Apollo blanched, "A shuttle doesn't pose that much of a threat.
Could it be a suicide mission?"
     Athena notified Apollo, "Apollo? I am picking up a transmission from
the alien craft."
     Apollo nodded, "Patch it up here." Nodding Athena pushed.

***

     Jacob Carter/Selmac the Tok'Ra approached the Colonial Fleet. Human
and Tok'Ra alike stared in awe of the size of the Colonial Fleet.
Battlestars as Jacob had heard them called took up a defensive posture
around what he presumed was the Galactica.
     Captain Nelson from the technical staff being reassigned to assist
in the upgrade of the Galactica's computer systems exhaled sharply, "I
don't believe it."
     Jacob smirked, "I know what you mean Captain. Until a short time ago
I was a Major General in the Air Force and now I know things that no
human should ever know and have been to places that most humans on Earth
will only see in science fiction."
     "Is it wise getting this close without contacting them, sir?" Nelson
asked.
     Jacob shrugged, "Well if they had seen us; they either would have
begun shooting us or calling us." A light blinked and a tiny chirp from
his computer demanded his attention.
     "What was that?" Nelson asked.
     Jacob smirked, "I just finished a passive scan on the Colonial
Battlestars. It's important the Tok'Ra know the capabilities of potential
allies." Jacob looked down at his control panel and depressed the decloak
option on his console.
     "Here we go. I am decloaking the ship and hailing them."

***

     A human like voice spoke from the speaker next to Apollo,
"Attention: This is a Tok'Ra transport calling the Battlestar Galactica,
please respond."

***

     Before Apollo could respond Omega announced, "Commander, the Pegasus
has launched two squadrons of vipers and are rapidly closing the distance
with the Tok'Ra vessel."
     "What is the Tok'Ra vessel doing?"
     Omega shrugged, "Nothing. It's just sitting there."
     Apollo ordered Athena to contact the Pegasus and have their vipers
maintain a distance from the Tok'Ra. Next he pressed the send button on
his console, "Tok'Ra vessel, this is Commander Apollo of the Battlestar
Galactica, please state your intentions."
     "This is Jacob Carter, we met on Earth. I have vital information for
both Colonel O'Neill and yourself. I am also carrying additional support
personnel and supplies from Earth."
     As he finished saying that vipers passed by him at amazing speed.
Several of the Earth people onboard took an unconscious step back. Until
recently they never knew aliens existed much less humans from another
galaxy were searching for their lost brethren.
     Jacob put his hand up, "Easy, their just doing close flybys and
scanning us. Probably just a show of force to scare us, just in case we
meant any funny business."
     Captain Nelson gulped for air as he stepped closer in order to peer
out the cockpit window and said, "It's working."
     A few moments later the reply came, "Tok'Ra vessel, Your are cleared
to land in Alpha Landing Bay, onboard the Battlestar Galactica,
transmitting vector coordinates and landing beacon."
     Instruments beeped as it recorded the coordinates. Jacob pressed
several buttons and the transport effortless increased its speed as it
followed its preprogrammed instructions.
     As they neared the Galactica a lieutenant muttered, "Sweet Mother!"
Followed by several similar remarks. "That thing must be a mile long!"
Nelson said.
     Jacob nodded, smiling, "Just hope you never see a Goa'ould flag
ship, Captain."
     The transport vessel smoothly flew into the left landing bay
following the running lights showing the direction to fly. It sailed
effortlessly five feet above the deck and nearly silent till Jacob could
see flight crewman in bright orange coveralls, copper colored hard hat
who held two silver batons with red lights that were lit.
     Jacob obediently slowed his craft and hovered in the direction
indicated. The nose of the craft was pointed for aerodynamic flight
recessed until the nose of the craft was more round and shorter than
before. Landing protrusions also extended and gave the appearance of the
craft physically changing shape. The landing gear made an audible thud
through the metallalic hull. He then he received a different light signal
that he correctly interpreted as a "shutdown engine" command and gently
landed his craft.
     Finishing the shutdown sequence he depressed another button that
opened the main door to the transport.
     Several warriors with large laser rifles took up positions to his
left and right. Jacob slowly held his hands up and stepped onto the deck.
     Jack along with Sam and the other members of SG-1 were waiting for
him. Jack turned to the warriors and said, "It's all right. I'll vouch
for him."
     The warriors relaxed their guarded stance a little but otherwise
held their ground. Jack looked over his shoulder with frustration not
used to having his orders followed until he remembered these people were
not under his command.
     Sam crossed the distance and started to hug her father when a
warrior announced, "They have to go through decontamination first!"
     Sam called out, "I'll go through it too." Then to Jacob, "Dad!" she
said. They hugged a moment.

***

     Heru'Ur's ship hovered over a planet in Goa'ould controlled space.
     Inside a somewhat darkened room, ten Goa'ould System Lords sat
awaiting Heru'Ur. 
     Lighting was provided in obvious places that gave just enough
illumination but still provided enough darkness for the dire fellowship
of the assembly.
     Ball, a relative unknown, was rather powerful in his own right,
spoke into a multi-resonant voice, "Where is Heru'Ur? I grow tired of
waiting."
     Loud reverberating sounds of heavy footsteps rang throughout a
corridor. A metallic imitation of a man walked boldly into the room with
a large laser rifle in its hands. 
     The other System Lords reared back in surprise as the automaton
spoke with an eerie machine drone, "ATTENTION, ATTENTION, His eminence
and lord, Heru'Ur is about to grace your presence."
     The group had never seen such a device and it did truly look amazing
and even intimidating. It had Heru'Ur's eagle insignia on what would be
called its forehead.
     Heru'Ur smiled wickedly as he was preceded by two more Cylon
Centurions and by two that followed him.
     He raised his  hand in greeting, "Cree Oh Bell, Goa'ould!" His
multi-voice spoke and his eyes glowed brilliantly before fading back to
normal.
     Ball demanded, "What are these things?"
     Heru'Ur smiled wickedly, "Behold. My slaves." Then to the whole
assembly he spoke, "I bring news to the System Lords of the Tauri
menace."
     Chronos spoke without hesitation, "You bring news? Of the Tauri?
Fool! They are not a threat, they are primitive." He spat in disgust.
     Heru'Ur smiled wickedly, "Yes, but not for long."
     Yu an Asian Goa'ould spoke for the first time, "What treachery is
this? They are protected by the Asguard, we can not break our treaty for
fear of the Asguard overwhelming us."
     Heru'Ur smiled, "I do not propose such a thing. The Tauri have now
grown strong! A lost tribe from the Tauri home world is even now giving
them advanced weapons."
     Ball frowned openly, "You lie! The Tauri are thousands of years
behind us. They are no threat!"
     Heru'Ur yelled, "Enough! See now whether I am lying!" He pulled a
vol-que out and gave it to the Centurion who pushed a recessed button on
its underside and then set it on the tiled floor.
     A recorded image of the attack on the Colonial Viper's original
patrol that forced Starbuck to crash land played, then the Cylon ambush,
the captured Tauri prisoner, Captain O'Connor, and finally Heru'Ur's
defeat by the Battlestars.
     "You see, my brethren. The Tauri will soon be a real threat to us.
One we can not afford to ignore."
     Ball called back, "What about the Asguard. They will not be slack in
stopping us?"
     Heru'Ur smiled dangerously, "As part of the protected planets
treaty, the Tauri home world can not be attacked by us."
     Ball waved his hand, "Well?"
     "We can't, but..." he indicated the Cylon in front of him, "They
can."
     He explained why the Cylons were chasing the humans and how they
were searching for Earth.
     "We are bound by our treaty to even protect the Tauri home world
against one of our own. However, these machines only need the exact
coordinates to their planet to launch an attack that their primitive
technology cannot withstand. If I order my now loyal subjects to
incinerate the planet we will naturally have to stop them and what's one
more city or more laid to rubble. We have an unprecedented opportunity to
lie waste their planet once and for all."
     "And how does this plan of yours work. We are not bound to protect
the Tauri from other races, only our own."
     Heru'Ur smiled, "We implicate a minor System Lord, say..." He paused
as if he actually had to think about it, "Imotep"
     "What you say is a dangerous gamble", Yu said.
     "What of the Tauri when they obtain these other human's technology.
They will be a plague on the Goa'ould."
     Yu stood up and nodded, grunting, "Hmmmpph!" Acknowledging his
assent.
     Chronos spoke up, "What do you want?"
     Heru'Ur nodded, "We must amass a large fleet of ships and armies to
crush their fleet of Battlestars and their planet into dust! I believe a
hundred battleships is enough."
     "You ask too much for a insignificant planet!"
     Heru'Ur smiled wickedly, "The Tauri are clever. With no superior
technology they destroyed two of Aphohis Ha-Tac Battleships, what will
they be like when their allied fleet of ships arrive? What if they
develop shield technology?"
     Yu nodded once again, "It is done. We can be ready to leave in sixty
standard days."
     Ball did the math in her head, "It will take over ten months to
reach their world."
     Heru'Ur nodded, "Then we shall put a stargate on one of the ships
and from there we can meet our ships once they enter the Tauri star
system."
     Heru'Ur laughed menacingly.
     One of Heru'Ur recently converted Cylons stood silently protecting
his "god". Somewhere in the recesses of his programming the Centurion had
a fragment of a message that all Cylons were initially programmed with.
His thought engrams reverberated internally, "The final annilation of the
life form, known as....MAN."

***

     Jacob Carter/Selmac sat at the conference table aboard the
Galactica. The same room the Quorum of the Twelve met in since the exodus
from the Colonies over twenty five yahren ago.
     The expansive oval table with its plush, high backed chairs was
filled with Apollo, Sheba, Boomer, and Starbuck, SG-1, and Jacob.
     Apollo motioned for everyone to be seated and as he sat he motioned
for Jacob to begin.
     "According to the Tok'Ra operatives aboard Heru'Ur's ship; Heru'Ur's
is holding two captives, Captain O'Connor and a Colonial by the name of
Cree."
     Starbuck jumped up, "What!" It was not a question. "Apollo! We got
do something!"
     Jacob's head dipped slightly and his symbiote, Selmac spoke for the
first time during this meeting. His dual toned, reverberating voice
resonated in a deep and rich pitch. Shocked, the assembled Colonials
started, "That is why I am here Captain Starbuck."
     Starbuck started, in one of those rare moments that he was
speechless.
     Sam not missing a beat proclaimed, "That's Selmac, my father's
symbiote."
     Jacob's head dipped again as Jacob took control of his body once
more, "Sorry about that, Selmac and I forget this is all new to you. I'll
speak for both of us while aboard."
     Apollo regained his composure, "Of course. Please continue General
Carter."
     Jacob smiled, "Call me Jacob. I haven't been a General for awhile
now."
     Starbuck interrupted them, "What about a second Colonial? Cadet
Mindon?"
     Apollo nodded and Jacob continued, "I don't know, but odds are he
didn't make it. I'm sorry, but these system lords are cruel and without
remorse."
     Jack interrupted, "Jacob, you know where this ship is?"
     "Yes."
     "All right, lets go rescue them," Jack said.
     Sam interrupted, "Sir! Don't we need to get General Hammonds
permission?"
     "Jacob's already got it or he wouldn't be here now."
     Jacob smiled sideways, "Yeah, that's right."
     Starbuck jumped up, "Well! What are we waiting for, Apollo, Blue
Squadron can take these guys!"
     Apollo motioned for Starbuck to sit down, who did so reluctantly,
"Starbuck, as much as I want show Heru'Ur up and run the Colonial flag up
on his ship, we just got our astrum kicked and..."
     "But we can't just do nothing!"
     "Oh! For crying out loud. Look! We'll take Jacob's ship, ring in,
kill the bad guys, rescue the good guys, ring out. Piece of cake!"
     Apollo narrowed his eyes on Jack, "Do you think a well armed strike
force can do it?"
     Jack shrugged, "We do it all the time." Which was not an
exaggeration.
     Apollo smiled, "All right, Colonel, what can we do to assist you?"
     "Ugh, With all due respect Commander, nothing, we'll take care of
it."
     Starbuck pointed at Jack, "uh, uh, uh, we're in this together. I'm
going!" He turned to Boomer, "You with me Boomer?"
     Boomer made a fist, "Your fracking right I am."
     Jack shook his head, "Sorry boys, but my team and I do this all the
time, we'll take care of this. Just keep the lights on for us."
     Starbuck stood up and looked like he wanted to do more than just a
little bodily harm to Jack, "Like felgercarb you will! Look!"
     "Enough!" Apollo said. Silence filled the room until Apollo spoke
again, "General Carter, what do you need to successfully rescue our
combined people?"
     "A small team, say no more than eight people."
     Jack interrupted, "You bring C-4?"
     Jacob smiled and nodded, "Yes, and the appropriate uniforms, we
still need someone who can access the computer mainframe. I have to stay
aboard my ship while its cloaked."

***

     Bryan checked his watch and saw he a few minutes to try to talk to
Hera before they left. SG-1, Boomer, Starbuck, Hera, and himself were all
dressed in black covert BDU's, complete with watch caps and subdued urban
camo face paint.
     Boomer was reading the Tok'Ra drive system schematics, while
Starbuck cleaned his gun.
     Jacob, Sam and Teal'c prepared the transport for takeoff.
     Bryan walked over toward Hera. Hera saw him in her peripheral
vision. She put some solonite bombs into the black backpack and adjusted
the load.
     "Ah, Hera. Listen. I, uh, I know we had a misunderstanding but..."
     Hera stood up sharply, and pointed at Bryan's chest,
"Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding? Is that what you call sleeping with
that She-daggit?"
     Bryan unconsciously backed up, looking left and right embarrassed
that someone might see. In fact everyone stopped and was indeed watching.
     Bryan faced Hera, "Look, Hera! I had too much to drink."
     Hera roughly pushed him again, "And that makes it right? I trusted
you, hell I loved you, bastard!"
     Bryan's unconscious thought was, 'At least she's getting our
metaphors correct.' "Hera! Please, I am trying to apologize. If you
only..."
     Bryan never saw her fist hit him in the solar plexus. The air in his
lungs expelled and he dropped to his knees.
     Jack intervened as Hera stood over him and tried to kick him. Jack
got in the way his shin took the brunt of the attack, "Ow! Geez! What the
hell is the matter with you two?" Turning to Torres, "Get off the floor,
it's embarrassing. And you." He turned back to Hera, "I don't care if you
two hate each other, but we got a mission to accomplish, if you can't
handle it, get out."
     Hera blinked and nodded slowly, "Yes, sir."
     "You two, stay away from each other."
     Bryan muttered something quietly under his breath and angrily went
to the cockpit. He was angry at his indiscretion and also embarrassed at
being knocked on the floor by a girl. This embarrassment fueled a new
resentment for Hera.
     Hera turned away from the group and picked up her bag and sat down
on a box facing away from anyone. A silent tear rolled down her cheek
unnoticed.

***

     The trip lasted two days and mostly a quiet one. The tension between
Bryan and Hera grew into a stalemate. Bryan never once said a word but it
was clear that however deep his love for Hera went that she had sparked a
lot of anger and resentment toward her.
     The truth was that he still had feelings for her, but until Hera was
willing to talk about it and settle their differences, nothing would
happen, especially since they were ordered to stay away from each other.
     Hera's stubbornness in not forgiving Bryan only fueled her anger
toward him. 'His actions were unforgivable, or were they', she thought to
herself. As soon as the thought of forgiving him came to mind she
remembered how she had found out that Bryan was cheating on her. That was
all it took to make her forget about absolution of Bryan's sins.
     The team of Earth and Colonial went over their assignments and the
mission parameters so many times that Bryan was getting a headache. He
had just about memorized the ships schematics downloaded into a PDA he
had.
     Jack took some time to show Boomer and Starbuck the SGC's arsenal of
weapons. He held out the small black assault weapon "This is the FN-P90
or P90 for short." Jack picked up a magazine and deftly, but swiftly
placed the magazine in its resting position on top of the weapon. "It
carries a fifty round, top loading magazine of teflon coated ordinance."
Jack charged the weapon by pulling back a small but identifiable side
sliding lever. With a metallic ring the first bullet was chambered.
     "With a cyclical firing rate of 900 rounds per minute, centon,
whatever, the firing range usually is about sixty or seventy yards, but
its also effective at five times that range."
     Starbuck mulled it over, "Nice statistics, but how effective is it
battle?"
     Carter piped in, "We used it to win just about every skirmish and
battle with the Goa'ould and Jaffa who serve them."
     Boomer nodded clearly impressed, "Nice, but how about having to
reload so often."
     Carter shrugged, "The weapon is very effective and versatile, but as
you mentioned, the ordinance has to be reloaded."
     Boomer reached out for the weapon and Jack handed it to him, "You
know, if we get back..."
     Starbuck interrupted, "Uh, uh, uh, I don't go on one way missions,
how about being a little more optimistic?"
     Boomer sneered, "Fine, when we get back, I bet we could convert this
into something a little more advanced."
     "You mean, making it a blaster?" Jack asked.
     Boomer nodded, "Well we call it a laser, but yeah something like
that."
     Sams analytical mind piped in, "I don't know, the metal alloy
probably doesn't have the molecular structure that would be dense enough
to sustain the heat of your weapons."
     Boomer nodded, "Probably, but perhaps we could use this as a
template and build a colonial version of the P90."
     Sam started to make another suggestion when Jacob interrupted.
     "Were coming up on the position our spies in Heru'Ur's ranks gave
us. Better take positions."
     The discussion was quickly tabled, and everyone got into position.
Jacob pulled a lever and the stars turned back to normal. A pretty little
planet with blue oceans, white puffy clouds and green land masses
appeared.
     "Heru'Ur's ship has landed on a pyramid platform, looks like you'll
being going planet side". Jacob said.
     "Can we land the ship?" Sam asked.
     "We could but it will be hard getting inside. My bet is using the
ring platform. Of course if its guarded there could be trouble."
     "All right, that's the plan", Jack said. "Jacob, try to stay out of
sight and listen for us. Chances are when we leave, we'll need to ring
out fast."
     Jacob placed the ship in geosynchronous orbit and got up, "Good
luck."
     SG-1 stood within the circular radius of the ring platform, they
faced outward with weapons ready and nodded to Jacob. Jacob keyed in the
correct response and from the bottom of the floor thick Naquadah enhanced
circuitry rose up quickly.
     The rings one by one raised to a predetermined position making an
electronic sound that was rather loud. After each ring was stationary,
bright white light covered the entirety of the group and disappeared
entirely as soon as it appeared. After the group disappeared, the rings
fell back into the floor of the ship as suddenly as it appeared.
     The Colonial contingent, including Bryan stepped into the circle
next.

***

     When the Colonials appeared a laser blast from a staff weapon raced
between Starbuck and Boomer who stood next to each other and in-between
Bryan and Hera. Everyone reacted on instinct by ducking. Bryan had just
enough time mutter, "Never get used to that." 
     The ring transport deposited them in a three section corridor. SG-1
called for the Colonials over the fire of the many weapons in the room.
Starbuck and Boomer returned fire and as true veterans raced ahead
regardless of the staff weapon blasts racing past them.
     Bryan and Hera tried to cross into the corridor the others were in
but the weapons fire prevented them from even a moments opening. The back
of the wall was nearly completely charred from the constant fire.
     Bryan pulled her back out of the line of fire, "What are you doing!
We got to catch up with the others," Hera said.
     Bryan shook his head, "We can't make it, and we've got to find
another way."
     Hera frowned sharply and had to yell over the noise, "They're trying
to separate us so they can pick us off!"
     Bryan led her deeper into the bowels of the ship, "I know that! But
look at that wall, there's no way to get across with that much fire
power!"
     Hera reluctantly agreed. 

***

     SG-1 and Starbuck and Boomer managed to repel most of the Jaffa and
had regrouped. 
     "Where are Bryan and Hera?"
     Starbuck turned around noticing for the first time that Hera was not
with them. "Oh! Frak! Not again!" He started charging down the corridor
till Boomer pulled them back, "Hey, there's no going back. If they stick
to the plan, they'll find the computer core and disable the ship from
there."
     Starbuck huffed, "If."
     Jack shook his head, "We'll find them, but first we got to free the
prisoners, Teal'c, lead the way."
     Teal'c took the lead and tried to make their way to the prisoner
level.

***

     Bryan frowned, "Damn. I think we're lost." He glanced once more at
the PDA schematics.
     Hera poked him in the elbow. He turned and she frowned, "Shhh!"
     Bryan frowned back but said nothing.
     They made their way to the back section of the ship, while dodging
whole squads of Jaffa.
     A squad of Jaffa came down the corridor, their metal shod feet
reverberating throughout the deck plating. Hera and Bryan tried to
retreat down the corridor, but another squad approached,
     With only one option left, they entered a room and found out quickly
it was a dead-end. It was a storage room.
     Realizing their mistake would be the end of their lives, Hera closed
the hatch through its interface on the wall and whipped out her laser and
stood back several metrons and blasted the mechanism. "Well that buys us
a little time."
     "Great! Now what?" Bryan asked.
     Hera frowned, "I don't know! It's your turn, o.k.?"
     A banging at the hatch and the pair turned wide-eyed at each other.
Frantically they searched around the room.
     Bryan panicked and looked from object to object and was at a loss of
what to do. Hera also searched while Bryan started moving boxes around
looking for something useful. 
     "Anything?" Hera asked hurriedly.
     "Nah." Was all Bryan said. He thought about he problem. 'O.k. we got
to get out of a room with only one way in or out. How do we do that
without getting killed?'
     Bryan's mind raced, 'Each room aboard any ship must have what?' The
hatch made an awful racket as the Jaffa tried to break the door down. The
answer Bryan was looking for came to his racing mind like a bolt of
lightening, 'Heat and oxygen. That means...'
     Bryan smiled at Hera as he raced around the room frantically looking
at the ceiling, walls, and floors.
     Hera knew he must be panicking, "Calm down, will you?"
     Bryan went to the only place he had not looked, the back of the room
and moved three large boxes quickly.
     Hera asked, "What are you doing?" 
     Bryan indicated a ventilation shaft and quickly and expertly
retrieved his multi-plier tool, removing the grating, then he motioned
for Hera go in.
     Hera looked at him as if he was insane and did not move. She crossed
her arms and waited. "You've got to be kidding, right?"
     Bryan motioned again for her to go, "Come on. Unless you want to
stay here."
     A staff weapons sound reached her ears and the hatch they had closed
started turning cherry red as the Jaffa started burning through.
     Bryan nudged her toward the shaft, and that was enough incentive.
     He paid particular attention not to stare at her back side as she
crawled on all fours deeper inside the shaft. Hera stopped momentarily
and whispered, "Keep your eyes to yourself, sergeant!"
     Bryan rolled his eyes, "Don't worry about that, LIEUTENANT." He said
sharply whispering.
     Hera frowned and put her finger to her lips and shooshed him again.
     Bryan frowned and thought to himself, 'What did I ever see in this
chick? She's a real bi...'
     "Would you stop standing there and get inside already! Hurry up!"
     Bryan muttered a curse word and obediently got inside and replaced
the ventilation cover.

***

     SG-1 one managed to get to the prisoner level unchallenged. Teal'c
went wall cells and found them empty.
     "T, what's up?" Jack asked.
     "The prisoners are not here O'Neil," Teal'c said.
     "Where else would they keep them?" Starbuck asked.
     Teal'c nodded, "Perhaps this vessel has a water pit. Follow me."

***

     Bryan and Hera crawled for several minutes in almost total darkness.
Bryan had a mini-maglite flashlight that he used reservedly.
     They crawled into different sections and gradually the ventilation
sloped downward.
     Several times they came across vents that would have provided a
route out of the ventilation chambers and back toward their group the got
separated from, but those rooms were occupied by Jaffa or Goa'ould.
     They entered another juncture and quickly turned his flashlight off.
In front of Hera was a vent with light coming inside. He moved left
trying to get a better view but Hera kept moving slightly in his
direction and could not get a clear look. First her hips unconsciously
swung to his left, so Bryan scooted to the right, but that was when she
was trying to peer into the vent to get a better look and the result was
her hips swung back to the right blocking Bryan's view once again.
     "Hey! You wanna move your butt so I can see?"
     Hera knew from past conversations that Bryan referred to her astrum,
"I didn't see you complaining about my astrum on the planet! Or is it
Methany's astrum you were thinking of?"
     "Get out of the way!" Bryan said annoyed.
     "No. I'll check this out," Hera said.
     Bryan had enough of this, "Look! If you hadn't got..."
     "Shhhh!" She said trying to quiet him.
     Bryan clearly frustrated grabbed Hera by her boots and drug her
backward and tried to climb over her.
     Bryan did not expect her reaction. She started to claw for purchase
in the smooth metal confines and finally gave up. She turned on her side,
which made Bryan think she was going to capitulate and the next thing he
knew he saw stars flashing in front of his eyes.
     Bryan shook his head and wondered for a quick second what happened.
It was then the heel of Hera's boot crashed into his forehead again,
leaving a black mark of bruising, "OW! Geez!"
     Hera smiled to herself and started to sneak up on the grate.
     Bryan had enough of this "Princess." He grabbed both legs and pulled
her back as he crawled on top of her and finally she turned and started
hitting him. "Get off me!" She hoarsely whispered.
     "Would you shut up!" Bryan said as he quickly subdued her and
crawled over her in order to take a peek. From what he could see the room
was empty. Something nagged at the back of Bryan's brain telling him
something he was missing was very important about this room, "O.k. we'll
go down and see if we can't hook up with the others."
     Bryan looked back to make sure she had heard him, Hera looked back
at him with a hurt and uncharacteristically sad expression. Bryan was
already tired of this girl and just shook his head. He pulled the
ventilation cover off and then peeked downward with his nine millimeter
pistol leading the way.
     The room was thirty feet long and twenty wide. Several flat panels
and unknown equipment lined the room and a strange see through glass
shelf sat off to one side. The equipment was typical Goa'ould and
ornately carved in Egyptian symbols and bas relief.
     Bryan dropped downward hanging by his hands. Realizing he would have
to fall the next four feet and landed as quietly as he could. Landing on
the balls of his feet he waved his arm around aiming his pistol at
anything that might be dangerous, not realizing how ridiculous he looked.
     Standing up he put his pistol away and made near quiet sound,
"Psssstttttt". Hera poked her head down, her black watch cap fell onto
the floor and her hair fell into her face and extended almost two feet
below that. Bryan motioned for her to come down and she quickly darted
back inside the tunnel above. She slid downward toward Bryan and he
motioned for her to drop, "Come on, I'll catch you."
     Hera took a breath and fell toward him. Her feet landed on his chest
and knocked him backwards onto his back. She fell roughly onto him and
they rolled. Bryan made an exhaling sound and ended up on top of her. His
face was a mere inch from hers and it felt to him as if gravity was
pulling him towards her.
     Hera's eyes widened in surprise and her mouth pursed in
anticipation. Their lips touched and it was as if everything in the
universe was theirs and theirs alone. Bryan had started to believe that
Hera had actually forgiven him and that things might actually workout
with them. After a few moments they stopped kissing and a clouded
expression came over Hera's face as she remembered his betrayal with
Methany. She quietly said, "Get off me."
     Bryan's face pained in realization, "Look, Hera."
     "Get off me!" she rasped.
     Bryan got up and offered his hand to help her up. She ignored it.
     Bryan's heart sunk within him, "Hera, come on. Look. It's not..."
     "Don't!" She waved her hands away from him.
     Bryan realized the futility of his actions, "Fine."
     Hera crossed her arms, "Good." She wasn't entirely sure she should
push him away. She desperately felt betrayed and hurt with Bryan's
indiscretion but she was starting to acknowledge how she truly felt for
him.
     'We are just like mother and father.' She thought to herself. Before
Apollo and Sheba declared how they felt for one another they fought too.
     Bryan lost his patience, "Anything you say your worship."
     Hera frowned, "What?"
     "You heard me," was all Bryan said.
     "Look, mister!" She pushed her forefinger roughly into Bryan's chest
repeatedly. "We are in an alien ship with a hostile force trying to kill
us! I'm the officer in charge here and I said drop it!"
     Bryan had had it with this woman, "You look, lieutenant. If it
wasn't for you we wouldn't be lost. Yeah! Your people are so advanced but
you can't even navigate a starship!"
     "Well you're the resident genius here! Find a way out sergeant!"

***

     SG-1, Boomer and Starbuck reached another intersection and Teal'c
confidently found a room with no doors. Inside was a long grate set
inside the floor. He went to it and peered down with a flashlight.
     "Captain O'Connor are you in there." A moment passed and an haggard
looking O'Connor smiled a toothy grin, "Teal'c! Is that really you?"
     Teal'c uncharacteristically smiled, "Indeed." Was all he said.
Turning, he called over his shoulder, "O'Neill! "
     O'Neill's darkened face due to the subdued urban camo paint smiled,
"Captain? What's your situation?"
     O'Connor felt as if he was in a dream, he unconsciously went to
attention, "Colonel, Heru'Ur tortured me and a Colonial named..."
     Starbuck stuck his head inside and asked, "Cree! You in there?"
     Cree had stayed in the rear of the compartment. He wasn't entirely
convinced that he was being rescued until he heard Starbuck's voice.
"Starbuck!"
     Starbuck smiled a toothy grin, "Hang on! We'll get you outta there."
     Teal'c and O'Neill lifted the grate and helped the men out.
     Cree's elation over being rescued became tempered by the remembrance
of Mindon, "Starbuck, they killed Mindon."
     Starbuck nodded in a fatherly fashion, "I know." Then changing the
topic he said rather flippantly, "You know, you're making it a habit of
rescuing you."
     Cree grinned back, "Starbuck, after this you'll never have to buy
ambrosia again."
     Jack stuck his head forward, "Ya think we could save this
conversation till we get out here."
     The group round the corner and came face to face with a squad of
Jaffa.

***

     Bryan started looking around and remembered his schematic. He pulled
out a small rectangular device and turned it on. The schematics that the
Tok'Ra had provided were in his PDA. He used a stylus to bring up a
diagram and looked around the room. Bryan smiled and rechecked the
diagram with the room's interior. Satisfied he walked over to a desk like
piece of equipment. He took off his backpack and pulled out his laptop.
Turning it on he started scanning the frequencies and came upon something
rather interesting.
     Hera quietly shook her head in amazement. Bryan really was
intelligent. "Hey, how are you doing that?"
     The laptops screen showed a rectangular box with the words
"Connecting with the host." A white line with a blue bar raced forward to
the right.
     Bryan smiled wickedly, "I got Major Carter to procure me a satellite
uplink module. It's like a docking station for the computer, it mounts on
underneath..." His words were lost on Hera. 
     Bryan shrugged, "It scans several frequencies and bandwidths on VHF,
UHF, VLF, microwave and several other types of signals and tries to find
the correct frequency of a device."
     Now Hera was really impressed. Unknowingly she placed her hand on
his right shoulder and looked over at the computer. Bryan clearly
confused by her sudden change of attitude in him stiffened slightly but
said nothing at the mixed signals she was giving him.
     In a few seconds the connection bar on the laptops screen showed
fully to the right. Bryan pumped his hand up in the air, "YES!"
     Bryan activated the executable file called translations and a box
opened up showing Goa'ould text to the left and English to the right in
two separate window panes.
     Bryan's eyes scanned left and right as he read and scrolled down the
screen, "Holy Crap!"
     Hera looked at Bryan and asked, "What?"
     Bryan kept reading and typing commands at that same time, "Shit!" He
said smiling broadly.
     "What? What is it?"
     Bryan stopped and smiled, "I don't believe this." His mouth dropped
into a school boy grin.
     Hera took her hand off him and smacked his shoulder. He started,
realizing he had not heard a word she said, "Hey!"
     Impatiently she asked, "What the frack did you find?"
     Bryan laughed and smiled up at her, "Guess what room this is?"
     Hera smacked his shoulder again, "What?"
     "Its their computer room! The very room we tried to get too all
along."
     Hera thought about the implications, "You mean, we could shutdown
the ship?"
     Bryan shook his head, "I don't know about that, but lets see what a
hacker can do."
     Bryan opened up a command prompt from the computers shell interface
and promptly typed so fast Hera could barely see the commands scrolling
across the screen. Bryan's eyes never left the screen to look at the
keyboard. His focus was absolute. His typing stopped only to read the
display momentarily before he pounded away at the keyboard some more.
     Strings of information flashed past him and after several minutes he
stopped typing completely. He exhaled sharply.
     Hera leaned in, "Well?"
     Bryan shook his head in frustration, "I can't shut the systems down
without triggering an alarm and even if I do take something down that
doesn't mean they can't restore it." He put the back of his hand to his
lips and gently bit the forefinger in concentration.
     Without preamble, Bryan started laughing out loud. Hera looked at
him as if he was crazy, "What's so funny?"
     Bryan looked up and beamed, "I guess we could always upload a
"VIRUS" into the mother ship." Bryan crossed his arms and belly laughed.
     Hera did not catch the reference but smirked in sudden realization,
"Let me guess? Another quote from a movie, right?"
     Bryan nodded and kept on laughing.
     Hera shrugged, "Bryan! We don't have time for this you cork!"
     That misnomer sent Bryan reeling again in laughter. Hera huffed and
shook her head.
     When he came to himself he said through watery eyes, "That's dork!
You bonehead."
     Hera smacked the side of his head, "Ow!" he said.
     Hera smiled back, "O.k., dork! Now can you do something creative
with all of this technology or are you gonna sit here laughing all day?"
     Bryan came to himself, "Yeah, yeah, o.k. Hmmphhh." Bryan sobered and
continued searching and then stopped lost in thought.
     "So can you do it?"
     "Hmmmn?" Bryan asked absently.
     Hera harrumphed, "The virus thing?"
     Bryan laughed, "Uh, that was in a movie, this is for real. I can't
get a virus to do that. I don't even have one for this..." He waved
expansively. "Besides, it would take weeks of playing with their code to
get a working prototype and I would need more than this. The important
commands are password protected."
     "What can you do?"
     "O.k." Bryan thought about a few moments. He searched the Goa'ould
maintenance database and came across some interesting files. He opened an
image that showed a schematic of some kind of database. He checked the
diagram again and then looked back at the glass shelves and smiled
widely, 'I can't delete stuff without notifying them and I can't break a
connection to subsystems and it's not as if I could redirect..." Bryan
paused in thought, "Redirect?" He sat up straight in his chair. Then to
himself, "Cool."
     Hera did not want to interrupt him and had to bite her lower lip to
keep quiet. Bryan went over to the glass shelves and moved his forefinger
around them, and then went back to the computer and double-checked his
idea. After returning to the glass case he bent over and found what he
was looking for. Near the bottom were four clear glass crystals that were
rectangular in shape. He pulled each one out and put them in his bag.
     Then went back to the console and began typing as fast as he could
and smiled widely.
     Hera was at the end of her patience, "What are you doing?"
     Bryan did not look up but said without pausing form typing, "Those
crystals back there are databases and modular control cards of a sort."
     Hera smiled, "So you took the key cards out, right?"
     "Wrong."
     "Wrong?"
     "Yeah those were diagnostic and maintenance cards."
     "How does that help us to disable the ship?"
     "It doesn't."
     "Well?" Hera said leadingly.
     Bryan paused from his typing and said, "I'll explain it later. I
can't remove the key components without alerting the bad guys, but I can
redirect the commands built into them to do some pretty cool damage!"
     Bryan quickly finished his work and saved the document, which
promptly turned into a batch file. He launched the file and grinned
appreciatively at his own handiwork. The batch file did its job and
specific changes were made subtly.
     "What does that mean?" Hera asked in near frustration.
     "It's like Exchange Server, you see, you have these email
connections and redirectors that..."
     Hera smacked on the side of the head.
     "Oww! Cut it out, Princess!"
     Hera was playing with him till he insulted her, "What's a princess?"
     Bryan explained it, "It's a girl who has been spoiled all her life
and walks around like a prim Donna..."
     Hera jerked him around, "Take that back!" She demanded.
     "No! What are you going to do about it, Princess!"
     Hera's pretty face contorted in anger, "At least I don't come from a
primitive, backwards world that the only way they can advance is to steal
other races technology!"
     He stood up and poked her in the chest, not meaning too he ended up
poking her on the top of her breast. Unfortunately for Bryan that was
mistake.
     She looked down and then up at him in rage. The next thing Bryan
knew he was staring up at an ornately carved ceiling and finally realized
that he was lying on a cold floor.
     He came to himself and that's when he realized that she had hit him,
He scrambled up and said, "Look! I don't want to hit a girl but your
asking for it."
     Hera's pain over Bryan's betrayal and anger toward him finally
reached its limit and she hit him in the stomach with all her might and
he nearly doubled over, coughing loudly. He straightened up and shoved
her roughly into the computer equipment. That's as close to coming to
actually hitting a girl, but he thought, 'I'll make allowances for this
one.'
     Her arm banged into the computer console and she righted herself and
held her arm tightly and began a muffled cry. Tears streaked slowly down
her eyes from the pain as she balled her good fist and prepared to really
show him what a girl could do."
     Bryan felt ashamed and aghast at what he did and came to her and
tried to embrace her, "Hera! I am sorry! I didn't mean to..."
     This time Bryan knew when he was on the floor staring up at the
ceiling what had happened. His left eye and his forehead were bruised and
his lip was slightly cracked and sported some congealing blood. The only
thought going through his head at that particular moment was, 'Next
girlfriend I get doesn't know how to kick my ass.' He promised himself.
     He layed there groaning to himself, unmoving.
     Hera realized she had hurt Bryan and somehow empathy for him
overruled any anger towards him. She ran to him hoping he wasn't
seriously injured, "Bryan! I am sorry. I'm so sorry." 
     Bryan groaned and groggily came to himself. Shaking his head he
tried to raise his head but it felt like lead.
     She knelt beside him stroking his hair and leaned over and kissed
his cheek. Then she kissed his bruises and finally locked eyes with him.
All her pain that she had inside melted as she realized she really did
love Bryan no matter what. With purpose of mind she kissed him gingerly
on the lips. 
     Bryan was confused again and not quite understanding what was going
on but he finally gave up trying to figure women out and succumbed to
kissing the woman he truly loved. He knew Hera was the one for him and
finally she let down her mental wall and let him in after the trouble
with Methany.
     He placed his arms around her and they kissed faster and harder. The
side of his lip hurt from where she had punched him before, but he
ignored it. 'I hope this means she forgives me!', Was his only thought.
     She cupped his head and leaned across him and soon they couple lost
all sense of time as they kissed.
     Hera held Bryan's head in her lap contentedly. He gently turned her
head to face him and looked into her eyes, "Hera...I'm sorry. I, just..."
     She put a finger to his lips and said, "We'll talk later." She
checked her chronometer, "Oh! Frack! We gotta go!"
     Bryan nodded and got up. He realized his radio had somehow been
turned off at some point and purposely turned it back on. They stood up
and he gently held her, "Hera, one more thing..." He paused.
     She looked into his eyes and asked questioningly, "Yes?"
     "I love you." He simply said.
     Hera's mouth opened in response and a voice other than Hera spoke,
"Torres! Where the HELL are you?" Static whirled through the radio's tiny
speakers, "Come in!" Sound of multiple laser and gunfire rang through the
speakers. Then not realizing his button was still pushed in; he asked
someone unseen, "Where the hell did they go?"
     Bryan keyed his radio, "Colonel! Boy am I glad your..."
     Gun shots and blaster fire interrupted Jack.
     "Bryan! Where the hell have you been? Are Hera and you all right?"
     "We're in the computer control room."
     Bryan recognized the full auto setting of Jack's P-90, snub-nosed
machine gun as gunshots fired in quick succession.
     A moment later Jack managed to say, "We'll stop being a geek and get
over to the throne room!"
     "Colonel, we found...", Bryan started to respond but Jack
interrupted him, "Never mind that. We got what we came for and we'll take
our chances! You still have the schematics and know how to get to the
rings, right?
     "Yes, sir."
     "Get your butts down here, now! We're ringing out of this place!"
     Bryan gulped, "What about the computer core?"
     "Never mind that! Just get here! Now!"
     "On our way!"
     The couple moved to the door and Bryan remembered his laptop and
backpack. He stopped to retrieve it and a directory of files he had not
noticed before stood out to him.
     He quickly sat down and began checking out the systems, "Hera! Your
not going to believe this! I found the files for their weapons, transport
rings, shields, and more!"
     Hera frowned, "Come on! We don't have time for this!"
     Bryan's hands flashed across the keyboard. "Damn!"
     "What?"
     "The files are over twenty gigabytes each! My laptop can barely fit
that much, I can only download one or two files and even then I have to
delete almost everything on my hard drive."
     "Come on! We got to leave now!"
     Bryan frantically made his decision, "Just a second!" He smiled and
his hands flashed across the keyboard. Information in text form scrolled
down at horrific speed. The last file completed its download and he broke
the connection and without bothering to shut the device off, rammed his
laptop into his backpack, threw it on and ran with Hera's hand in his out
into the hallway.

***

     When they reached the throne room Jack, Sam, Daniel, Starbuck,
Boomer, Cree, and Captain O'Connor were in a fire fight with several
Jaffa. Cree and O'Connor looked battered and worse for their little stay,
but at least they were alive.
     Jack swore under his breath, "We don't have time for this!" He
pulled a hand grenade out of his vest pocket. Pulled the pin and threw it
into the hall.
     The Jaffa jumped for cover and a powerful explosion rocked the ship.
     Starbuck smiled, "I couldn't have done it better myself."
     Jack smiled, "Thanks, now where's..."
     Bryan and Hera ran in to the corridor looking battered, bruised, and
dirty.
     Bryan's eye was bruised, along with his forehead and his lip was a
little swollen. Hera had a bump on her cheek, lightly held one arm with
the other one, her hair was mussed up and she was dirty as well.
     "What?" Bryan asked as the whole group staring at them as they all
gathered in the center of the rooms transport ring area.
     Jack asked surprised, "What happened?"
     Bryan and Hera looked sheepishly toward each other and held hands
indicating all was well between them.
     Jack frowned as he realized that their injuries had not come from
the enemy. The rings descended from the ceiling around them with a
reverberating mechanical noise, "What is it with you two, anyway?" Jack
asked. Then he called Jacob on his radio, "Jacob, Your ready?"
     Jacob's's voice came over the loud and clear, "All set, here we go."
     Nothing else could be said as the transport rings broke their
molecules down to subatomic particles and a streak of light flashed and
then they disappeared. The rings made a reverberating noise and one by
one they quickly rose up as if by magic into the ceiling.

***

     Aboard the Tok'Ra shuttle, Jack called over to Sam's father, "Jacob!
Lets go! We are out of time!"
     Jacob smiled and hit the correct sequence of buttons, "So you got to
the drive systems and the ship disabled, right?
     Jack smiled, "Nope."
     Jacob looked up and frowned, "Jack! You were supposed to disable the
ship! We can't outrun them!"
     "I know!" Jack yelled back. "Just drive will ya."
     Teal'c took his position and checked the instruments, "Heru'Ur's
ship is powering up and following us."
     Jack frowned, "Ya think?"
     Teal'c turned to his friend and commanding officer and said
stoically, "We are a vegetable, preserved in brine."
     Jack frowned a moment in thought, "That's "PICKLE", Teal'c, a were
in a pickle.". Jack mouthed the words as if that would help. Then a
thought came to him, "Wait! That was a joke, right?"
     Teal'c did not smile but nodded ever so slightly, Jack smiled and
slapped Teal'c shoulder with the back of his hand, "Nice." Jack smiled
gratefully.
     Jacob interrupted him, "Jack if you two are through horsing around
we're in big trouble."
     Jack shrugged flippantly, "Yeah, we don't have choice, lets go to
warp."
     Jacob turned around, "Warp? Do I look like Scotty to you?" 
     Jacob smiled and reached over to activate the hyper launch for
faster than light travel when the ship shook violently.
     Jacob called over his shoulder, "We're hit, but not too badly. Lucky
it was a glancing blow. All right hold on!" He activated hyper launch and
the ship received a pulse that rocked the ship as it entered
hyper-launch.
     Jack shook his fist, "Yeah."
     "We are not out of trouble yet O'Neill. It will not take long before
Heru'Ur outruns this vessel", Teal'c droned.
     Jacob's hand flashed over the screen, "What the hell?"
     "What?" Jack asked.
     "Heru'Ur's ship has stopped."
     "Wait its moving again." Heru'Ur's ship flashed past their little
shuttle and disappeared in the blink of the eye.
     Sam leaned over her fathers chair and observed the starscape as if
that would resolve the mystery, "Dad what happened?"
     Jacob sat perplexed and stared at the starscape, "I don't know? It
just out ran us and kept going..."
     Bryan and Hera sat on the floor in the back of the cockpit area and
laughed.
     Everyone turned to face them, "Bryan?" Daniel asked, "Do you know
something that we don't?"
     Bryan laughed so hard tears came to his eyes, "It went better than I
thought!" He said as he began laughing another round.
     Hera paused from her laughing, "Bryan found the computer room and
made a few changes."
     Teal'c asked, "Explain?"
     Bryan stopped laughing long enough to say, "I hacked into their
systems and "changed" a few things."
     Jack smirked, "Bryan, if your gonna tell me you uploaded a virus
into the mother ship I'm gonna smack you!" Apparently Jack saw the same
movie.
     Sam wondered, "You did, didn't you?"
     Bryan sobered momentarily, "I know how Colonel O'Neil feels about
clich‚'s so I would never do that."
     Jack nodded, "Good man. Now! What did you do?" Jack said in
exasperation.
     Bryan sat up and looked to Hera for support, who beamed back a wide
smile and nodded to him. "I didn't have a computer virus with me and I
knew I couldn't write one on the spot, I'm a hacker, not a programmer, so
I did something they never would have expected." He paused for emphasis,
"I redirected the subcommands for key systems."
     "What?" Starbuck said. Turning to Boomer; he asked, "Can't anyone
here speak plainly?"
     Boomer shrugged, "Got me."
     Sam tried to follow Bryan's techno-babble, "Your saying you didn't
destroy anything, you just renamed key systems? How would that work?"
     Bryan shrugged, "It's not that hard really." Bryan not realizing
what he considered simple was quantum leaps of logic and knowledge for
others. "See, I didn't change the names that a user would see, instead I
linked them to different sub-systems so when they tried to chase us, the
command was routed to fire control which shot at us, and when they tried
to fire on us..."
     Sam's eyebrows raised in excitement, "They would stop completely! My
God Bryan that's incredible!"
     Jack turned to Teal'c, "Are you getting any of this?"
     Teal'c raised his eyebrows but said nothing, indicating he was not
quite following either.
     Sam turned to Jack, "Sir, Sergeant Torres rerouted subcommands that
were inherently linked to vital systems. When he changed the linear path
of the data stream, it cross referenced other systems which created a
complex problem exponentially." Smiling she waited for Jack to show
understanding.
     Instead Jack felt increasingly uncomfortable, "We know that!" Then
he added just loud enough for Teal'c to hear, "I liked Torres explanation
better."
     Jacob frowned, "You know we're not safe yet. Once Heru'Ur realizes
what type of tampering was done, he'll simply reset the programming to
its default settings."
     Bryan shook his head, "I don't think so sir."
     "Why not?" Jack asked.
     "Because I added a batch file that..."
     Jack quickly raised his hand and put his forefinger and thumb an
inch apart and said, "Shh-shhh!"
     "But sir?" Bryan said, "I was just going to say..."
     "Shh-shhh!" Jack said again, "I swear Torres if you started babbling
again I'm sending you back home." He pointed to him in humor. "Tell me in
plain English, will ya?"
     Bryan smiled, "I programmed a batch file so that it would force
their computer to randomize the settings and essentially burned them into
the crystals. He'll have to replace every crystal and we'll be long gone
by the time he figures that out!"
     Jack's mouth dropped open, "So. What, you did upload a virus into
the mother ship?"
     Hera nudged Bryan with her elbow, "Come on! Tell him."
     Daniel looked incredulously at the others then back to the couple,
"You mean there's more?"
     Hera nodded enthusiastically, "Bryan also took some spare data
crystals that should give our scientists a quantum leap even to Earths
computer technology."
     Bryan pulled out the four crystals and waved them in the air. He
leaned close to Hera, "I was saving that for later."
     She made a funny face at him when Starbuck and Jack said in unison,
"Cut it out!"
     Sam asked Bryan, "Anything else you care to share with us Sergeant
Torres?"
     Bryan put the crystals back in his backpack and pulled out his
laptop and held it up for emphasis, "Just one thing. I downloaded a file
onto my laptop that should help us out a lot."
     Jack walked over and asked, "Such as?"
     Torres began, "I ran across the technical specifications of their
ships and these files were enormous. I had to choose between several
different files, and I anguished over which file..."
     "Torres!" Jack was clearly exasperated.
     Bryan didn't realize he was rambling, "Sir, I knew that the
Colonials could travel faster than light and have some powerful weapons
and realized we didn't need that, so I downloaded the schematics and
databases for shield technology and transport rings instead." He looked
up in all seriousness and deadpanned, "All of it."
     Everyone went silent as Bryan looked for Jack's understanding and
Jack stood motionless with his mouth wide open.
     Jack finally found his motor skills and pointed sharply at Bryan and
smiled widely, "That's it! Your going on every mission with us from now
on!"
     He rubbed Bryan's hair, mussing it up. Laughter filled the ship and
Jack pointed to Daniel, "Danny, looks like I got another favorite space
monkey!"

***

     Upon arrival, Cassiopeia waited by the door of the Tok'Ra shuttle
and with the help of med techs, O'Connor and Cree received medical
treatment on the spot.
     After a lengthy debriefing on the Galactica and with General Hammond
via Stargate, SG-1 returned to the Galactica for an awards ceremony. With
the new shield and ring transport technology both Earth and the Colonials
would be developing some powerful tools in their fight with the both the
Goa'ould and Cylons.

***

     Heru'Ur paced in his computer control room waiting on technicians to
replace the key crystals that the Tauri had tampered with. He seethed in
anger.
     "My lord", a technician named Rauool said.
     "You found something else?"
     "Yes, my lord. Apparently several maintenance crystals are missing."
Rauool hesitated.
     Heru'Ur frowned and his multi-voice reverberated threateningly,
"There's something else?"
     Rauool gulped rather sharply, "My lord, computer records show that
an unauthorized coping of two files occurred while the Tauri were here
sabotaging the systems."
     Heru'Ur's eyes glowed sharply, "WHAT TWO FILES?"
     Rauool trembled slightly and said, "Shields and the Transport Rings,
my lord."
     Heru'Ur, screamed so loud the other jaffa in the room backed up.
Finally Heru'Ur came to himself, "Lets see how useful that information
will be when we crush their cities into dust."
     Rauool thought he would soon be dead, but instead Heru'Ur smartly
turned around and left the computer control room.
     His parting words were, "This might be a problem."

***

     Bryan and Hera ducked out of the awards ceremony as soon as it was
fashionably acceptable. They walked hand in hand, silent and content with
each others company. They reached an intersection on the Battlestar and
stopped.
     They held each other and kissed openly, enjoying the freedom as two
"Colonial Warriors" off duty might.
     Hera paused as a crewman walked by smiling knowingly. She bit her
lower lip and nodded back to him. He rounded a corner and disappeared.
     Bryan looked around and asked, "Is there somewhere we could be alone
for awhile?"
     Hera shrugged, "I can think of only one place that would be quiet."
     Bryan smiled, "Lead the way."
     The pair walked hand in hand for several centons and passed several
sections of the engineering section. Bryan did not say anything but from
what he knew they were probably near the massive thrusters in the aft
section of the ship.
     Hera walked into an compartment that had rows of large hearing
protection on racks. She picked up two and handed him one.
     They put the hearing protection on and she led him for a full ten
centons through other compartments and up several ladders. When he
thought they could not go any further they reached a dead end.
     Bryan yelled over the thruster's noise, "Where to now?"
     She smiled, "What?"
     "WHERE TO NOW?" Bryan yelled.
     She shook her head, "I CAN"T HEAR YOU. WE HAVE TO GO UP THERE." She
pointed to a ladder.
     She lead the way and when she reached the top she pushed heavily
against a hatch. The sealed hatch made a vacuuming suction sound that no
one could hear over the noise of the Galactica's thrusters. It opened and
air hissed downward onto their faces.
     She climbed up the stairs and Bryan followed. Once he was out of the
hatch, Hera closed it and it sealed automatically and she pulled off her
hearing protection.
     Bryan followed suit. "That's better. Where are we?" He looked around
at the large chamber they were in. The domed chamber like everywhere else
on the ship was surrounded by metal. The room was circular in shape with
a hand rail beside the hatch. Beyond the rail was a cluster of unknown
electronic equipment and monitors. It sported a single barber style
chair. The walls lining the room held equipment with different colored
lights either blinking or burning brightly.
     She smiled, "This is a Celestial Chamber. The only one left on the
Galactica."
     Seeing that Bryan had no clue as to what she was saying she
elaborated, "Five hundred yahren ago the Galactica had several of these
chambers all over."
     "What were they for?" he asked.
     "Navigational fix, primarily. Our scanning equipment was not
sophisticated back then and technicians would double check the scanners
readouts manually."
     Bryan nodded, "Why is it still here then?"
     "This one was missed by the refit when it was updated five hundred
yahren ago." 
     Bryan looked around wondering if he would be able to play with the
equipment later, "It looks like it still works."
     "My father discovered it a long time ago and refurbished it so that
everything works now. He used to take me here when I was younger and now
its my private space, no one really comes here anymore. Its my little
secret. My father once told me it made him feel as if he was riding in
the "Hand of God"."
     Bryan nodded, "Hmmmn."
     She took his hands and leaned up and kissed him slowly at first and
after a few moments they increased the pace.
     Soon they found themselves panting for breath. Hera rubbed his nose
with hers. Something her father had done when she was little and it
somehow seemed right.
     Hera paused, "Oh! I nearly forgot!"
     "What?" Bryan asked.
     Hera sat down on the barber style chair and started flipping
buttons. Instruments came to life and pictures and the static of sound
also. She flipped a last switch and the domed roof of metal split apart
like a flower opening its petals to space.
     Bryan nearly fell backwards as the awe inspiring view of space
opened to the couple.
     Bryan turned his head and circled looking out at the glass like
substance that separated them from the icy cold of space.
     "Uh, Hera, is this safe? I mean will that glass hold?"
     Hera smiled, "Don't worry, it's made of pure Tylieum. Its very
strong and its been in place for hundreds of yahren."
     Bryan reached up as if to touch the surface, but it was over twelve
feet above his head. An impossible task. He asked absently, "Tylieum?"
     "Yes," Hera said.
     "But I thought that was your fuel source, how?"
     "It's a derivative of the mineral." Then she asked hopeful, "Bryan,
do you like it?"
     Bryan smiled and exhaled, "Whew! I love it. It's absolutely
beautiful." He said absently.
     Hera beamed a smile toward him, pleased that he appreciated it as
much as she did. A thought occurred to her about the first time she had
said the same thing about Colorado back on Earth and how Bryan had
unwittingly revealed what he thought about her. She smiled at that, "Like
you." She said.
     Bryan paused in recognition after they first met and smiled at the
reference and slowly turned, "Excuse me?"
     Hera bit her lower lip and came to him playing along, "Did I say
that out loud?"
     Bryan nodded conspiratorially, "I appreciate your honesty but we
need to work on your method of delivery."
     Hera giggled, "Come here!" she said.
     Their lips found one another again as they embraced.
     Above, stars twinkled from untold distances away, silent testament
to the love they shared.
     An occasional viper streaked by the Galactica's superstructure
oblivious to the couple below it.

***
Log entry by Commander Apollo...

"Fleeing from the Cylon Tyranny, the Battlestar Galactica, has led a
rag-tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest...we have at last found the
shining planet known as EARTH!"

End of Part 3
By SG07

"The Thirteenth Colony" series will be continued in the sequel: Part IV -
The Last Stand


TITLE: WARCRY (v1.0) 
SERIES: #3 in the "The Thirteenth Colony" series.
BEGAN: January 27, 2003 
REVISED: March 21, 2004
AUTHOR: SG07
CO-AUTHOR: N/A
E-MAIL: SG07@ATT.NET
CATEGORY: Crossover with the Battlestar Galactica universe
DISCLAIMER: Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate
(II) Productions, SCI-FI Channel/Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret
Productions, and Gekko Productions. 

This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged
hands, nor will it ever be sold for any profit. No copyright infringement
is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the
property of the respective authors. All unrecognized characters and plot
lines are mine and copyright protection is reserved and claimed. Any
resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. 

This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

Battlestar Galactica is a trademark of Studio USA; and/or Universal
Studios, created by Glen A. Larson, and does not belong to me either. 

THE NOTICE FOLLOWING THE SUMMARY AND DEDICATION MUST ACCOMPANY THIS
STORY, IF DISTRIBUTED.