Battlestar Argo
by AJ Marks
Part 53: The Cylon Rumors
Ares waited on the hangar of the Argo for General Pakrov to arrive. The shuttle had landed and the door opened to allow the Russian born general onto the deck.
“Welcome on board the Argo general,” Ares said, walking up to the man.
“Commander Ares, glad to be here,” Pakrov replied.
“The ground forces will be a welcomed relief for my forces,” Ares said.
“I bet, any new attacks,” Pakrov asked.
“No, we know where the nearby Arbus base is and are keeping an eye on it,” Ares said. “The patrol ship keeps in contact at a regular interval.”
“What should I tell Captain Jones his mission is,” Pakrov said.
“Well, we have not seen any Arbus since we captured the planet but we are not sure yet,” Ares said. “Basically they are to patrol the area in sweeps to make sure that the Abus have left. With the threat of another attack I don’t want my pilots sitting on the ground.”
“I understand,” Pakrov said. “I’ll let him know right away.”
“Good, how are things back home,” Ares asked.
“Going well. Commander Peter asked me a question that is lingering in the back of my mind. Is it approaching the time to tell more people about the Cylons?”
“It’s something I’ve been asking myself as well,” Ares said. “I don’t know to be honest with you. I know that we should start something.”
“Hmm, I was thinking about it on the way over here. What if you just start telling those in the military? If it leaks out don’t deny it but don’t confirm it either,” Pakrov said.
“It’s risky, I’ve been watching your society closely in the past couple of years. It seems that your people have a way to turn what is right, into wrong, and making the villain the hero. That’s a risk we cannot take with the Cylons,” Ares said. “Too much is at risk and I’m not sure that some will understand.”
“I know,” Pakrov said.
“Tell Commander Peter that I’m thinking about it and I am taking any suggestion,” Ares said.
“Good, he’ll be glad to hear that,” Pakrov said. “I’ll go and tell Captain Jones his mission.”
*****
Troy watched as Bri and Nall continued on their way down the pathway. So far they had not discovered anything which was fine with him. The noise of an approaching shuttle caught his attention and he glanced over to see the shuttle coming in for a landing.
Troy walked over to where the shuttle landed as the door opened allowing the ground forces out. The leader of the group glanced around noticing him and walked towards him.
“Captain Jones, here to relieve the pilots for ground duty,” Jones said.
“Captain Troy, and we’re glad to see you,” Troy said.
“Been busy,” Jones asked as the rest of the group got out of the shuttle.
“Nope, been pretty boring actually,” Troy said.
“Let me get my men organized and we’ll talk some more about what’s been going on,” Jones said.
“All right, I’ll let Keela know that you have arrived,” Troy said. “You’ll be working closely with him. So far none of the clone Skartians have given us any trouble. They are hard workers and learn easily.”
“What level of security do they require,” Jones asked.
“Just watching, so far they’ve done nothing else,” Troy said.
“Ah, good the real ground troops are here,” Nall said as he and Bri walked up. “I feel safer in the cockpit of a viper than I do out here.”
“Not me,” Jones said remembering his talk with Pakrov. “Nothing to hide behind.”
“I like you,” Nall said smiling. “Usually ground personal think we’re babies or some such nonsense.”
“I did until I had a talk with General Pakrov,” Jones said. “He opened my eyes a bit. You may have a bit more luxuries but at least I don’t have to worry about my oxygen leaking out in the middle of a fight.”
“So true,” Nall said. “Well captain, we’ll see you back on the Argo.”
“All right,” Troy said turning back to Jones.
“Sounds like he’s seen ground combat,” Jones said.
“He has, and many of us don’t like it,” Troy said as they began walking to the main building.
“Does it have anything to do with something called Cylons,” Jones said. “I did a lot of research on things and some things just don’t add up.”
“It’s classified,” Troy said.
“That’s what I kept hearing. But a rumor is that the Argo didn’t come from Earth and now the way some of you act really makes me wonder,” Jones said.
“You want the truth, fine, the Cylons are really a race of machines bent on destroying all of humankind,” Troy said. “The Argo came to Earth to gain help from the humans of Earth.”
“The humans of Earth, sounds like there are other planets of humans out there,” Jones said.
“Twelve homeworlds and several other colonies. Earth is the Thirteenth tribe of Kobal,” Troy said. “It seems that the Arbus have wiped all memory of Kobal from your history. We came looking for Earth because we are losing the war against the Cylons.”
Jones stopped and looked at Troy. “I’m not sure if you’re insulting my intelligence, telling the truth or what,” he said.
“I will tell you, what matters is the Arbus,” Troy said not adding that things could change real quick if the Colonies fell.
“Right,” Jones said as they entered the building. Troy could tell that the man would be thinking about it for a while now.
*****
Nall landed on the Argo behind Bri. She waited for him to reach the elevator of the hanger which would take them to the flight room.
“Troy said that you got a message from Rebecca in the last batch of messages,” she said to him.
“Yeah, I haven’t had time to look at it,” Nall said. “Been down on the planet. It’s the first thing I’m doing when we reach the pilots room.”
“Good, I didn’t want to have to torture you for ignoring her,” Bri said.
They exited the elevator making their way to the monitors. Nall activated the screen and waited as the message loaded. Rebecca and Mary appeared on the screen.
“Hey, just wanted to let you know what’s been going on here. I’ve settled in to the house, the neighbors are nice. Mary has decided to not let me sleep at night but she’s allowing me to sleep enough and I sleep when she naps as well,” Rebecca said on the message.
Nall listened to the rest of the message thinking about what he would reply back with. A brief thought of him watching his wife and child went thought his mind. If someone had told him this before he started this mission to Earth he would have said they were crazy. Now it didn’t seem so crazy at all.
“She’s got your eyes and Becca’s nose,” Bri said.
“You think,” Nall said turing to her.
“Yep,” Bri siad.
“With my eyes she’ll be a heart breaker for sure,” he said. “No guy better want to touch her.”
Bri started to laugh at that. He turned to her to see what he found so funny.
“It’s just you making that one-eighty turn around,” she said. “It’s interesting to see happen.”
“Thanks,” Nall said as he turned to record the message back. Bri said hi for her and Troy. Nall wondered when the Argo would be heading back to Earth.
*****
Pratt stood on the bridge of the Daedalus as the latest reports from the Skartian homeworld came in. The ground troops had arrived and the Skartians were busy building a small base to house a defense force on. The First fleet would not be there forever as it had other missions to undertake.
“Commander, incoming ship,” the scanner operator said.
Pratt turned to look at the scanner as it began to run though the identification process. He hoped it did not stop on an Arbus ship but prepared himself. The scanner flashed a second later as it finished the identification. Pratt wondered what the Colonial Bound was doing back so soon.
“It’s the Colonial Bound, but she’s not scheduled back until a couple more months,” the scanner operator said.
“I know, raise to yellow alert, have all vipers ready to launch,” Pratt said. “Helm plot an intercept course and engage.”
The crew raced around as the ship went to a yellow alert. The Daedalus broke orbit and headed towards the Colonial Bound.
“Incoming message.”
“Put it though up here,” Pratt replied. He felt a bit of relief at the sight of Gunther.
“Commander, sorry for returning so soon but we found something I think you should know about,” Gunther said.
“I’ll come aboard and take a look,” Pratt said.
“I’ll be waiting for you then commander,” Gunther said.
“Prepare a shuttle” Pratt said heading off the bridge and towards the hangar bay
*****
Gunther watched as the shuttle landed on the small hanger area of the Colonial Bound. The door opened and Commander Pratt stepped out. His curiosity about why Pratt was here, and not Ares, had been aroused, but figured he would learn about that later.
“Welcome aboard commander,” Gunther said.
“Thank you captain,” Pratt said. “And you as well Captain Scott,” he said to the older man.
“Aye, welcome aboard laddie,” Scott replied. “Ah think we’ve got something that you’ll be glad to hear.”
“This way commander and we’ll get started,” Gunther said leading the group away from the small hanger.
Gunther led them to the small room where they could talk more comfortably.
“Now,” Pratt said sitting down “what was so important that you had to come back?”
“This,” Gunther said bringing up a screen. The screen held the image of several ships, about half of which were Arbus warships the other half an unknown ship.
“Who are they,” Pratt asked.
“Well after the battle we closed in to see. It appears that the group they were fighting were Arbus as well,” Gunther said.
“Arbus,” Pratt replied not sure he heard right.
“Yep, Arbus,” Gunther replied. “It appears that the Arbus are at Civil war with each other or a long-lost group trying to reclaim power.”
“There’s no way to know which side is the right one to contact either,” Pratt said.
“Right,” Gunther said. “We only know that they are fighting but nothing else beside that. I wanted to give you the information in case you came across any of the ships. I want to head back and see if I can gather more information about what is going on.”
“I’ll contact Ares and see what he says about this,” Pratt said.
“All right. That will allow us time to resupply the ships and transfer some new people on board,” Gunther said.
“Yeah, it’s been over a year. Some of them will want to go home and see the changes on Earth. I also know that some of us want to know how things are going back home as well,” Gunther said.
“Nothing much has happened since you were there,” Pratt replied. “It will take a while to contact Commander Ares but go on ahead and begin your resupply. Anything else to report.”
“Just that our clone on board seems to be acting a bit strangely. It’s like he knows he has a mission but just doesn’t want to do it or something like that,” Gunther said.
“Could it be a danger to the ship,” Pratt asked.
“I don’t think so,” Gunther said. “He’s been like that ever since we visited the Colonies. It’s like he’s noticing that there is a bigger universe out there than the Arbus.”
“Could be a good thing captain,” Pratt said.
“I guess so,” Gunther replied. They got up and walked out of the room to wait on Commander Ares’ reply.
*****
Keela walked into the room where Ares and a few others sat. He recognized General Pakrov and Captain Troy but not the other man. He assumed that the other man would be the one in charge of the new Earth ground forces.
“Welcome Governor Keela, how are things going,” Ares said.
“Better than I had hoped,” Keela replied. “I group of us have started work on the latest hatchery.”
“Good news then,” Ares replied.
“Very,” Keela said as he sat down with the rest of the group.
“Governor this is Captain Jones, he will be in charge of the ground forces here for as long as you require them,” Ares said introducing the man to Keela.
“I am sorry that I could not meet with you sooner but unexpected developments happen,” Keela said.
“Understandable governor,” Jones said back. “It must be tough to rebuild an entire civilization.”
“It might be without help,” Keela replied. “With your help and what had survived aboard our ship its proving easier than we thought. Things just take time to build and train people on.”
“Anything new on the surface in regards to Arbus activity,” Ares asked.
“No, it’s been quiet commander,” Keela answered handing a paper over to him.
“I see, then it should be an easy assignment captain,” Ares said glancing at Jones.
“I won’t say so until it’s over commander,” Jones said. “Don’t want to jinx it.”
Troy laughed at that thought. “So true,” he said.
“All right, now here is why I’ve called you all here. The Colonial Bound returned early. It discovered something quite exciting,” Ares said activating the screen. Everyone glanced at it to see a ship appear. “This is a new unknown ship that appears to be fighting the Arbus. Captain Gunther decided to get closer and found out that the crew of this ship is Arbus as well. The thought is that the Arbus Empire is at Civil war with itself but we do not know.”
“That would be an interesting development,” Troy said from where he sat.
“Indeed, but we don’t know how much is true or not,” Ares said. “Being Arbus I am not sure we can trust them.”
Keela sat there in silence for a few moments listening to the latest news. He thought that the latest news about the Arbus brought some new information about them. Part of him wondered what else they would discover about the aliens. So far they knew that the race was very reluctant to be captured to the point they committed suicide to prevent it. The next part included a desire to keep other races below their technology level. It seemed that the only reason the Arbus attacked was when a race showed signs of being able to operate in space.
“To be honest people I’m not sure if this news is something new with the Arbus or this has been going on for years or longer,” Ares said to the group. They all nodded their heads.
“So what are we to do about it then,” Keela asked.
“With the new information I’m sending the Colonial Bound back out to gather more information. They just might stumble on what is really happening out there,” Ares replied. “For now we secure the planet and continue on the plan we had.”
The group agreed leaving the room.
*****
Pratt reviewed the message from Ares just to make sure that he did not miss anything. The ground forces had made it all right to the planet. So far everything had sailed smoothly. The Colonial Bound would head out again to gather more information on what was happening inside Arbus space. Pratt looked over to Gunther who did not seem surprised by the news.
“Well, it seems that I’m going to be spending the least amount of time here at Earth of all of us,” Gunther said.
“Looks that way,” Pratt replied. “Good luck though. I have a feeling that you’re not going to need it though.”
“I’m not, such a nice thing to say,” Gunther said.
“No, I have a feeling that we are,” Pratt replied.
“Well then, I’ll wish you good luck,” Gunther said with a smile.
“Ha-ha,” Pratt said smiling as well. He got up with Gunther and walked out of the office and onto the bridge of the Daedalius.
“At least I just have one ship to take care of and not several,” Gunther said.
“Yep, though you either lose your hair, or it turns white,” Pratt replied. “Looks like you’ve started that process already.”
“Very funny,” Gunther said rubbing his hair. True his hair was thinning but he was not about to say it was because of the job.
“Personally I would rather not have my hair, one more thing to take care of,” Pratt said.
“Only you would say that,” Gunther said. A report from the Colonial Bound indicated that the resupply had been completed along with the transfers.
“Oh, one last thing, Captain Scott is being transferred on Ares’ order,” Pratt said.
“Sounds fine to me,” Gunther said. “Where’s he going?”
“Head of the transportation fleet,” Pratt replied. “We’ve got four ships now including the Hermes.”
“He should feel right at home then,” Gunther said.
*****
Bri walked down the hallway to the pilot’s briefing room. The latest report from the Arbus’ base had come back. Now she thought that Commander Ares would be thinking up his next phase in the plan.
Walking in she noticed that Nall had already arrived along with Troy. Walking over to where they were she noticed that Jax had joined them as well. Commander Ares had not come in yet but most of the pilots had arrived already.
“Hey, I see you made it,” Nall said to Bri as she walked up.
“Good things come to those who wait,” Bri replied.
“I know, I’m still waiting,” Nall replied.
“Won’t happen,” Bri said. “Get your mind out of the gutter, pervert.”
“Hey, I can wish. A Christmas present?”
“No,” Bri said giving Nall a playful shove.
“All right, thank you all for coming,” Ares said walking into the room. “I’m sure that many of you have heard the latest rumors from Earth. The truth is we do not know what is going on with the Arbus. The only thing we know is that they are fighting each other. What each side wants we do not know.”
Bri glanced over at Troy who seemed to already know what the Commander said. He had been in a meeting with the commander just about all morning. She also learned that General Pakrov, Captain Jones of the ground forces and the new Governor Keela also were in attendance.
“The decision has been made to continue with the plan. We are going to strike the Arbus base,” he told the group. “Green squad will take the role of bombers in the first wave. Red squad will provide cover for them until the ordnance has been delivered. Both squads will be launched before we are within range of the base. The Argo and Tiger will take a different path to the base. I hope to get them looking the other direction when we attack.”
Bri listened to the plan. So far things sounded well planned. She wondered what might go wrong with this mission and decided that way too many things could go wrong.
“That is the basic plan, once we are engaged then I’ll give more instructions but for now assume that the vipers engage the enemy fighters. If no fighters are present then they are to attack any enemy ship in the area. Any questions?”
Bri glanced around to see if her pilots understood the mission. It seemed fairly straight forward to her. A brief thought occurred to her though.
“Commander, we’re going to be launching away from the battle that will cause us to burn a large proportion of fuel before starting the fight. What is the plan for that,” Bri asked.
“I thought about that,” Ares said. “I think when we start to engage the Tiger will launch Gold squad. When you feel you need to refuel and rearm head to the Argo. I don’t know how long the engagement will last though. Everyone has their assignment and I expect everyone to work as one.”
They all acknowledge that. They were told that the fleet would head out tomorrow after the latest report from the Fire Ant. Ares walked out of the room to head back to the bridge.
Troy walked up to the front of the room.
“Everyone knows what they need to do. Now to set any rumors straight. Many of you have heard that the Arbus are at civil war with themselves. This is unconfirmed at the moment. The Colonial Bound returned to Earth with information about a battle that occurred deep in the Arbus Empire. The battle observed appeared to be between two groups of Arbus forces. We barely understand the enemy we’re fighting now so we don’t even know what side this other Arbus group would be. Until further information is found we continue on our path,” Troy told the group.
The group broke up to prepare for battle. Nall and Bri walked over to where Troy stood. They would have to know when the attack would take place.
“Hey, so what is going on,” Jax said walking up to the group.
“Not too much,” Bri replied. “We were going to head on over to the cafeteria and grab a bite to eat while we can.”
“Sounds good to me,” Jax said.
*****
Ares walked onto the bridge waiting for the latest report to come in from the Fire Ant. The general walked up next to him.
“So, what happens after this attack,” the general asked.
“I’m heading to Alpha One,” Ares said. “I’m still trying to convince the Arbus that the base is our main one.”
“Ah, and heading there after the attack might convince them,” Pakrov said.
“Yes, this attack will be more of a hit and run type of attack. I want to leave some ships so they can report back to their headquarters,” Ares said.
“Sounds a bit risky,” Pakrov replied.
“I know, but I’m hoping that the rewards outweigh the risk,” Ares said. He glanced out the window where the Tiger could be seen. It would be a risk and he would be risking the fleet in a gamble. But he felt that he had to gamble to figure out just what the enemy had. They had been at war for several years now and almost nothing to show for it.
“How are you going to give the illusion of a large fleet,” Pakrov asked.
“A hologram,” Ares said. “Our good Doctor Weaver has perfected the technology even more. We can make an illusion of ships in areas where they are not giving us an advantage.”
“Won’t that leave the Skartian home world unguarded?”
“I’ve thought about that and think the risk is worth it,” Ares said.
“All right, good luck,” Pakrov said.
*****
Ares walked onto the bridge waiting for the latest report to come in from the Fire Ant. The general walked up next to him.
“So, what happens after this attack,” the general asked.
“I’m heading to Alpha One,” Ares said. “I’m still trying to convince the Arbus that the base is our main one.”
“Ah, and heading there after the attack might convince them,” Pakrov said.
“Yes, this attack will be more of a hit and run type of attack. I want to leave some ships so they can report back to their headquarters,” Ares said.
“Sounds a bit risky,” Pakrov replied.
“I know, but I’m hoping that the rewards outweigh the risk,” Ares said. He glanced out the window where the Tiger could be seen. It would be a risk and he would be risking the fleet in a gamble. But he felt that he had to gamble to figure out just what the enemy had. They had been at war for several years now and almost nothing to show for it.
“How are you going to give the illusion of a large fleet,” Pakrov asked.
“A hologram,” Ares said. “Our good Doctor Weaver has perfected the technology even more. We can make an illusion of ships in areas where they are not giving us an advantage.”
“Won’t that leave the Skartian home world unguarded?”
“I’ve thought about that and think the risk is worth it,” Ares said.
“All right, good luck,” Pakrov said.
End part 53