Second Face of Evil
by AJ Marks
Part 4
Admiral John White hoped David would return from Mars in time to help out with the protection of Earth. The situation this time was different than before. There were two large small moon sized ships they would need to take care of this time.
John heard David found some new alien discovery on Mars which had his attention. John had no idea about that, only that he knew other aliens were out there thanks to their new allies. Of course the Cylons were a different type of threat if he took Starbuck’s words as truth.
Some days John hated being in charge and having to make the tough decisions which could ultimately decide victory or defeat. He had to consider all options and what to ignore in order to get the mission done and now that mission was to ensure the survival of Earth.
The fleet was at full strength, all ships manned and stations. He turned at the sound of the door opening and a familiar face walked into the room.
“Admiral,” David said making his way over to where John stood and shook his hand.
“Glad to see you David,” John replied honestly motioning towards the seats and sat down himself. “Not sure what you’ve heard, but the aliens are back and here is their current course and what we know.”
“How do you know that, the scanners are not that accurate,” David replied.
“Have you been keeping up with the latest events?” John asked wondering if he missed the whole event with their newest allies.
“No, but then again on Mars there’s a lot of exciting things going on,” David replied with a bit of excitement. “Reminds me a bit of when the aliens first came.”
“Not sure I like that,” John said, thinking about it for a second. “You have any theories about this?”
“Not yet.”
“Right now, we’ve got a real threat on our hands, two of these blasted mother ship headed our way,” John said to him. “We were lucky to destroy one, but two. The only consolation is only one is entering the system.”
“The only thing I’ve noticed, they are almost primitive in their military strategy, overwhelming force,” David said.
“And with their technology they can afford to do that,” John replied. “We don’t know how well our new technology will far against theirs.”
“The virus might only work once, and that’s only if they haven’t changed their communications too much,” David said.
“The virus won’t affect our ships?” John asked, always worried about that part.
“Built in virus protection is designed to block the aliens from infecting our ships. Its doubtful we’ll lose our shields,” David replied back to him.
“That would give us a tactical advantage,” John said. “We don’t have much choice at the moment.”
“We’ve done everything we could to prepare for this day,” David said to him. “How is Steve doing?”
John thought about how the President was handling things before answering. “Got his hands full, that’s for sure. The council, our new visitors, and now this, wouldn’t want to be him,” John answered.
“Sometimes it is easier to be the scientist,” David replied.
“Anything you can think of right now that we can use?” John asked him. They might have missed something.
“No, we can only wait and see if this works,” David said.
The government had spent the last twenty years working to make sure a repeat of last time did not happen. They were more advanced this time, but were they strong enough? Only time would tell.
*****
The people on board the observation station near Saturn watched as the large ship slowly made it way past. Several smaller ships kept pace with the mothership as it continued its path into the system and towards Earth. The aliens made no move to even acknowledge they were there.
The crews of the ship were mostly too young to remember the first encounter with the aliens. Many of the older members, the leaders could remember, some even fought against them. From them a determination radiated out filling the crew to succeed in their mission.
Others kept a close eye on the remaining large ship outside the system. It was an unknown but they knew it would not be able to move fast enough to help out during the battle. But what they lacked in speed they made up for in firepower.
The mothership slowly approached the spot they choice for the upcoming battle. Far enough away from Earth to allow them time if they failed and to prevent the second ship from interfering. The main fleet waited in the asteroid belt for the approaching ship. Everyone hoped the plan worked.
*****
Admiral White exited the shuttle and stepped onto the hangar of the Pacifica. He easily saw the preparations for the upcoming battle. He knew they would not be able to penetrate the alien ship easily this time as they had the first time. If they could then a single nuclear missile would be enough to destroy the mothership. The wreckage of the first ship indicated massive armor and shields and the best way was to strike from the inside.
Behind him David walked off onto the ship carrying a laptop designed for this battle. One of the miricles of the first invasion had been so many intelligent computer people survived. They teamed up and with what was left of the IT companies designed the latest computers to use against the aliens. They also developed a wi-fi type system to remotely connect to the aliens computers.
David made his way to the command center where he would be stationed for the upcoming battle. He hoped their technological advantage with viruses would be enough still. They created some viruses which, they hoped, would create chaos in the alien fleet to give the fighters an advantage.
Walking into the command center he glanced around before heading to his spot. There would be several other IT people alongside him, all working in unison to help give the fleet an advantage. He knew in a couple of hours he would be working to help destroy an alien ship. David was not too worried about destroying a mothership, the second one concerned him. It all revolved around how much damage the fleet took in the battle.
“David, what’s up?’ a voice said from behind him. He looked up to see a familiar person walking towards him.
“Dylan, fine, working on Mars, how are you?” David replied to the now grown young man. He had met Dylan during the first battle, and was the son, well adoptive son of the current President and followed in his father’s footsteps as a fighter pilot.
“I missed out on the earlier action against the Cylons,” Dylan replied.
“You didn’t miss much from what I read, but now we’ve got the real thing, the reason for why these ships were built and you were trained for,” David said. At least he did nto feel motion sick on the spaceship.
“I know,” Dylan replied. “It’s strange, I’m nervous yet I feel so calm at the same time.”
“If its any comfort, I felt like throwing up before I took off with your father heading to the mothership, of course his doing barrel-rolls didn’t help,” David said recalling that flight.
“Yeah, but you get airsick easily,” Dylan said, a running joke with all of David’s friends and family.
“Yeah yeah, but your father, he was calm as well, a brave front, but we were both scared we’d never come back,” David stated.
“Really?”
“Yeah, he was afraid he would come back to you and your mom. The worst was that moment before we fired the missile knowing we couldn’t get away. When we fired the missile it dislodged us and he got us out,” David said recalling that hectic moment.
“Never knew that,” Dylan stated. “Learn something every day. Well I better get going.”
“I look forward to talking with you after the battle,” David said, turning then remembering something. “Wait,” he called out before taking a cigar out of his pack and handing it to Dylan. “Here.”
“What’s this?” Dylan asked, confused.
“It’s your victory cigar, but you only light it after the fat lady sings, a tradition your father had on missions,” David said.
He watched Dylon look thoughtful before pocketing the cigar. “Thanks,” he said then walked off leaving David to turn back to the computers, his own cigar in his pocket.
*****
Tigh paced back and forth on the bridge of the Galactica. The fleet moved into the asteroid belt for cover and protection. He felt that two battlestars might not be enough to fight off what was approaching the planet. The two ships were huge and the largest mobile spaceships he ever saw.
“Commander,” Omega said gaining Tigh’s attention from his thoughts.
“What’s up Omega?’ Tigh asked, looking at his colonel.
“The battle is about to begin,” he said. “What are you orders?”
Tigh took several seconds to consider the scanners. He knew one ship had entered the system and the other remained outside. The ship inside was approaching what Starbuck said was a trap laid out by the Earthers. The plan was simple, send a computer virus over to the enemy which would disable their shields and give them the advantage. However, if the shields did not go down then the plan could become a problem.
“Get me Apollo,” Tigh finally said after several moment of thought. He waited a few micron before Apollo appeared on the monitor.
“Commander, what’s up?” Apollo asked.
“Apollo, I want you to take the Pegasus and make for a point closest to the enemy ship, yet remain in the asteroid belt to monitor the battle. If it looks like they could use our help I give you permission to lend it. They helped us in our battle against the Cylons to do nothing, I can’t do that,” Tigh said to him. “I trust your judgment in this.”
“I will, and I was wondering if you might order something like this,” Apollo said, a grin on his face.
“Take care and good luck. Remember, the Cylons are still out there somewhere,” Tigh said to him.
“Our long rang scanners are still operational, we’ll keep an eye out for them. And if we clear the asteroid belt it allows us an unhindered view,” Apollo said. “I’ll be careful.”
“Good,” Tigh said, ending the communications. He hoped they were able to help, or their help was not even needed.
End part 4