The Uneasy Alliance
by AJ Marks
Part 13
John quickly became irritated by the constant questioning of the group he was leading and wished he had said no to Turner. He knew the way to eth surface, having been there several times especially during the war as a spy. He had gone up a few times in the past year mostly for recon to check on the machines, who appeared to be doing their own thing.
What annoyed him the most was some in the group wanting to go the wrong direction thinking it would be quicker when he knew they were dead ends. The only real salvation was the fact a few others had been navigators on ships and knew John was right. They knew the way around a bit, but were used to things going faster instead of walking around the tunnels.
“Just admit it John, you have no clue where we are going,” Todd said to him causing John to turn to face him.
“There is no quick way to the surface. We blocked most of the access points to the surface during the war to avoid an invasion. That and the tunnels we left open were easily defendable,” John replied back to him before turning back around and freezing at what he saw in front of him.
He did not expect to see a man they had never seen before standing there in front of him. John blinked at the man who appeared to be wearing a brown uniform and looking at them in return. The man held a weapon and it seemed similar to the one John had seen with the robot when Morpheus and Link had returned.
They all looked at each other for several seconds causing John to wonder what was going on before he finally decided to break the silence. Someone had to why not try to be peaceful.
“Um, I’m John, who are you?” John asked, moving up a bit taking the man’s focus but the man was obviously a soldier by the way he didn’t take his eyes of anyone else.
“Name’s Boomer,” the man replied back to him. “Why did you attack me?”
The question caught John off guard.
“Attack you? I’m not sure what you mean,” John answered wondering what had happened on the surface of the planet, and was Boomer part of the group attacking the machines on the surface.
He watched boomer hesitate for several seconds, the weapon wavered a bit as he thought about the situation. “I was flying a patrol when I entered your atmosphere and was attacked by this flying machines which tore my fighter apart.”
“By flying machines I assume you mean something which looked a bit like an octopus with several arms,” John asked figuring that he was attacked by Sentinels.
“Not sure what an octopus is, but they did have a lot of arms and small bodies,” Boomer replied back giving John the description he needed and then wondered if he was part of the group attacking the machines, he would have to be careful.
“Then you’re behind the attacks on the machine city,” John replied watching what Boomer did next.
“What attacks?” Boomer replied back, sounding very confused.
“You’ve been attacking the machines on the surface from beyond the clouds, so you must have left while the war was still going on,” John said trying to sort out the confusion.
“Not sure about that, but we are fleeing from some machines that attacked us,” Boomer replied.
“What do you mean flee from the machines, if that’s the case then you’ve returned right back where you started,” John said his confusion growing by the answers he was getting from the man.
“No, unless this is the colonies and we’ve somehow gone through a wormhole or something,” Boomer replied back sounding very confident in his answer.
“What a second,” Melissa said stepping forward having listened to the conversation. “I’m Melissa, we’re from Zion.”
“Lieutenant Boomer, from the Battlestar Galactica,” he replied back to her. It was a place none of them had ever heard of before, nor did they even know what a battlestar was.
“Battlestar Galactica?” John asked wanting to make sure what Boomer said was correct before saying anything else.
“Yeah, but I’d be surprised if you ever heard of it before, we’re not from around here,” Boomer replied back to him.
“John, he might be the one who can convince the council that there is life in space, and if he does that then he might be able to help Morpheus as well, especially if he’s telling the truth,” Melissa whispered to him. He looked at her then back at the rest of the group.
“I can’t escort him back to Zion and led you to the surface,” John said to them.
“I can make it back,” Melissa said to him.
“Are you sure?” John asked, wanting to make sure about it.
“Yeah,” Melissa replied.
“All right,” he said turning back to Boomer. “We have an underground city, not far away, Melissa will take you back there, maybe you can help us out as well. Unfortunately the rest of us have a mission to carry out.”
“All right,” Boomer said.
John watched as the two walked away in the opposite direction and he didn’t envy their welcome when they arrived back at Zion. The way the council had been acting lately he doubted anyone could get through to them.
He directed the rest of the group on forward as they continued on in silence as each of them silently went over what just happened. They all had questions and few answers anymore. He hoped they might get some upon reaching the surface, like who Boomer really was, and he hoped he had not sent the enemy to their city.
*****
The Oracle walked around her kitchen as she mixed the ingredients for her latest batch of cookies. She enjoyed cooking, it was something that allowed her to try and find the perfect mix of ingredients without the help of the Matrix. Some other programs would have the Matrix do it for them, but she liked to guess, the uncertainty of it all was exciting.
She understood some dangerous times were coming, for everyone. Both the machines and humans in and out of the Matrix were at risk. She only wished she knew how dangerous the threat really was to them all. Deux Ex had kept her up to date with what was going on. Some humans had volunteered to help out, but there was some reluctance among them, with the biggest group apparently coming from their government.
Human help was essential in this war, she knew this, and that the war could be lost before it even began with their help. She failed to understand how the human government would allow billions of humans to die in this new war. She looked up as a sound indicating she was no longer alone.
She turned around to see Sereph who had entered the room along with another couple who she recognized right away, and felt relieved to see.
“Welcome,” she said turning back to the pan of cookies. “Cookie?” she said handing them one. “We have much to do.”
*****
Athena watched her scanner having taken over for Rigel at the moment. She frowned seeing that only one fighter was headed back to the fleet and she noticed it was flying about as fast as it could. She turned gaining the attention of Colonel Tigh who was sitting close by.
“Colonel,” she finally said gaining his attention causing him to stand and head over to where she was.
“What’s up?’ he asked reaching her station and looking down at her.
“We have only one fighter returning from patrol,” Athena replied knowing how it would sound, but she also knew such things could be the difference between life and death.
“Not good,” Tigh replied doing some musing before heading to the communicator and hailing the commander.
They all waited a bit before Adama appeared on the bridge to take control of the situation and Tigh quickly brought him up to date with the approaching viper.
“Is there anything else on the scanners?” Adama asked, as they all looked over at Athena.
“No father,” Athena replied, a bit relieved that she didn’t see anything else. “And we have no sign of jamming from the direction of the system they were patrolling.”
“Thank you Athena,” Adama said turning to Tigh and heading back to the center of the bridge.
“Should we alert the other pilots?’ Tigh asked looking up at Adama who looked once more at the scanner screens.
“No, we’ll wait until the pilot lands, then I want him up here immediately, and summon Apollo and Starbuck as well. I have a feeling we’ll need their advice as well,” Adama sad watching as the group went into action.
*****
Jolly landed in the landing bay a bit nervous about what he was about to explain. He still wasn’t sure what happened out there or who had attacked Boomer, only that someone, or thing had. He couldn’t even rule out Cylons but he felt sure Boomer would have said something had it been.
He climbed out of his viper and was immediately met by one of the ground crew who told him that Commander Adama wanted to see him. It was something Jolly expected to hear when he returned.
Walking over to the elevator he quickly went up to the bridge level while going over the entire encounter. He hoped they would send a rescue mission, but Boomer said for them to be cautious. He needed to be able to tell Adama something they could use, and make sure a rescue went without any problems as they had time to conduct a rescue mission.
He walked up to the door which opened upon his arrival. Inside he was not surprised to see that the commander wasn’t alone but Starbuck and Apollo were also standing there looking at the maps from the scanners.
“Commander, reporting as ordered,” Jolly said as everyone looked up at his entrance.
“Jolly,” Adama said straightening up to look at Jolly. “We need to know exactly what happened to Boomer.”
“There’s not much to tell you commander,” Jolly said. “I was exploring the outer planets, they were all gas giants and a few had some interesting moons but nothing which could support life. Boomer had the inner four and was headed to the third planet which he said had an atmosphere but he couldn’t get a clear scan. He was going to head into the atmosphere but might not be able to communicate due to the electrical storms. After that I lost contact.”
“There was no communications?” Adama asked as they all listened in to his story.
“No sir, I waited a few seconds to give him time before trying to raise him again,” Jolly said. “I decided to check out the planet for myself. I passed through a heavy electro-magnetic storm but when I cleared them I tried again, this time he answered saying he had been attacked by someone who did not resemble Cylons. I did a brief look around but saw nothing which might have attacked him, but I did see a city of some sort on the surface.”
“A city, what did it look like?” Adama asked.
“Nothing like I had ever seen before,” Jolly recalled trying to remember what he saw and the layout of the city.
“It’s worth checking out when we go to find him,” Apollo said to his father.
They watched as Adama looked over the map for a few more microns before looking back at them. “The shuttle will be in range shortly, the closer we get the less fuel they expend but also there might be a threat there which we need to figure out, either another hostile race or perhaps some allies who attacked by mistake.”
“I can take Jolly and Starbuck with me and a few others,” Apollo said to him.
“Do so, you launch in thirty centons,” Adama said to him.
“I’m on it,” Apollo said as he glanced at Starbuck and Jolly who both nodded in agreement as they left the room heading to gather what they might need and who they might need for such a rescue like Boomer needed.
Jolly hoped they were not heading into a war zone, or something more dangerous than the Cylons. He also hoped they would find Boomer alive and well.
End part 13