The Uneasy Alliance
by AJ Marks
Part 27
Morpheus entered Zion seeing several people look over at him. The fact he wasn’t immediately captured made him feel a bit better, but not much. Now he had to find a way to head to the council and get them to see reason.
“Morpheus,” Turner said walking up to him, flanked by two other men.
“General, what is the situation?” Morpheus asked hoping to gain some insight into what had been going on and if he needed to run, wait, or be captured.
“Interesting,” Turner said. “You’re still going to be under arrest, follow me.”
Morpheus recognized the tone the other man used as one that he didn’t want to talk here. That and the fact he seemed relaxed meant there was a lot going on. Following the men they headed to the jail in silence despite others watching them. Morpheus looked on seeing a mix of fear and hope in their actions as they walked by making him wonder what the council was doing.
Turner turned to the two men who both nodded and left.
“We can talk,” Turner said finally.
“What’s going on?” Morpheus said.
“The council is going crazy,” Turner replied. “The main cause is Zack, he completely overrules anyone who tries to bring up a counter point. It’s almost to the point where he’s a dictator.”
“What are the others doing?” Morpheus asked.
“That’s just it, no one has the power to stand up to him,” Turner said. “Anyone who tries is removed from their position and replaced.”
Morpheus felt stunned at what he was being told.
“It’s created an underground resistance to him,” Turner said. “The only problem is he has some very staunch supporters, we have to be careful who we talk to. No one trusts anyone. I fear things will head to a civil war.”
The information wasn’t what he expected to hear at all.
“How are things going on the surface?” Turner asked.
“A lot smoother than here,” Morpheus said. “With help from the Colonials we’ve launched a new battlestar, a large space warship, called the Enterprise and have already destroyed a Cylon basestar.”
“Cylon?” Turner asked. “Wait, that is this robot enemy right?”
“Yes, they are real,” Morpheus said. “Currently the Enterprise is being manned by some from the Colonial fleet and people taken from the Matrix.”
“Really, people are being released from the Matrix?” Turner said stunned.
“Yeah, they are being trained in the positions needed, heard one of the men taken is a former carrier commander in the matrix,” Morpheus said.
“The machines are taking this threat seriously, a lot more than our leaders,” Tuner said.
“That’s why I’m here,” Morpheus said.
“I don’t think there is much you can so,” Turner said in a sad voice.
“We’ll figure something out,” Morpheus said as he walked into the cell knowing he had allies this time.
*****
Apollo watched another shuttle head up to the Enterprise taking more crew members up to the ship. He observed the group and most seemed a bit in awe of what was going on, a few were looking around and others were silently talking amongst themselves.
“What do you think?” Apollo asked Niobe who was standing nearby.
“It will take some time for them to get adjusted that this isn’t the Matrix anymore and the life they thought they knew was only a computer simulation of life,” Niobe said.
“Seems strange to me,” Apollo replied, unsure what to make if it all. The Matrix seemed like some unknown thing he would never be able to touch, or even experience.
“On the plus side they are quickly trained,” Niobe stated. “The interface with the Matrix allows us to quickly download the information into a person’s brain.”
“Makes us sound like a computer,” Apollo replied, unsure he liked that bit of information even as another thought occurred to him.
“And we can trust them to not have some secret download?” Apollo asked her.
“We don’t,” Niobe replied back honestly, her stance changing slightly as DE made its way over to where they were standing.
“We are waiting to start the next ship,” DE said to him, something he had not expected to hear.
“Doctor Wilker wants to inspect the wreckage of the basestar which went down not far from here, and with that hopefully make improvements in the next design of battlestars,” DE said to him.
“Well, that makes a bit of sense,” Apollo replied knowing how Wilker could get when investigating a new technology. And if it helped them in the fight against the Cylons than anything was welcome. During the war they had little change to really study the latest designs. If they could get a technological advantage over the Cylons it could be a tremendous boost in the war.
“Was it hard to find recruits?” Niobe asked.
“No, with the help of Neo inside the Matrix it went pretty quick,” DE said. “We used the attacks to gather volunteers.”
“Still must be a shock to learn about all of this,” Apollo stated.
“We’ll need to keep an eye on them as well,” Niobe said. “Some can’t handle the fact they are no longer in the Matrix, go mad. An old saying, ignorance is bliss.”
Apollo wondered about that for a few seconds realizing that it was indeed bliss, especially considering reality. It was a cruel harsh world.
“What about food and such?” Apollo asked.
“We are working on that as well,” DE said. “Without sunlight however it is proving difficult.”
“Guess I better get something over here as well, and we need to figure something out,” Apollo said, knowing this would prove to be a sticking point.
“Zion could help here, but their willingness to help is in question,” Niobe said.
“I’ll head up and contact the Galactica, Adama or even someone on our Argo ships might have a solution,” Apollo replied, and headed over to the shuttle to head on up and see what he could do.
*****
Apollo walked onto the bridge of the Enterprise heading straight over to where Tigh stood who noticed him approach and waited.
“Captain, what brings you here?” Tigh asked.
“A situation has arisen which needs to be looked into,” Apollo said. “Food.”
He watched Tigh appear to think about the statement for a moment before replying.
“Yeah, we have a few more mouths to feed now,” Tigh said. “And from what I saw on the surface I doubt the machines were growing crops.”
“No, from what I’ve learned, how they fed us you don’t’ want to know,” another man said, and Apollo recognized him as the one who had been on the surface and mentioned he had been a captain of a ship in the Matrix.
“Let’s contact the fleet, they might have something,” Tigh said. “We’re going to get hungry.”
Apollo watched as it took only a few seconds before the communications was established and Adama’s face appeared on the screen.
“Tigh, is everything all right?” Adama asked.
“Yes and no, we’ve come across a potential problem,” Tigh said to him.
“Oh?”
“Food,” Tigh said watching as Adama seemed to understand.
“Yes, I’ve already sent a message to the Argo ships. “We don’t know about Earth or is condition. They already think they can do something, but I’m also looking at other planets which we might be able to use.”
“I can send out patrols and check,” Tigh said.
“Do it,” Adama said. “One might be easy to colonize as well.”
“We’ll get a patrol going at once and let you know the situation,” Tigh said.
“In the meantime we’ll send a shuttle with some supplies, tis the best we can do for now until something else comes up,” Adama said.
“Be careful, there might still be Cylons around, we destroyed the basestar on the planet’s surface but there’s no way to tell if there are more around here,” Tigh said.
“That’s my concern,” Adama said. “We’ll be in touch.”
*****
Adama waited until the captain of one of the argo ships answered his hail. He needed information about what they might need to do to start a farm or something on Earth and knowing the conditions it might be almost impossible.
“Is there anything on the long range scanners?” Adama asked, hoping they were clear.
“Nothing at the moment,” Athena replied back to him.
He wasn’t sure if he felt relief or more anxiety over the answer. He had a feeling the Cylons were still out there, and a Cylon basestar had been destroyed on Earth, it made him question if there were not more out there.
“Commander, Captain Aaron is on the line,” Omega said.
“Thanks,” Adama said, switching tot eh communications to see the captain.
“Commander, you needed to speak with me?” Aaron asked.
“Yes, we have a situation which has arisen and I need your expertise from the argo ships,” Adama stated. “We’ve encountered a situation where we might need to send one of the ships to a planet to help food production.”
“I’m not following commander,’ Aaron said.
“Are you alone?” Adama asked.
“Yes sir,” Aaron replied sounding nervous.
“We have found Earth, but there are, complications,” Adama stated to him watching as he went from excited to confused. “The atmosphere is clouded over not allowing sunlight to reach the surface, but we’re gaining a new ally in our fight as well. We need your help to increase out production food, perhaps send one of the argo ships ahead and see what you can do.”
He watched Aaron think it over a bit more before replying. “I think I can. Give us a bit to come up with a plan, and we’ll need to see what the surface is like as well.”
“That can be arranged,” Adama said. “For now we need rations for an additional battlestar.”
“Another battlestar, how did you managed that?”
“Its all part of the complicated situation we find ourselves in currently,” Adama said, running a hand though his hair wondering how much he should tell them knowing they would need to know before they arrived at Earth. “You’ll receive more information shortly.”
“All right, I’ll get to work on something for an atmosphere with little sunlight, we have some crops which work,” Aaron stated signing off.
“You think it’ll work?” Omega asked from he stood having taken over Tigh’s position.
“I hope so,” Adama said, “I hope one of the other planets are better, it would avoid running though that atmosphere.”
He hoped they could come up with a solution otherwise things might get even worse than it was now.
*****
The centurion walked in the command room as Hades turned, waiting for the report.
“Report,” he asked.
“Patrols have encountered a group of ships, we believe it to be the Colonial fleet,” the centurion said.
“And the Galactica, has it moved from the planet?” Hades asked.
“It has not,” the centurion replied back to him.
“Then prepare to attack at once,” Hades replied back to the centurion.
Destroying the fleet would be a large achievement in the war against the humans.
*****
Bojay launched along with Greenbean, his current partner for this patrol. Things had been tense lately and with rumors of Cylons and a planet he had no idea what was going on. The commanders were being quiet at the moment only saying something was going on.
Several shuttles had left toward a planet they had found and Bojay figured it had to do with some sort of bartering to gain some supplies but where the Cylons came in he wasn’t sure. Now flying though the fleet he headed in the direction of the planet as the commander wanted them to patrol the area.
With Apollo, Boomer and Sheba gone the roll of leading the viper squadrons had fallen on him, something he wasn’t familiar with.
“Bojay, think we’ll find anything?” Greenbean asked.
“Nah,” Bojay replied. He would be surprised if they did see anything. He also felt that the commander would have said something to him before the patrol, something to keep an eye out for.
They flew in silence for a while heading to their patrol area. He looked around at the vastness of space wondering what other surprises were out there when an alert forced him to look back down at eh scanner and froze at what he saw.
End part 27