The Uneasy Alliance
by AJ Marks
Part 31
Hades walked to the communications center having been instructed to report on the status of the situation to the imperious Leader himself.
“This is Hades calling the Imperious Leader,” Hades said, waiting for several microns before the Imperious Leader appeared on the screen.
“Report Hades,” the Imperious Leader stated.
“We have run into an unexpected development around this planet,” Hades said. “As you know there is a planet with many humans, they appear to be hooked up to a massive machine which defends itself. The other problem has become the Colonial fleet which appeared.”
“And you have attacked them with two basestars?” the Imperious Leader asked.
“We have lost contact with the other basestar which went to investigate the surface of the planet in more depth. A battlestar was observed exiting the planet’s atmosphere, and it was decided it was the Galactica,” Hades said.
“You attacked the Colonial fleet which was undefended?”
“That was the plan, but a battlestar appeared from the fleet, and we have one behind us, we were outnumbered,” Hades said.
“A second battlestar?”
“Yes,” Hades replied knowing what that meant. “It seems that somewhere the Colonials have added a second battlestar which we are unaware of.”
“This news is disturbing,” the Imperious Leader stated. “I’m sending more basestars for observations. Do not attack unless you feel you have a tactical advantage. We need information about this second battlestar, and if it’s the Pegasus and Commander Cain.”
Hades understood the reasoning. “By your command.”
“Report when you have more information.”
With that the communications went dead. Hades now had a new mission and turned to carry out the mission.
*****
Adama stepped out of the transport making his way to the building seeing several others walk out towards him, including Boomer and Starbuck, along with DE, who was hard to miss, a large machine ball. He noticed Diana slow slightly upon seeing it but he never stopped hoping to give her some strength to approach.
“Starbuck, Boomer, is everything all right?” Adama asked getting the question out of the way and hoping nothing had happened.
“Last we heard the Cylon basestar had continued to move away,” Starbuck said.
“Its unknown how far away its going to move,” Boomer said.
“Tigh said if they attacked he’d send a viper down,” Starbuck said.
“So, we have limited contact at the moment,” Adama said, not liking that bit. They needed a better way to communicate between the groups.
“I’ve been working on that commander,” Boomer said.
“And we’ve come up with a solution which should work,” DE said to them. “However, it will not be as easy.”
“Oh?” Adama said, wondering what the solution was.
“We plan to construct a tower of sorts which will rise above the clouds and into space,” Doctor Wilker said. “It would also, aside from communications give us a way to transport personal to and from the surface.”
Adama had to agree, it was a very interesting idea, but, looking up, he wondered how it might even be possible to do.
“Yes, there is the problem of building it through the clouds, and even then we don’t know if it will somehow send energy down and overload the machines here,” Wilker said.
“To solve the second dilemma its decided to build it further away from our city,” DE stated.
“You are working together,” Diana said having been quiet all this time and now everyone looked at her.
“It was advisable to do so,” DE said. “You are not Colonial are you?”
“No, I’m from Zion.”
“Then, I am to assume, the situation there has been stabilized?” DE asked.
“For now,” Diana said. “I have come up here to see the situation for myself.”
“Perhaps it might actually be beneficial to actually see even more,” DE said.
“What do you mean?” Adama asked, wondering what the machine was thinking.
“Take her up to see what is going on for herself,” DE replied.
Adama gave that some thought and realized it was a perfect solution.
“And you can meet the Council of the Twelve,” Adama said.
“I would like that, how long would it take?” Diana asked.
“Not long, and I should return to the Galactica as well,” Adama said. “There is one thing, we need a way to provide food for people, on a larger scale. One battlestar houses over a thousand people, and we need food for them.”
He watched Diana think about that for several seconds before turning towards Morpheus.
“Tell Jack to come up and see how they can make a larger production of food, perhaps he and his group can come up with different types of food as well,” Diana said to Morpheus.
“We are willing to help any way we can,” DE said to them. “We can construct what you might need very quickly.”
“And we can have him meet with some of our people, perhaps find something which grows easily,” Adama said.
“I think that might be arranged,” Diana said.
Adama nodded leading her to the shuttle which would take them back to the Galactica as Morpheus turned and walked back to the Hammer to fly back to Zion.
*****
Diana watched from her seat as they flew through space. It had been a very strange experience indeed for her, something she never expected to experience at all. Flying through the atmosphere she had cringed at the way the shuttle had bounced around, and feared an electrical outage which never came.
Now she had a view of several ships in space, something she could only recall from her time in the Matrix. It was a dream, something out of a sci-fi novel. Then they were headed toward a larger ship, with two hangars on each side.
“Madam, welcome to my home, the battlestar Galactica,” Adama said to her as they flew closer and approached for the landing.
“How long have you lived here?” she asked.
“For about five yahrens,” Adama replied. “Its roughly equivalent to a year.”
Diana knew she had lived in Zion for almost all her life, but while they were enclosed, they remained where they were due to hiding, not running. If one wanted they could leave and go to the surface, and they could dig and expand the city which was done many times. They were not limited in their space. It seemed they both had encountered hardships.
The shuttle landed on board the Galactica allowing her out. She glanced around noticing everyone doing their jobs, but a look among them which she recognized, a caged person locked up and barely surviving. She realized the people of Zion were the same, barely surviving. In order to grow they needed to leave Zion and made up her mind as Adama led her into the ship.
They walked into a large meeting room and she recognized the type of men and women seated around the table. These were the leaders of this group. Where did commander Adama fit into the group?
“Welcome to the Council of Twelve,” Adama said, “This is Diana from Earth.”
Diana took a seat hearing a bunch of names which she never remembered but watched their reactions. Most looked on with interest, a few with hope and a few with a bit of distrust. Sitting down she waited to see how the meeting would go.
”I’m sure we have a lot to discuss,” one said, he had white hair and dressed in white as well and seemed to be one of the leaders of the group.
“Yes, I know only bit, but it appears there is a lot we need to discuss and work together for,” Diana said. “You are fleeing a group called the Cylons who apparently want all of humanity destroyed.”
“That’s the simple version of events, yes,” the man replied back to her. “We’ve heard some things about your planet as well.”
“Ah, well, until recently we were at war with our own machines which we created,” Diana said, watching a few of the faces look on with interest. “We had recently entered into a peace with them.”
“Peace with machines?” a brown haired man asked.
“Yes, it’s an unusual agreement, and it seemed to be working until recently,” Diana said.
“It’s not peaceful anymore?” a woman asked.
“With the arrival and attacks by the Cylons, from what I’ve learned, it disrupted the peace which we had. It seemed the Cylons attacked the machines on the surface threatening their existence,” Diana said. “It’s a strange thing, our war. Many of us really don’t want to destroy them, but many wanted to find a way to co-exist as we tire of this war.”
She watched as they considered her words.
“We too thought that, and were betrayed,” one of the council members said.
“Perhaps, but I have gotten the feeling that their machines are unlike the Cylons,” Adama said. “I have spoken to them, including one called DE, who is highly intelligent, and almost human-like in his thinking.”
Diana had only spoken to this DE once so had to rely on others for her opinion.
“Only by working together can we defeat this new threat of the Cylons,” Diana said. “And for that we need the machines, and how we treat them will determine our future with them.”
People around the table paused, a few talking to others in low voices before one finally looked up.
“You’re words are true, it will be difficult for some of us as we lost many loved ones to the Cylons.”
“I know,” Diana said.
“So, how can we help each other?” Uri asked.
“The machines are exceptional builders, and intelligent,” Adama said. “But right now they cannot go above the clouds which encircle their planet. We can, and our ships and vessels can. They also have the ability to man any ships built, but we need a better supply of food.”
“What about one of the other planets?” Diana asked.
“We think one of the other planets can be terraformed into supporting life,” Adama said.
“And fuel?”
“We are already working on that part, one of the moons around the gas giants appears to have an abundance of the fuel, and the captains of the tankers are already working on setting up operations,” Adama said.
“It appears you have thought all this out,” Diana said unaware so much had been done and decided.
“It was not something we could sit and wait on,” Adama said. “With our enemies so close we must do all we can to ensure our survival.”
“So what do we do next?” Diana asked.
“We have a plan,” Adama said.
*****
Starbuck watched as the shuttle descended back down through the clouds. Next to him stood Morpheus who had taken the last day to familiarize himself with what all had been going on.
“I wonder what decisions were made,” he stated.
“If any were made at all,” Starbuck stated, as the shuttle slowed down before landing at the landing pad and some people came forward to help out. The door opened allowing Diana to walk out along with Apollo as they headed over to where they stood. Diana stood in front of Morpheus for several seconds before finally speaking.
“I see things are better, and worse, than I had anticipated,” she said to him.
“Interesting perspective,” Morpheus said.
“Yes, we have allies we didn’t a year ago to go with a new enemy,” Diana said. “From what I’ve learned of them, they are worse than any machine that we know of.”
She said that as DE floated over to where they stood.
“The Cylons have already tried to take over the Matrix, and they have attacked us several times,” DE said to her.
“Yes, if they had passed us by we might not be standing here talking, and forming an alliance with each other,” Diana said. “Perhaps their interference is for the best, forcing us to come to terms with our own creations, and either we get along or we both die.”
“Then perhaps it’s time we start working together,” Morpheus said.
“Yes, we have a lot to work on, many problems still to solve,” Diana said. “And with the threat of the Cylons, the most pressing is getting a working communications from the surface to space up and running.”
“Ah, that we’ve been working on, and we think we have a solution,” DE said. “We are going to construct a large tower, at the top will be a platform for communications.”
“An interesting idea, will it be protected from the storms?” Diana asked.
“We think that grounding it will help insulate it, but it will require human help to build,” DE said.
Starbuck listened in as the plan was outlined and was impressed. It might actually work in his mind, building it here, and then the last section lifted by a ship into place.
End part 31