The Uneasy Alliance
by AJ Marks
Part 33
Adama looked over the reports coming in from Earth, so far things seemed ahead of schedule. The station connecting the surface to space had been complete faster than anyone expected, even the machines. The mining operation on one of the moons in the system had begun. The reports there were they would begin refining real soon and the deposit was larger than they anticipated.
They Cylons had not been a problem yet, but he knew that would change. They knew where they were now, and he anticipated they would try something soon depending on how many basesstars they had in the area. He hoped they didn’t have many so they had time to gather their forces together.
“Commander, incoming message from the Enterprise,” the intercom said.
“Be right there,” Adama said, closing down his reports and heading to the bridge.
The Enterprise was guarding the station around Earth and the surrounding planets as the Galactica and the fleet continued into the system. So far they had managed to set up patrols around the system but no sign of the Cylon basestar.
Stepping onto the bridge he noticed the calm demeanor of Omega indicating there wasn’t anything wrong today. Sitting down at the commander’s chair he looked at the screen.
“Commander,” Tigh said his face appearing in the screen.
“What’s the news?” Adama asked.
“Received word from Zion, Ilbis has disappeared,” Tigh said. “They can’t find a trace of the man.”
“Not surprising,” Adama said, expecting it to happen.
“They are concerned he might still be on the planet, looking to take some with him and set up a new spot.” Tigh said.
“Possible, I never expected to see him again,” Adama said. “Anything else?”
“DE states they are concerned about taking too many people out of the Matrix too quickly,” Tigh said. “And a few who have come out say some people might not want to come out.”
“Yes, that is a dilemma,” Adama said.
“We do have one thing, we’re setting up a bigger solar power converter on the station and sending the power down to the surface. It should help a bit with the power down there when we’re in the sun,” Tigh said.
“Power might become a problem,” Adama said. “We can’t expand too quickly.”
He felt a bit disappointed, he had a means to quickly expand the fleet, yet he could not due to some limitations Build too much, it took too many out of the Matrix, and risk the Machines losing power and a group of people he couldn’t feed and who might be resentful of where they went.
“We’ll think of something,” Adama said.
“When are you headed over to the station?” Tigh asked.
“In a bit, once I finish these reports, head on over along with Uri to officially meet with the delegation on Zion and DE,” Adama said, knowing it was a formality now. A treaty between them all. A way to really start working together for a new future.
*****
Niobe walked into the Hammer heading for the spot where she would enter the Matrix. Link was already there working to see how things were doing.
“How’s it look?” she asked.
“Not bad, actually quite stable for now,” Link said to her.
“Let’s do this,” Niobe said, she was to meet with the Oracle, and Neo. Lying down she waited before being linked up.
Taking a second to look around she noticed she was in a warehouse and made her way outside. Everything was as she imagined, normal in almost every way. The people here had no idea what was going on outside in the real world.
Quickly making her way to the Oracles apartment she was prepared to see neo this time. He stood in the apartment dressed in his typical black flare along with Trinity.
“Welcome,” the Oracle said, making her way over to them. “Have a seat.”
Niobe walked over and sat down.
“I was expecting to see Morpheus, but I’ve heard he’s busy,” the Oracle said.
“He wanted to come, but with everything going on, and his new position, he couldn’t get away,” Niobe replied back to her.
“Yes, its been something we’ve been discussing here,” the Oracle said motioning to Neo and Trinity.
“Have things settled down outside the Matrix?” Neo asked.
“Yes and no,” Niobe said. “We finally have communication with space, built a large elevator to send people up and down a lot quicker and an additional battlestar, but the Machines are hesitant in building a large number of battlestars and put a drain on the Matrix.”
“Actually Trinity had an interesting idea, one which might work,” the Oracle said.
Niobe turned to the dark haired woman and waited.
“We’ll have to ask a few others, including the Architect, but the idea is there are several ‘wars’ going on inside the Matrix, between countries. We might be able to use them, they are soldiers who are dying, they could be useful,” Trinity said.
“A second chance at life?” Niobe stated.
“We would have to be careful in the types we use, but many from the larger armies would work easily?” Trinity said.
“Avoiding the fanatical people?” Niobe asked.
“I doubt they would actually be useful, or change to what is going on outside the Matrix,” Neo said.
“We still have to be careful who we awaken to the outside world,” the Oracle said. “It would be easy to let a lot of people go, but they are not ready for it, nor is the outside world for such a large increase in population.”
Niobe nodded knowing it was another problem they would encounter. So far the people coming out were receptive to what happened.
“These soldiers fighting, would they be receptive?” Niobe asked.
“I think it would be a way for them to live again, a rebirth to an extent,” the Oracle said. “These men volunteered for the duty, they deserve a second chance. They are already soldiers, it would be fighting a new war.”
“I don’t have a problem, but doing it would require some adjustments on the machines end,” Niobe said.
“I think visiting the Oracle would help, he would be able to change the programming there. A slight change, where instead of the person actually dying, they would wake up,” the Oracle.
“A bit like the training room we have,” Neo said.
Niobe thought about that. A room where they learned how to use their abilities but the effects were diminished a lot.
“It’s worth a try,” Trinity said.
“All right, lead on,” Niobe said.
*****
Hades turned as the centurion walked into the room.
“Report centurion,” Hades said.
“We have received word that reinforcements have left the Empire,” the centurion replied.
“When will they arrive?” Hades asked
“It will be some time, several sectares,” the centurion said.
Hades gave that come thought and knew that bit of news was bad. It would allow the Colonials to begin settling a defensive area around the system. If they managed to do that it would take a warfleet to destroy them.
“What about any nearby basestars?” Hades asked.
“There are three other basestars which have been directed to our position, but they will take two sectons to arrive near out position,” the centurion said.
Hades understood but didn’t like that bit of information. For now his basestar was alone against two battlestars and no reinforcements. What he had had already been destroyed or damaged. His basestar had a depleted number of raiders, nothing he could use to take on a battlestar anymore.
He would have to wait for reinforcements from the Empire before doing anything else. He would observe and hide for now. Then once everyone arrived he could lead a new attack with his information.
*****
Adama walked onto the station only to be met by Morpheus.
“Welcome aboard commander,” Morpheus said.
“Very impressive,” Adama said, seeing the hanger was actually quite large. It housed a few vipers, about a half squad for defense, and several shuttles.
“Come on, I’ll give you a brief tour,” Morpheus said.
They moved on into the hallway where several people were already working and moving about.
“We have four hangars, and the control area is in the middle,” Morpheus said as they headed to the elevator and went up.
Adama emerged onto a bridge, with several control operators, twice as many as one the Galactica. But with four hangars it would need more people to operate.
“Very impressive,” Adama said finally looking around. The screens were all in color, unlike on the Galactica which were monochrome monitors and they could now communicate with the surface at almost real time meant things were progressing very smoothly.
“How are things with your fleet?” Morpheus asked.
“It will arriving in another day or two,” Adama replied. The fleet had progressed slowly towards the planet unsure if they would arrive at Earth, or one of the others planets instead. “Still working on getting food up and going.”
“Yes, a pressing concern,” Morpheus replied.
“We have our botanists working on the other planet, Mars I think you call it, and seeing how quickly it can be terraformed,” Adama said.
“Saw the report, looks promising, didn’t understand half of it,” Morpheus said as they continued on back to the elevators and down into a large waiting area. “This is where the personal wait when coming up for a shuttle to head to their ship.”
“Very impressive,” Adama said. “And how many people can the elevator hold?”
“We have four elevators, two can hold up to fifty people, the other two hold about ten but are a bit faster,” Morpheus replied as they moved through the area and towards an area in the center of the station and the lifts. They turned to see a man walking up to them. “Sam, I’ll be heading down with Commander Adama, led me know if anything happens.”
“Yes sir,” Sam said. “Wanted to tell you, they are expecting you planetside.”
“All right,” Morpheus said.
Adama walked with Morpheus as they entered a lift. Adama noticed it was one of the smaller ones with more comfortable seats.
After strapping himself in the elevator began to descend.
*****
Apollo flew along in his viper on patrol from the Galactica. They were searching for Cylons knowing they were out there this time. It felt like so very long ago, before the fall of the Colonies to him knowing they were searching. He had almost gotten used to the long boring patrols while they were fleeing.
His partner this time was Boomer, Starbuck had flown the Commander to Earth for an important meeting, something Apollo had volunteered for. However the commander had denied it and wanted him to fly the patrol, someone experienced in such patrols.
Heading away from the system in the direction that the basestar had taken Apollo wondered what it had gone. A burning question they all had, but the fact it had not attacked again indicated it was not up to full strength anymore, the only positive to the entire situation.
“Apollo, look at your scanner,” Boomer’s voice said.
Apollo looked down to see three raiders.
“I see them,” Apollo said. Normally he would move to try and find a w ay to quietly attack but the situation had changed since then.
They both turned heading right for the raiders at attack speed. This information would be useful even if they failed to spot the basestar. Raiders operated on a normal patrol schedule they had learned over the course of the war.
“Let’s see what they are up to,” Apollo said.
“Right behind you,” Boomer said.
“Patrol one to Galactica,” Apollo said waiting a few seconds for the reply back before continuing. “We’ve encountered three raiders.”
The Galactica replied it understood and would send reinforcement. Standard procedure in the event raiders were spotted under normal operations before the fall of the Colonies. The raiders came straight on as the two sides engaged.
It was apparent the skill and experience of Apollo and Boomer were too much for the raiders, as two were quickly destroyed before they finished passing each other. The raiders return fire had been inaccurate at best making Apollo wonder about the class of Cylons in the cockpit of the raider.
Turning he gave chase along with Boomer. Quickly lining up the raider it too only microns before it too was destroy. He radioed back the result and continued on his path at a clear scanner. The vipers the Galactica had launched were returned and things went back to normal.
However, they were closer to the position of where the Cylon basestar might be.
End part 33