The Return – Part 3

The Return

by AJ Marks

Part 3

Apollo looked on as the Galactica dropped out of hyperspace. The scanners quickly looking around for any sign of a Cylon basestar.  The last thing he wanted was to be caught unaware of the enemy so close.

“Scanners clear,” the reply came back.

“Engage the cloak,” Apollo said, a new technology which had been developed by the Gou’ald and adapted by the Tau’ri and now this vessel. It would come in handy for this operation.

“Planet appears suitable for our operations,” his scientific officer said.

“Begin preparations for a landing party to scout around, make sure things are quiet down there,” Apollo said. They had a lot of work to do if they wanted to get a base up and operational and dial back to Earth.

The group went about their operations as Boomer made his way over.

“You really think all of this will work?” he asked.

“Hoping it will,” Apollo stated unsure himself if this would work. It felt odd to be back in his home galaxy after everything which happened.  “Start sending people down to the surface and looking around.  The quicker we set things up the quicker we can contact Earth.”

“On it,” Boomer said, moving to get the proper people working and sending the supplies down to the surface.

“One planet won’t be enough,” Apollo finally said realizing something about it all. They would need several bases in the galaxy to really gain a picture of what was going on in the galaxy.  They would also need to eventually battle the Cylons again, if not now than in the future.

“Scouting team underway,” Boomer said finally.

Apollo nodded knowing that things were going according to plan and hoped they didn’t encounter any Cylons. “Go ahead and send out some vipers to patrol the surrounding area and make sure there are no Cylons around here.”

“Shouldn’t be, according to all reports they were still a bit behind us, and are probably wondering what happened to us,” Boomer said.

“I wonder if anyone managed to escape in the ships?” Apollo said seeing Boomer pause at that thought. It had been almost a year since they left and he had no hope they managed to survive this long.  A lot had happened since then which he had never expected to happen.  He learned a lot of what had happened in other galaxies as well.

“It would be amazing if they did,” Boomer said. “But would we be able to do anything?”

“It all depends on the situation,” Apollo said knowing he couldn’t just abandon his people if they were still out there.”

For now he would concentrate on his mission.

*****

Apollo beamed down to the surface into a cavern.

“Welcome down to Alpha base,” someone said. Apollo turned to see Captain Leon standing there.

Apollo looked around seeing that things were actually progressing very well.

“Thanks, things are looking pretty good down here,” Apollo said.

“We’ve got several areas set up now, including housing and the gateroom.

Apollo nodded knowing that the gate had been sent down some time ago.

“How’s that going?” Apollo asked.

“Been working on that for a while now, think we just about have it set up. We’ll be trying it out shortly,” Leon said.

“That’s good news,” Apollo said.

“Any signs of Cylons?” Leon asked.

“No, and that’s the good news,” Apollo replied as they moved on to a large room set up very much like what he saw in Atlantis.

“Impressive,” Apollo said seeing the room. “Is the ZPM set up?”

“It’s what we’re working on, right now the base is running on Naquadah generators which will provide the normal power for the base. The ZPM will only be used for dialing Earth, nothing else.”

Apollo nodded again at everything. “Its simple amazing at the amount of work which has gone on.”

“Some advanced tech helps,” Leon said.

“Sir, incoming message from the Galactica.”

Apollo walked over as it was put though and Boomer’s face appeared on the screen.

“What’s going on Boomer?” Apollo asked.

“Not sure, we thought we picked up something on the scanners, but it didn’t last long,” Boomer said.

“Cloaked?” Leon asked.

“Possible, but we’ve never encountered any cloaked ships in this galaxy,” Apollo replied. “Send out a few more patrols to check the area out.  There might be someone out there and we want to know about them.”

“Thought so, have the scouts ready to go,” Boomer said.

“Let me know if they find anything,” Apollo stated hoping they had not discovered anyone else in the area.

The screen went dark as Apollo gave it some thought. It could be anything but with the Cylons in the galaxy he wasn’t about to take any chances.  He seriously doubted they had perfected a cloaking technology in the time they had been gone but he couldn’t afford to be lax in his approach.

“Seems like things are interesting around here,” Leon said.

“Yeah, in a way I hoped wasn’t too interesting,” Apollo replied back. The last thing he wanted was for some problem to occur while they were still here and the gate had yet to be tried.

*****

Sam looked up as Daniel made his way into the office.

“Hey Sam, you said you had something for me?” Daniel asked her.

“Yeah, glad you could make it,” Sam said.

“Well, took me a while to get away from the expedition but what is it?” Daniel asked.

“We need some people to head to the Lucian Alliance, a diplomatic mission along with some of the people from the Colonials,” Sam said.

“Okay, but why?” Daniel asked sounding skeptical.

“They’ve been snooping around New Caperica and have tried to infiltrate it now and our records regarding them were hacked,” Sam said.   “I don’t think they know how dangerous the Cylons could be.”

“And you want me to go with them to help tell them the danger?” Daniel said.

“Yeah, if they make contact with the Cylons and give them hyperspace technology we could have a fight on our hands unlike the war against the Gou’ald or Ori, or even the Wraith,” Sam replied knowing against the Cylons, if what she had been told, they would not stop until all humans were dead.

“Yeah, they wouldn’t be a nice enemy, more like the replicators,” Daniel stated. “When do we leave?”

“You’ll head to Caperica and board the Hammond, it’s already there waiting,” Sam said.

“All right, I’ll gather my stuff,” Daniel said. Even before he left the siren came on along with a flashing red light.

“Off world activation.”

Sam stood and headed to the gateroom along with Daniel reaching it rather quickly.

“What’s going on?” Sam asked.

“Incoming wormhole,” the reply came back.

“Close the iris,” Sam said watching as the iris closed shut before hearing the gate activate. It took a few seconds before anything happened.

“Incoming transmission, getting the Galactica’s code.”

“Put it though,” Sam said looking down at the screen before Apollo’s face appeared.

“General Carter, good to see you,” Apollo said.

“And you to commander,” Sam replied hoping the connection meant what she hoped it was.

“It appears everything is stable,” she heard someone else say.

“I take it everything is going good over there?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, so far no sign of Cylons and the base is being set up rather quickly,” Apollo said.

“That’s a bit of good news,” Sam said. “We’ve had a problem with the Lucian Alliance here.”

“Oh?” Apollo asked.

“They tried to infiltrate New Caperica, and seem fixated on the Cylons,” Sam said.

“Great, just what we need, someone who thinks they are a new ally,” Apollo stated.

“We’ve got a group headed to them to talk to them before they do something stupid,” Sam said back to him.

“Receiving gate address.”

Sam took a second to review the address knowing it was going to be the furthest gate they had established a connection with.

“What’s the situation there?” Sam asked.

“So far everything is quiet,” Apollo replied. “We have no reports of Cylons nearby, we might have to establish more bases to get a clearer picture of what is going on.”

“We’ll think about that situation,” Sam said knowing for now they had an established base in the galaxy would give them more information than they had before.

“No sign of any other ships, but then again we are several systems away from where the previous gate was located,” Apollo said. “Might send the Galactica on a few recon patrols to the surrounding systems and see what’s out there.”

“Might be a good idea,” Sam said. “But be careful, don’t want to give away our position too much.”

“Just knowing they are out there is dangerous,” Apollo replied back to her.

“I’ll send the information to my commanders, see what they think,” Sam replied.

“All right,” Apollo said.

“And we might have a few stargates we can use for such a purpose,” Sam said thinking of a few gate address of planets which were dangerous to life to take. Not every world with a gate was a nice place.  It was like the Ancients had just seeded every world capable of life and put a gate on it regardless of how dangerous it might become.

“We’ll keep in touch and check around for any Cylons,” Apollo said.

“We’ll be waiting to hear any reports,” Sam said as the gate closed and she looked back at Daniel.

“Well, that went well,” he finally said to her as they walked back to the office.

“Better than I hoped, and I doubt the Colonials will want to establish more bases despite what my superiors say,” Sam said already knowing what they might have to say.

“I don’t know, do you think its wise to make more bases?” Daniel asked as well. “I mean the more we have the higher probably well have that we’ll encounter these Cylons.”

“But we still need the information, and sending a ship around will be just as noticeable. A small base might not be noticed, and if they rigged to self-destruct along with the gate it will be easier to move around,” Sam said logically, or so she thought in her mind.

“I guess,” Daniel said. “I’m going to prepare to head out and meet the Lucian Alliance, though I’m not sure how well they will receive us.”

“Try, and let them know about this enemy, its not one they want to befriend,” Sam stated recalling the reports.

“Right,” Daniel said, moving away and leaving Sam to report to her superiors about the latest events. She felt sure they would think one base was more than enough.

*****

Apollo made his way back onto the bridge after getting the tour around the base. Things were progressing smoothly but it still wasn’t fully operational yet.  There were a lot of things to do to get it there.  Once it was operational people could move back and forth from the base through the gate.  There would also be a regular ship which would come by as well.

It was all set up to operate on its own once complete and they would be heading back to New Caperica once more.  He was concerned with the thought the Lucian Alliance had been snooping around.  From reports they were not a very stable group and ruled by some shady people.  If they really thought allying with the Cylons was a good idea they were more unstable than he thought.

Entering the bridge he looked around seeing the normal people there, except Boomer.

“Commander,” one said seeing him come in.

“What’s the situation?” Apollo asked.

“So far everything’s normal,” the reply came back. “We’re cloaked, and no ships have been spotted at all in the system.”

Apollo felt a bit of relief at that but did wonder where the Cylons were. He knew they were out there somewhere and sooner or later they would encounter them.

For now his mission was simply to provide recon for the area around the planet until the base was operational. Once that happened then they were to head back home.  He briefly wondered about stopping at a few other planets for recon purposes.

End part 3

Continued in part 4

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