The Return
by AJ Marks
Part 5
Apollo appeared on the surface of the planet at Boomer’s request along with a few more people. The report had been they discovered some survivors but there seemed to be some problems.
He looked around seeing Boomer standing there along with the team, along with a few others. They had a rough look to them, like they had been barely surviving for a while now. The ship itself looked in bad shape but some areas had obviously fixed up. He moved forward heading towards the person he hoped was the leader.
“Another one?” the man said.
“I’m Captain Apollo of the Galactica,” Apollo said using his rank from when he was still on board the original Galactica here in this system. “Son of Commander Adama.”
“They are all dead,” the man replied.
“No, we passed though the Stargate and into another system and survived,” Apollo stated. “We’ve returned to see what is going on.”
“Impossible, no way could you have returned in such a short amount of time, especially from another galaxy,” the man replied.
“There is technology which we don’t know about allowing ships to travel long distances in a much shorter amount of time,” Apollo stated. “You were one of the group which ran away, how did you manage to survive?”
“Luck,” the man replied back. “Our ship was faster than the others, but still took a lot of damage.”
“How many are here?” Apollo asked, wondering how many he might be able to take. He could always send them to the base.”
“Only about thirty of us survived,” the man said.
Apollo nodded knowing that they had suffered tremendously after everything which happened and considered his own ship’s capabilities. It could handle thirty more people for a trip back considering it was leaving people behind this time.
“You’re welcome to come aboard our ship and head to a safe area,” Apollo said.
“Why should we believe you?” the man asked.
“Well, you can either join up with us and come back, or stay here and live in constant fear of the Cylons finding you,” Boomer said.
“I’d make up your mind quickly,” Apollo said.
He watched the man think even as another couple of people joined him.
“Jonas, we can’t stay here,” a woman said to him. “You and I know the crops are failing. If the children are to have any hope, this is it.”
Apollo noticed the man seemed stubborn over this, and was probably the reason why he didn’t go through the stargate.
“You made one bad choice and convinced us you were right, this time, I’m not following,” another man said stepping forward. “I’ll go no matter what.”
It seemed like his words broke a dam and several others stepped forward saying they were going.
“How do you plan go get us off here?” one woman asked moving forward with a young child.
“It’ll be easy,” Apollo said, moving away slightly. “Commander Apollo to Galactica,” he said waiting a second.
“Galactica here.”
“You have a lock on the people here?” Apollo asked, and got silence for a few seconds.
“Working on it now,” the reply came back.
“Galactica?” Jonas asked.
“It’s a new one, constructed by us, and we decided to name it Galactica in honor of the battlestar,” Apollo said. “It’s got some very advanced technology, and a lot of colonial tech as well. It’s a complex issue.”
“Transporters are ready.”
“Transporters?” Jonas asked, seeing that others appeared confused as well.
“Basically we beam you up, no shuttles,” Apollo said. “Its how we came down. Perfectly safe.”
Apollo watched as they seemed confused by that and he took a moment to step aside to talk to the ship.
“We’ll be beaming up about thirty survivors, all ages,” he told them.
“Very well sir,” the reply came back. “We’ll work on arrangements for housing.”
Apollo turned back to the group waiting to hear their answer and it was the woman who spoke up.
“Bring everyone here,” she said.
Several ran off heading in different directions to an unknown area. Apollo looked at Jonas who appeared to want to argue but remained quiet. Apollo wondered if the man had convinced the others it was safer to remain than leave. He was also someone who might want power. He made a mental note to inform Tigh and his father about this guy.
*****
Samantha looked up as Mitchell walked into the room.
“Cam, what’s going on?” she asked.
“Been kinda boring lately,” Cam replied back to her. “Ever since the last system lord was eliminated, and that excursion where the Colonials were discovered, it seems like things have gotten quiet.”
“Don’t say that,” Sam said to him. “The universe has a way of making things exciting for us.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen,” he said sitting down. “So, what happened with the Lucian Alliance?”
“Not sure, we were able to send them the information, but they seemed unreceptive to our advice,” Sam said.
“Typical,” Cam replied back to her. “Now that the Gou’ald are gone they think they are the big power in the galaxy.”
“Well, we’re not doing much to fill that power vacuum, been trying to convince our superiors that we need to be more active but they don’t want to do anything,” Sam said finally.
“Heaven forbid we tell the public about it, and get some private companies to help colonize other planets,” Cam stated.
“Well, the experts still don’t think it would be wise to do that,” Sam said, privately she was torn with such a thing. They couldn’t keep the Stargate quiet forever, and they would need to start informing the public about it all. There was a lot which needed to be said about what had happened in the past ten plus years.
“The war against the Goa’uld, then the Ori, exploring another galaxy and getting into another war with the Wraith, yeah, I guess I can see where some might seem to think all we’ve done is create conflict. Doesn’t matter we didn’t want that conflict,” Cam said finally.
“And now this entire thing with the Lucian Alliance, and add in the Colonials and the far threat of the Cylons, it might not be the best time to involve the public yet,” Sam said.
“Speaking of the Colonials, how are they settling in?” Cam asked.
“Spoke with Colonel Tigh, had a Lucian Alliance agent try to infiltrate their society, was easily spotted,” Sam said.
“They’re probably trying to figure out how he got spotted so easily,” Cam said. “They are a close group.”
“Well, surviving what they have I can see why,” Sam said. “In a way, I’m glad though, it allowed us to see their plans a bit easier.”
“I heard the base is set up to look for Cylons?” Cam said.
“Yeah, and they want to expand the number of bases, can’t say I blame them. One base isn’t enough,” Sam stated seeing as he looked on with some thought.
“Might be dangerous, the more bases we have the more likely we are to be discovered,” Cam answered.
“But one base doesn’t allow us to get a good view of what’s going on in that universe,” Sam replied back.
“I thought the idea was to be stealthy about it,” Cam replied back.
“Yeah, but a few bases would increase our ability to discover what’s going on in that galaxy,” Sam said. The same arguments she warred with Cam was tossing back at her. She only hoped making a few more bases would be the right thing to do.
*****
Apollo looked around as people came walking up with an anxious looks. At the moment he wished he was dressed in his more normal colonial pilot’s outfit, instead of the new blue uniforms which were used by those of Earth, or the Tau’ri as they were called in the other galaxy.
Off to the side Jonas appeared worried, but the woman, Gina, had taken charge and seemed almost relieved that this happened. He watched as she approached him.
“We’re all here now,” she said.
“Okay,” Apollo said. “We’ll be going up in groups of about four, stand over here.”
Apollo led them to a spot which had been set up for the transportation. They could have done more, but it was decided to go in smaller groups to void overcrowding, and to allow the people to be set up on board the ship.
In seconds the first group vanished, having been beamed up onto the Galactica, along with Boomer, who went up to help get things settled. When the Galactica was ready for the next group they radioed down to inform Apollo.
“You really survived in this other galaxy?” Jonas asked walking over during a downtime between groups.
“Yeah, its very different,” Apollo said. “There are problems there as well, new enemies, alliances, but no Cylons. We’ve created a new settlement, called it New Caperica with the help of the Tau’ri.”
“Tau’ri?”
“Those from Earth, it’s what they call themselves over there,” Apollo said.
“And what do they call us?”
“The Colonials,” Apollo answered.
“This ship, the Galactica, who controls it?”
“Both of us, we are working to be close allies with them. The Tau’ri are themselves fractured, many nations on their homeworld. Most don’t even know they are spacefaring right now. They war amongst themselves, we actually provide a stable colony and government separate of the Tau’ri,” Apollo said.
He noticed a look of disbelief on Jonas’ face.
“Don’t mistake them, they are a powerhouse in the galaxy despite their flaws,” Apollo said. It had taken him a bit of time to fully understand the impact they had made while travelling though the stargate. It was almost unbelievable to him.
He looked over at the next group went up, things were progressing smoothly. It wouldn’t take them long to beam everyone up on board the Galactica. Of course they would have to settle in for the journey back home.
The next group went up as everything appeared to be going smoothly. He looked back over at Jonas who appeared to be thinking about something, but said nothing else. Apollo decided not to push it and went back to work, looking around the ship to see if anything might be salvageable later on.
The ship had taken a beating that much he was certain of. The ship probably housed a couple of hundred, and only thirty remained. He wondered if there were any other groups out there like this one, struggling to survive.
“Almost done,” Boomer said to him causing Apollo to turn from his inspection of the ship.
“All right, let’s get out of here,” Apollo said, heading over to beam up.
Upon arriving back on board the ship he noticed people were working with the survivors. Seeing that everything was going well he made his way to the bridge. Reaching it he went over to the command chair.
“Situation?” Apollo asked.
“So far, nothing, wait,” the of the officers said looking down at his scanner. “Scanners indicate a ship moving into the system.
“Identity?” Apollo asked.
“Running it now,” the reply came back.
Apollo waited a few seconds as a lot of different situations came to mind.
“Cylon, basestar, Hades class,” the reply came back.
“Jump engines online, take us out of the system, but not back to the base, plot to another system,” Apollo said.
“Not back to the base?” the reply came back, confused.
“No, don’t want them to know the direction we’re going,” Apollo said.
He heard the engines start to power up as the rest of the bridge crew worked to get things done. It took only a few minutes, but seemed longer to him.
“Fighters launching from the basestar,” another report said, something which didn’t surprise Apollo. It was almost standard procedure by the Cylons. He figured they would not be expecting the ship to leave so quickly.
“Jump engines ready, coordinates set,” Apollo heard.
“Jump,” he said.
He knew after this short jump out of the range of the Cylon basestar they would jump back to the base and report in what happened. He had not expected to discover a basestar so quickly. In a way he was fortunate to run across those survivors. He figured the basestar was there to check out the wreckage again.
End part 5