To Stop Running
by AJ Marks
Part 4
“Cylons?” Percy repeated, unsure about this. Was this another race, or some sort of group that Apollo knew? However, judging by Apollo’s expression the news was not good.
“Are you sure about this picture?” Apollo asked him, as he held the tablet.
“Yes, it was taken by the security camera shortly before the station was destroyed. We managed to find the image in the wreckage and assumed it was yours, possibly a bomber that you use?” Percy said again thinking logically. He recalled not seeing anything that fit the image in the hangar he had been in.
“Then I must warn my people, they are in great danger,” Apollo stated. The tone of the man in front of him was determination, and, fear? What did he had to fear? He sensed a story here.
Percy thought about allowing him to contact his fleet. Of course, he probably already was in contact with his fleet. He also wanted to know more about this group, Cylons.
“I’d like to see your other hangar,” he finally said, surprising Apollo.
He watched as Apollo thought about it for a few seconds, even his own men were confused. If Percy’s instinct was correct, they might be allies real soon. He had to make sure about this first. He had been given that photo only a few minutes before leaving the Pacifica. They made their way down and towards the hangar. Entering the spacious room, which was actually bigger than the Pacifica’s, he felt a bit impressed, but saw nothing of the ships in the picture. Even blurry he saw nothing of a similar shape.
“It’s an impressive ship commander,” Percy said, as they stood on the hangar.
“Call me Apollo, never been one for the commander thing,” Apollo replied, as they looked around.
“Call me Percy, and tell me about these Cylons you spoke of earlier,” Percy said, as they looked at one of the fighters. It had a sleek appearance, a ship made for war he noticed.
“The Cylons are the ones who chased us from our home, and have pursued us across the galaxy for more than fifteen yehrens, only wanting to destroy us. We fought them for a thousand yehrens, before they caught us in a surprise attack. They used the ruse of a peace treaty to lower our defenses, then destroyed our fleet and planets, killing billions,” Apollo said, Percy listening in shocked at what he heard. “The Cylons are a race of ruthless machines, they desire nothing else than wiping us out. We hoped we had left them behind, but that hope is now dashed.”
“So, they attacked you because of what you are?” Percy asked, clarify the statement.
“They don’t like organic life, had a war with their creators,” Apollo replied.
“Then we are at risk,” Percy asked, looking over as Apollo nodded his head in agreement. “Then it appear we have a common enemy. There is a saying among my people, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
He looked over as Apollo laughed at the statement. “I need to contact my fleet about all of this.”
They walked up to the bridge, which allowed Percy to look around. The bridge had a functional layout, easy to get around. He followed Apollo to the middle of the bridge, where he saw a raised platform, knowing it was for the commander of the ship. He saw the captain could easily overlook everything on the bridge.
“Get me the Galactica,” Apollo said, as he took a seat and waited.
“Commander, receiving a communications from the Pegasus,” Omega said to Tigh, who looked up.
“Put it though, maybe we can get some answers that we can use against the Council’s attack on Apollo,” Tigh said, hoping for something. He waited as Apollo’s face appeared on the screen at the same moment Ziers walked onto the bridge. This would get ugly, and fast.
“Tigh, I have some bad news,” Apollo said.
“Commander Apollo, and I use the term commander in the loosest sense, you are ordered by the council to return and stand trial in front of the council,” Ziers said, interrupting anything Tigh might have said. Tigh watched as many on the bridge appeared shocked, but Apollo’s face showed nothing, and instead seemed to focus on him again.
“Commander, we have a big problem. Our new allies have informed me they were attacked earlier today by Cylons,” Apollo said, completely ignoring the councilman. Now Tigh stared in shock at the screen, and the news he had received.
“Are you sure about that Apollo?” Tigh finally managed to ask, completely forgetting the councilman for a second. This was serious information.
“I’m sure. They thought it was us who attacked them, but from pictures they showed, it was Cylon raiders. But how they managed to catch up to us so fast without us knowing about it is a mystery,” Apollo stated.
“Can you get me as much information as possible, if there are Cylons then things have changed drastically,” Tigh said, his mind already whirling with the implications it might cause.
“I know,” Apollo said.
“Commander Apollo, I demand with the authority of the council that you step down from command this moment, and if this façade continues then Commander Tigh will be forced out as well,” Ziers said, his face red from anger of the situation. “There is no evidence that the Cylons have caught up with us.”
“No evidence!” a man dressed in white roared, silencing Ziers. “Are you saying thirty-five of my men died and it’s not evidence for you, unless you ordered the attack!” Tigh had never seen the man before and wondered who he was.
“Who are you and what are doing on our ship?” Ziers countered, obviously
“I am Admiral Percy White, and let’s get a few things straight right now. One, this ship has surrenders to me, as a result it is now under my command. Second, Commander Apollo will remain in command until I decide he is no longer fit, which won’t be happening any time soon,” Percy said with authority that anyone in the fleet would not have used.
Tigh watched back and forth as Ziers huffed at being reprimanded. Tigh turned his attention back to Apollo.
“I think we should raise the alert levels of the fleet, increase patrols,” Apollo said, getting back to the issue at hand.
“I’ll start that right away,” Tigh said, knowing how serious the situation was, even if Ziers wished for it to disappear.
“This action is not approved by the council,” Ziers finally said, trying to regain control of the situation.
“You go to the council, you tell them what’s going on, I’m going to increase patrols and hope and pray that your actions haven’t led us into a Cylon trap,” Tigh said, turning around to relay orders to Omega dismissing Ziers.
Apollo looked over at the admiral, wondering what was going on.
“How good is your military?” Apollo asked, wondering if they would get any help from them.
“Well, until twenty years ago we were a planetary force, barely had left our atmosphere,” Percy said. “Then we were attacked by an unknown race. Through some luck we were able to defeat them with ironically superior computer technology that we had developed. Then using their technology we reversed engineered some ships in case someone else came along.”
“Were they machines?” Apollo asked, wondering if the race was Cylon.
“No, organic beings, they only wanted to destroy us,” Percy replied. “They did have some awesome military technology that we were able to use. Currently we have over a hundred warships for military combat.”
“Perhaps we can help each other out,” Apollo said, some thoughts going through his mind.
“I need to talk to my commanders though,” Percy said. Apollo ordered his crew to establish a communications link to find out.
Ziers walked back into the council room, seeing some members were still there. They looked up as he stormed into the room. He wanted to rant and rave his anger but managed to control it somewhat before saying anything.
“They’ve gone too far this time,” Ziers said, with a sneer even as he looked over at Terrance, who happened to still be in the room.
“What happen this time that you didn’t like,” Terrance asked calmly.
“It seems that Commander Apollo managed to get the Pegasus capture by an enemy force,” Ziers said. “And that Commander Tigh is going to do nothing about it.
“What?” Marcus said, sitting up from where he had been sitting.
“Yes, we have ground to get rid of them both,” Ziers said. “We need a full council again.”
“I’m going to go to the bathroom while you do that,” Terrance said, standing and leaving the room.
Ziers watched him go, but knew with this latest information he could do nothing about it, he had all the cards. Ziers would get the council to vote before he found out anything about the Cylons.
Starbuck and Boxey sat in the small cell they had been led to after landing on the unknown ship. Taken prisoner and no idea what might happen next. Starbuck laid down on the cot, actually quite comfortable, and looked on as Boxey paced back and forth in the small cell.
“Sit down, would you kiddo, we’re not going anywhere,” Starbuck said to his friend, watching as he looked around a bit more, before taking Starbuck’s advice.
“Can’t believe you’re so calm,” Boxey finally said.
“Been through this before, things work out,” Starbuck said. “Besides, they’re human, need to figure out who they are, and if this is Earth.”
“I guess you’re right,” Boxey finally replied as a guard came up
They both looked up as a guard walked up, and motioned for Starbuck to follow him. He looked over at Boxey giving him a reassuring grin before following the guard. He had a feeling this would happen, question them separately. He had no reason to worry, and could only tell the truth. He sat down in an interrogation room, and looked around at the technology they used.
He watched a couple of men walk in who sat down across from him. One pulled out a small tablet loking device, and realized it was a computer as he activated the screen, made some swipes and then turned it around so Starbuck could see.
“You recognize this ship?” the man asked.
Starbuck looked down at the blurry picture, but he could make out the shape and froze. “Cylon.”
“Cylon?” one of the two men asked, confused. “You know who this is, or are you part of this Cylon group.”
“No, they are a race of machines, destroyed my homeworld some time ago, left us running in the galaxy,” Starbuck said bitterly, but also concerned. If they had contact with them, he had to get word to Apollo and Tigh.
“So, they are a threat to us?” the man asked.
“Yes, because you are human,” Starbuck said.
“Interesting, how are you human?” the first man asked, who Starbuck figured was the leader, he had grey hair, the other had blonde hair.
“We all come from a planet called Kobal, the thirteen tribes, twelve settled down close by, called the Colonies, the thirteenth left in a different direction, and we’ve come across other settlements,” Starbuck said.
“Not sure about that, but back to these Cylons, you said they are a threat to us because we’re human, why?” the blonde asked.
“We fought them for a thousand yehrens. Finally they sued for peace using a councilman as their envoy. He betrayed us, destroyed our defenses, the Cylons attacked, slaughtered billions that day, we gathered those who could into ships and fled,” Starbuck said to them. He had no reason to lie to them. And if the Cylons were here, they needed to hear the truth.
He watched as they were quiet for several seconds before flipping to another image, showing him it. It was a craft, saucer in shape, but very different than a raider.
“Yours?” Starbuck asked.
“You’ve never see this one?” the man asked.
“No,” Starbuck replied.
“Its race almost destroyed our home,” the grey-haired man said. “They are not Cylon?”
“No, the Cylons we fought are a race of machines, who rebelled against their creators,” Starbuck stated.
“Terminator,” the younger man said, as the other man nodded. Starbuck had no idea what they meant, but said nothing else.
“It appears we have a common enemy,” the man stated, half surprising Starbuck with the comment.
“Yes, it also confirms what we were told by the admiral,” the blonde stated.
Starbuck looked up as Boxey entered the room, looking confused as well.
“Well, both of you are here, that’s perfect. You will tell us everything you know about these Cylons, I won’t allow Earth to be destroyed a second time,” the grey-haired man said.
Both Starbuck and Boxey froze, looking over at the man quickly. He looked on in shock by their reaction.
“Did you say Earth?” Starbuck finally asked, gaining control over his ability to think again.
“Um, yes,” the man replied, now he was confused by the turn of the conversation.
“By Kobal,” Boxey stated.
“Yeah, we need to talk with my commander, can you arrange that?’ Starbuck said, urgency in his voice. This information was vital to Apollo.
“I suppose so,” the man said.
Starbuck watched as he said a few things into the communicator, and after waiting a few moments, the screen on the wall came to life. Starbuck blinked as he recognized Apollo’s face.
“Starbuck, Boxey, glad to see you’re in once piece, you know the situation?” Apollo asked.
“Um, somewhat, are you aware they are from Earth?” Starbuck asked, watching Apollo freeze.
“Earth?”
End Part 4
Comment below or send to AJMarks01@aol.com