Voyage to Earth
by AJ Marks
The Emperor
Apollo and Starbuck made their way down the hallway. They were on patrol duty next and their wingmates were already waiting in the briefing room. They would have Aaron and Jason, two recruits who showed a lot of promise. In a way they reminded Apollo of him and Starbuck when they went through training as well.
Aaron was calm and cool under pressure and looked at things rationally while Jason seemed to be the loose cannon, the reckless guy who did amazing things. He also noticed another guy, Cronus, who remained him a bit of Boomer, someone who got dragged along with whatever scheme was thought up.
They walked into the briefing room, Starbuck sitting down while Colonel Zikku started the briefing. They were to patrol ahead of the fleet.
“Starbuck, Apollo, good you’ve arrived,” Zikku said as they sat down. “You know your patrol partners I think. I’m pairing Jason with you Apollo and Aaron with Starbuck.”
Apollo figured that would be the case, and had no problems with the idea of being with Jason. They had worked well together now anyways.
“I’m sending Apollo and Jason to sector five-A, and Starbuck and Aaron will be patrolling Six-A,” Zikku said. He showed them the area, this information going to both the bridge and the vipers.
They went through what they were looking for, of course Cylons were always top priority but after that, planets which could hold life, any resources and finally anything that might help them find Earth. Then took the elevators down to the hangar where the vipers were getting ready. They would be launching from the Agamemnon, and then head over to the Hyperion. When the Galactica returned to the fleet the final makeup of the squadrons would be determined at that time.
The deck crews handed the helmet to the pilots as they prepared for launch. Making sure everything was correct, and the navigation had the correct route. After checking everything, and going over the flight launch list, they were given permission to launch.
Four vipers streaked out of the launch tubes and headed off to their patrol zone. Each one hoping not to find any trouble.
*****
Apollo and Jason continued on their patrol for, so far not encountering anything out of the ordinary, but they were approaching the system.
Jason looked down at his scanners seeing something that they might investigate. He quickly notified Apollo of his findings, life on one of the planets. After a quick decision Apollo decided to investigate the planet even further. Flying closer they scanned for any signs of an advanced civilization.
Jason looked at his scanner and saw nothing out of the ordinary that indicated advanced technology. Their scanners did indicate human life on the planet’s surface.
“Well, we have human life down there,” Apollo said a second later having also seen the scanner readings.
“What’s the call captain?’ Jason asked, knowing he did not have the authority to say if they would investigate the planet any closer. He wanted to, and hoped Apollo said they would. It would be nice to breathe fresh air once more. He waited for Apollo’s decision.
“Let’s head on down, see what the inhabitants are like and head back to the fleet,” Apollo stated.
“Yes sir,” Jason replied, excited about the fact he would be part of an investigating team. He wanted to breathe fresh air, feel dirt under his feet, grass, and the normal feeling of being planet-side.
They both swooped down towards the planet, able to gain a better look at the planet.
“There’s charcoal down there, that’ll be something we will want to mine,” Apollo said.
“Charcoal?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, for the air scrubbers,” Apollo replied, something Jason never even considered. “Let’s head on down and see what type of locals are around.”
Jason followed Apollo’s viper down into the planet’s atmosphere. He felt the viper bump a bit as it encountered the resistance of atmospheric flight. Clearing the clouds he looked around seeing a lush jungle and a few rivers and lakes spread out in front of him. He spotted a few scattered settlements as Apollo headed to a clearing on the ground.
Jason felt his excitement go up with the knowledge that there might get his wish, and walk around on the planet’s surface. Landing a few microns later next to Apollo’s ship he climbed out and made his way over to where Apollo had landed, scanner in his hand.
“Jason, I’m going to check out that settlement we saw nearby, you check out the deposit of charcoal nearby, see if we can mine it easily,” Apollo said.
“Yes sir,” Jason said. He took a deep breath and started out in the direction of the charcoal, looking at the scanner and around him for anything that might be dangerous.
*****
Starbuck and Aaron lined up to land on the battlestar Agamemnon, completing their patrol. Starbuck looked forward to a relaxing trip back to the Galactica and settling in once more a more relaxing time after the rush of training they had been doing. The ship would be approaching the fleet in the next couple of centars, and he and Cassie would be heading back home.
Completing another landing he taxied his viper over to its position seeing that Apollo had not returned yet. He found that strange, considering his friend should have completed his patrol before Starbuck did. He figured nothing had to be wrong considering he had not been contacted to check anything out, nor was the commander here to inform him of anything.
“Anything wrong?” Aaron asked as they walked to the elevators.
“Hopefully nothing,’ Starbuck replied, making up his mind to check it out with the commander. “Apollo and Jason should have been back before us.”
“Oh, maybe they encountered something and went to investigate it,” Aaron said logically.
“I know, and that’s what bothers me,” Starbuck mumbled as they headed towards the bridge, a confused Aaron tagging along.
Starbuck was quiet on the ride up to the bridge, trying to convince himself that Aaron was right. The bridge door opened and Starbuck walked towards the bridge door, walking onto the bridge. The lack of activity usually meant good news to Starbuck, and made his way over to Commander Tigh.
“Commander, anything going on?” Starbuck asked.
“Starbuck, Apollo contacted us, said he was checking out a planet that had a high amount of charcoal that we might be able to mine,” Tigh said, and Starbuck felt relieved at that. Something routine and not life threatening.
“Anything else?” Starbuck asked.
“Nope, but we are monitoring the situation,” Tigh replied.
“Okay, let me know if you need anything,” Starbuck said.
“I know,’ Tigh said, as Starbuck headed back off the bridge and towards the rec room. He would wait there for any news about the situation.
*****
Jason made his way through the trees, heading towards the charcoal he knew was around here. The idea of helping the air purifiers gave him a sense of fulfillment. He had done something important for the fleet, though overlooked until it went down. He hoped it did not require any extensive mining to get to.
Glancing down at the scanner, he noticed he was close, and started to look around. He got closer to the spot and tried to get better readings on his scanner now that he was closer. Setting the scanner on the ground he got the best readings yet. Moving around to several different spots he would get a clear picture of the ground, and if it was feasible to mine or not.
After gaining a few readings he looked down at the results. It seemed good to him, but he would give the information to the experts who read the data a lot better than he could.
Deciding he had enough information he headed back to his viper, wondering how long Apollo would take to complete his task. Perhaps they could strike a deal with the locals for some food and such.
Approaching the vipers he noticed Apollo had not returned. Not feeling concerned, as he did not know how long it might take to talk to the locals. He paced around the fighters, making sure both ships were undamaged. After doing that he looked around again, still not seeing Apollo.
After thirty more centons he tried calling him. When he received no reply he became worried. Deciding to head off towards the city and see if he could find out what the problem was. He just hoped nothing had happened. He left a message at the ship that he was headed to the city in case Apollo made it back and then, after drinking some water and a snack, made his way toward the city.
*****
Starbuck walked into the smaller briefing room on the Agamemnon. Cronus and Boomer were in there, talking about what they had discovered. Since the attempt on the commander’s life, they had gone over the records that survived the Colonies, hoping to find something.
“So, anything?” Starbuck asked, walking into the room and sitting down. The table was littered with papers and other files, and two computer screens full of information.
“Not much, at least nothing we can use,” Boomer replied, looking across the mess of the room. “Cassiopeia was in here looking for you.”
“Yeah, she wanted to meet me here,” Starbuck said. “Probably wants to go over something else with the joining.”
“Go on ahead, we can handle this here,” Cronus said, looking towards Starbuck. He felt the two of them could handle this stuff. In fact, he felt a bit honored to be in this search. It helped develop a comradary between them all. Working together outside the flying only seemed to hasten the pace.
“Are you sure?” Starbuck asked. Cronus and Boomer looked at each other before replying.
“Yeah, we can handle it,’ Boomer replied. “Besides, we’ll go over everything when Apollo gets back, and you can see if we missed anything.”
“All right, though it might be a while. Seems he decided to check out a planet, something about a village and charcoal,” Starbuck told them, before making his way out of the room to search for Cassiopeia.
Cronus and Boomer turned back to the files when Cronus’ stomach growled, and they realized they had missed lunch.
“Perhaps we should grab something to eat,” Boomer said, as Cronus looked over.
“What about all of this?” Cronus asked, pointing to all the stuff on the table, they could not leave it sitting here.
“Aaron’ll look after it,” Boomer stated, pointing to Aaron who walked into the room.
“I guess I missed something,” Aaron said, looking at everything, and having Boomer pointing at him.
“We missed lunch, can you watch this while we grab something?” Boomer half asked, half ordered.
“Ah, okay, I can do that,” Aaron said, sounding relieved, then sat down. “Anything I can look for?”
“Anything strange in someone’s past,” Boomer said. “And no, we don’t know what we’re looking for either.”
“Okay, I’ll look it though,” Arron said, sitting down at the table as Boomer and Cronus made their way to the cafeteria to grab something to eat.
*****
Jason started to get worried about Apollo, he still had no shown up, and now he was on his way to the village to check things out. He brought along a portable communicator, but the range was limited. He also had no idea how advanced the technology of the people here was, they might intercept any signal he sent out.
Of course, if they were advanced, they probably would already know about their being here. They might be watching him right now. The thought caused him to pause and look around the area, but saw nothing unusual. He continued on through the forest and towards the village.
He used caution as he approached the light up ahead of him. It had to be the village Apollo had gone to. He did not want to barge in, and he wanted to find Apollo, not make contact.
Looking around he spotted a lot of activity, burning torches and such lights as the local sun was sitting, brining nighttime to the area. He could use that as a cover to get even closer into the village. He continued on in until he managed to hear bits of the conversation from the crowd that gathered nearby.
“I’m telling you, I saw him,” one of the men said, making Jason frown.
“And I’m telling you, he’s dead,” another man’s voice said, with authority. For a second Jason wondered if they might be talking about Apollo, a chilling thought.
“And remember, he said he’d be back,” still another man said.
“I saw him in the town less than a candlemark ago,” a voice said, as a debate seemed to heat up.
“And you’ve been drinking too much Malica,” a voice said, giving Jason a name.
“I haven’t had a thing Derrik, and you know it,” the voice belonging to Malica said. “He’s back and I saw him. I wish I was drunk.”
“He’s dead, and everyone knows it,” a female voice said, which seemed to silence the crowd.
“You’re protecting him like always. We know you were in love with him,” the voice identified as Derrik said back to the woman.
Jason tried to process everything when he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. He realized it was Apollo, who seemed to be slowly making his way out of the village without being noticed. He seemed to be close to the center of town, and there was little way out without running into someone. His communicator caused him to jump.
“Jason, come in.” the hushed voice said.
“Captain, what’s going on?” Jason asked, hoping no one overheard him.
“Not sure, but,” shouts from the crowd in front of him interrupted any conversation. Jason looked up to see people converging on the captain. “I’m going to need some help.”
Jason watched stunned as a group of men overwhelmed Apollo and dragged him into the courtyard in front of everyone.
“See, I told you the emperor’s back,” Malic’s voice said. Jason watched as the young woman fainted, and the group looked on uneasy.
End of The Emperor.
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