Battlestar Argo
by AJ Marks
Part 19: A New Fleet
Troy and Nall looked out from the Argo at what was going on. It had been six Earth months since their arrival at Earth. They were now orbiting Centari One which had rapidly become their main base. Green vegetation could be seen on the planet’s surface indicating that the integration of plants to the planet’s ecosystems was going along just fine. Water was being brought in from local sources rather than earth.
Above the planet’s surface a large space dock was beginning to take shape. So far they had not begun to construct any ships. That would be beginning soon enough though. There was a lot that they still had to do before construction could really take off. Manpower was no longer a problem and with the new food from Earth the spirits of the crew of the Argo had picked up considerably.
Standing there he felt another vision coming. This time he saw the planet again, but smoke was coming from the building on the planet’s surface. An explosion could be seen as it ripped though the compound destroying most of it. There were no clear attackers but it chilled Troy.
With a shake of his head he wondered about what he saw. He would have to think about this one.
“What’s up,” Bri asked seeing that her husband seemed to be a on another planet.
“Nothing, yet,” Troy replied not wanting to worry his wife just yet.
Bri was about to say something else when the door opened. Nall walked into the room making his way over to where they were standing.
“Ah, there’s my favorite threesome girl,” Nall said with his rakish grin.
“Still having delusions of grandeur I see,” Bri replied.
“Nah, I just know now that your not a virgin,” Nall said. “I thought that now you’ve might have loosened up a little. Oww!”
“You might want to watch where you walking,” Bri replied having slammed her heel down onto Nall’s toes. “I see the felbercarp getting deep in here,” she said as Nall jumped up and down on one foot.
“I see that I missed something,” a voice said from the door. They looked over to see Rebecca walking towards the group.
“Baby, Bri stomped on my toe,” Nall said putting a pout on his face.
“And what did you do to her,” Rebecca asked leveling a glare at Nall.
“I just thought because she was not a virgin she’d want to have a threesome,” Nall replied with a waggle of his eyebrows. “Ow,” he said as his other foot was stomped on.
“How did you survive,” Rebecca asked turning to Troy.
“Hey I’m not the one in love with him,” Troy said pointing to Nall. “But being a bit crazy helps.”
“I can see that,” Rebecca replied with a smile. The more she watched and understood Nall and his friends the less she felt she understood. Troy and Bri were married, yet Nall flirted endlessly with Bri and Troy did not mind. Watching the two of them Rebecca realized that it was more like watching two siblings talk to each other than anything else. Perhaps that was all it was.
Colonel Pratt walked into the room and went straight for Bri and Troy. They were the two pilots on duty for shuttle flights to bring the new crew down to the base. Things were going well enough that he and Ares had spoken about maybe being able to speed up the process.
Seeing the colonel meant that they would be on shuttle duty now. With a bit of a sigh he knew that it meant it was time to get to work.
*****
“David, this is more than what I was expecting,” a male said to another one.
“I know Mike, something about all of this does not make any sense. We’re supposed to make regular reports to our supervisors, but that’s going to be a bit difficult when we’re not even near Earth,” David said to the other one.
“I know, but Senator Trillia wants answers to his questions. I don’t think he will like the answer though,” Mike said.
“No he made it seem that what ever this mission was it was going be somewhere in our solar system, not in another one,” David said.
“Well I do know that we still have a mission here, so let’s now blow it,” Mike said.
“We better get going then, they’ll be looking for us soon,” David said as they made their way to the hanger of the battlestar.
David thought about what the senator had told him. He had thought that a few others in the government were wasting money in unnecessary projects when they could be in other projects, more specifically his. It was a familiar political game that they were playing. Destroy another senator’s project so there was more money for yours because it was yours.
David sighed, he was getting a bit tired of it lately. Perhaps after this one he would retire from the business.
*****
Commander Ares sat at his desk reading over all the reports that had been handed to him. There were the reports of the Argo itself, the base Centari One, some political things from Earth, and then a new message from the Colonies. He bypassed everything there and went straight to that one.
So far there was little there in the reports that he could tell. The war was still going on and but at the moment it seemed to be at a standstill. Ares had the feeling that it would not last like that for too long.
One of the reports was over the new metal that was under development. There was a breakthrough with it. The stealth properties of the metal were enormous and might give them an advantage over the Cylons that they had desperately needed. It would make the battlestars almost invisible to the basestars until it was too late. That and the new holo technology that was coming into play would help out a lot in the war.
Ares could imagine using the stealth metal, along with the holo images to confuse the Cylons into attacking the wrong ship. It was another advantage that they might have as well.
The door opened and Colonel Pratt walked into the room. He had a paper with him.
“We are almost at the point where we can start development of the new class of cruisers,” Pratt told Ares.
“The Tiger class,” Ares said. “Yes, if we can get one of those built it would do a lot to gain experience. How is the transport coming?”
“It should be ready in the next month,” Pratt said. They had started to use Earth time units to avoid confusion in time with all of the Earthlings.
“Good, Weaver has reported that they should have enough stealth metal to cover the ship. It will be enough to help avoid detection with the technology that Earth has,” Ares said.
“So what’s going on back home,” Pratt asked. He so far had not had the time to look at the reports that had come from home. There was a lot that had gone on while they were gone. A battlestar had been destroyed and the fleet was down to six total now, seven if you included the Argo.
“I’ll be glad once the transport is finished. I’m getting tired of transporting the people back and forth,” Ares said.
“Right, we could be helping train some of these people who will be manning the ships,” Pratt said. “Any idea as to when the government will begin talking about what we’re going here.”
“I might be a while, but I don’t know. According to Rebecca a lot of kids are interested in space now. That’s probably where we’ll draw most of our crew from at first,” Ares said.
“They do have over 10 billion people on the planet,” Pratt said having gone over the population figures.
“The planet can’t support that much,” Ares said with a shake of his head.
“I know, that’s why there is a large push to make Centari One self sufficient,” Pratt said.
“The sooner the better I think. We can help out with their food supply as well if everything works out,” Ares said. Their technology for supplying a planet with food was years ahead and would help out. “How are the hydrophonic farms coming.”
“We’re just about done with the first one. Crops will be started next month as well,” Pratt said.
“Good, everything is going alone so well that I don’t like it,” Ares said.
“I know what you mean commander,” Pratt replied. “I’ll keep you informed about everything that goes on.”
Ares watched as Pratt walked out of the room. He wondered what would disrupt the peace that right now surrounded the planet and what they were doing.
*****
Troy and Bri piloted the shuttle down to the planet’s surface. They were taking down some more techs that would help with the construction of the base. A few of them were going to be farmers for the hydroponic farms that were nearing completion. That had been added after learning of Earth’s overpopulation.
Bri glanced out of her window to see the Hermes in orbit around the planet. The advanced construction techniques of the Colonies allowed for the construction of a small transport. The first one was called Hermes. You could barely see it as they were beginning to place the stealth metal on it. The next step for a lot of the designers was to develop scanners that would allow them to identify the ships.
“Centari One this is Argo shuttle one requesting permission to land,” Troy said breaking Bri’s thoughts. She looked forwards and realized they were headed though the atmosphere.
“Shuttle one you have clearance for landing pad three,” the reply came over the intercom.
“Roger Centari One,” Troy said. They piloted the shuttle towards a small landing pad with a bright red number ‘3’ painted on it.
After touching down and the shuttle’s passengers disembarked they left the shuttle waiting for anyone who was going to be heading back to the Argo. They looked around remembering what this looked like before there was anything here.
“You know,” Bri said turning to Troy. “I think it was about right here that you proposed to me.”
“You think,” Troy said in a tone that indicated he really did not think so.
“Yeah I do,” Bri said then gave him a quick kiss. “It was one of the best days of my life,” she said with a sigh as Troy wrapped his arms around her.
Troy wondered in that moment if his dad had seen that this would happen to him. There was a moment of wistful longing ness for his family. He wished that he could show them his wife, would they have approved of her? He had a feeling that his mom would have liked her, his dad was harder to read.
Turning his attention back to his wife he smiled at her. Things were definitely looking good right now. They had found Earth and know were beginning the second part of their mission. It was a big revelation to his beliefs and a great relief as well. A few people on board were not quite as relieved about it but realized that they had a mission to do.
Their mission was to help out the Colonies in their battle against the Cylons by either making Earth prepared to fight or sending reinforcements to the Colonies. Troy was sure that they would be making sure that Earth was ready to fight the Cylons. There was a sense of foreboding in his mind that they would not be able to help the colonies in time. His vision would come true for the fleet.
“You ready to head back on up to the Argo,” Troy asked Bri.
“Sure,” Bri replied. The two of them walked on over to where the shuttle was and climbed on board. There was no on else on board as no one was heading back to the Argo at the moment.
They blasted off heading back to the Argo to pick up more passengers to bring back down to Centari One.
*****
Mike glanced around not quite sure what to make of everything that he was seeing. There was something going on here that went even deeper than what the senator had told him. He was told by the greeter that he was heading somewhere far away to help out with a construction project. They had also told him that he might be able to make it back to his home for several months.
At first he had been sure what they had meant by that. Now he fully understood. He had seen some sort of construction platform in orbit around the planet. Now on the ground he could see that construction was actually complete in a lot of areas. Off to another side was dome shaped structures that he had learned were farms.
There also seemed to be a lot of activity that was going on. Mike was sure that there was going to be a lot to learn. He walked with the others to a meeting room where they all would be learning even more about what they were doing. Sitting down he glanced around and saw David sitting nearby. A man walked in wearing a uniform that he had seen on board the ship called Argo. He had dark hair and a moustache.
“My name is Lieutenant Nall and I’d like to welcome you all to the new base Centari One,” the man said. “Let me start out by telling you a brief background of the ship you came here on and our mission.”
Mike sat back and listened in a bit of disbelief at what the man was saying. He saw saying that there were twelve other worlds with humans on and that they had all come from a central planet called Kobal. That and the mission that they were on could affect Earth and its population greatly. The Colonies were at war with a machine race called the Cylons.
Mike thought it was a bit like a Terminator movie. Machines at war against mankind trying to wipe them out. Something just did not make sense to Mike as he looked over to meet eyes with David. He looked like he was thinking the same thing.
“This is a picture of a typical Cylon warrior,” Nall said using the holographic machine to produce an image of a Cylon. Its gleaming metal and bouncing red eye was something that none of them had ever seen before.
“In ground combat they are slow, but they work better together than any group of highly trained warriors. Their weakness is their movement but they are also a lot stronger than any normal human is. They have a central leader and right now their goal is to destroy all of humanity,” Nall said. “To this end we were sent here to help arm Earth and if possible return with help to the Colonies.”
A slight murmur went thought the crowd. They were not sure what to make of this development. Everything that they had just heard seemed a bit irregular to all of them. They were going to arm Earth under this group’s control to fight a distant enemy.
“I know that many of you think that the war against the Cylons will not affect you, but if the colonies fall then they’ll be heading for Earth sooner or later,” Nall said. “Your assignments are listed up here,” he said pointing to a list behind him. It would have where each man was staying and where he would be working.
Mike walked up to the paper to see what he was going to be doing. His expertise was wielding and noticed that he was going to be helping out down here on the planet’s surface. He walked down the hallway to where his quarters were and walked inside. The quarters were quite spacious for the design. He looked around and noticed that he would be sharing a room. The door opened and his roommate walked in.
“Ah, I see they’ve finally given me a roommate, sorry about the mess here,” the man said walking over and quickly cleaning a space. “I’m Dennis,” he said extending his hand.
“Mike,” he replied greeting Dennis.
“The technology is truly amazing,” Dennis said. “I’m working on things that are light years ahead of anything on Earth, yet at the same time some things we’re ahead of them on.”
“Really,” Mike said curious as to what they could be ahead of these aliens on.
“Oh yeah, computers for one thing. Did you know that their entire ship runs on a computer processor that is less powerful than a normal handheld,” Dennis said. “Their monitors are all monochrome as well.”
Mike looked a bit shocked at that. But now that he thought about it he did recall seeing monochrome monitors on the ship.
“It seems that they do most of their operations on the ships manually. I think its because of who their enemy is,” Dennis said.
“Really, why do you think that,” Mike asked.
“Well, if your enemy is a computer then why try and give them an advantage over you. A complex computer could be overtaken by another machine,” Dennis said. “The designers are already working on making systems more automated yet hard to break into.”
“Interesting,” Mike replied. He was getting great information about everything. The people here seemed to believe what they were being told. Mike just hoped he could uncover the truth before it was too late.
*****
Troy sat back on the bed waiting as Bri finished up her nightly ritual before getting into bed. She would make sure that she washed her face, then she would brush her hair, something he thought was a bit strange. Then she would finally be ready to come into bed. She snuggled up next to him as he wrapped his arm around her.
“So, what’s wrong,” she finally asked after several minutes of silence.
“What makes you think anything is wrong,” Troy asked with a frown on his face.
“I can feel it,” Bri replied. It was something she had been feeling all day from her husband. Something was bothering him and she was determined to flesh it out. “Did you have another vision?”
Troy sighed wondering if he would ever be able to keep anything from his wife. She seemed to have the distinct ability to read him very well.
“Yeah, I did,” Troy said wondering how much he should tell her. Perhaps he should tell her everything about what he saw.
“Tell me,” she asked hoping that he would share what he saw with her.
“I saw Centari One in flames,” Troy said as he went on to describe what he had seen. He could feel the body next to her go still as he recalled what he had seen.
“The Cylons,” she finally asked when he was done.
“I don’t know,” Troy replied. “I don’t recall seeing anything that might be them. There were no ships or attackers at all.”
“Sabotage,” Bri asked then.
“That might be,” Troy replied as he thought about it.
“Not everyone on Earth might be sympathetic with us,” she said logically.
“I know, perhaps I should tell the commander and have everyone be on the look out for anything suspicious,” he said.
“If Centari One is destroyed it might set back even more then we are,” Bri said.
“I’ll talk to the commander in the morning,” Troy said.
“That would be a good idea,” Bri said as she could feel her husband relaxing more. “Now, let’s get some sleep, I’m exhausted.”
That sounded like the best idea to Troy at the moment. Bri fell asleep quickly like she always did, half lying on top of him. He wondered why they even had two pillows when she used him for one. With a smile and a plan he waited as sleep overtook him as well.
*****
Commander Ares looked up from his reports as Captain Troy walked into the office. The look on the man’s face told him that this would be more than a simple conversation. He set aside what he was reading and motioned for Troy to have a seat and waited to hear what Troy had to say.
“I wanted to share you a vision I had,” Troy said as he sat down. “It involves Centari One.”
Ares sat there an listened to what Troy had to say. He has seen Centari One burn and be destroyed. The one thing that he could not say was how or who destroyed it. Ares’ first thought was that the Cylons had done it. Troy was not sure though as he had not seen any Cylon raiders in the vision.
“Interesting,” Ares finally said after giving it some more thought.. He also went over what Troy had said Bri’s thought on it was. Someone from Earth might be responsible for it. The reason of who and why would become important in all of this. They would have to stop them before they caused any permanent damage to the base.
“I suggest we have everyone here on board that you can trust keep a strong look out as well as those who Robert trusts. They might not talk to us but they may talk to each other,” Troy said.
“Very well,” Ares said thinking that I was a good idea. “Can you give me any indication about the timing? A new structure, or anything that you might be able to tell me.”
Troy thought about that for a moment recalling everything that he had seen. “No, nothing stands out,” he finally said.
“Then I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye out for something that might come up then and hope we’re fast enough to stop it before it happens,” Ares said making a decision. It would have to work for now until they could hopefully uncover something that might tell them what happens.
“I’ll let Bri and Nall know what’s going on,” Troy said knowing that he really would not have to tell Bri as she already knew.
“Good, I’ve got a few others that I can tell as well,” Ares said thinking of Colonel Pratt and the few Earth leaders that he felt he could trust so far.
Troy left his commander’s office and went in search of Nall and Bri. He figured that they would probably be together somewhere with Nall trying something.
Ares reached for his communicator and waited until Pratt answered. He asked the colonel to come see him in his office. Ares wondered how the colonel would react to such news. Part of him was not surprised to hear about something yet he had really hoped that such a thing would not be needed.
*****
Mike walked around after his first day at work. He could tell the difference between the people from the Colonies and those from Earth. He was still trying to figure it all out. Something about what was going on just did not make any sense to him. The explanation he had been given at the beginning seemed to be too simple an explanation. He was positive that there was more to everything than what he had been told.
Mike had watched the others work and the relationships that were forming between the two groups. There was one person that he recognized, that was Rebecca a former assistant of the now disbanded Space program of the government. He wondered what was going on with that now and the real reason why she was here.
Mike had been told that she had gotten another job but no one knew where. He figured that now he knew where she had gone. It was something that he was sure his boss would be happy to find out about. He would have to talk with David and see what he had learned as well before making their first report. Either way he was sure that this group posed a threat to Earth and this story was just their cover story. The real problem was figuring out how to find out the real truth.
End Part 19