Battlestar Argo
by AJ Marks
Part 34: Disturbing Revelations
Ares stood on the bridge of the Argo listening to the damage report from the recent battle. So far there was little damage. There was some damage to the stealth metal around the ship but nothing that could not be repaired. There was something strange about the battle to him. The lose of the Cheetah was a bit of a blow to the fleet. The ship had not fired one shot during the battle making Ares wonder.
“Any news of the ground team,” Ares asked.
“Not yet commander,” Renee said. The last report stated that they had made contact and would be heading back to the shuttle shortly. Ares had sent down another shuttle just in case they needed another shuttle. There were also a few more troops inside as well to help protect the landing zone.
“I would like to get out of here as soon as possible,” Ares muttered to himself. He did not want to stay in the area if he did not know what else was out there.
“I’m sure that they are making their way to the shuttle right now,” Pratt said to him. He did share Ares comment though. This was not the place to remain. They were probably inside Arbus territory and did not know what was going on back at Earth or Centari One. The two ships would probably head back to Earth to make sure that everything was all right.
The Hermes was scheduled to be between Earth and Centari One at the moment so they would not know if anything was going on. Ares thought about that. The Hermes was capable of long range communications.
“Get me the Hermes on the line,” Ares said. He did not have to wait long before the captain appeared on the screen.
“Ay laddie, ya needed to speak with me,” Captain Scott said in his usual accent.
“Yeah, I need for you to be careful when approaching Earth. The peace meeting did not go well,” Ares said.
“Ah see,” Scott said with understanding. He did not think that it would.
“Let me know what you find captain,” Ares asked.
“That ay will commander,” Scott said as the line when dead.
“Can we trust him, apparently we couldn’t trust Ben,” Pratt said.
“I know,” Ares said. “I think so though. Something about him and his attitude. Its a bit different.”
“All right,” Pratt said.
“We can trust Reliy though,” Ares said. The man had proven himself in the battle. He still wanted to know what was going on with people and why they could not spot them.
“Ground team is on their way back to the shuttles,” Renee said. That was good new to Ares. He did not want to be here any longer than necessary.
Ares replied that he wanted to be informed when the ground team left the base. So far the scanners were clear but he did not expect that to remain like that for very long. He was sure that the Arbus would retaliate quickly.
*****
“I don’t like this,” Bri said to Troy as they made their way down the hallway towards where the shuttles and vipers were.
Troy had to agree. So far they had not encountered a single Arbus on the compound. There were a few dead at the room where they had rescued the meeting group. Bri and Troy led the group down the hallway while Nall was in the rear. There were also ten others in the ground forces.
“Where is everyone,” Troy heard Senator Sam say. It was something that everyone was relaying in their mind.
They passed another hallway which Troy looked down then stopped for a second. The group behind them stopped as well looking at Troy for a moment to figure out what was going on.
“What’s up Troy,” Bri said looking down the hallway.
“I’ve seen this hallway before,” Troy said remembering his first vision of the Arbus. It was part of the confusing vision that he was still trying to understand.
“One of your visions,” Bri asked.
“Yeah, everyone else continue on down the hallway, I’m going to investigate,” Troy said.
“Not without me you’re not,” Bri said as Nall echoed her sentiment.
Troy glanced at them and knew that there was no way to get them to stay so they went down the hallway. The group maintained a n awareness of what was going on around them just in case the Arbus decided to try and attack them.
Troy stopped at a door and looked at it for a second. It was something that he recognized. He decided that they would check out this room. After that they would head back to the ships and head back to the Argo. He was sure that Commander Ares was ready to get out of the area.
“Let’s go in and have a peak, shall we,” Troy said to the group. With a nod they opened the door and looked inside.
*****
“Commander, the shuttles are heading up but they are reporting that Troy, Bri and Nall went off in search of something,” Renee said to Ares.
Ares sighed a bit as he heard that news. He was sure that Troy knew that he wanted to get out of this system that he was sure was in Arbus control. He was also sure that reinforcements were nearby and probably headed their way right now.
“Get Captain Troy on the line now,” Ares said to the group.
He watched as they tried to raise the group over the communicator but so far without any luck. At least those three were flying the faster vipers and not the shuttles. That and they would be able to defend themselves much better than a shuttle could.
He did not have to wait much longer until he heard Renee give the shuttle pilots directions on landing. That meant that the shuttles would be on board soon. He also kept a close eye on the scanners to make sure that the area around them was clear. It was a bit harder with all the moons around the planet to make sure that they covered everything.
Ares stretched a bit to relieve some of the tension that had built up in his shoulders. He also turned his thoughts to the current make up of the fleet. They had lost the destroyer Cheetah for reasons still unexplained. The captain had not obeyed any order and the ship had not done anything to return fire on the Arbus. That puzzled him as he now had another mystery.
*****
Troy stepped though the door and into what he had seen in his vision. In front of him was a large cavern. They were near the top of the cavern but it was lined with rows and rows of cylindrical tubes. Inside the tubes were humanoid shaped figures the size and shape of normal humans.
“By the lords of Kobol, what is this place,” Nall said as he walked in.
Bri just stood there with her mouth open having been rendered speechless by what she was seeing. Troy looked around at the size of what he was seeing. It was something that had confused him when he had seen it in his vision.
Walking over to one of the tubes he looked inside. There the figure no longer looked humanoid, but human.
“They’re growing humans,” Bri finally asked regaining her voice.
“Not growing, cloning,” Troy said as he looked at the figures.
“Clones, that doesn’t make any sense,” Nall said as he looked around at the entire cavern. If the Arbus were making clones then they were making a lot of them for some reason.
“No, not at the moment but I’m sure as we gain more knowledge it will,” Troy said. “I think we should get out of here,” he said looking down at where a few figures were standing but had not noticed them yet.
“I think you’re right,” Bri said turning to leave the room.
They quickly walked back into the hallway and made their way to where the vipers were. It would be an interesting debriefing that was for sure. The way back to the vipers was still unguarded which also made Troy curious. Where was everyone? It made him a bit nervous not seeing anyone. But if he made it all the way back he would take it this time.
*****
“Commander, the rest of green squad is coming up from the planet,” Renee said.
“That’s the best news I’ve heard yet. Tell the Tiger to start heading back to Earth,” Ares said. Pratt relayed the message to the commander of the Tiger as the three vipers began landing on the Argo.
Once the three vipers were back aboard the Argo the battlestar began its journey back to Earth. Ares asked for the three pilots to meet him in the conference room after detox had been done. The others would also be there. He wanted to know what had happened down on the planet’s surface.
He did not have to wait too long before Senator Sam Harvey walked into the room. The man looked like he had just been in a place he did not want to be.
“Sit down senator,” Ares said motioning for him to take a chair.
“Thank you commander, its been a long day,” Sam said sitting down. He knew that there was still a lot of work to be done but for now needed to work on what had just happened while everything was still fresh in their minds.
Ares waited as General Pakrov walked into the room as well as another man. It was not much longer when Troy, Bri and Nall walked into the room.
“All right now that everyone is here let’s find out what happened,” Ares said. “I assume that this was suppose to be some sort of peace meeting or something like that?”
“That is what we were lead to believe,” Pakrov said looking at the man next to him.
“It was a meeting to clear up a mistake that had been made,” the man said. “We were supposed to talk not shoot each other. What did you do up here in space.”
“Nothing except that the fleet walked into a trap,” Ares said.
“I don’t believe that,” the man said.
“The Argo arrived at the meeting site early. We watched as a large number of Arbus attack ships arrived before the meeting was scheduled. They then hid behind the moons and other places to avoid detection by the Tiger and Cheetah. After you had shuttled down the ships came out of hiding and attacked without provocation,” Ares said. “We have the videos and scanner records if you wish to see it.”
“So you say,” the man said.
“Oh like we were real threatening in the meeting room,” Sam said. “We were just standing there waiting when they walked in and without saying anything they opened fire on us.”
Ares’ eyebrows shot up at that. “No warning,” Ares asked.
“No,” Sam said.
“We barely survived,” Pakrov said. “Though the escape was a bit too easy.”
“We uncovered something on the way out,” Troy said. “We walked down the corridor a ways then went into one of the rooms.”
Ares wondered what they had found if anything. He had a feeling that they had found something by the tone in Troy’s voice though.
“The room was a large cavern filled with what appeared to be clones of human,” Troy said.
“Clones,” several others said at the same time.
“It appeared to be hundreds of them,” Nall said.
“Why would they be cloning humans,” Sam asked out loud.
“That is a good question,” Ares said as he thought about it all. He had a feeling that he had all the pieces now and just had to put them together.
“Maybe their bodies are not that good or something like that,” Nall said posing out a question.
“Could be but for some reason I doubt that,” Troy replied.
Ares decided that they would work on it later. Right now they were headed back to Earth and everyone was hoping that the Arbus had not attacked the planet.
*****
Ares walked back onto the bridge knowing less now then he did earlier. He had been given more clues to whatever this war was about but nothing to hold it all together. He wondered what it was that this war was about. Where did the human clones fit in and why?
“Commander, report coming in from Captain Scott,” Renee said from where she was sitting.
“Put it though,” Ares said.
“Commander Ares, good news ta report,” the man said. “Everything here appears ta be fine.”
“Good, keep your scanners sharp though. We don’t know if they planned an attack later on or not,” Ares said.
“Ah will,” Scott replied.
Ares leaned back with a sigh. So that would be good news for everyone. It meant that they would not have to be fighting to get back home again. Ares briefly wondered if they would ever make it home again with the way things were going here.
He wondered if he should send some sort of message back to the Colonies or not. If he sent a message it could be picked up by the Cylons. It could then endanger Earth even more than it was right now. He also could not spare a ship to help out in the battle as even with the improved engines it would take a year to head to the Colonies and back again.
He thought about the different ways that he could get a communications to the Colonies. A laser beam transmission might work, but even it could be intercepted by the large distance it had to travel. There was also no guarantee that it would be picked up by anyone back at home.
After a few more minutes he did everything that he needed to do then decided that it was a good time to head to his quarters to get a bit of sleep in. There was nothing to do until he got back. He was also sure that the new Earth government would have a fit at what happened. But that was not his concern right now. He was a soldier and did what he was trained to do, fight the enemy.
*****
Troy walked over to where Bri, Nall and Rebecca were sitting. They were eating and he grabbed something as well and sat down.
“So how was your first combat experience,” Troy asked Rebecca. She had worked on the bridge helping out the crew with the flight operations during the battle.
“Interesting, though I will say that Commander Ares was not pleased when he learned that you were staying on the planet a bit longer,” Rebecca said.
“I can imagine,” Troy said. “He probably wanted to leave as soon as possible.”
“Yep, didn’t want to give the Arbus a chance to retaliate against us,” Rebecca said. “I’m just glad you made it,” she said looked at Nall.
“With them by my side, I’ll always make it,” Nall said pointing to the other two.
“Yeah, we all know that it won’t be the enemy that kills you,” Troy said with a laugh.
“Yeah, it will be Bri,” Rebecca said.
“This sweet little thing,” Nall said patting Bri on the head watching as she bared her teeth. “You’re probably right,” he said snatching his hand away with a smile.
“And don’t you forrrget it,” Bri said with a smug smile. She turned to see Gunther walking into the room. She noticed that he did not seem to be himself and excused herself from the group.
Troy watched as she made her way over to where Gunther had sat down with a drink. Troy had a feeling that he knew what she was up to before turning to Nall and Rebecca.
“Gunther is taking the loss of the Cheetah hard,” Nall said somberly.
“Yeah, it was his first command and I think he made a lot of friends on board the ship,” Troy said. “That would be a hard thing to swallow knowing that they didn’t put up a fight.”
“You don’t know that,” Rebecca said. “There could have been an internal struggle that we don’t know about.”
“You’re right there,” Nall said. “Anything could have happened.”
“Well we still need him,” Troy said. “Until we figure out what is happening there is no telling what will happen next.”
*****
Bri made her way over to where Gunther was sitting. She sat down next to him and waited for him to notice her. He glanced at her for a second before she finally said something.
“I’m not sure what to say Gunther,” Bri said. “Only that I’m sorry.”
“Its not you’re fault,” Gunther said. “Perhaps I didn’t prepare them enough.”
“If you’re going to go that route then a lot of us are at fault,” she said causing him to look up. “Who do you think trained them to fly, to maintain the engines, the weapon systems and everything else that makes a ship a function?”
“Yeah, but I trained the commander,” Gunther replied.
“But you don’t know what happened there. It might have been something out of your control. Captain Reliy said that Ben didn’t seem like himself and was not going to defend the ship,” Bri said working logic into the conversation.
“It’s still a failure,” Gunther said.
“And we learn from our mistakes, its makes us better,” Bri said.
“You have to be so logical don’t you,” Gunther said.
“Nope just making you look at it from another angle. You are going to make a good captain one day, believe it,” Bri said to him.
“I guess if you’re going to be hounding me I have no choice,” Gunther said.
“Nope, now come on over and join us,” Bri said as they walked over to Troy, Nall and Jessica were sitting. Gunther realized that Bri was right which made him feel better.
In the back of Bri’s mind an idea began to take shape of everything she had seen lately.
*****
Ares was not looking forward to the next part. They had made it back to Earth without a problem. Now he had to talk to the Earth council which he was sure a lot of things would have to come out. He had wanted everything to remain a secret for a while longer but realized that he probably would not be able to keep the secret much longer.
Ares was also sure that the council would want to know what happened to the meeting that was supposed to occur. He was still not sure what happened except that it was an ambush. If everything had gone the way the Arbus wanted the Earth would not be defenseless.
“Shuttle ready commander,” the voice said over the intercom letting him know that everything was ready to shuttle him down to the planet’s surface. Senator Harvey, General Pakrov, the other surviving senator and the military council member would also be going down with him to help explain what happened. He could only hope that they listened to what they had to say.
The flight down did not take long and he was now standing outside the council room. He was ushered inside where the room was full and the President was standing in the middle of the room.
“Commander Ares,” the President said. “I’m glad you came. There are many things that the council would wish to discuss with you. From disserting you’re post to military treason. I’m sure once everything is out in the open I’ll have you’re command stripped from you,” he said.
Ares just looked at the President wondering if they would even get to what had happened at the meeting that had been scheduled with the Arbus.
“Now commander why don’t you tell us why you took off with the most powerful warship in Earth’s military then proceeded to destroy a meeting with the Arbus,” the President said.
Ares looked around at the people gathered before finally speaking. “All right, first off you don’t have the authority to dismiss me from command of the Argo,” he said causing an outburst from several senators in the area.
“We are the governing body here,” the President said.
“Yes, but Earth isn’t my home,” Ares said. “It’s actually about a half a year’s travel from here.”
“So you’re an alien,” the President asked.
“No, human like you, just a different tribe,” Ares said. “I come from the Colonies, a group of twelve tribes of mankind. Earth is the thirteenth. You see we’re at war.”
“With the Arbus, of course, so now you bring you’re war here where it is not welcome. We’ll make peace with them and you can continue you’re war with them,” the President said interrupting Ares.
“No, not the Arbus, a race of machines called the Cylons,” Ares said. “They have one goal, to destroy everything not like them. If our war ends in failure then it will be only a matter of time before they come here. Then they will fight both you and the Arbus.”
“And you expect me to believe this,” the President said.
“Look, I took my crew back and waited to see what would happen. We went to the meeting place secretly to check it out. What we saw was the Arbus fleet taking up positions for an ambush of the fleet. That did occur once the ‘ambassadors’ had been shuttled down to the planet’s surface,” Ares said to the group.
“And you say that you didn’t try and provoke them into attacking you,” the President said.
“No, in the meeting room they came in and opened fire never saying anything to us,” Sam said speaking up from where he was.
“We also lost one ship, the Cheetah which never returned fire at all,” Pakrov said.
“I find this incredible,” the President said.
“Incredible or not, it’s true,” Ares said. “In fact when rescuing the group we found out something else. A large cavern of what appeared to be human clones.”
“Clones,” the President asked not sure what that meant.
“Yes, we’re still not sure of what that means either,” Ares said.
He was about to say more when he was interrupted by an aide. She told him that someone from the Argo wanted to talk to him and would not take no for an answer. The President decided that now would be a good time for a break anyways and allowed it. Ares walked out of the room to see what was going on.
*****
Ares was a bit surprised when he saw Bri’s face on the screen. It was the one person that he was not expecting.
“Lieutenant Bri, I wasn’t expecting to see you,” Ares said.
“I know,” Bri said suddenly feeling nervous about why she had called and insisted on seeing the commander.
“What did you want,” Ares asked wondering what she had to say.
“I’ve been thinking about everything that we’ve seen lately. From how people have been acting to what happened just recently and I think I’ve got it figured out,” Bri said.
“Really, what,” Ares asked suddenly intrigued.
“The clones, they are substituting people of influence with clones who will do their bidding,” Bri said. “It makes sense. When the Arbus attacked the people in power did nothing because it was what they were programmed to do.”
“Interesting,” Ares said as he thought about it. If Bri was right then they would not be able to separate those who were clones against those who were not clones.
“By controlling the military and government they could conquer the planet without much resistance. By the time people tried to resist it would be too late,” Bri said.
“It would explain the clones you saw,” Ares said.
“It would also mean that the only ones not for sure to be clones would be us,” Bri said meaning those who had been on board the Argo.
“That might be true,” Ares said. The Arbus had probably been planning this invasion for a while. The arrival of the Argo and her crew put a damper on the plan. It did explain quite a bit in Ares’ mind.
The loss of interest of space exploration. The government’s obsession with the sea and several people’s pure resistance to fighting the Arbus. He wondered if the President was a clone as well. It would be hard to tell a clone from someone who just was against a war regardless of the situation even if it meant their destruction. He would have to talk with Doctor Weaver if they could come up with a way to find out if a person had been cloned or not.
The call came to head back into the meeting room. He thanked Bri and said he would see what he could do about it. She had opened up a possible situation to what had been going on. It just might be enough.
End of part 34