Black Alpha One – Part 7

Black Alpha One

By AJ Marks

Part 7

Apollo landed on the flight deck of the Galactica glad the fighting had finally stopped. The arrival of reinforcements puzzled him and he hoped his father had more information about who they were, and what happened.  He noticed during the battle that the vipers looked slightly different, some had interesting painting schemes on the wings.  It was Colonial technology, but from where?

“Captain, the commander wants to see you right away,” one of the deck hands said as Apollo climbed out of his viper.

“All right,” Apollo replied with a nod of his head.

Handing off the helmet he headed towards the elevator and the bridge. A few seconds later he arrived and was surprised by the amount of activity going on.  He thought everything seemed in order, and made his way over to where his fathe rand Tigh were looking over several documents on the screen.

“I don’t know Tigh, the name doesn’t appear anywhere in our archives,” Adama finally said only adding to Apollo’s confusion. What were they looking for?

“Cylon trap?” Tigh asked.

“I thought about that, but why use names we’ve never heard before,” Adama stated turning to noticed Apollo standing there. “Ah, good, I need you and Starbuck to pilot a shuttle for me to head over and meet the group who helped us out.”

“Are you sure going over there is a good idea?” Apollo asked, seeing Tigh’s face and knew he had asked the same question.

“I want to see their technology, it’s similar yet different,” Adama replied back to him. “Something is going on, and I want an answer.”

“And if they’re Cylons?” Tigh asked. “How do I know if you’re the only coming back?”

“I’ll mention Zac,” Adama said.

Apollo watched the two of them before Tigh finally seemed to agree.

“I’ll go find Starbuck, and a shuttle,” Apollo said, knowing he probably would get some information as well about what happened, and who they were.

He left the bridge and headed back down to the hanger to see if Starbuck even landed yet. He was told by the bridge officer he just missed Starbuck.  Turning Apollo headed to the officer’s club.  It took only a few seconds for him to find the blond hair of his buddy, and made his way over stopping by Starbuck, who looked up at him.

“We have a new mission,” he said to Starbuck. “Commander Adama wants us to pilot a shuttle over to meet our new allies.”

“Oh, why are we going over there?” Starbuck asked.

“Said something about wanting to see their technology,” Apollo said honestly, giving the same answer his father gave Tigh. He watched Starbuck grumble a bit but stood and headed out with him despite every other pilot listening in on the conversation.  They probably all wanted to know who had helped them as well.

Making their way back down to the hanger they prepped a shuttle for launch, quickly going over the pre-launch list. As they finished up Apollo noticed his father walking towards the shuttle along with a couple of members from the council, who quietly got comfortable.

Receiving the flight data he launched and headed towards the unknown fleet. Apollo noticed the ship appeared very similar to a battlestar, and things looked similar, but he caught glimpses of things which were totally alien to him. The smaller ships looked totally alien to him but seemed to have Colonial weapons on them.  Everything only seemed to deepen the mystery surrounding this fleet.  The biggest relief was he saw nothing which looked Cylon.

Approaching the battlestar he was even more caution, despite the fact they were given landing instructions, by way of information into their navigation computers. Apollo followed the instructions and landed easily on the flight deck, like any other battlestar.

Exiting the shuttle he noticed it looked similar to the Galactica’s hanger. Waiting as the rest of the group exited the shuttle he noticed a group of people opposite of them, standing there.  It felt awkward as no one made any move.

“What’s going on?” Starbuck asked, looking at the group and then Apollo.

“No idea,” Apollo replied, keeping an eye out for a trap.

They were dressed differently, and one man in white seemed to look over at the elevator, annoyed at something. Even as Apollo wondered how much longer his father would wait, the doors to the elevator opened allowing a small blonde-haired woman, wearing a tan uniform to someone on the bridge of the Galactica, stepped out and headed towards them.  She spoke rapidly with the man in white, but nothing Apollo understood, before turning towards them.

“Welcome aboard the Battlestar Seydlitz, I am Ensign Gabrielle Conner,” she said to them.

“Commander Adama of the Battlestar Galactica,” Adama replied as they watched her translate to the man. This time Apollo heard Adama and Galactica.  Somehow they spoke another language, but knew theirs.  It only added to the mystery.

“This is our commanding officer, Admiral Ryan Anders,” Gabrielle said to them. “We are sure you have a lot of questions.”

“Yes, like who are you, and how do you know of us?” Adama asked.

“I can answer all your questions, but first would you like to be more comfortable?” she asked. “We have some meeting rooms which would be more comfortable to talk in.”

“Our shuttle?” Apollo asked.

“It will be safe here,” she said.

“I suggest we stay together,” one of the council members said, and Apollo had to agree, at least until they knew who they were talking to. Adama seemed to understand as well.

“Lead on,” Adama said.

Apollo watched as she again translated and then motioned for her to follow them and they headed off towards the elevator, as Apollo looked on seeing how similar the Seydlitz was to the Galactica.

*****

Gabrielle walked down the corridor along with everyone else able to listen in on the conversations going on. It was exciting to actually use the language with someone who spoke it fluently as opposed to the practice she had when in her group.  She could not mess up and speak her native language and have them understand.  Of course her group used the language often when they didn’t want others to know, especially in public.

Now her skills were challenged unlike anything before as she tried to listen in on their conversations. She heard one of them mention something about a Cylon trap and shook her head.  She knew it wasn’t a trap, but they would learn soon enough.

Entering the room she waited as everyone took a seat even as she sat down next to the admiral. He should know some of the language, but she knew he probably hadn’t kept up with it.  The fact he deferred to her so much meant he probably had not.

Looking at the group across from her she saw two warriors, both appeared in their late twenties, and two older men both with white hair. They seemed to have positions of power and now with an uneasy silence she wondered who should break the silence first.  She finally decided to go first.

“This is Captain Otto Akula of the Seydlitz, and Captain Pei Chin of the battlestar Kiev,” Gabrielle said, introducing the other two in the group.

“This is senator Uri of the Council of Twelve,” Adama said introducing the other older man. “And Captain Apollo,” the man with dark hair, “and Lieutenant Starbuck,” he said motioning to the man with blond hair.

Gabrielle quickly relayed the information to the others.

“You don’t speak our language?” Uri asked.

“No, your language is not native to my world,” Gabrielle replied.

“Then how do you know our language, and have Colonial technology?” Adama asked sounding confused by everything.

Gabrielle quickly informed Admiral Anders she would be explaining what happened ten years ago, knowing she didn’t need permission to relay that story.

“Roughly ten of our years ago, a little longer than a yahren, my planet was struck with a great tragedy. An object fell from space and circled our planet in its atmosphere before crashing in a remote area of the planet.  The shock waves were destructive, killing millions when buildings were damaged, or destroyed,” Gabrielle said to them, the day their lives had changed forever much like this day would.

The group in front of her seemed to wait to hear what she might say next.

“Officials raced to see what had fallen and were shocked to discover a spaceship. It was unlike anything we had ever seen before, and badly damaged, but our top scientists spend a year learning its secrets.  During the process we learned your language due to a computer program on board,” she said to them.

“The translation program,” Adama said, referring to a small program in case an alien race was encountered.

“Yes, it allowed our computers to talk with what survived on the battlestar,” Gabrielle stated. “We learned about the war against the Cylons and my government decided to keep such knowledge secret stating it was an asteroid which crashed into the planet.  We had no idea if the war was still going on or not, or how long the ship had been drifting in space before its arrival.”

“What about the astrological program?” Uri asked.

“Those were destroyed, otherwise we might have known how far the ship travelled, otherwise we only knew the direction which it came from,” Gabrielle answered wondering what else they would learn.

“So, this ship is based off a battlestar which crashed on your planet,” Adama said, sounding surprised.

“Yes, our scientists spend a lot of time studying it. Sadly, no one survived the landing,” Gabrielle said to them before turning to a more serious subject, one everyone wanted to know the answer to.  “I need to ask this question, is the war still going on?”

She figured it was due to the fact they had been fighting, but the looks she received caused her some concern. She felt something major happened and now had to wait to hear what it might be.

“I guess it depends on what you mean by still going on,” Adama said confusing Gabrielle for a second before he continued. “If you mean the Cylons still want to eliminate us, then yes, its still going on.  But there has been a large development in the time between this battlestar was destroyed and now.  The fleet and the Colonies have all been destroyed.”

Gabrielle blinked, unsure what to make of this bit of information. She had not expected to hear such an admission of defeat.  Sure it was possible, and it was one of the many scenarios dreamed up when discussion what might happen upon discovering either the Colonials or the Cylons.

“What?” Ryan questioned snapping Gabrielle out of her daze. “What was that last part, I didn’t catch it.”

“The Colonies have been destroyed, along with their fleet,” Gabrielle replied back to him.

“What? How?” Ryan asked, this time in the Colonial language.

“It’s a long story, but the Cylons came to us asking for peace. Using a councilman they disabled our defenses and brought our guard down.  With such surprise they completely destroyed our fleet and the colonies,” Adama said.  “One battlestar survived and we’re leading the survivors away, looking for the thirteenth tribe, Earth.”

“Where?” Gabrielle asked not sure she heard correctly.

“Earth, the thirteenth tribe of humanity,” Adama said.

Gabrielle blinked upon hearing the statement. She cast a look over at the admiral, who appeared to have caught enough of the exchange to understand her confusion.  She wondered what the others might do with this information once they learned it.  It was shocking enough to learn about the destruction, but the fact they were looking for Earth, beyond anything she ever expected when waking up this morning.

End part 7

Concluded in part 8