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Battlestar Argo

By

AJ Marks

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Ares looked out from his spot on the bridge at everyone doing their jobs. They had been in space now for well over a yehren and there was still no sign of Earth. There were some who wondered how far away the planet was or if the thirteenth tribe even made it to the planet.

Ares was beginning to have doubts that Earth even existed at all. He knew that some others also had questions about it as well. Some others like Troy seemed to have no doubts about the existence of the planet Earth at all. It was something that Ares had a feeling was stirring just under the surface with the crew.

Pratt had encountered a few of the crew whispering among themselves about the sanity of the commander of the ship and of the mission. Several thought that perhaps it was time to return back to the colonies. They had now be gone over a yehren and it had been a long time since the last encounter with any other human race.

Some thought that they had missed the planet and that it was time to turn back to find them. Ares was not sure about what to do anymore. The crew seemed to be torn but he had a gut feeling that they should stay on their present course. His gut feeling had rarely been wrong so he was not used to not trusting it.

"Hello commander," Pratt said as he walked onto the bridge to begin his shift.

"Colonel, how are you doing," Ares said looking over to where Pratt was coming up to where he was.

"Well, things seem to be quiet on the rumor front today. I think the resent arrival of the colony news helped for now," Pratt said having read the latest news on the war against the Cylons. Some of the stories held a note of something that Pratt felt was strange. There was something going on in the background that he could not figure out.

"I know what you mean," Ares said. "I was reading over the latest military communiqués that came in. There are a few skirmishes but nothing major lately."

"You don't think the Cylons are going to try that sneak attack again," Pratt asked. The last time the Cylons had tried such an attack they had foiled part of the plan.

"I don't know, but I do know that we are too far away to do anything about it," Ares told him.

Pratt realized that Ares was saying the truth. They were too far away to help out at the moment. A thought went through Pratt's mind. What if the fleet was destroyed along with the colonies while they were out here? Then what would they do?

"What would happen if the fleet was destroyed," Pratt asked as he thought about that.

"I once asked that same question to Commander Backus, and his reply was if any ship remained of the fleet then the commander would probably take as many ships as he could and head away from the colonies," Ares said as he recalled what Troy had said about that. That was something he was not going to mention at the moment. Troy had seen the destruction of the fleet and once battlestar surviving. If that was the truth then Earth needed to be ready.

"Then Earth will need to be ready to defend itself," Pratt said.

"Well, that is our mission," Ares said. "The largest problem was at this distance from the colonies there is little we can do to provide support for the colonies. The most we can do is gather up a fleet to send to help."

"Kind of like a remote shipyard," Pratt said.

"Something like that," Ares said even though he had never thought about it like that.

"And I wonder if they will ever remember the other tribes," Pratt said more to himself than anyone else.

"I think that will be our first challenge," Ares said having spent quite a bit of time thinking about such things. "We’ll worry about that when the time arrives I guess."

Weaver was excited. He had been working on this now for almost half a yehren and his work was now paying off. His assistant had been sent to fetch the commander as the doctor knew that he would want to know about this.

Weaver had just finished setting up the program when his assistant stepped back into the room along with Commander Ares. The commander stopped just inside the room at what he saw.

"What," Ares said as he looked at the sight before him. Standing right in front of him was two doctors. Each was standing there looking right at him with their arms crossed. "Doctor Weaver," Ares said looking back and forth between the two men standing there.

Ares glanced over at the assistant who did not seem to be bothered by what he saw at all. Ares was sure that they had not been experimenting with clones so he had to wonder what was going on here.

"This does seem to be a bit different, or I've finally cracked," Ares finally said.

"Oh, don't worry commander," one of the doctors said allowing the other to finish the thought. "You have not gone mad."

"That's comforting, I guess," Ares said still not sure what he was seeing or how he was seeing it.

"You remember that strange device we picked up on one of the first missions," one of the doctors asked Ares.

"Yeah," Ares said remembering the strange rectangular device that Bri had picked up on their first mission. It has some sort of holographic technology in it. Then it hit him. "One of you is a hologram."

"Correct," the other Weaver said.

"Now can you guess which on is which without touching us," the first Weaver said to Ares.

Ares looked at first one then the other trying to gain something that would help him in this task. He walked towards both of them and took a close look at the each of them and noticed nothing that could give away the fact that one was not real. He finally was forced to admit that he did not know which was which.

"I am," Weaver said as he pushed a button and one disappeared. "It’s a remarkable technology," he said picking up the rectangular piece in question.

"You mean you were able to duplicate it," Ares asked in a bit of disbelief.

"Yes, the technology itself it quite simple but learning how to create one takes a bit more experience," Weaver replied. "I took me almost a yehren to figure out all the pieces, but once I did it's amazing."

"I see, I can also see the practical implications that it can be put to," Ares said thinking that if he had such a technology against the Cylons it would be an advantage for the colonies. Then another thought came to him. "Can we use this to create an even bigger hologram?"

"How big," Weaver said wondering how big the commander was thinking.

"The size of a battlestar," Ares asked.

"I don’t know. The power required goes up with the size of the hologram but it should be possible," Weaver said as he thought about it. In theory there was no limit to the size of the hologram but the limiting factor was power.

"Do you have any idea how much power such a hologram would require," Ares asked wondering if a battlestar would have the power requirements for such a task.

"I'm not sure, I'll work on it and let you know," Weaver said.

"Good, I look forward to the report doctor, and good work," Ares said with a smile.

"Thanks commander," Weaver replied.

Nall walked down the hallway towards where he knew his friends would be. He had already met with Jax and Renee so far today. The latest news was not that good. People were getting bored and antsy about the long confined voyage in space. Not that he could blame them but the group making the most noise was the group that had been loyal to Able when the stranger had been aboard the ship.

Nall had heard bits and pieces of conversations that had him worried about the mission. Even if they turned around it would take them half a yehren to return back to the colonies at full speed.

Nall walked into the room quickly scanning it for his friends. He found them sitting by the bar having a drink. Taking a moment to look at them he noticed that Bri and Troy were close to each other. Over the past yehren they had become even closer than he thought they would. Every time he saw them together he wondered when they would finally join together. He had the feeling that if they were back at the colonies they would have joined some time ago. Now he had one other agenda as well.

Walking up to Troy he sat down next to him then looked at the two of them. When he really knew that their relationship was becoming a bit more serious he had begun to withdraw not wanting to ruin it for Bri. He was glad when Troy and Bri had both told him not to stop his relationship with Bri. Troy was comfortable with Nall and knew that the two of them shared a special friendship. That and it diverted attention away from Troy when he did something wrong.

"I see I caught you two here," Nall said as he ordered some ambrosia. He had just gotten off duty so he had time.

"Yeah, we were just keeping an eye on Jax over there," Bri said to him.

"What's going on," Nall asked wondering what Jax had gotten herself involved with now.

"Take a look at who she's talking with lately," Troy replied.

Nall took a casual glance around finding Jax then who she was spending time with at the moment. Nall recognized the man as one from the engine room. He also was one of the ones who was trying to gain support for heading back to the colonies.

"Do you think there could be trouble," Nall asked.

"I don't know," Troy said. "Ever since our encounter with Able the visions have been rare."

"Why haven't you said anything before," Bri said as she looked at Troy. She was a bit worried that something might be wrong and he had ignored it.

"It could mean several things Bri," Troy said. "One is this is just a dry spell, another is I never see anything that directly effects myself or there is nothing out there to see lately."

"Or something could be wrong," Bri said a bit worried.

"But I have had a few visions, but they were minor," Troy said to Bri.

"Well I'm not worried," Nall said. "You'll get it back. Its kinda like sex," Nall said with a grin. "You go though dry spell occasionally then it picks up again."

"Only you would compare sex with visions," Bri said.

"Hey, if you have a vision with me and a drop dead gorgeous woman let me know," Nall said to Troy watching as Bri let her head fall to the bar top in disbelief.

"You are a pervert," Bri mumbled from her position.

"I think he was just doing that to get a rise out of you sweetheart," Troy said rubbing her back.

"Did it work," Nall said in his most sexy voice.

"Why did I get stuck with a perverted friend," Bri said glancing up towards the ceiling.

"Because I'm so lovable," Nall replied wiggling his eyebrows at Bri as Troy started to laugh.

Troy found that the banter between Bri and Nall was quite funny and realized that Martin probably did as well. They had talked about the man quite often and wondered what he was doing now. The one thing that Troy was sure of was he was to meet the woman he loved out there. It was strange to think about that at times. He also had a vision of another warrior who would be helped by Martin's crashed ship to get back home.

Troy suddenly saw another place and another time. His visions were not gone as he realized he was having another one. He saw Nall standing on the surface of a planet along with a few others. The planet seemed to have an advanced race on it. Someone came running up to Nall and handed him a message. Troy could see from the message that it was important.

Troy watched in amazement as Nall turned to a woman and kissed her then picked up a child and kissed the child as well. He then turned and walked away quickly with the messenger. Then the vision was over and Troy glanced at Nall strangely.

"You all right there Troy," Nall asked wondered why Troy was looking at him like he was.

"Oh, nothing much," Troy said turning to Bri with a smile on his face.

"Where did you go there," Bri asked.

"Later," Troy whispered in her ear.

"I'll hold you to that then," Bri replied.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Nall said draining the rest of his drink then got up.

The three of them walked out of the room.

Jax was sure that the engineer was pretty full of himself. She had had some fun with him but now it was getting boring. She looked around and noticed that Bri, Troy and Nall were walking out of the room. She wondered if Nall would be interested in a night of fun. Her current flame was not that good. That and he was constantly starting to get on her nerves about his abilities and ideas.

Now he was droning on about what he would do if he was in command of the Argo. Jax realized while he was speaking that he really thought he was a better commander than Ares was.

"We should turn around now. We could help with the war effort more than being out here," the man said.

"You would go against orders then," Jax asked looking right at the man.

"If I had to, yes," the man replied without missing a beat. "Sometimes the greatest leaders do what they are told not to do."

"And sometimes it get us all killed," Jax replied. It was becoming obvious to her that the man did not have a clue what it took to command.

"Well at least I know what the crew wants," the man said again.

"Really, then what do the pilots say," Jax asked.

"The pilots," he asked confused. "They are part of the crew who want to head back home."

"Uh, no, I haven't heard of one pilot expressing wishes to head home, or are the pilots not part of the crew," Jax asked her eyes narrowing as she waited for his answer.

"Who cares about pilots, we're the ones who make the ship run," the man said pointing to himself with his thumb.

Jax got up then poured her drink on the man. "Us pilots are the ones who will keep your happy ass safe when the Argo comes under attack," Jax said then turned and walked out of the room before she really did something she would later regret. Now she needed to find Nall.

The man was a bit surprised at what his current girl had done but shrugged it off. "Lover's quarrel," he told the others then used a towel and wiped himself off.

Nall was a bit surprised when Jax came into the room that they were in and headed straight for him. They had an on again off again relationship and right now it was off, or that's what he had thought.

"Hey handsome," Jax said as she slid into the seat next to Nall.

"Hello gorgeous," Nall said knowing what this was going too led to. He was not one to turn away a free gift that was for sure.

"I need to talk to you for a moment," Jax said as she quickly glanced around for anyone that she thought might be part of the group.

"All right," Nall replied wondering what Jax wanted. She had glanced around looking for others that he was a bit concerned.

"There's a growing movement in the crew," she said quietly so that only Nall could hear her. Nall remained quiet waiting to see what else Jax would tell him. "They want to turn around and go home."

Nall thought about that for a second. True he would not mind going home right now either but it would take quite some time for that to happen. There were a lot of other things to consider as well that he was sure the crew did not know.

"I think that they might try to overthrow the commander," Jax said knowing that it was something that might happen unless something happened soon.

"Interesting," Troy said. "Most everyone signed on for this mission with the knowledge that they might never make it back to the colonies."

"I know and you know that but they seemed to have forgotten that," Jax said quickly. She was not sure she wanted to get involved in whatever was going to happen.

"Who is saying this," Troy asked wanting the information for when he talked with the commander.

"Engineer Rickter," Jax said.

"Wasn't he one of the ones who supported Able," Nall asked remembering the man standing with Able.

"Yes he was," Jax replied as that was where they had first met.

"Then it seems that Able gave us more trouble then we first had thought," Troy said thinking about everything for a few moments. He wondered if Able was back on board the ship or not. Troy really hoped that the man had not made it back on board the ship. They were still investigating the ship that he had brought on board.

"Perhaps it is time we went and told the commander then," Bri said speaking up for the first time.

"I think so Bri," Troy said then turned to Jax. "I would like it if you came with us," he told her.

"I would rather stay away from the fall out of this. I have friends on both sides," Jax said. She was not sure she wanted to endanger her friendships just yet. That and there might be more information to come later one if they did not think she was giving it away.

"I understand," Troy said. "What about you Nall?"

"I'm with you," Nall replied without any hesitation. He would stand by Bri and Troy for sure regardless what anyone else said about him.

"Let’s go then," Troy said. The three of them got up and walked out of the room leaving Jax alone in the room. She just hoped that she had done the right thing in telling Nall.

Ares reviewed the latest report that came in from the colonies. It had just arrived so he could look over the military attachments that might go along with it. There was nothing much that could be considered important. It was filled with the normal information and supply logs that usually came with the fleet information. There had been no major battles for a while and a few skirmishes that were reported.

Glancing at the memo he noticed that the Pegasus was undergoing a refit to upgrade her weapon systems and that the Atlantia and Pacificia were scheduled next. The Galactica was scheduled for last of the refits he noticed. He wondered how Commander Adama felt about that. Ares often wondered that if Adama and Cain could be mixed together they would get the best commander ever. Footsteps on the bridge alerted him to fact that he had visitors on the bridge.

Ares was not surprised to see the trio of Troy, Nall and Bri coming towards him. The three were close friends who looked out for each other. The look on Troy's face told Ares that he had something serious to tell him. Ares wondered what type of vision he had seen this time.

"Commander, can we talk to you in private," Troy said when he reached Ares.

"Sure, Renee, you have the bridge until either Colonel Pratt or I come back," Ares said to the woman who nodded her head and went up to his position. Ares led the trio off the bridge and towards his office to talk. "All right what's up," Ares said once they were inside his office.

"There might be a problem commander," Troy said. "It seems that there is a growing part of the crew that wishes to head back home."

"Do you think they will try a mutiny," Ares asked not sure if he should prepare himself for such a thing or not. He had heard some rumblings about dissatisfaction among the crew but nothing lately.

"Well it seems that the group was also the ones who were with Able when he was on board," Troy said. "I haven't had anything that suggests a rebellion on board but I do see us on a planet, or should I say Nall is on a planet."

"Me," Nall said with a bit of shock then recovered. "Was I with a beautiful woman," he said wiggling his eyebrows. A smile had graced his face but was quickly replaced when Bri slapped him behind the head. "Ouch," Nall said with a bit of a pout. Bri had not hit him that hard but he was going to try and milk it.

"Don't try that one with me, I am the master of the pout," Bri said then gave Nall one of her own.

Ares just sat back in his chair watching as only this trio could do something like this. He let them continue to talk among themselves while he thought about what he needed to do to curb any pending uprisings on the Argo.

"Perhaps I should tell the crew the truth," Ares said out loud. That caught the trio's attention as they turned to him. Troy already knew what Ares was saying but he was not sure the others did.

"What truth," Bri said wondering if they had been lied to about their mission.

"The reason why we are on this mission," Ares said watching as two faces went blank. "The real reason is because several commanders of the fleet believe that unless something drastic can be done we will lose the war."

"Lose the war," Bri said not sure she heard correctly.

"Yes, the council keeps refusing to build new battlestars to replenish the fleet loses. Last I heard they finally commissioned the dockyards to begin designs for a new battlestar, but the rumor is they will only authorize one to be built," Ares said recalling everything that he could from the reports.

"Perhaps we should then," Troy said knowing that it might help but it could also backfire on them. It might demoralize the crew to hear such a thing.

"I'll think about it," Ares said.

Renee sat in the command chair of the Argo. It was something she had done more often as Pratt and Ares trained her for command of the battlestar as well. It was as if they knew something that she did not. She was not sure she liked that idea and hoped that nothing was wrong with either of them.

Her thoughts about the health or any other reasons for their training of her were cut off by the screen in front of her. It was showing that it was picking up some strange signals. Curiosity got the best of her and she fiddled with the controls to see if she could make out the signal and where it was coming from.

"That is really strange," Renee thought to herself as she continued to try and improve the signal. "Iolous, do you read a mysterious signal coming on?"

"Ah, yeah I do," Iolous replied as he too looked at his screen. "Running systems check," he said flipping the switches to see if anything was wrong with the scanners.

Iolous had just reported back that everything checked out when her screen came to life with an image she had never seen before. The image was a bit fuzzy but it showed a strange craft that appeared to be closing in on the surface of a planet.

There was an audio click then the words 'the eagle has landed' came over the speaker. Renee decided that it was time to get the commander.

"Commander to the bridge," Renee replied.

Ares heard Renee's message and quickly got up and ran to the bridge wondering what was going on. The trio was right behind him all the way to the bridge. He got up there in time to see an image on the screen just before it faded to static.

"What was that," Ares asked.

"That's what I called you up here for. We intercepted a message on a Gamma frequency and that image was part of it," Renee said pushing some buttons to bring up the recorded image they had intercepted.

The video was played back for everyone on the bridge. Finally Ares looked back at everyone hoping that someone would know what it was.

"That seemed to be like something I've seen from the old space faring days when we were just reaching out to space again," Nall said. "And at that time we used gamma frequencies."

"Where did it come from," Ares asked.

"Calculating now," Renee replied and a few moments later she had the answer. "On this path," she said outlining the direction on the map.

"This could be from Earth," Ares said. "Set our course to match where the signal came from. I think once this gets out it will quell the talk for a while."

"I hope your right commander," Troy said but had the feeling that it would.

The battlestar changed course and continued on its voyage. The video spread though the ship as the crew was able to view it and an excitement grew though the ship. The rumor was that the video came from Earth. The debate was now how far away the planet was and would they be reaching it soon.

Talk among the crew about heading back to the colonies abated for now. Their mission might actually have an ending. It would be a great feat for them indeed if they could find Earth. Many of the more religious ones were saying that it was by the act of God that they had found the message when they did. Many could not dispute that fact but did not contradict them.

Deep within the memory of the computers on board the Argo something stirred once the video had been received. Its time was coming soon and it would be ready.

End of Messages

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