Disclaimers: ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and its characters belong to Universal City Studios, USA. This story is intended strictly for enjoyment to the reader.

Send Comments to: AJMarks01@aol.com

Battlestar Argo

By

AJ Marks

The Atlantians

Ares was just about to head back to the meeting room with the remaining government officials when the call from Argo came. Doctor Weaver wanted him to see something back on Centari One. He was reluctant to leave and was glad that he bumped into Troy and his group.

"Captain, I'm glad I ran into you," Ares said. "Would you be willing to head back to Centari One and find out what doctor Weaver has discovered for me?"

"Yeah, I think Nall wanted to go back anyways," Troy said. The three of them could go on back and report back to the commander.

"Good," Ares said. "You leave immediately."

He was gone before anyone could say anything else. Troy and Bri looked at each other in puzzlement then with a shrug they looked at Nall.

"Don't ask me, I don't know either," he replied. "We should probably get going. Knowing the commander he had already contacted the Hermes about this and will be waiting."

The group walked away from where they had just been talking towards the shuttle pad. There was a waiting shuttle heading to the Hermes.

"I wonder what the doctor has discovered," Bri said as they climbed aboard the shuttle.

"Don't know but this should be interesting," Troy said.

Weaver waited for Troy, Bri and Nall to land in the landing bay of the base. He had been told by Commander Ares that things were still a bit sticky at Earth and the government so they were coming instead. He didn't mind really. He just wanted someone else that he trusted there to help him out.

The shuttle landed and the three people walked out. Weaver walked over to where they were standing to greet them.

"Doctor Weaver, Commander Ares says that you've found something interesting," Troy said after the greetings had been exchanged.

"Yes, the find has been real interesting lately," Weaver said. "We were investigating one of the smaller metal deposits nearby and discovered something really interesting."

"All right," Troy said not sure if this was the time to go off on an archeological dig or something like that.

"We found a spaceship, or at least I believe it’s a spaceship," Weaver said. That got everyone's attention. It was not everyday that they find a buried spaceship nearby.

"Any idea as to who built it," Troy asked.

"We haven't gone inside yet. We're still concentrating on uncovering it to se how much is intact," Weaver said. "I'm planning to open the door here in the next couple of Earth hours."

"I think I would like to be there for that," Troy said his curiosity peaked at the thought of such a mystery.

"Good, put your things up and we'll go out right away," Weaver said a bit of excitement in his voice.

"We'll meet you at the doors then," Troy said as they parted.

"Found a spaceship," Nall said as they walked along.

"Sounds incredible," Bri said.

"Incredible but true," Rebecca voice said from behind them.

"Hey," Nall said giving her a hug.

"So I take it you've seen it then," Troy asked her.

"What little there is too see so far," Rebecca replied. "So far all they have is a what looks like a metal sheet uncovered along with what appears to be a hatch."

"A hatch," Nall said.

"Yeah, looks like it landed on its side or something," Rebecca said.

"That should make for an interesting exploration then," Troy said. "That is if any of the ship still remains."

They arrived at the temporary quarters and set their bags inside. They then made their way to the hatch and the dig site that this spaceship was at. There were a lot of questions that needed to be answered for this mystery.

Pratt walked in to the room the next morning to see Ares already sitting in the room. He briefly wondered if the man had gotten any sleep during the night. He had heard that Ares had sent Captain Troy and Lieutenants Bri and Nall back to Centari One. Doctor Weaver had discovered something nearby that he wanted the commander there to see.

"Did you get any sleep last night Ares," Pratt asked as he sat down next to him.

"No, not really," Ares said. "There is so much to do. I spent a good portion of the night talking with Sam and John about what the officials on Earth would do. I haven't yet told the others about the fact that we're not from Earth."

"Ah, the sticking point," Pratt said.

"Yeah, they might view us as part of the Arbus, or a group that is fighting them or something like that," Ares said.

"Hadn't thought of that," Pratt said.

"Yeah, Sam mentioned that one," Ares said.

"I can see where that might be a problem," Pratt said. "We might want to be careful then."

"Yeah, but I know that questions will begin to come soon," Ares said. "Especially once they get a look at the ships and begin to wonder where they came from."

"So what was so important that you sent Troy, Nall and Bri back to Centari One," Pratt asked.

"Doctor Weaver's team discovered a spaceship buried near the base," Ares said.

A whistle came from Pratt at that statement. "A spaceship, that quite a find," Pratt said.

"I know, I'm waiting for the next report," Ares said. The door opened causing them both to look up at the incoming group. Several people walked in to begin the next day's discussions.

Pratt observed that most of them also looked like they had not slept much last night. He was sure that it would continue until they finally hashed out a new government system. There was going to be a lot of work to do.

Ares stifled a sigh as more people came in. It would be another day of arguing about this and that when in the long run such trivial matters did not matter. There would be more arguments from the Middle East and the Asian sectors. Ares could only hope that they realized that they were at war and that their arguments only hindered their abilities to defend themselves.

Bri glanced at the dig sit in a way a bit disappointed by what she saw. They were looking at a hole in the ground. She guessed that seeing that there would be a spaceship sitting above ground would be unreasonable. Walking over to the edge of the ground she looked down to see what they had uncovered.

There was the hatch that Weaver had said they had uncovered. They had uncovered some wording that she strained to try and recognize. Some of it almost reminded her of the writing they had found back on Kobol. But she was not an expert in reading the ancient language.

"Have you been able to translate the writing," Bri asked as she turned to Doctor Weaver.

"Not yet. I haven't been able to determine what base language to use yet," Weaver said. "Of course there is a chance that the ship was built by some unknown race."

"So when do we go in," Troy said.

"Well, that's more up to you. We don't know what to expect once inside," Weaver said. "I would prefer that an exploring team go in first."

"I'll volunteer," Troy said.

"Actually I was hoping that you would lead it," Weaver said.

"All right," Troy replied then took another look down at where the hatch was. It would be an interesting adventure that was for sure. He glanced over at Bri and Nall. He figured that they would want to be on the team. He was not sure if anyone else should go along though. A smaller team might be better this time. He went with Bri and Nall to gather what supplies they might need.

Weaver watched as the hatch was opened for the first time in a long time by Troy. They had on oxygen tanks just in case the air inside the ship was contaminated. Everyone else was away from the site just in case of something happened that they were not expecting.

Troy opened the hatch and let out a breath of relief. He turned on the flashlight so he could see what was inside. They were correct in that the ship was on its side.

"All right doctor, we're going in," Troy said over the radio. Weaver was also watching what they were seeing though the cameras on their hats.

The three of them made their way inside the ship using a rope to get inside. One they hit a solid foothold on a flat surface they looked around some more.

"Well, this is strange," Nall said as he glanced around. The ship's corridor seemed to be in good shape.

"Yeah, walking on the wall is just freaky," Bri said as she looked at their floor which was actually the wall of the corridor.

"Let's see if we can find anything," Troy said as they made their way around to what he hoped was the front of the ship.

"More of the strange writing," Nall said as he glanced at a doorway. The door was open and he peaked inside for a few moments. The room appeared to be someone's quarters at one time. There was stuff all over the far wall, like a frame for a bed, desk, and chair.

"Looks more like something humanoid would use," Bri said remembering the strange furniture that she had seen on another remote planet when they had first left the colonies.

Troy nodded his head and then said that the should continue. There was still a lot to do and see before they left. The continued down the corridor before reaching a turn in the corridor. Part of it went straight another part when what appeared to be the other side of the ship.

"Shine you're light down there," Troy said. He could see a door about halfway down that he had a good feeling about. "Let's try that door if we can."

It took a bit of effort but they were able to get Bri down there to the door. Troy also figured that the room on the other side would be bigger than other rooms.

Bri managed to open the door and looked around inside. It appeared to be some sort of command room. Most of the chair and furniture were bolted to the ground giving it a strange look to her.

"It looks like a command room or something like that," Bri said.

"Let's see if we can find anything there," Troy said.

Weaver watched on from where he was sitting. They had three monitors each showing a view of one of the three down in the ship. So far he could see that they were inside some sort of control room for the spaceship. He was not sure if it was the bridge or not by looking. He really wished that there was power to the ship.

Weaver could see the strange symbols all over the bridge but could not read any of them. The writing was similar to that back at the pyramids at Kobal. On another screen he brought one up to see if he could decipher what it was saying.

"Hey, Egyptian hieroglyphics," a voice said from behind him. Weaver turned to see who had come up and noticed Rebecca.

"Egyptian hieroglyphics," Weaver repeated.

"Yeah, it looks a lot like some of the hieroglyphics on the Egyptian pyramids on Earth," she replied.

"Can you read them," Weaver asked.

"Not that well," Rebecca said. "I took a class on it back in college but wasn't very good at it. There are probably people who do understand it back on Earth though."

"Hmm, that might be worth looking into," Weaver said. He wondered if the writing here was this Egyptian hieroglyphics that Rebecca was talking about. That would help them out quite a bit. Making a decision he made a brief video of what had been screen and sent it to the Argo to see if anyone on Earth could read it.

Rebecca watched as the doctor did some things on the computer. He had adapted quickly to the Earth technology better than a lot of others. Rebecca was wondering what the writing was doing on board that spaceship. It was something that she had not been expecting to see that was for sure.

Weaver and Rebecca wondered what surprise the ship had in store for them next.

Troy, Bri and Nall exited from the ship after exploring most of the ship. The engine room was a place that they decided not to head to. It would not be a place that they would want to try and explore while the ship was on its side. There was a lot of stuff lying on the around inside that Troy had not been expecting to discover.

What did not surprise him was the lack of paper or any other storage device. Of course there was the idea that whoever used this ship no longer used paper. They might have used something else that either they did not know what to look for or had long since been destroyed.

Troy handed off his oxygen tank to the nearest person who took it from him. He then helped out Bri and then Nall out of the hatch.

"Any idea as to what type of ship it was," Weaver asked.

"Looks like a type of small transport or maybe a small patrol ship," Troy said.

"Could it belong to the Arbus," Bri asked.

"Don’t' think so," Weaver said. "Rebecca thought that the writing was similar to some writing on Earth."

"And it a bit similar to what we found on Kobol. Could be a common language," Troy said.

"Maybe," Weaver said.

"Or just a large coincidence," Bri said.

"Could be, but we don't know," Weaver said. "We'll look over what you brought back and find out more."

The group walked away from the site as a group continued to work to clear the dirt away from the ship. They all knew that the work would be slow as most workers were up at the space dock working on the latest warship, the Cheetah destroyer.

Ares sighed as he walked back to the hotel that he was staying at. Even though he was outside on the planet he still missed his quarters back on the Argo for some strange reason. It was strange as he thought about that.

On the Argo he had recycled air and no organic interaction as he did on a planet. He had more room and more to see than on the Argo yet he considered the Argo his home. Pratt had gone back to the Tiger to do an extended patrol to check for any incoming Arbus ships. Ares was fully expecting to find out that a new group of ships was on their way.

The counter attack to free Earth had been completed two days ago and now they were trying to form a new government. Many people who survived the invasion were angry at the current governments. Ares could not blame them. They had found mass killing plants either under construction or had just started to go online all over the planet.

That was something that disturbed Ares a lot. They had also gotten back the blood work from the politicians who were against fighting. They were fully human according to the reports. Ares was really hoping that it would turn out to be an Arbus alien.

He opened up the report from Doctor Weaver as he sat down at the desk in the hotel room. It was the current report from what had been uncovered near the base at Centari One. The latest report was the writings on the ship seemed to be a combination of Kobol and Egyptian. That was a bit strange to Ares. The communicator chimed making him look over at it.

"Commander Ares," he replied.

"Commander, doctor Weaver here," the voice replied.

"Yes doctor, what can I do for you tonight," Ares asked.

"Tonight, is it that late," Weaver asked. "Oh, yeah it is. Oh well, I think I've found something," he said.

"Really, what did you find," Ares asked. His curiosity aroused by the tone in the doctor's voice.

"We've been trying to decipher the language on the ship as you know. With a bit of help from some of them on Earth we've discovered that one of the most common symbols on the ship is for Atlantis," Weaver said.

"Atlantis," Ares asked not sure what that had to do with anything.

"Oh, let me explain. There is a legend on Earth about an ancient advanced civilization on Earth. It was destroyed by a great flood and the civilization sank beneath the ocean," Weaver said. "Some of the stories also say that the Atlantians could travel in space."

"You think that Atlantis is what," Ares asked.

"The legend of Atlantis is the report of the thirteenth tribe from Kobol," Weaver said. "The ship we've uncovered is from Kobol or at least it ancestors."

"What's it doing out there," Weaver asked.

"I hope to learn more as we get the ship out of the dirt and power up its systems," Weaver said.

"Power it up," Ares asked.

"Oh yes, the dirt and atmosphere of the planet do not corrode the metals that the ship is made out of. And everything inside was preserved quite well in a sterile environment," Weaver said.

"Okay, keep me informed," Ares said. The doctor said that he would and the link went dead. Ares thought about what he had heard. So the thirteenth tribe of Kobol made it here. But once here what had happened and why was the ship on that planet. Not wanting to try and figure out anything else Ares decided that it was a good time to head to bed.

Pratt sat in the commander's chair of the Tiger as the ship made its way on the patrol. He was glad that the Argo was back in fighting condition. Both of its landing bays were operational again. They were given top priority in repairs. It was also decided that until the Argo's engines could be upgraded that the Tiger would head out on the patrols.

"Commander, picking up a ship on scanners," Ben said to Pratt.

"Course and speed," Pratt asked.

"Course if for Earth's system," Ben replied. "It should arrive there in a day at its current speed."

"Life forms," Pratt asked.

"Just a second, coming up now," Ben said. "Scanner says its Arbus life signs."

"A scout ship," one of the crewmen asked.

"Possible," Pratt said. "They would know that their station and ships were destroyed so its only logical that you send in something to find out what happened. Get me Commander Ares."

It did not take long until Commander Ares appeared on the line wanting to know what was going on. Pratt briefly described the situation of what they had found.

"Ares, I was thinking of attacking the scout before it could get near enough to scan the system," Pratt said.

"I think that would probably be wise. We don't need for them to know our forces," Ares said.

"We'll take care of commander," Pratt said.

"I'll be waiting for word on what happened," Ares said as the link went dead.

"Red alert, negative shield now," Pratt said. The familiar red lighting bathed the ship's interior in red as the crewmembers raced to their battlestations.

"All pilots have reported to their vipers and are awaiting orders," Ben said.

"Put in an intercept course to the scout ship," Pratt said.

"Course plotted and engaging," Bens aid as the Tiger turned to where the scout ship was coming in. "What about the pilots?'

"I want to try and hold off on launching them. If we can attack them before they know we're here it will be a great advantage for us," Pratt said. He really wanted to destroy the scout before it could get a warning off to whatever else was out there.

"Scout ship coming into range commander," the weapons officer said.

"Prepare to fire," Pratt said. He waited a bit longer as the Tiger moved closer.

"Still no sign that we've been detected commander," Ben said. "Range still closing."

Pratt watched as the range number got smaller. As they got closer their weapons would do more damage on the Arbus ship. The two mega turbo lasers were charged and ready.

"Fire," Pratt said.

The two mega turbo lasers opened fire on the scout ship. Both weapons hit the ship causing massive damage. It was not built to come under heavy weapons fire. That and they were taken completely off guard so their shields were down as well.

"Scout ship has taken heavy damage," Ben said.

The other weapon systems also opened fire on the scout ship causing even more damage. It took a few more hits then its engine went critical and exploded taking the ship with it.

"Target has been destroyed," Ben said.

"Good," Pratt said. It had been a bit easier than he had thought it would have been. "Keep all scanners manned. I have a feeling that we will be seeing more ships in a little while."

"Yes sir," Ben said.

"I'm going to my office to report it in," Pratt said. "Colonel Benyou has the bridge."

Ben acknowledged Pratt's order then took over where Pratt had been sitting. Pratt walked off the bridge and towards his office.

Ares sat back down at his desk at the large meeting room. In it were gathered delegates from all over the world. He had just sat back down when another report came to him. He glanced at it and was glad at what it said. The target had been destroyed.

"Commander Ares, you seem to be receiving a lot of messages lately, care to comment on them," one man said.

"If you must know, the Tiger just attacked and destroyed what appears to be an Arbus scout ship heading to Earth," Ares said. "It seems that they are not finished with us."

"So you say," the man said. "I for one still don't trust you and you're mysterious warships."'

Ares rubbed his eyes thinking that he hated politicians. "Believe me or not, that is you're choice sir," Ares said back to him.

Ares listened to Sam and John as they lead the conversation about what the new government should be made up of and what they thought it should not be made up of. It was going to be a long day that was for sure.

Ares thought that each official wanted his part of the world to be the head of the government. It was actually a bit funny if he thought about it. Here they were at war and they wanted control of what was going on. Part of him wanted to just stand up and take over as his military training had trained him to do. He also understood that such an action would probably not be view upon as very friendly.

So he was stuck with sitting here listening to former government officials talking about how important they were. He sighed apparently loud enough for one of them to hear.

"Commander Ares it appears that we're boring you," the man said.

"No, I was just wondering about something more important," Ares said.

"And that would be," the man asked.

"Well, it seems like you forget that Earth is currently at war, regardless if there is a government or not. I was more concerned about the next attack and if the current forces can defend you, that's all," Ares said.

"You defeated them once," the man said.

"With surprise on my side, next time it won't be so lucky," Ares said.

"If you say so," the man said.

That course of conversation lead to another discussion of what was going to happen with the military. There was some discussion of where the military would be headquartered and who would run it. Ares decided that this battle he would not get involved in just yet. He would wait until they had more of the government formed before tackling that issue.

End of The Atlantians

Go on to Deceptions

Return to the Battlestar Galactica Page