Disclaimer: ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and its characters are owned by Universal Studio City, USA.
Earth At Last
by
AJ Marks
Part 7
The wounded Galactica made its way back to the planet called Earth slowly because of the battle damage it had sustained. The crew that had remained aboard had finally gotten the fires under control. Battling the fires had taken quite a lot of time and effort. The fires had not been put out as quickly because of the lack of fire control personal that would have normally been aboard. Adama had not been expecting any help to appear. When he realized that they just might survive that battle he put as many people as he could spare to fight the fires and repair the damaged systems on board.
The vipers that survived the fighting were taken on board the allied ship because of damage to the Galactica's landing bays. It would be some time before the landing bays would be operational again.
"Omega, how many ships did we lose?" Adama asked his current second in command who was standing on the bridge next to Rigel.
"I don't know about the vipers, but we lost sixteen ships of the fleet." Omega replied.
"Sixteen!" Adama whispered to himself. He knew sixteen ships lost were considered light given the situation, but he still mourned the loss of life. Without the help of their new allies the losses would have been much worse, perhaps everyone could have been destroyed. He was just glad that the Rising Star had survived the battle. "Get in touch with our allies and find out how many of our pilots survived."
"Yes commander!" Omega replied and started toward the communications monitor to carry out his orders.
Adama wondered how many had survived the battle, he knew it would have been worse if their new allies had not shown up. He wondered about their origins and if they were the original inhabitants of the planet he now considered Earth. That thought brought up another thought. They had now found Earth, would they stay, or should the fleet move on, especially now that the Cylons had found them again.
"Commander." Omega’s voice pulled Adama out of his thoughts for the moment.
"Go ahead Omega."
"They say that twenty-one of our pilots were picked up on their ships sir!" Omega reported to his commander. He himself was not expecting so many survivors, but that was just a testament of the training and skill of the human pilots over the Cylons. "They'll be giving us the names of he pilots in just a bit."
The fleet was only left with twenty-four pilots, the twenty-one picked up by their new allies and Apollo and the other two that were with him. There was no way that the Galactica could adequately protect the fleet with so few viper pilots left and one very damaged battlestar Adama thought to himself. He would have to talk to their new allies to see if they would help them. Apollo stated that they could meet as soon as he was ready, and Adama would determine the place. He would have to meet them on board one of their ships, as the damage on the Galactica did not make it a place he wished to meet visitors.
"Starbuck, I'm glad to see that you made it." Boomer said as they relaxed in one of the room on board what they called the Bismarck.
"I heard that Commander Adama is going to be coming here to meet with our new allies." Starbuck said. "Apparently the Galactica is still heavily damaged."
"Looks like we might be here for a while Starbuck." Jolly said joining them.
They had been allowed an area for them to gather and relax. On the Bismarck there were ten pilots, the rest were scattered aboard three other ships. Through communications with the other ships they had learned that Bojay and Sheba had also survived the fight, which they were glad to hear.
"I heard that the Commander and Apollo would be aboard soon." Starbuck said to the others.
"Perhaps we can find out who they are, and if we will be staying here or moving on." Boomer said, he personally hoped they would be staying. He wanted to get to know one of the Bismarck's crewmembers.
"You just want to stay in order to get to know her better Boomer." Starbuck said, ribbing his friend a little. Boomer neither agreed nor disagreed with Starbuck's statement, Boomer knew that Starbuck was worried about his wife and daughter aboard the Rising star.
Apollo boarded a shuttle with lord Arkis and commander Derkik. They told Apollo that they were headed to the warship Bismarck and a meeting with his father, Commander Adama. Lord Arkis told Apollo that he would answer any questions that they had in the meeting, that way he would only have to tell the story once.
On the way over to the meeting Apollo thought about how lucky they had been. Starbuck, Boomer and Jolly had all survived the battle, even though he knew some of his friends he had lost. He had talked to Sheba ad learned that Bojay had also survived the battle. From his father he learned that the Galactica had been badly damaged in the battle and it would take some time to bring her up to fighting form. If their new allies had not come to help Apollo knew that the fleet would have been destroyed, it was bad enough that they had lost fifteen ships.
"Captain, are you ok?" Arkis asked Apollo when he noticed how quiet the captain had become.
"Yes, just thinking." Apollo replied. Arkis and Derkik nodded in understanding.
A short while later they touched down on the Bismarck's landing bay and were disembarking from the shuttle. Apollo looked around the bay to see if his father had arrived yet. There were several vipers parked around the area, but no shuttle from the Galactica yet.
"We've just received word that the Galactica's shuttle is on her way and should be here in a couple of minutes." Arkis told Apollo. "I'm sure that you want to see your friends captain, Ensign Troe will show you the way." Arkis said gesturing toward a young women standing near the doorway.
"Thanks, I think I will see them." Apollo said to his hosts. "I would like to be present at the meting."
"Of course, you and any of your friends are welcome." Derkik told Apollo as he started toward the doorway and Ensign Troe.
Apollo nodded his thanks and followed the young ensign down several corridors to where Starbuck and Boomer were. Apollo found his two friends sitting down playing a game of pyramids with some of the local shipmates of the Bismarck.
"You guys are not corrupting our hosts now are you?" Apollo asked the two who chose to try to look innocent.
"I don't know what you're taking about captain." Starbuck said raising his hands in a defeating gesture. "Boomer and I are just trying to have some fun."
"Don't bring me into this Starbuck." Boomer said pointing his finger at Starbuck. "It was all you fault."
"Traitor!" Starbuck said as Apollo watched the two of the banter back and forth leaving a couple of confused players watching them.
"They do this all the time." Apollo told the others. Starbuck got up and gave him a bear hug.
"I wasn't sure that I would ever see you again buddy!" Starbuck said to Apollo.
"So who are our hosts?" Boomer asked Apollo as they both sat down.
''I believe that they are the thirteenth tribe." Apollo told his two friends. "My father should be here soon. I just wanted to know if you two were interested in joining us?"
"You bet!" Starbuck said with some excitement in his voice. "I've been very curious about our hosts."
''How soon will commander Adama be here?" Boomer asked his friend.
''Well I was told that he would be touching down real soon." Apollo replied.
"Ah, Apollo?" Starbuck said motioning Apollo to the side he whispered, "The Rising Star, did it..."
"Did it survive?" Apollo finished for him.
"Yeah?" Starbuck replied confirming what Apollo figured his friend was asking.
"They made it." Apollo said, and watched as relief flooded Starbuck's face.
Commander Adama watched from the view port as the shuttle approached the warship Bismarck. He noticed that the warship was smaller than the Galactica was, but the Bismarck looked like she was designed for all out space warfare. Her outer hull was dotted with laser cannons and other assorted weapon systems and sensors. He wondered how many other ships like her their new allies had on their fleet. They might even have enough ships in their fleet to fight the Cylons. Another thought entered his head as he was looking at the ship, what if the Bismarck was not the most powerful ship in their fleet. The question buzzed around his head and the only people with any answers was the ones he was about to meet with.
Adama felt the familiar jolt of the shuttle landing on the flight deck and knew that the shuttle had landed. He wondered if his son would be waiting for him, he knew that he would be present for the meeting, but he did not know if Apollo was already on board yet.
"Well, here goes nothing." Adama muttered to himself.
"Did you say something sir?" The pilot asked him as she leaned back to look at him.
"Oh!" Adama looked up a bit startled at his pilot not knowing that he had spoken that loud enough for her to hear. "Nothing to important." He told her and smiled reassuringly.
"We've landed sir!" She told him.
"Ok!" He replied to her and got up out of his chair. He was a bit anxious to start the meeting.
Lord Arkis and Commander Derkik waiting for him, however there was no sign of his son. Adama took a quick look around the landing bay to see if his son was somewhere else.
"If you're looking for your son he is with the other pilots." The smaller man said to Adama. "He will be joining us in our meeting."
"Oh, he must have been worried about his friends." Adama reasoned logically. He and Starbuck were like brothers, and secretly Adama thought of the rash viper pilot as a son. ''Were there any injuries to any of the pilots?"
"No, your pilots are quite good." Derkik replied, complimenting Adama on his warriors from what Derkik had been told by his own pilots.
"Thank you." Adama said quietly absorbing the compliment. "Most were veterans and were used to fighting the Cylons. If you and your military hadn't shown up when they did, well we probably wouldn’t be here now."
"If you are ready commander, there is much that we have to discuss." Arkis said motioning both commanders to the side door.
"Captain!" A young woman said to Apollo.
"Yes!" Apollo answered as he turned around to face her.
"Lord Arkis said that you wished to be informed as to when Commander Adama arrived?" She said to him.
"He's here already?" Apollo asked already knowing the answer.
"He and Lord Arkis are on their way to the meeting room." The aid replied.
"Thanks!" Apollo replied to her. "Well guys are you ready?" He asked Starbuck and Boomer.
"Yeah, let's go!" They both replied and followed the young women out of the room.
A couple of minutes later the three pilots were shown into a meeting room where lord Arkis, Commander Derkik and Commander Adama were seated.
"Come in gentlemen! " Lord Arkis told them. "We were just about to start. I'm sure that all of you have some questions about us." Arkis said watching his guests’ reaction. Adama and the other two pilots seemed to he more interested than Captain Apollo, then again the captain and Arkis had talked more than the others.
"How about the most obvious question." Adama said looking right at Arkis. "Is this Earth?"
"Yes! This is Earth!" Arkis replied. "You’re probably wondering what happened?" All four of his guests nodded their heads. "I'm not really sure of what really happened, but I'll give it my best shot!" He watched as everyone, including Derkik, was now looking at him with a lot of interest.
"I'm not sure I understand?" Adama questioned leaning forward as if to hear the answer better.
"Well!" Arkis sighed. "Most of our resent history has been destroyed or rewritten for political reason's. Because of this the real reasons for the start of what we now call the Colony Wars. Rumor has it that the war started over trade between earth's government and the colonies. The official reason was the colonies attacked earth because the colonies wanted to overthrow the government."
"So the winner of the war was able to change the reasons for the beginning of the war." Apollo asked trying to understand the reason.
"Yes Captain Apollo, that is correct. But in this case no one won the war, therefore we have several 'reasons' for the war." Arkis told them. "Another problem is that no one knows how long the war lasted. From what I've been able to piece together about the war and some educational guesses I'd say the war lasted over six hundred years."
"Years?" Starbuck asked, confused about the term.
"Years are a period of time that is defined as the amount of time that is required for the planet earth to orbit around our sun." Commander Derkik explained.
"Similar to our yerhens." Apollo exclaimed.
"Whoa!" Boomer said as he realized how long the war went on. "How long has there been at peace?"
"We’ve been at peace for almost one hundred years now!" Arkis answered.
"That's almost as long as we've been fighting the Cylons." Adama said in disbelief. "So how did the war end?"
"That's the interesting part about the war. It never really ended, it just faded away. After a while the fighting started to die down because the original sides of the war, the Earth government and the Colonies, had faded away. Neither sides government was working effectively anymore and anarchy ruled. In a weird twist technology still advanced at a rapid pace. Eventually the war broke down to feuding rival families, until a new stronger government came to power. It became a form of elected dictatorship. I am the current dictator." Arkis told the group.
"That answers my question about who we need to talk to." Adama said.
"Do you have the authority to make decisions Commander Adama?" Arkis asked.
"I have the authority to make a short term treaty for survival purposes, but a longer treaty will need the approval of our council." Adama replied to the asked question.
"Yes, I see!" Arkis said nodding his head before continuing. "Now let's see, where was I, oh yeah! With a new government the survivors of the war slowly banded together and we have just recently begun the process of recolonizing earth when your fleet appeared. You and your people are welcome to stay with us."
"We would like to, however, it appears that the cylons have found us. I would have a hard time staying here with our enemies so close behind us." Adama told him.
"Nonsense!" Derkik responded. "I believe that my warriors are quite looking forward to this new threat."
"In due time, Commander. Right now we should work towards seeing if our guests would like to stay." Arkis told his commander. "I would like to extend my hospitality to you and your fellow travelers Commander Adama, anyone who wishes to stay can."
"I'll let everyone know about your decision." Adama told Arkis. "However I know that some of us have military concerns?"
"Ah, yes! The Cylons, we should have enough military craft to help defend you from them." Derkik said with confidence in his voice.
Starbuck and Boomer looked at each other with a bit of shock.
"Are you sure?" Starbuck asked him. "After all, we have been fighting them for a long time."
"True, however, we have been fighting among ourselves. Your technology is almost the same level as ours is, and our fleet is very large." Derkik answered.
"I believe what Commander Derkik is saying is that our forces are quite large. What you saw was a small part of our military forces." Arkis said shocking the group. "My people are spread across several solar systems and each has a large military, left from our war."
"Just how large is your military?" Boomer asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"We have five active fleets each with over two hundred warships, not including supporting ships." Arkis said.
"That's over a thousand ships!" Starbuck whispered to himself in shock starting to realize the true extent of their allies’ power.
"Commander, I hope that you and your people will stay here and help us recolonize our planet." Arkis said. "I can promise you complete support from our government."
"I'll talk with our council." Adama said.
"I look forward to talking to you again." Arkis said as the men got up.
End part 7
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