Dislaimers: See Part 1
To Stop Running
by
AJ Marks
Part 8
Commander Tigh walked to the council room where the twelve members were holding another meeting. He was bringing news that the government of Earth wanted to meet with them in order to establish better communication with the fleet. He already knew who would want to go, Ziers, and he hoped that Markus would also go to help balance out the ambitious councilman. Tigh knew that they had gotten the best of Ziers once, but now that he knew the sides he would not be as easy next time.
The council room seemed to be quite quiet leaving Tigh to wonder what happened. "The Earth Government has asked to meet with a few of you to begin formal talks," Tigh informed the council.
"How many do they want us to send," One member asked.
"Just a reprehensive group, I don't feel comfortable in sending all of our government down there," Tigh replied letting everyone know how he felt.
"Good idea," Ziers said seeing a way that he could get ahead of Markus, if he could get just him and one or two of those who supported him then he could regain the political advantage that he had recently lost.
"I propose councilman Ziers," Markus said breaking Ziers concentration. The room was shocked at the statement and everyone looked at Ziers to see what he would do.
"As another councilman then you should go along as well, Markus." Ziers said knowing that if he did not mention Markus then he would lose some of his influence over some of the members. It was something that he was not used to doing and it unnerved him a bit.
Markus knew that he had rattled Ziers by naming the man directly. Markus also knew that by doing so, he ran two risks, either not being chosen to go, which would have damaged Ziers reputation or the man would have named him to go as well. Either way, Markus' status among the other council members would be bolstered.
Two other council members were appointed by the rest of the council, one was a crony of Ziers, the other was a silent man, who Markus realized was the eldest member of the council, one that rarely spoke, but when he did, everyone listened including Ziers. The man flashed Markus a smile reassuring Markus as to whose side he was on.
Starbuck and Boxey followed the young man to the shuttle bay where they would be going to the planet. Starbuck wondered why he was going to the planet and not one of the battlestars and had asked that question to the young man. He said that he did not have the answer to that question, only that he was told to take the two pilots to the planet's surface.
Starbuck was not too pleased with that answer, but he kept his comments to himself as they entered the shuttle bay. Starbuck was impressed with the size of the hanger even though it was not quite as big as a battlestars; he knew that this ship had several bays. He and Boxey were lead to a shuttle that was warming up.
Climbing inside he was met by an older man. He introduced himself as Admiral White and that they would be going down to the planet together. He also mentioned that Apollo had asked for Starbuck to contact him. Starbuck was lead to a small console with a transmitter and given the Pegasus within minutes.
"Starbuck, glad you called." Apollo said he appeared on the screen. "I need for you to do something."
"Alright, what is it?" Starbuck asked wondering what they would need him to do, he was just a fighter pilot, not a commander.
"Commander Tigh and I talked it over and we want you to be the military contact in the meetings with the Earth government." Apollo told him waiting for his reaction.
"Apollo, buddy, you know as well as I do that I'm not the best political person. I can't stand politics." Starbuck said in a pleading voice.
"You won't have to worry about politics, leave that to Markus, just be a military advisor, that's what we need." Apollo said. "And keep an eye out on Ziers, he almost cost us the entire fleet with his ego."
"Alright, but I won't like it." Starbuck said sulking a bit. "But I'm taking Boxey with me as my advisor."
"Sounds fair enough." Apollo replied. "According to John some of Earth's government officials are also against the military, and a fight against the Cylons."
"The Cylons won't leave them alone now that they know about them." Starbuck said knowing that Apollo also knew that as well.
"I know, but there are some that are always like that." Apollo replied. "I just want you to know what you're getting yourself into."
"Thanks." Starbuck said before signing off and returning to Boxey who was seated comfortable in the shuttle.
"Everything okay Starbuck." Boxey said as Starbuck sat down beside him.
"We're now the military advisors to this meeting between the Earth and our fleet." Starbuck told him getting comfortable in the seat. "Apparently Markus is on our side now, but we need to watch out for Ziers."
"Don't worry, I never like the guy anyways." Boxey said looking around the shuttle. It was not real big, about the same size as one of their shuttles, but the seats were definitely more comfortable, and there was more room, but the shuttle could carry fewer people.
"We should be touching down on the planet's surface in a couple of minutes." Admiral White said to the two men as he walked back to where they were sitting.
"Are you John?" Starbuck asked already knowing the answer.
"Yes, and I know what Apollo said to you, we discussed it earlier and we have one thing in common, we are not politicians." John said to Starbuck recognizing the look in the man's eye as a mirror of his own.
Starbuck grinned a bit when he realized that here was an ally, no matter what. "So what's your planet like?" Starbuck said getting into a discussion of the planet Earth.
Markus sat quietly on the shuttle along with several other council members including Ziers. It had taken all he had to nominate the man to go down to Earth, but it was the only way to insure that he went as well, or else Ziers would have risked losing a lot of clout in the council. It had been a long time since he had been planet side and he knew that there was an entire generation of young people who had never even been on a planet.
This meeting would establish who was the one to talk to, and what political allies he would have. He was sure that Ziers would do the same thing. He figured that Tigh already had some ties into the military.
The entire trip did not last to long and very soon Markus found himself anticipating the small bump of the shuttle touching down on the planet's surface. It had not looked outside yet, as he knew that it would be a bit of surprise as to what he might find.
The door opened and he walked out looking around at everything, including the buildings and people. There were several tall buildings scattered around nearby, and a group of people standing nearby. Markus recognized one of them right away as Starbuck, and that Boxey was standing next to him.
There were several others around that he did not recognize, but introductions would soon come. One man stepped forward and he figured that he would be the important person in the group in front of him.
"Welcome to Earth gentlemen." The man said to them. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am President Hillard, and these are my advisors." The man said indicating the men behind him.
"Pleased to meet you, I am Councilmen Ziers." Ziers said stepping forward to greet the President in front of him.
Markus was watching from where he was standing. He had not been expecting the president to show up personally. He did know that it was the place of Ziers to greet the man by his rank of service on the council. Ziers had been on the council longer than any other member, where Markus was the newest member in the group.
Introductions had been made and now the group was headed off to the meeting area where everyone could be comfortable. Markus found himself in a car with Starbuck, Boxey, and a man who he recognized as Admiral White and another man who he did not know. He had been disappointed to see that Ziers had gone with the President.
"Councilman Markus, I'm Senator Mitchell." The man said. "I think you already know Admiral White." He said with a nod of his head to the admiral.
"Yes, I recognized your face from the communications on the Galactica." Markus replied, he really wanted to say something about Ziers and the President, but he did not have to when Starbuck said it for him.
"We'll have to keep an eye on Ziers." Starbuck said not bothering to lower his voice, he already trusted the admiral, and if the senator was in their car, then they were probably all in the same camp.
"Really?" Mitchell's eyebrows went up at the comment and he prodded for some further information.
Starbuck and Markus proceeded to fill the senator in on the recent events that had led up to the attack by the Cylons, and Zier's incompetent abilities to deal with them.
"If he's that incompetent then why not kick him off the council?" He asked wondering about the government of these space travelers.
"Its not that simple, to just kick him off with out any real evidence would be a scandal, and be political suicide for anyone involved. He is our senior council member, but not the head, fortunately. He also had several allies on the council, enough to block any such attempt and the rest of us are not yet strong enough to wither a counter attack." Markus said replying to the man. He knew that Starbuck and Boxey were listening having never heard about this before.
"That two faced dagget." Starbuck said.
"It's just recently that I've managed to gain enough of a power base to challenge him on a few issues, the Cylon attack cost him, but its still to soon to know the real results, or if it was spur of the moment." Markus said.
"From what you've said there's not much to worry about, President Hillard is on our side, we do have our share like Ziers, but our people still remember the last time, it almost cost us our entire society." Admiral White told the group.
"What happened?" The words were out of Boxey's mouth before he could stop himself.
"We were had our first alien contact, our leaders of the time sat back and did not prepare for such an event, to much money they thought. The aliens turned out to hostile, and we were almost wiped out if it had not been for a cover-up that everyone knew about." Mitchell said relaying the events. "At the time I was a major in the military, and in command of a place called Area 51, a secret military instillation focusing of advanced planes and weapons."
"So how did you survive?" Starbuck asked wondering about the story that was unfolding before him.
"It appeared that the aliens even though they were technology advanced, we were able to overcome them with ha computer virus." The senator said.
"A computer virus?" Starbuck asked a bit confused at the concept.
"Yes, ah, let's see. A computer virus, its a program that it designed to attack another computer much like a virus infects a normal person. It can do anything from a harmless prank, to a crippling damaging program. In our case the virus was set to disable their shields so we could attack them with greater chance of success." The senator explained as best as he could.
"Interesting, did you learn much about their technology?" Starbuck asked wondering if they had more advanced technology than the Galactica and Pegasus.
"Quite a bit." Came the reply. "We quickly used it to begin a military space fleet. We were not sure that this alien group would come again ad we wanted to be prepared just in case."
"Makes sense." Markus replied from where he was sitting. From what he had heard about in the Earthlings had quite a bit of advanced technology. They would be able to learn a lot from them.
"Would a virus effect these Cylons, after all they are machines?" The senator asked having been briefed a bit about what the Cylons were.
"No, they don't act together, but more like a civilization of robots. They are not linked to each other." Starbuck replied.
"Hmm, then we face a different opponent this time." Mitchell said sitting back into his chair. This was a disturbing thought. The Cylons could mass-produce weapons and soldiers faster than they could, if a prolong war took place defeat would probably be possible. "How did you match up one on one?" He asked the thought coming to him.
"One human fighter pilot usually could take on four or five easily. The Galactica could take on a Basestar or two and still win, but any more than that and it would be a struggle." Starbuck said honestly. "They generally are not to intelligent, but with an unwavering focus and determination to achieve their goal."
"I see." Mitchell said looking out the window of the car as he noticed it was slowing down. "Ah, here we are gentlemen." He said as the car stopped and the door was opened. He would have to talk to the President, as he wanted to share the information he had received before continuing.
The group exited out of the limo and walked up the steps into the building. It was a massive building, and one that commanded power by anyone who looked at it. Starbuck and Markus were impressed with the massive size of the structure and the large pillars that adorned the front of the building. It was like nothing they had ever seen before.
Senator Mitchell watched as his guest walking in awe in front of him. It had been designed to be a building that commanded attention. It was modeled on the old White House, but had a touch of most cultures that had survived the Great War.
He watched as the President got out of his limo along with a council member from their visitors. He told the group to go on ahead of him and follow Rachel, as she would show them the way. He made his way over to where the President was now standing.
The councilman he had been talking to had gone ahead of him and he was waiting for Mitchell to approach him.
"I don't like that man." President Steve Hillard said as the senator approached him.
"Good, I was going to say that it appears the military and that councilman have had problems in the past. "They were telling me that he almost cost them their entire fleet by his tactics."
"Great, another power play that I have to work through. As if it isn't tough enough to fight through my own opponents, now I have more." Steve said.
"It could be worse, we could have our old friends back." Mitchell said.
"I know, I just wish I knew what the future held." Steve said.
"You may not like what you see." Came the reply.
David and his wife suited up for another expedition into the mysterious pyramid that was on the surface of Mars. It was actually larger than any of the Great Pyramids that had been built by the Egyptians.
They had found a few ways into the interior of the pyramid, but they had just uncovered a larger entrance that seemed to go to a very large room with several other doors. David had decided that a full trip to the site was in order and he and his wife had suited up for the trip.
David was always excited about this; so far every room they had entered had been empty, almost like when whoever left took everything with them. It was a bit strange, and also a bit eerie as well. He checked his oxygen and went outside into the thin atmosphere of Mars.
"Its right here sir." The voice said over the intercom as David looked at another man in a suit pointing to a dug out area. Walking over to the entrance David took a look at the entrance. Around the sides and top were marking that he had never seen before.
"Take pictures of this and send it back to Earth for further examination. Perhaps someone there knows a bit more about this then we do." David ordered then proceeded inside the pyramid. Inside there was once again bare rooms, and few marking on any of the walls. David was about to get discourage when he noticed another room that he had not seen before.
He walked on through the room and was amazed at what he saw. There were computer screens all around the place, most were not active, but one was.
He walked over to it and noticed that there were some strange symbols on the screen. They appeared to be changing. It would be something that David would have to study for a while to see if he could find out what it was. He had a strange feeling that time was running out.
End of 'To Stop Running'.
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