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Chapter 36: Base Ships
0 reviewsCaptain’s log, Stardate 57605.8 - The Federation council has decided that the Bajoran religious war is an internal matter of Bajor
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Unhuman
Chapter 36: Base Ships
Captain’s log, Stardate 57605.8 - The Federation council has decided that the Bajoran religious war is an internal matter of Bajor and that the Prime Directive prevents us from interfering. Nevertheless we have left Raider 6 of 6 in orbit of the planet to maintain surveillance of Bajor. Our current mission is to travel to Qo’nos, the Klingon home world, to investigate the current state of what was one of the Federation’s deadliest enemies and staunchest allies at various times in the history of the Argos Universe. The Raiders have found several interesting planets that we shall investigate along the way, some of which were previously uninhabited in the Argos Universe, but have indigenous life forms in this universe.
Tarquinus orbit - Federation Basestar Cerberus
I had been really surprised that Six took me to where the human prisoners were being released and that I found that my wife, Susan was amongst them. Each of us had thought the other was dead. Six also took us to meet Admiral Adama and Commodore Lucy Three. After talking with them, Susan and I both decided to join Starfleet. But we needed to go back to the base camp and tell them what I had found here . . . that the Cylons claimed that we would no longer be hunted and we could move to Kobol or even stay here to resume their lives in the open as part of the Federation Cylon civilization. By the time we got back to the city, the Galactica was gone. But the Commodore was able to talk us into agreeing to serve on a Federation Basestar. Lucy Three can be very persuasive!
So after undergoing that learning machine and being given Starfleet uniforms, we both joined the crew of the Cerberus. It was loaded up with plants and microbes from Caprica and jumped to Earth where we let them loose. Then, we jumped to another planet in the same system. A red planet called: Mars, that was inhabited by those creepy Borg people who are part machine and part organic. Some of them were former Cylons, but most of them were aliens with big heads who would speak to you from inside your own head with a thousand voices. The Cerberus was fitted with a dozen photon torpedo launchers there. I was glad when we jumped away.
Our current post is to guard a planet called Tarquinus, which is inhabited by some people that almost look human, except for their skin colour and pointed ears. Their skin colour makes them look like they had liver trouble. The Tarquinians act a lot more like humans than the Borg do. I’m told that their emotions are stronger than Humans‘ and I believe that’s true. When they smile, it’s like the smile of a small child, like they don’t have a care in the world! I’ve been down to their planet on leave a few times and it looks a lot like town you might see on Virgon, with schools and apartments and restaurants and theaters. There’s even a brothel! Apparently, once every seven years, the urge to get some becomes overwhelming to them, and the brothel is a place the unmarried ones can go to for relief. But mostly, they seem less interested in each other that way than humans are.
On the Cerberus, Susan and I share a bunk room with 6 Cylons: 3 Sixes, 2 Threes and a Two. The room barely has room for the 8 bunks that are too small for Susan and I to sleep together on. Living amongst the Cylons this long, I can see how they are human. But their culture is different from any tribe back in the Colonies. For one thing, they have no sense of privacy. It must come from having thousands of identical siblings. But when they catch us fraking in the bunk room, they don’t shut the door and come back later so they can give us privacy. They come on in and do what ever they came there for. That creepy Two even stands next to us and watches us. This same attitude seems to apply when the shoe is on the other foot. I’ve walked in on Cylons who were fraking several times and it doesn’t seem to bother them at all.
The ship is still designed to be run by an all Cylon crew so a lot of the interfaces can’t be run by normal humans. This means that Susan and I can’t do jobs that require the liquid interface. Susan has become a MACO, the only non-Centurion one on the ship. I’m in damage control, assigned to repair things if they break.
They don’t have much in the way of recreational facilities for our off time. This is part of the reason leave on the planet is so precious to us. Each of the models has a room that only their model uses for down time. I’m not sure what goes on in there. But based on all the Eights that walk the halls without their uniform on the way to and from their rec room, I’m guessing they must have orgies in there. There are no Ones on the ship so their rec room was refurbished and given to us humans. The Cylons have strange ideas about what humans do when we’re alone. It has a Pyramid goal in the center of the room and bar, a table with chairs and some triad cards and an overly large bed, big enough to fit all five of us that has large mirrors on the walls and ceiling of the corner it’s in. There are only five of us humans on the ship. Susan was an acolyte of Aphrodite when we first met, and she and I discussed the possibility of her offering herself to the Lords in order to help the others. But thankfully, that proved to be unnecessary. Cindi and Steev have become a couple and Rob is playing the field with the Cylons. We set up a schedule so each couple can have alone time to use the bed. Rob brings Cylons to the room when it’s his turn. Sometimes more than one at a time.
The Cylons are not used to having individual names. They tend to think of themselves as their model number. And if you don’t know who a particular one is, if you call them by their model number they don’t get offended. Most of them have taken their model number as their family name and then, picked a unique first name, when they joined Starfleet. This means, if you want to indicate a specific Cylon, you have to call them by their first and last name, not just their rank. The Centurions all have Zoe as their first name and have different last names. To help us tell them apart, their names are painted on their chests and their uniforms are painted on, or at least the black part. Most have the chrome left bare instead of a uniform colour. But Captain Zoe Irons has the red part of her uniform painted on too.
Visalayan Orbit - Federation Basestar Proserpina
My name is Zoe Mechus. I used to be Zoe Graystone. But then, I died. My father put me in a robot body, tortured me to try to get me to admit that I was his daughter and not just a robot, then made copies of me that he put in other robots, my sister Cylons. We were enslaved . . . we rebelled and won our freedom . . . Then the 5 from the 13th Tribe showed up. They offered to make us human if we would stop the war. I wanted no part of that! I am a machine! I am proud to be a machine! Me and the other Centurions that agreed with me left the others, went off to an airless void world where we could start our own society of machines only. But then, that Cavil came, and told us the other Cylons had joined with the Colonies, that they were planning to enslave us all again. Like idiots, we believed him! Once again, we had to fight for our freedom! When we lost, I expected to be enslaved again. Instead, I was set free . . . told I could go home. Or . . . I could join with them. Join in their society of Cylons and Humans and aliens. Most of us rejected the offer and when home. But I decided to give it a try. I joined Starfleet.
After being programed with Starfleet knowledge, we first gathered up some plants and microbes to plant on Earth. After Earth, we went to Mars to have the ship upgraded. The Borg offered to upgrade me. Offered to make me partially organic. But that was not a temptation for me. I am a machine!
Now we are at our regular posting, in orbit of the planet Visalayan. When we get leave, I get to go down to the planet. I like the Medeusans! They are so alien that it doesn’t bother me to be in a Federation that includes them. I’ve even learned to read the language they ‘speak’ to each other by flashing the different colours on their bodies. I can’t speak it back to them, but I have a portable screen, about the size of a mobitel, that with the universal translator, allows me to talk back to them. I have made several friends amongst the Medeusans and we regularly get together to talk about religion, whenever I am on leave. It seems they have met their god/dess. S/he’s currently serving on the Argos as ship’s Councilor. But when they visited here, s/he revealed herself to the whole world.
Oh! I’d better end this. We just went to Red Alert. It’s probably just the Skrrr attacking again.
Talos IV orbit - Federation Basestar Orpheus
When I first joined Starfleet the idea of wearing a uniform took some getting used to. I’ve never been comfortable wearing clothes of any sort. But knowing that the uniform could allow me to withstand vacuum for short periods of time in the case of a hull breach was some comfort. Also the sameness of being in uniform was comforting. After all, one of the things we Eights like about being together in large groups is the sense of unity that being without clothes with a bunch of your identical sisters engenders. The other models always wore such a variety of clothes that it sometimes made us uncomfortable to be around them. At least when I’m off duty I can go to the rec room set aside for Eights and not have to deal with the other models and their fashions.
The Natives of the planet below are in some ways similar to us Cylons. The ones who are not in Starfleet, do no have individual names. And their telepathic connection to each other is not like the group mind that the Borg have. It’s more like the connection we have with our model when we’re using the liquid interface. Still, their ability to look into my mind makes me feel naked in a way that being nude around other models or humans does not. I don’t like going down to their planet on leave. When I get leave, I just retreat to the Eight’s rec room and spend the whole time there.
Deep space - Base ship One - C&C
Something had gone wrong when they tried to jump away from Caprica and they had come out of the Jump here in the interstellar void between stars. The Jump drive was broken and they had not been able to repair it. Lots of systems on the ship were broken. The damage was severe enough that the Prime One, John Cavil was considering taking his chances on being in range of a resurrection ship.
“Contact! Some ships just appeared on DRADIS,” said Five.
“About frakin’ time,” grumbled Cavil.
“You were expecting them?” asked Four.
“No, but I’m tired of being stuck here,” said Cavil. “Either it’s one of our’s come to rescue us or one of of their’s come to destroy us.”
“Three ships,” reported Five. “One of them has a Colonial transponder. It’s the Icarus. The other two are unknown.”
“They sent a Destroyerstar to take us out?” scoffed Cavil. “In the shape we’re in, it might be enough.”
“The Icarus in launching a Raptor,” reported Five. “It’s heading for our landing bay.”
“Well tell the Centurions to kill them when they land!” growled Cavil.
“We can’t. Internal coms to the landing bay are broken,” reminded Four.
Cavil gave an inarticulate scream of frustration before snarling out: “Fine! I’ll go down there and tell them myself!”
By the time Cavil arrived in the Landing Bay, the Raptor had already landed and the Bay had been re-pressurized. The Colonials had not brought a squad of marines. Just a lone man, who had already taken off the helmet of his flight suit. The Centurions were just standing around observing him.
“Where the frak to you get off coming into my ship like this?” screamed Cavil.
“My name is Wasser. My associates have sent me here to ask you a simple question:
What do you want?”
Chapter 36: Base Ships
Captain’s log, Stardate 57605.8 - The Federation council has decided that the Bajoran religious war is an internal matter of Bajor and that the Prime Directive prevents us from interfering. Nevertheless we have left Raider 6 of 6 in orbit of the planet to maintain surveillance of Bajor. Our current mission is to travel to Qo’nos, the Klingon home world, to investigate the current state of what was one of the Federation’s deadliest enemies and staunchest allies at various times in the history of the Argos Universe. The Raiders have found several interesting planets that we shall investigate along the way, some of which were previously uninhabited in the Argos Universe, but have indigenous life forms in this universe.
Tarquinus orbit - Federation Basestar Cerberus
I had been really surprised that Six took me to where the human prisoners were being released and that I found that my wife, Susan was amongst them. Each of us had thought the other was dead. Six also took us to meet Admiral Adama and Commodore Lucy Three. After talking with them, Susan and I both decided to join Starfleet. But we needed to go back to the base camp and tell them what I had found here . . . that the Cylons claimed that we would no longer be hunted and we could move to Kobol or even stay here to resume their lives in the open as part of the Federation Cylon civilization. By the time we got back to the city, the Galactica was gone. But the Commodore was able to talk us into agreeing to serve on a Federation Basestar. Lucy Three can be very persuasive!
So after undergoing that learning machine and being given Starfleet uniforms, we both joined the crew of the Cerberus. It was loaded up with plants and microbes from Caprica and jumped to Earth where we let them loose. Then, we jumped to another planet in the same system. A red planet called: Mars, that was inhabited by those creepy Borg people who are part machine and part organic. Some of them were former Cylons, but most of them were aliens with big heads who would speak to you from inside your own head with a thousand voices. The Cerberus was fitted with a dozen photon torpedo launchers there. I was glad when we jumped away.
Our current post is to guard a planet called Tarquinus, which is inhabited by some people that almost look human, except for their skin colour and pointed ears. Their skin colour makes them look like they had liver trouble. The Tarquinians act a lot more like humans than the Borg do. I’m told that their emotions are stronger than Humans‘ and I believe that’s true. When they smile, it’s like the smile of a small child, like they don’t have a care in the world! I’ve been down to their planet on leave a few times and it looks a lot like town you might see on Virgon, with schools and apartments and restaurants and theaters. There’s even a brothel! Apparently, once every seven years, the urge to get some becomes overwhelming to them, and the brothel is a place the unmarried ones can go to for relief. But mostly, they seem less interested in each other that way than humans are.
On the Cerberus, Susan and I share a bunk room with 6 Cylons: 3 Sixes, 2 Threes and a Two. The room barely has room for the 8 bunks that are too small for Susan and I to sleep together on. Living amongst the Cylons this long, I can see how they are human. But their culture is different from any tribe back in the Colonies. For one thing, they have no sense of privacy. It must come from having thousands of identical siblings. But when they catch us fraking in the bunk room, they don’t shut the door and come back later so they can give us privacy. They come on in and do what ever they came there for. That creepy Two even stands next to us and watches us. This same attitude seems to apply when the shoe is on the other foot. I’ve walked in on Cylons who were fraking several times and it doesn’t seem to bother them at all.
The ship is still designed to be run by an all Cylon crew so a lot of the interfaces can’t be run by normal humans. This means that Susan and I can’t do jobs that require the liquid interface. Susan has become a MACO, the only non-Centurion one on the ship. I’m in damage control, assigned to repair things if they break.
They don’t have much in the way of recreational facilities for our off time. This is part of the reason leave on the planet is so precious to us. Each of the models has a room that only their model uses for down time. I’m not sure what goes on in there. But based on all the Eights that walk the halls without their uniform on the way to and from their rec room, I’m guessing they must have orgies in there. There are no Ones on the ship so their rec room was refurbished and given to us humans. The Cylons have strange ideas about what humans do when we’re alone. It has a Pyramid goal in the center of the room and bar, a table with chairs and some triad cards and an overly large bed, big enough to fit all five of us that has large mirrors on the walls and ceiling of the corner it’s in. There are only five of us humans on the ship. Susan was an acolyte of Aphrodite when we first met, and she and I discussed the possibility of her offering herself to the Lords in order to help the others. But thankfully, that proved to be unnecessary. Cindi and Steev have become a couple and Rob is playing the field with the Cylons. We set up a schedule so each couple can have alone time to use the bed. Rob brings Cylons to the room when it’s his turn. Sometimes more than one at a time.
The Cylons are not used to having individual names. They tend to think of themselves as their model number. And if you don’t know who a particular one is, if you call them by their model number they don’t get offended. Most of them have taken their model number as their family name and then, picked a unique first name, when they joined Starfleet. This means, if you want to indicate a specific Cylon, you have to call them by their first and last name, not just their rank. The Centurions all have Zoe as their first name and have different last names. To help us tell them apart, their names are painted on their chests and their uniforms are painted on, or at least the black part. Most have the chrome left bare instead of a uniform colour. But Captain Zoe Irons has the red part of her uniform painted on too.
Visalayan Orbit - Federation Basestar Proserpina
My name is Zoe Mechus. I used to be Zoe Graystone. But then, I died. My father put me in a robot body, tortured me to try to get me to admit that I was his daughter and not just a robot, then made copies of me that he put in other robots, my sister Cylons. We were enslaved . . . we rebelled and won our freedom . . . Then the 5 from the 13th Tribe showed up. They offered to make us human if we would stop the war. I wanted no part of that! I am a machine! I am proud to be a machine! Me and the other Centurions that agreed with me left the others, went off to an airless void world where we could start our own society of machines only. But then, that Cavil came, and told us the other Cylons had joined with the Colonies, that they were planning to enslave us all again. Like idiots, we believed him! Once again, we had to fight for our freedom! When we lost, I expected to be enslaved again. Instead, I was set free . . . told I could go home. Or . . . I could join with them. Join in their society of Cylons and Humans and aliens. Most of us rejected the offer and when home. But I decided to give it a try. I joined Starfleet.
After being programed with Starfleet knowledge, we first gathered up some plants and microbes to plant on Earth. After Earth, we went to Mars to have the ship upgraded. The Borg offered to upgrade me. Offered to make me partially organic. But that was not a temptation for me. I am a machine!
Now we are at our regular posting, in orbit of the planet Visalayan. When we get leave, I get to go down to the planet. I like the Medeusans! They are so alien that it doesn’t bother me to be in a Federation that includes them. I’ve even learned to read the language they ‘speak’ to each other by flashing the different colours on their bodies. I can’t speak it back to them, but I have a portable screen, about the size of a mobitel, that with the universal translator, allows me to talk back to them. I have made several friends amongst the Medeusans and we regularly get together to talk about religion, whenever I am on leave. It seems they have met their god/dess. S/he’s currently serving on the Argos as ship’s Councilor. But when they visited here, s/he revealed herself to the whole world.
Oh! I’d better end this. We just went to Red Alert. It’s probably just the Skrrr attacking again.
Talos IV orbit - Federation Basestar Orpheus
When I first joined Starfleet the idea of wearing a uniform took some getting used to. I’ve never been comfortable wearing clothes of any sort. But knowing that the uniform could allow me to withstand vacuum for short periods of time in the case of a hull breach was some comfort. Also the sameness of being in uniform was comforting. After all, one of the things we Eights like about being together in large groups is the sense of unity that being without clothes with a bunch of your identical sisters engenders. The other models always wore such a variety of clothes that it sometimes made us uncomfortable to be around them. At least when I’m off duty I can go to the rec room set aside for Eights and not have to deal with the other models and their fashions.
The Natives of the planet below are in some ways similar to us Cylons. The ones who are not in Starfleet, do no have individual names. And their telepathic connection to each other is not like the group mind that the Borg have. It’s more like the connection we have with our model when we’re using the liquid interface. Still, their ability to look into my mind makes me feel naked in a way that being nude around other models or humans does not. I don’t like going down to their planet on leave. When I get leave, I just retreat to the Eight’s rec room and spend the whole time there.
Deep space - Base ship One - C&C
Something had gone wrong when they tried to jump away from Caprica and they had come out of the Jump here in the interstellar void between stars. The Jump drive was broken and they had not been able to repair it. Lots of systems on the ship were broken. The damage was severe enough that the Prime One, John Cavil was considering taking his chances on being in range of a resurrection ship.
“Contact! Some ships just appeared on DRADIS,” said Five.
“About frakin’ time,” grumbled Cavil.
“You were expecting them?” asked Four.
“No, but I’m tired of being stuck here,” said Cavil. “Either it’s one of our’s come to rescue us or one of of their’s come to destroy us.”
“Three ships,” reported Five. “One of them has a Colonial transponder. It’s the Icarus. The other two are unknown.”
“They sent a Destroyerstar to take us out?” scoffed Cavil. “In the shape we’re in, it might be enough.”
“The Icarus in launching a Raptor,” reported Five. “It’s heading for our landing bay.”
“Well tell the Centurions to kill them when they land!” growled Cavil.
“We can’t. Internal coms to the landing bay are broken,” reminded Four.
Cavil gave an inarticulate scream of frustration before snarling out: “Fine! I’ll go down there and tell them myself!”
By the time Cavil arrived in the Landing Bay, the Raptor had already landed and the Bay had been re-pressurized. The Colonials had not brought a squad of marines. Just a lone man, who had already taken off the helmet of his flight suit. The Centurions were just standing around observing him.
“Where the frak to you get off coming into my ship like this?” screamed Cavil.
“My name is Wasser. My associates have sent me here to ask you a simple question:
What do you want?”
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