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Chapter Four: Contact

THS Avalon

A Few Hours Later

Lee Adama sat quietly thinking in the officer's mess on board the Avalon/. He'd come here shortly after being released from their medical bay and after briefly meeting the /Avalon's master Captain Ramirez. They'd talked for a little while and Lee had learned that the Avalon accompanied by Kara's Red Squadron were heading for the fleet after having handily disposed of a assault force of Cylon Scimitars - with the Avalon's weapons taking out the bulk of them. After that Lee had been asked if he wanted anything, he'd told them that he was hungry. So Doctor Pike had summoned an orderly and had Lee escorted to the officers mess where he could have something to eat.

That had been a few hours ago and Lee was still in the officers mess having eaten a very nice meal - though what the food had been he had no idea - and now just sitting here and thinking about how to explain everything that had happened to his father when he got to see him again and especially how to explain about the nanites. The whole idea of nanotechnology was so like some science fiction that Lee wasn't really sure that his father would believe it until he saw something relating to what nanites could do. But proving that nanites were real would bring its own set of problems, problems that could be very difficult to overcome.

Throughout the Colonial Remnant fleet there was a deep paranoia of highly advanced technologies - especially biomechanical technologies. It was understandable as it was common knowledge know that the Cylons were largely biomechanical - especially the computers on the Scimitar-class raiders and the humanoid Cylons. Still it would pose a problem for Lee. Many in the Remnant would believe that the nanites were just another form of Cylon technology - even though there was a galaxy of difference between nanites and observed Cylon technologies - and something to be feared.

Amongst those who would be deeply distrustful would be his father - Lee knew that for a fact. Even before the destruction of the colonies his father had been distrustful of advanced electronic technologies having lived through the first war with the Cylons. Though it was that distrust that had saved the Galactica from destruction as his father had refused to allow networked computers on the ship, so the Cylons hadn't been able to shut her down before destroying her as they had done to the rest of the fleet.

William Adama would not like hearing about the nanites at all, he would like it even less when he was told that Lee now had billions of the things inside him keeping him alive as well as augmenting his bodies' abilities. Lee cringed as it suddenly occurred to him that his father might have him thrown in the brig until he was sure the nanites were no threat and that Lee was still Lee. I hope he doesn't do it, Lee thought, though I'll understand if he does. Though I'm sure I can expect to be thoroughly examined by Dr Baltar over this.

That thought made Lee frown. He didn't like Gaius Baltar at all, he hadn't since the moment he had first met him aboard Colonial One/. There was something about the man that just put him off, though he was far too polite to show it and he would work with the man if ordered to do so. The thought that Baltar could end up examining him to determine if he was some form of Cylon or not was unpleasant to say the least. /If it happens I'll have to put up with it, Lee thought, though I won't like it one bit.

The sound of someone clearing there throat caught Lee's attention, pulling him out of his increasingly bleak thoughts. He looked up to see one of the Avalon's crewmen standing in front of him, a translator in place behind his ear looking identical to the one Lee himself was wearing. How many of these things do they have around here, he wondered, or do they make them as they need them. Would be easy enough for them to do that from what I've seen.

"Excuse me," the young man said softly. "Captain Ramirez would like to see you on the bridge. We're approaching your fleet. They've appeared on our long range scanners and will be in visual range in a short while."

"All right," Lee replied standing up and nearly pushing himself over as he pushed off the table with much more force than he had intended to. He would have landed flat on his back if the younger looking man hadn't quickly caught him. "Thanks."

"No problem," the crewmen replied as Lee steadied himself. "I guess it's hard for you huh, getting used to having nanites inside you."

"Yes. Isn't it hard for you people?"

"No. Remember we're injected with nanites when we're born so we grow up with them as part of us. Come on the captains waiting for us it would not be a good idea to keep him waiting."

Lee nodded and the younger man led him out of the officers mess towards the /Avalon's /command centre located deeper in towards the core of the ship where it like all vital systems was protected by as much armour as possible so the ship could continue to function and continue to either fight or withdraw even if the hull suffered a major breach.

When he entered the Avalon's bridge Lee was surprised despite himself by how different it was to the combat information centre that also served as command central on a battlestar. Naturally it was smaller since at only six hundred metres long the Avalon was smaller than the thirteen hundred metre long Galactica/, there wasn't as much space available. Though quarters on the /Avalon were far from cramped from what Lee had seen even compared to those on a battlestar.

The design was also different. The bridge was an oval shape. A large crescent shaped console stood at the back of the bridge manned by two operators. Behind the operators were a series of panels covered in readouts built into the bulkheads. On either side was a pair of doors one of which Lee had come in through.

Forward of that big console was a leather backed chair that faced forwards but looked like it could rotate. Additional consoles were present in the room all facing forwards and with a crew member at each one. A wide central isle separated the workstations. In front of every workstation floated various holographic displays showing graphics and writing that Lee naturally did not understand.

Captain Ramirez sat in the central chair, exactly where Lee would have expected him to be. The Avalon's commanding officer clearly heard something and glanced over at Lee and smiled when he saw him.

"Ah Captain Adama I see Crewmen Allen found you," Anton said in greeting. "Welcome to the bridge."

"Thank you sir," Lee replied stiffening to attention. Though they both held the rank of captain Anton was actually senior to him. The difference in rank structures between the Hegemony Guard and Colonial Fleet meant that in reality Anton was equal to a commander like his father. Anton smiled.

"You can stand easy Captain Adama you're not my subordinate since you're not in the Hegemony Guard. Instead you're my guest," Anton told him. Lee relaxed immediately. "That's better." Anton signalled dismissal to Crewman Allan who'd escorted Lee to the bridge. The crewmen saluted turned and left the bridge to return to his station in the security section.

"I understand that were approaching the fleet," Lee said.

"Yes we are," Anton replied. "Come here and look. Tactical display please."



Lee moved over and stood beside Anton as a holographic screen shimmered into existence in front of them. It showed what was obviously a sensors grid but one more detailed and accurate than anything Lee had ever seen before, it was certainly much better than the dradis screens he was used to.

The grid showed schematics of the remnant fleet that they were approaching, every single ship was displayed as a small model of itself, even the Vipers on combat space patrol were clearly shown buzzing around between the fleet ships. The miniature image of the Galactica sat in the lead of the fleet where she always was, though Lee did notice that the Galactica was surrounded by flashing amber brackets. Data streamed across the bottom of the screen but naturally Lee was unable to read what it said. Still the accuracy of the tactical display stunned him.

"What do those brackets around the Galactica signify?" Lee asked curious.

"It means that the tactical computers have identified her as a warship and thus a potential threat," Anton replied smiling. "Though our scans show her weapons systems are armed but her guns are not targeting us, but even if they were the projectile weapons your ship is armed with would not be a threat. They'd have no chance of penetrating our shields." Lee blinked startled.

"You've got shields? Energy force fields," he asked stunned.

"Yes. Let me guess your people don't have that technology?"

"No we don't. It was researched for years but no one ever came up with a practical energy shield, the power demands were simply too great and we couldn't keep the field together. Shields have long been considered to be the stuff of science fiction," Lee replied.

"Shields are a practical reality for most species around here," Anton answered. "Though I'm not surprised you couldn't develop them they are a very sophisticated technology and require a lot of knowledge to develop. Plus you need better power sources than fusion generators and tylium energisers."

"Captain we've detected that Lieutenant Thrace's fighter is hailing the Galactica," the bridge communications officer reported interrupting there conversation.

"Can we listen in," Anton asked.

"Yes sir. The signals scrambled but our systems are easily able to decode it."

"Then patch us into the signal but I don't want them to hear us yet."

"Aye, sir."

***

Command and Control

Battlestar Galactica, A Short Time Later

Lieutenant Gaeta sat at the main sensor station looking over the sensor readouts ahead of the fleet. The Galactica and the whole fleet had now come to a full stop and were waiting for news of Starbucks squadron. There had been no contact with them for almost two hours now, long range communications were not getting through there was a lot of white noise interference on the long range communications channels consisted with the kind produced by a lot of radiation flying around so either there was a spatial anomaly up ahead that was pumping out ionised radiation that there sensors hadn't detected or a battle involving the firing of nuclear weapons had taken place ahead of the fleet.

Taking no chances Commander Adama had ordered the Galactica to battle stations. Every available weapons system that they still had ammunition for had been armed, all damage and fire control posts were manned and their remaining Vipers had been deployed into a full combat space patrol throughout the fleet, ready to see off any Cylon Scimitars that jumped in. Commander Adama had also had Gaeta calculate a hyperlight jump for the fleet to a location away from this area - if they detected a Cylon task force closing in on them the Galactica would engage them and buy time for the civilian ships to jump away to safety before jumping away herself.

A set of contacts appeared on Gaeta's long range sensor display. Most of the blips read as Colonial Vipers but one registered as something completely different. For one it was a capital ship of some kind though the configuration didn't match anything they had ever seen before. It wasn't Cylon the sensor profile was too different and the few energy emissions that they were able to detect at this range were different from anything put out by Cylon starship technology. It was to put it bluntly /alien/, and the Vipers were in escort formation around it.

"Commander we've got a group of incoming ships. Twelve Vipers and one unknown contact," he called out to Commander Adama standing near the dradis console/map table with Colonel Tigh.

"What do you mean by unknown contact," Colonel Tigh asked as both turned to look at Gaeta.

"There's a capital ship with them sir. The ship is reading as about the same size as one of the Atheon-class destroyers that were commissioned just before the Cylon attack. But the configuration does not match anything in our database."

"Cylon," Adama asked instantly worried that the Cylons had somehow taken over those Vipers and were trying a new means of sneaking up on the Colonial Remnant.

"Negative. I cannot get a good reading on it at this range but the energy emissions that we can detect are completely different to those put out by Cylon spacecraft. It's definitely alien."

"Are you sure," Tigh asked.

"Yes sir. Unknown ship is being escorted by our Vipers. I'm starting to get more readings on it now." As the range closed the alien ships readings became more apparent and he reported them as they came in. "Commander the ships not producing an ion drive trail they appear to be using some sort of focused gravimagnetic field for propulsion. The ships six hundred meters long and heavily armed sensors show twelve turret mounted cannons or unknown kind, two large fixed position cannons again of unknown kind, along with multiple ports that could be housing anything from rail guns and laser cannons to missile tubes. Their weapons systems are not active and gun ports are closed. Life signs..." Gaeta tailed off. This can't be right, he thought and ran the scan again only to gain exactly the same results.

"What is it?" Commander Adama asked.

"Life signs are Human," Gaeta replied.

"What!" Adama exclaimed in shock, a shock shared by the rest of the crew in CIC.

"Confirm that," Tigh ordered.

"Confirmed sir. Human life signs are present on the unknown ship." There was a moment of silence in the Galactica's command centre after Gaeta spoke everyone silently thinking the same thing. Could the unknown vessel possibly be from Earth? Had they finally found them? Or could this possibly be a Cylon trick of some kind?

"Sir were getting a message from Red Squadron leader," the young officer manning the communications station called out. The stations normal operator Lieutenant Duella or Dee as she was more commonly known was currently eight months pregnant and on maternity leave. Since she wasn't on active duty and wouldn't be for some time to come Dee wasn't currently on the Galactica/. She was currently aboard /Colonial One with her husband who served as an aide to President Roslin.

"Put it through," Adama ordered. A second later the overhead speakers crackled to live.

"Galactica/, Starbuck do you read," Starbucks voice said. "/Galactica, Starbuck do you read." Adama turned back around to the map table and picked up a microphone from its docking slot on the side.

"Starbuck, Galactica actual. Nice to hear from you we were getting worried. What ship are you escorting?"

"There our saviours sir," Starbuck replied. "The ships name is the Avalon/. They destroyed a full assault force of Cylon Scimitars that were probably laying another ambush for the fleet. Before they did that they rescued a survivor from Apollo's patrol. If I had to guess I'd say the patrol was ambushed by Cylon scouts. Only one pilot survived who I don't know. He's aboard the /Avalon and we haven't received any communication from them since just after our narrow escape from the Cylons a few hours ago. And theirs is one other thing."

"And what is that," Adama asked clamping down on the butterflies of hope suddenly fluttering about in his stomach. Please Lords of Kobol let the surviving pilot be Lee, he though, please.

"The Avalon is from Earth."

Like everyone else in CIC William Adama's jaw dropped open as Starbuck made her announcement and like everyone else he stared at the speakers in complete and utter amazement.

***

Bridge

THS Avalon

The crew of the Avalon listened as Lieutenant Thrace's last statement was met with complete silence. Lee for his part was struggling to suppress a smile as he imagined the astounded look on his fathers face at the revelation that Earth really was real.

"I think that's as good a signal as any," Anton Ramirez said finally breaking the silence. "Communications hail the /Galactica/. I want to talk to her commander. And make sure the translator is set."

"Aye, sir."

***

Command And Control

Battlestar Galactica

For one of the few times in his life William Adama was completely and utterly amazed and without words. Had he heard Starbuck correctly? Had his guess and gamble two years ago been right after all? Was Earth real and was the Avalon from there? Could there long flight from their Cylon adversaries really be over at last?

"Sir," the communications officer called out again. "We are being hailed by the /Avalon/."

Taking a deep breath and silently praying to the Lords of Kobol that he didn't say anything that could cause offence to the Avalon's crew William answered.

"Put them on speakers," he ordered. The overhead speakers crackled and then a powerful male voice speaking with an accent unlike anything he had ever heard before came over the communications link.

"To the Colonial Battlestar Galactica I am Captain Anton Ramirez commanding officer of the Terran Hegemony Starship /Avalon/." There was humour in the next statement that Captain Ramirez made. "I understand that you've been looking for us."