1. What more could go wrong

**The ODYSSEY**

Plot Summary: SG-1 gets lost and ends up taking the long way home with the help of the remnants of the Colonial Civilization. Crossover between Stargate SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica: 2003

Rating: T (Maybe a few bad words thrown in every once in a while)

Timeline/Spoilers: For Stargate SG-1 this would be in Season Five before Daniel sacrifices himself in the penultimate episode of that season. That will not be included here and I will be going AU after that. For Battlestar Galactica: 2003, this starts out during the one year of peace on New Caprica during the Season 2 Finale. I will follow some aspects of the succeeding episodes, while modifiying or altering small details/episodes. Anything up to the midpoint of Season 4 will be fair game.

Disclaimer: The concept of Stargate SG-1 and all related characters belong to Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Products. The concept of Battlestar Galactica and all related characters belong to Glen Larson, Ronald D. Moore, and the company that makes it.

Author's Note: This damn story would not get out of my head this story. So I started to jot down a few notes and then it took off and so I've been working on it all day. It is not beta'd so all mistakes are mine.

Author's Note 2: Other stories of mine will continue one day. I've just hit a roadblock in them and with other things in life. This damn story just insisted on being written.

Feedback: I appreciate honest feedback.

* * *

**The ODYSSEY**

Chapter 1: What more could go wrong...

"Carter!!"

She ignored his call as she raced over to the controls of the Tel'tak looking at them warily. While she'd seen her father and Teal'c operate the ship she'd never properly learned how to plot a hyperdrive jump in this vessel. They were usually in a rush to get somewhere and so felt it improper to ask. She regretted that decision now.

"Carter!"

She looked up to her commanding officer (CO) as she felt the faint vibrations of a distant explosion.

Colonel Jack O'Neill and her other teammate Daniel Jackson were gently laying their unconscious teammate, Teal'c, down in the cargo room.

She turned back to the controls as she answered his unbidden question, "Working on it, sir!"

"We got less than… 60 seconds before the reactor goes!" he informed her as he ran over to join her.

When he arrived he saw his second in command (2IC), Major Samantha Carter, working the controls as he finally started to hear the ship, and hopefully their escape route, power up. 'Leave it to Carter', he mentally told himself with a smile.

With ten seconds before the Goa'uld mothership was set to blow up Carter had lifted the Tel'tak from the hangar floor and was heading it towards the hangar bay doors. As soon as they cleared the entrance she punched the engines to get them into orbit as soon as possible. They barely cleared the blast radius of the exploding Ha'tak.

Jack was about to congratulate his 2IC when they briefly saw a flash of bright light outside the front window. In the fraction of a second after they recognized the flash for what it was the entire control panel became electrified. Including anything in contact with the controls, this unfortunately for Sam Carter, included her.

"Daniel!" Jack barked as he watched the electrical charges race through Carter's body. And as quickly as it had started, it was over leaving an unconscious Major in its wake.

Daniel rushed forward to help Jack carefully remove her body from the control chair to check on her. When they had her on the floor he placed his hand on her neck checking for a pulse.

A shrill alarm brought Jack's attention to the control panel and the front window as he noticed that they were losing their upward momentum and would shortly begin the rapid free fall back to the planet. The soldier's training in him forced him to leave his teammate's side and step up to the ships control console to try and return power to the ship before they crashed.

As Jack focused on the controls and restoring power he tried to ignore the sounds coming from behind him.

"Come on Sam," Daniel quietly whispered as he repeated compressions on her chest. He halted them only to give two quick breaths to her unresponsive body. "1, 2, 3…" he quickly resumed his compressions and kept count.

Ignoring the soft thuds Jack pressed a series of buttons as he got the ship to continue with its original trajectory of leaving the planet's orbit. Once he had them safely in orbit and the fear of falling back into orbit was gone he turned back to the scene behind him. He never completed his turn though as another alarm went off.

He turned back to the window in front of him and instantly understood that the sound he was hearing was a defensive alarm as another ship had them in firing range.

"For crying out loud," he muttered as he began turning the unarmed vessel away from the Goa'uld ship that was launching death gliders to hunt them down.

"Come on Sam…" Daniel had finished his fourth round of compressions and was checking Sam's pulse.

"YES! That's it Sam!"

"Daniel?!" Jack asked over his shoulder as he tried to out distance the much faster gliders.

"She's got a pulse, Jack."

"She awake?" he asked anxiously as shots flew past them.

"Not yet."

"Crap!"

"What?" Daniel asked as he turned his attention to the Jack now that Sam appeared to be in the clear.

"You don't happen to know how to get this thing into hyperdrive do you?" he asked tersely as Jack continued to move the Tel'tak in evasive maneuvers.

Daniel's eyes bulged as he saw the glider's weapons fire barely miss their ship. "Aaah… No."

"Come on, come on," Jack muttered as he continued to press buttons and dials at random. "It's gotta be one of- YES!"

And before their eyes a hyperspace window opened and the ship made its hyperlaunch. It appeared that they had made another narrow escape from the hands of the Goa'uld.

But unbeknownst to them, the odds were against them. Just before they escaped a glider's aim found its mark as a shot hit the Tel'tak's engines. The impact of the shot went unnoticed mere fractions of a second before the ship jolted during the hyperlaunch.

"We did it Da-" Jack looked over his shoulder and found his friend not to be by his shoulder anymore.

"I'm okay," came a groan from a few feet back.

Jack got out of his seat and found Daniel slumped against a wall. He couldn't help but smile as he recalled the first time they had experienced a hyperlaunch and been thrown across the room. Knowing that he was going to be okay he turned his attention to his second in command who laid at his feet. He kneeled down and confirmed that she was in fact still alive.

It took Sam over two hours to wake up from her near death experience. "What happened?" she drawled as she reached her hand to her forehead.

Her hand never reached its destination though as she felt her CO's hand stop her hand in mid motion. "Hold up Carter. You don't want to do that."

She looked at her CO with confusion as she tried to remember what had happened to her. When her CO turned her hand and placed it in front of her vision the memory of their escape came back to her. She noted that her hands were charred and she estimated that they were covered with third degree burns on her palms and second degree burns on the backs of her hands. Her heart started to race as the severity of her injuries were realized and she felt the associated pain.

"Carter, look at me," her CO gently commanded her. "We don't have a med kit and there's nothing to wrap up your hands that won't increase the risk of infection. We also don't have any meds for you."

Sam processed his words as she closed her eyes as she mentally willed the pain away from the front of her mind. She needed to do something other than think of her hands.

"How's Teal'c?"

"Still out of it, but he's alive. They must have done a real number on him and junior."

"Where are we?"

"In hyperspace."

"Where to?"

There was a pause that forced Sam to open her eyes and look at her CO questioningly. "What?"

"About that… You see we kind of came under fire when we were in orbit and I was lucky to get the damn system to initiate, let alone figure out where we were going."

"So you have no idea when we're going to drop out of hyperspace?"

Jack pursed his lips and shrugged his shoulders.

"Or where?"

"Hey what else was I supposed to do with you and Teal'c taking naps?!"

She raised an eyebrow at his choice of words for their bouts of unconsciousness. Deciding that trying to figure out their trajectory and when they'd come out would help take her mind off the throbbing pain she leaned forward as she motioned her CO to give her a hand.

Five minutes later they dropped out of hyperspace.

"Well this is a nice little piece of space we've found for ourselves."

In front of them was a small blue and green planet with a debris ring surrounding it.

They were torn from the sight in front of them when yet another alarm went off. This time it indicated that their sublight engines were completely non-functional. Sam looked over at her CO as she spoke, "What more could-"

"Ah!" her CO jumped in before she completed the statement. He turned to glare at her but was momentarily caught off guard by the wide eyes on his second in command. "What?" he asked as he followed her gaze to look out his side of the vessel.

"Is that what I think it is," he gingerly asked.

"Yes sir. That star is going nova."

"Of course it is! Alright, Carter let's get out of here. I'd rather not stick around for the pretty show."

"Yes sir," she told him as she monitored the controls and surroundings.

"By the way, any clue as to where we are?"

"No, sir." She asked Daniel to press a series of buttons on her behalf. "There appears to be a large radioactive star cluster nearby that is clouding our readings."

"Of course there is," he muttered as he turned to the controls and waited for Carter's instructions on initiating the hyperdrive's engines in a more controlled fashion than he had. "We'll just make a short launch, enough to get us away from this cluster and safely away from the nova."

An hour later they were dropping out of hyperspace and once again found themselves looking at another planet. Except that this time the planet was much closer and encompassed most of the view from the front window.

"Uh… Sir," Carter anxiously called out just before the familiar alarm of disabled sublight engines went off.

"Carter?" Jack asked as he looked over and heard the alarm. He returned his vision to the window as he saw that the planet was getting closer. "This is so not good," he realized.

"Escape pods," Daniel offered as he turned and headed towards the rear of the small ship.

"Yes! To the escape pods," Jack called out as he rushed to help Daniel load Teal'c into one of the four escape pods on the ship.

They were just entering orbit when the four small pods were jettisoned from the free falling Tel'tak that was quickly consumed in a burst of fire as the re-entry speeds increased. The four escape pods with their internal booster's and thruster's were able to slow their descent as they came crashing down to the surface of the cold and nearly barren planet below.

* * *

TBC


	2. Frak!

**The ODYSSEY**

Chapter 2: Frak!

Kara was a day's hike away from New Caprica city. She had gotten sick of the depressing nature of the city that was still trying to build itself and develop an infrastructure. She needed to get away from it all and so had decided to venture off towards the mountains. Kara had asked Sam if he wanted to join her but it looked like he was suffering from pneumonia.

She had just crested a small mountain and was looking back down onto the delta that New Caprica City was situated on when a loud explosion behind her spun her around. "What the frak?!" she exclaimed as she looked up and saw a fireball come crashing to the surface.

She was about to write it off as just a piece of space rock when she saw four small specks follow in its wake, however at a much more controlled speed. When she saw the four objects decrease their speed the closer they got to the surface she knew that what she had seen was not an asteroid. Those were controlled flight objects. She marked their landing site as she raced down the side of the mountain to investigate, figuring that the Old Man would be sending a team to investigate as well.

* * *

"Ugh," was the low guttural sound as the lid was removed from Jack O'Neill's escape pod. He shielded his eyes from the bright light and saw the contrasted form of his teammate. "Daniel," he breathed out in relief.

"Yeah, Jack. Come on," as he offered his hand to help him out of their coffin shaped salvation.

"Where are the others?" Jack asked as he looked around the mostly rocky surroundings.

Daniel continued up the small slope of the hill they were on, "This way."

They first came upon Teal'c's vessel and eased him out of it. As they lowered him to the ground Teal'c began to come to.

"You're awake," Jack exclaimed after finally get some good news.

"I am."

"How ya feeling big guy?"

There was a short pause as Teal'c took a mental inventory of his body. "I have been better."

"How's Junior?" he asked cautiously.

Another pause. "He is weak, but with enough time he should recover."

"Good. Sit tight, we're going to go find Carter," he patted his friend on the shoulder as he stood up and moved on.

When he looked up Daniel already had the lid removed from the fourth pod. "Sam?"

The moment Jack saw Daniel reach in to the coffin towards her head and have a look of intense concentration on his face he broke into a sprint to find out her status.

"Daniel?" he called out warningly.

The man in question looked up and nodded, "She's got a pulse, she's just unconscious. She must have passed out during re-entry. Her hands can't be feeling any better, that was a pretty rough ride."

After checking himself for a pulse, he leaned back on his haunches and touched his hand to his forehead, "Yeah, I definitely banged my head a few times." He looked up at his teammate, "Come on, let's get her out of there."

An hour later they heard the clear sounds of a ship entering orbit and heading towards the plume of black smoke that was coming from the other side of the mountain they were on. They looked overhead as they tried to recognize the two inbound vessels.

"Anyone?" Jack called out with the implicit question that they all understood to be, 'Recognize those ships?'

An array of ,"Nope," "No, sir," and "I am unfamiliar with this type of vessel," was his response.

"Alright, in the mean time let's take cover. Just in case," he was reaching for the one tunic they had between them that laid on the ground when an unknown voice startled them.

"Hold it right there you mother frakking toasters!"

The entire team turned around as they all subconsciously reached for a side arm that was not present. The only thing that prevented Kara from shooting them at their sudden movements was that she had been monitoring their movements for ten minutes and hadn't seen any signs of weapons among the group of four.

"Hands up, nice and slow!" she gestured with her weapon.

SG-1 slowly complied with the order seeing as they really had no other options. Despite the fact that they outnumbered her four to one, she had a weapon.

"How'd you find us?"

"Look lady, we just crash landed here, we have no idea where we are or who yo-"

"Don't lie to me you Skinjob! You're here to infiltrate the city aren't you?!" She waved her gun more menacingly as she urged them to continue their way up the hill towards where the other ship had landed. "Frakking toaster's," she uttered to herself.

"What the hell are you talking about! Why are you calling us toaster's?" Jack shot back thoroughly confused by her choice of insults.

She paused as she eyed them carefully, "Because that's what you Cylons are!"

Daniel turned around and tried to be more gentle than Jack, "Look, we're not Cylons. We have no idea who they are. Like he said, we just-"

"Shut up and keep moving," she told them as she moved her gun to point at each one of them individually.

They continued on in relative silence, the members of SG-1 silently speaking to one another intermittently. Behind them Kara kept a watchful eye as she marched them towards the raptors. Small bits of doubt invaded her mind. The four individuals – Cylons, she corrected herself, looked worse for wear. They looked like they had been tortured, and the woman's hands were covered in burns. She also thought about how they looked completely confused by the epithets she had hurled at them. 'Just a Cylon trick,' she tried to convince herself.

After an hour of hiking they were coming down the other side of the mountain and the marines from the landing party were heading their way to join them.

"Starbuck?"

Kara finally took her eyes off her prisoners as the squad of marines surrounded them. "Look what I found Helo."

Her old friend shook his head, leave it to Starbuck to come waltzing over back with four unknowns under watch.

"Who are they?" he asked.

"They gotta be Skinjobs."

At that the marines visibly tightened their fingers on the triggers.

The elevated tension did not go unnoticed by the members of SG-1. "This is so not good," Jack mumbled under his breath.

"Secure them and load 'em up," another voice called out as the marines stepped even closer and secured handcuffs on the wrists of each new comer.

Sam was the only one lucky enough to get her hands secured in front of her due to the injuries on her hand. 'At least they're not uncompassionate,' she mused.

As they neared the two raptors Helo took charge of the situation once again. "Split 'em up. Mathias I want you to take them back up to Galactica. Leave two marines here with Starbuck and me, we're going to take a look around at their wreckage. Send a shuttle back here in six hours, before nightfall."

"Yes sir," she dutifully answered as she had Jack and Sam loaded into one raptor and Daniel and Teal'c in the other.

* * *

When the two raptors reached the Galactica an even larger contingent of marines was waiting for them.

"Not a very trusting bunch, are they," Jack commented to Sam who couldn't help but smirk at the evident truth before them.

They turned their attention when they heard the lead marine address an officer on the deck. "Admiral, one of the prisoner's is injured," Mathias told her CO as she pointed at Sam.

Finally knowing who the man in charge was, Jack decided to speak up. "Look, Admiral, I think there's been some kind of misunderstanding."

Adama studied the man carefully before turning back to the Sergeant. "Take her to the infirmary and the rest down to the brig."

"Yes sir," she smartly replied before mobilizing her troops into action.

* * *

Three hours after the two raptors had left, the three colonial fleet members and Kara were making their way to the site where Kara had found the four newcomers. Karl and Kara were leaned over one of the empty pods when one of the other marines called out to them.

"Sir, I think this belongs to one of the prisoners."

The two friends looked up and saw the marine holding up a green field tunic. Both of them stood up and walked over to the marine.

"Yeah, the old one was moving to pick it up when I came upon them."

Helo took it in his hands as he looked around, "This the only one?"

"I haven't found any others sir," the marine replied.

Helo turned back to Kara who had taken the tunic from him and was intently looking at a patch on the left sleeve of the shirt.

"Do you think it strange that they only had one jacket between the four of them?" He continued to survey their surroundings. When he hadn't heard a response he turned back to Kara, "Kara?"

"Frak me," she whispered to herself as she ran her finger over the patch, and traced the upside down V with a small open circle at the apex. Only five people had seen that symbol before.

"Helo, I have to get back to the Galactica right now."

Helo looked away once again, "Relax Starbuck, the shuttle will be here in a little under three hours."

Kara looked up and glared at her friend, "No Helo! We need that raptor down here right now!"

He turned back to her with concern, "What is it Starbuck? What's wrong?"

She looked back down to the symbol as she whispered to herself, "They might not be Cylons after all." Looking up at Helo with pleading eyes, "Just get the damn raptor down here!! Please Helo!"

He studied her momentarily before calling one of the marines over who had the radio.

"Frak!"

* * *

TBC


	3. Wait!

Chapter 3: Wait

As soon as they landed she raced over to a phone and called the CIC, "Where's the Admiral?" she frantically asked.

"Who is this?"

"Starbuck, now where is he?" she yelled into the phone. She didn't have time for this, she had to find him fast.

"Down in the brig, sir," the faceless voice responded out of fear of the reputation of the name.

"Frak!" Kara hung up the phone and raced for the brig carrying the tunic with her. She was stopped at the door by a pair of marines who weren't going to let her in.

"I need to talk to the Admiral right now! He has to stop!"

"I'm sorry ma'am, but he left instructions to not be interrupted."

"Look he's making a mistake! I need to talk to him right now."

"I'm sorry ma'am," was the reply once again.

She had to get in that room so she did the only thing she could think of. Lucky for her Helo came around the corner and called her name out momentarily distracting the marines. In that moment she lashed out at the nearest marine doubling him over. She then attacked the leg of the other marine before sending the first marine crashing into the unsteady second. As the two fell to the floor she turned to the hatch and opened it and made her way inside.

"Admiral! Stop! You have to stop! Admiral!"

She'd barely gone two steps into the room when the six marines who were already in the room turned their guns on her and moved to block her further advancement into the room.

The two nearest marines grabbed her and started moving her back out of the brig. Fighting the whole time she called out once again, "They're not Cylons! Please Admiral!"

Adama studied her and saw the deep fear in her eyes. "Wait," he quickly barked before they had completely removed her from the room.

"They're not Cylons, sir," she quietly breathed out as she slowly started to recover.

He eyed her cautiously before turning to the four individuals who stood on the other side of the bars when one of them spoke.

"Thank you! Final-" he slowed down when he realized that it was the one who had first discovered them and insisted that they were one of those Cylons. Jack looked at the small woman and then his eyes slowly trailed down to what she held in her hands.

Admiral Adama noticed the change in his behavior and followed his eyes and noticed for the first time what was in her hands. When he looked back at the brig the four occupants were gathered together and quietly whispering.

"Let her go," he ordered wondering what was so important about the tunic in her hands.

Kara shook loose the grips of the marines holding her and shouldered her way to the Admiral. "Sir, look," she told him as she held out the shirt and pointed at the insignia on the patch.

He looked down at the patch having a faint recollection of the symbol, but not recalling where he'd seen it. He held the military issue tunic in his hands.

The members of SG-1 watched the two closely noting her focus on the patch.

"What is it Starbuck?"

"The Tomb of Athena," she whispered so that only he could hear her.

As the memory came back his eyes shot up to look at his former pilot's eyes. He then stared into the cell wanting to believe the implications.

"Set Condition One! Set Condition One! Admiral Adama to CIC!"

Adama looked at the loudspeaker before turning and heading to CIC. He paused for a moment to offer one command to the marine. "Make sure nothing happens to them. No one speaks to them without my authorization."

"Yes sir."

He then continued his way out of the room and turned to Starbuck who was following him out, "Starbuck, we could use you in the air."

"Yes sir," she offered as she took off for the hangar without the fear that something would happen to the four individuals in the brig. The admiral had realized what she had.

* * *

The four member's of SG-1 all looked at each other unsure of what had just transpired.

"Uh, what just happened?" Daniel asked out loud.

They were all dumbfounded as they glanced at one another.

"No idea, but that patch spooked them. I don't know what's worse, them thinking we're one of those Cylons or what that patch implies to them?"


	4. Earth

Author's Note: We fast forward an hour so. The fleet in orbit above New Caprica have jumped away after the Cylon Invasion.

Chapter 4: Earth

"Tell me you've gotten rid of the Cylon prisoner's?" Commander Lee Adama called out as he entered his father's quarters to find that the Galactica's XO, CAG and Starbuck were also present. "They probably have tracking devices on them, it'll lead the Cylons right to us."

"Lee, it's not like that," Kara cautioned as she stepped forward.

Lee's gaze shifted from his father as he glared at Kara, this was the first time he had seen her since the celebration on New Caprica.

"Major, Captain, will you excuse us for a moment."

Helo and Kat exchanged looks with one another before following their CO's order. "Yes sir," they uttered as they left the room and sealed the hatch behind them.

"They're not Cylons Lee," Kara began again.

He turned to her again, "Really? And what makes you think that! How could you possibly know whether or not they are Cylons."

"Lee," Adama drawled out tiredly as he pulled his glasses from his face. "I'm inclined to believe her."

"What?"

Adama held out the tunic that he had not let go of since Kara had given it to him in the brig.

"A tunic?" he asked incredulously.

Kara snapped the tunic out of his hand and held the patch right in front of his eyes which suddenly widened as he immediately recognized the symbol.

He looked up at Kara, "Is this the…"

"Yeah."

Lee was still wide-eyed as he lowered himself into one of his father's chairs. "Oh my gods. Have you asked them about this?"

"No," Adama's voice informed him as he got up to get himself a glass of water. "Kara brought this to my attention just before the Cylons attacked."

"We haven't done anything to them have we?" he asked worriedly. If they had tortured them then it could possibly take a long time to gain their trust.

Adama shook his head, "No."

"Is there any way that the Cylon's could have known about this?" Lee asked as he tried to think about this rationally.

"We swore to each other that we would never mention that pillar to anyone," Kara reminded him.

"Baltar doesn't even know about it," Adama revealed.

"Okay, but don't you think it's a little suspicious that they arrive mere hours before the Cylons show up out of the blue?"

Bill Adama considered his words.

"It doesn't make sense. Why send four down there far away from the settlement and then follow them shortly thereafter. No… It doesn't make sense. They can't be Cylons," she told them out loud.

"We need to find out how they got there. Lee, can you escort one here?"

"Yes, sir," he told him as he rose from the seat and headed for the brig.

Five minutes later he stood in front of the brig. "I'm Commander Lee Adama. The Admiral would like to speak with one of you in his quarters."

Jack O'Neill looked at his team and nodded his head as he stepped towards the brig door. As the commanding officer of his team, it was his duty to stand in the line of fire. "Sure why not," he told the young commander as he held his hands out ready to be shackled, "front or back?"

Lee blinked at his question. "Uh. I'm hoping that won't be necessary."

Jack quirked his eyebrow as he lowered his hands. "No it won't," he quietly told him. For as long as his team was still under guard he wouldn't be able to get them out.

Jack walked silently in the midst of four marines through the battleship. He was even more surprised to see the Commander walking just a half step behind and beside him. 'The patch changed something,' he mused to himself.

A few minutes later and they were entering what appeared to private quarters, once they made it through the anteroom, he realized that it was the Admiral's. He stood silently looking at the Admiral, and couldn't help but note that their capture and interrogation was getting stranger and stranger.

Admiral Adama waited a few seconds after they had arrived before addressing Mathias and her men, "That'll be all. You can wait outside."

Mathias was about to protest but saw the resolve in his eyes and so followed his orders, "Yes sir." She followed her marines out and took the post nearest to the hatch.

"Kara, would you mind getting the hatch," he asked her when he didn't hear the low whistle.

At this request, Jack was even more thrown off balance. Here he was in a room with probably two of their more higher ranking officers. And while he didn't have a gun, they didn't know what his level of hand-to-hand combat was.

Kara reached the hatch and started to seal it but was paused by Mathias who held it open. "You gotta be kidding me," she whispered.

Kara shook her head, "Sorry this one's not for anyone else's ears."

Mathias stared hard at her as she reached into her side holster and pulled out her sidearm and forced it into Starbuck's hand. She glared at her letting her know that this was non-negotiable.

She begrudgingly accepted the weapon and stuffed it in the back of her pants under her shirt before sealing the hatch and rejoining the three men in the main room.

"I don't think we've all been formally introduced. This is Commander Lee Adama and this is Kara Thrace."

"Civilian?" he asked quickly. 'This is definitely weird.'

"Just for the past few months, before that I was a pilot," she quickly got out. She knew this man was military, and career one by the way he looked. That meant that more than likely he only respected those in uniform.

Jack nodded as her actions started to make sense, especially with respect to the Admiral's trust in her words. "Colonel Jack O'Neill… Two 'L'es," he added.

Adama got up and refilled his glass of water and poured three more new glasses. He took two in his hand and offered one to Jack, "Water?"

"Thank you," as he cautiously reached out for the proffered glass. He hesitated taking a sip until he saw the Admiral take a sip as well. In his mind, it never hurt to be too cautious.

Bill leaned back against his desk, there was no sense in asserting his rank or position, especially if the man before him was who they hoped he was.

Before he could ask his first question though, Jack spoke up. "Thank you for tending to my teammate's injuries, Admiral."

"Of course," he was briefly caught of guard with the Colonel's initiative. "The medic informed me that she suffered some pretty intense burns on her hands. She also informed me that she refused any medication beyond the antibiotic salve for her hands."

Jack cocked his head with a knowing smile that the Admiral understood. Given the reverse, he probably would have done the same thing.

"How did she suffer those burns, the medic said they looked like electrical burns."

Jack stared back at the Admiral weighing weather or not to divulge that information. "She was manning the ship's controls when we got struck by lightening."

"When?" Kara interjected. "You guys had already jettisoned from the downed ship before she entered orbit."

"Where did you come from?" Adama asked. When no answer came, he continued, "We picked up your sudden arrival just outside the planet's atmosphere."

Jack decided to dance around the issue and be as vague as possible, "Honestly don't know. My team and I were on a mission when we were captured. They transported us to an unknown location which we were finally able to escape from earlier today. In our rush to escape our pursuers we made a blind hyperspace jump and ended up in a system that was going nova. We then made another quick jump rather than stick around and wait to see it blow up. When we came out of hyperspace we were just outside of that planet's atmosphere. Unfortunately for us, our sublight engines were no longer functional and so we had to abandon ship." Once he finished recounting their tale he felt quite pleased with himself. He'd given them their story without any details.

Lee who had been listening intently to what was being said, and left unsaid was the first to respond. "So you're saying you don't know where you are in space?"

"Not a clue," was his quick response. An answer that deeply troubled him. He was even more surprised though to see that his response troubled the three other people in the room.

"Colonel, where's home for you?"

This was one of the question's he had been anticipating and dreading. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you are clearly not from one of the Colonies."

"How do you know that?"

Kara answered this one, "All Colonials know what a toaster is."

"You're referring to one of those Cylon ones though and not the one that makes toast, are you?"

"Yeah."

"And what made you change your mind about us not being one of those Cylon people?"

Kara looked over at the Admiral, who sent her a small nod and handed her the tunic that was laying on his desk. She pointed at the patch on the left arm, "The three of us have seen that symbol before."

"Yeah?" Jack was starting to get really nervous now.

"You truly have never heard of a Cylon before? Or know about the Twelve Colonies?" Adama asked to clarify.

Jack shook his head in the negative.

Adama nodded as he stepped forward and raised his hand, "Would you care to take a seat?"

Once they were all situated Adama began with a brief recounting of what they had been through the past few months.

"Approximately 23 months ago there were over 20 billion people spread across 12 planets. Then one day the Cylons showed up and simultaneously bombed the twelve colonies. We escaped with a little over 50,000 people aboard 64 ships. We are all that is left. We can't go back to the Colonies. We've been running from the Cylons ever since as we look for a new home, to the planet where the Thirteenth tribe headed after the original exodus from Kobol. Earth."

As Jack heard the first half of the story he couldn't help but be saddened by what these people must have endured. But as soon as the story shifted to the search for a new home, he developed a feeling that he knew where they were headed. As such he was able to school his face to display no tell when Earth was mentioned.

The three watched him carefully as Adama said the last word. Kara wouldn't accept his silence though, she knew she was right.

"Please, are you from Earth?"

"What makes you think I'm from there?"

She pointed at the patch on the tunic once more. "We all saw this symbol on a pylon in a field that represented Earth."

Jack quirked his eyebrow at her explanation.

"We were in a planetarium of sorts that indirectly showed us how to get to Earth and what star constellations we would see when we got there."

She pulled out a piece of paper and rapidly drew the 12 constellations representing the 12 tribes of Kobol. "In the middle of the field there was a short pylon, that symbol was on the top of it," she indicated the patch once again.

Jack studied them carefully. He then slowly leaned forward and retrieved the pen from Kara's hand and flipped the piece of paper over and started his own drawing. When he was done, there was a picture of a Stargate with all of the chevrons indicated; the only things missing were the star symbols on the ring. He then slid it over to offer them a view. "Have you ever seen one of these before?"

The three Colonial's eyes widened at this turn of events. Adama slowly reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved a folded piece of paper. He slowly unfolded it and laid it next to Jack's drawing, "This is what was on the top of the pylon. It was a six sided pyramid, on each side of the pylon we found one of these symbols."

Now it was Jack's turn to be shocked as he looked down at the unfolded piece of paper which revealed a drawing of the Stargate similar to the one he had made except in the middle of the ring there was the upside down V with an open circle above the apex. Below that drawing was the six address symbols for Earth.

"You're from Earth aren't you?" Lee asked hopefully.

Jack looked up and at each one individually before settling on the Admiral's eyes. He silently nodded to them which quickly sent smiles to their faces. Adama extended his hand to Jack who graciously accepted it. "Let's get the rest of your people up here, shall we?"

Jack smiled at this prospect, he always felt better when they were all together.

* * *

TBC


	5. Secret Allies

Sorry for the delay. I may have some more to post this weekend. Please review and let me know what you think. It helps me to write a better story when I know what people are thinking about it. (Don't worry, I'm not going to blackmail you into emailing me... Personally I'm not a fan of those who do).

* * *

Chapter 5: Secret Allies

Once the rest of his team arrived Jack provided the introductions, "My second in command, Major Samantha Carter. And this is Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c."

"Medical?"

"Civilians?" Kara asked returning the favor of Jack's earlier question.

Daniel answered the Admiral's question, "Ah, no sir, of archaeology and linguistics."

Jack shrugged his shoulders, "Technically he's a civilian."

"Why would you go on a mission into enemy territory with an archaeologist?" Adama asked curious of the make up of his team. He could understand Teal'c's addition, the man was rather large.

"He's just as good as any other soldier, just trained differently and with an additional skill set. And Teal'c, well he's a warrior through and through who decided to join our side."

"'Our side'?" Kara queried.

Teal'c took it upon himself to answer. "I am not a human of Earth, but rather Jaffa."

The admiral, Lee and Kara all instinctively tensed at his first statement. Kara went so far as to place her hand on the gun in her back.

"What the hell does that mean?" she quickly asked.

Her hand placement did not go unnoticed by the member's of SG-1.

"Show her," Jack offered.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow before slowly lifting his shirt and revealing an X on his stomach. He then carefully reached into the pouch and removed the incubating Goa'uld larva.

The three Colonials jumped back in shock. "What the frak is that?" someone yelled out as the small snake withered and hissed.

Teal'c eased 'Junior' back into his pouch and told them. "It is a Goa'uld larva."

"What the hell is a Goa'uld?" Kara asked as she watched him lower his shirt as if nothing had happened.

"It is a parasite that upon full maturation can take over a host's mind and body."

Adama looked at him steadily, "And you carry that willingly?"

Teal'c nodded his head. "Yes, without it I would die."

Sam decided to step up and offer more of an explanation. "As he said, a mature Goa'uld will take over the mind of the host. The Goa'uld claim to be gods and-"

"They are false gods," Teal'c clarified adamantly.

She nodded as she continued the story, "Yes. They enslave planets and force the inhabitants to follow them and worship them. In order to maintain order over the people, thousands of years ago they…" Sam looked for the proper word, "engineered enslaved humans to serve as incubators for the immature Goa'uld – they became known as Jaffa. Once implanted with the Goa'uld the larva gives them certain benefits, strength, speed, increased senses, longer life, and it serves as their immune system and gives the host increased healing abilities. Because it serves as his immune system, Teal'c would die without a larva. Teal'c has been fighting with us for over five years now."

Daniel spoke up, "If you don't mind my asking, why the change of heart towards us?"

Admiral Adama recounted their plight as he had done earlier with Jack.

"Who are these Cylons?"

"They're not people, they're machines."

"Really?" Sam asked with her curiosity piqued.

"Around 50 years ago the Cylons were robots created to perform menial tasks and serve as soldiers during the in-fighting of different colonies. They were bestowed with artificial intelligence and we essentially handed them all our computing necessities. Something changed and the Cylons rebelled against the humans, a war between human and Cylon raged for over three years before an armistice was reached. The Cylons left and we hoped to never hear from the again. After their return and attacks on the Colonies we realized that they somehow had the capability to take on human form. So far we know of six models. There can be multiple copies and after 'dying' they can download into a new body."

"That's not good," Daniel quietly said amidst the shocked silence from his teammates.

"And they look just like you or I and there's no way of telling them apart?"

"One of our scientists tried to develop a detector. It hasn't proven to be the most reliable," the Admiral replied.

"Right… Well…," Jack began as he tried not to think too hard about sentient robots hell bent on exterminating humans in this part of the universe. "You got any other clues on how to get to Earth, maybe we'll recognize something and that way we can get on our way back to Earth."

"We have a directional heading based on a nebula, but we can't leave not yet."

"What? I thought you guys wanted to get to Earth," Daniel stumbled out in shock.

Adama spoke, "We do, more than anything. But we have people down on that planet and we are not leaving them behind."

"Then go down and get them," Daniel exclaimed not realizing that they had their reasons.

Jack who had been studying Adama carefully put all the pieces together. "What happened?" he asked softly.

"The Cylons," he offered, as if there would be anyone else.

"How many are down there?" Sam asked.

"Between thirty-nine and forty thousand."

Stunned silence followed this admission.

Jack turned and looked at his teammates and wordlessly asked them their course of action, which they all responded with a silent nod.

He turned back to the colonials and spoke, "Admiral, we'd like to offer our assistance in helping you get your people back from that planet."

"I appreciate that, we're going to need all the help we can get and out of the box thinking we can manage."

Jack smiled at the last comment, "Well if you had to stumble on any group of four, you picked the right group!"

"What skills do you each have?"

"We're all experienced in ground combat scenarios. Daniel is our cultural and language specialist. Carter is our head scientist and researcher. And Teal'c, Carter and myself are all pilots. So what do you need?"

"Pilots, you say," Lee stated with a sense of relief. Their flight crew had been decimated with the colonization.

"Sir?"

Adama turned to Starbuck and saw the question in her eyes. He then reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a set of Captain's pins and handed them to her. "I want you in charge of teaching them how to fly the viper and helping Kat get the rest of the squadron combat ready."

"Yes sir!" she happily exclaimed as she stood just a little bit taller.

Daniel pulled them back from the assignments that were being handed out. "How are you going to explain our presence?"

"No one outside of this room learns that you are from Earth…" the Admiral had as a starting point.

"Then from where? It's not like we can say we are from the colonies," Jack pointed out. "A few minutes of conversation with us and it's pretty obvious we're not."

"Fifteen or so years before the first Cylon war, an expedition set out to explore deep space, it was supposed to be a ten year mission. The crew was allowed to take their families along with them due to the length of the mission. They were never heard from again."

"Did that really happen?" Lee asked in shock after hearing the scenario roll of his father's tongue with ease.

Adama nodded sadly, "My brother was on that mission."

"Your what?"

Bill looked at his son with pain in his eyes. "My brother. He was fifteen years older than me and I idolized him. I hated him for leaving, and when he never came back I hated him even more."

Jack feeling uncomfortable about the family history being revealed jumped in, "So we're the result of that mission that just happened to crash land on the planet below."

"Yes. Once you heard my last name you mentioned my brother's name, Joseph. Since you would have been separated from the colonies for so long you wouldn't know any of the recent history or about the Cylons."

The member's of SG-1 nodded their heads as they accepted their cover story.

"You'll have to join the military to not raise any further suspicions. We-"

Jack spoke up quickly making sure that one thing was evidently clear. "Admiral, we'll wear the uniform and we promise to help you in any way we can. We'll abide by your rules and regulations. But we can't take any oath. We won't betray you as long as you don't betray us. You are our only chance at getting home, we're not going to screw that up. When the time comes we'll help broker a truce between our two peoples. But our first loyalty is to Earth and the United States Air Force."

Adama starred at him gauging his sincerity. If he was honest with himself, he couldn't be surprised by the stipulations. "I have your word?" he asked as he extended his hand out.

"Yes sir," Jack replied as he accepted his hand.

Adama turned to the other members of SG-1.

"Yes, sir."

"Yes."

"You do indeed Admiral Adama," Teal'c offered with a slight bow of his head.

"Very well then, let's get you settled and get ready to get the rest of our people back."

* * *

TBC


	6. Welcome to the Fleet

Chapter 6: Welcome to the Fleet

"It can do what?" Jack asked as he leaned forward in his chair in the pilot ready room.

Kara smirked knowing that there at least appeared to be one thing that the Colonial engineers had on Earth's. "It can rotate 180 degrees in 0.35 seconds. This is probably the most versatile piece of flying ever engineered."

"How's it do it?" Sam asked, the scientist within making its curiosity known.

"The RCS system feeds into small thrusters located here, here, here and here," she pointed out on the diagram of the Viper. "The RCS system controls pitch, yaw and roll. The reverse thrusters mounted here allow the Viper to come to a stand still, even in atmospheric conditions."

"It can come to a standstill?" Jack asked eager even more. "So it's a hovercraft as well?" he asked with a gleam in his eye as he turned to his second in command to make sure he was interpreting this correctly.

Kara looked at him in confusion not understanding what a hovercraft was.

"It would appear as such, sir."

"Sweet! We so have to get ourselves some of these when we get back home!"

Sam couldn't help but smile at her CO's enthusiasm even as her mind mentally thought of how she could incorporate the multiple thruster system into their own X-301.

After two more hours of sitting in the ready room and familiarizing themselves with the theory and the abilities of the viper they headed down to the flight deck to get ready to take their first flight in one. Jack and Teal'c each climbed into the cockpit of a viper to get the instruments pointed out to them by Kara and Kat respectively.

With Sam's injuries barring her from actually flying, she pulled a ladder up to the side of the Colonel's viper and paid attention to Kara's tour through the cockpit.

"We gotta give you guys call signs. How about-"

"Blackhawk," Jack quickly interjected with a serious tone.

Kara eyed him carefully and nodded her head, "Okay." Once given a call sign it was bad luck to change it. "What about Teal'c? He have one?"

Jack quirked an eyebrow and looked over at Carter, "Not that I'm aware of sir."

"Sweet! Then let's call him-"

"Cyclops." Kara stated as she calmly headed down the steps to get into her own viper.

Jack turned to Starbuck's retreating form, "Hey! I wanted to name him!"

She didn't look back as she climbed into her bird, "I'm the CAG!"

Sam smirked as she climbed down as well and was going to make her way to CIC to monitor their first flight from there. "Have fun, sir."

Jack nodded his head, "You'll get your chance Carter."

"I know sir," she offered with a slight smile. "I'll see you when you get back, sir."

* * *

Jack couldn't help the large grin on his face as he was towed around the flight deck. They had been out in the birds for four hours mastering the maneuverability of the bird and practicing their landings and take offs. It had taken long for Teal'c and Jack to both become masters of the Viper controls.

Kat watched as they easily picked up the controls and was jealous of their maneuverability. It had taken her weeks to become proficient with the birds the way it had taken these two three hours. Hoping to boost her ego she challenged them to a dogfight.

And so for the last hour Jack and Teal'c had paired off against Kat and Kara. The first three battles ended up with Jack and Teal'c being splashed, but each time it had taken the colonials a little bit longer.

In the next battle Teal'c 'killed' Kat before being taken out by Kara who also took out his wingman.

The next six battles traded off with Kat or one of SG-1 going down first before Kara would close out the deal.

But each time it was taking Kara longer and longer to kill the member's of SG-1.

The next three battles always resulted in Kara facing off against either Jack or Teal'c as Kat would be taken out early on in the fighing.

Just prior to their last battle a voice over the radio came on, "Sir?"

"A little busy here, Carter."

"Top Gun. Maverick goes after Jester, play Jester. Then from Star Wars, the Millennium Falcon at the Death Star."

Jack silently processed her suggestion before keying his mike to Teal'c, "I'm Jester and the Millennium Falcon, you're Skywalker."

"Very well O'Neill."

That's how it came to be that two men who had been flying vipers for less than four hours were able to take out Kara.

"Frak!" Kara yelled out over the airwaves.

"Bring it on in you four," the voice of the Admiral commanded over the comm. System. Adama couldn't help but show his smile as he turned to Sam who was standing near him.

"Shall we?" he motioned his hand for her to precede him to the flight deck.

"Yes sir."

As they walked in the hallways he asked her the question that had been on most everyone's mind who had been listening to the comm chatter. "What did it mean? What you said to him?"

Sam couldn't help but smile, "They're references to two m-" She stopped herself from revealing too much. According to their cover the movies that they knew didn't exist here. "Two stories we all knew growing up."

Adama nodded his head sagely, "I see."

They continued on in relative silence. Just before they entered the deck looking down on the flight deck, he made one last comment. "I don't think Starbuck's ever been beaten like that before." Sam broke out into a full smile. "Hell I don't think she's ever been beaten before."

"Teal'c and the Colonel have both been flying for over twenty years."

"While that may be, they've only been in a viper cockpit for four hours."

Sam shrugged that little detail off.

As Adama looked down and watched the deck hands applaud Jack and Teal'c on their take down of Kara he couldn't help but be hopeful of their prospects after gaining at least two extremely competent pilots.

* * *

"Mind if I join you guys?"

Jack and his team all looked up to see Kara standing over their table with a tray of food in her hands.

"Knock yourself out," Jack replied as Daniel moved over and pulled a chair up to their table.

"So, what the frak is a millennium falcon?"

"It is the name of Han Solo's ship in the Star Wars trilogy."

Kara looked over at Teal'c wondering if he thought that that actually explained everything.

"They're a set of stories that we are all familiar with."

"And that helped him paint my bird, how?" she asked still bitter over the fact that she had been beaten.

"By telling him to play Jester I was telling him to break off and get you and Kat to split up early and give chase. Once he took care of Kat he was supposed to come out of nowhere and take you out while you chased down Teal'c. He would wait for you to have a near lock on Teal'c before shooting."

Kara slowly shook her head as she eyed Sam.

The rest of the meal they carried on lighter conversations, which usually meant that Kara was talking because SG-1 couldn't exactly talk about their missions in the middle of the mess hall.

"So, Major," it stung Kara a bit that she had to refer to her with that rank, but the Admiral said it would avoid any slip-ups on the part of SG-1. "You ever play triad?" She was going to show this woman who top dog was.

"What's that?"

"A card game, come on I'll show you," she offered a she stepped away from the table.

"Does it involve me holding cards?" Sam asked as she held up her injured hands. If she was honest with herself she felt completely incompetent right now as she depended on her teammates to do everything for her – feed her, dress her, help her with reading and some work she'd begun on understanding Baltar's cylon detector.

Kara stopped and turned around. She'd forgotten about that, and she did feel a little guilty about that. "Yeah." She then smiled, "I'll hold your cards for you… I promise I won't look," she offered with a wide grin.

Sam smiled back and then turned to Teal'c, "Teal'c?" She knew he would be the perfect assistant because he didn't like playing cards and the guy was as emotive as a wall. She then stepped away from the table and began to follow Kara, "If you don't mind I'll bring my card holder," she replied with a smirk of her own.

"What? Don't you trust me?"

Sam just smiled as she looked over her shoulder.

Two hours later and Sam was finishing up a tear where she had won seven straight hands, much to the chagrin of the other pilots and the ire of Starbuck.

Daniel walked in and looked at the large pile of cubits in front of Sam and couldn't help but chuckle, "Sam!"

"What?" she looked up innocently. "Hey I didn't know we were going to be betting!" she defended herself.

Kara turned and glared at Sam, "Did you hustle us?"

"I swear to you that I have never played _this_ game before."

Daniel considered her words before speaking, "It's like poker isn't it?"

Sam shrugged her shoulders not so innocently.

"What?" Kara then turned her stare to Daniel.

"The four of us used to have our own card night, that lasted for about two months until we figured out that Sam had figured out our tells and was just stringing us along."

"Tells?" Hot Dog asked in confusion, "What's that?"

"It's the subconscious things you do when you analyze your hand and decide whether or not you have a good hand or not."

"And you're telling me that in under two hours you have figured out all our tells?" Kat asked in disbelief.

Sam tilted her head as she instructed Teal'c to fold their hand. "I'm a scientist. I observe and look for patterns," she said by way of an explanation. She then turned to Teal'c, "Shall we?"

"Indeed."

"Whoa!!! Hold on a second there, you gotta give us a chance to win our money back," Racetrack called out.

Sam stood over the table and looked at each of them who all wanted a chance to win their money back.

As she studied them, Daniel offered some advice, "Trust me you wouldn't, not unless she wanted you to win."

"Tells my ass! Sit down and play Major," Kara told her determined to get her money back.

Sam smiled slowly. "Unless you bluff the rest of them, your pair of princes doesn't hold a chance against Kat or Helo's 3 on a run. Those two would drive the pot up nice and high between the two of theamselves, which would be just fine with Racetrack who has full colors. And Hot Dog doesn't have anything in his hand."

They all stared at her silently as they all laid their hands down on the table in varying degrees of frustration.

"Major, I would have won that hand!" Racetrack complained.

Sam smiled, "I'll see you guys tomorrow."


	7. Truthes

**Chapter 7: Truthes**

"Kara, you got a second?"

Kara looked up from the podium and found Kat and Helo approaching her. She was surprised to see Helo since he hadn't been in the briefing that she had just delivered.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"It's about O'Neill and the others," Helo offered.

Kara eyed them cautiously as she noticed a few of the other pilots milling around in the back of the room after hearing mention of O'Neill's name. She turned to the two in front of her, "CAG's office."

Once they were safely in the privacy of the CAG's office they started their conversation once again, "What about O'Neill and the others?"

Kat and Helo shared a look with another before Helo took the burden of broaching their issues of the newcomers with the CAG who had practically accepted them with open arms.

"Something's off with those four."

"What are you guys talking about?"

"They don't act like colonials."

"Of course they don't," Kara shot back, "None of them were even born on the Colonies, they were born in deep space!"

"But they were surrounded by members who did."

"They don't act any differently than-"

"Have you met Teal'c?" Kat quickly questioned in shock. "He acts completely differently than anyone I've ever met. Hell, he doesn't even act like the other three!"

Kara paused as she tried to come up with an excuse for his admittedly odd behavior. "Maybe his parents were freaks," she weakly offered.

"Cut the crap, Kara. What aren't you telling us about those four?" Helo pushed on.

Kara stared at Helo shocked by his forcefulness and him trying to force her hand.

"The Admiral told you who they were," she told them attempting to defkect attention from herself.

"No... There's no way you could have known who they were down on New Caprica. Once you saw their jacket you said they weren't Cylons though, how?"

'Frak!' Kara mentally berated herself, she'd forgotten about Helo being down there. Sometimes he was too observant for his own good. "Zak."

Helo and Kat visibly blinked at her admission. "Zak wasn't born yet," Helo quietly added.

"I know that Helo! The Old Man told Zak and Lee about his brother's mission, the patch on the jacket was the mission emblem."

"What patch?" Kat inquired about.

'Frak!' she mentally screamed once again. This was getting out of hand and she needed to end this right now. "Do you trust me?"

"What?" both pilots asked her in confusion.

"Do you trust me?" she slowly spoke enunciating each of her words.

They both nodded wordlessly.

"Of course I trust you Starbuck."

"Okay then, I need you guys to trust me on this one. Colonel O'Neill and the others are good people. I trust them and you guys need to accept them and trust them as well. Okay?"

* * *

"Admiral?"

The old man looked up from the papers on his desk and motioned his son into his office. "Come on in Lee."

Lee sealed the hatch behind him as he stepped forward.

The Admiral took note of the action knowing that the ensuing conversation could only be about one of a few topics. He stood up and came around his desk and reached to the water jug to pour them each a glass. "I didn't know you were coming over," he left the unasked question to himself.

Lee slowly nodded his head as he tried to gather the words to help him find the answers to what was on his mind.

His father patiently waited for the younger man to speak.

Several minutes later Lee finally asked his question, "Why didn't you ever mention him?"

Bill had the decency to look away from his son as a sign of remorse that he regretted never telling his sons about their uncle. "I didn't think it was important, he'd been gone for fifteen years by the time you were born…. When he decided to go on that mission he abandoned his family. He was running away from us…"

Lee's eyebrows came closer as memories from his childhood started to become clear. "That's why you always told me to look after Zac."

A nod was his response.

"But why didn't you tell us what he did to you?"

"Would it have made a difference?"

Lee shot up, "Yes!" A pause, "I don't know."

Adama looked at his son curiously, "Why?"

The son studied his father carefully before deciding to unbear the resentments he had harbored for over twenty years. "Because I had to look over Zac. Because I had to be the man of the house when you were away."

"What differ-"

"Zac got to be a kid… I didn't. I resented him for that." Lee turned away from his father as he swirled the water in his glass. His voice was barely above a whisper, "You told me to look after him and so I protected him."

"I never meant for you to feel that way." Adama came up behind his son, "I just didn't want you to abandon him the way I felt my brother abandoned me."

"I know I wasn't the greatest father for you and your brother, but I never meant for that to happen to you. I knew I couldn't be there for you both, and so I wanted you two to be there for each other. I guess I would have rather had you both hating me than each other… Apparently I screwed that up as well. I am sorry Lee."

Lee looked down into his glass for several moments before turning to his father. "What was he like?"

Adama mentally sighed, Lee hadn't completely forgiven him for not telling him the truth, but he was willing to listen, to give them time to amend the wrongs in their relationship. That was all he could hope for. When the rest of the world had lost nearly everything in the destruction of the Twelve Colonies Bill Adama had gained a second chance with his son. And another. And another. And another.

"Joe was my hero. He was smart, popular, funny, and he never minded it when I wanted to join him when he went with his friends. I remember there was this one time when I was seven and he was twenty-two. He had just graduated from the Academy…"

Over the next two hours Lee finally got to know the uncle he never knew.

"Do you think we'll find Earth?"

Adama leaned back in his chair, "I don't know. But for the first time I really do believe that it is out there."

"Have they made any progress by looking at the star charts?" Lee asked hopefully even though he knew it was a long shot.

"Somewhat. We were able to find a picture of the Lagoon Nebula, and Major Carter recognized it. Said that it looks like the same from Earth, so we are essentially traveling along a line that connected the Colonies, Earth and the Nebula. She looked through our catalogue of other nebulas, but none of them rang any bells."

"So we can't triangulate our trajectory any further," Lee concluded. His father shook his head agreeing with the assessment. "What do you think it's like?"

Adama shrugged his shoulders, "They haven't been very forthcoming about that kind of intel."

Lee nodded his head as he thought of the few conversations he had with them behind closed doors, "Do you ever get the feeling like they aren't being completely being honest with us?"

Adama raised an eyebrow, "Like that they aren't from Earth?"

He shook his head fervently, "No not that, I believe that they are from Earth... I just.. I don't know... Sometimes I get the feeling that there are things they aren't telling us about Earth that are important."

"Do you think we should push them for more information?"

Lee silently pondered the possibilities before responding. "Not yet."

* * *

TBC

**Author's Note:** So I just came to the realization that this is a SG-1 heavy story in a BSG world. I listed it in BSG and not with SG-1 stuff because all the events taking place are surrounding what takes place in the BSG episodes. Right now, I have plans to take this all the way through the end of the first half of season four. Just that SG-1 will be playing a role in this. In light of that, this will contain spoilers for all those episodes, granted I'm several months behind on that front so...

Anyways, back to the main point of this note. I'm not sure how this chapter came out since I added it in to bring a little bit of focus back to BSG.


	8. Science

**Chapter 8: Science**

"Daniel."

Daniel looked up at his teammate, "Yeah?"

"Can you load the next slide?"

"Of course," he replied as he got up from his stool and walked over to Sam who was sitting in front of a microscope. "Which one?"

Sam leaned over the collection of slides and read the labels on them before indicating a specific one, "That one."

"What are you looking at anyways?" Daniel asked as he placed the slide on the microscope and refocused the objective before handing the reins over to Sam.

"Red blood cells from Sharon and a control."

"Who's your control?"

"I don't know," Sam replied as she looked through the lenses.

"Is it one of us?"

"No, these were collected before we got here."

"And what are you looking for exactly?"

"Differences," she offered absently as she focused on what she saw in front of her.

"How do you know the control isn't a Cylon?" Daniel asked. "At least with us you know we aren't Cylons," Daniel offered as he sat down in front of the book he had been reading.

Sam processed his words and slowly leaned back from the microscope. "You're right. We're going to have to collect a whole new set of samples for analysis." She shook her head in dismay over her oversight on that critical detail, "How could I have missed that!"

Daniel shrugged his shoulders as he tried to get her talking instead of beating herself up over the controls. "Do you have any ideas of what to look for even?" Daniel asked as he leaned back and gave her his full attention. Sometimes they needed to talk things out loud.

Sam raised an eyebrow, "We don't have much to go on."

"What do we have?"

"Well, according to the reports, Sharon's fetal blood was able to cure Roslin's cancer."

"How?"

Sam flipped open the file in question, "Baltar claimed that the fetal blood had no antibodies and so it wouldn't be rejected by Roslin."

"How does that cure her cancer though?" Daniel asked.

"Cylons supposedly heal faster," Sam offered in explanation. "He used the regenerative healing properties of Cylon white blood cells to attack the cancerous cells and kill them," she paused, "at least according to his notes and ideas."

"Is there anyway to look at the healing properties?"

She shook her head and grimaced, "Not for a large scale analysis. Even then, I don't know if they have the equipment for that."

Daniel nodded slowly, that was definitely an impediment to any method of detection they tried to develop. They were not only limited to what had survived the initial Colonial holocaust but what was on the few ships that had escaped the Cylon invasion of New Caprica.

"What about their downloading capabilities? Their minds download into copies of the same body, at least that's what Sharon says."

"You know it kind of reminds me of the Asgard."

Daniel smiled, "Except for the whole machine part."

She smiled back, "Well yeah, except for that." She paused as she considered the Asgard's situation. "The Asgard lost their ability to replicate."

"Sharon's pregnant so their cases are different."

Sam shook her head, "She says that Cylons can't procreate on their own. They need a human and love."

Daniel stood up and stretched his back, "Why?"

"Why 'love'? Or why 'humans'?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Both. Either. Let's start with the physical aspect. What would a human contribute that the Cylons can't provide on their own?"

"Well the Asgard lost their ability for sexual repoduction, they clone themselves taking cells from their own body and inducing them to mitotically repoduce. Their bodies are in essence grown and held in stasis until the memories of a dying Asgard are uploaded into the mind."

"Did you ever wonder how they did that?" he asked as he walked towards the hatch and looked out into the hallway before turning back to Sam.

Sam nodded her head, "I asked Thor that once, he wouldn't tell me. I couldn't even imagine how they do it since they are organic beings. Memories and knowledge are formed from the patterns of neural connections and firings. The human brain is so plastic and constantly changing that I couldn't fathom how they are able to record that pattern and then generate that in a nascent brain. Our computers can't even simulate a thousandth of a fraction of what the brain's neural network is like." Sam leaned back and looked up at the ceiling as she tried to fathom the amount of computer power necessary for such an endeavor.

"Well I guess the Asgard have-"

"Who are the Asgard?"

Daniel whirled around in the hatch to find Racetrack standing there. "Uh..." Daniel stumbled out.

"They were a group of computer scientists on the mission we were on that thought computers could simulate everything," Sam quickly offered as an explanation of who the Asgard were that was in alignment with the last bits of their conversation. There was no sense in telling Racetrack the truth, that the Asgard were little gray aliens.

Racetrack shuddered, "It's thinking like that that created the Cylons you know."

Daniel nodded his head, "Yeah, but just because of that it doesn't mean that you can't create ways to defend against them. Networked systems are so much faster and-"

"They also provide open access to the Cylons. Once they're in, they're in and have access to everything."

"Yes but with firewalls they-"

Racetrack stepped closer to Daniel, "Look, the last time we networked computers Gaeta set up five firewalls! Five! It took the Cylons less than ten minutes to get through all of them and dump a virus in our systems."

"And so instead of-"

"Daniel!"

Daniel and Racetrack both looked over at Sam who was standing by then.

"Relax will ya," she quietly told him.

"Sam, the firewalls you designed for the-"

"Daniel!" she yelled as she glared at him warning him not to finish his sentence. "We have to respect their way of doing things."

Daniel looked at his teammate and finally acquiesced, "I just think that you could probably come up with a system that they couldn't get through."

"It doesn't matter, there's no way to safely test that without putting this ship and the rest of the fleet at risk. Admiral Adama would never go for it."

Daniel and Sam silently stared at one another for several moments before Racetrack spoke up.

"So you ready Major?"

Sam looked away from Daniel with a questioning look, "What?"

"You wanted me to walk you through the Raptor systems and the FTL drives."

She shook her head as realization dawned on her, "Right, sorry about that. I must have gotten caught up in this stuff." She turned to Daniel as she stood up and looked at the clock, "Daniel, would you mind putting this stuff away, I was supposed to meet up with Racetrack a half an hour ago."

"Do you need help down there?" Daniel asked as he indicated her hands.

"I got it Doc," Racetrack offered. "She's in good hands."

On their way to the hangar deck Racetrack struck up a conversation with Sam. "Dr. Jackson seems to have a lot of faith in your abilities with computers."

Sam looked over at the shorter woman next to her. "Yeah," she slowly let out, "We've been through a lot together."

"Oh, are you guys together?"

Sam looked over quickly with a shocked expression, "Daniel and I?"

Racetrack nodded as she kept looking straight ahead.

Sam released a short chuckle, "No, we're not together. We see each other as more like brother and sister."

A ghost of a smile appeared on Racetrack's face. "Then I'm sure that's a relief to his… wife?" she gently pried.

The smile that was on Sam's face quickly fell as it was now her turn to keep her gaze forward.

Racetrack noticed the sudden reticence in her companion and tried to backpedal, "I didn't mean to offend. I guess it's just as hard for you guys to have been separated from the rest of your crews."

Sam's face visibly softened at her words. Luckily for her, they at least had a home they were working to get back. "There's no way you could have known. Besides, Daniel's wife died almost two years ago."

"He must have taken it pretty hard," she softly offered.

Sam nodded, "He did. In fact we almost lost him after that," Sam quietly mused to herself.

Racetrack looked over at her questioningly, "How's that?"

"What?" Sam looked up startled.

"You said you almost lost him, how?" Racetrack gently asked truly interested in what had happened to them all. In the week that she had gotten to know them she knew one thing clearly, those four were a family and would do anything for one another.

'Crap,' Sam mentally scolded herself for revealing so much. She noted that Racetrack was genuinely interested in what had happened to Daniel, and was probably one of his many admirers that he had accumulated across the galaxy.

She decided to tell her a variation on the truth. "Daniel got married about six years ago. A year after they were married his wife was kidnapped by a rebel faction from the mission we were on. Daniel joined up with us and was determined to get her back. Three years he searched for her. And when he finally found her, she had been brainwashed by the rebels."

"How'd she die?" was the quiet question.

"Teal'c had to kill her, she was in the process of killing Daniel."

* * *

TBC


	9. Hatching a Plan

**Chapter 9: Hatching a Plan**

"Knock, knock," Jack called out as he looked into the ready room where Lee and Kara were standing by a white board. "You guys want some help?"

"You good at thinking out of the box?" Lee asked tiredly.

"I'm not too bad at it, but Carter… Well, she's a pro."

"Really?" Kara asked. Over the past two months she had come to both respect and loathe her. She had enabled Jack and Teal'c to beat her in a dogfight and she had beaten her at Triad her first night and all through that Sam had not once gloated. She just took it all in stride.

"She once blew up a sun," Jack calmly offered as he and Sam walked into the room to offer a different perspective.

"You what?!"

"Blew up a sun," Jack reiterated as he looked down at the pieces of paper on the table. "So what do you guys got?"

"Sir," Sam quietly cautioned since they hadn't told them about the Stargate and what it was capable of.

Several hours later they had yet to come up with a plan that wouldn't get most of the civilians on New Caprica killed.

"Anyone else hungry?" Jack asked out of the blue at one point. When the other three occupants looked up at him in shock, Jack slightly recoiled, "What? I'm hungry! It's… We skipped dinner and it's nearing on 2300 hours!"

Lee looked down at his watch and realized the time, "Frak! Come to think of it I am pretty hungry."

"It's settled then, let's go eat!" Jack clapped his hands as he turned to leave the room. When he got to the door he realized that there were only two people with him. "Carter!" he belted out.

"Sir. I'm okay, I'd-"

"Carter!" he added warningly.

She knew that tone well as she dropped the papers in her hands and headed to join her CO and company.

Thirty minutes later there was a roar of laughter as they shared some of their humorous adventures. They were interrupted when the Admiral sealed the hatch to the Officer's Mess, walked in and set a bottle of ambrosia down on the table and sat down to join them.

"Imagine my disappointment when I find out that the four of you are in here sharing war stories and I wasn't invited," he calmly stated as he poured himself a small drink.

"Sorry, sir. We were trying to come up with a plan for our return to New Caprica. We ended up working through the dinner hours and-"

"Carter's fault," Jack offered.

"Sir!" she exclaimed in shock that her CO would place the blame on her.

"What? You always get self absorbed in problems until you fix them. Usually you're the only one who then ends up not eating, this time you dragged the rest of us down with you."

"And how many times has my obsessive nature saved our butts, sir?" she asked indignantly.

"That's beside the point Carter. Just admit it, you made us miss dinner."

The three colonial members couldn't help but laugh at the interaction between the two members of SG-1. Adama put a halt to their bickering as he pushed two glasses of ambrosia in front of them.

"To finding a solution, no matter what the cost," Adama offered as he raised his glass. The four followed suit and raised their glasses as well.

As Kara poured her next shot, she spoke to Sam, "Speaking of finding a solution… You blew up a sun?"

Adama nearly spit out his ambrosia upon hearing that comment. "You what?"

"You know, it never gets old seeing and hearing peoples' reactions to what you've done," Jack added with a smile and a tip of his drink to his second in command.

"Glad my ideas have some more long lasting impact for you, sir."

"Me too," he added with a smug grin.

"You blew up a sun?" Adama asked slowly.

"You've had other hair brained ideas?" Kara asked.

"Let's see she's blown up-"

"Sir," she was quietly begging him not to make a big deal of her ideas.

"Carter there's nothing to be ashamed about you preventing a sun from collapsing in on itself, or you transporting a really really big hunk of rock through Earth."

"You transported an asteroid through Earth?" Lee asked in amazement. "Why in the gods' name would you do that?"

"Because otherwise it would have smashed right into the planet and destroyed it."

"Right… How?"

Sam sighed as she realized that she had to tell them one story, and considering that the other two stories that the Colonel had alluded to involved the Stargate, this was the safest story to tell.

"We took a ship up to the asteroid. With its hyperspace capabilities we-" she paused when she saw their confusion at their technology. "It's kind of like your FTL drive in that it gets you across the galaxy pretty quickly. Except that our hyperspace windows create a tunnel through hyperspace." They looked even more confused. She then picked up a napkin and extended it out. "Imagine that the universe exists on this plane. Instead of traveling along this plane, our hyperspace engines can fold the fabric of the universe and create a tunnel in hyperspace that allows for much faster travel across the universe."

"Enough with the technobabble Carter."

Sam turned and looked at her CO before continuing with her story. "Anyways, I was able to create an opening large enough to fit the asteroid and then we 'carried' it through hyperspace to the other side of Earth."

"What if you had missed and you popped back out in the middle of the planet?" Lee asked in shock that they had carried out such a crazy idea.

"See that's the beauty of her mind, she doesn't make little mistakes like landing an asteroid in the middle of the planet, she's that good!" he added proudly showing off his confidence in her capabilities. "Isn't that right Carter?"

When he didn't receive a reply he looked over at his second in command who was looking at Kara very intently.

"Carter?"

Sam ignored her CO as the wheels in her mind kept spinning and she studied Kara, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Kara slowly drawled out, "I think so... It could work, we'd be able to get the vipers in before they suspected anything."

"We'd have the complete element of surprise. We could also get the raptors in with teams to fly the ships out of there… Has it ever been done before?"

"I don't know, but it could work…"

"The timing would have to be precise, we'd have to do a lot of training to make sure they all launch as fast as possible. We should be able to calculate how high we jump in before we…"

"Yeah," Kara responded in quiet contemplation. "We'd still need a diversion… Any ideas?"

"You've been fighting them longer than I have, what would work?" Sam deferred to her.

"A threat… Like a battlestar, but then we'd have to leave the colonial fleet unguarded. We couldn't ris-"

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Lee finally asked in exasperation after shifting his gaze between their conversation of half statements that only the two of them seemed to understand.

"I think we just came up with a plan to get our people off New Caprica," Kara smiled proudly as she raised her glass to Sam who happily returned the gesture.

Ten minutes later they finished the outline of their plan that they had conjured up without any discussion before hand.

"Are you out of your frakking minds?" Lee exclaimed once he had finished hearing their proposal.

"Always, Lee, always," Kara stated smugly.

Adama studied the two women in front of him. "You really think this could work Kara?"

"As long as we ensure that our FTL can initiate from within a planet's atmosphere, it should work. They wouldn't know what hit them."

He then turned to Sam, "And you really blew up a sun and prevented another one from collapsing in on itself?"

"Yes sir," she answered steadily.

There was a long pause as he weighed his options. He'd sat in on other planning sessions with Lee and Kara, this really seemed like one of the only options that could potentially work. And if she really had done what she claimed to have done, it meant she was pretty smart and could probably find a way to make it work.

"You have 72 hours to iron out the logistics before I make my final decision."

* * *

TBC


	10. Contact

**Author's Note:** I've been meaning to say this for awhile... THANK YOU to all those who take the time to leave a review for this story. I really do appreciate them and they offer me a sense of accomplishment amidst the rest of my frustrating real life world. I would like to especially thank the following reviews for their faithful reviews: lkhoward88, Wynnara, and Jerry Unipeg. I hope I don't let you down.

**Chapter 10: Contact**

"We finally made contact with the Resistance on New Caprica," Admiral Adama told his gathered officers and guests. Present in the room were his son, Helo, Starbuck, Kat, Dee, Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter, and a few others. He then calmly went over the situation report that Tigh had sent him less than an hour before detailing the conditions on the planet, the status of the ships, the Cylon deployment pattern, where the Cylon batteries were, that they had an informant in Colonial One that had gotten them the jamming frequencies, and that there were several people being held in the detention center that was in the middle of the city.

"After three weeks of training, the flight crews are finally ready to execute their part of the plan. What we need to figure out is the ground element of the attack."

Karl Agathon was the first to speak, "The resistance doesn't have alot of numbers, and even then most of them have never really fought in this type of situation."

"We need to coordinate the ground assault with them in person, which means we need to have a plan in place before we send a team down there. I need options people," Adama ordered his people.

Over the next hour the gathered officers attempted to hatch out a plan but made little progress since they couldn't come up with a way to get the grounded ships' launch keys. For the most part Jack and Sam stayed quiet letting the familiar officer's attempt to come up with a plan. But Jack did notice a familiar look on Sam's face from across the room and so he unobtrusively made his way to stand next to his second in command.

He stood next to her silently but silently watched her out of the corner of his eye. He then leaned over and whispered, "Something you want to share Carter?"

Sam looked over at her CO as she debated letting him in on her thoughts. She then turned back to the others as she quietly responded, "Trojan Horse, sir."

He raised an eyebrow in her direction, "A Trojan Horse? You have something in mind?"

"They won't go for it," she told him as she listened intently to another plan that was thrown out for the group to consider.

"What is it?" he prodded her again.

Sam looked away from the group and towards Jack. She leaned in placing his head between hers and the group to shield her idea from the others, "There's only one person who can essentially walk into any facility down there and get whatever they want."

Jack leaned away and looked at her curiously as he tried to figure out who she meant. Meanwhile, Sam tried to silently convey who she had in mind. When he still hadn't figured out who she meant Sam turned to the others and lifted her head towards Helo. Jack followed her gaze and looked at Helo still not understanding how he could get them in. He turned back to Sam still confused. She then lifted her hand and indicated the ring finger on her left hand.

Jack's eyes bulged as he figured out who she had in mind.

"I want everyone to meet back here in four hours and I want solid ideas by then," Adama called out as he effectively dismissed them all from the room. "Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, a moment?" he called out as they moved to exit the room.

"Yes sir?"

"You were pretty quiet in there... Until the last two minutes. Is there something I should know?"

Sam looked over at her CO looking for guidance. "Hey, it was your idea, you tell him."

She then turned back to Admiral Adama, "I doubt you'll like it sir."

He smirked, "I agreed to bring the Galactica into low orbit and during the free fall launch all my vipers didn't I?"

Sam smiled back, "Yes sir. The sticking point of all the plans proposed so far is that we can't guarantee a decent chance that we'll get the launch keys without alerting the Cylons."

Adama nodded his head in agreement. "And your idea is to...?"

She paused before revealing her idea, "Sharon Agathon."

* * *

"How'd it go?" Daniel asked his teammates as they returned back to their quarters fifteen minutes later.

"The Admiral is currently thinking about one of Carter's crazy ideas."

Daniel's forehead went up, "Really? What was it?"

"We take Sharon Agathon down with us to the planet and she goes into the city and gets the launch keys."

Jack's head shot towards his 2IC, "'_We'?"_

Sam grimaced at her slip, she hadn't meant to let her intention slip out like that. "Sir, with your permission I'd like to join the ground assault team."

He shook his head, "No, you're not going down there alone."

"She wouldn't be. I'll go with her Jack."

Jack raised his hand at his teammates, "Are you both out of your minds?"

Daniel smiled at that comment.

"Sir, Starbuck and I came up with the plan that is sending you and Teal'c down there in a viper. The Admiral is putting alot of faith in our plan. I can't stay up here and not be involved."

Jack studied her carefully and begrudgingly resigned himself to the fact that he would lose this battle with Sam and Daniel. "Fine. But so help me god if you don't come back up here or with anything more than a scratch."

Sam smirked, "The same goes for you and Teal'c, sir."

"Yeah, let's go find the Admiral and see about getting you on that mission."

* * *

"Sergent Mathias you'll be leading the ground assault team. Your mission is to help distribute weapons to the Resistance. Once down on the surface you're going to have to split up your team to lead the assault on the detention center and to secure the ships for the evacuation."

"How many marines will be going down with me?"

"You'll be accompanied by two platoons, Alpha and Bravo. You'll also be joined by Lt. Valerii who will be responsible for getting the launch keys from the Cylons."

Mathias bit back a response at that revelation, she had to trust the Old Man who apparently decided she was important to the mission's success.

"Speak your mind Gunny," Adama prodded her. He knew there would be reservations and he needed to have the team leader understand the importance of this part of the mission and not have any reservations what so ever about the mission.

"Sir, trying to keep track of the prisoner while attacking the-"

"She won't be going as a prisoner. Sharon Agathon will be sworn into the colonial military and serve as a second lieutenant in the colonial military. I still want you in charge of the ground team."

Erin Mathias stared wide eyed at her commanding officer. She wasn't ready for that bit of information.

"I trust her to do this Sergent," he silently told her.

Erin steeled her face, "Yes sir."

"But if she does do anything to betray us I want you to kill her, is that understood?"

"Yes sir." She had her orders now. "Is there anything else I should know about the mission?"

"Major Carter and Dr. Jackson will also be accompanying you."

Her eyes widened at that piece of information, "Sir?" This mission was just getting more and more interesting.

Adama raised his eyebrows at her urging her to voice her opinions now before they got too far into the mission details.

Mathias looked over at the two individuals in question before turning back to her commanding officer. "With all due respect sir, but what are their qualifications in ground assault situations?" She then turned to Sam and Daniel, "Major, you're a scientist and he's not even in the military," she finished as she pointed at Daniel.

"I assure you Sergent that Daniel and I are both experienced in assault situations," Sam informed her.

"From your time on the expedition?"

Sam paused as she quickly came up with a solution. "We all doubled with marine training. We didn't have alot of people and so we all carried out multiple duties as necessary. We can both hit center mass of a target from fifty yards out with a standard semi-automatic weapon."

Erin nodded her head in acceptance of her explanation slightly relieved to know that she wasn't going to be going in with complete rookies. "Sir, shouldn't Major Carter than be in charge of the assault team."

"No. Our people down there know you, they don't know Major Carter. She'll be going down in a support role."

* * *

TBC


	11. Mission Prep

**Chapter 11: Mission Prep**

Jack O'Neill walked into the marine ready room where the squadron of marines that was tasked with landing on New Caprica in advance of the rescue mission was getting prepped. He walked towards the back of the room where his two teammates were gathering all their gear.

"You all set to go?" he asked as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Just about sir," Sam replied as she slid her rifle harness over her shoulder.

Daniel was in the midst of adjusting his thigh holster when he responded with a smile, "Relax Jack."

"What?!" Jack asked back in indignation as he pulled his hand to his chest.

Sam looked up at her CO and couldn't resist the small smile she also had, "We'll be fine, sir."

"Can you blame me for worrying?"

Daniel indicated the roomful of marines, "We're not going in alone Jack."

"Everyone all suited up?" Sergent Mathias called out as team leader.

A chorus of "Yes sir!" was her response from almost everyone. She then locked eyes with both Daniel and Sam who nodded their heads in response.

She mentally shook her head at the fact that she was leading a critical mission with two technically more senior officers and a civilian.

The members of the assault team headed to the armory next door and gathered their weapons. Jack hung back at the entrance and followed them all as they headed towards the hangar deck and the two waiting raptors that would transport them to the surface of New Caprica.

On the hangar deck they were joined by Admiral Adama, Sharon, Helo, Starbuck and the rest of the deck crew. The two platoons stood in formation before Admiral Adama.

"The success of this mission rests on your shoulders. Should you fail there will be no hope for the men and women down on New Caprica. They are counting on you." He looked directly at Sharon, "I'm counting on you. Failure is not an option. We are not going to leave anyone behind. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good hunting," he then stood at attention and saluted this small band of men and women who were critical to the mission's success.

After returning the salute the marines split into the two raptors. Jack O'Neill stepped forward just as Sam and Daniel were about to step into a raptor. "Carter."

Daniel and Sam both turned back to their team leader. "Not a scratch. Yes sir." She smiled back at him before a sober expression appeared on her face. She then turned back to her CO and leaned in to whisper to him. "I promise you that I am going to do everything possible so that Daniel and I come back alive. The same way that I know you and Teal'c are going to do everything possible to come back in one piece. But,"

Jack leaned back and raised an eyebrow at her, "But...?"

"Just in case, you need to leave a set of instructions for Admiral Adama and Commander Adama explaining the Stargate and how to dial Earth in case they ever stumble across one. Let him know who they need to get a hold of within the SGC and what our IDC is from just before we went on our mission. Also explain our last mission as proof that they do know us."

"Carter," he cautioned warily not liking her line of thinking.

"Sir, they need to find a home."

Jack looked at her and then at the Admiral who was standing a few feet away. "Alright."

Sam then climbed back onto the Raptor and joined the rest of the marines. She looked at her CO as the doors were closing, "I'll see you in a few days sir."

* * *

"Admiral?" Jack walked into the Admiral's quarters to find the two men he needed to speak with before leaving on his mission. "Ah good, you're both here. Can I have a moment of both your time, sir?" The older man nodded his head in agreement. Jack then slipped back towards the hatch and sealed the door.

Lee turned to his father during the brief absence, "Do you think the marines are starting to wonder why the door is so often closed when one of those four comes in here?'

A shrug of his shoulders was the response as he poured another glass of water for the new arrival.

"What's on your mind Colonel?"

Jack reached inside his flight suit and removed four envelopes and two bags. He looked at the four envelopes and the bags and sorted them out and gave two envelopes and a bag to each man.

The Colonial officers accepted the items in confusion, inside each bag was a unique dog tag that the four members of SG-1 carried. "What is this?" Lee asked as he looked up from the items in his hand.

"An insurance policy for you... In case none of us make it back."

"Colonel tha-"

"That's what I told Carter," he raised his eyebrows with a ghost of a smile. "But she's right, you guys deserve to have a home and just in case something does happen to us while we're out there, that will help you once you reach Earth."

The Admiral lifted up the envelopes, "These will tell us how to get there? You know how to get there?" The Admiral's voice was slowly rising in anger as he thought they had been withholding information from him. Maybe his son was right.

Jack shook his head, "I assure you sir, we don't know how to get there from here. But if you ever do find it and none of the four of us are around, those letters will let you know who to ask for and prove to them that you were in contact with us. Only open the letter addressed to you if none of us come back. Never open that second letter. You give it to the man who's addressed on that envelope. Below his name are alternative contacts just in case things back there are different."

Lee held up the letter addressed to him, "Why can't I open this now?"

Jack smiled, "I tell you what, when we come back we'll go over everything that's in that letter." A smile graced his face, "There's a really fascinating story in there, and trust me its better in person."

"You promise?"

"Oh yeah!"

Adama nodded his head wondering what was in that letter but realizing that there were more pressing matters at hand. "Just make sure you come back alive."

"I will sir. And now if you'll excuse me, I have a mission briefing to get to," he then stood at attention and saluted the two men. "Sirs."

Both Adama's stood at attention and returned the salute. "Good hunting Colonel."

* * *

TBC


	12. Ground War

**Chapter 12: Ground Mission**

"Hold up," Mathias ordered her marines as they looked down into the canyon where they would be rendezvousing with the resistance. "There's too much cover on the trail. We could catch enfilade fire from there, there, and... there," she informed her team as they gathered around her. "We need to cover the rendezvous point from the ridge. Lieutenant, head on down and we'll cover you from up here."

"Got it," Sharon replied as she began her slow descent into the heart of the canyon.

It took her forty minutes to make her stealth approach to the river's edge. Once she sat and listened for fifteen minutes she called out the code phrase, "Go Panthers!"

"C-Bucks rule!" was the response she heard from the other side of the river.

From both sides of the river two heads cautiously came into view. Seeing her contact, she then crossed over to their side of the river. "Hey, Sam. It's been a while."

Anders smirked, "Funny, I feel like I see you every day. Come on."

They crouched behind some trees as Sharon briefly filled them in on the plan. "So Galactica's got a rescue plan in place and ready to go. My job's to get the launch keys for the civilian ships still on the ground, Mathias and I will then coordinate the rescue mission with your evacuation plan. When can we meet with Colonel Tigh?"

"We're gonna wait until nighfall before we head back into the city. There's a system of tunnels we been using that runs parallel and under-"

"Shh! Do you hear that?" Sharon whispered as her head scanned the area around them.

Any response was muted when a barrage of bullets rained down on their rendezvous site. "Cover!" Anders yelled as his resistance fighters all ducked down and raised their weapons to fire back at an unseen enemy. "Frak this! We gotta get out of here," Anders called out as he planned to get his team mobilized and away from the fire.

Sharon placed a hand on his arm, "Stay put. Just wait for it... There!" she called out as she heard an RPG land some distance away from where they were stationed. The gunfire that was directed at them died down as their assailants now came under fire. Within a minute the gunfire had ceased.

Sam turned to Sharon and offered a humble, "Thanks."

From the canyon walls the Marines from Galactica came out into the open and converged on the dead Cylons as the insurgents approached from the riverbed.

One of the insurgents who was checking the Cylons for weapons and intel came up with a piece of paper and immediately headed for Sam Anders. "Sir, you better take a look at this. I found it on a dead skinjob. It's your handwriting, isn't it?"

"Yeah, damn right it is." He shook his head as he figured out how they got a hold of the map he had drawn, "We were sold out. Ellen."

* * *

"Sharon?"

She looked back to Sam Anders. "Yeah?"

He stepped closer, "Do me a favor. Just keep an eye out for Starbuck. I don't know if she's alive or dead, but-"

"Sam, Starbuck is on the Galactica."

His eyes widened as he nearly fell backwards, "What? She's on the Galactica? How?" He would have fallen backwards if it wasn't for Sharon's hand that had come to rest on his shoulder.

Sharon shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know why she was up there when the Cylons showed up, but I saw her on the deck of the Galactica just before we came down here."

She lowered Sam to a nearby crate, "I gotta get going, Sam."

Sam nodded absently as he stared at the ground. Several minutes after Sharon had left a smile graced his face as he looked up and found Mathias and another individual staring at him, "Kara's okay!"

Mathias scoffed, "Mentally she's as crazy as ever though."

Sam looked at her expectantly, "Wha..?"

"The whole evacuation and assault is Captain Thrace and Major Carter here's idea."

Minutes later the team from Galactica was gathered with most of the heads of the resistance to go over the evacuation plans.

"We've stored arms and munitions in key areas throughout the city," the Chief told them all.

Mathias nodded her head, "I can supplement that with mortars, RPGs, even a few shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles aboard the Raptor."

"Great. When we give the signal, our people are gonna attack the airbase, the detention center, the power station, other critical facilities. The plan is to sow as much chaos and confusion as possible the moment Galactica and Pegasus arrive. That should help cover the evacuation."

Mathias shook her head now, "No Pegasus. Just Galactica."

Roslin's head shot up, "Why? Why no Pegasus? What happened?"

"Don't know, sir. Way beyond my pay grade. You'd have to ask one of the brains behind this operation, Major Carter" she said pointing at Sam Carter.

Roslin crossed her arms, "I'm sorry, who are you? I don't recognize you from the Galactica or Pegasus?"

Sam shook her head slowly as she noticed several hands belonging to the insurgents reach for their weapons. "No m-sir," she still hadn't gotten used to that Colonial custom. "I'm Major Samantha Carter, and this is Daniel Jackson. We crash landed on this planet mere hours before the Cylons showed up. Captain Thrace was the one who found us and got us transported back to the Galactica. That's how she escaped the planet," she said as an aside to Sam Anders.

"You crashed on the surface here? From where?" she asked suspiciously.

"Daniel, myself, and two others back on the Galactica are all that's left from a deep space mission that left Caprica fifteen years before the First Cylon War."

The Chief raised his gun, shortly followed by several other insurgents raising their guns. Sam Anders and Tory Foster stood between Laura Roslin and the two new individuals as soon as the weapons came up.

"No frakking way are you going to tell me that you are over sixty years old."

Sam and Daniel who had raised their hands as soon as the guns came up looked to Mathias to help explain their situation.

"They're not," the Gunnery Sergeant told them. "Their parents however were on that mission."

"What was the name of the mission? I've never heard of such a-"

"It was the Odyssey mission. And you wouldn't have heard of it. The mission was top secret and was apparently deemed to be a complete failure when they didn't return after ten years."

"Who's to say you aren't making that up?" Tyrol called out.

Mathias spoke up, "They're not. The Admiral vouched for them. His older brother was on that mission."

Laura blinked slowly as she looked at the marine, "Bill had a brother?"

"Apparently. You'll have to ask him for the details though, sir."

Laura nodded her head, "I intend to." She then looked at Tyrol and the other insurgents and gave them a warning look to restrain themselves a little bit longer. She then turned back to the Major and Daniel, "And you helped come up with the evacuation plan?"

"Yes sir. Captain Thrace and I came up with the plan together."

"Do you know why the Pegasus won't be partaking in the evacuation?"

"The Pegasus will remain with the ships that jumped away four months ago. If we don't show up at the rendezvous point within eighteen hours of the Galactica jumping here than Commander Adama is to lead the rest of the ships away from here and find Earth."

Laura nodded her head at the explanation that sounded like something that the Admiral would do. "Very well." She turned to Tyrol and the others, "Lower your weapons."

Once the tension in the room had noticeably dropped Erin Mathias brought them back to the task at hand, "What do you guys have for evacuation plans."

Laura looked away from Sam and Daniel and turned to Tory imploring her to reveal what they had planned.

"We've designated and assigned 500 block captains to cover each sector of the city. Each block captain is responsible for rallying and guiding the people in his or her sector along their escape route to their designated ship."

Zarek spoke up, "Don't suppose you've been able to rehearse any of this."

Roslin took over, "Indeed. We've had three full-dress rehearsals under the guise of fire and natural disaster drills."

"Be different when the balloon goes up. Explosions, shooting, chaos. There's gonna be some panic out there," Mathias pointed out.

Roslin defended the work they had done so far, "They'll do fine. These people know that at some point, they're gonna be responsible for saving themselves. All we need to do is be ready and hope for the best."

Heads nodded in agreement as Roslin quietly turned to Sam, "What about Maya and Isis??

"I'm on it. I've got my two best shooters here. They're gonna be their escorts and make sure they get back to the ship."

Roslin turned to the two most important escorts, "Gentlemen, I can't tell you why, but it is imperative that this woman and her child get off this planet. I trust you because I trust him."

On the other side of the room Sam leaned over to Mathias, "Who is she?"

Erin looked over at the Major in shock before recalling that there was no way she could have known who she was. "That's Laura Roslin. She became the President of the Colonies when the Exodus began and served in that position until just before we settled on this clusterfrak of a planet."

* * *

Jack and Teal'c stood anxiously on the hangar deck as the two Raptors that had first gone to New Caprica were rolled onto the deck. As the doors opened he pushed his way through the throng of people. When he didn't see his teammates come down from the first raptor he made his way to the second one. Once again though, he didn't see his two friends. He turned back to Teal'c with a worried look on his face.

He scanned the crowd for Mathias and once he caught sight of her he made a bee line for her.

He yelled to her as he approached, "Where are Daniel and Carter?"

She looked at him quizzically, "What sir?"

Jack leaned in even closer so that she could hear him over the chants of 'Adama!' that were filling the hangar deck. "Where are Daniel and Carter?"

"They got separated from us, sir."

"What?" he yelled back at her in anger. "You're team leader! You don't leave anyone behind!"

"We didn't sir," she told him indignantly. "They joined up with Former President Roslin's group; they were heading for Colonial One."

Without another word, he turned around and headed for the nearest phone. "Lieutenant, this is Colonel O'Neill. Is Colonial One on Dradis?"

"Yes sir. They were the last ones to get here."

Jack hung up the phone and turned back to Teal'c, "Colonial One made the jump."

"Any word on Major Carter or Daniel Jackson?"

"No. We won't be able to get that kind of information for hours."

* * *

It took four hours for Jack to know that both his teammates were alive and aboard Colonial One. It took another ten hours before a raptor was able to transport his two teammates and the former President of the Colonies to Galactica.

"Daniel!" he yelled out as soon as he saw his favorite archaeologist wearing only a t-shirt and a bandage on his left upper arm. "I told you no scratches!"

* * *

TBC

Author's Note: Assume everything else that happened in the first four episodes of Season Three took place. Differences being that Starbuck wasn't on New Caprica, of course.

Enjoy the next chapter, it's a long one!


	13. Presidential Disclosure

**Chapter 13: Full Disclosure**

"Madame President, I'd like to introduce you to Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c," Bill Adama offered as he led her into his office.

Roslin extended her hand to O'Neill and Teal'c, "A pleasure to meet you. Major. Doctor?" she asked as she looked at Daniel. "Why didn't you say so when we were down on New Caprica?"

Daniel looked sheepish, "I couldn't tell you that without compromising our cover."

Laura Roslin had been in the process of lowering herself into one of Bill's couches when she paused at his last word. She lowered herself the final inches and then looked up at Daniel and then the Admiral, "Cover?"

The annoyed look from the President generated a silence in the room that was only broken when she spoke again. "There was no such thing as an Odyssey mission, was there? Bill, what the hell are you doing creat-"

"We're from Earth," Jack O'Neill offered before she went into a protracted tirade against the Admiral who did what he had to to protect them.

Laura blinked slowly as she turned to Jack. "Earth?" she quietly whispered out in shock.

"Yes ma'am. My team," he indicated the members of SG-1, "and I crash landed on New Caprica hours before the Cylon invasion."

Kara took up the next part of the story, "I found them and initially thought they were Cylons. Until I found this." She stepped forward and handed her the tunic and pointed at the badge on the sleeve.

Laura Roslin carefully studied the patch as she slowly ran her fingers over the stitching of the upside down V with a small circle at the apex. "The Tomb of Athena," she quietly whispered as she remembered what they had seen in that enclosed tomb once they placed the arrow in its rightful place. When she looked up her eyes were brimming with tears, "You're really from Earth?" Her hand came to her mouth as she tried to hold the sob in when Jack nodded his head.

She lowered her head and offered a silent prayer to the Gods. She then looked up and began to wipe away the tears from her face. "I have to admit, there were times when I wondered if Earth ever really existed," she offered with a small smile. She then straightened her shoulders, "How long will it take us to get there?"

When Jack averted his gaze away from her she knew something was wrong. She turned to the man she trusted more than anyone, "What is it Bill?"

Sam took on the mantle of revealing the harsh truth, "We don't know where we are in space. Other than having an idea that you have been travelling along the right general direction, we don't know where exactly Earth is in relation to where we are right now."

Laura let out a half hysterical laugh that she tried to stifle with her hand, "Of course not, that would be too easy for us." She looked down again at the patch in her hands and renewed her sense of hope. "It really is out there," she quietly whispered to herself. She took a deep breath and with renewed hope turned to the four individuals from Earth, "How did you end up here?"

"We were on a mission on another planet when we were captured and transported to another planet. We managed to escape our captors but in the process we had to make a few blind jumps and we just ended up crashing onto New Caprica."

Lee asked a hopeful question, "Is there any chance that one of your ships will come looking for you?"

There was a pause before Jack spoke, "Yeah... About that. We haven't developed interstellar space ships yet."

The three colonial officers were stunned into silence.

"What?"

"You said you transported an asteroid through Earth with a hyperspace bubble," Kara pointed out. That story had planted the seed for the successful mission resulting in the evacuation of New Caprica.

Jack nodded his head, "Yeah, that wasn't ours."

"How did you get to another planet before here?" Laura asked.

"Admiral, Major, you remember how I promised to tell you a really fascinating story?" Both Adama men nodded at him slowly. "You guys may want to sit down for this one."

Before continuing with the story everyone except Teal'c was seated.

"Do you remember the picture I drew for you of the ring made up of thirty-nine blocks, nine of them being distinct."

Adama withdrew the piece of paper that contained all the symbols on the pylon they had seen in the planetarium within the Tomb of Athena. "Yes, this one."

Daniel leaned back and removed another piece of folded paper from within his shirt. "This is a Stargate," he laid out the drawing of a Stargate that showed the prototypical stairs in front of each one and the dial home device several yards in front of the steps. "It's a piece of ancient technology created by a race of aliens that developed extremely advanced technology. This Stargate is capable of creating a wormhole between itself and a destination target thousands of light years away. With the Stargate we can be on different sides of the galaxy in seconds. Have you ever seen one of these?"

Empty stares was the response he received. "This device here," he indicated the DHD, "activates the Stargate and creates the connection between two Stargates. Those six symbols," he pointed at the symbols on the piece of paper that Admiral Adama carried with him, "are the Stargate address for Earth. Pressing those six symbols on this device plus one more symbol which represents the planet where the Stargate is situated on will activate the Stargate and create a direct connection to the Stargate we have on Earth."

"So all we have to do is find one of those Stargates and we could be on Earth in seconds?" Kara finally got out.

"In essence, yes. But it'd probably be best if we didn't just transport all the survivors there. It's explained in those letters I wrote for you."

"Why?" Lee asked as he pulled out the letter that was addressed to him, and began to open it.

"Not many people on Earth know about the Stargate program and the fact that there's a galaxy with other planets where humans and aliens live. The base we have on Earth is underground and hidden from the people of the planet."

"What's your mission?"

"Explore. Make contact with potential allies and form treaties. Find new technologies. Fight the bad guys."

"What bad guys?" Kara asked worriedly.

The members of SG-1 all looked at each other carefully before deciding what to reveal. "You only know humans and Cylons, right?"

"What do you mean?" Laura asked.

"Do you know of any other races, beings, or sentient beings?" Daniel asked back in clarification.

"What else would there be?" Kara asked back mockingly as she turned to Lee and shared a smirk.

"You have no idea," Jack quietly told them.

Kara turned back to Jack and was about to make another smart comment until she saw the seriousness in his expression.

Daniel spoke, "In the six years since we learned to use the Stargate we've visited over two hundred planets containing human life. We've also encountered at least ten different beings that are not human-like at all. Some of them have become allies, some haven't and want nothing more than to enslave humans. It's a big galaxy out there."

"Enslave humans?" Laura whispered in shock. She then looked at Bill, "Is there anywhere that we will be safe?"

Jack spoke up, "We did mention that we fight the bad guys, right?" He looked at the two leaders of the fleet. "Look, the galaxy has thrown some pretty crappy stuff at you. It also landed us on your doorstep. We need you to make it back home. We don't need you worrying about all the bad stuff out there. We deal with it and move on, that's the only thing we can do. If that's going to be a problem for you then we may as well-"

"Sir," Sam quietly called out as his frustration was rising.

Jack stared at Sam and once he realized what she was implying he took a deep breath before turning back to the Colonials. "Look, you help us find our way back home and I promise you that we will find a home for you. It probably won't be on Earth, but you'll probably have a planet of your own that you can all call home."

"How can you make a promise like that?" Laura asked.

"I don't forget those that help us," he told her seriously.

"O'Neill is a man of his word," Teal'c reassured the Colonials.

Laura and Bill studied Jack O'Neill carefully. Jack returned their intense stare conveying his intentions. Laura turned to Bill, "How do you think the fleet will react when we eventually find Earth but aren't able to join the thirteenth tribe?"

Daniel stepped forward, "Yeah... About that... To my knowledge your Thirteenth Tribe never made it to Earth."

Wide eyes turned to him, "Excuse me?"

"That's not possible," Kara uttered. "No, the Pythian prophecy stated that the Thirteenth Tribe made it to Earth and saw the signs of the other Twelve Tribes. They had to have made it." This was what they had been looking for in part; not just a home, but a lost tribe.

"But how would the scrolls know what the Thirteenth Tribe saw if they never came back?" Daniel asked back trying to show her the holes in their beliefs.

Kara looked at him without an answer. "But you know those constellations? They exist right? And you can see them from Earth? Right?"

Daniel nodded his head, "Yes we can. For whatever reason, we call them by similar names to what you call them."

"That can't be a coincidence," Laura said as she entered the conversation. "It must mean something!"

Daniel shrugged his shoulders, "Look, I've studied Earth's history and I'd like to consider myself an expert on it. And there is no story or evidence about a tribe of people coming from outer space four thousand years ago. I'm sorry..."

"So you believe it's just coincidence that the Pythian prophecy let us know what we can see from Earth. That the majority of society believes in gods that were also found in your history?" Adama quietly added. "I'm not a man of faith, but even I have a hard time believing that."

Daniel looked at the older man, "I know, neither am I. And there might be some connection between our worlds, but I don't think it's like you think."

Laura furrowed her eyebrows at him, "And what do you think?"

Daniel shook his head, "I only have speculation and nothing-"

"Dr. Jackson we have no home. We are in search of a home that a prophecy spoke of. What's a little speculation at this point?" Laura paused, "Please, what do you think?"

Daniel looked over at his team leader who sent him a slight nod to let them know what they all thought and had discussed in private amongst the members of SG-1. "Five thousand years ago the Goa'uld arrived on Earth. They started taking humans as hosts while enslaving more. They then seeded humans across the known galaxy using the Stargate. It's possible that Kobol was found in such a way."

"By the Goa'uld?"

"You asked me what I think."

"And you're implying that the Goa'uld became our Lords of Kobol? The same Goa'uld you say that enslaved humans?"

"Yes."

Laura shook her head, "The Scrolls say that Kobol was where the gods and humans lived together in peace. They weren't evil. There has to be some other explanation."

Jack took a deep breath as he restrained himself from jumping into the conversation.

"Like I said, you asked me what I think. I'm just telling you what I think based on our experiences and travels. But without extensive material on Kobol to look at, this is all I can offer."

"Look, really, does it really matter?" Jack finally asked.

Laura looked over to Jack sharply. "Yes, Colonel, it does. Do you have any idea what kind of impact this could have on our society? The belief in the Gods are all that some of the people have left. And you are suggesting that they were a race of aliens that enslaved us? Yes, Colonel, it does indeed matter to a lot of people in our fleet."

Jack frowned, properly chastised. "All I'm saying is what does it matter where you came from four thousand years ago? There's nothing you can do about it? Hell we don't have to tell the people if it'll make you feel better. What matters is finding you a place to settle away from the Cylons. I cannot tell you how many different peoples we have come across that were so consumed with the past and the way things were that they forgot to look forward and as a result they suffered. And I promise you, it wasn't pretty. You have a choice to make. Worry about what happened four thousand years ago, or how we find Earth?"

There was a measured silence in the room as they all studied Jack and considered his words. Laura turned to Bill and implored with her eyes for a few moments of private discussion.

Adama turned back to Jack and spoke, "Colonel, would your team and you mind stepping out for a few minutes so that we can discuss this?"

Jack sighed; to him there was really only one logical answer. "We'll be in the officer's ready room."

Once SG-1 had left the leaders of the Colonial fleet all looked at one another. Bill Adama poured four small glasses of ambrosia and handed them out to his guests. They all settled down and a contemplative silence ensued. It was the President who finally broke the silence.

"I know that they say they are from Earth, and the Lords know that I want to really believe them... But are you sure that they are from Earth?"

"Where else would they be from?" Lee asked.

"Well according to them, there are a lot of planets out in this galaxy that harbor life... For all we know they really are from the Colonies and they are just mes-"

"They are definitely not from the Colonies," Lee assured her.

Laura took off her glasses and looked at him carefully. She then looked to the other three occupants who were readily agreeing with him. "How can you say that with absolute certainty? They could be one of the Cylon models that we haven't se-" She stopped herself abruptly when she saw the rapidly shaking heads of the other occupants. "What?"

Lee and Kara looked to the Admiral to explain this one to her. Adama raised his glass to his lips and spoke softly, "Teal'c."

"Yes, what about him? Other than seeming extremely formal and the strange emblem on his forehead he looks like any other person... Or Cylon for that matter."

He took a sip of the green liquid and shook his head, "He's not human like you or I. And he's definitely not a Cylon unless they've decided to start making pouches in their stomach cavity that house serpents."

Roslin looked at them slack jawed and wide-eyed. "Serpents?" she whispered as she dropped her head and looked over her glasses at him. The serious face on the Admiral prompted her to look at the two younger individuals who wordlessly nodded at her. "He has serpents in his stomach?"

"Just one actually... Or at least I think... We only saw one... And I hope to gods I never see one again."

Lee and Kara absently nodded their heads in agreement recalling Teal'c showing them 'Junior'.

Seeing the disturbed faces on the three colonial officers she realized that they were in fact telling the truth. That settled the issue of whether they are from the Colonies or a Cylon. In Laura's eyes there was still the matter of fully trusting them. "Do you trust them?" Laura Roslin looked to each one wanting to get their opinion. She settled on Lee Adama last, imploring him to give her his opinion.

"If you'd asked me four months ago, I would have said no. But after seeing Teal'c's pouch… They all put their lives on the line in helping us get you all off New Caprica. They didn't have to… And with respect to the gods… Well I never really put too much stock in them."

Laura nodded her head, and turned to Kara, "Captain?"

Kara looked down at the ground momentarily before looking into Laura's eyes. "Yes," she confidently told her.

"And what about what they implied about the gods? I know that you do believe in them. Doesn't it bother you that they could be completely destroying the foundation of your faith?"

"That's what faith is all about. We've never had concrete proof that they do exist. And as Dr. Jackson said, we'll probably never know for sure. That still won't stop me from believing in the gods."

"And what if we're never allowed to step onto Earth? That's what we've been looking for for the past two years."

Bill Adama snorted, "You know that's not true. Earth was a carrot at the end of the stick when we left Ragnar Anchorage. We just happened to be lucky…"

Laura studied Bill and without taking her eyes off him she spoke, "Would the two of you give the Admiral and me a moment?"

Lee and Kara looked at one another and then excused themselves from the room.

"What's the problem?" Bill asked quietly as he sat next to her.

"You really do believe them?" she asked back instead.

Bill Adama nodded his head, "They brought you back to me."

Laura smiled gently at him. "She saved my life, you know. Major Carter."

"She and Starbuck saved a lot of lives with their crazy plan," he agreed.

Laura shook her head, "No. I mean she really did save my life, during the evacuation from New Caprica. My group was heading towards Colonial One when we came under heavy fire. We were pinned down for several minutes when an explosion by the Centurions rang out and the shooting stopped. Major Carter and Dr. Jackson then came running over towards us and told us it was all clear. She never left my side as we made our way towards Colonial One. I know that she personally took out three Centurions on our way to Colonial One."

Bill left her in silence after she recounted the events of her departure from New Caprica.

After several minutes he spoke once again reaffirming his trust in SG-1. "I trust those four people. For the first time I really do believe that Earth is out there. They want to get home. And they want us to get there with them. You remember the envelope that Lee pulled out when Colonel O'Neill started telling us about the Stargate?" When she nodded her head he continued on, "Colonel O'Neill gave Lee and me each two letters. One was for us to open and the other we were to keep sealed and give to Earth should we ever find it. I also got Colonel O'Neill's dog tag and Lee got Teal'c's. They wanted to make sure that even if they didn't make it back, that we would still have a chance to find Earth. They gave us an insurance policy. They're from Earth and they are our best shot at getting there and seeking sanctuary there. And if that means that the Lords of Kobol weren't what we all thought, then so be it. We'll be alive. We'll have a home. Even if it isn't on Earth."

* * *

TBC

Author's Note: This was one of the hardest chapters to write. It's kind of all over the place, but I believe that the Colonial's had some issues to get out in the air. BTW, these haven't been beta'd so all errors are mine.

I'm working on the next set of chapters that will take us forward a few episodes. But that might not be for a couple of weeks, or earlier if you're lucky.


	14. Lion's Head Nebula

Author's Note: In case some of you haven't noticed, I'm taking some dialogue straight from the series. As I've said earlier, this is going to be a close interweaving of the presence of SG1 in BSG Season three and four. At some point things will become different, but when that is is for me to know and for you to wait and find out.

Author's Note 2: I've gotten some really great reviews recently. I've come to realize that reviews where they are offering suggestions are almost the best kind out there. One, it shows the investment of the reader into the story. And two, it gives me some good ideas of where to take the story.

Thank you to all my reviewers out there. I and the author's of other works you review greatly appreciate it.

* * *

**Chapter XIV: Lion's Head Nebula**

"Mister Gaeta, what do you have for us?" Bill Adama asked the younger man who walked in with a few star charts and a folder filled with pieces of paper.

"I've been trying to reassemble President Balt -- Doctor Baltar's work on piecing together the 13th Tribe's path to Earth," he offered as he laid the maps and spread the papers out on the war room table.

President Roslin leaned forward and with a hint of resentment asked a question of the young officer, "I'm curious, Mr. Gaeta. What is it that you trust about Dr. Baltar's research? How do you know it's not another one of his lies?"

Gaeta looked up to Roslin, "If there was one thing I learned about Baltar, it was his extraordinary capacity for self-preservation. I think he wanted to find Earth because he wanted to get there."

Adama and Roslin both nodded their heads in agreement at his description of the weasely man. "How far did he get with his research?"

"Well, as you can see, I'm still hacking through his notes. But it appears that he was trying to correlate our own astrometric readings with the map of constellations that we found back on Kobol, and apply his findings to certain select passages within the Scroll of Pythia."

Adama looked up from the papers, "Why the Scroll of Pythia?"

Roslin absently answered for the young man, "Pythia is supposed to have chronicled the original journey of the 13th Tribe on its way to Earth."

Admiral Adama raised an eyebrow at her explanation. The President caught the movement and realized what he meant with that simple action. In light of the knowledge from SG-1 could anything from their Scrolls really be used?

**"**If I can draw your attention to this passage," Gaeta began unaware of the silent realization and doubt coming from the leaders of the fleet. "And the caravan of the heavens was watched over by a great lion with a mighty blinking eye…" he read from one of the pages that had been underlined.

Admiral Adama who had been leaning over the document as well finished the statement,"…Red and blue."

"Exactly."

"Exactly what? You're looking for a lion's head?" At this point, Adama was even more skeptical about any findings from Baltar or the Scrolls of Pythia.

"With a mighty blinking eye," Roslin added with a small smile. At this point she was having a hard time with it.

"Blinking." Adama confirmed once again to make sure that he was following.

Roslin couldn't help herself, "Well, they're Scrolls. They speak in metaphors."

Gaeta spoke up after letting his commanding officer express his doubt. "Initially, I thought the doctor might be off his meds as well, sir. But then I found this note here, where he had written 'blinking equals pulsar'."

"That means a star, right?" Roslin asked in all seriousness.

"Uh, plural, actually," Gaeta offered. "They're the rotating cores of dead stars. They emit a blast of radio waves. From a distance, they appear to –

"Blink."

"Right," Gaeta nodded his head at the President. "The doctor found two in very close mutual orbit within this sector. Uh, the spectrographic readings that I found show one will appear to be red, and one will appear to be blue. Now... these pulsars appear to be in this nebula. We have never had a direct look at this area. But it is possible, with a couple of eyeballs out there, they might look at the nebula and see –

"A giant lion's head."

Roslin considered the idea and spoke for her audience, "Well, it looks like this is the best thing we've got going, so … Unless you object, Admiral, I suggest we go lion hunting."

Adama turned to his subordinate officer, "Mister Gaeta, thank you for this. I'd like to look over these for a bit before making my final decision."

Gaeta stood at attention, "Yes sir."

"That'll be all," Adama told him as he turned his attention to the papers laid out before him.

As soon as Felix Gaeta had left the room, Adama looked up at Roslin, "Let's run this by Major Carter first, shall we."

* * *

  
Racetrack looked out the front window of their Raptor, "Oh, my Gods, it's right there. The lion's head nebula, and the blinking eye. Holy crap, it's the road to Earth!" she called out with a large grin on her face and began to laugh.

However the smiles and laughs that she and Athena shared were abruptly halted when the saw a Cylon basestar.

"Oh, my Gods. Let's get the frak out of here. I'll start the jump." Racetrack called out as she raced back to the ECO's chair.

As Racetrack began spinning up the FTL, in the front of the Raptor Sharon stared out the window with fear. She quietly whispered, "When God's anger awakens, even the mighty shall fall…"

Racetrack looked forward when she heard the quiet mutterings of her pilot, "Frak, Athena, we need to get out of here!"

* * *

"And what did the nebula look like?" Gaeta waited expectantly for their answer

Racetrack smiled, "Looked like a lion's head to me," she said as she laid out one of the pictures from the weapons camera.

"But the Cylons already beat us here," Lee pointed out.

"Sir, they never launched a bird."

Adama looked up quickly, "Are you sure?"

Racetrack nodded her head, "Yes sir. When we got back I went over the Dradis recording. They didn't launch a bird."

"Sir, we were there for sixty seconds. They would have had plenty of time to launch a complement of raiders," Athena confirmed.

Adama looked at the other officers gathered, Apollo, Helo, Gaeta, and Colonel O'Neill.

"Why wouldn't they launch?"

"Nobody's home?" Jack offered to try and lighten the situation.

"Or it's a trap," Lee said not picking up on Jack's sarcasm.

"Well… yeah," Jack conceded.

"What if the Colonel's right, though," Helo offered thoughtfully.

"Major?" Adama asked.

"What if there's really no one there?"

"Why wouldn't there be?" Athena asked her husband.

"I don't know," he shrugged his shoulders. "They could have abandoned it or…"

"Why?"

Helo shrugged his shoulders again.

Jack leaned towards Adama and whispered, "We could be dealing with another player here."

Adama looked sharply upon hearing the suggestion.

At the same time, Apollo reiterated his previous stance, "Or it could be a trap."

Silence fell across the room.

Gaeta broke the silence, "The fact that the Cylons are here sir, suggests that Baltar's previous research with the Scrolls of Pythia, may in fact lead us to Earth."

"What do you think we'll find Lieutenant?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know sir."

Adama looked down at the figures on the table.

Helo offered a suggestion, "We can send a couple of raptors to the edge of their Dradis range, see how they respond."

Adama took a measured breath before looking at the others. "Very well. Athena, you and Racetrack will jump with Red Devil and Skulls. I want your bird to take it in close while the other raptor stays at a distance."

Athena and Racetrack stood up a little taller after receiving their mission orders, "Yes sir."

* * *

"She's dead in the water, sir," Athena told the Old Man three hours later after they had returned from their mission. "But she's not showing any signs of damage."

Adama looked at her in confusion. "That doesn't make any sense."

"No sir."

"It could still be a trap," Apollo pointed out.

Jack spoke up, "If I were setting a trap I'd use a damaged base ship, not one that has no signs of damage."

Adama shook his head, "I agree." He paused as he considered his next orders. "Apollo, I want you to take three raptors over there with three companies of marines. I want to know what happened over there."

* * *

**"**What the hell?" Apollo exclaimed as he spotted a Six lying on the ground, dead.

"Gods, what happened here?" Racetrack asked in wonder as they saw more fallen Cylons.

Gunny Mathias looked around and couldn't help herself, "I don't know, but their frakking resurrection ship is gonna overheat."

Jack quirked an eyebrow at the Gunnery Sergeant's comment. Seeing Daniel and Sam heading towards one of the ship consoles, he whispered loudly, "Don't touch anything!"

"Apollo. We've reached the control center." Apollo was speaking into his radio as he scanned the control room and estimated the number of dead bodies. "Thirty, maybe forty dead skinjobs. Mathias, set a perimeter!" At his order the lead Marine jumped to action and began ordering her marines to cover the entrances.

Apollo turned and then spoke to Sharon, "Athena! See what you can pick up with the computers."

Athena nodded her head as she came back to the moment and tried to ignore her dead Cylon siblings on the floor. She placed her hands in the basestar's data port gel, "Okay, I'm gonna try to call up the database. If I get a connection, put the SSR leads in the water over there. Reduce the error correction level for higher throughput."

Her ECO looked at her warily but got the cables ready anyways, "You sure you want to do that?"

"It's how it works," Athena replied as she accessed the database. Suddenly the view screens started screaming with images and going haywire. Athena jumped back, "Oh!"

Hot Dog looked over, "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah," a clearly shaken Athena replied. She took a deep breath and then stepped back to the console, "The datapoints are almost completely corroded. I don't know if I'm gonna get much out of here, but let's try."

**"**What is going on?" Apollo demanded as he approached Sharon. In an effort to avoid stepping on any dead bodies he looked down and was startled by what he saw. "Frak me! This one's alive! We've got a live one over there!"

Mathias jumped into action to protect the mission leader, "Danelli, Peters, cover the Major!"

As Apollo looked around he started seeing more Cylons moving, "They're alive!" He keyed his comm unit and spoke, "Galactica, Apollo. We've got a … one, two, three, four, five living skinjobs down here. I say again, five living."

_"Are you taking fire?" _Helo's voice asked back.

"Negative, negative. They seem in pretty bad shape."

"_Don't take chances. They make any threatening moves --_"

"Oh, you can trust me on that one," Apollo assured him

"Major, what do we do? Should we take 'em out?" Mathias asked ready to send a few more Cylons to the nearest Resurrection Ship.

Apollo raised his hand and voice, "Hold your fire, hold your fire!"

"Keep away from the frackers!" Mathias warned those present.

"I said hold your fire!" Apollo reaffirmed his order.

"Grant us the strength ... the wisdom... "

Once he had the assault team under control Lee finally paid attention to what the Cylons were saying as the final living Cylons drew closer to one another and clasped hands, "What are they doing?"

"…And above all...a measure of acceptance," the Cylons continued to mutter with their final breaths.

Athena looked down at the Cylons with wide-eyed fear. Ignoring everything going on around her, she stepped forward and kneeled next to another Eight and rolled her head into her lap.

"Hey, Athena, what are you doing? Athena! Athena!" Apollo called out with a sense of urgency.

"Traitor. Save yourself." The fallen Cylon told Athena.

"From what?"

"Get away from us," a nearby Six pleaded.

"What happened here?" Athena asked as she looked at the small gathering of Cylons.

"A beacon. We brought it aboard," Six struggled to get out. "Carried disease. We're infected."

"Infected?" Athena said aloud with fear.

"Oh, son of a bitch!" Mathias called out.

Apollo took a deep breath as he tried to get the situation under control in light of the new information. "Okay, okay, okay! Settle down! Keep back! Watch the doorways. Get the doorways!" By having them watching the doorways hopefully it would take their minds off the information they had just gleaned from the sick Cylons. Apollo then got on his comm unit once again, "Galactica, Apollo. We have a situation down here. The Cylons have been infected with a disease. We have all been exposed. We've all been exposed," he added with a bit of resignation.

* * *

TBC

And if you would be so kind... review.


	15. Quarantined

**Chapter XV: Quarantined**

In the back of the quarantine room that the Galactica had set up in the sick-bay the four members of SG-1 stood close to one another.

They had been standing silently since their arrival, each of them considering their fate. Jack looked around the room and noticed the general unease in the other soldiers. He then turned to Teal'c who seemed unconcerned. That's when a realization hit him. He motioned his team closer together and began whispering, "This is bad beyond the fact that we've been exposed to some unknown pathogen, isn't it?"

Sam was the first to respond, "Yes sir. Most likely Teal'c won't be infected, and that is bound to raise questions if the rest of us all become sick. And depending on how closely they look at Teal'c and mine's blood work, they may find naquadah."

"Crap," he muttered. He looked around the room and was about to call Apollo over.

However it was drowned out by Hot Dog's complaining, "You can kiss my infected ass."

Just then Doc Cottle walked in without any protective gear, "Well, you can kiss it, but it's not infected. I got your blood work back. Humans are immune to the virus. You're healthy."

There was a visible sigh of relief from all the occupants in the room. Smiles started to return to their faces as they began to get up and move towards the exit.

Apollo called out, "All right, people. Nice job. Let's get outta here."

Everyone was streaming out when he grabbed Athena's arm. "No. You stay put for a while."

SG-1 was just coming upon the pair and felt varying amounts of sympathy for her when their own relief came to a crashing halt.

"You two need to stick around as well."

Their eyes all turned to the doctor in shock and fear. "What?" Jack got out.

"You and Jackson need to stay put. While everyone else is immune to it, the infection seemed to take hold in your systems. I don't know why, but I'll try to figure something out for the two of you." He then abruptly turned around and returned to trying to figure out what was going on."

Jack's somber face looked at Carter. "Carter?"

She actually was at a loss for words momentarily before coming up with an answer, "I'll try to figure out as much as possible, sir."

Jack nodded his head and looked back to Athena who had fallen back against a bunk and was clutching a pillow. "Crap... If only Cylons are susceptible to this and we're infected, then they're going to think we're Cylons as well..."

Carter looked up, "I'll talk to Admiral Adama. We'll bring Doc Cottle in on our situation. We have to."

Jack nodded absently as he lowered himself into a chair.

Carter saw the despondency in her teammates' eyes and resolved to let nothing happen to them, "We'll figure this out sir."

Jack nodded absently as he stared at his hands on the table.

Carter placed her hand on his shoulder, "We will, sir."

Jack let a ghost of a smile appear on his face, "You better get cracking then Carter."

Sam nodded her head with a dogged determination and turned around to offer Cottle her help.

_

* * *

  
_

A few hours later there was a meeting in Adamas office. Present were the President, the Admiral, the XO Karl Agathon, the CAG Lee Adama, Doc Cottle and Major Samantha Carter.

As soon as everyone was present Laura Roslin immediately began with her questions, "Doctor Cottle. What are we dealing with here? How long before the Cylons in the brig die?"

"We're dealing with a virus here, and I can keep the Cylons alive."

Roslin looked up, "You can keep the Cylons alive."

The old man nodded his head, "I can't cure them. But yes."

"How long?" Adama quietly asked.

The doctor turned to address his CO, "Indefinitely. I identified the virus. We know it as lymphocytic encephalitis. The disease is carried by rodents. Rats, mostly. But a couple of hundred years ago, humans developed an immunity. Now I can create a simple vaccine that will dramatically reverse the effect of the virus on the Cylons. But, uh, they have an antibody in their blood which breaks down the RNA of the vaccine. So they will need regular, close-interval injections of the vaccine. Or they will die," he finished succinctly.

"Can I ask the ugly question here?" Apollo spoke up, "Is there a reason to keep them alive?"

Helo looked over at the CAG sharply, "We could interrogate them for intelligence."

"I agree," the older Adama said voicing his opinion on the matter. "We have a lot of unanswered questions."

"Yeah, okay. But they're not gonna talk," Apollo countered with.

"Well, they might if we dangled the vaccine," Roslin offered. "They don't need to know it's a stop-gap, not a cure."

Apollo shook his head thinking that the plan would not work, "They prayed on the infected ship. Karl's wife said it was something called "the prayer to the cloud of unknowing," whatever the hell that is. Anyway, the point is, she said they only use it when they're facing an imminent death that is final. No possibility of downloading. They're ready to die," he pointed out.

"They may be ready to die, but it doesn't mean that one of them won't jump at a second chance." She turned to Helo and spoke, "Offer them the vaccine for information. Do it as soon as possible."

Helo looked to his CO who nodded his head in effect dismissing him to take care of the charge he had been tasked with. As he was exiting the room he heard Roslin's voice, "Doctor, what is the condition of Colonel O'Neill and Mister Jackson?"

Helo stopped in his tracks and turned around. Up until that point he had forgotten that those two men remained in the quarantine room with Sharon long after everyone else had been cleared. He had been so preoccupied with Sharon's own status that it hadn't completely registered. In light of what the doctor had just revealed that humans had developed an immunity, why were they still in quarantine?

"I thought you said that humans are immune to this virus?" Helo asked as he reentered the room.

Roslin looked over at the Admiral.

Answering the question, Doc Cottle began, "That's what I said, but for some-"

"Major Agathon, I believe we asked you to go speak to the Cylon prisoners. I suggest you follow your orders," he added with a stern glare.

Helo flinched at the tone. "Sir, I don't understand why-"

"That'll be all Major," he added with an even firmer voice. "You're dismissed."

Helo's face scrunched in dissatisfaction upon the prospect of being left out of the discussion that was to follow. It seemed that anything that involved their four new 'recruits' was always done in closed doors. Filing this away for later, he stood up tall and turned and left the room. This time as he left the room he didn't hear any questions being asked.

Laura and Bill looked at one another, "That was close. We need to be more careful. I suggest we seal the hatch. Major, would you mind instructing the marines that we are not to be disturbed by anyone?"

Cottle looked between the other four occupants of the room in confusion, "What was close? Why are we trying to be all secretive?"

Bill stepped to his medical officer and urged him to remain patient, "Just give us a few seconds."

Once Lee had joined them in the room after securing them some privacy they reinitiated their conversation.

"Doctor Cottle, what is the status of Colonel O'Neill and Mister Jackson?"

"They're infected. That's what their status is. Don't ask me how since there hasn't been a documented case of lymphocytic encephalitis in the colonies in two hundred years. So either they have mutations in the genes that gave all the rest of us an immunity. Which, by the way, I find extremely unlikely that of all the people who survived the holocaust I now have two patients who have the same mutations." He paused momentarily before supplying the other explanation, "Or they're Cylons."

Silence fell upon the room. Furtive glances were exchanged between the Colonial Officers.

Cottle noticed the silence and their glances, "Am I missing something?"

"There's another possibility," Sam offered from the back of the room.

Cottle turned around and looked at her. "Last time I checked, you didn't have a medical degree or a degree in biology, so what possibility is there that I didn't just present?"

"They're not Cylon. And they're not from the Colonies."

Cottle raised an eyebrow at her. "Then where would they come from young lady?" he challenged.

Sam looked past him to the President and the Admiral who both nodded their heads. Roslin knew that he could keep a secret, he had done so for almost two years for her.

Sam then turned back to Cottle. "What if I told you that they came from a planet that has never had that virus be as rampant as on the colonies and so the population never developed a natural immunity to it?"

"I'd ask you what you'd been smoking and if I could have a hit. All the Colonies-"

"We're not from the Colonies," she interrupted him. She paused before revealing the full truth, "We're from Earth."

Cottle slowly blinked at this revelation. He turned to the Admiral, "Is this some kind of joke?"

Adama shook his head, "I'm afraid not. Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c Murray are from Earth."

Cottle looked at each member of the room and studied their faces looking for any signs of deception. When he found none, he lowered himself into a nearby chair. He looked up at Sam, "It's really out there?"

"Yes, sir," she offered with a small smile.

"How the hell did you join up with us?"

Sam nodded her head, "Long story short, we were on a recon mission, got captured by some unsavory types. Escaped and ended up crashing on New Caprica just before the Cylons showed up."

"How long before we reach Earth?" he asked with hope. "I'm getting sick of readjusting my rationing of cigarettes. You do have cigarettes, right?"

"We have cigarettes, but unfortunately we were lost in space when we crashed. We don't know where we are in relation to Earth anymore than Admiral Adama does," she told him sadly.

Cottle snorted, "Figures that'd be our luck."

Roslin let Cottle absorb the news for a couple of minutes before bringing his attention back to their sick patients. "Doctor Cottle, will the vaccine work for Colonel O'Neill and Mister Jackson?"

"As long as they aren't Cylons or don't have a reaction to the vaccine then yes it should save them before it's too late."

"How long will it take for the vaccine to work?" Sam asked eagerly.

"Probably 24 hours, but a week at most."

"Do they have that kind of time?" Sam asked with concern, "I thought the Cylons picked up the beacon less than two days ago."

"I know, for some reason it appears to become symptomatic in Cylons faster. In humans the normal course of infection is 8-13 days."

"Are you absolutely positive that they will make it?"

Cottle looked at her carefully and spoke with a gentleness that wasn't often heard from his lips, "As sure as I can be. I'll do everything I can for them, you have my word." Cottle realized that these four people were important, he wanted to do everything possible to stay on their good side. He then quirked his head at her, "Why didn't you and Mister Murray become infected?"

"Teal'c has a super immune system," she offered without trying to reveal too much.

"A super immune system?" Cottle recited back skeptically. When she didn't respond, he turned to the Fleet leadership, "Look I understand you not telling me before hand. But I'm their doctor and I need to know what I'm dealing with. Whatever it is it can't be that bad so just tell me!" he finished with raised voice.

Sam's voice caused him to turn around again, "If I tell you, you have to swear to me that you will be the only one to ever treat Teal'c if he needs it, and that you and only you ever runs the blood work done on Teal'c or me. No nurses. No techs. No one else."

Cottle sighed in exasperation, "What difference does it make whether or not someone else runs it?"

"Teal'c is not human. He's actually from another planet. He is in essence the incubator for another parasitic race of beings that gives him a heightened immune system among other benefits." Seeing the doubt in his face she continued, "Ask Admiral Adama or Major Adama, they've both seen it."

Cottle turned to the other two officers who nodded their heads.

He turned back to Sam, "You're not frakking with me are you?"

"No sir. Once this is all over, we'll sit down and tell you everything you'll need to know about it."

Cottle looked at her intensely before nodding his head accepting her deal. "So are you an alien too?"

At this the other three occupants in the room looked at him sharply. "What?"

Sam grimaced.

"Why would you say that?" Roslin asked.

Cottle half turned to answer her question, "The Major here told me that I had to analyze her and Teal'c's samples. Not those of O'Neill and Jackson." He then turned back to Sam, "So are you?"

"No. But Teal'c and I do share one thing. In both of our blood there are traces of a heavy metal that we call naquadah, to my knowledge you guys aren't familiar with this compound. I also have an additional protein marker in my blood."

"What is it and how did you get it?" the physician asked.

"About four years ago I became an unwilling host to one of the parasites that Teal'c carries. It died within me and left traces of naquadah and a protein from it."

"Hasn't it been cleared from your body?"

Sam shook her head, "We think that that protein is what allows the parasite to take root in a human, for whatever reason it evades the body's normal clearance system. It's also extremely stable."

"You think that is why the virus hasn't taken root in your system?"

Sam shrugged her shoulders, "That'd be my guess."

Cottle nodded his head, "I don't suppose you know how I can recognize it?"

She shook her head, "I can show you how."

"Okay then. If there's nothing else?" he looked to the President and Admiral, "I have a vaccine I need to synthesize."

Admiral Adama stepped forward, "Doc, you realize that no one else can know about any of this. The only other person to know about their origins is Starbuck."

Cottle snorted at that one, "Not going to ask why she knows, but yeah I understand. Not a word to anyone."

Lee spoke up, "Helo's starting to get suspicious."

Adama nodded his head, "I know…We'll deal with it if and when we absolutely have to."

* * *

TBC


	16. Patients

And to add a little dissension...

* * *

**Chapter XVI: Patients**

Helo was still livid when he got back to Galactica after the meeting on Colonial One where Apollo had suggested using the infected Cylons to get rid of all Cylons.

"It's frakking genocide, any way you cut it," he muttered to himself on his way to sick bay to see Athena and find out whether there had been any update to her status.

Thinking back to the earlier meeting, "I may as well find out what is going on with O'Neill and Jackson," he told himself.

When he got to sick bay he made his way to the quarantine section surprised to find that the section had been dismantled. He pulled aside a nurse, "What happened to the patients in quarantine?"

"One was discharged and the other two are over in the back corner behind the curtains," she told him as she rushed off to another task.

Helo looked to the indicated corner and made his way back there. He pulled aside the curtain and saw Colonel O'Neill and Daniel Jackson on gurneys and Major Carter sitting on the edge of Jackson's bed. Helo couldn't help a small smile at the implication that Sharon had been discharged.

"Uh, sorry. Sir. If you'll excuse me," he didn't even wait for a response as he rushed off to his quarters.

Sam looked at the vacated space and got up to seal the curtain before situating herself once again on Daniel's bed.

She turned to her CO, "Helo's starting to get suspicious."

Jack shook his head vehemently. "We aren't telling him. We can't risk it."

Sam looked down, "Sir, I think he'd understand. He wouldn't tell Sharon."

"You can't say that. We just let someone else in on our secret. Your treatment is going to change, that as it is is going to raise questions. If she starts to suspect something then he's going to have a hard time saying no."

Sam shook her head, "I don't think she's a threat sir."

Jack looked at her, "I don't think she's a direct threat either. But if she finds out and she dies for whatever reason and there happens to be a resurrection ship nearby then we are in deep shit." His tone was resolute, "I cannot take the risk that the Cylons find out we are here. I am not putting a big target on us."

Carter nodded her head in acquiescence, "Yes sir."

Daniel leaned forward, "Sam, is there any chance you can bring me the notes I've been working on and the Scrolls of Pythia."

She nodded her head as she rose from his bed, "Yeah I'll go get those now. Sir, is there anything I can bring you?"

He raised an eyebrow, "Gameboy?"

Sam smiled widely back at him in response.

"Fine… How about you bring Doc Cottle back here and convince him to let us out of life station in the mean time?"

"I'll see what I can do, sir," she told him as she turned to retrieve Daniel something to keep him occupied. As she walked away she tried to come up with something to bring the Colonel, otherwise he would drive Daniel and the rest of the medical staff crazy. Maybe she could find someone to play cards with the Colonel.

Twenty minutes later Sam was walking back into life station when she saw Doc Cottle heading towards the curtained off section with her teammates. She hurried her pace to join him just as he pulled back the curtain.

"Doc! Finally!" Daniel exclaimed in relief. Even though he would consider Jack his best friend, he was on the verge of strangling him. "Have you finished the vaccine?"

Cottle looked over his shoulder when he heard someone enter behind him, but upon noticing that it was Sam he continued with his answer. "Yes I've finished it, but I'm going to hold off giving it to you just yet."

"What? Are you trying to kill us Doc?" Jack asked.

Cottle raised an eyebrow, "Quite the contrary. I just gave it to one of the Cylons. I want to make sure it's working before I give it to either of you. I should start seeing results in 12-16 hours. In the mean time you," he pointed his finger at the older patient, "need to stop harassing my staff. If you don't I'll have you restrained or sedated."

Jack's eyes bulged at the threat, the CMO at the SGC would never threaten that action so early on. It usually took a day, not two hours. Jack swallowed, "Right… You know you could just release us."

"Hmmph! When I see your medical degree I'll start considering it." He then pulled out their medical charts and started reviewing their notes. He nodded his head and then turned to leave without saying another word.

Daniel, Jack and Sam all shared a look with another before Sam went after him to find out what was going on. She followed him to his office, "What is it?"

Cottle looked up and stared at her, "What?"

Sam eased the door shut. "We've spent way too much time with doctors to know what that look is. When a doctor looks at your chart and then doesn't say anything about it, it's usually a bad sign. What is it?"

Cottle leaned back in his chair and studied her carefully. He pulled out a cigarette but stopped himself from lighting it.

"Please. They're all I've got."

"Their white blood cell count is elevated, usually that doesn't happen for two days."

"So it's progressing faster," she surmised.

He nodded his head, "Yes. But I still think that there will be enough time to administer the vaccine before it's too late. Give me 12 hours."

Sam nodded her head as she turned to leave. "Are you and Teal'c going to continue your vigil with them?"

Sam looked back, "It's what we do."

Cottle looked back, "You guys have been through a lot together, haven't you?"

"You have no idea."

"Right," he offered with a nod of his head. "If you or Teal'c start seeing changes in either of them I need you to notify me immediately. Look out for tremors, confusion, headaches, chest or joint pains, a stiff neck, and the like. I get the feeling that neither of them would readily admit the symptoms, so I'm depending on you two to notice their behavior and whether or not they are experiencing any kind of discomfort."

"I'll let Teal'c know," Sam added as she turned to leave.

She left sick bay in search of her teammate to let him know what the CMO had told her and what they were supposed to be looking for.

When she reached their shared quarters she didn't find Teal'c. She looked to the bunks of her CO and Daniel. She slowly eased herself down onto the bed and took several calming breaths as she tried to convince herself that they would make it.

"We've been through a lot worse," she told herself quietly as she went to stand up and resume her search for Teal'c.

"What was worse?" a voice asked her startling her.

Sam looked up and found Helo standing in the hatch. "Nothing," she replied as she moved towards the hatch.

"No seriously, what could have been worse on the Odyssey?" he prodded as he walked alongside her.

She peered over at him warily sensing that he was trying to glean some information from her. "It's classified," she told him.

Helo laughed, "Classified? Come on, give me a break!" He then raced forward and stood directly in her path. "We are all that is left and you're pulling that classified crap on me. Nuh-uh. Not going to fly. Tell me."

She eyed him, "Why do you care?"

"Because I'm the XO."

"Until you show me you have the proper clearance, I'm still not going to tell you. Sir." She then made to push her way past him, "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go check on my teammates who are still down in sick bay."

He let her slide by him but then turned and continued to follow her, "Yeah, about that. Cottle said that humans were immune to the virus."

Sam stopped, "And?"

"And so what are they doing down there?"

She slowly turned, "What are you getting at?"

""Humans are immune. Cylons aren't."

She glared at him, "Really? What is this really about?"

"I'm just pointing ou-"

"No, you're not. If this was coming from anyone else, I would believe that. But not from you. Not knowing who your wife is. So no, that's not what this is about? So what is it about?"

Helo looked at her knowing that she had called him out on it correctly.

"Because right now I can't deal with whatever issues you have with me. My team, my family is down in sick bay fighting for their lives! So right now I don't have time to deal with this!"

"Whoa! Hey, hey, what's going on?" Starbuck asked as she rushed around the corner to join the arguing pair.

Sam took her eyes off Helo and looked at Kara, "According to Helo, the Colonel and Daniel are Cylons."

Kara quickly turned to Helo, "What? Are you insane?"

Knowing that Kara would speak with Helo, Sam headed off in search of Teal'c.

"I mean, really? Are you that dense? Her teammates are in lifestation and you're accusing them of being Cylons!"

Helo stood up taller, "That's not what I said, I just want to know what is going on with those four. The Admiral, President, Apollo and you all know something about them that you aren't sharing with anybody. I want to know what."

Kara glared at her friend. "You want to know what I know?"

"Yeah."

"Okay… You do not want to piss them off. None of us do. That's what I know," she told him as she stormed away.

* * *

TBC


	17. Eye for an Eye

And now a little bit of moral quandaries...

* * *

**Chapter XVII: Eye for an Eye**

Bill Adama was back aboard the Galactica after meeting with Lee, Helo, and the President aboard Colonial One.

He found himself in the midst of the memorial hallway and looked at the multitude of pictures. "It's not even a fraction of what we lost," he told himself quietly. "Is it worth it?" he asked the pictures of all those who had died during and since the Holocaust.

Hearing no response from the voiceless faces of the dead he headed towards sick bay. When he arrived he found Cottle in the curtained off section containing Jack and Daniel.

"I swear to Gods I will strap you down and sedate you myself if you don't stop pestering my staff!" the doctor threatened as he pulled back the curtain.

"Doctor."

Cottle turned around and stared at the Admiral, "He's as bad a patient as Thrace!"

"I feel fine!" Jack complained.

Cottle turned and eyed him. "Are you a doctor?" When Jack didn't respond he continued on, "Exactly, so shut up and be a good patient."

"Do you mind if I speak with Colonel O'Neill alone?"

"As long as you talk some sense into him and get him to calm down," he added gruffly.

Adama placed his hand on the doctor's arm, "I need to speak with him in private."

Cottle looked at Adama and then back at his patients. "You can use my office, but you've only got fifteen minutes."

Jack and Bill made their way to the doctor's office, Bill sat down in one of the chairs, while Jack chose to take advantage of this little freedom and remain standing.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Bill leaned back in the chair, "Have you ever had a large command?"

"I've been the commander of SG-1 for almost five years. I serve as second in command for the base we're stationed at."

"How many people are on that base?"

"Several hundred or so."

"And you're the first line of defense against aliens?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"So you've probably had to make some hard command decisions."

Jack looked at him silently as the conversation started to make sense. "What do you have to do?" he asked quietly.

"The virus. We could use it to kill off the Cylons… All of them."

Silence.

"So genocide?" Jack surmised.

Adama looked at him sharply, he had quickly called it for what it was that they were proposing to do.

"Using a biological weapon?"

Adama nodded his head.

Jack just looked back at him with an expressionless face. And while his face revealed nothing, his eyes did.

Adama studied him carefully for a minute before coming to a conclusion. There were some calls that he couldn't make. Adama then nodded his head before rising up from the chair.

Jack held his hand out, "Whoa… I've got…" he looked around the room for a clock, "Ten minutes of freedom, the least you could do is keep me company."

Adama smirked, "You really don't like being in infirmaries do you?"

Jack quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, neither do I," Adama agreed as he sat back down. "Tell me about Earth."

Jack smiled, "What do you want to know?"

He shrugged, "What's the planet like? Hot? Cold? A desert?"

"We got it all. There are seven continents, but only six of them have a significant amount of people on them. Daniel, Carter, and I all come from North America, specifically the United States of America."

"What is that?"

"It's one of the countries… Where you had twelve colonies on twelve planets, we have over two hundred countries all on one planet. Each with different cultures, traditions, religions, languages, politics, you name it. The United States is actually a kind of melting pot, we've got people from all those other countries… We pride ourselves on the freedoms entitled to our citizens to live their life the way they want… Within reason, of course," he added with a smirk.

"Of course," Adama added with amused eyes. "So what do you do in your spare time?"

Jack smiled. "Hockey and go fishing!"

"Hockey? What is that?"

"You guys don't have hockey? It's only the greatest sport ever! It's fast, tough, gritty."

"What's it like?"

Over the next three minutes Jack gave him an overview of the sport to which Adama nodded absently not fully understanding the sport.

"When we get to Earth, I'll take you to an Avs game. A buddy of mine has some great season tickets. We'll eat hot dogs and drink some beer."

Adama couldn't help but offer a slight smile at his enthusiasm, "I'm not a fan of beer, can we take in some ambrosia instead?"

Jack laughed, "No. Besides I think the green color would throw them off. I bet you'd like whiskey?" Adama looked at him. "It's a hard liquor made from grains. I've got a bottle of eighteen year old Jameson at my cabin. I'll take you there for a weekend. We can go fishing."

"Fishing? Do you catch much?"

Jack waved his hands, "Nah!"

"I could never get Lee and Zak into it, they were always making too much of a racket and so they scared all the fish away," Bill mused with a smile on his face.

Jack shared a silent smile with him as well as he thought of his son and the times he had taken him fishing.

Their reminiscing ended though when Cottle walked through the door. "Your times up. Get back to your bed."

Jack looked up at a clock, "What? Come on, just give us a few more minutes," he pleaded.

Cottle merely looked back at him.

Realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with the old doctor, he resigned himself and started heading out of the office. With the Admiral close on his heels, he paused and turned back to him and spoke quietly, "You and I. We're soldiers. We are asked to do some ugly things at times. And sometimes we ask others to do some hard things. But there are some things that… Well," he offered with a small nod of his head as headed towards his bed to go bug Daniel.

The Admiral watched him walk away and considered his words. Humans had a conscience and a soul for a reason, he told himself.

He then turned and headed out of life station and headed back to his office where he found the President. He eased himself into a chair across from her. He sat silently for several moments before breaking the silence and drawing her attention away from the files she had been looking over. "There's a point I'd like to make."

She looked up, "Mm-hmm?"

"The law forbids me to use biological weapons without a direct presidential order."

"Which means you're passing the buck," she told him as she removed her glasses.

"On this one," he spoke with a heavy voice, "yes. Helo's right on one thing. We start destroying entire races, even mechanical races, we're liable to tear off a piece of man's soul."

Her voice had a hard edge to it as she pointed out the obvious, "The Cylons are coming to Earth. If they find us, they are coming for us. Those are the stakes. They always have been, Bill."

"Posterity really doesn't look too kindly on genocide," he pointed out.

She raised an eyebrow, "You're making an assumption that posterity will define this as genocide. If they do, at least there'll be someone alive to hate us for it." She paused and looked at her counterpart.

"We'll be damned," he said quietly.

"Better us than our future… The Cylons are our mistake, we created them. All right, Admiral Adama. As President, I have determined the Cylons be made extinct. The use of biological weapons is authorized."

"So say we all," he responded with a nod of his head.

Roslin laughed softly and reiterated his words, "So say we all."

* * *

Twelve hours later Cottle walked back into the curtained off section to find the four members of SG-1. They all looked at him expectantly as he rolled a medicine cart over with a vial and a couple of syringes on top.

"That the vaccine?" Daniel asked finally.

Cottle nodded his head, "Yep."

"And it works?" Jack asked.

Cottle looked at him as if he were crazy. "What do you think? Do you think I'd give you a vaccine that I didn't think was going to work?" He then pulled up the cart next to Jack's bed, "Give me your arm."

He then proceeded to wipe down his bicep with an alcohol wipe. He was removing the cap from the needle when Jack spoke, "Sorry about questioning you about the vac-Ow! That hurt!" he exclaimed as he rubbed his arm where Cottle had rather forcefully injected the needle tip.

Daniel couldn't help himself, "Haven't you learned anything in five years Jack? Never piss off the doctor holding the syringe."

Cottle turned to Daniel and proceeded to wipe his arm as well. "Colonel, you'd do well to listen to your friend's advice here," he offered as he gently inserted the needle into Daniel's arm.

Jack glared at the doctor and his friend. "Yeah…" he mumbled. "So look… can we get out of here now?"

Cottle glared at him. "You won't stop will you?"

Jack just eyed him letting him know that he would continue to be a thorn in the doctor's side until he was released.

Cottle then turned to Sam and Teal'c, "You two stay with them at all times. You see any symptoms and you bring them back here right away. And even then I want you back in here every eight hours to let us draw some blood work. Got it?"

Jack practically leaped off his bed, "Excellent! You won't regret it doc!"

Cottle gave a very audible hmph as he walked towards one of his other patients. He couldn't help but notice the relief evident on his staff's faces as they saw the Colonel leave the room.

Once they were outside of life station, Jack turned to Sam and Teal'c. However the question he was about to ask stalled on his lips as the ship's intercom system announced, "Prepare for FTL jump in five seconds."

After their world snapped back into place Jack looked at his team, "Where's the Admiral?"

"I believe he is in the CIC. I believe they are planning a strike against a Cylon supply line," Teal'c informed him.

Jack's eyes widened. "Are the Cylon prisoners still alive?"

Sam looked at him in confusion, "I don't know sir. I think that Cottle gave them all the vaccine."

"You're positive?"

"No sir."

"_Commence viper and nav Raptor launch!"_ they heard Lieutenant Gaeta's voice say over the intercom.

Jack looked down each corridor. "Teal'c. Daniel. Can you guys go check on the prisoners?"

"What is it Jack?" Daniel asked.

Jack paused before looking at his teammates, "They want to use the virus to take out the Cylons."

Daniel and Sam's eyes widened. "What? That's genocide!"

Jack grimaced, "I know. Just get down to the brig. Carter you're with me."

Each pair raced off to their destination.

When Jack and Sam arrived at CIC they heard the comms officer notify the Admiral that a resurrection ship had showed up as well.

There was a slight hesitation before they heard Adama's voice, "Then it's time to execute our Cylon prisoners. Call it in," he said as he turned to Gaeta. Looking past the young officer he saw Sam and Jack standing at the entrance to CIC.

As Jack sadly shook his head at the Admiral, Gaeta lifted the phone to his ear, "Terminate the prisoners."

"This isn't right," Jack stated out loud so that most of the CIC heard his stance on the order that had been issued. Heads turned to look at him and then back to the Admiral to see what his response would be.

Adama just looked at Jack knowing that the other man was right, but also knowing that they had to do this.

Felix who had been one to look between the two men was distracted from the stare down before him when he overheard the communications on his head set. He looked to the Admiral, "Sir, you should hear this."

Without ever taking his eyes off Jack, Bill picked up the phone at his station, "Patch it through."

Momentarily he heard his son's voice, "They were dead before the resurrection ship was in range. They didn't download the disease. We missed our window."

Adama hung up the phone.

"_Galactica, Starbuck. A second baseship just jumped in."_

Bill looked at the Dradis screen and confirmed her report before issuing his next order, "Call our birds in. Spool up. Let's get the hell outta here."

Jack continued to study the Admiral who hadn't revealed what he had heard over the comm system. Sam who had been studied the other members of CIC carefully watched Felix who sat dejectedly at his station after hearing Apollo's report. She leaned towards her CO, "I don't think it worked, sir."

Jack nodded without taking his eyes off the Admiral, "I know."

Sam looked questioningly at her CO. "How sir?"

"FTL jump in three… two … one," they heard Felix call out once all the Vipers had landed back on the Old Bucket.

"Fleet status?" Adama called out once they had rejoined the fleet.

There was a momentary pause before Dee answered, "All ships present and accounted for, sir."

Adama nodded his head, "Mister Gaeta, you have control of the ship."

Felix arose from his station, "Yes sir. I have the con."

Bill turned and left CIC headed for his quarters. When he arrived he waited for Sam and Jack to precede him into his office. He turned to one of the marines, "Would you send for Major Adama?" before sealing the hatch behind him.

Bill looked at the two officers briefly as he walked to the side of the room and poured himself a glass of ambrosia. "Drink?" he offered with a slight turn towards them.

"We're good." Jack responded for the two of them.

Sam waited anxiously to find out what had happened. She waited a few moments after Adama had turned around and stood facing them taking a sip of his drink.

"Excuse me, sir, but what just happened?"

Adama took another sip before responding, "We tried to take out the Cylons. We didn't."

"What happened?" Jack asked.

"They were already dead."

Jack watched him. "But you were going to do it?"

Bill looked at the other officer wordlessly.

"You were going to execute the infected prisoners when the Resurrection ship showed up?"

Bill turned his gaze to Sam and once again continued to say nothing.

"That's tantamount to genocide!" she called out in shock.

"I know," he offered quietly as he looked down at his glass.

"Why would you order it then?" she asked still shocked by his actions. "Whose idea was this?"

Bill never answered the questions as the hatch to his quarters opened and Lee, Teal'c and Daniel walked in.

Lee stormed up to Jack, "What did you tell them to do?"

Jack looked confused, "Excuse me?"

"They were already down there when we went in to carry out our mission," he said with raised hand towards Teal'c and Daniel.

"So?"

"The Cylons were already dead!"

"We didn't do anything to them," Daniel spoke up. "They were like that when we got there."

"We arrived mere moments before you did Major Adama. We would have had no time to kill the prisoners."

"What happened down there?" the father asked his son.

Lee looked away from the targets of his anger, and replied to his father, "The air was sucked out of the room. They were suffocated."

"And you think they know how to do that?" Jack asked rhetorically. "Carter, maybe. But Daniel and Teal'c? Not going to happen." He turned to his teammates, "No offense."

Daniel dismissed his CO"s words as truth, "None taken."

Bill's voice drew the attention back to himself, "Only a handful of people would have the knowledge and access to do that."

"It was probably Helo," Lee grumbled.

Jack turned sharply to face the younger Adama, "This was your idea?" he asked in shock.

Lee looked at him defiantly, "We saw a chance to take out the Cylons. We had to take it."

"Are you insane? In what world do you live in where genocide is an acceptable means to an end? Especially one involving a bioweapon! You're a soldier! You fight your enemy head on! Not with a virus!"

"Need I remind you that the Cylons have been trying to wipe us out?"

"So just because the Cylons did it means that it's okay if we try it right back? You're human! We're supposed to be better than that!" He turned to his teammates the frustration evident, "Damnit!! It's crap like this that makes me understand why some races hate others!"

Daniel stepped forward, "Look what we're saying is… Well we've seen this. Either each side ends up obliterating each other or the war and anger lasts for generations. Sometimes it has lasted so long that they no longer remember why they hate the other side."

"They're machines!" Lee countered.

"So what? You carry out what you intended and you're no longer human! You lose a part of yourself."

"I'd rather lose a part of myself than lose all of humanity," he told them resolutely.

"Where does it stop?" Sam asked quietly.

"What?" Lee asked in confusion.

She looked at him intently. "So let's say you do kill off all the Cylons using that virus. You lose a part of yourself. What then? You come across another race that you aren't familiar with. What's to stop you from deciding that they aren't worthy of survival? Because once you take down that first brick, the wall gets a heck of a lot easier to take down."

"It wouldn't come to that," Lee defends.

"How can you say that? Three of the most important people in this fleet came to the agreement that genocide is okay as long as it's against machines. You start down that road, and there will be nothing to stop you from leading this fleet down that road."

"We are talking about our survival!"

Daniel spoke up, "And we're talking about your survival as a civilization! If you don't have that, what is there worth fighting for?"

Jack offered additional words, "Listen, there are always survivors. Just look around you at this fleet. As long as there are survivors, it won't be forgotten. And trust me, that anger grows and grows and then your precious cycle repeats itself all over again. Someone has to stop it. To say it's enough. Because if it's not enough then you may as well kill everyone in the fleet."

* * *

TBC

Think this story can hit the Century mark in reviews? Only you can help reach that mark.

Complete side note... The line "To say it's enough"... That was inspired by the first episode of Kings when David stands in front of the enemy tanks pleading for peace. If you haven't tuned into that show, I'd recommend it. If not then at least watch the highlight of this scene that you can find on NBC's website. A very powerful scene and dialogue.


	18. Moving On

Sorry? It has indeed been a long time since this has been updated (less than one of my other unfinished works out there). Writer's block, real life.

On another note, I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed this story. Especially those who've been constructive in their reviews and comment on what they'd like to see. I've definitely gotten some new/fresh ideas for this story that I liked and so have decided to incorporate into this story. That also played a role in the delay of posting this chapter, I had to make sure some of the setup was there.

In response to a few specific reviews: I will try to include more action. I will try to not just follow the BSG episode arc, I'll try to bring in some new things. And yes it is highly unlikely that SG1 would be able to communicate with the Colonials, but... they do it on SG1 and I honestly hadn't thought of that hiccup (I know other writers have). And with diseases... at least on the SG-1 part I'm betting that Frasier does a thorough exam when they step through so that they don't infect whole worlds (but I also didn't really consider this). The real Odyssey mission... never to be heard from again. The Asurans... will not be making an appearance (never made it that far into SGA)

The entire genocide stance taken by SG-1. First of all this is towards the end of Season 5. The entire Atlantis world does not exist at that point. So up until then, their only acts of gross warfare/genocide would be sending the Aschen the address to the black hole. Jack did threaten the Entity, but that was because he wanted to get Carter back. The symbiote poison was the Tok'ras idea and SGC helped out, but that was a drug that killed those who came into contact within a certain radius. Splitting hairs I know, but I also bring that up in this chapter. Very rarely has the SGC actually gone on the offensive against the Goa'uld, it's mainly reactive. There's also the thing that when SG-1 steps into a genocidal war, they try to stop it or have at least had issues with it.

* * *

**Chapter 18: Moving On**

Sam walked down towards the hangar deck. Before climbing down from the catwalk she scanned the floor below looking for her intended target. She heard him before she saw him as she quickly looked to her left.

"Where the hell is Clemmens? I told him to get this crap cleaned up ASAP!"

The two nearest deckhands looked at him with bewildered looks.

As Sam headed down below she saw a young deck hand racing over to the Chief.

"Where the hell you been?"

"Cally needed a hand with the FTL drive on Raptor 218 Chief. I'll get this finished up right now," he stammered as he went about cleaning the tools he had used when working on a Viper engine.

The Chief just glared at the man before turning around and finding Sam before him. "Major," he said as he stood to attention.

"Relax Chief." The man eased his stance as his eyes continued to rove over the hangar deck to make sure that everything was in working order. "Admiral Adama told me that you designed and built a stealth ship."

A small smile graced his lips, "Yes sir," he replied with evident pride.

"He said that you wanted to place a FTL drive on there."

"Yes sir," he added with a bit of dejection. "We couldn't add it while maintaining the size of the ship to fit in a viper launch tube."

A smile crossed her lips, "Mind if I take a look at those designs?"

He looked at her quizzically, "Sir?"

"Let's just say that I'd like to see if it's possible to rebuild one of your birds with an FTL drive attached."

"Sir, we already tried. There's-"

"If we can make the FTL drive smaller."

Tyrol looked at her wide-eyed. "Smaller, sir?"

"Why not?" she asked back with a grin on her face.

He studied her for several moments, "You're serious aren't you?"

She nodded back. "And you think you can reduce the size of the FTL drive with all the wonderful tools we have available to us."

"It's worth a look isn't it?" she asked back.

"Clemmens!"

The deck hand rushed towards the Chief and Sam. "Yeah Chief?"

"You're going to be working with Major Carter here to see if we can make a smaller FTL drive."

Clemmens looked at her as if she was crazy.

* * *

Four days had passed since they had come across the derelict baseship at the Lion's Head Nebula. Lee Adama had avoided the four members of SG-1 during that time. Initially it was out of frustration since they had not looked too kindly on him for his solution. But as he considered their words from within the Admiral's office he came to the realization that he was wrong. And so he avoided them for the next two days out of shame. He decided that today he would speak to them once again.

He approached SG-1's door and was mildly surprised to find the door open. He stuck his head in and looked around. He found Colonel O'Neill lying on his bunk reading from a thin booklet. "Colonel?"

Jack looked away from his book without getting up, "Major."

"May I?"

Jack nodded his head but still didn't move from his reclined position on his bed.

Lee nodded in response as he stepped forward and pulled a chair out from their table and placed it just in front of Jack's bed. Once he seated himself he looked at Jack who was just silently watching him.

Jack eased the booklet closed but still kept his finger within to mark his page. He lowered the book to his chest and watched as Lee's eyes roamed to the cover of the book and read the title.

Jack lifted the pamphlet up slightly, "You ever read this?"

Lee nodded, "It's required during War College."

"When was the last time you read it?"

Lee looked down, "War College."

"Which was…?"

"Six years ago."

"What'd you think of it?"

Lee looked at him studiously. "They're the Articles of Colonization. They're the basis for our society," he shrugged.

Jack shook his head sadly, "Do you think President Roslin has read these recently?"

Lee shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know."

Jack nodded sagely, "Pity. There's some good stuff in here… We have something like this back on Earth… At least our country does, we call it the Constitution. It lays out the basic rights and guarantees of all our citizens. Your Articles of Colonization are more extensive though… But then it probably had to be considering you had people from Twelve Colonies, some of whom had gripes with others."

Lee nodded his head as he remembered what he had learned in his history classes. "Nothing like a common enemy to force you to unite and write down what's important."

Jack nodded his head, "They had some foresight when writing this document. They knew that there were some things that shouldn't be done… And yet they still gave some powers to the President."

Lee studied him. He was about to speak when Jack continued.

"I get it."

The younger man's eyebrows came together.

"I can understand your anger and your desire to do something. Trust me I know…"

Lee looked at him questioningly, "Really?"

Jack looked at him for several moments before getting up and sealing the hatch. "Do you remember us telling you about the Goa'uld?"

Lee shook his head, "Yeah."

"When we learned that the Goa'uld had taken Daniel's wife and a friend of mine as hosts I wanted to hunt them all down so that no one would have to suffer. But we didn't. All we could do was prepare ourselves so that the Goa'uld would stay away from Earth. So instead we continued to explore the galaxy with the Stargate system. If we came across a Goa'uld and their forces we fought. Otherwise we tried to make alliances and treaties with those we met."

"You never launched a full scale offensive against the Goa'uld?"

Jack paused. "We didn't. But one of our close allies did and we helped. They had developed a chemical weapon that would kill all Goa'uld within a three kilometer radius."

Lee's voice was elevated when he spoke, "How is that any different than what we were going to do?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders, "The toxin had a limited radius and it wasn't transmissible. That's how we justified it. And we were going after the head of the snake, not all of them."

"That's a pretty slim difference," Lee shot back.

"I know…" Jack admitted. "That's why I can understand your plan."

"Then why were you acting like you were holier than us? You wanted to do the same thing. You tried to kill your enemies just-"

"No we didn't! We weren't committing genocide!"

"I don't know, you kill the head of the snake then the rest of the snake dies with it too!"

Jack was silenced. "You're right." Jack looked away for several minutes before turning back to Lee, "That doesn't mean that genocide is acceptable."

"We're talking about the survival of the human race."

He shook his head, "No. You're talking about the survival of your civilization. Humans exist in the galaxy. They are out there."

A silence fell between the two men as they each considered the other's position and experiences.

"Look, I'm not saying we're better than you or that we know more than you. But one thing we do know is that the galaxy is filled with hundreds of planets of humans or aliens. You guys have had space travel for over fifty years, we haven't even built our own ship. But we have seen what's out there. We are still children when it comes to space exploration, but we are trying to be responsible members of that community."

Jack took a deep breath before continuing on, "Look, we have no idea what it's like to lose our home planet and almost everyone we ever knew. But at some point you have to ask yourself whether or not you are stronger than that tragedy and rebuild, or let the anger and sadness take over and dictate what you do."

"We don't know where Earth is though, all we can really do is fight back."

Jack looked at the pamphlet on his bunk. "You can prepare."

"For what?"

"We will make it to Earth. You-"

"If we do make it to Earth, aren't you worried that we'll be bringing the Cylons to your doorstep?"

"Honestly?" Jack looked at him seriously, "No."

Lee was taken aback, "Why not?"

"When we left Earth on our last mission our government was three months away from completing our first spaceship. The Prometheus would be able to withstand an attack from the Cylons."

"One ship? One ship would defend an entire planet against the Cylons?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders, "With Carter's antivirus systems and all our allies that would come to our aid… Yeah… I think we'd be okay. The question is, will you be ready to stop running?"

Lee looked down and studied his folded hands. "I honestly don't know."

Jack walked to his bunk and picked up the pamphlet, "Your forefather's gave you a pretty good start," he told him as he held out the book.

Lee nodded his head and accepted the pamphlet, "Yeah." He flipped through the pamphlet and stopped at a random page and let his eyes fall on a random paragraph.

He read the following words, 'The survival and thriving nature of the Twelve Colonies will only succeed with all Colonies being granted equal rights in citizenry, trade, law, and government.'

Lee sighed as he realized that they hadn't given much thought to citizenry and law. They were fighting to survive right now, and while everyone had a hope that the remaining survivors of the Twelve Colonies would find Earth and begin anew right where they had left off on the Twelve Colonies, he knew that they wouldn't. They couldn't go back to the way it was. Too much had changed. They had changed. And not all the changes had been good. He looked at Jack, "How do you start over? We lost everything. We've been on the run for nearly three years. How do you let the fight go? And let the survivor mentality go?"

"Don't. Those are good things to have. You just have to be able to make the right decision for the long run, not the one that's rooted in how you feel right now."

Lee looked down at the pamphlet and continued to flip to pages at random.

"A great philosopher on Earth once wrote 'Law is reason free from emotion.' Or 'passion'. I can't remember exactly which one it was. But you get my point."

Lee nodded his head as he accepted the wise words from the Colonel. As he realized the truth of his words he was even more amused by the fact that the Colonel was able to impart such words of wisdom with him. "I never took you as a student of philosophy."

Jack smiled, "I'm not. But there's this movie that one can catch at least twice a month on t.v. It's called 'Legally Blonde'."

* * *

Kara walked into Sam's lab and wasn't surprised to find her hunched over a few schematics on the center table.

She walked up wordlessly to her side and looked down at pages of equations, "What are these?"

Sam looked up and then over at the pages in question before returning to her schematics, "Uh, those are designs for a bomb."

Kara looked up sharply, "A what?"

Sam looked up. "Those are modifications to load a missile with tylium."

"Are you insane? An explosion that big would blow up the Galactica!"

Sam cocked her head, "Well hopefully it'll explode in a baseship."

Kara shook her head, "Hardly any of our missiles ever reach a baseship. It'd be a waste of tyllium."

Sam smiled, "Normally I'd agree with you. But with the stealth ship we can drop off one of those missiles and they'll never know what hit them."

A half smirk appeared on her face before sobering. "The ship would never clear the blast radius in time."

An even wider grin appeared on Sam's face, "It would if there was an FTL drive on the Blackbird."

Kara was stunned at this development. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, well at least that's what I'm trying to do. But I think it is possible to reduce the FTL size. However it will reduce the distance of FTL jumps, which would enable us to use some hit and run tactics against the Cylons."

Kara smiled widely back at her. "I want to pilot the first mission! Speaking of which, I need a wing man, interested?"

"What happened to Hot Dog?"

"He caught that stomach bug that's going around. He's grounded for twenty four hours. So you interested?"

"Sure. What time's the CAP?"

"Fifteen minutes?"

Sam looked up sharply, "Thanks for the heads up. I'll see you down there."

* * *

"Galactica, Starbuck, we got a Cylon baseship that just jumped in!"

"Starbuck, Galactica. We copy that. Alert fighters have been launched, expect them in two minutes. Engage approaching Cylon raiders."

"Galactica, Starbuck, copy that. Engaging raiders."

Starbuck and Galileo both raced their ships forward to engage the advancing enemy. "You ready to take out some toasters?"

Sam grinned as she keyed her mic, "Oh yeah!"

"We'll be in weapons range in… thirty seconds."

Thirty seconds later both vipers let loose a hail of gunfire aimed at the approaching raiders. Very quickly, the enemy had lost three birds.

As the enemy ships passed one another both sets abruptly changed directions to re-engage. It was at this point that Starbuck and Galileo went in separate directions.

"Where are those alert fighters?" Starbuck yelled over her comms.

"Thirty seconds," Apollo told her as he and five other vipers raced to join the fight. Just as they arrived ten more raiders jumped into the middle of the fight.

"That's not good," Apollo mumbled under his breath as he took down another raider that was following Kat.

As vipers and raiders zoomed in and around one another Apollo tried to keep a mental note if any of the Viper pilots had been shot down.

"How's everyone doing out there?" Apollo asked as he saw the number of raiders rapidly diminish.

"Just having a grand old time Apollo," Kat called out as she took out another bird.

Lee smirked at her comment. However the smile was wiped off his face when he heard Kara's struggling voice, "Yeah… I could really use some help here. I've got two raiders on my tail that I can't lose."

Lee's eyes shot down to his Dradis scans and looked for her Colonial ID on his screen. He found it a third of the way between their current location and the Cylon baseship.

"Starbuck, how the frak did you get all the way back there?" he asked in frustration as he charged to go help out his teammate.

"You know me, Apollo… Tricky little bastards aren't you!" she yelled as she took another shot at the raiders that had pulled her away from the main battle.

Within ten seconds she saw Apollo's weapons fire race past her. "Oy! Apollo! Try and hit the raiders, not me!"

"Drop down, now!" he ordered.

And without a moment's hesitation she followed his order and heard him announce that he'd taken care of one of the raiders.

"About time you did something," Kara said as she flipped her bird around and engaged the final raider head on. "Come on you mother frakker!"

Her shots finally found their mark as the enemy raider exploded in front of her. Kara aimed her viper away from the exploding wreckage, "Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"

"Vipers, Galactica, Get your asses back here pronto, you're cleared for combat landings," they heard Dee's voice announce over their radios.

"It's time to race on back to home," Apollo called out as he and Starbuck pulled up the rear.

They were less than fifteen seconds away from safely landing on board the Galactica when Apollo heard Starbuck mutter something, "Something's not right."

Before he could comment he saw her flip her viper around as he raced past. Less than a second later and Lee had copied her actions, "What the hell Starbuck?"

"Something's not right… Why aren't the raiders following-"

He didn't hear anything else though over the radio as he saw a raider come in from below and lock its wide wing with the Viper's wing. Apollo was horrified as he watched the two locked birds tumble through space end over end.

"Starbuck!"

Apollo raced to follow however stopped himself from shooting knowing that he couldn't get a clean shot on the raider.

"Eject! Starbuck! Eject!"

TBC

* * *

AN: And then I have the gall to do that...


	19. SAR

AN: Something a little short... Please be kind and review!

* * *

**Chapter 19: SAR**

"Eject! Starbuck! Eject!"

Apollo didn't know if Kara could hear him over the radio but he was relieved when he saw three small charges on the canopy explode before it was separated from the viper.

"Launch the SAR raptor!" he ordered even before he saw Kara's seat explode away from the tumbling ships.

"Apollo Galactica, Return to Galactica Immediately. SAR raptor is launching now."

"I'm not leaving her," he growled into his mic.

"Apollo, Actual. Return immediately. The SAR will pick her up and meet us on the other side."

"I'm not leaving her!"

"Apollo, Actual! Return to Galactica immediately. We have nuclear missiles inbound!" There was a pause before he heard his father's voice in a quiet voice, "Lee. They'll bring her back."

Apollo grimaced, "Have the SAR mark my location for where to look for Starbuck."

He heard Athena's voice, "Apollo, Athena. We have your location. ETA forty-five seconds."

"You bring her back," Apollo ordered as he turned his viper and raced to Galactica.

"Copy that sir."

**

Apollo didn't even wait for his bird to be finished towing before he removed his helmet and had the canopy raised. He didn't even wait for the deck hand to roll a set of steps to the side of his ship. Instead he stepped on the edge of the cockpit and scrambled his way towards the back of the bird and down the wing. Once he was on solid ground he raced to the nearest phone, "Connect me to CIC… Has the SAR raptor showed up?"

Dee sighed before responding, "Not yet sir. Give them a few minutes." She wondered if he would be so insistent if it were her that was out there and not Starbuck.

Lee hung up the phone and raced to the Chief. "Get a CAP out there now. I'll take care of my post flight when I get back."

With those final words he raced off to CIC so that he would know exactly when the SAR showed up. Four minutes later he raced into CIC and was about to ask if the SAR had showed up when he heard Gaeta announce a Dradis contact.

"It's Raptor 761, sir."

Adama picked up the phone and looked at Dee, "Patch me through." Within three seconds she nodded her head back at him letting him know that he was clear to speak.

"Athena, Actual. Do you have Starbuck on board?"

As soon as Lee heard his father repeat the question he dreaded her answer.

"Do you have Starbuck?"

"Negative, sir. We do not have Starbuck on board."

Both sets of Adama eyes met each other with intensity as the rest of CIC fell into silence. Lee turned and headed back to the flight deck to speak with Athena.

"Major Agathon, you have CIC."

"Yes sir," Helo accepted. He extended his hand out to his CO, "Its Starbuck sir. We'll get her back."

Bill nodded his head tersely as he followed in his son's footsteps. When he arrived on the hangar deck he found Lee forcefully holding Athena against the side of her raptor.

"I told you to bring her back!" he yelled as he pushed her against the raptor.

"Sir, we tried to-"

"You didn't try hard enough!" he yelled as he pulled her off the raptor and was about to force her back again. He never finished his action though as Teal'c placed his hand on Lee's chest and pushed him backwards.

"Major!" Adama yelled as he walked through the deckhands and pilots that had gathered around his irate son. "Stand down!"

Lee glared at Athena and if it wasn't for Teal'c's large body standing between them he would have tried to get at her again.

Seeing his son seething and noting the large gathering the Admiral turned to those surrounding him, "Get back to your duties!"

The deckhands and pilots all quickly dispersed however they all kept an eye and an ear towards the Raptor.

"Athena, what happened?"

"Just after the fleet jumped away a heavy raider jumped to the spot Major Adama indicated. Sir, we launched missiles and tried to evade their fire. After twenty seconds the heavy raider jumped away. We scoured the area for Starbuck, sir. We couldn't find her," she ended with a note of sadness.

TBC

What? No Resolution? What kind of author does that?


	20. Lost and Found

**Chapter 20: Lost and Found**

"We have to go back."

The Admiral watched his son carefully. He was mildly surprised to see that his son had significantly calmed down since the hanger deck.

"She ejected from her viper. That means that she's alive and out there."

"We can't risk going back there."

"This is Starbuck we are talking about!"

Adama glared at his son, "Don't you think I know that!" he spat out. After several intense moments and deep breaths on both parts the Admiral continued on. "We can't risk the fleet to go back there and look."

"She could still be out there." A silent plea passed between son and father. "One hour. That's all I'm asking for. Let me take a Raptor out there myself. One hour."

"One hour," he acquiesced.

Lee turned to leave the room and was at the hatch when his father spoke again. "I hope you find Kara, but you make sure that you come back."

Lee nodded his head, "Yes sir."

A few minutes later and Lee was on the hangar deck talking to the Chief to get a bird prepped for him.

Athena overheard his request and walked up to him. "Permission to join you sir."

Lee looked at her. "You don't know where I'm going."

"You're going back to find Starbuck. I want to go with you."

"Me too."

Lee looked over Athena's shoulder and saw Racetrack.

He shook his head, "I can't risk your lives."

"You can't do this alone sir. You need one of us to fly the Raptor, one person to man Dradis, and another one to check on Kara when we pull her back in."

"Fine. Wheels up in five."

* * *

As soon as they arrived at the site of the previous battle they started the countdown for one hour.

"Board's clear sir." Racetrack called out from the back of the ship.

"Okay, pull up the mark I gave you."

Once they arrived Racetrack stepped forward to offer another set of eyes to look.

"Where was the Galactica?"

Racetrack stepped back to her console and pulled up that information. "They were… at bearing 034, carom minus 082."

"Okay… That means that I was facing this way… And her bird was spiraling out of control in this direction," he said as he pointed to the top of their window. "And she ejected…" he closed his eyes as he tried to remember, "away from me so keep your eyes over there."

For the next fifty minutes they continued to search the area, unfortunately it was without luck.

"Sir… I have a hit on her Viper."

"Where?" he asked.

"Straight ahead, thirty seconds."

Lee looked forwards but didn't accelerate the ship.

"Apollo?" Athena called out.

When she didn't receive a response she looked over her shoulder back to Racetrack who shrugged her shoulders.

"Apollo, should we try and recover her ship?"

"Apollo?" Athena called out once again after not receiving a response for a minute.

When the timer they had set upon their arrival beeped marking that they only had five minutes before they had to return Lee shook his head and looked over at Athena. He then nodded his head as he raced the ship to meet up with the empty drifting viper.

They had just completed connecting the airlock between the underside of the raptor and the viper when the countdown timer sent out an audible beep. Lee took one final look around the sector of space before speaking quietly, "Let's go home."

Athena nodded her head somberly, "Yes sir. Racetrack, spool up the FTL."

* * *

When the Raptor was towed onto the hangar deck a large contingent of the deck crew had gathered around to see Starbuck's return.

Once the hatch had opened Racetrack turned in her seat and shook her head in the negative in the hopes of getting the crew to disperse before Apollo got off the Raptor. With that head movement the anticipation in the room came tumbling down, the great Starbuck was gone.

From the edge of the room Teal'c watched as the three pilots stepped down from the Raptor empty handed. He watched as Lee paused before setting his feet on the deck and looked at his father who was watching him carefully from the catwalk.

Seeing the interaction between the Adama men, Teal'c turned and made his way up to the catwalk to join Admiral Adama.

The Admiral didn't acknowledge his presence as he watched his son slowly head towards the catwalk.

"It is possible that Captain Thrace has been captured by the Cylons."

Adama's head swirled at the suggestion from Teal'c. "What?"

"The search and rescue team was unable to recover Captain Thrace's body. It is possible that the heavy raider that showed up during the first search and rescue mission recovered Captain Thrace."

Adama looked at the man and realized that it was entirely possible. Even if she were dead, Apollo would have brought her body home to the Galactica if it was out there.

He remained speechless until his son came up to his side. He looked down at the deck and watched as they towed Kara's viper to a corner of the deck.

"Did you find any debris?"

Lee shook his head in confusion, "What?"

Adama pointed at the viper, "The Viper appears to be in near perfect condition. Did you find the canopy or the pilot's seat?"

Lee closed his eyes still confused, "We saw the canopy, but that's it. Why are you asking about that? Viper parts? We lost Kara!" he reminded his father as his voice rose in anger.

"I know that," his father glared back. He then looked at Teal'c momentarily before looking back at his son. "But there's no body. And so maybe, just maybe, the Cylons picked her up with the heavy raider."

Lee's eyes widened at that prospect, he honestly hadn't considered that option. He shook his head vehemently, "No… No…" as he slowly backed away.

* * *

Adama was in the midst of pouring himself a large glass of ambrosia when he heard his hatch opening. He gave a half turn to see who was entering. Upon seeing that it was the President he turned back to the ambrosia and proceeded to pour a smaller glass for her.

He held out the glass to her wordlessly, and she accepted it in the same manner as she seated herself on his couch. He joined her on the couch and took a long sip before looking at her.

They looked at each other in sad silence before Laura finally broke it. "I'm sorry about Captain Thrace. She meant a lot to this fleet. And to you."

Adama snorted as he let a small smile come to his face, "She was a pain in the ass more often than not."

Laura blinked at his words, shocked to hear him speak about her in such a way after her death. They continued to sit in silence and taking measured sips of the ambrosia.

"I'd like to organize a memorial service for Captain Thrace on the-"

"There will be no such thing!" he barked at her as he shot out of his seat and walked over to his desk.

Laura watched his retreating back carefully. She was dealing with a grieving man and had to tread carefully. "Bill."

She watched as his head moved from side to side, "She wasn't killed in action."

"Bill, they didn't find her body. I'm so-"

He whirled around, "Exactly. They didn't find her body. Lee saw her eject and clear the viper. The pilot has to be conscious to eject from a viper. She's alive."

Her eyes widened, she hadn't been informed of those details.

"Then where is she?" she asked softly.

* * *

A humming sound was the first thing that Kara processed before she even bothered opening her eyes. Before opening her eyes she took a mental inventory of her body. She tensed all her muscles from her fingers to her toes and was relieved to note that everything was in working order. She then opened her eyes and saw a strange ceiling illuminated by soft red lights.

She turned her head and along the dark wall she saw a strip of red lights chasing after one another.

'Not the Galactica!' she concluded as she quickly shot up to a seated position.

She clutched her head though when she was upright. Her head was throbbing from the sudden movement. She closed her eyes as she tried to will the pain away and remember what had happened.

_Kara remembered turning back to face the Cylon fleet during their race back to the Galactica. She then recalled her bird starting to tumble in space as an enemy raider locked its wing with her. 'Where the hell did that come from?' she remembered thinking._

_'Eject! Starbuck! Eject!'_

_She remembered hearing those words but she wasn't sure if that was herself telling her what to do or Lee's voice on the radio. 'Probably both', she mused._

_Once she had ejected from the viper she remembered seeing Lee's Viper through her feet. She was then floating through space and saw a raptor headed right for her. She remembered the relief she felt, maybe she wasn't going to die in the cold vacuum of space._

_At least she felt that way until out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of light. She turned her head to look over her shoulder and saw a large heavy raider that was approaching her quite quickly. _

_"Oh frak!"_

_The next thing she knew she knew she was floating into the heavy raider's hold. She saw a Centurion walk towards her and reach out and grasp the edge of her seat and start pulling her down to the ship floor. Before she reached the ground she struggled to release the straps that held her in place. She released them just as she felt the seat touch down._

_But before she could push off from the seat she felt the Centurion's arm press down against her chest effectively immobilizing her to her seat. She thrashed against the Centurion to no avail._

_Out of the corner of her eye she saw two more Centurions heading her way. When they were right on top of her she saw them split up, one to immobilize her legs, while the other and the first Centurion held her arms and shoulders down._

_With her attempts of thrashing no longer even possible she looked up and saw Leoben standing over her. He bent over and his hands reached towards her helmet. Despite her moving her head as much as possible he was still able to remove her helmet._

_"Hello Kara," Leoben said gently as he stroked a hand through her hair._

_"Get the frak away from me!"_

_He smiled tenderly at her as his hand pulled back and withdrew something from his pocket. Kara watched him carefully and her eyes bulged when she saw his hand approaching her with a needle._

_She fought even harder at that point. But against three Centurions, she didn't stand a chance. _

_The last thing she remembered before everything went black was Leoben's smiling face and words._

_"We have a destiny Kara."_

**TBC**

Author's Note: Sorry for the delays. And even worse is that there are going to be more delays in the posting of the next chapters. I've decided to add a few elements in response to ideas given by some kind reviewers. Some of the ideas were really good and just wanted me to explore other conversations.

Reviewer's Poll 1: Lee and Starbuck? Should I have them end up together? Or should I shy away from any romantic relationship type between them?

Reviewer's Poll 2: Jack and Sam? Should I have them end up together? Or should I shy away from any romantic relationship type between them?

Please let me know in your reviews


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