1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**Prologue**

**1986**

**A few miles outside Sparti, Greece**

"Look at this. It's some sort of grayish metal bar."

Dr. Susan Bradley, a bombshell blond who never failed to attract enough volunteers for her archaeological digs, stopped cleaning a vase to take a look at what Ruben, her fellow archaeologist, had found.

"Hmm, looks... strange. We'll probably have to send it off to the lab back at Cornell since it looks recent..."

Of course, at least one other strange thing had been found- like what appeared to be an entire village disappearing overnight in the late era of ancient Greece, right after the Peloponnesian War. Some other people had suggested a landslide or some other natural disaster swept the village away to an as yet undiscovered location, but Susan was also a geologist (overachiever both at work and in the bed, some of her detractors had said about her, in private) and had found no evidence at all for this theory. Susan was puzzled, both about the village and the bar and would have to wait for the lab results, since this bar looked machine-made. Strange, strange...

**Cornell University**

**Ithaca, New York**

"Professor Sagan! Professor Sagan!"

Carl Sagan turned around to find a tall, dark-haired young man in a standard lab coat running toward him. He seemed so excited and moving so fast... Sagan moved just in time to get our of the way of the skidding guy, who had not noticed the "Wet Floors" sign. The man managed somehow to regain his stability and balance, and started walking slowly toward the professor.

"Are you..."

"Yes, I'm okay. But look at this!

The lab coat held out a picture of a grayish metal bar, along with a LOT of lab test results in a folder, proceeding to shove the whole thing into Sagan's hands. The Professor of Astronomy frowned, but he looked at the documents instead of saying anything, since the lab tech...what was his name again?... seemed absolutely ecstatic about the results... what, is this true? Technetium center with an outside coating of an aluminum-lead alloy? It's about 2,400 years old?

As Sagan looked up, the tech... ah, Mark!... broke into an even bigger grin and nodded.

They had found something that would literally change history and allow them to test one of the most controversial ideas in science and astronomy.

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Comments are greatly appreciated and welcomed.


	2. Chapter 2: 1987 Timeline

**1987**

**January**

After many months of examination, scientists at Cornell are confident that the bar dates from about 403 BC, right after the end of the Peloponnesian War, and has a technetium center with an outside coating of an aluminum-lead alloy. Such a bar can only be of artificial origin- technetium has at most a half-life of a few hundred-thousand years, depending on the isotope, and is only made in the cores of stars or in nuclear reactors. Since the radioactive decay indicates that it MUST be about 2,400 years old and an aluminum-lead alloy can only be made in space, a team led by Carl Sagan concludes that it is of extraterrestrial origin. The world goes wild, with many people putting theories forth about the bar and it's relation to the disappeared village, now known as 'The First Alien Abduction in History', even through there is no direct evidence that the aliens actually had anything to do with the village or/and it's disappearance.

**February**

President Ronald Reagan of the United States announces that his administration is pushing ahead with the Star Wars missile defense system, using a purported threat of alien invasion to justify it. Skeptics and detractors note that any aliens invading Earth would very likely be much more advanced then us and a Star Wars system would be easily defeatable by them.

**June**

Elizabeth Ann Warren, born in South Philadelphia to a Naval Ship-building father and a factory working mother and wife of Senator James Warren (R-PA), a much older man (OOC: James is this timeline's version of Arlen Specter), graduates from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania with a Masters in Business Administration.

**August**

Upon review of archaeological evidence from around the world, the team led by Carl Sagan and Dr. Susan Bradley declares that they have found 9 more cases of villages suddenly disappearing around the same time as the first village, in 403 BC. The villages are located as follows:

1-India (southern)

1-Middle East

1-Greece (the first one found)

1-North America

1-South America

1- Europe (Britain)

1- China (northern)

1- Africa (Tanzania)

1- Polynesia

1- Southeast Asia (Indonesia)

Elizabeth 'Ella' Warren gets a job at struggling United Pennsylvania Steel as a lowly junior executive in Accounting. She impresses her superiors as a woman who can detect ways to tighten the company's belts without hurting the company's production, quality, or workers' benefits, and is quickly promoted.

Comments are always welcome and highly appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3: 1988 Timeline

**1988**

**February**

The U.S Congress defeats a plan to build a missile defense system capable of operating in space after the Soviet Union announces that it will not deploy any anti-ICBM or satellite weapons of it's own, and offers full access to the U.S for inspections. Privately, the Soviet General Staff recommend to Mikhail Gorbachev if in the event the Americans DO build one, the best response by the Soviet Union would be to add more relatively cheap (compared to the cost of Star Wars) ICBMs to overwhelm any system the Americans might build.

**June**

Upon further exploration of all sites confirmed to be "abducted", archaeologists find similar metal bars to the one found in Greece. Nothing else even vaguely relating to to the abduction or any aliens are found, through.

**December**

The team jointly led by Carl Sagan and Dr. Susan Bradley publishes the first comprehensive review of what by now has been termed the "Abduction Event". The report finds that thanks to the nature and age of the technetium-aluminum-lead bars found at the site, it is very likely that aliens with interstellar travel capability disappeared (not necessarily abducted- the aliens could have destroyed or killed the people there for some unknown reason) the villages, along with the people living there at the time. In addition to the bars, some historical evidence is also presented suggesting that other villages and travelers in the area vaguely suspected something was going on, but Dr. Bradley cautions against relying on these sources to find out about the event, since they have been distorted and passed through third-party hands, as well as filled with myth and legends.

Elizabeth Warren thumps her head (job-wise) against the glass ceiling thanks to a sexist executive high up. Ella then notices that the man is a womanizer, yet married. A plan begins to form in her mind...

OOC: I should note that everything else that happened in history is happening the same way here, at least until a few years later...


	4. Chapter 4: Tigh Meets Roslin

Update! This here is a brief leap into the future- enjoy the foresight.

2030

Saul Tigh could still remember when he met Laura Roslin. It was in the Earth year 1989.

It was in a temple, while the choir was chanting a holy prayer from Old Earth:

_O Lord Lead me from the unreal to the real._

_Lead me from the darkness to light._

_Lead me from death to immortality._

_May there be peace, peace, and perfect peace._

Tigh was 29, a cocky, confident young Viper pilot. He wasn't sure why he was here; he wasn't very religious or inclined to listen to religious music. But something he couldn't quite place drew him inside, into the vast assembly space, quite simple yet awe-inspiring in its clean and linear yet vast design. It reminded Saul of vast grassland somehow contained in a huge hanger with lots of skylights.

He was just sitting on one of the benches alongside one of the walls, watching the choir practice for something he couldn't remember after all these years when a 15 year old girl tugged on his sleeve.

"Excuse me, sir, but do you know where the Holy Scroll study group is meeting today? Our old room is closed for cleaning, and I can't quite find anyone who knows where we're supposed to meet."

She said it in a firm yet gentle tone of voice, one that made you think that here was a woman who isn't afraid to speak out, yet won't spew nonsense or partisan attacks on others- The Voice of Reason. When he turned around, he saw that she was dressed in the uniform of the Young Women's Order of the Holy Scroll- a simple sand-colored tunic and skirt, along with a green headband that signified her as the leader of the other Order girls behind her- about 30 in total. She had a striking mass of red hair and green eyes that seemed to stare deep into your soul, searching for signs you were a heretic. Which Saul could be considered as one.

You see, Tigh was raised a Cylon, a member of a monotheistic religion that believed that the Son of God was born on Old Earth, where His Followers (split into numerous factions) were waiting for them to find them. A small but influential faction of polytheistic Colonists believed that the Holy Scroll ordered all believers to convert or exterminate anyone who believed in anything else but the gods and goddesses of the Scroll, brought along from Earth in the Great Exodus led by the aliens. Of course, as many academics pointed out, cultural and archeological evidence showed that it was likely that the deities of the Holy Scroll did not come from one source, as the fundamentalists believed, but were integrated from many of Earth's religions after the Exodus. Naturally, the fundies attacked this evidence, often illogically.

And it appeared that this teenaged girl was a fundie. For after Saul had showed them the way (as he saw the relocation information on a poster somewhere), Laura Roslin introduced herself and her fellow Order members, and then said in a completely honest yet chilling way, "Thank you for all your help and may the Gods bless you on this day- unless you're a Cylon. Then I hope you enjoy being damned by them and us, soon enough." The girl then smiled, while the group behind her shuffled their feet around nervously.

She must have thought he was probably a polytheistic. "Soon enough" referred to the belief that one day, the gods would come down from heaven and help the fundies rid the world of all but the True Believers. And this woman- not girl, but woman- here would most likely be one of their leaders. Voice of Reason combined with fundieism. Tigh still shuddered at this memory even now.


End file.
