(Writer's Note: The Colonial officer rank structure, according to the BSG 2003 website, has a captain [Apollo's rank] the equivalent of a Starfleet lieutenant-commander, a colonel [Tigh's rank] the equal of a commander, and a commander [Adama's rank] the equal of a captain. Lieutenants [like Starbuck], junior grade lieutenants [Boomer] and ensigns are the same as Starfleet. G.)
"What is happening?!"
"The 33-S's have initiated an evacuation plan," Miroku calmly reported as her fingers flew over the control board. "All the stasis chambers are now open. The Voyager is now beaming up some of the prisoners."
"Have your friends attack that ship!" Largo firmly suggested. "Their shields have to be down to use their transporter systems."
"Agreed. Fighters now responding."
In her holding cubicle nearby, Seven of Nine grimaced as she watched the large viewscreen hanging above and before her captors. That now displayed an image of the orbital battle between the mixed force of Federation starships and Colonial battlestars and the lone Cylon basestar and her air wing of raiders. Currently, the Defiant was dealing with the lion's share of anti-raider combat, accompanied by the Viper and Raptor wings from the Galactica and the Pegasus. Enterprise was engaging the basestar directly. At present, the Cylon mothership was badly scarred thanks to well-aimed phaser and quantum torpedo strikes from the Sovereign-class starship, though given the Cylon vessel's sheer size and bulk, it would take even the Enterprise some time to detonate its opponents' power cores and weapons magazines. Voyager hung some distance back from the Colonial battlestars, her phaser banks and torpedo launchers adding their fire to the blistering close-range defences Galactica and Pegasus could call on. Some distance beyond Voyager was the Windrider, a ship that was, though armed, in essence a civilian craft and thus not fit to be in a situation like this.
What could she do in a case like this...?
What...?
"Shh."
Seven perked, then looked left as something darker than the shadows passed her, an armoured hand raised in a shushing motion to a face that was three-quarters a metal skull complete with a fully-formed nose and a glowing red ruby for a left eye; only the upper right quadrant was still human, as was all the hair, the ears and the back of the head and neck. The Borg's eyes went wide as she took in the many details of this cyberneticized version of Moroboshi Ataru, though she smartly kept quiet. Granted, all in the Collective underwent a massive amount of cyberneticization when they were initially brought in, but it was nothing, nothing quite like this!
Stealthily, the Cyborg seemed to glide across the floor to place himself directly behind Largo, nonchalantly crossing his hands behind his back as he stared directly into the upper back of the boomer "messiah" from the universe of Bubblegum Crisis. On the viewscreen, two flights of Cylon fighters were breaking away from the battle around the Defiant to charge the Voyager and the Windrider. "I've signalled two more basestars," Miroku announced. "They'll transport themselves into this dimension within the next ten minutes."
"Excellent," Largo acknowledged that with a chuckle. "Once these fools are out of the way, we'll be able to expand our reach to every dimension in Existance. Once we do, the blight called 'humanity' will be erased..."
"And the Universe will become a very boring place."
Largo and Miroku screamed out on hearing that metal-twanged voice, then spun around to stare wide-eyed at the apparition now standing behind the former. "Hi, there," the Cyborg cheerily greeted them with a wave of the hand, which then clenched into a fist.
The punch that followed sent Largo flying into the viewscreen. Miroku stumbled to the floor as the glass exploded, engulfing her omniboomer ally in a cloud of smoke and flame, flashes of electricity dancing over the debris. As Largo slammed into the wall behind the viewscreen, then stumbled onto the floor, the Cyborg turned on the humanoid Cylon. A hand lashed out to grab her by the neck, yanking her off the ground before she could attempt to scramble clear. With a flick of his wrist, the Cyborg sent her sailing across the room. As she slammed into an overhang, then bellyflopped into a four-point landing on the floor, the transformed Ataru walked over to Seven, then snapped the bonds off her arms and legs. "Sorry for the wait, Hansen-san," he apologized as she hesitantly stepped out of her holding pit.
"Thank you," Seven calmly replied, then she watched as he walked back to the main control board. "What are you doing?"
He glanced over his shoulder at her. "Ensuring the universe remains an interesting place," he replied as a foot-long metal probe ejected out from under the bird-shaped arm shield mounted over his forearm, then he plunged the tip into the computer bank before him...
"Venerable, we have to raise shields now! Those fighters will be in range..."
The android's voice trailed off as multiple flashes flared over the viewscreen on the Windrider's bridge. As she, Marie and Rinrin morbidly watched, the power dynamos on the Cylon fighters currently engaging the Federation/Colonial force failed all at once, causing them to explode in deadly blossoms of burning fuel and shredded metal. In seconds, the immediate region of space is clear of all ships smaller than fifty metres in length save for the Vipers and Raptors from the Galactica and the Pegasus. The silence remained in place on the sail-barque's bridge, then the artificial woman at the helm turned back to her master's sisters. "What just happened, Venerable?"
"I think Aniki just happened to them," Rinrin replied...
"All their dynamos just went up at once?"
"Affirmative, Commander," Data replied as his fingers flew across the Enterprise's primary Ops station. "It appears that some sort of wide-range self-destruct message was transmitted from the base on the planet's surface, overwhelming all programming defences the Cylons might possess against such an attack. I would believe that the troopers in the base now engaging our allies might be next..."
"This is virtually what they have in mind when they decide to make their move against the Colonials," the transformed Ataru explained to Seven as he allowed himself to cyberlink with the main control systems on the huge basestar in orbit. "Now..."
"Captain, the basestar's main generators are going critical!" Worf barked from the Defiant's tactical station.
"Back us clear!! Now!!" Benjamin Sisko barked.
"What about the Colonial fighters closest to that thing?!" Miles O'Brien demanded as Worf pressed controls.
"Tractor them with us!" Sisko ordered...
"Something's wrong with that basestar!!" the Galactica's air group chief, Jackson Spencer, announced over the tactical frequencies as plumes of flame and shattered metal exploded from the Cylon basestar's numerous hangar decks.
"Some sort of internal explosion!" Kara Thrace confirmed from her own Viper off Spencer's starboard wing.
"Ripper, the Enterprise and the Defiant are pulling away from the basestar!" Sharon Valerii barked from her Raptor.
"Then we better damn hell do the same!!" Spencer snarled. "Ripper to all Galactica and Pegasus fighters! Bug out!!"
The Colonial fighters all wheeled as one away from the dying Cylon basestar...
"Venerable, several of those Colonial ships won't get clear in time!"
"Rinrin, can we beam some of those people out?!" Marie gasped.
"Working on it now!" Rinrin announced as her fingers flew over her console.
"Work faster!!"
"Captain, some of those fighters won't get clear!" Will Riker warned.
To Jean-Luc Picard, that spelt one thing. "Transporter room, lock in on the Colonial fighter pilots and prepare to beam them aboard..."
"Captain, we cannot lower shields to transport them aboard while we are so close to the basestar," Data warned.
Hearing that, the Enterprise's captain cursed. "Merde..."
"Got locks on five Vipers and one of the Raptors! The rest are clear!!"
"Beam them out, Rinrin-chan!"
"Hai!!"
"By the Lords..."
As he watched from the Galactica's bridge, William Adama could only pray for the souls of those poor pilots still too dangerously close to the basestar as the Cylon ship's main reactor detonated. Silence fell over the battlestar's bridge as the basestar literally came apart at the seams, sending jets of flame and shattered hull fragments to slam harmlessly against the energy shields protecting two of the Federation starships that had been decisively engaged against the Cylons. As soon as the flames burned themselves out in the near-vacuum, he spun on his executive officer, Paul Tigh. "Who did we lose?" the commander from Caprica hoarsely demanded.
The colonel blinked, then checked his screen before looking back at his superior. "Six, Will. Five Vipers, one Raptor."
"Who, Paul?!" Adama repeated.
Tigh blinked, then read off the names. "Valerii, Helo, Spencer, Feldman, Carria, Physher..." A pause. "And Thrace."
Adama blinked as the names came to him, then the last one struck home like a physical blow. Kara...
"Commander, a signal from one of the alien ships," one of the battlestar's tactical officers, Lieutenant Gaeta, announced.
Adama spun on him. "Which one?"
"The solar-sail vessel. Audio only."
"Audio on."
A burst of static echoed through the battlestar's CIC, then a woman's voice called out. "...Galactica, this is the Windrider, I repeat, we have your pilots now aboard our ship. Respond, Galactica, please. I repeat..."
"Two-way," Adama ordered.
Gaeta pressed controls. "You're on, sir."
"Windrider, this is Galactica, Commander William Adama speaking," the aged warrior announced.
"Ah, Adama-taisa!" the voice chirped cheerily. "This is Moroboshi Marie, currently in charge of the Windrider. As I was just telling your officer, we were able to rescue your pilots."
"May I ask how that's possible, Siress Moroboshi?" Adama replied, addressing Marie by the traditional Colonial title for a lady. "Your ship was nowhere close to the fighting..."
A new woman's voice then spoke up. "Sorry for the confusion, Taisa-san. Our ship, like the Federation vessels with us now, is equipped with a matter-quantum energy materialization transport system. We call it simply the 'transporter,' like the Federation Starfleet personnel do. We were able to 'beam' Spencer-shousa, Thrace-taii and the others right out of their cockpits before their ships were caught by the back-blast from that basestar. If you'll give us a couple minutes, we can let you talk to them straight up!"
"Sir, signal from the Federation starship Enterprise," Gaeta then announced. "Sent to both ourselves and the Pegasus."
"On speakers," Adama ordered.
"Commander Adama? Commander Cain?" an accented male voice then called out.
"This is Adama," the Galactica's commander replied.
"Cain here," the voice of the Pegasus's commander echoed over the speaker.
"This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard, commander of the Enterprise. Our ship's sensors are detecting two space-folds now forming several hundred kilometres ahead of us. The power signatures of the vessels transiting those folds appear to be Cylon."
"Reinforcements," Cain quickly concluded.
"Agreed," Adama acknowledged that with a grunt. "Siress Moroboshi?"
"Hai, Adama-taisa?" Marie replied.
"Is it possible for you to transport my pilots back to the Galactica with this transporter system of yours...?"
"Wait!!" Rinrin's voice cut Adama's question off. "We've got folds happening behind us, too! Two of them!!"
"More Cylons?!" Tigh demanded.
"Data, scan the new folds!" Picard ordered.
"Scanning now, sir!" the Enterprise's second officer declared. "It appears to be two vessels of unknown configuration. They are definitely NOT Cylon in composition..." His voice trailed off for several seconds, then he simply said, "Fasciating."
"Data, what's going on...?!" Will Ryker demanded...
Who's arriving now?
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Mon, 01 Mar 2004 06:57)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.