Teaser
The Starship Aurora continued her slow course through space. She was designed with a sleek appearance formed around two hulls that blended together. From her narrower bow to the widest point of her beam was about a third of the ship's length; at that point the hulls met seamlessly. The forward "primary" hull had at its rear a large shuttle bay and the dock for an attack ship-sized vessel, while below the drive hull dipped below the bottom of the primary hull to reveal the ship's navigational deflector and, above it, torpedo launchers. Beyond the drive hull continued, marked by a green dash along the center that was accompanied by the seal of the Allied Systems. The top deck was the hanger for the ship's fighters, with both a landing deck and launch tubes for rapid deployment. Around the drive hull were four large warp nacelles in a flat X layout.
The azure-sheened vessel, in the service of the interuniversal United Alliance of Systems, was the most unique and arguably most advanced vessel in the Alliance fleet. Constructed with Darglan technology, some of which had yet to be matched by the Alliance itself, the ship was a standard-bearer for the Alliance it served.
But simply because she was such, it did not mean that the more mundane elements of life could not be found within her kilometer-long hull.
The private corner of the gymnasium area had a small group standing and watching. Among them was the ship's Chief Medical Officer Doctor Leonard Gillam. Known as Leo to his friends, he was wearing a standard duty uniform with the blue medical trim bordering the primarily black coloring of the uniform. A white labcoat with his name embroidered over the right chest was worn over the uniform. He stood with his arms crossed and a bemused look on his face. "He can't hold it that much longer."
"Aren't ye underestimatin' th' Cap'n a wee bit, Doctor?", asked the much older Commander Montgomery Scott. The old Starfleet legend known to many as "Scotty" was now Chief Engineer of the Aurora. It was a post that he enjoyed, allowing him to work with the Darglan technology that the Aurora crew had introduced him to and to mentor the young people that had literally saved his life. He was in his favored engineer outfit of a black vest over a white jacket with black trousers, his three gold strips of rank insignia fitted on the right of the vest.
"I've got ten credits that says he drops it within a minute." The better was the ship's Operations Officer, Lieutenant Commander Jarod, with the beige color of Operations on his black uniform. The lack of a surname was intentional on the part of the savant, whose ability to function in any occupation on account of his incredible intelligence had previously earned him the sobriquet of "the Pretender".
"Yeah, no offense Jarod, but I don't think anyone is willing to bet against you." That was from the Aurora's Navigation Officer, Lieutenant Nicholas Locarno. A native of Universe S5T3 like Scotty, he was standing and watching with a bemused look and crossed arms. The red of ship control and command was on his uniform.
"I'll take that bet." The offer was from Lieutenant Lucilla "Lucy" Lucero, Jarod's immediate subordinate. Unlike the others she wasn't in a uniform or engineer's vest, but wearing a brown robe much like the subject of their discussion.
The five gave no reaction at the steady glare they got from the second figure in their sight. Lieutenant Commander Meridina - a Gersallian, one of a number of species in various universes who resembled Humans on the outside - was not in uniform. Nor was she in the brown robe, but rather a blue robe that had been set to the side for the moment with only the dark purple bodysuit remaining as her garb. Robes did not quite go well with standing on one's hand.
Despite the fact that the Aurora's chief of security was upside down, her slight irritation with Lucy's snarkiness was evident. Lucy returned it with a brief sticking out of her tongue, a customary act of rebellion toward her teacher. She endured the telepathic scolding that came without saying a thing of it, or even thinking much of it. Meridina, as it was, had other things on her mind. The need to focus on the fifty kilogram barbell weight she was holding up with her life force abilities, for instance.
But she was not the center of attention. That was to her newest student. Captain Robert Dale was wearing a sleeveless vest that had been tucked into red sweat pants, a concession to the fact that he too was standing on his hand and upside down. But he was not quite as poised as Meridina. He wobbled slightly, one way and then another, as he struggled to keep himself stable. His other hand was held out as well. But where Meridina was holding up the barbell, he was doing the same with a simple digital notepad. Sweat continued to drip from his brow to the mat. His green eyes were intent upon the notepad.
Everyone else counted down the time. Lucy gave a bemused look to Jarod when the sixty second mark was passed. He smirked and handed her a bill drawn from his uniform pocket.
As she put it with her things, Robert swayed a little too far back. He struggled to keep his position and let go of the notepad. It nearly clattered on the floor before he grabbed it again. This, however, distracted him further from keeping his balance. It had shifted the other way. This time, there was not going to be a last minute correction. Robert toppled over with a "Woh!" and belly-flopped onto the mat with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs for a moment. "Unh!"
"Damn. I was off by seven seconds," Jarod groused.
Meridina set the barbell down gently. Lucy watched her make an elegant jump off her hand to land upright on her feet. Like she had just made a short hop. "I shall have to restrict our training to holodecks only," Meridina sighed to Lucy. She looked over the crowd. "You gentlemen should know better than to disturb Robert in his training," she said to Jarod and the others in a pointed tone. A sharp pointed one, that is. "Especially you." That line was specifically directed at Lucy, who pretended to ignore it for the moment.
Robert rolled over onto his back and sat up to see everyone looking at him. "You guys really find entertainment in my misery?", he asked.
"It's just interesting," Nick insisted. "Misery's pushing it."
"Although there is a certain amusement to it," Jarod admitted with a playful smirk.
Robert matched that smirk. "Meridina," he said, "please remind me later to see if Commander Andreys can find a way to assign our senior staff to punishment duty in waste extraction."
Meridina smiled at that. "An interesting proposition." A mischievous twinkle appeared in her brilliant blue eyes. "I will have to remember that."
"That is not playing fair," Leo complained.
Robert reached up and let Meridina help him up. "Alright everyone, back to work," he said. "The show's over. I'll see you two on the bridge." He eyed Jarod and Locarno.
As everyone started leaving, he looked to Meridina. "I'm at least improving, aren't I?"
"You are," she agreed. "Which is why we will make your object heavier starting tomorrow."
Robert made a face at that. "You are more sadistic than my wide receiver coach back in High School. Do you know that, Meridina?"
"Truly?" That bemused twinkle returned to her eye. "I may have to seek this coach out and consult with him. Perhaps he will know ways to better train you."
The mental image caused Robert to chuckle, even if it also seemed a bit horrifying. Lucy did so as well. "You're starting to get it," Lucy said. She didn't speak on how he seemed to be going slower than she had in the learning. Everyone learned this thing at their own speed, after all.
"Indeed." Meridina picked her robe up. "I understand you have duties to get to. I need to begin Lucy's training for the day." She gave her other student a look. "I suspect she will not enjoy it all herself."
"It's Meridina's excuse to make me suffer," Lucy sighed.
"Yeah, I sort of got that." Still favoring his ribs a little, if just from the sheer surprise of his belly-flop's impact, Robert started walking away. "I'll see you later."
An hour later Robert was in his ready room with a number of digital pads on the desk. Each had information demanding his attention. The provider of those pads remained standing on the other side of the desk with a look of tried patience in her green eyes.
Commander Julia Andreys, the First Officer of the Aurora and his oldest friend - and by oldest he meant that they had known each other so long that they couldn't remember a time they didn't know each other closely - had put her rich blond hair into a ponytail at the back of her head. Their black uniforms had red trim at the shoulders and cuffs and elsewhere that denoted them as command officers. Each looked to be in the pinnacle of health for adults in their late 20s. "How is the training going?", she asked.
"It is proceeding," he answered, being intentionally vague. "Angel is getting used to it. It's odd that after everything, this stuff is the thing that's causing the most problems in our relationship.
"Angel has never been one for metaphysics," Julia noted.
Robert nodded and continued looking over the pads. "Well, it looks like we owe a debt of thanks for the work of the Command Spacedock repair crews."
"We do. The flight deck is operating just fine."
Seeing a note on a second datapad with personal listings, Robert asked, "We actually have a Gy'toran crewmember now?"
Julia nodded. "Crewman Peglemitar. He's assigned to the machine shop, Bravo Shift."
"Well, I suppose a machine shop's a good place for a hexalimbed crewman to be." Robert continued to look over the listing. "And… seriously, a Zygonian? I didn't even think they were signing up."
"This one is." Julia smiled thinly. "Crewman Thalaz is actually asking permission to train with Padre Mann."
Robert blinked.
"I thought you knew that?" Julia's smile grew. "That the Zygonians were Catholic?"
"No. No I did not," Robert admitted.
"And they have their own Pope."
At that, Robert shook his head. "Universe S0T5 is weird."
Julia chuckled. "So, C1P2 Earth," she said.
"C1P2 Earth," he answered, nodding. "We're not making a full visit, obviously. Still…"
"...you get to remember the guy responsible for Bleeding Sumner trying to break another cane," Julia said, smiling widely. "On your head."
"Laying that guy out with a punch was one of the most fun things I ever did."
Robert drew in a sigh. "It used to be so simple, didn't it Julia?"
"Yeah."
"We just went around rescuing people, helping them. No government business, no Nazis… just us and a bunch of small ships, and the closest thing we had to a uniform was that we all started to wear something blue half the time."
"Those were the days."
"There are times I wonder," Robert admitted. "That I wonder if things wouldn't be better off if we had never let ourselves get pulled into this stuff. If we had just kept doing our own thing and helping people who needed it."
"I think this life has its own rewards." Julia looked over a datapad. They felt a slight thrum go through the ship. The Aurora had dropped out of warp. "I'd rather not look back."
Robert opened his mouth to reply. As the sound formed in his throat a tone at his desk interrupted him. He reached his hand over from one of the digital pads and pressed an acceptance key. "Dale here."
"Captain, we've just come out of warp", Jarod replied. "You… I think there's something you need to see.."
Robert's initial reaction was confusion. Confusion that was clear in his expression and shared in Julia's bewildered look. He could feel disbelief coming from outside the room. They stood up at the same time and made it for the door. Jarod was at Ops. "What is it?"
"We just made orbit of Earth C1P2," Jarod said. He looked ahead at the screen. "Look."
Robert and Julia fixed their gaze on the viewscreen.
The breath left their lungs in a collective gasp of disbelief.
C1P2 Earth was burning.
The image of the Earth on his screen was one Robert knew would remain with him for the rest of his life. The Earth of C1P2 was literally burning in front of his eyes. Smoke was filling the atmosphere from the bright orange blazes covering the urban centers.
"What the hell?", he gasped. "What happened here?"
Caterina Delgado, the ship's Science Officer and younger sister to Robert's girlfriend Angela, was already hard at work at her sensor station. "I'm scanning now. There is some kind of energy signature coming from some of the cities. I think they were subjected to limited energy weapon bombardment."
"Going by comparisons to our old sensor returns, we're looking at a death toll in the millions," Jarod said. "Tens of millions. It's hard to get adequate readings. Most of the urban areas in Europe have been damaged and a few outright destroyed. So have a number of the big cities in the Indian Subcontinent and East Asia. Cape Town, Cairo, Rio de Janeiro…"
"What could have done this?", Julia asked. Her voice was hoarse with horror. "This world didn't have anything approaching the technology to manage this. Someone else did this."
A very horrible prospect crossed Robert's mind. His stomach clenched in anticipation as he asked, "Jarod, Cat…. could this be the Nazis?" After all they had done to keep Darglan technology out of the hands of the Third Reich of Universe S4W8, could they have failed in the end?
"No," Cat said, to his immediate relief. "The energy signature doesn't match Nazi disruptor technology."
"Then what does it match?", Julia asked. "Can you tell us that?"
Caterina took a few moments before answering. "No. No, I… this can't be right."
"What?", Julia asked. "What's wrong?"
"The readings. The energy type. There's only one ship that could have caused them."
Robert and Julia turned their heads to their left to face the sensor station on the port side of the bridge. "Who?", Robert asked.
Cat had a look of pure confusion on her face when she turned back to face them. It was not a common look for her, and the fact she had it made the situation all the more dire.
But not as dire as her answer.
"Us," Caterina said.
Everyone had assembled in the ship's main conference room. They heard the news. "What do you mean it was us?", Leo asked Cat.
"Us as in the Aurora," she answered. "The weapons used to devastate the planet were our main batteries."
"You mean the ship used the same tech…"
"No. Not just the same tech… only the Aurora has pulse plasma cannons big enough to cause this kind of pattern," Caterina insisted. "Only our ship. No others."
"No others that we know of," Jarod clarified.
"What about the monitoring probe we left?", Julia asked. "Why didn't it alert us to what happened?"
"Because whoever was here knew how to hack its programming," Jarod explained. "It was reset to transmit false sensor information to the Alliance. If we hadn't come out to check them out, we would never have known what happened here."
"And what happened here…" Robert looked back to the readings. "...is that the Aurora apparently bombed the planet."
"Going by the energy signatures at least," Jarod said. "Obviously we couldn't have done it."
"Could this be an attack on us? As in literally us?", Angela Delgado asked out loud. She was frowning. "Maybe this is some attempt by Admiral Davies to frame us? Maybe he had a ship built to carry cannons like ours…"
Julia shook her head. "I find it hard to believe he'd be able to do that and not be found out. I mean, we haven't had the opportunity to launch these kinds of attacks. We just got back out into space a few weeks ago and Admiral Maran's been keeping us busy."
"But maybe…"
"Whatever's going on, I want us to be careful with this investigation," Robert interceded. "I've already sent what we have to Admiral Maran and asked for instructions. Jarod, Cat, Scotty, I'd like you to over the sensor records. See if you can find out more about this. We'll hold position until we get orders."
Leo raised a hand. "What about the people down there? Every minute we waste, we could be saving thousands."
"We only have so many resources, Leo," Robert pointed out. "And until I hear otherwise, the planet is still legally protected by the contact limitation regulations."
"So we're just going to leave people to die?", Leo asked. His voice was sharp.
Robert frowned at that. "If we go down, it might be the opening Hawthorne and Davies have been looking for," he pointed out.
"So it's not worth the lives we'll save?"
Robert drew in a breath. He had nothing to say to that. Leo was right.
Julia spoke up. "You know, the contact regulations make it clear that there are exceptions. We can stop a calamity caused by more advanced technology they shouldn't have, for instance. And having a bunch of cities burnt out by plasma weaponry certainly counts as a calamity caused by something not from 19th Century Earth. A limited mission should be feasible."
Robert thought it over in his head. "Alright," he conceded. "We'll never be able to help everyone so… Leo, I'll leave it to you. Pick where we send medical teams and we'll do what we can. In the meantime, Jarod, see if those communication devices we left are still working. Maybe there's still a functioning government down there that can respond to us."
"I'll do what I can," he said.
"You're all dismissed," Robert said.
As everyone filed out of the room, Meridina and Lucy nodded to each other. They rushed to join Leo in the turbolift linking the conference room to the ship's lift tubes and entered right behind him. Before he took notice of them, he said, "Deck 12." Then he turned to them. "Commander, Lucy," he said.
"Doctor, we would be interested in going down with you," Meridina said.
"Well, I will need security. And a pilot for the St. Johns. So it'll work."
"Good," Lucy said. "See you in the shuttle bay in half an hour?"
"Try twenty minutes," he pointed out.
"I will prepare a security team."
"Prepare four, I'm sending half of my surgeons down to various locations," Leo said. "I'm not having it said I played favorites."
"Of course. I will make preparations and meet you in the shuttle bay."
It didn't take long for Admiral Maran to respond. The Gersallian admiral was one of the most respected commanders in the entire Alliance. Years before the Alliance he had defeated the Tresalian Domination in its attempt to conquer the L'wi'ma, overseen the Dorei-Gersallian fleet that broke the power of the Coserian Empire, and more recently had commanded the Alliance and allied fleets that had utterly destroyed an entire Nazi battle fleet at New Austria. Robert noted that whatever stresses he now held as the head of President Morgan's Defense Staff, he hadn't added any new gray to the lines of gray through his otherwise-brown hair and beard. "We've gone over your data and reports here in Portland. It's causing a lot of concern, obviously."
"It's causing it here too, sir," Robert replied. He was alone in his ready room. Outside the window the Earth was still turning beneath them. "I can't help but think someone's trying to frame us. But I don't see how anyone with the ability to could do so and think it'd work. The Aurora has been on the go for weeks and in the dock for weeks before that. We've never had an opportunity to make an attack like this."
Maran could tell what he was thinking of. "It wasn't Hawthorne or Davies, Captain. I'm quite sure of that."
"How could you be sure? They put a spy in my crew, sir…"
"I know. But I saw their reactions to the news. They're more horrified than anything. We all are. The ramifications of this are major."
Robert nodded. "If we didn't do it, and it didn't come from the Alliance…"
"...then someone else did. Someone else with access to Darglan technology."
"I've been worried that the Nazis might have gotten something from the Gamma PIratus base. But could they have put anything into action this soon?"
"I doubt it. According to our sources, the Reich's been reeling ever since the fight at New Austria. Over a dozen major colony worlds have rebelled and come under the protection of our fleet. They're throwing everything they have into establishing a new defensive position in Dralensa… or whatever they call it in their maps." Maran shook his head. "With just a few months? I doubt they could have fitted an IU drive and Darglan plasma weapons to a ship this quickly."
"If it's not them, then it has to be someone else." A thought came to Robert's mind. "When we went over the data from the Darglan databanks we recovered in E5B1, I remember that they included the existence of a third Facility. On another Earth."
"That is a possibility. And that's what you're going to investigate. Your prior orders are suspended for the time being, Captain. I want all effort put into finding out what attacked C1P2 and where they got their Darglan technology."
"I thought you'd want that, sir. I already assigned Jarod and Cat to an investigation." A thought came to him. "Admiral, I was wondering…"
"Yes?"
"You've yet to assign us a support ship," Robert pointed out. "Haven't the Colonies settled now? I thought the Koenig would be re-assigned by now."
"Ah, yes." Maran nodded. "It is my understanding that the final decision on where they will settle is being decided by their election. As soon as we have confirmation of their choice and the needed steps have been taken, I'll send Commander Carrey his new orders." Maran's expression betrayed some concern. "I hope his time with the Colonials has improved upon his issues being under your command."
"I think things will be better this time," Robert answered. He grinned slightly. "Zack just needed a chance to spread his wings and fly."
Laughter filled the military comm channels used by the Colonial fleet. Commander Zachary Carrey, of the Starship Koenig, continued his enthusiastic laughter as he banked the Mark VII Viper from the Battlestar Pegasus around his ship. The squat, tough little Koenig was in her place beyond the Colonial Fleet and provided him plenty of room for maneuver. Her azure-sheened hull moved along quickly above him. He banked again and sent his ship within the forward wing-like sweep of its port warp nacelle, just beside the emitters for the vessel's powerful pulse phaser cannons.
Behind him another Viper soared in pursuit. Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, commanding the Pegasus' fighters, was his wingman/competition for this flight. She was pushing her Viper as hard as Zack was pushing his. The only reason she'd fallen a half second behind was his tight maneuver around the Koenig's aft section twenty seconds earlier.
But now her Viper accelerated further. Zack went for the nose of the Koenig and the purported finish line. Just as he reached it Kara's Viper zoomed past. "Dammit!," he shouted, laughing. "I almost had it!"
"Almost doesn't cut it, Loverboy."
Zack blinked as he powered his engines down to a standard acceleration. The Koenig was now behind them. "Excuse me? 'Loverboy'?"
"That's your new handle," Kara announced. "Our pilots all agreed on it."
"Seriously? 'Loverboy'? That's..."
"Everyone in the Fleet has to know by now how that cute nurse has you wrapped around her finger, Carrey," was the reply. "So that's your official handle. End of story."
He had to chuckle at that. "Well, I suppose there are worse. I would have picked 'Fastball' myself."
"Hopefully not too fast, or your nurse might move on."
"Oh. Oh, that smarts…" Zack chuckled again. "I've got to say, I love how these things handle. They're lighter than our Mongoose fighters."
"Yeah, but your fighters carry heavier ordnance and have all of the extra tech on them. I wouldn't mind your people building us a Mark VIII with all of your toys."
"Maybe they are." He eyed his fuel reserves and the time. "Well, I suppose I'd better get back. Coming to the game? The eight-to-ten year old bracket teams are holding their championship, first round play. I think the kids from the Faru Sadin are going to give a real good game, I haven't seen batting that good in ages."
"Samuel will be there, so I'll be there. Let's get back, Loverboy."
Zack shook his head and couldn't get the smirk off his face. "I'm on your wing, Starbuck."
"Good." There was a pause. "Pegasus Actual, this is Starbuck. Coming back now. Let Colonel Fisk know I'll have that readiness report ready for him soon."
"The Colonel isn't here, ma'am. He left for meetings.," a voice replied. Zack recognized it as Lieutenant Hoshi from the Pegasus. "But I'll make sure he gets the report as soon as he gets back."
Zack noticed that Kara went to their direct taclink before saying, "Well, frak it all. He rides my ass for it and now this?"
"He does seem to go off for plenty of meetings, doesn't he?", Zack noted. "I wonder if it's over the election."
"If he endorses anyone, the Old Man will have his head."
That sounded right. Adama had made it pretty clear in meetings with the various officers under his command that the election was meant to be hand's off. No endorsing, just vote quietly and be done with it. Or not vote at all in Zack's case.
There was nothing more to be said as they flew back to the Pegasus.
Leo had sent multiple teams to various points of Earth C1P2 to do something, anything, to help the inhabitants. He couldn't ignore his own sentiments having weighed in on his choice of location, however. His family had originally come from Georgia, and it was to Georgia and the flaming wreckage not far from Atlanta that he and his team arrived.
Meridina and Lucy had helped to set everything up. Now a long line of people, black and white, were forming to accept the food coming from the St. Johns' replicator and the medical treatments Leo and his nurses were offering.
One bedraggled couple, poor white farmers, were waiting at the door when Leo emerged with a four year old boy. "I gave him treatments for the fever," he told them. "He'll be okay."
"Hallelujah," the weeping mother said.
Leo watched them go. Next up were two young ex-slaves with equally tattered clothing to the prior couple. A pair of infants were in their arms and barely moved. "Please, massa," the man said. "Help ou' poor babes."
"Don't call me that," Leo said abruptly. He caught himself and winced. "I'm sorry. I'm Doctor Gillam, not 'Master' or 'Massa'. And let me see…" He ran his medical scanner over them and looked at the results on his multidevice screen. "They were premature. They're too weak. Djamal!" A male Dorei nurse emerged from the medical module in the runabout. Leo indicated them. "Take them in. Put nutrient IVs on the babies, stat."
"Yes Doctor." The blue-skinned, purple-spotted Dorei looked to the awestruck people. "Please, come with me," he said.
Whatever terror or bewilderment the sight of an alien gave the couple, their need to care for their children overrode that sentiment. They quietly followed Djamal in. Behind them, one of Meridina's security officers quietly entered the module as well. The Thai woman's hand was resting on her pistol holster. Leo didn't quite like that, but he imagined it was better to be prepared when around desperate people.
Nearby Meridina and Lucy were handing out food rations. "Such terrible loss," Meridina observed. "You feel it?"
Lucy nodded. She had grown more sensitive to the Flow of Life since Meridina had introduced it to her on the Citadel. She could faintly make it out here. It was cold and quiet, not at all possessing the warmth and vibrance she had first seen. "I do. Is this why you wanted to come down?"
"Somewhat. Did you feel as I did? The pull to this place?"
"Yeah, I did," Lucy said. "It's why I landed here when Leo picked 'Georgia'. I felt like we needed to be here. LIke this is where we could do the most good."
"Yes." Meridina nodded. "As did I."
"Who could have done this?"
"I am not sure. But…" Meridina went silent for a moment. "Wait."
There was a growing commotion in the lines. An older man, white with graying and bedraggled hair and the ruins of what had once been a nice black suit, was howling in their direction. "What are you doing?!", he screamed. "Have you no pride!? You come to these fanatics, these murdering thieves, why? There shouldn't be a white face here! Have you lost your pride?!"
Leo and Meridina stepped up toward the trouble-maker. "His mind is unhinged," Meridina warned.
"Sir, please calm down," Leo said in a quiet voice. "We'll get you food and medical…"
The older man's shrieking cut him off. "I'll have nothing from you, nigger!"
Meridina felt the revulsion and anger surge in Leo. "I am unfamiliar with that word," she said. "Is it an insult?"
"Racial slur," was his simple reply. Leo kept his attention on the man. "Then if you're not going to accept our help, sir, I suggest you leave."
"This is my home!," the man thundered. "Mine! It'll always be mine! They'll always be mine!" He gestured toward the line of people. It wasn't hard to guess which of those in the line he was talking about. "All of this land is mine! You can drive off the O'Haras, the Hamiltons, the Wilkeses… but not me! My land! Won by my family! I…"
Leo made ready to tranquilize the raving man. But before he could, their verbal assailant stopped. Horror started to cross his face.
Meridina felt the horror. She could also feel something else. A presence of some sort. She looked around at the crowds and saw nothing. Nothing with her eyes anyway. But there was someone else here. That she was certain of.
The older man screamed an inarticulate phrase and started running toward the nearby trees. Leo looked at Meridina. "He's mad, isn't he?"
"Mad with grief and loss and terror," she said. "But I believe he has reason to run. Please, remain here and continue the work. I will be back shortly." Meridina looked to Lucy. "Be on your guard. Feel with your swevyra."
Lucy nodded.
Meridina turned and pursued the man into the woods.
The crazed man was Lionel Roger Cobb. He had been born on the family plantation, raised there, educated in the finest university in Georgia, and became one of many of his class to assume political and social authority in their state.
And he'd owned slaves of course. When news started coming in of mysterious attacks on plantations, of entire plantations being stripped of slaves, he'd hired even more overseers and cracked down on his workers even more. For their own protection. There was no telling what crazed abolitionist force was responsible. And he had supported secession as a matter of course when the Northern states failed to ratify the amendment to protect slavery in the Union.
And then the fires had come. The bolts from the sky, unlike any lightning, that ruined his family home and killed his wife and daughters and son. His remaining slaves had run off in the chaos that followed the judgement from the skies and he had been left alone.
But for Cobb, the important thing was that he knew he was being pursued. He knew why. He'd seen the old home at Tara and what the abandoned home was being used for.
His tired, famished body forced Cobb to stop. He couldn't continue on as he was. He was too weak. But he had to escape. Escape the phantom who dwelt there.
"Did you think I'd forgotten you?", a voice called out.
Cobb's blood froze. Through his madness he knew he was about to die.
"Do you remember her name, Lionel Cobb?", the voice asked. "The name of the slave girl your son raped?"
"My boy knew better than to touch them!", Cobb raged. "Liars! All liars! They said so!"
"They said so after you stripped the flesh from their backs," the voice pointed out. Anger had seeped into it. "And now I'm going to kill you for that."
"Abolitionist monsters! Fanatics! You've burned everything!", Cobb screamed. He knew he was about to die.
There was movement. He turned. The man in the dark suit was there. Dark brown hair could be made out at the edge of his helmet. His skin was light in complexion and tanned by exposure to the sun.
And a blade protruded from his wrist.
Cobb screamed in defiance at him as the man advanced, hatred burning in his brown eyes.
Meridina heard the screaming of the man that had accosted them. He was in conversation with… who knew? Meridina could sense the life slightly. Cold. Angry. Vengeful. She drew her lakesh and activated it as she stormed into the clearing.
There was a rustle of leaves. But nobody was there.
Nobody but the dying man.
The man who had verbally accosted them at their camp was lying in a crimson pool. A stab wound bubbled blood. He'd been stabbed in the lung. Intentionally.
Meridina rushed to his side and called upon her power. Away from the Flow of Life, though, amid the darkness and suffering of this world, she wouldn't have the power to heal him completely. But maybe if she…
The man grabbed her arm as light formed over his wound. "Tara!," he screamed. "At Tara! He'll kill us all!"
"Sir, you must…"
Meridina felt that she was too late. The man was drowning in his own blood. But while she tried to stop that, his heart gave out. It had endured too much. She felt the blood go still underneath her hands. He was dead.
But even then, she could feel something. Someone was here. Watching. Waiting. She breathed in and focused, trying to see him.
"Meridina?" Lucy's voice crackled over the multidevice. "Meridina, are you there? The people say that old coot's name was Cobb. Lionel Cobb. Some bigtime slave owner in the area, until the bombardment blew up his family home and killed his family."
"He is at peace now," Meridina replied.
"What? You mean he's dead? How?"
"Murdered. Stabbed." Meridina examined the wound. "The blade was powerful and sharp. I can sense that it cut through his ribs when he was stabbed in the lung." She drew in a breath and felt with her senses. She knew there was something out here. Not immediately here anymore, but moving away. "Lucy, Doctor Gillam, do any of the people here know about a place called Tara?"
There was a pause before Leo replied. "It's a burnt out old plantation in the area. About three miles to the northeast."
"I see." She kept her focus on that feeling of life in movement. A dark sensation even in this darkened world. "Lucy, I may have need of you. Please come to meet me."
"I'll be right there."
The Starship Aurora continued her slow course through space. She was designed with a sleek appearance formed around two hulls that blended together. From her narrower bow to the widest point of her beam was about a third of the ship's length; at that point the hulls met seamlessly. The forward "primary" hull had at its rear a large shuttle bay and the dock for an attack ship-sized vessel, while below the drive hull dipped below the bottom of the primary hull to reveal the ship's navigational deflector and, above it, torpedo launchers. Beyond the drive hull continued, marked by a green dash along the center that was accompanied by the seal of the Allied Systems. The top deck was the hanger for the ship's fighters, with both a landing deck and launch tubes for rapid deployment. Around the drive hull were four large warp nacelles in a flat X layout.
The azure-sheened vessel, in the service of the interuniversal United Alliance of Systems, was the most unique and arguably most advanced vessel in the Alliance fleet. Constructed with Darglan technology, some of which had yet to be matched by the Alliance itself, the ship was a standard-bearer for the Alliance it served.
But simply because she was such, it did not mean that the more mundane elements of life could not be found within her kilometer-long hull.
The private corner of the gymnasium area had a small group standing and watching. Among them was the ship's Chief Medical Officer Doctor Leonard Gillam. Known as Leo to his friends, he was wearing a standard duty uniform with the blue medical trim bordering the primarily black coloring of the uniform. A white labcoat with his name embroidered over the right chest was worn over the uniform. He stood with his arms crossed and a bemused look on his face. "He can't hold it that much longer."
"Aren't ye underestimatin' th' Cap'n a wee bit, Doctor?", asked the much older Commander Montgomery Scott. The old Starfleet legend known to many as "Scotty" was now Chief Engineer of the Aurora. It was a post that he enjoyed, allowing him to work with the Darglan technology that the Aurora crew had introduced him to and to mentor the young people that had literally saved his life. He was in his favored engineer outfit of a black vest over a white jacket with black trousers, his three gold strips of rank insignia fitted on the right of the vest.
"I've got ten credits that says he drops it within a minute." The better was the ship's Operations Officer, Lieutenant Commander Jarod, with the beige color of Operations on his black uniform. The lack of a surname was intentional on the part of the savant, whose ability to function in any occupation on account of his incredible intelligence had previously earned him the sobriquet of "the Pretender".
"Yeah, no offense Jarod, but I don't think anyone is willing to bet against you." That was from the Aurora's Navigation Officer, Lieutenant Nicholas Locarno. A native of Universe S5T3 like Scotty, he was standing and watching with a bemused look and crossed arms. The red of ship control and command was on his uniform.
"I'll take that bet." The offer was from Lieutenant Lucilla "Lucy" Lucero, Jarod's immediate subordinate. Unlike the others she wasn't in a uniform or engineer's vest, but wearing a brown robe much like the subject of their discussion.
The five gave no reaction at the steady glare they got from the second figure in their sight. Lieutenant Commander Meridina - a Gersallian, one of a number of species in various universes who resembled Humans on the outside - was not in uniform. Nor was she in the brown robe, but rather a blue robe that had been set to the side for the moment with only the dark purple bodysuit remaining as her garb. Robes did not quite go well with standing on one's hand.
Despite the fact that the Aurora's chief of security was upside down, her slight irritation with Lucy's snarkiness was evident. Lucy returned it with a brief sticking out of her tongue, a customary act of rebellion toward her teacher. She endured the telepathic scolding that came without saying a thing of it, or even thinking much of it. Meridina, as it was, had other things on her mind. The need to focus on the fifty kilogram barbell weight she was holding up with her life force abilities, for instance.
But she was not the center of attention. That was to her newest student. Captain Robert Dale was wearing a sleeveless vest that had been tucked into red sweat pants, a concession to the fact that he too was standing on his hand and upside down. But he was not quite as poised as Meridina. He wobbled slightly, one way and then another, as he struggled to keep himself stable. His other hand was held out as well. But where Meridina was holding up the barbell, he was doing the same with a simple digital notepad. Sweat continued to drip from his brow to the mat. His green eyes were intent upon the notepad.
Everyone else counted down the time. Lucy gave a bemused look to Jarod when the sixty second mark was passed. He smirked and handed her a bill drawn from his uniform pocket.
As she put it with her things, Robert swayed a little too far back. He struggled to keep his position and let go of the notepad. It nearly clattered on the floor before he grabbed it again. This, however, distracted him further from keeping his balance. It had shifted the other way. This time, there was not going to be a last minute correction. Robert toppled over with a "Woh!" and belly-flopped onto the mat with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs for a moment. "Unh!"
"Damn. I was off by seven seconds," Jarod groused.
Meridina set the barbell down gently. Lucy watched her make an elegant jump off her hand to land upright on her feet. Like she had just made a short hop. "I shall have to restrict our training to holodecks only," Meridina sighed to Lucy. She looked over the crowd. "You gentlemen should know better than to disturb Robert in his training," she said to Jarod and the others in a pointed tone. A sharp pointed one, that is. "Especially you." That line was specifically directed at Lucy, who pretended to ignore it for the moment.
Robert rolled over onto his back and sat up to see everyone looking at him. "You guys really find entertainment in my misery?", he asked.
"It's just interesting," Nick insisted. "Misery's pushing it."
"Although there is a certain amusement to it," Jarod admitted with a playful smirk.
Robert matched that smirk. "Meridina," he said, "please remind me later to see if Commander Andreys can find a way to assign our senior staff to punishment duty in waste extraction."
Meridina smiled at that. "An interesting proposition." A mischievous twinkle appeared in her brilliant blue eyes. "I will have to remember that."
"That is not playing fair," Leo complained.
Robert reached up and let Meridina help him up. "Alright everyone, back to work," he said. "The show's over. I'll see you two on the bridge." He eyed Jarod and Locarno.
As everyone started leaving, he looked to Meridina. "I'm at least improving, aren't I?"
"You are," she agreed. "Which is why we will make your object heavier starting tomorrow."
Robert made a face at that. "You are more sadistic than my wide receiver coach back in High School. Do you know that, Meridina?"
"Truly?" That bemused twinkle returned to her eye. "I may have to seek this coach out and consult with him. Perhaps he will know ways to better train you."
The mental image caused Robert to chuckle, even if it also seemed a bit horrifying. Lucy did so as well. "You're starting to get it," Lucy said. She didn't speak on how he seemed to be going slower than she had in the learning. Everyone learned this thing at their own speed, after all.
"Indeed." Meridina picked her robe up. "I understand you have duties to get to. I need to begin Lucy's training for the day." She gave her other student a look. "I suspect she will not enjoy it all herself."
"It's Meridina's excuse to make me suffer," Lucy sighed.
"Yeah, I sort of got that." Still favoring his ribs a little, if just from the sheer surprise of his belly-flop's impact, Robert started walking away. "I'll see you later."
An hour later Robert was in his ready room with a number of digital pads on the desk. Each had information demanding his attention. The provider of those pads remained standing on the other side of the desk with a look of tried patience in her green eyes.
Commander Julia Andreys, the First Officer of the Aurora and his oldest friend - and by oldest he meant that they had known each other so long that they couldn't remember a time they didn't know each other closely - had put her rich blond hair into a ponytail at the back of her head. Their black uniforms had red trim at the shoulders and cuffs and elsewhere that denoted them as command officers. Each looked to be in the pinnacle of health for adults in their late 20s. "How is the training going?", she asked.
"It is proceeding," he answered, being intentionally vague. "Angel is getting used to it. It's odd that after everything, this stuff is the thing that's causing the most problems in our relationship.
"Angel has never been one for metaphysics," Julia noted.
Robert nodded and continued looking over the pads. "Well, it looks like we owe a debt of thanks for the work of the Command Spacedock repair crews."
"We do. The flight deck is operating just fine."
Seeing a note on a second datapad with personal listings, Robert asked, "We actually have a Gy'toran crewmember now?"
Julia nodded. "Crewman Peglemitar. He's assigned to the machine shop, Bravo Shift."
"Well, I suppose a machine shop's a good place for a hexalimbed crewman to be." Robert continued to look over the listing. "And… seriously, a Zygonian? I didn't even think they were signing up."
"This one is." Julia smiled thinly. "Crewman Thalaz is actually asking permission to train with Padre Mann."
Robert blinked.
"I thought you knew that?" Julia's smile grew. "That the Zygonians were Catholic?"
"No. No I did not," Robert admitted.
"And they have their own Pope."
At that, Robert shook his head. "Universe S0T5 is weird."
Julia chuckled. "So, C1P2 Earth," she said.
"C1P2 Earth," he answered, nodding. "We're not making a full visit, obviously. Still…"
"...you get to remember the guy responsible for Bleeding Sumner trying to break another cane," Julia said, smiling widely. "On your head."
"Laying that guy out with a punch was one of the most fun things I ever did."
Robert drew in a sigh. "It used to be so simple, didn't it Julia?"
"Yeah."
"We just went around rescuing people, helping them. No government business, no Nazis… just us and a bunch of small ships, and the closest thing we had to a uniform was that we all started to wear something blue half the time."
"Those were the days."
"There are times I wonder," Robert admitted. "That I wonder if things wouldn't be better off if we had never let ourselves get pulled into this stuff. If we had just kept doing our own thing and helping people who needed it."
"I think this life has its own rewards." Julia looked over a datapad. They felt a slight thrum go through the ship. The Aurora had dropped out of warp. "I'd rather not look back."
Robert opened his mouth to reply. As the sound formed in his throat a tone at his desk interrupted him. He reached his hand over from one of the digital pads and pressed an acceptance key. "Dale here."
"Captain, we've just come out of warp", Jarod replied. "You… I think there's something you need to see.."
Robert's initial reaction was confusion. Confusion that was clear in his expression and shared in Julia's bewildered look. He could feel disbelief coming from outside the room. They stood up at the same time and made it for the door. Jarod was at Ops. "What is it?"
"We just made orbit of Earth C1P2," Jarod said. He looked ahead at the screen. "Look."
Robert and Julia fixed their gaze on the viewscreen.
The breath left their lungs in a collective gasp of disbelief.
C1P2 Earth was burning.
Undiscovered Frontier
"A Dark Reflection"
"A Dark Reflection"
The image of the Earth on his screen was one Robert knew would remain with him for the rest of his life. The Earth of C1P2 was literally burning in front of his eyes. Smoke was filling the atmosphere from the bright orange blazes covering the urban centers.
"What the hell?", he gasped. "What happened here?"
Caterina Delgado, the ship's Science Officer and younger sister to Robert's girlfriend Angela, was already hard at work at her sensor station. "I'm scanning now. There is some kind of energy signature coming from some of the cities. I think they were subjected to limited energy weapon bombardment."
"Going by comparisons to our old sensor returns, we're looking at a death toll in the millions," Jarod said. "Tens of millions. It's hard to get adequate readings. Most of the urban areas in Europe have been damaged and a few outright destroyed. So have a number of the big cities in the Indian Subcontinent and East Asia. Cape Town, Cairo, Rio de Janeiro…"
"What could have done this?", Julia asked. Her voice was hoarse with horror. "This world didn't have anything approaching the technology to manage this. Someone else did this."
A very horrible prospect crossed Robert's mind. His stomach clenched in anticipation as he asked, "Jarod, Cat…. could this be the Nazis?" After all they had done to keep Darglan technology out of the hands of the Third Reich of Universe S4W8, could they have failed in the end?
"No," Cat said, to his immediate relief. "The energy signature doesn't match Nazi disruptor technology."
"Then what does it match?", Julia asked. "Can you tell us that?"
Caterina took a few moments before answering. "No. No, I… this can't be right."
"What?", Julia asked. "What's wrong?"
"The readings. The energy type. There's only one ship that could have caused them."
Robert and Julia turned their heads to their left to face the sensor station on the port side of the bridge. "Who?", Robert asked.
Cat had a look of pure confusion on her face when she turned back to face them. It was not a common look for her, and the fact she had it made the situation all the more dire.
But not as dire as her answer.
"Us," Caterina said.
Everyone had assembled in the ship's main conference room. They heard the news. "What do you mean it was us?", Leo asked Cat.
"Us as in the Aurora," she answered. "The weapons used to devastate the planet were our main batteries."
"You mean the ship used the same tech…"
"No. Not just the same tech… only the Aurora has pulse plasma cannons big enough to cause this kind of pattern," Caterina insisted. "Only our ship. No others."
"No others that we know of," Jarod clarified.
"What about the monitoring probe we left?", Julia asked. "Why didn't it alert us to what happened?"
"Because whoever was here knew how to hack its programming," Jarod explained. "It was reset to transmit false sensor information to the Alliance. If we hadn't come out to check them out, we would never have known what happened here."
"And what happened here…" Robert looked back to the readings. "...is that the Aurora apparently bombed the planet."
"Going by the energy signatures at least," Jarod said. "Obviously we couldn't have done it."
"Could this be an attack on us? As in literally us?", Angela Delgado asked out loud. She was frowning. "Maybe this is some attempt by Admiral Davies to frame us? Maybe he had a ship built to carry cannons like ours…"
Julia shook her head. "I find it hard to believe he'd be able to do that and not be found out. I mean, we haven't had the opportunity to launch these kinds of attacks. We just got back out into space a few weeks ago and Admiral Maran's been keeping us busy."
"But maybe…"
"Whatever's going on, I want us to be careful with this investigation," Robert interceded. "I've already sent what we have to Admiral Maran and asked for instructions. Jarod, Cat, Scotty, I'd like you to over the sensor records. See if you can find out more about this. We'll hold position until we get orders."
Leo raised a hand. "What about the people down there? Every minute we waste, we could be saving thousands."
"We only have so many resources, Leo," Robert pointed out. "And until I hear otherwise, the planet is still legally protected by the contact limitation regulations."
"So we're just going to leave people to die?", Leo asked. His voice was sharp.
Robert frowned at that. "If we go down, it might be the opening Hawthorne and Davies have been looking for," he pointed out.
"So it's not worth the lives we'll save?"
Robert drew in a breath. He had nothing to say to that. Leo was right.
Julia spoke up. "You know, the contact regulations make it clear that there are exceptions. We can stop a calamity caused by more advanced technology they shouldn't have, for instance. And having a bunch of cities burnt out by plasma weaponry certainly counts as a calamity caused by something not from 19th Century Earth. A limited mission should be feasible."
Robert thought it over in his head. "Alright," he conceded. "We'll never be able to help everyone so… Leo, I'll leave it to you. Pick where we send medical teams and we'll do what we can. In the meantime, Jarod, see if those communication devices we left are still working. Maybe there's still a functioning government down there that can respond to us."
"I'll do what I can," he said.
"You're all dismissed," Robert said.
As everyone filed out of the room, Meridina and Lucy nodded to each other. They rushed to join Leo in the turbolift linking the conference room to the ship's lift tubes and entered right behind him. Before he took notice of them, he said, "Deck 12." Then he turned to them. "Commander, Lucy," he said.
"Doctor, we would be interested in going down with you," Meridina said.
"Well, I will need security. And a pilot for the St. Johns. So it'll work."
"Good," Lucy said. "See you in the shuttle bay in half an hour?"
"Try twenty minutes," he pointed out.
"I will prepare a security team."
"Prepare four, I'm sending half of my surgeons down to various locations," Leo said. "I'm not having it said I played favorites."
"Of course. I will make preparations and meet you in the shuttle bay."
It didn't take long for Admiral Maran to respond. The Gersallian admiral was one of the most respected commanders in the entire Alliance. Years before the Alliance he had defeated the Tresalian Domination in its attempt to conquer the L'wi'ma, overseen the Dorei-Gersallian fleet that broke the power of the Coserian Empire, and more recently had commanded the Alliance and allied fleets that had utterly destroyed an entire Nazi battle fleet at New Austria. Robert noted that whatever stresses he now held as the head of President Morgan's Defense Staff, he hadn't added any new gray to the lines of gray through his otherwise-brown hair and beard. "We've gone over your data and reports here in Portland. It's causing a lot of concern, obviously."
"It's causing it here too, sir," Robert replied. He was alone in his ready room. Outside the window the Earth was still turning beneath them. "I can't help but think someone's trying to frame us. But I don't see how anyone with the ability to could do so and think it'd work. The Aurora has been on the go for weeks and in the dock for weeks before that. We've never had an opportunity to make an attack like this."
Maran could tell what he was thinking of. "It wasn't Hawthorne or Davies, Captain. I'm quite sure of that."
"How could you be sure? They put a spy in my crew, sir…"
"I know. But I saw their reactions to the news. They're more horrified than anything. We all are. The ramifications of this are major."
Robert nodded. "If we didn't do it, and it didn't come from the Alliance…"
"...then someone else did. Someone else with access to Darglan technology."
"I've been worried that the Nazis might have gotten something from the Gamma PIratus base. But could they have put anything into action this soon?"
"I doubt it. According to our sources, the Reich's been reeling ever since the fight at New Austria. Over a dozen major colony worlds have rebelled and come under the protection of our fleet. They're throwing everything they have into establishing a new defensive position in Dralensa… or whatever they call it in their maps." Maran shook his head. "With just a few months? I doubt they could have fitted an IU drive and Darglan plasma weapons to a ship this quickly."
"If it's not them, then it has to be someone else." A thought came to Robert's mind. "When we went over the data from the Darglan databanks we recovered in E5B1, I remember that they included the existence of a third Facility. On another Earth."
"That is a possibility. And that's what you're going to investigate. Your prior orders are suspended for the time being, Captain. I want all effort put into finding out what attacked C1P2 and where they got their Darglan technology."
"I thought you'd want that, sir. I already assigned Jarod and Cat to an investigation." A thought came to him. "Admiral, I was wondering…"
"Yes?"
"You've yet to assign us a support ship," Robert pointed out. "Haven't the Colonies settled now? I thought the Koenig would be re-assigned by now."
"Ah, yes." Maran nodded. "It is my understanding that the final decision on where they will settle is being decided by their election. As soon as we have confirmation of their choice and the needed steps have been taken, I'll send Commander Carrey his new orders." Maran's expression betrayed some concern. "I hope his time with the Colonials has improved upon his issues being under your command."
"I think things will be better this time," Robert answered. He grinned slightly. "Zack just needed a chance to spread his wings and fly."
Laughter filled the military comm channels used by the Colonial fleet. Commander Zachary Carrey, of the Starship Koenig, continued his enthusiastic laughter as he banked the Mark VII Viper from the Battlestar Pegasus around his ship. The squat, tough little Koenig was in her place beyond the Colonial Fleet and provided him plenty of room for maneuver. Her azure-sheened hull moved along quickly above him. He banked again and sent his ship within the forward wing-like sweep of its port warp nacelle, just beside the emitters for the vessel's powerful pulse phaser cannons.
Behind him another Viper soared in pursuit. Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, commanding the Pegasus' fighters, was his wingman/competition for this flight. She was pushing her Viper as hard as Zack was pushing his. The only reason she'd fallen a half second behind was his tight maneuver around the Koenig's aft section twenty seconds earlier.
But now her Viper accelerated further. Zack went for the nose of the Koenig and the purported finish line. Just as he reached it Kara's Viper zoomed past. "Dammit!," he shouted, laughing. "I almost had it!"
"Almost doesn't cut it, Loverboy."
Zack blinked as he powered his engines down to a standard acceleration. The Koenig was now behind them. "Excuse me? 'Loverboy'?"
"That's your new handle," Kara announced. "Our pilots all agreed on it."
"Seriously? 'Loverboy'? That's..."
"Everyone in the Fleet has to know by now how that cute nurse has you wrapped around her finger, Carrey," was the reply. "So that's your official handle. End of story."
He had to chuckle at that. "Well, I suppose there are worse. I would have picked 'Fastball' myself."
"Hopefully not too fast, or your nurse might move on."
"Oh. Oh, that smarts…" Zack chuckled again. "I've got to say, I love how these things handle. They're lighter than our Mongoose fighters."
"Yeah, but your fighters carry heavier ordnance and have all of the extra tech on them. I wouldn't mind your people building us a Mark VIII with all of your toys."
"Maybe they are." He eyed his fuel reserves and the time. "Well, I suppose I'd better get back. Coming to the game? The eight-to-ten year old bracket teams are holding their championship, first round play. I think the kids from the Faru Sadin are going to give a real good game, I haven't seen batting that good in ages."
"Samuel will be there, so I'll be there. Let's get back, Loverboy."
Zack shook his head and couldn't get the smirk off his face. "I'm on your wing, Starbuck."
"Good." There was a pause. "Pegasus Actual, this is Starbuck. Coming back now. Let Colonel Fisk know I'll have that readiness report ready for him soon."
"The Colonel isn't here, ma'am. He left for meetings.," a voice replied. Zack recognized it as Lieutenant Hoshi from the Pegasus. "But I'll make sure he gets the report as soon as he gets back."
Zack noticed that Kara went to their direct taclink before saying, "Well, frak it all. He rides my ass for it and now this?"
"He does seem to go off for plenty of meetings, doesn't he?", Zack noted. "I wonder if it's over the election."
"If he endorses anyone, the Old Man will have his head."
That sounded right. Adama had made it pretty clear in meetings with the various officers under his command that the election was meant to be hand's off. No endorsing, just vote quietly and be done with it. Or not vote at all in Zack's case.
There was nothing more to be said as they flew back to the Pegasus.
Leo had sent multiple teams to various points of Earth C1P2 to do something, anything, to help the inhabitants. He couldn't ignore his own sentiments having weighed in on his choice of location, however. His family had originally come from Georgia, and it was to Georgia and the flaming wreckage not far from Atlanta that he and his team arrived.
Meridina and Lucy had helped to set everything up. Now a long line of people, black and white, were forming to accept the food coming from the St. Johns' replicator and the medical treatments Leo and his nurses were offering.
One bedraggled couple, poor white farmers, were waiting at the door when Leo emerged with a four year old boy. "I gave him treatments for the fever," he told them. "He'll be okay."
"Hallelujah," the weeping mother said.
Leo watched them go. Next up were two young ex-slaves with equally tattered clothing to the prior couple. A pair of infants were in their arms and barely moved. "Please, massa," the man said. "Help ou' poor babes."
"Don't call me that," Leo said abruptly. He caught himself and winced. "I'm sorry. I'm Doctor Gillam, not 'Master' or 'Massa'. And let me see…" He ran his medical scanner over them and looked at the results on his multidevice screen. "They were premature. They're too weak. Djamal!" A male Dorei nurse emerged from the medical module in the runabout. Leo indicated them. "Take them in. Put nutrient IVs on the babies, stat."
"Yes Doctor." The blue-skinned, purple-spotted Dorei looked to the awestruck people. "Please, come with me," he said.
Whatever terror or bewilderment the sight of an alien gave the couple, their need to care for their children overrode that sentiment. They quietly followed Djamal in. Behind them, one of Meridina's security officers quietly entered the module as well. The Thai woman's hand was resting on her pistol holster. Leo didn't quite like that, but he imagined it was better to be prepared when around desperate people.
Nearby Meridina and Lucy were handing out food rations. "Such terrible loss," Meridina observed. "You feel it?"
Lucy nodded. She had grown more sensitive to the Flow of Life since Meridina had introduced it to her on the Citadel. She could faintly make it out here. It was cold and quiet, not at all possessing the warmth and vibrance she had first seen. "I do. Is this why you wanted to come down?"
"Somewhat. Did you feel as I did? The pull to this place?"
"Yeah, I did," Lucy said. "It's why I landed here when Leo picked 'Georgia'. I felt like we needed to be here. LIke this is where we could do the most good."
"Yes." Meridina nodded. "As did I."
"Who could have done this?"
"I am not sure. But…" Meridina went silent for a moment. "Wait."
There was a growing commotion in the lines. An older man, white with graying and bedraggled hair and the ruins of what had once been a nice black suit, was howling in their direction. "What are you doing?!", he screamed. "Have you no pride!? You come to these fanatics, these murdering thieves, why? There shouldn't be a white face here! Have you lost your pride?!"
Leo and Meridina stepped up toward the trouble-maker. "His mind is unhinged," Meridina warned.
"Sir, please calm down," Leo said in a quiet voice. "We'll get you food and medical…"
The older man's shrieking cut him off. "I'll have nothing from you, nigger!"
Meridina felt the revulsion and anger surge in Leo. "I am unfamiliar with that word," she said. "Is it an insult?"
"Racial slur," was his simple reply. Leo kept his attention on the man. "Then if you're not going to accept our help, sir, I suggest you leave."
"This is my home!," the man thundered. "Mine! It'll always be mine! They'll always be mine!" He gestured toward the line of people. It wasn't hard to guess which of those in the line he was talking about. "All of this land is mine! You can drive off the O'Haras, the Hamiltons, the Wilkeses… but not me! My land! Won by my family! I…"
Leo made ready to tranquilize the raving man. But before he could, their verbal assailant stopped. Horror started to cross his face.
Meridina felt the horror. She could also feel something else. A presence of some sort. She looked around at the crowds and saw nothing. Nothing with her eyes anyway. But there was someone else here. That she was certain of.
The older man screamed an inarticulate phrase and started running toward the nearby trees. Leo looked at Meridina. "He's mad, isn't he?"
"Mad with grief and loss and terror," she said. "But I believe he has reason to run. Please, remain here and continue the work. I will be back shortly." Meridina looked to Lucy. "Be on your guard. Feel with your swevyra."
Lucy nodded.
Meridina turned and pursued the man into the woods.
The crazed man was Lionel Roger Cobb. He had been born on the family plantation, raised there, educated in the finest university in Georgia, and became one of many of his class to assume political and social authority in their state.
And he'd owned slaves of course. When news started coming in of mysterious attacks on plantations, of entire plantations being stripped of slaves, he'd hired even more overseers and cracked down on his workers even more. For their own protection. There was no telling what crazed abolitionist force was responsible. And he had supported secession as a matter of course when the Northern states failed to ratify the amendment to protect slavery in the Union.
And then the fires had come. The bolts from the sky, unlike any lightning, that ruined his family home and killed his wife and daughters and son. His remaining slaves had run off in the chaos that followed the judgement from the skies and he had been left alone.
But for Cobb, the important thing was that he knew he was being pursued. He knew why. He'd seen the old home at Tara and what the abandoned home was being used for.
His tired, famished body forced Cobb to stop. He couldn't continue on as he was. He was too weak. But he had to escape. Escape the phantom who dwelt there.
"Did you think I'd forgotten you?", a voice called out.
Cobb's blood froze. Through his madness he knew he was about to die.
"Do you remember her name, Lionel Cobb?", the voice asked. "The name of the slave girl your son raped?"
"My boy knew better than to touch them!", Cobb raged. "Liars! All liars! They said so!"
"They said so after you stripped the flesh from their backs," the voice pointed out. Anger had seeped into it. "And now I'm going to kill you for that."
"Abolitionist monsters! Fanatics! You've burned everything!", Cobb screamed. He knew he was about to die.
There was movement. He turned. The man in the dark suit was there. Dark brown hair could be made out at the edge of his helmet. His skin was light in complexion and tanned by exposure to the sun.
And a blade protruded from his wrist.
Cobb screamed in defiance at him as the man advanced, hatred burning in his brown eyes.
Meridina heard the screaming of the man that had accosted them. He was in conversation with… who knew? Meridina could sense the life slightly. Cold. Angry. Vengeful. She drew her lakesh and activated it as she stormed into the clearing.
There was a rustle of leaves. But nobody was there.
Nobody but the dying man.
The man who had verbally accosted them at their camp was lying in a crimson pool. A stab wound bubbled blood. He'd been stabbed in the lung. Intentionally.
Meridina rushed to his side and called upon her power. Away from the Flow of Life, though, amid the darkness and suffering of this world, she wouldn't have the power to heal him completely. But maybe if she…
The man grabbed her arm as light formed over his wound. "Tara!," he screamed. "At Tara! He'll kill us all!"
"Sir, you must…"
Meridina felt that she was too late. The man was drowning in his own blood. But while she tried to stop that, his heart gave out. It had endured too much. She felt the blood go still underneath her hands. He was dead.
But even then, she could feel something. Someone was here. Watching. Waiting. She breathed in and focused, trying to see him.
"Meridina?" Lucy's voice crackled over the multidevice. "Meridina, are you there? The people say that old coot's name was Cobb. Lionel Cobb. Some bigtime slave owner in the area, until the bombardment blew up his family home and killed his family."
"He is at peace now," Meridina replied.
"What? You mean he's dead? How?"
"Murdered. Stabbed." Meridina examined the wound. "The blade was powerful and sharp. I can sense that it cut through his ribs when he was stabbed in the lung." She drew in a breath and felt with her senses. She knew there was something out here. Not immediately here anymore, but moving away. "Lucy, Doctor Gillam, do any of the people here know about a place called Tara?"
There was a pause before Leo replied. "It's a burnt out old plantation in the area. About three miles to the northeast."
"I see." She kept her focus on that feeling of life in movement. A dark sensation even in this darkened world. "Lucy, I may have need of you. Please come to meet me."
"I'll be right there."