Disclaimer: I do not own these characters they all belong to Ronald D Moore and Universal, I'm just borrowing them
Rating: M
Warnings: Some strong language and possibly in later chapters sex and violence
Characters: Kara/Lee, some Karl/Sharon but the whole cast gets acknowledgement
Author's note: Ultimately this is an AU fic but I have used material from all seasons. Do not read if you have not watched the end of the series. Reviews are welcome but please be nice this is my first attempt at writing fic.
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Prologue
The first thing they saw when they opened their eyes were the white lights blazing down on them from the ceiling. Soft restraints pinned them to their beds. Faint murmurings surrounded them that they could not comprehend. It was also cold, very cold, their nakedness exposing them to the crisp air-conditioned room.
What had started as another monotonous day on a Battlestar had taken a bizarre and rather frakked up turn. They had found the end of their journey, their salvation, but this was not what they had expected or dreamt about. To top it off they had no idea if the rest of the fleet knew where they were and if they would ever find them again.
Their thoughts were all stopped however by the sound of more instruments and murmurings as they drifted off into an induced slumber. The flash of cameras spotting their vision as all faded to black. The sensation of their beds being lowered and moved down a long and even colder corridor was the last thing they felt.
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Unnamed and Secret Military Base – England, Earth
Dr Caroline Richards relaxed in her comfy leather swivel chair, pen flopping out of her mouth, glasses perched on the end of her nose and surrounded by 6 bulging files.
"So, got anything on our mystery guests doc?" said Caroline's superior and bane of her life, Lieutenant John Simms. "Worked out which country they were sent to spy from?"
If she didn't already think that he was a complete idiot she would have reminded him that her job was strictly to establish whether or not their "guests" were actually human or not. She didn't give a damn what government or agenda they were working for. Caroline smiled privately to herself, today was the day she had found what she had been dreaming about since she was a kid. Today she finally found proof that there was life out there beyond Earth and they were sleeping in the room next to her.
"You can tell Major Ford that I'm ready to share my findings with him" she answered with the most sincere smile she could muster.
"Fine, have it your way doc" snipped the Lieutenant tossing down a pile of papers. "You may want to read this. It's the protocol on what our next steps should be"
He then gave her a long look up and down her body and abruptly turned and exited the room.
"Fucking idiot" she muttered under her breath, tossed her feet off her desk and threw her pen down on top of the pile of files. She walked over to the long one-way glass and looked at the six figures lying on individual beds. They were all asleep for now, the physical tests were complete the psychometric tests would begin in due course.
"So…are they aliens?" Major Ford asked as he walked quietly up behind her and observed the six figures.
"Short answer?"
"Go for it doc" he placed one hand on her shoulder and looked down at her. She hated it when he did that, his 6'3" frame settled too perfectly into her side, his black hair and soft handsome face close to hers always made her stomach do somersaults. Fuck, why did this guy always have such an affect on her?
She realised that, while she was working out how to get him out of his military uniform in less than 10 seconds, that she hadn't answered his question.
"Yip" she said bluntly. Ford always liked short and to the point answers.
"Alright doc, time to spill what you've got." He took his hand off her shoulder and she missed his touch immediately.
"Personally I'm disappointed" he said with a grin "I always expected aliens to be green with tentacles and to be, alien like. These guys look just like us."
Bringing herself back to reality Caroline giddily grabbed at her files.
"These guys are fucking great! Nothing to disappoint, and you ain't gonna believe what I found about one of them."
Caroline turned on the TV next her, a video link with a conference room full of people flashed on to the screen.
"Hi everybody I'm Dr Richards. As you are aware we had an unknown flying object crash down about 5 miles out of London. Inside were six subjects, two of which were injured on landing. The subjects appear to be human in appearance consisting of three males and three females of varying racial appearance."
Caroline took a sip of her water and then pressed a button which raised the one-way glass. She walked confidently over to the first bed where a brunette female lay. Caroline mused on how pretty the female looked even under an induced sleep and with no trace of make-up on her face. She looked like she was of oriental descent, if she was from Earth that is.
"We've conducted a number of tests on all the subjects. All of them appeared to be human just like us and in respect of five of them their vitals and blood samples show that is exactly what they are."
"Five of them?" Caroline noticed that the idiot Simms had returned.
"Yes five of them are, for all intents and purposes human, with a few subtle differences."
"Such as…?" Simms said whilst gesturing with his arms.
Caroline gave a little cough and continued. "When I tested their blood we couldn't identify their blood type. It's different from ours, similar but ultimately different."
"Dangerously different?" asked one of the people watching via the video link
"Not as far as I could tell. More different in respect of different genes, evolutionary differences. Two of the subjects have what I would classify as category D blood, however the other three have traits of category A blood mixed with what I would classify as category E blood."
Murmurs spread throughout the room. Caroline noticed that at least ten more men in uniforms had come into the room and were listening intently to what she was saying. The enormity of what she was telling them about the five subjects hit her; this was their first contact with people from another world. But that was nothing compared to what she was about to tell them next.
"Okay.." she said and then took a deep breath. "This sixth subject is what interests me the most. When we did tests on her blood we couldn't identify her blood. After extensive testing we found the reason why, her blood is synthetic."
"She has fake blood?" Ford blurted out.
"Yes, further extensive testing proved to show that she is completely synthetic, not human. She's alive in the way that she breathes, has a heart that beats and a brain. But she was created not born."
"You mean she's a fucking robot?" Simms said as he took a few steps backwards.
"I mean she's an artificial being. She has brain functions, emotions and individuality and could perfectly pass herself off as another human being. Even more interesting is that she is capable of procreation, her physical exam shows that at some point she has given birth to a child."
"What?" said a number of people all at once.
"Is it dangerous?" asked Ford.
"During some of her conscious moments she broke through the restraints. Fortunately we were able to knock her out before she did any damage. I suggest that she be kept under close watch"
"Have her taken to a secure cell under constant guard. No-one is to see her or talk to her without my prior approval" demanded Ford.
Three guards with guns appeared and pushed the robot's stretcher out of the room and then disappeared again.
Caroline bowed her head, she didn't want any of her guests being hurt, but something about that woman unnerved her. She had seen the movies and what usually happened when man met robot, it never turned out good for the humans. Caroline wondered what had brought her guests to Earth and what their purpose was. A small shiver went down her spine and then she remembered whose company she was in so continued her report.
"I believe that all our guests are members of some sort of military."
"On what do you base that assumption?" snipped Simms.
"Well they seem to be in some sort of uniform, two of whom seem to be in space suits. They also seem to be wearing some sort of insignia on their uniforms."
"For fuck sake doc that may be what they all wear on their planet" said Simms as he flopped himself into Caroline's comfy chair.
Caroline decided it would be best just to ignore him and carry on "in my personal opinion" well maybe she would rise to him a little "they're military. Each of them was also wearing one of these."
Caroline grabbed a metal chain with a tag on the end from her desk and held it out to the room.
"Dogtags?" Ford asked
"That's what I'm thinking. This one belongs to the artificial woman, S. A g a t h o n." Caroline said as she wrote out the symbols on a large board.
"What is interesting is that they use similar lettering as we do" Caroline added as she walked over to the nearest bed.
"This female is white with brunette hair, approximately 25-35 years old. Her tags name her as M. E d m o n d s o n. She was wearing a spacesuit when she crashed landed here. I believe she was one of the pilots as her name is painted on the side of the vessel. She appears to be fit and health. Her spacesuit had a patch on the side with a picture of their vessel and the word r a p t o r s underneath. On the other side is another patch with an emblem and the following letters b a t t l e s t a r g a l a c t i c a."
Caroline had no idea what any of the letterings meant, it was double Dutch to her. She didn't even know how to begin to formulate the letters into a word.
"Okay, this next subject is a black male again about 25-35 years in age with the name H. M c C a l l on his tags. His name was also on the vessel and he was wearing a spacesuit at the time of the crash. He had an injury to his leg from the crash but it should heal in time. This second male is white with brown hair and a very athletic build, about 25-35 years old. His tags name him as K. A g a t h o n."
"Like the robot?" interrupted Simms.
Caroline rolled her eyes "yes like the robot's name, perhaps they're married. This male has an old scar on his leg akin to a bullet wound. He also received some abrasions from the crash."
Caroline moved between the last two beds and looked thoughtfully at her last two guests. Apart from the artificial woman these two interested her the most. There was something significant about them.
"These last two subjects are interesting. I cannot fully determine their names."
"How come?" Ford asked intrigued.
"Well they are wearing each other's dogtags as well as their own and they also have a ring attached the tags. Their names are L. A d a m a and K. T h r a c e but I don't know which is which. They're both between 25-35 years old. The male is white and has brown hair and is also of very athletic build."
I want to have your babies type build Caroline thought, but kept those thoughts to herself.
"The female is blonde, a natural blonde" she added quickly before Simms could interrupt. "They both show signs of being through a rough time, with numerous battle scars. The male has a scar on the right side of his chest, which looks like an old bullet wound. He also has scars that remind me of injuries inflicted on prisoners of war."
"He was tortured?" Ford asked as he got up from his perch and walked towards the beds.
"So it seems was the woman, but she also has additional wounds. She has a scar, which looks like an old bullet wound on the lower left side of her abdomen above another surgical looking scar. Not sure what that scar was from though. She has another scar along the middle of her lower abdomen, a caesarean scar. Her physical exam showed that she has also given birth at some point."
"So she's a battle wounded, tortured, mother of two, soldier?" asked Ford.
"Pretty much."
"You know they have chat shows for this kind of person?"
Caroline gave Ford a long gaze, perhaps a bit too long and turned back to the beds.
"What is really interesting about this woman is what came up in her x-rays. She's got old fractures along her fingers, the same point on each finger on each hand."
"What are you saying doc?" Ford asked looking concerned, he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
"I'm saying that, regardless of how technologically advanced these people seem to be, they still have victims of child abuse. These sorts of fractures are usually sustained by slamming children's hands in door frames."
"Shit" was all Ford could think of to say.
The rest of the report consisted of informing the "suits" on her theories as to what their guests were here for, where they had come from and how they had got here. Six long hours later Caroline finally got her office back to herself. Her "guests" had been placed in their own individual rooms in order to prepare them for the next set of tests. Caroline sat at her desk and relaxed while she looked at their pictures. She found herself not caring about why they were here and what their intentions were. In her gut she knew they were not here to hurt anybody. What she saw in them was sadness, something had happened to them. They had obviously been through a lot but what and why?
She looked at a photograph that they had found in the vessel about an hour ago. It contained an image of the blonde female and the male who shared her dogtags. They were smiling and looking happy, dressed in spacesuits and in front of a vessel which looked like a fighter jet. They each had a child in their arms. The children looked to be about one year in age with light brown curly hair and bright blue eyes. Caroline thought that they were the spitting image of their dad, who was holding the girl. The girl seemed more interested in her dad's dogtags then in smiling for the camera. The boy in the blonde's arms, in contrast, had a huge grin which mirrored his mother.
"Well that solves the question of her scar and signs of giving birth," thought Caroline "twins."
What struck Caroline most about the photograph, however, was the eeriness it instilled in her. The happy family in front of a obviously battle worn and scorched fighter jet. The question is who or what were they fighting and what events had transpired to bring them here to her...?
AN: I've done a bit of re-editing since I originally posted this chapter