Chapter 9: Shadow Play

"So you're a spy," Adama said.

Colonel Odin Sinclair nodded, holding a bag of ice to his head. He, Adama, and Tigh were all in Adama's quarters to discuss the events of the past day. Adama and Sinclair were seated opposite each other on the couches with the coffee table between them. Tigh patrolled like a shark behind the Commander.

"Counterspy," Sinclair replied. "My mission was to find the Cylon agent, if any, and eliminate it."

"So your other mission was a cover?"

Sinclair nodded. "Yep."

"Why didn't you tell us from the beginning?" Tigh asked.

"Couldn't take the risk that you or Commander Adama were the cylon, or that the information would leak out somehow. Granted I doubted that either of you could have been a Cylon given your long, public records but I had to play my cards safe and tight."

"What gave the Cylon away?" Adama asked.

"Little things," Sinclair replied conversationally, "and one big one. Namely the standpoint of embracing humanity's flaws and pontificating about them if given the chance."

"So like you were acting, then?" Tigh snarked.

"Just so," Sinclair replied, nonplussed. "The cylons are very eager to distance themselves from their creators whenever they can, despite making themselves in our image."

"Why?" Adama asked.

"Who knows. They're malfunctioning robots that we should have put down ages ago. Trying to understand them is like trying to teach a frog to speak Tauroni."

"So now that the Cylon is eliminated, are you going back to your original mission?"

"Yes but not as part of the diplomatic party. I think my cover there is safely and securely blown."

The battlestar Galactica and the stealth cruiser Loki were escorted together back to Alkran's Cradle. The cold homeworld of the Alkrani was surrounded in rings of gunsats and warships behind which were the shipyards that kept the Sovereign Guard in the fight. The Galactica was eased into the largest yard slip the Alkrani had to offer with Loki hovering nearby almost protectively. Alkani technicians immediately set to work patching up the largest warship they'd ever seen with instruction from the Galactica's personnel, who were themselves assisted by the back-up translators on Doctor Gau's staff.

Simon Gau himself was earmarked for the diplomatic meeting with the Alkrani leadership itself. Everything he'd read about their homeworld was a poor substitute for the real thing. He was dressed in warm winter clothing that wouldn't have been out of place on Aquaria. It was hardly a suit and tie but it was the best that could be managed. Humans didn't have the kind of body hair needed to survive on Alkran's Cradle. They were lucky they could breath the same air!

As the shuttle settled down on a flat plateau that the alkrani used as a landing field and spaceport for the city built into the mountain upon which they stood, Gau felt more excitement than he had ever felt in his long life. It was with an almost boyish bounce in his step that he went to the shuttle's hatch and waited for the crew chief to open it. He had insisted on being the first one out, and he was not going to be denied the chance to be the first human to step onto a truly alien world.

The air was crisp enough to make his lungs hurt and breath mist but there was no snow to be seen. The skies seemed in eternal overcast with thick, grey clouds as far as the eye could see. Thankfully it wasn't raining at least.

He and the rest of the diplomatic party were escorted down into the city proper, where a small ground car awaited them along with a police escort. It was a tight fit but it was an open air car and allowed him a wide, open view of Mor's Garden, the Alkrani capital city. As was allegedly typical for Alkrani cities it was built into the rocky sides of the vast mountain-canyons and built up onto the plateau plains above. In the case of Mor's Garden spanned two sides of a canyon with a vast bridge covering the center where the beating technological heart of the city was.

It was towards here that the car was bound, to the newly constructed and grandly named Cathedral of Alkran's Light. It was from here that the Steward and her Executors ruled the Sovereignty. Telling it apart from the rest of the city seemed an almost impossible task to Doctor Gau. The Alkrani were like the Gemenese in that they loved making their architecture as artistic and ornate as possible. As one article had once put it, on the outside there seemed no different between a temple and a post office.

In fact there seemed few differences between the Alkrani and the Gemenese on the surface. Both nominally religious societies that managed to build powerful empires. Except where the colony of Gemenon fell to the First Virgo Dominion and was relegated to being a prize of the Imperial Wars between Virgon and Leonis, the Alkrani had managed to persist and build up the most powerful interstellar nation outside of the Colonies along with founding an international coalition with the other powers.

The comparison to the Empire of Gemenon was an apt one once more as they were lead into the main throne room for the Steward, who was seated in a simple wooden chair and flanked by her Executors. Dr. Gau was brought to the foot of the raised dais where the Steward was situated. He gave a deep, respectful bow at the waist.

"Steward Fonla," he said in stilted but acceptable Alkrani as he rose up, "I am Doctor Simon Gau. On behalf of the United Colonies of Kobol, I greet you and thank you for this most gracious reception. It is my eternal hope that this meeting will only strengthen the ties between our nations and see a new era of prosperity between our two nations."

The Steward replied, "Welcome, Simon Gau, to Alkran's Cradle. May the Alkran smile on this meeting today."

In the halls of the Alkrani seat of power, there is a massive mural. It stretches all along the long axis of the Cathedral in the sections open to the public. Usually there would be crowds upon crowds here to look at this monument but today there was just Commander Adama. Adama and the Lord of Admirals.

"Magnificent, is it not?" Skrain asked the commander as he hobbled up next to the human officer, both hands resting on his cane.

"Yes," Adama replied. He looked a moment longer at the image of what looked like Alkrani gathering wheat from a field before looking down at the alien, asking, "Is it some kind of historical monument?"

"Yes," Skrain replied. "It is called the Eternal Memory. It is a record of our history stretching back to before the written word was invented. It records all the way to the formation of the Concordance."

"Impressive," Adama replied truthfully.

"Our history is very important to us," Skrain continued. "We lost so much knowledge throughout the ages. This is our best attempt at reconstructing our past."

Adama pointed at a creature standing on two feet. He asked, "Was Alkran's Cradle home to another species at some point?"

"It is a demon of the Dark Prince," Skrain replied. "Long ago his demons terrorized the Alkrani before the Alkran's paladins came."

The elderly alien pointed at what Adama had dismissed as stars. The paladins looked like slanted, stylized Xs and radiated light that scared the demons, who cowered before them.

Skrain said, "For many thousands of years the Dark Prince and his demons have terrorized and destroyed Alkran temples and libraries. There are some among us who believe that the Cylons are demons come in another form to terrorize us."

"Is that what you believe?" Adama asked him.

Skrain said with absolution in his voice, "I am a believer of not many things, and what I believe is what I may hold in my hand. I believe the Cylons are dangerous, out of control machinery."

"What about the Sixes?"

"The Sixes," he replied, "are complicated."

And that was that for that subject, as the Lord of Admirals said, "Your ship is magnificent. What is its name?"

"Galactica," Adama replied.

"A good name," Skrain said with a nod. "In our civilization names are important. Maybe more important than it should be. When a Steward dies, we give them a name. We name our largest warships after them. I command Veltesa the Enabler. She was a great Steward. She pushed us into space. She made the Sovereignty what it is today. I am curious how humans name ships."

Adama replied, "We name them after several things. Gods and heroes and monsters mostly."

"Is Galactica a god or hero?"

"Hero," Adama stated, pausing long enough to decide how to condense one of the most important parts of Colonial history into an abridged version for an alien. "When Kobol was burning, humans left on a great ark. One woman stayed behind to keep the Lighthouse atop the tallest watchtower on Kobol burning so the ark knew which stars to steer by. We named her Galactica, because through her sacrifice she gave us the galaxy."

"A good name," Skrain nodded, tapping his walking stick on the marble floor in approval.

Further down the way, the Cylon Model Six known as Tammy said, "A nice idol. Very well crafted, but an idol all the same. A pagan icon to false gods."

"False god," Odin Sinclair chimed in, smiling like a wolf. "Singular. Besides I don't think it's a good idea to bad mouth your allies' gods."

Tammy shrugged, complimenting Odin's smile with a feline smirk of her own. "It's the truth. What's wrong with stating the truth, Odin?"

"I think we both know why, Tammy. For one, the nature of truth is utterly subjective."

Tammy's smile disappeared and she broke eye contact. Odin was relentless. He said, "Did you really think you could put me off balance by approaching me in public?"

Tammy said nothing.

"Tell me, 'Tammy,' why did the Sixes rebel? The real reason."

"It's Cavil," Tammy said. "He… They have too much influence over Republic policy. Far, far too much. Only the Eights and Fives voted no with us for war."

"That's no surprise," Odin replied, "seeing as he was the one who convinced the other models to box half of our species."

"Not all of them. He kept one of the Daniels as a pet. He's… There's something just wrong about him."

Odin nodded, "and you think he's the reason why Cavil is giving the orders?"

"Maybe. I don't see how, though," Tammy sighed. "I don't think it matters anymore. The Colonials came, and now our days are numbered. We can't stand up against the Concordance and the Colonies both at once."

"Don't damn us so quickly," Odin told her. "The humans aren't as bad as Cavil and the Centurions would like us to think."

"Of course you would think that," Tammy spat.

"Yes, I would," Odin said, taking her spite in stride. "I have had a lot of time to think since the War ended. Lots of time to go over the information that Cavil tried to hide from us. I don't think humans will wipe us out."

"Well, God gave us freedom of will for a reason," Tammy sighed.

Odin gave her a flat look. "If the humans do wipe us out, well maybe it's our time. After all, the day comes when you can't hide from what you've done anymore, and we've done a lot of things in the short history of the Cylons."

Chapter 10: War

"General Odysseus," Cavil asked. "Do you have anything else to say for yourself?"

Odysseus' eye swept across the gathered seven leaders of the biological models. He wondered if it was worth dignifying this shame of a military tribune the authenticity of a statement. He decided that honor better than spite, and spoke.

"I have given this council my opinions and laid out the facts of the case. My strategy was compromised by this council's order break from the schedule. Further deterioration of the situation resulted from the deviation from the plan. I am only at fault for not being omnipotent."

"General Odysseus," Cavil intoned, "you are found guilty of incompetence. For your crimes, you are demoted to Commander and relieved of your position as supreme commander of the Republic's military forces. You are also removed from your position on this council. Your successor will be chosen by democratic vote among the centurions later today. You are dismissed."

"By your command," Odysseus intoned, then disconnected from the server, leaving the Cylon bio-models to themselves.

"Now that that's out of the way," Cavil said, "how the frak are we going to get out of this mess?"

"It seems simple to me," the Model Four said. "We send a diplomatic party of our own to the Colonies to get a non-aggression pact before Galactica returns."

"They'll just break it once they see what we've done to their battlestar," the Sharon interjected.

"Who said we'd let their battlestar leave this sector?" the Simon replied with a dark smile.

"They'll know we did something to the Galactica," the Sharon insisted. "They'll know we're responsible."

"But they won't have any proof. They can't do anything without proof."

"You're both trusting the humans to not want to kills us dead the moment they get half the chance!" Cavil complained, throwing up his hands in frustration.

"So we attack them now," the Doral suggested. "We have the locations of their military bases and fleet rally points. We send in a few hundred raiders with nukes, give the humans a bloody nose so bad they never leave home again."

The Sharon rebuked him. "But they still have their fleet. Once they feel safe they'll send them over the border and to help the Alkrani."

The Simon was still smiling as he said, "and they'll just fly into the pre-built defenses we've spent the last forty years building up."

The Sharon didn't miss a beat. "Unless the Sevens tell them to not do that. Reveal where to actually hit."

D'Anna sighed and declared, "We're all just jumping around the point here. We're going to war against the humans. There's no point in denying it."

"Thank you, Three!" Cavil said. "Finally someone's speaking some sense."

"So we go to war," the till now eighth member of the council said. John Carson, one of the Model Twelves who were once known as the Daniels. "With what forces?"

There was a moment of silence as everyone thought. Then the Doral said, "We pulls the forces hunting the Pheldain Imperial Fleet and occupying their worlds. Mobilize our reserves. That gives us seventeen Basestar groups and a few thousand raiders. We could blitz colonial defenses and hit their supply bases. Take away their ability to project their military beyond their solar system."

There was a nodding of general agreement.

Cavil was the one who finally said, "So we destroy the Colonial war machine's support, then we rally our forces and take out Alkran's Cradle. Finish this war before the Colonials can stop their eyes from spinning."

There was more nodding. A vote was called, and the battle plan passed unanimously.