Encounter At Dawn
Part 18: Tactics of War

"Okay, I think you have a lot of explaining to do." Baltar stood in the middle of the quarters that had been set aside for Six and him to use, "What exactly is going on?"

"It's very hard to explain." His Cylon lover sat in one of the two comfortable chairs, and motioned towards the other, "You should sit." She waited until her companion had done as instructed, before continuing, "Gaius, do you remember, shortly before we came to Atlantis, you asked if you had ever told me you loved me?"

"Yes." Baltar nodded, "You said no, and something about having all the proof you needed. I was going to ask you what you meant, but then things got a little hectic..."

"I'm pregnant." Six managed to maintain her composure as she watched the former Colonial President closely, "I suspected, and when we first arrived here for the peace talks I asked Dr Becket to confirm it. As far as he can tell, I am approximately nine to ten weeks pregnant."

"Pregnant?" Baltar blinked, "How?"

"I'm sure that a man of your education and intellect understands the biological side of things." Six could help but smile slightly, "I will not pretend to understand the reasons why my people can not reproduce biologically without the 'love' aspect, but it is what it is."

"Pregnant?" Baltar blinked again, "How?"

The hyperspace window opened directly above the Samantha Carter and two Daniel Jackson class science vessels came spilling out, coming to a dead stop in perfect formation behind the much bigger O'Neill class Battlecruiser. There was a short pause as Thor received the latest reports from his home world, then passed on his own orders.

One of the two support ships moved over alongside the Pegasus and started to scan every millimetre of it, building up a complete 3D computer model of the Battlestar, inside and out. The other began to descend towards Atlantis.

"We have an Asgard ship requesting permission to land." Major Lorne reported, "It's the science vessel... oh no..."

"What is it?" Colonel Caldwell looked round.

"It's the science vessel Rodney McKay." Lorne groaned, "There's going to be no living with him after this."

There was a moment of silence as the news sank in; several members of the expedition shuddered viably.

"Very well." Caldwell nodded, swallowing hard, "Permission granted. Did they say what they wanted?"

"It appears that Commander Thor has asked them to see if they can upgrade the cities defences and power distribution systems." Lorne explained, "They also said something about Tollan Ion Cannons?"

"I've heard of those." Caldwell smirked, "General O'Neill gets a odd look in his eye every time someone mentions them." He looked round, "And the first person to mention the name of that ship to Dr McKay gets a month in the brig."

"We don't have a brig." Someone called out from the other side of the room.

"then I'll build one." The Daedalus' CO responded.

"We're ready to begin the first upgrades." McKay reported, "The Asgard found a few defects in the outer armour belt, and despite the fact that they're going to install shield generators, they felt it would be best to repair them while they had the chance."

"Sounds, good, but isn't it going to take time to strip it all off, fabricate new parts and bolt them back on?" O'Neill asked, "Time that could be better spent elsewhere?"

"Ah, now this is the really cool part." McKay looked like a kid looking at all the gifts under the tree Christmas morning, "Asgard weapons and transporters work on the same principle: they break everything down to the component atoms. The only difference is that the transporters puts it all back together again. So, extrapolating from this, Sam and I helped them develop a way to use a transporter to remove, repair and replace a damaged component in one go."

"Okay, cool." O'Neill just nodded, letting the technobabble wash over him, "Let's do that."

"You have no idea what he just said, do you?" Zelenka asked from his place at fire-control.

"Not a word." The General admitted, "But this is the first time I've seen him smile since I arrived from Earth. Trust me; I've been through what he experience myself more than once: anything that helps him cope is fine by me." He turned to face the Czech scientist, "So, what kind of honking huge space-guns does this thing have?"

"The main armament seems to be multiple banks of kinetic-energy weapons." Zelenka reported, "Bigger but slower firing then the rail guns on the Daedalus or Odyssey. But they can fire solid or explosive rounds, and with a little work, we might be able to improve their rate of fire."

"Okay, that sounds cool." O'Neill leaned over the console, "What about point-defences?"

"Larger number of smaller, more rapid fire Gauss-cannons." Zelenka handed over a tablet PC, "We should be able to replace them with the same guns that we used against the Wraith when they last attacked Atlantis."

"Good idea, but we don't have nearly enough to make a difference." O'Neill shook his head, "Carry on; I'm going to find out what Carter's up to."

"Okay people, let's keep nice and loose out there." Apollo looked out of cockpit at other Vipers, a collection of the older Mk. II's and the much newer Mk. VII's, "Let's shows them how we do thing."

The training exercise had been his idea: if they were going into battle alongside the Tau'ri, then each side needed to know just what the other's ship's could do. While all of the pilots had watched the gun-camera footage of the battle between the Daedalus and the Wraith Cruiser that had first alerted them to the threats of the wider universe, there was no substitute for the real thing. As such, he'd contacted Atlantis and enquired into the staging of a few basic war-games to get the feel of how the Earth-pilots would react in the middle of a dogfight. O'Neill had agreed, and now the bulk of the Galactica's air-group was facing off against the 32 F-302's that the Daedalus and the Odyssey could carry into battle.

The wedge shaped craft looked a lot like the old-style Cylon raiders that his father and Colonel Tigh had faced off against in the first Human/Cylon war. But there the similarity ended: the F-302 was the most advanced aircraft ever developed by Earth, the first capable of space combat. While it's propulsions systems looked antiquated compared to the Viper's on paper, they had been seen to pull high-velocity turns that should have killed or incapacitated the pilot. All the fighters taking part had been fitted with spotting lasers that would indicate a hit on an opposing or friendly fighter, allowing them to add the real-life concern of a friendly-fire incident into the mix.

Apollo was snapped back to reality when his threat-detector started to go off, indicating that he had been targeted. He looked round, his keen eyes picking up the faint glimmer of light reflected off of the wings of a 302 moment's before it's pilot fired a pair of computer-simulated missiles at him.

"TARGETS; TEN O'CLOCK HIGH!" He called out a warning over the wireless as he put his Viper through a series of sharp turns and dives intended to shake off the two virtual missiles. His scanner confirmed that one had been thrown off the scent, while the other was ridding his tail for all that it was worth.

Cutting his forward acceleration to zero, he span his nimble fighter around until it was pointed back the way he'd came and opened up with both of his wing-mounted cannons. The dummy rounds gave the look and feel of live-ammo, but without the potentiality deadly consequences. His walked the weapons fire across the missiles track, the computers running the war-games confirming that it had been destroyed.

But then the 302 was on him, its twin cannons firing streams of simulated death as it came in off it's port wing. Using his own crafts superior manoeuvrability, Apollo was able to dodge the first attack, and sent a bursts of weapons fire back the other way. The other fighter was just a blur as it passed over head, its pilot already fighting the controls to bring it back round again as fast as they could.

Six made her way to the control room, ignoring the Special Forces guard assigned as her minder. She wanted to learn more about the city, about those that had built it and what had happened to them. Her faith in the Cylon God was as strong as ever, but if even one part of the Sacred Scrolls had been proven correct, then there could be more to be uncovered.

She was unsurprised to see a Brother Cavil in Weir's office, talking with the human diplomat: she could guess his reaction to the news that the Wraith were on their way to the city. He was strange enough, despite his normal cover-story, an atheist, something that Six had never failed to find amusing.

"Greetings." A small voice came from behind her, and Six turned to find herself looking down at a short, grey skinned alien with large, black eyes, "I am Heimdall of the Asgard; I was hoping that you could answer a few questions for me about your Resurrection technology."

It took Six a moment to process what was happening, but the fact that there were several other aliens spaced out around the room, seemingly working alongside the humans, she decided that she was not hallucinating and it would be best to play along.

"I'm afraid that I don't know much about the technical side." She smiled as sweetly as she could, "But I will try to answer as many questions as I can."

Apollo ducked and dived around the ships in the civilian fleet, playing a complex, 3D game of tag with his opponent in the Earth fighter: the rest of the war-game was forgotten as it developed into a personal duel between the two pilots. The Viper had a distinct speed advantage, and it's ability to spin round and fire backwards was more than enough to dissuade any tailgating, but the bigger 302 had a much smaller turning circle and could change direction in two thirds of the time it took its Colonial counterpart.

Thus the contest descended into an unending series of move and counter move: the 302 would get on Apollo's tale, and he would promptly spin round and n fire, forcing the larger fighter to brake off its pursuit. But the moment Apollo used his superior speed to get in behind the 302, it would bank sharply, turning inside the Viper and the dance would start all over again.

Finally, after what felt like hours, the war-game ended with no clear winner; both fighters had taken damage, but not enough to say for certain just who would have come out on top. Apollo brought his Viper up alongside the 302 and looked across at it's pilot; it was impossible to make out just who was at the controls of the other craft, but they gave him a crisp salute that he instinctively returned before pulling away and heading back towards the Daedalus.

"Making friends?" Cavil asked as he walked over to where Six and Heimdall were talking.

"You could say that." The taller Cylon responded with a sly smile, "It appears that the Asgard are interested in acquiring a Resurrection ship, and I think you'll find their offer very interesting..."

"Indeed." Heimdall nodded, "I have spoken to Supreme Commander Thor, and he agrees that in return for one of your Resurrection ships, the Asgard High Council would be willing to offer any and all assistance you need locating and settling a new Homeworld."

"So you see," Six looked at her former college with more than a slight air of smugness, "I still have my uses after all."

To Be Continued...