Battlestar Galactica 5 - Galactica Discovers Earth Read online

  DOCTOR ZEE: Because technology requires fire, and fire cannot exist without oxygen, and oxygen does not exist anywhere in the Barnard system.

  XAVIAR: I begin to understand. You've discovered neutrino activity.

  DOCTOR ZEE: Correction. There is always a certain amount of neutrino activity anywhere in the Universe. But there is far more than there should be in the vicinity of Barnard's Star, which can lead to only one conclusion: it is being caused by the power output of the Cylon fleet. Hence, it is logical to assume that they are waiting for us to lead them to Earth.

  TROY: But won't our taking up orbit around Earth tend to convince them that we have indeed found what we were looking for?

  DOCTOR ZEE: Yes. This is why I have ordered that the Galactica be taken out of orbit within ten hours and transported to the Centaurus system. Hopefully the Cylons will assume that we observed Earth for a few hours—another Terran term—and decided that this was not the planet we were seeking. From Centaurus we'll move to other stars, all in this broad general vicinity.

  KIP: Why don't we simply enlist Earth's aid?

  DOCTOR ZEE: I'm coming to that. If you will all watch Monitor Ceti closely, you will have your answer. What you are about to see will alarm you. However, I urge you to remain calm, for it is intended only to inform and educate you.

  FROM THE MEMORY BANK OF

  MONITOR CETI:

  Scene 1: A tranquil, sunny day in Paris.

  Scenes 2-5: Similar scenes of.Los Angeles, New York, and London.

  Scene 6: Los Angeles again.

  DOCTOR ZEE (voice-over): You have looked at some of the major cities of Earth. Now on screen is a megalopolis known as Los Angeles, in the United States of America, a nation composed of some fifty principalities.

  DILLON (whispering): What is that strange-looking brown haze blanketing the city?

  TROY (whispering): Must be a defense shield of some kind. Seems very mobile; it must be quite sophisticated.

  DOCTOR ZEE: I'm afraid you are mistaken, Captain Troy, as you shall soon see. What you are observing is a 20th Century city of seven million people going blithely about their daily business.

  TROY: Twentieth Century? I'm not sure I understand, Doctor Zee.

  DOCTOR ZEE: It is a bit confusing, I'll admit. However, you must realize that the Lords of Kobol are not worshipped throughout the Universe. Earth has numerous different religions. Those who believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, who lived some twenty centuries ago, date their calendars from his death. The Jews, to whose sect Jesus belonged during his lifetime, date their calendar back almost six thousand years. There are other sects, some more numerous than the Jews and Christians combined—the Moslems, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and a host of others—many of whom use their own dates. At this moment in Earth's history, the peoples of the northern hemisphere are the most technologically advanced, and so I find it convenient to use their terminology, since they represent the people we will be making contact with.

  DILLON: I've been watching their vehicles . . .

  DOCTOR ZEE: They're called automobiles.

  DILLON: These automobiles sure don't move very fast.

  TROY: On the other hand, they keep a nice neat formation. It must require a lot of practice and discipline. Notice those narrow painted lanes.

  DOCTOR ZEE: Actually, you are watching a congested traffic jam on the Ventura Freeway. These automobiles form the Terrans' primary means of transportation, utilizing a primitive power mode known as an internal combustion engine.

  DILLON: What does it do?

  DOCTOR ZEE: It supplies motive power by burning a fuel known as gasoline, derived from petrochemicals . . . the decomposed matter of things that lived many eons ago in Earth's early history.

  KIP: Seems useful.

  DOCTOR ZEE: Actually, it's very inefficient and wasteful. And of course, the exhaust fumes pollute the atmosphere. That was the brown haze you noticed earlier, Dillon. But now, watch carefully.

  Scene 7: An air raid siren rings out, and the pedestrians scurry about, looking confused.

  Scene 8: Downtown Los Angeles. People flee every direction in a blind panic.

  Scene 9: Cylon fighters' appear overhead and begin strafing runs.

  Scene 10: The streets of Los Angeles are littered with thousands of corpses. The city is in flames.

  Scene 11: New York. The Empire State Building has had its top sixty stories sheared off by Cylon fighters, and the streets have been laid open to the subway level.

  Scene 12: Paris. The Eiffel Tower lays on its side, having crushed some ten thousand people as it fell. Only gaping holes in the ground remain where once the world's greatest art treasures were stored in beautiful museums.

  Scene 13: London. Big Ben has been demolished, London Bridge has collapsed into the Thames, Buckingham Palace is in flames. And, everywhere, are the bodies—scorched, twisted, agonized.

  Scene 14: Over California. The Strategic Air Command has sent up a crack squadron of twelve jet fighters to do battle with the Cylons. One Cylon ship destroys the entire squadron in a matter of seconds. No damage is suffered by the Cylon forces.

  Scene 15: The original fourteen sequences are run backward until everything is as it was.

  TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING HELD IN

  DOCTOR ZEE'S PRIVATE AUDITORIUM (Continued):

  DOCTOR ZEE: No, the Earth has not been destroyed. What you have been watching was only a computer simulation of what could happen if we go ahead with our proposed landing on Earth.

  COMMANDER ADAMA: It is Doctor Zee's contention that Earth is not yet capable of defending herself against our enemies. If we were to land at this point in Earth's history, we would bring death and destruction upon Earth as surely as if we attacked her ourselves.

  XAVIAR: My dear Adama, and Doctor Zee—if we cannot go back because of a Cylon force behind us, and we cannot go forward because it would cause the destruction of the Earth, just what do we do? Simply give up?

  DOCTOR ZEE: Not at all, Xaviar. As we lead the Cylon fleet away from Earth, we will simultaneously be working to bring Earth up to a level of technology whereby they can help us.

  XAVIAR: And you think the Cylons are going to let us dupe them like this?

  DOCTOR ZEE: I never make suppositions, Xaviar. I know the Cylons are going to let us dupe them like this.

  XAVIAR: Even so, how does that bring Earth into our own century of technological development?

  DOCTOR ZEE: I propose that in any case we should only bring her along slowly and unobtrusively, once we have decided who we can trust to help us rather than annihilate us.

  COMMANDER ADAMA: Annihilate us?

  DOCTOR ZEE: Yes. The video signals from Earth make it quite clear that it is an explosive planet whose warring factions could, in certain circumstances, be as dangerous as the enemy behind us.

  COMMANDER ADAMA: Is there no one who can be expected to accept us?

  DOCTOR ZEE: Let us say, rather, that there are precious few. You must understand that Earth is a primitive planet in every sense of the word. Two hundred years ago machines, except for a few that made war more efficiently, were unheard of. They have only had the power of flight—not space flight, mind you, but flight above the surface of their own planet—for three-quarters of a century. There is still strife between nations, between races, between religions. Even such incredibly basic things as the computer, the transistor, nuclear fusion, things such as that, have been known here for less than thirty years. There are many alive on Earth now who were fully grown before the first successful video transmission, known as television, was accomplished. You must at all times remember who and what we are dealing with.

  COMMANDER ADAMA: But surely there must be a few visionaries amongst them?

  DOCTOR ZEE: A few. There is even a field, recently created, in which these men and women tell their visions, couched in fictional form, known as science fiction. There have been some phenomenal minds at work here, writers named Wells and Verne and Heinlein and Asimov
and Stapledon and Bradbury and Clarke, and to some extent they have paved the way for people to cast off their old perceptions of the Universe and to accept new ideas; but you must further understand that for every person whose mind is made more open by this form of literature, there are fifty who view it as mere entertainment and five thousand who have never read it. There have been very successful films—images preserved on celluloid and projected by light diffusion—on the likelihood of life on worlds other than the Earth, but the immense majority of the populace does not believe in this and is not ready to accept it.

  XAVIAR: Are you not overreacting just a bit in this area, Doctor Zee? After all, once we land they will have no choice but to acknowledge the truth of our existence.

  DOCTOR ZEE: Not true, Xaviar. Whatever country we make our presence known in will immediately assume we represent a nation with whom they are at war. They will clutch at fifty more comfortable explanations before they finally force themselves to face the truth, and by then we will have been killed, or will have been forced to kill them. Imagine a warrior without the precise ethical sense we drill into him, and you have a typical Earth inhabitant—or a typical Earth government, for that matter.

  COMMANDER ADAMA: Then how do you propose that we enlist Earth's help?

  DOCTOR ZEE: We will send down teams who will work without revealing themselves to the general population. In the beginning we will approach only certain members of Earth's scientific community, key men whom I have targeted as being in a position to accept us and our knowledge.

  TROY: I thought you said that none of them would do that.

  DOCTOR ZEE: And so I did. But these men will be in a unique position to evaluate certain information that no Terran could possibly give them, and will be forced, reluctantly but inevitably, to accept the truth. Each of the men I have chosen is relatively free of political ambition, and truly desires peace. Each, once he accepts it, will use our technology wisely. Are there any questions? Xaviar, you look dubious still. Have you any comment? No? Then this meeting is concluded. Landing parties will depart immediately.

  CRUMPLED NOTE PAPER FOUND

  IN XAVIAR'S QUARTERS:

  Fools!

  Fools!

  FOOLS!

  FROM THE ADAMA JOURNALS:

  Once again I must send men I cherish off into the unknown, in the service of the Galactica. I look at Troy, and I can see nothing but Apollo. They are much alike: the open face, the ready smile, the total confidence that never quite crosses the border to bravado or foolishness. And yet Apollo looked just that way—open, smiling, confident—just before he left on the mission from which he never returned. May the Lords of Kobol watch over my grandson. So hopes his commander; so prays his grandfather.

  INTRASHIP REPORT:

  When Doctor Zee had assembled the landing teams in the fighter bay, he waited a moment until he had their attention, and then spoke.

  "Unhappily," he began, seeming as always to almost glow with cerebral power as he spoke, "I have not had time to prepare you for all you shall find on Earth. We have endeavored to equip you and your languatron with as much of Earth's slang and terminology and as many of its customs as we could perceive from monitoring their broadcasts. However, there will be gaps in your knowledge which may very well expose you to danger. My advice is to remember that all things in the Universe are ultimately logical, and that it should be much easier for you to disguise yourselves as semi-barbarians than it would be for them to disguise themselves as civilized men.

  "To aid you in your endeavor, I place in your keeping my latest innovation. As you all know, each color and sound has its own wavelength and frequency. Some of these are completely beyond the perception of the human eye and ear: colors beyond the infrared band, to use just one example.

  "By generating a color combination in a frequency above the perception of Earth's conventional electronic equipment, and totally beyond the capabilities of the human eye, we can render equipment and personnel virtually invisible."

  Doctor Zee took a device from the table before him.

  "Watch closely," he instructed them, and pushed a button on the device.

  The nearest Viper began to glow. It grew brighter and brighter, and then, suddenly, it vanished.

  "Where did it go?" asked Lietuenant Dillon.

  "Nowhere," smiled Doctor Zee. "The ship hasn't moved one iota. But, because I have encompassed it in a color field far beyond the frequency of the human eye, it can no longer be seen. To put it in simpler terms, an object that appears red is actually every visible color except red; red is the one color it reflects rather than absorbs, and hence red is what you see when you look at it. My device, to oversimplify, absorbs all colors into its high frequency field. You still look doubtful, Lieutenant Dillon; why not toss a cubit at the space where the ship was?"

  Dillon did so, and was not surprised to see it apparently bounce off empty air.

  "Unfortunately," continued Doctor Zee, "the energy necessary to generate such an aura around a Viper, or even around a single human form, is too great to sustain for any lengthy period of time. Hence, this device must only be used when absolutely necessary."

  "Hiding from the people we've come to help," muttered Dillon.

  "Are you sure," asked Troy, "that we can afford the time it will take to infiltrate Earth?"

  "The cold hard truth is that there is no central government on Earth," said Doctor Zee. "There is no single leader with whom we can negotiate."

  "If you say so then it must be true, Doctor Zee," said Troy, puzzled. "But I don't understand how they get together for their common good."

  "The answer to that is quite simple," said Doctor Zee with a sad little smile playing about his perfect lips. "They don't."

  Troy's jaw fell open.

  "Each of you," announced Adama, "has a teammate, and each team has been programmed to go to scattered areas on Earth. Your entry patterns will bring you into Earth's atmosphere in unpopulated zones, and your navigational computrons will guide you over the safest possible routes toward population centers." He paused and looked at them, his keen eyes appraising the cream of the Galactica's young warriors. "Each of you will ultimately encounter the people of Earth. You have been briefed on how to conduct yourselves. May the Lords of Kobol watch over you."

  TRANSMISSION FROM FLIGHT DECK:

  TROY: Well, what do you think, Dillon?

  DILLON: Piece of cake, to borrow a quote from an Earth transmission.

  VOICE OF DOCTOR ZEE: May I remind you, Lieutenant Dillon, that even the best-planned cakes have been known to fall?

  KIP: I wonder what a cake is, anyway?

  2

  UFO SIGHTED OVER

  LOS ANGELES!

  (UPI) Police, Air Force and newspaper phones were ringing off the hook this afternoon as more than two thousand callers tried to report seeing two Unidentified Flying Objects over the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.

  Three different Air Force public relations officers have identified the objects as swamp gas, a low-flying commercial airliner, and meteorites.

  This is the largest mass sighting since that which occurred over a South African army base some 22 years ago.

  General Tucker Wilson, head of the Strategic Air Command, could not be reached for comment. His aide, Colonel Henry Beckworth Davies, denied any knowledge of either the reports or the UFOs themselves.

  3

  RECONSTRUCTED FROM

  DILLON'S DEBRIEFING SESSION:

  They were in trouble immediately.

  No sooner had they entered the atmosphere over New Mexico than the S.A.C. base at Albuquerque picked them up on radar and sent two jet fighters after them. They tried out-maneuvering the fighters at Earth speeds, found that they couldn't escape, and finally had to go to their turbo boosters. The gambit worked, and they were soon thousands of miles away, but they had revealed far more about their capabilities than they wanted to.

  They found themselves over the Atlantic, shot up into the stratosp
here, and orbited the planet, coming down in power dives once they were over Los Angeles. They were spotted by literally thousands of civilians, but they landed so quickly that the military couldn't get a fix on them.

  They found themselves in an empty field just before the Mojave Desert began in earnest. Troy got out of his ship, opened the cargo hold, and withdrew a two-wheeled vehicle that looked similar to the motorcycles that had been observed on Earth's video transmissions.

  Dillon followed suit, and, pausing only long enough to flip a small switch that activated Doctor Zee's invisibility field, they mounted their bikes and were soon heading in the direction of downtown Los Angeles.

  "I just hope no one comes galloping across that field and bumps into the Vipers," remarked Dillon as they turned onto a major highway.

  "Don't worry about it," said Troy. "Earth people seem to congregate in cities. Those ships could sit there for years before anyone comes within a mile of them. We've got a more immediate problem on our hands."

  "What?"

  "There are about twenty ragged-looking men on motorbikes behind us."

  "I don't see the problem," said Dillon.

  "The automobile drivers haven't paid us much attention," explained Troy, "but bike riders might be able to spot significant differences between our vehicles and their own."

  "What do you suggest?" said Dillon.

  "No sense flying, or going at full speed," said Troy. "We've made enough dumb mistakes today. I suppose we'll just have to pretend that we belong here, and do our best to ignore them."

  Which was easier said than done.

  Donzo Gates was spoiling for a fight. He'd joined the Hell's Angels to see a little action, and except for a couple of gang wars things had been pretty quiet this month. Also, his old lady had been making eyes at Lizard Charlie all week, and he needed to do a little something to elevate himself in her eyes. Not that a guy who weighed some three hundred fifty pounds, all of it muscle and beard, should continually have to prove his merit, but that was the way the Angels worked. You not only had to claw and knife and gouge your way to the top, but you had to fight to stay there.