Part 1, Battlestar Galactica: Dawn

Chapter 3

III

After the life-or-death battle and jump away from The Colony, the last thing anyone had expected was to end up in a Solar System that had a planet that looked almost exactly like Earth. It was the third planet from the only sun in this system, which had what appeared to be nine or ten planets. After ensuring Galactica wasn't going to disintegrate from under them, they began their reconnaissance of this new world. It didn't take long through electronic tracking to realize that there was life on the third rock from the sun.

When that was established, the Admiral ordered Raptors in for close surveillance of the world. It was a risk, as it quickly became apparent that this planet, whoever occupied it, had objects in orbit, and could probably track an incoming vessel. It was decided that Raptors would jump in, and immediately go dark. That way, they could appear as mere space flotsam. Their job was to collect any audio or visual information to start identifying the inhabitants. They were picking up audio that was crystal clear, even at this distance from the planet. Trying to get clear video from that same spot was proving to be a challenge. Collecting video intel would be the primary mission of the Raptors.

Kara and Lee had been the obvious choice to pilot the first Raptor for a closer inspection. They wouldn't let those they commanded do anything they wouldn't themselves do, so they volunteered for the first assignment. Of course, that meant Helo felt compelled to come along as the man operating the electronic surveillance.

"Galactica, Raptor 84, ready to depart", Lee said in a businesslike tone. "Requesting clearance".

"Raptor 84, Galactica, Commander, you are cleared for departure, turn left course 081 carom 224, jump fifteen seconds after clearing the hangar."

"Roger, Galactica, course 081 carom 224, jump fifteen after clearance of threshold. Raptor 84 out."

The jump went smoothly, and Lee immediately powered down the ship as they came out of the jump. Again, the idea was to look simply like more space junk. From what they could tell when Helo began his passive scans, it seemed to have worked. Nothing approached them. Maybe they didn't have ships in the area, Helo mused.

Lee's instincts turned on. "I'm beginning to think they don't have any ships up here, just satellites. We haven't tracked anything that has left the planet since we got here."

Kara hadn't even considered that. "Damn, you're right. I mean, we track nothing with propulsion up here. Anywhere. Think we could chance turning the bird back on and peek our snout in a little closer?"

Lee shook his head. "No, mission parameters remain. Maybe they can't reach us, but why even find out that if we don't have to. OK, Helo, start the music."

For the next hour or so, Helo let the computers do their work, collecting as much audio and video data from the surface as they could. Orders were to run everything for an hour, check what they had found, then collect for another hour, and then jump back.

The three of them spent the time in idle chatter but also spending a lot of time eyeballing the blue sphere below them.

"This place looks freakishly like Earth, Kara. I mean the continents look different, but it's the same frackin' color and everything. It's almost the same size. Are you sure we aren't dreaming?"

"I hope it's a better 'dream' than we had on that ball of radiation", shuddered Captain Thrace. "I don't exactly have good memories of that place, you know." One wouldn't have good memories about finding their "body", and immolating it, just before leaving that Godsforsaken hell hole.

"Yeah, neither do I", Lee echoed, recalling that shortly after arriving there, his estranged wife Dee had killed herself, for reasons unknown. "That wasn't exactly an experience anyone of us wants to remember. I wish we could do to our brains what we can do to computers, and simply wipe that memory clean away"