Empty system designate 'Paris', 3 hours later...
while Cylon and Colonial drives produce a brief flash of light, KF drives announce themselves with a loud emergence wave-that is, loud on the Infrared and EM spectrum with a slight pulse of gravitons.
This agitated the Hybrids aboard the three Basestars waiting in the system greatly, as visual identification came back on the ships that New Circe sent to this summit meeting.
the demon!!
The repairs to SLS Nike had been put on priority after the vote due to information from intelligence work on the captured Cylons. the Zug would have had the raw firepower, but the Liberated Caspar drone had something that terrified the Cylons far more than mere guns in the form of an electronic warfare suite more extensive, guided by an intelligence less restrained, than anything the Cylons had thus far achieved.
Nike's escorts included two more Olympic class carriers, and a sloop-of-war decorated with the image of a leaping killer whale.
both forces deployed combat air patrols immediately. The cylons releasing a large contingent of raiders, the New Circe delegation releasing a mix of fighters and gunboats. The final ship to arrive was a Colonial Battlestar.
Recognition signals and messages were exchanged, and a large asteroid was selected for the actual meeting.
the assembly of the pressurized habitat on the asteroid took only a few minutes, courtesy of the SLDF's combat engineers. The Cylon portion took almost as long, and the pressurized connection room-the conference room, was unarmored and deliberately vulnerable.
When that was completed, the delegations from each side were sent down...
The Paris negotiation.
"Comfy for a summit." John said. Doral nodded, "it's very proper...which leader did they send, do you suppose?"
the pressure lock on the other side of the room opened, and suited figures entered.
"that's..more distrust than I expected." the One in charge noted.
"Last truce station you had, you blew it up." came the muffled response, "Atmo's clear."
she took her helmet off. the first thought that circulated was that the woman who spoke looked like a corpse. Then the others took their helmets off.
"Hello...boomer? is that right? which one of you is in charge here, is it doral, Cavil, or...you must be the doctor." she said. One noted that the other humans here weren't sitting down.
"Who are you?" John asked, "Your accent is...strange."
"I am Commander Nicole Minh, you can think of me as the person you most have to convince of your sincerity, and the only open minded person in this room on either side...I'm your moderator."
"and how did you get that position?" he asked.
"not a party to your war with the Colonials and not a party to your conflict with the SLDF. I'm effectively the closest thing you have to a neutral in five hundred light years. my government is not party to your war, though we are in an agreement with the SLDF dating back nearly three hundred years, we also have grievances against the Star League dating back further. means I'm the one person present you can convince, after that, I would then have to convince them...so go. what is this 'vital information', who are these 'rogue militants', and why are you telling us?"
"what exactly makes you qualified to sit there?" Doral asked, "a mere commander-"
"I'm a ship's captain, in the Kowloon Coast Guard, that means I have authority to negotiate truces and engage in diplomacy, treaties have to be ratified by the Assembly and the Duchess, but I'm allowed to accept terms on a temporary basis when out of contact with my government on their behalf, which in turn, means I'm legally authorized to moderate peace accords, and I've done so before. My position is as representative of my government and they will back my plays until such time as the legislature has had a chance to review those plays."
The four stared at her in fascination, his mind mulling over the medical puzzle of her apparent ailment and lack of impairment.
"And the rest of you agree with this?" Doral demanded, looking first to Lee Adama, and then to Vice president Zarek, and finally at a woman with one star on her collar.
"We agreed...we insisted." the Colonial vice president stated.
"virus Twenty-one-B." John announced, "Ninety nine percent lethality, thirty day asymptomatic contagious period, leaves...leaves scars like yours, Commander Minh. yes, we know about it, but there is a viewpoint that we shouldn't try to acquire or use it, and that view is dominant among the Cylons...so a...minority of our people have decided to strike out on their own to acquire it anyway."
"Where do they think they're going to get it?" Nicole asked.
"Some place called 'Arluna'." John said.
Nicole stiffened. "Do they have coordinates?" she asked.
"Ah, now that's hard to say. Better to say they have a general direction, and a plan." he announced. "We would stop them, but it's not...our problem."
"Yet you're telling us." the woman with the star on her collar noted.
"Well, yes. That's what good neighbors do, right?" Doral suggested. "It took us several months to find a way to contact you, or we would have told you sooner."
"Neighbors..." Nicole said, "So is that 'truce' I'm hearing, and maybe 'communication'?" she folded her hands in front of her, "even...possible armistice?"
"I won't go that far." John said, "We still have serious grievances against the Colonials..and those that aid and shelter them, but this is a problem you need to solve."
"Let's talk about those grievances." Nicole said, "I'm actually really interested in that. You guys pulled a first succession war level attack for a border incident, without trying to talk first. NOW you want to talk, seems like there might be room for discussions."
John stood up, "Maybe another time." he said, "We've told you all we wanted to say."
"Meeting concluded, do you want relay coordinates, or should we just wait for your scouts to blunder into another picket force before we speak again?" Nicole asked sweetly.
John frowned, "We'll be in touch." he said, and led his comrades out the airlock on his side of the room.
Nicole waited, and then stood, "Let's see what Nike picked up." she said.
"He had details we-"
"can it while we're here." Vaun ordered, "let's get out of here before they try and kill us."
Helmets secured, they left the way they entered.
KCGS Nueva Pueblo III
"Encephalic inhibitors active on those centurions...looks like they were actively scanning us."
"yeah, they were." Chloe announced, "Viral code too, trying to break my firewalls."
"you isolated it?" Riverson asked.
"it's been directed to a hardware storage loop." Chloe said, "it doesn't look like they know about me."
"What else?"
"No sixes, no Twos, no Threes, one Eight, the Boomer model. The raiders are...silent. no cross-talk except pings back to the Basestars for positioning data, no requests for information...that's wrong! Raiders are chatter boxes, they talk all the time...or they should."
The Cylon fighters retreated to their basestars as the heavy raider carrying their delegation returned. then they jumped out.
a few minutes later, Captain Minh was back aboard.
"They didn't buy it, did they?" Seether asked.
Nicole sighed heavily, "the Cavil model was cagey, he let Doral do most of the talking, he outright rejected peace talks, but dangled the possibility like a carrot, looking for a bite. I swear it was easier negotiating with the Secretary of State for the New California republic, than even getting these guys to commit to talks...and I think it's a trap we can't afford not to walk into, but it suggests something else, and that's going into my report to Vaun."
"What's that?" Seether asked, as Nicole took her command seat back.
"They're divided, and these cylons want us to do the fighting for them because they're weaker." she said. "it's 'let's you and him fight'...I have no idea if Zarek bought their act or not, but I'm fairly certain the younger Adama didn't, and that suggests maybe their gambit won't pay off with Roslin or Admiral Adama. I'm pretty sure Vaun wasn't impressed either."
