“We can’t keep the kids for very long,” Tomas pointed out. “It’ll look increasingly like a kidnapping.”



“Well it is a kidnapping,” Zarek said. “But they made the translation go a lot faster… That’s why we’ve not had them in any kind of official interview. As long as they’re just making friends and being shown around the Aland, well they’re talking a lot. But you’re right, I think we need to get back in communication, or at least drop them off in a raptor before too many more days.”



Tomas nodded. The kids had been on the ships for three days and they’d managed to convince them that they would soon be returned. Or rather Davan had, the cylon assigning itself to them as an interpreter (benefiting from a direct uplink to more computer power than Tomas wanted to think about) and guide.



“Girl seems to watch more than she talks,” Lee said. “Shy?”



“Maybe, but she can do sarcasm pretty well,” Tomas said. He’d watched the recordings. He wondered if the kids realized that from the moment they’d stepped on board the Aland they were being observed at all times.



“As well as spontaneously combust,” Diane replied. “Both of ‘em in fact. I think we have confirmation that they do not commonly use mixed sex bathrooms.”



“Yeah,” Tomas said. “Well since our resident genius is awaiting us…” he gestured at the hatch as they entered Galactica’s big briefing room.



Wonder if Baltar’s checking for air locks? Baltar had pretty much kept his head down, working and to be honest, doing a pretty good job over the last two plus decades. Tomas had been rather happy about that, since they weren’t exactly over supplied with intelligent people and a Baltar who had managed to extract his head from his ass had become something of an asset. But this would still be the first time in over 25 years since he’d been on the flagship of the Fleet.



And there he was, standing at the front of the room, talking with some other scientists. As the flag officers seated themselves, Baltar walked up to the podium.



“Gentlepersons,” he said, “I want everyone to understand that this is just a very preliminary work. Even with the assistance of the cylons in collating and working on developing translator systems, there are still aspects of the primary language, this "English," especially spoken, that we will only be able to resolve with more experience. I’ll be synopsizing, but please understand that this is a group effort. My fellows think I’m better at public speaking, but without their assistance, I’d be up here saying well, absolutely nothing,” he said, running a hand through his graying hair.



Extracted his head from his ass indeed… Tomas couldn’t remember a single time, pre-fall, when Baltar had been willing to grant anyone any extra credit.





“First of all, this is not the 13th Colony,” Baltar said. “Not at all. It is our progenitor world.”



That caused a stir.



“How can you be certain of this?” Adama asked.



“Slide one, please,” Baltar said.



“What the frak is that?” Tigh muttered. “Someone in costume?”



“Homo Habilis. At least according to our best translation, a precursor species to modern humans that lived millions of years ago and evidently made use of extremely primitive tool making skills. Flaked stones, things like that. Modern humans, as best we can tell, probably date from at least 100,000 years ago.”



“That’s related to us?” Diane asked in shock.



“Why not? We have abundant evidence of evolutionary change in those species native to the Twelve Colonies…” Baltar gestured at the image. “But none of those species imported by the Lords. We always believed they came from somewhere else, were transplanted, first brought to Kobol, then the colonies. Now we know where they came from.”



“Unless the Lords created us from nothing.”



Tomas winced at the anonymous speaker. Granted, they hadn’t had much problem with the religious side of things since the Gemenonese incident about 15 years ago, but things were never good when you started talking religion.



“No reading of the Scrolls has ever supported the idea that the Lords of Kobol could simply create life, Ex Niliho.” He paused, then turned to the Cylon representative. “Of course…”



“God obviously works through natural processes, thus utilizing evolution to develop sentience is not contrary to the majority of our belief systems.”



“This also explains the vast range in languages and development we’ve been picking up,” Baltar continued. “Developing literally from nothing, they well, would have had many opportunities to become culturally distinct. One thought, that such a mixture would lead to understanding is… well they don’t have those missile systems to protect themselves from aliens.”



“Why are they so frakking primitive than?” One officer asked. “If they’ve been here that long they should be able to make the cylons disappear with a glare.”



Baltar’s lips thinned at that, but he didn’t directly answer.



“Tell me, Admiral Markson,” he asked. “Where did we get the zero from?”



“What? We’ve alway-oh, oh.”



“What is it?” Lee asked.



“You need the idea of the zero for a lot of complex calculations. But the idea is kind of counter intuitive, isn’t it? Need a symbol for nothing?” More importantly, if you’re not doing anything unusual, you may not need it. So you have to be at least thinking of the kind of math it might be useful for, and then come up with the idea of the zero.”



“Yes. Fire, septic theory, the scientific method, language…” Baltar gestured at the image of the creature on the screen. “None of that came from stories or fragments recovered from the Lords. They had to learn it all on their own, they had to learn that they needed to learn it all on their own. The Gods alone know how many times they developed a concept and then lost it, because the time wasn’t right yet.”



“And they’re in a system with no other habitable planets,” Tomas muttered. “We’ve never really completely understood the mechanics behind the FTL and gravity systems we recovered. I don’t think they ever could do it, going from scratch… most of the research we did only worked because we could get to deep space, stuck on a planet… nah. And then you have the problem that you’re stuck using chemical drives…”



“And we do have some evidence that the Lords did visit…slide two, please.”



The next image was familiar.



“Athena…” Diane said.



“And Zeus and the others, mostly from a part of the world known as Greece. At the time when it is most likely the Lords arrived, the historic record, at least what we have, appears to be badly fragmented. But there are stories of “Zeus’ Thunderbolts…” and similar effects that might be a primitive people’s vision of advanced technology.*



“Do they still worship the Lords?”



“No,” Baltar said. “At least we’ve been unable to find any evidence that the reverence of the Lords of Kobol is widespread on earth.”



If it was the Lords of KobolTomas had an uncomfortable thought— what if the Lords had merely lifted their identity from already existing believes. Even today, he wouldn’t envy the civilian government having to deal with that particular rabid daggit, no not at all.



“So what do we do?” Zarek asked. “If you’re right, Doctor Baltar, then we may have led the cylons to the doorstep of our ancestors, potentially the ancestors of all humans.”



“We can’t fight,” Tomas said. “Even if we assume they’ve been putting all their effort into finding us, and even given the fact that those crappy little drone fighters are easy as hell to kill, they’ve still thrown 20 basestar strike groups around. If they find this world, they’ll throw a force at it we can’t stop.”



“But they haven’t found it yet…” Zarek said. “First thing, I want a plan to contact them, preferably soon. We have to return the kids, we know enough of their language to talk and we don’t have time. Secondly, if worst comes to worst… Admiral,” he said to Adama, “I want a plan to determine how many members of that world we can grab and put in our fleet. I know they won’t understand and might fight if it happens soon, but at least we can save some of them. Admiral Markson, I want you, Baltar and everyone we have start working on contingency plans for bringing their technology up to a level where they can defend themselves, or at least construct sufficient boxcars and arkships to save their society. How big a coverage can we get with our FTL sensor buoys?”



“A sphere… call it a radius of about 160 light years.” Enough to warn us to run, not enough to give any real time to prepare. But then, the fleet had never needed more time than what it took to pull up temporary mining and resource harvesting centers, and then jump.



“How soon can you have a deeper buffer? Say, 1600 light years.”



Tomas winced. “Mr. Prime Minister, that’s going to demand me diverting a lot of my best people…which is mutually exclusive with your other requests.”



“You’ve done it before,” Adama said. “Don’t tell me you’re getting spoiled in your old age.”



“No sir, I will not tell you how much I’m not looking forward to another series of 18 hour work shifts.”



“First contact is going to be a bear,” Lee muttered. “Two major nations, both of them pointing weapons at the other…”



“We start with this.. United States,” Zarek said. “We have an in. We’re giving their kids back and we can talk to them, sort of. Equally, when we do talk to them, we tell them about the cylons and how frakking around about who gets to sit in the big chair on their world is not going to be a life-extending strategy…and we hope they’re smarter than we were before the first war.”



And depending on that isn’t not worrying, no not at all, Tomas thought. But he had his orders and it was time to carry them out.