Out of Control

I've had this sitting around for a couple of months now trying to pluck up the nerve to post it. :-)

Thanks to Drew Thiele for reading it and his suggestions.

Feedback to ers24@hermes.cam.ac.uk. Thanks.

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Notes and Disclaimers

This story is a crossover between the universes of the New Series (1990's) "Tomorrow People" and the original series "Battlestar Galactica" television series. Yes, I know that's probably not a popular concept but it needed doing.

Battlestar Galactica was created by Glen Larson and the Tomorrow People by Roger Price. I think the rights to the Tomorrow People lies with Peirson Television, I'm not sure anybody knows what's going on with the rights to Galactica at the moment. Both sets of characters are used without permission and this acknowledgement must be kept with the story. I've also added a few characters of my own as will become apparent.

The story is set perhaps 18 months to 2 years after the serial 'The Living Stones' in the Tomorrow People universe.

The story is set nearly twenty years after the end of the Battlestar Galactica TV series with 'Hand of God' and ignores later attempted to continue the BG continuity (e.g. Galactica 1980, novels or comics). I think most of what a beginner needs to know about Galactica becomes rapidly apparent (at least I hope so) but the series own narration is helpful:

"There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man, who even now, fight to survive, somewhere beyond the heavens"

"Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, the last Battlestar, Galactica, leads a ragtag, fugitive fleet, on a lonely quest -- for a shining planet known as ... Earth."

PART ONE

The sudden jump into lightspeed took them completely by surprise. Short circuited computer panels blew up around them as Castor and Pheobus tried to wrestle the shuttlecraft back under control.

"Cut us out of lightspeed!" Castor shouted, sparing a hand to brush his shoulder length hair out of his eyes. His brother gave him an angry look.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Both pairs of eyes turned back to the tumbling, distorted starscape in front of them. The seconds turned into long minutes and then Castor dived below the console and came back up with a handful of computer chips. Deprived of even spurious commands, the shuttle fell from faster than light and Pheobus wrenched the controls from side to side in a struggle to prevent the warped forces tearing their little ship apart. Eventually he relaxed.

"What in Kobol's name happened?" Castor asked, falling into his seat and starting to route the shuttle's systems around the damage he'd caused.

"Malfunction? Who knows?" Pheobus sounded distracted as he worked at the navigational position. Castor shuddered, if the two young men hadn't been exceptional pilots they would never have survived that flat spin through lightspeed. "Cas, snap out of it! We have other problems." Pheobus spun to face him and Castor was alarmed to see fear in the eyes of his normally calm brother. "Do you have the least idea where Galactica is from here?"

****

The sleek grey form of the Battlestar Galactica led her rag-tag fleet through the depths of space. Survivors of a massacre too dreadful to imagine, the pleasure cruisers and agro-ships turned refugee had been bound together into a tight knit community under the stern but fair guidance of the Galactica's Commander Adama, last of the Council of Twelve.

At this point the young men would have been glad to see even that august figure.

"He'll kill us." Castor groaned.

"Grandfather will understand." Pheobus disagreed. "We can hardly be held responsible for an engine malfunction."

"Um. Reminder here, Pheob: We weren't meant to even _be_ in a shuttle. It's not as if we actually asked permission for a trip to the 'Senator.'

Pheobus squirmed uncomfortably. The trip to find their grandfather a birthday present had seemed like such a good idea at the time. If they'd asked Uncle Apollo for permission, the commander would have found out. Pheobus suddenly wondered if what Boxey and Uncle Apollo told them constantly about the irresponsibility they'd inherited from their father could be true.

Castor thumped the navigation console with frustration as he finally looked up. He'd been working fruitlessly for hours.

"Nothing! The way we were tumbled about in lightspeed we could be anywhere and the engines were in overdrive the whole way. We've been drifting for hours. There's not a sign of the fleet."

"To be honest, I'd be worried if there was, Cas." Pheobus had sat back in his chair in resignation. He rubbed at his aching head. "If we could find the Galactica just like that so could the Cylons."

There was a moment of worried silence. The Cylons had come close to wiping out the Galactican Fleet too often before. Only the unending bravery of men like Uncle Apollo, their father and latterly their cousin Boxey, kept the fleet in one piece.

"Cylons." Pheobus repeated. "They're all over this region."

Inevitably, on cue, the sensors chimed. Castor was suddenly all business.

"Cylon scout ships. Three of them. Closing fast."

Pheobus had swung back into the pilot's chair. Instinctively his grey eyes flicked to where the weapons display would be in his viper.

"This thing isn't armed, Castor." He shouted even as he tried to coax the little ship away at an angle to the attacker's path. Castor was in the copilot's chair, helping Pheobus to control the erratically moving ship and trying to urge more speed from the vessel by will-power alone.

"We don't have lightspeed. We can't outrun them." Castor's eyes darted from side to side, looking for a way out. Their father had never let the odds beat him and the boys were meant to have inherited his luck. Well, it seemed to have run out.

Castor released the controls and pulled out the package that had been securely wedged under the seat. It was their grandfather's birthday present, a glass engraving taken from the latest picture of Adama and his descendants. Castor stared at the package as though gazing straight through the wrappings. He was too scared to think, to do anything but imagine the Cylons scout ships bearing down on them. They were too young to die.

Castor felt strange thoughts firing in his mind, strange connections being made as his life hung in the balance. He felt hands close over his on the present, on their family, and looked up into Pheobus's eyes. They seemed to glow and Castor wondered if these strange feelings were there in his brother's head too. Then he heard Pheobus's thoughts in his own and knew.

[Together.] Pheobus told him

[Together.] Castor agreed.

*****

Adam Newman sat on the beach of his island home and smiled as he listened to his friends bicker. Jade, Kevin and Megabyte seemed to have a talent for winding one another up and Adam had heard hundreds of light-hearted, and not so light-hearted, arguments like this since the day Kevin had turned up on the island with a sleeping bag. The boy had never properly explained what had made him leave his family and technically, Adam guessed, he was a runaway. On the other hand, no one ever seemed to have reported him missing and the Tomorrow People weren't about to turn him in. He was one of their own and they were a family too.

Between them, they'd worked to clear the sand and debris of millennia from most of the spaceship and now Adam and Kevin had a room each with others assigned to the rest of the Tomorrow People. They'd cleared more of the ship than they actually needed and had reason to be thankful for that when first Phillipe and then Stephanie broke out within a month of one another.

The newest Tomorrow People both startled them and made them feel guilty for being startled. Adam knew that he and his friends were the next stage of human evolution, the future of the entire human race, he'd just never considered what would happen if someone broke out who didn't speak English.

They were fortunate that Phillipe had broken out first. The Frenchman was only a year or so younger then Adam - old for a breakout - and while French was his first language, his English was still excellent. Stephanie, on the other hand, was just eight years old, younger than they had believed it was possible to break out. The little Swiss girl had almost drowned before they managed to get her ashore, and had been too terrified to listen to telepathic reassurance. Only Phillipe was able to hold her, murmuring gently in French until she'd calmed down enough to hear their thoughts.

After that, the Tomorrow People had started a determined campaign to learn the widest variety of languages possible. They were going to be ready for whoever came next. Fortunately, the skill seemed to be a natural one for them and already Ami had decided to train for a career as an interpreter.

Ami. Adam reached out a little and felt his friend's distant irritation. He smiled. Every week Ami went shopping with her mother and every week she came back exhausted or furious but she wouldn't have missed it for the world.

"Adam?" Philippe's soft French accent was a pleasant contrast to the rather strident voices of the younger Tomorrow People.

"Good morning, Phillipe."

"Morning for you, evening back in Europe."

"True. Ami's making the most of the late-night shopping." Adam moved on before the other man could question his grin. "How's Stephie?"

"Asleep. Her parents let me read her a good-night story." Phillipe had to raise his voice on the last few words. He nodded his head towards the ship's open hatches. "Why are they always arguing when I arrive?"

"It's not so much an argument as a debate." Megabyte volunteered as he clambered out of the ship for a breath of fresh air.

"It is too an argument!" Jade snapped as she followed him, red-faced. He turned round to reply but Adam sent them both a gently reproving thought.

"Is it really that important?" He asked quietly. Jade shrugged guiltily. Megabyte sighed.

"I guess not." The red haired young man agreed. Megabyte was growing up these days, sometimes joking with the younger children, often becoming more serious.

"Come on, Jade," he said. "Let's go make peace with Kev, shall we?"

Phillipe and Adam exchanged smiles. They both remembered being that kind of age. Then the smile faded.

*****

They all felt it; the pressure, the distant, distant fear. Through Kevin's eyes they all saw the ship's walls pulsing with light. In their minds they all felt the ship's beacon pulsing in time with it. The beacon was growing in strength, pulling at them with all its power.

Adam was forced to concentrate as he hadn't since the first day he teleported to get around the beacon and into the ship. He felt Ami and Phillipe do the same. Stephanie landed in the water before she adjusted and appeared on the ship, dripping but defiant. No one was about to tease her, the older TP's were already in mind-meld lending the ship their strength.

[(Distant terror. Strange, unreal images. Massive fear of an inevitable death.)]

Stephanie held her hands up to the glowing point between Adam and Phillipe and they parted, both physically and mentally, to let her in. The extra power was enough, just. The sense of teleportation cracked through the meld like a concussion and Adam saw everyone sway. Stephanie folded up like a rag doll.

They felt rather than heard the splashes. Summoning the last of his energy, Adam teleported into the churning water and then back to the ship taking their new guests with him.

He was on his knees, gasping for air as water pooled on the floor around him. Megabyte squatted down by him, tired but concerned.

"You alright, Adam?"

Adam nodded, still trying to catch his breath.

"Stephie?" Adam asked. Phillipe was leaning over the little girl and he glanced up.

"Just exhausted, I think. She'll be alright with some sleep." Adam sighed with relief. Phillipe was training to be a doctor so his best guess was probably good. The tall Frenchman carried Stephanie off in the direction of her cabin and Jade followed wearily.

"I'll get some dry clothes on her and tuck her into bed." The elder girl promised. Nodding, Adam glanced round to make sure that despite their pale faces and exhausted thoughts his other friends were okay.

Then, finally, he turned to study the new arrivals. The two young men were sitting on the deck of the starship with the look of bewilderment, terror and wonder common to all new breakouts. There was more terror though than Adam was comfortable with. The two men - 'Castor' and 'Pheobus' some hidden part of his mind supplied - were perhaps eighteen years old and close enough in age and appearance to be twins, both were blond, handsome, and dressed in the kind of metallic jump-suit that might be either a uniform or a peculiar fashion statement.

One of the young men laid a hand on his brother's arm, trying to reassure despite his own obvious fear and confusion. Between them they clutched some kind of parcel as if it were their only connection to reality. Adam remembered the power it had taken to pull them in and suddenly knew that this was going to be a very long day. Wherever these two came from, they were a very long way from home.

*****

Colonel Apollo, second in command of the Galactican Fleet, looked up from his cards and gave Starbuck an appraising look. He didn't know why he still let his friend and wingmate talk him into these games. In over twenty years of games, Apollo could still remember almost every time he'd won a match. Starbuck was famous for the same luck at the gaming table that he'd had in the cockpit of his viper over the years. Apollo valued that luck. It had kept him and the rest of the fleet alive more than once, just as Apollo's own expert flying had pulled Starbuck out of more than one scrape.

"I'll see you." Apollo decided, throwing his tokens onto the heap.

"Read it and weep." Starbuck crowed, throwing a half-pyramid onto the table and scooping up the tokens as if they were the gold credits he used to play for. Apollo smiled and sat back.

"Wont you ever grow up?" Apollo was very aware of the silver that was spun through his dark hair. In Starbuck's dark blond the grey was less apparent but it was there and both men knew that living to see it was more than they could have expected.

"What me?" Starbuck waved a hand dismissively through the air. "Nah."

They were in Apollo's quarters on the Galactica, enjoying the game. It was a quiet location. Too quiet really for drinking or gambling but if they'd met in Starbuck's quarters they would have been subject to interruptions from any of his four children and the pilot's ready room just made them feel old these days. These were heroes of the Galactican Fleet and another word for 'hero' in any language is 'lonely.'

"Apollo?" Starbuck sensed his friend's suddenly pensive mood.

"It's nothing." Apollo told him, forcing a smile. "I was just thinking that we've not had much time to chat lately."

"I'll tell you about my administrative nightmares if you tell me yours." Starbuck offered wryly. "We've turned into desk jockeys, Apollo. How did we miss that happening?"

"We still fly patrol when we've got time."

"Exactly." Starbuck's tone was completely serious now and Apollo regretted putting him in this mood.

"Starbuck, we're still working to keep the Galactica going, to get the Fleet to Earth. We're all that's left, Starbuck. There's a generation now that never saw the Twelve Colonies, but we remember them. It's up to us to see that that legacy isn't lost, to see that we find the Thirteenth Tribe and Earth."

"I know, _I know_, Apollo! I don't need the lecture, okay? I was just thinking about how things have changed, that's all."

"Father?" Boxey entered the apartment with a hesitant look on his face. Strange, Apollo thought his ears still ringing with Starbuck's talk about change, that he'd barely realised that his son was almost thirty years old now. Boxey had become to the new generation of viper pilots pretty much what Apollo had been to his. A fighter ace and exceptional flyer, Boxey had earned now the Warrior's star that Apollo had lent him when he was just nine years old.

Boxey lived in the pilot's barracks but even now he was welcome here, in the suite of rooms where he'd grown up. His hesitation at the door was uncharacteristic and so was the frown on his smooth face. Starbuck exchanged a glance with Apollo, their angry words forgotten. When Boxey saw the other man, however, he looked both troubled and relieved. Apollo didn't need to tell Starbuck to let him handle this. They'd worked together too long for that.

"Boxey! It's good to see you." Starbuck greeted him simply. Apollo was the one who asked the question.

"Is something wrong?"

The younger man nodded once, reluctantly.

"I'm worried about the twins."

Starbuck groaned.

"What have my boys been up to now?"

Apollo just frowned. He knew that his son spent a lot of time and effort covering up after Starbuck's elder children. If Boxey was raising this matter rather than trying to conceal it, it could be serious. Boxey's sombre tone confirmed that.

"I don't know, that's the problem. Devon, their shuttle supervisor, says they didn't report for their assigned duties this afternoon and I've been trying to find them ever since. I don't think anyone's seen Castor or Pheobus since yesterday."

*****

Now Starbuck was leaning forward, angry but not yet really concerned.

"You've asked both their mothers?"

"Cassie thought Castor stayed with Athena. Athena thought they were both at Cassie's."

"Now I know for a fact that Aura slept at her mother's quarters but ate breakfast with Zack at Cassie's." Starbuck protested. "Didn't they compare notes?"

Apollo still had to resist a smile as they discussed Starbuck's family, even with the alarm bells ringing in his head. The month, nineteen years ago, when both his sister and their friend Cassiopeia had declared they were pregnant with Starbuck's child had been ... interesting. The problem was that Starbuck was genuinely in love with both women and, despite their cat fighting since the fall of the Twelve Colonies, they had to accept that. Apollo and his father, Adama, had kept well clear of the argument. Apollo had no intention of being caught between his sister and a man he considered as close as a brother. Adama too had begun to look on Starbuck with an almost paternal concern and not just because of his romance with Athena. The only thing that everyone had agreed on was that the children shouldn't suffer for their father's irresponsibility. In the end, Adama had declared that he would consider both of Starbuck's children his grandchildren and that of course made them cousins to Apollo's adopted son Boxey and later to his daughter, Serena. Starbuck and Cassiopeia were adopted into the family.

The boys, when they were born both resembled their father strongly enough that they soon became known as 'the twins,' a move tat seemed even more natural when Cassie had named her son after one of the Patrons of her homeworld Gemini. Quite how Athena and Cassie felt about the fact that neither of them had Starbuck to themselves, Apollo had never really figured out and knew better than to ask. They seemed to have become resigned to it. No one was really surprised when Starbuck and Cassiopeia had a second child Zack four years after the boys and only a few eyebrows were raised when Athena's second child Aura joined the extended family four years after that.

They were a family and that was all that mattered. It did sometimes make keeping track of the children difficult though.

"The kids thought that Cas and Pheob might have slept at your place last night." Boxey answered Starbuck's question. "But they did know what the twins were up to yesterday afternoon."

"I get the feeling we're not going to like this." Apollo observed quietly.

"They planned to fly a shuttle out to the 'Senator' to get Grandfather a birthday present."

"Of all the irresponsible.... Couldn't they have just got a scheduled shuttle?"

"There are none going in that direction for the next week." Apollo told his friend distractedly. "Boxey, have you checked the shuttle?"

"You know the twins, Father. They'll have authorised the trip using my name. If I start querying my own shuttle authorisations I'm really going to let the cat out of the bag. I'd still rather not to many people found out about this."

Starbuck and Apollo understood but this had got serious. Castor and Pheobus were old enough now to know that certain procedures were there for a reason, and that certain rules just shouldn't be breached. They were pilots, but even pilots had to follow rules.

"When I get my hands on them...." Apollo snapped angrily. He reached over his desk and hit the communications button. "Bridge, this is Apollo."

"Bridge. How may we help you, Colonel?" The ever calm voice of Control answered immediately.

"I'd like a record of all shuttlecraft activity around Galactica in the last two days."

"Transferring that information to your terminal now, sir." The officer on duty reported. Apollo thanked him curtly and broke the link. Starbuck and Boxey both craned forward to see as Apollo studied the log on launches and landings from the Battlestar Galactica's huge flight decks. Apollo scowled but spoke in a quiet, calm voice.

"They launched a shuttle alright. Authorisation: Captain Boxey. Destination: 'The Senator.' Duration of trip: unspecified."

"So when did they get back?" Boxey asked, apprehensive.

"They haven't." Apollo told him. Quickly, he asked the bridge for a scrambled comlink to the 'Senator.' They waited in tense silence.

"I'm sorry, Colonel, that shuttlecraft left the 'Senator' just a couple of hours after they arrived. I understood that it was nothing more than a courier trip. Are you sure that their return wasn't just unlogged?" All three men were sure of that. The twins might have all the common sense of a daggit but they would no more try to land on the Galactica unannounced than launch a shuttle without clearance from Core Control. Starbuck leaned into the microphone, his agitation only now beginning to show.

"Are you sure the shuttle left on time? And that it's pilots were the same as the ones who arrived? Didn't you track them?"

"Only out of our local space. And I've confirmed already that the pilots were the same. Is there a problem Galactica?" Apollo put a restraining hand on his friends arm.

"Only a minor one I'm sure." He told the 'Senator' and cut the comchannel.

"Apollo! They could have run into trouble over there. They could be being held prisoner or anything!"

"Twenty years ago perhaps, but now? And on the 'Senator?' It's one of the safest, best run, ships in the fleet. If they say the shuttle left with the twins aboard, then it left, Starbuck." Boxey nodded his agreement, although Apollo could see his fists clenching and unclenching in an unconscious desire for action.

"We need to find out what happened to them between there and here."

*****

It was the work of a few minutes and another request to the now curious bridge to track down the Galactica's sensor record of the fleet for the time the 'Senator' had suggested. Sure enough the Galactican shuttlecraft had left 'Senator' en route to it's mother ship. What no one noticed at the time was the moment when the tiny, insignificant, ship had bucked suddenly and dived into lightspeed without signal or warning.

Apollo watched it and opened a comchannel to the flight deck before his friend or son could speak.

"Flight deck? This is Apollo. Prepare my viper, and Captain Boxey's, for immediate launch."

"Now just you hold on! If you think I'm staying here...."

"Don't argue, Starbuck." Apollo's voice was flat and unencouraging. "I need you here to cover for us." His voice softened. "And failing that, I need you here to explain. To Athena, Cassie and the kids."

Starbuck hesitated. He had matured a lot in the years since the Twelve Colonies died but something inside him still itched for action. He surpressed it and nodded slowly.

"Bring them home, Apollo."

His friend looked into his eyes and nodded once before leading Boxey from the room.

PART TWO

Adam smiled at Castor and Pheobus.

"Hello. You're safe. You're like us." They looked back at him with blank incomprehension and Megabyte groaned.

"They don't speak English, do they?"

Adam tried to brush their minds gently, projecting feelings and meanings rather than words.

[(You're safe. You're among friends. Try to reach out. Try to link your minds with mine.)]

The young men started and then exchanged frantic looks with one another. Adam could feel them talking telepathically to one another and could see that they didn't even realise they weren't speaking aloud. Phillipe, returning form Stephie's room, tried a few words of French on them and then Ami tried cycling through all the languages she knew. When Castor did speak it wasn't with any language they recognised.

"{Where are we? Can you get us back to the Galactica?}"

"{They don't understand a word, Cas.}" Pheobus also spoke aloud. "{But I feel safe here. Don't ask me why.}"

[Castor, Pheobus.] Adam tried again.

{Adam's trying to communicate.} Pheobus observed. Castor gave him a strange look.

"{How do you know? And how do you know his name?}" Pheobus turned pale

[I know all their names!] He projected the thought and this time the Tomorrow People could all hear the meaning. Adam concentrated.

[(Don't panic!)] He projected. [(This is perfectly natural. You're safe.)]

[Where are we?] Castor projected, afraid.

[This is the ship] Kevin broadcast images of space, of the ship keeping lonely vigil through the millennia, the Tomorrow People returning and a sense of belonging. None of them were ready for the overlapping images that Castor and Pheobus broadcast in return.

[( Cylon scout ships closing on the shuttle, the red lights of their visors pulsing ominously. Years, decades, _centuries_ of space battles, Colonial vipers and Cylons locked in combat. The Galactican fleet, grey ships against a midnight sky. Old ships and new, a rag-tag fleet for a broken people. And looming over them all the Battlestar Galactica herself. Huge, majestic, unmistakably a warship, but home to these people and so many others.)]

"{Battlestar Galactica.}" Castor spoke the name slowly and carefully. Whatever strange ship they'd ended up on, whatever peculiar corner of the Twelve Colonies these strange people had originated from, everyone in the fleet would know the name of the last Battlestar. He wasn't ready for the blank looks he received.

The Tomorrow People had broken mental contact after that flood of images. All of them were still sprawled in chairs or on bulkheads around the ship's control room. Ami put a hand to her aching head.

"All right, is anyone else now seriously freaked out?"

"Did anyone else just see a very bad sci-fi show?" Megabyte asked, struggling for humour.

"They believe it." It was all that Kevin said and he left open the question of whether Castor and Pheobus were mad or whether their world was.

"It was such a struggle to pull them onto the beacon." Adam whispered softly. "Could this be true?"

"You're asking us?" Megabyte spoke wryly. "Face it, Adam, we sound like science fiction ourselves sometimes. Ami, what language are they speaking? I've never heard anything like it."

"Megabyte, I haven't got the faintest idea." Ami told him anxiously, she turned to Adam. "I thought I had a handle on most of the big language groups, Adam, but I've never heard anything like this. It's miles away from anything I've heard. They look like they should speak some Indo-European language or other but they don't!"

"Castor and Pheobus are names from Greek mythology." Phillipe observed. "Adam, surely you don't think all that about a spacefleet is true? Why would they have Greek names?"

[Um, guys. I think all this talk is making the twins nervous.] Megabyte volunteered. Castor and Pheobus had been muttering between themselves but now Pheobus stepped forwards with a strident demand.

"{We insist that you return us to the Galactica at once! What ship are we on?}"

[Did anyone get any of the meaning behind that?]

[Only that they're confused, Adam,] Kevin volunteered, [And want to go home.]

[I think we could probably have guessed that.] Adam was projecting reassurance once again. [This is impossible.]

[The ship, Adam.] Jade sent the thought patiently from where she was sitting with the sleeping Stephanie. [Can the ship help?]

****

Pheobus watched the strange teenagers talk in their incomprehensible language and wondered. Castor was scared and getting angry to cover his fear but Pheobus had moved beyond that now. He couldn't explain how they'd got away from the Cylon attack. He couldn't explain how they'd ended up back among humans. He _really_ couldn't explain why he could suddenly hear what Castor was thinking or feel the lightning fast, shielded thoughts of the people around them. He was starting to wonder if this wasn't some forgotten corner of the fleet after all. If this was somewhere else entirely.

"We insist you contact the Galactica!" Castor was repeating.

[Cas.] Pheobus stopped him with a thought. [You _can_ hear me when I speak like this, can't you?]

Castor turned to face him wide eyed.

[I can hear you. I thought I was going mad, but I can hear you. And I can hear them too.] He waved a hand at the others. [What's happened to us?]

[I really don't know. I don't think they do either, but I think they want to help.] Adam had laid a hand on what appeared to be some kind of control panel and appeared to be listening intently. He turned to the others and spoke that peculiar language.

"{I'm not sure but I think it's telling us to mind meld. I think it can do something.}"

"{Well, if you say so, Adam.}" That was the tall red-haired boy, Megabyte. "{You've always got more out of this hunk of junk than the rest of us.}"

The other Tomorrow People got to their feet. They looked tired, Pheobus noted, as drained as he and Cas felt. Adam, Pheobus was sure now he was the leader of this group, beckoned to the Galacticans to join them as they made a loose circle about the Ship's central pillar. Castor looked at his brother and shrugged before joining them. Pheobus followed.

[{We're all tired for this, Adam}] Phillipe thought. Pheobus guessed it was some kind or warning but Adam seemed to shrug it off.

[{The ship wouldn't ask us to do this if it wasn't important.}]

The youths held up their hands to one another and Cas and Pheobus imitated the gesture. They weren't prepared for the sudden glow between their hands but before they could pull back they were drawn into a rush of emotions and images too fast to make out.

[(It's alright)] Someone, impossible to tell who, projected the feelings before they were washed away.

[(Who _are_ you?)] That was Castor, projecting strongly.

[(We are the Tomorrow People. You are one of us.)]

[(An image of Galactica)]

[{Science fiction.}]

[Home] Pheobus thought longingly.

The language barrier was standing between them, half the meld made no sense. Then they all felt the ship's strange thoughts wash over them, opening the walls in their thoughts, testing, analysing, teaching. Waking up powers they never knew they had. When the meld shattered they all felt a new freedom in their contact with one another, a new depth to their links, and they all found that they knew a new language.

****

"Do you...do you understand me?" Pheobus's words were heavily accented but recognisably English. They were all sat on the floor in their circle, their legs having given way in the exhaustion of the link.

"We sure do, mate," Megabyte assured him, shaking his head in astonishment. He saw that Pheobus still looked blank. "Yes." He clarified. Clearly, these new language skills covered only a basic vocabulary. Slang was going to be beyond them for a while.

Adam concentrated.

"Where are you from?" He asked in Castor and Pheobus's own language. Castor looked relieved.

"We're from the Galactica. Can you get us back there? What ship are we on?" Cas jumbled English and Galactican together but the others seemed to follow.

"What's the Galactica?" Adam asked intently. "You're on _the_ ship. Our spaceship."

Castor and Pheobus exchanged frustrated looks. Pheobus spoke slowly

"Are you saying that this ship isn't part of the fleet? You're human. What planet are you from?" Despite the earlier exchanges of images they stared at him.

"We are the next stage of human evolution, the Tomorrow People. You are too." Ami volunteered.

"We're on Earth." Adam felt silly for saying it but he told them anyway. " Where are you from?"

*****

"Boxey! Father!" Serena's voice stopped them as they were about to climb into their vipers. Boxey jumped down from his fighter and waited for his sister to reach them. "I was working in the other maintenance bay when you ordered the vipers prepared." Serena told her father. "Where are you two off to? This isn't a scheduled patrol."

"There's something we need to look into." Apollo told her, not meeting her eyes. "We shouldn't be long."

Boxey shook his head slightly. That approach might have satisfied Serena ten years ago but she was seventeen years old now, just slightly younger than the twins. She had known there was something wrong as soon as she had seen their expressions.

"Father, you go on. I need to talk to Serena for a minute." He told Apollo. The older man nodded and embraced Serena briefly.

"You take care until we get back now." Serena hugged him back, tightly, nervously.

"Safe flying, Father"

Boxey waited until Apollo climbed into his viper and even then it was Serena who spoke first.

"It's the twins again, isn't it? I recognise that expression on your face, Boxey. But why get Father involved?"

"Serena, I think this time the trouble they've got themselves into is a bit more serious than usual." She went pale at his tone.

"What?" She asked in a whisper.

"Their shuttle seems to be missing. Father and I are going to look for it." Serena was speechless. Boxey looked sympathetically into his sister's oddly intense eyes. Like him she was motherless, Sheba had died when her daughter was just three years old. That had drawn Apollo's children together despite the age gap. They knew one another's secrets. "Do our parents realise how you and Castor feel about one another, Serena?"

"No." Serena told him absently, "Cas....They're alive, Boxey, I _know_ they are."

Despite the certainty in her voice, Boxey felt the need to prepare her for the worst.

"Space is dangerous and unforgiving, Serena, and this region has a lot of Cylon activity. We have to consider...."

"They're alive, Boxey." Serena repeated cutting him off. "Find them? For me?"

"For the whole family." Boxey promised, surrendering. He hugged her and turned to climb up once more to his cockpit

"Boxey." She shouted up to him as the viper began to manoeuvre. "Be careful."

****

Adam wasn't prepared for the wave of sheer astonishment and disbelief that rolled from the twins at the name of the planet.

[(Earth, the Thirteenth Tribe, Kobol, Earth!)] Pheobus's thought were disjointed. Castor wasn't even thinking that rationally.

"Yes, Earth." Adam confirmed. Kevin and Megabyte exchanged bemused looks. Ami just sighed.

With a hum the Ship produced bowls of snacks and drinks. Amongst the peanuts and crisps were nibbles that Adam didn't recognise but which seemed to have been pulled instead from Castor and Pheobus's memories. Ami stared blankly at the food.

"The Ship wants us to have a party? Now?"

Phillipe stirred himself to action and started passing the food around.

"The Ship knows we've lost vital sugars and carbohydrates." He corrected in his best 'doctor' tones. "I'm not sure I could even hold a coherent telepathic conversation at the moment, let alone teleport."

Castor took a handful of small green objects as Phillipe passed but clearly wasn't even aware of doing so.

"This is Earth?" He repeated.

"He'll get round to the idea sooner or later." Megabyte observed wryly. "Why do I think the language barrier was only part of the problem?"

Pheobus had been peering at the Ship's engraved surfaces and now prodded his brother.

"Cas," He whispered, awed. "I recognise those symbols. They were in the recordings Father and Uncle Apollo brought back. They were all over the Lost Tombs on Kobol."

"You're sure?" Castor's voice too had fallen to a whisper. "Then this really could be Earth?"

"Why is this such a big thing with you two? And where are you from anyway?" Megabyte was rapidly running out of patience.

"If this is Earth why are we in a spaceship?" Pheobus asked, bewildered and completely ignoring Megabyte. Adam sent his friend a soothing thought. There was too much here for any of them to easily take in. He opened the main hatch to the surface with a thought and dragged himself to his feet. Castor and Pheobus were blinking at the brilliant sunlight. They'd grown up on a starship and even the brightest artificial lights couldn't match the glory of a tropical morning.

"Anyone coming?" Adam invited.

*****

Castor sat on the white sands of the Tomorrow People's island and watched the waves lapping at the shore. Adam, Megabyte, Phillipe, Ami and, of course, Pheob all sat in the same loose circle. The younger Tomorrow People, Castor knew without asking, were all asleep and he too felt the exhaustion of what they had done on this remarkable day. With a combination of words and images Castor started to tell the story of the Galactica.

Kobol, the ancient world dying as its ecology collapsed. The Twelve Tribes of Man and the lost Thirteenth Tribe setting out. The twelve Colonies, thriving. Bustling cities and interplanetary commerce. Cylons, the mechanised descendants of a long vanished race, attacking, enslaving. A millennia of war, millions died but the homeworlds were left unharmed. Then hope, a peace treaty offered and accepted. Then despair, the black treachery that wiped out the Colonial Fleet and annihilated the Colonies. Galactica, the last surviving Battlestar gathering the remnants of humanity and leading them in their long quest for the shining planet known as Earth.

Adam was the first to stir when the images faded. His expression was serious.

"And this fleet is out there now?"

"Somewhere." Pheobus nodded. "It's been twenty years now since the Colonies were destroyed. We've been just one step ahead of the Cylons the whole time since."

"Adam," Ami's face glowed with delight. "Do you know how much this explains? All the Pyramid Cultures came from the pyramids of Kobol. The zodiac signs were named after the twelve other tribes. The ancient gods were named...."

"Evolution." Phillipe disagreed, "The fossil record. Almost all of archaeology. You're trying to tell us that humans were a space faring race who landed on earth just a few tens of thousands of years ago. We've only had spaceflight for the last few decades and even then we don't have anything like this fleet."

"But what if the civilisation collapsed? What if the Earth was too difficult to colonise and they lost all that technology? They'd have to scatter across the planet and all that would be left are the memories. They might have known we would come one day. They might have left the Ship here to guide us."

Megabyte held up his hands.

"Whoa, Ami, Phillipe, time out." He glanced at Adam. "If what they're saying is actually true," He said sceptically, "We have bigger problems."

Castor and Pheobus were looking nervous.

"You don't have a fleet?" Pheobus asked urgently. "How do you defend yourselves?"

"We don't often need to." Adam told him. "We don't have any contact with aliens. The few times we have come up against something like that we've just fought it with whatever skills we can. We've been lucky. We don't have a fleet, Pheobus. We don't even have faster-than-light travel. If these Cylons wiped out your twelve Colonies, Earth doesn't stand a chance."

PART THREE

"Are you sure this is their most likely vector?" Apollo's voice crackled in Boxey's ears. Glancing out through his cockpit, the Warrior could see his father's viper off to one side, the blue cone of its turbo exhaust lighting the sky. Boxey was sitting on his turbos too. They didn't know how far the twins had gone but they urgently needed to catch up with them as soon as possible.

"Pretty sure, Father. This is the way they were headed and from the sensors it looked like one of their engines was out of synch with the other. That would pull them over that way. Cas and Pheob are skilled pilots. They'll have tried to compensate. They went this way." There was a pause.

"Boxey, if you're navigating on instinct, all you need to do is say so."

Boxey had to smile. Apollo knew as well as he did that once you'd taken all the factors he'd mentioned into account, you still had to make an educated guess. Both Warriors had learned when to trust their hunches and when not to. This was a time for trust.

"Ride with me on this one, Father."

"Fine. We ought to spread out a bit though. If we separate until we're just in contact we'll double our sensor radius. Heading right." Apollo pulled his viper off in a smooth arc to starboard. As he went he opened a secure comchannel on the fleet frequencies. "This is Colonel Apollo calling Galactica shuttle gamma. Please respond." Silence. Boxey bounced the signal out through his transmitters too as Apollo repeated it. "Galactica shuttle, please answer."

They called an intermittent intervals over the next several hours. Apollo sat on the fringes of Boxey's sensor range the whole time and both scanned local space for any sign of the craft. When Boxey detected a contact on the edge of his sensors, it was directly between him and his father. The vipers converged and dropped out of lightspeed in unison.

Neither man spoke. Both gazed at the expanding cloud of debris, hot gas and energy with stunned horror.

"My warbook believes that it's wreckage from a Colonial shuttlecraft." Apollo said eventually.

"The energy patterns are Cylon." Boxey added in the same flat tone.

Apollo sighed and his tone hardened.

"We will get to the bottom of this, Boxey. Whether that shuttle was sabotaged or just badly maintained, someone will answer for this."

"They could have got out, Father."

Silence.

"Somehow. It is possible. For that matter the Cylons could have taken them prisoner. Anything."

"Boxey, I want Castor and Pheobus to be alive as much as you do, but the Cylons haven't tried to abduct Colonial pilots for almost twenty years. You have to face this."

"Do you want to go back and tell Starbuck and Cassiopeia and Athena that Cas and Pheob are dead, Father? Do you want to tell them we didn't even try to look for the twins?" Apollo closed his eyes in pain.

"Boxey...."

"Father, I don't think the twins are dead. I think we'd know if they were." Boxey was aware his voice was rising but he meant every word. He could hear the pain in his father's reply.

"The family will be waiting for us to get back. We're already overdue."

"Father, at least we should check out the nearest planets, see if any are habitable."

Apollo hesitated. He told his ship to scan in every available frequency for any hint that his nephews could have escaped. Only one frequency showed any residual energy past the initial explosion. It seemed to be the fading edges of some kind of high energy communications signal but there was no sign of the main transmission frequency. Apollo frowned at his scanner. This frequency was on the very edge of the device's sensitivity range and in a part of the spectrum that hadn't been used for decades, centuries even. The colonial pilots back then had complained of signals going missing, of strange echoes that seemed to come from nowhere. Some even reported feeling uncomfortable standing near a transmitter. In the end the frequencies had been abandoned and any detection in that region was ... odd. It might be worth investigating. It was something at least.

"I have an anomalous scanner detection. We ought to check it out."

"Understood, Colonel. Thank you, Father."

*****

They fell asleep on the beach, all of them, despite the gravity of Adam's last statement. The day had just taken to much out of them and they slept soundly, dreamlessly. Jade woke Adam mid-afternoon with Stephanie in tow.

[You're all going to look like lobsters tomorrow.] She told him as she reached into his mind to rouse him. [You know better than to sleep in the sun here.]

[I think we all tried to stay awake a bit too long. We dozed off within seconds of one another.] Adam looked Stephie over. She still looked a little pale but otherwise unhurt. She peered at the Galacticans with some curiosity.

"Who are they, Adam?" The little girl asked in her accented English.

"Castor and Pheobus." She gave him a withering look.

"I know that."

"Then why ask the question?" Jade chimed in. She'd slept through most of the explanation but heard enough to realise that Adam probably didn't want their youngest friend involved. [You can explain to me later though.] She added on a tight channel to him alone. Adam nodded. He looked around at the sleeping Tomorrow People.

"How long have we been asleep?" He asked suddenly alarmed.

"Probably around six hours." Jade told him. She sighed. "I was going to ask if anyone got round to telling our parents where we were before they fell asleep but from the sudden look of panic in your eyes I guess that the answer is no. My mum probably wouldn't have worried but I guess Ami's mum has panicked everyone."

Adam nodded and groaned. He truly had meant to reassure the parents before sleeping but none of them had been strong enough to teleport and there was no way to get in touch with anyone from the Island. Ami's mother would, as Jade had said, have contacted General Damon and Penny Weston. None of those three had been told when Phillipe and Stephanie broke out so Stephanie's parents wouldn't even have had the others to compare notes with. It had been a difficult decision to cut their parents off from one another but as their numbers grew, and more and more people learnt about them, Adam had become convinced that it wasn't safe for anyone, even someone they trusted, to be able to track them all down. Adam was determined to keep Stephanie at least as far from trouble as possible.

Leaning over, the tall Australian poked Megabyte until he rolled over on the sand and woke.

"Whoa." Megabyte licked his lips. "My throat is parched." He looked around. "Oh. I had been kind of hoping all that was a dream." Jade gave him a curious look. She knew something odd was happening but it was hard to see how any new TP's could be bad news. Adam just shook his head. Telekinetically, he summoned their stock of canvas sunshades from the ship and began to erect them over the sleeping forms. Megabyte reached out mentally to fetch them all drinks. Adam sipped his as he worked and spoke quietly to Megabyte and Jade.

"Look. I'm going to have to take Stephie home and explain to her parents why we kept her out all night. Jade, I want you to reassure your Mum, Ami's and Megabyte's dad that we're all alright. Don't mention Castor and Pheobus. If they ask say I'll come over and explain later. Megabyte, I want you to stay here. Keep an eye on things. Let all the others sleep until they're ready to wake up, we've had a hard time of it."

"Why don't I just teleport to see my dad myself?" Megabyte asked, "It would save Jade the trip and we're all still tired."

"I want you here." Adam said with quiet emphasis.

[Don't you trust them?] Jade shielded her thoughts from Stephanie. The little girl had wandered off a little way and was drawing patterns in the sand. She had learnt that there were some things the older Tomorrow People just would not discuss in front of her.

[I don't know yet what to think.] Adam said sombrely. [I know they believe it's all true but how much can we believe? And even if it is all true, is it safe to let them loose on the Earth? If it's true.... Just don't let them leave the Island 'till I get back, Megabyte.]

[Whatever you say.] Megabyte agreed seriously.

*****

Stephanie's parents fell on their little girl with tearful relief. She had been gone all night as far as they were concerned, but they hadn't dared report her missing for fear of drawing attention to her unusual abilities. They did, however, round on Adam for not getting in touch sooner. Adam nodded, apologised and explained in competent French that they had had an emergency that tired them all. He'd learnt over the last few months that Stephanie's parents rarely wanted to know the details. If he told them often enough that Stephie had been safe and promised often enough not to let it happen again, they were satisfied. Adam couldn't decide whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Certainly if all their parents felt the same then Adam's life would be a lot easier but Adam truly couldn't tell if Stephie's parents complacency came from trust or fear. Trust they could all live with, fear would eat them up from the inside.

That, however, was a problem for another day. Stephie turned to Adam before he could leave.

[When will I get to meet Castor and Pheobus?] She asked while outwardly listening to her parents telling her to go straight back to her room. Adam thought hard before answering.

[Stephie, I don't want you to go back to the Island for a few days.] It wasn't as difficult a request as it might have been for the elder Tomorrow People. Stephanie had been raised to be an obedient daughter and sometimes days passed before her parents gave her permission to visit the others. They were insistent that her schoolwork shouldn't suffer because of her gifts. Adam sympathised. He knew that Kevin's schooling, and Ami's had been affected by their breaking out and Megabyte's had always been disrupted. Phillipe had admitted that if he'd broken out any younger he might not have had the determination needed to study to become a doctor. If Stephanie's work began to suffer at the tender age of eight she could suffer for it for the rest of her life. The little girl seemed to accept it too. Stephie had been raised in a family with three much older brothers. Her parents seemed to have been telling her to wait until she was older all her life. To her it seemed natural that she wouldn't be allowed to really join in until she grew up as Adam had been relieved to find out.

[Why?] Stephie demanded, her thoughts upset but not rebellious.

[Castor and Pheobus came from a long way away. They need time to adjust, time to get used to being here with us. I don't think they'll want to meet too many new people. Besides they didn't speak any English, or French, when they arrived.] He didn't mention the strange language course the ship had given them. [And you're still tired from yesterday. Please, Stephie.]

[All right.] She consented eventually. [But you'll call me if anything exciting happens? You'll call me when Castor and Pheobus feel a bit better?]

[We'll let you know.] Adam told her and made his apologies again to her parents before teleporting. He wondered anxiously if he'd be able to keep that promise.

*****

General William Damon of WorldEx warmed his hands around his sixth mug of coffee. Idly he watched the surface of the liquid tremble and wondered if the shakes came from the coffee, exhaustion or just nerves.

"Come on, Adam." He whispered aloud. "Get in touch."

Sighing, he flicked through another folder of rumours and reported sightings. Lady Mulvaney was definitely active again, interfering with the fringes of WorldEx's work. Colonel Cobb had bought his way onto probation just a couple of months ago. Other past adversaries might have been sighted or had just vanished into the ether. Megabyte and the other Tomorrow People had made so many enemies over the years. What if one of them was behind this?

It's only been a few hours, he told himself firmly. Eight, another part of his mind corrected less confidently. Eight hours since Ami Jackson had teleported out of her mother's presence between one sentence and another. It could be nothing, of course - there had been unexplained absences on the island before. On the other hand, in the last couple of years the Tomorrow People had been better at keeping their parents in touch. Sure, there were things Adam and Megabyte didn't tell him, Damon had realised and accepted that long ago, but if they were going to be away for long they'd let him know. This absence had been long enough that Damon was beginning to get seriously worried by it.

Could Mulvaney or one of the others have grabbed the children? From the hints Damon was picking up he was starting to suspect her organisation was growing to rival WorldEx itself. She had the resources. In theory she shouldn't even know about Ami or Jade or any of the others he was starting to suspect might exist but what if the Tomorrow People's enemies had formed a coalition against them? What if ...?

Even in his concern, Damon had to smile wryly. He was letting his imagination run away with him. He put the reports about Lady Mulvaney's rumoured activities down. Someone would be in touch, he was sure. And soon.

Damon was straining so hard to hear the crackle-snap of teleportation that when it finally came he jumped a mile. Coffee went everywhere and he stared at Jade Weston with a mixture of irritation and overwhelming relief. Since Ami's mother had contacted him the previous evening Damon had had little sleep and the lack showed in his shadowed eyes and, he admitted ruefully to himself, frayed nerves. Jade smiled apologetically and came forward to help tidy up.

"Sorry." She apologised. Damon closed his eyes as the weight lifted, from Jade's relaxed attitude it was clear nothing was very wrong. He stood and took her shoulders.

"What's going on?" He demanded.

*****

[Adam?] The eldest Tomorrow Person had teleported to a supermarket he occasionally used to buy some aftersun lotion. When Jade called he was careful not to show any reaction but went on browsing the shelves.

[What is it, Jade?]

[I told General Damon and Mrs Jackson and my Mum that we were all safe. They're relieved but want to know what happened. The General isn't very happy with us. He could tell I was hiding something. He thinks that because you sent me, you and Megabyte must be doing something more important.] Jade sounded peeved. She was fourteen now but, apart from Stephie, still the youngest of them. Apart from the new breakouts, recent months had been quiet for the Tomorrow People and Adam knew that Jade was sometimes frustrated by the lack of action. She'd envisaged life as a TP as being like a knight in shining armour or some kind of superhero - delivering the Earth from the clutches of evil. Reality was much more mundane and Adam, for one, preferred it that way. He was very much afraid that they would soon have all the excitement Jade wanted.

[And how do you now what the General was thinking, Jade?] He asked mildly.

[I wasn't peeking!] She said defensively. [He was practically broadcasting. You know how loudly he thinks when he's tired or overexcited. Ami's mother kept him up all night phoning to ask whether he'd heard anything.]

[All right.] Adam was at the till now paying for the lotion. He was glad he'd remembered to use a southern hemisphere shop. Buying sun lotion in the middle of the northern hemisphere winter might have raised some eyebrows. [Jade, I'll meet you back at the ship. General Damon will just have to wait.]

[Wait for what, Adam?]

[Wait until we've decided how much of this crazy story he has to know.]

******

Phillipe was awake when Jade and Adam arrived back on the island with a sparkle of electric light and the crack of displaced air. Megabyte greeted them sourly. He looked bored, stuck on the Island with all his friends asleep.

"Ami and Kev are still sleeping like babies. So are the twins. Phillipe here just woke up." He did spare a smile for Phillipe. Adam nodded and tossed them each a bottle of aftersun lotion. They accepted gratefully.

"That'll teach us to fall asleep out there." Megabyte noted as he smoothed the cool liquid onto his burning skin. Adam agreed. He'd long ago realised that his small healing talent couldn't be used for anything but emergencies because it left him so utterly drained. Of the others only Phillipe showed any healing talent and he too felt it tiring. This was one mistake they were just going to live with.

"Adam." Jade spoke seriously. "I know you didn't want to discuss this in front of Stephie but I do need to know what's going on."

Megabyte and Adam exchanged glances. A year ago they would have tried to keep Jade out of things too but they'd learnt how impossible that was. Adam reached out telepathically and tested his friends' mental conditions. Where yesterday he had felt only dull exhaustion, now there was vibrancy. The rest, together with the food the ship had given them, had pretty much brought them back to full strength.

"We'll mind merge." He told them quietly and within seconds they were locked in a circle of four. The part of the meld that was Jade passed the next few minutes in total astonishment but when the meld faded she knew the basics of a new language. The part of the meld that was Adam wondered how on Earth they could get Castor and Pheobus home. And what it would mean for the Earth if they did. The part of the meld that was Megabyte worried about the strain on his friend but worried too, the old regret, that they couldn't trust his dad to know all their names let alone all their secrets. If a massive battle fleet was about to attack Earth, at what point would they have to turn to the general? The part of the meld that was Phillipe was scared. He had taken the revelation that he was a Tomorrow person in his stride, he had accepted their stories of what had happened before, he had found a little sister in Stephie when she broke out. None of it had prepared him for the full reality of their responsibilities. He knew, as certainly as the others did, that he had a responsibility to his planet and all the people on it. The meld broke in a roil of emotions.

[Are we going to tell my Dad?] Megabyte asked quietly when they had all caught their breaths.

[I think we're going to have to but not until we know more.] Adam broadcast to all the other three. [We need to get some basics sorted out first. Megabyte, Phillipe, you're both about Castor and Pheobus's size. Can you lend them a spare set of clothes or two? We don't know how long their going to be here.]

[Certainly, Adam.]

[Sure thing, Adam] Megabyte agreed. [We've both got clothes in our rooms here that will fit.]

[Good.] Jade interrupted firmly [Because they're waking up.]

PART FOUR

Pheobus woke up with a splitting headache and the memory of the strangest dream he'd ever had. He was warm and felt safe. Even without opening his eyes he knew his brother was nearby. His eyes snapped open in horror. Even without opening them he had been in contact with his brother's thoughts.

"Cas!"

"I'm here, Pheob, it wasn't a dream, was it?"

"I'm afraid not." The red-haired boy, Megabyte, was squatting down in front of Pheobus. He lent a hand to pull the Galactican upright. "You've got to be dehydrated after all that sun, not to mention sunburned. Here, have a drink." Out of the corner of his eye, Pheobus could see Adam giving Castor a drink too as he sipped his own.

"We're on Earth?" Castor clearly felt the need to have it confirmed once again. Megabyte rolled his eyes.

"Don't start that again!"

Pheobus smiled.

"Well it is quite a big thing, Megabyte." He looked past Megabyte at the other Tomorrow People watching them. The tall fair man he recognised from last night but the young woman - Jade - was unfamiliar. No, not quite. "You were there when we... well, when we got here. There was another little girl, too. She collapsed. Is she...?"

"She's fine." Adam was the first to answer and his tone was firm. "I've sent her home. We want to keep her out of this. If the ship hadn't pulled her in last night we wouldn't have involved her at all."

Pheobus looked at the man just a few years older than himself and saw the same qualities he saw in Boxey, Apollo, even Commander Adama himself. This was a man on whom other lives depended. Someone who wouldn't let others threaten his people.

"We understand." He volunteered for himself and for Castor. "We have a little sister just ten yahrens - years - old. We wouldn't let her talk to strangers like us either."

"My skin feels like it's burning." Castor complained, defusing the tension.

"It's just sunburn." Jade hurried to reassure him. Both Galacticans looked at her blankly.

"They grew up in a spaceship, Jade." Phillipe pointed out. He stepped forward slightly. "Parts of the spectrum of our sun's light can damage skin tissue with prolonged exposure. We all experience it often during our lifetimes. It's only seriously harmful with repeated burns. Put some of this lotion on it." He demonstrated on his own reddened arms. "It will soothe the burning."

Castor and Pheobus exchanged alarmed looks as they followed his example.

"I think I understood most of that. Are you seriously telling me you've settled on a planet who's sun gives you _radiation burns_?"

"Hey, we didn't settle on it." Megabyte protested.

"Phillipe did tell you it's not a serious problem. Not as a one off." Jade added.

"Well, what about you?" Castor asked angrily. "You live here but half of you are as red as Pheob and me."

"We don't usually sleep in the sun." Adam told him patiently. "The pair of you kind of overrode common sense yesterday. There was too much to take in." There was silence for several moments. They'd all been avoiding the big questions before now. Adam sighed. "I think we'd all better go inside. We need to talk."

*****

Kevin and Ami woke up as they all trouped into the ship. Kevin picked up the package the two men had brought with them yesterday from where it lay on the floor.

"Is this yours?"

Castor fell on it with a soft cry and Pheobus helped him unwrap it.

"Thank the Lords of Kobol. It's not broken." The Tomorrow People craned to see. A glass plate with a three dimensional picture somehow embedded in it.

"It's beautiful." Ami whispered. Jade pointed to two of the happy, smiling people.

"That's you two. Are these your family?" Castor nodded with tears unshed in his eyes.

"This is my mother, Cassiopeia, and father, Starbuck." He told them indicating the blond couple between the twins. Starbuck had his other arm around a second woman, a brunette, and Adam nodded at her fascinated.

"Would that be an aunt?"

"No." Pheobus exchanged a resigned smile with his brother. "That's my mother, Athena."

"But I thought...." Adam waved a hand vaguely at Castor and Pheobus.

"Nope. People call us 'the twins' but we're half-brothers we share the same father not mother."

"But you're the same age!" Kevin protested. Megabyte thumped him.

[We don't know what's normal for these people, Kev. Maybe all their women are kept in harems or something.]

[Hardly.] Pheobus had clearly overheard. [If 'harem' translates as I think it does I'd like to see you try putting our mothers in one. We're an unusual family, even for the Galactica.]

[Right.] Adam interrupted firmly. [Clearly our first task for the day is working on shields for the pair of you. I know you couldn't help it but we _don't_ listen when other people are talking unless we're invited or the other person is broadcasting. And you two are practically living in one another's heads. You're going to drive each other round the bend unless we can at least filter that.]

Castor and Pheobus exchanged relieved looks. They'd been trying to ignore one another's thoughts since they woke. Even brothers as close as they were needed some privacy.

[Who's this?] Jade asked suddenly, indicating a young woman standing between two tall men on the other side of the group. Her eyes were on Castor and thoughtful.

[Uncle Apollo's daughter, Serena.] He said simply.

[So this Apollo would be your Dad's brother?] Kevin asked. [You don't think of Serena like a cousin.] He added without thinking and got another warning thump from Megabyte. Pheobus sighed and looked over at his brother, very aware of his thoughts, before continuing aloud.

"No, Uncle Apollo is my mother's brother. He and Father are partners."

Megabyte stared. Now things were getting too weird even for him. Adam concentrated on what he'd found out in the last day.

"You mean they work together?"

"They're wingmates." Castor said blankly. "What else would we mean?"

Megabyte grinned.

"Somehow I think understanding you two is going to be full time work."

*****

Ami headed home after that and Adam strongly hinted to Jade and Kevin that they should both head back to Jade's village for the morning there. With Phillipe committed to lectures in Paris for which he was already late, that left Adam and Megabyte alone with the visitors.

"This is all so amazing!" Castor exclaimed as he lifted a cushion into mid air with only the power of his mind. They'd eased up on mental shields after three hours of solid work had established the most basic of barriers between the twins. Their years of closeness and shared breakout had tied them together in ways even Megabyte and Adam with all their years of experience could only begin to understand. Fortunately, however, both seemed better able to come to terms with shielding against other people and Adam and Megabyte were able to ease down slightly the shields they had been concentrating to hold.

[Take it easy.] Megabyte warned as Castor got over excited and the cushion tore under the strain. [This thing isn't to be taken lightly.]

[It can be dangerous.] Adam agreed solemnly. The twins were exchanging looks again and Adam didn't like what he was still seeing of their thoughts. Megabyte glanced at him curiously.

[Adam?] Adam shook off the mental contact and spoke aloud

"Now things are a bit quieter, I think it's time we really talked." All four were sitting in the ship's main cabin as the twins practised. Megabyte nodded and gently took the tattered cushion from Castor's mental touch. "Castor, Pheobus. You've told us that your people are refugees, fleeing, but you live on a spaceship called a `Battlestar.' The clothes you were wearing yesterday, they looked like uniforms. Your father and uncle are `wingmates.' Are you in the military?" It was a question that had been bothering him for some time now. Castor and Pheobus were giving him the kind of look that told him there were insurmountable cultural differences between them.

"We're Warriors." Castor declared proudly. Pheobus looked a little more thoughtful.

"We're shuttle pilots, in training to fly vipers." He clarified but with no less pride.

[Adam, you want to tell them or shall I?] Megabyte asked worriedly. Adam replied by speaking directly to the twins.

"Pheobus, what do viper pilots do?"

"We protect the fleet from Cylon attacks. Adam, what's the problem here? If it wasn't for the Warriors the colonists would have been wiped out decades ago!"

"If you were in your viper now." Adam picked up the images of space battle that Castor projected and bounced them back at the twins. [(Explosions, confusion and noise, A Cylon ship on his targeting scanner, the control stick in his hands, the FIRE button beneath his thumb)] "If you were there now could you press that button?"

"I...I don't know."

"Pheob?" Cas looked worriedly at his confused brother.

"Could you?" Megabyte threw the question at the second Galactican and Castor stopped suddenly, as stricken by the question as his brother.

"What have you done to us?" Pheobus whispered hoarsely. "We have a little brother, a little sister, all the children in the fleet to protect. We have responsibilities to our people. How can we protect them?"

"Castor, Pheobus, Tomorrow People can't kill. Not to save others. Not even to save ourselves."

"Take it back." Castor ordered in a whisper. "Make us what we were."

"Being able to kill is that important to you guys?" Megabyte asked in surprise.

"It's what keeps humanity alive. Father and Athena are warriors, Uncle Apollo and Boxey are warriors. Our Grandfather commands the Galactica! Every month they risk their lives for the fleet. The Cylons want to wipe us out, Adam, Megabyte. We've tried talking and they've killed us. There's no other way. We fight to survive."

"Listen to me," Adam was leaning forward, his expression intent. "We can't take this away from you. We can't prevent you being what your genetics make you. You are Tomorrow People. We didn't have a choice about this any more then you did. Don't you think that we wanted a quiet lives for ourselves. Do you think we chose a life that makes us laboratory rats? That makes us the subject of every mad scientist, every government plot? This is something we have to live with and you have to live with it too. We have great gifts we can use for our fellow people. We have to accept that there are conditions on that gift."

"Not everyone in your fleet is a warrior, surely." Megabyte added, trying to calm them. "There must be thousands of people without whom the fleet would fail but who don't go out there and kill these Cylons. You said you were shuttle pilots. Isn't that a vital enough job on a fleet of ships?"

"How is letting our friends and family risk their lives to kill for us any different to doing it ourselves, Megabyte?" Pheobus demanded. "How can we hide behind people who are giving their lives for us?"

"Look," Megabyte was flustered. He'd asked himself that question before when his father had pulled a gun to protect him and his friends. He had never known quite how to answer it. He'd hoped never to have to. "We cant solve all your problems. All we can do is let you know you're not alone. That there are other Tomorrow People."

"Other Tomorrow People!" Adam was suddenly wide eyed with excitement. "We never considered but if your people are human then what about the next stage of human evolution? What if there are other Tomorrow People in your fleet!" He paused. "Pheobus, Castor, we can't turn you back into Homo sapiens. Let me be honest: I'm not even sure we can get you home to the Galactica. But perhaps we can get you back in touch with it."

*****

Starbuck had been avoiding the bridge but there was no way to avoid it any longer. With Apollo's work to cover and Boxey's as well as his own, he'd been working flat out since the two had left, rearranging pilot's rosters and shuttle schedules, approving or denying the myriad of administrative details that kept a ship as large as the Galactica going. Starbuck hadn't even been home or seen Cassie, Athena or his two younger children in all that time. He tried to tell himself it was because he was too busy. He knew better.

"Captain Starbuck." Lost in his own thoughts, the old pilot hadn't noticed that he was already on the bridge. And he hadn't noticed who was already there. The Commander was an old man now but he'd been Starbuck's mentor since he'd been old enough to fly. Adama's mind was as incisive as ever. He took one look at Starbuck's face and snapped out an order. "My office. Now."

*****

"Commander." Starbuck managed a polite nod. He had had permission to use the commander's name for decades but this wasn't the time or the place for it.

"Starbuck, what in the name of the Lords of Kobol is going on?" Adama demanded. "I went looking for Apollo this morning and found out he's on a deep probe mission."

"Ah...yes, Commander."

"Yes? What do you mean, yes? There wasn't a deep probe scheduled." Adama read the concern in Starbuck's posture. The younger man had never been good at hiding his emotions. "Starbuck, are my son and grandson in some kind of trouble? When are they due back?"

Starbuck closed his eyes. He'd been trying not to face this fact.

"Commander, they were due back almost six hours ago."

"What?"

"They're overdue, Adama, and I don't know where they are!" Starbuck snapped, suddenly angry. "They're missing and so are my sons!"

"Castor and Pheobus? If this is another of their pranks...." Adama warned, but they both knew he was gasping at straws.

"We...we think there was a shuttle accident." Starbuck said hoarsely. "Something that took the twins into lightspeed. Apollo and Boxey went to look for them. They should have been back hours ago."

"Shuttlecraft are unarmed, Starbuck, and there is evidence of Cylon activity everywhere in this starsystem."

"I know." Starbuck whispered. Adama turned away, staring out of the window in his office. Starbuck could see the grief that the Commander couldn't show to anyone. Adama was trying to face the concept that his son and three of his grandchildren could be dead. Starbuck shook his head at the idea. "Adama, we've given Apollo up as lost before and he always comes back. I'm not giving up on him. He'll be back."

Adama gave him a long steady look and said nothing.

"He'll be back." Starbuck insisted.

Adama leaned over his desk and pressed the intercom "Bridge, slow the fleet to half-speed." The bridge officer acknowledged with a note of curiosity in her tone. "Starbuck, I can't do any more than that." Starbuck nodded grimly. "Have... have you told Athena and Cassiopeia?"

"That's my next mission." Starbuck told his adopted father quietly.

*****

"My mother is going to drive me wild!" Ami declared as she appeared in the spaceship's main cabin.

"It looks like she already has." Jade observed with some amusement. It was evening back in Europe, a full day since Castor and Pheobus had dropped into their lives. All the Tomorrow People except Stephie were on the island now. Adam had asked them to come back as soon as possible. He'd refused to explain his idea any further to the twins or to Megabyte but worked them all day on telekinesis and mind-merging instead. To Megabyte's experienced eyes, Adam seemed excited but he kept a calm outwards attitude.

"Would you believe she's _grounded_ me?" Ami asked with a sigh. "I'm way too old for that kind of thing."

"Ami, if this is going to cause more problems between you and your mum perhaps you should....." Adam trailed off.

"I'm not going back, Adam." Ami cut him off decisively. "Not for a couple of hours at least. I told her I was going to the island whether she liked it or not. I'm not going to back down!" The young woman sat down with a determination that said she wasn't about to move.

[Ami, you're really going to have to talk this through with your mum sometime.] Megabyte broadcast to the senior Tomorrow People only. [She can't keep treating you like a kid.] Adam agreed but said nothing. He had guessed for a while that Ami and her mother were going to have a real set to sometime. He was also fairly sure that this was one occasion on which Ami's Tomorrow Person gifts were almost irrelevant. Ami was a woman now, not a child, and her mother was the type who sometimes needed to have that explained to them. Regardless of her gifts, Ami would have had to break away from her mother's protection eventually.

[Guys, this isn't the time to discuss my problems.] Ami shot back across the same shielded link. "Why did you want us here, Adam?" She asked aloud.

"Well, it's to do with Cas and Pheob here."

"Tell us something we don't know." Suggested Jade with a smile at the two Galacticans. They smiled back but hesitantly. Both had been quiet since the discussion that morning and Adam wished there were some way to help them with the moral dilemma they were struggling with. He wished there was some way he could reconcile it to himself. Adam forced himself to set it aside, for the moment at least.

"I've been thinking," He said. "We all know now about the Colonies and what happened to them." Phillipe and Megabyte still looked sceptical. The rest agreed with nods and murmurs. "Well, I was wondering what kind of people survived their destruction."

"People who were desperate." Castor volunteered.

"People who were lucky." Megabyte added, starting to see what Adam meant.

"People who could see these Cylons coming and hide from them." Jade took the idea and ran with it. "People who could get to the ships from wherever they were." Her eyes shone. "Tomorrow People."

"That's kind of what I was thinking, but there's more than that. We all know that there are latent Tomorrow People out there. People who never break out. People who have hunches, or who are good at cards, or who can tell the future, or who are just generally lucky. There are many more of them than there are of us. And _those_ are the people who will have got away on the ships. The lucky people. Think about it. You've told us how expert a pilot your father is, and your uncle."

"Are you trying to tell us that our parents are latent Tomorrow People?" Pheobus asked slowly.

"Latent or with recessive genes. They have to be." Adam leaned forward. "You've got to admit it's possible. We're all the Tomorrow People we know about on the entire planet Earth. There might be others, sure, but not many of them or we'd know about it. What are the chances of all three of your parents carrying the genes to make you Tomorrow People. Your parents are survivors in a fleet of survivors. Even if a few more percent latents than we would expect in a normal population escaped, then it's your generation, Cas, Pheob, that would see the effects. The Galactican fleet could be full of Tomorrow People."

"You're talking about a bottle-neck in the gene pool." Phillipe said fascinated. "Survival of the fittest."

"But we're a fleet fighting a war!" Castor burst out. "The 'fittest' are those who kill Cylons, who save all our lives. My father has killed thousands of them and I'm proud of him for it!"

There was total silence for several long moments.

"Castor." Pheobus said slowly. "I'm proud of Dad and Uncle Apollo and the rest too. But I know I can't kill. Perhaps this is one case where it isn't the fittest who are surviving. Perhaps these latent Tomorrow People Adam's talking about have evolved to protect the rest of us until we're strong enough to act ourselves. Until we're strong enough to stop the Cylons without wiping them out." Kevin, the quietest of the TP's but one of the most sensitive, stood and crossed the room until he could look into Castor's eyes.

"Cas, we don't have all the answers. Sometimes you just have to be satisfied that you're able to ask the question. Sometimes you just have to try to survive." Castor hesitated and then nodded slowly, unsatisfied but willing to accept. Kevin looked up again at Adam. "You want us to try calling the Battlestar Galactica?"

"The fleet at least." Adam agreed, grateful to the younger man. "And I think it's going to take all of us to do it. It took everything we had, and the Ship had, to get Castor and Pheobus here. The fleet isn't anywhere close."

*****

[Hello? We are the Tomorrow People] Reaching out past the atmosphere, past the planets, out into the cold depths of space. [Hello? Can any one hear us?] Turning slowly, trying to probe unimaginable distances, their thoughts travelling at unimaginable speeds. [Calling people like us. We're trying to make contact. Reach out to us. We are the Tomorrow People. Can you hear us?] Moving on, seeing new stars in their minds eye. Vast vistas of incredible beauty. [Hello? Can you hear us?]

[(Who are you?)] The contact was faint at first, a sensation rather then words, but then it strengthened as more and more minds joined the distant contact. [Who are you?] They asked, and they said it in the language of the Galactica.

[Finally! We were giving up hope.] Adam wasn't sure which of them said it. They were all tiring, all staggered by the sheer weight of minds in the distant fleet. He reached out, taking the mindmerge with him. [We are Tomorrow People, like you. We're human. Just like you.]

[Other Tomorrow People?] There were dominant voices in the Galactican mind-merge just as Adam focused his. This was male, older than Adam, more sure of himself. [Where are you? Who are you?]

[I'm called Adam. We've got something I think belongs to you.] Castor and Pheobus were already reaching forward as Adam spoke. There was something familiar about the distant mind.

[Devon? Devon, is that you? Adam, it's another of the shuttle pilot's on the Galactica! We know this man!]

[Castor? Pheobus?] The leader of the other merge, Devon, reacted with flat astonishment. [Thank the Lords of Kobol! The rumour in the fleet....]

[Cas! Pheob!] A younger voice pushed his way to the front of his merge and now Castor and Pheobus reacted with pure astonishment as the Tomorrow People's merge recognised with them their fourteen year old brother.

[Zack!]

[Boy, is grandfather going to be furious with you. Everyone thinks you're dead! I'm not meant to know yet but Dad and our mums are doing a lousy job of hiding it. I'm not sure if Aura's twigged yet but Serena's really not happy. I keep telling her you're not dead. I'd know if you were, I'm sure. So would she of course but until she breaks out she doesn't know that.]

[Serena?] Castor couldn't seem to grasp that surprise on top of so many others.

[Zack.] That was Devon. [Calm down.] He turned back to Adam in the link. [Despite what Zack thinks, we really weren't sure. We knew they had the potential to be Tomorrow People but when word got out they were missing we tried calling and didn't get an answer.] He tested the rapidly tiring merge's strength. [From the feel of this, I see why. Where are you? Who are you? How did Castor and Pheobus get to you?]

Castor and Pheobus projected a flashing series of images before they could think to shield against the combined mind-merges. Adam and the others felt fear from young children in the Galactican link as the ominous form of the Cylon ships blew the shuttle from existence. Quickly, Adam added a sequence of images showing Castor and Pheobus breaking out and coming down safely on the island's beacon. Devon projected sympathy for the trauma the younger men had suffered.

[So you ended up on a planet. Which one? There are scattered agricultural settlements all over this quadrant. We think they might be remnants of the ancient migration to Earth.] He projected the name with reverence. [Are you one of those? We've never heard of any of them having a big enough population to evolve Tomorrow People before.]

Adam was at a loss for words. He could feel Megabyte's wry amusement through the meld.

[Not exactly.] The younger man projected. [We _are_ on Earth.]

[Earth! (Hope, wonder, salvation!)] Adam and his friends weren't prepared for the wave of utter astonishment, relief, hope, disbelief, that bombarded them from every mind they were touching. It almost knocked them out of their mindmerge. [(Earth!)]

[It's not that big a deal, okay!] Megabyte shouted, trying to shield himself.

[Maybe not for you, but for us....] Devon was trying to regain control of his meld, trying to master his emotions.

[Are Uncle Apollo and Boxey there with you? Wait 'till Granddad hears about this!] That was Zack.

[Uncle Apollo?] Pheobus asked perplexed but any answer was over ridden by the reaction of the melds to Zack's last statement.

[No!] Adam and Megabyte shouted it together and Ami, Kevin and Jade projected the thoughts just moment later. [Your people can't find out about Earth. We're not ready!]

[No, Zack.] Devon added firmly. [We've discussed this before. The Commander can't know about us. We have to keep the Tomorrow People hidden until there are more of us. A couple of hundred in a fleet of thousands isn't enough.]

[There are hundreds of you?] Adam asked. He'd suspected it but in a meld this close it was hard to make out individuals.

[Of course. Adam, I don't want the Commander to know about us but why are you so adamant? We've been searching for Earth for decades. You're our only hope. We need your help. We can find some way to discover you legitimately....]

[Devon, it doesn't matter how you 'discover' us.] Adam's voice was both urgent and sad. [We can't help you.] He felt the shock in the link and he also felt it fading as their strength was exhausted. [It's not that we wont. We _can't_. Your technology is way beyond ours. If you bring your fleet here the Cylons will destroy us all.]

PART FIVE

They fell from the link exhausted. For several minutes they just sat or lay in their circle, breathing deeply and trying to frame coherent individual thoughts.

"Do you think we got the message across?" Megabyte asked after a while.

Jade groaned and rolled over to lie on her back, her eyes closed.

"Well we were shouting loudly enough. We really have to stop doing this, my head feels like it's going to explode."

"We're just not used to calling such a distance." Phillipe reminded her. "It might get easier."

"We're still no closer to getting Castor and Pheobus home." Ami noted dejectedly. "We're going to have to call this Devon person again sometime." She tried to force a smile for Castor and Pheobus. They were huddled together, once again in close mental contact. "Still, at least your brother knows you're safe."

"Adam?" Megabyte's voice seemed to jolt Adam out of his thoughts but the frown didn't leave the older man's face. "You're being awfully quiet over there, buddy."

"We were their last hope, Megabyte, and we let them down." Adam's brown hair fell around his face and framed the deep dark eyes. Megabyte nodded understanding. He forced his thoughts to be positive.

"But at least Earth's safe. Adam, we'd have had no defence against Cylons. You've seen what they can do from Castor and Pheobus's memories. They could wipe out Earth without trying and we couldn't do a thing to stop them. Billions of people, Adam. They'll all die if that Devon brings the fleet here."

Adam nodded, but slowly and reluctantly. He turned to the two Galacticans.

"You said you know Devon. Will he understand? Will he try and arrange for the fleet to find Earth despite what we just told him?"

Pheobus stirred. When he spoke he sounded distracted.

"I...I don't know. He's our supervisor in the shuttle service. I don't know, he's always kept an eye on us. Because he knew what we were even when we didn't I suppose. I think he'll wait, try to talk to you again. He won't do anything to hurt you."

Adam's voice softened.

"Pheobus, we will try to get you home."

"We're worried about what Zack said." Castor said suddenly.

"About Serena being upset?" Kevin asked softly. Castor shook his head.

"Serena has more than us to worry about. Didn't you hear Zack? Uncle Apollo and our cousin Boxey are missing too."

*****

Apollo listened to the roar of his engine and the beeping of his fuel warning system. He'd ignored it as long as he could.

"Boxey," He called over the com. "We've scanned two planetary systems and found nothing. The fleet will know we're long overdue. If we don't turn around now, and I mean now, we're not going to have enough fuel to make it back."

"We're ahead of the fleet, father. We came out diagonally in front of them. We don't need as much fuel to get back as we used to get here."

Apollo sighed and looked out to where Boxey's ship was slightly ahead of his and to one side.

"I know. I've taken that into account. We have to turn around now, Boxey."

"They're out here, Father, somewhere." Boxey's voice was urgent. "There's another solar system just ahead and it's on a line with that signal you detected. We ought to check it out."

"Boxey, we turn around now." Apollo hated himself for saying it. "And that's an order. Not a request."

There was no reply on the comsystem but Apollo was startled by the sudden flare of his son's turbos.

"Court-martial me when I get back to the fleet, Father." Boxey said with quiet determination. "I'm going to check out that solar system."

"Boxey!" For a long moment Apollo froze in indecision. If he didn't head back to the fleet now there was a strong chance that their family would never find out what had become of them. They would never get home. Apollo shook his head and gunned his turbos after his son. His nephews were dead. He believed that now, despite his heart screaming at him to deny it. He wasn't about to lose his son too.

"I wasn't sure you were going to follow." Boxey said after a while.

"You, Captain Boxey, are in direct contravention of orders from a superior officer." There was nothing warm in Apollo's tone.

"Understood." Boxey sounded chastened but not repentant. His scanner's chimed. "Father, I'm reading nine planets in that solar system. The outer ones are just gas giants but I think the inner ones are rocky. The fourth - lifeless. The third ... by all the Lords of Kobol!"

"Boxey! Boxey, what is it? Slow down. Let me catch up with you." Suddenly Apollo was all focus. He'd let his wingmate get ahead of him and now Boxey was on the edge of his scanners. There was no telling what the younger man was seeing on his.

"Father, it's alright." Boxey answered finally, but he slowed his viper to allow his father to pull in beside him. "You really have to see this."

Quickly, Apollo turned his scanner on the third planet of the solar system ahead of him. From this distance the system looked like thousands of others that he'd explored in the years since the Colonies were destroyed. The third planet was different.

"Life, human life! The planet is teeming with it. There must be billions of humans down there. Even at their height the colonies never had a population like that!"

"Father." There was a strange tone in Boxey's voice. "I've heard about Earth ever since I was small. The third of nine planets, every child in the fleet knows that. Have we found it, Father? Have we finally found Earth?"

*****

Adam sent everyone home as soon as they were strong enough to teleport. Castor and Pheobus seemed sunk in despondency. They had become convinced that Apollo and Boxey had been killed by Cylons while trying to find them. Nothing Adam said seemed to reassure them and the sympathy they felt from the other Tomorrow People just made things worse. In the end Kevin shrugged and headed for his room. Adam tried to interest the twins in games or books or even the takeaway food that Jade sent telekinetically but they had no enthusiasm. Eventually Adam realised that this wasn't something he could help them with. He'd tried telling them the malfunction hadn't been their fault. He'd tried reminding them that they had no way of knowing what had happened to the two pilots. He'd tried to reassure them that he'd do his best to get them home. In the end he just sat quietly watching them play a listless card game and let them feel that he was there. That they weren't alone.

[Adam?] That was Megabyte calling from London. Adam opened to him, sensing his need to talk.

[What is it, Megabyte?]

[How are they?]

Adam imaged an unhappy face.

[My Dad's not happy either. He knows that we're hiding things from him, Adam. He noticed how tired I am and after what happened last night....]

[What did you tell him?] Adam asked.

[That we were trying something new and it took a lot of energy.] Megabyte shrugged mentally. [It's true in a way but I feel like I'm lying to him.]

[Megabyte, it was you who suggested that we shouldn't mention Phillipe to General Damon when he broke out.] Adam reminded him gently. [You know why I want him kept out of things, at least until we're able to call Devon again and find out how likely these Cylons are to find Earth.]

[Yeah, I know. I guess I just need reminding from time to time.]

Adam hesitated.

[Megabyte. If this gets too much for us we'll tell your dad, I promise. But we can't let him fight our battles for us.]

[What they said about hiding behind others got to you too, huh?]

[It's partly that.] Adam admitted quietly, [but there's more too. I keep thinking about seeing Kevin stung by one of Doctor Culex's mosquitoes, Jade tied to an exploding boiler, for that matter your Dad in hospital. And I imagine that happening to Stephanie or children we don't even know yet. We're the first, Megabyte, we can't ruin things for the Tomorrow People that are going to come after us. We can't let anyone know about all of us. Even people we trust. It's just too dangerous.]

[I suppose so.] Megabyte sighed. [I think Dad understands too. Sometimes, when he thinks too loudly or I'm tired I can hear him wondering about how evasive we've all become. I can hear him longing to ask if there are more of us now but not asking the questions. I think he's guessed, Adam, and he's sorry but understands. That's what makes it hardest of all.] Megabyte stopped but before Adam could reply he was suddenly distracted. [There goes Dad's bleeper. I guess he's off again. So much for an evening in.] As there often was there was a note of anxiety in Megabyte's tone as his dad rushed from the room.

[He'll be back before you know it.] Adam reassured him as he felt Megabyte pick up his television control and start flicking through the channels.

[No, he won't.] Megabyte broadcast loudly enough for Kevin and the twins to hear as he watched the live news report in astonishment. Two aircraft had streaked through the air above the night's big football match and now several news channels were showing a few seconds of shaky home video in a repeating loop. The two small craft plunged through the atmosphere with little regard for aerodynamics or the laws of physics as Earth understood them. They hovered for several moments some way above the pitch before streaking away at impossible speeds, leaving a sonic boom in their wake to shatter the camera lens and thousands of windows. [Whatever those are guys, they're not anything we know about.]

[Colonial Vipers!] Pheobus's voice was pure astonishment.

[Boxey and Uncle Apollo! It has to be.] There was relief and joy in Castor's thoughts. Adam looked at them across the ship. He purposefully hadn't begun teaching them how to teleport off the island. If they tried now they were going to end up on the beacon and he had no real desire to correct that.

[Megabyte, get over to WorldEx and find out where General Damon is. Pretend you're just curious and get in the way. We need to get to those two pilots first.]

[Sure thing, Adam.] He felt Megabyte teleport.

"Adam, we have to find them!" Castor was speaking his own language rather than the polyglot mixture they had all been using. "They're looking for us."

"What I want to know is how they found you." Adam told him shortly. He stood up, ready to teleport.

"Adam, take us with you!" Pheobus asked urgently.

"You're not ready to leave the island, yet." Adam told them. Kevin came out of his room shielding tightly. He knew as the twins didn't that teleporting was not very difficult to learn and that Adam was quite capable of taking them with him without using their powers at all. Adam looked him in the eyes. "Kevin will teach you how to teleport and make sure you're ready."

[I'll keep them here as long as I can.] Kevin promised. [You're right, Adam. They grew up in a spaceship. They're not quite ready for the full reality of Earth.]

*****

[Adam, WorldEx thinks they went down somewhere in northern England. That football match was in Manchester of all places. Dad is not happy to have me here. He's convinced I know something about all this.]

[You do.] Jade pointed out reasonably. With WorldEx involved, Adam had asked Phillipe to keep away and the other man had agreed on the condition that they called him if they needed help. Ami was having the kind of discussion with her mother that couldn't be put aside for anything short of life and death, and with Kevin still on the island, that left Jade and Adam waiting at Jade's house for some indication of where to go. It had been an hour and a half since the ships first appeared but the Tomorrow People hadn't been able to get any kind of detailed location. The security services seemed to be limiting the news getting out to the media surprisingly well for an event witnessed by millions of people.

[That's not the point. He shouldn't _assume_ I do.]

[Just give us the location, Megabyte.] Adam said patiently.

[I'm not sure there is much more. Somewhere in the Pennines, maybe in Yorkshire. The intelligence guys here think that they'll land not far from a medium sized town. The intel boys don't know about the Galactica but they figure whoever these are they wont be able to hide in a village and would be too confused for a big city.]

[That sounds reasonable.] Jade noted.

[Reasonable but useless.] Adam snapped, frustrated. [We _have_ to find these people before the military do.]

[Adam,] Kevin was keeping track of events from the island and spoke on a tight mental band to prevent the twins overhearing, [Couldn't you just get there by concentrating hard on those ships? It worked when Ami and Megabyte went to the Cobb Cereal Corporation Headquarters that time.]

[We could give it a try.] Jade agreed. Adam hesitated before nodding. He reached out and took Jade's hand.

[Wherever we're going we want to end up in the same place.] He told her. Carefully they formed a mental image of the fighters they had both seen on television, of the viper's that Castor and Pheobus had shown them. For long moments electric light crackled around them before they vanished with a pop of imploding air.

*****

[Adam? Jade?] The first thing they heard was Megabyte trying to get into contact with them.

[Megabyte?]

[You guys were gone much longer then usual.] He told them with some relief.

[We don't usually teleport without knowing where we're going.] Adam was surprised at how worried Megabyte sounded. [I was half expecting us to end up in the water. The beacon would have pulled us in if we didn't have anywhere else to go.]

[I guess I didn't think of that.] Megabyte admitted. Adam also felt subdued thoughts from Kevin. The beacon hadn't occurred to him either.

[So where are we?] Jade asked. Adam looked around at the thick trees that surrounded them. It was dark now in the north of England, and cold. The only light was the half-moon that peeked through the looming wood.

[I haven't the slightest idea.] Aware that there was more moonlight from behind him, he turned around and found that he and Jade were standing with their backs to a large clearing. He tapped her on the shoulder and she turned quickly. She gasped. Despite seeing the ships in the twins' thoughts she hadn't been prepared for their size. [They're bigger than I expected too.] Adam reassured her. [I guess we've found these vipers, guys.]

[They look shut down.] The ships shone in the moonlight but there was no light from the closed cockpits. Jade started walking forward. [Do you suppose Apollo and Boxey are still in there?]

[It seems unlikely, but we ought to check.] Adam came up to join her.

[Guys, a radar fix just came through on where those things went down.] Megabyte called urgent. [A WorldEx team is on its way but Dad just told Frank that if they're getting it now, the SIA and the regular army might have had it an hour ago. You might have company. We're all heading for helicopters now.]

[So where are we?]

[Just outside a place called Keithley, apparently.] Megabyte told him. Adam and Jade were almost at the closest ship now. It towered above them, more than twice their height, and couldn't have been mistaken for anything but a fighter. There was a sleekness and deadliness about it that shouted its purpose. Adam peered up at the closed cockpit.

[We're going to have to get inside, see if there's any kind of message about where they've gone.] He reached out to Castor and Pheobus letting them see for the first time what the rest of them were seeing. [We've found the vipers. Any ideas about how we open these things?] He reached out to grasp the footholds designed to let pilots climb up.

[_Don't touch the ship!_] The shout came from both twins at once but too late. With a flash of light from the foothold, Adam slumped to the ground, unconscious.

****

PART SIX

[Adam!] Above the calls from the Tomorrow People, himself included, Megabyte barely heard Pheobus's reassurance.

[It's alright! Adam's just been stunned!]

Through Jade's eyes they all saw Adam on the ground, his eyes closed. She squatted beside him, careful not to touch the ship.

[He's breathing normally. I think he 'feels' okay to me.] She reported in a shaken voice.

[Next time, warn us!] Megabyte snapped at the twins.

[We did!] Castor snapped back. [You didn't call us when you found the ships, you tried to keep us out of the loop! We can't warn you if we don't know what you're doing.]

[I guess.] Megabyte said grudgingly. He let Castor and Pheobus see that he regretted shouting at them. Seeing his best friend in danger always scared him beyond reason. Pheobus signalled back an understanding that suggested Megabyte's shields had gone lower than he intended. He built them back up. [Is everyone else okay?]

[Just startled.] Kevin assured him. His thoughts were serious. [How long will Adam be out?]

[Several hours probably, maybe more.] Pheobus told them with a mental wince.

[We still need to get into the ships.] Megabyte said worriedly.

[There's a computer pad on the underside of the ship.] Castor volunteered. [We can give you the codes. Intruder defences were fitted to vipers after our Dad's ship got stolen once.]

[Alright.] Megabyte thought hard. [You take Adam back to the island, Jade. I'll come out to the ships and then you can join me to look for these pilots.]

[Um...Megabyte,] Jade open her mind to show them the brilliant light that had just illuminated the clearing. [I don't think it's going to happen that way.]

*****

[Jade, teleport!] Kevin shouted.

"Put your hand's up! Move away from the vehicles!"

[Not in front of all these people] Jade called back. Megabyte hesitated for a moment before agreeing with her. Adam had been very insistent lately that they shouldn't teleport in front of others unless their lives were in immediate danger. Jade had put her hands up.

"My friend's hurt." She shouted. "We haven't done anything wrong." She squinted into the lights and made out the dim forms of people moving around and the purr of military vehicles.

[That's right, Jade, just say you're out for a walk.] Megabyte encouraged. [They'll let you go in no time.]

[Your Dad didn't last time this happened.] Jade told him. She was scared and making no attempt to hide it but she didn't move from Adam's side.

"Move away from the vehicles!"

"Please, my friend's been knocked out. Can't you help?" There seemed to be discussion beneath the sound of engines. Shadowy people peered at Jade and Adam from behind the lights. She suppressed a scream as soldiers darted forward, their guns swaying from side to side as if looking for targets. One picked her up bodily. Another scooped Adam off the ground. They headed back to the lights.

[Hold on, Jade. It just became time for my Dad to know about this!]

*****

Colonel Apollo wondered through the outskirts of Keithley wondering whether to be appalled or delighted. Beside him, Boxey seemed to be deep in culture shock. Tall smoke-blackened Victorian buildings lined the narrow streets of this industrial town. There were humans everywhere, humans doing human things, in human houses. It was more people than he'd seen in one place since the colonies were destroyed all those years ago. Even on the offshoot colonies they'd discovered over the years, people tended to be dispersed into small settlements. This was a town and a small one too. They'd flown over a much larger city before selecting this relatively out of the way spot to set down. Leaving the vipers was a risk of course, but the ships were protected with their own systems and Boxey and Apollo had both set their lasers to the stun mode. It was not as if these people were Cylons. They were human, as human as Boxey and Apollo themselves.

Apollo wondered about the wisdom of approaching this world the way they had. Despite evidence of primitive space technology in orbit of this world there had been no indication of advanced scanners or technology that could really threaten the vipers. It wasn't until he and Boxey had already plunged through the atmosphere of this world that Apollo remembered that there were less developed ways to scan at a distance, methods that wouldn't necessarily show up on his sensors. Even without that, coming in over a city had been a mistake. The density of population here had seemed a good opportunity to find out something about these people but the thick cloud that covered most of this island nation had hidden the lights of the city until they were almost on top of it. Usually Apollo would have expected to pick up com traffic from a city but the vipers weren't equipped to scan the ancient frequencies Apollo was now sure this planet must use. No culture could sustain this level of development without some form of reliable communication but the Galactican's coms had remained stubbornly silent. It was confusing. The vehicles that pelted down these narrow strips of artificial road seemed almost to belong to the Stone Age to Apollo but this world seemed a confused jumble of many technological stages. The satellites in orbit had suggested a level of advancement several stages along the road to the colonial level and not long after they'd landed the vipers, several fast airborne vehicles had overflown the area. There seemed no comparison between those younger cousins of the vipers and these clunky road vehicles. What was happening here? And what did it mean for the fleet?

If this was Earth, fabled Earth, then the Colonists had been drawn forward by a false dream. This world couldn't defend them against the Cylons, it couldn't even defend itself.

They passed a large building that had to be a public hostelry. Apollo could think of no other explanation for the noise and light that poured from its open doors. Boxey seemed to agree.

"Should we go in, Father?" Boxey asked. They were the first words the younger man had spoken since they left the vipers. There hadn't seemed to be anything to say. Apollo hesitated. In recent years contacting the colony worlds they'd found had become increasingly difficult. While the first few years of their journey had taken them through worlds settled from the Twelve Tribes, more recently they had come across worlds that had been isolated for thousands or tens of thousands of years. Each had had it's own language, some related but most completely independently evolved from whatever their common root had been. It had been encouraging, a sign that they were getting closer to the Thirteenth Tribe, but it had taken weeks of linguistic study in each case before teams had been sent down to the surface.

"We don't have any currency, Boxey. This doesn't look like the kind of settlement where we can barter for goods. We're not even going to know their language." He shook his head. "I think we should keep walking, try to find a place where we can observe the population without direct contact with them."

"Father," Boxey hesitated and Apollo heard the doubt in his tone. "We can't keep walking for long. It's cold and getting colder. We need to find shelter for the night, or fuel for the vipers. If we can't communicate how are we ever going to be able to find the fuel we need?"

Apollo forced himself to smile.

"I could remind you that coming here was your idea." He said wryly. He frowned. "Boxey, we'll have to plan this one as we go along. If all else fails I have a feeling that those aircraft we saw earlier were looking for us. If they were there will be other people looking too. I'm starting to wonder if it might be a good idea to get ourselves caught. The military are the people who will most likely have the fuel we need. I've been looking at this technology and most of it seems to be hydrocarbon based. If we can find some kind of petrochemical fuel we can adjust the vipers to take it but we'll need someone who can provide it in the first place, or put ourselves in a position where we can find some ourselves. Besides, we need to get some idea what the military here are capable of. If we bring the Cylons this way will they be able to cope?"

"But we have no idea what the military of this world are like. What if they put us in a cell and leave us there?"

"Then we escape." Apollo shrugged. "Starbuck has taught me more than one trick for getting out of a tight corner over the years." He tried not to let his son see that his words were more hopeful than convinced.

******

"{Hey you!}" Both Galactican pilots spun at the voice. A group of four men had staggered from the hostelry. From the way they were supporting one another's unsteady progress, it was fairly clear that they were drunk. Apollo and Boxey watched them silently. The words had been meaningless except for the fact that they were clearly addressed to the pilots. "{What do you think this is, Halloween?}" One of the men sneered.

"They're just looking for a fight, Father. Too much Ambrosia." Boxey murmured too quietly for the men to hear. "I think we should move on." Apollo nodded slightly and they turned to go.

"{Hey! I'm talking to you!}"

"{Leave it out, Phil}" Another of the men told his friend, "{We don't need this.}" He chuckled with all the mirth of someone who could barely walk. "{Tell you what, maybe they're off those UFO's they saw at the match earlier.}" He raised his voice as the drunks followed Apollo and Boxey down the street. "{That it, mister? You from outer space?}"

Apollo turned slightly at the raised voice and the first man, Phil, saw this as a challenge. He began to lumber down the street towards them, his fists raised. Almost without appearing to move, Apollo had his laser in his hand.

"Back off!" He shouted, hoping his tone would translate even if his words didn't. The man kept coming.

"{Ooooooh, a ray-gun.}" The more coherent lout called. "{Can I play too?}" Boxey drew and fired in one smooth movement. The oaf, Phil, hit the floor in a dead faint and suddenly the situation didn't seem to amuse his friends. Suddenly they were very sober. Two ran back to the pub as quickly as they could. Phil's friend stood dead still. "{It only is a ray-gun, too.}" He said almost to himself. Whimpering, he spread his hands to show he wasn't armed. "{I just want to see my friend's alright, mister.}" He said as reassuringly as he could manage. He edged forward, still with his hands outstretched until he could get then under Phil's shoulders. Grunting with the effort, the man dragged his immobile friend back to the pub.

Boxey and Apollo saw the faces now crowding the pub windows and exchanged looks. Sighing, Apollo holstered his laser pistol and sat down on the low wall that seemed to separate the road from private land. Somewhat shamedly, Boxey holstered his.

"I thought they were a threat, Father."

"Boxey, this is me." Apollo reminded him. He knew full well that the human mind could only cope with so much in one day. He'd just had more experience in coping with it. "I'm just glad your laser was still set for stun."

"Father, shouldn't we get out of here? I don't know what they were shouting about but I'm fairly sure some kind of law enforcement will be on its way."

"I was wondering if we should get captured." Apollo patted the wall beside him. "I think you just made up our minds for us. Sit down Boxey, they'll be here soon, I'm sure."

*****

General Damon of WorldEx watched his son with both irritation and concern. Ever since Megabyte had broken out as a Tomorrow People he'd displayed a remarkable talent for getting into trouble. Of course, Damon admitted to himself, Megabyte had been quite capable of getting into trouble before that but then it had rarely been life threatening. These days it just might be. Damon still had no idea what had happened yesterday to take all of the Tomorrow People to their island for so long. He still had no idea why Megabyte had been so insistent about tagging along on this alert. He had the nastiest suspicion that the two were related. The boy had got strange looks when they boarded the helicopter, even from the WorldEx team who were familiar with him. Damon had almost told him to stay behind but had decided at the last minute that he'd rather have his son in a bullet-proof jacket and somewhere in sight than unprotected in the middle of things. He had absolutely no doubt that that was where Megabyte was bound to end up. When they landed and got their positions in place, Damon promised himself he was going to have a long talk with that young man. He only hoped there'd be time.

As they'd boarded the helicopter, Megabyte had got the distant look that meant he was communing with his friends. Damon watched the rising anxiety on his son's face with a matching concern of his own. The frantic fear that crossed momentarily across Megabyte's face left Damon's heart in his mouth even after it faded. Damon was about to reach over and shake the boy when Megabyte's eyes snapped back into focus and looked at him with a piercing intensity.

Above the noise of the helicopter, it would be almost impossible to hear anything but this was a military helicopter. Damon knocked a fist against his headphones and then held up six fingers. Megabyte nodded and quickly switched his headphone's inbuilt radio to the same channel.

"Is anyone listening to this?" Megabyte shouted above the engine noise.

"No. It's a scrambled channel that only allows two users at once. Megabyte, what's going on?" It felt strange to be shouting secrets at the top of one's voice but this particular communication was actually more secure than whispering in one another's ears in any normal situation.

"Jade and Adam just got caught by the army."

"What!" Damon forced himself to concentrate. He was startled but not actually surprised. He'd had a nasty feeling that the Tomorrow People were ahead of him on this one. "Can't they just teleport out?"

"Not in front of that many people. And Adam's unconscious!"

"Is he alright?" Damon asked, concerned.

"We think so. Dad, you've got to get them out of there. They've separated Adam and Jade already."

Damon nodded. He retuned his radio to the executive frequency. "Frank!"

"General?" His assistant shouted back.

"Get onto the army, Special Intelligence Agency, everyone! Make it clear that this one is ours. Any suspects they have should be ready to be handed over as soon as we land."

"I'll get on to it, General, but they're not going to like it."

"I don't care if they like it or not! Just do it!" He retuned again to channel six.

"Did you hear that?"

"Yeah Dad, thanks. I've told Jade the cavalry's coming." He reached up to deactivate the radio.

"Now just hold on one minute, son." Damon leaned forward and grasped his wrist. "What happened to Adam? And what were they doing to get arrested in the first place? What do you know about these UFO's."

"It's a long story." Megabyte squirmed. "Dad, when we land I gotta go."

"You're not going anywhere without me, Marmaduke Damon, even if I had to handcuff you. Give!"

"Adam thought we should investigate these ships, that's all. One of them stunned him."

"One of the people flying the ships? They're hostile?" Damon gasped.

"No! They were long gone by the time Adam and Jade got there. It was just an anti-burglar thing."

"But you found the ships?"

"Yeah, and the army has too. Dad, Jade is real scared."

Frank leaned over to tug Damon's arm and, reluctantly, Damon released Megabyte's wrist so they could both retune their radios.

"General! The local cops just picked up two guys with ray guns. They stunned a local man and then waited to be taken into custody."

"Great!" Damon shouted, relieved that something seemed to be going right. On any other day he might have asked if the two men were just cranks but not today. "We'll talk to them when we land."

"Ah, reports say they don't speak English, sir. And we seem to be having trouble tracking them down."

"You just said they were in custody." Megabyte reminded him.

"Another agency collected them, the police are a little hazy on who."

"Well did you get onto the others and claim this case for us?" Damon asked angrily.

"Yes. The site will be released to us as soon as we land, any time now."

"And prisoners?" Megabyte shouted as the helicopter began to settle towards bleak and windswept moorland.

"I asked. No one has any yet." Frank shouted back with a satisfied air.

*****

PART SEVEN

[Jade, where are you?] Megabyte, urgent. Jade sighed. She looked around the white plastic quarantine capsule she'd been stuffed into. It bucked and rocked and she guessed that the jostling a while back had been loading her onto the back of some kind of lorry.

[Aren't you supposed to know that?]

[Did you see any insignia, badges and stuff, on the soldier's uniforms?] Megabyte persisted. [Anything to tell you what group they belonged to.]

[No. Nothing. Megabyte, what's going on?]The girl frowned even though she knew her friends couldn't see her. [Wasn't your Dad meant to be getting us out of here?]

[Those guys aren't regular army. We're having a little difficulty tracking you down.]

Jade went pale. She'd been scared enough already, now she began to panic. She reached out mentally and tried to feel if Adam was nearby but the part of her mind he usually touched was still quiet. [Find us, Megabyte! I can't get out of here until I can get to Adam.] She began to grope around the smooth white surface trying to find some flaw she could tear apart.

[Hold on, Jade.] Kevin reassured her. [You can teleport out of there if you need to.]

[Not without Adam!] She insisted stubbornly.

[Jade, we need you to hang on.] Megabyte told her gently. [As soon as you can see where you are I can get my Dad to you and he's got to outrank the lot of them. It's alright.]

*****

[She's not happy.] Megabyte broadcast on a tight line to Kevin. He was climbing out of the helicopter, remembering to duck as he ran forward to join the rest of the WorldEx team.

[Neither am I.] Kevin said sombrely. He and Megabyte might tease Jade but they'd known her longer than the rest of the TP's had. They felt responsible for her. [She ought to teleport out now.]

[She won't leave without Adam and she's our best chance of finding him.] Megabyte hesitated. He had the oddest feeling that if he ordered her to, Jade might actually do it. He seemed to have stepped into Adam's boots and the concept scared him. [She ought to stay if she can.]

[I'm coming there. Phillipe will cover for me here.] Kevin's voice echoed with his teleportation and a moment later the young man walked out of the nearby woodland. Instantly he was covered by a dozen weapons. He shivered both with nerves and with the shock of the cold Yorkshire night.

"Don't shoot!" Damon bellowed above the fading noise of the helicopter engines. "Kevin, come here!" He pulled his son and the newcomer off to one side, ignoring the looks he was getting from his staff. "Look." He whispered intensely. "I don't want any more of you lot appearing, alright? This is a military operation whether you like it or not. We will find Adam and Jade and get them back but I can't do it if you get in the way."

Frank was busy deploying the team they'd brought as well as requisitioned local police and a small detachment of regular soldiers.

"Area secure, sir." He reported as Damon finished lecturing the young men.

"Alright, have we located the unidentified vehicles?"

Frank swallowed hard and nodded.

"Yes, sir, the police here cordoned them off a quarter of an hour ago. Up in those woods." He indicated the trees off to one side. "Still no sign of the pilots. General, there are a lot of heavy tyre tracks in the general area of the...vehicles. Do you suppose they landed some kind of tank brigade?"

Megabyte rolled his eyes.

"Those looked a lot like single pilot aeroplanes to me." He pointed out. "I don't really think there was room in them for a tank."

Damon silenced him with a glare.

"He has got a point, Frank." The general admitted reluctantly. "But is there any way of following those tracks? We still don't know who took the ray-gun men." His glance back at the two Tomorrow People told them he'd not forgotten Adam and Jade either.

Frank consulted his notebook.

"Apparently they just lead onto one of the country roads and vanish. They could go anywhere from there, no way to track them on tarmac." Damon pinched the bridge of his nose to ease the developing headache.

"Right, I want all our men to fall back in a cordon one kilometre from the ships, vehicles, UFO's, whatever we feel like calling them."

"One kilometre, sir?"

"Just don't let anyone in. We can inspect them in the morning but it's cold, pitch black and windy. The ships could be booby trapped," He glanced back at Megabyte, "Or the land could be mined. Only an idiot would try and investigate advanced military craft of any kind in a pitch black woodland."

*****

Megabyte heard the dig at him and ignored it. He and Kevin were too busy talking to the others. Castor and Pheobus had been both startled and scared when Kevin teleported out so suddenly. Phillipe had taken several minutes to get out to the island and to catch up with the current situation. Megabyte had seriously considered calling Ami in too but from the occasional stray thought he picked up, he suspected that this conversation was make or break for the relationship between Ami and her mother. They needed to get through it without interruption.

[Kevin, why did you come?] Megabyte asked with gritted teeth when he got through explaining what was going on to Phillipe and the twins. It was a struggle to convince Castor and Pheobus that there was no way they could help in either search, for their friends or their relatives. Kevin shrugged unapologetically.

[When Jade gets to wherever she's going you might need my help, now, on the spot. It's better that I'm here, waiting.] Kevin looked up at Megabyte and the older boy realised he was glad of the company. They were all in constant contact with Jade and the waiting was tearing at their nerves.

[Megabyte.] That was Pheobus from the island.

[Hearing you loud and clear.]

[If you don't want the military of Earth to know about the Galactica, shouldn't we stop them looking at the vipers?] Both twins were behind the suggestion.

[I don't see how we can stop them.] Megabyte said reluctantly. [ You've probably gathered that my Dad knows what we are but even he couldn't hide something this big. I don't think he would if he could. I'm not even sure we should yet. Can we really stop the planet finding out about the Galactica and all your fleet?]

[We really don't know.] There was moral agony in the twins' tone. They knew what this meant to the Galactican Fleet. They knew that this was a huge decision. [But we don't think we should make the decision like this. If we can just delay it until we all have time to think....]

[If you have an idea, spit it out.] Megabyte told them.

[Castor and I are trained viper pilots.] The idea was so startling that it took several moments for Megabyte to grasp it.

[I thought you said you were in training.] Phillipe objected.

[We might not be combat ready but we've both soloed in vipers and we are trained pilots. We can get them off the ground, Megabyte, move them to somewhere they won't be found. There must be some areas of this planet that aren't covered by your detection equipment.]

[I'm not sure.] Kevin said dubiously, [With satellites and everything.]

[There are still some areas.] Phillipe assured them. [Deserts, rainforests. We can find somewhere. They wont have radar and might only be swept by a satellite once a week or so.]

[You're seriously suggesting stealing two UFO's?] Jade asked from her bouncing white capsule. Even in her terror she managed to be amused. Castor was indignant.

[Of course not, I'm suggesting reclaiming two Colonial Vipers that belong to my uncle and cousin from a primitive military that has seized them.] He gave a telepathic smile. [I suppose it depends on your point of view.] The smile faded. [Any word on them yet?]

[No, you'll be the first to know.] Megabyte told him. [But I have a suspicion that when Jade gets to wherever she's going we'll find them too.] He hesitated, trying to decide what Adam would do if he was here. [You're sure you can fly these things? You wont crash them or anything?] The twins just thought indignant thoughts. [Okay, Okay. Phillipe, see if you can figure out where's the best place to take them. My Dad's pulled his men back till morning because I told him about the stun charge on the ships and he thinks there might be booby traps. That gives you five hours or so to find a place to take those ships and launch them. What if you run into other jets, fighters?]

[Phillipe tells us your fastest jets can just manage a couple of times the speed of sound in your atmosphere. Even in gas this thick, the vipers can leave anything that slow standing.]

[Alright. Just don't hurt any of my Dad's people. These folks are on our side.]

Pheobus's reply was slow in coming.

[Your father might be on our side. If his people were we'd be there already and talking to them, not stuck on this island. We wont hurt them, Megabyte, but we don't trust them.]

[I suppose not.] Megabyte said slowly, [Nor do I.]

*****

Starbuck paced his quarters in frustration trying to be there for the two women he loved, knowing that his presence was small comfort. Athena and Cassiopeia seemed stunned still, as stunned as Starbuck felt. He just couldn't come to terms with losing Apollo and Boxey as well as his sons. It didn't seem real somehow, but it had to be. Starbuck longed to just jump into his viper and hunt his friends and family down but there was no way Adama would allow that. Apollo had been right when he said that what was left of his family would need him, and besides there was nowhere to hunt, no trail to follow. Now that the Galactica had travelled that little bit further, widesweeping patrols had discovered the wreckage of a Galactican shuttle. It had to be Castor and Pheobus's. There was no sign, though, of the two missing vipers and no indication of why they hadn't just turned round when they found the wreck. If they ever had found it. It was well off to one side of the Galactica's course and with the constant niggling Cylon presence in this quadrant the chances that Apollo and Boxey had been blown into atoms without ever knowing what had happened to the twins were high.

Starbuck felt the tears he hadn't been able to cry pricking at his eyes but suppressed them. There had been enough waterworks tonight. Athena and Cassiopeia still sobbed occasionally and even ten year old Aura had joined in. Starbuck tried to be cynical about that but couldn't quite manage it. He'd always had a soft spot for any children but particularly his own. Aura was old enough to understand that she'd never see four members of her family again, he shouldn't deny her that maturity. Zack...Zack was sneaking towards the door.

"Where do you think you're go