Alone amidst the stars. Bereft. Angry. Defeated. Iblis
wandered the cosmos, fuming, nay pouting, over his recent
defeat. He looked back towards the Federation. Happiness.
Joy. How disgusting. All his plans, all the work of
millennia, turned to dust because of…a deadline! Well, they
had not heard the last of him. He squinted over at the
rotating orb of Cylon. All his creations, immobile and
useless, were already succumbing to the elements and
scavengers. Glancing at the glittering necklace of the
Colonies, he saw the few, harried survivors of the Cylon
onslaught and occupation emerge into their sunlight, stunned
to find themselves free. He broiled in anger, hate coursing
through him at the joy of mere men. Gazing towards Terra, he
was insulted to see enemies making peace. And, as if that
were not disgusting enough, he could not help but spy Kobol,
long a desolate wasteland, at last emerging from the dead
void he had woven about her. For ages dry, desolate and
barren, her sun was now returning to life, as was the
surface. As if by magic, water began bubbling up from the
ground, ancient rivers to begin flowing once more, ancient
seas to once more fill, clouds to form.
Iblis turned away, filled with overmastering rage. Who,
now, could he hope to…

As he seethed, his gaze fell upon a ship, far, far away
from the Colonies, far across the galaxy. A large, bulky
ship. Curious, he drew closer, till the vessel, a vast cube,
came into view. The Father of Lies studied it for a few
picoseconds, considering, till at last he smiled. Smiled as
an evil plan came into his mind.


=====================================


Amidst all the celebrations, rejoicing, and general
abandon, Captain Apollo, son of Adama, and the newly
promoted Captain Sheba, daughter of Cain, were sealed in a
ceremony broadcast throughout the Fleet, and elsewhere. To
fete the nuptial couple, Starbuck, after cleaning out tables
one, two, and three on the Rising Star, rented out, with Lt.
Kirk's help, Madison Square Garden in New York City for the
reception. Grinning ear to ear, the brash Viper pilot,
locally made fumerello between his teeth (Havana No, 5),
looked at his Federation counterpart, and laughed: "Can I
throw a party, or what?"

Now that it was no longer a question of whether or not
Earth was able to help them defeat the Cylons, the question
became one of where would the survivors of the Colonies
live? Many, naturally, chose to try and find a place on
Earth. But many more, partially due to the various
languages, religions, and ethnic sub-groups in the Colonies,
and partially as a result of their long ordeal together,
wished to find a place of their own. A new world to build,
now that Martial Law was over, and the Cylon threat was
forever a thing of the past.

Once more, this time through the good offices and
connections of Captain Pike, the Federation was more than
willing to help. A search was made, and the results were
quick in coming. Delta Pavonis, barely fifteen light-years
from Earth, sported three worlds that could support Human
life; the third planet out from the star, and both the
fourth planet and one of its moons, with others that could
be terraformed. Fertile, rich in resources, and barely
touched save for a few wildcat prospectors, they were like a
gift from God. A present waiting to be unwrapped.

Adama put it to the Council, and also to the people.
The Federation was willing to cede, free and clear, the
entire system to the Colonials. They could settle these new
worlds, and begin rebuilding their civilization, while at
the same time, slowly integrating themselves into the wider
fabric of the United Federation of Planets. It was probably
the fastest plebiscite in Colonial history. Within a single
Earth day, virtually every eligible member of the Fleet
(including the former residents of the Prison Barge, except
for Charybdis, for whom Adama had declared a blanket amnesty
in honor of the final reaching of Earth. Charybdis he had
marooned with he former employer and fellow-traitor Baltar),
had cast their votes.

The Colonies would be reborn.

After a few weeks of rest and restoration, both of
ships and people, the Battlestars and half a dozen of the
Fleet's vessels departed for Delta Pavonis. Once in visual
range, the worlds that were to be theirs were all they could
have hoped for. Blue and white, swathed with vast expanses
of green, and possessing atmospheres eloquent of fertility,
these planets were truly jewels. Within a day, they were
scanned and charted, a site had been chosen on the fourth
and largest world, a vast, rich plain surrounded by forested
mountains and cut by pristine rivers teeming with life, the
Colonial flag planted, tents set up, grids plotted out, and
the Republic of New Kobol declared.

"I'll bet you never saw yourself as the father of a
Country, Adama," grinned Cain, mug of ambrosia in hand, as
the sun set over the first full day's work. It was a
slightly different color sun than what they were used to
back home, only a single star, but this was home, now, he
reminded himself. "And congratulations. You and Siress
Tinia."

"No," replied the old Commander. "Not in a thousand
yahrens, Cain. And thank you. But, it would appear, I am
nonetheless. Sort of like a Colonial…Cincinnatus, or
Washington."

"Who?" asked the Pegasus Commander, watching these
unfamiliar stars come out.

"Great men from Earth's own history. Old and tired
Warriors, who were always being called back into service."

"Like old Battlestars," smiled Cain, looking up at the
shining dots above the horizon that were the Galactica and
Pegasus.

"Yes," replied Adama. "Just like."

"Here's to tired, doddering old war daggits, old
friend,” said Cain, raising his mug to Adama. The father of
New Kobol returned the gesture, with a clink.

"Amen."





Within sectons, even as New Caprica City rose from the
empty plain, elections were held, and Adama was almost
unanimously chosen as the Colonial's new President. At once,
he resigned the bridge of the Galactica, handing command
over to the newly promoted Commander Tigh amidst great pomp
and ceremony. The survivors of the various Tribes selected
and began settling areas on the three habitable worlds,
determined, for the present, to maintain their unique
separateness within the Colonial Union. (It is not known
what became of the Atori Sect) Adama served two terms, until
he was certain that the new state was well upon the road to
stability. Once all military and political life was behind
him, he at last retired to Earth, he and Siress Tinia
spending their last yahrens together in a house on the Maine
coast, like his original home on Caprica, overlooking the
sea. Upon his passing, twenty standard yahren after finally
leading his people to safety, he was interred in a
magnificent tomb in the Forum of New Caprica City, Siress
Tinia joining him a few yahren later.

Apollo also resigned his commission, becoming the first
Ambassador of New Kobol to the United Federation of Planets,
and it was during this tenure that Sheba gave birth to their
first child, a son named Zac. Followed a few centons later
by a daughter, Bethany, named after her late mother. In all,
the House of Adama was rounded out by an Athena, an Ila, a
Starbuck, a Cain, and a Vela. (Apollo never said from where
he got that name) Later, when middle age was upon him and he
was a grandfather himself, he followed his father into the
Presidency.

Cain retained Command of the Pegasus for a few yahren,
till he was appointed Commandant of the new Colonial
Military Academy, command of the Pegasus passing to Colonel
Tolan. Never one to sit quietly planetside, he frequently
led cadet training cruises in person, and it was during one
of these exercises that he met his death in a shuttle
accident, in the Earth year 2278, at the age of 110 yahren.

Starbuck, for several yahren chief flight instructor at
the Academy, succeeded Cain as Commandant, till he at last
retired, upon his father Chameleon's death, he and Cassie
buying several freighters, and making a fortune in the
coffee business. At last resigning himself to the
inevitable, he'd kept his word to Cassiopeia, and they were
sealed on Earth. (It has been remarked, in more than one
history, that Starbuck was faithful to her.) Three
children, Chameleon, Miri, and James, were born to them.
Cassiopeia, upon the unexpected death of Dr. Salik, became
director of the New Kobol University's medical college, a
post she held for nearly twenty-five yahren. Upon
retirement, she and Starbuck retired to one of their new
world's tropical islands, ultimately disappearing from all
public life.

Tigh spent the rest of his life in the military, at the
helm of the Galactica, or at the Academy. Never remarrying
after the loss of his beloved wife in the Holocaust, he
became a fixture at many Colonial/Federation functions, and
even once helped mediate a border dispute with the Klingons.
He died, revered and honored, at the venerable age of 230,
the oldest Colonial in living memory.

Boxey eventually rose in the Colonial service to the
rank of Commander, helming the Adama, the first starship
built in New Kobol's yards, on many voyages of exploration
and discovery. After grudgingly entering political life, he
was instrumental in beginning the slow, gradual assimilation
of their own ships and forces into the wider Starfleet.
Sealed to Robber's daughter, Tanya, he made Apollo a
grandfather three times, and was at last convinced to settle
down, to the life of an academic, becoming Chancellor of the
University of New Caprica. For many yahren, the sound of his
old mechanical friend Muffit could be heard wafting through
the corridors of that institution.

Dr. Wilker spent many yahrens in one research project
or another. Always designing, inventing, or studying, he
contributed numerous advances to Colonial propulsion
technology, and received over twenty Federation and sixteen New Kobolian patents. Unable to resist the lure of knowledge, he shipped out one
last time on an exploratory vessel heading into an uncharted
region, to study the geologies of several newly discovered
Class K planets, when his ship vanished without trace, sadly
ending a brilliant career at the age of 126 yahren.

Boomer, Giles, Greenbean, Brie, Bojay, Dietra, and the
other Viper pilots who had survived the brutal voyage across
the universe, went various ways over the yahren. Some into
business, some remaining Warriors, passing on their skills
to a new generation of students, some vanishing altogether
from public notice. For yahren, many of them were in demand
in schools and on lecture tours, keeping their history, and
all the sacrifices it entailed, alive in the minds of the
younger generation. Boomer, the communications whiz,
resigned his commission after several yahren to became the
head of New Kobol's premiere media corporation, Colonial
News Network, personally designing many new systems.
Greenbean became head of the shipyard, and he and Dietra,
the only surviving Viper pilot to have launched off the
original during the ambush at Cimtar, christened the new
Battlestar the Atlantia.

Athena left the service after a few yahren, becoming
first a private freighter pilot (running the occasional load
of ambrosia for Robber's distillery) on numerous runs
between New Kobol and her neighbors, then a primary school
teacher. After several yahren, she became part of an
"Intercultural Educational Exchange Program", and she, her
husband, Boomer, and their son Noah, found themselves bound
for Vulcan. It is not known if she ever remembered anything
of her encounter with Spock, or Iblis, but they spent almost
a Vulcan month there, and it was not long afterwards that
Boomer became Ambassador to that world. She mixed freely
with the Vulcan elite, and met Spock again, now a full
Commander, on Stardate 3842.3, during the voyage to the
Babel Conference, to discuss the admission of the Coridan
system to the Federation, when U.S.S. Enterprise was
attacked by an Orion raider. There is no record of their
speaking, or whether her presence in any way affected
Spock's concentration or thought processes during that
crisis. After Boomer's death, Athena completely disappeared,
and no one knows what fate befell her.

Omega went into private business, in time coming to
hold controlling shares in the new Transstellars Company
that owned the Rising Star, the Gemini freighter, and
several others. To say that he and Rigel did well for
themselves would be an understatement. They were in time
consoled for their loss by the birth of a daughter, Jamie,
for a lost pilot friend, and a son, named in honor of the
man who had saved Rigel, Boyce.

O'Kala and Sirrion, after a few yahren, published
several papers on what they had found in the wormhole
machine system, then entered the archaeological field,
visiting many star systems together. They perished together,
on planet Camus II, as part of the machinations of the
insane Dr. Janice Lester, shortly before Stardate 5928.5.

The Klingon Commander Korrd eventually became the
feared General Korrd, rising very high in Imperial military
circles, until, at last having spoken the foul, obscene word
peace once too often, he was “promoted” to the miserable excuse
for a colony on Nimbus III, as the Klingon representative.
Caught up in the actions of the renegade Vulcan Sybok, circa
Stardate 8454.1, he survived, helping to defuse a possible
war, and finally retired into anonymity. His son, Worf,
hardly out of his teens at the time of his rescue, went on
to become a Colonel in the Klingon military, as well as a
respected advocate. Having learned from personal experience
that the Federation was not a collection of bloodthirsty
demons out to slaughter the Klingon people, he grew to
respect Humans, gaining some measure of fame for his attempt
to defend James Kirk and Leonard McCoy on charges of
murdering the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon, on Stardate 9521.6.
His grandson, also named Worf, would achieve even more fame
as both a Federation officer, and Klingon Warrior, in the
following century. What benefits the Klingons gleaned from
their captured Cylon debris, however, remains unclear.

Lt. Kang would also rise in his service, at last
becoming the feared Commander Kang, of the I.K.V. K'tanco,
and the husband of the only other survivor of the Bird-of-
Prey, B’ath, Mara. He would meet the Federation again, first
due to the machinations of the mysterious Beta XII-A entity,
then later, face off against Captain Sulu in his attempt to
rescue Kirk during the Gorkon affair. He would at last meet
his end, heroically, nearly a century later, in personal
combat against the vile criminal, the Albino.

Koloth would also rise high in the Klingon service, in
time coming to command the G’roth. He and Korax would meet
the Federation once more, in the confrontation over
Sherman's planet, and the tribble affair, aboard Deep Space
Station K-7, on Stardate 4523.3. Koloth would die, a true
Klingon, fighting at Kang's side.

Kruge, surviving, unfortunately, his knife fight with
Korrd, would come to command a Bird-of-Prey himself, and
meet his death, in revenge for numerous murders, as well as
the wanton destruction of the U.S.S. Grissom, veteran of the
Cylon encounter, in the fiery demise of the Genesis Planet,
on Stardate 8210.3.

Of James Tiberius Kirk, the young Lieutenant who
rescued Starbuck and his companions, much is written
elsewhere, and need not be recounted here. However, his
involvement in the conflict with the Cylons would have
interesting, and some have said, bizarre resonances in the
years to come, both in the Federation, and in the lives of
many of those whose paths he crossed, as in the events
above. It will be noted that, after his seeming death on
Stardate 48650.1, a somber, graying Starbuck delivered a
powerful, and to the shock of many, tearful eulogy at the
memorial service, praising the officer who had once saved he
and his comrades from certain death.

Dr. Phillip Boyce, CMO of Enterprise during the Cylon
crisis, retired from Starfleet a few years later. After a
brief interval, Leonard McCoy, assistant CMO aboard
Farragut, became Kirk's CMO on Enterprise when he assumed
command of that vessel. McCoy would become one of the most
celebrated physicians in Federation history, rising at last
to Admiral, and still active, inspecting the new facilities
of the Enterprise NCC-1701-D, on Stardate 41153.7, at the
age of 137.

Spock, son of Sarek, would at last rise to Captain,
even initiating peace overtures with the Klingon Empire in
the wake of the Praxis Incident, before leaving Starfleet to
pursue diplomacy, the career his father had desired for him
from the first. After a long and successful career in that
field, he left Vulcan, for Romulus, home planet of the
brutal Romulan Star Empire, in an attempt to foment
reunification between their peoples. After defusing a
Romulan plot to invade the Federation, he remained on
Romulus, reportedly still working underground, as of 2369.

Montgomery Scott, "Scotty", would become Enterprise's
Chief Engineer, finally retiring from Starfleet after the
apparent death of Kirk in 2293, and vanishing on his way to
the Norpin Colony. Of his rescue, and return to active life,
more is told elsewhere.

Sulu, who befriended Boomer and Sheba, eventually rose,
via becoming Enterprise helmsman, to the Captaincy of the
U.S.S. Excelsior, and had a career matching Kirk's.

Captain Ramart, commanding officer of the Grissom,
later helmed the science vessel U.S.S. Antares. He, along
with his entire crew and vessel, were destroyed, via the
telekinetic powers of the immature yet frighteningly
powerful Charlie Evans, after transferring him to
Enterprise, now under Kirk's command, on Stardate 1533.6,
for the sin of "not liking" him.

Captain Christopher Pike, who first made contact with
the Colonials, was later promoted to Fleet Captain, passing
the helm of Enterprise to James Kirk. In 2266, while
inspecting a cadet training vessel, he was horribly injured
after an engine room explosion released massive amounts of
radiation, killing numerous cadets despite his heroic rescue
efforts. Crippled, vegetative, unable even to speak, yet
cruelly aware of everything around him, he was kidnapped in
an elaborate scheme devised by Spock, now Kirk's exec, on
Stardate 3012.4, and taken back to Talos IV, where the
Keeper offered him a life unfettered by his ravaged body. He
accepted, and is transported down to the subterranean
Talosian community. Of the remainder of his life, nothing
more is known.

Yeoman Colt, like Athena, Rigel, and Spock the victim
of Iblis' machinations, eventually realized that she and
Pike were destined never to be together in the way she had
for so long hoped. Hurt, crushed, yet understanding the
truth, she left Enterprise shortly after the Cylon affair,
transferring to a long-range survey ship. She achieved a
considerable reputation in Starfleet, before dropping out of
sight altogether several years later.

Commodore Nogura later became Admiral Nogura, Commander
Starfleet. It was he who returned Enterprise to Kirk's
command on Stardate 7412.6, amidst the V’Ger crisis.

Captain Stone of the Constellation was later promoted
to Commodore, and put in command of Starbase 11. On Stardate
2947.3, Stone reluctantly convened a Court Martial, accusing
now-Captain Kirk of negligent homicide in the loss of a
member of his crew. In a curious twist of irony, Kirk would
later destroy the Constellation, when, on Stardate 4202.9,
Enterprise encountered the other vessel, wrecked and
drifting in space, victim of an alien device of unknown
origin dubbed "The Doomsday Machine", that shatters and
consumes entire planets, and was apparently impervious to
all weaponry. In a last desperate attempt to defeat the
seemingly invincible machine, Kirk flew the barely
functioning Constellation into the berserker's maw, damaged
impulse engines set to overload. He was successful in
escaping to Enterprise, and the Constellation exploded,
permanently deactivating the horrific planet-killer. As
though this weren't enough, Kirk would also bring about the
destruction of the U.S.S. Reliant, during the Genesis
crisis, after that ship was hijacked by terrorists, on
Stardate 8130.4.

On Stardate 5693.2, Enterprise returned to the general
region near the Tholian border where the Cylon incursion
took place, looking for the missing U.S.S. Defiant, silent
for three weeks. It was discovered that while the drifting
vessel was still functioning, everyone aboard was dead, the
entire crew having killed each other in some bizarre plague
of mass insanity. The bizarre inter-dimensional physics of
the area was also causing the Defiant to slip between
universes, and before the boarding party could be fully
retrieved, a Tholian vessel appeared. Commanded by Loskeem,
veteran of the Cylon encounter, they demanded Enterprise's
withdrawal. After a tense situation, an exchange of weapons
fire, a second Tholian warship, and a few crewmen succumbing
to the same madness as the Defiant's, Kirk was rescued, but
the Defiant was, seemingly, permanently lost, vanishing into the
interspatial rift.

Freeman, the technician Kirk first encountered aboard
the Rising Star, was the first Colonial to enlist in
Starfleet. He was assigned to Enterprise, shortly before the
tribble affair. His co-worker, Neith, became on of Kirk's
myriad lady friends. Anglicizing her name to Ruth, she
eventually went her way, only to be "summoned" as it were,
on the so-called Amusement Park Planet, created from Kirk's
own thoughts, on Stardate 3025.3.

A few months after the Cylon encounter, Farragut was
attacked, over planet Tycho IV, by a bizarre cloud-like
creature of unknown origin. Drawn to the hemoglobin protein
in Human blood, it killed more than 200 of the ship's crew, including Kirk's Captain, Garrovik. Barely surviving himself, Kirk guided the Farragut back to Starbase, and for years blamed himself for his CO's death. Eleven years later,
Kirk encountered the mysterious creature once again, and
along with Garrovik's son, newly assigned to Enterprise as
an Ensign, succeeded where he once had failed, and destroyed the
deadly creature. The Hood was wrecked, her entire crew
killed, on Stardate 4729.4, during the disastrous War Games
encounter, testing the new M-5 Multitronic computer system.

What became of Lucifer, Imperious Leader, and the other
surviving or recovered Cylons was classified. However,
rumors persist that Lucifer was sent to a secret research
project at Caltech, under the direction of a brilliant
researcher, Dr. Richard Daystrom, investigating new
approaches to computer systems. From these clandestine
projects, the Multitronic Computer System emerged,
culminating in the M-5 Computer. Designed to be self-
directed and sentient, imprinted with Human thought
patterns, the computer also displayed the worst traits of
intelligent beings, becoming suspicious, paranoid, lying,
and in the end murderous. Unfortunately, these latent
problems did not emerge until the disastrous War Games tests
of 2267, resulting in the deaths of over 400 Starfleet
personnel, and the descent of Daystrom into madness.
Unsubstantiated stories insist that Lucifer's systems were
used as a template for this research, and that his
positronic brain systems, amplified in Imperious Leader's
neural net, became the basis for the much later designs of
Dr. Noonien Soong, creator of the androids Data, B-4, and
Lore. Due to the still-classified nature of all data
regarding the interned Cylons, none of this, including
persistent rumors that Lucifer is still functional and
involved with the Federation in some way, can be verified.

Giles eventually resigned from the Colonial Service, and settled in Hawaii, where he became the manager of a swanky club on Waikiki.

Reese moved to Earth, and became Police Chief for Los
Angeles.







The fireball had faded, the cloud of debris cooled,
returning the skies over the wormhole planet to their
millennium-long dullness. Only the occasional streak of
burning wreckage penetrating the atmosphere gave hint of the
machine that had orbited this world, alone, empty and
forgotten, for countless thousands of years. Now, the device
gone, the underground installations began returning to their
long sleep, their purpose as gone as their makers.

So it was that the approaching ship had found the
place. Empty. Alone. Silent. It sniffed around for a few
hours, scanning debris and planets, but eventually shrugged
it off as worthless. Not so, another world, a several light-
years distant.




Charybdis stood over the bleeding, dying form of
Baltar. The two exiles had finally had enough of each other,
and it had come to blows. Charybdis raised his club for one
final blow, then turned at a sound.



There was a signal, and life forms! Investigation
followed. A life form standing upon the surface turned at
their approach, another dying form at its feet. The standing
form spoke, but it was irrelevant.

We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is
futile.