POV: James Cromwell, Captain: SLS Manassas. The next day.
I took a deep breath as the grinding of stone once more filled my ears. From within the Sarcophagus, a thin man with blonde hair stood up.
To my right, Lieutenant Moretti spoke "Lieutenant, please step out of the sarcophagus."
Lieutenant Donald Terry turned to the doctor as she spoke, after a few moments he did exactly as asked as the next person was placed into the sarcophagus. Lieutenant Moretti once more began her usual explanation of what had happened while Lieutenant Terry stood there quietly, listening.
Donald nodded once she had finished. "I understand." Next, he turned to me, his legs snapping together and offering a full SLDF salute.
I saluted him back and nodded, a light smile gracing my face. "Welcome back, old friend."
Donald seemed to freeze, completely unsure of how to act. I smiled and turned around. "Come. We have a lot to catch up on."
- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair. Three days later.
The preparations for this meeting – it would almost be best to call it a press conference – were extensive. Multiple massive tri-vid screens had been put together in a newly constructed warehouse on Kaelastrum, seating had been prepared for almost 1900 people, since literally every member of both the village and the ship's crew would be in attendance.
Now here we were. I was sitting at the far right side of the table, with Elder James and Lieutenant Lewis seated at the middle, Major Novak was between me and the Elder, while on the far side of the table, the newly revived Lieutenant Donald Terry and Elder Ralos – one of the village's oldest inhabitants.
As the last of the people trickled into the massive room, Elder James finally stood up. Behind me, the massive Tri-vid display flickered to life, the picture of the Elder clearly visible.
So began the conference. "The purpose of this conference is to share all information we currently have available and to talk about our plans for the near future. In that light, I will begin with what will likely be of most importance to those of you here."
On the tri-vid, a picture of my father appeared. "Many of you likely remember Captain Sinclair." He gestured to me. "This is the Captain's son. He has unfortunately been deceased for a little under two decades now, so he can't be here. This was a set of recordings that the late Captain left behind."
Elder James sat down and the Tri-vid display brought up another recording from my father. This one explained everything in much greater detail. Why he had refused the seat of First Lord, as well as his decision to join Kerensky in the Exodus.
While many of the villagers were aware of the Cameron name, though most of them knew me personally better than they did anyone else. The same was very much not true for the crew of the Manassas. Before, most of them had entirely ignored me, now all of them stared at me with an almost reverential look. It left a bad taste in my mouth, considering the fact that the fall of the Star League was basically my idiot uncle's fault.
As the recording came to an end, Elder James stood up and continued. "Since we've left the Inner Sphere, a great deal has become clear to us. Humanity is not alone in the universe. There are others who have visited Terra in the past, and would destroy us if they got the chance. The primary threat to the Inner Sphere is the Goa'uld Empire. They control most of the Galaxy and have vessels that would likely be capable of singlehandedly wiping out all of Humanity, if they wished for it."
He took a deep breath. "We cannot allow the Inner Sphere to remain ignorant of this fact, but even if they were told, do any of you truly believe that they would unite?"
The room was silent for several moments before the Elder continued. "All they would do is take this knowledge and use it as a weapon against each other. It would be the single greatest war in the history of the Inner Sphere; none of the great houses would stop until they were the only ones standing."
He took a deep breath. "Many of you are likely aware that we currently have a small fleet heading to the Inner Sphere. They are expected to reach Terra in around nine months. Once we know more, we will let you know. Now, the next hour will be spent explaining the current state of the galaxy as we know it. From there, Lieutenant Lewis here will explain our current plans. All the material we have will be made available for all of you to peruse."
It took about an hour to explain the history of the galaxy, starting from the Systems Commonwealth and ending with the modern state of the Second Goa'uld Empire. Unfortunately, a lot of information on the First Goa'uld Empire was unknown, so a period of approximately 5000 years was left rather blank for information. By the end, all but a rare few were fixated on Elder James.
They specifically didn't mention any of my current knowledge on the state of the Inner Sphere. It was understandable, everything I'd said confirmed the worst fears of the Exodus fleet. Especially considering the fact that they'd have confirmation of my words once they reached Terra, it was better to wait for actual confirmation.
The Elder stopped for a moment to grab a sip of water before continuing. "Now, here is Lieutenant Lewis to explain our current plans."
The Elder sat down and Lieutenant Lewis stood up. "Hello everyone. It's good to see both new and old faces. As you are all aware, our current world has been compromised and is not a safe place to remain. We are currently testing the Manassas' Jump Drive, and once we have confirmed that it is in full working order, we will be abandoning Nekhara permanently."
Most of the villagers had already begun moving to Kaelastrum and the Manassas' crew hadn't spent much time on the world to begin with, so the response was rather minimal. The Lieutenant continued. "As most of you are aware, our primary base of operations will be on a single world with both the Serkha as well as the Dendredans. Quite frankly, the current status quo is not sufficient if we want to be able to safely live alongside both other groups. At minimum, we need to have guarantees that we'll have equal say in coming decisions, as well as a fair legal system for handling any future incidents."
Lieutenant Lewis stopped for a few moments to look down at his compad before returning his sight to the massive crowd before him. "In a little under a week, we will be entering negotiations with both the Dendredans and the Serkha to form a single unified government. Our goal will be to ensure that we have proper access to food and shelter, as well as equal representation alongside the Dendredans and the Serkha."
He paused for another few moments. "All together, our groups speak seven different unique languages, and the cultural differences are not insignificant, but we cannot survive without them and they cannot survive without us. Thank you, we'll be taking questions now."
The next seven hours were spent answering as many questions as we could from the various members of the village and the Manassas' crew. By the time the sun set, we weren't even close to finishing everything up. It was decided to continue the meeting the next day. While we wouldn't see the end result for a while, at least on the surface, the conference appeared to be a massive success. A lot of worries had clearly been alleviated and I returned to my bed that night feeling completely exhausted.
With the knowledge that I would be returning to working on the Jump Drive in the morning, I slept like a baby.
- - -
POV: Lieutenant Andrea Sarti. Acting Commanding Officer of the SLS Manassas. Two days after the conference.
As the Manassas' main drive cut off, we found ourselves floating at the system's zenith point. Over the past few days, we had done every single possible check in the manual. The drive core was charged, the coolant tank was operating at max capacity, and the field initiator was in the best condition it had been in decades.
From the Engineering deck, I took the elevator to the small-craft bay where a pair of Tel'taks had been stationed in case of emergency. Entering one of them, I found the ship's pilot, one of the so called Serkha, waiting for me. "Ma'am!" he called out. I looked at him for a moment. He wore his SLDF uniform straight. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he had been wearing the uniform for years.
I quickly let the thought pass and nodded to him. "We're in position. We need to call the Captain to get confirmation."
He nodded once and sat down at the ship's command console. Within a moment, a hologram appeared, showing another person. The pilot immediately began speaking. "We are at the zenith point and waiting for confirmation that we are permitted to begin the test."
The person on the other end nodded. "Give me five minutes." The hologram disappeared.
Barely three minutes later, the hologram returned, this time showing the Captain. I threw off a salute and watched as the much older Captain seemed to grow slightly uncomfortable for the briefest of moments, before he began. "Lieutenant. What do you believe the chances of a missjump are?"
"Less than one in a million. I have complete confidence that this will work, sir."
He nodded. "Understood. Then you are permitted to begin the jump to the system's Nadir point. There is a ship currently waiting there to confirm your arrival. Make sure to evacuate all non-essential personnel before beginning the jump. You are to follow standard jump procedure. Am I understood?"
I nodded. "Crystal. You can expect us to begin within 30 minutes."
"Understood. Keep us informed." With that, the call closed out. The Serkha stood up and saluted me. Out of habit, I returned it. He seemed to smile at the response.
From there, the ship bustled with activity as the nearly 100 engineers still onboard the Manassas transferred into the pair of Tel'taks. All of them barely fit, luckily they wouldn't have to be stuck onboard the ships for more than thirty minutes.
As the pair of ships undocked and moved to a safe distance of fifty kilometers, all that was left onboard the ship was myself, a helmsman, and a radio operator.
I took a deep breath and sat back into the Captain's chair. I was an engineer at heart, but sitting in the chair was a nice change of pace for a moment.
I snapped my eyes open and looked down at the armrest, before turning to the radio operator. "Confirm that we're transmitting on standard frequencies."
The radio operator clicked through several options at his terminal before nodding. "Confirmed. We're transmitting."
Next I turned to the Helmsman. "Confirm that we're ready to jump."
Another few moments passed as the Helmsman clicked away at her terminal. "Confirmed. Drive Core is charged at 100%. At your command, ma'am."
I nodded. "Your microphone is on, Helmsman. Begin the countdown."
She nodded, and pressed a button. Throughout the ship, the warning lights activated and the Helmsman's voice came through every speaker. "Jump in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
The claxons continued for several long moments, before the helmsmans pressed another few buttons. The Claxons stopped and her voice once more echoed from the speakers. "Jump confirmed. Location confirmed. We're at the nadir point."
I turned back to the radio operator. "There should be a ship waiting for us."
She was silent for several moments, before a voice spoke through the radio. While the voice was unfamiliar, I breathed a sigh of relief. "Congradulations, Manassas. Welcome back to Realspace."
The radio operator smiled and nodded. "Thanks for the welcome. Didn't feel like we were gone all that long."