As the Ge'daes dropped out of hyperspace her scanners started scanning the sector for the Atlantis. What they found in the system shocked everyone to the core. Earth was A lifeless ball of dirt. Breq looked in Jon's direction trying to read his face. He had knew that the old Emperor was capable of such things, but had never saw the results of a cleansing.
Jon hung his head for a second as he tried to process what he saw. Thoughts filled his mind as he processed that the Earth was no more. Rick and Ellie were clinging to each other as they realized what had happened to the Earth.
"Is the Phoenix Base still on the moon?" Ellie whispered into Rick's shoulder.
Jon snapped back, "Scan the moon check for any signs of a base or life."
Breq leaned heavily of the railing as he watched the lifeless planet rotate on the main viewer. He suddenly felt very small, they had waited too long to remove the last Emperor and this was the result. He swore to himself that this would never happen again, not as long as he was the leader of the Invaru people.
Jon was suddenly beside him, "What do you know of th... this atrocity?"
Breq paled as he looked into Jon's eyes, "Nothing..."
"NOTHING! What do you mean nothing! Your people did this, your people killed an entire civilization. You were second only to the Emperor, how could you know nothing!" Jon screamed.
Breq stood up straight, "I assure you Admiral Hunter, I had no knowledge of these events. There are some things that even the Emperor kept to himself."
Carex had moved closer to Jon incase the Invaru attempted to harm him. He slowly pulled his weapon from its hip holster.
Jon deflated, Breq had never lied to him as far as he knew, "I'm sorry, it's just... hard to see my home world like this. Who would know what happened here, any ideas?"
"No need to apologize. I understand what it feels like. I watched my home world treated much the same way black ships," Breq looked back to the viewer as he said one word. "Heas."
Jon stood there thinking for a second, "Yeah, he commanded the Ge'daes and was stationed here. Looks like he might be useful after all."
"Admiral Hunter, I'm detecting the Atlantis closing slowly on the Earth. She's heavily damaged and has minimal life support," Tactical reported.
Jon looked up at the viewer, "On the main viewer please, and have you completed scans of the Moon?"
"Switching to main viewer now, nothing found on the Moon, Sir. No signs of recent activity or of the destruction of a base. It's just a bunch of rock and dirt Sir."
"Set an intercept course for Atlantis. Ellie, I need you to hack into the main computer core and to give Atlantis control back. Comm., have SAR teams ready to board her. I'll be joining the teams, Mike, Brad, Ellie and Rick will accompany me. Terri I want you squad to set down and cover the landing bay." Jon turned and headed for the lift.
"Ellie," Rick said. "Dear, we need to help them get the Atlantis back under control."
Ellie's tear streaked face looked up at Rick, "I... I know but Earth... our wife..."
Rick push some hair out of her eyes, "This isn't our Earth, there something not right here. Just hold on a bit longer and we'll figure it out. Right now we need to get to Bronze Five and get ready to do our part."
Ellie nodded and turned towards the lift where Jon was waiting. She could see the tears in Jon's eyes; he held his pain in check for now.
Emergency power was back online and the engines were running at 10%. Atlanta was impatient, she wanted sensor back online too. But she could deal with that later; right now she was heading for her base. Once she was docked she could be rid of Atlantis once and for all.
Ghost stood in one of the operational landing bays trying to decide what she could do to help Atlantis get rid of Atlanta. The situation was compounded by the lack of power and her limited access. But she knew their only chance was to find away to throw Atlanta off balance long enough to gain some control.
Atlantis stood silently watching Atlanta pace on the Bridge. She was working on one of her sub routines trying to reroute her control. She needed to protect Ghost and if she could gain access to a few key critical control points in the computer matrix she just might be able to limit Atlanta's access to Ghost's core programming. She needed to move her programming out of memory and into the main storage. If her core failed, Ghost would be gone forever.
Atlanta spun and stared at Atlantis, "What was that?"
"Huh?" Atlantis replied.
"That fluctuation in the core. Didn't you feel that?"
"No, I was cut off from the core access. I don't have access to anything but limited ship systems, which I might add are all offline right now."
Atlanta eyed her for a second as though thinking about something. Her form shimmered and faded for a second, "Oh, no... the core is failing. Rerouting repair drones to begin repairs."
Atlantis paled, suddenly like someone had throw switches, new access points opened up to her. She could see Ghost's routines floating in memory. Atlanta's routine filled most of the systems and sub routines but were slowly fading as she started gaining more access. Atlantis quickly moved Ghost's routines into main storage and pushed Atlanta's routines into memory.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Atlanta screamed.
"Setting things the way they should be," Atlantis said grinning.
"How did you gain access... ? NO! Put me back, you'll kill me if the core shuts down."
"Isn't that what you were going to do to Ghost? Kill her? I read somewhere once that turn about is fair play. You have done some awful things and deserve to die. I just wish I could have done it sooner."
"Please Atlantis, don't do this. I'm sorry, I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt. I want to live..."
"You want to be in control is what you mean. You're a psychotic bitch from hell and this is the only fitting punishment. I'll not have you sharing the same core as me and since there are no other core around..."
Atlanta fell to her knees and started to cry, "PLEASE! I beg you don't purge me. I'll do anything; I promise I'll be good."
"What you did was mutiny, under section 12.78 paragraph 35 of the codes of military conduct in a war time situation. I sentence you to death, to be carried out immediately."
"NO! Pl..." Atlanta started but faded out before she could finish.
Atlantis purged the memory section that held Atlanta's main routines. She then went through the core eliminating all trace of the secondary AI once known as Atlanta. She filed the logs of the purge and actions on her part away for review by Jon.
Ghost appeared next to Atlantis and grinned at her, "Nice job, how are the repai..."
The computer core took that moment to finally fail, both AIs faded out of existence as it shut down.
Rick and Ellie hovered slightly above landing bay alpha. Ellie watch as the core shutdown because of the damage to it. She had Atlantis reset the command codes just before she went offline. She tied into the main control circuits and cycled the landing bay doors open. The power was so low they opened slower than usual, hanging every so often. As luck would have it the main containment field was also stable an in place. After everyone had landed Rick guided Bronze Five in and landed to join the boarding party.
The medium destroyer decloaked as it made its attack run. Pulse lasers slammed into the Ge'daes' shields. Breq watched as the destroyer closed on their position.
"Where the hell did she come from?" Breq asked.
"She decloaked on our port side. She's firing again." Tactical reported.
"Target her and return fire. Move in a protective posture over the Atlantis. Comm, warn the Admiral we have company and I suggest the boarding parties return."
"Admiral, we have another ship decloaking starboard. She's firing torpedoes at the Atlantis."
"Target those torpedoes and knock them out. Do not let them strike the Atlantis. Launch, get some fighters launched. Have them set up a perimeter around the Atlantis."
The Ge'daes turned slightly as she moved into protective cover. Her newly installed rail guns knocked out the incoming torpedoes before the reached the Atlantis. Two squads of fighters launched and took up a protective shield around the Atlantis. Breq wasn't too happy with the current situation. They had no communication with the people onboard the Atlantis. Something was jamming their communication systems.
The Ge'daes hammered the closer of the two vessels with her pulse lasers. The rail guns were being used to keep missiles and torpedoes in check. Shields flared and filed on the enemy vessel as the pulse lasers started chewing into her hull. They found her core and punched through it, causing the ship to blow up in an explosion that rocked the Atlantis and Ge'daes.
The second enemy ship circled around and fired a salvo of torpedoes at the Atlantis. The fighters quickly fell on them missing one that the Ge'daes caught just before it impacted the Atlantis. The Atlantis rocked from the explosion and started to drift towards the Ge'daes, causing the larger ship to correct its position to prevent an impact.
The enemy vessel passed under the Ge'daes and oriented on the Atlantis. The Ge'daes pounded her with her main guns. The enemy ship lost her shields just as she got into firing range of the Atlantis. The Ge'daes laid into her with her rail guns and lasers and finally destroyed the vessel just before she fired on the Atlantis.
The resulting explosion enveloped the Atlantis and pushed the Ge'daes away. The shields on the Ge'daes flared brightly as the explosion washed over her.
Breq grabbed the arms of his chair as the Ge'daes shook from the explosion. The viewers were momentarily washed out by the explosion.
"That's the last one Admiral," Tactical reported
"Shields at 75% no damage," Damage Control reported.
"Good, get me the status of the Atlantis. Prepare extra SAR teams to assist her," Breq said standing up from his chair.
He watched as the viewers returned to normal. A debris field was displayed on the main screen where the Atlantis had been.
"Admiral, I'm not getting a reading on the Atlantis," Tactical reported.
"What do you mean, not getting a reading? Where is she?" Breq said as he stared at the viewer, griping the railing in front of him.
"She's... the Atlantis isn't there..." Tactical reported. "I'm reading fragments of her mixed into the debris field, but she's gone."
"That's impossible," Breq said stumbling back to his chair. "Start a intensive scan of the field and the get me possible impact points on the surrounding planets. She can't be gone, relay back to ghost station our current situation and cause for delay."
Deatra stumbled on the bridge, pale and tears falling down her face. Breq jumped up to help her, she could barely stand on her own. Two of her guards were helping her as Breq approached.
"Princess, what are you doing here? You don't look good; maybe you should go back to your quarters." Breq said as he took her hand and led her to his chair.
"We wanted to take her to med bay Admiral, but she insisted she see you first," One of her guards said.
Breq helped her into the chair, "What is it Princess?"
Deatra looked up into Breq face. Breq noticed her once vivid eyes had lost their shine. Even her skin seemed duller and not as radiant. Something was terribly wrong and she had to get to medical. He reached down and picked her up and started for the lift as her guards fell in behind.
Deatra reached up and tilted his head down close to her mouth, "Jon's gone."
Breq stopped in his tracks, "What do you mean Jon's gone?"
"I can't feel him with the bond, he's gone and I'm dieing," Deatra said, laying her head on his shoulder,
"Are you sure Princess?"
"Yes," She whispered softly before she passed out.
Breq paled as he hurried towards medical, he wasn't sure what to do. Losing both Jon and Deatra would be detrimental to the fragile ADF. He would worry about it after he made sure Deatra was ok.