Battlestar Galactica/Bonanza

Nevada Territory 1856

It was one of those rare lazy days on the Ponderosa, at least as far as Ben Cartwright and his three sons were concerned. Ben was at his desk going through some paperwork concerning an upcoming cattle drive, Adam sat on the porch with his feet up, mindlessly strumming on his guitar playing no one tune in particular and Hoss & Little Joe were doing their usual horsing around. Fortunately, this time it was outside near the barn, as Hoss picked Little Joe up and threw him several feet, sending him flying into a pile of hay.

Little Joe let out a laugh as he picked himself up out of the hay and brushed the hay-dust off. “I bet you can't do that again, because this time I'll be ready!”

“You're sure this time?” Hoss chuckled.

“Yeah,” Little Joe said with an air of uncertainty, “I hope!”

“You're on, Little Joe.”

Adam let out a smirk as he looked at Little Joe gearing himself up. “One of these times, you're going to land the exact wrong way and do some serious damage to yourself.”

“Psaw,” Hoss spat out, “you know it's all in fun.”

“Well,” Adam's expression turned serious, “you know it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye!”

“Yeah,” Little Joe laughed, as he gestured towards Adam, “whatever you say.”

“Guys,” Hoss's face scrunched up, as he heard a strange noise, “quiet for a minute.”

“Uh-ho,” Adam said, “He always looks like that when he's trying to work something out,”

“Maybe I shouldn't stand so close,” Little Joe stepped away from Hoss.

“Guys, this is serious.” Hoss frowned.

“They usually are!” Little Joe said with a smirk.

Hoss shot Little Joe a dirty look. In the distance he could hear a sound, a strange wooshing sound, such as he's never heard before. All at once, not one but two large metallic bird-like objects appeared in the sky out of nowhere and hovered above them.

“What in the world?” Hoss muttered.

“I don't think this world has anything to do with them,” Adam responded.

“If not our world,” Hoss gulped as he looked up at the two metallic birds, “then whose?”

---

Two Centons ago

Starbuck guided his Viper down into the atmosphere of the planet below, as Apollo matched his decent. They found themselves flying over a vast open land filled with mountains full of majestic pine trees and a rather large lake.

“According to the Galactica's charts, this should be Earth!” Apollo said as a matter of factly.

“Again?” Starbuck said unbelievingly. “I mean, how many times have we thought we found Earth and had it turn out to be a false lead?”

“Only two or three.”

“Only he says,” Starbuck frowned.

“This could be the Earth we're looking for.”

“Then again, it may not be,” Starbuck sighed, “there are no signs of the 13th colony ever even being here. In fact not much signs of anything, except for trees and more trees!”

“How many Earths do you think there are?” Apollo inquired curiously.

“There could be more than we know.”

“Oh, don't tell me that you buy into that whole multi-verse theory that Lt. Barry has formulated, where there are multiple Earths existing on different planes where each Earth took a different turn in history, and only one of them is the one where our ancestor inhabited.”

“It's... possible.”

“Aw, come on Starbuck.” groaned Apollo, “that stuff is pure fantasy.”

“Is it? OK, I see some sort of structure up ahead,” Starbuck slowed his Viper down, so his approach wouldn't be too fast, “looks like some sort of a... I guess you could say a ranch.”

“Don't let them see us,” Apollo warned, “not just yet.”

“Too late for that,” Starbuck winced as Apollo's ship caught up with his. He looked down at the large mass of a man that looked up at him, his mouth agape.

“Pa!” Adam cocked his head towards the door, which was open, just enough for the air to circulate. “You've got to come out to see this!”

“What is it this time?” Ben barked out, not moving from his desk. “I've got to get this paperwork done so I can give it to the cattle foreman--.”

“This'll only take a minute,” Adam called back, then his voice dropped, “I hope!”

“Oh, alright,” Ben stormed towards the door, “but this better be good!”

“Oh,” Hoss muttered, as he looked at the two giant iron birds he was still gaping up at, “it's a real doozie!”

“What's...” Ben looked up at the two Vipers and his mouth went agape. “What in the blazes are those things?”

“I dunno,” Little Joe squealed out, “they kinda just flew in just now!”

“Flew in,” Ben fumed, “like two big blue birds?”

“No,” Little Joe frowned, “more like two... giant... vultures.”

---

Starbuck remained in the cockpit of his Viper as he waited for his cue from Apollo to open the cockpit door. He began to suck on his unlit cigar as he watched what was going on just outside his Viper. All at once, he noticed the older man with snow white hair. “Apollo, do you see what I'm seeing?”

“See what?” Apollo was busy making adjustments on his console, to be concerned about what was going on just outside his Viper.

“How did your father get down here so fast? I didn't know we still had transporter capability.”

“Starbuck, you know the only ship that had any sort of a transporter of any kind was destroyed when the Cylons first attacked Caprica.”

“Then how do you explain your father being down here before us?”

Apollo didn't look up from what he was doing. “You know my father hardly ever leaves the command center on the Galactica, let alone the Galatica itself. And if he were down here, we'd see his private shuttle. Do you see that around anywhere?”

“No, but yet, here he is!”

Apollo finally looked up at Ben Cartwright staring up at him. “What the frack?”

---

Commander Adama was an older man than most of the other crew members in his little rag-tag fleet. He supported snow white hair and wore a blue, loose fitting uniform, in an attempt to hide the fact that he was gaining weight. At present, he leaned over the communications console with an angry look on his face.

“I told you two NOT to come into contact with anyone on that planet, whether you thought it was Earth or not,” Adama's words were spoken lividly, “all I needed you to do was to take out the Cylon scout ship, not make contact in any way with the indigenous life.”

“I know that dad,” Apollo's voice rang out, “it was an accident. But the one guy that I'm looking at could be your twin.”

“I'm sure that in the universe as big as ours, we all have a twin somewhere!”

Starbuck couldn't help but overhearing the conversation, he looked up as he wanted to say something, and was even poised to say it, but something caused him to shut up as the moment passed. And his face turned sour.

“I'm serious,” Apollo pleaded.

“So. Am. I.” Adama demanded. “I don't give a frack about some cosmic twin. You need to find and destroy that Cylonian scout ship before they get a foothold on this backwater planet that just happens to be called Earth. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good,” at that Adama severed communications, and began to walk away mumbling about having a cosmic twin. He then stopped, as his curiosity was piqued, he turned and opened communications with the shuttlebay. “I want my personal shuttle to be ready within ten centons.”

---

The windows to the Vipers gradually slid open as Starbuck & Apollo climbed out of their respective cockpits.

“Hold your fire,” Ben held his arms out indicating that while he had his gun at arm's reach, cocked and loaded he had no intention to use it, so his gun remained holstered to his hip, but the strap that held the gun in place undone.

“I'm ready with my fire arm,” Little Joe pulled the hammer back on his gun, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

“So am I!” Hoss too had his gun ready.

“Whoah!” Apollo followed Ben's lead, and kept his blaster holstered but ready to grab. “We're friendly! I only pray to the Lords of Kobol that you are!”

“Oh we're friendly,” Adam propped his guitar against the wall, and moved towards Apollo, “most of the time.”

“Oh,” Starbuck sighed, “that's good.”

“Just be warned though, Hoss here has a nervous trigger finger.” Adam teased as he motioned towards Hoss, who stare at Starbuck with intent, but his gun hand shaking like a leaf in the wind even though he was only playing along with what Adam was saying. “So you better start explaining why you came here in those tin birds!”

“Tin birds?” Starbuck squawked. “I can tell you for a fact that--.”

“Not now, Starbuck!” Apollo said.

“Starbuck?” Hoss laughed almost violntly. “What the 'ell kind of name is Starbuck?”

“What the 'ell kind of name is Hoss?” Starbuck threw Hoss a look.

“Boys, boys,” Ben cautiously moved forwards, he then looked at Apollo who seemed to be the more sensible of the two strangers, “please just tell us why you are here!”

“We're here trying to track down a Cylon.”

“A Cy-what?” Little Joe couldn't even parrot the word.

“Oh,” something finally hit Adam, “I think he's talking about a Cyclops. A being of ancient Greek mythology.”

“Huh?” Little Joe squaeked out as he looked at Adam spouting out his so-called superior knowledge

“It was a giant armored creature with a single eye that took up the space of two eyes.” Adam explained.

“Sounds like our Cylon,” Starbuck pondered, “tell me, have you seen any of these Cylons, or if you prefer Cyclops' around?”

“The Cyclops' were a myth, in ancient stories created as a form of entertainment!” Adam said.

“If that's true,” Starbuck looked to see a Cylon approaching them fast, but still at some distance, “then explain to me what that is!”

Hoss looked up at the large metal clad creature that was even bigger than he was, with a large red eye that had some sort of a strange hypnotic light bouncing back and forth. “What the fu--?”

Starbuck fired at the Cylon first, but the blast from his blaster merely sparked out as the blast hit the shielding surrounding the Cylon. “Great,”

“My turn!” The Cylon's mechanical voice spoke out as it fired out a shot that hit the pile of hay, engulfing the pile of hay in a ball of flame.

“Good thing I wasn't still in there,” Little Joe gulped.

“These guys don't play around,” Hoss gulped, “do they?”

“No they don't,” Apollo agreed.

“The Cylon seems to be using some sort of shielding,” Starbuck fired a complete series of shots at rapid fire, “as soon as I knock the shielding down, it regenerates itself.”

“Maybe if we both fire at it at the same time,” Apollo could see the Cylon lumbering towards them.

“We could try,” Starbuck shrugged, “on three.”

“One... two... three!” On three both fired, the shield dropped for just a second, then went back up.

“Hey Hoss,” Little Joe got an idea, “how's your aim?”

“Pretty good, why?”

“Remember what Adam just said when we were horsing around?”

“It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye?”

“Yeah, why don't you try when they drop that shield thingie, shooting it in the eye before the shield...” Little Joe couldn't work out the proper wording, “...you know.”

“I'll need my long distance rifle for that, and one of those special explosive bullets.”

“It's already ready, Freddy!” Little Joe held out Hoss' rifle, “with your special bullet already loaded in the chamber.”

“Go-od.” Hoss a growled out.

“OK,” Apollo said, “exactly when the shielding drops, you fire.”

“That'll be...” Starbuck began.

“He knows,”

“Yeah, I know,” Hoss glanced at the Cylon, “you guys better do your thing, big guy's getting mighty close!”

Apollo counted three, and both fired a series of rapid shots and the shield dropped.

Hoss already having the eyepiece in his sight, fired a shot. It hit the eyepiece dead on, then exploded on impact sending the head flying off and the body toppling forwards like a domino.

---

The pilot of Adama's private shuttle touched down just in time for Adama to see the fireworks. He stepped out of the shuttle proud of what he just saw. The death of even a single Cylon marked a small victory for the rag-tag fleet. He made a minute of small-talk with Apollo and Starbuck then spoke in a loud voice. “Now what's this about me having some sort of a twin around here?”

By this time, Ben had gone back to his paperwork, so Adam called into the door. He stare at Adama in disbelief. “Pa, I think you'd better get out here again!

“Now what?”

“Someone wants to see you!”

“Well I can't come out now!” Ben called out.

“Then,” Adama decided, “I will come in.”

Commander Adama and Ben Cartwright came face to face. They each moved around one another in a clockwork motion studying one another.

“What is this?” Ben wondered. “Some kind of a joke?”

“No, no. It's not a joke.”

“What are you, some sort of a distant relation?” Ben asked. “I know I've got family back east I've never met.”

“No, I've come from a bit farther than that from a distance that you cannot yet comprehend,”

“I see,”

“Dinner ready NOW!” Hop Sing, the Cartwright's Chinese chef called out from the dining area. “How many eating?”

“Are you and your friends staying for dinner?”

“I don't see why not,” Adama sized Ben up, “I think we eat the same basic food.”

“What are you serving?”

“Nice thick juice steak, mashed potatoes and gravy.”

“We can eat that.”

“Good,” Ben said, “I'll call everyone for dinner. Come and get it!”

“We have plenty,” Hop Sing said with a smile, as he watched them keep on coming and coming, including the pilot to Adama's private shuttle, then his face turned sour, “I hope!”