Imagine that the events of the BattlestarGalactica reboot happened substantially as told on the first three seasons of the reboot series. There are some differences, of course. Nobody ever rises from the dead, and there’s never been any evidence of divine intervention, and importantly, the only Earth that exists is the one you’re living on now.
So there’s a ragtag fleet in orbit, with circa 50,000 human colonists looking for their ancestral home, which they believe to be our planet. Establishing communication through technobabble means I’m too lazy to make up, they tell the world their story and ask for help. What do you want the world (or your own nation) to do?
How substantially is “substantially?” Because if they’re being pursued by Cylons then it’s “Sorry, bye-bye. Don’t let the solar system hit you in the ass on the way out. By the way, forget you found us.”
If they have working interstellar or even interplanetary starships, some governments and maybe private corporations are all over them to promise them land in order to learn the secrets. Can they feasibly mine the asteroid belt, establish outposts on Titan, etc?
But where the heck did they come from if there is only one Earth? Where have they been spending heir time? And are large alien monsters tracking them?
I thought the existence and hostility of the Cylons was implied, but since neither you nor silenus are nitwits, clearly I should have been more explicit. Sorry.
Yes, the Cylons exist. I’m saying to assume that, apart from the magic stuff (which is a pretty big component, I know), the series occurred up to the point where they found the burnt-out Earth–that, instead, the Earth they found was this one. In this scenario I’d assume that humans evolved here and that, say, 75,000 years ago had created a high-tech culture which went out and colonized first Kobol, then the colonies.
So yes, they’re being chased by an extraterrestrial species that knows of the legends of Earth and wants all humans dead. One might use that as an argument both for and against allowing them sanctuary here.
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I don’t know what Alien Nation is, nor do I know how to click the link in your post and read the Wikipedia entry. I’ve never even heard of Newcomers.
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Of course we offer them help. After all, the Cylons hidden within the fleet have just told the Base stars of our location. And regardless, we’re morphologically ‘close enough’. The world shifts to a war footing, we mass-produce weaponry and proceed to kick Cylon butt. And Humanity lives happily ever after.
I doubt sending them away would do much to keep their pursuers from finding Earth, but it would completely destroy whatever small chances us Earthlings have of offering resistance.
Bingo. Combining their information and technology with our manufacturing resources and population would be the best bet for any of us surviving.
That is, of course, leaving aside the problem that a high-tech spacefaring civilization could not possibly have existed on Earth 75,000 years ago without us having found huge piles of evidence of their presence. Something is wrong with this scenario, but we’re not going to find out what it is by sending them packing.
Lob some particularly choice words at them when we realize who, er, what is riding their asses, then inform them that their and our only hope of survival is to make damn sure that ALL of their tech and medical advances get promulgated to damn near every house on the planet, so we can make like ants and try like hell not to get killed off.
Also, know that we’re screwed anyway, since the toasters can act (and actually think they ARE) human, and we’re not nearly good enough to counteract that. So we may as well enjoy the short quality-of-life boom while we’re ramping up military production before they show up and we’re eventually infiltrated and then nuked to death like the Colonies were.
Also, I liked the Alien Nation series. I thought it was sweet that they didn’t like cut flowers for sick people because the flowers were dead.
If there are Cylons they need to do what Admiral Adama did in Galactica 1980 and lead them away from Earth while we undergo a massive military build up with space weapons, just like we did in the 80’s.
Don’t forget about the part where you contact one physicist and one sexy TV reporter instead of any governments, then evacuate a group of schoolchildren to Earth, and have your only two agents on the planet babysit them.
Invite them to stay in exchange for technology and integration.
Build as big of a fleet as we can. Build a lunar base (finally).
Colonize the local planets as well as we can, spread ourselves out.
Then, practice fighting and wait for the inevitable attack.