A Visit To A Small Planet

[This is a future chapter for my novel "Greetings From Gaia". It is intended as a critique of our military's leaders, who can act quite stupidly and irrationally at times. Their lack of honor in supporting their agents in the field speaks for itself. Let's hope this doesn't happen in real life. And, the character of Major General Charles Parker is an homage to the recently departed Tim Conway. This version gives him a more humane aspect.]

One Yahren before ...

It's always the darkest before the dawn ...

During Will's time with the Ship Of Lights, John had always repeated that mantra. And, in this instance, Will had to question that philosophy. Having been out on long-range patrol, Will had to run from three Cylon Raiders and ran out of fuel. His Viper's power systems were at their lowest, and his life support gases were almost out.

But, in the end, he still clung to hope. It was all he had. Where there's life, there's hope. Or so he always believed.

So, he sat in his drifting Viper watching and waiting.

And then it happened.

A flash of visible light and radiation, and then a ship seemed to appear out of nowhere. Looking more like a delta-winged shuttle from his planet's earlier history, it was smaller. Since Will's power levels were too low to run a scanner and analysis to determine the ship's contents, he waited for the inevitable.

A hatch opened in the side of the ship, and a humanoid form appeared. It drifted over to Will's Viper, and began examining it. After a time, the suited form gestured to Will. First to open the canopy, then to follow it back to its ship. Will hesitated for a few moments, then acted. With his Viper's support systems too far gone to be of any use, he had to accept any help he could. Since this form was clearly not a Cylon, it made the decision much easier. So, Will exited his cockpit and held onto the form's suit as the form moved back to its ship.

Reaching the side of the ship next to the hatch, the form allowed Will to precede it into the ship's interior. Although the interior was dark, Will could see enough to let the form reenter it, and the hatch was closed. Waiting as the interior was pressurized, Will could start to see more of the interior. Eventually, the form reached up to its head, and removed the helmet it was wearing.

It was a human male, a little older than Will, it seemed.

Motioning to Will to remove his helmet, Will complied. The man extended his hand, and Will took it in the Colonial fashion. The man seemed surprised by that.

"Can you understand me?" he asked.

Will was startled. "It seems we can. You can speak Kobolian, I see?"

The man thought about this for a few moments. "Whatever that means. My name is Colonel Lee Adama of the United States Air Force, on assignment to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, piloting the X-84B Apollo. You?"

"Lieutenant Will of the Colonial Warrior brigades, representing the Survivors of the Colonies of the Twelve. Where are you from?"

"A dinky little blue planet in the middle of nowhere." said Lee. "It's called Earth."

Will brightened. "My people are looking for a world by that name. We have reason to believe our long-lost brothers reside there."

"Whatever." said Lee. "I've been sent to find out what had happened to an earlier flight like mine that may have wound up in this part of the the galaxy. It was piloted by a good friend of mine. Her name is Kara Thrace. Have you heard of her?"

Will shook his head. "I haven't, sorry about that. But, that might not mean anything at all. I left my command ship, the Battlestar Galactica, on long-range patrol several cycles back. An encounter with enemy forces left me stranded here, and I would have died if you hadn't come along. If you could get me back to my base ship, I'm sure we could try and do something about it. For all we could know, your friend might be there already."

"Do you know exactly where your base ship is located?"

"Only its position at the time of my launch, and the commander's intended course. The idea was for me get back from patrol by now, and meet the fleet at a set rendezvous point. Since we've missed the rendezvous, we'll have to estimate its new position from that data. Are you up to trying?"

Lee thought about this. "All that work. And if we're wrong ... might there be another way?"

Will hesitated for a moment. "I've had this idea cooking in the back of my head for some time. Our fleet is low on supplies, and we would have been destroyed long ago if it weren't for luck. My idea is to go behind enemy lines, 'procure' some old assets my people left behind when they fled the home worlds, relocate those assets to a place of safety, say for instance your home star system, and produce the supplies needed for the fleet. We'd only be able to produce fuel and repair metal at first, but after time, food could be added to the list of supplies. How are your people doing as far as food is concerned?"

"We have plenty," said Lee, "And I'm sure we'd be willing to share some of that to help your people. But your plan to procure these assets sounds risky."

"Very risky." said Will. "We would be killed if we were to be found by the enemy. But, since they aren't expecting human forces to return to the Colonial worlds, we would have the element of surprise on our side. We could be in and out with the assets and the enemy might not know anyone was there."

"I need to think about this." said Lee, reaching to the control panel. Flipping a toggle, the lights on the ship increased. Lee gestured to a seat. "Here, sit for a while until I decide." He helped Will get secured in the seat's harness. "Why don't you tell me more about these Colonies in the meantime."

So, for the next few centons, Will described the history of the Colonies of the Twelve, the thousand-yahren Cylon War, the defeat of the Colonies and the survivors' flight from the home worlds in the fleet. All the while, Lee listened while thinking about Will's proposal. Afterward, Lee described the planet Earth and his family. Will was astonished at the family name.

"So, your family name is Adama?" he asked, and Lee nodded. "Why?" asked Lee.

"Well, I hope this doesn't sound phony," said Will, "But my commander's name is Adama. Since we suspect our two worlds may be related, might your family and the commander's line be distantly related as well?"

Thinking, Lee finally said, "It's too early to tell. But, I would hope this to be true. To think our family line has had distant cousins in a faraway star system would be a shock, but also great to hear. Give me a few moments to think about all of this." Lee turned to the control panel in front of his seat and started making adjustments, all the while thinking.

Looking out the view ports, he could see Will's Viper drifting slightly ahead of his ship on the left. Lee closed his eyes for a few moments, then made up his mind. Turning to Will, he said, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to follow my first instincts, and take you back to my home world. My people will want to talk to you in more detail, and then make a decision. It's the best I can do, and safest as far as everyone is concerned."

Will nodded slowly at this. "If you think it's for the best, okay then. How long will it take us to get to Earth?"

"Not very long, quite quickly, in fact. The String Drive which powers my ship lets me jump from place to place in the universe instantly."

"String Drive?"

"We latch onto a cosmic string and ride it anywhere we want. Like I said, it's instantaneous."

Will was alarmed. "Cosmic strings are dangerous phenomenon! We try to avoid them at all times."

"In our case, we learned to harness their power for quick propulsion, though at this point it's only in the testing stage. Well, lets get going, shall we?"

Lee turned back to the control console, tapped in commands, and the ship rotated to face a new direction. Tapping in more commands started the ship moving forward. Glancing over his shoulder, Lee said, "It may seem a bit strange to travel this way, so be prepared. Since this is my second jump using this drive, I know what to expect."

Will watched as the universe seemed to turn inside out, as did he. His perspective showed what appeared to be the universe turning into a long tunnel. There was a slight popping sound as the transition from place to place happened, then it was over. Lee pointed off to the right.

"There's my home planet, the planet Earth." Looking, Will saw a most magnificient sight. A planet of blue, with white clouds like cotton, was seen.

"Beautiful." he commented. "You must want to protect that blue marble dearly."

"We do our best." replied Lee. "Excuse me while I contact our mission control." Pressing a series of buttons, he spoke. "Shuttle Apollo to Mission Control. Apollo to Control. Come in please."

After a few moments, a voice came over the line. "Mission Control to Shuttle Apollo. Welcome back, Lee. Any news?"

"Nothing positive on primary objective. However, inform General Adama that I have an interesting report to make upon landing, and that he should be there to receive it."

"We'll let your father know to meet you upon your arrival. Control out."

"Apollo out. Okay, Will, we'll begin atmospheric entry and landing now."

"I'm ready."

Will watched as the shuttle made its approach to the planet's atmosphere. As its began entering, the speed of the craft was reduced by resistance with the air molecules. At first surrounded by plasma, eventually it slowed enough that the plasma ended and the craft began doing maneuvers through the air. Lee pointed off to the right.

"You can see the thin strip of lighter-colored runway. That's where we'll land, and brake to a stop."

"Okay." said Will.

Like an experienced fighter pilot, Lee swung the craft to line up with the strip of runway, then swooped in and made contact. The gear screeched upon contact, and finally slowed to a complete stop. Rising and turning to Will, Lee helped him remove his safety harness. Lee then stood up, and helped Will to the hatch. Looking out, he saw that landing crews had already placed a recovery van up next to the side of his ship, and opened the hatch. Exiting first, he then helped Will out into the van. The two walked towards two other people. The younger of the two was a woman with space-black hair who looked slightly Gemonese. The other was a short, stocky man with slightly darker skin. Lee shook hands with both.

"It's good to see you again, son." said the older man. "I hear there's no word on Kara?"

"Nothing definite, dad, though I did get a possible lead. Let me introduce to you Lieutenant Will of the Colonial brigades. Will, this is my father, Major General William Adama of the U.S. Air Force. Dad, Will here is the reason I needed to see you right away. Kara might be among his people, and they need help as well."

The elder Adama extended his hand. "It's good to meet you, Lieutenant." Will reciprocated in the Colonial fashion, and the General flinched at the new handshake method, but recovered quickly. "I'd like to introduce to you Lieutenant Sharon Valeri." Shaking hands with Lieutenant Valeri, it was clear she was also amazed at the new handshake.

"I'm not sure what to expect from all of you, seeing as how I might be a rube from the sticks to you." said Will.

"That won't be a problem." said the elder Adama, smiling. "I'm sure we can work something out. Lieutenant, is that a weapon on your side?" he asked, pointing.

Will nodded. "Yes, General. It is my laser sidearm."

"Then I'm afraid I'll have to take it for now. We'll probably have to run some tests on it in our labs."

"Okay." said Will, removing his sidearm and handing it to the General. The General looked it over carefully, admiring its construction.

"Well, in any case, Lieutenant Valeri, why don't you take Lieutenant Will here and get him settled in comfortably. Will, we'll need to borrow your garments for a while as well to do some analysis on its materials. I'm afraid that's standard operating procedure, but we'll give you something to wear in the meantime."

After a few moments, Will nodded. "Okay."

"Good." said the General. "Now, off you go. I'll want to talk with you in person later."

Following Valeri out the trailer, Will was led to a black-colored vehicle. As he entered the vehicle, he overheard some work crews mutter, "An alien! He's a god-damned alien for crissake!" "And he's apparently human, as well." said another. The vehicle's engine started up, and they moved off towards some buildings.

"This is the U.S. Air Force Space Center Complex at Cape Canaveral, Florida." said Valeri. "Directly to the north of the USAF complex is the NASA version, used mostly for the civilian launches."

"NASA?" asked Will.

"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, our civilian space agency. They handle the launches for general space exploration, and we mostly handle test launches of sensitive hardware. In an emergency, we can launch offensive payloads if need be."

"Lieutenant Valeri ..."

"Call me Sharon. May I call you Will?"

"Of course, Sharon, of course. I'm a bit confused. I seem to have been taken in by a military power. Are your people under martial law?"

"Oh no, Will, not at all. We're a free democratic system. Why?"

"Well, I've only met military personnel, it seems. I might take it that I'm a prisoner of war. And, I couldn't help overhearing some of your ground crews acting astonished that I'm not of your world. Do you get many visitors from other worlds?"

"No, Will, I'm sure you're not a prisoner of war. As for our ground crews, I'll be the first to admit that they sometimes talk too much. As to visitors from other worlds, you are our first. Understand that we'll have many questions for you about your condition. For instance, do you happen to know the location of Kara Thrace? She's a personal friend of mine; we flew a number of missions together."

"I really don't have the actual location of her, although I can only speculate that she might have fallen in with my people. At least I hope so, because if she was 'rescued' by our enemies, you would be better off forgetting about her. The Cylons really don't take good care of their prisoners, which is what she would be to them."

"Oh. I see." she was saddened at the news.

"I'm sorry if I upset you. But, you must be ready for the worst, while keeping hope for the best."

"You're right, of course." She glanced out the window. "We're here."

The vehicle lurched to a stop, and Sharon opened the door, with Will following her. She led him into a large building. Walking through, Sharon stepped up to another soldier.

"Captain Kelly," she said, "This is Lieutenant Will. He came in with Colonel Adama on the Apollo, and the General needs his measurements taken so supply can issue him some news clothes."

"I'll contact the quartermasters section, and have someone come up right away. I take it he's going into special quarters?" said the Captain.

"That's correct. He'll most likely be in unit one." replied Valeri.

"Okay, I'll get on the horn." Turning to Will, he said, "Welcome to Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Lieutenant. We'll handle any of your needs from now on. Well, I need to get started." Turning to the wall behind him, he picked up an object hanging from the wall and started speaking into it.

"Let's get you settled into your home-away-from-home Will. Follow me."

Walking with Valeri, it was clear they were heading for a quieter section of the base. After walking out another doorway, they crossed a grass-lined walkway to another structure. Entering it, Valeri took hold of what appeared to be a note tablet and walked to a door. Opening it, she motioned for Will to enter it. Following him in, she started talking.

"This is special quarters one, used mostly by visiting dignitaries to our base. Because of your unique status, you'll be escorted by two guards at all times. Mostly to insure you get to where you need to be, it will also ensure you won't go into areas where you shouldn't be. Through that door," she pointed, "You'll find the sleeping area with the bathroom, which includes a toilet and shower for cleaning up."

"It would seem, if I understand them correctly, that the Colonial terms for what you are describing, Sharon," said Will, "Are the 'turbo flush' and 'turbo wash'."

"Interesting," replied Valeri, smiling and nodding. Glacing around she added, "Let's sit and talk for a bit while we're waiting for the person to get here and take your measurements." she took a seat, and so did Will.

"So, Will," she said, "Are you seeing someone?"

"Actually, I'm sealed to a Galactica bridge officer named Rigel."

"Sealed?"

"She's my wife."

"I see. Our term is married. What does she do?"

"She's the launch control officer. She's the last voice we hear from the command ship upon leaving on patrol, and the first we hear when returning. Many of the pilots have called her their 'angel of the night' welcoming them back. Of course she's my angel, you see."

"Of course. What does she look like?"

"Well, she ... wait, let me show you her imago." Will fished in a pocket inside his jacket and pulled out an imago viewer. Reviewing the images within, he settled on the one he was talking about. "Here she is."

Taking the imago viewer, Sharon nodded. "She's cute. Are there any others here?"

"Many more." said Will. "You simply slide your finger across to get others. Hers is number one."

Sliding her finger across, Sharon asked, "Is this your wedding photo?"

Looking at it, Will nodded. "Yeah, our sealing day. The white-haired fella behind us is Commander Adama, the commander of the Battlestar Galactica, my command ship. He served as our sealing officiator. The dark-haired pair next to him are his son Apollo, and his daughter Athena. In front of Apollo is his son, Boxey. The light-haired girl next to Athena is Bree, one of the squadron members, and the dark fella next to Apollo is Boomer, my squadron leader in green squadron."

Sliding again, Sharon breathed in air. "That's the Arboreal Deck running along the upper spine of the Galactica." said Will. "It has plants from all over the colonies, including succulents and a sessile tree that's part animal. Its branches can move, and track by body heat. If you stand too close and don't move quickly enough, you'll get an embarrassing surprise by being engulfed in its branches. There are no thorns or such, but it would be embarrassing enough to have to be pried out by others." Sharon smiled at the thought.

"You know, we should get a copy of these," said Sharon, "So you can talk about them to the general. I'm sure he'd be quite interested in their content. They might help in your case."

"We'll see." replied Will. "I'd prefer to keep these, since they are personal imagos."

"I agree." said Sharon. "You keep these for now, but, like I said, share the content with General Adama." Will nodded in understanding.

"In the meantime ..." started Sharon, but was interrupted by a knock at the door. "It must be someone to take your measurements." She rose and went to the door, then opened it. A man in dark green was there.

"I'm Sergeant Roberts, from quartermasters division. I was told to take someone's measurements." said the man.

"Right in here." said Sharon. "Will, you'll have to stand for the measuring process. This shouldn't take more than a few minutes." Will stood, and the man took out a flexible tape.

"What's that?" asked Will.

"It's a measuring tape. I'm going to take your measurements." said the man.

"Why don't you just use a scanner?"

"A what?" asked the Sergeant.

"Never mind." said Sharon. "Will, we use this tape measuring tool for most of our measurements. Sergeant, don't tell anyone about what is spoken here. Understood?"

"Understood, Lieutenant." replied the sergeant. As the sergeant started taking Will's measurements, he examined the clothing Will was wearing. "Aren't those clothes a bit snug on you?" he asked.

"Not really." said Will.

"Well, the one's we'll give you will be looser. It's our style, I'm afraid." After taking some more measurements, he said, "Okay, I'm finished here. What color of clothes is he to wear, Lieutenant?"

Glancing at Will, Sharon replied, "Standard duty green, as well as a blue set for official duties. Make sure it is delivered in a large box, since Will's current clothing is going to the lab for analysis." The sergeant nodded, and left.

"Let's sit until your new clothes are delivered. I'll need to show you how they are worn as well. By the way, another reason for taking the clothes from you aside from analysis is that you shouldn't wear them around base. They would only cause awkward questions which we'd prefer not to answer. Thus you should change before I take you to the cafeteria hall to get dinner. Have you eaten recently?"

Will scratched his head. "Not recently. On long-range recon, they give us some protein bars and liquid protein for sustainence, but those were for my estimated time of recon. Past that, I'm as empty as a Cylon's charity effort."

"Well, after you've changed, I'll take you over to get something to eat." she brightened. "I know! I'm going to introduce you to cheeseburgers."

Will's eyebrow arched. "You make these burgers out of cheese?"

Sharon smiled. "They make the burgers with cheese. There's a bun, with a slab of burger meat, then a slice or two of cheese, plus some other things as well. Without cheese, its just called a hamburger."

"Oh." Glancing at Sharon, he continued. "Sharon ... have I upset you any?"

Sharon smiled and shook her head. "No, not really. I asked you if you were seeing someone because I thought I might see you for a while. But ..."

"Since I'm married, that puts the dampener on that idea. Don't worry, I'd be willing to wager good cubits that once you get to the Galactica, you should have at least ten men trying to get into your corner within a centar."

Sharon's eyes widened at that. "Really? No way!"

"Yes! Though you should watch out for Starbuck."

"Who's Starbuck?"

"A fair-haired, fumarello-smoking warrior with a hades-may-care attitude about life. He has a reputation of being a womanizer, which it is said he has a girl on every deck of the Galactica, and possibly every ship in the fleet. That might be true, since he has been linked to several ladies I know of. First, there's Cassiopea, a medical tech in Life Station. She's a good friend of mine as well, though not as close as with Starbuck. Then there is Athena, the commander's daughter. Boxey once talked about Miriam and Noday, and might have mentioned more if his dad hadn't shut him up. And, I understand he was sweet on Aurora before the holocaust, who was the personal shuttle pilot to the late Commander Cronus of the Celestra. My real concern is that he may teach you to take up smoking, which even I don't like."

Sharon laughed. "I'll keep that in mind."

"But don't get me wrong. Starbuck, and every Viper pilot, such as Boomer, Giles, Jolly, and Greenbean, are great guys who, when the fleet is attacked, will give everything they have, and more, just to keep those gall-monging Cylons from killing our people. It's the warriors' way, you see. As for you and me, there's no reason we can't be friends as well."

Sharon nodded in understanding. "You come from a unique people with a rich heritage. I think I'd like to be part of that as well. To be part of two worlds."

A knock at the door caused Sharon to rise. Opening it, they saw Sergeant Roberts with a box. "Here's his new clothes." said Roberts, handing the box to Sharon.

"Thanks," replied Sharon, "I'll take his current clothes to the lab." Roberts saluted and left.

"I heard you mention two colors, blue and green. Which ones should I start with?"

"Since I'm wearing green, you should start with those. That way, when we go to the cafeteria, we'll look so alike that no one should start asking questions. You won't have rank insignia though, but we'll just say that you're a civilian specialist. Now, let's go over the clothes so you can start wearing them right away."

So, for the next few minutes, Sharon described each piece of clothing, and its use. After, Will just nodded. "It's very similar to my current clothing," he said, "It's a shame I can't keep my own."

"Unfortunately, we'll need to examine every piece."

"Okay. Well, I see you in a few centons." Will walked in to the back area and closed the door. Sharon waited about ten minutes, then the door opened again. Stepping out, Will was scanning himself from head to toe. "Well," he said, "Do I pass inspection?"

Circling Will, Sharon began nodding approval. "It is too bad we can't let you keep your trousers," she said, "because I have to admit, you have a nice looking bottom." Blushing a bit, she said, "Sorry about that, it's just that ..."

"I'll take that as a compliment. You do need to meet some of our other warriors. I take it you don't have someone here?"

"Not really. But, before we go off on another tangent, let's pack your flight clothes to send to the lab."

Walking into the bedroom, Sharon picked up the first item. "Your trousers are made of some interesting material. The lab will do well on all of these, I can see." Folding the trousers, she placed them on the bed neatly. Picking up another shiny-looking garment, she asked, "What're these?"

Glancing, Will replied, "My underpants. And consider yourself lucky, 'cause these cycles, I don't let just any gal handle my underpants."

Sharon smiled. "Now, let's go over the best way to take care of these new clothes you'll be wearing. Since you're being issued a small quantity for now, this shouldn't be too hard." And Sharon went over proper handling of military-issued clothing. "Any questions?" she asked after she was finished.

"No, not really. I think that covers it all."

"Alright then." Sharon started packing the flight clothes into the box. When she had finished, she covered the box, then picked it up. "We'll drop these off at the lab first, then head over to the cafeteria."

As they dropped off his flight clothes at the lab, they then went to the cafeteria. Arriving at the cafeteria, Sharon said, "Get a seat, and I'll get the food."

Glancing around, Will took the nearest seat. Watching, he saw as Sharon went to the food server's line, took a tray and started selecting items for the meal. After reaching the end of the line, she took care of some last matter, possibly inventory, then walked back to the table Will had selected. Taking some of the items and placing them in front of Will, she described each item.

"The round thing in the wrapper is the hamburger with cheese, your cheeseburger. I've also selected a small tray of french fries; they are the long brown things, and a medium soft drink." Placing another set in front of her, Will watched as she unwrapped the cheeseburger and took a bite. Following her lead, Will took a bite of the cheeseburger. Allowing the flavors and textures of the food to roll around in his mouth for a few moments, he finally nodded.

"This is good." he said. "What's the cheese? This orange stuff."

"Yes. The runny yellow stuff is mustard, a spice. It's ususally paired with the red stuff, called ketchup."

Will reached for one of the fries. Chewing, he nodded again. "How much food do your people produce per annum?"

"Probably more than is good for some of us. Many of our people are suffering from obesity, so if you're wondering how much we can spare for your people, don't worry. It's wouldn't hurt our people to help yours. And your people apparently need it more than ours do."

Will nodded thoughtfully.

BSG

Later that evening, after Will had settled into his new 'digs', Valeri went back to see General Adama.

"Well, how did it go?" he asked her.

"He's been settled in, his flight clothes have gone to the lab, he's eaten a first meal among us, and he's even shown me some images from the fleet. I let him keep the image viewer so he can discuss them with you tomorrow."

"I see. He'll go through a medical check-up in the morning, then I'll be seeing him in the afternoon. General Parker from the Joint Chiefs will be arriving in the morning to observe the first few interview sessions. Things should go smoothly, I think. Is there anything I should know about the Lieutenant before I meet with him?"

"Well ... I don't want to make this more personal that it should be, but he has a wife in the fleet, a bridge officer named Rigel."

"A wife, eh? And named after one of our brightest stars in the sky? Interesting."

"Sir ... what's going to happen in the long run? Are we going to help his people? It's reasonable that by doing so, we would stand to gain a potentially potent ally, and very likely we would get our foot in the door of Colonial technology. Even if we don't get direct access, we'd still be in a better position irregardless."

Adama nodded. "You make excellent points, Sharon. And, I hope we have gotten smart enough to take this long-range perspective. Heaven only knows that the short-range view has gotten us where we are by luck. But, this is a whole new ballgame, and if we handle it right, we're 'in like Flynn'. But, if we handle it wrong, we're screwed royally. And we'll have no one to blame but ourselves."

Sharon nodded. "I only hope that General Parker knows that."

"I'll make sure to remind General Parker of that. And, to let me do the talking tomorrow afternoon."

BSG

Sitting next to General Adama the next afternoon, Will was showing him the images from his viewer. Describing each image in detail, the General nodded at every one. Sitting near to the two were Valeri and Lee Adama, with General Parker across the table from them.

"Your wife is very beautiful, Lieutenant, and that Arboreal Deck sounds very interesting to visit." said Adama. "I agree with Lieutenant Valeri that you come from a rich culture. Now, before we start with the interview, I need to tell you that we will be recording this session, and all future sessions, as part of our data gathering process in order to determine your case. I'm sure you would agree to this."

"I do." said Will.

Adama continued. "I myself would agree, after talking with my son and Lieutenant Valeri, that your case warrants sufficient merit to provide aid. But, General Parker sitting across from us represents our Joint Chiefs, our military command staff. They are the ones to make the final decision, and I have to act upon their orders. I hope you understand."

Will nodded. "I can understand your procedures, General. Understand that there may be some things I cannot divulge to you without authorization from my commanding officer or without a direct pact of cooperation. I'm only assuming that it's the same with you."

Adama nodded. "Indeed it is. I'm sure General Parker agrees with that. Isn't that right, General?"

The round-faced man sitting across from them nodded. "That is correct, General Adama. Though the Joint Chiefs would appreciate as much cooperation as you can give. I'm sure you understand, Lieutenant."

Thinking for a moment, Will said, "Like I said, it would all depend on what you're asking about. As a simple fighter pilot, there are some things I don't have answers for."

"That's understandable." replied General Adama. "You are the equivalent of a foot soldier, and foot soldiers don't have access to other types of information, such as missile guidance systems." Parker nodded at that, and General Adama turned to a technician. "Begin the recording." he said, and the technician pressed a few buttons, then nodded. "Recorder on." he said.

"Begin with introducing yourself." said General Adama.

"My name is Lieutenant Will of the Colonial Defense Forces, representing the Survivors of the Colonies Of The Twelve. My current duty assignment is Green Squadron of the Battlestar Galactica."

"Lieutenant, would you give us a complete run-down on these Colonies, as well as a complete history?" said Adama.

And thus Will described in as much detail as he could, the basis for the Colonies, as well as their history, including the Great Cylon War and its aftermath.

"An interstellar nation of twelve planets? " said General Parker. "Are they human as well?"

"This is what we hope to confirm from the Lieutenant's medical tests from this morning. We should have the results in a few days." said General Adama. "Will, you mentioned to my son about food needs. Would you elaborate, please?"

"The fleet left the home worlds with full food stocks." said Will. "But, due to Cylon bombing, most of it had to be discarded due to contaminants. Along the way, we encountered another planet of humans which had suffered a holocaust almost a hundred yahrens before. We recovered all the survivors who were living underground and were protected for the most part from the holocaust."

"These people had developed very sophisticated methods of agron and cyber technologies. Both technologies haven't taken much root with us, mostly due to lack of materials to support these technologies. As a result, the agron technology has fallen behind. We are at a level slightly behind what we were when we found the people of Lorien, as far as food production is concerned."

"If we had an adequate supply of the raw materials, we would be farther along in terms of food production. Thus, we are in great need of new food supplies. I understand you can help us with this, and if I understand this 'String Drive' correctly, it might make it easier for our fleet to elude the Cylons without a trace."

"How could the string drive help you?" asked General Parker.

"Right now, the biggest fear among everyone in the fleet is the possibility of being found by the Cylons. If I understand the technology correctly, it would make it easier to supply the fleet with supplemental food stocks. And it would help us to elude the Cylons, by relocating the fleet to this part of the galaxy."

"We'd have to bring out the fleet one ship at a time, with the slowest ships first. Because of fleet logistics, the fleet's progress, and thus its ability to elude Cylon detection, is based upon our fleet's speed, which is currectly limited by the speed of the slowest ship. By removing the slowest ship, the fleet can go a bit faster, thus the chances of avoiding Cylon detection is increased. Remove enough ships, and the fleet has the best chance overall to avoid Cylon detection."

"That makes sense." said Lee.

"I take it you don't have any Cylon presense here?" asked Will.

"We're not quite sure on that. We're just getting out among the stars." said General Adama.

"How come?" asked Will.

"We just finished with several wars on our planet." said General Adama. "Unfortunately, they were wars internal to this planet. We also went through a massive dark ages which caused our technology to be reset, and we recently have begun the process of rediscovering our technological base. We do all of our surface launches using chemical technology, then switching over to other technologies as needed. That's how we sent out our String Drive missions."

"Chemical drive technology won't get you very far." said Will. "But, tylium-based propellant drives have a greater efficiency factor. Raw tylium is very unstable, and even the slighest spark could set off a chain reaction in the ore strata, thus rendering the ore inert. But, when refined properly, processed tylium has an energy potential, in its liquid form, of almost a half a billion megaquads of energy per kilon."

"Woah there!" said Parker. "Megaquad? Kilon? What are those? And you mentioned yahrens earlier; what's that?"

"A megaquad is a large measure of energy." said Will. "A kilon is a unit of mass. A yahren is what we call the time it takes an object to completely go around its primary."

Lee nodded. "A yahren is obviously equivalent to our year. It sounds like a kilon is roughly equal to our kilogram. And, it sounds like the megaquad might be similar to a megajoule. That's a lot of energy in itself. And he was talking about a half a billion megaquads per kilon, or as we would say, a half a billion megajoules per kilogram! That's an enormous energy amount! If we used that in our launchers, they wouldn't have to carry as much fuel to do the same amount of lifting."

"Much smaller launching systems." said General Parker, and Lee nodded.

"Which is why we power our spaceships with it, including Vipers and shuttles. Nothing else will do." said Will.

"That's a technology that would have enormous implications." said General Adama. "How could we find any deposits of tylium?"

"I understand there are many ways." said Will. "One is to perform a mineralogical scan of an object; this would reveal such deposits."

"I doubt we have the proper scanning capability." said Lee, and the edler Adama nodded.

"Another way," continued Will, "Would be a direct visual scan. Sometimes deposits show up as bright spots on the object."

Thinking, Sharon asked, "Would they be related to impact craters?"

"Possibly." replied Will.

"I think I know of something." Sharon said. She got up and walked over to a desk, activated the data terminal, and began entering commands. "I'm accessing the data site for the Dawn probe of 2007." she said. After a few moments, she brightened. "Here's what I'm looking for; the high-resolution surface map of Ceres made from the probe's orbital imaging data. The scientific community believes the bright spot to be salt deposits. Will, come over here and have a look, particularly at this bright spot. It seems to be in an impact crater." Will got up and had a look, then started nodding.

"This is most likely it, a possible tylium deposit." Will said. "Assuming it is tylium, we'd have to mine it, then refine it to get at its full potential." Looking further, Will shook his head slightly. "It looks like a large impactor created the big crater, then a smaller impactor opened up the ore deposit, which then spat some of the material across the crater's face."

"So, there is a distinct possibility that we have a major tylium deposit in our system?" asked Lee, and Will nodded.

"This is incredible! This stuff may be in our back yard, so to speak." said General Parker, "Based on what I've heard here so far, I'm going to side with both of you on this one. We must make contact, and we must return the lieutenant to his people; that would mean a lot in terms of credibility."

"We must keep in mind here," said General Adama, "That this is a whole new ball game, with a different set of rules. If we try doing things the same way we've done things in the past, we'll fall flat on our faces." He pointed at General Parker. "Even you have to admit that point." Parker nodded.

"I'm with you on this one completely, Bill." Parker said. "This will be my recommendation to the Joint Chiefs when we meet tomorrow. Hopefully, they'll see reason. If not, our job is a whole lot harder."

"What are the chances that the Joint Chiefs will say no?" asked Will.

"It depends on how conservative they feel." said Parker.

Will blinked. "It sounds to me like I'd have better odds taking up one of Starbuck's crazy card schemes." said Will, and everyone laughed at that.

"They do sound like bad odds, I'll admit," said Parker, "But I should have very little difficulty convincing them of the right way to go."

"Well," said General Adama, "I think we have enough for today." He looked at the technician and nodded, and the technician pressed a few buttons on his instruments, then nodded back. "You can have the rest of today off, Will. I'm going to go over the data with General Parker."

BSG

After the three had left as well as the technician, Bill Adama looked at Chuck Parker and asked, "Just what are our chances, really?"

Parker shook his head. "I may have done that good man a disservice, Bill. As you should know, the Joint Chiefs rarely take massive risks. Just trying to find his people would be a massive risk alone, but trying to pry technical data from them? Would you part with your secrets under those terms?"

"Unless we're completely misjudging his commanding officer." said Adama.

"Yes, Commander Adama. Your namesake. It sounds too much like a coincidence to me."

Bill Adama got a faraway look in his eye. "Crazy Aunt Theni ..." he muttered.

"What?" asked Parker.

"My Aunt Theni, short for Atheni. She always maintained that our family line originated from the stars, many scores of generations ago. And now, to find out that this Commander Adama has a daughter named Athena, I have to wonder."

"Again, it's another coincidence, Bill."

"Is it, Chuck? She also said that 'All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.' Maybe I am making too much out of this. But I can't shake this nagging feeling that she knew what she was talking about."

"At this point," said Parker, "There's only one way this'll happen, and that is we go on this expedition to start with. We know the chances of that, right?"

Adama sighed. "Unless we do the flight under the noses of the Joint Chiefs."

"Are you nuts, Bill?" said Parker. "It would never happen."

"What if the President gave us the go-ahead?"

"Nope." said Parker. "The Joint Chiefs control what information goes onto his desk. They'll most likely keep this hot potato from him."

"There must be something." said Adama.

"I'm not much of a believer in them, but it would take a miracle."

"Then maybe we should start praying." said Adama, and Parker nodded.

BSG

Sitting in front of the Joint Chiefs, Bill Adama could only cringe at the events unfolding. As General Parker predicted, they were not willing to go looking for Will's people.

"General Davenport," said General Parker, "Can't you see the wisdom of trying to find this man's people? It would benefit us in the long run."

"Thank you, Chuck," said Davenport, "But the decision is final. Everyone here, excepting you, agrees wholeheartedly that using what information we get from him is more tactically sound."

"Not all." replied another member of the group.

"Yes, General Stephens, I hear your dissent. And, don't think for one minute that your difference in opinion will make a difference in our decision. We will take what data we've gotten and use it for the greater good of our people."

"Does that include going to Ceres and checking out the possibility of the Occator bright spot being a possible high-powered fuel source? And what about the search for our missing pilot, Kara Thrace?" asked Adama.

"No!" said Davenport. "The Dawn probe data has been interpreted for over a decade as being exotic salt deposits. We don't need to reopen that case. We'll go with what we have, but going to Ceres is out of the question. As for Thrace, we're not going to continue searching."

"You're not going to authorize any more searches for her?" asked Adama. "She could be with the Lieutenant's people."

"All the more reason to contact his people." said Parker.

I understand your logic, but what proof do we have that she's with his people, or alive for that matter? In any case, General Adama, you will explain this to the young man that we require all data he has for our greater good."

Hesitating for a few moments, Adama finally nodded.

"Good." continued Davenport. "Now that that has been decided ..."

At this point, Adama's cell phone chimed.

"I thought you had silenced your phone?" said Davenport.

"Except for emergencies, I told Lieutenant Valeri not to call me." said Adama.

"Then, you'll need to remind her of protocol." said Davenport.

"Understood." said Adama. Pressing a button on his cell phone, he said into it, "Adama here."

"General, it's Lieutenant Valeri. We have a problem ..."

BSG

Entering the base was easy enough. As being a colonel in the Air Force, he could gain access to any military facility he needed to. And, as being a member of the National Security Agency, he had extra privileges as well.

Like instilling fear in others. Which he used to the fullest.

Walking into the special quarters building, he spotted the two guards at the door.

So like them to mark my target, he thought.

Walking up to the two guards, they stood to attention.

"Is this the quarters for the new asset?" he asked.

Seeing his displayed credentials, one of the guards responded, "Yes, Colonel."

"Good." he replied. "You are dismissed. I'll take over from here on."

"With all due respect, Colonel," said the other, "We have orders from General Adama not to let this man out of our sight."

"I said you are dismissed. Now go." he replied.

Looking at each other, they finally turned and left. After both men had cleared the building, he turned and opened the door to unit one. He saw a man in green fatigues sitting on the couch watching the television.

"Are you this Lieutenant Will I have heard about?" he asked.

"I am." replied Will.

"I have orders from General Adama to take you to him while he's meeting with the Joint Chiefs."

"I was under the impression," said Will, "That I wasn't supposed to be at that meeting. General Adama said that he would get back to me when it was over."

"Plans have changed. The Joints Chiefs want to talk to you personally. You need to come with me now."

Rising and turning off the television, Will replied, "Okay, but this is most unusual."

"Just follow me," answered the colonel, "And these two men will follow behind us."

This is too easy, he thought to himself. Some people are just too trusting.

BSG

Several hours leter, he watched as the form of Lieutenant Will fell into the nuclear furnace at Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania. After getting Will into a waiting staff car, he touched the back of Will's neck. A small droplet of tricodinal on a fingertip patch was enough to kill any extraterrestrial, and Will slumped in response. Getting Will to the nuclear furnace required carrying him onto a military Learjet, then flying to Harrisburgh. After landing at the special military airfield outside of Harrisburgh, he had Will carried to another staff car, then he drove the two miles to the old Three Mile Island nuclear facility.

Three Mile Island was abandoned by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after the debacle in the late twentieth century, but was obtained by the NSC for special use using a dummy corporation. The reactor was converted over to a nuclear furnace, where temperatures higher than twenty thousand degrees would vaporized anything that dropped into it, like prostrate forms.

And that is what happened to Lieutenant Will. Dropping into the furnace flames, the colonel watched in satifaction as his form disappeared, then a flash of blue heraled his demise. So much for the new alien on the planet, he thought.

Satisifed he had protected national security, and enforced the UN Security Council edict of 1964 that dictated that all alien life had to be extinguished, he turned from the furnace and walked out.

BSG

Walking through unit one, General Adama shook his head in frustration. Looking back at Valeri, he began speaking.

"Where were you when he disappeared?" he asked her.

"I was elsewhere doing errands. I couldn't be here the whole time. That's what the guards were for."

"Of course." he replied, understanding.

"He couldn't have taken off on his own, could he?" asked Lee, with General Parker nodding in agreement.

"No." replied Valeri. "He's from the stars; he wouldn't know anyone here. He was guarded as well; the guards would have stopped him. And, I consider him too trustworthy to leave on his own. He had to have been taken by someone else, someone with proper clearance. Ergo, military personnel."

"Agreed." said the elder Adama. "He's been nothing but reliable from the start." Looking at Captain Kelly, he continued, "Who was on duty guarding him?"

Glancing at the duty roster, Kelly replied, "Corporal Matthews and Private Davis. I'm having them located and sent here at once."

"Good." said General Adama, fuming. "This is a disaster! Where is he?"

"Calm down, dad." said Lee. "We'll get answers soon enough."

After a few moments, Captain Kelly was alerted to movement at the door. Two NCOs walked in, stepped up to the General, and said, "Matthews and Davis, reporting in as ordered."

"Are you the two who were supposed to be guarding the man in unit one?" asked the elder Adama. The two men nodded. "What happened here?" he asked.

"Sir," replied the corporal, "We were guarding the man. We'd check in with him from time to time. Around fourteen-thirty, a colonel from the NSA came in and dismissed us. That's the last we saw of him."

"What was the colonel's name?" asked Lee.

"Vice." replied the corporal, and the private nodded. The color in General Adama's face drained.

"No!" he gasped. "Not ... that ... lunatic!" he growled.

"You know him?" asked General Parker.

"Thankfully, only by reputation." said the elder Adama. "But, if he was the one who took Will from here, we may have seen the last of Will. Corporal, Private, you are dismissed." as they cleared the building, he continued. "This is a real disaster! Lee, Captain Kelly, you are both authorized to hunt down Colonel Vice and bring him to me. Full APB! I want answers from him!"

"I'm staying; I want to hear this as well." said Parker, and Bill Adama nodded.

BSG

Sitting in his home town's central square, Colonel John Vice, United States Air Force, on assignment to the National Security Agency, watched with satisfaction. This is why I do what I do, he thought, so my people could go about their important business without having to worry about the 'ethics' of the choices we have to make. I do it for them.

As he did two men from the Air Force walked up. "You're a hard man to find, Colonel Vice."

"Only when I need to be Colonel ... eh, Adama, right?"

"That's right. And standing next to me is Captain Kelly. We've been ordered by Major General William Adama to take you into custody. Stand up and come with us and it'll go easier on you."

"Though, frankly," said Captain Kelly, smiling, "I'd just as soon you ran. Then I'd have the fun of tackling you and carrying you to the car."

"To paraphrase what the man said at the end of Things To Come: " said Lee. "What shall it be, Colonel, what shall it be?"

"Don't worry," said Vice, "I have no intention of resisting you. I'll come quietly."

"Darn." said Kelly. "They never let me have any fun!"

Shaking his head at Kelly, Lee continued, gesturing, "Let's go, Colonel."

Vice followed the two officers. Let them have their fun, he thought, I know how to deal with his daddy. He'll be putty in my grasp.

BSG

Walking into General Adama's office with complete confidence, Vice stopped up short upon seeing the two persons standing next to General Adama. He recognized General Parker of the Joint Chiefs, but never expected to see the other one.

"I took the liberty of asking your boss, Director Daniels, to attend this meeting." said the elder Adama. "I'm sure he'd be just as interested at your 'antics'."

Vice just nodded weakly.

"Take a seat." said Adama, pointing to the chair in front of his desk.

Vice sat, hesitantly.

"Let's not beat around the bush." said Adama. "Where is Lieutenant Will?"

Thinking for a few moments, Vice decided that honesty was the better policy.

"He's gone." said Vice. "I terminated that alien and destroyed the body."

"How do you mean, 'destroyed'." asked Parker.

"He means, he dropped the remains into the nuclear furnace at Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania, General." said Director Daniels.

"Nuclear furnace? You mean, several tens of thousands of degrees of heat? That nuclear furnace?" said Parker.

"Exactly." said Adama. "Just what did you use to terminate Will before you tossed him into the fire Colonel?"

"You've probably never heard of it." said Vice. "Tricodinol."

"Oh, I have," replied Adama, "But it's only lethal on non-humans."

"Which is what Will was." said Vice. "He was a non-human."

"Are you sure?" said Adama. "I had a full physical done on him the morning after he arrived. I just got the results back. He was human, fully human in fact. When I questioned the attending physician after getting the test results, I asked if there was any chance of him not being fully human. The doctor replied that his results were so dead-on, he could only be human. Ergo, you killed a human being. Not with the tricodinol, which only kills non-humans, which only placed Will into a near-coma. Which you so conveniently ended with the furnace."

"You've gotta be kidding me? He was fully human?" said Vice.

"Fully." confirmed Adama. He turned to the NSA director. "What can we do about this?"

"I can confirm that John here has been a bad boy over the last ten years." said the director. "Do you remember the California cult attack six years ago? Guess who was responsible for that debacle? John here has, ostensibly, been chasing an alien, who supposedly, is masquerading as a human who disappeared in 1948."

"But what can we do about this? He violated my command!" said Adama.

"About violating your command? Nothing. But, he clearly exceeded his authority by taking Will from you without waiting for the test results. He must've secretly gained the President's signature in order to carry out the act, so it's most likely in the President's hands. I'll have to tell him about this fiasco personally."

"But, don't you have to go through the NSC first?" asked Parker.

"Normally, yes. I am scheduled to meet with the NSC in two weeks. But, I'm having lunch with the President two days from now. I want the two of you, and any aides you specify, to attend that meeting and we'll tell the President everything. Unlike you, I don't have to wait for the NSC's permission, and the Joint Chiefs can enjoy the buzzcut I'll give them for this. You can keep John here in lockup while we do this."

Adama looked at General Parker and smiled. "That'll work." he said, and Parker nodded, smiling as well.

BSG

"This is an outrage!" crowed the President. "First you in the NSA consider me a 'glorified civilian', then you come to me for whatever permission you may require to carry out your insanity. Completely inexcusable! And now, a human diplomat from the stars lies dead at your agency's hands."

"Mister President, if I may ..." said General Davenport, but the President cut him off with a wave.

"And you General Davenport!" said the President. "Always thinking things in a simple military mindset. Did it ever occur to you that since this human from the stars was representing his people, that made him a diplomat? And, since he's a diplomat, this whole matter fell under diplomatic jurisdition, which is in my corner?"

"Mister President, all matters such as this fall completely under military jurisdiction." said Davenport.

"Not in this case!" said the President. "This clearly was a diplomatic matter, and that is my jurisdiction! This wasn't military at all."

"What shall we do in this case?" asked General Adama.

"What was this man here for?" asked the President.

"His ship was incapacitated," said Adama, "And he was offered the chance to tell his story to our government. He was asking for help for his people. They're refugees, on the run from an alien menace, and they need supplies badly. Food, fuel, and any other aid we can give them."

"As far as food is concerned," said the President, "We'd give them everything they need. We have lots to spare."

"That's not true, Mister President." said Davenport.

"You be quiet, Davenport." said the President. "You and your cabal of stupidity have done enough damage for the month. Leave me now; I'm sick of looking at the whole lot of you. I mean it; get out!" They filed out, and the President turned back to the others. "Well, can we supply these people with what they need?"

"Sir," Adama, "Will told us about the possibility of a major fuel source within our system. The scientists may have assumed what it may have been, but Will gave us a new option. The Dawn probe which sent back data from Ceres showed a bright spot in one area, as well as several other smaller bright spots. Will has suggested that instead of salts, as the scientists have speculated, it might be a major source of interstellar fuel."

"Interstellar fuel on an asteroid?" asked the President.

"It may actually be a sub-surface deposit, which got spat out from a smaller impactor than the one which produced the larger crater. Even if it's not a fuel deposit, we still have plenty of food we can give to Will's people, as well as other aid we might be able to provide as well."

Thinking, the President started nodding. "And any aid we provide," he said, "Would go greatly in our favor when his people get here. Even if his commanding officer doesn't take direct sides, we'd still look better for having helped them."

"Exactly our thinking, sir." said Adama.

"Then do it. We owe his people for what happened to their pilot; it's still our fault, irregardless of our opinions. Besides, if it happened to one of our people, how would we react back to them? We'll fall on our sword, as it were, but we will help them, if we can. What do we have to get the aid to them?"

"We still have the X-84B Apollo." said Adama. "But, we'd have to launch it using conventional means and carry the payload in the rear section and on side pods. By the way, what do you want us to do with the colonel who killed him?"

"Like I said," said the President, "Use whatever means are necessary to help them. As for the colonel, we'll wait until you get back before I make a final decision."

Adama nodded. He'd be going personally to face his namesake.

BSG

Flying in their Vipers, Boomer and Jolly stayed in visual contact with each other. Being only a kilometron apart increased their scanner radius, and kept them from any collisions. Occasionally, one would glance at the other to confirm their presense.

And then, ZAP! A flash of bright light passed in front of them.

"Jolly," said Boomer, "You get that?"

"Oh, yeah," said Jolly, "And a bunch of spots in my eyes as the result."

"It just zipped right past us." said Boomer.

And then another zipped by on the same heading, followed by several others.

"You see this?" asked Boomer.

"Yeah. They're not even trying to acknowledge us." replied Jolly.

"Or, maybe, they're trying to get us to follow them." said Boomer.

"I wouldn't." said Jolly.

"I'm contacting the Galactica." said Boomer. "We'll see what the commander has to say about this. But I think we should follow them." Pressing a few buttons, Boomer just waited for the commander to reply.

He didn't have to wait long. "Follow carefully." was the reply.

"Okay, Jolly, we're to follow. But, remain on guard. We don't know what they want."

"Just this once," muttered Jolly, "Let this be the way to Earth."

"C'mon, Jolly. We won't get there by praying."

And so, the two Vipers turned into the direction the lights went. As they flew along, some of the lights stayed with them, in formation. After almost a centar, they spotted a planetoid on their scanners.

"Look at this, Jolly." said Boomer. "Scanner shows one life sign on the surface."

"And the lights have vanished." said Jolly.

"This must have been what they wanted us to find." said Boomer. "I'll report to the commander and see what he thinks." Pressing more buttons, they waited.

"Proceed carefully." was the reply.

"Alright, Jolly, more caution. We don't know what we'll find. Remember what happened the last time someone found something on a planetoid?"

"Yeah, and I still get the heebees when I think of it." replied Jolly, as they turned their Vipers to land on the planetoid.

After landing, both warriors met up and Boomer waved his handheld scanner around. Settling on a direction, the two men started walking.

"This is odd." said Boomer. "We're closer to the lifesign, yet the life signs being put out aren't any clearer."

"You think it's dying?" asked Jolly.

"We'll know when we get there."

After a few microns, they came upon the lifesign, and almost regretted it. Boomer just kept swallowing, but Jolly lost his lunch. A single form, burnt almost black, was lying on its back.

"Jolly," said Boomer, "Get back to your Viper. Contact the Galactica and tell the commander what we found. Tell him we'll need Doctor Salik and a full burn trauma team here right away." Jolly nodded and turned back to his Viper, still retching.

As Boomer continued scanning the form, he looked closer at the form. Then, he recognized the face. Oh no, thought Boomer, not you ...

He fell to his knees and wept. A few microns later, a hand landed on his shoulder. It was Jolly. "Boomer?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

"Jolly," said Boomer, "Take a good look at his face."

"I don't want to." said Jolly. "It's all burnt black."

"Jolly, look." repeated Boomer.

Looking, it took Jolly a few microns before he saw it.

"Is that ... h-him?" he stammered.

"Yeah. And something nasty happened to him, that's for sure."

BSG

As the medical shuttle and several Vipers landed, Jolly met with Doctor Salik and Cassiopeia, as well as Captain Apollo, Lieutenant Starbuck, and Kara.

"What do we have, Jolly?" asked Apollo.

"One living form, burned badly." said Jolly.

"Did he fall from space?" asked Cassie.

"Unlikely. He's badly burned, but I don't think entering the air around this planetoid did it. If that were the case, he'd be in worse shape, most likely dead."

Kara looked closely at Jolly and saw the look in his eyes.

"Jolly, are you okay?" she asked.

"I've never seen anything like it in my whole life." said Jolly. "His condition isn't the real shocker, though; it's who he is. You'll have to take a look for yourself."

It took the group several microns to reach the form. Looking, the three new warriors couldn't look for long.

"By Sagan ..." said Salik, looking at the face. "It can't be!"

"What, Doctor, what can't be?" asked Apollo.

Salik looked at Apollo. "Look carefully at his face." he said.

Looking, it took Apollo several seconds to put it together. "Oh, no. That's ..."

"Will." finished Starbuck. "What could've happened?"

"Will?" said Kara. "Rigel's husband? Then where's his Viper?"

"That's unknown." said Boomer. "But one thing I can tell you, is that he's not in his combat uniform. What's left of what he's wearing is a combination of natural plant fibers and synthetics. It's not our garments he's wearing; It's similar to what we found you in, Kara."

"In any case," said Salik, "Let's get him carefully into the cryo-tube and get him back to the Galactica. We'll sort this out back there."

After putting Will into the cryo-tube, all moved back to the waiting shuttle. After getting the cryo-tube secured, the five pilots returned to their ships and launched. After meeting up with the shuttle, it took them several centars to reach the Galactica. After landing, Salik and his team whisked the cryo-tube away. After passing through decontamination, the pilots were met by Commander Adama and Colonel Tigh.

"Report." said Adama.

"Father," said Apollo, weakly, "We don't know how this happened, but the form that Boomer and Jolly discovered, is that of Lieutenant Will."

"Will?" asked Tigh, and Apollo nodded.

"Boomer," said Adama, "Tell us everything that happened."

And so Boomer described the encounter with the lights, finding the planetoid, landing and finding Will. Afterward, Adama just shook his head slightly.

"And no sign of Will's Viper anywhere?" he asked, and Boomer just shook his head. "This doesn't make any sense." said Boomer. "If he had fallen from space onto the planetoid, the lack of any pressurized garment meant he should be dead. Yet, he was found, alive but badly burned, lying on his back on the planetoid. Obviously, if it weren't for the burns, he might've been mistaken for sleeping."

"I would agree." said Tigh. "Will's been known to do some crazy stunts with Vipers, but his being in strange garments is really odd."

"Obviously Will has the answers." said Apollo. "We'll just have to wait for Doctor Salik to work his magic so Will can tell us what happened."

Adama nodded at his son's logic.

"But who's going to tell Rigel?" asked Kara.

"That's my job." said Adama, sadly.

BSG

Sitting at her station on the bridge, Rigel continued to handle the constant flow of traffic around the fleet. A medical shuttle had returned some time back with a person on board, but rumor had spread like wildfire that the person had been burned so badly, that whoever it was wasn't expected to live much longer. Rigel considered it to be none of her further concern, and so continued doing her duty. It was what she owed all of them, including those who didn't return, especially her husband Will, who was declared overdue over a secton ago.

"Rigel." said a voice behind her. She turned and saw the commander with a sad look in his eyes. "Come with me." he said, and Rigel motioned for her alternate to take over. After passing on her duties, she followed him to the back of the bridge. Standing in a group was Captain Apollo, Kara, Boomer, Jolly, and Starbuck, with Colonel Tigh up on the command dais. All had sad looks in their eyes as well.

"Rigel," said Adama, "It's about the person that was brought aboard a few centars ago. It was Will that was brought in."

Rigel blinked. "Will?" she asked, and Adama nodded. "He was brought in and taken to Life Station. You go there now and be with him." he said.

Shakily, Rigel nodded and turned to leave the bridge. "I'll walk with you." said Kara, and Starbuck nodded. "Me too." he said.

After the three had left the bridge, the rest walked over to the command dais. Colonel Tigh looked down from the platform and said, "That must not have been easy for you, my friend."

Looking up at his old friend from their pilot days, Adama just shook his head and said, "How could I have made it any easier on her? We have never encountered anything like this in our history."

"I think Will said it best." said Apollo. "'The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine'. This is one of those strange things that we have encountered."

Adama could only nod.

BSG

A flash in space heralded the arrival of the strange ship near the fleet, and the battlestar wasted no time in scrambling her Vipers. From the point of view of the ship, the X-84B Apollo, it was clear things were getting dangerous. Four people sat in the cramped cockpit: General Adama, General Parker, Sharon Valeri handled communications, and Lee Adama was piloting. Turning to spot the battlestar, all four showed alarm, but Lee quickly calmed down.

"Those are the same ships that Will was flying." He said.

"Are you sure?" asked Parker.

"I'm sure; remember, I pulled Will from his, and those are the same types." Parker nodded at that.

"Try raising them." said General Adama, and Sharon began adjusting the communications system. After a few moments, the communications systems crackled to life, and soon they could hear the battlestar.

"Battlestar Galactica, this is the X-84B Apollo. Please respond." said General Adama. Another voice came on the line.

"X-84B Apollo, this is the Battlestar Galactica, Commander Adama speaking. Where are you from?"

"Galactica, Apollo. We are from the planet Earth. Is Kara Thrace with you?"

"She's in one of the Vipers we launched. She can meet with you as soon as you land. Welcome to the Colonial Fleet."

"Thank you commander, and we understand that incoming procedure requires going through decontamination. We will comply right away."

A pause. "Thank you for your understanding. I'll meet you as soon as you complete decontamination. My Strike Captain will escort you in. Adama out."

General Adama watched as three of the tri-winged ships assumed formation with the Apollo. One took position in front, presumably the Strike Captain, and two took up positions off both sides of the Apollo. Lee followed the lead ship and then lined up the Apollo with the well-lit landing bay, and within moments, the ship touched down on its landing gear.

All four unbuckled, and Sharon moved to the hatch. Opening it, she waited as support crews moved access stairs to the side of the ship, then disembarked, helping the two generals disembark after her, and waited until Lee had exited the ship. Placing the hatch in an unlocked closed position, she then descended the stairs, then moved as motioned towards what she assumed were the decontamination chambers.

Reaching the chambers, all four entered their indicated chambers, which closed and began the decontamination process. After a few minutes the chambers opened, and all four emerged to find a familiar white-haired man waiting.

"I'm Commander Adama." said the white-haired man. "With me is my first officer, Colonel Tigh, Captain Apollo, and I'm sure you all know Kara Thrace?"

"It's good to see you again, Kara." said General Adama, with Lee nodding. "Commander Adama, I'm Major General William Adama of the United States Air Force of the planet Earth. With me is Major General Charles Parker of our Joint Chiefs of Staff, my son Colonel Lee Adama, and Lieutenant Sharon Valeri, both from the U.S. Air Force." Commander Adama nodded at this.

"Yes, Kara has briefed me on you." said Commander Adama. "We have the same names. Might we be of a common ancestor?"

"Most likely," said General Adama, "But we'll talk about that later. We are here on a more pressing matter. We are here about Lieutenant Will." All three colonials and Kara got serious looks on their faces.

"What about him?" asked Commander Adama.

"I'm afraid he was with us for a short time. He was killed by one of our military personnel by mistake. We apologize for that act. It shouldn't have happened."

"Oh?" said Commander Adama.

"And, one other thing." said General Adama, "We've brought some food supplies with us. It's in our back bay. I've also brought some data about the Earth, its position and cultural data. Because of what happened with Will, we owe you for this. So, we'll do everything to help get you to safety. We don't intend to let Will's loss be in vain."

"Amen to that." added Parker.

"I see." said Commander Adama. After a few moments, he added. "It's good that you have integrity. But, you need to come with us."

"Lead the way." said General Adama.

Commander Adama led everyone to a set of double doors. "This is our vertical lift system." said Kara. "Are we going to the bridge, sir?" she asked.

Commander Adama turned to her and shook his head. "Two levels below." he said, and Kara nodded, understanding. Life Station, she thought, they'll need to see Will before we proceed.

As the doors opened, everyone filed in, and Kara stood next to Sharon. Putting her arm around her friend's shoulders, she said, "How are things with you?"

Sharon looked back at Kara sadly. "I'm okay. I got to know Will. He was obviously a good man. I hope Rigel doesn't take this too badly; he cared about her deeply. It's just a tragic waste." Kara nodded, then whispered, winking "You'll get to tell her that yourself." Sharon nodded.

The lift ascended for about a minute, then stopped. Commander Adama walked out with everyone following. After a few moments, he entered the Life Station. Walking over to Doctor Salik, he asked, "Where is Will?" Salik motioned to the Life Pod area, and Adama could see Rigel keeping watch over her husband. He nodded to Salik and motioned the others to come with him.

After a few steps, Sharon saw her. "Rigel." she breathed. Rigel saw them coming and stood up. Commander Adama motioned her to resume sitting, but she kept standing. General Adama glanced down into the Life Pod and saw the recumbant form. "Is that ..." he asked.

"It's Will." said Kara. "One of our patrols found his burned body on a nearby planetoid." said Commander Adama. Looking into the Pod, he added, "And he's looking better since he got here." "Much." said Kara.

"We had trouble getting him to respond to treatment at first," said Salik, "Some strange chemical was interfering with the process, but after we purged the chemical, he began responding quickly. Apparently his physiology has aided in his recovery so far. He should make full recovery in short order."

"Most likely," said General Adama, "That chemical was one we developed called tricodinal. It's a toxin to non-humans, and causes a comatic state in humans."

"Who are you and what do you know about this?" asked Rigel.

"My name, Rigel, is Major General William Adama of Earth. With me is Major General Charles Parker, my son Colonel Lee Adama, and Lieutenant Sharon Valeri. Will was with us for a time, and he spoke of you fondly. He showed me your image, so that's how we know of you. One of our military officers mistook Will for an alien, or a non-human, and gave him a dose of tricodinal, thinking it would kill him. It didn't, but the officer still dropped Will into an incinerator. That's why he was burned like that. On behalf of the people of Earth, we apologize to you for this."

Shaking her head back and forth, Rigel said, "How ... could you people do something like this to someone?"

"We don't," replied General Adama, "But some of our people have the mistaken notion that doing this helps our cause. It doesn't, and I have every intention of seeing to it that the one who did this pays. I only wish we could have brought him along with us so he could see for himself what he has done."

"Maybe that was a good thing." said Rigel. "I might have ripped his eyes out of his face."

General Adama smiled. "I have no doubt you would have." Turning to the commander, he asked, "What do we do now?"

"We should retire to my office until I can assemble the Council of the Twelve." said the commander. "Will is well known to them, and they think fondly of him. I'm not sure how they will react to this news." General Adama nodded.

"Before we go," said Sharon, "There's something I need to do." Reaching into her bag, she took out a box. "Rigel, I brought this box of what we call chocolate candies for you. I originally intended it in memory of Will, but you can have it anyway. I'm sure he would agree." She placed it on Will's Life Pod and nodded to the general.

General Adama turned back to the commander and said, "Let's go, then."

Commander Adama led the group out of Life Station to go to his office.

BSG

After the group had left, Rigel just stared at the entrance to the Life Station. Every now and then, she would glance to the box of chocolates, not sure if she wanted to indulge. Cassiopeia walked over and sat next to her.

"Will's responding well to treatment." said Cassiopeia. "We estimate at least ten cycles before we will try and bring him around, though."

"That's not what I'm thinking about." said Rigel.

"Then what is it?"

"It's about them ... the people from Earth. If they're going to do this to one of us, what does that herald for all of us? And for Will's people?"

Thinking, Cassiopeia said, "We should handle that when we get to it. We're too busy trying to survive to worry about that now. I, however, think that if we take them up on their offer, we'll stand a better chance of survival. You can't deny that."

After a few moments, Rigel just nodded. "You're probably right." she said. "And, this General Adama was quite the gentleman."

"This friend of Will's left that box for you." added Cassiopeia, "Are you going to open it? What did she say it was?"

"Chocolate candies. We probably don't have anything like it in the whole fleet. As for opening it, I'm not really sure. She did say that Will would agree."

"And I agree that he would. It's up to you, though." She started rising to get up, but Rigel held her down. Reaching over, Rigel took the box from atop Will's Life Pod. Examining its sealing system, she opened the outer seals, then saw the plastic wrapper." They sure make this hard to open." she said.

"They're probably trying to keep it fresh." said Cassiopeia. Rigel nodded at that.

Unwrapping the plastic wrapper, she removed the lid and gave it to Cassiopeia. Examining the inside of the lid, Cassiopeia remarked, "They even included a legend on what's inside." She showed the inner lid to Rigel, who read off the various contents: "Chocolate creme, chocolate butter creme, choclate strawberry creme, caramel. It even looks like crunchy wafers as well."

Taking one from the box, she took a bite, and after a few moments, started smiling. "This is good." She extended the box to Cassiopeia, who took one and took a taste. "Even if the Council doesn't agree to accept full help from them," said Cassie, "when we get to Earth, we can always bring some of this to the fleet." Rigel nodded.

BSG

Standing in the chambers of the Council Of The Twelve, General Adama was reminded of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table. I must remember, he thought, that they are most likely bureaucrats doing their job. One council member was shaking in fury.

"This is inexcusable!" said the councillor, named Domra. "This man came to your society in peace and openness, and your people repaid his decency with treachery! And, still you wish to pursue diplomatic relations with us?"

"That is correct, councillor." said General Adama. "What you must keep in mind," said General Parker, "Is that we have come here and told you everything that happened. We have, so to speak, fallen on our sword and we ask your forgivness in this matter and that you give us another chance to prove our good intentions."

"Good intentions!" snorted Domra.

"What are your impressions on this, Commander Adama?" asked Tinia.

"I believe we should give them another chance." said The Commander.

"And why is that?" asked Domra.

"Because they are not Cylons." replied The Commander. "Let's face it," he continued, "They are not the only ones blameless for their unwise choices; this council has made some serious mistakes in the past, mistakes that could have cost us everything. What is that old saying, 'let those who are blameless be the ones to accuse'? We should give them another chance."

"I stand with Domra." said Geller. "I would tend to side with Commander Adama." said Tinia.

Domra looked around at everyone. "If there is nothing else?" he asked, then after a few moments, turned to the Earthers and said, "You may go now."

"What?" asked General Adama. "They must make their decisions in private." said Kara. "It's their way."

"Captain," said Commander Adama, "Would you take them to my chambers and wait with them? I'll bring the verdict shortly."

Apollo nodded and led the group out and to the commander's quarters. There, he motioned for everyone to take a seat until the commander's return.

BSG

They didn't have to wait long. The hatch opened, and Commander Adama walked in with Siress Tinia, both of whom had sad looks on their faces. Seeing those looks, Kara stood up. Commander Adama shook his head. "I'm afraid that the Council has decided that all Earthers are to return to their planet at once." He said. "There will be no diplomatic relations at this time."

"That can't include me, does it sir?" asked Kara.

"I'm sorry, Kara," The Commander replied, "But it does. I argued in favor of the military's needs outweighing things, but they overruled me in this matter."

Lee swallowed. "This is all my fault." he said.

"What are you talking about?" asked Kara, looking.

General Adama turned to his son. "You can't blame yourself for this."

Lee looked to his father. "Oh, but I can." He turned to everyone. "I had to make a decision out there," he said, pointing to the stars. "I could've followed Will's plan or I could've taken him back to Earth. What I decided, everything ensued from there. I should've followed Will's plan; it was the best choice."

"Then you understand." said Commander Adama. Lee nodded.

"If only I had to do it all over again." said Lee, closing his eyes ...

BSG

... Opening his eyes, Lee was greeted not by the brightly lit quarters of the battlestar's commanding officer, but rather the inky blackness of space. Sweeping his gaze around, he saw the dimly lit interior of the Apollo. Looking out the viewport, his eyes eventually fell upon the drifting hulk of Will's Viper. Glancing back, he saw Will sitting in the rear seat. What just happened?, he thought, and he remembered his last words: If only I had to do it all over again.

"I'll try your plan." he said out loud, "If it doesn't work we'll try and find your people and get you back to them. Maybe my friend Kara will be there as well."

"I would hope for that." said Will. "The Cylons don't take good care of their prisoners."

Looking back at Will smiling, he said, "Well, let's get those vectors to get to Caprica so we can get started."

Will nodded, smiling as well.