Battlestar Polaris: Revised

by Adama's Shadow

Revised/updated version of Battlestar Polaris. Includes continuation of the story through the end of the current arc. I am working on Book2, not sure on publish date as yet. For more info, see my profile.

Author's Note: Hello, and welcome to BSP Revised. I am hopeful the story will flow better now. The changes are fairly minor overall, but will grow more significant towards the end of the previous version. Hope you enjoy. I of course can claim no ownership of anything except the plot and any original characters. No profit made here.

Scorpion Fleet Yards, 4 years before the Fall

Colonel Kevin Travers walked briskly down the corridor, enjoying the spectacular view of the Battlestars sitting in their slips being worked on as he passed the viewports. A young man, Kevin Travers had just celebrated his 35th birthday a few weeks earlier and had served for the past two years as the XO on the Battlestar Mercury. When his ship had docked the previous day, he'd been given a summons to report to Admiral Corman's office on the station at 0900 this morning. He was curious about the summons of course, but not overly concerned, his record was exemplary and his fitreps from Commander Harris on the Mercury had been glowing.

At 0845, Travers arrived at the Admiral's office, and spoke with the lieutenant sitting at the reception desk who told him to have a seat and the admiral would be with him shortly. He sat in one of the chairs in the waiting area and gazed at the Battlestar Valkyrie, which was sitting in the slip directly across from the admiral's office. As he admired the lines of the sleek Odin class ship, he shook his head slightly. Rumors were running rampant through the fleet about Bill Adama's recent "reassignment" to the Galactica. No one knew for sure what had happened, but the move had been touted by the brass as a "reward" for his long service, he would serve as the venerable Battlestar's last commander as there was some kind of plan in the works to retire her and convert her into a museum for the Cylon War. A damned shame he thought, putting one of the best commanders in the Fleet, and a grand old ship out to pasture. Galactica had been Kevin's first assignment out of the Academy, and he still had a soft spot for the old girl and for her current commander who he had first served with on the Atlantia, Bill had been the CAG when he first arrived, and then the XO. Kevin had been fresh out of ATT (Advanced Tactical Training), graduated first in his class, newly promoted to Captain, and had been assigned to Atlantia as a squadron leader. He and Bill had bonded immediately, swapping stories about life on the Galactica. When Bill had taken command of Valkyrie, Kevin had gone along with him and served as his CAG for two years before being promoted and reassigned to Mercury as XO.

"Colonel?"

Travers looked up at the Lieutenant.

"The admiral will see you now sir."

Travers stood, "Thank you Lieutenant"

He walked over and opened the door to the admiral's office and stepped inside. He stepped over in front of the desk and saluted. Corman stood and returned the salute.

"At ease Colonel, have a seat. Care for a drink?"

"No thank you sir"

"I'm sure you're wondering why you're here Colonel. I have a new assignment for you. One that I think you will be very well suited to, and which will benefit immensely from your experience and skill as a leader. All of your commanding officers speak very highly of you, you are an ATT Honor Grad, and you have been decorated for exceptional bravery and leadership on several occasions," Corman leaned back. "I want to promote you to Commander, effective immediately, and assign you the Battlestar Polaris. She's brand new, and has just completed shake down trials. Assuming you accept, you will be taking the Polaris and three Titan class Gunstars on a four year exploratory cruise of the Hatari and Prolmar sectors. President Adar has finally agrees to let us start seeing what's out there, and you'll be leading the way."

Corman looked at him expectantly, "what do you say Colonel? Ready to become the youngest Commander in the history of the Colonial Fleet?"

Travers sat silently for a few moments, a bit shell-shocked, a sudden build up of excitement in his chest threatening to make him laugh out loud. He sternly took control of himself, but he let his face light up with a smile.

"Yes sir, I am definitely ready."

Corman smiled back and stood and held out a small case which Travers took. He opened it to find Commander rank insignia nestled inside. Corman came around the desk and removed Travers's Colonel Insignia and replaced them with the new Commander insignia. Corman then took his hand and shook it. "Congratulations, Commander Travers. Your ship is in slip 15, you are to report aboard tomorrow at 0900, but I think everyone will understand if you can't wait that long."

Travers nodded and stepped back and saluted, "Thank you Admiral."

Corman returned the salute, "You've earned it son. Now go take a look at your ship. Dismissed."

"Yes sir, thank you sir"

Travers exited the Admiral's office and nodded in thanks when the Lieutenant congratulated him on his promotion. He walked in a bit of a daze, setting a general course towards docking slip 15, and HIS ship. He'd done it!

Battlestar Valkyrie

Major Marla Howard stalked into CIC and everyone could easily tell she was more than a little unhappy. They had all been on edge since the Old Man's reassignment, though nobody really missed Tigh all that much. Now that Valkyrie was nearly done with her refit, to bring her up to current fleet specs, networked systems and all, a new Commander would be assigned. She had served with William Adama for years and she was not happy with his treatment by the brass. But, that was life in the Fleet. She checked the master situation display and noted that all of the networking work had been nearly completed and they were expecting to finish the remaining computer upgrades by the end of the week, at which time Valkyrie would undergo a shakedown cruise to test out her new systems.

She remembered when she had come aboard, fresh out of the Academy. She had served as the Valkyrie's communications officer before moving over to serve as Tactical/Navigation Officer and had finally ended up as the Operations Officer and third in command of the ship. It had been a wild ride and she had loved every second of it. The comm. officer on duty waved to her and she stepped over.

"Major, I have a personal communiqué for you." He handed her a print out. She thanked him and moved back over to the master plotting table where she read the note.

To: Howard, Marla

Operations Officer, Battlestar Valkyrie

From: Travers, Kevin

Hello Marla, I hope this finds you well. In case you hadn't heard, Admiral Corman just promoted me to Commander and gave me the Polaris. She's a brand new Mercury class and she's a beauty. But, she is lacking one vital thing. We are due to depart on a long range exploratory cruise in three days and I still don't have an XO. I was wondering if you would be willing to fill the position? We worked very well together on Valkyrie and it would be good to have you aboard. The Old Man always said you were the best second officer he ever had and that you'd be a damned fine XO. I trust his opinion implicitly. Polaris is docked in slip 15, if you want the post, report aboard by 0900 tomorrow. I have already spoken to Admiral Corman and your orders are cut and will be waiting for you when you come aboard. I hope to see you then.

Your friend,

Kevin Travers

Commander, Battlestar Polaris BSG-65

Marla smiled and looked around the CIC. She didn't really have to think too hard as it was an amazing opportunity and a chance to serve with an old friend, so she quickly made up her mind. Goodbye old girl, she thought and turned to head out of the Valkyrie CIC for the last time.

Battlestar Polaris, BSG-65

Kevin Travers walked through his ship, giving himself a private tour. Though she was virtually identical to the Mercury, his last assignment and the class progenitor, Polaris had one very unique quality not shared by her sister ships. She was HIS. He heard the sound of running feet behind him and stepped aside as a young woman came running through on her morning jog.

"Good morning Bullseye"

Major Janine "Bullseye" Forsythe, his new CAG waved over her shoulder, "morning Commander!" and continued on her way. He smiled and moved on, continuing his tour. He'd been lucky to get her, she was a fellow ATT honor grad and had been serving as an Instructor in advanced Viper combat tactics at the academy until he had offered her the posting of CAG on Polaris. She'd immediately jumped at the assignment telling him that while she liked teaching, she was a combat pilot, not a nursemaid for nuggets. He chuckled to himself and headed towards CIC. Time to go check in and see if Marla had decided to take him up on his offer.

As he walked into CIC, thing were still a bit chaotic as the crew and dock personnel raced to get the ship ready to depart in two days. He stepped over to the situation table. Captain Thomas Vale, the Operations Officer looked up at his arrival. Vale had been aboard Mercury with him, and while Commander Harris had not wanted to let him go, he had reluctantly given in, all the while grumbling good naturedly about mutiny. Vale had been the Tactical Officer on the Mercury and was an exemplary young officer, he was already creating order out of the chaos on board the Polaris.

"Good morning Commander."

"Morning Captain, status report."

"The ship is being provisioned and we are taking aboard spares, raw materials and extra ammunition. All systems are online and fully operational. All departments are estimating we will be ready for departure by 2200 tonight."

"That will allow us to give the crew some shore time before we depart. Go ahead and pass the word, leaves granted for all personnel as soon as the ship is departure ready. Everyone is to be back on board and ready to go day after tomorrow at 1200."

"Aye, Commander."

Petty Officer Lynn Hayes, the ships communications officer stepped over, "Commander, airlock two reports that a Major Marla Howard is aboard an en route to the CIC."

"Excellent, thank you Miss Hayes." She nodded and headed back to her station.

When Howard walked in a few minutes later, Travers walked over to meet her. She saluted and he returned it. He escorted her out of CIC and down the hall to his day cabin. Once inside, with a big smile he took her hand and pulled her into a friendly embrace. He stepped back, "Damn it's good to see you Marla. How have you been?"

She smiled in return, "I've been good Kevin, except for that recent business with the Old Man."

He frowned and nodded, "Yes, I wanted to ask about that, but I will understand if you can't talk about it."

"I can't, they made us all sign non-disclosure orders."

"Typical of the bureaucracy, shame though. Bill is a damn fine officer and it's a big loss to the Fleet to put him out to pasture like this." He opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out a small case, which he handed to her.

She opened it to reveal Colonel rank insignia.

"Congratulations Colonel Howard," Travers said as he took out the pins and placed them on her collar. When he finished they saluted. Just then, there was a knock at the hatch, "Come in."

A very young looking enlisted man peeked in and then stepped through the hatch. "Sorry to disturb you sir, but I wanted let you know that I have stowed Colonel Howard's belonging in her quarters."

"Thank you private. I'd like you to give Colonel Howard the cubit tour."

He saluted, "Of course sir. Colonel, if you'll follow me?"

Howard stepped toward the hatch, "Thank you Commander."

"Thank you Colonel, enjoy the tour. Report for duty day after tomorrow at 1200. We'll be departing at 1400."

"I will sir, thanks again."

"Enjoy your time off Colonel, it may be our last for quite some time."

With that, Howard followed the private out to start her tour. Travers looked down at his desk and sighed, he hadn't realized that there was quite so much paperwork involved in being a Battlestar commander. He sat down and picked up the first file on the stack and got to work.

Battlestar Polaris: Two days later

CIC, 1400 Hours

Commander Travers strolled into CIC and noticed with satisfaction that all posts were manned. He stepped over and joined his new XO at the master situation board.

"Afternoon Colonel, Status report"

Marla Howard nodded to her Commander, "Afternoon sir. All stations manned and ready and the ship is fully operational, we are ready to depart on your order."

"Communications, contact the tower, request permission to depart."

Hayes nodded and carried out the order. "Tower responding sir, we are cleared to depart at your discretion. Local traffic has been cleared for our departure."

"Thank you. XO, have all mooring cables and docking clamps released. Thrusters, hold station."

"Mooring cables, and docking clamps released"

"Holding station, sir."

"Bow thrusters back one quarter, port and starboard at station keeping."

"Aye sir, bow thrusters reverse one quarter, port and starboard holding station."

Travers watched the DRADIS screens, as the ship slid slowly out of her docking slip.

"We have cleared the docking slip sir, we are free, and clear to navigate"

"Helm, bring the ship to course 042, carom 10, 10 degree up angle on the bow. Engines, ahead one third."

"Aye sir, 042 carom 10, 10 degree up angle."

"Engines ahead one third aye."

Hayes spoke up, "Sir, the Gunstars Scepter, Mystic and Avenger are on approach andare requesting permission to join formation."

"Permission granted, have them assume standard screening formation. Lieutenant Frost, what's the status of our jump plot?"

Lieutenant J.G. Heron Frost, all of 20 years old, had come to them as an OCS graduate, a genius who had graduated the Caprica Institute of Technology at 18 with a double Ph.D. in Astronavigation Theory and Stellar Cartography, had graduated with top honors from the Fleet OCS program and the Tactical Officers training course. He currently served as Navigation Officer and Tactical Officer for the Polaris and Travers was extremely glad to have the talented young man aboard.

"First jump is plotted sir; it will take us to the close edge of the Hatari sector, near the border with the Prolmar sector, just beyond the red line."

"As good a place as any to start, distribute the coordinates to the fleet Lt."

Frost turned and moved over to the comm. station. Travers turned and picked up the handset, and clicked the PA.

"Attention all fleet personnel, this is Commander Travers. In a few moments we will make history as we undertake the first long range exploratory mission for the Colonies in over 20 years. We will be exploring the unknown, looking for resources and likely sites for colonization. Let's go see what's out there. All ships, commence jump prep, we will jump at 2 minutes from my mark. Mark." Travers hung up the handset and looked up at the DRADIS which showed all of his ships in formation.

"Status."

"The board shows green, Commander, all ships are ready to jump."

"Well then, let's get this show on the road. All ships jump."

With a series of bright flashes, the four Colonial ships made the FTL jump into the unknown.

Hatari Sector, Beyond the Red Line (Near the border of the Prolmar sector)

Four bright flashes signaled the arrival of BSG – 65.

"Jump complete sir, all ships accounted for."

"Excellent work Lieutenant. XO, launch the CAP and have the Gunstars assume extended formation to maximize our DRADIS coverage. Have astrometrics begin surveying the area to see if there is anything worth checking out and have stellar cartography begin mapping."

Howard picked up the handset, "This is the XO, launch the CAP."

A moment later, three blips showed up on the DRADIS, marked as Stinger 1 and 2, and Raptor 074.

The speakers crackled, "Polaris, Stinger 1, we are beginning standard patrol."

CAP – Stinger 1

Captain Harold "Shrike" Forester, commander of VS-1511, the Stingers, one of the Polaris's six fighter squadrons, surveyed the instruments in his cockpit as he completed his transmission to Polaris.

"Stinger 1, Polaris. Acknowledging standard patrol, stay sharp."

"Stinger 1, copy that Polaris. Clear."

As they reached the outer perimeter to start their patrol around the fleet, he switched to the flight TAC frequency.

"Ok boys and girls, try not to fall asleep or bump into anything while you're gawking at all the pretty scenery."

He got a few chuckles, "We're just following your shining example, oh fearless leader." This from Lieutenant Jamie "Lightspeed" Nile, his squadron XO. Shrike chuckled.

"Frak you, Lightspeed, just pay attention so you don't accidentally crash into the Polaris while you're stargazing."

She chuckled back at him, he shook his head and smiled. She was one of the best pilots in the Fleet, only Kara Thrace had ever been able to beat her in a Viper, he was glad to have her. They had settled into an easy friendship from the moment they started working together. Luckily, while she was nearly Starbuck's equal in a Viper, she was not nearly as difficult outside of the cockpit.

They continued on their patrol route, settling into a routine. They had a lot of these patrols to look forward to over the next four years.

4 years later, One week before the Fall

Battlestar Polaris, Prolmar sector

Commander's day cabin, 0800

Kevin Travers sat in his office going over his final report to Fleet Command. Over the past four years, they had surveyed a large portion of the Prolmar and Hatari sectors. They had found 34 star systems with habitable planets, as well as several systems loaded with resources just waiting for the Colonies to come get them. They had charted a number of interesting stellar phenomena and had discovered the ruins of a splinter colony in the Prolmar sector. Apparently, the population had died out of some kind of disease, but luckily their ship's doctor had found that it was a common disease in the Colonies for which they had the cure. The place had been a bit run down, but the roads and infrastructure were still intact and they had found stockpiles of resources, weapons and other valuable materials that were waiting to be used by a new colony. Sitting on his desk were a number of decorations for exceptional performance for members of his crew. They had all done a remarkable job and he was prouder than ever to be their commander. He stretched his back and worked his neck to ease the tension in it, then stood up and left his day cabin to head for CIC.

As he entered, he habitually checked the DRADIS screens, which as always, showed his fleet still in formation. He stepped up to the situation board and nodded to his XO, "Morning Colonel."

"Morning Commander."

"Fleet status?"

"All ships are operational, the board shows green. The CAP is back on board. We're ready to jump home on your order, sir."

"Copy that Colonel," he turned slightly, "Lt. Frost?"

"Jump is plotted to take us just outside the Cyrannus system sir."

"All right then, let's go home people. All ships… jump."

The 4 ships disappeared in a series of bright flashes.

Just outside the Cyrannus system

And reappeared just outside their home system.

"Jump complete, all ships accounted for Commander."

"Excellent, send a message to Picon Fleet HQ on TAC 1, let them know we're back."

"Aye Commander "said Petty Officer Lynn Hayes and she turned to send the transmission.

Travers picked up the handset and set it for fleet all call, "Attention all group personnel, this is Commander Travers. After four years of exploration and many discoveries, we are nearly home. I want to express to you all, that I am extremely proud of your performance over these past four years. You have all been absolutely exceptional and no Commander could ask for more. We'll be docking at the Darius Fleet Yards in orbit of Picon and you will all be getting some well deserved leave while our ships are going through a refit and systems upgrade. Again, I am extremely proud, as you should all be. Travers, out."

"Commander," Hayes called. Travers walked over to her. "Sir, Picon HQ has responded, they sent a set of FTL coordinates and a coded brief marked Commander's eyes only."

Travers frowned, "send the brief to my day cabin, I'll look at it there."

"Aye, Commander."

"XO, you have the conn. Hold position till further notice."

"Acknowledged Commander."

Travers left the CIC and headed down the hall to his day cabin. Once there, he activated his terminal and brought up the eyes only dispatch.

"This transmission is eyes only, for Commander Kevin Travers, Battlestar Polaris. Dissemination to crew should be on a need to know only basis at Commander's discretion. Please provide command authorization and voiceprint identification."

"Authorization Travers, nebula, one, one, picon, two four"

"Authorization and voiceprint confirmed."

The message appeared on the screen.

To: Travers, Commander Battlestar Polaris, BSG-65

From: Corman, Admiral, Colonial Fleet R&D

Commander Travers, I hope this message finds you well. I am afraid that I will have to delay your homecoming for a few days. I need you to escort a convoy that is tasked to establish a new covert R&D facility near the nebula a few hours outside the system. Specific coordinates are attached to this message, as is the rendezvous point where you will meet up with these ships. I am sorry, but this mission requires a certain amount of discretion so that the bean counters won't dig too deeply. This project is going to birth the next generation of Battlestar. In order to keep it secret, from everyone (just in case the Cylons are watching, I would be if I were them), the ships you are meeting do not exist officially, they were all "scrapped" and as you are not due to return for another week, I can use you to escort them, and to maintain security until relieved by the Solaria after she is 'retired' next week. After you are relieved, you will report to Picon for your refit and shore leave. It shouldn't be more than a two week delay Kevin.

James Corman,

Admiral, Chief of Fleet R&D

XXXXXX

One week later. Day of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65): Escorting a convoy on the edge the Cyrannus System.

The Mercury class Battlestar Polaris cruised silently through space, in close formation with three Titan class Gunstars, the Scepter, the Mystic and the Avenger. The four ships were escorting a convoy that was to be stationed on the outskirts of the Cyrannus system. Officially the ships in the convoy were all 'retired' and had been 'scrapped', while they were actually detached as part of a covert Colonial Fleet ship design project. The convoy consisted of eight mining ships, two Constructstars (a Mercury class Battlestar converted into a mobile manufacturing facility, but with only point defense weaponry) Hephaestus and Starforge, 4 mobile FTL capable spacedocks (with the ability to build anything up to a Mercury class Battlestar given sufficient resources and time), two Tylium refinery ships, four tanker/refueler vessels, the Medstar Asclepius (an Odin class Battlestar converted into a state of the art hospital, medical research lab and medical fabrication facility) and a dozen freighters carrying parts and equipment. The fleet had departed from a number of different ports and had met up in space, before continuing towards their destination, a nebula a few hours beyond the edge of the system, together.

CIC – Battlestar Polaris

Commander Kevin Travers stood at the master situation board, looking up at the DRADIS monitors with hands clasped behind his back. After the events of the last four years, convoy duty was a bit anti-climactic, but it was at least a break for his crew, though the leave they had all earned would have to wait a bit. His ships had been due for an extended stay in spacedock after a four year exploratory cruise. They had been quietly diverted to this mission instead, on the orders of Admiral Corman, with no one outside of Picon Fleet HQ being aware that they had even returned to the Cyrannus system.

"What's our ETA to the nebula?"

His tactical officer, Lt. Heron Frost looked at the displays in front of him, and turned back," Nav plot shows our ETA at just over 4 hours, sir. All convoy ships are continuing to maintain wireless silence, and utilizing laser com only for essential communications."

The Commander nodded and turned back to the DRADIS display, it showed only the ships in his convoy. Only a few more days and the Fleet's new covert research facilities would be established and the Battlestar Solaria would arrive to take over security and he could jump his ships back to Picon, for a much needed stay in spacedock and some badly needed leave for his crews. So far, things had been quiet; hopefully they would stay that way. He turned to his XO, Colonel Marla Howard.

"I'll be in my day cabin trying to catch up on paperwork; you have the conn, Marla"

She nodded and said, "Aye, aye, Commander".

He turned and walked out of CIC, heading for his office and dreading the seemingly endless pile of reports waiting for him there.

Commander's Day Cabin – 4 Hours later

The phone buzzed and startled Kevin Travers out of his focus on crew evaluations. He picked up the handset.

"Travers."

"Sir, we are arriving at the nebula," Marla Howard's voice responded. "And we are picking up some strange wireless traffic. Picon Fleet HQ just sent a message in the clear."

Travers frowned, "In the clear? That can't be good, I'm on my way, bring the convoy to condition one, sound action stations."

She acknowledged and he hung up the handset. A moment later the tactical officer came over the loudspeakers," Action stations! Action stations! Set condition one throughout the ship! This is not a drill!"

Commander Travers left his day cabin and walked briskly down the corridor to CIC. As he entered, his XO stepped over to him and handed him a hard copy of the message from Fleet HQ. It read: This is Picon Fleet Headquarters to all Colonial Fleet Units, Cylon attack under way. This is no drill. Travers forehead creased and he looked up.

"Anything else?"

"No sir, after that transmission they went silent and we are now unable to raise Picon HQ at all," reported Petty Officer Lynn Hayes, his communications officer.

"Then we have to assume the worst," Travers turned toward Lt. Frost. "Plot a combat jump to Caprica. Have the Gunstars and the Medstar form up with us and prepare to jump as soon as your calculations are completed, all other convoy vessels are to move inside the nebula and hold station until they hear from us."

A chorus of acknowledgements rang out and Travers watched with pride as his crew carried out their tasks with professionalism, despite the fact that everyone was worried about their loved ones back on the colonies.

"Jump calculations complete sir, distributing coordinates"

"The Gunstars and the Medstar are in formation, they have acknowledged receipt of jump coordinates. The board shows green sir, all ships are ready to jump."

Commander Travers checked the DRADIS console and exchanged a look with his XO. He took a deep breath.

"Jump."

In a series of bright flashes, the five ships disappeared.

Colonial Fleet wreckage: Near Caprica

With a series of bright flashes, Polaris and her escorts appeared about a half hour from Caprica at sublight. Their arrival was unnoticed. In CIC, Travers watched the DRADIS display closely.

"Multiple DRADIS contacts, reading a lot of debris and radiation sir," Frost reported.

Hayes spoke, "Commander, multiple nuclear detonations reported on Picon, Caprica, Sagittaron and Tauron. The defense net is off line and we have lost over 30 battlestars so far. Admiral Nagala has assumed command of the Fleet aboard the Battlestar Atlantia."

"My gods," Colonel Howard turned toward Travers. His face was composed, but she knew his family lived on Caprica and he had to be terrified for their safety. "Orders, Commander?"

"Launch all Vipers. Order the Gunstars and three squadrons of Vipers to assume standard screening formation around the Asclepius and get me a line to her."

Hayes worked her comm board, "Go ahead sir."

Travers grabbed the handset, "Asclepius Actual, this is Polaris Actual."

"Polaris Actual, this is AsclepiusActual, go ahead," came Commander Hal Norton's wireless distorted voice.

"Hal, take Asclepius and your escorts and start SAR ops. Save whomever you can from the wrecks and start rounding up any civilian and military vessels you find intact. I'm taking Polaris in for a closer look at Caprica, to see if we can get any survivors off the surface," Travers looked around CIC at the frightened faces of his crew. "We'll head back this way once we're done. If you encounter any Cylons, recover the Vipers and jump back to the nebula ASAP, no heroics, understood?"

"I hear you…. Good luck, and be careful, AsclepiusActual clear."

On the DRADIS, Asclepius and her escorts moved away, to begin searching for survivors.

Travers looked down and faced his XO "Take us to Caprica, XO."

Caprica

As Polaris neared the planet, DRADIS detected several large vessels.

"DRADIS contacts! Picking up two Battlestars, Jupiter class, transponders read as Oberon and Alastor. They seem to trying to outrun something," Lt. Frost reported. "Resolving now, two new contacts… tentatively identified as Cylon basestars, they're launching raiders!"

"Divert our Vipers to intercept those raiders and get me a status report from those battlestars!" Travers watched the DRADIS for a moment. "Helm, move us between the basestars and the Oberon and Alastor. XO, commence enemy suppression barrage as soon as our heavy batteries are in range. Target the central axis of both basestars."

The massive battlestar surged forward, moving in between her sister ships and the enemy vessels and turned to show them her heavily armored back. In moments, her heavy batteries opened fire as the Cylons entered weapons range; her secondary batteries came online to defend as the Cylons released a barrage of missiles.

Lynn Hayes called out, "Commander, reports from Oberon and Alastor. They say the Cylons have somehow been shutting down the battlestars they come across, they say their systems weren't as badly affected, but they didn't dare launch their Vipers for fear of losing them all."

Travers nodded thoughtfully, it made sense, no wonder the fleet had been getting its ass kicked. The frakking Cylons had figured out how to backdoor their systems. Now they just had to figure out how the frakkers were doing it and how to stop it. He surveyed the DRADIS.

"Commence salvo fire on main batteries; continue to target the central axis on both basestars."

The ships dorsal batteries changed firing pattern and the heavy kinetic shells continued to tear apart both basestars. Neither had yet landed a blow on the Polaris, a situation Travers knew was not likely to continue, no matter how flat footed they had caught the Toasters.

"Incoming missiles! Point Defense system is online and tracking all incoming." Lt. Frost studied his tactical board and turned again, "radiological alarm! Some of those missiles are nukes!" Frost watched the updates on his board, a moment later he reported, "Sir all inbound nukes have been destroyed, nothing got through. Gunnery reports several direct hits on the central axis of both basestars, they are breaking up."

A moment later, the DRADIS flashed as the starboard basestar exploded as a hit from Polaris penetrated her main reactor causing the ship to detonate and the debris collided with the other basestar causing that ship to explode as well.

A cheer sounded in CIC, and Travers shared a smile with his XO. "Maintain condition one, begin an active scan of the area to look for any more Cylon vessels. I also want our air wing to begin rotations for rearm and refuel."

"Commander, I'm reading multiple Colonial contacts moving into range. Looks like a bunch of civilian vessels."

Travers looked up at the DRADIS and sure enough, a large number of Colonial transponders had begun appearing on the screen.

"Lynn, tell them to form up and stand by to move out on our signal."

Hayes nodded and began transmitting the commander's instructions to the newly arrived vessels.

Viper Squadron VS-1211, the Stingers, Cylon raider intercept.

42 Mark VII Vipers from VS-1211, the Stingers, cruised in a defensive screen in front of and slightly above the Polaris as she approached Caprica. The 42 Mark-VII Vipers from VS-1212, the Eagles cruised on her starboard side and the 42 Mark VII Vipers of VS-1214, the Hornets cruised on her port side. Major Janine "Bullseye" Forsythe, the Polaris CAG and leader of the fighter group on this mission did a quick check on DRADIS and then a visual sweep. Satisfied, she keyed her mic, "keep it tight boys and girls, Cylons could pop up at any moment." As her pilots' chorused acknowledgements came in, her DRADIS beeped as several contacts appeared suddenly. A message came in from Polaris.

"Bullseye, Polaris, divert to intercept Cylon raiders launching from approaching basestars."

"Bullseye acknowledges, all right boys and girls, you heard, let's go kill some Toasters! Form up by flights, watch each other's backs and lets all come home." Bullseye turned her Viper, bringing it on course to intercept and accelerated. Her squadron followed suit, forming into individual flights and combat formations.

The Vipers moved quickly into range and loosed a volley of missiles into the Cylons tightly packed formation. Several went up in very satisfying explosions. As they got closer several of the Raiders transmitted some kind of signal at the Colonial fighters. Bullseye frowned as she noticed the signal, but nothing seemed to happen.

"Bullseye to all flights, I think I know what happened to the fleet. Let's kill these frakkers and get back to the ship"

It was obvious from the way they fought that the Cylons had NOT been expecting a real fight, and soon enough, all of the raiders had been destroyed, with the Stingers only having lost two Vipers, and both pilots had managed to eject and were waiting for the SAR Raptor.

"Bullseye to all flights, back to the ship to rearm and refuel," the flights all acknowledged and formed up and headed back towards Polaris.

"Polaris, CAG. Bullseye wants to speak to Actual."

"Bullseye, this Actual, go ahead."

"Sir, we destroyed the raiders, but I have two guys EV, need the SAR Raptor ASAP."

"Bullseye, Actual. The SAR bird is already en route, great work out there Major. See to your pilots and then get back to the ship for re-arm. Actual clear."

"Bullseye clear."

Bullseye watched the SAR bird fly in and pick up her pilots. The Raptor pilot then gave him a thumbs up and turned to head back to the ship. Bullseye brought her Viper alongside and escorted her men home. As they arrived, they saw several vessels holding station near the mighty ship, a convoy of refugee ships.

Rendezvous

Travers sat in his office looking over the reports from his CAG and the commanding officers of the Oberon and Alastor. Apparently the Cylons had a back door in the new CNP software that had been installed in all fleet vessels and had used it to hack the defense network and shut it down along with every battlestar they had encountered. The two battlestars that Polaris had just rescued had only been partially disabled thanks to their older systems and lack of extensive networking. Polaris was immune because she had not yet received the CNP upgrades, which were part of the refit that had been delayed for convoy duty. Polaris was now on course to rendezvous with the Asclepius and her escorts. Following them were the two rescued battlestars and a herd of civilian vessels; a dozen Colonial Heavy type passenger vessels, 7 Agro ships, 3 luxury liners (Cloud 5, 7 and 10), 2 hospital ships and several freighters. The phone buzzed.

Travers picked up the handset, "Travers."

"Commander, we've detected the Asclepius. It looks like we aren't the only ones who found a horde of refugees." Travers noted that his XO sounded very tired.

"Understood Marla, on my way," Travers hung up and got up from his desk, the sudden pain through his back and shoulders telling him he had been sitting there for much longer than he had thought. He stretched out a bit and then left his office and headed for the CIC.

As he walked in, Marla handed him another message hard copy, "This just came in Commander. It was sent on a secure channel."

Travers looked down at the sheet of paper, it read:

To All Colonial Units,

Am taking command of the fleet. All surviving units to fall back to Ragnar Anchorage for regroup and counter-attack.

Commander William Adama

BSG75 Galactica.

Travers smiled, one bit of good news. At least Bill Adama was still alive, though Travers had no idea how he had managed it, especially since Galactica was unarmed and in the midst of being turned into a museum. He thought for a moment, then he nodded to himself.

"Order the Asclepius group to join up and get our other squadrons back on board. Launch a Raptor to get the fleet from the nebula. Tell them to jump to Ragnar. Lt. Frost, plot us a jump to Ragnar and distribute to all ships via secure lasercom only when complete. XO, have all ships spin up their FTLs and stand by to jump on my command." As his officers acknowledged and turned to carry out their tasks, Travers studied the tactical plot. The fleet had grown considerably. Including the ships at the nebula, he was now in command of a fleet of 125 vessels.

They had added 7 more Gunstars and two Battlestars to their military assets. All of those vessels had wiped the CNP from their databases and were now safe from being "shut off" by the Cylons back door. Unfortunately, it looked like the only other surviving Battlestar was the venerable Galactica, under the command of Bill Adama, an old friend and mentor. Travers was grateful the old man had survived. His XO came up alongside him.

"All ships in formation, we have distributed jump coordinates. Raptor 069 has departed to retrieve the fleet at the nebula and bring them to Ragnar. The fleet awaits your command sir."

Travers smiled and nodded his thanks; he picked up the handset and addressed his fleet. "This is the Commander, as you all know; the colonies have been hit by a surprise Cylon attack. Casualties are heavy and the fleet has been decimated. We are going to jump to Ragnar and join the Galactica and any ships she has gathered and figure out what our next step is. Stand to your duties, watch out for your shipmates, remain calm. We'll all get through this together. All ships, standby by for FTL jump." Travers replaced the handset and faced his crew. "Have all ships jump, as soon as they are away, we'll jump."

As the orders went out, Travers watched the ships start to wink out on the DRADIS and as the last one disappeared, he gave the order, "Jump."

With a bright flash, the Polaris jumped to join her fleet and rendezvous with the Galactica.

Ragnar Anchorage

A bright flash signaled the arrival of the Polaris.

"Jump complete, DRADIS shows all fleet vessels are present and accounted for, confirming transponders," called out Lt. Frost. A few moments later, "All ships identities confirmed sir."

"Commander, Raptor 069 is on approach and requests permission to land," Lynn Hayes reported.

"Permission granted. Get all the civilian ships to move into the storm and head for the anchorage. Launch the alert Raptor and have it go down the tube to make contact with Galactica. Have all combat vessels assume standard defensive formation at the entrance to the storm," Travers ordered.

"Raptor 074 has launched sir, they are moving to lead the convoy down the tube to the anchorage," Hayes said. Travers nodded acknowledgement and turned to watch the DRADIS. The civilian ships were moving away, and all the military vessels were forming up to protect the entrance to the storm. We can't stay here long, he thought.

"Launch the CAP. I want all other Vipers on hot standby."

Raptor 074 – Ragnar Station Rendezvous

"Coming up on the last turn, the civvies are staying tight with us," reported Ensign Gale "Heater" McGowan, Raptor 074's ECO. The pilot, Lt. Amanda "Snoops" Mason, nodded but didn't turn around, too focused on keeping them on the safe path through the storm.

As they completed the final turn, the massive Ragnar space station came into view and Heater counted 74 civilian vessels holding positions around the station and through the windscreen they could both see Galactica docked to the station.

"Heater, contact Galactica control and ask them to patch us through to Commander Adama," Snoops said turning to look at her ECO. Heater nodded and bent over her console.

A few moments later, the voice of the Petty Officer Dualla came over the comm, "This is Galactica to Raptor 074. Actual is unavailable at the moment, you are cleared for landing on the port landing pod."

"Galactica, Snoops, Raptor 074, we copy landing clearance. We are on approach to port landing pod, awaiting instructions."

"Copy Raptor 074, handing you off to Galactica control."

"Raptor 074, Galactica control, continue approach to port landing pod. You are cleared for a hands on approach," said the voice of Capt. Kelley, Galactica's air boss. "Call the ball."

"Galactica, Snoops, copy hands on approach, I have the ball."

Snoops brought the raptor in and set it down gently on the elevator pad and powered down while the lift lowered them down into the hangar. After the ship had been parked, she opened the hatch and looked out at the officer waiting for her.

"Permission to come aboard?"

Lt Gaeta saluted, "Permission granted. Colonel Tigh is waiting for you up in CIC. I'll escort you"

Snoops returned the salute and stepped down from the raptor. "Thanks, can your deck crew service my bird? I'll need to get back to Polaris quickly once I speak to your XO."

"Of course, we'll take good care of her" said the non-com that stepped up to start the post-flight on the raptor. Nodding, Snoops turned away and she and Heater followed Lt Gaeta towards CIC.

Galactica

The CIC was in a state of organized chaos as Lt Gaeta led Snoops and Heater in. The man in the center, Colonel Saul Tigh looked up as they walked in. Snoops and Heater both stepped forward and saluted.

"Lt. Amanda Mason, sir. Compliments from Commander Travers on the Polaris. Per his orders, we escorted our non-combatant vessels here to the anchorage. Polaris, two other Battlestars and 10 Gunstars are in a defensive position over the entrance to the storm. Commander Travers wanted me to speak to Commander Adama about what the fleet will be doing next," Snoops finished.

Tigh returned her salute, and turned back to the situation board, "The commander is on his way to medical. He was involved in an accident on the station. I was going to check on him anyway, you can come with me. Mr. Gaeta, you have the conn." With that, Tigh led the two women out of CIC, and toward the medbay.

As they entered, Adama was letting Dr. Cottle tend to the gash on his temple. He looked up as they entered, "What's our status Saul?"

Tigh answered, "The ship is almost fully loaded, Chief says he should be done within the hour. On a related note, the young ladies here are from the Polaris." He gestured toward Snoops and Heater. Both women stepped forward and saluted.

"At ease," Adama said and smiled. "So, Kevin made it through, some good news at least. What did he send you here to talk about?"

Snoops stepped forward, "The Polaris is defending the entrance to the storm along with the Battlestars Alastor and Oberon, and 10 Gunstars, Commander. The Cylons have decimated the fleet and the colonies. We brought 125 ships with us to Ragnar, I saw you have 75 here. Commander Travers respectfully suggests we take the civilians and get the frak out of the Cyrannus system sir. The Colonies are lost and we have to protect what's left." She blushed, realizing who she was speaking to and started to apologize.

Adama raised his hand, "Easy Lt., I just reached the same conclusion. We take the ships and people we have and jump to the Prolmar sector, out beyond the red line. Lt. Gaeta is going to do the jump calculations, as soon as he is done, he'll give you the coordinates to take back to the Polaris. We will bring Galactica out of the storm and help cover the non-combatants as they jump out. Then we'll all jump." Adama stood up, "Let's get to CIC."

Raptor 074 – Hangar deck Battlestar Polaris, 2 hours later

Snoops waited impatiently as the Raptor was taxied into its parking spot and moved to open the hatch as soon as the ship stopped moving. Commander Travers stood outside waiting. Snoops saluted, "Commander, I have a parcel for you from Commander Adama." Travers returned the salute and held out his hand and she placed the parcel in it.

"Good work Lt, take your ECO and both of you get some rack time. You've earned it." Travers turned and walked out.

Inside the parcel, he found a brief letter from Bill Adama, explaining the plan to jump out to Prolmar and a hard copy of the FTL coordinates worked out by Lt. Gaeta. He picked up his pace and headed for CIC.

When he arrived, he stepped over to Lt. Frost and handed him the FTL coordinates.

"Input these into the navi-computer Lt and pass the coordinates to the other ships by secure lasercom only."

Frost took the sheet, "Aye, aye Commander." He turned and went over to the FTL station to start carrying out his tasks.

Travers moved over to the master situation table and handed his XO the letter from Bill Adama. As she read it, he studied the DRADIS screens to make sure nothing had changed. Still no Cylons, but their luck couldn't hold much longer he knew.

"Prolmar," Marla frowned. "That's WAY out beyond the red line."

Travers nodded, "We're moving out. Cyrannus is lost and the fleet is gone. We take what we have and try to avoid extinction." Howard shook her head, but she couldn't argue with the logic. The war was over and they had lost… badly. Just then the DRADIS beeped. They both looked up as two large contacts appeared.

"DRADIS contacts, two Cylon basestars, they're launching raiders!"

Travers took a breath, here we go he thought. "Launch all Vipers. Helm, turn the ship to bring our main batteries to bear on the Cylon to port. XO, have gunnery target the central axis, commence salvo fire as soon as our mains come to bear. Comm, order Oberon and Alastor to engage the starboard basestar, all Gunstars are to cover the mouth of the storm, make sure no missiles get close to the civilian ships as they come out." He watched the DRADIS as acknowledgements rang out and waited to see how it would all play out. As he watched, another contact resolved with a beep.

"Another DRADIS contact, reads as a Colonial Battlestar, it's the Galactica. She's moving to join us."

Travers nodded, and watched as the contact, now flagged Galactica moved into formation with Polaris and began her own assault on the basestar. Four against two, not bad he thought.

As the battle continued, the civilian ships began creeping out of the storm in small groups, jumping as soon as they cleared the edge. They just had to hold long enough for some 186 civilian ships to escape, Travers thought, piece of cake.

"Radiological alarm! Incoming nukes!"

"Commence point defense fire, tell our birds to stay out of the way!" Travers watched the missiles as they crossed the screen. One by one, they winked out as Polaris's point defense batteries destroyed them. It looked like they might get them all, but one last missile slipped by. "Travers snatched up the handset and keyed all call, "All hands, brace, brace, brace!" he dropped the handset and grabbed the table.

A moment later CIC went dark, the glass doors shattered and the deck fell out from under them. A series of fires broke out as circuits overloaded and several crewmen cried out in pain from injuries sustained.

Travers pulled himself to his feet and offered his XO a hand. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. She was bleeding from a gash on her forehead and she looked terrible, but she was alive. He turned and looked at the DRADIS, but the master screens had been destroyed. He moved quickly over to the tactical station and surveyed the screen. He looked up, "XO, take charge of the damage control effort and get me a status report."

Lt Frost stepped up next to Travers and spoke in a whisper, "It's not bad sir, mostly cosmetic, radiation within tolerances, the armor kept out the worst of it."

Marla Howard came over, "All main systems are still online, but we took heavy damage to the ventral armor and hull between frames thirty and thirty one. Luckily we had that section sealed, so the damage was contained."

"Thank the gods for small blessings," Travers looked at Frost and then moved aside and gestured to the chair at the tactical post, "Sit down Lt, before you fall down." Frost looked rebellious for a moment, but then he gave in sat down. "What's the status of the civilian ships?"

Frost checked the tactical display, "The last ones just jumped."

Hayes called out, "Commander, Galactica is ordering all ships to recover their fighters and jump."

Travers looked at his XO, who grinned. They had survived to fight another day.

"Well then, by all means, bring our birds home. Combat landings authorized."

As the call went out, the Vipers broke off and headed toward the nearest battlestar, quickly crowding into the flight pods. The Gunstars began winking out, and finally the four battlestars jumped out leaving behind two destroyed basestars and a cloud of dead raiders.

Prolmar Sector: Beyond the Red Line

Colonial One: President Roslin's Office

Laura Roslin sat at her desk going over the fleet census report. The number had been finalized and brought to her only moments before. The number was larger than she had dared hope, the fleet was now the home of 200,850 souls, the last survivors a civilizations of billions. Once again she felt the weight of the worlds settle firmly on her and she took a deep breath as the grief threatened to overcome her again. There was a knock at the door, she took a moment to compose herself and called, "Come in".

The door opened and her assistant Billy stepped in, "Commanders Adama and Travers are here Madame President."

"Thank you Billy, please show them in."

He nodded and stepped out, a moment later the two Colonial Fleet officers walked in. She studied them as they moved over to her and saluted. They were quite a contrast, Adama was in his late sixties, stocky and the weight of his years showed on his face and in his slightly slumped posture. Travers was in his early forties, tall, lean and in prime physical condition, he stood straight and proud, though the bags under his eyes showed he too, was feeling the stress of recent events keenly.

"Gentlemen, thank you for coming. Please be seated. I asked you here so we could discuss the status of the fleet and our plans."

Adama nodded, and glanced at Travers.

Travers leaned forward, "Madame President, Spacedock 1 is currently doing a full refit on Galactica to reactivate her starboard flight pod, repair her hull and spaceframe, replace her armor and upgrade her weapons and computer systems, they will remain un-networked however. The other three spacedocks are currently doing an engineering survey of the fleet and are creating a repair and maintenance schedule to keep all our ships operational since we have no idea how long we're going to be in space. The Asclepius and the civilian hospital ships Nightingale and Seacole are conducting a health survey of the fleet to ensure that everyone is in good health and that we have sufficient food for everyone. We have enough fuel, food and supplies to keep the fleet going for 6 months." Travers flipped through his reports, "On another note, the fleet census is complete, we have 200,850 survivors in the fleet, and you'll be delighted to know that we can expect to add another 312 within the next five to seven months."

Roslin nodded, "That's wonderful news! Thank you Commander. Now, were you able to take care of that matter we spoke of earlier?"

Travers grinned and nodded.

Adama looked at them both and when they both stood a moment later, he followed suit, what was going on here he wondered?

She stepped around the desk and stood before Bill, and Travers moved up beside him.

"Commander William Adama, it has come to my attention that the Commander of a Fleet is called an admiral. By order of the President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Admiral and all the duties and privileges associated with it." She stepped closer and took Bill's hand, and shook it warmly. "Congratulations, Admiral Adama! Commander Travers, if you would please."

Travers fished a small box out of his pocket and opened it to reveal the rank insignia of a Rear Admiral. He took them out and after removing the Commander's insignia, he pinned them on his friend's collar.

"Congratulations, Admiral!" Travers stepped back and saluted.

Bill seemed to be in a bit of shock, "You know, I gave up on this a long time ago."

Travers shook his head, "it's long overdue my friend. Now, what are your orders Admiral?"

"We need to give the fleet something to focus on, a source of hope to keep them going, I think I know just the thing"

Roslin and Travers looked at each other in confusion, and then back at Adama, he smiled.

"Earth."

Battlestar Polaris

In his day cabin, Travers leaned back in his chair, thinking over the speech Bill had just completed a while ago, and the new search for Earth. He knew that they really had no clue where it was. But, the people needed hope to keep them going and Bill had given them that. Hopefully it would be enough, and they would be able to stay alive long enough to find the people in the fleet a new home, safe from the Cylons.

XXXXXX

From the Personal Logs of Kevin Travers, Battlestar Polaris (BSG–65)

The past 6 days have been hectic to say the least. Bill Adama's promotion to Admiral was quickly followed by him promoting me to Commodore and naming me Fleet Strategic Operations Officer and second in command. I'm sure he enjoyed the slightly shell-shocked look on my face as much as I enjoyed his when the President promoted him. It seems that I am now the youngest Flag Officer in the history of the Colonial Fleet.

The Galactica is still undergoing a full refit, her flight pods are now both operational and in a few days, her hull and armor repairs and system upgrades will be complete. New Vipers and Raptors are already being transferred aboard from the factories on the Hephaestus, and when Galactica returns to service, she will once again sport a full Air Group. And thanks to all the extra Fleet personnel we rescued, Galactica will also have a full crew. During the refit, Bill is using the Flag suite aboard Polaris, and it has been great to be able to watch the Old Man at work again. Though I am sure he is anxious to get back to his own ship.

Bill, and Laura Roslin, despite a rocky start, have mended their fences and are standing united with the goal of keeping the fleet together and finding us all a new home. They have divided the responsibilities, with Laura covering all civilian decisions and Bill covering all military decisions. This has established a solid working foundation which is building into a friendship. I think it might also have something to do with the fact that they are attracted to each other, though I am sure both would deny it if confronted.

We have managed to fend off more than 200 Cylon attacks thus far; strangely enough the Cylons seem to be attacking every 33 minutes. We have lost 145 personnel in battle. Everyone is tired and a bit on edge, but the fleet has rallied together and we are supporting each other through this current crisis. We continue to search the fleet for Cylon beacons and for Cylon agents and the Asclepius research facilities are working non-stop to find a way to detect Cylon humanoids, or skin-jobs as they've been coined by the ever colorful Colonel Tigh. It has been suggested by some that we should include Dr. Gaius Baltar in the Cylon detection research, but something about that man makes my skin crawl and Bill and Laura both agree. We have Baltar doing research into defeating Cylon hacks against our systems. He seems happy to be of use, but we are monitoring him discretely, I'm not sure he is totally sane. It's strange, but in spite all that has happened, I can't help but think that maybe there is some hope for humanity after all.

Cylon Basestar – In orbit of Caprica

Cavil was furious, their plans had failed. A masterful sneak attack had resulted in almost complete surprise. They should have been able to wipe out the human pest once and for all. But, now reports were coming in that showed that their total victory was nothing of the kind.

"Would someone explain to me how we managed to frak this up so badly?" Cavil hotly demanded. "Nineteen basestars destroyed and four so badly damaged we'll have to scuttle them after removing any useful components."

The other Cylon models looked at each other uneasily, finally a Leoben spoke up.

"Brother, we had no way of knowing that so many ships would escape. Or that they would fight so hard, or so effectively, especially given our infiltration of their defense network. Measures are already being taken to herd the Galactica fleet toward Earth. Once they find it for us, we will destroy them."

Cavil sneered, "They have 14 warships, four of them Battlestars and they have successfully escaped every attack we have attempted so far, usually with the only casualties being suffered by us! They have a Medstar and it is only a matter of time before they figure out how to expose our agents. Additionally, there are at least two more Battlestars and another 14 smaller warships missing. The surveys of the wreckage of the fleet around the Colonies, confirms that those ships have not been destroyed. They must not be allowed to join up with the Galactica. Especially the Pegasus, Cain is a menace and with that kind of firepower at her disposal, she could seriously frak up our plans for Earth."

"Then we must dispatch Basestars to hunt down these other ships and prevent them from finding the Galactica. Meanwhile, we must continue to harass the Galactica fleet to ensure they continue to lead us toward Earth," This comment came from a Simon. All of the Cylon models nodded, except Cavil who sneered.

"Fine then, it is agreed, but this has all been one gigantic clusterfrak, we'd better get this right."

Colonial Fleet – Six days after the Fall

Battlestar Polaris: CIC

"Jump 214 complete Admiral, all ships accounted for."

Adama nodded, "start the clock." He looked around the CIC, the faces were becoming familiar, but he would be glad when Galactica's refit was done. Saul was currently overseeing the work and according to his reports, she would be better than new when finished. It seems that several shortcuts had been taken during her initial construction, which would have eventually led to the ship tearing herself apart from FTL and combat stresses. Bill returned his focus to the DRADIS and watched the clock count off the minutes till the next attack. Kevin Travers stepped up beside him.

"Commodore."

"Admiral, how are we doing?"

"Watching the clock, waiting for the Cylons to pop in again."

"You'd think that they would have given up by now, in the past week we have destroyed or badly damaged 23 basestars."

Bill chuckled, "They don't seem to learn very quickly in that regard. We'll just have to keep wrecking their basestars till they run out."

"Admiral, multiple DRADIS contacts just appeared!" Lt Frost studied his board, "I'm picking up Colonial transponders!"

"Confirm that! Divert the CAP to intercept for visual confirmation. Issue challenge and ID." Petty Officer Hayes nodded and worked her board.

"Aye sir," she paused a moment, "CAP is en route to check them out sir. Challenge issued. They are responding, verification confirmed, they are Colonial sir."

CAP – Bullseye

"Bullseye, Polaris. Divert to investigate the ships that just jumped in."

Major Janine "Bullseye" Forsythe clicked her mic, "Confirmed Polaris, Bullseye moving to intercept and ID." She switched to the CAP frequency. "Let's go take a look at the new arrivals."

Her wingman, Lt Jamie "Lightspeed" Nile clicked acknowledgement. The two Vipers rolled out and accelerated to intercept the new arrivals. As they got closer, they could make out the individual ships. They were all in rough shape. They spotted four Colonial Fleet Gunstars, all of them showing significant damage and scattered around them, looking the worse for wear, were nine civilian vessels. Three Colonial Heavy type vessels, two Olympic Carrier type vessels and four freighters of various configurations.

"Looks like they've been through hell."

"Copy that Lightspeed."

The two Vipers continued their fly by, they could see people waving from the viewports on the civilian vessels. Bullseye smiled and keyed her mic.

"Polaris, Bullseye…."

Polaris CIC

"…we have 13 confirmed Colonial vessels."

A cheer and applause broke out, another victory, they had found more survivors.

Adama and Travers both looked up at the clock, there were just under 12 minutes left before the Cylons next attack if they stayed true to form.

Travers spoke up, "Calm down people, let's focus on the task at hand, we can celebrate later. Lt Frost, distribute jump coordinates to the new arrivals and have them join the fleet. After this jump we'll send engineering teams over to assess the status of the ships and we'll get a population count."

Everyone calmed themselves and went back their jobs, but the smiles remained on their faces and Travers wouldn't begrudge them a little sunshine in what had been an otherwise frakked up week. Frost worked his board and nodded, "Coordinates distributed Commodore."

Travers nodded and turned towards the DRADIS screens. He and Bill watched together in silence, as the CIC personnel continued their duties. Travers noticed that the smiles were fading as the clock got closer to the 33 minute mark. At two minutes, Travers grabbed the handset, "Set condition one throughout the fleet, all civilian vessels spin up FTLs and stand by to jump. Launch all Vipers."

As the klaxons went off and people scrambled around taking their action stations, Travers watched as his Vipers launched and joined those from the other two active Battlestars in preparing to hold off the Cylons one more time. As the clock hit 33 minutes, two large contacts appeared and immediately began dropping fighters.

"DRADIS contacts, two Cylon basestars, they're launching Raiders."

"Commence jump sequence for the fleet."

On the screen the Gunstars and the civilian ships began to wink out as the three battlestars moved to engage the two basestars. At max range, all three battlestars main batteries opened fire on the Cylon ships, all three of them focusing their assault on the basestar to port, while fending off the missile assaults from both. The port basestar quickly began to show heavy damage as the heavy kinetic shells from the three Colonial warships tore through armor and hull and began ripping the ship apart.

Apollo, Leading VS-1212, the Eagles

Newly promoted Major Lee Adama, call sign Apollo cruised through space in his Mark VII Viper, the Vipers of the Polaris VS-1212 Squadron were in formation around him. With the Galactica in refit, her pilots were currently on loan to other battlestars, Apollo and Starbuck had accompanied his father to the Polaris. A quick glance at his DRADIS showed a number of inbound enemy contacts.

"Eagles, Apollo, form up and stay sharp. Raiders inbound."

"Starbuck copies, try to keep up Apollo," Kara Thrace said over the wireless, and Lee grinned and accelerated to stay with his mouthy, but very skilled wingmate.

They moved into range quickly and opened fire on the Raiders. As they closed and passed into each other, both sides broke ranks and the fight devolved into a chaotic melee. Apollo struggled to stay with Starbuck as she weaved and twisted with a natural skill that very few in the fleet could even come close to, moving deftly through the Cylons scoring kill after kill. He managed to rack up a few himself, shooting down any raider that managed to get close to Starbuck. He saw the first basestar explode as he followed Starbuck yet again into the middle of the fight.

It seems like only moments later, but his clock told him they had been fighting for over five minutes. As he swung around, following Starbuck on another pass, he saw the second basestar explode and as the cheers rang out over the wireless he felt his heart ease a bit as he noticed that the Polaris was cruising near the wreckage, sporting a few new scorch marks, but intact.

"All Vipers Polaris, return to base, combat landings are authorized."

"You heard the lady, everyone back to the ship," Apollo immediately turned and headed for the Polaris and looked over to see Starbuck pull up next to him, a big grin on her face. She gave him a thumbs and accelerated ahead. Apollo shook his head, she was a mystery to him and he was still trying to sort out his feelings for her, but she was one hell of a pilot.

As soon as all of the Vipers had crowded into the flight pods of the nearest battlestar, they jumped away to rejoin their fleet, leaving behind two more destroyed basestars.

Basestar – In orbit of Caprica

"Yet another frakking screw up!" Cavil stormed through the chamber, his anger making his fellow Cylons uncomfortable to say the least. "Now they have four more Gunstars and even more survivors, someone explain to me why the human pest continues to gain strength while we falter and fail!"

"We should alter our tactics, we have our agent aboard the Olympic Carrier, we should fall back and shadow the fleet for now and only attack as necessary to continue to drive them to find Earth," suggested Doral. Cavil spun menacingly toward him and Doral shrank back a bit, but managed to stand his ground. The other Cylon models nodded in agreement with the plan.

"It can't hurt, after all this current campaign is turning out to be far more costly than predicted," said D'Anna Biers, turning toward Cavil she smiled, his anger having no effect on her.

"Fine, put your plan in place," With that, Cavil stalked out of the room, fuming as he went.

"He is starting to become irrational," a Six stated, looking at the doorway that Cavil had left through.

"True Sister, but we have consensus for now and that is enough. Order our Fleet to fall back; they are only to shadow Galactica and her fleet for now." With that, D'Anna Biers left the room, and the others filed out behind her.

Polaris CIC: 3 hours later

It had been three hours since the battle and there had been no sign of the Cylons since. Admiral Adama had ordered the fleet to stand down from condition one. Travers watched the DRADIS and listened to the relative quiet of CIC. They were running on a skeleton crew as he had released all but essential positions to grab some rack time after 6 days of being chased nonstop by the Cylons, they had more than earned it.

He looked down at the damage and casualty reports from the battle. Minor damage sustained by all three battlestars. Polaris had lost 32 personnel, Oberon had lost 10 and Alastor had lost 21, including her commander and XO. The four Gunstars they had added to their fleet were in Spacedocks 3 and 4, being repaired and Spacedock 2 was working over the civilian vessels as well, making sure they were functional and that they had food and supplies. He looked at the clock; he was due to head over to Colonial One for a meeting with Bill and the President. He turned to Lt Frost.

"You have the conn Lt, I'm heading to Colonial One."

"Aye Commodore, have a good flight sir."

Travers nodded and headed out of CIC and turned down the corridor to head for the port hangar bay.

Colonial One: President Roslin's Office

Bill Adama sat slouched in a chair, a glass of ambrosia in his hand, relaxing and enjoying the break. The fleet had survived its first crisis. He looked over at Laura Roslin, sitting behind her desk and found her studying him. A cough at the door interrupted them and they both turned to see Billy Keikeya leading Commodore Travers in.

Roslin stood, "thank you Billy. Could you see that we are not disturbed please?"

Billy nodded and withdrew.

"Come in Commodore, welcome aboard. Please have a seat, may I offer you a drink?"

Travers noted the drink nestled in Bill's hand, and nodded.

"Yes please, Madame President."

"In here, with just the three of us, I think we can stay clear of titles, its Laura."

"Kevin."

"Bill."

Roslin smiled and walked over and handed Travers a drink, "well; now that's settled. We have some things to talk about. The civilian ships that just joined us are carrying another 4, 131 people, bringing the Fleet total to 204,773. This accounts for our losses to the Cylons in battle as well."

Travers nodded, "The Gunstars are in rough shape, but the yard superintendent estimates we can have them repaired and back in service within two weeks. On a more serious note, the Alastor is now without a Commander and XO. I was thinking that if Saul doesn't want the spot, my XO would make an excellent commander. And if it's ok with you Bill, I was thinking of asking Lee to take her place as my XO, assuming that everyone is ok with this plan."

Bill looked thoughtful, "I'll ask him, but I doubt Saul will want the job. If he says no, we'll go ahead with Colonel Howard and you can ask Lee, if he is interested, I won't stand in his way."

Roslin spoke up," Now that that is handled, we do have one more thing to discuss. I was contacted secretly by Dr. Amarak, a scientist from the Defense Ministry. Apparently he has evidence regarding how the Cylons were able to breach our defense mainframe and shut down our ships."

Both Adama and Travers sat straight up, both clearly agitated at this. "Where is he now?" Travers asked. "We need to get him into protective custody and question him right away!"

"Agreed, he should be interrogated immediately," Adama leaned back and took a drink.

Roslin nodded," I agree with you both, my security detachment is quietly relocating him now. He will be brought aboard this ship, alone and he will be carefully searched. Then he will be brought here and we three will question him. While we wait, I thought you both might like to know, I have located some former cabinet members, the Undersecretary of Justice Jennifer Soames and the Undersecretary of State Calvin Hodges have been found among the fleet. I have been thinking we should rebuild the Quorum to help take care of the fleet and I had thought one of those two would make an excellent Vice President."

Bill and Kevin both nodded, both of those mentioned had been fairly popular, well respected and had been considered fast trackers with bright political futures, before the worlds ended anyway. At that moment, Billy leaned into the office, "He's here Madame President."

"Thank you Billy, show him in."

Dr Amarak walked in, tall, brown skinned, with a shaven head and large dark eyes. Amarak had been a top scientist for the Ministry of Defense.

He stepped forward and offered his hand to the president.

"Dr Simon Amarak, Madame President and I am VERY pleased to meet you."

Four hours later

Laura Roslin sat alone in her office, mulling over what Dr Amarak had told and showed them. It all seemed quite damning. If the evidence was correct, then Dr. Gaius Baltar had brought about the Fall of the Colonies. Adama and Travers were having their people analyze the recordings Amarak had given them to verify their authenticity and they were maintaining their discrete watch on Dr. Baltar, opting not to take action until they were sure. Laura rubbed her temples and leaned back, for the first time in days feeling just how tired and miserable she felt. In the mad scramble to survive and keep the fleet together, she had had little time to think about her cancer. The curtain opened, and Billy stepped in and walked over to her. She smiled at his youth and enthusiasm, she felt so protective of this bright young man.

"I have some news that might cheer you up, Madame President. Just a few minutes ago, a baby was born on the Rising Star." Roslin smiled, and then stood and turned to her white board where she erased the last number and replaced it. 204,774 survivors now roamed the stars in search of a home. She felt her heart lighten a bit, "Yes Billy, that is good news. Thank you."

"Good night, Madame President."

"Good night Billy."

The Next Day

Battlestar Alastor – Port flight pod

The Raptor glided in and touched down gently on the elevator and the pilot shut down as the ship was slowly lowered into the cavernous hangar. Once the ship was parked, the ECO opened the hatch. Marla Howard took a deep breath and stood up. She moved over to the hatch.

"Now arriving, Commander, Battlestar Alastor! Company, attention!"

She looked out to see a number of crew and officer in formation. She looked down at the officer standing before her, Major Greg Loomis, her new XO.

"Permission to come aboard?"

"Permission granted ma'am."

"Thank you Major and thank you all for the welcome, you are dismissed to return to your duties."

"Company, dismissed!"

The crew fell out and moved away, calling out their congratulations and well wishes to their new Commander.

"So Major, how about giving me the cubit tour?"

"Of course, right this way, ma'am."

Battlestar Polaris – Starboard flight pod

Lee Adama brought his Viper in for a landing and once he was parked, climbed out to see the Commodore standing there waiting for him. He saluted. Travers returned it.

"Welcome aboard, Colonel Adama."

"Thank you sir, I'm glad to be here. Thank you for the opportunity."

"I have been following your career for some time Lee, you have done very well for yourself and you have more than earned this. Keep it up and you may beat my record for youngest Battlestar Commander in fleet history," Travers walked over and patted the Viper, "Unfortunately, it means you won't get much flight time."

"Hazards of the job sir, I'll manage."

Travers grinned, "Come on Colonel, I'll show you to your quarters, and then give you the cubit tour and introduce you to the senior officers."

XXXXXX

From the Personal Logs of Kevin Travers, Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65)

We have been in space for 50 days now. While there has been some unrest, the fleet is mostly content. Of course, when our supplies start to dwindle, that will rapidly change I am sure. There have only been a handful of attacks since the Cylons ended their siege on Day 6. It almost feels like they are herding us along, nudging us every so often just to keep us moving. I just wish I knew what they were trying to herd us toward. The Galactica has been returned to service, she is now fully operational, fully armored, sports improved firepower and on board systems and the structural stress fracture issues discovered during the refit have all been repaired. Essentially, our new flagship is better than when she launched over 40 years ago. That and the six new Gunstars have been a major boost for Fleet morale. Our military assets now number 16 Gunstars, 4 Battlestars, 2 Constructstars, and one Medstar, which hardly seems like enough to protect 233 civilian vessels.

Our remaining aeronautical engineers, ship designers and several fleet personnel are working on a design project for a modified version of the Titan class Gunstar. Essentially, the plan is to remove the single flight pod, and replace it with two longer flight pods, in the same configuration as a battlestar, one on each side of the ship. They are also looking at adding improved armor, some missile batteries and a few heavy KEW batteries. The ship would also get four more engines to offset the increase in mass and to attempt to retain, or exceed the speed capabilities of the Titan class. This new ship would be classified as a Strikestar, a light, fast attack, heavily armed vessel that would carry 40 Vipers, 8 Raptors and two shuttles, have a crew of 850, plus carry 500 Marines and be capable of planetary landings to deploy its troops and ground attack vehicles. If they can iron out the design, it would be much easier to produce and far less resource intensive than building battlestars. And it would allow us to field a great deal of firepower fast.

The most significant events of late were the attempted uprising on the prison ship Astral Queen, which resulted in the deaths of 22 prisoners, including one Tom Zarek, 4 security guards and 2 Colonial Marines, and the return of Colonel Saul Tigh's infamous wife Ellen. We are still not certain what the prisoners were trying to achieve. But, through some miracle of fate, Tom Zarek's rhetoric was never released to the public due to the failure of the Astral Queen's communications array. I viewed a recording of it later with Bill and Laura and it looked to me like the man was looking to go out in a blaze of glory. Sadly for him, he didn't get the glory.

Based on the evidence presented by Dr. Simon Amorak, Gaius Baltar has been tried by a military tribunal and sentenced to life on the Astral Queen. For his safety, we have kept the fact that he was indirectly responsible for the Fall a secret. He has simply been charged with a violation of Article 12 of the Colonial Military Code of Justice and failure to protect classified information from enemy agents. We decided not to space him as he might yet prove to be of some use. He continues to work on his counter hacking protocols, to earn points toward freedom (which he will never earn) and to earn privileges. We have a team monitoring his work and verifying that it is sound.

The Asclepius researchers have still not found a definitive way to test for Cylon skin jobs, despite a thorough analysis of the Leoben killed on Ragnar. Unfortunately, the radiation damage made it very hard to get reliable test results. The work to find a sound detection method continues.

Laura has decided to forge ahead with rebuilding the Quorum of the Twelve and the new council met for the first time on Colonial Day to begin structuring our government and spread the responsibility. Calvin Hodges, former Undersecretary of State was voted in as Vice President and a new Judiciary has been formed under the leadership of former Undersecretary of Justice Jennifer Soames. A group of former law enforcement agents have been pressed into service to train a new Fleet Police Force, to maintain order among the civilian populous and leave our Marines free to do their real job, killing Toasters.

We have encountered three more refugee fleets over the past few weeks, totaling 43 additional ships carrying some 38,716 people, two of them Gunstars. This brings our fleet up to 256 vessels, and 248,203 people, including the two most recent births and those rescued from the Colonies during our recent raids.

We have set a course for Kobol, a planet that we discovered during our exploration of this sector. We hope that the signposts to Earth will start there. Our raids into the colonies have boosted the fleets morale considerably and have resulted in the rescue of 734 civilians and fleet personnel who were still fighting the good fight, including one Lt Karl "Helo" Agathon. Needless to say, Bill was very glad to see him. He has been attached to the Polaris, as Galactica is now fully manned and had no ECO openings. We also snatched the Arrow of Apollo, which will be needed to open the Tomb of Athena on Kobol, assuming we can find it.

Colonial One – Office of the President

Laura sat looking at the white board. 248,203 it read. She shook her head; it had increased several times over the past few weeks, most recently the night before thanks to a birth on the Cloud 9. The government was up and functioning and they were working out a way to build an economy within the Fleet, among many other things. Uncharacteristically, the members of the Quorum had been most helpful, despite some of the usual squabbling over cultural issues. With Tom Zarek dead and Gaius Baltar serving a life sentence, two potentially major problems had been taken care of. Now, if she could just focus past the cancer. She felt her eyes starting to well up and angrily forced the tears back. No, she thought, I will NOT be seen as weak.

Her aide Billy came in, "Madame President, Admiral Adama and Commodore Travers to see you."

"Thank you Billy, show them in please."

"Yes, Madame President," And he stepped back out.

A moment later, the leaders of the military and the closest things to real friends she had in the fleet, walked in. She had backed away from her aggressive stance towards these men early on, in favor of a collaborative approach. After all, they needed each other if they were all to survive out here. And, if she was being honest with herself, she felt something for Bill Adama, she wasn't sure if it was simple attraction, or if it was the possibility of something more and she had certainly not mentioned it, though she had caught him looking just a few times when he thought she didn't notice. But, unfortunately neither of them had time. He was the senior military officer, charged with their safety and she was the President and a woman dying of cancer who couldn't afford to let her guard down too far. So, she had settled into an easy friendship with these two very different men.

"Gentlemen, thank you for coming. Please sit down, would you like anything?"

They both nodded to her and said their hellos, both of them indicating they would have nothing. Adama leaned forward and started.

"Laura, we want to send a Raptor scouting mission to check out Kobol before we bring in any of the Fleet ships. As you know, the Polaris surveyed this sector and they found Kobol, but were unable to spend a great deal of time surveying the planet. And, there is a possibility that the Cylons may have found it as well. They seem to be herding us somewhere; Kobol may be where they have been herding us."

Travers nodded, "I concur, they have definitely been pushing us towards something and I'd like to scout the area and make sure it is safe before we commit. And, once it IS deemed safe, I believe we should only send in a small force, one Battlestar and two Gunstars at most and keep the rest of the fleet hidden and ready to jump away if things get hot. Any civilian personnel you want along would travel aboard the Battlestar."

"Sensible precautions and I agree we should check it out. I will also agree to committing only military vessels to the system once it is deemed safe, with the fleet hiding nearby ready to jump if the Cylons show."

Adama nodded and stood and walked over to place a call to Galactica. Laura walked around her desk and sat in Bill's vacated seat. "I've been meaning to ask, how is your new XO working out?"

"Lee is doing a fantastic job. He is definitely his father's son. I couldn't ask for a better XO, though I won't say that I don't miss Marla, we served together for a long time."

"And she is settled in and all is well on the Alastor?"

"She is settling in nicely. The crew is warming to her, but it takes time, they were very close to Commander Keller."

Laura nodded, "And how is that affecting your personal relationship?"

Travers blushed and looked quickly at Bill standing on the far side of the room, "How did you…?"

Laura smiled, "I didn't, not for sure anyway, till just now. But it makes sense. Besides, I wouldn't let the fraternization rules bother you too much; we are talking about the survival of the species here. Besides, I happen to know your XO and Bill's CAG are an item as of the Colonial Day ceremony."

"Lee and Kara Thrace?" she nodded. Then she looked at Bill, who was hanging up the handset.

Bill walked back over and joined them, "The Raptor scouts are gearing up now."

Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75), one hour later

Sharon "Boomer" Valerii sat in the pilot's ready room. She had been feeling odd of late. And it was something more than the stress and long hours. She just didn't know what it was. The return of Helo to the Fleet had helped to alleviate some of her anxiety, but it just would not go away. It was starting to have an effect on her flying. She fingered her gun, and for a moment almost pulled it out, but she paused. What the frak am I doing, she wondered internally. Shaking her head, she stood up, grabbed her helmet and left the ready room.

In the hangar, the crews were prepping three Raptors for the scouting mission to Kobol. The mission was being led by Galactica's CAG, Major Kara Thrace, AKA Starbuck. She stormed across the flight deck towards Tyrol.

"Chief, these birds were supposed to be ready to launch 5 frakking minutes ago, what the frak is the hold up?"

Tyrol sighed, "Nothing now ma'am, we just had to load the external ordinance. Admiral's orders, each bird will have a full load of missiles, just in case."

Starbuck stopped and looked over the Raptors, each with full racks of missiles now nestled on either side of their fuselages.

"Frak yeah! That's what I'm frakking talking about Chief!" She turned and started her walk-around and the other two crews walked in and began their walk-arounds as well.

Tyrol shook his head as she walked off, grumbling to himself under his breath.

Raptor 081, Starbuck and Racetrack, Mission to Kobol.

Raptor 081, with Starbuck and Racetrack aboard cleared the Galactica, followed by Raptor 063, with Boomer and Crashdown, and Raptor 054, with Kat and Flattop.

"Galactica Starbuck, we've reached the outer marker, ready to jump."

"Starbuck Galactica, acknowledged, the Admiral says good luck and come back safe."

"Roger that Galactica, Starbuck clear."

She switched to the flight frequency, "All right boys and girls, let's go visit Kobol. Spin up FTLs and signal when ready."

Margaret "Racetrack" Edmundsun, Starbuck's ECO for the trip called out, "the other Raptors signal they are jump ready. Our FTL is spun up and we are green."

Starbuck keyed the mic, "Jump."

The three Raptors vanished in flashes of light.

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65), CIC

Colonel Lee Adama watched as the three Raptors winked out on the DRADIS screen. You'd better come back safe Kara, he thought.

"She'll be all right Lee."

Lee looked down and into the eyes of Commodore Travers. He nodded, and looking back up at the screen said, "I know."

Travers studied his XO for moment, then turned to Lt Frost, "Lt, plot a jump to Kobol. XO, move us to edge of the Fleet and have the Gunstars Scepter, Mystic and Avenger move to join us and assume standard screening formation. The Fleet will be jumping to their hiding spot within the hour and we will remain here to recover the Raptors and then go investigate Kobol."

Petty Officer Hayes spoke up, "Commodore, Colonial One is requesting permission to dock."

"Tell them permission granted Lynn. Tell them Major Vale will meet their representatives for the Kobol expedition in hangar bay 2."

Hayes and Vale both nodded and as Hayes communicated with the President's ship, Major Vale left the CIC to head for hangar bay 2.

Kobol: Outer system

Three flashes marked the arrival of the scouting force on the edge of the Kobol system.

"Jump complete. All ships present."

"Copy that Racetrack, let's go take a look around." Starbuck keyed the wireless, "All right kiddies, split up and explore your sections, we meet back here in one hour to jump back to the Polaris."

With that, the three Raptors split off, each exploring a different part of the system. Starbuck turned to her ECO.

"Got the jump plotted Racetrack?"

"Jump to Kobol high orbit is plotted and the FTL is spun up."

"Well then, away we go."

Starbuck hit the FTL and the Raptor disappeared with a flash.

Kobol – High Orbit

Raptor 081 reappeared in orbit of Kobol in a flash of light. Starbuck maneuvered the ship to begin a fast orbital scan.

"Begin orbital scans Racetrack and monitor all known wireless freqs."

Racetrack worked the console, "scan in progress. We'll need four orbits to get a decent surface scan, and that will give us plenty of sky coverage as well."

"Roger that Racetrack, just sit back and enjoy the ride."

Kobol system recon, Raptor 063: Boomer and Crashdown

"Section three scan complete, take us to section four."

"Roger," Sharon adjusted their course and tapped the thrusters to get them moving. She noticed that her hand was shaking. She focused on it, willing it to stop and took a deep breath. Finally, the tremors subsided. When Crashdown spoke a moment later, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"You ok up there?"

"Fine, what did you say before?"

"I said that this scanning mission blows. Typical of Starbuck to grab the interesting part of the mission."

She grunted non-committally and Crashdown turned back to his board. Suddenly a massive blip appeared on the DRADIS.

"Boomer, I have a DRADIS contact, reads as a Cylon basestar and its spotted us! They're launching Raiders! Estimate weapons range in one minute."

"Frak me! Try to get a warning message to Kat and Flattop and plot us a jump to the planet so we can warn Starbuck!"

"They're jamming us! I can't break through it, plotting the jump!"

"As soon as its ready, spin up the FTL and stand by." Out the windscreen she could see the massive basestar and the cloud of Raiders approaching. She felt a strange sense of familiarity looking at the ship.

"Jump plotted, FTL ready," Crashdown called out. "Cylon Raiders will be in weapons range in 10 seconds!"

She shook herself and grabbed the controls, "Here we go, jumping….."

Raptor 063 disappeared in a bright flash just as the raiders launched their missiles.

Kobol, Raptor 081: Starbuck and Racetrack.

"DRADIS contact, something just jumped in right the frak on top of us!"

"Don't get your panties in a bunch Racetrack, who is it? Cylon, or one of ours?"

"Frak you Starbuck, checking now. Colonial transponder detected, and confirmed. It's Boomer and Crashdown."

Starbuck keyed the wireless, "Boomer, this is Starbuck. Mind telling me why you tried to give Racetrack a coronary?"

"Cylon basestar just jumped into the outer system," Boomers voice sounded more than a little shaken.

"Frak, did you warn Kat?"

"No, the Cylons were jamming all transmissions. We jumped to warn you, but we have to get back to the Polaris and warn them."

"Fine, you and Crashdown jump back, we'll find Kat and catch up."

"Starbuck…"

"Just get your ass back to the ship, Boomer!"

"Copy, Boomer clear."

Starbuck watched out her canopy and a few moments later, Boomers ship flashed out.

"Racetrack, plot us a jump to the midpoint of Kat's recon grid and let me know when it's ready."

"On it."

A few minutes later, "Jump plotted Starbuck, FTL is spun up and ready."

"Then let's go bring home the Kat," Starbuck chuckled.

"What?"

"Nothing, hang on. Jumping in 3….2….1."

Battlestar Polaris, CIC: 30 minutes earlier

"Sir, Colonial One reports they have offloaded the personnel for the Kobol expedition and they are requesting permission to detach and join the rest of the fleet for the jump."

"Tell them permission granted," he turned to look up at the DRADIS.

"Colonial One acknowledges. They have detached sir and are moving to join the fleet." She listened to her earpiece for a moment."Sir, Galactica Actual wishes to speak to you."

Travers nodded and grabbed the handset and keyed it, "Galactica Actual, this is Polaris Actual, go ahead."

Bill Adama's voice came over the speakers, "PolarisActual, Galactica Actual. Good luck, and gods speed."

"Copy that, we'll try not to have too much fun while you're away."

"We'll see you soon, Galactica Actual clear."

Travers hung up the handset and looked up at the DRADIS again. The icons that represented the Fleet began to wink out.

"The fleet is jumping away sir."

A few moments later, the last icon, marked Galactica vanished, leaving only the 3 Gunstars and the CAP on DRADIS. Just then, Major Vale returned to the CIC, leading in their civilian guests, Laura Roslin, Elosha, religious advisor to the President and Billy Keikeya.

Travers walked over to them, "Welcome aboard all of you."

"Thank you Commodore, any word on the recon mission to Kobol?"

"No Madame President, but they aren't due back for another 10 minutes."

Roslin nodded, and Travers noted how tired she looked. "if any of you would like to rest? Madame President, the flag suite is yours for your stay and you may feel free to use my day cabin if you wish to work."

"Thank you Commodore, but I think we'll wait for the…"

"Excuse me Madame President, Commodore, we have a DRADIS contact, something just jumped in!" Reported Lt Frost.

"One of our Raptors?"

"Affirmative sir, Raptor 063, Boomer and Crashdown."

"Get them aboard and have them report directly to CIC. I want to know what happened and where the other two Raptors are."

Frost saluted, "Aye sir!" And moved off to speak to Petty Officer Hayes at communications.

"Sir, Boomer's raptor is on board, and she and Crashdown are en route to the CIC."

"Thanks Lynn," Travers turned to his XO, "Lee, can you get me a status update on our current ammunition reserves and readiness of all Vipers?"

"Of course sir," Lee moved off. Travers watched the DRADIS for a few moments in deep thought. Then he turned to speak to Vale.

"Major Vale…."

Just then Boomer entered followed by Crashdown and Travers turned towards her, he noted that she looked a bit spooked, like someone had walked over her grave. As they got closer, she suddenly reached down and snatched her sidearm out and time suddenly slowed down as Travers watched the barrel slowly rise towards him. He felt a body collide with his and as he was shoved aside, he heard two shots ring out and time sped up again as the CIC erupted in screams and shouts. Travers hit the deck hard and felt something in his shoulder pop. Ignoring it, he rolled immediately behind the console and got to his feet, prepared to try to get clear if Boomer tried to shoot him again. He noticed that she had been tackled by her ECO and then he saw the person who had knocked him clear. Thomas Vale, his Operations Officer had been thrown back by the shots and now lay on top of the situation table, the first one had hit him in the chest and the second in the neck. He was obviously dead. Travers felt a tremendous loss in that moment. Vale had been a fine young man, who would have been a great commander someday, a role that he was being carefully groomed for. A hand reached out and Travers took it, looking into the sympathetic eyes of Laura Roslin. Boomer was screaming, asking in an increasingly frantic voice what had happened. A sleeper he thought, she was a frakking skin job sleeper agent. Travers watched as the Marines moved in and grabbed Boomer. Taking control of himself, he released Laura's hand and stepped forward.

"Sergeant!"

"Yes Commodore!"

"I want her taken to the brig, she is NOT to be harmed. Is that clear?"

"Sir?"

"The Asclepius researchers have hit a wall on their Cylon detector, a live uninjured Cylon will help them immensely I think. She is to be treated well, I want her healthy and undamaged. And she is to be kept restrained so she can't hurt herself. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good, then get her the frak out of my sight."

The marines moved out, taking the dazed and frightened Boomer with them. Travers walked over to communications, "get a med team up here to remove Major Vale's body Lynn." She nodded, and put in a call to the medbay, tears in her eyes.

Travers walked over to Crashdown, who jumped to attention.

"Ensign, I am NOT in a good mood. Tell me where the frak my other two Raptors are."

"Sir, the other two Raptors are still in the Kobol system, Boo…" Crashdown hesitated as the Commodore scowled, "we, had a Cylon basestar jump in near us and deploy Raiders, we jumped in to the planet and warned Starbuck, but we weren't able to get a message to Kat. Starbuck ordered us back to the fleet and she went to find Kat and Flattop."

"You will give the data on the Cylons last known whereabouts and your recon patterns to Lt Frost. Frost, I want you to plot a combat jump to the midpoint of Kat's recon patrol, disperse the coordinates to the fleet when done." Frost nodded and he and Crashdown moved off quickly and Travers walked over to the situation table and watched the medical team, which had just arrived carry out Major Vale. As they left, Travers looked around the CIC, "prepare for combat jump. Sound action stations, set condition one though out the fleet."

XXXXXX

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65) and escorts: Preparing for Combat Jump

"All ships report condition one set, action stations manned sir."

Lee stepped over, "we are also at condition one Sir, action stations manned. We are at 92% on ammunition reserves and all Vipers are manned and ready."

"Thank you Lee," Travers walked over and picked up the handset and keyed for fleet address.

"This is Commodore Travers; we just received word that a Cylon basestar has jumped into the Kobol system. We still have two Raptors out there and we are going in to get them. You are all the best, which is why I wouldn't have anyone else here with me on the brink of battle, stand to your duties, watch out for your shipmates, we'll rescue our Raptors and add another basestar to our tally, Travers out." He laid the handset in its cradle.

"Lee, I want you to arrange a memorial for Major Vale, to be held after we have successfully completed our rescue. All off duty and non-essential personnel to attend in dress grays."

"I'll take care of it, sir."

Travers nodded, and turned as Lt Frost walked over, "Sir, combat jump plotted, coordinates have been distributed. The board is green." Travers looked over at Laura, who was watching him, sympathy written all over her face. He turned back to Frost.

"Coordinate with the Gunstars, combat jump in 30 seconds." Frost nodded and moved away. He and Lynn Hayes at communications consulted and she sent out a message. Then Frost stepped back over to navigation.

"All ships will jump in 3…..2…..1."

All four ships vanished in a series of flashes as they FTL jumped.

Kobol system: Kat's patrol route, Starbuck and Racetrack

"Any sign of her yet Racetrack?"

"Negative Starbuck, not picking up anything on DRADIS or wireless. I can't risk an active scan though, Toasters will pick it up at this range."

They had been retracing Kat's route for nearly 15 minutes now and had yet to find any sign of her Raptor. Of course, they had found no evidence it had been destroyed either. Luckily, the Cylons had not yet noticed them. The basestar was on course to the planet at sublight, its Raiders sweeping out ahead of it.

"I know, keep scanning with the passive systems, I'll continue us moving along her recon route, maybe she went silent when the Cylons jumped in and is still running dark."

"Let's hope so, continuing the scan."

The Battle of Kobol

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65)

The Polaris and her escorts flashed into existence in the Kobol system. The Gunstars shifted to a diamond formation to allow for maximum protective fire to keep missiles away from the battlestar.

In CIC, the crew was hurrying about their duties. Kevin Travers, Lee Adama, Laura Roslin, Elosha and Billy Keikeya stood at the situation table.

"Jump complete, Commodore, all ships present. I am picking up Starbuck's Raptor at 220 carom 41, moving along Kat's recon patrol route. Also showing a Cylon basestar on course for Kobol, her Raiders are now diverting towards us."

"Launch all Vipers, have the fleet standby for point defense fire and enemy suppression barrage."

A chorus of acknowledgments rang out and Lee picked up the handset, "This is the XO, launch all Vipers, I repeat, launch all Vipers."

He hung up, and they all watched the DRADIS. The massive contact marked basestar had shifted and begun moving towards them.

"We are showing 200 Raiders inbound Commodore!"

"Then the odds are actually in our favor for once." Travers looked over at his XO who nodded. They hadn't ever faced such odds in this war, it was a nice change. The phone buzzed and Lee picked it up.

"Combat… Acknowledged," He hung up, "all Vipers away sir."

Travers nodded, "Helm, come to course 170 carom 21, ahead full sublight. Have the Gunstars maintain diamond formation. As soon as we enter weapons range, commence enemy suppression barrage, target main batteries on the central axis."

They all felt the surge of power through the deck as the massive battlestar shifted course and flung herself forward toward the enemy warship. The Gunstars, built for speed easily kept pace with the mighty ship. In moments, the Raiders would be in range.

"Commence enemy suppression barrage!"

The Polaris opened fire, her main batteries launching massive kinetic energy shells targeted on the central axis of the Cylon basestar, her secondary batteries and the Gunstars defensive batteries built a virtually impenetrable wall of flak around the four ships to defend against the missiles launched by the Raiders and the return fire from the basestar. The distinctive signals of the Raiders and Vipers became a tangled mess as the two groups of fighters converged.

As the battle continued, the basestar remained at the edge of gunnery range, forcing the Polaris and her escorts to chase her. A wave of missiles launched from the basestar raced towards the fleet and suddenly the basestar flashed out of existence.

"Commodore, the basestar jumped away! We have inbound missiles!" Frost examined his board, "Radiological alarm, several of the missiles are nukes!"

Travers watched the DRADIS screen, "Tell our Vipers to stay clear, increase point defense fire, try not to let any through!"

The missiles closed in and slowly winked out one by one, it looked like they might get all of them, but one swept through and merged with the Gunstar Mystic.

"The Mystic has been hit!"

Gunstar Mystic (BSG-65)

One second everything was going to plan and then the missile slipped through and hit the ship. The deck was ripped out from under them and the world seemed to explode. CIC was lit by fires from several shattered consoles and the moans of the wounded competed with sparking consoles and the hooting alarms for attention.

Colonel Frank Allen pulled himself up off the floor, the left side of his face felt wet and he was dizzy. He put a hand to his face and it came away red. Time for that later, he thought, assuming there is a later. He looked up at the DRADIS screens, which were dark. He picked up the phone, but it was dead too. Internal comm's out, he thought. Deaf, dumb and blind. He looked around, he saw his XO lying on the deck and walked over. Then he saw that Major Taylor's neck was twisted at an unnatural angle. He stopped and placed a hand on the situation table for support. The two of them had served together since the Academy, moving from one assignment to the next, somehow staying together despite the Fleet. Their proudest day had been when they took command of the Mystic together. And the assignment to the expedition led by the Polaris had allowed them to stretch their legs and avoid the normal duties of security patrols and anti-piracy operations that were a Gunstars' normal lot in life. Ken Taylor had been his best friend for over 15 years.

Allen got hold of himself. Have to worry about the living now, he thought. He called out, "who's still with me?"

Several voices rang out, one of them his tactical officer, Captain Haylee Jordan. She was trapped under a fallen bulkhead. With the help of a marine, Frank lifted the bulkhead enough that she was able to crawl out from under it. She looked battered and bruised, but she wasn't visibly bleeding and she was alive.

"Captain Jordan, you are the acting XO till further notice, I need communications restored, we need to know what's going on," Allen told her.

She nodded a bit shakily, "Yes sir," and then moved off towards the communications station..

He turned to the marine corporal, "Corporal, I need you to get down to engineering and see what our status is."

"Yes sir!" The marine saluted and ran out.

Starbuck and Racetrack

"DRADIS contacts! It's the Polaris group. They are moving to engage the Cylons."

Starbuck brought the Raptor around and they had a terrific view of the action as the massive Mercury class battlestar and her escorts dropped their Vipers and rushed forward to engage the basestar.

"Commence active scanning, no sense in hiding now that the Polaris is here."

"Roger, commencing active scans." Racetrack brought the DRADIS to active scan, and began tuning through the wireless frequencies. The new signals bought them some attention. "Starbuck, we have two inbound Raiders!"

"Copy, bring the missile racks online and hang on to your ass Racetrack, this is about to get fun!" Starbuck chuckled and spun the Raptor towards the Cylon Raiders moving towards them at speed.

"What the frak are you doing Starbuck, this isn't a Viper!"

Starbuck just shook her head and chuckled again. Come just a little closer you frakkers, she thought.

In moments the Raiders were in range and fired their missiles.

"Drop a swallow and hang on Racetrack. Lock on to those frakkers and standby to launch on my mark."

"Swallow away. Attempting to establish missile lock."

The decoy dropped out under the Raptor and as Starbuck rolled away at the last possible second, the Cylon missiles locked onto it and spun towards it finally colliding and exploding. In a seemingly suicidal move the Raptor raced towards the Raiders. The Cylon craft twisted and flashed past on either side and Starbuck flipped the raptor end for end.

"Missiles locked!"

"Fire!"

Two missiles flashed past the canopy and raced towards the Cylons, one connected and destroyed its target and the other missile spun off and ran wildly before finally detonating.

"Frak, they have our freqs, they jammed the second missile!" Racetrack voice sounded a bit panicky.

"Jam them, fair is fair and stand by to fire ballistic." Starbuck brought the Raptor around and moved to close with the other Raider.

"For a ballistic shot to work, the enemy would have to stand still, or you would have to ram it down their….You're frakking insane Starbuck!"

"Just get the gods damned missile ready to fire Racetrack!"

"We're gonna die," Racetrack muttered to herself, "Missile ready."

As they closed the Raider began to fire its cannon, Starbuck weaved and spun, somehow making the ungainly scout craft dance around the incoming rounds. Finally, they were close enough.

"Fire the missile now!"

"Missile away!"

The missile flashed past the canopy and raced in to its target, the Cylon, with no time to react still nearly avoided the missile. It spun slightly and the missile hit and blew off its port wing and the Raider exploded.

Starbuck released the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and leaned back in her seat.

"I cannot believe that actually worked. You really are frakking insane Starbuck, but, gods damn it… you really are as good as you're always bragging." There was more than a bit of awe in Racetrack's voice.

Starbuck smiled to herself, knowing it must have really hurt for the other woman to say that, "Yep. Let's go find Kat and Flattop."

"Starbuck, the basestar jumped out!" A second later, Racetrack called out, "The Mystic has been hit by a nuke!"

"Oh gods," Starbuck brought the Raptor around towards the fleet. The Gunstar Mystic, which had been holding the port flank of the Polaris was now drifting, unpowered, her external lights blinking erratically and her engines dark. A massive, blackened scar on the dorsal hull marked where the nuke had hit. Starbuck hit the thrusters and moved towards the Mystic.

"Polaris Starbuck, the Mystic is drifting, we're moving in for a visual inspection."

"Starbuck, Polaris Actual, it's good to hear your voice. Let us know what you find, Mystic is dark, she is not responding to any signals."

"Roger that Actual, we're closing now. It looks like the nuke torched her comm. array and she has a couple compartments open to space. I don't see any venting, so they must have closed off in time."

"Copy, do you think you can land in Mystic's flight pod?"

"Actual Starbuck, I don't see why not, the flight pod looks undamaged."

"Copy that Starbuck, get aboard and find out what their status is, Polaris Actual, clear."

Starbuck brought the Raptor around the Mystic, completing her external inspection and moved under the hull, towards the flight pod. She brought the Raptor in and set it down gently on the elevator. She gave a sigh of relief, echoed by Racetrack, when the elevator began to move.

Gunstar Mystic (BSG-65)

They had finally gotten internal communications partially operative, several sections were still cut off, including engineering. The marine corporal, Sather….his name was Sather, Allen thought. Corporal Sather had reported back and said that the sublight engines and FTL were offline, along with communications, DRADIS and weapons. Luckily, life support seemed to be fine. Allen surveyed the CIC, still a burned, wrecked mess. They would need a month in spacedock to get the ship combat worthy again. In the meantime, engineering crews were desperately racing to get their systems back online. Captain Holden, his chief engineer had asked for manpower and Allen had told him to take anyone he needed.

"Colonel?"

Allen looked up, his acting XO stood there.

"Yes, Captain Jordan?"

She eyed him for a moment, "flight deck reports a Raptor has docked."

"Have the crew sent up here immediately."

"I figured you'd ask sir and already passed that on."

"XO thinking, Captain, XO thinking."

"Sir, you need to let someone look at that head wound."

"I will when there is ti…."

She interrupted him, "Sir, I figured you respond that way, there is a medtech en route to the CIC to examine you here."

Allen chuckled, "You win Haylee. And, I think that we'll make it formal, congratulations, you are now officially my XO. We'll take care of your promotion later. I need someone willing to remind me of reality and to check me on potentially stupid decisions, just keep the bullying to a minimum please."

She shook her head and smiled, "Thank you sir, I make no promises, but I will try to only bully you when you NEED it."

A medtech walked in, spotted the Colonel and walked over.

"Your appointment is here sir; I'll bring the Raptor crew to you as soon as they get up here." Jordan moved over to the situation table.

Allen nodded and followed the medtech up onto the upper tier of the CIC where he sat in an empty seat and let the medtech begin her examination.

Polaris Air Group, Major "Bullseye" Forsythe

Bullseye swept through the melee again, her wingman, Lightspeed easily staying with her. The battle was going well, they had destroyed over 100 raiders, and had lost only six out of the Polaris's 252 Vipers and only one pilot had died, the others were being rescued by the SAR Raptors. Ahead of her, she saw a Raider slip in behind a Viper and moved to intercept.

"Lightspeed, tally one bogey, intercepting."

Bullseye watched as the younger woman's Viper raced ahead and sighed. But, rather than take the overeager pilot to task, she simply slid in behind and to one side and accelerated to cover her, and keyed her mic, "Copy Lightspeed, I have you covered."

Lightspeed raced in and spun in behind the Raider, matching its maneuvers, she waited for a clean lock and got it a heartbeat later and fired her cannons and whooped in triumph as the Cylon disintegrated.

"Nice work Lightspeed, Bullseye has lead, cover me."

Lightspeed keyed acknowledgement and slipped in behind the CAG to cover her as she pursued yet another raider. In moments, Bullseye had lined up the Cylon and blown it away.

Bullseye grinned as the Cylon blew apart, but then her smile faded, something was wrong with all of this. She keyed her mic, "Polaris Bullseye, I need to speak to Actual."

"Copy Bullseye, standby."

A moment later, the voice of Kevin Travers came over the wireless.

"Bullseye, Polaris Actual, go ahead."

"Sir, I think the Cylons are tying us down. The Raiders should have jumped out by now. The basestar must have gone for reinforcements."

"We were thinking the same thing. I already have a plan in motion. Keep dropping raiders for now Bullseye, but you may want to begin rotating your squadrons in for rearm and refuel."

"Copy Actual, I'll begin rotating them now."

"Polaris Actual clear."

Bullseye switched to the Viper TAC channel, "Hawk One Bullseye."

"Bullseye, Hawk One, go ahead."

"Turbo, take your squadron in for rearm and refuel."

There was a pause as he switched to his squadron TAC channel to relay her orders. Then he came back on.

"Copy that Bullseye, we're rotating now."

Bullseye clicked acknowledgement and continued sweeping through the battle, looking for pilots in trouble that she and Lightspeed could assist.

Gunstar Mystic (BSG-65)

Haylee Jordan was reviewing the damage reports when a cough attracted her attention. She looked up to find Corporal Sather standing there with a young blond pilot wearing Major's insignia.

She stepped over, "Thank you Corporal Sather."

He saluted and moved off. Jordan turned back.

"Haylee Jordan, XO."

"Starbuck."

Haylee eyed her again, this young, pretty woman hardly seemed to do justice to the legend of the infamous Starbuck. But, she doubted anyone else would risk claiming to be her.

"Welcome aboard, as you can see, we're a bit of a mess right now. If you'll follow me, Colonel Allen wanted to speak with you."

She turned and led the way across CIC and onto the upper ring, where the medtech was just finishing up.

"Colonel?"

"I'm fine Haylee, no concussion, just a nasty cut. I take it this is our Raptor pilot?"

"Yes sir, Starbuck."

Allen's eyes widened a bit, but he shrugged, talent knew no age, Travers was proof of that.

"Welcome aboard Major, I wish the circumstances were better."

"Me too, sir," she handed him a data disc," we conducted a visual inspection of the ship. Your comm. array is gone and you have several compartments open to space."

Allen took the disc and handed it to Haylee Jordan, "Haylee, get that to Captain Holden so he can reassess his damage control priorities." She took the disc, nodded and moved off.

Allen stood and walked down to the situation table, followed by Starbuck.

"We're out of the fight then," the anger in his voice was palpable. She nodded and she felt sorry for him, she couldn't imagine being unable to fight, but the Mystic was crippled, they would need a good long stay in spacedock to be combat capable again.

"Major, I need you to let the Polaris know our status and the Commodore will need to call for more support. If we can get our FTL up, we'll need a Raptor escort to jump to the Fleet's hiding place so we can get the old girl into dock."

Starbuck nodded and saluted him, "I'll let him know sir."

Allen returned the salute, and she left the CIC moving quickly. He turned back and moved over to assist with the damage control efforts.

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65): CIC

Starbuck moved into the CIC and walked over to the situation table, she noticed Lee looking intensely at her in that way of his that said he was glad to see her alive and well.

"Nice flying out there Major, I have never seen someone take out Raiders in close combat with a Raptor."

She turned to look at Commodore Travers who held out a hand. She shook it and smiled.

"Thank you sir, not something I'd care to try again."

He nodded, "You have a report on the Mystic?"

"To be blunt sir, she's frakked." Starbuck moved over to the situation table and began pointing towards the Gunstar schematic laid out there. "Her communications array is destroyed, sublights, FTL, weapons array and DRADIS are all offline and no realistic estimates on getting them back online. She needs an extended stay in spacedock before she'll be able to fight again."

Travers nodded, "Damn it." He turned to Lee, "Colonel, implement Plan B."

Lee nodded and picked up the phone.

Starbuck frowned and looked at Travers, "Plan B?"

He grinned, "You'll see."

Lee hung up, "Raptor launched."

On the DRADIS, the Raptor moved away from the ship and jumped out. A few minutes later, several icons appeared on DRADIS.

"Multiple DRADIS contacts, Colonial transponders detected and verified."

The battlestar Alastor and the Gunstars Achilles and Troy oriented themselves and moved to join the Fleet. Spacedock 1, moved towards the Mystic. All of the warships arranged themselves to provide maximum protection for the recovery operation.

Starbuck looked at the DRADIS, and then down at Travers and Lee, "You had them waiting."

"Never show the enemy your hand before you're ready, Major."

She nodded. As she watched over the next 10 minutes, the Spacedock 1 icon, and the Mystic icon merged.

"Commodore, Spacedock 1 reports they have the Mystic secured and they are ready to jump back to the fleet."

"Tell them…"

"Multiple DRADIS contacts, detecting, two, no make that three Cylon basestars have just jumped in!"

"Frak! Lynn, tell Spacedock 1 to jump! Lee, have our Vipers finished rotating out for rearming and refueling?"

"Last group is loading into the launch tubes now sir, all Vipers will be back in the fight in one minute."

"Contact Alastor, tell them to take the basestar to port, we'll handle the two to starboard. Lynn, signal all ships, defensive formation Alpha 1."

"Yes Commodore!"

In space, the Colonial ships moved into a staggered diamond formation as the two battlestars rotated to show the Cylons their armored backs. The Gunstars, moved just under the battlestar's field of fire, creating an overlapping defensive flak wall.

"All ships, commence enemy suppression barrage!"

"Commodore! One of our basestars is the one that jumped out, its showing damage!"

"Focus all heavy batteries on that ship, destroy it!"

The Polaris rolled slightly to starboard and her heavy kinetic batteries began pounding the already damaged basestar at extreme range. As the shells hit, the basestar began to hesitate and list slightly. Finally, a shell tore through its outer armor and ripped through into one of the main tylium tanks and a series of explosions ripped through the massive basestar. One of its arms broke off and impacted the basestar engaged with the Alastor causing catastrophic damage. A salvo from Alastor smashed into the basestar's central axis and the ship came apart in a massive explosion.

"Focus all fire on the remaining basestar!" Travers eyes gleamed as he watched the DRADIS, they were getting their revenge for the damage to the Mystic.

Both battlestars trained their main weapons and cut loose on the remaining basestar. The basestar launched a final wave of missiles that were destroyed by the defensive fire from the six Colonial warships. Finally, it too suffered too much damage and exploded.

A cheer sounded in the CIC as Travers watched the final basestar disappear from DRADIS.

"Commodore, I have an unknown contact and its right on top of us, reads as….it's a Cylon heavy raider!"

A shudder ran through the ship.

"The heavy raider has impacted on the hull just above the starboard flight pod!"

Travers snatched up the handset, "All hands, prepare to repel boarders!"

Dropping the phone, he turned to Lee, "get someone to Auxiliary Fire Control and Aft Damage Control now! They'll try to seize those areas and blow us all into space, then they'll use the Polaris to destroy the other ships!"

Cylon Boarding Party

Six stepped out of the Raider and looked at the six Centurions. "You all know what you must do; God will aid you in your efforts."

They nodded, and split into two teams of three and headed in opposite directions. Six smiled, she doubted they would succeed in destroying the ship, but they would definitely distract the humans long enough for her to complete her missions. She quickly moved down the corridor looking for an office with an access terminal. When she found one, she quickly inserted a data disc into it and loaded a viral logic bomb that would slowly cripple the battlestar. That completed, she retrieved the data disc, put it in her pocket, then she moved back into the corridor and headed for the brig.

Centurion Attack Team: Heading for Auxiliary Fire Control

The Centurions were moving rapidly through the ship, killing anyone they encountered. So far they had encountered no serious resistance. Then, the lead Centurion's head exploded and the massive machine fell over backward, the other two immediately deployed their gun arms and opened fire on the humans that were hiding behind a barricade just ahead. As they exchanged fire with the humans, one of them fell forward as an object pierced its back and then it exploded, the other Centurion was damaged by the explosion, but continued to fight. After a furious battle and the deaths of four marines and the wounding of five more, the third Centurion was finally destroyed. The marines called it in and tended to their wounded

CIC

"Marines report that the Centurions heading for Auxiliary Fire Control have been destroyed."

Travers nodded, "Thank you Lynn, have the med teams respond, I'm sure they have wounded." He turned to Lee, "One party down, one to go."

"We'll get them sir."

Centurion Attack Team: Heading for Aft Damage Control

The Centurions paused; the other team had been destroyed. They communed for a moment. They calculated that they would not survive the attempt to reach Aft Damage Control, but their mission was secondary to that of Six. So, they proceeded.

As they approached, they noticed several makeshift barricades had been set up and detected a number of humans manning those barricades. One of them ran forward, moving quickly it passed beyond the first barricade and opened fire with its gun arm and felt several explosive rounds penetrate its armor. The resulting explosion resulted in many of the marines being injured. In the resulting confusion, the remaining two Centurions moved in quickly and attacked. The marines pulled back to regroup and for several minutes the two groups fought a running battle, the Cylons moving inexorably forward and the marines retreating. Finally, an explosive round destroyed one of the Centurions; the remaining Centurion charged forward, sacrificing itself as its brother had at the start of the battle to cause as much damage as possible. The resulting explosion when it died killed seven marines and wounded an additional eight.

CIC

"Commodore, the Marines report that the second boarding party has been destroyed."

Travers nodded, "How many did we lose?"

Lee picked up the handset and made a call. Travers looked up at the DRADIS which was now relatively clear, the surviving Raiders were still fighting, but the odds we're getting better all the time. Starbuck had long since joined the fight and had quickly begun racking up an impressive kill count.

"Commodore."

Travers looked down at Lee.

'We lost 42 Marines and crewmen and we have 37 wounded."

Travers frowned and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. The butcher's bill had been very high.

"Thank you, Lee. Let's get the damage control teams moving. You have the conn."

With that, he walked out of CIC.

The Brig

Six slipped in behind the Marine guard, snapped his neck with ease and tossed the body aside. Moving rapidly inside she ducked a blow from the second guard and drove the palm of her hand up into his nose shattering it and killing him instantly as his body flew back across the room. She stood and dusted herself off and moved over to retrieve the keycard for the lock on the cell.

Inside of the cell, Sharon Valerii watched and tried to remain calm. The Cylons had sent someone for her, why?

"Be easy sister, I am here to take you home. Your ordeal is over." Sharon started at the voice; the tall blonde woman opened the cell and offered her a hand. Sharon stood up and moved toward the Cylon, she took the hand and pulled hard, yanking her off balance, she lashed out with a hard left. The blonde dodged the blow and spun in close driving an elbow towards Sharon's skull. With reflexes she never knew she had, Sharon moved her head out of the way just in time and backed away quickly getting room to move. The blonde also took a step back and eyed her.

"You don't need to do this sister, you don't owe these humans anything."

"Stop calling me sister! I don't care what you say, I am a Colonial officer and I am a part of this Fleet. What you made me do, attack the people that I care about, who depend on me, if that is how you operate, I want no part of it."

"Very well then, if you won't come along willingly, I'll kill you and when you resurrect, we'll discuss this further."

With that the blonde made to move forward, but was stopped cold a second later when a shot rang out. A hole appeared in her chest and she looked down in shock and then fell over dead.

Sharon turned and saw Commodore Travers standing there, looking at her as if seeing her for the first time. She moved over to the blonde and began searching her. In a pocket, she found the data disc and held it up.

"We may have a problem sir, I'd be willing to bet this is a virus, if she had time to load it into our systems, we could be looking a cascade failure of our systems very soon."

Travers lowered his weapon and walked over to take the disc, the level of trust it showed was a much needed balm to Sharon. He looked her in the eye, "Thank you Lt. I appreciate your loyalty, but, until we can find a way to deprogram you, you'll have to remain in here. I don't want you injuring anyone and you may be at risk yourself, Major Vale was very well liked by the crew."

"I understand sir." She stood, turned and walked into the cell, pulling the door shut behind her.

Travers watched her for a moment, then walked over to the phone, "This is Travers, get a medical team down to the brig, I have a dead Cylon I need to get into cold storage. And cut off all communications with the Fleet, send a Raptor to tell them we have been compromised. Then move the ship away from the fleet, get us out of weapons range ASAP."

He hung up and turned to Sharon, "we'll try to help you Lt., thank you for stopping her."

She smiled, "My pleasure sir. She was awfully pushy."

Travers nodded and turned as the replacement guards and medical personnel came in. He moved over to the Corporal in charge.

"Corporal Raimes, I want her well taken care of, she may have just saved the ship."

The corporal saluted, "Yes sir!"

Travers returned the salute and left.

CIC

Travers walked into the CIC and felt a bone deep weariness settle on him. Even though the battle had been won, the ship was still in danger. He walked over to the situation table.

"We got the final boarder, Lt Valerii stopped her."

Lee's eyes widened, "she did?"

"Yes, it seems the good Lt has no desire to be a Cylon, the Centurions were a diversion to let a skin job plant a virus in our systems and snatch Valerii."

Lee's face darkened, "They planted a virus? That's why you moved us away from the fleet and had us go dark."

Travers nodded, and pulled out a data disk. "Lt Frost."

Frost walked over, "Yes sir?"

Travers handed him the disc, "that contains the Cylon virus, find an isolated terminal and get to work on clearing our systems. You can consult with Lt Valerii, even though she was unaware of her true nature, she may be able to help you. But she is not to leave her cell."

"Yes sir." Frost moved off with the data disc.

Travers turned to Lee, "Let's hope he can beat it."

Lee nodded and they both turned to watch the DRADIS. Travers looked down as Laura Roslin joined them at the table.

"I'm so very sorry about Major Vale Commodore and for your casualties against the Cylon boarders."

"Thank you, it seems we may have to postpone our exploration of Kobol for a while, Madame President."

She smiled, "It's not going anywhere."

He couldn't help it, he grinned back at her and then turned to watch the DRADIS, and hope that they could find a way to stop the Cylon virus.

XXXXXX

From the Personal logs of Kevin Travers, Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65)

My ship is crippled. Three days ago during the battle in the Kobol system, we were boarded by Cylons, one of whom was of the new humanoid type. She managed to plant a virus into our systems. Lt Frost has been working with Sharon Valerii, our resident Cylon to combat the problem for the last three days. It seems that she is now more aware of things, who she is and where she came from since her battle with the blonde Cylon agent and she is becoming quite an asset, not only in the repair effort, but she is also becoming a source of valuable intelligence that I hope will allow us to stay ahead of the Cylons. I am truly glad she has decided to remain loyal to us. I have recommended to Bill that if she can be deprogrammed and our doctors are working on that, that she be allowed to remain in the Colonial Fleet. Laura is of course hesitant, she like all of us harbors no little resentment against all Cylons. But, if we start chucking them out of airlocks without any trial or process, how are we any better than the Cylons? Worse yet, perhaps we justify through those actions the Cylons belief that WE are the problem.

The ship is out of danger for the moment, but our weapons, DRADIS and FTLs were all compromised by the virus before we were able to cut off the networks. Each system is being wiped completely and then restored from the protected back-ups. Lt Frost has been working without sleep for the last three days and estimates that it will take another two days for the ship to be operational again. We are of course hoping that with Sharon's help, that can be reduced and we won't be sitting here with our collective asses hanging in the stellar winds any longer than necessary. The Alastor and four Gunstars remain on station, guarding us and have begun an orbital survey of Kobol. Laura and her staff have been safely transferred to the Alastor to oversee that operation.

The Galactica and the remainder of the Fleet are still safely hidden away and are using this opportunity to gather resources. It seems the design committee finally settled on the details of the new Strikestar class vessel. Our initial plan is to convert all of our Gunstars and eventually to start building these new ships from scratch, though that will have to wait until we find a new home. The new vessels will sport two flight pods, carry 80 Vipers, 8 Raptors and 2 shuttles, will have 10 double-barrel heavy kinetic turrets (three on each flight pod, and four on the dorsal hull) of the same type mounted on the Galactica and her sisters, 4 missile launchers capable of firing anti-ship or medium range nuclear missiles, and over 80 point defense weapon emplacements. These ships will add a much needed boost to our firepower. Since the Mystic will be the first ship to undergo the conversion, her name will be given to the new class. The engineering teams hope to have our first Mystic class Strikestar completed in two months.

I still have to find a replacement for Major Vale. I have Lt. Karl Agathon filling his post at the moment as his pilot was pulled off the duty roster for a broken leg. He is doing an excellent job so far and I am considering making the position his permanently, though I am sure Bill will be ribbing me about stealing all his officers to fill my command positions.

I really hope that we find the way to Earth on Kobol and that it proves to be worth the price we have paid here.

Cylon Basestar: Caprica Orbit

Cavil stalked back and forth as the other Cylons watched him apprehensively. Cavil had called this meeting, but had not said a word in the 10 minutes since they had all arrived.

"Brother…" began a Doral, but he immediately stopped speaking when Cavil whirled towards him, fury plain on his face.

"More basestars lost and the human pest continues to gain strength while we are bleeding! This war has cost us 91 basestars, over a quarter of our Fleet! It should have cost us NONE! We modified the plan when Adama said he knew the way to Earth, because we want it for ourselves, but now I am beginning to wonder, is it really worth all this effort and expense? Who the frak cares about some planet? I say we exterminate the human pest once and for all, NOW!"

"We did manage to infect their most powerful warship with a virus…"

"Yes, which has accomplished precisely nothing and we have lost a Sleeper to boot, they now have a willing Cylon accomplice in their midst!" Cavil shouted. "And there is still the Pegasus fleet to consider, Cain continues to frak with us and destroy everything in her path! This is just frakking intolerable!"

"Can nothing be done about either situation?" a Five asked.

"No, Sharon already fulfilled her sleeper programming when she assassinated that Colonial Officer. We have no further hold on her." A Four responded. "And Cain continues to elude us with frustrating regularity; the agent aboard her ship went silent some time ago. And we have no other agents in her fleet."

"What about Simon? He is there in the Galactica fleet, why can't he eliminate her?" asked a Three.

"Firstly, he doesn't have access to her, he is on another ship. And secondly, why lose a valuable asset? We only have three agents left in the Fleet and neither of the others have direct access to the Fleet Command staff." A Four responded.

"So what?! Sacrifice one of the others then! I want that frakking, incompetent bitch removed from the equation! What if she starts to remember? We can't have her blabbing all our secrets!" Cavil was red faced and the other Cylons were now visibly agitated.

A Six stood and locked eyes with Cavil and held his gaze, at least until it slid down to her chest, but still, she had her intended effect, the irate Cylon seemed to calm down visibly. "Brother, we will continue to wear down the Colonials and we WILL find Earth. We will find a way to eliminate Sharon, but for now we must be patient. It is God's will."

The others began nodding and Cavil looked up at her face and she could almost hear the wheels in his mind turning as he processed the situation. Finally, he sneered.

"Fine, far be it from me to question the will of 'god', but I want this to be perfectly clear. The human Fleet is to be worn down, I want their numbers reduced and I want no further losses to these pests. Under NO circumstances can they be allowed to join up with Cain. And once we DO find Earth, they are to be exterminated immediately! And someone find a way to kill Sharon Valerii for frak's sake!"

"The Fives agree"

"The Fours agree"

"The Threes agree"

As they all sounded off with their assent, Six continued to watch Cavil and finally said, "The Sixes agree."

After Cavil left, a Four walked up to Six and asked," He doesn't know about the pilots we captured?"

She shook her head," No, and it must remain that way. We will conduct their interrogation. If Cavil gets involved, both of them will probably die before we learn anything of use."

The Four nodded, "Agreed, but it will be difficult to keep him unaware."

"Not as difficult as you might think Brother, let me worry about Cavil, you get the prisoners ready for interrogation.

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65), CIC

Travers walked into CIC and headed over to the situation table where his senior staff was waiting.

Lee looked up as he stepped up to the table, "Commodore."

"Colonel, what's the situation? Any sign of Kat and Flattop?"

"No sir, we still have found no trace of their Raptor, it's possible they mis-jumped, though they should have come back by now if that were the case."

Travers nodded, Kat and Flattop were most likely dead or captured, he just wished he knew which. "Please continue"

"The orbital survey of Kobol is now complete; the President is conferring with the Alastor command staff to plan the search for the Tomb of Athena." Travers nodded and studied the documents laid out on the table." Commander Howard has asked for permission to begin exploration of the surface."

"I'll compose a message to her and send it on the next courier Raptor." Travers then leaned in and asked, "What's our status, Lee?"

"The ship is still stuck here, FTLs won't be back up for another two days and we'll still have to recalibrate the drive system after we boot it up. Our weapons and DRADIS will be back up this afternoon and the sublights will be back online late tonight or early tomorrow, the crews are completing the work much faster than anticipated."

"That's good news; at least we'll be able to fight if the Cylons come back."

Lee nodded, they both turned as Chief Petty Officer Lynn Hayes walked over to Travers and handed him a message, "From the Admiral, Sir."

'Thank you Lynn."

She nodded and turned to walk back to her station.

Travers looked down and read the message.

To: Commodore Kevin Travers, BSG-65 Polaris

The Fleet is still collecting resources and the Mystic refit is underway and going well. Received your message about Lt Valerii. She's been a project of mine, I rescued her from being shuffled out of the Fleet. If we can deprogram her, I see no reason why she cannot remain on active duty, though there will have to be some kind of punishment for the death of Major Vale, though extenuating circumstances will apply. I would like her to take part in the Cylon detector research, voluntarily of course, if she is willing. You should make it clear to her that this will not be easy for her, there will be a lot of resentment and she'll have to work four times as hard as anyone else to earn back the respect she had. I doubt Laura was happy about this, but sometimes you have to roll the hard six and live with the consequences. I'd like an updated status on your vessel as soon as possible.

Signed,

Admiral William Adama

BSG-75 Galactica

Travers finished reading and passed the message to Lee without comment and waited while his XO read and absorbed the message contents.

"Well, at least we'll keep our resident expert on the Cylons, though the crew won't be entirely happy about it."

"They'll have to trust me on this one Lee."

"They do sir, they do. And they are aware of all the help she has given and that she was not acting of her own free will, but it's still hard. She's a Cylon."

Travers looked at his XO for a moment and nodded, a feeling of pride welling up inside him, it was always nice to hear that your crew had faith in you after all. "I know Colonel, but as long as she does her duty and doesn't present a danger to the ship, she is a Colonial Officer and will be treated as such." Lee nodded, Travers looked around the CIC and then turned to his XO.

"Send an updated status report and damage repair estimate to the flagship Lee, you have the conn. I'll be having a chat with Sharon. Let me know if anything else happens."

Lee nodded and Travers departed CIC.

The Brig

Travers walked into the brig and returned the guard's salutes. He spoke to them for a few moments, and then he walked over to Sharon's cell, she stood and saluted and he returned it.

"Commodore."

"Lieutenant. How are you feeling?"

She smiled, "Fine, except for the accommodations sir."

He smiled back, "We'll see what we can do about that. The guard said you've been having some nausea?"

She grimaced, "I'm sure it's nothing sir."

"Still, I'd like a doctor to look you over to be safe."

She nodded, "Ok sir."

Travers stepped over to the phone and called medical to have a doctor sent down, when they acknowledged he hung up and went back over to the cell. The young woman looked tired, as if she hadn't been sleeping well. And no wonder he thought.

"I wanted to thank you for all the help you've given Lt. Frost with the Cylon virus."

"It's no problem sir, we may even be able to convert it into a weapon to use against the Cylons themselves. We could conceivably use it to disable them and destroy their ships at our leisure."

Travers eyebrows shot up, "That would be very useful indeed! Once our systems are back up, that is to be a priority for you and Lt. Frost."

"Understood, sir."

"I spoke to the Admiral on your behalf, he agrees with me that if we can deprogram you, you will be allowed to remain on active duty. Just be aware, that it will not be easy for you and that you will likely face some sort of punishment for Major Vale's death."

Sharon felt her eyes welling up, "Thank you sir. I really appreciate your efforts, but they are not necessary."

"I disagree, Lieutenant."

Just then Doctor Melody Harris, the ship's Chief Medical Officer walked in and Travers moved to leave, "I'll expect a report shortly doctor. Goodbye Sharon."

The doctor nodded and Sharon said, "Goodbye sir."

Battlestar Alastor (BSG-77) CIC

"DRADIS is still clear Commander, no signs of enemy vessels. The courier Raptor is inbound from Polaris and should land in about 5 minutes."

Commander Marla Howard nodded, "Thank you Lt."

She turned and walked over to the mission planning area where her XO, Colonel Greg Loomis and the President were going over the survey maps of Kobol. They both looked up as she approached.

"Commander, any word on the Polaris?"

"Not yet, Madame President, but the courier Raptor is en route now and will be here shortly."

Roslin nodded, "That's good, hopefully we'll get some good news. Now, as I was telling Colonel Loomis, "she turned back to the maps, "I think we should fan out from the ancient city, using it as the starting point for our search grid to find the Tomb."

Loomis nodded, "I agree Commander, it's as a good a place to start as any and it's very likely based on what we have read in the scrolls that the Tomb will be somewhere near the ancient city."

"Very well then, deploy the search Raptors Colonel. Madame President, with respect, I would like you to remain aboard until we actually locate the Tomb. There is no sense in risking you any more than necessary."

Loomis moved to place a call to launch the Raptors, Roslin studied the Commander for a moment, then she nodded. "Very well Commander, but I want to be notified immediately when the Tomb is found and I WILL be in the team that goes to explore it. Clear?"

Howard nodded, "Crystal, Madame President."

Roslin nodded, "Now that we have that settled, let's see what the postman brought us." She pointed to the pilot walking in the CIC. The pilot spotted them and walked over and after a quick exchange of salutes with Howard, handed her the message from the Polaris. She scanned it and then handed it to Roslin.

To: Commander Marla Howard, Battlestar Alastor (BSG-77)

Have read over your proposal regarding exploration of Kobol, proceed at your discretion. But take all possible precautions, the scriptures do mention that any return to Kobol will have a price to be paid in blood. If you haven't already told her so, President Roslin is NOT to go to the surface until the Tomb has been found and the area secured. Her safety is paramount, even if she disagrees. The physical repairs to Polaris from the battle are complete, but our systems are still recovering. We will have weapons and DRADIS back online later today and the sublights tomorrow. FTLs will need another two days to even be able to get them back online and we'll need to recalibrate the drives before we can use them. Be watchful Marla, something doesn't feel right about this, the Cylons should have come back by now.

Commodore Kevin Travers

BSG-65 Polaris

Roslin shook her head and chuckled, everyone was so determined to protect her! She turned and looked at Commander Howard. "No real surprises there, it's good to know that the Polaris will be operational soon, it would have been a shame to lose the most powerful ship in our fleet."

Howard nodded," He does raise a valid point, the Cylons should have come back by now to finish us off. They must want us to find the path to Earth, then they'll strike, we'll probably be attacked shortly after we enter the Tomb of Athena."

"You're probably right, I will leave our defense in yours and the Commodore's capable hands, but I think it might be prudent to avoid opening the Tomb until the Polaris is fully operational again wouldn't you say?"

"I most heartily agree, Madame President."

Roslin nodded, "Good, then I will be in my quarters attempting to catch up on paperwork, I'll see you at dinner Commander."

"Of course, Madame President."

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65) CIC

Travers looked up at the DRADIS screens, they flickered a few times and slowly came back to life, the familiar buzz of the scan sweep sounding through CIC. Everyone gave a cheer and he smiled, they could see again! He looked down as Lt. Frost came over, the young man looked terrible, with large dark circles under his eyes.

"Commodore, DRADIS, weapons and communications are now fully operational."

"Thank you Lt., now report to your quarters and get some sleep, I do not want to hear about you doing anything other than eating and sleeping for the next two days. We'll manage the rest of the repairs on our own somehow."

Frost looked like he wanted to protest, but Travers merely fixed him with a stern glare and the young man wilted and said "Aye aye sir."

"Don't look so down son, you've done amazing work and this ship would still be a big fat drifting target without your hard work. You've earned a rest and I am rotating everyone else out to grab some rack time as well. If the Cylons do come back, I need everyone rested and at their best."

Frost nodded, and saluted, "Yes sir." He then turned and left the CIC.

Travers looked around CIC, "I want all of you to rotate out and grab some sleep."

He looked at his XO and acting Operations officer. "Lee, grab a Raptor and go update your father. Take a couple days, spend some time with him and see your lady, I don't want her pissed at me for keeping you too busy to visit. Karl and I can handle things for a while without you."

Lee smiled and nodded, "I'm sure. I guess I'll see you both in a couple days then." He turned and headed out of CIC to pack and head to the Galactica.

Travers looked over at Helo," And what about you Karl, anyone you need to go see?"

"Sir?" Helo looked more than a little uncomfortable.

Travers smiled, "Feelings don't go away just because we find out that someone isn't what we expected. Go see her Helo, I'm sure she could use a friend. I can handle the CIC for a while. Come back for the evening shift."

"Yes sir." Helo turned, still a bit red and started out of the CIC.

"Oh and Karl?"

Helo turned back, "Yes sir?"

"Good luck."

"Thank you, Sir." With that, he turned and walked out.

Apollo and Snoops, Raptor 065: On approach to Galactica

The Raptor flashed into existence near the Fleet and Apollo quickly reoriented the ship and was rewarded with a view of the ships carrying the last hopes of Humanity. And there, watching protectively over them, his father's ship. She was in much better shape than when he'd last seen her. Her armor fully restored, and both flight pods operational. She looked like the flagship. Apollo tapped the thrusters and moved the Raptor towards the Fleet. A moment later, two Vipers appeared in the distance, moving to intercept them.

"Unidentified Raptor, squawk ID and state your intentions."

Apollo smiled at the sound of Starbuck's voice, she sounded so…professional. He turned, "Squawk Ident Snoops." He then keyed his mic, "This is Raptor 056, Apollo and Snoops on approach to Galactica. We're here to update the Admiral and grab some R&R."

He could hear the smile in her voice, "It's about frakking time Apollo! We'll escort you in, our patrol is over anyway, the relief is launching now."

"Lead the way then Starbuck, Apollo clear."

Her Viper flipped up and over the Raptor and accelerated ahead. The other Viper moved up on his port side and maintained pace with him.

After they had landed and the Raptor had been taxied into a parking spot, Apollo stood and moved into the back, grabbed his bag and opened the hatch. His father was there waiting for him and standing beside him, still in flight gear, her hair a bit sweaty and looking so beautiful it made his mouth dry was Kara. He swallowed and stepped onto the wing, "Permission to come aboard sir?"

"Permission granted," the old man's voice was gruff with emotion and as Lee stepped down he dropped his bag as his father pulled him into a hug. "It's good to see you son."

"Good to see you too, Dad. Commodore Travers thought a couple days leave might be good for me."

Lee stepped back when his father released him and Kara was immediately in his arms kissing him so thoroughly he wasn't sure what was happening around them. When she finally pulled back and looked into his eyes, she had a wicked grin on her face, "Why Colonel, something in your pocket? Or are you just happy to see me?"

The Admiral laughed out loud and shook his head. Everyone around them was smiling, same old Starbuck.

Lee, more than a little flushed, simply smiled and said, "Very happy to see you Kara."

"Lee, I'd like you and Kara to join me for dinner tonight in my cabin. I'll see you both at 1900, I'm sure you both have things to talk about until then. Kara, consider yourself off duty for the next two days." With that, he turned and shooed away the deck gang, moving them back about their business.

Lee grabbed his bag, took Kara's hand and they walked out of the hangar together and towards her quarters. They definitely had a lot to "talk about".

"You know, I was thinking maybe we could get a room on the Cloud 9, get away from it all for a while."

"Now there's a good idea, Lee. We can leave tonight after dinner."

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65) Sickbay: Two days later

Dr. Melody Harris looked at Sharon Valerii's results for the fifth time and still could not believe them. She stepped over to the phone and called CIC and asked them to have the Commodore come down immediately and hung up. Then she looked at the results again. How in the name of Hades could a machine get pregnant?

The Brig

"Hello Sharon."

She looked up at the sound of his voice and stood and moved to the bars. He had finally come to see her. "Helo, thank the Gods, I thought you might not come."

"I'm sorry, it's just been crazy since the attack, I'm the acting Operations Officer, so they've been keeping me busy."

"Congratulations!"

"Thanks. So…"

"So… I'm a Cylon, where do we go from here? Let's start with one question Do you still love me Helo?"

"Yes, Gods help me, but yes. I can't stop myself from loving you Sharon. Even knowing that you're a Cylon."

"Then the rest doesn't matter, we'll figure it out together."

He nodded and smiled and moved over and took her hand.

Just then, they heard a series of noises out in the corridor, followed by the sound of gunfire.

"Sharon, get down and stay down! Corporal, give me your sidearm." The marine nodded and handed his pistol to Helo. And they both positioned themselves to the sides of the door and waited.

Freighter Cybele – 8 hours earlier

They met in an empty chamber, hidden by several stacks of containers. Simon had been reluctant, due to the risk of discovery, but he had little choice, Leoben had been very insistent.

"I'm here Leoben, what is it you wanted?"

"Not yet, wait for Doral."

Just then, Doral walked in and the three of them sat.

Leoben looked at the other two, "There has been word, Cavil wants us to begin a campaign of sabotage and terror, to weaken the humans and wear at their resolve. They need to be desperate and they need to find Earth quickly. We are to do anything that we can to make that happen. Doral, you will need to alter your appearance and then you will be heading to the Polaris. Your mission is to assassinate Sharon Valerii by any means possible and to do as much damage to the ship as you can."

"But…"

Leoben held up a hand, "I'm sorry brother, but we must all make sacrifices if we are to achieve the end goal."

Doral frowned, but he nodded and left to prepare for his mission.

Leoben turned to Simon, "And you my friend, you are going to help me."

"In what way?"

"Do you know a Colonial Officer by the name of Kara Thrace?"

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65) - now

Doral had arrived on the Raptor only an hour previously as part of a group of civilian maintenance technicians sent to help recalibrate the FTL drives which were coming back online in just under two hours. He had slipped away from the group easily enough and had found a quiet place to think and complete his preparations. He was not particularly pleased about this; after all, he had been gathering intelligence that could prove vital. But, it was never wise to question Cavil. The man was notoriously quick tempered and not above petty revenge. Doral sighed and made the final adjustment to the G-4 explosives. He then strapped the explosives on and zipped up the oversized coverall to hide them and pulled on his tool kit and other gear, placed a loaded pistol in each of the oversized pockets on his overalls and stepped out of the room and began walking down the corridor, heading for where the Eight known as Sharon was being held. A thought occurred, he wondered why his sister had turned and decided he would ask if time allowed before he killed her.

As he walked down the corridor, he received a few odd glances, but he thought nothing of them. He didn't notice the crewman that picked up the phone and began speaking urgently into it.

When he arrived at the brig he moved up to the guard stationed outside and snapped his neck and threw him against the wall and turned and whipped out his pistols and cut down the other marine before he had a chance to react. He could hear shouts down the corridor and knew he didn't have much time. There would be one more guard inside and Sharon. He would dispose of them both and then do some damage to the ship.

He opened the hatch and as he stepped through he sensed the attack from his left and turned and slammed his palm into the face of the marine that was attacking him shattering the human's nose and killing him instantly. He turned and began to walk towards the cell.

"Stop right there!"

The voice came from behind him and Doral turned to see another human standing there. This one with a pistol aimed at his chest. Doral estimated he had a 70% chance of killing the human before he could pull the trigger. He smiled at the human, "You can't stop me." He unzipped the front of his coverall, revealing the bomb underneath and saw the human's face go pale as he realized the extent of his danger. "It's set with a dead man switch, even if you do manage to kill me, which is not likely, the bomb will explode 10 seconds later anyway."

Helo paused for a moment and fired, the bullet tore through Doral's neck, nearly decapitating him and Helo turned and fired two shots into the lock on the cell door causing it to spring open, " Sharon, let's go now!"

She didn't argue, she sprang up and raced out of the cell grabbing his arm and yanking him into the corridor and away from the hatch. They hit the ground just as the brig exploded.

Sickbay

Travers walked into sickbay and over to his Chief Medical Officer. Melody Harris was a fine doctor and had been with him since the beginning of the Polaris mission four years earlier. In all that time, he had never seen her so shaken.

"What is it doc? CIC said you needed to see me urgently."

She looked up, and handed him the test results. He read them over, his eyes going wide as he finished. "You're sure?"

She nodded, "I ran the tests four times to be sure."

"Well, this is a new wrinkle. Do you know who the father is?"

Just then the whole ship shook and the alarms began to go off. Travers ran to the phone and called CIC.

"This is Travers, what the hell just happened?"

"Sir, there's been an explosion in the brig!"

Travers dropped the phone and ran out of the sickbay, headed for the brig rounding up a marine squad on the way.

When he arrived, he found Sharon Valerii and Karl Agathon standing there, holding each other. Both were apparently unharmed. And suddenly, Travers knew who the father was. He stepped over to them.

"Mr. Agathon, report."

Helo released Sharon and stepped back, then he turned towards the Commodore, "A Cylon assassin sir, trying to kill Sharon again."

"They don't seem to like you Lt."

She nodded, "I guess they don't sir, which just justifies the decision I made to remain with the Fleet."

"Yes, but we'll need to figure out better security for you. In the meantime, take her to sickbay Mr. Agathon, Doctor Harris has news for you both. And congratulations to you both in advance. Now get moving. Corporal, have two men escort them, I want Lt Valerii protected at all times, she is no longer a prisoner." The corporal nodded and moved off.

They both looked confused, but they moved to obey. Two marines trotted after them.

Travers looked at the damage and shook his head, wondering what she could tell them that would cause the Cylons to go to such lengths to kill her. They needed to protect her, all the more because the Cylons so desperately wanted her dead.

Cloud 9

Leoben watched the video feed, he had secretly rigged the room that Kara Thrace and Lee Adama had taken for their little getaway. He knew that this woman was important to the future of the Cylon race and with the help of Simon, he would soon take her and escape from the human fleet so that he could figure out what her purpose was in God's plan. When the two fell asleep, Simon and Leoben stealthily entered their room. Of course, nothing was easy where Kara Thrace was involved. The two humans woke up and fought hard. Leoben and Simon had to be careful not hurt them too badly, especially Kara Thrace. When the two humans were finally subdued, Thrace unconscious and Adama tied up, Adama sat looking at them both, his eyes filled with hate.

"You'll never get away with this. My father will hunt you down and kill you."

Simon turned and looked at him, "That may be Colonel Adama, but he'll have a hell of a time finding you and I will be there subtly misdirecting him at every turn to keep the chase going." He turned to Leoben, "take them to the Cybele, you will have a day, two at the most before they are missed, then you will need to be very wary. I will join you very soon and we will find out what this woman means for the destiny of our people. Remember not to let yourself be seen, your face is known."

Leoben nodded and gagged Adama, then they loaded them both into a shipping crate and took them down to the shuttle they had waiting.

XXXXXX

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65) CIC, Cylon Suicide Attack +3 hours

Kevin Travers stood at the situation table, deep in thought. His ship had been boarded twice by the Cylons in the space of a few days; both times they were intent on removing Sharon Valerii, either by kidnapping or killing her. Clearly they thought she was a great threat. He had already put security measures in place around her and they were working on new measures as well. He looked up at the now functioning DRADIS screens. Then he looked down as Lt Frost stepped up next to him.

"Commodore, we sustained moderate damage from the blast," he said handing over a sheaf of reports, "the holding area was thoroughly trashed and the damage extended into the deck below and has destroyed the primary auxiliary power transfer conduits which run through that section. Basically, our auxiliary power system is useless until we can replace those conduits. Engineering estimates 3 to 4 days at least to get it done sir."

Travers frowned, "Thank you Lt. Have a Raptor sent to Galactica to update them on our status and have them ask Colonel Adama to report back at once."

Frost nodded and moved off to carry out the Commodore's orders. Travers flipped through the reports, he hated to interrupt his XOs time off, but he needed Lee here. Travers then picked up the phone and called engineering.

Medbay

Sharon was redressing, after a very thorough physical exam by Doctor Harris. She was unharmed, and the baby was also fine. She finished buttoning her jacket and stepped out from behind the curtain and walked over to where Helo was pacing back and forth near her Marine bodyguards.

"Everything is ok, Helo," she said.

He grabbed her in a hug, and then pulled back kissed her fiercely.

"Ahem"

They broke apart, both looking a little embarrassed to see Dr Harris standing there with a smile on her face, "if you two are done, you can go. Sharon and the baby are fine. Commodore Travers wanted you both to report to CIC as soon as Sharon was done here."

They nodded and moved off, the Marines making up Sharon's security detail encircling them, two ahead and two behind to protect against any threats. Helo sighed, they were not even safe on their own ship.

Freighter Cybele – Hidden compartment

Leoben stood, silently watching Kara Thrace sleep. She looked so peaceful, though he knew full well she would be anything but when she awoke. He glanced up at the sound of an angry grunt, Lee Adama was tied to a chair in the corner, gagged to keep him quiet and staring so intently at Leoben that if a stare could cause death, Leoben would fall dead instantly. He smirked at Adama and moved over and gently brushed the hair out of Kara's face. This sent Adama into a rage; he began struggling like a madman, trying to get loose from his bonds. His struggles finally woke Kara and Leoben sighed.

Her eyes shot open and she came up off the bunk with speed that unnerved the Cylon a bit, no human should be that fast, he thought. And he stepped quickly over to Adama and got a firm grip on his neck.

"What the frak!" Kara exclaimed as she leapt to her feet, dropping into a fighting stance, ready to attack.

"Calm down Kara," Leoben said. "You and I have much to talk about and Colonel Adama's life depends on your cooperation."

Kara quickly took in the situation, she and Lee were being held somewhere, they were both in their underwear and tanks with nothing at hand to use as a weapon (all the furniture was bolted down) and she knew that there was no way she could kill Leoben before he could kill Lee. She slumped a bit, her posture relaxing some, she would wait until an opportunity presented itself, then she would kill the frakker.

Leoben shook his head, "I know you are planning to kill me and I guess I can't blame you, but be aware, I can kill Colonel Adama before you can take a step. I have no desire to, as I said, I only want to speak with you Kara."

"Stop frakking calling me that, like you know me!" Her eyes blazed as she looked at him, her gaze then moved to Lee, and she stopped herself again. She could not risk his life, she had to keep her temper in check…for now.

"But I do know you Kara, better than you know yourself. You are the Child of Destiny, the one who will lead the way to Earth. I intend for you to do so and then it will be the new home of the Cylon race. Now, sit down." He pointed to a chair sitting near a table; it was on the other side of the table from the side of the room where Lee was tied up, an obstacle that would slow her down. She looked at Lee, and then she slowly walked over and sat in the chair. Leoben smiled and released his hold on Lee. Then he moved a bit closer to the table, but he was still too close to Lee.

"Please understand that Colonel Adama's survival is totally contingent upon your cooperation. Now Kara Thrace, let us talk about Earth… and destiny."

Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75) CIC, Cylon Suicide attack +4 hours

"Admiral."

"What is it Dee?"

"We are getting a message from the Polaris courier Raptor requesting status on Colonel Adama, he is required to report back at once, there's been an another attack on the Polaris!"

Adama turned toward her in surprise, 'What? How?"

"Another Cylon agent. They are bringing the Commodore's report, but they were told to issue the recall to Colonel Adama as soon as they completed their jump."

Adama nodded, "very well, contact Cloud 9 and have them inform Colonel Adama and Major Thrace to report to the Polaris at once."

Dee nodded and moved to comply.

Adama looked over at his XO," They're getting bolder Saul. Two attacks on the Polaris in the space of a week by Cylon skinjob agents."

Saul nodded," We need that damned Cylon detector Bill."

"Agreed, contact the Asclepius and have them dispatch a medlab shuttle to the Polaris, I want that Cylon detector they have been promising and I want it now. Tell them to send the best they have."

Tigh nodded, and picked up the phone, "Should we send Amorak?"

Bill shook his head, "No, we need him here." Tigh nodded and began making calls. Bill looked up at the DRADIS, he silently wondered if the Cylons would ever give up short of annihilating them all.

An hour later, a voice cried out, "Admiral!" Dee came running over and stopped next to him.

"What is it Dee?"

"Sir, Cloud 9 reports that Colonel Adama and Major Thrace are not aboard. Their Raptor is still docked, but they have searched the ship from top to bottom and have found no sign of them. They report finding signs of a struggle in the suite they had, it appears they may have been abducted." The CIC was suddenly very silent, all eyes turned toward the Old Man. He looked like he wanted to rip something apart with his bare hands.

"Sound action stations! Set condition one throughout the fleet and suspend all traffic now! All Fleet ships are to stay where they are, all shuttles and Raptors in flight except for the CAP are to land immediately and hold until they have been cleared, "Bill paused for moment, "I want strike teams loaded into every Raptor we have and I want them deployed throughout the Fleet within 10 minutes. Every ship will be searched from bow to stern, top to bottom, no exceptions." Everyone immediately raced to carry out their orders as the klaxons announced that Galactica was readying herself for battle. Everyone now carefully avoided looking at their Admiral, even Tigh. There was murder in the Old Man's eyes, whoever had taken Apollo and Starbuck would not have long to regret their action when they were found.

Adama turned to Tigh, "Saul, I want this ship searched. You will personally coordinate the Fleet search teams. Borrow Raptors and Marines from any Fleet vessel you need to once they have been cleared."

Tigh nodded and responded, his voice gruff with emotion, "Sure Bill, I'm on it. We'll get them back."

Adama nodded, murderous intent bright in his eyes, "Damned right we will and whoever did this will regret it for the rest of their very short lives."

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65) CIC, 1.5 hours earlier

Helo and Sharon walked into the CIC and walked over to stand by Commodore Travers who was speaking to Lt Frost. He nodded to them both, finished speaking to Lt Frost. Who then moved off and Travers turned to them.

"Come with me you two," Travers said, and turned and headed out. He led them to his day cabin, and they all went inside, and the Marines took up posts outside.

Travers walked over and sat behind his desk, "Take a seat, both of you." He pointed to the two chairs in front of his desk. They moved over and sat down.

Travers looked at them for a moment, "You know, I should bust both your asses for violating the frat regs." He smiled, "however, due to certain… mitigating circumstances, we will forget about that now. Karl, I would like to offer you the position of Operations Officer permanently, with a promotion to Captain, effective immediately. Assuming you accept."

Helo's mouth dropped open, "Of…of course sir, thank you sir!"

"Don't thank me too much, you're a superb officer and the job as you know, is a lot of work. Congratulations, Captain Agathon, you've earned this." He pulled out a small box and handed it across the desk. Helo opened it and found Captain's insignia inside. Sharon pulled them out and pinned them on his collar, her eyes shining with pride.

"Now, Lt Valerii, what am I going to do with you?"

"Sir?"

"Well, I have decided that time served, plus the two assassination attempts are probably enough punishment for what you were forced to do to Major Vale. I assume you wish to stay aboard, but I don't have any flight openings at the moment and you won't be able to fly much longer anyway." He smiled at her, "However, I could post you as an Intelligence officer, you'd need to go through some training, but with your unique insights into our enemy, I think you would do very well there. I know it's not flight duty, but it's necessary and I'd like to keep you here on the Polaris and I am sure that Karl would agree." They both glanced at Helo who nodded vigorously. "Good," Travers said and smiled, "So Sharon? What do you say?"

She nodded, "I accept, anything to keep me here with Helo."

Travers grinned and nodded, "Well then, let me officially welcome you both to the Polaris. Your transfer orders will be sent to you shortly and I will have someone get your things from Galactica."

CIC, 30 minutes after Lee and Kara were reported missing

"Commodore, the courier Raptor has returned and they are asking to speak to you privately sir," Hayes called.

Travers reached for the phone, "Patch it over here Lynn."

She nodded, and he picked up the phone and spoke to the pilot, his face darkening and getting angrier by the moment. A few moments later he hung up the phone.

"Sound action stations, set condition one throughout the fleet!" Travers turned to his new operations officer, "Karl, suspend all traffic except for the CAP, every other ship is to land now! I want all the ships recalled from Kobol as well. All ships in the group will be searched thoroughly; Colonel Adama and Major Thrace have been abducted!"

There were gasps throughout the CIC and then everyone hurried to do as their Commodore ordered, as the klaxons sounded and Lt Frost announced action stations over the PA.

Freighter Cybele – Hidden compartment, 1.5 hours after Lee and Kara were reported missing

Lee screamed as Simon bent the index finger on his left hand back, almost to the breaking point, just a very slight increase in pressure would break or dislocate the finger.

Simon had joined the interrogation/torture session about an hour earlier. He had grimly told Leoben that the search was underway and their time was limited, the Old Man would listen to no one, he was personally organizing and directing the search. Misdirection would not work, so he had quietly slipped away and made it to the Cybele before the Fleet was completely locked down.

He had taken up the role of torturer and he had been quite content to punish Lee every time Kara failed to answer a question. He had employed pressure points, near breaks and dislocations and mild electroshocks so far.

Leoben simply sat smiling at her; Kara had never felt so helpless.

"Now Kara, I will ask you again. How do we get to Earth?"

"I'm telling you, I don't frakking know." She glanced at Lee and hastily added, "All I know is that Admiral Adama knows how to find it."

"I do not accept that Kara, you are the Child of Destiny, I know this because God has chosen to show it to me." He smiled, "You're purpose is to find Earth, it is why you were born Kara. You hold within you the knowledge, but we must find a way to unlock it."

He stood, "I have been in your apartment, I have seen the paintings." He looked at her, and pulled some papers out of his pocket and unfolded them and sat them on the table. On them were copies of the paintings from her apartment.

"You bastard, you had no right! When the Admiral finds you…" She trailed off as Simon applied an electric shock to Lee causing him twitch uncontrollably. "Stop it gods damn it! Just stop!" She hung her head, "Ask your questions, I'll answer if I can."

"Yes Kara, you will. If you want Colonel Adama to live."

Kara raised her head and studied him. She knew that Lee would not survive this and if she did, she would wish she hadn't, but so far, no opportunities had arisen and against two Cylons, she would stand no chance alone.

XXXXXX

From the personal Logs of Admiral William Adama, Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75)

My son and Kara are missing; it's been six hours since their abduction was discovered. We have systematically searched 83 ships, including all military assets. It's a long and slow process and I am growing increasing frustrated and angry. The two people who matter most to me in this frakked up universe could be dead and there is nothing I can do. The Fleet remains at Condition One, and we have updated and distributed a new set of jump coordinates to all ships, I have a feeling that the abduction may only be the first step in something larger. I have recalled all vessels from Kobol, we can worry about the way to Earth later, if there is a later. I have made it clear to everyone that locating our missing personnel is the only priority right now.

Galactica CIC – Abduction +8

"Admiral, they're here."

Bill Adama turned to see Laura Roslin and Kevin Travers entering the CIC. He moved over to greet them.

"Madame President, Commodore."

They both stopped, sympathy plain on their faces, Roslin spoke first, "Admiral, how goes the search?"

"We have just cleared 10 more ships Madame President, bringing us to 103, only 153 to go," Adama sighed, took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Admiral, I have dispatched additional search teams from Polaris, Alastor and our escorts to assist. There are now 20 ships being searched. Assuming no interruptions, we should complete the sweep of the Fleet in another 6 hours." Travers shook his head, "I wish we could speed it up Bill."

"I know and I know everyone is doing their best." He turned and headed for the situation table, and they followed. "Saul, what's the next ship?"

"Teams 3, 7 and 9 are boarding the Cybele now Bill."

Freighter Cybele

Simon moved quickly in to room. "Leoben, I need to speak with you."

Leoben turned and seeing the other Cylon's face, simply nodded and stood. "I'll be right back Kara, think carefully about what I said and remember that Colonel Adama is depending on your cooperation." He walked over to Simon and the two stepped out and secured the hatch.

Kara was up and moving before the hatch was completely shut. She hurried over to Lee. He was in bad shape, his chest was covered in bruises and had several burn marks from the electric shocks, the fingers on his left hand were all dislocated and his face was a swollen mess. They had been very hard on him and he was starting to show signs of shock and dehydration. She needed to get him out of here and fast. She reached out and gently touched his face.

"Kara…"

She jumped in shock, oh frak, she thought, he's conscious! "Lee, you have to be quiet, they could be back any moment, do you understand me?"

He nodded weakly.

"I'm going to figure a way out of this Lee, I promise you."

"Kara…"

"Lee, please, you have to save your strength, don't talk."

"Have to tell…..just in case…..." he coughed weakly, and spasmed in pain. "Love…you….Kara. Always….have. Thought….you should…know…before….."

"Oh frak, shut up Lee, I love you too you frakking idiot, now quit talking like we're going to die. Your father is looking for us and I for one have no intention of dying at the hands of these two incompetent frakkers. Just keep your pants on Apollo, Starbuck is gonna save your ass again." She gave him a brilliant smile and leaned in and gently kissed him on the forehead. She just wished she felt even half as confident as she sounded.

XXXXXX

"What is it Simon?"

"They are searching the ship. Three Marine Raptors landed a few minutes ago. Our time is up. We should kill them both and prepare to do as much damage as possible before we are caught." He turned and started to move away, he could sense Leoben following, but he didn't sense what was about to happen. As he stopped to check the corridor, a pair of powerful hands looped up and around his neck and twisted and his spine shattered severing his brain stem. Simon was gone in an instant.

Leoben stood over the corpse of his brother for a moment, then grabbed the arms and started dragging the body out of sight. "Sorry brother," he whispered. "But I can't allow you to kill her, she is too important. She is more important than anything else." He quietly disposed of the body, and turned to head back in to speak with Kara Thrace. He knew that she would come around in time, and reciprocate his love and together they would lead his people to Earth. It was their destiny.

Cylon Attack Fleet: Holding station one jump from Kobol

Cavil stood looking at the assembled Cylon models, and held up a hand for silence. When they all quieted, he spoke. "The time has come. I am sick of playing chase with these ridiculous creatures. They are too strong, too arrogant. We need to batter them and remove most of their protection, give them a real sense of urgency. The only battlestar that is to survive is Galactica, along with a few civilian vessels to make them think there is still hope, but make it look good. Then we will let them lead us to Earth where we will finally finish this! Bring an end to these filthy pests once and for all!"

The other Cylon models nodded, though several looked distinctly uncomfortable. But, none of them were quite ready to risk Cavil's ire.

"So, what the frak are you all sitting around for? Let's get a frakking move on!"

The Cylons all stood and quickly moved off to carry out their tasks. Cavil stood shaking his head. Incompetent morons, maybe the humans weren't the only ones in need of a culling he thought. He walked out of the meeting room and headed to the command center.

As he walked in, he noted everyone was doing their jobs. "Status!"

"All ships ready, we have 20 basestars ready to jump, with a reserve force of 6 basestars and a resurrection ship."

"Good, then let's get this show on the road shall we?"

Twenty basestars disappeared in bright flashes of light, leaving behind their reserve force.

None of them noticed the small stealth craft coasting quietly at the edge of sensor range, pulling in all of their wireless traffic and gathering passive sensor data. The ship's ballistic trajectory soon carried it out beyond the detection range of the Cylons and a few minutes later it disappeared in a flash.

Freighter Cybele

Leoben stepped into the room and saw Adama still bond to his chair and had a split second to realize his mistake before he felt Kara Thrace's fist impact his larynx, crushing his windpipe and cutting off his air. The blow was followed by a rapid series of punches and kicks that put him on the floor, unable to move as he slowly suffocated. The last thing he saw was her boot flying toward his face.

Kara stopped, breathing hard and then kicked the downed Cylon a few times to make sure he wouldn't get up, then she moved over and quickly untied Lee, slowly pulled him up and started to walk him out. Just then, the door burst open and a squad of Marines raced in and stopped cold, seeing the dead Cylon and the people they had come to rescue calmly standing there.

"What the frak took you guys so long?" Kara frowned, "Don't just frakking stand there you idiots, close your mouths and help me get him out of here, he's hurt badly."

The marines stopped gawking and moved to comply and a short time later, they boarded a Raptor to head for Galactica.

Galactica CIC Abduction +9

Bill Adama was still standing at the situation table. He hadn't left the CIC since Lee and Kara had been reported missing.

"Admiral! Incoming transmission," Dee smiled and put it on speakers.

"Galactica Starbuck, hear you guys were looking for a couple of lost sheep?"

A cheer rang out in CIC and Bill had to struggle not to cry for joy at the sound of her voice, he picked up the phone, "What do you hear Starbuck?"

"Nothing but the rain, sir."

"Then grab your gun and bring in the cat. How's Lee?"

"He's in pretty bad shape sir, the Cylons tortured him," she sounded very angry, "I killed one of them, and the Marines found the other one dead."

Bill nodded, "Good work. Get home fast."

"We're inbound now, ETA is 2 minutes. We'll need a medical team ready to take Lee when we land."

"They'll be there." He hung up the phone and turned to his XO. "Saul, recall the search teams and let's get the Fleet back into formation. I want the jump coordinates updated and redistributed as well and I want a medical team in the hangar bay now."

Tigh acknowledged and moved off.

A couple minutes later, the Raptor had docked and Lee was on his way to the Medbay. Then all hell broke loose.

Battlestar Polaris – CIC

Travers listened as Bill brought him up to speed and then signed off and switched the phone to all-call.

"Attention all hands, this is Commodore Travers. I have just been informed that Colonel Adama and Major Thrace have been found alive. Colonel Adama is being treated for his injuries aboard Galactica and I do not expect him to return for some time yet. I ask you all to keep him in your thoughts and prayers and to carry out your duties in the manner that he would and will expect when he returns. That is all."

He hung up the phone and turned to Helo, "Well Karl, looks like you're the Acting XO now. Let's get the ship…"

"Commodore, multiple DRADIS contacts! Reading…oh my gods, 20 basestars! They are launching Raiders!"

"Frak! Karl, get our birds in the air! Lynn, tell all the civvies to jump now, my authority!"

Hayes and Agathon moved to do as they were told and Travers studied the DRADIS screens for a moment. "Helm, come about, bring us to heading 124 carom 01, five degree up angle. Present minimal aspect. Gunnery, target our main batteries on the central axis of the closest basestar and fire!"

The Polaris came about, surging ahead as her powerful sublights kicked in. Her bow guns opened fire at maximum range and immediately caused devastating damage to the basestar.

"Commodore, incoming missiles! Radiological alarm!"

"Commence enemy suppression barrage, don't let anything through! Karl, how long on our Vipers?"

"Last few are launching now Commodore and the flagship reports all birds launched from the other ships."

Travers face became grim as the tallies for enemy fighters appeared, the Cylons had over 4,000 Raiders in the air and they had 980 Vipers. At least 4 to 1 odds, he thought. They were in deep trouble. The civilian ships were winking out rapidly.

"How long till the last civilian is away?"

"They are jumping now Commodore."

On the DRADIS, the last of the civilian icons disappeared. They hadn't lost any, now they had to see if any of them would survive this.

"Have all attack groups form a defensive line, notify the flagship we are taking the left and they have the right."

In space, the 4 battlestars, each with Gunstar escorts formed a defensive line, presenting their armored backs to the Cylons and forming an overlapping field of defensive flak. The Vipers raced in and met the Raiders and quickly began decimating them. Each of the battlestars picked a basestar and began hammering it with their heavy KEWs, pouring shells into the central axis of each target ship. The Cylons were grouped so close, that as each was destroyed it took out the two basestars on either side.

Cylon Command ship, at the rear of the Cylon formation

Cavil was fuming, another spectacular failure. These humans were proving far too resilient. Their surprise attack had failed to destroy any civilian ships and now the battlestars and their escorts were holding the line and inflicting horrific damage on his fleet when by all rights they should be dead, or running like frightened children. Still, he had numerical superiority.

"Space out the frakking fleet you idiots! Let's make them work a little to destroy us, if that's all right with all of you?" Cavil smirked at the other models. Chastised, they gave the order and the fleet began to disperse.

The fighter battle – Starbuck

The battle had been going surprisingly well, outnumbered almost five to one; they had managed to kill a quarter of the Cylon raiders in the opening moments of combat. Now they were in a chaotic furball and it was anyone's guess how it was actually going.

Starbuck brought her Viper through a barrel roll and at the last moment spun sideways bring her cannons to bear and waxed another raider, that made 15 so far and the day was still young. Another Viper pulled up on her starboard side and waggled its wings, Starbuck waved and accelerated. The other Viper kept pace. They wove their way through the melee, rescuing Vipers in trouble and killing any Toaster that got in their way.

Starbuck keyed her mic, "Galactica Starbuck, I need to start rotating my birds, they have more raiders than we do frakking cannon rounds."

Dee's voice came back, "Copy Starbuck, the port flight pod is cleared for combat landings. You may begin rotations at your discretion."

"Copy Galactica," she switched to the Galactica Viper tac channel, "All right kiddies, time to rotate back to the Bucket for some gas and bullets. Make it quick though, I find anyone frakking off when there's Toasters to kill and their ass will be nailed to my office door."

The squadron leaders all clicked affirmatives and then worked out a quick rotation. Starbuck stopped listening and put her whole concentration back into the fight, she was going through the best kind of therapy, killing Toasters to pay them back for the torment she and Lee had suffered.

Galactica CIC

"Admiral, the Cylons have launched another wave of missiles!"

Adama looked up at the DRADIS. They had already sustained two hits on the starboard flight pod and another one topside. The armor had kept out the hard stuff, but the ship was hurt and the battle was dragging on. They needed to withdraw, but they were so heavily committed at this point, there was simply no way to pull out without suffering worse than they were now. Four Gunstars had been damaged badly enough that they were out of the fight and the Oberon had three badly damaged sublight engines.

"Admiral, five nukes got past the flak wall, they are inbound on Polaris!"

Adama watched the DRADIS as the five icons marking the nukes collided with the icon marked Polaris. There was a massive flash and the DRADIS was blinded for a moment. When it cleared, the Polaris was gone.

"Oh my gods," Saul Tigh said. "Dee, order a Raptor to confirm the status of the Polaris!"

Adama looked at his friend. The battle was lost, they were still facing 13 basestars, all more or less fully operational and they had 1 crippled battlestar, 2 badly damaged battlestars and 13 relatively undamaged Gunstars. The Galactica shook as another missile hit.

"Admiral, we've lost the jumpdrive! Oberon and Alastor report their jumpdrives out as well!"

Saul frowned, "Well, that's it then. It's been an honor Bill."

"For me too Saul," he smiled. "Dee, send out the order any ships that can still jump to collect as many Vipers as they can and get the frak out of here."

"Admiral!"

"What is it Mr. Gaeta?"

"Reading several new DRADIS contacts!"

"Gods damned Cylons have to rub salt in the wound," Tigh said, "not enough to just kill us."

"No sirs, the contacts are Colonial!"

"What!?" Tigh and Adama both said.

"Contacts read as Colonial Battlestars, the Pegasus and Hemera."

Adama turned, "Dee issue hostile challenge! Saul, switch to salvo fire and tell engineering to get our frakking jumpdrive back online! Maybe we aren't done just yet."

"Admiral, identities confirmed, it's Pegasus and Hemera sir! Pegasus Actual would like to speak with you."

Adama picked up the phone, "This is Galactica Actual."

"Pegasus Actual here, been long time Bill. See you got yourself into some trouble. Mind if we lend a hand?"

"Not at all Helena, in fact we insist," he said with a grin.

"Great, then let's kill these frakkers and then you can buy me drink and we can catch each other up on what we've been up to since the Fall."

"I look forward to it."

"Good, I'll try to save a few Cylons for you. Pegasus Actual clear."

Bill hung up the phone, and grinned at Saul Tigh.

Bill studied the DRADIS a moment, "Redeploy the remaining Gunstars so that every battlestar has at least two for cover and let's rotate our squadrons again."

The two Mercury class battlestars raced in launching Vipers as they came, firing their heavy bow batteries and destroying a basestar apiece before swinging out to either side of the Cylon formation and rolling to present their armored backs.

Cylon Command ship

Cavil picked himself up off the floor and looked around, the place was a mess. The basestar had been hit by debris from a neighboring basestar when it was blown apart by the Pegasus. Just frakking wonderful he thought, now Cain AND Adama to deal with!

"If any of you idiot's is still alive, I need a status report!"

A number five picked himself up and staggered over to the information stream. He placed his hands in the fluid and his eyes lost focus for a moment.

"We have lost nine basestars and the remaining eleven are badly damaged."

Cavil slammed his fist into a wall and felt several bones break from the impact, "Frak! Frak frak frak frak frak!" He walked over and punched the five in the face, knocking him out cold. He then put his hands into the stream and sure enough, the information was accurate. Their basestars had suffered almost 50% casualties and their raiders were all but gone. Where the frak were the reinforcements? He sent an inquiry to the commander of the reserve force and got a quick response; they were under heavy attack and needed immediate assistance! Frak! Cavil took a deep breath, and then ordered his surviving ships to jump back to the reserve force.

When they arrived, they found the resurrection ship destroyed and only three of the basestars still functional. They were being assaulted by a Jupiter class battlestar, an Odin class battlestar and two Firehawk class Strikestars. As the Cylons ships deployed to assist, the Colonials gathered their Vipers and jumped away.

Cavil stood fuming in his wrecked command center. I frakking hate humans, he thought. Next time, we bring every frakking basestar we have. He turned as a Six walked into the room and typically, his eyes drifted down her scantily clad body, taking in the lovely sight. He paused when he noticed the gun in her hand and watched fascinated as it rose and found himself staring down the barrel.

"Just what the frak do you think you're doing sister?"

"Don't sister me Cavil! This is your doing, all your fault! Thousands of us dead, a dozen more ships lost in your never ending crusade to wipe out humanity! We have had enough," she then pulled the trigger. Cavil's body hit the floor, his brains hit the wall.

Six turned, "you can all stop cowering and come in now. He's dead. And with the resurrection ship destroyed, he won't be coming back."

The other Cylon models slowly walked into the command center. Six put the gun away and immediately began issuing orders for the fleet to regroup and prepare to jump away to conduct repairs. Then she sent scouts to covertly watch the Colonials. She had no intention of engaging them again until necessary. But, the chase had to continue, they needed to find Earth and the Colonials were the key.

Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75), Port hangar deck

Bill Adama and Laura Roslin stood together, waiting for the Raptor to arrive. Bill was a bit nervous, he hadn't seen Helena in years and since they were now the same rank, he hoped there wouldn't be any friction with her over command of the fleet.

As if sensing his thoughts, "Don't worry Bill. You are the commander of this Fleet, I'll promote you to whatever rank is necessary to ensure it."

Adama chuckled, she was getting entirely too good at that little trick. "I appreciate that, Madame President."

She grinned for moment and then got serious, "Any word on the Polaris?"

Bill frowned and shook his head, "No and there was almost no debris at the impact site. We are sure that she jumped away at the last moment. We've sent Raptors out to look for her, but so far nothing."

Just then, a Raptor came rolling in and slid quietly into its parking spot. The hatch opened, and standing there was Rear Admiral Helena Cain, with a huge smile on her face.

Bill walked over as Chief Tyrol called out, "Attention on deck! Now arriving, Commander Pegasus!"

He offered her a hand as she stepped down and she grabbed it and pulled him into a hug. Then she let go and pulled back, "Gods damn it, it's so good to see you Bill!"

He smiled, "You too Helena. You have no idea. Thanks for arriving just in the nick of time, as always."

"You always did need rescuing Bill, but that's what friends are for," she said with a smile.

Bill turned, "Madame President, I'd like to introduce you to Rear Admiral Helena Cain of the Pegasus.

Helena turned and offered her hand to Roslin, "Madame President, it's an honor to meet you."

Roslin smiled and shook her hand, "You too Admiral, Bill has told me a lot about you. He tells me you two are cousins?"

"Second cousins yes, and hopefully Bill hasn't sullied my reputation too much with his tall tales. Congrats on the promotions by the way, to the both of you. Oh, and in case you're worried Bill, you're the senior officer and I will defer to you as the fleet commander, I have a bit of time in grade on you, but you definitely have the time in service Old Fella," she grinned. Roslin laughed out loud abruptly and then quickly put a hand over her mouth, blushing furiously.

Bill sighed, "If you two are done having fun at my expense? I believe we have a lot to discuss." He turned and walked out of the hangar deck, the two women following and trying not to laugh.

XXXXXX

Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75), Admiral's Quarters

Bill opened the hatch and stepped into his quarters, Laura and Helena following close behind, and once they were inside, Bill closed and locked the hatch. He turned to the two women.

"Have a seat ladies, can I get either of you a drink?"

They both sat and both nodded that they would like a drink. Bill poured three glasses of ambrosia and after handing the other two their drinks, took his own and grabbed a seat.

Helena leaned forward, and looked at each of the other two, "Let me say again, just how happy I am to see you both and that we were able to find your fleet. It's a miracle you brought so many out."

Bill smiled and nodded, "We got very lucky."

Laura looked over at Helena, "So Admiral, perhaps you would be willing to catch us up on what you have been through since the fall?"

Helena leaned back in her seat and nodded, "Call me Helena and it's a long story Madame President."

"Call me Laura and we appear to have some time, we are currently searching for a battlestar that we believe jumped away during the fight with the Cylons. I don't intend to leave without them. And, we are resuming our exploration of Kobol. So, the Fleet will be shifting to a new area, but we won't be leaving this sector for some time yet."

"You found Kobol?"

Laura nodded, "Actually, Kevin Travers and the Polaris did during their long range exploratory cruise."

Cain nodded thoughtfully, "Well, then I guess I'll have to bring you up to speed on what we've been up to..."

**Flashback**

Battlestar Pegasus (BSG-63), on approach to Scorpion Fleet Yards

(1 day before the Fall)

The Pegasus glided forward, maneuvering slightly to adjust her angle to line up with her assigned docking slip. After a long patrol, the Pegasus was being given a series of upgrades, after which, she would lead an exploratory group out to survey two previously unexplored sectors.

CIC was a bustle of activity, in the center of it all Rear Admiral Helena Cain stood calmly watching the DRADIS screens.

"Helm adjust bow angle .5 degrees up and begin braking maneuver. Stand by to engage moorings and docking clamps."

A chorus of acknowledgements rang out and the mighty battlestar slowed and finally eased gently into her slip and a few moments later, the mooring cables and docking clamps had attached themselves and the ship was secured.

Cain picked up the handset and clicked for all call, "Crew of the Pegasus, this is your Admiral. After a long patrol, we have returned home safely and I wanted to let you all know how very proud I am of each and every one of you for the outstanding dedication and performance you have shown. You truly are the best in the Fleet," she paused a moment as a chorus of cheers broke out. "As you know, we will begin a 3 month refit in 2 days, at which time; all of you will be granted leave to go see your friends and family. You have all earned it, Cain out."

She hung up the handset and nodded to the cheering crewmen. She looked over at her XO and gave him a smile. "Well Jurgen, ready to go visit the wife and kids?"

He nodded enthusiastically, "The girls are getting big and I'm really looking forward to spending some time with them. You should swing by and visit Helena."

She smiled, "I'll do that. The only other thing I had on my plate was going to visit Bill. It's a damn shame they are pushing him out. He would make one hell of an Admiral." She frowned for a moment, then shook her head, "I want to set up a series of FTL exercises, coordinate with the Hemera, so we can get an idea of our current efficiency ratings. Then we will have a baseline to compare the new CNP capabilities to. We'll start tomorrow, say around 0900?"

Belzen nodded and she turned to head out, "You have the conn Jurgen."

Battlestar Pegasus (BSG-63), CIC

(The day of the Fall)

Helena Cain woke at 0700, got in her morning run, reviewed some reports and had breakfast, then headed to CIC around 0850. When she arrived, her crew was in place and ready. She nodded in satisfaction.

"Let's begin, coordinate with the Hemera, I want a series of jumps plotted. We'll do the jump calculations, and Hemera will verify accuracy.

Two hours later, they were working on their fifth jump plot exercise with the Hemera. So far, Cain was extremely pleased, their efficiency rating was sitting at around 97%, not much below what the CNP was purported to deliver. For this jump, they had included the Jupiter class battlestar Europa, the Odin class battlestar Freyja and the Firehawk class Gunstars Myrmidon and Athenia, in order to test their ability to not only calculate the jump, but to distribute the coordinates quickly to other ships. Each of the ships had been chosen because they had yet to be upgraded with the new CNP systems. As they sent the new coordinates, a series of unidentified small craft appeared on the DRADIS.

"Admiral, multiple DRADIS contacts, no active transponders and no matches in the warbook!"

Cain studied the DRADIS for a moment, "Set Condition One, sound actions stations, have the other ships do likewise. Disconnect the moorings and docking clamps and ease us out of our slip helm."

As the klaxons went off announcing the alert, Cain watched the DRADIS as her ship backed out, and the other ships she had been coordinating with did the same.

"Radiological alarm! Those ships are carrying nukes and they're hot!"

"Contact the shipyard, tell them to begin evacuating now! Jurgen, get our birds in the air! Nav, keep that last jump locked in and have the other ships do so as well, in case we need to get out of here to regroup."

On the station, there was a frenzy of activity as shuttles and Vipers launched and the dormant battlestars began to come to life to protect the Colonies. But, they weren't fast enough.

A wave of nukes swept out from the unidentified ships and slammed into the station, ripping it apart and destroying the battlestars that were still tethered to it. Another battlestar, that hadn't gotten far enough away was hit by a massive piece of the station and torn in half.

Cain watched the screen, her face calm though she was quietly crying on the inside. "I don't think there's any doubt who our attackers are now, classify them as Cylons. Order all surviving ships to form up and get their vipers launched. Let's see if we can take them out."

"Admiral!"

"What is it Mr. Hoshi?"

"Picon HQ just sent out a message in the clear!" He ran over and handed her the printout. She looked at the message, it read: This is Picon Fleet Headquarters to all Colonial Fleet Units, Cylon attack under way. This is no drill.

She handed the message to her XO. He read it and snorted, "No shit? Looks like HQ is on the ball as always."

She nodded grimly, "Have all Fleet elements engage."

As she gave the order, there were a series of flashes and a group of new icons appeared.

"Multiple DRADIS contacts, by size and configuration, they have to be baseships! They're launching Raiders!"

The two forces moved to engage each other, they were roughly matched in numbers. But, as they closed, something began happening to the Colonial warships.

"Admiral, I'm getting reports of shutdowns, widespread power failures. The Cylons seem to be able to shut us down!"

She turned, "Disconnect the network now! Launch evac shuttles to start recovering as many personnel as we can from the ships that are dead. Helm, move us in between the Cylons and those ships!"

The Pegasus surged forward and along with the other ships in her group, rolled to present her back the Cylons and immediately began an enemy suppression barrage, putting up a wall of flak to protect the rescue operations and to buy time to try and get the disabled battlestars moving again.

"Target main batteries on their central axis. Make sure our vipers stay out of our solution. Stand by to launch nukes."

The Cylons continued to close, the resistance was unexpected, but not overwhelming, the Cylons now had a clear edge in numbers. As they closed, the baseships were still grouped up, seemingly unconcerned about the damage the Colonials were inflicting. Cain was determined to make them pay for that arrogance.

"Target our nukes on the three central baseships and have the Hemera and Freyja do the same. We'll put a full barrage of missiles into them and hopefully the explosions and debris will take out a few more."

The Cylons had ceased their advance and were now firing wave after wave of missiles, attempting to overwhelm the defenses of the beleaguered battlestars. Each of Cain's ships had taken a few hits, but all were still in the fight. The Cylons were now sitting in a cluster, just lobbing missiles, she smiled, apparently advanced combat tactics had not been included with the hardware upgrades.

"Fire all nuke and conventional tubes and have all other ships do the same. If we overwhelm them, some should get through."

A wave of missiles shot out from the Colonial ships and as they sped in, it quickly became apparent the Cylons hadn't bothered to include missile defenses. Their Raiders broke off and made desperate runs in to try and protect their baseships, but as they disengaged, they were cut down by the Colonial Viper forces. The nuclear missiles swept in and several hit the central nexus of each of the three baseships in the center of the Cylon formation. They exploded spectacularly, throwing off massive chunks of debris that inflicted massive damage on the ships around them. The Cylons had started the battle with 12 baseships, they now had 6 remaining, all of which had heavy damage. The Colonial warships continued their assault, battering the surviving baseships mercilessly. A moment later, another baseship exploded taking another with it. The surviving four jumped away.

The Pegasus and her group held position, guarding the rescue operations while the colonial vipers destroyed the remaining Raiders. In CIC, Helena Cain drew a deep breath and felt herself relax a bit as the last of the Raiders died and the DRADIS was again clear of enemies.

"I need a report on status of all local assets and we need to get in touch with HQ," she said turning and looking at her staff. Colonel Belzen and Major Fisk both nodded and immediately moved to get her the information she wanted and to make contact with HQ if possible. Helena studied the DRADIS in silence, willing the evac teams to hurry. She knew the Cylons would come back in force and the Colonial Fleet would have to fall back. Just then, Jurgen Belzen came back over, a grim expression on his face. He leaned in close.

"It's bad Helena," he whispered. "Over half the fleet is destroyed or missing presumed destroyed and the Cylons seem to be just shutting off any unit they meet and then they take their time blowing them apart. We have confirmation that Nagala assumed command, but the Atlantia has been destroyed. That would make you the senior officer in the field at this point." She nodded grimly and Belzen continued," They have also started nuking the Colonies. There are reports of nuclear detonations on every Colony world."

"They mean to exterminate us," she whispered. "This isn't a war, its genocide." She quickly studied the display. "Send out Raptor scouts and shuttles, gather all civilian traffic they can find and send teams to the nearest planets and coordinate evac. Tell them to make finding Tylium ships a priority. All civilian ships are to jump immediately to the fallback point." Belzen nodded and she continued," I want as many personnel as possible off those battlestars and I want to take as many missiles both nuke and conventional as we can off as well. We can build more, but it requires resources we may have trouble obtaining." Belzen nodded and quickly moved off to carry out the orders. A few minutes later, Fisk came over to her and handed her a message printout.

To All Colonial Units,

Am taking command of the fleet. All surviving units to fall back to Ragnar Anchorage for regroup and counter-attack.

Commander William Adama

BSG75 Galactica.

Helena smiled, at least Bill was still giving them hell, though she couldn't imagine how since Galactica was unarmed. She looked at Fisk.

"We can't raise anyone, the Cylons seem to be jamming this area somehow. We can break through locally, but right after that transmission came in, we lost all long-range communications," he said.

Helena frowned, "And all our Raptors and shuttles are off looking for survivors and gathering munitions. As soon as we can, we'll break a Raptor away to jump to Ragnar and let Bill know we are still in the fight."

Over the next few hours, the Pegasus and her fleet gathered together what they could, and finally jumped to Ragnar only to find a great deal of Cylon wreckage and few destroyed Vipers.

In CIC, Helena Cain studied the DRADIS for a moment, then looked down and listened to the reports of her senior staff.

"….Ragnar Station has now been completely emptied," Fisk was saying, "we took everything that the Galactica didn't. We also drained the station's Tylium reserves and took every useful component and part we could," Fisk reported.

Helena turned to Jurgen. He smiled, "The Galactica and her fleet definitely got away. Based on the encrypted log buoy we recovered, our assumption is that they jumped towards Prolmar, out past the red line. The data was a bit corrupted as the buoy was damaged. But, we are reasonably certain. If we do go though, we have several damaged ships and we'll have to take it in stages."

Cain nodded, "Begin plotting a series of jumps to take us out past the red line to Prolmar, and I want Raptor scouts deployed every time we re-emerge to search for signs of the Galactica Fleet. Have the fleet ready for jump and begin spinning their FTLs, as soon as the first jump calculations are done, we go."

Her staff nodded and moved off, and she returned to studying the DRADIS, and going over what she had learned. They knew that Laura Roslin was now president after the activation of Case Orange. They knew that Galactica, and very large fleet had escaped the colonies and headed towards the Prolmar sector, and she hoped that her cousin was out there waiting for her.

A few minutes later, Pegasus and her fleet flashed out of existence, jumping away towards Prolmar.

**End Flashback**

Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75), Admiral's Quarters

"….and so, here we are," Helena said. "We had a number of close calls, but luckily the Cylons were kind enough to keep us pointed in the right direction. We have been tracking their fleet since we left the colonies. Two weeks after we left the Cyrannus system, we happened upon a Comm Relay and after we took it, we managed to get a full update on their fleet deployments, their communications protocols and the general location of your fleet and the ships tracking it. It allowed us to cut ahead and get here sooner. I don't think the Cylons know that we have their comm protocols yet, so it could still be a major advantage. I'm just glad we caught up to you. Though, if you hadn't stopped here at Kobol, it might have taken us a few more months to catch up."

Bill smiled," I think I can safely say that everyone here is very glad you found us too Helena."

Laura nodded," Definitely. Now, if you two will excuse me, I need to see to getting the civilian government fully reintegrated and make sure that the civilian ships are all taken care of and I want to see if I can assist with search for the Polaris in any way. I'll leave you two to catch up." She stood, with both Admirals following suit and Bill walked her to the hatch and spoke quietly to her for a moment. Then he turned and walked back over and sat looking at his cousin for a moment.

"So…," he started, "here we are."

Helena laughed, "Indeed. Eloquent as always Bill. I never understood why our family has so much trouble talking to each other, when we have no trouble talking to and leading total strangers. Speaking of which, I heard Lee is aboard….," she paused. "How are you two getting along?"

He smiled, "We've made our peace. I guess the end of the worlds is all it takes for Adama's to mend their differences."

Helena chuckled and shook her head, "Typical. So, what's the plan? Where are we headed?"

He grimaced, "Earth, we're hoping that Kobol will lead us there, or at least get us headed in the right direction."

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65) CIC: Second Battle of Kobol (8 hours ago)

"Commodore, inbound nukes!" shouted Frost.

Travers turned, "Navigation, give me an emergency jump now!" He turned, "Comms have our Vipers get clear! Karl, sound collision alarm!"

As his orders were carried out, Travers watched the missiles on the DRADIS.

"Jump plotted!"

"Jump!" Travers screamed just as the first missile hit.

The first missile collided with the ship on her bow, leaving a gaping, blackened hole in her armor, but otherwise doing little external damage. The hit caused a surge in the ships systems that coincided with the activation of her jump drive. The mighty ship vanished unseen in the bright flash of the nuclear detonation and the proximity detonations of the other four missiles just after she jumped.

The ship emerged more or less in one piece and a massive groan went through the hull indicating she had suffered and thankfully survived, a great deal of structural stress during the jump.

In CIC, everyone was picking themselves up off the floor. It had been a very rough jump. Travers managed to climb to his feet. The DRADIS was blank and the consoles throughout CIC were sparking and flickering. He turned and helped his acting XO up.

"Karl, I need a full damage and casualty report." Agathon nodded and moved off and Travers stepped over to Lt Frost at the Nav console. "Lt Frost, I need a position report."

Frost didn't look up, "Working on it sir. There was some kind of surge though our systems when the nuke hit, it did something to the jump drive and we are not where we're supposed to be. I am coordinating with Astrometrics to determine our location now."

Travers shoulders sagged, he nodded, "Keep me apprised Lt." Travers stepped away and headed over to speak to his acting XO.

"Still waiting for reports from several departments Commodore, but we seem to be in pretty good shape overall, mostly minor damage caused by the power surge and the rough jump. A team from engineering is going out to survey the external damage from the nuke we took. And I have a Raptor on standby to head out and check the immediate area."

"Good, do we have any Vipers on board?"

"Yes sir, two squadrons were aboard for combat rearm when we jumped."

Travers nodded, only a third of their Viper complement, but at least they had some teeth. Hopefully, they wouldn't need them. Now they just had to figure where the hell they were and how to get back to the Fleet.

XXXXXX

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65), Location Unknown (Present time)

Commodore Travers walked tiredly into CIC, trading hellos with his staff and gratefully accepting the cup of coffee offered by his yeoman. He stepped over to the situation table where his acting XO stood, looking as tired as Travers felt.

"Morning, Karl."

"Commodore, we're making good progress on repairs, drive systems and weapons are fully operational, but DRADIS is still down and we're still having issues pinpointing where we are. Astrometrics is still working with Lt. Frost to try and plot our location." Karl turned and handed him a sheet of paper, "Initial Raptor surveys are complete. We are in a star system and there is a Kobol class planet, third out from the system primary, about seven hours away at sublight. Long range observations and Raptor sweeps show numerous ruins on the surface, looks like someone used to live here."

"Acknowledged, go see Sharon and grab some rack time, Karl. You've more than earned it."

The younger man nodded gratefully, saluted and turned and hurried out of CIC. Travers studied the report for moment and then turned back the situation table.

"Helm, alter course towards the third planet, maintain current speed. Comms, notify Raptors to maintain DRADIS lookout for us, have the CAP adjust their patrols to stay with the ship. "

The helmsman and comm. operator acknowledged their orders and the ship shifted direction, her sublights flaring briefly as she altered course. Travers sipped his coffee; it was going to be a long day.

Cylon Command Baseship, two light years from Kobol

The Six known as Caprica, who had gained hero status for her role in the fall of the 12 Colonies, and more recently for assassinating that moron Cavil, strode calmly down a corridor, heading for the command center. She walked into the bustling nerve center of the Cylon warship and moved over to the Four who was currently in command.

"I relieve you. Fleet status?"

"The ship has been fully repaired, along with five other baseships. We had to strip down two others to be able to complete the repairs. They and the other ships we could not repair have been scuttled and their crews redistributed to the remaining ships."

Caprica sighed, that zealous idiot had wasted far too many resources. The smart play would have been to follow, attacking judiciously, nudging as needed to keep the humans moving, till they found Earth, then destroy them and claim the world for their own. Now, the Colonials had a decisive tactical advantage, even with the suspected loss of Polaris and frankly, she wasn't sure she believed the ship was destroyed. She nodded to the Four, "Enjoy your rest cycle."

He smiled and nodded, then turned and left. Caprica pondered for a moment and then turned to the Eight manning the information stream, "Any word from our recon craft?"

"Last report showed the Colonials consolidating the new ships into their fleet and they have resumed exploration of Kobol."

Caprica nodded, "Good, we can hardly expect them to find Earth if they don't. I want them monitored, but no engagements without my approval." The Eight nodded and her eyes lost focus for a moment as she dispatched the orders. When she tuned back in, Caprica asked, "Any word on our request for additional ships?"

Eight grimaced, "Central Command has denied our request for additional resources. Apparently they are having much more difficulty with the survivors in the Colonies than was originally anticipated. They are now facing an organized resistance and say that they simply don't have the ships to spare."

Caprica nodded, "I told them when we started this quest that it was madness to underestimate the humans. For all the good it did any of us. Continue to monitor communications and keep me apprised of Colonial activities." Eight nodded, and her eyes lost focus again as she delved back into the information stream.

Caprica sighed, she had not really expected central command to send reinforcements, but she had hoped they would. Oh well, she would adapt. One way or another, Earth would become the new home of the Cylon race.

Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75), Medbay

Colonel Lee Adama was in a foul mood. Despite the comforting presence of Kara nearby, he was still trapped in bed by his injuries and someone had let slip that his ship had been nuked and had vanished during the last battle. Kara sat watching him calmly, with a bit of smirk on her face. He sighed, she could never take anything seriously, well, he amended, almost nothing. She was very serious about flying, drinking, card playing and recently, about him. He almost let a smile slip at that thought, but he contained it.

"Lee, are you gonna lay there in a pissy mood all day? Maybe I could do something to cheer you up?" As she said this, she waggled her eyebrows at him and grinned widely and very suggestively.

He couldn't help it, he smiled, "Dammit, I'm trying to be pissed off here, Kara."

"And failing miserably, by the sounds of it."

Kara turned and jumped to her feet, snapping to attention, "Admiral Cain!"

"At ease Major, before you strain something," she smiled and turned to Lee and leaned in to give him a careful hug. "Hey kiddo, miss me?"

Lee smirked as Kara's jaw dropped open. He returned the hug and looked at Helena closely, he hadn't seen her since Zak's funeral. As always, she looked fit, and younger than her years. "You know I did, how's my favorite cousin?"

Kara was now looking back and forth between them with a sort of stunned expression on her face. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Admiral Adama standing next to her, "Kara Thrace, meet Helena Cain, my cousin on my father's side."

Cain straightened and gave the younger woman a bright smile, "Pleased to meet the most infamous pilot in the Fleet since Bill."

Bill chuckled at this and Kara blushed. "Pleasure to meet you too, Admiral."

"Helena, when we're together like this, I know both of these louts consider you family and that's good enough for me."

"Most folks call me Starbuck, but Kara is also good."

Bill smiled, "now that that's out of the way, you two wanted to speak to me?"

Kara looked at Lee and then turned and flashed a brilliant smile at the man that she had come to think of as a father and held up her left hand, showing off the ring on her third finger. Bill smiled and grabbed her in a hug and then turned to his son, "It's about frakking time, son."

Lee shook his head and smiled, "I know dad, I was always a bit slow on the emotional front, inherited that from you I guess."

Helena laughed out loud at this, "Damn right you did kid, that's a signature Adama family trait. Congratulations to you both." She gave Lee another brief hug, then turned and pulled Kara into a brief hug as well. "So, where's Cottle, I know that grouchy old bastard has some booze stashed in here somewhere right? This calls for a drink!"

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65), in orbit of the unknown planet

Travers stood in CIC, watching the DRADIS screens. Thankfully, the DRADIS had come back up about halfway through their journey to the planet. His crew was bustling about, scanning the surface and surrounding space, watching for potential threats as the ship orbited the planet.

"There is a great deal of debris in orbit, Commodore. We have found evidence of early space travel technology, satellites, rockets and various other bits and pieces. We have also found what looks like a low tech space station. Still no signs of signal activity from the surface," he said, "no power signatures and no signs of active habitation. Everything just looks… abandoned." Frost completed the brief and looked over at the Commodore.

"This is just like that planet we found during the exploration mission four years ago," Travers said. "Another abandoned world, with plenty of industrial and technical resources. Where the frak did they go?"

Helo leaned forward and tapped the aerial survey reports, "Aerial surveys show no bodies on the streets, or in the vehicles or in any windows we've been able to see. It's all very strange. I'd recommend putting a team on the surface and enter a few buildings."

Travers frowned and then nodded. "Very well, Karl, but I want them in sealed suits the whole time, no exceptions and everyone is to have their sidearms out at all times." As Helo moved off to issues orders to the Raptor teams, Travers turned to Frost, "Any progress on figuring out where we are, Lt?"

Frost nodded, "Yes sir, we have an approximate location and expect to have our exact location in relation to the fleet later today. Our current estimates suggest that we will need to make 8 to 10 jumps to get back to Kobol, sir."

Travers felt his jaw drop at that statement, "8 to 10 jumps? Frak, we're lucky that didn't burn out our jumpdrive, that's way beyond maximum design range."

Frost nodded, "Yes sir, but then again, the engineers were always very conservative and a part of the reason is because our nav plot capabilities are limited beyond a certain range."

Travers nodded, "Very well, carry on Lt. And pass on to your team, well done."

The young man smiled gratefully and moved off to get back to work. Travers turned back to the DRADIS and barely stopped a sigh from escaping, 8 to 10 jumps?

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65), CIC, two days later

Travers stood looking down at the tiny device in his hand. It was of alien origin and had been found in what had appeared to be a government research facility on the planet below. But, it was significantly more advanced than the local tech, hell, if he was being honest; it was more advanced than Colonial Tech, even from before the First Cylon War. He sat it back on the plot table, next to two others much like it.

"So, what exactly are these things and what do they do?" Travers asked.

As he spoke, almost as if in answer to his question, a light began blinking on each of the objects and they slid together, binding into a single piece and leapt into the air, spinning just below the DRADIS array. Everyone backed away from the console, except for Travers, who stood watching the device as it spun, his eyes blank.

Travers suddenly found himself standing in a large, open white space, with a sort of soft, luminescent glow all around. He looked around, wondering how the hell he had gotten here and what had happened to his ship and crew.

"Be at ease Kevin Travers, your ship and crew are fine, you stand among them even now. This communication is in your mind. The device you found, has made it possible for us to speak."

Travers spun, and found a figure standing behind him, the figure, bathed in white light, slowly resolved into something Travers was not prepared for.

"Zeus…?"

"Yes child, I was known to your kind as Zeus, Leader of the Lords of Kobol. We have watched you over these past millennia, feeling great pride in your many successes and mourning your many failures. You are our children. But, while Kobol was our world, it was not yours. Humanity stems from another world, which you call Earth. We were much like you once, but we ascended long ago, to the next level of existence, but before that, we seeded many worlds, hoping that one day, life would spring forth and come to join us among the stars. When humanity was born, we rejoiced and created a great city. This city was called Atlantis, there we taught you and loved you as our children. But, as with all children, you began to chafe at our attention and rebelled, attempting to surpass us, as all children do with their parents, through your efforts… you gave rise to the First Cylons… thus beginning a cycle that has repeated over and again, for millennia. Every time the cycle ends in the near destruction of man and the learning of a bitter lesson. We took the survivors of the war that destroyed Atlantis and relocated you to Kobol. Unfortunately, the lesson never seems to stick and you keep repeating this cycle. But, enough of that, I have come to tell you, events are in motion, this cycle is the last, you must assure the survival of humanity. The key to your salvation is Earth and the map to Earth… is on Kobol. You must hurry back there, for time is short and events may quickly move to outpace you."

Travers, reeling from the information, felt the world begin to shift, "Wait!" The shift paused, "Can't you help us? If we are your children?"

Zeus smiled at him, "My child, I wish that it were that simple, but we are bound by rules that you could not understand, suffice it to say, our interference on Kobol did not help matters, only made them worse and ended up in an Exodus much like the one you are on now. This time, you must solve the problem yourselves, even this much help is technically forbidden, but… you are our children."

"But, what about the people of the world we found… do you know what happened to them?"

"They, like you, were our children and they have moved on, now go my child, time is short, if you wish to save your race, then you must go… now."

The world faded back into view, and Travers found himself in CIC, his officers standing around him, worried expressions on their faces. Travers gave them all a reassuring smile.

"Karl, recall all teams from the surface, we have to get back to the Fleet."

A short time later, Kevin Travers stood calmly watching as his crew raced about, carrying out his commands. He turned as his acting XO stepped up beside him.

"All scout teams have returned and the CAP is back aboard Commodore."

Travers smiled, "Excellent Karl, begin jump prep." As Agathon moved away, Travers turned and moved over to the tactical station, "Lt Frost?"

"First jump is plotted and we have rough plots for jumps two and three that we will be able to quickly update."

Travers nodded, "Keep up the good work son."

Returning to the master situation table, Travers grabbed the handset and keyed for all call, "This is Commodore Travers, in a few moments we will begin our journey back to the Fleet. It is essential we return as soon as possible. Continue to do your best, watch out for each other and we will all get through this, Travers out."

Agathon returned a moment later, "Jump prep complete sir, board shows green. We are ready to jump."

Travers nodded, "Jump"

A moment later, the massive battlestar vanished in a flash of light.

XXXXXX

From the personal Logs of Admiral William Adama, Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75)

The Polaris has been missing for six days now. Despite the arrival of the Pegasus Fleet, morale is low. The Polaris and her young commanding officer are a pillar in our space borne community. With their disappearance, fear has risen amongst the populous, the prevailing fear being… if the Cylons can destroy the most powerful ship we have so easily, what chance do the rest of us have? Laura, Helena and I have been working non-stop in conjunction with the Quorum to combat these fears, but I truly believe that only a miracle at this point, like finding the road to Earth would truly raise Fleet morale.

The Pegasus Fleet has been fully integrated and the addition of three battlestars and two strikestars gives us a considerable boost in combat capability and reduces the strain on our armed forces a bit. The majority of the damage from the Second Battle of Kobol has been repaired, though all of our warships are still a bit worse for wear. Lee has finally been released from Medbay and has been assigned to the Battlestar Freyja as commanding officer as she lost her commander during the attack on the Cylon Reserve fleet. He is handling his new duties well, though I expected nothing less. We all continue to pray that somehow, the Polaris will show up and we will all continue on to Earth and find some peace and safety at last… So say we all.

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-65) – CIC

Kevin Travers stood watching the DRADIS intently. The trip back to the Fleet had begun simply enough, but after successfully completing jump number two, they had encountered a Cylon scout ship. Before they could react it had jumped away and a baseship had jumped in moments later. While they had managed to drive the baseship away, it had managed to inflict damage to the Polaris's main engines and FTL drive. They had been attacked after each subsequent jump and Travers and his crew were still mystified as to how they were being tracked so closely. With each engagement, his ship took a bit more damage and it became that much harder to drive off the Cylons and jump away. They had been fighting a running battle for nearly three days now and everyone on the ship was exhausted.

"Commodore, multiple DRADIS contacts! Detecting one… two… now four Cylon baseships! They are launching Raiders!"

Travers sighed, "Status of the jumpdrive?"

"Functional… though only just barely sir."

Looking up at the DRADIS, Travers made his decision, "Jump!"

In space, a wave of missiles swept out from each baseship, all headed towards the badly damaged Polaris. At the last moment, just before impact, the massive battlestar jumped away, disappearing in a flash of light that was obscured by the multiple nuclear detonations in her former location.

A moment later, she reappeared, her desperate jump successful. In CIC, consoles were sparking and a massive groan rang through the very frame of the ship.

Travers managed to pull himself back to his feet, "Report!"

"Jump complete, though we barely made it. FTL is now offline, main engines as well. In fact, everything except life support is offline sir."

Travers cursed, "Frak! Karl, tell engineering that the FTL is their only priority! Tell them to pull whatever resources and personnel they need, but I want that jumpdrive online in ten minutes!"

A sputtering hiss drew everyone's attention and surprisingly, the DRADIS monitors flickered back to life and telltale noise of a standard sweep filled the silence of the CIC.

Turning, Travers saw a grinning Frost, "I managed to get the DRADIS back online sir."

Shaking his head, Travers couldn't help but grin back at the enthusiasm of the much younger man, "Outstanding Lt when we get back you are getting promoted, a week's leave and the best suite on the Cloud 9, on me!"

"Commodore!"

"What is it Karl?"

His acting XO looked up, "Unknown DRADIS contact sir, at extreme range."

Looking at the monitors, Travers frowned, "Oh no…"

Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75) – In orbit of Kobol

William Adama stood in CIC, calmly watching as his crew went about their business. They had returned to Kobol just a few hours previous and were conducting an extensive in atmosphere sweep spiraling out from the ancient city in an effort to find the Tomb of Athena. On the DRADIS, the Gunstars Fury and Broadsword were in screening positions, far enough out to give maximum DRADIS coverage of the system in an effort to prevent surprises. So far, there had been no sign of the Cylons, but he did not expect that to last.

"Admiral!"

"What is it Dee?"

"Team 4 reports they have found something sir! They believe it may be the Tomb!"

Adama nodded, "Inform the President and have a Raptor prepared. I want a full squadron of Vipers on air cover the entire time she is off this ship."

As his orders were acknowledged, Bill sighed and wished once again he had been able to talk Laura out of going down to Kobol, but she would not be dissuaded. Well, he could not stop her, but he would everything in his power to make sure she was safe.

Raptor 074 – President's Party: Kobol Expedition

Laura Roslin sat in one of the jump seats on the Raptor, thinking over the upcoming trial and her conversation with Elosha, her spiritual advisor about what they might face as they tried to access the Tomb and once they were inside.

In the Raptor along with them, was a six man squad of elite marines, handpicked to protect her. And the Raptor was being piloted by none other than Major Kara Thrace. Bill had certainly pulled out the stops for her protection, in formation around them, six Vipers flew close formation and the remainder of the squadron was dispersed at stacked intervals to keep watch for any signs of danger from above or below.

Finally, the Raptor landed with only the slightest bump and everyone unbelted and began moving.

Starbuck spoke up as she turned to leave the cockpit, "Madame President, I put us down about a half hours walk from the location where Team 4 located the Tomb. This is as close as I can get us and still be able to land. Sorry ma'am."

Roslin smiled, "Major, there is nothing to apologize for; a little fresh air will do us good. And to walk the paths our ancient ancestors once walked… I believe this will be something we will all remember for the rest of our lives."

The Marines exited first, quickly sweeping out and clearing the area, when they finally called clear, the President, Elosha and Starbuck exited the Raptor. Starbuck drew her sidearm and stood protectively near the President while the Marines formed a loose circle around them, eyes searching every direction.

Laura sighed, "Well, let's get going shall we?"

A half hour later, the party finally stood near the Gates of Hera. There were now an additional six Marines with them, Team 4, who had discovered the location of the Tomb. The group proceeded through the ruins of the Gates and on towards the Tomb. A while later, they stood before it, four Marines, moved forward and working together, managed to push the massive stone door open enough for them pass. A pair slipped inside, and quickly cleared it. When they stepped back out, both wore expressions of awe.

Roslin stepped forward, flashlight in hand and with Starbuck and Elosha, proceeded into the Tomb. Inside, in a circle around the chamber lay massive sarcophagi, each with a massive statue representing one of the twelve Lords of Kobol. Each held a banner and a weapon, though the statue for Sagittaron was missing something. Pulling the Arrow, Starbuck stepped forward and fitted it neatly into the empty slot on the statue. A low rumbling filled the chamber and suddenly everything around them changed. Activating the camera she was carrying, Starbuck took careful recordings of the sky and the land around them. She easily recognized the Lagoon Nebula, though the other constellations seemed to be reversed… suddenly it hit her like a hammer, they were looking at the sky as it would be seen FROM Earth.

She turned and from their wide eyed expressions, she could tell the other two were still deep in awe at what they were experiencing. Quickly, she moved to join them.

"Madame President, we're standing ON Earth, this sky… the perspective is wrong from our view, but if we assume Earth is on the other side of the Lagoon Nebula in a fairly straight line… the constellations would be reversed and that means we are now standing on a representation of Earth and seeing the sky from their perspective. We now have our map and compass!"

"Thank the Gods," Elosha spoke.

"Indeed my friends, though I would say we still have a long journey ahead of us," she glanced at Starbuck who nodded, "we now know the way and that the journey is possible. Let's get back to the Fleet."

XXXXXX

From the personal Logs of Admiral William Adama, Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75)

The Polaris has now been missing for just over nine days. With the path to Earth now determined we are beginning jump calculations. I am holding the jump as long as possible, having all ships undergo an engineering review and refuel prior to beginning the next stage of our quest. Most have given up hope that the Polaris will return, but I know Kevin Travers and if there is even the slightest chance, he will bring his ship back.

The engineering review and refueling will be completed in two days. At that time I will have no choice but to continue on. If the Lords are listening, hear our prayer and bring our lost friends and family back to us… so say we all.

11 days after the Second Battle of Kobol

Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75) – CIC

"Admiral, the engineering review of the fleet is finished, all ships are serviceable and fully fueled."

Bill Adama gave a weary sigh, "Thank you Mr. Gaeta, please ensure that jump coordinates have been distributed and have all ships stand by to commence jump sequence on my command."

The young man nodded and hurried off and Bill turned to see his XO watching him, "It's not your fault Bill. Travers is a good kid, if he could have come back, he would have."

Adama nodded, "I know Saul, but that doesn't make it any easier."

"Admiral, we have two unknown DRADIS contacts!"

"Dammit! Sound action stations, set condition one throughout the fleet! Have the civilians spin up their FTLs…"

"Sir, one of the contacts is the Polaris!"

Adama's jaw dropped open in shock for a moment, then he quickly recovered himself, "Confirm that Dee, issue hostile challenge!"

Dee spoke again a few moments later, "Confirmed sir, it's definitely Polaris! They're signaling."

A cheer sounded through the CIC and Bill felt a weight lift from his shoulders. "Patch it through, Dee."

"Galactica Actual from Polaris Actual, sorry we're late, we got a bit lost and had to stop and get directions."

"Better late than never son, welcome back, Kevin. You were all sorely missed."

"We missed you guys too. But, we made a new friend on our way back, I'll bring their Commander over with me. See you shortly, Polaris Actual clear."

Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75) – Port Hangar Bay, 1 Hour Later

Bill Adama stood watching as the Raptor from Polaris was taxied into its parking spot. Beside him, Helena, Laura and his son Lee were also waiting. All were understandably curious about what had happened to the missing battlestar over the last 11 days.

Finally, the Raptor reached its parking spot and Chief Tyrol called the deck to attention. As the door on the Raptor swung open, "Now arriving, Commander Polaris!"

And then a slightly haggard looking Kevin Travers stepped out onto the wing and faced them, "Permission to come aboard Admiral?"

Adama grinned, "Permission granted. By the gods Kevin, it's good to see you again son. We'd all but given up hope."

Travers chuckled, "Us too, the trip back was… rough." As he stepped down, behind him a man in an unfamiliar uniform stepped out of the Raptor. The man wore a zippered jumpsuit in dark blue, there were patches on each upper arm, the right breast and on each shoulder. He stepped down next to Travers, "Allow me to introduce my companion, Captain Travis Valley of the UNSS Discovery. He's from Earth."

The deck erupted in chaos.

Battlestar Galactica (BSG-75) – Admiral's Quarters

A while later, the group were in Adama's quarters, all of them holding a drink and most of them eyeing the Earth Captain. As he looked around, Travers noted that his friend Bill now sported the rank of Admiral; probably to avoid confusion as to who is in charge given that Cain was a Rear Admiral. He also noted the Commander insignia on Lee's collar and made a note to ask about it later. Once everyone was seated, Travers gave them an overview of the events of the last 11 days from Polaris perspective, including his brief meeting with one of the Lords of Kobol.

"Captain Valley, captain in their navy is the equivalent of Commander in ours by the way… Captain Valley and his vessel were on a long range exploratory survey, much like the Polaris mission before the Fall. They had actually suffered a mis-jump due to an encounter with a gravitational anomaly and were trying to figure out where they were when we encountered them. And… well, it couldn't have happened at a better time from our perspective. We were badly damaged after a three day running battle with the Cylons and frankly, if they had caught us again…we were finished. Fortunately, we were able to establish contact and with the help of the Discovery crew, we were able to get the Polaris operational again and we were able to figure out how they were tracking us. A line of code in our drive software was causing our engines to emit an unusual low-level frequency that allowed the Cylons to track us. We will need to check the rest of the fleet for this as well."

Adama nodded, "That… is one hell of a story Kevin, I think I speak for us all when I say thank you for your assistance to our lost ship Captain Valley. We are a small community of refugees… the loss of even a single person diminishes us greatly." Everyone nodded in agreement.

Valley smiled, "It was our pleasure… it was quite a surprise to find humans out this far. We have of course located other splinter colonies… but to find the descendents of the inhabitants of Atlantis… it boggles the mind." He paused, "Admiral Adama, I will be frank, my ship is lost. I don't know how to get back to Earth exactly, but with your permission, the Discovery will join you as you seek it. I would be happy to brief your staff and civilian officials on the particulars of the United Earthgovernment, our laws, politics, etc. to prepare you for meeting them when we make it back."

Adama glanced briefly at Roslin who inclined her head slightly, "That is a most generous offer Captain and the presence of another combat capable ship will, along with the return of the Polaris serve as a boon to morale amongst our population." He paused a moment. "Given that we now have enough ships, I would propose that we divide our warships into three battlestar groups. Group one will be led by me, with Galactica as its flagship. Group two will be led by Rear Admiral Cain with Pegasus as its flagship. Group three will be led by Rear Admiral Travers with Polaris as its flagship and I would like to attach the Discovery to this group."

Valley nodded, "That would be acceptable to me, Admiral Travers and I have established a solid working relationship."

Kevin frowned as he finally caught what they were saying, "Admiral?"

Adama chuckled, "Finally caught that did you? Yes, Rear Admiral, after all that is the requisite rank for a battlestar group commander." He stood and pulled out a small case. Everyone stood as Adama came around the desk and stood in front of Travers. "Kevin Travers, for outstanding service and leadership, I hereby promote you to the rank of Rear Admiral and all the duties and privileges that come with that rank. I also hereby formally assign you to command the newly created Battlestar Group 3," Adama pinned on the new insignia and then shook Kevin's hand, "Congratulations Admiral Travers."

Everyone stepped forward and offered their congratulations as well. Once his hand had been thoroughly shaken, he turned to address everyone. "Bill, with your permission, I would like to offer Captain Valley a provisional commission in CDF at the rank of Commander. This will establish him within the chain of command and ensure there is no confusion over titles."

Adama nodded, "A sound idea. Actually it might not be a bad idea to issue colonial rank insignia to your entire crew Captain, so they can learn the equivalent ranks and forms of address. They could wear the colonial rank on their collars and their UN naval ranks in the standard position. Would that be acceptable to you?"

Valley nodded, "It would indeed Admiral. Thank you."

Adama smiled, "Then let me welcome you Commander Valley," he stepped over and pinned a set of Commander's rank insignia to the younger man's collar. "Congratulations."

Battlestar Polaris (BSG-3) – CIC, The next day

Kevin Travers strode into CIC the next morning to find his XO waiting for him with a cup of coffee. As he neared the master situation table, he took the coffee and after his first sip, turned his attention back to the young man waiting beside him.

"Good morning Admiral. The ship is scheduled to dock in an hour to begin repairs. Estimated down time for full repairs is three weeks."

Travers sighed and nodded, "Understood. Still, it will be nice to get her back into top shape."

Helo nodded, "Agreed sir. Also, Admiral Adama sent out a revised jump schedule for the trip to Earth. First jump will take place shortly after we dock."

"Thank you Karl. Now, there is one important thing to take care of, it has come to my attention that Lee has been assigned to command the battlestar Freyja which means I will need you to remain in your current post."

Agathon looked at him, eyes wide, "Sir?"

"Don't look so surprised Helo. You have been an outstanding XO, no reason not to make it permanent. In fact…" he pulled out a small case and handed it over.

Helo opened it to find a pair of Major insignia inside.

Travers reached over pulled off Helo's Captain insignia and replaced them with the Major insignia. He put the Captain insignia in the case and closed it. "Congratulations Major Agathon!"

Helo smiled, "Thank you Admiral, I can't wait to tell Sharon!"

Travers nodded, "On that front, you may want to take that case with you son. Here," He handed over a flimsy which turned out to be promotion orders for Sharon Agathon to Captain.

Turning Travers called, "Lt Frost… front and center please!"

Frost hurried over and stood at attention in front of Travers, "Sir?"

"For outstanding performance far beyond the call of duty on numerous occasions, I hereby promote you to the rank of Captain and make you second officer. I trust you can name a suitable replacement at Tactical?" That said, Travers pulled another case and moments Heron Frost was wearing Captain Insignia on his collar. "Congratulations Captain! You have more than earned it!"

In fact, there were a number of promotions carried out that day as they ship docked and everyone rotated out for a bit of rest, including communications specialist, Lynn Hayes who was promoted to Chief Petty Officer.

XXXXXX

From the personal Logs of Rear Admiral Kevin Travers, Battlestar Polaris (BSG-3)

It has been two months since we left Kobol and started the long journey towards Earth. The fleet is in good spirits and the Cylons have only been rarely seen. Bill, Helena and I have been very careful to maintain a strict routine and to keep training current as we don't want to risk getting complacent. The civilian fleet is generally content, at least for the moment, though as our food supplies are starting to dwindle and rationing will soon become stricter, that won't last much longer. Battlestar Group Three has come together nicely and the return to service of the newly re-commissioned Mystic was most welcome. The new Strikestar is an impressive ship and is a very welcome addition to the group. The next two Gunstars have begun their retrofits and the process is going a bit faster now that the shipyard crews have actually completed one.

Thanks to the crew of the Discovery, and her more advanced sensors and astrometrics systems we have been able to make better jump calculations and have made better progress than we could have alone. The briefings on Earth culture, politics and history has been interesting and informative to say the least. I will say I am glad that Earth united several decades ago, as dealing with a number of different nation states, each with its own agenda would have been a nightmare.

Cylon Basestar – Trailing the Colonial Fleet

Six stood silently, listening as they received the report from the scouts that had managed to get close enough, finally, to listen to the Colonials wireless signals.

"An Earth ship… they found it months ago and we are just now finding out about it? We need better intel brother s and sisters."

A Simon spoke, "But how, they are familiar with all but the threes? Slipping an agent amongst would be extremely difficult at this stage."

Six smiled, "Actually, we have a three in place. She has been hidden amongst the fleet this whole time and she is the only one. But, we have no way to communicate with her that won't compromise her at this time. This is what I need from you all, figure out a way to let us communicate with her while keeping her cover intact. Thank you all, please return to your duties."

As they wandered away, she turned to face the eight that stood next to her, "Any word from Central Command?"

The eight nodded, "Yes, they have finally agreed to send more ships though they caution you that more will NOT be forthcoming should we lose what we have."

Six nodded, Understood, and how many are they sending?"

The eight smiled, "Twenty basestars and a resurrection ship."

Six returned the smile, "Excellent! With careful planning and good intel, we will be ready to strike once the Colonials have led us to Earth. Thank you sister."

As the eight strode away, Six smiled again. Finally, things were back on track in the wake of the debacle brought about by Cavil. Now, it was time to start prodding the Colonials again. It wouldn't do to let them get complacent now would it?

End of Book 1

Author's Note:

Ships of the Fleet:

Colonial

Military(# of ships) (total complement)

Battlestars (Mercury Class): Polaris (2500)/Pegasus (2461)/Hemera (2459)

Battlestars (Jupiter Class): Galactica (4000)/Oberon (4000)/Alastor (4000)/Loki (4150)

Battlestar (Odin class): Freyja (1200)

Strikestar (Mystic Class): Mystic (1200)/ Vanguard (1200)-undergoing refit/Broadsword (1200)-undergoing refit

Strikestars (Firehawk Class): Firehawk/ Thunderbird (2600)

Gunstars (Titan Class): Scepter/ Avenger/ Titan/ Achilles/ Troy/ Saber/ Spear/ Trident/ Scimitar/ Broadsword/ Gladius/ Fury/ Vanguard (15,400)

Constructstars: Hephaestus/ Starforge (6000)

Medstar (Odin class): Asclepius (1200)

Mobile Spacedock (4) (16400)

Civilian (# of ships) (total complement)

Tylium Refinery (5) (5000) Tanker/refueler (15) (1500)

Mining ships (21) (10500) Freighters (45) (12000)

Luxury Liners (Cloud 7, 8, 9, 10) (4) (16250) Agro Ships (18) (55328)

Hospital Ships (4) (1240) Waste recl/recyc/proc. (11) (8711)

Cruise liners (10k pax) (7) (61420) Various civilian vessels (73) (63731)

Total Fleet Population: Polaris Fleet 200,852 + Galactica Fleet (49,998) + Pegasus Fleet 52,691 = 304,050 people (another 298 expected within the next few months)

Total ship population: Polaris Fleet 125 + Galactica fleet (75) + Pegasus Fleet (35) = 235 vessels.

Polaris Flight Group: (322 aerospace ships)

VS – Viper Squadron, RS – Raptor Squadron, RRS – Rescue Raptor Squadron, TS – Transport Squadron (Shuttles)

Viper Group (252 Vipers, 42 per squadron)

VS-1211 – Stingers VS-1215 – Fighting Hawks VS-1212 – Eagles

VS-1216 – Jolly Rodgers VS-1214 – Hornets VS-1217 – Panthers

Combat Support Group (60 Raptors, 10 Shuttles)

RS-101 – Bandits RS-102 – Devils RRS-100 – Angels TS-015 - Movers

Colonial Battlestar Groups

BSG-1 – Admiral William Adama

Battlestars: Galactica, Hemera, Oberon

Strikestars: Firehawk

Gunstars: Spear, Trident, Titan, Gladius

BSG-2 – Rear Admiral Helena Cain

Battlestars: Pegasus, Loki, Alastor

Strikestars: Thunderbird

Gunstars: Achilles, Troy, Saber, Fury

BSG-3 – Rear Admiral Kevin Travers

Battlestars: Polaris, Freyja, Discovery

Strikestars: Mystic

Gunstars: Scepter, Avenger, Scimitar

Currently inactive:

Mystic class refit: Vanguard, Broadsword

Earth

Haley class deep space explorer: UNSS Discovery (2200)

Type: Heavy cruiser/carrier hybrid

Length: 1050 meters

Propulsion: 4 main sub-light engines, numerous maneuvering thruster arrays, 2 General Electric Class VII Jumpdrives (1 main, 1 back-up)

Sensors: LIDAR, Specialized scientific sensor pallets: Gravimetric, Astrometric, etc.

Defense: Ablative surfacing over ultra-lightweight composite armor plating

Armament: 24 dual mount heavy KEW, 24 multi-use turrets (missile or KEW), 100 Aegis Point Defense emplacements, 8 ship to ship missile silos

Crew: 1800 enlisted and officers, 400 marines

Support craft: 82 Hornet class Space Superiority Fighters, 10 Chameleon class Stealth Recon ships (Raptor), 10 Curie class CSAR/Med-evac ships, 4 Ganges class personnel transports

NOTE: Appearance wise, the Haley class looks like a larger, sleeker version of the Colonial Odin class battlestar. The major difference is instead of the flight pods being on pylons, the hull sweeps out like wings with the pods on the ends like the fuel tanks on old US Fighters.