I
Aboard the Battlestar William Adama
At seventy-nine years old, Justin Bond was still in remarkably good shape. But he was still seventy-nine years old. The former American President had accepted the job as Fleet Governor even despite his age. Thanks to the continued leaps in science and medicine that had been made since Galactica had shown up in 2022, his physician on board the DSE Martin Luther King, Jr, didn't see why he might not have another twenty years left in him. The Doctor told him that could be conservative, with the medical advancements still taking place back home.
Still, he was beginning to feel time catching up to him. Today, however, he needed to shove that aside as his Military Commanders were forming what would most likely be a battle plan for the hills East of Caprica City.
"So we're planning to give them another warning, Governor", Lee Adama informed his Commander-In-Chief, finishing his brief, "and then the clock starts ticking."
Governor Bond nodded while reading his copy of the brief. "Do you feel we can take the mountains before Louis and Helo arrive here in about four months?"
"Take them?", Lee shook his head. "I'm not sure we can completely take them, but I believe we certainly can have them with one foot in the grave when Caprica, Libran and the rest of the second fleet join us here."
"Governor", his daughter, Admiral Kara-Thrace Bond added, "now that our initial scouting is done, projections are we can add another seven-thousand boots on the ground to the ten we have their now. It may only put us at even strength, numbers-wise with them, but they have no air support, and they don't have military-grade weapons."
"A good point, Admiral", her father nodded with approval. "We have pretty well kept them bottled up there since the unpleasantness a few years back. We haven't stopped them from feeding themselves up there. Just as with our fleet, the numbers go up and down with births and deaths."
"Sir", it was his son, Colonel Nicholas Bond, who was Senior CAG in The Fleet. He had been intimately involved in that unpleasantness, as his father had called it, two years earlier. The shoot-down of his Raptor, and the death of his two crewmates, and his subsequent desperate search to get to friendly lines, had set up what was apparently to come, "we've been gaming removing the camouflage netting over their compound, and we believe that we can do so with a combination of hooking some of the netting's with Raptors and using some low-grade incendiaries to burn off the rest, without setting the forested areas on fire."
"So we're sure now that this isn't one giant net?" Admiral Caprica Baltar entered the Conversation. "I'm assuming your test run in the Southeast corner of the netting last week was successful, Nick?"
The younger Bond nodded. "It was, Admiral Baltar", he said with a small grin.
Admiral Galen Tyrol would head to the surface in a few days, to meet with General's Grayson and Trevor as more troops were quietly landed far out of sight of the mountain and brought near Caprica City over the next few weeks. He would be the one to give the final warning to The Crown.
The Governor moved to conclude the meeting. "Lee, Kara, the mission is a go." He said calmly. "I want the final Op Plan on my desk in seventy-two hours if you please."
As the meeting disbanded, his son and daughter approached him about another subject.
"So, dad", Nick Bond began, "have you made a decision yet?" Kara was next to him and the expression on her face clearly said you're not leaving here without a decision.
"You two are like mother hen's", the Governor said with a wink. "Can't a guy not make up his mind for the moment."
The replied simultaneously. "No!" They glanced at each other, and couldn't help but laugh.
Kara then pressed lightly again. "Dad, the family needs to know. Will you or won't you?"
Justin Bond sighed. Even though he was almost eighty, he was healthy, and, like most anyone else, didn't want to face such a large personal decision. But he relented.
"OK, you two", then he went on, "no, I'm not going to seek to be Governor for the return trip."
"That's your final decision?", Nick eyed him archly.
"Yes, my final decision. I'll be eighty next year; I've got three grandkids now, with a fourth on the way." The Bond family had grown quite a bit in the last few years.
Katraine Crieder, who was his daughter Abby's girl, was now almost fifteen. Abby and Brett Crieder had also given birth two years ago to a boy, Brett Justin Crieder, who was named after both his father and his Granddad, Governor Bond. Likewise, Nicholas and Natalia Bond had given birth to a son six months after Nick had been rescued. The young boy, named Justin Mikhail Bond, was into the Terrible Twos, and Natalia was expecting a little girl in three months.
"I get it dad", Kara added, "but you needed to make a decision. You've never been a procrastinator, and we aren't let you going to start now."
He saluted his two military children. "Yes, Colonel, Admiral, sirs!", giving them a mock salute which made all three of them laugh.
Justin Bond suddenly felt old.
It looked to be another routine day onboard the Battlestar Caprica. The third Colonial Class Battlestar to be constructed was leading the second fleet from Earth to the Twelve Colonies. The official designation of The Fleet was UED002C, which meant what it said-the second UED mission to The Colonies. That was just bureaucratic nonsense to her Admiral.
Louis Hoshi had resigned as C-in-C of UED a year before The Fleet sailed, and had been granted overall command of The Fleet. The situation on Caprica involving an insurgent group that could spell trouble for re-establishing Caprica as the hub of the twelve worlds had prompted his request.
It had also prompted Justin Bond, the Governor of The Fleet already at The Colonies to revise upward his recommendation for forces that would be brought on the second mission. Governor Bond had approved the advice of his two senior Admirals, Lee Adama, and Kara Thrace-Bond, that the force be augmented in light of the need for ground forces that were being based near Caprica City.
The other Colonial Class that was on the journey was the Libran, under the command of Admiral Karl "Helo" Agathon. Hoshi had requested he take the new bird after he himself was given the Caprica.
"Admiral Hoshi, sir", Agathon saluted, and a salute was returned in kind, "I figured you were gonna ask for me after Governor Bond's latest communication."
"It was the first thing that crossed my mind, Louis-well, after I first said 'godsdammit', that is." They both shared a chuckle.
"I'm kind of surprised Lee is pulling the trigger before we get there, sir", Helo took a sip of the coffee that his host had given him. "Any idea why the move-up?"
"From reading the minutes of the meeting when all this was approved", Louis pulled up the email that contained those minutes, "Lee doesn't want to leave it all to us when we get there. I think he'd like to see if they can take them out and allow us to hit the ground running, as it were."
"But then we've brought all that extra fire-power for nothing, sir?" Karl raised his eyebrows.
"Remember, we might need those troops on Canceron in the Hades area. Scouts embedded in the city have reported there are still rumblings, but nothing concrete as far as organizing a formal resistance to us."
"You have a point there, sir", then Helo added another thought, "plus, if they do beat those people in the mountains, we then have a lot of resources that we can use to begin laying out the Governor's recommendations for the next step."
"That's what I was thinking, Karl", Hoshi nodded. "It may look like overkill right now, with two Colonials, four Terran's, and fourteen DSE's, but I believe that after we can calm things down on Caprica and Canceron, we can really get ahead of schedule in beginning to bring things back here."
"It's still gonna take decades, Louis", Karl smiled, "but you're right, if we can get positive momentum going, that's all for the better."
"Agreed." The Boss noted. "If we can increase the training tempo for both ground and air units, I'd like to do that. Again, don't kill them, Karl, but we want to be ready day one when we arrive."
"I've already put in those orders down the line, sir", Karl smiled. "We're on the same page, Louis, trust me."
Lieutenant Junior Grade Natalia Bond was on Maternity Leave, as the arrival of her second child approached. She had just put her two-year-old, Justin, down for his afternoon nap, which would allow his Mama to get a little rest as well. At six months pregnant, that alone was enough to wear her out, but having to look after a two-year-old for a good part of the day was doubly taxing.
But she wouldn't change it for anything in the Universe.
Her husband, Commander Nicholas Bond, was on scout duty in a Raptor over the Caprican Mountain Range, and wouldn't be back for several hours. Just thinking of her husband going over the same mountains where he had been shot down and almost killed gave her some anxiety. She knew it was his job, but she also didn't want him to tempt Fate any more than he needed to.
Little Justin had just gone to sleep, and Natalia was ready to lay out on the couch when there was a knock on the door.
"Enter", she said in her Russian-accented English.
"Hi, Nat!", her sister, Admiral Kara Thrace-Bond popped her head in and smiled. She had just left the meeting about the upcoming operations and wanted to stop in to see Natalie before going back to the Laura Roslin.
"Kara!", Natalie waved her sister over to the couch. "Try to keep it down, I just put Justi down for a nap."
Kara's eyes went wide and tiptoed over, which made her little sister giggle. "I'll keep the noise down, mom, I promise." She sat next to her sister and they hugged each other. "How you feeling, kiddo?"
"I'm beginning to think we should have let the 'terrible two's' pass before we wanted another one", she said with mock despair, which elicited more quiet laughter.
"Just blame Nick", Starbuck winked at her. "Men fall for that stuff."
"How do you think I got pregnant again in the first place, Starbuck?" Kara started to laugh loudly, but Natalie put her hand over the Admiral's mouth.
"Oh, sorry!", Kara giggled again. As had been the case with her other sister Abigail, Kara adored Natalie and felt a special kinship with the younger woman. Both had been orphaned; both had gone through tough times alone, and both had been taken in with open arms by Justin and Judith Bond at the lowest points of their lives. Kara couldn't imagine being quite as close with Natalie as she was with Abby, but she loved her sister-in-law dearly.
"What's the latest from the world of all you brasses?", Natalie arched her eyes at her sister.
"Dad just gave the go-ahead to begin operations on Caprica against those idiots in the mountains." Kara approved of the plan but knew Natalie was nervous about Nick having to fly missions in the area.
"There goes the neighborhood", Natalie rolled her eyes. "I trust Papa with my life, and trust his judgment more than any person in the Universe, so there it is."
"I get the feeling dad and Lee are still a little unsettled about all this, Natalie", Kara confided to her. "Admiral Hoshi told dad it was OK if they waited until the other fleet arrives, but they're going ahead with it."
"Would it be better if we waited?"
"Maybe", Kara said honestly, "but as you said, I trust dad's judgment-and I trust Lee's as well."
Natalie cocked her head towards her big sister. "Lee and Papa don't want to leave before the fight begins, yes?" Natalie was no dummy when it came to military matters.
"No, they don't", Kara sighed, "and in a sense, I don't blame them. They don't want to lop all this on Hoshi's lap when he arrives. They'd like to let the new fleet have a fresh start here if they can."
"But we're going to get hurt when the operation begins, aren't we, Starbuck?" And that's what worried Natalie.
"There'll be losses", she nodded. "We have the advantage in weapons and with owning the skies; they have the advantage in being on the high ground and in being able to play the defensive", she paused for a moment, "but I think our superiority in weapons and in having the only air power will ensure we'll win."
"One thing I've always had trouble understanding, Kara", she looked at her sister, "is that Papa was the leader of the greatest military on Earth; and he has incredible firepower behind him here. But I have always sensed he's reluctant to use it", she quickly added to that statement. "That's not a criticism, but it confuses me."
"Those of us who have actually fought in war-who have seen combat, always refer to it as the Elephant in the room", Natalie looked even more confused, "which means that people try to avoid talking about it or having to go through it again if they can. The last thing dad wants to do is see anyone die, Nat", she moved right in next to her sister-in-law. "He's seen combat; I've seen combat; Nick has; Lee has, and once you go through it, unless you're stark-raving mad, you don't want to see anyone else go through it, either."
"So...he'd rather have the power behind him and not use it if he can, is that right?"
"You got it, kiddo.", she hugged Natalie. "Your father-in-law doesn't have a mean bone in his body. If he can keep us out of a fight, he will, but once he makes up his mind that fighting is required, he'll go all in."
"I think it's taking a toll on Papa, though, Kara", Natalie said with worry on her face. "It's bothering him."
"I know it is, Nat", Kara sighed, "and that's bothering me."