Building Bridges
Follows the events of Pegasus.
Admiral Walter's Raptor entered the Galactica's shuttle bay, following orders Adama had brought the President back over and none of his crew were in dress uniforms. When Admiral Walter exited the raptor he looked around and smiled slightly nostalgically as he had once served aboard a Columbia class Battlestar before.
"Admiral on deck," one of the marines shouted out as the men stiffened and stood to attention.
"At ease," Walter said with a smile before stepping off the ramp and walking in front of Commander Adama. "Commander Adama, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," The two military officers shook hands the Walter turned to the President, "Madame President Laura Roslin, I presume," He said as a bit of a joke to break some ice between the crews who both laughed and released some tension, "It's a pleasure." And the both shook hands before turning to the rest of the Galactica's crew, and dismissed them.
Admiral Walter, President Roslin and Commander Adama sat in his office around the table, Walter took a deep breath and began his tale of how the Zenobia, Challenger and Logopolis had survived the Cylon attack.
"The Zenobia was on a deep space exploration mission," he began. "We FTL jumped in to an unchartered system, as soon as we got there the ships systems began to overload, we first thought it was sabotage but we then found a low level energy field surrounding the star system, it was causing all of the overloads. After a few days we found no way to block the signal we found a ship on the DRADIS, it was a Cylon baseship, well what was left of it, they were sent there to ambush us but had been affected by the same energy field that had disabled us, when we got there our main engines blew out, we boarded the cylon ship, it had lost life-support and it's power core was completely useless, after searching we found two humanoid cylons a six and a five, we brought them back to the Zenobia were they told us that they had traced the energy field to one of the planets in the solar system."
" I offered them a truce, essentially a straight swap, we get their engines and data on the system and in return when we leave the system we drop them off at a Cylon base, the alliance worked we escaped and the cylons admitted the truth to us, but to the Cylon's surprise I kept my word and dropped them off and found the Challenger dead in space, we were able to bring the ship back from the dead, but it was too late for the crew, we re-staffed the ship from my crew, shortly after that we tracked the transponder of the Logopolis, their crew had survived." Walter took another deep breath clearly struggling with the next bit.
"We found fifteen civilian ships, they were stripped of FTL drives and most of their crews had been illegally drafted by Cain who ordered the murder of the families of any selectees who didn't comply, we began to evacuate the survivors to our ships, then ten Cylon base ships showed up, I tried to evacuate them all until my XO ordered an FTL jump out of there, we only lefty fifty behind, which is still too high," a single tear fell from Walter's face. "That's why Cain's out of the service; I don't care if the Cylons get their hands on her, after what she's done."
Adama and Roslin smiled at the thought of Walter's efforts to save as many civilians as possible, "I suppose that's my one personal flaw, I can't compromise, I have to save everyone or I've lost." Walter added as he slumped into the chair, he sighed and used both hands to wipe his face before he looked at them and returned their smile.
"Now, that's enough about me, tell me about your fleet, it must be so satisfying to know you've saved so many thousands of people…"
The Galactica officers were once again having a party to celebrate the arrival of the three other Battlestars, Chief Tyrol was in the vicinity but was refusing to join the festivities because of his experience with the Pegasus crew.
"Chief," a voice said from behind him, he twirled around to see Admiral Walter standing behind him. "I've just come out of a meeting with the President and Commander Adama, they told me you had a romantic relationship with the number eight sleeper agent Cylon known as Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii until the XO ordered you to break it up,"
"Look, I didn't know she was-"Chief Tyrol quickly said in response.
"It's alright," Walter cut him off. "I believe you; I understand that's why you went to defend the different version of Sharon in the brig at the moment,"
"Yeah, it's so hard, she looks like Boomer, but she acts differently, she's got a completely different personality, although no one else seems to notice it" Tyrol admits while looking down at the floor.
"You know why you were the only person who found her personality different?" Walter asked Tyrol. "It's because you're the original version's lover, you were closer than anyone else, and you noticed the differences because you knew the original so well, and that's what I needed to know, I'll need you to come aboard the Zenobia, but after the battle we need you focused for that."
"Carry on Chief, and do me a favor," Walter started before gesturing to the party. "Feel free to join the festivities."
Admiral Walter left the room and headed towards the exit, while Galen Tyrol smiled slightly at a torrent of memories of his time with the original Sharon Valerii, until he remembered what he said to her in that cell and then the memory of her body falling back into his arms reeling from Cally's gunshot, he started to cry before wiping his eyes and focusing on the good memories of his past with her, he then joined the party being careful not to make eye contact with anybody, especially Cally.
Nice train of thought about Caprica-6, and you're right if it was Boomer she technically wouldn't be a defector.