Ch 4.
There was no power and very few places that still had air on the ruined hulk that used to be their science ship. Carefully, Raptor crews investigated the insides, followed by the Tank crews, all in pressure suits. Their area of the ship was in a vacuum. Escaping air bled by them. The insides of the ship were torn up bad. If it wasn't holes or ripped open, metal was twisted beyond use. A few times after Hera and her crew verified there was no atmosphere on the other side, Diane had to rip open a door or wall to let them continue. The only thing they found was an abundance of bloated bodies from the impacts and sudden decompression.
In a few compartments, they found atmosphere and wounded. Out of the ship's compliment of three hundred, they found elven people alive. None of them from command. A hit to the bridge had blown the command crew into space. Major Ford was one of the victims.
Captain Thanos called a meeting of ship commanders in one of the vacant landing bays that was whole.
Standing around him in their pressure suits, Hera Agathon and Ed Baltar were the only to two Raptor pilots left besides him.
"OK, people, we're on our own," Thanos announced. "There is no support or rescue. This ship is finished, it's a dead hulk. We need to scavenge what we can get off it to survive. I'll head to command with my crew to see what navigational data we can get, besides what Major Ford insisted we have. We also need to grab the flight recorder and the ship's log. Lt. Agathon, we need one of these bays pressurized to load up what useful things we can find. Grab some people and work on that. Captain Keaton, you are in charge of finding food and Medical supplies. Captain Warren, you and Phoenix will be the escorts. Sorry, until the rest of our ships get back, you're it. Everyone else, we need air, air filtering cartridges and water. Tillium for the Raptors if you can find it. The first search starts now and ends in six hours. We will then rest and try again. Once our ships return, we move on towards home. All right, let's get to work people."
They split up to get started, Hera went over to Suzanne. "Captain, thank you for putting beds on our raptors. At least we have a place to sleep now," she said.
Suzanne cast her a weak smile and replied, "At least that's something. See if you can find some toilets, I think you're going to need them. And it's Suzanne."
.
Eddie sat on the bed while Diane cleaned the cut on his forehead and re-wrapped it. Getting the bandage in place, she cupped his cheek and asked, "Sure you're OK?"
Eddie took Diane's hand and kissed it. "Fine, just a bit of a headache," he said with a brief smile. "Honestly, I'm feeling kinda numb right now."
"Yeah, me too," Diane said and sat down next to him. "We killed the enemy and our own ship. Yeah for us," she said blankly.
Eddie shook his head. "We didn't mean to, and they fired first. We didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter."
"Still sucks, big time."
"It does."
Hearing the air pump cycle they got up to meet Suzanne when she came in. Suzanne entered and closed the airlock door. She took off her helmet and said, "We're going back out, guard duty until the rest of our ships return. Then we're leaving for home."
Eddie thought for a second and asked, "What about the Raptors, they have a limited jump distance. Can they make it?"
"We'll find out," Suzanne said in a huff. "Phoenix is going to join us. Everyone else is on scavenging duty. Medicine, food, water, raptor fuel. Whatever we can find to help what remains of us to get back home."
"What a homecoming that will be," Diane said in a sarcastic/sad tone. "We got in a fight with the locals, lost the science ship and killed nearly everyone."
"Not our fault," Suzanne said firmly. "A simple maneuver would have gotten the Endeavor out of the major part of the debris field. Captain Styles chose to try and fold away. His mistake got the ship killed, not us. As far as going into that system to begin with, Captain Styles should have sent us in first."
"You think so?" Eddie asked.
Sensing the mood of her mates, Suzanne said, "I know so. Come on, let's get back out there."
.
The recon ships returned and were shocked at what happened. The escort raptors needed fuel, and although they did find one supply tank that had fuel, it was leaking. Four raptors filled up, the three that survive the battle, and one from the recon party. Raptors nine and ten, low on fuel, were drained to supply some extra fuel for the others.
Searching the ship, the food processor supply units were found. It was all freeze-dried, but it was food. The water recycling system had fresh water in it. Enough containers were found to drain most of the machine. The medical supplies had also mostly survived.
With all the ships back, Porcupine came back into a bay. Suzanne and Diane helped pile the supplies, some microwave ovens and toilets that had been ripped out, into the bay that Hera had gotten sealed and able to pressurize.
Since the raptors were soft-skinned and needed to conserve fuel, only the Space Tanks took turns on patrols. Suzanne and Diane needed to keep working on raptors one by one, so on their turn to patrol, Eddie took Porcupine out with the crew of Raptor nine, one of the drained ships. Eddie felt strange sitting in Suzanne's command chair, but he was able to monitor and teach one of the young raptor pilots, Lt. Tom Adama, on how to fly Porcupine.
Captain Thanos ran into another problem he hadn't considered. While the Earth ships were self sufficient, Raptors were not, and they had extra people to carry as well as supplies. The soft pods the Earth ships had were good for holding things, but they were not made for being extended for folds. A trial run by Leopard with it's soft pod extended and filled with useless items, showed upon a fold the soft pod ripped part, scattering it's contents (and the extra air) into space.
Not wanting to put fuel containers in crew compartments, each raptor would be topped off with fuel before they left. The seventeen extra people, survivors and the crews of the two raptors they were leaving behind, would be split up between the ships.
.
Coming into the pressurized bay where a Raptor was being modified and filled with supplies, Captain Keaton found Suzanne and Diane working out how to add storage above the tiny modified bathroom they had added onto the ship.
"I have good news, and bad," Captain Keaton announced as she entered the raptor.
Suzanne looked at her and huffed out, "Bad news first."
"You're going to have to add more bunk space. Each raptor will have two extras on board, the wounded," Keaton explained. "That also means more medical supplies, food and the oxygen tanks."
Suzanne scanned the tightening space around her and asked, "Where?" They had already used every bit of space inside this thing.
"I said that was the bad news."
"So, what's the good news?" Diane asked.
"The crews of the raptors we're leaving behind will be riding with us. One per ship. Lt. Adama has asked to be on Porcupine. I talked to Lt. Ed Warren, and he admitted he is a decent pilot."
"Nooo," Diane whined.
"Ma'am," Suzanne said evenly, "We have one big bed, not bunks. Where is he suppose to sleep?"
Captain Keaton shrugged and said, "May I suggest boys and girls turns?"
"There goes happy time," Diane grumbled.
"There is no way we can take those raptors with us?" Suzanne asked.
"None," Captain Keaton stated. "At best, those raptors that do have full tanks will be sucking fumes by the time we can get back to a place where we can call for help. The closest place we will be able to call to is the new planet we helped the Annunaki teraform. That is, unless we find another friendly ship out there along the way, which is a billions to one chance."
.
It took another week to modify the raptors, then pump all the air that they could out of the Endeavor. The two raptors that were left behind had explosive charges in them to be blown upon departure. Colonial doctrine stated no intact ship was to be left for a possible enemy to find. With over-stuffed raptors and stuffed Space Tanks, they all lined up in the launch corridor. Captain Thanos made an announcement.
"First I want to say that each of you have done a fantastic job under harsh circumstances. Using the longest jumps possible, it will take us fifteen jumps to reach Newhome, a planet made hospitable by Earth and Nibiru. That is also all the jumps a raptor can make before they run out of fuel. I won't lie, this is going to be tight. If we run into problems, our situation will quickly get worse. The raptors will jump first, then the Space Tanks follow, folding up to meet them. Raptors, use minimum energy. We get a good fix, and go again ASAP. We repeat as necessary until we find a place to stop. While the raptors get a fix, Captain Keaton will send out scouts to look for friendlies. Hornet will fold ahead and get back as fast as they can with our jump schedule and way points. With any luck, we will run into a rescue ship, but don't count on it. Good luck people. Begin launching."
Eddie watched the ship in front of him take off. "Here we go," he said and released the magnetic locks and thrust forward as the gear came up. He flew out to join their ships in the holding pattern. Once all the ships were clear of the wreck that used to be a science ship, the raptors in the bays were blown up. More of the wreck shed pieces and it began to slowly tumble. The four raptors that remained winked away in a flash of light. On their turn, Porcupine followed.
.
Xzan, now with an exploration ship, joined the fleet going to rescue of the alien ship. They headed for the aliens' last known position with the fleet of thirty ships. They set out to save the aliens and if possible, show their friendly intentions and make the aliens their allies. At the very least, as long as they got close they could take over the alien's minds and learn their technology.
Upon reaching the area, debris was noted drifting around. Going active, they picked up one solid return signal. Heading for it, they found the tumbling remains of the Endeavor. What they did not find, was any of the tiny, powerful ships that had been with it. Searching the area, there was plenty of debris, much of it from Katan craft.
Reasoning out what happened, they knew the Katan had found the aliens and fought them. Apparently, the aliens won, but lost their mother ship. The conclusion was the tiny ships were headed home, or went searching to find a safe harbor. Not knowing where they went, the decision was made to board the wreck and try to discover where the tiny ships were headed. Xzan headed the boarding party that went into the wreck. The two salvage ships that came along steadied the remains of the alien ship so Xzan and his party could land.
From the ripped open mid section, Xzan noted right away there were three types of damage to the alien ship. Most of it was simple impact damage. Places where the outer hull was broken, the edges of the holes were curved in. The hits from their defense lasers were also apparent, these holes had melted edges that were clean, and slightly curved out with burn marks on the curves from escaping hot gasses and debris. The farthest aft section had been blown out by powerful explosion, with long tears and deformations. That had to have been the death-blow of this ship. Within the hull just beyond that, another explosion had occurred within the ship, deforming the shape.
Coasting into the open square of a hatch, Xzan noted bays here had been blown out from the middle. This had to have been a good sized secondary explosion. The spread out, twisted interior gave them plenty of room to dock to surviving frame pieces.
The search plan was by priority. First, look for any living beings. Second, look for any signs that might help lead to where the tiny ships had gone. Third, learn as much as about these aliens as possible.
The search for life turned up none. Whoever had been alive had gotten out. By what Xzan's search teams found of makeshift air locks, some aliens had survived and were pulled from the wreck. The search for the fate of the tiny ships was longer. None were found on board, but with a food storage broken open and a liquid hydrocarbon tank empty with a drain attachment on it, appeared they did scavenge for supplies before they left. Sleeping quarters items were also found to have been stripped in a hurry, as were other minor items that had been hastily removed.
As for signs of where the tiny alien ships had gone, there was no indication Xzan's team was able to find. The writings found were illegible to them, and no recording devices or pictograms had been left behind. Xzan had all writings salvaged to be deciphered later in case there were any clues there.
The clue to the location of the tiny ships came from the research ship which found four short ion trails all heading in the same direction not far from the alien wreck. Puzzling out what this meant, they concluded the aliens were heading for a location in that direction. They began studying the star charts to see which systems in that direction might have habitable planets.
.
The first 'jump' with the small fleet went well. As the raptors took the hour to recharge their drives, the 32nd spread out to search the area. They got a good star fix and Captain Keaton with a Colonial as her pilot, folded ahead to inspect the next jump point. The stars here were closer together, and there was more radiation but not dangerously so. She folded back and the escort screen closed back in and waited for the raptors.
.
"Captain Warren?" Lt. Adama asked from his seat at the mid-ship electronics panels. "If one of you get tired, I can pilot this thing," he offered.
"Eddie?" Suzanne asked.
"I'm good to go."
"Diane?"
Diane looked up at the time readout. "If he's bored, someone needs to make dinner soon."
"I can't cook," Lt. Adama said.
"You won't be at the controls either, calling Porcupine 'this thing'," Diane retorted.
Eddie chuckled and said, "Yeah, really. We give you a ride and you dis our ship."
Lt. Adama lifted an eyebrow and said, "Sorry."
Suzanne shook her head with a grin. "Lt, Porcupine was the tank I commanded in high school. We picked that name for this ship in honor of that tank. Like this ship, it was small, but it was fast and tough, and in all the matches we had since the last year of Middle School, we never got taken out."
"Remember that first year against Pravda?" Diane asked. "That KV1 blowing our track off? THAT was a close one."
"Cold too," Suzanne agreed.
"Yeah, you both ended up in the hospital from exposure and pneumonia," Eddie reminded them.
"I liked the Saunders matches," Diane said with a smile of remembrance. "They were always fast pace and a bit hairy. Always fun."
"Speaking of that, whatever happened to Kay?" Eddie asked.
"She's an astronaut. I think she went to Newhome to help teraform that planet."
"I dunno," Diane sang. "No place for a Sherman doing that. I bet she's got a Space Tank, or something similar. Maybe in command of a cruiser."
Eddie chuckled and said, "I bet she has them doing Union VS Confederate matches."
Lt. Adama listened to them chuckling. These three had obviously been together for a while. He perked up when Suzanne asked, "So, what's your story, Lt. Adama?"
He shrugged. "Not much to tell. Went through school an applied to the Academy, flight training. I wanted to be a viper pilot but they only needed six out of our class of twenty. They picked the top six, I got sent to Raptor school. Our last training mission was to go get a beacon off an asteroid. You guys probably popped me from behind."
"Not us," Eddie said. "We were popping the ones who tried to pick that beacon up."
"After we got there and moved it into the bottom of a crater and hid under a shelf," Diane added with a giggle.
"Snipered each ship that went down into that crater," Eddie said. "They had no clue where we were."
"You moved it?" Lt. Adama asked.
"You bet we did," Suzanne told him. "It was left atop a ridge. I thought whoever designed the exercise was expecting someone to grab it and go. If we did that, you would have been all over us. Instead, we dropped it in the bottom of a crater, knowing you'd come for it. We hid and got each ship as they came down to get it. Your team focused on the prize and not the possible danger."
Lt. Adama let out a short chuckle and said, "You are really sneaky, Captain."
Suzanne turned to look back at him, winked and said, "That's why we don't loose."
The radio announced, "All ships, prepare to jump. Raptors go in five."
.
The second jump went well, as did the third. After the third jump, Captain Keaton announced a six hour break so crews could get some rest. They had all been up the last thirty six hours.
"I'll get dinner started." Diane announced as she got up. "Eddie, you got it?"
"I do."
"Eddie, shifting command control to you," Suzanne announced.
"Got it, I now have all functions. Go keep Diane from making a mess," Eddie told her.
"Hey, you like my hot stuff, don't you?" Diane asked.
Eddie nodded and said, "Food's good too."
"Here's what we're going to do, guys," Suzanne announced as she cast Eddie a grin. "After we eat, Diane and I are going to wash up and hit the sack. Eddie, wake us up a half hour before the jump. Then you and Lt. Adama are going to get some rack time."
"During the jumps?" Lt. Adama asked. "Aren't all crew suppose to be at their assigned stations?"
"You will be, I'm assigning you to get some sleep," Suzanne replied.
"But … I mean awake and ready," Lt. Adama said.
"Folds are a bit easier. Besides, my ship, my rules," Suzanne told him.
.
Captain Thanos took a nap then spent his 'rest' time looking at the fuel usage of his raptors per jump and came to an unsettling conclusion. His previous calculations showed they had just enough fuel for a normally loaded raptor. His raptors were not carrying a normal load. Extra equipment, supplies and people was slightly shortening the jumps and was using more fuel that allotted.
All four raptors were not going to make it. Add to that, he had no way to refuel or transport people in space from ship to ship. He had a big problem on his hands. He stared at the numbers, then recalculated again. Hey keyed his radio.
"Stinger, this is Speed Ball, come in."
"Stinger here. What's up?"
"We got a problem. The raptors don't have enough fuel to make it all the way. Have you seen any planets we can touch down on?"
"Not good, Speed ball. How critical are we talking?"
"We're slated for thirteen more jumps, but we'll still need another," Captain Thanos said.
"The Hornet should be back in civilized space in another two hours at the most. Maybe we should stay here and wait for them?"
Captain Thanos winced. "Tempting. If they don't find us, then that will be one less jump we can make."
"We're screwed anyway, aren't we? How about this. Our squadron spends the next three hours searching for someplace we can set down. If we don't find it, and we get no word from the Hornet, we move on. If we do, then we land and signal an SOS."
Captain Thanos rubbed his chin in thought. After a moment, he said, "To all ships, the break has been extended for three hours. Raptors, stay on minimum power. Stinger, go see what you can find. Everyone be ready to jump in four and one half hours from now."
.
Listening to the chatter, Eddie said, "Lt. Adama, get up here. Take the right side seat."
Lt. Adama came up and sat. "What's up?"
"I think we're going planet hunting," Eddie told him.
"We should wake up the Captain..."
"No need," Eddie told him. "Now look at the navigation portion of your panel. It's on the right, call it up."
Lt. Adama looked back at the closed partition sealing off the sleeping area and said, "Lt. Warren, the Captain needs to know."
"I'll tell her the moment she's up. Suzanne and Diane are both exhausted. This isn't critical, and I will tell her everything THE moment she is up," Eddie insisted.
"32nd, listen up! Stinger here, we're going planet hunting. What we're looking for is a place to set down. We need a good atmosphere and proper temperature range. If it's an ice ball, or barren desert, that's fine. As long as we can breathe and move between ships without being roasted or frozen to death. Falcon, you stay here with the raptors. Dodger, you come with us to the star at 13 light at bearing 322, 162. Porcupine and Phoenix, you got the star 21 light, bearing 024, 185. Badger, Polecat, the star 9 light, bearing 175, 310. Scorpion, Leopard, the star at 37 light, bearing 092, 005. Go search, then we return with results. Good luck people."
"Ha, we got a close one," Eddie said. Seeing Lt. Adama doing calculations, Eddie frowned and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Calculating the distance and vectors..."
"Don't make it hard, watch," Eddie said. He turned Porcupine to point right at the star they were assigned and explained, "The light we're seeing left that star 21 years ago, so we know it hasn't moved THAT far from where we see it now. Put in a fold of 20.5, and it will still be in front of us. Then we fold again just outside the system, off the ecliptical. Easy."
"What if there is debris around the star?" Lt. Adama asked.
"Being off the ecliptical, there shouldn't be anything. If there is then ... we will hear a bang," Eddie said with a shrug. "Put it in."
Lt. Adama shook his head and set the coordinates.
"Porcupine, Phoenix here. You guys ready?"
Eddie looked at LT. Adama. "Ready," the Colonial pilot said.
"We're ready Phoenix, three, two, one, Fold!"
Lt. Adama was about to argue that wasn't enough warning. The outside view changed to show a star close and to the right.
"It's moving right along, OK, we're still in the area." Eddie said. He expanded the view and shifted through light wavelengths. Over the radio, he said, "Phoenix, we got a class K sub-giant, and …. yup we got planets, belts of asteroids, and all kinds of junk around it. Good, healthy system. It's worth taking a close look at."
"We're tracking it, Porcupine… getting range and speed. Go in to 120 million Kilometers out from the star, say 45 degrees from ecliptical?"
"Sounds good," Eddie agreed, then looked at Lt. Adama. "Now, you can start making an exact flight plan."
"You people are nuts," Lt. Adama stated.
"And?" Eddie asked. In a grand gesture, he then pointed at Lt. Adama and said, "Make it happen."
.
Doing a more 'exact' Fold, the star was to their left and bright. Eddie searched for planets and found one in the 'zone' they were looking for. On the other side of the star, Phoenix found couple more, a 'good one' and a possible. The good one was ahead of both ships, they decided to look at that one first.
Folding to the planet, Eddie got into high orbit with Phoenix going into orbit on the other side of the planet. High resolution images showed plenty of mountains and deserts, and green spots around the few large lakes on the surface.
"Hey, Eddie, I think we got a live one. Talk about luck!" the radio announced.
"Yeah, really. I'm showing a surface temp of 110 Fahrenheit halfway up from the equator. Warm, but very doable. Few clouds, but thick enough atmosphere to make it worth a close look."
"We're getting the same here. Hot around the equator, coolest near the poles, 60 Fahrenheit. Dive on in, we'll come around and follow."
"Shouldn't we go wake the Captain up now?" Lt. Adama asked.
"Let's see what we got, first," Eddie told him.
"I insist."
"I insist you let them sleep," Eddie replied.
"If you won't do it, I will!" Lt. Adama said firmly.
"You don't want to do that," Eddie warned.
"Colonial regulation STATES that the Captain must be in control of ANY non-normal activities," Lt. Adama said in a hard tone as he stood up.
"This isn't a Colonial ship, is it?" Eddie replied as he piloted Porcupine down through the atmosphere. "You go in there, and you'll either get bounced off the ceiling and floor a few times, or knocked flat out. Neither Suzanne nor Diane wear a whole lot to bed, so if you go in there, you will be taught the hard way NOT to walk in on them when they are sleeping."
Eddie drew some air into the sampler and said, "Taking an atmosphere sample. LT, think you can sit back down and process it for me?"
"I'm reporting this!" Lt. Adama said as he sat down.
"Good for you. First, take the air sample," Eddie told him and zoomed in on a square structure. It was built of carved and stacked stone, with an arched stone roof. Keying his radio, he said, "Nova, we got intelligent beings down there. Found a made structure, no one's around though. We should probably try to find some inhabitants."
"Eddie, we're closing on a lake, have movement on the ground and in the water. Atmosphere shows 18 percent oxygen, 6 percent carbon dioxide, 77 percent nitrogen. Traces of other neutral gasses, nothing poisonous," Nova reported. "By the way, is Suzanne sleeping?"
"Yup, her and Diane. I got a Colonial with me up here co-piloting."
"Same here, I got Alex with me … OK, the locals noticed us, we're five K up. I think they see our shiny ship."
"Heading towards you," Eddie said as he banked Porcupine in a turn. "So what do the locals look like?"
"Bipedal form, maybe leathery skin, it's kinda medium brown. Clothing around the groin, six digit hands and feet, webbed. Ahhh yeah, they got tails too, half body length and wide. With longer snouts, then could be Alabama swamp gators with long legs."
"Lizard people," Eddie concluded, then asked, "Don't look hungry, do they?"
"Smartass. Actually, they do. That is, unless their ribs, hips and backbones are suppose to show."
"OK," Eddie said in a huff. "Be right there. Stay above them. I'll get Suzanne." Eddie gave Lt. Adama pilot control and said, "Porcupine's on autopilot, headed for Phoenix's signal. Unless we're going to hit something, leave it that way."
Walking back to the wall to their sleeping area, Eddie opened, stepped through and shut the hatch. As he suspected, both his wives were out cold. He sat on the bed and lightly brushed Suzanne's hair out of her face.
"Hey, Suz? We need you up front," Eddie called.
"Mmmm" Suzanne moaned softly and dug her head into the pillow.
"Hon?" he asked and shook her shoulder. "We need you up front. Got a bunch of hungry lizards outside."
Suzanne's face frowned. What?" she asked as her red eyes opened.
"Get dressed while I explain," Eddie said and got her flight suit out for her. "The raptors won't make it back, so we split up and were looking for a place to set down. We found a planet, habitable. The locals are lizard looking people. Phoenix is over them now, we're going to join them. Neither of us have touched down yet."
Suzanne quickly got up, wearing only her panties, she got into her flight suit. "Diane, we're needed!" she barked.
"Huh? It's time already?" Diane asked puffy eyed as she raised her head.
"We got aliens." Eddie explained.
Exploding up and out of bed, Diane grabbed her flight suit from Eddie and put it on. "Anyone shoot yet?" she asked, quickly shrugging her suit on.
"We're planet side, and no." Eddie supplied.
