Chapter 4 – Shocking Revelations Part II
(The looks Capt. Lance Grimm was getting from the occupants of the room save for his wingman were, to say the least, somewhat amusing. Or at least they would have been if the situation wasn't as serious as it was at that very moment. It came as no surprise to Grimm when the first question came out of the Admiral's mouth and not anyone else's.)
"Say again Captain? I thought I just heard you say that you know where the Cylon homeworld is."
"Admiral, I won't mince words with you, but we do know where it is."
"And with your fleet massed, you didn't bother to move on them when you could have easily eradicated them from existence?" came the question from President Roslin.
"Our mandate, from the time our ancestors left the colonies, was to survive. Our survival depends on the Cylons NOT knowing of our existence. To this point we have obviously succeeded in that, as the only case in which the Cylons have even come close was the incident 10 years ago. We have, begging your pardon, been operating under the assumption that should anything happen, the fate of humanity rests on OUR shoulders, and no one else's." the young captain's reply was a resolute one, delivered in such a way as to broach no questions.
"You said you'd been receiving updates from Colonial Fleet, and sending them as well. Why not send the occasional update after you'd determined that the Cylons didn't know where you were?"
"We couldn't take the chance, simply put. If the Cylons were to discover a communications pod or the craft that launched it, and then crack the codes, they could have easily found us and at that point, we didn't have the armaments to fight back. And then, you truly WOULD be the only ones left of our race in the universe."
"Not entirely true, the 13th tribe…"
"Admiral, I don't mean to cut you off, but we could sit here and debate this issue all day and get nothing accomplished and possibly have the Cylons jump in on us at any point or we could have the Captain and Lietenant here lead us to where we need to go." The calm voice of reason, Lee Adama, spoke up.
"That's a good point Major. Captain, do your orders for 'first contact' as you put it, include bringing us to meet your superiors should you deem us not to be a threat?"
"They do indeed, Admiral. I'll have to establish communications with Fleet HQ and inform them of the situation, but given the circumstances I'm sure they'd be willing to accept…"
"Captain, you have to remember, there may be Cylons in this fleet. They could easily record our coordinates when we get to your homeworld and have their fleet waiting to jump in on us the second we get there." The Admiral reminded him quickly.
"Precisely, Captain we can't just…" Lt. Devereux jumped into the conversation before being cut off.
"Lietenant, that's a decision for our superiors to make, not us. We have to make an assessment here in the field, and report back to them and let them make the final call. That being said Admiral, is there some kind of test you have to determine who is and isn't a Cylon?"
"Yes Captain. And to answer your next question, the entire crew of Galactica have been tested and there is only one Cylon on board this ship, and she's a trusted member of our crew."
"You're collaborating with a Cylon? Do you know what the penalty is for that?" Lt. Devereux piped up, nearly coming out of her seat.
"Stand down Lieutenant."
"But sir we can't just..."
"That's enough Lieutenant."
"Aye, aye sir."
"Tell me about this Cylon you have on board that's a trusted member of your crew, Admiral."
"Her name is Lieutenant Sharon Agathon, callsign Athena. She's the wife of one of my officers, and a very capable Raptor pilot in her own right. She's also been checked to see if the Cylon brain inside her is transmitting any kind of coordinate or intelligence data to the rest of the Cylons. We've concluded that it's not, and she's risked her life for this crew time and again. She's betrayed them, the way I see it, we have nothing to lose, and neither does she. She can't go back to the Cylons because she'll be effectively destroyed by having her mind placed into cold storage. Her only life is here."
"Still, she could be dangerous..."
"Captain, if she was going to bring the Cylons down on top of us, she'd have done it by now, that's the way I see it. I can understand your desire for caution, though."
"Perhaps then Admiral it would be best if the fleet made two separate jumps. The Civilian fleet could jump with Ashura and this Athena to a secured area just outside our system where we have at least 10 Battlestars and their respective fleets and fighter escorts patrolling around a newly built orbital defense and recon platform. That would be our sort of early warning system if you will. The Galactica could then jump with me to the orbit of Alteris, our homeworld."
"I don't like the idea of splitting our fleet Captain, because the worst case scenario is that the Cylons follow the civilian fleet, jump in with enough basestars to overwhelm the patrolling force in the secured area and I also don't like the idea of sending Athena alone into what could be a hostile environment for her." Admiral Adama retorted.
"Admiral, if I may interject, the battlestars we have recently been building have been proven capable of EASILY withstanding a sustained barrage of 500 kiloton nuclear detonations against their hulls. The largest warhead we've seen a raider carrying was a 50 kiloton nuke. And I would personally insure the safety of Lieutenant Agathon to make sure that nothing happens to her, or her Raptor." Lt. Devereux piped up.
"Oh I'm sure Athena will go for that. By the way lemme guess, the one that crash landed just happened to have a 50 kiloton nuke on it, right?" Starbuck eyed Lt. Devereux and the tone in her voice caught the attention of the Admiral, not to mention the fact that Starbuck had been uncharacteristically stoic throughout the proceedings.
"We know that it may mean that they have warheads that are more powerful than that, but we highly doubt that they've felt the need to go over the 50 kiloton mark because that, apparently, has been more than enough to do the damage needed."
"And if what you're insinuating, captain, is that this is all too convenient and smells like a trap to you, I can assure you that it's not." Devereux responded, almost in a hiss.
"Nobody is insinuating anything, Lieutenant. What we're trying to tell you is that for the longest time we've had to keep the future of humanity alive and we've not done that by gambling or by trusting easily." Starbuck replied, raising her voice a little more and moving forward in her seat and seeming ready to spring and pound the smaller Lt. Devereux into the bulkhead that she sat next to.
"Stand down, Kara."
"But Admiral…"
"That's an order, Captain Thrace."
The room fell silent for a moment before President Roslin chimed in.
"Captain Grimm, Lieutenant Devereux, I thank you for your time and for the fact that you have been as trusting of us as you have. I think I speak for all present when I say that it's a relief to know that we're not the only ones left out here. However, I must also advise caution on your part as we observe in our fleet. I would like to advise that you two jump back to your home world with a report, and a warning to your admiralty that they should have your civilian populace ready to go at a moment's notice should the Cylons follow this fleet. If they don't know where you are at this moment, they very well could if we jump into orbit of your planet."
"In the meantime we'll wait out here for your return, just know that if the Cylons jump in and attack, we'll have to move, and you may not be able to find us again, so due haste is appreciated."
"Understood Admiral. If you don't mind, we'll be taking our leave to do just that."
It was just then that the call came over the ships comm system, Lt. Gaeta sounding somewhat frantic.
"Action stations! Action stations! Set condition 1 throughout the ship. Admiral Adama please come to the CIC, Major Adama and Captain Thrace report to the flight deck immediately."
Hades and Ashura, along with Apollo and Starbuck, broke for the door at a dead run, and Admiral Adama took his leave of the scene, President Roslin close on his heels as he headed to the CIC…
"Sitrep Mr. Gaeta."
"Sir, two basestars just jumped into weapons range, bearing 270 carom 154. They're launching raiders. I already have the fleet in the process of jumping to the emergency coordinates."
"Carry on with the jump, launch alert Vipers. Have the LSO get our guests out into the fray as well, see if they can't jump home and bring us back some help."
"Alert Vipers are away, Hades and Ashura are in the process of takeoff from the port side landing bay."
"Enemy suppression fire all batteries execute."
"RADIOLOGICAL ALARM!" Hoshi called out from his position near Dualla.
"The raiders are carrying nukes."
"No sir, the two Stregas are. High yield warheads, somewhere in the range of 100 kilotons."
"Patch me through to Apollo."
To Be Continued…