"That's unacceptable," Gaeta said tiredly. The headache wasn't worse, but after listening to the opposed parties argue, it wasn't better either. He was frustrated, and tired, and no one was prepared to be reasonable. "Putting the Cylon refugee camp on a completely different continent will, I am sure, make everyone feel better, but it would be an organizational and supply nightmare. Who do you think is going to handle setting up an entirely new infrastructure? On a separate continent?" And he could see that neither Roslin or Six were truly listening to his words. They were busy glaring at each other. He glanced around the table. Kara and the Two were also glaring, but Admiral Adama caught his eye and nodded slightly. The older man leaned away from the table, signaling that he didn't intend to interfere.
"What do you propose, Cmdr. Gaeta?" Roslin asked. He had heard that sort of cold, ugly tone of voice from her before, but never directed at him before. Which means, he thought with no small amount of concern, that she won't like what I say.
"I propose that the settlement be set up adjacent to the colonial military's main ground base." Judging by the frowns, neither Roslin or Six understood why.
"That's too close to the main township. For security reasons, I think there should be some separation." Roslin's words were cold.
"I agree," Six said. "Obviously there is some potential for… ugly incidents, on both sides, and we would prefer some separation."
"That's too bad," Gaeta said, his temper rising. He tapped the computer built into the table and brought up a series of charts displaying the station's current resources. "Let me explain the current situation. The Federation is at war. We haven't gotten any official contact or orders, but I am going to take Commander Six's word and accept that it's the Dominion. That, by the way, is a worst case situation. Until I receive orders to do something different, my responsibility is to defend this system to the best of Starfleet's ability. That means I am pulling every member of Starfleet from their research positions here and at the New Atlantis FTL Institute and I am recalling any reservists in the area so I can arm and staff the three training vessels that don't yet officially belong to New Atlantis. And I won't have enough people, which means I will have to ask Admiral Adama to second some of the trained colonials to Starfleet. I may even need any Cylon experts. What that means is that Admiral Adama will in turn have to pull anyone and everyone he can back into a uniform to keep your local military ready. That leaves you with too few people to build a completely separate colony on the other end of this planet. I may be able to spare a few people to act as security between the two groups, but I do not have several hundred people to hand over to you to assist you." It also ignored the fact that as soon as communication as reestablished, if the situation was bad enough, Surprise would be pulled and reassigned to fight. He doubted anyone had considered that.
"The military base has that new section that was being set up as permanent housing for military families," Adama offered. "The commander has a very valid point about staffing and where Starfleet needs to focus. He's right. We can't afford to waste time when there's an easy solution right in front of us."
Thank you, Gaeta though tiredly. If there was a flaw in assigning him to the colonials sector, it was the issue of authority. Roslin, and Adama, and most of their senior people, had spent years giving him orders. Even the Cylon, if she had been on New Caprica And Bill Adama was letting him take the hit from Roslin, he realized after a moment. Adama had come to the same conclusions he had about staffing and supplies. Which wasn't exactly something he appreciated but at least someone was agreeing with him. The Two that was Six's second in command seemed to be nodding as well, another good sign. "So we have a workable solution."
"We do not," Roslin said angrily. The Six glared as well.
"Why don't we take a short break," Adama said after a long moment. " To consider the idea?" He gave Roslin a meaningful look.
"What sort of game are you playing here," Laura snapped as the door to the small conference room closed, leaving her alone with Bill Adama. She was angry, Bill realized, and in a way that meant it was a good thing he had called for a break.
"You're being unrealistic, and Cmdr. Gaeta is about to pull rank on you," Bill said it gently. "You're usually better at this than I am, Laura, but you're a politician and not a military leader and you're letting your anger get the best of you." And he suspected that the Cylons were having a similar discussion, but he didn't draw her attention to it. "Gaeta is dancing around the fact that he's actually the one in charge." Not doing a great job of it either, in Bill's opinion, but it was a bizarre situation the younger man was in. "He's right. We are at war. He doesn't have the manpower to let you settle the Cylons in a remote place. He's trying to let you and Commander Six save face and come to the same conclusions he has without rubbing it in your face that technically, you have to follow his orders on this."
"What?" she said darkly.
"We are *Federation citizens* now," Adama said. He had suspected that Laura hadn't fully internalized what that really meant and that would make things harder. "Gaeta is in charge of the sector," until he was ordered into the fight with Surprise, and Bill suspected Laura hadn't realized that either, "and he controls all the Starfleet personnel and he is going to make decisions that take into account Starfleet's position first. He's allowing this discussion so that we can come to an amicable solution with the Cylons, so that both sides can walk away feeling as though their concerns were addressed, but the reality, Laura, is that he can order the Cylon refugee camp to be in the center of New Atlantis's main settlement." He let her consider that for a long moment. "From a supply and convenience standpoint, it's a perfect solution. You've already got a new apartment complex being built."
"That is ridiculous and I'd protest that, strenuously," Laura said, her eyes flashing.
"Protest to who? Starfleet?" He sighed. "Laura, right now, communications are completely down. There's no one to protest to. When communication is back, this will be considered a very minor issue at best. And you'll lose. And…"
"And what?" She looked concerned.
"Has it occurred to you that this is the worst case scenario for Starfleet? This Dominion makes Cylons look like nothing. I've read the reports. I read Cmdr. Gaeta's paper on Starfleet readiness. There are major colonies near the Cylons colony world and they've fallen." Bill looked at her worriedly. "You need to compromise on this, Laura, because we may need to use the Cylons to defend our world."
"That's insane." She said it coldly and began to pace around the room. A good sign, Bill thought. It meant she was starting to think beyond her initial reaction. "How bad do you think this could get?"
"Gaeta could be over reacting," he allowed, "but I doubt it. At the very least, we have to consider what his actions will do to our own preparedness." He almost smiled at her sudden realization.
"If he pulls all of the Starfleet personnel at the FTL Institute, that'll cascade through the colony," she said after a moment.
"I don't think he's over reacting," Bill added, "So I won't be refusing him when he asks for the military personnel who have trained on the Starfleet vessels, and I will have to pull all the reservists to maintain our defenses."
"Which means we're going to be desperately short handed," Roslin said. He could almost see the wheels turning in her head. "And the more conciliatory we are right now, the more likely Cmdr Gaeta is to take our side in any disagreement over smaller issues." She sighed heavily. "So we're going to have Cylons as neighbors."
"Hopefully this won't end as badly as the last time," Bill said.
"It's hard to think it could end any worse," Laura said, her voice cold with suppressed anger.