"Lt. Celeste!"
She turned to see a bridge officer dashing toward her. Puzzled, she stopped, "That's me…what's going on?"
"The commander requests that you proceed immediately to the bridge." The officer told her, "And I'm to escort you."
"I see," Celeste's heart started beating very quickly. Frack! I was right! "Well, lead on."
She followed the officer to the bridge, noticing the shocked silence hovering over the normal bridge operation noise.
"What seems to be the trouble, Commander?" Celeste asked cockily.
Cain glanced up at her, seeming surprised that she was standing there, even though he had ordered her to be, "It's not trouble," he corrected, "but come and take a look."
She raised her eyebrows, but she strolled up to the ops station. What she saw on the comm. screen made her entire confident façade melt immediately.
"What the frack is going on?" she demanded.
Cain looked from the screen to the lieutenant standing next to him, "That's what I wanted you to tell me," he informed her, "you seemed to be in a big hurry to tell me something before."
"I wasn't expecting…" Celeste blinked at the woman in the commander uniform on the screen.
"Commander Cain! What sort of trick is this?" the woman demanded.
Celeste glared at the woman, "Who in Hades are you?"
"I'm Commander Celeste of the Battlestar Galactica! Who are you?"
"Look, lady," Celeste crossed her arms, "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but you can't be me. For one thing, I'd never be a commander." She looked closely and saw that the woman's hair was streaked with grey and her face showed some aging.
Commander Celeste blinked, "Well you can't be me because I'm on the Galactica!"
"Impossible!" Cain exclaimed, "The Galactica was destroyed!"
"You're one to talk, Cain," Commander Celeste shot back, "If I recall correctly, we were flying through your rubble not a secton ago."
"You're mistaken," Cain huffed, "We were the ones flying through your rubble! Where's Commander Adama? Why isn't he on the bridge? And what are you doing there?"
"Adama retired," Commander Celeste said dryly.
Lt. Celeste recovered from her shock, "Hey, it wasn't supposed to happen this way!"
"What wasn't?" Cain demanded.
Commander Celeste shook her head, "Cain, for a dead guy, you sure ask a lot of questions. Though I've got to admit, I would love to know exactly why I'm flying toward a ghost ship."
Lt. Celeste nodded, "I bet you would. It's kind of complicated, but I have a theory…look, why don't we all discuss this over ambrosia?"
"On the Galactica?" Commander Celeste asked.
"Absolutely not!" Cain stomped, "I will not be fooled, if this is some sort of Cylon trick."
"I was thinking the same thing about the Pegasus," Commander Celeste shook her head. She smiled at Lt. Celeste, "But if I can't trust myself, who can I trust? I'll be over there in three centares."
"We'll send a squadron to escort you in," Cain said gruffly, "So don't try anything or they'll blast you into oblivion."
"And if you try to attack us," Celeste folded her arms, "I'll have my squadron blow your pilots into space dust."
"Fair enough, we'll meet here in three centares." Cain nodded.
Commander Celeste gave one more suspicious look to her other self and grinned a bit darkly, "I look forward to it. Galactica out."
"Pegasus out," Cain said quickly before the transmission ended.
Celeste, Cain, and many of Cain's warriors, were there to meet the shuttle as it landed. An entire squadron of fighters landed alongside it, and the pilots immediately began exiting their craft. The shuttle door opened and several warriors and security personnel came out, followed by Commander Celeste.
Lt. Celeste blinked in disbelief. Seeing her older self on a screen was one thing, actually greeting herself as she exited a shuttle was just bizarre.
Commander Celeste glanced around at all of the warriors, then her gaze fell on the welcoming committee. She nearly tripped down the stairs.
Lt. Celeste recognized the well-hidden expression of sadness and shock in the commander's eyes as she descended and strode toward them with the air of confidence. Commander Celeste stopped a few feet from Cain and Celeste. She looked them over with some measure of disbelief.
"Commander Cain, we thought we'd seen the last of you." Commander Celeste nodded toward him. She narrowed her eyes at Lt. Celeste, "And I thought I'd seen the last of you yahrens ago. Kobal, was I ever that young?"
Up close, Lt. Celeste could see that her older self was indeed quite a bit older, thirty yahrens at least. She noted with satisfaction that even with age, she was still pretty good-looking, "Well I certainly wasn't expecting to see you, not for a while at least." Then it was her turn for recognition as the Viper pilots approached.
"Zac?" She half-grinned, then blinked, "And Boxey, too?"
"Enough with the reunions," Commander Cain broke in, "They're here for a reason, and I'd like to know what it is."
"Right," Lt. Celeste nodded, "I think you guys will want to be sitting for this."
She and herself followed Cain as the entourage headed for the Pegasus' conference room.
And I thought my life was already weird, Lt. Celeste thought, but it just keeps getting weirder!
"Okay, so I have this theory that seems to be proving itself correct," Lt. Celeste gave her older self a meaningful glance. They were all seated in the conference room, and the lieutenant formerly of the Galactica had their complete attention.
"Go on," Cain nodded.
Lt. Celeste grinned ironically at her other self, and then turned to Cain, "The theory is, somehow your super-weapon tore a hole in space. A…rift if you will." She gestured with her hands, "The problem is, the rift goes right through several…realities." She looked around, but no one was giving her blank looks, so she continued, "Not knowing what the weapon actually does, I have no idea how this happened. What I do know, is that wherever the rift appears in the other realities, it's near either the Pegasus or the Galactica in that reality, which means it's likely one or the other battlestar will end up flying right into it. Because the Pegasus is the point of origin, this is where they'll end up."
"So there could be more of us arriving." Commander Celeste concluded.
"Most likely," Lt. Celeste nodded.
Commander Cain gave them both a stern look, "We'll have to keep explaining this to each new ship. I won't stand for this."
"Not to mention the more ships go through, the bigger the rift gets." Celeste added.
"How do we fix it?" Commander Celeste asked.
Lt. Celeste shrugged, "As I said, it's just a theory. I'm definitely no expert. The knowledge of the universe that got squished into my head seems to be mostly gone."
"You too?" Commander Celeste asked, "Youch."
"It seems your theory's accurate enough," Cain grunted, "There's got to be a solution somewhere."
"It would help," Lt. Celeste replied, "if I knew what the weapon actually did."
"That's classified." Cain said quickly.
Commander Celeste joined Lt. Celeste in giving him disapproving stares. Commander Celeste crossed her arms, "Cain, no disrespect intended, but this has got to be fixed, and I don't know about you but I'd love to go back to my own reality."
Cain glared, "That, Commander, is really not my concern. I've got my own crew to think of."
Lt. Celeste winced, "Then I'd suggest you let us in on the secret, because I didn't tell you the really freaky part. I think that we're all in some sort of middle-reality…the place the Lords of Kobal called 'limbosh' in the ancient texts. And if we don't get out of here before too long, we won't ever be able to."
"Oh that's just great!" Commander Celeste flopped back in her chair, making it creak, "Are you saying I could get stuck with him for the rest of my life?" She gestured to Commander Cain.
"I've got to admit, Commander," Cain scowled, "I don't relish the idea myself."
"The only thing we've got going for us at the moment, is that if we are in limbosh, none of us can die," Celeste replied, "At least, that's assuming the texts were accurate."
"Ohh felgercarb," Commander Celeste sighed, "Not just the rest of my life, then. Eternally trapped with who-knows-how-many Galacticas and Pegasuses. Who knows how many Commander Cains…"
"All right," Commander Cain relented, "The weapon is designed to amplify ultrasonic waves and vibrate those Cylon monstrosities to pieces. Before we tested it, the scientists warned that the wave might gather strength as it traveled across space. However they also said that unless it struck another power source within a secton, it would be harmless."
"'Another power source' in this case being…?" Commander Celeste asked.
"The Galactica, in our reality," Lt. Celeste said slightly hoarsely.
"And in our reality," Commander Celeste concluded, "the tear in space destroyed the Pegasus."
Commander Cain gave Lt. Celeste a cold stare, "So you know how it works, what do we do about this?"
Commander Celeste turned expectantly to her younger counterpart.
"I'm not a scientist," Lt. Celeste shook her head, "But I think we need to find where the rip comes out here in this galaxy of nothingness. We can try flying through it, but who knows where we'd end up."
"Wouldn't we end up in our realities?" Commander Celeste asked, "I mean, I'm no expert either, but I did study cosmic theory at the Academy, and I remember something about the universe having a certain pull on what belongs in it, so it would make sense that our universes in our realities would sort themselves out."
Commander Cain looked from one Celeste to the other and nodded as if he understood perfectly, "Good, good, do it."
"Do what?" the Celestes asked in unison.
Cain stood up and waved his stick at them, "Do whatever it is you just said."
"Actually," Commander Celeste reasoned, "all we have to do is wait for the next battlestar to come through and mark its position."