Title: Faoi Dheireadh
Part: 14
Rating: PG, maybe PG-13 later
Pairing: A/R
Summary: The survivors of the Holocaust have finally reached Earth, but they find out that's not the end of their problems
Beta: EllyMelly
Note: I do want to thank Vi, Marta, Axelrajr, Moggie, and AlbertG for their expertise. Without their input this story would not be what it is today. Be warned, this takes place sometime near the end of season two. Anything after Epiphanies are conjectures from the author's warped mind. . .
Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica and its characters are creations of Glen Larson and copywrited by Universal Studios. I make no money off of this.

Colonial speach: " "
English speach: ' '

Chapter Fourteen

Helo looked around the room and back down to the translation protocol he was working on. In all his years with computers, he never expected to be working with them this way. The XO, Jack, he remembered, was also trying to help but it seemed more of a hindrance at times. That was all right, though. What he lacked in skills with the Colonial tongue, he more than made up for it in enthusiasm, or so it seemed.

When the two ships arrived he felt relief coming from the crew, though he was not quite sure where it came from or what it was directed toward. He remembered feeling the same thing when he boarded the Galactica once again - - that was until Sharon appeared at the door and set free ensuing chaos as it erupted from around the room.

Sharon, he thought to himself. He missed her greatly and desperately wanted to know how she was doing. Helo knew he couldn't send any type of message to the Galactica, especially to the brig. The crew of the ship, Ddoraig Goch, he reminded himself, wouldn't understand, Hades, most on the Galactica still didn't understand either.

"Lieutenant Agathorn."

Helo turned around searching for the voice. A female officer he was unfamiliar with was walking towards his seat. "Captain O'Neill."

Nodding, he gathered up his things and followed her through what he thought was a twisting maze of corridors to what was now becoming a familiar door. When it opened he stepped inside. "You wished to see me? I'm still working on the translation program." He held up the pda.

"Not that, Lieutenant. There's something, though, that is very important," Mair said while waving a hand towards the seats. "When there is a first contact situation, such as what we have with your people, we have to take into consideration diseases. I want you to report to sickbay so you can get vaccinated. On Terra we've overcome some very nasty ones over the years. I suspect it is the same with your people."

"Yes." Helo nodded.

"Good." Mair nodded as flash of pain crossed her face before disappearing.

"Ma'am," Helo paused unsure of what to say, "Are you all right?"

"Don't worry about it. There's nothing you can do." Mair shook her head while internally berating herself for the slight lapse.

Nodding, but not quite understanding Helo got up and backed out of the office. He found the officer who had brought him there was still standing outside. Furrowing his brow he hesitated before remembering the term, 'Sickbay.'

Giving him a smile she turned and moved off in another direction. He followed fairly quickly, not wanting to get lost. When they reached sickbay he went through the normal battery of tests and then a multiple number of shots, all of which he took patiently. For a moment he wondered what his counterpart was dealing with on the Galactica. He didn't know how he would handle not being able to understand anyone else. I hope that officer is all right, he thought for a moment. He knew the best he could do to help him or her was to finish the programming. At the rate it was progressing it wouldn't take much longer. When he was finished he brought the updated program back to the commanding officer, O'Neill, and showed her his work.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. I know Lieutenant Glennan, will be greatly appreciative of you soon enough." Mair plugged the pda into the computer and let the updated program load into the primary memory banks. When finished she had it put in the queue of messages to be sent to Angela's computer in the next file transfer.

Helo gave a wan smile while nodding before leaving the office.

oOoOo

Joe Cottle held a chart in his hand while looking over the newest Colonial to get sick. If the Holocaust had not happened he would have been retired and living the quiet life. Now he had no idea if that was ever going to happen. The latest case brought in was one of the members of the press, D'Anna Biars. Her high fever and convulsions made him think she had radiation sickness or some type of poisoning. Not surprising since a majority of the press had been on Colonial One a few days ago. The first thing he had done was to run a scan to search for possible causes. At the moment he was waiting for the results to come back.

Reaching into his lab coat pocket, Cottle pulled out a pack of cigarettes and shook it slightly it to dislodge one of the thin rolled up pieces of tobacco. Setting the file down, he pulled it out and replaced the pack back in his pocket then lit the cigarette.

"Dr. Cottle," one of the techs called.

Turning around he reached for the results he had been waiting for. "Thank you," he mumbled as he stuck the end of the cigarette between his teeth and reviewed the results. "What the frack is going on with you," he mumbled at the report. "No radiation, and no poisoning. Everything in normal range." He glanced to the very sick woman, "Something's got you all messed up, and I have no idea what it could be."

oOoOo

Angela stepped out of the head with a towel wrapped around her slim frame. Reaching her rack she let the towel drop and reached for her clothing. Even though she was wearing BDU's earlier that day now she opted for one of her day uniforms. What she had seen so far didn't seem to indicate that they had any form of fatigues, whether it be desert, snow, or the traditional green. With a quick move, she let her fingers run through her short hair letting it fall naturally. Even though it was thick, it would dry fairly quickly.

Moving over to the table she opened her laptop and turned it on. A smile flitted across her face when she noticed the new downloads. Opening up the biggest file she immediately realized it was an updated translation program. 'I wish I could hug you, Captain,' she muttered to herself as she reached over and pulled her pda out of its cradle. 'This is exactly what I need.' Turning on the smaller computer, she checked to see if the connections were working properly then accessed the newly updated translation program. Pulling out the stylus, she wrote a few of the phrases in the Colonial tongue she did know and waited to see what would happen. Soon enough the English translations appeared underneath the Colonial terms. 'I can definitely work with this,' she commented.

Still smiling to herself, she wrote down something and saved the translation, it would be something she would use over and over. Before getting up she shut the laptop down and put it in an unobtrusive spot. When she opened the door she jumped back voluntarily. She was not expecting Gaeta to be standing there. For a second she stood there frozen before she forced herself to look to the pda. The sentence she had just saved was still on the screen. "I would like to go to breakfast," she smiled as she spoke the Colonial tongue. And I bet I have an atrocious accent, too, she thought to herself. He was about to answer her when she raised a hand to stop him. Pulling out the stylus she quickly wrote down for the translator then spoke again, "I have a new translation program." Angela held up the pda so Gaeta could look at the screen.

Nodding, he then indicated with his head in the generation direction. "Come."

"Breakfast?" Angela repeated the last word of her earlier sentence.

Gaeta nodded in assent.

'This will go better than expected,' she said softly to herself. For a moment Gaeta glanced to her. His reaction made Angela realize how much she talked to herself. It would be something she would have to work on. The room they entered was the same one from yesterday when the civilian attempted to take her pda. Once she sat down she began to write out something else for Gaeta to know. When he sat down she pushed the computer over to him and pointed to the screen while handing him the stylus.

"If you write what you want me to understand it will translate the text for you," he read quietly.

"Who?" he asked indicating the screen.

Angela furrowed her brow, trying to remember what the word meant. When nothing came she shook her head.

'Who?' he asked again.

It was Angela's turn to be surprised. She never expected Felix to even attempt to learn her language. Looking down to the pda she pulled up the information imbedded inside the program. There was only one word that it was connected too, but she wasn't sure if it was a person or not. "Karl 'Helo' Agathorn," she said while shrugging her shoulders.

Taking the stylus Gaeta wrote down that Helo was the Colonial liaison with the Terrans. Angela nodded, she knew she should have realized there would be some type of personnel exchange.

"Hey Felix," Kelly called from just inside the door.

Gaeta turned, "Yes. . .Sir?" he almost forgot the title.

"The Old Man wants to see you. Her too." Kelly nodded in Angela's direction.

Nodding, Gaeta said quietly, "Admiral Adama."

Nodding, the Terran officer picked up the pda and slid the stylus back in its spot and got to her feet and followed the tactical officer out and into the corridor.

oOoOo

Bill woke some time before reveille. For a moment or two he contemplated on having his rack expanded but quickly decided against it. If he did that then his crew would know something was going on. For now he selfishly wanted his relationship with Laura completely private. Plus, with a narrow rack, it made for interesting positions. For a time he considered what he would have done if she had died of the cancer that had ravaged her body. Even now he understood that he had come to rely on her more than he should have. For the longest time he kept up the front that the two of them needed to be in complete synch for things to run smoothly. Their earlier break had, he finally understood when they reached Kobol, been his fault. So he was the one to reach a hand out in reconciliation.

Turning onto his side, he tried to as unobtrusively as possible, to get out of the rack without waking Laura. He realized with some dismay it was not going to happen any time soon for her arms tightened around him. "Laura," he mumbled as his free hand ran through her thick burgundy hair. "I need to get up, Laura." When she didn't respond, Bill tried to figure out a way to wake her up without getting her too upset. The sigh that came out seemed almost resigned as he tipped her face up to his. At the last moment a faint gleam appeared in his eyes as he began to rain kisses over her face. Even with her eyes closed he could feel her soon struggle not to respond. She quickly gave that up and found his mouth blindly and settled into a long kiss.

Barely even stopping to breathe Bill found himself on his back with Laura now straddling him. With her provocative movements he quickly felt his grip on his self-control spiral out of his grasp. Soon he was in a swirling mass of sensations as she made love to him. After the crashing release, the first things he could consciously focus on were that she was gently tracing his long scar with her fingers. Pushing up on his elbows, he finally sat up and cupped her face while kissing her again. "Not what I had in mind, but it works." There was a slight sense of loss when the connection was broken and she slid off of him.

"What did you have in mind?" Laura asked as she watched him open his closet to retrieve one of his uniforms. Looking over his shoulder he gave her a slight smirk but ducked quickly when she threw one of the pillows at him. Turning back to the closet, he pulled out the uniform and moved into the head. He knew, she would follow him fairly soon and wasn't disappointed when she hung her suit on the semi-large hook on the inside of the door.

Once Bill was finished cleaning up, he went back to his office area and began to look over one of the never ending reports he got constantly.

"CIC to Admiral," Kelly's voice came from the small comm. speaker.

"Adama. What is it?"

"Sir, we've just received word that the larger of the two ships is a disaster-relief vessel. They are wanting population density reports from the different civilian vessels so the supplies can be disbursed accordingly."

Adama frowned for a moment before answering, "Have Lieutenants Gaeta and Glennan report to me."

"Yes, Sir."

Bill replaced the handset into its cradle while pondering what to do. What are they doing, and what will we have to give up in return for this assistance? he thought morbidly.

"What's wrong, Bill?" Laura asked as she stepped out of the head.

"The larger of the two new ships is a disaster-relief supply ship. If that's what it is, why did it take them this long to tell us?"

Laura raised her eyebrows, "You know I want to talk to the liaison about this."

"She's already been called. Captain Kelly has gone to search for her and Lieutenant Gaeta."

"Good. I do not like not getting information like this." Sitting down she continued while shaking her head, "But we are at their mercy."

"Until we can get the other civilian ships FTL drives working again," Bill answered.

"I wish we knew more about them." Laura leaned back and closed her eyes. "Like where they're from and if they know about Earth."

There was a knock on the door before Bill could answer. Giving Laura a look he stood up and moved to the door. Turning the lock, he pulled the door open to let the two officers come inside. At Glennan's look Adama realized that she had not been here before. The Terran's eyes did a quick scan of the entire room before settling on him. Her green eyes held curiosity at the moment.

"Lieutenant," Adama addressed his tactical officer. "One of the Terran ships is for disasters. I want to know why we weren't made aware if it earlier."

Turning to Angela, Gaeta pointed towards the pda. Without hesitation she pulled out the stylus and handed the small computer to him to. While writing down the question Gaeta commented, "Sir, Lieutenant Agathorn was able to update the translation program." When he was finished Gaeta handed the pda back to the Terran officer.

Why me, Angela thought as she read the thinly veiled demand. She lowered her shoulders while she shook her head helplessly. In a moment of confusion, realizing even she was left out of the loop her shielding thinned sufficiently enough for Adama to see that like the Colonials she was not told about the ship's contents. Looking down to the pda, Angela wrote quickly and then replied, "I am sorry, I am like you. I was not told about the ship. All I know was that four ships were requested, two frigates and two destroyers."

Adama finally nodded, having seen enough to know she was telling the truth, for now. "I want to find out why we weren't told."

Angela furrowed her brow in confusion. She was able to pick up a few words, but not enough to know what Adama had said. 'Please?' she asked as the conversation continued to go on while ignoring her.

"You believe her?" Laura got up and moved over to the group.

"Let's just say for now she is telling the truth," Adama answered cryptically.

Not getting the answer she wanted, Laura turned to Gaeta for help. She quickly found out the young officer was just as confused at Adama's reasons as she was.

"Please?" Angela finally asked. She felt like when she was a child growing up with the adults talking above her. The whole scene made her want to either throw the pda hard enough to smash it against the bulkhead, or put her head in her hands and cry. Nothing was going right and she could barely understand anything around her.

"Admiral," Laura started when she saw how Glennan was acting. "I think it would be good to get her out of this environment."

"What do you mean?"

Laura looked at him over her glasses, "If I were her, I would be tearing my hair out right now. She's confused and has no idea what we're talking about. And, we're not helping it either."

"Sir, if you want I'll learn her language. That way it will make things easier," Gaeta offered.

Adama looked from one to the other. The idea had merit, plus it was something he had not considered.

"And the Quorum needs to know about the supply ship. They are the ones that hold the population numbers."

"Lieutenant Gaeta, for the rest of the day I am releasing you of your duties. Because of yesterday's incident I want you to escort Lieutenant Glennan over to Cloud Nine where she can inform the Quorum of the disbursement of the supplies to the civilians."

Angela's head jerked around when she heard her name, though she wasn't sure what it was in reference about. "Yes?" she asked.

Having pity on her, Gaeta reached for the pda and wrote down for her about her impending trip to Cloud Nine and her meeting with the highest civilian government body the Colonials had left for the distribution of relief supplies to the appropriate ships.

"While that is going on, I'm going to talk with Captain O'Neill about why we weren't informed earlier," Adama said under his breath, but just loud enough for Laura to hear.

TBC...