I do not own Battlestar Galactica
Chapter 20 – Brewing Conflict
Following their meeting with the Civilian Assembly, Laura Roslin and Billy returned to Colonial One with their minds troubled. The Assembly had agreed to provide a relief package for their civilian population but on certain conditions.
Firstly the rationing system had to be adjusted to make it more efficient and less biased towards a select few. Secondly that they are to be recognised as an independent nation in their own right and free of any influence from the old Colonial Government's regime that many of them had suffered under as working class people. Thirdly Gaius Baltar must step down as Vice President and finally that a referendum be held to determine if the fleet's population felt that she was the right person to lead them.
If it meant getting the food and supplies that were desperately needed for the people, Laura would gladly step aside to let a vote take place, but the other stipulations were sure to be met with resistance. Many of the Quorum members would lose all but the minimum rations to this and Gaius Baltar was sure to resist him being removed from power and finally the resisting of their influence by the Assembly. She could do little to stop them from doing something stupid if the majority voted for an action. The articles of colonisation stated that if the Vice President and the Quorum agreed not only could they rescind any order she gave but even remove her from office. Designed to stop a rash president from making a monumental blunder it now could be used to stop her from preventing them making one.
Billy noticed her troubled look and said to reassure her "Madam President I'm sure everything will be fine" smiling a strained but warm smile. She felt her heart warm at his words even if she knew they were mostly just kind words. She had also been impressed at Telmaya. Having only the veteran Galactica in her experience of Battlestars, the brightly lit corridors and clean bulkheads as well as the more advanced technology aboard made Telmaya seem light-years ahead of Galactica and also made her aware that if it came to a fight between the two, Galactica might not win she thought grimly.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On the Battlestar Telmaya's CIC Amelia Cartwright sat at her station dealing with comm traffic as it buzzed its way around the fleet. It was a habit of her which made the aching pit of loss inside her ease. That she was not alone and that despite the horror of what had happened life went on, humanity may be down but not out.
She was just about to sign off from her shift when she received a message from Galactica addressed to her personally. With the customary anti-virus scans and some suspicion she opened the message and read the contents
To Lieutenant Amelia Cartwright, Battlestar Telmaya
I have information regarding your biological family and wish to meet with you aboard the liner Cloud Nine tomorrow at fifteen hundred hours. The meeting spot will be by the fountain in the main garden area of the dome. Come alone
The message wasn't signed and Amelia felt ambivalent about this. On the one hand she was very suspicious of the out of the blue communication about family that she had never met nor heard from. But on the other hand a part of her was begging to go, to discover perhaps who she truly was a where she came from. It had almost been a sore spot for her, not knowing details about her past that many people took for granted. Watching families from afar had always caused a pang of longing inside her despite how good her adoptive fathers had been. But then a voice woke her from her musings, almost making her jump
"Something wrong lieutenant?" said Colonel Sheba Cain and Amelia quickly got up and turned around to face her superior officer
"Just a message I received sir" she said honestly, she had always been a hopeless liar and given the tensions that were beginning to rise between the different military ships did not want to be accused of being a spy.
"And hat did this message say?" Sheba asked her sternly her eyes' looking piercingly into Amelia's who struggled not to look away.
"It's a message claiming to have information on my biological family and they want to meet me tomorrow on Cloud Nine alone" she told her. Sheba was a tough officer, demanding only from the people under her and was intimidating enough to achieve it without being too hard. But once you had worked with her for a while she relaxed a bit around you and became friendlier but if anyone started slacking off she quickly reverted back to her intimidating other self.
Although only her best friends would notice this, Sheba's eyes softened for a moment before saying "What do you intend to do?"
"I don't know sir; I mean this family abandoned me, why should I bother if they didn't?" Amelia said breaking the thin veneer of a Colonial officer just for a moment, hoping that Sheba might give her some advice.
"You don't know precisely what might have happened Amelia. They might not have intended to leave you there, but you'll never know if you don't try. But you might hear things that you might not like so do you think you could handle that?" Sheba asked her directly
Amelia nibbled her bottom lip for a moment as she mulled over this and told her friend and senior officer "I need to know" with a trace of fear in her tone
"Then do it, we can have Tyber follow you at a distance if you want?" Sheba said and Amelia shook her head
"No I'll do this alone"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
At the Quorum meeting that Laura Roslin had called to discuss the proposals of Civilian Assembly this was not a meeting she was relishing but it had to be done. She sat at the head of the table with the other representatives on each side and Baltar sitting at the bottom looking anxious although Roslin didn't know why.
"As you know I have met with the civilian government of the Telmaya fleet" Laura said starting the meeting but within a moment she was interrupted by the Gemonese delegate Sarah Porter
"When will this fleet begin integrating into our own?" she asked rudely not caring much for the President and confident enough to more or less declare it
"I was getting to that before I was so rudely interrupted" Laura said shutting down Porter for the moment "They have agreed to provide a relief package for our own fleet consisting of food, water, parts and personnel to assist in repairing our ships" Roslin stopped for a moment as she watched her words sink in and braced herself for what she was about to start "Providing a number of conditions are met"
As she predicted it wasn't long before the angry murmurs started and Marshall Bagot the Virgon delegate asked "What conditions?"
And so Laura listed them "Firstly the rationing system had to be adjusted to make it more efficient and spread rations out further. Second that the Civilian Assembly as they have named themselves are recognised as an independent nation, third that Gaius Baltar must step down as Vice President and finally that a referendum must be held immediately to determine whether or not the fleet want me as the president" she said
There was a moment of silence before everyone suddenly started yelling in anger against the proposals that had been set and Roslin had to yell for calm before any real sense could be made out of it
"Preposterous those of citizens of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and they will obey the Quorum of the Twelve" Porter yelled and Roslin shook her head at Porter's words
"They have their own sovereignty as far as I'm concerned and they'll fight for it if they have too and I'm willing to step down as President if that is what it takes to get our people the supplies they need to survive and so should you. As the Quorum of the twelve you are responsible to the people you represent" Laura reminded them and added firmly "These are non-negotiable and we need those supplies now, if you have to make sacrifices to ensure that then you will do it" bringing the matter firmly to a close
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Telmaya Seth Trakiss had just returned from Colossus and his meeting with Colonel Colchester. It had gone more or less as he had planned and he was looking forward to some downtime with his favourite woman in the whole universe. He walked into his cabin and smiled when he saw her there. Kendra was sitting on the couch in a civilian shirt and pants with her sixth month's pregnant belly prominent, her hair was loose in waves around her shoulders and she was practically glowing. She was reading a book and looked up when he entered and smiled.
"Hey" she said as he came to sit down and pulled her into his arms so she was leaning back against him
"Hey" he said back placing a kiss on the top of her head
"So how did it go?" she asked him
"As well as can be expected, how are you and our little girl doing?" he said gently placing his hand on her swollen stomach
"We are doing fine and I told you it's a boy, the amount of kicking I get from him is proof of that" she said and they stopped talking and just smiled taking comfort in each other's presence.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The next day Amelia took a shuttle to Cloud Nine and arrived early at the fountain area of the dome garden. She sat down on the wall and waited for someone to approach her. She had been debating with herself all night whether she should come or not. Tossing and turning in her bunk she had only managed to lose a night's sleep over this before she had finally decided to come.
With each passing moment she was tortured by images of what might happen and as the moment finally arrived she was interrupted from her daydreams when a hand was gently placed on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Captain Lee Adama from the Galactica standing above her with a smile on his face. She quickly jumped to attention and saluted
"Sir I was just waiting for someone and I lost track of time" she said quickly and Captain Adama put his hands up to stop her rambling
"At ease lieutenant I was the one who sent the message" he told her and Amelia looked at him in surprise
"You sir" she said and Lee couldn't help but look at her eyes and see a reflection of his own
"I know who your parents are Amelia. I can call you Amelia right?" he asked and Amelia was instantly confused. As a senior officer he had the right to call her anything he wanted and the way he asked her showed he was nervous about something putting her on guard
"Yes sir" she said slowly "With all due respect sir can you please tell me what you know"
"Yes of course" he said and pulled an old picture out of his pocket that he had been given by his father and passed it to her. Amelia looked at the small photograph and saw the blonde haired woman on it; she was bout mid-thirties with a big smile on her face. Amelia just stared seeing the resemblance between the other woman and herself and almost missed Lee speaking
"This was your mother, her name was Carolanne" he said "She had you without telling your father or even your two brothers and presumably left at the Orphanage"
Amelia just stared in shock, the way he had said it made it sound like her mother had been killed in the attack but he said that she might have a father and two brothers out there that don't even know she existed. But why had her mother abandoned her?
"Why did she do it?" she asked him with anxiety in her voice
Lee gave her a sad smile "I don't know, at that point in her life she was drinking heavily and going through a very messy divorce. Perhaps she couldn't stand the strain of another child or maybe she didn't want her husband insisting they stayed together for your sake"
"So who is my father?" she asked still reeling from the revelations
"Commander William Bill Adama of the Battlestar Galactica" Lee told her
Amelia stopped still, trying to process what he had just said. That couldn't be right, her father was her commanding officer's rival for command of the Colonial Military and Captain Lee Adama was her brother
"How do you know this?" she said with fear creeping into her tone "I thought you said that she didn't tell you about me"
"I know because when I look at you, I can see Carolanne and our father" he told her and suddenly it occurred to Amelia that their eyes were the same shade of striking blue. Her eyes had always been her most prominent feature and it seemed that they were a family trait.
"I…I need to think about this" she said and quickly walked away from the fountain leaving Lee who stared after her thinking
'Well that could have gone better'
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile on the Zephyr in a disused storage room, Gaius Baltar had called a secret meeting of the Quorum members without Roslin being there to oppose what he was about to suggest
"Right get this over quick Baltar; I want to get out of here as soon as possible" Robin Wenutu the Canceron delegate, hoping to leave this dirty place and return to her comfortable quarters on the Pan Galactic liner she had made her home on.
"Well thank you all for coming of course" he said with his usual charm in every word "We know that Roslin is letting the supposed Civilian Assembly walk right over us. We need those supplies and they need to remember that they are part of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol whether they like it or not" he told them and he saw that they agreed with him "So I propose that we simply 'take' what we need from them and send some marines from Galactica to 'convince' the Assembly to disband back into our own government" he said
The reaction to the statement was mixed, many of the representatives like Sarah Porter nodded in support but two of them looked unsure
"What about Roslin? She would never allow something like this and how do we know that the marines would obey the order? We could be accused of treason" Oswyn Erika the Libran delegate asked looking nervous about this act of treason
"Not if the order came from the President" Baltar said and they looked surprised and confused "If the Quorum votes accordingly we can strip Roslin of her Presidency and as the Vice President I can then sign the order legally"
It was enough to convince Oswyn who nodded in agreement, but Baltar missed the look on Tom Zarek's face as he pondered this development and how best to use it to his advantage.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A few light-years away from the fleet a Raptor was doing a long range scouting mission, it was dull and tedious but a very important job to scot the local area looking for toasters and potential hazards or resources nearby.
Racetrack and her co-pilot Skulls were bored but that was nothing new and they continued to banter playfully
"Okay first time?" Racetrack asked him and he looked at her
"Seriously?" he asked and she replied
"Seriously"
"Okay, Michelle Tomkins behind the Pyramid court of Delphi High School during the game where no-one could see us. You?" he asked
"Hmm, that would have to with my senior year of high school tutor Mr Wayne over his desk" she said and Skulls looked over at her surprised before she laughed and he realised she just been joking
But they were suddenly distracted from their talk by the displays on Skulls board started making noise and both of them suddenly became all business
"I have a group of small contacts bearing 360 by 248, they seem to be drifting" he told his pilot and Racetrack adjusted her course to check it out. A minute or so later they arrived at what looked like a battle site. Wrecked Colonial Vipers and Cylon raiders drifted in the vacuum
"IDs" she called out to Skulls hoping to identify the mother ship that had launched the Vipers which might still be around given that there was no wreckage of a larger vessel around
"Checking" he told her accessing the beacons that were still working and loaded the data "These birds belonged to Red squadron on the Battlestar Pegasus"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Good? Bad? Let me know by reviewing