BATTLESTAR HERMES SICKBAY
The footsteps grew closer and closer as they slowly made their way towards Chloe Burmeister as she lay with her back to the rest of the room. As they got to within a few feet she soon began to realise that they were familiar somehow? They stopped just behind her and waited for her to acknowledge the person's presence. Feeling the visitor's eyes boring into the back of her body she felt compelled to turn over as she realised who the visitor was. With her left arm all but useless as a result of her self inflicted injuries Chloe had to use all her abdomen strength to turn herself over and her eyes looked up to find Caleb Dytto looking down at her with pityful eyes. She had dreaded this moment perhaps more so than her talk with Bowman? It was a strange comparison for Chloe but they way she felt at that moment was similar to when she was ten and had broken the glass in one of her 'Uncle Caleb's favorite pictures of him and her father. She felt like the world was going to end and that he would never forgive her but of course he did and yet here she was almost fifteen years later and once again she felt like that small child as he looked down at her with her limp arm draped across her chest.
For a few minutes neither of them could speak. She kept waiting for some long winded speech about the immorality of what she had done; getting pregnant outside of wedlock and then desecrating her own body! Both were major Taboos in Gemonese culture that called for strict religious codes of conduct to be adhered to at all times. The air between the two of them seemed to turn thick as if both were putting up a wall between themselves until finally one of them spoke.
"Why?" said Dytto mournfully. Not even he was sure where exactly the question was directed at since there were several things that he wanted to address that question to her about. Sensing that there was little she could say to make him understand any of this she simply turned her back to him and returned to the position he had found her in. Dytto became filled with rage. He wanted answers. He wanted her to tell him everything but her continued silence turned to anger and finally hatred. Before it manifested into a physical notion, and Gods know he could feel it building up inside, he turned away and left her there. For the first time in his life he had walked away from her when she needed him most.
'MAGMA'S RESCUE TEAM
Every minute that passed in the Erebus Belt gave each the two rescue teams the impression that it was one more nail in the coffin for their missing comrade. Not one member of the team was under any illusions about the possibility that he may already be dead and that they are risking their lives and equipment on a pointless effort that would prove ultimately fruitless. But hope can be a powerful driving force. Hope can force someone to do extraordinary things in the face of great hardship. The most cynical would describe hope as self deception or ignoring the hard truth but without hope all is lost and it was with that notion that the rescue team pushed on without hesitation. Except for one.
'Magma' held the controls of her Raptor firmly as it made its way through the belt with her ECMO 'Fuzz'. 'Hot Top' and 'Boxer' were providing cover in the their Vipers that sat on either side of the Raptor in a defensive posture. 'Fuzz' worked his DRADIS screens as he tried to make sense of the clutter from the Belt. The returns were proving able to spot an object immediately in front of them but were having a hard time distinguishing between a ship and a rock since the DRADIS returns had overlapping signals from the reflecting effect of the crystalline in the rocks.
"This is frakking hopeless!" said 'Magma' almost vemously. "Chances are the guy's dead! We should take Hermes and get out of here!"
"Not while there is a chance he is still out there praying like hell that someone finds him" shot 'Fuzz'! "We've lost too many people over the past month. What if it was you out there? Would you want us to just take off and leave you?"
'Fuzz' had hit upon one of 'Magma's most dominant traits - her sense of self preservation. If it was her she would indeed want the air wing to make every effort to find her but that same feeling of self preservation was telling her to get out of the Belt and leave 'Bingo' to die. It was shockingly selfish but 'Magma' could live with it.
"What the hell is that?" gasped 'Fuzz' as a blip appeared and then vanished momentarily. 'Magma's heart froze.
"What is it? Cylons?" she gasped!
"I-I don't know" replied 'Fuzz' as he stared at the screen waiting for whatever it was to reappear. "It might have been a ship but the returns are so confused it could have been anything. Bring us around!"
"What?" she wailed! "You said you didn't know what it was? It could be anything?"
"Yea or it could be 'Bingo'! What's the matter with you?" This was not how a Raptor crew should behave and both knew it. A Raptor crew should be harmonious like an orchestra but 'Magma' had a way of alienating all those around her. She was always the 'booby prize' for ECMOs without a pilot for one reason or another, made worse by the fact that an ECMO had already died on a mission with her in mysterious circumstances during the first few days after the destruction of the colonies. There was no evidence to suggest foul play on her part but the suspicion lingered. 'Magma', very reluctantly, acknowledged the order from 'Fuzz' and she turned the Raptor around. Maintaining radio silence except in emergencies the two escort Vipers had to follow every move the Raptor made without knowing where and why they were going in a new direction.
'Fuzz' kept a close eye on the screen as the Raptor retraced its route and suddenly there it was again.
"There it is!" he bellowed with enthusiasm. "Two-one-seven carom five-one-six! Let 'Hot Top' and 'Boxer' know we've found something!"
'Magma' half rolled the Raptor from side to side three times to signal to the escort Vipers that they had found something and intended to investigate. She looked out at 'Hot Top' who acknowledged the signal with a similar 'flapping' display before turning the Raptor on to the new heading indicated by 'Fuzz'. The flight of three spacecraft began passing a series of exceptionally large rocks the gravity of which had been drawing in smaller rocks for thousands of years. The concentrated crystalline deposits were still making a mess of the DRADIS returns but suddenly 'Fuzz' yelled out in his helmet, "Oh my Gods! It's him! We found him! We found him!"
"Where is he?" asked 'Magma' with a sense of urgency. 'Fuzz' guided them towards the signal that he had confirmed was a large remnant of a Viper. In the darkness of the Erebus Belt 'Magma' couldn't make out the Viper with her own eyes but could see a silhouette ahead and so she turned on the Raptor's poweful search light and trained it in the direction of what she thought was 'Bingo's Viper. The powerful beam ran up the nose of the crippled spacecraft and they quickly identified it as one of their own Vipers spinning slowly in space. Both the Raptor crew and the two escort Vipers waited with held breath as the light fell upon the cockpit. For a few seconds there was no reaction but then suddenly they could make out a hand moving frantically back and fore. "H-He's alive!" gasped 'Magma' with some glee being thankful that their mission wasn't a waste of effort. But the faint smile that sat across her face began to fall the closer they got to 'Bingo's Viper as she realised that he was desperately trying to indicate to something.
'Hot Top' had come to realise this too and she throttled her Viper ahead of the Raptor before coming to a stop just a few feet from 'Bingo' who was immersed in the powerful spotlight. She looked in and saw he was frantically trying to bring their attention to something every time his Viper spun around a certain spot. She glanced over in the direction and for a moment and something caught her eye. It was a sparkle! Only a momentary one as if a stray beam of light glanced off the hull of a spacecraft! She nodded to 'Bingo' that she had seen it before positioning herself in front of 'Magma's Raptor so that the two crew and 'Boxer' could see her. She reached into the pocket of her suit and took out a small flashlight and held it in the direction of 'Magma's Raptor. Using the flashlight she signalled that she had spotted something on the surface of the planetoid and gave rough directions to it. She then signalled that she intended to investigate before 'Magma' attempted a rescue. 'Boxer' pulled up alongside 'Hot Top' and the two of them proceeded away from the crippled Viper and Raptor in the opposite direction to whatever it was they were investigating. 'Hot Top' was smart enough to know that it was foolish to just go diving in and take a look. If it was the Cylons then they would blast them out of the sky in seconds.
'Magma' sat with her hands on the throttle ready for them to run if anything happened. The orders that were relayed down from Bowman by Adonia rang in her mind. Regardless of whatever situation 'Bingo' is in, if the rescue team have even a hint of Cylon activity they are to turn tail and run. Waiting for 'Hot Top' and 'Boxer' to identify what was out there she had every intention of carrying out that particular order if it proved to be a Cylon ambush.
'Hot Top' and 'Boxer' had used the debris in the Erebus Belt to mask their approach around the opposite side of the planetoid. Hugging the features of it's surface 'Hot Top' armed her weapon system and could only assume that 'Boxer' had done the same. As the two Vipers got closer to the object she lowered her landing gear. If they had been inside an atmosphere this action would have imposed a heavy drag on the otherwise streamlined Viper. 'Boxer' had immediately caught on to what 'Hot Top' was going to do and knew that he didn't have to follow suite. They were now just a few seconds away from the object which was laying in a crater. 'Hot Top' slowed her craft down and 'Boxer' emulated her until both were at a relative standstill. She leaned over to look at her wingman and signalled for him to remain here while she checked it out. 'Boxer' acknowledged as he prepared to cover his wingman before she moved her Viper closer until it was no more than a few feet from the circumference of the large indentation made into the planetoid by a collision that happened many thousands of years ago. At that point, with her finger on the trigger, she rose her Viper up over the wall of the crater and turned on her landing light that was situated on the forward landing skid. Although not particularly powerful the light allowed her to see what it was that was in the crater.
Expecting to see Cylons she was stunned to find her light was in fact shining on a blue and grey hull of a ship. Her finger instinctively moved off the trigger as she realised that she was looking at a section of a civilian transport ship that had landed in the crater. She floated her Viper around the ship as she inspected it and realising the significance of the find she turned on her gun camera to record what she was seeing. It was not long before her landing light passed over a name and 'Hot Top' mouthed the word as she read it. "Alexis!" Now having more of an idea of what the ship looked like she realised that it was in fact a Colonial Heavy Liner. The pilot, in what looked like an effort to stop the vessel floating off the immense planetoid, had dug the skids into the hard rock and there was some damage to them but not severe.
'Hot Top' glanced down at her clock that was counting down to Hermes' planned departure time. They had less than twenty minutes left! She couldn't waste anymore time so she fired her vertical thrusters and her Viper rose high above the crater for 'Boxer' to see that it was safe to continue with the rescue. There was a sudden thumping sound from the top of her Viper. She looked up to see if she had hit hit anything and gave out a high pitched shriek.
"Frak me!" she gasped in horror as the body of a man wearing just an ordinary business suit slid over the canopy of her Viper and off in to the Belt his body becoming just another piece of debris. She fought to calm her heart as it beat heavily in her chest from the shock. As she brought her Viper around to head back to the Raptor and 'Bingo' the light from her forward landing strut passed over two more bodies. "What the hell happened here?" As 'Boxer's Viper passed low over the ship he throttled up and the glow from the engines momentarily lit up the marooned spacecraft just enough for 'Hot Top' to get an overall look at the vessel. In the blue glow that the ship was bathed in 'Hot Top' could see that the main passenger air lock had been opened venting some of the passengers into space. She quickly calmed herself as she snapped out of her horrified gaze. They had to recover 'Bingo' and get back to Hermes.
BATTLESTAR HERMES COMBAT INFORMATION CENTRE
Bowman could still feel the effects of the stims as the ship was recovering the three group nine Raptors that had just returned from Scorpia. With little to do he found himself beginning to pace around the Operations Desk in what could almost be viewed as an agitated state just to burn off a little of the excess energy. Luckily for him everyone was too busy concentrating on their jobs to notice.
"The last Raptor is aboard sir" said Adonia who had been speaking to the Hangar Deck.
"Very good. What's the ETA on our rescue teams?" asked Commander Bowman. Adonia checked the clock.
"They should be arriving back any minute now. Should I alert sickbay?" Adonia's request seemed almost empty in a way. As the hour drew on some of them in the CIC had given up hope of finding their missing pilot. They all expected to have one team back by now with him aboard if he was alive? Cutting it so close had made them come to think that the rescue teams hadn't found anything and that 'Bingo' was gone for good.
"DRADIS contact!" interrupted the voice of Petty Officer Durand who was currently manning Burmeister's position. "I'm getting a Colonial transponder. It's 'Stinger's Raptor!"
"Authenticate! Don't just take their word for it!" barked Bowman partly due to the stims but also partly due to the fact that if it was Chloe Burmeister at the station he knew he would never have to remind her to authenticate the contact. He missed seeing the young Captain at that station but above all he missed her expertise.
"Transponder codes are authentic!" replied the scolded Petty Officer.
Bowman picked up the handset from the Operations Desk and said to the communications officer on duty, "Patch me in to them! Short wave only!" He began to regret taking the stims as he seemed to find himself telling his crew what they should be doing when at any other time he knew he would never have to. When the communications officer acknowledged that the connection was ready Bowman spoke into the handset, "'Stinger' this is Hermes Actual! Report!"
"Actual this is 'Stinger!' No sign of enemy contact. We appear to have a straight run for the time being."
'Stinger' was no rook! He had used the Golden Words of any Raptor pilot in that he reminded everyone listening that for the time being at least they had a clear run to the new hiding place but in war that could change in less than a heartbeat and it would take Hermes well over an hour to transit.
"Very good!" replied Bowman. "Hold your position off our starboard bow until further notice! Actual out." Bowman hung up the handset on the desk and turned to Adonia. "Once our rescue teams are back aboard I want to go to Condition One and launch a full force CAP around the ship. Vipers and Raptors! The more eyes we have out there the better."
"Yes sir!" acknowledged Adonia who began speaking with the Hangar Deck once again.
"New contacts!" reported Durand. "One Raptor and six Vipers! I have authenticated their transponders. They're ours."
Both Bowman and Adonia shot worried glares at each other. They were missing a Raptor and two Vipers. They hadn't made the rendezvous and the clock had now expired. Bowman turned to Durand and asked, "Who are we missing?"
"'Magma' and 'Fuzz's Raptor. 'Hot Top' and 'Boxer' were flying escort."
Each name that Durand called out left a hard lump in Bowman's throat until he felt like he could no longer breath as his stim fuelled mind worked overtime. The clarity that Bowman normally relished was gone replaced by a confusing whirlwind of emotion and tactical logic that was binding together to disorient the Commander. He had managed to keep himself calm on the surface as any Commander should in this situation but inside he realised he was a mess.
"What are our orders sir?" asked Adonia.
Bowman took a deep and cleansing breath before answering, "Recover the rescue teams then go to Condition One. Make preparations to leave!" As Adonia carried out his orders Bowman uttered to himself, "Gods forgive us!" In his mind at that moment he had managed to break through the confusion to come to the realisation that Cylons were indeed in the immediate area and worse still his order for a rescue mission had in fact cost him four more lives.
It took several minutes to recover the rescue teams. For the pilots and deckgang the effort was made more difficult by the sombre feeling of loss that reverberated around them like they had been made to wear water drenched clothes as they worked. Sure enough the rescue teams were aboard and the Vipers were soon being refuelled ready to launch again to provide CAP for the Hermes as it made its way to the new hiding place. The clock now read thirteen minutes and twenty two seconds since the rescue teams were due back and still there was no sign of 'Magma's team.
"Rescue team is aboard" reported Adonia. "We're ready."
"Ok" said Bowman almost breathlessly. He took in another deep breath before ordering confidently, "Set Condition One! Launch the CAP!"
Adonia's voice boomed through the ship's loudspeakers calling the crew to action stations. Despite the damage they had sustained. Despite the low moral among many of them. Despite the losses they had taken and were seemingly still taking the professionalism of the crew remained untouchable and the ship was brought ready for action in near record time.
"We just have to pray they make it to the new hiding place on their own." Bowman's words were more for his own benefit than anyone else.
'MAGMA'S RESCUE TEAM
'Bingo' sat in the rear compartment clinging to the cargo netting that hung behind 'Magma's seat as though he were holding on to life itself. His eyes were staring a thousand yards in to nothingness as his mind replayed the image of the end of his own gun barrel staring him in the face and the vision of him taking his own life. He had stood up to the cliff's edge and had been pulled back from the brink but part of him was still there. Part of him couldn't let go of the fact that he was so ready to kill himself even if it was purely to chose the lessor of two evils?
'Magma' wasn't sparing the horses as she raced her Raptor through the Belt. For all her angry and sometimes cowardly nature she was a skilled Raptor pilot and as 'Fuzz' instinctively gripped on to his console for support he had to admit to himself that he was glad to have her flying right now. They had to take risks in order to get back to Hermes. The truth was they had taken too long rescuing 'Bingo'. Firstly, because of 'Hot Top's investigation into the mysterious craft and secondly since the Raptor wasn't fitted with specialist rescue grapplers, 'Fuzz' had to improvise when it came to stopping 'Bingo's Viper from spinning. They used a cargo line from the Viper to hook around the Viper's nose and then using the Raptor's thrusters they yanked the Viper in a new direction thus stopping the spin for 'Bingo' to get out. The side effect of this was that the Viper was now drifting towards the floating rocks and no doubt crashed shortly after they had left with 'Bingo' on board safe and sound. 'Magma' looked down at her clock that was synchronised with the one in Hermes' CIC. It read twenty three minutes and five seconds.
Bowman won't leave us behind! she thought to herself in an effort to reassure her own fraying nerves.
'Fuzz' had been calling out course corrections all through the flight back until suddenly he stopped and fell back in to his chair.
"Gods!" he sighed to himself just loud enough for 'Magma' to hear over the intercom.
"What is it?" barked 'Magma'! "Come on 'Fuzz' where are these frakking directions back to Hermes? This all looks the same to me!"
"Stop the engines!" he said.
"What?" gasped 'Magma!'
"I said stop the engines!" repeated 'Fuzz'. "Hermes is gone! They've left without us!"
It was true! All of 'Fuzz's navigational displays and DRADIS returns, regardless of the clutter, pointed to one thing; where there should have been a Battlestar there was now just empty space in the Erebus Belt. The only indication of there ever having been a ship there were three very late little spacecraft looking for their mother ship.