Kendra Shaw: Evolution

by Sage1988

AU of the Battle of the Comm Station in 'RAZOR' where Kendra Shaw is captured by the Cylons and taken away. What will become of her?

35. Chapter 35

I do not own Battlestar Galactica

Chapter 35 – Truth and Dissent

The Rebel baseship jumped back to the fleet which caused the Cylons that had stayed behind in the other Cylon vessel to breathe a sigh of relief. For the human population there was a growing sense of unease at the Cylons being so close, whether they were apparently friendly or not. For nearly four years now after watching these same ships bombing their homes and everyone they loved into dust, they had been chased across the galaxy and more people had died at the hands of the Cylons too. Many of them had heard the rumours that they were a faction of Cylons that objected to the war and were now here to protect them, but many others felt that it was part of some elaborate ruse to get them to lower their guard, so they kept their hands near the jump drive controls.

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On the Battlestar Galactica, Admiral William Adama was in his tanks as he worked on the pile of paperwork that had grown to mountainous levels. He heard the door open and looked up at the hatch to see his trusted XO and best friend Saul Tigh enter the room. He was about to get up and greet him when he saw the expression on his old friend's face. He had never seen Saul this nervous, even when they were facing down a fleet of Cylons or staring a supernova in the face, Saul had never been anything more than confident or angry or a mixture of both at the same time.

"Bill." He said putting Adama on even greater notice at the lack of formality. "When we entered that Nebula something happened." He started to explain to Bill who remembered his normally faithful XO had disappeared from the CIC in the middle of an emergency. "I heard this music and I followed it. When I reached the centre of the ship I found out that I was a…" He stopped for a moment as he arrived at the most difficult part. "A Cylon."

The declaration was met with stunned silence from Bill Adama who remained expressionless before getting up slowly from his desk and wandered over to the couch where he stood shaking slightly as he turned but was unable to look Saul in the eye.

"You could have been brainwashed on New Caprica." Bill said trying to convince himself it wasn't true as he felt himself becoming lightheaded and more dazed by the second. "You need to see Doc Cottle." He resolved trying to convince himself that this wasn't happening.

"I should have killed myself the moment I found out but it is the truth, along with Ellen, Tyrol, Anders and Foster. But I' am a Cylon." Saul told him with emotion creeping into his voice only for his expression to become alarmed when Bill suddenly lost his footing and fell back on to the couch. He rushed forward to check Bill was alright and leaned over him when Saul heard the hatch open, he turned to see Commander Lee Adama standing there with shock on his face. Lee had heard only the part of the conversation when Saul had confessed to being a Cylon and then come into see him leaning over his father who had collapsed. He dropped the paperwork he had been carrying and reached for his sidearm.

"Get away from him you frakking Cylon!" Lee screamed at Saul pointing his gun straight at Saul's head. The grizzled XO still worried about Bill stepped away while Lee shouted. "Marines!" The guards that had been stationed in this area since the last time the ship had been infiltrated by Kendra Shaw to retrieve her daughter could be heard running up the corridor. Lee focused his rage filled gaze at Tigh. When the Marines arrived they looked in on the scene in surprise, Lee then gave them their orders. "Take this Cylons to the brig. And take Ellen Tigh, Chief Tyrol, Ensign Anders and Tory Foster as well." He told them his voice filled with rage but the marines while unsure obeyed his orders. They put the binders firmly on Saul's wrists and led him away while Bill sat unmoving on the couch. Lee quickly rushed over now that the danger was past moved over to his father and sat at his side.

"I can't kill Saul." Bill kept mumbling as his son tried to reach him, the shock of the news having driven him to a nervous breakdown when combined with the considerable stress of years of leading this fleet had overwhelmed him.

"I'll deal with it." Lee said, putting a comforting hand on his father's shoulder. Lee was feeling almost like a child again as he saw his childhood hero and the seemingly invincible Admiral crumble before his eyes. He went for the phone on his father's desk and called Doc Cottle. "Get up here quick, my father needs you." Lee told him, forgetting to call the Admiral by his rank.

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The Five were quickly rounded up and locked up in the ship's brig while the marines looked at them with suspicion.

"What did you do?" Tory said sharply to Saul Tigh since he had been the first here.

"Told Bill the truth." Saul said still very concerned about his best friend if they were even remotely close to that after this.

"YOU IDIOT!" Tory screamed and went to punch Saul only for Ellen to intercept her.

"D'Anna would have exposed us soon enough, what happened to Bill?" Ellen asked having heard as she was dragged rather abruptly from a counselling session with a Viper pilot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder by the marines who had muttered something between themselves about the Admiral being taken to the infirmary.

"He collapsed." Saul said really worried for his usually unshakable partner in command.

"Great." Sam said. "They think you tried to kill him."

"Didn't you?" A voice sounded from the doorway and they all turned to see Commander Lee Adama had entered while they had been distracted.

"Commander." Galen started but Lee said loudly.

"You stay quiet, give me one good reason why I shouldn't just flush you all out of the airlock." Lee said thankful that Doctor Cottle had just informed him that his father was okay if shaken by Saul's revelation.

"Because we have known our true identities for months and since have remained as dedicated to this fleet as he have always been." Ellen said before any of the others could speak. Lee looked Ellen straight in the eye and stayed quiet before asking in a colder and much calmer voice.

"Can you show us the way to Earth?" He asked and the other four were about to deny it when Ellen told him with a sad smile knowing what was waiting for them there.

"Yes." The others looked at her in surprise. "But only if we go together, both humans and Cylons."

"Why should I agree to that?" Lee asked looking at her with great weariness.

"Because you are not a stupid man Lee Adama." Ellen said. "One thing that you have proven over the course of this journey is that you are a man of your word. Of principle. I know you hate being compared to your father but that is something you get from him. If we are all to survive then we must stand together. You know this in your heart Lee." She implored him, he gave her a look that was so similar to the sort that was often given by his father that it actually shook Saul and Galen who had been working under the man for years.

"They'd better not betray us and if any of you are lying." Lee warned before leaving the room.

"I know." Ellen said quietly, knowing what was waiting for them on Earth.

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Ellen was as good as her word, she gave them the coordinates to Earth but said nothing else. She waited with the others as the fleet now including the two Cylon baseships jumped to the coordinates she had provided only to discover a disheartening sight when they got there.

Earth was nothing more than a post nuclear holocaust wasteland. Some plants still clung to survival but that was it. The despondence across the fleet was universal, when Ellen explained that her memories had come back at the same time she was awakened to her true identity she explained the conflict that had killed their original homeworld and how the Final Five had escaped. How they had made their way to the Colonies and stopped the First Cylon War and then how Cavil had betrayed them in his crusade to kill humanity. The shock at the story was great but nothing was worse than the dashing of the hope that so many in the fleet had clung to for so long, that Earth would be their safe haven. The fleet was in a state of depression that seemed impossible to lift. With little recourse given how long the journey was going to continue being uncertain at that stage, Bill was forced to introduce the Rebel Cylons into the fleet. Their raiders, marked with red paint and special transponder beacons to allow human pilots to tell the difference between them and their evil cousins in a fight began to fly caps around the fleet with the human pilots. But perhaps the thing that made the humans the most uncomfortable was when teams of Cylons under marine escort had started boarding every ship in the fleet and upgraded their FTL drive with Cylon technology to increase their range by three times. This was not well received by many but no-one argued against it, they had already had some Cylon technology there before from the original study of the captured transport years ago.

Publically anyway as two men prepared privately to do something about it.

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Caprica 6, recently released from her cell given the new alliance between the Rebel Cylons and the Colonials walked through the familiar corridors of a baseship for the first time since she had 'defected'. She saw her sisters walking past her looking unsure of how to address her. While she might have been an important figure in the Cylon hierarchy before her defection, in the new Rebel faction she was little more than a curiosity that no-one seemed to know what to do with. She had little to do with Gaius these days as he seemed quite content with his own little cult but given the way he had been going behind her back with D'Anna that was just fine by her.

Athena had found herself with a fan club as the Eights swarmed around her, wanting to know her so she could lead a mutiny against the Sixes only for Athena to reject them in disgust telling them they lack the conviction to stay true to a cause and to find their own individuality rather than try to mimic hers. Simon O'Neill was standing at her side looking very uneasy, it was the first time he had been on a baseship in nearly seven years and the familiar setting was making him feel uneasy rather than comfortable. Also not helping was the looks he was getting from the other Rebel models which ranged from outright disgust given that his model had sided with Cavil or curiosity at how he must differ from his strictly logical brethren.

Boomer was at her other side, seeing her old friend again had certainly been a relief and thankfully Boomer was still talking to her. Caprica hadn't been a bit surprised when she had discovered that she was now in a public relationship with Galen Tyrol and rather shockingly his wife Cally. The discovery that Galen was in fact one of the Final Five had not even fazed the trio who carried on as they had before.

The three Cylons arrived in a room where the rest of the Cylons that had defected where meeting to talk with Natalie about their roles in the new Cylon race, especially now that the Hub was gone. When the door opened they saw the rest of the defectors where already here; Athena sat brooding the corner while the Cylons that had contracted the virus and been cured by the Colonials were standing together in the middle of the room. Caprica's own sister Amelia was wearing her new Colonial flight suit, she had signed on as a raptor pilot her patch telling that to the world proudly while the Galactica patch on the other side told which ship she served on, she had even dyed her hair to a darker blonde to stand out from her sisters. Carol an Eight was wearing her green civilian medic uniform given her new job on the hospital ship Diana as a nurse. Markus the Two of the group was wearing a rather bland military jumpsuit that was normal for enlisted personnel that worked in the kitchens on Galactica or the Resolution where he was assigned. He was proud of his new profession as a chef and the people who tasted his creative meals didn't complain either, making bland military rations tasty.

The last one in the group was the Thirteen Polly. The dark haired Cylon was teaching classical music to humans in the fleet that were interested and writing the stuff she imparted down to preserve what little remained of Colonial culture after the bombardment. She of all the group looked the most worried. She was deeply concerned for her sisters given that the Thirteens had disappeared with the First Hybrid and as of yet there was no sign of them. All the Rebels were concerned largely due to the fact that they had Talia with them. She was one of the few hybrid children that existed and the only hope for their race's future.

It was Amelia who spoke first asking with a smile.

"Sister." The upbeat tone made Caprica smile, only for it to be broken moments later when Natalie entered the room looking frustrated at having to break her heavy schedule to meet with the defectors but with them having close relationships with certain humans it was necessary to maintain the peace.

"Right then." Natalie said her hand on her hip and her face tight with tension, the responsibility of leading the Rebels weighing heavily on her. She really wanted to just send them back to the human fleet and be done with it and they could take Tory Foster with them. Since the woman had been revealed as a member of the Final Five she had been only too happy to have one of them on the baseship but that had quickly changed when the woman had started abusing her position and throwing her weight around even advocating that they hold their help to the fleet back to levy against more power and supplies which made Natalie grit her teeth. It was difficult enough to hold this alliance together with bad feeling on both sides without this trollop starting trouble. Amber and Leoben were both keeping her away from Natalie which was a big relief but if she didn't learn to shut her mouth soon, Natalie was going to send her back to the humans under the pretext of spreading good will, given her 'existing reputation' there. In fact she might do that anyway. Ellen Tigh was being very good however, giving her advice on how she might win the trust of the fleet and keep her own people happy at the same time. The males of the Five seemed to be giving them a wide berth, it was only yesterday that the Admiral had reinstated them to active duty and they seemed to want to nothing to do with their children. It was hurtful but Ellen had assured her that they just needed time.

"We would like to be your ambassadors." Polly said quickly before anyone could speak. "We need some more brownie points with the Colonials and given that most of us have existing positions there and a few good relationships we could really help your introduction." She added eagerly, she had really enjoyed her teach teaching music to the humans and performing it on the wireless, mostly upbeat melodies to increase morale after Earth had proven to be a dead end. The others that had integrated into the human fleet looked pleased at the suggestion. Many of them had been concerned that the alliance was doomed to failure but if they could spread some good will using their existing positions in the human fleet then that was hard less likely to happen.

Natalie was stunned speechless for a moment by the suggestion that she was dreaming they would say. She had been worried that they might have wanted to come and live on one of the baseships which might have spread rumours amongst the humans and caused more dissent about their presence. The only one that looked unsure of that was Caprica who Natalie then turned to. With Caprica, Natalie had a different problem. Before her defection Caprica had been the leader of the rebel faction but now that they had joined the humans some of their people were looking for her to be their leader again which Natalie was against not only for the sake of her own power but she didn't want Caprica putting the humans squarely first with little consideration for their own people as she had done a few times in the past. At the same time, Natalie was also angry at her for taking the two children away when they had been over the Algae planet, she had had to comfort the distraught Kendra after that had happened and the sound the distressed woman had made was still ringing in her ears now. But at the same time she still respected the cofounder of the faction so she made a compromise.

"Caprica, I'd like you to be our representative to the Quorum of the Twelve." Natalie told her surprised sister. "It's been advised that we have a voice in their decision making process. You have the most experience of humans and their politics so if you're willing, I would really appreciate you taking the job."

Caprica saw the faces around her look on with satisfied smiles while she herself was stunned. It was big honour but she knew her sisters was only doing it to get her off the ship were she might interfere with Natalie's power base. Part of her was already urging to stay on the baseship and try to regain her position as the leader but another accepted that Natalie was doing a great job as the leader and Caprica herself could do more working with the human politicians.

"I'd be honoured." Caprica said with a glint in her eye that clued Natalie in that she would be watching.

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In a region of space far from the fleet, four of the remaining baseships belonging to cavil's faction moved at sublight through space while they got themselves ready for an attack on the human fleet and the traitors that had sided with them. They were so engrossed in this that they ignored the comet that was moving close to their ships given that they were clear of it and it posed no threat to them. The sparkling ball of ice moved forward leaving the beautiful tail of ice crystals behind had any of the Cylons been interested enough to look.

But had they taken a closer look they might have noticed four strange shapes on the surface of the comet that were very familiar. Before any one on the baseships had time to react, four raiders belonging to the 2nd Generation lifted off from the comet that they had been using for cover and the moment they had a clear shot, they fired a cluster of nukes each straight at the central column of each baseship before peeling away quickly. The Cylons on the baseships had no time to react before the nukes hit and blasted the large ships into pieces which detonated fuel and ordinance in a series of devastating chain reactions, leaving large and small chunks of baseship floating everywhere.

The four guilty raiders all jumped away the moment that the mission was confirmed as accomplished. They reappeared over the secret base of the 2nd Generation before flying down to the hidden landing bay where they landed and were moved on a conveyer belt into the automated refuelling and rearming station. Once the leading raider had entered a pressurised area the hatch on the belly of the fighter opened so the slim figure of a woman could slide out. Wearing the black leather like flight suit that the Cylons used Kendra got to her feet and walked off the still moving belt to the nearby elevator. She walked inside wiping the slime from the inside of the raider out of her hair and off her flight suit. Once that was done and the elevator was moving she unzipped her flight suit jacket and took it off before tying it around her waist. The elevator then opened its door and she walked out in her full stride towards the meeting room where the rest of the leaders of the council were waiting, she was keen to get the meeting over with so that she could go and spend time with her daughter. She saw as she passed through the corridors her sisters had finally started bonding with the 2nd Generation models which put a smile on her otherwise serious face before she set her face back in serious mode and walked into the meeting room. The leading members of each model looked at her expectedly so she began her report as she moved towards her chair.

"Four baseships destroyed, no survivors." She said as she slid into her chair at the head of the table.

"Excellent." Zoe said with a smile as she turned on the tactical display. "Now Cavil only has eight baseships left with the two we destroyed last week."

"My main concern." Rachel said speaking up. "Is that we are now so far away from the Colonies that I'm afraid that we might be too far removed to help if anything happens."

"The drives still have the range to make it in a single jump." Arden said but Lacy then interjected.

"But with Cavil's fleet now so far away and the Colonials as well, we should think about joining the human fleet like the Rebels did to actively participate in their defence." The faces around the table all showed surprise at her idea and the reaction was one of caution.

"Do you really believe it is time?" Sullivan asked. He was weary of approaching the humans at this stage when they were still getting used to having the rebels in the fleet and was concerned about what might happen if they suddenly turned up without warning.

"Perhaps." Tamara said with a resigned sigh. "The fact that they have yet to turn on each other is a good sign. And to be honest if we show them that we have been protecting and helping them the last couple of years it might help improve relations." Becca however was not so sure.

"It might also cause them to doubt the Cylons in the rebel faction since for a long time it was them that we were defending the fleet from. Caution is what is needed here."

"We do have the additional supplies that we have salvaged as something to give them as a gift of good will." Ashley said. When they had been searching around the Colonies for salvageable materials and supplies, there was a lot of stuff they simply hadn't been able to fit onto the ships that had been left for the Colonials and also the additional items they had discovered afterwards. It was a large stash of items by now and would be very welcome to the fleet, perfect to engineer some good will.

"That will get us through the door." Kendra said taking charge of the meeting. "But negotiations for our admission will have to be carefully handled. While we strip down the base we should tell our agents to reveal themselves to Admiral Adama and Roslin and explain our cause. If they are forewarned then at least it won't be such a shock."

"But their lives would be in danger." Arden protested. Kendra gave him a glare which made him shut up quickly before she continued.

"He didn't harm the Final Five and so far the Cylons in the fleet have been a boon to them. At the very least it will pique their interest." Kendra said firmly. The time to step into the light was finally here and to honest she was desperate to stop hiding so she could see her husband.

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Ensign Kerri Libertas was walking through the corridors of the Battlestar Pegasus wondering about the orders she had just received, telling her and the other operatives of the 2nd Generation to give themselves up to Admiral Adama. She trusted the old man, she had seen that he was an effective leader and how honourable a man was but revealing her true nature made her pause for a moment.

As she rounded the corner on her way back to the bunk room she felt her arm being grabbed and before she knew what was happening she was inside an empty planning room. She looked at the arm that had grabbed her and followed it back to the face it belonged too. Lieutenant Felix Gaeta and to her greater surprise on the other side of the room was Tom Zarek standing there looking very smug.

"Ensign." Zarek said with that strange smile of his making her skin crawl.

"Mr Zarek." She said trying to sound slightly scared but not completely, neither man was armed so if needs be she could overpower them but if they thought she was scared and trying to hide it then they would feel more confident. "Lieutenant Gaeta. What is this?"

"Well Ensign, you went through hell on New Caprica." Gaeta said having read her file he knew her cover story about being in a Cylon prison. He moved himself so that he was blocking the door before letting her go before continuing. "These machines have caused our people nothing but pain. You know this better than most."

Kerri was getting a sinking feeling the pit of her stomach, so she moved to the far end of the room where the room's voice recorder was sitting on a table. Sometimes if people wanted to hear reports or briefings after the mission in question or later on, an audio recording was made as well as the official transcript as a backup. She kept her back to the recorder while bracing her hands on the desk so they couldn't see her turn it on while she turned. She really felt that if this was what she thought it was then she would need evidence.

"Yes, what they did to me and the rest of the people they kept in that place is imprinted on my brain." She told them adding a bit of spit and anger to her voice to make it sound more convincing. They must have bought it because they smiled and Zarek told her.

"There are some of us that feel quite strongly about this. I mean that Earth being the promise land was bogus, yet Roslin tries to hold on to power and Admiral Adama enforces martial law whenever he feels like it. For humanity to survive, they and the Cylons need to go."

"What does this have to do with me?" Kerri asked now knowing that they were planning a mutiny and wanting to know as much as possible before she decided what to do.

"Getting rid of one Adama or Roslin and her Quorum won't help." Gaeta said with a dark look. "If the Old man goes down then his son will just take his place and weight will fall hard on those that opposed him. If we want to prevent that all the Adama family has to die."

"That is where you come in." Zarek said as Kerri suppressed her horror at what she realised they wanted her to do. "If you can arrange a cap with Major Kara Adama and shoot her down that is good, better still if you can arrange a meeting with both her and her husband and kill them both."

"What about the Resolution? Colonel Kelly is next in line with the Adama family and Saul Tigh out of the way." She asked wanting to get as much information as possible.

"He will fall in line, his hatred of the Cylons is enough to get him to follow the new order." Gaeta said having served with the man in question for many years. He knew him well enough to guess how he would react. Perhaps he would indeed side with Adama after all he had been with the Admiral for many years? So he and Zarek would have to get an ally on that ship to ensure that the training ship did not interfere in the coup when it came.

"I'm in." Kerri said now with a mask of glee on her face hoping that they would believe that she really did hate the Cylons enough to do anything to get rid of them. She grinned as wide as she could and both men nodded in acceptance as they imparted some other details to her.

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Waiting for the men to leave separately so as to not draw attention, Kerri paused enough for them to be the first to leave before taking the recording of the meeting and stashing it inside her jumpsuit. Moving from the room she headed down to the landing bay hoping to catch Major Adama and arrange a meeting with her when she saw a raptor being loaded with fresh viper parts destined for Galactica and silently thanked god. She walked up to the pilot of the raptor, an Ensign named Tully who had qualified the same time she had. He had a bit of a crush on her but he was a little too timid for her tastes. But today given the situation, she was going to have to play on that.

"Hey Tully." She said putting on a megawatt smile. "How about I cover this flight for you?" Tully looked at her with the same dazed expression he usually had and already he was weakening to her request when those bright blue eyes and that amazing smile came into his line of vision but he had still been assigned this supply run and was about to say so when Ashley keen not to have to argue put a finger to her mouth and dragged it along her lips making him short of breath and his heart started to race before it went into overdrive when she added in a tone that was as warm and smooth as fresh honey. "I'll own you."

He broke in that moment and smiled a goofy grin before getting out of the raptor. Kerri breathed a sigh of relief and got into the cockpit of the raptor. Putting her helmet on she quickly got clearance to take off and made her way as normally as she could for Galactica. Arriving minutes later the Deck Chief Tyrol greeted the fresh parts with great enthusiasm. She signed the paperwork before leaving the hanger deck as fast as she could, feeling uneasy as she wondered how many of the crew of this ship were in on Gaeta's mutiny. One thing she had managed to get from her talk with the two ringleaders was that it all depended on Gaeta and Zarek without them it would all fall apart. Moving through the corridors she thought she was being followed for a moment till she realised she was just being paranoid but she did not relax her guard till she arrived at the Admiral's room. She knocked on the hatch several times till the hatch opened revealing a very sleepy looking Admiral with annoyed eyes. He took one look at the young ensign as said sharply in exhaustion.

"Unless the fleet is facing down a dozen baseships this had better be good Ensign." Kerri was eager to get inside and out of the earshot of anyone that might overhear but the Admiral was standing in the way of her entry and with time short Kerri just came out with it.

"Sir Lieutenant Gaeta and Tom Zarek are plotting a mutiny against you and President Roslin."

The information took a moment to sink in before a disbelieving look settled on Adama's face so she quickly added. "I have a recording of the meeting sir." She pulled the object in question out of her flight suit. That changed the look on the Admiral's face immediately and he stepped aside so she could enter. Looking at the bunk Kerri could see the reason he hadn't wanted to let her in as a partly clothed Laura Roslin stood on the side. Trying not to have the image of what they must have been doing before she arrived in her head, Kerri went straight for the computer on the Admiral's desk, putting the CD into the reader and let it play. As the words of Zarek and Gaeta were played back along with her own, the expressions on Adama and Roslin's faces grew either more surprised in Laura's case or darker in Adama's. By the time it had ended the two leaders of the fleet looked ready to kill.

"Gaeta." Adama muttered. He hadn't wanted to believe it, the man had been with him for years even before the fall of the Colonies and on top of being one of the most capable officers in the fleet pulling them through some tough situations he had been one the Admiral's inner circle. Adama had honestly seen Gaeta leading this fleet someday. But now one of the officers he had trusted the most in the fleet was planning to not only kill him, but also his son and daughter in law and from the way he had said it his granddaughter too. A rumbling anger started brewing inside him threatening to explode at any moment at the lives of those he cared about the most being threatened. He was a second away from going up to the traitorous lieutenant and squeezing the life right out of him.

Roslin however was deeply shocked, perhaps she had forgotten what kind of man Zarek was but even this shocked her. She was wondering what to do. Should she have him arrested or confront him directly? Bill took the decision out of her hands.

"We confront them now before they gain any more support." He said his voice as solid and unchanged as stone.

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On the CIC the next day, Admiral Bill Adama had put people whose support he could count on all around the room as he waited for Gaeta to arrive on shift. Erin Mathias with her marines, Sam Anders, Chief Tyrol, Saul, Helo and Athena, Racetrack and a few others. He stood silently in the middle of the room as he waited for 'him' to arrive. The others on the CIC had no idea of what was about to happen, Adama hadn't wanted to risk alerting Gaeta in case one of his supporters was amongst the crowd.

And right on time as punctual as always, Gaeta arrived on the CIC. Smartly dressed in his uniform as always and no sign that he was anything other than focused on his duty. He went over to his station where Lieutenant Kasumi Yusagi was standing waiting to be relieved. But when Gaeta reached the centre of the room, the Admiral decided to speak.

"Lieutenant Gaeta." He called out for the other side of the dradis console, the younger man turned to face him immediately.

"Yes sir." Gaeta said showing no anxiety at all. Adama turned to Dee at her station and told her.

"Play it." Referring to the copy of the Ensign's discussion with Gaeta and Zarek the day before.

Through the speakers of the CIC, the damning recording could be heard. Everyone turned to Gaeta in shock and in a few cases horror at the words being said. Gaeta himself tensed when he heard the recording and realised that the ensign he and Zarek thought they had recruited to their cause had managed to record them somehow and gone straight to the Admiral. The damning gaze still made him feel like a naughty schoolboy which made him feel even worse for being weak. All around the CIC he saw the Admiral's supporters look at him like he was Hades incarnate. There was no way that he was getting out of this one, he could acknowledge that but he was damned if it was going to be quietly with a whimper.

He pulled his side arm out of its holster and when the recording ended and there was a tense silence in the room as everyone stared at him.

"Anything to say?" Adama asked Gaeta who just gave the Admiral a look of resignation before telling him.

"Not much point is there?" And he quickly drew his gun moving it up towards the Admiral before any of the marines could reaction. Sam Anders was standing closest to the Admiral at the time and without even thinking he dived forward pushing the old man out of harm's way when Gaeta pulled the trigger. The bullet missed the old man as he fell behind the console that protected him but the bullet struck Sam as he was falling to the ground having used his body weight to force the Admiral away from danger. The deadly projectile lodged itself in Sam's head and he slammed down onto the deck next to Adama and didn't move. As the marines led by Erin gunned Gaeta down, Adama moved over to Sam and saw that despite taking a bullet in the head he was still breathing.

"Get Doc Cottle up here now." He cried out.

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Meanwhile on Colonial One, Roslin was waiting for Zarek to arrive. She had called the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve together and was now just waiting for him to arrive. She was only comfortable because of the squad of marines lent to her by Bill who were waiting in the room behind her and her own security guards who were standing in the corner waiting. None of them had been told of what was going on but they had orders to be ready for trouble. Zarek walked in with his usual swagger and no concern of his potential coup being discovered till it was time to put the plan into play. She gave him a hard stare as he got into his seat and the rest of the Quorum all looked to her.

"Well what is this about?" Jacob the representative for Sagittarian representative asked, annoyed at having been called in on such short notice and without any reason given as to why. Without speaking, Laura pressed the CD player next to her on. The speakers allowed the whole room and the marines to hear. The widening of the Quorum's eyes and the looks of accusation against Zarek as his own words were played back especially the threat against the ruling civilian body of the fleet. Roslin heard her bodyguards stepping closer as Zarek looked on impassively. He showed no guilt or regret as the rest of the Quorum stared at him with angry eyes, he just got up and went to the door.

Before anyone realised what he was doing he opened it and his own men rushed in with guns blazing. The Quorum members closest to the door where cut down immediately and Roslin felt the heavy weight of her newest bodyguard Terry hit her as he forced her behind the table and covered her with his own body. The rest of the bodyguards dived for cover as they started shooting back and the gunfire alerted the marines who came in led by Sergeant Venner, the new head of security on Galactica. They opened fire on Zarek and his men who had no cover and only one exit that the loyalist forces were well able to cover, cutting the mutineers down but not before the other Quorum members were hit by enemy fire.

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"How is Sam?" Kara asked in the meeting that took place in the Admiral's quarters a few hours later after the dust had settled. No-one had truly shed a tear over Gaeta and Zarek after what they had planned to do or actually had done. Aside for Sam and the Quorum of the Twelve there had been no casualties apart for Gaeta, Zarek and the latter man's men. But for Sam who had saved the Admiral's life, there had been a terrible cost.

"Well he's alive." Cottle said gravely who had operated for hours to remove the bullet with Doctors Salik and Somerset but they discovered that the severe damage to his brain left him nearly brain dead. "But I have to honest, I'm not sure there is even a remote chance of any kind of recovery. He is very nearly brain dead." They all looked downcast at the news, especially Saul, Ellen, Galen and Caprica. But then Caprica had an idea.

"What if we put him in one of the hybrid tanks?" She said causing them all to look at her. "It would allow him to connect to the computers and support his higher brain functions. It might even allow him to talk." Sharon Agathon nodded before telling them.

"It might work although how effectively I can say." The looks around the room were lifted slightly before Caprica told them.

"I'll get Simon and the rest of the baseship on it as soon as possible. What about the Quorum of the Twelve?" She asked Roslin. The President sighed, looking over to Billy who had quit his job as her assistant after her role in the faking of Hera and Talia's deaths was revealed. Even now months later he had yet to speak to her. He sat with his wife Dee who gave her a slight smile.

"None of them made it." She told the room gravely. Everyone took a moment to think about those people that Zarek had killed before Lee put forward a suggestion.

"Perhaps we've only been using the Quorum of the Twelve because it was all we really knew. But the truth is that the twelve worlds are gone and they are never coming back. Perhaps when the government is reformed, it should be as a congress of ship captains." Laura was about to argue against it, preferring to stick with what she knew but then stopped herself when she realised that he was right. The Twelve Colonies were extinct, the survivors were now more the Colonial Remnant than twelve different tribes of humans. She slowly nodded before turning to Ensign Kerri Libertas, whose warning had prevented the coup from going any further than it already had done. The young woman was nervous as hell when she was invited to the 'inner circle' which was the main power in the fleet. Everyone gave her a smile which made her look down at her boots in guilt over lying about who she really was, she was trying to work up the nerve to speak but it was difficult. Finally she managed to build up enough courage to say what she needed to say.

"It would have been wrong for me to support an anti-Cylon coup sir, considering I 'am one." The smiles froze on the faces of the people in the room and Galen Tyrol asked her as Ellen looked at her relieved that she had said it so she didn't have too.

"One what?" His gaze guarded.

"A Cylon sir." She said and the rest of the room tensed and Caprica looked at her with an angry glare.

"What are you going on about? You are not one of the seven and certainly not one of the Five." She said furious but then Kerri knocked her certainty out of the water.

"Of the 1st Generation Cylons yes, I'm not one of them. But I am a Cylon of the 2nd Generation."

The reaction to her statement was immediate, the humans in the room looked over to the Cylons with looks of accusation.

"The 2nd Generation?" Racetrack said with anger.

"There is no 2nd Generation." Boomer and Athena said together. So Ellen owned up.

"Yes there is." Everyone looked now towards her for an explanation. "When we first realised what Cavil was going to do, we were determined to stop him. But we knew that we needed a backup plan in case we failed, so we took eight new models that we were developing and hid them away at a secret base to continue their maturation and if we failed they would stop him. They were created with the sole purpose of protecting humanity." She told the stunned humans and other Cylons around her. "The idea was that they would be ready before the fall, however Cavil moved faster than we anticipated and they weren't ready in time. When they eventually did awake and they began to harass the 1st Generation fleet wherever possible."

"That was them." Caprica cried out as finally the mystery enemy that had been destroying their ships and facilities was revealed.

"They came for me on New Caprica." Ellen said ignoring Caprica's outburst. "They took me back to their base and restored my memories that was where I disappeared too." Saul looked at his wife in hurt surprise which she grimaced at.

"Why are you here in the fleet?" Adama said sharply, wanting to find out what these spies wanted.

"To monitor your situation that's all." Kerri said, scared by Adama's outburst but wanting to try and put them in a positive light. "We put the fresh ships that you needed in your path with fresh supplies to keep you going and we attacked Cavil so much that he was forced to pull his forces back, giving you some breathing room." She told her amazed crowd who now felt warmer towards her given that she and her group had left that exceedingly helpful gift in their way.

"Why tell us now?" Kara demanded wanting to know what had changed.

"They are coming here, to join the fleet." Kerri told them.

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Kendra watched from the baseship command deck as another one of their surprise attacks allowed them to destroy two more of Cavil's baseships. She was standing there, barely seeing the sight that would normally have brought her enjoyment. She was thinking about seeing Sam and her human friends again when the 2nd Generation met up with the human fleet hoping to join it. She was hoping to see her mother again and for her to meet Talia who was curled up in her bed not far from where Kendra was standing.

But more importantly, she was looking forward to telling Sam her big news.

Their big news as her hand slid down to her stomach which even now she could feel it swelling slightly.

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As news of yet another ambush reached him, Cavil roared with rage. He picked up and threw the chair that he had been sitting on across the room. The strikes against his forces from this mysterious enemy that he was now almost certain where the Rebels working with the Colonials had whittled his forces away to all but a handful of baseships and the Colony itself. He continued to vent his anger on the furniture in his room. The fact that the damned Rebels had made him mortal by destroying the Hub was a driving force behind his rage, the fact that there was no way to rebuild the technology without the Five was eating away at him even more. And lastly that his species was sure to die out when these bodies wore out was the last piece of the puzzle in the rage that had him when he was done breaking furniture and punching through the walls making dents or even holes in the softer walls.

If they thought he was finished however, he thought with a savage smile, they were sadly mistaken.