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Four Weeks Later, Onboard Galactica

Colonel Kara Thrace-Roslin sat in the chair that Helo and Lee had built for she and Laura a few months after Laura became pregnant. Kara was holding Laura's newborn baby boy, who had yet to be named, feeding him from a bottle of formula.

"Shh, little guy", Kara said gently, as he wrapped his tiny mouth around the rubber nipple, "you're a growing boy, so just eat for Momma, OK?"

The birth of their son was quite literally the only bright spot in what had been, perhaps, the most harrowing few weeks of their journey since the destruction of The Colonies.

A Cylon Civil War had broken out, which had led to Rebel Cylons and pilots from Galactica destroying the Resurrection Hub, making Cylons truly immortal. On the heals of that, everyone-Rebel Cylon and Human, thought they had reached the promised land-only to find that Earth was still a nuclear-wasted ruins, destroyed by a war two-thousand years earlier.

On top of that, the four of the Final Five Cylons had been discovered after D'Anna had been successfully unboxed, and for a short while, it looked like Acting President Lee Adama was going to flush Saul Tigh, Galen Tyrol, Tory Foster, and Layne Ishay out the nearest airlock. The only thing that had kept that from happening was Kara finding a signal that had pointed to Earth, after Saul and Galen knew something wasn't right about the Viper she had arrived back to The Fleet on.

After the heart-breaking discovery that Earth was uninhabitable, the entire Fleet had gone into a deep depression. Lee had barely stopped his wife, Dee, from committing suicide shortly after they had departed Earth. She was seeing a therapist, and was improving.

Yet none of that compared to what had ended a mere forty-eight hours ago, that had sent Laura into premature labor, which she was still recovering from.

Ten Days Earlier

Danny Novacek, Call Sign Bulldog, had become somewhat of a celebrity in The Fleet. After escaping from the Cylons, and almost killing Admiral Adama, Danny had undergone counseling, as it had become obvious even to him, that The Cylons had let him escape, as they knew the truth about his mission almost four years earlier, hoping he would take Adama out.

He had come to terms with what had been done to him-that he hadn't escaped, but he was alive, and had made peace, at least with himself, about the mission that could have led to this current war. He had agreed to a few interviews, both for print and on the television, coming off as an articulate, very intelligent man, which of course he was. He felt it was cathartic to let others know what he had been through.

He had also befriended some of the pilots, and even talked shop with them and the mechanics from time to time, knowing that if he were a jock now, he'd be the CAG, as he had years and years of flying experience. He knew he'd never step foot into another cockpit and do battle, but his experience as a jock was invaluable to many of the younger pilots.

One pilot in particular he had become friends with, and that was Noel Alison. Hot Dog had pointed Narcho out to Bulldog one day, telling the older man he was worried about his friend. Bulldog took some time to get to know Alison, and seemed to have a calming influence on the talented pilot.

Alison was fourth in the pilot pecking order, at least insofar as Vipers were concerned. Starbuck, Hot Dog, and Kat were slotted above him, which still irked him, as he felt he was the better pilot. His dislike of Starbuck, her image, and the fact he thought of her as a dyke didn't help either, as it went against the grain of a lifetime of beliefs. Yet he had soldiered on, and done his job.

The mission to take out the Cylon Resurrection Hub, although it had been wildly successful, had upset many jocks who had to fly, literally, in the rear of Cylon Heavy Raiders and work with their hated enemy in order to accomplish the mission. Pilots like Narcho, Diana Seelix, Skulls, Racetrack, and Redwing had all kept their mouths shut, even after it became apparent that Earth wasn't going to be their home.

It was Admiral Adama's decision, with the blessing of Roslin, Lee Adama, and Kara as the CAG, to allow the Cylon Rebels to continue to be part of The Fleet after destroying the Hub, had been the breaking point for Narcho and others.

Bulldog had even made it clear that he was against allowing the Rebels to remain, even though it was obvious that without them, they would never have had the chance to make all Cylons mortal. He and Narcho had begun to discuss what was going on, both of them becoming more bitter as the days went by.

That afternoon, Narcho had had a terse, disastrous conversation with Starbuck in the Mess, overheard by more than a few jocks. He had had it. It was enough having to put up with orders from a dyke President and CAG, but to have to accept Cylons as part of The Fleet was too much.

For the next week, Narcho and Bulldog quietly put feelers out within Galactica, and among other ships in The Fleet, and began to make some plans.

Seven Days Later

0809 Hours, CIC

"Private Jaffe, log this please", Admiral Adama asked a young man, handing him a bundle of papers containing all the overnight reports he had signed off on before leaving his quarters. Moments later, an alarm sounded.

"Admiral", Lieutenant Hoshi said, looking at his readouts, "I'm getting a fire warning on Deck C, in the Main antenna array."

Adama looked at his readout, noting the same thing. "Order the damage control team to C Deck. Have them report their assessment back to me ASAP."

Aaron Kelly was at the communications station, which used to belong to Felix Gaeta. Kelly knew he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and could never win at poker, but he had been steadying himself for this over the last few days. He answered as he always did.

"Yes, sir", Kelly responded to the Admiral. "Admiral, if the wireless array goes down, we could lose communications across The Fleet. Given our current situation, I'm thinking this fire might not be an accident."

"Very well", Adama responded, almost automatically, "Have the Marines accompany the D.C party, and prepare an evacuation of all personnel from C Deck."

"Right away, sir".

So far, so good, Kelly thought to himself.

Starbuck had seen Kacey off to school that morning, letting Laura sleep in. With less than six weeks to go until her due date, Laura needed the rest, and didn't fight with Kara about sleeping in.

Kara and Laura were still slowly working their way back to what they hoped was they way things had been before Kara's ship blew up, or...whatever had happened, had happened. They hadn't made love yet, but with Laura so far along, she wasn't exactly in the mod for sex, and Kara had understood that.

Yet they had made wonderful progress, simply opening up to each other and not holding anything back as they worked through things. There was a lot of crying, screaming, and yelling as they groped their way back, but also a lot of hand-holding, hugging, and kissing as well. It was a painful, but necessary process. It was making them both stronger. They both felt it, and knew, in the long run, it would make them even better together.

Kara was in the mess, eating breakfast. She and Hot Dog had just had a chat about how Kat was doing-the younger woman was now in her sixth month, both of them becoming more and more anxious to bring a new Costanza into the world.

As Kara ate, an alarm sounded, followed by a voice on speakers. "Attention, Fire in Compartment C. Evacuate Sections 29 through 42."

Kara raced out of the mess into a hallway that was already a mass of confusion. As she looked around to gauge what was going on, she spotted Diana Seelix walking toward her. Kara approached.

"Hardball?"

"You heard the order, Captain", Diana Seelix said evenly, a coldness in her voice that Kara had never heard before. "Evac the area, I'm in charge here."

"Since when did they put pilots in charge of damage control, Hardball?"

Seelix acted as if she didn't hear her CAG and her Boss. "Hey, Seelix, I'm talking to..."

She had grabbed Hardball's elbow to spin her around. Seelix angrily shrugged off Kara's hold.

"Get you're frakin' hands off me", Seelix said, almost in a rage. "Gods, nobody even knows what you are anymore." Diana stormed off, leaving Kara at a loss for words.

As Seelix walked away, Kara heard chatter behind her. She caught a glimpse of Charlie Connor, a few other civvies, and some Marines all walking in the same direction. She followed them, not making herself seen. Her instincts were lighting off, and they were telling her something far out of the ordinary was occurring.

Connor led the others into the weapons storage area. "Grab as much as you can, and get up to the Hangar deck."

Kara watched as Marines used heavy-duty bolt cutters to defeat the locks on the weapons.

"You", she heard Connor say loudly to someone, "take those four people on D Deck. Anybody asks any questions, you tell 'em it's routine, Admiral's orders."

Kara moved to her locker, grabbing more clips for her sidearms, then moved out again toward D Deck and the Hangar area.

Acting President Lee Adama was just getting set to depart Colonial One after another contentious meeting with the Quorum. Despite the fact that the Rebel Cylons had stayed true to their word, and helped them take down the Resurrection Hub, a part of The Fleet still didn't like the idea of Cylons working on their ships to upgrade the FTL's with Cylon technology. One of the loud voiced against the still-young alliance had been Danny Novacek, who had become a hero to many in The Fleet, and had gained a voice as a hard-liner against The Cylons. He had gained enough clout that about half the Quorum had followed Bulldog's lead, and demanded that civilian ships be allowed to deny entry of any Cylon.

As he buckled in to head back to Galactica, first to report to President Roslin, then his father, he could feel a giant headache coming on.

"You buckled in, Mr. Vice-President?" Margaret Edmonson, Call Sign Racetrack looked back at him with a smile, while to her left, he could make out the back of Skull's head as he finished the pre-flight checks.

"Yeah, I'm ready, Racetrack", he said wearily. It was just approaching 0900, and he was already dreading this day.

On his console, as instructed, Aaron Kelly hit a single button. "Sir", he said, turning to the Admiral, "we've just lost communications ship-wide." He put his best oh, shit face on, which was matched by the Command team.

"Switch to secondary's", Adama said immediately.

Kelly shook his head. "They're a no-go. Backups are down as well. And the fires seem to be escalating. I'm seeing cascading failures across the board!"

Tigh took a step toward Kelly's position, then looked back at the Admiral. "Main antenna and backup both down at the same time?"

Adama shared a look with his XO.

Kelly had more bad news. "With comms down the damage control teams have no way of relaying the status of the fire."

The first trap had been set.

Galactica Portside Hangar Deck

The Raptor carrying Lee Adama touched down, and Lee had his safety harness off before the ship had even stopped rolling, the urgency evident on his face. Racetrack had advised him that there was no communication with the flagship.

"So you're trying to tell me that all communications are still out ship-wide?"

He turned to look at the pilots for an answer. He was so occupied with the news from the Quorum and with the communication problem, that he didn't see the two Marine guards and Charlie Connor standing to one side.

Racetrack had just answered him as he turned to leave, when Connor approached him rapidly, and hit him square in the mid-section, doubling him over.

One of the Marines secured him from behind, Charlie Connor standing with a grin directly in front of him. "Whatever this is about, you're making a big mistake."

"Oh, sure, we're confused", Connor said sarcastically. "Maybe we should have a trial to sort it out."

At one time, Charlie Connor had been a well-liked handyman onboard Galactica, and, later on New Caprica. The death of his son and wife at the hands of The Cylons on the planet had changed that. But where once he had fought for the resistance, with men and woman like Tigh, Tyrol, and Starbuck, his hatred of The Cylons, and of the alliance, had over-ridden any reason left in the man. All he wanted was revenge.

"After four years of fighting with those Cylon things", he said accusingly, "did you really think you could make a deal with them?"

Connor gave a sideways glance to the other Marine, and the man approached Lee, placing his cocked sidearm at Lee's temple.

"So, were are your precious Cylons now, Mr. Vice-President?"

The man was about ready to fire when he went down like a wet sack of cement. Everyone looked behind them. Where before the Marine had had his gun cocked and ready to fire, Starbuck was standing there after killing the Marine, a vicious smirk on her own face.

"Take it from someone who died once", she said, eyeing Connor, the still-living Marine guard, Racetrack, and Skulls, "it's no fun. Let him go", she finished, looking right at Connor.

But it wasn't Connor who replied.

"Frak you", Skulls spat. Kara and Lee had never had any problems with either of the pilots that were with them at the moment, but Starbuck's sense of duty over-rode the utter shock of her two subordinates turning traitor.

Skulls had barely finished his words when Starbuck fired a round into the right side of his chest, flattening, his Raptor partner, the woman now carrying his child, raced to him. Starbuck had made sure it wasn't a fatal shot.

"I could do this all day", Kara said, hoping the other three mutineers would choose the same fate. "Who's next", she grinned, pulling her other sidearm out, aiming it, "Racetrack, Connor?"

Connor knew, for the moment he had been thwarted. He looked at the Marine holding Lee Adama. "Let him go."

The Marine released Lee, he and Kara leaving the area post-haste.

As Kara and Lee were making their hasty exit from the Hangar bay, all hell was beginning to let lose. In the Agathon's quarters, Athena was feeding Hera when Marines stormed in, one of them the creep Gage, who had tried to Rape Athena on the Pegasus, and who had tortured Karl and Galen after their arrest. Karl was brutally knocked out, all three of them taken to the Brig, where Caprica was currently being held.

Before Karl and Athena arrived with Kara, there would be one other joining them, because at that very moment, Noel Alison and Danny Novacek entered CIC after Kelly, and others loyal to Narcho and Bulldog had taken control of the ship's nerve center.

"Admiral Adama", Narcho said, stepping up to Bill Adama, "I am removing you from command of this ship, and replacing this government with a Military junta, led by myself and Bulldog. I am taking you into custody on the charge of Treason."

Moments later, Saul and Bill were separated, Bill being taken to a conference room, Saul to the Brig.

After their escape, Starbuck and Apollo dead bolted the doors in a storage area to regain their composure. "Kara, where is my father? Whoever is in charge of this, they're after the ship, CIC is their goal right now."

"He was on CIC last time I heard." Suddenly, her eyes went wide. "My Gods, Lee, what about Laura?"

"She's not even the President right now, Kara, why..."

"They were ready to blow a hole in your head, Lee. You don't think they want to do that to me, your father, Tigh, and my wife? Maybe even my daughter?"

"Gods", Lee said, the full impact of the situation they were in hitting him. "We have to get to the President. I'm pretty sure the school is on lock-down. Those assholes would have to be completely nuts if they attack children. Hell, Racetrack is expecting, remember?"

That made sense to Kara. For now, her daughter's fate was out of her hands, but not her wife's. The good news is that their quarters were one deck down. It might not be a priority for those involved in the uprising. They mentally went over the quickest route to the Roslin quarters, then moved out.