Life and Trials
"Chief, you have to understand this from my point of view" Harry spoke to Tyrol a few days later. "I can't put things back together or copy them unless I see pictures of them – I'd be copying just the outside"
"Ah, I see" Tyrol suddenly smiled and brought out some manuals for Harry to glance at. "What we need right now is a good beer whilst we work"
"Have one" Harry pointed to a wooden box that Tyrol knew had not been there seconds previous.
"I'm on duty" Tyrol explained.
"Commander Adama told you to treat me as an ally and to respect my customs. Its my custom to drink a beer when working on a major problem, so grab one and lets get on with it" but Tyrol seemed to still be debating. "Chief, if you don't take a beer, you are technically failing to obey Adama's direct orders – you want me to report you?"
"Well" Tyrol reached for a pair of bottles, "Seeing as the Commander left standing orders…"
#
"Sir, we've got a bit of an issue here" Adama's attention was gained by Lieutenant Gaeta.
"What is it?"
"I'm not sure, Commander… I'm getting a faint echo of something right on the edge of DRADIS range, but its keeping the exact distance and speed as us. I can't tell if it's a ship or just this set about to go out of whack"
"Very well… Put it on the list of things for Mr Potter to repair. Flight Ops, order the CAP to close and investigate" Adama issued the order and picked up the handset built into the plotting table. "Attention, Galactica – Pass the word for Colonel Tigh to contact CIC"
"Right here, Bill" Tigh said as he walked into the room.
"Huh – good timing. Saul, we've got an issue with the DRADIS showing an odd reading. Gaeta will fill you in… I want you to take control of it"
"Aye"
"Sir, CAP reports nothing on the edge of our range"
"Have them start a standard search pattern for the next twenty minutes" Adama said. "Colonel, you have the deck"
"Sir! I have the deck"
#
"I thought I'd find you here" Adama said as he stepped into Sickbay. Harry was sat in a chair next to Rebecca's bed where she was recovering from the decompression and internal injuries she had subjected herself to in order to save the ship. Harry had spent a lot of his time when not helping the Colonial fleet out down there. The current rumour was that he was madly in love with her, but Harry had dismissed those as stupid and had mentioned that the reason he was there was because she was his first friend after he had arrived.
"Commander" Harry nodded in acknowledgement, "Is there something I can do for you?"
"Perhaps… There is something on the very edge of DARDIS range that is keeping a constant distance from us. The Vipers and Raptors can't see it, so I was wondering if there was something that you could do to find it with your abilities"
"Have you checked your machine is working right?"
"Yes, but we're thinking it could be some kind of computer malfunction. Would you go out in a Raptor and take a look for yourself?" Adama asked.
"I can fly? In a spaceship?" Harry's eyes lit up with excitement.
"You are already on a spaceship" pointed out the amused older man.
"I know, but a real life spaceship? Oh wow…!" Harry turned to look at Rebecca's sleeping form. "Got to go, love… Adama wants me to go and fly a spaceship"
"Mr Potter, I am beginning to wonder if you are quite sane"
"A friend called Luna once told me that the only sane people are the crazy ones" Harry replied. Watching him bid the sleeping woman goodbye, Adama wondered why she was not brought round yet.
"Is there something that you can do?" he asked.
"If she had been stunned, then perhaps I could have woken her up without a second thought. However, we learnt long ago not to tamper with the mind of a coma patient because it could make things worse" and Harry had a far off look – as if remembering something painful.
"Happen to somebody close to you?"
"Katie Bell… We were never together, she was a lesbian after all, but she was one of my closest and dearest friends when I went to school. During one of the opening fights of the second war, she had been hit hard on the head by masonry. We got her to the healers fairly quickly, but somebody there did something stupid and messed around with her brain causing irreparable damage" Harry paused for a moment and sighed sadly. "I was the one to put her to sleep"
"You have a spell for that?"
"There is the Killing Curse for which I am the only known survivor and there is a spell which is meant to calm you down – use that enough times and the body simply shuts down and you slip away peacefully"
"I gather you have had to do these mercy killings a few times"
"More than a few, Commander" Harry replied darkly, "More than a few… With Katie, it was easier in a way – she had already given me permission to do it if all hope was gone for her" and then he sighed and shook his head. "What is it you need me to do precisely?"
# # # # #
"Galactica, Raptor 318. We've got to the target location – no sign of anything on our DRADIS set" the young pilot said.
"Roger that… Let's see what our specialist can find out" Adama's reply came crackling over the speakers.
"Copy" the pilot turned round to look at Harry. "Commander says to use your freakiness to take a look around"
"Sure" Harry felt uncomfortable at the use of the term most favoured by the Dursleys. First of all, he peered out of the Raptor in all directions and saw nothing but stars twinkling in the inky blackness. "Nothing that I can see… I'll try sensing anything out there" he said, and he closed his eyes and concentrated hard. "I can't sense anything near to me except the Raptor and you. If there was anything around, I would sense it within a few seconds"
"I thought so" the pilot flicked the switch on the wireless to send a message to Galactica.
"Galactica, Boomer – specialist says nothing that he can scan for shows up"
"Acknowledged, Boomer. Bring your bird home – looks like a faulty sensor" Adama said.
"Copy, Galactica. We're on our way" Boomer looked at Harry. "You better go back and strap in" and Harry frowned before nodding.
"Right" Harry replied and went back before looking over his shoulder and making a decision. "Don't say a word, but listen" he whispered into the ear of the officer manning what he had been told was the spy gear onboard. "You know I can read people's minds?" and the officer nodded as they went about their business. "Well, we've got a problem… Your pilot happens to be one of those robot things"
"Cylon?" the man whispered softly.
"Yeah… I don't think she knows, but I can stun her and you can fly this back, right?"
"Actually, I never took the piloting tests" the officer said. "Hey, can you stun her anyway? I can put out a call for help and have another pilot came over in a Raptor and spacewalk to us"
"Yeah" and Harry went back forward to stand next to Boomer. "Sorry" he said and stunned the pilot. "She's out"
"Galactica, Raptor 318. Request secured communications channel with Commander Adama"
"This is Galactica Actual" Adama said after a brief pause.
"Sir, Harry has found out that Boomer is a Cylon. He's stunned her, but we're going to need somebody out here to spacewalk to us and bring the bird home"
"Raptor 318, can you put Mister Potter on the line?"
"Affirm, Actual… Standby one" and Harry was given a headset, put it on and spoke to Adama about what he had sensed and that he was under the impression the poor Cylon did not know she was such a thing…
"Raptor 318, Actual… Could you make a jump if given the location?" Adama asked.
"Affirm" the officer said. Adama then gave a series of numbers to be entered in the navigational computer before launching a Raptor to meet them there – he and the President had decided that Boomer should be taken into custody well away from the fleet before coming back just in case.
#
"… and I just got a flash of strong thought" Harry finished his tale.
"Are you able to read anybody's minds?" asked Adama, wondering about the security implications.
"Yes" Harry replied simply, "But I tend not to unless there is a reason. In the case of Boomer, though, she was broadcasting, for want of a better term, her thoughts very strongly indeed"
"If we brought everybody through Doc Cottle for a fake check up, could you read the minds of everybody and see if they are one of these skinjobs?" Tigh narrowed his eyes in both thought and suspicision.
"Fifty thousand plus…? Sure – so long as you don't mind waiting twenty years" Harry snarked.
"First of all, you need to scan the people on Galactica because if we're infiltrated, we need to get a lid on it right away" Adama stopped the pair from arguing.
"You are still looking at a very long time" Harry said. "And there is another problem – if word gets out, then any human formed Cylons will have time to either leave or create a disaster"
"Maybe not" Adama and Harry looked at Tigh. "Its been a long time since we last held a Division Muster – it was one of the things we had planned to do after docking for the final time over Caprica. If we held Divisions on the starboard hanger deck, almost everybody will be there and we can get any Cylon infiltrators in one swoop"
"It's a risk" Adama noted, "But its worth it"
"It would be easier for me… I can just stand at the hatchway and scan people's minds" Harry shrugged. "I can paint them with a tracer charm and we can get them as they stand in their lines" but then he sighed and leant back. "Then we face another problem – I know the basics of mind healing and examinations for hidden programming, but not a lot more than that to be honest. I can maybe help Boomer, but if any other spy or enemy agent is doing it of their own free will…" Harry made a dismissive gesture.
"We should airlock the whole lot of them" Tigh said.
"What about the Doctor model that's apparently gone to great lengths to avoid following his orders" Adama shook his head. "I'll talk to the President about this, but so long as they have taken no life as a result of their actions, we'll just jail them as Prisoners of War"
"What about defectors or those that don't know they are spies?"
"That is where it is more difficult" Harry said. "I can stun them for a few hours at a time, but not indefinitely… I hesitate to ask, not knowing the situation, but could a prisoner exchange be made?"
"Bah…! The last time we tried to make contact with the toasters, they blasted our planets to hell" Tigh snorted. "If you are set on this, Bill, I'll back you all the way despite my views… Just lets not be hasty – Harry can put them in the Brig and, if we need to, throw them in the Astral Queen… I'm sure that Tom Zarek would love the company"
"Who is he?" Harry frowned.
"Political prisoner, or so he claims, but in reality the man is a terrorist who is rebelling against the law"
"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"
"Oh, for frak's sake, Bill… Not another one"
'ACTION STATIONS, ACTION STATIONS… SET CONDITION ONE THROUGHOUT THE FLEET'
"This is the Commander, Sit Rep" Adama snapped into the phone.
'Sir, a contact just jumped into range. I have no beacons or transponders – suggest Cylon Baseship" Gaeta spoke from the CIC.
"Alert the fleet to start jumping to emergency jump point Alpha 3 – launch all Vipers and prepare to engage the enemy"
"Wait one… Sir, it's the Olympic Carrier" Gaeta sounded excited. "Commander, she is reporting serious damage to her life support systems"
"Hold the jump, but tell all ships to keep their drives spooled up. Ask her Captain how he was able to evade the Cylons for all this time after going missing from us" Adama ordered. "Saul, get to CIC and take charge there" and Tigh nodded and quickly left.
"Commander, the Captain on the Olympic Carrier reports they had a drive failure and have been jumping all over trying to find us. Sir, I have to say that it doesn't sound like the Captain I remember"
"Captured?"
"Perhaps"
"Commander, if you send me out in one of those shuttles of yours" Harry began, "Then I could apparate over to their Bridge with some Marines and make sure that it isn't a trap"
"Mr Gaeta, order the Olympic Carrier to heave to for inspection. If they do not comply, they will be treated as hostile and fired upon. Then, order the CAP to take station on its six and ready a Raptor to go in three minutes" he hung back up. "How long do you need to prepare?"
"I'll be there before the Marines are" Harry smirked and apperated away.
"I wish he would stop that" Tigh grumbled.
#
Within hours of the Olympic Carrier's return to the fleet, the Vice President had been further arrested on more charges of treason, several people from the fleet had been detained as spies and rumours spread throughout the fleet. The reason for the change in the voice was because the previous Captain had had a heart attack and died – the First Officer had taken over and was shaken to see Vipers coming at him. Harry still spent his time either in his quarters or by Rebecca's bedside whilst she was still in the recovery part of Sickbay. A couple of the pilots, mainly Starbuck and Apollo made sure he ate something, but he was otherwise just left alone to watch. When asked about it by Adama, Chief Tyrol would only reply that when everybody had been pressing Harry for details, Rebecca had been the only one who had approached him quietly and not treated him as a freak show. There seemed to be something between them, but as Harry had only had one discussion with the woman, nobody especially knew what to make of it. It wasn't until the third week after the incident when she woke up to see Harry sitting by her bedside.
"Hey" he smiled at her, "You were giving people quite a bit of worry. You've been here for a long time"
"How… long…?" she croaked out.
"Three weeks" Harry said. "We've been through a lot since you went for a nap, but things are getting back to normal once more" and Rebecca winced slightly in pain. "Too much?"
"Yeah… It hurts…"
"Well, I could get a Doctor or Nurse" Harry glanced around the area, "Or I could…" he waggled his eyebrows.
"You can heal people?"
"I'm a man of many talents" Harry chuckled. "Hermione used to call me a Swiss Army Knife – a sort of foldable knife that had many attachments. I can't heal everything, I never took that course during Auror training, but I can fix a few broken bones, stop bleeding and even numb the pain for a few hours"
"Right now" Rebecca groaned, "I'll take anything" and Harry withdrew his wand and cast a couple of spells to help her. "So what have I missed?"
"Well there are human looking robots running around your fleet, the Vice President was a traitor, Starbuck went an entire day without drinking and you made the rank of Ensign"
"WHAT?"
"Adama asked me to help around the fleet with creating parts and stuff like that in exchange for staying on Galactica. I replied that my price was that you became an officer"
"Why?"
"Because you were the only one that never just outright demanded to know stuff about me. You treated me like a person and, admittedly, you are fairly easy on the eye" Harry smirked before standing up and moving towards the medical office to find a Nurse or Doctor.
#
As time went on, Harry grew more and more to be accepted by the crew and the fleet – the population learning that Harry had his quirks that seemed odd but which made sense to him. Adama, however, did have to ask him to not sit on the flight deck in a deck chair drinking Butterbeer after he had scared a training flight of new Viper pilots, though he was sometimes spotted by the CAP perched on the hull just sat with his legs crossed and eyes shut. Adama had been about to speak to him about it when Tigh stopped him and suggested that he might be doing some kind of religious thing or communicating with magic.
"So then what happened?" asked Starbuck. Harry had joined some of the senior pilots in a kind of poker game that he was occasionally good at, getting slightly drunk and swapping stories.
"We were about to walk away when Hermione just turns and decks him right in the nose – damn she could hit" Harry chuckled with a smile. "Malfoy couldn't tell anybody because then he'd be admitting to using racist language" and then his tone grew cold. "I killed him later"
"At school?" Lee Adama's eyes widened in surprise.
"No… When I was with the Aurors, we raided a place that was keeping prisoners and it turned out to be far worse. They were cutting apart the children to use their organs in spells, but they were being kept alive during the process" Harry slammed his drink in one go. "He came out from behind a door and I just blasted him to pieces without a second's thought. He was one of the few I took down in cold blood"
"Did your unit send you to a shrink?" asked Kara.
"Yeah, but that never worked – he tried to kill me during our third meeting"
"Guess you've seen a lot of action then"
"Yeah…" Harry looked at his cards, made a decision and called Kara's bluff. "I call"
"Have you read my mind or something?" the pilot grumbled as Harry collected his winnings.
"Yes"
"That's cheating!"
"Ah, but your rule book said nothing about mind reading" Harry smirked. "No, actually, I just learned to read people very closely… It has been a skill that has served me well" he added with a shrug.
"You know, I asked the XO about letting you try the Viper simulator down on the starboard hanger bay" Lee spoke up. "Its more designed for what should have been the museum, buts it's a great tool to train people"
"Great… I loved to fly" Harry sat back in the chair and smiled as he remembered fonder days. He told the pilots and ECOs about flying around on a broom, how the wind would rush through his air as he played Quidditch. Kara, naturally, thought this sounded great fun and asked if she could do it – Harry had to turn her down nicely as there was only the one broomstick.
"If we don't get an alert, I can take you through it myself" Kara said, switching back into what Harry called 'Starbuck Mode'.
"I used to love flying… Well, until the dark days of the war. Still, I suppose flying is flying" Harry looked at the time and decided enough was enough. Although he did not hold an official rank in the Colonial Fleet, he still drew a pay chit and ate in the Wardroom or the mess hall depending on his mood, he was treated with great respect and the rumour was that even Tigh had started to like him after bottles of Ambrosia started appearing in his cabin. At that moment, though, he was a little tired and decided that he'd nod off for a couple of hours before he thought about popping down to the Hanger Deck and seeing if the Chief needed anything repairing or duplicating. If that failed to do anything, he thought about seeing Starbuck for that simulator time and, if she couldn't help him, he'd apparate to Cloud 9 and sit under the trees by the little pond that always soothed his nerves. That evening, he was going to meet Rebecca for dinner in the wardroom before she took him to one of the civilian ships that was showing a theatre performance – the few friends he had on Galactica had been joking that he was being taken on a date. Harry had hesitated and then blushed a bright red before trying and failing to change the subject to cheers and jeers – making a tactical retreat to his cabin and hiding under the covers.
#
"I'm glad you came" Rebecca was wearing a uniform with a brown sash over the jacket with a single medal of some kind along with rank insignia. Harry, on the other hand, had chosen to wear Auror dress robes complete with cloak that made most of Galactica's pilots also want one and he chuckled at how childish they sometimes were. That being said, they could also be the kindest people that one could hope to meet.
"Well it was either this or another night of drinking with the pilots" Harry shrugged, "And I haven't had a steak in years"
"Really?"
"Being on the run for half a decade meant our finances didn't stretch to a steak supper at the Hilton" Harry chuckled and sat down at the table. He enjoyed eating in the wardroom because, despite being on the run and down on many supplies, the stewards still managed to put out a first class dining service with starched tablecloths and shining silverware. Most of the officers were surprised at the effort they had gone to, but none of them would reveal it was thanks to Harry and his magical conjuring skills.
"So, how was your day?" Rebecca asked.
"Well, I cleaned out Starbuck at that version of Poker, helped the Chief fix some Vipers, made new parts, helped Cottle do some medical exams and then went swimming"
"Swimming? We don't have a swimming pool onboard"
"You do now… In completely unrelated news, you've lost a small supply cupboard"
"I'm not sure I want to ask anything else on that subject" Rebecca laughed. They chatted for a while before their meals were served – soup, steak and cheesecake which Harry found delicious. The steak had come with giant sized chips which was another one of Harry's little foibles – chips the size of an aircraft carrier. As they ate, Harry found himself committing everything he could see about Rebecca to memory and found there was a place for her in his heart. Perhaps she could be one of his greatest friends in this new life he had found himself in, though he deeply missed those that had sacrificed everything for him. He sometimes had been known to turn to his side and ask Hermione or Susan for their opinion on something, find them not there, and then go into a terrible mood and sit by his electric blue egg that still sat in a Viper repair bay. That, he mused, was another subject completely… If it was a thing of magic, why had it not vanished by now? He had spent hours scanning it with every spell he knew and came to the conclusion that it was just… there. The only thing he could think of is that some of his friends had caused a delay whilst the others made a magical construct to send Harry through and save him at the cost of their own lives. When he realised this, he swore up such a storm that reports came in from the CAP they could hear him – Adama and Tigh had been inclined to believe them.
"Tell me more about this play" Harry requested as the pair walked down to the hanger deck.
"Its called Fleet and Flotilla and is one of the classics"
"It sounds… interesting" Harry said.
"Ah, I guess you've never read it. It's about two people who become lovers despite being from two different lands. One is a naval officer and the other is a princess who is being trained to take the throne in a few years because of her dying parents. I won't spoil it for you, but trust me when I say it's a good one" Rebecca chuckled and handed their passes to a crewman who ticked their names off a list and directed them towards a shuttle. It was a boxy little thing, a left over from the First Cylon War Harry had been told, but the craft and others like it had been purposed into serving as a sort of bus service between the various ships in the fleet complete with a schedule. "You like this one?" Rebecca had noticed Harry drinking in all the details of the cabin.
"It isn't bad – not as cool as a Raptor, mind you, but Raptors are awesome" and then he shrugged. "Vipers are, of course, better" Harry added.
"Its funny"
"What is?"
"How fascinated by what you see around you" Rebecca smiled.
"Where I am from" Harry wondered internally if that was actually correct, "We've only really set up stations around our planet. We did go to the moon a few times, but then there were budget cuts so that had to stop. Of course, many countries from Earth sent out robot probes to other planets to explore. We even used one to take a family portrait"
"A what?"
"Picture of almost all of the planets this probe could see – we showed up as a pale blue dot" Harry looked out the windows of the shuttle as it was taken up to the flight deck. "Gave you a sense of prospective"
"Of what?"
"How big everything is in the universe. You know, I am the only one of my kind to get the answer to the immortal question"
"What is that?" asked Rebecca with a raised eyebrow.
"If aliens exist"
"I'm not an alien"
"From my point of view, you are" and Rebecca found she couldn't fault Harry's logic. Once in space, Harry pressed his face up against the windows to look at all of the different types of ship that housed what was left of a mighty civilisation. It was the general opinion, though not said in his hearing, that it was very cute of him to do it, though Starbuck, Adama and Tigh had a vague idea as to why Harry loved the vastness of space – the abuse from his relatives. He had yet to tell Rebecca the full story about that, but knew it would come up sooner rather than later. "So anyway" he said as he turned back to her, "Tell me a bit more about this play…"
# # # # #
The relative quietness without Cylons appearing had made Adama decide to take the fleet into a nearby nebula for a few days to let the ships undertake some heavy repairs and to allow people to rest – the first time since they had fled the Colonies. Standards were kept up, of course, and the CAP was always there with Vipers sat in the tubes with the pilots inside – cockpit canopies ready to close in a few seconds for a fast launch. Harry, in the meantime, was sitting in the Galactica's chapel with his eyes closed and thinking hard. He was in no way a Christian, Harry was fairly certain God wouldn't let him in after what he'd done, but he found the place calming and allowed him the needed opportunity to clear his mind and organise his thoughts. That being said, he respected the thoughts and traditions of his friends in the fleet and their beliefs – helping Rebecca and a few of the pilots get to prayer services if they ran a little late.
"I heard I would find you here" a soft spoken voice brought Harry out of his business and he blinked to see Laura Roslin standing before him.
"Madam President" he nodded, "How can I help you?"
"I was told you have come up with ways to present evidence at the trial of Baltar" she said.
"Yes, but I am not sure if your legal system would allow it"
"It will… One of the perks of being President"
"Ah, I guess so. Well, there are two ways of doing this. The first is one you do yourself by thinking of the memory and extracting it with a non verbal spell. The other is for somebody to scan a subject's mind and forcefully extract the memories to be put into a pensieve to dive into"
"Dive?"
"Yes, though a slight adjustment can allow the memory to be projected to many people at the same time. We occasionally used this method in criminal trials and to argue points of law" Harry explained.
"Could you demonstrate this for the Commander and the Quorum?" Roslin asked Harry, taking a seat as she spoke.
"I would be happy to do so" Harry replied. "In somewhat related matters, what are we going to do about those Cylons that did not believe or know they were such?"
"Airlock them – the only good Cylon is a dead one"
"Madam President, I did not identify them just so you could execute them later on. Some of them have done outstanding service for your people – one has even disobeyed direct orders from his Cylon commanders… I need time to come up with a way of removing the programming from those who will it"
"And if some do not?"
"Then we wait until the next Cylon attack and broadcast a message requesting a truce and prisoner exchange if possible. The returning prisoners can tell their comrades that you treated them well, saw to their needs and it might just allow them to change the minds of other Cylons" Harry sighed. "Madam President, would you rather be on the run for decades or have the chance to end this war and go home?"
"Our homes were destroyed by nuclear weapons and our planets turned into atomic wastelands" Roslin said sharply. "I want the Cylons eliminated"
"So…?" Harry raised an eyebrow in a mixture of amusement and confusion. "If there is a peace between you and the Cylons, we can jump back and I might be able to help you. I get that there is hate between your peoples, but have you ever thought of just outright apologising?
"You want us to apologise for defending ourselves?"
"No… For keeping a race on sentient creatures as slaves. Anyway, if you can return home… I can use my magic to clean the air in places and to cleanse the soil – you could start again and rebuild your lost civilisation"
"How… How could we repay you?" Roslin was gobsmacked.
"Just give me a load of money and a place to live" Harry got up and walked to the hatch before turning back. "And I never want to pay taxes" and he left Roslin to think about what he offered her. She had seen first-hand the miracles that he was able to perform with his abilities in magic, seen the hope that he had inspired in the people of the fleet and she couldn't help but wonder if she could lead their people home to settle on the Colonies again. As she was thinking, the hatch opened and Harry walked back in and cast a spell on her.
"What did you do to me?"
"With all the work I have been doing, I forgot to cure your cancer" he shrugged and then looked out the hatch to one of the Marines. "I think you might need Doctor Cottle"
#
"WHAT?" Adama shouted in surprise. "Go over that again"
"If we treat the Cylons who want to return to their own kind with respect and good manners, its possible they could change the opinions of their models. Remember, the Four known as Simon has gone to great lengths to avoid carrying out its orders, one of the Sixes thinks the war is a mistake…" Harry shrugged. "At the very least, Commander, you could find yourselves being left alone in peace to find a new world to settle. At best, you could go back home again to at least one of the planets of your Colonies and start to rebuild. If your military is anything like ours, I doubt everyone was killed – there will be shelters and bunkers"
"The Cylons hate us with every fibre of their being"
"Yet you have two of them that have served you well" Roslin pointed out from her place behind the desk. "Commander, at least send a message the next time a Cylon task force is seen offering to meet with them"
"I am not going on some damned quest"
"You don't have to" Harry was beginning to feel the start of a migraine. "I have spoken to the Cylons and they seem very reasonable people to me – bar their want of mass genocide. Two of them, Boomer and Simon, want to stay with the fleet. The Six that has given us some limited information might very well want to do the same, but I'm not certain yet… The others want to go back to their kind, and they have at least given me what they say is a valid communications code to talk to the Raiders to make them return to base and spread the message to their High Command. I don't know about you, Commander, but one planet is better than no planets at all"
"You're right…" Adama sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Mr Potter, I apologise… I've been looking to the safety and security of this fleet for too long now without a break"
"You want me to take over for a day?" Harry chuckled.
"Do you know how to manage a Battlestar?"
"No, but neither does Colonel Tigh and he does alright"
"Touché" Adama sighed in defeat. "You know what I would love for shore leave? A nice log cabin with nothing around me, no sound except the wind and a coal and wood fire… Just me, that and a few good books"
"Well I can't give you that, not yet, but I did arrive here with some of my potions on me" Harry shrugged. "I could let you take a sip of dreamless sleep and then pop you to your quarters for a good long sleep"
"Is there anything you can't do?" Adama raised a tired and yet bemused expression.
"Play the violin. I wouldn't say I was bad, but sometime recordings of me were played as a form of psychological warfare"
"Maybe we should broadcast that to the Cylons and demand their unconditional surrender" Roslin smiled. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no…" she added quickly as she saw the look Harry and Adama shared.
#
"All rise" the President's assistant, Harry couldn't remember his name, called out and the assembled people rose from their seats as Roslin walked through the hatch and strode to the podium. The trial of Gaius Baltar was about to take place after a long search for somebody to represent him which ended with him deciding to do his own defence. As this was such an important thing, the risk was taken in allowing the trial to be broadcast over the wireless so that everybody could hear what was going on.
"You may be seated" Roslin said as she sat down. "Members of the Court, Citizens of the Twelve Colonies… This trial is to be held to look into the matter of the treason by Gaius Baltar before the Cylons attacked. The Prosecution has furnished evidence that he allowed himself to be seduced by a Cylon agent and gave her access to the computers that controlled our defences. By chance, that agent has been captured amongst the fleet but has decided to defect to us and has given us a lot of this information. With information coming from passengers aboard the Olympic Carrier, defections and evidence gained by Harry Potter, it was decided to try Gaius Baltar for his crimes. Mr Dredd, you may begin"
"Thank you, Madam President" the man rose and walked around his table and paced for a moment before beginning. "Gaius Baltar is a damned fool and a traitor to us all. He allowed himself to be seduced by a beautiful woman, gave her access to the defence mainframe and allowed the Cylons to almost completely destroy our race. I call the Cylon Model known as Number Six to the stand" and a tall blonde walked in a casual ladies suit to a large chair and sat in it quietly and calmly.
"Good Morning" she said.
"Good Morning… I have introduced you as a Six, but do you have a name you prefer to go by?"
"Natasi Sixtus"
"Very well. Miss Sixtus, can you please tell the court your assignment with regards to Gaius Baltar and the Colonial Defence System?"
"Certainly. I was activated, for want of a better term, and sent to Caprica several years before our attack. There, I was to pretend to be Gaius Baltar's lover and gain his confidence so he would let my 'company' have inside knowledge of how the systems worked so we could supposedly bid on the next round of contracts. Of course, nobody knew the real plan except us Cylons and, if I may say so, it was very easy to do so. You Humans sometimes fail to see the blindingly obvious in front of you"
"Yes… Miss Sixtus, how did you get involved with Mr Baltar?"
"Showed him various parts of my body and then told him my company wanted to work with him so they had inside knowledge of the next defence upgrades. Cylon High Command had decided that it was the best way to take down your defences and disable your ships before we took them out"
"How was this to be done?"
"A piece of code inside the systems of your ships and ground stations. I do not know much about it, due to security concerns from my people, but I suspect Dr Amarak will be able to tell you more" Natasi said.
"Thank you" and the questioning went on for over an hour and a half before Dredd was done.
"No questions" Baltar weakly said.
"May I say something?"
"Please"
"I realise that none of you will believe me when I say this, but I was merely following orders when I did what I did. I know that I will face trial for my actions, but I want to apologise all the same for it… I have come to believe that the war is wrong"
"Thank you, you may step down"
"To where?"
"It means you may leave" Dredd smiled slightly. The Cylon stepped down and away from the podium to be escorted by a pair of Marines. "Madam President, I call Doctor Amarak to the stand" and an elderly man rose from his seat and walked firmly to the stand where he was allowed to sit down. "You are Doctor Amarak of the Caprican Cybernetics Institute and an advisor to President Adar?"
"I am"
"Doctor, could you please explain, for the benefit of the court, what those positions involved?"
"Certainly…" the man, although elderly, was a firm speaker with a commanding voice that Harry found enticing. "The position of advisor to President Adar came about because I was, and I suppose still am, top of my field in Cybernetics as well as computer research. Naturally, the President would want the top people to give him answers and reports on anything he so wished from computer technology right down to the brothels on Tauron" the last gained a few giggles from the public and the crew of Galactica. "As for my other work, the CCI was commissioned to come up with a new system to link information between ships for better coordination between ships during battle. At the same time, things would be automated greatly to speed up response times to queries from anybody onboard ships and smaller craft. We were about halfway through this project when the Colonial Fleet informed us we were no longer needed and that they had decided to go with Gaius Baltar's CNP system instead. This got us interested because, although a brilliant and gifted computer engineer and cybernetic researcher, he had never shown much interest in developing a program on a grand scale such as this. We requested a copy of the CNP to test on the grounds of the fact we had concerns, but we were denied on many occasions from somebody in the Colonial Navy. Luckily, a Viper crashed which had the program installed and, because the crash happened on Caprica, the planetary government sent the wreckage to us to go over the systems to see what went wrong as was normal"
"And what went wrong, Doctor?" asked Dredd.
"His computer systems contained lines of code that permitted the Viper to be controlled remotely. When activated, it would have cut off communications and the pilot died without being able to call for help or even eject"
"Can you explain what you mean by remote control?"
"The Viper would have been flown by somebody on the ground and done whatever this person wanted it to do. In this instance, it was flown in such a way that it would appear to be pilot error to anybody watching from an outside point of view. This appeared to have been going on for some time – as much as several months I believe" Amarak sighed. "I did attempt to alert everybody that I could think of, but I was shut down almost as quickly as I spoke up about it and I could never figure out why. Twelve months later, somebody in the military hand delivered a copy of the CNP that was designed to work with Battlestars, Destroyers, Cruisers, other large ships and ground defence systems. I tested this against the code from the crashed Viper and found almost an exact match – the code was near identical in the intention of taking over everything and shutting down every major system"
"Doctor, how sure can you be that it was Doctor Baltar that did this?"
"As certain as anything. Because the attacks happened over a period of time, I had a few hours to examine reports coming in from ships that had suffered full or partial failures. They transmitted the fact they only broke down when Cylons sent a signal that activated the code – it was at that moment I realised the Cylon code was identical to the code in the CNP. The only ships that were fully operational were those either running in standard manual mode or had shut down their networks before their weapons could be turned upon their fellow vessels. I did try to put out a general call for ships to turn off their CNP controlled systems, but I think it was already too late. When I heard of a general evacuation, I grabbed everything I could and boarded the Olympic Carrier"
"Thank you Doctor Amarak. One thing more… What was the name of the Pilot that was killed in the Viper"
"Zak… Zak Adama"
#
"Colonel, you have the deck" Commander William Adama turned and walked out of the CIC – pausing only to grab the sidearm from a passing Marine.
"Oh shit…" Tigh muttered. They had been listening to the trial whilst on duty in the CIC and Tigh had an idea what his old friend planned to do. "Connect me with the hanger deck and put Harry Potter on the line"
#
"Well, that was interesting…" Roslin said as Harry seemingly popped from one side of the hanger to the other and then stunned Adama and Starbuck before either could raise their pistols.
"Madam President, I will explain later" Harry said and then floated the pair behind him and walked off.
"Very well… Mr Dredd, you may resume"
"No further questions"
"Mr Baltar?"
"Doctor, you say that you examined my CNP program at length – how deeply?" Baltar rose and moved around his table to perch on the edge.
"I broke it all down to the individual pieces of code"
"Did you share this information with anybody?"
"My team knew what I was doing, maybe a few others… Not entirely sure" Amarak replied.
"Are you aware that the CNP was classified as being Top Secret?"
"Yes"
"And yet you essentially stole the CNP programme and took it apart and shared the results?"
"I did… There was great concern at what was happening. You were a better than average scientist in computers and cybernetics, but the fact you came up with such a thing like this in less then six months is nothing short of stupid. I did what I tried to do to alert people in the Colonial Armed Forces, but they were either too blind or stupid to listen. I prayed I was wrong about you, but all that happened was I was proven right"
"But you took possession of the software that was classified Top Secret" Baltar smirked.
"Yes… The difference is that my security clearance was, and still is I presume, much higher then yours. How you got detailed information on the systems of our military is astonishing and I do hope that I find out"
"But I didn't know she was an enemy agent" Baltar said defensively. "Anyway, all she told me afterwards was…" he stopped as his eyes widened at the realisation that he'd never told anybody and had just admitted in open court he knew Cylons had taken human form and had never admitted it to the President or Commander Adama. "Madam President, I have no further questions for Doctor Amarak. In addition, I rest my case and wish to change my pleas to guilty and ask for the firing squad. There is little point pleading for my life, the evidence is stacked up against me that I might as well just be executed and be done with it"
"Well, I suppose that was rather quick and easy" Roslin said. "Gaius Baltar, you are found guilty of all your crimes. It is my judgement that you be taken from this place to the brig onboard the Battlestar Galactica pending a time that a firing squad can be arranged. This court is dismissed"
#
"He was responsible for the death of my son… All this time Kara thought it was because he had no aptitude for flying, but it was his Viper that was being tampered with…" Adama downed his fifth drink of the night. "I'm going to take great pleasure in commanding that firing squad myself" he added bitterly. "Kara is already looking forward to serving in it along with Lee and Saul"
"I know how you feel" said Harry. "I had to deal with the death of a loved one, found the traitor and executed the bastard myself"
"That Katie woman?"
"Yeah… The relationship between myself, Hermione, her and the others went beyond friendship and beyond family" Harry looked over at the clock on the bulkhead wall. "I better get to my place for a rest – helping the Chief repairing some of your battle damage. Given the state of it, I'm going to need to use all of my magical reserves"
"Is it that bad?" Adama asked.
"Some of your supports have big enough holes to fly a Viper through" Harry shrugged and sighed. "If you hadn't had me appear, they would have lasted two… Maybe three years before they failed – its almost as if the ship was built with people cutting corners"
"So very bad" Adam nodded in understanding. "I hear from Lee that you are picking up the basics of Viper piloting well"
"Aye, well flying is flying when it comes down to it. Starbuck is going to take me out in a real one soon in exchange for lessons on a broomstick"
"You have one of those?"
"I have three on me, but I wasn't about to let Starbuck try it without me"
"Mmm. Speaking of which, I hear that she isn't the only one of my crew that wants to try something of yours" Adama laughed liked a rolling thunder storm.
"Oh?" Harry frowned and tried to think of any of the other pilots that wanted to try the few magical items that appeared in this world with him.
"Yes, that young crewwoman you had me make an Officer… Rumour has it she wants to frak you rotten"
"Rumours are most often wrong"
"In my military career, rumours often have truth in them. She is free to do as she wishes, of course as you are not military"
"We're not together" Harry blushed red and shook his head, "We're just good friends"
"That's how it starts" Tigh spoke up from the corner of the room where he had been silent all the time.
"Might I remind you two that I am a Wizard with the ability to turn you into frogs? Also, I can kill you with my brain. Besides, I don't think she has any romantic intentions towards me"
"You'd be surprised… Look, son, take some advice from an old man like me and try asking her out on a real date. From what you have told me and Saul about your life, you deserve some happiness"
"I don't swing that way"
"He said 'happiness' you godsdamned fool… Not 'a penis'… Honestly, Bill, where do we find them?"
"I do believe the general idea is behind the sofa" Adama said. "Right, well, I'm off to bed and I'll see you two in the morning before breakfast"
"I better get up to CIC and see to the watch" Tigh grunted as he stood up.
"Drinking on duty?" Adama frowned. "Saul, I thought we had seen the last of this"
"Harry?" Tigh gestured at Harry who hit him with a Sobering Charm. "You know, I'm beginning to love magic" and he left Adama's cabin. Adama was about to say something to Harry but found the wizard had popped away.
"Frak me… I'm getting too old for this crap"
#
"Viper 212, you are cleared for launch"
"Copy that" Harry replied. After a couple of hours of intense training, Starbuck had decided that Harry was ready to fly a Viper for real. Normally, she would have given him several months of training in the classroom, but seeing as he could break the Viper and simply repair it with a wave of his wand, she'd elected to put him in a cockpit after trying him on the game simulator. A moment later, the catapult shot him down the launching tube and out into the vastness of space. "I have got to get me one of these!" he said.
"Settle down, nugget" Starbuck formed up alongside Harry. "You did well in the simulator, but a simulator is no substitute for real flying. Now, turn to port and steer 230"
"Coming left to 230" Harry moved the control stick to the left and the Viper turned sharply – forcing Harry into correcting his attitude with the thrusters.
"Try not using the stick so hard next time… That is a mistake everybody does the first time in real flight"
"Sorry"
"Never mind – now, watch me doing this and we'll try you on them" Starbuck then spent the next hour and a half taking Harry through Viper combat moves and doing a little target practice with the laser system that was still attached to the Mk II Vipers. They were just about to head back to the fleet and land when something glinting caught Harry's eye.
"Starbuck, break left NOW" and Starbuck responded instantly to the bellowed order out of instinct and broke hard left as a Cylon Raider screamed right through where she had been.
"Galactica, Starbuck… Cylon Raider at my location! Request the CAP. Alright, nugget, time to head back to the barn"
"That's a bad idea… If you can get it to fly past me, I can knock it out completely and the brass can have something shiny to look at"
"Its too risky"
"Kara, we have enemy defectors onboard. If I can knock this thing out, they can help us disarm the bloody thing before it wakes up again. Imagine being able to go through its memory and look where the Cylons are and will be"
"Fine, but if I die, I'm going to kill you"
"I used to do this all the time with dragons. Right, let the Cylon get behind you and then steer right towards me and veer off three seconds before impact"
"Are you insane?"
"Nope… Just the best chance of some intel"
"This is Galactica Actual to Starbuck – do what Harry says… We need the information stored in the toaster's memory banks"
"Sir, I just hate being told what to do by a nugget"
"Kara, could a nugget take a nuclear warhead right between the eyes and live? I've racked up more kills then anyone alive… If we do this, you get a nice medal, time off and free booze"
"Fine… Just don't miss"
#
"Commander, Colonel, Madam President… May I present you with the Raider Mk II" Harry dissolved the covering with a wave of his hand. There, on its very small but strong legs, sat a Cylon Raider on the starboard hanger deck where it had been placed for safety reasons in case it awoke before disarming was complete.
"She's about the same size as the original version" Tigh said.
"Still a tough son of a bitch" Adama grunted as he looked at the crescent shape the wings made. "They've put the cannons next to the head here… They must have figured putting them on the tips of the wing arms was too great a risk in losing a target"
"Yeah? Well, they're still going to go down" Tigh paced around. "Was Gaeta able to download from the computer on this bird?"
"I think so… He had trouble getting into the computer core until he got help from one of the Sixes"
"What? Bill, tell me you are kidding me… You let a toaster in here?"
"I couldn't risk Gaeta messing up and wiping everything – my call, Saul" and Tigh muttered an oath before crouching and looking under it.
"I'll say this for the bastards" he grunted, "They've got the right amount of stores for the size of the bird"
"I managed to scan it and give a complete readout to Doctor Cottle – he thinks it might be possible to infect the Cylon craft with some sort of virus that affects its thought pathways. Once infected, we destroy the craft and let it download into a new copy" Tyrol shrugged. "Hopefully, this mental instability will be passed on to the other Cylons" he added.
"I did not capture it to have the poor thing be used in biological warfare" Harry shook his head. "We need the information contained in its memory banks, yes, but we can also use it to send a message to the Cylon High Command that we wish to discuss terms of peace"
"I agree with both arguments" Roslin said. "Whilst the ability to send an offer of peace is noble, perhaps we should still have the plan of this virus as a back up"
"No" Harry said simply. "I did not agree to help you just to be a part of genocide" he felt the anger start to boil deep inside him. "I have seen what that can do to a civilisation, Madam, and I will not be a part of that. If you try to do this, I will stop you. The Raider is technically alive which means it is a Prisoner of War. I might not know a lot of your laws, but I bet there is something about the mistreatment of prisoners. Now, we can have our defectors disarm the Raider, order it to turn over any command codes it may have to unlock encrypted files and then issue it new orders to return to its home base and deliver the message"
"Can't believe this, Bill, but I'm not too happy about this myself. Seemed simple when it was just robots, but now they have feelings…" Tigh shrugged. "Commander, I have to report that senior members of the Twelve Colonies are planning to use a POW in a campaign of biological warfare" and, tough and demanding as he was, Saul Tigh was a loyal Colonial Officer and knew how to do things by the book…
"Alright, Saul, you've made your point" Adama nodded slowly. "I don't like the idea either, I have a lot of reasons to hate the Cylons after all, but I'm not going to let that cloud my judgement. The Raider will be given the chance to return home as a gesture of goodwill with a message from us. HOWEVER, we will still fight them until a ceasefire has been made prior to peace talks. Colonel Tigh, I want a plan of action ready for command approval no later than eighteen hundred this evening. Chief Tyrol, try to work out if this Raider needs repairing and see to it. Madam President…?"
#
"… and that is when I kind of lost my temper" Harry finished.
"Wasn't you even a little bit afraid?" asked Rebecca.
"No, not really" Harry replied as he sipped the tea, "I've faced down far worse monsters"
"The President is not a monster, Harry"
"That's what they said about Khan, Hitler and Trump" at his friend's blank look, he added "They were three evil dictators that ruled with an iron fist. Look, Rebecca, I've seen what happens when a group embraces the darkest depths – not going to let that happen again. You know, I had something to ask you earlier, but now it seems not the right time…"
"Just ask me anyway" Rebecca smiled.
"Okay, fine… Do you want to go out with me?"
"Oh… Um… Er…" Rebecca lost the ability to speak for a moment. "Uh, sure, I guess"
"Great, um, that's… Great" Harry said lamely. "Look, I've seen a lot of things that nobody should, Rebecca, so I'm sometimes prone to outbursts. If that happens, its nothing personal" he stopped talking and Rebecca could see him having a flashback to something that had happened in his past.
"Bad memory?"
"A good one, but the results ended up bad"
"Tell me"
"I was thinking about one of my closest friends, Lavender. She came from a great home, loving parents… That all changed when she was attacked by a werewolf and, although she wasn't turned into one, she was heavily scared. For years after the attack, she was made fun of and attacked for no reason at all – became a joke to almost anybody and when she snapped back, they feared her. Both of us were damaged by war, Rebecca, and I'm not sure that I'll ever be the same"
"Did you sleep with her?"
"Couple of times, but then I ended up here before anything major happened"
"Did you love her?"
"Not sure" Harry admitted, "But then again when you are on the run from a genocidal maniac there is little time to think about love"
"I'm guessing that you cared for her" Rebecca undid the front of her uniform jacket as she was now off duty.
"We all cared for each other" Harry replied flatly, "But they seemed to care for me more then what I knew. Sometimes, I wish I could go back there and bring them here or at least return with a squadron of Vipers – Voldemort would have pissed himself at the sight of those"
"Can't you do it?" asked Rebecca with a gleam in her eye.
"No… Where I am from… Was from… There is magic in the very air and I felt the magic flow into me as I came through whatever portal the others used. What magic was not used in destroying the planet entered my body and charged me to massive levels – that's how I know I can't go back"
"But if you could, would you?"
"Yes… I love being here and spending time with you and the friends I made, but Earth is my home and I'd like to go back and go down alongside my friends"
"That sounds rather a stupid thing to say" Rebecca chuckled.
"You've never faced an enemy up close, have you?"
"No"
"I have… When you fight up close and personal with people you trust, you form a special bond – a spirit of will that is either defeated or is victorious" he sighed. "It's a hard concept to explain really"
"I think I understand"
"No, Rebecca" Harry said quickly and firmly as he reached for the bottle of what looked like whiskey, "I hope that you never do…"
#
"Harry?" Starbuck was walking down the corridor towards him.
"Before you say anything, I want to apologise to you"
"Okay… Not what I was expecting"
"Figured… You were in charge of that training mission and I went against your orders. It was just that…" Harry sighed in frustration.
"You thought you was back with your friends" Starbuck's expression softened.
"Yeah… I am still finding it hard to fit in around here"
"Well, anyway, the rest of us have come up with a callsign for you – Seeker"
"That's funny"
"Oh?"
"Remember what I told you about Quidditch and what position I played?"
"Missionary?"
"You know, Kara, you ought to go on a tour would the fleet with your rapier like wit. Actually, I was a great one for ladies playing submarine"
"Submarine?"
"Yes… We'd go to bed and rig for deep submergence"
"Wouldn't mind trying that" Starbuck said as she looked him up and down.
"I'm not sure Ensign Smith would like that" Harry smirked.
"Oh, I don't know – she goes both ways" and Harry's eyes widened, he felt a blackness encompass his vision and he dropped to the deck. "You, alert Doc Cottle he has Harry Potter incoming" Starbuck shouted at a passing crewman who nodded quickly and ran to the nearest phone. "Hey, Apollo, a hand…?" she asked as she spotted the CAG walking towards her.
"What have you done to him?"
"I swear I did nothing to him"
"Where have I heard that one before?" Apollo asked as he bent down to help pick up Harry.
A/N:
As always, I appreciate reviews and thoughts
Pixel and Stephanie