The doors opened and Omega and Apollo walked out of the pressure hatch that had been attached to the bridge entrance on the main level. Their progress was slowed by the pressure suits they wore as they walk out onto the bridge.
Omega looked out across the main level of the bridge and shuddered. The view port had shattered with the impact and shards of the clear metal were strewn about the decking. To the left side of the view port was the breach. It was a rupture in the wall about two meters long and one meter across. As he looked through it he could see stars on the other side before his view was block by one of the EVA technicians as they worked on the rupture from the outside of the ship. He watched as the tech passed a long thin piece of equipment through the breach to his counterpart on the bridge. Omega looked away.
As he looked across the now empty duty stations, once manned by personnel he would never see again, his eyes blurred. The twisted metal and naked wires spoke volumes about the damage that had been done. He should have been here, his mind told him, even though he knew it would not have made a difference. All that would have accomplished was that he would be dead too, but he still felt that he had failed them by not being here.
"How in the name of Kobol...?" Omega heard Apollo's softly spoken words through the com unit as they stood there looking over the damage.
He watched as Apollo climbed the steps to the center command station the bulky pressure suit at odds with his slow almost graceful movements. The techs had reduced the gravity to one half in this part of the Galactica to help with the repairs and it added an eerie feeling to the too still bridge, not to mention nausea to Omega. He had never liked zero gravity and even half gravity was unsettling to his stomach.
The circular railing that usually surround the command station was flattened and torn from its mounting on the right side. Part of the forward bulkhead had been blown back into the bridge as the explosion hit. The section had landed on the command station crushing the railing and those that had been there. The retrieval teams had been unable to move it. Instead of cutting it up to remove it they had reduced the gravity and lifted it back into position. They had told Omega that it would be more use to them in one piece as they used it in the repairs. Omega tried not to think about the damage it had caused to the equipment nor the people in its path.
Omega, looking at the partially crushed computer station, followed Apollo up the stairs when suddenly Apollo stopped in his tracks.
Omega laid a hand on Apollo's shoulder as he walked past. "It's not as bad as it looks. None of the hits we took managed to break the power lines to the main computer or flight computer main frames in the computer rooms." As Omega headed toward his computer console he saw what had stopped Apollo. There was a dark stain on the landing near the crushed railing. Omega just stared at it as visions of what must have happened came unbidden to him. He closed his eyes and tried to block it out.
A hand landed on his shoulder giving him a little shake dispelling the visions. "Omega, did you hear me?" Apollo asked.
"Um, " Omega swallowing several times as he turned to Apollo and tried to focus on the problems at hand. "I'm sorry what did you say?"
"How long before we get the breach fixed and the air seal replaced? "Apollo repeated.
"Hopefully we should be able to re-pressurize the bridge in two to three centars." Omega, having been returned to reality tried to get a grip on the situation. He walked over to the main station and flipped several switches to see what if anything would come up. He was surprised to see that most of the station was still functional.
"That looks promising" Apollo noted as he bent down to examine the main cable lines of the damaged right side of the station. "The computer techs were hopping the power and net cables hadn't been severed." He pulled back part of a damaged section. "The outer casing is crushed but, the cable lines look intact. That should please Tokin." Apollo stood up and scanned the bridge.
"Shadrick is hopping to get the replacement seals from the Solarious within the next 30 centons." Omega continued as he looked back over to the repair team working on the breach. "The repair techs told me they should have the rupture sealed off in about two centars." He grinned as he looked over at Apollo. "Shadrick told me it normally takes a full twelve centars to replace this type of seal but he'd do it in two as a favor to you."
Omega could see Apollo shake his head before he turned back to face him his smile vague. "As long as it doesn't leak I'll be happy."
"A leak would be welcome about now." Both men turned as Shadrick climbed up the bridge steps. "A leak I can handle."
"What can't you handle? " Apollo asked the edge in his voice evident. Even through the pressure helmet Omega could see the worry flash across Apollo's face.
Shadrick stopped at the top of the stairs. "A keel fracture."
"A what?" Omega asked. T the term was not one he associated with a battlestar.
"A fracture to the main support structure of the Galactica," Shadrick clarified.
"Where?" Omega asked, a burst of nausea that had nothing to do with the gravity levels threatened to overwhelm him.
"Just behind alpha section," Shadrick replied as he took a long look around the bridge stopping when he too noticed the dark stain.
"And," Apollo prompted when Shadrick didn't continue.
"And," he sighed as he looked back at the two of them, "if we're not careful the whole front section will tear itself apart."
____________
Sheba hit the floor lever with everything she had. There was a loud bang and the ringing sound of metal on metal as the cross beam she was using vibrated from the force of her hit sending shockwaves unpleasantly up her arms. With a painful hiss she dropped the beam and shook her arms to alleviate the pain. "Frak that hurts!"
"What are you doing?" Bojay's head appeared from around the shuttle they were trying to free up. It had been thrown up against the main bay doors separating the shuttle staging area and the launch bay. They were trying to move it in order to open the doors but its landing skids were jammed into the door's tracks.
Awkwardly Sheba hugged her arms to her self. "Okay, so that's not going to work."
Coming around the shuttle Bojay raised his eyes brows at her. "What won't work and what did you do?" He noticed the beam on the deck next to the lever. "You hit it? With that?" Incredulous, he just started at her.
"Yeah, well it seemed like a good idea at the time!" She went back over and tried to manually move the lever. "If I can just loosen this, it should release the door." she said through gritted teeth as she unsuccessfully pushed and then pulled on the floor lever. "Oh, felgercarb, it's just wedged too tight."
"Let me have a look."
Reluctantly Sheba moved aside as Bojay griped the lever in both hands, firmly planted his feet and heaved. Nothing happened.
"See, I told you. It's stuck." Sheba pointed at the decking near the lever where buckling was plainly evident. "The inner workings must be jammed."
"So, hitting it with a cross beam was going to accomplish, what?" Bojay knelt down and examined the side of the lever's base near the buckling.
"I was hoping it would relieve some of my frustration with the fraking thing!" she admitted stubbornly, crossing her arms and glaring angrily at the offending leaver.
"Did it?" He asked, rising from his knee.
Sheba's hands were moving up and down her arms. "No," she admitted.
"Good, so I can assume you won't be attacking anymore levers today?"
"I'll let you know." Arrogantly she lifted her nose up at him. It was a game between them stemming from when Sheba was first assigned to the Pegasus. Bojay had thought her a spoiled arrogant brat and treated her as such. So that's what Sheba had given him, with such exaggerated melodramatics that she had him holding his sides in laughter. Since then whenever the situation seemed tense, she would automatically revert to the game as a way of breaking the tension.
"You do that." He pointed a wrench at her, smiling ,then pointed it back the way he came. "In the mean time I'll be over here removing the skids. Why don't you check with Huron and see if he can get under there and free that lever."
Sheba turned around and tried to spot the tall thin technician. She spotted his unruly mat of sandy hair over by the break table as he tossed his head back trying, unsuccessfully to get his hair out of his eyes. He was holding an odd black and gray piece of metal in one hand as he stuffed a sweet pastry in his mouth with the other. He already had two water containers under one arm and was picking up a cup of something seaming hot. Comically he tried to take a sip but soon realized he had the pastry in his mouth and both his hands were engaged. Perplexed he stood there moving his arm up and down.
As tired as she was Sheba knew he was working on even less sleep and it now appeared to be catching up with him. She watched as he was rescued by Cassiopeia who took the water containers out from under his arm, took the cup out of his hand and finally removed the pastry from his mouth. She then neatly piled his supplies into one of the small boxes set on the table for that purpose. He grinned his thanks at her as he pick up his steaming cup and took a gulp. Instantly he spat it out as he stuck out his tongue and ineffectually fanned it.
Calmly Cassie handed him a cup of water and forced him into a chair. Sheba could hear her admonishing him as she approached.
"What were you thinking? I just told you it was very hot. What part of 'very hot' did you not understand?"
Finished with the cup of water she had given him, he frantically looked around for something else to quench the fire in his sore mouth. "thy thus thirsty." he mumbled around his tongue, which didn't seem to want to go back into his mouth. "tith hurth."
"Stop talking a minute so I can take care of that." Cassie was trying to get him to look up at her. "Hold still!" She commanded as she grabbed his errant head with both hands. Once she got his head stopped she began to put a cooling spray on his reddened tongue. Sheba giggled from behind Cassie, as Huron sagged into the chair audibly sighing with relief.
"I've got tired fools all over this bay," Cassie said by way of greeting as she stood up "and now you're giggling?" She put her spray away and looked, astonished, at Sheba.
Sheba smiled at her. "Just tired I guess."
Nodding her head in agreement, Cassiopeia asked, "So, what can I do for you?"
"Well, actually I came over for Huron's help," Sheba replied
All of a sudden Cassiopeia grabbed at the cup that Huron had retrieved and took it from his hand before they had a repeat of his performance. "And you," she addressed Huron as she placed the cup out of his reach, "should take a rest period. "
"I don't have time for that." He waved her off as he snatched up his pastry and stuffing it whole into his mouth, started to leave.
"Oh! Wait, Huron," Sheba called out to him but he seemed to ignore her. Giving Cassiopeia helpless shrug she hastily chased after him. She caught up to him at one of the few functioning lifts in the bay. "The floor lever to the shuttle staging doors is jammed. I wanted to know if you could get under the decking and check it out?"
"Sorry, not now. I've got to get this to Wilker's lab," he said as he brandished his odd piece of metal in front of her.
Sheba again noticed the odd metal fragment. She noticed this time that it wasn't two colors but rather two types of metal. There was a large black almost rectangular section and on it were a number of metallic gray circuits like objects. "What is it?"
"I have no idea," he said getting into the lift.
"What do you mean you have no idea?" Sheba called out as the lift started up. Impulsively she jumped up onto the lift.
"And Cassiopeia thinks I'm the one who needs a rest period? You're crazy, lady," he looked at her in astonishment.
Ignoring his comments Sheba pointed at the fragment. "What do you mean, you don't know what it is? I've seen you identify scorch fragments with out a second look." Clearly Sheba was intrigued.
"Just what I said. Burton said they found it in one of the impact sites. But this -" He looked back at the fragment and ran his free hand over it as if touch could provide answers, " - isn't ours and it isn't Cylon or at least not any Cylon technology we've encountered before." The lift stopped and the doors opened but as he started to get off he turned back to Sheba a worried look on his face. "Look, I guess Cassiopeia was right I am tired, I'm not supposed to talk to anyone about this." He looked pleadingly at her. "Don't mention this to anyone, please."
"But, this could be..."Sheba started but Huron held up his hand to silence her.
"This could be nothing. Look, I can't afford to get Engineer Barton on my case again." He turned his upheld hand sidewise and offered a handclasp to her. "You do this for me and I'll owe you one."
Reluctantly, Sheba clasped his arm, "Okay." He was an all right kid and she knew Barton had been hounding him hard lately, but as he turned to leave she called out, "I want to know what they find out about that."
Half way down the corridor, he turned to her with a look of confusion. "About what?" Then grinning at the expression on her face, he turned and continued down the corridor.
"What was that all about?" Athena, who had walked up to the lift in time to hear Sheba's reply, asked as she approached the lift.
"Nothing I guess," Sheba replied and crossed her arms, annoyed. Athena got into the lift and gave her an inquiring look. Sheba uncrossed her arms and simply said, "Men."
Athena nodded her head in womanly understanding and they traveled the lift in silence.
_________________________
Shadrick placed his pressure suit helmet down on the console of the small anti chamber off of the main bridge. It was one of only two side computer rooms that had retained their air seals and had been taken over by the repair teams as they worked to fix the damaged to the main bridge.
As Shadrick sat down, he brought up a graphic of the Galactica on the screen before him. A port view of the Galactica was displayed with a cutaway enlargement of the landing bay's damaged forward section. More comfortable with the voice interface of his own computer in engineering, Shadrick awkwardly typed into the keypad of the computer station before him. The graphic on the screen rotated up and around, in the three dimensional space of the computer program, settling on a view of the Galactica from above.
Several thick lines were now overlaid over the Galactica's image. "This is the Galactica's keel, her main support framework, where all of her decking and support struts are anchored.
Apollo looked at the image on the screen. The Galactica's outline surrounded the smaller details showing her decks and passages. Superimposed over this was the structure Shadrick had just brought up. Apollo watched as Shadrick enter some more data on the keypad and 4 blips on the graphic began to blinked red. "Here's our problem."
"Looks more like problems," Omega countered.
"True," Shadrick agreed. "The keel fracture is at the junction between Alpha and Beta sections and is our worst problem. Our main maneuvering thrusters straddle it. If we try to make a directional change the opposing forces generated by the thrusters could literally pull her apart here." Shadrick pointed to the junction connecting the front Alpha section to the main Beta section of the Galactica.
"What are these other problems?" Apollo asked pointing at the three remaining blips on the screen.
"Those, along with the keel fracture are our most serious repair problems right now," Shadrick stated. "This one at the middle pylon connecting Beta section to the port landing bay -," and he pointed to the middle connecting section near where it connected to the landing bay, "- is the cause of several air seal leaks. When the Cylon Raider impacted, the blast twisted the structure just enough to break her air seal all along the connection to the bay. The structure itself needs to be shifted back to its original position.
Now Shadrick rotated the image of the Galactica again until the view was from below. "This has also affected the landing bay connector," and he pointed at the long structure that ran under the Galactica directly connecting her two landing bays. "The air seals have started to fail starting from the port bay and traveling back toward the starboard bay as the pressures change. The corridor passages leading from the bay connector to the Galactica have been sealed off and the same to the two bays' connection passages. The air seals that are still intact are starting to fail as the stress point moves."
"These two - " and the image rotated again returning to the top view. "Alpha landing bay's forward shuttle staging area and Beta landing Bay's aft Viper launch tubes were also damaged by Cylon suicide hits. The bays structure appears stable around the damaged areas and we should be able to make repairs but, until we can, we'll need to move the Vipers and shuttles staged in those areas."
"OK what do you need to stabilize your first problem, the keel fracture?" Apollo asked as he pointed to the blip that represented the worst problem.
"Structure plates to be honest." Shadrick closed his eyes and rubbed the spot on either side of his nose between his eyes "And before you ask, no we don't have any. What structural metal we had on the Galactica has long since been scavenged to keep the other ships in our fleet going." With a heavy sigh, he opened his eyes and looked up at the two men staring at him. His news was not good and he'd giving himself a terrible headache trying to find some answers to his problems. He now hoped they could come up with other possibilities that might lead to the solutions that eluded him.
"Every battlestar carries her own replacement parts and patches in her lower decks. You're telling me they're all empty?" Apollo couldn't believe what he heard. He remembered having to catalog every spare part in those storage areas not long before the destruction. He couldn't remember exactly what they'd done to deserve the punishment but he was fairly sure it was Starbuck's fault. It had taken them days to finish that assignment.
"We've even started to cannibalize some of her lower storage areas. We've removed just about all of the struts separating the storage rooms there. Instead of several storage rooms in Beta section we now have one very large storage area."
Apollo frowned and turned away from the console. "Any ideas on what we'll use now?"
"Even if we cannibalize the rest of the storage areas it wouldn't do us any good. It's the wrong type of metal and there's not enough of it,even if we were to try," Shadrick stated wearily.
"What about the other ships?" asked Omega.
Shadrick shook his head at Omega. "We've been using the Galactica's supply trying to hold them together. There isn't much out there to take."
"What about the Scarab or Crystal?" Omega persisted.
"You can't take anything away from either of them.." Shadrick looked over at Omega surprised. "Heck they have half the Galactica spare parts as it is!"
"That's what I mean. Why don't we take them back?" Omega continued.
"Take them back?" Apollo asked confused, he couldn't see where Omega was going with this.
"Son, if we do that those ships will not be space worthy. They're barely being held together as it is." Shadrick was taken aback by such a suggestion.
"Exactly!" said Omega, and at Apollo's and Shadrick's confused looks he continued, "Look, both those ships have been falling apart since the beginning. They're the slowest ships in our fleet, at least 4 levels slower than the next ships. They're more of a liability than they're worth."
"But, what would you do with the people?" asked Shadrick.
"Well, the Galactica's repair storage areas are empty now. Why not put them there?" Omega suggested.
"You're crazy, son, you can't put people down there!" Shadrick was truly astonished at such a thought.
"Why not?" said Apollo, cutting off Shadrick. "You're right, Omega, we could use the metal and parts as well as permitting the fleet to move faster."
"You're forgetting that the Galactica's lower storage areas are not set up with thermal registers. The temperature down there is not conducive to keeping a group of civilians from freezing," Shadrick pointed out.
"Can't you set up a heating system down there?" asked Omega.
"Of course I can but it will take time," Shadrick stated. "Time that would be better spent on repairs."
"What about something temporary until we have the time to set up something more permanent?" Apollo suggested as he leaned back against the console.
"I don't know, perhaps we could set up some portable heaters." Shadrick paused as he did some mental calculation, then turned to the computer console to verify his facts. "It might be do-able. How many people are we talking about?"
"I don't know. Omega?" Apollo looked over at Omega.
Turning in his chair Omega activated the computer station before him and punched up the data on the two ships. "At the last census the Scarab reported 94, and the Crystal listed 132."
"226, huh?" Shadrick mumbled as he pulled up further data on the station before him. "According to the supply list, we might just have enough portable heating devices to pull it off but, those devices won't last all that long with constant usage."
"They won't have to," Apollo responded. "They'll just need to hold out long enough for your teams to set up a permanent system."
"Well let's see. If we can salvage enough structural metal to shore up the keel fracture and the landing bay connector then we should be able to repair the launch tubes - providing the heaters hold out." Shadrick looked over at Apollo. "I admit it could work." He then looked up at the ceiling as he reprioritized his repairs in his head. "You know, I could salvage and use those ship's heating systems. That would save quite a lot of time and effort. I could also use their main drives to fix the Solestia's engines, not to mention a dozen other repairs that the fleet needs." Shadrick looked back at them with a sparkly in his eyes as he now saw solutions to several of his ongoing problems.
"Then that's our plan!" Apollo said with finality as he pushed himself away from the console.
Shadrick held up a hand forestalling Apollo. "I grant you it's as good a plan as any considering what we have to work with but Apollo, we should try to consider all alternatives. The Council won't easily give up two fleet ships, even these two, without coming up with several suggestions of their own on the matter.
"To frack with the Council!" Apollo swore. "We don't have time for them to set up a committee on this. That Cylon attack force won't stay away for long. We have to be out of this sector before their reinforcements arrive. We just can't wait!" Apollo turned and looked at the repair list that had been posted on the far wall by the repair techs. "We have to get the Galactica and the fleet out of this sector as soon as possible." His mind made up he turned back to Shadrick. "Get your crews ready. Omega get me the captains of the Scarab and Crystal on line. There's no time to wait."
"O.K. Apollo, you're calling the shots for now." Shadrick conceded the argument and stood up. "I'll get my crews ready and let you know, as soon as I can, how long it will take us to get started."
"Good." Apollo clouted the chief engineering on the shoulder "Thanks, Shadrick".
"Don't thank me yet. This plan still has to work." With that Shadrick picked up his helmet and left the small room.
Omega swivelled around in his chair and faced Apollo. "What about the Council?" he asked.
"Don't worry about them," Apollo said, as he pulled out the chair and sat down at the computer station. "I'll deal with them later when there's time."
"If they give you time," Omega stated as he started to open a communication link with the Crystal.
"I'll take it whether they give it to me or not, It's time they figured out I'm not my father. I don't do politics."
Omega looked out across the main level of the bridge and shuddered. The view port had shattered with the impact and shards of the clear metal were strewn about the decking. To the left side of the view port was the breach. It was a rupture in the wall about two meters long and one meter across. As he looked through it he could see stars on the other side before his view was block by one of the EVA technicians as they worked on the rupture from the outside of the ship. He watched as the tech passed a long thin piece of equipment through the breach to his counterpart on the bridge. Omega looked away.
As he looked across the now empty duty stations, once manned by personnel he would never see again, his eyes blurred. The twisted metal and naked wires spoke volumes about the damage that had been done. He should have been here, his mind told him, even though he knew it would not have made a difference. All that would have accomplished was that he would be dead too, but he still felt that he had failed them by not being here.
"How in the name of Kobol...?" Omega heard Apollo's softly spoken words through the com unit as they stood there looking over the damage.
He watched as Apollo climbed the steps to the center command station the bulky pressure suit at odds with his slow almost graceful movements. The techs had reduced the gravity to one half in this part of the Galactica to help with the repairs and it added an eerie feeling to the too still bridge, not to mention nausea to Omega. He had never liked zero gravity and even half gravity was unsettling to his stomach.
The circular railing that usually surround the command station was flattened and torn from its mounting on the right side. Part of the forward bulkhead had been blown back into the bridge as the explosion hit. The section had landed on the command station crushing the railing and those that had been there. The retrieval teams had been unable to move it. Instead of cutting it up to remove it they had reduced the gravity and lifted it back into position. They had told Omega that it would be more use to them in one piece as they used it in the repairs. Omega tried not to think about the damage it had caused to the equipment nor the people in its path.
Omega, looking at the partially crushed computer station, followed Apollo up the stairs when suddenly Apollo stopped in his tracks.
Omega laid a hand on Apollo's shoulder as he walked past. "It's not as bad as it looks. None of the hits we took managed to break the power lines to the main computer or flight computer main frames in the computer rooms." As Omega headed toward his computer console he saw what had stopped Apollo. There was a dark stain on the landing near the crushed railing. Omega just stared at it as visions of what must have happened came unbidden to him. He closed his eyes and tried to block it out.
A hand landed on his shoulder giving him a little shake dispelling the visions. "Omega, did you hear me?" Apollo asked.
"Um, " Omega swallowing several times as he turned to Apollo and tried to focus on the problems at hand. "I'm sorry what did you say?"
"How long before we get the breach fixed and the air seal replaced? "Apollo repeated.
"Hopefully we should be able to re-pressurize the bridge in two to three centars." Omega, having been returned to reality tried to get a grip on the situation. He walked over to the main station and flipped several switches to see what if anything would come up. He was surprised to see that most of the station was still functional.
"That looks promising" Apollo noted as he bent down to examine the main cable lines of the damaged right side of the station. "The computer techs were hopping the power and net cables hadn't been severed." He pulled back part of a damaged section. "The outer casing is crushed but, the cable lines look intact. That should please Tokin." Apollo stood up and scanned the bridge.
"Shadrick is hopping to get the replacement seals from the Solarious within the next 30 centons." Omega continued as he looked back over to the repair team working on the breach. "The repair techs told me they should have the rupture sealed off in about two centars." He grinned as he looked over at Apollo. "Shadrick told me it normally takes a full twelve centars to replace this type of seal but he'd do it in two as a favor to you."
Omega could see Apollo shake his head before he turned back to face him his smile vague. "As long as it doesn't leak I'll be happy."
"A leak would be welcome about now." Both men turned as Shadrick climbed up the bridge steps. "A leak I can handle."
"What can't you handle? " Apollo asked the edge in his voice evident. Even through the pressure helmet Omega could see the worry flash across Apollo's face.
Shadrick stopped at the top of the stairs. "A keel fracture."
"A what?" Omega asked. T the term was not one he associated with a battlestar.
"A fracture to the main support structure of the Galactica," Shadrick clarified.
"Where?" Omega asked, a burst of nausea that had nothing to do with the gravity levels threatened to overwhelm him.
"Just behind alpha section," Shadrick replied as he took a long look around the bridge stopping when he too noticed the dark stain.
"And," Apollo prompted when Shadrick didn't continue.
"And," he sighed as he looked back at the two of them, "if we're not careful the whole front section will tear itself apart."
____________
Sheba hit the floor lever with everything she had. There was a loud bang and the ringing sound of metal on metal as the cross beam she was using vibrated from the force of her hit sending shockwaves unpleasantly up her arms. With a painful hiss she dropped the beam and shook her arms to alleviate the pain. "Frak that hurts!"
"What are you doing?" Bojay's head appeared from around the shuttle they were trying to free up. It had been thrown up against the main bay doors separating the shuttle staging area and the launch bay. They were trying to move it in order to open the doors but its landing skids were jammed into the door's tracks.
Awkwardly Sheba hugged her arms to her self. "Okay, so that's not going to work."
Coming around the shuttle Bojay raised his eyes brows at her. "What won't work and what did you do?" He noticed the beam on the deck next to the lever. "You hit it? With that?" Incredulous, he just started at her.
"Yeah, well it seemed like a good idea at the time!" She went back over and tried to manually move the lever. "If I can just loosen this, it should release the door." she said through gritted teeth as she unsuccessfully pushed and then pulled on the floor lever. "Oh, felgercarb, it's just wedged too tight."
"Let me have a look."
Reluctantly Sheba moved aside as Bojay griped the lever in both hands, firmly planted his feet and heaved. Nothing happened.
"See, I told you. It's stuck." Sheba pointed at the decking near the lever where buckling was plainly evident. "The inner workings must be jammed."
"So, hitting it with a cross beam was going to accomplish, what?" Bojay knelt down and examined the side of the lever's base near the buckling.
"I was hoping it would relieve some of my frustration with the fraking thing!" she admitted stubbornly, crossing her arms and glaring angrily at the offending leaver.
"Did it?" He asked, rising from his knee.
Sheba's hands were moving up and down her arms. "No," she admitted.
"Good, so I can assume you won't be attacking anymore levers today?"
"I'll let you know." Arrogantly she lifted her nose up at him. It was a game between them stemming from when Sheba was first assigned to the Pegasus. Bojay had thought her a spoiled arrogant brat and treated her as such. So that's what Sheba had given him, with such exaggerated melodramatics that she had him holding his sides in laughter. Since then whenever the situation seemed tense, she would automatically revert to the game as a way of breaking the tension.
"You do that." He pointed a wrench at her, smiling ,then pointed it back the way he came. "In the mean time I'll be over here removing the skids. Why don't you check with Huron and see if he can get under there and free that lever."
Sheba turned around and tried to spot the tall thin technician. She spotted his unruly mat of sandy hair over by the break table as he tossed his head back trying, unsuccessfully to get his hair out of his eyes. He was holding an odd black and gray piece of metal in one hand as he stuffed a sweet pastry in his mouth with the other. He already had two water containers under one arm and was picking up a cup of something seaming hot. Comically he tried to take a sip but soon realized he had the pastry in his mouth and both his hands were engaged. Perplexed he stood there moving his arm up and down.
As tired as she was Sheba knew he was working on even less sleep and it now appeared to be catching up with him. She watched as he was rescued by Cassiopeia who took the water containers out from under his arm, took the cup out of his hand and finally removed the pastry from his mouth. She then neatly piled his supplies into one of the small boxes set on the table for that purpose. He grinned his thanks at her as he pick up his steaming cup and took a gulp. Instantly he spat it out as he stuck out his tongue and ineffectually fanned it.
Calmly Cassie handed him a cup of water and forced him into a chair. Sheba could hear her admonishing him as she approached.
"What were you thinking? I just told you it was very hot. What part of 'very hot' did you not understand?"
Finished with the cup of water she had given him, he frantically looked around for something else to quench the fire in his sore mouth. "thy thus thirsty." he mumbled around his tongue, which didn't seem to want to go back into his mouth. "tith hurth."
"Stop talking a minute so I can take care of that." Cassie was trying to get him to look up at her. "Hold still!" She commanded as she grabbed his errant head with both hands. Once she got his head stopped she began to put a cooling spray on his reddened tongue. Sheba giggled from behind Cassie, as Huron sagged into the chair audibly sighing with relief.
"I've got tired fools all over this bay," Cassie said by way of greeting as she stood up "and now you're giggling?" She put her spray away and looked, astonished, at Sheba.
Sheba smiled at her. "Just tired I guess."
Nodding her head in agreement, Cassiopeia asked, "So, what can I do for you?"
"Well, actually I came over for Huron's help," Sheba replied
All of a sudden Cassiopeia grabbed at the cup that Huron had retrieved and took it from his hand before they had a repeat of his performance. "And you," she addressed Huron as she placed the cup out of his reach, "should take a rest period. "
"I don't have time for that." He waved her off as he snatched up his pastry and stuffing it whole into his mouth, started to leave.
"Oh! Wait, Huron," Sheba called out to him but he seemed to ignore her. Giving Cassiopeia helpless shrug she hastily chased after him. She caught up to him at one of the few functioning lifts in the bay. "The floor lever to the shuttle staging doors is jammed. I wanted to know if you could get under the decking and check it out?"
"Sorry, not now. I've got to get this to Wilker's lab," he said as he brandished his odd piece of metal in front of her.
Sheba again noticed the odd metal fragment. She noticed this time that it wasn't two colors but rather two types of metal. There was a large black almost rectangular section and on it were a number of metallic gray circuits like objects. "What is it?"
"I have no idea," he said getting into the lift.
"What do you mean you have no idea?" Sheba called out as the lift started up. Impulsively she jumped up onto the lift.
"And Cassiopeia thinks I'm the one who needs a rest period? You're crazy, lady," he looked at her in astonishment.
Ignoring his comments Sheba pointed at the fragment. "What do you mean, you don't know what it is? I've seen you identify scorch fragments with out a second look." Clearly Sheba was intrigued.
"Just what I said. Burton said they found it in one of the impact sites. But this -" He looked back at the fragment and ran his free hand over it as if touch could provide answers, " - isn't ours and it isn't Cylon or at least not any Cylon technology we've encountered before." The lift stopped and the doors opened but as he started to get off he turned back to Sheba a worried look on his face. "Look, I guess Cassiopeia was right I am tired, I'm not supposed to talk to anyone about this." He looked pleadingly at her. "Don't mention this to anyone, please."
"But, this could be..."Sheba started but Huron held up his hand to silence her.
"This could be nothing. Look, I can't afford to get Engineer Barton on my case again." He turned his upheld hand sidewise and offered a handclasp to her. "You do this for me and I'll owe you one."
Reluctantly, Sheba clasped his arm, "Okay." He was an all right kid and she knew Barton had been hounding him hard lately, but as he turned to leave she called out, "I want to know what they find out about that."
Half way down the corridor, he turned to her with a look of confusion. "About what?" Then grinning at the expression on her face, he turned and continued down the corridor.
"What was that all about?" Athena, who had walked up to the lift in time to hear Sheba's reply, asked as she approached the lift.
"Nothing I guess," Sheba replied and crossed her arms, annoyed. Athena got into the lift and gave her an inquiring look. Sheba uncrossed her arms and simply said, "Men."
Athena nodded her head in womanly understanding and they traveled the lift in silence.
_________________________
Shadrick placed his pressure suit helmet down on the console of the small anti chamber off of the main bridge. It was one of only two side computer rooms that had retained their air seals and had been taken over by the repair teams as they worked to fix the damaged to the main bridge.
As Shadrick sat down, he brought up a graphic of the Galactica on the screen before him. A port view of the Galactica was displayed with a cutaway enlargement of the landing bay's damaged forward section. More comfortable with the voice interface of his own computer in engineering, Shadrick awkwardly typed into the keypad of the computer station before him. The graphic on the screen rotated up and around, in the three dimensional space of the computer program, settling on a view of the Galactica from above.
Several thick lines were now overlaid over the Galactica's image. "This is the Galactica's keel, her main support framework, where all of her decking and support struts are anchored.
Apollo looked at the image on the screen. The Galactica's outline surrounded the smaller details showing her decks and passages. Superimposed over this was the structure Shadrick had just brought up. Apollo watched as Shadrick enter some more data on the keypad and 4 blips on the graphic began to blinked red. "Here's our problem."
"Looks more like problems," Omega countered.
"True," Shadrick agreed. "The keel fracture is at the junction between Alpha and Beta sections and is our worst problem. Our main maneuvering thrusters straddle it. If we try to make a directional change the opposing forces generated by the thrusters could literally pull her apart here." Shadrick pointed to the junction connecting the front Alpha section to the main Beta section of the Galactica.
"What are these other problems?" Apollo asked pointing at the three remaining blips on the screen.
"Those, along with the keel fracture are our most serious repair problems right now," Shadrick stated. "This one at the middle pylon connecting Beta section to the port landing bay -," and he pointed to the middle connecting section near where it connected to the landing bay, "- is the cause of several air seal leaks. When the Cylon Raider impacted, the blast twisted the structure just enough to break her air seal all along the connection to the bay. The structure itself needs to be shifted back to its original position.
Now Shadrick rotated the image of the Galactica again until the view was from below. "This has also affected the landing bay connector," and he pointed at the long structure that ran under the Galactica directly connecting her two landing bays. "The air seals have started to fail starting from the port bay and traveling back toward the starboard bay as the pressures change. The corridor passages leading from the bay connector to the Galactica have been sealed off and the same to the two bays' connection passages. The air seals that are still intact are starting to fail as the stress point moves."
"These two - " and the image rotated again returning to the top view. "Alpha landing bay's forward shuttle staging area and Beta landing Bay's aft Viper launch tubes were also damaged by Cylon suicide hits. The bays structure appears stable around the damaged areas and we should be able to make repairs but, until we can, we'll need to move the Vipers and shuttles staged in those areas."
"OK what do you need to stabilize your first problem, the keel fracture?" Apollo asked as he pointed to the blip that represented the worst problem.
"Structure plates to be honest." Shadrick closed his eyes and rubbed the spot on either side of his nose between his eyes "And before you ask, no we don't have any. What structural metal we had on the Galactica has long since been scavenged to keep the other ships in our fleet going." With a heavy sigh, he opened his eyes and looked up at the two men staring at him. His news was not good and he'd giving himself a terrible headache trying to find some answers to his problems. He now hoped they could come up with other possibilities that might lead to the solutions that eluded him.
"Every battlestar carries her own replacement parts and patches in her lower decks. You're telling me they're all empty?" Apollo couldn't believe what he heard. He remembered having to catalog every spare part in those storage areas not long before the destruction. He couldn't remember exactly what they'd done to deserve the punishment but he was fairly sure it was Starbuck's fault. It had taken them days to finish that assignment.
"We've even started to cannibalize some of her lower storage areas. We've removed just about all of the struts separating the storage rooms there. Instead of several storage rooms in Beta section we now have one very large storage area."
Apollo frowned and turned away from the console. "Any ideas on what we'll use now?"
"Even if we cannibalize the rest of the storage areas it wouldn't do us any good. It's the wrong type of metal and there's not enough of it,even if we were to try," Shadrick stated wearily.
"What about the other ships?" asked Omega.
Shadrick shook his head at Omega. "We've been using the Galactica's supply trying to hold them together. There isn't much out there to take."
"What about the Scarab or Crystal?" Omega persisted.
"You can't take anything away from either of them.." Shadrick looked over at Omega surprised. "Heck they have half the Galactica spare parts as it is!"
"That's what I mean. Why don't we take them back?" Omega continued.
"Take them back?" Apollo asked confused, he couldn't see where Omega was going with this.
"Son, if we do that those ships will not be space worthy. They're barely being held together as it is." Shadrick was taken aback by such a suggestion.
"Exactly!" said Omega, and at Apollo's and Shadrick's confused looks he continued, "Look, both those ships have been falling apart since the beginning. They're the slowest ships in our fleet, at least 4 levels slower than the next ships. They're more of a liability than they're worth."
"But, what would you do with the people?" asked Shadrick.
"Well, the Galactica's repair storage areas are empty now. Why not put them there?" Omega suggested.
"You're crazy, son, you can't put people down there!" Shadrick was truly astonished at such a thought.
"Why not?" said Apollo, cutting off Shadrick. "You're right, Omega, we could use the metal and parts as well as permitting the fleet to move faster."
"You're forgetting that the Galactica's lower storage areas are not set up with thermal registers. The temperature down there is not conducive to keeping a group of civilians from freezing," Shadrick pointed out.
"Can't you set up a heating system down there?" asked Omega.
"Of course I can but it will take time," Shadrick stated. "Time that would be better spent on repairs."
"What about something temporary until we have the time to set up something more permanent?" Apollo suggested as he leaned back against the console.
"I don't know, perhaps we could set up some portable heaters." Shadrick paused as he did some mental calculation, then turned to the computer console to verify his facts. "It might be do-able. How many people are we talking about?"
"I don't know. Omega?" Apollo looked over at Omega.
Turning in his chair Omega activated the computer station before him and punched up the data on the two ships. "At the last census the Scarab reported 94, and the Crystal listed 132."
"226, huh?" Shadrick mumbled as he pulled up further data on the station before him. "According to the supply list, we might just have enough portable heating devices to pull it off but, those devices won't last all that long with constant usage."
"They won't have to," Apollo responded. "They'll just need to hold out long enough for your teams to set up a permanent system."
"Well let's see. If we can salvage enough structural metal to shore up the keel fracture and the landing bay connector then we should be able to repair the launch tubes - providing the heaters hold out." Shadrick looked over at Apollo. "I admit it could work." He then looked up at the ceiling as he reprioritized his repairs in his head. "You know, I could salvage and use those ship's heating systems. That would save quite a lot of time and effort. I could also use their main drives to fix the Solestia's engines, not to mention a dozen other repairs that the fleet needs." Shadrick looked back at them with a sparkly in his eyes as he now saw solutions to several of his ongoing problems.
"Then that's our plan!" Apollo said with finality as he pushed himself away from the console.
Shadrick held up a hand forestalling Apollo. "I grant you it's as good a plan as any considering what we have to work with but Apollo, we should try to consider all alternatives. The Council won't easily give up two fleet ships, even these two, without coming up with several suggestions of their own on the matter.
"To frack with the Council!" Apollo swore. "We don't have time for them to set up a committee on this. That Cylon attack force won't stay away for long. We have to be out of this sector before their reinforcements arrive. We just can't wait!" Apollo turned and looked at the repair list that had been posted on the far wall by the repair techs. "We have to get the Galactica and the fleet out of this sector as soon as possible." His mind made up he turned back to Shadrick. "Get your crews ready. Omega get me the captains of the Scarab and Crystal on line. There's no time to wait."
"O.K. Apollo, you're calling the shots for now." Shadrick conceded the argument and stood up. "I'll get my crews ready and let you know, as soon as I can, how long it will take us to get started."
"Good." Apollo clouted the chief engineering on the shoulder "Thanks, Shadrick".
"Don't thank me yet. This plan still has to work." With that Shadrick picked up his helmet and left the small room.
Omega swivelled around in his chair and faced Apollo. "What about the Council?" he asked.
"Don't worry about them," Apollo said, as he pulled out the chair and sat down at the computer station. "I'll deal with them later when there's time."
"If they give you time," Omega stated as he started to open a communication link with the Crystal.
"I'll take it whether they give it to me or not, It's time they figured out I'm not my father. I don't do politics."