CH 23
The Atlantians on board claimed their bunk rooms and Delilah showed them the kitchen/cafeteria then brought them up to the control room. Eager to show their passengers their ship, the Connors explained how the ship worked and the energy manipulations used to make this ship so fast.
When Joan and her terminator pilot explained how they verified where they were, they did a course verification. It was then Joan noticed something was wrong. They were out of the Atlantis solar system but the star pattern didn't look right.
"Joan, we are not on course," the terminator stated.
"I see that too," Joan noted. "Aww shit! DAD! We're off course!"
John perked up. "Check to be sure it's safe, then shut down the bubble and figure out where we are."
They collapsed the bubble and took a good star shot. Joan and the terminator looked at each close bright point. Cameron also looked at the star pattern.
"How … we figured the course perfectly, didn't we?" Joan asked.
"Correct," the terminator agreed. "By computing the correct course separately and coming to the same calculations, there is no reason for us to be deviated from our trajectory. Still we are far enough away that we are not seeing the proper star pattern."
John noted Joan was upset. "Joan, pilot, look at what the star pattern is, and figure how far off course we are. We have only traveled an hour forty in warp. Plot how far we've gone, and which way we're pointed. Cameron, give them a hand."
Delilah said, "I think we need to bring up a hologram of what we're seeing and match it to the hologram of the star patterns from Earth. I'll get started on that."
Cameron asked, "Joan, how much thrust were you using?"
Joan winced. "I wanted to get home quick, I fire walled it."
Cameron grunted. "Then we most likely covered close to a light year's distance in the hour forty we were in warp. It's an error, but not a fatal error. We'll figure it out." She then looked at the flight readings log to find out what made them go off course.
While Delilah assembled the current star pattern, Cameron was scrutinizing the logs.
Joan cast John a sad gaze. "Dad, I'm sorry," she said with a sniffle.
Firmly, John told her, "Joan, no one is saying it's your fault. Both of you calculated the same trajectory and verified it with each other. You did what you were supposed to do. There must be another factor no one considered that caused us to move off course."
John also noted the Atlantians were looking nervous. He offered a shrug to them. "It's a minor problem. Don't worry, we're not lost."
Cameron then said, "This might be worse than we think. When we made orbit, the ship did an auto correct to change the ship's attitude for a stable orbit. This began directly before we engaged the warp bubble. It stopped right after the bubble engaged."
Everyone looked at Cameron. "It changed our heading?" John asked.
"It did all by itself. I imagine this was a safety feature to prevent the ship from being in an unstable orbit," Cameron explained. "By changing the direction we were pointing when the bubble engaged, how far the ship moved is in question. The log says we moved 4 degrees, but the last two of those degrees was in the warp bubble. The thrusters could have spun us in a half circle. We could be anywhere."
"Anywhere a light year out from the Atlantis system," John said.
"Yes."
"Well, at least we have a clue," John offered. "So any star about a light year away is probably the Atlantis system. Easy, we go back there and try again."
"Before we do," Cameron said loudly, "I'm going to remove the automatic ship movements to prevent the ship from screwing up our pilot's computations. This mistake is on Weaver."
Joan beamed the terminator beside her a big grin. "It's not our fault!"
"John Connor already determined that," the terminator replied.
.
It took a while to complete a hologram of the local stars, but Delilah found the Atlantis system 1.2 light years away. It was the closest star to them. Bringing up the star pattern from Earth, Delilah and Cameron concluded they could easily get to Earth from where they were without having to go back.
Joan and the pilot did the computations, so did Cameron and Delilah. A little nervous, John had all four checked against each other. They all matched. He then had Joan position the ship precisely on the computed course, again verifying it with the terminator pilot.
"Joan, use half thrust, just like we used to get here," John told her.
"Yes, Dad. Engaging the warp bubble, here we go."
Nothing happened.
"Ahh, Dad? The bubble didn't form," Joan said blankly.
John face planted.
Cameron let out a sigh. "I disabled the automatic ship movements. I'm going to have to go through the list of them. Apparently bubble formation is tied to some of them."
"Take your time," John said evenly into his hand.
Delilah coughed and said, "John? The next time Weaver has us take a brand new … anything out, we need to test it out ourselves before taking a trip."
"That's a for sure," John agreed.
Cameron worked at her station a while then said, "I have restored all the automatic functions. Since we're not near any planets or other bodies, nothing should affect our course except what the plots put in."
John nodded. "Joan, verify the way we're pointed and try again."
"Half thrust?" Joan asked.
"Yes, let's try to get into trouble a little slower this time."
The bubble engaged, Joan ran the thrust up to half. "OK, we're in the bubble, stars are moving by, we're looking good, on course."
Watching the stars intently, Joan made sure they were going the way they wanted to, as did the terminator. After another hour of watching the universe slip by them, Joan's eyes were getting tired. A red light flashed on her console.
"Number three forward thruster, shut down," Joan announced. Thinking quickly, she compensated by turning off number four. "I turned number four off to compensate."
John keyed his intercom. "Engine room, what happened to number three thruster?"
A terminator replied, "Captain number three was showing unstable fluctuations. Number four was turned off by the helm to compensate."
"We are still on course," the pilot terminator said.
Joan nodded. She was using the big orange star, Betelgeuse, as a visual reference. It hung just to the left on her screen. As they got closer, it should be moving slowly farther left. With a crosshairs cursor on it, so far it was.
Satisfied they were on their way back to Earth, It was way past lunch time, so John decided to let the terminators monitor their progress. Malinara was in the kitchen and had meals ready for everyone when they came wandering in. When Bob came in, Malinara went to sit by him but Joan and Allison beat her to it. She took a seat beside Allison and cast her a frown.
Allison told her, "You get the run of the ship, this is my time to be near him." She stuck her tongue out at Malinara. Malinara replied with the same gesture.
Talking to the Atlantians, Delilah and Cameron got them to agree to learn English that was spoken on their part of Earth so they could communicate with everyone.
The Atlantians were eager to know about Earth. Unfortunately, Weaver hadn't thought about anything but function for this ship, so there were no pictures or video. No music either. Delilah was doing her best to explain the Atlantian underground city at area 51 when she convulsed and flopped limp. Cameron also twitched and drooped, looking confused.
They all felt it. A pulse had ran through the ship. John only felt a tingle, Joan, Allison and Bob let out yelps and flailed briefly. John also heard something fall out in the hallway.
Eyes wide, Allison cried, "What the hell was that?"
Seeing Delilah limp and Cameron lethargic, John stated, "Electromagnetic pulse." he shot to his feet. "If all the terminators are out, we need to get to the control room now! Bob, engine room!"
Joan stumbled up with Allison, following John. As John suspected, there was a terminator face down in the hallway. John glanced back. Yes, Delilah had been forced into standby. Cameron was senseless, she wouldn't be of any immediate help. Running to the control room, it was as John feared.
Terminators were sprawled out where they fell. The pilot was leaning face down over his controls.
"Joan, get the pilot, tell me where we're at!" John yelled s he went over to the sensor station Cameron usually occupied.
Allison ran over and helped Joan pull the pilot back off the controls and laid him down on the floor. Heart in her throat, Joan looked at the controls. She pulled the trust back from full to half, and scanned the panels.
"Dad, when he fell, the pilot hit full thrust. I backed it off. He also must have hit a side thruster, I don't see Betelgeuse where it should be. We're off course. I mean, we're WAY off course!"
"Make sure it's safe, then collapse the bubble," John told her.
"Number three and four engines are back on line … Betelgeuse is behind us!" Joan cried. "And the warp bubble won't drop!"
"Cut all thrust!" John yelled back. "Stop us if you can."
"I'm trying," Joan cried, "We're going a zillion miles a second! Stars are just flying by us! I got full reverse thrusters on, it's going to take a while to stop."
"Can you turn the ship around?" John asked.
"Maybe, but then we'll have no idea where we are. As soon as we turn, we'll be shooting off in a new direction."
"Do what you can and get us stopped."
Looking frantic, Allison asked, "Where did that pulse come from?"
John ran over to his console. "Engine room, what's your status?"
"Bob here! We got terminators spread out on the floor. We were at max forward thrust, all engines. Now we're braking. By the burns I'm seeing and the last recorded log, the terminators re lit number three and four, and the pulse was caused by number three … hang on… Mal took a look at number three, yeah, there's arcing burns. Apparently number three caused that pulse. I would recommend not using number three again, or number four to balance the thrust. We can move fine on the other four engines."
"Keep an eye on things there, shut down three and four and let me know when the terminators wake up. For now, you're it for the engineer, Bob."
"Will do, Mr. Connor."
The terminator pilot jerked and sat up. "I was forced into standby," he said.
Joan offered him a hand up. "Welcome back. We've got a problem."
Terminators came around. Delilah came into the control room holding an arm around Cameron. "What hit us?" she asked.
John went over to them. "You both Ok?"
"Yes, we got hit with a pulse, didn't we?" Cameron said.
John nodded. "Sit down, I'll explain to everyone," he said gently.
Keying the ship wide intercom, John said, "We've suffered another problem. I know terminators under Weaver are used to finding and fixing problem by themselves. In this case, number three engine had a problem, so they did what they do. They got that engine back on line, and number four also. When it came on line, number three sent an electromagnetic pulse through the ship. That forced all terminators into standby. The pilot fell forward on his console and put all forward thrusters into maximum power. He also activated a side thruster, and we are now far off course."
Pausing to get his thoughts together, John then said, "This ship is new and from what I am seeing, it was not properly tested before we came out here. THAT is a big problem. Also just taking action without me knowing about it is also a problem. Number three engine is to remain shut down for the duration of our trip. Also to balance thrust, number four will also remain shut down. Any repairs are to be brought up to me before repairs are attempted. NOTHING is to be fixed automatically, especially any drive components."
John released his intercom and asked, "Joan, how we doing on getting stopped?"
"We're slowing but still going a half zillion miles a second. The braking thrusters aren't nearly as powerful as the main thrusters. Location wise, we're coming up on a nebula."
"Delilah, got our position?" John asked.
Delilah shook her head. "We're off the local star charts, John. I'm expanding to the whole galaxy. By the nebula we're approaching, my best guess is we're 1700 light years from Earth. That pulse did something else besides knock us all for a loop. It somehow jumped us out much farther than the engines could."
"Will collapsing the bubble help slow us down?" John asked.
"It may. That would also allow us to run very hard into anything in front of us," Cameron said. "It's not safe to collapse the bubble."
"Give us another maybe an hour and we'll get stopped," Joan offered.
"What about cutting all thrust then turning us 180 to point back the other way?" John asked.
Joan looked over at Cameron and winced.
Cameron contemplated a moment, then said, "We're already screwed, just make sure we turn a full 180, no more, no less."
John nodded. "Joan, pilot, get the best fix you can and do it."
Joan sighed. "Yes, Dad." She cut off all thrust, then used a side thruster on the front of the ship and one on the back to turn them around. Using only small bursts, the ship spun quickly around. Putting on more short bursts, she got them pointed so the nebula was directly behind them.
"We are turned 180 degrees," the terminator pilot stated.
"Good, now thrust with the main engines until you get us stopped," John coached.
It took another 15 minutes, but the universe stopped moving around them. Joan cut the thrust. "OK, we're kinda stopped."
"Watch your displays closely, make sure we're stopped." John said.
It took some jockeying, but Joan and the pilot got them stopped. Joan collapsed the bubble, putting them back into normal space.
Not long after they were motionless, Delilah perked up. "John, I'm picking up a coherent signal. It's not a natural emission. I can't understand what's being said, but by the tone, it's a call for help."
"Location?" John asked.
Delilah got the direction. "Bearing 291 horizontal by 049 vertical. Off our port side, low. Distance unsure."
"Send a reply, see if they respond."
Delilah keyed the radio. "This is XTS do you read, over?"
Delilah put the radio on speaker. A couple minutes later a frantic voice replied. It was gibberish.
"By the delay of the reply, they are approximately only 80 or so million miles away," Delilah stated.
"Joan, head for that transmission. Do not use the warp bubble.."
"Guide me, Mom."
Cameron said, "Activating radar."
John watched as Delilah guided Joan to the transmission source. Compared to the speeds they had been traveling at before, they were crawling along at a few thousand miles an hour relative to their target. Getting a radar return of where a small ship was at, John allowed a short warp bubble to get them closer faster.
Only a few hundred miles away now, Joan was on the edge of her seat, looking for some kind of craft. It wasn't until they were almost on top of it did Joan see anything.
"We're five miles out, it's right in front of us," Cameron said, watching the radar.
"Turn on the external lights," John prodded.
Joan turned the forward lights on. In the distance she saw a small boxy craft.
"I see it! Slowing down."
A tired sounding voice sounded over the radio. The voice was weak but sounded relieved.
"We have you insight," Delilah replied.
"That craft is of unknown origin," the terminator pilot stated.
Joan snorted. "Yeah, and I bet we're unknown to them."
"It looks small enough to put in a cargo bay." John noted.
"It is," Cameron agreed. "I'm seeing it as nine feet tall, eight wide and 17 long. We can fit it in end wise, that windowed end in first. It appears some of those within are limp. I'm only seeing six individuals."
"We'll need thruster packs and cables to bring them in," Delilah said as she got up. "Myself and a pair of terminators can retrieve them. Joan, move up and get them as close to the starboard loading hatch as you can."
John keyed his intercom. "We have a stricken vessel we're going to take into cargo bay 1. Mal, bring a first aide kit to the door to that cargo bay. Allison go there to help Delilah after she gets that craft on board."
Joan used the camera over the cargo bay entrance to jockey the ship close to the stricken what looked like some kind of shuttle. The only light on the thing was the light they were shining on it, showing most of the inside.
Once Delilah and a pair of terminators were in the cargo bay, the air was pumped out then the outer doors opened. Lights in the bay helped the tethered terminators grab onto the skid type landing gear of the craft. Delilah watched the pair in the front seats. One was limp, the other looked lethargic. Using hand signals, Delilah guided the terminators into the bay. Once the small ship was inside, she shut the outer doors and reactivated gravity. Upon air depressurizing the bay, Delilah looked for a way into the craft. Both figures in what had to be pilot seats were now limp.
Finding the side opened up, Delilah and a terminator opened it. Delilah looked in then went to the intercom on the bay wall. "We got eight beings, all limp in pressure suits. We're going to need help here."
.
John and his crew made another discovery. There as only one basic first aide kit on the entire ship. Luckily, one of the KO'ed aliens on the shuttle was a medic and had a larger medical kit. Delilah, Malinara, Allison and four terminators got the people out and their pressure suits ripped off. The only good thing was the ones in that craft still had weak heartbeats.
Atlantians helped, bringing unused mattresses from unoccupied bunk rooms to lay the unconscious aliens out on so they weren't on the bare hallway deck. Allison showed a couple Atlantian women how to breathe for the unconscious people who more or less looked human.
Eager to help these people, the Atlanians did. Gale was happy when the woman she'd been breathing into the mouth of, coughed and jerked, then opened her eyes to gape at her.
"Good, you're awake," Gale said with a smile.
The woman looked at her confused, then looked over at one of the terminators down the hall that was piling up the ruined pressure suits. Her eyes flew open wide and she belted a screech of, "CYLONS!"
.
Everyone in the hallway snapped their heads to the woman who'd screamed. Delilah ran over to her to check her vitals. The woman didn't appear to be hurt, but she was very upset and shaking, her heart rate was frantic. She also passed back out from fear.
"She hurt?" Allison asked.
"No, just scared to death," Delilah said. "But why?"
Shaking herself, Gale told Delilah, "She saw the metal man and became very afraid."
Two more people woke up and had similar reactions. The man lay stiff and quiet, the other woman was blubbering out a run of incoherent words.
"What's your problem? We saved you!" Malinara asked them.
Gale got it, she told Delilah, "These ones see your metal men as enemies. They think they have been captured."
Delilah spread her arms out and announced. "Everyone listen up! Terminators, thank you for your help but these people are scared of you. Please vacate the area. Gale, you and your people try to calm the shuttle people down. Allison, go back to the control room, let John know we have eight aliens here, all alive, but they're scared. We also don't understand anything they're saying."
Allison headed for the control room, scooting terminators before her. Malinara had the other terminators head back for the engine room.
Gale clasped Delilah on her arm. "They don't trust us, they are on the verge of violence!"
"I got that," Delilah agree. The faces of all the shuttle people bore hard looks. She also had no idea the language they spoke. "Gale, if one of your people can, I'd like help trying to understand these people. We have got to communicate with them somehow."
Gale nodded. Rolan stepped up. "Gale, I will help Delilah, please leave the are before anyone becomes violent."
"Yes, please get the others up to the cafeteria. When we get things settled, we'll all meet there." Delilah agreed. She noted that all but one of the shuttle's occupants were sitting up, watching her. The one woman who'd shrieked was still out. "Rolan, see if you can find me the pilot, or at least someone who knows about that craft they got."
Rolan looked at each of the people in turn. He pointed to a hard faced man. "He was piloting, that woman was piloting with him."
"Thanks." Delilah pointed the the two and hooked her fingers at them to get up.
They slow rose, eyeing her. Delilah moved to the cargo bay door and motioned for them to follow. They did, watching around them.
Inside the bay, Delilah pointed to their craft and shrugged.
The woman raised an eyebrow. She talked to the man briefly.
They didn't get it. Again Delilah pointed to the craft, mimicked a bobbling motion, then shrugged. They only eyed her, so she asked, "What broke?"
They talked between each other softly, then the man pointed to the hatch and moved towards it. Delilah nodded and followed. Going inside the craft, the man knelt down under a panel in the middle and pointed inside.
Getting down by him, Delilah looked in and saw burn wires. Studying the wiring, she saw one unit within was burnt. She let out a sigh. She had no idea what that thing did.
TONK. Delilah's head recoiled In a bounce from the smack from behind. She looked up as the man shot up and grabbed the arms of the woman who's hit her with the wrench. He yelled at her as Delilah stood up and glared at them.
The man ran off a line of indecipherable words as he eyed Delilah fearfully.
Delilah grabbed the wrench and yanked it from the woman's hands. The woman was looking scared now as well. Glaring at them, Delilah bent the wrench in half and tossed it to the floor. Raising her hand, Delilah morphed a plasma canon in the woman's face. Her voice was a growl.
"Hit me again, and I obliterate you!"
The man pleaded in his gibberish as the woman gaped wide eyed at the weapon in her face.
Delilah lowered her arm and reformed a hand. She walked out of the shuttle and went to the intercom on the cargo bay wall. "John, their shuttle has at least one burned out component. I have no idea what it does, but it's scrap. They are also mentally unstable. I turned my back on one and she whacked me with a wrench. I think we should confine them to this cargo bay."
"Then we will. Get them back in the cargo bay, someone can deliver them food and something to sleep on. If they're that violent, we can't have them running around the ship."
Delilah looked to see the man had come out of the shuttle and was watching her. Delilah pointed to the deck. "Stay here," she said flatly. She then went out and made motions for the ones in the hallway to grab their mattresses and take them into the cargo bay. A couple people only stared at her, so she hauled them to the bay and tossed them in. this prompted others to go in by themselves. Once everyone was in, she shut the inner doors.
.
In the bay Helo turned on Starbuck and screamed, "What the frack did you hit her for? You do know she could have killed you in a heartbeat! They got us into their ship and were helping us! Now I won't be surprised if they airlock all of us because of YOU!"
"They are cylons!" Starbuck snapped back. "If they do keep us alive it will be to torture us or use us for some fracked up reason!"
"They aren't cylons," Emily said. "We know what biocylons look like. Those androids they got also don't look anything like Centurions. I've never seen people with white hair and pale skin, have you?" Looking up at Starbuck, she added, "Yes they are alien to us, but not one did anything but help us. You go an whack one on the head with a wrench? That was a really fracked up thing to do after they saved us."
The blonde who came in here with us was looking at the damage to our raptor," Helo said. "I think she was looking at if they could repair it until Starbuck went mental on her."
Starbuck leaned against the raptor, arms folded over her chest. "A scout would have found us," she grumbled.
"Yeah, after we died," Helo spat at her. "If you remember right we were stuck immobile and didn't have any air left, even in our suits. We were minutes away from dying, and no where near the fleet."
"The mis-jump into hell," Starbuck grumbled.
The inner bay door opened. A pair of white haired women and a red head came in slowly with trays of food and drink. Behind them the blonde Starbuck had whacked was watching them. Both her arms ended in weapons as she glowered at the raptor crew. She barked a few harsh words. The women put the trays down and backed out. The inner bay door shut.
"At least they're feeding us," Helo said.
At first, Starbuck wouldn't eat until others ate and didn't get sick. Even then, she only picked at the food as if not trusting it.
Helo went into the raptor to get a good look at the damage. The drive control computer was toast, and the environmental control unit beside it was also burnt. He had some basic tools that were kept on board, so he worked at taking the bad units out. He didn't think he could repair the damage, but hoped he could get something working.
.
Looking at the cargo bay view with Gale and Bob, Delilah pointed to the short haired blonde. "She's the most violent one. She whacked me on the head with a wrench. I saw where their ship is damaged, it's control boards under an electronics shelf mid ship. If we can get those out and fix them enough to work, maybe we can kick them out and on their way."
Bob shrugged. "We don't have many spare parts. I suppose we could try. Can't guarantee anything."
"We'll see what we can do. That one man showed me the damage, if we can get him to help us, we might be able to get them on their way." Delilah explained.
"I'll help," Cameron told him. "But we don't let any of them out of the bay. Watch yourself closely when you're in there with them."
"Guards at the door and at the craft door also so no one sneaks up on us," Delilah stated.
"I'll guard you, Robert," Malinara stated.
Cameron told Bob, "Get every tool you think you'll need before we go in. We'll meet you at the cargo bay door."
.
In the cargo bay, Helo had gotten the environmental control unit out and had the case opened. He frowned at it. Wiring needed to be replaced as did the control board.
"How's it coming?" Starbuck asked from the raptor doorway.
"Not good. We need parts we don't have."
The bay door came open. Again, it was white haired women who came in and collected they used trays while the blonde with her arm canons eyed the crew. Once the women with the trays departed, another thin woman came in and motioned everyone back. The red head was beside her. Moved back to the back of the raptor, the thin auburn haired woman said something to the red head.
Starbuck took this time to look out of the raptor. The thin auburn haired woman quickly snatched Starbuck by her shirt and flung her to the back, making her bounce into the others.
Starbuck shot to her feet, the auburn haired woman glared at her. Behind them, a man carried a toolbox in, followed by a metal man who also carried a box in.
Emily's eyes grew wide as she bore a smile. "Bob!" she cried. She went to move towards them. The red head got in her way, lifted a hand and flame appeared over her hand.
"Get back!" Malinara growled.
Emily stopped short. "Bob? Is that you?" she asked in Piconese.
The auburn haired woman tipped her head slightly. "You speak latin?" she asked.
Bob called over, "Emily, we got work to do," he then went into the raptor.
Emily held back a laugh. "I can understand you! Please, we're not all like Starbuck here! We're happy you saved us!"
"You have proven to be untrustworthy," Cameron stated. "Just stay back while we try to fix your ship, and no one will get hurt."
"But … Bob's my friend." Emily said weakly.
"Stay back, stay quiet, and no one gets hurt," Cameron stated.
Cameron went into the raptor. Malinara stayed in front of the group, eyeing them.
Bob, Cameron and a terminator looked at the box Helo had pulled out. Bob had the terminator got for the spool of wire they had. It was thicker than what was in the box, but it would work. Since Emily could talk to them, Cameron went out to motion Emily in to help translate.
"We need your help, come," Cameron said flatly.
Between Cameron, Emily, Bob and Helo, they figured out what to do to get the atmosphere controls working. Some functions they bypassed. Instead of a metered recirculation, it was hard wired on. Same with the carbon scrubber. The Oxygen bleed was also on and controlled now by the valve on the tank instead of the circuits. Someone would have to babysit the readings to adjust the flow manually.
As for the engine controls, the throttle and pilot controls were toast. A terminator found some relays for thruster on and off controls. The main engine, Bob made a simple knife switch for. On or off. There was no fine control, and there'd be no jumping for this craft.
Helo wouldn't say where their fleet was. So Delilah asked him where they wanted to be dropped off. For this, Helo had to go to the control room to show her on a galactic map.
While Delilah and Helo left the bay, Bob and Cameron set up the temporary controls. The terminator returned their tools to the engine room. Malinara and another terminator stood guard over the others.
Allowed in the raptor, Emily asked, "Bob, please convince your people to come to Galactica with us. We do need your help."
Cameron turned to eye Emily. "We need to talk, outside this craft."
Emily went out with Cameron into the bay. Cameron stood beside her and eyed Starbuck, and hooked a finger to the short haired blonde. "Have her come over here."
Emily said, "Starbuck, Cameron wants to speak to you."
Struck sauntered over. "What?"
Noting the attitude of the woman, Cameron said, "Emily I want you to repeat what I say in the language she can understand."
Emily nodded.
Looking at Starbuck, Cameron said, "You are violent and untrustworthy."
Emily relayed her words.
"I don't know who you think you are, but if I see you again, you will be in great pain before you die. You've shot Bob for no reason, then attacked Delilah who was trying to help you. By your uniform, you are someone of rank in your military?"
Emily repeated the words. Starbuck replied flatly.
"Cameron, she says yes, she's a viper pilot. A Captain," Emily told Cameron.
"From how you act, I can only assume much of your military is like you. You obviously blindly hate us, so we do not want to see any of you again. If we find any of your ships near us again, from now on, it will be shoot first, then pick through the debris to see who's left. Go away and don't come back."
Emily stared at Cameron. "But…"
"Tell her," Cameron stated.
Emily swallowed. Haltingly, Emily relayed the message. As she did, Starbuck turned pale. Starbuck responded to Emily in a much weaker tone.
Emily winced. "Cameron, Starbuck want to beg for you to change your mind and at least let someone come talk to you."
"This decision is not mine," Cameron stated. "I am relaying John Connor's word. Stay away from us or else."
Emily relayed the message. Starbuck again tried to reason with her. Cameron turned to look into the raptor. "Bob, we done?" she asked.
Starbuck blubbered out words as she grabbed Cameron's arm. Cameron spun and ripped her hand off then crushed down on Starbuck's wrist. Starbuck cried out in pain and collapsed. Cameron threw her arm down. To Emily, Cameron said, "Get her away from me before I decide to kill her."
Emily got Starbuck back on her feet and led her back to the others.
Bob came out and eyed Emily holding a crying Starbuck. "That's an ouchie. We done here?"
"We are. As soon as Delilah returns with that pilot, we get them back into their craft, clean the bay out and kick them off on their own."
Once Helo picked the place he wanted to be dropped off at, Joan piloted them to the other side of the nebula where Delilah guided them. Coming out of the warp bubble, Delilah got far contacts in radar. She took Helo down to the cargo bay where they got the raptor crew back in and Cameron showed them their controls.
Over the raptor's radio, John said, "Cam, Delilah, we got incoming. Several small ships. Clear the bay and get that ship out of here."
.
Kat closed with her vipers onto the unknown that appeared on Dradis. They were close enough now to see the ship. She reported, "Unknown vessel in sight. It's not cylon, or anything else I've ever seen. The side is opening up … it ejected a raptor, it reads as one of ours. Shit! The unknown just disappeared. It's gone. No jump flash, it's just gone. I got a signal from the raptor, it's Helo's missing ship. We found it."
Kat's team searched the area but the unknown was gone. Helo reported they had only very basic controls. Another raptor was sent out to tow them in.
Upon them landing, Adama and Tigh were there to meet the lost raptor. Everyone was alive, but Starbuck had a crushed wrist. She also stayed quiet and kept her head lowered.
Helo scrubbed his head and explained what happened. The ship that picked them up and saved them was an Earth ship. Everything was going OK until Starbuck hit one of the crew on the head when she was looking at the damage in the raptor.
"After that, that woman got a little mean," Helo explained. "Her arm … transformed into a weapon, she pointed it at Starbuck and yelled at her but didn't shoot. After that, they wouldn't let us out of the bay. They did come help fix the ship enough so we could get back here."
Adama eyed Starbuck. "Who were these beings?" he asked.
"Different. There were human looking ones with white hair and pale skin, others who looked normal and human sized Centurion like machines. They were helping us until Starbuck whacked that blonde in the head with a wrench. The blonde didn't seem affected by the hit, only got mad. She bent the wrench in half, then just yelled at Starbuck."
Helo then winced and added, "Another one, I think was a commander, said we're not welcome around them due to Starbuck's behavior. Basically, they think we're violent, and if they see any of us again, it's shoot first then find out who's left. Admiral, these are tough people and that ship is amazing. It somehow rides in a bubble and can navigate while at jump speed. They saw the fleet and parked to let us off."
Adama asked, "Are they from earth?"
"One man, Bob, the nurse knows was here before. We saw him so at least one person on that ship was from Earth. I suspect they all were."
Adama turned to the Marine Commander. "Take Captain Starbuck to the brig. Find a psychiatrist to talk to her and try to straighten her out. Until her attitude improves, she stays in the brig."
"Sir? When she grabbed that Cameron woman by the arm, Cameron crushed her wrist. She needs to see Doc Cottle too." Helo explained.
"He can send someone to visit her in the brig." Adama stated. He had to go talk to the President and break the news to her that Earth didn't want anything to do with the Colonial fleet.