Sequel to 7 Points
By Chaoseternus Chapter 23: Building Steam
Roslin smiled as she looked over the mine, and the large numbers of laden wagons slowly being pulled out of the complex along the sole railway line on Freedom.
Their first ore, ready for processing at last.
It was a big step towards self-sufficiency, just one of many that had occurred this week. This iron mine becoming operational, along with a titanium and an aluminium mine, the declaration that their first MTB squadron was fully operational, the completion of Hell's Runner 's refit into a defence monitor, the bringing online of all their refineries…
They were building steam, small victories and large victories crowding together as they began the road back to being the great people they once were.
Roslin sighed, thinking of a report locked in her safe back at First settlement, and of course, one step back. Extremes of fundamentalism were beginning to become more and more apparent amongst the survivors, and that was not a good thing. An understandable reaction perhaps but still not a good thing.
Extremes of fundamentalism may seem to give answers but all they truly gave was trouble, dissension and fear.
Roslin sighed, so far they hadn't caused any troubles but things were starting to get… uneasy on the streets again.
There would be trouble soon enough, luckily the Military, for the most part, seemed to be firmly behind her moderate provisional government but elections were coming soon and the government could still change as a result.
And it couldn't be ruled out that one of the extremist groups running for office was able to scare up enough votes to seize control.
And, Roslin reflected bitterly, scare might just be the appropriate word.
Still, she had managed so much and with all the successes of this week, well that should stand in her favour. Not that she wanted office again, she truly didn't. She had suffered too much as president to want more off it, but she didn't trust any of the other candidates to do what was truly right and best for the Colonial people.
Roslin felt a lot better after she had convinced herself.
Boomer watched with anxious eyes as a crippled Tau'ri Prometheus and a Dauntless dropped out of hyper, each one preceded by the stacked line of Shunter tugs that had been required to bring them all the way from the nebula at Edonia.
Behind them, their escort, the Independence, hull clearly showing the marks of several near misses including the one that had sealed their primary launch bay shut turned, rapidly preparing for hyper again, heading back to Edonia to escort the next batch of crippled vessels home.
Boomer was glad she didn't have that job, being the only real protection for her comrades across a vast gulf of space, she knew that tune, she had lived it for months as part of Galactica's crew and it wasn't fun.
She just had to escort them the final step to the Sol system, and the waiting arms of the Thundersdawn anchorage.
But it seemed to her that it wasn't just the Colonials who were gaining steam, the Tau'ri seemed to be doing a good job of that too, what with another Dauntless II started, a Dauntless I and a II having launched within the last week, plus a Dauntless and Prometheus herself coming off refits, frak, with the bay they kept reserved for emergency repair work they had four bays available for repair work, exactly the number of ships needing drydock work after Edonia.
And when those refits of the Prometheus and Devonshire, if she remembered correctly, were done that would be another two bays available with an even larger bay still under construction, let alone what they built into Edonia Anchorage, not forgetting the scattered bays used for small craft and MTB work, hell, let alone whatever the hell was at this mysterious Alpha Site she kept hearing rumours about.
"Boomer" the voice of her Chief Engineer, Cally distracted her from her thoughts and she turned to the veteran of Galactica's launch pods, "the Shunters signal ready for the final jump"
She nodded, "let's do it, signal the squadron"
Her own squadron… frak but she loved and hated that. Her own command, a joy and a bane. Sometimes she just wished Gaeta had gotten the squadron as originally had been planned but other times she was just as glad he hadn't.
"Ready for jump captain"
Boomer sat back, buckling herself swiftly into her chair, just in case, "take her out Cally"
"We're losing steam" Commodore Peters bluntly spoke into the pickup, face fixed upon the flat screen monitor in front in her. On it, the pixalised images of Admiral Thompson, Generals Hammond and O'Neill nodded thoughtfully.
"We have four crippled ships inbound and you know what, I will be able to put them straight into bays and get them back into the fight, I shouldn't be able to do that. Up till now I have had to forcefully make room and you now why those bays are empty? Because all our resources are redeployed to Edonia and the construction there"
Peters interrupted as Hammond made as if to speak, "Necessary I know, I don't argue that but we now have eight MTB bays doing nothing for the same reason, eight!"
Hammond grimaced, "I agree totally, we are at war and we are grossly outnumbered, we should be pouring ships of the construction yards as fast as we can crew them but our resources are stretched. Already, we are two Billion over budget here, money we will have to pay back somehow before the next budget or our secrets out. A two billion deficit is a little hard to hide"
Thompson sighed, "We're not much better off here, we just don't have the resources available to us to keep warship construction going and build Edonia station"
"It's just going to get worse then, I mean with another construction yard coming online in time at Edonia and we are obliged to refit the colonial fleet as well now"
Peters shrugged, "the refits use fewer resources generally than a refit, so that isn't so much of a problem, but by the looks of it you're going to be doing the bulk of the Colonial refit work General"
"Gotcha Commodore, but losing steam, still a bad thing"
"We don't have enough resources to keep it up General" Hammond commented, "So what do you suggest?"
"I suggest we find resources, and fast"