Sequel to 7 Points
By Chaoseternus Chapter 25: Rebirth
Roslin glanced out the window, smiling as Adama's shuttle rose swiftly from the base, escorted by a full flight of Viper II's.
The old warrior had his soul back she mused, uncharacteristically poetical as she considered Adama's return to the one place she knew he truly belonged.
And none to soon, the Cylons were steping up reconnaissance operations, constantly probing defences which had proven weak far too many times.
They just weren't set up with the spin type drives used by the Colonials and Cylons in mind; they were vulnerable to an enemy that could just jump right next to their targets.
The Goa'uld had to jump outside a gravity well more often than not, they just didn't have the capability to jump straight into orbit, they didn't have the accuracy.
But the Cylons did, and it was showing.
The Tau'ri hadn't yet told her their answer to that problem, and Roslin was getting worried, she was getting the impression they knew exactly what to do but that something was blocking them.
Well, it would be a while before Galactica had her squadrons and would therefore be ready for combat operations again. She would be close by then, and could help protect Freedom if the Tau'ri for whatever reason couldn't.
Those empty bays, just waiting for Tau'ri ships to come back from Edonia had taken new meaning to her now.
A new and extremely worrying meaning.
Adama hid a slight smile as he stepped onto the familiar, yet changed bridge of the Galactica.
He fooled no-one; they all caught the bounce in his step, the happiness that shone through the mask of command.
Commander Adama was home, at last, even if that home had been changed somewhat.
Not bothering to hide his smile, Gaeta walked saluting up to his Commanding officer, "Commander, the dock yard crews have now all reported aboard Ravenbright, and engineering is running a final check of the ship. The magazines are fully loaded however we have no Vipers, Raptors or shuttles aboard, the upgraded designs haven't arrived yet. Operations has cleared us for departure in one hour, when Virgon and Libra are expected to arrive and will act as our escort for this test flight"
Adama nodded, "Carry on"
He glanced around as Gaeta returned to his station; this room hadn't changed as much of the rest of the ship he realised. As Galactica's command centre this room had always been kept the most up to date, the best maintained and it showed. The monitors were the same screens as before, TFT's or LCD's as the Tau'ri called them, the stations all in the same places.
It was what was underneath that had changed, far faster and more capable computers had replaced the old systems, bolstered by the best firewalls and anti-virus scanners the Tau'ri had devised, but they still weren't networked.
The biggest change was the DC compartment, where Damage Control was carried out. Now instead of just showing lights vaguely indicating the state of each compartment, you could access a true internal sensor, a modification of the Ship sensors used by the Tau'ri this allowed them to check structural integrity, scan for trapped crew and the like.
That alone was a massive improvement, Adama admitted, but it wasn't the end of it. They, through touch screen panels, also had far greater control over power distribution across the ship. Normally a function carried out by engineering, these controls now allowed them to shut down power to heavily damaged sections to weaken an electrical fire or make it safer for DC parties to work if electricity kept arcing, but also to shift power from reserve to a failing shield segment or the like, even draw power from any docked ships that still had their own generators active if necessary.
And more.
Adama had to admit, those changes alone greatly increased his ships combat effectiveness, but with the pulse laser batteries that had replaced the suppression batteries, the pulse lasers being far more discriminating and requiring no ammunition storage, the Gauss rifles which might through smaller slugs than the old heavy cannons but they fired Naquadah slugs, which were far more explosive outweighing the difference in projectile size and finally the added missile batteries, firing a mixed bag of enhanced Sidewinders and enhanced Colonial Nukes, Galactica was now more then ever a force to be reckoned with.
When her fighters and her support craft arrived, she would truly be a Battlestar again, a true warship of the Colonies.
"Commander" Gaeta's voice brought Adama back from his thoughts with a carefully concealed start, "Operations just signalled that our escort has arrived ahead of schedule and is in place, we are clear to leave when ready"
Adama nodded, "ships status"
"All shoreside power disconnected, lines are singled and we are buttoned up ready to leave. The board is clear"
Adama smiled, glancing once around the room, "signal operations to open the main doors, the take us out Mr Gaeta"
"We are reborn" the softly spoken words of Adama was heard all across the bridge as Galactica slowly slipped out of the drydock where she had been held for so many months, and into space once more.