By ChaosEternus Chapter 21: A New Hope Again
It was certainly being a week for surprises of the good, or more accurately, potentially good variety. Our friend, the Blockade Runner Mailman leaves to scout out the systems the fleet would soon be passing through and arrives back in rather a hurry shouting that she has been attacked.
But not by Cylons, by Colonials.
In particular, another Battlestar, the Excelsior.
It is said that a rumour can run twice around the world whilst the truth is still getting its boots on, well, by the time the news was officially released there were already a thousand theories being spun about as to how come Excelsior survived, how come she fired upon the Mailman or even if the incident had happened at all.
It didn't help that even the most fervent of the surviving warship watchers, what I would most likely call an anorak' had no clue as to the Excelsior, what Battleship class she was, how much crew, which squadrons and the like. Indeed, there was rumoured to be one individual aboard the Gemon Traveller who had the names, classes and Commanders of every Battlestar memorised and he knew nothing of Excelsior, indeed, rumour has it that he officially stated that no Battlestar had ever been built with that name.
Still, the Mailman had her on record, though it is perhaps noteworthy that nobody else did.
And within the day, the fleet was being left for the first time to be protected only by the Mailman and the Transporter of the Books whilst Galactica investigated, hoping to persuade the Excelsior to join this rag-tag fugitive fleet of ours on our quest to find the lonely planet, Earth.
Actually, I was lucky, I knew better then most what was going on as it was decided that I would represent my fellow Earthmen trapped on Galactica if any meeting between Galactica and Excelsior should occur, which meant I had to be kept in the loop.
It meant I knew exactly why Excelsior was unknown, she wasn't meant to be known, she was a ship designed with Armageddon in mind, a chance for the Colonial people to survive in some form should the worst happen, and she would have been very new, almost certainly still on her acceptance trails when the end came.
Still, there were questions that had to be answered, such as why had she fired upon Mailman? What was she doing this close to Earth? It hadn't after all, escaped our notice that she was placed almost directly on the direct line between Colonial space and the Sol System.
It also meant precautions had to betaken, we didn't know if the Excelsior was still Colonial, it was possible the Cylons had captured her and were using her, but it was also possible that with the end of the colonies, the crew had decided to shrug off their loyalty to the old Colonies and turn pirate to survive, an interesting thought considering how close they were to Earth.
Or had they headed direct to earth and were now standing as their primary line of defence whilst earth readied herself for interplanetary war, and they fired upon Mailman because they couldn't take the risk she no longer pledged any allegiance to the Colonies and their ideals?
There were too many possibilities by far, and we needed to know for certain what was really going on, and that meant finding Excelsior.
Jump in ten seconds Tigh barked, loudly to be heard across the Command centre and I sat down, I hated this part, but at least I had no console to check at the end of it, I really didn't know how these people could just shrug of the rather surreal effects of jump drives. Maybe they just got used to it, and I haven't yet.
Jump!
Within a minute of us arriving in the system where Mailman was attacked, the passive arrays cleared enough for sensor emissions indicative of a Colonial Sensor array, and a high powered one at that, to be picked up.
It was clear we were being scanned, but whoever was doing it was outside our own sensor range.
Then she registered on our sensors, showing clearly how new and up to date she was as she charged towards us at a rate Galactica had never, even in her prime, been able to match.
Then, she slowed and stopped, well within range of our own weapons.
What now?
What now indeed Adama commented, and I realised with a frown that once again I had said something out loud without realising it, frak it but I needed to get more control over my mouth . Over my own thoughts even, frak it'? sheesh, these guys were corrupting me.