7375.323/2669.323 Commander Apollo's office: Apollo was sitting in his chair, looking at Athena. "I can't believe what you did to the Major, Athena do you have any idea how this could affect our relationship with the Confed personnel?".
"Oh Apollo, don't get all worked up, from Captain Eison's reaction, I guess that this thing has happened before with the Major.".
"I don't care Athena, I want you to apologize to the Major. And if needed, the entire Confederation.".
Athena slumped in her chair, "Alright Apollo. I'll apologize to the Major, but that's all.".
Apollo knew that he could continue this argument, and maybe even win, but he also knew that that would be a long argument. Besides, he had other things on his mind.
"What's really wrong Apollo?". Apollo smiled, Athena could read him like a book, as well as Sheba could.
"I saw Hera and Vagabond in the rejuvenation center the night before.".
"We were all there Apollo.".
"No Athena, I saw them after everyone had left.".
"And?",
"They were kissing. Deeply.".
"Oh. I see. And your worried that she may be making a mistake?".
"I'm not sure what I think Athena. Vagabond seems like a good man, but I just don't think I'm ready for this.".
Athena started laughing at Apollo.
"This isn't funny Athena.".
"Of course it is Apollo, now you know what father went through when I started seeing men. Remember how he reacted when he found out I was seeing Starbuck.".
Both of them chuckled as they remembered Adama's reaction to that bit of news.
"Your experiencing what every father of a daughter has gone through since before humans left Kobol. Besides, imagine what Starbuck's reaction will be.".
"What do you mean?".
"By the Lords Apollo, you can be so dense sometimes. Haven't you seen the way Troy is around Dalton yet.".
"You don't mean that he and she?".
"It's only a matter of time Apollo.".
Athena stood up and adjusted her tunic. "Well I had better get this over with. And Apollo, don't worry about Hera and Vagabond. You and Sheba raised her right.".
Apollo smiled at his sister, "Thanks Athena, I knew that, but I just needed to be reminded of it.".
As Athena was making her way to the life station, she ran into Captain Eison. "Ah Commander, I hope that you won't let what Maniac did affect the way you see the rest of the Confederation.".
"I won't Captain, as a matter of fact, I'm on my way to apologize to the Major now.".
Captain Eison had a look of mild surprise on his face.
"Apollo is worried about how this will affect our relations as well.".
Captain Eison looked at Athena for a moment. "Commander, Maniac is an excellent pilot. But every so often his ego needs to be deflated a little. You did that, try not to reinflate his ego again.".
Athena just smiled, "Don't worry Captain I won't.".
Athena made her way to the life station, and asked one of the techs were the Major was. She was directed to his room, and she entered it without warning. She saw that Major Marshall was resting on the bed, and thought,
"He looks so innocent. It's hard to believe he said what he did.".
As she was standing there looking at him, Maniac stirred, and he saw her as he opened his eyes. Maniac was worried, had she come back to get him again, or did she change her mind about charges?
"Hello Major, I hope that your feeling better.".
"Uh yes Commander.".
"Major Marshall, I know that what you said was a little rude, and I may have overreacted a bit. I just want to apologize for what I did to you.".
Maniac sat up a little in the bed, he grimaced just a little. "Commander, I'm the one who should apologize to you. I shouldn't have said what I did. But can I offer you a word of advice.".
"Of course Major.".
"The next guy who says something like that to you, just slap his face. It's a lot less painful.".
Athena chuckled a little, "OK Major, I'll try it your way next time.".
"Uh Commander. I do have another request.".
"What is it Major?".
"Could you teach me that maneuver some time.".
Athena now relaxed and smiled, "Anytime Major, anytime.".
The stealth recon patrol was coming into communication range of the combined fleet. "This is Recon one to Victory.".
"Go Recon one, this is Victory.".
"Victory, pass word to Papa, our guests just got company. Over.".
Lt. Col. Taylor got on the transcomm, "Recon one, what kind of company. Over.".
"Twins Victory, repeat twins.".
"Roger Recon one, stand by.".
Lt. Col. Taylor looked at Lt. Rollins. "Get me Captain Eison and Col. Blair, right now.".
Rollins spent the next three minutes tracking down the Captain and the Col. on board the Galactica, they were in the landing bay checking on the progress of the conversions. The Captain and the Col. took the call in one of the shuttles from the Victory.
"What is it Col. Taylor.".
"Captain, Recon one is reporting in, our guests just got company. Twins Captain.".
"I understand Col. What's the ETA of Recon flight?".
"20 minutes sir.".
"We'll be there in 10. Eison out." and he ended the call.
"Chris prep this bird.".
Captain Eison went over to one of the colonial warriors, "Excuse me Major?".
The warrior was a bear of a man, who looked like he could probably just fit in a cockpit.
"Major Jolly, Gold Spar squadron commander, Captain.".
"Major Jolly, I need to get Commander Apollo down here right away.".
The two men headed for a communication panel on one of the bulkheads, and Jolly got the Commander on the line for the Captain. Apollo could tell by the look on the Captains face that something was up,
"What's wrong William?".
"Apollo, we just got a report from Recon flight. I think we all should go to the Victory, right now.".
"I'm on my way.".
Apollo turned off the monitor and was on his way to the landing bay. He ran into Athena as she was coming toward his office. He just pointed toward the lift, and she immediately turned around and headed toward it with him.
"What's up Apollo?".
"I don't know Athena, but we're about to find out.".
By the time they arrived at the flight bay, Chris had the shuttle ready to launch.
As Apollo and Athena took their seats on the shuttle, Captain Eison informed them of what Recon flight had found.
"Since your people are more familiar with the cylons, I wanted you there at the pilot debriefing.".
The confed shuttle landed on the Victory in less than 5 minutes. The 4 officers went to the situation room, and were met by Lt. Col. Taylor.
"Recon flight is 10 minutes out sir.".
As soon as Primate and Vero set down, they went immediately to the situation room. As flight leader, Primate gave the report.
"We were near the end of our patrol, and we had a large energy spike show on our long range scanners. When we headed to the coordinates of the energy spike, we discovered 2 more Base-stars had entered the system.".
Chris looked at them, "Why didn't you return when you discovered this Primate.".
"I decided that we should observe the ships Col. to see if any others were arriving."
Vero spoke up now, "We stayed in the area, with our scanners on passive setting sir, and when no other ships arrived, we returned to base.".
"On our way back to the Victory, we also observed that the cylons have set up a mining operation in the asteroid field near the jump point sir.".
Captain Eison looked at Chris. "We need to inform Confed of this, but with the cylons so near the jump point, that could be tricky.".
"Well Captain, we'll have to send an Excalibur through the jump point, and hope that the cylons don't pick up the energy spike.".
As they were looking at the information, the door to the situation room opened. They saw Miss Lynch standing there.
"May I come in Captain?".
"This isn't really a good time Miss Lynch.".
"I know that Captain Eison, but I happened to hear about your problem. I know of a way you can contact Confed.".
Chris looked at her, "How Miss Lynch?".
"You could use the CES transmitter relay station.".
Captain Eison looked at her, "I thought that it was destroyed.".
"No Captain, the transmitter on the base was destroyed, but the relay station is on an asteroid near the jump point."
Chris looked at the captain, "Then it should be simple to just send the signal through the relay to Confed.".
Julie looked at them, "It's not that simple Col., without the proper encoded activation signal from the base or CES command, the relay stays inactive.".
"There is another way to activate the relay though.".
Captain Eison looked at her, "How is that Miss Lynch?".
"I can activate the relay manually for you.".
Chris and the others looked at her. "We can't let you do that Miss Lynch.".
"You don't have a choice Captain, I'm the only one who knows the activation codes.".
The Captain looked at her, "I cant let you go into such a dangerous situation.".
Julie looked at him very seriously now. "Dangerous situation, Captain, do you know who my father is? I've been in dangerous situations since the day I was born. Besides, with everybody trying to prepare the colonial ships, I feel as if I've been left out of this fight.".
Apollo spoke to her, "Miss Lynch, I'm Commander Apollo of the colonial fleet. I have to agree with Captain Eison. We can't let you do this."
"Commander Apollo, I sat in my ship as a lot of my friends were butchered by these metal headed cretins you call cylons. Since I was rescued, I haven't been able to help. But now I can.".
They saw that she was determined, Captain Eison looked at Col. Blair. "Chris, I'll have Rollins prepare a message to be sent scrambled through the relay. We'll send an escort with Miss Lynch, I don't want her doing this alone. Once the relay is on line Miss Lynch, I want you to get the hell out of there, understood.".
"Yes Captain, I understand.".
They then started devising a plan to get the relay on line, and a call for help sent. An hour later Col. Blair was briefing the pilots who would be going.
"Your flight will be headed to an asteroid near the jump point. Miss Lynch will be landing on the asteroid, and activating the relay. Once that's done, Hazard, once the relay is on line, you'll transmit our new Intel to Confed. Rollins has the data card you'll need. Any questions?".
Hazard looked at him, "What if we run into any cylons?".
"The main goal is to get the message through, and stealth is the keyword here. Once the relay is up and running, it will probably attract every cylon in the system. So the longer we delay them detecting us the better. But if you have no other option, you are free to engage any and all enemy targets. Anything else people?". No one else said anything.
On the flight deck, Chris found Julie Lynch pre-flighting her ship. "Your people did an excellent job on her Col. she looks almost as good as when I got her.".
"I'll pass your thanks on to our techs. Rachel was telling me that a lot of the systems on your ship are confed military issue, why is that?".
Julie just looked at him, "My father has a lot of "connections" in the Gemini quadrant Col.. He wanted his little girl to be as safe as possible, so he had his techs load her up with the best hardware possible.".
Chris just looked at her, smiled, and then wished her luck. The 4 ships launched 5 minutes later.
The 4 ships cloaked halfway to the Rygannon system, and flew under radio silence, to be safe. As they neared the asteroid field, Capt. Hazard called Julie, "OK Julie our scanners are clear. Go on down and activate the relay.".
Julie landed on the asteroid, but kept her ship powered up and cloaked. She got out of her Strakha and made her way to the relay. She went through the start up manually, as fast as she safely could. The main relay was operational in 5 minutes.
"Alright Captain, you can send your signal, but give me a minute to get to my ship.".
"Roger that Julie, our scanners are still clear.".
The cylon mining contingent was almost through with their tasks, when the lead centurion detected an energy spike at the maximum range of their scanners. He ordered 3 centurions to check it out. They climbed into one of the raider ships and launched. Vero's scanner beeped, and she checked it out.
"Hazard, we've got company coming.".
"How far Vero?". "About 2 minutes.".
"Julie, how long before you lift off?",
"20 seconds Hazard, but don't wait for me.".
Hazard made a quick decision, "Vero, you and Cool hand take him out, and make it quick.".
"Roger that Hazard.".
Capt. Hazard then started sending the signal to Confed, the power level was low, this was going to take some time. Vero and Cool hand were soon behind the Cylon. Vero decloaked and fired her Tachyon cannons at the raider. It was gone before the centurions could register the ship behind them. Then Vero recloaked and proceeded back to the asteroid.
The lead centurion registered the explosion of the raider, the cause of which was unknown. The lead centurion turned to another 3 centurions,
"Take your raider back to the Base-star and report this incident. The rest of the group will proceed to the coordinates of the energy spike.".
"By your command.".
The three raiders lifted off the asteroid in less than a minute, and the lead two were on course for the energy spike. The third raider was headed back to the Base-star. Soon the lead raider was in scanner range.
"Scans show a communication device on the asteroid. Target and destroy the communication array.".
"By your command.".
As the 2 raiders began to line up on the relay, Vero and Cool hand decloaked behind them. They opened fire on the raiders, and split them in half with their cannons. Unfortunately, the wreckage of the first raider crashed into the relay, destroying it.
When the ships returned to the Victory, they were met by Captain Eison and Col. Blair and debriefed. "Did you get the message through to Confed Capt.?".
"I believe so Col., but I'm not completely positive.".
"Why is that Hazard?".
"Well sir, I sent the Intell and was just starting to get a reply when the relay was destroyed.".
He explained about the raiders, the low power level, and how the relay was destroyed, then played back the reply that he had received. "TCS Victory this is TCS Excel…".
"That's all we got before the relay was destroyed.".
Captain Eison looked at the pilots. "Ok people, you did a good job, dismissed.".
After they had left, Apollo, Athena and Col. Blair looked at Captain Eison.
"Do you think the message got through alright William.".
"I don't know Apollo. But I feel that we have to believe that it did. ".
He looked at Col. Blair, "Chris, I want you to get with all the squadron leaders, and devise a plan to attack the cylons. The Vipers should be ready to go in another day, so plan your attack accordingly.".
"Yes sir.".
On the bridge of the TCS Excelsior, the comm officer was receiving an incoming signal though the jump point. As she tried to respond, the transmission signal ended abruptly.
"Captain Daniels, we just received a signal from Victory sir. But the signal ended before we could respond.".
Captain Jakoub Daniels came over to the comm station. "What did you get Shiela?".
"Well sir, the signal was low powered, but this is what we got.".
She played the message for the Captain. "Send this through to Admiral Terrell right away, then find out when that fleet will be here.".
Captain Daniels didn't like to just sit around, but he had his orders. As he looked out of the portals on the bridge, he thought,
"I hope you can hold on a little while longer William, help is coming soon.".
The comm. officer came up to him 30 minutes later, "Sir, the fleet has just jumped into Tingerhoff, and will be here in 20 hours.".
"Thank you Shiela, I just hope that that is soon enough.".