Chapter 11

The space around Galactica when she arrived at the emergency jump co-ordinates was mercifully clear of enemy ships.

"Report, Mr. Gaeta."

"Yes sir. All fleet ships present and accounted for bar three."

"Which three?"

"The Astral Queen, obviously, the Virgon Express and the Mistral. 943 people in all."

The Virgon Express had already caused him enough problems but the Mistral was a loss. The biogenics labs on board had been starting to produce fresh food for the fleet. He thought for a moment about his next move. He had lost most of his executive staff, either temporarily or permanently, in one fell blow. The weight of command felt very heavy on his shoulders at that moment. However, there was no time like war to see whether or not raw talent could step up to the plate. Lee had managed it, so others could too. He felt a twist in his gut as he thought of Lee. He would do everything in his power to get his son and the rest of his family back safely.

"Lieutenant, please meet me in my quarters and have lieutenant Agathon report there also."

He moved quickly to his quarters and sat down at his desk. His eye caught the one picture that he had of Lee, Kara and Alex together, taken in the artificial sunshine on Cloud Nine during a recent visit. He had to will himself to look away from it and concentrate on the task at hand. After a discrete knock at the hatch Gaeta appeared.

"You wanted to see me sir?" Adama took a small box from the draw of his desk and rose to stand in front of Gaeta.

"I should have done this a long time ago. You deserve better recognition than for me to suddenly remember in a crisis what you've done for this ship and the fleet, but we'll deal with that later. Congratulations Captain Gaeta." He handed the new insignia to a stunned Gaeta.

"Thank you sir." Gaeta shook hands with the admiral, and with Helo who had just entered the office.

"My pleasure, Jim. I'm also making you acting XO. Helo, you will act as CAG for the time being. These are clearly acting positions: I won't give up hope that Colonel Tigh, Apollo and Starbuck are alive until we find otherwise."

"Yes, sir, we understand and fully agree, but how can I be CAG? I'm not a viper pilot."

"Being CAG isn't all about being a pilot, Helo. It's much more than that; it's about leading and organising your team. I've appointed you because you have demonstrated the best leadership skills amongst the senior staff under Apollo and Starbuck. You should put a lead pilot in charge of the viper squadron and concentrate on the organisation of the air group and their morale."

"Yes, sir and thank you for your trust."

"I fully expect it to be repaid; by both of you. Now gentlemen, let's get to work. What is our status Mr Gaeta?"

"Not good I'm afraid, sir. One of the FTL drives has malfunctioned. Tyrol says he may need 24 hours or more to repair it, depending on when and if he can scavenge the parts."

"Damn it!" He swore softly under his breath as the phone rang. He picked up the receiver and listened to the message. With a shake of the head and a sigh he replied tersely.

"Tell her that I'll be there as soon as I can." He hung up and turned to his new executive team. They looked at him expectantly, trust shining out of their young faces. He felt very old. Gods this was going to be hard!

"I have been summoned to speak with the president and the council. Normally I'd tell them to go to hell, but I think it might just be time for a little payback. I want the chief given every available resource he needs to fix that FTL drive and the ship prepared for an assault on the cylons while I'm gone. Captain Gaeta, you have charge of the ship!"

−

The president sighed. She felt sick and so very tired. Her treatment, along with the strain of the last few days, was taking its toll on her health. She let the conversation ebb and flow around her. The admiral was being quite obdurate; he hadn't said "I told you so" yet, but she could see it in every line of his face and posture. It was understandable given what he had potentially lost in the last few hours. Maybe knowing that he had been right in his concerns all along was the reason why the council were so on the defensive with him. She took a few moments respite to swallow against the wave of nausea washing over her. The treatment seemed to be working again, but Cottle had upped the dose and the side effects were worse. When she zoned back in to the conversation again she realised that she needed to re-engage before the admiral took the representative from Aerilon to pieces.

"As soon as her FTL drive is repaired Galactica will return to the planet to mount a rescue expedition to retrieve the vice-president, our XO, CAG and flight instructor. The fleet will remain here."

"What you mean, admiral, is that you are going to remove our only protection in order to attempt a suicide mission to rescue your friend, son and daughter in law."

"Madame, if it wasn't for Colonel Tigh, Major Adama and Captain Thrace none of us would be alive today. The colonel has made countless critical decisions to save the fleet and Starbuck and Apollo put their lives on the line every day to keep the remains of humanity alive. Can you say the same? What have you done to save the fleet? They have been doing just that every day for two years and I will not abandon them." A muscle was twitching in his cheek as he stared at the woman menacingly. She flushed at his words but didn't seem to be picking up the warning signals to give up the fight at this point.

"Admiral, no one's saying….."

Laura knew that she needed to step in; the representative only had to mention something about the admiral's beloved grandson being stranded on New Kobol with his parents and he would go off like a rocket!

"Representative Magdalon," her voice was quiet but authoritative and the table was immediately silent. "Whilst I am also concerned about loosing Galactica's protection, I agree with the Admiral that a rescue mission must be mounted. Our military personnel are thin enough on the ground as it is; we cannot afford not to make an attempt to retrieve such experienced officers. Of course, it goes without saying that we cannot just leave our vice-president behind either. At the end of the day this is a military decision. I'm sure that the admiral will leave a CAP and one or two raptors behind which can alert Galactica to trouble, if necessary." He inclined his head towards her in recognition of her intervention.

"Of course, Madame President."

The Aerilon representative didn't look happy but had the intelligence not to argue any further; she could recognise when she had been out-manoeuvred.

−

The admiral listened carefully as Helo and Gaeta explained the options that they had come up with to remove the base star and free their route to the planet. Most of them were the familiar ones that had been successful in the past. The problem was that now, without a raider or Cylon transponder, the odds were so stacked against success that it would almost be optimistic to call it a suicide mission. He stared at the op board laid out in front of him. He knew that the key to this mission was there somewhere but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

"Of course we are assuming, sir, that the Virgon Express and Mistral will no longer be there and if they are that they have been infiltrated by Cylons and must be destroyed."

"Hmmm," he replied, seemingly absent minded. Gaeta and Helo exchanged looks but remained silent, watching the great man at work. "What were the positions of those two ships before we jumped?"

"The Virgon Express was one of those heading for the planet and it had made it here." Gaeta put a marker on the board. "The Mistral remained with the fleet and was here. I can only assume that their FTL drive malfunctioned." He added a second marker. The admiral studied the positions for a few moments, looking between the Mistral marker and that of the Cylon base star.

"Why did the base star jump in so far away? If they knew we were there and they were coming to engage us, why give us the chance to escape?"

"Maybe their positioning information wasn't accurate, sir."

"We've been in the same position for two months. Their information would have been accurate. No, I don't think that base star was coming for us at all. Something wider is happening here that we don't yet understand, but let us concentrate on our primary objective which is to retrieve our people from the planet. Assuming that the Cylons believe that all the humans on the planet are dead, they won't be expecting us to come back and that should give us the element of surprise that we need. We have a single nuclear warhead left so we get one shot at this base star and one shot only. We jump Galactica in as close as we dare and fire the warhead into the base star directly from Galactica. Helo, the vipers need to provide cover against raiders"

"Yes, sir, but isn't it a pretty big assumption to assume that they don't know there are humans still alive?" Helo's grin peeped out. "It is Starbuck and Apollo we're talking about here, sir: they're trouble magnets!" The admiral smiled wryly in return.

"You're right, Helo, but I think that even they should be able to keep themselves out of too much trouble for a couple of days. They're not likely to go charging in to engage the Cylons by themselves and with a baby in tow."