Thirteen
Chapter Seventy-Two
The Passage of Time
American Senator Clarissa Cally watched the returns come in on election night in 2283 and was not happy with the returns coming in. She had thought that President Garrison Hollifield was ripe for the picking, but he had stubbornly held on to the popularity he had gained over the years with the people. Earth was a neck and neck race, which may go one-way or the other. However, the outer colonies were deciding the race, and they were going for Hollifield in a big way.
The party was being held in the Washington Hilton's ballroom, but the mood had gone from hopefulness to desperation to defeat. Cally had won North and South America, but Hollifield had taken Europe, Asia, and Australia. Africa was a toss-up, and the few voters in Antarctica went, as usual, for the fringe candidates. Mars went for Hollifield in a massive landslide, and it began to tilt the balance towards Hollifield.
When the final results from Proxima 3 came in, the game was over. She had needed to win it by a wide margin to have any reasonable chance of catching Hollifield, but it had gone to Hollifield by a significant margin. Cally got up off the couch and walked over to her press secretary, Malcolm Wilcox, and told him to prepare for the concession speech. "It's over, guys. Better go ahead and get this over with. We'll lick our wounds for a few days and then prepare for the next phase." Cally said.
"What would that be?" asked one of her longtime supporters, Campbell Rollings, the senator from Alabama.
"The Presidency of the American Consortium. Since it's a wide-open race next year, I believe I can take it, especially since we won the election here. Now, let's get downstairs to the ballroom and get this over with!"
Thousands of miles away, in the Santiago ballroom of the government palace inside Earthdome, Hollifield's supporters watched on as Cally made her concession speech. His smile grew wider as he watched her reluctantly throw in the towel. When it was over, the roar from his supporters in the ballroom was felt through the walls of the back rooms. "Seems like they're happy!" he said to Dan Tanner, his chief of staff.
"They deserve to be, Mr. President. Shall we go out now and give them something to really cheer about?" Tanner replied.
Hollifield laughed and looked around, asking, "Where's Twanissa?"
"Here!" she said, walking up to them. She had fully recovered from her bicycle accident that had almost permanently paralyzed her, and she walked very much like she always had before her injury. She embraced him and said, "Congratulations, handsome!"
He smiled and replied, "Ready to knock their socks off again, beautiful?" She nodded, and he gave her a quick kiss, then took her by the hand and walked into the ballroom and onto the stage to the rapturous applause of the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen, here he is…the winner and still president of the Earth Alliance, Garrison Hollifield!" said DeVon Rossdale, his campaign press secretary, whose booming bass voice could have easily announced his arrival without microphone enhancement.
He shook Rossdale's hand as well as all of those of his campaign staff, many of who had been with him for years. Twanissa followed behind him, shaking hands and exchanging hugs with them. She joined him at the podium and they waved to the crowd as they kept up their standing ovation for what seemed like forever. Hollifield kissed his wife on the cheek and whispered, "Time to give them the winning speech!" She nodded and walked back to where the staff stood as he began his speech.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for your support! We've come a long way from when we were all working on the first campaign to elect Suzanna Luchenko, God rest her soul, twenty years ago. We've gone through hell and back in all of this time, but our work is almost done."
The speech was very much like all the other victory speeches he had given over the years. After he had finished, the crowd inside the ballroom erupted again in applause and cheers as he walked off the stage with his wife, hand in hand. He knew the party would go on for a while longer, but he was exhausted and really wanted to get to bed. However, the private celebration would go on even longer in the presidential suite, and Hollifield's head probably wouldn't hit the pillow until well after the sun rose up the next morning.
Late the next day, he walked down into the situation room for a conference with General Cain, who was now located on Marcab, helping to develop the new fleet that would launch Operation Supernova, the offensive that, when launched, would have the liberation of the Colonial homeworlds as its objective. Adama was also developing new ships in the yards above Kobol, in cooperation with Earthforce and the Interstellar Alliance.
On Marcab as well were the human Cylons who had escaped the grasp of Vacit and his allies. The first generation models were helping to finish the development of the second-generation models as well as progressing with the third versions. Dr. Gaius Baltar and Six were there, along with Gina, and they were spearheading the effort. Hollifield didn't completely trust Baltar, so he had him discreetly watched by some of his assistants.
As he sat down at the head of the table in the situation room, the communications link with Marcab was established and the image of Cain and Baltar came up. Unbeknownst to the others, Six was there as well, but she said nothing, preferring to speak through Baltar. "Mr. President! Congratulations on your reelection!" said Cain.
"Thank you, General! So what's the latest from our secret base?"
"We've just finished testing the prototype for the new Gladiator-class destroyer, and the tests were a complete success. We've also had great success with the new cruisers and frigates that we are developing for the offensive. I'll be sending the full report to you on a subchannel." Cain answered.
"Very good, General! Dr. Baltar, how goes the integration of the human Cylons?"
Baltar said, "We're making lots of progress, Mr. President. The tests we've done so far have shown that the first generation models are fully independent from Cylon influence, and we are very close to bringing out the second generation clones and developing them for the operation. The third generation will take another couple of years at least before they are ready."
"That's quite all right, Dr. Baltar. For a change, time is on our side. Intelligence indicates that the Cylons are focusing on developing new models of human Cylons as we speak, and since they are effectively starting from scratch, we have a leg up on them." Hollifield replied.
They finished the teleconference and Hollifield clicked off the link and went back to his office, where Dan Tanner was waiting for him. "How did the conference go, sir?"
"Things are progressing well, Dan. It looks like our plans are advancing well on Marcab. Anything new going on in these halls of power that I should know about?"
"Not much, as it usually is after an election. Rumors are running rampant that Cally's going to run for the presidency of the American consortium in an effort to bolster her chances for the next campaign." Tanner replied.
"Really? Well, that's news to me! I had figured she would just stick to her senate seat in Washington and maybe make a run for the Earth Senate seat."
"Not from what I am hearing. She's taking a break, as we expected, but it looks like she's not going to go away quietly."
"Never expected her to, Dan. But, for now, I'm going to enjoy the victory for as long as I can, which will be about another day or so until the next crisis comes along." Tanner laughed and they went through the usual briefing, which was later today because of the celebrations of the night before.
As time passed, Hollifield's plans began to come to fruition. Ivanova, along with her second in command Starbuck, was readying class after class of new Rangers for the coming battle. Cain and Adama were progressing at a steady rate with the construction of the new ships, and Baltar's group had already begun getting the second generation ready for what was to come.
Meanwhile, the new colony on Kobol was progressing well, and life was proceeding as it should, with people marrying and having children. Galen Tyrol and his wife Fabby had just had their first child, a daughter named Olivia.
While life progressed on there, the ultimate goal was still on the top of the priorities list, that being liberating the Colonial worlds. The goal was to have everything ready by 2288, when Hollifield would step down as president of the Earth Alliance. Once that was done, the offensive would begin, and he would be at the front, leading the charge alongside the others.
He had accepted his fate long ago that he would always have battles to fight against the darkness. As he leaned back in his chair in his office one day, he understood that this was probably the last big conflict he would see in his lifetime. He was approaching his seventieth birthday, and the age was finally starting to catch up with him after all these years. He just hoped that he would live long enough to complete this one last major task in his life.