Chapter 6

I arrived on the command deck. Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh were in the middle watching the view-screen and giving orders. Admiral Adama turned and saw me.

"Come here Lieutenant," he ordered.

I couldn't help but worry. Doesn't of negative, pessimistic scenarios ran through my head. Being executed as a Cylon, being discovered for what I'd done on Caprica, amongst others. I tried to hide my nervousness behind an emotionless face, but it didn't seem to work.

"Is something the matter?" Adama asked me.

"No, just wish I could be out there in a Viper sir," I replied.

"Understandable," Adama agreed. "How did you know that this trap was being set by the Cylons?"

"I don't know," I replied. "I just suddenly had this sense in my head that told me that it was all a trap. But then when I got here I had this vision of the Cylons destroying Colonial One. But I had no idea they were going to use a nuke."

Suddenly I clutched my head and fell to the deck. Adama and Colonel Tigh helped me back to my feet.

"What happened?" Colonel Tigh asked.

"One raider just broke off," I said. "It's coming towards Galactica. It has a nuke."

"We've got one raider breaking away from the group," one of the command officers said.

"Get someone on it, fast," Adama ordered.

"Apollo, there is a raider breaking away. Send a fighter to take it out." The communication officers ordered.

"There's no time," I said. "Fire the flak cannons at it; it's going to fire its missile in fifteen seconds. If you're lucky you can detonate the nuke before it hits us.

"Do it," Adama agreed.

The flak cannon began firing. I felt all the eyes on the bridge glancing over at me. I could feel the tension from everyone on the command deck, wondering if I was right. I wasn't worried about whether I was right, I was worried about whether I would be able to change what I had just seen. Flashing before my eyes I had seen a nuke impacting against the Galactica and ripping it apart.

"We've got a missile in bound," someone reported.

I was sweating profusely. I nervously wiped my face. Time seemed to have slowed to a crawl. The suddenly Galactica was began shaking violently. I toppled to the ground along with everyone else on the bridge. The power on the bridge went out and everything went dark.

This is it, I thought to myself. You're going to die out here.

But nothing happened. The lights came back on.

"I want a status report!" Adama said pick himself up off the ground.

"We've got reports of brief power failures ship wide but no serious damage to report. It seems we successfully detonated the nuke before it could hit us," an officer reported. "However, we do seem to be experiencing minor problems with the ships computers and there is a great deal of residual radiation outside the ships which will make recovering the Viper's a bit difficult from this position."

"Civilian ships have made the FTL jump," another officer announced.

"Good," Adama said. "Bring the Galactica clear of the radiation. Let's take the fight to them."

"Sir they've got nukes and they're not afraid to use them." I said.

"Well so do we," Adama replied. "Launch a nuke at the nearest Basestar."

I felt another throbbing in my head. But this wasn't a vision and I blacked out.

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Somehow we survived the battle. I don't know how, when I woke up I was in sickbay. Apollo and Admiral Adama were talking to two people about me.

"What's his condition Doctor Cottle?" Admiral Adama asked.

"To be honest he seems perfectly fine," Cottle replied. "I have no idea what is wrong with him."

"And what about your test Doctor Baltar?" Adama asked.

"He is not a Cylon," Baltar said. "But I did discover something odd. I registered his brain emitting and receiving a varying pattern of radio waves. I believe we should run a brain scan."

"Good ahead do it." Adama said.

"I don't appreciate you people talking about my health without me," I said pulling myself up off the hospital bed.

They all looked completely surprised.

"I just gave you a sedative, you should be out for another six hours," Doctor Cottle said.

"Yeah well clearly I'm not," I replied. "Now will you kindly tell me what's going on."

"You passed out," Apollo said. "We've been trying to figure out what happened to you."

"Well I'm fine now, so tell me what is going on," I demanded.

"Well, we're still not very sure what happened to you," Doctor Baltar said. "We'd like to perform some medical exams, uh brain scan perhaps."

"Fine," I agreed with a sigh. "But I'd much rather be preparing for my next sortie."

"Until we know what is going on you are removed from active duty," Admiral Adama said.

"No," I said. "I am perfectly capable of flying. You can't keep me in here."

"I can and I will," Adama said.

I was furious. I felt like reaching out and strangling Adama. But then I calmed myself down. I was thinking irrationally. Perhaps he was right. I couldn't afford to black out while in the cockpit of a Viper. My shoulder sagged as I decided to give in to my commander's orders.

"Let's get this over with," I said to the two doctors.

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I stood idly by as Doctor Baltar and Doctor Cottle fussed over the results of my brain scan.

"This is quite remarkable," Doctor Baltar said.

"I'll say," Doctor Cottle agreed. "There seems to be a lot more activity in the occipital lobe than normal."

"Do you have any idea what could mean?" Baltar asked.

"Well other than that his brain seems perfectly normal." Cottle replied. "I have no idea what is going on but perhaps this is why is experiencing vision of the future."

"You mean like Extrasensory Perception?" Baltar inquired.

"I see know other possible answer," Cottle replied. "There have been reports of similar incidences in the past as well as other mental powers developing. They're usually rare and always unexplained. The only constant factor is increased brain activity which is to be expected. The how's and why's of it are still unknown though."

"That's absolutely fascinating," Baltar remarked.

"Is it dangerous?" I asked beginning to worry a bit about the health of my brain and thus my life.

"I don't really know," Cottle replied. "There definitely seems to be some serious side effects. You don't get a lot of sleep do you?"

I shook my head. "No normally I can get by on four hours of sleep."

"It does seem likely to disrupt the stages of sleep," Cottle said. "You're seems to be reaching the R.E.M. stage quickly and frequently when you sleep."

"Is that a bad thing?" I asked.

"It's hard to say." Cottle said. "The human body is designed to operate on about eight hours of sleep a day. Sedatives clearly don't work in helping you sleep and I'm not going to condone stimulants. So the only thing that I can suggest is that when you're off duty you absolutely must take it easy. No high energy activities, keep it lethargic. Try and nap as often as possible."

"That's probably the coolest advice I have ever received from a doctor," I said.

"Yeah whatever, just make sure you keep yourself well rested," Cottle said. "If you start experience any kind of trouble let me know immediately."

"If you don't mind," Baltar said. "I'd like it very much if you keep track of all your precognition flashes or whatnot in a sort of log. For my research purposes."

I was a little wary of Doctor Baltar. He was the man that designed the Cylon detection test but apparently some had slipped through, a lieutenant Sharon Valerii, who was actually a Cylon. My own gut feeling told me that it wasn't just a slip up, and my gut feelings were almost never wrong. But this request seemed harmless.

"Okay," I agreed slowly. "I'll do my best."

I turned back to Doctor Cottle. "So am I clear for flight duty once again?" I asked.

"I see no reason why you shouldn't be," Cottle replied. "Your precognition saved the President and saved Galactica and probably saved all of humanity."

I felt my face grow hot and realized that I was probably blushing. What Doctor Cottle said was true, but even it was pretty big for my rather large ego.

"Just don't let it get to your head," Cottle added.

"I'll try not to," I said as I left sickbay.

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Well there's the explanation. Nothing fancy like a Lord of Kobol, or being a Jedi. (Come on just because a Viper looks like a wingless X-wing and the Cylon raider is similar to the Rebel Alliance symbol when looked at from above?) However, clearly "Beanpole's" ESP is either developing or mutating. How and Why is still to be explained.