Dark Days

Chapter 7

William Adama surveyed the stacks of logbooks on the table before him, and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. He was missing something, and he knew it. He had been pouring over these logs, both from Galactica and from Pegasus ever since Sharon and Lee had left on the recon mission, hoping to find something in their contents that would help him figure out their next step.

In almost all of their dealings with the Cylons, the fleet had fought and run. There were only a handful of occasions where they actually planned and executed an assault. The Pegasus, under Admiral Cain, had done so repeatedly, but always as 'hit and run' attacks, on small cylon contingents, never against the numbers that Adama had seen prior to their jump away from New Caprica. Hit and run wasn't going to cut it this time. He needed to win.

Adama had retreated to his ready room after the Battlestars reached the rendezvous point, leaving CIC in Helo's hands for the moment. There was nothing for them to do now but wait for the raider to return, but he was determined to have a plan of action ready to implement.

It was the not knowing that was getting to him more than anything else. Once he knew the situation on New Caprica, he'd be able to make a plan based on actual data, he'd know what they were facing as far as cylon forces, human survivors. Once Lee was back and safe.

As he had over and over again in the almost 24 hours since the jump from New Caprica, Adama thought about the decision to run. He knew there had been no other choice, they could not have held off an assault of that size, not long enough to evacuate the planet. He knew this in his head, but that didn't make the decision to abandon the planet any easier. He was reminded of the initial Cylon attack, and the decision he'd made then, to abandon the fighting, abandon the 12 colonies, and run with the fleet. It had been hard then, but there had been hope for the future. Now, there were less than 1200 people, if that, left on the ships. If New Caprica was destroyed, with all of those people, then there was nothing left. He would have run again, but this time there would be no hope for a future.

He had food and medicine reserves, he had ammunition and fuel reserves…what he needed was people.

A knock at the hatch interrupted his thoughts. "Come in" he barked.

Lt Dualla entered the room, not meeting his eyes, and stood to attention. "Sir, permission to speak freely, Sir." She had come over in a raptor from the Pegasus, hoping to have a moment alone with Adama. She had been promoted to Lieutenant after the order to colonize had drained the Pegasus of most of its CIC crew.

"Granted, and it is nice to see you too, Dee." Adama gave her a small smile. He was impressed with the young woman. She had remained at her post when the others had left for the surface, and had been eager to learn and to continue with her duties even when those around her had begun to relax about the possibility of a cylon attack. When she had requested the transfer to Pegasus, it had confirmed Adama's suspicions of her relationship with his son, but he had turned a blind eye to this, as he had to so many other personal relationships that developed among the officers and the crew. To date, though, he had not discussed the relationship with Lee or with Dualla. He knew that she must be concerned for Lee, now, though, and wondered if that was what she had come to Galactica to discuss. As it turned out, it wasn't.

"Thank you, Sir." Dualla relaxed, relief on her face. Her voice was a little bit shaky when she started to speak again, this time looking him straight in the eyes. "Sir, I've been trying to get Captain Katraine to come talk to you about something, but she refuses. She says that you have everything under control and don't need interruptions from us, which I'm sure you do, or I mean, don't…I mean I know you have the situation under control, but I think there is something that you should be considering." Dualla was nervous, and it showed. But she spoke with conviction.

"So, then, I take it Captain Katraine didn't authorize your trip to Galactica?" Adama studied her face, his expression not giving anything away about what he was thinking.

"Um…No, sir, she did not. I told the hangar crew it was an authorized trip, and managed to get one of the pilots to bring me over. I take full responsibility, Sir, it was not his fault."

"Well then, this must be something important for you to have circumvented the chain of command. I'm all ears, Lt Dualla." Adama leaned forward in his seat, motioning for Dualla to take a seat across from him. His face betrayed his fatigue. He had not slept since the jump, could not sleep. His mind was racing too much for that.

Dee had been frustrated by Kat's refusal to hear her out on the idea forming in her head. Kat was taking her 'command' of the Pegasus very seriously, and was focussed on performing the task at hand to perfection. In Dee's mind, that shouldn't have taken much effort. The task at hand was watching and waiting. Lee would have heard her out.

What she had come to discuss with Adama wasn't so much her own idea as it was an extension of a question that was being whispered throughout the Pegasus crew. Part of her figured Adama had probably already had the same thought, and didn't need her to bring it to his attention, but she felt she had to make sure. "Sir, have you given any consideration to returning to the Colonies?"

Adama leaned forward, his face serious. "You mean back to Caprica? Many times. I've had several discussions with President Baltar about the feasibility of going back to gather supplies. When Cloud 9 was destroyed, most of our agricultural resources were destroyed with it. We toyed with the thought of going back many times."

"But?"

"But the risks we would be placing on the fleet and the planet always outweighed the benefits. We seemed to have the advantage of the Cylons not knowing about the existence of New Caprica. We only had the word of a Cylon that the occupation of the Colonies was over. We couldn't risk giving away our position, leading them right to us."

"But we no longer have that advantage, sir. And we no longer have that risk." He frowned, again taking in the piles of logs on the table in front of him.

"No, we don't."

She continued, speaking quickly, wanting to get it all out before he shut her down. "Sir, the resistance survived the Cylon occupation on Caprica. According to Starbuck and Anders the Cylons left the planet before they did. It is possible, if there were other survivors that they could have survived the past year with anti-radiation meds. If they survived the occupation, then there could still be people alive back there. And I don't just mean on Caprica, I mean on all of the Colonies…Tauron, Aerelon, Gemenon…there could still be survivors back there."

There was silence as Adama considered these points. "There are a lot of 'ifs' there, Lieutenant." He took a deep breath, still holding her eyes with his. He did need people…. "For right now, we're going to wait for Lee and Sharon. Once we know what is happening on New Caprica, we'll be in a better position to start making plans."

"So you'll consider it?"

"I will, Lt. Dualla. Now you better get back to Pegasus before Captain Katraine starts proceeding to have you court martialled." He smiled, as he rounded the table. With his hand at her back, he led her to the door. "It isn't a bad idea, Lieutenant, we just have so much to get through first, before we can even think about going back to the Colonies."

Although she was disappointed, Dualla was also relieved to have gotten this off of her chest. With a salute, she left the ready room.

Adama surveyed the room. No, it wasn't a bad idea. He did need people, if he wanted any chance of going up against the Cylons. But there was no more guarantee that anyone had survived on the Colonies than there was that they had survived on New Caprica. And his first concern had to be New Caprica.

Sitting back down, he reached for another log, and jumped back into the reading. He needed Lee to come back in one piece, needed to know what was happening on the planet. Then he'd decide what to do next.

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Gaius Baltar was at a complete loss.

Moments earlier he had been reading over the new code of 'laws' given to him by the Boomer cylon that morning, and discussing the ramifications of these laws with Caprica. The laws were extremely restrictive. They regulated food rations, implemented mandatory work schedules and severely cut down freedom of mobility. The colonists were already restricted within the city, but these rules would impose a strict curfew and limit the number of people who could gather in one place at one time.

He felt the discussion was going very well. Caprica, in fact, even conceded he had a point about why it was going to be hard for the colonists to accept some of these restrictions. He let himself relax a little bit, thinking that this new arrangement might not be so bad after all, in fact it might be preferable to his presidency.

As president he'd quickly found that every group and faction wanted to have a piece of him, nagging him with pedestrian concerns, and not giving him a moments peace. He started thinking that the people were incapable of making one single decision without him. Under the cylons, he thought he could retain most of the power while handing over the burden of responsibility to them. They could make all of the decisions, and enforce them, and he could be their liaison and advisor.

Yes, indeed. This was a much better arrangement, and he didn't have to deal with Adama or the military any longer. From what he could tell, Caprica and Boomer held a place of some prominence amongst the cylons. As long as he had Caprica, he had power.

Which is why his conversation with Caprica about the laws had been such a relief to him. She had already demonstrated the utter control she could exert over his body, not that he was complaining. But he was gratified to have evidence that she would listen to him regarding matters of governing the colony. She paced around Gaius' office, finally sitting on the sofa while they went over each point. Playfully, she had opened her knees from time to time, giving him a peek at what was under her skirt, trying to distract him from his thoughts, quite effectively he might add.

She was speaking, her voice sultry as always, "The religion directive has to stand, Gaius. The people have to give up their old, tired Gods, and embrace the one true God."

No longer even trying to hide his frustration, he tossed the papers in his hand down on the desk and pushed his chair back, "You can't hope to convince them to give up the basis of their civilization, the Lords of Kobol, through legislation. Even if the law goes into effect, it would be impossible to enforce, you'd just be forcing their religion underground. You'd be better off introducing your God to them in small doses, give them a chance to accept the idea."

Religion was one of the two points that Caprica seemed reluctant to back down on. That and enforced reproduction, which would entail every female in the settlement be subjected to heavily monitored fertility treatments. The cylons were not implementing forcible impregnations at this point, but they were going to orchestrate a higher rate of reproduction. Gaius hadn't even started on that point yet, thinking that outlawing the colonial religion would be a much easier battle.

"Do you really believe they'll willingly accept it under any circumstances, Gaius? By making it law, they will have to accept it, and then they will see that it is the better way."

"By making it law, you are practically guaranteeing they won't, on principal. By giving them the opportunity to learn about your religion, you might stand a chance of swaying them. Why not start by gathering the clergy together and trying to work out some sort of parallel religions services, first."

She considered it, with a look of admiration on her face. Yes, Gaius was feeling rather good about himself and the situation he now found himself in.

It had all been going so well.

Until the door to the office swung open without warning and Caprica walked into the room.

His eyes darted from the blond in the doorway to the sofa only to find that the Caprica he'd been gaining so much ground with was gone. He'd been in negotiations with his own hallucination.

Stunned, and feeling as though the room was spinning out of control, he whipped his head back to Caprica, the flesh and bone Caprica who was gazing at him intensely, and stammered, "Oh! Well, I…um…but you…"

Boomer followed Caprica into the office.

"Who were you talking to, Gaius?" Caprica asked, a confused smile on her face as she settled on the sofa, almost in the exact spot that had been occupied by the Six in his head moments earlier.

Catching his breath, he tried to regain his focus."I, um…I was just thinking out loud, really. I've been going over these laws, and I had a couple of points I thought might be helpful, some suggestions on how you might want to change a few points." He was going to have to start all over again.

Boomer's expression didn't change as she simply replied, "There will be no changes. Have those distributed to the colonists. They are to be put into effect immediately."

Without warning Six was at his side, the Six in his head, a sly grin on her face as she leaned over and whispered in his ear, her eyes never leaving Boomer and Caprica. "This is going to be interesting."