Seeker
Part Three of the Mailman Saga
by Chaoseternus

6: Log Entry

You don't get to work aboard an E&E vessel for a few years, in my case; this was my first tour, without managing to pick up a great deal of knowledge about how the universe works.

Not only are you surrounded everyday by some of the best scientific minds the Colonies posses but better yet, minds that have the flexibility and guts to be willing to go out and investigate the universe instead of theorising. Courses, lessons, lectures in science and scientific theories kept the crew busy during slow periods even as the civilian, scientific crew were force-fed ship based qualifications from First Aid to Damage Control.

It was common for somebody to sign up for E&E and deploy as a mere crewperson and arrive back home with the equivalent of two full degrees, just requiring a dissertation to be defended before they became official.

Strangely enough, no-one ever seemed to seriously consider how that would effect a ship running under combat conditions.

Me, I had enlisted as a nobody, gotten kicked up to Officers Training due to, according to my own personnel record which I know had access to, a high adaptability rating and command potential. Both of which apparently also led to my posting as Stores Officer, an unheard of even for an officer on their first E&E tour due to the especial conditions and powers of a stores officer on Exploration and Evaluations vessels, powers which meant that, under certain circumstances, a Stores Officer could override the ships Commander. For instance, a stores officer could order the Commander to take the ship home if they felt the stores situation required it. Okay, they would have to defend their actions to a board but it had happened aboard E&E ships three times and each time, the decision had been upheld by the board.

And I had attended the lectures, the lessons like the rest of the crew, far more interested in filling the time then actually getting qualifications, but I had learned. Some people did actually join up E&E just for that, to get paid to pick up qualifications and visit deep space, and they were welcomed, even if the arrival of an E&E ship home and the resulting pay out of wages did manage to depress the local economy for a while… hey, these ships stayed out until they had to head home or until two years was up after all.

Still, the advantage under combat conditions was simple.

I knew an undetectable way into the colonies, a sliver of a route just large enough for Vipers to pass through which would take them onto the doorstops of Caprica so long as they were no visually identified.

It was unknown, a sensor blank spot just slightly wider then a viper was nothing, it was not a concern when compared to the size of most black spots. The issue was, this one would run a very twisting path from the belt all the way to the planet, if we could hide in the belt, send a team of Vipers along the route to Caprica then we could uncover a lot about the conditions on the planet and the possibility of increasing our population from any survivors.

Better yet, the route being the result of the convergence of several naturally occurring anomalies and eddies in space, it was highly unlikely that the Cylons would have figured it out and equally unlikely that it would appear in the Colonial Databases the Cylons now held. They could of course, figure that the route should exist themselves, but frankly, whilst several of the scientists aboard had, rather startled, agreed it should be there, they hadn't spotted the military possibilities associated with it.

It took me to spot that, and my kind, a Command Rank officer who was also a scientist only existed in E&E… and E&E rarely appeared in the colonies themselves…

Hmm, I am waffling aren't I?

If this was the ships log I was recording for transcription I would no doubt wipe this tape, order my thoughts properly and start again. Seeing how this is my…. Seeing as how this is the Commanders personnel log however, I'll leave it as is.

Still, the orders have been given, I have four pilots on mandatory stand down as they rest in preparation for the mission, maintenance is running one last check of the ship and the drives are set, ready for the move into the Colonial Belt which is scheduled for 0400 tomorrow.

Hopefully the mission will be a success, I pray that the mission will be a success, but I admit, I am planning for it to fail. There are far to many things that can go wrong, starting with discovery but the cylons, the route not being were its supposed to be or perhaps not existing at all…. A thousand and one different things could go wrong. Yes, so I pray for the best, but I have planned for the worst.