Luna Harper took a drag from her cigarette and looked up at photographs she'd taped to the top of her bunk. Each one held a different memory, all of which seemed like a lifetime ago. A picture of her with her parents and her sister. One of her with her grandparents. Others from high school, college, holidays and other occasions. Her favourite was the one with her co-pilot from her shuttle pilot days before the Cylons attacked. She missed flying, she'd give anything to be back in the pilots seat, but that seemed as likely as her getting the seafront condo as she'd always wanted growing up. She took the final drag from her cigarette before putting it out in her overflowing ashtray. Ellie Parker had been more than her co-pilot, she had been the love of Luna's life. It broke her heart knowing she'd never see her again. As she tied her shoulder length dirty blonde hair into a ponytail the ships alarms began to sound. As always, the normal lights dimmed and the red warning lights began to flash signalling another Cylon attack. Luna sighed to herself as she dragged herself off her bunk. As she left her quarters, she broke into a brisk jog to her battle stations position. Other crew members ran past her, all of which she completely ignored. The crew of the Rangler were hardly what anyone would call close, she could say she was actually friends with three other members of the crew. Even though she was the second mate, she couldn't even say she liked the Captain or the first mate that much.

Moments later she found herself at her gunnery emplacement. She sat herself down and put on her headset. As she powered up the three chain cannons outside of the ship, the electronic HUD powered to life. Her whole chair began to move as she took hold of the controls, the whole emplacement moved with the guns.

"All hands this is the Captain, we have eight Cylon Raiders inbound. They will be in weapons range in thirty seconds. Gunners try and hold them off while we boot up the jump drive, our jump ETA is two minutes." Captain Carlo Perez said over the COM.

As she thumbed the safety off her weapon, she sighed to herself, maybe this would be the day her luck ran out. Luna closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, when she opened them again the toasters were in range. She pressed the trigger and her ammunition counter began to drop. The raider altered its attack position, but Luna had already seen it coming, she moved the cannons in front of her and tore the raider in two. Moments later another came into her cross-hairs and again she fired, each round seemed to miss by millimetres.

"Frak." she said quietly under her breath.

As it came back around to her she opened fire again.

"All hands, we are jumping in, 5, 4, 3.."

Before the next second could be spoken, an explosion rocked the Rangler, Luna fell from her chair hitting her head, then the ship jumped. On the other side of the jump, another explosion rocked the ship. Luna managed to get to her knees before she threw up from the pain in her head, she touched where the pain was coming from and looked at her bloodsoaked fingers. She grabbed hold of the rail on the wall next to her and forced herself to her feet before she took several shaky steps.

It felt like it had taken forever to get herself to the bridge, when she got there she saw chaos. Small explosions and fires were being fought in every corner. People were dead, others horribly injured. Medics from the infirmary were already trying to help the injured.

The ships pilot, Ron Barnes, looked relieved to see Luna stumbled onto the bridge. Luna limped over to the Dradis console in the middle of the devastated bridge and used it to keep herself standing upright.

"My gods, Luna are you okay?" Ron asked wiping blood away from a cut on his own face.

She shakily nodded.

"Wha, what happened?" She asked groggily.

"We were hit just a split second before we jumped," Ron replied, "Captain, the Captain is dead, his head caved in by that falling beam."

"What about the first mate?" Luna replied.

"He's in the infirmary."

"How bad is he?"

"Well that's his right leg over there, this is mostly all his blood on the console and his insides were mostly on his outside."

"Frak," she said wincing with pain. She took a breath before she spoke again, "Where did the jump take us?"

"Not where we were supposed to be," Ron replied scratching his chin, "I have no clue where we are. I can't get any co-ordinates as the jump drive is fried. Until we can get stuff fixed, we ain't going to find out shit."

"I need you to do me a favour."

"Anything." Ron replied.

"Fetch me a medic," she gripped the console in front of her, "And take charge."

As Luna finished speaking, the world went black and she passed out.

Battlestar Orion

Fleet Admiral Vanessa Garrett sighed and rubbed her eyes. All across the fleet the news of the explosion onboard the Columbus was rife and many and varied stories were going on about how the NCO were back or Cylons in the fleet had caused it or there was a new terrorist threat within the fleet. Despite the President holding a press conference saying there was no need to panic and they were looking into the explosion and he would let them all know what had happened as soon as they knew, people were still scared.

"Admiral, Dagger is in place." Bojay said from across the CIC.

Vanessa took the last sip from her coffee and walked over to the large bank of video screens.

"Holland has managed to get to the lab. Dagger is in position outside and she's activated her gun camera." Bojay said as she stood along side him.

On the screen in front of them, they could both see the torn metal of the outside of Mike Campbell's lab.

"Have they found anything yet?" Vanessa asked.

Bojay shook his head, "So far just wreckage. It would seem that whatever happened, it came from his lab."

"Gods I hope this was an accident and not more people turning against us." Vanessa said.

"I hear that." Bojay replied. He handed Vanessa a headset so she could hear both Dagger and Holland.

As Holland and his repair team made it into what until a few hours ago had been a lab, they could see them appear on the screen. The lights from Dagger's Raptor illuminated everything inside.

Holland moved some of the wreckage so he could get in further. He could see immediately where both Mike and his lab assistant must have been standing where the explosion went off. Burned blood was everywhere. He could also tell by looking where a huge scorch mark must have been where the explosion started. He slowly and carefully made his way over to the area. He carefully moved some torn metal to reveal the horrific remains of Mike.

"Okay for those who can hear me, I've just found some remains," Holland said, "Can't tell who it is, there's just bits a piece of someone." He picked up the remains of Mike's arm and hand, there were pieces of metal literally fused into the bone, "Did he deal with explosives?"

"He dealt with anything and everything," Vanessa replied, "Mike told me that he did have some new things to show us today."

"One thing he had for us was a grenade." Bojay said.

"How do you know?" Vanessa asked.

"When he called to arrange the meeting with us, I spoke to him. He said he had a handful of new toys and one of them was a grenade that was and I quote, way more powerful than anything any of your men or women have ever seen or used."

"From what I can see he was holding one of these bombs and it's gone boom." Holland said, "If I had to give my expert opinion, I'd say whatever he made, had activated and it's done all this damage."

"Small mercies it wasn't terrorists or Cylons I suppose." Vanessa said.

"Admiral I need to get my people fixing this hull asap. We can start taking the armour off the Aries and plug the hole. Right now if the Cylons turn up, this ship cannot jump," Holland said, "If it tries to, this hole is going to get a whole lot bigger on the other side."

"Okay get it done," Vanessa said, "Holland, I'm putting you in command of the decisions to do with fixing Columbus, just let us know when it's done."

"I hear ya blue eyes." Holland said.

Vanessa smiled and laughed as she took hear headset off, "You know he never fails to make me smile."

"He does have that way." Bojay replied, "There's a small planetary system up ahead, I think we should take the fleet in there. There's nothing special about it, but the three gas giants are having some weird effect being close to the nebula and it should keep us hidden from any Cylon dradis. Buck came back from there earlier and there are no surprises waiting for us."

"Make it so," Vanessa replied, "I have a date with the President."

Rangler

Luna began to come back round, she realised she was in the infirmary. Dr Campbell Sands was finishing putting the last stitch in the side of her head.

"I'm still alive then?" she managed to say.

"You're one of the lucky ones." the gravelled voiced man replied.

When people first saw him the last thing he would ever be pegged as, was a doctor. He drank far too much and his fore and middle finger were so stained yellow from smoking they were almost brown. His scruffy grey hair and white stubble made him look like a hobo.

"How's the first mate?" she asked.

"Nothin' I could do," he replied, "He was so fraked up there was hardly any point even trying. I made him comfortable and let nature take its course."

She tried to sit up in bed and stopped as pain hit her in the head.

"We need to get home so I can get you a brain scan. I'm pretty sure you've fractured your skull. From what I can tell with what I've got onboard and there being no shadows in your eye, I don't think there's any bleeding, but I'd still rather be sure."

"Can you give me something for the pain? I need to get back to the bridge." Luna said.

"I was going to get something for you, but you started yapping at me first," Campbell said, "You're gonna feel stoned, but the pain will be much less and you'll be able to get back to work."

"Thanks doc," Luna replied, "What would I do without you?"

"You'd have to pay for your weed." he replied jabbing her in the arm with a syringe.

Fifteen minutes later she managed to get back to the bridge. She now sported a large plaster down the side of her head and twelve stitches underneath.

"What's our status?" Luna asked as she met Ron on the bridge.

"Not great," he replied, "We can't get the jump drive or the nav computer to start up again, honestly right now I don't know if they're too fried to ever start up again."

"What the frak are we going to do?" she asked.

"I've managed to get the sub lights up and running, we've spotted a planetary system and we're heading for it. I'm hoping we can hide while we get things fixed." Ron replied.

"How did you find it?" she asked.

"I looked out the window." Ron replied to the bridge window which currently had the blast door covering it.

"Good. Hopefully at the very least if we can't get the coordinates from the computer we can pinpoint ourselves through checking the positions of the stars." Luna said. "How far from home were we when we jumped?"

"Captain had plotted a course with jumps that would have had us back in five days." Ron replied.

"With sub lights then, it's gonna take us a while." Luna replied.

"But at least we'll be able to get there." Ron replied.

"How long till we make it to the system?"

"Not long."

"Do we have damage reports from all decks?" she asked.

"All but deck five. It would appear we had another impact before the jump there as well. I sent Dyson down there as I hadn't heard from anyone, there's a hull breach which is stopping him getting to the back of the ship. Once you're on deck five, the only way out is the way you go in, so if anyone is still alive, then they're trapped. If you agree I was going to send someone outside to see how bad things are, then we can get an idea of the size of the breach. If the hole is too big though."

"We're fraked even if we do get the jump drive back online." she said.

"Exactly, we're more than likely going to be on sub lights no matter what. You ever seen a ship make a jump with a tear in the hull?" Ron asked.

Luna shook her head.

"It just tears the hole wider. We have fuel storage down there, it'd make the whole ship go boom!"

For a moment they both looked at each other.

"Ever get the feeling that your luck might have just finally run out?" Ron asked.

"I've been thinking that this whole trip. We've been chancing our luck more and more. I had no idea why they sent us out this time, we know there's no real planets of use to us for light years, other than random toaster wreckage it's been pointless." Luna replied.

Ron sighed and ran his hands through his hair, "I ain't dying out here. I got too much back home."

"So let's fraking do this. I'll go down to deck five and go out there myself." Luna said.

"No way," Ron said, "I'll do it, you're head is stitched and bandaged and it's still bleeding. I'll let you know what I can see out there."

Starburst

Milo Vents splashed water on his face before giving it a quick dry. He looked at himself in the mirror. He was finally starting to feel as old as the man looking back at him. He reached into his jacket pocket and took out his meds. He took two out and looked at them both before putting them in his mouth. He turned on the taps, cupped his hands and filled them with water before drinking the water and his pills down. He jumped at a knock on the door.

"Milo, they're ready for you." Skeeter said from the other side.

"I'll be out in a moment." he replied.

He looked at himself and straightened his tie. He wondered how many more meetings he had in him. He took a deep breath and opened the door. Skeeter turned and smiled.

"You okay boss?" Skeeter asked.

Milo nodded his head, "Never been better. How do they seem?"

"In a better mood than usual." Skeeter replied opening a door for Milo.

"So let's make this brief."

As he finished speaking they walked into the meeting room where the Quarrum of Twelve, the Vice President and the Speaker of the Twelve turned towards him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for keeping you," Milo said as he sat down, "I've just spoken with Admiral Garrett. Her people have had a look at the blast site on the Columbus. Their initial conclusion is it was an accident."

"Can they be sure?!" the Leonis speaker asked as the President took a breath before carrying on speaking.

"Colonel Johnson has said that, Mike Campbell had been working on a new kind of grenade. Lieutenant Jacobson thinks one of them must have gone off by accident. He is sure and until I hear otherwise that's good enough for me. Admiral Garrett has given permission for removal of a piece of the Aries hull so that it can be used to fix the Columbus."

Angelica Barnes, the representative for Aquaria was the next to speak, "As for the Aries, there is definitely no way the ship can be fixed?"

"If I may?" Carrie asked. Milo nodded, so she carried on speaking, "My husband, has spoken to Lieutenant Jacobson personally and he said to him, there is utterly no way anything can be done for Aries."

"Admiral Garrett has given the order because if we need to jump and the Columbus hull isn't fixed it will have bigger problems." Milo said.

"Looks like it's a good job we have the Sulaco and the other new military ships with so much going wrong with other ships." Angelica said.

Carrie sat looking at the President. He seemed to be gazing at nothing and muttering to himself. As he clutched his chest she was already on her feet and moving over to him.

"Mr President are you okay?" Wallace Grey asked.

"Milo, Milo talk to me." Carrie said just moments before he let out a grunt of pain.

"I think, I think I'm having.." before he could speak his eyes rolled back into their sockets and he fell off his chair.

"Skeeter call for a medic." Carrie shouted as he rushed over to them.

Carrie kneeled down behind the President and cradled his head on her knees. Milo managed to look up at her.

"Tell Jasper," he gasped, "If I, die, tell my son I love him and am proud of the man he became."

Carrie nodded and held his hand, "Of course." she replied.

Battlestar Orion

Vanessa stood by the dradis console signing some paperwork. It had been a couple of weeks since she had stood watch, one thing or another always seemed to keep her from it. Between Bojay, Lieutenant Phillips and a couple of other officers, they had it covered. She found herself thinking about Mike Campbell. He had been an insufferable know-it-all at times and he could be the rudest person she had ever met, but he had a wonderful mind. He had created so many things that had kept the fleet alive, she still felt as though she owed him her life when he had given Bojay and the others the co-ordinates to come and get her, now he was gone. Even though on more than one occasion he had managed to get on her last nerve, she would miss him. He was a good man, a good man who every one in the fleet owed. She would have a drink for him later and one for his lab assistant. Vanessa had never met her, but she knew how much Mike valued her and for him to say something like that, she knew, Donna, must have been very very good at her job.

"Excuse me Admiral, I'm picking up an awful lot of chatter between the Starburst and the Medstar. I'm not sure what is going on, but a shuttle seems to be preparing to leave the Starburst any moment now." Ensign Sarah Corden said from the COM station.

"Get on the horn to the Starburst, see what's going on and if we can help." Vanessa replied.

Before Sarah could respond she received a call from the Starburst.

"Ma'am, I have Wallace Grey on the horn for you." Sarah said.

"Put him through." Vanessa replied as she picked up her handset. "Orion Actual, how can I help you Wallace?"

"Vanessa, I thought you should know, the President has been rushed to the Medstar." Wallace said, his voice sounded utterly shaken.

"What happened?" she replied.

"It appears he was having, is having a severe heart attack. Skeeter has gone with him to the Medstar and the Vice President has taken over. Can I ask you to please find his son and send him over?"

"Of course." Vanessa replied in utter shock.

"Vanessa, it was a bad one." Wallace replied.

Ten minutes later, Vanessa and Jawbreaker both walked down the hanger deck. She could see Jasper ahead of her, laughing and joking with some of the deck gang. It broke her heart that she knew she was about to destroy the smile on his face.

"Party Boy, come here." Jawbreaker said as they got nearer.

He turned and suddenly stood to attention when he saw the Admiral with him.

"At ease." Vanessa told him, "Jasper, Jawbreaker is going to take you over to the Medstar. I'm sorry to tell you this, but your father has had a heart attack."

All the colour drained from his face and he wobbled on his feet for a moment.

"Is he, is he alive?" Jasper asked in shock.

"He is. I don't know exactly what happened, we've just been told." Vanessa said.

"Come on kid, I'm going to take you over." Jawbreaker said.

"I'm so sorry, Jasper." Vanessa said again.

He nodded in response to her.

Rangler

As Ron clicked his helmet into place, he stepped into the airlock on deck five, right at the bottom of the ship where not many people ever went.

"Luna can you hear me?" he said as he switched on his COM device.

"I'm right here," she replied, "You sure you don't want me to do this."

"I'm opening the airlock now." Ron replied, ignoring her.

As he stepped out he took a moment to look out at the stars, they were utterly beautiful. He grabbed hold of the handrail and pulled himself out into space. It didn't take him long to get to the damage.

"Luna, tell the boys not to bother with the jump drive. Over half the hull is gone, if anyone was down here they're gone. We need to do a head count on the dead and alive."

"Frak," she replied in his ear, "At least we have sublight."

"For now," Ron replied, "While the hull is intact, by the fuel tanks, it's taken some damage, we're pissing out fuel like there's no tomorrow. At this rate, we'll be drifting by the morning."

"What do we do?" she whispered so no one on the bridge could hear.

"Hang on." he replied.

Ron could swear he'd seen something off in space. He looked for a few moments before he realised there were a lot of something's out there and they were heading towards them.

Battlestar Orion

"Dradis contact." a voice called out on the Orion CIC.

Vanessa, who had just arrived back looked up at the console screens above her.

"What do we have?" she asked.

"Not sure." Ensign Corden replied.

"Define not sure and do it quickly?!" Vanessa ordered.

The young Ensign could feel the Admiral's eyes burning into her, "It's not Cylon." she said, "It appears to be a very old Colonial transponder."

"Set condition two throughout the fleet, have the alert Vipers put into the tubes and challenge hostile ID." Vanessa said.

"Unknown Colonial vessel, this is the Battlestar Orion, identify yourselves or we will fire on you." Corden demanded.

"What have we got?" Bojay asked as he joined the Admiral.

"Apparently very old Colonial, we're about to find out." she replied.

Suddenly a voice came over the speakers, "Hello, this is the ship Rangler, I'm Second Mate Luna Harper, are you really Colonial?"

Vanessa and Bojay looked at each other, then picked up their hand sets.

"Rangler, this is Admiral Vanessa Garrett of the Battlestar Orion, and yes we are Colonial. What are you doing this far out?"

"Orion, thank the gods, we need help, we had a fight with the Cylons and they literally tore us a new one," Luna replied, "Our Captain and First Mate were both killed. We've been out here for a long time, we have a settlement."

"Rangler, our CAP is going to come and intercept you and bring you in, do not do anything we could deem hostile or we will destroy you."

"Orion, thank you and don't worry, we haven't got anything hostile left in us." Luna replied.

"I'll look forward to meeting you in a few minutes." Vanessa replied.

"Likewise." Luna replied.

"I did hear correctly didn't I?" Bojay asked, "She did say they have a settlement?"

"It was what it sounded like to me." Vanessa replied, "Want to meet her?"

Rangler

Luna had to fight back the tears she was so overcome with emotion. A few minutes ago she thought they were doomed as all their fuel was leaking out into space, then a matter of minutes later, they had salvation. Never in her wildest dreams did she think they would ever meet other Colonials, especially so deep into space.

Her COM began to buzz again.

"Rangler, this is Captain Manning, I'll be escorting you to Orion. I notice you have a massive fuel leak. Before you enter our flight deck you're going to have to dump any remaining fuel in that tank. Is that going to be possible?"

"Captain, we should be able to do that. Sorry I have people all over the place trying to fix the ship, we were hit hard by the Cylons, I'm going to have to do it myself. I'll get back to you once it's done." she said.

Luna turned to the helm, one of the only stations not damaged by the attack.

"Max, if I dump that fuel will we have enough left to make it in?" she asked.

Max check the gauge on the helm control.

"It's all the fuel we have left, not that we have much left anyway. If we dump it, I can dock us on thrusters." he replied.

A couple of minutes later Wedge watched as the Rangler dumped the small amount of fuel it had left. Using thrusters it then made it's way to the Orion's flight pod.

Vanessa and Bojay walked onto the gantry that lead to the airlock the Rangler was docking at. Four marines were already waiting there for them.

"Don't raise your weapons," Vanessa said, "But have them on standby, just in case."

"Yes ma'am." One of the marines replied.

"You know I never thought we'd meet any other humans out here, then we run into the Icarus fleet and now this, I'm having a hard time getting my head around it." Bojay said.

"Don't get to far ahead of yourself, we have no idea what's going to happen here." Vanessa replied.

"She certainly sounded relieved to find us." Bojay said.

"So did some of the Cylons when we brought them onboard with open arms. We've been burned too many times, trust is something I'm not giving until it's been earned any more."

"Do you trust Hicks and Knox yet?" Bojay asked.

"Hicks, yes. Knox, I'm starting to get more than a little irritated with." Vanessa replied.

Both of them stopped talking as the airlock began to cycle. Moments later it opened. Luna was more nervous than she had ever been before. She became aware of just how scruffy and dirty she was when she saw the pristine officers standing before her.

"Welcome aboard, I'm Admiral Vanessa Garrett and this is my First Officer, Colonel Johnson." Vanessa said holding out her hand.

Luna rubbed her dirty hand against her combats before shaking her hand.

"I'm Luna Harper, this is Ron Barnes," she replied, "You have no idea how grateful we are to find you. We're all unarmed, you can check us if you need to, we won't take offence."

One of the marines turned and looked at Vanessa for orders.

Vanessa nodded once.

"I'm sure you'll understand, we've been burned before. Please, if you'll join me, we have a lot to talk about." Vanessa replied.

Ten minutes later the four of them sat in the Admiral's quarters, each with a glass of whiskey in hand as they talked.

"I'll start at the beginning," Luna said, "I ran a shipping company with my partner, Ellie. We had just taken off from Virgon with our cargo when they Cylons jumped in. We found ourselves surrounded by Base Ships. Ellie managed to jump us out just moments before a Cylon missile was going to hit us. Unfortunately our jump co-ordinates were Leonis, so we jumped into the middle of more Base Ships. Again we just made it away by the skin of our teeth, she jumped us to Djerba. Other survivors had managed to make it there as well. We used the ski resort for a week before the toasters found us, so we had to run. Cutting a long story short a day or so later we found a large civilian fleet. A former soldier called General Silas Curtis had managed to get us all together and avoid the Cylons. We'd been running until last year when we came up against the nebula I'm sure you've already come across. We found a habitable moon and we settled. Over a year and the Cylons have never turned up."

"We've found a lot of Cylon wreckage out here recently, it wouldn't surprise me if your moon stayed safe for long." Bojay said.

"We've noticed that as well." Ron said.

"Why were you out here on your own?" Vanessa asked.

"We do runs to try and find planets for supplies or moon's which we can get metal ore from or tyllium. All we found this time out was Cylon wreckage, but we managed to find a lot of useful stuff in amongst it." Luna replied.

"Do you have any military vessels with you?" Bojay asked.

"General Curtis has an old Jupiter class Battlestar and a lot of our ships were armed. We avoided the Cylons at all costs."

"So tell me about your moon and this General Curtis." Vanessa asked.

"I've never met Curtis, I only know what I've been told about him." Luna said.

"You've never met him?!" Vanessa exclaimed.

"We have over one hundred thousand people, tell me Admiral, have you met everyone in your fleet or at the very least all your military personnel?"

"Fair point." Vanessa replied.

"People love him. He's done everything to keep us safe and keep us all alive. Our home, it's quite a community," Luna said smiling for the first time, "We have a main town and a few villages, it's come along so well. I get the feeling though that we're not going to be there much longer."

"We've seen what happens when you settle while the Cylons are still out there. We found a planet that had been settled by another Battlestar and fleet who survived, it wasn't pretty." Vanessa said. "How far away is your home?"

Luna and Ron looked at each other for a moment.

"We have to trust each other." Vanessa said.

"With our jump drive it would have taken us five days to get back there, I'm guessing yours will take less. I can give you the co-ordinates. Our ship is fraked, there's no way we were going to make it with the state we were in." Luna said.

"We can take you home and we can start repairs on your ship." Vanessa replied.

"I can't tell you how grateful we are. I do have one other thing I need to ask. I was injured in the attack. Our doctor said I needed a brain scan. Don't suppose you can help me with that?"Luna asked.

Vanessa smiled, "Of course we can."

Jasper Vents sat next to his father, holding his hand on the Medstar. Skeeter sat in a chair on the opposite side. Neither of them had spoken in what felt like hours.

"I'm going to go get a coffee, do you want one?" Skeeter asked standing up.

Jasper nodded his head, "Please." he simply replied.

As Skeeter stood up, Dr Nate Capurn walked in.

"Doctor is he going to be okay?" Skeeter asked.

"Are you family?" Capurn replied.

As Skeeter opened his mouth to reply, Jasper spoke first, "I'm his son, anything you say to me, you can say to Skeeter, he's a second son as far as my father is concerned."

"Very well," Capurn replied, "How much has your father told you about his health problems?"

"What health problems? He hasn't said anything to me, has he to you?" Jasper asked Skeeter.

Skeeter shook his head, "I've been getting him some pills, but he told me they were just for his slightly high blood pressure. He told me it was nothing to worry about."

"Well he lied to you I'm afraid. President Vents has been very ill for quite a while, the problem is, we don't know why. All of his major organs are slowly beginning to stop working properly. He's been coming for treatment for months."

"How did I not know this," Skeeter said, "I'm his fraking bodyguard, I go with him everywhere."

"Clearly, you don't," Capurn replied, "We've run every test we can think of, done everything possible to try and stop it. In truth all we've been able to do is slow it down. We've put him on a ventilator and an induced coma because the heart attack has damaged his heart, he won't survive another one like that. In all honesty and we've told him this as well, he will be dead within the year at the rate his organs are closing down, I'm so very sorry."

Both Jasper and Skeeter fell back into their chairs in utter shock. Jasper began to cry, he felt as though he'd been punched in the gut.

"So is there really nothing that can be done?" Skeeter asked trying to keep his composure.

"Only make him comfortable. We're going to see how he is in a couple of days and then we'll try to wake him up. I'll be back later to see how he's doing." Capurn said.

Skeeter nodded, "Thank you Doctor."

He nodded his head and walked away.

Skeeter looked at Milo and then to his son, who was utterly broken.

"We need to tell Carrie and the Admiral."

Jasper wiped the tears from his face, "I can't, I just can't." he said.

"Don't worry, I'll do it." Skeeter replied.

Luna Harper stood on Orion's flight deck just watching the world go by. Orion's doctor had given her a brain scan and thankfully all was clear. She couldn't help but feel more at home here than she had every felt since the attack. More than anything else in the world she wanted to get back to flying and she looked at the Raptors and their pilots with envy.

"Hey, are you from the Rangler?"

She turned and saw Archangel walk towards her.

Luna nodded her head, "Yeah I'm the second mate, or acting Captain now I suppose," she replied, "Luna Harper." she said holding out her hand.

"Mark Hunter, but everyone calls me Archangel." he said shaking her hand, "So are you a pilot?"

"I used to be," she said, "Before they wiped us all out I owned a shipping company, I flew nearly every day. I'm very envious of you and the other pilots."

"What did you fly?"

"The CJ420's." she replied.

"So the civvies version of a Raptor." he replied.

She nodded her head, "By all accounts they're virtually exactly the same."

"So I hear," Archangel replied, "So are you happy being the Rangler's Second Mate?"

"Not particularly, but you've got to do what you've got to do these days." she replied sadly.

"Well if you ever fancy a change in career let me know." he replied.

"I don't mean to be rude, but you are?" she asked.

"I'm the CAG and I'm always on the look out for new pilots and if I don't have to train you and can throw you in at the deep end. My life's easier and the jobs yours as soon as you say yes."

"Seriously?" she asked with a huge smile on her face.

Archangel nodded his head, "Definitely. When we've got you home, whether your guys join our fleet or they decide to stay put, the offer is still open."

"Then after all this is over I accept your offer." she replied shaking his hand again. Luna couldn't stop smiling, she put her hand over her mouth as she laughed with joy.

"Come find me when we get you home." he said as he walked away.

"I will, you don't know what this means to me Major." she replied.

He smiled at her, "Just looking at you, I think I do."

With a spring in her step she climbed the stairs missing two steps with each stride to get to the gantry that would take her to the Rangler. As she walked through the ship there was no one doing any repair work, which surprised her. As she walked onto the bridge she was surprised to see only Ron there.

"Where is everyone?" Luna asked.

"I told them to get some rack time and to relax." Ron replied.

"What about the ship?"

"Unfixable, it's basically a pile of scrap."

"Says who?" she asked.

"Me and the guy who had a look after me from Orion. Deck five has been blown apart, the graft we'd have to put on the hull to fix it, ain't worth it, chances are as soon as we jumped she'd just tear it off and when we came out of the jump, the stress would tear her in half."

"Frak." Luna said.

"Frak indeed."he replied.

"Jinx won't be happy, he checks every inch of these things when we get back, he acts like they're his gods damn children."

"Well if he has a problem he can take it up with the toasters." Ron replied.

Luna smiled and laughed.

"You have such a beautiful smile, I wish you weren't into chicks." Ron replied with a grin.

"You still wouldn't have a chance." Luna replied with a cheeky laugh as she turned and left the bridge.

"Harsh." Ron said mocking being hurt.

"I think it's called a burn. I'm going to Orion's mess to get some chow."

Luna found herself enjoying watching the crew of Orion as they went about their business, she'd never seen so many people on a ship before. In front of her was a huge plate of spaghetti and meatballs, she couldn't remember the last time she'd had this and it tasted so good. Luna cut one of the meatballs in half and then twirled pasta all around it before cramming it into her mouth. She had never been very ladylike, it had driven her mother crazy. Her four sisters were all prim and proper, where as Luna would rather be playing in the mud or climbing a tree or playing Pyramid, she had no time for being a girly girl.

"I can't believe my fraking eyes."

Luna saw a tray being put down in front of her, she looked up to see Kal Bright standing in front of her. Her eyes widened and as she swallowed her mouthful of food she stood up and gave the giant man a big hug.

"Oh my gods Kal, it's so good to see you, what the frak are you doing here?"

"I was on Delta Seven when the toasters hit, Orion picked us up and saved our asses, Hydra is here as well."

"No fraking way."

Kal smiled from ear to ear, "I take it you were on that bucket of bolts in the starboard landing bay?"

"Yeah I was," they both sat down as she spoke, "Yeah we have a colony out here on a moon, we're going to be heading there soon. Admiral Garrett said it would be in a few days, apparently there is a lot going on."

"Wow, this really is so much to take in. I'm finished for the day, want to grab a drink after this and catch up on the last six years."

"I'd love to. I can't believe it's that long since you worked for me and Ellie."

"Speaking of Ellie, where is she?" Kal realised as Luna's face fell that he'd said something wrong.

"She didn't make it. We were on a scouting mission with our fleet, we were checking out a planet when we came face to face with Cylons. She got shot, by the time we were rescued the wound had gone septic, she um, she got blood poisoning and died."

"I'm so sorry, I know how much you loved her, she was one in a million." Kal replied. "But then again, so are you."

Luna gave a little laugh, "Since I lost her I've been on autopilot, going day to day. It's taken finding you guys to wake me up again, to finally feel like there's something better out there than being Second Mate on some shitty pile of crap."

Admiral Garrett and Skeeter sat with Carrie in her office aboard the Starburst.

"I can't believe it." Vanessa said.

Skeeter had just finished telling them what had happened with the President.

"Why wouldn't he tell us?" Carrie asked.

"My guess, we already have so much on our plate, he didn't want to become another worry for us." Skeeter replied.

"You need to tell the Quarrum," Vanessa replied, "We need to get you sworn in as soon as possible."

"What?" Carrie said in shock.

"We need to get you sworn in as President. If Milo is as ill as Skeeter says, he's not going to be able to do his job at all. He needs to be in the Medstar, he needs to spend time with his son." Vanessa replied.

"She's right." Skeeter added.

Carrie took a deep breath, "Will you come to the meeting with me?"

"Who?" Vanessa asked.

"Both of you."

"Of course." Vanessa replied.

Skeeter nodded his head, "Anything for you, you know that. I do have something I need to say, just so I've said it. What about the toaster in the brig? Isn't his model the Cylon's doctor? I'm sure I heard that said."

"For what?" Vanessa asked.

"They're more advanced than us at virtually everything. What if we ask him about this?"

"Can we even trust him?" Carrie asked.

"He hasn't spoken in weeks, other than to himself. This isn't like Grace, she had motivating factors to help her. She hated her people, she loved Mark. There's no reason for him to help us." Vanessa said.

"We could offer him something," Skeeter said, "Books, entertainment, frak better food."

"I've already given him books, paper so he can draw and he eats exactly the same food we do."

"Then take it off him." Carrie said, "If he won't help, take it all away."

Vanessa sighed, "I can't. I know he's the enemy, but I can't. I've been a prisoner of the Cylons and I've been a prisoner of Galen Hunter, the only thing that stopped me from going crazy was knowing you'd come for me. He knows the Cylons will never mount a rescue mission for him. His only hope is oblivion if we're destroyed. I cannot take away those things, not even from a Cylon. But I will speak to him. Carrie, please ask Jasper to have a copy of his father's medical records sent to me asap."

"Of course, I'll call him straight away." Carrie replied standing up.

Vanessa walked into the detention area with the President's records in a folder under her arm.

"The prisoner is ready for you Admiral. Would you like me to be in the room with you?" Lance Corporal Xander Davies asked.

"No thank you corporal. But I will signal you if needed." she replied.

"Of course ma'am."

As he opened the door for her, Vanessa took a quick deep breath. Inside, 4 sat with his arms and legs cuffed to a table. Vanessa put the file onto the table and sat down.

"I need you to cast your expert eye over something for me," Vanessa said, "I have someone's medical records here. All of this person's major organs are slowly shutting down. Our doctors are stumped, there's nothing that we can do for him. I want you to look through these and see if there is anything you could suggest. In return, within reason, ask me for something." she slid the file over the table.

4 looked at it in front of him and then up at the admiral. She puzzled him. Curiosity getting the better of him, he opened the folder and began to read.

Vanessa watched as in total silence he read the file in front of him. It never failed to amaze her just how human the Cylons looked. With Grace she always forgot, then suddenly what she really was would hit her again. But Grace was different, even when she had been Galen's prisoner, 1 was the most human and compassionate person she met. Minutes passed before 4 closed the file.

"Well?" Vanessa asked.

4 began to smile, "Who is this person?"

"You don't need to know that."

"I do. Do you want to hear what I have to say? You told me I could ask for something, that's what I ask for."

Vanessa looked at him, time to go all in she thought, "President Vents."

4 began to laugh, at first quietly, then louder and louder.

"Oh dear." 4 said, "Looks like we shouldn't have hunted you down after all, just wait for your pathetically short lifespans to end."

"Do you know of anything that can help him?"

4 regained his composure, and slowly shook his head, "No Admiral, I cannot. Eventually all living things die, President Vents' body has outlived it's shelf life."

"Is this a can't help or won't help situation?"

4 looked at her, and she gave nothing away. Admiral Garrett had got good at playing the game.

"Can't. It's just President Vents' time."

Vanessa reached over to pick up the file, before she stood up. 4 just sat there, smiling at her. She turned for the door.

"Oh Vanessa."

"What?" she replied without even turning back round.

"I hope you all join him soon."

The next few days flew past, Holland and his crew fixed the hull of the Columbus and continued to strip down the Aries. Carrie was quickly sworn in as President and the fleet were informed of the Milo's condition.

Vanessa sat behind the oak desk in her quarters, she signed her last piece of paperwork, put her pen down and sighed to herself, she ran her hands through her long hair before tying it back out of her eyes. She picked up her cup of coffee which had now gone cold and downed what was left. Her lack of sleep over the last few days was starting to catch up with her, she knew she'd sleep well tonight, but it was going to be another long day. She stood up and fastened her belt and holster before fastening her jacket. It didn't take her long to reach the CIC, Bojay was standing at the dradis console along with Luna and Ron.

"Lt Phillips can you please put me through to all the military ships in the fleet?" Vanessa said picking up a handset.

"Channel open ma'am." Phillips replied.

"All military personnel, this is the Admiral. We are about to take Orion to meet another colony of survivors. Until we return Commander Hicks will be in command of the fleet. When we get back we will decide what to do with the fleet and where to go next. Orion out."

Vanessa put down her handset and smiled at Luna and Ron.

"Let's take you home." Bojay said.

"Mr Phillips please prepare us for the first jump." Vanessa said, she felt nervous as though they were walking into the lions den. As she told Bojay earlier, trust was hard to come by these days, other humans had been worse than any Cylons.

"All hands, standing by for first jump in, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, jump." Phillips said.

Orion blinked away from the fleet, on the other side of the jump they appeared in open space.

"Jump complete, beginning jump prep for second jump." Lieutenant Phillips said, "Dradis is clear."

"What happens when we make the last jump?" Bojay asked, "Do you have defences?"

"Yes," Luna replied, "Which is why we're jumping in at the edge of the system, they're automated, they fire at anyone who doesn't have a transponder ID that has been preprogrammed into them. When we're clear of the jump, I'll have to radio in that we're onboard and everything is safe, then we'll be able to pass and go to the moon."

"If it's okay with you Luna, I'd like you and Ron with us when we meet General Curtis. I'd like someone with us who knows we're not a threat." Vanessa said.

"Of course." she replied.

"All hands prepare for second jump," Phillips said, "Jumping in 5,4,3,2,1, jump," moments later he spoke again, "Jump complete, beginning jump prep for the final jump."

"I can't believe you've made it back in three jumps so quickly." Ron said.

"We don't get to use the full capability of our jump drive very often," Vanessa said, "Other than the Medlia, which has a much better drive than we have, we have to match the rest of the fleet which just have normal jump drives.

"Ours wasn't much better than a short range shuttles' jump drive to be fair." Ron said.

Minutes later the third and final jump had been completed.

Vanessa handed Luna a handset and smiled, "Okay then, let's do this." she said.

Luna took the handset and took a deep breath, "New Kobol this is Rangler Second Mate Luna Harper aboard the Battlestar Orion, can you hear me? I repeat, New Kobol, this is Rangler Second Mate Luna Harper aboard the Battlestar Orion can you hear me?"

She waited for a few seconds, which seemed to drag, "Second Mate Harper, this is New Kobol we hear you, did you say you're on the Battlestar Orion?" a female voice replied.

"Yes, the whole crew is. The Rangler was attacked by Cylons and we took heavy damage, the Captain and the First Mate were killed. If Orion hadn't found us when she did, we would have been dead. The Orion crew are all friendlies, its commanding officer, Admiral Vanessa Garrett would like a meeting with General Curtis to discuss joining forces."

It took a couple of minutes before there was a response this time.

"I've just spoken to the General and he would welcome meeting her. Orion can safely pass through the defence grid and come to the planet. Please make contact with us again when you are ready to come down to the surface."

"Copy that, thank you." Luna said before handing Vanessa the handset back.

"Bojay I want you to stay here when we go down to the surface."

Bojay nodded his head, "No problem."

"Archangel is coming with me, along with Dagger and Tripswitch who are with us until we get back. I'll also take Vannick." Vanessa replied. She knew that if she didn't take them with her Bojay would have protested. She also knew that he knew why she was leaving him behind, she needed someone in charge who knew what they were doing in case things went south, "We'll head down to the hanger deck now, contact New Kobol when we're in range."

Bojay nodded his head, "Okay." He simply replied.

On the hanger deck, Archangel, Dagger and Tripswitch stood waiting for the Admiral.

"When we get down to the planet I want you two to come with us. Vannick will be with us all as well, but I wanted you two as well because I know you're the only ones who can handle things the same as me. It's not that I don't trust this General Curtis, who am I fraking kidding, that's exactly why. Everything will probably be fine, but I'd rather have you both with me and not need you rather than need you and not have you." Archangel said to them both.

"No problem," Dagger said, "It'll be nice to do something different for a change."

"I hear that," Tripswitch replied, "I'm almost hoping it all goes wrong, just so I can kick someone's ass."

"Even if anything does happen, follow my lead." Archangel replied. He had forgotten how impulsive Tripswitch could be.

"Not a problem." Dagger replied. She turned to look at Tripswitch, who suddenly realised her two friends were both looking at each her.

"What?!" she exclaimed, "I'll behave, anyone would think I can't control myself"

Both Archangel and Dagger let out a laugh.

"Yes okay, I'll follow your lead." she replied with a smile.

"Heads up." Dagger said.

All three of them looked up and saw Vanessa, Vanick, Luna and Ron walking towards them.

"Are we ready to go?" Vanessa asked with a smile.

"We sure are." Dagger replied.

Archangel followed Dagger into the cockpit, while the others sat in the back. As the Raptor flew out of the starboard flight pod, Dagger and Archangel both said, "WOW" at the same time. On their left was the massive purple and green nebula which was very close to the system. All of the planets seemed to have a purple tinge to them.

"Beautiful view isn't it?" Ron said.

"Oh yeah," Dagger replied, "I've heard the other pilots talk about the nebula but I haven't seen it myself, it's quite beautiful."

"Dagger, this is Wedge, Streaker and I will be escorting you to the planet." he said over the COM.

None of them had been expecting an escort, Vanessa knew it would have been Bojay's decision, she didn't mind, a bit of extra fire-power was never a bad thing, just in case.

The moon they were heading for was orbiting an orange gas giant, it was under its massive rings. As they approached it, a voice came over their COM.

"Battlestar Orion Raptor, this is New Kobol, we're sending you some coordinates. Please follow them and you will find a landing platform. You will be met by one of the General's aides who will escort you to him."

"New Kobol, this is Captain Stark, coordinates are received and locked in." she replied.

As they broke into the atmosphere the two Vipers broke off and turned back to Orion.

The planet itself reminded Archangel of Sagittaron, it was quite mountainous and lush and green. As they approached the coordinates the could see the main town they'd created, it was impressive. Around the outskirts there were several large ships on makeshift airfields. Moving into the town there were thousands of large tents where some of the population lived. They could see along side it there were homes that had been built and more that were under construction with a large space for more. From the air they could see how busy and bustling with life the town centre was, which was a mix of tents, concrete and metal buildings. As they reached the coordinates Dagger slowed right down and effortlessly landed on the landing strip they had been allocated. Vanessa opened the side hatch of the Raptor, outside a young man, in his thirties was waiting for them.

"Welcome to New Kobol," he said with a smile, "My name is Maxwell Curtis, the General is my father, he has asked me to escort you to him."

Vanessa shook his hand, "I'm Admiral Garrett, this is Major Hunter, Captain's Stark and Cooper and Lieutenant Vannick." she said introducing the others.

"You are very welcome here. You two must be from the Rangler, my father is eager to hear what happened." Maxwell said, "Please come with me." he said with a huge smile on his face.

Archangel had taken an immediate dislike to him, he was far too fake. He prided himself on being able to read people very quickly.

Around them were other large ships on the ground. A lot of them looked like they had been made from several other ships, others looked like they were way past being able to fly, never mind getting people safely to such deep space.

Maxwell led them into a large metal building and led them down a long corridor before opening two large doors which led them into an office. It was a large room which was full of furniture and decorations. General Curtis had clearly managed to bring a lot of his things with him. At the back of there was another door, Maxwell went over and opened it before stepping inside for a moment. He then returned with an older man, he wasn't very tall, he was bald but had a full beard. He was smiling.

Suddenly out of nowhere, Archangel, Dagger and Tripswitch all drew their side-arms. Everyone, including, Admiral Garrett were shocked and surprised by what was happening.

"My friends what is going on?" General Curtis asked in surprise.

"I'd like to know that as well!" Garrett said angrily, "Major what the frak is going on?"

"He's lying about who he is." Archangel said angrily.

Vanessa had seen that look on his face before and knew it could mean trouble.

"What?" Vanessa said.

General Curtis, now with his hands in the air, suddenly looked very worried.

"His name isn't General Silas Curtis," Dagger said, with equal anger in her voice, "It's General Silas Magnusson, he's the leader of the fraking Eastern Alliance!"