"You tricked us!" Vanessa spat venomously.
"No, no," Luna protested, "We're not Easter Alliance, I swear!"
Archangel, Dagger and Tripswitch kept their weapons raised.
"You had all better stop pointing your guns at my father!" Maxwell yelled.
"Everyone needs to calm down," Silas said, "I need to explain."
"Make it good." Archangel replied.
"I am General Silas Magnusson, they are correct."
Luna and Ron both looked horrified.
"But I am not the monster you think I am. My Grandfather started the Eastern Alliance, he and others who were disgruntled with their home planets, then later with the Colonies. He did terrible terrible things, as did my father when he took over. I was a boy when the Cylon War began, I was already against the things my family had been a part of, they took advantage of the suffering of the Colonies and used it to wage terror attacks. When it was my time to take over I vowed that it had to stop. When the Cylons attacked for the second time I did what I could to save as many people from the Colonies as possible. I have one question for you, when was the last time you heard the Eastern Alliance was responsible for anything terrible?"
Vanessa looked at Dagger and then at Archangel, they were the ones who would have a better idea.
"Not since just after the first Cylon war." Archangel said.
"Exactly, my friends, I swear to you that there is nothing to fear here. We have nearly 100,000 souls with us, just under 10,000 of them are what you would call Eastern Alliance, the rest are all people we saved from the Colonies." Silas said.
"Lower your weapons." Vanessa said.
Archangel and Dagger lowered theirs at the order, Tripswitch however, didn't.
"My grandparents were murdered because of your father." she said. Neither Archangel or Dagger had ever seen her with such anger on her face.
"So were mine." Luna said quietly.
"Your family caused so much pain, you're no different to the SFM or any other terrorists."
Dagger stepped in front of Tripswitch.
"Penny, put you're weapon down. Please." her friend said. "What would Coop say or do if he were here?"
"He'd say we need all the facts, he'd remind you that this man wasn't even on our hit list." Archangel said.
Dagger put her hand on Tripswitch's gun and lowered it.
"If he's lying." she said quietly.
"We'll deal with it later." Dagger replied.
"Why did you come here?" Maxwell snapped.
"We came here to bring your people back and to warn you the Cylons have been seen in this area more and more, I don't believe it's safe here any more." Vanessa said.
"As I had feared." Silas replied.
"We have defences, we will be fine, you can return our people and leave." Maxwell said.
"My son does not speak for me," Silas replied silencing Maxwell, "I thank you for this information Admiral."
"We've been trying to find a way around this nebula, do you know how far it goes?"
Silas looked at Vanessa for a moment, trying to get a feel for the woman.
"No, we haven't been able to find the end of it. I have sent ships out that have spent months trying to find away around, but there is nothing."
"Frak." Vanessa replied.
"However, there is a way through it," Silas said, "We do not have the technology to place the navigational markers that would be necessary to take a fleet through it, but I'm sure that would not be a problem for you."
"What are you suggesting?" Vanessa replied.
"We know for a fact it takes you safely through the nebula, we will show you where the passageway is."
"A fact?" Archangel asked.
The general looked at him, this man he did have a feel for, he was a killer.
"Our sensors suggest that that it does. We know enough to make me confident enough to send my people through it."
"I'm guessing there's a catch?" Vanessa asked.
Silas smiled, "I settled us here because we couldn't get through the nebula. Despite what my son thinks, our defences would not repel a Cylon force, they would only give us enough time to try and escape. But then what? Where would we go? I will show you where it is, if you take us with you."
"Father no, we cannot go with them!" Maxwell shouted.
"SILENCE," he yelled at his son, "We have ships that are armed, we have one of your old Battlestars that I salvaged, we can contribute and we would of course, follow your lead."
"Admiral you can't consider this." Penny said.
"Captain Stark, will you and Captain Cooper please go and wait with the Raptor?" Vanessa ordered.
"Yes ma'am." Dagger said. She took hold of Penny's hand and walked her out of the room.
"This is a mistake Admiral." Penny said before they left the room.
Archangel was relieved Penny was gone, he'd seen her go from being this angry to murder enough times before.
"Is that all you would want?" Vanessa asked.
Silas looked at her again, "I will put my ships under your command, my men and women. I would at least like some consideration in decisions as I'm sure your other officers get."
Vanessa now looked at him, she wanted to believe he was telling the truth. She looked at Archangel and couldn't get a read on what he was thinking.
"And I would have your guarantee this is how it would run?" Vanessa asked.
Silas smiled, "Of course Admiral. Believe it or not, my first priority is to the people I've saved."
"If we agree to this I want one thing clear, you frak with me or do anything aggressive towards us and I will end you." Vanessa said.
Silas chuckled, "Agreed Admiral."
"Get your people and your fleet together, I have to take Orion back to our fleet, I have to discus this with the President."
"Adar is alive?" Silas asked, "He knows me, we were in talks before they Cylons attacked to merge the Alliance with the Colonies, he will know I speak the truth!"
"Adar is dead," Vanessa replied, "We have a different President now, she's fair though and she will hear what I have to say."
"I look forward to seeing you when you return, I place my humble life in your hands." Silas said bowing his head.
"Admiral Garrett, may I come back with you?" Luna asked, her eyes and face pleading with her.
"Of course." she said.
"Yes yes, she can be a goodwill officer between our two people." Silas said.
Luna turned to Ron.
"I'll see you again." he said.
She nodded and left with Vanessa, Vannick and Archangel. When everyone had left the room Maxwell rounded on his father.
"What you are doing is wrong." he said angrily.
"What I am doing will save the lives of our people." Silas replied.
"Grandfather would be ashamed."
"Do not tell me what my father would think," Silas shouted, "He was a monster and I have vowed not to be like him, what I told the Admiral, it is all true and I will keep my word to her. More and more of our people are coming back with news of seeing the Cylons. On our own we are weak, with the Colonial military we stand a chance."
"I hope you haven't doomed us all." Maxwell replied.
"Send word out to our people, we leave as soon as Orion and her fleet return."
Everyone sat quietly as the Raptor flew out into space.
"Did we do the right thing leaving them alive?" Penny asked.
Vanessa looked up, she had been deep in thought, "I've been thinking the same."
"I once spoke to Admiral Negala about the Alliance," Archangel replied, "I remember he told me he didn't even see them as a threat any more. He told me that once we would have been sent into deal with them, but since the war, no one had heard a peep."
"Do you know about the last terrorist attack they did?" Luna asked.
"Yeah, it wasn't good." Archangel replied.
"I'm ashamed to say no I don't." Vanessa said.
Luna cleared her throat before she spoke, "My grandparents, it was their 40th wedding anniversary. My grandfather served during the first war, he was a sergeant in the marines. He saw some of the worst action. He was on Aquaria during the port massacre. I remember my Dad saying that was the most scared my grandfather had ever been. But thinking about my grandmother was the only thing that got him through. When they reached their 40th, they decided they were going to go to the summer resort on Picon. My gran had always wanted to go to the really luxurious part, where all the film, music and sports stars were always seen," she smiled for a moment as she spoke, "So he surprised her, two weeks in the sun, full of pampering and anything she could dream of. On their first day there, the bombs went off. Apparently there were some very high profile people who were the target. It took three months for them to be able to positively identify my grandparents remains." she wiped tears from her face as she spoke, "It haunted my Dad everyday until he died. My mother always said there was a sadness to him every day after that, that had never been there before. General Cur.. Magnusson, may be the product of the man who caused so much pain but he wasn't lying about what he has done for us. He hasn't been a dictator either, he had the people elect a council who spoke for us, he's lost a lot of his own men and women keeping us alive. There is a rumour his wife was on one of our capital ships when it was destroyed by the toasters. I want to hate him, I wanted to take your gun from it's holster and shoot him myself, but I realised, he didn't do the things the Eastern Alliance have been blamed for. When the Cylons attack, his ship is always the last to jump away."
No one spoke for a few minutes.
"So what do we say to the people in our fleet who hate the Alliance?" Vanessa asked, "I can only imagine the kind of backlash this is going to have."
"We don't tell them." Penny said not taking her eyes of the DRADIS monitor in front of her.
"What?" Vanessa asked.
Penny turned around, "We don't tell them. If Luna can forgive him, then we should give this a try."
"And if he's lying?" Vannick said.
"No way a beat up old Columbia class is going to pose any kind of threat to Orion, Sulaco or Trinity, he goes back on his word and we blow him out of the sky." Penny replied.
"For now can I ask all of you to keep this to yourselves?" Vanessa asked, "I need to talk to Bojay and the President first."
Everyone in the small craft agreed.
Commander Clara Hicks had never been placed in command of a fleet before, it was only temporary, but she was proud of the faith, Admiral Garrett had placed in her. She had expected the task to be given to Commander Reynolds of the Cryxus, she imagined next time it would be as the Admiral was probably going to give everyone a chance. It would have been more enjoyable though if it weren't for Commander Knox, or Commander Know-it-all as she was going to be calling him from now on. In the hours she'd been in command, he had called her seven times so far to remind her of things that she had been doing for years. Her XO Colonel Nash Doyle had managed to convince him it wasn't necessary for him to come over to discus his newest idea with her in person. He was starting to get adjitated by Knox, and Clara knew her XO had an explosive temperament when he was pissed off. Nash was her perfect counterpart, he was everything she was not, while being one of the finest officers she'd ever served with. He was 6ft tall stocky man with jet black hair and beard to match. His grey eyes could pierce right through you, he was Clara's best friend.
As the COM began to buzz both senior officers sighed.
"If that is faking Knox again, I'm taking a Raptor over there and I'll beat him to death with his own fraking handset." Nash said loud enough so that if it was him on the COM, he would have heard.
Clara couldn't help herself and laughed out loud.
Nash winked at her and they both turned to look at Specialist Donald Walsh who was on COM duty.
"Commander, Buck would like permission to explore deeper into the system." Walsh said, relieved he wasn't relaying another message from Commander Knox.
"Let Buck know it's fine by me," Clara replied, "But tell him not to go too far in case we need to leave in a hurry."
Walsh quickly relayed the reply.
"You need to laugh more often." Nash said.
"So you need to be funny more often instead of annoyed." Clara replied.
Nash chuckled, "Well I've never been accused of that, my ex-wife once said I'm about as funny as a burst haemorrhoid."
Clara laughed even louder this time, "Well then she was wrong about that as well wasn't she?"
"I've always thought so," he replied, "Just don't tell the crew."
"Can I ask you something?" she said seriously.
"You can ask me anything, you know that." he replied.
"Why do you think Knox doesn't like me and think I'm not up to the task?"
Nash sighed before he answered, "Because he's an arse. You're the same rank as him and a hell of a lot younger, you're better than him at the job and he knows it. Plus you knocked him back last Colonial Day."
"Well when his pick up line was, can I bounce a penny off your arse, he was never going to get anywhere was he."
"He's damn fraking lucky I never heard that." Nash said angrily.
"I appreciate you saying all that though, nice to know I have you at my back."
"Ready to stop any and all pennies." he said with a wry smile.
As they both laughed, DRADIS beeped to indicate a new contact.
"DRADIS contact." Walsh said.
Clara and Nash looked up and couldn't believe their eyes.
"It's the fraking Medlia." Nash said.
"Open a channel, get me Major Lewthwaite on the horn." Clara said.
As Walsh nodded to let them know he was there, they picked up their handsets.
"Sulaco Actual to Medlia Actual, are you okay?" Clara asked.
"Medlia Actual, we are now we're back," Short Stack replied, "Where's Orion?"
"Away on a mission, where did you fraking go?" Clara asked.
"It's a long story." Short Stack replied.
"Do you want to come over and tell over a glass of whiskey?" Clara asked.
"I'd love to, but GHOST won't let any of us off the ship, like I said, it's a long story."
Vanessa and Bojay sat in silence in her office, he was digesting what she had just told him.
"Wow," he said before taking a sip from his whiskey, "I did not see that coming."
"So what do you think about what we all agreed in the Raptor on the way back?" she asked.
"I agree, it could and probably would spark off some nasty shit, we finally have some peace in this fleet, it would be nice to keep it for a while." Bojay replied.
"So we're on the same page?"
"Aren't we always?" he replied with the cocky smile he always had.
"I know we tend to always agree, but you know you can tell me if you ever disagree with me."
"I know." he replied.
"Orion is our ship and I value your word more than anyone else's in this fleet." Vanessa replied.
Bojay smiled again, "We agree because as the saying goes, great minds think alike."
"Have you met Captain Cooper yet?" Vanessa asked.
"Not yet."
"When she saw him, the general, I've never seen such rage and hate before. I've seen Archangel lose it, I've seen Jawbreaker lose it, but this was something else, she terrified me."
"Mark vouches for her?"
Vanessa nodded, "He does, completely. Normally I'd ask her commanding officer, but I get the feeling Knox doesn't have a clue about her or Captain Stark."
"You're thinking he sees her through rose tinted glasses because of their history?"
Vanessa thought for a moment, "He is the single best judge of character I've ever met. But yes. Gods help me yes."
"So you need a second opinion?"
"You could say that. After the jump, please find Captain Stark and ask her to come see me."
"Consider it done." Bojay replied with a wink.
Vanessa smiled, "Well okay. Let's go rejoin the fleet."
A few minutes later they both walked into the CIC and they were both in good spirits.
"Mr Phillips please begin jump prep to rejoin the fleet." Bojay said.
"Yes sir." Phillips said as he retook his position at the COM station.
"I'll tell you one thing, I'll be glad to see the back of this gods damn nebula." Vanessa said.
"It looks beautiful, but it is one massive pain in our asses." Bojay replied.
"Admiral, we're ready to jump." Phillips said.
"Take us back to the others please Lieutenant."
"All hands prepare for the jump," he said over his headset, "Jumping the ship in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
Orion jumped in a flash, a moment later they were back with the fleet.
"Well look who's back." Bojay said pointing up to the DRADIS monitor.
"The Medlia." Vanessa replied.
As Admiral Garrett lander her Raptor on the Medlia, she couldn't help but wonder what the frak was going on? Short Stack had insisted she come alone, neither Bojay or Archangel had reacted well to this, but for a change they had followed her orders to stay put.
She walked to the back of the Raptor and pulled the hatch release, moments later she stepped onto the hanger deck and was met by Short Stack, he could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't happy.
"Right are you going to tell me what the frak is going on?" she asked.
"Walk with me and I'll explain." he replied.
"It had better be good." she replied angrily.
"A couple of weeks ago you sent through a message saying you wanted to find any and all Cylon activity and destroy them, Ghost took that as a direct order and took control of the ship."
"What?!" she exclaimed.
"She took control of the ship and went searching for the Cylons. Have you been finding wreckage?"
"Yeah, a lot of it."
"Yeah, that was us. She's been jumping us in, dropping nukes and then jumping out. We're back simply because we're about to run out of fuel and we're used all our ordinance."
Vanessa couldn't believe what she was hearing, "And she wouldn't take any order from you?"
Short Stack shook his head, "No, it took what you wrote as a direct order and has refused any more from me. We tried to disconnect her, but turns out we can't. If we had it would have caused major damage to all the systems and we would have been dead in space. I tried to launch Raptors to come back to you, but she wouldn't let us. Honestly Admiral, we've tried everything we can think of, nothing has worked. We're still locked out, Ghost will not take any orders from anyone but you."
As they walked onto the CIC, everyone there looked relieved to see her.
"Admiral Garrett, I am pleased to see you." Ghost said.
"Ghost I am not happy with you in the slightest." Vanessa replied.
"But, why? I carried out your orders." the ship replied, almost sounding surprised.
"I did not give you orders. The note I sent was what I wanted to do going forward, together, what you did put your entire crew and ship in danger."
"But Admiral, I have successfully destroyed twelve Cylon Baseships, was this not what you wanted?"
"Yes, but not like this."
"What are your orders?" Ghost asked.
She looked at Short Stack before she replied, "I want you from now on to obey any order given to you from Major Lewthwaite, he is your commanding officer."
"And you are his."
"I am, so any order he gives you is from me." Vanessa replied, "Do you understand?"
"Yes," came the reply, "I am sorry Admiral. I was only doing what I thought you wanted."
"And I do appreciate what you did, just not how you did it. I need you to understand one more thing. If you ever do anything like this again, if you go against the Major's orders again, I will have no choice but to scuttle this ship and destroy it."
"Yes Admiral." Ghost replied. "I am sorry, to you Admiral Garrett and to you Major."
The Quarrum were arguing as they usually did. Carrie sat at the head of the long table, the Admiral would be joining them soon. She sighed to herself and rubbed her eyes, she was tired of all the arguing. As she looked up she saw Wallace Grey looking at her.
"Shut the frak up." he yelled.
As everyone became quiet he looked back at Carrie and winked at her.
Carrie cleared her throat as all eyes turned to her, "I have some things I need to say before Admiral Garrett gets here. I know there are some of you here who don't like me. I know there are some of you here who don't want me here or think I'm capable of doing this job," she looked at each of them in turn as she spoke, "You're wrong. Milo thought I was ready for this, Wallace thinks I am," he smiled and nodded as she said this, "Admiral Garrett thinks I am and I think I am. When I joined this fleet I didn't know what the future held for me. I was betrayed by someone I trusted and I thought had my back. He had me locked away, had me questioning my own sanity, I don't think any of you know what that's like. When I thought I had no one, my brother rescued me, in all this mess I finally found hope. That is what I want to give to our people, hope. We're getting near the end now, I can feel it. With the extra fire power we now have we can finish off the last of the Cylons, which is what Milo wants, it's what the Admiral wants and it's what Commander Johanssen wanted. I've been spending more time on ships like the Starburst recently, seeing how people are living, how they've been living since the start. The people on the refineries, they've been doing their job since day one, the people on the sanitation ships have been doing theirs, the people on the food production ships etcetera, it's time we give them more of a break. I want all the people who have done nothing to earn their keep, to finally help out. I want the Captain's of each ship to give us a list of everyone aboard, what they do now, what they did before. All of the people who are doing nothing are going to start helping the people who do everything. I spoke to Milo about this just before he was taken ill, this is what he wanted too, he only regretted not doing it sooner. So do I have any objections?" As she looked around, she was sure she was going to hit opposition, the question was, how much? In doing this many of the friends of the people around the table were going to have to start putting in a hard days work. It should have been something that had happened before now, Carrie was going to make sure it didn't carry on like this any more. If anyone would be the first to complain it would be Jacob Fuller, the Caprican representative. He had only been in the job for a couple of months, but he came from a very privileged background.
Which is when the surprise happened, "I couldn't agree more." he said, "I took this position in an attempt to do something useful. So many people fill their day with nothing, day in day out. I believe the people who do the hard work in the fleet need help and need a break."
Carrie couldn't help but smile at this, everyone around the table agreed with her, she honestly thought she was going to have an argument on her hands, she couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised.
"I'll speak with the Admiral and get the Captain's to start getting lists together for us." Carrie said.
As she finished speaking the door to the meeting room opened and in walked Admiral Garrett.
"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen," Vanessa said as she took her seat next to Carrie, "Sorry I'm late, I've had a busy day."
"Don't worry about it Admiral, I'm sure you have plenty to tell us." Carrie replied.
"Miss Harper, the Second Mate of the ship we found took us back to her settlement. It's huge, there are nearly one hundred thousand people there. We have agreed to join together, they're preparing their people and ships as we speak."
"Are there any more military with them?" Wallace asked.
"No, they've managed to stay alive by themselves, through sheer luck and with some armed ships. Their leader, General Curtis, has an old Columbia class Battlestar he managed to restore and upgrade, that will be of help to us. Now for the bad news, his people have never been able to find the end of this nebula, which is why they settled, good news, they know where there's a way through."
"Why have they never managed to go through it themselves?" Carrie asked.
"In order to get through we're going to need to place navigational markers, they don't have the tech to do it, we however, do. Later on this evening, I'm going to take the fleet to join with them and head for the way through. In the morning I'm going to send in a Raptor group to place the markers and see what's on the other side. Once that's done we'll look at the best way of getting us all through."
"Sounds promising," Carrie said, "I saw the Medlia has returned."
"It has," Vanessa replied, "The ships AI took a note I'd sent as an order and took it upon itself to take over and execute that order. I've spoken with the AI and Major Lewthwaite, we've come to an understanding with the ship, it won't happen again."
"Can we be sure?" Wallace asked.
Vanessa paused for a moment, "I think so."
"Having a ship with an AI, I still think is a mistake." Jacob Fuller said.
"It's not a threat to us. I've told it, that if it happens again I'll scuttle the ship and destroy it. Even though all this happened, something good came from it. The note the AI took as an order was that I wanted us to find all the Cylon activity we can and destroy them. While it was away, the Medlia destroyed twelve Baseships."
"So some small mercies." Wallace said.
"I am honestly not worried about Ghost, it has been programmed in a way that it cannot be a threat to us, we need that ship." Vanessa said.
"As always, we leave it to you Admiral."
Garrett sat and waited for the meeting to end. On more than one occasion, Vanessa and Skeeter gave each other a look to let the other know they were bored out of their minds. As everyone stood up to leave, Vanessa spoke again.
"Carrie, can I have a quick word?" she asked quietly.
"Of course." Carrie replied.
They waited until everyone had gone.
"Should I leave?" Skeeter asked pointing at the door.
Vanessa shook her head, "No, you should hear this too. The people we found, some of them, are or were Eastern Alliance. We decided that we need to keep this from the fleet when we join with them, the backlash would be biblical."
"You seem to think it's a good idea we do this? Why?" Carrie asked.
"Archangel and Dagger pointed out that we haven't heard anything from the Alliance since just after the first war. General Curtis or Magnusson as it turns out is his name apparently has tried to end the chaos his father and grandfather enjoyed so much."
"What if it's a trick?" Skeeter asked.
"Their command ship is an old Columbia class, it's no match for any of our Battlestars and they know where the way through the nebula is."
"I won't lie, part of me is screaming don't trust them, the other is telling me that if you're okay with this, then I should be to." Carrie said.
"You don't have to worry too much, I'm going to keep him on a very short leash and the first sign of any wrong doing, I'll blow him out of the sky."
"Okay then." Carrie replied.
Jasper Vents sat alone with his father. He hadn't left his side since he arrived on the Medstar. People had been in to see him, Skeeter had been visiting the most, along with Carrie, the Admiral and Wallace Grey.
He sat up suddenly as his father's eyes began to open.
"Dad," Jasper said, "Can you hear me?"
Milo began to cough as his eyes opened. It took a few moments for Milo to register where he was and what had happened to him.
"Dad, Dad, can you hear me?" Jasper said as he stood up and took his father's hand.
Milo looked up at his son and smiled as he nodded.
"Son." he replied groggily, "What happened?"
"You had a massive heart attack, you're onboard the Medstar. Dad, I know everything, the Doctor told me. He said you're dying. Why didn't you tell me?" Jasper said as he wiped a tear from his face.
"Because I wanted to spend what time I have without you feeling like this." Milo replied.
"I'm going to be able to spend more time with you. Jawbreaker has given me some time off to be with you. Now we have the Sulaco and Trinity, we have more than enough pilots to cover the slack."
"I suppose I'm going to have to step down now that the cat's out of the bag." Milo said.
"I need to tell you that Carrie Manning has already been sworn in. Both the Quorum and the Admiral thought it was for the best." Jasper replied.
"At least it's her and not some of the other people it could have been." Milo said.
Neither of them spoke for a few moments.
"Dad, I'm sorry for how I used to be, before all this. I'm sorry for everything I put you through. If I could go back, I'd do things so differently." Jasper said.
"I know son. I am proud of the man you've become. You've realised the potential I always knew you had."
Jasper smiled at his father, "We're going to make the most of the time you have left."
Admiral Garrett and Colonel Johnson stood at the CIC console together.
"Ready to do this?" he asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be." she replied with a forced smile.
"We're doing the right thing." Bojay said.
"I certainly hope so." she replied.
"Admiral, all ships report ready for the jump." Lieutenant Phillips said from his station.
"Thank you Lieutenant, please begin the countdown." she replied.
"Aye ma'am." Phillips said before picking up his handset, "All ships this is Orion, we will be jumping in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, jump."
Orion and the rest of the fleet blinked away in multiple bright flashes.
"Jump complete," Phillips said on the other side of the jump, "All ships are present and logged. Dradis is picking up sixty four new contacts. Admiral I have a General Curtis on the horn for you."
"Put him through down here please." Garrett said.
Both she and Bojay picked up their handsets.
"General Curtis this is Orion Actual, my XO, Colonel Johnson is also in on this call. I trust you are all ready for the off?" she asked.
"Admiral, it is so wonderful to hear your voice. Yes, yes we are all ready for our joint adventures into the stars," he chuckled as he spoke, "You should be receiving the coordinates of the passageway we discovered. It is approximately half a day from here at best speed."
Phillips nodded down as he received the data.
"When we reach the passageway I will be putting together a group of Raptor's to drop navigational markers and seeing what the best way of getting through." Vanessa replied.
"Good, good, may I ask if I can be involved in the making of any plans?"
"I'll take that under advisement. As soon as we have distributed the coordinates through the fleet I want to be underway. Lieutenant Phillips will give you all your positions in the fleet. I'll talk to you again soon General."
"I look forward to it Admiral, I am of course, your humble servant."
Vanessa and Bojay both put down their handsets.
"He likes to lay it on thick doesn't he?" Bojay said with a chuckle.
"I think he's trying to over compensate with niceties to keep us at ease." she replied.
"I'm going to leave you in charge for a while, I have a few things I need to get done." Vanessa said.
"Not a problem." Bojay replied.
Luna stood on Orion's flight deck facing the entire crew of the Rangler.
"Our people have joined forces with Orion's fleet. Once we get underway, Colonel Johnson has informed me that over the next day or so you'll be given quarters aboard various ships in the fleet. For now stay in your bunks aboard the Rangler. Once we're all off it and aboard our new homes, the ship will be stripped for parts. If there is anything any of you want from it as a keepsake, now is the time to get it." she said solemnly.
"What about you?" a crew member asked, "You sounded as if you're not coming into the fleet with us."
"I'm staying aboard Orion. I have experience flying the civilian version of their Raptors. Orion's CAG and his lead Raptor pilot are going to give me some intensive training and then let me fly with them." Luna said.
"Good for you." Dr Campbell Sands, the Rangler's Doctor said loudly.
"I know I don't know a lot of you all that well, but I just wanted to say thank you for how you reacted when we were attacked. You all performed amazingly well, I'm proud to have served with you all."
As people started to disperse, a few of them came over and said their goodbyes to Luna, Campbell waited until everyone else had gone.
"I'm proud of you kid," he said in his gruff voice, "You deserve to be somewhere like this, doing what you love."
Luna smiled, "I'm going to miss you." she replied.
"We'll still see each other. I'm requesting to be assigned to their medical ship, I'm guessing they can use all the doctors they can get their hands on."
"They'd be fools not to take you."
"I've left you a little something in your quarters. You might want to smoke it before you get assigned here." he said.
"What would I do without you?" she said giving the man a hug.
"Just be careful out there you hear me. I love you like a daughter, I couldn't take it if I lost you to the Cylons." Campbell said.
"I will be, I promise."
General Magnusson walked down one of Orion's corridor, flanked by two of Orion's marines. He wore what looked like a military uniform, but nothing that resembled any of the armed forces on the Colonies. He walked with an ivory cane with a solid gold handle, which had been passed down from father to son from his great-grandfather down. Strapped to his hip was a gold plated revolver.
"Here we are." Jennings said pointing to the war room.
Curtis smiled and nodded at the two men, "Thank you gentlemen." he said as he walked through the door.
Inside the room was huge, vid screens down one side and computer panels down the other. In the middle of the room was a large table with a holographic image of the nebula being projected from it. Standing around the table were, Admiral Garrett, Bojay, Archangel, Wedge and Hydra, Commander's Hicks, Knox and Reynolds. Captain's Stark and Wilkins, the Gunstar Captains and the President.
"My apologies for keeping you all waiting." Curtis said with a bow of his head.
"It's fine General," Vanessa said, "Major Hunter along with Captain's Manning, Anders and both your CAGs have come up with a plan, Major."
"We have to land navigational markers in the passageway in order for the fleet to go through," Archangel said as he pointed to the entrance, "Wedge and I will escort four Raptors, each Raptor will have six markers which we will drop at equal distances. From what our sensors have picked up I'm expecting we will lose contact with you due to the massive electrical storms going on in the nebula. However on the way back, once the markers have been activated, we should be able to make contact again. Once we know they're working we're going to split the fleet into six groups to pass through. First up, the Sulaco. Once they're through the Cryxus, then General Curtis your Battlestar the Richmond, then Trinity, then Sirius and then finally Orion. Each civilian ship will be escorted and have it's NAV computer linked into a Raptor, that way we can minimize any frak ups. Once everyone is through to the other side we're going to have one last Raptor, which will destroy each of the markers as it goes."
"Who pulls that short straw?" Hicks asked.
"Unless anyone else volunteers, Bojay and I." Archangel replied.
"Hardcore and I will do it." Hydra said before anyone else could.
"You sure?" Bojay asked.
Hydra nodded, "Not a problem."
"What about the Raptors who will be dropping the markers, who will be flying them?" Knox asked.
"Hydra, Dagger, Buck and Hulk." Archangel replied.
"So we risk all our senior pilots?!" Knox exclaimed.
"I'm not going to lie, this is dangerous, so I need the most experienced Raptor jocks we have, people who aren't going to freeze under pressure. We're going to be flying by Mk1 eyeball it's going to be challenging to say the least." Archangel replied.
Knox opened his mouth to speak again again, but Garrett cut him off, "I've put Major Hunter in charge of this mission, if they're the pilots he wants, they're the pilots he has."
"We have no timetable for how long this is going to take, we have no idea how long this passageway is." Archangel said.
"What if you don't have enough of these markers?" Carrie asked.
"If that happens then we come back, get more and then go back in to finish off. Raptor's can only hold six at a time. Does anyone have any questions?" Archangel asked.
"What about the Serenity, Onyx and Noble? Who are they going through with?" Captain West of the Gunstar Serenity asked.
"We're going to send the Noble through with Trinity and Serenity and Onyx through with General Curtis and the Richmond." Archangel replied.
"I have another question, you mentioned massive electrical storms. Will we encounter them when passing through?" Carrie asked.
"As far as we can tell from what we can see just from sticking our noses in, no. It seems to be just in the nebula. We'll have a definite idea once we get in there." Archangel replied with a smile.
She nodded and smiled. He could tell that she was nervous, this was the first briefing of this kind she'd ever been to. He reminded himself to tell her later how well she did.
"I'm more than happy with this plan," Vanessa said, "I can't see any other way of doing this, I'm confident you can all pull this off," she said with a smile, "That being said, does anyone have anything they would like to add or any other way they'd like to suggest we do this?"
She looked at everyone in turn, but lingered slightly longer on Knox and Curtis. Nobody said anything.
"Excellent. Okay then, if that's everything we have a lot to do."
As everyone started to leave, Archangel and Wedge noticed Curtis walk over to Carrie. She looked up at the man and smiled. She seemed to unstiffen as her brother and husband stepped along side her.
"Madame President," Curtis said bowing his head and holding out his hand for her to shake, "I wanted to introduce myself to you. I would like to extend my thanks for allowing my people to join your fleet. I understand that you will have been made aware of the full story, so I am especially grateful to you. I want you to know that I, my ship and my people are at your service. You have my word that I will do nothing but assist you in any way I possibly can, to help you ensure our people's survival."
Carrie smiled at him, "Thank you General, that is very good to know."
"I see Major Hunter and this other gentleman do not trust me completely with you?" he said, trying to keep his tone light.
"Major Hunter is my brother and this is Captain Manning, his squadron XO and more importantly, my husband." she replied.
"Ah I see, now it becomes clear," he held out his hand to Wedge and then to Archangel, who both shook it, "In that case, gentlemen I must in turn say to you, your wife and your sister has nothing to fear from me, I am as I say, her humble servant."
"Good to know." Wedge replied curtly.
Admiral Garrett closed the door to her quarters and turned to Captain Stark.
"Thank you for staying, please, sit. Can I get you a drink?" Vanessa asked.
"Water please."
Moments later, Vanessa passed her a glass and sat opposite her, "I hope what I'm about to say doesn't cross any line, I need to talk to you about Archangel and Tripswitch."
"I thought you might." she replied.
"Do I need to be worried?"
Alisa let out a quick laugh, "Sorry, you're not the first person to ask me that and I doubt you'll be the last. Theirs has never been the healthiest of relationships, not for them, but for others. Penny is my best friend, she's the person I always want at my back, but she has a history of getting carried away. She has a lot of anger in her, until she joined the military life hadn't been good to her. People let her down, we all lost someone, she lost more. We became our own unit, we'd be sent out on our own, but other times we'd get teamed up. She's calmer when he's around, knowing there are other people as fraked up as you, it helps, the three of us help each other. It's not just Penny who feels like this, we all do, she's just not able to hide it as well. There really is no need to worry Admiral. Only the people you send us after need to fear her."
Vanessa realised there were so many things about the man she loved that she didn't know. The things he refused to tell her, now she understood why. While there were plenty of questions, they weren't what she was thinking of, instead she felt relief, relief that at least they all had each other.
As the fleet began to divide itself into the six pre-decided groups, the four Raptors and two Vipers flew from their Battlestar's towards the large opening of the passageway in the massive nebula.
"I don't think I've ever seen so many spacecraft in one place at one time." Lt Malia "Hulk" Hale said from her Raptor.
"I was just thinking exactly the same thing." Archangel replied.
Orion's CIC was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Vanessa looked across to Bojay, her faithful right hand and knew by looking at him he felt as nervous as she did, this was the unknown for them. Something they genuinely couldn't predict the outcome of, just hope they'd be able to make it work as they seemed to make everything work.
"Mr Phillips, please put me through to Archangel." Vanessa said breaking the silence.
Moments later he nodded to her, "He's on the horn Admiral."
"Archangel, this is Orion Actual, are you all ready?" she asked.
"Orion Actual, this is Archangel, we are thirty seconds away from the threshold.
"Good hunting to you all. Please don't take any unnecessary risks."
Moments later she heard the voice of the man she loved in her ear, "When have you ever known me to do anything like that?" he said in his reassuring tone.
"I'm serious." she replied.
"I know. We'll be back before you know it." he said.
"See you soon." she said before putting her handset down.
The entrance to the passageway looked as though it was sucking the nebula itself into it. Purple and green clouds rushing into inside. Lightening from the electrical storms firing off in massive blue forks every few seconds. As Dagger led them in, she expected to be sucked in with the clouds, but nothing changed. Behind her, Buck, then Hydra and then finally Hulk followed in the convoy. Archangel and Wedge flanked her at either side.
"All craft, dropping first NAV marker, in 3, 2, 1." Penny said from her ECO position.
From under the Raptor, a small black ball, no more than 2ft in diameter dropped. As it came to life it stopped dead and a red light began to blink.
"Orion, this is Archangel, can you still hear me?" Archangel said over his COM as a fork of lightening struck to his right, which arched 500ft down the side of the wall of the passageway. Silence over the COM told him what he already expected, they had already lost contact.
All six craft proceeded in complete silence, in utter awe of where they were and what they were seeing, more than likely the first humans ever to be inside such a force of nature.
"Admiral, we've lost contact with Major Hunter and the others." Phillips said.
"Thank you Lieutenant. Please keep an ear out for them." she replied.
"Now we wait." Bojay said.
"Now we wait." Vanessa replied.
She smiled at Bojay, trying to be reassuring, she could tell by the look on his face there was more.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
Bojay smiled and shook his head, "Nothing." he lied.
"Jimmy, what's wrong?"
"I'm concerned about the Medlia." he replied.
"You and me both," she said, "We've got the time now, so talk to me."
He let out a sigh and scratched his head, "Are we going to resupply them with nukes?" he asked.
"I have been wondering what we should do about that. I've been meaning to talk to you about it, but things have been so chaotic."
"I don't think we should," he said, "Ship to ship missiles, fine, bullets, fine. But no EMP's and no nukes. I know it says it understands you, but what happens if it misinterprets something again? What if you have an argument with Short Stack and it takes his side and attacks us or gods forbid the fleet? What if it sides with you and vents all their oxygen into space? If we could switch that thing off, I'd be all for it, if we." he stopped himself.
"If we?" she asked.
"If we got everyone off that thing and blew it to pieces." he finished.
"Is that what you want to do?" she asked flatly.
He waited for a moment, thinking about what he was going to say, "I know we need that ship, it's been invaluable to us. But since we found out what happened, it scares the hell out of me and there's not much left in the world that does that. It feels like we have a ticking time bomb in the room with us, it might never go off or it might go off right now."
"It's definitely something we need to think on. Once everything has settled down and we're through this fraking nebula I'll get Short Stack over and we'll talk about this properly. Weigh up all the pro's and con's." Vanessa said with a smile.
Bojay nodded and managed a smile in return, "Okay." he replied.
As he finished speaking they noticed marine Captain Jennings walk up to them, "Admiral, Colonel, sorry but may I interrupt?"
"Of course Captain, how can I help you?" Vanessa replied.
"General Curtis is outside and he has asked if he can speak with you." Jennings said pointing to the CIC main entrance with his thumb. Vanessa and Bojay turned to see the General standing watching them, he nodded to them.
"I didn't even realise he was still here." Bojay said.
"Did he say what he wants?" Vanessa asked.
"No ma'am, just that he wanted to speak with you." Jennings replied.
Vanessa sighed to herself, "Colonel if you would stay here and wait for them to return. Send him in Captain."
As the General walked onto the CIC all eyes turned to look at him.
"Admiral, thank you for agreeing to see me, I appreciate you must be very busy." he said with a smile.
Vanessa raised her arm to signal to one of the side rooms on the CIC.
"We can speak privately in here." she said.
As they walked into the room, Vanessa saw all of the equipment Mike used and she was hit with a twinge of sadness.
"What can I do for you?" she asked.
"You have been so trusting of us, I am so grateful, my family have done so many terrible things. I feel I must be completely honest with you if we are going to be allies," he took a deep breath, "I have six nuclear warheads onboard the Richmond." as he finished speaking he waited to be shouted at.
"May I ask what you intend on doing with them now we've joined forces?" she asked calmly.
He looked at her, she was so young to be in the position she was in. Despite that she seemed strong and he thought, wise beyond her years.
"I would like for you to send someone to the Richmond and collect them." he replied.
He noticed surprise on her face, "I can arrange that when we get to the other side."
He smiled now, "Thank you. I do not feel as though I am in need of them any more. You have a powerful ship here as well as other great warships in your fleet, I do not believe it will make us weaker, I know you will keep us safe. My son may not agree, but his opinion on this matter is irrelevant."
"In the spirit of continuing our new friendship and making it stronger, can I speak honestly?"
"Please!" he exclaimed.
"You're not going to like it." Vanessa replied.
"Admiral, we are soldiers, we are leaders who have to make hard choices. Whatever you have to say to me, no offence will be taken."
"Your son is a concern to me. His reaction to our initial meeting worries me. Now you're giving me your nukes, his reaction is playing on my mind." Vanessa said.
"My son is not just your concern, there is far too much of his grandfather in him. He believes they did nothing wrong. No matter how I have tried to educate him and tell him they were VERY wrong, but sometimes it falls of deaf ears. You do not need to worry about him, if he misbehaves I'll lock him up, worst case scenario I'll lock him up in your brig."
"I need to ask, are there many others who agree with him and feel the same?" she asked.
"My senior men and women, my lieutenant's and closet advisors think the same as I do. None of them worked with my father. As far as I am aware it's just him. However I am going to be keeping a close eye on everyone. My two closest men are doing the same. I will not tolerate anyone who crosses me and put lives in danger. Anyone who goes against my orders will feel my wrath and then, I will personally hand them to you to do with whatever you decide."
"You have no idea how happy I am to hear all that." Vanessa replied.
"I wanted to say, I have introduced myself to your President, she seems very capable."
"She is. She's new to the job, but she is the right person for it."
"I have no doubt. She introduced me to her brother and husband, they seem very protective." he said with a chuckle.
Vanessa smiled back, "Indeed they are, fiercely."
"One final thing Admiral, please give my best to Miss Harper if you see her. I am very happy she has managed to find her place."
"I will." she said smiling.
"Dropping our final NAV marker in 3, 2, 1." Tripswitch said.
It dropped from the bottom of the Raptor.
"All craft, we're moving to the back of the line." Dagger said over the COM.
She effortlessly pulled her bird upwards before stopping it dead. Underneath all three Raptors passed by them. When the last Raptor had moved ahead, she manoeuvred them behind it.
In front of them the passageway suddenly started to break away into two separate ones.
"Okay guys, I want the Raptors to wait here. Wedge and I will go ahead and see where these take us. I don't want to pick one and then have to turn back." Archangel said.
"Archangel, this is Buck, we could split into two groups and go with you both." Captain Anthony "Buck" Wilkins replied.
"Buck, I'd rather you guys wait here. We can go quicker by ourselves." Archangel said.
"No problem, we'll sit here and enjoy the view." Buck replied.
As the Raptors came to a stop the two Vipers pulled away and each took a different passageway. As Archangel flew, the passageway veered off to the right and into the nebula itself. Suddenly it turned sharply to the left and began to get wider and wider until it was five times the size. His DRADIS began to cut out and come back on before stopping completely. As he brought his Viper to a complete stop. He looked at the right hand side wall of the tunnel, it looked strange, unlike the rest of the passageway. Seconds later three massive forks of lightening fired out of the wall and into the tunnel, moments later radiation alarms began to sound all around him. If he hadn't stopped the lightening would have hit him and that would have been it. More alarms were triggered.
"Frak me." Archangel said as he silenced them all one by one he flipped his Viper 180 degrees and started to go back the way he came. He hoped Wedge was having more luck.
As he flew his Viper back into the main passageway he saw Wedge's Viper appear from the other.
"No joy this direction," Archangel said to the others, "There's an opening in the side of the passage wall, lightening from the nebula is coming through, if any of our ships were hit by it, it would be light's out."
"We're a go this side," Wedge said, "It's going to get a little tight in there for the bigger ships, but if they're slow and steady we should be okay."
"Here's hoping our luck holds out then." Buck replied over the COM.
"Okay ramblers, let's get back to rambling." Archangel ordered.
"Dropping the next marker." Buck said before they all moved on again.
General Magnusson walked along the corridors of what had become known as the "Alliance-star" Richmond. While from the outside of the warship it looked like an old Columbia class, inside it was very different. It was much brighter and the technology was much different to Colonial vessels, as they didn't have to adhere to the same standards and rules. As he walked his crew members stood to attention and saluted him. He didn't even notice them do it any more He realised that he was ignoring them and snapped himself out of his thoughts, he smiled and nodded at two female crew members, he saw immediately they seemed visibly surprised by this. He wondered if that would happen on Orion with Admiral Garrett. He chuckled to himself, no she more than likely smiled at everyone, she probably even knew all their names. As far as he could tell, morale was good onboard, but since speaking with Garrett, all the way back to the Richmond, he had thought of his son.
Despite being his father, he couldn't bring himself to say that he fully trusted Maxwell. He saw too much of his father in him and that was not a good thing. The anger and hatred of the Colonies had always been there, just below the surface. He would need to keep a close eye on him now, as much as he wanted to believe he wouldn't do anything stupid, he knew all too well that he had form. For now though he was going to sit back in his quarters, have a drink or three, smoke a cigar and read a book. For the first time in a long time he felt he could relax, even for a moment, now there was someone else running the show. As soon as he walked into his quarters he knew Maxwell was already there, he could smell the cigar smoke, only his son would have the nerve to take on without asking.
"What do you want Maxwell?" Silas snapped.
"I wanted to speak with you." He replied.
"Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow." Silas said pouring himself a drink.
"No it can't. How do you think this is going to work? The Eastern Alliance and the Colonials? It can only ever end badly."
"How many times do we have to have the same conversation? Everyone has been instructed to keep who we were to themselves, it worked on the planet and it will work here."
"What if it were to just, slip out to the wrong person?"
Before Silas knew what he was doing he had launched his glass across the room, it smashed into the wall next to his son's head. Silas just looked up at his father and wiped the drink that had splashed on the side of his face.
"EVERYONE is aware of the penalty if that were to happen." Silas snarled.
Maxwell stood up dropped the cigar onto the floor and straightened his suit, "I love you father, I really do, but you're a fool. Those who are loyal to the cause will only take your crap for so long."
Silas took a deep breath, "I love you too son, but I will make an example of you if you push me."
Maxwell turned and smiled at his father, "We'll see."
As he began to walk to the door, Maxwell spoke again.
"We will be handing over our nuclear warheads to Orion in the morning." he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Silas stopped dead in his tracks, "What?"
"We no longer need them." he replied as he poured himself another drink.
"So Garrett says jump and you ask how high?!"
"It was my choice son."
"You're not fit to command this ship or even lead our people." Silas snapped.
"Neither are you." Maxwell replied before taking a sip from his drink.
"Last marker is away." Lt. Malia "Hulk" Hale said over the COM.
"Great timing, looks like we're about to reach the threshold." Wedge said as they could see the end in sight.
"Four hours there, four hours back, gods I can't wait to get home for a shower." Tripswitch said.
Moments later the six ships flew out of the nebula.
"Oh frak me." Malia said over the COM, "Are you guys seeing this?"
"Oh this is really not good." Archangel replied.
Commander Knox had no idea what to expect when he was summoned to see Admiral Garrett. He was already on the defensive, he didn't like her, he wasn't completely sure why, but there was just something he couldn't put his finger on. It hadn't surprised him that Vanessa and Commander Hicks had become friends, women stuck together after all.
"Can I get you a drink?" Vanessa asked him as he sat down in her quarters.
"Water please." he replied.
"You're probably asking yourself why I asked you here." Vanessa said smiling as she handed him a glass of water.
"It had crossed my mind." he replied as he took the drink from her.
"When we reach the other side of the nebula and want to send someone ahead of the fleet to see what's waiting for us. It'll take astrometrics a few days to see what's out there."
"So you asked me here to tell me face to face why you're not sending the Trinity." he replied sarcastically.
Vanessa decided not to bite at his reply, "Quite the opposite," Vanessa replied, "I want to send you. You've been very vocal about having something to do, this I think, is it."
He was obviously surprised by this, he had honestly thought she wouldn't pick him for anything.
"Yes," he replied, "Yes we'll go ahead of the fleet, erm, thank you Admiral."
"You're welcome." Vanessa replied. "I have something to say and I need you to hear me, I have nothing personal against you. I've not been overlooking you when I have given Hicks temporary command. My intention was to give you all a chance. I know you don't like me, that's your prerogative and I honestly don't care, but it hasn't been personal."
Knox took a deep breath before he replied, "Firstly, I'd like to apologise for my behaviour so far," Vanessa noticed that seemed hard for him to say, "Also I'd like to say thank you for putting this faith in my crew and I. We won't let you down." He held out his hand when he finished speaking.
Vanessa shook his hand as she replied, "I appreciate that. I picked you because I know you'll do a good job. I've been reading your file and I can tell you're a good officer. So good hunting out there."
Hours later, Vanessa was the last person to make it to Orion's War Room. She didn't know what Archangel and the others had found, but she knew there was something.
Everyone was waiting for her, ready to hear what had happened.
"Sorry I'm late everyone," she said as she walked in, "How did it go?"
"All the nav markers are in place," Archangel said as a 3D image of the tunnel appeared in front of him, "It gets very narrow here," he said pointing to the tunnel, "If we go slow all the bigger ships will have just enough room to get through. Where things get more interesting is when we got to the other side."
"Why do I not like where this is going?" Bojay said.
Archangel changed the image to the gun camera footage taken from other side.
"From what we can tell, on the left-hand side, the nebula keeps going, we can't tell for how long. Now here's what could be a problem, there is a black hole on the right hand side."
"How close is it?" Commander Hicks asked.
"We can get past it, but once we get out of the nebula we can't wait to all regroup," Archangel said, "We have enough room to go single file. We can regroup approximately half a light year later."
"Here's hoping there will be no other surprises on the other end," Vanessa said, "If we get boxed in, we're fraked."
"Some good news though," Dagger added, "Once we clear the black hole, we have open space on the right side, we won't have to worry about that fraking nebula any more"
"Small mercies." Carrie said, "So are you wanting to carry on with the plan Admiral?"
She turned to Bojay who gave her a nod.
"Yes Madame President we are, we have no other choice." Vanessa replied.
"As we said before, Sulaco will go first. Once you've cleared the black hole hold up and wait for everyone else." Archangel said.
"Orion will be the last ship through and we're going to wait for the trailing raptor," Bojay said, "Once they're safely onboard, we'll catch up."
"When do you want to get underway?" Carrie asked.
"In the morning," Vanessa replied, "I want everyone to be rested. These guys have been in the cockpit for over eight hours and we'll be relying on them heavily tomorrow. So unless anyone has anything they want to add I suggest we all get rested up. I want Sulaco ready to go at 0900 hours tomorrow."
"I need five minutes of your time before I leave." Carrie said.
"Of course. Everyone else, you're dismissed." Vanessa ordered, "Is everything okay?" she asked as Carrie walked up to her.
"Yes. I went to see Milo earlier. He has a request."
"Anything." Vanessa replied.
"He's going to be on the Medstar for a while longer, but when he's able to leave he's asked if he can come and stay here on Orion, he wants to be near Jasper." Carrie said.
"Of course, he's always welcome here." Vanessa replied.
"I'll let him know, thank you. There is one more thing. I wanted to ask if there's anything I can do, I'm feeling a little out of my depth with everything going on."
Vanessa smiled, "We're all good, everything is under control."
"That's good. If there's anything I should be doing that I'm not, will you let me know?"
"Of course."
"Hunter!" Archangel heard as he walked to his quarters. He turned to see Alisa and Penny walking up to him.
"Ladies, everything okay?" he asked.
"Have you heard?" Penny asked.
"Heard what?" Archangel replied.
"Because Knox has been a dick to the Admiral, we're being sent away?" Penny answered.
"Ah so it's you guys being sent ahead of the fleet." Archangel said.
"We've just found you guys and now we're getting sent away again, it sucks." Penny said dejected.
"It's not going to be forever and we'll be catching up every few weeks." Alisa said.
"If Knox were to have some kind of mysterious accident that happened to leave him in the morgue, would the Admiral pick a different ship?"
All three of them laughed.
"She'd still send Trinity," Archangel replied, "Like Stark said, it won't be for long. Oh and I feel as though I have to say this, Penny, please don't kill Knox."
She sighed loudly before smiling, "No promises."
Battlestar Sulaco Pilot's briefing room 0700 hours.
Captain Anthony "Buck" Wilkins, CAG of the Battlestar Sulaco stood in front of all of his pilots and ECO's.
"A lot of you have come to me worrying about today's mission. I'll tell you all what I've told the few I've already spoken to, there is nothing to worry about. I've already been through the nebula and as long as you all take your time and don't do anything stupid, yes Dropshot, I am talking to you," Everyone laughed and turned to look at Lieutenant Edgar "Dropshot" Ripley, who went bright red at the attention, he had a reputation for acting without thinking, "We'll all get through today in one piece. I've spoken to those of you who will be moving over to Orion for the day. Just keep an eye on each other and don't do anything to show up Commander Hicks or you'll have the XO to answer to."
Battlestar Trinity Pilot's briefing room 0706 hours.
Captain Alisa "Dagger" Stark stood in front of all her pilot squadron's.
"Okay guys settle down," Alisa said, "You all know what we're about to do, here's the part some of you aren't going to like, raptors 15 through 30, you're going to be heading to the Richmond. As they don't have any raptors of their own, you'll be joining the few from the Gunstar's and escorting the civvies through the nebula. When we get to the other side I don't want you to go back to Richmond unless you need to refuel. Remember the civvies are counting on us to get them through safely. As Penny and I will be escorting the Starburst through the nebula I'm going to be leaving Bottlenose in command of the Vipers and everyone left on board. I'm sure you all know by now, when we've all regrouped on the other side, we're going to be heading out in front of he fleet. Now I know some of you aren't happy about this but I'll let you know, I don't want to hear about it any more Ours is not to reason why, we do what we're told. Hold it together out there, I don't want anyone to give the Commander any reason to complain at me."
Battlestar Orion Pilot's main Briefing room 0708 hours
Archangel stood in front of his hundreds of pilots as he delivered the day's mission briefing.
"As soon as you've logged in with one of the civi ships, take it nice and slow through the passageway. You've all already got your pairings. Some of you may have noticed you've got the bigger ships in the fleet. Please triple check the notes Wedge has left in your packets. He's noted the exact coordinates of the narrowest parts of the tunnel. All in all this should be a cakewalk for everyone. Two hours after Orion has entered the tunnel, Hydra and Hardcore will pull up the rear and destroy all the markers one by one. Orion will wait for you guys on the other side. Some of you who will be on other runs keep going with them to the rendezvous point. Due to the closeness of the event horizon of a black hole we can't afford to hang around. All the Vipers who remain onboard who I haven't paired up, you'll wait around on the hanger deck, just in case. You'll all be reporting to Jawbreaker. Just don't get overwhelmed with what you see in the nebula and it'll all go fine. We'll begin launching within the hour. Dismissed." he said.
As everyone got up to leave Admiral Garrett made her presence known, "Archangel, Wedge and Jawbreaker I need a word." She said. As everyone else left, the last pilot closed the briefing room door behind them.
"Everything okay?" Archangel asked.
"We need to tell you guys something," Vanessa said looking at Wedge and Jawbreaker, "You especially Wedge as you're commanding the air wings with the Richmond," she sighed before she continued, "Some and it is only some of the people we just joined up with, used to be part of the Eastern Alliance, including General Curtis, who was the leader."
"Are you for real?" Jawbreaker asked in utter surprise, he turned to Archangel, "You knew?"
"It's complicated." Archangel replied.
Neither Wedge or Jawbreaker replied.
"I don't expect anything to happen, since the end of the first war there has only been one terrorist attack made by them and none of them under General Curtis. When the Cylons attacked, he and Adar were discussing terms for his people to rejoin the Colonies." Vanessa said.
"So the girl from the Rangler who you gave a job to, is she EA?" Wedge asked.
Archangel shook his head, "No she's not. I was there when she found out, she didn't know before we did."
"You both now know because I thought you needed to. You may not discus this with anyone else. If I'm wrong and they make a move against us, now you'll know why." Vanessa said to them.
"Thank you for letting us know." Wedge said calmly, "Please excuse us, we have to check over our Vipers."
Both men quietly turned and left the room.
"Have I just made things worse?" Vanessa asked.
"No, they'll be okay, I'll speak to them both later," Archangel replied, "For what it's worth, I'm glad you told them. Forget about this now, even if Magnusson was planning anything, it wouldn't be now, there's no advantage for him to gain."
"We just need to get through today without any surprises." Vanessa said with a sigh.
"It'll all be fine," Archangel replied, "Of all the things we've done, this is going to be a simple day, trust me." he said with a smile.
Archangel put his arms around Vanessa and kissed her on the head.
"We'll be eating dinner tonight before you know it." he said.
Commander Hicks walked onto the CIC and smiled at her XO.
"All decks report ready," Colonel Doyle said, "All Raptors are logged in and Vipers are in position."
"Let's get this show on the road," Hicks replied picking up her handset, "Put me through to fleet one please."
"Channel open." came the reply.
"Fleet one this is Commander Hicks of the Battlestar Sulaco, begin convoy in order, if any of you have any problems while we're in the nebula, please inform your Raptor escort and they will inform us. Once you're clear continue on to the rendezvous point. See you all on the other side." Vanessa put her handset down." Please inform the Admiral we're getting started."
"So have you heard about Trinity?" Doyle asked?
Clara nodded, "Apparently Knox is thrilled."
Doyle let out a laugh, "Shame the rest of the crew don't share his enthusiasm. Scuttlebutt is the squadron XO, who is also the Orion CAG's ex-wife has been overheard saying how she'd love to kill him for it!"
Clara laughed, "You know for such a hard arse, you're such a gossip. As for Captain Cooper, she can join the queue."
"It's one of the simple pleasures in life," Doyle replied, "Got to know who we're serving with."
"On that we agree. Oh and as for the ex-wife, it's just a rumour, apparently they're just old friends."
Doyle smiled, "Yeah that old chestnut."
Archangel finished checking his Viper. Considering what they were about to do could go horribly wrong if everyone wasn't on their game he was very relaxed.
"Major can I speak with you?"
He turned to see Luna standing in her new jock smock holding her helmet nervously. He smiled when he saw her.
"That suits you," he said, "What can I do for you Lieutenant?"
"I just wanted to say thank you for putting so much faith in me."
"Even though I was only in your Raptor with you for thirty minutes, I could tell there was nothing you needed to learn, you're better than most of the pilots already, you'll do fine."
Luna smiled, "I appreciate that Major, I'm sure I'll get my head around how the military works, hopefully."
"You're in Hydra's group, you can learn a lot from her. She'll cut you some slack if you mess up, I told her how good you are in the cockpit, the rest will come with time. We're in drastic need of good sticks."
"I won't let you down sir." she said.
"I know. My door is always open, Wedge and Jawbreaker can always be approached as well."
"I'm not going to lie, Captain Thomlins is terrifying."
Archangel laughed as well, "He's a big softy really, but more importantly, he's always ready to help. Right, unless there's anything else you need, I have things to get done."
Luna saluted and hoped she'd got it right, "I won't let you down."
Archangel saluted back, "I know."
He patted her on the arm as he walked past her. She felt much better now she had spoken to him. When she looked at her surroundings she felt at home for the first time in years. When she walked to her Raptor she couldn't help but smile when she saw her name already painted on the side, `Lt JNR Luna "Rangler" Harper`, things were finally going her way.
12 hours later
Vanessa stood on watch as the clock in front of her ran to zero. She had sent Bojay for some rack time earlier. Between them they had decided she would oversee the first two hours of the journey and then Bojay would take over for the last two hours.
"Admiral the first ship is away." Lieutenant Phillips said from the COM station.
"Thank you Lieutenant. Please can you open a channel to Captain Anders?" Vanessa replied.
She looked up at the Dradis monitor as she spoke. It was so strange to see so few ships on the screen.
"Channel open ma'am." Phillips said moments later.
Vanessa picked up her handset, "Hydra this is, Orion Actual."
"Actual, this is Hydra, I hear you." she replied.
"Are you sure you don't want a Viper escort? It'll make us all feel a lot better." Vanessa asked.
"Honestly it'll be a waste of time ma'am. I've been through there already, it'll be a fine. We'll play a game of cards while we wait for a couple of hours."
"Playing Hardcore will be like taking candy from a baby." Vanessa laughed.
"And that's why I don't mind waiting a couple of hours." she replied as she laughed.
"See you on the other side. Actual out."
"I knew I should have brought a book." Hardcore said quietly to himself.
Milo's bed had been temporarily been moved to one of the Medstar's observation rooms. If he had been able he would have asked Vanessa if he could have sat in one of the Raptor's as it passed through the nebula, this was a view he had not wanted to miss. Even though his life would soon be coming to an end, he was at peace with it. His only regret was that he wouldn't be there at the end when the Cylon's had been defeated and they had a new planet to call their own. He was pleased that he had at least played his part in getting them this far. It brought him comfort to know that Vanessa led the fleet and Carrie had taken over from him. He felt proud of how far both women had come. When he thought about where they both started nearly four years ago and where they were now and how he had helped them to realise their potential he couldn't help but smile. As he watched the stormy clouds of the nebula pass him by, his son walked in carrying two cups of steaming hot coffee. He took one and took in the smell of the rich Tauron coffee, he was making the most of all the little things while he could.
"Do you have your flask son?" Milo asked.
Jasper looked at his father a moment before reaching into his pocket. He took out the flask that had once belonged to his great-grandfather and opened it.
"I'm not sure what your doctor would say about this!" Jasper said with a smile.
"Son, I'm dying, a finger or two of whiskey in my coffee isn't going to make that happen any sooner." he replied laughing.
Jasper poured his father a generous amount of the Scorpion whiskey, his father's favourite.
"If we get caught, this flask belongs to you. Nurse Henshaw scares the fraking crap out of me."
"You're not the only one son."
Both men laughed.
"You should be out there son. Seeing this from your Viper." Milo said solemnly.
"I'm right where I want to be Dad, with you. I've told you already, I'm going to spend every last minute with you that I can." Jasper replied.
"You can't shirk your responsibilities."
"Dad we've been over this, Jawbreaker even told you himself. I'm not leaving my squadron short, we have enough guys to cover. So many people would give anything to see their loved ones again, we don't have much time left, I'm not robbing either of us of that."
Milo wiped the tears from his eyes that had started to fall.
"Okay." he replied.
"Right now, we're going to enjoy this view," Jasper said, "Before you know it you'll be back on your feet and back on Orion looking at the same grey walls."
"You make it sound so appealing." Milo replied chuckling to himself.
Hydra smiled from ear to ear as she packed her deck of cards away. Hardcore however looked very unhappy.
"Are you seriously going to take all that stuff off me?" he asked unhappily.
Hydra nodded her head, "If you didn't want to lose it all, you shouldn't have bet it. What is it you owe me again? Oh yeah, 300 cubits, 6 bars of chocolate and a can of Tauron coffee."
"It's my last coffee." Hardcore replied.
"Well if you're good I'll let you have some." she replied getting up and walking back to the cockpit.
"You're so kind." he replied sarcastically.
"And don't you forget it. I'll collect my winnings later on, right now, we have work to do."
As Hydra powered up the Raptor the countdown timer hit zero.
The small craft flew quickly into the nebula.
"Talk about deja vu." Hardcore said to himself.
"Bringing our weapons online." Hydra said.
"So do you think you'll be able to hit such small targets?" Hardcore asked.
Hydra turned and looked at her ECO, "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." she replied.
She turned back and chuckled to herself before opening fire with the Raptor's duel chain cannons, tearing the first NAV marker into little pieces.
As she turned back around to gloat, DRADIS began to bleep.
"DRADIS contact." Hardcore said.
Bojay walked onto the CIC, refreshed and ready for duty. He took a sip out of the steaming hot coffee in his hand and smiled at Vanessa.
"What's the SIT REP?" he asked.
"We're making really good time and over halfway through the nebula." Vanessa replied.
"That's what I like to hear," he replied, "Time for you to get some sleep."
"I've been looking forward to this since I got out of bed this morning. I'll grab a couple of hours now and then I'll be back when we clear the nebula."
"Not a problem." Bojay replied.
As Vanessa picked up her empty coffee cup and turned to leave, Lieutenant Phillips spoke.
"Admiral, I have Hydra on the line, she says it's urgent."
She sighed to herself and put the cup down before she and Bojay picked up their handsets.
"Hydra, this is Orion Actual, is everything okay?" Vanessa asked.
"Actual, Hydra," Vanessa and Bojay could both hear the fear in her voice, "Admiral, we have three Cylon Baseships on our six."
"How far away are they?" Vanessa asked.
"They're in weapons range Ma'am." Hydra replied.
"Have they fired on you?" Bojay asked.
"No Colonel. Because we're destroying the markers, they're using us to get through the nebula."
"That buys us some time," Vanessa replied, she turned to Phillips, "Lieutenant, please try to get through to Major Hunter, I want him in on this call."
Phillips nodded in reply.
"Can you out run them?" Vanessa asked.
"Negative," Hydra replied, "I'm already pushing my luck with how fast we're going. There is nothing else we can do."
Lieutenant Phillips gave them the thumbs up moments later.
"This is Archangel, Lieutenant Phillips has got me up to date. I'm going to head back to you now."
"Negative Major, when you reach the end of the nebula wait for us," Vanessa replied, she paused for a moment, "Do you have any suggestions?"
"I do," he replied, "Admiral,when you clear the threshold, you need to turn Orion around."
"I'd love to do that Major I don't like the idea of leaving Orion's engines at the mercy of three baseships, but as you know, as you're the one who told us, there isn't enough room." Vanessa replied.
"That's not strictly true Admiral. Turn Orion around 180 degrees horizontally, then do a 180 spin." Archangel said.
"Is that even possible for a ship this big?" Bojay asked.
"Bojay, Orion was built to take a pounding, she'll handle it," Archangel replied, "Hydra, when you get to the threshold."
"If." Hydra replied.
"WHEN," he replied, "You need to aim for dead centre of Orion's nose, that way we can hit the baseships with salvo fire until you're clear."
"Of all people Major you know a Raptor can't even take a single salvo shot." Vanessa said.
"If Hydra can hit Orion's nose dead centre then you'll be in a blind spot and they'll whizz right past you." Archangel said.
"We have a blind spot?!" Vanessa exclaimed.
"Only with just salvo fire, it's something I noticed the first time I saw Orion in a firefight. Hydra, firewall your throttle and as soon as you're able go vertical and you'll be in the clear."
"What if I can't hit dead centre?" Hydra replied.
"I'll park my bird where you need to aim for, that way you just need to aim for me." Archangel said.
"This is a big risk." Vanessa said.
"It's the only option we have and I don't intend on losing any of my friends today." Archangel replied.
Vanessa took a deep breath, "Okay, then this is what we do."
"Major, I need to ask you something." Hydra said.
"Anything." he replied.
"If we don't make it, I need you to tell Skeeter that my answer would have been yes." she said.
"You can tell him that yourself." Archangel said.
"Major, please." she pleaded.
"You have my word Jess." he said.
"Thank you." she said.
"Okay Mister Phillips I want you to keep this channel open and put Hydra on the speakers. Helm, as soon as we're clear you know what you need to do. May the gods be with us." Vanessa said.
Bojay picked up his handset, "Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the fleet."
