In the void between stars
Six hours after battle of Hera
Admiral Taylor was reviewing the report provided by Major Shimerman. They had found thirteen civilian vessels and twelve had been capable of movement. A minority of the civilians had refused to flee with them! They had moved themselves to the disabled asteroid mine support vessel that had been left at Hera Fleet Anchorage.
Aerillon Conveyor, General Cargo, Crew 35
Phoebe Express, General Cargo, Crew 25
Emily Fitzgerald, Bulk Carrier, Crew 29
Kobayashi Maru, tylium tanker, crew 28
Princess of the Stars, cruise ship, crew 841, passengers 1,052
Eclipse, yacht, crew and passengers 70
Decent, mine construction ship, 23
Nostromo, towing vessel, crew 7
Tawasa, deep space tug / salvage ship, Crew 25
Black Samiko, asteroid mining ship, crew 245
Gold Samiko, asteroid mining ship, crew 243
49's Luck, asteroid survey ship, crew 57
The cargo ships were filled with tens of thousands of cargo containers. What was in them was largely unknown as the manifest was generic in most cases; just address for the container to be sent to and tracking number.
The Emily Fitzgerald was larger than Mars but its vast space was filled with iron and nickel pellets mined from asteroids.
Kobayashi Maru was a welcome addition and her commander had the sense to fill her tanks.
Princess of the Stars was good and bad news is that while she had no military value, she sheltered lots of survivors.
Eclipse was a rich man's toy but she had the virtue of being well built and well provisioned.
Tawasa was a Jack of all trades ship that one week would haul light cargo or another provide on-site repair.
Nostromo had massively oversized engines and FTL intended to move the largest of cargos. With the fall of the colonies Nostromo's crew abandoned their cargo; an industrial plant.
The other ships were all involved with asteroid mining.
After going through the details on the ships Taylor flipped to a new report prepared about what had happened after the fall of the colonies. Between the survivors found at the anchorage and recordings from the anchorage computers a fairly clear picture had been assembled. "By the Gods…" Colonial defenses had taken body blows with the destruction of Scorpia Fleet Shipyards and Picon Fleet Headquarters along with 30 battlestars lost in the opening minutes of the attack. Admiral Nagala had taken command and assembled a force of remaining battlestars but he too had been destroyed. During the slaughter President Adar had offered unconditional surrender to the Cylons but there was no response.
Taylor snorted at that move by the late president. No, the Cylons were not interested in conquest they wanted human extinction. Feeling shocked and cold, Taylor took a deep sip of some of his whisky. Returning to the reports with Nagala dead and no other flag officer left Commander William Adama of the Battlestar Galactica had taken command and sent the following message. 'To all Colonial units: Am taking command of fleet. All units ordered to rendezvous at Ragnar Anchorage for regroup and counter-attack. Acknowledge by same, encryption protocol Adama.' The message had brought a smile to Taylor's face. Adama was a respected officer in the fleet and one of the last of the Cylon War veterans. It appeared Adama had died too as a few hours later there were no additional messages from the Galactica.
In less than a day the Colonial Fleet and with it the 12 Colonies of Kobol had died. Over the next week the anchorage computers recorded civilian destress signals of ships being attacked and then silence. Mixed with the odd distress signal from smaller warships, vipers or raptors that had survived the first day's holocaust. At the Anchorage there had been as many as 34 civilian ships but taking refugee but the majority had fled for the depths of space shortly after the Cylons had been detected heading towards the anchorage. With the EM surge they produced when they activated their jump drives in the anchorage the move had been odds are fatal but they had clearly been desperate.
"We maybe all that's left of the fleet…" Taylor set the report down and finished his drink.
XXX
In the void between stars
39 Days since the Cylon attack
Taylor didn't know what to make of the woman standing at parade rest in front of him. She was wearing a solid gray utility jump suit, on the solider was a patch. "You are the captain of the Eclipse?"
"Captain and owner aboard, Meredith Vickers."
Taylor judged her to be between 35 and 45 with a weathered outdoors look. "I only agreed to meet with you because a majority of the other civilian captains have said you are in charge so…"
Taking the hanging ending as the invitation it was, "So I will not waste your time. What are your intentions with our ships and by extension the future of humanity?"
Slightly taken back by the blunt question Taylor took a closer look at the woman. "For now, keep most of you out of the way. I have some other thoughts about the Aerillon Conveyor and Phoebe Express."
"By thoughts I assume that means empty their cargo containers out and fill them at the next fleet storage site you hit." Reaching into her jump suit she pulled out a data card and handed it over. "Your man Major Shimerman appears to know his business but he asked the wrong questions and assumed we had sat on our hands for the last month. That disk is the inventory of what we identified of use aboard the cargo chips, what containers they are in and what we removed from the anchorage. Keep in mind that there are still a lot of containers for us to go through."
Taylor put the data card in his computer spending a few moments to bring up the reports it contained. From the way this Meredith Vickers spoke she sounded organized. A brief review confirmed it. A section labeled weapons caught his eye and a check caused him to take a double take when he took a look at the details.
"What did you have in mind for the nukes you took from the anchorage secure stores?"
"Escape plans. Whenever we cracked the codes, we were going to load a bunch on the Emily Fitzgerald, send it out of the anchorage first. Then detonate her in the Toasters face. Between the massive wreckage field created by all of the iron and nickel pellets plus the EM pulse I hoped it would blind the Cylons to allow us to escape." Vickers let out a frustrated sigh, "We hadn't had any luck with the codes but that's become moot hasn't it."
"Yes, it has."
Vickers smiled, "You can pick up the nukes."
"Oh, I intend to… but one more question for you. Where did you intend to escape too?"
"Beyond the outer Colonies. I assume by now the Cylons have slagged them down too so long-term flight is the only realistic option for us. Unless you think you can defeat them since you discovered whatever they used to sabotage the fleet..."
Taylor was a professional naval officer and his entire career had revolved about fighting and defeating the Cylons if war should ever break out. What had happened had sicked him but he was also a realist, "No we aren't going to be able to defeat them; flight is the only option." Feeling the meeting had gone well. Taylor decided to take the civilian into his confidence and the two shared their stories.
Meredith Vickers was the lone child of Peter Vickers the owner and founder of the Vickers Corporation. A multi-planetary conglomerate that started in pure science then branching to application of the research and the Cylon War created a mad hunger in the colonies for starships civilian or military didn't matter. Before the holocaust was visited on the 12 Colonies Vickers Corporation was in the top twenty of corporations worth hundreds of billions of cubits. Peter Vickers besides being a genius was a SOB as a father and spouse with a string of affairs and strained relationship with his lone child. Packed off first to military boarding schools far away and then later neglected as a young adult. In the end she was forced to claw her way up in Vickers Corporation Meredith had become a division VP and was waiting for her father to die so she could take the reins.
"I think my father lived on out of pure spit, he never understood that in the end a King must die so the Prince can reign."
That statement got a laugh from Taylor, "Or a Princess."
"Exactly but the Cylons have taken care of my inheritance and plans for the future. So its time to create new plans and new future, one that is away from here."
For a moment the mask Meredith had been wearing slipped and Taylor got a glimpse of anger that drove her. "Very well Captain Vickers I think we can work together; since the other captains say you are in charge my staff will coordinate with you on civilian needs."
Standing Meredith shook hands with Taylor and said, "I look forward to a long partnership Admiral."
XXX