Chapter Four: Sovereignty

The trial began rather quietly, the first day Baltar had been officially charged with Treason, Giving Aide and Comfort and Accessory to Murder. He was offered a chance to plead guilty which Gaeta had advised him to do, however after one of his famous "Baltar Pauses" he entered a plea of not guilty. Tigh then adjourned the trial for two days to allow both sides time to prepare. Yesterday consisted solely of the opening statements from both sides, outlining their cases.

During those two days, Tigh had led Lee through his day-to-day responsibilities as an Executive Officer, mostly the piles of paperwork. Tigh seemed rather annoyed not only with the idea of training Lee to perform his job but Lee's presence. When Lee confronted him about the unusually (even for Tigh) cold demeanor he was receiving, Tigh told him he continued to believe Cain was turning Lee against them.

Which was preposterous of course; however what Lee found preposterous just days earlier, now he had to wonder about. He had been manipulated, but not just by Cain. In fact, when compared to Roslin and his father, Cain had been almost forthright and truthful. She'd at least told Lee some of her sins, Lee had to ask his father about Tom Zarek a few days ago and after a moment his father explained that Zarek had been aboard the Astral Queen.

Adama had sent over Gaeta and Billy Kaikeya to discuss mining operations with the prisoners there and Zarek had used the chance to riot. Roslin refused to negotiate and allowed Adama to send in a marine fire-team led by Starbuck. Kara had gunned down Zarek when he put his gun to Gaeta's head. The remaining prisoners on the Astral Queen were more co-operative.

The whole situation was a mess; he found it interesting sometimes to note what kind of people the Gods had charged with finding Earth and defeating the Cylons. After all, were he to imagine a novel or movie with this plot, he'd be tempted to see that the people of the Fleet were good people, worthy of the Gods' favor. But it seemed that the Gods had left the survival of the human race in the hands of people who at their best were troubled and flawed and at their worst; small-minded and petty.

He entered Briefing Room Two, where the trial was held and took his seat. Lee then pulled out his notebook and pen before he took a brief moment to relax, which was becoming harder by the moment it seemed. In addition to the trial and learning from Tigh and the occasional shift in Galactica's CIC where he felt almost completely useless he and Kara had been ordered to put their "flirtation" on hold by the President.

With him assigned to Pegasus the frat regs didn't apply to them, but with him sitting on the Tribunal and Kara acting as the Prosecutor, Roslin felt it inappropriate for the two to be seen in public as a couple.

Neither of them were particularly happy about it and Kara offered to step down as prosecutor in favor of another officer but it seemed that she was best qualified to which she replied that all her experience with the military legal system was in Baltar's position. Lee was proud of himself for only snorting once at the remark but Roslin finally scowled at them both and dismissed them, ending the discussion.

However while Lee became twisted up with stress every time he caught sight of Kara on her morning run or covered in a fine sweat after a flight, she would just smirk and address him only as "Major Adama, sir" giving him crisp salutes and snapping to Cadet-perfect attention whenever he entered the mess or the rec room. It was like she swallowed the frakking reg book and Lee was going to kill her for it.

He broke from his musing when he realized the room was nearly full. Captain Kelly had taken his seat, at the table to Lee's right Gaeta was discussing something with Baltar who was now dressed in a bright red prison-jumpsuit. While at the table to his left Kara was seated with Thornton and Dualla and the two seemed to be explaining something to her.

There were a few members of the Press there; he didn't know any of their names but he did recognize a redheaded reporter from his time on Picon, Playa or something like that. The only other occupants were several marines posted around the room and the recording officer. The hatch nearest their table opened and Lee shot to his feet, "Attention on Deck."

Tigh entered and walked briskly to his seat, he set his dossier aside then spoke, "As you were." He took his seat and spoke again, "I call this trial to order, please note the time." The recording officer began transcribing him. He looked through the papers in front of him, "Captain Thrace, you may begin."

Kara took a drink of water and stood, "The prosecution has spent considerable time examining Dr. Baltar's computer and we have found several items of interest. I would like to call the prosecution's first witness, Dr. James Wilker."

She nodded to a marine at the far end of the room; the young woman opened the hatch and nodded. A moment later, an older gentleman entered the room. He wore a dark suit and was fair skinned with grey hair. The marine ushered him over to a chair and then held out a copy of the Scrolls and swore him in before he sat. Kara then spoke, "Dr. Wilker would you please state your full name and your occupation, at least the one you held before the Attacks."

Wilker nodded and spoke, "James Thomas Wilker, before the Attacks I was a professor of Robotics for Sparta University on Aquaria. I've recently been appointed as the President's Scientific Advisor." Lee noticed the man seemed a bit nervous; of course testifying at a hearing for charges of Treason might have that affect.

"Could you please list your qualifications?"

He crossed his legs to stop his feet from fidgeting, "I hold Doctorates in Computer Science and Robotics from Caprica University."

Kara nodded and held up a computer hard drive, "Dr. Wilker this is the hard drive from Dr. Baltar's computer which contains the Cylon Detection Program. We had you go through it line by line, what have you found?"

Gaeta rose to his feet, "Objection, this does not factor into the incident."

Tigh gave Kara an expectant look and she said, "Sir, it is my intention to prove first that Dr. Baltar is a sympathizer before I prove that he aided the Cylon's escape on Pegasus."

The Colonel nodded, "Carry on, Captain."

Kara nodded to Wilker; the man swallowed and gathered his thoughts before speaking. "I went through the program and found a sub-routine that I found suspicious. It looks rather normal at first; it shunts positive results and directs them to Baltar's email program for notification."

Kara nodded and said, "You said it seemed harmless at first glance, what did further inspection yield?"

"The sub-routine gives a false negative and saves a false test result to the hard drive."

Lee spoke up, "In layman's terms please."

"When the program determines a subject is a Cylon, it forwards those results to Baltar then falsifies the results so that the subject appears to be human. When I figured this out, I went back through the hard drive and I determined that this was not part of Baltar's original program. He modified the program to do this."

Kara frowned, "When?"

Wilker swallowed again, "It appears to have been changed on Shevat Twelfth."

"Were there any tests performed prior to this?" When Wilker nodded she pressed, "Do you have a name?"

"Lieutenant Valerii."

"But Baltar presented negative results to then-Commander Adama?"

Wilker nodded, "True, but there were encrypted files in his hard drive, one of them was Valerii's actual test results."

"Are you saying that Baltar knew Lt. Valerii was a Cylon?" Wilker nodded, "Therefore it is safe to say that Baltar falsified her test results, and indirectly allowed a would-be assassin to walk free on this ship?"

Wilker nodded, "Yes."

Lee felt the blood roar in his ears and he cast Baltar a dark look, his father had been shot because of this man. Had he been carrying his sidearm he would have put a bullet in him. His nails were digging into his palms and he realized belatedly that he had missed some of what Kara said, "-other Cylons?"

Wilker shook his head, "None."

Kara looked to Petty Officer Dualla who shook her head and said, "No further questions at this time."

She took her seat while Gaeta stood, "Dr. Wilker, is it possible that since Dr. Baltar has not identified any Cylon Agents since Lt. Valerii that he intended to inform the President and Admiral Adama?"

"Yes."

Baltar waved Gaeta down and told him something very quietly, when he was done Felix stepped out from behind his desk and spoke, "Dr. Baltar said that when he received the results, Lt. Valerii was in the room with him, is it possible that when faced with a Cylon sleeper-agent and the knowledge that he had blown her cover that Dr. Baltar panicked and falsified her results for her benefit?"

Wilker nodded, "Yes, of course."

"So Doctor, could it be said that hiding the results of Valerii's test was not the actions of a collaborator but rather a frightened man?"

"Yes."

Gaeta nodded, "Thank you Doctor. No further questions."

Tigh took a few moments before he nodded, "You're dismissed, Dr. Wilker. Prosecutor, call your next witness."

"Colonel, the prosecution would like to establish the extent of the danger the accused would have placed the fleet in by elaborating on the acts the Cylon had performed. We call a marine from Pegasus, Gunnery Sergeant Erin Mathias."

The marine opened the hatch and Sergeant Mathias entered. The fair-skinned marine's look was made more pronounced by her dessert BDUs, her blonde hair was pulled back into a regulation style. When she was sworn in and sat down Kara asked her to explain what happened on Pegasus the day of the Attacks.

The marine went into great detail; the Cylon in question had gone by the name Ensign Gina Campbell. She had been posing as Cain's Aide-de-campe for several months prior. She'd been a popular member of the crew with many friends and Cain had relied on her during her time on Pegasus.

It seemed this had been her job, as it would allow her to access command codes, the very codes she used to allow a squad of centurions aboard. Mathias went into detail about the bloody battle in the corridors that cost her nearly fifty of her marines including the Commanding Strike Officer, Major Tucker.

The centurions had been trying to make their way to Aux-Fire Control where Gina would use Cain's launch codes to detonate their nukes and destroy the ship. When the defense of the Fire Control station was successful, Gina took her remaining centurions to the port flight pod and attempted to ignite the fuel tanks.

The attempt had been at least partially successful and Pegasus lost over seven-hundred people while stopping the fires. It was sheer dumb luck that landed Gina in custody but not before she killed another seven officers.

When Gaeta was allowed to cross-examine, Lee learned that Lt. Thorne had taken the posting of Commanding Strike Officer and later Cain tapped him to interrogate Gina. When she proved to be uncooperative, Thorne started his more drastic measures eventually turning to torture and rape. Gaeta went on to ask if Mathias thought that the treatment might have unbalanced the Cylon to which she agreed.

When Mathias was dismissed, Tigh adjourned for lunch.

Lee left the briefing room and when he was out in the corridor someone bumped into him from behind, he then noticed fingers slip into his pocket for just a moment. He frowned and as he turned to reprimand the officer he locked eyes with Kara she smirked then said, "Pardon me, Major." She threw him a wink and sauntered down the corridor.

He reached into his pocket and produced a note consisting of two words, "Miss me?"

He shook his head and called out to her just before she turned the corner, "Yes!"

She turned and nodded then he noticed her make a motion with her hand to flip it over before disappearing around the corner. He found two more words, "Me too."

He chuckled and pocketed his note then turned and headed in the other direction. He had intended to pick up his lunch then stop by his father's cabin to talk with him but was stopped by a page. "Attention Galactica, pass the word to Major Adama, report to Medical. Major Adama, report to Medical."