Chapter 2
A/N: Hey, sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. I've been without internet for about a month and was also without my laptop for a few weeks ... fizzy drinks don't mix particularly well with technology ... Any how, things should pick up from here. There will be six chapters in total and then I'll start on another story, with new characters from a different variant of the game. I'd like to thank my unofficial beta, Gnat, for keeping me on track. Also, I own none of the characters or game mechanics.
"Yes, understood Sergeant. Dualla out."
Now that the engineers had declared the armory to be structurally sound, the staff could get back to work making ammunition again and the weapons racks could be restocked. In Cain's absence from the CIC, Helo had taken temporary command of Galactica, and soon Dualla would be in charge of overseeing the armory refit.
She was just about to leave her work console when she felt a hand rest gently on her shoulder. Karl Agathon wasn't usually quiet, far from it, but he could be incredibly stealthy when he wanted to be.
"Frak, Karl, you scared me!"
"Sorry, but I promise I didn't come over here to scare you. You know how oblivious you can be when you're focused on something."
"Yes, you're right," sighed Dee. "Anyway, I assume you're over here for something. What do you need my help with?"
"I want to start spooling the FTL drive. That jump didn't put much distance between the Cylons and us so I think we should be prepared for them to jump in. You're the only one I trust to update the jump co-ordinates on the system and to relay them to the civilian ships accurately."
"Sure thing, Helo. Don't miss me too much while I'm down in the armory." And with a subtle wink, she turned back to her console to initiate jump preparation. It wasn't long before the computer had been updated and she gave Helo a quick salute as she left the CIC.
Four hours after Galactica had led the fleet safely away from the Cylon swarm, the Admiral and the President of the Twelve Colonies were still locked in weapons control. Cain had spent the first hour pacing the room like a caged animal, but the ambrosia had eventually taken its toll on her ability to stand. She propped herself against the wall nearest to Roslin so they could continue talking. Their conversation had started out fairly formal and there was an unspoken agreement between them to keep the topics work related. However, as the level of liquid in the bottle fell so did the professional barriers built between them.
"I never had you down as the type to play Pyramid Laura."
"As difficult as this may be to believe, I had a real fiery temper when I was a teenager and the only way I could keep it in check was to channel my aggression into sport."
"What? A red-head like you, having a fiery temper? Never!" Cain smirked, her voice laden with sarcasm. However, Roslin noticed it didn't contain the usual acid tone that she had grown accustomed to. She looked up at Cain and found nothing but mirth dancing across her features.
"Oh hush. You can't tell me that you were never disobedient in your youth," Roslin retorts.
Cain quirked an eyebrow at the slight blush that was spreading across Roslin's face. She takes a swig of ambrosia before replying, dropping her voice to a husky whisper.
"I could tell you that, but we both know I'd be lying."
A heavy silence filled the room, both women very aware of how loud their breathing must be, although neither could wholly attribute it to the alcohol they'd consumed.
Roslin eventually managed to tear her gaze away from the deep brown eyes that seemed to grow darker the longer she stared. She stood and walked over to the small window, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves.
"It might be a wise decision to get some vipers back out, Helena. The fleet would take comfort in seeing that we're taking their protection seriously."
"That's not a bad decision. I don't trust the Cylons not to have followed us, so it wouldn't hurt to have an advantage if they do jump in. I'll check in with Doc Cottle while I'm at it, and see how Boomer's holding up."
Cain pushed off from the wall and strode across to the phone, her steps faltering slightly as her vision doubled. Shaking her head slightly, she managed to reach for the phone that actually existed and dialed down to the sick bay. One of the nurses picked up and passed the phone to Boomer at Cain's request.
"How are you feeling, Valerii?"
"Much better thank you, Sir. Just needed a couple of stitches and some painkillers."
"Good, we need all the pilots we can get. Before you head back to the hangar deck, I want you to go to command and pass on an order for me. Tell them to get a few vipers out, just in case the Cylons are tailing us."
"Aye, Sir. Is that all?"
"Yes, Valerii. Cain out."
Cain turned back to Roslin, draining the last of the ambrosia from the bottle she still held. She sauntered back across the room to the wall cabinet and pulled a fresh bottle from it.
"Care for another drink, Laura?" Cain asked, with a lopsided smirk on her face.
"I'd hate to turn you down, Helena," Roslin replied and Cain could have sworn that the President of the Twelve Colonies had just winked at her.
Boomer made it down to the hangar deck just in time to see the exhausts of two vipers disappearing down the launch tubes. She had decided to kill some time by checking over her raptor. It wasn't that she didn't trust the grease-monkeys; she just … didn't trust them to meet her standards. After pulling a boiler suit on over her uniform, she crawled under the wing and zoned out the sound of clanking metal as she went through her usual maintenance checks.
She had no idea how long she'd been working on her raptor when warning alarms sounded, signaling that vipers were coming back in, but gauging by her lack of progress it can't have been very long. Curious, she headed over to the deck chief to find out why the birds were being brought back in so soon after launch.
Cain and Roslin were completely unaware of the situation currently unfolding in the hangar deck. They'd managed to put away half the bottle of ambrosia between them whilst swapping stories of their youthful indiscretions. More than a couple of Cain's confessions had Roslin simultaneously blushing and rolling her eyes, inappropriate yet unsurprising as they were.
There had been a lull in conversation and they'd settled into an oddly comfortable silence, both of them lost in thought about the past. Cain looked over to ask Roslin another question, but the words on her tongue were immediately forgotten when she noticed that Laura was sleeping peacefully in her chair. Slowly, Cain rose from where she sat with her back against the wall and she shrugged off her uniform jacket. She walked as quietly as her drunken footsteps would allow her and placed the makeshift blanket over the slumbering President.
Boomer couldn't believe the news from the deck chief. The vipers hadn't been properly repaired after their last mission but were sent out regardless. She felt anger bubbling inside her. This would have never happened with Chief Tyrol still in charge. She was angry at the mechanics for endangering the pilots and she was angry at Chief for dying. Her vision blurred as tears threatened to fall, but she brushed them away quickly. She wasn't going to cry for him again, especially not in the frakking hangar deck of all places.
She grabbed a wrench and headed over to one of the newly returned vipers, determined to show the specialists how to do their own damned jobs. She had only just removed one of the engine covers when a warning siren blared and the comms system crackled into life:
*Action stations. Action stations. Set condition one throughout the ship.*
Frak! How have they found us so quickly? Boomer wondered as the hangar deck leapt into action. Pilots were frantically pulling on flight suits as readied vipers were maneuvered into position at the mouths of the launch tubes. Boomer quickly removed her overalls and ran towards the nearest viper, all thoughts of Chief and her headache fading as adrenaline coursed through her veins.
The atmosphere in Galactica CIC was every bit as charged as in the hangar deck, there were just fewer people running around. Helo had spotted an unidentified signature on DRADIS that had lingered for at least thirty seconds before vanishing. He knew other people in the room had seen it too and they were all now frantically scanning for it. After a few minutes, it became apparent that the ship wasn't returning any time soon and if it did, Helo highly doubted it would be alone. Its behavior was consistent with that of a Cylon raider scouting for their position.
Not willing to take any chances, Helo ordered the FTL drives to be spun up to maximum, ready to jump at a moment's notice. He picked up the comms handset and clicked the button on the side before speaking into it.
"This is the XO. Downgrade to condition two throughout the ship. I repeat, downgrade to condition two."
Down in the research lab, Baltar grumbled as Helo's voice shattered his train of thought for the second time in less than fifteen minutes. How he was expected to work in these conditions was beyond him.
"Having some problems, Gaius?" He felt a delicate hand on his shoulder and saw a glimpse of red over his shoulder.
"Oh, it's you. I was wondering when you'd show up. You know, I've been sat here, for weeks now, waiting, hoping to see you again, but I haven't seen you, not once. You can't keep frakking with my mind like this!"
"But Gaius, I am your mind. If you'd really wanted to see me, you would have done. It's not my fault your subconscious betrayed you."
"Ha, you're one to talk about betrayal! You betrayed my trust back on Caprica. You betra …" Gaius trailed off, as he was interrupted by a loud beeping coming from the mass spectrometer on the bench behind him. He walked over to it, punching in his access code to cancel the alarm.
Heels clicked against the metal floor of the lab as Number Six walked up behind Gaius, curiosity having got the better of her.
"What are you doing, Gaius? Trying to save the humans? Trying to make up for selling them out on Caprica? What about doing God's work? The One True God's work, Gaius?" She hissed viciously in his ear.
"You know what? I've had it up to here with your guilt trips!" Gaius exclaimed, as he slammed his hand down on the counter. "Well, do you know what?! I'm not taking it any more. I have made my peace with God and I refu-" Six grabbed his throat and tightened her grip, stopping his words and his air.
"Don't you DARE use God's name when you are so undeserving of his love!" She spat in his face. "Now, WHAT are you working on?" And with that, she released the grasp around his throat, throwing him to the floor.
Gaius stood, rubbing his neck. "Fine. If you must know, one of the crew came down with a strange virus. One we've never seen before. I was sequencing the RNA structure, with the hope of creating a cure in case it spreads fleet wide. This machine just isn't powerful enough. I can't even create a profile of its genetic structure, let alone create a cure!"
"And what does the virus do to the human body, Gaius? Why are the humans so deserving of a cure?" Six asked as she paced the floor in an attempt to calm down.
"Well without fully understanding its structure, I can't be certain but it currently has a one hundred percent mortality rate, so I'm betting it's not doing anything good! I'm going to have to speak to Admiral Cain about upgrading the lab equipment. I can't work in these conditions! I mean, she expects me to build a successful Cylon detector," Gaius ranted as he pointed at the machine in question, "and yet it hasn't registered a single result yet! With the number of samples I'm processing each day, statistically, there should have been something by now. But there hasn't been."
"Maybe this is God's will Gaius. Maybe He wants His children in the fleet to remain safe, which is why you can't detect them."
Before Gaius had the chance to respond, the comms system crackled into life.
"This is the XO."
"Oh for frak sake, what does Agathon want now?" Cursed Gaius.
"We have decided that the threat imposed by the Cylons is too great to remain here any longer. Please be prepared to jump imminently."
Gaius turned to face Six, to ask whether or not the Cylons really were following them, only to find that she was gone.
"Frak. I really wish you'd stop doing that to me."
The words had barely left his mouth when the Cylon detector began to beep. He ran across to the machine, knocking a rack of test tubes on to the floor in the process. He barely even registered the sound of glass smashing where he was so intent on finding discovering the cause of the alarm.
After tapping a few keys, the result appeared on the terminal in front of him. He gasped when he saw who the positive result was. Surely there's been some kind of mistake, he thought.
"Clearly God wanted this needle to be found amongst all the hay," whispered Six from behind Gaius, as she moved in to kiss his neck. "Maybe you do deserve His love after all."
"I really do wish you wouldn't keep disappearing on me. I much prefer having you around," Gaius groaned with desire, "and I'll show you why as soon as I've given the Admiral a very good reason to upgrade my lab." He extricated himself from Six's arms and walked across the room to the phone, careful to avoid stepping on all the broken glass.
"That was a very risky move back there, Agathon … jumping before the entire fleet had their FTL drives fully spun u-"
"I know, Admiral, I just thought that-"
"I really hope you didn't just interrupt me, Captain. That would be ill-advised. I admire your conviction and it was certainly precarious to endanger the fleet, but given the circumstances, I'd have done the same. You made a good decision. Don't ruin that by interrupting me again. Are we clear?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Good. I want sit-rep on that jump."
"Of course, Admiral. We successfully navigated another two sectors but we lost two civilian ships in the process. Their FTL drives failed, so we had to leave them behind."
"Very well. Carry on." Cain cursed quietly as she put the receiver down, not wanting to wake Roslin who was still dozing in a drunken slumber.
She was about to go back to her resting place against the wall when the handset buzzed again.
"What?" Cain barked into the receiver.
"Uh, yes, afternoon Admiral. Is there any word of when you're going to be freed from weapon's contr-"
"Get to the point, Dr Baltar."
"Oh, uh yes certainly. Well, you see, the Cylon detector has flagged someone up. I'm re-running the sample, just to be sure, but the current test results indicate that Sharon Valerii is a Cylon agent."
"Well, frak me! One of our best pilots is a frakking skin-job!"
"There's no guarantee she is at this stage, Admiral. It could be a false positive," Gaius was quick to point out.
"I'm not taking any chances!" And with that, Cain slammed the phone back down, disconnecting the call. She pounded on the door and yelled for the marines posted outside.
"Everything alright in there, Sir?" Asked one of the guards.
"No, it frakking well isn't. I want a team of you to go to the hangar deck and detain Lt. Valerii immediately."
"On what charge, Admiral?"
"Charge that thing of being an enemy agent. Throw it in the brig and leave it there to rot. Understood?"
"Yes, Sir."
Cain heard the distinctive sound of boots running down the corridor as the marines hurried to carry out her order. She sighed and slumped down against the door. This was going to be one hell of a hangover.
