==========BS-62 Pegasus (+214 Days Post Cylon Holocast)==========

Commander Adama stepped off his Raptor onto the hanger decks of Pegasus. As his boots hit the deck he pressed his shoulder back, cracking his back slightly from the uncomfortable and cramped ride in the cabin.

His son was standing on the deck with Starbuck, her characteristically too-large smile showing all her teeth. He let himself snort quietly when he saw her; she had pulled it off again.

He had no idea how she kept risking her life and putting her neck on the line only to come out on top time and again. He swore she was the luckiest woman in existence.

He walked and shook Apollo's hand, "Congratulations son. Your first mission as XO of a battlestar," he smiled. "Kara," he turned towards her, "good job on the SAR mission. You did great," he complimented, his voice quiet and stoic as usual.

"Thank you sir," her smiling expanding, "Admiral Cain is waiting for us sir in her quarters. She wants to plan a new op…" she trailed off.

She had turned to anticipate the Commander as he would have begun walking forward with her. But she saw the Commander glancing back towards one of the machines, Carter Bishop who was working with Chief Peter Laird inspecting a captured Cylon Raider. Two Marines stood a few meters back from the machine. Admiral Cain had granted them access to the ship , excluding restricted locations. And on the condition they were ankle tracking bracelets and be escorted by Marine guards.

After seeing what Planck and Soto had done on the Guardian baseship Starbuck was completely perplexed, and slightly agitated, that Cain didn't trust them. Ankle tracking bracelets and two Marines wouldn't stop them after what she'd seen.

"Sir-" she began, getting the Commander's attention once again.

Adama quickly turned. He had a faint smile on his lips before it fled, returning his face to the neutral, down-to-business expression he normally had. "Let me guess: the successful SAR mission has enabled you to convince her to launch the SAR to Caprica?" Adama asked turning his attention back towards them. His eyebrows went up as he turned towards Starbuck.

She always got what she wanted.

"Sir, we're going to head back to Caprica, rescue the people we have stranded there," Kara said matter-of-fact with a definite hint of pride.

Lee slowed his pace a little to get behind them. He had heard plenty of Sam Anders and knew the famous Pyramid player from the games and interviews.

He realized he was jealous, he admitted that. The way she had spoken of Sam Anders, the great pro-Pyramid player and how he had set up a resistance and was fighting the Toasters on Caprica… she was enamored with him, in love even.

Apollo had told himself he wouldn't let himself get involved with Kara like that again. But his mind kept racing back to when he said 'I love you' on Astral Queen after she returned from Caprica with the Arrow of Apollo. He told himself it was just an off-hand, brother-sister sort of love…

Major Adama was brought back out of his thoughts when he heard a little rumble from his father a minute after Kara had told him of the op to Caprica.

"The op I said wasn't realistic?" Adama reminded her. She smiled and looked at him.

The three walked in silence as they approached Cain's quarters. The Marines held a hand scanner to their identity cards and then entered the five digit access code to her quarters. Cain was standing as she always did with Shaw on her left and, to the surprise of Commander Adama, Planck across the room. Soto wasn't in there with them.

"Admiral," Adama said, greeting her. "Congratulations on a successful op. Two Raptor pilots recovered and fifty Raiders destroyed and a baseship. Impressive," he complimented, nowing his head in respect.

He had wanted to be on Pegasus, to see the end to a horrible experience which had haunted him for forty years. But Admiral Cain had insisted otherwise. A battle with a personal and past daemon could cloud one's judgment in battle, bias and influence one's actions. As ranking officer she had final say.

He still remembered the faces, the desperate and crying faces, of that man and woman who he had been so close to rescuing… the metal pipe he had wedged between the hatch and frame… he could feel it now, in his hands, forty years later. He balled his fists together and could swear he could feel the rusted piped cutting through his hands, like it had forty years ago, in the violent frenzy of his desperate attempt at freeing them….

He remembered their faces, and the pain and misery; it was etched in his memory. He would always remember their ship, the Diana. He would always remember how he had abandoned them. Even with their deaths avenged…

Commander Adama had always wrestled with the regret and guilt of not being able to tell the families of the Gemenese vessel what had happened. Command had classified what he had seen, top secret. It was a guilt which he had carried to forty years. He hadn't been able to save them.

The flood of memories had been quick, but it felt like miunutes, hours had gone by.

But as soon as he remembered everything flooding back in he heard Admiral Cain.

"Thank you Bill," she said accepting his compliment. As subtle as always he was able to snap back to reality without anyone suspecting.

"Admiral, before we begin I'd like to request that Sharon be-" Adama began before being cut off by a raised hand.

"Bill, I'm not going to let the Cylon out. I only let them out," she motioned to Planck, "because… because…" she trailed off and looked down. She quickly regained herself, "because of what happened and what we know. They're not Cylons."

"And the brig could not contain us," Planck added in. Cain just looked at him at the unwanted, unneeded, and unappreciated comment.

Adama just nodded his head. The other two Earth machines, Carter Bishop and Jo Soto had verbally spared with Admiral Cain and President Roslin over the status of the Sharon Cylon too many times. Planck had been more reserved and diplomatic. The other two seemed concerned with pointing out Colonial hypocrisy more than helping Sharon. The one here seemed more concerned with Sharon, and even with the treatment Gina had received.

Commander Adama knew that the three Terminators had spent a lot of time with Dr. Baltar trying to help him with Gina and visiting with the Sharon Eight.

He turned his attention to the machine, 'John Planck,' who always seemed to be the representative of the three. Cain was including him in all the command staff meetings and strategic discussions. It was unsettling to have him ever present, but Cain had been firm. And he wasn't going to alienate her and destroy the still-strained working relationship hey had taken so long to develop. The tension and awkwardness of the first few weeks seemed to be over as each accepted the other's authority and experiences.

Cain had overall command of the fleet, but Galactica was Adama's command. The crew integration with Starbuck as Pegasus CAG and Apollo as XO had been the extent of senior officer integration. Sixty sailors from each battlestar had been transferred to the other, but they were low-level technicians and specialists.

Since Cain was his superior officer he had to accept the machines being there, listening. But he admired President Roslin for sticking to her principles and refusing to have them present except when dealing with military situations. Planck had offered to use Bishop as a liaison to help coordinate resource usage in the fleet. Roslin had dismissed the offer with a wave.

She had told them that they didn't need walking machines, pretending to be human, managing their day to day living. Humans had made due without them from some time.

Adama looked over towards the machine in the corner. At least the Cylon Centurions were clearly robotic, machine in nature. The strange, synthetic flesh covering the endoskeleton, the combat chassis as they had called it, made Adama uncomfortable. And at least the Cylons like Sharon were basically human, except for some physiological changes… the image of Sharon placing the fiber optic cable in her arm still sent silent shudders down the back of Adama.

But Commander Adama had realized some time ago that they were trying to help the fleet. He still didn't trust them. He could tell there was some other hidden agenda. He thought what they were doing was like giving a dying man wandering in the desert water before blowing his brains out. And just because a machine had skin and helped out didn't mean it was worthy of trust. Especially since he knew in his gut the machines, 'endo-toasters' as some crew called them, had an agenda they were not divulging.

He remembered that Helo had been pressing him to release Sharon. Helo had made the point to Adama it wasn't fair having three machines running around while Sharon was still locked up. He was right. The three machines even raised that point and supported Helo. John Planck was even one of Helo's friends and had been before discovery.

Adama mentally shook his head and rolled his eyes. Helo was just great at picking friends.

But Admiral Cain still claimed ultimate authority over the known Cylon agent. Adama had no doubt her personal relationship with the Model Six, Gina, was clouding her judgment concerning Sharon.

Planck stepped forward and cleared his throat. Adama, turning quickly to look towards Planck was still disgusted by what he saw. He wasn't filled with the hatred he had when he first discovered him and the other two. Even as an atheist he considered the three machines… unnatural and an insult to humanity. Adama also noted how his hand had had almost all the skin stripped off. The metal fingers reflecting the overhead lights gave off a very eerie and unpleasant atmosphere in the room.

"Planck informed me that the situation has change, Commander. He hasn't gone into much detail, but he says that he needs to go back to the Colonies, to Delphi." She looked at the machine standing opposite her. She turned towards Starbuck. "And we can allow Lt. Thrace her rescue mission," she added in, nodding to her.

Cain didn't notice but Captain Shaw looked towards the antique gun racks rolled her eyes at her complimenting Starbuck.

"Admiral, the amount of jumps to Caprica makes this unrealistic. Over two hundred and fifty, we couldn't possibly leave the fleet undefended for that long. It would take both our ships to engage the Cylon fleet and hold them off to mount a rescue and go to Delphi…Delphi?" He asked.

Planck stepped forward and one of the Marines shifted. The Pegasus crew was extremely uneasy having the machines so close to their CO.

"Sir, if I may?" Starbuck jumped in. She waited for Cain to nod at him to continue, but had directed the question towards Adama. "Sir, the captured Cylon Raider, the one I captured, we can use that to increase the accuracy of the FTL jumps. Even this far from the Colonies we could get there in maybe a dozen or two jumps in Raptors, but we need…" she trailed off and looked towards the Admiral, "but we'd need Sharon Valerii, sir.

"Lieutenant Bis- excuse me, Carter Bishop, has been talking with Sharon aboard Galactica. When he told her of a planned mission Sharon recommended we use the Raider. If she hooks into its navigation nodes that we salvaged a few months ago, she says she could provide accurate jump coordinates to get the Raptors to Caprica in less than two dozen jumps."

Adama was extremely uneasy with this mission. The Colonies were hundreds of light years behind them and no one knew how many Cylon baseships and Raiders were waiting in between and in orbit of Caprica. "Admiral, Starbuck, as much as I want to get those people off of Caprica, there is still a slim chance of this op succeeding. Even jumping into the Mackton Valley like you suggested doesn't guarantee that the Cylons wont have patrols in the air searching for the resistance fighters. We also have no gurantee those men and women are still alive," he looked towards Starbuck. He could tell her personal feelings were directing her actions, her thoughts. She was the best Viper pilot he had had, but her emotions…

"Commander, I have considered the risks and the benefits. I think going back and rescuing those men and women would be the right thing to do." She paused as she tapped her fingers on the waist-high glass table dotting her quarters. "We go in fast, under their DRADIS, get those people and get out. It'd be a welcome morale boost to the fleet and our men and women. Wouldn't you agree, Commander?" Cain asked. "Gods know we need all the little victories we can get…" she trailed off, lost in thought.

Commander Adama took a moment before answering, running the probabilities of likely success in his head. His keen tactical skills and experiences told him it wasn't impossible. If they could get there is so few jumps and back, the Raptors would have plenty of fuel and shouldn't be gone for more than a week. But sending twenty Raptors, nearly half their birds, was an extreme risk.

The Old Man had an impeccable ability to read others. He sensed there was something more behind this rescue mission. "Admiral, may I have a moment alone?"

She nodded and motioned for the rest to leave her quarters.

"What else is going on here, Admiral?" Adama asked, cutting right to the issue. "This is a lot more than a rescue mission. Starbuck was able to fly in under their DRADIS and steal that arrow. But we can't seriously believe that we can pull it off again. And with just twenty Raptors?" He challenged. He took off his glasses, holding them between his fingers. "As much as I want Starbuck to get those people back-"

She cut him off with a quick swipe of her hand. "Bill. There is a lot going on here. I'm not sure if I completely understand it all or will even pretend to. You heard what those three said in the brig over a month ago. We have to do something." She balled her right fist and moved it up and down, biting her lip as she nodded her head, like she was finally understanding a point which had alluded her. "Gods… there is something fraked up about this," she shook her head. She looked him in the eye as she turned to face him. "Yeah, I know, you don't trust them. I know. But they have offered us a serious chance to give the Cylons a kick in the ass." She took her hand and punched her left palm, "and by the Gods we have to take it. If they screw us over Bill, we'll be ready. But we have to take this opportunity."

Some of what the machines had said was… disturbing, true, but Adama didn't believe that wasn't an excuse to just blindly put faith in them. They might be able to give the Cylons a bloody nose, but Adama did not see it as worth it if they put the fleet and his men in danger. The risks didn't outweigh the benefits.

But in the short time he had known Cain, he knew her view on risks and benefits was quite… different from his own.

While he was opening up to the Sharon copy, evening discussing with her the finer points of Cylon-Human hatred in his quarters, the three machines he still could not accept. At least Sharon appeared completely human, inside and out. Every time Adama saw the three 'Terminators' as they called their machine 'race' he couldn't look at them without remembering the skin ripped off their faces. After Planck had returned from Kobol, half his metal face exposed, the metallic grin under the flesh and the glowing eyes all Adama could think of was evil. And here, seeing the tears in Planck's skin again after the Guardian mission only cemented his distrust.

'Terminators.' They claimed to be free machines, holding life sacred. Yet Adama found it damn odd they couldn't think of a name for their 'race' which didn't involve mass destruction and death? For a 'free thinking' race of machines they seemed to him to be extremely confined.

"I still don't believe their entire story, Admiral. But if you want to mount a rescue mission, Admiral that's your call. I'll support the decision either way," he affirmed.

Cain nodded her appreciation towards him. Their professional relationship had begun with a rocky start but had grown into one where the two at least respected the others' decision. After Admiral Cain reversed some of her ship transfers and consulted Adama before making more he had been more accepting of her leadership. She was very strong-willed, willing to take dangerous chances to achieve a mission. Adama respected that, but also feared it. Cain never expressed any desire to lead a rag tag fleet of 50,000 civilians. Adama was afraid she still didn't realize the war had been lost six months ago, that they couldn't win, that they needed to find Earth. They needed to flee.

Hopefully she was coming around to that realization.

"Bill, when Pegasus found you all you told us you wanted to get to Earth. After we took out the two baseships and resurrection ships, I conceded the point. I want to go back to the Colonies and kick the Gods damned Cylons out, but we can't," she conceded. Commander Adama and President Roslin had been trying for weeks to convince her to stop attacking the Cylons and instead concentrate on saving what was left of the Twelve Colonies.

"Admiral, I'm not sure if going to Earth is the best course of action anymore," he too conceded. "If you believe what those machines tell us-"

"And I do," she interjected strongly.

"Then Earth is a wasteland. We saw what these three can do. And there is an entire planet full of those fighting machines which make Centurions look like children's toys." He had used Earth, which he believed didn't exist, as just a rallying point for the fleet when he claimed to know its 'secret' location all those months ago. "Would it even be any better? We're hearing there because we have no place else to go. But the way it's been described, and the images they've shown… many would think it is a living nightmare," he warned.

He didn't know if the civilians in the fleet could go from running from the Cylons to have demonic, crimson-eyed skeletons made of near-indestructible metal chasing them.

If anyone had realized and really looked at what he had said, like Starbuck had done before going to Delphi, they would have realized he was doing nothing but lying to the entire human race. Or what was left of it. Fleet command knew the "secret" location of Earth? Only commanders knew? He never expected the lie to last for so long. But the people had just… accepted it.

"I thought about providing their resistance with military aide if we do reach Earth," she put forward. This surprised Adama. The military resources were already spread thin.

"Sir, we couldn't possible help them. They don't even have starships," Adama said. "We'd create a new enemy with the Cylons following us. Plus, they have no way to actually helps us," he pointed out.

Galactica and Pegasus could potentially perform orbital strikes against Skynet facilities or destroy satellites in orbit. While none of the three factions on Earth possessed spaceflight to the degree of the Colonies, it was very clear to Adama they did have weapons of war were more advanced than what the Colonials possessed. The three Terminators could not provide intelligence detailing the state of Skynet's nuclear arsenal and if any missiles had (logically) received upgrades for ground-space strikes.

"No, Bill, no they don't. But they're hardly defenseless. And this Skynet and the weapons they described…" she straightened up and eyes widened. Adama knew she had spent a lot of time with the machines alone. He didn't know everything they had told her. "They don't need starships…"

A/N: There was some discussion about how the three Terminators would be helping Baltar with Gina. Baltar is pretty good at manipulating people and when he was treating Gina in front of others he acted very caring and kind. He wasn't trying to have sex with her like when he was alone, later on. So with the three Terminators he is actually trying to help her psychologically.

They are helping because rape is inexcusable. The Terminators see what Pegasus crewmen did as cruel and vindictive. Terminators are not cruel. They may have tortured her for information (yeah, a contradiction about not being cruel, but this is from a Terminator POV) and then if she didn't talk kill her. Basically a brief torture, see she wasn't cooperating, then break her neck. No prolonged torture, no six months of what she put up with. They might be free machines, but deep down Planck and Soto and Bishop are still killing machines.