Chapter 12: She's a child
President Laura Roslyn was glad she'd taken the time to visit the Galactica and talk with the engineers to help coordinate fuel consumption in the fleet. There was such a shortage of tillium now that every scrap and scrape they could save was worth saving. When she was called up to the bridge, it was only a short walk.
"Evidently our strange companions decided to send an ambassador," Adama said without any preamble. "She's touching down in the landing bay with the fighters in ten minutes. I was just going to head down there."
"Do we know anything about her?" Roslyn asked, long-submerged diplomatic protocols surging to mind. The cancer might be eating her body, but it hadn't touched her brain.
"She said her name was Captain Tamsin Reece. Strange accent. Says an Admiral Fenway sent her out here, and talked about the Terran Federation, whatever that is. Does it sound familiar?"
"No, it doesn't. You're sure it was a woman?" It could be an alien.
"Sounded like one."
"Nothing else?"
"She wasn't very friendly." How inadequate a phrase.
"Threatening?"
"No, just wanted answers."
"I'm not even sure what the questions were," Tigh said. "Who the hell is this woman anyway?"
"That's what we're going to find out." The three people waited with Billy hovering in the background while the deck-crews prepared to receive and refuel the Vipers. Adama knew the drill by now, and within minutes all the Vipers were safely aboard and the landing pods were retracting.
The tiny figure in a red suit had been actually sitting on one of the Vipers, but managed an expert landing at the very edge of the landing bay, using suit jets to perfectly balance herself. Given that she was landing at the precise point where the zero gravity of space left off and the artificial gravity of the ship started, that was no mean feat.
She passed through the field of landed fighters with ease as they bay was pressurised. She shucked her helmet and looked around, examining everything around her minutely.
"She's a child," Roslyn said in surprise.
"She looks, what, seventeen?" Tigh said.
"And she's an ambassador?" Roslyn shook her head. "That's ridiculous."
Adama couldn't help thinking that even Zack had lived longer.
Author's note: I'm not taking too much notice of the series except for character development. It only started screening over here after I'd startd writing this, so where it conflicts - live with it.