Chapter 19: Supplies to spare
That bitter statement caused silence around the table, but the people around the rest of the bridge were chattering softly to each other. Earth… Earth… Earth…
Tamsin shook her head. "What's the situation on your fleet? What kind of armaments, how many people..."
"Just under fifty thousand people," Roslyn said. "That's all there is left. The Galactica is the only ship that's armed."
"And supplies?"
"We're running low on everything," Adama said heavily.
"I can imagine," She said.
"No, you can't," Tigh said.
She stared at him pointedly. "You've never heard of El Alamo, I suppose? It's a planet about thirty light-years out from Stella Nova, where we base one of our fleets. During the war, it was blockaded for a year and half just after we'd put more than fifty thousand troops into there to augment the hundred thousand already there. We had supplies for two months. Eighteen months later, the blockade was broken and the supplies came in again. I was there, working with the wounded and fighting at least once every week. We spent most of our time getting one small meal a day and never mind what kind of hours we were working or if we'd been fighting. It was a good day when we could eat rat. Medical supplies ran so low it became quite normal to take the seriously wounded and offer them a quick death because we had no painkillers at all. Most of them said yes." Her face was utterly, horribly blank and her tone was deadly flat. "There were less than twenty-five thousand of us left alive when the blockade was lifted, but we held the base. Oh, yes, Colonel. I can imagine your supply situation quite well. At least none of you are starving to death yet."
"Why didn't you surrender?" Gaida asked, a little intimidated.
"To the Kangas?" Reece snorted. "You've never fought them. When you fight the Kangas, you save the last shot for yourself. Being captured alive is the worst thing imaginable. Giving mercy to your comrades is mild in comparison. I've seen what they do to their prisoners. We never surrender, Lieutenant. Never."
She looked around the table. "Well, that killed the conversation, didn't it?" She asked, almost mercurial in how cheerful she became suddenly.
"Yes," Lee Adama said, fumbling for words.
"Sorry. It's - a sore point with me. I've never known anything but war. It's one reason I didn't leave when my term of service was up. I've forgotten what it's like to be a civilian." She shrugged awkwardly. "Now, with regard to supplies, we can probably find quite a bit of food, water, medical supplies and the like - that falls under the heading of humanitarian aid, and we're not only inclined to help that way but under standing orders to do so. I'll need to talk to the Admiral and our quartermaster, and talk with your doctors to compare what kind of medical supplies you use - there's no point in, oh, providing drugs to treat diseases you don't have, for example."
"Speaking of which, are you likely to get sick?" Roslyn asked. "I don't know much about medicine, but the threat of cross-contamination..."
"We don't need to lose any more people," Tigh rumbled. "And we don't have enough medicines to treat an epidemic."
"I've got a very active immune system," Reece said with an odd secretive smile. "I couldn't catch a disease if I tried. I've never so much as had a cold."
"That's impossible," Baltar said.
"No, not really," Reece contradicted. "Just useful. Don't worry. I'll talk to your doctors eventually, but disease is one thing I don't have to worry about giving or getting." Lee got the distinct sense she wasn't telling the whole truth.
"That would be most useful, Captain Reece," Roslyn said. "But these supplies..."
"You need them, but you don't want to be beholden to us?" Reece asked. "No, it's alright. I understand better than you might think. We usually keep large stores of such things on hand anyway - that's a legacy of the war, having emergency supplies. We can spare some. Although actually, I think what you need more than supplies is a means of being self-sustaining. Right?"
"Yes. We're not producing half of what we use."
"It's a classic economical problem in establishing colonies," Reece nodded. "Better minds than mine have written books about it many times. Below a certain population level it's hard to maintain a high level of technology and you've got all sorts of other things to worry about and run down your resources as well." She paused, staring off into space. "Just out of curiosity, when the Cylons destroyed your colonies, exactly how did they do it?"
Author's note: I promise, there are longer chapters and some decent battles coming soon. Sorry the updates are so far apart, but life and making a living keeps getting in the way.