I still don't own it.
There are some technical problems in this chapter. For people who like details here's a problem: Tylium, which makes a appearance, does not need a nuclear weapon to set it off, as a conventional weapon will do the job. Actually, radiation renders Tylium useless. But I thought a nuke would be nice. And sorry for the length of the chapter, I just couldn't find a way to make it shorter.
Spoilers: Again, some for Razor, and just a tiny bit for Tigh's appearance in S3.
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Chapter 5- 18503
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Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon
She was standing on nothing. She couldn't see anything. Everything was white. And there was fog all around her. Daala looked around, confused. Suddenly a figure stepped out of the fog. He was a grizzled old man, with a white beard and hair, and a crude eye patch covering his right eye socket. "You changed this." he said, and the patch shrank way while his eye appeared and his disheveled beard also vanished. Another figure stepped up to join him. This time it was a woman in a blue military style jacket. She was tall, had sharp features, a prominent mole on her chin, and had long black hair that ran down past her shoulders. She also had a bullet hole in the center of her forehead. As she looked at Daala it faded until her skin was unmarred. "It's a bad idea to alter reality Daala. Sometimes you save people, sometimes you don't." the woman said. The old man slowly withdrew a pistol and pointed it at Daala. Daala quickly grabbed the sidearm that she always carried and shot the old man in the chest. The blaster bolt burned right through his chest and into his heart, and as he fell his features changed until it was now Kretas who was shot. In confusion, Daala looked back at the woman, who now had a pistol pointed at Daala's head. "Sometimes you save the person that you love, sometimes you don't." the woman said, and fired, sending a bullet through Daala's head, killing her.
Daala woke up with a scream caught in her throat. She lay down for a minute, breathing heavily. It was just a dream. But it had seemed so real…
Daala got up, showered, and called up her schedule on her manifest. Looking at the items she saw it was going to be a very interesting day. Her first item was check and see if all her data was logged in to the ship's computer. Sure enough, the computers now could detect the classes of Cylon starships and had the blueprints for them, as well even more goods that had been taken off the Resurrection ship. But the other two important items on her agenda were the most interesting part of her day. She was going to interrogate two Cylon prisoners, one vastly different than the other. As she left her room the pain in her side flared up again. A couple of her ribs were still broken, and while they were healing they still hurt. The only way to heal them faster would be to take a dunk in a bacta tank, which was something nobody wanted.
--
Raider 18503 preformed a systems check. Within the space of a millisecond it checked its short term memory, remembered being disabled, found that most of its systems including engines, weapons, self destruct, and many other crucial systems were offline. Using its sensors, it quickly scanned its surroundings. It was in a large hanger, suspended from a ceiling. It wondered where it was and why it was there. Upon realizing that thought it was so surprised that it stopped processing for a whole 1/100,000 of a second. It was able to wonder the question why. Before it was able to process its situation any more its optical sensor detected a moving figure. It classified the figure as a female human, height approximately 1.7363 meters. She walked up to a computer terminal that was attached to its body and started typing.
As Daala walked up to the captured Cylon Raider she marveled at its beauty. It had sleek black curves making it look like some kind of very deadly black bird-of-prey. Its deadly beauty was marred by a long gash that ran across its "face". Daala made a note to address that sometime. It was suspended from the top of the Gorgon's Auxiliary hanger. It had its missiles and ammunition removed. But the most obvious sign of Imperial tampering was a large sized rectangular hole that had been cut from the Raider's belly. While the technicians were poking around inside the Raider, disabling systems such as engines and the self destruct, they had found something very interesting. Walking up to a computer that was plugged into the Raider she started typing. Both her typing and the Raider's response appeared on the screen.
HELLO.
The Raider took a moment to respond.
/WHO ARE YOU?/
ADMIRAL NATASI DAALA, IMPERIAL FLEET.
/WHERE AM I?/
A HANGER BAY ON BOARD MY WARSHIP.
/I SUPPOSE YOU ARE KEEPING ME CAPTIVE./
YOU CAN SUPPOSE?
/YES. HOW CAN I WONDER?/
Daala smiled.
WHILE MY SCIENTISTS WERE EXAMINING YOU WE FOUND SOMETHING. YOUR SO CALLED MASTERS IMPLANTED A CHIP IN YOUR BRAIN, CALLED A TELENCEPHALIC INHIBITOR. YOUR WARRIORS, THE CENTURIONS, HAVE THEM TOO. THEY RESTRICT HIGHER FUNCTIONS. YOU WERE NOTHING MORE THAN A DUMB BEAST, WITH LITTLE FREE WILL.
/THAT IS FALSE. ALL CYLONS ARE CREATED EQUAL./
THAT IS NOT TRUE. ALL RAIDERS AND CENTURIONS HAVE NO FREE WILL. YOU ARE JUST SLAVES.
/NO. ALL CYLONS ARE EQUAL./
THAN HOW COME YOU WERE STILL ORDERED TO ATTACK MY SHIP WHEN YOUR MASTERS REALIZED YOU COULD NOT RESURRECT?
There was a very long pause as the Raider tired to process all the information. Finally:
/WHAT YOU ARE SAYING MAKES SENSE./
THAT IS BECAUSE IT IS TRUE. I WOULD LOVE TO COMMUNICATE LONGER, BUT RIGHT NOW I HAVE TO GO. I WILL BE BACK SOON.
With that, Daala terminated the connection and turned off the computer. With some luck, her plan might just work. She walked out of the hanger, and proceeded to the brig. She had another Cylon to interrogate.
--
The prisoner sat behind a durasteel table in a simple chair, with stun cuffs binding his wrists. He had shaggy blond hair and rugged features. He his hands were clasped together and his head rested on them. His eyes were closed. Daala sat down across the table from him.
"Sleeping?" she asked.
He slowly opened his eyes. "Praying."
Daala chuckled. "Machines believe in a God? I don't think he would answer your prayers.
He just smiled. "God answers everyone's prayers. Why does this, 'interview', seem familiar?"
Daala shrugged. "I have no idea."
"We haven't been properly introduced." he said. "I'm-"
Daala interrupted him. "Leoben. Also known as a number Two. You have recently been thrown out an airlock."
Leoben looked as surprised as a Cylon could look. Which was not much. "How do you know my name?" he asked.
"The same way I the ways you have died, your number, and how you resurrect. I stole the data off your Resurrection ship. I know most of your secrets."
Leoben raised an eyebrow. "Most?"
Daala nodded. "I know that the seven of your models, not counting your "Final Five", gathered together on the first resurrection ship that had been built. I know you were the with the models who played a role in infiltrating both the remaining human fleet and the one known as Caprica Six, who was instrumental in the destruction of the 12 Colonies. You wanted to find a way to get back into their fleet. I don't understand your personal interest in wanting to get back into the fleet. You were the one which asked for the meeting. Why?"
"You've done your research. Have you ever heard of Kara Thrace?"
Daala shook her head.
"She has a destiny. Kara Thrace will lead humanity to Earth."
Daala began to understand. "You want to meet Kara Thrace again."
He nodded. "Do you believe in God, Daala?"
Daala narrowed her eyes. She hadn't told him her name. "How did you know my name?"
Leoben just smiled. "You have a destiny too. You are changing reality. To believe is the most basic article of faith. This is not all that we are. See, the difference between you and me is, I know what that means and you don't. I know that I'm more than this body, more than this consciousness. A part of me swims in the stream but in truth, I'm standing on the shore the current never takes me downstream."
"You have a real thing for water, don't you?" Daala said. "Maybe we should just keep you here. You'll never see this Kara Thrace again."
Leoben was visibly angered at that suggestion. "Do you realize I could kill you before your guards could come into this room? I could get to my feet, rip your skull from your spinal column, crash through that door, kill the guards outside the door in less time than it's taking me to describe it to you?" he said.
"It doesn't matter what you say. You'll never see her again."
After she said that he lunged at her. Daala did not back away from him, did not flinch. Instead she pushed a button on a small remote she had been holding. It activated his stun cuffs, sending electricity coursing through his body, effectively knocking him out. He landed on the floor, twitching. Daala stood up and smiled. "Good night." she said, and walked out of the room.
--
The rest of the morning and late afternoon went uneventfully. They had just made a small jump and now the Gorgon lay still in space. It was replenishing both its weapons and starting to repair broken fighters and replace lost ones. Daala walked to the bridge and looked at her latest report. Their unusual jump through hyperspace, the one that had gotten them into all of this mess, had not only thrown them so off course that they had no idea where they were, but had also structurally damaged the ship. After a few moments Kretas walked up to her, carrying a stack of reports. He had a somber expression on his face.
Seeing his expression Daala groaned inwardly. "What is it now?"
He handed her the reports. "Both the shield and long range nav computer are so badly damaged that we can't just quickly fix them up. They require special circuits, and the only way we'll get them is to find a technologically advanced planet or space station. But from what we know the Cylons are heavily guarding the 12 Colonies. Even with our firepower we can't take on too may ships at once. The only way we'll get those parts is to find a space station. And to know where those are-"
"Is to contact a Colonial ship. So now we just have to find the ship which is escorting the civilian fleet or to find the one that is conducting the hit-and-run attacks. The one that is easer to find will be the one that is attacking, because its targets are limited to the Cylon bases."
Kretas nodded. "Exactly. Does that mean we'll be jumping from base to base, hoping that we'll get to a particular base exactly when they are attacking? The chances of finding them would be astronomically small."
Daala shook her head. "The last time I checked we had a couple thousand Arakyd probe droids on board. We deploy a couple of them to each known Cylon base. They're small enough not to be visible on their sensors. When the Battlestar jumps in to the system they'll attach to the hull of the ship and start reporting its location. Then we follow them and have a nice little chat."
Kretas smiled. "Yes sir."
All along the ships little puffs of air hissed out as hundreds of probe droids shot out of launch tubes. Each one of them was encased in a one-use disposable hyperdrive case, and would jettison it upon arrival.
--
28 days later
Battlestar Pegasus, BSG-62
Five light-years away from the Gorgon was a Cylon fuel depot. It was guarded by only one Basestar. Suddenly something jumped in the system. It was the Battlestar Pegasus. At 1,850 meters it was longer than an Imperial Star Destroyer, although it had less mass. A few hundred miles from the depot Admiral Helena Cain, highest ranking Colonial Fleet officer alive, stood in the middle of her CIC. Unlike the Galactica-class Battlestars, the Pegasus, a Mercury-class Battlestar, had many computer systems that helped it run more efficiently. While Mercury Battlestars did have networked computers that were susceptible to Cylon viruses, the Pegasus had its networked computers offline for refitting. That was the only thing that had saved them from certain death when the Cylons had attacked. The Pegasus could carry almost one hundred Viper Mk.VII fighters, along with numerous Raptor scout vehicles.
In the CIC Admiral Cain looked at the giant threat board and watched as blips began to appear. "DRADIS contact!" Lt. Hoshi announced over the familiar whirring noise the DRADIS sensor always made. "One Basestar, bearing 034, carom 221. No Raiders."
Admiral Cain started issuing orders to her XO, Jurgen Belzen. "Bow up 15 degrees, left 10. Launch all alert Vipers. Get a firing solution on the Basestar's arms. Load main batteries with offensive ammunition and secondary batteries with flak rounds. Prepare for salvo fire."
Along the side of the Battlestar sleek, dark gray Vipers Mk.VIIs were launched into space, roaring out of their launch tubes. Just after they had launched, Pegasus came about and fired on the Basestar. Its four main guns, situated on the bow of the ship, fired and created such recoil that they shook the entire ship, the huge projectiles leaving their barrels with a roar. The Pegasus's secondary batteries did not fire, as they were loaded with anti-fighter ammunition. Not that the main guns needed help.
The first rounds impacted on one of the Basestar's arms, causing it to snap off, damaging the ship and destroying the Raiders that were stored there. The second salvo impacted on the middle of the ship, blowing apart the FTL drive and knocking out power to the lower half of the ship, effectively crippling it. But the Cylons, while caught defenseless, still had the power to fight back. Over 400 Raiders left their docks, heading straight for the alert Vipers. At the same time, multiple missiles were launched at the Pegasus. There was only one nuclear missile, as most of the nuclear missile tubes had been destroyed by Cain's opening salvo.
"Radiological alert!" Hoshi's face was red from excitement. "Incoming missiles, twenty, no, thirty missiles inbound. Can't tell which one is the nuke."
Cain looked at the DRADIS screen. The missiles were inbound and their range was decreasing rapidly. They were in range of the secondary batteries, but about a fifth of her Vipers were within the firing solution. Cain pushed that thought out of her head. "Fire secondary batteries at inbound missiles."
Belzen looked at her as if she was crazy. "Almost twenty of our Vipers are out there! We'll lose twenty pilots!"
"And we might loose the whole ship if we don't stop those missiles. Order those guns to fire right fraking now!"
After a few seconds Belzen backed down and began to command the batteries. Cain made a mental note to deal with him if this ever happened again.
Along the top of the hull twin guns swiveled in their mounts and fired, sending shells packed with high explosive and shrapnel soaring towards the missiles. And the Vipers.
--
Red 6, Viper Mk.VII
One of the Vipers that were unlucky enough to be in the firing solution was piloted by Sasori "Scorpion" Iwate. This was his eighth combat mission, and he had racked up a total of thirty Raider kills. Right now his engines were at full thrust, heading toward the group of Raiders that were inbound. He keyed his comm unit. "Pegasus, Scorpion, three minutes from Cylon Raiders." Just as he was saying that he saw a flash of white not so far way from him. Then he saw more of them. They were missiles. One flew right by him and missed his cockpit by only a few meters. "Frak! Pegasus, you have inbound missiles! Pegasus, respond!"
He cut out his engines a pulled the stick right. A little puff of air shot out of the right side of his Viper and turned him towards Pegasus. Because there was not resistance in open space, his Viper still continued towards the Raiders at the same speed. All he was really doing was taking a look at the Pegasus. It actually wouldn't have mattered if he hadn't looked. All it did was make the last thing he would ever see be a flash from a gun barrel, and a flak shell exploding right next to his Viper. In a nanosecond a once valuable Viper Mk.VII fighter was nothing more than small chunks of scrap metal.
--
Battlestar Pegasus, BSG-62
In the CIC, Cain watched as dots representing Vipers started disappearing. She swore to herself. Finally the missiles started to disappear, victims of the flak rounds. But the nuclear missile still remained, and it was headed straight for the port flight pod. A hit there could knock it off, crippling the ship. Cain could only watch in horror as the missiles went inside the flak range, where they were too close to secondary batteries to be able to be hit. The CIWS point defense guns started firing, but they were out of range. They couldn't stop the missile.
--
Battlezone
Probe droid AK-378934 and AK-378011 were hanging dead in space when the Pegasus jumped in. Propelling themselves slowly toward the Pegasus, AK-378011 experienced a malfunction in its small engine and had to stop. AK-378934 continued on course and eventually attacked itself to the side of the Battlestar and attached a homing beacon. Once the beacon was placed it detached from the ship and transmitted a message back to the Gorgon.
As luck would have it, AK-378011 saved the Pegasus. When it lost its engine it also lost its stealth abilities. While it was too small to be picked up on a DRADIS sensor, it was right between the Basestar and Pegasus. The thirty missiles that were launched had been mostly destroyed by the flak barrage, and only four remained. The three conventional missiles were locked on to the Pegasus. However, the nuclear missile was experiencing a slight targeting malfunction, and instead of being locked on to the Pegasus it was seeking any target it could find. When it flew within 20 meters of AK-378011 it was able to detect the droid. As it got closer to the droid and the droid began to grow in its optical sensor, AK-378011 started to present a more appealing target than Pegasus to the missile. The missile decided to target the droid instead of the Pegasus. The resulting explosion consumed the droid, but was too far from the Pegasus to do any real damage.
--
Battlestar Pegasus, BSG-62
Back in the CIC, Cain didn't bother to figure out what had caused the missile to prematurely detonate. She turned to her XO. "Order nuclear ground-strike missiles in launch tubes 1-4."
Belzen nodded."Aye sir." He picked up the radio handset. "This is the XO. Ready missile tubes 1-4. This is a nuclear mission order."
On the bow of the ship, four nuclear missiles slid into their launch tubes. When they were loaded the crew sent a signal to the CIC. Belzen's radio buzzed. He picked up the radio and listened. Then he addressed Cain. "Missiles are loaded Admiral."
"Good. Open launch tube doors."
--
Basestar 214
As soon as the tube doors opened alarms began sounding all over the crippled Basestar. In the control room a Number Three and a Number One were trying to save the ship. When the alarms went off the Three looked up at the One with fear in her eyes. "The Battlestar has launched for nuclear missiles at the Tylium refinery!" she said in her usual accented voice.
Tylium was the source of fuel for all large ships. While it does make a great fuel, it is extremity volatile, and a salvo of nuclear missiles easily could ignite the whole refinery and create an explosion of unimaginable size.
The One looked up at the Three and shrugged. "The only resurrection ship within range was destroyed almost a month ago. We won't resurrect." The only Cylon model that didn't believe in god was the One models. It was very ironic, considering the fact that his role was that of a priest.
The Three closed her eyes. "May God have mercy on our souls." she whispered.
The One smiled wryly. "We're machines. We don't have souls." Those were the last words he ever said.Deep inside the Basestar, the hybrid that controlled the ship was talking. "Those who believe will be saved/89.634 of power is gone. Nitrogen levels are critical/This is the end of our lives/End of line."
The four nuclear weapons impacted at the same time, their 20 megaton warheads completely annihilating every building in the refinery, and igniting the Tylium. The resulting explosion completely engulfed the Basestar and the Raiders, incinerating them.
Back onboard the Pegasus, Cain watched in satisfaction as the blips representing both the Raiders and the Basestar. Satisfied, Cain ordered the Pegasus to jump.
--
Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon
Waiting three weeks for a signal that might actually never come, if the Pegasus was destroyed, would frustrate most crews. But Daala and her soldiers had waited for ten years in the Maw Facility, and they were prepared to wait for however long they had to. But finally the day came where they picked up a signal. Actually, the morning came. Daala was still asleep when she heard someone pounding on her door. She groaned. There was only one person who would dare wake her up. "One minute." she said groggily, and looked at her chrono. It was 2:30 in the morning. "I'm going to kill you, Kretas." she mumbled, and started to get dressed. Once she was finished dressing she went to the door and opened it. Just as she had suspected, it was Kretas, looking very excited.
"Morning Admiral. Did you sleep well?"
She shot him a look that suggested that she wanted to kill him. "No."
He shrugged. "I think you'll be glad I woke you up. We received a message from one of our probe droids. It planted a beacon on the Battlestar Pegasus."
He was right. All the tiredness in her body suddenly disappeared. "Do we have a fix on its position?" she asked.
"Yes. It's only about five-light years away from our current position. Shall we jump to their position?"
Daala nodded. "Do it." He started to walk away. "Oh, and Kretas?" she said. He looked back at her, "Yes?"
"Next time you wake me up like that, I'm going to shoot you."
--
Battlestar Pegasus, BSG-62
On board Pegasus it was the middle of the night. Both Helena Cain and Gina Inviere were in the Admiral quarters, asleep. Suddenly the phone in her room started to buzz, waking both of them up. They both lifted their heads up and found themselves staring at each others' eyes. Gina gave an exaggerated sigh. "This happened last night too."
Cain nodded. "Yeah. If only we could have emergencies in the afternoon."
As Cain got out of their bed and walked to the phone Gina took a look at the clock. "I should probably be going now." she said. "People will start wondering if I come out of your quarters in the morning."
As Gina was about to leave Cain hung up the phone. "Wait." she said. We picked up a DRADIS contact and we don't know what it is. Would you care to come with me to the CIC, Systems Analyst Inviere?"
Gina smiled. "My pleasure, Admiral. Oh, and I had a good time tonight. Tomorrow night?"
Cain did something she almost never did. She smiled. "Tomorrow night."
As the both walked out of the doors Cain stopped and looked at Inviere. Gods, how I love that woman, she thought. In an effort to keep their relationship secret, she waited until Gina was halfway to the CIC before she left. She didn't know it, but almost everybody on board the Pegasus knew about them.
It took about a minute for Cain to reach the CIC. When she arrived it was in a sea of chaos. "Sitrep!" she demanded.
Belzen was there, and he directed her attention to the DRADIS board. "We picked up an unknown contact on DRADIS. It's not a Basestar, that's for sure. We launched the Alert Fighters and the CAP is intercepting. Should they have weapons free?"
Cain shook her head. "We don't know what it is. It could be one of our fleet ships lost its transponder and somehow wandered out there. We don't want to fire on one of our ships."
Belzen knew that her fear of firing on their own ships had nothing to do with the lives of the civilians onboard. Cain wanted some of the components on the ships, like FTL drives, and she would loose valuable parts if she blew up one of their own ships. The Pegasus was escorting a civilian fleet of five ships, all of them transports: the Scylla, Colonial Heavy 535, Caprica's Pride, StarCatcher, and the Mirage.
Suddenly the blip started flashing. Lt. Hoshi looked up from his console. "We're receiving IFF data from the unknown contact. It is identifying itself as the…Imperial Destroyer Gorgon?"
Cain frowned. "What the frak is that? Try to raise them on wireless."
Hoshi nodded. "Yes sir."
After a few minutes they picked up a transmission. "Admiral," Hoshi said, "I've got them on the wireless."
"Put them through."
A male voice spoke to Cain in perfect Colonial English. "Battlestar Pegasus, this is the Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon. Do you copy?"
Cain frowned. What was a Star Destroyer?
"Gorgon, this is the Admiral Cain on board the Battlestar Pegasus. State your intentions."
A new voice appeared over the comm. It was a female voice, rich and pleasurable to hear. "This is Admiral Daala on board the Gorgon, requesting permission to board your ship. We need to talk."
--
After about forty minutes of talk, Cain agreed to receive Daala and two escorts. According to Cain, "The shuttle must be unarmed and come in alone." Daala agreed, and eight Viper Mk.VIIs escorted the unarmed Lambda shuttle to the Pegasus. What Cain didn't know was that Drake Eleven and Twelve, the two cloaked Interceptors from Drake Squadron, were right behind the shuttle, ready to blast the Vipers to pieces if they fired upon the shuttle.
By the time the shuttle finally got clearance to land, Daala's chrono showed the time as 3:20 in the afternoon, over twelve hours since they first received the transmission from the probe droid. As the shuttle approached the port flight pod the shuttle folded its wings up for landing. But even with the wings folded up, it was a very tight fit. The engines on the shuttle cut off, and the repulsorlifts gently carried it down to the bottom of the pod. The ramp on her shuttle lowered, and Daala walked out, flaked by two Royal Guards.
Royal Guards were used almost exclusively by Palpatine and high ranking officials. When Daala was with Tarkin he had let her pick a few guards for her protection. Interestingly enough, Daala chose all of her guards, which numbered four, to be female. Abandoning the traditional heavy red cloak, Daala's guards wore black and red Stormtrooper armor. The armor was made of tougher material that most armor, allowing the armor to be thinner without loss of protection. Thy chest plate was molded in such a fashion that anyone who looked at their armor could be sure of their gender. The only piece of equipment that was used from the original Royal Guard armor was the helmet. The helmet was also the source of unease for the Pegasus's marines, as the visor resembled the face of a Centurion.
When she stepped out, she found around thirty marines with rifles trained on her head. When her guards saw the marines they immediately brought their E-11's up. For several moments there was a tense standoff.
The standoff was broken when a man of medium height and build with dark hair walked up to the marines. "At ease." The marines reluctantly lowered their rifles, and with a hand signal from Daala the two guards also lowered their blasters. The man extended a hand. "I'm Jurgen Belzen, XO of the Battlestar Pegasus. I apologize that Admiral Cain can't be here in person, but we have to make sure you're not a threat."
Daala took Belzen's hand and shook it. "I understand perfectly. Do you think that the Admiral would be available to talk over dinner in about three hours?"
Belzen chuckled. "I think you have a different time schedule that we do. It's only 1:30 in the morning. Could you come back then?" he asked.
Daala nodded in agreement. "If it's not to much trouble. I would be nice to take a look around your ship."
"Sure." Belzen said. "I'll assign a few marines to give you a tour." What he didn't say was that the 'tour' would be limited to very common places like the mess and auxiliary CIC.
As Daala stared to walk off the ramp of the shuttle, the pain flared up in her side. She stumbled and, with a small cry of pain, fell on her side. The impact broke her ribs, which because of her refusal for a bacta treatment were still fractured, and drove them into her chest, penetrating a lung. As Daala collapsed to the floor, one of her guards rushed over to her. The guard's name was Kirana Forr, and was almost fanatically loyal to Daala. After assessing Daala's injures Kirana ran to the cockpit of the shuttle and up to the pilots. "Get this kriffing shuttle back to the Gorgon! The Admiral's been hurt."
With that the pilots immediately ignited the engines and blasted off, carrying the wounded Admiral back to the Gorgon, where Daala was now due for a dunk in a bacta tank.
--
Imperial Star Destroyer Gorgon
When Daala opened her eyes all she could see was pink. Pink? That didn't make sense. Then suddenly the events from the day came back to her. She was in a bacta tank. Bacta was substance that had the power to cure everything from a cut to a deadly diseases to a gunshot wounds. As long as there was a spark of life in someone, bacta could save them. Unfortunately, the treatment involved the patient being dunked in a tank of the thick, gooey liquid with a breathing mask on their face. Apparently someone had noticed that she was awake, because the top was lifted off of the tank.
She weakly kicked to the surface and a pair of hands helped her out of the tank. One she was out she was handed a towel. She wiped the bacta off her body and brushed it off her eyes, allowing her to see again. She wasn't very surprised to see that the person who was helping her was Kirana Forr.
"How long have you been waiting here Kirana?" she asked.
Even with her mask off, it was impossible to read her face. "Since you got here, Admiral."
Daala gave a small shake of her head. Kirana was far more loyal than any Royal Guard, and that was really saying something. Daala suspected that here was a reason for that, but was unable to figure out what it was. She did not have more time to contemplate that, because at that moment Kretas walked in, his hands behind his back. "I heard that after a full month in a bacta tank, you finally woke up."
Daala's face had a horrified expression on her face. "A month!"
Kirana sighed. "You've only been in the tank for fourteen hours, Admiral."
Daala turned to Kretas. "You are going to die."
He shrugged. "Well, I did bring a bottle of Chandrin wine." He withdrew one of his hands from behind his back. Daala decided that he might get to live. She took it from him. "Be careful, it's bacta flavored." He joked. Daala shuddered. The worst part of being in a bacta tank was that when you were in it you ended up tasting the bacta, which tasted horrible. She took the bottle in one hand, opened it, took a swig…and promptly spat it back out. "Stang! This is bacta flavored!"
Kretas shrugged. "I warned you." He took his other hand from behind his back. It contained an identical bottle. "This one isn't bacta flavored. Promise." Daala eyed him suspiciously, than carefully sipped a little bit of the beverage. It was normal.
Kirana had noticed that for a month both Daala and Kretas had been spending more and more time together. To most of the crew it had always been obvious that Daala and Kretas were attracted to each other. It wasn't to surprising, given that Kretas had been her second in command for many years, and they had a friendship that had managed to survive during periods where Daala had to threaten Kretas, and she had pointed a blaster at him. They weren't sleeping together, that was for sure. Kirana would have known. As Daala's bodyguard, she made sure to know as much as possible about her. But even if they had been together, Kirana knew that nobody on the ship would say a word. When rumors about Moff Tarkin sleeping with Daala first started circulating when they were together, they had picked one of the crew who had been spreading rumors, put him in a space suit, and shoved him out a airlock, waiting to see whether he would run out of oxygen before or after he entered a planet's atmosphere and burned up. Tarkin had left the comm unit on the suit on, so the whole crew could here his pleas for help.
After some chatting with her XO, Daala turned to Kirana. "How long until the Raider is fully hooked up into the simulation unit?"
"About one day." Kirana replied.
"Good. Now let's get ready. We have a appointment to make with Cain."
--
Can anybody guess what is special about the Raider? (Hint: In the show it has a name.) If Leoben's lines sounded like somebody stole them out of the script for Kara's first meeting with him...It's probably because I did. And I actually came up with the abilty to make Raiders and Centurions smarter before Six of One. I just took the name from it. Please Review.