Daala and the Fleet Chapter 16: Meetings, a battlestar galactica: 2003 fanfic

Much thanks to GalacticaCAG for help with this chapter. I'm still not sure how it turned out.

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em.

Spoilers: Not much.

Chapter 16- Meetings

Drake Lead, TIE Interceptor

Talon looked on, utterly confused as the chase took place. Deadbolt was chasing Starbuck for some unknown reason. But even more confusing was the fact that there was four fighters involved in the chase. As he toggled the identification in his HUD he felt his gut sink. There were two Apollos involved. One from Galactica, one from Pegasus. So he was a Cylon. They had to be stopped, but also should probably be taken alive. He used his thumb to switch from lasers to his retrofitted ion cannons. But he wasn't able to fire before the Pegasus's Apollo opened fire on the Viper in front of him.

Galactica Red Lead, Viper Mk. VII

Apollo was trying unsuccessfully to raise Starbuck on the wireless when gold streams of bullets flew around his cockpit. Reacting immediately, he blew every air maneuvering jet on his right side, sliding sending him out of the path of the bullets. At the same time he pulled back on the stick and cut his engines. He was now going at the same speed, but was able to swing around to see what was shooting at him. It was a Viper Mk. VII. Something about the pilot looked familiar. He looked closer and froze. He could just make out a face: his face. The only difference was a scar traveling across his doppelgänger's face. He was so stunned that he wasn't able to do anything, and that should have killed him. But before the other Apollo could fire again a pair of blue bolts slammed into the Viper, cutting it's power and leaving it drifting in space. Not long afterwards a bolt slammed into his fighter, one of the duel shots that Talon had fired. The second bolt missed by only a few feet, sailing right over Lee's cockpit and standing every hair on his body on end, but sparing a few of his systems. Most of his systems were out, but his short range comm was still working, and he was alive. Now he just had to figure out what the hell was going on.

Galactica Red Two, Viper Mk. II

Kara wasn't sure why she was running. She didn't think Deadbolt would shoot her, although she had plenty of reasons to. She was going to keep running until she heard some of the comm chatter. She turned the volume to full and caught snippets of conversations.

"Shots fired… Apollo…drifting…What the frak?!...Hold fire, repeat, hold fire…Apollo's ship isn't moving…Who shot him?…What kind of fighter is that?"

Shit. Lee was in trouble. Not caring if Deadbolt took a shot at her, she turned her Viper around and went to get Lee.

Pegasus Red Lead, Viper Mk. VII

Sophie wasn't quite sure why she was chasing Kara. It was tempting to shoot her, but she knew she wouldn't. Suddenly Starbuck headed back to where they had came from. Sophie wasn't sure why at first, but then she looked at her sensors. The dots that represented both Apollo's weren't moving. She entered a slow turn to the right that would bring her back to all the Vipers. She was the CAG, and she couldn't abandon her pilots.

Galactica Red Two, Viper Mk. II

When Kara got to the scene she saw two Vipers hanging dead in space. She went to the first Viper she saw. She pulled up right next to it and looked in. Lee was sitting there, but with a scar on his face. "What the frak is going on?" she said out loud. That couldn't be him. She went to the other Viper. For some reason she couldn't comprehend, Lee was in the other Viper too. She thumbed the comm switch on.

"Lee do you read?"

She could make out a faint reply. "Comm's mostly out. Come closer.

He didn't answer, but she saw him look at her. She inverted her Viper and used her maneuvering jets to lower her ship unit their canopies were less then three feet from each other. "Are you okay?" Kara asked.

"No. I…I think I'm a Cylon."

Kara blinked. A Cylon? Lee couldn't be a Cylon. No way. He just couldn't be. I mean, we didn't suspect Boomer, but Lee just couldn't be.

"You're crazy Lee. You've been shooting Cylons since day one."

"Boomer blew up a Basestar. You should probably get away from my ship."

Displaying her stubborn streak, she kept her Viper in that exact same position while she opened a line to her Battlestar. "Galactica, Starbuck. We've got a problem."

Colonial One

It took almost three hours to get both Battlestars to stand down to Condition 2. It took about four hours to arrange a meeting on a neutral ship, Colonial One, and almost another hour to get everybody there.

Two ships docked with Colonial One: A Raptor from the Pegasus, and a Raptor from the Galactica. There was a delay on the Star Destroyer, so Daala would be arriving a bit late. Laura Roslin was already waiting for them. Commander Adama walked into the main room and ran into Cain. He saluted, and she made him hold it for a few seconds before dropping it. He smiled and offered a hand. "Admiral Cain."

She took his hand and shook it. "Commander Adama. It's good to see you."

"You too."

Laura got out of her chair and forced a smile, noticing that Adama had to hold his salute until Cain dropped hers. She wasn't happy about having someone out rank Bill Adama. "Admiral Cain, you have no idea how good it is to see you. I'm Laura Roslin, President of the 12 Colonies."

Cain knew that he name sounded familiar, but she couldn't place her at first. Then she remembered.

"The Secretary of Education?" she asked, her voice bordering on incredulous.

Bill intervened. "She's the reason we're alive today. Without her leadership, we'd all have been dead by now."

Laura had her politician's mask on her face, a small fake smile on her face. "Admiral, again, it is so good to see you, but we must know. How did you find us?" Cain shrugged. "We didn't. You jumped into this system. We've been here for days, repairing damage. We've suffered heavy damage to our ship. We've been immobile for days. Someone transmitted a signal from our ship that led the Cylons right to us. We're thinking it might have been you son."

Adama bristled at the mention of that topic. He had heard reports from Starbuck and other sources that there were two Lees out there, but he was having trouble believing it. He had known Lee since he was a baby, although the times he had been with his son had been vastly outnumbered by the times he had been away. But if Lee was a Cylon, then would that mean that he was a Cylon? Obviously Cain didn't believe that, or he would be in Pegasus's brig right now.

"My son is not a Cylon." he growled, more to reassure himself than to convince Cain.

She raised an eyebrow. "I'd say your judgment might be a little clouded in this matter. When the Imperials get here, we can continue this discussion."

When he started to speak she cut him off. "That is an order, commander." she said, putting emphasis on his rank. She glanced at Roslin. "I think you should leave, Ms. Roslin." she said, ignoring her formal title. "The commander and I need to have a military discussion. It might be a bit much for a kindergarten teacher."

Laura bit back a particularly nasty comment, keeping that smile on her face. This was getting ridiculous. "Perhaps you'd be interested in talking to Vice President Baltar."

Cain tensed. "Gaius Baltar?"

"Yes. Is there a problem?" Laura said. As soon as this meeting was over she'd get Cain put through Baltar's Cylon Detector tests. If it was positive, she'd chuck Cain out a airlock. Scratch that. She'd find a way to do that regardless of the test results.

"Baltar is the biggest traitor in the history of the human race. He conspired with a Cylon agent to access the CNP network, and from there, he was able to disable almost all of the fleet. The only reason we escaped was that our CNP was offline for repairs when they attacked. We were docked at the Scorpion shipyards. We saw ships being destroyed. At least two Battlestars, and many others. We did a blind jump to get out, right before a nuke was about to hit us. It blinded us from their DRADIS sensors. We escaped, but with heavy casualties. Since then I've lost about half my crew."

"But why would Baltar betray everyone?" Laura asked.

"He was working with a Cylon. Her model was a number Six. He was having a affair with her right before the attacks."

Laura thought that something seemed familiar about what Cain was saying. Then it hit her. After her cancer diagnosis she had fled into the square. She had spotted Baltar and a blond woman together, pressed against a pillar. Now that he thought of it, the "Shelly Godfrey" woman looked the same as her.

She gasped and took a step back. "Oh my gods." She said. "Commander, what did you give Dr. Baltar for his Cylon detector?"

Adama took a second to respond. "A nuclear warhead".

Cain looked at him in disbelief. "You gave a civilian a nuke?"

"We had just discovered that Cylons looked like humans. Unfortunately, his test isn't the most reliable. A sleeper agent passed the test and shot me in the chest twice."

Cain wasn't sure what to make of Adama. She should have been glad to see him, but she wasn't. She shook her head. "We need to arrest Baltar. Send in a team of Marines to arrest him, before he can do any harm."

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