Part 2: paradise lost
Two light years from earth t plus 1 hour and 30 minutes
In the tiny bridge of the S.S. Antares, the captan and first officer were talking quietly to themselves when they hear the sound of someone knocking on the door. The captain went to answer only to find Lora Roslin standing at the door.
"Sir. One of the passengers has a sub space transmitter. That've heard a report that Earth has been attacked by the Dominion." She said.
The captain just starred at her as if to afraid to say anything.
"It has, hasn't it?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
"Earth and over a dozen other federation planets." The captains shaky voice was obvious to Lora as he handed her a data PAD containing a report. When she read it all the blood in her face drained away. The captain began to look around nervously.
"I should probably go make an announcement." He said.
"I'll do it. I'm a member of the federation counsel, it's my responsibility." Lora responded.
"Why don't you try to... Try to Contact Starfleet security and see what we can do to help." She said trying to stay calm.
...
In the main passenger cabin, Lora was addressing the news to the other passengers.
"...including the planets Earth, Venus, Andoria, Vulcan, and Coridan." She said. Immediately the passengers swamped her with questions.
"What about Bajor?! Any word about Bajor?!"
"My kids are on Mars! Is there any news from the Martian colonies?!"
"Were are we going to go now?!"
"Have you heard from the Jupiter moons?!"
Soon Laura had to start yelling over the crowd to get their attention.
"Please, everyone listen! I am trying to reach the government right now! But we are all going to have to be prepared for an extended stay on this ship. Now first off I need volunteers to help take an inventory on our supplies and emergancy rations so we know what we have to work with."
One of the passengers stood up. "What a minute. Who put you in charge?" He asked.
Roslin focus her attention on him as she answered. "That's a good question. The answer is no one. But this is still a government ship and I am the head government official so, yes. That makes me charge."
The mans face went blank.
"Why don't you do me a favor and go down to the cargo bays and help see if we can set them up as living spaces."
The man didn't respond. Instead he sat down in his seat and said nothing. Then the captain came into the room from the hallway.
"Madame Secretary. We just made contact with Earth." He said.
Roslin nodded and fallowed him to the bridge.
...
"Thank god your not here Laura. thank god." The voice said over the bridge loudspeaker. Static and background nose made hearing the transmission difficult at best.
"It's awful Laura! San Francisco is on fire! All of it! Dust everywhere! Thousands of people wandering the streets!"
"Jack. Where is the president Jack? Is he alive?" Laura asked from the communication post in the bridge as the rest of the crew listened.
"I'm not sure. I think so. We hear all kinds of things." The man named Jack said.
"Has the Dominion made any demands? Do we know what they want?"
"No. No contact. I'm sure of that much."
Laura hesitated before asking her next question. "Has anyone thought of the possibility of surrender? Has it been considered?"
"After Andoria was hit the president offered a complete, unconditional surrender. The Dominion didn't even respond!"
But a beeping noise filled the cabin and the transmission was cut off.
"What is that?" Roslin asked.
The captain looked at the ship sensor readings.
"The Dominion found us. We've got long range torpedoes approaching the ship." He said.
"Quickly. Take us to warp." She ordered.
"Right away." He said as he turn to the helm officer.
"Engage at maximum warp."
The sound of the ships warp engines revving to full power filled the room for several seconds only to be interrupted by a strange noise. Instantly, the engines lost power and shut down.
"What happened?"
"Engineerings checking it now, but it looks like there was an imbalance in the warp core. It could take a few hours to fix." One of the crew members reported.
"We don't have a few hours." The captain said.
"Does this ship have shields?" Roslin asked.
"Yes, but they're very weak."
"Then we should probably brace for impact."
The captain nodded in agreement and activated the ship intercom. "This is the captain to all passengers and crew. Please get to your brace positions Immediately."
Outside the two torpedoes shrieked towards the ship. Just when it looked like they would reach their target, a series of bright phaser blasts destroyed the first torpedo. A Starfleet fighter which had just dropped out of warp came about and flew in front of the second torpedo causing the weapons guidance system to lock on to the new arrival.
The pilot of the fighter began performing evasive maneuvers as he moved to avoid the Antares taking the torpedo away from its target. When it was clear from the ship, the fighter flipped over so it was facing the torpedo and began to fire. A stream of orange energy bolts shot out of its cannons destroying the torpedo. At the same time the fighter was caught in the shock wave of the blast and lost power. On the bridge of the Antares, the crew heard a voice message from the fighter.
"Mayday, mayday. This is lieutenant commander Lee Adama to the S.S. Antares. My ship is disabled and flight systems are offline. Need assistance."
...
Napa valley, California. T plus three hours
runabout Colorado and it's pilots were siting in an open field. The smell of grapes filled the air from the nearby fields were farmers made wine. Real wine, not replicated wine that had no real alcohol. But it wasn't the smell of fresh grapes that held Lieutenant Karol Agathons attention.
In the distance the dust clouds from San Francisco and other costal city's were rising above the horizon. The more he looked at them the more he was reminded of the pictures from old history books of the mushroom shaped clouds created by nuclear explosions.
As he looked, a bright blueish light came flying down from the sky. It landed somewhere miles beyond view. Seconds later, there was a distant explosion and another dark plum of dust rose up from where the projectile landed.
"That's six!" He said to himself before turning to Sharon who was crawling in the engineering section of the ship.
"How are you coming with the reactor?" He asked.
"Just finished, we should be able to break orbit." She responded.
But Karol's attention became drawn to movement in the distance. He left the support of the ships hull and began limping towards the anomaly. It didn't take long for him to see what it was.
"Sharon. Get you phaser, now!" He said.
Sharon heard the serious tone in his voice and came out to see.
"What is it Karol?" She asked. But then she saw it to and pulled out her phaser pistol from her yellow and black uniform.
On the other side of the field was a crowd of about a hundred people. Some were carrying stuff in their arms, others had nothing but the clothing on their backs. But they were all running as fast as they could away from the plums of black smoke. In the crowd were a variety of people. A man with a walking stick, a woman and her kids, and a younger man with long curly hair holding a briefcase who tripped over only to get back on his feet and continue running.
...
In the Antares shuttle bay, Lee Adamas fighter was sitting in a corner as crew members helped him out of his damaged ship. As he stepped onto the deck, a man in civilian clothing came running from the entrance.
"Hello! lieutenant commander Adama? Hello my name is Aaron Doral. I just want to say how grateful everyone on the ship is that you came to our rescue."
"Like wise." Lee said as he surveyed the damage to his ship.
"Are you related to captain Adama?" Aaron asked.
Lee turned to look at him. "Yes. He's my father. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, it's just that we recently docked with his ship a few hours ago and I remember hearing his name."
Lee just gave a silent nod before returning to work. Aaron fallowed him.
"Sir, could I have a word with you because I would feel a whole lot better if someone like you who's more qualified were in charge around here."
"Is there something wrong with your captain?" Lee asked.
"No, it's just that he's not the one giving orders."
Lee turn back to him. "Maybe you should take me upstairs."
Aaron nodded and stared to lead Adama out when Lee became distracted by a peace of cargo.
"What is that?" Aaron asked.
"A warp coil from a federation ship. Where did you guys get this?"
"Like a said. We did stop at Galactica. It must be from your fathers ship. She was supposed to be decommissioned." Aaron said.
Lee looked at the old relic briefly before fallowing Aaron up a service latter to the passenger section were they came across Roslin talking with the ships crew.
"...so if we transfer the L container from bay three to bay four we could make even more room for passenger."
"That's a lot of heavy lifting without any dock loaders." The captain said.
"A little hard work is just what the people need." She said.
Then Roslin noticed Lee Adama in the room.
"Ah, lieutenant commander Adama, welcome aboard." She said.
"Thanks for the lift." Lee said shaking the hand of the captain.
"It's her you should thank." The captain said.
"Than thank you ms...?"
"Lora Roslin. On behalf of everyone aboard I would like to tell you how grateful we are that you found us." Lora said.
"It was nothing really."
"I am curious. How did you escape the initial attack?"
"Well I was on leave in Sacramento when the attack started. I managed to make it to the Oakland shipyards were I acquired a mothballed fighter and heeded out into the star system to see if I could find a starship. That's when I found your ship."
"I guess we should count ourselves lucky that you found us." She said before turning to the captain
"Go tell the others to prep bay three for survivors." Roslin said before the captain walked out of the room
"I'm sorry, survivors?" Lee said.
"When the attack started, the government ordered a shutdown of all commercial space lanes and shipping routes, so now we have thousands of ships stranded throughout the quadrant. Some are lost, some are damaged, some are without power. We have enough space on this ship to accommodate up to 500 people and we're going to need every bit of it."
"lieutenant, if you could I would like you to go over our navigation charts and find somewhere we can hid from the dominion." She said as she stood up and left.
Adama turned back to Aaron Doral. "Ladies in charge."
. . .
The crowd screamed as Karol Agathon fired his phaser pistol at the ground in front of them. The beam blasted a hole in the ground sending dirt flying.
"Everyone stay back! Just stay calm and no one gets hurt!" Karol yelled.
"Please, I'll give you 50 slips of gold Lanium!" Someone in the front of the crowd said.
"This is not a rescue ship! This is a Starfleet vessel! And we are not taking money!"
"You can't just leave us behind! What about the children!?" A woman asked.
"Yay, what about the children?!" Someone else said.
Karol started to protest when Sharon interrupted him. "All right, all right! Children first. Children." She said.
A dozen children from the group, several humans, two Andorrans, a Vulcan, and a bolion made their way to the shuttle, leaving the comfort of their parents for the last time.
"All right we can take six more adults." Sharon said as she checked the number of kids onboard."
"That's the maximum load we can take if we're going to break orbit with the power we have left."
"And who gets to decide them,You!?" Someone in the crowd yelled.
"No one gets to decide! We'll do a lottery. That way it will be fair."
"Now I will stun anyone who try's to get on board before that!" Karol said.
"Karol. You still have that paper journal of yours?" Sharon asked.
"Yay, why?"
"Just go and tear out some pages."
. . .
In Galactica's bridge the flashing lights and alarms indicated that the ship was at red alert.
"Launch the fighter squadron. Tell them to intercepted the three enemy attack ships bearing 056 Mark three at ten thousand kilometers! Helm, stand by evasive maneuvers and raise Shields!" Adama ordered.
Outside, two dozen federation fighters launched from the shuttle bay to intercept the pair of dominion ships approaching Galactica. The last ship to launch was Kara's ship. Just as it was about to lift off an alarm sounded.
"lieutenant Thrace. We've defected an overload in your impulse engines. Shutdown Immediately." lieutenant Dualla said from the bridge.
"Frak!" Kara swore as she jumped out of her damaged ship.
"Beg your pardon?" An engineer working on her ship said.
"Let's just say its a substitute for a word I'd rather not say out loud." Kara said. Nearby, Galen and some other engineers were looking at her ship."
"We need to pull this plasma valve and replace it." One engineer said.
"Replace it with what? We don't have any spares! And we don't have time to replicate any!" Galen said.
"We don't need to replace it. Just rewire these power conduits to bypass the valve and it should be fine." Engineer Kaily said.
"Are you kidding me! That would crate a feedback lope in the power grid. The reactor would blow!" Another engineer argued.
"It will be fine!" Kaily insisted.
"Look we don't have time! Just pull the valve!" Galen ordered.
Within a few seconds, Kara was back in her repaired ship flying towards the battle. Galactica's fighters were trying to get the upper hand against the three enemy ships by utilizing their smaller size and greater maneuverability. But as Kara entered the fight, one of the attack ships turned towards her ship and fired a strange purple beam at her ship. Kara watched as her flight computers fuzzed out for a moment.
"What the hell?!" She said when suddenly her computers returned to normal.
"Kara to Galactica. The jem'hadar ships are using some kind of electronic virus against me but it doesn't seem to be having any effect."
Kara turned and fired at the attack ship, strafing it as she flew over it causing major damage to its shields. Other fighters surrounded the enemy ship and fired at the crippled vessel. After several passes the jem'hadar ship exploded in a fireball.
"All fighters, systems are a go!" She yelled as she and the other fighters engaged the remaining ships. Several fighters lead by Kara tried to get closer to one of the ships. While evading enemy fire, an exploding torpedo rocked her ship. She managed to steady out.
"I'm fine, I'm good!"
But suddenly one jem'hadar ship made a break for the retreating Galactica. It fired three torpedoes at the starship.
"Sir, I'm reading tricobalt warheads from the three incoming torpedoes!" lieutenant Dualla said.
"Divert all power to port shields!" Adama ordered.
Kara fired her main weapons at the jem'hadar ship targeting its engines. Her phaser fire tore through its shields and hit the warp drive. The ship instantly exploded. Then she targeted the torpedoes. She brought the first one down, then the second. But the third, which had gained a substantial lead, was too far away. Realizing it would impact before she could reach it she flipped her fighter over an hit the accelerator to get clear of the blast radius.
"Galactica, you have a tricobalt warhead inbound! All pilots break, break, break!"
"Brace for impact." Adama said.
"Haven't heard that in while." Tigh responded.
The missile continued until it made contact with Galactica's port shields. There was a bright flash of light that consumed the ship as the warhead detonated.
. . .
Kara's ship did a quick flyby of the damaged starship, taking notice of the burning section on the port side of the secondary hull.
"Galactica, this is lieutenant Thrace. There is heavy damage all along the port side of the star drive section. Repeat you've got several fires and hull breaches from section 34 to 40 on deck 28. Galactica, do you read me?"
On Galactica's bridge, people were starting to get on their feet.
"Radiation levels within norms. The shields are offline but they kept out most of the hard stuff." Tigh said as he checked the damage report.
"Sir, port stern thrusters are locked open, all bow thrusters non-responsive. We're in an uncontrolled, lateral counter-clockwise spin." Mr. Gaeta reported from his station.
"Send a DC party up to ox control and have them cut all the fuel lines to the stern thruster." Adama said.
"Okay, we have got buckle supports all along the port side near main engineering, and plasma fires breaking out everywhere forward of frame 2- 250." Tigh reported.
"That's a problem. Saul, take personal command of the DC units."
"Me?"
"Sir, the stern thruster's still locked open. We need you." Mr Gaeta said from the other side of the bridge.
"You're either the XO or you're not." Adama said.
"Sir." Tigh said, accepting the order.
In the damaged area, ensign Prosna was helping other damage control personnel through the burning hallway when the walls started to creak and finally gave way to the vacuum of space. Only a force field prevented the oxygen from escaping. But then even the force field began to show signs of degrading. The ensign tapped his com badge.
"Chief! The force fields, there losing power! We need help!"
"Report!" Tigh said to chief Galen
"We've got structural buckling all along this line. We've gotta get those fires out!" Galen said.
"I know! Fire suppressors are down, I'm trying to fight this fire with hand-held gear." lieutenant commander Aaron Kelly said.
"We've got another plasma fire just one section away from the warp core. Were trying to contain it but Internal force fields are offline and we barley have enough power for the force fields sealing the hull breach." The chief said.
"What are your orders sir?"
Tigh looked over to see captain Adama working with Mr. Gaeta, unable to help him.
"All right listen chief, I need you to get the rest of your DC teams down from the shuttle bay, give them a..."
"No time! Seal off everything forward of section 30 and deactivate the force fields. The lack of oxygen will extinguish the fires." Tigh ordered.
"But wait, I've got over a hundred people trapped in the effected area, I just need a minute to get 'em out!"
"We don't seal it off now, the fire will hit main engineering and we're going to lose a lot more than a hundred men. Seal it off, now."
"But we can eject the core until the fires are out! We can use the transporters to beam everyone out!"
"Core eject systems are locked, and I'm not getting power to the transporter." Kelly said.
"But they just need a minute!"
"We don't have a minute! The fire reaches the warp core, it'll ignite the deuterium fuel and we'll lose the ship. Do it!" Tigh barked.
Tyrol just stared in shock before activating the intercom. "All hands. Seal off... all bulkheads, 25 through 40. That's an order."
On the lower decks men struggled to evacuated the damaged areas of the ship. But they were too late as the containment fields deactivated exposing half the deck to open space. Dozens of crew members were sucked into the vacuum. At the same time the raging plasma fires were extinguished due to lack of oxygen.
"Venting complete. Fires out."
"If they remembered their training, then they had their suits on and they were braced for possible vent action." Tigh said.
"There's a lot of rooks in there."
"No one's a rook anymore."
. . .
"Number one two seven." Sharon called out. A woman raised her hand in the crowd before walking forward.
"Here. Thank god. Thank you, thank you."
"Last one. 47. 47." Sharon said.
As Karol scanned the crowed he noticed a man he recognized.
"Hey. Aren't you Gaius Baltar?"
"Yeah, I haven't done anything." The man said nervously before pointing to an old woman next to him.
"This lady has ticket number 47. This lady here."
"Could you come up here, please." Karol asked.
Baltar and the old woman walked to the shuttle.
"What are you doing?" Sharon asked.
"I'm giving up my seat." Karol said.
"Like hell."
"A civilian should take my place."
"You're going." Sharon said as her eyes started watering.
"Look at those clouds. Sharon, look at those clouds, and tell me this isn't the end of everything."
"But Karol."
"Whatever future is left is gonna depend on whoever survives. Give me one reason why I'm a better choice than one of the greatest minds of our time."
"Karol." Sharon protested as tears started running down her cheeks like streams.
"You can do this without me. I know you can, you've proven it."
She closed her eyes and looked away. "Get on board!" She said to Baltar and the old woman.
The two people entered the airlock as the people in the crowd began to yell.
"I think you better go." Karol said as he tried to hold off the advancing crowd. Sharon boarded the ship and took the pilots seat.
"Stay back! Stay back! It's over, it's over!" Karol said to the crowd as the runabouts thrusters activated with a roar and the ship started to leave the ground. One man in the crowd ran up to the ship and grabbed ahold of the port warp engine. Karol raised his phaser and fired a burst. The stun beam hit the man in the chest causing him to let go of the ship and fall to the ground. Other people ran to help him as the ship gained altitude. Karol looked up at Sharon through the cockpit window and waved goodby. She waved back just before the ship picked up speed heading out into space.