Part 3: our solum hour
Four hours from earth
Roslin, Lee Adama, and the captain were on the bridge listening to a message they had just picked up.
"This is an official Federation counsel broadcast. All counsel members and officials should now go to Case Orange. Repeat: This is an official Federation counsel broadcast. All counsel members and officials should now go to Case Orange."
"It's an automated message. It's designed to be sent out in case the president, the vice president and most of the federation counsel members are dead or incapacitated." Laura said to the captain.
"I need you to send my ID code back on the exact same frequency. D as in dog, dash 456 dash 345 dash A, as in apple. Thank you." She said before turning and walking out into the passenger section fallowed by Lee.
"How far down?" The Starfleet officer asked as the two of them sat down.
"43rd in line of succession. I know all 42 ahead of me from the President down. Most of us served with him in the first administration. Some of them came with him from the San Francisco Mayor's office. I was there with him on his first campaign. I never really liked politics; I kept telling myself I was getting out, but... he had this way about him."
"Message for you." The captain said as he exited the bridge. He handed Roslin a data PAD.
"Thank you." Laura said as she read the PAD then put her jacket on.
"We need a judge."
...
In the main cabin a female member of the bajoran judicial department named Elosha prepared to swear Roslin into office as other passengers held out their holo-cameras to record the transition into office.
"Please raise your right hand and repeat after me." She said. "I, Laura Roslin."
"I, Laura Roslin." Laura said on the verge of tears.
"Do now avow and affirm."
"Do now avow and affirm."
"That I take the office of the President of the United Federation of planets."
"That I accept the office of the - That I accept the office of the President of the United Federation of planets."
"And that I will protect the Federation and defend its humanitarian principles."
"And that I will protect the Federation and defend its humanitarian principles."
"With every fiber of my being."
"With every fiber of my being."
...
In section 30 of Galactica, chief Tyrol stood in the burnt hallways of the ship as he looked out through the massive hull breach on the side of the hallway. The body's had all been beamed back to the ship once transporters had been restored but the chief fell he had a duty to stand at the spot were those men had lost their lives.
...
In Galactica's bridge, Adama was observing the damage reports with Tigh.
"How many did we lose?" Adama asked.
"Twenty-six walked out. Eighty-five didn't." They looked at each other before Tigh continued.
"There's a unmanned supply depot at Mutara nebula."
"Oh, pardon me but it's a super bitch to anchor a ship there." Adama said
Well, the book says that there are fifty photon torpedo warheads and four tricobalt devices in storage there. They should also have all the equipment we'll need to reactivate our phaser banks and basic food and medical supply's to last us a few months."
"We'll verify that."
"Yes sir."
...
Cally was siting in the damaged part of the ship crying over the burnt body of ensign Prosna as the chief helped her move it to another location.
...
"Do you know how many we lost?" The chief asked Captain Adama up in the bridge.
"Yes. Set up a temporary morgue in hanger bay 2." He responded."
"Forty seconds sir, that's all I needed. Eighty five of my people. Now I told... I told that son of a bitch-"
Adama quickly turned to the chief with stern look on his face. "He's the XO of this ship, is that clear? He had a tough decision to make. If it was me I would have done the same thing."
"Fourth seconds." The chief said quietly before leaving for the turbo-lift. Seconds later Tigh walked up with a data PAD in hand.
"Supply depot confirmed, but we have two problems. One, the Mutara station is on the other side of the quadrant and would take at least three days at maximum warp to get there. Two, the entire dominion fleet is between here and there."
"Specialist." Adama called out. A young Vulcan crew member walked up.
"Sir."
"Bring me our position."
"Yes, sir."
"You don't want to do this." Tigh said when it finally hit him what Adama intended to do.
"I know I don't."
"Because any sane man wouldn't. It's been, what, ten years since the drives were installed and we haven't used them since?"
"We trained for this."
"Training is one thing, but - if we're off in our calculations by even a few degrees, we could end up in the middle of a star."
"No choice. Colonel Tigh, please plot a quantum slipstream jump from our position to the Mutara anchorage."
"Yes sir." Tigh said as Dualla walked up to the captain with a PAD and tears in her eyes.
"Priority message, sir." She said.
"Engineering, spin up slipstream drives one and two." Tigh ordered.
"Spinning up slipstream drives one and two." The officer said.
"Lieutenant Gaeta, break out the slipstream navigational computers and charge up the deflector. We are making a jump."
"Captain Jean-Luc Picard is dead." Adama said as he read the PAD given to him by Dualla. Everyone on the bridge looked a Adama with looks of absolute disbelief and horror.
"The USS Enterprise has been destroyed. Along with the starships: Thunderchild, Voyager, Defiant, Prometheus... The list goes on."
"Who's the senior officer? Who's in command?" Tigh asked.
Adama turned back to Dualla. "Send a message to all remaining Starfleet units. Message begins. Am taking command of fleet."
...
In space, the Antares was flying close to three other ships. One was an Oberth class science vessel the Sea of Tranquility. The second vessel was a cargo vessel the Demetrius. The third vessel was a whale shaped passenger ship that was dead in space.
"Liner-72381, this is s.s. Antares registry number NC-798." The captain said before making an obvious correction.
"No, strike that. This is NC-1."
"Go ahead, NC-1." The captain of the liner responded.
"We have you in sight. We'll approach your starboard docking hatch."
"Copy that Antares. Thank god you're here. We've been without main power for over two hours now." The second pilot said.
As the two captains exchanged words Lee Adama, who was manning the operations post, received a message. He read out the message to Laura Roslin who was siting in the back of the bridge.
"To all Federation units: Am taking command of fleet. All ships ordered to rendevouz at Mutara supply depot for regroup and counter-attack. Acknowledge by same, encryption protocol Adama." Lee said reading the last word with dread.
"Lieutenant commander Adama, please inform Commander Adama that we are currently involved in rescue operations in sector 03 and we require his assistance. Ask him how many bio beds he has available in his sickbay and how long it will take him to get here." Roslin asked
"I, uh -" Lee said not sure how to put his concerns into words.
"Yes?" Laura said.
"I'm not sure he's gonna respond very well to that request."
"Then tell him this comes directly from the President of the United Federation of Planets, and it's not a request.
"Yes, sir. And sir? Adama is just my last name. My first name is Lee.
"I know who you are. But the name Adama has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" She said as she left the bridge.
...
Adama stood at the operations station looking at the message that was sent to the ship with disbelief.
"Is this a joke?" He said before turning to Dualla.
"Are they within voice range?" He asked. She nodded. She tapped several controls to hail the Antares.
"Antares, this is the federation starship Galactica. lieutenant commander Lee Adama please contact Galactica immediately." The young officer said through the headset. The speakers were quiet until Lee Adamas voice came through.
"This is Lee Adama go ahead Galactica."
Dualla handed the captan the earpiece for him to talk to his son personally.
"Yay are you-is your ship all right?" He said.
"Were both fine thanks." Lee said.
"Is your warp drive functional?" The captain asked.
On the other end Lee got an ok from Antares captain that the warp drive was indeed operational despite the hiccup from before.
"That's Affirmative." He said.
"Good. Then you are ordered to take yourself and your passengers and head towards the Mutara nebula. acknowledge."
Lee hesitated before answering. "Acknowledge-receive of message Galactica."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Captain Adama angrily said.
"It means I heard you." His son said.
"You need to do a lot better than that."
"We are engaged in rescue operations."
"You are to abort your mission immediately and proceed to Mutara."
"The President has given me a direct order."
"We're in the middle of a war, and you're taking orders from a schoolteacher?"
In the Antares an alarm sounded from a computer.
"We've got trouble." The captain said.
"Stand by, Galactica - What?" Lee asked.
"Inbound dominion fighters at high warp." The captain said pointing to the sensor readings.
"How long till they get here?"
"ETA two minutes."
"My father was right, we have to go now." Lee said regretfully."
"No." Roslin said.
"Madame President, we cannot defend this ship -"
"Its like you said, we cannot abandoned these people."
"That was before we had jem'hadar ships closing in. If we stay-"
"I've made my decision, lieutenant." She said not backing down.
"You're the President."
"All right then."
"Permission to go below?" He asked.
...
"Sir, we are receiving telemetry from lieutenant commander Adamas position." Lieutenant Geata stated.
"Put it on the main view screen." Captain Adama ordered. Seconds later a tactical image showing the civilian ships and the jem'hadar fighters appeared. The two warships were getting closer and closer.
Onboard the Antares, Lee ran below to the cargo hold and started messing with the controls to the warp coil brought aboard from Galactica.
On Galactica's bridge Adama tried desperately to contact The ship.
"This is Galactica. Lieutenant? You have inbound enemy fighters coming towards you. Get out of there! Adama?! Adama?! Lee, get - Lee!" But it was no use. The tactical display showed the fighters launching a weapon at the civilian fleet before jumping to warp. Seconds later and a white light engulfed the ships as they were supposedly destroyed.
"Fifty isoton tricobalt detonation. jem'hadar moving off, sir." Geata said.
Captain Adama stared at the view screen for several seconds not wanting to believe what just happened. His son, his only remaining son was dead. As he stood there, Tigh walked up to comfort his friend. Adama was quiet for several seconds before slowly turning to the bridge crew.
"Resume jump prep." He ordered.
"Resume jump prep." Tigh repeated louder.
...
Shuttle bay two
Kara Thrace climbed out of the cockpit of her ship after she and the other fighters landed. Chief Tyrol walked up to the ship horrified.
"lieutenant, what did you do to my ship?!" He said.
Kara look over to the fighter to see that most of the left side impulse engine cowling had been ripped off, exposing power conduits and other important systems.
"No wonder the engine gave out." She said.
"Honestly I'm not sure how you were able to fly this thing much less land it." Tyrol said.
"Well that's something I'd rather not think about. Where's ensign Prosna? He needs to look at the navigational computer or I'll have his head on a plater." She said. But Tyrol just looked away pretending to work on an engine part.
"He's dead- he died in the fires."
"How many people did we lose?"
"Eighty-five."
Kara was quiet before turning to leave.
"Oh, lieutenant. I don't know if you heard about Lee but-"
"What about him?" Kara said with concern.
"Well um-" Tyrol started to say but Kara could tell what he was thinking.
"Oh, got it." She said. "Still no word from Sharon or Karl?" She asked.
Tyrol shook his head in disappointment. Kara, wanting to be alone, left the bay for her room.
"Chief, are you ok?" Cally asked Tyrol from her workstation after seeing him standing at the same spot, his thoughts on Sharon and wether she would be ok.
"Get back to work." He ordered as he broke from his trance and walked over to the damaged ship to work.
...
Two light years outside the Kuiper belt. T plus six hours
"Launching probe in three,two,one...deploy." Sharon said as she activated the communication probe to send out a distress signal.
"Now they'll come and find us?" One of the kids who was siting in the front said.
"There's a lot of interference around here. Lotta noise. Keeps my subspace transponder from working. Hopefully, once that communications probe I launched gets far enough away from here, a starship will pick up the signal and start looking for us."
"Is everyone on earth dead?" The kid asked.
"I don't know."
"My dad's a commander on the Lexington. They told me he's missing, but I think he's dead too."
"You know something? Both my parents died when I was little too." She said.
"Who do you live with then?"
"A bunch of other people on a ship called the Galactica."
In the rear cabin, Gaius Baltar was siting with the other people allowed onboard. At this point he couldn't decide weather to be grateful for being rescued or be terrified of what these people would do to him when they figured out that he was the cause of the attack. That his lover was actually a shapshifter and that she used his access codes to infiltrate Starfleet security systems. As he pondered this he noticed the image of his lover siting right in front of him wearing a red dress.
"You know what I love about you, Gaius? You're a survivor." She said to him. No one else seemed to notice her. Gaius looked around to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. But when he turned back she was gone.
...
"Captain, all decks report ready for slipstream jump." Mr. Geata reported.
"Take us to Mutara commander." Adama ordered.
"lieutenant Geata, set a course for the Mutara Nebula and engage the quantum slipstream drive." Tigh barked.
Mr. Geata taped the control console to activated the ship wide intercom. "All decks, brace for slipstream jump." He said. When he was finished the helm officer typed in the flight path for the ship and began the countdown.
"Jump in five, four, three,-"
In main engineering all the crew members were ether siting down or holding on to something. Cally had taken a seat at one of the diagnostic computers.
"I hate this part." She said to herself.
"-Two, one, jump." The officer finished before imputing the order to engage the drives. It was Immediately fallowed by a deep humming sound that got louder and louder. Suddenly the view screen showed a large glowing vortex open up in front of the ship. With a surge of speed, Galactica entered the aperture.
"Slipstream corridor is stable. Deflector power is balanced. Everything looks good commander." Mr. Geata said.
"ETA to the Nebula?" Tigh asked.
"Five minutes sir."
All they could do was wait as the ship continued on its way at near transwarp speeds. Then after what felt like an eternity Mr. Geata called out.
"Arrival in five, four, three, two, one."
Then as quickly as it had begun the slipstream corridor began to dissolve around the ship until the Galactica finally reemerged into normal space. Everyone held their breath as lieutenant Geata began to scan the space around them. And everyone took a deep breath when Geata finally announced the good news.
"We appear to be in geosynchronous orbit directly above the Mutara Nebula." He said.
Many people on the bridge began to clap at the first good news they had in many hours.
"Colonel Tigh?" Adama said.
"Sir?"
"Plot us a course through the nebula to the station."
"Yes sir."