Chapter Three - The pain of revelation bringing new clarity,

The Admiral had waited patiently for the doctor to finish his examinations; Laura had quietened down as he continued to stroke her forehead. It wasn't long before a rather hassled Doc Cottle made his way over to the President. Adama stood back as he examined her but didn't let go of the hand he held tightly unwilling to give up the contact with her. They had been lovers for only a few precious weeks, finally unable to stop the evitable happening both to tired to pull back but their life together spanned far longer than their brief, more physical relationship did.

Cottle straightened up, looked around at each patient in turn before turning back to Adama with a scowl.

"I think we need to talk in private, Admiral."

Cottle watched as Bill Adama glanced down at Laura Roslin and reassured him, "I have given the President a sedative; she'll sleep for a while."

He was still reluctant to leave but as he looked down at his sleeping lover, she seemed peaceful at last and he didn't protest when Cottle took hold of his forearm and pulled him away towards his office.

It wasn't until he was sitting in the doctor's office that he let his frustration out, "What in Hades is going on out there Jack?

Cottle was already well through a cigarette, taking long drawn out breaths of smoke into his lungs.

"HOW the frak do I know?" the doctor exclaimed, raising his hand to stop the diatribe Adama was about to send his way, he amended less loudly, "look I can tell you the medical facts but that's all."

"Fine, give me the facts," the Admiral growled not in the mood for Jack's antics.

Opening the folders in front of him he stated, "Well, I can tell you that, Saul, Tyrol, Tory, Anders, Sharon and the Cylon prisoner are deeply unconscious probably comatose. The President and the two children are not - but are obviously in some considerable pain, I have sedated them until I can find out a little more about what's causing this," waving his hand in the direction of his patients outside.

Bill stated trying to be helpful, "Laura apparently had a severe headache before she collapsed."

"Right, well that's a start," the gruff doctor said.

Bill moved on quickly not wanting to dwell on the thought of Laura collapsing, "do you have any ideas about why this group of people have been...struck down?" he said having no better word for it.

"Well there are some patterns, obviously both Cylons are in a coma, Roslin and the child Hera with less Cylon blood are not as bad, but the others...unless... they're..." the unfinished words hung in the air. Both men looked at each other in disbelief.

"No, No, you're not seriously suggesting that my oldest friend is a ..." Bill exclaimed shaking his head in denial, but as the words started to sink in, Adama's face grew grim.

Truly shaken by the thought he said not looking at the doctor, "Jack, there is an entire Cylon fleet drifting outside, it's the same thing isn't it? My crew in there, in a coma, those... people, that we have all worked with...my best friend, they're...Cylons aren't they?"

"Well, hold on, we need to run some tests before we jump to a conclusions, find out for sure, Bill."

Desperate to get away from life stations the Admiral stood suddenly, "Keep me informed, Doctor."

Jack Cottle watched the slump shouldered Admiral make his way to his office doorway.

"Bill," he asked softly, "is it true? Have we found Earth?"

Adama turned briefly back towards the doctor, "Yes, for what it's worth we have," he said sadly, leaving the doctor to contemplate the Admiral's words.

It was several hours later that a very weary looking Bill Adama, next stepped into Jack's territory. He had been fighting off wave after wave of problems and irritations.

Upon returning to CIC the Admiral had immediately ordered the fleet and Galactica to a halt, he was out of his depth and he needed some answers before he would risk this fleet any more than necessary, they were on the eve of their goal, the greatest prize of all, Earth, he wasn't about to jump in head first.

One of his first jobs had been to begrudgingly try and locate the Vice President; after all he was technically in charge with Laura being incapacitated and under the care of Galactica's medics. It should have been a simple procedure but Zarek was proving a difficult man to locate, he had given up after several phone calls and delegated the job to Gaeta.

The next big headache was the press. They were breathing down his neck on a number of issues; the first of course was that Earth had been found. Other topics varied from why the President wasn't available for comment. One reporter had foolishly gone so far as to ask the Admiral if the dying leader prophecy was true, was Laura Roslin already dead? Adama had just about resisted the urge to throttle him and things had moved on. Why was the fleet not proceeding straight to Earth, was it true that some of the Cylon fleet had jumped into this area? The questions seemed to be never ending, the answers given getting shorter and sharper. Adama went out of his way to give as little information as possible - just enough for the reporters to leave him a lone for a short while.

He had sent out Vipers to investigate the seemingly stricken Cylon fleet. The reports came back that their was indeed no sign of life. The Cylon fleet had grown massively there seemed to no end to the Base Stars and Resurrection ships jumping into the area. All unaware of their fate when they did so. Adama was reluctant to destroy them, if there were other Resurrection ships nearby they would stop jumping in and as things stood they were nothing more than space junk.

Adama caught the doctor's eye as he walked out of his office, clipboard in hand.

Walking straight over to the Admiral, his eyes took in the tired look upon his face, "you look as though you could do with a lay down yourself."

"Mnm," Adama said looking around him noticing that all the patients were now screened off behind curtains.

"What's the situation down here, Jack?" He asked turning back to the doctor.

Cottle indicated moving to his office and walked off in that direction leaving the Admiral to follow in his wake.

"Right," Cottle started as soon as the door was shut, "they are all stable, none of them have got any worse or better."

Adama had to ask, "The President?"

Cottle made no comment simply answered, "She is comfortable, I've put her on something for the pain and she is in and out of consciousness, probably more drowsy from the pain meds than anything."

Adama nodded his head at the answer and thought for a few second before questioning the doctor, "so if we move closer to Earth it will have no bearing on their health."

"I pretty sure that's true but we won't know for sure until it happens."

"Right, so what would happen if we jumped away from Earth?" Bill asked.

"Again I'm not sure but I think there is a good chance they will go back to normal."

Bill snorted, "All this time finding Earth and the very people that have fought so hard for it can't enjoy it."

"Those people are Cylons Admiral."

Adama growled, "Not all of them."

Jack sensing he should tread careful repeated the Admiral's words, "no, not all of them."

The Admiral rose quickly and grabbed the phone off the desk, speaking quickly to who ever was on the other end he asked for Karl Agathon to come down to life stations. He had somewhat callously insisted that Helo return to duty earlier even with his wife and child in here, Adama needed him more so than ever with the absence of Saul.

Cottle looked questionly at the Admiral and asked, "What are you going to do?"

Bill looked Jack straight in the eye and said, "I'm going to test your little theory, doctor."

"How?"

"I'm going to get Helo to take Sharon back from where we came from and see if she recovers."

Don't panic Laura's in the next part.