Chapter 4 - Heart-To-Heart

Galactica - Med-Bay

When she finally opened her eyes, Roslin knew she had been out for a long time. She looked around the room, trying to get her bearings. She was lying in a bed in the med-bay from the looks of it. She suddenly realised that she felt good. No pain from any of the injuries during the last battle... and more importantly... the feeling of sickness and general aching she had developed from the cancer were almost gone, replaced with slight light-headedness and mild drowsiness.

As she turned her head, she noticed a red-haired girl stood next to the bed, fixated on a glowing device on her arm. "By the gods..." she thought, "...it wasn't a dream?"

The medic noticed her stirring, and realised she was now awake.

"Hello there madam president..." she said softly, "...how are you feeling?"

"A little light-headed I suppose," Roslin replied, rubbing her hands over her face, "... but otherwise... better than I have for the past few months. What was it that you gave me earlier?"

"Medi-gel... it's a short-term treatment for many things."

"And the cancer?"

The medic looked up sadly from her omni-tool. "I'm afraid it's still there..." she said, "Medi-gel is a wonderful substance... it's currently reducing the inflammation and infection caused by the cancerous growths, and blocking much of the pain. But it can't work miracles..."

"So... how long do I have left?" Roslin asked, she had accepted the end was coming a long time ago, and wasn't afraid to face it.

"I'm currently running some diagnostic scans to assess the damage, and its progression." she replied. "However I think we can keep you stable for the time being, until we can get you to one of our specialists... they know much more than I do, and may be able to do something." She smiled and threw Roslin a quick wink. "Sorry... you're just going to have to hang in there for a while longer."

"Well... you keep dosing me with that stuff... and I'll manage quite nicely." she replied with a chuckle.

"It's a deal." the medic replied.

"So hows the mothers meeting going?" a marine asked as he walked into the room.

"What are you doing here Alder?" The medic asked.

"Yeah..." Chico piped up from behind the curtain, "I can handle looking out for these two myself!"

"You know the rules Chico," Alder replied sternly, "Two of us are supposed to guard at the same time... You watch my back... I'll be watching hers." he said with a sly grin.

"Under the circumstances... I'd say one guard was more than enough." the medic replied in an annoyed tone.

"Whoa don't shoot the messenger love..." he replied, holding his hands up, "...the lieutenant sent me up..."

"Fine..." barked the medic, "...well seeing as you're already here, why don't you go guard the door... I don't think you're helping anyone standing there in the middle of the room like a moron."

The marine blushed, and walked off sheepishly outside the med-bay to stand guard.

"So is there a story there?" Roslin whispered.

"Oh he'd like there to be." the medic replied with a smile. "But its always more fun to make them work for it don't you think?" she said with a wink.

A quiet snickering was heard from behind the curtain.

"Why don't you go out there and help him Chico?" she called out to him with a stern voice.

With that Chico scurried from around the curtain, saluted, and bolted out through the door.

"Treat 'em mean... keep 'em keen!" she said to Roslin, throwing her another wink.

Roslin fought to suppress her laughter. This girl had some fire in her, and a wicked sense of humour. She reminded her of a younger version of herself in many ways, back before the fall of the colonies. Her mind began to drift into other memories. She always used to be the fun sibling, back before the crash that killed both her sisters... and her unborn niece or nephew.

A loud clang snapped Roslin back into reality... someone had dropped a bedpan on the other side of the room. With the confusion of their initial meeting now over, Roslin decided now was a good time to gather some more information about the new arrivals.

"You've spent all this time watching over me... I don't even know your name?" Roslin said.

"Layna..." the medic replied, "... Layna Vallis."

"Layna, I hope you don't mind... but something's been troubling me... your superior mentioned earth before... and something called systems alliance?" Roslin paused for a moment, thinking through what she was going to say. "Could you tell me a little about that? If you are allowed to of course."

"I suppose there's no harm in telling you the standard tourist type stuff." she said with a wink. "Earth kind of looks like a pretty green and blue marble... kinda jumps out at you from nowhere. The surrounding planets all look pretty drab in comparison, so you can't really miss it. I've been there a few times, mostly during my training, but I did a long tour there after the reaper war."

"I've heard your people talk about these 'Reapers' several times now... but I must admit, I've no idea what they are." said Roslin. "Should we be worried?"

"I can't go into too much detail... as I'm not sure how much Alliance Command wants to reveal just yet." Layna replied. "Basically, they were a race of sentient machines. Really advanced... really old machines. Up until a few years ago, they were just a myth... nobody had any idea they really existed." she paused for a moment. "There had been some rumours about them before... but the first time most people had ever seen them was during the attack on the citadel. Even then, a lot of people buried their heads in the sand, and just believed that it was just one highly advanced ship..." The medic had a solemn look on her face as the memories came to her. "It wasn't until the Reaper Armada arrived a couple of years later that everyone finally accepted what they never wanted to admit."

"What happened there?" Roslin asked quietly.

"I can't say for certain," said Layna, "I was actually on shore leave... watched the attack on news reports over the extranet." She paused as she struggled to piece together the memories. "They touched down onto the planet... destroying everything in their paths... ships were blasted out of the sky... people running around trying to escape the carnage. It was a bloodbath... all our defences were useless... and for every reaper ground troop destroyed, more came to replace them."

"I'm sorry..." Roslin said, "...It must have been horrific."

"It was horrible to watch definitely... but I can't imagine what it must have been like for the people who were actually there." she replied. "Not long after, there was an emergency call to arms, all shore leave was cancelled, and we were rapidly transported to the fleets."

Roslin desperately wanted to know more, but she knew that this was a tough subject to bring up, and the girl was obviously becoming distressed. She'd have to proceed carefully.

"I take it Earth is safe now though? The Reapers are gone?"

"It took us a long time... but we finally managed to beat them." she said. "While the Reapers were preoccupied with destroying the planet, we worked on a secret weapon to defeat them. Took us a long time, almost all of our resources, and assistance from countless worlds to build it... but we got it working. When we set it off, every Reaper was destroyed."

Roslin sat there quietly, taking in as much information as she could... though it was a little overwhelming how similar this 'Reaper War' was to the fall of the colonies.

"After the weapon was used... we lost most of our technology for a while... and we lost a lot of good people throughout the fighting... since then, all our efforts have been put into rebuilding."

Roslin had had her suspicions confirmed... the Reapers were of alien origin. When the Cylons attacked, at least the colonies knew what they were, and where they came from. These people regarded them as myths. For Roslin, this left only two explanations... either the Reapers weren't as powerful as the Cylons... or the people of Earth were a force to be reckoned with...

Looking up at the girl, she suddenly realised she'd stopped talking, and was sat there looking to the floor, lost deep in her memories. Her eyes welling up slightly.

"I understand," Roslin said quietly, "I can quite understand how you feel... I sometimes struggle to deal with my emotions when I think of the colonies... so many good people lost... and everything we'd spent centuries creating gone in an instant."

The medic nodded in agreement.

"It all just seems like such a waste... so pointless..." she replied.

"But we are still here," Roslin replied, "And we need to be strong for those who remain with us... that is how I think we honour the fallen."

Layna wiped her eyes, and looked up at Roslin with a smile.

"I couldn't agree more." she replied. "On a brighter note, most of the rural areas got left alone, so we still had sustainable food sources. A lot of the heavy lifting is finished when it comes to cleaning up debris and structural repair, but it's still going to take a long time for everything to return to normal."

Roslin felt for the girl, and sympathised with the plight of her people... but she couldn't help but wonder how much these people would be willing to help them, if they were still recovering from an alien invasion.

"I have one more question, if you don't mind?" she asked.

"Fire away!" the medic replied.

"If these Reaper's were of alien origin... have you met any other races out there?" she asked.

"Ah... Are you comfy? I have a feeling this one is going to take a while..." she replied.

ABOARD THE SSV ORIZABA

Adama looked out of the viewing port on the Raptors door, and saw numerous marines. They could easily be mistaken for his own... though their gear looked more advanced and better, even, than those held by the squad that had visited Galactica earlier.

"It looks like the Admiral runs a very tight ship." Adama said. "These marines look highly trained, probably a special ops team in case we're dangerous." he looked around at his team. "We had better not give them a reason to fire at us... or piss them off..." he looked to Starbuck as he said this.

Starbuck looked either side of her, then to Adama with a smirk on her face. "What...? You think Mr Vice President over there is gonna pick a fight?" she replied. "Don't you worry sir... I'll keep his leash tight for you."

Everyone in the Raptor began to chuckle... apart from Lee... who sat in his corner rolling his eyes in annoyance. The ship fell silent at the sound of knocking. The door swung open, and Vega poked his head in.

"We're ready for you sir."

"OK Marines, I want you to take point. The Vice President and I will follow... Athena and the six follow us, and Starbuck bring up the rear." Adama ordered. "Be on your guard, but don't give them any reason to see us as a threat... we've already lost enough people... we can't afford to lose any more."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and at the admirals word, exited the Raptor in their pairs. They stood in formation on the hanger deck, with Vega and his remaining team beside them, surrounded by the ships marines.

Adama noticed a tall, athletic woman, dressed in formal uniform – which he assumed was related to her rank – with a large pistol strapped to her side. She was very beautiful, the only thing giving away her age was the grey streaks running through her auburn hair. She stared at them intently, not giving away any emotion or signals of her intentions. A younger officer stood at her side. At first glance she could have been mistaken for Dualla.

"You are Admiral Shepard, I presume?" Adama called to the woman.

"Correct... Admiral Adama... Welcome aboard the Orizaba" said Shepard as she walked over. She offered her hand to him. "Strong grip" he noted to himself. As she released his hand, he noticed the black arm band round her right arm. On Caprica, it was a sign of mourning. He wondered if it meant the same here. He introduced his team to Shepard, who acknowledged them with a salute.

"Now that we have the formalities out-of-the-way, would you please follow Specialist Traynor to the briefing room... we can talk privately there." Shepard asked indicating they should follow the younger officer from earlier, while she brought up the rear with four well armed marines. Lt Vega nodded to the Admiral as he walked by... almost as if to say 'good luck'. Adama dipped his head in response, and followed Specialist Traynor out of the hangar bay.

End Of Chapter