Chapter 5

F.S. HUNTRESS BOAT BAY – AREA GSD 736/838

"Senior Captain Adu," Malcolm Jackson asked crisply to the environment suit garbed brawn of the F.S. Huntress, "permission to come aboard, sir?"

Denzel Adu inclined his head and stated "Permission granted, sir."

"Zel," Jackson said and turned to the suited figure on his right, "this is Doctor Ian Dalle. And this," he indicated the smaller suited figure on his left, "is Lena Stenger."

Adu bowed slightly toward them. "It's a pleasure to me you, Doctor, Ms. Stenger. Would your party follow me, please?"

#

F.S. HUNTRESS – DECK FOUR CONFERENCE ROOM

Jackson and the others followed Diana's brawn through a hatch into a corridor. After they'd walked several meters, Adu opened another hatch that led into a fairly large room and guided Jackson's party inside. The room was quite stark. Its only furnishings were a rectangular table with three simple chairs on either side and a single chair on either end. There were also wide angle camera lenses mounted on each wall. Adu waved his right hand at the lens closest to him. "Diana, say hello to our guests!"

"Malcolm," she purred in her pleasant soprano voice, "it's so wonderful to see you again! You're as dashing as ever!"

"Although I don't know how you can tell all of that when I'm dressed in this getup," he drawled as he pointed to his environment suit, "I appreciate the thought, my fair lady. Oh, Diana, I'd like you to meet Doctor Ian Dalle and Lena Stenger."

"Doctor, it's an honor. Ms. Stenger, welcome aboard!" she welcomed them warmly with her aristocratic British accent.

After the introductions were completed, the three men and Stenger seated themselves at the table. Jackson was the first to speak. "Denzel, what time are our guests scheduled to arrive?"

"They should be here in two hours."

"Good. Were you able to sterilize this room?"

"Yes," Diana noted. "My husband completed the process shortly before your ship arrived in the system. Also, I have several holographic images ready to project above the table to help explain the Sakqua and the non-human members of the Alliance for our guests."

"Good thinking, Diana!" Jackson exclaimed. Then he shot a look at the Dalle. "Doctor, after our guests have arrived, what happens next?"

Dalle said, "After you indicate it's all right for me to proceed, I'll examine them to ensure they're human and inoculate the ones who'll return with Master Chief Hagen and Captain Adu to Xanadu. After I give them their shots, we'll keep them talking for an hour or so to ensure they don't suffer from an allergic reaction to the serum."

Stenger then said, "When Doctor Dalle is satisfied that the Colonials' representatives are fine, we shall try to convince their flight crew to ferry our party to their mother ship."

"Malcolm," Denzel asked, "do you have a contingency plan if only the two members of their flight crew show up to meet us?"

The other man shrugged. "Well, if that turns out to be the case, we'll gently suggest they should leave the pilot's associate here with you. I believe it's important they have someone travel with you to Xanadu to brief Admiral Amato about their fleet's situation and to return to their people with observations about our presence in the Xanadu system."

"It would go a long way of establishing our credibility with their people," Stenger added.

"Malcolm," Diana drawled, "since you are depriving me of my husband's company for several days, do you think it would be all right if Denzel brings our daughter back home?"

"I don't see why not, Diana. I doubt there's any risk to Jennifer from the Colonial representatives. I'd expect them to be on their best behavior since they're seeking help from us. If not, either Bill or your husband could incapacitate them if they get out of hand." Jackson then glanced at Ian, Lena, Denzel and Diana's camera. "Is there anything else we need to cover?" When his question was met with silence, he smiled and said, "If that's all, now we wait. Does anyone have a deck of cards on them?"

#

COLONIAL RAPTOR 841 – AREA GSD 736/838

"This looks about right," Margaret 'Racetrack' Edmondson announced as her boat reemerged into real space inside the nebula high above the planet she'd orbited yesterday.

While Captain Kelly and Lieutenant Katraine poked their heads into the cockpit to take a look through the craft's windscreen, Skulls and she checked their scanners. Today, it was a bit more difficult to read the data since they were all wearing their environmental suits; however, that couldn't be helped. Doc Cottle was pretty frakking adamant they had to wear the gods damn things or else they could never go home again.

"Skipper!" Skulls breathed. "We've just been lit up again like yesterday." Then he paused as he studied his wireless transceiver. "We're receiving a transmission. It's the Huntress!"

"Put it on the cabin's main speakers, Skulls."

"You've got it, Skipper," he said and threw a switch on his console.

"Huntress hailing Colonial Raptor—Skulls, is that you?"

The ECO grinned. "Raptor 841 to Huntress—we're back and we've brought a few friends!"

The Thirteenth Tribe woman chuckled. "We have some people onboard we'd like you to meet, too. I suppose we should get this show on the road as it were. Can your pilot hear me, Skulls?"

In response, Racetrack activated her comm link. "Diana? This is Racetrack. I'm the pilot."

"It's so good to meet you, Racetrack. I shall now provide you with landing instructions."

Soon the woman had provided the information to Margaret in a format the pilot actually understood. Racetrack changed course and steered her craft under the keel of the much larger vessel. As they drew closer to the ship, she spied a ramp and lined up her Raptor with the flashing parallel rows of lights leading up into the opening in the ship's hull. The pilot guided her Raptor up the ramp into the bay and slid her craft alongside a larger ship she estimated to be about 30 meters long parked on the deck. She experienced a slight dip in her altitude caused by the pull of the deck's artificial gravity but she was able to compensate. Now she glided her craft toward a square of oscillating lights and moments later, gently set her Raptor down inside the square before she shut down the engines."

"Good show, Racetrack!" Diana gushed over their wireless. "I'm now closing the ramp and shall begin pressurization of the docking bay. Please remain inside your craft until atmosphere has been restored. It should take only a few moments before you may open your hatch. Meanwhile, Senior Captain Jackson will be waiting for you in the bay. He is unarmed so there is no cause for any of you to be alarmed. Once you disembark from your craft, he will escort you to a conference room we've prepared to receive you. Do you have any questions?"

Racetrack glanced over her shoulder and shot a questioning look at Kelly. In response, he simply shook his head. Then she turned her head forward and said into her microphone, "Roger that, Diana. We are unarmed as well."

"Splendid! Please standby Raptor 841," the woman announced. Only a minute or so passed before the Thirteenth Tribe woman said, "Docking bay is pressurized to one standard atmosphere. You are now free to disembark from your craft at this time. Diana, signing off," the woman said then closed the wireless channel.

Racetrack checked her instruments to confirm the bay actually did have atmosphere. Once confirmed, she opened the hatch and the craft's occupants scrambled out onto the bay's deck.

Waiting patiently for them outside was a figure encased in what appeared to be a Thirteenth Tribe's environmental suit. Its helmet light was illuminated and she could see a human face that had the same pigmentation as her ECO. The figure raised its right hand and waved it minutely side to side. Margaret watched as Kelly reciprocated the figure's motion with Kelly's own right hand.

The figure then turned a nob on a pack that was on its chest and she heard a voice through her helmet's speakers. "Welcome. My name is Malcolm Jackson. I am an officer of the Fleet. Please follow me and do not be concerned. You shall not come to any harm aboard this ship."

Kelly then stepped forward and said, "Thank you for welcoming us. My name is Aaron Kelly an officer of the Colonial Fleet. We will follow you."

Jackson turned and headed toward a hatch. Kelly fell in line behind the other man while Skulls and Kat followed their captain and Racetrack took up the rear to watch their six.

#

F.S. HUNTRESS – DECK FOUR CONFERENCE ROOM

Jackson marched down the corridor with Kelly, Kat, Skulls and Racetrack following closely behind. He led them to a hatchway that opened into what appeared to be a utilitarian conference room. He then stepped into the room indicating they should proceed inside. Already standing in front of their chairs on one side of the table were three other suited figures. Kelly strolled to the other side and continued walking until he reached the far end of the table. Kat then followed Kelly and took the chair next to him while Skulls sat next to her and Racetrack took the seat next to the other end of the table. Jackson then sat at that end of the table in the chair next to Racetrack while the other figures across the way took their seats.

Once everyone appeared to be settled in, Jackson glanced at each of the Colonials and said, "As I said before in the docking bay, my name is Malcolm Jackson. I'm a Senior Captain in the Alliance of Planets' space defense and exploration force. We refer to our organization as the Fleet. The officer to my immediate right is Lt. Commander Lena Stenger. Next to her is Doctor Ian Dalle. Dr. Dalle is a physician and a full commander of the Fleet. Finally, on the other side of the doctor is Senior Captain Denzel Adu, the Executive Officer of this vessel. Senior Captain Diana Adu is currently in the control center of the vessel on watch, so she is unable to attend this meeting in person. However, she can interact with us via the camera feed from this room to her location."

When Jackson appeared to have completed his round of introductions, Kelly cleared his throat. "My name is Aaron Kelly. I'm a captain in the Fleet of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. To my immediate right is Lt. Louanne Katraine. On her right is Lt. Hamish McCall and on his right is our pilot, Lt. Margaret Edmonson."

"Thank you for introducing the members of your party, Captain Kelly."

"Likewise, Senior Captain Jackson. I'm curious, though, about your organization's rank structure. In the Colonial Fleet, a 'captain' would be in charge of a section while a commander is in command of a capital ship."

Jackson nodded. "That's very interesting, Captain. Our rank structure in the Alliance of Planets' Fleet is rather complicated. We have space navy captains and our marines also have captains."

"That is interesting," Kelly noted. "We also have marines in the Colonial Fleet."

Jackson smiled at the Colonial officer. "Well, in our fleet, a marine captain is a lower rank than a navy captain and is equivalent to a navy lieutenant. In our navy, a captain is usually in command of a space station or a capital ship. A commander or lieutenant commander usually is in command of a non-capital ship or functions as the executive officer of a capital ship and a direct report to the ship's captain."

Kat turned to Kelly and asked, "Sir, may I ask a few questions?"

Kelly smiled at her and said, "Of course, Lieutenant. Fire away!"

"Thank you, sir," she said to Aaron then turned to Jackson. "Senior Captain Jackson, our fleet has the rank of colonel who functions as the executive officer for our capital ships. Do you have the role of Commander Air Group on your ships? Also, we have senior officers who command a task force or a fleet of ships we call 'admirals.' Do you have them as well?"

"Well, to answer your questions, Lieutenant, in our organization, colonels are ground force officers. We don't have that rank in our navy. We do, though, have admirals and they serve apparently the same function in our navy as they do in yours. As for CAGs, we have those, as well; however, they only serve on ships that are designed to carry aerospace fighters and bombers. A ship like the Huntress, for instance, would not have a CAG because she does not carry aerospace fighter craft."

While Kat pondered the fact that the Thirteenth Tribe appeared to compartmentalize their aerospace fighter capabilities far more extensively than her people did, Kelly, once more, became the diplomat. "Thank you for clearing all of that up for us, sir. Also, I wanted to thank you for speaking to us in Caprican. That is very accommodating of you."

The other man smiled through his faceplate. "You're quite welcome, Captain Kelly. Fortunately, during our encounter with your Raptor yesterday, we used a…device that enables us to translate your language nearly instantaneously and allows us to speak to you in your own language. It's almost seamless, though, at times, if we run across a new word or concept, it may need to sample some of your conversations a few times before it can get it right."

"So," Racetrack asked, "your people don't speak Caprican or any of the other languages of our colonies?"

"No, Lieutenant Edmonson," the woman directly across the table from Racetrack said. "We use a language that's an amalgam of several old Earth languages and a few non-human languages we call 'universal.' We needed to come up with a common tongue that everyone, including the non-human members of the Alliance, could use to communicate with one another."

Kat's right eyebrow shot up when she heard that. "So, Skulls was right? You do associate with…aliens?"

Senior Captain Adu chuckled and said, "Well, the politically correct term we use these days is non-human, but, yes, we have Alliance members from dozens of different species." Then he turned to regard one of the camera lenses on the wall and said, "Diana, please show them a hologram of a Hrruban."

"Here we are, Denzel," the woman whose accent sounded like Baltar's said over one of the speakers in the room before a 3-D image of a huge, catlike creature standing on its hind legs with impressive claws and a pair of saber teeth that looked like they could easily rip a person to shreds floated in the air above the table. The image of the creature seemed so lifelike, Kat's guts twisted the way her remote ancestors had when a creature like that had stalked outside the entrance of their cave.

"This," Senior Captain Adu noted, "is the most populous member of the Alliance next to the human race. They are the Hrrubans and are the other originating member of the Alliance along with humanity."

"A-are they friendly?" Margaret stammered.

Adu simply shrugged. "But, of course! They've been humanity's partner for more than a thousand years or so. They're beautiful people, quite peaceful unless someone tries to attack them. Then, well, all bets are off."

As the image faded away, Kat was never happier to see something go. Then she gathered up her courage and asked, "How many settled worlds do you have in your alliance?"

Adu answered her question rapidly. "There are a hundred and fifty-five member worlds and nearly fifteen hundred colony worlds in the Alliance."

"Y-you've got almost seventeen hundred planets in your alliance?" Skulls sputtered.

"Yes," said Adu.

Kelly then took up the thread. "How many of your worlds are settled by humanity?"

"Well, a lot of our planets have various members of the Alliance who coexist together. However, the vast majority are planets where the overwhelming majority of citizens belong to one particular species due to that species' ability to acclimate to the planet's ecosystem. With that in mind, I'd say…" Adu then paused and turned to regard the camera again. "Diana, can you provide a percentage for Captain Kelly?"

"Of course, Denzel," she said. "Based on the last census, fifty-eight percent of the Alliance's population is human. That represents a total of nearly six trillion people."

Kat's head swam in darkness and she nearly fainted when she'd heard that. Six trillion people! What the frak?! Her people had fled from their homes believing that unless they found the Thirteenth Tribe, they were the last humans in the universe. Now they were being told by these people that the entire population of their twelve colonies was barely a single drop in the veritable ocean of humanity!

As she chanced a glimpse at each of her shipmates, Kat saw both Margaret and Kelly turning green while Skulls' face paled. Meanwhile, the Thirteenth Tribe's members simply waited patiently until someone in her party recovered their wits. Apparently, it turned out to be her because she managed to say, "But, you're just one tribe! Until the Cylons nearly wiped us all out, our colonies only had twenty billion people. How could you manage to have expanded so much in the last two thousand years?"

"We wanted to ask you about these Cylons and why you refer to us as a 'tribe.' But before we go down that road, we need to accomplish a few things. We'd like to send two of you to meet with one of our admirals so you can tell him about your people's plight. Meanwhile, the Doctor, Lena, and I were hoping your Raptor's flight crew could transport us to your fleet. We'd like to meet with your senior leadership to arrange for humanitarian assistance for your people and to assess your situation from a security standpoint on our side. So, to get the ball rolling, Dr. Dalle needs to perform a few medical scans on each of you and to inoculate the officers who will travel to see our admiral in a nearby system."

"What does this 'scan' and this 'inoculation' entail?" Kelly asked.

The doctor stood up and lifted something that appeared to look like a suitcase onto the table. "This room has been sterilized and the air is completely free of bacteria or viruses. Those who will remain on this ship, please remove your helmets. I will wave this device," he then lifted a small machine out of the case, "over you and take some readings. Then I will use this hypo," he placed the device down and removed a item that looked like a hypodermic needle without the needle and held it up for their inspection, "to give you medicine that will protect you from catching anything from us and potentially infecting your people. When we leave for your mother ship, your immune system will be fully protected and you'll be able to leave on the ship you saw in the docking bay to meet our admiral."

Kelly grimaced at the doctor and then shot a look at Kat. She nodded to him and they both reached up and detached their helmets. The doctor then passed the device over their bodies as well as the bodies of Racetrack and Skulls for several minutes before he returned to Aaron's and her side to press a different hypo device against each of their necks. After he removed the device from her neck, she marveled at the fact that she'd felt nothing. Indeed, the only indication she had that something had occurred was a slight hissing noise she heard. Now the Doctor smiled at them both and said, "You two can keep your helmets off and you can remove your suits after we leave. You won't need them anymore."

After they'd thanked the doctor, Jackson said, "Captain Kelly, Lieutenant Katraine, we'd like you to spend three days with our fleet while my party spends three days with yours. After that, both parties shall return to this ship which will remain in orbit above the planet below to facilitate the meeting between your people and ours. Now once my party returns from your fleet, we'll immediately contact our superiors and arrange for supplies and warships, if your leadership decides to take us up on our offer, to protect your people."

Kelly narrowed his eyes at the other man. "To protect us…from what?"

"As Diana told your flight crew yesterday, the Sakqua is another non-human race we've only recently encountered. We don't know much about them but we believe their race originated in another quadrant of the galaxy humanity has yet to explore. At this very moment, we have hundreds of scout ships searching for their planets. In the meantime, we've gathered elements of our fleet to take the fight to the Sakqua, to force them to end their war against humanity and to negotiate a peaceful resolution to this conflict."

"Can you tell us more about these creatures?" Kelly asked.

Jackson nodded. "Of course." Then he turned to the nearest camera and asked, "Diana, can you project an image of a Sakqua for us."

"Right away, Malcolm," she said. A heartbeat later, another 3-D image floated above the table. This time it was an incredibly lifelike hologram of a six-legged, two-armed centauroid with a bulging cranium as its head set on top of a toothy snout. The deadly mouth of razor sharp teeth, though, wasn't the most troubling thing about it in Kat's view. Instead, what truly frightened her about the thing were its eyes, eyes possessing a fearsome intelligence that didn't belong in the face of something so savage.

After the image had faded away, Jackson said, "The Sakqua never attempted to communicate with us. Eight of their vessels, perhaps three times the size of our small scout ships like the one in the Huntress' docking bay, just transitioned out of hyperspace an astronomical unit away from one of our planets and fired nearly a thousand thermonuclear missiles at it. Fortunately, a Fleet flotilla and one of our orbital stations managed to stop all the missiles before they reached the planet. We destroyed seven of their ships and our marines boarded the last one before the ship could be scuttled and captured a few of them. Though they're obviously aggressive, an interesting aspect of their culture we discovered during our interrogation of the prisoners appears to be they don't understand the concept of lying. None of the prisoners even contemplated subterfuge or withholding information from us. Another thing we discovered, although extremely intelligent, each prisoner only knew enough information to perform their particular function on their ship. Finally, we found no females on their vessel. In fact, the Sakqua appear not to understand the possibility of females existing in their society even though biologically they must have females involved in the reproductive cycle." Jackson paused for a moment and sighed deeply. "In either event, if the Sakqua run across your fleet and discovers your ships are filled with humans, they won't hesitate to attack you."

As the Colonials all contemplated what Jackson had just told them about this new potential threat to their fleet, the man then asked, "So can you tell us who or what are these Cylons and why were you searching for us?"

Kelly seemed to gather his courage before he began to tell their tale. "Our most sacred scrolls say the Thirteenth Tribe left Kobol, the cradle of mankind, more than two thousand years before the other twelve tribes left to establish the Twelve Colonies. The twelve tribes were driven away by the Lords of Kobol who'd grown weary of the warring and bickering between the tribes of man. Twelve tribes traveled together and settled in the Helios quadnary star system and, over time, settled the twelve habitable planets and moons in the system to form the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. The Thirteenth Tribe had forged a different path and sought its destiny in this direction to settle on a planet called…Earth."

Jackson stared at Kelly for several seconds before he said, "Earth is the capital of the Alliance of Planets. However, Earth, I'm sorry to say to you all, is also the birthplace of humanity, not Kobol."

Jackson's words hit each of the Colonials in their guts like a centurion's fist. "B-but, that can't be!" sputtered Kat. "Humanity originated on Kobol!"

"I'm afraid that's not so," Lena Stenger said. "We have extensive biological and historical data dating back over millions of years that proves mankind evolved on Earth."

While Kat and her people were completely gobsmacked by this revelation, Jackson gazed at them all with a sympathetic look. "It's clear to us this news is distressing to you. We want you to know it was not our intent to call your sacred works into question. I think it is probably a better idea for us to table this topic until we've had an opportunity to discuss it with your senior leadership and arrange for a representative from our Planetary Affairs Office to address the matter with your people in an appropriate manner. Now, I'd like to know who or what are these 'Cylons?'"

Kelly shook his head, possibly to attempt to erase the memory of the past few minutes, before he focused on Jackson's face. "It's probably more appropriate for you to have an in-depth discussion about the Cylons with our fleet's leadership, Senior Captain Jackson. However, I will tell you what I can about them. They're machines. They were an artificial intelligence project that went very, very wrong. An industrialist from one of our colonies created the Cylons to handle the tasks humans believed were too dangerous or too demeaning to do. Unfortunately, the machines somehow became sentient."

A look of doubt crossed Stenger's face. "Your AIs became sentient? We've had AIs for at least a thousand years. Not once in all that time did ours ever approach sentience."

"Yeah, well, lucky you," Kat grumbled.

Kat piped down when Kelly shot her a hard look. Then he continued his story. "In fact, Commander Stenger, the Cylons actually adopted a religion a few of our people practice. Most of the people in the colonies abhorred this religion because it espouses the worship of one god rather than the pantheon of gods which is common amongst the Twelve Tribes. However, for some reason, this monotheistic religion appealed to the machines. Soon after, the Cylons rebelled against humanity claiming that we had enslaved them. They launched a terrible war against the Colonies that lasted twelve long years. Forty one years ago, the war ended in a stalemate and both sides stopped the war and signed an armistice treaty."

"You signed just an armistice?" Stenger noted. "Not a peace treaty?"

Kelly nodded. "That's right. Basically the only thing both sides agreed to was a cease fire and a demarcation line. After the treaty was signed, every Cylon left the colonies and withdrew behind the demarcation line. For forty years, we never saw them or heard from them again until a year ago when they wiped out our colonies in a single day."

Both Diana and Lena gasped at that revelation. "How did you suffer such a devastating defeat? How did they overcome your defenses?" Lena asked.

"It seems," Kelly said with a hollow smile, "the Cylons 'evolved.' They created models that look like humans and mimic us. They used these new models to infiltrate and cripple our defense systems to the point the Cylons were able to shut down every warship and defense station in the fleet through a back door they'd installed in our networked computer systems. Then they destroyed nearly every warship and almost all of our crippled aerospace fighters before they carpet bombed each habitable planet and moon with thermonuclear devices."

"W-why…that…that's ghastly! You were defenseless and they didn't ask you to surrender?"

Kelly shook his head. "We offered to surrender, Diana. They never responded to our pleas."

"You're saying they continued to rain weapons of mass destruction down on your worlds? They were so callous, so cruel they thought nothing of killing every living creature in your biospheres?" Diana wondered.

"They're machines, Diana," Skulls said lowly. "Caring for anything other than themselves probably isn't in their programming."

The room fell quiet for several moments as everyone tried to fathom the extent of the devastation the Twelve Colonies had suffered at the hands of the Cylons. Then Denzel broke the silence and asked, "You said they destroyed every warship yet you four are here now. Apparently a portion of your military was able to survive the holocaust."

Kat shot a hard look at the man. "That's right! The fra—I mean the Cylons managed to miss two of our warships. One ship survived because she's so old, her crew didn't install the program the Cylons had used to shut the other ships down. The other avoided destruction when her crew barely managed to escape from the station where she'd been docked during the attack."

"Denzel!" Diana scolded. Then she said, "Lieutenant Katraine, please forgive my…colleague for causing you any distress. I'm certain he didn't mean to challenge you regarding the tragedy that befell your people."

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant. My… colleague is right, that wasn't my intent. Please accept my apologies."

Kat nodded at the man. "No harm done," she lied.

Dalle then spoke up. "I have a question. If these Cylons managed to infiltrate your society by mimicking humans, are they the only model Cylons in operation at the present time?"

"No, Doctor," Kelly said. "They have fighting machines made of metal and circuits called centurions. Their aerospace fighter craft are piloted by biological machine intelligences and their carrier ships, we call them 'basestars,' are controlled by a creature that is half human/half machine called a 'hybrid.'"

"Just how did you uncover this information about the makeup of the Cylons' war machine, Captain Kelly?" Jackson asked.

"Well, sir, one of the Cylons that mimics us apparently defected to our side. She has provided most of this information about their society to us."

"So…" Jackson asked, "if you have one of these machines that mimics a human in your fleet, could there be more?"

Kelly hesitated for a moment before he admitted, "That's a distinct possibility, sir."

Jackson shot a look at the doctor then Stenger before he returned his focus back on Kat and her people. "Captain, Lieutenants, as representatives of the Alliance of Planets, we assure you the Alliance deeply sympathizes with your people over the tragedy you have suffered. We also assure you we'd like to help you as much as possible so long as we can protect the Alliance from infiltration by your enemy, the Cylons. I would like Dr. Dalle, when we arrive at your fleet, to discuss the matter of the Cylons with your medical personnel and to work on finding a way to uncover any Cylon infiltrators before we move your fleet under the protection of our guns at our closest base." Suddenly Jackson glanced down at the chronometer on his wrist before he turned his gaze onto Racetrack and focused on her like a laser. "Lt. Edmonson!"

Racetrack apparently couldn't help it, she responded like a new recruit to an order from her drill instructor. "Sir!"

"Do you think you can transport my party to your mother ship?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Then let's go, Lieutenant!"

"Yes, sir!" she barked.

Jackson and his party stood, gathered their gear and prepared to lead Racetrack and Skulls back to the docking bay. Before they departed, he turned to Kelly and Kat. "See you in three days, Captain Kelly, Lieutenant Katraine."

While Kelly nodded at the Fleet officer, Kat smiled and said, "Good luck, sir."

He returned her smile with one of his own and said, "The same to you, Lieutenant Katraine."

Then he opened the hatch and led Racetrack, Skulls and his party into the corridor outside the conference room.

#

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