Chapter 12
SCHLEIN GAMMA – ADMIRAL AMATO'S GIG—APPROACHING BATTLESTATION ALCUBIERRE
"Docking Bay 101, this is Master Chief Hagen, the pilot of Vice Admiral Amato's gig. I'm on final approach to the Alcubierre, over."
"We read you loud and clear, Bill," Commander Griffin announced over my transceiver. "Please hold for a moment. The Admiral wants to have a word with you."
"Yes, ma'am!" I said.
I switched off the intercom so the Admiral's conversation with me would remain just between the two of us at least for a little while. Although I figured the Admiral wouldn't mind if Denzel Adu listened in, since they're poker buddies and all, I sure didn't want to risk having our Colonial 'guests' overhear anything the Admiral wanted to tell me.
Although Denzel had told me these folks couldn't understand anything we said unless we translated it into their language for them, I still wanted to play it safe. From the moment I'd greeted them when they'd come aboard, they'd been as jumpy as a pair of long-tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs. Even after Denzel had managed to calm them down and had explained I wasn't a sentient AI waiting to space them on a whim, rather, I was just a real live guy who didn't happen to have a body any more, they'd continued to eye my control column warily. Why, except for when they'd been forced to look at Denzel when he'd spoken to them, they'd icily glared at me during our entire flight back to Schlein Gamma!
I suppose it was the sound of the Admiral's voice over the radio that snapped me out of my foul mood.
"Master Chief Hagen?"
"Yes, Admiral!"
"I trust you had smooth sailing during your trip home."
"Aye, sir." It wasn't my place to gripe about the frosty attitudes of my Luddite passengers to the Admiral. He didn't need to be saddled with my problems.
"I'm glad to hear that, Bill. Now there's been a change in plans. I'm coming aboard the gig after you dock in your slip. Please inform Captain Adu that I'll meet the Colonial officers on board the gig. After I'm aboard, I want you to get underway and transport us to the Watchtower stationed over Xanadu's north pole. Once there, please wait for my return after I escort our guests to transfer onto the Hermes. The Hermes will return the Colonial officers to their fleet along with tons of relief supplies the battle carrier and her task force will transport to help their people."
"I understand, sir. Admiral, if you don't mind me saying so, that's sure a nice thing you're doing for those folks," I observed, hoping he couldn't detect the shame I felt for the way I'd been thinking about the Colonials aboard my gig right before the conversation we'd just had. If their people were so bad off that they needed relief supplies, they must be in dire straits. So, I guess I should cut them a lot of slack. "I'll let Captain Adu know about the change in plans, sir."
"You're a good man, Bill. Thank you for your kind words; I truly appreciate them," he said. "Oh, when we leave the battlestation, I want you to take us on the scenic tour. Let's show our guests several of our capital ships, defense platforms, and Xanadu from close orbit so they can see for themselves how wonderfully lush the planet is. Hopefully, when they return to their fleet, it'll give them a lot to tell their leadership about what they've seen here."
"That's a good idea, sir! After I dock and wait for your arrival, I'll plot the course for our 'scenic' tour."
"That's splendid, Bill. See you soon," he said and terminated the call.
Again, the man's thoughtfulness knew no bounds! And to make certain I wouldn't let him down, I'd do my best to give our guests the nickel tour!
#
"Welcome aboard, Vice Admiral Amato!"
No matter how hard she tried to be open-minded about the Thirteenth Tribe's use of disembodied human brains as pilots for some of their ships, Louanne Katraine was still creeped out by the noncorporeal voice sounding from the intercom. Even so, when a man stepped through the hatch, Captains Adu and Kelly sprang to their feet alongside her and they all snapped to attention.
"As you were," the man said. He appeared to come from the same stock as Safiya Sanne, the Leonis delegate on the Quorum of Twelve. The man was dressed in an azure tunic and had three stars on each lapel. He smiled at them and said, "Captain Kelly, Lieutenant Katraine, I am Vice Admiral Dennis Amato of the Fleet. Welcome to the Schlein Gamma system and the planet Xanadu!"
"Thank you for your gracious welcome, sir," Kelly said. "I'm Aaron Kelly and my colleague is Louanne Katraine. We're officers in the Colonial Fleet assigned to the Battlestar Galactica."
"Yes, Captain. I've been briefed on the conversations you've had with Senior Captain Jackson's party aboard the Huntress. His party has conferred with your senior leadership and contacted me concerning their discussions. In response to Captain Jackson's request, I'm dispatching a task force comprised of ten ships to transport relief supplies to your people. That's why I've decided to meet you both on my gig. You're probably anxious to return to your people and report your findings, so we're sending you back home on the task force's flagship, the battle carrier Hermes. She's somewhat similar in concept to my understanding of one of your battlestars; she's a ship with the firepower of a battlecruiser that can launch small aerospace craft into battle. The Hermes shall be accompanied by a screen of non-capital ships assigned to defend the carrier from attacks by aerospace fighter craft and missiles."
"Sir," Kelly exclaimed, "were you aware that Hermes was one of the Lords of Kobol?"
The elder man gave them both a mysterious smile. "Yes. That's an interesting coincidence, isn't it?"
Louanne couldn't help but smile brightly at the Fleet admiral. His news did much to cast aside her suspicions concerning the kind of people the members of the Thirteenth Tribe seemed to be. "Vice Admiral Amato, on behalf of the people of our fleet, we thank you for your kindness."
"You're quite welcome, Lieutenant," the man said. "And to be fair, I shouldn't take any of the credit. The citizens of this star system have pulled out the stops to load hundreds of tons of supplies in less than half a day. When you're aboard the battle carrier, I'll introduce you to the planetary administrator. She's primarily responsible for the massive relief effort. She's traveling with you to meet with your leadership to see about providing further assistance to your people."
"I believe President Roslin will be happy to meet with Xanadu's administrator, sir," Kelly noted.
"Good, Captain. Now I should dismiss Captain Adu so he can collect his young daughter for their return trip to the Huntress. Then I'll ask Master Chief Hagen to transport us to the orbital station where the Hermes is berthed."
"I suppose," Denzel said, "this is where I say goodbye to you, Captain Kelly and Lieutenant Katraine. I wish good fortune smiles on you and your people in the future."
"Thank you, sir," she said with a smile. Both he and his wife had been so kind to them; Louanne was going to miss them. Hopefully, she'd have the opportunity to meet his wife in the flesh in the near future.
Denzel Adu then grinned at them before he turned to Amato and snapped off a crisp salute. "Permission to go ashore, sir!"
Amato returned the other man's salute just as sharply. "Permission granted, sir!"
After Adu had exited the gig, Master Chief Hagen announced, "Please take your seats. We'll depart in sixty seconds."
Once they'd strapped themselves into the acceleration couches, Amato said, "I've asked Master Chief Hagen to take us on the scenic tour to the orbital station. We have dozens of capital ships in system as well as significant orbital defense platforms the citizens of Xanadu have built to Fleet specifications. When you see them, it should help alleviate any concerns you may have about our ability to defend the ships of your fleet."
"That's quite thoughtful of you, sir," Louanne said.
"Just doing my job, Lieutenant," the man demurred while they all experienced a smooth sensation of acceleration as the gig departed from the battlestation. "Now we're underway," Amato said, "I'd like you to tell me as much as you can about these 'Cylons.' I need to know how much of a potential threat they could pose to the Fleet."
"Sir, did Captain Jackson report to you that some of them can pass as human?" Kelly asked.
"Indeed, he did, Captain Kelly. Is there more we need to know about their capabilities?"
"I'm afraid so, sir," Louanne said. "A Cylon has the ability to download its consciousness after the original humaniform body or aerospace fighter craft has been destroyed. They refer to the experience as 'resurrection.' This ability makes it quite difficult to ultimately defeat them. If I shoot down one of their fighters and it's within range of one of their resurrection ships, that Cylon's consciousness will be transmitted to the resurrection ship and download into another craft after it has 'learned' what it did wrong in losing the battle. It can then apply that hard-won knowledge in a subsequent engagement against me. At some point, it will have gained enough experience and insight to allow it to defeat me in combat. Unfortunately, though, if I die, I don't get to 'learn' from my mistakes and get a do-over."
"I…see," Amato said lowly. He was silent for several beats before he asked, "So…the only way to truly defeat them is to destroy their resurrection capability or find a way to fatally disrupt the process?"
"Yes, sir," she agreed.
Just then, Hagen announced, "Folks, we're now approaching the Trafalgar class battleship Victory dead ahead."
"Put her on the main viewscreen, Bill," Amato said.
As a ship that appeared to be as big or a little bigger than the Pegasus shimmered onto the screen, the Thirteenth Tribe's flag officer began to tell them all about the vessel.
#
SCHLEIN GAMMA – BATTLE CARRIER HERMES—DOCKED TO THE NORTH POLE WATCHTOWER STATION
Alexandra Schlein frowned as she stepped down from her shuttle onto the Hermes starboard outrigger flight deck. So this is a Fleet battle carrier, she mused. Admittedly, she was an impressive ship. Her main flight deck ran down the middle of the entire ship and opened out onto the bow. Alexandra would have thought that would have been where they'd told her to land; however, there must have been some 'taboo' against having a mere shuttlecraft soil that 'hallowed' ground. Apparently, it was the sole domain of the ship's interceptor/superiority fighters. Flight control at least was kind enough to inform her the four additional bays, two per outrigger, handled all other craft.
Her operatives had briefed her on the Enterprise class battle carrier before she'd left the planet. The carrier originated from the Fleet's New Generation program where the navy had applied the hard-learned lessons from the war against her people to the design of its new vessels. Just before the final battle of the war over the planet Khalia, the Fleet had discovered its super carriers were dangerously vulnerable to enemy fire, as amply demonstrated by the loss of the Jeanne d'Arc off of Bethesda. For that reason the Fleet decided the best option was to produce a warship that was much more capable of defending itself than a super carrier yet still carried enough fighters to serve as a frontline aerospace craft platform. The result was the battle carrier concept, a vessel that carried half the fighter complement of the Jeanne d'Arc and possessed half the firepower of a Trafalgar class battleship. Her operatives had said the Hermes carried several hundred fighters, bombers, shuttles and even a squadron of dropships for her Marine regiment.
Once Alexandra had set foot on the deck, she spied two Fleet officers striding toward her. One of the officers was a woman with an air of command about her. The other was a man of medium build with short, wavy brown hair.
"Administrator Schlein, I presume?"
"Yes."
The other woman smiled warmly at her. "It's a pleasure to have you aboard the Hermes, Administrator. I'm Rear Admiral Jantiene de Ruyter. This," she indicated with a nod toward the young man, "is my flag lieutenant, Michael Stasheff."
"It's a pleasure to meet you both, Admiral, Flag Lieutenant."
"Thank you, Administrator. Also, I wanted to take this opportunity to express our appreciation for your people's rapid response in providing the relief supplies we're transporting on this mission."
Alexandra gave the woman a genuine smile. Apparently, Dennis and Malcolm weren't the only Fleet officers who'd begun to put the bad blood between the navy and the Syndicate behind them. Although, truth to tell, de Ruyter would have fit right in as a Syndicate Combat Manager during the war. She certainly had the pedigree. The New Amsterdam resident traced her family roots back to an Old Earth naval hero from the Age of Sail. If her planet had been a Syndicate world, de Ruyter would have gone far with lineage like that!
"Administrator," the Admiral said, interrupting Alexandra's train of thought, "per Vice Admiral Amato's orders, we have prepared a stateroom for you for the duration of your stay on board. I was going to have Lieutenant Stasheff escort you to your stateroom so you can refresh yourself; however, Admiral Amato's gig has just docked. So I decided we should wait and greet his party together."
"I believe that's a wonderful idea, Admiral."
The three of them engaged in some small talk for a few minutes until Alexandra saw Dennis Amato approach them in the company of a young man and a young woman garbed in what appeared to be a type of flight suit she'd never seen before. "Hello, Administrator Schlein, Admiral de Ruyter, Lieutenant Stasheff!"
"Welcome aboard, sir!" de Ruyter said.
"May I introduce Lieutenant Louanne Katraine," he indicated with a nod to the woman beside him, "and the gentleman next to her is Captain Aaron Kelly. These officers are members of the Fleet of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol." Then he turned to the Colonial officers and said, "Captain, Lieutenant Katraine, this young man," he indicated with a sweep of his hand toward Michael, "is Flag Lieutenant Stasheff, Rear Admiral Jantiene de Ruyter's personal aide." Then he flashed a smile at the junior flag officer. "Jantiene is the commander of the Hermes Carrier Strike Force. Jantiene, could you tell them a little about the vessels assigned to your task force?"
"Of course, sir. The Hermes is the main element of the strike force. She's a battle carrier with a ship's complement of three hundred aerospace fighters and bombers, sixty auxiliary craft, fifteen hundred officers and crew, fifteen hundred pilots and ground crew members, and an entire Marine Reaction Regiment. Our heavy hitters, along with the Hermes, are our two heavy cruisers, the Berlin and the Avalon City. The ships we use to screen for enemy capital warships are the destroyers Witchcraft, Dauntless, and Monsoor. The three frigates whose sole purpose is to defend the carrier from enemy missiles and aerospace fighters are the Chateauquay, the Alamo, and the Castlemaine. And last but not least, is the stealth corvette Hauk."
"Each vessel in her task force is exemplary," Admiral Amato said, "most likely due to the professionalism of the task force's commanding officer."
"Thank you, sir!" a pleased de Ruyter exclaimed.
"Now Captain, Lieutenant, I'd like to introduce you to the Planetary Administrator of Xanadu, Alexandra Schlein. The Administrator and her people were responsible for providing the relief supplies Jantiene's task force are transporting to your people."
"Administrator, on behalf of the people of our fleet, we deeply appreciate your generosity," Kelly said.
She smiled at both Colonial officers. "We are happy to be able to offer you some relief from the harrowing trials your people have experienced since you have fled from your homes."
Amato broadly smiled at everyone and said, "Well, I'm certain Admiral de Ruyter has much to do before her ships set sail, so I will leave you all in her capable hands. Again, Administrator Schlein, thank you for being a wonderful partner. And, Captain Kelly, Lieutenant Katraine, both the Alliance and the people of Earth express their heartfelt sympathies for the tragedy that has befallen your people at the hands of the Cylons."
Both young officers appeared to choke up for a moment before they murmured, "Thank you, sir."
After Vice Admiral Amato had turned and started for his gig, de Ruyter said, "As I was saying to Administrator Schlein before you arrived Captain, Lieutenant, we have prepared a stateroom for each of you. Since I must leave to prepare the task force for its departure, I'll have Flag Lieutenant Stasheff escort you to your staterooms so you can refresh yourselves and rest if you so desire. Also, before I forget, I invite you to join me in the Admiral's Mess at 1800 standard hours for dinner. Mr. Stasheff shall collect you all and escort you to the Mess at the appropriate time. As for lunch, I'm afraid we're going to skip it this afternoon; we still have much to do to ensure the relief supplies are ready for distribution when we arrive on station. However, if you wish for something to eat later in the day, please use your intercom to call for Mr. Stasheff. He'll arrange for a steward to bring a meal to your stateroom."
After the three visitors had thanked the Admiral for her kindness, de Ruyter bid them adieu and left Alexandra and the Colonial officers in her flag lieutenant's care.
#
Jantiene exited the lift onto the flag bridge of the Hermes and strode to the center of the room. She stepped up onto a raised platform where her command chair had been placed during Hermes' most recent refit and shot a glance at each of her immediate subordinates. The ship's Commanding Officer, Senior Captain Hassan Ibn Abdullah, was seated in the CO's chair slightly in front of her platform on the main deck. Meanwhile, the Commander, Air Group or CAG, Captain Jean Dutrieu, manned her station on the left side of the massive vessel's nerve center. Jantiene was glad to have both of them when she'd been promoted to rear admiral and given command of the Hermes Carrier Strike Force. Hassan was a solid, no-nonsense officer who'd worked his way up from spaceman and was appointed to Officer Candidate School by Admiral of the Red Duane himself. Jean, though, from the start, had been a hot-shot, Academy grad pilot. If it had wings, the woman could fly it. Unlike most CAGs who were qualified to fly two planes, Dutrieu was rated on every aerospace craft in their Carrier Air Wing's inventory.
Now de Ruyter slipped into her chair, closed her eyes and stretched her neck and shoulder muscles to relieve a bit of tension. Spending hours reviewing PADDS full of shipping manifests and updating orders with little sleep due to the emergent nature of their deployment had been one of the challenges she had to accept when she'd been promoted to the admiralty three years ago. However, Vice Admiral Amato was counting on her to live up to her reputation for running effective relief efforts.
After enjoying the luxury afforded her by a brief moment of peace, Jantiene's eyes flashed open. "Comms?" she commanded. "Patch me through to all my ships' captains."
"Yes, ma'am," the lieutenant who manned the communications station answered.
Moments later, de Ruyter peered into the Hermes' main view screen at the commanding officers of the ships in her task force displayed as a grid of faces in small square mini-screens. "Captains," she announced while she leaned back in her chair and scrutinized them one-by-one. "As you know, Fleet officers have made contact with a refugee fleet of humans that had apparently never known about either the Old Imperium or the Alliance yet were in search of Earth. These people are apparently the remnant of a genocidal attack upon their society at the hands of their own creation, a rampant AI project that went horribly wrong. Naturally, this tragedy and the fact that these AI's have continued to pursue the refugees to the edge of Alliance space has the Admiralty deeply concerned. Since their fleet must remain in place until their search and rescue mission to their former colonies returns, the sector commander has decided to dispatch our task force to transport relief supplies provided by the people of Xanadu to the refugees and to defend them if the Sakqua happen across their fleet in deep space. Now, are there any questions?"
Captain Roberts of the Metropolis class heavy cruiser Avalon City raised a hand. "Admiral, if I may," the rakish officer said. "How would these people know anything about Earth if they've had no contact with the Old Imperium in the past?"
"We don't know, Captain. We have officers assigned to confer with their leadership who are trying to answer that question for us. Who's next? Commander Rykker, you seem to have something to say—don't be shy," she offered to the younger woman with a sly grin.
The skipper of the Daring class destroyer Dauntless smiled demurely and said, "Ma'am, we're only ten ships. Exactly what are we supposed to achieve? According to the reports from Admiral Amato's office, we're talking nearly fifty thousand people spread across dozens of ships who haven't been in contact with the rest of humanity for thousands of years and have never encountered sentient non-human life forms before. Providing relief will be a monumental task particularly if they are frightened by encounters with our non-human crew members."
"The Vice Admiral is aware of that possibility. It's my understanding our crew will only transport material over to their warships and deal with crew members who've been briefed and prepared to work with our people. As for protecting the refugees, Admiral Amato was kind enough to reinforce our task force with the addition of the Witchcraft, the brain ship heavy destroyer who led the Sakqua attack force into a trap at Dead Star 81."
A predator's smile spread across de Ruyter's handsome face then. Leading the lizards into what had amounted to an interstellar quicksand bog had been quite a feat for the Witchcraft's shell person and brawn. Fortunately, when half of the 101st Battle Squadron had found the lizards' ships floundering in the dark star's hyper-gravity well, the squadron had lucked into a turkey shoot, destroying sixty percent of the enemy's vessels without suffering any losses in the squadron itself. Although Jantiene hadn't worked with brain ships before, if they were all as brave and bold as the pilot of the Witchcraft, she'd seriously look into having one permanently assigned to her task force.
"So, Commander," she said after she'd finished her musings, "with your destroyer along with my battle carrier, two heavy cruisers, Witchcraft, a third destroyer, three frigates, as well as a stealth corvette to watch our backs, this task force has tremendous firepower, should we need it. Now, if the refugees require medical assistance, the Hermes has a well-equipped hospital onboard, and the cruisers have sickbays with highly trained medical staff, too."
"Now we enter sponge space in eighteen minutes. It's only a small hop, sixteen hours to be exact. Tell your crewmembers to get some rest while they can because when we arrive on station, we'll be back on the clock and busy as bees. And, ladies and gentlemen? From all accounts, these people need our help and we're going to do our best to give it. So, see to your ships, captains, and prepare for departure."
"That is all."
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