Chapter 27

Battle Carrier Hermes – Secure Briefing Room – Alliance Task Force

"Here we are, Sector Administrator," Admiral de Ruyter said as the woman opened the door leading into a medium-sized conference room.

Alexandra Schlein and de Ruyter had just left Jackson's party and Brigadier Roosevelt behind in the Admiral's Mess and a somewhat subdued de Ruyter had led her through the ship's bustling corridors toward a section of the ship where a narrow passageway ran to a door that had two heavily armed Marines stationed as guards on either side of it.

When they'd reached that door, de Ruyter pressed her fingertips against a pad that Alexandra assumed must have scanned the Admiral's DNA. Soon thereafter, she heard the lock release, allowing the door to slide open.

After she'd entered the room, Alex was a bit on edge especially after she'd passed by the intimidating Marines standing outside in the passageway. Even though after the Sakqua attack, she'd done her best to welcome the massive Fleet presence into her system and Amato and his staff had been nothing but a joy to work with, she still had trust issues with other Fleet officers. After all, a lifetime of enmity was a difficult thing to overcome. So when she noticed the room's gray, nondescript walls, she tried to disguise her discomfort by falling back on her old standby of engaging in witty repartee. "Admiral," she drawled, "I am afraid I must say I prefer the décor of your mess compared to the dreariness of this place. Is there a particular reason we're here without the rest of our breakfast companions along for the ride?"

De Ruyter simply nodded and said, "Admiral Amato asked me to escort you here. He would like to talk with you before Malcolm and the members of his party conduct their briefing regarding the Colonial affair. Once your discussion has concluded, the Admiral will contact me and I will lead the others to join you both here.

She merely cocked a well-groomed eyebrow at the other woman. Although the somewhat cloak-and-dagger approach that de Ruyter had taken had intrigued Alexandra a bit, she still was a tad annoyed that she'd been separated from Malcolm. She was still in the midst of the afterglow she'd shared with her beloved and had wanted him close to her. However, she was the scion of a powerful merchant family and knew how to effectively mask her displeasure. "Very well then."

In response, De Ruyter said nothing. Instead the woman gave her a Mona-Lisa smile, turned and exited the room.

As she began to turn away from the door, the voice of Dennis Amato greeted her. "Alexandra, it's so nice to see you again!"

She found him seated on one side of the fairly long conference table near its head and she blinked twice. How in She's name did he enter this room without my seeing him? she wondered to herself.

"Dennis! I'm ecstatic to see you, as well! Did you just come aboard the Hermes this morning?"

He smiled in his gentle way and said, "Well…I just arrived at this very moment; however, I am not really aboard Jantiene's vessel."

A stunned Alex sputtered, "D-dennis…w-what are you saying? Why I am looking right at you with my very own eyes!"

"That part is true, my dear. However, what you're actually seeing is a holographic image of me while the real me is seated inside my office on the Alcubierre."

Her eyes shot wide open at 'his' declaration.

Although the Hypercom was a mature technology crucial to interstellar trade, commerce, and governance, it did have its limitations. Complex messages, such as video signals, suffered a one minute time lag at distances of 50 light years. The time lag increased the further the signal traveled. Even Super Hypercom transmitters, which were only found on Earth, Tau Ceti, Hrruba, and Bethesda, transmitters capable of beaming messages a distance of thousand light years without the necessity of routing messages through a relay station, experienced time lags, as well.

Currently, the task force was approximately 65 light years distant from Schlein Gamma. Yet, she apparently was witnessing a supremely lifelike hologram in the conference room. If Dennis truly wasn't in the room with her, the sheer complexity of the data needed to form an image like this would be impossible to transmit this far without having it degraded by an incredible amount of time lag.

Yet, the Admiral's doppelganger showed no degradation or time lag of any kind.

Then, when she finally comprehended what she was now observing, her voice, hushed both by awe and a little fear, whispered, "If this is what I believe it to be, why in She's name are you showing this to me?" Although the Families had inherited all of the First Empire's technology and had maintained it over the course of the Dark Millennium, they'd rapidly lost their edge against the much larger and far more diverse Alliance of Planets. The Alliance gradually had surpassed the Families with the advent of A-Potential technology, providing the confederation weapons of greater destructive capability than plasma beams and the ability to travel through time itself.

Now, as she struggled to keep from trembling in his 'presence,' the man smiled inscrutably and said, "I have a proposition for you that I believe is one you cannot refuse."

When he'd said the word 'proposition,' a word that was music to the ears of any Schlein merchant, she recovered her bearings, seated herself on the other side of the table across from his image and smiled slyly at him. "I'm listening," she said jauntily.

He chuckled softly. "Oh, my dear, you are such a delight!" he observed. Then he sobered somewhat and asked, "Before I present my proposition, would you mind confirming a few items of information for me?"

"I would be happy to, Dennis."

"Before our reinforcements had arrived, was the gross system product of Xanadu the largest in your sector of space?"

She shook her head. "No. Even though Xanadu had always done well, it had never matched the productivity of the Janus system with all of the mining activity on its five mineral rich planets. Xanadu had been the sector's center for agriculture and data processing, fairly lucrative but not an economic juggernaut. For instance, until you'd arrived, we'd only constructed small craft and merchant ships and hadn't mined any of our asteroids."

He nodded. "I see. And what was Xanadu's GSP during the first quarter after our arrival?"

Her thousand watt smile brightened the entire room. "It was absolutely off the charts! Xanadu's GSP was triple the prior year's first quarter results. The system's unemployment rate is now less than one percent. We're constructing a large space dock, we've developed dozens of space-based manufacturing facilities, thanks to the assistance of your Corps of Engineers, and our import/export ratio is the best we've ever experienced, helping our rate of inflation drop below two percent."

"So, would you agree that having us on station here has benefited the people of Xanadu?"

"Of that, I have no doubts, Dennis. Clearly, by any measure, your presence in the Schlein Gamma system has been an absolute boon for us, both economically and militarily."

"I appreciate your candor, Alexandra. Therefore, in light of this data, the Alliance of Planets desires to develop a long-term presence in the Xanadu system. I have been authorized to propose to you, in your capacity as the Sector Administrator of this region of space, that your system become the new home port and operational center of the Seventh Fleet. Now, before you give me your answer, I would like to present certain…shall we say, incentives to induce you to quickly decide in favor of my proposal. You see, I have a very short time frame to reorganize the fleet to defend Xanadu, to begin aggressive offensive operations against the Sakqua and to effectively address the situation regarding the Colonials and the Cylons."

She regarded him with an incredulous look on her face. "Dennis, you would not attempt to lull me, a born and bred merchant, into a false sense of security by telling me you are under the gun, are you? Typically, admitting something along those lines to the person on the other side of the negotiation table is not a prudent course of action."

He shrugged, seemingly unconcerned by her observation. "My dear, I'm a military man. I tend to take a linear approach to achieve my goals."

"I see," she said. "Well, I must say I am intrigued by your proposal," she stated amiably. Inside, though, she was ecstatic. With all the economic benefits the Fleet had already brought to the system, she'd be crazy to turn down his proposal, particularly considering the fact she had pledged herself to wed one of Amato's officers and his closest friend!

"Your interest pleases me, my dear. My proposal is as follows. The Fleet desires that we enter into a ten year, renewable lease where the Seventh Fleet will occupy certain real estate planet-side that is mutually agreeable both to your administration and my staff, as well as regions in orbit above Xanadu, in particular, the Watchtower stations and the region of space where the Alcubierre is currently stationed. Of course, we are willing to pay your administration the same amount of credits for this lease that we pay to Earth for our similar facilities in the Sol System. I think you'll find this payment to be quite generous."

She blinked twice and said nothing because she simply could not believe her ears. I must still be wrapped in Malcolm's loving arms, fast asleep and lost inside a wondrous dream, she thought. Amato couldn't be offering such a fabulous deal without strings. Life simply didn't provide merchants like her an opportunity like this without exacting a high toll. Yet, when she surreptitiously pinched the skin of her left wrist between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand under the table and squelched a yelp of pain, she knew for certain she wasn't asleep. I suppose I can't be dreaming, she mused to herself, Therefore, I must be awake.

As she prepared to blurt out her answer, he calmly raised his hand, gesturing her to hold her powder. "Alexandra, please wait before you give me your answer. There's more."

She drew a deep, calming breath. "Truly? Then, by all means, please continue."

"Thank you. I'd like to ask if you know how we are able to have this conversation in real time over a distance of 65 light years?"

Her sense of awe returned at that very moment and struck her right between the eyes. "You apparently have discovered a way to harness the principle of quantum pairing to create a FTL communication system that does not suffer from time lag!"

He grinned. "Malcolm is quite correct. You are as intelligent as you are beautiful, my dear," he observed.

She accepted his compliment graciously while she pondered the sheer magnitude of his implied admission. Although she was no scientist, she was a highly-educated woman who'd achieved high honors during her study of quantum physics.

The theory of quantum pairings had been the subject of an intense amount of both debate and research for several centuries. Physicists had deliberated over this most bizarre aspect of quantum mechanics and had attempted to find a way to turn theory into reality. Let's say, for argument's sake, it was possible to generate simultaneously a pair of quantum particles—two electrons, for instance. Capture them, separate them and modify one facet of one of the electrons, say, its spin, and change its direction to counter-clockwise from clockwise. If one could achieve that feat, the spin of the other electron would change, too, no matter how far away it was located in space time from the other electron.

There was no beam, no transmission of a signal. The twin electron pairs would be virtually the same regardless of the distance between them. It could be a few meters or thousands of light years; it simply wouldn't matter.

As the tremendous import of the Alliance's magnificent technological triumph dawned upon her, she simply asked him, "How?"

"Are you asking me how it works?"

"Yes."

"in the keel of a few select ships large enough to accommodate the banks upon banks of crystal-encased quantum particles as well as four planetary stations, the particles contained in these banks are paired with particles locked inside other banks in each location. These particles are arrayed in a particular way to allow them to carry data. Currently, only Battle Carriers designated as flagships, Battlestations, the Command Control, Communications, Computer and Intelligence, or as we refer to them by their acronym, the C4I flagships of the Sixth and Seventh Fleets, and the planets Earth, Tau Ceti, Hrubba, and Bethesda are equipped with the quantum communication system. Now, if you decide to accept my proposal, the President has authorized me to have our Corps of Engineers install a fifth planetary quantum communication system on Xanadu.

Somehow, she managed to maintain her composure outwardly. Inside, though, she wanted to jump for joy! In fact, her giddiness almost caused her to almost lose her focus on the rest of his presentation.

"Of course," he said, "the sensitive nature of the system would only allow its use for important military and governmental communications. Military personnel will be assigned to keep the installation secure from unauthorized intrusions. Moreover, anyone who uses the system must have a top secret security clearance. Now, before you say that the provision of the system isn't that beneficial to a significant portion of your population, the Fleet will also provide, free of charge, a Super Hypercom transmitter to Xanadu for purely civilian communications use."

She stared at him, barely able to comprehend everything he'd told her in the last fifteen minutes. "Has your presentation now drawn to its conclusion?"

"Not quite. There's more."

"There is more?!"

His inscrutable smile had returned. "Yes. There is one more thing. I have ordered one of the two yard ships in the Fleet, the FS Samson to redeploy to Xanadu for permanent assignment to your system. She'll supplement the capabilities of the space dock your people are constructing as we speak. She will be assigned to construct and repair Fleet and commercial vessels. We will agree to lease the Samson to you for the sum of one million credits per annum for a period of ten years so long as you agree to commit the use of sixty percent of the ship's production capacity to construct or repair Fleet assets. You should know the yard ship is 2700 meters long and is equipped with an depressurized construction bay large enough to secure a Fleet light cruiser. Now, her command crew will be staffed by Fleet personnel; however, the construction and repair management and personnel will be staffed by qualified civilian personnel from your sector."

She studied his face and saw nothing but unvarnished sincerity. Then she locked her gaze upon his. "Why, Dennis? Why are you offering me this incredible, beyond-belief cornucopia of amazing gifts? You do realize that you had me hooked when you offered to have the Seventh Fleet establish its home port in my system."

Both of his eyebrows rose wryly toward the ceiling. "Alexandra, I must confess I'm surprised you are looking this gift horse in the mouth, my dear."

"You've had your fun, Dennis," she scolded him lightly. "Please enlighten me on the reason you are offering all of this to me."

He sighed and regarded her soberly. "As you wish," he said. "Besides the fact that we need the Seventh Fleet in your system to expand Alliance influence and to project its power into the largely unexplored Gamma Quadrant, President Hrrunalkar, the Joint Chiefs and I wanted to show you and your people our heartfelt appreciation for your honorable conduct regarding the loss of the men and women of the Starling."

In response, she turned her gaze downward at the tabletop as she recalled the greatest failure of her entire life.

#

Safe from the apocalyptic battles between the Syndicate and Fleet squadrons during the war, Schlein Gamma IV's prior administrators had spent only a pittance for a planetary defense system. They'd honestly believed that there had been no economic justification for pouring good money into the sinkhole of such a white elephant.

Upon her appointment by the Schlein Family Executive Management Committee, which had been ratified by the popular vote of the sector's citizens, she'd continued to follow the lead of her predecessors in regards to the lack of funding for the planet's defenses even after the Fleet's local flotilla commander had warned her about her shortsightedness.

She had refused to listen, though. Frankly, although she had not been as resentful of the flotilla's presence as most of her citizens, deep down, she'd still regarded the ships and their crews as interlopers, unwelcome relatives who'd overstayed their visit.

Then the Sakqua had come and everything had changed forever.

Fortunately, the flotilla and a destroyer squadron on a 'wave the flag' mission had intercepted the missile swarm bearing down on her world as if they were defending their own homes. Once the missiles had been dealt with, the Fleet fought furiously, capturing an enemy vessel and destroying six others. However, the last Sakqua ship, heavily damaged as it had been, had managed to sprint toward the planet to attempt a kamikaze attack on Shangri-La, a resort island in the Western Ocean with a population of a hundred thousand souls. Yet, before the craft could plunge into the upper atmosphere and dive into the island, subjecting it to Armageddon in the form of the sudden collapse of its anti-matter containment field, immediately followed by a cataclysmic annihilation of any matter in the vicinity of the released anti-matter, the lightly armed but incredibly swift corvette, the FS Starling, flashed to the rescue. She rammed into the enemy vessel at her best speed, destroying both ships in a titanic explosion that had saved the lives of everyone on the island.

#

"Alexandra," Amato said gently.

His voice drew her back to the here and now. When she glanced up at him, instead of seeing the Admiral, she watched as his hologram transformed into an image of herself.

"People of the Xanadu Sector," her other self said, "I have failed you. I am responsible for the decision not to build an adequate planetary defense grid for Schlein Gamma IV. I am guilty of lacking the foresight to prepare for the attack that we survived, with the grace of She, this terrible day."

"Now I, and I suspect, many of you, have been shameful in our regard for the men and women of the Fleet who were assigned to defend our world. Indeed, I, in my folly, had refused to follow their well-meaning advice to improve our defenses"

"Even so, when the aliens attacked our world without any warning or provocation, the valiant men and women of the Fleet raced to our defense, without any reservation or hesitation, and risked themselves to save the lives of every man, woman, and child of Schlein Gamma IV."

"Their great victory, however, came at a terrible price. The heroic men and women of the Starling sacrificed themselves to save thousands of our citizens from the destruction the enemy had so brutally visited upon our doorstep."

"My fellow citizens, I know we all mourn the loss of both the good ship Starling and her dauntless crew. In honor of them, my administration has established The Starling Foundation to provide educational scholarships and supplemental income for the spouses and children of the members of that ship's crew. We honor these brave and bold souls with this token of our gratitude for two reasons. First, we honor them for their selfless action on behalf of those who are poorer in spirit because we have forever lost the opportunity to truly come to know them. Finally, we honor them for the lesson they have taught us, that we are all brothers and sisters bound together by a common heritage. Against the Sakqua or any species that seeks to visit wanton destruction against the members of the Alliance, we, the people of the Xanadu Sector, proudly declare, from this day forward, we are all members of the Fleet."

"And, as She is my witness, we shall always stand by our commitment to the Fleet and the crew of the Starling come Hell or high water!"

Her body felt numb as her image transformed back into the hologram of Dennis Amato. "Alexandra, for nearly seven months, your speech has been the most viewed video on the Galactinet. I know for a fact it brought tears to the eyes of high ranking officers and NCOs of the Fleet, as well as many of the Senators in the capital building on Earth. We know when we've found an invaluable partner in our mission to serve as the first, last, best defense of humanity and the members of our Alliance. And we wanted you to know we will do anything to help you succeed in the commitment you made to the men and women of the Starling and us."

She nodded sullenly. "I still haven't forgiven myself for not leaving the war in the past, for being so stubborn and petty. If I had listened to your flotilla commander, those men and women of the Starling would still be with us today."

"Alexandra, every leader makes mistakes. It comes with the territory. The key, though, isn't to avoid making mistakes. It's to learn from them. My dear, there are far too many people who won't let you move on after you've learned from your mistakes. Don't allow yourself to become one of them."

She nodded furtively before a tiny grin dawned on her face. "Thank you, Dennis. It is unfortunate you are not truly here; if you were, I would give you a big hug."

"Leave it to you to find the single drawback of this technology," he quipped. When she laughed heartily, her good humor brought a smile to his face. "So, do we have a deal, Alexandra?"

"Indeed, we do, Dennis."

He bowed deeply to her and said, "Thank you, Sector Administrator. I will transmit the documents to you for your signature via Hypercom. Upon your execution of the documents, Jantiene will send them back to me. In the meantime, allow me to contact Jantiene to ask her to bring Malcolm and the others to join you. I, for one, can't wait to hear about their experiences with the Colonials. After that, I'll make a few announcements I'm certain will be of interest to you all"

"Intriguing," she noted. "I cannot wait to hear the surprise you have in store for us."

"Neither can I, my dear. Neither can I."

#

Cylon Heavy Raider—Entering the Vicinity of the Emerald Gas Giant—Gamma Quadrant

"It's beautiful!" she breathed.

Her co-pilot shot a perplexed glance her way. "What in the name of the One God are you referring to, Eight?"

She regarded him as if he was a clueless dolt. "The magnificent gas giant that's floating right in front of your frakking eyes, Five! For the One God's sake, don't be so dense!" she scolded gently right before she stared at the planet once again. "It's so…so…luminescent!" she exclaimed.

He turned to face forward and gazed at the titanic planet through the Heavy Raider's windscreen. "Yes," he observed woodenly, "it is…aesthetically pleasing."

Her only reaction to his declaration was to roll her eyes. Unlike her model and the Sixes, the Fives were far less demonstrative in showing their emotions. Even so, she appreciated the times he tried to overcome the limits of his programming for her sake.

Aaron, as he sometimes preferred to be called along with the rest of his brothers, had never looked down upon her or had referred to either her or her sisters as the 'weak link' of the biological models, even when she'd almost frakked up his experiment.

While on Caprica, after the fall of the Colonies, she'd stumbled across a Colonial pilot and had drawn her weapon to gun him down. Fortunately, Sharon, her sister, had shot her before she could inadvertently ruin Aaron's experiment. Once she'd downloaded into a new body, Aaron had told her that Sharon had been assigned to seduce the human pilot and to attempt to have the man's offspring, a half-human, half-Cylon hybrid. Later, after they had viewed the video footage that D'Anna had smuggled out of Galactica's fleet, she'd smiled at Aaron when they had proof of the viability of Sharon's child.

Perhaps when he'd forgiven her so readily after her download was the moment they'd become such fast friends and occasional lovers.

A few weeks ago, they'd left Caprica on the Heavy Raider that had transported Sandra to the command base star leading the search for the human remnant. Once they'd arrived on board, they really hadn't had much to do. So, when the One who'd called himself Samuel had requested that they suit up and transport a platoon of Centurions to this stellar system to establish a Tylium mining operation on one of the emerald gas giant's moons, she'd practically sprinted to the launch bay. As was the case for her and any of her sisters, any time she could pilot a fighter, a Raptor, or a small craft, made for a very happy Eight.

Now, as her Heavy Raider entered the gravitational influence of the rocky moon, she turned to her friend and said, "Aaron, we're beginning our final approach. Please instruct the escort Raiders to maintain orbit above the moon. Then I want you to prepare the Centurions to disembark. I'll set us down as close as I can to the most promising vein of the ore and we'll go from there."

"By your command, Tamara" he teased, resorting to the old honorific the 005 Centurions had used among themselves during the first war between their people and the humans.

She smiled and drawled, "By the One God, Aaron, it's nice to know you do have a sense of humor buried somewhere deep inside your programming after all!"

Then her mood turned serious as she began the Heavy Raider's descent to the surface below.

#