A/N: There is a discussion on where I am posting this story on who Jo should look like when she regrows her skin. So she'll probably be changing in appearance slightly. And keep emailing WB, SyFy, and Halcyon about TSCC!

==========BS-62 Pegasus==========
After the explosion, most of the crew of Pegasus had been called to damage control or action stations. Most were at duty stations, but dozens had seen the walking chrome skeleton and heard the screeching metal on metal drag of its foot.

Dozens of emergency security calls had been directed to C-I-C in the short time it had taken Soto to go from the site of the attack back to the machine shop. Even with leaked pictures circulating through the fleet of the extensive damage the machines had often received on missions for the Colonials, none had been confronted with the chrome skull, the cold grin of a Terminator, nor its complete skeletal appearance. She had dimmed her blue eyes, which was meant to be soothing and instill trust in humans. On Earth it worked, since Skynet machines had the blood-red crimson eyes. But not on the battlestar. To say the effect of Soto's appearance had been frightening would not have done justice to what those few crew members had seen. It had been terrifying.

Admiral Cain had called the machines to her quarters, but insisted Soto wear a uniform and balaclava. Soto had complied. Once in the Admiral's quarters she had removed the face covering.

"I don't know how he got aboard, but I've double the Marine security detail on the hanger decks. Every civilian will be getting checked," Captain Shaw said to Admiral Cain, Major Adama, John, Jo, and Carter. Commander Adama was on Galactica, but his image appeared on Cain's large display monitor in her quarters. "I have our Sergeant at Arms conducting a full investigation and we're already reviewing the video logs."

"I would like to see the video logs, if possible," John requested of Admiral Cain. She nodded.

"Commander Adama," Cain began, turning towards the monitor and the small camera, her picture coming up in the lower left corner, "Everything on Demand Peace says they disbanded about their tyllium ship attack. And some of their more radical members were in prison on Astral Queen." She didn't ask a question, instead hinting that the Commander should explain how terrorists were lose in the fleet.

"That's correct, Admiral. We had problems with them a few weeks prior to Pegasus finding the fleet. They were imprisoned, but it looks like they were part of the group pardoned by Doctor Baltar. Any Demand Peace member not directly linked to Daru Mozu was pardoned by executive order on the settling of New Caprica." He was frustrated. This was embarrassing for him. "I take responsibility for this, Admiral. The original crimes occurred during my watch-"

"That wont be necessary, Bill. No one can be responsible for the crazed acts of suicide bombers. Their reasons are between themselves and the Gods," she said. As a woman who often spoke her mind and damned the emotional response of others, Cain felt she needed to tread softly here. She felt she was almost walking on egg shells, with Col. Tigh's activities on New Caprica beginning to take light. Several civilians and family members of dead New Caprican Police, the ones killed during the graduation ceremony, were demanding justice. She didn't particularly care for them but there were many people who had been killed in the suicide attacks and were not NCP officers. Focusing herself back on the immediate issue at hand, she said, "We do need an accurate assessment of what the resources under their control are."

Major Adama cleared his throat. He'd been conducting his own investigation into illegal activities in the fleet, namely Col. Fisk's murder two years ago, the Black Market, and a large and now growing trade in illicit firearms as well as antibiotics and other medications. "Admiral, Commander," he addressed in proper order, "after New Caprica there are hundreds, maybe close to a thousand unsecured firearms. There are rifles of all types and pistols. Most of Col. Tighs insurgents did return their firearms, but there were a lot of irregulars. The gangs and criminal blocks which have formed in the fleet more than likely kept their weapons." He shifted his weight to his right foot, a little uneasy. "We've already seen an increase in violence in the fleet with multiple armed robberies and a murder two days ago. The witnesses reporting the criminals were using military firearms. And there were dozens of pounds of explosives the insurgents grabbed when the Cylons began landing from the armories on the planet to simple demolitions to clear tree stumps and boulders." He pulled a few papers from the folder he had laid on the table and handed them to Admiral Cain.

She grabbed them with her good arm, the other still in its cast, the bones resetting.

Cain listened intently, running options through her head. There were only a dozen trained law enforcement personnel in the fleet. They'd had about twice that before New Caprica and most ships were sufficient in patrolling themselves. There were hundreds of Marines between the two battlestars, but Commander Adama had been adamant early about the negatives of deploying Marines on civilian vessels. And Col. Tigh's actions after Kobol had failed when he deployed military personnel on civilian freighters. And finally Cain remembered her own past actions and the black mark on her conscious from the early days of the war.

"We need a police force," she said. "We need to start again with training a civilian police force. But first, we need to secure the guns and explosives anyone has. And find the other Demand Peace members." She looked towards the three Earth machines. "What about your own protection? Do you have any experience in this?"

"It will take much more than a few pounds of explosives to destroy us, but as you can see, Admiral, the skin is not as resilient as our endoskeleton," Jo said, holding up her hands. She had on her black uniforms, the boots and cargo fatigues, and Tech Com/free machine jacket.

To a few of the officers, it almost seemed like she had been embarrassed. The Colonials, just like the humans of Earth had wondered why the machines designed their synthetic skins to resemble attractive people. Many of the older Tech Com soldiers had often said the machines would fit right in as models from before Judgment Day. They thought the machines had inherited one of humanity's less noble traits; vanity.

"We can aide in the investigation," Carter told her.

"Your skills are still sharp?" Captain Shaw asked, arms crossed, glaring at the machines. Her appreciation for their aide in rescuing the Admiral still conflicted with her general dislike of them.

John looked towards her, keeping his expression neutral and impassive. "We have perfect memory recall," he reminded her. "I do not think our involvement in this investigation should be public. Nor should we participate in any arrests," John suggested to Cain and Adama.

"I agree with Planck," Commander Adama said over the screen, "this was clearly an anti-machine attack. Even with the help you three have given us on New Caprica there are still those who don't trust you and want you dead... And this with Jahee makes no sense. He wanted peace with the Cylons… and I assumed machines. Trying to kill one?-"

"I've been thinking that over and I might be able to explain that," Carter told him. "Early in the war Skynet would physically torture prisoners, under the false belief that fear and pain would yield results. Skynet was ruthless after it was born, content with its superiority and its lust for humans to suffer. But it found it was proceeding incorrectly.
"Physical torture in the pursuit of information often leads to false confessions, even with so-called professionals," he pointed out. Captain Shaw and Admiral Cain were put at a slight unease, but Carter continued, though remained diplomatic in his presentation. "Even so, Terminators were never designed to be cruel, nor torturers. Terminators would often kill their subjects before useful information could be obtained if prisoners did not break quickly. Obviously this was a problem. High ranking resistance fighters were adept at resisting physical torture and thus usually killed before useful information was obtained.
"Skynet changed tactics to psychological torture; which was far more effective. We don't know how similar the Cylon God, the Cylon Skynet, is to Earth Skynet. But if it is similar in its core logic and personality networks and neural maps then it is more than likely it convinced and conditioned Jahee that John, Jo, and I were threats to future peace. That he must sacrifice himself to destroy us and bring about peace. It appeals to those who believe in their cause to the point they are willing to be martyrs. I accessed fleet databases on him and his psychological analysis during imprisonment on Astral Queen. He is a prime candidate for psychological conditioning. He was a zealot seriously deluded with his own ideas of superiority and righteousness."

"What does that mean, exactly? " Adama asked, leaning forward on his desk, closer to the camera lens.

Carter began his explanation of what he believed to have occurred. "Since Mr. Jahee would have had no information of value, the conditioning would be designed for him to be useful to Skynet. There is no doubt the Cylons expected the fleet to attempt a rescue the settlers on New Caprica. Skynet was hoping we would fail, but it plans for contingencies. Conditioning served as a contingency on Earth. Prisoners, who are rescued, or freed under the guise of escape, go back to their camps and bunkers, and they kill someone important, destroy communications equipment, and sabotage base defenses. On Earth the conditioned resistance fighters would undermine the human resistance in the false belief they were actually helping it, with a convoluted and often irrational excuse or justification. I listened to the conversation between Jo and Mr. Jahee. It is equally irrational and convoluted."

"Could this be a problem in the fleet? What of those of us held in long term captivity?" Admiral Cain asked, herself concerned there might be some subliminal trigger or psychological conditioning she wasn't aware of.

"If you are concerned for yourself, Admiral, it is highly unlikely," Carter told her. "I had experience with this on Earth. There are very specific psychological profiles necessary for this type of conditioning to work. Though I would suggest everyone who was held at least a month or longer be tested with a series of control questions that Tech Com developed to determine if one has been conditioned. Dr. Leens is perhaps the only fleet psychologist with the experience for such an investigation."

Admiral Cain nodded. She knew she could either stand there and play defense or take this problem head on. She knew even with Carter telling her it was highly unlikely she had been conditioned, that the other officers in the room would rightly have their doubts. If Commander Adama had been taken for five months, she'd order him to be analyzed as well.

"Major Adama… I will be the first to be evaluated by Dr. Leens. But this needs to be kept quiet. We don't want to start a panic... I want all fleet personnel evaluated first, highest rank down then start with the civilians," she ordered. She brought her right arm up to scratch her non-existent right ear, though about half still remained. "Carter, you have experience with the tests?"

He nodded. "I can assist the doctor with evaluations," he offered. Cain accepted.

Major Adama spoke up. "Admiral, Commander, I think it may also be wise to keep Lt. Agathon in protective custody or at least have a Marine guard assigned to her and Hera and even Captain Agathon. If the Demand Peace or other individuals are conditioned they may go after those who they believe are hindering attempts at peace." He directed his statements back to Admiral Cain, though technically she had relieved herself. "We also need to alert the Guardians. They might be able to help. But we should have them be aware of our situation."

Cain nodded. Commander Adama agreed with his son. "John, if you can inform them through Erica or Cyrus?" John nodded. "I will inform the President immediately. We also have nearly a thousand civilians which still need ship assignments. We should move them to Cloud 9 and set up temporary accommodations in their dome."

"Excellent idea, Commander," Cain told him while itching the cast on her left arm. "Also, with the Agathon's, they might be safer here on Pegasus. I know the bomber was here, but we have extra room, and RC and his Centurions would also be able to watch over them."

==========Colonial One (+832 Day Post Cylon Holocaust)==========

Captain Gregory Avion stood at attention as President Laura Roslin and Commander Bill Adama entered the presidential office aboard Colonial One, with one of the Earth machines seemingly always shadowing Adama. Avion saw it was the one known as John Planck, the senior officer of the three machines and unofficial commander of the Centurions they had freed.

"Captain, please, sir," Roslin motioned as she came out in front of her desk. The captain thanked her and she returned to sit behind her own, with Adama taking a seat to Avion's right and across the aisle. John remained standing, though he moved to a corner on the same side Adama was on.

"Madam President, it's an honor to meet you, ma'am."

She smiled, "Thank you. I've heard quite a bit about you and your exploits on board Helios, Captain." He nodded his thanks for her kind words. "So… how is your fleet adjusting?"

While he kept his military bearings he was at a slight unease with the question. Mentally relaxing himself, he prepared to answer.

He didn't consider the refugees under the protection of Helios 'his' fleet. Somehow he had ended up the most senior officer of the unrestricted line officers eligible for command. "Um, I think we're taking it in stride. A lot of the ship captains are going to have to get used to working through Quorum representatives rather than coming straight to me or Iblis with their problems," he shrugged, unsure what else there was to say. "The captains have already provided me with our stocks and stores as of five days ago. I've been told the fleet has some overcrowding issues, with the ships abandoned on New Caprica. We can relieve that; Blue Skies is only at a third occupancy and can take on another six hundred passengers to relieve overcrowding and Everlasting Bliss can also take on another seven hundred as well," he told them. He was more than happy to help in any way he could with this fleet.

President Roslin brought a small stack of papers from the corner of her desk in front of her and slowly unfolded her glasses. "I was looking through some of the reports your people handed me. It looks like you've been working with the Guardians since being rescued," Roslin pointed out leaning forward and keeping her black rimmed rectangular glasses in her hand, pinching them on the frame. "How is that working? You can be frank, Captain Avion."

He looked at her, and then gave a quick sideways glance to Adama and Planck. Leaning back slightly he told her. "It's actually working quite well, ma'am. At first we weren't sure about it. We even got all our ships together and jumped away once… which was a mistake. A Cylon baseship found us, but the Guardians jumped in with a trio of their own ships and fought it off. They saved us," he shook his head, but kept his eyes locked on the President, "and we were all embarrassed and… well… ashamed, really, ma'am. Two Guardian ships jumped in and saved us, but Helios took a hit to our C-I-C and flight bay and we lost some good men and women that day."

"It was Major Olson who ordered the jump?" Adama asked. He'd read the logs and the way Captain Avion explained the situation, he was accepting blame for Helios, though Adama knew it was the previous CO who had ordered the jump.

"… yes, sir," he responded quietly. "But I didn't object," he added, defending his previous CO. "I still take responsibility for it as XO."

Adama and Roslin exchanged a few quick glances. "That wont be necessary Captain," Adama told him. "We need good soldiers on our ships." He leaned forward slightly, resting his left elbow on the arm rest and turning his torso. "Captain, I would also like to see a list of personnel and where they would best serve on Pegasus or Galactica. How many fleet personnel do you have with you?"

"We have a full crew for Helios, including a Viper and Raptor squadron, sir. The Guardians also salvaged Vipers and Raptors… though there are still blood stains in the cockpit…" his voice got softer. Blood stains were always difficult to get out. "But we have plenty of pilots. The two transports with us, Fleet Heavy Transport 0-6-4-0 and 1-4-2-1 were en route to Fifth Fleet off of Vergon."

Roslin looked towards Adama and asked, "That is where the counter attack by… Admiral Nagala was being organized?" Bill nodded. "Captain, you were in Colonial space for a while longer than we were. Did you hear of any ships escaping?"

He shook his head. "Sorry, ma'am, but nothing more than rumors and what the Guardians told us. One of our fleet captains gave us DRADIS logs showing a squadron of battlestars and a few escorts and it looked like their heading was towards the Imblos Sector."

"I've… not heard of that sector. Commander?" Roslin asked.

"It's a small sector comprising uninhabitable planets and a dense collections of stars. There isn't much there. If the ships were heading there they would be close to a hundred jumps away, even with our computer modifications. It's unlikely they survived," he told her reluctantly. "It's likely they used the sector to organize for a counter-attack." He sighed. "They probably did what I was planning, until you talked me out of it," he said. He briefly made eye contact with the President, and the corner of his right lip barely moved into a smile, before disappearing again.

Roslin wanted to find more civilians, and with Avion's fleet Adama knew Roslin had her hopes raised unrealistically high for more survivors.

"Madam President, Admiral, I would like to ask where this fleet is heading after we are done here and if the Guardians will be coming with us? Is it really to Earth? I ask because a lot of the fleet does feel better, safer with them around, even with two battlestars to protect us now," he added. He looked over the still silent Planck, standing still the corner. Captain Avion wanted to ask him, but needed to direct his questions to his super officers.

"We'll be heading to Earth. John and the others are working on trying to find the planet…" Adama told him.

"It is difficult to navigate because the stars in our night sky are very different than what we saw on the Colonies," John told him, finally speaking. "But we do plan on attempting to locate Earth. What we will find when we reach the planet, I do not know." He noticed Avion didn't know exactly what he was alluding to. "I will provide you with a briefing after this meeting, Captain," he assured him.

"Captain Avion, John here will need to go over your computer security as well," Adama told him. "We've networked out ships… and they've shown their firewalls and anti-viral software packages are adept at keeping the Cylon viruses at bay." He looked towards Avion, trying to see if he had any problems with this. Even the more computerized ships like Pegasus lacked the powerful networks the Earth machines had set up. "You don't have objections?"

"No, sir, I do not. The Guardians aided us in computer security… though we aren't sure if they might've put anything of their own in there… we can begin immediately?" He asked John.

President Roslin and Commander Adama stood, followed quickly by Captain Avion. "That would be preferable," Adama told him. "Admiral Cain will also want to meet with you shortly once this issue with the subliminal conditioning is resolved."

==========BS-75 Galactica (+833 Days Post Cylon Holocaust)==========

It had taken a few days to gather the lists of everyone who had been held longer than a month in Cylon detention on New Caprica. Only a few were known to have stayed in Cylon detention longer than a month, the cut off the Earth machines had said would be the bare minimum for the psychological conditioning to be administered, tested, and proven effective.

"On Earth it takes six to eight weeks to properly condition its captured Resistance subjects," Carter explained to Dr. David Leens, the fleet psychologist.

"Was it effective?" He asked.

"Yes. Very effective. It took months before we had any idea what was happening. By then we'd lost a dozen bases around California and had to scrap a major offensive in Canada. After we captured intelligence with what was happening we had to screen every prisoner. Skynet does not rely on physical torture, Dr. Leens. It uses psychological intimidation, threats, conditioning to get what it wants. Soldiers do not fear terminators or hunter/killers. Soldiers have learned to accept that death is waiting for them. But what they fear, what they truly fear is being captured and… conditioned. What soldiers fear most is betraying their fellow soldier, betraying John Connor." His tone was serious and gloomy, almost sad. Immediately he changed, sounding almost excited, "Are you ready for the test, Doctor?" Carter asked.

Doctor Leens fidgeted in his seat and adjusted the equipment Carter had constructed and taught him how to operate. "I don't see why you can't be here, sitting next to me for this," Leens protested. "If there are people conditioned to kill us out there isn't it safer for me?" He stammered, "Not to be selfish or anything… but… I don't want to die."

Carter was nodding his understanding as he observed the nervous psychiatrist tap his pencil on the table. "The test must be administered without distraction. I will be on the other side of the interrogation glass. If you are attacked I will be ready."

"…but… you said this… you passed the test… how will it work on humans if you passed?" He asked nervously. "I'm not trying to uh… offend you or anything."

"First, because Skynet conditioning strips away everything that makes you, you by taking away your empathy, your feelings, your emotions and then it will twist your life so you don't know what's true and what's false. It takes time to realize there is something missing in your life after the conditioning; that there is a hole your emotions cannot fill. That's one reason," Carter told him flatly. "The resistance got too successful at detecting infiltrators, even the more human ones. This was Skynet's backup plan to have an infiltrator who truly believed in what he or she was doing, who was twisted and manipulated into believing Skynet was good and humanity was evil. Like Jahee, that their actions were a lesser evil and would ultimately lead to a far greater good." He balled his fist. "They take what makes one human, your empathy and compassion and twist it and pervert it."

"How do you fight against something like that?" Leens asked. His experience from war was running with the fleet and five months of Cylon occupation.

"Not many people here understand the true horror of the war on Earth, Dr. Leens," he told him, not answering his question.

"What's the second part? How did you pass the test?" He asked, nervousness penetrating his attempts to stay calm. His palms slightly sweaty, he had to wipe them off on his pants.

"I told you it wouldn't work. The second… we are not built to be cruel." He leaned down, placing his hands on the table, moving closer to the doctor. "I'm sorry doctor, but only humans are built to be cruel," he whispered. He perked up. "If there is a conditioned individual we will find them," he said loudly, placing his hand on Leens's shoulder before walking out.

Dr. Leens sat back and sighed. This was going to take awhile.