By Courage and Blood

by bryan0711

Pegasus stands ready to nuke the planet and destroy the Temple as the Battle of the Algae Planet intensifies with the Cylons boarding Galactica.

29. Chapter 29

AN: Hey... the story has only a few more chapters left so any feedback is greatly appreciated. It's been a bit sparse for a story of this length and number of readers... this story is pretty long, chapters take a long time, so any feedback is very greatly appreciated. Especially since this part has about... three more chapters left, any helpful, constructive criticisms and points on what is working/not working for Part III would be great.

I still have the poll open. If the spin-off is between Part II and Part III it'll probably mean Part III won't be posted for some months.

Also, there are some very mild spoilers in the AN at the bottom- just where the next couple of chapters will go and a little something to look forward to. Enjoy!

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||||||||||==BS-62 Pegasus (+995 Days Post Cylon Holocaust)==||||||||||

"So that's it? That's the planet?" Admiral Cain asked as she twirled back around and snubbed the rock with a callous wave of her hand. "The hybrid could have just given us its location instead of putting us through all this drama," she snickered.

She turned back around and looked at the planet through the forward viewing room on Pegasus, the only place on the entire Mercury class of battlestars where there were actual windows. Currently, Pegasus sat in a high geosynchronous orbit with its 'alligator head' poised right at the planet, as if it was about to open its jaws and consume the world.

Admiral Cain had been facetiously contemplating firing all of the battlestar's strategic nukes at the planet just to piss off the hybrid… if she even could. It was a not so serious thought to distract her from the troubles of the past month.

"It's a fraking deserted planet," Captain Shaw commented. She leaned a bit uncomfortably on one of the plush leather seats crew and their significant others would come to and admire the stars. She held up a tablet for the Admiral. "We finished our analysis of the planet. The atmosphere is oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, and is about thirty-six degrees average temperature where we're looking for the algae. It's got a bunch of algae and kelp all over the place… in fact, it's mostly algae and lower order plant and animal life."

Admiral Cain took the tablet from the captain and studied it carefully.

"So, Planck, the hybrid had us go to a planet stuffed with algae…" she sardonically stated.

The Terminator tilted his head. "It does solve the food problem, Admiral," he pointed out rather quickly. The Admiral sneered. "However, I doubt that is it, exactly. There's something on the planet… I can…"

"Feel it?" Shaw asked in rude disbelief.

After Daniel's actions resulted in Gina shooting her, she had been more hostile to the machine in the past week after her discharge from medical.

"Yes, Captain Shaw, feel it would be a very accurate description." Planck said, using her own word against her. "There's nothing overt, nothing obvious, but why come here? Even if you discount that, it'd make sense to assume there is something here we can use."

Major Avion, the displaced Helios CO took a step forward until he was almost touching the glass.

"Whatever it is, John, the star here is about to go nova… it could go now or in fifty years," he informed the three. He spun on his heels. "Admiral, we should probably begin searching the area as soon as possible," he advised.

"An entire planet?" Shaw asked with a shake of the head. "Even with our telescopes pointed at the planet and our computers crunching the data for anything that looks even remotely unnatural there's one-hundred and twenty-two million square kilometers of land to search. Planck, you know how long that will take?" She breathed out. "And-"

"The primary mission is resupply," Cain said. "We're going to find the largest concentration of algae on the planet, scoop it up, and then feed it into our food processors. Doctor Roberts tells me it's going to taste like fraking shit, but it's better than nothing," she shrugged.

"Yes, sir," Shaw immediately agreed.

John nodded his agreement as well. He knew nothing would get done if the safety of Pegasus was in doubt.

"We can connect to your computers and if there is something here, it is likely to be built in a place with little tectonic activity, perhaps near water for resupply of the builders… there are search parameters you can use to narrow your list of possible and plausible locations," John said.

Avion activated a small PDA and stared at the star charts. "Well, we also need to find the fleet. But this star cluster… either our telescopes scout the planet or they try or scout the star cluster to find a way through. The radiation is so extreme-"

"It will fry the electronics on our Raptors even with them hardened against radiation," Cain finished. "We can probably managed twelve hours in the cluster per Raptor before their electronics are fried." She stroked her chin and let her free hand settle on the side of the pocket containing her razor. There were choices which needed to be made.

The star cluster was 'behind' Pegasus and they could reposition the mighty warship so half its telescopes were pointed towards the planet, and half towards the cluster. However, all the telescopes were aligned at the fore of the alligator head, on the underside of the protruding superior section of the battlestar. They could rotate on their axes but would still be limited by their positions under the jutting alligator head.

The telescopes could scan the entire light spectrum, so the cloud cover over half the planet wouldn't be an issue, but priority was finding the fleet, and finding Earth.

"The weight of the worlds…" Cain muttered. Shaw and Avion didn't hear, but she mentally kicked herself when John turned up to look at her. Thanking the Lords he didn't say anything, she continued to stare out the window towards the planet. "What is the likelihood, Major, that we can find the fleet should we be able to pliot a course through the cluster?"

Avion tapped the PDA, studied it for a moment, and then looked back up. "High likelihood, Admiral. We know where the fleet was. If we can jump through the cluster, take some bearing with a Raptor, and then jump back, we can use our computer to extrapolate jump coordinates." He sounded confident.

"The radiation is extreme," Shaw pointed out in protest. "We should send-"

"I'll go. Radiation doesn't affect us, and our skins are able to receive high doses without degradation," John interrupted.

Cain stared at the machine and nodded her agreement. "Either Carter or John will go, captain. Whatever is on this algae planet can wait- I'm not needlessly sacrificing anyone."

"It won't affect the neural net?" Avion asked.

Planck shook his head.

"Captain Shaw, how long will a resupply mission take?" Cain asked.

"With a standard compliment sir… twenty-five days." She hesitated and breathed out slowly between her teeth. She looked at John, Avion, and then at the back of Admiral Cain's head. "If we use the machines and Centurions it could take significantly less."

She saw a tick and the Admiral turn her head, just enough so the captain could see the dark brown of her eyes from the corner of her face. Even still too-dim lights of the observation lounge Shaw could see the Admiral's hesitation and the marks of torture from New Caprica at the hands of machines.

"We need to be cognizant of our limitations. If the Cylons jump with men on the ground there would be nothing we could do to stop them from sending a missile down and Gods forbid, a nuke," Cain observed. "You're good with odds I hear, Planck," she said, referencing his tendency to win numerous Triad games, even beat Starbuck, "so what are the odds of the Cylons finding us?"

In truth, Planck hated calculating odds. Some machines used them to determine their actions, but he found that the most powerful mythological figure in Earth history, one Mr. Murphy, tended to screw up the odds quite readily and spectacularly.

The odds were less than a percent the Cylons were going to attack, Planck remembered, so…

"They're low. Unless Cynet can detect us… it did know something was happening with its hybrid but there is no indication it can track the hybrids. So I would say it's low." He hesitated. "I don't wish to instill any false sense of security."

Captain Shaw took it upon herself to begin her own analysis.

"A quarter of the crew is on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, and the infrequent jumps have made it impossible for some to sleep," Shaw finished. "The docs think we can go a few more weeks on our current supplies… stretch them a bit. And with the Cylons, no DRADIS contacts… and with similar DRADIS ranges, I'd say the chances are less than low… assuming Cynet can't track the hybrid."

Cain remembered back to flipping through Adama's logs. His actions immediately after the fall of the Colonies had been of the most interest to her. How differently, she thought, of how they…

She focused back to the synonymous incident: the jumps every thirty-three minutes and how his crew had nearly collapsed from exhaustion after a week of being chased by the Cylons. They'd come in every thirty-three minutes, following, she presumed, the Olympic Carrier. In retrospect she wasn't surprised the Cylons were following the liner; they'd infiltrated everything else. Why not civilian liners?

It was difficult, borderline impossible, she knew, to sleep through an FTL jump. One could get used to an FTL jump but when in sleep it was impossible to not awaken.

Not that she could really empathize at the moment. Months of restless sleep and near insomnia since this began had kept her up at all hours of the night. She stifled a yawn by clenching her jaw and remembered she was going off less than three hours of sleep.

Cain's eyes shot over to Planck when he began offering their services.

"We can help," John said. "If you'll permit it, Daniel and Erica can help as well. He's been in the brig and has complied. The Centurions alone could do the work of a dozen men each," he added.

The Admiral snorted and Captain Shaw huffed.

John looked at them both, understanding their need to be hesitant, but unappreciative of their hostility.

Admiral Cain took a moment. The Centurions were under her command, at least on paper. They'd probably listen to Planck over her, but right now if she ordered them down to the planet, she swore that they'd better comply.

They weren't nearly as indestructible as their Earth cousins, she darkly thought.

"Yes, I guess I should thank him for not breaking out?" the Admiral hissed. She held up her hand as a mix between apology and to signal she had more to say. "Daniel can work on the planet if you or Carter are down there with him. Whatever his motivations were… Captain Shaw was following my orders on my authority, and he countermanded that authority."

She wanted to tell him that was not a good idea on this ship, but held her tongue and mouth tightly closed. Cain felt the tension in the room beginning to build and saw the Avion, a man she considered too close to the machines and Guardians, looking between her and John expectantly.

"I understand Admiral and I won't make excuse for what occurred."

"The situation is also behind us," Avion jumped in. He stuttered when he realized he probably should not have said anything. "We just have a bigger problem…" he looked worriedly at Captain Shaw who was icily glaring at him, "uh… we have more immediate problems and could use their help, Admiral."

He felt half a meter shorter as the petite captain kept staring at him. Avion knew as soon as he'd said 'bigger problems' he'd marginalized Captain Shaw getting shot as that was the implication of Cain and John's statements. He mentally kicked himself and made a note to be a little more careful around the two headstrong, domineering women.

Admiral Cain's eyes rested on him a moment before wavering and moving on to John, to Shaw, and back to the planet. She'd made up her mind.

"We'll search the planet for the largest concentration of algae we can realistically harvest," Cain decided. "You can access the imagery and any data we collect. We will also conduct Raptor overflights of territory on the opposite side of the planet. You can have access to that data as well." She held out her finger. "Once we've found the algae, John, we're going to re-direct the telescopes to finding a way through the star cluster. We'll continue Raptor flights if they're not needed to ferry supplies. Yes?"

John bowed his head. "That is acceptable, Admiral. Do we begin now?"

It wasn't war, but at least it was something other than sitting and waiting.

"We begin now," she declared.

---

||||||||||==Algae Planet, Harvest Site (+998 Days Post Cylon Holocaust)==||||||||||

"It smells horrible down here," Gunnery Sergeant Chris Purcell said, wrinkling his nose. He wiped off a smudge of algae from his upper lip with a small part of his green utilities which had somehow managed to remain clean.

He looked up at the dirtied Centurion he had apparently been talking to. It stopped, looked at him, then twisted its head and bobbed it forward before stalking off with a handful of tubing and metal seal rings.

"They're not big on talking," he heard from behind him. Purcell turned around and saw Chief Laird going through the metal containers and checking off supplies on his clipboard. "You'd be lucky you even got a response." He said as he kept his eyes focused on his task.

Purcell meandered over and helped the Chief lift a heavy crate.

"Thanks," Laird said. He opened the crate and began rifling through it.

"I don't think I got any response from them. Which one was that, anyway?" He asked.

"Uh…" Laird plopped his clipboard down and knocked it on his thigh a few times. He winced, trying to remember. "Did he have a little ding on the left shoulder armor?"

The Marine gunny held up his hands and shrugged, mouthing a 'what'.

"I don't know, it's so bright down here," he complained. For added effect he narrowed his eyes and made his hand into a little visor. "Gods damn, I'm surprised the Admiral is letting them down here."

Laird had gone back to his work and was barely paying attention.

"Well… uh… um, they do work all the time. They're doing the jobs of about a dozen men or so. Plus they don't breathe." He pointed out to the distance. Three of the Centurions were stalking up across the beach about a hundred meters away clearly having just been in the water.

Purcell had sharp eyes and could see the dull gunmetal gray was covered in a green-blue algae color.

"Were they just underwater?" He asked. Laird nodded. "Gods damn."

They each heard a roar as a pair of Raptors swooped in low over the base camp. Both men had to cover their eyes as thrusters kicked up dirt and sand before cutting out.

---

The group shot to attention, and Marine clad in stripped down combat uniforms- black pants, short sleeve shirt, and light combat vests, came to attention and opened the door to the large command tent. Admiral Cain confidently marched in, followed by Captain Shaw and two Marines.

"Sir," Major Adama reported in. His heels clicked, shoulders arched back, and he shot up a quick salute. Cain promptly returned it. "We weren't expecting you, sir," he said. "Welcome to the hot and humid algae planet." He said with an open armed grin.

He glanced at the clock over her shoulder. It was 0743 ship time but almost midday here on the planet. It was perhaps the worst part of the day to come down- not that any time was particularly great, but it was beginning to get even more humid than it already was. And the entire team was covered in dirt, grime, and streaks of algae.

Admiral Cain, never a stranger to getting into the thick of action, rolled up her sleeves and pushed the hair off her shoulders, ready for a briefing.

She stood wide and with arms crossed and eyes capable of staring down a Terminator.

"I just wanted to come down without much fan fare, Major… anyway," she snickered, "the last time I was on a planet was in a concrete jail cell having my bones crushed. It'll actually be nice to walk around a little bit." She pushed her hair back off her shoulder. "How are we doing?" She asked to no one in particular.

"We've set up processing and harvesting equipment," Carter said, "and we have hoses running out to a kilometer off shore on a particularly rich bed of algae. Some of the Centurions-"

"Is there anything else… like fish or crab or something besides algae in the waters?"

"Plankton mostly," Adama answered with a shrug. "We found some extensive kelp beds about three kilometers northwest of here. Blue Team is out harvesting those for our immediate needs. They're pretty balanced in carbohydrates, protein and unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals."

He handed her a print out on the nutritional analysis of their findings and turned and grabbed a small plastic container from one of the folding tables they'd brought down.

Major Adama slid the container onto the drafting table, letting the Admiral and Shaw look inside. A few curious Marines snuck a peak as well.

Inside were small crustaceans, between four and six centimeters, red, and with thick shells. They were almost entirely shell.

"What the hell are those?" Cain asked, peering cautiously over the edge. She watched the rippling water distort the view of the dozen or so tiny creatures.

"That's about the most advanced sea life we've been able to find, Admiral." Adama said.

"They look like a disgusting bastardized cross between a roach and a snail," remarked Captain Shaw with a visible look of disgust. She had her hand out and was clearly debating with herself to reach in and pick one up. She shivered and stepped back.

They had little antennae on the tops of their head but no visible mouth or eyes.

"They're similar to the trilobites on Earth, during the early Cambrian Period." John informed her. He reached in and picked one of the little creatures up. "They don't have much nutritional value." He began moving it towards his mouth and Admiral Cain and Adama recoiled, disgusted. Suddenly he tossed it back into the container. "Kid-ding," he enunciated with a smirk.

"This planet has been bombarded with enough radiation so nothing significant has been growing," Adama filled in. "Shrubs and weeds and algae and plankton and…" he looked once at the cockroach/snail hybrid and back at John, "…and trilobites."

Cain nodded and marched around the table, occasionally stopping and slipping maps over one another and skimming status reports. She stopped once she'd circumnavigated the table once and was opposite Adama, John, and Carter.

"Give us the room," Cain ordered. She indicated for the Marine bodyguard detail to leave as well. She waited until only her senior staff on the planet was present. Leaning forward on the drafting table, she moved the paper maps around, as if trying to buy time. "We haven't found anything on the planet," she said, looking down at a topographic map of the area, "and we have found a way through the star cluster." She pushed off. "I need one of you, John, Carter, to man the Raptor and find the fleet."

"I'll do it," Carter said.

"It's a risky mission," Cain pointed out with a casual disinterest. "And I think-" she was interrupted before she could finished with '-John already volunteered.'

"Our neural net chips are shielded and our skin regenerates quickly. I'll be fine," Carter offered in reassurance.

"It's not that," Shaw spoke up, "it's also the danger posed to the Raptor. Too much time in the cluster and it will degrade the engines, breach the canopy, it could lead to a hundred malfunctions and leave you stranded."

She did an excellent job of stating her concerns as factual observations.

Carter looked at the short, young captain and nodded. A fake muscle under his eyes twitched. He held his mouth open, about to activate his vocalizer when John spoke up first.

"It's a risky mission. I'll fly the Raptor like I said earlier… since I am rated to fly one," he directed to Carter with a smirk. The other machine rolled his eyes but didn't protest.

Cain wasn't about to order Planck not to go after everything.

"You said you found a ship from what you believed to be the Thirteenth Tribe on Earth?" Admiral Cain asked.

John and Carter both nodded. The Admiral was, as always, to the point and direct. Clearing the room to talk about finding the fleet wasn't warranted, but the inevitable discussion of time travel- still a military secret and the specifics concerning the Thirteenth were still classified.

Captain Shaw took out a file she had been holding quietly and offered it to John. He scanned the ten pages and handed them to Carter, who then handed them back to the Captain after committing them to memory.

Captain Shaw summarized her findings anyway; "While you've been down here, on Pegasus we've been running simulations on the likelihood that the Thirteenth would have stopped here. I've crossed referenced everything we have from Pythia, Lieutenant Gaeta's analysis, and Doctor Baltar's… it's low."

"We came here for a reason," John adamantly countered. "I refuse… I doubt that it was just over food. The jumps were random; no one could follow- that tells me there was a purpose."

"A feeling again?" Shaw asked dismissively. She lightly snorted with half closed eyes.

"Regardless," Cain began, "if we did come here for a reason… what is the connection? Is there a connection to the ship you found on Earth?"

"We were ordered to that mission by Cameron, with General Connor's authorization- she has ultimate control over the machine units… us to Greece, Omega to stop Skynet during the Cylon War, us to the Colonies forty years later…" he nodded, "so I think there is a connection."

"That tells us nothing," Cain shot at him. Sweat dripped off her brow. Frustrated, she pushed at the maps on the table and stepped back. Her hand reached into her pocket for her razor, and she opened it, flattened the maps, and waved it over a picture of the planet. "We have two separate, possibly parallel theories we're working on to find Earth… that is our ultimate goal, is it not?" She asked.

"Our ultimate goal, as it always has been, is to stop Skynet, and by extension the entity we now refer to as Cynet," John said. There was shallow implication in his voice Admiral Cain was visibly disturbed at. "Part of the method to defeat Skynet, and by extension, Cynet," he quickly elaborated, "is to get to Earth, defeat Skynet… and somehow defeat Cynet."

"Somehow…?" Shaw led.

She knew making the robots uncomfortable probably would backfire, but bitterness from being shot tended to override common sense from time-to-time, even for her.

John gave his honest assessment; a shrug. "You tell me how two battlestars and a cruiser and why not… include the Guardians and rebels… how are you going to defeat maybe a hundred or more baseships and millions of Cylons?" He asked. Even with a passive, neutral tone, the Pegasus officer could feel the contempt in the subtext.

"Plasma weaponry?" She asked. They'd hypothesized about adapting some of the turrets to fire plasma bolts, but the materials couldn't be fabricated by any Colonial system.

Neither John nor Carter immediately answered.

John sighed. Brute force weaponry was not going to win this war. "We're AIs. We can download our consciousness into other chips. If Cynet is anything at all like its wayward cousin on Earth then it has a backup plan. And backups for backups for backups…!"

Cain cut off the soon-to-be shouting match with a flick of her hand.

"Like I said, two theories; one is this hybrid thing and one is Pythia," Cain began after seconds of palpable silence.

She knew the machines and Shaw were just a few contemptuous statements and accusations away from full blown arguing. And Cain wasn't blind; she'd seen the captain change her attitude towards the machine over the last few years and almost radically after the rescue at New Caprica. She wasn't naïve to the strange, borderline adolescent teenager relationship between the young captain and Carter, either.

Cain made her right hand into a knife and slammed it into her left palm as she spoke. "We had 'the Blaze' which was the Cylon attack on the Colonies, Roslin dying of cancer back there," she thumbed her hand over her shoulder, "the Tomb of Athena which has guided us for thousands of light years and two months ago the Lion's Head Nebula- blue and red eye…" she nodded vigorously as she recalled the quote from Pythia. "So what does this mean?" She folded her arms. "We're here. If it's not just for food like you said… how is this linked?"

She wiped her forehead with an open palm after her lecture.

John looked off, staring at the blank off-white walls of the pre-fabricated, algae stained structure. He clicked his jaw as he thought back to what the hybrid had said in that 'realm… in between, where Cynet cannot follow.'

"The hybrid told me there was a remnant of a remnant buried on Earth. The only thing we ever found was that space ship." The machine said. "The remnant of the remnant was the spaceship… so the former remnant could be the tribe from Kobol, the Thirteenth?"

The two women looked at Carter for confirmation, and the machine soldier nodded his head but remained quiet in deference to his command, motioning for them to direct any inquiry at Planck.

Shaw stroked her chin. "It's like you said earlier… one ship was found on Earth. So are you wondering where the rest of the Thirteenth Tribe went to?" Her eyes glistened. "…here? No way… the radiation."

John elaborated; "One ship is all we found under the mountain… unless there were others. But Skynet was only digging there, and the men we rescued said nothing of another site." He looked around. "So where did the Thirteenth go?"

"Not here," Shaw repeated.

"Maybe not to settle," John offered, "maybe not to settle," he echoed, "but the ships never arrived on Earth, the hybrid knew about Mount Parnithia… Admiral," he turned to the woman, "we have to continue searching. We need Pegasus to continue searching. The answer is here, it has to be."

Cain held back rolling her eyes at the tunnel vision threatening to engross the machines. "You know as much about where the Thirteenth went as we do. The Sacred Scrolls tell us a 'caravan' left… other than that…" she offered a sympathetic smile and a small shrug.

"Then let me talk with the hybrid again," John offered.

"Absolutely not," the Admiral shot and cut of any other debate with a knife strike of the hand. Exasperated she turned and stalked off, then swirled back and stopped half a dozen paces in front of John. "Never ask me something like that again… not after what happened." She looked quickly at Shaw and then back at the machines. She clicked her tongue quietly, as an internal monologue ran on how to resolve this situation. "We're almost done mapping a way out of the star cluster... even with your computational abilities it'd take a week to jump around the cluster… so we're sending a Raptor through it."

"A Raptor?" Adama asked. He'd maintained a hawk-like interest in the ongoing debate between the Admiral and the machine. "The radiation is extensive… the heat… the ionized plasma… we could lose a Raptor if it misjumps." From the corner of his eye he saw Shaw shrug and look away.

Cain wagged her finger. "That's true, but Pegasus is needed here for the moment. We're close… so, Planck, you offered… you don't eat so there's no need to expend rations… and radiation doesn't affect you… I'll send a Raptor down for you when we need you to pilot the Raptor and find Galactica."

---

||||||||||==BS-75 Galactica (+998 Days Post Cylon Holocaust)==||||||||||

Commander Adama watched from a distance as Doctor Cottle quietly handed off a small backpack of medical supplies to Athena. A stare of 'you're-acting-like-a-fraking-idiot' was plastered on his face as the grumpy doctor recited to Baltar what was required to keep himself healthy.

The Old Man, looking off into the distance in the hanger deck, smiled to himself when as if on cue the bastard of a doctor began lecturing, quite sternly, the Doctor and questioning his sanity, and calling him an idiot for still insisting he be allowed on this mission with the Six, the Eight, and the Terminator.

"Desperate times, desperate measures," quipped President Roslin as she rocked gently on her heels. She stood abreast of the Commander, almost a mirror image of his calm form, watching the last supplies being loaded onto the Raptor. "I wonder if it's some sort of guilt driving Baltar to go with them?" She wondered, motioning to the Doctor walking slowly to the wing of the Raptor. "This is unlike him."

Caprica Six extended a gloved hand to him and gently helped him up the wing.

"We hate the man so much… maybe…"

The President snorted and couldn't help herself to laugh. "Bill, you're very trusting, but even you can't tell me he's turned a new leaf. I don't care… I really don't," he easily admitted, "and it's been six months… I won't care if it's been six years or six centuries. Do I have to remind you of the death warrants he signed? Baltar's death squads?" She motioned at the former president with her hand as he ducked into the Raptor. "Does he think this will get him a 'get out of jail free card'?" She rolled her eyes.

"And we're sending him on a mission," the Commander pointed out simply. "With two Cylons… three machines."

"I can still cancel it," she threatened lightly.

The President snorted as she closed her eyes, trying to wash away the unclean and very disturbing images she had concerning the relationship between the doctor and the Six.

"Whatever it is that motivates him… I don't pretend to want to understand," Adama commented. He looked around the landing bays as the knuckle draggers tried to feign apathy towards what was happening around the special mission Raptor, and failing spectacularly at it. "I'm as uncomfortable as they are with this."

He was looking at the deckhands and Roslin followed his wary eyes.

"Aren't we all?" Roslin rhetorically asked. She pushed up her glasses and turned. "You trust them," she stated.

"I trust two of them. We'll see how the other two do."

"Gods, I hope your right," Roslin stressed. She folded her arms and rubbed her forearms as a sudden chill washed over her. "I just have a bad feeling…"

Adama looked at her, a sort of 'oh really' look obvious from the slight lowering of his head and the eyes rolled up into their socket above his glasses.

She laughed. "I know a bit cliché, but still… bad feeling…" she said with a friendly open palmed pat to the arm.

The President turned back around when Adama stepped forward and put out his hand to guide her towards the Raptor. Athena and Soto were standing at the wing tip, Helo next to Athena, and Baltar and

Roslin watched the Six and Baltar sitting beside each other in the Raptor, comfortable with each other but uncomfortable with everything around them. There was no one to wish them a safe trip, to say to them 'good hunting', or anyone to care if the two of them survived.

'And that's how it should be…' Roslin whispered.

"We're all ready, Commander, Madam President," Athena reported loudly. "All the equipment is loaded and we ran another test this morning. The modification to the sensor dome is good to go."

"Yes, good to go," Soto echoed. "We have enough food and water for ten days and waste collection containers."

Roslin winced at that.

Athena turned to handle a last flight checklist from Chief Tyrol, and Soto made one last visual inspection of the Raptor.

Commander Adama gave a quick visual inspection of the sensor dome, which was now about three times as wide and twice as large. The science he didn't quite understand, but somehow it was supposed to locate the 'quantum wave fronts' or whatever Doctor Baltar had been babbling about.

The Six seemed to have understood quite well which did add to a general unease about the mission. He trusted that Soto and Athena knew enough to not be duped by Baltar or the Six.

"So you understand this?" Roslin leaned over and whispered.

"Not really," he whispered back. "The military was experimenting with FTL communications for decades before the Cylon War. I read a classified paper on it about six years back… they sent a few bytes of data but the power requirements were massive…" he chuckled, "the experiment cost more than this entire fleet would brand new."

"The good military-industrial complex?" Roslin asked. She looked over and winked.

The Old Man grunted a soft reply.

Athena turned back and waited in front of the President and Commander after handing a final flight check list back to Chief Tyrol and a deck hand disconnected the tyllium fuel lines.

"Then we should keep you waiting, Lieutenant Agathon," Roslin excitedly said, "and good hunting, I believe, is the correct term?"

"Yes, ma'am," the pilot confirmed with a nod, "hunting for the Beast."

"Lieutenant, Soto," Adama addressed each one individually, "Both of you have proven your loyalty to this fleet- a Cylon and a Terminator. I had my doubts… the Fleet is relying on both of you." He warily looked up at Baltar and Six. Baltar had been staring down at the little group, but quickly, sheepishly, looked away. "Keep them in line. Cylon sister, fellow-machine, whatever you see them as… I know you will both do your utmost to find Pegasus and reunite the fleet."

He came to attention, with Sharon and Soto following. They exchanged sharp, crisp salutes.

"Good hunting," he said and added as one last order, "Find them."

---

||||||||||==Special Mission Raptor (+1,001 Days Post Cylon Holocaust)==||||||||||

"And… once again… drum roll…" Athena expectantly began looking over at her co-pilot. "Come on, Jo… no drum roll?"

"No."

Athena slapped her knees in exacerbation.

"Just once?" She looked at Soto with dark, brown puppy eyes. "This is number twenty-something."

Jo looked over to Athena and the bio-Cylon swore her machine pilot was bored and tired. But she smiled a wide, toothy smile, and pulsed her eyebrows up for Jo to make a drum roll.

Reluctantly Jo hit the central console once, hesitated, and then hit it a second time.

"Wow… it's like that took a lot of effort," the bio-Cylon quipped. She winked and chuckled at her co-pilot, who, after seventy hours together, she had been getting to know quite a lot better than over the last few years almost.

It was these little things which kept boredom from breaking the group of four. Athena had figured the boredom was worse for Baltar since he couldn't project, but hadn't really cared enough to bring it up or even talk to him except for a few sentences at a time, and only when required.

The limited space in the Raptor was doing a sufficient job of raising tempers, mainly between Athena and Baltar, but after the first day the four had gotten into a pattern; Soto didn't need to stretch so she could sit in the co-pilot seat indefinitely, Baltar fidgeted a lot so when he was fidgeting Athena would sit up front, and for a few hours each day she'd let Baltar sit up front so Athena and Caprica could talk Cylon sister-to-sister.

The console beeped and the newest set of data point readings began scrolling across the screen.

Baltar came up along with Caprica. All four of them had removed their helmets shortly after the first FTL jump- procedure was helmets when launching, so they'd obliged.

"Do you see anything, Doctor?" Sharon asked over her shoulder. She was looking at the scrolling data points as they blurred across the screen. Caprica and Jo were doing the same.

Baltar was relying on a tablet computer perched restfully on his forearm which was displaying the data at a far more acceptable, far slower pace.

"I'm not sure…" he said with clear distraction. His eyes scanned from one side of the tablet to the other over one line of readings and then down to the next.

He popped out the stylus on the tablet and brought up a series of graphs and wavelength readings the computer had calculated.

"Humans…" Sharon lamented with a slight grin on her face.

"I could threaten to terminate him if he doesn't hurry," Jo offered.

"Uh… that stopped being not funny about twenty jumps ago," Baltar deadpanned as he leaned his head in between the two. "The morbid humor aside, yes… yes, I did find something," he proudly declared. His mood instantly changed. "Yes, in fact, I think we've picked up their trail. Now that I know what we're looking for…" he began tapping, drawing, and writing with his stylus at a fervent pace.

Ten minutes later he handed Six his tablet which she looked through with marked interest before handing it to Sharon and Jo.

Soto turned in her seat to face the rear cabin. "Are you sure about this?" She asked, deathly serious. "We can't afford detours."

"Unless you think I'm wrong, put the data points into the computer," Baltar said, a borderline order, "and prove me right and your suspicions wrong." He looked away and then back at the machine. "Or you can put your own data points in, but you needed me for a reason, so put yours in then if you don't trust me," he dared.

The machine narrowed her eyes. "I was merely asking for confirmation."

Baltar leaned forward, grabbed the tablet and tossed it towards Soto, who caught it with a blurred movement of her hand. "There's you're confirmation," he declared, tapping the tablet and shoving it harder into her hand, "so put it into the computer so we can find Pegasus and get out of this depressingly cramped Raptor… I'm tired of fraking pissing in bags!" He yelled. "Pissing in bags… because I just want to go back to my fraking cell!" He sarcastically hissed.

"Doctor, get a hold of yourself," Jo calmly advised. "Caprica?" She turned towards the blonde bio-Cylon, whose hair seemed to maintain an unnatural curly bounce to it even with three days of no showers. "Please input these instructions into the computer." She handed her the tablet. "And Doctor, do not shout at me."

She pulsed her eyes. Baltar just glared at her.

---

"So you actually liked to go shopping?" Athena asked, her mouth hanging slightly opened as she pictured what could only be described as a killing death machine sitting beside her and reminiscing about… shopping.

"Ye-… It served a purpose. It was what was expected as a human female prior to Judgment Day. I enjoyed the challenge of maintain my status as an infiltrator. That required knowing and understanding human fashion trends for early twenties females," she explained. "We may not have interacted much with people but we hardly lived in a bubble."

Athena gave the machine a friendly, gentle pat on the shoulder.

"Sure… it 'served a purpose' only… anything in particular?"

The machine nodded. "Yes. Boots took extra time to examine- there had to be a proper mix between function and style." She looked over and Athena, who was mischievously smiling at this little tidbit of information, immediately brought the corners of her lips down to a completely emotionless, passive position. "Carter liked sunglasses and John liked cargo pants," she added.

"Oh… now you're just trying to distract from the fact you admitted to following fickle fashion trends so you're trying to distract me." She tapped her head in the same manner the machines had done to remind others they weren't human. "No neural net, but bio-Cylon augmented brain, remember? I can multitask so you won't distract me that easily. Anyway, I have Boomer's memories and it was obviously the same on the Colonies; girl stuff. She enjoyed doing 'girl stuff' when on leave. Me? I didn't get to the Colonies until they were nuked… so…" she shrugged.

"The Cylons seemed to be obsessed with what could be described as fashionable clothing from Caprica… except for the Doral models I saw on New Caprica who tended to wear a lot of beige, teal, and burgundy," Jo said. "Where did the Cylons get it from?"

"Uh…" the Eight looked back to the Six, who was talking with Baltar. She leaned closer to Jo so Caprica wouldn't hear. "The Sixes… they were a little obsessive about it. The Fours were especially annoyed at times with the Sixes and their… obsessions… they said they'd never seen anyone, human or Cylons, more obsessed with going into battle with manicured nails and perfectly curly platinum blonde hair."

"I don't understand why you all wouldn't wear uniforms," Soto observed. "While a civilization you are completely militarized."

"They, Jo, they. I'm a Cylon but not a part of them anymore." She played with her hands. "It's not… really a civilization… anymore," she weakly stammered.

Jo felt a tinge of empathy for Athena, but they needed to concentrate on the mission. Still, she felt she had to say something.

"My mistake. Wouldn't uniforms or something similar also be easier to produce and supply? Logistically."

"Well… huh…" Athena stared off into space, "now that I think about it… maybe we didn't want to since we all looked the same? Something to differentiate us, give us some personality? Of course the Cavils all tended to wear black and fedoras and the Dorals beige, teal, and burgundy like you said." An exaggerated shrug followed her hypothesis. "I guess it really didn't matter all that much… collective consciousness and whatnot."

They sat for a few minutes until the last DRADIS sweeps and the wave front detector built into the sensor dome atop the Raptor finished collecting its data.

"I don't see you and Carter much in the rec rooms by yourselves," Athena said. "Why is that? You all are on Galactica a fair bit."

Jo shrugged. "John has always been better at superfluous human interactions."

Athena wasn't sure, but the casual, almost dismissive tone worried her.

"I don't know, it doesn't seem very superfluous."

"Not all the time," Jo conceded.

"Ah huh… well… I know you all spend a lot of time working on whatever it is you all work on, but getting some fun in is a good way to relax." She looked over the terminator, who was sitting as rigid as a statue. "And I know you all like to relax and do things other than work. We Cylons project and-"

"We can create virtual simulations as well."

"It's not the same." She looked over lazily to the machine who was focused a bit unnaturally on starring at the empty readout display from the wave front detector. "You know, human friends aren't that bad. Be more personable, friendly and all that," she offered with a spring in her voice.

Not in a hurry to answer, the machine leaned forward and flicked at a gauge which had been blinking green until its returned to its constant light green glow.

"Why? We'll eventually lose everyone," Jo grimly responded.

She turned around and glared at Baltar, who stopped for a long, drawn out second and stared at her. Caprica looked back, and then gently grabbed the man's cheek and turned his head.

"He won't do anything," Athena reassured the edgy machine. She understood Soto's desire to find her friends. "We'll find Carter and John." She leaned back in her seat but winced when one of her ribs pressed a bit too hard into the seat.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," she shook her hand for Jo not to worry, "just some bruised ribs still… Cynet built us to recover quickly, but we're still-"

"Biological," Jo finished.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Athena added.

---

"So… do you suppose once we get back to the fleet they'll kill us?" Baltar wondered. His eyes were locked forward, passed Caprica, staring between the two machines in the cockpit and out the canopy into the empty black void. He blinked himself back and longingly turned towards Caprica. "No matter what… they'll kill us, me… and you even with your model an enemy of Cynet."

Caprica gently rubbed the top of his hand with her thumb and happily smiled when she saw him close his eyes and relax.

"I don't think that will happen," she said to try and reassure him. She didn't believe it enough herself to keep her from saying she was sure. "They've held you for six months… don't you think…" she didn't finish.

Baltar stroked his face, and wiped his runny nose with a punch of his thumb to the side of his index finger.

"What about trying to do something to… I don't know signal the rebel Cylons?" he asked. He leaned forward. "I could… I could change… I could do…" he was searching around desperately when his eyes locked with the machine sitting in the cockpit.

He was frozen as his mind raced over the possibility she had heard him and was preparing to kill him for what he'd just suggested. He felt Caprica's cool palms on his cheeks and she slowly brought his head around and broke the death stare the machine had locked on him. He was rigid and stiff as Caprica brought his face into her chest and let him rest the crevice of her shoulder.

For a long, enduringly painful minute he waited for the small hands of the machine to grab him by his collar, wrap around his throat, and snap his neck.

"It's okay, Gaius," he heard Six's voice and felt her hands in her hair. He pushed back.

"How did this even happen?" He wondered. He knew, his rational mind did, but circumstances kept forcing him to ask the same question over and over. With three years gone the destruction of the Colonies Baltar still didn't understand how much it still affected him. "Scientist to President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol to collaborator and stooge to prisoner… president? President… ha! President of Nothing…." He said bitterly. "Fifty-thousand people… president of non-existent colonies…" he added sourly.

"I'm sorry, Gaius," the Six said.

His eyes locked with hers only to break as a tear fell from the corner. He rubbed it off her cheek with a tender swipe of his thumb.

"Why? What do you have to be sorry for?"

"Deception… my deception of you, all of this," she waved around the small Raptor cabin. "Everything I've put you through the last three years has been because of me. I lied to you… I got you to give me access to the mainframe… it was a lie…"

"All of it?" He whispered the question.

"Not all of it…"

She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on his shoulder. She could hear him whispering in her ear.

"I knew… I knew the moment you saved me from the nuclear explosion," he said. "When you told me you were a Cylon I knew you had lied about everything but then… I knew when you saved me… you loved me and that I loved you."

---

||||||||||==In Orbit of the Algae Planet (+1,002 Days Post Cylon Holocaust)==||||||||||

"This is Pegasus Actual to Blanks, status update?"

Planck double checked his calculations, running the data through his neural net in parallel uncountable other processes. A distracting, but important, interesting process in his neural net was that he felt a certain ease with once again being referred to as 'Blanks.' Except for Starbuck, no one really had used the old call sign, now three years retired.

He thumbed the black transmit button. A dim yellow light illuminated on the control panel indicating an outbound transmission: "Last check on the calculations, Pegasus Actual," John said. "Calculations are completed."

He pushed the thrust lever down into the central console and felt the slight kick in gee forces pushed him and press him to the back of his padded seat. A Mark VII Viper, a dim sky blue, raced past, it's blue-white engines shaking the Raptor.

John grinned as the Viper came up into escort, spun on its long axis, and came up parallel. The black, blocky lettering of 'CPT KARA THRACE' and 'STARBUCK' were highlighted and enlarged in the machine's hub.

"Little going away present, Starbuck?" He commented as his hands flew across the controls and readied for FTL jump.

"I figured why not… you're only going to be jumping through perhaps one of the most irradiated star clusters this side of the galaxy," she pointed out so matter-of-factly. He could see her looking over and grinning a wide, toothy smile.

He shook his wing as a friendly goodbye, his finger now hovering over the small red rectangle which would launch him and the Raptor out of this universe and deposit him instantaneously ninety percent of the way through the cluster.

"Raptor 0-4-0 you're clear to-"

"DRADIS contact!" John, Starbuck, and Pegasus shouted over the wireless simultaneously.

Blanks had kicked back the Raptor, flipping it gently, and hit turbos until he was five thousand klicks behind the CAP and assumed DRADIS picket duties. Starbuck and the CAP raced forward, the brilliant blue of their turbo engines leaving a fine, quickly fading trail of ions, as they closed on their targets.

Alert fighters were in the tubes and launching, a half squadron would be sixty seconds behind Starbuck and her wingmen.

"Starbuck, this is Apollo, any ID?" Major Adama asked hurriedly. "Alert Vipers are sixty seconds behind."

"Uh… Pegasus… I think you can hold out on the alert Vipers…" the Pegasus CAG stated in her typical Starbuck ambiguity.

---

Blanks felt the jolt as the taxi slid Raptor 0-4-0 into its bay. The engines coughed and the low-humming whine slowly subsided as he began flicking the half dozen switches to turn off the engines. He powered down, neglecting his post-flight checklist, flicked off his harness, and almost jumped over the seat as the hatch took its seven slow seconds to open.

Admiral Cain and Captain Shaw were already racing down the landing deck ladders at a dangerous speed, Marines following behind them, and a large deck gang had assembled.

The Galactica Raptor was blistered and peeling. Where a dull tan thermal coating had been there were diffuse and patchy silvery gray blotches on severely compromised heat tiles. The half-dozen members of the alert Hazardous Material Team- Alpha for the starboard flight pod were already in their thick gray contamination suits and spraying the entire Raptor with thin white foam.

Through the cockpit the faces of Athena and Soto were visible as they removed their helmets. Baltar and Caprica Six were almost hidden from their positions in the bucket seats at the rear of the Raptor. Already Soto and Planck had exchanged the entirety of their experiences since Pegasus so suddenly jumped thirty-eight days ago.

"Move it people!" John heard. A fiery authoritative voice was shouting at the knuckle draggers to set up the isolation tents. "Everyone stand back!" Captain Shaw yelled, giving orders as Admiral Cain's proxy. "Move on back!" she yelled a third time. She held one hand behind her back and pointed to a spare Viper bay. "Set it up over there," she ordered the Haz Mat team.

They wheeled the containment unit and portable showering device over to where she'd pointed.

"Dear Gods…" John, Shaw, and Cain heard from behind them. Doctor Roberts stood abreast of the trio. "You said they went through the star cluster? Who in Hades is in there?" he demanded with a glance over to Shaw and Cain and back to the blistered Raptor, now covered in the sud-like decontamination foam.

He was already fiddling with a stethoscope and checking his anti-radiation medications and other cocktails in small emergency medical bag.

"Soto, Athena…" John began. He paused and faked a cough. "…and Caprica Six and Baltar."

Cain and Shaw felt their jaws slacken simultaneously. Both women had an urge to slam the machine in the face. "What?" "Excuse me?" One or the other both said in unison.

John ignored them and even as impassive as he made himself to be, he was anxious for the hatch to open to see his friend.

"We need to return to the fleet as soon as possible," he informed the two women.

"Why?" Cain demanded. "What did she say to you?" She asked, knowing the machine in the Raptor would have sent out a signal to the one next to her.

---

||||||||||==BS-75 Galactica==||||||||||

Commander Adama stood the watch accompanied by his valiant XO who had almost collapsed from exhaustion not twelve hours earlier. Tigh, after a quick rest in his rack and the obligatory grumblings, had returned and as the Old Man saw it, with more energy than before.

"It's still deathly quiet," Tigh grimly observed. The corners of his lips were depressed into a strangely exaggerated frown and a small bit of extra skin was hanging loose.

The Old Man nodded in agreement with the observation, careening his neck for a better view of DRADIS he took in the positions of the fleet and the little green blips on the monitors. What worried him more than anything were the small green triangles- symbols assigned to Guardian craft.

The number of small green triangles significantly outnumbered the small green circles with three little stick-like lines poking out. More Raiders were out there protecting the fleet than Vipers; three to one almost.

"Scheduled DRADIS contact," Helo said from his position on the opposite side of the command console. "Two Guardian gunships on inbound, CAP is going in for a visual ID confirmation," he dutifully reported.

Tigh just groaned and tapped at the plastic top which was illuminated with a 2D representation of the sector of space they were currently occupying. He looked over to the Old Man and saw a bit of a loose uniform around the waist and collar.

"You losing weight, Bill?" He snickered and then looked down and laughed.

"Only if you're losing hair, Saul," he chided. "…Helo… when is the next shipment of rations due to leave the ship?"

"Sir… we… sent the last stock of dry rations an hour ago. We have a few more days left and that's it." The Tac Ops responded, dejected and almost defeated.

"Frak," the XO snarled. "We're down to less than half rations… riots on a dozen ships and most of our Marines too tired to work… this isn't looking good, Bill." He said. Tigh straightened and tugged down on his loose tunic. Flattening the bulge from the extra material he wringed his hands and could feel how bony they felt.

"We've survived worse," the husky voice of the Old Man pointed out. "We didn't survive three years running…"

He heard a little gargle from his XO.

"You know the thousandth day passed a few days back?" Tigh asked. The question would have been rhetorical under normal conditions but right now the XO wasn't sure if the Old Man had truly remembered. "I thought about cracking open a little bottle…"

Adama blew out in a gruff manner. "I remembered, Saul. And…" he looked his XO up and down, "even like a stick you look better," he lowered his voice, "without the bottle. How long's it been?"

"I lost count, Bill," he said with glazed eyes. "I just take it a day at a time. That's all I can do after losing…" He felt a strong hand squeeze his arm.

"DRADIS contact!" Lt. Gaeta yelled.

Both Commander and Executive Officer snapped back and their combat instincts took over.

A dozen heads throughout the CIC shot up and focused on individual DRADIS monitors spread in the CIC. Commander Adama's eyes narrowed hoping against reason that this would be some sort of… 'miracle'… to save them. That somehow everything would be alright, everything would work out like at Ragnar, Kobol, New Caprica…

The red open circle with an 'unknown' plastered in the center began accelerating at extreme DRADIS range towards the fleet.

"Anything?" Commander Adama demanded of Gaeta. "Have all ships stand by for emergency jump… Colonel Tigh, order the CAP to intercept."

"Galactica to CAP, intercept unknown bogey and report visual identification!" Tigh barked into the sound-powered phone. The familiar blips of Vipers and Raiders lazily swerved on the DRADIS and moved towards interception.

"Sir… picking up Colonial IFF…it's…" Gaeta's report stopped mid sentence as the senior officers stood, wide-eyed and shaking. They knew who it was but needed to hear it. "It's Pegasus."

---

In a scene almost reminiscent of two and a half years ago hundreds of Galactica crew were assembled on the flight deck. However, it wasn't a ceremony where everyone was assembled into impromptu rank-and-file. No. It was a hazardous collection of hundreds of sailors and dozens of Raptors feverishly unloading and transferring what little food Pegasus had mustered to process in the last two days.

"Admiral Cain…" Adama warily greeted the equally tired woman. He saluted. She extended a hand, which he shook proudly and willingly. "It's good to see you again."

"It is so good to see Pegasus again," Roslin echoed. Her smile was meager and her body was being driven forward by adrenaline. "Bill, this food needs to be transferred to the civilian fleet." She said. Her eyes scanned the dozens of containers being loaded onto dollies and disappearing into the service tunnels connecting the starboard and portside landing bays.

"We need to keep it here," Cain said. She looked behind her and ushered John, Jo, and Athena forward. "They can explain… to make a long story short, we need to begin transferring everyone we can into Pegasus, Helios, Galactica, and the Guardian baseship."

Two dozen Raptors had launched from the bowels of Pegasus for the fleet. Twelve to Galactica, eight to Cloud 9, and four to Helios.

"Lieutenant Agathon…" Roslin said to get the Cylon's attention. "Thank you… for everything." She nodded and stood back. The Cylon acknowledged with a somewhat appreciative smile and the president hoped the Cylon understood her thanks had been genuine. "Now… what is it that we have to do?" She asked.

"We found a planet, the hybrid, she took us-"

"The hybrid?" Adama interrupted.

"Uh," Cain groaned. "Commander, I'll explain everything soon," her stern features and glare in her eyes at the moment could pierce hyperalloy, "and what happened. But the short story is that since we vanished we jumped dozens of times due to the Cylon hybrid manipulating out FTL. It deposited us on some world we're calling the Algae Planet and Planck believes there is something there…" the tiredness in her voice was inadequate to hide the annoyance and not quite subtle disbelief.

"Gods…" Roslin muttered, dragging her hand over her forehead and through her hair. "How do we know… that-"

"The algae planet… it has abundant supplies of algae and kelp. It's early in its planetary development and we can harvest enough to feed us indefinitely," Cain explained. "How much longer before the fleet is completely out of food?"

"Days," Adama said.

"Sir," John spoke up, "we should begin transferring civilians to the battlestars and baseship immediately."

"Civilians? Transfers?" Roslin echoed in confusion. She held up her hands for everyone to stop. "Explain why we need to transfer everyone and why we need to load up the battlestars… and put civilians on the baseships."

She had no intention of hiding her disapproval for putting civilians on a Guardian- they were still Cylon- craft.

John nodded once forcefully. "Jo transmitted all the data the Raptor collected to me. The star cluster has intense radiation and heat. The civilian ships are not fortified and shielded against radiation. The cluster is a super star cluster with thick clouds of ionized plasma and is dozens of light years thick on the Z plane and hundreds wide and tall on the X and Y planes… with our modifications we can jump the warships almost to the edge of the cluster, but it will still require two jumps. But we have a ship full of people who aren't affect by extreme light or radiation," John pointed out, "which will make this easier for us."

"The Cylon…. Guardians…" Roslin whispered. She looked up at John's eyes and swore she could see him gloating behind those fake, vacant blue orbs.

---

||||||||||==BS-62 Pegasus==||||||||||

Doctor Gaius Baltar flipped over the last paper before neatly stacking the papers and closing the manila file folder. Gently he set the papers on the edge of his cot and stared forward at the beautiful platinum-blonde woman pacing around his cell.

"Are you going to trust him, Gaius?" The Six asked as she circled around Doctor Gaius Baltar and his visitor. "I wouldn't trust him… he'll use you… they used Gina… pretending to help her but in their… cold, mechanical hearts they just wanted information on the Cylons." She grinned. "To kill them, to kill me."

"Your models are in civil war," he whispered, keeping his eyes on the seductively dressed Six, running them up and down her leggy body and focusing on her breasts.

"Excuse me, Doctor?" Planck questioned curiously. "Civil war?"

"Oh…" his eyes darted back down and met Planck's. "Yes… I was just talking to myself, John, about the similarities between the Cylons and Earth. The Cylons are in civil war and from what I understand your race of free machines is indirectly a civil war. True, yes?"

"The cycle always repeats." Six whispered.

Baltar felt the hot air on his neck.

"The cycle always repeats," he echoed. He paced. "I mean now we have the Guardians who split from the Cylons forty years ago and now the… rebels or whomever splitting from the Cynet forces… and Skynet and Tech Com machines split…" he huffed, "it's just an interesting observation which needs to be made." His eyes wandered to the machine before looking over him at the Six. "And one which is never too old to make…" he grinned as she frowned.

"Doctor Baltar, you're stalling." John said. He let his eyebrows drop to feign tiredness.

"I help find Pegasus and Admiral Cain throws me in the brig? Finding Pegasus saved the civilian fleet. Can you tell me how much longer until we were all completely out of food?" He threw his hands up and then latched them to his hips and began bobbing his head. "Days?" His hand shot up and wagged his index finger. "How many times is this? I've saved Roslin's life three times now and this fleet twice and still I get thrown in here... who do you think saved Admiral Cain from being executed on New Caprica!"

"I didn't know that, about New Caprica," John admitted.

He stopped and mockingly admired his new brig cell.

"Oh yes… they wanted to execute her… the last living flag officer from the Colonies…," he nodded, walking over to the bunk beds. "Caprica Six was my ally… and…" he punched the bed and his attitude changed. "These are much springier that mine on Galactica…" he gestured to the walls, the lights, the ceiling, the floors, "it is just such a modern appearance," he scoffed.

"Doctor Baltar. Concentrate." John advised.

"Yes, Gaius… concentrate," his Six mockingly echoed.

"I helped you," he stepped forward and jammed a finger into the machine's chest, "and I helped them," he threw his arm out to the side and let it slap his thigh, "and I get put in a cell. Again."

"I'm offering you a chance to prove yourself," John said. He was patient, and there was time before the first jump back to the algae planet. The machine had seen the look of utter disappointment, shadowed by extreme fatigue and exhaustion, when Admiral Cain had ordered his and Caprica's immediate imprisonment. "I need you to explain to me the invention of yours."

Baltar had moved back to his cot and staring down at his hands. "Why?"

"It's important. There must be something on the planet. You finished reading the reports on the hybrids," he said with a gesture to the stacked files. "What is your assessment?"

A short snort was his first response.

"Where do I begin? Cynet's science and the hybrids are beyond anything the Colonies ever had… I only found the wave fronts because I had limited experience in FTL communications development," Baltar frustratingly stated. "And some things are constant… some things no matter how advanced still rely on basic principles. I just exploited the basic sciences between whatever it is the hybrids truly are."

"That is why I am asking you. You have experience. We don't."

Baltar closed his eyes. "So what do you think is on the planet?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know," he echoed.

"Perhaps it is something… a weapon… a relic?" The Six offered. She put her hand on his shoulder for added confidence.

"A weapon?" He asked the Six as he stared at the machine.

"That is a possibility… if this was the way to Earth it is possible the Thirteenth left something here."

"Or the hybrid led you on a wild trek across half the galaxy?" Baltar dismissed.

"Can I make you a deal?" John asked.

Baltar's gave the machine his undivided attention.

"What deal?"

"If we reach Earth…" John thought carefully about what he would offer, "…you will be placed into the custody of the civilian governing authority and be offered clemency in return for your services as a science advisor for Tech Com."

"You can't offer-"

"This fleet has nowhere to go, Doctor. It tried New Caprica, you tried New Caprica, and it was a failure of monumental proportions. Earth is where this fleet is heading… even an Earth embittered and broken by war because they have nowhere else to go. When, if, we arrive on Earth the fleet will need the support of Tech Com and General Connor. In exchange for the fleet being granted his exchange I will inform Admiral Cain, Commander Adama, and President Roslin that you will be transferred to my authority immediately and placed under my supervision. That will be the condition for Earth."

"You would lead them away from Earth? Damn yourself?"

Planck leaned in. "I would lead this fleet across the universe and away from Earth if it meant saving Earth from the Cylons." He said evenly, his blue eyes bearing into the dark and distant eyes of the scientist.

Baltar shook at the truth he perceived behind the statement. "You wouldn't," he whispered.

"Earth is my priority… my home… the Colonies are only… a mission, an assignment." He stood back up. "Seventy thousand compared to billions… billions, Doctor."

"Is whatever is down there so important he would jeopardize everything after coming so far?" The Six asked herself.

Baltar had focused on her and to the machine's back, yelled out; "You don't even know what's down there… would you jeopardize your position in this fleet? Could it be that important?" Baltar demanded to know.

"Think of what I offered you, Doctor." John said to the blast door. He motioned to the Marine outside to let him out. He grinned. "And yes, Doctor, I do believe whatever is down there is worth that risk. Our first jump will be soon. We'll be back over the planet by the end of the day. I need your answer then." He turned around as he stepped out. "If it's a weapon… I need an opportunity to save Earth, Doctor. Remember what I said if I can't." He warned.

---

||||||||||==BS-75 Galactica==||||||||||

President Roslin leaned in until she was almost shoulder to shoulder with Commander Adama. She was nervous, hungry, and tired. Her nervousness was only compounded by the imposing form of a robot standing across the CIC. Not one of the Terminators, but one of the Guardians in its IL-S body. This one was different, but no less imposing than its brethren. Under the meticulously tailored black uniform was a robot capable of killing with a frightening efficiency.

"Madam President, are you all right?" Adama whispered. She felt a warm breath on his cheek from the way his face was facing her.

She grabbed his left arm with her hands, squeezing with her right and patting his bicep with her left.

"I'm just nervous, Bill. The other ones you get used to… but this is something different. I thought the Erica one was their only copy. How many others are out there?" She asked. Her eyes were locked on the Guardian who was hovering over the rear bank of communication stations. It's back was bent, hunched forward slightly, and it was talking to a crewman and pointing at something. "Is this necessary?"

"Yes… they recalled all their gunships and this is the condition. They want a liaison…" Adama quietly stated. He looked up to study the DRADIS. Roslin saw his focus was a bit too heavy and she nudged him.

"What aren't you telling me?" She politely demanded.

"When I said liaison, Madam President… I didn't mean just for this mission."

"Admiral Cain went along with that?" She demanded. She knew the subtext of not 'just for this mission' meant 'permanent.'

Adama chuckled and nodded as he did so. "Yes, in fact… if it keeps Administrator Iblis off Pegasus… she was more than happy to accommodate them," he added facetiously.

"Why do I feel this is just another way for the robots to look over our shoulder?" She cast a wary glance at the admittedly beautiful, and completely fake, artificial, young woman.

"I know what it is… it's also something we must give Commander Thais for keeping his baseship here." He looked at her tiredly. "He's agreed to stay with us and serve as a transport before searching for the Guardians."

"Uh huh," Roslin responded, sour and with thin frown. She studied the Guardian a bit longer before turning her back and leaning on the console. "How is Admiral Cain…" the Commander looked at her, face placid, stoic. "I mean… with the whole… Gina thing," she whispered.

Commander Adama didn't respond immediately. This topic was personal and something he wouldn't discuss in private. Some things…

"It's… taken care of." He winced at his own words, but there was nothing he could say. "Have you talked with the new liaison officer?" He asked, hoping to change the subject immediately.

She shook her head and took of her glasses.

"What's it's designation anyway?"

"LX-I832. Captain Lexi." Roslin jumped and turned around. "That is my 'designation'… Madam President…" the IL-S robot informed the President in a friendly, courtesy, and completely contemptuous manner in perfect imitation of a young human woman.

"Captain… it's uh… a pleasure to make your acquaintance then," Roslin stammered. She hesitated, wringing her hands, but held out her right. The smooth skin on Lexi's hand felt so natural, much more natural than what Roslin had remembered with Cyrus. "Except for Erica I wasn't aware there were other… um… female Guardians."

"Yes," the robot smiled.

Roslin frowned, looked to the side, and then turned back to Adama, rolling her eyes to the Old Man.

"Are the communication links adequate?" Adama asked.

"Sir, all preparations have been made here." Lexi dutifully informed the Commander. She tilted her head suddenly and her eyes seemed to blank out and unfocused. "My opposites on Pegasus and Helios have confirmed the same."

"Opposites," Roslin repeated.

"Yes, three of us were made to serve as liaison officers," Lexi explained.

"Made?" The President asked.

"Yes, Madam President. It was deemed prudent to create liaison officers some months ago. It's one of the benefits of being AIs. We can expand our number quickly with sufficient MCPs."

---

"Hey, quiet down!" Captain Louanne Katrine yelled. Captain George 'Catman' Birch, commander of Demons Squadron pounded the pounded and barked the same order. The pilots, in an uproar over the rumors circulating over their mission, finally calmed down and settled into their seats. Kat nodded her appreciation to the squadron commander who now stood off to her right off the platform.

"Captain… Captain is it true?!" Redwing asked hurriedly. "I mean frak-"

"Stow it, Redwing," the Galactica CAG demanded.

She scanned the room and looked into the sunken eyes of dozens of pilots and ECO, half of them almost as pale as ghosts and as frail looking at hospital patients. Kat felt a surge of pride that her pilots, on the brink of exhaustion, would be ready without hesitation when called.

"Are we gonna get fed?" Racetrack questioned. Skulls and Hot Dog reinforced her desire to eat with shout outs that they were 'fraking starving.'

Kat rolled her eyes and motioned for Athena to retrieve their 'special guest.'

"First, first," she shushed them with a gesture to quiet, "we need to get our fleet to the algae planet. We've been loading civilians for the past four hours. Galactica has nearly three thousand crammed in-"

"And plugging the toilets up," Skulls quipped. A few pilots laughed while Kat stared him down.

"Like I was saying. It's going to take two jumps. We've loaded our ships and the Guardian baseship to full capacity. Unfortunately… yes, to answer your question Racetrack we will get fed. But we have to process and collect the algae first. There's already an expedition down there from Pegasus so there might be some… I don't know." She paused for a minute and looked over her friends and fellow pilots. "Now… the rumors…" the room threatened to erupt again. It would once she gave them their answer. "Yes, the rumors are true. The Guardians will be taking point and guiding our ships through. Ath-"

She was about to call Athena to bring in their guest before half a dozen pilots jumped from their seats and the room erupted into yells, damnations of machines, and people being pissed off with accusations the commanders 'didn't trust them.'

"Hey!" Kat yelled. "Knock it off!" She jabbed her finger out towards the pilots. "This isn't about trust, Gods damnit. This is about them being immune to radiation…"

"Hey, I'm fine by that… as long as we're there to watch over their shoulders so they don't frak us…" Redwing yelled back. "Use the tin cans. They're tools and just-"

He stopped mid-sentence when a beautiful young woman in a crisp black uniform, tanned skin, and flowing black hair walked quickly and silently to the podium. Athena was behind her, casting nervous glances to her fellow Galactica pilots. The woman was slightly taller than the Cylon pilot.

"While we are machines," the woman began immediately as she stepped onto the raised platform, "we have shed as much… metal… as you have blood defending you." She bored her jade green eyes into Redwing. "In fact if you want to keep score, we lost…" she quieted, "many more than you since our alliance," she hissed.

Mumblings of 'who the hell is this' and 'who the frak is she' began rumbling through the room.

Kat perched her lips and felt her jaw contract as she bit down. Redwings comments were out of line and so was the Guardian's retort.

"Everyone, shut the frak up right now," she said calmly, serenely, in a low but forceful voice. This wasn't her annoyed voice. This was her fraking pissed off voice and everyone knew it. She smiled a smile only a fraking pissed off woman could at Redwing, daring him to speak again. She let it linger a long second just to make her point. "Thank you. This is…" she looked at the Guardian to jar her memory to her alphanumeric designation; "LX-I832… Captain Lexi. She's the new… liaison officer to Galactica. She'll be explaining the Guardian responsibilities."

"Thank you Kat." She smiled. "Yes… the cluster is a super star cluster with an estimated four point seven million stars within an approximately three hundred million cubic light year area. There is extreme heat and ionized plasma in the entire region. There will be extensive damage to the heat shielding of all craft traversing the star cluster, thus we must move quickly." Without clicking anything an image appeared behind her on the large wall monitor. A red dot for the fleet was highlighted, a green dot almost on the far edge of the cluster, and a blue circle. "The red dot is our current position. The green dot is where we will jump and the circle is the planet."

"If we're not participating, why does this matter?" Skulls asked.

"We are participating," Athena empathically stated.

Captain Lexi tilted her head to the Cylon. "Yes, Athena is correct. You are still participating. You will be co-piloting the civilian liners and Admiral Cain has requested a Colonial co-pilot for all Guardian craft." She said evenly.

"I don't like receiving this briefing from fraking toasters," someone muttered in the back.

"Hey! If I was up here giving this briefing no one would say anything…" Athena shouted. She looked once at Lexi, Kat, and back to her fellow pilots. She could see a few blushing, the likely culprits. "We're allied with them and they've shed their own blood for us over New Caprica… if it weren't for them we'd never have found the second fleet… and this way in case something does happen to a Guardian pilot we can be there as backups."

"After they attacked us!" "They boarded Pegasus!" "They killed hundreds!" People shouted before the ready room devolved into a pale imitation of the Quorum.

Lexi kept her eyes like ice and focused on the dozens of pilots crowded into the leather seats and aligned along the sides and back of the room. Commander Thais had been explicit in her instructions to 'not offend' any of the Colonials.

"The attack was… unforgiveable," she said remorsefully. "What happened was a breakdown in intelligence and… it was… something that never should have happened. The Guardian race allied with you because you are the last remnants of Colonial civilization and there is an obligation all human-allied machines face to right the wrong done to your civilization." Lexi finished. She cast her eyes down at the deck in what the pilots in the ready room might have considered shameful remorse. She looked back up when Kat began speaking once again to the quieted room.

"As Captain Lexi said, the stars produce incredible amounts of radioactive ionized plasma… incredibly dangerous to us." Kat said.

"And the light is blinding… when we went to search for Pegasus we could barely see," Athena added. "It is incredibly easy to lose your sense of direction and orientation. The Guardians," she nodded to Lexi, "will not be affected but if something happens we'll be there to make sure our ships get through."

Kat finished he briefing: "Each Guardian picket or Raptor will be paired with a civilian ship… and it is your job to make sure that you and your ship make it through. The four warships will be calculating jump coordinates and relaying them to you. Send them out quickly. Find your ship and then jump."

---

||||||||||==BS-62 Pegasus==||||||||||

Admiral Cain stood quietly, sipping a glass of water, as the video replayed once against on John's offer and Baltar's response. Not two minutes after the machine had left Baltar began talking to himself, or something, debating over whether the machine would truly abandon the fleet to an endless journey through the stars with the Cylons in pursuit.

"Do you think he will help?" Cain asked. She placed her glass down onto a coaster and turned to Planck. "It was quite a statement. Damn this entire fleet for Earth…"

"It was effective. He will help us," John confidently stated. "Doctor Baltar… has an unusual ability-"

"To put his drive for self-preservation above all else," Cain interrupted.

John titled his head. "That is one interpretation of his motivations, Admiral, yes."

"If this is a weapon…" she shook her head, "it is certainly difficult to find… if the hybrids even brought us here for the reason you believe." Her fingers tapped the glass on the raised table.

"Not all weapons are designed to be distinguishable as obvious weapons," John advised. "I have a few ideas on what could be on the planet… if the hybrids and time travel are linked, I think…"

"A time travel array?" Cain shrugged at the first thing which came to her. "To do what? Repeat the same mistakes over? How many times did you try that on Earth?" There was a large image of the terrain immediately surrounding the algae harvesting sites. She turned to study it. "Even anything… a map to Earth… anything we can use to bring some hope to this fleet… " she stated reverently.

"And after these few years I still can't tell if you're telling the truth it was just a ploy or if you really are capable of damning an entire civilization to save yours… but a race of 'Terminators' I'm inclined to believe the latter." She turned her back. "Unfortunately."

"Should I go?"

"How much longer can we keep this up?"

"Admiral?"

"This back and forth where we're subject to what is best for Earth." She was still facing away from him. "We're each pulling in opposite directions; my responsibility is first to this fleet and the Colonies," she sighed, "and then to Earth. Your responsibility is to Earth and then to the Colonies. We both can't win at this tug-of-war." She turned around and locked in for verbal and emotional battle. "A conflict between us-"

"If there was a conflict, Admiral," he said slowly, "you would know."

She looked down at her watch. "We should go; I'm needed in CIC and you're needed in a Raptor- we'll be jumping soon."

Admiral Cain walked forward and John had done something he'd never done; he grabbed her on the bicep and stopped her. She said nothing and did nothing except stare at the door.

"I told you we won't abandon the fleet, Admiral."

---

AN:

I posted a poll in my profile. It's about the Omega Team versus Skynet in the Colonies spin-off story. The poll asks if you all want to read it before Part 3 to this story or after. I'm inclined to do in between as it was pointed out it's sort of like Razor- there will be some things raised in that story in Part 3. Also for Part 3 I am wondering if you all would want shorter chapters but more frequent updates or are the longer chapters with the current update times good? For example, I could have split this chapter on the Raptors detecting Pegasus and had it posted on 27 October then had the last 1/3 posted later. Let me know which is preferable.

Also, the parts about the ship in Greece as from Future War: Enemies and Machine spin-off just to reiterate that.

I found the information on the density of star clusters on Wikipedia, so I hope it's right.

Next chapter will have some Guardians/Rebel Cylons/Cynet and with the Guardians start when Commander Cyrus jumped his baseships away. Also some more Carter-Shaw stuff... down on the Algae Planet... her gunshot wound will continue to be an issue into Part III... Baltar will continue to help in the hopes he will be pardoned... and some more trippin' hybrid visions.

Please review.