Ch 4
It had been four days, and not a sign of the Aonos. Admiral Adama was worried they had been abandoned. Worse yet, there were riots in the fleet. Many people had been watching the news and saw what happened in the Quorum chambers, and they weren't happy. Calls for removing the Quorum were wide spread. There was also a call for Lee Adama, who stood up against the Quorum, to be the new Vice President. There was even a movement to start another completely new government.
In CIC to talk to ship captain to ensure they passed the word the political situation was being looked at, Admiral Adama saw the Marine Captain come in and salute.
"Admiral, we re missing two holds full of civilians."
"Where did they go? Are we about to have a riot here too," he asked.
"We can't find them anywhere, Sir," the Captain said. "We've searched the ship. They are just gone, and not a one left in a shuttle. All we found ware six dead men and fifteen more that were locked up in a single room. We had to cut the door apart to get it open. They are sons of Aryes, and were arrested, but all the others that were down there are ... gone. They are nowhere on the ship, Sir."
Adama opened his mouth to say that wasn't possible. Then again, maybe Aono was taking them to Earth. "Captain, station guards at every place we do have civilians left. If they go someplace, find out where they are going. Do not interfere, only find out information."
"Yes, sir!"
Adama then called Roslyn.
"Yes Bill?"
"Madam President, we are missing a fifteen hundred civilians off Galactica. I highly suspect the Aono's are coming to take our people away. Most likely, directly to Earth," he stated.
"Can you stop them?"
"No. The indication I got, is that Lord Aono insists he is going to help the people of this fleet, with or without the support of our government. Frankly, I don't have a problem with that but I am sure you and the Quorum might. The question I have for you, is if they even let us see them again, will you get government support for them? As of now, we have no control of what they do, and find out only after our holds have been cleared out."
"At the moment, the Quorum is being pig-headed and assuring themselves we don't need any help. We also have protests and near riots and threatened work shut downs due to the Quorum's actions. Bill, we've got chaos here and it's getting worse. I'm about ready to call in Martial Law to get a handle on it."
The Admiral chuckled. "Laura, you'd call for Martial Law? Isn't that what I'm suppose to threaten to do?"
"This is serious Bill! People from Earth come to help us and the Quorum drives them away! We need to meet and form a plan to remove the Quorum, and get the Aono's to come talk to us."
"Agreed. Meet me in my ready room at the beginning of the evening watch. We'll discuss it there."
.
A new school was made in the Sotoba valley, and all the Colonials that had come were the students. Their jobs at the moment were learning to speak Japanese, and learning the local culture, and the various species in the area. Some Colonials were frightened by seeing yokai, others mostly were just happy to be on solid ground and be able to eat regularly and sleep in their own beds. Some of the younger children had found that taking a ride on a wolf or raptor that ran down the road was a bunch of fun. It also didn't take them long to discover the small river running through the valley, and the public pool.
Sandy Six was one of the ones who were very happy to be here. Her apartment was plenty large enough for her, and it was a secure space on the second floor. She enjoyed seeing the various species living here as well as the old style but efficient transports they had.
For long hauls they did have a bus service, and for travel to and from the valley there were buses and trains on tracks for people and goods. She didn't gasp when she saw a dragon in flight, or the Raptor trio come racing down the road, sometimes with kids on their backs. She could talk freely to the human building manager, and the fairy person with the pretty wings who cleaned windows and did odd jobs. Going to the music festival was fun also. Besides the pleasant music, the furry canine looking guy next to her coaxed her to sing along with the songs and him. Since she was new here, the male named Arutumus was very kind to her. Going to the ribbon contest she saw those who could fly each got a yellow ribbon to trail behind them, then they all took off into the sky and tried to pull the ribbons off each other. She watched and cheered, totally enjoying herself there, then routed for the runner of the four legged race and the two legged race. The rabbit hunt was also just too fun to watch!
Sandy knew her 'duty' was to find information and report back. Being here in paradise, she found she was not eager to return and report anything. Yes, there were pure humans here. There were also at least eleven other species she'd seen, she witnessed five of those species change form to look human. The real number of humans was in question because of this. Everyone here was kind and pleasant. In school respect for ones self and others was stressed. So was helping the community.
What bothered her about reporting of this wondrous place was the fact the Cylon Mandate was to remove humans so they were no longer a threat to Cylons. Living here, Sandy saw no threats from anyone, even those she was sure were humans. If she returned and told about where she was, she was afraid Cavil would order the planet attacked to wipe out any possible threat to Cylons.
That would be bad in so many ways. First, there wasn't anyone she'd seen here that were threatening. She had also seen the power these wonderful people had. She remembered what Azami had told her, 'no one screws with Witch Hill.' If Cavil did bring the war here, it would bring nothing but tragedy and sorrow. It would also anger the peaceful but powerful people and she knew the Cylons would pay dearly for that.
Sandy decided that for the good of all, she was going to enjoy this new life and try to forget Cavil and his war even existed. If anything, instead of returning to continue the war, she wished there was a way to get her sisters and brothers here so they could live in peace also.
.
Kashiro stood by the vacant town hall that was inland 25 kilometers from Sotoba valley. There were 368 houses here, 3 apartment buildings, a school, library, town hall, police station, grocer and a hardware store. The place had been abandoned by humans who strove to be in or near Tokyo or another coastal city. After helping to retrieve those colonials, his family had come here with a few colonials who had skills to ready the town for habitation. As far as he could see, they were ready. The print shop in town was operating, and had printed out maps for the new arrivals. This town would also be considered a 'yokai ' town in human lands, which meant they would have to pay taxes, but taxes would be exempt for the first year to help build up citizens, hence the tax base.
Kaiyo came flying down the street. Landing, she ran over to him and beamed, "All the services are restored, we can bring people in as soon as Dad's ready!"
"Great. Does he know yet?" Kashiro asked.
Kaiyo pulled her cell phone. "Want me to call him?"
"Go around and get everyone together, I'll call Dad and find out when and where the new townspeople will be arriving."
.
The Mina was a mining ship that had gotten away when the Cylons attacked. It also wasn't designed to carry any passengers except for the mining crews. Yet due to accepting people on board because their shuttles or passenger liners they escaped on were not able to perform jumps, the Captain of the Mina took on anyone they could get to before they were forced to leave. To pack on all the refugees, he had to dump equipment just to make a place for people to sit or lie down. Instead of the 25 man crew he had space for, he also had 520 refugees on board. There was barely room to move anywhere on the ship. He even had people sleeping in the passageways as well as the holds, and in equipment spaces.
The Mina was never made to have such a huge number of people on board, let alone for a long term. The sanitary facilities, accommodations, atmosphere equipment and the food stores were very inadequate. He complained at every chance he got, that people here were under fed and sick, and the air was getting worse. The had people sick and some had died. Neither the President nor the military did anything to help them.
The intercom spoke, it was his First Mate. "Captain, we got this ... healthy looking blue haired woman here, to take all our excess passengers off. She says she wants to take them to a habitable planet to live on. You should come down to meet her, she's a real doll!"
The Captain checked the two large hanger bays. Neither were in use except for more places people had a chance to find a place to sit. "Roy, I don't see anything docked, and the air locks are shut. How'd she get on board?"
"Don't know Captain, she just appeared from nowhere!"
"I'm coming. If she can get these people of the ship to someplace more suitable, tell her to have at it!" He got up and went down the passageway carefully so as not to trip on or step on people sleeping. Seeing Roy standing by the door to the maintenance area, he noted the woman with him looked odd. Coming closer, he noted her long hair was blue and wow, she had breasts one could get lost in! Long legs, a perfect figure, and her face was quite attractive as well. Where did women like this hide?
"I'm Captain Bren," he announced.
The woman beamed at him. "Hi, I'm Kaiyo! I came to take all these people someplace nice so they can live decent. Any who want to come are welcome." She then held up a finger and added, "But they must all go to school, it's required."
"Can I come too?" Roy asked, nearly drooling as he gazed at her.
"Of course, all of you can!" Kaiyo beamed.
Looking at Kaiyo, Captain Bren was ready to turn his ship over to anyone who wanted it so he could go with her too. "Many women like you on this ship you're taking people to?" he asked eyeing her big bust line. Those things were impressive.
Kaiyo nodded. "Oh yes! But your town will be populated mainly by others from the colonial fleet. It's not a ship I'm taking them to, but a town on Honshu that need settlers."
"On a planet?" Roy asked eagerly.
Kaiyo nodded, "Yes a nice planet too!"
"Let's go!" Roy said as the people now congregating around them nodded in agreement.
Kaiyo opened the maintenance room door. "This way!"
Captain Bren was confused. He was even more confused when the vision of loveliness opened the door and he saw sunlight on the other side.
It was a mass flowing through the door Roy got caught up in. Others were calling for people to get up, they were finally getting off this ship. After the first stampede slowed, he got a look at the other side. There wasn't a machine maintenance room there, it looked more like a parking lot. In the lot he could see a bus, and he could see the front of another bus. A couple other women who looked great, held up signs pointing to each bus. One sign said, "Singles', the other,' Families." The women were guiding the crowd coming off his ship onto one bus or the other. A driver would call out, and the woman by that bus would halt the flow. Once that bus drove away, another took it's place, and people kept loading on.
From behind him, a man said, "Captain, my wife and our daughter are too sick to move."
"I'll get help for them!" Kaiyo announced and went through the door.
"When did we land?" Captain Bren asked in a whisper. The Mina was in space, and even if they weren't, any entry would have stairs of a ramp, the main deck would not be right at ground level. He called a couple crewmen to assist the man's family then stepped through the door.
It was a planet! The blue skies had white clouds slowly drifting by. He turned to see how his ship had implanted the ground enough for people just to walk straight off, and he didn't see a ship. The door in this side came out of a small shed. "What?" he asked in disbelief.
"eer oo elp!" said a animal sounding voice right behind him. He turned to stare at the big bird with the long lizard face and big teeth that was looking a bit down on him. Frightened by the thing, he let out a loud yelp and stumbled back into his ship to fall on his butt. The big predator looked at him and cocked it's head.
The blue haired vision came back and itched the monster under it's chin. "You're too big to fit, Cho, We'll bring people out. Just carry them to the hospital, OK?"
"aaa," the thing replied with a nod.
"What the hell is that!" Captain Bren cried.
"Cho is my son," Kaiyo said, then waved a few people on.
Captain Bren wasn't just speechless, he was thunderstruck by what he was seeing. He managed to get up with the help of the opposite wall as he stared at the impossible happening right in front of him. He could barely breathe, let alone close his mouth or attempt to speak. Outside air wafted in. Good clean air that smelled good.
Kaiyo got what he assumed were medics in and carried people out on stretchers. A few large felines carried people out on their backs, and one man walked back out with a woman holding her child to her, floating prone behind him.
Some crewmen helped the disabled off the ship a couple of them didn't come back. The crewmen that did helped erect temporary ducts to blow fresh air into the ship once the people were out. The bridge reported air quality had gone back up to normal. The ducts were removed, and the Kaiyo waved and thanked them for their help, then shut the door.
Captain Bern shook his head. It was a dream, it HAD to be! He opened the door up to find the maintenance room, just as it should be. Seeing a crewman close by, he asked, "Jun, how many refugees do we have on board?"
Jun grinned. "None sir, they all left to be on that planet. We even got the sick ones off, and a few dead. Wasn't that amazing? And that blue haired woman! Talk about MAJOR hotness!"
.
With the unrest in the fleet, Laura Roslyn called for fleet-wide votes, majority rule. One was to elect Lee Adama as the new Vice President, the other was to vote for removal of the current quorum in favor of a parliament led by ship's representatives as Lee had suggested. Members of the Quorum contacted all their friends, made payoffs and made long speeches as to why they should remain in charge. Lee made one speech on why he should be Vice President and why they needed real representation for each ship.
The voting was done, 89% voted Lee into office, and 92% voted the Quorum out of office in favor of having ship representatives as their new Quorum.
On Belle's trip to another ship to take the packed in people there to another town, a Marine was there to beg her to pass the word to Lord Aono to please return talk to The Admiral, President and Vice President.
.
Tsukune had to go to Tokyo to request a few more vacant inland towns be considered 'yokai' territory within human lands with the same provisions as what was now called, 'New Picon'. Seeing this as more revenue and more work force, the Prime minister, with the OK from the Emperor, agreed to place five more empty towns under Tsukune's domain.
Tsukune also had Mariko find out the location and distance the Colonial fleet was from Earth. She came up with the direction they were, in and a distance of 1700 light-years. That was a long way away. Hisoka became the unofficial 'Governor' of the area the towns were in and got crews to work fixing up homes and utilities. Even with the large influx of people, there were jobs for everyone. It also gave Moka's automobile and furniture factories more work, as well as the fuel they needed maxed production on the fuel factories. Building a new fuel factory at New Picon was in the works. So was a dedicated rail line between all the towns and Witch Hill. This also helped the Witch Hill area. Splitting the Colonials into morning and afternoon classes also helped with the number of workers and also gave the Colonials a chance to earn money.
Hisoka called to let his Father know the colonial fleet wanted to speak with him. Tsukune gathered Frank and his family again. This time, he didn't have Tsukumoka open a portal to the Admiral's ready room. Tsukumoka had scried all the ships in the fleet, she opened a portal right onto Colonial One in the President's office.
.
Laura Roslyn sat at her desk with Lee Adama siting across from her. She listened to Lee's idea.
"I agree we can redistribute some people now that we have room," he told her. "We also have the opportunity to make those now empty spaces more habitable now that they are empty. It may take a while, but then we will have our citizens not living in horrible conditions like they are now." Lee noticed that instead of looking at him, Laura was looking past him.
"Greetings." a male voice said from behind Lee. He turned to see Tsukune Aono in the room with them, along with Kurumu, Mariko, Moka, Frank, and Liz. He shot up to stand. "Greetings," he replied with a bow. "The problem with the Quoum has been solved. We made new representatives ..."
Tsukune raised a hand up to stop him. "Yes, we know. That's why we're back. We also wanted to let you know all those people you are missing are living in towns inland not very far from the Sotoba Valley. The populations of those towns are primarily Colonial except for the workers and educators that are there with them. They are safe."
"Thank you for doing that," Lee offered. "One of our most pressing problems has been the overcrowding."
The ship intercom announced, "Attention, the fleet is setting Condition One! Shut all hatches and isolation doors, darken ship!"
"What is that?" Moka asked.
"That means we're under attack. Cylons are coming," Lee stated.
Tsukune spun to his group. "Mariko, go to the Galactica hangers, make their craft as impervious as possible, quickly!"
Mariko nodded, said a few words and disappeared.
"Liz, go find Lucy, tell her we may need her." Tsukune ordered. Liz nodded and disappeared into the wall.
"Kurumu, you go visit that six you dis-armed. Find out all you can about these cylons." Kurumu disappeared.
The lights went out. Only dim starlight was lighting the room now. Tsukune said, "Moka you watch out that side, I'll watch out this side. Frank, go back through and stand by."
.
Mariko appeared on the launch deck. All along the deck, Vipers were being positioned to go into the launch tubes.
"Don't put them in yet!" Mariko cried.
Starbuck was about to close her canopy. "WHY!" she blasted out.
"Let me give you some protection before you go," Mariko told her.
Mariko ran to the first Viper and touched it with her wand as she cast Invulnerability on it. "Go!" she said, then ran to the next one.
Some Vipers were already in their launch tubes. Mariko did cast her spell 7 times on the ships that she could.
"What are you doing?' Chief Tyrol asked, sounding stressed.
Mariko stopped and told him, "The ones I could get to now will be impervious to anything the cylons try to do to them."
.
Starbuck was out and flying towards the cloud of raiders coming at them. She keyed her mike. "All Vipers, lock onto the Base Star and release your missiles."
"Starbuck, those raiders will run into them, they will never get there!"
Starbuck replied, "We got stealth missile snow, let's see how they work. Firing!" The two missile she had shot off the wings of her Viper and sped towards the raiders. Watching her Dradis, not a single raider moved to intercept her missiles. She couldn't see the missile, but she did catch the flash when they impacted on the Base Star. She laughed and said, "Release your missiles, then we engage those raiders!"
.
Standing at the Dradis screen in the control room of the Base Star, the Cavil said, "This is odd. Galactica hasn't launched anything back at us. They are speeding up, but I don't see a single ship in the air to attack our raiders.
"Must be one of our spies took out their Dradis system," a Two offered.
"That would be incredibly good luck," the Cavil said with a grin. "Now we finally get to destroy the humans for good!"
The Base Star shuddered and impact alarms went off.
"What hit us?" a confused looking Eight asked.
"We had nothing coming at us," the confused Cavil said.
A rain of shudders and an internal explosion shook the ship heavily.
The Hybrid bio controlling the ship in her cloudy bath announced, "Multiple impacts! Sealing off affected areas. Port maneuvering thrusters deactivated, Starboard and forward close range sensors out, Missile bay 19 has suffered and explosion, destroying Missile bay 20 and 18, close in defense turrets 9, 28, 17 and 22 out of action."
The Four monitoring their raiders said, "Our raiders are exploding, nothing is attacking them."
"SOMETHING must be!" Cavil raged.
"Upper arm number two separating from massive internal detonations," the Hybrid announced. "Jumping to save the ship!"
"NO!" Cavil barked. It was too late, they jumped away from the Galactia fleet.
.
"Yeee frackin ha!" Starbuck cheered as she got behind another raider to blast it apart. Not sensing them, the raiders were moving on towards Galactica, and having gotten around behind them, the Vipers were destroying them at will. Suddenly, one appeared from the side, right in front of her.
"SHIT!" Starbuck cried as she rammed the raider. She braced herself and shut her eyes. The raider exploded. Wincing, she opened her eyes to see she was still flying, her Viper undamaged. Laughing an nearly insane laugh, Starbuck slammed her throttle to max and charged into the raiders. She didn't need to shoot them, she could just ram right into them! "Eat THIS you frackin Cylons!"she cried happily and rammed another raider, blowing through the explosion and debris.
While Starbuck and her squad were happily bashing raiders to pieces, Kurumu looked down on the miserable six lying on her cot in her cell. Tears ran down out of her shut eyes, as the six lay motionless, grimacing in pain.
Kurumu tapped her on the forehead to get her attention. "Remember me?" she asked.
The six popped her eyes open. Focusing on Kurumu, she begged, "Please, kill me!"
Kurumu grinned. "Nope! Not unless I find out everything you know about your race. Maybe then, I'll finish you off."
"What do you want to know?" the six asked in a beg.
Kurumu frowned slightly. "You may lie to me, I think it's best if I read your mind." She brought her tail out and sat by the six's head. She clapped her hands on the six's head to keep her from moving and slapped the spaded end of her tail on the six's forehead.
"no," the six cried weakly as she unwittingly thought all about her sisters, brothers, they ships they had, how they worked... everything she knew. She was helpless as Kurumu raped her mind.
.
"This is boring," Moka grumbled as she watched out a window to see far off flashes of light. "I thought there was going to be a battle."
"There is," Tsukune said and pointed out the window he was standing near. "That big ship a long ways off that way left. They did leave pieces of their ship behind. All the little ones are being destroyed. By the way they are flying all over the place out there, they are confused. They are not doing well at all."
"We're winning?" Lee asked as he came over. He looked out at the flashes of fire showing where raiders were exploding.
"I'd say so," Tsukune agreed. "Apparently, Mariko's spells worked well on your ships. they are blowing though those cylon ones."
"The stealth coverings are working well then," Lee said.
Tsukune nodded. "That and I think Mariko cast Invulnerability on some, a few of yours are ramming right through the cylon ships. Cylon ships try to fight and they are rammed, they try to flee and they are shot. Only ... about sixty of them left ... make that about fifty, ten more just got taken out."
Lee chuckled. "We finally have an edge over the cylons," he said, grinning.
Changing the subject, Tsukune asked, "This Quorum of yours, are they able to see reason now?"
"We disbanded the Quorum," Lee stated. "We are now using representatives from each ship for our assembly. They do know more about what the fleet needs, and are much more reasonable to deal with."
"Good," Tsukune said with a nod.
Kurumu popped in, looking happy. "Tsukune! I read that six's mind, know everything about those cylons!"
"Great!" Lee beamed. "Soon as this battle's over, we'll get over to Gallactica and you can tell us all about them."
Holding up a finger, Kurumu happily said, "And after that, I'll make a song to mark your victory for you!"