HYPERION – (DAY 260)
Jason Tillman had just finished touring the converted freighter KALPA SNOW on the starboard flight deck. Work crews had spent the better half of the last twelve days modifying her to become a prison ship. This way Hartley and his crew could be kept separate from the fleet. It would be able to hold at least one hundred and fifty prisoners and a support staff of fifty. It was a solution suggested by Commander Jones. The holding cells were very crude, modeled after the prison transports ships that were common throughout the colonies. In total, one hundred and thirty-nine of GANYMEDES crew would now call this home for the foreseeable future. Jason watched, as the prisoners were loaded onboard in groups of twenty until finally Hartley was by himself.
"So, this is what you call fair treatment of prisoners?" Hartley quipped.
"You and your staff don't even deserve this. If it were only up to me I would have put you in front of a firing squad! You had your chance in CIC on GANYMEDES to take the easy way out! But, you couldn't pull the trigger could you? Always had someone there to do it for you!" Jason retorted.
Hartley stood and stared at Tillman until he was physically helped along by one of the marines. Jason did not want to see him for a long time if ever. According to Hartley's court-martial, he and thirty-one others would never have the opportunity for any type of release.
Later in the day, Jason stopped by the sickbay to visit Commander Hedison. She had just come out of her second post coma surgery. Jason's wife and Doctor Keegan had to remove rib fragments near her lungs due to beatings by Hartley's goon squad. It was only the last two day that she was coherent enough to understand where she was and what had happened.
"How much does she know?" Jason asked his wife.
"We told her basics. She knows where she is and that we found her ship and the others she was with and a little about us." Anne answered as she looked on.
"My ship and crew?" she asked.
"Her starboard flight pod is seriously damaged and is not airtight. We don't think it will be fully operational again. Most of our teams are working to get the flight pod weapon systems online but it will take awhile. Three of the eight sublight engines are out. We're working to get two of the three operational again. Right now we estimate her best speed is slightly over two-thirds sublight. She's been rearmed with what we salvaged from the rest of your fleet." He informed her.
"Crew?"
I've augmented your what was left of your original crew with over two hundred from my fleet. It will leave you just over sixty percent staffed. The port flight pod is fully operational. POLYCOAN will be assigned an air wing immediately. We also found your personal logs and know that you sent Major Ramsey to be the inside man on GANYMEDES."
"I never trusted Hartley. I told Ramsey to play along and wait for an opportunity. He was following my orders." Hedison responded.
"I know he's back on POLYCOAN assisting the acting commanding officer." Jason told her.
"Who?" she asked.
"Your former mentor, Commander John Roberts." Jason told her as he noticed a surprised reaction to the news. He couldn't get a true read of her feelings probably due to the medication she was on. But, figured there was some type of history between them.
Over the next hour Jason informed Hedison of what had happened to his fleet since the attacks and that now they had over thirty five thousand people to protect. Since Hedison was going to be in sickbay recovering for sometime, he told her his plan for integrating the two battlestars into his fleet and the mission he sent his brother on eight days ago.
Jason was late. He had asked for council chairman Redman to meet him to discuss the fleets' next move after dinner. Redman and his escort were already making their way to the Observation Deck when Tillman caught up with him in a hallway.
"Sorry about being late Mr. Chairman, my meeting with Commander Hedison ran late." Tillman explained.
"Please, call me Joseph when it's just us. I hate the formalities. How is she?" he asked.
"She's in tough shape. She's been through the ringer. Keegan said to be off her feet for a few weeks. That's why I'm keeping her here." Jason replied.
"What about the two battlestars and the cylon prisoners?" Redman asked as they turned another corner.
"GANYMEDES is fully operational POLYCAON only has one operational flight pod, but, she's still a valuable assets to the fleet. The cylons are interesting. I've let the older one meet with the five that I still have onboard. I think they're starting to question their purpose." Jason answered.
"I hope you know what you're doing with them. Keeping them alive scares the hell out of me. Why are we going to the Observation Deck anyways?" The chairman responded as they reached their destination.
"There's something I need to show you. I found out about it yesterday evening as I was going though POLYCAON logs." Tillman replied as a marine opened the hatch.
Redman stood silent as his almost buckled at his knees. He could not believe he was staring at his oldest child, Saula who was a Lieutenant junior grade in the Colonial military.
"But, how? You were assigned to SOLARIA." He barely stuttered as the two embraced with tears openly running down both their faces. His daughter couldn't respond as she openly wept. The elder Redman turned to Jason looking for answers.
"Seven days before the attacks Saula and a few other pilots were transferred and reassigned to POLYCAON as part of the war games between the 43rd and 56th fleet.
"What about Mom and the boys?" She whimpered.
"They're here. My gods we thought you were gone!" he whispered as he held her face.
Jason watched the reunion for a few more minutes and then informed the Lieutenant she was on the start of her ten-day furlough before he left. This was the first of at least ten reunions that he knew about.
HYPERION – ADMIRAL'S OFFICE (DAY 262)
"Enter!" Tillman ordered.
"Major Lance Voight reporting as ordered, sir!" He announced as he saluted.
"Sit down, please." Tillman started, "Do you know why I called you here?"
"No, sir!" he responded.
"Well, as you're aware we recently added the two battlestars to our fleet and they're both lacking an operational air wing and a CAG. I'm giving you your choice of assignments." Jason said as he watched his reaction.
"POLYCOAN, Sir. If that's all right with you and Commander Hedison?" he quickly responded.
"As you know, she'll only have one operational flight pod. I'm replenishing what left of her only viper squadron (VS-497 "Rough Riders") with the graduates of the WETBACK training squadron and a few pilots from OMEGA squadron. I'm pairing down most of the larger squadrons. Because you opted for POLYCOAN, I'm not going to downsize the BLACK KNIGHTS' to a standard compliment." Jason announced.
"Yes, Sir!" Voight responded.
"Captain Melinda Geddes is the senior viper pilot left. POLYCOAN also has a raptor squadron (RS-66 "Heavy Haulers"). Captain Rhett Fasjovik is the senior squadron member. We're reducing the raptor squadron to twelve. You'll have a total of eighteen raptors onboard. Commander Hedison and I feel they should be promoted to squadron leaders respectively for their ability and moral within their respective squads." Jason finished.
"I understand." Voight responded.
"There is a catch. We are short deck crews. Your deck crew will need to pitch in and boost the existing crews. Until we get more people trained, the pilots will need to help maintain their vipers and raptors." Tillman explained.
"That's not a problem. The BLACK KNIGHTS are trained to augment the deck crews. It was a standing order of Commander Hansteen onboard PACIFICA." Lance responded proudly.
"I know, it's a standing order that was drilled in to me by Commander Roberts when I was a nugget. You should head down to sickbay. Commander Hedison is expecting you. " Jason said as he stood to shake Voight's hand.
As Voight exited Doctor Keegan entered and closed the hatch behind him. He was asked for his input on medical staffing issues in the fleet. Jason main concern was making sure POLYCAON, TERTIUS and ARGOS had adequate medical coverage.
"I've talked with Blake onboard POLYCAON and he feels comfortable that he and the other two doctors can handle the crew. They also have a Physician's Assistant (PA) that they're teaching as well. ARGOS lost most of their medical staff and TERTIUS never had any to begin with." Keegan said.
"What can we do to help them?" Jason inquired.
"I don't suppose you want to release Doctors Maxwell and Harkins, seeing how you just locked them up on the freighter?" Keegan said half jokingly.
"Jason was not amused as he stared at Keegan.
"Well, when this all started our department was fully staffed with Three doctors, and a surgeon. Susan Flood became CMO assigned to JUNO and now GANYMEDES. Doctor Cortez has been augmenting the civilian doctors by going ship to ship. Your wife has been filling in to cover Cortez so we're stretched thin". He replied.
"I've talked to Anne, She'll wants to do more." Jason told him.
"If that's the case, I'll make her my senior (SMO) and we could move Cortez and a medic to ARGOS. Flood said that she could spare Dr. Nichols and a nurse to TERTIUS. ADELPHIA and PROTEUS have Gibson and Pratt respectively." Keegan said as he adjusted his glasses." The smaller ships will be understaffed but I can also draw from the civilian doctors and surgeons in a pinch as well."
"Where do we stand with medical supplies?" Jason wondered.
"With everything we recovered we're in good shape. We stocked the two medical centers we have on HAVEN and AULUS. The rest is in storage spread out throughout the military transports." Keegan said as he stood up to leave.
After Keegan left Jason sat back down at his desk and pulled out his notepad. On it was his notes about reassigning the command crews among the ships:
HYPERION – Tillman, Jackson, Dyson, Keegan (CMO) and Nix (CAG)
GANYMEDES – Jones, Brice, Jenny, Flood (CMO) and Elder (CAG)
POLYCAON – Hedison (Roberts), Ramsey, Linden, Blake (CMO) and Voight (CAG)
JUNO – McKnight, Canton*, Pinto (CMO) and Bourne (CAG)
TERTIUS – B. Tillman, Carter, Barnes, Nichols (SMO), and Spencer (CAG)
ARGOS – Keller, Roth*, Cortez (SMO), Rayne (CAG)
GALLIOTT – Marcus, Kirby*, Compton (SMO)
ADELPHIA – Walsh, Ashley*, Gibson (SMO)
PROTEUS – Timlin, Baker*, Pratt (SMO)
*Double as Tactical Officer.
GANYMEDES (DAY 263)
Commander Matt Jones looked around the CIC of his new command. Under orders of the admiral, GANYMEDES most of original crew was rotated out and replaced with the crew of JUNO. It was just one of the many rotations made throughout the military ships. Jones had done a little research on the battlestar and found it was the sister ship of the battlestar VALKYRIE and participated in the final campaigns of the first cylon war. Although she was almost fifty years old she was stripped down to her keel and refitted less than ten years ago. GANYMEDES was in the middle of Launch and Recovery (LAR) drills with BLACK JACK squadron. Jones wanted to made sure they were well acquainted with the rapid launch system. Jones asked for Captain Elder and his squadron as they were previously assigned together on TRINITY. Jones turned to his tactical officer and asked for a secured line to his CAG.
"What's the word?" He asked.
"Launch and recovery times are close to established parameters. Definitely takes some time to get used to." Captain Elder reported.
"It's a tight fit down in the bays. With BLACK JACK squadron being comprised of thirty Mk II vipers, we split the squadron in half. Twelve active along with three reserve vipers and two raptors are in each flight pod. We're not even counting the shuttles." Major Jenny added.
"They'll make do. We were lucky to keep our squadron together considering the admiral cut down his CAG's top squadron to augment POLYCAON." Brice commented as he looked over status reports.
"I know, I just don't like the fact that we've been in the same location for a couple of weeks now. Who knows when the cylons could show up?" Jenny stated.
"Concern noted, Major. Let's keep focus on getting our ship in order." Jones said.
POLYCAON (DAY 268)
Jason Tillman had finished his inspection. All the repair teams were focusing on replacing almost a kilometer of melted data cord to bring the crippled starboard flight pod defenses online. There were still a lot of repairs needed but felt that the ship could adequately defend itself in a pinch. As Commander Roberts was escorting Jason down to the flight deck they started to finish their discussion from earlier in the day.
"You still suspect Jorden had something to do with the explosion?" Roberts asked.
"I still have that feeling he was involved. But, the trail has gone cold. Ralls said that he'd keep his ears open. He said he still hears things from time to time." Jason replied.
"With the integration of these new refugees more threats could arise." Roberts stated.
"I know. I'll let the civilian council deal with that. The good thing is that we are starting to get volunteers to serve on the military ships." Jason said.
"I don't blame them. Those people had it rough. Any with experience?" John asked as they boarded the tram.
"At least a dozen with flight experience. With Baker going back to PROTEUS, I've given Neal Owynns (EAGLE SQUADRON) that duty under the guidance of Major Jackson." Jason stated
"They'll have them flight ready in no time. I'll be able to lend a hand once Hedison is cleared for duty and back on the ship." John said as they stepped off the tram and on to the platform.
"I think so as well. I'm also going to loosen up the regulations about fraternization on the ships. I had it pointed out to me by a officer." Jason responded.
"What was said?" John asked.
"I have Anne and Kyle onboard HYPERION, Braylen has his family onboard TERTIUS. I was called out on it and see their point. I've drafted up a set of guidelines. Ultimately it will be commander's discretion. " He responded.
"Any word from Braylen?" John asked.
"Nothing so far. He knows the deadline." Jason responded referring to when Jason planned on moving the fleet.
"Nine more days." John stated as Jason boarded the raptor.
As the raptor exited the flight pod Jason looked at the fleet and hoped that his brother would be back in time.
HYPERION – (DAY 275)
"Set condition one through out the ship! Mr. Dyson I need a count!" Jackson barked.
"All battlestars have launched alert fighters!" McCall proclaimed.
"Three ships. No wait, two more just jumped in! Five total!" Dyson responded.
"Notify the fleet to standby for a emergency jump!" Major Jackson announced.
"JUNO and GANYMEDES have set a defensive perimeter between the fleet and the contacts!" Dyson announced.
"How many?" Jason asked as he hurried into the CIC.
"Five total on the edge of dradis. Just sitting there." Jackson said as she moved to the other side of the command table.
"Sir, I'm getting colonial recognition codes! Two military! It's TERTIUS and the battlestar ESSEX!" McCall announced.