Second Frontier
Unity Shipyard
Admiral Stryker sat in his chair on board the Unity, personally overseeing the repairs of his ship as well as construction of one of the two new Battlestars. There were more than enough volunteers in the fleet to man the new ships once they were finished. They had begun training new pilots and fleet personnel from civilian volunteers and would have their training completed before their arrival at Avalon, and many would go onto the salvaged warships from Picon in addition to the new ships on Unity and Eternity. He looked through the new ship's schematics and quietly murmured to himself. The communications station near him started blinking, interrupting his line of thought.
Admiral Stryker pushed the button to respond, "Yes?"
"Sir, Admiral Thorn is on board. He just received a message from Avalon and he wishes to speak with you," the communications officer said.
"Send him in," Admiral Stryker said shortly.
"He is already on his way to you sir!" the communications officer said.
"Good. Thank you lieutenant," Admiral Stryker said.
A few minutes later he heard a knock on the door.
"Come in," Admiral Stryker said.
Admiral Thorn entered the room and slowly closed the doors behind him.
"Well good friend, I didn't expect to see you for approximately two hours. What news do you have for me?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"I'm afraid it's bad and two pieces of news actually. First, Commander Krasner said that governor Miral ordered the Battlestar Sword to explore systems around Avalon," Admiral Thorn said.
"He did what?!" Admiral Stryker exclaimed in shock.
"The Sword is somewhere out around Avalon mapping out nearby systems under the Governor's direct orders," Admiral Thorn said.
"My god, we put an idiot in charge of the colony. Is he aware of the danger the threat of the Harvesters represent?" Admiral Stryker asked heatedly.
"He is, but he said it was for the good of the colony. In case the Cylons or Harvesters overrun and defeat us at Avalon, he wanted to find another planet to make a secondary colony there," Admiral Thorn said.
"And what did Krasner do?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"He protested, but he couldn't do anything. Of course with all radio and other forms of communication forbidden, he didn't try to call the Sword back," Admiral Thorn said.
"Did he at least try to send a raptor to find the Sword?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"No, Sword's last message was from the Coronet system, and was heading to Stonecrest nebula. However, Krasner doesn't have the exact coordinates of the ship so he can't afford the risk of sending a raptor to find it," Admiral Thorn replied.
"Hmm, I am sure the governor didn't mean anything to do anything stupid, but he disobeyed my orders. If he thinks what he's done is safe then he's mad: it could lure every single Harvester ship to Avalon," Admiral Stryker said.
"I agree, but I think he is right in a way," Admiral Thorn said thoughtfully.
"How so?" Admiral Stryker asked, watching Admiral Thorn carefully.
"We are coming there with an enormous fleet. It's good to know what lies around the colony. No matter how big a defensive fleet we have, defeat is a possibility and if we are defeated at Avalon then we need a fallback position. One ship missing won't risk the colony's safety too much in the short time it's gone while also giving us a good look at what's around Avalon," Admiral Thorn said.
"I disagree; if he used a gunstar then yes what you're saying is correct. I know a gunstar is much more vulnerable than a battlestar, but it also makes smaller energy emissions and dradis signature. It would be far less likely to draw attention to Avalon, and it is much easier to replace a gunstar than a battlestar if it is lost. Never mind let the Sword continue with its exploration. I just hope he will not lose the ship or draw attention to the colony. I regret that he was left in charge as the colony's governor," Admiral Stryker said.
"You will not arrest him?" Admiral Thorn asked.
"Not yet. Also, you mentioned more bad news for me?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"I would rather call it a problem. We detected something strange; a signal coming from the fleet, but we can't detect from where: there is too much chatter inside the fleet to triangulate the source," Admiral Thorn said.
"Signal? Do we at least know where signal is going?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"We know in what direction it's going: in the direction of the Cyrannus system. Probably to a ship somewhere behind us," Admiral Thorn said.
"Cylons?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"Exactly," Admiral Thorn said.
"So they somehow hid a spy inside of the fleet. Can we locate him, or her, whoever it is?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"The simple answer for now is no, we can't. Marines patrol from time to time on board the civilian ships, but they didn't find anyone that matched the Cylon models we know about. It might be a new model, or more likely it's one of the models we know changed surgically so we can't tell who it is," Admiral Thorn said.
"This complicates things," Admiral Stryker said and then sighed.
"Yes indeed. But we can't stop here, we must go forward. They may track us for now, but we are still months from Avalon. There is time to find the mole and cut the link of the signal transmitter," Admiral Thorn said confidently.
"Alright, use all the resources that you need, find it and cut the link. We can't allow the Cylons to find the colony. Send scouts to systems behind us; stealthstars, and the Banshee: we must find the Cylon ship. Once the scout units find it, blast it into dust," Admiral Stryker said.
"Understood," Admiral Thorn replied.
"Anything else?" Admiral Stryker asked.
"Nothing. Oh I almost forgot. Since I relocated Commander Gideon from the Poseidon to Olympus station, you know that he is not only an officer he's a damn good engineer and ship designer, I was thinking of putting your sister as the Poseidon's Commander," Admiral Thorn said cheerfully.
"My dear sis, Commander of the Poseidon? Sure, she will be an excellent officer; she is already a damn good pilot and XO," Admiral Stryker said cheerfully.
"Then that's settled. And yes I forgot to ask you, how are you feeling?" Admiral Thorn asked grinning.
"Well you did remember after all, you old devil," Admiral Stryker said smiling widely.
"Better late than never," Admiral Thorn said.
...
Battlestar Vanguard's brig
Colonel Fisk was given clearance to visit former Admiral Cain two times a week to inform her of recent events in the fleet.
"So, Belzen destroyed twelve baseships using raptors and a black hole. Who would of thought; he's not so dumb after all," Cain said after hearing the report from Fisk.
"Yes, and so far there is no sign of the Cylons. He believes that we will arrive at Avalon in a few months, taking that we don't run into problems," Colonel Fisk said.
"And when do you plan to get me out of this damn brig? I don't plan to rot in here," Cain said.
"I have a plan, but we can't put it in motion yet. A good part of the crew still respects you though Admiral," Colonel Fisk said respectfully.
"You forgot yourself, I am not an admiral anymore thanks to Belzen and that jackass Stryker," Cain said.
"Helena, that jackass currently has the most power in the Colonial fleet and he was backed in his decision by two admirals older than he is; he is not a fool. About the plan, we plan to get you out once we arrive at Avalon," Colonel Fisk said.
"Don't you think that it will be too late for that, knowing that Stryker will execute me when we arrive?" Cain asked.
"Maybe, and maybe not; we can't know that. However, I hear that they plan to put the Pegasus in one of those large docks for a retrofit with only a skeleton crew and docking workers remaining on her. With one fast action we can re-take her and escape. Don't ask me details, we are still working on this," Colonel Fisk said.
"We? Who we are we talking about?" Cain asked.
"Taylor, Jannis, Fossner, and Shaw. I'm afraid Garner is not on our side," Colonel Fisk replied.
"I don't think I will miss him, after all, we have more than enough people. Right?" Cain asked.
"Actually only eight hundred and fifty two, but it will have to be enough," Colonel Fisk said determinedly.
"Inform me of this plans progress, when it's a little more detailed. Now leave me," Cain said dismissively.
"Don't worry, we will get you out. I promise you that. The only question is what we will do once we get the Pegasus," Colonel Fisk said.
"Leave that to me," Cain said confidently.
Stonecrest Nebula – Antioh system
The Antioh system was the only system inside the Stonecrest nebula, with a red giant in the center. There were only a few planets, two of them gas giants. The Sword jumped inside the nebula on the edge of the system.
"Jump completed," helm reported.
"Dradis?" Commander Salveng asked.
"All clear," the dradis officer reported.
"This nebula can provide us with a good hiding place if necessary," Colonel Chelys said, "there are at least a dozen moons by those two gas giants."
"What do we know about the planets?" Commander Salveng asked.
"Scanners indicate the two planets are molten rocks, no chance in hell to make colony or base on them, too close to the sun. The third however is a desert planet, like Scorpia. Our probes are just getting into the atmosphere," Colonel Chelys replied.
Colonials equipped their ships to carry atmospheric probes while on exploration missions. The Sword had a full stock of them. As soon as the Sword jumped, the probes were launched in all directions. Since they were the size of a Viper, they were equipped with scanners and a small FTL drive. Similar drives were used on stealthstars.
One of the probe controllers in CIC reported the progress of the probes, "Sir, probe zero seven is entering the atmosphere. Scanning now."
A few seconds passed before the controller continued, "from the data here the atmosphere can support life, but barely. But this isn't the biggest problem; from scans and pictures there are no forests, nor water. The entire planet is a desert."
"You said it has an atmosphere and barely capable of supporting life, how the hell can it do that if there is no water or plants?" Colonel Chelys asked.
"I think I have an explanation sir. I am not one hundred percent sure, but I think there are underground rivers and lakes. There are lots of caverns near the surface, and it is also possible that plants are under the surface in some larger caverns. That is my only explanation," the probe controller said.
"We will leave this to the biologists, geologists and other scientist's when they arrive to explore it; we need to keep moving forward," Commander Salveng said.
"The last planet is a barren rock, nothing on it. About the moons, well there are a variety of them, but none support any kind of life," the same probe controller reported.
...
"They found Magador," the younger man said. They were still following the Sword, since their encounter with it in the Coronet system.
"They are definitely surveying systems around their colony," the older man said.
"But the question remains, why?" the younger man asked.
"I think that question is answered Tiothen, they are probably looking for another planet that supports life. Unfortunately for them, all that they will find is a lot of dead words destroyed by the ancients and harvesters. The planet they found was incredibly lucky. Did we receive any message from the council?" the older man asked.
"No sir, not yet," the younger man called Tiothen replied, but before he was capable of saying anything more a third voice was heard.
"Sir this is the bridge, we are detecting a Harvester presence in the system; actually on the other part of system. From the size and engine emission, it's definitely a destroyer," the voice said.
"This complicates things," the older man said, "the Colonial ship will also detect the ship soon I assume."
"Harvesters will detect them soon, shall we intervene?" Tiothen asked.
"No, not yet, let's see what will happen. This ship carries over eighty fighters, the destroyer has only twelve. And it is not very powerful, I doubt this ship will have problems in destroying it," the older man said.
"But the destroyer has shields," Tiothen protested.
"A few hits from the colonial ship's main cannon will probably break through the shields. We will see. If I am wrong and the colonial ship starts to receive too many hits we will intervene, but not before," the older man said.
"We can stop the destroyer before it even reaches the colonial ship. There will be no casualties if we do that," Tiothen suggested hopefully.
"Indeed we can, but I want to see this ship in action; including their tactics. If the government of the twelve colonies came here and created a colony they will encounter harvesters sooner or later. And knowing our brothers and sisters' stubbornness, there's no doubt they will prevail," the older man said confidently.
...
"Sir we have something on dradis, it's faint but it is definitely not a cosmic object," the dradis officer said.
"Where?" Commander Salveng asked alarmed.
"Coming fast from carom 125, range 3000, it appears it's on an intercept course," the dradis officer replied.
"Is it in range for a visual?" Colonel Chelys asked.
"I believe it is sir," the dradis officer replied.
"Alright then, put it on screen," Commander Salveng said.
Soon the main screen was on and a black ship with grey stripes and red lights was shown. The colonial crew recognized it by its escort of twelve drones as a Harvester ship.
"Sir, I am detecting an energy buildup on the bigger ship. It appears it's getting ready to fire," the weapons officer said.
"How long until it enters weapons range?" Commander Salveng asked.
"At least one minute," the dradis officer said.
"All hands go to condition one; gunnery officers prepare all weapons defensive and offensive for firing. Target the large ship. Alert fighters prepare to engage the enemy fighters. Colonel give the order for a second squadron to be launched as well," Commander Salveng said.
"Right away," Colonel Chelys said.
No doubt, it is a harvester ship, Commander Salveng thought to himself. The Colonials didn't recognize the ship design since this was their first encounter with a destroyer type; it was smaller than the large mothership the colonials had encountered before. Black hull, with grey strips and several scary lights on the front: all red, and round like eyes. The ship looked like it had come straight from hell. But Sword is three times bigger; Harvester or not it will get its ass kicked. "Let's hope it does," Commander Salveng said quietly after finishing his thoughts.
...
On the observation deck of the ship that was following the Sword, Tiothen and the older man observed the Sword and its preparation for the incoming battle.
"They noticed the destroyer," Tiothen said.
"Indeed and now we can see the power of this ship. Even primitive, this ship is well armed," the older man replied.
"There are no other harvester ships in the vicinity. Only this one," Tiothen said.
"Good, that will give them a chance to win without the fear of enemy reinforcements," the older man said smiling.
...
"All weapons online and locked on target," a weapons officer reported.
"CAG reporting that alert fighters of Alpha squadron and Beta squadron are moving to intercept enemy fighters," Colonel Chelys added.
"Sir, the ship is closing fast. It's entering firing range and it's firing on us," the dradis officer said.
The ship was shaken after being hit by large blue pulses. Heavy armor protected the ship, even as the armor was not created to protect against energy weapons. The armor held, but was pierced here and there.
"Sections twenty to twenty four venting atmosphere," an engineering officer reported.
"Return fire," Commander Salveng ordered.
Massive cannons on the Sword's back started firing. From close range, every shell hit the enemy ship, but was deflected by the blue energy field surrounding the ship.
"My gods, this thing has shields. Energy based defenses," Colonel Chelys said in shock, his eyes bugging out.
"Concentrate all firepower onto one area, fire missiles as well; break the damn thing," Commander Salveng said savagely.
And it worked; every cannon on board the Sword fired at the same area of the ship, together with two dozen missiles that were launched. Even as it was taking fire, Sword maneuvered around to get as many of its guns as possible locked on the enemy ship. The energy shield surrounding the destroyer started collapsing, more and more slugs hitting the same spot over and over until finally the energy field disappeared.
"Shields are down," Colonel Chelys said triumphantly.
"Fire on it with everything we have," Commander Salveng ordered.
It did not need to be said twice, the weapons officer re-coordinated with all guns, and the gun crew fired on the designated target. Each hit tearing apart large pieces of the harvester destroyer, and making large holes in its hull.
Colonial fighters were actually doing more than good, enemy drones were fast and maneuverable but were not so intelligent. They were good when there were lots of them, but those twelve didn't stand a chance against well trained colonial fighter pilots. Three vipers were destroyed, but two pilots survived, and a SAR raptor was sent to pick them up. Only one viper of those three was destroyed together with its pilot.
The Harvester ship tried to fire back damaging the Sword, but not enough to seriously damage the massive Battlestar. It made holes in the Sword's armor, but it didn't penetrate vital areas of the ship. The destroyer tried to retreat from the battle but was struck in the engine section by Sword's main guns, causing a chain reaction and blowing the ship to pieces.
The entire C.I.C. cheered after the battle. They won, but Commander Salveng was not happy, he was ordered to retreat in case harvester ships detected them; not enter into combat, but he failed. He waited long enough and then when he actually thought about retreating it was too late. Still they won. But that was only a destroyer and a few drones. They were lucky, for now.
"Enemy ship destroyed, and all enemy fighters destroyed," Colonel Chelys reported grinning.
"Was there any signal sent from the destroyer or drones?" Commander Salveng asked watching the sensor officer.
"No sir," came the short answer from the sensor officer.
"Good, what are our casualties, and I want a damage report," Commander Salveng said watching the colonel.
"Chief reports minor damage to the engineering section, but sections twenty to twenty four and thirty one to thirty six are open to space, and repair teams are already working to fix as much damage they can. One of the back guns was damaged, but the gun crew survived. As far as casualties, we had luck; four killed, and twenty wounded. Three Vipers destroyed, but two pilots managed to eject and survived; however, the third - Franklin "DogHead" Preston, was unfortunately killed," Colonel Chelys said.
"Send a report about this battle back to Avalon; inform them that we engaged a harvester destroyer, without a chance of escape. Awaiting orders," Commander Salveng said.
"Yes sir," Colonel Chelys said.
...
"Actually I am impressed, it went much better than I thought it would," Tiothen said.
"This was only a destroyer Tiothen, and by its size one of the smaller ones that harvesters usually use in larger groups. It must have been acting as a scout. And they received damage to their hull. If that had been a larger ship they would be in much bigger trouble," the older man said.
"But they succeeded in penetrating the shields, and blowing the ship to pieces, together with its fighters," Tiothen said.
"They had luck, that's all. Let's hope their luck continues to hold. I will now go to my quarters to rest, call me when we receive news from the council," the older man said.
"Yes captain Farben," Tiothen said.
Day 181 Since the Fall
Battlestar Galactica – Admiral's Quarters
Commanders Belzen, Hastings, and Denson, sat opposite Admiral Adama. Denson had been XO on board Chimera, but during the battle with the Resurrection ship the Chimera received a nuclear missile hit directly onto her head, causing damage, and one part of the C.I.C ceiling fell on the former CO's head killing him instantly. Denson assumed command of the Chimera that same day.
"I know Admiral that you will think that I'm obsessed with the destruction of the Cylon colony, but looking into the future that thing will cause us a lot of problems. From our Cylon guests we had in the main fleet, we have the complete schematics of the colony and her capabilities. And they are extreme to say the least. It's their main manufacturing shipyard. Capable of building three times more ships than their so called mobile shipyard. It is well armed and armored but there is a dead point; its center," Commander Belzen said.
"What do you mean a dead point? With all the weapons on that ship I would hardly call a small middle section the weak part of the ship," Admiral Adama said.
"A first look would say that, yes. However, the entire colony is built around the original ship from the final five. As I already told you they came from Earth, the thirteenth colony, after their world was destroyed by their mechanical Cylons. Our own Cylons must have built all that around it in the past forty years of peace. And now the ship looks like one enormous spider with all those pylons, each armed to the teeth," Commander Belzen explained.
"And how do you propose that we destroy the colony?" Admiral Adama asked.
"There are two ways, and since Commander Hastings made both plans I believe it is his place to explain them," Commander Belzen answered, and nodded to Commander Hastings.
"There is really one plan but two ways to go about it. Hitting from outside with nuclear weapons is not an effective strategy; it would damage the colony but it wouldn't destroy it. It would take an enormous nuke to destroy it from the outside and we don't have one with the needed size. But imagine a firecracker in your hand, if you light it up with your hand open it will explode, but it won't rip your hand out of the arm. There would be burns and traces of black powder, but except the burn and some pain it would heal after some time. But if you put a firecracker in your fist and you close the fist," Commander Hastings said as he closed his own fist in demonstration, "boom, it will explode tearing the entire fist from the rest of the arm."
"You mean somehow planting a nuke inside the colony?" Admiral Adama asked thoughtfully.
"Yes. But as I said before, there are two ways to accomplish this. First if we put a large number of nukes on one Battlestar and ram it into the middle section of the Colony; it could take out the whole damn Colony with it. Of course we would have only a skeleton crew on board the chosen Battlestar. Or there's the riskier and harder way; taking a raptor and slipping through their defenses and entering the main hangar bay of the colony with a strike team, near the reactor," Commander Hastings said.
"You would ram a Battlestar into the colony," Admiral Adama said incredulously, watching Commander Hastings intensely.
"Damn straight I would, if that would destroy the Cylon colony," Commander Hastings said quickly.
"And what about this other option with the Raptor?" Admiral Adama asked.
"The chances for this option are low; thanks to the Cylon prisoners we have some of the cylon codes, but we don't believe we would ever get inside even with the codes. They would shoot us on sight," Commander Hastings replied.
"Yes if they detect the raptor, but what if they can't," Commander Belzen said thinking quickly.
"What are you planning?" Admiral Adama asked curiously.
"We take a raptor, and retrofit it to be a stealth raptor. Then we add two twenty five kiloton nukes, that is fifty in total, and go inside the colony, plant the bombs and get the hell out," Commander Belzen said determinedly.
"Commander, your plan is crazy, you know that. Even if we made a stealth raptor, there are two catches; first how do you plan to hide the radiation of the bombs, and second how do you plan to track the Cylon colony," Admiral Adama said.
"We have our guest on board the Chimera, a Cylon model six, that will help us with that. And I believe we can trust her. If this works we will have put the Cylon colony out of the game. Including the Cylon leader John Cavil," Commander Belzen said.
"I must admit commander, this is an interesting plan, and I will think about it. In the mean time you start working on the details with this plan. Try to find a way to locate the colony. I must speak with the president," Admiral Adama said.
"Understood Admiral," Commander Belzen said.
After that all the commanders left the room. Admiral Adama sat on the couch and grabbed a glass of Ambrosia from the small locker near it. "Damn, Belzen's plans get more and more crazy and dangerous each day," Admiral Adama said to himself and then he took a sip of Ambrosia from the glass.
Day 189 Since the Fall
President Roslin was aboard Galactica in the medical ward. Today marked the end of the allotted month Doc Cottle had given her before the cancer accelerated and her time ran out. She had hours to live, in constant pain, though she refused morphine and medicine Doctor Cottle offered in order to remain lucid from time to time. Earlier that day, Doc Cottle had informed the President of the abnormalities of the Cylon-Human hybrid baby of the Cylon Eight model aboard Galactica. Calling Admiral Adama and Doctor Baltar to her bed in the medical ward, she had told them she wanted the Cylon's pregnancy terminated for the safety of the fleet.
Admiral Adama consented to the President's request out of respect for her position as President, but also because it was her dying request. Admiral Adama informed Lieutenant Karl Helo Agathon of the President's order as a courtesy, and Helo had requested to be the one to tell Sharon about it. Sharon immediately showed hostility and started screaming "let them try to take my baby!"
A few hours later, a team of marines and nurses went to Sharon's cell to subdue and sedate her for the trip to the medical ward for the operation. Sharon fought back, and the marines did not have an easy time, but they eventually overpowered and sedated her. She was then moved onto a gurney for transport to the medical ward.
Karl Helo Agathon stopped the team of marines and Admiral Adama on their way to the medical ward, putting his hand to his gun.
"Admiral, please don't do this," Karl Helo Agathon said.
"Stand down," Admiral Adama said as the marines raised their weapons towards Helo.
Admiral Adama walked past the marines to stand in front of Helo, "think about what you're doing Helo. You're a soldier," Admiral Adama said.
"I'm a father, like you. Please, sir. Give me a raptor, I'll take her off the ship and get her away from the fleet," Helo said emotionally.
"I can't do that son," Admiral Adama said sadly.
"Admiral! Admiral!" Doctor Baltar said loudly, running down the corridor to reach the Admiral and Helo.
"Doctor, get the hell out of here!" Admiral Adama said.
"Admiral, I must talk to you concerning the Cylon child. It seems I may have been… Wrong, very wrong. When I said that Doctor Cottle misinterpreted the fetal blood," Doctor Baltar said.
Doctor Baltar, Admiral Adama, Helo, Sharon, and the marine guard walked to the medical ward.
In the Medical Ward,
A few minutes later…
"Understand, Cylon blood is virtually impossible to differentiate from our own. That being said, it has to be slightly different because the Cylon is not human. If our blood looks like this, and the Cylons blood looks like this, then it's fair to assume the Cylon human is carrying an anomaly" Doctor Baltar said demonstrating pictures of the Human and Cylon blood.
"Is this a theory, or a fact," Admiral Adama said.
"The Cylon fetus contains no antigens, it has no blood type. That's what Doctor Cottle was talking about when he said it was damned odd, but it was not damned odd, it's astonishing. Now knowing that the Cylon human counterparts are known for better endurance and capabilities than humans, I wondered if the Cylon fetus could also be blessed, and yes I say blessed, with a heightened resistance to disease. So, I applied a sample of Sharon's fetal blood to some cancer cells from the president," Doctor Baltar said, showing Admiral Adama images of the presidents cancer cells and the cells mixed with the fetal blood.
"What am I looking at?" Admiral Adama asked perplexed.
"Nothing. That's the whole point. The cancer was gone, and it was gone in a matter of hours," Doctor Baltar said.
"Are you saying you found a cure for the president's cancer?" Karl Helo Agathon asked.
"Well it's untried; it's obviously untried and therefore extremely dangerous, but yes. It's possible. If you abort Sharon's fetus now, we'll never know," Doctor Baltar said.
Minutes later, a syringe of the Cylon baby's fetal blood was injected into the President. The President started shaking violently after the injection, but settled down a minute later.
The President reached for Doctor Baltar moments after waking up, remembering her hallucinated memory of seeing Baltar with a Cylon Six model on Caprica before the attack. She was inadvertently shushed by Doctor Baltar telling her to rest and take it easy.
In a few hours the President was out of the medical ward and the cancer gone from her system, as Doctor Cottle attested to looking at her newest scans while Admiral Adama demanded to know of her condition. She was given the all clear, with her scans showing as completely clear of the cancer.
Colonial One
A few hours later
"I'd like to thank you for your assistance and knowledge Doctor," President Roslin said.
"It was nothing Madam President," Doctor Baltar said smiling widely at her praise.
"Unfortunately, I must also inform you that you will be stepping down from being Vice President of the colonies, and the quorum will also be dismantled upon our arrival of Avalon," President Roslin said.
"I'm sorry, Madam President?" Doctor Baltar said in confusion.
"When the Cylon attack occurred, I took the office of the presidency under current president Adar's remaining term when he and the rest of the government were killed on the colonies. We left the colonies under the assumption that the 50,000 people in this fleet were more or less all that remained of humanity. Thus, the quorum of twelve as well as your vice presidency were falsely put in place from the votes of only 50,000 people of the colonies, whereas millions of other survivors were at the colonies and heading to the safety of the new colony of Avalon. In accordance with the wishes of Admiral Stryker, former governor of Avalon was put into office as temporary president until our fleet arrives at Avalon. He will be the vice president upon our arrival. Once we arrive; elections will have to begin for a new presidency due to my finishing Adar's remaining term, and then the quorum of twelve and other members of the Colonial government as stated by Colonial law," President Roslin said firmly.
Doctor Baltar stood in silence, looking unhappy, after hearing that. Not knowing what else to say, he asked to be excused to return to his research aboard Galactica. President Roslin nodded her consent to his request and he quickly left Colonial One.
"I know you had a hand in the Cylon attack Baltar, just as I know I will never be able to prove it," President Roslin said to herself quietly, after Doctor Baltar had left.
Day 190 Since the Fall
After the President's recovery due to the Cylon child, she had suspended her order for the child's execution. In secret, the President had ordered for the child to have her death faked by replacing her with another dead child's stored remains. The plan would be put in motion when the Cylon completed her pregnancy. The President knew Doc Cottle would not like it, but would follow her orders. A mother to secretly take care of the child was searched for in the meantime with the President's aide – Tory, guiding the search.