The Hour of The Wolf
Chapter Twelve

Wesley was, after four straight shifts, finally off the bridge. Before that he'd been pulling overtime trying to get the ship ready for battle with the Borg. In short he couldn't remember the last time he had any sleep and felt like all his energy had been drained out of him through a straw. He'd pulled all nighters before of course, cramming for application to the Academy came to mind, but this was different.

Three or four days straight of what could only be called the worst time in his life. There were Commanders, Captains, even Admirals that would say this was the most difficult time in their service and he'd had to do it all while only just an Ensign. The worst thing of all was that, even though he was more tired than he'd ever been in the past, he still couldn't sleep.

He'd been running on adrenalin, coffee and god only knew what for so long he couldn't just stop. Slouching into Ten Forward he looked around to see a lot of other officers were there too, looking just as tired as him and probably in the same restless state. Sighing Wesley looked around again and saw one officer that couldn't look tired, even if he was more overworked than everyone else in the room combined. 'Data.' he said, heading over to his friends side.

'Wesley.' The android nodded politely. He was standing at the window, looking out to the Fleet. 'Are you currently off duty?'

'Yeah, Commander Shelby realised I was still on the bridge and ordered me off. I don't think she approves of me there at the best of times.'

Data tilted his head slightly. 'She has yet to familiarise herself with most of the crew. Give her time to recognise your skills as Captain Picard did.'

Wesley nodded. 'Give her time.' he repeated and looked out as one of the massive Battlestars glided past. It was impressive. A immense dull grey warship, covered in weapons and battle scars from countless battles across hundreds of years. He'd seen the tactical readout earlier and it had frightened him. One of these ships had stood toe to toe with a Borg Cube and destroyed it. A single vessel that had beaten a fleet of starships and would have brought the Federation to it's knees was nothing to the Galactica.

But that wasn't what scared him most of all. What scared Wesley, and a lot of people, was that even with ships like that the Colonials had lost a war, had lost everything and were looking for help. 'Can I ask you something, or are you busy?'

Wesley's android friend raised a padd he had in his hand. 'I am currently reviewing the deployment of the Colonial Fleet, relief supplies and our repair teams in an effort to increase efficiency. However, I have discovered repurposing my positronic pathways periodically provides new perspectives.'

'Take your mind off something for a while.' Wesley translated before jumping to the point. 'Do you, do you think these Cylons… Do you think they're going to find us?'

After a moment Data gave his version of a shrug. 'Unknown. It is evidently possible that they can travel the distance required, however given the possible directions available it is unlikely that they will chose this precise heading.'

'But the Fleet did.' Wesley pointed out.

'Yes. I understand that they used maps retrieved from what they call the original exodus of the Thirteenth tribe. More proof that they, at the very least, reached Sector 001 and identified Earth.' Data replied before pausing. 'I am more concerned by the origin of the Cylons than their destination.'

Wesley frowned, not following him. 'What do you mean?'

'You recall two years ago I was to be transferred to Commander Maddox's project to repeat my creators success in building a functioning positronic matrix.'

'Of course.' He remembered. 'You were worried it wouldn't work right and it could kill you, but he tried to get Starfleet to force the transfer anyway. Captan Picard changed the order, and they held a hearing where they eventually recognised you were human. Had the rights of one at least.'

'Incorrect.' Data disagreed. 'The hearing only decided that I had the right to chose. It did not, strictly, identify my existence as sentient. Nor did it assign me all the rights granted to such lifeforms. It is entirely possible that should Commander Maddox succeed he could design an android with less personality than myself. An android that would willingly serve as a drone.'

Wesley hadn't thought of that. 'If they agreed to serve…'

'… If they were programmed to agree they would not be protected under that ruling. However, with a sufficiently advanced processor such programming could be circumvented.'

Wesley must have been even more tired than he thought because it took him a lot longer than it should to think that through. 'In other words they would be smart enough to rebel against their own programming. Data, you think that is what happened with the Cylons?'

'Indeed. I had always calculated it as a remote possibility. My understanding was that any species with the technological knowledge to build such a machine would be socially developed enough not to fall into that trap. I did not factor that in an infinite universe any mathematical impossibility must, by extension, become a practical certainty.'

Beverly lead the two girls to the young boy. As soon as they saw him the two of them ran over. 'Starbright, Dray!' he called out and the three of them hugged quickly.

Starbright, the older of the two, was a beautiful girl, her long hair in an intricate braid over one shoulder. The dress she was wearing looked a little small on her, but she was thin enough for it to still fit. It was well worn and a little threadbare, like most of what the Colonals outside of the military wore, but they didn't seem to notice anymore. Dray was only a child and looked so much like her older brother they could have been twins. Her dirty blonde hair no where near as long as the other girls, it looked like she'd been trying to keep it short. Her clothes were a miss-match of rolled up leggings and patchwork top.

Beverly looked around and saw that even by the Fleet's standards they were impoverished. Promising herself to make sure they got a change of clothes and a good meal before she let them out of her sight the chief medical officer turned to Worf. 'Thanks for finding them yourself.' she smiled.

'You are welcome Doctor.' The tall Klingon half snarled as if he was having trouble with his temper. 'When I received your request for them to be found I knew I had to do it myself.'

She frowned before looking down at his knuckles. They were bruised, as if he'd been in a fight. 'What happened?' she asked, half dreading the answer.

'I am fine Doctor. There was some disagreement between myself and the ships security. I will forward you my report.' With that he left and Beverly wondered if it had been such a good idea to have Worf deal with the situation after all.

Starbuck sat back as Boomer took a swig from his tankard. 'So Worf contacted me, asking for the location of the Marbellen, that old transport barge on the outer edge of the Fleet. Turns out some of the youngsters back there are trying to set up a little Socialator guild, specifically for them. The Enterprise found out about it when their Doctor was treating a kid that tried to stop them.'

'Feldercarb. Isn't Council Security supposed to be doing something about that sort of thing?' Jolly asked a centon before Starbuck could. Truth was there were all sorts of shady goings on across the Fleet. Council Security had been made responsible for civilian matters, but the truth was a lot of them were people that couldn't make it as Warriors or just thugs with laser pistols.

Bitter, ignorant and more often than not incompetent, Blackshirts got in the way every chance they could. Always pushing the bounds of their authority and tying to prove that they were better than everyone else. Still the Council didn't like the idea of Warriors dispensing justice and the Commander agreed, if only because policing the civilian Fleet came a distant second to protecting it from attacks.

'They are,' Boomer explained, 'Thing is one of the youngsters running the gang was the brother of the Blackshirt Lieutenant. Turns out they had a little arrangement to look the other way. We found that out after landing on the Marbellen. I asked one of the passengers where the girls were and they told me the whole thing.'

He took another mouthful. 'You should have seen him. Worf's the sort of person you want in security. The passengers couldn't get out of the way fast enough and I wasn't going to stop him. Hades, if he asked for it I'd have given him my pistol. Anyway we found the girls and I don't know what we were worried about, it looked like they were about to rip those bullies apart with their bare hands.

'Worf didn't stop, I don't think he even broke his stride. I've never seen anything like it, he didn't even bother to draw his weapon, he just seemed to flow. You'd think a big guy like that wouldn't need melee training, but he knew what he was doing. He grabbed the biggest of them with one hand and threw them into the rest so hard they weren't getting back up for a while.'

'After that?' Starbuck asked quickly.

Boomer sighed. 'The Blackshirt brother came out of nowhere. I don't know if they were waiting, or just heard we were onboard. He made some talk about Worf breaking the rules and tried to trump up an arrest. Worf took one look at him and knocked him out mid-sentence.'

The three of them laughed and raised their tankards. After they finished Boomer finished his story; 'I talked to the girls while Worf was decorating the deck plate with teeth. They agreed to go back with the Lieutenant.'

'Do I take it that is your official report.' Another voice came from behind them and Starbuck nearly spilt his drink. It was Colonel Tigh.

'Colonel.' Boomer was on his feet almost instantly. 'I… I was going to provide a written report as soon as I'd finished here.'

'Really?' he said skeptically. 'I suppose there is a reason why you chose to share your report with your friends before your superiors?'

'I… I… was only escorting Lieutenant Worf Colonel. As a security matter it wasn't my role. He was going to forward his report to you as soon as he got back to the Enterprise.'

'He has. Unfortunately I also received one from the Marbellen. Claiming a non-human Federation officer attacked a member of Council Security and kidnapped two young women.'

'That isn't what happened Colonel!' Boomer protested, 'I'll make my report right now.'

Tigh held up a hand. 'I heard it the first time Lieutenant. I was just on my way to brief the Commander. That is all.' With that the left the three of them.

'Awe frack, and I was just about to think it was a good day.' Starbuck groaned.

Adama longed to take off his cape, but kept it on out of respect for his visitor. 'Ambassador, I have to congratulate you on your patience. I have been dealing with the Council for more than fifty yahren and even I was about ready to shoot them.'

'Vulcans have learnt to suppress our emotional instincts. As such I am immune to irritation.' the half-human said calmly. 'I have found it most useful on occasion.'

They'd been in a meeting of the full Council for centares, it seemed like everyone had a vitally important speech to give. All of them seemed to be variation on the same theme; waxing poetic about the troubles they had during the Exodus, praising heroes of the fleet current and past, thanking the Federation for their aid and thanking the ambassador for his presence. After that was finally finished and Spock had given his own polite reply the lines were drawn, so to speak.

The Council couldn't understand why after all this time they couldn't just visit Earth, to see it for themselves. The Ambassador assured them that it would be possible, but for now logic suggested they find somewhere for the civilians to call home. The Council suggested that if they could visit Earth they could find a way to land there. The Ambassador assured them that if it were possible Earth would welcome them with open arms.

In the end it all came down to the fact that they didn't trust a non-human to have the best interests of humanity at heart. Adama partly agreed with them on that. The problem was he knew that they had the best interests of the Federation to look out for. A Federation that included humanity. They had eventually agreed to send a small expedition to the planet to see for themselves. One ship with council representatives and selected ship captains. For political reasons it wasn't going to be a Battlestar, so that just left any one of two hundred ships. In the end it was decided to be the Rising Star.

While originally a pleasure yacht it was one of the larger civilian ships and over the yahren had become a sort of second capital to the fleet. Holding most of the civilian ceremonies as well as sporting events. It was also one of the best maintained ships in the fleet. Transferring it's passengers shouldn't be too difficult, especially if the Federation ships were willing to take them on board.

The door opened and in walked Tigh. 'Adama?'

Coming to his feet the Commander got to work. 'Tigh, something wrong?'

'Probably. Pardon me ambassador, but this might be sensitive. I should talk to the Commander alone'

Adama shook his head. 'We cannot afford any secrets Tigh. We have to learn to trust each other.'

The Colonel nodded, 'There's been an incident. Apparently some of the Council Security on the outlying ships are turing a blind eye to certain crimes. A young boy was injured trying to stop a serious issue involving a girl. He was transferred to the Enterprise for medical treatment. Their Doctor learnt of the events and wanted to send someone to check on the girl in question. According to the reports I've received Lieutenant Worf took particular interest in the situation.'

'Lieutenant Worf is the Enterprise's chief of security and as I recall a Klingon.' The Ambassador pointed out. 'Their understanding of justice is rooted in their strict code of honour.'

'In this case, ambassador, both I and our warriors agree with him. He found the girl, with the boy's sister, both being harassed. He took direct action and escorted the two of them back to the Enterprise. When ship's security detail did take an interest they tried to interfere with the Lieutenant. Again he took direct action. They have filed a report with the Council directly, calling it an assault on their officers. Some councillors are already demanding the return of all three children, immediately.'

Adama shook his head and headed to the porthole. 'Feldercarb.' he swore under his breath. 'There was some tensions before, with Council Security and the life pods we recovered from the battle.' Adama turned. 'Tigh, I need you to handle this. Find out which of the accusations are true. Contact Captain William and ask to interview the girls and this boy personally. Get their stories and see how they match up with reports and then set up a meeting. Find out if they've discovered anything else and try to set up an official protocol. Get Anthea to help and see if that Federation Commander, Benjamin Sisko, can be part of the discussion.'

'What will you be doing about this,' Tigh asked glancing at the Ambassador.

'I'm going to have to talk with the council, put this fire out before it gets out of control.'

After Tigh had left the Ambassador also stood, there was along moment before he seemed to come to a decision 'I was not always a diplomat. when I was younger I served as first officer aboard the original Enterprise, under my friend Captain James Kirk. Often Captain Kirk would entrust me with, what at the time could appear as, tasks he did not wish to perform himself. The truth was he trusted my judgement as much as he did his own. In some cases more so. Commander Adama, I believe my friend would have liked to have met you.'

'Thank you Ambassador. Let us both hope that this issue is the most difficult one we have to face between us.' With that Adama and the vulcan left his quarters and headed back to the Council chamber.

End Chapter Twelve

Authors note:-

Well the time has come, next chapter we're taking a time jump. The truth is a lot of what happens between would just be going over the same old ground and it would just get repetitive. That's why this chapter is a little on the short side, despite my best efforts I can't make council meetings exciting, or interesting to read.

However what I can do is battles. Specifically space battles and the is one coming up that I hope isn't going to disappoint…