Chapter Five
Trouble on the Rising Star


"And now, I do believe
That even in a storm we'll find some light
Knowing you're beside me, I'm all right"
Melissa Manchester: "Through The Eyes of Love"


Passenger Liner Rising Star

"Contaminated?" Kate choked out after she'd accosted the Colonial warrior assigned to survey the Rising Star's food stores. She was one of the shuttle pilots the Galactica had inherited, her shoulder patch still bearing the colors of the Valkyrie. Kate hadn't yet had time to memorize all of their names. "Weren't these provisions checked before they were boarded, Warrant Officer… Velasquez is it?"

"For radiation?" Velsaquez replied. "Yes, but there hadn't been time to check for pluton poisoning."

"Pluton poisoning breaks down the nutritional value of food," Castle interjected, "are you telling us that all this food is worthless?"

"We don't know that," Kate insisted. "Ryan, Esposito, assist Velazquez, I want every container in this cargo hold visually searched and thoroughly scanned. Something has to have survived intact."

"LT and I have been through three other ships," Velasquez added, "it isn't looking good."

"Salvage whatever you can," Kate commanded. "Castle, you're with me, we're gonna look into what the man on the Gemini told us, if we have to search this ship deck by deck."

Castle and Beckett took the lift up to the next deck, marked on the elevator codes as Steerage Class. The doors slid open to reveal - much like the Gemini – a corridor filled with starving refugees, many transferred from the Celestra. Castle's gaze was immediately drawn from one haunted, desperate face to another, until – to his surprise – a young woman cried out unintelligibly and launched herself bodily at him.

Castle barely had time to turn fully around before he was nearly tackled by the slender redhead who wrapped her arms around his neck in a near death-grip. Kate rolled her eyes in chagrin at first, thinking this another in - according to more ship's gossip from Ellis - a long line of women who'd thrown themselves at the "dashing, Colonial hero" in his well-tailored uniform, but was quickly struck dumb by the truth of their exchange.

"Alexis?" Castle squeaked, pushing the girl gently back by the shoulders to get a better look at her, uncertain he could believe his eyes, which almost immediately began to well up with tears. Kate felt immediately ashamed of her first impression, unsure what to do with herself though everyone else in the corridor had suddenly disappeared as far as her partner was concerned.

"By the gods," Castle breathed as he pulled Alexis back into his arms, tugging her off her feet and spinning her around muttering nonsense words tearfully into her dirty red hair, "I thought I'd lost you Pumpkin."

Kate was almost relieved when an elderly woman pulled her aside, gesticulating at an old man lying prone on the deck nearby, speaking a language she didn't understand.

"What… what are you saying?" Kate turned toward the other refugees. "Does anyone here speak Gemonese?"

"Her husband is having trouble breathing," a blonde woman wrapped in a blanket carefully cradling her left arm translated, her eyes scanning the room nervously. It was immediately clear that a small group of the refugees did not take kindly to her presence.

"Get that trash out of here!" a middle aged woman - who appeared to be the ringleader of the group - hissed. "She should be fed to the daggits… dirty socialator!"

"Space her with the rest of the garbage!" another of the group chimed in, roughly tugging the blanket from around young woman's shoulders to reveal loose fitting, dirty clothing of expensive silk.

Alexis stepped back from her father to intervene, but the woman waved her off with her good arm.

"What happened your arm?" Kate asked, as the beginnings of a growing lynch mob caused her spine to straighten and her hand to drop to the grip of her laser pistol. Castle straightened up, pushed Alexis behind him and unsnapped the strap of his own holster. Kate had never noticed how tall and imposing he could be when he brought his full height and broad-shouldered frame to bear.

"There are others in greater need than I," the woman whispered, as though resigned to such rough treatment.

"Dad, we can't leave her here," Alexis implored as she slipped around her father, "one of them broke her arm, they might do something worse once we're gone."

"Mind your tongue, wretch," one of the bigger men hissed, "defending socialator garbage might get you some of the same."

The words had barely passed his lips before Castle was on him, bodily slamming the man against the nearest bulkhead without so much as telegraphing his movement, weapon pointed at the deck only by training and sheer force of will.

"You're gonna want to walk out of here," Castle warned darkly, his voice so low Kate could barely make out the words, "right frakking now."

"Ryan," Kate snapped into her headset while Alexis did her best to pull her father away from the man. "There's been an incident, I need you and Esposito on the Steerage Passenger deck, corridor "B" on the double mister!"

"Ok, Cap," Ryan replied, "on the way."

When the two of them arrived moments later, Kate waved them over.

"We've got patients for Galactica's life station," Kate noted pointing in the direction of the elderly woman whispering what sounded like nonsense words to her injured husband, then nodded toward the woman cradling her arm, "Since none of us speak fluent Gemonese, I've conscripted a native speaker. Get them all to the shuttle. I'm going up to the First Class Deck and find out what's going on here. Do your best to keep that man stable until we get back."

Kate turned to the crowd that had grown, her hand resting on the grip of her weapon. "We will do everything we can to make sure the food situation is sorted out, but unless you want to spend time in Galactica's brig, I'm ordering all of you to disperse, right now!"

The steel in Kate's voice along with Castle's imposing presence cowed the small knot of troublemakers who, thankfully had no stomach for a real fight. The crowd quickly filed out of the corridor, and the situation gradually settled down.

"Pumpkin," Castle whispered to Alexis, "I need to go with Captain Beckett. Go find your grams and stay with Ryan and Esposito, okay?" He turned and pinned Ryan with a sharp look, a glimpse of his former command style behind it.

"I'm trusting you to look after Alexis and my mother," he said, looking longingly back at his daughter, "I have a feeling Kate's gearing up to do something rash and she'll need backup."

With a menacing glare at the man who'd been ignorant enough to threaten his daughter in front of him, - who was presently also shrinking under Esposito's withering glare - he turned and stalked out after Beckett.


Cylon Command Basestar Alpha Zero One
High orbit over Caprica

A Cylon command centurian – notable due to his gleaming gold armor - entered the base-ship's audience chamber, stopped before the high platformand waited for the Imperious Leader to turn his command chair around to acknowledge its presence.

"By your command," it stated once under its leader's gaze. "Flight Leader Serpentine reporting."

Report, Centurian," The Imperious leader commanded, "on the final assault."

"All remaining humans on the colonial worlds have been exterminated," Serpentine replied without further prompting. "Ground units system-wide report word of civilian transports that escaped destruction to rendezvous with a warship."

"What sort of warship?" The Imperious Leader asked, sounding almost childishly furious. 'Anger is a curious concept' it thought to itself, 'useless, illogical, but yet strangely satisfying.'

"A battlestar," Serpentine replied, "the Galactica. According to his guard commander, the human traitor, Bracken attempted to keep this information from being disseminated."

The Imperious Leader's third brain had prepared him for such an attempt at duplicity, but also provided a solution for such an occurrence. Unlike his two predecessors over the past thousand yahrens, his third brain had been reprogrammed with human engrams, a modification deemed necessary given humanity's intransigence, which had dragged out the war of their extermination far longer than the Imperium Primus had predicted.

His unusual programming had given him an edge against the humans that his predecessors had lacked. Since he'd been brought online as Imperious Leader of this sector only ten of their yahrens ago, he had anticipated Colonial tactics with greater efficiency. He had concurrently discovered a gift for taking chances of his own which had helped him deal the humans serious defeats in multiple sectors.

His own personal base-ship had dealt the deathblow to the Battlestar Rikon and severely damaged the Pegasus at Proxima with only two-to-one numerical superiority. Standard Cylon battle tactics would have required at least a ten-to-one numerical advantage to inflict such casualties in the past.

His interrogation of the Rikon's first officer had been quite illuminating, even though she'd given him nothing of military value aside from her name and rank. Johanna Beckett's only other spoken words had been illogical, nonsensical profanity-laced outbursts concerning his non-existent parental lineage's lack of marital status, supplemented by whispered prayers for the well being of her mate and her sole progeny picked up by the listening devices in her cell prior to her execution.

Senator Bracken – who had been taken prisoner outside of the usual Colonial transit lanes two yahrens ago had proved to be a much more valuable strategic asset - albeit one that required occasional prompting to keep in check.

Bracken's assertions during interrogation - that the Empire would have little use for him or his human engram dominated programming once humanity was fully exterminated - could not be refuted by even his first brain's most basic logic circuits, thus leading to their current arrangement. An arrangement he was certain would need to be revised, given his human ally's current erratic behavior.

"Deliver a message to Senator Bracken," The Imperious Leader commanded. "Inform him that I am displeased by his attempts at deception. Make it clear that he shall either deliver me the Galactica and these fugitive ships, or his guards shall deliver me his head, rendering our arrangement null and void. Deliver this message personally. Commander."


Rising Star
First Class Passenger Deck

By the time Castle caught up to Beckett, she was accosting the door guard to the First Class lounge.

"I'm going to ask you nicely to stand aside just once," Kate threatened coldly, her hand caressing the grip of her laser pistol with cool, almost graceful menace.

"This is the Private Lounge for guests of Former Defense Secretary Reed and his private party. I was hired by Trans-Stellar…" the door guard stammered, but stopped short when Kate drew her laser pistol and pressed the barrel to his chest.

"Step. Aside," Kate growled the command as the door guard's face turned pale. "Right now."

"What's going on Captain?" Castle asked as if he were opening a discussion about the weather.

"Oh, nothing," Kate replied with the same cool banter, her pistol never wavering as the guard's face shifted quickly from pale to green. "This gentleman here was about to let us into the club area. Weren't you?"

The man's head bobbed quickly as Kate tapped the panel next to him with her free hand and the door slid open.

"The Colonial Fleet Thanks you for your cooperation," Castle quipped as they slid past the guard into the door, then turned back to her as she holstered her gun. "Katherine Beckett, you take me to the nicest places."

"I trust there is an explanation for this intrusion?" A commanding voice boomed from inside the club area. The voice of a man accustomed to being obeyed.

"Former Defense secretary Michael Reed," Kate stated coldly. "Would you like to make a statement before I place you under arrest?"

"Good," Reed replied, "you know my name. At least you won't have to wonder from where the blade fell."

"When I get back to my shuttle, I'll give you about a micron to meet me." Kate replied, ignoring his threat and responding with one of her own. "Or would you prefer that I turn the six levels of starving people below decks loose and let you take your chances with them?"

The man didn't back down an inch at her threat, but he did seem rather impressed.

"Captain, how about you join us in our prayer of gratitude for our deliverance from the Cylons." He offered, trying a little to late to "turn on the charm".

"In case it's eluded you, Mr. Reed," Kate replied harshly, "over a hundred people have died since our deliverance from the Cylons. Though none were due to starvation, given what I've seen on the ships I've inspected so far, it's only a matter of time."

Kate nodded in Castle's direction, "Lieutenant, notify Core Command that we have located a cache of food stores that I plan to distribute on this ship as far as they will go."

"Like hell you will." Reed scoffed, rising from his seat, again attempting to stare her down. "These stores belong to me and my guests."

"Does your wife share your feelings about denying food to starving people?" Kate asked, which seemed to strike a nerve.

"My wife?" he asked, his eyes haunted for a flicker of a second.

"Yes, your wife," Kate replied, not missing the nubile young woman who had until just recently been sitting on his lap, "I don't see her."

"Unfortunately," Reed replied, "she was unable to make the voyage."

"My sympathies," Castle added, he seemed to be genuinely sincere, even though the anger in his eyes that his daughter had been slowly starving below-decks spoke another tale. "From what I hear, she was a remarkable and compassionate woman."

"Yes," Reed replied softly, "she was."

"I'm sure she'd be moved by your period of mourning, Mr. Reed," Kate replied before she keyed her headset mic. "Espo, this is Captain Beckett Castle and I will be returning shortly. Have Velasquez and LT report to the First Class Lounge to secure some unaccounted food stores. Her orders are to distribute them throughout the ship as far as they will go. If Mr. Reed objects, tell her she has my permission to shoot him."


Though Kate felt some personal satisfaction at helping at least the people on the Rising Star, she felt lingering resentment when her request to take Michael Reed into custody had been denied. His election by multiple ships to a seat on the newly formed Council of Twelve included diplomatic immunity. It irked her to no end that she couldn't touch him. She almost wished her threat to set loose the starving people on the Rising Star on him hadn't been an idle one.

While she and Esposito continued to grouse back and forth about it, making Ryan very uncomfortable in the pilot's seat, Castle was in the main passenger compartment of the shuttle taking information on the patients they were taking to the Galactica. A few more had come forward after they left and it was up to him to get their stories. A task under other circumstances he would have enjoyed immensely. This time, however the abused woman from earlier seemed reluctant and he could definitely empathize.

"Why don't we start with your name," he asked gently as Alexis handed her a cup of reconstituted hot chocolate she'd dug out of the shuttle's emergency kit while Castle splinted her broken wrist and gently helped her into the sling to keep it immobilized.

"My name is… Cassiopeia," she replied skittishly.

"That's a beautiful name," Castle replied, "means "fairy queen" in Gemonese if I recall."

"I… I think so," she replied quietly, though it was clear that she felt nothing like one at the moment.

"Your designation?" Castle asked, though he was certain from the felgercarb back on the ship that he knew what it was, he needed confirmation for the official record.

"I… I'm a socialator," Cassiopeia began cautiously, but then seemed to recover some of her dignity, "It's an honorable profession, practiced with the blessings of the elders for over four thousand years! We're more than just surrogates for infertile women, we're midwives and child care providers…"

"I didn't mean anything," Castle replied respectfully, he had studied a great many topics in the Colonial Academy, even dabbled with writing. Colonial warriors were expected to understand and respect the customs of any colony they might be stationed on. "I was just curious what all of that fuss was about back there."

"That woman…" Cassiopeia replied with a slight shiver. "That woman and her companions were members of the Atori Sect, a small, but very vocal minority of Gemonese religious zealots. They don't believe in physical contact of any kind between genders except when sanctified by the priests during high worship of the sun-storm, which comes only once every seven years!"

"No wonder those little buggers are such good card players," Castle muttered in spite of himself, earning him a nudge in the ribs from his daughter.

"Dad!" she admonished rolling her eyes at him, though the exchange did earn them a small flash of a smile from Cassiopeia before she accepted the offer of a fresh blanket and curled up into herself on the unfolded section of seats to get some rest.

Castle watched his daughter gently tuck the blanket around the older woman and noted how pale and wan she was and the idea that he should get some food into her and his mother as soon as they got back to the ship. Though his mother seemed fine, physically he would also get her examined by a medical professional. Though Martha Rodgers had been overjoyed to see him, she had been far too quiet and withdrawn. They were all the family he had left and they needed him, now more than ever.


**Author's Note:** Sorry this took me so long, life kinda got in the way. I'm gonna have a lot more time on my hands for the next four weeks while I'm on vacation.