I do not own Battlestar Galactica

Chapter 9 – Ghost Planet

The fleet arrived in order of Scorpio, the industrial world of the twelve colonies. The people of Scorpio were known for their technical expertise and that had led them to become one of the wealthiest colonies. The engineering smarts of the Scorpio was why the Colonial Fleet had put their shipyard there.

Now the settlements were deserted, the roads filled with abandoned cars, the sky a yellow haze.

No-one there just like a ghost town.

Many on Scorpio lived in the large cities which were reduced to craters by the Cylon bombardment leaving nothing but ruins; the smaller towns and villages slowly dying off from radiation.

And unknown to the fleet though any remaining survivors were removed by the Cylons for purposes that were yet unknown. But much of the machinery was still there and in usable condition. Also medicines were kept in radiation proof lockers to ensure they were not contaminated. A decade or so ago there had been a major radiological disaster on Aquarius where a power plant's nuclear reactor had blown and spread radiation across a small island group. The hospitals stash of anti-radiation drugs was corrupted and rendered useless. After it had become standard policy on all of the colonies that medicine be stored in radiation proof containers.

As the fleet established orbit of Scorpio they checked the surface with their instruments and prepared landing teams with their own supply of anti-radiation drugs. They were trying to build up supplies of equipment and medicine before they left the colonies, which would be soon.

Raptors descended to the surface carrying both civilians and military personnel led by Sergeant Major Tyler Jones and Lieutenant Amelia Cartwright, their job to see if anything could be salvaged and add to their own resources. Hospitals and military surplus yards were prime targets for the teams.

The sky had a yellowish haze to it. That was the first thing the Amelia had noticed when she exited her Raptor near the small town of Saris. It had a decent hospital and there would be plenty of medicines. As she wandered through the deserted streets a chill ran up her spine, toys, cars and other things littered the ground, remnants of lives that the people had left behind.

They arrived at the hospital and building looked to be intact, they pulled open the doors and walked inside the patients had died on their beds but other than that they seen no bodies as of yet.

She found the medicine store and loaded up their carts with different drugs and surviving equipment ad wheeling them out. They would have to go through decontamination when they got back but that was only a precaution.

But another discovery was made close to the hospital, a Nightingale class Hospital Ship. Designed in emergencies to act as a movable hospital the best medical equipment was there and she could be added to the fleet.

She did manage to recover the hospital database to see if there was anything that was useful and going to head up with them.

Seth meanwhile was dealing with another situation, very strange one mind you. The woman in Telmaya's brig

Stripped of her suit she had been dressed in a plain smock and chained to floor. Apart from the bruise on her head she was unharmed and defiant.

Seth and Hal who had been informed of her presence simply didn't know what to do with her. Seth doubted he could get more information out of her and killing her would deny them the chance to see if they get some out of her at all.

He just stared at her from behind the plastic screen and she stared back, daring each other to make the first move.

Seth moved first entering the cell

"You got a name?" Seth asked

The Cylon remained silent

"Fine then I'll just have to give you one, how about-" Seth started but she interrupted him

"Selena" she said simply without emotion

"Well Selena I don't know what to do with you. There are plenty of people out of this room who would love to get a chance for some payback and against a pretty lady like you that would doubtless mean rape" Seth said

Selena unconsciously silvered

"But I won't let them" Seth finished

She looked surprised

"You'll get two meals a day, none if you cause trouble, behave and we'll give you some other clothes, understood?" Seth asked

She nodded slightly

"Good" Seth said and left

Selena watched him leave and was puzzled by his attitude

'I just don't get it. I would have expected torture and rape, instead they're treating me…with…mercy'

Seth got to CIC were Kendra was taking the watch.

"Report" Seth said

Kendra looked up from some documents she was reading and said "No sign of any toasters and no survivors yet, in fact no bodies either"

"That's strange the towns and villages have been largely left alone and although pounded by radiation not enough to kill instantly" Seth said "And the bodies wouldn't have decomposed yet so what happened to them?"

"No idea, we've had raptors to a complete survey of the planet and no signs of survivors anywhere"

Seth pondered this but Kendra brought him out of her thoughts with a question

"Did you get anything out of the toaster?"

"No and I don't expect too. She doesn't seem to fear death"

"Then why keep her alive?"

"Simple I want to prove to her that not all humans are evil, that we don't deserve extinction, if we were evil we would use torture and rape to get her tongue loose but I refuse to descend to that level"

Kendra nodded, one of things she loved about this man was that he stuck to his morals as long as he was at the helm; they would never end up like Pegasus.

Tyler Jones meanwhile was investigating the military surplus yard, a place where the military stored equipment for their reserve or for the former ship yard. Missiles, artillery, arms both large and small, ship parts, equipment even whole support ships. Already they had recovered stocks of Class D and E warheads, additional batteries to be mounted onto Telmaya, plenty of vipers and raptors, many nuclear warheads and 4 marine troopships designed to be launched from a Battlestar.

Why the Cylons hadn't destroyed this place Tyler didn't understand. Probably thought no-one would dare come back to get anything from this place.

'Well their loss was Telmaya's gain' Tyler thought

Nearly a week later the operation was finishing up and they now had almost filled up their stores. The Nightingale was docked in Telmaya's bay because it did not have a crew of its own.

With their stocks almost full they only needed to make another stop before they left the Colonies for good.

The Olympus Anchorage

In the brig Selena looked at her new boiler suit and although it wasn't exactly stylist it was better than the smock she had had before. The guards seemed curious at her at first but seemed to mostly ignore her now, like she was just a normal prisoner. The rations were given twice like the Commander had said and so far no-one had tried to harm her.

She just didn't know what to think, but a feeling was creeping up on her

'Maybe we were wrong about them'

Next chapter - When tigers meet