I do not own Battlestar Galactica
Chapter 18 –Reunions and Rumblings
While the two Commanders and the President had their discussions, on the hanger deck Lieutenant Kara Thrace 'Starbuck' and Captain Lee Adama 'Apollo' were admiring the Mark 8 Vipers that had brought the Telmaya pilots to Galactica.
"It's a beauty isn't it" a voice from behind them, they turned to see the young brown haired woman from Telmaya who bore the captain rank pin "You can look but don't touch" she said with a bit teasing voice. She looked quite doe like with a gently rounded face and bright brown eyes, Starbuck couldn't take her seriously. In her mind she wasn't tough enough to be a Viper jock.
"You sure you can handle her?" Starbuck decided to tease, waiting for the outburst of anger that would confirm in her mind that she wasn't mature enough but was disappointed when the younger woman only smiled and continued talking as if she hadn't heard her "She's a great piece of engineering, she's immune to jamming like the Mark 2, she's got improved speed and handling and she's got more firepower than the Mark 7 and Telmaya's got two hundred of them" she smiled and Lee nearly choked
"Two hundred" Lee exclaimed "That's ten full squadrons on just your flagship"
"Actually we only have eight available at one time but we keep the other two squadrons in reserve. Just the standard layout for air groups on Mercury class battlestars" Serina explained "We had the parts for a hundred and eighty in storage when we started and by melting down the old Mark 3's we had and remaking them into new Mark 8 we brought it up to full capacity"
"You can make your own Vipers?" Starbuck asked
"As long as we have the materials yes. We can actually do it faster than other Mercury class ships as we have the improved facilities" Serina told them proudly as Lee and Starbuck and the Deck Chief who had overheard them looked a little jealous. Chief Tyrol dragged Serina away so they could talk about getting new parts for the Galactica and if they would be so kind, new Vipers.
Then a boy dressed as a civilian called out after pushing his way through the crowds
"Starbuck" the indicated pilot and Lee turned around and saw the young boy Boomer had rescued from Caprica who called himself Boxy
"Hey kid, how are you?" asked Starbuck
"Okay missing Galactica though" he said wistfully then he saw the Mark 8 "Is that the new Viper that the new fleet brought?" the young boy asked her and Starbuck gritted her teeth at his enthusiasm over the newer Viper
"Yeah it is but the old ones are still the best ones" she said and she saw the too-young captain Serina coming back. Serina took one look at Boxy and seemed to have forgotten to breathe, before a massive smile broke out on her face and she called out with joy
"Boxy" the aforementioned boy turned to look at whoever had shouted his name and his face brightened immediately
"Serina" he called out and the two of them ran to meet each other and leapt into each other's arms and laughed happily as the taller Serina swung them around as she held her brother tightly in her arms
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The fleets out together a list of all those within each and give it to the other. There were several great reunions, such as Billy who was swamped by his parents, sister and her children nearly crushing him with a family group hug but he could only laugh as tears of joy rolled down his face. The families of the crew of the Battlestar Colossus were so happy when they discovered that their loved ones had not been killed forty three years ago merely misplaced in space and time by the vortex opened in the Shredder's field that the whole ship was having one huge party.
The fleet was in a state of celebration, in a single day the number of Colonial survivors had risen from 47,853 to 82,765 nearly doubling their numbers. Other pleasant surprises were also in store.
One the hanger deck of Galactica, Chief Tyrol and his deck gang were surprised when two carts carrying a load of factory fresh parts were wheeled in and a card left on the top of the pile, Chief Tyrol went over and opened the card and read the message out loud to his knuckledraggers
"To the Galactica deck gang, a little something from us to you. Have fun; from the Telmaya deck gang" and he looked over all the parts they sent and Cally picked up a big turbine and grinned
Meanwhile on the CIC a group of young officers led by Lieutenant Cartwright entered and approached Lieutenant Gaeta and presented him with cases containing computer storage drives and charts on paper
"What's this?" Gaeta asked
"These are navigational updates, software patches and system upgrades" she told him "We know you had to wipe your computers so here is the Telmaya's complete digital library, everything from the scrolls of Pythia to the Articles of Colonisation" she told him and Gaeta looked over what he was being given to install on Galactica.
"Is there any porn in there?" Gaeta asked and Amelia gave him a withering stare
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
Commander Adama had told his people to gather as much information as they could about the new fleet as they could; when they were done they gathered in his quarters to discuss what they'd found out.
"Well, what have we got?" Commander Adama asked and the assembled group which included Laura Roslin and her assistant Billy.
"Well we know that the Telmaya is a fully equipped fighting machine that could run us down like dogs on a highway if it got to a shooting war" Tigh said as he was nursing a glass of ambrosia "I spoke with their XO about caps around the fleet"
Flashback…
Colonel Tigh was sitting in a storage room on Galactica's flight deck discussing joint caps around the combined fleets with Colonel Sheba Cain
"So what's Trakiss like?" Tigh asked casually trying to start a conversation
"Officer's discretion?" Sheba asked
"Of course" Tigh said hoping to learn something about the young crew of Telmaya, but still trying to get over the fact that his opposite was so young.
"He's strong, when he's chosen a course of action he'll stick with it to the end. Every order he gives has a purpose and he's constantly thinking about protecting the fleet" Sheba told him and Tigh almost smiled
"What's Adama like?" Sheba asked
Tigh answered "The exact same, wouldn't have made it this far without him" and Sheba nodded giving a small smile and asked a business question
"How many squadrons have you got?" she asked so they could divide the load evenly
"We can field two full squadrons" Tigh told her "Colossus can field three more" and Sheba's smile faded and she massaged her temple
"That means were going to have to take the major of the work" she said and Tigh asked "How many squadrons do you have?"
"Telmaya's got ten and the Rycon and Vulcan can give four more each. Achilles can hold two and Ulysses can field one" Sheba told him and it made him want to get a drink.
"You've got four hundred and twenty vipers" he asked exasperated and Sheba looked up at him thinking nothing of it
"Yeah, Telmaya can build her own Vipers if the materials are available and most of the ships still had the majority of their air wings intact" Sheba told him "Plus we have simulators to help train new pilots quicker, if we can find the materials we can build some new vipers and train some new pilots for you if you like"
Tigh's head was spinning and it had nothing to do with drink but he had to ask "What about the big ships themselves?"
Flashblack ends…
"In short she told me that all their ships were in full working order and well manned" Tigh told them
"That's a heck of a lot of fighters and firepower at their disposal" Lee said and he reported what he'd learned from the pilots he'd talked too.
"The crews of the military ships are loyal to Trakiss, they'll side with him over us" Lee told them all "apparently they don't like to trust outsiders because of the last few experiences they've had with senior officers"
"What do mean previous experiences?" Lieutenant Gaeta asked
"Well the first time they met a senior officer was when they ran into the Rycon, he turned out to be Cylon who tried to start a shooting war between Telmaya and Rycon. The second time, they were led into a Cylon trap, they barely got out alive and then there the rumours they've heard about Admiral Cain" Lee told them
"Rumours about Admiral Cain, what's that got to do with us?" Starbuck asked
"Apparently the Pegasus survived the fall of the Colonies and has been striking Cylon targets and stripping any Colonial survivors they find" Lee told them and Laura was shocked
"You mean…" she started to say
"They took whatever they wanted and then left the civilians to die" Lee told her and they all looked shocked
"Well that could be a problem if we run into Pegasus" Commander Adama said but knowing the odds of that were incredibly remote
"Maybe but I think it's safe to assume that Trakiss is not going to accept you as a senior officer" Tigh told his CO and long-time friend "Regulations might but he and his people won't"
"Well maybe you two could compromise, figure out a plan to protect the fleet together" Laura suggested
"Once Trakiss and I have exchanged logs I'll look into it. Reading his logs will help me put him in context, and he'll be doing the same thing to put me into context" Adama said and then Roslin brought up something that was bothering her
"I've noticed that Telmaya's been supplying Galactica" Laura said and Adama nodded
"She's been resupplying Galactica from her own Military reserve" Adama told her, remembering the happy looks on Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant Gaeta when they'd received the supplies
"Which I fully support but when are those supplies going to get to the rest of the fleet?" Roslin asked "I've got ships on half rations and mechanical failures across the fleet but so far Galactica is getting its needs met"
"What we've been receiving is purely military equipment" Chief Tyrol told her "We've managed to get ten vipers back in working order and restore our computers too"
"I believe Trakiss said that if you wanted to get supplies you'd have to make an appeal to the civilian authority" Adama reminded her and she almost sighed in frustration as she rubbed the bridge of her nose
"They said I can meet with them tomorrow but they refuse to recognise me as the President of the Colonies" Laura said annoyed
"Be careful Madam President, push them too hard and they might deny you the supplies out of anger" Billy told her "They are a fully functioning civilian government with its own policies, rationing systems, a small non-military police force and even a civilian based engineering corps" they all looked at him
"Where did you get all that Billy?" Laura asked
"My father, he was in their fleet and is now the head of the engineer corps, doing maintenance across their fleet" Billy told them but before anyone could ask him another question there was a knock on the hatch door.
Commander Adama got up and opened the hatch only to be taken aback when he saw who it was that was knocking. For a moment he saw a woman with blond hair and he nearly exclaimed Carolanne. But his better sense returned to him swiftly and he saw a young lieutenant who could be older than twenty. She was just like Carolanne in her facial features and her build despite being younger in age, but there were differences that made it even more disconcerting. Her hair was jet black, just like his had been and Lee's was. But also there were her eyes; they were the same shade of piercing blue that both he and his son had. He shook himself out of his observations and noticing the Telmaya insignia on her uniform asked
"Can I help you Lieutenant?" she gave a slight smile and said
"I have Commander Trakiss's logs as you requested sir" the young officer said and the cart behind her with some boxes piled on it "And to pick up the copies of your logs" she said reminding him this was an exchange rather than just one sided
"Yes come in" he said as stepped aside to let the lieutenant in who wheeled the cart in with the boxes. The other people in the room looked up to see who was coming in and Lee and Starbuck's jaws almost dropped when they saw the younger woman and Tigh's eyes widened. They could see what they recognised as Adama traits in the young officer and the target of their stares quickly made her uncomfortable.
"Will all due respect will you please stop staring?" she said firmly as she put the carts with Trakiss's logs next to Adama's desk and picked up the cart that was loaded with Adama's own logs.
Everyone realised what they were doing and averted their eyes somewhat, but Commander Adama had to ask her some questions
"What's your name lieutenant?" and she turned to face him frowning slightly
"Lieutenant Amelia Cartwright sir" she told him respectfully and before she could go back to collecting the logs he asked her another question
"Where are you from Lieutenant Cartwright?" he asked and her frown intensified but keen to leave she answered his question hoping to end his questions
"An orphanage on Caprica Commander Adama" she told him and while he recognised that she didn't want to answer any more questions Lee then asked one of his own as both father and son's suspicions mounted
"How old are you?" and Amelia looked at him with a glare forgetting that he was a captain and she was only a lieutenant
"Not that it's any business of yours but I'm nineteen years old" she snapped and before anyone else could ask her any more questions she grabbed the cart baring Adama's logs and wheeled it out the open door closing it behind her. There was silence for a moment before Tigh said
"What the hell?"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX