I do not own Battlestar Galactica
Chapter 19 – Discoveries
On the Battlestar Colossus, the new commanding officer Colonel Miranda Colchester was sitting in her new cabin, the former cabin of her late commanding officer Paul Jeffs. Paul had been an avid sports fan and Caprica Buccaneers memorabilia had been stuffed into every square millimetre of the large personal quarters. It had removed and placed into storage till they could decide what to do with it, Miranda however had a different hobby she liked to paint. She had a large stash of painting supplies on-board from before their strange trip through time and had made sure to get as much from the fleet as she could by trading some of the Commander's old memorabilia before putting the rest into storage.
Her family had just arrived in the fleet yesterday. She looked at her two kid brothers who were now both in the fifties and older than her by twenty years whereas she could remember them as ten year old nuggets who used to play viper pilots with their much older sister like it was yesterday. They each had families of their own now, so she got to meet her sisters in law and her many nieces and nephews. Both her parents were long dead and she struggled to cope with the changes that had happened. She should be in her seventies now; she should have had a family of her own and spent the years growing old with them. She put her head in her hands as she felt her head hurt and her eyes starting to well up with tears. If Paul had been here he would have joked with her about it, made her laugh so she didn't feel so overwhelmed but with him gone she didn't have anyone to turn too.
She was disturbed from her distress by a signal from the phone on her desk and she wiped her eyes before picking up the phone and answering "Colonel Colchester" as formally as she could still not comfortable with being as informal with her crew as Paul had been.
"Sorry sir but Commander Trakiss is requesting an audience with you later today. What should I tell him?" Lieutenant Alyssa Okinawa said and Miranda felt surprise before apprehension set in as to why he was being so covert. Miranda thought for a moment before saying
"Tell him he can come aboard at 16 hundred hours and not to be late" she told her Tactical Officer, meaning to make a statement with Trakiss that whatever he had to say, it had better be good and not to waste her time.
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"The hair, the eyes, hell Dad she looks just like us and mom" Lee said managed to say still in shock forgetting to refer to him as a senior officer for once.
"The only people I've ever seen with those eyes are Adama men" Kara said who was as shocked as Lee
"Me and Carolanne always talked about having a daughter but it never happened and despite what she might have thought I stayed loyal to her all through our marriage and didn't touch another woman for nearly a year after and I definitely used protection" Adama remarked but he couldn't shake the familiarity the young lieutenant had to not only him but his former wife as well.
Saul of course pointed this out "That girl is a dead ringer for your ex-wife Bill. You sure you didn't have any other kids?" he said sarcastically
Adama silenced him with a glare but then a thought leapt into his mind
"Wait a minute, wait a minute" he said massaging his temples as the enormity of it sank in "I slept with Carolanne a couple of months before we divorced, I forgot to use protection. And a couple of months later I took Lee and Zak on that vacation to Picon" he said
"Yeah they had that viral outbreak so the planet was quarantined, we were stuck there for six months" Lee said remembering the trip "Mom said she was ill before we left and wanted some time to get better without us there" Lee added as pieces of a puzzle he hadn't known existed started to fall into place in his mind.
"If Carolanne was pregnant she could have had the baby and given it up rather than deal with me about it" Adama said remembering how reluctant the woman had been to have Lee and Zack originally but he had convinced her to keep them. The timing was slim but it was so farfetched that it might just be possible.
"Commander this sounds like a plot from a Caprica Soap opera" Chief Tyrol said as he felt they were getting a bit too wild with this "I mean the chances of this have got to be millions to one against"
"You could have a DNA test done to be sure?" Laura suggested and Lee just shook his head
"What frakking grounds do we have to even ask that when we only just met the girl and if you haven't noticed she's Telmaya's officer"
"How about a physical?" Starbuck suggested and everyone turned to her "I mean ship regulations say that while she's on the Galactica you can demand a physical because she's coming from an outside environment" everyone looked at her in surprise, not so much at the idea, it was a very good one but the fact that Starbuck had suggested it showing for one of those really rare moments that she was actually a highly intelligent and dedicated officer, instead of just a rude and rebellious fighter jock. Saul said while they mulled it over
"If you used that brain of yours all the time Starbuck you would probably outrank Apollo" Commander Adama had to agree with this. As dedicated an officer as Lee was he was perhaps too much by the book, Starbuck providing she toed the line could be one of those officers that could be innovative and quick thinking in any situation and was really only held back in her career at least by her contempt for most senior officers and general insubordination.
Adama reached for his phone and called up first the hanger bay to make sure that the mystery lieutenant didn't leave the ship, and then to Doctor Cottle to tell him to prepare to do a physical exam and while he was at it, covertly take a DNA sample.
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Amelia was just loading up the last of the boxes of logs on to the Raptor that was going to take her back to her ship when a young brunette deckhand came up to her and said
"Sorry sir" Cally said "But Commander Adama is ordering that you have a physical before leaving Galactica" and Amelia stopped and looked puzzled
"What for? I just had one from Doctor Forego on Telmaya last week and if you haven't noticed Adama isn't my commanding officer" she said indicated her ship patch but Cally and the other deckhands around her fixed her with a hard gaze
"Maybe but on this ship you will follow his orders" Cally said firmly and with a sigh Amelia turned to the pilot of the Raptor and told him
"Take the files back, I'll get another ride back to the ship" and the pilot nodded before Amelia disembarked and was pretty much frogmarched by the deckhands to the infirmary where the gruff Doctor who greeted her told her to strip to her tanks and took a blood sample before starting the regulation tests.
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Two hours later, an annoyed Amelia had finished and past the tests with flying colours before mumbling all the way in a not so cheerful tone all the way to the hanger deck where she caught a fresh raptor to Telmaya. Commander Adama and Lee waited till she was gone before going to the infirmary and talking to Cottle
"Okay so apart from wasting my time, what was that about?" Cottle asked with his signatory cigarette in his mouth and Bill told him
"I need you to run a DNA test, the lieutenant's against ours" and Cottle looked up with surprise and suspicion on his face
"Anything I should look for in particular?" he asked
"Just do the test" Lee told him as Lee and his father rolled up the sleeves to allow Cottle to take blood samples for the test. He went off to his tiny lab while they waited anxiously in the infirmary which was mercifully empty
"What if she is family dad? What then?" Lee asked but Bill had no clear answer to give him feeling the same turmoil as his son and wondering if this was all a complete coincidence
"I don't know Lee" Bill told him and they grimaced when Cottle re-entered the room with a strange expression on his face that they couldn't read making them more nervous than before
"Well Doc, what did it show?" Bill asked and Cottle looked him straight in the eye
"From your sample there was match between her and you commander on the paternal side, on Captain Adama's side there is a clear match from both paternal and maternal contributors" he said "Basically you are her father and your son is her full blood brother"
The deck plating could have fallen away and left the two of them drifting in space and they probably wouldn't have noticed given how much shock them were in. They had been half hoping that this was a mistake and they could just make themselves feel a little embarrassed before moving on, but this changed everything. They thanked the Doctor before returning to the Commander's cabin to have a stiff drink of ambrosia each.
"What now dad?" Lee asked his head still in a spin
"We figure out a way to tell her and go from there, the move after that will be hers to make" Bill said as he downed the drink and poured another round as his son followed suit
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The next day, Laura Roslin took a Raptor to Telmaya where a special meeting of the Civilian Assembly had been called. She was put in a seat near the outskirts of the room till they had settled most of their outstanding business and she was impressed at how methodically the elected chairperson Hal Forrest listened to each point before calmly and carefully making a solution and guiding the discussion. He didn't look like any politician she had ever seen. He wore not a suit but rather a set of overalls that despite being clothes for physical labour made him appear tough and made a statement about him, he was a normal hardworking man and many of the representatives in the congress dressed in the same way. Despite never having met them before she felt more at ease with these people than her own quorum and tugged nervously on her suit, feeling that she might be overdressed. Billy who was sitting at her side did the same and he held the notes they had compiled on the condition of their own fleet
"The floor is now open to President Laura Roslin of the Galactica fleet" Hal Forrest called out and as calmly as she could she made her way to the speaker chair to address the representatives who watched her intently making her feel like an animal going to the slaughter. She took her place and spoke as calmly as she could
"Representatives thank you for meeting with me today and may I say again that it is wondrous to see you all" she said with a big smile that was returned by some but others stared at her with blank expressions
"I stand before your today" Laura continued "hoping that we may share our resources to hopefully ease the situations in both our fleets" and the expressions went from blank to distrustful and the smiles faded somewhat
"If you mean to exchange supplies then I would request a copy of fleet's combined inventory and rationing policies" Hal Forrest said interrupting her and a murmur of support began amongst the members of the congress
Laura responded quickly "Yes my assistant has copies for you" she said and Billy taking his cue quickly moved forward to hand them to Hal who carefully read them before scanning them into the display in front of him to let the others read them before he commented
"There is very little you could give us that we don't already have President Roslin" Forrest told her causing her to almost groan before he added "And your rationing system is woefully inefficient, this is a very biased and corrupt system, who designed it may I ask?" he said seeing how much of the supplies was not evenly distributed and the ship captains and quorum members had the greatest slice
"Our Vice President Gaius Baltar" she answered deflecting the blame away from her as it was the truth. Baltar had made changes to the system when he came into power that she had been unable to stop since the quorum in its own greed had agreed with him. As long as he didn't go hungry or the politicians didn't go hungry that was all that mattered to them. She herself gave most of her rations to the orphaned children that had come to live on Colonial One
"And your fleet elected such a woefully ill-equipped man to ensure their survival" a female representative in a pilot's uniform asked and Laura saw their dislike in their eyes
"Gaius Baltar is a charismatic man when he wants to be and there was no other candidate at the time who had any sound policies" Laura told them and Hal took a moment before saying
"We have every intention of helping you Ms Roslin but we do not want to see our donations wasted because of the corruption in your system" Forrest told her making it quite clear that anything they gave would be a gift rather than fair trade and that their political system was wasteful in a situation where it could not afford to be
"In addition" he added "The distribution of your population in quite varied, some ships are over populated while some are nearly empty why is this?" he asked her
"Many of our ships came from specific colony groups which were reluctant to uproot" she said. She had tried to get them to even out the loads out between ships but with every else that was going on she hadn't been able to get back to that issue
"Maybe so but it's an issue that needs to be dealt with" Hal said before they carried on with their meeting
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In his own private quarters which were luxurious compared to how most of the fleet was living, Gaius Baltar lay in bed with a very naked Playa Palacios who had approached him for an exclusive only for them to have a very enjoyable afternoon and evening. He was only just waking when he heard a voice that he was growing used to although her presence still mystified and scared him
"Gaius" the soft and husky voice said and he moved his head slightly so he didn't wake Playa who was still fast asleep and saw Virtual Six in that red dress sitting at the foot of his bed with her long legs crossed looking at both him and Playa with disgust and what might be jealousy
"You're incapable of keeping it in your pants aren't you Gaius" she said clearly a statement rather than a question "This incredible gift from god comes and all you can think about in getting into another woman's pants" she added with a sneer
He answered quietly and with a slight shake in his voice "You mean the Battlestar Telmaya and its fleet?" he asked wanting confirmation
"Of course their fleet, if you don't keep up you'll be left behind Gaius and be of no use to us" she said firmly and he almost got up with a start but a sleepy mumble from Playa stopped him and he settled back down
"I can still be useful" he insisted and Virtual Six just shook her head before saying in her patronising way
"This fleet is already without even meaning too causing changes in the destinies of everyone both human and Cylon with just their presence, one of my own model has already defected to them, she was supposed to stay loyal to the Cylons to continue to fight for the extermination of humans till she passed into God's hands one day, granted she had already started to question whether the war was right or not but that is beside the point. Humans who were supposed to die will now remain to fight and perhaps begin life anew restarting the cycle" she told him. A lot of what she had said he didn't understand but basically he did realise that he might be rendered unimportant or even useless if this trend continued "You'd had best become useful again Gaius or I will find another to help instigate God's plan" and with that said she vanished into thin air like she had never been there leaving a scared Gaius behind who suddenly felt very cold despite the warmth of the bed and Playa's body.
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What do you think?
I recently got a PM asking me if this story was abandoned and it is not. The real world doesn't give me much time for writing these days so I just do as much as I can when I have the time