I do not own Battlestar Galactica
Chapter 22 – Pegasus
Two days spent by as the leaders of the fleet rushed to get the ceremony ready. Commander Adama's existing uniforms were taken and tailored with new gold stitching around the cuffs and jacket, a jeweller was sought out to make the new Fleet admiral the correct rank pins. The date was arranged with the entire fleet's media in attendance. The commanders of all military ships and their XOs would be there to recognise their new commanding officer. The Civilian Assembly would also be present with most of Galactica's crew who wanted to see their leader's big day.
Laura Roslin was given the job of working with Adama to get him ready for his big day. They were sitting in his cabin going over his speech
"This position that I have been entrusted with is one of the greatest that any Colonial citizen can be granted. I vow that I will uphold the standards that this uniform stands for and to use all of my will to defend the population of this fleet" Adama read to Roslin from his own ideas "You know this makes me sound like a fictional character in war movie" he remarked to her. Laura smiled as she heard the nerves in his voice, despite how well he hid them
"Regardless it's what the people need to hear" she told him "And making this as public as we have there'll be no doubt as to who is in command of the military and no way Cain can claim that you aren't the fleet admiral you will be by this time tomorrow"
He was about to try his speech again when he and Laura heard a knocking on the door, he got up to answer it and saw to his surprise that Amelia Cartwright, his previously unknown daughter was standing there nervously biting her lip.
"Yes Lieutenant can I help you?" Adama asked and Amelia forced herself to stand straighter and say as clearly as she could
"Yes sir, I know you're busy but if you could spare a moment?" she asked and Commander Adama nodded before turning to Laura Roslin "We've covered enough today, I'd like to speak with the lieutenant alone if you please"
Laura looked conflicted; on the one hand they still had a lot to get through but she realised that both of them were tired so little further progress could be made. The man wanted to spend some time with his daughter that had been denied him because of his ex-wife. So Laura nodded and made her way to her new cabin on Galactica.
"Come in lieutenant, sit down" the Commander said and Amelia nervously made her way inside and sat down on the sofa. She looked around her and took in the homely looking cabin with the books, model ships and a few paintings that she would have loved to examine had the situation been any different. The old man sat down on the other side of the sofa and she felt his presence filling up the room
"Sir I…I trust you know about what our…relationship is?" she asked nervously hoping that he did indeed know
"Yes lieutenant, when I had suspicions I had your DNA profile from you fleet record compared to mine and your brother" he said not wanting to tell her how he had really gotten the sample and he handed her a folder which contained the test results. She flipped through it and saw the results in black and white. No denying it now.
"So sir I was hoping that maybe you could shed some light on some questions that I have?" she asked hoping to learn where she came from
"Of course you deserve to know your history" Adama said and he gave her a smile before telling her "You come from a long line of Tauron farmers, men and women who worked the land and still stood tall and proud. When the Tauron Civil War broke out our family sided with the Ha'la'tha resistance, eventually your great grandparents were killed by the Herac enforcers. My father Joseph, your grandfather moved to Caprica where he became a noted civil liberties lawyer working for the Ha'la'tha crime syndicate…" he said starting the tale that his father had told him since he was a small child enthralling Amelia as she learned the origins of her bloodline.
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The following morning, the starboard flight pod of Galactica looked spotless, perhaps the only place that was on the entire ship. A crew of cleaners had scrubbed the walls and floors leaving no place unturned and colonial banners had been hung from the high ceiling and hundreds of chairs set out so everyone could attend. A large podium had been set up in front and a sound system installed so that everyone could hear what was being said and that it could be transmitted across the fleet.
People started arriving early to get the best seats that hadn't already been reserved. The beta shift staff of Galactica took over CIC operations so that the alpha shift personnel could attend the ceremony. Colonel Tigh with his wife Ellen sat at the very front which delighted Ellen no end. Laura Roslin took the seat next to them, straining to block out Ellen's endless talking till thankfully her husband shut her up. Lee Adama sat with Kara Thrace next to Roslin, Billy and Duala after that with Galen Tyrol and Cally. Gaeta had been given the role of announcer and so he sat on the stage itself with the senior military commander and Hall Forrest. Reporters set themselves up at the front of the stage with their recording equipment.
Meanwhile William Adama took one more opportunity to look at his prepared speech on the small area behind the stage out of sight of the gathering crowd, he was nervous but would never admit it. He adjusted the jacket of his uniform and tugged at the collar as the ceremony began
Lieutenant Gaeta stepped forward to the microphone and announced to the crowd
"Today we are here to bestow upon one of our leading officers the greatest honour and responsibility that this civilisation can. Selecting this officer to the office of Fleet Admiral of the Colonial Fleet, now I call to the stand Commander William Adama and Chairman Hal Forrest" and the crowd politely clapped as the two men stepped forward letting Gaeta go to the side and sit down. The Commander walked up already in his newly altered uniform and Hal in a suit that he felt uncomfortable in but he wanted to make it look at least professional. Hal began reciting the oath of office which Adama repeated, nervously sweating as the eyes of the crowd watched intently. He could see his son and daughter smiling to him in the crowd making him feel a little better
"I William Adama" (Forrest)
"I William Adama" (Adama)
"Do hereby accept the rank and post of Fleet Admiral, Commander-In-Chief of the Colonial Military" (Forrest)
"Do hereby accept the rank and post of Fleet Admiral, Commander-In-Chief of the Colonial Military" (Adama)
"That I will with all my strength protect and defend the peoples of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol" (Forrest)
"That I will with all my strength protect and defend the peoples of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol" (Adama)
"That I will uphold the values and standards that the Colonial Military is built on" (Forrest)
"That I will uphold the values and standards that the Colonial Military is built on" (Adama)
"As long as I shall live" (Forrest)
"As long as I shall live" (Adama)
"Then I hereby present you with your badge of office, stand and be recognised Fleet Admiral William Adama" Hal Forrest said pinning the rank pins on Adama's neck so the freshly promoted flag officer stood up to the podium now with his rank pin gleaming in the light for all to see. A rousing round of applause started from the members of his crew and quickly followed by the other members of the audience as the ship commanders lead by Seth stepped forward and saluted their new commanding officer who duly saluted back and waited for the applause to die down before making his speech
"Thank you all firstly for giving me this great honour that I will my hardest to be worthy of and that I will work my hardest to accomplish. And my first order of business is to promote Commander Seth Trakiss to the rank of Commodore" he announced and Seth stepped you to the podium where he saluted his superior officer and Adama saluted back before taking Seth's commander pins and replacing them with the new commodore ones.
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D'Anna Biers was close to the action at the foot of the stage, watching Adama and Trakiss get promoted, she was hoping to get out of here so she could send her reports on the fleet back to her own people tonight. She and One had been hoping that the two commanders might have started fighting; weakening the fleet so they would be easier to destroy but it seems that was not in god's plan.
After the event finally ended and she had even managed to interview Trakiss and Adama who had politely answered her questions on their intentions before she left for her shuttle back to the ship she had based herself on, the Queen Astra. She bid her cameraman, a human goodbye as he wanted to stay on Galactica awhile longer. When she climbed abort the shuttle she noticed a very strong and young looking black man and a bunch of other men sitting on the racks of boxes that doubled as seats. She ignored them and sat on her own box as the shuttle took off, everything seemed fine until they were half way to the Queen Astra and the shuttle suddenly changed course.
"What's going on?" she asked getting up to see the pilot, only for one of the men sitting behind her to pull out a concealed Taser out of her pocket and shot it straight into her turned back. She didn't even have a chance to fight it as the volts coursed into her body sending her twitching straight to the floor. She tried to move but could only keep twitching as more electricity was sent via the two thin cables into her body. She was relieved to feel it stop only her hands to be bound while she was still recovering from the sudden attack and a syringe jabbed into her ass and felt very drowsy before falling asleep.
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Meanwhile back on Galactica, One was in his quarters enjoying or trying to enjoy an evening with the prostitute Six that was still in the fleet. His anger over the continuing failures to cause any damage to the human fleet was escalating; tonight he had smashed two desks to work out his frustration only for it to get worse. The arrival of the Telmaya fleet had made matter worse as they got better organised and equipped making his job even harder especially since no new Cylons had come forward from the new fleet, either they were still in hiding, they had been captured or executed or there weren't any. Given the size of the fleet it was unlikely but not impossible.
He took a swig of the ambrosia in his hand and Six took the bottle from him before taking a swig herself. Six gave him a sneer before pouring salt into the wound
"Well One how is your great master plan going on? You only managed to do minor damage to a badly equipped and disorganised fleet, now their bigger, more co-ordinated and on high alert" she said and One struck her across the face with his palm sending her to the ground before saying
"Your kind is only good at frakking, whatever the humans have managed to achieve they have only borrowed themselves more time" he started kicking the Six in the ribs over and over again. He was about to start on her head when he heard the hatch open and turned around to see a group of marines aiming their guns at him and then before he could say a word one of them tazered him into unconsciousness.
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"Operation Snatch was a complete success Admiral" Tyber reported to Adama, Seth and Hal the following morning "We grabbed all three of the known Cylons without them even putting up a fight. We sent the Six to the infirmary under guard; the other two are secured in separate cells isolated from each other"
"Good work Sergeant Major Jones, that Cylon prisoner of yours gave us good Intel Commodore" Adama told him and Seth
"Thank you sir, I suggest we airlock the One eventually I doubt given the character analysis that we will get anything useful out of him. Maybe we can convince the other Six given what One did to her to talk though, perhaps even defect if we're lucky. The Three I don't know, they're pretty loyal according to Selena but they're firm believers in the One God. Maybe we can use that to our advantage" Seth said to Adama who looked thoughtful and Hal asked
"How?"
"If we can convince her that god did not order this war, then it will seed doubts in her mind, add good treatment on our part and hopefully she will at least be forced to consider that they were wrong to attack us" Seth said. This approach had worked previously with Selena and he was hoping that D'Anna might be the same. The more Cylons they could convince to defect and provide valuable Intel the better
Adama thought for a moment thinking over the pros and cons of the plan. He initially wanted to airlock the lot of them immediately after interrogating them. But Trakiss had managed to get him to consider this approach as their prisoner Selena had provided a long of useful intelligence because of her own treatment at the hands of the Telmaya crew. Already Seth had actually requested moving Sharon to secured quarters and for them to find a job for her so they could hopefully get more co-operations. He had decided to grant their request but Corporal Venner was ordered to keep a close eye on her at all times.
They were interrupted from their meeting when the phone on the Admiral's desk rang, the old man went over and picked up the receiver and said "This is the Admiral"
"Admiral, this is Lieutenant Gaeta, sir the Battlestar Pegasus just appeared on long range dradis and she's not alone Admiral, there's another Battlestar with her"
"Which ship lieutenant?" Adama asked
"Identity beacons say it's the Battlestar Artemis sir, Admiral Cain is requesting permission to board Galactica" Gaeta told him and Adama grimaced as well as thanking the gods that more people had survived
"Grant her permission to board in two hours Lieutenant" Adama said before putting the receiver down and turned to the rest of the men in the room and told them
"Cain has arrived and she's brought Pegasus and Artemis"
The two men sighed in concern. They had hoped for more time before having to deal with Cain let alone the second ship that she had got with her. Both ships were Mercury class like Telmaya but while Pegasus was about eight years old, Artemis was relatively brand new. Due to the cutbacks made by the Adar administration after their mishandling of the budget no Colonial Battlestar had actually been completed in almost seven years. Any ships that had been ordered had been cancelled or never finished as was the case with Telmaya which had only been built four years ago. Finally though after three older vessels had been scrapped the Colonial military had finally managed to bleed enough money out of the President and the Quorum to allow a new Battlestar to be constructed; so just three months before the fall of the Colonies the Battlestar Artemis was completed and launched to great fanfare.
She was upgraded using many of the lessons learned by having the Mercury class in operation; she carried an additional raptor and viper squadron carrying eleven total, she only carried a heavier weapons outfit with a third turret added to her forward main battery, a greater concentration of anti-fighter and missile batteries over the hull and five additional secondary batteries spread even across the ship. Featuring the latest in Colonial technology the ship had become the symbol of the Colonial fleet in this post Cylon war age. How the ship which had been in service for only three months prior to the fall had survived Adama didn't know but that didn't matter now
"So what are we going to do?" Hal asked and Seth said
"The only option is a court-martial, we have enough evidence for a conviction but we haven't got any JAG officers"
"We can put a court together with me, Colonel Ishii and Colonel O'Donnell as the judges, you prosecute and allow Cain to choose her own advocate but knowing what we do about her, she'll probably defend herself" Adama told him and Seth nodded secretly looking forward to bringing the cold-hearted bitch down but was far too disciplined an officer to openly show it.
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Two hours later, Admiral Cain's raptor set down on the landing pad and was lowered into place. An honour guard that was required when welcoming a flag officer on-board had been arranged so that Cain would not suspect anything. The marines at the front of the honour guard and those concealed up on the gantries had already received their orders. The Raptor carrying the target came to a halt in front of the guard who stood to attention while the hatch opened.
The marines disembarked first all tall and mean looking men, next a Captain in a viper flight suit stepped out looking smug and self-assured, and then a rather stout looking Colonel before finally the target followed by the Raptor's pilot and ECO stepped out. Adama stepped forward and waited for Cain to salute, the other admiral saw his rank pins and she looked intently into his eyes trying to see deception or nerves but saw nothing and with reluctance Cain saluted and Adama then saluted her
"Admiral Cain" Adama said without expression
"Admiral Adama" Cain said challengingly but then the trap was sprung as the marines at the front of the honour guard moved forward so that they were between Cain and her officers while the marines on the gantry moved out of their positions into full view. Seth stepped forward and told the female officer
"Admiral Helena Cain, by order of the Colonial government I' am hereby placing you under arrest on charges of piracy, treason, murder and violations of the Caprican charter" and the marines quickly slapped binders on Cain, two of them dragging her away from her crew who protested loudly while the other marines held them at bay. Seth took her service weapon out of its holster and fired it into the air, silencing the Pegasus group immediately before telling them
"Colonel Fisk you will return to Pegasus with your men and co-operate fully with the investigation into the charges that have been laid against Admiral Cain and I will not tolerate any in subornation or interference from your crew and Cain will be moved to another ship after you have departed so do not even think about mounting a break out operation. A group of civilian investigators will arrive shortly on Pegasus to gather evidence led by Captain Serina Boxman, you will be providing them with any assistance they require" he told the colonel who looked at him disbelievingly wondering how the situation could have changed so quickly
"How do I know that the Admiral won't be air locked the moment we leave?" Fisk demanded and Seth gave him a stern look that made the older man back away before saying
"We are giving the admiral a trial as per her rights as a colonial citizen, she will have the opportunity to defend herself. Now Colonel" Seth said reminding the man that he was the senior officer "I suggest you follow orders or perhaps you'd like to join Admiral Cain in her cell" he said warningly and Fisk's will broke first saying
"Yes sir"
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Hope you like the new chapter, please review and let me know what you think