I do not own Battlestar Galactica
Chapter 28 – Hostilities renewed
9 months later…
"All right Boomer" Doctor Cottle said with her legs carefully placed in stirrups "push as hard as you can now"
Boomer who was screaming in agony as she gave another difficult push said panting to Chief Tyrol who was at her side "I really hate you right now Galen"
"I know I know" he told her knowing that she didn't mean it and winced as her Cylon enhanced strength nearly crushed his hand as he squeezed it himself to reassure her. Boomer gave another cry of pain as the final contraction hit and pushed with all her remaining strength only to hear the slight cry that was almost impossible to hear above her own. She and Galen looked down to see Dr Cottle holding in his arms a small naked baby. He cut the umbilical cord and had Islay wiped the baby clean and wrap him in warm towel before handing him over to his mother. Boomer was speechless as she held the precious and fragile life that she and the chief created together. He had her skin tone but he had the chief strong face and her eyes. She didn't believe that such miracles as this were possible but here was the undeniable proof, their son she thought proudly as she looked up at her husband who stroked her hair absentmindedly while staring transfixed at the newborn.
"Have you thought of a name?" Islay asked as she started to fill out the paperwork smiling at the couple as they continue to look in awe at the child they had created together. A sight that was becoming more common nowadays thankfully as a baby boom had hit the fleet's population. They were very close now or would be in a few months to breaking the 100,000 barrier.
"Nicolas" Galen Tyrol told Islay without looking over "Nicolas Tyrol"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Unaware of the events that were currently unfolding in the Galactica's infirmary on the Telmaya CIC, Seth was arriving to receive the report from the officer of the watch, his wife Colonel Kendra Shaw. As he arrived in the command centre, his tactical officer Lieutenant Amelia Adama stood up and called out to her fellow bridge officers and crew "Admiral on deck" in short order they all stood up and saluted as Seth walked onto the CIC now wearing his new Rear Admiral rank pins. Seth wasted no time for saying "at ease" allowing them all to sit down and return to their normal duties.
"Report Colonel" he said turning to his wife who smiled before giving him a verbal account of the shift before he left to join the military command meeting aboard Galactica in an hour.
"No enemy contracts Sir, the fleet continues to move on without incident one ship had a minor mechanical breakdown but it was quickly resolved by the on-board maintenance team. Captain Boxman has reported that she has completed her daily exercises with the pilots and the whole ship is reporting top efficiency in all sections" Seth nodded smiling himself when the communications Petty Officer Ross Perkins said jokingly
"That's 9 months without any enemy contacts maybe they got tired and went home" only for Seth to give him a very intense glare
"9 months it may have been since we saw the Cylons but all it takes is one slipup and they could be right on top of us again. I very much doubt they have forgotten about us so we shouldn't forget about them" he told them all sternly before turning back to his wife and telling her "Thank you Colonel continue the watch" Kendra nodded before returning to duty as he made his way down to the hangar deck. Waiting for him was the newly minted Lieutenant Sharon Agathon, the number 8 that had defected to the fleet with Helo Agathon. After being locked up in a cell till very recently or otherwise in confined quarters she had now been granted permission to serve in the colonial military as a pilot working with the husband. The 2 of them were happily raising their daughter Hera on-board Galactica and slowly Sharon was proving herself to the pilots and hopefully earning some trust. The day she had been assigned duty of bringing him to the flagship for the meeting of the military command.
"At easily Lieutenant Agathon" he told Sharon as she saluted "shall we get underway?" He added trying to be social when she smiled and led him back into the raptor where her husband sat waiting saluting Seth the moment he saw him. Seth told him to stand down before they hatch closed and the raptor was slowly launched into space. Hera and Nicholas were the 1st and 2nd hybrids in the fleet but soon there would be more Selena was now pregnant while by Marine that she had been seeing who had actually been her guard but she wasn't due to give birth for another 2 months. D'anna Biers was also pregnant by her cameraman. The Man may have been a simpering fool but he adored the ground she walked on and their baby wasn't due for another 4 months. The assembly had decided to allow the pregnancies for at first for research purposes but then later it became apparent that despite whatever physical differences that were the hybrids were in a sense just normal children and so they were given rights as all colonial citizens given when the born.
The raptor very quickly arrived on Galactica and after being lowered into the hangar deck, where Seth carefully disembarked before heading straight to his meeting with the other members of the military command. He walked through the corridors nodding to crew members as he passed before arriving at the room where the meeting was to be held. He realised that he must be nearly the last to get here as he saw the other ship commanders already standing in the room talking to each of the quietly as they waited for the Fleet Admiral to arrive. He walked over to Beatrix Ishii who greeted warmly before they were interrupted by the arrival of William Adama. At his arrival they all took their seats in the circular table at the centre of the room. The military command as it had become known was made up of all the military ship commanders in the fleet as well as the representative from the assembly Laura Roslin, Director Nash of their intelligence network and finally General Hanna Rand of the colonial Marine Corps.
"Right" Fleet Admiral Adama said "let's get this over soon and I know we all have other business to attend too" he told them taking his own seat head of the table "status of all military vessels" he said introducing the 1st topic. Each ship commander reported individually about the condition of their vessels and if nothing else the long period of silence between Cylon attacks had allowed them to carry out a lot of maintenance on the vessels which have previously been lacking so all ships were now running at more or less peak efficiency. Then it was the intelligence Director Nash to turn to report
"There has been some unrest in the fleet" Nash told them "most of them feel the tightened security is now chafing them given that this has been no contact with the Cylons in so long"
"Just because we haven't seen them doesn't mean that they aren't there" Commander Sheba Cain said speaking up "after all the trouble they went to destroy our home worlds in the 1st place I don't think they're going to give up just like that"
"Be that as it may" Laura Roslin said speaking up for the 1st time "the people feel the need for freedom, we've been operating a pretty tight security regime in the name of catching Cylon agents keeping everyone safe. Maybe we should relax security a bit?" She looked around the room and saw the unwillingness to cooperate in her military and civilian counterparts before Seth spoke up
"If we can go for another month without contact with the enemy maybe we can think about relaxing security until then I suggest we keep the existing security measures in place" and his fellow ship commanders all nodded around him.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Gina was sitting in a lab surrounded by computers, the lab had once belonged to Gaius Baltar but she had taken possession of it after she was released from the infirmary. At the behest of everyone that had become involved with her since her release from custody she had been given the job of developing not only colonial technology but of expanding the fields of science. Security measures were of course in place, all these computers were separate from each other in a networked sense with any other on the rest of the ship but they had allowed her to develop ideas that she had that could really help the colonial cause. At the moment she was working on a new navigation system that would enable FTL calculations to be made much more safely and allow new methods for charting the universe. She had the idea of utilising long-range telescopes to measure the ambient radiation put out by stars and other stellar phenomena essentially creating a map of radiation and its sources. But disruptions created in the field by planets or asteroids for example allowed them to calculate the location in space of objects ahead or behind. Her idea had been met with great enthusiasm by the civilian assembly and military command as with her system calculating jumps would be much safer because now they were able to see out further than their existing instruments allowed. She was completing the prototype for the forthcoming test when the door to her cell opened and Sharon Agathon walked in.
"Good morning" Sharon said smiling "how's breaking laws of physics going for you?" She added jokingly. Sharon and Gina had come to know each other as the restrictions regarding contact were slowly rescinded by Admiral Adama. Even though the pair had been welcomed by most of the crew some still treated them as outsiders so having someone to talk to who is in a very similar situation to yourself was a blessing for all the Cylon women involved. John the 1 that had defected was currently the only Cylon still confined but that was actually out of his own choosing saying that he preferred solitude to meditate on the universe and matters of the soul.
"Going quite well thank you how is Hera?" Gina asked warmly. She loved Sharon's daughter the bright young girl who always wanted to see her 'Aunty' Gina who loved talking and playing with the girl. She was frighteningly intelligent for a child of that age but still undeniably happy and excitable little girl.
"Hera is doing fine I just came here to keep you company while Helo spend some quality time with her" Sharon told Gina now sitting on a still opposite. Gina put down her tablet knowing that she had done all she could today and her and Sharon began trading gossip as they pulled out deck of cards to start playing triad.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The meeting of the military command had finished and now each member was leaving to return to their individual ship. Seth walked to the hangar deck with William Adama as the two men discussed in private the matter of the lack of Cylon attack.
"They're out there all right" Bill agreed with Seth. No way after all the trouble that Cylons had gone to would it be so easy to either shake them off or for the Cylons just to give up.
"I think the problem just biding their time, waiting for us to get sloppy" Seth suggested and Bill nodded in agreement having had similar thoughts himself, they might have relaxed restrictions on the Cylons within the fleet that were working for them but both men were still keenly aware that the Cylons outside the fleet could still be a threat whatever had been said about them having a reprieve or a peace movement gaining momentum attacks had still happened after they received that information.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
As the 2 admirals talked however in the medical bay of Telmaya, Doctor Tally Forego was teaching her new student Rya Kibby the basics of medical care starting with first aid.
"Now show me the recovery position" Tally told her and thankfully this time Rya got it right putting the practice mannequin in the right position to make sure that if unconscious the airway was clear and if the patient began to be sick they wouldn't choke on their own vomit. "Well done" Tally told Rya who smiled in gratitude before resetting the dummy so she could begin familiarising them herself with what to do in hazardous environments. Like with loose cables hanging around or if a fire was beginning what she had to do for the safety of her patient. Rya had been granted asylum on board Galactica after running away from her abusive parents and hoping to get an abortion for the pregnancy she had been forced on her by her family and arranged fiancé. While she had been forced to carry on with the pregnancy given the banning of abortions by the assembly she had been granted asylum on board the military ship specifically Telmaya to keep us safe from the family. Now that the pregnancy had run its course Rya hoped to find a job on board the ship rather than allow herself to become a stay at home mother and dependent on the military. The new day-care had been established for the children of the crew as despite many of them being merely teenagers themselves or in the very early 20s they had begun to have children it was run by Leela, the mother of Seth Trakiss and her daughters. They gladly took care of Rya's young daughter Nyssa while the teenage mother studied to become a medic.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After another short raptor ride Seth return to his own ship and after brisk walk arrived back on the CIC to relieve Colonel Shaw but then just before they could speak the dradis alarm went off as new contacts began jumping into range it only took a moment for Amelia to identify them
"Admiral we have eight Cylon Base ships incoming they are launching raiders with weapons hot" and Seth immediately wasted no time and despite the nearly 9 months since he had had to do this ordered "action stations action stations set condition one throughout the ship"
All the ships of the fleet had been caught unawares long period of silence making them drop their guard but military discipline quickly took over on the warships getting them to sure up in preparation for the oncoming attack. With practised ease the civilian ships began jumping away to the emergency coordinates while the military covered their escape.
The ferocity of Cylon attack after over a year of relative peace threw the colonial pilots who had gotten used to long silent patrols and short boring caps. This was only momentary however as they quickly got used to dogfighting in real life or death situations again, the capital ship gunnery crews kept from fresh by their hours and hours of drilling targeted the base ships with pinpoint accuracy has the high explosive shells tore into the far more fragile organic warships. More and more civilian ships left the scene for the emergency rendezvous point as the military kept up its defensive screen and inflicted some damage to the Cylon warships then as the last of civilian vessels the freighter called Kobol's Saga jumped away the military capital ships began the immediate combat landings of all fighter craft while they prepared to jump themselves. The Vipers quickly slammed down onto the deck as gracefully as possible given their tremendous speed as the gunners on the big carrier ships did their best to hold off the pursuing raiders till they were all on board.
Some Vipers where to shot down as they dashed for the carriers and some missiles struck the carriers themselves till thankfully the last of the pilots touched down on the battlestars allowing them to jump away.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A quick emergency meeting of the Military Command and Civilian Assembly was held to determine their course of action given the renewed hostilities with the Cylons and it was quickly decided to reassert the old protocols from over a year ago with heightened security in case of saboteurs and more regular patrols would be conducted amongst others. Everyone was waiting with bated breath as a few hours later Admiral Adama transmitted message to the rest of the fleet
"To the population of the fleet this is Admiral Adama as I'm sure you're all aware a few hours ago the Cylons broke their year-long silence with a renewed attack against us. As I told the crew of my own vessel on the day that the colonies fell as of this moment we are at war. The colonies now asks for every man and woman does their duty as to survive we must stand together as one. We must stay together, united by common goal to survive and find a new home. Now that the Cylons have renewed their attack our vigilance must not cease. Because I will not and never will stop fighting and I ask that you all do the same because together we will make it".
As everyone of the fleet's roughly 100,000 strong population listened to their wireless receivers, in the medical bay on Galactica a young woman was still sleeping after nearly a year. It was the same model six Cylon had been so cruelly beaten by the model one that had been on Galactica before his capture and death. Even after all this time she had never shown any signs of stirring from her endless sleep when for no apparent reason the life support that was keeping her alive suddenly failed. Doctor Cottle rushed over with his nurses and tried to resuscitate her but she didn't respond and slipped away. Doctor Cottle told his nurses to have that particular equipment checked for faults its sudden failure was a complete mystery and one that he wanted solved quickly only for the technicians to tell him there was nothing wrong with the equipment, it was as if it had just simply been switched off by something they couldn't see.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
For those who've long awaited this update I apologise. The weeks at uni and other events in my life took away my time to write
I have had to move this on to get in season three services just a chapter to get us there please let me know what you think