Chapter 2:
Galactica Street, Boskirk City, Virgon.
1 Month Before the Fall of the Colonies.
Virgon was usually a cold planet to live on. It had skies thick with clouds and air filled with water, but for once the planet seemed awake, alive. Its inhabitants were upbeat, the city services were all running smoothly, but it all still made John uneasy.
He had felt uneasy ever since his arrival at the CFCS four months ago. He knew that whatever his trip to Kobol would mean, it wouldn't be so good for everyone else. There were, of course, many positives to the trip – as his XO, Colonel Matthew Virgon, had pointed out – but the fact that ever since they left that planet, spiritualists of all persuasions had threatened those who would return in one way or another didn't help John's nerves.
Since the meeting, he had kept true to his word. No-one except for Colonel Virgon – his life-long friend – had been told about the mission. It hadn't been easy of course, as soon as he had returned to his Raptor, in fact, Sidney had pestered him with questions. Thank the gods for Admiral Nagala's many agenda's, John thought, or he never would have been able to get Sidney to talk about anything else.
That last meeting had, in fact, been the longest John had been in for a very long time; probably the longest since the final Operations were planned at the end of the Cylon War. After they had discussed the logistics of moving thousands of people, the Admiral's had gotten in a large debate over what had happened to the Battlestar Prometheus and her fleet. The general consensus was that the fleet probably ran out of fuel or accidentally jumped into a star.
Admiral Corman's assessment was even less pleasing, and John hated to admit it had a god grounding in reality. The theory was that humanities former creations, the walking toasters commonly referred to as Cylons. They were malicious and uncompromising, facts which John knew better than most.
John had been a Viper jockey during virtually all 12 years of the conflict and had seen things he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy... unless that enemy was the Cylons themselves of course.
Currently, John was walking alone down a street in the centre of the city. John was not a tall man, but age had not made him diminutive either. His hair had been steadily grey for the last twenty-something years, a down-side to his career of military command.
Truthfully, John knew he wasn't alone. Hundreds of civilians were going about their daily lives all around him. For once – he supposed – he was one of them. Just someone going from one place to another. Except the place they were going was the Green Road Mall and he was preparing to go on what could very well be a one way trip to a world that had been abandoned for millennia.
John continued to ponder everything playing in his mind until a figure stepped out of the crowd and grabbed onto his arm from behind. John instinctively spun around and reached his hand down to his hip (where his side-arm was usually kept).
"Calm down, I'm not a Cylon," Said a familiar voice. John breathed a sigh of relief when he turned around and saw the face of not an attacker, but his Tactical Officer – and good friend – Emily Jartell.
"Miss Jartell. What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be back on the Hyperion?" John asked.
"I hope not, I was told to come and find you," Emily told John.
"Who's looking for me?" John asked.
"The XO. Says you need to get back and sort manifests, or something like that," Emily replied.
"Is that it?" John rolled his eyes. Matthew Virgon always had a habit of over-reacting. "Next time save your trips planetside for when the ship's under attack,"
"Of course sir. There was something else though," Emily said as John began to walk off.
"And what would that be Lieutenant?" John asked as he spun around to face Emily again.
"This," Emily reached into her bag she had hung over his shoulder and pulled out a brown-paper envelope which – John saw once he turned it over – had a big red stamp on it reading 'TOP SECRET'. John took the envelope and fumbled around his pockets. A moment later he pulled out a pocket knife and slit open the top of the envelope and pulled out a thick pad of paper.
On the paper were lines and lines of computer code. John never was a computer technician so he gave it a disapproving look and handed it to Emily.
"What can you make of that?" John asked as Emily began to read. John continued flicking through the other pieces of paper which were – thankfully – not written in code.
"I recognise this code," Emily said after a minute or so. John looked up and took off his own glasses and said:
"From what?" John asked her.
"From Dr. Baltar's new CNP networking. It seems almost identical to the current software we have in the fleet except for these few lines," Emily stopped and showed John a few lines of code, not that he knew what it meant. "This looks completely different. To me it looks like it could be used for long range communications. Interstellar distances. It carries on down the page here,"
"Where's this from?" John asked as he continued to scan the document.
"A shuttle that came in this morning, very 'hush-hush'. I gather Hermes even had to land it on the exterior landing pads," Emily told John as she took off her glasses and slipped the paper back into its envelope.
"I'd better get back in that case. Was there anything else?" John took the envelope as he spoke and started walking, while Emily tagged along behind.
"Sort of sir. I was also told to bring you back so we can start heading for Canceron,"
"Canceron?" John stopped and looked at Emily in confusion.
"Yes sir, Canceron," Emily said. John stared at her for a moment trying to figure it out. "Don't you remember sir? We're all going on shore leave for a couple of weeks, aren't we?"
"Oh, right," John said as a wave a relief flowed over his face. "Of course. We'd better not keep them waiting then," John turned back onto his original course and set off down the street towards the Spaceport they had landed their Raptor in on the way down.
Battlestar Hyperion, Canceron Orbit.
3 Weeks Before the Fall of the Colonies.
Compared to the warm sun and gentle breezes of Canceron, the cool filtered air of the Hyperion made John shiver through his uniform. He had just stepped out of the chartered liner that had docked inside the Hyperion's dorsal-port flight pod.
John was slowly walking down the dimly lit corridors of the Hyperion, along with the rest of the crew who had just finished their shore leave in the resorts of Northern Canceron. John mingled with a few of the crew while he walked until they reached the corridor that split off towards the CIC.
As John turned down the other corridor, he saw Emily step out from behind two black-clad Colonial Marines who turned down a different path.
"Oh, hello Admiral. I was just on my way down to see you," Emily said as she turned around and started walking alongside John.
"What's the matter?" John asked her. Emily reached her hand into her pocket and pulled out a small envelope similar to the one she had handed him on Virgon a week ago.
"This arrived this morning," She said, handing it to him. John took it and turned it over. The opening on the back had been sealed with a wax stamp, something which John had not seen used in years.
"Another undercover shuttle arrival I assume," John joked as he inspected the seal on the back.
"Far from it sir," Emily told him. John looked up from his letter and gave Emily an inquisitive look.
"How so?" He asked.
"Full pomp and circumstance, as usual," Emily's reply only added to John's confusion.
"I'm sorry, usual for what?"
"You weren't told? The Minister of Defence showed up this morning with Dr. Baltar. They told me to give this to you and direct you to your office," Emily explained to the now stunned John.
"And why did nobody think to tell me?!" John exclaimed, causing Emily to try and quiet him down.
"I thought Colonel Virgon had already told you," Emily said in a calm tone.
"He didn't," John stood seething for moment before re-collecting his thoughts. "You said they were in my office, didn't you?"
"I did,"
"In that case, tell them I'm on my way," John said, dropping the subject of Colonel Virgon's radio silence until later.
"Will do sir. See you in CIC," Emily smiled and headed back the way she came as John spun around and double-timed back to his office before the Minister would be warranted to shout at him.
It had been quite a while since John had been 'graced' with the presence of Minister of Defence, Thomas Knight. The Minister was a stuck up Caprican man, whose whole life seemed to revolve around his selfish desire to become Colonial President, a concept which terrified both John and the Council of Admirals. Now though, the Minister was accompanied by Dr Gaius Baltar, probably the only other person in the entire Twelve Colonies more egotistical and self-centred than the Minister himself. John supposed that came with the highest IQ in the Colonies, but in John's opinion it didn't excuse it.
John was now standing outside his own office door, about to do something he hadn't done since he was first given commission of the ship twelve years prior. Knock on it. John knocked lightly against the steel bulkhead and waited. A moment later, the highly exaggerated voice of Minister Knight sliced through the door.
"Come in Admiral," The Minister called. John quickly unlocked the door and heaved it open because, despite serving on similar craft for the last 50 years, John still found the bulkheads too heavy for their own good. John stepped through the threshold of his office and swung the door back into place.
As he turned to face Minister Knight and Dr Baltar, he swung his eyes around his personally decorated office. Along the left-hand walls – by his desk – where display cases containing antique maps of the Colonies, dating back to the arrival of the 12 Tribes, and all manner of cartographic and seaborne naval equipment. Along the other wall was his model collection. His collection, proudly collected during his tenures as Battlestar XO over the years featured a scale model of each ship he had served on, as well as some he hadn't (such as the Battlestar Atlantia).
While John continued to analyse every inch of his room – just to make sure nothing had been moved by the two men who had just been alone in his room – Dr Baltar walked over to the Admiral and extended a hand.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you Admiral... Jenkins?" Dr Baltar said. John rolled his eyes as he turned to face Baltar and shook his hand.
"Yes, Jenkins. Although I do believe we've met before Doctor," John told Baltar. Baltar looked taken aback as he tried to remember any previous meetings. "CapriCon, 2105?"
"Yes... I was showing off Darria Zoom, wasn't I?" Baltar asked, unconvincingly.
"I believe it was," John replied, truthfully having no idea; he was just trying to test the Doctor. "So what have you two gentlemen come here for today?"
"Well, we were hoping to talk to you about this," Minister Knight said, whilst holding out a brown card folder. John took it and pulled out a piece of paper, identical to the one Emily had given him on Virgon. At least he assumed it was the same, John didn't pay a huge amount of attention to the details the last time around.
"What is it?" John asked, assuming they didn't know about the file he received on Virgon. Dr Baltar sat down on one of the two sofa chairs in front of John's desk.
"This is my highly new Fleet Network, the Command Network Program," Baltar explained. "However, at the behest of President Adar, I have altered it especially for BS-106,"
"Oh please, call her Hyperion," John insisted. "Now what exactly have you changed?"
"Nothing at all in fact, this is just the experimental version of the software we implemented on BS-6..."
"The Battlestar Mercury?" John interrupted. Baltar nodded before continuing.
"Yes, we implemented it on the Mercury a few months ago. As it's only a trial version, there are quite a few missing elements; meaning that it is quite a bit smaller than the full system. That means that we can have it implemented into your ship's systems within a few days, a week at most," Baltar told John.
"That's very good, thank you Doctor," John said, being sure to sound superior to Dr Baltar, who was clearly attempting to take the high-ground in the discussion.
"It should allow your Fleet to function at a greater distance away from each other and help coordinate Nav points for FTL jumps quicker than the full system," Minister Knight explained. John nodded while he listened and pretended to read through the code on the paper in his hand.
"And due to it being smaller, you should be able to add more Firewalls onto it if you encounter any bugs which may or may not have more space to hide in the code," Dr Baltar said.
"Now why, Dr Baltar, would I be needing to add Firewalls? Shouldn't your software be fully capable of defending itself?" John said, hoping to bait Baltar into telling him how much he knew about John's mission.
"All software has its flaws, Admiral. Only the best are able to counter them," Baltar said, revealing to John that he – thankfully – knew nothing of his mission to Kobol.
"Well thank you for this Dr Baltar, I look forward to being able to use it," John concluded. "When can I expect it to be added, Minister Knight?"
"As soon Admiral, it's your call," The Minister told John. John nodded and started heading for the door.
"Thank you for your time Minister, and you too Doctor," John said as he reached out for the bulkhead and swung open for Dr Baltar and Minister Knight to exit through.
"You're welcome Admiral," Baltar said as he walked out of the room.
"I'll see you around Admiral Jenkins," Minister Knight added as he followed Baltar out. John gave him a quick – and not too real – smile and stepped back into his room. He breathed a quick sigh of relief and was just about to swing the door shut again when someone knocked on it. John looked up and saw Emily standing in the corridor.
"Hello again sir. Did the meeting go well?" Emily asked as she walked past him into his office.
"It was fine Lieutenant," John said unenthusiastically. "Oh, we got another lump of code," John added. "You may want to compare it with the Virgon one,"
"Will do," Emily said as she placed a clipboard down on John's desk. Behind her, John circled around to the sofa chair opposite the one Baltar had sat in and dropped into it. "What was it they were talking to you about?"
"Just that we're having new CNP installed," John told her while she sorted out the papers on his desk.
"That's good news," Emily said.
"Sort of. We're being fitted with the old experimental systems they used to have on the Mercury. Before they upgraded of course," John explained.
"When are we being fitted with it? I think the crew is getting sick of the UMCP," Emily said. John knew the crew would kick up a fuss about the experimental CNP, but he hoped they'd be alright as long as they could have a change from the UMCP they'd had on the ship for the last 10 years.
"ASAP I think..." John trailed off while he tried to remember something he was going to ask the Lieutenant. "Oh yes," He said, remembering. "I need you or Hermes to get the Leonis shipyards on the horn and see when we can get it fitted,"
"Will do... and remember you need to be at the launch ceremony of the Minerva there as well this month," Emily reminded him.
"Of course," John said. He brushed his uniform and stood up to let Emily out.
"I've got it sir," Emily told him as she grabbed her clipboard back and started walking towards the door. She swiftly unlocked the door and effortlessly opened it – an act which always greatly irritated John – and then spun around to give John a quick salute before she stepped through the door and closed it behind her.