Chapter 7:

Battlestar Hyperion, Inter-planetary Space, Cyrannus System

05:02 PFT

It had only been an hour since the Cylons had been repelled off of the Hyperion and Major Sidney 'Spinner' Halway was already late. The Major had been hanging around the hangar with his pilots, attempting to take their minds off of the perilous situation with a bottle of Gemenese scotch that Crow had 'found' during the standoff with the Centurions. Now, however, Spinner and a couple of his compatriot pilots were charging along the corridors trying the quickest way back to CIC. They had only managed to take the top off the bottle when a stressed CIC Ensign appeared at the table and dragged Spinner, Hera and Crow back to CIC for a pre-planned meeting Spinner assumed had been called off after the boarding, but that was clearly not the case.

More and more hapless crewmembers were knocked out of the way of the group as they ran further into the ship, only stopping to climb a ladder or some stairs. Never in Spinner's 10 years of service had he been late to one of Admiral Jenkins' meetings; in fact, it was usually him running to get the latecomers. Spinner had no idea what had come over him since the attack. He didn't feel any more fearful or stressed than he did on any of Hyperion's previous combat missions and the only other feeling he had in his body had been that of pure adrenaline for most of the time since the attack.

He supposed that it was probably just shock keeping him from working at 'peak efficiency'. Already today he had missed on about five kills during air combat and nearly walked his team headfirst into a Centurion booby-trap during their boarding. To be fair however, most of the other pilots seemed to be reacting to it all in the same was Spinner was; bar Captain Gemini, of course.

While she was only young at 22 years of age, Hera had already been entrusted the training of new recruits by the Admiral, who was determined to cultivate her natural leadership talents at any opportunity that arose; a fact that not sit well with John's previous 'apprentice', Spinner himself. It had been Admiral Jenkins who had got Sidney into the Fleet in the first place by placing a recommendation for him at Admiral Walker's door. Spinner now realised he really had to show his worth not only to keep his position in the Fleet, but also to help it survive by not having slow days like the one he was in the middle of.

The party rounded the last corner and Spinner – followed by Crow and Hera – bounded through the back door to the CIC and accidentally interrupted Admiral Jenkins as he was speaking to the other section leaders on the ship. "Good afternoon pilots, how nice of you to join us," John joked as they slinked into position around the central command table. Still catching his breath, Sidney picked up one of the information sheets that had be pre-prepped for them and caught up with what the Admiral was talking about before actually paying attention to him.

"...so as of this moment we still haven't had any communications from our civilian fleet or any surviving military vessels although it is possible that the civilians are safely hiding somewhere with a Battlestar or friendly fleet. However, given our limited time frame in which to work, we them to stop hiding and come find us," John explained. While the Admiral spoke, Spinner had looked around at the others surrounding the table, whose number included the Commanders from the Fleet's Battlestars and constituent fighter squadron leaders. "But until they decide to go and do that, we need to make finding them a top priority. To do that, however, we need to redirect all of our scouts to the search and sacrifice the protective net that they are providing our Fleet with and we'll be blind if the Cylons attack us,"

"Then why not only Raptors from Hyperion and let the other Raptors continue their close-range duties?" The withered Commander of the Battlestar Theia, Commander Dale Linear asked.

"Because we need to scout the upper atmospheric layers of each gas giant in the Four Systems as well as scan every inch of asteroid belt we can find. To do all that without being stuck here for weeks will take every light craft we can get hold of," John replied calmly and authoritatively. The room was silent for a few moments before someone else plucked up the courage to challenge the Admiral.

"Haven't we just tried to call them out from where they're hiding?" Crow asked, wondering why no-one else had brought that up already.

"We don't have encryptions strong enough to stop the Cylons from hacking it and reading it, thereby instantly learning our location," John replied, who himself wished it were that easy. As a sombre silence fell over the CIC, Spinner suddenly came up with an idea (or possibly a death wish, but there was nothing else he could think of).

"What if," He started slowly, making sure he had everyone's attention before continuing. "We just did it... the old fashioned way,"

"The old fashioned way?" John asked, completely unsure on what the Major's response would be.

"Yeah. Why don't we just send them a message telling them where we are?" Spinner's response drew a mixture of intrigued and dismissive responses from the surrounding crowd.

"That sounds like a very efficient method of suicide Major. Is that what you want or is there a greater purpose to this charade?" Colonel Virgon said sarcastically.

"Of course there is Colonel. You see, the Cylons will be expecting a high-tech solution wherein we use a combination of ten layers of encryption, a secret hyperlight beacon and our own version of Morse Code to contact our allies. Partner that with the fact that they don't even know if we survived in the first place, they probably won't be looking for a couple of lone Raptors transmitting a standard telecoms message," Spinner said, finally revealing his plan.

The room was then silent as the pilots and leaders of the Fleet considered the plan. A few seem bewildered that this was even being considered but the Admiral's reaction put a damper on any complaining coming from their direction.

"That... sounds like a solid plan, actually Spinner," John said, putting a hand on the Major's shoulder. "Shame I didn't think of that myself," John finished his sentence before stepping away from Spinner and walking around to Crow. "Captain Stoneham? Do you think you can spare a few Raptors to send a recording for me?"

"Uh, yes sir. If you think Sid's plan will actually work of course," Crow said, immediately earning a playful jab from Spinner's elbow.

"I do..." John confirmed. He then stepped away from the circle to dismiss everyone, but was quickly interrupted by the short, sharp bleeps of the DRADIS console. "Not again!" John said whilst sighing. "What now?"

"No idea sir, but probably hostile," Emily reported instantly. The eyes of the gathering in the centre of the room flicked synchronously between Lieutenant Jartell and Admiral Jenkins. With a shake of his head John parted the group and stood at hisusual spot in the centre of the room at the Command Desk and looked instinctively up at the DRADIS screen which was now covered in red dots.

"Frak!" John cursed as he suddenly realised the peril they were actually in and grabbed hold of the cord-phone attached to the desk at waist level. "You all need to get to your ships now!" John ordered the bewildered gathering; who gave a blotted mixture of salutes and nods before turning to the revolving doors to exit.

"Wait one!" Emily shouted over the hubbub that had been caused in the previous few seconds, a hubbub that died down substantially to hear what she had to say. "They're... hailing us sir,"

"Pardon?" John asked as politely as he could at that moment in time. "They are hailing us?!" Emily gave only a nod in response. "Right then, put them through," John said, curious as to what was happening. He held the phone up to his ear and looked up at the DRADIS screen, just as the well over fifty plus red dots disappeared and then reappeared as green. Then, just as suddenly, a voice called out loudly to John through the phone:

"Battlestar Hyperion, this is cruise liner Naxos. We've been escorted here by a damaged Battlestar whose reactor is going critical right now!" The voice, clearly human and very panicked, told John. Stunned as to the luck – or possibly un-luck – they had just received, the Admiral could not immediately answer the voice. He managed to quickly contain the wave of completely clashing emotions he was feeling to respond.

"The Admiral Jenkins of the BattlestarHyperion, gods are we glad to see you," John said, relieved that they had avoided another Cylon attack.

"With all due respect Admiral, we'll have time for that later. At the back of our Fleet we have a damaged Colonial Odin-class Battlestar that is not showing up on DRADIS. It therefore imperative that all ships in the vicinity move as far away from that ship as we can before it explodes!" The voice repeated frantically but clearly. John, this time taking a more serious approach to the matter, turned to Emily.

"Did you get that?" he said, covering the microphone on the cord-phone. Emily gave a thumbs-up in reply. "Then let's do what he said. Helm!" The Admiral called over his shoulder.

"Here sir!" Came the reply.

"Turn us about and engaged thrusters at full. Miss Jartell, I want all our ships to do the same. In the mean time: scramble the Alert Vipers and get them to escort some SAR Raptors over to that Battlestar. If there are any survivors we need to at least try and save them," John ordered. The crewmembers got to their duties as Colonel Virgon walked over from the observing group and stood at his usual position opposite John.

"They won't last long if that ship goes down," The Colonel reminded him. John quickly shrugged it off.

"Then tell them to keep their FTL drives spun up. If the Battlestar is about to blow, they can jump away,"

"What about the Vipers?" Spinner shouted from across the room.

"Recall them as soon the Raptors arrive and pray they can get out in time," John told them sternly. They had already lost too many of their people in one day and John wanted to save as many as he could, even if that meant a few were put in danger.

After a couple of minutes, the fighters had been launched and the entire Fleet was heading at full speed away from the fatally damaged Battlestar behind them. Knowing he didn't have time to get into a position to help, Spinner stood at the command desk with Admiral Jenkins and Colonel Virgon as the situation played out on the speakers in the room.

In an attempt to help in at least some way, Spinner had a cord-phone in his hand and was busy directing his pilots whilst the ship's CO and XO tried to gain a comms link to the dead vessel. "Raptors report life-signs Admiral," Spinner relayed to John as the information was played in his ear from the Raptors outside.

"Hyperion, Twinkle-toe: I've got a number of friendly signals launching from that port Flight Pod," Captain Don 'Twinkle-toe' Cook reported over the the Viper comm channels being relayed into the CIC via the loud-speakers.

"Twinkle-toe, Hyperion: Do they look like escape to you?" Hermes asked from his desk behind the Command Desk.

"Roger Hyperion. Shall I call off the SAR?" Twinkle-toe asked. Hermes didn't reply instead looking to John to give the Command. John looked over at Hermes and shook his head before returning to what he was doing.

"Negative Twinkle-toe. Maintain current course," Hermes relayed.

"Copy Hyperion. Vipers continue on... Frak me! All birds, break! Break!" Twinkle-toe shouted deafeningly loudly. The Colonel, the Admiral and the Major all dropped what they were doing and locked their eyes first onto each other and then onto the DRADIS screen.

"What's going on?!" John cried as the speakers lit up with chatter from the pilots.

"A ship just jumped in right in front of them," Spinner told him. "Said it had the word Fearless written on the Flight Pod,"

"How could they tell that so quickly?" Colonel Virgon asked.

"They said it was all they could see. It jumped in well under a click in front of them," Spinner replied, quickly listening to the feed from the Raptors before doing so.

"More contacts!" Emily shouted. "This time definitely Cylon! And sir," Emily added, fully drawing John's attention. "They've still got CNP installed," At that, John was knocked into silence. After a short period, John spoke again.

"Then there's nothing we can do," John said, forlorn. "Begin spooling FTL drives and get the civvies to do the same,"

"Where to Admiral?" Emily asked the sombre Admiral. John made sure to think before responding.

"The Draconis Nebula,"

"The Draconis Nebula?!" Emily interrupted.

"Yes, any part that isn't inside a star will do," John said, watching Emily as she begrudgingly typed in the coordinates for what she assumed would be the micro-nebula John wanted to reach. "And Spinner, bring our birds back home,"

"Tally Admiral," Spinner replied. "What about any escape Raptors,"

"Them too,"

"Yes sir," Sidney immediately got back to work and called to the Alert Vipers to escort the escaping Raptors from the other Battlestars back to the Hyperion or the Themis. After he had finished, Spinner terminated the call and stood in respectful silence along with the rest of the CIC who didn't immediately have to report something either to the Command crew or to the pilots. The silent members of the crew stared collectively at the screens that hung from the ceiling which had switched back to the exterior feed from the Hyperion's dorsal Flight Pods.

Behind the retreating ship blazed a thousand fires from both sides in the Fleet action focused around the newly-arrived Battlestar Fearless which, through the fire created by the Cylon missile bombardment, John could just make out as a Mercury-class, just like the Hyperion. Time appeared to slow as they watched the lights on the Fearless shut off as the Cylons hacked into their computer systems and systematically shut down their systems, just as they had done to Atlantia and her fleet.

Then, moments – or as they seemed, minutes – later, the Cylon fired one final missile volley at the already well beaten Battlestar and a myriad of explosions cut through the centre of the ships and caused the ship to tear itself apart; sending a number of fragments towards the surrounding Basestars, who didn't even attempt to move out of the way and let the debris impact them and destroy their ships as well.

And then, as if they hadn't already done enough damaged to the morale of Hyperion's bridge crew, the surviving Cylon Basestars sent another volley towards the already fatally wounded Odin-class whose crew had been partially rescued by their own escaping Raptors. Luckily for John – who realised that even he did not want to see that ship's fate – Emily signalled that the FTL drives were ready on all ships and they could safely jump away before the Basestars turned their guns on them as well.

John automatically gave her the go-ahead and the CIC crew's ears rang with the hum of the engines before the woosh of the jump caused the screens to turn to static and the view to change from devastating fireball to stunningly colourful nebula.

As the engines powered down once again, John broke his gaze away from the screen and walked over to Emily at her desk. "Status report?" He asked, as per post-jump procedure.

"Jump complete, all ships accounted for. We're in the Draconis nebula sir. There's just one problem," Emily told John and, by extension, everyone in the room.

"That is?" Colonel Virgon asked quickly, trying to put the images of the battle just seconds prior out of his mind.

"We've jumped 50 lightyears... in the wrong direction," Emily said, surpringly calmly.

"50? How's that even possible? I bet half those ships can barely break 20 lightyears jump range," Spinner asked in disbelief.

"There's a gravitational anomaly at the centre of the Cyrannus gravity well, I'd heard stories before about people jumping much further than their ships allowed in things like that so I thought I'd give it a shot," John explained. By the look on many of his crew's faces however, he figured that didn't help them come to terms with the 'wrong direction' part of Emily's report. "And so you all know, the Draconis Nebula is only 40 lightyears in the wrong direction,"

"40?" Emily and Spinner asked in unison.

"Yes, we are 10 lightyears closer to Kobol... from a certain point of view," John told them, not quite as reassuringly as he had meant.

"What's that supposed to...?" Spinner started to say before Emily indicated for him to 'save it for later'. "Right sir, of course we are," Spinner chuckled as he backed away from the conversation and headed back through the revolving doors. The Admiral then returned to his usual spot and took a deep breath before picking up the cord-phone and calling back the Naxos to check up on the civilian fleet before retiring from his duties for a much needed – albeit probably not very productive – rest.