Battlestar Galactica
Past, Present, Future
Chapter 28
True Allegiances
Bannon's ship touched down in the starboard landing bay of the Genesis and was directed to a spot nearest the turbo lift as he had requested. He didn't even stop long enough to let the engines of his viper wind completely down before he had popped his cockpit hatch open and jumped down from it to the deck and made his way to the lift at a full run. None of the landing bay crew tried to stop the senior officer, nor said a word. They simply went about their business as usual. A team of maintenance techs began servicing and refueling the Commanders Viper as they were sure he would be leaving almost as fast as he had arrived.
The turbo lift took Bannon to the deck where Commander Verga was waiting in his "ready room", just off the bridge, anxiously awaiting him. The concern on the Senior Commanders face was evident. Colonel Leon, the Executive Officer of the Genesis was also in attendance.
"I see by your expression my friend that whatever it is you have to show me is extremely serious!"
"It could be beyond "serious" Commander if what I believe is true." Bannon replied.
Verga nodded his head dolefully and motioned Bannon to a seat opposite his at the desk next to Leon. Bannon slide into the seat as he fished the infodisc from his pocket and handed over to Commander Verga.
"So what's this Commander?"
"These are the video recordings from the Revenge of the battle we had with the Cylons." Bannon told him. "I had a copy made after Raylac told me what happened to the Revenge."
Commander Verga looked at Bannon with a bit of a quizzical expression and ask, "What happened to the Revenge? What do you mean by that Commander? Was there something other than normal battle damage done to the Revenge?"
"I believe there was sir." Bannon said. "I believe that the most severe damage to the Revenge was caused, not by the mechanical Cylons, but by or reptilian "Allies"!"
Verga leaned forward in his chair at this statement and said, "Are you sure about that Commander?"
"Watch the video yourself sir and ask that question. I watched it three times on the flight here and I'd say the evidence is overwhelming."
Verga placed the infodisc in the player on his desk and ran the video to the time index Bannon said to look at. Sure enough, it was as he had said.
The Revenge had been deliberately targeted and attacked by no less than twenty Cylon fighters!
"I don't understand! Why would they do such a thing?" Verga said softly to no one inpaticular. Then to Bannon he said, "Do you think they went rouge or were they acting on orders?"
"I don't know sir, and I only know one way to find out!"
Verga nodded his head and reach for the com unit.
"This is Commander Verga. Get me the Cylon Imperium right away." He ordered.
It was a short time later that Commander Verga and Commander Bannon were looking upon the reptilian visage of the Cylon Imperium on the large screen in Commander Verga's ready room. Neither man could discern the thoughts of the Imperium as he always had the same unreadable expression.
The only thing they were sure of was that the Imperium knew what this meeting was about.
"Imperium, there is a matter of great concern that I must discuss with you." Verga started off. "During our recent engagement with the Centurions, there was an incident where it appears a group of your fighter craft made a deliberate and coordinated attack on one of our Battlestars!"
Still there was no visible change in the Imperium's expression.
"I have video evidence of the attack on the Battlestar Revenge. It is quite apparent that group of twenty Cylon fighters formed up and made an attack run on the Revenge, firing over three dozen missiles."
The Cylon leader spoke for the first time.
"You are sure that my pilots were not firing on ships flown by Centurions?"
"Positive!" Verga replied. "There were no Centurion ships anywhere near the Revenge at that moment in time. It was only by luck that the Revenge was not destroyed. Had your people been using the upgraded missile we gave you, it very well could have been the end of the Revenge. Luckily, there was only one of our upgraded missiles fired at the Revenge"
The Cylon leader nodded his head slowly.
"My apologize to you and your people aboard your Battlestar Revenge Commander." The Imperium said in a level tone. "I shall start an investigation into the incident immediately and punish those responsible. It seems unlikely that my pilots would deliberately attack your Battlestar Commander. There must be some logical explanation. I swear that I will find out what happened and will insure this will never happen again Commander."
Verga and Bannon exchanged glances, then Verga replied, "I'll leave whatever "punishment" your pilots receive to you Imperium. As long as you understand that we will be keeping a much closer eye on your fighters from this time forward. I'd hate to think this was anything but an isolated incident."
Bannon was not sure, but he could have sworn for just a micron that the Imperium smiled!
"I assure you Commander, nothing like this will happen again."
"Verga and Bannon exchanged looks again, then Verga said, "Very well then. I will consider this matter closed. We will start planning our next engagement soon. I'll be in contact then. Verga out!"
The screen went dark as the connection was severed.
Verga sat staring at the blank screen for several moments before he spoke.
"What do you think Bannon? Do you believe his story?"
"Not a chance in Hades Commander!" Bannon said, not even attempting to mask the anger he was feeling. "That daggit was lying thru his fanged teeth!'
Verga nodded his head slowly.
"I concur with your assessment of our Cylon ally. He was hiding something, but I don't know what." Verga mussed. "And until we find out, we are going to halt sharing anymore of our weapons with the Cylons. I'm not about to give them weapons so they can use on our ships."
"I agree sir!" Bannon said. "I don't know what they are doing, but I'm sure they don't have our best interests in mind. With your permission, I'll give the order to all ship commanders to be extra careful of any Cylon ships flying near enough to them to attack."
Verga nodded his accent and added, "And be sure to tell all ship commanders that they have my authorization to return fire on any vessel that attacks them, including our Cylon allies. We are not going to take anymore chances of a similar incident happening in the future."
"I'll pass the word Commander!" Bannon said as he rose from his seat and departed, leaving Commander Verga sitting the staring at the black video screen, contemplating the possible reasons for these latest events. His conclusions were not good.
Aboard the Cylon flagship, the Imperium sat silently for a moment after the video connection ended.
He gathered his thoughts for a moment then signaled for his second in command to come forward.
"You heard?" The Imperium said.
"Yes Imperium, I heard the human. What do you wish me to do?"
"I want you to find the pilots that made the attack on the humans and have them executed!"
"Executed Imperium?" Mang said with a somewhat surprised tone.
"Yes Mang, executed! All the pilots and their commander." The Imperium said again. "This level of incompetence is inexcusable. If we are to accomplish what we have set out to do, we must not accept such failures."
"By your command."
Mang bowed lowly and backed away from the Imperium.
The Imperium was furious at the outcome of the recent battle.
He would have to reevaluate his strategy it seemed.
If he was going to reach his goals, he would have to adjust his timetable.
He had waiting over a thousand yahren, so he could wait a little bit longer.
