Battlestar Galactica

Past, Present, Future

Chapter 33

Saxton's Gambit

All was quiet in the Colonial Weapons Research and Development Command, more commonly referred to by those that had worked there in the yahren before the holocaust as, "The DreamWorks".

Major Leia was making her rounds of the facility, as was the norm for the Command Duty Officer. She walked every corridor of the massive facility, making sure all was quiet and peaceful. It had been nearly forty yahren since she and over a hundred others took shelter in the top secret facility where nearly every weapons system used by the Colonial service over the last hundred plus yahren of the war had been designed, manufactured and tested.

Now it served as home for over seven thousand people.

Many of those that called the DreamWorks home had never been outside of the underground facility, having been born and raised inside the underground city. Very few had need to venture out to the world above, nor the want to. They had never seen what was once the gleaming jewel of the colonies, what had once been Caprica city. They had never seen the ruble of what had once been towering buildings, nor the many manicured gardens that were so prominent before that horrific night so long ago. They had grown up never even knowing what the sky looked like, except from the few holographs that had survived. Those few that did, as part of their duties, ventured outside the underground city, were always shocked as to the level of damage that had been wroth by the Cylons so long ago and how little had changed since then. The Cylons had done very little to clean up and utilize the city or the planet for that matter. Except for a fair sized garrison stationed near the aerodrome, there were no other Cylons on the planet. Those Cylons stationed on Caprica did little but perform routine patrols, looking for any human survivors.

Basically, Caprica had been left to rot!

But the people of the DreamWorks had thrived during the past thirty eight plus yahren. They had built and maintained a fairly good life in the former super-secret Research & Development facility. But events outside the DreamWorks where about to change that forever.

Major Leia turned down one of the more remote corridors of the facility, heading for the DreamWorks primary listening post dubbed, "The Pit" by those that worked in it. Originally, it had been an extremely small, cramped room used mostly as a catch all for unwanted or out dated communications equipment, most of which was centuries old, stuffed into every nook, cranny and crevice in the room. Leia and her friend from the old P.D.C., Rentner had found the room and cleaned out all the useless junk, then repaired the communications gear to working condition so they would have some way of knowing what was happening in the world above.

Over the yahren however, the old, antiquated gear had been replaced by new, more powerful equipment and had their capabilities expanded so they could record and decode most of the Cylon transmissions as they came in. The Pit, thru much hard work, had come a long way since the first sectars after the holocaust.

The Warrior on duty that night was one Lieutenant Frankl, one of the newer members of Major Leia's staff. He had transferred from the security team looking for quicker promotion and easier duty. Unfortunately for him, he had not bargained on getting stuck on the night shift. Leia was half expecting to find Frankl asleep at the desk when she walked in, but was happy to find him actually monitoring the Cylon message traffic.

"How's it going Frankl?" she asked. "Anything new from our "friends" upstairs?"

Frankl jumped at the sound of her voice, not having seen or heard her enter the pit.

"Holy Frak Major, you scared the pogees out of me!"

"Sorry Frankl, I wasn't trying to scare you" she chuckled, only half meaning it.

He tried to calm himself, saying, "Well, other than you scaring the mong out of me like you did, it's going pretty good Major, just trying to figure out this new message that I just found coming in. It's in a code I haven't heard before."

"What kind of code?" Leia asked.

"I'm not sure exactly, but there seems to have been another one of those huge battles going on between the Cylons and that unknown fleet, the one that have been kicking the mong out of them.. Evidently, the Cylons got their metal astrums kicked but good this time!"

"No kidding! Have you reported this to Commander Saxton?"

"Not yet Major, the signals have been coming in one on top of the other so fast that I haven't had time to make the call to the Commander! Besides, I wanted to figure out this latest message before I contacted him. It seems to be coming from the Cylon homeworld!"

"Without hesitation, Major Leia grabbed a spare headset and punched in Commander Saxton's personal comm unit. He answered almost instantly.

"This is Saxton. Go ahead."

"Commander, Major Leia here. I'm in "The Pit" with Lieutenant Frankl. He just started picking up overlapping message traffic from that Cylon fleet that moved into the Colonies a couple of sectons ago. Sounds like they were involved in some sort of huge battle somewhere with those unidentified forces they've been tangling with for the past few sectars and got beat up pretty bad. Frankl is trying to decipher what is going on, but it's a total cluster."

"Understood. Did Frankl start recording when the mong hit the fan?"

"Yes sir, he did."

"Good, have Captain Duggan help out with sorting thru all the felgercarb and see if he can make sense of it. He's been the best at sifting thru the Cylons signals and coming up with what is important."

"I'll get Duggan down here right away sir."

"Major! I think I've got that new message tracked and decoded." Frankl interrupted.

"Let's have it Frankl." Leia said as she patched Saxton into the comms with Frankl.

"The message came from the Cylon homeworld, and from what I can make out, it's a direct message from the Cylon Imperious Leader himself!"

"The Imperious Leader!" Saxton said. "Can you make out what the message says Frankl?"

"I think so sir." Frankl said with a little bit of nervousness in his voice. He'd never been addressed by Commander Saxton before. "It seems to be a recall order for what sounds like three different fleets! It says, "All surviving units engaging the humans near Gamoray and Sector Beta–Iota three are to disregard the order sent out by Daemon and are to return to Cylon immediately along with all units in the Cyrannus System. Command Centurion Vextal will assume command of the fleet in the Cyrannus System and begin evacuation of all units from the former human colonies immediately."

"They're pulling out!" Leia said excitedly!

"Hold on Major there's more." Frankl said as he continued to decode the message from the Cylon Imperious Leader.

"What's it say Lieutenant?" Saxton asked, not sure he wanted to hear what was coming.

Frankl worked quickly to decode the rest of the message, and as he did, the color began to bleed away from his face and his hands started to tremble.

"It s-says, once all Cylon units have been evacuated from the planets of the Cyrannus system, Vextal is ordered to return with fifty baseships. These will be positioned around each of the ten remaining planets of the system and once the human fleets have entered scanner range of the system, the baseship commanders are to launch every missile in their arsenals, destroying the planets!"

"I don't believe it!" Saxton muttered.

"It goes on," Frankl said trembling. "We want to ensure that the humans attacking our forces are witness to the complete and utter destruction of the worlds they had so foolishly thought to retake."

"By the Lords of Kobol!" Saxton said barely audible. "They mean to destroy the rest of the colonies just like they did Scorpius and Sagitaria thirty eight yahren ago."

"Can they do that Commander? Leia asked, already knowing the answer.

"They can and they will." Saxton said. "Remember what they did to Scorpius and Sagitaria? They are more than capable Major."

"What can we do Commander? We have to do something to stop them!"

'I'm not sure there's anything we can do Major." Saxton told her. "I'm calling the entire senior staff together as well as the civilian leaders. We need to figure out what, if anything we can do." Saxton said. "Major, I need you to gather the troops in the Presidential wing in one centar. I'll notify President Illya myself."

"Yes sir. I'll get everyone there."

"Lieutenant Frankl, make a copy of all the message traffic concerning this and deliver it to me personally in the Presidential wing as soon as you are relieved by Captain Duggan." Saxton went on. "I don't need to tell you that everything we've talked about here is not to be discussed with anyone other than the senior staff, understood!"

"Y-y-yes sir! Understood sir!" Frankl stammered.

"Good, I'll let the security team outside the Presidential wing know to expect you and allow you to enter. Good work Lieutenant."

"Thank you sir."

"Saxton out!"

Frankl took a moment to gather his thoughts. He'd never been in the Presidential wing before. He'd walked by it a few times during his security patrol days, but never had the chance to go in. Now he was being ordered to deliver vital information to the Commander himself! And perhaps even to President Illya too! He was both excited and scared. No time for being scared now, he had to make copies for the Commander and wait for Duggan.

Forty five centons later, Frankl was at the outer entrance to the Presidential wing of the DreamWorks complex. He had passed several people he knew, but barely acknowledged them in his haste to get where he was going. Now he stood in front of the huge, ornate doors leading to the very seat of power for what was his world.

The security guards at the door were verifying his identification and clearance. He didn't understand what was taking so long. The two guards, Captain Finston and Lieutenant Dulat knew him from his days in the security department.

"So what's the holdup Fin?" Frankl asked.

"We're waiting for your escort to come get you. You know the drill!" Finston said.

"Escort?" Frankl said. "Why would I need an escort?"

"Because it's the Presidential wing, not the food court." Finston said sarcastically. "You can't just wonder around in there without an escort or you might get shot!"

"Oh!" Frankl said softly.

Just then, the door opened and Major Leia stepped out.

"Come with me Lieutenant, and whatever you do, don't wander off or say anything unless you're asked to. Understood?"

"Yes Mama!"

"Did you bring the copies the Commander asked for?" Leia asked as they walked thru to the lavish interior of the public area. Frankl was mesmerized by everything he saw, he didn't respond.

"Hey, Frankl! Focus!"

Frankl startled at Leia's words and returned his thoughts to the task at hand.

"I have them Major. I made two copies, just in case."

"Good."

Major Leia led the Lieutenant to another set of large doors that stood closed, flanked by several security personnel he did not recognize. One of them nodded to the Major as they approached and turned to push open the doors. He entered the room ahead of the two newcomers and made his way to the front of the room, where Frankl recognized Commander Saxton and President Illya sitting side by side, talking in low tones. Major Leia stopped and saluted then motioned Frankl to stay put while she took her seat at the table.

"Lieutenant Frankl, I thank you for coming here and bringing those recordings personally." Commander Saxton said.

"My pleasure sir." Was all Frankl could think to say.

Saxton smiled at this and nodded to an officer standing next to the door they had come thru. The officer, a Colonel, approached Frankl.

"I'll take those Lieutenant."

"Frankl didn't say a word. He simply handed the two infodisc's over to the senior officer and stayed where he was, standing at attention.

The Colonel took the infodisc's to the head of the room and handed them to Commander Saxton, then took the empty seat on his right.

"You may return to your duties Lieutenant." Major Leia said, but before Frankl could move, Commander Saxton spoke.

""Let's not dismiss the Lieutenant just yet Major. We might have some questions for him."

"Yes sir." Leia replied.

"Lieutenant Frankl, take a seat at the table if don't mind" the Commander said with a half-smile. "We may need your input on any technical matters."

Frankl said nothing. He simply nodded and took a seat at the foot of the table.

"Alright then, we all know that whatever is discussed here is not to leave this room and is to be shared with nobody except the senior staff. Is that clear?"

Everyone acknowledged this and the Commander went on.

"Approximately one centar ago, Major Leia contacted me from the Pit and told me that the duty technician, Lieutenant Frankl here, had picked up a coded signal from the Cylon Imperious Leader himself. This message Lieutenant Frankl decoded and it read as follows, "All surviving units engaging the humans are to disregard the order sent out by Daemon and are to return to Cylon immediately. Command Centurion Vextal is to assume command of the fleet stationed in the Cyrannus system. Vextal is further directed to evacuate all units from the former human colonies immediately. Once all Cylon units have been evacuated from the planets of the Cyrannus system, Vextal is ordered to return with fifty baseships. These will be positioned around each of the ten remaining planets of the system and once the human fleets have entered scanner range of the system, the baseship commanders are to launch every missile in their arsenal on the planets, ensuring their destruction!"

Gasps of horror came from almost everyone in the room.

"You can't be serious Sax!" Colonel Nader said.

"I'm very serious old friend. The Cylon's mean to destroy what's left of the Colony's right in front of the people who have been fighting so hard to retake them."

"We have to stop em Sax!" Nader said angrily. "We can't let them do it!"

"That's why I've called everyone together Nader. To see what we can come up with to stop this from happening. So, if anyone has any ideas on how to accomplish this, by all means, let's hear it."

"The first thing we need to do is let those two fleets know what the Cylons are up to." Colonel Sauer said. "They have to know that the Cylons are planning to destroy the Colonies as soon as they come within range."

"But how can we do that without revealing ourselves?" Major Leia asked. "We've remained under the scanners for all these yahren, it would really suck to screw things up at the 99th centon!"

"She has a point. We need to be able to send a message to those people without the Cylons intercepting it and tracing it back to us." Nader said. "But how can we do that?"

The members of the senior staff bantered about several ideas on how to accomplish this without resolve. Then a new voice chimed in from the end of the table.

"Why not use Fleet Comline Alpha?"

Everyone turned to look at Lieutenant Frankl, who was looking at the senior officers rather sheepishly, realizing he'd spoken without permission.

"What did say Lieutenant?" Saxton asked.

"Why not send the signal using Fleet Comline Alpha?"

"How do you know about that Frankl?" Major Leia asked. "That is top secret information that is way above your pay grade mister!"

"I found an old communications manual down in the Pit that Duggan had kept from the junk that was cleaned out of there." Frankl said. "He kept everything he could about communications and comm frequencies. He has a pretty good sized library down there about that stuff."

"And you say you found something about Fleet Comline Alpha in one of those tomes?" Saxton asked.

"Yes sir." Frankl replied. "It told all about the different frequencies to use, the recognition codes that were used by each Battlestar, challenges and replies ….. just about everything you'd need to know to communicate with a Battlestar."

Saxton leaned back in his chair, starring at the young officer in disbelief. Could this idea of his work? Would it be possible, if those mysterious fleets of ships that had declared war on the Cylons were in fact human ….. were in fact Colonial, could they actually pick up a signal on the most secure military channel the Colonies ever used? And if they could, was it possible for those people to hit the Cylons before they had time to destroy the colonies? There was only one way to find out.

"Okay Lieutenant Frankl, I want you to head up this project along with Major Leia and Captain Duggan. The three of you will set up the Pit to transmit a signal to each of those fleets using Fleet Comline Alpha. Let me know as soon as you have things in order. I'll make the signal myself." Saxton told them. "Time is of the essence people. You'll need to work fast and make sure everything works perfectly, because we might only get one shot at this. Understood?"

Major Leia and Lieutenant Frankl acknowledged the orders and hurried off to the Pit to get things ready.

"Well, that takes care of part of the problem …. I hope!" Saxton said. "Now we have to figure out what, if anything can be done if that plan falls thru."

"How about we load up all the crews of the warships in the lower levels and launch an attack the Cylons before they can launch their missiles?" Nader suggested.

"I thought about that already Nader, but we only have enough trained people to launch what, two or three of the warships, let alone fight them properly. Most of those we trained to operate those ships have never really had to do so. They've only run a few drills every few sectons." Saxton said thoughtfully. "And that's only one of the problems. If we did get even the Battlestar Caprica into space, we don't have enough trained pilots to do anything against the five Baseships that will be surrounding Caprica, let alone all fifty.

"Maybe we can try and draw them away? Buy those people the Cylons are running from enough time to get here and destroy them?"

"Possible, but they don't even know the situation yet. And until we can make contact, I don't want to do anything to let the Cylons know we're here." Saxton said. "Besides, I doubt we could stop or even delay the Cylons long enough to keep them from launching their attack on the Colonies. We have what, thirty trained Viper pilots with combat experience? And most of those are old men like me! How long would they last against a couple of thousand Cylons? It would be suicide to try and launch any of our own ships except as a last ditch effort to save as many of the people as is possible.

"And even if we were able to get our warships out of the bay, we'd be lucky to get them away from the planet before the Cylons launched their missiles and destroy Caprica, am I right Commander?" President Illya asked.

"Yes Madam President, it would be a long shot at best." Saxton said solemnly. "Most likely, we'd be caught in the explosion."

"Do we still have the planet based missiles of the P.D.C.?" Major Rentner asked. He had been on duty in the Planetary Defense Command (P.D.C.) the night of the Holocaust and was one of three members of Nader's duty section to survive that night of horror!

"I'm not sure." Nader said. "The control system went down with the P.D.C. headquarters. I'm not sure if the Cylons took out the actual missiles thou."

"Why do you ask Rentner?" Saxton asked. "What are you thinking?"

"This might be a long shot Commander, but, if the Cylon's didn't disable or destroy those missiles, we might be able to launch them ourselves."

"Launch them ourselves? How? The control systems were destroyed when those traitors from Pisceria destroyed the P.D.C. headquarters." Nader said.

"That's true Colonel, but as I remember, each missile had its own onsite control system." Rentner told him. "They hadn't been used in over a century because their control functions were turned over to the P.D.C., but I seem to recall that most of the onsite control rooms were left intact for maintenance crews to run tests on the systems periodically."

"And you think we can fire up one of those sites and use it against those Baseships?" Saxton asked.

"It's possible Commander. As a matter of fact, some of the larger missile complex's had a central control station that could launch dozens of missiles. If we could find one of those and use it, we could wipe out all the Cylons around Caprica!"

"And if we can get messages to the survivors on the other planets …." Nader continued the thought.

"Then there's a chance we can hold off the Cylons until those fleets arrive?" Saxton finished.

"Exactly!" Rentner said. "We just have to send messages to the groups from the other Colonies thru the ultra-low frequencies we've been using to stay in touch them."

"So, how do we locate those control stations?" Major Sauer asked. "And how do we let the other people know how to operate those things?"

"I might be able to access the old records from the P.D.C. if any of you still has a pass code." Doctor Prior. "If I can do that, I can relay the locations to everyone."

"The P.D.C. was destroyed in the first centons of the attack Doctor. I was there when the building collapsed, remember?" Nader said.

"True Colonel, but if the P.D.C. had an offsite backup storage facility for all its records, I might be able to tap into it. It was standard procedure to have an offsite facility to store everything just in case of an emergency." Prior said. "If the backup storage is still intact and has power, we might be able to use one of your old pass codes to gain access to that information."

"Okay, wait a centon! Why is it that after nearly forty yahren, I'm just now hearing about this?" Saxton said incredulously. "Why in the name of the Lords of Kobol did nobody bring this up before now?"

The members of the senior staff just looked at each other sheepishly until Nader said, "I guess none of us thought about it until now."

Saxton looked at his second in command as if he had no idea what he had just said. He could not believe that after all this time, he was just now being told about all this.

"This could all be for naught Commander if we don't have a pass code or pass card to gain access to the records." Prior said.

Nader suddenly began searching thru his uniform pockets. He stopped suddenly and looked around the table with a huge smile on his face. He then slowly pulled and small card from the pocket inside his uniform tunic.

"I think this might be just what Doctor ordered!" he said and tossed it on the table where it slide to a stop in front of Doctor Prior. The doctor picked up the card and examined it. It was smaller than a pyramid playing card and was rectangular in shape. The print on it was somewhat faded, but was still clear enough to read.

"Planetary Defense Command. Watch Commanders Operations Authorization Card."

"By all that's holy! Where did you get that?" Prior asked.

"The night of the Cylon attack, I was the Command Duty Officer in the P.D.C." Nader said. "That was my all access pass card. I've kept it all these yahren as a reminder of what had been. I never dreamed it might come in handy someday. Think it'll work?"

"I don't know Colonel, but if you can remember your pass code, it just might!"

"Oh, I remember my pass code alright." Nader said with a sly smile. "What's say we try it out right now?"