The Colonial Day celebrations were coming up fast, and Commander Hudson was trying to figure out what to do. There was no doubt that he was an experienced officer, especially with a month of combat now behind him. But there were more than a few things he was inexperienced in, with one notable one being interacting with members of the opposite sex.

Chapter 18: Colonial Day Part II

About 15 minutes later Christine emerged from the bathroom back in her uniform. Placing her wet clothes in a bag, she then attached her five-seven back to its holster. Her items had been retrieved from the bottom of the lake and luckily were intact.

She then made her way to where the President was, one of the secure rooms that had been built to house the quorum, which was also there. There was a round of clapping as she entered, and Roslin smiled.

"Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for saving me. Both of the would-be assassins are being held and are ready to be interrogated. I'm going to have someone else who is skilled brought in as well, though since you have experience doing it if you want to you can."

Starbuck had gotten the request personally from the President to go and interrogate the two prisoners, and after getting approval from Commander Adama she landed her viper in the small hanger of cloud nine.

"So you're Starbuck," Rendino said, as she walked into the room flanked by two marines.

"I've been called worse." She saluted. "Reporting for duty, Captain."

"At ease, I'm not exactly the most regulation-savvy officer and I know you aren't either so drop the formalities."

"Well, we got some terrorists to interrogate?" Starbuck said. "I can do that."

"Good, 'cause that's exactly what I need you to do. I heard you have experience with this, though it isn't exactly formal training."

"That's an accurate assessment, I cracked up a few of these people before. Intel even offered me a job after I did it once, but I like flying too much."

"Alright, then they're right down this hall." She said. The two marines guarding them let the two in as they made sure that they would be safe there.

"So you two tried to kill the president," Christine said. "That means an execution by firing squad after the trial. However, there is a precedent to lower the sentence to life in prison if you cooperate with us. So spill the beans. Who told you to do this?"

"We did it on our own volition. This wasn't an order from Tom Zarek he didn't plan to assassinate the President as far as we know."

The interrogation went in for some time but didn't learn anything important outside of that. By all accounts, it looked like Zarek was innocent in the matter, and it made sense. He had created the conditions for people to dislike Roslin and want to kill her but didn't cause violence. There wasn't much else they could do; there was no way to prove the Zarek had had anything to do with the operation. As time went on and they learned more it made a lot of sense. They stole the weapons that they used from Zarek and managed to smuggle them in a briefcase that had multiple levels to avoid detection.

"Well, I could bust open their jaw and see if that did anything?" Starbuck said.

"I wouldn't prefer it," Rendino replied. "Cause I'd like to do it myself." They both laughed.

The two reported their findings to Roslin, who trusted their abilities to get information out of them. With it known that they had just gotten all of the information that they would have with the prisoners, a trial would take place later on. For now, they would be held in Galactica's brig under marine guard, and during the day would help with ammunition production in the ship, freeing up other crewmen for more important tasks.

Captain Vincent "Vince" Akardy felt the thud of the launch tube firing his viper forward and with it the ecstatic feeling that he always felt when this happened.

He flew away from the Battlestar Cunningham, the ship that he was the CAG of. There were several other pilots following him, BJ, Kipper, Long One, and Super Mama. Pilots that he had fought with quite a lot of times, and had a great bond with. Many of these people had been with him since before the Cylons had returned and had been a part of the Cunningham's air wing for quite a while now.

But today he was going to make some new friends. He had a small amount of knowledge about some of the pilots in the fleet that they just joined.

Apollo was fairly by the books CAG from he had heard of him before the fall of the colonies. But there was absolutely no doubt he was a skilled pilot and administrator, as he ended up as the CAG of the flagship of the fleet before this had all gone down. He was also a graduate of the Advanced Tactical Training course, an honor that was received by only a few percent of the pilots in the entire fleet, and a handful of the ones that were alive right now, including both him, Apollo, and Starbuck.

"Well well well, is that Vince?" Starbuck asked over the radio as he emerged.

"Sure as hell is." He replied. "So then, it's been a while."

"Certainly has," Starbuck replied.

"You guys got here just in time for Colonial Day," Apollo said.

"Yeah you mean the day we drink and cry ourselves to sadness cause all our loved ones are dead," Starbuck replied.

"Suprised to hear that anyone ever loved Starbuck."

"Shut the frack up or I'll make you regret it," Starbuck replied

"Well that's the Starbuck I know," Vince said. They had been stationed together on the Battlestar Triton briefly and had become friends, occasionally sending messages to each other once in a while.

"So how many toasters have you killed?" Vince asked the two of them.

"23," Starbuck said. "An ace four times over."

"17," Lee replied, in a slightly annoyed manner.

"Alright, I'm at 19," Vince said. "Seems that these raiders are pretty easy toast if you have brain power larger than bricks."

"They are, but still deadly in the right situations," Apollo replied. "We've lost a few dozen pilots since the fall, but taken out over a thousand of those raiders since then. It's mostly been the fact that they walk straight into flak, which is about 60 percent of our kills."

"We captured a few," Starbuck said. "They have some useful design choices, but not great overall. We relied on a bunch of MK II in the beginning and still do to an extent which have been taking them out no problem, and I think even MK I's would still be decent." She said. "Hell, I'd even think that some of the pre-first-war shit that some pirates still use could do some serious damage. Hellcats and Wildbirds got the chance to fly them a few times and they were alright."

"I mean I can't disagree," Vince replied. "I haven't had a particularly hard time. It's more that they always have so many of them. They bring hundreds on a basestar and will often have thousands in a battle."

"Well, that's where you have flak for," Apollo replied. All of Galactica's batteries could fire both regular anti-ship ammunition and airburst shells that were designed to take down fighters. The same feature was shared by pretty much every ship in the fleet that had large caliber guns.

The combat air patrol continued with little difficulty or note.

Meanwhile the colonial day celebrations were coming up fast, and Commander Hudson was trying to figure out what to do. There was no doubt that he was an experienced officer, especially with a month of combat now behind him. But he had never had an easy time with members of the opposite sex. Perhaps it was because he had never really been taught how to behave around them, and how to have a relationship with any of them. The few relationships he had had didn't last, but that probably had a lot to do with the fact that he was constantly on deployment. This was the case for the rest of the colonial fleet unless your ship was assigned to a particular planet or you had a job planetside. Even if your ship was defending a specific planet you couldn't exactly commute home every day once your shift ended, which made relationships difficult wherever you were and whatever your post was. At the end of the day, many failed, and only a few succeeded.

However, he knew that his actions were not the only part of his lack of success. He would just get nervous around girls. Maybe he just wasn't taking enough risks, or trying hard enough. When he had been in relationships some of his interactions often felt forced; as he tried to play catch up for his lack of experience earlier in life, and instead just came off as cringe-worthy.

But there was some hope. There was one woman who he hadn't had these issues around, where all of the conversations he had felt natural and the two of them were having serious chemistry.

She was a fellow commander who often worked with him, Audrey Baker. And if he knew his signs right she was interested in him, and he wanted that to continue.

He hadn't exactly had a lot of opportunities to ask her out, which didn't even bring up the fact that he wasn't confident enough to do so in his opinion, but that was starting to change. Everything that he had done indicated that she liked him, and therefore he was going to make a move tonight. Practically every senior officer would be at the colonial day dance over at Cloud Nine including both of them.

In his head, he rehearsed what he would do and say, but he gave up on that after a little while. There was an old phrase: No plan survives contact with the enemy. That would be true here as well.

He wondered how many others were in the same position as him right now. There were undoubably a few, but most of themwere trying to just survive the day and dealing with the emotional trauma that was caused by in some cases losing everyone they had ever known. Hell, this was practically a good problem to have in comparison.

He made sure his dress uniform was new and well polished, and that he looked good for the occasion. That would be critical to success.

The raptor arrived at the ship, carrying several of the other senior officers as well. He spotted Commander Adama also nearby as he exited, also immaculate in his dress uniform.

"Commander, it's good to see you," Adama said. Hudson saluted in return. "Same to you. Seems like this area is going to be packed soon."

"Tigh is already at the bar." Adama pointed out.

"Well, I'm not surprised sir." He replied and they both chucked. They had served together for a while and no one was surprised at his choice. The executive officer had said on multiple occasions that he was going to stop drinking, but this never really ended up taking place. He had been on track until his wife got back, and she was not always the best influence on him in this opinion.

Then the person that he had been waiting for arrived. Commander Baker emerged, in all of her glory. She was wearing a flattering red dress that exposed much of her upper body. This was the least clothed that he had ever seen of her, and it was marvelous to look at.

His tongue fell out of his mouth and Adama chuckled. It was time for the old commander to go somewhere else. He'd maybe go talk to the President, as Tigh would rapidly become inebriated and Adama knew that he was not a great person to be around when he was drunk. However, just like all drunk people, he could be unintentionally funny when he fell over.

"What happened?" Aubrey asked with a smirk. "Why is your tongue out?" She asked.

"Well umm." He was at a loss for words at her, and having trouble doing anything. Meanwhile, she knew exactly what was going on. There had been signs of attraction so far, and she had been hoping that he would do something for once.

She winked at him and smiled in a way that let him know exactly what was going on. That initial unsteadiness was gone, as he realized subconsciously that she did in fact like him.

"You look beautiful." He blurted out.

"Well, you look handsome." She said, the wide smile still on her face.

"Do you want to dance?"

"I was waiting for you to ask." She replied and took his arms. He was initially a bit nervous as he was not the best at dancing but he soon became a bit more confident in his step. Both of them quickly were having the time of their lives.

"I'm a bit out of practice, and even when I was I wasn't the best at it." He said.

"Oh don't worry you're doing fine." She replied. A couple of seconds later she regretted what she had said as he stepped on her foot. But she was too caught up in the situatuion to care.

"Well, we'll well," Garrett said with a smile as she watched her friend, Audrey Baker, dance with Jake Hudson.

"Those two look like they're going to have a fun time," Christine said. "Their body language indicates a great deal of attraction.

"Stop overanalyzing everything," Garrett replied.

"I'm an intelligence officer, that's my job." Christine retorted.

Garrett watched as Vincent Akardy walked over. They had quite a history together, and tonight was going to make even more of it.

"Well, what do you have to analyze here?" Garrett asked as Vince walked over.

"Both if you want to dance and be left alone."

"Well not really but you should go and try to dance with someone," Amanda said. "Do you have a target for tonight?"

"Oh don't worry I have one." She replied, with a smile on her face. "And I'm about to switch my fire control DRADIS on and get a target lock."

Captain Cecil Marks was talking with some of his marines. Most of them were in other places however as the enlisted personnel mostly were in a different part of the party and there were relatively few marine officers.

He did see a familiar face, however. Christine Rendino walked over to him, and he glanced at her. There was little doubt that she was attractive, and the two had worked well together during the previous day.

"How are you doing this colonial day, Captain Marks?"

"I'm doing well, at least as well as I can under the circumstances." He replied.

"I don't see you dancing with anyone. Would you like me to change that?"

"Be my guest." He replied, and the two wrapped their arms around each other.

Other people were also enjoying themselves. Lee for example noticed Starbucks who was wearing a dress. This was one of the very few times that he saw her in such clothing, as she was decidedly a tomboy who shied away from essentially anything feminine.

And she was quite attractive, well more so than normally.

"Well, hello Starbuck." He said, otherwise at a loss for words.

"Well, what are you doing?" Starbuck asked, and Lee noticed that he was staring at her. That was not what he had intended to do.

"Umm, do you want to dance?" He asked.

"Why not."

Adama was over in a corner, watching people have fun and sipping a glass of water. He watched as President Roslin came over.

"Well, I guess we've dodged a bullet," Roslin said.

"You have. However, I don't like how Zarek has gotten away with this. I can't be sure or not if he was beyond the attack." Adama said.

"Ultimately, he is still innocent until proven guilty. Even if he used to be a terrorist and a political opponent." She replied.

"You know, if you wanted me to get him removed…" Adama said. "I can declare martial law, it's in my power, and I am also allowed to temporarily suspend habeas corpus."

"Which I hope never becomes necessary." She said, "Even if you did it, it would create more problems than it would solve. It may be better to placate Zarek. Let him have a little power, and get him to shut up."

"If he becomes the President I wonder what he would be like?" Adama said.

"I hope that we never know, but if that happens I need you to keep him in line." She said,

"I will," Adama replied. "But he is a bit useful. Remember how he may be able to get back in touch with some crimson friends back in the colonies. They may have ships and weapons."

"If anyone has survived back there, it's been the criminals," Roslin said. "The fleet nor the government could ever really track them down, and they would be hidden from the Cylons."

"From the impression I've gotten from Zarek, there were a lot of pirates and otherwise criminal groups operating on the fringes of colonial space, which were aware of each other and often had gang wars against one another due to perceived territorial violations. However there are supposedly channels for communication between these groups, and he thinks that they would cooperate if something went down." Adama replied.

"How much firepower would they have?" She asked.

"Potentially a quite substantial amount." He replied. "All together somewhere around a few hundred ships, which may even include some older Battlestar models. But we never really got accurate intelegence on their numbers."

Roslin sighed. "I wish that I would be able to give myself time to think about something that wasn't running humanity and hoping that it will survive.

"I do as well," Adama said. "Do you want to dance, Madam President?"

"That's not an offer I'm going to refuse commander." She replied as they put their arms around each other.

Author's note: Well this was a more lighthearted chapter, good to get some more character development in. Stuff that started here is going to continue, I might have said it before but there are going to be some Lee/Kara and eventual Adama/Roslin pairings in this story, though of course, the relationships are not the main focus of the story.

Things are going to get a bit crazy in Kobol's last gleaming and the coming episodes. You see what Galactica goes through is bad enough without any other military ships, but when you have different ships with different commanders with differing opinions and a lot of firepower behind those opinions, then you get a veritable clusterfuck of bad scenarios. And that's exactly what's going to happen here.

As happened before I'm going to skip over a lot of the plot, so as stated before the plot is going to be roughly comparable to what happened in the episode this is based in, unless stated otherwise.