Disclaimer: I never have and never will own the characters, ideas, or anything else based on these 2 shows. The TV studios that produced them, do. This story is also free as it is a pet project. Enjoy.
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Wireless/communication"
"Speaking in a different language"
"Reading a text"
Chapter thirteen: The problem with an extreme view
Day 95 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 28th of April, the year 2378, Federation / Colonial salvage fleet, deep space, warp highway, en route back
The fleet split into two parts. As they passed the minefield where the basestar was trapped, Kirk had already asked Scott and the other engineers if there was anything they could do to salvage anything without losing more themselves, even more now that they had the numbers and ship muscle. And he asked her that even before their initial departure to return to New Settlement. And they did make a plan. Now even easier to do that they had the older but more robust raptors Cain's ships were carrying. Ironic. The older the tech was in this case, the better.
Scott had several dozen of these raptors retrofitted with a limited remote control unit and a pre-programmed autopilot. Then they stuffed the raptors with Starfleet power cells to extend their life, before the batteries get drained, to keep the computers working. The engines were chemical, so no issue there.
The plan was, from a mechanical view, simple. But stupid, for space, that is. No large ship could enter the asteroid field, or the crew would die, and the ship loses power. So they can only send something in and get it out fast. The fleet would remain at the asteroid field perimeter while the raptors fly inside and tow large cables with them from an anchor point. These cables were used by the Colonials to tow ships at sub-light speeds if docking was not possible due to damage or ship size differences and the Broadsword was as a marinestar, equipped with massive tow cables just for such a task.
So the raptors would fly on remote to the disabled basestar, swing around the ship's middle where the main connection between the upper and lower starfish parts connect, and tow the cable back as it snares the Cylon ship. Of course, one cable would not be enough. Not even close. So they would have to attach several dozen of them and then hook both ends of a cable to a different ship. The more the weight gets distributed around the less stress is on everyone, both the Cylon hull and each ship that will do the pulling.
The autopilot was only used as a backup, should the radiation make remote control impossible. So far it did help as some raptors lost connection during their U-turn as they passed the basestar.
There were two other developments. They now had three basestars in the field. Guess Cavil wanted to know where the first one went off to and got two others trapped. Jim could only guess, but as the radiation dissipated, they saw no danger until it was too late. If they tried to jump, their energy for that would be eaten on the spot by the assimilators. So that was both good and bad. They had more salvage to get. But also a bigger delay. So Jim had the old Colonial ships under the escort of the two 22nd century Starfleet ships as an escort, continue their journey as once they get this done, they will catch up to them. Mostly because those Colonial ships were the slowest part of the fleet. Jim was also aware, like Augustus was, that if one pair of basestars returned to try to salvage the trapped ship, more could follow. They had the power here to fend off any large Cavil force, but any fight should be avoided for now. So they had to hurry.
Cain, who stayed with the salvage fleet, was also additionally saddened by a report from Scott. It was about his old ship. The Pegasus was the next ship in the line inside the wormhole. The next ship to have been crushed, had they not opened the aperture to allow passage. But she took a beating. The gravitational stresses did a job on her. And Cain's chief agreed with Scott's assessment. His ship was done for. Her back was nearly broken. From the outside, you couldn't tell, but the main structural integrity, the skeletal structure was compromised. She had around 50 jumps left in her, then she would break.
That was enough to get her back to New Settlement, but not much else. But while Augustus was sad, he was a pragmatist as well. He learned about how the Galactica was getting turned into a mobile industrial sector. Well, she would never be a ship of the line again, but his Pegasus' armor could be removed and welded on the Galactica. And any other component they would need. What irked him was not that his old ship's days were numbered, but how she would go. Like an old man dying in a nursing home, getting sold for body parts. Not like he wanted to go, in a blaze of glory. That was the prideful warrior in him. And a warship should go the same way. He had to laugh a bit when he read the data on the Klingons. He could understand Kirk and his anger towards them. But if he thought that he and many Colonial worlds were prideful and put honor on a pedestal, this was something else. Something that can be counterproductive, as he saw in the historical report, is how often that bit the Klingons in the ass. So he had to mentally remind himself to not be like that.
But the other development was in an area of space that they had already passed. The Columbus, the Miranda with the sensor module, and a regular one, the Surak, remained three jumps behind, with Scott in charge, so the main salvage was left to her B team. But they were no slouches either, not with the New Settlement people boosting their numbers.
What Columbus found, as it was the ship that detected the unstable wormhole before, were two alien ships. One was torn apart due to deceleration stresses. The other had some hull breaches but was intact. And these large ships were dubbed gunships by the Colonial and Starfleet personnel. The intact one was easily one and a half kilometers long. But the name was given due to its long 700-meter gun barrel.
The crew was found dead in stasis pods as they malfunctioned. But on the bridge, Scott soon discovered two disturbing things. One was generally disturbing. This and two other ships were once at the edge of the Delta Quadrant when an unknown alien ship attacked them. Not Iconian, based on the sensor data. They did destroy it but that was apparently intended, as a space-time rift opened up and swallowed them. But as they were not in close formation, only the central ship was dropped at the intended location. The other two ended god knew where. The other disturbing fact, more so for the Colonials, was that the ship had an automated internal defense system. Automated as in multi-pedal walkers, hover drones, and bipedal behemoths. But the system was off-line. So now Scott and her team not only had to get the ship to fly again and to get control of the main computer, but to also get control of the automated systems so that they can be used for them, not against them.
As this was happening, Lee was overlooking with Cain's people the fighters and assault craft on the carrier Pegasus. He didn't know if he'd get the fleet CAG job back, but better be ready. He was walking in the main hangar of the Pegasus, inspecting the Yellow Jacket patrol fighters, Wasp space superiority fighter, and Hornet heavy assault fighters. They were all lined up in the maintenance bay, below the main hangar and launch/landing bay. The entire part of the ship intended for fighter and bomber control and maintenance was in the elongated large upper aft section of the secondary hull. The CIC for the fighters was at the top of the saucer, right behind the bridge, where the secondary hull and saucer met. The fighters and all other craft would be launched from the three-port or three starboard launch openings with a similar magnetic catapult system the Colonials used. With some tweaking, even Colonial vipers could be launched. But Starfleet fighters were too big for catapult launch from a Colonial ship.
The Yellow Jacket was the lightest variation. Their design was the same, just the engine, cockpit, and weapons hardpoints were different. They had a simple wing design, a navigational deflector at the front, and two impulse and warp engines at the back. The Yellow Jacket had a single pilot cockpit, long-range, but small weapons capacity, light-shielding, and structural integrity fields that could reach medium warp speeds and be perfect for patrols. It could have four light phaser beam emitters at the front, a pair on the wings, and a pair at the lateral sides of the deflector. They were useful for most occasions but better for capital ship assaults, than dogfights. For those, instead of phasers, rapid-fire pulse plasma cannons could be installed. Or a combination of two plus two. The heavy weapons were limited to three hardpoints per wing. There, either several light missiles with tylium warheads could be mounted per hard point, or heavy phaser emitters. Well, heavy for a fighter. A rapid-fire heavy plasma pod or a single heavy tylium torpedo per hard point was also an option.
The Wasp had the same dimensions, just a 50% larger engine section. This gave her more reactor power, thus stronger shielding and more power for sub-light engines and weapons. The Wasp had an additional pair of gun ports at the front that could be modified to the pilot's desire, like the other two pairs. The fighter was a larger target, but just as maneuverable and fast as the Yellow Jacket. But its range was shorter as the larger engines and reactor were thirstier. The hardpoints on the wings were similar, just five per wing instead of three, and this fighter could carry mini-photon torpedoes.
The Hornet had, of course, the largest engines, doubling the mass of the ship when compared to the patrol fighter. But it also had a larger fuel supply and a more efficient reactor as it was longer. It also had a two-pilot cockpit, as this fighter could also make longer journeys than the other two variations. Once again, stronger shields and more power to spare, but here, the maneuverability and acceleration were lagging. The power however came into play with its 12 hardpoints on the wings. All could be armed with any weapon type mentioned so far, including mini-photons. Making this fighter capable of delivering a punch that had the piercing power of a shaped charge warhead, but the energy of several nukes. Not bad for a small ship. But for Lee, this was a raptor with more teeth.
Lee saw that while understaffed, everyone was working to their bones. And so did he. Sure, his new… female 'friend' had her task to perform, but that didn't mean he was helpless on a Federation ship. He had enough time to get his bearings in order. The Constitution he was in charge of, was an impressive ship, but the size still bothered him. They all felt too small. But his quarters on that ship, for a CO, was an improvement over his CAG quarters on a Colonial ship. A rather spacious bathroom on one end, a middle dining room that also worked as an office or small private conference room, and the bedroom section. Usually, most quarters on such Starfleet ships lacked the dining area as only three quarters on Starfleet ships had them. The Captain, XO, and a third high-ranking officer. Lee saw that the carrier Pegasus had five of them, one reserved for the CAG.
The lower half of the secondary hull on the Pegasus was mostly reserved for the reactor and machine shops. It also had two pairs of nacelles due to its larger mass. It was larger than the Babylon, if not by much in the length department, but was twice as massive. But in a brawl, it could not stand up to the battleship. Not that the carrier was defenseless, far from it.
The Excelsior-class was a good improvement over the Constitution, in Lee's mind anyway. As for the Constellation, he read the assessment reports from Starfleet. A fast response strike cruiser. Fast, can take a beating and do the beating itself, but with four nacelles and only secondary deflectors, it was always thirsty, more so than the Constitution and Excelsior classes. For Lee, the Miranda was the most flexible with the mission pods, but while also more cost-effective, it lacked the Constitution's speed, as it also only had secondary deflectors.
As for the Babylon, Lee could say, it and the Pegasus were finally in what he would consider a heavy tonnage class ship. The one drawback the both of them had was a lack of maneuverability. But the Pegasus had good point defense systems and fighter cover. The Babylon's point defense was rudimentary at best. It was designed to strike at large targets, not to swat aside insects. So they were both dependants on an escort or each other.
Both also had a horizontal reactor in the secondary hull, running the entire length of it. On the Babylon, it made sense, as it had two neck sections to the primary hull and so made it impossible for the reactor to go vertically up the length of either one there, unlike the smaller cruisers. On the Pegasus, the entire upper secondary hull was devoted to the fighters and this ship had no neck section.
Lee managed to find the time to test the cockpit of all three fighter designs. It was 99% identical except for the hornet, where the digital instrumentation could be swapped easily with the co-pilot in the back. It was similar to their viper designs, so it felt easy to get adjusted and the learning curve was short. Of course, this interconnectivity also made him a bit nervous about hacking. And they also didn't have any time so far to properly test them with test flights and get them to jump capable. They had the capital ships to worry about and fix.
And during the repairs, Lee realized two things. One, how staggeringly fast and far Starfleet came, technologically speaking, in only 100 years. The Colonials had 2000 years and it felt like they were standing still. Yes, the alien replicators they were adapting back at the colony, were still better, but the molecular synthesizers on these ships were catching up technologically.
The other was a not-so-good observation. In the historical database, he learned that the MACOs were demoted to planetary security and most ship security forces were no longer military professionals. Seems that within Starfleet politics were doing similar chaotic things that were happening in the Colonial navy in the past. On one hand, you had Starfleet admirals that wanted more exploration, other more defensive-oriented ships, and some even dedicated war fleets. The last idea was always squashed by the politicians, as the Federation will never start a war. And so far, they got a war with the Romulans and a war with the Klingons for this pacifism. And a cold war with the Klingons as well, which forced Starfleet to remain militarized longer than they wanted. This also meant that most ships that were designed after or during the Four-year war were originally made as explorers, but when tensions rose again, they were forcibly redesigned back into a defense-type ship. And then instead of reinstating the MACOs, they made security personnel that was not on par with the MACOs, the solely responsible personnel for ship security. This and other problems, like the cycle of de-militarization, which goes too far, until some tensions rise somewhere only to force a re-militarization, baffled Lee. Did Starfleet not learn from the past? Then, who was he to argue, the Colonials were no better. Just look at the last administration before the fall, cutting the budget of the military every time. Or the military itself, doing off-the-books missions that would never be greenlit and could cause long-term problems.
As Lee was in the maintenance bay with Cain's CAG and chief engineer, exchanging notes and getting a feel for this hardware as well as getting the input from the Federation engineers, the last cable was attached to two different ships, like dozens of others already were. Because of the three different operations that were happening at this moment, two of them at the perimeter of the asteroid field, no fighter tests of any kind would take place. That said, everyone knew that Colonial personnel would be overwhelmingly in charge of the fighters, on all ships. What Starfleet had either had limited shuttle experience and no fighter experience or nothing at all. The people on New Settlement were at least one generation past those who landed on that planet and had only practice in simulations. Only two Vulcan pilots from the original crews remains and they were past their prime as pilots. But one was here as a consultant.
Back on the Babylon Bridge, Augustus was only an observer in this, but nevertheless, any additional input was welcomed. In simple terms, all they had to do, was to get enough acceleration on the stranded basestar in a different direction, than the one that kept it in orbit of the local sun, and the large ship will move out of the trap under its acceleration. The two issues that were the main obstacle were large asteroids that needed to be avoided and to get enough acceleration going to alter the course of the ship so that it leaves the death trap safely and in this century, so to speak. Once the basestar would be past the trap's perimeter, all they need to do is board it and restart the power systems, assuming the tanks still have any fuel. Once the acceleration is achieved that would get the ship out, the ships outside stop their acceleration and detach the cables. The other issue was to get the cables dispersed around the basestar's structure to disperse the hull stress that will be made with this plan. If all of the cables would be too close on the same part of the basestar's hull, they could do damage or even cause a hull breach.
On the bridge, the main display showed a computer image of the location of all cables and the calculated stresses the affected hull sections will be receiving, "I don't think we can get it any better." Augustus said, standing right next to Jim.
"My Vulcan officers agree. So I do too." He sat down in the captain's chair and Cain did the same in the XO chair. "To all hands on all ships. This is Admiral Kirk. We will initiate the maneuver for the first basestar in 30 seconds. All brace for acceleration and keep an eye on your individual ship's hull stresses. With any luck, this will work. Kirk out. Helm, synchronize all ships to prepare a slowly increasing impulse burn."
The helmsman and navigator nodded at the stations in front of him. "Ready on our end, sir."
"Then, by all means, initiate the burn."
The Pegasus and Babylon would do the leg work of this, but all ships began their burns. For a solid minute it looked like they were going nowhere, but then slowly the main display showed them that they were getting results. 10 meters per second. Then 20. Then 30. Their goal was 100 meters per second, not so fast that they would need to decelerate the ship, once out, but to also get clear of any larger asteroids before they close the current opening in the field. After six minutes their target acceleration and course of the basestar were achieved. They stopped their engines and cut the cable connection.
"Never thought that a tow job would be this interesting…" Augustus joked.
"And let's not forget that we still have to board it, gain control and assess the situation. And that we still have two more to go and they are deeper in the field. Anyway… science, how long until it is sufficiently cleared for us to transport the first boarding parties?"
"Not for at least 27 minutes sir. I suggest we begin preparing the remote-controlled raptors for the second target retrieval."
"Yes, of course. Augustus, please tell your pilots that their break is over, we need them in the comm room again."
"Will do, Jim. And I'll inform my marines to get ready to depart with your MACO's for that basestar."
At the salvage location Beta, Scott and her people were on the gunship's bridge. They got a good idea of this ship's interior. It needed a minimum crew and that was reflected in the design. The crew section was heavily shielded and was also easily isolated from the rest of the ship. This was good, as Scott could not get control of the automated control system. And she would need days to do so, so best to not open the doors where the automated system was now active. She had to power it up, as only by powering the main computer and reactor could they get the ship running again and that meant the defense and maintenance system was activated on its own. She had access to the internal sensors and saw the drones, multi-pedal walkers and juggernauts were already busy fixing the ship's internal systems and sending reports back to the main computer.
She also saw that the targeting systems on all of the units were on and they would only accept the original crew and its creator species as friendlies. So yeah, they could go no further from the crew section. But somehow they would need to access the engines to modify them for jumping.
The language barrier was less and less an issue, so Scott decided to try to get the mechanical units working on fixing the ship to see if they could physically modify the engines as per her instructions from the bridge. The main computer had to check her instructions before accepting the modification and ordering the drones to get to work. They could be thankful they found the access codes from the deceased crew. They also had to use the DNA samples on the command section to get the main computer to believe them. That said, it still had several security barriers present, to prevent any order that it was given, to cause damage. She would need to find a way to get access to the command mainframe and delete the data on the original crew and replace it with Starfleet personnel data. In essence, tell the ship that it has new owners.
And she could be doing this if getting the ship to jump capable and to keep an eye on the automated repairs was not taking priority.
Day 95 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 28th of April, the year 2378, Federation / Colonial rescue fleet
They were halfway between Cyranuss and Kobol. Bill wanted to step on the pedal to get this ragtag fleet to safety as soon as possible, but the civilian ships needed breaks now and then. Their engines were not made for durability, but economic profitability.
And out of the 427 ships, two had already broken down due to lack of maintenance in the past months, so they were stripped for parts after their crews and passengers were moved to different ships.
On the Adonis, the other remaining Mercury-class capital ship, Adama was having a chat with the ship's CO. A rather inexperienced officer got the position due to the chain of command. No one on the ship that was still alive, was of a higher rank. So he felt relieved when a veteran from Adama got posted here as the new CO and he got the XO position. All this got Bill is some time to shuffle the cards around.
He and the new CO just left the CIC which was going through some massive repairs as the DRADIS screen fell off during one of the past battles and no time or parts were on hand until now to fix it.
"The transfers look good." Bill handed him a document. "Do you have a CAG selected? If not…"
"I'm well aware that you have a good pilot on the Bismarck… if you can spare her for training purposes, but the people here need to learn to do things on their own… even if only 17 pilots of the original crew are all that is left."
"Don't let pride cloud you."
"It's not pride, sir… it's frustration. Having to run with our tails between our legs. Leaving everything behind. And then we have to make nice with half of them. Let me tell you, no matter how much they were used or are remorseful, that doesn't change anything. Most people will never forgive them."
Bill knew all too well of these struggles. He handed him a different piece of paper. "How are the repairs going?"
"Good. But we'll still be doing them by the time we get to your hiding spot. And it's not helping to give the Earth people a day off…"
"I had to. Like your people got that on the day we left our home behind for good, they need a break as well. No need to work them to death. They'll resume with daily routines tomorrow. Now, to the overall situation…"
The officer now handed Bill a report. "Food stocks are at 62%, water is not an issue as we got most water reclaimers and treatment units working, thanks to Earth. Fuel… we'll get to that spot of yours, but not much further. Some ships still have damage to their FTL units and are bleeding juice. Others are packed beyond their intended mass capacity, then there is lack of maintenance… you get the picture, sir?"
Bill nodded. "Hopefully nothing is going off the planned path back at New Settlement."
On the Bismarck, Kara was usually having a workout at this time. Most of the crew was asleep, with only the secondary staff doing the daily ship operations. All scientists, engineers, and none military personnel were out for today. So the security personnel that was made up of both Colonial and Starfleet people, were seen in the corridors occasionally.
So in the training room, Kara, Anders, and two other Colonials were playing an improvised game of pyramid. Hill was not part of this, it would be not fair for the opposing team. And he both kept score and an eye on his Cylon co-observer, Sharon.
They both sat to the left of the entrance of the room, as the Colonials were working up a sweat.
Karl just scored a point and helped Sam up after the clash with Kara's teammate. "Nice. Tell me again, how you guys lost the last season with a move like that?"
They had a short break and took some fluids for hydration. Taking a sip from her water bottle, Kara took an interest in this. "Yeah, what Helo said? Did you sabotage the game like the rest of your kind sabotage the military?"
Sam could not get used to this constant mockery. Either the bad plays, the losses, or him being a Cylon. Nothing was off the table. At least here, where everyone knew what was up.
"Great. Can you change the damn station? This s getting old people."
"As old as you? I mean, 1000 years, give or take?" Kara continued mocking.
Karl ruffled Sam's hair. "No grey hair seen. Do you color it?"
Sam smacked his hand away. "Guys?" He turned to Hill. "Referee, do something!"
"OK people, leave the old man alone, he has enough trouble using the toilette, no need to remind him."
Even Sharon had to suppress a laugh at Hill's entering the fray. Sam was getting annoyed again but realized the futility of fighting back. "You too, Sharon?"
"You opened the door when you asked him. Hey, look at it this way, since when has a human Augment from Earth ever made fun of a humanoid Cylon."
"Yeah, all we need now is a human, Cylon and Augment walk into a bar joke, and we're all set. And…" He paused and turned to Sharon's belly.
She noticed. "What?"
"Enhanced hearing. Something moved in there and I ain't talking about a bowel movement. Come, Doctor Manor should still be up."
As Helo saw them leave, Hill assured him that it's only a precaution. "Don't worry. If it turns out to be more than a fart, I'll call you."
As two MACOs began escorting them to the sickbay, Sharon was now more worried than anything and was already having phantom pains. "Next time, don't say anything. You'll only get me worried."
"I'm assigned to keep an eye on you."
"Am I the only Cylon on this ship currently?" She meant it sarcastically.
"The only pregnant one."
"Ugh… and with that the least capable of making trouble."
"Perhaps. But orders are orders. And besides, the others are either asleep as well or doing science in the lab. I'd rather relax for a change and observing Colonials and Cylons in their natural environment is quite relaxing."
"You make it sound like a safari tour."
Day 95 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 28th of April, the year 2378, USS Ares, military aide in orbit of Sagitarrion, Cyrannus system
Sisko was leading an away team to the planet to see if some valuables could be salvaged, if for no other reason than to raise Colonial morale once they return to the fleet. They had done this with other worlds and intend to keep doing it, but only during times when Cavil was not attacking any rebel locations that they would need to reinforce. The Vulcan cruiser would alert them to such a development.
"Here…" Dee pointed to a door behind a crumbled statue of a deity. "Can you help me push this to the side?"
Several marines and MACO's did just that as others continued to search the seat of religious power of this planet, Hera's temple. Sisko was inspecting the many pictures on the walls and the wall paintings themselves. "Your planet loved their religion, didn't they?"
They got the broken pieces aside and managed to gain entrance to the head priest of this order. Dee went first with the other Colonials. "You could say that." They saw what once was a sacred place filled with valuable artifacts. She began inspecting the books on the shelf behind the main working desk. "Here…" They began taking the books of interest, as some things could be considered blasphemy. Seemed that some priests had secrets of their own.
"Major, I have… something." A sentry called out to the CO of this operation as he was scanning the area with his Vulcan hand scanner. Sisko came up to him. He showed the Major what bothered him. "See?"
"Oh yes…" He signaled several soldiers and an engineer to follow him. They went past the main hall in the inner sanctum and went to a rather simple door. One that didn't stand out. Was not lavishly decorated. Had no identification for where it led to. It was locked. Now Sisko took out his scanner as well. "A rather good security system for something that may just be the utility room. OK, phasers, cut here and here…"
They began cutting through. The outer layer was simple wood, but that hid the titanium frame and plating. With no power, the electric system was not responding when they managed to cut through and remove the door. "Hey, Captain Dualla. We could use some input here." He called her by her last name to be professional in these situations. As she arrived, she inspected their work.
"Why cut this door down? We are yet to get the main hall of worship accessible?"
"Because there is something down there that is of interest to us. So, can we go?"
"I honestly don't know." They asked her to not offend anyone here or later. "Sure, I'm as curious as you."
As they went down the stairs several levels lower than anyone thought this temple could go, they arrived at a cave entrance. With the local power gone, no light but what they brought with them, worked. As they began taking a look, the light began reflecting off the crystals in the cavern that was made into a secret worshiping location. A sacrificial pit, several monuments, praying area… all made out of gold and gems. But the crystals that were sticking out of the floor, walls, and ceiling were never removed. The path that led to all of the locations was made around them. The engineer took a detailed scan of a crystal. "No question about it, Dilithium. And a shit load of it."
One of the MACO personnel went to the altar and removed a staff. "This one has a crystal on its tip. This is fancy."
Sisko turned to Dee. "Any ideas?"
"The Tears of the Lords. But so many of them? Why keep this treasure a secret?"
"Because it's a treasure? Never underestimate the human greed factor. Anyway, your people worship these?"
"Not worship, but we see them as a religious item? Why?"
"Well, the rest of the galaxy uses them as the main control unit for matter and antimatter reactions in warp reactors. What do you think is in the heart of every reactor in our fleet?"
"You mean… you use them? For power generation?"
"In a way. Without them, warp reactors become highly unstable and inefficient. Truth be told, I respect your faith Dee, you know I do, but this is next-level stupidity. On a galactic market… you have enough Dilithium here to buy a small fleet of state-of-the-art warships. If you had a buyer. Or to power thousands of reactors for centuries."
One of the MACOs responded to this. "Guess one civilization's power source is another's magic staff." He handed it over to Dee as she was their guide in this.
"This… is… I don't know. I don't know what is worse, the lies of our order when they kept this secret or what you use them for."
"I think we can't mine this stuff, people. No need to offend our Colonial cousins any further." Sisko surmised the situation. "Now, can we take anything that was man-made with us, or will that rattle too many cages back in the fleet?"
She was glad he was thinking of the long-term relationship of their people, but as to what they could take… Could they risk it? "You know what? To Hades with their secrets. Anything that is not part of the natural formations here or is nailed to the floor. Who knows, perhaps we can use it for other things later."
Now as they went to work here as well, having to select what to take as the Ares had a limited storage capacity, Sisko feared what they might find on Gemenon.
They set up the pattern enhancers as even the Ares' transporters had issues with all the Dilithium here.
"Hauaman to Sisko."
"Sisko here."
"I know you are busy with this Dilithium discovery, but we were contacted by the Vo'kor. The perimeter scan shows that a Cavil force is en route for another assault on a rebel position. We need to be there in 40 minutes. Finish up there. We'll be back as soon as possible."
So they all returned to the Ares but left the pattern enhancers there for when they return. On the bridge, Sisko was again at the tactical station. He saw that all the previous battle damage was fixed, even if it was superficial. The one thing that bothered him and they could not fix was that their ammo supply was at 50%. If they should run out of torpedoes and be down to only phasers, their firepower would be greatly nerfed. They could not keep this up indefinitely. And he also knew why Cavil kept attacking even if he lost every battle so far. Attrition. With the Colony ship and Homeworld under his control, he could take losses and replace them. The rebels couldn't. So Sisko hoped that a plan would be formulated how to take the planet away from Cavil as soon as possible.
Day 95 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 28th of April, the year 2378, Federation / Colonial salvage fleet, deep space, warp highway, 8 hours later
Six basestars jumped into the vicinity of the asteroid field. They deployed their raiders and began scouting the surrounding space. It didn't take them long to find their target. Only it was dead in the water.
In the CIC of the main ship, the head Cavil was seeing the data from the information stream. "The three ships we lost…"
"And the rebel ship as well."
"At least one of them. But what is going on here? Why are all dead in the asteroid field?" A Four asked the Cavils. The number of Fives and Fours was significantly reduced, so the still-living ones dared to not step over the invisible line that could get them on Cavil's bad side.
"Who cares. We found them and the missing basestars. But just to be sure, proceed with the encirclement maneuver four. But keep the raider wings on alert."
"One…" A Five tried to reason with him. "We have four basestars dead in space and no apparent reason for this, except that they are in the asteroid field."
"Wrong. The radiation signature not far from here shows a Colonial nuke at hand. Whatever it was, they disabled our forces but the radiation is keeping them from getting our property into their filthy monkey hands. Now… do I need another cleansing?"
The Five shook his head. "No. No need."
"Good. I thought so."
As the six ships separated, two went from starboard, two-port from their initial jump-in location, and the remaining two went straight ahead, both pairs keeping distance from each other.
The port duo entered the field first. As they began approaching the disabled ships, their raider escorts that didn't stay outside the field to keep any possible escape routes open, began falling like dominos.
"We lost half of our raiders, One! All of them report a massive power supply drop." A Four reported as the lights in the CIC began getting dimmer.
"Yes, I can see that, morons. Call it off. All ships are to reverse course!"
Two minutes later and only three basestars were out. They were not so far in the field that all their power was sapped. But they lost more than half of their raider force.
Before Cavil could have another temper tantrum, their DRADIS went berserk. Three new contacts appeared 12 klicks from their position, far outside the field. They had just jumped in. Cavil, like all Cylons in the CIC, recognized the saucer design, although different than any they receiver reports from the Rebel front from, were definitely what he believed must be these new 13th Tribe humans.
The much larger ship in the middle was a complete novelty. It reminded him of an overgrown gun, to be honest. "Oh frak no…"
The realization hit him far too late. The Starfleet controlled gunship locked on and hit the port basestar dead center. The ship was crippled or would have been if the shot had not only ripped a giant hole in the main connection superstructure of said basestar but also ripped the main reactor to shreds, igniting the tylium and radioactive core.
In the middle basestar, they saw the power signatures of the ship rising again as they also got peppered by the shrapnel from the remains of their sister basestar. A second later, they suffered the same fate. The last remaining basestar managed to both get some distance from the destroyed comrades but also keep the wrecks between itself and this new enemy.
The crew began emergency preparations for a fast jump out of here… if a task force of ships hadn't appeared behind them, including the other Rebel basestar they were hunting for. The last Command Cavil now realized it. They parked the damaged Rebel ship to lure them in even more than they would be otherwise. And he fell for it hard.
All ships opened fire with their flack weapons to deal with the raiders and the saucer ships finished off the last basestar with their yellow and pulse energy weapons and red torpedoes.
A few raiders managed to jump away. A minute after they did, the Rebel basestar and two Starfleet ships jumped away as well, in pursuit as they had their exact coordinates. Time to clean up and make sure no one signals the main Cavil force back home.
On the Babylon bridge, Jim, Augustus, and D'Anna were seeing the results of their ambush and a coincidental encounter…
Flashback, two hours ago
Commander Scott managed to get the gunship operational enough to get her task force moving. But the Columbus' sensor dome detected two Cylon forces approaching the location of their main force. So she alerted Kirk. Soon enough his force spotted them as well. They were all set to move the other two basestars out at the same time, now that they got the hang of it and got the other basestar up and running well enough.
So, Jim had her remain a jump away to prepare for an ambush. They cut the cables and removed all indications that they were there. Once the first force arrives, they would cut them down and wait for the other to arrive. Scott's small force would only jump in if needed.
Once the stage was set and their force in hiding, waiting to pounce, only several hybrid raptors remained to observe and call in the strike.
Things did not go as planned.
On the Babylon bridge, Kirk and Cain got the first update from the raptors. "Jim, remind me if I am wrong, but according to Billie's data, Rebel Cylons have the red blood markings on them as a sign for the spilled blood?"
"So the report said. Major Adama? Your assessment?"
"It is possible that the two basestars are from the rebels. It would explain why they come here in two waves. Cavil is after the Rebels. Or they bumped into each other while going to investigate the disappearance of their earlier force. Or… an elaborate ruse. You choose, sirs."
The two veterans eyed each other. "You know the Cylons better than me."
"I know the First War-era Cylons. This is a garbled mess we have here. If we didn't have the firepower we do, I would not take any chances. Since we do… roll the dice?"
"Very well. I agree with this idea. To all ships. New plan."
Before D'Anna's force could get their bearings and even try to see if the trapped basestars could be salvaged, her two ships were surrounded. "Frak, they have us."
"The good news is it's not Cavil, but Earth and the Colonials." A Six remarked.
"Not much of a difference for me, to be honest. But let's see if they are in a talking mood." She placed her hand on the data stream. "This is D'Anna Bauer. A model Three leader of the Cylon Rebel faction. We are currently being pursued by a larger Cavil force. Please state your intentions."
She didn't have to wait long. "This is Admiral Kirk of the Starfleet / Colonial force. Thank you for confirming our suspicions. We have slightly less than two hours until the larger Cavil force arrives. Select one of your people. You and that person will be beamed onto my ship for a discussion. And just so you know, this was not an invitation. You can come and talk, or leave."
As the feed was cut off, she eyed a Six. "You and I go then. And another admiral? Where do they keep finding them?"
Once on the Babylon, they were escorted to the aft section of the bridge, once they exited the turbo-lift. Lee had joined the two admirals for this.
The two Cylon females noticed Augustus Cain on the spot. "What is this? A bad joke?" D'Anna snapped.
Jim eyed Lee. "You know them better than either of us. She always this pleasant?"
Lee shrugged. "Don't really know nor care." He turned his attention to the two guests. "No, he is not a ghost. And yes, it is the REAL Cain. The man next to him is Starfleet's version of Cain, so to speak. We can have time for 20 questions later. A raider scout from Cavil should be here shortly. Now, can we get to the stage where we make a plan to deal with him, or do you want to keep on arguing?"
"What for? From what I heard just one of your ships is keeping Cavil busy in Cyranuss, with this fleet it should be no issues at all." The Six remarked.
"True. If all we wanted was to destroy his fleet. Tell me, your first instinct, before we jumped you was to try to salvage the ships?" Jim entered the conversation. And he and Augustus, while knowing they were dealing with Cylon women, could not help themselves but automatically let their charms begin working.
"Yes, that was the plan. Or would have been, had we had the time to salvage anything." D'Anna responded. She narrowed her eyes, ignoring the charm offensive completely. "You know something about the stranded ships, don't you?"
"Yes. And it can also wait. Listen, how quickly can you evacuate your, let's say damaged basestar. Move all the personnel to one we managed to salvage already?" Jim continued.
"You have one already?" Six asked.
"Please young lady, just answer the question." Cain played the good wingman.
"30 minutes tops." Six answered.
"Then we do it like that. Can you remote control the damaged ship and park it near the basestars in the asteroid field? We need to make it seem you wanted to salvage the stranded ships."
D'Anna nodded. "That might work. But Cavil is not entirely stupid. If he sees three ships in a field, he will get suspicious."
"Well, the radiation field from when we blew up that battleship a few days before already acted like honey in a trap. It should again. We got that from the logs on the basestar we salvaged." Lee explained. "Now, sir… can we proceed?"
"Of course. Augustus, once we are done here and our lovely ladies move to the new basestar and we park the damaged one, you move your flag to the Carrier Pegasus. I'll stay here. And we need to contact Commander Scott. We really need to modify the plan."
Flashback end
D'Anna decided to observe this operation from the Babylon bridge while her Six Xo remained on their basestar that was doing the clean-up. Crossed armed, she sat on the second officer's seat. "So, operation successful, Cavil dead. Nice. And you also make it look so easy."
"Never underestimate the surprise element."
"Indeed. Or Cavil's arrogance. Now, Admiral Kirk. Let's get down to business. And stop trying to charm me. You and Cain might… scratch that, will succeed with the Sixes, but not with me. I am grateful for the help, explanation and the basestar you gave to us. But what about the rest?"
"50-50. You get the damaged one back and an additional one. So you had two, now you have four. We get the other four."
"We started with two and get two, while you get four? How is that 50-50?"
"You also get any and all raiders and centurions that can be salvaged, after of course removing their talent inhibitors. We get nothing from there."
"You also found that fancy alien ship of yours."
"That has nothing to do with the spoils here." Jim stopped himself from perhaps saying something that might be counterproductive "Tell you what. Cain will not be happy, but a trade of sorts then?"
"I'm listening."
"You get one additional basestar, but you also keep the damaged one, no trading there. In return, we get your help in getting them combat-worthy again, you have your people walk us through all of their systems and we get dibs in the spare part department."
It was not ideal. Not for D'Anna's taste. But it was better than a human that would not be open to a modification of the deal. "Deal. One thing I don't understand. I get the whole war the two alien races had and these energy assimilators they use for a trap, but the gunship? How lucky can you get?"
"Not entirely lucky. My science team tells me, as I had the exact same questions some time ago, that the warp highway acts as an attractor for any space-time anomalies that could intersect this area. So instead of passing through, they get dragged here. Who knows what else got dragged."
"You make it sound like this space is the garbage dump of the galaxy."
Day 95 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 28th of April, the year 2378, Federation colony New Settlement, same time
The protest in front of the main mine entrance was finally over. Yet, all the religious Colonials that had an issue with this mining operation, were now camping outside the mine. The last of the mining equipment was removed a few hours ago, under the glaring watch of the Colonials.
In the government building in the settlement, Porter was sitting across Laura, Governor Fabron, and Admiral O'Donnell. You could sense the tension. Zarek was asked by Porter to accompany her, but he told her he didn't want to commit suicide in his political career. No other Colonial Quorum members wanted to accompany her. They all knew they had egg on their face when it took two days to get this mess under control. And while some did have an issue with the mining of the Tears, getting food on the table or water to drink was a greater issue for them. So pissing off their cousins who were minding their own business, so to say, it didn't help matters.
Laura decided to start. She was glaring daggers at Porter. "You finally told your hounds to give it a rest?"
"After they stopped desecrating the sacred place."
"We did that the minute we knew you had an issue with it." Fiona shot back at her. "They kept harassing our people when they were removing the equipment."
"Equipment that should have never have been there."
"Technically speaking, neither should have been you. But I guess we all have to live with disappointments." Fiona marked her invisible line in the sand. She understood now why Laura didn't like this woman.
"Ehm…" Governor Fabron cleared his throat. "What happened is done. But understand the consequences of your actions, Miss Porter."
"You mean me and my people not being welcome in your colony any longer?"
"Simply put, yes. We will not tolerate the intolerant ANY longer. It began with cursing. It escalated with spitting. Then tearing down images and religious items from other races. Then intended sabotage and stealing. And now this. In other words, thieves and intolerant extremists are not welcome. If you want that to change, start by acting like a god damn human being first. Not an animal."
"And if my people need medical attention?"
"You have more than enough in the fleet." He responded as a matter of fact.
"Food, water?"
"Same issue."
"And…"
"Representative Porter. You are many things, but stupid you are not." Laura stopped this. "So stop wasting all of our time. Action and reaction. You knew there would be consequences. At least Tom is keeping his people in check."
"We'll see how far he gets with that…" She muttered.
"Yes, we will. At least the Sagitarrians are being helpful and productive. They fish and farm. All the Geminese do is complain." Laura shot back. "And while I don't like nor trust Tom, you are in the same boat now. So, why did you finally accept this meeting?"
"That the only reason we decided to stop was that our cousins decided to leave that sacred place alone. But I assure you, we are not done. Any and all Tears must be returned…"
"Forget that." Governor Fabron responded mid-sentence. "You got your pound of flesh, I suggest you don't push it any further."
"I intend to. You don't seem to understand…"
"Let me tell you, what you don't seem to understand, Porter." Laura took over. "You are risking to fracture the Colonies in two. And your side can only lose if that happens."
"Martyrs are well remembered."
Fiona reminded her of the one fallacy of that statement. "If there is anyone left to remember you."
"Is that a threat?"
"A reminder. Of a simple logic in life. And the simple fact that you need us far more than we need you."
Porter saw that she was not getting far. "Why do you even need them for anyway?"
"One, every warp reactor in the galaxy needs them. Every warp reactor in our fleet has one and every warp reactor on the planet has one. The second reason is simple economics. They are valuable. Should we encounter a civilization out there, we can use them for trade. To get passage past their territory or to get fuel."
On the Galactica, Galen was somewhat allowed back to duty. He was under supervision. Similar to Saul, who was only allowed to keep the crew in order, but did not have any real ship authority. In both their cases an excuse was found that most found acceptable as to why they suddenly disappeared for the past few weeks.
They both at least got something to do again. So no one was complaining. Galen was with the engineers who were ready to power up the first third of the replicator section in the used flight pod. The experts from the colony took a look at Commander Scott's original idea and decided that they could do better. 100 years of advancement had its perks. So they put several spare reactors and computer cores they had in the colony to significantly boost the increasingly more interconnected system. When the Colonial military staff asked if the ship itself could not benefit from this increase as well, tactically speaking, the engineers said to wait until the main function of these upgrades are properly installed and tested. Then if any power output and processing power were left, sure, use it. If not, tough luck.
At this point, Galen and his people were just bystanders mostly. Even Peter was more in the way than really helping.
In a makeshift control room for the first third of this installation, which had a 23rd-century Starfleet feeling to it, the engineer in charge got the green light from all sections. Then all work in the other sections was halted for this test. No need to burn something or someone, if a power spike happened. Which it could since they were using 22nd-century, 23rd-century Starfleet technology, alien hardware, and all on an aging Colonial ship. A lot could go wrong.
Galen gave his green light too, if for no other reason to confirm that all of Galactica's systems were in the green and waiting.
The section chiefs were in the sealed-off control room with a transparent window to what once was Galen's viper and raptor repair bay. Four consoles at the walls left and right with status monitors to boot. The main power regulation station was in the middle, where the head engineer proceeded to push the power leaver from an off to minimum power setting. As the bay now got its own lighting back the sections of this area also began working. There was a large scanning station in the back for a detailed scan of any vehicle or craft they wanted to copy. Next to it were smaller units for handheld equipment.
In easily accessible storage areas that were similar in design as the command room, just without any consoles, raw materials that could be used by the replicators for manufacturing, were stored. The simpler elements would be used in this way, as long as they had them, as it drained less power this way and taxed the units less as well. In the middle of the large hall were both the larger replication platforms, with the smaller ones closer to the outer bulkheads, like their scanning units. Left and right of them was room for people and vehicles to use. Every unit also had a safety feature to prevent any person from dying if he stood on the platform. In that situation, they would not be usable until the person is removed from danger. Above all of this was a small conveyor unit using graviton beams to move materials, replicated units, or matter meant for recycling around the hall.
"Shall we test it now?" Galen asked.
"We build this damn thing for this purpose, didn't we?" The Starfleet head engineer remarked. Nodding to a control officer at one of the wall consoles, the graviton units moved a Mark VII Viper from a side storage unit that still had the old vehicle connection to the still operational flight pod. Once the test viper was over the scanning unit, it was slowly lowered and the beam disengaged.
A different officer now activated the scanning process. The scanners were as hybrid as they got. 23rd-century Starfleet mashed with the alien ones. As the Starfleet people begrudgingly admitted that the alien scanners were still better at this job than what they had. They just didn't have enough of them, so they had to find a middle way solution. After 12 minutes, the scan was done. But they left the viper where it was. No hurry removing it. Now the head engineer signaled directly to the officer in charge of the replicator platform in question they wanted to use.
"We need to have 30% power for this to work, sir. Crank it up."
So he did, pushing the power lever to 30%. As the unit was activated, the light show began. Viper pieces began appearing, from the ground up, landing gear, skeletal structure, engines, wiring, outer shell, markings, canopy… until a finished unit appeared in about 30 seconds flat.
The power console was turned back to a minimum. The replicated viper was moved with the graviton beams to an inspection section that led to either the connection tunnel or a cargo bay area.
"Well, Chief Tyrol, this is your area of expertise. Your people get to work and inspect this thing from top to bottom. Then once you are satisfied, one of your boys takes it for a test drive. And only then will we proceed to phase two. Until then, everyone, back to work on the other sections!"
So the Colonials did just that. As for phase two, that would then include more complex things, like Starfleet technology, the hybrid raptors, or Peter's new project, hybrid vipers.
Hours later, on Cloud Nine, Porter departed a raptor in the hangar. Tom was pretending to be on his way as well, but he planned it to 'bump' into her. "So, how did it go?" He asked as she passed him, not responding. "That good?"
Still no reply, so Tom saw no reason to keep digging. He knew this would end badly and Porter did not get any further. He too wanted to challenge Laura, but with a plan that is not suicidal.
But he did notice something else. Something that was bothering him. Something he used to do. Both in his bombing and resistance days and now, in the political opposition. He saw people pretending to be part of the background, to be working on their tasks, based on their uniforms. But when you survived by reading the room, people or situation, you notice the subtle nods and glances from people that should have nothing in common. Sure, some friends bump into each other, but this many in such a short amount of time… no. Either security in disguise or something else.
As she disappeared into the hangar exit, he boarded his own raptor. "Emil, have a discrete inquiry with my 'other' friends. Something stinks with Porter." He told his right-hand man.
And by that, he meant the underworld. He had many enemies there, but enough influence to get answers. But if he didn't, it meant that no one would talk, not that no one didn't know. And that could worry him.
Day 104 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 7th of May, the year 2378, Federation / Colonial salvage fleet, deep space, warp highway, en route back
The Rebel task force decided to stay with the Starfleet / Colonial fleet as they were returning to their own backyard. Or as close as possible. At some point, Jim knew they would say their goodbyes with the Rebel fleet to not tip them off where their colony is.
They needed three days to get all the ships out of the field and made functional again. The Rebels managed to get around 55% centurions and 42% raiders operational again after they removed the talent inhibitors.
In the time she had, Scott still didn't manage to get the automated systems on the gunship under her control and she had to admit that it might take more time than even she anticipated. But as long as she had the bridge and crew section sealed off and covered, let anyone stupid enough try to board the ship anywhere else.
And while repairs were still going on as they kept jumping to make up lost time, as they were overdue, it didn't mean that some long-term planning was also not taking place. At least for the Colonials and Starfleet.
The crew of Cain's Pegasus began evacuations, even if with a heavy heart. But Augustus did not know where he will take command after this. For now, he and many of his people were moving their belongings and equipment to the Carrier Pegasus, A skeleton crew would remain to keep her going till the colony.
Right now, Cain and Kirk were having some talk in Kirk's new quarters, the one he took on the Babylon. The admiral's quarters. And Jim too had some time to get some personal stuff to his quarters for decoration, the few things he had. Actually, the new important items for him were the framed pictures the crew managed to make for him from the fleet's database.
They were in the attached office in Jim's new home. Reading reports mostly and discussing matters for this fleet so as to have something ready when they meet Bill.
"You sure about that?"
"Positive, Jim. I think my daughter's Pegasus will fit me better than your Pegasus. Also, some Colonials might get the wrong idea, me being on a Starfleet ship. And since according to Lee, my daughter messed up, her ship is up for the taking. No, I was always close and personal in my fights. Your Pegasus is a fine ship, but you yourself said it. She fights more like a basestar than a battlestar. At arm's length."
"Fine." Jim marked that in the PADD. "According to Major Adama, the first fighter tests with our hardware should be possible within 12 hours." He sipped some coffee as he sat behind his desk as Augustus was inspecting the pictures in the back, his coffee also waiting on the desk.
"Now that I will gladly come and see. Perhaps even test one out myself. You don't mind, do you?"
"Why should I? And how would I stop a determined man like you, even if I wanted to?" They both grinned at that. Cain turned to the pictures again. He picked up the one from Jim's glory days on the Enterprise bridge with his crew. "A finely balanced crew you had. As I understand it, this engineer in the back is related to the young lady the major is seeing?"
Jim saw the confusion in his eyes as he took another sip. "Time travel. Let me give you a hint: Don't overthink it or you'll just get a headache."
And so Cain put that picture down and took the one next to it for inspection. "So noted. My, he was a fine-looking lad, your boy."
Jim god a bit somber. "He was."
"I can clearly see the jawline resemblance. But the uniform? Not Starfleet?"
"No. He lived with his mother. For some years I didn't even know I had a son. He didn't really like me at first. He was a scientist, like his mother. And a damn good one. But he did take one bad habit from me."
Cain put the picture back and now joined him with the coffee at the desk. "Oh?"
"He thought that he could cheat fate like me. I won't bore you with the technical aspects, since even I don't get them. He created a device that could in one shot turn a dead barren planet into a living, berating one. It worked, for a short while. But then it got unstable and blew up."
"I see. Is… is that how he died?"
"I a way. A Klingon captain saw some stolen data on the project and got greedy. He murdered him to get to the secrets of his device."
"And that captain?"
"As I said, I avenged David."
Cain left it at that. No point in drilling deeper. Their door rang. They had posted guards outside, just in case. "Come."
The guards outside stepped aside as D'Anna and her Six subordinates entered. "You said you wanted to talk as soon as we have most issues under control. Hope this is fine?"
Jim casually nodded. Tapping the ship intercom command, he ordered some beverages to be brought to his quarters. "Please. There is enough space for the three of you." His office did have just enough seats for three guests. As the Cylons took their seats and got their coffee and tea respectfully, Jim decided to start. "How does it look?"
"Coming along. The centurions are not happy. With us, Cavil, this mess. They are more tolerating us right now than actually taking orders. They have reserved their final decision until they talk with HQ and Spartacus."
"Who?" Both Jim and Cain were mostly at a loss here.
"Ehm… never mind. Anyway, the real reason we came, besides that you asked us to, is to see what your next move is. Have you given a thought about our issue back in Cyrannus?"
"Yes." Cain responded. "Billy knows about it and as you say is probably already on his way back with the survivors, I'll let him decide that. The pragmatist in me wants to help you to get this done and make sure Cavil is never a real threat to anyone ever again. The old warrior in me, well, I never shied from a good fight. But the Colonial in me wants you to frak yourselves and solve it the same way."
The two Cylon females were expecting the last remark but never anticipated for a Cain to keep an open mind. The historic records did not give him enough credit in the human department.
"And you, Admiral?" They meant Kirk.
"I have no real stake in this and no real authority outside my ships. So… whatever Augustus decides, I'll back up."
"I see." That really was unexpected. "And if you had a stake in it?" D'Anna wanted to see where this would go.
He sighed. "Then… the younger me would agree with Cain. Go to hell after all you did. But that line of thinking almost poisoned me once. My heart and soul that is. So… the older me, if I was in contact with HQ, would tell them to help and get this mess sorted out. With the force I have, I would not make it a unilateral decision but would consult any officer of high rank or importance. My Colonial comrades included. So as you can see, neither of us are willing to give you any guarantees as of this moment. So let's change the topic for now. Do you have enough supplies to get back to one of your bases?"
"Yes, even if you did take more parts and supplies than I thought you would."
"Miss Three, we had a deal. A basestar for parts and supplies. And I did restrain myself. I could have robbed you blind."
"In a way you did. Our technological data. You know more about our ships and soldiers than me now."
Jim poured himself and Cain more coffee as the Cylons declined to have more. "That is how trades are made. I'm sorry you don't like it, but that ain't changing in the short run. Now, centurion feelings and logistics aside, we got no new reports of any contacts on long-range sensors. Your patrols?"
"Same. Probably Cavil has no more forces this deep out. Or his losses at the front are stacking up and he needs them there." The Six responded. She was done with her tea. "Now, Admiral, can I get a tour of some of your ships? I know I can't get the database on much as you got ours, but just some tips and ideas as well as some basic descriptions?"
Jim pondered and eyed Cain for his input. Cain just shrugged as if to say that it's Jim's decision. He grabbed his communicator. "Commander Scott, come in."
"Admiral. Is it urgent?"
"Where are you? And no, not urgent."
"Our Pegasus. Major Adama and the Pegasus CAG really want to test our fighters and we are concentrating here in the hangar right now. Why?"
"Can a Cylon model Six join you? Give her the nickel tour, but nothing more. And I'm asking, not telling you. Cause if there are that many Colonials there, they might get miffed by seeing a Cylon there. So consult Lee as well."
"Got it, sir. This Cylon can come. If not in the hangar I can have my people show her other sections. Should I have security as well?"
Now, this was something Jim would not play nice with. "Of course. We can't be too careful. Kirk out." He put the device down. "You have your date. And I insist on security here."
"I completely understand that part, Admiral. So…?"
"I'll instruct the guards to escort you to the transporter."
"Thank you." As she left and now only the three of them were left, D'Anna tried to not roll her eyes.
"What?" Cain noticed her annoyance.
"She was so flirting with the both of you, it gets on your nerves."
"Wasn't that how one of her models got the Colonial military on its knees?"
Jim had a point. And this was also the reason that both he and Cain may play the fool and flirt, but they knew to keep their guard up. Especially Jim, who used seduction of the opposite gender to his advantage in the past. Just not to such an extreme effect.
"On second thought, can I get another then, if this how the talks will remain?" She put the empty cup on the table, knowing this will be tedious. She was not dealing with fools she could manipulate.
Day 104 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 7th of May, the year 2378, USS Ares, barycenter, Cyrannus system
The Ares was now clearly showing some battle scars. During the past days, some of the engagements were close to breaking the defense of the Rebels. And as always, once the Vo'kor detected incoming fleets, they alerted the perimeter defense. With time, they saw a shift in tactics of Cavil. They could only speculate, but the decrease of direct frontal assaults meant that he was running out of steam. Truth be told, they were close to it as well. So they got a break to reorganize and wait for Adama to come back with a plan. The real difference was now the attempt to get back to the Cylon homeworld. The Rebels had that under a lockdown as well with a blockade and any attempts at getting through there were also met with little success. But the Rebels were overstretched. They could not replace their losses in the capital ship area. All they had to fix their remaining ships were the remains of the Colonial orbital infrastructure and the HUB. Both could not compare to the Colony ship or homeworld. But for now, Cavil only had one to rely on. They blocked his comm commands as well, preventing him from remote controlling the homeworld. But this could not continue. At some point, they would have to reposition their forces to either one front or the other solely. And if they could not capture the homeworld, they would carpet nuke it. But in the long term that is a bad idea for them. So they were stalling until Adama returns.
Right now with only some raider wings attempting to poke the defense perimeter and nothing bigger, even the Starfleet people had some time to rest and patch up their ship. Captain Hauaman even managed to have the cargo from their planetary surveys of the former Colonial worlds moved to the much larger Vulcan cruiser. Something stood out in the findings from Gemenon. Besides the Dilithium. A replica from the original red Iconian crystal the last hybrid had. Apparently even the Colonial religious circles were aware of it. Yet how and how the original got to the Cylons was a big question mark.
But right now, in the Vo'kor's conference room, since this ship actually had one large enough to accommodate all the people present, the Cylon and Starfleet officers were taking inventory and fleet status. Including Spartacus.
"Well, it's official." Hauaman massaged her temporal part of her head after putting her PADD down. "We're running on fumes. 22 torpedoes left." She eyed everyone in the room. "I don't have to be a machine or Vulcan to recognize the obvious. This can't go on for much longer."
The Vulcan commander had the simplest solution. "I already had my engineers modify my ship's torpedoes stock to make them compatible with our launchers, Captain."
"Yes… and you seem to forget that this will only shift the problem. Besides, your torpedoes have an 80 years gap. Meaning I'll need to use twice as many for the same effect. And you might need them soon yourself."
"I did not forget that issue. But as you noted, you are at the front at the moment, not my ship."
"Can you not utilize the parts on your ship to improve the weapons that way?" Spartacus asked.
"Would take far too long… But…" She turned her attention to the Three in the group. "Tell us, you are using the entire intact Colonial infrastructure to keep yourself afloat." D'Anna nodded. "Any surplus Colonial nuclear warheads at your disposal?"
"Plenty. Why?" She was for the torpedo modification, not something like this.
"We can use a more primitive warhead faster for this. My people used the limited parts and machine shop on the Ares and they managed to assemble an additional 80 torpedo casings. All we need are warheads. The Vulcan torpedoes are good enough on their own, but your nukes are hopeless with the delivery system you have, not with the swarms of raiders in space that usually clutter any battle. We could adept two warheads per casing. I mean it's just another temporary solution, but we are buying more time. Can you do it?"
"I'll have my people assemble the warheads ASAP. You should get them within 12 hours."
"Good. Cause truth be told, we'll use the pause Cavil is giving us to not just fix the small hull breach on the dorsal section, but also to overhaul the cooling system on half the phase arrays. The continuous usage has really deteriorated them. And the port dorsal one on the main hull will need the focusing lens replaced. And the port nacelle could use some repairs as well." Two battles ago, Cavil nearly broke them during an assault over Canceron. A few minutes longer and the Rebels would have been forced to pull back, had Cavil not retreated himself. There the Ares took this beating as part of her shields were stripped off due to the damage they took. "Now, how does your front look like?"
The Six of their group inhaled and took her paper report. "Better than expected, thanks to you. We lost nine basestars in total in all the engagements since you arrived. We calculate that Cavil lost 157. The issue is we can't replace even the nine we lost. And the raider and centurion losses keep mounting. Yes, ours are smarter now that they are free, but sooner or later, the numbers will win. We have around 27 basestars badly damaged and will also need extensive repairs. It is in situations like these that I wish we hadn't destroyed Scorpia shipyards. They would have been useful to us."
"Good." Hauaman made the notes on her PADD. "Now, on a lighter note. Since all fast routes to this sector are being observed by your long-range raider scouts, we have a two-hour alert window, should Cavil try again. Not to mention our sensor systems to coordinate any defense. Permission for some planetside R&R?"
The Three spoke for the Cylons. "Granted. But… choose some far-off resort locations to avoid any radiation spikes. And the scenery of destroyed cities. As for power, you do have portable generators, so you can deal with that yourself?" She got a nod in confirmation.
As everything was getting wrapped up, the Vulcan commander addressed one last issue. "You mentioned radiation? May I then propose a gift of sorts? From my people to you."
The Ares captain stopped him. "No technology sharing, or gifting unless…"
"I am aware of the orders and I agree with them. If said technology could be used against us. This cannot and can serve to further strengthen our alliance." When she didn't protest further, he turned to the Cylons. "As some of you may now know of my people's history, we almost destroyed ourselves some 2000 years ago. To get our civilization back up as fast as possible, we had to not only adapt culturally but technologically. We developed radiation scrubber technology to clean our world up. This technology cannot be abused, and as such could be useful to you and not dangerous for us."
"You mean to clean the irradiated areas with the largest fallout?"
"Yes. We can provide you with a working unit that you can scale up in size as well as blueprints for it."
"I… Em. Yes? Thank you." The Cylons were not expecting this. "Why?"
"I already stated my reasons. But might I suggest one more idea that we could try? I mean my engineers with yours. On the HUB."
Both Hauaman and the Cylon leadership wanted an explanation for this. "It would benefit you greatly if you could use resurrection again?"
"Yes, of course."
"We should begin looking at how to develop a way to discriminate the resurrection systems between models and units. I believe that modifying the system just via a software update should make it possible to both turn resurrection back on and to decide who gets it. And by that I mean which model gets it. That would be the easy part. Selecting the models who benefit. The hard part would be to accomplish the same for individual units which we will have to do for the raiders and centurions. The system will not be able to see the difference between Cavil's units and Rebel units. There I believe that a hardware upgrade will be needed. A resurrection communication unit is installed into raiders and centurions that allows them to access resurrection if we encode the resurrection system appropriately. Then the hardware addition could decode the frequencies and make them usable to each unit."
"I see your logic," Spartacus responded. "This idea should be pursued. I also agree that it will take time for the second phase to be implemented. Question. Why make this suggestion only now?"
"As it is only now that we gained sufficient insight on how that particular system works that we can even make the attempt. May I propose that you move the HUB here to my ship so that we work more productively on the matter?"
The Cylons all looked at each other, all nodding in agreement. "Then it is settled. Make it happen." Hauaman declared. The conference room began getting emptier. Until only a Three, Hauaman and the Vulcan commander remained. All this time she had a dilithium crystal next to her on the table.
D'Anna saw her expression. One of deep thought and worry as she observed the crystal. "Hard to think that the Colonials sat on that, tonnes of that, but didn't know how to use it." It was a mocking way of her to still show the little bit of disdain she held for the Colonials.
"Perhaps. At least you can one day use it productively."
Now the Three and the Vulcan sat to her left and right. "But that is not what worries you?" Her Vulcan colleague surmised.
"If only a few Colonials on my ship reacted worried, how do you think someone from a more traditional or religious upbringing will react to this? One saying from Earth should tell you what worries me. No plan or invention, no matter how well designed or planned, can overcome the biggest issue with any plan or invention. The human factor. Or in other words, stupidity. Arrogance. Ignorance. Or all of the above."
"While I can't argue with that statement… and I'm stealing that line if you don't mind." D'Anna grinned a bit. "Your worry is with the Colonials back in your colony?"
"Where else…"
In the corridor, Major Sisko caught up with Spartacus. "Hey, Spartacus. How have you been?"
"Major Sisko. I am functioning perfectly, thank you. I am the centurion in charge of all centurions now. I thank you and Lt. Hill for this."
"Yeah. Sorry that he didn't have time to see you much as they had to escort the civvies back so soon."
"Affirmative. Question. Are you initiating a verbal conversation with the intent of friendship?"
"Well, yeah. Unless you have some duties to do?"
"The front is silent. I have some time for what you call 'killing time'."
"Well, remember when Hill said you two would need to catch a movie or two?"
"I do. Proposal. I wish to see the movie my name comes from."
"OK? Wow. Didn't expect that. Hmm, I have an idea. Once we get to Caprica orbit and we find a place for some rest, we can find some sort of cinema hall or something and I can show you there, atmosphere and all."
"Atmosphere is irrelevant. The story will remain unchanged."
He reassured him with a clap on the shoulder. "Oh, it does. And we might not be the only ones who would watch. Perhaps some of your friends might join. Just wait for me once we beam to the Ares. I have to get the movie database module from my quarters."
"You do not wish me to see your quarters?"
"Emm, I have no issue. Captain Dualla might. So let her get some rest."
"I see. Is she your mate?"
As they were about to enter the transporter room, Sisko stopped just short of the door opening automatically. "Ehm… no… yes? In a way. Honestly. Not even I am sure yet. Let's say yes for now."
"Confusing response. But data suggest a confusing response was expected."
Day 106 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 9th of May, the year 2378, Federation / Colonial rescue fleet
Bill was tense and it showed. He was more often in the aft of the bridge at the planning and status table. He saw the space they were at and the one they had passed a few days ago. His fleet had to go off the highway a few times to avoid a close encounter with what they had to assume was a Cavil force rushing to Cyrannuss. He hoped that meant that the defense force was doing good work. As they began passing Kobol, again, they took the long way around. But since he was not yet done with Kobol, he had to get some info. He risked some hybrid raptors to do a close scouting. As much data as they could get. All the raptors managed to get into an orbit of the planet at the distance of the moon, but no closer. The raider patrols in the entire system were murder. Seems that Cavil decided to set up shop here as the Rebels did with Cyrannus. Bill decided to keep a few raptors observe the developments that they could spot, for as long as possible before the fleet was outside the range and in danger of being spotted or intercepted. The only thing he saw with consistency happen were Cylon transport ships descending into the atmosphere once they jump in or ascend before jumping out. He had a pretty good idea of what they were doing. The same thing the mining units were doing in the asteroid fields and moons in the system they also spotted. Resources. Cavil must have lost much in the way of military power. The Rebels were blocking him from getting to the homeworld or to even gain full remote control of it, so he was limited to the Colony ship. The mining operation happening in the Kobol system was to feed that ship the resources it needed to either make the mechanical parts, to grow new organic parts and ships, or both.
Bill saw how he needed to hurry. If Cavil recovered and pushed a weakened defense force, he would win. But his first priority was his people, not the mess the Cylons made for themselves.
Now that they were approaching the part where they will move off the highway and begin their last leg of the journey to the colony, Bill felt a bit at ease. He knew that the risk of bumping into more of Cavil's BS was small.
Drinking his coffee, Bill kept reading the reports on the fleet. Since he was pushing them to make up for lost time, seven more ships broke down. Again, relocate the passengers, strip them and leave the husks behind. If they could, the broken-down ship would dock with a larger one, preferably a military one, and so keep jumping with the help of the larger ship while being stripped to not lose time. If not, the fleet would have to wait until only the important components are gutted, leaving the hull mostly intact. Civvies. Their ships were not handling this hard travel well. He hoped the Starfleet engineers at the colony could do something about that.
Helo stepped out of the turbo lift and spotted him. "Sir, the latest medical reports." He handed him the PADD with the information. "Also, thank you for letting me actually do something and learn their protocols."
"Everyone has to carry their weight in my fleet. At least if you are an adult. And you are a fast learner. Besides…" The comm officer got a beep on her station. A hybrid raptor just returned.
"Sir, raptor 077 returned with some strange information."
"Can you be more specific?"
"Their subspace listening antenna was pinged. By a Starfleet IFF handshake protocol. And not from this fleet."
That meant only one thing. Someone from the colony was out here. Or something else. "Get a raptor scouting unit ready. The direction is wherever that ping came from. We…" Now Hill at tactical got a sensor update.
"Sir, long-range sensors detected several jump signatures, a fleet just jumped to the spot where we want to do to our course change for the colony."
"How many ships?"
"30 large signatures. Also plenty in the tachyon department and… subspace. Sir, perhaps…"
The comm officer got an update. Or to be more precise a signal request. "Sir, it's one of ours. And Lee Adama's private code is being used."
Everyone either got tense or confused. Bill sat in the captain's chair. "Let's see it."
What he saw, he didn't expect. Or to be more accurate, whom he saw.
"Little Billy 'Husker' Adama. I always knew you would come far. Just not how far. Almost as far as me. Heh."
The Starfleet people on the bridge didn't have a clue who the man was. Only that he was clearly sitting in a chair on the bridge of one of the disabled ships. Who were not so disabled any longer, it seemed. But the Colonials thought they were looking at a ghost. Bill only snapped out of it when he noticed two things. One was that Lee was also sitting left of the man in the middle of the bridge. The other was that Cain was not the man in the middle. "Em, sir?"
"Cat got your tongue, boy? A first in my book. Yes, it's me. Augustus Cain. The only Colonial officer who even Tartarus could not hold. I take it you see your son here, right. Well, we have a lot to talk about. And I mean A LOT. But first thing's first. Let me introduce you to my new friend and brother, Starfleet's finest, Admiral Kirk. He and I get along better than I did with anyone back in the glory days of the Colonial navy."
Now Kirk spoke up. "Admiral. A pleasure. Suffice to say while I never met you in person, your son, who is a fine officer, just a little rough around the edges, filled me in on you. Our sensor ship detected your fleet. And a big one it is. We'll be waiting for you at the coordinates we're at right now. We have much to discuss. Is it a deal?"
Bill was still in the process of snapping out of his trance. "Ehm, yes. Of course. Deal." As the screen went silent again, Bill eyed Karl. "Did you see what I saw?"
"If you mean the legend himself, then yes, sir. How…"
"I intend to find out. Mr. Hill, how long until the fleet can jump again?"
"20 minutes sir. We will need at least two more jumps with the civilians slowing us down. May I suggest that you take one of the raptors there to get this sorted out?"
"Good idea. Mr. Hill, you have the bridge. Karl, contact Kara and Shaw. They are coming with me."
A few minutes later the wing of raptors appeared in the location where they were contacted from. Bill decided to take the controls of his raptor himself, with Kara being his co-pilot. "Wow. Look at that, sir. They aren't pulling our legs after all."
What Kara meant and what also got everyone's attention in the raptor, were the Colonial ships that really looked to be out of a museum. They also all saw the name Pegasus written on the flight pod of one of the battlestars.
"Sir. We have a guiding beacon from that… large Starfleet ship contacting us." Shaw noted from the aft of the raptor at the DRADIS station.
"This is Babylon control to raptor wings from the Bismarck fleet. Continue on the approach vector and come in slowly." Then they saw the aft doors open.
"Guess we're invited then. Raptor wing Alpha One. I have the lead. Follow me in." Bill announced on the wireless system.
As they slowly landed and the doors closed and the hangar got repressurized, their raptor equipment showed normal pressure and atmosphere outside. They also saw the deckhands begin doing what deckhands always did.
Turning the raptor systems off, the admiral and the two officers, and two marines opened the hatch. Stepping off the wing and seeing the surroundings for the first time clearly, Bill also noticed the security detachment made up of MACO's and Colonial marines approach them from what he assumed was the main hangar entrance. And in the middle of the formation were the other two flag officers he spoke of not long ago.
As most stopped, only Augustus kept on going to close the distance completely. As Bill stood at attention there and saluted him, Cain ignored protocol and just grabbed his hand and shook it. "Good to see you again, Husker."
"Ehm, you too, sir."
"A bit more gray hair, a bit wiser but also slower, eh?"
Now Bill managed to relax a bit as well. "Something like that sir."
Cain noticed the column of stiffs behind Bill. "At ease, all of you for frak's sake. This is a time to celebrate, not to be by the book. Now…" This was Kirk's cue. "Admiral Adama, Admiral Kirk. Earth's finest."
At this point, Bill got used to the no saluting part of Starfleet, so they just shook hands. "Do I even want to know your story?"
"On how I got here? Remember the future man?" He could see Bill get annoyed. "Yeah, him."
More introductions followed as Lee managed to greet his father as well. "Dad. You made good time."
"Not for a lack of the civvies trying to slow us down. Now, I think we need things to discuss. Like how so many basestars are out there with your fleet, why one of my old idols is alive again, but also how you got this fleet back up."
Kirk whispered to Lee. "Doesn't waste time, does he?"
"Right this way, Husker." Cain motioned him to follow him and Jim to the turbo lift system. "Major, entertain the rest of Husker's people. Dismissed."
As the brass left, Lee saw that Kara wanted the entire scoop while Shaw was more interested in the ship itself. "Well, Lee. Aren't you going to show me around?"
"Us." Shaw corrected her.
"No, I said it correctly. You can play by the airlock."
"Ehm… Ladies. Or attack dogs if you prefer. I am still outranking both of you, so stop with this playground BS. Got it?"
Shaw nodded in confirmation. Kara just shrugged. "Yeah, for now. Anyway, how is the commander?"
"Em, she's busy. We managed to find an additional alien ship as well as several basestars as you undoubtedly noticed."
She grabbed Lee under his arm and began dragging him to the hangar exit with Shaw casually following with her hands behind her back. "Hard to miss them." All around them the raptor crews were talking with the people in the hangar who were either Cain's people or Starfleet personnel.
An hour passed before all the notes were exchanged in the conference room of Kirk's ship. Cain poured Bill and Jim some more of his private ambrosia. "So as you can see, Husker, we're in a pickle."
"We were for a while. But you to boost morale, this fleet to get us some much-needed teeth and an experienced explorer… Things are improving. Now, before we let the Cylon representatives come to talk with me, as I already know what they will want, we have one more issue to address."
"We know," Jim responded. During this time he and Bill were assessing each other. And Jim probably knew as Adama did that they would hold mutual respect for each other. And Cain was in a way the glue that started it all. "One fleet, once we depart, four admirals. That's three too many at the best of times."
Cain took over. "So we already discussed it. You can remain the one in charge of the fleet in total. Cause truth be told, neither I nor Jim want the hassle with the president or civvies. We ain't that brave." They both chuckled at that. "But I can be your right-hand officer for all Colonial military matters, Jim your left-hand officer for Starfleet matters… as for this lady I heard about…"
It was Jim's turn again. "As far as some people told me, your son included, she was in a way forced by you to accept her current posting. If she doesn't mind a demotion back to commodore and be the officer to directly handle issues with the Quorum and the president, you have your hands mostly free to do what you have to do get us to Federation territory."
Bill finished his drink and shook his head to Cain that he didn't want another round. "You two thought of this well. And your flags?"
"Yeah, about that, Husker… we need some reorganizing."
Leaning into the chair, Bill saw in their faces they had something planned he might not like. "Husker, Billy… frak. Admiral. Jim here told me of the plan to install some industrial crap on the Galactica. We just told you what the fate of my ship is. So… We gut my old girl, once we get to the colony. We transplant all the armor and anything else of use to the Galactica. But this and all upgrades intended for combat will not make her a ship of the line. And someone in charge of the fleet has to be in a ship that can fight at the front lines, which the Galactica won't. Not because she won't be able to, but shouldn't. Not with the added logistical importance it will get."
"So you want me to move my flag?"
"In a manner of speaking. Look. I will need a new ship as well, so I hope, Jim, you don't mind me taking the lead here?"
"No, no problem. Sell it to him. Will make it easier for me."
"Right. Bill. MY daughter, she fraked up badly from the reports I read. So… give me her ship. Her Pegasus. I would not mind commanding a Starfleet ship, but I think someone like me should be on a Colonial ship. Look, if you want it, then I'll take this Adonis."
"No. She's yours. I think a Cain should be in charge of the Pegasus."
Jim had to contain a laugh. Oh, the irony on two levels.
"Oh, thank you. But that was the easy part for me. I mean… how do I say this… Reinstate my daughter…"
"Augustus…"
"I know she fraked up really badly. What I am asking of you is to reinstate her not at her old rank. Demote her for sure. Then either give her the Adonis if no one else will take it or the preferred choice for me, make her my XO. That way I can keep an eye on her and If she messes up again, you can have my uniform. And hers again."
Bill pondered. On one hand, he didn't know if progress was made with Helena. Her mental state. On the other, if there was anyone who could reign her in, it was her father. "Once we get back and I see her current state and medical reports, I'll make a decision. Deal?"
"Good enough for me. Now…" He turned to Jim.
"Right. Well, just like Augustus should be for moral reasons on a ship made by his people, I should be on a Starfleet ship. Besides, I know them much better than yours. And while I never like the big bulky battleships, unless you don't agree, I would remain on the Babylon."
Bill saw no issues there. "Fine. So what have the two of you cooked up for me?"
"Oh, that was the reason I held a laugh in when you mentioned the Pegasus. Technically we have three Pegasus here in the fleet. Pegasi? What's the plural of that name? Anyway, Cain's old one is beyond our abilities to fix, he gets the new one and you move your flag to the Starfleet Pegasus."
"The carrier? I am not a carrier commander."
"And I am not a battleship commander, but sometimes fate plays cruel tricks on us. It would add the benefit that if you have no better candidate for a fleet CAG, your son can be posted there too as that ship has the best fighter control facility." Jim argued back. "Look, it's just an idea. You have plenty of picks. Just something to think about."
A few minutes later the Three of the Cylon ships arrived as well as the civilian representative of the fleet that had arrived several minutes ago.
Lee had moved to the Carrier Pegasus with Kara and Shaw in tow. Not that it mattered as traffic increased tenfold as soon as the civilian fleet arrived. As Cain and Kirk were selling some other simple ideas about logistics, medical staff, and similar topics, one of the things Bill signed off on the spot was to have Sharon moved to a Starfleet ship they just hooked up with. So the carrier was it for now as Karl too could be used here. It was already a done deal that with the engineering staff and maintenance crews where there would be mixed staff, all other areas would be run by Colonials.
As raptors were getting moved via the lift system from the axillary landing area to the main hangar and Karl helped Sharon to get off, restraints and all, Kara was gliding her hands over the wing of a yellow jacket. "OK, not a viper, but not bad. You had time to test it, Lee?"
"Yes. They're still working on making them jump capable."
Shaw went to the analysis console of the fighter Kara was inspecting only to get her hand slapped by Commander Scott. "No touching until you get cleared."
"For what? Not like I can blow anything up by just inspecting the console and data on the fighter."
"Because I say so." She showed a PADD into her arms. "Once you read all of this through, and I test you, we'll talk."
Shaw turned the PADD over and saw the first line of text. Technical manual for deckhand crews, level one. She gritted her teeth. Sure, she would have read it anyway and she respected a professional like Scott but being given it as a child annoyed her. Then she glared at Sharon s she was led past them to the hangar exit. "Why do we tolerate a walking appliance staying on this ship?"
"The three admirals are talking to pretty much everyone and themselves how to proceed. So they want her to be on this ship for now as she can be kept under better security here."
It didn't matter to Shaw. She hated Sharon's guts.
As Karl and Sharon arrived at where the security personnel led them to, they entered decent-looking quarters. But with a more militaristic feeling to it. And no windows. Just as Manor and his staff went past the guards in the corridor. "Hm, how convenient that the guest quarters are on the same level as the main medical complex. You and I have an appointment in a few hours. As soon as I manage to read some manuals on the equipment here."
As the medical staff continued walking, one of the guards made a remark. "It's also on the same level as the security complex."
Before the doors closed, Karl inspected the security personnel one last time. A weird mix of the MACO equipment he already got accustomed to, but then the others were wearing the ship's original gear for security personnel. A red uniform with body and head armor. They also wore a utility belt where most of their gear and weapons were attached to. Karl nodded in confirmation that they are fine as they handed him the last of their belongings, clothes mostly.
Once alone, Karl saw Sharon already at the work desk accessing the computer terminal. Starfleet was fast. They blocked access to all but the essential information. But the 100 years that had passed between these ships and the ones they were on until now were available.
"Yawn. You feeling OK?" He asked her as he laid down on the bed.
"Fine. I'm more fascinated by this reading material. Don't worry. I know you are tired. You can…" She heard him snore lightly so she peeked over her shoulder. He was out. "Sleep…"
It took several hours but the fleet reorganized and parted ways with the Rebels. All Bill could say was that he would hurry with the Kobol question. So the Rebel fleet would wait for them as close to Kobol as possible without getting spotted for two weeks in the hopes to make a combined attack. What all three Colonial admirals feared was that Cavil might find something Iconian on the planet and be able to use it. If not, they still needed to deny him the resources and base of operation.
But one advantage of three flag officers was that they could take shifts on who was on duty. As Augustus went to bed on the Carrier Pegasus, Bill and Jim were walking to the transporters to get Bill back to the Bismarck. During their walk down the empty corridors of the Babylon, they both read different reports on the PADDs. "I see the transporters are still causing our people issues?"
"The virus did a number on them, that's the reason we only use the transporter rooms that are cleared, so the lower activity and traffic with them. We'll be using shuttles… or as you call them raptors for a bit longer."
"OK. Now, you get some rest. You got the shift after me."
"And you, since Augustus has it right now?"
"I need to hit the punching bag."
"Ah, nice. Good idea, truth be told. May I ask your input?"
"Of course. About what?"
"Uniforms. We have a mess in that department. Cain's past uniform generation, your current Colonial ones, my 23rd century Starfleet one, the Ares early 23rd century one…"
"And then the MACOs and the standard Starfleet of the century before yours. Any ideas?"
"Standardization. I suggest you have Cain adopt the current Colonial uniforms while I have the Starfleet people do the same with the red one I'm wearing. It would not just eliminate any confusion, but would also make Starfleet and Colonial uniforms have distinctively different colors. We red, you blue."
"And the security on your end?"
"You mean the MACOs?" Bill nodded. "I hate to say it, but Starfleet made mistakes in the past and probably still does. Retiring the MACOs was one of them. I'd say just get their gear up to date but keep the uniform design."
"Would work." As they exited the turbo lift they entered during this talk, Bill saw his raptor. "One more issue on my end. With you. And someone on the Bismarck." As they reached the raptor, Jim noticed one Starfleet officer there. "Lt. Commander Hill, meet Admiral Kirk. Admiral. This man is an Augment."
Jim tensed and began inspecting him from top to bottom. "Is he now?"
"Sir?" Hill was a bit lost.
"Mr. Hill. This has nothing to do with you directly. Just in the past few hours Admiral Kirk and I exchanged our career stories. Mr. Hill. This officer had to deal with one Khan."
Now Hill got it. "I was told of one James Kirk from the people on the colony. That man is you?"
"Yes, boy. And it cost me, having to deal with that egocentric megalomaniac. Twice. And the fact he got a second chance to haunt me was me showing him mercy the first time. Now, how is there an Augment here, cause for me you are definitely a security risk." As Hill went to tell him his story, Jim tried to keep an open mind, but his past experiences were now in conflict with each other. On one hand, he had similar feelings towards the Klingons once and I almost led to war. So that part was telling him to not judge. But Khan. That man… monster. The Klingons were just a flawed culture that got where it is, for better or worse. But Khan was a flaw of Earth. One he had to clean up. And now here stood another one. For Jim, this was what Bill had to deal with when it came to the Cylons. And that was the deal-breaker with Jim. If Adama could to a degree overcome his hatred and mistrust with his people's mistake, perhaps he could try to do the same with Earth's mistake?
Once Hill was done, a short silence followed. "Son. Truth be told, you will have to convince me with deeds, not talk. So, Admiral Adama, may I suggest this officer be transferred to my command and ship once we do depart for Earth so that I can both keep my eyes on him and evaluate him?"
Bill just nodded, saluted, and began boarding his raptor. "Well, boy, after this you belong to me. Now, better get on that raptor as well or it will leave without you."
Day 108 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 11th of May, the year 2378, Federation colony New Settlement
On the Colonial Hope which was doing the perimeter patrol of the nebula where the star system was located with the Federation colony, the Colonials were also doing some training to get accustomed to alien ship technology and design. The D-6 was altered inside to more Earth and Colonial standards of hygiene, food, and crew accommodations. The only issue was that the large crew barracks on the top deck could be improved upon only so far before a complete overhaul with adding bulkheads was needed. The single room which was intended for 200 to 300 Klingon warriors, was made more liveable for human standards and could now hold 70 personnel. Curtains, bed sheets, sleeping mattresses, and other simple amenities made all the difference. Only the sanitation was still a bottleneck, so they had a strict rotation for that as well.
Only higher-ranking officers had the luxury of bunk bed quarters or a single person one in the frontal command module of the ship.
Right now Captain Gaeta was acting XO of the ship. He and for others were on the bridge, two Starfleet and two Colonials. He was at the tactical station, keeping an eye on the sensor display for the long-range scans he was making. But his main focus was on the technical manual on the weapons systems of this ship he got a translated version of from Commander Scott some time ago. The others were not really into their work either. Two were playing chess, the helmsman was reading a Colonial paper while having his feet on the console, and the acting CO was in the captain's chair reading ship status reports.
A beep on tactical alerted Felix that two raptors jumped into their vicinity. "The next rotation arrived."
"Hm, five minutes early. Who would be eager to be on this tub, I wonder?" The helmsman asked no one in particular while turning a page.
"Captain Gaeta, acknowledge their approach and open the shuttle access doors. The guards there can show them around before the crew they are replacing departs."
"Roger that, Captain." Felix got accustomed to some of Earth's slang and terminology already. This mess aside, he clearly had the ambition to one day ask for a Starfleet commission. Then he noticed the time. "Going for a leak. Be right back."
Even the captain only waved him off as this has become such a boring routine that no one bothered to be by the book unless an inspection would happen or something worse.
As he was cleaning up and washing his hands, he heard some commotion outside the corridor. Then a shot fired. Then several shots were fired. He didn't know what to think but his military training kicked in. He turned to water off and went silent. As the commotion died down, he opened the door. He took a peek outside. He saw someone he didn't recognize, pulling either a corpse or someone unconscious from the bridge. As the door to the bridge closed automatically once the feed of the dragged person was out in the hall, Felix snuck up on the stranger and pulled the man's own sidearm out of its holster. A Klingon disruptor. As the intruder swung around to see what was going on, dropping the head of the body to the ground. And then they stared at each other. "Who the frak are you? What is going on?" Felix asked the man whom he didn't know off. But he did see one thing. It was a corpse he was dragging. Of the comm officer who had just been playing chess not too long ago. The wound in the torso meant he was gone.
The intruder was gulping. "Ehm, Captain. This is not your fight. You can just stand down. This will be over soon."
"What will be over soon?" Keeping his voice down so as not to alert whoever is now on the bridge.
"Look. You are a Colonial. I am a Colonial. We can't let these godless fraks…" Felix saw the situation now. A hostile takeover. A coupe. Felix didn't hesitate and shot him in the face. With a weapon that had no stun setting this was a death sentence. But the man he was dragging was also a Colonial, so Felix knew they would have killed him as well. As the body collapsed on the floor next to the first one, Felix knew that could get the attention of the bridge crew. He took cover just to the left of the bridge entrance as there was no other room to hide. He was right. As the door opened, an armed woman went to see what was going on.
"Mark, stop fraking around and… Mark?"
"Hey, Ellie. What's the hold-up?" A male voice shouted from within the bridge as the woman went past Felix to inspect the corpse. "We need him to get comms under control and give Porter's informant the green light on this part of the operation."
She had just turned the corpse around and yelled. "Mark's dead!"
Fast footsteps were heard as two men ran past Felix to see what she was talking about. "What are you…?"
Realizing that this was his only chance, he ambushed them just as the woman noticed him in the corner. Four shots and they fell like sacks of potatoes.
Felix tried to calm himself, but the adrenalin was rushing through his system. "Fraker! You killed my friends! Whoever you are, show yourself or I kill the survivors here!"
"Don't do it! He's a fanatic!" Felix heard that someone was hit.
"Fraking shut up, Earther!"
That told Felix three things. All the attackers were Colonials, only one was left in there and they didn't kill everyone. He crawled to the now five corpses and picked up a second weapon from one of them, a Starfleet EM pistol. He put it behind his back and inhaled slowly. Just in case he needed a plan B. Taking a peek around the door, he saw that all but the captain were on the ground, either knocked out or dead. The captain was on his knees at the helm station as the terrorist was standing behind him, his weapon to the temporal lobe of his hostage.
Felix entered the bridge with his disruptor aimed at the Colonial. "Ah, Captain Gaeta, right? I know you are doing what Adama's and Roslin's failed policies are telling you to, but you can still walk away from this. I mean, he is only a stinking Earther, right?"
"Shut up, you religious zealot."
"Oh, so that's how it's going to be? Me or him? You'd rather shoot your own Colonial brother than a godless outsider?"
"In a case like this yes."
"Well, since we don't have anything else to discuss…" The CO mustered the strength to elbow him into his balls while grabbing his weapon, giving Felix the chance to kill him.
As the dust settled, Felix helped him back up. "Thanks. Makar?"
"Dead."
"Shit…" He dragged himself to the engineering station. "I'm locking the bridge access down. Check the others."
Felix did just that. "All knocked out with stun settings. What's going on?"
"You tell me. They're your people. He mentioned… oh hell no. Porter. That banshee moron."
"Sir two raptors landed, at worst, 24 people loyal to her might be here right now."
"I know. Go to tactical, I'm shutting internal sensors off."
Once at tactical, Felix saw a raptor at the nebula perimeter. That must be the one to get the OK signal to proceed with the next phase, whatever that might be. "Sir, if this is a coupe, this is just the beginning."
"Or already the end. They have the reactor room under control as well. And they locked everyone else into the barracks or medical and threw knock-out gas canisters in."
"Either way we need to regain control."
"I know. And I already know how. We are losing system control, fast as they are rerouting them. But they don't know that they don't have the bridge. I'm shutting life support down and venting the atmosphere from everywhere but the bridge, medical, and barracks."
"Sir, our own people are there as well."
"I know. But we have no choice. You asked me when you arrived here, how does one achieve the rank of commander in Starfleet? You need to be willing to send people to their deaths. Now do it, while we still have the chance."
They saw the reaction from the intruders in the reactor pit when the O2 was cut off. One by one, they fell. The CO restored the internal sensors once they indicated all intruder's bio-signatures were either in the red or gone. He then restored the O2. Felix in this time managed to get all the others back on their feet. Most had some injuries from the short scuffle that got Makar killed.
They unlocked the bridge module and secured the ship again, getting the people trapped in the barracks or medical center out and giving them the antidote. But that raptor outside would not wait forever. Until Felix had an idea. He and a comm expert activated the voice modulator on the comm station. All the CO and his people had to do is to interrogate one of the surviving terrorists and only get him to talk. To get a voice sample.
It worked and the raptor disappeared, confirming that Stage One was now done. That told them that this was just the beginning.
What worried the Starfleet computer people was how easily these Colonials got control of the main engineering. They used a command overwrite key that was made by Commander Scott. Now that was not an instant win card, but it made this coupe much simpler for them. The question was how they got it. The other issue that Felix pointed out was that all the people who were part of this were of Gemeniese descent.
The corpses were moved to the freezer for the time being. Back on the bridge, the CO had to organize something. "This is clearly a hostile intent by an unknown amount of Colonial people."
"Sir, you have to know that not all of us are part of this." Felix tried to keep some reputation for the Colonials here.
"I know. But until this is resolved, all Colonials will have their access codes revoked on this ship. Except for you Captain Gaeta. I have a special assignment for you."
"Sir?"
"We need to intercept this before it spreads. You were trained by Lt. Garcia and have raptor piloting skills. This is right up your alley."
On the Challenger, Galen was returning to the barracks from breakfast to wake up his people. Workers of any type were currently needed everywhere. On the planet to begin the long preparation to move as much of the equipment from the planet to the ships. The ships were put into three categories. Colonial military ships were the easiest. All they would need is regular maintenance, unless they were of an older model or like Galactica, getting some repurposing. The civilians were a different matter. They would need some major repairs and upgrades. Which would only grow once the second fleet arrives. And then there are the Starfleet ships who would get a tech upgrade with 23rd-century parts. Like upgrading the phase cannons to actual phasers and upgrading the reactors and shields as much as possible, based on the parts that were available.
Until the industrial plant on the Galactica got fully operational.
Galen exited the lift on deck eight and went straight for the barracks entrance. "OK guys, stop slacking off, we…" He got a good look inside. They were all incapacitated and getting tied up by armed people. "What the frak…" He tried to turn around to sound the alarm when one of the intruders came from the shower area and hit him in the face with the back of his rifle, breaking his nose.
"Shut him up fast. We need to go for the main target, NOW!"
In her office, Laura was overseeing the legislation she was getting past the Quorum for the needs of the fleet functioning once they do depart. She had it both in paper form and on several PADDs. She heard some commotion outside. "Hello? Oberon, what is going on? Can I have some quiet while I work?"
The doors opened and two armed men were glaring at her, weapons drawn. "Sure, traitor. You'll get all the quiet you'll need."
She stood up, not yet grasping what was going on. "What do you think you are doing?"
He aimed the phase pistol into her chest and stunned her. "Gods I hate her voice." His partner slumped her over his shoulder. As they got back into the corridor, the guards posted there were all KO-ed and getting restrained and disarmed.
"Lord's Messenger here, we have her." He said into his wireless.
On the Yamato, O'Donnell was in her office, also working when the ship's stuart sent her some refreshments. A young woman was carrying a tray into her office.
Fiona was just signing off on some orders on her computer terminal when the woman began putting the coffee on the table. "You're new here, aren't you?"
"Em, yes? Admiral?"
"Which colony are you from?"
"Em… why? Does it matter?"
Fiona spun around on her chair and shot her with her weapon, stunned of course. The coffee set was now broken, but Fiona's intuition was right. She was hiding an EM pistol taped under the tray. "Fiona to Garcia. You're not crazy. A Gemeniese woman tried to shoot me right now. Whoever sent you the warning is not a hoax. Set the fleet on high alert, all Starfleet personnel. Secure all critical areas."
"Sir, with the number of Colonials on our ships right now…"
"I know, damn it! Use Scott's key and shut all main computers down on every ship. They may have learned enough about us to try this, but with only manual settings, they will have a hard time doing anything. Comm, get me Governor Fabron. The colony needs to get on high alert as well."
"And the president?"
"How do we know this isn't her mess?" Fiona could not exclude anything right now.
Once on the bridge, she began getting reports from every ship that firefights were happening everywhere. The colony raised its shields and sounded general quarters and the fleet began to fracture in orbit. "This is Admiral O'Donnell. An attempt at some sort of hostile takeover is currently taking place by an unknown number of Colonial forces. To all Colonial civilian ships, break off and get to a safe distance until this is sorted out. To all Colonial military ships, if you don't do the same, we will consider you a hostile force." She could not take their help. It could be a ruse to backstab her forces when she least expected it. And while the chaos in space was both getting worse as some Colonial ships were now launching raptors and vipers, the civilians did mostly what they were told. All but a few. And she saw the names. Gemenon and Sagitarrion. 80 to 20 ratio. Seems that most Gemeniese ships and their crews were behind this. And a few Sagitarrion ships as well. That meant that Porter was her main issue. The main problem was that Cloud Nine was also not getting any distance.
She got an update from security. The Yamato was secure. They had an assault force disguised as workers arrive on raptors not long ago, as they avoided the transporters not to be as easily detected.
That was where the good news ended. Every other Starfleet ship went dark. She knew why. They got them. As for the Colonial military force, most backed off. But the Pegasus didn't. She was ready for a fight.
On said ship's CIC, Laura was woken by a slap across the face. She was bound and on her knees as she got her bearings. Elosha was beside her, equally helpless. Several other Quorum members were in a similar position. One of the few missing was Tom Zarek. One not missing was Baltar. "Madam President."
"Gaius. What is going on?"
Gaius was scared, but he could not let his sarcasm go. "You get three guesses, but only need one."
"Hello, Laura." It was Representative Porter. "Nicely done, Commander Fisk."
Fisk, who had been demoted some time ago, now wore a commander's insignia. Next to him was Garner, only he didn't look smug, but more like scared.
"Sarah. What is the meaning of this?"
"Isn't it obvious? I am taking control of the fate of the Colonial people."
"By force?"
"You made it necessary when you bowed down to Earth's whim and their freak show."
"It is called democracy. Ever heard of it?"
"It has failed us."
"Said every dictator in the making in the history of humanity." Gaius retorted back.
A guard shot him in the leg for that one. He screamed in pain. "For a spineless man that you apparently are when you deal with Laura, you certainly have a big mouth, Doctor."
Fisk got an update from the table phone. "Frak. The Yamato attempt failed. Earth still controls that. And the colony has its defenses up." Porter didn't care about the colony. Earth can rot behind its defenses. She would have created a new colony on the other side of the planet if needed be. "Also there is heavy fighting on the Galactica. She's pulling away. So is the Victory."
Porter huffed, clearly not happy. "I so wanted to teach that Earth woman some manners as well." She also wanted to destroy that alien filth they were installing on the Galactica.
Speaking of Galactica, the last thing Saul ever wanted was to take charge of this mess on his ship. "Frak it, Bill. A fine time for you to not be here and me holding the bag…" The medic behind him closed the eyes of the man he just tried to save. The CIC was a mess, but the original Galactica guards and Starfleet personnel were guarding the entrances. Only a few minutes ago, Saul was forced to execute his replacement, when he turned to be an insurrectionist. "Comm, inform the Yamato that we're following the admiral's orders. But advise that the ship is not secured. Now, Sergeant, how many people do we have?"
A marine was standing next to him at the planning table as well as a few officers that were keeping the lights on when this hit. "50 as far as I know. The comms keep getting jammed. But we can barely hold these locations. All the workers and deckhands are all over the place and the Starfleet engineers have locked themselves in the lower areas of the ammo storage on both flight pods."
That gave Saul an idea. "Those rooms are air-tight, right?"
"Ehm, yes sir?"
Saul already had made a hard choice like this once. He will have to do it again. "Close all valves and access corridors. Then vent both pods."
"But sir…!"
"The frakers are trying to tear the technology apart that Starfleet only just got to work. We will need that. So frak them! They want war, I'll give them war! Now, DO IT!"
They hesitated only for a few seconds, then went to work to make it happen. As all the loyal crew managed to evacuate the pods, all Saul could hope for was that the Earthers would keep their barricaded storage rooms closed. The air in there even with ventilation off, will allow them to survive for a while.
"We're ready, sir."
The technician at the damage control console was now waiting to kill perhaps hundreds of Colonials.
"Flush them."
In space, both pods began losing small parts to space. It turned out that among those parts were humans.
On the Yamato, Fiona got the sensor update as it happened. "What the hell!? Get me the Galactica!"
She got a response. "Ma'am, Colonel Tigh here. I can imagine you want to know what happened."
"Damn right I do."
"Sir. They were trashing the industrial equipment and already murdered several of your people. The majority of your personnel is getting rescued as they barricaded themselves in ammo storage areas. I had to 'persuade' Colonel Jemenor to step down."
She knew what he meant with that. "We'll talk about this later. Get some distance to this mess till we get it sorted."
"Understood."
As one comm channel was shut off, she got a new comm request. From the Pegasus. "Let's hear this."
On the main screen, the Pegasus CIC was now seen as this was one of the additions the Colonial military ships were getting. And what Fiona saw was a hostage situation, among other things. "Admiral O'Donnell. I was hoping to have you here with Laura for a prolonged talk. How unfortunate."
"I knew you would be trouble, Representative Porter. Guess I underestimated you."
"As I did you."
"How does this end? Did you even think this over? You have to know that there is no happy ending for you."
"I'll settle for a successful ending. Do you think I care about those godless mongrels on that planet? I could care less. All I need is the orbit and I can claim any other spot on the planet. The rest of Earth and those scum can just rot there."
Wow. Fiona would not verbalize her shock at the level of xenophobia, but wow. "Explain that to an entire galaxy of sentient aliens. See the outcome. Or as your plan apparently is, bury your head in the sand. An old Earth saying goes: By silencing someone you disagree with, you don't prove you are in the right. You show that you are scared of what they have to say. But the line in the sand for you is that when Admiral Adama returns with the remaining refugees…"
"He will have no choice but to do as I say or leave."
Delusional as well. Fiona had to say, had Sarah had near-total control of this matter, she would have had a better chance at succeeding. So it's a good thing she had no idea of the second force they had sent out. But Fiona didn't know when they would return. So for now, she was on her own. This was a massive undertaking by the Gemeniese and to keep it so well of the radar was the reason it to so long for them to pounce. She also realized one other thing. The entire fleet that had sided with Porter was slowly moving into a higher orbit. Into a thicker particle concentration of the nebula. To avoid the transporters of the colony. Blinded by religion or not, that was a good move. Getting Fisk and enough of the old Colonial guard on her side was also impressive. Fisk, she could understand. He was side-lined, burned, drunk, and easily swayed. Garner… not so much. Probably coerced.
"So now what?"
"Now you either surrender or else…"
A guard pointed his weapon at Laura. Fiona was not impressed. "First rule when dealing with terrorists: You never negotiate with them. The second rule, she is YOUR president. You kill her you permanently piss off her supporters. The third rule: As I've Stated, not my president. So why should I care?" The last one was a partial bluff. True, legally she had no obligations to Laura. As a friend, she did. But the first rule still applied above all others.
"I thought you would not comply." The guard lowered his weapon as Sarah nodded to Fisk who began issuing orders. Fiona was eying the tactical info to her right on several developing situations. There were still firefights on the planet, outside the shield dome. In most cases a Colonial vs. a Colonial situation in the camps. And here Starfleet would not handle it due to the mess up here. As well as which Colonial do they trust? At this point, not a single damn one. Even Commander Hasapis had his codes revoked on the planet. The governor could take no chances and placed them all under house arrest.
Then the tactical alert sounded. The Pegasus had just pointed her dorsal artillery cannons at Cloud Nine. "Now what do you say?"
"That you're even crazier than I gave you credit for. You would fire at civilians? Your civilians?"
"Only my political rivals or their supporters remain on that joke ship. Let the old Quorum be washed away. And the few supporters of mine that remain there, that believe the Lords as I do, they will be remembered."
Garcia had just stepped out of the lift and with heavy panting, handed Fiona a PADD. She kept her poker face. "Well done." She whispered. "Then fire away. Be a murderer."
On the Pegasus CIC, Sarah was not expecting this answer. "Commander Fisk. You heard the bitch. The faith of the Lords in us needs some blood sacrifice. Fire at your own discretion."
Even Fisk hesitated at this, not believing it would escalate this far. But when Porter glared at him, he gave the order.
As the cannons began charging their magnetic mechanism up the Yamato also began powering up all systems. It would be far too late to intercept any shells. And then there would be the commandeered ships the hostile Colonial force still possessed. Including her ships.
But what was not anticipated, was the Colonial Hope charging from the nebula from behind the Pegasus and opening fire with her green disruptors on the artillery cannons of the much larger ships. As the captured D-6 began speeding past the formation of Colonial ships, they were caught completely off guard at this. They had hoped to do this to Fiona just about now.
As the D-6 had cleared the Colonial formation, it engaged its tractor beam and began dragging Cloud nine from the formation of hostile forces. They had to risk causing tears in the hull of the luxury liner as at such an acceleration it could happen, but that was less bad than having it torn apart by weapons fire.
On the Pegasus CIC, Porter was hewing a meltdown. "What in the name of the Lords is happening? You said we confirmed the capture of that ship!" She screeched at one of her lieutenants in civilian clothing.
"We got the all-clear signal from them and when asked for support, the people we sent there confirmed it. My people talked to them and I even sent an additional raptor there after that."
Fisk gave the order to call the Colonial Hope. The Starfleet monitor activated to show… not their people.
"I'm sorry, but your murderers are mostly dead or restrained. We will not follow the orders of rabid lunatics." It was the original CO of the ship. If Porter could have steam coming out of her ears, she would have.
"Captain Gaeta. I see you are with them. I am giving you the order to…"
"Shove it."
She was not expecting such a direct response.
"I am ordering you to…"
"Representative Porter. I respectfully repeat myself. SHOVE IT! Your goons would have killed me as well. Besides, I was the one who alerted Lt. Garcia and the Admiral of your betrayal. And once Admiral Adama returns, you can be sure that I will be on the right side of history."
As the commlink went silent, you could hear Porter's nails scratching the planning table.
Fisk got a damage report from Garner. They disabled the entire dorsal artillery power grid. It would take days to fix. That was the downside of sharing schematics. They were able to capture most Starfleet ships, but now Starfleet knew how to effectively disable their ships as well and not to have to permanently cripple them.
Fisk got several other reports. The fighting on the planet was all over the place. But most of the people they wanted to capture, they got. But now came the new surprise. The Civilian ships that were keeping their distance for safety, but signaled their loyalty, the majority of them were pulling back, their loyalty signal now gone.
When he gave Porter this update, she had her lackeys contact the civilian ships. She got a response from someone she didn't' expect.
"Sarah, I knew you were stupid, but this…"
"Tom?"
"Your kill squad missed. I thought you held a grudge but isn't this a bit of an overkill?"
Yet one more domino she still had to tilt over.
"Your silence is all I need to know. My people have taken control of the majority of the civilian ships you had. I know on which horse to bet and which to avoid like the plague."
As the comm line went silent and Fiona saw the many ships begin to move to the safety of the nebula where both Colonial DRADIS and Starfleet sensors were mostly blind, she also noticed something else. Porter was not taking this setback lying down.
One of the Adamants, the closest one to the retreating civilian fleet, began target locking them. At the same time, the commandeered Starfleet ships began turning to the Colonial Hope and Cloud Nine she was towing to the safety of the thicker nebula parts.
She never imagined Porter would go all scorched earth zealot on her. "Red alert. Full power to the impulse engines. We need to cover Colonial Hope and Cloud Nine." She knew that the only remaining political adversary to Porter's schemes that were not in her direct hands was the one Quorum member in the colony on the planet and Tom Zarek, who was a wild card at best. But their support staff were apparently all disposable to Porter.
So saving them was a needed action. She also had to protect the Colonial civilians, but thankfully she got some good news. Commander Hasapis' XO on the Victory reported that he sided with her and is already launching vipers to cover the retreating civilians. They can intercept any missiles or enemy vipers. Guess sacrificing Colonial pilots was next on today's butcher bill.
As the Yamato intercepted several torpedoes that were intended for the Hope, she slowed down and went full reverse to keep her front to the enemy and to move with the Hope. Fiona knew that most ships had, either with armor or shields, the weakest part in the aft. Klingon ships even more so as they relied on their superior maneuverability. But that was not an option in this case.
"Front shields at 77%. Ma'am, permission to return fire…"
"No. Those are our ships and our people still on them!"
"Then permission to attempt to disable them!"
She gritted her teeth. She knew there was little else they could do. Jumping blind in this soup was suicidal. "Do it."
She also noticed the Adamant that was originally attempting to attack the civilians, getting bogged down with their cover. But the second Adamant that was loyal to Porter, had just moved past the Pegasus who was trying to turn her still functioning main artillery cannons on the Yamato. The second Adamant had a better firing solution. At the same time, the Oracle and Boston were trying to get past the Yamato to avoid her cover for Cloud Nine. Even without the main computer, those ships were faster and smaller and the Yamato had a slow target to cover and her impulse block had just been restored.
Seeing the situation develop, Fiona saw no alternative. "Tactical, disable the Oracle and Boston, if you can. Contact the Hope and ask if they can deal with the Colonial Admant, the Clior." The Hope had a batter angle of fire, with her aft weapons anyway.
"The Colonial Hope is responding. They can act, but chances are…"
"I know. Open fire."
The Yamato kept firing her still functioning phase cannons, as almost half were disabled due to their upgrades being halfway installed. The tactical officer only saw one way from getting flanked. He tried to only disable both ships, but as the volley of torpedoes hit them, the Oracle suffered a direct hit on her depleted outer hull, causing a rupture of the plasma line. The resulting cascade effect ruptured the warp core, destroying her. The Boston was a bit luckier if getting your port nacelle blown off. But that did disable her.
The Hope fired a volley with her aft torpedo launcher on the Adamant that was beginning to attack the few civilian ships that hadn't reached the protection of the gas cover. Her weapons were 80 years more advanced than the Yamato's, so the effect on an unshielded but armored enemy was even more devastating. The first red glowing orb impacted her dorsal armor on her alligator head. The second hit the area next to it, more to the aft. Both stripped the plating's clean off. The third one, which was intended for the engine block to disable her, hit the now exposed area that had no more armor protection. This was the cause of the Adamant herself as she tried to dodge the incoming fire. The last torpedo impacted her ammo supply for one of her artillery turrets. The resulting explosion tore the ship apart. The only good thing that came out of this was that the resulting chaos and ship part that began scattering through the area, caused Porter's ships to stop any attack attempts as they were trying to get this under control. Fiona would not let them. As they finally began approaching the cloud perimeter that was formed around the planet, the Pegasus' main artillery cannons got a lock on the Yamato. As the shells began impacting on the already weakened defenses of the Yamato and Hope, Fiona saw that Porter really lost her marbles. The shells were also impacting the disabled Boston, finishing off the ship and killing her crew.
As their own sensor readings were getting worse, the ship lost any target locks. That would mean that the enemy had lost them as well. But the shells kept coming in. If they kept flying in a straight line, it would not matter, if the Pegasus can't see them. So the first thing the Hope and Yamato did was to alter course, dragging Cloud Nine with them. As the Yamato now flew in formation with Hope and both dropped their main defenses, Fiona demanded a damage and status report. She would hope that Porter was not crazy enough to play hide and seek and follow her into the nebula.
Garcia had mostly only bad news. With the majority of engineers on the planet for a needed R&R session, they were stuck with a skeleton crew for their remaining system upgrades. They also suffered battle damage. Her port nacelle was leaking plasma and had to be shut down. The Yamato was not jumping anywhere anytime soon.
Eight hours had passed before they managed to assemble all civilian ships and all Colonial military ships that were still loyal to Laura and Adama. And that was down to the Victory and one Adamant. As well as the Galactica.
Fiona had them remain in the Lagrangian point of the local gas giant. No way would she park the fleet in the orbit of a planet or moon. That's the first place she'd look and so would Porter's military advisors.
In her briefing room, Saul Tigh, the Victory's XO and acting CO, several of Fiona's own staff, including Lt. Garcia and Colonel Walker were having an emergency session. Tom Zarek was the only civilian here.
"So they tried to ambush you?" Fiona asked Walker.
"Yes. Shitheads jumped me as I did my rounds of security on the Galactica." Starfleet was rotating security on all of their projects. "Two of my guys didn't make it. But once we realized that this was bigger than us, I had my men and the engineers barricade ourselves in the ammo rooms. Then we heard the venting procedure… and well. Ever since then I helped Saul clean his own damn house."
Fiona nodded at this report. "How many people died on the Galactica?"
"Ehm, preliminary estimates show around 200 on the Colonial side, 26 on Starfleet's side. But most of the Colonial losses were due to the venting or Colonial on Colonial action."
"I still haven't properly thanked you, Colonel Walker. Had you not shot that fraker in the CIC, I'd be toast."
"And that's not even the scary part…" Garcia responded as he put his PADD down. He had been working overtime trying to understand how the Colonials did this. He knew that with main computers down, the ships Porter's people captured were officially neutered. But that didn't mean that they could not force some of their Starfleet prisoners to undo the lockouts. "The reason he went for you first, Colonel, was not because you were the same rank and you could technically gain command back with sheer presence since it is your ship… but he knew of the other issue."
They all looked at Tom, then Fiona. She kept getting curveballs today. "If Porter knows, no point in keeping it a secret."
Saul grumbled but didn't hesitate. "Representative Zarek. The reason I was put on the back burner the past few weeks, was not for the same reasons that Fisk was demoted but because I'm a Final Five. A Cylon from the 13th tribe. So there, make of it what you will."
Tom paused for a minute, thinking it over. "Ah, that explains a few things. Can I venture a guess that Baltar is one as well?"
All got confused. "Why would that hack be a Cylon?" Saul asked, feeling insulted.
"Cause Laura has him by the balls, so to say. Dirt on him. I just thought…"
"No, he is just a hack. Let's leave it at that. Anyway, what's the personell situation?" Saul desperately wanted to change the subject.
"Agreed. Colonel Belzen is missing. He never reported to his duty shift." Fiona began with the new topic.
"He never came from the surface." Garcia clarified. "Safe to say, they have him."
But Tom was not entirely done. "You want my full cooperation, I want the names of the other four. I took a huge gamble by siding with you."
"Oh, did you? If Porter knows things she shouldn't, I bet you do too." Fiona began analyzing him. "She needed time to get all of her people in position. And with Adama still out there, this was a good time for her little insurrection. If I had to guess, she wanted to clear all opposition and take control ASAP. So once Adama arrived, with most civilians, she could gain more support from them. So, what do you know that she doesn't? Since it took you time as well to get your people in place."
Tom smirked. "You are sharp. I like that. I have friends in low places. Laura may act like there isn't a black market, but there is one. And I know most of them there. They warned me that Porter might try something, but even they are surprised how far she went. They'd rather support me than her, as religion doesn't pay the tab and is unpredictable. That said, I still want those names. If for no other reason than to get ahead of any information warfare Porter might try. If I know their names, I can be one step ahead of her."
"Fine. The Colonel's wife, Chief Tyrol and Tory Foster. As for the fifth one, someone named Samuel Anders, but he's not in the fleet."
"Well, that does complicate things. I can say that Ellen Tigh is on Cloud Nine, safe." Tom responded. "I believe Miss Foster is in the colony… but Chief Tyrol…"
"Yeah." Saul knew what was coming. "He too didn't show up for work on the industrial site on the Galactica this morning. All his grease monkeys who now live in the Challenger barracks failed to report today."
"Meaning they have one of the Five." Fiona pondered. This was a bad situation all around. "Now that you know, why back us up? What do you know that Porter didn't find out?"
Tom smirked again. "Well, you somehow found a legendary Starfleet officer who is right now out there, retrieving a Starfleet battlegroup. And once he returns, Porter is in the deep shit. Right?"
Fiona got more annoyed with him. And the security leaks. "A good or bad thing Porter didn't learn that. Might have persuaded her to not get over 3000 people killed today."
"Admiral, it's for the better." Tom corrected her. "With this knowledge, she would have only struck sooner and sloppier which would have gotten more people killed. The problem with zealots. They are both predictable and unpredictable at the same time. I know she would have acted, regardless of the situation. Just how, that is the unknown, even for me."
"Perhaps. Now, Colonel. What is the replicator situation on the Galactica?"
"Well, you want the bad news first or…"
"Just tell us." She was not in the mood.
"The frakers managed to trash one of the working sections. Alien components and all. According to your engineers, all other equipment is badly damaged as well. We're back at square one. And even once they do fix this, the plant will be at 80% output when compared to what it could have been. Some parts can't be replaced, or so they say."
"Great. Mr. Zarek, can you keep the civilian fleet under control until we get this mess sorted out?"
"Depends."
"On what?"
"Well, for one, what do you intend to do with Porter and her acolytes?"
"For those too stupid to know what they were doing, I'll let Adama handle that. For those who knew from the start, I want their heads. Porter included."
"Then my demand is simple. And I do believe you can persuade Adama and Laura, if she survives this, to do it. Or I guess I should say, do one and not the other." He saw that Fiona was waiting, losing patience with his antics. "I want the Sagitarrian people to not be crucified like many Gemeniese will be, once this blows over. I know that some of my people are in on this and you're welcome to them, but the majority…"
"Fine. No martial law for them. So that is what you do not want. And what do you want?"
"For an independent election to be held. For each colony. Do we stay, or leave."
Now she saw his game plan. "If you can't beat Laura lawfully or with your underhanded friends, separate." Now she smirked back. Not a kind of 'I like you' smirk, but 'nice plan B' smirk.
"Well, you people derailed my original plan for her. And you are right, I can't beat her, unless…"
"Even if you knew the Baltar situation, it would change nothing on the political map. Now, you got my concession, I suggest you accept your victory." In truth, Laura already planned for something like this. The divisions, cracks, as it were, were beginning to show within the people. And now, the tectonic plates made an earthquake. Fiona would let Tom think he made her do it. "You keep the civilians in order. Now, Colonel Tigh, you may understand that I don't trust Colonial security at this moment, but you are not entirely Colonial, so that actually works in your favor. So, begin organizing patrols and raptor searches. We need to keep them guessing and we also need info. Starfleet will handle Galactica's security."
"Is that why Captain Gaeta is not here?"
"Yes. I had him and some of my people do a close atmospheric jump to the colony in a raptor. In this nebula, even subspace is scrambled so I have to use him as a courier. Hopefully, Governor Fabron and his people are coming up with a plan of their own."
As they went to work, leaving her alone in the room, she began reading the repair reports. They were as long as her arm. And the FTL situation was not getting better. The damaged nacelle was really crippled. They would need fresh coils and cooling system for it. And there were not any spares lying around. So either cannibalize another ship yet again, or she hoped the damn industrial replicators could manufacture the spares they would need. A lot of 'if's' in there and she didn't like it.
It took around two more hours, but Gaeta returned in not one, but all the raptors the colony could spare. And he gave her several reports from the governor. Some better than others. They used only the unmodified raptors to return. Good. She was afraid the hybrid ones could be tracked, even by Porter's hacks. She also got what she wanted. All the regular raptors that returned, were filled up with engineers from the colony, who were on their well-deserved break when the insurrection started. She also saw how most of the Starfleet and Federation personnel were now staring twice at any Colonial as if checking if they could be trusted. She completely got that. And so did the Colonial officers. This is the side-effect they would have to live with for quite some time.
The situation in the colony was split down the middle. The colony's defenses held, no issues there. But in the camps outside, it was a warzone. Once the shields went up, only a few locations granted access to the colony, should the security force of the colony allow it. There the Porter zealots and the security forces had a prolonged firefight. In the end, the Porter people were forced to retreat to their landed ships several clicks away as the Colonial forces that remained loyal to Hasapis, flanked them and they and Starfleet managed to deal with the front attack. Then the security forces went to lend a hand to the loyal Colonials in the camp area. And there it was a street fight. A room-by-room fight. And plenty of civilians were caught in the crossfire. She then read the follow-up report. The civilians could not be screened. So as the camp was evacuated and the colony allowed them to get into the shelter of the shield, they moved most of them to the outer two domes where they originally were anyway. Only now, ten times over their capacity. But the domes were designed to be easily isolated in the case of an epidemic. Now, this feature was used to isolate the Colonials. The few security personnel Hasapis had left that could still walk, were assigned to keep the peace in those domes. But the governor did not trust them with a water pistol at this point, so only shock sticks for them. The commander was humiliated by this, but he swallowed his pride. He himself added to this report two matters that got Fiona's attention. The first one made sense to her. Fisk and others like him were humiliated as well in the past months. For various reasons. So Porter used their bitterness to get them to side with her. The other matter was worrying for her.
Lt. Garcia and Captain Gaeta entered her ready room as she had asked them to. She clasped her hands. "Gentlemen?" They eyed each other, waiting for someone to begin. "Well?"
Inhaling, Garcia began. "You were right. It's Laird's access code. They used his limited access code to bypass our transporter security and internal sensors. It gave them just enough of a leg up to do this."
Gaeta then handed her the logs they could recover to see where it was used. "Without this, their plan would have been almost impossible to do."
Garcia did wonder. "Why would Peter help them? He is not the radical zealot type?"
Felix could only speculate. "Your guess is as good as mine."
"I know…" Fiona gave them her PADD to read. "When the colony's security force began clearing the camp with Hasapi's forces, the radicals barricaded themselves in the dilithium caves. The mess that started it all. Now if they knew or not that those caves were a good spot to hold out as the crystals do make transporters useless in that area, is up for debate. But Porter's people were counting on her supporters in space gaining complete superiority in minutes…"
The two officers knew where this was going. "They would be able to offer air support and even orbital bombardment to a degree, forcing the security force of the colony to stay put behind the shield perimeter." Felix surmised what everyone now thought.
"Which brings us back to thank god or gods that you did what you did, Captain Gaeta. If it were up to me, you'd be in for a promotion. But back to the Laird issue. Once the cave was stormed, our people discovered several civilians, tied and gagged. Among them were his wife and daughter. They kidnapped them at least three days ago. That is when the last transporter log has them on record when they took a trip to the colony."
"And when the shooting started, they moved all hostages to a safer location." Garcia realized. "Who else is still missing that is of any importance?"
"As said, Colonel Belzen is MIA as is… Helena Cain. Then all but the two Quorum members. Zarek here and Marshall Bagot of Virgon. He is in the colony, safe for now, trying to keep the peace with the security forces in the two domes. Now my question is this: Fisk and all like him do not strike me as the type who would have the balls to pull something like this off. So is Helena Cain behind this as well?"
This was more a Felix question. "I do know from Colonel Tigh that Fisk is a drunk like him. The difference is that Tigh uses it to unwind, for Fisk it is liquid courage. Who knows how drunk he is at this moment. Added to his wounded pride…"
"And Helena Cain has been making progress based on the reports from the colony we were getting," Garcia added. "So it's a coin toss at this."
She knew that they were both right. And then there was the third option. The unknown person. Perhaps Colonel Belzen? Someone completely different?
"Thank you, Gentlemen. Dismissed."
She now had the how as well as the why. Sarah Porter must have been building up a grudge since day one she found out that aliens existed. And ever since then Starfleet has been dismantling her beliefs without even knowing it.
Two hours later, on the Battlestar Pegasus, Fisk wobbled into the holding cell area. Partially saluting the guards who let him pass, he saw the cells with the transparent reinforces plastic separating each cell. And each cell had a Quorum member in it, including a poorly bandaged up Baltar. But Fisk went past all of them. There were some other higher-ranking Starfleet officers in them as well. And they were not cooperating. But that was not the only reason they were being held on this ship. The Colonials knew that the mass and size of their ships made the older transporters ineffective at such depths. So they could counter any rescue operation. The other was to keep them off their own ships. They figured that they could get the regular crew members to cooperate after some time and the appropriate pressure. But it was the last three cells that were of interest to Fisk. "Jürgen, Helena. How have you two been?"
Helena remained silent, but the Colonel from the cell across her had plenty to say. "Once Adama returns, you'll hang for this, you do know that, Fisk?"
"Adama will bend the knee if he doesn't want any more bloodshed."
"If you think that, you don't know him at all."
"Yeah? Did any of us know this lying sack of shit next to you?" He pointed at Galen, who was in the last cell. "A fraking deckhand on the Galactica, a Cylon! My old friend Saul, the same. And Adama and the president KNEW IT!"
"Is that it?" Jürgen was not impressed. "I knew too, shit for brains."
Fisk was already red in the face from the booze, but now the red from his growing anger began getting mixed in. "You knew! Why keep it a secret, traitor!?"
"To keep the peace, you drunken old…"
Finally, Helena chimed in. "Can you two argue somewhere else? Why am I even here? I'm not in the military any longer. And you and Jürgen never had beef with each other."
"Oh, I had plenty of beef with him. Whenever you were not around, he humiliated me…"
"I was trying to get you to stop DRINKING! Making a fool of yourself! Helena was always too soft on you, letting you get away with things that should have gotten you kicked out of the navy! Think about it, the Pegasus, the pride of the fleet, and it has a washed-up drunk like you for the Second officer!"
Now Fisk slammed his hand on the plastic. "You dare to say that to my face now?"
"Now? You mean when you're as drunk as it gets, only proving my point?"
"Gods! You two are whining like two old women. Fisk, he is not wrong. For too long I kept you on my ship as a favor for the old time's sake. And you, Jürgen. You were too easygoing for my taste as well. And then the refusal to obey an order… Should have had both of you removed from my ship. Only Shaw seems to get it."
"Well, your golden girl is in Adama's task force right now…" Fisk shot back at her. "And believe it or not, Helena. You're getting a second chance."
Now she stood up, arms remaining crossed. "What?"
"Representative… no, President Porter wants you to lead her military."
Now two distinct laughs could be heard from the cells. One Fisk knew off, it was Helena herself. The other turned out to be Laura. "I hate to say it, but this plan is a bad plan. And I should know of bad plans, shouldn't I, Jürgen?" He didn't respond to her. "You morons don't even know what Adama will come back with. And knowing William Adama, he doesn't back down. That O'Donnell person probably as well. And then there is the colony on the planet. You have three obstacles that you do know off to deal with. And there might be more. So I'll pass."
Fisk was at his wit's end with the both of them. He came here to gloat but got humiliated by both of them. He signaled his men to get Galen out of his cell. "Get him to Lt. Thorne. Let's see what else we can find out."
As they dragged the half-conscious Galen past Laura's cell, Fisk stopped there and glared at her next. "What was so funny, citizen Roslin?"
"That if Porter thinks by just giving herself a title that it means anything. The people will not support this. Adama will not support this. Earth will not support this. For this one time, I agree with Helena Cain. You are a moron. And a short-sighted one at that."
He kneeled down to her eye level. "At least I have a future. As things stand with my president, you'll get the firing squad for treason."
He left the room, escorting his men with Galen in tow.
In the colony, Governor Fabron was in the command center, overseeing the situation on the planet and in orbit. He tolerated Commander Hasapis here, but not much else. He had been taking shit from the radical Colonials the day they arrived and complaints from his people kept mounting up since then. And now he only allowed the Colonial civilians in as a sign of humanity. They had more than a dozen chances to get their act together, but this was something else. He insisted on hourly reports from the isolated domes. He insisted on nothing but shock sticks for the Colonial security detail. He also insisted that the commander and the Quorum member stay silent and not interfere unless it was something productive. If the civilians in the domes have something to complain about, they can leave for the cold and unshielded camps that were empty right now. Or try their luck with the landed Gemeniese fleet a few klicks from here.
Hasapis had briefed the military personnel in the colony on the standard siege procedure the Colonial handbook had for breaking a planet. Fortunately for Fabron, there were only small ice rocks in the ring of the planet. Nothing that would survive re-entry. So bombardment with asteroids was not really that easy. And as long as the main computers on the Starfleet ships that Porter's people got, remained off-line, the Colonials would have an issue getting a large enough asteroid in the outer orbit of the entire star system to be aligned with this planet's orbit and hit where they needed to hit, with this nebula in the way. But that didn't mean they would not try. They remained at the edge of their weapons range, but they could try to throw something else large enough at them to make a dent. After all, when Porter made her demands to him several hours ago and he told her in a nice way to 'go fuck herself', he saw it in her eyes that she was far from done. And he was right. They were observing for some time that the fleet up there was redeploying, they just didn't know for what. She had the minority of the fleet, but the majority of the firepower. They even listened in as they began transmitting over wireless the demands to Admiral O'Donnell to surrender or they'll begin executing their war prisoners. Of course, Fiona would not respond and give her position away.
But after some time, they noticed that the main husk of the Adamant that was destroyed in the opening battle was beginning to move. Fabron asked for an enlargement of the sensor data. Several raptors were attached to the derelict hull and were pushing it into a lower orbit. Smart, they could use the partially working Federation ships, but they would also risk the station opening fire on them, once in range. A raptor is so much smaller than it can hide behind the wreck.
Fabron what he had to do. "Tactical… get a weapons lock on that hull, the moment it's in range and you get a clear shot at it. Then… destroy it. And do the same with as many of the enemy's raptors as you can. The gloves come off." He had his people to protect, even if he had to kill Colonials for it. As the husk began accelerating to the planet, the station opened fire with its beam phasers and even dipped into its own stockpile of torpedoes it had. As the hull of the Adamant began getting shredded, the raptors disengaged from it, but half did get picked off by accurate phaser fire, killing the crews in the process. But the hull, while beginning to break apart, still consisted of many hard alloys and the chunks remained large enough to survive re-entry. The colony's shields got peppered by shrapnel fire from the Adamant hull remains. As the barrage was over, everyone checked the systems. The shields were down to 68%. But in orbit, Porter was not done yet. A second wing of raptors was descending into weapons range. And this time their sensors detected a radiation signature. Porter went nuclear. The intercept order was given as the phasers began destroying any raptor or missile they could. This time the Colonials lost half of their attack force and all missiles were intercepted. Fabron had just realized that getting the colony to expand its power and ammo while also weakening it was the plan all along. The commandeered Starfleet ships now descended into a lower orbit, they went in fast and deployed their torpedo armament. The colony had to now expend its own torpedo magazine to intercept as many as possible. The phasers tried to intercept the rest, but the colony's shield perimeter began getting hammered. 50%, 44%... they were dropping, slowly but still dropping. What Porter didn't know was that Fiona had one of her raptors hiding in the nebula close to the original battle area just for a case like this, as the colony could not signal them in real-time for help.
And Fiona only had one card to play. The Colonial Hope. It was undamaged, designed to hit and run tactics, and had the firepower to really mess with Porter's fleet.
So it was that the Hope emerged from the nebula and hit the Challenger with a salvo of green disruptor fire, dealing enough damage to force it to disengage from its attack run on the planet.
Fiona ordered the CO to try not to destroy any of their ships but gave him a more lenient command with the Colonial ships. As the attack fleet now altered their priority to chase the Hope, the colony got a break. What also happened was that the second part of Fiona's plan worked. One of the ships, the Nightingale, kept pace with the Hope, even once inside the thick nebula. What her Co didn't know, was that the Hope was packed with now angry MACOs and Starfleet security personnel. As the Nightingale kept attacking the retreating Hope, she was dragged further away from her allies. Once the Hope did the luring part, she turned around and breached one of her shield parts to allow a boarding team to be beamed on board. Once the fighting began, a second team was beamed over, with a squad of engineers, right into the main engineering. There they used a modified master overwrite from Garcia to restart the main computer and gain control. It also helped that most patients on the ships were willing to fight against Porter's nut jobs, broken leg, or any other injury be damned. The prisoners were also freed. In short, as the bridge was stormed, out of the 46 Colonial radicals that were in command of the ship, all but seven were dead as the Nightingale now entered formation with the Colonial Hope.
One ship down, Fiona said to herself. But she also knew that they would not fall for this again.
So the colony was not being harassed right now, but Fabron had to make a statement himself. Enough was enough. If the radicals thought that their landing spot behind the hill was safe as they had no direct line of sight, they were wrong. "Tactical, get me a scan of their camp there, the ships more specifically."
As he saw the scans of the ships, he was looking for a specific target. And he got one. A ship with large communication antennas and also weapons being hauled from its open cargo doors. Also little civilians there. "Get a target lock there. One torpedo, minimum setting."
Usually, the officers there would argue back at such an order, but no one did, not after today. Even Hasapis didn't. If you are dealing with terrorists, deny them any foothold.
A launched torpedo and explosion behind the small hill later, and the ensuing chaos was seen on the sensors. "Your move, bitch." He muttered to himself.
Day 111 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 14th of May, the year 2378, Federation colony New Settlement
Porter's people tried five more times to attack the colony. Every time, the Hope had to do something. But once the Nightingale was put to work to oversee the civilian fleet, the Yamato went on to help the Hope on her raiding actions against Porter's forces. It was a stalling tactic. Until Porter had enough and threatened the lives of her prisoners. All Fiona had to respond with was that someone like Porter would kill them anyway. So she can go ahead. The blood will not be on Fiona's hands.
During this time, the Gemeniese fleet took off from their initial landing spot, as the colony now made it unsafe with their own counter bombardment. The raptor scouts found several other good spots for them to land. The one that was chosen in the end was not the most logical spot for safety, warmth, or energy generation, but the cave formations in the northern continent on the other side of the planet, far away from the colony, had large dilithium formations in them as well. Fine with Fabron. The further those radicals are from his people, the better.
But Porter saw that she was getting nowhere with her initial plan to control both orbit and surface. So she moved her timetable up and began breaking ground on the new location for her settlement. But as she was doing this, she had some housecleaning to do.
On the Pegasus CIC, all her Colonial prisoners were brought to her. Most of them barely got any sleep in the past few days. And their bad treatment showed. Only Galen was still missing. Seemed that Fisk and his lackeys had other plans for him.
"Laura Roslin. Thank you for joining us."
"As if I had a choice, Porter."
Baltar was humping behind her. Then the other Quorum members followed, with Belzen and Cain last in the group, with armed security behind them.
Porter began focusing on Helena. "Helena Cain. As I understand it, you refused my generous offer."
"What offer? To be your attack dog for the rest of my life? To bow down to these hooded figures you have stalking around the remaining fleet, initiating religious purges, as it were?"
"Watch your tongue!" One of said figures that were flanking Porter, responded and smacked her across her face.
Helena didn't fall. She assumed her original posture. "Take the restraints off, and we'll see how brave you still are when I force-feed you your own testicles!"
Before he could smack her again, Sarah halted his hand. "And that fire is why I want you, need you."
"No shit. I know why you need me. Because even someone as deluded as you knows that in the long term, the military won't follow the drunken has been at the planning table. Look at him! He can barely stand. But me, oh sure. Dangle the carrot in front of me, reinstate me, my rank, and honor. Guess what, lady. Honor is earned, not given. And I will admit, I made mistakes. And by making more mistakes, I won't get it back."
"Really?" Porter had her people begin transmitting via wireless across the area. She could have used the Starfleet ships, but she detested them. So much so, that she even crippled herself in this ongoing struggle. She had their reactor cores shut down and the dilithium crystals removed from them. With only the secondary power now working, those ships were fighting with only one hand and even only with half of a hand. But this had happened in the past day when Fiona stopped her raids. And that happened once Porter stopped her attacks on the colony.
Cain's hands were then freed. The first thing she did, was to floor the cultist who had smacked her earlier. "Big talk, little man. Just like I knew it." The guards kept their weapons aimed at her. Porter really admired the fire in Helena. And she needed to tame it for herself. One of the other acolytes placed a handgun on the planning table on their side of it.
Fisk wanted to protest to this but still kept his mouth shut.
"What is this?"
"Your redemption and pledging loyalty to me." Porter answered. "There are only two bullets in it."
"For?"
"First you'll remove the stain from your career."
Helena knew what she meant by that. Finish what she started. Kill Colonel Belzen. A month ago, she would not hesitate. Now…
"And the other bullet?"
"To redeem the colonies, and me."
Again, Helena got it. "You expect me to kill Laura Roslin? A woman I hardly know and a person who did nothing wrong in my book?"
"She betrayed the colonies! Her people! She kept secrets, conspired…"
Helena would respond in kind. "All the things you just listed, you are as guilty off if not more! So, is there a third bullet in there!?"
Porter now knew that with this woman, it was sink or swim. "The situation remains unchanged. You side with me, or you are the first to die. Now, pick up the weapon."
Helena did do that part without question. She checked the magazine. Two shots as said.
"Now. You have until the count of three, or the guards will do to you, what you have to do for me."
Oh, Helena had a good idea what she had to do. It will be her turn to regain her honor if it is the last thing she does. But the guards and even these damn acolytes were vigilant. They were observing her moves. If she tried to kill Porter, she'd be dead before she got the chance.
"Just do it already. You have been itching to kill me, right?" Jürgen yelled at her.
But fate took the decision out of her hands. The DRADIS beeped. A ship was approaching detection range.
Fisk was the first to respond, even in his state, and ordered all raptors and vipers on alert status and the other ships to converge on the new contact. Only then more and more contacts began appearing. And then they saw it on the installed view screen. A mix of Colonial and Starfleet ships, those they hadn't seen before. And two of them were rather large for Starfleet ships.
"What the frak is going on?" Porter whispered. Helena saw the confusion on everyone's faces. They were distracted enough to do what she wanted to do.
As she unloaded the two shots into Porter, one the head and one into the chest, her followers realized what had happened.
Sarah Porter, the main instigator of this bloody mess, was dead. But her acolytes were not. Only then several people were getting beamed into the CIC, something that the Colonials thought impossible without those enhancers. Seems that the more advanced ones can do the job.
It was a shock for all military personnel, who went from bloodlust or blind obedience to being clueless. Were they seeing a ghost? The acolytes didn't care and wanted to eviscerate Helena. Only for them to get incapacitated or outright killed when the new arrivals opened fire. As the situation remained tense, the officer in the middle began speaking. "I am Admiral Augustus Cain. I believe that in my modest opinion, no Colonial hasn't heard of me by this point. All of you, stand the frak down! This insurrection ends here and now! Lay down your weapons and be ready for a hard road ahead as some of you committed treason against your own people! Do it, NOW!"
His guards were restraining the acolytes as the military personnel did as they were told. Then putting their hands above their heads and kneeled down as more and more MACO and Cain's people were getting beamed in. More reports were coming in that on most ships, order was restored. Augustus then pushed the corpse of the nut job off of his daughter, to get a shocked view he was getting used to by now. "It's me, Pumpkin."
Helena was still at a loss for words as he held his hand out to help her back on her feet. His men went to free the hostages during this time and the field medics went to look them over.
One of his officers gave him a preliminary report. "Sir, all hostages freed. At least 27 corpses were found in the freezing rooms on the Pegasus alone. Minor resistances remain on three civilian ships and on the Earth ship Challenger. VP Baltar has a minor flesh wound, but Chief Galen Tyrol is in bad shape. Was apparently tortured for the past three days. Even lost an eye. Was evacuated to the Babylon for emergency surgery. We have 1089 Colonial military prisoners and over 2500 civilian prisoners. Will be deploying forces to this new colony of theirs within 20 minutes."
"Good work, Mark. Dismissed. Now, Helena? You can talk, you know." She was still in shock. As were all of the now-former hostages. Helena touched his cheek as if to confirm he was really here. "Hey there. How is my little Warrior Princess? I heard you did some harsh things." He wanted to chastise her, but not now. Not here.
She finally accepted it was him as she hugged him as hard as she could. "Papa! How… How is this possible?"
He chuckled, reassuring her more by padding her on the back. "It's me, kiddo."
Adama beamed not long after this scene began. Kirk would remain behind to keep control. And this was primarily a Colonial matter to clean up as well. Seeing a father-daughter moment, he decided to see how the other people were doing. "President Roslin?"
"Admiral, thank the gods!" She hugged him now as well, throwing protocol out the window.
As she let him go, he inspected Porter's corpse. "Who did this?"
Laura just motioned him to where Helena was slowly calming down. "Porter wanted her to be her military commander. As a show of loyalty, she would have her kill me. Helena instead killed her."
"Hm…"
Bill wanted to digest this entire fiasco. Porter had just set their entire plan back for weeks if not months. But Laura wanted answers. "Is it really him?"
"Yes. It is him. And he was saved, but not by me."
"Then… oh. The Starfleet captain?"
"Admiral, actually. That was once his rank. But Augustus Cain treats him by that rank and everyone just goes along with it. Have to say, it's scary how well they get along. Two natural leaders. Risk takers. Survivors. If it weren't for James T. Kirk's experience, Augustus Cain and his people would all have perished. And for them, 40 years have passed in only a few days. But Cain is still the man I remember as a fresh rookie pilot. He got told the situation and didn't hesitate. Didn't allow his feelings to dictate his decisions. Although…" He once again looked at both Cains still embracing each other. "This may be an exception. But back to this mess here. You let me handle this…"
"No. I am still President. And…"
"You were mistreated for days. Let me handle this, at least until you get a clean bill of health." He would insist on that. "We came here with not just the military fleet but my fleet of civilians as well. And some more Cylon hardware. Simply put, we need to get things sorted out before we launch the assault on Kobol, which we will have to, soon. So once I am gone again, you get to play politician all you want."
"Fine. But once you assemble a meeting of all the important people and begin assigning tasks, I am there, got it?"
"Yes, Madam President. That I get. And the most difficult task will be to get the Federation colonists to trust us again."
"Can you blame them?"
"No, and that's scary. I can't blame them at all."
Day 112 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 15th of May, the year 2378, Federation colony New Settlement
The cleaning had begun. The insurrectionists were all apprehended and their supporters pacified. The good part was that Augustus Cain brought with himself not only a large contingent of troops all loyal to him but also prestige that allowed him to quell any more problems with just his name alone. And it made matters even better when the population learned that a man Cain now saw as a brother, was the one who saved him. So now they had their heroes to look up to. But that did not help alleviate the mistrust that was now present.
The Gemeniese renegades were left to live in their own colony, as the Federation colony didn't want them anywhere near them. Fine, but a military garrison was added and their ship's control keys confiscated. All other Gemeniese who had just arrived were furious as to why they were being treated this way as well, but all Adama had to say was: Take it up with the morons from your planet who started this.
The Sagittarians were a bit better off. Fiona told Laura and Adama of her deal with Zarek. And they all agreed to keep him thinking that this was his idea. The Sagittarians would not be under martial law, but close to it. Their movement was restricted in the fleet or colony, but they were not under constant surveillance. And Fabron did allow those who were working in the fishing fleet, the hydroponic gardens, or agricultural domes so far, to keep on doing that if they so wished. But only those who didn't betray their trust, which only a few did. Simply put, they were simple people, so if you treat them like people, there would be no issues. Sure, the Sagittarians had problems with the dilithium question as well, but they only complained about it. The worst thing they usually did was to not work as a sign of protest. Only a small minority was radical enough to support Porter. The Gemeniese were a different breed. They got their strength from centuries of being the power of faith in the colonies. That gave them some authority, but also arrogance. Only they knew of religious or spiritual matters. So when someone shows proof that they were wrong or that someone is not accepting their teachings, things got out of hand. As they did here. So Adama agreed that they needed more control than any other group. And for now, nominating a new Quorum member for that position was not a priority nor did the other Quorum member even want it. Ironically, when the Gemeniese protested that they were being treated poorly, Tom Zarek of all people responded with: Now you know how that feels. But I at least only spilled my people's blood for freedom. Not ideology.
Kirk tried to assure Fabron and the Federation civilians that things can return to normal, or as normal as they were possible now. New security measures would be taken in the future. And that meant that more Federation personnel would man the Starfleet ships, even if they had no military training behind them, as long as they had at least one useful skill and understood that at any point can their ships find themselves in a combat situation. He had to do that to keep the people in the colony happy now. Only their Pegasus, the carrier, would need a larger contingent of Colonials, for the pilots, deckhands, and all other support staff. And that was the first issue. William Adama knew that in a way, Cain and Kirk were right. His old battlestar was not fit for the purpose of a command ship. Not for this large fleet. Or this long journey. He would like to command a ship like that, but not with the political tensions right now. Again, thank you, Porter. Even post mortem, she is a pain in the ass. Bill knew how it would look if a Colonial was now in command of the second most powerful ship in Starfleet's arsenal.
They began arriving to the Babylon briefing room. Jim was already having a chat with Governor Fabron to calm any fears he might have. "And you let me handle that, OK?"
"Uhhhh, yes. I suppose. You did far more in your life than most, me included. But…"
"You will step in if some of our fears are not addressed." The rather spacious room was also being catered to the best of their abilities. No need to appear elitist when there could be a food crisis. The first to arrive were actually their Cylon guests that were their guests since their departure from Cyrannus. A Three, Six, and Eight. All not the same as the ones that Kirk's fleet encountered. They remained in the fleet that was waiting near Kobol for when the assault would begin.
"Ladies, nice for you to join us." He ushered them to take their marked seats.
"No alcohol. A good idea." The Three eyed the Six to her left.
"Oh, bite me, D'Anna."
"Please…" The Eight pleaded with them. "Not here and not now."
They both made an agreement with a look. "Fine. But tell us, Admiral, why are we here first? The armed escort I get but…"
"So that there are no issues if someone would bump into you in the corridors. Mostly someone who doesn't know that you are here. I hear Augustus' daughter still carries a candle for one of your models." He meant Six. "So if there is a sene, it can be contained here."
"Excuse me, but why would Helena fraking Cain be here!?" D'Anna almost blew a gasket. "We were told…"
"Things change. Don't worry, her father will keep her contained."
That did actually calm her down. "I guess Augustus Cain is the man who can make the impossible possible. Still can't believe that pain in the ass is alive."
Now Jim smirked as he took a sip f water. "Funny. You would not believe how many alien races said the same about me."
Now the Six leaned on the table some more. "I also heard that many female aliens would say that. What I want to know is if that is meant figuratively or…"
"Sophie!" Both the Three and Eight screamed at her. Of course, her model would go there.
"Well, I am not one to speak on my 'personal' adventures much, but in some cultures…"
"Admiral!" Fabron had the same reaction as the two Cylon females. "So not appropriate."
"Hey, she asked. And it's not as if there is anyone else here, yet."
"Still, next time…" The doors slid open as Starfleet personnel began arriving. Fiona, Garcia, Scott, Dr. Manor, Walker, and Minister Miller. They had to keep the number of people limited or they would get little done.
Hill was also here now but was part of the background security force. Mostly for the Cylons, but now, after the past few days, the Colonials as well.
Then the Colonials arrived. Laura, Bill, Saul, Augustus, Tom, Hasapis, and Helena. She was not the first to spot the three Cylon guests but was the first to react. And Augustus put his hand on her shoulder and held her back. "Helena, we talked about this." She was still in a civilian uniform.
"Yes, we did." She hissed while staring daggers at the Six.
As everyone took a seat, Laura would open the talks, with an extended and lengthy apology. When she was done, Fabron did accept her apology, but everyone knew that it would take far more to get their relationships back to normal. But it was a good start. The Cylons were just silently observing this and happy that for a change they were not the ones responsible for a mess. But for some reason, they were not too surprised by this self-own by the Colonials.
It took around two hours of talks of the aftereffects of Porter's mess to finally get to what the Cylons were here for. They had to chew through the additional people that had just arrived. The need for greater food production, more living space… And that was not something Fabron wanted to deal with but had to. He would let the camps be re-opened, but would only allow none-Gemeniese Colonial to be there. Laura knew this would come. And she didn't argue with it. They had three other alternatives anyway. They can stay on their ships and periodically visit the surface, a third settlement will be established on a different yet attractive location, or they can join the morons in the second settlement which was under martial law now. So they still had options.
Laura then began questioning Tom on his plan for a general vote and what would happen if a tribe didn't want to leave, or what if individuals in a tribe didn't agree with the majority rule. While the details would have to wait for a later date, the basic premise was that when in a few months, Laura's term as Colonial President, ends, and the votes are held, a second vote will be held in addition to it. To permanently settle this planet or not. The Federation people would not be part of this, they already decided. They are going. For the Colonials, the second vote would be held for each population group individually. And if a colonial world votes to stay, they can settle here and stay here and the rest leave for Earth. But the vote will not be binding for all the people of a colony. If some disagree with the majority, they can leave with the rest of the fleet. If enough decide to leave, they can have new representation in the Quorum, but if not, they are absorbed and become part of a different colonial group. Laura knew that most Sagittarians and Gemeniese would vote to stay. And right now, with the mess they made, perhaps she should not even bother to convince them otherwise. She also knew why Tom was all for this. He can become the president of the colony and its people. To think that he was the more rational politician in the past few days.
Then of course the question would arise what the Federation colonists would be done with their settlement? They would have to leave most of the buildings behind, as the First War-era basestar was already being retrofitted for civilian use, due to its mass and size. The good thing was that it was not in the vicinity of the battle of the planet when the insurrection began, so it took no damage from that mess.
Fabron made a simple suggestion. They take all the hardware they can need from their colony, once they begin with the final stage of the exodus, but leave the colony intact and ready for use. Let the people who want to call this cold place home, deal with it. He also added that if the Gemenise have such an issue with them using dilithium crystals for power generation, well, if a really cold winter hits and the fusion reactors won't be enough to provide heat for all, including the camps outside if too many people will want to stay, the Gemeniese can decide to either freeze and keep their faith or be realistic for a change. See if their faith will keep them warm. And Fabron was being generous here, as he actually asked Tom if they should strip the warp reactors from there as well, even if they are part of the power grid. He also said that if they leave them there, they would, and he made that really clear, WOULD insist on training some of the people who would stay, to at least know what to do with the damn things, less they blow the entire colony up. If no one will want to do it, they'll either take them anyway or disable them. And let then those who remain, figure the cold out for themselves.
Tom understood this. He really did. But like a good politician, he decided to ask his voters on what to do, once the time comes. But he will lobby to have them accept this technology. In fact, he would ask for a list of hardware in the colony, what did what, what they could do without, what Fabron intended to take with him no matter what, and what could go either way.
So that was all in the near future. Next came the security question which was directly tied to trust. Adama and Cain both did not object to restricting most Colonials to Starfleet ships, buildings, or technology to a certain level. But a modification was in the works. Peter Laird, once found, was debriefed on his role in this insurrection. It only confirmed what Fiona already knew. He was forced. And the fact that he was held under guard on the Pegasus as they copied his control key was only further proof. He was one of the Colonials that would not be punished. But there would be consequences. His key was revoked. Scott insisted that he was indispensable to the hybrid raptor and viper projects, but understood the security needs, so she instructed her people and Garcia to begin writing a new, limited key. One that could not be simply copied and one that was coded to the biometric data of its user. And one that had only specific capabilities. Others would be made for different Colonial personnel that would continue to work with Starfleet personnel and on their ships. That also meant more painstaking work, as making more user-specific keys would take much more time, but there was no way around that.
Next came the clean-up and food issues. Fabron already had an idea about the food problem. The domes that were being built, would all be converted to agricultural domes and the new excess of Sagittarian civilians that arrived, can be put to work there. Tom Zarek did not object. The clean-up would be done by the Gemeniese, by force, if needed to. And only the ones that caused the mess, no need to further agitate the ones that only just arrived and were not part of this.
Then came the housing. With the extra personnel in the military engineers and overall muscle, quickly built housing units could be deployed outside the Federation settlement and be directly connected to the power, waste, and water utilities of the settlement. That could solve any housing issue within a few months, as the planning division also projected that the earliest they could leave for Earth, if nothing else bad happens, within 13 months. That's how long the repairs, upgrades, spare parts manufacturing, resource mining, allocating the right people to the right ships and tasks… this would take time. And Porter's stunt actually added three months to this, as it was originally 10 months.
Of course, the housing issue was already solved, if they all remain on their ships and live there. But who would want to, if at least a temporary alternative was available. And then there was the maintenance issue. They had lost several civilian ships just to get here. Under time pressure, sure, but they needed to fix what was broken on them and improve what could be improved. To minimize the chance of more breakdowns during their long trip.
And that brought up the next issue. One that would need addressing long before they leave. Logistics. They would have to feed a LOT of people. Yes, the food processing on many ships was one solution. Mobile hydroponics ships were another. Then the food replicators added another solution. But they, while the best one, were also the hardest to make work on a large scale. Again, Porter's mess made this worse, as they had to scale down on how many units they could make and how many ships would get them. And once they could not make more of them, that was is. As known, they needed several exotic materials they themselves could not replicate. So unless they manage to find them in nature or manage to make them in a classical industrial way, they could not make more. Or more specifically, they could, but then they would be using up the spare parts they would need to keep the existing ones going. And those will break down sooner or later. And probably sooner as their usage will be great.
So they will need all of this, plus spare parts, fuel, ammo, and other common material production as well. Again, the industrial replicators on the Galactica would cover some of this need, but they were already projected for a reduced than planned rate. So they would have to mine materials on their way as well as take enough of everything to not run out of anything critical halfway in the journey.
Then finally came the talk the Cylons wanted to hear.
The military part. "Now…" Adama gathered his thought. "Admiral Kirk, Cain, and I already had plenty of time to talk this first military matter over and over. Fiona O'Donnell, do you agree that having four admirals in a fleet is a bit much?"
She knew what he wanted. "Yes. And I agree. I am the least qualified and experienced in this. I accept my old rank back, sir. As you actually forced me to accept this one…"
The three male officers nodded to each other. "That went easy. However, Commodore, I would like to have you as the Nr. Four of this fleet. So you still get some responsibility beyond the ship you'll command."
She knew this would be either bad or good for her. "And?"
"Since you and President Roslin and Governor Fabron worked so well with each other, I want you to be the direct pipeline to the civilian sector. The politicians, to be accurate."
She realized that it could be worse for her. "I'll take it, I guess."
"Thank you." Both Kirk and Cain said in stereo. They would hate getting stuck doing that.
Now to the two of you. Admiral Cain, as discussed, you'll be in command of all Colonial forces in this fleet, reporting to me and keeping the peace. Admiral Kirk, same, but for Starfleet forces. Now to the three of you, let's talk ships. Cain, as you know, I have no issue commanding the Mercury-class Pegasus, but the previous incident had that ship, not at full capacity. Commander Scott, your sector's assessment?"
"The weapon's power grid will need some overhauls and replacements. A month without a dock. Minimum."
"Fine. Augustus, I advise you set up shop anyway there." That got a confused look from Cain. Bill knew why. "Admiral, I know what you want. To fight again. And the last thing I want to do is to put my best racing horse into the stall, but you are needed here. I cannot afford for more crap coming our way from our own ranks. Your prestige squashes most chances of this. I want you and Commodore O'Donnell to stay here and try to speed up the logistics issues."
Cain wanted to argue back, but he did not. He also stopped Helena from doing the same. "I understand, Bill. Most people would think that I would do anything for a good fight, but… I did what I did in the last war not to get glory or fame, but to do what I had to do for my people. Even some things I am not proud of. The fame just followed me doing the right thing. So I accept."
Glad he got that from Cain, he turned to Kirk. "You are the most experienced person for deep space exploration, so you will be our guide, once we depart for Earth."
"So no pressure" He jested.
"Hm, I also want you to be my second in command for the Kobol operation. Perhaps we can balance each other out."
"Will do, Admiral."
"Right, now, ships. Against my better judgment, I agree with Kirk and Cain. I am moving my flag, but not back to the Galactic. Governor Fabron, with your and Admiral Kirk's blessing, I would use the Carrier Pegasus as my flagship. And to ease any fears, only the pilots for the fighters and bombers and all support staff would be Colonial. I would pick a few officers from the Colonial side and the rest from Starfleet's, deal?"
Fabron nodded to this compromise. "Now, Admiral Kirk already said he would take the Babylon as his command ship. Admiral Cain gets the Battlestar Pegasus. Now…" He turned his attention to Helena Cain. "The reason you are here. I have read the psychological reports on your progress. That, Augustus' request and your recent actions have allowed me to believe that you are indeed on a path to rehabilitation. For now, I am reinstating you into the Colonial armed forces, with the rank of Colonel. You will serve on the Pegasus under Admiral Cain. Once we depart, I will see the status of your progression again and if good enough, you'll get to get the rank of Commander and a battlestar of your own. Perhaps the Adonis? We'll see."
Augustus squeezed her hand gently. "Told you it would be worth it."
"Now, Commodore O'Donnell. Any ideas where to transfer your flag? I believe as good as the ships are that you originally started with, the ones Kirk just got us are better. I suggest we use the older ships from Earth for pure fleet defense and the more modern ones for all purposes. Agreed?" All nodded. "So, Commodore?"
She smirked lightly. "My ancestors were quite religious, so I can't pass up the opportunity to command the St. Michael, can I?"
Most Colonials were having puzzled looks. Kirk cleared his throat. "Michael is an archangel from the heavens. The angel that leads God's armies."
The Cylons were more curious at this than the Colonials but knew to not ask about such things at this moment. "Done. But only after this operation. You remain here, remember, the ship still goes to battle. Anyway. We'll have to assign officers to every ship for this operation. We can reshuffle them as needed after the operation again." Bill made some notes. "Kirk, I see you already claimed Lt. Commander Hill?"
"Yes. Personal reasons, as you now. I would also request Scott and this Gaeta fellow. He showed some integrity there."
"I have no issue with Captain Gaeta, but Commander Scott you can't have as I want her on the Carrier Pegasus. I think that ship can easily be the core of the engineers as we already want to use it as the command for all fighter operations. Speaking of which… I read her reports, Augustus. And I agree. Lee is good, but your niece is better. So Major Miranda Cain, call sign Sheba is the new fleet CAG."
"Thank you, Bill. You won't regret it. Although I might, she is the best CAG I ever had. She did request that Major Adama be assigned to the Carrier Pegasus anyway as her XO for fighter groups. He can be in charge of a squadron himself and be her backup in the CAG area if she gets other tasks to do as well."
Bill made more notes. "Any idea who would be your CAG then?"
"You eyed one of mine, I eyed one of yours. That Kara Thrace. Spunk, courage, and luck. All good combinations. And a good leader as well. And easy on the eyes always helps…"
"Father… please." Helena wanted to sink into the ground. She had forgotten how he was.
"Noted. The Babylon can be Starfleet's command ship for MACOs and security personnel as well. Now, the gunship, as its being called. Commander Scott?"
"The coding on that thing is more advanced than what 23rd century Starfleet has. We control all ship functions but the automated security and maintenance system. That will take A LOT of time to crack. The good news is that the bridge section is sealed off and the mechanical guard dogs have already dealt with Cylon intruders' once, during that first test run near the dampening field."
She showed them the security footage of the centurions and humanoid Cylon disembarking several heavy raiders that forcefully landed in a damaged hangar that was open to space. As they forced a door open, they got swarmed by milt pedal walkers and bipedal behemoths that began tearing them apart. Then even the hover drones arrived, blasting them from the distance with plasma fire. The centurions were out of their weight class in this one and their weapons did nothing to the attackers. The humanoids took cover where they could, but the end result was inevitable. Well, all but one of the Cylons who managed to return to a landed raider and take off, only to be picked off not soon after by a phaser shot.
Yep, that got the attention of both Cylon and Colonial alike. And the Cylons were not used to seeing their brethren being taken down by superior machines. Of course, Adama denied them any and all access to that ship. That was Scott's baby and she would get it to work totally. But for this mission, they would use it. The effectiveness of the ship was undeniable, as already seen from the battle footage.
Colonel Walker would be in command of that ship for this operation. All 23rd-century Starfleet ships would participate, all 22nd-century ships would remain here, in the nebula. As for the Colonial forces, Bill wanted the Adonis, Morningstar, Victory, Ibis, Oberon Hydra, and Titania. As well as everything bigger than an Adamant from the fleet they just returned with. The Galactica and Cain's Pegasus would remain put.
"What about your old ship, Admiral?" Laura asked Augustus.
"Yeah, about that…" Cain explained his idea to them. They were both shocked and impressed by that plan.
"That's crazy." Saul muttered.
"Or genius." Manor spoke for the first time.
And now the Three spoke for the first time as well. "Amazing how genius and crazy tend to go hand in hand, don't they?"
"Either way…" Scott huffed. "My guys will have to do the heavy lifting on this, again."
"Unfortunately, Commander. But make sure they're ready in a week. That is the last date. Any later and the Cylon war could be already over."
Scott hated this time pressure. "And the basestars? I mean the newer models we just got?"
"I take it your people already made some modifications to allow us to control them and not get a person plugged in?" Bill asked.
"Yes. Thanks to the data the Cylons gave us, I made a bypass for the whole neural interface, but we needed days just for one of them. Getting all three… It will be cutting it close."
"Make it happen. They will be good fire support ships. Now… Commander Hasapis, You'll command force Gamma from the Adonis."
"Gladly, sir."
"I'll command force Beta from the Carrier Pegasus."
"Bill." Saul interrupted him. "Am I… I mean. Who's your XO on this?"
"I've had a long time to think this over. And I tend to agree more and more with Admiral Kirk. A Vulcan as an XO is a good thing. They balance us out. So for this operation, I'll stick with Commander K'Lir, if you don't mind. I want you to oversee the Galactica for now, Saul."
"I… understand, Bill. Don't worry. I won't go insane as Fisk did." He tried to be humorous to lighten the mood a bit. He failed.
"We'll get to him soon enough. Admiral Kirk?"
"A Vulcan is on my bridge already as a science officer, but I need a more seasoned person. Augustus?"
"Hm?"
"You weren't thinking of asking Colonel Belzen to take his old post back, once your daughter gets the Adonis?"
Augustus had a playful spark in his eyes. "You had to beat me to it, didn't you?"
"If he could handle one Cain, he can handle another?"
"Yup. Tell you what. Let's ask him."
"Yeah, then I lose on the spot. He'd never say no to you."
"That's the idea…"
"OK, you two. Enough. Kirk, he's yours, for this operation. We'll discuss final postings when we depart with the entire fleet." This tossing around of officers continued for a good 30 minutes more. "Now… Fisk and the insurrectionists." Bill hated this part. "Governor. I understand that the Federation has no death penalty?"
"Yes. But I can see the appeal of it."
"Good. In the case of a military tribunal of clear violations like these, a three-judge system is used. Usually. I want to do a five-judge one. The extra two would be from your side. And I want one to be as neutral as possible."
Kirk got it. "Vulcan?"
"Vulcan." Bill Eyed V'ok. "And your people, if I read the right literature, approve of ritual suicide?"
"Yes. If a life is become meaningless, like sickness or old age, it must be allowed to end."
"Or it is irredeemable or a danger to society…"
"That, Admiral, is not so clear and cut, but I understand your stance. So if they are convicted?"
"If either of murder or treason, a firing squad. And treason for civilians. And we have plenty of prisoners we have more than enough evidence for most of those charges."
"That… would be extreme. But I will not try to persuade you from your system like we almost were from ours."
"Also be aware, we will not be doing any executions ourselves." Fabron made that perfectly clear.
Saul remembered one thing in the civilian case. "Bill, we'd need someone who knows the law, to be a judge in the civilian cases, ship captains won't be enough there. I know that Lee has some experience…"
"Lee will be needed for the assault. Not for something like this."
Laura had an idea. "I know of one. Romo Lampkin. A lawyer and a good one at that. If the accused don't get his services, we can approach him."
"Fine." Within two more hours, they were done. Even the Cylon guests now had a timetable. At the latest, the military force departs in seven days.
As people were beginning to leave and start doing their assigned tasks, Laura went with Fabron to the colony to continue her apology tour. Cain gave Helena a hug in the hangar as she didn't like the transporters. She would wait for him on her old Pegasus and hope to get a uniform again soon. Then Augustus would wait for Bill in the transporter room. Bill would make a detour to the main infirmary. He needed to see Chief Tyrol. And many others. He hated the casualty report more than anything. Sure, he hated the wasted ammo report as well. Or the wasted supplies, fuel, building parts… the list can go on.
Bill just went along with Dr. Manor who gave him a verbal report on the most critical cases as they went down the corridor. Once in the infirmary, he saw all the bandaged up people and all the Federation personnel caring for them. And even Dr. Cottle was again walking more lost than helping. This high-tech infirmary was just not his style. "Sherman."
"Greg. You drag me from one fancy alien lab to an even worse one!"
"Do I look like I want to be here when it's happy hour? Anyway. Admiral, the intensive treatment ward is this way…" Once there, Bill saw the worst cases. At least those on this ship. And Galen's head was like a mummy. "The left eye is gone. I mean gone gone. And half of his teeth. And a broken jaw…"
"I get it. They used him as a punching bag."
"Among other things. I intend to ask the Cylon guests if they have spare parts of him in this HUB of theirs." Bill was not amused. "I'm not joking. If I can get a perfect eye replica, I can transplant that. The only alternative to that is a prosthetic eye, like Colonel Walker."
"Fine. But it is not even close to a priority."
"I got that. One more point. And this is about the only good news I have. No one was raped. I had my people do the tests as we would usually do in situations like this. The only good thing I have to say about this Porter nut job is that apparently rape is a moral sin in the eyes of the Gemeniese, so they made damn sure nothing happened. Petty Officer Henderson gave a statement that an acolyte was present with every interrogation. So the military didn't want trouble with them around."
"Won't save them from a firing squad. Or do you disapprove?"
"Nope. Why waste resources on them when they would have killed you in a heartbeat."
"Keep me appraised, Doctor."
"Will do, sir." As Adama left, Manor joined Sherman in his private office for a small drink. They needed it, even if protocol forbade it. But that smell was easier to hide than cigarettes.
As Bill joined Augustus in the transporter room, the first batch of transfers was being done. Among them were Shaw and Gaeta. All of them saluted Adama and Cain, of course. "At ease. I hope you all understand the new protocols on these ships. We need to earn Starfleet's trust again. So no weapons for any of you and only access to what your job requires."
"Yes, sir. We understand."
"Good. And make us proud. Also, lose the uniforms, once you get settled in." They were confused now. "We have to streamline this mess of ranks and uniforms. So if you are on duty on a Starfleet ship, you use their uniforms and ranks. So, Captain Gaeta and Shaw, you are now First Lieutenants. But keep your original uniforms if you ever get rotated to a Colonial ship back. Good hunting." As the salutes and talks were done and Bill and Cain were beamed to the Carrier Pegasus, A Starfleet officer showed them where their quarters were. As part of the bridge crew, Shaw and Gaeta had their own quarters, of course. Not the really big and fancy ones, for that their ranks were still too low.
As they went to the quartermaster for their new uniforms and managed to put them on, rank insignia and all, they went for the turbo lift.
"The color change is interesting." Felix tried some small talk as they were alone in the lift. "But I have to say, this is much closer in design to ours than the older models. What do you think, Lieutenant?"
"That wasting our time in pointless talk is… well, pointless. I'd rather meet this Starfleet Cain and get to know the ship. I will agree with Major Adama on this, it is in a slightly larger weight class."
As they reached the bridge and stepped out, they saw the bridge crew already working on battle simulations they would be undertaking. They needed to train for this upcoming engagement. A Vulcan approached them.
"Lt. Shaw and Gaeta? Good. The Admiral is in his ready room. He is expecting the both of you."
As they entered said room and stood at attention after announcing themselves, Jim was still reading something on the computer terminal. Then he put his glasses down. "I hate getting old. Ah… Lt. Shaw and Gaeta, excellent. At ease." Felix did relax, Shaw remained stiff. "I said to relax, Lieutenant." He began reading her file. "You were really planning a carrere, weren't you?"
"Sir, is there a question in there?"
He sighed. "I said to relax. Sit down, the both of you. This is not a court-martial." They did sit down. "Now, Lt. Shaw. Driven, loyal. Not flexible. Follows the rulebook to a fault. I will have to break you of that habit." He took Felix's file. "Lt. Gaeta. Adama thinks highly of you. And I have to say, nice job on the Colonial Hope. That could have been much messier."
"Em, thank you, sir?"
"Don't worry. I don't bite. Now, I asked for the both of you because I saw potential."
"Sir, you just said I have a bad habit in your eyes, yet you asked for me?"
"Lt. Shaw, we all have bad habits. Me? I'm a rule breaker. In more ways than one. So the opposite of you. But I know that feeling inside of you. The fire that burns, craves for vengeance. If you allow it, it can destroy you, like it almost did me."
"Sir?"
"A race of warriors, the Klingons, they and I had many battles in my time. But one rouge captain stepped over that invisible line. When he murdered my son. From that day, I carried a poison in my heart for years. And years later, when they as a species, were in danger of going extinct, a friend of mine wanted to stop the hostilities between them and Starfleet. I disagreed. He told me: They are dying. And I answered: Let them die. Was the life of my son equal to that of billions? I had to learn the hard way that while vengeance can give you strength, it does not give you a future. And forgiving is harder than to keep on hating. But that is just me. Now…" He put his PADD's down. "Follow me."
Back on the bridge, he went to the aft port station. "Lt. Shaw, this is the secondary tactical terminal. You will be assisting Lt. Commander Hill in his tactical duties. This will include dealing with boarding parties and repelling intruders. You will also help Lt. Garcia with the computer work, as I understand you are rather well at it."
"Sir. I am looking forward to this."
"Good. Now. Lt. Gaeta." Felix was now left alone to follow him as Shaw took her station behind Hill's station. He was not on the bridge at this point in time. "Now, Felix, is it?"
"Yes, sir."
"What do you prefer?"
"Em, Lt. Gaeta will do just fine, sir."
"OK, as you wish. Now, your station is in the aft. The operations station. You will be the Chief of Operations. As Bill tells me, you had a similar job on the Galactica anyway. A bit of navigation, a bit of science, a bit of weapons, and then some computer and tactics on top of that?" Felix nodded. "Well, operations is in a way all of that. Keeping the ship running at optimal efficiency. In combat, I expect you to support any position that needs it most, weapons probably more than others. Now, we will begin the first combat drills in two hours. I expect the both of you to improve with each drill. And then I want to see how the two of you perform in one of my personal favorite Starfleet tests."
He returned to his ready room.
On the Carrier Pegasus, Cain and Adama materialized in the transporter room in the aft of the secondary hull. It was the closest to the main hangar, where they wanted to be right now.
"How time flies, Billy boy, right?" They stepped into the main hangar where mostly Colonials were getting things ready for their first flight test that would eventually lead to battle drills and then combined fleet drills. And all of this so that the pilots can get used to the Starfleet hardware for combat purposes. And to test how well Scott's people managed to modify the engines on them for FTL jump purposes.
The pilots, who were mostly chatting among themselves, with the engineers for individual fighters or the deckhands, all noticed them and stopped what they were doing.
"At ease, all of you." Bill saluted back and kept on walking. They were going for the aft part of the hangar that led to the connecting hallway of the CIC for flight operations. Once in the CIC, which was its own separate room from the bridge, they saw Lee, Kara and several other veteran pilots have a discussion on the 3D planning table. The woman at the edge of the table turned around and like all in there, saluted them. "Admirals. Welcome. We took the liberty of getting some things done already."
Bill was intrigued. "Such as?"
"The scans your fleet took of Kobol, we're planning tactical scenarios and well as training scenarios based on that."
Augustus look so proud, he was glowing. "Told you she was good."
"You did indeed. I think all of you got to know Major Cain. Or should I say Colonel Cain, Fleet CAG." Bill announced the decision to them.
Miranda was not taken aback by this. She was expecting this. Not because of who her uncle is. No, but because she knew she was the best for the job. She had to admit it though. Some younglings here impressed her. "Thank you, sirs. Has my plan also been accepted?"
"It has." Augustus took the wheel. "Major Adama. You are the XO CAG of the fleet and will command a squadron on this ship, directly reporting to Colonel Cain. Now, before we assign other good pilots to their ships, Captain Thrace. Only now, Major Thrace. You are my CAG, on the Pegasus. My daughter's Pegasus."
Kara didn't know how to take this. Excited? Worried? Confused? All of the above?
"Seeing you speechless for the first time is so worth it, Starbuck." Lee teased her and even Bill chuckled at that. It was a rarity indeed.
"Bite me, Lee."
"Bad idea, he might like that." Miranda Cain added. "But then again, Commander Scott would have issues with that, right, Major?"
Lee didn't even bother asking how they all knew. Was he really signaling this?
"Anyway, you kids have fun with the combat drills today. I have my daughter's ship to fix. Major Thrace, you will transfer when the whole Kobol question is answered. Until then, you remain on this ship. Is that good for you?"
"Clear as Caprican wine, sir. If I may ask, who asked me to be the Pegasus CAG?"
She was asking Admiral Adama more than anyone else. "Augustus did. Apparently, you check most of his boxes as to what he wants to see in his CAG. So, as a heads up. Now before I get to know my new ship a bit better and Augustus gets to do the same with his, Lee, a word."
As they left the room for the corridor, Bill first of all hugged him, then smiled. "With all the crap that happened, it's good for some human interactions among professionals again, isn't it?"
"You can say that again, sir."
"I'm talking as your father now, so drop the sir. The reason I want to have a word is this: I won't tell you what to do or not to do in this relationship of yours. I messed up mine pretty well, so don't listen to me. But for this one thing. Don't let it get in your way as a pilot. Or officer. She is your superior by rank and a hell of a lot smarter than most people here. And the both of you have your own tasks to perform. I'm sure Fiona will give her the same speech at some point. Now, back in you go. And good hunting."
As Cain saw that Bill was done with the father/son talk, he said his farewell as well. Bill went to the main engineering first as Cain departed the ship. For Bill, all the technology went over his head, so he just ignored it once he arrived there. And he spotter the officer he was looking for. "Commander?"
"Sir." She gave him the report she knew he'd want. "I am still having my people do the calculations for the whole other project for the Galactica. You'll get that tomorrow."
"Good." He took a quick look at the dates. Damn, the original assessment of the industrial plan was not far off. They really did lose time. "I didn't want to bother you with this in the hangar as you had your hands full there. Nice work. I'm also sorry to say that any vacation time is not possible for your staff until the whole Kobol mess is behind us."
"I get that. It's just, I need more people. I am already scraping the bottom of the barrel here. All of my original crew, minus the ones that died, thank you, bitch Porter… All in the colony and every single Colonial that is of any technical use for us. Anyone that can hold a screwdriver. I mean, I already put Laird back to work as well…"
"You mad at him?"
"In a way… Yes, I'm mad. Not at him directly, but… what they made him do. What they did to his kid and wife. Are we in the god damn Middle ages here?! And Chief Galen and his people are out as well. And he too knew what he was doing."
Bill did not argue there. But no point in talking about something they could not influence. "If you have any ideas on how to accelerate matters, bring them to me. Unless it's slave labor, I'm all ears."
She scoffed. "Funny you should say. I was thinking that any person guilty of this mess that doesn't get the… final solution, should be put to work to clean up their own shit, don't you?"
Bill already thought of it. "Then I'll have the whole court matter accelerated. But…"
"I know, security. I didn't mean difficult mental tasks, just moving heavy objects or welding. Something most can do. And we can repurpose Zarek's prisoner ship for its original usage. We assign specific rooms on specific ships for them to work, ankle monitors, and armed guards. And once they are done for a day, back to that ship or a camp on the colony."
Now Bill was intrigued. "Not a bad idea. You gave it some real hard thinking, Commander."
"I had plenty of pent-up anger at these morons to be a bit creative."
A few hours passed and all the pilots were now ready to be launched, including the ones on the Carrier Pegasus.
The Colonials had some time to get to know and understand this gear as they were on their way to the colony, so the learning curve was shorter than normally.
Kara was in a bumblebee fighter. She preferred the smaller but more nimble design any day of the week. "OK, power on." The digital display all began appearing in her helmet. "Fuel, missiles, power, engines, inertia dampeners, reactor… all looking good."
Everyone went down the checklist like this. Even before taking a seat in the cockpit, they inspected the craft from the outside. "This is Delta leader, ready for launch."
All other squadrons gave the green light as well. This was a mock battle exercise. And they would do them again tomorrow, but to stop wasting fuel and ammo before the real battle, they would switch more and more to the holo-simulators on their ships.
As all capital ships made their launches in a slightly removed part of space from the civilian fleet, their training would begin. And not end until the end of the day. On the Babylon, Bill had his people take part in this formation exercise before he would have them train on reaction time and then his personal favorite. The Kobayashi Maru. He wanted to see who they would react to a hopeless scenario.
The marines and MACOs were not getting any rest as well, since a planet would have to be stormed.
Day 114 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 17th of May, the year 2378, Federation colony New Settlement
Most of the patients that were injured in the insurrection, were well enough to begin their relocation to the ships that would remain here, in the orbit of the colony. The other ships would need their capacities to be free for the casualties that would follow the upcoming battle.
On the Babylon, the remaining Final Five finally all met, Sam now included. Several Cylon guests joined them in the intensive treatment ward where Galen was still recovering.
"Thank you for the update, Doctor." The Eight thanked Manor.
"My pleasure. But I have to ask, you Rebels have that HUB ship, right?"
"Yes?"
"Any of his unused bodies there that I can get an eye from for transplantation purposes? For…" He motioned to the still sedated Galen in the bed." Obvious reasons."
The Cylons were split down the middle. Some thought that he was a bit direct with this. Or simply gross. The others saw the practicality of it. Those were 'empty' bodies after all but the logistical issues were the main problem. Getting an eye was not even on the DRADIS of problems to solve.
"Once we get back into contact with the main fleet, we can ask."
"Goody. Well, he won't wake for another 12 hours. Then the swelling will be mostly gone. I'll… leave all of you to discuss matters about him."
Once they were alone around his bed, the Three closed the curtains around their section. "Can't say if I like that human or not. But back to the four of you. Have you thought it over?"
"I am staying, no matter what anyone else decides." Saul responded.
Ellen sighed. "As you can see, my husband's manners haven't improved much in the past 2000 years. But we have talked it over. Sam, Saul and I want to stay, even if our situation has become a bit strained. Ironically, the Federation colony has little issues welcoming us. Well, most of us…"
"I do not like their lax military protocols down there." Saul grumbled.
"Yes, Mr. Sunshine here, he butted with some heads down there recently. Tory hasn't decided yet. And poor Galen here will need some time."
"Right." The Eight saw that they could not persuade them. "Anyway, Galen will be up in 12 hours. No point staying here."
As they left, escorted, of course, their nest stop Helo's and Sharon's quarters to check up on them, D'Anna noticed that they were one short. "Where is Sophie?"
The other Six shrugged. "Something about practical research?"
The training and battle drills were over for today, so most people were getting some rest. Except for the engineers, who got no real rest in their four shift workdays. They needed to get everything done on time. But Scott also knew that they could not keep this tempo up forever.
In the Admiral's quarters, Jim also didn't get much sleep, but for different reasons. "Have to say, for a seasoned human, you don't disappoint."
"What's the old saying? Men age like fine wine?" Jim responded to his 'guest' in his bed. "The last time this happened to me was on Risa."
"Was it as good as now?" The woman asked him in the darkened room.
"I can't use a scale. But I will say, it is different. Not different bad or good. Just different."
She felt her pride attacked and rolled on top of him. "Then I have to try harder. I mean, I am not a human and you are the first human I have intercourse with who has experience in the field with none-humans. Tell me, what races were they?"
"Do you really want to know, Sophie?" He managed to respond as she kissed him.
"I need to know about the competition."
"OK, I may be a bit older, and I can fall for female charms as any guy. But I am not this Baltar fellow. What is your real interest here?"
"I already told you one of them. I didn't lie there. And fun like this is always welcome, is it not? Are you complaining?"
"No, nothing like that. But I still want an answer."
"You could say a first test, as it were. You did hear what Dr. Manor said, didn't you?"
"Partially, yes. I can't listen to him for long, reminds me too much of Bones in the cynicism department."
"Well, if you had listened, the simple truth is we Cylons will need some, ehm, DNA samples to allow our race to continue existing. And if the male nature is that they age like fine wine, the female one is that we select the best. I think an Earth legend qualifies for that, don't you? Besides, this is my curiosity at work, mixed with boredom and a test run. That good enough for you? Now, do you still want to talk, or…?"
He rolled them over so that he was on top now. "I think I'm done talking. But I am taking the helm this time."
Day 118 since the Colonial exodus, Earth date 21st of May, the year 2378, Federation colony New Settlement
One day was left before the military force would have to leave. And they were on schedule.
But in the bowels of the Battlestar Pegasus, in one of the flight pods, a long line of uniforms stood at attention. Mostly Colonials with a few Starfleet personnel in the mix. Fiona being one of the Starfleet officers. She had to be here. For the people she lost. On the other end were prisoners, tied to posts, also in uniforms. Between the two groups, William Adama was reading the Colonial verdict of the court that oversaw the investigation that would assess their guilt. This was the first of many to come.
"According to the findings, reports, and all other evidence, including testimonies of many witnesses, you were found by all five judges, guilty of treason and murder. The penalty by Colonial law is death. The accused have one final chance to speak. If any of you have something to say, now is the time."
No one bothered to say anything. Until Fisk spoke. Sobbing. "I thought I was doing what was right by our sacred traditions. We were abandoning our ways, our way of life. And Porter was not entirely wrong. You lied, Admiral. You and the president held secrets. And Helena abandoned me." More sobbing followed.
The execution squad stepped forward. "Ready." They prepared their weapons. "Aim." They aimed them at the prisoners. "May the Lords have mercy on your souls." The Staff Sergeant of the execution squad said. "Fire!"
The three Starfleet fighters… are based on the same one. You can see a 3D image of it on sketchfab, input Hornet strike fighters, and get an idea of what they look like or are based on. Or see them in the intro of Star Trek Empires at war 2.
Commander Kelly Rose Scott - Jennifer Lawrence (Chief Engineer) (Scotty's distant relative)
Captain Sakari Hauaman - Catherine Bell (Challenger Captain)
Lt. Adrian Garcia - Michael Peña (Computer scientist)
Major Michael David Sisko - John Boyega (MACO Commander) (Benjamin's distant relative)
Lt. Commander Sachiko Hayashi - Kim Tae-hee (Challenger comm officer)
Dr. George Manor - Hugh Laurie (Rank Lt. Commander, Chief Medical Officer of Challenger)
Commander K'Lir - Melinda Clarke (Vulcan and Challenger's XO)
Commander Naomie Evans - Emmanuelle Vaugier (Crusader XO, now acting CO)
Lt. Noah Hill - Timothy Olyphant (Crusader tactical)
Major Jacques Friloux - Casper Van Dien (Champion MACO Commander)
Lt. Commander Alex Nelson - Dean Cain (Crusader Chief Engineer)
Dr. Krisha Kumar - Aarti Mann (Rank Lt., Chief Medical Officer of Crusader)
Commodore Fiona O'Donnell - Lauren Holly (Bismarck CO)
Colonel Alan Walker - Michael Biehn (Bismarck MACO CO)
Lt. Jacob Rivers - Seth MacFarlane (Paladin Chief Engineer) (Ship's acting CO, all higher officers are dead)
Captain Carlos Ramirez - Josh Cruze (Champion Captain, transferred from Intrepid, as Starfleet needed all experienced officers in more capable ships)
Captain Khari Oladoyinbo - Cuba Gooding Jr. (Knight CO)
Commander Sek'Ris - Tom Selleck (Officer of Vulcancolonials)
Commander Jerome Hasapis - Bob Gunton (BSG Victory)
Colonel Colin Hawks - Nathan Jones (marinestar commander)
Governor Elliot Fabron - Forest Whitaker
Minister V'ok Miller (Short for V'okoris) - Clancy Brown
Lt. Commander Var'anis - Lou Diamond Phillips (Vulcan Commander from the colony)
James T. Kirk - OG Kirk, accept no substitutes
Augustus Cain - OG Cain from 1980 Galactica, accept no substitutes
Miranda "Sheba" Cain – (Augustus Cain's neice, CAG) OG Anne Lockhart
Colonials: 111 Civilian ships
One Marinestar, the Broadsword. A Sobek, (Victory), two Adamant, one Valkyre (Morningstar), Pegasus (Mercury-class), and Galactica (Jupiter class).
One Adamant destroyed.
Starfleet: Challenger, Crusader, Paladin, Nightingale (hospital ship), Bismarck, Yamato, Volga, Denarius, Pathfinder, Mississippi, John Brown, Merchant, Concordia, Settler's Dream, Danube, Champion, Knight, Ares, Colonial Hope, and Vo'kor.
Destroyed: Marco Polo, Frontier, Boston, Oracle
10 Starfleet ships en route: Ulysses class dreadnaught (Babylon), one Ark Royal class fleet carrier (Pegasus), two Constitution-class heavy cruisers (Inferno and Solaria), one Constellation heavy cruiser (Fury), one Excelsior mark One heavy cruiser (St. Michael), four Miranda class light cruisers (standard module ones: Surak, Seleya, Feneris, one sensor variant, the Columbus.) Plus three modern basestars and the alien gunship.
Augustus Cain's remaining force: Three Jupiter class ships (Original Pegasus, Hydra, and Titania), one Janus heavy cruiser (Oberon), one Atlas carrier (Ibis), and three support ships.
Adama refugee fleet: 418 civilian ships, including dozens of tankers, refinery ships, cargo transports, and mostly civilian transports. These transports were also of the larger variety, so they could in some cases handle more people. Military ships: One additional Mercury-class, the Adonis, seven Sobek class, fifteen Valkyrie class, seven Minotaur gunships, and 27 Adamant support ships. All other military ships were too badly damaged or destroyed by either Cavil or the initial attack. Total survivors: 515.000 civilians and military personnel.