AN: Yes, I have another chapter finally. Sorry for the slow updates but between real life, work and an ADD muse this story hasn't had a lot of time lately. Hope you enjoy the update!
Getting to the Astral Ore had been the easy part. With the re-supply mission continuing, shuttles were consistently moving between the mining ship and the other ships in the fleet. Now that he was aboard, the trick was blending in long enough to find a place to hold out. This wasn't Cloud Six where blending in was easy do to the constant coming and going of people. Other than the pilots running supply runs in the Raptors, and the occasional worker taking leave on Cloud Six, the complement of the Astral Ore was consistent which meant it wouldn't take much for a stranger to stand out.
Stepping off the Raptor, Marcus Doral tried not to attract attention as flight deck personnel moved in to start loading the raw materials to be transferred to the Pisus onto the empty Raptor. Moving with a purpose about him, the humanoid Cylon headed for the exit of the hangar. Though he wanted to limit his exposure to the crew of the Astral Ore, he also didn't want to move too quickly and draw attention to himself.
Engrossed in their own work, the crew of the Astral Ore paid the retreating Cruise Director little attention. Reaching the corridor, Doral was relieved to find it empty. Having studied the layout of the mining ship, the humanoid Cylon turned left and started down the corridor. He knew that his best chance of holing up somewhere was to head toward one of the storage bays and from there, find a way into one of the maintenance shafts of the mining vessel. With any luck he would be able to avoid detection there.
All he needed to do was to stay hidden long enough for the humans to give up their search for him. Doral's hope was that after awhile they would conclude that he had headed to one of the inhabitable planets in the system. He was sure that if he could stay hidden long enough, he would be able to contact his own people and affect a successful escape.
"Captain Dualla assures me that his security personnel are capable of completing a thorough search of the Cloud Six," Admiral Adama said as he finished bringing Colonel Belmont and Captain Apollo up to date on the current situation. "That leaves the Pisus, Ares, and Astal Ore left to conduct a thorough search of. As the only vessel to dock and leave Colonial One was our Raptor, and that was before any contact with any of the ships that Marcus Doral would have access too, I think we can forego a search of Colonial One and Galactica at this point. However, until Marcus Doral is located, I have ordered both ships not to allow anyone to dock or leave the hangar bays, and that includes us."
"Yes, sir," the two CAG's replied in almost perfect unison.
Waiting only for Admiral Adama's dismissal, Belmont and Lee Adama were soon walking out of the conference room.
"Who's aboard the Ares that we can put in charge of sweeping that ship?" Lee asked even as the conference room hatch finished closing behind them. Memories of the suicide bomber aboard Galactica reminded him how critical finding this Cylon could be.
"Sgt. Keller is in charge of the marines over there. However, there aren't many marines onboard Ares, or Pisus, for that matter, and the ones we do have are very inexperienced. Pisus only had a dozen or so marines onboard during the experiments. They weren't considered essential personnel for the mission and so most of them were granted leave for the duration of the experiments. As for Ares, except for the training officers, the ship was manned by cadets and those still in basic training."
"Perhaps we need to ask the Admiral to allow us to pull additional personnel from Galactica, to help with the search?" Lee mused out loud. Not only were they down on the number of personnel but they were lacking experienced personnel as well.
Belmont could hear the skepticism in the younger CAG's voice even as he made the suggestion. Though he knew William Adama by reputation only, he knew Lee fairly well, and could tell by the younger man's tone of voice that Lee didn't think his father would change the order.
"We'll have to make do, even if we have to utilize personnel that usually wouldn't participate in a search of this nature," Lee replied, answering his own question. He knew his father well enough to know that he would expect them to get the task done with the parameters that had been set. "I think we've all had some experience doing that these last few months."
"That's for sure," Belmont agreed.
The two CAG's continued to discuss their plan of action as they headed for the hangar bay of the Pisus, planning to use the open area there as the staging area to begin the search on Pisus, as well as gather the personnel they would need to search the Astral Ore.
Though he had been an active participant in the planning stages of the operation, Lee was more than willing to take a step back as the execution phase began. Not only had Lonewolf been his flight instructor, and outranked him, but these were Lonewolf's shipmates. Like the crew of Galactica, the crew of these two ships had only one another to count on these past six months. Even if he wasn't outranked, Lee knew that any orders he might give would be met with resistance, just like the situation with the Pegasus had been at first.
Standing at his former flight instructor's side, Lee listened as Lonewolf gave orders, both to the personnel going to the Astral Ore and those who would be staying to sweep Pisus. As they had discussed, the fact that Marcus Doral was a humanoid Cylon was not revealed. That information had long ago been classified as need to know, and the men and women gathered to conduct the search didn't need to know that to carry out their orders. All they needed to know was that Marcus Doral was a possible danger and it was imperative that he be located.
It wasn't until Lonewolf appointed someone in charge of the search efforts onboard Pisus that Lee was taken by surprise. Though they hadn't specifically said anything, Galactica's CAG had assumed that Belmont would be overseeing the operation on Pisus while Lee lead the group headed toward the Astral Ore. Despite his surprise, Lee held his tongue. Showing a disagreement among the leadership wouldn't do anyone any good. However, as soon as Lonewolf ended the briefing, Lee asked the question that was on his mind.
"I thought you were going to oversee the search here on Pisus?" Lee asked quietly, being careful not to be overheard by the personnel gathering in their respective groups.
"I never said that," Lonewolf replied, not at all surprised by the younger man's reaction. He had expected Lee would assume he would stay here on Pisus. Perhaps he even should stay here on Pisus given the lack of experience among the crew. However, he had personal reasons for not wanting to let the younger pilot lead the search on Astral Ore on his own and he wasn't going to bother hiding that reason. "Sgt. Turner is more than capable of handling the search here and I'm not about to let you go off searching for this Doral character alone. Laura Jean was just reunited with her father, and I plan on doing everything in my power to make sure that reunion isn't cut short. As I know having you not participate in the search isn't going to happen, I'm going to have to settle with sticking with you and you're not going to talk me out of it. I'll pull rank if I have to," the older pilot said, heading off any protests from Apollo. He remembered all too well the young man's stubborn streak.
"Yes, sir," Apollo replied, with a hint of amusement in his voice. He was touched by his former flight instructor's concern, though he knew that both of them would be uncomfortable with him expressing that emotion.
The silence between them was broken by Lonewolf. "And don't bother commenting about how you think I'm going soft," the older pilot said as he and Lee headed for the Raptor that would ferry them to the Astral Ore. "Apparently, all my former students seem surprised that I do have a heart."
Despite the seriousness of knowing there was a Cylon infiltrator among the fleet, Lee let out a chuckle at his former flight instructor's comment, making a mental note to ask Becca about the situation that had prompted that comment from her.
Though she was reading the now familiar book that Laura Jean had picked out, Rebecca wasn't really concentrating on it. Her thoughts were elsewhere, with Lee. She couldn't help but wonder what was going on and what he and Lonewolf had been called away for. More than once she had thought about calling CIC and seeing if she could get an update about what was going on but she held off. If it was something she was needed for, they would have already called upon her.
Thankfully, Laura Jean seemed undisturbed by her mother's state of distraction. The little girl had ceased crying because of her father's quick departure and sat curled up at her mother's side, calmly listening to the story. Rebecca was relieved that whatever was going on that had called the other two pilots away that she hadn't been summoned with them, as she knew that would have only upset Rebecca more.
A knock on the door brought Rebecca away from both her thoughts and the words on the page. Beside her, she felt Laura Jean stir at the sound. Handing her daughter the book, Rebecca stood up and headed toward the door. Opening it, she felt a mixture of both surprise and dread upon seeing her father-in-law. Despite the short time that had passed since Lee had been called away, Rebecca couldn't help but worry that something had happened to Lee.
"I thought you might like an update on what's going on," Admiral Adama said, filling the silence. "May I come in?"
Rebecca mentally shook herself from her state of worry and stepped aside. "Of course, sir," she said.
As Bill stepped into Rebecca's quarters, his gaze fell toward the little girl sitting with a book on her lap. He recognized his granddaughter instantly from the photo that Lee had. Laura Jean gazed intently back at him, clearly wondering who this new person in her home was.
Having closed the door, Rebecca turned from the door, stepping forward to make introductions.
"Laura Jean, say hello to your Grandfather Adama," Rebecca said. Though she had told her daughter about Lee's father, Rebecca wasn't sure what he daughter's reaction would be to finally meeting the man.
Without hesitation though Laura Jean put the book aside and quickly closed the distance between herself and her grandfather.
"Hi, Gra'pa," Laura Jean said as she threw her arms around Bill's legs without reservation.
Surprised by the little girl's action, Bill stood still for a moment. As the surprised melted away, he let himself acknowledge the relief he felt at his granddaughter's unconditional acceptance of him. Her entire life, all he had been were stories that someone had told her because he had been too stubborn and too wrapped up in his own grief to try to mend things with Lee.
Getting over the surprise, Bill reached down and picked the little girl up.
"Hey there, Laura Jean," Bill said, as he settled the girl in his arms. His granddaughter's arms immediately found their way around his neck. "You're just as pretty as your mama."
"Daddy says that too," Laura Jean replied, as she lay her head down on her grandpa's shoulder.
Bill didn't want to let his granddaughter go, but he also didn't want to discuss the current situation in front of her. He also wasn't sure how much or how Rebecca had explained their current situation to her daughter. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten the child more than what she was already was.
Thinking along the same lines as the Admiral, Rebecca spoke up. "Let me go get Jania so she can keep an eye on Laura Jean while we talk."
Bill simply nodded in acknowledgment to the statement as Rebecca turned and headed for the door. Even as she headed for the exit though she could hear the question her daughter posed for her grandfather.
"So since I finally get to meet you, have you and Daddy stopped being pigheads?" Laura Jean asked, having overheard her mother tell her father that he was being pigheaded more than once.
Glad that her back was to her father-in-law, Rebecca cringed a bit at the question. Her opinion about how she felt the two Adamas' had been acting wasn't exactly something she had planned on having her father-in-law find out about. The fact that Laura Jean's question didn't exactly put the matter into context didn't help matters. Still, she couldn't exactly fault the child for repeating things that she had been careless enough to let her daughter overhear.
Deciding that she didn't want to know how Admiral Adama was going to field the question posed by Laura Jean, Rebecca hastened her exit from the quarters. As much as she wanted to know what was going on within the fleet, she was happy now for the excuse to get away for a moment and compose herself before facing her father-in-law again.