Chapter 5 - 16 years before the fall
So it's been a long 10 years and now Leo was in orbit of Picon at the fleet Orbital HQ for the commissioning of the first of the Battlestar's contracted to his company Kronus Shipbuilding Corporation to build. the company was a new sub company of his security firm. The Battlestar is one of 4 Mars Battlestar's that will be completed over the next 2 years which hopefully will pave the way for more orders in the future.
There have been a few problems over the last decade as well and it all started straight after his leave 10 years ago as his promotion to Colonel was delayed by 8 months after someone used connections to have there family member promoted instead which was a kick in the teeth to see that even the fleet was as corrupt as the rest of the government. But it all worked out in the end as instead of being a XO on an older Jupiter class he got the XO position on the first of the Mars class battlestars that came off the line called Lions Pride in honour of the colony Leonis.
During the first 5 years most of what happened was mostly updating as many of his ships' generators as possible of both his security company and his mining company. The biggest thing they accomplished in those 5 years though was the completion of the trial and error process of completing the first prototype of the hyperdrive and running it through safety tests.
It was only 5 years ago during their annual half decade meeting that he was told that they would have their first scout ship with both jump drive and hyperdrive finished only 3 years after that meeting. It was also during that meeting that they made some important decisions to increase both their resources and survivability. The first plan was to purchase a struggling orbital shipyard company who operate several medium and large portable shipyards that are usually stationed over Picon. The plan was to keep 2 Large and 2 Medium mobile docks over Picon and move the rest to the same location as the space station housing Kronus Elite Security and to keep things in the black on the paper we would upgrade the docks and bid on contracts to build colonial fleet units.
It was also during that meeting that they agreed on the plan to buy 6 colony ships and a dozen 12 dome agro ships to house the families of all the workers in his fleets and to be stationed in the same system as the space station so that the security company fleet can protect them from pirates. It was also used as cover to the public for collecting plants and animals ready for the new colony and growing what food they would need till the farms on the new colony were up and running.
During Dr Williams 5 year update he informed the council as they had been dubbed by those in the know that they had completed 2 rounds of training for technicians to monitor and repair the new power generation units. With those 2 groups of technicians he had managed to complete the upgrades on 70% of the security fleet and 60% of the mining company fleet. It turned out that they only had to change out a few systems and reinforce the generators already on the ships to complete the upgrade but they would be a watered down version that would not match any purpose built generators for new builds.
He also informed that he had completed tests on the first Hyperdrive and would have the first hyperdrive scout ship built in a little over 2 years and after a period of tests to do with testing the strength of the drive as well as its speed would be ready to be sent out to scout out systems a lot further afield than any know ships can get to.
It was also during this meeting that Leo informed the council about his true origins as he believed it was time to let them know what the full plan was and why but he didn't tell them about the Alterans as he figured it was still to early to reveal that yet.
He also informed them that he would not be making the same mistakes as those of the past and that after the holocaust he would wipe the slate clean with the cylons and would hold trials for any captured Bio-Cylon and base there punishment if any on what they have actually done and not what there race has done as a whole.
It was with that in mind that he asked them to find and recruit a top notch Bio-Engineer to develop ways they could integrate the possible prisoners without torture.
So with all those decisions made he spent the rest of his time going over possible recruits as well as who has received the gene-therapy as well as what assets he had left and what he had gained since the last meeting.
So it was 3 years ago that their shipbuilding company won a contract to build 4 mars battlestars and a number of support ships for the colonial fleet and their plan was to have all 4 completed within 7 years with the first being completed in 3 years. What made this possible is the massive amount of automated production that the shipyards were upgraded with making the only part of production still needing full human interaction being the more complicated parts such as wiring and computer systems. What they gained out of producing the ships so fast was that they were given the opportunity to purchase 8 adamant class ships over the 7 years as they were retired from the reserve fleet.
It was 18 months ago that the first hyperdrive scout ship was finishing its tests that we decided that we would send it on ahead to the system Athena mentioned and have it confirm everything is as it should be then have it make a slow trip back mapping the system between there and the colonies for the fleets we plan to send there in the future.
We picked out 5 volunteers who were willing to go on the long distance mission for what we figured would take 6 months to a year to go there and then 2-3 years to get back while surveying all the systems we needed them to. What made it easier as well was that one of the scientists that we managed to recruit had completed the design and testing of a new high powered sensor unit that added with the new generators allowed us the ability to better map the surrounding space and find systems while traveling without having to jump every 10 or so light years.
It was only 8 months ago that Leo found out that my name was on the list for promotion to commander which was a surprise as he had only been a colonel for a little over 7 years and during peace time to have such a fast promotion track was unheard off so he knew that it probably wouldn't pass the review board so he just took it as a positive that maybe the next time he would pass.
Leo's personal life up until that point was rather boring and career related but during his leave 6 months ago he met Louise Corman and fell hard for her and they started dating and he still thought often of how they met.
Flashback 6 months ago
Leo was on leave on Picon where he was out with some of the other officers at a restaurant having a meal when a commotion started at the next table over where a man was harassing his date for whatever reason and it didn't look like she was going to back down. It was as the man stood up and slapped the women that Leo stood up and marched over to the table and grabbed the man by the arm and pushed him away from the woman.
"A man should not treat his date in such a manner," Leo said with a little edge to his voice while glaring at the man. "Now why don't you take a breath and leave before you do something you may regret more than what you've already done."
The man blinked in surprise for a few seconds before you could see his face get even redder in anger and shouted at Leo "Do you know who i am, I could have you kicked out of the fleet for this so why don't you mind you business and buzz off back to playing war games with the rest of your unimportant rejects."
The minute those words left his mouth nearly every member of the colonial fleet in the restaurant stood up and looked at him ready to tear him to pieces. What surprised Leo was that his date for the evening had the same look on her face that the fleet personnel had and in Leo's opinion she looked like a ferocious lioness ready to defend her pride. She was about 5 ft 6 inches well proportioned, blonde haired with brown eyes that just drew you to them.
Leo looked back to the man who was starting to realize what his big mouth had gotten him into. "No i don't know who you are and frankly i don't care because if you say one more word against the fleet it will be the last word you will ever speak as i will remove your tongue and feed it to you!". Leo said with as much steel in his voice that it could armour a battlestar.
The man went white as a ghost and took a step back before realizing what he did, then said "My father is the governor of Picon and if you don't apologize now I'll have you in command of a flying toilet before this time tomorrow." He had a smug look on his face when he finished saying that.
"Is that the best you got 'My father this, My father that' i still dont give two fraks if he's the governor, this planet is pretty much the home of the fleet and if he allows you to get away with what you said then he won't be governor much longer and for the record my name is colonel Leonidas Kosta, grandson of retired admiral James Adama, my personal net worth is in the billions of cubits not to mention i own companies worth tens of billions and you think i care for what your father is going to do." Leo stated as a matter of fact.
After what Leo said nearly everyone in the restaurant stopped talking and you could hear a pin drop with how silent it was. A few moments later the Governor's son decided to beat a quick retreat, he quickly apologized to the lady and left.
Leo looked at his retreating back and snorted. He then turned to the women who sat back down and said. "Now we cant have such a beautiful lady all alone after that or the fleet's reputation might not survive. May I have your name and permission to join you?" Leo to the chair.
The lady smiled and replied "Well sailor my name is Louise and by all means pull up a chair and maybe we can salvage that reputation of yours." she replied with a little humour. "Have you eaten yet?"
"Well no i haven't would you like to order yourself something on me" Leo replied "Maybe we can get a nice bottle of ambrosia and dessert to go with it."
So Leo said goodbye to his friends and sat down with Louise. Over the next couple of hours they had dinner and got to know each other a little and Leo took her home and asked her out the next night and then the night after that. By the time his leave came to an end two weeks later he and Louise had been on a dozen dates.
At the spaceport the day he was due to leave Louise looked at him and said "Leo i think you need to know that my last name is Corman and my father is an admiral in the fleet, i didn't tell you as i wanted to get to know you and for you to get to know me before other things messed it up. But I would like to stay in touch and see if this will go anywhere?"
Leo smiled and replied "I never cared about who your father is or what your last name is as I want to get to know you not what you're supposed to be. So yes I think I would like to see where this goes to so why don't we exchange contacts and we will speak when we can and maybe you can join me at the commissioning ceremony of the first mars class battlestar my company will be delivering in 6 months as that will be my next shore leave."
Leo nearly laughed out loud when she almost pounced on him after he invited her to the commissioning ceremony. You wouldn't think she was 29 years old as she was bouncing around like a 18 year old.
Flashback ends
He was finally brought back to the present by Louise who pinched his side as the ceremony really started to get going with speeches from current fleet admiral Bates and the secretary of defence. Then it was his grandfather's turn as the face of the company at the moment and he gave them the usual rousing speech and call to arms about how the cylons are not gone and subtly mentioned that they could be back at any time and we need to be ready.
Finally it came for the ship to be christened "So it's with great pride that we christen the Battlestar Athena into service this day to do its duty to the gods and the colonies by defending its people from all aggressors. So it's with pleasure that I hand this plaque with today's date and the ship's call sign BS 35 to its new CO, Commander Jamestown." Once he was finished there was plenty of applause and flashes of cameras taking photos of the ceremony conclusion.
That night there was a ball and as owner of the shipyard company and a fleet officer he was obliged to go, so with Louise on his arm he spent the night rubbing elbows with the bigwigs and making contacts and it's due to this that he was on the list for promotion to commander. But he figured given his short stint as colonel and the fact he refused to use any of his grandfathers contacts to push his career he doubted he'd make it past the promotion review board this time around.
It was this night that he also met admiral Cormon, future fleet admiral and maybe ally. He was introduced to Leo by his daughter once she managed to get him through the throng of people wanting to build connections with him.
"Hello Daddy, This is Leo, the one i told you about" Louise said to her father after hugging him.
"Hello baby girl." After hugging her back he looks at Leo and says. "Hello Colonel or should we stick with informal considering who's your date tonight?" he asks Leo
Leo answers "Well considering where technically not on station or doing anything that's official i think we can settle for informal Mr Corman." With a smile he holds out his hand for a handshake. "I also would like to say that i don't have any but the most honourable intentions for your daughter."
Admiral Corman laughs at that and shakes Leo's hand and they spend the rest of the night chatting away and discussing their opinions on the way the fleet is shaping up in peace time and what they think of the new battlestar class.
As the night comes to an end Leo walks Louise and her father to the suite on the station before going to the family yacht docked with the station to stay there for the night as they will be having our annual half-decade meeting tomorrow afternoon.
So the next day the meeting starts just after Lunch with all the usual members apart from Mr Thrace as he volunteered to lead the scouting mission and will be gone for another 6 months to a year.
"So let's start as usual from the left and go round." Leo says while taking a sip of his coffee.
So first to stand as usual was Grandfather Adama. "Not much has happened in general to report that you don't already know apart from the expansion and the purchase of 4 out 6 adamant's promised to us from the reserve fleet."
He then looks over his notes and says. "Apart from fulfilling contracts to keep up appearances we have been selecting the better personnel and putting them through training ready to be assigned to the adamants once we have finished upgrading them with everything we have developed to date. We've held of on buying any more heavy ships but we've picked up a few more of the support ships especially some fleet tenders and supply ships as our fleet is getting to the size that it can fill two full battlegroups without the battlestars obviously."
Leo thinks for a few minutes and says "i think we need to start thinking of moving some of the fleet units out of the colonies ready to head to the new colony we will start building in next 10 years as if we do something similar to what the colonies did during the Cylon war with the ghost fleet we can write them off as retired and scrapped and just say we used the resources in building new ships while we actually use some of the resources from systems we have not reported to the government."
James thinks on this for a few minutes and agrees that it's possible after a few tweaks and that could allow them to purchase more ships as if they show themselves retiring older models and buying new ones then the colonial fleet won't be too worried about them increasing in size again. After going back and forth with a few more ideas they move on to Dr Williams.
Dr Williams stood up as James Adama sat down and looked at his notes and said "Upgrades to the fleet are progressing well and the new hyperdrive is being fitted to the new adamants as we speak. The Generator upgrades are at 90% for the military fleet and 85% for the rest of our ships and up next are the agro and colony ships as we believe we need to prioritize them more than the rest of the liners and mining ships that need to be done."
He paused for a few seconds then continued. "The only new tech we have figured out right now is the new polarized hull plating which increase the damage absorption by almost 300% on the old generators and almost 500% on the new ones as we had to limit the amount of current running through the plates or we would melt the electrical systems and it would cost to much to fully rewire whole ships and delay our upgrades by years."
Leo responds "That's fine as I'm thinking of going more towards shields, lasers and plasma weaponry than conventional weapons as the hold up when developing these weapons in the past was power generation, we now have that solved so maybe find us some more people who have skills in this area and start researching."
Dr Williams pauses for a minute in shock then has that look scientists get when they find a new theory to play with. "I think you might be onto something there Leo." He then jots down some notes and continues. "I know just the people to recruit but they will have to be brought in all the way as they will need the gene therapy as a lot of the newer scientists shy away from energy weapons because where to heavily dependant on nukes. Also most of them have families they will want to bring along."
"That's fine, just give me their names to check over and we will recruit them as isn't this what the whole idea is about to save the best of our civilization and not make the same mistakes of the past." Leo says with a lot of vigor and energy in his voice. "Also i think we need to start thinking about bringing in some younger faces as you guys are officially getting on in age and people will start to ask questions about why you still look like you're in your 50's" Leo says in all seriousness.
With that comment they all agree to start looking for younger talents to join them as understudies as it were and the public face of the group. Also covered was the progress of the collection of plants and animals in the agro domes for when they start to settle on their new planet.
The meeting wrapped up in its usual fashion of Leo going over a massive list of names and crossing out anyone whose name sends a little tingle down his spine.
AN - If you have read to here it means you have given it a decent look and i would like to hear back from people who have spent the time to read my work. What I'm looking for is what you think and if you will read it to the end as I'm looking at a couple hundred thousand words till i complete this story and want to know if its worth spending my time doing all the research and writing it will take to complete this story to the level you guys and gals as readers deserve.