The Defector
By Jojobevco
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Battlestar Galactica story or characters. I do, however, reserve the rights for any characters I develop and the plot of this story.
AN: I'm sorry it took so long for me to publish this update. Real Life got in the way, but as an apology, this will be a special extended chapter. Also, Stay tuned at the end for another sneak preview of The Peacemaker, A Battlestar Galactica/Caprica Crossover.
The Revelation for this Chapter: "A "Messenger" (aka Virtual Being, aka Angel) will appear"
This is the first of three.
Also the Fourth Wall will be broken in a manner similar to a major parody of a major sci-fi franchise. Sorry, I couldn't help it.
The following chapter takes placed during: "Escape Velocity," "The Road Less Traveled," "Faith," and "Guess What's Coming to Dinner"
Chapter 36
Dinner Prep
2020 Hours
CIC
Battlestar Galactica
The Fleet had been at condition one for over twenty minutes after Sharon had called the Code Purple. So far, the expected attack from the Cylons had not come.
The Admiral looked at his CAG, "Are we sure she was a Cylon?"
"Can you think of anything else that can kick me down a causeway?"
"Are we sure that she was a hostile Cylon?"
"Why else would she want to kill me?"
Bill had been on the couch one too many times in the past few years to fall for that one.
Saul shrugged, "Maybe they're on a coffee break?"
2015 Hours
Final Five Resurrection Suite
John Cavil's Baseship
The Cylons were not on a coffee break. They were in the middle of a civil war. One that, as far as Astoria could tell, the Cavils were losing. Thank God. As soon as her head broke through the Resurrection Goop she could see the sparking power conduits and damages in the line of code running across the wall.
"Hello, Dr. Foster, Fancy meeting you here."
Dr. Astoria Foster, MD, PsyD turned to see a fellow member of their team, one who she had forgotten. Dr. Helen Tigh, MD, PhD, was sitting in a lounge chair, reading a copy of Truly Blessed Mother: The Life of Lacy Rand, glancing up from the book to Tory.
"Helen, well, that makes a lot of sense."
"Let me guess, you forgot all about me."
"That I did, thanks to, I'm guessing our incestuous matricidal and patricidal son had something to do with it."
"Yep."
"Well, I suppose I'm not much better, after all I just tried to kill a Sharon."
"Why?"
"Here's the kicker, she was married to Galen and I was jealous."
"Seriously, you, Miss 'Galen and I have an open marriage so I can frak anyone I want to even though he's faithful to me' were jealous?"
"I was not jealous, just confused."
Ellen smirked, "You were most certainly jealous, and a hypocrite!"
"Don't you lecture me, Miss 'I had sex with my son who happened to look like my father!'"
Ellen glared at Tory for a moment before sighing, "Can you imagine what will happen when he finds out he's been banging his daughter?"
"I honestly have no clue. I mean Galen and Eight were really close, where do you think she got her love of flying and machines from?"
"Well, what will happen?"
Tory smirked and stepped out of the goop, toweling herself off before walking over and laying on another lounge chair, naked, and picking up a copy of Nymph, "I might be willing to share."
2030 Hours
Solitary Confinement Cell
Astral Queen
Cally Costanza looked at the blank wall while curled in a fetal position in her cell. She was angry, furious, raging mad, but she wouldn't show it, she'd bide her time, waiting for just the right moment. And then she'd wipe out all the Cylon Bitches, yes, she certainly would.
0800 Hours, The Next Morning
Adama Family Quarters
Battlestar Galactica
Bill and Sarah were sitting, drinking the coffee that Stewart had just dropped off. They had been up late last night, staying at condition one for five hours while waiting for the Cylons to show up. They never did.
"What if there's more Cylons in the fleet. This could be a major problem."
Bill quirked an eyebrow, "We've managed to identify another of the models, that leaves four. Do you have any idea at all who they could be?"
"None, but perhaps she knew. We should begin an investigation of time on Galactica, see who she was friends with."
Bill was adamant, "I don't want this to turn into a witch hunt."
"Do I look like Hadrian?"
"No, you're a thousand times more beautiful."
Sarah smirked, "That's what I thought."
0804 Hours
Cylon Secure Holding Facility
Battlestar Galactica
Brandy Harder had drawn the short straw of watching Caprica today. It was really the most boring job on the ship. She did nothing but walk and sit. It was a boring day until Saul Tigh walked in
"What's it up to today?"
Brandy secretly rolled her eyes, "She is up to the same as usual. Sleeping and pacing."
Tigh shook his head, "I don't know how it doesn't go nuts."
"She projects, sir, the Colonel says the Sixes have a preference toward nature scenes. She is probably walking through a forest right now."
"My question stands, really, nature is boring."
"Couldn't agree with you more, sir. I'd be rather annoyed if Earth turned out to be some lush, green planet with farming of all things."
"Yeah."
Saul entered the cell; Caprica greeted him, "Colonel."
"Your request to see the child Hera Agathon has been denied."
"And you felt the need to come down to tell me in person?"
"You think I want to be here? We're done!"
Caprica looked at him intently, "I don't think we are. You come here every day."
Suddenly, in Saul's mind, Caprica shifted into Ellen. He had projected.
"But you never ask questions anymore. Is there something that you want from me? Is there something that you need?" She slowly walked toward him.
"Stay back!"
"See you tomorrow Colonel."
The Colonel left, even more confused than he was originally.
0842 Hours
Meeting of the True Three
Weapons Locker 1701-D
Battlestar Galactica
Tyrol and Anders were waiting as the Colonel entered, "Hello, Colonel or should I say Admiral."
"What?"
"Why are you wearing the Admiral's uniform?" He then turned and faced the audience, "Seriously, watch this scene in the episode. Tigh is wearing the Admiral's uniform."
"What?"
"Nothing, so what do we do now?"
Tyrol shook his head, "I don't know, but this isn't good, this is going to draw attention. We need to lay low for a while."
"Why did this happen?"
"I don't know, maybe she snapped under the stress, or maybe it was programmed. That's a big concern. But for all we know she could have just had a crush on me.
Anders decided to pitch in his two cents, "Do we tell someone though? I mean I'm sure The Colonel would understand."
"Really, do you think she would?"
"I think so."
"Well I don't, we wait, we don't tell her yet, not unless we want to end up in an airlock. But we can dig around a bit. Chief, see if your wife knows anything about why Foster attacked her."
0902 Hours
Gaius Baltar's Harem
Deck 8, Section 14
Battlestar Galactica
There was smoke everywhere, torn tapestries, torn clothing, bruises, and broken things all around. Gaius Baltar stood in the center of it all, speechless. His people had just been attacked by the Sons of Ares. It was brutal, it was wrong. He was half paying attention as "Mr. Officious," as Gaius had dubbed him, was taking the report. The other half was listening to the voice whispering thoughts of revenge in his head.
0915 Hours
Temple
Battlestar Galactica
Colonel Inviere-Adama had learned a lot from the death of that small boy at the hand of a Cavil just feet from where she was standing. She learned that she needed to be more present in the fleet, and attending services was just the way to do it. She didn't believe in the Lords of Kobol, but she respected the idea of them.
Although she didn't respect them enough to not be amused when Gaius Baltar blew into the Temple in a fit of rage. He kicked open the door, ran up to the Altar and flipped it over.
"We want justice, not these stupid old gods!"
The priestess tried to interrupt him, "Sir, we're having a service."
"Are you? But whom are you serving?"
"I have to ask you to leave."
"Do you? Would you be serving Zeus? Apparently, King of the gods, who also happened to be - let me tell you - a serial rapist!"
This produced the expected outburst from the worshipers.
"Prone to giving birth out of his own forehead. That's very likely, isn't it?" Gaius threw a statue before continuing, "Well, gods strike me down! Oh, what are you going to do? Damn you, you ignorant witch, telling the people lies and stories! Maybe you want me to pray to Asclepius, who healed wounds with the blood of Gorgons! Or Aphrodite, or Artemis, or any other of this rubbish!" Gaius shoved the priestess and Sarah prepared to intervene before Gaius continued, "How awful! Out of the way, you hideous old witch. That's the kind of rubbish that you made! I will not be destroyed at this level! God! Haven't enough of us died already?"
Then the marines and entered and took him away.
Sarah was about to follow when she was stopped by a boy. The same boy she saw John Cavil kill a few feet from this room a few years ago.
"Amazing, isn't it, a firsthand view of the cycle."
"The cycle?"
"You know, Pythia; 'All this has happened before, all this will happen again,' that crap that drives everything." When he saw Sarah was looking at him with a view of confusion, he rolled his eyes, "Think of it this way. A half hour ago, Gaius was attacked by the Sons of Ares for being a heretic. Now he attacks the temple for the same thing. And 148,000 years from now, a man will do almost the exact same thing to another group of heretics. That man will be, through his mother, descended from a race of Cylons and Humans. On Earth."
"What are you?"
"I am a Messenger of, shall we say, a higher entity. You may call me John. That is all you need to know. I'd offer you something to drink, but being a mostly non-corporeal being sort of ruins the possibility of being a bartender."
"Why are you here?"
"There have been some, shall we say, changes to The Plan, The Real One, not that piece of crap the incestuous bastard came up with. I am here to carry them out."
"If you mean for me to betray The Fleet…"
John rolled his eyes, "Oh, relax Colonel, I'm not some projection sent from a stealth Raider or something stupid like that. I am exactly who I say I am. And besides, these changes will in no way affect the Fleet or anyone but you and Galactica and the future of humanity."
"What?"
"Relax, I'll be back to explain later, much later, now stop; people are staring. Oh, and not a word to Bill." He vanished.
It's true, they were staring, Sergeant Venner looked at her, "Colonel, are you alright?"
"Fine, just, uh, fine."
"Uh, huh," Venner rolled his eyes and muttered, "I swear, whatever Baltar has must be contagious."
1230 Hours
Sickbay
Battlestar Galactica
Sarah sat down next to Laura, "Sorry, I'm late."
"You're not, it was just a blood test today; so what did you bring."
"Searider Falcon, it's one of my favorites, actually, it was the book I was reading when I first came on Galactica a lifetime ago."
"It's one of my favorites too; I can't remember how it ends."
"Bill has this silly tradition of never reading the ending. I don't though, but you'll just have to find out. So, did you hear that Baltar's back in the brig?"
"For desecrating the temple, revenge for what happened this morning."
"What happened this morning was brutal. I'm trying to track down anything on the Sons of Ares, but no one's talking. Right now, our primary suspects are people inside the military."
"Baltar knows there's religious hardliners on board, but he continues to provoke them."
"We tried religious intolerance once, it led to the most bloody war in human history and, indirectly, to today. We can't afford it anymore."
Laura nodded, "We can't, we've got 40,000 people left in the universe and they're not happy unless their bashing each other's heads in."
"I completely agree."
"Of course, I think it's just Baltar, we should lock him up forever."
Sarah rolls her eyes, "Can you, possibly, go one day without putting your foot in your frakkin' mouth?"
"Then what would the press have to report on?"
Sarah chuckled.
1430 Hours
Brig
Battlestar Galactica
Sarah and Laura entered and looked at Gaius Baltar.
"Oh now what? You're going to strip-search me?"
Sarah made a face, "Ew! Gross!"
"No, Gaius, we're just here to have a little chat."
"You see, Gaius, we're getting a bit tired of you and your rabble rousing. We want it to stop. We're going to release you now to live a nice quiet life. Understand, we mean quiet."
"So, go, live your nice quiet life, because we're just plain sick of you."
Sergeant Erin Mathias busted in, "Colonel! There's an emergency in the Six's cell, you're needed down the hall!"
The colonel took off at a run, shouting, "Frak, why is it never a dull day."
1457 Hours
Sickbay
Battlestar Galactica
"SAUL TIGH, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FRAKKIN' MIND! What the frak did you think you were doing? We do not beat up our prisoners, and we do not let them beat us up. AND WE MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT FRAK THEM!"
After having burst in on them lying bloody and sticky on the floor of their cell after being called by Mathias, Sarah was extremely pissed off.
"You're lucky Caprica said she started it, otherwise we'd be talking about rape right now and your imminent transfer to the Demetrius," Sarah just sat down and buried her head in her hands, "I have no idea why I try anymore. I feel like I've spent the last three years of my life cleaning up after the messes of the human race. And I'm done with it. I swear, with you, Laura, Bill, it's like one step forward and two steps back. Well, Saul, you can clean up your own mistakes from now on. 'Cause I'm done."
Sarah turned and left.
1900 Hours
Joe's Bar
Hangar Deck
Battlestar Galactica
Galen and Sharon Tyrol had taken their usual stools at the bar, and were drinking down the crappy stuff from the still.
"…So then Figurski comes up and asks 'what's with the relay.' And I'm standing there like an idiot holding this relay that I was supposed to replace. And the Raptor is already on the elevator, so we start running over to Kelly screaming at him to stop, because if he didn't then Athena would get blasted across the hull."
Sharon bursts out laughing, "You're an idiot sometimes, you know that?"
"Believe me, there's this crazy bitch that happens to be my wife who tells me that once a day."
"Really, so you're married to Tory Foster and forgot to tell me?"
Galen was startled, "What?"
"You didn't know, that was why she was trying to kill me, because she had the hots for you."
Galen mulled that over in his head a few times and came up with only one thought.
"What the frak?"
1930 Hours
Sickbay
Battlestar Galactica
Sarah returned to sickbay a few hours after Saul had been released to do something she'd been putting off for a while.
Delivering the worst possible news to Dee.
As she walked in, she could see that Billy was sitting next to her holding her hand, speaking quietly.
"Hello."
Dee looked up at her and smiled a bit, "Colonel, good to see you."
"Good to see you up Dee. How are you feeling?"
"Like I got run over by a Raptor, two or three times. How about you?"
"I've had better days. Listen, I'm here because there's something I need to talk to you about. I asked Cottle to not mention anything. First, I want to thank you for what you did. Doing that, you probably saved my husband's life, and that's something I can never repay."
"I was just doing my duty."
"I know that. But thank you anyway. The other, is bad. Dee, when you were shot, you were about three weeks pregnant. I'm sorry, but you miscarried. There was nothing Sherman could do."
Dee was speechless as was Billy, "I…I…I don't…What?...Why?"
Sarah looked at them, radiating sadness, "I'll let you two be alone."
As Sarah left, she could hear the wailing begin and she wished she could do more. But, she couldn't not until they had time.
2010 Hours
Adama Family Quarters
Battlestar Galactica
"Bill."
"What, dear?"
"Nothing, just hold me."
And he did.
Fifteen Days Later, Sixty Days after the Battle of the Ionian Nebula
1000 Hours
Observation Deck, de facto Office of Captain Kara Thrace
Battlestar Galactica
"It's changed."
"Changed?"
Sarah was sitting with Kara, trying to help her work through her problem with navigation, apparently, the signal was no longer as distinct as it used to be. Sarah herself had just gotten off of two weeks of forced leave that she spent in her quarters, doing high G maneuvers in Vipers, and visiting the Zepher's partially repaired recreation center. Oh and frakking, lots and lots of frakking.
"It's like a sound now, a sound that's everywhere. It's like earlier it was so clear but now, it's getting vaguer. If I could just focus…"
"Maybe you need a break."
A glimmer appeared in Kara's eyes, "You know, I think you're right, I think I'm going to go flying again."
"May I remind you, Captain, the last two times you were out, you almost died."
"Well, three and a half time's the charm."
So, they got suited up and jumped into a couple of Vipers. Everything was going fine until, "Blondie, Starbuck are you reading this bogy?"
"Yes, I am, Starbuck. Galactica, Blondie, we have a bogey on DRADIS, profile matches that of a Cylon Heavy Raider."
Captain Gaeta's voice came over the wireless a few seconds later, "Blondie, Galactica, we copy, the Fleet has set Condition One, We're launching Alert Vipers now, ETA, 120 Seconds."
"Blondie copies, we're moving to engage."
Suddenly a voice no one wanted to hear came over the wireless, "Kara. I'm alone. It's not an attack. I knew I'd find you. Knew you'd be out here searching..."
Kara was shocked, "Leoben?"
"I'm here for you, to offer a truce between Cylon and human. And a chance for you to complete your journey."
Sarah started banging her head on the cockpit, "Why, why, why! Why can't I just have a normal day?"
1020 Hours
Starboard Flight Pod
Battlestar Galactica
Sarah had called for a Raptor to tow the ship back into the starboard flight pod, after checking it for weapons. After landing their Vipers, Sarah and Kara had run across the ship to meet the MarDet meeting the Heavy Raider.
Chief Tyrol was there looking at the craft, "The animal part that controls it looks dead, Except for that, it looks to be in pretty good shape. As a precaution though, I'm venting all fuel from it into one of our spare tanks."
"Good Idea, Chief, no need for it to blow up in our faces."
Harder jumped in, "There's no indication of Gamma Radiation, so no nukes, conventional weapons only."
"Good, but keep checking for tracking devices, or anything that could give away our position."
"Understood."
They then walked over to where Leoben was being held, at gunpoint by several marines. He smiled as he saw Kara come over, she didn't like that very much, "Don't look at me like that."
"It's just the difference between you now and on New Caprica…"
"I should certainly hope there's some difference you psychological frakker. Do you have any idea how much you screwed me up? You frakker!"
"No, Kara, I can see, God has taken your hand and purged you of the questions, the doubt. Your journey can finally begin. But there isn't much time. The others, the ones I left behind, they need your help. But not as much as you need theirs."
"What, why would I need your help?"
"For clarity, of a blue planet, a beautiful blue planet, one surrounded by clouds. When the hybrid described it I knew how beautiful it was."
Kara looked at Sarah, "Well, Colonel, we have been in the market for a hybrid."
"Hmm, fine, take him to the observation deck for now."
1342 Hours
Meeting of the True Three
Weapons Locker 1701-D
Battlestar Galactica
"And so that's the story."
Tyrol was impressed, "A civil war, between the Cylon. This is a great advantage for us, the Fleet I mean."
Anders shook his head, "Basically, it seems like we're the divisive issue, although why I have no idea."
"My main concern is if we were in Resurrection range when Foster was killed. We assumed she wasn't because the Cylons didn't show up, but now we don't know."
"Now the next topic for discussion, Colonel, doing it with a Cylon? Really, you incestuous bastard!"
"Hey, Anders, stop pointing the finger at me, how about Tyrol here, he's married to one!"
"Senior Staff to the Wardroom. Pass the word, Senior Staff to the Wardroom."
"Well Anders, if you'll excuse us incestuous bastards, we have a meeting to get to."
1400 Hours
Wardroom
Battlestar Galactica
This was the first time the full senior staff had met in a while, Bill, Sarah, Saul, Kara, Sharon, Sharon, Felix, Gina, and Karl were all gathered around.
Sarah started it off, "Kara and I have assessed the information provided by the Two and have determined it to be something we can't afford to not act on. Even though it is a rather obvious option for a Cylon trap."
Bill nodded, "I've decided to approve a Raptor mission to the Baseship. Colonel Inviere-Adama, Captain Thrace, Captain Tyrol, Captain Gaeta, Chief Tyrol and Mrs. Gaeta will all be going. Your orders are to assess the situation and work it to our advantage."
"That's, um, vague."
"I trust all of you to make the right decision, now get going."
1434 Hours
A Raptor Group
Site of Cylon Civil War Battle
The Raptors jumped into the middle of a debris field. In the lead Raptor, Sarah was trying to maneuver.
Gaeta reported, "Multiple contacts, all quadrants."
"You don't say, Captain!" She flipped on the wireless, "All Raptors, Blondie, Stick close and maneuver carefully. Mr. Gaeta, is there an intact Baseship out there?"
"Not sure, Sir, if it is out there, DRADIS is too cluttered to see it. Watch out though, we have unexploded ordinance detonating off all over the place."
"Frak, All Raptors, Blondie, set countermeasures to hot standby."
Kara tried to look on the bright side, "Well, at least we know he wasn't lying about the civil war," she paused a minute, "This is the place, I can feel it."
"Well then, take the wheel, Captain." She flipped flight control over to Kara.
Kara started maneuvering toward the sun, "Come one, where is it." The she saw it, "The comets! They're Baseships!"
Sarah looked out at them, "One seems to be more damaged to the other."
Leoben nodded, "My people would have evacuated to the less damaged one."
"Then set a course, Starbuck."
Suddenly the Raptor was hit by debris, Gaeta announced, "Incoming right, too high! Break! Break! Break!"
And all Kara saw was blackness.
1540 Hours
Baseship Landing Bay
Colonial Designated "Baseship Two"
"Ugh." Kara opened her eyes to a lot of spinning colors.
"She's coming around."
Kara could see a fuzzy Gina Gaeta holding a light in her eyes, "Captain Thrace, Starbuck! Kara!"
"Ugh, what?"
"Good you're awake."
As her vision cleared she saw Sarah staring at her, off to the side, looking concerned, "That is the last time I am ever letting you drive. Every time you seem to drive something goes spectacularly wrong."
"There's something wrong…the signal…the feeling…the way to Earth, it's gone!"
Sarah moved to comfort her, "Kara, Kara, calm down it's okay, maybe it will come back, maybe it won't, but we've found the next roadsign, this ship. Come, see."
Sarah helped Kara outside where Boomer was having a bit of a rabid fan girl problem. She was surrounded by Eights and kept her hand on her holstered sidearm.
"Get the frak away from me!"
"But, you, you're Boomer. You were the first to say no."
"No to what?"
"No to everything, the Plan, your programming. You showed us that we don't have to be slaves to our programming."
Another Eight spoke up, "We wanted the same thing, but it turned out to be a disaster. The Sixes have made one mistake after another. They have to be stopped before they get the rest of us killed."
Then another, "You could help us."
Boomer pinched her nose and tried to fight off the rapidly approaching headache, "Wait, you want to overthrow the Sixes?"
"Yes."
"You clearly missed the point of why I did the things you idolize. It was out of loyalty, something you all clearly don't have. I did it out of loyalty to the Admiral, the Colonel, and the Human Race. When you pick a side, you stick with it; otherwise your lives will mean nothing. Besides, it's not like you can really afford to lose that many more people."
Meanwhile, Sarah and Gina were guiding Kara over to where Natalie Faust, the leader of the rebellion was standing. Leoben was leading the way.
"Kara, we first need to take you to see the Hybrid, I'm sure she'll want to see you."
Kara gestured with a hand, "Let's go then."
But Natalie was not exactly on board, "You want to give her access to the central nervous systems of this ship."
Gina rolled her eyes, "What exactly is she going to do with it? It's not like she could just throw a hand in the stream and blow us up."
Leoben was a bit more serious, "Now Natalie, we discussed this, Kara is the key to our salvation."
"What we agreed to, Two, is an alliance. Your infatuation, no your obsession with this woman is putting us all in jeopardy."
Sarah held up her hands and tried to get some calm, "You need us, Natalie; you wouldn't have reached out to us if you didn't. So you really don't have a choice. But, for right now, we need to focus on the problems at hand. I take it your tactical situation is not optimal?"
Natalie glared at Leoben for another second before turning to Sarah, scowling, "No, it's not. We're down to three launchers, have lost most of our Raider complement, most of our armor, and our navigation system is toast."
"And the other Baseship?"
"Almost a total loss, no weapons, engines, jump drive. The only thing it has is a working navigation system. It'll take weeks to repair the ship."
Kara was skeptical, "Can't you just pull the navigation system from the other Baseship and put it on this one?"
Natalie rolled her eyes, "It's not that simple," and gestured to Leoben.
"The Navigation system is directly tied into the Hybrid. We can't just change them out. But…"
"What?"
"Colonel, you may have brought the solution." He called over to the group, "Chief, Boomer! Join us on the command deck."
Sarah turned to Gina, Natalie, and Kara, "Take her to the Hybrid."
"But."
"Now."
So off they went, Natalie grumbling the whole way.
On the command deck, Sharon had her hand stuck in the stream, something that was very tempting to Galen.
"Okay, we can do this; we can pull the hybrid offline and link it to our own navigation system linked with a Heavy Raider's."
"Like what we did to get back to the Colonies?"
"Exactly."
Leoben was disturbed, "But no one has ever taken a hybrid offline before on an operational ship."
"We don't have a choice, Chief, Captain, make it happen."
They nodded and left, just as Kara, Gina, and Natalie came up. Kara was upset, "I hate that thing!"
"The Hybrid has spoken a prophecy, we must find out what it is!"
Gina intoned, "Thus will it come to pass the Dying Leader will know the truth of the Opera House the missing Three will give you the Five who have come from the home of the Thirteenth you are the harbinger of death Kara Thrace you will lead them all to their end."
"Well, that's…vague."
Kara was confused and furious, "No it's not! The thing frakkin' called me the 'harbinger of death' what the frak does that mean?"
"Could be anything, that's why I hate hybrids, they constantly spew metaphorical crap. Good thing we're unplugging it."
Now Natalie was incensed, "What!"
"We don't have a choice. It's the only way to get this ship moving." The Chief suddenly appeared dragging a really long, thick line of cables.
"Chief?"
"Yes, Colonel?"
"The other Baseship, can we recover it?"
"I think so, I'll have to look at it with Sharon."
"Once you're done here, do it."
"Yes, Sir." The Chief then marched off with the cable.
1920 Hours
Baseship Landing Bay
Secondary Rebel Baseship
"Try it now!" Captain Gaeta called from under the Raptor.
The Chief threw a ship and the FTL Capacitor started spooling up. Felix crawled out from under the Raptor and went to the console inside, "Board is green, I think we did it."
"Just let me check a couple of things first."
The beep of a new DRADIS contact drew Felix's attention, "Oh, frak. No time, Chief!"
The Chief walked over from the junction he was working at, "Captain, if I don't check this stuff, then we might end up…"
"Dead?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, the Baseships at the edge of the system says that we're definitely dead if we don't leave!" He then grabbed the nearest phone, "Action Stations, Action Stations, Set Condition One throughout the Fleet, this is not a drill."
Sharon, who was sitting in the pilot seat with nothing to do looked at him like he was crazy, "Felix, you're on the raptor, in the middle of a Cylon Hangar Bay and you call for Action Stations?"
Felix shrugged, "Reflex. Jumping now!"
The ship blinked away. Leaving a trail of debris behind.
1920 Hours
Baseship Command
Colonial Designated "Baseship Two"
Compared to the CIC of a Battlestar during a battle, the Command Center of a Baseship was surprisingly, calm, there were no klaxons, no loud noises, just people with hands in puddles of water. Sarah had first tried this when she came onboard, it was an amazing experience. She felt like the ship was an extension of her, like she could move it just with a thought. Leoben said it wasn't usually like that; the hybrid made it more like trying to encourage a dog to do a trick. But with the hybrid offline it was in manual mode. Manual mode meaning that only one person could control each system.
Leoben was monitoring the DRADIS system, "The Baseships have spotted us and are closing fast. We are outside Resurrection Range. The other Baseship has jumped away."
"Good, I'm moving us out of the star's corona and executing a full axis rotation to port."
Natalie, who was managing the weapons reported, "I'm loading nukes into our three working missile tubes, but without the hybrid the firing solution is going to be guesswork."
"Gina, do we have FTL yet?"
"I'm having trouble imputing the coordinates into the Nav system. Stand by, stand by…got it!"
As one they intoned, "JUMP!"
And the ship blinked away.
1920 Hours
CIC
Battlestar Galactica
Lieutenant Anastasia Keikeya was back at her station for the first time since the shooting, and her miscarriage. She had been spending a lot of time with her daughter, Jennifer and her husband, who had taken leave from the President's office and was also returning to work today. Her sessions with the Colonel, all five of them so far, had made her realize that it was in no way her fault. She hadn't even known she was pregnant, she hadn't pulled the gun. All she had done was her job, to protect the Admiral, the man that was the closest thing she had to a father, since her own had disowned her for the "crazy" act of enlisting and for turning her back on her Sagittaron beliefs. Yet, there was a nagging feeling of trying to assign blame to someone, something, especially herself and Charlie Connor.
Dee pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked around the CIC. It was mostly staffed, but a rather slow day so far. The fleet was at Condition Two, they were expecting the possibility of a Cylon attack after the Raptor mission had been dispatched. This meant that intrafleet traffic, both communications and shuttles, was limited for the duration of the alert. So, there wasn't much for the acting tactical officer to do.
Until there was a beep on the DRADIS Console. Dee looked up, eyes widening and hit the Action Stations alarm.
Tigh and Adama, who were discussing something at the CIC's top level, turned and started marching down the stairs to the command table in almost lockstep.
Adama barked, "All hands, Action Stations, set Condition One throughout the fleet!"
Saul shouted, "Launch Alert Fighters! Get some more frakkin' birds in the air! Gun batteries stand by for target bearing!"
They reached the table and turned to Dee, "What do we have, Dee."
"Two Baseships just jumped in at bearing 333 carom 48 at 15 and 22 msu."
"Frakkin' things jumped in right on top of us!"
"Mr. Hoshi, order the fleet to make an emergency jump!"
Louis, who was finally doing something normal, as opposed to running around for the Colonel, got on the wireless, "All Colonial vessels jump immediately to emergency coordinates."
Dee looked at DRADIS, "Sir, the President's Raptor is en route."
"Clear them to land, checkers green. Get a Viper to escort them."
Dee engaged the wireless, "Raptor 1, Galactica, you are cleared for priority landing, checkers green."
"Racetrack in Raptor 1, copies."
Dee glanced at the DRADIS screen again for a moment, "Hot Dog, Galactica, break off and escort Raptor 1."
"Copy that, moving to intercept."
Hot Dog followed the Raptor into the landing bay, before hitting the throttle and shooting out the other side, similar to an aborted landing.
"Galactica, Kat, something's not right here."
Dee actived the wireless, "Clarify."
"Both Baseships are badly damaged. One of them is missing all six of its spurs and the other one appears to have lost a lot of its armor."
Hoshi spoke up, "Admiral, we're receiving a transmission from the Baseship, someone claiming to be Colonel Inviere-Adama."
"Put it through."
"Galactica, Blondie, do not fire! Baseships are unarmed and under Colonial command. Officers onboard!"
Dee activated her wireless link, "Blondie, Galactica, Authenticate."
"Galactica, Blondie, I authenticate, Bravo, Tango, Eight. Do not fire! I have control of the Baseship."
Bill picked up the phone, "Blondie, Galactica Actual, that was fast."
"Yeah, well, the trio of Baseships trying to kill us kind of made up my mind. Leoben's story checks out. I think you and the president need to meet with the leader of the rebels. This is an opportunity, Bill."
1940 Hours
Wardroom
Battlestar Galactica
Sarah, Bill, Saul, Boomer, Kara, Laura, and Billy were sitting around the conference table, with Natalie on the other side. The Cylons had decided that Natalie was going to remain as their speaker. Sergeants Harder and Mathias stood guard at the door.
"We became divided according to models. The Twos, Eights, and Sixes have come to believe that our destiny lies in seeking out the Final Five. The Ones, Fours, and Fives violently opposed such action."
Sarah turned to Bill, already seeing the question forming in his head, "The Threes, the D'Annas were boxed, or punitively deactivated for seeing the faces of the Final Five. It's the Cylon equivalent of a committing a person to a psychiatric facility."
Billy asked, "Tory?"
"I'm planning on having her corpse shipped to the Baseship for analysis if this all works out."
Laura stared at Sarah, "What does?"
Sarah nodded to Natalie, who started to explain the next part, "In order to identify the Final Five, we need to unbox D'Anna, who is stored at the Resurrection Hub."
Boomer took over, "The Hub, is the lynchpin to the entire Cylon Resurrection System. Without it, the system ceases to function. Any Cylon death would become permanent."
Saul asked a question that he, unknowingly, had the answer to, "Why is the system designed like that, with such a clear weakness."
Natalie shrugged, "We have no idea, no Cylon has any memory of the events of our creation. Based on our best estimate though, we think it was an intention failsafe built into the system for exactly this type of situation."
Kara nutshelled her battle plan, "The Hub protects itself by sporadically jumping to a new set of coordinates, then relaying those coordinates to the Baseships. The problem is that we only have one functional Baseship. The second one is so badly damaged that it's not even worth mentioning. This Baseship has exhausted its complement of raiders, so we'll be using Vipers to compensate. Meanwhile a group of Heavy Raiders and Raptors will assault the Hub to rescue D'Anna.
Natalie concluded her proposal, "In exchange for giving you the coordinates to the hub, you will allow us to leave the Fleet with the remaining members of the Final Five."
Sarah turned to Bill, "We were right Bill, they were here in the Fleet."
Bill thought for a moment and made a decision, "We'll send a Raptor to the coordinates and continue preparations, while the President and I discuss this."
Everyone nodded, and Natalie departed for her ship. Bill then dismissed everyone except Laura, Sarah, Saul, and Kara
"So, thoughts?"
Saul appeared thoughtful for a change, "We blow the frakkin' thing up and billions of skinjobs loose their bath privileges."
Kara reminded them, "Before we do that though, we need to unbox D'Anna."
Saul panicked a bit, but didn't show it, "Now wait, maybe we should just skip that part of the plan."
Laura looked interested in the idea, "Trick the Rebels?"
"They're tricking us now, the idea that the Raiders just turn back now because the Final Five are in the Fleet is ridiculous! We've been fighting them for over three years."
Sarah held up her hand to stop them, "Actually, what they're saying makes lots of sense. It's one of the theories I considered after the event. The point is that Foster's presence confirms that the Final Five are in our Fleet."
Laura interjected, "We don't know what side they're on. They could be with Cavil or the Rebels, and I'm sure that blowing up their resurrection capabilities will not make them happy."
"That's irrelevant, we need the intelligence, whatever comes second, comes second. Also, do we really want to destroy our chance for an alliance before it even begins? They need us, and while we may not exactly need them, it would be nice to have them on our side."
Bill nodded, "Okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to go along with the plan as it stands but with one change. Sarah, you're going to go over to the Baseship and take command. Take whatever personnel you need. We'll see how this mission goes and then reassess."
"Now that that's settled, Laura, do you know anything about an Opera House?"
"What?"
Sarah clarified, "There was a prophecy given while we were on the Baseship by the Hybrid, it talks about a dying leader knowing the secret of the Opera House. You're a leader, you're dying, so it's probably talking about you."
Laura was surprised, "I've been having visions, but…Take me to the Hybrid, I need to speak with it."
"Okay, you can come aboard after we get things settled with the Cylons. Somehow, I don't get the feeling that Natalie is going to welcome us with open arms."
0800 Hours
Landing Bay
Cylon Baseship Liberty (Formerly Designated "Baseship Two")
As Sarah predicted, Natalie did not take it well. She was in the middle of a standoff between her and Natalie, The Eights looked on annoyed, the Twos looked scared, and the Centurions looked, well how they always look. The Colonials were hanging back, they all had been at the receiving end of the Colonel's wrath at some point or another, they knew she could handle herself.
"Colonel, do you seriously just expect me to hand command of our Baseship over to you?"
"Yes, Natalie, I do."
"Why?"
"We're on the same side."
Natalie scoffed, "We are, most definitely, not on the same side. You're practically human. Heck you're pretty much their leader. We've been fighting on opposite sides of this war for years and you just expect me to follow you because you say so?"
"Sister…"
Natalie lost it, "Don't you DARE call me SISTER!"
Sarah, conversely, remained calm, "Fine, Natalie, we were on the opposite sides of this war. But, now we're on the same side. We both hate the Ones, and we both want answers. You need us, and we need you. You know what that makes us, allies. But, you know what else? I have 40,000 people out there who have been running from you for years after you destroyed their civilization and killed fifty billion of their fellow humans. Now, I'm not assigning blame or blaming you, but how do you think they would feel with Cylons with nukes flying around with them?"
Natalie was not like the Cavils or any of the other extremist Cylons. She didn't know why they started a war for little reason. All she knew was that she was left cleaning up the mess and she really did not like it.
Natalie sighed, "Okay, how are we going to do this?"
"You'll remain leader of your people, but you'll be Co-Executive Officer of this ship, at least for the moment. If you prove yourself, you'll get command of the other Baseship when it's repaired."
Sarah didn't exactly have authorization to promise that, but Bill would trust her judgment on it.
"So who's the other XO?"
Sarah smirked, "Meet Captain, no, Major Kara Thrace."
Kara was startled, "Wait, how did I get roped into this?"
"Um, you're the most eligible candidate?"
Kara thought for a moment, "Oh."
"Well, now that things have been taken care of, start transferring the personnel and supplies."
Gaeta left to relay the message.
1500 Hours
Landing Bay
Cylon Baseship Liberty
Colonel Inviere-Adama, Major Thrace and Natalie Faust (who had elected to not join the Colonial Military, along with the rest of her group) were awaiting the arrival of President Roslin. So far, things had gone well, with the exception of a turf war between the Colonial Pilots and Knuckle Draggers and the their Cylon counterparts (and the Centurions). But, after Kara had dealt with the situation, they were working together relatively well.
The President's Raptor landed and out stepped Laura, Billy, Gina, and surprisingly, Gaius Baltar.
Sarah glared at him, "What's he doing here?"
"He was in my visions."
"Really, him?"
"Yep, let's get a move on." They departed for the Hybrid Chamber.
Meanwhile, Athena, who had piloted the Raptor, and Natalie were glaring at each other, "Stay away from my daughter."
"What?"
"You heard me, stay away from her!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Just stay away from her, or I'll kill you."
As Natalie was about to respond they felt the ship jump.
The looked at each other and Natalie eloquently said, "Um, what?"
And now, a Sneak Peak of The Peacemaker a Battlestar Galactica/Caprica Crossover
As Kat's trajectory took her ejection seat further and further away from Galactica and the battle, it was clear that the old ship was finished. And quite frankly it broke her heart, the thought that she'd be dead never crossed her mind.
Until, the flaming streaks of main battery slugs started flying to the right of her, coming from behind her, Kat turned from the light show back to Galactica, and she saw the slugs impacting the closest Baseship, just as another series of slugs were coming from the opposite direction into the furthest Baseship.
If sound traveled through space, she probably would have heard a rhythmic, BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
"My gods!"
To her right a massive ship was flying past, gliding toward the battle; the six main batteries under the bow blazing away. The ship was easily twice the size of Galactica, yet had the same "alligator" design. Its Flight Pod had the name "PHILAMON" emblazoned in the front section with the identifier "CRCS-1" in smaller text below it. Next to the name were an infinity symbol and a stylized T. The ship itself seemed to be covered in a chrome design of vines and whimsical shapes. A design that was quickly disappearing as titanium plates deployed along the ship, protecting the artwork. The ship kept gliding until it came to a stop just above Galactica, shielding the smaller ship from the Baseships missiles with its own body.
Suddenly, out of the nebula emerged Pegasus, guns blazing and missiles flying at the Baseship closest to it. Kat's attention was drawn away again to four Cylon War era Baseships that were flying toward the newer ones, breaking off and engaging them in single combat.
AN: Please Review! Thanks to those who have!