FicWad

A Journey's End

Chapter Seven: Aftermath

Battlestar Galactica

A Few Minutes Later

A tense silence reigned in the combat information centre, broken only by the odd bit of comm. traffic coming in from the damage control crews and the background humming of the ships systems. Everyone in the room was aware of the fact that they had come within a hairs breath of being killed and only the timely arrival of the second Terran vessel had saved them.


That fact was more apparent to Commander William Adama than anyone else in the CIC. He kept his eyes on the dradis screen looking at the very large contact of the Terran battlecruiser, sitting silent in space off the fleet. Her fighters had disappeared, presumably having been taken back aboard, and her power emissions had dropped, which probably indicated that she'd lowered her shields. Looking at the contact he couldn't help but feel gratitude and a twinge of envy; though he didn't know a lot about the new warship - he didn't even know her name - it was already obvious that she was extremely powerful. If only we had encountered these people before the Cylon attack, he thought, then the colonies might not have died. And I would be bored out of my skull in retirement.

"Commander," the young man at communications called out. Not for the first time his voice sounding odd to William Adama considering he was so used to Dee being there, not over on Colonial One on maternity leave with her husband, Billy Keikeya. "Vipers are requesting orders sir," the officer continued.

William blinked for a moment, bringing himself back to reality. "Tell them to come on home," he ordered. There was no sense in keeping the Vipers deployed, they would be low on fuel and ammo by now and if on the off chance the Terrans planned aggression the Vipers would be no use anyway. "Order the fleet to stand down to condition two," he continued.

"Yes, sir."

"Mr Gaeta what are the Terran ships doing," William asked while the communications officer got on the line to Apollo to order the Vipers back to base.

"Both ships have lowered their shields, sir," Gaeta replied. "Weapons systems have also been powered down. I'm reading a lot of communications traffic between them."

"Probably the Avalon bringing the other ship up to speed," Saul Tigh mused thoughtfully, before going back to where he was reading reports and plotting the damage to the Galactica on the chart table. From his scowl William could tell it wasn't good.

"How bad is it," William asked.

"Aside from the hull breach we've got buckled supports and collateral damage in all dorsal side compartments," Saul replied. "We've lost the main power lines to the two topmost decks of the ship. The fire has been brought under control thankfully and should be out momentarily. The biggest problem is going to be the destroyed gun batteries, the compartments below them are completely open to space."

William winced, the breach in the hull and the loss of three of their main gun batteries was going to be a major problem. Especially replacing the weapons, if they didn't the Galactica was going to have a major hole in her defences, a hole Cylon missiles could easily exploit. The problem was he didn't know if the fleet could muster the resources to replace the weapons and Galactica's own spare parts store was almost depleted.

"Great," he muttered then spoke louder. "Colonel, start organising a repair schedule."

"Yes, sir," Saul replied and moved off to confer with Captain Kelly. William glanced at the chart again looking at the damage. How many more times will we take damage like this, he thought, hopefully not much longer if the Terrans agree to shelter us.

***

THS Charybdis

That Same Time

"So you believe that these Colonials are telling the truth about being refugees," Captain Teresa McDowell said to Captain Anton Ramirez. The face and upper torso of the Avalon's master was displayed on a holographic communications screen floating in front of her command chair on the Charybdis bridge.

"Yes I do," Anton replied. "We've scanned the Colonial ships in great detail; many of the ships are showing signs of intense stress on their systems especially on their FTL drive systems and life support systems - many of the ships are pushing their life support capacity to the limit, their obviously carrying many more passengers than they were meant to. It's amazing that some of them are still flying; we've also detected evidence that many of the ships are short on supplies. Our scans of the Galactica also confirm that her weapons stores are coming close to being depleted, in addition stress on Galactica's space frame indicates that she's an old ship that has sustained considerable damage on numerous occasions, damage that has only been patched not fully repaired as would be the case if she had access to a space dock."

"I see," Teresa answered, making a mental note to order the Colonials scanned herself. It wasn't that she distrusted what Anton was saying, far from it, but she wanted to be sure that the readings were accurate. After all it was remotely possible that the Colonials had some sort of ECM that was feeding the Avalon's sensors false information, ECM systems that would probably not have any effect at all on the much more powerful sensors of the /Charybdis/. Privately she doubted that the Colonials were advanced enough to fool even patrol cruisers sensors, from the looks of their vessels there technology was way behind, but her orders were clear.

"What about these Cylons," Teresa continued. "What is your impression of them?"

"Technologically there considerably more advanced than the Colonials are," Anton replied. "However their technology is way behind our own as well, however I wouldn't count on that being a decisive advantage for us should the Cylons choose to attack the Hegemony. The Cylons appear to have some skill at information warfare - they have tried on two occasions to penetrate our computer networks, on both occasions they had been unsuccessful but I wouldn't count on them not trying again with a more sophisticated worm program."

"What's your assessment of the threat they pose to us," Teresa asked, bearing in mind that Anton had fought the Cylons twice. He was in a much better position to give a reasonably accurate threat assessment than she was.

"If we go on straight technological terms the Cylons are no threat to us," Anton replied. "However from what Captain Adama told me when he was aboard my ship the Cylons are fanatical about destroying Humans wherever they can be found. If that is indeed the case then the Cylons could prove to be a danger."

"Hmm," Teresa said thoughtfully. "Very well send all data that your sensors and computers have gathered on the Cylons over here. We will include it with a data burst transmission to Sector Command, along with a recommendation that patrols on this area of the boarder be increased." Anton nodded to someone not directly in line with the comm. pickup.

"Captain we're receiving a data transmission from the /Avalon/," Lieutenant Steele reported from the operations console.

"Very good," Teresa responded, then addressed Captain Ramirez. "What were you planning on doing with these Colonials before the Cylons attacked?"

"I was going to go aboard the Galactica and meet with their leader, a President Roslin and the Galactica's commanding officer a Commander Adama," Anton answered "I believe that must still happen, we need to know a bit more about the Colonials before we can consider letting them into our territory."

"I agree," Teresa said. "Command also wants to know more about them before we take them to the base at Arlan. Very well here is what we shall do. Send me all the data that you have on the Colonials. Then I will arrange for us to go aboard the Galactica either later today or tomorrow so we can meet with their leaders."

Anton nodded at someone not in line with the pickup, then spoke again. "The information is on its way over to you now," he said.

"Data received ma'am," Lieutenant Steele reported.

"Excellent," Teresa replied. "Thank you, captain."

"Your welcome I will see you soon, captain," Anton answered and broke the connection from his end. The holographic screen faded into non-existent. Teresa looked over at her operations officer.

"Transfer the information received from the Avalon to the console in my quarters," she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am," Lieutenant Steele replied.

"Communications contact the Galactica. Ask them when would be the best time for us to pay them a visit."

"Aye, ma'am," Ensign James said from the communications station, before activating the translatation system and hailing the battlestar. "This is the Terran Hegemony starship Charybdis to the Colonial Battlestar Galactica/, respond please. Repeat this is the Terran Hegemony starship /Charybdis to the Colonial Battlestar /Galactica/, respond please."

After a moment the small unit in James' ear crackled to life. "Charybdis this is Galactica actual," a powerful male voice answered, though the translation system eliminated any trace of an accent.

"Actual, Captain McDowell requests to come aboard your vessel to discuss the situation with the Cylons and possible sanctuary for your fleet in our space," James replied. "What would be the most optimal time for this to take place?"

For a few moments there was silence from the /Galactica/, and James guessed that whoever he was speaking to on the Colonial warship was considering the answer, either that or they were referring in higher up the chain of command. Finally though the voice identified only as actual - a very strange identification to James ears - came on the line again.

"I would advise that you would come aboard this vessel three hours from now," actual replied.

"Stand by," James advised and placed the connection on hold. "Captain," he called across the bridge. "The Galactica has advised that we can go aboard there vessel three hours from now."

Teresa McDowell's eyebrows shot up in surprise at that. A face to face meeting on the Galactica in three hours, that was very short space of time. Especially considering that the Colonials had just been through a battle with the Cylons and had sustained damage to the only warship in their fleet. It did tell her however that the Colonials were absolutely desperate for a meeting, presumably about getting sanctuary. It was a mark to indicate that they could indeed be telling the truth about being refugees.

"Agree to it," she ordered.

"Aye, ma'am," James replied and took the link with the Galactica off hold. "Galactica actual we agree to come aboard your vessel in three hours time."

"Excellent. I look forward to meeting your representatives," the voice from the Galactica said. "Galactica actual out." The connection with the Galactica closed down with a soft bleep.

James looked back over at his commanding officer. "Transmission terminated with the Galactica ma'am," he reported. "They will expect us to shuttle over three hours from now."

"Excellent. Then I better get ready," Teresa said standing up. "Commander Hawkins you have the con. I'll be in my quarters."

"Yes, ma'am," Brian Hawkins replied from the first officer station, even as Teresa turned away and made her way off the bridge.

***

Pilots Shower Room

Battlestar Galactica, A Few Minutes Later

Captain Lee Adama sighed softly to himself as he stepped under an active showerhead and felt the warm streams of water play over his body. The warmth from the water immediately began seeping into his body, relieving tired muscles, though strangely he wasn't as tired now as he normally was after a major battle with the Cylons. In fact he barely felt any post adrenaline rush exhaustion at all.

Lee tried not to think about the reason why he didn't feel as tired as normal. He didn't want to think about the billions of tiny little machines in his body and what they had done or were doing to him right now. He could almost feel that the nanites were still doing something to him, what he didn't know and he wasn't sure how to describe that he knew they were doing something, he just knew. He knew he should tell somebody about it, maybe then they could contact the Avalon or the Charybdis for information about the nanites as they were Terran technology, but he wasn't sure how to.

With some effort he pushed those thoughts away and concentrated on giving himself a thorough wash. He reached out to grab a bar of soap but paused when he saw his right forearm. When he had been a child he'd had a very nasty accident on a pyramid court that had earned him a trip to the hospital, a scolding about not being careful from both his parents, and left him with a nasty scar on his forearm. But now the scar was gone, in its place was nothing but smooth skin that had no sign that it had ever been injured.

Standing nearby under the streams of another showerhead Kara Thrace frowned in concern when she saw Lee freeze. He was looking at his right forearm for some reason as if he was searching for something that had been there, or was looking at that scar of his, though why he would do that she had no idea as he had never done it before.

"Lee are you okay," she asked.

"I'm fine," Lee replied moving again and grabbing the soap. Though his words sounded convincing Kara could tell that something was bothering him. She had been around Adama men to long to be fooled, though she knew better than to call Lee on it here. She would talk to him later, when she could corner him somewhere alone. With a look that clearly said 'we'll talk about this later' she went back to having a much needed shower.

***

A Short Time Later

Kara pushed open the door to one of the many pilots bunking areas that there were on the Galactica/. She smiled when she saw that Lee was in the room, lying on his bunk in a thoughtful fashion, aside from him there was no one else was present. /Perfect, Kara thought entering the room and closing the door behind her, now I can find out what's bothering Lee.

"Lee," she said moving over to where Lee was lying down. Lee did not respond to her or show any sign of having heard her, but Kara knew full well that he would have heard her. "Come on Lee what's wrong," she asked.

"Nothing," Lee answered softly not looking at her, instead keeping his eyes on the top of his bunk space. He could see it in away that he had never been able to before, every slight imperfection in the coatings of paint where it had slowly flaked off and been repainted over the years of Galactica's service was visible to him. Coupled with small dents in the underlying metal, the faint adhesive residue patches, stains and cracks in the paint in gave the surface a landscape of its own.

"Don't give me that, Lee Adama," Kara answered forcefully in a tone that unknowingly mimicked William Adama's command tone. "I can tell something is bothering you, what is it? You've been I don't know different ever since you came back from the /Avalon/."

Lee sighed softly as Kara spoke up. Of all the pilots that he had under his direct command as CAG he should have guessed that Kara would be the first to notice any differences in him. Given her history with his family, having been engaged to Zak before his death, she knew him better than the rest of the squadron did. The other pilots only saw what he wanted them to see after all, something that to his alternate relief and irritation was not possible with Kara Thrace.

"Because I am different now," Lee said softly.

Kara frowned in confusion. "What do you mean, Lee," she asked. "How are you different now? Did they do something to you when you were aboard the /Avalon/?"

Lee sighed and realised that he'd slipped up; he was going to have to tell Kara about the nanites now. He knew that Kara was like an attack dog; now that she knew that something had happened to him she would not get off his back until she knew what it was. Kara looked closely at Lee while she waited for him to answer her.

"Something did happen to you didn't it," she said. "They did do something to you. What did they do?"

"They saved my life, that's what they did," Lee answered. "When they took me aboard I was unconscious and dying of radiation poisoning." Kara's eyes widened, she had known that Lee had been in a bad way when he had been rescued by the Terran's but she had no idea he had been that bad. But how could he had been dying?

"Dying? But you look fine now."

"Because I am fine now, but the way they saved me is still affecting me," Lee answered. "Its changing me, I can feel it and to a degree I can see it. And the changes are going to be with me for the rest of my life."

"What do you mean your changing? What is happening to you Lee?"

Lee sighed, and showed Kara his right arm, since he was only wearing his pilots slacks as opposed to his flight suit or duty uniform his arm was bare. Looking at his arm Kara's eyes widened in shock and astonishment when she saw that his scar was gone, there was nothing their bar bare skin, skin that showed no signs of ever having been broken by anything.

"What? Where's your scar gone," Kara asked. Lee looked at her and though his face was calm and controlled she could see the faintest hints of fear in Lee's blue eyes. Before she could speak again she saw Lee frown.

"Kara what's that mark just under the edge of your hairline," Lee asked, he could clearly see a faint mark just below Kara's hairline; it was almost completely hidden by her fringe. Kara's eyes widened again.

"How, how can you see that," she said reaching up and checking to find her hair was largely covering her small but slightly embarrassing birthmark, no one had seen it before, not even Zak, so how was Lee seeing it?

"I can see a lot of things now that I couldn't see before," Lee replied. "Its one of the things about me that's changed or is still changing; so what is the mark?"

"It's a birth mark," Kara explained blushing slightly in embarrassment. "But don't you dare tell anyone about it."

"Don't worry my lips are sealed," Lee replied grinning.

"Good. Otherwise I would be forced to kick your ass," Kara answered, earning a laugh from Lee. That's Kara through and through, Lee thought mentally shaking his head. Kara smiled, it was good to hear Lee laugh, he didn't do it often enough these days. But then Lee had always been dead serious for as long as she'd known him, it was rare she heard him laugh. In terms of his iron control on his emotions and expressions Lee was unquestionably his father's son.

"So why can you see things better, Lee," she asked him. "And why are you changing, and how. Aside from being able to see better and having that scar of yours disappear."

Lee sighed softly and sat up carefully so he could properly look Kara in the eye. "It's because of the way they saved me, Kara," he said. "From what I'm told I was to ill, the damage to my body to severe for the Terran's to deal with, with drugs alone. So they put some of their technology inside of me to save me, technology that I'm now dependent on to stay alive. If the technology was removed I would slip into a coma and die."

"You... you mean you have a machine of some kind inside of you," Kara asked.

"Not a machine singular but machines," Lee replied. "Billions of tiny biomechanical machines called nanites. They repaired the damage and supposedly they enhance your abilities, I knew that and thought I accepted it when they told me. But now..."

"Now that you can feel that somethings happening to you your having second thoughts," Kara said, resisting the impulse to pull away from Lee. Something from deep inside her was screaming that he was becoming something similar to a Cylon and might not be the person she knew for much longer. But she fought it, she couldn't even comprehend the idea of Lee ever betraying them, albeit unknowingly, he wasn't a Cylon and she refused to believe that he would ever become anything like them.

"To be fair they didn't ask me if I wanted to have these things in me," Lee answered. "They just put them in me, they told me afterwards that it was the only way to save my life and I am grateful to be alive. But the way I'm feeling I can't help but wonder what I am going to become. Am I still going to be me when the nanites are done with what there doing to me?"

"Of course you will be," Kara said putting as much convincing reassurance behind her words as possible, hiding her own concerns about what was happening to Lee, and the strange irrational fear that he might become similar to the toasters, expertly. Lee didn't need to know about her own fears on the subject, he obviously had enough on his plate.

"How can you be sure, Kara?" Lee asked. "You don't know anything about nanotechnology."

"That's right I don't," Kara replied. "But I know you. Regardless of what these nanites do to your body I know you'll still be Lee Adama."

Lee smiled softly. "Thanks, Kara," he said standing up, only to wobble back onto the bed as a wave of dizziness momentarily rippled through his head.

"Hey you okay," Kara asked.

"Yeah," Lee replied shaking off the after effects. "Dizzy there for a second, must have gotten up to fast."

"You sure," Kara questioned noticing that Lee's cheeks had suddenly lost a little bit of colour.

"I'm sure I'm fine," Lee answered.

"Okay. So did they give you an ideas what these nanites would do to you when you were aboard the /Avalon/?"

"They did tell me what the end effects were."

"Like?"

"Like a lengthened lifespan, superhuman strength and speed, improved senses, greater ability to heal" Lee answered not noticing that his breathing was becoming slightly laboured as a strange weakness hit him making his limps feel like someone had attached lead weights to them. Kara looked at Lee in growing concern. She could see that he had gone almost deathly pale and seemed to be starting to sweat.

"That's it," she said. "You need to go and see Dr Salik. Something is obviously very wrong with you."

"I think your right," Lee admitted awkwardly standing up but swaying as balance suddenly seemed to escape him. Cautiously he took a step forward but it seemed to take an extraordinary amount of effort to move. He could hear his blood pounding in his ears and a strange grey haze was encroaching on his vision.

"Lee," Kara said in concern, though to Lee her voice seemed to come from a very long way away. Lee looked over at her to see Kara looking at him with worry etched on her face, then his vision swum with rainbow colours. He felt himself falling, faintly he felt Kara catch him, preventing him slumping to the deck.

Then he knew no more.