Chapter 28B - On the Galactica...Out of the Jump

[Brie]

As the siren wailed still-Major Brie stared out the small window in Boleman’s quarters. She was slightly jealous, she was a squadron leader and she didn’t have a window! For a micron she thought that maybe she had picked the wrong profession. On the Callisto when possible she tried to be on the bridge when they were coming out of a jump. There wasn’t another sight like it. Brie couldn’t help but think that she would never see this wonder again.

On the bridge of the Galactica Commander Apollo watched nervously as the stars came back into view. He hid his feelings well. One of the things he hated the most was being away from the fleet. He was dreading the next few cycles.

“Commander,” Omega called from his station, “long range scan indicates no sign off the Callisto or the fleet. No sign of Cylons either.”

“Keep trying, and extend the range as much as possible,” Apollo ordered. “They’ll be here. Give Blue Squadron the order to be ready to launch a patrol.”

[Brie]

“Since we’re out of the jump I’m going to the bridge, see what I can find out,” Boleman informed Brie.

“Can I go with you?” Brie asked.

Boleman seemed surprised. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Brie said slowly. “I’ve been giving it some thought. At the moment I’m still an officer and squadron leader. There’s no reason that I should be hiding in here. I’m still free, at least for a few more centars.”

“If you see someone there are going to be questions,” Boleman warned.

“And you’ll be standing at my side, helping me to ignore them.” Brie pushed her hair out of her eyes. “If it looks like I’m hiding then I look guilty, which I’m not. I’ll behave, I promise.”

“Okay,” Boleman said. “Let’s go.”

[Brie]

Although she had known that it would be uncomfortable, Brie hadn’t realized just how long the walk to the bridge would seem. Word of the impending charges had obviously leaked out, there were whispers, stares, pointing fingers and turned backs the whole way there. “It could be worse,” Brie thought to herself. “They could have found out about Justin.”

With Boleman walking alongside her, Brie did her best to hold her head up high. While she hated having left people behind, she wasn’t ashamed of the outcome of the mission. She had done all that she could for the surviving members of her team. She kept reminding herself that if they had stayed even a few microns longer Sergeant Brinfort would have died. It was a tradeoff, yes, but one that had to be made.

If people seeing her on the Galactica was so awkward she could only imagine how difficult it would be once they were on the Callisto, her home. Upon landing she would be escorted by blackshirts to the brig. The brig she could handle, getting there was going to be one of the hardest things of her life. She tried not to think of her friends and the members of her squadron watching her. She was suddenly glad that her arm was still in a sling, at least Pierce couldn’t suggest that she be shackled. But if she hadn’t injured her arm she would have been able to look for Amy herself, and she wouldn’t be in this mess. What a mess it was.

[Brie]

When they reached the bridge of the Galactica Brie wasn’t sure what she’d find. She didn’t know who was going to be there or what their attitude towards her would be. She didn’t expect what actually happened, she wasn’t noticed by anyone. Anyone, that is, but Major Pierce. He stood on the other side of the bridge, also being ignored by the bridge personnel.

Pierce started walking towards Brie and Boleman. Brie took a few steps in his direction. Boleman put his hand on her shoulder. “You promised you’d behave, remember?”

“I’m not going to do anything!” Brie insisted. “I swear, I just want to say hello.”

“It’s not a good idea, Brie.”

Soon Pierce had made his way to where Brie was standing. “Coming out of the hole where you’ve been hiding?” he asked Brie.

“You’d know all about living in a hole, wouldn’t you, Major?” Brie used the sweetest voice that she could muster.

“Better enjoy being here while you can,” Pierce suggested, ignoring Brie’s comment. “It’s the last time you’ll EVER be on the bridge of a battlestar.”

“Major Pierce,” Boleman said sternly, “I’ve advised my client to stay away from you for the time being. I would appreciate it if you would offer her the same courtesy.”

“Fine,” Pierce said with a huff in his voice. “I’ll see you on the shuttle. You got lucky, Brie. It looks like you’re going to get to keep your freedom a little while longer.” He turned and walked away.

At first Brie wasn’t sure what Pierce had meant, but looking at the faces of those on the bridge it became increasingly obvious. Something was definitely wrong.

[Brie]

Brie took a couple of steps towards where the main group was standing, staring at some computer screens. For a second time Boleman put his hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Look,” Brie said, “I’m still a colonial warrior and I’m still an officer. I have YARHENS of experience, more than a lot of the people in this room. I also studied long-range communications extensively when my husband disappeared. I’m going to go see what the problem is, and if there’s anything I can do to help. If this hurts my case, well then that’s just too bad. My allegiance is still to the colonial military, even if theirs isn’t to me.” She pulled away from Boleman’s grasp and made her way into the group, close enough so that she could hear what was happening. She slowly maneuvered so that she was standing directly behind Commander Apollo’s chair.

“Can’t you fix it?” Apollo was saying to a technician who appeared on one screen.

“No, Sir,” the technician replied. “We don’t have the parts. To get them we’d have to go to the Forge Ship, which of course we couldn’t do even if we were with the fleet because we can’t open the airlock because we don’t have the parts.”

The commander of the fleet was exasperated. “Isn’t there any other way to open it?”

“There’s no power in the airlock,” the technician explained for what Brie could tell was probably the tenth time. “We don’t have the parts to fix it, so no one can launch. The only way I can think of opening it is to blast it open, which of course is going to cause major damage to the launch bay.”

Apollo sat back in his chair and sighed. Looking over people’s shoulders, Brie quickly appraised the situation. “Sir?” she said.

Startled that there was someone speaking directly behind him, Apollo jumped slightly. He turned and looked at Brie. “Not now, Major, we’ve got a problem with launching the patrol.”

“I know, Sir,” Brie said. “Has anyone thought of rerouting power from other locations?”

Apollo thought for a moment, then motioned for Brie to come closer. “Show me,” he said, pointing at the Galactica’s blueprints one of the monitors.

“Well, Sir,” Brie began, “you could retrack from here, here, here and here.” She pointed at four different locations. “No one would have to go without, but it should be enough power to operate the airlock. It would probably take a couple of centars for the rewiring, but it’s better than blowing up the launch bay.”

Slowly Apollo started to nod his head. “I think that this just might work.” He turned to another technician standing near Brie, someone that she had never met. “Get every available man on this, we need this fixed as soon as possible.”

“Yes, Sir,” the technician replied.

Apollo looked at Brie. “Thank you, Major. You’ve been a big help.”

“Don’t count me out just yet,” she said with a smile.

[Brie]

“I’m impressed,” Boleman told Brie. “You’re right, maybe you should be seen. Helping out right now really made you look good.”

Brie didn’t really like what Boleman said. “I didn’t help to make myself look good. There was a problem and I saw a potential solution. It’s part of my job.”

“Well MY job isn’t helping the military, it’s helping you, and making sure you’re not convicted. Since it looks like we have a little bit of time, let’s go get something to eat. The food here is better than on the Callisto.”

“No bias there,” Brie whispered under her breath, even though she agreed with him.

On the way to the mess hall several people tried to stop Brie to talk to her. She hated it, but it was better than hiding. Her standard answer was, “I’m not allowed to talk about it.” She said it probably a dozen times.

The mess hall wasn’t crowded, for which Brie was thankful. She stood in line behind her Protector, not really hungry but not knowing when she would eat again. The food server placed a slab of something on Boleman’s tray. “What the frack is this?” Boleman asked a little bit too loudly. Obviously the exemplary life rule didn’t apply to him at the micron.

“Well, um, we didn’t know we would be separated from the fleet and the Livestock Ship for so long,” the woman explained. “It’s made out of vegetables and grains, we have plenty of both. It sort of looks like bovine.” It was obvious that the server was sick of explaining.

“I think it looks great,” Brie said, smiling at the poor, tired woman. She finished getting her food and sat across from Boleman.

“Well,” Boleman said to Brie, regaining his composure, “if anyone can make this slop taste good it’s Trula.”

“It doesn’t bother me,” Brie said. “I don’t really like meat anyway.” She took a few bites of her veggie burger, the silence suddenly awkward. She stared at the food in front of her and a smile crossed her face.

“What is it?” Boleman asked.

“I was just thinking about Amy,” Brie told him. “Her parents are farmers on the Agro Ship. She came from a long line of farmers. I only met them one time. They weren’t too pleased when she became a warrior.” Brie let out a small laugh. “Amy would have hated this meal.”

Boleman raised his glass in the air. “To Amy!” he said.

Brie lifted her glass as well. “To Amy.”

[LucianG]

Colonel Starbuck had always prided himself as a seat of the pants kind of pilot, but in reality, he was also an excellent navigator. When the Galactica had emerged from the jump into the Quarro system, Starbuck sensed almost at once that something was wrong. He approached one of the ensigns in the navigation section and asked for a quick readout on position.

“Right where we’re supposed to be, Sir,” said the ensign after a quick scan of the information.

Starbuck looked from the printout to the ensign to the forward viewport before replying. “Ensign…Zali, is it?…when we go into a jump between systems and emerge at the other end, where would you expect us to be?”

“Well, Sir, it’s Zalli,” said the young ensign, “and I’d expect us to be in line with the centers of mass of the two systems. Of course, Sir, we always stop well short of the star—”

“You’re reading the Colonial navigation handbook back to me, Ensign Zalli. Tell me what you THINK,” said Starbuck, who was still not getting his point across to the young man. “What about the mass of the system?”

“Sir, it varies by system. You’ve got to take into account all the planets in addition to the mass of the star. That’s why we always do our surveys to take everything into account in locating the jump points. While the star usually represents 95 to 100 percent of the mass of the system, the other planetary bodies can conceivably change the center of mass by several degrees….”

A strange look came over Zalli’s face as he began to look at the viewport. “Sir, if we were on course, wouldn’t the star be basically in the center of the screen instead of way over there to the right?”

Starbuck smiled grimly as he said, “Right, Ensign. Now tell me, do you still think we’re right where we’re supposed to be?”

* * *

After a check of the navigation calculations, Starbuck and Zalli were convinced that they were well off course. The difference at the start of the jump had been almost infinitesimal, but over the several light yahrens of distance the Galactica had traveled between systems, it had placed the ship well outside of the anticipated arrival zone. When they had tried various data entries, the navigation computer continued to change the reading by the same amount each time.

“Commander, it’s pretty obvious that someone or possibly something has corrupted our navigation system. We’re actually here,” Starbuck said, pointing to the map display of the Quarro system, “and we should be here,” showing a point almost a quarter of the system away. “The fleet should be arriving over here, on the other side of the star, so we’ll need to set an elliptical course to skirt the star. We can’t try to send a broadband communication from here due to the locations of the star and the fleet. The star’s emissions would distort our signal so the Fleet wouldn’t get anything.”

“Make flank speed for the planned system entry point,” said Commander Apollo. “Engage when ready.”

Starbuck relayed the order and added, “Confirm all navigation calculations by remote computer as well as the main ship’s computer. With the original reentry point error, we think the error is programmed into the system so it would interfere with calculations in the system as well.”

“Yes, Sir!” said Ensign Zalli. A few centons later, the Battlestar Galactica was speeding across the Quarro system.

[Agelastus]

Captain Killjoy came across me in one of the cross corridors from the bays.

We hadn't spoken since the survivors had reached the Galactica. To be honest, that we my fault. I hadn't spoken with any of the other survivors - after so long away from the Galactica there were...things I needed to do.

People I needed to look up.

In both cases, I had not been very successful. At least no-one had tried to kill me yet. Which was mainly the reason I tried to ignore Killjoy, plastering a calm expression on my face and nodding non-commitally as I passed by.

Which was why I got my arm and shoulder rather painfully wrenched as Killjoy reached out to stop me.

"There you are! What are you doing down here." Pause, at my blank look of incomprehension. "Haven't you heard about the Major?"

"What about Major Brie? I assume you do mean Brie, by the way..."

Killjoy paused again, as if stunned that someone could be so out of the fleet's "information" (read gossip) chain not to have heard. I wasn't surprised myself. The two or three people I'd spoken to on the Galactica in the last few centars had different priorities to the average warrior or tech.

"She's been charged with negligence over the loss of Amy and Lazant. Her protector was looking to take depositions and nobody could find you."

"Negligence?" I was stunned. "What daggit-brain could come up with that? She got more of us out than I thought possible." I suddenly remembered the bottle of ambrosa lying back on the Callisto; I wondered if it was still there...

"The Accuser's Pierce. Seems that Curemode laid the charges." Killjoy was angry. It showed in his voice.

I was more thoughtful. Curemode was a surprise, but Pierce...

This would need some thought. But in the first place, I could see the time had come to resurface on the Upper decks.

A deposition had to be made.

[Agelastus]

Corporal Briseis sighed.

The disc the captain had given her contained a set of data files that had been in the Pylos' main computer. Encrypted data files.

How they'd even been copied was something of a mystery, given such embedded files were normally protected against just that. Anyone who could copy them should have been able to read them, but the captain had given her the job of decrypting them. In her spare time.

What little of it there was, even given she was not presently on her home battlestar. No hand could long remain idle, whether injured or hale.

She was not making much progress.

Actually, she was making no progress, although that could partly be explained by her curiousity about another item the captain still had in his possession. A coder. Highly illegal in any case, so risky for him to use it in her presence. Not that that had mattered at the time, with Cylon laser bolts detonating around them. But fascinating nevertheless.

Where...no, how had he got his hands on a coder that worked on Cylon electronics....

[Agelastus]

As I began my hunt for Brie's protector, I had time to calm down.

I needed to give testimony, to make a statement. I owed Major Brie too much to shirk that duty...however, the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed my testimony would help.

I was back on the Galactica. People knew me around here. Many of them knew how I'd left this billet originally.

An all expenses paid trip to the prison barge for a nice, long vacation. I'd still be there if the Callisto hadn't appeared with its' attendant scramble for trained personnel.

I was also trying to recall if I'd ever come across Major Pierce. He hadn't been the Accuser at the hearings recarding my own little peccadillo, but something was niggling at my brain...

Now why was I associating Pierce with him? I didn't even know if he was still alive.

I was starting to feel old. There was something I should remember and just couldn't.

And I still hadn't found Boleman. He hadn't been at his office, or his quarters. I was getting thirsty to...ahead of me was one of the Galactica's Mess Halls.

I thought I'd have a quick drink and then try and find Boleman logically. Like actually checking to see if he'd logged his whereabouts on the system.