Chapter 28T - Good News?

[JustinB]

I sat alone in my office going over recent events in my mind. The tribunal, Brie and now Amy and Lazant back from the dead. After about a centar I got up and grabbed a pair of overalls from my locker. I informed the bridge of my intended location and I made my way to the Beta Launch Bay.

As soon as I got there, I put on the overalls and grabbed some tools and equipment. I had some basic maintanance knowledge and I thought I would work on my Scarlett class Viper which I had not yet returned to the Galactica. After doing all the necessary checks, I found some rags and some polish. I needed to get Brie out of my mind, but no matter how hard I polished I couldn't get her out of my mind.

What I would give for a cylon attack right now. The thought brought a smile to my face. If only..

[Agelastus]

The maintenance bays behind the inter-fleet shuttle were shadowed and seldom frequented at this centar. In other words, they were ideal for a clandestine meeting.

“You have a lot of nerve, Agelastus,” came a voice from one of the shadowed alcoves. I could dimly make out a figure. I didn’t try to get close enough to see him; firstly because he might take that as a hostile move, and I knew that nearby he would have a minimum of two armed guards; secondly, because I didn’t need to see his face. This was far from the first time we’d met.

“That’s why you tried so hard to get me to work for you, if I recall correctly.” I said as my rejoinder.

Silence reigned for a few microns. I waited. It was easy enough. If he hadn’t been interested in something I could do for him, he wouldn’t have agreed to this meeting. After all, he wouldn’t come to the Callisto to carry out a killing himself. Far too dangerous, even assuming that my name had been taken out of abeyance by the organization he worked for without my knowledge.

He broke the silence. “So what do you want?”

That’s what I’d always liked about him; when it mattered, he was brief and to the point.

“The cache. Or rather, certain items in the cache. Or equivalent items if the cache has already been claimed.”

He laughed. “Here you are, a man who should be grateful he isn’t dead, asking for that? Maybe you’ll ask for the Treasures of Kobol from the Caprican museum of Antiquities next.”

“If you hadn’t been willing to make a deal, you wouldn’t have come. So what do you want?” I didn’t have time for the niceties. I was in too much of a hurry.

“What items do you need?”

”When you’ve told me the price.”

“That would depend on the items.”

“Then how much for the whole cache?”

”Still keeping secrets, I see…” I refused to elaborate, so the man continued. “For the whole cache? Data.”

“What data?”

”The Pylos data. Everything that was in her system. Everything.”

I was, to put it mildly, surprised. What could a man like this want with that data? Admittedly there were the encoded files I’d given Briseis to look at, but even so…it was unlikely he knew about that or that it could even contain any information related to him or his business. It was absolutely useless information to a man in his position.

I wondered how much he wanted it.

“For the data, the cache and a blind drop for certain items in it.” I said. A blind drop meant that either myself or my representatives would be assisted by his organization to move the items anywhere in the Fleet, with no knowledge of what had been moved or why. To an organization that lived on information in many respects, this was a steep price. It was also one that to my knowledge they had never reneged on when it was part of a bargain; in the field the man operated in, the worth of one’s word was more valuable than gold cubits.

“Agreed.” No argument. Interesting.

“The data will be with you in one centar. What transmission method do you require?”

“Solid format. Courier to a dead-drop. Courier to be told the location en-route.”

I frowned. Circuitous. “Agreed.”

“The items? Do you require them transported to the Callisto?”

“No. Too dangerous. The Agro ship.” I knew the Agro ship was one of the more open in the Fleet in terms of security. Besides, I knew the location of a safe-store there that should still be viable. “Transfer to be within one centar of your receipt of the data.”

“Your representative?”

“The courier.”

“Acceptable.”

That was that. I heard the rustling as he left. I waited. Protocol; he had to be given time to vacate the area before I moved.

As I waited, I went over the plan I’d come up with. I didn’t like it. I was being forced to move far to fast, leaving far to many variables out of my control. For example, I didn’t have time to recruit another courier. I was going to have to use Quiver. And trust her enough to act as both the courier and my representative at a transfer. Ordinarily, I’d have done the latter job myself. It was too vital to leave to someone so…unreliable.

I’d have preferred to use a fellow Warrior for the transfer, but I didn’t know any colleagues who wouldn’t ask to many questions. Too fast. This was all moving too fast.

When I moved, my first stop was a wall panel. I sent a brief text only message.

“Blind to subject two. Arrange meeting. Return to Quarters.”

Why was I under so much time pressure? Amy and Lazant were alive. Pierce had just expended a lot of energy getting Brie into the Brig. Whether it was just obsession or revenge, or whether she was a potential obstacle to some scheme of his was immaterial. Whatever he was planning, he had to be off balance at the moment. And off balance people tend to act first and think later.

So whatever he was planning he was likely to make his move sooner than expected.

[Brie]

“Come on, Brie.” Millie, one of the two female guards, was standing at the door.

Brie had been sitting on the floor for centars. She really didn’t feel like doing anything or talking anybody, except for Amy. “What’s going on?”

“Simm time,” Millie explained.

“Do I have to?” Brie pleaded. “I’m really not in the mood...”

“Commander Sheba’s orders,” Millie reminded. “She said it’s vital that you stay flight certified.”

Unfortunately Brie was getting used to the routine. Meeting Enoch and Jared, being led shackled through the Callisto corridors so that everyone could see, arriving at their destination, the shackles removed, and everyone looking at her like they felt sorry for her. As she signed in for her simm session she was met by someone she hadn’t seen before. “Where’s Nat?” Brie asked. Nat had always handled the simms.

The young officer stared at Brie. “Didn’t you hear? Nat was killed in the last battle with the Cylons.”

Brie took a step back, rubbing her wrists. “No, I hadn’t heard.”

There were several awkward microns of silence. “So,” the officer said at last, “I’ve got you all set up. You get one centar, from what I understand.”

Brie climbed in the pretend viper and started the program. For a brief moment all her troubles disappeared. Then, instead of seeing Cylon Raiders, Major Pierce’s image appeared. Brie quickly ended the program and looked out. “By any chance, was Major Skyler in here not too long ago?”

“Yup,” came the replied.

“Could you please reset the system?” Brie asked. She closed her make-believe viper once again and started her session, this time shooting down imaginary Raiders. The centar felt like microns.

[LucianG]

On the Bridge in the Commander's absence, Major Lucian had been monitoring activity while he finished studying the briefing report. In studying it, he had developed a somewhat different plan that he planned to propose to Commander Sheba on her return. Periodically, he made notes or comments about the report.

According to the Commander’s information, the events in the Pangara system continued to haunt the Fleet—not counting Major Brie’s conviction, thought Lucian. The rapid dash across Pangara, which was required to make the escape from the Cylons, had resulted in many ships in the rag tag Fleet operating well outside of their optimal efficiency. This meant that they had used the tylium fuel reserves at an incredible rate, and, as a result, the fuel situation has grown critical. Five of the ships were essentially out of fuel, traveling on forward momentum only, leaving them minimum maneuverability and no acceleration capacity. Three others were critically low, with just enough fuel to make it to the next system…maybe. Many of the remaining ships were also at a low level. The Fleet’s two fuel ships had very low reserves—enough to refuel the five empty ships to the “low” fuel level, but little more.

As written, the briefing had then proposed doing a ship-to-ship fuel transfer, moving fuel from those with greater reserves to the seven critically low ships. Knowing this would be a very dangerous task, Lucian had shaken his head at the idea and had Fallel and Solon begin a series of fuel usage calculations using different jump parameters. As he suspected, by using a reduced “in-jump” speed, it would take a couple of extra cycles to reach the Therrevan system. He hoped the Commander’s information about Therreven was correct.

“It’s right,” cackled Solon in response to the question. “At least, as right as you can expect a 140 yahren old Cylon database to be.”

“Let’s hope,” said Lucian, “or we’ll be in an even worse situation in the Therrevan system than we are here.”

At that moment, Commander Sheba reentered the Bridge. “Commander on the Bridge,” called Lieutenant Zeus.

“Lucian! My Ready Room, now!” she ordered.

[LucianG]

As Major Lucian rose to leave the meeting with Commander Sheba, her comm unit sounded. She was requested to go to the Med Lab at once. “I’ll be there shortly,” she replied.

“Speaking of the Med Lab, Commander,” said Lucian, “one of the messages we received before you returned was that there was that there was a problem with some Cylon data disks related to Captain Amy’s condition. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I suggest having Fallel check in with them to see if he can be of assistance.”

“Do it,” she said, “and let’s get started on the other mission right away. We need to get out of this system as soon as possible in case the Cylons are on our trail.”

A short time later, Lucian, happy that the meeting had gone as well as it had, issued several orders via Lieutenant Finky. Checking his chrono, he headed to the Black Squadron meeting to speak with Major JustinB. He wanted to present the upcoming mission to him personally. Depending on how long the meeting took, Lucian hoped to visit the Brig to speak with Brie and then see about getting some much needed sleep….