Chapter 28CC-a - Readjustments

[Astraea]

Astraea glanced around the stark room. There was little to distract the eye from the purpose of the room. The furniture was nearly the same gray as the walls, but she was use to that. All she was concerned with was the computer. She ran her hands lightly, almost reverently over the keyboard. She had been waiting five yahrens to write this report.

She glanced over the computer and saw that it was an independent system. She wouldn’t be able to send her report through the usual channels. She would have to save it on a data disk and hand-deliver it to Gold Squadron Leader. “They want to make sure that I won’t hack into the system,” she whispered with a sad smile. She knew that it was merely protocol to keep a former Cylon captive from more vital equipment, but she still felt a pang in her chest. As historian, she used to have access to everything with the exception of classified material.

“Don’t start getting all wishy-washy now,” she ordered herself. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Astraea dropped down into the chair and pulled out a data disk from the plastic covered compartment in the desk. She slipped the disk into the terminal and then placed her fingers in the appropriate positions on the keyboard. That’s where she stopped.

She stared blankly at the computer screen for a long moment. She knew what she was going to write. She had prepared it in her mind yahrens ago. It was simply being in that position again that held her still. The computer had been her companion since the fleet had fled the colonies. She had spent thousands of centars sitting in that same position working with the computer and she had loved every centon of it. Even though she was alone in an empty room, she finally felt like she had come home.

When the screen began to blur, Astraea blinked back the tears and swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. “Pull it together woman. It’s a computer terminal.” She shook her head and cleared her throat then her fingers slowly began to move.

Lieutenant Astraea, Historian
Gold Squadron

Assignment: Investigate a derelict ship discovered Quadrant 45 Epsilon.

I had been assigned to the team to board the derelict ship because of my historical background. The ship was of indeterminate age. The best guess to be approximately 500 to 650 yahrens. We were unable to verify the age due to the limited time actually on board the ship.

The ship’s landing bay was unable to accommodate the size of the shuttle so we had to enter through a docking ring near the stern. Captain Herron and I went to the front of the ship to investigate the cockpit while Lieutenants Piper and Cale stayed aft to inspect the engines.

The markings along ports and equipment indicated that the ship was probably from the original 12 Colonies or similar civilization, colloquial terms consistent with the 600 yahren suspected age of the vessel.

Upon entering the cockpit, Captain Herron and I were able to activate several of the control panels. Our primary focus was on the nav computer in the hopes of discovering the ship’s origins.

We had only just activated the computer when our team was attacked by a full squadron of Cylon Raiders. Captain Silton sent in the urgent warning to us to sever ties with the derelict ship and return to the Callisto immediately. He and his wingman would be unable to hold off the Raiders for long. Captain Herron and I ran down the corridors, but weren’t even half way there when Lieutenant Piper reported that the Raiders were already on top of us.

Captain Herron knew that it would be several more centons before we could reach the shuttle through the series of sealed doors so he ordered Lieutenants Piper and Cale to sever the ties and get the shuttle safely away from the derelict. We were on our way back to the cockpit when a large explosion rocked the vessel.

Upon returning to the cockpit, we once again established contact with Captain Silton and learned that the shuttle had been destroyed at separation. That is when we lost contact with the captain. We could only assume that Captain Silton and Lieutenant Skyler’s ships had also been destroyed.

I tried repeatedly to ignite the engines while Captain Herron took the controls. We were being pounded by laser boles and the strikes pushed the vessel down into the planetary atmosphere. Captain Herron was able to get some of the lateral control working, but without the engines, we knew that we would be landing hard. Approximately three centons after entering the atmosphere, we made a controlled crash.

After that, I lost all track of time. I had been knocked out in the crash. We had landed in daylight, but it was dark when I finally awoke. I had been pinned under some debris that had broken loose in the cabin. When I attempted to move it, I realized too late that my right arm had been crushed. The searing pain from pulling it free caused me to black out once more.

When I awoke a second time, it was still dark, but only about a centar before dawn. It took me nearly that long to work myself free and that’s when I saw Captain Herron. The bolts holding his seat had snapped under the force of the crash. He had massive head trauma and, from the position of his body it was obvious that his back had been broken just above the waist. He was already dead by the time I reached him.

The only exit from the ship that I knew of was the docking ring so I made my way aft. I had walked nearly two-thirds of the way back when I was met with an open view. The last third of the ship was missing. I can only assume that it separated on impact. I never saw the missing section, but I did see a large plume of smoke off in the horizon.

By the time I was able to climb down to ground level, the temperature rose astronomically. I didn’t make it far from the vessel before collapsing. I did what I could to cover myself with my jacket, but there was no brush, just barren, mountainous desert. Before long, I was suffocating in the intense heat and blacked out one last time.

I don’t recall even seeing the Cylon patrol that picked me up or know how long I was unconscious, but I eventually awoke on board a Cylon Basestar.

Detailed records on events during my imprisonment to follow.

Lieutenant Astraea, Historian
Gold Squadron

Astraea lifted her hands from the keyboard and stared at the flashing cursor on the screen. “Mission complete,” she whispered and clicked the key to save.

[Astraea]

Astraea hadn’t been able to stop typing once she had started. It felt so good to be back at a terminal that everything she had memorized came pouring out. She began with a complete report of meeting Captain Lazant until their return to the Galactica. As she typed she had to wonder how Lazant’s report would compare to hers. She gave half a smile as she told of his reactions to various foods she had brought on board. She was certain that he would claim he was trying to poison her. The fact that she had held the thin metal strip she kept in her shoe to his throat would no doubt add to the drama, but she didn’t care. She felt that her actions were justified considering that she had seen the basestar and that Lazant had his clandestine meeting with the Cylons.

After finishing up that report she moved on to the various experiments that the Cylons had been working on while she was in captivity. The research with hyperspace which had caused the wormhole was at the top of her list. She added as much detail as she could remember, the size, the malfunction that forced the Cylons to jettison the core and the resulting wormhole.

“Time to go Lieutenant.”

Astraea growled at the interruption by one of the guards and didn’t even spare him a glance. “I’m still working,” she insisted and continued typing.

“You have scheduled time for a turbowash and change,” he returned. “You can come back here afterwards if you like. The security chief is in a meeting and won’t be able to continue with your debriefing until later. You’ll probably get your exam in the Life Station before you see him again.”

She turned to him then. A turbowash was the only thing that would tempt her from her work other than a visit from Charybdis. She glanced down at her torn robe then back up at him. “Let me just save this.” She turned back to the terminal, saved her report and then popped the disk back out.

He held out his hand for the disk. “I can take that for you.”

Astraea stood and palmed the disk in her hand. “The only person who’s getting this is the Gold Squadron leader.”

“I can give it to him,” he persisted.

“No,” she said simply.

He frowned at her impudence. “You can’t exactly take it into the turbowash with you.”

“Wanna bet?”

He put his hand on his laser rod. “Don’t make me force the issue Lieutenant.”

Astraea gave him a cold stare. She had dealt with more intimidating characters than him in a Cylon cell. “I will destroy this disk before giving it to anyone other than Gold Squadron Leader. He is in my chain of command and I will report to no one else.”

He held her gaze for a long moment. He didn’t like giving in, but he had heard rumors that this woman had a violent temper. “Fine,” he snapped and stepped aside so that she could precede him out the door.

Microns later, Astraea was standing beneath a stinging shower of water and she sighed contentedly. The Cylon’s version of a turbowash left much to be desired. She was generally left with a soapy film in her long hair from the inadequate trickle of water. The lukewarm bite against her skin was blissful to her, but she showered quickly and moved into the locker room to change.

She stared down at the neatly stacked Colonial uniform on one of the benches before reaching down to run her hand over the material. She never thought she would be putting on a uniform again and she was strangely moved. She pulled on her clothes quickly and then stood in front of a long mirror. She smoothed out the material over her thighs then tugged up on her belt before dropping her hands to her side to stare at her reflection. She looked different somehow, not like she did five yahrens ago.

“Lieutenant?” The guard opened the door just enough to call out to her.

Astraea hurriedly unwrapped her report disk from a towel and tucked it into her jacket pocket. “I’m ready,” she replied then followed her guards back to the tiny room to continue her work.

[Astraea]

Astraea kneaded her aching hands subconsciously as she read over her latest entry on the computer. Once she had begun typing, random details surfaced in her mind and she was forced to create an electronic notepad to keep everything straight. She had deliberately memorized hundreds of names, dates and events in her long captivity in the hopes of one day conveying them to the fleet. She was use to committing facts and figures to memory. It had been her job long before she had become a warrior. She had even found ways of improving her recall, but she never imagined that she would retain so much detail.

She clicked through the various screens and realized that she had already created 14 sub-directories with only the briefest outlines that she would have to expand on. “I hope Gold Squadron Leader is ready for some light reading,” she muttered to herself then glanced over at the closed door to her tiny room.

Since her luxuriously tepid turbowash, she hadn’t heard a sound from the other side of the door. She perused her work with a new eye. She had no idea how long she had actually be in the room, but she had gotten quite a bit of writing done in that time. She wondered for a moment if she should say something to the guards once more about giving her report to Gold Squadron Leader, but she was no where near finished. Five yahrens of captivity hadn’t stopped the flow of information.

Astraea saved then closed most of the sub-directories when flashing digits caught her attention. She stared at the chronometer for a long moment. It hadn’t even occurred to her to check the time on the terminal. She had gone so long without any way of telling time that it completely slipped her mind to even look.

She turned to the door once more with a pang of longing. It felt like centars had passed since she had seen Charybdis. She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. She could still feel his arms around her crushing her against him and the light brush of his lips against her forehead. She sighed when she thought of the sweet sound of his voice saying her name. Their reunion had been far too fleeting and the need to see him again was like a knot in her stomach, clenching and twisting. She didn’t consider herself in the least bit clingy, but it had taken all of her strength to pull herself away from him. She wanted nothing more than to be in his arms again where she knew she would be safe.

[Col. Charybdis]

I was just about to reach the Med Lab when my comm unit buzzed. A security officer was asking me to report to the Security area. "Not again." I grumbled.

I had wanted to check in on Amy, but duty called. I quickly headed for the security detachment area.

Once there, an officer came up and reported that Lt. Astraea had finished her report and that it should be delivered to me for inspection and final processing. Not only that, but the Lt. had asked to see me personally.

He handed me a couple of disks which I slipped into my pocket. I then headed over to her room and pushed the buzzer to announce my arrival. My hands were a bit sweaty and I was nervous to see her again...

[Astraea]

Astraea didn’t even spare a glance at the door when the buzzer sounded. She was still typing away at the sub-directories of her epic report. She heard the door whoosh open and she quickly hit save. “What are the chances of getting something to eat arou….” Her words trailed off when she turned to see her visitor and she jumped to her feet. “I was starting to think you forgot about me,” she teased after the door slid shut behind him.

Charybdis gave her half a smile. “Not in five yahrens.”

Her heart flipped over at his reply and she closed the distance between them to slip her arms around his waist. She adoringly drank in every detail of his face from the pale bruise on his chin to the sadness in his eyes and gave him a reassuring smile. It wasn’t hard to tell that he was having a bad day. “I missed you,” she said softly.

His smile grew as he lightly rubbed his hands over her back. “I missed you too.” It felt good to have someone on his side for a change. The last few cycles had been draining to say the least, but worse than that, he was starting to feel isolated from his crew. The revelations at Brie’s tribunal spurred fugitive glances and hushed gossip whenever he passed by. It was nice to have someone looking at him with such obvious devotion. Unfortunately, he simply didn’t have the time to get reacquainted with her. “Corporal Garris gave me your disks and told me that you wanted to see me?”

Astraea shook her head as she sighed. “Those disks were supposed to go to Gold Squadron leader, but no matter.” She pulled back slightly as she looked for the telltale lump in his pocket. “Do you have them on you?”

“Yes, of course. Garris just gave them to me.”

“Well, you can just get rid of those.” She smiled mischievously. “They’re blank.”

His brows drew together as Astraea stepped over to the terminal to eject a disk and then she pulled another from her jacket pocket. “Security was giving me such a hard time about passing on my report that I just gave him a couple of disks. I have information that will need to be kept under wraps and I wasn’t about to pass it along to a black shirt.” She gave him another smile as her gaze skimmed him from head to toe. “I guess that the second in command of the Callisto can be trusted,” she teased. He was the one person that she did trust completely.

Charybdis pulled the blank disks out of his pocket and tossed them haphazardly onto the tiny desk before taking the ones that Astraea offered. “What sort of information?”

“To start with, there was a basestar at the fleet’s last jump coordinates.”

“What?” he barked out in shock.

Astraea nodded. “I was following the fleet ion trail to the second jump point when the long range scans picked up the basestar near the system star. The computer barely had time to register the contact before we jumped. I have no idea if they saw us or if they were searching for the fleet, but they were there.”

Charybdis closed his eyes and rubbed at his forehead. “Frack,” he muttered. He just had to ask what else could happen today.

She brushed her hand over his arm when he seemed to be lost in thought for a micron. “That’s not all,” she warned him and gained his attention. “I have reason to suspect that Captain Lazant may be a Cylon sympathizer.”

[Col. Charybdis]

A bit of a chuckle escaped my lips. "What? A Cylon sympathizer? Heh, Lazant may be many things, but I really doubt he's in league with the Cylons," I replied.
"What makes you think that?" I asked her...

[Astraea]

Astraea eyed him curiously for a moment. A chuckle was the last thing that she would have expected out of him with such a serious topic. Then again, it had been five yahrens since she had spent any time with him. She had no way of knowing how well Charybdis knew Lazant or even if they were friends. She would have to tread carefully. “There were a number of things that happened on our voyage back that brought me to the point of nearly slitting his throat.”

Charybdis’ back became ramrod straight. The thought of Astraea even being capable of killing someone was absurd in itself, but her choice of words landed like a brick. He gave an uncertain chuckle. “Metaphorically speaking, you mean.”

The corner of her mouth turned up. “I’m sure he’ll show you the cut if you ask him. He was eager to show Colonel Starbuck and to request that I be put under arrest.”

His mouth hung open for several microns before he shook his head and moved over to sit on the edge of the small desk. Nothing was making sense anymore. One of his best friends was in the brig, his would-be father-in-law was dead in his turboflush and not one, but two of his lost loves were suddenly found alive. Now this! “Start from the beginning,” he instructed as he folded his arms over his chest. He would need a sedative before that cycle was out.

Astraea clasped her hands together behind her back. She knew that she was speaking to the colonel now and not the love of her life. “It’s all detailed on the disks in the file marked ‘returning to the fleet’, but I’ll give you the abbreviated version. There were some little things just after we met that made me apprehensive such as Captain Lazant setting off an alarm on the basestar then insisting that we take a specific vehicle to escape, but it was his reluctance to fire on a convoy of Cylon Raiders that really raised my suspicions.”

Charybdis shook his head in confusion. “His reluctance to fire?” he repeated.

She nodded her head. “After fleeing the basestar, we came across Raiders that had banded together to conserve energy. I was ready to open fire and take out the entire string of ships, but Lazant ordered me to stand down when the Cylon leader contacted us on the Unicom.”

He rubbed a hand over his face. This is a dream, he thought. It has to be. “You spoke with the Cylons,” he stated rather than asked.

“Oh it gets better,” she warned. “The command centurion told us that they wanted a place to ‘live’ and Captain Lazant gave the centurion access to the navcomputer on our ship to find a habitable planet. As if that wasn’t enough, Captain Lazant ordered me to follow the Raiders to the planet and then he went to meet face-to-face with the Cylon.”

“By himself?” he asked.

She nodded once more. “I wasn’t even asked to come along. Not that I would have,” she admitted. “I have seen enough tin heads to last a lifetime. After that, Lazant input the coordinates for our first jump and I saw the basestar just before the second jump. Now, going back just a bit, I had ripped out the transponder cable from the cruiser before we launched from the basestar so that we couldn’t be tracked. Once we came out of the second jump, I discovered that Lazant had repaired the transponder and that’s when I put a blade to his throat. I was certain that he was a Cylon spy and possibly trying to contact that base ship. The only thing that spared his life was the fact that we came across a Viper instead of a Raider at that precise moment and I told him that.”

Charybdis gave her a long look. “So you would have actually slit his throat?” He suppressed a shiver at the memory of Elmer’s blood-soaked body in his quarters. Was Astraea really capable of that kind of thing?

Astraea dropped her head. She would have a lot to tell him, the horrors that she had endured and caused, but now wasn’t the time. Her eyes slowly rose to his again. “In a heartbeat.”

[Col. Charybdis]

I really couldn't believe what I was hearing, but that was the story she told. The thing is, I just wonder how much of it was true.

"Is all of this in the report?" I asked.

"Yes, every last little detail." she almost wryly answered.

I thought for a moment. Talking to myself, rather than Brie, I let it slip, "Maybe the wrong person is in the brig."

Astraea heard something, "what did you say?"

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking out loud. I'd better get going. I'll alert Skyler about the report and make sure he has a copy." I moved over to her and grabbed her arms. She looked into my eyes, not sure what any of this meant. So much had happened to her. She had lost her whole life and now had found it again. But sometimes that's not as easy as it seems.

"I"m sorry, but I have to go on duty. I'll be back when my shift is over." We pulled close to each other again and hugged. I didn't know what to feel. Here she was, alive in my arms once again, but...for some reason there was a serious question in my heart. There was a place that Amy occupied and I almost felt a bit guilty being here with Astraea.

I pulled away from her, "Get some rest," I said as I headed for the door...

[Astraea]

Astraea stared at the door long after Charybdis exited, a mixture of emotions stirring inside. There had been a time when Charybdis would have shared his thoughts no matter what the subject, but that had obviously changed. There was doubt in his voice when he questioned her about her report and that was something new as well. He knew that she was a stickler for detail and it irritated her beyond belief when historical facts were altered, and yet he chuckled at the thought of Lazant being a traitor.

Could she be wrong about Lazant? Was his clandestine meeting with the Cylons an attempt to establish contact with a renegade group as he had claimed? Had the Cylons really been altered by the wormhole or was Lazant receiving new orders from his contact? Was the repair of the transponder a signal to the Empire or just stupidity?

She stepped back over to her work station then froze. “Wait a micron,” she mumbled then glanced back at the door. “Did he say Skyler?”

[Astraea]

Astraea tried to work on her copy of the endless report, but the ship-wide announcement by Major Buellah stirred her curiosity to the point of distraction. Even her growling stomach was eclipsed by such an unusual request and her vacated historian position automatically asserted itself. What could have prompted such an urgent appeal? Warriors and security officers being called together was highly unusual and potentially volatile considering the history between the two.

She glanced at the door for the hundredth time. What could warrant such an announcement? She tapped her finger against her mouth subconsciously. They needed manpower, of that she was certain, but why?

“They’re searching the Callisto,” she whispered to herself and felt her heart leap. There had only been a few times in the past when the Battlestar was searched and every available person was utilized, but she couldn’t recall a ship-wide announcement being made to initialize the operation. Any threat against the Galactica or Callisto was always handled discreetly.

She stood quickly and paced the small room as her mind worked through the possibilities. Why did Major Buellah make the announcement and what was the Galactica’s protector doing on the Callisto to begin with?

Astraea stopped and looked at the door once more before silently moving over to press her ear against it. She could barely hear her guards speaking on the other side and closed her eyes to concentrate. “Find…escape…she gets away…” were the few words that she managed to catch.

She pulled away from the door, her mind racing. “They’re looking for someone,” she muttered with a bit of relief. The urgency of the call brought to mind a past bomb threat and she was glad to know that wasn’t the case. It would be just her kind of luck to blow up after finally arriving back home.

Still, that didn’t quench her curiosity. She glanced at her computer and regretted the fact that it wasn’t linked up to the system. She could easily search recent IFB reports to figure out what was going on.

Astraea gasped. “The IFB!”

Astraea punched out the disks that she had been working on and tucked them into her pocket before turning to pound on the door. “Hey out there!” She had to stifle a smile when the door slid back and both the guards were standing with their stun rods in hand. Instead she gave them an exasperated sigh as she held her stomach. “If you’re not going to feed me, can you at least put me in a room with an IFB monitor so I can take my mind off of my starvation?”